HOTARU
Hotaru is fearless, undaunted, by the ghostlike visage that gazes down upon her. Even the fangs that peek stubbornly past Rexanna's lips are more adorable than frightening. They have always been perfect equals, parallel lines that chase each other into the horizon eternally. Where Rexanna is cool and wraithlike, Hotaru is warm and full of summer-painted life. They are the sun and moon, the sword and shield, the thunder and lightning that heralds the oncoming storm of their union. The world is going to fall at their feet again, just as it always has, and Hotaru can't help her eager smile at the idea. "Well the last two nearly killed me! I remember nearly popping them out right there on your doorstep when you brought us home," she laughs, eyes bright and wet with mirth and joy at better memories. Sometimes they dimmed in comparison to the darkness of the ending, but times like these forced her to wipe the glass clean and see the bright, effervescent happiness of the memories she had made in her life.
But that light was so easily snuffed out, especially now that she was in a place where she felt safe enough to break down. With someone who not only knew but understood. So many countless days wandering from realm to realm with no familiar faces to greet her, nobody to share her grief. Hotaru had been mindless with rage and loss those first few portals, she had either been restrained or chased out in many places. She had broken so completely and had to rebuild herself alone, cutting herself on all the fragmented glass she had to glue back together.
She's not alone anymore.
Rexanna's words prompt the tears to fall, streaking silent down her flushed cheeks. Her shoulders shake, and her breaths quiver, but she does not let herself sob. "I just want my babies back," she whimpers helplessly as her tears wet the pillow beneath her cheek. Hotaru clings to Rexanna's hand, pressing back to touch as much as she can of her beloved. Thranduil, Ashamin, Deodat...they had not loved her as she loved them. Though her heart mourned them, it would never equal the insurmountable loss of her children. She'd had many in her life, and their loss left a gaping hole that she could never fill again.
As her tears calm over countless minutes, she listens to Rexanna's soft words and lets it calm her racing heart and trembling breaths. The fingers that comb delicately through her hair soothe her, and she tilts her neck to better see Rexanna through tear-clouded eyes, pressing into her touch like a starved animal. "I would have done anything to keep you by my side then," the Valkyrie whispers. "It could have just been us and our giant family, men be damned." A better life, one where her love for Rexanna was unbroken, unimpeded by hasty decisions on both sides. Hotaru lifts a hand to place upon Rexanna's cheek, simply staring at her and soaking in the strength her sister gives her. "Maybe we couldn't have it then, but...you couldn't get rid of me now if you tried." A weak smile comes to her full mouth, feeling like she finally has placed the first stone over the burned wasteland of grief. Ready to start rebuilding, slowly, with Rexanna at her side.
it's our nature, we destroy
it's the constant of our kind
no matter the color of blood, man will always fall
