[SE] follow me and I'll show you

and on to the glory at my right hand

"Okay, you have to promise to keep your eyes closed even though you're blindfolded. Deal?" Ronin has probably extracted this promise out of his husband three times already, and he still isn't tired of it. He's holding Remi's hands as he walks them carefully along the Whispershore to where he has arranged his present, and it's a good thing he has blindfolded his husband so he won't see the Huntsman's boyish grin.

"And no using your projection to take a peek either okay? It's just a little bit further up ahead." It's a crisp night, and their footsteps crunch on ice and snow, and the air rolling off the Whispershore is colder still than usual. But it's nothing that cocoa in cups made of peppermint bark won't solve, and that's all waiting back at the boat. "Alright, we can stop here," Ronin says eventually, drawing them up to a halt. "Ready?"

ronin

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

the lullaby

Love isn't all that it seems
I did you wrong

Remi's eyes might be covered, but his frown isn't. "Your emotions feel like one of those rainbow sugary lollipops we never let Mateo have." The alchemist complains, feeling Ronin's anticipation and shit-fuckery like a sugary mess of colour in his mind. "I wouldn't have to use my projection. I could just..leave my body. Or become a wraith. Or grow a tentacle and take a peak while still holding your hands." Remi argues for no particular reason than he had nothing else to do as he was being led blindly forward.

"I don't know how to answer that." Remi remarks, without knowing what he's meant to be ready for. Shivering slightly out of eagerness than the cold, the alchemist gives his husband's hand a squeeze wondering if Ronin has written out "PROM?" in urine in the snow or something equally ridiculous.

I'll stay here with you
Until this dream is gone

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

and on to the glory at my right hand

"Okay, well. Please don't do any of those things," Ronin says with another grin that Remi won't see. He stands his husband against the shore where he's stopped, before backing away from him and waving his hand before his face as if to check that he really can't peek. "Well I suppose that's fair. Alright..." Squeezing the Lullaby's fingers back, Ronin finally lets him go and rustles about nearby.

Remi will see the world start to vaguely shine behind his blindfold, and then he'll hear Ronin say, "Go ahead."

And should the alchemist pull off the cover from his eyes, he'll see the Huntsman standing nearby, softly aglow with his dazzle, but he's nothing compared to the ice sculpture he's just touched. Carved roughly (as if with claws, because they are), the icy luxere with a hawk perched in its antlers cast prisms of white and gold. They catch here and there on precious gems which have been melted into the ice, scavenged from the Whispershore to create the spectacle.

ronin

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

the lullaby

Love isn't all that it seems
I did you wrong

Braced just in case Ronin shoves him into the Stonesong yelling tadaaaa, surprise! Remi removes the blindfold slowly only to suddenly find himself squinting against the light that shines in his eyes. Raising a hand to his brow and seemingly forgetting that his inability to cast a shadow will make this a token gesture at best, Remi inhales sharply at what he sees.

For a moment he doesn't move, locked in place save for the quick furtive movements of his eyes and the harsh lines creasing his brow. He almost looks pained or mad given the intensity of his gaze, until all at once his expression breaks and Remi steps forward with the hand on his brow suddenly outstretched. He doesn't touch anything for fear of melting it even a tiny amount, but his fingers do curve and bend as if his palm was pressed against the ice.

There are long moments of nothing but Remi's breath until finally, he turns toward Ronin with a smile that was as stupidly dopey as it was sunny. Parting his lips to speak and finding the lump in his throat too large to speak around, Remi swallows hard and gives his head a slightly nervous shake as his dimples deepen. I love that you still see me that way.. He says of the hawk, that Ronin might not always think of Remi as some horrific monster, but instead something simple like he once used to be.

I'll stay here with you
Until this dream is gone

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

and on to the glory at my right hand

Ronin waits with bated breath as his husband takes in the ice sculpture, nibbling on his lower lip as if worried for some reason that the other man might absolutely hate it. So when Remi's expression changes and melts into something warm, something Ronin recognises all too well, the Huntsman is quick to step forward as well. He doesn't reach out for the sculpture, more interested in watching the alchemist take it in, and he lets out a soft sigh to hear the familiar voice in his mind.

Of course I do... He smiles back to him, slipping his arms around the other man's waist so he can lean in and nose against his curls. "No matter how many new things you learn, you'll always be an alchemist at heart. All charcoal fingers with ink on your shirt, tinkering away in a lab."

ronin

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

the lullaby

Love isn't all that it seems
I did you wrong

Remi chuckles disbelievingly as he lets himself be enfolded in Ronin's arms. It would be very easy to forget. Almost everyone else has. Where once this might have been thought with bitterness, now the only emotions that colour the mental words are of simple objectivity. He had hidden away that part of himself to nearly everyone, and so understandably they had forgotten. Some of them had never even known Remi to be anything other than what he was now.

"With you...I still feel like that man. Or at least, that he is not completely gone." He manages once he finds he's able to speak past the emotion in his throat. Turning properly toward his husband, Remi's expression seems to waver through different states as his emotions continue to fluctuate. Desperately he wishes he could find the words to tell Ronin just how very much he loves him. To pin down it's prismatic qualities, to mix the right colours to sketch it with, to capture the bigness of it with words like forever, and always, and infinitely yours. Anytime he tried though, he found his affections reduced to mere shapes that felt hollow in the wake of all he felt.

'I don't know how...but somehow I always find myself loving you more than I ever thought I could.' Remi says after a moment, his smile slanted and his eyes brimming sappily with tears. "Gods I love you."

I'll stay here with you
Until this dream is gone

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

and on to the glory at my right hand

"Almost everyone else doesn't know the truth," Ronin says simply, letting his hands run down the length of Remi's back as he turns to glance back at the ice sculpture still illuminating the Whispershore all around. "With me, you can be that man, or any other man that's lurking away inside you. I'm here for all of it," he says, sounding just as sappy as Remi looks and feels.

And while he can't appreciate the words, he can appreciate the feelings that vibrate out of the Lullaby, Ronin's cheeks flushing pink as he leans further into their embrace. "I love you too," he whispers, reaching up to let his thumb brush across Remi's cheek. "And I've got you. Even if you're such a force to be reckoned with these days, you don't need to be 'got' so much any more." Grinning, he leans in for a gentle kiss.

"I hid a picnic in the snowbank if you want to sit for a while?"

ronin

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

the lullaby

Love isn't all that it seems
I did you wrong

A breath catches in Remi's throat, and the accompanying sensation is one of vibrating joy that makes it difficult to stand still. He wants to repeat over and over that he loves the Huntsman, wishing again that he could find better words to capture how he feels. "I do, still." He counters, placing his hand over Ronin's as it smoothes across his cheek. "I have forgotten it a time or two, but I won't again. I will always need you." Wrapping his fingers around his husband's hand to deposit a kiss into his palm, the alchemist looks up from beneath his curls at the mention of a picnic, and grins.

"You really are perfect." And it was so very true.

Finding the picnic hidden in the snow, Remi finds something else in the snowbank as well, conveniently revealed when searched for on his knees and Ronin standing at his side.

~FIN

I'll stay here with you
Until this dream is gone

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!