So look who finally decided to come back to life? *dodges tomatoes*
So I was recently replaying Baten Kaitos, which got me in a writing mood. And apparently I am also in a drabble mood, because most of the stuff I've written isn't over a few hundred words. I know, really? First thing in almost a year and not even a thousand. Sheesh. Anyway, this thing is kind of weird. It started life as Gibari noticing emotions that everyone else hid (like Xelha having a crush on Kalas) and somehow morphed into everyone's observations of our favorite jerk. I ended up writing Gibari's first, then Xelha, Savyna, Mizuti, and finally Lyude (who was really hard - probably because there is no positive interaction between the two of them until Mintaka).
Onto to the story!
[Xelha]
Xelha knows more of Kalas's secrets than anyone else, and she knows that he doesn't know she knows. She could reveal him at any time. Some days she's tempted.
Other days, days when he's quiet and can't work up the energy to snap at them, days she later learns were Fee's birthday, or his grandfather's, she remembers the reason she had come on this journey in the first place.
The next time the Empire catches up with them too quickly, or something goes wrong with the End Magnus (again), she bows her head and says nothing.
[Gibari]
Gibari understands Kalas, perhaps better than anyone else.
He understands, for instance, that Kalas's anger and drive for revenge against Giacomo and Ayme isn't just directed at them, but also at himself, for not being able to save his family, and that he had never really gotten over their loss.
Gibari understands what it's like to lose a loved one at a young age. To see them killed in front of you. And when you came down to it, fourteen really wasn't very different from sixteen. So whenever he catches Kalas being oddly nice to a little kid, or staring out into the clouds towards something that isn't there, he pretends not to notice.
After all, he'd been there too.
[Lyude]
Lyude doesn't hate Kalas.
He has plenty of reasons to. Kalas never misses an opportunity to belittle him, to insult him, to accuse him of being a traitor. But he doesn't. He puts up with it, and occasionally shouts back when Kalas says something that crosses the line. And each time he does, they get into shouting matches worthy of the theater, and each time he comes away feeling a bit more secure in his position, a bit less stressed, and even a bit less guilty.
Where Xelha and Gibari tread carefully, Kalas attacks with verbal equivalent of anti-aircraft guns, and some days Lyude actually prefers that.
[Savyna]
Savyna sees her final straw.
She remembers orders to stand watch and eliminate any survivors, remembers never being told the purpose of the mission, remembers two children fleeing into the night, trying desperately to escape a burning house as they choked on smoke and stumbled on legs weak from blood loss. She remembers following them into the forest, watching them fall down and get up time and time again until they fell for the last time. She remembers one boy glowing and the other one waking up, only to find his brother's dead body.
She remembers walking away then.
Now, when Kalas lashes out at her or the others, she closes her eyes, breathes out, and stays calm. She might not have been the one who murdered his family, but she was there, and she could have done something, anything, instead of standing there like a stupefied oliphaunt. But she didn't, and there is nothing she can do about it now.
So instead, she lends him her strength. If he wants revenge, she will help him get it. And one day, she will tell him the truth of what happened that night.
She owes him that much.
[Mizuti]
Mizuti is the baby of the group, and as such, she feels the effects of a side of Kalas that the others only see when he thinks they aren't looking.
Kalas has never insulted her like he does Xelha and Lyude, has never started a shouting match with her like he does with Gibari, has never ignored her like he does Savyna.
To Mizuti, Kalas is an older brother. He puts up with her eccentricities, humors her, gives her a pat on the shoulder after a battle and a quick, "You okay there, kid?" To which Mizuti always responds, "The Great Mizuti is not a kid! The Great Mizuti is the Great Mizuti!" and he laughs and laughs.
Sometimes, Mizuti wonders why Kalas is so mean to the rest of their friends but so nice to her. Then Kalas, in a rare moment of openness, answers the question before she has a chance to ask it.
"You know, you kinda remind me of my brother."
And Mizuti understands more than she thinks he meant her to.
She hopes that one day that Fee's brother will return, and not just for her.
Good? Bad? Let me know =D. (And feel free to harass me about Kids Will Be Kids, because the more harassment I get, the faster I'll get off my ass and actually do something about it XD).