All That Glitters

Sam pushed and pecked at the cube but nothing happened. With a (birdy) sigh, he realised he was probably going to have to touch it with his hands; which meant dropping his shift. I think I need to actually pick it up. Um...we could walk back, maybe. He knew it was unlikely for Remi to actually take him up on that offer but he did mean it, was willing to risk the dangers to save Remi's comfort and want to stay around him. He transformed back, appearing kneeling on the floor by the cube. Looking up at Remi and smiling for just a moment he then leaned down to pick up the cube, desperate to see if it would work with his actual fingers. Samuel At seventeen, I started to starve myself I thought that love was a kind of emptiness And at least I understood then the hunger I felt And I didn't have to call it loneliness

The cube feels light as air in Sam's hand. He is easily able to lift it.

Remi inhaled sharply as Sam jumped from his arm, the hawk's talons needling against his light shirt. Despite the pain, the first words out of his mouth were still: "Be careful—" He said in a light whisper, still not wanting to alert any of the creatures in this place to their location. As Sam nudged it with his beak, Remi held his breath. Nothing happened. It was perhaps lucky that Sam shifted so quickly, as it meant he lost the mental tether to Remi and as such couldn't feel the cold whirlwind of dread rushing through the alchemist. Though there was heat at the heart of it, but it was hidden behind newly erected walls. The alchemist's lips parted slightly as if he meant to say something more, but the words died on his tongue as Sam gazed at him with a smile. In one of those horrific moments of not-quite premonition, Remi wondered what it would be like to have Sam disappear into the cube, or be exploded, or any number of other things that would render this moment—that small smile—the last memory he'd ever have or make with the bookmaker. But then Sam picked up the cube, and nothing at all happened. Releasing a breath he'd inadvertently been holding, Remi laughed a shaky and relieved sound. "Do you feel anything? Are you alright?" Яemi But now it's happily ever never. I guess now I know better

Sam held the cube in his hands and considered. Did he feel anything? It was light, a little cold, perhaps. He tilted his hands this way and that, seeing if it would tip about. It...just seemed like a metal cube. "I f-f-feel fine." He reassured Remi, then stood up, holding out the cube to show him closer. "..I...it has to do s-something, right? If I was so...so dr-drawn to it?" He asked, not really directing the question at Remi. He didn't want to believe that the first time in a while he'd felt a real sense of purpose, it had been for something useless. Experimentally he tapped at each side of the cube then the corners, touched it to his tooth. Normally he would have been more anxious of something clearly having to do with The Voice, but he was desperate for this to turn out to be something, both because he needed it to be for his own self worth, but also because he didn't want Remi to think he'd been dragged out for nothing. Samuel At seventeen, I started to starve myself I thought that love was a kind of emptiness And at least I understood then the hunger I felt And I didn't have to call it loneliness

The alchemist nodded slightly, brows furrowing with confusion. He wouldn't press it though, for as long as Sam was safe that was all that immediately mattered. This place seemed deceptively quite and tame just now, but memories of the past urged haste in leaving it. "Ah..well. " Remi began with an unhelpful shrug. He wanted to say you're the natural and an ascended, shouldn't you know about this? but of course he didn't. Instead he merely said, "We could run some tests on it back in my shop if you like. I am not sure that we should remain out here any longer than is necessary...the last time I was here with Jigano...." Remi shivered and shook his head. "It was not pleasant." Glancing towards Sam now, Remi could feel his heart rate begin to increase, an unspoken question lingering on his lips. It screamed loudly in his mind and he was sure it was written quite clearly across his face: how are we going to get back? And, another buried more deeply perhaps, won't it be faster to drink from my neck? Яemi But now it's happily ever never. I guess now I know better

"...T-tests. Right." Sam agreed, clearly disappointed as he placed the cube into his pocket. The anti-climax of his discovery weighed on him, the knowledge that Remi would now definitely think he had made this up to drag them out here. Why had he thought he could be important, that he would find something useful? It was clearly stupid. Remi thought they should go back and looking about the dark Labyrinth, Sam found it easy to agree. But he couldn't ask Remi to drink again, just couldn't, so he began to walk as if he were intending to find the way back on foot - because he was. "Do y-you remember the wa..way back? From w-when we were u..up there?" Samuel At seventeen, I started to starve myself I thought that love was a kind of emptiness And at least I understood then the hunger I felt And I didn't have to call it loneliness

The alchemist tilted his head slightly with confusion. "Or...on your own." He added, his uncertainty rifling into the words slightly and making his accent sound slightly thicker than it had been. The assumption being that either Sam already knew what it did, or simply did not want his help. The more time he spent with the bookmaker the harder and harder it was for Remi to try and connect the dots between the two. "Sam—" He called out, a hand reaching immediately for the ascended's shoulder just as a branch cracked in the distance. Trying to pull the man to a stop, Remi remembered himself and yanked his hand back as if it had been burned, wincing slightly at his own awkwardness and offering the bookmaker an apologetic smile. "I did try and look. But...watch—" He whispered, pointing through the path that they were currently on. In the distance, the hedges ominously rearranged themselves like silent and interlocked pieces that could slide back and forth on a whim. With a sigh, the alchemist tried to find Sam's gaze, his expression worn and yet somehow still radiant in the moonlight. "We both know what the best way to return is. It is just ... " Remi swallowed, shaking his head slightly as if trying to settle his thoughts, before looking into Sam's eyes. "You have told me a little, but I do not know what I was to you, or what you were to me. I cannot understand it now, and for that I am sorry. Truly." For a moment Remi's eyes lowered, as if considering taking the bookmakers hand. In the end though, he ruffled a hand through his hair and gazed up at the moon for a moment instead. "You know how it feels when you bite me...and...I know that I have experienced it before, with you even, but I do not remember it. This feels new, and honestly, terrifying." He admitted with a boyish and easy laugh, his brows creasing as he implored Sam to understand. "I am sorry I am not who I was." Remi concluded after a moment with a melancholy sigh. Яemi But now it's happily ever never. I guess now I know better

Sam whirled around at the ghost of a hand on his shoulder, mentally begging Remi not to make this into a thing, to just let him try and find his way out so they wouldn't have to work around the uncomfortable feelings of the bite again. But of course Remi was right; when Sam looked down the path he had been about to set down on, he felt his resolve crumble. It would take him an age to find a way out if he ever did, and he'd heard tales of the creatures in the Labyrinth for years. Remi looked handsome in the moonlight, which really didn't help with the flood of emotions Sam felt himself drowning under as he began to apologise. Immediately Sam wanted to insist it wasn't necessary, that Remi was telling him things he already knew, but...he felt that wasn't what was needed. He took a step forward away from the threatening path behind him and tried to think of what to say. He hoped this Remi would realise, as he had before, that this was just time he needed to formulate his thoughts. "I...I kn-know it's hard...that's why I...I didn't w-want to ask you. T-to do it again." He had thought that obvious, but perhaps it wasn't. "I...I don't w-want you to apologise. It's...n-none of this is y..your fault." As much as he hated the whole situation, Sam blamed Ludo and not Remi. He had sat up at night hating Ludo with a passion he'd never found before for a God. "...Wh..what do you wan-want to do? Y...you're th..the one starting out with this." Samuel At seventeen, I started to starve myself I thought that love was a kind of emptiness And at least I understood then the hunger I felt And I didn't have to call it loneliness

Remi watched Sam turn away. Without a baseline for their friendship, Remi found the gesture hard to understand, and so he merely stayed silent and let the man be. All the while he felt conflicted and sad, like he'd done something horribly wrong and yet he couldn't quite name it and so couldn't quite fix it. Perhaps Sam was right that he had nothing to apologize for, but it certainly felt as though he did. Perhaps that was the problem. Remi was left with all the wrong feelings, and none of the right ones. "It is though." Remi said softly, Ludo's treachery having left all of Jigano's critiques of him fully intact. Much as he might have wanted to blame Lucas for taking the mask—he was fairly certain that was the only reasonable explanation now—it was Remi who had brought it into the Rathskeller, left it unattended, and then told a stranger about it. "I lost the mask. It is my fault." Taking a breath, Remi ran a hand unconsciously against his neck, an obvious tell for the thoughts whirling in his mind. "It is the best way to get back. We will almost surely make it home without injury if we fly." He said almost shakily as he closed his eyes for a moment. "And...it is not like you..like we have not done this before. " He added, opening his eyes to look at Sam. Part of him wanted to ask if the ascended did this knowingly. The maze was dangerous, and though it was true Remi was in a good position to be a protector, he was in an event better position to simply share his abilities. The alchemist wasn't sure if Sam was trying to recreate their first moments together—he'd already said that their first kiss and when Sam had first bitten him had been a moment intertwined—but he wasn't so sure that he wasn't, either. The bookmaker seemed to be trying towards...something, even if Remi couldn't quite say what. "It is just strange to have these feelings forced onto you, that is all. But I will manage." Remi's pale stare lowered towards his wrist and he blinked thoughtfully. "Is...the veins in my neck are so much larger ...would it be faster to..." His voice was low, almost a whisper as he looked questioningly towards Sam. Яemi But now it's happily ever never. I guess now I know better

"..Y..you didn't mean f-for this to happen, though." Sam immediately came back with. He could not accept any of this as Remi's fault. It had to be something that had happened to them at the fault of someone else, something they would overcome together. If Remi had any hand in it, intentional or not...it felt too much like a choice. Remi once again made good points towards biting, making Sam wonder if he wanted it. It was clearly a pleasurable experience for Remi as much as a confusing one, and had he really not wanted to Sam would have suffered through the maze by himself; he really did want the best for Remi. He wasn't even consciously trying to push them back towards anything resembling a relationship, not yet; he was just as lost as Remi as to how to approach this. "...I....I don't want t-to force anything on you. I don't....want th-this to be that. If...if...you e-end up l..liking me again. I'd want it t-to be for me, and no...not for the b-bite. Or be..because you feeling like you h-have to." With that said, it would be easiest to get out of the maze from drinking. He looked at Remi's neck, swallowed down the parts of him that immediately leapt at how delicious it would be. He stepped close and held out a hand to touch the side of Remi's neck, considering it. "It...is a b-bit more intimate, though. I don't wan...want to force that. It's..u-up to you." Samuel At seventeen, I started to starve myself I thought that love was a kind of emptiness And at least I understood then the hunger I felt And I didn't have to call it loneliness

"No, I did not." The alchemist agreed, but belatedly. As Sam spoke, the alchemist studied his pale face in the moonlight with a thoughtful sort of ambivalence. Then why are we here? He wanted to ask. Why did we not bring a group, why is it just you and I? Why did you not tell me where we were going so I could have prepared? Why did you leave me only one option to protect you, and then say I still have a choice? Remi tried not to flinch away as Sam's hand reached out. The casualness and comfortable way that Sam moved around him when he wasn't paying attention made Remi's head swim and his heart thunder. To be known like this, without knowing the man back was the strangest sort of disharmony Remi had ever experienced. But if Sam was going to bite him again, the ascended's fingers against his throat was hardly the thing to be worried about. "Yes." Remi agreed. It was more than a bit more intimate. It was worlds away from Remi's current comfort zone, and yet there was no where else for him to go. "I want you to be safe." He said simply. Conclusively. Яemi But now it's happily ever never. I guess now I know better

Sam sighed and nodded, knowing he was digging a grave here that would take them both a long time to crawl out of. "I...I will ma-make this as quick as p...possible." He promised, then took the final step towards Remi and with another hand on his cheek, tilted his head to the side to give Sam better access to his neck. For just a second before he bit, he gave himself the luxury of imagining everything was normal, that Remi wanted this just as much as he, that he wasn't ruining the very thing he was trying to protect just with sheer inexperience. But the fantasy could not last long for he knew Remi wanted this to be quick, soon done with. His fangs broke the skin of Remi's neck easily, the blood coming freely from veins the instinctive part of him wanted to drain. The flood of sensation he had come to expect rushed into him, a quiet moan escaping him without his full control as his fingers tensed on Remi's neck. Once he had been drinking for about 30 seconds, gotten enough to fly, he let go despite everything in his body telling him to stay. Samuel At seventeen, I started to starve myself I thought that love was a kind of emptiness And at least I understood then the hunger I felt And I didn't have to call it loneliness

Remi nodded, gazing down at Sam as he neared. It felt...rude to look anywhere else, and yet the intimacy that screamed strains in his ears was almost dizzying as the bookmaker stood before him. The hand that touched his cheek was gentle, but Remi found himself always wishing that it wasn't. This was familiar for Sam, loving maybe. It wasn't procedural at all. Lips parted slightly, Remi watched with bated breath as the ascended leaned up, lips hovering just above his skin. All Remi could see was copper hair out of his peripheral vision, and all he could hear was the sound of his own breath. It was more intimate, but it was also more everything this time. One long drink seemed far more potent than two smaller ones, and as the euphoric rush of pleasure over took him, Remi could feel his body wanting to move forward, his hands wanting to touch, his heart wanting to race. He moaned in response, his fingers dancing at his sides, caught between the fever-lust roaring through his veins and the dwindling part of his mind that screamed that this shouldn't be happening. 30 seconds felt like an eternity that was over far too soon, and as Sam pulled away, Remi gasped. Cheeks flushed, lips parted, eyes hazy, Remi took a latent step forward as if off-balance and could do little else other than stare like a deer in the headlights at the man before him. Яemi But now it's happily ever never. I guess now I know better

As he pulled away he could see that Remi was in a state, flushed and panting. Sam did his best to polite ignore it until Remi tipped forward. He reached out to hold onto Remi's arms and steady him, hold him up. "A..are you alright?" Sam asked, nervous now that this could be the last time he'd see Remi after so much unwanted biting and complicated talking. "...We...we won't set off un-until you've had time to calm down." He said, trying to comfort Remi, letting of his arms once he was sure the other man would be able to stand. Looking about them, there didn't seem to be any immediate danger, so they had the time to burn. Samuel At seventeen, I started to starve myself I thought that love was a kind of emptiness And at least I understood then the hunger I felt And I didn't have to call it loneliness