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11-22-2015, 03:43 AM
THIS IS A PLACE WHERE I DON'T FEEL ALONE - THIS IS A PLACE WHERE I FEEL AT HOME
The surprise on the child's face is evident, her pinned, trapped expression lifting and giving way to shock. If Hotaru did not have a plan in mind, she would have smiled, amused that Mirabella thought she of all people would condemn her for her actions. If you did not stick your neck out, flirt with death a little, well...where would you be? Lines were meant to be flirted with and cross, rules meant to be bent and broken. How else could advancement be achieved? They would follow along fate's guidelines like sheep, throwing themselves willfully from the edge if they did not stop to think with their own brains for once.
The gratitude is something she's a little less prepared for. Then again, Mirabella was as starved as Hotaru had been back then. Completely alone, weathering the storms of the world with nobody at her side to support or encourage her. Hotaru had been a bitter, resentful mess. Frigid on the outside by screaming on the inside, wanting somebody to look and her and just see how far she had fallen. How badly she needed a friend, a confidant, an ally. Somebody. If Mirabella was anywhere near where Hotaru had been at that age...well, the Lady would do anything to keep that same fate from unfolding for the child.
And as Mirabella leaned forward to accept the token, Hotaru felt her heart warm in her chest. It was not going to be rejected. It held far too much meaning, and she wondered if it would help Mirabella through the nights and trials where Hotaru could not be there for her. Hoped it would give Mirabella the conviction to find and conquer a path of her own, even if it was not one echoed by Hotaru's past in the jewelry. If the road of a sleuth was not Mirabella's calling, the Lady hoped that at least she would find purpose of her own. That when she gazed down at the golden chain, she would remember Hotaru and take strength from that.
"You're welcome," she said softly, eyes uncharacteristically warm. "Maybe it will do a fraction of the good for you that it did for me."
![[Image: 515265280ffff]](http://images.helovia.net/index.php/view/515265280ffff)
Plot with me here!
