walk me to the knife edge

we live in a world someone else imagined

”Hey, you knew what I was when you married me, too. Me and my blueblood ways,” Ronin murmurs against Remi’s skin, turning his head to let it loll against his husband’s shoulder, peering up at him in the darkness with eyes of blue fire. He lets his hands wander the familiar contours of his husband’s body, every nick and scar, every muscle, a gentle smile touching his lips at the suggestion of a hunt, of something more.

The emotions that stir are not so gentle, even if Ronin barely changes on the outside. Remi will feel it, though, the inky blackness that wants to blot his veins with rage, the way his heart wants to spike with it. Beneath the sweetness of a Star slumbers the monster who once destroyed a holy place in his grief and rage. And Seren is gone, and gods but does he want to wake up.

”Maybe,” he whispers.

the dark star

you trace my lines, stirring my soul

"Did I? You'd just come back from the dead. Fallen Star, Dark Star...you'll be Rainbow Star before I know it." In a sense it was true though. The pair were always a work in progress, constantly changing and developing as life hit them with new and unimaginable trials. "Whatever the next iteration of you is, I'll love you just the same." Remi adds in case that isn't abundantly clear by the flush of heat in his cheeks and the way his hands have never quite been able to keep to themselves with Ronin around.

Inhaling a steadying breath—for himself as much as for Ronin—Remi swallows unsteadily, forcing his head back into his pillow as if reaffirming to himself that they aren't going anywhere. They certainly aren't going to kill something, much as Ronin's emotions want to encourage Remi to suggest just that.  "You could always go and punch Sunjata. His wedding isn't...yet." Wrinkling his nose slightly—was this wedding ever going to happen?—Remi shrugs. "And there's magic if you give him a black eye."

THE ALCHEMIST

we live in a world someone else imagined

Ronin wrinkles his nose at the idea of Rainbow Star, the huntsman sighing out a breath and nestling into his husband’s neck. ”And I’ll love you just the same as well,” he promises, a surge of golden devotion shining through the darkness, beating it back for the time being. He smiles against Remi’s skin, content with his limbs all tangled up in the Alchemist. ”If that storm didn’t help, I doubt punching Sunjata will,” he points out. ”But it’s okay. All I want is you.”

And that will always be true, Ronin humming a note of reluctant peace and shutting tired eyes. “Hopefully this time when we sleep, neither of us will be woken up by a goddess with bad news,” he mutters. He doesn’t count on it, but he can hope.

the dark star

you trace my lines, stirring my soul

What a thing it is, to hear Ronin say those words. That Remi, with all his flaws, the chips on his shoulders he carries around with him, his anxieties and mistakes...and still Ronin chooses him. It's hard not to be self-deprecating to find himself tangled up with a man who'd won himself a second chance at life simply by being impossibly charming and daring, but here he was.

"Then me you shall have." Remi hums back, almost melodically as he shifts his head and shoulders somewhat against Ronin, the gesture half-burrow and half-nuzzle. Grumbling something as his eyes slip shut, the Alchemist sends a silent threat into the sky. It might be described as a prayer very loosely conceived of, as the words are directed somewhat to Ludo. Let me kill her, if she enters his dreams again.

Safrin might be a goddess, but Remi is a stubborn man terribly in love. It's a fair enough match.

"I love you." Remi whispers, smiling adoringly at Ronin's sleepy reply as they both find sleep, tugged down by weary bones and happily-made promises.

~FIN

THE ALCHEMIST