[ The gods have a funny sense of humour, don't they?
Not that Ai Hoshino would know anything about that. Extraordinary as she is as a human she's still nothing more than that. If there's gods or anyone up there, they're definitely not paying any attention to her. Her luck, her misfortune and everything else that makes up her life is down to human hands and nothing more.
It's nice to imagine that someone might, though. That her wishes, selfish as they are, matter to anyone at all but herself. When she thinks about it too hard, it makes her chest ache in some odd mix of deja vu, a sort of longing nostalgia that has no direction or source. It surfaces at equally strange times, too, triggered by the most arbitrary things: a coat lined with fur at the neck in the window of a shop, the sight of moths crowding around a streetlamp at night. Cornflower blonde hair and pairings of red and blue in certain shades.
When she goes to Lalalie and meets that boy for the first time, it crests into something almost painful to endure - then wanes into curious disappointment. It isn't as though she's been looking for something but at the same time, she's nagged with the feeling that this still isn't it.
She goes again and makes her mistakes all the same, of course. It's the closest anyone like her will ever come to loving someone. When Aqua and Ruby are put into her arms for the first time, the ache crescendos, so lovely and all encompassing that she can hardly stand it and she thinks that maybe this was the thing she'd been looking for without even realising she'd been missing it.
(Maybe it's the Grail that has a sense of humour about these things. But of course, Ai wouldn't know anything about that.)
It's a day like any other when she kisses the twins goodbye and gets bundled into the car by Miyako. A spot on a talk show promoting her other projects - nothing special. There are other guests, of course, but celebrity encounters have long since lost their shine for her. It's a little surprising that she's appearing alongside a man - well, technically still a boy - but just as idols are girls well into their 20s, boys with pretty faces are men as soon as the industry can get away with calling them that. But from what she's heard of his reputation, he's tidy and neat in the same way B-Komachi is - no scandals, no romance mishaps - so maybe he's 'safe'.
As safe as anyone in this industry gets, anyway. ]
Good morning! [ She practically singsongs it as she pushes the door open, Miyako trailing behind her with the longsuffering expression of a woman accompanying her child to an extracurricular activity ] We didn't keep you waiting, did we?
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Not that Ai Hoshino would know anything about that. Extraordinary as she is as a human she's still nothing more than that. If there's gods or anyone up there, they're definitely not paying any attention to her. Her luck, her misfortune and everything else that makes up her life is down to human hands and nothing more.
It's nice to imagine that someone might, though. That her wishes, selfish as they are, matter to anyone at all but herself. When she thinks about it too hard, it makes her chest ache in some odd mix of deja vu, a sort of longing nostalgia that has no direction or source. It surfaces at equally strange times, too, triggered by the most arbitrary things: a coat lined with fur at the neck in the window of a shop, the sight of moths crowding around a streetlamp at night. Cornflower blonde hair and pairings of red and blue in certain shades.
When she goes to Lalalie and meets that boy for the first time, it crests into something almost painful to endure - then wanes into curious disappointment. It isn't as though she's been looking for something but at the same time, she's nagged with the feeling that this still isn't it.
She goes again and makes her mistakes all the same, of course. It's the closest anyone like her will ever come to loving someone. When Aqua and Ruby are put into her arms for the first time, the ache crescendos, so lovely and all encompassing that she can hardly stand it and she thinks that maybe this was the thing she'd been looking for without even realising she'd been missing it.
(Maybe it's the Grail that has a sense of humour about these things. But of course, Ai wouldn't know anything about that.)
It's a day like any other when she kisses the twins goodbye and gets bundled into the car by Miyako. A spot on a talk show promoting her other projects - nothing special. There are other guests, of course, but celebrity encounters have long since lost their shine for her. It's a little surprising that she's appearing alongside a man - well, technically still a boy - but just as idols are girls well into their 20s, boys with pretty faces are men as soon as the industry can get away with calling them that. But from what she's heard of his reputation, he's tidy and neat in the same way B-Komachi is - no scandals, no romance mishaps - so maybe he's 'safe'.
As safe as anyone in this industry gets, anyway. ]
Good morning! [ She practically singsongs it as she pushes the door open, Miyako trailing behind her with the longsuffering expression of a woman accompanying her child to an extracurricular activity ] We didn't keep you waiting, did we?
[ If only she knew... ]