[SE] i'm not angry

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

"Yes, exactly like that. I'm glad you understand," Ronin mumbles, his voice still a little muffled but his smile something Remi ought to be able to feel against his neck. It's with a grumble that's more satisfaction than annoyance that he allows his husband to move them, the Huntsman re-settling himself with his arms looped around the other man so he can play with the tips of his curls.

"I forgive you, that doesn't even have to be said," he promises him, pressing a couple of sweet kisses against Remi's collarbones before finally gazing up at him with hazy blue eyes. "For all your godliness, you are regrettably still also human. We can both lose ourselves a bit sometimes - I'm just glad you came back to me." Another kiss punctuates this, one directed softly against the other man's lips.

RONIN

walked out this morning and i wrote down this song.
i just can't remember who to send it to

Leaning his head up enough to make out the dusty star-blue of his husband's eyes in the darkness, Remi tilts his head from side to side in silent disagreement. 'Am I? Are you sure? I think you should check again.' He suggests, relaxing his hold slightly of Ronin if only so that he could weave patterns across the Huntsman's back with his fingertips.

Humming a soft sound that managed to sound disappointed as the kiss came to an end, Remi lets his head fall back against the mattress once more. "I am going to follow you down into your dreams tonight. We both need sleep after today, but I do not want to take my eyes off of you." With what might have been a clawed foot or a tentacle, Remi drags a fur up and over them. Because of the seasonal heat he doesn't bother to try and fully cover them with it, only keeping it there in silent opposition to Ronin suggesting they put their clothes back on.

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

Put their clothes back on? Ronin would never. "I was going to suggest the same thing," he murmurs of Remi following him into his dreams, though they both know it isn't for such loving reasons and more so that the Huntsman can continue to be a balm on the other man's temper should it decide to flare again. Regardless, getting comfortable beneath the half-fur dragged over them, Ronin relaxes bonelessly into the bed and spends his time before being snatched by sleep scattering tiny kisses across Remi's neck and chest. It doesn't take long.

The following morning sees Ronin in a pair of sweatpants and nothing else, cooking bacon and eggs and sipping at coffee while he listens to the bustle of the world outside their open window. "Hear that," he mumbles. "It's the sound of the Falling staying right where it should be."

It's early and he has to go and see Sunjata (mish mash fuck the timelines), but breakfast and Remi come first.

RONIN

walked out this morning and i wrote down this song.
i just can't remember who to send it to

That night the pair are able to destroy galaxies, raze oceans and coax mountains into being. Whatever anger Remi might have held onto is expertly redirected by the Huntsman, and by the end of it the pair are sitting around a campfire while Ronin plays guitar.

"You know it is absolutely unfair how you look in those." Remi remarks from where he leans against the doorframe, arms folded over his chest. Pushing himself off, he comes to wrap his arms around Ronin's chest as he leans his chin on his husband's shoulder. "My, what good ears you have." He chuckles as if the day before had been nothing but a poorly told bedtime story.

"You know, I was thinki—" Remi's words are cut off by the predatory jerk of his head towards the window, where two crows hold in their beaks nearly identical envelopes. Tap, tap, tap they both echo, staring in with shiny black-button eyes. Around Ronin's chest the Lullaby's arms have tightened, and though he huffs an annoyed breath, he doesn't move to go to the window.

"Do you think if we just stay very still, they will go away?" He wonders into his husband's dark hair.

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

"Hmm...? In what? Oh, these?" Of course Ronin gives his ass a little shimmy just as Remi comes up to hug him from behind, the Huntsman relaxing against his husband's back and closing his eyes for a couple of moments. "Very sharp ears, me. I can hear the bacon telling us to eat it, you kno--" Interrupted by the tap tap of two crows, Ronin's head also snaps to the side, his blue eyes narrowing at the sight of the corvids.

"Mmm... maybe," he says slowly and quietly, while the crows absolutely see straight through the guise and continue with renewed TAP TAP TAPs. Groaning, Ronin peels away from he stove and gestures that Remi can feel free to dig in while he collects the letters.

Grabbing them from the crows (and ignoring their pitiful, massive open beaks begging for bacon) Ronin moves to slouch down at the table. "Same handwriting," he says. "And one for each of us."

RONIN

walked out this morning and i wrote down this song.
i just can't remember who to send it to

Remi rumbles a warning sound against the soft spot behind his husband's ear indicating that it hasn't been so long since he's woken up that he isn't well-prepared to take advantage of his husband's state of dress. Not that it matters, because any lingering morning glory is immediately doused by the threat of responsibility tapping at their window.

Spreading the bacon out onto the plate Ronin had already prepared, the Lullaby brings it to the table and sets it down with a clatter between them. "What are the chances it is from Ianto inviting us to Fiadh's wedding, mm?" One look alone tells him that it isn't the fox's looping and usually misspelled cursive that graces the parchment. Picking up a piece of bacon instead of a letter, Remi chomps the crunchier end first before silently testing to see if his fiery ifrit abilities can burn the paper simply by glaring at it.

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

"Mm, I think if it were Ianto then we'd only receive one letter to the both of us," Ronin reasons, leaving Remi's envelope on the table for him to stare at and burn open in his own time. He debates cromching on some bacon before having to deal with the inevitable, before sighing and going ahead to open his letter.

Blue eyes skim it, Ronin's expression growing thoughtful and then flat, before he sets the parchment down and grabs a couple of rashers of bacon to chew on. "It's from Darkeye," he says around his food, slouching in his seat. "Offering apologies, peace, and so on." And the fact that he hasn't jumped on the opportunity to seize that chance pretty much says it all.

RONIN

walked out this morning and i wrote down this song.
i just can't remember who to send it to

The paper doesn't burst into flames, and so Remi does the next best thing: picking it up, he tosses it like a frisbee towards the pan Ronin had cooked the bacon in. As it lands the left-over grease instantly hisses and sizzles, crumpling the edges and charring the paper. "Well, that is mine taken care of." He muses, reaching for a piece of bacon.

"...apologies." The Lullaby repeats in a flat tone, punctuated by the cromch of bacon between his teeth. 'For what? Showing up where he wasn't wanted, not leaving after repeated demands to do so? For being a two-faced hypocrite?" There was plenty more he might have said, but gods what was the point.

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

"I'll eat it after, if you like," Ronin offers with a smirk around a cup of coffee from the pot that has been set on the table. "I bet it'll taste like bacon." Eating more of said bacon, he shrugs his shoulders. "Mm, something like that. He seems to think that he was manipulated by Sunjata." Shaking his head, Ronin ruffles his fingers through his hair with his free hand.

"I just... can we run away from here and never come back yet?" he asks, slouching back in his chair. "I'm beginning to understand your point of view on these sorts of things. How do people think they can come here and just... just fuck around and then apologise like it didn't happen? Like I'm not the fucking Commander?"

RONIN

walked out this morning and i wrote down this song.
i just can't remember who to send it to

To that, all the Lullaby can do is roll his eyes. "Funny how nothing is every anyone's fault, mm?" That wasn't to say Remi had likely tried to offset his fair share of blame in the past, but honestly. "So let me get this straight. Darkeye with all of his notes and reports, who knew that Sunjata had been the one to bring the ascended to Stormbreak, did not think there was anything wrong with sailing casually in to try and pull some cloth out of the rock ?" Tilting his head, he'd have stared directly into the camera Jim-style had there been one. Instead, he just gives his husband a tired look before helping himself to another piece of bacon.

"Yes. Literally that. I have been asking if we can do that for years now." He chuckles, taking a moment to appreciate just how unfairly handsome Ronin was (especially when he was sleepy and annoyed). "Ah, I can do this at least." Standing, Remi pulls the (mostly) ruined letter out of the frying pan. Opening it with a talon, he grabs a pencil from the counter and simply writes "BANNED FROM THE GREATWOOD. NO WARNINGS WILL BE GIVEN." Turning it around for Ronin's approval, Remi licks a bit of the grease from where it drizzles down his wrist.

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

"Apparently so," Ronin drawls, finishing another piece of bacon before taking up his coffee again, gazing flatly at the paper on the table before Remi distracts him by getting to his feet. "Mm...?" He tilts his head, watching curiously as the other man scribbles on his bacon smeared letter. "Ah, I see." He chuckles. "Well, that might be something to consider, if I thought it would do any good. They come anyway."

In his experience, at least.

Finishing up his coffee and folding the letter to stuff it back into the envelope, Ronin abandons it somewhere on the counter. "I consider that work stuff. I'll deal with it later," he decides, rubbing sleepily at his eyes. "Want to come to train with me at the Furnace?" he asks suddenly. "I figure that place is harsh enough to give us a challenge." And Ronin needs to explore it.

RONIN

walked out this morning and i wrote down this song.
i just can't remember who to send it to

"True, but now he cannot say I did not warn him." And this would be Darkeye's only warning. If he didn't see the former-dwarf again in his lifetime, it would be too soon.

Reaching for the pot of coffee to fill his own cup with, Remi pauses his pouring. His head is bobbing immediately yes even though his expression is one of confusion. "The..furnace? In the desert?" Pouring the remainder of his coffee, Remi flops down into his chair (covering both of Ronin's feet with his own), and nods more decisively. "Last time we fought in the desert you were trying to kill me. Remember that?" Said as if it were some sweet memory rather than one of their darkest times, the Lullaby flashes his counterpart a warm smile before blowing across the top of his mug.

"I wonder if Ghilio is still out there somewhere."

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

"I suppose that's true, even though you did say no warnings will be given." Ronin grins. The letter itself is a warning, but he's not sure he has it in him to argue too much with his husband this morning. "Mm, the very same," he agrees about the Furnace, the smile continuing to play across his lips telling that he does indeed remember that occasion. And they can pretend it's a sweet memory now, at least, even with the threads of darkness worked through it.

"Ghilio? Gods, I had almost forgotten he was out there. I wonder whether all that water we brought him made any difference in the end." Ronin rubs at the back of his head, leaning back on the legs of his chair. "Maybe we can go and find him and say hi. Not that I think he would want to be visited anyway."

RONIN

walked out this morning and i wrote down this song.
i just can't remember who to send it to

"Mmmm. Perhaps that is just the way he likes it." Remi reasons with a shrug of his shoulders. Though his coffee isn't quite cool enough to sip at, he does so anyway. "Nah. This trip can be just about you and I. Who knows, perhaps we will not see anyone the entire time and we can just go back to the Greatwood after." Though there was absolutely no need of him to act as the Greatwood's protector given how no one lived there well suited to defend herself the woods were, still, someone should probably water the plants in their houseboat lest Mateo tear a strip off of them both.

"I wonder if there is a shrine to Ludo in the desert...I have been meaning to speak with them." There's a flash of mischief through the attuned boned that the pair share, before Remi raises his eyebrows and shakes his head. "And no, I will not tell you why."