AN: I can't say I was expecting this to receive any traffic, reviews, favorite etc. To those of you that read the first chapter, and to my first reviewer - you have my heartfelt thanks. I'm fairly new to writing fan-fiction, but I hope you can find some enjoyment in my writing. I apologize if the story seems slow, but a common trend I've noticed with OC stories is placing the characters in the middle of the source-material with a mere chapter dedicated to their introductions. This can be done well, I've seen it done well before. I simply doubt my ability to do so. For this particular story I want to develop and flesh out my characters more before introducing them to the plot of the show. This will hopefully make the interactions between the two more realistic.
Once again, thank you for taking the time to read (and or review)
-Saint
Ekri and another young man were staring angrily at each other. The reason for the argument was lost to both of them. They were both looking for reasons to be angry, searching for things to use against the other. Toys were scattered around the playroom. Forming an impromptu circle around the two boys. Ekri had experienced a growth spurt in the last year, putting him a few good inches above the brown haired child.
"Take that back!"
"Why?! It's true! Your brother is a big, stupid, weirdo!"
Ekri saw red. Had he taken the time to properly think through the words, he would have made the connection that is brother wasn't stupid. Weird, maybe, but most certainly not stupid.
But Ekri was eleven. Such things didn't matter; he had called his brother mean names, now he would pay.
His body surged forward, unfocused, but with raw strength and anger fueling the charge. Their bodies collided and tumbled across the floor. Ekri ended up atop the boy, and began hammering his fists into the younger boy with wild abandon.
Suddenly, rough hands grabbed the scruff of Ekri's shirt and pulled. Then with the flick of a wrist, the young spitfire was thrown in the across the room. He landed painfully, with an unceremonious thud.
"Just what do you think you're doing!?" came the angry snarl of Khai
Ekri clutched at the pain that sprouted from the back of his head. Rising to his knees, he met Khai's snarl with one of his own.
"He called Skoto a stupid weirdo!"
"And you think that gives you any fuckin right to do this to him! Huh?!"
Ekri glanced at the boy, dismissively at first, then upon second glance realized the true extent of the damage he'd inflicted on the boy - Theo was his name.
A rivulet of blood trickled down both of his nostrils. Dark purple bruises were scattered across his features. His lip was busted, smears of crimson clearly distinguishable on his pale skin. Tears cascaded down his face as he clung to Khai's leg.
Feeling sudden doubt at the justification for his actions, Ekri grimaced at the sight. He hadn't meant to go so far, not really. But he hated it when people made fun of his brother, only he could do that. Theo had been saying these things to him for days; Ekri successfully brushing off each insult and spout obdurately.
Not today, however. Today he had snapped.
Admittedly, those weren't even the worst insults Theo had used against him and his brothers. He'd called them worse, much worse. Going so far as to resort to dreaded cuss words, a well known taboo. A stupid weirdo? He knew his brother wasn't stupid, and nothing was wrong with being weird. Even Ekri could admit that he was weird, more often than not. Theo was simply incessant however, gushing off insults and jibes at seemingly every hour. Continuing until Ekri couldn't take it anymore.
"I-...I'm sorr-"
"I'm sure you are." Khai spat, embers of anger still smoldering in his eyes. He sighed tiredly, and suddenly Ekri felt an intense wave of guilt wash over him. For the injured boy of course, but also for just how worn Khai looked in that moment. Deep wrinkles, obviously born of stress, crinkled against his palm as he clutched at the bridge of his nose.
"Just...just go to your room Ekri. I'll decide what to do with you later. I need to tend to Theo." Without so much as a glance back at the boy, Khai turned with Theo in his arms towards the orphanage's makeshift infirmary.
Ekri found himself shuffling his feet up the stairs towards his own room. The room that he shared with his three...brothers. It was a strange concept for his young mind. They certainly weren't related by blood. The only relation they shared was through the orphanage. It certainly felt like he had three older brothers, however. With how much they doted whilst simultaneously insulting him.
Thinking of his brothers brought a sudden realization to Ekri's troubled mind. They were going to be so irritated with him. This wasn't the first time that he had started a fight. In fact, he was quite infamous for doing so. Though the fights were never friendly, they certainly didn't result in the other child leaving for the infirmary in the arms of Khai.
The doorknob to their room suddenly felt much more imposing. What would he say? He couldn't lie, the mere thought of doing so brought with it a horrible taste of ash to his tongue. Perhaps say nothing? That would merely delay the confrontation by an hour or so. Besides, Ekri wouldn't be able to stand it, the unspoken question lingering in the air until Khai came to dole out his punishment. Then they would be upset he had tried to hide it.
Ekri nearly cried out in frustration as he took a fistful of hair into one hand. He was backed into a corner, with all foreseeable options ending badly for him.
A sudden surge of anger rushed through his veins.
This. This was not how Ekri did things. Ekri did not cower behind doors.
Door cowered in front of Ekri.
Lavi wasn't sure what he was expecting when he heard Ekri's footsteps resounding off the rickety wooden flooring. Him barging in without knocking, or giving any sort of forewarning was what he expected. From there a knock at the door would have been unlikely, but not impossible by any means. Lavi would have seen it as a step in the right direction for his brash brother.
Thus when Ekri threw the door open with considerably excessive force Lavi couldn't suppress the high-pitched yelp that sprang from his throat.
In his shock Lavi fell backwards out of the chair he was seated on, his head smacking painfully against the flooring. Ekri gaped at Lavi, as though he hadn't expected anyone to be beyond the door. Before his expression morphed into a mix of worry and guilt. He rushed over to his downed brother and reached out to help him up.
"I'm sorry Lavi! I didn't mean to – I wasn't thinking and I-"
"Gimme a minute," Lavi chirped out "Head's ringing."
"Sorry..." Ekri muttered remorsefully.
A few moments passed with Ekri kneeling by Lavi's side. Lavi laid with eyes closed, his hands gently massaging the point of impact. Then, as if he had heard some signal exclusive to him his eyes opened.
"I'd say it's not your fault, but….you did scare the crap outta me."
Lavi began to stand, Ekri offered his hand which he took gratefully. Lavi sat down on the edge of his bed, while his brother remained standing. They remained silent for a moment, Lavi staring at Ekri expectantly. A small sigh broke the silence before Lavi spoke.
"...Well? This is where, I don't know, you tell me why you kicked in our door?"
The flood of negative emotions Ekri had forgotten surged back to the front of his mind. He groaned in frustration and fell backwards onto his own bed.
"Ugh, I don't wanna talk about it." That was wrong, he did want to talk about it. He hated leaving problems unsolved.
Lavi stared at him for a moment.
"You suck at lying. You do want to talk – I can tell."
Ekri grimaced, was he really so easy to read?
"Yes, yes you are. Sometimes I wonder if you think with your face instead of your brain."
Ekri bristled for a moment, seemingly offended, before sighing in defeat.
"Haa… Yeah. I messed up pretty bad just now."
"What'd you do?"
"You know that new kid, Theo?"
"Sure, he just got sent here...I wanna say two months ago? Why?"
"He doesn't seem to like us all that much." Ekri rose up from his prone position and was met with Lavi's eyes meeting his with focus. It was something he enjoyed about his brother, when you had his focus it was yours. He didn't look at you out of the corner of his eye, or stare out into space while talking with him. When you spoke with him he made sure you knew he was listening.
"No, he doesn't really like us at all now that you mention it." Lavi answered with an air of curiosity in his voice.
"Well, he and I got in a fight just now."
"Oh? So then what's the problem? You look pretty okay to me."
"Of course I'm okay." Ekri's voice rose, seemingly slighted by his words. He turned his eyes away from Lavi, another burst of shame assaulting him.
"I took it too far," He finally answered.
"Okay, I'm still not seeing the problem here." Lavi responded, the smallest bit of frustration working it's way into his voice. "It's not like you sent him to the infirmary or anythi..." Lavi trailed off, the dots finally connecting in his head.
"You did. You sent him to the infirmary." His voice was wrapped in disbelief.
Ekri almost wanted to laugh. It had finally been spoken, now all he had to do was deal with the aftermath. At the same time, however, he felt the font of negative emotions that had built within him.
"I didn't mean too! He was being an as-"
"Language!" Lavi squeaked, his eyes darting around as if the word was spoken sin.
"...He was being rude. To all of us. To Skoto, Alva, even you. Kept calling all of us weird."
"But...we are weird Ekri."
"I know that! But..." He growled in frustration.
"How do you do it?" Ekri asked suddenly, fervently almost.
"Do what?" Lavi replied taken aback.
"You just let it slide over you. Every time he calls you weird, or stupid it doesn't bother you at all. You can just sit there and smile at him like he isn't making fun of you. How do you do it?"
Lavi brought a hand to his chin, pensive expression sewn onto his face. An anxious feeling swelled into Ekri's gut as the terse silence carried on. Then after what seemed an eternity to the young boy, Lavi answered.
"I don't know."
Ekri face slumped against his covers as Lavi chuckled nervously.
"..Ah, sorry? I guess I just haven't ever thought about it that deeply."
"...an' why is that?" Ekri's spoke, muffled, against his sheets.
"I don't really care about him all that much, I think."
Ekri looked up at him, disbelief sprinkled across his features.
"...Really?"
"Oh don't look at me like that! Just because I wanna make a career out of saving people doesn't mean I like them. I'd save him in a heartbeat. But I won't go out of my way to be his friend. If he doesn't like me because I'm 'weird' then he can go right ahead. I don't give a hoot.
Ekri shifted his head so that his chin was resting against the sheets. A look of bafflement plastered to his face.
"...That's it? You just don't care?"
Lavi thought about it for a moment, before nodding cheerfully.
"That's so unfair," Ekri moaned pitifully. "You can't just not care. That's gotta be cheating or something."
"Or maybe it's just the answer that nobody can see," Lavi responded playfully.
"Don't you go all Skoto on me now," Ekri responded with mirth. "Speaking of which, where are those two?"
"Ah, Skoto went to go get groceries with Maddie. Alva is out resetting his snares I'm pretty sure."
Ekri's smile fell a bit, "are we low on funds again?"
"You know Maddie would never tell us if we were…." Lavi trailed off, his eyes finding the ground sadly.
"But you think we are."
"...Yeah. You noticed it too, didn't you? Potatoes and rice for the past few weeks."
"She still makes it taste good though, doesn't she?"
Whatever Ekri was about to say was cut off by the sound of the doorknob turning. Khai stepped into the room, his shoulders tensed Khai's eyes immediately fixing Ekri's with an irritated glare. Ekri swallowed the lump in his throat, before speaking.
"I'm sorry. I took it too far, I let him get to me when I shouldn't have. I'll accept whatever punishment you have for me."
"You're damn right you will. You broke his nose and knocked a tooth out."
Ekri flinched at the harsh words, tucking his chin to his chest in shame.
Khai ran a hand through his hair whilst simultaneously walking to Ekri's bed. He sat down adjacent to Ekri and stared out a window.
"You want to be a huntsman, Ekri?"
Ekri nodded.
"A huntsman can never, ever do what you just did."
Ekri stilled.
"If I had been training you to unlock your aura, you could have very well killed Theo in that scrap. Aura makes you much, much more than an average person. Instead of treating some swelling and bruises we'd have been mopping up the bits and pieces left of him. I'm afraid of pushing any of you boys to unlock your aura. You know why?"
The boys remained silent but shook their heads in negative affirmation.
"When you unlock your aura, it's more than getting some 'force field' that protects you from harm. You become stronger. You become faster. You know those X-Ray and Vav comics you love so much? You become like them, superheros. Simple punches become the same as cannons. Dodging bullets becomes trifling instead of impossible. You become powerful, dangerous, even.
A long silence passed; Khai allowing the boys to mull over his words before continuing.
"It's why kids attend combat school when their older – why kids your age wait two or three years. Where you have teachers and trained professionals to guide you." He took a breath and wet his lips. "From there you go to another school that takes it even further. Do you get it? I'm not a trained professional by any means. Sure, I use to be a huntsman. I can teach you how to fight, how to use your aura, how to sing or dance. But I cannot teach you to be mature. I've got a job and an orphanage to run, I can't be there to stop you every time someone calls Skoto 'weird' or makes fun of Alva's stutter. You have to be able to stop yourself. You have to be able to look him in the eye while he spits on your life, your achievements, your everything and do nothing. Talk with all you want, spit and scream for hours if that'll please you. But you can't act, you can never act. Your actions haven't done anything but proved to me that my fears may be justified."
Khai's heavy words fell upon apt ears. What's worse, Ekri couldn't deny a single thing. He was brash, temperamental, immature – the list goes on. He couldn't ignore them like Skoto. He couldn't kill them with kindness like Alva. He couldn't not care like Lavi. Responding with fire was all he knew. That was what he could do - what he thought he could do. Today he'd broken that, gone to a place where he couldn't go. He tried to speak but his lips were dry, his throat constricted in a vice of emotions.
"With the way things are now, I can't train you."
Ekri couldn't help the few tears that dripped down his face. This was his dream – he had always wanted to be a huntsman alongside his brothers. To hear a man he looked up too more than anything, say he wasn't ready caused deep reverberations of sorrow to within him.
Then Lavi put a hand on his shoulder.
"All of what you just said is true, Uncle Khai."
The sorrow deepened, even his own brother thought he wasn't re-
"But you forget something"
Lavi looked down at Ekri and smiled, before staring up at Khai with the same bright smile.
"He is never alone."
Lavi paused to take a breath, then spurned onward by the silence continued.
"Huntsmen are never alone. They work in teams of four. You've drilled that into our heads ever since we first came here. You are never alone. 'Lean on your brothers' - your exact words. Ekri could one day do all of those things, maybe more. Every single one of us is capable of that; me, Alva, Skoto, all of us are capable of that. But we have each other. When Ekri is angry, he'll have Skoto to stop him, Alva to calm him, myself to relieve him. We can't do this alone. None of us can. But together, we can.
Lavi continued his exoneration with a short, exasperated breath. The hand on Ekri's shoulder sat, cloth bunched tightly in his fist. A passionate fire had lit in his eyes which stared intensely into Khai's.
"I don't care if you don't believe in him. I believe in him."
The silence was deafening. Both Khai and Ekri stared in awe at Lavi, who was now panting after his outburst. Khai's eyes had a bizarre gleam to them as he stared at the two boys. One staring astonished at the other, while the second gazed defiantly into his eyes.
Then he laughed.
His head was thrown back in raucous laughter that echoed throughout the room. His curled around his stomach in a vain attempt to detain his laughter – the attempt failed horribly. The man slung his arms around the necks of the two boys, the boisterous laughter dying down to small chuckles.
"Ha...aha ho-kay kiddo. You got me there. You got me good." His eyes met Ekri's. "I'm sorry Ekri, I wasn't seeing the whole picture there. I doubted you, all four of you. Lucky for you upstarts, you've got such a nice brothers." He rapped both of their heads with his knuckles, causing both of the boys to grumble in embarrassment.
Ekri's eyes lit up in slim hope. "So does this mean…?"
"That I'll train you? Yeah. I think you're all ready. You know that means you'll have to fight Grimm, though? Humanity's greatest enemy? Adversary number one?" He rattled off, a playful tone in his voice.
"Well yeah!" answered Ekri eagerly. "It's just what I – we've been wanting to do since...pretty much always!"
"Even if it means you have to save hundreds of people just like Theo?" Khai challenged, the inflection of his voice changing to a more level tone.
Ekri took a hard breath, and stared down at his hands. The hands he had used to hurt. They were red still, the skin having been chaffed during his exchange with Theo. His eyes combed each line of his palm. Seemingly searching for some unseen response. He released his breath and met eyes with Khai, a new steel shining in his eyes.
"Yeah. I'd save every one of them."
Khai smiled.
"Now that sounds like something a huntsmen would say," Khai smirked as he roughly tousled the boys hair.
"Oh! I almost forgot!" He placed a compassionate hand on his Ekri's shoulder.
"You're still in huge trouble kid," Khai remarked with a cheerful lilt to his voice.
Ekri laughed nervously, a small bead of sweat making it's way down the side of his face.
"Really, you thought I was bad. Wait till Maddie gets a hold of you. She's gonna tan your hide kid."
His nervous laughter died and his face paled all at once. Ekri made to shoot up out of bed and out the door, window, anywhere but where he was really, but the tender grip on his shoulder had morphed into that of an iron clamp. Khai began cheerily dragging Ekri out of the room by the scruff of his shirt. His flailing and wriggling only making the vice grip on him tighter, he looked to his brother hope gleaming in his eye-
"I will remember you fondly"
The hope died.
"They'll be fine" Khai thought.
"They have each other."