{se} feels like I'm sleepwalking when you're gone

Hotaru

Somewhere my lifeline still hums and sings
In the mess of all I have thrown away

Maybe she needs to mentally apologize to Isla for having been so offended that everyone assumed this would happen the moment they came back into each other's lives. She doesn't want to think they'd been kidding themselves because she had needed proof that he'd changed, that they were both different - better - people. But she can admit that every time he showed her, every time he proved he could be trusted again, that line in the sand had gotten shakier and smaller. Ru knows what everyone else will think but for once she simply doesn't care. They've both been steered far too much by the opinions of other people in the past, and always been the ones to ultimately suffer for it. This time, she just wants this to be about them.

He kisses her moments after she stops speaking, and Hotaru goes into it smiling. She might not be sure what this means for the future, but right now in this moment she's certain, and that's all she needs to know. That's perfectly alright. We have time, she murmurs back, her own regal accent stronger just as his own is. And what a wonder it is to be able to say that, without war breathing down their necks and risking the end of everything sacred and beloved. Eventually I'm going to lose track, so excuse away, comes down the bond with cotton-candy wisps of humor and joy. And this time, emboldened by their privacy and these first, sure steps into some convergence of old and new, Hotaru is the one to deepen the kiss this time with a small dart of her tongue against the seam of his lips.

Hungry now,
I am gathering new seeds to throw wide