Hotaru didn't flinch away as he approached her, having faith that he wasn't going to attack her, no matter the look in his eye. That being said, she was still surprised when he hugged her, her eyes getting a little wide and a blush dusting her cheeks. She started to hug him back, but by then he was moving away, so she let her arms fall back to her side as she listened to him.
"I wish I could say I sympathize so that I could understand all the stuff you're going through, but unfortunately, I can only empathize and try and be there for you through it all. Our stories are... very different from each other at their origins, but I hope that they don't have to be at their ends," she gave a little smile then laughed softly, "Being around them," she motioned towards the inn, "Has left sounding a little cheesy," she shook her head, but then smiled again, "But seriously. No matter what the past is, I really want you to have a happy future, and I'll do what I can to help with that," she said before turning and starting to walk back, biting her lip as she turned away realizing she probably sounded like a lunatic. She just hated to see him so...lost? confused? She didn't know, but she just hoped it wasn't one of those things that she was completely useless in trying to fix.

Mera frowned when he said he was going to have to leave and sighed as he finished talking, "I really hate that you do those kinds of things alone," she muttered, "Especially after what happened before," she shook her head before looking towards the window, "Though, I suppose, as per the norm, any of my concerns will just have to sit in my chest until the end of it because absolutely none of you listen to me," she sighed like a mother trying to deal with unwieldy children, "Can you at least try to come back in one piece?" she looked at him, her hands still clutched together. Between the lot of them, she was really starting to feel like some old woman trying to manage youngin's that just kept managing to get themselves into heart attack inducing problems. She wasn't innocent by any means of staying out of trouble, there was a lot that followed her, but she worried about her siblings, about Hotaru, about Larel, and about Alari. When Kaori had been there, she'd worried about him too and a part of her still felt the loss of him. Her wrist still tingled from the tattoo that would always remind her of him.