the distance never made a difference to me

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

Let's camp out in the snow.

A crazy suggestion, for those who don't possess a demigod's constitution, and crazier still given the region they're in. But since they are in the Hollowed Grounds, and since they weren't present for the rumoured shenanigans of the Blood Moon Festival, the Nova is determined to see the view at the top of Peekaboo Rise at dawn.

Maybe it will help to wash away the old memories of the Grounds with new, fresh ones.

And so, having gathered all they need to camp - a tent sturdy enough to withstand freezing air and snowdrifts, firewood, supplies and a sled to put it all on - Ronin has painstakingly set everything up beneath a crystal clear blanket of stars. But that was some hours ago now.

Now it's the middle of the night and, call it Deepfrost or call it their recent conversation in the Frostfields, but sleep evades him like a dream upon waking. And he's not even that annoyed about it, either. Inside their tent, tangled in blankets and plush ursur fur, the Nova watches their dying fire through content and half lidded eyes, his arms locked securely around his partner.

With his face nestled into the crook of Remi's neck and his lips kissing slow prayers against his throat, Ronin wouldn't mind passing the rest of the night like this. It isn't often he's allowed the quiet solitude to simply exist and appreciate what he has, and he isn't going to begrudge the opportunity now.

RONIN

i wish I could say I am a light that never goes out.
but i flicker from time to time

Like a swimmer floating deep in the sea, the Lullaby drifts weightlessly and without any real sense of his body. Far above him where rings of sunlight might normally sparkle to indicate the surface, Remi instead can feel the fluttery and phantom press of Ronin's lips against his skin. Drawn to them like a moth to a flame, the Lullaby kicks and stretches, moving swiftly upward. He might have used tentacles - or wings even - to hasten his ascent, but of course in a dream where Remi has nothing but control, thinking himself up was all he needed to do.

Cracking open one eye and seeing only the firelight dancing against the canvas walls of their tent, Remi smiles to himself as he lifts his chin that Ronin might explore even more of his throat. "Something wake you? " Remi wonders in a voice made rough and deep by sleep, as he shifts his hands and toes slightly in order to better gauge his bearings in their make-shift bed. Finding Ronin's skin against both, the Lullaby settles and sighs, blinking open both eyes before taking a deep breath that smelled of sandalwood and campfire smoke.

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

Ronin will never say it to his husband, but he always prefers the sound of Remi's voice through his lips rather than from the Attuned bond. There's something more in the bond, it's true, but right now, feeling the words rumble in the Lullaby's chest and up against his kisses - it's good and right, and Ronin smiles and curls himself more tightly around the other man. "Mm-mm," he hums the negative, dragging warm lips along the side of Remi's neck, over old scars, and settling just beneath his ear.

"I couldn't sleep," he admits, his whisper slicing the air, punctuated by a pop from the campfire. "But don't let me stop you." This is said despite the fact that his affections have been the very thing to rouse his husband, but Ronin isn't to know it.

RONIN

i wish I could say I am a light that never goes out.
but i flicker from time to time

Reaching around to curl his arm more tightly around the edges of his husband's body, Remi's fingers spread overly the similarly scared skin with no less wonder for their familiarity. "If only you knew someone who could help with that." The Lullaby murmurs helpfully, having nearly thought of tugging Ronin down into the dreaming when he'd first been roused from sleep, before deciding that, for all their worldly control while asleep, reality was always better.

"When have you ever managed to stop me?" Remi wonders, grinning wickedly in the dark and letting his eyes slip closed again if only to better feel the way Ronin's lips felt against his unshaven skin.

"Had I all the power in the world just now...I would make our tent see-through and mask our smell from the creatures around so that we could watch them passing us by." So saying, Remi turns his head slightly to nose vaguely into the flop of his husband's dark hair.

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

"Mm, but I didn't want to wake you," Ronin mumbles against Remi's neck, despite having done just that. Smiling at that very realisation, he melts beneath the other man's fingers, simultaneously wanting to grasp the Lullaby close and slip flush against him, content in their shared warmth and the weight of the blankets all around them.

"Never so far, but there's always a first time for everything." Ronin smiles his mischief into the hollow of Remi's throat thanks to their change in position, one of his hands trying to tease up the warm length of the Lullaby's back towards his shoulderblades. "Mm... we could see shooting stars and map the constellations, too." And then, because he isn't entirely awake, he adds, "and maybe a snowman."

It's not as strange as it might first appear, of course; the Hollowed Grounds is known for its memory snow. Regardless, Ronin's fingers spread in a gentle starburst over Remi's back, and he smiles to himself. "Let out your wings?" he requests.

RONIN

i wish I could say I am a light that never goes out.
but i flicker from time to time

The and yet might go unspoken, but there's a pulse of something playful and golden that hums outward in ripples from the places where the pair touch. It's enough that, upon later reflection, Remi might reconsider giving up his status as a demigod, if only so that he doesn't lose this extra way he has of enjoying his husband's company.

'I wonder what makes them shoot..' The Lullaby wonders a touch dreamily. "And what it looks like when they hit the ground." It's the sort of thing that might get his husband killed, and so for all of their reckless adventuring, they've never gotten around to it. "Well, we do not need infinite power to see a snowman."

Rather adoring the way that the crackle of the fire and the blue of Ronin's eyes in the darkness seemed to be all that the world consisted of, it was rather lazily that the Lullaby complied with his husband's request. Exhaling softly and rolling his shoulders, tawny wings pressed outward against the Nova's fingertips. There wasn't room to expand them entirely given their spread, though Remi stretched one as best he could before letting them settle against the furs. "The feathers have grown back better than I expected." He says softly, turning his head slightly to look at his plumage which flared gold in the firelight.

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

"They look like me." Ronin smiles, peeping up at his husband with fae blue eyes that show his amusement whether or not Remi can see the rest of his expression. As a fallen star himself, why shouldn't all of them look the way he does? There are plenty of things more absurd in the world (like walking snowmen), and he lets the amusement carry him for a little until the telltale shift of feathers fills his ears and blocks his periphery.

Humming soft approval against Remi's skin, his fingertips skate through the downy feathers against his husband's back, as if he might be able to contain his wingspan just by wanting it enough. "They - and you - are beautiful," he informs him, turning enough to let his head loll agains Remi's collarbones - all the better to see the shield of one tawny wing as it flares out.

"They always make me feel safe," he confesses, shifting to reach out for the brilliant splay of pinions, brushing a warm and reverent hand across them.

RONIN

i wish I could say I am a light that never goes out.
but i flicker from time to time

Remi's smile starts slowly before streaking across his lips and deepening his dimples to a depth that makes speech impossible. Foolishyl and ridiculously in love with the man around whom he was tangled, the Lullaby presses his tongue against the inside of his cheek to try and smooth it out from the inside, before giving up and merely shaking his head. "Even if they all fell and I had them all to pick from, I would still choose you." Remi says softly.

Remi's smile fades somewhat if only because accepting compliments has never really been his strong suit. Though Ronin's touch is feather-light, still Remi's wing trembles ever so slightly beneath the Nova's fingertips. His wings lacked the sort of sensory input that skin did, but pressed together as they were, Ronin's touch might as well have been a fist for all the brilliant emotions that came with it. 'Oh?' Curling his primary feathers inward and splaying them so that the light could dance through, Remi smiles a touch shyly against the top of his husband's head.

"I almost wish that I could just..." Curling them forward and around like a second set of arms, Remi tries to block out anything at all that isn't Huntsman or Lullaby. "...and then we could just be somewhere else. Just somewhere together."

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

Able to feel the joy rolling off his husband as well as see the impossibly boyish smile on his face, Ronin basks in the halo of their combined emotions, feeling suddenly grateful for his bout of insomnia. "Even if some of the other ones made better decisions? Or didn't go crazy during Leafchange?" He grins. "You would always be able to pick me out, at least. I am the one with all the concussions."

Letting himself settle again if for no other reason than to avoid the playful ire he's sure he's invoked with that comment, instead the Nova marvels at the firelight spilling through Remi's feathers like fingers of copper. "Mm. In all my darkest moments, you pull them around me," he mumbles. "So I know things will work out, when that happens."

Drawn back out from his thoughts at the sudden canopy of feathers overhead, Ronin tilts his head up to admire them, before glancing to the Lullaby. "Don't tell the other Ronins about this, or they'll get jealous," he warns, reaching out to cup Remi's cheek before leaning in to follow the movement with his lips.

Ronin's kiss is slow and sweet, and though there's never an occasion where this sort of proximity to Remi doesn't send a plume of heat curling southward, for now at least, love wins over lust.

RONIN

i wish I could say I am a light that never goes out.
but i flicker from time to time

'Well,' Grinning enough that his lips twist into a shape resembling help, sour, the Lullaby shakes his head. "-if they made better decisions, they would likely not have picked me back, mm?" As perfect as the pair for one another they were equally as imperfect for anyone else. Remi's own brief affairs with others had more than proven that over the years. "Besides, you know that I love when you go crazy during Leafchange."

As for concussions, as Ronin rightly predicted, the Lullaby grumbles disparagingly, growing low in the back of his throat in an attempt to vibrate the smirk right off his husband's face.

'Let them," Remi has time to whisper before Ronin's lips are upon his and the world and all of its problems utterly disappear. The shape of his husband's mouth is enough to have the Lullaby believing in earnest that the world could end right at that very minute, and somehow their tent would be all that was left standing if only for the love sparkling within.

"I think I have been selfish.." The Lullaby admits as his wings wrap around them both, letting firelight bathe Ronin's body once more where his feathers could not cover. "..more than usual." He adds if only to stop the Nova from beating him to it.

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

"Come on, now. There are better decisions and then there are uncharacteristic decisions. No matter how many falling stars are out there, we'd all pick you. And you know it." Ronin's words are simple and entirely reasonable, in his mind, his smile audible, his body boneless and relaxed. "That's nice to know, though. But even if you love it, I'd appreciate it if you'd keep a list of people for me to apologise to in Deepfrost."

Silenced for a time by their kisses, Ronin smiles against Remi's lips, his hand ghosting up to clasp the other man's cheek as if to reassure himself that he's not dreaming this moment. Barely a second passes once they part, however, before his husband's voice purrs through the air, and it's with a sudden frown that the same hand shifts to playfully cover Remi's mouth. "If you are going to make it serious again, give me this first," Ronin scolds softly.

This being the way the Nova shifts to let his head rest against his husband's chest, spending a quiet, blissful few moments doing little more than listening to the thrum of his heartbeat, fingers leaving his lips to map every silver line of scar tissue with exquisite care. "Alright," he murmurs when he's satisfied. "Do go on."

RONIN

i wish I could say I am a light that never goes out.
but i flicker from time to time

"I will remind you of that next time you are angry with me for making a mess in the kitchen." Remi whispers with a grin. "That there is an entire world of fallen stars who would pick me should you ever find me unsuitable." Never in life (nor death) would it come to that, which was why it was so easy to joke about now. "Alright. Next Leafchange I'll just sit perch on your shoulder or curl around your neck any time you opt to go out. Then we can spend the beginning of Deepfrost making apology gift baskets."

As his lips are locked behind Ronin's palm, Remi realizes that this is the second time in as many weeks that he's ruined a moment by suddenly being too serious. As was his tendency to cry after sex, so too were certain things just characteristic of the Lullaby. 'Forgive me,' Remi whispers softly, though his words lose any resemblance to an apology thanks to the crooked slant of his lips. "For you are both older and wiser." Sliding his hands around Ronin's lower back and spreading his fingers to touch as much of the Nova as he was able, the Lullaby gives his head a little shake. "It can wait." He adds, curling his wings tighter for a moment before letting them relax again.

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

Ronin's callout is as swift as it is unintentional, the Nova's head lolling back so he can smile up at his husband, delivering a soft kiss to Remi's chin. "Always," he murmurs, of being forgiven, his hand splayed carefully over the starburst scar where a shard of ice had once impaled his one and only and their daughter.

Now that they're both old enough to grumble when they get up from an armchair and to sport snow in their beards and hair, Ronin takes the other man's snark as a compliment, smugly nestling back against his neck and relaxing there. "It already did wait," he points out, given that he's grabbed the time he requested when his fingers were pressed to Remi's lips.

Regardless, he leaves the choice up to the Lullaby, smiling against his skin to see tawny wings flex and relax, as beautiful and whole as they always were.

RONIN

i wish I could say I am a light that never goes out.
but i flicker from time to time

Years had passed and people had come and gone so often from their lives that although both men were silvered with the scars of their passing, their memories had long since faded from the forethought of the Lullaby's mind. Every now and then names would brush across his conscious thoughts like strange bits of shade on an otherwise cloudless day. He only ever paid them mind when he was alone with his thoughts, and given the comfortable weight of the man pressed against him, whatever memories Ronin's wandering fingers provoked as they etched over his scars, Remi utterly ignored.

Leaning himself forward just enough to press a kiss against the top of Ronin's head before relaxing his shoulders fully back down, Remi looks thoughtfully up into the top of their tent. "Alright, I do have a question." He murmurs cautiously, before smiling slowly. 'Do you, Ronin Taliesin, former Baron and Commander of the Storm, man with the most goddess-given nicknames to have ever walked the earth and utter love of my life-" Pausing, Remi tightens his arms and wings around the man of which he spoke.

"Want to have more children? And...I do not mean theoretically or one day. But..do you?"