driftwood

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

Ronin does shush, at least about Remi's first point, but there is definitely a smug sort of smile on his face as he walks at his husband's side. "Oop, wrong again," he almost sings regarding being the more handsome of the two, leaning in to kiss the other man's unshaven cheek. "It will always be you," he hisses playfully, relaxing into the familiar walk, even if the details are a little different to what he remembers.

"You are too kind," he tells Remi as he swans into the Hanged Man, making sure his ass is very much in view for the Lullaby to ogle. While Remi gets their drinks (and he's very sorry for the barmaid, sort of), Ronin selects a table that's right next to an open window, letting the sun pour in around them.

"Now this brings back memories," he murmurs as the other man comes to join him, pouring them both a measure of whiskey with honey and raising his glass in a toast. "Though I think you'll need more than one bottle if we're going to get you merry."

RONIN

& my heart ran away from me

'I will fight you on that.' Remi sings, and gods if he doesn't suddenly feel re-energized and warm in a way the healing fountain has nothing to do with.

Setting down the bottles and glasses with a thump, Remi kicks at his seat to move it back before flopping inelegantly into it. Raising an eyebrow as Ronin pours them a drink, the alchemist's smile turns sly indeed as he reaches for his glass. "Who said the honey was meant to go in the cup...?" He wonders quietly before bumping the edge of his glass against Ronin's and taking a healthy sip as if it were a shot.

"I think you are right. You know, I heard that you if you dip your feet into alcohol your body will absorb it and you can get drunk that way." Running his tongue across his lips to taste seasalt whiskey and honey there, he gives his head a shake. "Seems like a waste, though."

THE

LULLABY

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

"I have done enough fighting for one morning, so if it's all the same to you, can it wait until later?" Ronin asks with a crooked grin, clinking his glass against Remi's before sprawling back in his chair to let the sun dry him off properly. With his shirt open, he might even start to get (gasp) a tan, though it won't be much, not compared to when they lived on the islands.

Glancing back across at Remi, he raises his eyebrows. "Where was it meant to go? On your feet, like the alcohol?" he asks with a flash of teeth. "It does seem like a waste. I also heard you can set it on fire and breathe in the vapour. That's supposed to get you drunk faster, but I've never tried it myself." And it's probably safer that way.

Taking a very generous gulp of his whiskey and relishing the sweetness and the burn after breathing saltwater through the manta crystal, Ronin closes his eyes. "All we need now is a hammock," he says, thinking out loud.

RONIN

& my heart ran away from me

Taking a moment to enjoy the fact that he wasn't using every ounce of strength in his body to restrain a colossal creature, Remi lets his eyes pour over Ronin. Sand sparkled like fractured stars in the Huntsman's dark hair, and gods if the window of skin shown by his open shirt didn't practically beg to be torn off. Narrowing his eyes slightly and taking an indulgent breath, Remi blinks himself back into the moment and gives his head a slight shake. "No, it is definitely you." He remarks, perhaps too late to make any sort of sense, still quite adamant that Ronin was absolutely the more attractive of the two of them.

"No." Remi says with a shake of his head. "It was meant to be drizzled." Drizzled over what, you might ask?

Exactly.

"Fire?" Remi frowns skeptically. "I think if we started in on any of that Raza would appear and toss us out like in the old days." He muses before draining his cup and pouring himself another. Before downing it as quickly as before, Remi reaches his hands above his head, stretching out his shoulders from side to side and moaning his growing levels of relaxation.

"A hammock...I...am not sure I could create one of those for us. Not one which would last, anyway. A bed though?" He tips his head to one side; they both knew he could absolutely do that.

THE

LULLABY

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

"Mm...?" Ronin blinks one eye open, as if only partially hearing the alchemist's remark (which is a lie), though he only graces him with a crooked smile rather than an objection. Fine, he could win today's game of compliments; for now, anyway. Finishing his whiskey as well and pouring himself another measure (this time sans honey), he can only scoff at the news that he'd been using it all wrong.

"Well I am very sorry. Please, drizzle away," he invites, though the idea of honey in his chest hair is the opposite of relaxing, so he hopes Remi isn't thinking of that.

Still, he's brought back around by the memory of Raza throwing them out, Ronin grinning out at the beach front they'd spent many a night sleeping upon. "I don't know, that wouldn't be so bad I don't think. It'd be nostalgic, anyway," he says, casting a sidelong glance at Remi.

"If you make a bed I could always try and loosen you up," he winks, meaning his shoulders, of course, but the gods know their minds can never stay out of the gutter for long.

RONIN

& my heart ran away from me

Well, if he wasn't before, he was now.

With a slow smile, Remi rises, holding the bottle of honey in one hand. Somehow, curly haired and sunshine-bright green eyes as he was, the alchemist still could look menacing (so he told himself). Reaching out to comb his fingers up Ronin's cheek and direct the Huntsman's chin upwards, Remi tips the bottle so that at first small pearls and then a golden string toppled out. Sparsely decorating his husband's lips with this haphazard treatment of honey, the alchemist predictably leans down to slowly kiss away his mischief. Taking all the time needed, it's with warm and strong movements of his lips and tongue that removes the honey.

"Gods I wouldn't say no to that. My muscles feel as though they have been run over by several thousand luxere." He murmurs, straightening. Setting down the bottle of honey that he might swap it for his glass of whiskey, Remi knocks it back before refilling both of their glasses. "You have already done more than enough for me today, though."

THE

LULLABY

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

At least both of Ronin's eyes are open to admire the mischievous approach of his husband, though in the direct sunlight they seem more like suspicious shards of blue glass than anything else. Following the honey and its drizzly pathway, he resists the urge to open his mouth and ruin Remi's romance, instead leaning in to meet warm lips and a hot tongue, indulging in the sweetness of the moment in every way possible.

Grumbling and hastily adjusting himself - Remi knows exactly what he's up to, the shit - Ronin scoffs and hooks at his husband's chair with a foot to drag it closer. "On the contrary," he mumbles, scooting so he can reach for the rock hard planes of muscle of the alchemist's shoulders, "I am just getting started with you today."

Pausing to knock back his whiskey, Ronin tends to his task with all the diligence and care one might expect from a demigod of stars, of life, though he'd be lying if he wasn't trying to tease out at least a small moan of pleasure from Remi. It's not like they're the only couple canoodling in the Hanged Man - sequestered away at corner tables or lounging in the sand, they're absolutely not the first to get up to shenanigans.

RONIN

& my heart ran away from me

Remi has the nerve to look sweetly confused by the flustered flush of colour on Ronin's cheeks and in the dazzle of his emotions. 'Oh?' He wonders as he's dragged closer, an eyebrow raised and his dimples deepening. Whatever play for mischief and aloofness the alchemist might have been going for disappears in the wake of Ronin's fingers. Like a magic trick, Remi's head lolls instantly and heavily forward as he groans loudly and without care for anyone else in the bar.

Rolling one of his shoulders slightly, Remi's breath hitches as Ronin's fingers settle upon a snarl of flesh that is past the mere threat of becoming a bruise and has begun to mix its colours. 'Mmmmmmmm.' With his lips slightly parted Remi looks almost in pain, but for the goosebumps that alight on his skin in the places Ronin's fingers have been.

"I have never loved you more." He all but wimpers, sounding as though he'd happily say anything if it meant Ronin would continue.

THE

LULLABY

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

Does Ronin feel proud of himself? Yes he absolutely does, and it's with a sweet and smug smile that he gets to work to try and ease the soreness in his husband's shoulders. "I believe you," he says with a soft chuckle, his touch becoming more gentle over the blooms of colour that will soon form deep bruises - not too gentle, though, because the gods know that the Huntsman is aware of Remi's complicated relationship with pain.

"I love you," he murmurs, taking a break with one hand so it might sneak forward to knock back more whiskey, Ronin taking the opportunity to press a liquor sweet kiss against the top of Remi's shoulder while he's there. "We have never faced anything like what we saw today," he says, returning to his ministrations and walking his fingers down towards Remi's lower back. "You think that's a taste of what the war will hold?"

RONIN

& my heart ran away from me

Reaching with unfeeling fingers for the bottle to refill Ronin's glass even though his gaze was still centred between his knees, Remi murmurs some inarticulate sound of agreement. 'I love you more.' He adds as the warmth of Ronin's kiss seems to ripple outwards, both heating and cooling his skin in various degrees.

"No, we really haven't." Remi confirms on the end of a sigh. "I...do not know. I keep wondering if the Voice has something up her sleeve...if she will call upon some mountain of metal to try and stop us. I think it would be naive to assume it will just be us versus them...but I—" Hissing in a breath as Ronin's fingers find a particularly well-hid and tight knot in his back, Remi exhales slowly. "...I just cannot imagine what it would be, other than hard." Predictably, Remi glances over his shoulder and grins at this.

THE

LULLABY

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

"Mm, I'll let you have that for now," Ronin murmurs, in terms of how much each of them loves the other, his smile audible in his voice as he leans his cheek against Remi's shoulder while his fingers tend to his lower back. "Knowing the Voice, she almost definitely has something up her sleeve. But there's nothing we can do until it happens so... I guess the only measurement we have are these monsters." Which he hates, because this last one was difficult.

Humming a soft sound of apology and spending a moment to tease the knot out of Remi's back, Ronin ends his ministrations by slipping his arms around the Lullaby's waist to hold him close against his chest. "I can't imagine what you would be other than hard," he shoots back, grinning into the side of his neck and fumbling to reach out and refill their glasses.

RONIN

& my heart ran away from me

Uttering a moan of unfettered pleasure in response to Ronin's fingers, Remi sits up slightly straighter as if that might give his counterpart more access to his body (as if he needs it). "Do you think that is true?" Remi wonders, tilting his head to the side and looking all the more bird-like for it. "That we just have to wait and see?" Turning back, his eyes on the lapping waves but not actually seeing them, the alchemist tilts his head again. "Someone must know something. Even if that someone is the Voice."

Grumbling lightly in response to the pain, Remi immediately sinks against Ronin as he feels the warmth of the Huntsman's arms around him. 'You would know.' The alchemist replies with a snort, reaching for his glass once Ronin had filled it, but merely wrapping his fingers around it. "Flora and Enzo went to see Frey." He says suddenly, and through their connection Ronin will feel the mental equivalent of a soap bubble popping after having been perched on a thorn for a good deal longer than it should have been able to. "They're...gods, I don't even know. 16 maybe?"

THE

LULLABY

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

"Well of course we could do something about it. We'd have to be sneaky and it might start the war early, though. And we've got a lot on our plate already." Leadership, being a half decent parent to Mateo, relics, and probably a bunch of other stuff that Ronin is forgetting. But mainly what's on his plate (at least right now) is being madly, ridiculously in love with the man in his arms, the Huntsman pressing warm kisses up and behind Remi's ear.

He only stops his ministrations at the mention of the twins and their visit with Frey, Ronin raising an eyebrow and tilting his head forward to rest on Remi's shoulder, like he might be able to peek the other man's expression. "Was it an accident, or did they mean to...?" he asks softly, seeming both puzzled and weary, his arms tightening around Remi. "How did you find out?"

RONIN

& my heart ran away from me

As Ronin's hands stop—briefly, Remi hopes—the alchemist's eyes widen for just a moment, causing the lapping waves he sees to sharpen. "They meant to." He answers immediately but tonelessly as if the Huntsman had been asking what colour one of the passing ships was.

Releasing his glass so that he could instead wrap his fingers around Ronin's upper arm, Remi sighs out a long breath, wishing that the buzz of the whiskey had been able to last just a little longer. "When Flora came to get something from the houseboat." He murmurs. "I could tell it was her right away. I think maybe she and Enzo were going to tell me together...she seemed surprised that I was home." Resisting the urge to scrub his hands across his face in lieu of holding all the more tightly to Ronin, Remi gives his head a shake.

"On the one hand I understand it. On the other...it..." Looking up into the rafters, Remi narrows his eyes. His emotions are smeared and messy, dull with exhaustion. "...now they are at risk during the war, and gods Ronin if that isn't just one more fucking thing." It's cruel and unfair, which is perhaps why Remi's voice drops slightly, but if there is anyone who understands what it is like to be put in a vice-grip because of free will and the whims of others, it's Ronin.

THE

LULLABY

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