His words were a quiet, stubborn thing, but she did not allow herself to believe in them. They all promised not to leave. Nobody had ever proven her wrong, but she sank gratefully into the sweet cadence of his lies. A last minimal comfort as the cold seeped into her knees and joints. She wondered hazily whether to die by the hands of the elements she'd ruled was ironic, but the thought was disjointed and distracted. Until at last, blissful warmth, a slow seep into the twinging muscles she'd abused so heavily the past few moons. Hotaru had little strength left to give but she spent it willingly on moving closer. She loved him, this moon child who was so warm, in eternal defiance of the bloodline he'd inherited. He was a contradiction, an endless snub to the cold stars he called family. She shouldn't be surprised - he would always be the child from the forest, with a heart too big for his body and a sideways smile she couldn't escape. He'd returned to her, in the end. Present for her humble beginnings and her humble ending, a constant she could only feel gratitude towards. 

Surely her love for him was different, shaded with nostalgia and a desire for a life she could never return to. But it didn't matter when he was here now, cradling and comforting her when she was convinced this was her last stand. 

His tears fell hot along the crest of her neck and she turned her head to try and comfort him, his breath a warm metronome inside the wild cloud of her hair. He begged her to stay, and while she did not have the strength to laugh, she felt it in her dying heart. Had she not asked him to lie to her the same way? To promise eternity where there was nothing to give? Hotaru could not forsake him the same false comfort. "I'll try." Because even she couldn't stand to lie any further, not when the colors were losing themselves and everything was going still. She'd never been this wounded, couldn't discern between extremes, but she knew Alice - and Mesec, for all his battered heart could muster - would keep her tethered to the world until the very last moment. For someone who'd lived her life looking over her shoulder, afraid of the nothingness at her back, she could scarcely comprehend the fact that she had others to lean on now. 

“You are so strong, Ru, but you don’t have to be right now. I’ll be strong for you. We’ll hold on together. Just stay with me.”

His words churn her heart until she's gasping with emotion, too tired to properly cry but diamonds clinging to her lashes stubbornly nonetheless. She turns her head against his breast, careful to keep her bloodied horn away from his untainted skin. "Thank you," she's whimpering, her quick tongue useless. "I'm sorry," it's gasped painfully, a broken plea for forgiveness her wicked soul doesn't deserve. "I shouldn't have brought you into this." Alice whines where she's pressed against Hotaru's side, curled beneath the canopy of Mesec's wing. Hotaru knows the curse that follows her, the one that strips away everything good and precious right when she finally comes to love and rely upon it. She hurts those around her in turn, as if losing everything was not enough of a burden to bear. She can only hope that if she does leave him here, to cradle what's left of the person she was, that his heart won't break too deeply for a childhood friend he'd never known the depths of. 

She loses time, pressed into her guardians beside her. All she knows is that Alice is stirring frantically as Lena crests the mountainside, and then there is a sweet whisper of song. For a second she believes it's her mother and doesn't know whether she wants to weep with joy or sorrow, for she must have lost this battle to live. But as the voice takes wordless shape she feels skin knit together, an odd experience she has not encountered since foalhood. There is nothing to be done for the lack of strength in her body but Hotaru kicks out her broken leg, trying to align the bone better as marrow and cartilage replace themselves beneath Lena's bidding. She hurts and aches, but she is alive. 

Only when she finds the courage to face this cruel world she must still remain in does Hotaru look up to the savior that seemed bound to Hotaru's lineage. "Are you ever going to grow tired of healing all of my mother's bloodline?" It's the only joke that springs pitifully to her lips but she's smiling. She's alive and she can smile because Lena and Mesec would not let her slip into the void so soon. "Thank you," she says instead, her free eye creased with one last tear of relief before she shakes away the shock and terror still lingering in her heart. Pushes them back, compartmentalizes everything until she can fall apart freely in the solitude of her home. 

The woman pushes to her knees, wobbles onto her legs beneath the press of Mesec's wing. Alice darts out to rush between Lena's legs, whining and trying to press up against her, and if a hellhound could cry Hotaru is sure that she would be. Delicate bloodstained face turns to Mesec, seeks the touch of his skin with her trembling lips. "I kept my promise," she points out quietly. "Will you take me home?" And her free eye flickers tiredly between the two, a pitiful girl in a ripped up dress, no crown to speak of in this snowy wasteland stained with her blood. She is lucky they are so pure, that they will not mock her for this weakness. That they would seek to save her instead of ending her as so many others would. 

OOC thingies here