Hotaru
i'm still here but all is lost
Releasing him is more difficult than she had expected, but then again she hadn’t been forced to contend with new instincts last time she’d seen him. Still, it’s a necessity for conversation that isn’t pressed right up against his skin, though she lingers close even as her arms unwind from his figure. Heedless of the heat and the way it coalesces as their body heat multiplies in the space between. Her eyes sharply move to his hand as it subconsciously rises, frowning. “Are you okay? Deimos told me there was an attack.” He’d also said there’d been no casualties, but that doesn’t mean Sah hadn’t been wounded. She’s momentarily distracted by Lilly’s warm tongue against her hand, missing the pain that crosses his face moments after her own. What she doesn’t miss is Lilly’s abandonment to comfort her bonded, and as the Valkyrie’s gaze returns to Sah she instinctively moves closer at the expression of profound pain he wears, hand rising to the shoulder he’d gestured to in a sharp, worried movement.
Except then he’s sharing a grief she knows all too well. One she has personally concealed from all others, refusing to freely share it the way he does. The hand that had lifted instead turns to cradle his nape, squeezing it in comfort as her own chest caves in with fresh reminder of loss. “Do they still live?” her voice wavers, eyes bright and with a sharp desperation as they bore into Sah’s. Had he been forced to abandon them, or had they experienced the same fate as her own?
