I took my time, I hurried up

i'm not the man they think i am at home

'There is no need.' Remi replies in response to his son's apology, and though the smile on his lips is meant for Mateo, it's only the spiderwebs of blue on his page that see it. "I wonder that all the time." Never would the alchemist trade the lives of Mateo, Flora, or Enzo to have Aoife back...and yet no part of Remi is sure that had Aoife lived if any of them would have come to be. Oh, he and Ronin would likely still have had droves of children, but would their marriage have ever opened to allow for Hotaru? Would Remi have ever locked himself away in the dreamworld where Mateo had been conceived in the first place? He thought not.

So, despite whatever he might say on the surface, wishing that Aoife had never died was a death sentence to the children who had come after her.

"Being someone new is a lot of work." Remi murmurs, mirroring Mateo's shrug. "Well, you will always be family no matter how many grains of sand run down until things are fixed. And if they never are...well.." Reaching for a bit of yellow, Remi hits his brush against his finger so that it splatters like rain onto his painting. "..you will be family even then."