HOTARU
In the hanging, breathless moments of waiting, Hotaru doesn't know exactly what it is she wants to see. Kiada whole and alive is all she can ask for, but a selfish part of her can't help but want more. She wants her niece to be healthy, happy, as radiant and confident in herself as Rexanna had been. She doesn't want to see that someone she loves so dearly - perhaps more than Rexanna herself - holds the weight of memories and scars that Hotaru does. It's an agony she cannot bear to see on someone that never should have experienced such tragedy at the age Kiada had when it all went to hell. So tense and focused, Hotaru's skin shivers when her ears catch the sound of footsteps from within. And...not just footsteps, hooves perhaps? The sound is as familiar to her as breathing, or the pulse in her neck. They had been her own, once. A companion perhaps? Her mind races as the steps draw nearer, as the handle turns, the door cracking inward the smallest amount. Good girl, she praises internally even as her eyes lift - and lift higher, grudgingly - to finally gaze upon her niece's face.
Just as with her mother, the Valkyrie's gaze falls to the brilliant arctic eyes, red-rimmed and exhausted though they appear. Then her own eyes fall naturally to the dark scar on her niece's neck, dark with sweat and thickly scarred, and her heart aches. The sharpness of her tone is no deterrent, nor is the door barring her entry. Already Hotaru can feel the backs of her eyes pinch with tears, and a tremulous smile stretches her full lips.
"You've grown so much," is all she can think to say, well before the young woman before her catches up and recognizes her. Her voice is raw and weak, praying for Kiada to look in her eyes and see her. And she does, lifting and shattering Hotaru's heart in equal turns, the door swinging wide and choked words coming to grace her ears. In many ways it is similar to her reunion with Rexanna, and yet so different in others. To hear her title, the only one aside from Mother that she had ever felt fully worthy of, brings her own sob to tumble between her teeth. She tries to bite down on it, but it's a futile effort.
So instead she sweeps forward, careless of the height difference between them. No mere few inches could separate her from her niece. Hotaru would scale mountains, swim oceans, find the summit of the Gods itself if it meant holding her niece in her arms once more. Careful to avoid her scar she lifts her hands and pulls Kiada into her arms, burying her face in the unblemished arc of her pale neck. Only then do the tears flow, hot and quick from her cheeks to Kiada's skin.
"Oh sweetheart I have missed you so much," she sobs, clinging tight to the daughter Kiada had always been, no matter which womb she had come from.
i'm the little lightning girl
living electricity
a lightning bolt in human form
