a blank piece of paper

i'm not the man they think i am at home

Remi had thought the Grounds seemed like a perfectly good place to meet. It was close, convenient (save for the Ronin-dying bit, but he hadn't factored that in initially), and he certainly didn't want the ascended in the Greatwood.

Wanting, badly, to argue that no, he absolutely did want to threaten Nate, Remi clenches his teeth together and nods down at the table. "Fine." It wasn't, but then, Ronin was far more levelheaded about all of this anyway. 'Though Nate might prefer to kick me in the balls over taking a shift. He adds with a crooked smirk.

'mm? Oh. I wonder if that would help, or if they would just...ghost through things.' Which, seemed very much like something Ludo would do. Want your fingers back? No problem! Oh did you mean useful fingers? You should have said. Too late now.

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

"Fine," Ronin echoes, but without nearly the amount of bite in his words, and he offers a cheeful smile across at his husband. Now that they have some sort of an idea, he quickly begins writing up the letter for Neron, his hand moving in quick and elegant motions across the parchment. "Would you accept those terms?" he asks, only half joking. "Because I can include that in the offer."

Useless ghost fingers definitely do seem to be Ludo's thing, and Ronin ponders to himself. "Maybe just the memory of your old fingers, then. That's what Ludo's into, right? Memories and things? I'm sure it would figure something out for you. You're its favourite, remember."

The huntsman

i'm not the man they think i am at home

"Would I take an excruciating kick to the balls over having an ascended stick their teeth in me?" It's meant to be rhetorical, but given Remi's history, perhaps it isn't so obvious, so he adds: "I absolutely would." Chittering at his side, Oria tugs at some of his arm hair that he might stay still as she continues her doodles.

Grimacing a touch at the word FaVouRiTe, Remi shakes his head slightly. "Or it might tell me that I was being an idiot and deserve to lose my fingers for getting that close to a dinosaur." He points out, thinking that sounded a bit like Ludo as well.

Peering over to see what Ronin was writing, the alchemist sits back, looking satisfied. "Looks like another trip to Halo is in our future. If that's the case, I demand a trip to the hotsprings."

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

It isn't obvious to Ronin, and his quill hovers over the paper patiently, waiting for Remi to clarify. "Noted. Hopefully Nate feels the same way regarding being able to kick you over getting one of your abilities," says, smirking to himself and setting aside Neron's letter for Remi to sign. It's a lot more to the point (read: threatening) than Nate's will be, as evidenced by the way Ronin actually makes the second letter out to Nate and Sunjata. Because this one is going to be from him, and he feels wholeheartedly like this is a better course of action.

"You're right - it might say that. But you won't know until you ask," Ronin points out with a grin, nodding at Oria in agreement even though she is more interested in her arm-canvas. "The hotsprings in the Climb?" he echoes. "I think I could be persuaded. Do you want to go before or after our visit to the Citadel?"

The huntsman

i'm not the man they think i am at home

"I guess we will find out." Remi murmurs as he reaches for the quill. His signature is shaky at best, accompanied by several ink droplets that have him frowning.

'Mmhmm.' The Lullaby confirms. "After, probably. If I've just been bit by Neron Launceleyn the trek through the snow won't calm me down quite the way the hot springs will." Reaching for his tea and taking a healthy sip of it, Remi waits for Ronin to finish the letter to Nate...and Sunjata, it seems. Feeling unfairly bitter that Ronin didn't hold the same grudge against Nate that he did, the alchemist bites the inside of his cheek and taps his foot against the floor to give his mind something else to think about.

"Thanks for helping me with this. If you had not come back, I might have resorted to writing the note with my finger in the ink, which would probably have made it seem all the more threatening."

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

Wincing at the mere idea, Ronin nods his agreement. "If you've just been bitten by Neron Launceleyn I can imagine that we will be running for the Climb on foot to try and get that out of your system," he mutters, scrunching his nose and unconsciously reaching out to rest his hand over the top of Remi's good one, blowing on the parchment to help the ink dry.

He is all but immune to his husband's unhappiness about whatever friendships he might harbour - or whatever ill feelings he might not harbour, coincidentally - and so once he's finished with the letter, it's as if it never happened. "I'll always be around to help you," he says, making sure to sound as annoyingly sweet as possible. "Though if you wanted to sound really threatening, I suppose you could always find other notes and cut and stick the letters to make out your one."

The huntsman

i'm not the man they think i am at home

Silently snarling at the thought of Neron anywhere near him, Remi tilts his head back and glares up at the ceiling. "Did you know he threatened to put me in jail once? Back in Northaven?" Gods but that seemed like an eternity ago.

'Oooooh, I do like that.' He says of the weird murder-y style Ronin was describing. Immediately though his thoughts shift to Finn. Clearing his throat and pulling in a breath, Remi impulsively leans over to press a hasty and likely too-hard kiss against his husband's lips. Wanting to think and feel only thoughts that came from the Huntsman and no one else (not even his own), the alchemist twines his fingers against Ronin's rather than letting them merely be covered.

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

"No I did not," Ronin says with all the dramatics of a teenager hearing gossip for the first time. "You must tell me everything. This is back when he was really under the Launceleyns' thumb right? Wasn't he a lawyer or something?" He probably hadn't looked at he man twice, honestly. Back then he'd been on the road to burnout as a Storm Captain, and he'd been dealing with his own issues with Archie.

Before his nose can wrinkle at the thought of the Bloodfiend, Remi is leaning over and sealing his lips with a kiss that threatens to make their teeth clash together. Humming a note of surprise (though it's not unwelcome), Ronin naturally sinks into the affection for whatever reason it might be sought out. "I love you, even if you're a giant weird dork," he mumbles against his lips.

The huntsman

i'm not the man they think i am at home

"What do you mean when he was under the Launceleyn's thumb?" Remi wants to know. Not entirely caught up on Launceleyn politics (or how many of them are left), he assumes that Neron is the same asshole that he's always been. "Mmm, someone put up some hate poster about Bellamy. I took it down. As a commoner, Neron did not really need much more of a reason than that to throw me in jail. I think it must have been Ashetta who pulled me out of the group that was forming." It hadn't been her, but the memory was all the sweeter for thinking it had been.

"Even if? Or because?" Smiling despite himself, the alchemist is able to relax slightly. "Speaking of letters...do you think we ought to send one to October?" And Finn, going unsaid. "To apologize? Or we could put together a fruit basket. Or..medical supplies? Or...meat?"

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

"Oh, you know. The Launceleyns were like this crazy mafia family," Ronin says, wishing he was joking. "Without Zariah as the head of the family now, and without being enslaved to protecting a royal family, I guess they're free agents. Still awful people, granted." He smirks. He'd liked Edrei, it's true, but morals-wise she was still absolutely a Launceleyn.

Raising his eyebrows at the tale, he leans in for another quick kiss, his arm slinking around Remi as he relaxes by proxy. "If you had gone to jail, we'd be a couple of criminals in a relationship," he says with a cheeky grin.

As for letters and Tobi and Finn, Ronin winces at the memory and nods in easy agreement. "All of them," he suggests. "I can drop it all off at the infirmary when I go to Stormbreak next."

The huntsman

i'm not the man they think i am at home

It was quite a mess they (read: Remi) had made of things lately. And yet here, bobbing in their houseboat with blood and ink staining their table and whiskey colouring their tea, Remi couldn't have been more content. So what if he had to strong-arm Wessex or Nate into giving him fluid. So what if Isla hated him and all of his friendships had more or less fallen apart because he couldn't be bothered to maintain them?

With Ronin's arm around his waist and that familiar twinkle in the Huntsman's eyes, Remi hadn't a care in the world that his husband's smile couldn't fix. "Alright. Well I would say that is enough note-writing today." Leaning over to press an inky-kiss against Ronin's cheek, Remi pulls back grinning. "Care to come to bed and see what else my fingers can or can't do?"

~FIN