i'm on my knees here

I will fight the end

There isn't really a morning after the night before, not during LongNight. But eventually - and Ronin can't say how long - he and the Flood do come around. And whatever bruised and battered reality they return to, it is a regret that the Star can't stick around. Because much as he has missed Sunjata, much as he believes he will be making up for this for the rest of his life somehow, there's a deeper thread that runs through him. A heartbeat that thuds, slow and dangerous on his finger, that he is heedless to follow.

And so Ronin goes, stepping out into a perfect, pitch blackness punctuated by the bonfires in the distance. He feels small and alone in this beautiful space just outside the house carved into the cliffsides. This isn't how it was meant to be. It isn't how any of this is meant to be, and yet here they are again. LongNight rears its head and the world plunges into madness every single time. What use is there to run from it?

Ronin doesn't have the Attuned ability to seek out his husband, and perhaps it is just strange habit that has him stopping and waiting outside Sunjata's front door. He knows, somehow, that Remi will not be far.

'til the end is here

Coding base by Sky!

This scar I can't reverse, when the more it heals the worse it hurts

It is indeed a slow pulse that Ronin will feel, the Star's own heartbeat signalling that he's finally woken up. There aren't even words or colours to describe the thoughts that flow through the alchemist's mind as he makes his way toward the Governor's home. It's just a tide of ice water that flows over frozen stones, relentless and unstoppable.

The Lullaby doesn't have to wonder where it is he'll find his husband. If the Star hasn't sought out Vai, the only other thing he'd have done is to remain with Sunjata. And why not? After all the Flood had been through, with his husband so far away.

Why not remain with his friend.

"No doubt Mateo and Tobi will wonder what has kept us. You should go back. I'll take you."

Good morning. What a night, huh? I love you.

Free of blood but not clean of what he's done, Remi doesn't approach the steps that lead into the Governor's home, but merely remains a few feet away on the sand. Ghost-like he's arrived, and ghost-like he's apparently going to remain, untouchable and distant as he is with his arms crossed, his hair curled and wild, and his eyes faraway.

REMI

I will fight the end

The sound of the voice is one he's come to expect, and blue eyes come to focus on Remi, bright with relief. For all that the Lullaby is cold and aloof, Ronin is a study in opposites. The Star is very much warm and alive and feeling, and that almost makes it worse. Because there are doubtlessly those who would believe that Ronin should feel horror at seeing his husband after everything that occurred. That he ought to be angry or disgusted, that he might flinch back or tell Remi to leave. At the very least to tell him that a line has been crossed.

But he doesn't.

It will get him killed one of these days (and that's more than a figure of speech, with his powers currently Safrin-bound), but as Ronin takes in his husband, a stoic and terrifying adonis in the glow of the torches, all the Star feels is love. Gods how he loves this man, for all the things he's done, for everything he might yet do.

"I couldn't get back to you," he says softly, choosing not to respond to the stilted remark borne from something Ronin can only guess at right now. "I couldn't leave the dream until I woke up. I left as soon as I could."

'til the end is here

Coding base by Sky!

This scar I can't reverse, when the more it heals the worse it hurts

In that moment Remi can't honestly say if he'd open himself through the attuned bond, should it still be there between he and the Star. His feelings are too vile, too horrifying, too loud, and murderous. And right now, despite everything Ronin is to him and everything he's always been, the alchemist doesn't feel safe sharing those things just yet. And so he merely stares through the darkness at a man who no longer glows with love, no matter how obviously there the emotion might be. Remi doesn't glow with it either, though his love is there as well. Strong as the tide, but similarly hidden behind vast and frothy waves.

Remi doesn't respond to what his husband says, though the distance in his gaze suggests that whatever he might be hoping to hear, that hadn't been it.

"You'll want to sit down, before I put us to sleep." His voice is instructive and neutral, his accent perhaps thickening all the more for the lack of feeling in it. "I'll take us right to Mateo."

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I will fight the end

Ronin lets his shoulders slump a little as his husband's neutral mask remains in place, as if the less Remi shows, the more Ronin overflows. "And I would love that," he assures the Lullaby, moving to sit down somewhere that he's not likely to tumble off the edge of a cliff. "But not just yet, please. I want to know that you're alright. And if you're not - which... I fucking wouldn't be, put it that way - I want to be here with you to work that out."

He ruffles his hand back through his dark hair, offering a smile that's as apologetic as it is boyishly hopeful. "I love you. I missed you. And it's been a long, long night." It isn't even over yet, not by a mile. Ronin pats the ground next to him, wondering whether Remi will be able to stand giving it words, or whether he'll simply find himself asleep and back with their son in a blink.

'til the end is here

Coding base by Sky!

This scar I can't reverse, when the more it heals the worse it hurts

'Oh, now you'd like to know if I'm alright?' The words are out before the alchemist can catch his tongue, and the sudden scowl on his face says just as much as any I didn't mean to say that, might. Frowning, Remi looks up into the black sky, and then down at his palm. Rubbing at a spot of blood that isn't there, but that his mind sees just as clearly, Remi rubs back and forth until he generates enough friction to burn away the top layer of skin; the sting of which feels suddenly sweet.

'I love you too.' The alchemist repeats, because he'll never not say it back, he won't ever not feel it.  But just now he feels betrayed. He feels betrayed, and placed second, and looked over. None of those things are necessarily true at all, which is all the more reason the alchemist can't bring himself to say them.

'It has been a long night. All the more reason to relieve Tobi.'

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I will fight the end

Ronin is both surprised and not at the alchemist's response, but he doesn't have it in him to retort with snark or even with confusion. He hadn't been able to say how things would go in the moments leading up to seeing Remi again, but now that he's before him? Gods, but what a fool he is - Ronin would replay the previous night over and over again if it meant being able to look at his husband's grumpy face."I always did want to know," he says softly. "But you told me to do whatever I had to in there. So I did."

He nods in agreement - all the more reason to relieve Tobi - but he makes no move to gesture that they ought to get a move on. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you," Ronin murmurs. "What happened in there was... intense. For everyone. Are you alright?" Not is there anything I can do - because Ronin thinks he finally understands his husband well enough not to have to put the burden of telling him the right answer on him.

'til the end is here

Coding base by Sky!

This scar I can't reverse, when the more it heals the worse it hurts

The alchemist hates how reasonable his husband sounds. How it all makes sense. His emotions, left to fester and putrify overnight don't respond to the Star's words with anything other than blackened anger. Remi hasn't actually killed anyone, and now isn't actually having the fight with Ronin he'd been fully expecting. It left him strangely hollow, despite how large this murderous sense of entitlement of his was.

'I had to be sure.' Remi protests in the wake of the previous night being called intense. "We had to be sure." Whether or not that we could properly be applied to Ronin, the alchemist didn't know. He'd certainly think it didn't were he privy to the conversations had between Flood and Star, but as it was he can only stare speculatively at his husband.

'I don't know.' Remi replies with an honesty that his brutishness doesn't seem capable of. It's quickly masked again as the alchemist's teeth click together. 'I won't be, until we find out who did this.' He takes a step toward Ronin, and then another until he's nearly at the Star's feet. "You didn't see her, but...it's more than skin deep." To be attacked like that, with no way to defend herself? To be made to feel weak? Helpless?

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I will fight the end

"And now we are sure," Ronin says gently. There's no judgement in it, now that he's out of the dream, out of the swathe of Sunjata's thoughts and feelings. For better or for worse, now they are sure. The Star relaxes by degrees as Remi steps closer, for even if the alchemist decides to put them straight to sleep to drag them back to Stormbreak, the fact that he's within reach is enough for Ronin. I don't know, the other man says, and the Star can understand that well enough as well.

Silently, he holds out his hand for his husband. "Poor Vai," he says through a deep sigh. And poor Remi, but he's not sure the other man would appreciate him drawing that much attention to it, not when he's clearly upset by the fact that Ronin wasn't there. "Perhaps Mateo and I can stay with her. If you wanted to just bring him back...?" He isn't sure that Stormbreak would like it.

But he isn't sure he cares, either.

'til the end is here

Coding base by Sky!

This scar I can't reverse, when the more it heals the worse it hurts

Remi raises a brow at that, looking thoughtful for perhaps the first time in the last 24 hours. It isn't as though Ronin is really much good to Stormbreak, mortal as he is. Though there are certainly more dangers here than back in the stone city. Ruffling a hand with his curls and sitting down heavily at his husband's side, the alchemist leans his shoulder against the Star in wordless acceptance of all that's happened. His anger is burning out by degrees, baseless as it will be shown to be, but for now it's still too much of an obstacle to completely break down.

"At least we'd all be together for a little while." Remi says by way of agreement. Even so, he doesn't put himself to sleep right away. He doesn't look at Ronin either, but instead stares down at his clean hands, continuing to rub away bloodstains that aren't there.

"How is Sunjata?" He asks rather tonelessly, unsure if he wants to know the answer as it relates to him and what he's done, for the sake of Ronin's relationship with the Flood, or for what might come to pass between Lullaby and Governor. Or even himself and Nate. There were so many strings tied up in this, and Remi wasn't terribly sure he even understood just how bound he'd made himself.

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I will fight the end

"Mm... the whole family. And I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be doing anything world-shattering for Stormbreak during LongNight, so... I can go and see Vai. I'll get some sleeping medicine from her, so when you and Mateo are ready to come back, you can wake up with us right away." It's an easy thing to offer, for Ronin. Much as the Star is duty bound, much as those who know him know also that he's unlikely to defy orders... this is a family matter.

And Ronin will do anything for those he loves. (Even when they think he's being pompous and selfish and uncaring, Remi). His shoulder presses against the Lullaby's, and it's nothing for Ronin to wrap an arm around the other man, murderous intent and all. "Sunjata is... he was a broken man even before this," he explains as delicately as he can. "He is being fucked with, here in Torchline. Badly. By the person who beat up Vai, his father or not."

'til the end is here

Coding base by Sky!

This scar I can't reverse, when the more it heals the worse it hurts

Remi tugs in a breath, wanting to melt against Ronin but still too walled up to do anything more than lean heavily against the Star. What Ronin has to say is somewhat surprising. None of them have had an easy go of things, and likely they never will, but as Governor and newly married, the alchemist had thought things were...alright for Sunjata. By Caido standards, anyway.

"His..father?" Remi frowns, pulling away from Ronin if only so that he can meet his husband's gaze. "But he's an Outlander. How is that even possible?" The Lullaby doesn't recall much of what his husband said in the past about dreaming with Sunjata, but he does vaguely remember something about Sunjata being a boy, and Ronin rescuing him from his father.

"So, you're saying it was Sunjata's father who did this?" That would certainly lend credence to the claim that he sounded just like Sunjata. "Is that who Kane is? That's his father?"

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I will fight the end

Expecting nothing from his husband, Ronin is content that Remi even wants to lean into him, and he turns his head to gently kiss the Lullaby's messy curls, just as he draws away again. Nodding, Ronin tries to find the words to explain it. "I have no idea. I know his father was alive when Sunjata left, back in Korofi. Is it too far fetched to think that the Voice could bring him here as well?" Things had a habit of falling into place in ways that felt too convenient, sometimes. That didn't stop it being true, though.

"He certainly believes that," Ronin says to Remi, as if that is the only thing that matters. And with the state Sunjata had been in, it does matter quite significantly. "Until I see the man myself, I've no reason to think otherwise. And I think I owe it to Jata, to believe him now." His brow furrows and he shakes his head, as if to say it's not worth getting into at this point in time. "Either way, he wants to kill him as well."

'til the end is here

Coding base by Sky!

This scar I can't reverse, when the more it heals the worse it hurts

"A little." Remi replies. "It would be like if Bellamy suddenly showed up here." That it hadn't happened yet, a world being 'tapped' by the Voice multiple times, didn't mean it wasn't possible. But yes, far-fetched might be a good word for it.

"Because of the accent?" It was the only piece of evidence the alchemist knew about that would suggest a familial relationship to Sunjata. "Though I suppose if someone was trying to frame him as it seems, they might have just copied his accent." It wasn't terribly hard to fake—for someone like Remi it would be, but even Ronin's accent at times could be muddled ednough to sound vaguely like Sunjata. Not to mention the multitude of magic and items that could do the same things.

It isn't worth getting into, that's certainly true. Still, Remi bristles ever so slightly.

"As does Vai." Another point not worth getting into: who held the stronger claim to the man's life. "But if Sunjata thinks it's his father...why would he tell me to talk to Zephyr about him?" Remi wonders, wrongly (but also rightly) believing 'Kane' to be the Flood's parent. "And if Zephyr new of someone with the same accent..why would he immediately finger the Flood for what happened to Vai?"

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