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4th Knock-out

Speaking of thank you... Ice looked at Cyclone, opened his mouth just to have Blaze cut in, "My turn! My turn!"

Ice stared at him, "Who are you?"

Blaze looked taken aback, "Hey, you just talked with me seconds ago!"

"Then who are you again? Why are you here? I don't want to know you. Go away."

Continuous strikes, full force!

Oh right, Ice did not appreciate people interrupting his talk.

Blaze stood dumbfounded as Ice turned to Cyclone again, "I forgot to tell you something. Sorry, I was too busy teasing the hell out of you."

"... That's too honest to be polite, but go ahead."

"Ah yeah, how shall I put it..." Ice crossed his arms, tapping his right foot, "You smiled a lot after our fight with Retak'ka, right?"

Ice noticed the other's shoulders stiffened. He said calmly, "I didn't say your smiles were fake."

Because, in fact, they were not.

"After our fight, Solar needed some time to recover." Ice shifted his gaze towards a certain bespectacled boy, who fidgeted in his spot, "You were here, tried to cheer everyone up."

"The keyword is, tried." Cyclone laughed humorlessly, "Didn't succeed much, I guess."

Ice looked straight into Sapphire-colored eyes, "But you never gave up, either."

Even when you were feeling just as miserable as us, you never run away, never failed to smile regardless of how much you wanted to cry.

You could have thrown in the towel and dropped us, but you did not.

Cyclone must have read Ice's mind on account of his awkward shrug, "I'm the cheerful and happy part, so that's my... job, I think?"

Ice replied blandly, "No."

"Eh...?"

"You didn't do any of those while thinking "That's my job", did you? I'm sure your motivation was different." Topaz eyes never left Sapphire ones, "Remember, Cyclone."

The other tilted his head, subconciously recalled the not-so-bright memories of that time. Well, they just defeated a horrified, powerful villain, received some nice injuries, and managed to wait for Solar to wake up after one whole week without destroying any parts of Rintis Island. Pretty cool huh?

It was terrible.

Even though they knew Solar would come around sooner or later - heck, like hell they would let him be trapped in some ridiculous coma - it was terrible to be so helpless. Literally. Without knowing when the waiting would end.

"It was a hard time." Cyclone admitted, "I... I didn't know what to do. None of us did. It felt... off, without his nonsense speeches about how great he is, I mean how narcissistic he is."

Solar deadpanned, "You made me sound like a complete idiot."

"Even more idiotic than you already are." Thorn nodded along.

"Hey!"

Cyclone mulled over his memories, "Hmm... I really don't want to remember, but yeah, I did smile a lot." His lips quirked up, "Surprisingly, Thundy didn't hit me, he hates people putting up a bright facade."

"I didn't say your smiles were fake."

"You didn't put up anything, Cy."

Ice and Thunderstorm speaked simultaneously. They paused, looked at each other. Ice signalled the red-eyed to go ahead.

"You didn't put up anything, Cy." Thunderstorm repeated, "Your smiles, though strained, were genuine."

He always knew whenever Cyclone faked a smile, and proud that his lover had stopped doing so long time ago.

Cyclone shrugged helplessly, "Can't think of any reason for me to smile at that time."

Thunderstorm shook his head, "You had, just forgot. Remember, Cy."

...

Cyclone tried. He had buried the dark phase deep in one corner of his mind, unwilling to bring it out again. After all, who would like to remember the last time he almost lost one of his family? Man, his family would.

"I... I smiled 'cause it was the only thing I could do, and I had to do something." Anything, so he would not fall apart.

"I also smiled because... it felt weird not to. This is my dominant expression, my... personality." That was why his lips curled up. Done, right?

No.

Cyclone realized, through the hard time, his smiles... reached his eyes nonetheless.

He remembered sitting near Thunderstorm, watching him kick and punch anything in his sight. Remembered Blaze standing in front of Solar's hospital room, face void of emotion while stuffing chocolate into his mouth. Yeah, a trait of Blaze, consuming an insane amount of chocolate whenever restless, did he even chew? Remembered wrapping his arms around Thorn's shaky frame, saying nothing, letting his friend cry his heart out.

He did all of those, with a smile on his lips each time.

Strained, broken, genuine smiles.

Because it felt weird not to. This was his personality after all, cheerful and happy, like the wind carried pain away, away from his friends. His family.

Because when he smiled, he had a sudden thought that everything would be alright.

Cyclone realized.

"Because I wanted you guys to know that everything would be alright."

Not verbally, since the bitterness in his heart was too much for him to handle, plus he was not sure if he would sound convincing enough. So he just smiled, accepting the gloomy situation, smiled, chanting "these times are hard, but they will pass", smiled, taking pride in stating his conviction:

It's always darkest before the dawn.

"You're the wind, the gentle, playful wind that can't stand sadness, especially ours. And you tried, very hard, to carry them away." A soft smile graced Ice's lips, "You're right, "tried" is the keyword. I don't care if you succeeded or not, I knew you wouldn't give up and would make it eventually. In fact, you did. I thank you because you did."

That's why I'm more than willing to help you remember.

That time was truly depressing, like the endless darkness stretched across the sky, made us unable to seek a path to set foot on. The sun was gone, albeit temporarily, enough to drive us crazy. It's understandable you don't want to remember.

Even more understandable for you to be reminded of the small light, some of which you lit up.

Dusk till dawn.

Blaze looked in awe, "Being able to convey something like this, and not even speaking it out loud... So cool, Cy!"

Cyclone blushed upon hearing the compliment, murmured, "Thanks."

So that's it huh?

The weight inside his chest... disappeared. Maybe when he tried to convey his hope-to-be positive point of view in a non-verbal way, he was not sure if his friends understood or not. If they did not, the power-absorbed accident might still haunt them, which Cyclone found frustrating. Luckily they did, then the accident would not vanish completely, but would fade away. Allowing them to keep moving forward.

Which, Cyclone found, was pretty cool.

*TBC*