[SE] what keeps you warm at night

even my darkness shines for you

"I was really hoping you would show me," Ronin whispers, a wicked roughness to his voice and a crooked slant to the smile he directs up at Remi. Alas, the book is discarded, but as deft fingers come to plunge through his hair, he finds himself tilting his head into the touch without further thought for it. "Mm...? Slowly, I am afraid to say. Stormbreak is quite a large place, and there are plenty of nooks and crannies where a relic could hide."

Reaching up to try and playfully catch one of Remi's hands, if he's successful Ronin will busy himself planting kisses long the Lullaby's palm. "Why, would you like to go relicing with me? I'm sure we can think of somewhere to look that hasn't already been searched. Why, the relic could be in this very apartment. In the bedroom, even."

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DARKSTAR

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i've hidden all my fears in a book for only my eyes to see

"Unless you are implying you need more fibre in your diet, I have absolutely no ideas." Remi lies through a slanted smile. Mention of nooks and crannies has the alchemist predictably flashing his counterpart a suggestive grin for which he isn't the least bit apologetic. If you had a man as attractive as Ronin with his head nearly between your legs, you'd have trouble not twisting every single word or phrase into something filthy as well.

Caught or surrendered, Remi's hand ends up in Ronin's, and the kisses the Huntsman places on his skin has Remi's toes curling against the flooring. "Gasp," he remarks. "And unless we want someone else coming in here, we should be very thorough in searching lest we are accused of missing something." He points out, and had the warm weight of Ronin's head in his lap not been there, Remi might have dramatically risen off the couch at that very moment.

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even my darkness shines for you

"Well that is a shame. You're normally so full of ideas, too," Ronin laments, his kisses dancing a slow route across Remi's knuckles now. The action means he can't quite smirk back at his husband, but the coy glance he shoots up at him from beneath dark lashes says just as much, he thinks. With a soft laugh, he finally releases Remi's hand to reach up instead and let his fingers trail along the alchemist's jaw.

"I would never want that," he agrees. "I take relic hunting very seriously, you know." Nodding, as if to punctuate that very fact, it takes a lot of effort to move out of Remi's lap, but move Ronin does (though not without subtly adjusting himself, because the Lullaby isn't the only one nearly always aroused by the mere suggestion of sex with his husband).

Rising to his feet, he turns to offer Remi a charming half-bow, holding out his hand to help the other man up. "Shall we?"

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i've hidden all my fears in a book for only my eyes to see

"I must be tired." Remi replies apologetically. "Maybe I'm the one who needs a nap." Smirking is not required when the full force of Ronin's emotions are sloshing across Remi's skin like the seafoam Flora had thrown Ronin's PreSenT into. Tilting his head into the Huntsman's hand with a stare growing ever more predatory as the teasing continues, Remi nods stiffly. "I know you do. And I take keeping people out of our bedroom very seriously."

Taking Ronin's hand with a twist of his lips, Remi forces himself to stand. "You know, were I not quite positive that the relic was not in our couch, I would have pulled you onto my lap and taken you right here and now...but..." Standing teasingly close to his husband such that the tenting in their pants was likely the closest thing to one another, Remi shrugs regrettably. "Alas, you are indeed a very serious relic hunter and I would not put you off your search."

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even my darkness shines for you

"Or maybe you just need some inspiration," Ronin reasons with a tilt of his head, as if he could perhaps be the very thing Remi is looking for. "And I am glad that you take it so seriously, because you know I like to keep members of an orchestra in there to serenade you, and quite frankly, there isn't room and I forget to feed them."

It must be the season, or (and it's more likely) perhaps it's just Ronin, because as Remi's predatory tells become more obvious, the Huntsman is all the more prey-like. "Mm, that is a shame," he agrees, daring to stand even a fraction closer, such that his breath will tickle across the other man's cheek and down the side of his neck.

There might as well be luxere antlers spiralling up from Ronin's dark hair given what he does next, because after a beat or two of tense not touching, he decides, with a flash of teeth and a huff of laughter, to run. Vaulting the table easily and darting down the hall towards their bedroom, it's only a shame that they aren't in the woods, because Ronin thinks he'd be able to give the alchemist a hell of a workout. He still does, actually.

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i've hidden all my fears in a book for only my eyes to see

"And then I eat them and there's a mess and a smell and you get all upset about having to clean, and..." Remi rolls his wrist to indicate that the wripple-effect of letting others into their bedroom was simply not worth the hassle.

"Duty first." Remi whispers in response, annunciating every word as if he might make the mere consonants themselves sound salacious with enough effort. The pair are so intensely not touching that they could be on Bridgerton, when Ronin decides to flee. The swiftness catches Remi off-guard, delighting his predatory instincts such that the levels of adrenaline suddenly singing in his blood briefly outweigh his need. Or rather, it changes the focus of his need. "Non c'è un posto dove puoi scappare senza che io possa trovarti." Remi half-sings, half-snarls as he begins to give chase.

Not nearly as fleetfooted as his counterpart, it's with power rather than speed that Remi follows. "Here I thought you wanted to look for the relic together." He calls menacingly, slipping his t-shirt over his head and discarding it in the hall.

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even my darkness shines for you

"We are looking for it together. It isn't my fault if you are slower than I am," Ronin sings back to his husband, though his words are clipped in an effort not to give away where he's going or hiding. Naturally, he expects Remi to be able to find him by the sound of his pulse alone, but that doesn't mean they can't have a little fun first. Fun begins with Ronin balling his own shirt up and throwing it at the alchemist to try and distract him, of course, buying him a fraction of time to duck into their bedroom.

The curtains are closed but the snow and the moonlight outside creates an ethereal glow, and the bedcovers are still a tangled mess (though Ronin's pants have been thrown onto them as well at this point). As for the Huntsman himself? Well, that's up to Remi to figure out. Could he be behind the door? Underneath the bed? In the closet? No, that one is silly. Ronin has been out of the closet for a long time.

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i've hidden all my fears in a book for only my eyes to see

Flailing his hands at the thrown shirt as if he'd just walked headlong into a mess of cobwebs, Remi growls playfully and opts not to shred Ronin's shirt. Halting just inside of the doorframe, Remi's pupils balloon into spheres of black as his eyes adjust.

"I can't tell if I am supposed to be looking for you, or the relic..." Remi remarks slowing, the words purring out of his mouth as he resists the urge to simple ferret Ronin out by smell or sound alone. "Maybe Ronin is the relic?" The alchemist whispers to himself thoughtfully, raising his eyebrows and shooting the 'empty' room a speculative glance.

"Gods, so many places to look...but you know, a wise Huntsman once taught me that baiting your prey into showing themselves was often a more efficient way of doing things...I wonder..." Walking into the center of the room, the alchemist lets his hands slide slowly down the length of his torso where they traced along the waistband of his pants. Lower still, the flat of one palm pressed against the clear outline of his erection that he'd made no attempt to try and dissuade.

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even my darkness shines for you

The room may as well be laughing at Remi in its silence, right up until he takes a page right from the Huntsman's books and starts an act of teasing that's so irresistible that of course he falls right for it. "Come on, now, that isn't fair," he warbles from beneath the bed, a pair of mischievous (and yet sulky) blue eyes peeping out from the darkness. "At least come closer and do that."

And while Remi is distracted - and Ronin is also distracted, let's face it - hopefully the Lullaby won't realise that the voice beneath the bed is an astral decoy, especially as a pile of laundry begins to suspiciously stand up to creep up on the other man.

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i've hidden all my fears in a book for only my eyes to see

"How can I come closer when I have no idea where you are?" Remi wonders, though of course he has turned towards the bed. Releasing the button of his pants, Remi tugs them—and his underwear— down to his ankles where he casually kicks them off. It isn't much of a strip tease, but then he hoped there were other things Ronin was interested in looking at.

Standing to attention, Remi's erection twitches in the silence that is broken only by the clattering of Mateo downstairs. Reaching down to take himself into one of his hands, the alchemist sighs a long and luxurious note of pleasure as he gently begins to run his hand up and down. Taking a similar page from Ronin's book, a second Remi appears standing before the first, and though the alchemist has no interest in having sex with himself, not all of this was for his own benefit. If one Remi had partially revealed Ronin's location, what would two be able to accomplish?

So it was that two iterations of the alchemist stood next to one another with fully realized and needy erections in their hands. It briefly occurred to Remi that he could touch himself with himself, but the idea was quickly dismissed. He couldn't quite say why, but the idea of it was one he instantly hated. Hopefully Ronin wouldn't begrudge him for that.

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even my darkness shines for you

With his game of kiss chase going so remarkably wrong, Ronin is at least able to determine which Remi is the real one, and the alchemist (if he isn't too distracted by touching himself) might notice that the Huntsman under the bed has grown mysteriously silent. Mainly because he isn't there any more. In the meantime, the laundry pile hustles closer, before promptly flinging all garments away to get to his lover.

"Gods, you have no right," Ronin almost purrs into Remi's ear as he sidles up behind him, pressing against his back and slipping his arms around his waist. "Do you have any idea how good you look? It's torture." This, of course, is mumbled through a kiss delivered to the side of his neck, even as one hand slips down as if to join or take over the skilful strokes to his cock.

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i've hidden all my fears in a book for only my eyes to see

Were the alchemist's faculties not dulled by the sensations provided by his own hand, he might have flinched more as the clothing pile suddenly burst apart to reveal an unfairly attractive Huntsman. As it was, Remi merely offers a sly grin as he bonelessly (well, save for one) melts back against Ronin as his duplicate vanishes. Slipping his hand away that Ronin might take over, Remi reaches behind himself that he might clasp Ronin's cock. "Caught you." He whispers triumphantly as the world swims away to red behind his closed eyelids and his fingers begin to move slowly up and down.

"You really should know better than to run." Remi adds as he widens his stance with an unsteady sigh. Heat shivers out from his core and down the backs of his thighs. The urge to let his fingers become tipped with claws and sink into something is so powerful that Remi finds that his teeth have clenched together in an gesture of passive restraint. "That is just as torturous." He pants, and now his fingers have ceased their ministrations against his husband's erection and now instead line up the Huntsman between his thighs.

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even my darkness shines for you

Humming a note of indulgence as Remi's hand reaches back to grasp the length of him, Ronin's kisses, whilst still slow and hot, are passionate enough to leave bruises against the side of the alchemist's neck. "Sometimes I can't resist," he murmurs apologetically, his voice little more than a soft rumble. "I love it when you catch me." Especially if it leads to moments like this. Having fully intended to be the one pinned beneath his husband, Ronin nonetheless feels a thrill crackle up the back of his spine as Remi repositions them.

"You want to do this standing up?" He huffs a laugh into the crook of the other man's shoulder, not minding at all but also figuring it's a waste of a perfectly good bed. Either way, the Huntsman has no intention of wasting time, squeezing Remi's cock and continuing to lavish him with slow strokes as he angles his hips forward.

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i've hidden all my fears in a book for only my eyes to see

Like being asked where or what you want to eat when you're already starving, Ronin's question elicits nothing but a crackle of static from Remi's mind as the alchemist tries to consider a response. "I...I want.." Part of him wanted to turn around and throw Ronin against the wall. Another part wanted to reach clawed hands over his shoulder and hook them into his husband's skin while tentacles pushed from his sides to affix them together. Another part still wanted to be pinned down to the bed, bound so that he couldn't move, and had. It made his mouth water and his hands shake, rendering him entirely inarticulate as his brain handed in the towel and let itself be swamped by the starbright presence and heat of the Huntsman.

Ronin will feel as much as sense Remi's indecision as the alchemist yeilds to whatever and however the Huntsman wants things.

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