[SE] dirty fingernails

you've long seen your downfall, spelled out in another's bones

"I'm sure I saw a shrine around here, the last time I came to meet you," Ronin is saying as they stroll beneath rich and leafy canopies, his fingers gently linked with Remi's. They'd awoken on the warm sand together, and after a breakfast of fruit and yogurt and honey (it's too hot for bacon, much as he hates to admit it), the Huntsman has suggested they take a stroll through the shade of the jungle before taking off for home.

Smiling up at a sentient vine that tries to tickle through Remi's curls, Ronin playfully swats it away with his free hand. Out here the jungle is as loud as it is quiet, the Huntsman resisting the urge to close his eyes and take in the busy tranquility of it all. "Mm, I wish we had brought another picnic. We might actually have been able to enjoy ourselves this time," he laments, smiling across at the other man.

RONIN

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

"If your plan is to lure me out here with promises of shrines, just to get us hopelessly lost so you can take advantage of me....consider us lost." Remi hums over his shoulder, his grin making his words all the more buoyant. Shrugging one shoulder at the vine that tries to affix itself to him like a headband, the alchemist raises a skeptical brow and tries to look wounded. "You mean you do not always enjoy yourself when you are with me?" Huffing and turning his gaze indignantly towards the path ahead, Remi tilts his chin haughtily up. "I always enjoy my time with you." He complains playfully, giving Ronin's fingers a squeeze.

"We could always hunt, though..I know there are a number of poisonous creatures around." The pair likely had the constitutions to eat just about anything, poisonous or not, but that didn't mean they wouldn't reap the rewards just like anyone else. Still, now that Ronin had mentioned food Remi's stomach had started to rumble. 'If ever either of us gets a no-restrictions ability from either Safrin or Ludo, we ask for the ability to create food. Deal?'

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

you've long seen your downfall, spelled out in another's bones

"Woe is us, for we are so lost," Ronin agrees with a dramatic sigh, squeezing Remi's fingers back and flashing him a sly grin, tugging on his hand to draw him back. Pulling the Lullaby up against his chest and sneaking a kiss that satiates a different sort of hunger but still leaves him peckish, he brushes his nose against Remi's. "I always enjoy my time with you." He grins. "But last time we were in the jungle, we both ended up in tears and neither of us got to eat sandwiches," he points out.

Letting him go again and swinging their hands as they walk, the Huntsman ducks beneath another sheet of vines and glances around for what he swears was signs of a shrine the last time he was here. "Deal," he says without a moment's hesitation, before his footsteps slow and he tilts his head at a large shrub heavy with sunshine coloured berries. "Those might be poisonous too, but we don't have to catch them," he says.

RONIN

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

"Take me then Ronin, for if this is to be our last day, don't let it end without multiple orgasms." Remi pleads, before his lips are against the Huntsman's and he finds himself grinning more than kissing Ronin, such is his mischievous delight. "Fair point. No crying. Unless they are tears of pleasure." The alchemist says once they part, sneaking another quick kiss before they set off again.

Eyeing the bush, Remi frowns though he doesn't look entirely deterred. "They do say that the more brightly coloured something is, the more likely it is meant to be a warning. But, at our deadliest, you and I are very plain in colour, so perhaps this bush is just a liar." (Remi, did you just accuse a bush of being a liar?) "If Mateo were here, he would probably say that it is quite the adaptation, to only look poisonous."

Feigning heroism, Remi reaches forward and plucks a cluster of golden berries, popping them into his mouth. Nodding over Ronin's shoulder where a group of monkeys were quite happily munching on the berries, Remi grins. "If they can eat them, we probably can too."

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

you've long seen your downfall, spelled out in another's bones

"Gods, if only we could predict when we were going to have our last day, so we could properly prepare," Ronin laments, his fingers curling through the back of Remi's hair in place of the sentient vines. He's reluctant to release the other man, in fact, and were it not the berries nearby, he might have insisted that they continue to roleplay out their last day on Caido together. Oh, well. Maybe later.

"It might be a genius," he reasons of the plant, based on the other man's predictions about poison and attempts to deceive. Actually, it just makes his head hurt (and so yeah, maybe it is a genius plant). Waiting expectantly for Remi to burst into flames after he scoffs a bunch of the brightly coloured berries, the Huntsman's eyes drift to the monkeys doing the same.

"...Can monkeys blush?" he wonders, furrowing his brows and tilting his head. "Or are they just... pink cheeked monkeys?"

RONIN

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

Maybe later indeed.

Whether a genius or a liar, the berries are in Remi's mouth and gods but the taste is something else. It tastes like violet tinged with electric yellow, and though it isn't quite sour the alchemist finds his eyes clenching shut as his tastebuds try and understand what it is they're experiencing. "Can they...?" He asks distractedly, swallowing hard only to find his mouth filled with an aftertaste that makes his jaw ache as if he's just been laughing.

"..pink cheeked?" Glancing over, thinking Ronin meant their asses (what else could he have meant), Remi finds that yes, there is a nice glow to their cheeks. "Maybe one just told a filthy joke." He suggests, before finding his dimples suddenly quite deep as he frowns with embarrassment at his own suggestion.

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

you've long seen your downfall, spelled out in another's bones

"A filthy joke about their pink cheeks?" Ronin asks, raising his eyebrows and absently reaching out to pluck a few berries from the bush as well. "I didn't realise monkeys could talk." Popping the berries into his mouth and cromching them as the flavour bursts upon his tongue, he gives an involuntary shudder, similarly feeling as though he's tasted something tart but enjoyably so.

"I bet we could come up with a better joke," he murmurs, nudging the other man with his hip before, quite suddenly, he feels the tips of his ears grow very hot. "Uh..." Glancing across at Remi, the heat having spread across his cheekbones, he notes that the Lullaby seems similarly sheepish. "What... they are poisonous, aren't they."

RONIN

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

'I didn't realize you were an expert on monkeys." Remi interjects with a bashful shrug. Despite the heat in his cheeks, the alchemist's focus was the berries, and how his tongue longed for more. Reaching out to pluck another bunch of them, it's with a greedy haste that he pops them into his mouth.

'Oh?' Remi wonders, feeling as though something filled with starlight had just exploded in the back of his throat to feel his husband's touch. Rubbing at his eyebrow and feeling quite twitterpated all of a sudden, the alchemist does his best to clear his throat and meet Ronin's eyes. "That...does not sound like much of a joke to me." He murmurs, hazarding a glance up and finding the sight of Ronin's blue eyes contrasted by all that warm pink far too much. Laughing awkwardly he looks away towards the monkeys, feeling as though he'd rubbed poison ivy on the inside of his throat and lips, that's how tongue-tied he felt he'd become.

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

you've long seen your downfall, spelled out in another's bones

"Well there you go. Now you know something new about me, just like I learned it about you yesterday," Ronin says, though his voice is devoid of its usual charisma. Still, he's grabbing another bunch of berries (or two) and backing slowly away from the group of monkeys, reaching out to snag Remi's hand as he does so. As they touch, though, he feels a crackle low in the base of his spine, a fluttering that goes right up to the back of his throat. He hasn't felt like this since... well, since before they'd even gotten together. It's amazing and confusing all at once.

"I just... I..." Laughing awkwardly and dropping his hand as he gazes away from Remi, he takes a deep breath and lets it out again. "Maybe we can take some of these berries as an offering to the shrine," he suggests. "I don't think it's very far from here. Shall we go...?"

RONIN

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

Remi feels as though he's back in Northaven with his hands pressed against Ronin's body to try and keep pressure on a wound. The memory blooms in his mind not because of the blood, but because it had been the first time he'd properly touched the then-storm guard, and it had been as exhilarating as it was confusing. Something about his hand in Ronin's felt like that, leaving the alchemist nearly delirious with intrigue and embarrassment in equal measure. Hiccuping back a breath as Remi tries both to relax his fingers in Ronin's (gods, he'd done this a thousand times, but just now he couldn't figure out how tightly he normally held the other man's...?), he decides it's all too much and slips his fingers from Ronin's under the guise of needing to itch his back.

"Oh, good idea." Relieved, Remi grabs two handfuls that he might not have to feign another reason not to take Ronin's hand. "Lead the way." Blushing and feeling a touch breathless each time his eyes met the Huntsman's, Remi stole another nibble from the berries he held as if that might help.

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

you've long seen your downfall, spelled out in another's bones

Ronin does lead the way, his arms full of berries and his body feeling hot all over, and he's unashamedly glad when Remi's fingers slip from between his own. It feels as though he's got some time to get his breath back, and so once the charming little shrine to Frey appears organically through the jungle, he feels like he might just be ready to speak again. "Here we are," he says lamely, eating another berry and hazarding a smile across at his husband only for him to be seized by the urge to brush a curl out of his face.

His hand makes it halfway there, even, before he realises what he's about to do and he fumbles back, dropping a sprig of berries in the process. "Oops," he mumbles, swallowing hard and reaching down to pick them back up. "I am surprised there aren't any monkeys here at the shrine."

RONIN

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

Seeing Ronin's hand as if in slow motion, Remi has time to take note of his stomach simultaneously dropping and turning to ice, just as his heartbeat begins to howl in his ears. If he managed it, their eyes would meet and gods the alchemist was quite certain he'd not be able to remain breathing with Ronin's eyes locked on his. Thankfully Ronin is pulling back, but for good measure Remi rakes his fingers through his curls, feeling as disappointed as he was relieved.

Heaving out a breath as Ronin lowers—for some reason Remi has been holding his breath and breathing in spurts when he thinks Ronin isn't aware of it—he offers his counterpart a shaky smile. 'Maybe we scared them away.' He suggests lamely, before swinging his eyes toward where the shrine was nestled in the trees. 'I forgot this was a shrine to Frey and Rae...' Realizing perhaps the ramifications of this, Remi shoots furtive glances over his shoulder at Ronin as if he might somehow read his husband's intentions.

Running a hand nervously across the back of his neck and finding that his skin was quite warm and that sweat had begun to bead around his hairline, Remi swallows hard. "Should we just...leave them, do you think?"

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

you've long seen your downfall, spelled out in another's bones

"I suppose we can be quite scary when the situation calls for it," Ronin murmurs, as if that isn't the biggest fucking understatement of the year. Straightening up with the rest of the berries, he swallows again and glances between the shrine and the jungle, then back to the shrine. It's very innocuous for Frey/Rae he thinks; there's no nudity (well, not strictly true, but that comes in the forms of statuettes and other offerings), and he nods heavily, as if through water.

"Yeah, I suppose we'll just leave them and head away home," he says, stepping forward and placing down the berries with very little pomp at all, as if wanting them out of his (considerably sweaty) hands as soon as possible. Wiping said hands against his pants, it's with dusky cheeks that he glances to his husband again, offering a tentative smile. "The jungle suits you," he mumbles, flushing more deeply.

RONIN

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

"Mmm." Remi agrees vaguely. Where otherwise he might rake his eyes over Ronin just to be certain the Huntsman was every bit as intimidating as he normally was, just now the mere thought of doing so had Remi's upper body subtly vibrating with nerves. Leaning forward, hyperaware of his placement in relation to Ronin, Remi tosses the berries onto the shrine before hastily stepping back. Directing his eyes to his palms which were also quite sweaty, Remi finds himself violently rubbing at a smear of yellow on his skin.

"..it..?" Glancing up and finding himself instantly snared by the blue of Ronin's eyes, Remi can feel his knees threatening to give way as the air in his lungs seems to evaporate. Wanting to look away but feeling as though all the light and warmth in the world might be lost to him if he did, still it's a struggle to keep eye contact given how overwhelmingly handsome the Huntsman was. "..I..uhm.." Laughing awkwardly, Remi forces his eyes closed and tries to take a breath (it ends up just being a shivery sort of gasp that hardly brings any air into his lungs). Shaking his head as if this sensation were a veil he might dislodge, he opens his eyes looking helpless and bashful.

"I know it's silly to ask, but..uhm.." Itching between his eyes and finding it impossible not to finish, eventually the alchemist forces his hands down by his sides. "..sorry, nevermind. We should..go."

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.