Hotaru
i'm still here but all is lost
Ru doesn’t bother tracking the time she spends kneeling there, the cat’s head in her lap, feeling the soft rumbling purr through her thigh. Likely just due to comfort as it sunbathes alongside the Valkyrie, but Ru can’t help selfishly imagining the predator is trying to comfort her. She misses Atlas with freshly renewed grief. Time makes all things easier, but her fingers still shake whenever they part from the cougar’s fur to begin the long stroking pets again.The slight tensing of corded muscles beneath her palm alert her to the arrival of another before her own ears do, human as they remain in the moment. She doesn’t bother turning when she hears the quiet greeting. Curiosity is a sensation she is not capable of feeling right now, even if she didn’t immediately recognize the man who voices it. The Valkyrie relaxes immediately when she feels his hand settle on her shoulder and drops her cheek to his knuckles, feeling the warmth of his hand gently pinned between her shoulder and face.
“I should have expected to see you,” she murmurs softly, taking in his stubbornly familiar scent. Opening her eyes - when had they closed? - she lifts her head just enough to look up at him, and her eyes are red-rimmed in a drawn, pale face. “Sit with me?” It sounds like an echo, and she realizes it’s because she asked the same of Deimos upon her return to Halo. Asking for the barest minimum of company and support in ways she never would have voiced before. But then again, Hotaru had not needed to before. Physicality had been assured, then. Before…everything.
