know it all

REMI

the alchemist

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

Remi doesn't know if the hands that grip his wrists are shackles or just another link in the chains that bind them together. Hardly daring to blink, he very nearly rushes forward to silence whatever Ronin is about to say next with a kiss. Because if this is to be the end of them, better that he kisses Ronin one more time before the words are spoken. He begins to move, but it's too late; he's too late, as he always had been, with his apologies and his promises to do better.

The breath he'd been holding in as well as the tears he'd been holding back come forward in a flash, leaving the alchemist gasping and blinking. "No, of course you aren't. Wallowing is when you do it for three seasons and let half of the Greatwood live in your beard." Remi manages through a breathless laugh.

'Gods I love you.' Pushing his hands out from under Ronin's that they might slip around the Star's shoulders and draw him near, Remi shakes his head as he grips the Star tight. "I do not know when we started living under a magnifying glass." When every single thing they did caused ripples and ripples of consequences that stretched farther than they could imagine.

"You have every right to be angry. What I have done...gods, it has complicated so much."

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

"What if it's just one season? LeafChange is my excuse to be unreasonable, maybe I can go wallow in the woods just until it's over." Ronin suggests, though half of his words are muffled as he's pulled against Remi, as the other man envelops him and blankets him in the exact thing he's been craving. His arms wind around the Lullaby, his forehead pressing against Remi's shoulder, and his laughter is as much a sob as anything else. "I love you too. I love you so much. I don't know when all of this got so messy, but gods, what I would do for simple, for a bit." Shuddering out a sigh, he turns his head to press a kiss into the crook of Remi's neck. "Being angry does not make it go away, though. It just hurts me, and the people I'm around." Blinking the mist from his eyes, he lets his hands run down the length of Remi's back. "Where are you? Dreaming isn't enough - I need to come home." RONIN if there's one thing i'm good at, it's surviving

REMI

the alchemist

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

"Only if I can join you." Remi snarls with fierce affection. They can spend the whole season shifted if they want, saying not a word to one another, but simply existing in a way that's been denied to them for years and years. There's something incredibly alluring about the idea of two monsters just roaming the Greatwood like the sword and shield pokemon, appearing only to a select few.

"How many times have we planned to go away together?" Remi wonders with a huff of dull laughter. How many times had they tried to escape for even just a week, only to be tugged back by some crisis or other.

"In the Greatwood. I can bring you to me." The alchemist replies instantly, his back subtly arcing against Ronin's hands, before he realizes the implications of what he's just offered. "How do you feel about sleeping under the stars?" No doubt Ronin will feel a swirl of conflict from within Remi, like oil and water being violently stirred to try and force them to mix. "I had to bring Hotaru here. Sunjata and Nate imprisoned her, and with the baby..." Knowing that Ronin won't want to hear it, Remi just sighs against his husband and shakes his head ever so slightly. "I wanted to tell you before you met with Jata. It is why I sought you out tonight. Whatever comes of it, I was not going to have my child put in danger because of a breakup done wrong between those three." So it seemed to Remi, anyway. From his point of view, Torchline had simply come under the whims of Sunjata and Nate. Whatever part Hotaru had played in it, jailing a pregnant woman for an act of arson that is by no means uncommon in Torchline, seemed to him less about justice and more about revenge than anything else he'd seen.

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

"It's a deal," Ronin murmurs, leaning in for another kiss against his husband's neck. He feels too warm all of a sudden, though it merely makes him want to press himself closer against Remi, until he's on fire with the fever heat of his love for the alchemist. "We have planned it too many times for it to be more than a running joke, these days." He smiles, slow and tentative, but the clouds are parting overhead now, revealing the glow of the starlit sky. It all freezes, though, as the other man begins to tell his story about the Greatwood, the reasons behind his being there. Every blade of grass stops its sway, the air hanging still and stifling as Ronin digests the information. "You know that magnifying glass you were talking about?" he mumbles eventually. "Those ripples are going to reach farther now than ever." Frustration is the main emotion Remi will feel from the Star in the moment - no less love, no less certainty about his place at the other man's side, but gods if they couldn't have done without this. "Why didn't you wait until after I'd met with Jata to do anything? I could have found out more about all of it. I could have even checked on her, if you needed." It wouldn't have gone well, but he would have at least been able to confirm that the woman was alive and well. "She set fire to the Slagveld. Anyone in Torchline would have just kicked her to death - jail was probably the safest place for your child in all of Caido," he points out. RONIN if there's one thing i'm good at, it's surviving

REMI

the alchemist

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

'Maybe the key is not to plan anything at all. Just wake up one day and go." When the Skyboat was done perhaps, they could just set sail with Mateo as their captain. He could fly them toward the sun for all Remi cared, so long as they were together and far, far away from where anyone could reach them.

'I know. But I couldn't wait. And you were meeting with Sunjata about Nate, it seemed...different.' Remi replies, his exhale sounding all the louder for how the world has stopped moving. Pulling back if only so that he might meet Ronin's gaze, the alchemist's forehead crinkles. "You can't be serious." He implores, hoping his husband might be able to push through the cobwebs of his unhappiness about Hotaru to see things objectively. "A building was burned down. In Torchline where murder goes unpunished every day." He points out with a shake of his head. "She was put behind bars by her two unstable ex-husbands, and questioned alone by the woman who killed her companion." Clenching his jaw, Remi gives the Star an unwavering look. "Nothing about Torchline is safe. You have seen how both Sunjata and Nate are prone to act when their feelings are involved. And their feelings are very much involved in this."

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Thoughts about skyboats and the Greatwood and running away for a break fritter out of Ronin's mind as Remi introduces a crisis that, as always, prevents them from catching their moments of peace. He listens to the Lullaby's words, doing his best to quell his rage at Hotaru to see the forest for the trees, and he lets out a shaky exhale that does, eventually, have him pressing his hands to Remi's cheeks. "But why just snatch her out of jail? Why was that your call to make? You could have spoken to them, if it was so important. You can't just... make decisions for other people. You've said it yourself, Torchline is unfair - and it's not your problem. The baby would have been safe, regardless of the reasons for Sunjata and Nate doing what they did." And if not for the child, you wouldn't even care. He doesn't say it, but their feelings are bare to one another currently. "...So what is the plan now? There's a pregnant woman squirrelled away in the Greatwood until when...?" RONIN if there's one thing i'm good at, it's surviving

REMI

the alchemist

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

"Because it was the middle of the night. It still is. I plan on speaking with Sunjata tomorrow." Remi replies, his expression growing stern as bubbles of disappointment blister beneath his skin. "It is my decision to make when it has to do with my child." He and Ronin had done far worse things in the protection of their own family in the past. "You do not know it would have been safe. I know you do not want this child to be alive, but Ronin, you are not seeing this for what it is. They are using their power as Governor to punish a personal vendetta." Had someone once upon a time imprisoned Vanya, for whatever reason, there would have been hell to pay. Were their situations reversed, the Star would have moved heaven and earth to do what he thought would keep his family safe.

"Until she goes back to Halo." Remi replies tersely. "If there are reparations to be made on her account, I will make them. It isn't like I haven't done my fair share of fixing up buildings in Torchline. What's a few more?"

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Ronin's jaw feathers, the Star letting his hands drop to settle in his lap as he shifts back to sit on his knees. There's nothing he can say to that, because of course it's true. He doesn't like it and it leaves a sour taste in his mouth and worse, he can feel the shift that lives beneath his skin wanting to cause a lot of damage and lock antlers with whatever it needs to in order to make this go away... but it's true. "Alright," he murmurs eventually, the tension sagging out of him and his gaze dropping, the grasses softly swaying around them once again. "It seems as though you have it all in hand. If you are willing to take this on your shoulders and speak to Jata, then I respect your decision." And no one is more surprised than Ronin to realise that he's completely sincere about it. "I will stay in Torchline for tonight, then. I'll take the skyboat back to Stormbreak in the morning, and once you've done what you need to do, I'll re-engage with Sunjata about Nate." This kind of takes precedence at the moment. RONIN if there's one thing i'm good at, it's surviving

REMI

the alchemist

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

"You do not need to take on the repercussions of what I do. Not unless I ask." Remi offers gently, reaching out for Ronin's hands even as the Star tries to slump them away in his lap. "Like I did with Nate. I do need you, Ronin, sometimes more than others. But I can handle things on my own, even if I do them in ways you would not." Would Ronin have handled this mess differently? Yes. Would Ronin have even found himself in it to begin with? Likely not. But that's what made the Star the Star, and the Lullaby a different sort of man entirely.

"I love you endlessly." Remi whispers, leaning forward. "I will be with you shortly, but before I go.." He doesn't want to say it. He doesn't want to open this door, this box, this thing that might be their undoing. "If there is something to Safrin's offer..something you want...you.." There are no stormclouds that thunder, no lightning to illuminate the tears on Remi's cheeks. Just a soft rain that falls, and falls and falls onto the sea. "..you should consider it. I don't want there to be any what ifs in your mind. Whatever you need to do to answer them.." The alchemist squeezes the Star's hands, to offer support as much as to stop them from shaking.

"..you need to do it."

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Letting the Lullaby take his hands, Ronin grumbles a note of dissatisfaction and annoyance that in no way is a disagreement. "Fine, fine," he mutters, offering a small smile and giving Remi's hands a gentle squeeze. "If your repercussions start to get you hurt, though, I might have something to say about it." The rain begins to fall and Ronin squints into it; every drop seems to melt away the injuries that had previously littered his skin, leaving him in torn armour that seems to belong to another man than the one who sits here on his knees now. He feels empty of the storm that had filled him to the brim when he had come to see Remi, and to hear the alchemist prodding at it again is like rubbing sand into a burn. "The only thing I want right now," Ronin says softly, "is to go home to our son. The one we do have, who does exist, who has been spending far too much time being babysat by the florist." RONIN if there's one thing i'm good at, it's surviving

REMI

the alchemist

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

"I am a big boy." Remi says with a condescending pat, though the flush of adoration and appreciation that shines out of his fingertips utterly contradicts his playful sarcasm.

That's the problem, Ronin. Looking up with tear-bright eyes rimmed with red, Remi resists the urge to peer too deeply into his husband's emotions. This is only what you want now. It is one thing to be told by your husband that he nearly said yes to a life with someone else, or at the very least, that he thought about saying it. It's another entirely to be told that, and to feel as though the question of who the Star wanted forever was still very much unanswered.

"Okay. Give him a kiss for me." Remi murmurs as the rain continues, soaking the alchemist to the bone but not managing to make him any colder than he already feels. "I will see you tomorrow."

~FIN

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!