a day once dawned

Hotaru His boyish grin melts her heart, softens her teasing glare into something tender. He is so much happier here, even in the face of troubles and tensions that gravitate towards them like opposing magnets. It is all she has ever wanted for him, and sometimes at random in moments like these she is overcome with a tide of emotion. Gratitude that he was given another chance at life, at happiness. That he seems to be seizing it with both hands. Even so he is not immune to her sisterly prodding, jabbing her finger into his stomach as a man just as she had when he was a bird seconds prior. "Someday you'll eat those words. I still have a lot of catching up to do, but you're first on my list of victims." A cheshire grin, roguish and sly, is the blood-signed promise of her playful revenge. Surely he recalls the days of her glory? She doesn't need his magical or physical prowess to bring him to his knees, but she swears someday she will, if only to shout to the heavens that she has. Hotaru follows him over the threshold, eyes adjusting to the change in light with a few blinks as she sheds her thick outer coat to better regulate her body temperature. Deimos' words follow them inside, and she turns to give him a comforting smile, hoping to settle any nerves before her words ever make it off her tongue. "Kiada is cross with me, but she's alive and that's what matters. It was...not what I expected, but I'm grateful we all came out of it alive." Here she crosses the room towards him, eyes flickering over the insufficient bare skin she can examine, worried for any burns or injuries he may have. "How are you? I know you are connected to far more of these people than I am." Had he lost anyone? She had loathed her inadequacy during LongNight, still despises it even now as she finds herself unaware of much of what he had done and experienced during those endless days.