HOTARU
She's in a long black coat tonight
Waiting for me in the downpour outside
Waiting for me in the downpour outside
She misses Remi’s dream walking ability sometimes. It isn’t hers to miss in any capacity, but there’d been a part of her - quiet, but always selfish, she doesn’t know how not to be - that had drawn comfort from the idea that he could visit her any time. Distance never mattered then. There was no waiting while awake - something she finds she hates as she experiences it here and now.
Her eyes are clearly visible when he materializes in the bed, the space softly illuminated by her mere existence. They settle on Remi’s face for a long time, breaths slowing just from knowing he’s here. That there’s someone on Flora’s other side who would also die for her, which means now there truly is nowhere safer in the world for their daughter to be. “She won’t wake. I put her to sleep.” There’s a touch of shame that hangs in the way her eyes slide away from Remi’s back to where she’s idly stroking their daughter’s hair.
She languishes in silence for a moment, chewing on her lip like a teenager and not the woman she is. “She kept insisting she would be safe here. She wasn’t making sense. I just - I needed time,” she stresses, shoulders beginning to hunch again as the urgency slowly creeps, the need to take her daughter and store her away so the Valkyrie can burn the world back to being safe for her again returning to breathe down her neck. When her gold-lit gaze finds Remi again, it has the likeness of a cornered animal. “I couldn’t stand there out in the open trying to explain. The more people that know she’s alive the harder this gets.” And maybe she’d thought of sailing further. Sailing until nobody could ever find them. But Hotaru has always tried to have her cake and eat it too; she wants Flora safe, near at hand, and not actively hating her. Convincing Flora and earning her consent is the only option that accomplishes all three. At least until Hotaru can show her that the Family isn’t dangerous. Then she can feel more secure in the idea of Flora being off on her own again.
“She’s going to be furious when I wake her, but we can argue here without drawing attention. You’ll help me convince her?” And so convinced is she by the haze of void that her stare is plaintive and vulnerable, certain that Remi will understand her completely. He’s never failed to protect their children - Hotaru can hardly say the same - so why would now be any different?
Her eyes are clearly visible when he materializes in the bed, the space softly illuminated by her mere existence. They settle on Remi’s face for a long time, breaths slowing just from knowing he’s here. That there’s someone on Flora’s other side who would also die for her, which means now there truly is nowhere safer in the world for their daughter to be. “She won’t wake. I put her to sleep.” There’s a touch of shame that hangs in the way her eyes slide away from Remi’s back to where she’s idly stroking their daughter’s hair.
She languishes in silence for a moment, chewing on her lip like a teenager and not the woman she is. “She kept insisting she would be safe here. She wasn’t making sense. I just - I needed time,” she stresses, shoulders beginning to hunch again as the urgency slowly creeps, the need to take her daughter and store her away so the Valkyrie can burn the world back to being safe for her again returning to breathe down her neck. When her gold-lit gaze finds Remi again, it has the likeness of a cornered animal. “I couldn’t stand there out in the open trying to explain. The more people that know she’s alive the harder this gets.” And maybe she’d thought of sailing further. Sailing until nobody could ever find them. But Hotaru has always tried to have her cake and eat it too; she wants Flora safe, near at hand, and not actively hating her. Convincing Flora and earning her consent is the only option that accomplishes all three. At least until Hotaru can show her that the Family isn’t dangerous. Then she can feel more secure in the idea of Flora being off on her own again.
“She’s going to be furious when I wake her, but we can argue here without drawing attention. You’ll help me convince her?” And so convinced is she by the haze of void that her stare is plaintive and vulnerable, certain that Remi will understand her completely. He’s never failed to protect their children - Hotaru can hardly say the same - so why would now be any different?
singing "Baby come home" in a melody of tears
While the rhythm of the rain keeps time
While the rhythm of the rain keeps time
