to boldly go

Isla

"It's not..." Your fault. That's what Isla wants to say - but it's not true, is it? Rather, it's not entirely true. This is both of their faults, and she is acutely aware that when he speaks and says he can't help himself, the feeling is reciprocated. "I know what you mean," she confesses, already tugging at the scarf around her neck so she can carefully fold it into a square, offering it out to add pressure to the wounds pumping blood out of Remi's neck.

"It didn't used to be this way, did it?" The medic's smile is wobbly, her cheeks flushed pink with blood that isn't her own, and she's also aware that they're still sandwiched tightly together - a situation that Isla does not try to rectify. "Isn't this dangerous?"s he asks eventually. "I know you said... about not being able to be bled dry. But I could kill you, couldn't I?"

we're gonna separate ourselves tonight
we're always running scared but holding knives

but baby i've been here before; i've seen this room and i've walked this floor

Remi feels bad for ruining something of hers, but immortal and possessing of ungodly strength though he might be, he does not heal any faster than anyone else. Smiling sheepishly, he presses it against his neck, and almost instantly the fabric blooms red. "Well..." It didn't not used to be this way. But certainly not quite like this. ".. a lot has changed since then." Remi had grown into someone more comfortable and exploratory in his sexuality, and Isla had been a part of him.

"I don't.." Remi's brows come together as he considers this, the muscles of his wings stiffening slightly, before twinning all the more completely around them. "I think probably you could." He says after a moment, with a small smile as if there's something dangerously beautiful about that fact.

"..ahh, sorry." The alchemist says at last, clearing his throat awkwardly as he shifts his hips back and stands slightly taller that his erection might not be pressed so prominently against her. "I wonder if there's a way to make it not feel like anything." He wonders, saying it only because it feels like he should want something like that.

Isla

Isla hisses out a frustrated note to see the fabric instantly stain red, the medic in her surfacing as she clasps her hand over the scarf, taking over for Remi. Indeed, as he tries to straighten up and away Isla is already moving closer, looking up at him with something close to pain in her eyes, but not quite. "Let's not tempt fate tonight, then," she suggests with a gentle smile. "Would you like to come back to the clinic with me? I don't like how much it's bleeding."

It's easier to say that than to say how she very much did like everything else, leading up to and including his hands on her, his breath in her ear, the heat and hardness of his arousal. "I wonder if there's a way to make it so I didn't almost bleed you out every time," she counters; it might be a surprise, but Isla is absolutely not against how it feels. She smiles sheepishly up at Remi. "It's the only time I get to feel a little bit human," she explains.

we're gonna separate ourselves tonight
we're always running scared but holding knives

but baby i've been here before; i've seen this room and i've walked this floor

As she places her hand against his neck, the part of him that has come to associate that movement with a rush of chemicals shivers with anticipation.  "I think you'll do enough tempting fate for the both of us, with LongNight coming up.." The words are out before he realizes what he's said. Isla's track record with LongNight is bloody and brutal, and it only just hits him now that there is a real possibility she'll not survive this one. "Well, there's
no saying no to you." Remi says with a shaky smile.

Blinking in slight boyish surprise to hear her take a different perspective, Remi nods thoughtfully, wondering if such a thing was possible. Surely the Voice would be open to the idea of the ascended not killing those they drank from? Then again what he and Isla were doing went above and beyond a mere transfer of power.

"Well, I'm to blame for a lifetime to making you feel not human." He says looking down at her with a smile that's as sad as it is gentle. "Anything to make you feel how you want." Remi vows, the heat in his belly flaring to punctuate this willingness.

Clearing his throat and looking down, it's with bloody hands that the alchemist buttons up his pants, his jaw feathering with tension born both out of embarrassment as much as from selfish disappointment. With that done, his wings unfurl around them that Isla might lead the way to the clinic.

Isla

"I plan to be as safe as I can," Isla says, and it sounds more like a promise than she had anticipated. She tries on a smile for him, though she supposes it's not nearly as reassuring when her lips are red with his blood and it's all over her neck and her coat. Forced to step back a little as he butttons his pants again (and feeling her cheeks heat all over again as she realises how much their bodies take over in the moment), Isla guides Remi's hand back against his neck to apply pressure as she leads them away.

"You can absolutely say no to me. I will just worry about you endlessly," she informs him, as if that's something Remi is even remotely likely to do. Reaching back, she takes his free hand to give it a squeeze, glancing over her shoulder and making haste towards the clinic. "Thank you." She almost whispers it, knowing it to be selfish and absolutely against her nature. But it's like a hole she can't pull herself out of, but for Remi's hand pulling her up.

"I suppose I could just stop biting your most vulnerable parts," she remarks, a wry smile creeping across her face. "Sinking my teeth into your throat is always going to be playing with fire."

we're gonna separate ourselves tonight
we're always running scared but holding knives

but baby i've been here before; i've seen this room and i've walked this floor

The alchemist can only swallow in response to that, drinking in her pebble-blue stare and willing his mind away from the way her eyes had looked when they were lifeless, her body torn apart by some horrific worm-monster.

"It's probably for the best. Ianto is the only one in the wagon right now, and he's the sort to sleep through me bleeding out." Remi chuckles, before his expression grows slightly more sombre. "Anything for you." He says softly, the words motivated as much by his love for her as his guilt for what he'd put her throw.

"That might be so...but if you bite me in the foot, I'm fairly sure I'll end up breaking your nose." The alchemist replies with a crooked smile as he matches pace with her. It's much harder for him to see in the dark even with his eyes shifted, but even so he isn't necessarily paying attention to where they're going.

Isla

"Mm, you're doing so well at reassuring me right now. Tell me more about how little help your roommate will be, I simply must hear it." Dry amusement has successfully made its way back into Isla's voice, so things must be getting less awkward between them. At least until Remi says what he does, and she can only respond with a firm, knowing squeeze to his hand. "Almost there," she says softly, as if to take the attention away from that guilt and that love.

They must be moving faster than she anticipates, because before long the lights (so sparse now, with all of the Ascended) that mark the Hollowed Grounds' inner sanctum are all around them, and it's a matter of streets to get to the clinic. Isla scoffs and scrunches her nose at the mere idea of biting Remi's foot, shaking her head. "And break another toe? I'll not risk it, thank you. Even somewhere like your shoulder or your collarbone isn't going to be as bad as the jugular."

we're gonna separate ourselves tonight
we're always running scared but holding knives

but baby i've been here before; i've seen this room and i've walked this floor

"Well, I'm 99% sure that he'd be more upset about blood in the bed than my death." Remi replies with a shrug as equally dry as her tone. "But at least Mateo wouldn't see. He's in Stormbreak with Ronin." This is part of the reason the alchemist hasn't rushed back yet. With just Ianto waiting for him (and all that means is that the fox will be asleep in the center of the bed), there's really no need to be anywhere at any particular time.

Blinking in the dark, remembering some of the buildings and what they were (or are) for and who lives in them, Remi smiles faintly at the pulse of her fingers against his. "It sounds as though you just want something to gnaw on." He remarks, shivering slightly. Reaching up he taps at one of his collarbones, and then his shoulder. There isn't much fat on him at this point, leaving just dense muscle over the bone. He might not be a medic, but even he knows those areas aren't rich with the sort of blood she'd need. But then, the problem wasn't necessarily how to stop him bleeding, but how to prolong the feeling.

The answer to which was quite simple, so long as Remi wasn't banned from the Grounds.

Isla

"Yes, well. Be that as it may, I would prefer it if tonight did not end in your death at all," Isla says, a small amount of the humour bleeding away from her tone of voice. Because he is still hurt right now, and her scarf is soaked red - she can smell the iron on the air all around them, even with her dulled senses. She hurries down the streets and turns the corner to the Temple, ushering Remi inside so they might get to the infirmary without being caught out by anyone.

Scoffing at his remark, she also prods at his collarbone and narrows her eyes. "I am a physician, Remi - I guarantee there are still some soft spots on you." So saying, she reaches out to prod at the area just above his hip, and the apples of his cheeks. "Not sure biting you in the face is any better, though," she mutters, shouldering open the infirmary doors and guiding him through the reception area.

we're gonna separate ourselves tonight
we're always running scared but holding knives

but baby i've been here before; i've seen this room and i've walked this floor

In they go. Remi can feel the way the cloth is now sticking to his skin, and how his hands feel tacky with his blood. Once he pulls his hand away he's almost sure that the wound will start bleeding again. However annoying the pain of it is though, no part of him regrets what he did. In fact, the feeling and memory of pressing Isla's mouth against him anew will be one he thinks of in more than just his dreams.

Though it's entirely inappropriate, the tension is simply too much. Snorting out laughter the alchemist fixes the medic with a mischievous smile. "When we do that, very little remains soft." Remi reminds her, before rolling his eyes. "Oh yes. That would be much more subtle." He says of her biting his cheeks.

The infirmary is dark, but then with LongNight nearly upon them and the Grounds almost exclusively made up of ascended, that isn't too surprising. Still, once upon a time he knew this place quite well, and with Isla leading him it's easy enough to get to one of the exam rooms.

Isla

"Had to go for the easy joke, didn't you?" Isla grins back at him, leading him through into an exam room and clicking the door shut behind them. It's little trouble to light a few lamps and generate some warmth and light, and Isla besides doesn't need it to see by. Gesturing for Remi to sit on the bed (it's the same exam room, coincidentally, as when he had visited previously), Isla unbuttons her bloody coat and shrugs out of it, before moving to quickly wash her face and her hands.

"Here, let me see," she murmurs, already gathering a tray with bandages and dressings, even the tools needed for suturing, should it be necessary. Drawing closer, she carefully peels away the blood soaked scarf and winces at the sight of the two bite marks, so close to each other. "Maybe I just shouldn't bite two sets of holes in you," she suggests, guilt lacing her words, her voice soft given their proximity.

"I don't think they'll need stitching, but I'll make a poultice to help it close more quickly." Replacing the scarf, Isla smiles sadly at him. "Stupid us, huh?"

we're gonna separate ourselves tonight
we're always running scared but holding knives

but baby i've been here before; i've seen this room and i've walked this floor

"Always." Remi chuckles as he sits down, watching Isla wash her hands and face while he idly rubs at the blood still staining his palms. As she draws near, the comfortable familiarity that normally is between them settles easily, and though her fingers and lips are as close as they were before, the alchemist is able to endure this examination far more easily.

'Stupid us.' He agrees, though he doesn't sound entirely convinced. He should feel equally guilty, but he doesn't. Now all that's left is latent sexual frustration and concern for his best friend. 'If you need anything at all...ravens can always find me, no matter where I am. I'll come running.' Remi reaches for one of Isla's hands, to still her doctoring that he might have her full attention. "I know you aren't mine to lose, but...I'm not sure I could bear it a third time."

Before, outside, he'd wanted to kiss her so badly. Now all the alchemist wants to do is wrap her into a hug and spirit her away into the woods where no harm would befall her. Instead, he lets the minutes bleed away into hours until finally, he has to leave.

"I love you," Remi whispers softly, hoping it won't be for the last time.

~FIN