kinkfest | Breath of Fire III (Rei/Teepo/Ryu) (Reply)

Title: Save the Trees
Author/Artist:

syvia
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Word Count: 860
Summary: Teepo tries to give Ryu fighting lessons, fishing ensues. No trees were harmed in the making of this drabble.
Prompt: 4. Breath Of Fire III, Rei/Teepo/Ryu: Love in a family - "And we'll always be together, no matter what."

Rei got back to the clearing and his younger brothers just in time to keep Ryu from breaking down entirely. The blue-haired child held his sword in one hand, but not firmly, not as if he wanted anything to do with it. His lower lip trembled and his wide eyes were filled with tears. Teepo's face was flushed and angry, and it was quite obvious he'd just been shouting.

"Okay, what's going on?"

They turned to him, and without hesitation, Teepo pointed at the youngest of them.

"He won't practice! Rei, I told him. I told him he isn't very good at fighting and the only way he'll get better is to practice, but he won't."

"I don't want to hit the tree!" Ryu protested. "It didn't do anything!"

"You're not hurting it," Teepo said, long-suffering, as if they'd argued this point more than once already.

"But it's alive," the younger boy insisted, "and if it's alive, it can feel pain!"

"Ryu," Teepo said through gritted teeth, "it's a plant."

"Ryu," Rei interrupted before Teepo got more pissed, "it's safer if you practice using your sword on things that can't hit back if you miss. Besides! People cut down trees all the time."

The kid looked so surprised that Rei shook his head. He really had to wonder sometimes- where had Ryu come from that such simple ideas were beyond him?

"They do?"

Rei nodded once. "They do. Trees equal wood, and you need wood for a fire, for houses-"

"Yep!" Teepo said, with no small amount of glee, "our house is made of dead trees, Ryu!"

The smallest boy looked horrified, and even closer to crying than he had been earlier. Rei mentally swore. That one had backfired. Teepo slapped a hand to his forehead.

"Look," the violet-haired child shouted, "would you stop acting like a baby?"

"I don't want to hurt something that didn't hurt me!"

"That's the stupidest-"

"Teeps! Cool it," Rei approached his brothers, wrapping a hand about Ryu's shoulders and setting a hand on Teepo's back. "Let's go and see if Ryu can catch us some dinner, alright?"

~~~

"You can kill a bunch of fish, but you can't make some little marks on a tree?"

"Teepo," Rei groaned.

But Ryu only looked a little sad, and cast his line again before speaking. "I can't cut down a tree with my sword."

"So what?" Teepo responded.

"So why do it? I catch fish because- we can eat the fish, or sell them in town to buy stuff," Ryu said, just as softly as before. "But I can't do any good by hurting a tree-"

"Ryu. You. Aren't. Hurting. The. Tree."

Ryu watched him stand and stalk off, shoulders hunched and fists clenched. Rei sighed and shook his head.

"You gonna be okay for a while on your own?"

Ryu nodded, his little face somber. The eldest boy got to his feet and jogged after Teepo- who hadn't gone far, only a few yards around the side of the lake, where he'd sat down and begun to reduce a blade of grass to shreds.

"He's never gonna get stronger if he won't fight," Teepo was muttering.

"Nah, don't worry about strength," Rei disagreed. "He's working out his muscles just by catching us dinner."

Teepo blinked and looked at him. Rei grinned, pointed where Ryu was still fishing. "See? He has to throw his arms out pretty hard to get that line as far as he does. Then, when a fish bites, he has to reel it in, and jerk the pole back and forth to tire it out. That takes strength, and builds it up. Those fish he catches are five pounds easy, most of the time," he gave Teepo a conspiratorial grin, "and imagine how much force they're using to pull away."

Teepo said nothing for a moment, then crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. "He still needs to learn to use a sword."

"Yeah," Rei nodded easily and plopped down beside him. "Yeah, he does. But we don't have to do it before he's ready."

Teepo said nothing, only hunched in on himself and scowled.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Teeps," Rei said softly, not looking at him. "We needed that spell to kill the chimera. Ryu distracted it to give you time."

"He could have died," Teepo wrapped his arms around his knees, looking even more wretched.

"But he didn't."

"But he could have!"

Rei sighed and scooted over as Teepo hid his face against his legs. He wrapped one furry arm around his brother's shoulders.

"He didn't die. He got hurt, but we gave him an herb, and he's fine."

"But what if he'd been by himself?" he mumbled, and his voice was very small.

Rei scratched his scalp lightly, smiled. "That's why we’ll always be nearby. We'll always be together."

"No matter what?"

"No matter what," he promised. "If he needs saving, we'll save him."

There was a surprised shout and a tremendous splash from the lake. Teepo's eyebrows rose. Rei made a wry face and shook his head.

"Now let's go save him from the fish."