unforgiven ➽ a Halilintar-centric fic

13 | fruitless labor

Cahaya relayed the news of Taufan and Gempa's absence when they gathered in the living room. Suffice to say, he received a myriad of reactions, some more drastic than the others.

"They abandoned us?" Daun paled, all the blood draining from his face. "They don't want us anymore?"

Api put a hand on his shoulder. "They'll be back," he promised him. "They just haven't been back on Earth for a bit, that's all."

Cahaya and Air exchanged looks.

"I guess our three-week stay here is cut short," Air noticed, humming. To his chagrin, Api and Daun shook their heads in despondence.

"Not exactly," Api corrected him.

"Gempa and Taufan got kicked out for a month," Daun supplied, deflating. "That means we're going to be stuck here for longer."

Api groaned, flattening his cheeks with his palms. "Ugh." He pat his own face in an attempt to lift his spirits. "At this rate, I'd rather go back to my house."

Air examined the fire elemental with a look of suspicion, turning the gears in Cahaya's brain and connecting the dots. Both Api and Air were humans, just like Taufan and Gempa, but not once did they display the same level of homesickness as the older.

Then again, they'd remained in space for less time, but never in Cahaya's memory that they expressed interest in returning to their home planet. Earth wasn't riddled by wars or planetary disasters – so why had they chosen to leave their homes?

"You two never talked about your life on Earth," Cahaya observed, eyeing the pair of humans. Air made a point to avoid eye contact, while Api developed a sudden interest in his toes.

Api shrugged, looking anywhere but their faces. "There's nothin' to talk about," he huffed, nose scrunching. A dead giveaway whenever he's lying. "It's just Earth—plain old Earth, where people spend most of their lives arguing about its shape. Is it flat? Is it a sphere? Wrong. Turns out, it's an oblate spheroid."

"Yeah," Air agreed with Api, which only happened once in a blue moon. "My old life is nothing compared to the present. The most interesting thing that happened was when I puked on my mom's shoes when I was 5."

Cahaya suppressed the urge to sigh. Humans. Why must they be so complicated? Taufan and Gempa were human, and they were clearly blind to the sheer resentment Halilintar harbored for them. Air and Api were human, and their only comment on their lives before the extraterrestrial were vague at best, nonsensical at worst.

Cahaya vastly underestimated how strong an emotion denial can be.

"Never thought I'd say this, but I miss our dorms," Daun mourned. "I don't know how much longer I can stand hearing that stupid chirping at night."

Air tilted his head. "The crickets?"

Daun spun to him, appalled. He removed the decorative pillow from his face, eyes widening in a combination of disgust and confusion. "That's what they're called?"

"We can't go back even if we wanted to." Api flicked a speck of dust from his knee. "There's no one to regulate our powers if our fuse breaks."

Cahaya's palms began to sweat. "That's true," he mumbled, recalling the dozens of times he'd had to go to Halilintar in the past 48 hours alone. Beside him, Air shifted uncomfortably.

Daun leaned back into the sofa, pouting. "I wonder how it feels like on the other side," he thought aloud. "Like, is it painful? Is it tiring?"

"I can barely keep a hand under control when it happens," Api said. "I don't want to imagine how Gempa feels whenever he has to wrangle my fires at 2am."