making time

RONIN

the dark star

Let's get drunk by the river. Let's go and find Tanau in the Climb. Phoebe needs water from the hotsprings - let's go and get some. Ronin is quite enjoying the opposite of making up for lost time with his husband, but it's little surprise, really, that wherever they go, he simply can't keep his hands off Remi. He'd blame whatever Attuned shitfuckery is going on within him this season, but really - it would probably be the same whether or not the dragon-luxere mess was in charge.

Either way, the trip to Frey's Breath begins with clothes tossed carelessly against the rocks, with steam and hot water against bare flesh, with moans and gasps and a great deal of inappropriate behaviour. Ronin doesn't know or give a fuck how long they've actually been there now - there's a sweet and satisfying ache to his muscles, and he's wound his arms around Remi that he might pull the other man back against his chest and ferry them backwards through the water.

"Let no one ever say that we don't pay our dues to Frey," he chuckles. "Do you think we could steal some of these hotsprings for the Greatwood? I think it would be quite popular."

i'll get over it
i just gotta be dramatic first

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

Despite everything—and gods but it was a blessing that no one had walked in—Remi's hands still continue to wander over his husband's body even as parts of himself have already begun to soften. "You know, if there was a portal right here...I might consider using them." Remi whispers with a crooked smile. He wouldn't of course, neither of them would, and not least of all because the flight had hardly been taxing for either of them. "With you is the only way I shall ever be paying my dues again." The alchemist agrees, releasing his hold of Ronin only long enough to comb his steam-soaked curls back from his face.

"I do not see why not. Though I think it would lose...whatever this is." He replies, vaguely gesturing in the air to their surroundings before shrugging. Tangling his fingers into Ronin's dark hair, he considers further. "Though I wonder if Frey couldn't just make the pool in the Greatwood a bit like this. Unless this is your way of tricking me into making a healing fountain in the Woods, in which case, how dare you." Punctuating this with a sweetly placed kiss against Ronin's lips, Remi wraps his legs around his husband's torso, content simply to float in the water a while longer just like this.

RONIN

the dark star

"Blasphemy," Ronin whispers with a wicked grin down at his husband, his fingers trailing down the length of Remi's spine while his other arm keeps him anchored against the Huntsman. "Perhaps we'll have to make a habit of paying our dues together, if we're only planning to pay them with one another," he suggests - as if they don't already do so on a very regular basis.

Whatever this is is lost on Ronin for a moment; he's distracted by the fingers that thread through his hair, by the warmth and weight of his husband in the water as they float along. "I couldn't give a fuck about whether or not it heals," he says with a bark of a laugh, leaning in to kiss the scruff on Remi's cheek. "I just want a hot spring to sneak off with you."

The alchemist's legs come to wrap around his waist and Ronin smiles against his lips, shifting to settle on a flat rock beneath the water with him in his lap. "I suppose I could just turn into a phoenix in whatever pool you want in the Greatwood. That would warm it up, right?" He grins.

i'll get over it
i just gotta be dramatic first

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

'I know.' Remi agrees equally wickedly as if deriving some strange pleasure from tempting the wrath of the gods. And at this point, what didn't the Voice know about him. He'd used portals in the past, so unless the effect was cumulative, he was as they say, fucked.

Rather than verbalizing his agreement, Remi leans forward to steal a hungry kiss from his husband's lips. Just why hadn't the pair ever gone to see Frey? For all their ups and downs, they were one of Caido's (PC) longest standing couples; surely that had to count for something? Though perhaps it was better not to tempt fate. "Sorry." Remi chuckles as he pulls back, flushed and very much in love. "I'm feeling extra pious today."

Frowning at the idea of a phoenix in water, Remi furrows his brow to give the question the thoughtfulness it deserves. "I suppose...but then, you burn so hot you might just turn everything into steam right away rather than letting the water warm up."

RONIN

the dark star

Humming a note of pleasure against lips that suddenly press against his own, Remi is not the only one feeling extra pious today, the Huntsman smiling and letting his arms slip around him a little more tightly. Already the hot springs are easing the aches and pains from their most recent escapade, and if that's not an invitation for more he doesn't know what is. Luckily, he's equally as content with this much closeness - for now, anyway.

"Maybe less of a hot spring and more of a sauna?" Ronin suggests with a grin. "Though I'm equally as happy to keep taking trips out here. It's nice to get a change of scenery." And to fuck in a place where hardly anyone can interrupt.

Almost lazily, Ronin shifts that they might slip beneath the water for a moment, as if to enjoy the feel of the hotsprings all around, before he lets them surface once more. "You said we need to get some water from here," he murmurs conversationally. "What's it for? Is someone else sick?"

i'll get over it
i just gotta be dramatic first

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

"Oooh, now there is a thought. We could build it out of peppermint bark so that the steam is scented." They could add in other things as well, snapdragon or dreamdust even. "I can see you now, in the middle of it, with fae tossing water on you for more steam." The imagery immediately makes Remi feel possessive and jealous, which leads into a boyish sort of horniness that flushes his cheeks.

'MMm, I agree. The scenery is absolutely what I like about this place." Remi has time to say, before he's tugged beneath the water. Weightless but still bound to Ronin, the alchemist closes his eyes. I wonder how long we can hold our breath. They could go without sleep, without eating (not that they ever did), and without any number of other things. Maybe they could go without air, too.

Pressing his forehead against Ronin's shoulder as they surface, Remi shakes his head against his husband's skin. "Mmm, no. A quest for Phoebe." He mumbles. "Something for Frey. I think she mentioned...growing children, but I did not really ask for details."

RONIN

the dark star

"Now that does sound like a good idea," Ronin agrees with a grin, already wondering whether the armour Safrin has built for him will shrink if it gets water thrown at it. it's already skin-tight, so he sincerely hopes not. Close as they are and with the Attuned bond and his husband's empathy magic, it doesn't take much to get the gist of Remi's sudden possessiveness, and if anything it only makes him more attractive. (How he manages it, Ronin doesn't know). "I'm afraid you are the only one I would tolerate getting me all steamy," he rumbles. "So you'll have to be there as well."

They plunge into the hot water and back again, and Remi's comment has him grinning. Long enough to have sex underwater, I bet. It's a theory they will need to test one day, probably. For now, though, Ronin's head lolls against sodden curls, and he closes his eyes to enjoy the way they bonelessly drift against the side of the springs.

"Growing children?" He wrinkles his nose, a little bemused by the mere thought. "Wait, like from seeds?" Unable to help himself, Ronin starts chuckling. "Well, if anyone can manage it, it'd be Phoebe. She can have her water then, I suppose."

i'll get over it
i just gotta be dramatic first

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

'Well it can't be a private sauna, or I will be accused of letting power go to my head." He absolutely wouldn't, not to his face anyway. "You wouldn't...want to have sex, with me and someone else, would you?" Remi asks suddenly, wondering if he's misinterpreted something his husband has said. They have joked about it enough in the past, what with Isla and then again with each of their duplicates, but Remi can't recall whether or not they have ever actually discussed it.

Long enough to have sex was precisely the duration the alchemist was wondering about (insert joke about them cumming quickly, here), but his curiosity fades quickly thanks to warm skin and his husband's confusion that rings like a bell of orange in his mind. "Mmmm, something like that. Frey said it was so that the world would not go without its people in the aftermath of the war." He replies with a shrug. "Though it...would allow for couples who could not have children naturally to have them." Remi adds gently. It's a sensitive subject, now more than ever. The pair having gone from 'Let me give you the family you want', to Remi inadvertently extending their family tree in the wrong direction.

RONIN

the dark star

"I suppose so," Ronin laments with a sigh. "Back to the drawing board, then. We'll just have to find excuses to keep coming back here to the hot springs, or to the tar pits in the Feverlands for another mud bath." Honestly, at this point you could name it and Remi and Ronin would find a way to have sex in it. Hence the underwater shenanigans. "Mm...?" His eyes blink open at the alchemist's sudden question, Ronin glancing down at him enough to see his face.

"Absolutely not," he murmurs, and somehow it sounds just as sweet as it does possessive and dangerous. "I've not even gotten close to having sex with you in all the ways I want to just by ourselves. I'd kill someone else if they got in the way." He grins, strumming his fingers across Remi's shoulders; if they have become tipped with talons, he hasn't noticed.

Frey's reasoning is sound (somehow, Ronin isn't really thinking too hard about it though), and he relaxes back into the pool, raising an eyebrow as Remi expands on the topic. "It would? Like... a child that would be their own flesh and blood?" he asks, unable to help the thread of curiosity that the conversation has him pulling. Especially given the sensitivity of the topic.

i'll get over it
i just gotta be dramatic first

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

Rolling his eyes, Remi leans forward to ever so gently nip at the tip of his husband's nose. "You know, I do not think we need excuses anymore. I think we can just..." Shrugging, the alchemist decides it isn't worth the effort to come up with a pithy way of saying fuck off. Though Ronin might not have fully realized the dragon's influence on his behaviour or fingertips, Remi certainly has. It's likely deeply rooted in their shared traumas as much as it is with the things that stir and slumber inside of each of them, but gods if Ronin's threat doesn't push all the right buttons. "You are perfect for me, you know that?"

What Frey had in mind sounded a bit too much like Northaven logic for Remi, until Phoebe had mentioned the possibility of same-sex couples having their own children. "Mmhmm. I think you need to...tend to the child as it grows. To prove you want it and whatnot, but..." The alchemist bites the inside of his lip, afraid to smile too much. "..yeah. Their own flesh and blood." It would be too much to raise his eyebrow now, especially since the question it would pose seemed impossibly daunting just then. So instead Remi just holds his husband's gaze for a moment as his cheeks flush, before glancing down and running a thumb over the hawk-tattoo on his husband's skin, as if he might wash it away.

RONIN

the dark star

Ronin grins and scrunches his nose as Remi nips at it, the Huntsman raising his eyebrows incredulously. "I'm not so sure about that, oh gUarDiAn oF tHe grEaTWoOd," he remarks, though he doubts it would stop either of them fucking off whenever the opportunity arose. They should probably leave a note or something though, he guesses. Still, he forgets about that train of thought to hear his husband think's he's perfect for him, and claws melt back into the soft pads of his fingers as he flashes Remi a sunny smile.

"If I am, then it's only because I found someone who was perfect for me to begin with," he says, leaning in to press his lips against the shell of the alchemist's ear. "That someone is you, by the way," he says, just in case Remi might not have realised it.

It's all very sweet and strange, this growing a child business, and Ronin has to bite his lower lip - hard - to stop from chuckling at the idea of watering a baby to help it grow into a beautiful flower-child-thing. As the other man holds his gaze, though, and he realises just how important all of this is (he never stopped, honestly), the smile fades and he leans in for a surprisingly careful kiss.

"Not that the prospect isn't thrilling, but your plate is already quite full right now, isn't it?"

i'll get over it
i just gotta be dramatic first

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

'Yes but I am not the only guardian." Remi is quick to point out. As annoying as it is to be part of this particular threesome, if nothing else, this should be one of the benefits it affords him.

"No, no. Don't try and steal my compliment." The alchemist protests with a smile. As Ronin's lips press near his ear, Remi shivers and curls into the whispered words, relishing the goosebumps that trail down his shoulder before dissipating lower on his back. "I am so glad to hear it." Remi all but purrs, punctuating the words with the slimy press of tentacles against the bottom of Ronin's feet.

Ronin's emotions feel like an oil spill beneath sunlight; colours warble and threaten to mix, but stay distinct. "Right now it, yes. Especially with Hotaru..." ..being crazy? Remi frowns, shaking his head. "I also told Phoebe not to bother coming. I think Vai and I have it all well in hand." With the ability to use Ronin's projection, Remi had been able to manage the twins with far more ease than he'd ever done Aoife or Mateo. And now that it wasn't his first go-round bottle-feeding a baby, he was actually able to enjoy this peaceful stage of their little lives. Not that he'd ever told Ronin as much.

RONIN

the dark star

"That is true, I suppose. But you should probably tell them you're going, even if they can't do a thing to stop you. Especially if you're taking the mighty dRaGoN with you," he says with a smirk, gathering Remi up closer into his arms so he might rise to his feet again, wading towards the shallower edges of the hot springs. He grins, shamelessly embracing his compliment theft, though the tentacles that suddenly press against the bottoms of his feet have him doing quite a spirited little jig in the water as he goes.

"Remi." Ronin's complaints are shrouded in laughter which fades all too soon as the conversation tilts back towards the serious, and he nods his head at the alchemist's explanation. "That's all there is to it, then," he murmurs, neither sad nor angry, merely accepting of things as they are. No baby garden for them right now. "Do you have anything to collect the water in?"

i'll get over it
i just gotta be dramatic first

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

The alchemist can only grin wickedly as his suckers are able to make contact with the bottom of his husband's feet. It's a merciless mixture of tickling and the annoying feeling of having something stuck to your feet that Remi has perfected, and he isn't sorry at all.

"Mmhm. All the more so because I told Phoebe we would help gather components and...we haven't, yet." He replies, aiming for levity as they stray toward the shallows. "Mm, how about..." Having not been told how much water needed, Remi glanced over his shoulder toward the edge of the spring, where a vase suddenly appeared. It was poorly made (terribly made, actually), but had been a project that Mateo had worked on in school. It wasn't the real thing of course, only a memory, and so if it was broken on their way home, there was no harm.

'I prefer this to scooping up water in an effort to find a cure for the blight, I will say that much." Remi says, dipping the vase below the surface of the water...only to immediately raise it and pour it over his husband's head.