you’re my fever when i get cold

the things we hold are always the first to go

The deluge arrives while Ronin is asleep, in the middle of the night.

It’s already been a rougher night than the Star had planned. Luxere, he was learning, shed their antlers like every other deer, which explains the headache he’s been suffering with for the past couple of days. They’d dropped the evening prior, leaving Ronin a mix of grumpy and perturbed, his partial shift consisting now of bloodied... nubs, he supposes, in place of antlers.

So there’s that. Then there’s the nightmares. He suffers with them regularly enough, even more so since Longnight, so of course they decide to rear their head when he’s already feeling less than fantastic.

It’s these set of circumstances which lead to his current position in bed, his face buried in Remi’s chest, arms wound about his husband as if the Alchemist is the thing keeping him afloat. When the rain comes, Ronin’s eyes peel open, though he’s not keen to move or do anything other than enjoy the steady beat of Remi’s heart against his ear.

”Never seen a monsoon,” he remarks softly.

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

'Well...There is not much to see.' Remi remarks, lazily tilting his head towards the window. There is in fact, nothing to see. The monsoon is total, bringing with it black skies and an ever-present curtain of rain so thick that it almost looks like nothing. It sounds like a thousand tiny wings beating against glass with a nauseating tempo that ceases to ever quit. Its only been a day or so, and already Remi has internalized the pounding.

One of his hands is wrapped around the back of Ronin's skull, his strong fingers working against the back of his husband's head where the chords of his neck melt into the dark waves of near-black. His other is roaming against Ronin's upper ribs, tracing from freckle to scar and back again, to make as inappropriate of constellations as he can manage.

"I guess this is a bit like having a boat. If we pretend this room is our ship." Remi muses, glancing up at the ceiling.

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

the things we hold are always the first to go

”Think that’s part of why I’m confused,” Ronin muses, though his words are muffled by the way his cheek is pressed against Remi’s chest, the Star grumbling some sound of contentment at the fingers working at tender muscles in the back of his neck. It’s easy just to let his eyes slip shut again, fingers fumbling for the blankets to pull over them a bit more. ”Mm, it rocks a little less than a boat though,” he mumbles.

Though it would be nice to lull back to sleep, Ronin’s night has been disturbed enough already that his body is awake and won’t be soothed to slumber. ”How did you manage? In the wagon with your father, when storms like this hit?” he wonders, their conversation carried on the pounding of the rain outside.

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

"We could make it rock." Remi suggests wickedly, though he's actually quite content to simply be used as Ronin's body-pillow. It's probably for the best his hands hadn't started to wander, for they suddenly stiffened upon the Star as memories surfaced. "Well...I doubt it was ever as bad as all this.." Remi mumbles, tugging in a breath and forcing his hands to continue their stalwart ministrations.

"If we were anywhere near any homes, my father would hit my shins hard enough to give me a limp, and then take us to the nearest door asking to sleep in someone's barn. It was easy to say no to him, less so to a crippled child. I was a poor liar, even back then. That's why the injury was always real." Remi explains, his fingers upon Ronin's back suddenly becoming feather-light as they roamed.

"And if we were in town, he'd take up in some brothel or other. Most of the women were kind enough to let me stay as well. I'd help out cleaning, and they'd tell me stories that I...probably shouldn't have heard." A smile creeps into his voice at these bits of respite found in such a messy upbringing.

"But if there was nowhere to go, my father would just..shift. As a bird he could easily be kept warm and dry. But I couldn't, as I wasn't 16 yet. So I learned to lay under the wagon. It was muddy, but eventually, the mud would get a little warm, and the bulk of the wagon would protect me from the wind."

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

the things we hold are always the first to go

”We could, but I don’t know that I’m quite up to it. I’d certainly need some encouragement.” And oh, Ronin has no doubt that the Alchemist would succeed at coaxing him into whatever mood he liked. Still, he knows his husband better than he knows himself at this point, blinking up at Remi as he feels his fingers flex against him.

What had started out as simple curiosity - Ronin not knowing the logistics, of course, about how one would manage in certain situations when constantly on the move - turned into a pulse of cold horror through the Attuned bond. My father would hit my shins hard enough to give me a limp. ”He sounds like a charmer,” the Star remarks, his voice laced with a darkness only heard when the things he loves are threatened.

Turning his head, he presses a kiss against Remi’s chest, against scar tissue and warm flesh alike, letting a hand ghost down his torso. ”Would that you could have grown up with me,” he murmurs. ”My upbringing was hardly pleasant, but it was definitely comfortable. I don’t know what I had to complain about, compared to what you just told me.”

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

Remi snorts and nods knowingly enough. Indeed he was quite certain that he could have the hunter up for it, but as it was, the comment was only made because it had been easy to make. Having Ronin in his arms, feeling the Star's voice as an echo against his heart satisfied something that sex simply couldn't.

"Mmmm." The Alchemist agrees tonelessly. Shivering at his husband's fingers up his stomach, Remi just shakes his head softly. "We all have different burdens to bear." He replies with a light shrug, and though he is all too fond of certain types of competitions with Ronin, this is not an area that Remi feels like pulling out a measuring stick for. "I never had to worry about making my family proud of me, so let's just call it even." He adds, playfully letting his fingers run down the side of Ronin's cheek where they threaten to ruin the moment entirely by wandering into the Star's nose.

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

the things we hold are always the first to go

”Mm, I guess we do,” Ronin murmurs, though he’s still letting his fingers dance across Remi’s skin, as if to repair some past damages that he has no chance of getting close to. Still, if the Alchemist’s father were alive, little would stand in the Star’s way. ”Pfff, it was easy to make them proud of me to a point. Just had to lie,” he points out. ”And then my brother was always the golden boy, so... most of the attention wasn’t on me.”

Closing his eyes into the gentle touch to his cheek, Ronin is thoroughly unprepared for the fingers that try to wander up his nose. Spluttering and flinching away, he nudges his husband sharply. ”Remi,” he objects. ”I was about to ask how you managed to become so kind, but then you went and reminded me about your true nature.” He’s laughing, at least, shifting up to swoop a leg over his husband, sitting in his lap to pout down at him. ”How’d you like it if I stuck my fingers somewhere, huh?”

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

"And now look at you. Almost all of Caido has had their eyes on you at some point or another." Ronin might never have been the golden boy and never made it to storm captain or whatever it was, but the man he'd turned out to be? There was no questioning he'd achieved greatness.

"And don't you forget it." Remi growls happily, his expression pleasantly intrigued as Ronin sits up and fixes him with a stare. Pretending to look mystified at what the Star might have in mind, Remi lets his mouth drop open as his eyes widen in anticipation. "Well I'm not sure...best you go ahead and do it so we can find out." With a crooked smile and his hands comfortably on Ronin's thighs, he considers how easily it could be to eject the Star across the room. If he really put some effort (and magic) into it, he might even be able to launch him out the open window..

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

the things we hold are always the first to go

It was General of the Storm, thank you very much, and Ronin will die on that hill. ”Oh have they? The only pair of eyes I’m interested in are in front of me,” he says with a charming smile, falling not one bit for the feigned innocence his husband shoots up at him and narrowing his eyes a little. ”Fine, you asked for it,” he says, resisting the sudden urge to poke Remi in the eye and instead leaning in to deliver a very soft kiss against his lips.

”Unfortunately,” he murmurs, ”you know my true nature as well as I know yours, and I could never do that to you.” With a sweet smile that still somehow hints at victorious, Ronin clambers off his husband and stretches as he rises to his feet, glancing over his shoulder to Remi. ”Want to watch the rain with me? Even if we can’t see anything?”

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

"How lucky for us both then that I'm not blind anymore." Remi returns, his smile growing crooked as one cheek dimples. It widens as Ronin leaves down, and Remi is entirely prepared to feel his husband's fingers pressing against his bellybutton or his ear. He's not actually that bothered by such things, but he'll absolutely make sure to throw a fit now so Ronin will feel as though he's accomplished something.

Humming an entirely content sound, Remi's eyes flutter open as Ronin's lips pull away. "You are not very good at this game, Ronin." The Alchemist drawls, more than happy to concede the victory if it means more kisses of that sort. Following behind Ronin, Remi clambers across the bed and wraps his arms around the Star's shoulders, his chin resting thereupon for a moment as they stare into the rain. "So have you thought of what we ought to get Sunjata as a wedding gift yet?" He asks, releasing Ronin only to grab one of his hands and tug him down onto the bay-window, open to the storm outside.

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

the things we hold are always the first to go

”No, but I’m good at other things,” Ronin says with a bright smile, relaxing in Remi’s arms and letting his head tilt back to rest on his husband’s shoulder. He hums a note of curiosity at the question, allowing himself to be tugged onto the bay window, though he quickly replaces his position leaning back against Remi, hoping they don’t both end up tumbling outside.

”It’s rather a difficult one,” he admits. ”I know what I’d get Jata, but there’s also Hotaru and Nate to consider, and I’m not sure what would... work,” he says, before a filthy laugh rises up in his chest and throat. Leaning his cheek against Remi’s, he grins to his husband. ”I suppose a strap-on would be a bit inappropriate wouldn’t it?” he murmurs.

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

They've clouds and wings to catch them should they fall, though Remi isn't too terribly worried. The air outside is thick with moisture, and it's rather like looking at a wall that is constantly moving. There's absolutely no sense of depth whatsoever. If he didn't know that the ocean was out there, he might have thought that the world had entirely fallen away.

Rolling his eyes at that, Remi huffs his disapproval in a warm puff of air against Ronin's ear. "I'm sure they've figured all of that out by now." He says of the strap-on idea. "But then...mmmm.." Biting the inside of his lip, he wonders about the 'patch' once made for Sam. The Voice hadn't seemed terribly happy with the idea, and wondered if she'd allow a reprisal. "You might be on to something. When it comes to Nate, I mean.."

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

the things we hold are always the first to go

”You really can’t see a thing out there, huh. You’d not even know we had neighbours, right now.” Ronin is bonelessly comfortable against the warmth of his husband’s chest, though his blue eyes are interested as he tries to pick out shapes against the wall of constant rain. Grinning and cringing away at the ticklish sensation against his ear, he tilts his head up to look at Remi with a raised eyebrow.

”I can hear the cogs turning in your head,” he remarks. ”Be careful with your plans, yeah? You’re more of a target now than you were - best not draw the Voice’s attention where you don’t need it.” Not that his husband can’t handle himself - Ronin knows that all too well. But he can’t stop from worrying, and nor does he try to. ”I’d hate to be outside in this.”

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

"Just like being in a boat." Remi says, the I told you so bright in his voice as he grins out into the grey sheet of rain.

Hmmphing under his breath, Remi nuzzles the side of Ronin's neck with soft mumbles of argument. "No, I know...but...well, being bitten is one thing but...can you imagine if you and I couldn't have sex? Couldn't connect that way?" Maybe it was because Remi had never had to deal with a relationship like that thanks to plots that didn't happen, but he couldn't imagine how it would work. "And anyway...it isn't a plot. It's a wedding gift."

Shaking his head Remi lets his eyes shift back to the world outside. "It really would. Can you imagine living in a wagon during all of this?"

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.