personalapocalypse | [Skies of Arcadia Legends] Runaway (Hans & Centime, SFW)

Title: Runaway
Fandom: Skies of Arcadia (Legends-specific)
Characters: Hans, Centime, Lapan
Summary: Lapan runs off, and leaves his brother asking why.

This seems to be something I wrote for an SoA community that I was very active in a few years ago. (I miss that group of people. They were fun.)

Hans stood frozen on the bridge for a long moment, a rag clenched tightly in his hand, his eyes fixed on absolutely nothing.

He'd heard something as he'd thought he'd never hear. He'd heard all of the cruel things that his brother had said to his father, and he had to wonder if Lapen really meant any of them. But what had really hurt was the last thing he'd said before he'd stormed out.

"You always liked Hans better than you liked me, didn't you? Well, forget it! You can baby him all you want, but I'm gettin' out of this lousy family! I hope I never see this ugly ship again!"

Then he'd heard the door to his father's cabin slam. He hadn't moved, hadn't spoken... he just hadn't known what to do. He hadn't wanted his brother to leave, but then... what was he supposed to do or say? It sounded like he'd made up his mind.

It was a few minutes before he felt brave enough to go back to the bridge.

He saw his father there, standing by a porthole and staring out at the clear blue skies. He didn't see Hans walk in at first; his expression was utterly blank. It was one of the few times that Hans could remember seeing his father without his usual smile on his face.

After a few attempts to say something - anything, he thought, to let his father know that he was there - he managed to clear his throat. Centime jumped, and turned to look at Hans, a dim spark of hope flaring and then dying in his eyes. He thought that I might be Lapen, he thought, and fought down his disappointment.

"Oh, Hans," Centime said, and tried his best to smile. But the smile was weak, faint. "What is it?"

"Father..." he finally managed. "Lapen... he's gone, isn't he?"

Centime said nothing for a moment. He turned away from the porthole and sat down a chair that was bolted down at his inventing desk, only a few steps away from the ship's controls. "You... you heard him, didn't you?"

"I'm sorry, Father," Hans said. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I was working on-"

"I know, son, I know. You were working on the deck, like you promised you would last night. And Lapen... well, I don't think it even occurred to him that someone might be listening." He shook his head. "I doubt it mattered to him."

Hans swallowed hard, trying to force the lump in his throat down. There was one thing that he had to know. "Father?"

"Yes, Hans?"

"He didn't leave because of me, did he?" he said in a rush, afraid that if he didn't he'd freeze up and never be able to ask.

"Absolutely not, Hans. Don't even let that thought enter your mind." Centime sighed. "You know that your brother has always been... well, a bit troublesome. Brilliant lad, but very impetuous and bull-headed - he does what's on his mind, lets the Moons take the consequences. I kept trying to teach him that his way of doing things would just win him enemies. Your mother and I wanted to reach him so badly, but we failed -" He stopped suddenly, and turned away. "No... no, I'm sorry. None of this is Koruna's fault, any more than it was yours. Perhaps I did push him too hard."

Hans stood there, wishing he could say something. He remembered so many times when he'd been working beside his brother, when his father had praised him for something that he'd done or said and Lapen had just stood beside him, stopping and staring at the floor. Or when he'd heard his father scolding Lapen for something, the way that Lapen would smolder....

"I'm sorry, Hans," Centime finally said, breaking a long silence. He stood up and turned away. "I'm going to have to go and break the news to your mother. Please take care of the ship. I may be gone for some time."

Hans nodded. "Of course, Father."

He didn't say anything, couldn't say anything when his father left; he wanted to say something, to remind him that he loved him and respected him. But the words wouldn't come, and all he could think about for a moment was his brother standing beside him, tools held tightly in his hands, eyes cast down toward Deep Sky.

If only he could have done something.

(By the way, a koruna is a unit of currency in Slovakia, according to this. So I used it as a name for Centime's wife, because as far as I know she doesn't have one in the game.)