you are such a soft and messy thing, nobody knows how to take care of you
Even if she wished to struggle against him - which she does not - Hotaru certainly can't stop the way he pulls her back up and against both him and the scarred tail beneath her, supported on all sides. Grinning and light-hearted, she isn't expecting him to say something so...honest. In fact she prays he's merely joking, because if it's anything less than dramatic she doesn't know what she'll do. Because he's wrong.
In fact, she's so stunned - and surely he'll see it all there in her eyes, raw and uncertain as they stare into his own - that she can't come up with a response, merely holding onto his arms and trying not to automatically assume he's mocking her. Until, blessedly, he says something else. Something she can actually answer.
"No, I didn't actually. But I get it - I have a den." A reflection of her first shift, the big cat that lives in her soul and craves soft things and thick bedding. The falcon urge to nest and the komodo urge to burrow had not exactly improved upon that initial desire. "What sort of things do you collect? I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours," she goads, reclaiming that former energy with an impish grin.
In fact, she's so stunned - and surely he'll see it all there in her eyes, raw and uncertain as they stare into his own - that she can't come up with a response, merely holding onto his arms and trying not to automatically assume he's mocking her. Until, blessedly, he says something else. Something she can actually answer.
"No, I didn't actually. But I get it - I have a den." A reflection of her first shift, the big cat that lives in her soul and craves soft things and thick bedding. The falcon urge to nest and the komodo urge to burrow had not exactly improved upon that initial desire. "What sort of things do you collect? I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours," she goads, reclaiming that former energy with an impish grin.
