[SE] going under

ISLA

"Oh, yes. You're probably right about that. Well, it might work for a little while at least?" Isla grins and shrugs her shoulders as she wades out of the ocean after him. They are back on shore, and even in the dark she can see their clothes in a pile a few yards away. "You are right, though - I would never let you live it down. Also, I'm beginning to wish I brought a towel for us - you must be freezing." Automatically she moves to hug him again, as little a difference as it would make, and begins to walk them down the sand.

"Rude? Why?" Isla's smile is sweet and sharp at the same time as she gazes up at Remi. "Oh yes, I kept him quite safe the entire time. Though I did ask him why he decided to punch you while I had my hand upon his heart. I'd never have hurt him, of course."

apres moi le deluge
after me comes the flood

i kept falling over, i kept looking backward

Snorting under his breath, Remi twists, meaning to scoop Isla up into his arms and carry her toward their clothing as if she were some new bride he was lifting over a threshold. "You are not anywhere big enough for that." He chuckles, but even so, she is a warm presence in his arm.s

"Well, it is not as though we have spoken since he tried to beat me up in the alley. Ronin went and had words with him and Nate basically said if he needed to, he would try and sic the Voice on me." The alchemist doesn't sound particularly concerned. "Oh? And what did he have to say? That even though Sunjata and I put things to bed that he still needed to get a word in just the same?"

i went broke believing that the simple should be hard

Table inspo from kae!

ISLA

"I could be, if I was a kraken," Isla points out, letting out a little peep of surprise as she's scooped into Remi's arms. Hopefully the movement and her comparative warmth against him will help to get him toasty all over again, and if not, at least it's LongHeat. Torchline is hardly an ice cave. They reach their clothing in record time, Isla kissing Remi's cheek is playful thanks before she wiggles down onto the sand again, hastily tying her hair up into a messy bun.

Her eyes darken a fraction to hear what else has happened with Nate, Isla shrugging her shoulders. "That he was scared and hurting and that he felt helpless," she says honestly. "I can understand it, even if I don't like it." She lifts up the dress she was wearing, wondering if she's dry enough yet to put it on.

apres moi le deluge
after me comes the flood

i kept falling over, i kept looking backward

"Ah, but you are not." Remi counters. "Though I suppose cold as I am, it would probably be much harder to find myself aroused by your bite." Was that true? He wasn't sure, though he doubted it. She slips away and Remi can't help but watch her appreciatively, drinking in the silvery moonlit shadows that drape themselves across her skin.

Reaching for his own clothes and starting to tug them on, Remi pauses, glancing at Isla with his eyes narrowed more than he'd intended. Forcing away the expression with a sigh, he shakes his head. "By the time Nate returned, it was all said and done. Sunjata and I had resolved our differences on it." Tightening his belt with a grimace of unhappiness, Remi drapes his shirt on his forearm and ruffles a hand erratically through his curls. "What Nate was in that alley, was lucky. Lucky that I let him have his temper tantrum with no repercussions."

i went broke believing that the simple should be hard

Table inspo from kae!

ISLA

"That sounds like an assumption without evidence," Isla says sweetly, and it sounds both like a suggestion that they try as well as a criticism on his scientific method. She's still smiling about it as she finally pulls her dress on - Isla can't feel the way it sticks to her where she's still wet from the ocean, or the discomfort of cold, damp clothing, so she manages it without much fanfare at all.

By which time Remi has grown all sharp and bitter about Nate, and Isla ducks under his arm to give him a silent hug, as if she can just squeeze the vengeance out of him. (It's a nice thought but she knows better, really). "Come on," she suggests. "I should get to the portal. Are you staying in Torchline?"

apres moi le deluge
after me comes the flood

i kept falling over, i kept looking backward

'I do have some evidence.' Remi counters slyly. He and Ronin certainly had pawed at each other in every sort of weather imaginable, and yes, it was much more difficult when one was cold. But then, Remi was already heating up thanks to the warmth of the Longheat breeze stirring along the beach; the time to test out this theory had already passed.

Stiffly Remi wraps an arm around Isla, the entire subject of Nate having thoroughly brought his mood down. "Probably not, no. But I will fly home." Still, he'd walk her.

Exhaling out his annoyance by degrees, Remi glances sidelong at Isla as if the mere sight of her alone might ease his troubled mind. And, it absolutely did.

"Thanks for tonight." He says awkwardly as they reach the portal. Their sexcapades gone wrong and potential kraken-murder aside, there was still no other way he'd have rather spent the last 24 hours. 'I will see you soon?' It was both a question and a promise, and as he kissed her cheek goodbye before she vanished into the portal, the alchemist waited a moment to see if she might reappear.

~FIN

i went broke believing that the simple should be hard

Table inspo from kae!