Hotaru's face contorted into a sneer, trying to cover the hurt that pinched the sides of her eyes and mouth, as Rexanna started out by thanking her. As if that would fix anything. As if that would cover up the fact that the woman was leaving. Leaving the Basin. Leaving Hotaru. What was she supposed to be thanked for? Providing a home when Hotaru hadn't even been the one to accept her into the Basin? Promoting her when she'd already deserved it? If she wanted to thank Hotaru for being her friend then that was the one thing she shouldn't utter. Because clearly that friendship meant nothing anymore. 

And Hotaru would not be fooled. Not anymore.

"No," she spat hatefully, ears pinned so far back it made her own head ache. "You're not doing this for your children. You're doing this for your own selfish desires. Because if Kianzo disappeared, where do you think he'd look for you first? Your logic is wrong Rexanna, and don't you dare try to assuage your guilt, don't you dare try to lie to me with the delusions you've created for yourself." Alice glanced between the pair, standing so at odds with one another when they'd always been hip-to-hip. Were it anyone else, her hackles would have been standing on end from the base of her skull all the way to the tip of her tail, but even now she wanted to make herself smaller. Somehow cease the expulsion of smoke from her coat if only to remove herself from this heartbreaking scenario. But she needed to be here for Hotaru, because despite the anger creasing her beautiful face into something hideous, Alice knew better. She could feel Hotaru's heart shattering in her chest, the childlike crying in her head; why, why, why are you leaving me? please stay, i'll be better, please, i'll do anything!

It was only a shame that Rexanna might not be able to see that. Or maybe she could, with how she didn't rise to Hotaru's shameless baiting. 

"Love is capable of growing with or without distance," the Valkyrie hissed, eyes sharp like flint. "My parents never lived in the same herd even once. And you want to know what happened to them? They died, and their love was so pure that a tree was grown in the place where they died together, recognized by the Gods. You're pleading your case to the wrong mare." Hotaru wouldn't listen to any of Rexanna's excuses, not when she could spot the holes in each so easily. Or maybe she'd just shut her ears to the mare's pleading, because the hurt was like a crescendo of noise that she could not hear over. It consumed everything. 

Hotaru didn't have friends. It wasn't something she was good at. And those she did manage to form tentative bonds with always did this, always burned the tender threads of heartstrings she'd wound around them so lovingly. And it left a scorch mark on her heart every single time as the fire ate away at those feelings, leaving a physical reminder that she should never take the chance again. Yet she did anyways, over and over. 

It was her own fault. She never should have thought that Rexanna could be different. 

Deimos comes then, and Hotaru gravitates towards him, feeling less like a Lady when she can tell that all three of them are emotional and grieving. Doesn't touch him but feels the warmth emanating from his dark sides and tries to take comfort from it. His voice is sorrowful but polite in a way that Hotaru can't manage. And then Rexanna is speaking again, professing her love with a choked apology, and it's like an arrow straight to Hotaru's soul. "She's just like everyone else," she snaps back in disagreement at Deimos, drifting on the current of her agony. "She can be replaced." But it's a lie through and through, and Hotaru has never spoken anything so hollow before. Instead her haunted eyes pierce towards Rexanna, and the well of her tears finally chokes her voice as she spits her parting words like venom. "You don't love me. Love can't exist with distance, remember? You claimed so yourself." 

The words come out hoarse and throttled with emotion, and Hotaru spins around like a wild thing, kicking her heels hard and going from stillness to sprint in the space of a few lengths, retreating before Rexanna or Deimos can witness the fall of her tears. She doesn't look back. She can't. 

Alice turns to watch her go, and a sad low whine echoes through her maw like a goodbye as she stares at Rexanna. Then she turns and follows her errant sister.