what we leave behind

VAI The huntress It had been barely two days since Remi had taken Aoife and headed back to the guildhall. Vervain hadn't stopped him, hadn't dared to - and the look in his eyes alone told her that the baby would have no safer guardian. But who guarded the guardians? The huntress had waited for the dust to barely begin to settle, then finally set off from the Woodlands to the settlement. She carried a pack with her - chopped vegetables, fresh meat and plenty of herbs and seasonings, intent on making Remi a meal even if he claimed he wasn't hungry. Grief was always hungry, and it feasted on tears and sleep. One had to replenish that strength until the grief was small enough to throw off. When she reached the late-guildmaster's abode, Vervain didn't even bother to knock. She'd also brought milk for Aoife and a few other bits and bobs that might hopefully become clear if and when Remi accepted her company, and she didn't plan on letting him say no. "Hello?" she called gently, stepping into the guildhall and glancing around, unsure what she would find.

Remi was slouched against the hearth with Aoife nestled against his chest. He still hadn't bothered changing his clothes, and the blood and dirt hardly seemed to bother the infant. With large hands protectively on her back, the pair dozed in the warm heat of the fire, slumbering through whatever time of day it was. Remi had blocked out the windows with some quick magical work, and other than making sure both Aoife and Sugar were fed, he had done little else other than replay a silent stream of memories of Ronin behind his closed eyes. The sound of Vai's voice roused him immediately, and rather than the biting aggression that Sam's voice had spurned in him, the the sound of the witch's voice was like a balm on the wounds he hadn't ever bothered to address. "In here—" Remi called softly, his voice hoarse and like sandpaper. R Ǝ M I How dare you say it's nothing to me baby, you're the only light I ever saw

VAI The huntress Vai's footsteps were soft on the stone floors of the guildhall, and she stepped into the warm heat of the ground floor with eyes still trying to adjust to the dim light. It smelled stale, like old wounds and unshed tears and not enough rest, but Vai had been there before. "Hi, Remi," she murmured softly, walking across to the hearth to set down her pack and look over the alchemist and the precious bundle cradled against his chest. "She's feeding well?" she asked, knowing better than to ask Remi how he was. Rising to her feet again, she didn't try to shed any light into the room, though she would move to leave the doors ajar, the front and inner both, to let a breeze sail through and clear the air. Lighting a few candles, she returned to the hearth to settle on her knees before Remi. "I brought something for her. Sort of. I was going to make something."

Remi nodded wearily. "Yes. Just like her father. She has not turned away a meal yet." He said far too easily and quickly, the mention of Ronin just rolling off his lips and casting the ghost of a smile. Realizing what he'd said though, Remi swallowed hard, crumbling in on himself with a sigh. Seemingly unaware of Vai's busying herself with airing the place out and adding candles (for light as well as smell, probably), Remi seemed snapped out of a daze as she suddenly knelt down before him. "Make something?" He said with a stupid and slow incompetence. R Ǝ M I How dare you say it's nothing to me baby, you're the only light I ever saw

VAI The huntress "That's good." Vai smiled softly, already rummaging through her pack to get everything out. "She was born hungry, as they say. She'll be a bruiser like her pa." Ingredients for the stew were placed to one side untouched - that could come later. For now Vervain withdrew a few oddities; metal and bone, sticks and string. "Ronin asked me to make a mobile for her," she murmured. "And I intend to keep that promise. He said that there are a few of Vanya's feathers to add to it, as well. Do you know where they are?" She glanced up at the man who was as good as a son to her, pausing once everything was laid out and reaching up to brush a hand across his cheek. "She is very, very lucky to have you."

"Is that a saying?" Remi asked, softly skeptical with a shrug. Looking down at Aoife he tried on a smile. "Is that so? A bruiser huh?" He shook his head disbelievingly, though he'd let the girl pick her own path and love her regardless. Glancing down at the things Vai was withdrawing, Remi raised a silently curious brow. "Upstairs, I would think." He said softly, glancing that way. Remi hadn't bothered going upstairs. It still didn't seem right, as if it was still their room. It probably always would be in fact, but with the guildmaster so newly departed, it seemed especially off-limits. Vai could go though...she would...it would be alright for her, somehow. Leaning into the touch as he had done so many times, his lower lip trembled slightly as his eyes dropped. "I never thought I could miss someone like this.." He managed, his voice almost a whimper around the words as his fingertips gently sketched patterns on Aoife's back. "He was fine Vai. That idiot and his stupid shield were fine." His tone was pleading, as if someone the logic of his words would reverse things. As if the universe might go, you're right you know. That was a bit unexpected. Here you are, and he'd just be back. R Ǝ M I How dare you say it's nothing to me baby, you're the only light I ever saw

VAI The huntress "It is a saying. My Ashetta was the same." Vai smirked, her tone softly maternal and leaving no room for argument. She set her materials aside and nodded as he said they would be upstairs, smiling at Aoife snoozing so happily against Remi's chest, as though he were Ronin and all was right with the world. As Remi spoke again she brushed a thumb over his cheek, shifting to lean in and wrap an arm around his shoulders, simply holding him for a moment without needing to respond. "I'm so sorry, Remi," she whispered, kissing his curls and squeezing his shoulder, dabbing at her eyes as she stood back. "He wouldn't want you to be sad," she murmured. "Especially given that he's watching over you and his daughter whenever the moon rises and the stars shine... I'll go and get those feathers." On silent steps, Vai moved upstairs to find what she had come for. And when she did return, she did have the feathers in hand - but she also had a few familiar shirts folded over one arm. They'd just been dumped on the floor as the ex-captain had pulled them off, in true Ronin fashion.

Ahh yes. Because they were all a little family...or at least, once they were. Once they attended weddings and laughed and hunted and drank and everything was fine. And now Ashe was divorced, Vai was here with him, Ronin and Vanya were gone, and this strange new member of their family demanded all of their attention. "I am an idiot." He whispered against Vai's embrace, nudging with his chin into her shoulder as his hands were currently occupied. "This cannot be easy for you either." Remi mumbled with a hiccuped-sort of sob, so appreciative that she allowed him his selfish guilt. Staring down at Aoife and silently mapping each pore on her face, Remi glanced up as Vai returned carrying more than just feathers. He raised a silent brow but said little. He was far too tired for guessing games, and quite literally Vai was now the only one in the world to whom he'd give his immediate trust with Ronin's things. R Ǝ M I How dare you say it's nothing to me baby, you're the only light I ever saw

VAI The huntress "You're my idiot," Vai assured him with a warm smile, shaking her head to him. "It isn't easy for anyone, Remi, but... you were there. You're left behind now. Don't... please, don't think you have to put on a brave face for me." Watching him with Aoife, she couldn't help but feel a warmth kindle in her chest. Ronin's daughter would never be left wanting, that was for certain. Quietly the witch returned to her place kneeling beside Remi, gently laying out the shirts before starting to work on the mobile, quietly and slowly and seemingly without direction. It would look how it looked - that was how it usually went. "I thought I might make Aoife a blanket, or something, out of those..." She nodded at the clothes. "They'll smell like him, so maybe it will help to calm her down."

Remi nodded, weary but relieved in Vai's calming and maternal presence. Squeezing his eyes closed he let his head lull forward, content to simply feel Aoife breathing steadily against his chest. As Vai explained, Remi nodded uncertainly. Normally this was the sort of thing he'd latch on to, but just now this thoughts were far too fuzzy and vague, so instead he just nodded. At the mention of how the shirts smelled like Ronin, Remi immediately looked over, eyes startlingly hopeful as if the smell of him was something tangible he might latch onto. In this world where they'd brought no portraits, Remi only had his memory to find Ronin in. But shirts? "Yes. Calm her down." Remi agreed with the beginning of a wry smile. R Ǝ M I How dare you say it's nothing to me baby, you're the only light I ever saw

VAI The huntress Vai smiled back at Remi lopsidedly, nodding as she worked and pausing briefly to snag one of the shirts to hold it out for him. "Try it out," she offered. "Luckily, Ronin was not the tidiest person in the world, so you'll find a treasure trove of memories up there whenever you're ready." Vervain had seen it herself - paintings, some finished and others half complete, clothes - Vanya's and Ronin's both - and other trinkets and brick-a-brack scattered throughout the room. "Have you put her down, since it happened?" she asked softly once the silence had grown too comfortable again, her hands expertly assembling the strange mobile. A mix of feathers, bells and clinking pieces of wood and metal, it should make quite the unique music for the child. "Because if you haven't, and you aren't planning to, I'll have to make this into a rather fetching hat for you."

Rather than being warmed by this, Remi just ...nodded. Upstairs seemed...another world. It had been their world. The closest he'd ever come was laying drunkenly upstairs while Vanya shouted at them to shut up and pass out. He could imagine the room just as Vai described; a plethora of scents and images that would instantly make it seem as though one—or both—of them would be home any moment. But they wouldn't be, and so Remi felt like he couldn't. Not yet anyways. "Put her d—?" Remi started to say, and then chuckled absently and shook his head. "Technically yes. She slept against me as a lion the first night. I do not know why I thought perhaps someone might come...to take her...I..." Shaking his head slightly, Remi sighed. His mind was in a thousand fractured pieces, improperly fitting itself back to together. But of course rather than scolding, Vai did as she always did and made things infinitely better. "I have been looking for a new hat." He chuckled, looking down at Aoife. "And what say you? A mobile, or a hat? Lady's choice." In his arms, the girl yawned, turning from one chubby cheek to the next, smacking her lips, and appearing utterly dead to the world. "Well, that settles it. Mobile it is." R Ǝ M I How dare you say it's nothing to me baby, you're the only light I ever saw

VAI The huntress "In your own time," Vai murmured softly in response to Remi's nod, letting him think and process things for as long as he needed to while she tweaked and adjusted the mobile until it was just so. She held it up once it was done, watching as it began a quietly lopsided spin, clinking softly. "There," she said, before glancing back to Remi and nodding in understanding. "She's a little piece of him. Of course you'd be worried," she said, mostly as if just understanding it herself. With Aoife's approval given, she grinned and set about attaching the mobile to the basket the baby had been sleeping in prior to Remi's grief and worry. Vai ensured the blankets were warm and that the basket wasn't too close to the fire, before nodding to the alchemist. "Fit for a princess, if you ask me."

With a wondering gaze, Remi ran his chin across Aoife's slumbering head as he looked at the mobile. "Almost like the one you had back in Northaven...I do like this one more though." He added in a low voice, a smile wanting to tug at his lips. "Ahh you hear that? Your..." Pausing, Remi looked up at Vai for a moment. There was something that wanted to be a smile looming below the surface, but it was as if Remi wasn't quite ready for that yet. "You are a what? A grandma? Grammy? Nan?" There were so many words for what it was Vai might be to the girl. "The point is, you are already being spoiled Aoife-love. I would tell you not to get used to it but...I do have some bad news. I do not see it stopping nay time soon." R Ǝ M I How dare you say it's nothing to me baby, you're the only light I ever saw