give me something to sing about

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

"Tell me everything," Ronin is murmuring as they float through a haze of wildflowers in bloom; his nimbus makes quick work of it, the Huntsman swinging one leg from the side of the cloud and leaning back to casually let his head rest in Remi's lap. Beneath them, his duplicate is hiking up towards a soft peak of flowers, a basket with a picnic in hand and a pack with a blanket on his back.

What's the fun of living in the most beautiful and dangerous of places if one doesn't pause to enjoy it, after all?

"I want to hear the whole story," he continues, clearly referring to the meeting in the Boneyard. "Especially since you didn't come home and try to dig yourself a grave."

The huntsman

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

'Well...' The Lullaby murmurs, still dazed from Mort's presence such that his mind was awhirl with colour and his lips felt slow and numb in response to the words he was trying to articulate. Glancing down, utterly distracted by the wildness of his husband's hair, the fingers of Remi's good hand caress through the dark tangles as he tries to piece it all together.

"Well," He begins again, this time taking a deep breath before soldiering on. "It felt...strange. Even with Mort there, it felt like we were all puzzle pieces that did not join together quite right." Furrowing his brow, remembering what it was like to be huddled together, the four of them and Enzo, Remi gives his head a little shake. "But...Enzo did not seem mad or upset. Mort, as you know, made it all easier to take. Though I will say.." Here, Remi huffs a small laugh as he crinkles his nose.

"Apparently Mateo and Flora are going through some sort of phase where they hate one another."

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

Humming a sound that's as close to a purr as it can be without having a big cat's bone in his body, Ronin leans into the touch to his hair, while beneath them his duplicate airs out a checkered blanket and begins to set up their picnic. "Well," he echoes, smiling softly and falling quiet again to hear him out. He can't help but enjoy the hazy way his husband becomes for having basked in Mort's presence. They might live in peace now, but this is peace plus one, if such a thing exists.

"That's the main thing," he says of Enzo, reaching up to stroke his fingers along Remi's jawline. "Ill-fitting puzzle pieces or not, you were able to see him and say goodbye. I think he would have enjoyed your misfit selves." But what his husband has to say about Mateo and Flora, of all people, has his eyebrows lifting in surprise.

"Really? I would have thought their personalities would have fit together quite well," he remarks.

The huntsman

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

'Mmmmmmmmm.' Remi rumbles in agreement; despite Mort's influences there is just a whisper of tension in his jaw. Quickly Ronin's finger is able to tease it away, though. 'Maybe..I admit that..as an adult I knew precious little about Enzo. Whatever he might have thought..." Opening his mouth, Remi is able only to sigh out the shape of something before he shakes his head. "I never thought this is the sort of parent I would be, and yet..." Well, the proof was in the pudding as they said; a better saying might be that the proof was in the funerals.

'And yet..!' The Lullaby grins crookedly. 'I think that might be the problem though. They are too similar. Flora even showed up in a floral dress, which, instead of loving it as I thought Mateo would, he hated it." Breathing deeply and resuming his fingers wandering through Ronin's hair, Remi focuses on the blue of his husband's gaze. "I..cannot tell if I should get involved, or just..let them work it out, or...?" This was Ronin's area of expertise after all, and so it was with a rather squeamish smile that the Lullaby waited for the Huntsman to simply come up with the answer.

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

Ronin winces, too, at the mere thought of what sort of parents they've become; he doesn't like to think about it, honestly, because it's a deep and secret source of shame. Still, there's no getting away from the conversation, and so as the nimbus begins its lazy descent, he sits himself up to face Remi properly. "We have the luxury of time these days," he murmurs. "I feel like for the first time... maybe we could do better."

Should do better. But that's not to say they should necessarily go prying into Flora and Mateo's business all guns blazing (arguably because they all have a flair for the dramatic, and he doesn't want to throw gasoline on that bonfire waiting to happen). "At one point in the past, I'd say getting involved would look like inviting them both up here for dinner. And it would probably go horribly wrong."

Smirking, he reaches out to brush Remi's too long curls out of his face. "Maybe you could have a chat with Mateo, though. And maybe I could try to speak to Flora...?"

The huntsman

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

Sitting back as Ronin adjusts, Remi nibbles at the inside of his lip as his hand presses against the soft yet firm texture of the cloud. "I hate how easily I think to myself that it is too late, you know?" He murmurs softly. Sighing, he presses the knuckle of one finger just above his eye, leaning into it and trying to find within himself a spark of motivation that might help him improve.

Turning, his cheek pressing against Ronin's fingers, Remi raises his eyebrows. "We could try that, yes. I am not sure I will be able to give much advice, though." Remi had, for better or worse (worse, let's be honest), become quite the recluse. Having distanced himself from almost everyone, the Lullaby was much more likely to treat conflict with resistance or absence than to try and work anything through. What he'd say to calm the waters with Mateo was anyone's guess at this point, but if not him, who else?

"Perhaps Mateo could fly his skyboat to Torchline and we can spend the afternoon with them in different places?"

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

"If everything since the war taught me anything, it's that it's never too late," Ronin says, gently but insistently, and he leans in to smooch a kiss against Remi's forehead, as if to add to whatever motivation he's trying to coax out of himself. Brushing his thumb across the other man's cheek, he offers his husband a lopsided smile. "Luckily for you, I'm pretty sure any advice you gave would be completely ignored by Mateo anyway. So maybe just catch up with him. Enjoy yourself, even."

It's a good idea, about the skyboat and Torchline, though Ronin has to do a double take to ensure Remi is the one to have suggested it. The nimbus gently touches down, the Huntsman sitting back so he can shift and sit down on the blanket. His duplicate has set everything out; fresh bread, cured meats and cheeses, fresh and honeyed fruit and nuts and anything else they were able to grab on the way out the door. Oh, and sparkling wine, obviously.

"That's a great idea," he confirms with a smile. "Shall we send him a letter when we get back? I bet he'll be thrilled about it."

The huntsman

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

"So long as you write it." The Lullaby agrees; his poor penmanship these days would likely offend their oldest child if only because of the effort it would take for him to read Remi's scribbles.

Sliding off of the nimbus, rather than going instantly to the wine or bread, instead, Remi pauses, staring down at the picnic as if trying to make sense of what it was he was seeing.  Confusion sweeps across his face, and though the right side of his body isn't as expressive anymore for the damage to his right arm, he turns toward his husband to offer as much of an embrace as he can manage. "I remember our first meal together. A bottle of something I had made, and you picked up a loaf of bread on the way over, and we sat in my small apartment." He murmurs, voice made misty by the memory.

"And now here we are, in an alpine meadow few can even reach and most have not even heard of, with all of this." The Lullaby is able to sound equal parts sad and delighted about this fact, and were you to view only half of his face at a time, he would appear both to be smiling and frowning.

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

"I'll write it, if you supervise." Ronin grins to his husband, trusting him to appropriately scrutinise the curl of his y's or the slope of his r's. At least that way the letter that makes it to their son will be legible but also perhaps a little aesthetic (if only marginally to Remi's standards).

Surprised by the embrace if only because the two of them are usually on the food and wine before so much as checking for dragons - and in a place like the Cordillera, it's a literal check - Ronin slips his arms around the Lullaby in turn. The memory of their first meal together has him smiling, letting his head tilt to rest against the other man's curls. "And look at us now," he agrees, though as he glances across at Remi and spots the somewhat bittersweet tilt to his expression, he gives him a gentle nudge.

"We've worked for it," he reminds him, reaching out to tilt up his chin and catch his lips in a kiss. It could be one of those Sound of Music moments if they wanted it to be (and if they knew what that was), the sky impossibly blue and the meadow ablaze with the last flowers of the season. Drawing Remi closer if only to shift and sit them down on the blanket, it's with a slow and sweet press of his tongue that he deepens the kiss, his fingers threading through the back of the Lullaby's hair.

The huntsman

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

The corners of Remi's mouth twitch toward a smile before falling, only to be captured by Ronin's own. Whatever melancholy argument he might have made about just what they'd worked for is silenced by the press of Ronin's tongue. Though he can't twine his arms around the Huntsman as he once could, the Lullaby makes do by curling his left arm around Ronin's waist before slipping his fingers beneath the other man's shirt.

The palette of the Lullaby's thoughts are muted as Ronin might have guessed they'd be, though are no less expressive for their lack of brightness. "All I ever wanted was this." He whispers between sips of air as threads of gold and honey weave a bridge across the dark swallows of memory that always are nearby in the Lullaby's thoughts.

'I would like to savour it, if that is alright with you.' Because just as quickly as they could devour this picnic, so too would the leaves be gone, and some new emergency would rear its head, demanding their attention.

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

Humming a note of contentment at the touch of warm fingers that splay across his lower back, Ronin settles on the blanket with Remi tucked close against his side, half curled over him so he doesn't have to part from him even a small amount. "I would love that," he murmurs against the other man's lips, pressing another silent kiss against them before slowly withdrawing - but only enough to snag the bottle of wine and the two cups he'd packed.

"We'll have this, I'll feed you strawberries dipped in honey, and then maybe we'll take a nap," he suggests as he pours them both a measure of the wine, offering it out to Remi to sip so the Lullaby doesn't have to move his good arm from where it belongs (i.e. right where it currently is). "Or maybe you can try and nap and I'll distract you by having my wicked way with you in the flowers. I haven't decided yet."

The huntsman

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

Though there's only a brief moment where Ronin pulls away from him, the Lullaby, Remi is still inclined to follow his husband's movements that they won't have to part at all. A tentacle slithers out from the back of Remi's shirt to act as the sort of brace his right arm would normally have been used for. As it was, that arm was uselessly settled against part of Ronin's hip and there it would stay unless one of them actively moved it aside. "Not in sugar?" He wonders with a crooked smile, not minding trading out one sweet thing for another.

Accepting the wine with a half-wink of appreciation, Remi allows for another tentacle to slide up from his left side this time, to take the cup from Ronin. "I tell you I want to savour this moment, and your suggestion is that you do your best to ruin my nap and crush a few flowers in the process?" Raising a brow (not nearly as dramatically or handsomely as Ronin could, alas), the Lullaby tuts softly under his breath while shaking his head for good measure.

'You know something?' Taking a small sip of his wine, enough that it might coat just the inside of his lips and tongue. "I do not believe I will ever stop falling in love with you."

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

"Sugar is more... spilly," Ronin says, and evidently his vocabulary is as twitterpated by Remi as the rest of him. "But if it means that much to you, I can feed you sugar-dipped strawberries when we get back home." With a smile sweet enough that he hopes it makes up for the honey, he leans in to kiss the corner of Remi's mouth.

He has to admire his husband's clever use of tentacles to make up for the arm that no longer wants to do much more than exist, scoffing out a laugh at the prospect that he's ruining this moment. "On the contrary, I was just giving you suggestions. We have all afternoon," he reminds him, taking a sip of his own wine and letting it sit in his mouth for a second before swallowing.

"Or," he says slowly, as if just considering it, "maybe I'm just letting you savour this while I savour you. Is that so bad?"

The huntsman

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

"As opposed to the much more manageable drizzlyu nature of honey, mm?" Remi wonders, and were he not so thoroughly distracted by the blue of Ronin's eyes, he might have nipped at one of his husband's lips in emphasis. Instead, he merely sighs indulgently into the sweet gesture, preferring it to anything else the Huntsman

"Well," Taking another sip of his wine and letting his expression twist into one that suggests he's thinking a good deal harder than either of them know he is, Remi considers. "If that were true it would not be so bad. But I think you just thought of that now and are just saying it to sound clever and thoughtful." Grinning, he moves his cup of wine to the side. "Which is one of your most endearing qualities, I will have you know."