feeling all the shades of indigo

REMI

& now I'm all alone in the dark of night

Hotaru's grip pushes the blood out of his fingers—not that Remi notices. Instead, his eyes are large and focused intently on Vai, if only because he naively thinks there might be something he can do. But no; both Valkyrie and witch have it all well in hand. He's the interloper in this moment, the cause of it, and now just a useless bit of furniture in the room that is good only insofar as he can take any amount of tension Hotaru expels against his fingers.

Filling the room with images of snowscapes and auroras from Hotaru's mind, the alchemist keeps the chill from her childhood world at bay, only allowing through the visual illusion. When her cries grow louder the colours and images sparkle and dance, fracturing only as a new cry breaks through the air. Remi feels his heart stutter and then pound. Adrenaline rushes up from the balls of his feet as guilt anchors him in place. It is the most devastating mixture of love and devastation that he feels, and unfair as it is, just now it's Hotaru's firm grip that provides him support, rather than the other way around.

Hitching in a breath to see the small girl in Vai's hands, held out toward him as if she were his to take, Remi feels as though he can barely breathe, let alone hold this too-small being in his too-large hands. In a blink his duplicate is there, reaching for the girl—his daughter—that he might continue to press the cloth to Hotaru's forehead. The astral!Remi moves to the opposite side of the bed with the baby, kneeling by the bed as he cuddles her close to his chest, worried that the thudding of his heart would be too strong a vibration for her.

The moon is shining but I can't see the light