my tears ricochet

And so the battleships will sink beneath the waves
You had to kill me, but it killed you just the same

It had been a while, and George was starting to worry.

Oh, he wasn't particularly worried that Ru had forgotten him. That, he could live with. No, he was more worried that he hadn't even received a rejection from her. Was she still alive, somewhere in the frigid north? Who could say? And so he'd packed his things, traveled to Halo, only to be directed to King's End (a strange place to find the Valkyrie, to be sure, given that he wasn't really aware of her history with the de facto ruler of the region). And at long last, here he was in King's End. More specifically, here he was at the House of Midnight. And though he had no qualms about entering a house of ill repute (although this one had quite a good reputation, as it turned out), it was not where he had expected to find Hotaru.

When he asked inside, someone fetched her from somewhere beyond the first floor of the brothel; he wasn't sure where she'd been or why, but he was beginning to suspect that that was none of his business anymore. Still, when she appeared, he gave his crooked smile and a wink, his tone friendly as he said, "You know, you're a hard woman to pin down, Hotaru."

But when they found themselves in a private room to talk, and things felt so horribly distant and uncomfortable, his face softened into one of understanding. Still, he wanted to hear what he suspected from her. "I never heard back from you," he said, hating how needy and pathetic that sounded, but wanting to open the floor for her rejection all the same.

Cursing my name, wishing I stayed
You turned into your worst fears

George