Darling please, just give us some time, and I swear we'll be alright
"By doing exactly this," she comforts, fingers curling lightly through his hair, tucking stray strands behind his ear and letting her thumb caress gently over his temple on the way. "By opening up, and talking to me, and letting the emotion out. Crying, yelling, shouting with joy." A lesson she had been forced to learn herself. One she imparts now with far more gentleness than she'd been given. For all Ashamin had loved her, he was prone to throwing her off cliffs to force her to fly instead of gently leading her by the hand into the realizations she needed to have. Hotaru won't do that to Deimos, is afraid those wings would not lift to catch him in this moment even if she did. He deserves kindness and a gentle touch more than any others she knows, and her hands may be bloodied and scarred, but they are no less soft when they hold him.
A strangled sound leaves him, and a soft crooning sound thrums in her throat in answering rise of chorus. Assuring he knows he is heard, that she is attuned to his every cresting emotion, regardless of her inability to reach across the metaphysical bond his race has. His apology has her eyes closing, squeezing, an ache taking hold that has her clinging just that small bit tighter to him. "You have nothing to apologize for, Deimos. Nothing. Okay?" She presses their heads together, blocking out all but the most stubborn of firelight between her own golden hair and the dark furs that surround the both of them. "You are a good man. The best I have ever known." How she had come to deserve having him in her life is unknown to her, but she won't draw the attention of the Fates, lest they try and take him away as well. "You have done nothing but your best. Your heart has never strayed. You owe no apologies, to anyone or anything. Least of all me." There is nothing he has done or will ever do that he will need to seek penance for from her.
His beseeching question is nearly as hard to answer as Nate's, but this time Hotaru has some vague notion of a plan. "You stay with me. A few days, lest you break out in hives when the vacation becomes too much. We go to my spa, and you make use of everything I've put in place for now." That will be enough of a fight, she's sure, but his grumbling and balking has never stopped her in the past. He will capitulate. "We spar, and lounge, and walk the tundras and talk of better times. Nobody but those we wish will come to visit. Consider it like...hibernation." Vacation is a word she can't use more than once, or he really will start breaking out. Retreating just enough to give him an encouraging smile, she cups his bristled jaw with one small hand. "And when we awake and leave our cave, we will be rested. Ready for spring." Perhaps not fully healed, but on their way to it. Together.
A strangled sound leaves him, and a soft crooning sound thrums in her throat in answering rise of chorus. Assuring he knows he is heard, that she is attuned to his every cresting emotion, regardless of her inability to reach across the metaphysical bond his race has. His apology has her eyes closing, squeezing, an ache taking hold that has her clinging just that small bit tighter to him. "You have nothing to apologize for, Deimos. Nothing. Okay?" She presses their heads together, blocking out all but the most stubborn of firelight between her own golden hair and the dark furs that surround the both of them. "You are a good man. The best I have ever known." How she had come to deserve having him in her life is unknown to her, but she won't draw the attention of the Fates, lest they try and take him away as well. "You have done nothing but your best. Your heart has never strayed. You owe no apologies, to anyone or anything. Least of all me." There is nothing he has done or will ever do that he will need to seek penance for from her.
His beseeching question is nearly as hard to answer as Nate's, but this time Hotaru has some vague notion of a plan. "You stay with me. A few days, lest you break out in hives when the vacation becomes too much. We go to my spa, and you make use of everything I've put in place for now." That will be enough of a fight, she's sure, but his grumbling and balking has never stopped her in the past. He will capitulate. "We spar, and lounge, and walk the tundras and talk of better times. Nobody but those we wish will come to visit. Consider it like...hibernation." Vacation is a word she can't use more than once, or he really will start breaking out. Retreating just enough to give him an encouraging smile, she cups his bristled jaw with one small hand. "And when we awake and leave our cave, we will be rested. Ready for spring." Perhaps not fully healed, but on their way to it. Together.
HOTARU
