passing afternoon

The higher I climb the farther I fall when I do

Is it always a draw? With a smile that's so smug it's slappable, Remi marks the bottom right corner, before drawing a line up the diagonal to declare his victory. 'Tough game. Really touch and go there for a minute.' Remi says sweetly. Forgetting his win entirely as Ronin leans forward, Remi of course tilts his head so that the Star is forced to kiss his lips instead. "Sorry," He mumbles, without an ounce of contrition. "To the victor go the spoils and all that."

What Ronin says isn't untrue, but even so the alchemist has to swallow down the arguments that want to form on his tongue. Why he's so eager to be pessimistic about the future, he really has no idea. 'I will always make time to beat you at naughts and crosses.' He vows adoringly, before perking up at the image painted of how Ronin might return from his little excursion. "Mmmm, too tired to do anything but let me shower you off and then relax you before bed." Said menacingly, it's anything but. 'Alright then. I suppose that is you off to fight a monster. When do you think you will go?"

Ronin Taliesin

they say it's all been done
but they haven't seen the best of me

Ronin isn't quite so sure about that, but given how there isn't a visual to look at, whatever. And he's not complaining, either, about Remi's spoils, humming a note of contentment into the kiss and simultaneously scrunching up the parchment to toss the game out into the forest for it to also become a nest for the birds. Drawing back, he doesn't quite expect things to go as easily as that, and his smile is equally as sweet as they agree to more games of noughts and crosses, and to Ronin fighting a monster.

Indeed, he lets out a deep sigh and flops back onto the picnic blanket, somehow without managing to spill a drop of wine, a grin spreading across his face. "That will be the best part," he says of his husband showering him and relaxing him. "Mmm... I'll probably give the Order a week's notice before I head out," he says. "Then it's off to murder a beast, I guess."

The higher I climb the farther I fall when I do

If only someone could draw it out to prove Remi had won. oh wait. I did. Not flopping quite as quickly as Ronin, Remi follows his husband, opting to use the Star's stomach as a place to rest his head. "A week, and then you are off. How ever shall I entertain myself." With skyboat making and teaching Mateo all sorts of things in the Travelling Tongue to say about Ronin behind his back, of course.

Oh, but..

"Ahh...do you...think I should tell Sunjata and Nate? About.." On the one hand, they were divorced and Hotaru was free to do as she liked. And given that Remi's relationship with Jata was strained at best and non-existent when it came to Nate, he was bordering on no. But then, Remi didn't have a good track record of making the best decisions in these sorts of situations. Glancing up at Ronin, Remi offers his husband a smile that's crinkled and slow.

Ronin Taliesin

they say it's all been done
but they haven't seen the best of me

More than happy with his belly being used as a pillow, Ronin absently lets his fingers move through Remi's curls, teasing out any tangles and tickling against the back of the alchemist's neck. "Gosh, I don't know. We'll have to set you up with some projects before I leave to make sure you don't get too bored. Can't be having that," he remarks.

As for telling Sunjata and Nate? Ronin winces, unable to come up with an answer that's remotely suitable for any of them involved. "I want to say no," he says eventually. "What happened is... it doesn't really involve them any more, does it? Hotaru isn't in a relationship with either one of them, and what she does is her business. Besides, it might just invite more questions and scrutiny and you don't need that. Not with Jata and Nate," he mumbles.

"I certainly won't be bringing it up with Sunjata as a friendly chat, put it that way."

The higher I climb the farther I fall when I do

"Probably for the best. If not, you will come back and Mateo will be feral and we will have turned the apartment into a treefort." Reaching one of his hands down the length of his husband's thigh to trace out the patterns he saw above in the leaves, Remi tries his best not to read into the emotions he feels swirling outwards for Ronin.

Which explains the sharp look of near-surprise Remi offers the Star, gazing up the length of him. Reaching for his wine and twirling the stem in his fingertips thoughtfully, Remi tilts his head back and forth before ultimately opting to follow Ronin's advice. "Well. That is that, then. That said, I have never...well, never just been with someone once." He didn't really count Maeve. "But when you had..in the past, did you.." Wincing, Remi scrunches up his nose before leaning forward that he might gulp at his wine.

Women were hard. How much of that fact played into Remi's sexuality, he didn't know. But for certain, they were tricky, and he did not understand them. "Do I...send..flowers?"

Ronin Taliesin

they say it's all been done
but they haven't seen the best of me

It surprises Ronin as much as it undoubtedly does his husband, and the Star similarly downs the rest of his wine before setting aside the glass so he might devote his attentions more to the man sprawled across him. "That is that," he agrees, though it really doesn't seem like it, and Ronin has a feeling that this will come back to bite them, again and again and again, and there's very little they can do about it.

"Do you send flowers," he repeats with a smirk, tilting his head at the other man and letting out a soft laugh. "No, Remi, there's no need for that I don't think. Usually you do all of the parting comments before you leave." He raises his eyebrows at the Lullaby, tilting his head. "Did you not speak to Hotaru, afterwards?" he asks.

The higher I climb the farther I fall when I do

Though it takes a lot for Remi to feel the effects of alcohol these days, in the summer heat and sprawled across his husband's lap, Remi finds himself feeling far more fluttery and untethered than normal. Surely that's just the wine, and not the dawning realization of the consequences his actions hold.

Scowling up at Ronin, Remi huffs out a breath before his expression crumples. "Before you leave, huh." He mumbles, drawing his lower lip between his teeth and frowning around it. "Oh..well. I mean..we did say things to one another. I apologized obviously, and then we spoke of her ability to shift and how to speak and feel through the attuned bond." Unfamiliar as he was in these situations, Remi still was suddenly quite positive that wasn't the sort of talking Ronin had meant.

Ronin Taliesin

they say it's all been done
but they haven't seen the best of me

Ronin is also feeling quite light and happy about things, stretched as he is in the sun with the love of his life and some seriously spooky fucking woods. (Thanks Ludo). But Remi's expression - and the accompanying words - have him paying a little more attention, the Star smoothing his fingers through the other man's curls and shifting so he might splay properly against his chest. "What are you worried about?" he asks gently. "Is there something you didn't say, or that you think you should have spoken about with Hotaru?"

His fingers trace the curve of Remi's jaw, his thumb brushing against his lower lip. "If you think you ought to talk to her again, you should," he says with a smile. "Don't worry, if you think I'll get all weird about it. I won't - just make sure you come home to me with all your clothes on."

The higher I climb the farther I fall when I do

'I don't know.' Remi says with a touch of exasperation. "I have never done this before." Grumbling and turning to curl more against the Star, the alchemist buries his head in Ronin's shirt and heaves a sigh. "She seemed fine. She said it was not terrible. She was not hurt. Her quest was completed. I just..." Well, at the risk of repeating himself: "...sleeping with someone once. Just like that...it..it is not me."

Grunting his protest, Remi tries to relax. "I am probably just overthinking it." He decides eventually, chewing on the inside of his cheek before getting distracted by thoughts of more wine. Sitting up and reaching for the bottle, he notes there isn't enough to fill both their glasses. So, drinking directly from the bottle, he looks down to Ronin with a brow raised in a silent question, followed by him tilting the bottle menacingly over the Star's mouth.

Ronin Taliesin

they say it's all been done
but they haven't seen the best of me

"Maybe she was fine - that doesn't mean you are, and it's okay to have weird feelings about it," Ronin mumbles, smiling down at his husband and letting his fingers trace gentle patterns across his back, giving him all the time he needs to try and muddle through what he's feeling. "You? Overthinking things? I don't believe it," he murmurs with a smile, leaning in to kiss Remi as he sits up to grab the bottle of wine.

A bottle of wine that's almost empty and is suddenly hovering over his mouth. Ronin shoots his husband a thoroughly unimpressed look and raises his eyebrows as if to ask if he's serious, before he remembers himself. Of course Remi is serious - why wouldn't he be. So it's with a great amount of trust and daring that Ronin's lips part to let the Lullaby drown him in wine. If this is how he's gotta go, so be it.

The higher I climb the farther I fall when I do

Grumbling under his breath but not looking at all off-put by Ronin's remarks (Remi was a chronic overthinker and they both knew it), the alchemist gives the Star an imploring look as if to suggest that if he kept it up, he was about to drown in wine. Grinning, Remi takes a hasty sip of wine before descending down on the Star. Before Ronin might protest (and even if he does, what of it), Remi will try and kiss him in such a way as to deposit the wine into his husband's mouth.

It's precisely the sort of thing very unbecoming of a baron and probably the sort of thing that Ronin will hate. Is that what makes Remi want to do it all the more? It absolutely is.

Ronin Taliesin

they say it's all been done
but they haven't seen the best of me

Remi is absolutely correct. Ronin thinks he's being very patient, in fact, waiting for his husband to fuss with the wine before he eventually gives him some, but then he finds his lips sealed against the other man's and much more than he ever might have anticipated. Grating out a sound of utter disgust and surprise, Ronin flails and tries to pull away (a feat that he rethinks almost instantly, given how it will cover him in lukewarm wine).

Eventually, with no choice but to receive his husband's 'gift', the Star cringes backwards and scrunches his nose, looking at Remi as if he's utterly betrayed him. "You'd better run," he grumps, and playful as it might be, he's still serious; velvety antlers spiral from his forehead as he rises to his feet, prepped for the chase.

The higher I climb the farther I fall when I do

It dribbles down both of their chins, and no, the spit of two demigods very much in love does not at all add to the taste of the wine. Remi has ruined it of course, but the delight that shines across his face very much suggests that this is precisely the outcome he'd been hoping for.

Gasping dramatically, rather than leonine features or wings, Remi instead shifts his arms into Kraken tentacles that he waves about. Looking very much like a wacky-wiggling-inflatable-arm-man, the alchemist mewls feigned apologies and cries for mercy as he dashes off into the woods.

Whatever Ludo thought of this offering, at the very least Remi could say he'd beaten Ronin in a game that almost always ended in a tie. At least there was that.

~FIN