frostbite

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

"Okay," Ronin murmurs, gently guiding Remi beneath the stream of warm water and stepping in to join him. Like his husband, the Huntsman is too numb to think of anything other than getting clean and trying to understand everything that had happened, and he's thankful for the shower that might hide any emotions that unintentionally spill onto his cheeks. "It was quick, though," he says into the pounding of the water, as if following that line of thinking would lead only to more maddening ideas.

With gentle hands, he carefully works the blood out of Remi's hair and off his face, and gets as far as cleaning the back of his hands before the situation all tumbles on top of him. "I can't believe she's gone," he whispers, abandoning his efforts to slip his arms back around the alchemist, as if worried he might suddenly disappear as well.

RONIN

I've been sleepwalking, Too close to the fire
But it's the only place that I can hold you tight

The water feels warm against his skin and though Remi childishly wants to remain coiled and hardened against the world, he feels his shoulders and lowerback relax beneath the heat. It feels like a betrayal to Vai to feel anything that isn't hatred or grief even if the witch would laugh and pinch him were she here to see him acting so.

But she wasn't. And it was precisely because she wasn't that Remi felt his teeth click together while he pressed a fist above his head against the wall. "No." He agrees. "I thought maybe I could slip into her dreams without her knowing...let it seem like just another walk in the woods, but.." The smile that forces itself onto his lips hurts far worse than any bodily injury he'd ever sustained. "...well. She was always far more clever than I was."

Digging his fingers into his hand where claws threatened to cut the skin of his palm, Remi gives his head a slight shake. "I would have brought you with me...or brought her to you, if I could. But...Ludo, it...it does not work like that."

the lullaby

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

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

"More clever than both of us put together, I think," Ronin agrees, though he doesn't even have the energy to try for a smile. Letting out a shuddering breath and stepping back again, he works around Remi as best he can to clean off his hands, and although he doesn't want to turn off the water and move on from this in any way, they can't stay here forever.

As for bringing her anywhere - to him or to anyone else - Ronin gently shakes his head. "You were there. I think that would have made her happy," he mumbles, reaching out to turn off the shower. "And I'm sure she'd be breaking her heart to see you like this now." Not that it matters. Because she's not here to do anything any more.

Reaching for a couple of towels, Ronin wraps one about his waist and offers the other to Remi before stepping out into the cooler air. "...So much for the LongNight monsters being gone," he mutters darkly.

RONIN

I've been sleepwalking, Too close to the fire
But it's the only place that I can hold you tight

Remi, like some vaguely-warm statue in the middle of their shower, is unaware for the most part of Ronin's efforts to actually use the water to clean either of them off. That most the blood is gone from his scraggly curls and hands has gone largely unnoticed, and it's only as the Huntsman turns the shower off that Remi seems to realize any time has passed. Glancing over his shoulder then back at Ronin, the alchemist lets out an apologetic huff and swipes wearily at his eyes.

'Well, that is the thing about loving someone, I suppose.' Remi murmurs, lazily accepting the offered towel but doing nothing more with it than twisting it in his hands. Bitter responses in the vein of, this is why I hate everyone prickle on his tongue, but instead of giving them voice, the alchemist merely scrubs at his face with the towel. "I feel like putting everyone but you into a dream they cannot wake from, until I feel better." He admits, stepping out of the shower and giving his body a cursory drying-off.

'I wonder if anyone would notice or if they would all think it was just part of LongNight." It wasn't as though Ludo would be around to stop him, after all.

the lullaby

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

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

Doing much the same as Remi, Ronin abandons the towel after drying himself and rubbing at his hair a bit, before turning to take the alchemist's hands in his own. "Can we do it in reverse?" he asks softly, sounding bone tired and uncharacteristically morose. "Can you put us to sleep until we feel better? I'm not sure I can trust myself to deal with... anything... especially not Stormbreak yet."

Not without losing his temper and berating the citizens for their prejudices, or worse. A lot worse. Swallowing hard, regardless of Remi's answer, Ronin will open the door to step out into the rest of their houseboat, raking his fingers through his damp hair and pausing by the counter to pour out the cocoa he'd been making. It seems offensive now, somehow.

RONIN

I've been sleepwalking, Too close to the fire
But it's the only place that I can hold you tight

Raising an eyebrow, wondering what the reverse of sending the entire world into a coma was, as Ronin explains, Remi finds himself smiling despite himself. "Gods I love you." He whispers, taking one of Ronin's water-softened hands in his own and giving it a gentle squeeze.

Frowning at the cold air that rushes towards them (he is naked after all, and some parts of him are unhappier about this change in temperature than others), Remi follows Ronin into the kitchen before giving his hand another tug. 'Come to bed with me? I want to be anywhere but here.' He'd not stray from Ronin's side, buts gods he wanted to be far, far away from his own morality and murderous inclinations. "A sea of starlight or an ocean of plants...just somewhere that isn't here."

the lullaby

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

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

"I love you too," Ronin replies instantly and easily, and his own soft smile is hidden by the angle of his body as he deals with the remnants of their cocoa. Squeezing Remi's hand back, he nods and presses a kiss against the back of the alchemist's palm before leading them to the furs and blankets, still rumpled and with a ghost of warmth from their recent departure.

"Let's go to a misty mountain," he decides, "with a little cabin built into the cliffside. Maybe there are monsters in the fog. Maybe we'll kill them." Whatever they choose, it absolutely won't be here, and Ronin crawls into bed and draws Remi with him, dragging at the blankets to cover them both up. Sugar busies herself putting out all the lanterns, until there's only a single solitary glow to keep them company.

RONIN

I've been sleepwalking, Too close to the fire
But it's the only place that I can hold you tight

There are no words—none that Remi knows anyways—to describe the utter relief that comes from being known so intimately. It's more than that, though, because none of this feels as if Ronin is merely pandering to his needs. So it's with no sense of guilt that Remi tumbles into the furs alongside his husband, boneless and adoring. There's only a brief flicker of heat in the alchemist's belly as he curls himself around the Huntsman, but it's easily shoved aside in lieu of thoughts of thick purple mist and vast alpine meadows.

Perched onto the side of a mountain is a cabin of impossible architecture and gravity-defying construction. It's cozy, and the porch that juts out over the mountain's edge is furnished with a grand fireplace that crackles merrily, heedless of the fact that there is nothing to support its weight. Nearby a storm is brewing, making the air thick and charged with electricity such that the swathes of lavender mist surrounding the mountain churn like a flying sea. Within that sea are an odd-number of eyes and teeth that smile and then melt.

the lullaby

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

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

Cozy and ominous with a storm brewing on the horizon; it's exactly Ronin's sort of place. In this non-reality they've crafted, he's wearing leather and furs, sitting on the porch before the crackling fire as he sharpens an impossibly large battleaxe. With hair ruffled by the mountain wind and scars on his face, this version of Ronin is a monster hunter in every way and then some. With a crooked smile, he eyes the grinning mists, glancing over his shoulder for his husband.

"Do you want to wait for them to come to us, or shall we get a head start?" he asks, rolling to get to his feet and setting down the whetstone he's been using. Thunder purrs overhead, preceded by a few flashes within the lavender smog. A suitable backdrop for forgetting, but the violence on the horizon says otherwise.

RONIN

I've been sleepwalking, Too close to the fire
But it's the only place that I can hold you tight

Unlike his counterpart, Remi's body looks young and unused. Whether this is simply a ruse to make the monsters in the fog feel overconfident or if its an echo of the man he was when he'd first come across the witch is anyone's guess (it's both neither, and both). Ruffling a hand through his curls before returning to cleaning his nails with a piece of straw, Remi glances at Ronin and then towards the mist with a thoughtful smile. 'Let them come. Then there is no need for us to share.'

Rising lazily, Remi breezes across the deck towards Ronin. Recklessness is almost a given when one is in control of a dream, and so despite the guttural clicking sounds and flashes of teeth coming from the fog, the alchemist presses himself suggestively against the Huntsman. "Facciamo crollare questo mondo." He whispers against the shell of his husband's ear, his teeth grazing Ronin's earlobe.

the lullaby

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

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

"Share what? Kills?" Ronin grins, just about propping the axe on his shoulder when Remi comes to drape against him. Tilting his head and letting out an indulgent hum as if to encourage more attention, he reaches out with his free arm to draw the alchemist up and against his side. "Say it again," he whispers, though he leans in to silence any further words with his lips and tongue.

The thunder is loud enough, this time, to shake the foundations of their porch (of which there are none, of course, but in a dream it doesn't matter), and as Ronin draws back, it's to catch a faceless, keening thing launching itself at them from the fog. Hefting the axe around in a swing that should not look that easy, it's with teeth bared in a grin that the Huntsman buries the blade in its skull. "One," he murmurs.

RONIN

I've been sleepwalking, Too close to the fire
But it's the only place that I can hold you tight

Remi's tongue busily ensures that Ronin feels the words instead of hears them as he relaxes considerably against his husband's body despite the danger pacing closer, and closer. The urge to strip away the danger and convert the world into something upon which he could simply fuck the Huntsman was tempting indeed. But he could have Ronin when they woke up; the same could not be said for the violence which was frothing at the mouth(s) in the fog.

Peeling himself away from Ronin as the Huntsman swings his ax, Remi shivers with delight at the sound of steel connecting with bone. 'One.' He agrees, before turning his attention to the mist. Tilting his head slightly to the side and looking like a man before a stocked cupboard deciding what to eat, he takes a few steps forward before instantly being dissolved by the mist though somehow his silhouette remains. A silhouette which morphs and mutates until Remi is nothing more than a tangle of limbs and impossibly large claws.

Whether it's one thing or many that advances on the alchemist is hard to say based on the movement of shadows and fog alone. Not even the multitude of screams that follow the sound of muscle and skin being torn away from bone gives much of an indication.

the lullaby

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

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

Ronin shouldn't find it attractive, that in the monstrous tangle of limbs and tentacles and claws lies his husband, but gods if he can't help himself. Especially here in their subconscious where things like darkness and light, like right and wrong can become so gorgeously blurred that it barely matters any more. For the Huntsman's part, at least, he longs to feel the burning in muscles that haven't been stressed for what feels like years; to taste sweat and blood and have his lungs burn with the effort.

And again, because of the miracle of a dream, he's more than capable of giving himself that much. And so as foul creatures fall and turn their porch slick with greasy blood, Ronin finds himself weary and at ease, loving the way the axe begins to feel heavier in his arms, the way he's forced to huff out a few breaths as he dodges back from one of the monsters. Covered in gore and ichor might be a strange way of expressing grief, but it wouldn't be the first time for either man.

RONIN

I've been sleepwalking, Too close to the fire
But it's the only place that I can hold you tight

Though they would awake in their beds free of injury or even sore muscles, in the here and now the pair were free to bleed, and break, and let their energy be sapped away by their efforts. Was trading sex for violence any better of a coping mechanism for the pair? Gods only knew, though one important difference was perhaps that this wasn't a way to avoid their feelings, but rather to address them in ways that were otherwise impossible. Better for Remi to take out his anger and grief on hoards of nightmares than on some poor citizen who had the misfortune of asking Remi how he was doing.

Blood flecked the air so much so that as the storm clouds neared, the tang of metal that hovered in the mist threatened to conduct the looming electricity. Soon the world could explode with shrieks of light, heat, and sinew and both Remi and Ronin would awake in their bed. No worse for wear and mentally exhausted if not physically, it would be with wet eyes that the alchemist would roll onto his side to drape one of his legs over Ronin's body.

"Not yet." He would mumble, of waking up, and so they would sleep again.

~FIN

the lullaby

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)