There's a darkness down inside me
That I know we'll both enjoy
That I know we'll both enjoy
Ru will never stop seeing ghosts when she sees either Rexanna or Kiada - affected as she'd been by being so near at hand to Kiada when she'd died - but each similarity is a callback to beloved memories and cherished family, and even the twinge that at times comes with those can't outshine the love that perseveres.
"Others can call it unsavory, it never was to us," she huffs dramatically, that same grief dissipating like mist in sunlight as Rexanna's existence alone brings Hotaru's smile back to center stage.
It scarcely leaves once it's back on her lips, though it dims through the hardest parts. It heals something deep in her heart when the first words out of her sister's lips validate her, heedless of Hotaru's hand in the mess. A kind of intentionally blind loyalty that Hotaru doubts she'll ever find again. "About time, right?" It's all she can manage to say without making herself cry or some other such embarrassing reaction to Rexanna's support.
Her eyes follow Rexanna's to Sunjata and Vai, always aware of where he is even in a crowd. Ru's smile softens, blatantly lovesick in the privacy of their cabana. "Very much so. More than I could've dreamed." Even in the halcyon days with both Sunjata and Nate at her side. Now, the reality of their shared happiness is shaped by realistic expectations, and it is all the sweeter for the hurt it had taken to get there.
The Valkyrie's hand tightens around the Penumbra's at the names of lost children, the pain a shared song that has always harmonized between them. Maybe that's why the advice lands so much stronger when it comes. Because Rexanna knows. Had lived this tipping point herself, with a man as good as Bastien at her side - just as Sunjata is at Hotaru's.
"So you're telling me to do what has already worked in the past, and actually talk to him? You'd think I could've figured that out on my own," she laughs wryly, amazed by her own stupidity sometimes. But isn't that what sisters are for? Thunking you on the forehead and setting you straight? Hotaru reaches out to curl Rexanna's hair idly around her free fingers, deep in thought. They have more time than she'd ever thought they would, even if it's only a single night. There's no need to rush.
"Maybe it is time to try again. Just like he and I did." She'd been scared then, too. Just as she's scared now. Burned and twisted by the loss of Enzo and Ru'in and others she can't bear to name. But if she'd found the strength to jump, to brave the waters once more for the chance of happiness with Sunjata, then maybe she can do it again with motherhood.
Tugging on Rex's hair, Ru's eyes clear and focus on her sister's blues as she grins. "You've done enough fixing in a single breath, let's talk about something more fun. Can you fuck in Mort's halls? Is it weird if you can?" Hotaru spends the end of these twilight hours they've been given with her sister, cackling and smirking, and by the end even the goodbyes feel a little easier. A piece of her was given back tonight, and she feels more like herself than before Rexanna had stepped through the veil.
She has a fiance to find.
- Fin
"Others can call it unsavory, it never was to us," she huffs dramatically, that same grief dissipating like mist in sunlight as Rexanna's existence alone brings Hotaru's smile back to center stage.
It scarcely leaves once it's back on her lips, though it dims through the hardest parts. It heals something deep in her heart when the first words out of her sister's lips validate her, heedless of Hotaru's hand in the mess. A kind of intentionally blind loyalty that Hotaru doubts she'll ever find again. "About time, right?" It's all she can manage to say without making herself cry or some other such embarrassing reaction to Rexanna's support.
Her eyes follow Rexanna's to Sunjata and Vai, always aware of where he is even in a crowd. Ru's smile softens, blatantly lovesick in the privacy of their cabana. "Very much so. More than I could've dreamed." Even in the halcyon days with both Sunjata and Nate at her side. Now, the reality of their shared happiness is shaped by realistic expectations, and it is all the sweeter for the hurt it had taken to get there.
The Valkyrie's hand tightens around the Penumbra's at the names of lost children, the pain a shared song that has always harmonized between them. Maybe that's why the advice lands so much stronger when it comes. Because Rexanna knows. Had lived this tipping point herself, with a man as good as Bastien at her side - just as Sunjata is at Hotaru's.
"So you're telling me to do what has already worked in the past, and actually talk to him? You'd think I could've figured that out on my own," she laughs wryly, amazed by her own stupidity sometimes. But isn't that what sisters are for? Thunking you on the forehead and setting you straight? Hotaru reaches out to curl Rexanna's hair idly around her free fingers, deep in thought. They have more time than she'd ever thought they would, even if it's only a single night. There's no need to rush.
"Maybe it is time to try again. Just like he and I did." She'd been scared then, too. Just as she's scared now. Burned and twisted by the loss of Enzo and Ru'in and others she can't bear to name. But if she'd found the strength to jump, to brave the waters once more for the chance of happiness with Sunjata, then maybe she can do it again with motherhood.
Tugging on Rex's hair, Ru's eyes clear and focus on her sister's blues as she grins. "You've done enough fixing in a single breath, let's talk about something more fun. Can you fuck in Mort's halls? Is it weird if you can?" Hotaru spends the end of these twilight hours they've been given with her sister, cackling and smirking, and by the end even the goodbyes feel a little easier. A piece of her was given back tonight, and she feels more like herself than before Rexanna had stepped through the veil.
She has a fiance to find.
- Fin
and it's screaming from within me
to have us set it free
to have us set it free
