you're living make believe

REMI

the alchemist

I've said that hope I'll never find
To my myself I must confide

A single tear does manage to slip down his cheek, making it only about halfway before the ash on his skin as well as his scruff halts its descent. Opening his eyes slowly as she moves herself even closer, his lips part to say something. But okay, good, or glad that is settled feel crass even on the tip of his tongue, and so he merely nods.

'Well...you might as well take something from me now. Gods know what else the night might have in store.' Already easily positioned for it, one of Remi's arms moves to tug her into his lap, that she might sit astride him. Though right now the only thing Remi wants of Isla is to keep her close, he knows that when her teeth sink into him that will change. Even so, potent as her toxins will be, the dirt still on his hands from the bodies they buried only an hour or so ago should serve as enough of a reminder why venturing out is ill-advised.

That there's no choice outside your mind
when your heart is overthrown

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Isla take your medicine Isla reaches up to brush the tear away regardless, leaving a clean smudge on Remi's cheek. He is able to move her easily enough, though there's something strange about sitting in his lap now that has never been there before. But given the night they've had, and the necessity in defending herself, Isla lets herself relax. "I know you couldn't see me, that you weren't there for me. But still, thank you for always being there for me, one way or another." she smiles to him, leaning in to kiss his cheek before her lips drop to his neck. The medic doesn't waste time on anticipation or romance - it's really not the time - and so her fangs slip into his veins with nary a moment of hesitation. Isla tenses and relaxes all at once as the euphoria hits, her fingers curling tightly in Remi's shirt, and she lifts the manticore shift from him with an ease that it almost practiced at this point. The only problem now, of course, is that she doesn't want to stop.

REMI

the alchemist

I've said that hope I'll never find
To my myself I must confide

It's willful ignorance that blots away all the things he can feel from her. He doesn't want to feel the invisible walls build up between them again, doesn't want to have to work to cross the distances—not when she's so close. Not when it could be so easy to just wrap her up in his arms and hold her there.

Isla's teeth press into his skin and instantly Remi's eyes roll back and close. His hands move up her thighs to her lower back, pulling her closer as he sits forward as if offering more of his neck to her might somehow increase or prolong the sensation. Too emotionally tired to still the moan on his lips or how her name is the only sound on his tongue, one of his hands trickles up to curl into her hair as the world pulses and dissolves into a heat that reminds him not of fire, but of blue eyes and tangled sheets, and a smile he'll never forget.

That there's no choice outside your mind
when your heart is overthrown

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Isla take your medicine He tastes sweet on her tongue - something Isla both has and hasn't noticed before, such is the strangeness of the sensation - and as Remi sits forward and pulls her closer, Isla melts all around him. His fingers in her hair, his touch along her back, it all sets a fire that burns hotter even than the one that is consuming the infirmary. Somehow this gets more difficult each time rather than easier, and she has to force herself to splay her hands across his chest, easing herself away from him. Already breathless in a literal sense, Isla still seems hazy and flushed as she gazes across at him. With eyes almost glowing in the dim light that filters through the window behind Remi and blood painting her lips, she can't help but smile to him. "Are you--" she begins, only for a sharp whistle across in the kitchen to cut her off. The kettle is boiling.

REMI

the alchemist

I've said that hope I'll never find
To my myself I must confide

She parts faster from him than she normally does. Or perhaps it's merely the regular amount that she would bite anyone else; Remi's endurance makes it hard to know where the line is between necessity and danger. But for all of his intangible mental exhaustion, the colour his blood has given to her lips and his cheeks makes the burning infirmary and the culprit they are meant to be hiding from, seem a distant and unimportant thing.

"Am I..?' He wonders with a crooked smile as he leans up and forward, meaning to kiss the blood off of her lips. The weight of her against his lap has the muscles of his legs tensing as his body imagines all the things that normally follow from Isla's bite. Not even the sharp and sudden whistle of the kettle can compare to the toxins which have awakened his want of her, and given that the ascended don't sleep, Remi finds himself unworried that the sound might disturb the slumber of any of her neighbours.

That there's no choice outside your mind
when your heart is overthrown

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Isla take your medicine "Are you alright--" Isla tries, but no sooner has she finished her previous thought when Remi's lips are upon hers. Drowning in his heat and in the closeness she'd been craving since the sight of the Lullaby putting her patients to sleep, her arms loop around his neck, staining red where they press against the bite. It takes far too long for her to get her senses about her, so good does Remi feel, but she eventually forces herself back again, blushing and sad and painfully aware that she always seems to leave him frustrated. "Is this wise right now?" she asks. The infirmary, the bodies, the potential for impending doom and disaster... One might say yes, actually. A very big yes, when it comes to Remi and Isla. But they can't continue down this road forever, and they both know it.

REMI

the alchemist

I've said that hope I'll never find
To my myself I must confide

'With you I always am.' He says with a lazy laugh as his hands roam and rove, wanting to feel her skin against his own as he tries to tuck one of his hands beneath her shirt against the small of her back. Isla feels so infinitely small in his arms, and it's a sensation that he's constantly delighted by. She is soft in the ways and places that Ronin is not, and he finds himself utterly undone that there is still so much of her to know and meticulously map.

What Isla knows and what Remi does have perhaps never been less aligned than they are now. Obnoxiously powerful and lucky despite all the things that have befallen him, the alchemist cares nothing at all for what is wise. Let the world burn, let the kettle hiss. Disasters come and go, but it's moments like these that Remi cherishes.

'We do not have to leave..' He admits at last, flushed, though his growing erection says otherwise. Not much could stand in Remi's way if Isla gave him permission to sweep her across the grounds into the Sex Room, especially not still tense with thoughts of how close the medic had come to death as he was. "..but kiss me again?"

That there's no choice outside your mind
when your heart is overthrown

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Isla take your medicine The walls built between them during his arrival at the infirmary are dust now; Isla sees the man beneath the Lullaby again as if that mask had never come down. Remi, flushed and crookedly smiling, his palm large and warm against her lower back - Isla can't help but return the smile, so good is it to see him like this. "Then let's stay," she murmurs, barely audible over the whistling kettle, though she has the idea that Remi will hear it nonetheless. And so she leans in for another kiss, soft and tasting of sweetness and iron, her fingers slipping through his curls to draw him closer. She'd be a fool not to feel the effect that her fangs have had, her hips shifting just a little against Remi's, a soft moan escaping her lips. "Just a kiss?" she wonders, smiling lopsidedly and brushing her nose against his.

REMI

the alchemist

I've said that hope I'll never find
To my myself I must confide

This, all of this, only further ties more knots into the strange tether that binds Remi to death. The taste of his own blood kissed back onto his lips does not make him recoil, but instead it encourages Remi to deepen their kiss. Her body against his, small though it might be, makes his toes curl; if kissing her wasn't so sweet, he might have pulled back already to pant out the ever-growing frustration building between his legs. "Well," Remi whispers as she noses playfully against him. "You have no idea the effect you have on me." He adds in a tone far less roguish.

Without her fangs in his neck, the whistling of the kettle has become a shade more piercing. Not wanting to part even for a second from Isla, Remi's grip around her tightens as he stands easily and makes his way into the kitchen. "Were it up to me...if the effects of the room were not so..much," His lips press against one of her collarbones as he reaches out with a freehand to push the kettle off the hot element. "-I would want you slowly. To sketch you with my hands and to take all the time in the world—" His hand has been resting near the kettle's surface, so when he places his palm against Isla's back, it's significantly warmer. "—to make you feel everything, and then some.." Looking up at her from beneath tousled curls and with a soft green stare, Remi's cheeks flush though his gaze doesn't waver.

That there's no choice outside your mind
when your heart is overthrown

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Isla take your medicine "I think I'm getting some idea," Isla says with a grin. She doesn't - she absolutely doesn't - but naive as she is, it's easily said. Her arms loop around his shoulders and her legs tighten round his waist as he stands, the medic more than happy to remain wrapped up against Remi as he shuffles to the kitchen to silence the kettle. His words have her cheeks flushing all over again, softly pink with the blood currently flooding her veins, and she manages a lopsided smile even as her head tilts to welcome the kisses against her collarbone. "What a shame," she murmurs, cupping his unshaven cheeks in her hands and leaning in to tease another gentle kiss from his lips. "You're still a hopeless romantic," she remarks. "Even after all this time."

REMI

the alchemist

I've said that hope I'll never find
To my myself I must confide

It being a shame didn't even begin to cover it. Though Remi didn't have the words to try and elaborate without making it seem as though Isla was lacking in some way. That, and his lips were admittedly more focused on other things. "Or maybe I am just a selfish man." He counters, his chin rising into her grasp as his lips meet hers. "Wouldn't you want to take your time, if you were me?"

With his kettle-warmed hand against her skin and his cheeks beneath her palms now deeply dimpling with affection, Remi shrugs. "You are the only woman to have ever made me feel this way. It is worth savouring."

But, they had agreed not to go out. They had agreed on tea. Though Remi's body has already imagined the ways and places it might situate the two of them in Isla's kitchen, the alchemist forces himself to part from the medic. Setting her down on the counter with a last lingering kiss—the press of his hips against the cupboards below causing his breath to hitch in the back of his throat entirely without his permission—Remi takes a moment to gather his thoughts (though they refuse to be wrangled). 'If I were a pair of cups...where would I be?'

That there's no choice outside your mind
when your heart is overthrown

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Isla take your medicine "I don't know if it makes you selfish," Isla murmurs, smiling apologetically to Remi as he sets her down on the counter, her nose brushing against his. "I would take my time and I am me. You are quite worth exploring yourself." She lets her fingers graze across his cheeks, slipping briefly into his curls, before he's stepping away and Isla has to remind herself that, much as she enjoys this, she is still an Ascended. (And that's without even thinking about Varus). She smirks at the remark about the cups, reaching to open the cupboard above her head and withdraw two mugs, offering them out to him. "Voila," she murmurs, setting them down and reaching back into the cupboard to grab a jar of tea. "I think that will do us quite nicely, don't you?" Then, because it's Remi and she loves him and he's her best friend, she grabs the front of his shirt to pull him into a hug. "I'm glad you were here tonight."

REMI

the alchemist

I've said that hope I'll never find
To my myself I must confide

'Ah, but you cannot see yourself as I see you.' Remi counters adoringly. Isla's beauty was only ever part of her allure. Though the alchemist didn't think it was possible, one day he vowed to map her in detail as if he might pinpoint just what it was that made her defy everything he knew about his sexuality. He never would, as it would turn out, but the thought of it sends a shiver down his spine.

Pulling back as Isla retrieves two mugs from directly behind her, he can't help but grin proudly as if taking credit for how close he'd inadvertently placed her to the tea cupboard. "Oh, I think so—" But then he's back against her, his arms wrapping around her as if that was all they'd ever been made to do. "I am too." His voice is laced with guilt, though, because if he hadn't been around, it would have meant things wouldn't have gone the way they had. "Promise me you will let me know as soon as you use one of my powers?" She might have focused on the manticore, but everything else was still within her reach. "You could disappear into a dream if you need. Pull the shadows toward you to hide...just..." Shaking his head and exhaling a puff of frustration that he wouldn't always be around to protect her, Remi raises his gaze softly. "...I never want to lose you. I have already done that twice."

That there's no choice outside your mind
when your heart is overthrown

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Isla take your medicine "Yes... Yes, I suppose that is true," Isla murmurs, shrugging gently against him and drawing him all the closer that she might nuzzle her face against his curls. "I know you're sad about the reasons, but I'm still glad you were here. If what you say is true, about my patients - that they would not have survived anyway... then you did them a great mercy. And I'm glad it was you." Giving him a tight squeeze, Isla finally lets him go so she might slip down from the counter and help to make tea. "...Oh? Oh, yes. Of course, I'll let you know as soon as I've used them." She agrees easily, spooning some tea leaves into each mug and pouring the water over them. "I don't want to be lost again, for any reason," she mumbles, smiling weakly to him. "So believe me when I say I'm not going to jump into any trouble on purpose."