✤ Ryousuke, with the other fandom being AtLA!
heheheh i’m gearing up to tackle ryousuke for a thing if i can get out of this funk so this is good timing. it’s been a while since i’ve rewatched atla tho, so pls forgive any errors. meme link here, slots still open.
now with a companion piece!
minor injuries and a mention of blood.
growing up under fire nation rule teaches ryousuke many things: how to pretend the earth doesn’t tremble at his feet. how to remain still and quiet when resentment is burning deep beneath his skin. how to seem harmless when he is a creature of sharp smiles and sharper claws, when he would go for the throat given half the chance. above all, how to protect a brother with more talent than sense.
haruichi’s knees are skinned and bleeding from sliding halfway down into the ravine ryousuke has been using to practice before catching himself with a swell of earth so large the cloud of dust it raised is still settling. he’s sniffling, small fists rubbing the wetness out of his eyes while ryousuke bends over the wound with a damp cloth torn out of his shirt and dipped in a nearby creek.
"i told you not to come," he says, and haruichi hiccups but he lifts his face, chin jutting the way it does when he’s going to be stubborn.
"i want to practice too," he says, mouth firm between the tear tracks streaking his face.
ryousuke shakes his head. “how many times do i have to tell you—”
"hey, down there," a lazy voice floats down from above and ryousuke tenses, blood running cold when he sees the familiar military uniform.
"yes?" he says, a lightness he doesn’t feel in his tone.
"so look," the soldier says, and he’s a boy, really, not any older than ryousuke if that, leaning against a tree at the top of the ravine with a feral grace ryousuke is entirely sure is dangerous, "i’m not going to arrest you or anything, but if you’re gonna do any of that you need to be more careful."
"what," ryousuke says, and the boy grins, wide and white underneath his leather cap.
"i’m not even on duty," he says, "but that was quite a lot of dust you raised."
"brother," haruichi says, knuckles white in his lap, and ryousuke feels the ground tremble at the twitch of his fingers.
"don’t," he says, quiet but sharp.
"seriously," the soldier says, holds up a hand, blue lightning snap between his fingers. "i’m trying to be nice here."
"why?" ryousuke says, and the boy shrugs.
"i don’t like punishing people for things they haven’t done yet."
"i see," ryousuke says, and he doesn’t, really, but there’s a tenseness around the soldier’s eyes that keeps him from bristling, that keeps his hands on haruichi’s wrists. there’s a current he doesn’t quite understand flowing in the lines of the young soldier’s shoulders and it’s enough to make him pause, grasping at the edge of change hovering in the atmosphere.
"good," the boy says. "see you around." he turns on his heel, sauntering away with a casualness that catches in ryousuke’s throat.
"brother," haruichi says again, and ryousuke lets go of him, eyes still trained on the stretch of woods the soldier disappeared into.
"i don’t know," he says to haruichi’s unvoiced question, because ryousuke can’t say that he knows exactly what just happened but he knows that nothing is the same.
