a taste of destiny

gratuitous violence; unnecessary, satisfying, heartbreaking

They've joked about locking themselves up in Stormbreak and not allowing anyone to interrupt them for a while. Alas, for two demigods, the world does not work that way. Ronin has to visit numerous parts of the world (all four corners, it feels like) and so it's not much longer after Remi's return that the Star advises he'll be gone for a couple of days to make the trip to Halo. He's only visited once before, last year during the Longheat fever, and it seems like he's destined only to visit these colder climes when there's a task to complete.

Regardless, it's with a thick, dark coat which doesn't make sense in anywhere but Halo that Ronin arrives on his nimbus, Sugar curled about his shoulders. Night has fallen, which is all for the better - it means he can view Safrin's Warrior constellation and turn straight for home without much of a delay. Or at least, that's what he imagines as he touches down to the snow-packed ground, dismissing his nimbus and gazing about for a decent place to stargaze.

RONIN

I lend everyone my ear, but nobody my heart
and I sure would like to change that, but I don't know where to start

The summer night is clear and cold, and the lack of light helps her forget that she is missing a shadow. Sleep comes rarely now; nightmares of Atlas’ last moments, regret for her own foolishness, Deimos’ bowed shoulders. That and a pervasive queasy sickness that only tea and utter avoidance of food seems to quell. A quiet voice tries to speak in the back of her mind, maternal and utterly sure, and yet the soft tap of her boots on the cobblestone is enough to drown it away another night.

A cloud is unexpected enough with the clear sky - heralding a man atop it? Well, at least Hotaru can claim her curiosity is a byproduct of her cat form now. The streets are empty aside from them as she approaches, breath creating frosted clouds against her nose and cheeks as she calls out. “I’m sure you’re no bold solitary invader, but I do have to question the entrance - cloudy with a chance of man?” The teasing tone rolls naturally as Ru pulls her hood back to reveal golden hair and a playful expression.

Hotaru

gratuitous violence; unnecessary, satisfying, heartbreaking

A voice has him glancing up - Ronin should know better than to expect no one to see him soaring so obnoxiously into the Citadel - and a small, self-deprecating smile flashes across his face. "It was either this or a burning bird soaring overhead," he remarks. "Besides, I can get a lot of paperwork done while on the back of a cloud." He glances up to watch the nimbus wisp away into the night, to wherever it goes when he isn't using it.

But as he glances back and the stranger who had called to him pulls her hood down, Ronin can't help the way his face falls, the way the tan to his skin grows a touch paler. "Ah, hello Hotaru," he murmurs. They have never met, not formally, but with who they have both been in Torchline for so long, there is no way to escape the knowledge of one another in passing, surely. "I didn't know you were in Halo."

RONIN

I lend everyone my ear, but nobody my heart
and I sure would like to change that, but I don't know where to start

“For a place obsessed with not letting fires burn out you may have had an eager crowd had you done that,” makes it off her tongue before he turns, and the full light of the moon overhead - and the sparse light from the shops and homes on the street - part the shadows from the man’s face to reveal Ronin. Any further verbal sparring about paperwork is lost as she nearly swallows her tongue against all physical odds. It seems he’s just as startled to see her, though her ego refuses not to be stroked when he recalls her name. Pity it’s not for more fun reasons.

“I could say the same of you,” she notes, though the shock doesn’t dissuade her from moving to a more companionable distance. And then, strange as it may seem, she extends her hand with a smile. “I believe it’s time for some proper introductions, Starboy. Call me Ru.” Only seems right after sort of fucking his husband. Would he believe her if she said it was entirely platonically? Hotaru has to bite her tongue to keep a hysterical laugh from escaping at the thought.

Hotaru

gratuitous violence; unnecessary, satisfying, heartbreaking

A pity, indeed. Little does Hotaru's ego know that his reasons for recognising her are linked precisely to the platonic fucking of his husband - there are no secrets between fallen stars and lullabies, though he does have to hand it to the world to throw them together so soon afterwards. Still, she thrusts out her hand and Ronin steps forward to take it, giving it a firm shake and offering her a lopsided smile that goes nowhere near his eyes. "It has been a long time since anyone called me that. Ronin," he supplies for his name.

Introductions made, he releases her and turns to gaze up at the skies overhead. "Say - do you live in Halo? You wouldn't happen to know a good place where I might look at the stars?" He glances back at her. "That's why I'm here - I need to find a particular constellation."

RONIN

I lend everyone my ear, but nobody my heart
and I sure would like to change that, but I don't know where to start

His hand is large and slightly calloused, with a firm squeeze that is returned from her far more slender hand. For all it does not reach his eyes his smile is handsome, and though her answering one is tired it’s far from cruel. “Are they positive memories?” Or had the nickname been uttered by someone now lost? It seems the heads-or-tails in Caido always had death and loss on one side of the coin.

Stargazing is a habit of hers admittedly. She’d worshipped the Goddess of the Moon in her home land, and that level of dedication and devotion hasn’t faltered even after landing here in a place where the twilight heavens are ruled by a far different deity. “I do live here. It will take a little covert climbing, but I think I know a good spot.” Turning halfway, she beckons him to her side and starts back the way she came, towards the Citadel’s outskirts where she’d entered. As she goes her hands find her pockets to hide away from the cold, wind-flushed cheeks turning to observe her unexpected companion for the night. “I’m certainly not one to beat around a bush, nor hide anything from loved ones - has Remi told you of our visit to Frey? I admit I’ve been...worried about him.” A bold topic for such a jaunt, but Remi hadn’t answered her when she’d asked after his mental state that day, and Hotaru hadn’t missed it.

Hotaru

gratuitous violence; unnecessary, satisfying, heartbreaking

"Bittersweet," he tells her of the memories, because it's true. As far as he remembers, only Ashetta had called him such, and she is long in the past now, dead or missing (likely one then the other, at this point). Vanya probably would have called him by it as well, but she had never known him as a fallen star - only one with her in the sky.

Happy to leave those memories behind, Ronin's eyebrows raise a bit to hear that Hotaru knows how to get what he's looking for, and he follows happily enough as she turns to walk them back towards the outskirts of the Citadel. Falling into step beside her, he doesn't expect to hear the awkward subject of her tryst with his husband to be brought up quite so bluntly, and blue eyes gaze at her sidelong.

"He has," he murmurs. "We spoke about it when he got home. Though I can assure you that there's no need to worry about him - he's perfectly fine." Ronin can't even blame LeafChange for the quiet steel that lines his voice, because the season where the luxere in him becomes possessive is nowhere near just yet. Even so, here they are just the same.

RONIN

I lend everyone my ear, but nobody my heart
and I sure would like to change that, but I don't know where to start

A soft hum of understanding leaves her throat, the warm air of the exhale brushing against chilled skin. He doesn’t seem to want to linger, and she respectfully - and she hopes gracefully, in her silence - steps away from tender ground.

His steely response has a giggle escaping before she can bite it back, and her eyes are bright with mirth as one hand rises to cover her smiling lips. It then extends as if to touch his elbow before falling away before succeeding. A creature of touch, but one that knows when such advances would not be accepted. “I’m sorry, I promise I’m not mocking you. Your protectiveness is...enviable.” The mirth falls away into a wan expression, and she turns back to the cobblestone lest he see too much of it. “What he has told me of your love when he came here for his Greatwood recruitment, I feel I almost know you. So I hope you believe me when I say I’d no sooner lay with my own kin than your lover again.” Such are the emotions Remi inspires in her.

Having foolishly forgone gloves, she lifts her pink fingers to breathe on them for a moment. “I only worried because he’d already told me of the hurdles he’d faced with his sexuality. Frey’s pull is a mighty thing, and though he consented...” her face twists, realizing she is quite uncharacteristically rambling, and her fingers curl into her palms to be stuffed anew into deep pockets. “You deserve my apology, not my explanation. I’m sorry.” Quite the rarity from the woman, but utterly sincere for its exoticness.

Hotaru

gratuitous violence; unnecessary, satisfying, heartbreaking

An eyebrow raises at the giggle, at the fingers that almost come to touch at his elbow, and Ronin's feathers literally ruffle. Gold and crimson down shudders down the back of his neck before it sinks back into his skin, and he's about to make his excuses to leave when Hotaru goes ahead and says exactly all the right things. Ronin doesn't want to soften, but while his temper lurks closer to the surface these days than it ever has, he isn't quite so far gone to blow this chance meeting.

"He has ever been the sort to wear his heart on his sleeve," he murmurs, the twitch of his lips belying the surge of love he feels for the Lullaby in that moment. "Consider it forgotten. Though I wish I could say the same about you - I know little more than your name and your most unfortunate circumstances recently." Not a great way to start things off, granted, but they didn't have much of a choice.

Having not foregone gloves, Ronin still thinks little of slipping his own off to hand them across to her - his fingers will fare better in the cold, he imagines. "Remi and Frey's meetings forever seem to be contentious," he says softly. "He's confused more by the fact that he's never had sex with someone he wasn't in a relationship with than by the fact that it was with a woman, I assure you. He wanted to send you flowers." Another smile, because only his husband could be so awkwardly sweet.

RONIN

I lend everyone my ear, but nobody my heart
and I sure would like to change that, but I don't know where to start

She wonders at the beautiful array of feathers that smooth down his skin, curious as to what emotion prompts them - if it's anxiety, as she's so familiar seeing with Sunjata, or some darker recess that has been tapped into due to a misstep of her own.

The tentative smile that had begun to form at his forgiveness cracks and dwindles at the mention of such circumstances. Lately it seems her emotions defy her once-impeccable control, surging to disturb what had once been a pristine and well-crafted surface. Hotaru's smile is strained, chin lifting as she tries to summon a brave face. "Not the best first impression then, hm? Though I'll tell myself it merely makes me seem mysterious." A wink conceals the wry bitterness that blossoms at the mere notion of others seeing her as cast aside and pitiable.

A startled blink erases even that on this rollercoaster of reactions as his gloves are handed over without a word. She takes them, at a loss of what else to do, and can't help the small smile at how overlarge they are on her petite fingers as they're pulled on. "Thank you," she says instead, far softer than her voice has any right to be with a relative stranger. The laugh that comes next follows suit, imagining such a gift. "I would have been just as confused by receiving them. Though no less appreciative." Her grin quirks at one corner, playfully encouraging of the idea. "Frey is...difficult to explain, and even harder for certain people to achieve harmony with. Remi's hesitance is not unfounded, and was part of why I was so worried for him." He'd admitted to only experiencing sex-Frey's allure once before, and she had regretted throwing him into the deep end even after he had promised to stay with her while she prayed.

Turning her face to the brightly lit stars in the sky above them, she finds her tongue loosened by too many sleepless nights and too numerous losses in as many bleak days. "I had been sure I would be a follower of Safrin before I met Frey - though even if I hadn't Attuned to Frey, now I'm certain she despises me for, well..." trailing off, she gestures limply with her hand, tired smile abjectly sad. Clearly Ronin already knows of her depressing tale, no sense in embarrassing herself with recounting it aloud. "But part of me will always serve her. Ironic, hm? Maybe that's why I'm sharing my super-secret special star viewing place with you." Letting her eyes skim away from the stars, she idly kicks a rock further down the cobblestone street, and feels her shoulders hike towards her ears as she bites her tongue to stop more senseless drudgery from escaping.

Hotaru

gratuitous violence; unnecessary, satisfying, heartbreaking

"I tend not to pay attention to first impressions anyway," Ronin tells her with a gentle shrug of his shoulders. "There have been too many occasions where I've acted like a complete tit to a stranger for me to rely all that much on hearsay. But sure - you can be as mysterious as you like." His smile is partially hidden as he glances away across the snows, his bare fingers sinking now into the pockets of his coat as they walk.

Still, the smile remains when he glances back to Hotaru, and he tilts his head to her. "Shall I tell him to send them, then?" he wonders regarding the flowers. "I confess, I have never met with Frey - nor Ludo, in fact, unless it was by way of another person." He's met them all, thanks to that event at the Celestine, but not really.

It doesn't seem like senseless drudgery to Ronin - though that's probably because Hotaru has found a conversational partner in the Star more than anything else - and his blue eyes widen a touch to hear her confession. "Oh? She is certainly a mercurial sort, that much is true. But I think she appreciates anything you might offer her, even if you are not on the best of terms." Still, he wouldn't go pursuing any meetings with Safrin any time soon were he Hotaru.

Ah, but then they are speaking of super secret special things, and he gives her a gentle nudge with his elbow. "I feel very privileged," he informs her. "Where is it, exactly?"

RONIN

I lend everyone my ear, but nobody my heart
and I sure would like to change that, but I don't know where to start

“If your level of tit-ness is not gouging my eyes for sleeping with your husband and giving me your gloves, I might just keel over if I see you at your best.” Her wry grin is playful, eyes twinkling merrily where they’re squished into slits by her smiling cheeks. It’s easier most days to focus on the good and not the darkness people like them seem to carry around like shawls. She’d been there that horrible day at Fiat Lux - Ru isn’t under the impression his tempered reaction to her presence is an example of him at his worst.

“Only if you pick the color palette,” she agrees readily. “If his taste in bouquets is anything like his taste in fashion, I don’t trust it.” The playful quirk of her lips eases any sting from the teasing. Remi had admitted to the fashion flaw himself after all. “Then we are equally matched it seems - Frey is the only one I’ve ever met. Comes with the Abandoned territory I suppose. Still getting used to being partially Attuned.” Uncertain if she should chance any other shrines.

“If I can forgive my goddess for killing my parents and ordering me to hide the killer from those who pursued him, I can surely forgive her handing a child to her favored follower. It is the opposite I’m uncertain of - my grudge against him must surely be taken as a personal affront with how she cherishes him.” It is easy to share such dark stories with someone so intrinsically tied to a deity themself. Hotaru doesn’t doubt that Ronin knows what it’s like to be torn between divine loyalty and human desires.

They arrive at a dilapidated building on the outskirts, and the woman tilts her golden head towards it with a smile. It stands apart from the others, clearly abandoned, but much taller than the surrounding abodes and with a flat roof seen on businesses in the area instead of the ventilated peaks of households. “I did say there’d be some climbing. You up for it?”

Hotaru

gratuitous violence; unnecessary, satisfying, heartbreaking

"Be careful, you just might." Ronin says of her keeling over to see him at his best, and his smirk begs to be charming in the right light, but he just about stifles it. As for colour palettes, laughter rumbles up in his chest and throat at that, and he gives her a nod of agreement. "It is eclectic," he says of his husband's fashion choices, the words very carefully chosen. Ronin, on the other hand, is quite the polar opposite. "I will make sure to choose something that goes with Halo," he remarks.

Her story does wipe some of the amusement away, granted, and his shoulders sag a little as he buries his hands more deeply in his pockets. "We cannot help who we love," he says softly. "And we cannot help the opposite either, I suppose. But there is a difference between dislike and open hostility, between desire and acting on it. I like to think that Safrin understands that well enough."

If only Ronin knew, eh?

But the building is upon them, and he raises a skeptical brow up at it; not at the view it might hold, but the state of the thing. "If we have to," he says, huffing out a laugh. "Or I could fly us. My nimbus will hold two."

RONIN

I lend everyone my ear, but nobody my heart
and I sure would like to change that, but I don't know where to start

“Give me a good funeral then, hm?” It’s frankly hilarious that her first individual meeting with both Remi and Ronin have involved talk of her death at their hands. Morbidly amusing, but that’s her favorite flavor. “Then Remi can choose my flowers at will - I’m sure I won’t be picky in death.” This is easier. Banter and play, with dulled edges like knives under a silk sheet. Never meant to harm, but sharp by virtue of who they are as people.

His handsome smile dips and fades, and her stomach clenches with regret. This is a bridge she doesn’t want to burn, but she scarcely knows who she is behind the more manipulative tendencies. Merely a knot of tortured past and bitterness? Hotaru turns away with a sigh. “Well, when he told me of Kamaria I did stab him with the dagger he gave me with instructions to use it as a way to even the field when he hurt me - a delayed delivery on that perhaps. So I think ‘acting’ may be a bit too late.” A huff of a laugh escapes her, awaiting his judgment. It seemed most people here were willing to lay back and let themselves be hurt instead of taking their pound of flesh into return. “But I will love her all the same, even if I cannot be in her light.” Her faith would allow her nothing else.

The prospect of flight is daunting. For all her forms she has always remained firmly on the ground. Good thing she’s no coward. “Don’t worry, it’s more stable than it appears. Your muscles won’t bring it tumbling down,” she teases, stepping closer, hands moving uncertainly at her sides. “I suppose we can fly, but if I fall on my ass I’m gonna need at least two bouquets.”

Hotaru