you are such a soft and messy thing, nobody knows how to take care of you
It is an ache that she is familiar with, but a pleasant one, like a sore limb being gently and tentatively stretched out. It will always hurt. Until the day she meets them again in Mort’s arms it will hurt. But she can only lead by example, living in spite of all that loss, because it’s what she would’ve taught her children to do if they had had the chance to grow old enough to learn it.
Her laugh is more amused the second time around. “Oh, certainly not. At least not at first. She was quite like our mother - elegant, beautiful, domineering. I was not, at that age.” Ironic, considering how their roles had reversed as they’d become older. “I was the shy and awkward shadow she endured but couldn’t wait to rid herself of. She loved me, but hadn’t found the middle ground of barbed comments and expressions of love.” Setting down her brush, Hotaru holds the lantern up to the grey of the sky beyond, squinting critically at it. “Only after I left the Hills and we had a few years apart did we become close.”
The divergence from the topic stills her hands, and a slow frown overtakes her face. A maelstrom of emotion in her breast she can’t begin to pick apart. “It is her choice, just as her Ascension was. Though I wish she did not try to inspire guilt in us for our own choices, but she is still young.” Young and alone, pushing away the only family she has left because of their differences in faith and fealty. As if Rexanna had been much of a mother, it’s true, but Kiada had yet to approach Ru at all. In fact the woman had only seen Kiada again after her death as a face in the crown of her coronation. It is a wound she can’t ignore. But also a choice she cannot force the young woman to make.
Her laugh is more amused the second time around. “Oh, certainly not. At least not at first. She was quite like our mother - elegant, beautiful, domineering. I was not, at that age.” Ironic, considering how their roles had reversed as they’d become older. “I was the shy and awkward shadow she endured but couldn’t wait to rid herself of. She loved me, but hadn’t found the middle ground of barbed comments and expressions of love.” Setting down her brush, Hotaru holds the lantern up to the grey of the sky beyond, squinting critically at it. “Only after I left the Hills and we had a few years apart did we become close.”
The divergence from the topic stills her hands, and a slow frown overtakes her face. A maelstrom of emotion in her breast she can’t begin to pick apart. “It is her choice, just as her Ascension was. Though I wish she did not try to inspire guilt in us for our own choices, but she is still young.” Young and alone, pushing away the only family she has left because of their differences in faith and fealty. As if Rexanna had been much of a mother, it’s true, but Kiada had yet to approach Ru at all. In fact the woman had only seen Kiada again after her death as a face in the crown of her coronation. It is a wound she can’t ignore. But also a choice she cannot force the young woman to make.
