So, I just recently brought myself to finally finish book four of LoK, yes, I know I'm late, but I was afraid of being ripped apart by the Beifong family feels. This idea came from focusing on the relationship between Baatar Jr. and his siblings, specifically Huan. Hope he's not too OOC. Enjoy!
-PoisonBones
Yellow was such an ugly color.
It was terribly inappropriate for the current circumstances.
Huan scowled at the wall, wishing he could strangle the happiness out of the color. He plunged his brush into red paint and slathered it over the yellow in an attempt to dim the pigment. It turned orange. Instead of remaining calm and collected as he usually would have, Huan threw his head back and growled. He dropped the palette to the floor and walked over to the bed, flopping down onto it with an agitated huff.
He was in Baatar Juniors room, painting a mural on the back wall. Everything had been brought back from the wall, including his desk, his filing cabinet, and a toolbox, leaving the whole side of the room empty. Huan stared up at the ceiling. It wasn't like the ceiling in his room; the ceiling in his room was made of shiny silver metal, and had various sculptures hanging from it, where as the ceiling here was plain gray, not shiny and adorned. It was incredibly boring; he didn't understand how Junior could have stared at it for hours on end as he had seen him do. Maybe that's why he left. He almost snorted.
Yes, Huan thought, He left because he got tired of the ceiling.
Huan made a mental note to shoot some paintballs at the roof.
He sighed. Junior would kill him if he knew what he was doing, but Junior wasn't here. No, he was with Kuvira on some unity driven heist that was bound to fail at some point. Huan was not one for emotion. He was not a hugger, or kisser, or smile-er, or laugher. No, if Huan felt emotion for people then he regarded them in silence and said nothing when they made idiots of themselves. His family was no exception. Especially his siblings, in fact he probably showed more emotion around strangers than his family, and he had no problem with standing around blankly as they conversed as brothers and sister, but not complaining when he got roped in as well. At least he had.
And he still would, if his stupid brain wouldn't miss them so darn much.
Yes, he, Huan Beifong, missed his siblings. He missed his siblings with a passion like no other.
And he hated it.
He hated how every time Wing and Wei got into a kale fight at the table that he was reminded of how Opal used to play with her own green leaves when she wasn't hungry. He hated that tiny little tugging feeling on his heart every time he walked past Junior's room. That is what has motivated him to paint on the back wall in the first place. He thought that perhaps if he spent enough time in the room that the little tugging feeling would go away. But it didn't, if anything it got stronger.
He missed Junior more than he missed Opal, and he didn't feel guilty for saying it. Or rather thinking it, he would ever admit such belittling feeling out loud.
He knew Opal was safe in Republic city, eating vegetables and meditating her creative spirit away, but he didn't where Junior was. All he knew was that anytime someone said his name mom started crying and dad broke whatever he was holding.
Huan curled into a ball and rolled onto his knees, burying his face in the pillow. It smelled like Junior. Huan had never noticed it before, but each of his siblings had their own little scent that followed them.
The twins smelled like metal, obviously, the sickly sweet scent assaulting his nostrils every time they entered the room. It reminded him of aluminum foil.
Opals smelled like cake. Huan didn't know why, Opal didn't like cake, but the scent of the bread sweet clung to her hair and skin and clothes. It reminded him of the beach they once visited. He didn't know why.
Junior smelled like oil and pencil shavings, probably all that time he spent slaving away over projects and blueprints. It reminded him of the little cramped desk that he had moved from the back wall in order to paint.
Huan took a deep breath, taking in the familiar smell. The smell was once annoying, now it was just there. You know, just there. He could sense it but it held no real physical being. He rolled his head to the side to stare at the wall. The wall was covered in small dents and scratches. He and the twins had once used metal bending to pin Junior to said wall for target practice. Mom nearly had a heart attack when she saw her oldest son blind folded, gagged and covered in scratches that his tattered clothes didn't cover. Huan grunted at the memory, he had spent the next month grounded without any art supplies.
Memories flooded back to him wildly, and he let them. Everyone seemed to think that Huan was distant to his siblings. That was a lie, in fact they all got along pretty splendidly (except for the occasional happening, like the target practice), but Huan found that he liked Junior the best. He wasn't annoying like the twins, and he wasn't outgoing and overly friendly like Opal, though he loved them just the same. He was the happy medium, too quiet to be annoying, and far too timid to be friendly. Huan had more memories of Junior than he sometimes liked to acknowledge.
When he had broken into moms wine cabinet when he was fourteen, it was Junior who had taken him back to his room, careful not to be caught, not complaining when he got sick, and not telling their parents. Mom and dad still didn't know, he reckoned, for he had never been punished. At least not by them, Junior made him use the hammer in the garage for an hour the next morning.
It was Junior who had pelted him with small meteorites in the front yard until Huan turned around and shot them back at him, revealing his metal bending abilities. It was Junior who told him the honest to Agni truth about his sculptures. It was Junior who taught him how to walk and how to read. It was Junior who he copied when he was at the 'I'll be just like my brother' stage, it was Junior who had shoved the bullies face in the dirt for calling Huan a weirdo, and it was stupid, stupid Junior that he missed more than anyone ever.
Tears stung at Huan's eyes, and he blinked them back, sniffing a little and straightening his body out to lie on his stomach. The last time he had cried he had been ten, and had fallen off of the meteorite pedestal in the yard, having been dared to climb it by Kuvira. Those tears had been wiped away by Junior, who had greeted him with a smile and took him to the physician for an antiseptic wipe and a band aid.
His vision blurred. There was nothing he could do about the tears now, and he let them flow freely. He held one of Junior's pillows tight against his chest and sobbed, dissolving into a sticky mess in a matter of seconds. The salty smell of tears mixed with the smell of oil and pencil shavings, but his nose was so clogged that he couldn't sense it, and he just pressed his face even deeper into the green fabric, even though it was already uncomfortably close.
"Huan?" Huan jumped at the sound of his mother's voice, and bolted into upright position at the side of the bed, his back to her and his shoulders tense.
Huan?" Suyin asked again. He heard her footsteps come closer until they were standing beside him. He turned his face away so that she couldn't see it.
"Sweetie what are you doing in here?"
"N-nothing." He said. Or attempted to say, his voice cracked and he shrank slightly. Suyin sat on the bed beside him and gripped his shoulders, pulling slightly. When he didn't budge, she reached forward and grabbed his chin, pulling his head to face her. She gasped when she saw his puffy eyes and red nose. She quickly used her sleeve to wipe the tears away as Huan stared at her collar, unable to look her in the face. He calmed down a little as Suyin cleaned his face with mothering fingers.
"Sweetie what's wrong?" His chin began to quiver again, and he buried his face into Suyin's chest. She intercepted him silently, holding him tightly and rubbing soothing circles into his back, even though confusion still pooled inside her.
"Are you okay?" Suyin asked quietly, feeling slightly dumb for presenting the question, "Are you hurt?"
"I miss him mom." Huan choked, "I miss Junior."
Suyin stiffened slightly at the name before she collected herself and held him all the tighter.
"I know," She whispered, "I know."
Huan continued to sob into his mothers robes, clinging to her like a child clung to its teddy bear. He thought he heard footsteps out in the hallway, but he ignored it as they faded. He sobbed until his cries reduced to hiccups and pitiful whimpers. When he was finished soaking the front of his mothers robes, he pulled back and turned away again, wiping furiously at his face.
"I'm sorry." He muttered, "You must think I'm pathetic."
"Sweetie I could never think that." Suyin said softly.
She leaned in closer, pulling his chin to make him face her again, "Are you okay?"
Huan nodded, "Yes, I'm alright."
"Well then," Suyin stood, "Everyone's waiting in the dining hall."
The walk to the dining hall was quiet except for their footsteps. When they entered the room they were greeted by Baatar Seniors confused look and Wei and Wing's quiet searching ones.
"Sorry to keeping you waiting dear." Suyin said, rounding the table and kissing her husband on the cheek.
"That's alright. Take your time." There was something about Baatar Seniors voice that made Huan suspicious as he slid into his chair. Almost instantly, both twins shot out of their own respective seats and came to sit, one on either side of him.
"Are you okay?" Wing asked quickly, looking at him with big wide eyes.
Huan frowned, "Yes I am. Why wouldn't I be?"
Please no, please no, please no, please-
"Well we….. kinda saw your breakdown." Wei said, rubbing the back of his neck, "Are you sure you're okay?"
Dang it.
Huan swallowed, "Yeah guys I'm fine."
The twins fell silent, and Huan prayed they wouldn't ask any more questions. He sighed with relief when they spoke in unison.
"Okay." They chortled, and looked down at their plates.
Huan granted them a small smile. Maybe they weren't so annoying after all.
Huan would never do this, but this is fan fiction so what the heck y'know? When I put Kuvira's name on my documenter my spell check tried to change it to caviar. Just a fun fact. PLEASE REVIEW, FLAMES WELCOME!
-PoisonBones