HOTARU
Hotaru, for all her pride and independence, cannot help her fervent gratitude as Bastien turns and busies himself elsewhere. She folds into Rexanna's embrace like a ragdoll, childlike and helpless. It is a revelation she cannot bear without her sister's arms around her to ward away the warring emotions the world tries to impress upon her. There is nobody here, in this world or even this house, that she needs to impress. No title or facade to keep cemented in place. Instead she quakes in Rexanna's hold, pressing her face to the cool column of her neck to conceal the tears budding in her eyes and lifting her hands to grip at her sister's hips. There's nothing to say, she knows Rexanna is right. Part of her is proud that she is aware now of how her children had suffered beneath her lackluster mothering. Still nothing comes to her tongue, because she can't soothe or defend something she knows is right. "But she's safe," she insists, unsure if it's a question or a statement. Deimos' name is like an anchor to cease her shaking, pulling her back down from her immediate fear at Kiada's absence. Safe, alive, that is all she cares about.
Her eyes finally lift to Rexanna's as she withdraws the scarcest amount she can manage to establish eye contact. "I understand," she murmurs, trying to bring herself together lest the entirety of the night's revelations shake her apart at the seams. "For me it's like it was only yesterday, even in the other places I've been." Solemnity coats her words, eyes glazed and far away, remembering how she'd landed in the Rift with Thranduil and her twins and then immediately been ripped away again, still freshly scraped raw from the loss of her family. Out of the pan and into the fire. And there had be nobody on the other side that time. Hotaru had been alone, so alone, and she wishes Kiada had not had to experience such an awful transition as well.
Blankets are placed around her shoulders and she leans into Rexanna's hands more than the fabric that offers her heat. Turning to offer her face to Rexanna as she lays a kiss on her temple. Closes her eyes with a wry, bittersweet smile as she remembers their days huddled together while the children slept, speaking of the future and whining about motherhood in turns. "We are rarely wrong," she concedes, amusement pulling at her lips. Blinks open her eyes to gaze softly at Rexanna and finds her hand in the dark once more. "I know this is close to daylight for you, but...stay with me?" The request is little more than a vulnerable whisper, feeling raw and bruised all over, inside and out. They could stay and whisper the night away like teenage girls, or perhaps the Penumbra would allow Hotaru to simply sleep against her side. The day had dragged what little energy she had from her body all the way down to the marrow of her bones, and in that moment she simply needed closeness and comfort.
it's our nature, we destroy
it's the constant of our kind
no matter the color of blood, man will always fall
