Hotaru
Hotaru barks a graceless laugh at Melita’s endearing forthrightness. “Oh, it is. But my children make it worth it, and so I endeavor to try my best.” The honeybee need not understand, childless and young as she is, but Ru doesn’t underestimate her sharp mind and capacity for empathy either.
A hum of acknowledgment leaves her, but nothing more. Gratitude is unnecessary. Melita has been taken under the Valkyrie’s wing, and as such is entitled to the woman’s efforts in ways others would never bear witness to. Though she casts a sharp, surprised glance sideways at the girl’s admission. “I think it’s a great chance for you to grow,” she praises, letting the words settle and take root before she continues a few moments after. “But I hope it was your choice.” And that she had not simply been abandoned, and was choosing to look on the brighter side of things. Perhaps it’s cruel or disingenuous of her to think such things of the two men she had once loved, and perhaps always would, but she is too jaded to consider it an impossibility. Pausing, she dusts her hands perfunctorily (though it does little to help) before she lays one on Melita’s closest forearm. “I know you are a woman in your own right, firebug, but it would help me sleep better at night if you would add some defenses to the house. It pains me to be so far if you should need me.” And though she doubts Melita has made enemies, Ru can’t help but wish she would make the house into a stronghold - and that she would use it, when the war comes. Ru knows it’s an impossible dream. She can’t ask Melita to stay out of it, doubts the girl would listen if she dared to ask directly. So instead she settles for these vague, subtle pleas.
A hum of acknowledgment leaves her, but nothing more. Gratitude is unnecessary. Melita has been taken under the Valkyrie’s wing, and as such is entitled to the woman’s efforts in ways others would never bear witness to. Though she casts a sharp, surprised glance sideways at the girl’s admission. “I think it’s a great chance for you to grow,” she praises, letting the words settle and take root before she continues a few moments after. “But I hope it was your choice.” And that she had not simply been abandoned, and was choosing to look on the brighter side of things. Perhaps it’s cruel or disingenuous of her to think such things of the two men she had once loved, and perhaps always would, but she is too jaded to consider it an impossibility. Pausing, she dusts her hands perfunctorily (though it does little to help) before she lays one on Melita’s closest forearm. “I know you are a woman in your own right, firebug, but it would help me sleep better at night if you would add some defenses to the house. It pains me to be so far if you should need me.” And though she doubts Melita has made enemies, Ru can’t help but wish she would make the house into a stronghold - and that she would use it, when the war comes. Ru knows it’s an impossible dream. She can’t ask Melita to stay out of it, doubts the girl would listen if she dared to ask directly. So instead she settles for these vague, subtle pleas.
from the base of her neck to the arch of her eyelids
her beauty made a slave of me
her beauty made a slave of me
