Honey, these arms that once held you are ready to fight
His rage may ice and chill, but hers simmers, and her eyes narrow as his obstinate refusal to see reason drives a further wedge between them. "Because I haven't been here long enough for him to see me," she grits through her teeth. His words may be cutting, but Hotaru's skin is not so weak as to let them hurt. Not over something as important as this. "Then what do you expect to do? If I can't face him, what makes you think you can? You froze at his voice, you think you stand any better chance killing him? You think you can protect me any better than these walls or my magic can?" She throws the words at his feet, chin rising defiantly in the face of his faltering logic. His insistence that they can remain sheltered in their home only brings acid to her tongue. "Cowardice will only please someone like him, only allow him to poke more holes in your reputation. You know that. And I never took you for a coward." It is as much an insult as it is praise, a cruel double-edged sword that strikes back at his own for believing her so easily felled.
Already he tries to flee, to run away from this, and she hisses through her teeth and reaches to grab at his wrist to force him to stop. "Don't you dare walk away from me," she growls, voice low and animalistic. "Don't you dare make a mockery of what I am willing to do for you. You think I wouldn't chance it? That I wouldn't risk him killing me if it meant keeping you safe? You're a martyr who believes himself unworthy of love, and that hasn't changed. But I would die for you, you foolish man!" Her voice cracks like thunder in the oppressive stillness of the night. She will not let him throw her love back in her face. For a creature as self-serving as Hotaru, the willingness to die for another person is a monumental level of adoration, and to have it reduced to paltry insults infuriates her beyond sense and reason. To reduce her to nothing but fodder is an insult she will not let him get away with by retreating into the depths of the house to brood and angst. This conversation is far from over, and he can't escape her in this house - no matter how it stings that he calls it his, as if her anxieties do not already whisper in her ears that she doesn't belong. "So what's your plan, then? To make Nate and I stand by and watch him wear you down long before he kills you? If you have a different plan that doesn't end with him winning, I'm all ears!"
Already he tries to flee, to run away from this, and she hisses through her teeth and reaches to grab at his wrist to force him to stop. "Don't you dare walk away from me," she growls, voice low and animalistic. "Don't you dare make a mockery of what I am willing to do for you. You think I wouldn't chance it? That I wouldn't risk him killing me if it meant keeping you safe? You're a martyr who believes himself unworthy of love, and that hasn't changed. But I would die for you, you foolish man!" Her voice cracks like thunder in the oppressive stillness of the night. She will not let him throw her love back in her face. For a creature as self-serving as Hotaru, the willingness to die for another person is a monumental level of adoration, and to have it reduced to paltry insults infuriates her beyond sense and reason. To reduce her to nothing but fodder is an insult she will not let him get away with by retreating into the depths of the house to brood and angst. This conversation is far from over, and he can't escape her in this house - no matter how it stings that he calls it his, as if her anxieties do not already whisper in her ears that she doesn't belong. "So what's your plan, then? To make Nate and I stand by and watch him wear you down long before he kills you? If you have a different plan that doesn't end with him winning, I'm all ears!"
HOTARU
