Darling please, just give us some time, and I swear we'll be alright
She retreats enough to let a hand cup his jaw, tilting gently to try and encourage those sad blues to find her own eyes. "When you first learned to wield a sword, true metal and not wood, did you stop because you cut yourself? Because your partner bruised you, or knocked you down?" Her thumb caresses the line between cold-weathered skin and the coarse nature of his beard, tracing the lines of his cheekbone and enjoying - between words and lessons - the simplistic joy of being able to touch him anew. "Did you stop midway through battle because you were tired? Retreat because too much had been taken by your opponent?" Hotaru knows the answers to all these questions, has known him far too long and too well to not know exactly what he needs to hear. "Your heart is no different, Deimos. It will be hurt, again and again. But that does not mean you stop trying, or build defenses around it, to shelter it away where it cannot grow stronger and smarter. You must try again each time. Just as you hefted your sword whenever it was knocked from your hand, you must strive to work past the hurt." A lesson she'd had to learn far too young herself. But if he had nobody else in the world to show him it was worth it to love, he had her. And she would become the singular proof he needed. "And you will grow wiser, just as your training made you, until you can see when it is time to withdraw. When you have no more left to give, and must care for yourself. You will learn when it is okay to abandon someone who hurts and takes too much, and to tell them apart from those who may have flaws but wish to return what you give them."
Leaning close she presses a gentle, feather-light kiss to his brow, to the wrinkles that converge there and speak of all manner of pain and weighted suffering. "Your heart is a muscle like any other, my love. If you do not tend to it, it will grow weak. The pain is merely proof that you are growing stronger." And though he immediately shirks away from her suggestion of a vacation to her spa, Hotaru smiles, already sure of her impending victory. "And you know what we do with sore muscles? We treat them with hot baths, massages, and rest." All things she can offer him aplenty at her spa. With guaranteed privacy at that.
"Just a few days, at first. If something goes horribly wrong in Halo, I will be here to return with you if nothing else. But I will do my best to convince you to stay longer." Hopefully she wouldn't have to fight him on it too hard, so long as nothing came down on their heads by way of fate, but he can be just as ornery as her when it comes to things like relaxation. She's at least prepared for the rough road.
Leaning close she presses a gentle, feather-light kiss to his brow, to the wrinkles that converge there and speak of all manner of pain and weighted suffering. "Your heart is a muscle like any other, my love. If you do not tend to it, it will grow weak. The pain is merely proof that you are growing stronger." And though he immediately shirks away from her suggestion of a vacation to her spa, Hotaru smiles, already sure of her impending victory. "And you know what we do with sore muscles? We treat them with hot baths, massages, and rest." All things she can offer him aplenty at her spa. With guaranteed privacy at that.
"Just a few days, at first. If something goes horribly wrong in Halo, I will be here to return with you if nothing else. But I will do my best to convince you to stay longer." Hopefully she wouldn't have to fight him on it too hard, so long as nothing came down on their heads by way of fate, but he can be just as ornery as her when it comes to things like relaxation. She's at least prepared for the rough road.
HOTARU
