My Treasure, an onward fanfic

"So...this is kind of a personal one..."

Ian listens to his older brother strum his lute as he speaks to his fellow band members. It was a Friday afternoon, and his brother's band had met up for their weekly practice. The band consisted of Rhog, a satyr who is the lead guitarist and singer and is a grade higher than the rest of them, who were sophomores; Gruth, an orc-elf who plays bass; Ekon, a troll who plays drums; and of course, there was Ian's brother Barley, who plays rhythm guitar. They still couldn't find a name for their band, but Rhog was confident that would one day they would be out and about, doing gigs all throughout the realms. But Barley wanted to stay here and support his family.

The band didn't know they already had one fan...Barley's brother. Ian always liked listening to their sessions, since sometimes Barley would sing something. He wasn't the lead singer, but he would still show off parts of the songs he wrote.

Listening to his brother sing was therapeutic for Ian, as it reminded him of when he'd sing to him when he was very little. Barley's voice was calming and nostalgic, and it made him feel better after long days of being teased and stared down at in 7th grade.

He gets ready to listen to a new song he'd wrote, pressing his head against the garage door.

Barley strums a few notes to start off the song, and he starts to sing:

So many times
I've had my heart ripped out
And I've wept
It kept me on the ground

When I think I've found a place to stay
It all burns down
Oh

Ian frowns at the lyrics, wondering if Barley recently went through a heartbreak.

But I know there's one thing
That stays with me forever
No matter what happens to me
I'll always have my treasure

The elf slowly perks up as he continues, wondering if the song was about him...

You're the one that I count on
The shoulder I cry on
You're the only one who knows exactly what I want
You're the one I love so dear
Always love to have right near
You're no ordinary treasure
You're my brother

Tears well up in Ian's eyes. His smile trembles as they stream down his face, and he cherishes the song his brother had written for him. He'll remember those lyrics from the heart forever.

"...I'm not feeling it," Rhog says.

"...Why not?" Barley says, confused.

"It's just, you know, a bit too personal."

"Well, it's just that I love my brother to pieces and I thought I'd write this so I can sing it loud for him to hear," Barley says.

"I don't know what to tell you, man, other than no one will care."

Ian feels Barley's rage radiating from outside the garage.

"Well, if I can't express my love for the greatest person in my life, then I quit," he says, crumpling a piece of paper.

The garage door is then lifted, and Ian quickly dives into a bush so he wouldn't be seen.

He watches his brother stomp back into the house, wiping tears with his arm and holding his lute with the other.

Later, Ian sits on the couch and continues sewing together a pillow he'd been working on for a while. He hadn't talked to his brother about the situation with the band yet, as Barley hadn't left his room in hours.

Suddenly, Barley's door opens, and the burly elf walks out towards Ian.

"Hey, Bar-"

Barley immediately hugs Ian tightly as he's still holding his pillow and thread. Ian puts them down and wraps his arms around him.

"I just wanted to let you know I love you," the older Lightfoot says. "A lot."

"I love you too," Ian says, not sounding too confused as he knew exactly what this was about.

Barley pulls away from him, heading towards the kitchen to grab a bag of cheese puffs.

Ian still remembers the lyrics to the song. No matter what his band thought, Ian cared. He cared deeply, and he will always play this song in his head whenever he needs to.

Three years had passed since that debacle with the band. Ian hadn't heard his brother sing the song since. Barley started becoming disinterested in music as a whole, and more interested in RPGs.

One Saturday morning, the young elf lies in his bed staring at the ceiling, just one day after he had an incident at school. He was able to take his staff to school for one day for a presentation on magic, but a couple of students didn't take that well. As soon as school let out, they found him in an empty side of the hallway and began pushing him around.

"You're worthless when you don't have that staff on hand," a cyclops said. He then rose the staff in the air with both arms and his knee, as if he was getting ready to snap it in half.

The other one - another elf - had Ian pinned against the lockers, his hand covering the poor wizard's mouth.

The cyclops snapped the staff in half, throwing the two pieces on the ground.

"Now what are you gonna do, huh?"

Ian stared in horror, his entire body shaking. He muffled through the other elf's hand, trying to get others to hear his cries for help.

Just after he saw his staff get destroyed, he had a rush of anger, and he opened his mouth to bite the elf's hand.

"Ow-! HEY, get back here!"

Ian scrambles to pick up the pieces of the staff, using Magnora Gantuan on one of them to extend it back to its former size.

Just as the two bullies get ready to pounce on him, he uses Paralos to stun them both.

He then rushed out the doors, running as fast as he could away from the school. After he got far enough, he slowed down to walking.

He began to mumble the lyrics to his brother's song for him, trying to feel some sort of comfort.

Soon after, he arrived at his house. Once he opened the front door, he saw his older brother sitting on the stairs, as if he were waiting for something.

"Ian? You okay, bro?" Barley asks, seeing him wipe tears with his flannel sleeve.

"I...well, there was an incident, involving the staff," Ian says, holding out the two pieces of the divided staff.

"Oh no, my gut was right...did they hurt you bad?" the older elf says, being correct in his worries that Ian was being bullied.

"No...not really," the younger elf replies. "I was able to get out of their hold pretty quickly. It seems like they only gave me a bruise on my hip."

"That's good," Barley says with a sigh of relief. "Come here, bro."

The brothers hug each other for a good minute or two.

"I'm always here if you need me," the burly elf says once they pull away from each other. "You know I'm always willing to help you."

Ian nods, a smile appearing on his face.

"I'll tell you if I need anything," the wizard says, heading up the stairs. "I just...need to recover from this."

"You do that, good sir," Barley says, heading back to his room.

"And just know that if I ever see them messing with you," he continues. "They're going to get the worst of it from me."

Those events play out again in the 16-year-old's head.

Then something comes to mind: he should tell Barley about the song.

It's been a while since he wrote it and showed it to the band, and surely he would remember it...

He gets up from the bed and heads out of his room to find his brother.

Walking down the stairs, he finds him at the table, setting up his game for a campaign tonight.

"You wrote a song for me," Ian says, looking at his brother.

Barley looks up from his game, slightly confused.

"That day you quit the band three years ago...you wrote a song for me..."

"Oh...right."

The older Lightfoot continues setting up his board, now looking bummed.

"I...used to always sit outside the garage and listen to your sessions..." Ian says. "They always made my day."

"I know," Barley says monotonously, setting a deck of cards on the table with extra force.

"What?"

"I know you used to sit outside and listen to us," the older elf continues. "I could see you peeking through the window at times. I just didn't like you being in there because they didn't think of you in a good light."

"Yeah...I heard them say what they thought of the song you wrote for me."

"It's just that...Rhog felt like he could control everything," he explains. "He made every decision himself and didn't let us have a say, no matter how much we spoke up. He was so cocky and jerky, and...I don't know what I saw in him."

A beat of silence starts. Ian then says "You do still have the song, right?"

Barley sighs, touching up the colors on one of his minis. "No...I crumpled it up in my rush of anger. I wasn't thinking right."

"Well...I still remember it. Every lyric. I play it in my head sometimes when I don't have you near and I need assurance..."

The burly elf's eyes glow, and he looks up at his brother's face. "You...really? You memorized that whole thing?"

Ian nods.

"I don't remember much of it..." Barley says, scratching his head. "Maybe if you sing it, I can remember the rest as you go on."

The younger Lightfoot chuckles shyly, grabbing his hands together. "Well, I don't sing well..."

"That doesn't matter to me," his brother says. "I just want to know those lyrics again."

Ian clears his throat and takes some breaths. He doesn't like singing in front of others, but this was for the sake of his brother's memory. He then starts singing to the best of his ability:

So many times
I've had my heart ripped out
And I've wept
It kept me on the ground

When I think I've found a place to stay
It all burns down
Oh

Barley's eyes start to fill with tears as he slowly remembers writing the lyrics. He was sitting in his bedroom, thinking about how much his brother meant to him. The love he has for his brother transcends any other, and he poured that love into this song. The notebook paper he wrote the lyrics on was warped in a few spots from tears that dropped onto it.

But I know there's one thing
That stays with me forever
No matter what happens to me
I'll always have my treasure

Ian was always Barley's greatest treasure. He can't even begin to think of what life would be like without him.

Barley wipes the tears off his face as he now remembers the chorus. He gets up from the table and approaches his brother, as they both start to sing together.

Barley wraps Ian in a brotherly embrace as soon as the two of them finish.

"You sing very well," the older elf says through tears.

"I always love it when you sing," the younger elf says, his voice muffled through Barley's shoulder.

The brothers pull away from each other, looking into their smiling, teary-eyed faces.

"I won't ever forget those lyrics again, I promise you," Barley says, his hands on Ian's shoulders.

He hugs him one last time, before ruffling his curly hair and returning to his board.

"I love you," Ian says.

"I love you too, bro," Barley says.