As strong as the seas are stormy.</style>
Giant head turns to gaze upon the slim Phantom with the eyes of a predator, and yet Hotaru feels no fear. The wreath is cool and assuring against her neck, prepared to slide out and protect her with a simple thought. The tigress is kin, for now, and has done nothing to offend her nor warrant her anger and hostility. Except maybe looking too much like Tingal, of which is through no fault of her own and due to Hotaru's own misgivings with the hybrid stallion. Even so it is an odd experience, to gaze down at the nameless creature and see another species eyes looking back at her, intelligent and foreign all at once. It's quite like vertigo, but Hotaru holds her ground, gazing down at the prone tigress with a look of distant intrigue. Though Hotaru had not asked it of her, the tiger woman- was it a woman? Hotaru didn't know how to differentiate between tiger genders, had never had to before- easily slid to her paws as Hotaru's presence was noted. In moments she is nodding her great head and sitting back on her haunches once more, and Hotaru guesses she must have passed some sort of test to ensure such a response.
A motion of the square head suggests Hotaru lay beside her, and the strawberry lass decided hey, why the hell not? True she didn't trust the tigress, but call it a trust exercise. If they were both Basin, she had to at least try and extend a small portion of courtesy-trust, right? Fuck, Hotaru had lived alone for too long. So instead of overthinking it, the lithe thief walked over and promptly buckled her knees, dropping to her shins before rolling with a pleasant thump onto her side, briefly rolling before pausing to stare almost challengingly at Saffron. Judge all she wanted, Hotaru could handle her own, and she would damn well roll around like a foal right next to a predator if she wanted to.
The sarcastic comment inspires a snort of laughter from the woman, and a pleased smirk stretches her pale cream lips. "I like you, kid." Hell she's still a kid herself, but the word springs to her lips naturally, and she decides she likes it instantaneously. "Though I gotta point out, I never asked you to share the sun, just your spot. Wouldn't want my fat ass crushing you, now would you?" For effect she wiggles her hindquarters in the grass, winking and huffing a puff of laughter from her lips.
Yeah, maybe she could like this little tiger.
"So, what's your name miss tiger? I'm Hotaru, Phantom and resident hoarder of pretty and useful things." There's no frivolous extension of 'nice to meet you' or any such nonsense. She always found such sentiments ridiculous. Why would you say it's nice to meet someone if you don't even know them? You might hate them two minutes later if they said something stupid. But it didn't seem Saffron was the type to get offended, thank the gods, or else Hotaru would have to get up and find a different spot to sun herself. And it wouldn't be nearly as fun cracking wise ass jokes to herself. She'd just look crazy.
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