It's likely not the compliment to him that it is to her, even with her own terrified reaction aside. After all, he only knows what she has told them of these men. "Yes. But it does not mean he didn't share the same spirit, one that I admired long before I ever loved." When he'd been no more than her friend, her confidant. Yet another soul beneath the protection of the crown. "His actions don't make it less of a compliment. I'm sorry if it seemed that way." Part of her, still hurt and defensive after years of time between those abandonments, wants to hiss that she would never let anyone close enough to do that again anyway, that he need not sorry about the comparison. The larger part knows she's too foolish and romantic to hold fast to that vow. If how quickly she befriends this man is any indication, already her walls are too low.
It's an honorable, humble thing, to ask after her own stories instead of telling his own. The water grows closer to their feet, but Hotaru intends to stretch their time together as far as she can. "Quote a vague question, I don't know where to start," she teases, eyes alight with dancing amusement. "My shop is for fabric working, tailoring, and glassblowing. Both are quite popular in the Grounds, but magic can achieve it just as easily if not more so." She's certainly not special in her field, but it brings her peace to work with her hands and help her newly found fellow citizens. "My guild is a bit more of a secret." Smirk far more prominent this time as she leans back against the cool structure, a relief from the heat against her bare shoulders. "I enjoy many things here. The people are hard-working and kind, the land itself is beautiful..." she trails off with a loose gesture of her hand at the water before them. "Meeting people like you. It may not be home, the one I made. But if I could make it once, why not again?"
It's an honorable, humble thing, to ask after her own stories instead of telling his own. The water grows closer to their feet, but Hotaru intends to stretch their time together as far as she can. "Quote a vague question, I don't know where to start," she teases, eyes alight with dancing amusement. "My shop is for fabric working, tailoring, and glassblowing. Both are quite popular in the Grounds, but magic can achieve it just as easily if not more so." She's certainly not special in her field, but it brings her peace to work with her hands and help her newly found fellow citizens. "My guild is a bit more of a secret." Smirk far more prominent this time as she leans back against the cool structure, a relief from the heat against her bare shoulders. "I enjoy many things here. The people are hard-working and kind, the land itself is beautiful..." she trails off with a loose gesture of her hand at the water before them. "Meeting people like you. It may not be home, the one I made. But if I could make it once, why not again?"
Hotaru
