frostbite

the wounds are open and bleeding out

It has become almost routine, for Ronin to stir when he feels Remi leave in the middle of the night. Most of the time his husband's demigodly duties are little more than an inconvenience, but as hard as Remi can be at times, he's not impervious to things like silly human emotions. And so even if the alchemist returns, sleepy and calm and not at all fazed by his work, Ronin still likes to be awake for it if he can.

And so as Longnight yawns on, the lanterns in their little houseboat are merrily burning a welcome for the Lullaby's return. The smell of cocoa and peppermint laces the air, and Sugar busies herself watching at the windows for Remi to come home. In the meantime, dressed only in sweatpants and a blanket cape, Ronin continues to stir the cocoa, oblivious to the way the world has rocked and fractured, never to be the same again.

THE

DARK STAR

Table coding by Sky

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

It takes longer for Remi to return than normal, though what counts as normal when one is sent off to mercy kill is a touch ambiguous. What will set this particular situation apart from the others, tear tracks aside, is the healthy coating of blood that stains Remi's shirt, his forearms, and his face. The cottage had been quiet and cozy when the lock had been picked and the door swung silently open. The would-be assassins hadn't even time to scream before their throats were cut, staining Vai's floors a deep maroon which Remi would later regret.

Numb, but not from the cold, Remi had made his way home in the dark. If he had meandered he hadn't noticed, and by the time the houseboat came into view, the alchemist had lost all track of how long he'd been gone. On the windowsill, Oria trills a low and ominous sound as she taps one of her fingers against the glass, before chittering something in worried tones to Sugar.

Remi's steps are heavy on the stairs, and the hand that reaches for the doorknob is at first too slick with blood to turn it. Silence follows, as if the alchemist is deciding whether or not—or perhaps how—to try again.

the lullaby

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

the wounds are open and bleeding out

Ronin doesn't hear Oria over the tinkering he's doing at the stove, but Sugar does, and her accompanying trill - along with the pulse of foreboding down their bond - is enough for his shoulders to tense, for him to remove the cocoa from the heat to set it to one side. Letting the blanket pool to the ground, when the Huntsman turns it's with the full intention of seeing off any intruders that have decided to drop by, without prejudice.

So when he spots a familiar (if not crimson) shape step into the glow of the lanterns, Ronin's wariness softens to befuddlement, and he exchanges a worried glance with the two companions as the doorknob rattles but doesn't open. "Remi?" he calls softly, stepping across their houseboat to snag a towel from inside the bathroom door.

"Hey, what are you..." He opens the door for the Lullaby, blue eyes raking over him. "That's not yours?" he asks of the blood, beckoning him inside.

THE

DARK STAR

Table coding by Sky

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

The door opens, and though not having a shadow is nothing new for Remi, the warm light that floods out of the little houseboat seems to veer away from him, like water repelled by oil. Not bothering to lift his eyes, the alchemist gives a disinterested shake of his head. No it wasn't his blood. Maybe he would feel better if it were.

Carried by routine, as Remi steps into the houseboat and closes the door behind him, he immediately begins peeling his clothing off so that he might not track blood all throughout the house. This has become such a regular occurrence for the two that there's a basket next to the door to receive precisely these sorts of soiled garments. Naked, now with crimson just flecked across his face and staining his hands, it's only the fact that his face is devoid of any sort of expression whatsoever that suggests anything at all is wrong.

"I should shower." He murmurs mechanically, pushing past Ronin without even a glimpse towards Oria, Sugar, or the steaming cups of cocoa.

the lullaby

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

the wounds are open and bleeding out

It isn't the way the light seems to shy away from his husband, or even the disinterest or lack of expression on his face. All of those things Ronin has dealt with before, but it has been a long, long time since they weren't the exception to each other's every rule, and so as Remi brushes past him and towards the bathroom with barely a word, the Huntsman is a touch dumbstruck. "Oh--" he blurts, clicking the door shut (and locking it, for all the good it would do).

"Alright, do you..." want some help has been about to spill from his lips, before he shakes away the awkwardness and automatically moves to follow the other man. "Here, let me get the water," he murmurs, hanging the towel back up and turning on the shower.

I'll get you some clean clothes, he continues through the Attuned bond, sending a gentle pulse of love through with the words. Take as long as you need. To shower, to talk, to not talk. It won't stop Ronin from fretting internally, but he can wait as long as it takes.

THE

DARK STAR

Table coding by Sky

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

Sugar's trills and Oria's low clicks of concern sound like the buzzing of distant insects as Remi plods towards the bathroom. Even Ronin has a ghost-like quality to him as if he were speaking from a long distance away, or was veiled behind a screen. In reality it was Remi who was the one dissociated and untethered from the houseboat, not that he had noticed.

Like the sting of even lukewarm water against frostbite, Ronin's affections at least garner some sort of reaction from the alchemist, even if it is just a flinch.

The bathroom fills with steam, though Remi is standing outside of the shower staring blankly at the drain. Though he thought all of his tears had been shed, watching the water swirl around and around somehow coaxes more despair out of him as his mind begins to uncoil. "Ronin..." He says in a low voice, waiting a perfunctory amount of time before continuing, whether or not the Huntsman had answered or returned to the bathroom.

"Vai is..." Watching the water create a small whirlpool before disappearing down the drain, Remi blinks hard against the tears and moisture on his eyelashes.

"Vai is..."

the lullaby

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

the wounds are open and bleeding out

Ronin is on his way back to the bathroom before his name even hits the air, and although it's quiet over the sound of the shower, the Huntsman swears he can hear it as though Remi has whispered it into his ear. "I'm here," he says softly as he steps back in, his brow furrowed as he tries to make sense of the unfinished sentence trying to beat itself out of the Lullaby's throat.

Of all the people in the Greatwood, for Remi to mention Vai has Ronin raising a brow momentarily, as if he's going to look over his shoulder to find he's locked the witch outside by accident. But it doesn't take long to remember the reason for the Lullaby's leaving their bed, and suddenly Ronin is trying to swallow past a lump in his throat.

"It was Vai...?" he manages, just about, stepping up behind Remi to let his fingers ghost across the other man's bare shoulder. "Gods, is this... is it her blood...?"

THE

DARK STAR

Table coding by Sky

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

The darkness which pours out of Remi at the featherlight press of Ronin's fingertips is bleak and hungry. The Huntsman's question has the alchemist whirling about sharply, the movement striking compared to how still and monotonous he'd been thus far. With his eyebrows narrowed and a snarl on his lips, Remi blinks himself away from whatever fury had briefly flared inside as he gives his head a shake. "Not hers, no." He replies, shoulders sagging again.

"She...it was peaceful." Rolling his thumb across his fingertips which were no longer slick, but were instead tacky with blood, he adds: "For her, it was peaceful." Far, far away Remi was aware that this disjointed explanation was only a defence mechanism and that, around Ronin of all people, it wasn't needed. Raising both hands that he might press his eyes hard enough to create blinding stars, Remi sighs into the warbling pain. "I could not change the point of her death...but I could not leave those who would have killed her unpunished."

The Darkeyes of the world could try to put him on trial for sentencing the trio of would-be-assassins before they'd actually committed a crime, he didn't care.

the lullaby

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

the wounds are open and bleeding out

It isn't often that Ronin ever considers flinching back from his husband, but as the yawning darkness reaches out for him, it's a close thing. And even so, as the other man suddenly whips around he's forced to take a step back regardless, holding his hands up as if to remind Remi that it's just the two of them, that it's not an accusation, not even close.

"Right... I... alright. Fuck." Pinching at the bridge of his nose to stop the sting of tears that try to prick at the corners of his eyes, the Huntsman lets out a shuddering breath and packs those emotions away for later. Giving little more than a nod of understanding about Vai's would-be assassins, that's another thing future-Ronin can revisit at a later time.

For now, he reaches out with careful hands to clasp Remi's shoulders, willing to be bitten by the devouring blackness within his husband if it means being able to keep him close. "I am so, so sorry," he whispers.

THE

DARK STAR

Table coding by Sky

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

There are no colours to be felt in the yawning pit of Remi's grief and rage. There aren't even semitones of darkness with which to describe the vastness of it; there is only black, and black, and black. It is thick and oppressive, maddeningly hot in places and bitingly cold in others. If it has a texture at all it's something like that of a broken tooth with the root exposed.

"I do not want you to feel this." Remi mutters weakly, though he makes no attempt to shrug off Ronin's hands. 'She was your mother as much as she was mine.' That wasn't strictly true, not with the Huntsman having known the witch far longer than the Lullaby, but even through his grief Remi loved Ronin enough to bypass Remi's otherwise overly protective and problematic possessiveness of Vai.

"I do not know what to do." He whispers over the rush of running water.

the lullaby

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

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

Swallowing hard, Ronin's fingers flinch against his husband's skin, but he does his best not to draw back away from it. Like tar and broken glass, it rakes across his psyche, and he lets out a shuddering sigh and offers a smile that can hardly be called such a thing. "I don't want you to feel this either," he whispers, his meaning clear; they will both feel terrible regardless, so Ronin isn't going anywhere. "And that might be true, but she was yours first. And I didn't... I wasn't the one who had to..."

Shaking his head and staring hard at the ceiling to keep shining eyes from spilling over, Ronin draws Remi against his chest without complaint, though his embrace is soft and careful, like the alchemist might break and cut them both up with his sharp edges. "In general, or right now?" he asks, pressing his eyes shut. "In general can wait, and I can deal with right now if you need. How... where is the blood from, though?"

RONIN

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

Wearily, Remi shakes his head. It doesn't matter who ultimately did it. All that mattered was that when he'd awoken this morning it had been in a world where Vai was alive, and now, somehow, he'd been transported to this place.

Reaching out to wrap his arms around Ronin, Remi returns the gesture with far less caution. "Right now." He answers into the warm skin of his husband's shoulder, exhaling a shaky breath and closing his eyes. "Like I said, I could not leave those who would have killed her unpunished." Remi repeats, feeling his knees begin to shake as his blood pressure drops. "It was...a group from Stormbreak who did it. Or...would have done it." He adds, finding it easier to speak now that Ronin was pressed against him.

"..I do not know if they knew what she was to me...to all of us, but they targeted her because she was an abandoned." Later Remi will realize that had Enzo been with her, his son would have been killed as well.

the lullaby

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

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

"Right now we need to get you cleaned up. And something sweet wouldn't go amiss either, if you can stomach it," Ronin murmurs, nuzzling against Remi's blood-sticky curls and absently shucking off his sweatpants, because there's no way the alchemist is showering alone (when does he ever). He's already nodding to hear that those who would have ultimately been responsible for Vai's death are taken care of, the Huntsman stiffens - and not in a good way - as the full extent of it is revealed.

The growl that rumbles through his chest and throat can be felt rather than heard, but just because it is soft doesn't mean it is any less deadly. "The ones who came to the woods after the Tower fell?" he asks. "I... you did the right thing," he says, his voice tight. And though he doesn't say it, his feelings are as naked as the two of them are; this is my fault.

RONIN

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

"I don't want anything." Remi murmurs; the thought of having anything in his mouth at all made his lips flinch into a sneer. Holding onto Ronin even as he shimmied out of his clothing, for once their combined nudity wasn't strong enough to pull salacious thoughts to the forefront of Remi's mind, and rather than openly gawking at his husband as was his routine, the alchemist merely sighed.

The sharp cracks of crimson that snarl out of Ronin and bleed behind Remi's eyes has the Lullaby nodding, and then growing still. It wasn't Ronin's fault but just now Remi didn't have it in him to put up an adequate defence, and so he merely raises his head to gaze into his husband's eyes. "They were dead before they even hit the floor...I...am not sure what I would have done had it not been quick." Remi admits in a low voice. Would there have been torture? Grotesque acts of violence? What things his mind might have come up with when paired with his godly talents and bright grief.

the lullaby

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)