I Got You, Babe

For an accomplished liar for much of his life and career, Ronin had been all but biting his tongue in two trying to keep from spilling this secret to Vanya. He had no doubt she would be aware that something was up - he kept trying to discourage her from cleaning up their little hovel and nesting in it (the life of an expectant mother might have been old hat to her with her experience bringing up her siblings, but Ronin was oh-so-in the deep end and loving every second). Then, you know, there was the small matter of him sneaking out at night sometimes and promising to explain why in good time. Which probably made her understandably furious, given that he had only recently gotten over having his shoulder bitten the shit out of by a demonic horror from the Spire. But still, he wouldn't be stopped or swayed and now he was finally able to show her why. He had used a small strip of fabric to blindfold Vanya before scooping her up into his arms and carrying her out towards the Settlement from the Domiciles - a fair trek by anyone's standards, but Ronin considered it a replacement for his usual training regime. He'd evade any questions she might have quite spectacularly, using all the guile and charm and dirty tricks he knew. They finally arrived, the former captain all but vibrating with excitement as he fell to a halt before the building. "Okay, ready?" he asked, shifting to remove her blindfold with a flourish and grin up at what he hoped she would consider their new home. The guildhall was one of the larger buildings in the Settlement, as suggested by the 'hall' part, but the second level would be all for them if Ronin had anything to do with it. He'd scrubbed it top to bottom (with help) and now... now it was finally ready for them. "So how would you feel... if I started a guild. To hunt monsters. For bounties. A bounty hunter's guild. Because that's what I've done." He beamed. RONIN JUST WATCH ME

Absolutely nothing she said was getting her anywhere with this man. Not only had he insisted on blindfolding her and not answering any of her questions - he insisted that he carry her. She had protested like mad, considering he had just had a bite taken out of him.. Of course, Ronin had a certain way with convincing her. Namely ignoring her protests and scooping her into his arms with only a scrap of cloth over her eyes to look at.

Her lover had quite craftily evaded her recently, even in the wake of his wound he just didn’t stop, and he was very good at dodging her questions with charming grins and infuriating replies. She told him the osprey was going to start biting at his ears if he didn’t tell her what in the world he was up to soon. Even now that they were on their way to just whatever it was the ex-captain had been working on, she still pestered him. All quite in vain.

Still, it was a welcomed distraction from the weight that kept getting heavier in her chest. There hadn’t been a single sign of her family. No whispers of the Hali’s, the family that had been through hell and back together. Together, always together. She had to believe they were safe somewhere. Now.. it was just her.

She had stopped her questioning, finally giving up as she rested her head against his shoulder with a frustrated huff. Not just her. She had Ronin. She had that glimmer of life growing within. She grinned when he finally set her down. ”Ronin..” And then the blindfold was off, and they were standing before a.. Rather large building - one of the larger ones in this area. The sea bird blinked and tilted her head, quirking a brow. She opened her mouth to speak, but he jumped right to an explanation and -

”Well I suppose it must be alright if you’ve already done it, isn’t it?” She pursed her lips and turned, narrowing her eyes at him. Hunting monsters. On purpose. ”You nearly left me for a venomous bite to the shoulder from a monster, and you’re going to look for more of them?”

Oh yes, Vanya hadn’t been happy about that. Her heart had stopped, it had fallen, and it had nearly exploded from her chest with that injury of his, when she listened to the accounts of the beast. The osprey turned to look back at the building he had apparently been spending all his time on, and she was silent for a long moment as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Finally, she turned away from the building and to Ronin, stepping up to him until she had to look up at him. Her hands tugged at the collar of his shirt, as if she had the ability to hold him in place, and she tilted her head at him with narrowed eyes and the barest hint of a smirk. ”Bounty hunter.. Alright then,” she said. ”You be stronger than the beasts. You be faster. Smarter. Better. You got that, Taliesin?”

Ronin lingered behind Vanya as she took in the building, making no effort to hide the boyish smile on his face despite the nerves that fluttered in his stomach at the fact that he couldn't actually see her initial reaction. "Me..." he responded at the sound of his name on her lips, and when she glared up at him he held up his hands, as if in placation. "Well I mean... it might not necessarily be alright, but I didn't not already do it." No, obviously he hadn't expected her to jump at the idea or be thrilled that he was going out - on purpose, yes - to hunt down the kind of thing that had been responsible for giving him his nastiest scar yet. But she hadn't hit him so far, so that was a positive. It might very quickly change with the way she stepped up to him, Ronin biting his lip to try and wipe the hopeful smile off his face and gazing down at her, blue eyes meeting hers steadily. Her tug at his collar was met with a soft laugh - the ironic thing, of course, was that Vanya did have the ability to hold him in place. It just wasn't necessarily with brute strength. Ronin's eyes lit up at the tell-tale beginnings of a smirk on her lips, and her words set the fire that had ignited in him to burning all the brighter. "Yes, ma'am," he said gruffly, as if in response to a superior officer, though rather than salute he reached out to draw her to him, his hands gently roaming over the curve of her hips. Ronin leant in to capture her lips, one of his arms sliding around her waist to hold her against him. "Would you like the grand tour?" he asked, nodding at the guildhall. RONIN JUST WATCH ME

Vanya had been trying to stay serious, giving him a stern look, but that hint of a smirk spread into a grin as he slid his hands over her, pulled her against him. Bounty hunter. She wanted to be angry at him - he had almost just died due to the very sort of things he’d be hunting - but he kissed her and thinking stopped entirely. She didn’t care to grab onto that coherence, it seemed to have become a habit to stop thinking when he touched her, started when they had very first met. And so, when he pulled away and asked her a question, she had to blink twice before she registered what he said. Her hands resting over his chest, she turned her head to look up at the building again, brows rising. ”I think I would,” she said, then turned back to him and brushed her lips to his. She smiled against his lips before she pulled back from him and out of his arms, turning towards the building. She reached the doors and looked over her shoulder at Ronin, and her eyes danced as she took him in. She had lost so much in this new word, and it struck her often how lucky she was she hadn’t lost him too. The father of her child. She grinned at him fully when something sparked in her chest. ”Freedom for me to fly as I please?” she asked him as it suddenly occurred to her that she had not shifted once since they arrived. She used to only fly around the ship, never wanted to show her shape to the world… but this wasn’t Northaven, was it? vanya i will leave a light on.

ronin A man unwilling to fight for what he wants deserves what he gets Her hands were a gentle fire against his chest, and Ronin smiled against soft lips that came up to meet his again. Vanya's kisses were sweet and wicked and he couldn't get enough of them - he didn't think he'd gotten enough of them as of late, in fact. He would have snagged her back against him if she hadn't been so quick, the former-captain reluctantly letting her slip through his fingers and stepping up beside her to appraise the guildhall anew. He walked a few paces behind her when she approached the door - Ronin already knew what was inside, of course, so he would let her explore at her leisure - only for her to turn and watch him so intently. As she mentioned flying he felt a similar grin spread across his face, Ronin nodding and tilting his head up as if to make sure he'd made the exterior of the guildhall as impressive as possible for her, should she want to soar about that as well. "Always," he said when he was finished, folding his arms across his chest and waiting for her to spread her wings. It wasn't a shape he had often seen either; never up close, always from a silhouette against a sky bleeding the red of sunset.

Vanya took her lower lip in her teeth as her heart suddenly picked up its pace, keenly aware of his eyes on her now. This isn’t Northaven, and this is Ronin, she reminded herself, and glanced down at her wrist as if to assure herself that there was no golden cuff gleaming up at her. The damned thing had been a shackle, a brand of things she had never chosen. She swallowed took a heavy breath, looking back up at Ronin with a flicker of a smile. His eyes were blue enough to make her forget for a moment that the sea was very far away. There was a flutter of feathers, then beating wings, and then Vanya was flying. The sea bird let out a shrill call as she moved her wings, climbing up and up and up, and for the first time in so long, she was weightless. Another sharp cry left her, and Vanya felt like her heart might burst with the way the wind lifted her. She’d forgotten how much she loved to fly, no matter how she’d felt about her abilities to in the first place. She didn’t turn back to the Guildhall yet, instead doing a few loops - higher and higher and higher until she could see the entirety of the settlement, until Ronin was very small below her. She kept climbing the currents of air, one yellow eye always locked sharply on the man she loved where he stood. Then she banked low and began to rapidly descend once more, wind roaring as her wings effortlessly cut through it. She let out another sharp chirp as she swooped low now, flying close enough past Ronin that one of her flight feathers brushed against his shoulder. Then she was moving up once more, and by the Ocean, not a soul was looking at her with disdain, with sneers or sighs. She was no one second-class here, not condemned for a choice she never made. Here she was both Vanya the woman and Vanya the osprey, and there was no hiding either one. At the first sight of an open window, she tilted her wings and tucked them close, sweeping into the building. Freedom to fly.. Always, he’d said. She glided downwards towards the door, to the ground, to Ronin. There was another flutter of feathers, and then two feet thumped lightly to the floor. Vanya stood breathlessly, wordlessly, eyes gleaming with a wide grin on her face as she raked a hand through wild curls. vanya i will leave a light on.

ronin A man unwilling to fight for what he wants deserves what he gets Almost as if he could feel her nerves, Ronin stood by calmly to wait for Vanya to shift and soar away above them. And when she finally did, a small smile curled at the corners of his lips, the ex-captain watching his lady circle and climb and spread her wings against the pale sun. He'd only really seen her shift that once, when she'd left to go back to the Siren's Call. But even then it had been from a distance - always from a distance - so to watch her dive with a grace that had his smile growing, to have the soft brush of feathers against his shoulder... he felt damned privileged. As she slipped in through one of the windows, Ronin stepped up to unlock the doors to the guildhall, heading inside just to see her feet touch to the floor. Wild. Vanya looked wild as the day he'd met her, stepping up and out of the ocean while he painted on the rocks. The sight of her had him caught for a second, before he flashed her a charming grin and stepped up to lace his arms around her, leaning in to press warm lips to hers. "You look like you enjoyed yourself," he murmured against her, stepping back only to take her hands and turn her to face the guildhall. They stood in the large ground floor, which was clean and dry and scattered with tables and chairs. Along one wall, Ronin had nailed up a large notice board - presumably for a map. Along the opposite wall, a sturdy staircase led to the second floor. "How would you feel," he asked, "if we lived here instead? Up there?" He nodded up the stairs.

Vanya tilted her head up and met his kiss with smiling lips, leaning into him as though it were second nature. She almost didn’t catch what exactly it was that he said, focused so much on the feeling of his voice as he spoke into her lips. She almost didn’t let him go when he stepped away, still breathless, still with gleaming eyes as he took her hands. ”It’s been a while,” she said quietly. More than that, she had not felt such freedom to spread her wings with anyone other than her siblings before. The way he looked at her made her think that perhaps her feathers weren’t something she needed to be tucking carefully away. She took a full breath, one that filled her wholly as she turned look at the vast hall. It was clean and furnished and seemed ready for people to fill it, all things that were quite hard to come by in this strange new world. Bounty hunters would fill this space, commanded by the man that held her hands. She smiled and glanced at the staircase, and then.. Then she turned her head to look back at Ronin with raised brows. ”Live here?” she asked. She looked back at the stairs, looked upwards at the second floor. It was so large.. And she could fly freely. She turned back to the bounty hunter with a smirk. She leaned forward, still holding his hands as she tilted her lips up to fit against his. Twice more she kissed him before she pulled back just enough to look at him. ”This must mean you’ve found your feather bed, Baron Taliesin.” She wasn’t sure she’d ever stop teasing him on that - the least blueblooded blueblood she’d ever known, this man - no matter that titles and classes didn’t exist here. She glanced her eyes at the stairs, then she took a few steps back from him. She didn’t release his hand as she backed toward the stairs, tilting her head with thick curls falling over her shoulder. ”Well? Show me our home, Ronin.” vanya i will leave a light on.

ronin A man unwilling to fight for what he wants deserves what he gets "Live here," Ronin repeated smoothly, arching a playful eyebrow down at her and feeling a smirk on his lips as he watched her appraise the stairs - and the rooms beyond it, all for them. She stepped up to him and he freed one of his hands to slip it around her waist, pulling her close. Her kisses were welcome, each one more than the last, and when her lips left his he all but grumbled in protest, leaning in to take her bottom lip between his teeth, nipping at it gently. A surprised laugh left his lips - a feather bed indeed - and he allowed her to lead him a few steps before he resisted, tugging her back and feeling a rush of excitement thrum through him as their bodies met. "It must," he agreed, "and I assure you I will show you around our home, but if I am going to, I'll start from the ground up." Ronin leant in, stealing another lingering kiss from Vanya's lips, even as he turned them away from the stairs. "This is the guildhall," he murmured into her mouth, not looking around at the place at all and backing her up further into the hall itself. "This is where the maps will go." He waved a hand absently at the wall, the other exploring the soft curve of her hips and cupping her backside, hitching her closer still. "And this is a table." Ronin's laugh was wicked, and he slipped his hands beneath Vanya's thighs to lift her up, setting her onto said table and closing the distance between them again. She was sweetness and spice and something so altogether other that, despite himself, the ex-captain fell in head first every time. His kisses grew hungrier, his tongue dancing against hers to taste her, to taste the heat building between them.

Ronin would find no argument in his lady as he pulled her back into him - only a smile and bitten lip as her body fit against his. Our home. She’d said it, he’d said it too, and something warm bloomed in her chest and moved through her veins. The Ocean had always been her home, her patron goddess and truest love. She had rocked her and her family to sleep upon the Siren’s Call, or thrashed them about when displeased. She carried them to exotic countries, over distant seas. Ever moving, ever changing… His lips were against hers again, and she all but melted into him. She had never expected to find home in a person. She smiled against his lips as he spoke, and that heat in her veins was rapidly building into something more insistent. She followed his guidance with a fluttering heart, and Vanya had one hand hanging into Ronin’s shirt for balance as he backed her further. She wasn’t thinking about what he was saying, what he was showing her (or not showing her). She was far more occupied with the warmth of his mouth on hers, the solidity of him, and the way his hands roamed. She let out a huff of air when his hand firmly gripped hooked her into him, her hips pressed against him in a way that had her wanting to dissolve right then. His laugh skittered down her back and then before she knew it, she was lifted effortlessly from the ground and found herself placed upon a table. Vanya’s blood was thrumming as she grinned and bit her lip, and then Ronin’s mouth claimed hers. That building heat burst into a blaze. Her arms moved around his shoulders and Vanya pulled herself closer to him, unhappy with the minute distance between them. By the Ocean, since the very beginning she had been wholly unable to resist the rogue’s charm. Her heart was racing, and she parted her lips for him with a soft sigh into mouth. He deepened the kiss with his tongue brushing hers - hungry, deft movements that told her precisely what he was capable of doing elsewhere. She was thankful for the table, because her knees would have surely buckled. Vanya pulled herself further into into him and and let out a soft sound as she tasted him, kissed him deeply and thoroughly. Her legs moved around the backs of his legs, and by all the depths of the Ocean, her head was spinning as every sense was filled with him. She remembered herself just enough to break away when she finally needed to breathe, but her breaths were ragged and deep as she nipped at his lower lip and grinned. She kissed him again, deeply. ”One of your hunters might come looking for you,” she said against him, but she only pressed herself against him, now at the edge of the table. vanya i will leave a light on.

ronin A man unwilling to fight for what he wants deserves what he gets Her legs locked around him and drew a wicked smile from Ronin, one which was punctuated with a sharp intake of breath as her teeth grazed against his lips. One hand remained beneath her thigh, hitching it up further to grind her against him, while the other lost itself in her silken mess of dark curls. "Let them watch," Ronin muttered in a low voice, his grin audible, and he carefully tilted her back until she was lying against the table. His mouth found Vanya's again rather without his permission, the ex-captain sighing into the kiss even as deft hands ran down her sides until they found the leggings she wore. She'd feel his smile rather than see it, Ronin pressing against the small of her back to arch her up and permit him to remove the all too troublesome garment. He cast them aside without looking where. Hooking a now-bare leg over his shoulder, Ronin took a moment to gaze down at his lady with blue eyes hazed with lust. His chest rose and fell in tandem with the heat that pulsed through him and rolled low in his stomach, and he turned his head to press his lips to the inside of her thigh. His mouth was hot and his kisses were slow, but that did not change their inevitable destination.

Vanya let out a breath as he moved her against him, an acute heat building between the pair. She let out a shaky breath, entirely unable to ignore the shape of him against her. She all but dissolved at his reply and she leaned back into his coaxing, bracing herself against the table to meet his lips with hunger. She pressed herself against him as though she could mould herself to him, and the taste of his smile was something she would never get tired of. His hands dragged a blaze down her curves. He broke away from her, and she let out a growl of protest. In the same moment, however, she was arcing into him and off the table. His hands freed her of her leggings - troublesome and awful things they were. The air was cool against her skin, but he was warm, and she was fairly certain her blood had turned into something closer to fire. She bit down on her lip and met his gaze, and she thought she might melt entirely to the table with that look. Her breath was ragged and she couldn’t think beyond his hands on her skin, leg draped over his shoulder and his face against her. She watched him with attentive eyes, and she inhaled a sharp hiss of air at the first touch of his lips to her thigh. Her core turned utterly molten as he moved further and further with his mouth. Slowly, agonizingly slow. Vanya’s leg bent inwards against his back as she watched him. There was an ache building in her - more. Her head was fogged with only him, and she was entirely sure she would fall apart with want. Vanya sighed and her hips moved of their own accord in a silent plea. vanya i will leave a light on.

ronin A man unwilling to fight for what he wants deserves what he gets Silent? Ronin had no intention of Vanya staying that way for long. He smiled against the soft skin of her inner thigh as she urged him on, warm hands grazing against her legs and hips, shifting up her tunic to expose her midriff. Blue eyes glanced up up just momentarily to watch her, Ronin gripping her hips to pull her closer still. His own arousal, still trapped beneath clothes as it was, bordered on painful, but he would deal. Then his mouth was on her and his eyes slipped shut to better concentrate on his task, tongue darting out to taste her sweetness, hot and wet and promising so, so much more within. Ronin hummed appeciatively into her, licking and kissing his way to that sweetest spot of all, flicking his tongue across it teasingly. He lifted her hips to better angle her against him, his hands moulding against her backside, hot breath tickling over her exposed skin.

The first lick of Ronin’s tongue set Vanya on fire. It drew a soft groan from within her, and she couldn’t hold herself up on the table anymore as she lay back fully. He hummed his approval at her moan, her taste, as he unleashed himself on her. He worked her in sweeping strokes that had her shutting her eyes and narrowing in on him. She let go of all pretense and reason as he tasted her. She reached up to grip the edge of the table, to grip the edge of the world that she was very near to falling off. He licked and kissed his way to the apex of her thighs. She moved, hips undulating, begging him to go, go, go. And by the Ocean, he did, because his tongue flicked that one spot, and she thought she was going to explode into fire. She let out a sharp gasp, near writhing against his mouth. She let out a soft sound, and the combination of his hands on her, his mouth feasting on her had to coming undone. She whimpered at the fast-building ache between her legs, and - Vanya bowed off the table as her climax shattered through her, drawing high gasps from her and scattering everything she was to the wind. ”Ronin,” she rasped, trembling and half limp with pleasure. Finally, she picked up her head to see him, and she nearly went over the edge again at the sight of him. Panting, she pushed herself forward, hands moving his shoulders and pushing him back from her. She was pulling at his shirt as she claimed his lips, tasting herself on his lips. She only pulled back to yank his shirt over his head, and she stopped for a moment, to look him over. Hers. He was hers. She moved off of the table to trembling legs and encouraged him to turn. If he obliged his lady, he’d be finding himself against that table. Her lips moved against his throat, and her teeth nipped against his skin as she moved her hands down the rippling plane of his abdomen, that aching need building in her again. Her hands found the waist of his pants then, her fingers made quick work of that tie in the way. Vanya’s teeth grazed his throat until they hit his collar bone… lower. Lower. Kisses trailed down his chest as she lowered herself - his pants lowering with her. When he came free, her mouth went dry. She glanced back up at him, her eyes hazed and still out of breath… And eyes still upon him, she stroked a hand over him once, twice - luxuriating in the feel of him, knowing he was here, they were both here and okay. Then she echoed the movement with her mouth. vanya i will leave a light on.