Hotaru
She almost loathes the clothes she wears for keeping the calloused warmth of his palm from touching her skin, sure it would somehow make her feel better, but if they're both going to get sloshed then some degree of separation has to be kept. It's painfully reminiscent of that first night when he'd put the DA bracelet on her wrist, or perhaps the one by the fireplace when she'd bared her soul to him in ways she never had to anyone else - and likely never would again. Seeing his arm rise to signal the bartender, she numbly shoots back the remainder in her glass, all pretense of slowly sipping her way through it gone out the window as he confirms her worst suspicions. Licking the remainder of the sting of alcohol from her lips, Ru tries to find words. Any.
"We were...together in a way as well. I thought - and she implied -" her voice wavers, and she stubbornly juts her jaw, muscle flexing in her throat as she grits her teeth against the rebellious emotion lingering in her tone. "She wrote to me. I asked her to meet me in the Greatwood, and. Well." She scoffs, and when the bartender sets down their drinks she swallows it all in one go that she can just barely handle. Grins sharply to hide the hurt.
It wavers and falls as his hand finds hers, and Ru barely refrains from turning her hand over to lace their fingers together. To hold onto him like a lifeline. It's not fair when he's barely floating as is. Hotaru does know the weight and power of rumors, but, "You're a good man, Jata. And you were the best Governor this shithole has ever seen. It's sick of them to gossip about a child, but his supposed relation to you isn't what taints him." There is a fire to each word, a bite that scalds and burns away the waters of his flood, refusing to let him paint himself in such sordid colors. It's easier to hold onto that than the hurt. Something familiar and concrete.
Time hasn't let her forget him, and she can read between the lines of what he's saying, and the new wave of alcohol slamming into her has her snorting inelegantly. "Nate does nothing by halves," she utters with a bittersweet fondness, almost a whisper as if it were meant only for herself to hear. If she doesn't like Nate, Hotaru is sure the sentiment is returned thricefold. Turning to meet his steely gaze, Hotaru knows her own expression must show how lost she feels, adrift with this new information. "And still you came back. Foolish man," she strains, trembling lips pulling bravely into a smile, trying to reach for some sort of teasing.
"We were...together in a way as well. I thought - and she implied -" her voice wavers, and she stubbornly juts her jaw, muscle flexing in her throat as she grits her teeth against the rebellious emotion lingering in her tone. "She wrote to me. I asked her to meet me in the Greatwood, and. Well." She scoffs, and when the bartender sets down their drinks she swallows it all in one go that she can just barely handle. Grins sharply to hide the hurt.
It wavers and falls as his hand finds hers, and Ru barely refrains from turning her hand over to lace their fingers together. To hold onto him like a lifeline. It's not fair when he's barely floating as is. Hotaru does know the weight and power of rumors, but, "You're a good man, Jata. And you were the best Governor this shithole has ever seen. It's sick of them to gossip about a child, but his supposed relation to you isn't what taints him." There is a fire to each word, a bite that scalds and burns away the waters of his flood, refusing to let him paint himself in such sordid colors. It's easier to hold onto that than the hurt. Something familiar and concrete.
Time hasn't let her forget him, and she can read between the lines of what he's saying, and the new wave of alcohol slamming into her has her snorting inelegantly. "Nate does nothing by halves," she utters with a bittersweet fondness, almost a whisper as if it were meant only for herself to hear. If she doesn't like Nate, Hotaru is sure the sentiment is returned thricefold. Turning to meet his steely gaze, Hotaru knows her own expression must show how lost she feels, adrift with this new information. "And still you came back. Foolish man," she strains, trembling lips pulling bravely into a smile, trying to reach for some sort of teasing.
But I am just a broken machine
And I do things that I don't really mean
And I do things that I don't really mean
