give me something to sing about

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

"Exactly" Ronin says, as if he's being very reasonable and logical here, and Remi is only just coming around to it. Taking another sip of wine and setting his cup aside in an echo of his husband's gesture, he playfully narrows his eyes at the other man as he catches him out (because of course the Huntsman is making all of this up on the fly).

"Shut up." He grins in response, leaning in to silence Remi with another kiss. Winding his arms back around him, Ronin turns and lays back on the blanket, drawing the other man atop him. "Now this is more like savouring it," he decides, smiling up at the blue, blue sky that acts as a backdrop to seaglass eyes, dimpled cheeks and a halo of curls.

The huntsman

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

Despite having incredible control over each individual suction cup on each tentacle, as Ronin begins to lean down and draw Remi close, the Lullaby has only a fleeting idea of whether or not he's managed to set his cup down with any sort of accuracy. Still using a tentacle in place of his right arm, he's able to hold himself astride the Huntsman with more or less accuracy, though his right side does tremble with effort as he leans down to softly press his nose against Ronin's.

"You are still the most handsome man I have ever laid my eyes on." Remi whispers, pulling back just enough that his eyes are able to properly focus. 'Even after all of these years and all of the scars.." Pausing so that his good hand could rise up and softly cup his husband's cheek, Remi quickly adds, "..and wrinkles." Fully expecting to be smacked for this, Remi braces himself by shifting atop Ronin slightly so that his left side bared the majority of his weight such that his right leg was free to tangle around his husband's.

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

One might have expected Ronin to do his utmost for Remi not to have to expend any effort, but he is never going to stop his husband from enjoying himself and all the ways they've always enjoyed being close. "And you are still an endless flatterer," Ronin whispers in return, sneaking a kiss to the other man's nose as he draws back. "But I'll forgive you, if only because of that heinous insult," he adds, about to deliver said smack only for the Lullaby to work on tangling up their legs.

Ronin literally rolls with it instead, reversing their positions without managing to squash any of their picnic, which is a feat of luck skill all on its own. "Speak for yourself - I'm not the only one with wrinkles," he informs Remi with a wicked smile. For all of his complaints, though, every laughter line is worth it, having been earned in enjoyment with his husband.

"I don't think I tell you how much I love you nearly enough," he murmurs. "And I know I say it a lot. But I really do, you know that?"

The huntsman

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

"Mm, no." Remi disagrees, sounding delightfully Italian as he hums out the sounds with a small scrunch of his nose. "I am just telling you what I know."

As their positions are reversed, the Lullaby is quick to shuffle tentacles and dead-limbs, all the while peering boyishly up at his husband. "No, you are not, but you are the only one who spends hours in front of the mirror trying to pull out all of your gray hairs. Don't think I have seen you and Sugar in there." Remi on the other hand has embraced aging as he embraces most things: with complete indifference for the most part. That there are now snares of gray in his beard or his curls seems so emphatically unimportant when compared to the relatively fairytale he and Ronin are currently living in.

Letting his left hand trail up his husband's hip before wandering towards the channel of his spine, Remi nods slowly, never taking his eyes from Ronin's. "I do." He agrees, sneaking his fingers beneath his husband's shirt. "Though..it is not really the same love as it was when we first started, is it? I mean, it is in some ways, but..." Not wanting to stray into the territory of lavish metaphors or garden imagery, the Lullaby is reduced to simply smiling adoringly up into the Huntsman's eyes.

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

The lilt of his husband's accent is already bringing a helpless sort of smile to Ronin's lips; remembering when he didn't want to speak the travelling tongue, when the cadence of his words hadn't been nearly as strong... it makes this all the more joyful, in the Huntsman's opinion. In fact, he's already leaning in for a chaste kiss, as if he might be able to taste the music in Remi's voice on his lips.

"It is not hours," he objects with an unconvincing snort. "And they are not grey either. I didn't bring you up here to be insulted, husband." He pouts. While it's true that there is some time spent scrutinising the peppering of snowy white around his temples these days, Ronin is not so foolish as to pluck it out (receding hairlines are a thing they've escaped thus far, and he doesn't want to encourage it).

"I suppose it's no surprise that we're getting prematurely old though, huh," he says with a crooked smile. "All the stress."

But what's a bit of stress when they have moments like this now, when he can gaze down at Remi and still see a barely twenty-something showing him sketches in the sand on the beaches of Northaven? "It's grown with us," he agrees softly. "Now it's as dangerous as you and I are. And I love it."

The huntsman

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

"Ohho, so you admit to having some ulterior motive for bringing me up here...?" Remi counters a touch wickedly as if a picnic in the quite of the Cordillera might not lead to the pair being in any other position than the one they were currently in.

'Mmm. Stress and gods, and cults, and, worst of all.." Remi shifts his hips slightly; perhaps it was to be more comfortable, or perhaps to make them both decidedly less comfortable. Who was to say? "..children."

Ronin had always had a way with words, but to hear their love described as dangerous but said so sweetly has Remi feeling wild with affection and the renewed desire to be like that tiktok and drone on and on somehow find new and better ways of capturing their love. In the end, he decides to capture Ronin's lips instead. With a tentacle braced in the soft grass, Remi presses himself up and against Ronin as his left hand stretches out across the Huntsman's back.

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

"Well, obviously. I brought you up here to hear all about your meeting with Mort, but also to get in your pants," Ronin says as if this should have been clear to his husband. (Which he imagines it absolutely is, for what it's worth, not to mention the heat already kindling low in his belly). And at the shift of his hips, of course Ronin forgets what they were talking about for a couple of seconds, even as Remi is still speaking. Children, though, has him smiling a little more softly.

"Well," he says, "they are worth the stress." And perhaps this is the part where he brings up the awkward Phoebe made a baby garden thing, where he makes their picnic incredibly awkward. Luckily it's Remi to the rescue with his kisses, and with a soft moan of contentment, Ronin lets that thread of thought go. It's all too easy, too, with the arch of his husband's hips grinding against his own, and one of Ronin's hands begins to wander up beneath Remi's shirt.

The huntsman

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

Though Remi's smile had grown roguishly crooked, now it softens considerably, as do the laugh lines around his eyes. 'They are.' He agrees; even had Ronin brought up the awkward Phoebe made a baby garden thing it would never be as awkward as well if we'd both just fuck Phoebe.. thing, from the days of old.

Letting his head tilt back slightly to encourage Ronin's kisses to wander down his jaw and throat, Remi marvels in the this of the moment. Of the ease with which the pair fit together, of how the want for one another has never once waned even after all their years together, and how he's just as stupidly and ridiculously in love with Ronin as he ever was.

Lifting his hips just enough for a pulse of tension to ricochet out from between them, Remi can't help the way the laugh that leaves his lips is one of exquisite agony. It has his toes clenching in his shoes as the fingers of his left hand twitch inadvertently across Ronin's skin as he tries to restrain himself from tearing both of their pants off. Breathless and tonguetied, the Lullaby can do little more than lift his head back off the ground to rather aimlessly press his lips against Ronin's.

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

Remi doesn't have to tell him twice, Ronin letting the trajectory of his lips fall along the scruff of his husband's jawline and down his neck, pressing lovingly against the scars that silver his throat. "We should probably stop if we really want to savour this," he points out while doing absolutely nothing of the sort, smiling against the Lullaby's collarbone only to softly gasp and press his teeth into his skin at the friction growing between them.

At least he'll ensure there is no ripping of clothing, his hand withdrawing from Remi's shirt only to very carefully unbutton it, letting his fingers spread in a starburst along a scarred chest. His lips part to speak only to be caught once again by the Lullaby, and Ronin has n ever been so happy to be taken captive in his life. He'd said he loved the man beneath him dangerously, and he means it. No matter what the world throws at them, Remi comes first, and that's more true now than it ever has been.

There's more they could talk about - more than Mort has happened since they last took a trip out here - but suddenly none of it feels important.

The huntsman

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

In the back of Remi's mind a memory surfaces. One coloured by restraint and frustration, as the younger iterations of him and his husband forced themselves not to bandage their issues with sex. Now, with their issues attended to for the most part, the pair were under no such compulsion, though the memory made Remi smile softly just the same.

Patiently, and with the sort of gentleness for which he was once known, Remi relaxes his shoulders onto the blanket, watching Ronin's face as the Huntsman set about undoing the buttons of his shirt. His magic allows him to feel the colour of the Huntsman's fingertips in a way his scars no longer do, and it's with neediness and love that Remi ignores the remainder of their conversation and their picnic in lieu of having Ronin instead.

Pressing up with his tentacle-acting-as-an-arm that he might shrug out of his shirt, he softly encourages Ronin's own over his head as well. Hopefully the Huntsman forgives him his clumsiness; it's either that or undressing Ronin with his tentacles, and Remi is fairly sure he knows which way the Huntsman would prefer things to go.

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

Remi is correct, as he so often is when it comes to Ronin, and it's with a smile against his lips that the Huntsman tries to go about parting from his shirt without parting from his husband. It's impossible, of course, and so it's with a rumble of annoyance that he sits up enough to help the other man undress him. Discarding his shirt to one side where it can soak up the smell of the wildflowers, Ronin spends a couple of seconds gazing down at his partner, his lover, his everything, love and soft curiosity in his eyes, as if seeing Remi for the first time all over again.

"I'm so lucky," he murmurs almost to himself, his fingertips tracing upwards from Remi's chest to his throat and jawline. Leaning down, it's with an effortless amount of strength that he's able to blanket his husband while keeping a teasing distance between them, seeking out Remi's lips for a kiss passionate enough that, once upon a time, it might have made his knees weak. Nowadays, it's how he'd like to spend every waking minute (and all his sleeping ones, too).

With thoughts of guildhalls and furs and firelight in the forefront of his mind, Ronin smiles against his husband's lips, slowly letting his full weight sink down against the alchemist.

The huntsman

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

On the verge of using his tongue to argue with Ronin about who the luckier of them was, wisely, the Lullaby instead pleaded his case against his husband's lips, making sure to emphasize each point with several footnotes that he might leave no detail out. It's me, his thoughts whisper in colourful strokes; I am the lucky one.

As Ronin slowly, gods so slowly, lowers himself down, the sound that leaves Remi's lips is almost laughably soft and needy that no one besides the Huntsman would think the Lullaby capable of making such a vulnerable noise. It is you, for me. The Lullaby thinks before his mind sways and blurs; overcome with sensations that he'd normally just rush through, instead he submits and submerges into them.

The hammer of his heart echoes a rhythm that even the balls of his feet are able to match, and with every trace of his fingertips along Ronin's back, Remi's entire body vibrates at the same frequency. Liquid heat coils at the base of his spine, shooting down between his thighs before erupting outwards in all the places their bodies touch. It's the sort of fire that demands company, but gods there was something so tantalizingly satisfying about delaying what was to come, if only because between the two of them, it never lasted long.

you are terrifying and strange and beautiful

They'll just have to agree to disagree, Ronin thinks, but he's happy to hear Remi's argument anyway, written in the generous arcs of his tongue and the press of his fingers against his skin. He moans a reply against the Lullaby's lips as their bodies come together at a glacial pace, and the curl of heat in his belly grows and kindles into what would usually be a wildfire, but today feels more akin to the slow creep of molten lava.

I could kiss you all day, he murmurs into the other man's mind, but while it's true, they both know they'll be all over each other in every way possible in just a few minutes (perhaps a few minutes more than usual, since they're taking it slow and savouring it and all that). Speaking of which, he at least gives Remi a chance to catch his breath by migrating his kisses down against his neck, grinding against him just for the sake of teasing - though who he's driving more crazy is anyone's guess.

Remind me again how to take it slow? He laughs breathlessly against Remi's throat.

The huntsman

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

Maybe, but you couldn't just kiss me all day. Remi counters, knowing the same was true for him as much as it was for Ronin. With his eyes closed that he might keep the blue of Ronin's eyes at the forefront of his thoughts, the Lullaby smiles with absurd boyish joy up at the sky as his husband's ministrations focus against his neck.

Humming a note so low he hopes that it makes Ronin's lips buzz, Remi forgets himself and tries to wrap both arms around the Huntsman. A flash of pain streaks like lightning out from his shoulder, and for just a moment the smile on his lips morphs into a snarl. The thing is.. Remi begins to respond, breathless. ..is that if we go too slow I am afraid I will not be able to keep my tentacles off of you. There was so much of Ronin to want, and sadly Remi was down 50% of the appendages normally used for this type of activity. Yes, yes, he had his duplicate, but gods diverting his attention by even that small amount felt like far too much to give up.