Hero's Dead Brother

41. Build

As I walked out of the field, I leaned against the first wall I could find and started to cure my injuries.
My hand was moved aside gently and replaced by Greg's.

"Don't waste your energy, you'll need it for the next spar." Such a brother...

I wanted to hug him but my clothes were dripping wet. I had to go change them.

"Ouch! Must have hurt! You have broken ribs dammit!"

He just swore. I was the one who said that word in front of him when I got drunk. 'Dammit', I used to use that word a lot but being in this family, my vocabulary has changed a lot.

Hearing him say that broke my heart. I had brought something with me from my dark world.

"Don't say that word, I don't like when you say that."

"Huh? ...ok"

He helped me completely recover and we headed back. My parents were waiting for me to come out, parents not being allowed inside.

"Ami, well done, sweetheart!"

She didn't talk about my injuries or how worried she was or how humiliating it was for the Leonhearts that their son almost lost against a level 3 water mage student. She just praised me and took me in her arms, not even noticing that her dress was being ruined by my wet clothes.

I wanted to make her proud.

As I was going back, I looked at Caleb who was waiting for a non-verbal explanation on what happened.

I gave her a face that meant "It's all under control now" and she finally smiled.
Slightly. A small smile. A tiny, tiny small. Ok, she didn't smile but I swear I know her well enough to say that she did.

As I changed my clothes, sighed and got ready for the next round, I saw a 15 year old terrible looking me in the mirror.

'What do you want?'

'Do I need a reason to be in my own head?'

'Seriously, what's wrong?'

He got closer to my ear and whispered.
'You've finally accepted me but you keep denying it'.

'What are you talking about?'

He looked at me with our dark eyes. 'Why didn't you give the last hit?'

I knew what he was talking about. As we won against the other guy, Noah wanted to cast a final spell and completely destroy his defence even though we were already winning and I could wait for him to give up.

'Why did you stop?'

'Because it was risky. I could've hurt him'

'That bastard humiliated us and you wanna let him go?'

'He patiently waited for us to get ready every time he attacked. He could've easily humiliated us for real but he was patient enough to give us time to recover!'

'Bullshit!'

'You're such a jerk! What did he even do to us?'

'Fuck off!'

I knew why he was saying that. It was unbearable to be in such a ridiculous situation in front of so many people.
A spar between a water mage and a light mage should be the water mage doing all they can to impress the jury while the light mage is kind enough to just use protection and wait for them to give up.

The light has to go easy on the water, not the opposite.

'It's our fault. We're the one to blame for the humiliation, not the kid'.

'Oh fuck off! Kid? I felt like shit, dammit! He's not a kid he's a grown ass dude your age!'

'Did you consider both our lives? We're almost 34 together!'

"Mister Leonheart, are you there?"

"We're coming!"

I gasped 'did I just say we?'

Noah was looking at me with excitement.

'I just misspoke! That's all!'

'Sure'

I couldn't take his sarcastic smile and just left.

Thanks for reading!