HOTARU
Time seems to slow as she takes in the eyes that bare a soul she would recognize anywhere, no matter the form it takes. As familiar to her as the mountain ranges of the Basin, as her sister’s laugh, as her children’s faces. Her first, truest friend. The only soul to understand her in her entirety, to cradle the soft parts and lend her blade to the strong. Hotaru’s throat closes on a swift and merciless wave of tears, her emotions spinning rapidly out of control. There is simply so much to feel, careless of any thoughts or questions about Rexanna’s presence. Rexanna’s skin is cool beneath her warm palms, fingers shaking as they trace the ridge of her best friend’s cheekbones. Tears spill past her lashes even as a blinding smile comes to her lips, scarcely blinking for fear Rexanna would disappear in the moments between. Hands alight upon her shoulders, and she steps ever closer, as comfortable in Rexanna’s arms as she had been in their prior forms. ”You’re here,” she chokes back in return, voice warbling past her tears. ”You’re here, you’re alive, Rex,” she outright sobs, hands slipping to cup Rexanna’s neck as they fall into each other in a tight embrace.
Hotaru can’t let go, holding so tightly she can scarcely breathe. Rexanna, Rexanna, Rexanna, her mind chants. Beloved, lost and returned, the woman who had been her faithful sister in shadows the entirety of her reign, who had risen to her call like a tsunami beneath the force of Hotaru’s belief in her.
The confirmation is unnecessary, but it settles something in her chest to know. That these memories in her head are shared, that the life she lived was remembered and how she remembered Rexanna’s in turn. A validation of life, of shared grief, of reunion and love and friendship that transcended realms. All leading to here, to this moment, arms entangled beneath the moonlight. A missing piece of the puzzle, clicking together once more in harmonious existence.
Withdrawing feels like a blade to her heart, but she sinks to sit beside Rexanna immediately, needing the touch of her cool skin and the scent of her hair to keep breathing. The words her best friend speaks rattle her, the implication of others, but she does not focus on it just yet. Not now, in this moment between just the two of them. No matter the betrayal, the pain, the brokenness between them in the past, Hotaru would trust Rexanna forever. She had followed her to the Edge in the time of her greatest weakness, forsaking her kingdom to trust in Rexanna’s hospitality, even when their friendship was still tenuous. There is so much she wants to say.
”I’ve missed you so much Rex,” she hiccups pathetically through the last few tears, wiping them away irritatedly even as her quivering smile never fades. ”I’m here, I’m here and I’m not leaving,” she vows, reaching out to hold Rexanna’s nearest hand and squeeze it tight. It’s a dangerous promise to make, with how she’d just been dropped here moments prior without her consent, but if the forces of the world try to rip her from her sister’s side again she will go with hell burning at her heels.
it's our nature, we destroy
it's the constant of our kind
no matter the color of blood, man will always fall
