maybe who we were then is shattered, but who we are in the end is what matters
Hotaru drops her eyes - and her hand, no longer reaching - at Vai's words. "I meant it fondly," she whispers, the steel that normally creates the skeleton of her structure entirely absent. She could say more; that Remi has become someone to her she's afraid to name, if only because of his forced ties to her, that she trusts him in ways she only ever trusted Deimos before. That he is a good man, and one she is glad to know. But what would it matter? Vai's displeasure only reinforces that this woman is not her own mother, no matter how she longs for her own, long-dead and never present to see the newborn faces of her grandchildren. Once again she is merely an interloper, the offered kindness bought and paid on Remi's existence and not Hotaru's own merit. An outsider, regarded with narrowed eyes and suspicion, as if she had planned this somehow and was to blame for ruining the perfect sanctity of a relationship she'd never been privy to. It hurts. The bed is too large, too empty, and she is so very alone.
The Valkyrie is silent and withdrawn as Vai heals her, breathing slowly through the contractions as they come. For now they are sporadic, no real timing between them, which experience tells her means they aren't in the homestretch yet. Now there is little more to do than wait.
She blinks, however delayed, as the words that Vervain spoke register. "Babies? Two, then? I suspected, but..." well, she hadn't had a dedicated midwife of any sort, and only past doubles to rely upon. Remi enters at precisely that moment, and Hotaru folds her hands awkwardly in her lap - or what she can reach of it - and gives a wan smile to try and ease his nerves. "I don't need anything else myself." If Vervain has need, she allows the woman to speak for herself. "Now we wait. And do a lot of breathing." Words strangle halfway through as a contraction hits, and she breathes slowly out through her nose to weather it, hands twisting in the bedsheets.
The Valkyrie is silent and withdrawn as Vai heals her, breathing slowly through the contractions as they come. For now they are sporadic, no real timing between them, which experience tells her means they aren't in the homestretch yet. Now there is little more to do than wait.
She blinks, however delayed, as the words that Vervain spoke register. "Babies? Two, then? I suspected, but..." well, she hadn't had a dedicated midwife of any sort, and only past doubles to rely upon. Remi enters at precisely that moment, and Hotaru folds her hands awkwardly in her lap - or what she can reach of it - and gives a wan smile to try and ease his nerves. "I don't need anything else myself." If Vervain has need, she allows the woman to speak for herself. "Now we wait. And do a lot of breathing." Words strangle halfway through as a contraction hits, and she breathes slowly out through her nose to weather it, hands twisting in the bedsheets.
