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Four’s back strained as they peered over at the desk. They tiredly rubbed their eyes as they squinted at the fine-print words on the textbook. Warriors' occasional sighs and rhythmic foot-tapping had kept Four from stirring and getting distracted. He was impatiently waiting, expecting a reply at any time now.
Foru does all the can to not accidentally lock gazes with their brother, instead being content with boring bullets into the paper. They rattled their mind for an answer, or at least something to alleviate Warriors’ restlessness for but a while.
“Well? I'm waiting.” Warriors snipped, voice coated in petulance. Four could only assume so much from the tone in his voice, albeit the permanent scowl on Warrior’s face confirmed all.
Four really couldn’t give an answer. They didn’t understand what they were reading- They just either kept on spacing out, or were too burdened to breathe and at least attempt to comprehend the information.
“Tell me Four. What’s the answer?”
Four weakly shrugged in return, bracing themselves for what’s to come of Warriors’ wrath.
To say that Four was scared was a grand understatement. Four was terrified . Warriors had always rubbed them the wrong way; He’s critical, judgemental, and strives for the highest level of perfection. Four isn’t any of those things, nor will they ever be remotely close to them either.
To Four, Warriors is dangerous. Vio can see right through the ploy. Warriors displays himself as outgoing at heart and a pleasantly social person, yet underneath that, they know that there’s nothing but regret and other by-products of extremely unhealthy habits and patterns.
And now, it seems as if the mask is cracking and his fury is slipping away.
Four had never been great in school. Sure, Vio’s smart enough to get Four places, but when they were younger, Violet was all but stubborn and untrusting. He wouldn’t do the other’s a favour even if it meant saving them. So being the one who memorized the material and took all the mental notes was simply not going to happen.
It had been abundantly long ago, when Four had been forced to deal with this sort of pressure. They were expected of nothing but flawlessness, and there was no room for mistakes. Yet, everytime they did mess up… They honestly couldn’t remember the rest of it anyway. Maybe it was for the best; Some things are just better left unknown.
Though, Violet considered it forced conditioning . Four just couldn’t take it anymore, and even though they were considered successful for their young age, Four had given the efforts; Not out of spite, but rather out of fear .
Anything below that was subpar, mediocre, failure . Four was forced into that complex, in which it had taken them years to shake out of and to finally let it sit in.
Currently, Warriors was practically the living reminder of one of their worst memories. The one thing that they so desperately wished never happened to them, to erase it from existence and at least have some remnants of a normal life. With each of his spat out words and his increasingly more upset movements and shifts, Four knew that their time was running short, and quickly.
If there was one thing that was in agreement between The Colors, it was that they had ultimately reached their limit.
Red was crying, wiping his tears with no avail as he spluttered and sobbed- He hated when Warriors got like this. It was just so scary . No matter how the other Colors tried to comfort and calm him, it just never worked . Red was too out of it, they knew.
Blue wanted to fight back, unable to take this torture any more. He was done hearing Warriors put them down, Blue had it with his arrogance and rudeness- He made Red cry! Warriors deserved the same torment; If not, worse.
Green didn’t even believe it was worth it anymore. Four and Warriors were spiraling. Four just simply didn’t understand and Warriors couldn’t accept that. They’ve gone over the same topics too many times to count, and each time they reread it and tried to retain the information, it just didn’t stick.
They had been studying for hours . Skimming over material and trying to cram in even more information, albeit if Four could even handle it, that is.
Vio though, noticed the worst out of the others. He noticed that Warriors was getting frustrated.
The man in question sighed in guttural annoyance and ran his hands through his hair, pulling it in the process to try and ground himself.
It was only a matter of time before Warriors resorted to physical violence- Even if none of the colors wanted to accept this, if it was one thing that could teach Four, it was forced acceptance and submission out of fear.
They knew it wasn’t right. The Colors knew, Four knew. But did Warriors?
Warriors was what one would call an overachiever in highschool. He was practically perfect at everything . He joined nearly every after-school club, participated in possibly every school sport, and maintained perfect grades for the entirety of the four years.
On the other hand, Four was heavily lacking in education. Since their Grandfather had passed away when they were 11, Four has quite literally been on the run from child protection agencies. Four was simply too busy trying to make a living on park benches to even care about attending school.
Yet, when Time had taken them in, he enrolled Four back again, and luckily- Even though they’ve missed a lot, Four had excelled on the entrance exam so highly that they didn’t even need to make up for the lost years.
Four didn’t loathe him. There was no resentment either. All they wanted was for Warriors to understand. Not everyone has his capabilities or strengths, and he needs to understand that projecting himself and his successes to others doesn’t wind well for either of the parties. Four just wanted it to stop. They wanted to stop fighting with Warriors. They wanted to stop being scared of their own brother. And clearly, there was no way of getting to that point when they were arguing over something as trivial as this.
It’s ridiculous. It’s getting out of hand very quickly, and it needs to be put to a stop before somebody says something they deeply regret. Four knows that Warriors already carries enough remorse for a lifetime, so they don’t know how he may approach this; He might figure that there’s nothing to lose, or that he may hold himself back, and to use these little amends to move on from past mistakes. Either way, Four can feel their self control slipping, and they really don’t want to witness the former outcome to Warriors’ fury.
“Four.” Warriors said coldly. “We have gone over this topic for the past 45 minutes. What do you not understand?”
He’s getting frustrated. Vio mused.
No shit. Blue intervened. We should probably do something about it before frustration becomes the best case scenario!
I agree with Blue! Cried Red. I don’t like it when Wars is mean!
Can all of you keep it together! Green interrupted. The longer we spend arguing here, the longer Warriors is waiting for our reply. Violet- Say something!
I… I don’t know. Vio weakly admitted. I-I’ve never seen this before.
“Four!!” Warriors yelled, slamming a fist on the desk. It seemed that Red was in control, because the moment the words set in, Four flinched violently and fell off the chair.
Unfortunately for them, Warriors had used the greater height difference to further accelerate his ego. “Do you not feel shame? Are you not upset with yourself?” His voice was soft, albeit the words crushed Four.
“I never found this hard. It’s pathetically easy to grasp- But wait!” He feigned sincerity. “You’re too caught up in your own mind to realize that- Do you know just how behind you are? You’ll never get anywhere if you-”
“Stop it! Please!!” Four flinched once more, covering their ears with shaking hands.
This was exactly what Four was trying to avoid. They knew that Warriors’ patience was running extremely thin, and apparently, they had met the breaking point much later than they expected.
See? Even with all these chances, you still failed! Shadow was right, you really are a-
Shut. Up.
“Y-You’re crazy!” Warriors squawked, taking a few steps back. “Listen- I don’t know what’s up with all of this , but seriously. What is wrong with you? ”
Four entirely froze. The words echoed in their head, The Colors had gone silent, awaiting in fear of what’s to come next. None of them had the bravery to step up with Four. Not Green’s confidence, Blue’s assertiveness, Red’s sympathy, or Violet’s sharp wits. Nothing. Nothing could have helped Four. They were on their own and they were-
“Hey hey hey - What’s going on?” Twilight interfered, immediately putting the fight to a halt. He took one good look at the terror in Four’s eyes and the fury in Warriors’.
Gently pulling Warriors off to the side, Twilight snakes an arm around his brother’s shoulders. “Is everything alright?” Twilight whispered, discreetly shooting Four a glance.
“Yes. Everything’s fine .” Warriors hissed, teeth grit.
“Wars. Clearly it’s not. Do… Do you need to talk about it?”
Warriors never really trusted the others with his secrets much. He rarely approached Time and Sky; But Twilight, Twilight knew it all. There were days in which Warriors was simply too caught up in a fit of remorse that he couldn’t urge himself to get out of bed, or to do anything productive in a day. And each time it happened, Twilight only got increasingly more worried. Eventually, Warriors knew he had to tell Twilight, otherwise his brother may just lose his sanity trying to fix Warriors’.
So, whenever he saw Warriors lash out or shut everyone out of his life for a few days, Twilight didn’t see hatred or envy- He saw guilt and pain.
“No, no. I am- It’s-” Warriors gave up, sighing in defeat. “It’s just- It’s not fair. Perfection was expected from me, Twilight. There was no room for- for things like this .” Warriors voice sounded desperate by the near end of it, trailing off into a threatened tangent. He ran his hand through his hair, pulling it in exasperation. Warriors went lax and allowed Twilight to lower his hand back down.
“I know, I know. But taking it out on Four won’t fix anything.” Twilight said, squeezing Warriors’ shoulders briefly.
“I- I just need some time.” Was all Warriors said, leaning into the hug for a few seconds before slinking off. “You’re right. I’m just going to go drink some water and calm down a little. I’ll apologize to Four later.”
Though Four was shaking like a leaf, they still remained mostly stationary; Unwilling to stand from the carpet. Eventually, Twilight turned to face Four, and approached them at possibly the least menacingly pace yet- In an effort to not torment Four emotionally anymore.
“Hey, is everything alright?” Twilight sat next to Four, crisscrossed and movements slow, creating a level playing field for them.
“I h-hate Wars!” Red cried.
“No we don’t, he’s just-”
“Mean!” Red wailed, correcting whatever Twilight was about to say, praising Warriors in any way. Blue pressed the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “He didn’t listen! He didn’t listen when we didn’t understand! It’s not fair - Not again!!” Red yelled, uncaring of completely overtaking Four’s consciousness. “I don’t want to do it again! I don’t want-”
Four’s tangent was immediately cut off short- Twilight practically leaped towards Four, enveloping them in a hug. Neither of them spoke, yet Four heard the sympathy of a shared experience loud and clear. With a shaky hand, they softly crept it up to Twilight’s back, returning the embrace.
It hurt. Four will never forget that. They won’t ever forget the pain that was brought behind such trivial things. They knew it never worked, that there was truly no point behind that choice of… Parenting . Especially since Four still isn’t the son they always wanted. But Twilight. Twilight never looked at them any differently. Twilight listened, and when Four knew that they seemed a little insane, Twilight never changed the way he perceived Four. And that alone was more than enough for Four.
Four was never enough to anyone, but their brother was everything to them.