Northstar Vale ≡ Fly On Your Own

@Haruki

To be quite honest he had expected Reiko to return by now. The scent of Takeshi had resurfaced on and off. The pungent odor reminding Collision why it was best he remain far from this place. Offset by the apparent remain of her children and his friends. It was hard to make a decision when everything around contradicted itself. At the end of the day perhaps he was just beginning to realize, as much as he wanted to be true to himself, clearly he didn't know which self to be true to. 

 A sigh fell past him as he meddled around Reiko's den. He wished he could peer inside once more and lay eyes on her body. Her frail body. He wanted to see her and remind himself why he was trying. That job, however, seemed to belong to the children. That being said...what could he truly expect from those being raised by Takeshi? Would they grow to be heathens? Were they condemned at conception? 

 Perhaps sneaking around their home near the end of the day was in bad taste. It was likely not his place--no, he knew it wasn't. His ears fell back against his head and in the retreating light of the day he began to remove himself from what he now only saw as wreckage. This would never be a home to any that tried to live within it. The better her children realized this and moved on the better.


What an ugly thought.

Thanks for starting!

He was inconsolable. Like Hotaru, the boy had largely withdrew from the world after hearing of the devastating news, of how his sister had found what remained of their mother rotting away in the dirt. He didn't believe it, didn't want to believe it, but it was confirmed by Takeshi...and why would he lie about something like this? The body had been reburied before he had returned from his little trip outside the borders (oh, how filled with hope that he would have been able to find her alive!), and so Haruki had not been able to see Reiko one last time.

Perhaps it was best he hadn't. Hotaru had kept her siblings in the den up with her screams and nightmares. A good night's sleep was but a distant memory for her brother, whose sleeping spot had shifted to be outside now, in the hollow of a tree near the den.

He had been attempting to nap (albeit fitfully), when he heard the footfalls of someone creeping around the area. One tear-filled eye peaked open, the brow above it set low in a mix of sadness and anger. His grief had quickly been channelled into a wrath that he took out on others whenever he had the chance. Collision was unfortunately the one to be on the receiving end this day. Haruki did not care that by the time he had noticed the man, he had turned and was beginning to exit the area. No, he had made a mistake coming here in the first place.

"What do you want?" the prince demanded forcefully, striding after Collision as if he were a tresspasser in claimed lands.

How had he not noticed the presence of the children? Perhaps he didn't want to. Maybe it was his keen desire to stay away from a den that didn't hold she whom he so hoped it did. After all, it had only been luck that he had not happened upon the den whilst they were at their most vulnerable. Awake. Susceptible to the pain he did not know they were enduring. He was better in the dark. Oblivious to the misery. 

Ignorance was bliss. 

 Still--Hotaru emerges. He mustered every tendril of strength his little body could and he seemed to hiss at Collision. A frown impressed upon his features and golden eyes seemed unimpressed with the poor behavior. This was not how they should be. 

 "For you to speak with respect," Collision strengthens his own stature and looks at the child. Discipline needed to be taught. Rank be damned. Lineage forsaken. He would do well to learn that courtesy would beget civility, "What's wrong, Haruki?" Collision did care about the boy. He cared about each and every one of them. He wanted the young man to understand that. He offered a more concerned look. A sigh drifted between his lips and he sat down before the boy. He wanted to disregard the hostility. He wanted him to understand he could be bare with his feelings.