driftwood

I shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes

"I've got you," Ronin is saying as he meanders down the beach, still soaking wet and feeling as though his limbs weigh three times as much thanks to the efforts of being in such deep water for so long. Still, his arms can scream their protests all afternoon for all he cares; he has still scooped Remi up into a bridal carry, pressing a gentle, salty kiss to his husband's temple as he walks.

"I'll take you to the fountain at the Court of the Stars - it will patch you up better than I can. Just hold on a bit longer, okay?" His smile is soft and sad; any bravado in the face of the colossal monster they've just faced is gone, and all that's left is the two Taliesins and the stretch of beach leading into Haulani.

"Once you feel better, we can get cocktails at the Hanged Man."

RONIN

& my heart ran away from me

It had gone from cold and dark to bright and sunlit far faster than Remi's mind could account for despite the fact that it had actually taken a good amount of time to surface and make it back to shore. Yes, the alchemist could have shifted into a smaller and lighter form for Ronin to carry, but at this point a few hundred points was hardly anything to the Huntsman. Besides, Remi wanted lips with which to kiss his husband's cheek and hands he could use to punctuate the things he was saying.

"Did you see how large it was?" Remi wonders as if the kraken's size might somehow have escaped Ronin's notice. A snarl flickers across his lips before it's squashed by the press of Remi's face against the side of Ronin's neck. 'To think it has just been down there, all this time.' The words are accompanied by a pulse of accusation coloured navy by Remi's emotions, as if such a monumental force in this world had no business living its life as a myth.

THE

LULLABY

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I shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes

"It was ridiculous," Ronin agrees, letting his cheek loll against wet curls as he frowns along the sand. "I suppose there have been legends about things like that, though. Still, I didn't expect it to... be there," he admits. Quite why isn't something he can explain - they have faced off against any number of impossible creatures at this point - but still.

Ronin only has eyes for the path ahead and for his husband, so as others on the coastline and the port start to recognise them, the Huntsman is none the wiser. He picks his way onto the boardwalk and then into the streets, his grip adjusting on Remi enough to hold him a little closer. "However big it was, though... you still held it."

RONIN

& my heart ran away from me

'Barely.' Remi comments, and there's a hollowness in his voice that's filled only by the colourful swirl of surprise and egotistical anger that flows from his skin. "Had you not hit it as often as you did..." He begins, before grumbling himself into a moment of silence. "..I think that is the only reason I could keep a hold of it." Rubbing a finger across his forehead as if the sand there was hostile and needed to be removed, Remi closes his eyes, ignoring their surroundings.

"I have never been hit that hard before. Not even by Wessex. Not even by you that day in the desert." He mumbles, sighing, before snapping his eyes open. "I almost wonder if we should not have told the ascended about it. Or...if we could tell them still. Let them go down there and get themselves killed."

THE

LULLABY

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I shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes

"I would not have hit it as often as I did unless you were holding it," Ronin protests, smiling into Remi's curls and turning to head up towards the Court of the Stars. "And Deimos did his part, too. I think we would have struggled if not for all of us, so we'll call it a team effort." Nuzzling against his husband's cheek, this time, Ronin finally looks up enough that he can pay attention to where they're going.

"Oh, I'm sure the Ascended alreayd know about this," he mutters, his voice sounding a little more rough now. "Wessex has that stupid Knowtbook, after all. But you never know - they might go down there anyway, if we spread a rumour that there's more treasure to be found in the Maw."

The Court appears soon enough, Ronin heading into the courtyard amid the scent of flowers and the afternoon sun bouncing through the fountain's clear waters. "A drink or a bath?" Ronin asks with a smirk.

RONIN

& my heart ran away from me

"Mmmmmm." Remi agrees wearily, though he does absolutely agree with his husband. Deimos had been just as crucial as he or Ronin had, and with the three of them, things had gone rather smoothly all things considered. 'Ah. Right.' Well, there goes that trap. "Well, if they know what we do, that perhaps the kraken can be bartered with if its life is in danger, I do not want to take the risk they walk away with whatever else is down there. Though...I suppose Wessex knows all of that already." And then, because gods if he doesn't feel cranky and in desperate need of an outlet, Remi tips his head back and bellows: "ARE YOU READING THIS, WESSEX, YOU COWARD." A few hels take wing from a pile of garbage.

"Bath." Remi comments seriously, all but rolling out of Ronin's arms to splash down into the waters of the fountain. "If Maeve had not intended someone to swim in it, she should have made it a water fountain." He muses before pulling in a mouthful of air and letting himself flop back down.

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LULLABY

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I shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes

Ronin is in the process of nodding his reluctant agreement with the alchemist when Remi's head tilts back and he bellows his frustration into the streets of Haulani. Unable not to laugh at that, the Huntsman has to fight not to accidentally drop his husband, and he's still grinning as he lets him roll ceremoniously into the fountain. "I absolutely agree with all of that," he says simply; about Wessex, about the fountain, about the bath.

Leaning against the side of the fountain, Ronin reaches in to gently cradle the back of Remi's head, drawing him out of the water enough so he can deliver a kiss to his lips. "Any better?" he asks after a few moments. "We can take some with us and freeze it into ice cubes, if you want. You can have them in your cocktail."

RONIN

& my heart ran away from me

'mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.' The alchemist grumbles; he'd been fully intent on staying under the water until his lungs screamed. But, being sweetly kissed by his husband was perhaps the better option. Sighing against Ronin's lips and relaxing his body so that the water would let him bob to the surface, Remi spreads his arms out and glances down the length of his body. Two deep lines carved neatly up his legs to his waist, but already what should have been open and bleeding was nearly healed.

"Nah. That will make it even harder to get drunk." Remi decides, before reaching out his hands to pull Ronin's mouth back down toward his. "When this is all over, we are going to make a drink that gets us drunk. Agreed?" Because just now the only thing the alchemist wanted in the whole world was to be sun-drenched and day-drunk with Ronin on the beach.

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LULLABY

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I shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes

Content to help Remi bob along the surface of the fountain, Ronin follows the other man's gaze down the length of his body, only to frown at the sight of the marks, however much they might already be healing. "That's a good point," he agrees, having no problem with allowing the Lullaby to stay submerged until every single bruise is gone.

Willingly leaning back in to have his lips captured by Remi's, the Huntsman's smile is wicked and loving all at once. "Agreed," he murmurs into the kiss. "Maybe we can even try to do it this Longheat. We'll have a vacation here, just a week or two. You can put your alchemy to the test."

RONIN

& my heart ran away from me

'When is the war meant to be?' Remi closes one eye, and had his hands not been on his husband's skin, he might have comically held them up to count off the remaining months. "You keep saying things like vacation, and put your alchemist to the test, and I am going to start this war early no matter what Ludo says." He jokes (?), before letting his head sink far enough below the surface of the water that his length exhalation caused bubbles to pour out from his nose

Alright. Remi thinks, gazing up at Ronin as he rolls his shoulders, healed enough for now. "Take me to the Hanged Man and get me as drunk as you can manage." Sitting up for a few seconds to enjoy the cool water on his skin before standing, the alchemist dreams himself a towel with which to ruffle his curls and give himself a cursory drying-off. Tossing it onto the fountain's edge where it would eventually fade, Remi steps out of the fountain, shirtless and grinning.

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LULLABY

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I shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes

"LeafChange? Maybe?" Ronin shrugs, as if things like that weren't important when it came to gazing into the seaglass green of his husband's eyes. "And if you insist on trying to start this war early, I'll have to keep you busy up until then. I'm not quite ready to do something like that again quite so soon." That meaning the kraken, or worse. Definitely worse, knowing their luck.

Ronin sits back enough so that Remi can rise out of the water like a gods damned siren, the Huntsman offering out a hand to help him over the side of the fountain, bowing as if he's the alchemist's personal chauffeur for the evening. "I will do my very best," he assures him, drawing him close enough to slip his arm around him as they head away from the Court.

For his part, Ronin is still salt stiff and sandy, his hair drying in a desperately messy mop that he doesn't bother to try and change. "It's been a long time since we were here like this, huh."

RONIN

& my heart ran away from me

"Oh?" Remi grins, looking suddenly very much the way Mateo often did when he was told precisely not to do something. "Even with your duplicate you only have 4 hands, and though my tentacles might technically not have hands, there are more of them." Waggling his fingers to emphasize this point, Remi suddenly points a triumphant finger in Ronin's direction. "And I can duplicate. So 7.5 tentacles and two hands. That is a lot to keep busy."

Lacing his arm around Ronin's waist, the alchemist swallows back a small bubble of joy that's suddenly in the back of his throat. "No one does water exits like you." He muses adoringly, before frowning thoughtfully as he glances around. "No...no we have not. It feels like everything people might know us from here happened to someone else. Being governor, for instance." Remi laughs brightly at that, shaking his head.

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LULLABY

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I shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes

Ronin raises his eyebrows at the very important mathematics going on beside him, busy trying to tuck his hand into the back of Remi's still wet pants. "Well, you can't duplicate unless you're you, so unfortunately that leaves you with the option of either 7.5 tentacles, or 16 fingers between the two of you. Don't ask me to verify or double check my math, because I won't." Because he's just as likely to be wrong than not.

"Oh, I'm not sure about that. Yours was very elegant back there, compared to my swamping out of the Arclight just now." Bedraggled and tired was more of the flavour of his exit. But he seems to be coming around now, at least, meandering back through the streets of Haulani and leading them down to the Hanged Man.

"They did happen to someone else," he says airily, because it may as well be true. "We're different men, now. Men who have no responsibilities here, other than to drink."

RONIN

& my heart ran away from me

'Shush.' Is all that Remi has to say about his inability to be quite the menace he was describing. 7.5 limbs was still more than Ronin, so he considered it a win in his books. Grinning and letting his fingers curl around the Huntsman's hip, the alchemist shrugs roguishly at his husband's side. "You are the more handsome of the two of us, so swamping or crawling, it will always be you."

The walk was a familiar one even if Maeve and Co had given the town a few facelifts since the pair had last lived here. Smirking, it's with an over-the-top display of chivalry and pomp that Remi opens the door to the Hanged Man, lowering his head and gesturing for Ronin to enter. How much of this was merely an excuse to ogle his husband's ass? Well. You can probably guess.

The bartender had only to glance up and spy the pair before she straightened dramatically and swallowed. Today was a bad day to be left on her own in the bar, she thought rather miserably. "A bottle of whiskey, the whole time, some honey, and two glasses with ice." Remi orders, and, because it was the barmaids first shift unattended, she complied without argument.

THE

LULLABY

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