"For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream."
~ Vincent Van Gogh
Hibiki enjoyed staring up at the stars, a habit passed down from her mother: the ultimate definition of a dreamer. After training with her father and her onii-chan, her mother would take her outside on their porch. She would sit little Hibiki on her lap, and - in her own romanticized way - tells her daughter stories of the stars.
Delphinus: the dolphin that carried Amphitrite to Poseidon, Pisces: the story of the mother and son koi fish. Her favorite was the story of Aquarius: the kidnapped Ganymede and Zeus' attraction, an attraction he used to give water to the thirsty people on Earth, because while she was a dreamer she also understood hardships and believed in learning life lessons at a young age.
"Use your tools to your advantage. Unlike the constellations, no one is going to write your name in the stars."
This lesson was trained into her head. It was ironic how her dreamer of a mother became such a realist when it came to her only daughter, but it was a fond memory of a time when she was still able to sit on her mother's lap and have a moment of peace.
Now her life was far from peaceful, so she took the time on quiet nights just to stare up at the stars, her long-time friends, who would be there still long after her departure.
Sometimes Mikey would join her. His presence was quiet. He was a different than the sunshine child he was during the day. This was the time when the shadows started to creep in and that sunny smile retired into that pessimistic frown that Hibiki thinks doesn't belong.
Hibiki took the place of her mother these nights. Gentle as if he was made of porcelain, she would guide his head to rest on her lap and as she would card her fingers through his thick hair she would tell him stories of the stars. His eyes would droop and she'd still sit there, still massaging his scalp while he slept, keeping his nightmares away until it was time to wake again.