When the pressure was released, Mera sighed in relief, but it was in that moment that Mary got in just a crack, not pushing hard, wanting to know what was going on, what Mera was hiding from her.
Hotaru looked up as Larel appeared and grit her teeth at all the stipulations that Murio was laying on to the situation. She glared at him as he threatened his life, clenching her fists and Mera narrowed her eyes. She liked this bastard less and less. Though she felt that slight twinge in her head as she saw the flowers and Alari and Murio discussed it, "Shit," she hissed under her breath, looking behind her, "She knows, that persistent little..." she muttered to Alari, looking back towards Hotaru and Murio, her sense of alarm rising quickly.
Hotaru balked a little at the fact all he wanted was a question answered, but why her? She looked up towards the beasts holding Larel, narrowing her eyes seeing them move, "Hope? I don't know why you're asking such a fucking weird question, but whatever," she shifted a bit, trying to think of how to phrase her answer. She figured if she left anything out, he'd use it as a reason to threaten Larel further. 
"Hope to me.... is like when this conversation, I'm hoping you're not full of shit and you're going to return Larel to us because I have very few friends in this world, ones that actually count and I will find someway to kill you before anything else gets the chance to if you're lying. It's the strong desire that I can fix the shit I constantly screw up. That I will get the chance to avenge my parents for not being there when they actually needed me..... and a desire not to mess up the good things I've been building with my friends because I can't go back to being alone. I /need/ everything to work out. That's what /hope/ is to me, that's what I /hope/ for. Hope is just another word for need to me," Hotaru said, shifting as she talked, looking past Murio. She was uncomfortable with bearing herself this way, being so open, but she had to do it. If this was how they saved Larel, then she could handle being embarrassed for a little bit. But she was going to pummel whoever repeated any of this later.
"Does that satisfy your curiosity? Because the one person you didn't want to know pried her meddling fingers in to my head and figured it out herself," Mera said to Murio, "And if you remember what happened with the incident with Alari, the emotions I felt from her tell me it's going to be much worse," she said, looking back the way she knew she would be coming from