unforgiven ➽ a Halilintar-centric fic

23 | liar, liar

"Petir, why is that abang always angry?"

Haven't expected the sudden interrogation, Petir choked on his apple juice, nearly spewing the drink from his nose. Across the table, Thunderstorm and Quake looked on in concern, halfway through their pudding cups each.

"Which abang?" Petir asked, following Tanah's pointing finger, nearly choking on his juice a second time. "Abang Angin?"

Thunderstorm dug her plastic spoon into her chocolate pudding, rolling her eyes. "Him? He's mean to everyone. Everyone says it's because he thinks he's better than everyone else."

Petir set down the juice carton. "I don't know how he's so mad all the time," he said, shooting a quick glance at their topic of the hour, who was sitting away from everyone else in the time-out spot. "I think it's because his mommy broke their pinkie promise, or something."

Quake gasped, losing his grip on his pudding. "A pinkie promise?!" he repeated, appalled. "You can't break a pinkie promise!"

"He said his mom will come for him," Petir elaborated, "but it's been weeks, and she hasn't."

"Ooh." Tanah covered his mouth with his hands. "So that's why." He tilted his head. "But our mommies never came back too and we're not always angry. Is it because she broke the pinkie promise?"

"Of course!" Thunderstorm slammed the butt of her plastic cutlery onto the table. "It's very important. If you break a pinkie promise, you'll get set on fire."

"Set on fire?" Tanah yelped, horrified.

"Yeah, 'cause you lied and liars get their pants set on fire."

Tears prickled at Tanah's eyes. "My pants!" he cried, clinging onto Petir's sleeve. "I don't want my pants to be on fire!"

"No one's getting set on fire, okay?" Petir said with finality in his voice. Tanah stopped crying, but he was still sniffling into his shirt. "If you didn't lie, you won't get set on fire. You didn't lie to us, did you?"

Tanah shook his head fervently, lips quivering. Petir sent Thunderstorm a glower, who whistled loudly and turned away like the older didn't exist.

"I-I'd never lie to Petir!" Tanah croaked, shaking Petir's shoulder. "You believe me, right? Right?"

Petir put both his hands on Tanah's shoulders and set him down onto his seat, grip firm yet the younger couldn't stop shaking. "I believe you." He turned him back to face the table and his unfinished lunch. "Now finish your food. It's not good to waste any."

Tanah whipped to him, eyes wide. "You won't lie to me, would you?"

Petir rolled his eyes. "Of course I won't," he said as a matter-of-factly. He returned his attention to his plate of bland congee and unappetizing meal, adult Halilintar taking his place. "Why would I ever lie to you?"

Gempa's voice filtered through instead of Tanah's, a cold air blowing where he'd touched Petir's shoulder previously.

"I don't believe you," Tanah said with Gempa's voice, body rigid and cold. "Liar, liar. Pants on fire."

Halilintar burst into a column of flame, watching numbly as his limbs disintegrated into ash. The fires climbed up his arms, shoulders and neck—then he closed his eyes as it reached his face, falling backwards into an opening abyss as ash fluttered away in the wind.

In his final moments, he stared up to the gaping crack from above... eyes widening when he saw a child looking down, bright yellow eyes piercing through the darkness.

Gempa was a survivor.

He'd survived seven intergalactic wars, seventy-nine assassination attempts, twenty-three free-for-all brawls, and even Cahaya's first attempts at baking human pastries. He survived a wannabe warlord when he was nine years old, a highly trained mercenary at ten, the head Sunnova Captain at eleven, an actual warlord at twelve, and became the second youngest Lance Corporal in Sunnova history by fourteen.