just a moment to hold

REMI

the lullaby

there's a light that you give me
when I'm in shadow

Remi's talk with Vai both had and hadn't helped. The general consensus was: stop overthinking, hang out with Isla, don't make this more of a problem than it is(n't). For sure the alchemist could do two of those things, and as the song goes, two outta three ain't bad.

Dressed in a suit (and gods does he feel awkward in it), Remi has a very strange conversation with his husband, about the date he's going on with a woman, and though Ronin laughs at him, straightens his collar and kisses him goodbye, the alchemist can't help but feel as though this entire situation has absolutely gotten away from him.

But he did very much want to look at the stars with Isla, and once he focused his mind on that fact and that alone, he felt a good deal better. Having knocked on Isla's door, Remi stands in the middle of the street, gazing up at the moon. There's a bag slung over his shoulder with things they'd need, and though he is in a suit and a proper collared shirt, still his hands are balled in his pockets. Looking entirely like the commoner he once was who has been given fancy clothes to wear that he might slip unseen in a world he doesn't belong in, he tries adamantly to ignore the butterflies in his stomach, already far too flustered about what this night might or might not mean.

there's a feeling you give me, an everglow

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Isla

It hasn't occurred to Isla until she starts getting ready that this might actually be a date. It's only when she slips into her gown (and what a strange thing to be wearing, let alone where she might have gotten it from) and begins to pin up her curls that she considers it. And that causes butterflies to take off in her stomach in a way that, while not unpleasant, is certainly unwelcome when she considers her best friend.

She's just swiped a bit of silvery shimmer and kohl on her eyelids in the Hollowed Grounds's equivalent of makeup, and slipped into heels that she's not worn in years, when Remi taps at her door. Unlike the Lullaby, though, Isla has been brought up a duchess, and so as she opens the door to greet him it's with an elegance that suggests she ought to be wearing more than a midnight blue gown with some modest kitten heels.

To see him in a suit, though? A delighted, fanged grin spreads across her face, and she steps out to fuss over him and admire the effort put in. "You look very handsome," she informs him with a mischievous wink. "Do I need to bring anyhting? To map the stars?"

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