HOTARU
His smile may still have shadows of grief lingering in the corners, but seeing it alone is a quiet indication that she is doing the right thing. Hotaru's gift is in knowing people - the necessary base to be able to manipulate them later. But grief is a tricky thing, with wires and strings and pitfalls that are never the same from person to person. All she can do is keep him company, give him her sincerest attention, and try to help him weather the storm at his side. So that perhaps he won't feel so alone facing the storm at the helm. "I'm sure you were enough the same," she states with a wry grin. And then silence once more, listening to the profoundly poetic way he speaks of a woman who has passed beyond his reach. Helping to remind him of an image that unfortunately, over time and with age and recollection failing, may become muddled and vague. Even she can only recall certain features of her two beloveds. It is an unfair loss, but the grief is similarly blurred and faded with time, and so it's an equivalent exchange.
When his words find a pause she lifts her voice once more, guiding and leading, more of a passive partner to his memories than an active participant in this conversation. Something she intends and does not begrudge him for. "Did she let you join the rebellion eventually?" More out of curiosity than anything. Wondering about the impact she'd had on his life, how deep the wound of her loss now runs. "How long did you know her before you came here?"
I am a breathtaking mosaic
of all the battles I've won
of all the battles I've won
