Hotaru
So many people will ask you to be beautiful and urgent
to discover what you cannot have and desire it
There are miles yet of woods to explore, and the topics will come and go. There is always an ease between them, an ebb and flow that never ceases, and though she can tell this topic is harder to swallow given the pinch in his brow and the sour tang of his tension on the back of her tongue it won’t be a forever thing. She goes readily into his embrace as it tangles and tightens, drawing them closer together. to discover what you cannot have and desire it
It’s the right choice - her heart skips at the news, and her breath stutters in a harsh exhale that’s swallowed by his chest. Dread crawls clammy and immediate down her neck and into the hollows of her spine. The air is warm, but suddenly she finds herself shivering in his arms.
She won’t - no, she - even her thoughts and feelings are too fragmented to follow, hands gripping at the back of Sunjata’s shirt. She wouldn’t ask permission. She’ll do it anyway. What do we do? It’s a plaintive question that has no real answer. They can’t shadow Flora in Torchline forever, even if Hotaru wasn’t waiting on their reunion already. Sunjata can’t be away from King’s End that long. Would it matter anyway? Flora is so much like the Valkyrie - nothing would truly stop her if she set her mind to it. But Hotaru can’t help but look to Sunjata in the vain hope that maybe, somehow, he sees a path forward that won’t mean her daughter walking right back into the wolf’s jaws.
Don’t desire. Don’t despair.
Rain is only rain in mid-air
Rain is only rain in mid-air
