HOTARU
It's a subtle shift in the position of Flora's irises, but Hotaru knows what she keeps looking back for. She does the same every morning in the mirror.
It isn't easy to stomach the thought that your child is suffering, but their grief is a shared thing even if neither can wholly understand the nuances of the relationship the other lost. "I know what you mean," she reassures quietly, and the arm around Flora's body tightens; she won't be lost to that feeling, not with Hotaru here. "You said it yourself - it won't always be like that. And if we hate people for not being him, we're merely upholding the best possible standard." One they would never meet. "Enzo would love that." In a darkly amusing way he likely revels that his death has elevated him to a paragon status that ensures nobody can ever measure up.
"You don't have to have it all figured out, flower. Not today, not a year from now, not ten." Gently brushing their noses together in belated response, Ru pulls back just enough to press a kiss to the very tip of Flora's nose. "Whether in life or in knowing how to exist without him." And, although her daughter surely can tell and already knows, honesty is the best policy. "I still am too. It's hard to remember how to live instead of just surviving." As has been pointed out plentifully. "But you're figuring it out. I can tell - and I'm proud of you."
It isn't easy to stomach the thought that your child is suffering, but their grief is a shared thing even if neither can wholly understand the nuances of the relationship the other lost. "I know what you mean," she reassures quietly, and the arm around Flora's body tightens; she won't be lost to that feeling, not with Hotaru here. "You said it yourself - it won't always be like that. And if we hate people for not being him, we're merely upholding the best possible standard." One they would never meet. "Enzo would love that." In a darkly amusing way he likely revels that his death has elevated him to a paragon status that ensures nobody can ever measure up.
"You don't have to have it all figured out, flower. Not today, not a year from now, not ten." Gently brushing their noses together in belated response, Ru pulls back just enough to press a kiss to the very tip of Flora's nose. "Whether in life or in knowing how to exist without him." And, although her daughter surely can tell and already knows, honesty is the best policy. "I still am too. It's hard to remember how to live instead of just surviving." As has been pointed out plentifully. "But you're figuring it out. I can tell - and I'm proud of you."
Oh, drunken gods of slaughter
You know I've always been your favorite daughter
You know I've always been your favorite daughter
