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The argument was at least ostensibly about jade bracelets.
Shae and Hilo had both graduated at the top of their class at Kaul Du Academy and had each earned four jade stones on a simple chain. That night at their graduation party Shae’s grandfather had presented her with a lovely jade bracelet to augment her graduation jade. It was pretty, but it wasn’t a family heirloom. After all, Lan had inherited the pieces of their father’s jade which had been recognizable enough to be returned to the Kauls after the Shotarians had been driven out and Shae was the first woman in the family to become a Green Bone so there was no jade from older female relatives to bequeath to her. Kaul Sen had had jade from the family’s jade stores reset to make it for her.
He’d had a similar but more masculine bracelet made for Hilo as well, but didn’t end up giving it to his second grandson and that was entirely Hilo’s fault. The night of graduation, Hilo and one of their classmates, Uto, had gone missing from the party. When they finally turned up again the next afternoon Hilo had been in possession of a bracelet of jade which had originally belonged to Uto’s father who had died fighting the Shotarians. Turned out Hilo and Uto had both been very drunk and then gotten in a duel where Uto had for some reason put the jade bracelet up for offer along with his single piece of graduation jade despite the fact that his family hadn’t actually officially given the bracelet to him yet. Hilo had won and while he’d taken enough pity on Uto to give him back his graduation jade he’d kept the bracelet.
Obviously Kaul Sen and Uto’s family had been livid, but the Maik brothers had witnessed the duel and swore it had been done officially despite the advanced level of intoxication of all the involved parties. At least they hadn’t used weapons, Maik Tar had said like that made everything better, so no one was dead.
That had not appeased Kaul Sen. Hilo had revealed himself to be unworthy of the gift he had been planning to give him, the Pillar had said and immediately sent Hilo’s bracelet off to be taken apart. Not that that was much of a punishment since everyone agreed that Hilo had won Uto’s bracelet fairly despite his lack of honor in even agreeing to a duel against such a weak opponent–maybe it would have been different if Uto had actually been wearing the bracelet, but he hadn’t been at the time of the duel. The Uto family bracelet was about the same amount of jade as the bracelet their grandfather was going to give Hilo had been, so he wasn’t out anything.
The truly weird thing about the whole situation, however, was actually Uto’s reaction to it. Namely that Uto didn’t seem to resent Hilo at all. Uto had done so poorly in the Trials that everyone expected him to become a Luckbringer, but almost immediately after his ill-fated run-in with Hilo he announced that he’d decided to swear oaths to the greener side of the clan and became fanatically loyal to Hilo. Shae wasn’t sure she understood what it was about disgracing yourself to your family and the whole clan in a drunken bare-fist duel with a more heavily jaded classmate on the night of graduation that could possibly inspire loyalty, but Uto’s new dedication to Hilo was only eclipsed by that of the Maiks.
With all that background in mind, it was perhaps understandable that Shae was a bit annoyed with her brother that afternoon when they ran into each other in the kitchen. Hilo was bent over, studying the contents of the refrigerator, a bracing hand on his bruised ribs. Whatever else you said about Uto, he obviously had not lost easily. The sight raised Shae’s pique.
“You know there’s this thing called Steel,” she said, crossing her arms. “You can use it to keep from being injured, especially when your opponent wears less jade than you.”
Hilo made a disgusted sound and straightened up carefully. “I take it there’s something you very badly want to say, Shae-se?”
He’d obviously used the diminutive because he knew it would piss her off. She knew that even before she saw the teasing sparkle in his eyes, but her blood still boiled. “You think you’re really clever,” she said. “Because you won more jade the night of our graduation. But you’re not. All you did is prove to everyone that you're just a dumb thug.”
Something in Hilo’s face changed and she knew she’d hit a nerve. “I suppose so,” he said, voice more level than she would have expected. “Though it seems ridiculous to me to pretend that you’re not really angry because I actually have friends and didn’t end up standing pathetically alone at my own graduation party.”
It was a perfect, retaliatory hit. Shae didn’t think Hilo knew why Wan Paya had stopped coming over to the house and why Shae had started fighting her lessons with Doru–after all Lan didn’t seem to know and if Lan didn’t know she couldn’t imagine why Hilo would–but the memory of that combined with the humiliation of standing alone at her own graduation party until Lan had taken pity on her and dragged her off to talk to his friends was too much. All her rage and humiliation focused on Hilo and she planted her palms in the center of his chest and shoved him backwards.
She hadn’t really intended to use Strength but she did anyway and sent Hilo stumbling into the still-open refrigerator. Bottles and containers cracked or tumbled onto the kitchen tile and smashed.
For a moment Hilo looked almost hilariously flabbergasted then he straightened up and threw a Strength-enhanced punch at her jaw. Shae didn’t manage to get her arm up in time to block it completely but she was able to deflect the blow enough and gather enough Steel that she just had a split lip to show for it not real damage to her teeth or jaw.
Hilo extracted himself from the ruined contents of the refrigerator and they squared off. He was bigger than Shae was–both taller and more muscled–but they’d been solving their issues with each other with fists for as long as Shae could remember so size had ceased to be something she considered a definite disadvantage on her part. If Shae knew how to do one thing it was how to compensate for being smaller in fist fights with Hilo.
They exchanged a couple punches, all which were blocked easily, testing each other. Then Hilo, who was never one to wait for his enemy to make the first move, charged her. That was the disadvantage of fighting with Hilo. Shae might know how to make up for the difference in size, but Hilo knew that she knew how to make up for the difference in size and whatever else you might say about Kaul Hilo, he was good at figuring out how to turn fights to his favor. He barrelled into her and Shae found herself hoisted up onto the island countertop and sliding across it. Her back hit the small glass vase that Kyanla had set in the center of the island and it fell off the island and shattered on the floor. She rolled over to get off the island, but Hilo had already rounded it to intercept her.
Now was the time for some quick thinking and cleverness. Shae drew her arm back for a punch. She was just a little showy about it to be sure to catch Hilo’s attention. When he moved to block the incoming blow, she kneed him with all her Strength in his injured side.
Hilo’s eyes bulged as all the air left his lungs in a woosh. He crumpled to the tile and Shae threw herself off the island to land on top of him before he had the chance to recover. She was not about to let go of the advantage she’d just made. She landed with her fist already pulled back. She tried to pin his arms so he couldn’t fight back and only managed to get one of his wrists pinned under her knee. The fingers of his right hand closed around her throat just as she brought her fist down with enough Strength that she felt his nose crunch.
Hilo’s Strengthened fingers tightened around her neck, completely closing off her airway. Shae couldn’t keep from reaching up to try to pry his hand free, but she knew that she didn’t have much luck against that much Strength. Instead she wound her other arm back for another punch. She might not be able to get Hilo’s fingers free, but she had his other arm pinned so if she could hold out without air for long enough she could just keep punching him in the face until he let go. She could put all her Strength into it and–
And she might kill him. The realization hit her like a clap of lightning. If she kept beating at him with enough Strength she could crack his skull or damage his brain or something. He could literally die. Her raised fist loosened, her arm drooping as her desire to attack waned.
Because she was staring down at Hilo she saw the moment he realized that she couldn’t breathe and that he could kill her too if he didn’t let go. His hand dropped away from her throat almost at the same instant that Shae hurled herself backwards off him. She landed on her butt on the tile and would have fallen onto her back if she hadn’t caught herself on her hands.
Everything was still and silent save for Shae’s wheezing as she worked air back into her lungs. After a moment, Hilo shifted and pushed himself up on one elbow. For a moment, years of fights had Shae bracing for him to come at her again, but no, she’d broken his nose and he was just tilting his head forward so the blood didn’t run down the back of his throat.
Shae had never thought of her fights with Hilo as something serious or dangerous. Sure, the things they were fighting over always felt serious but the fighting itself never had. She’d never considered that now that she and Hilo were full-fledged Green Bones, they were able to really hurt or even kill each other. That realization was sickening. Hilo might be infuriating, but she didn’t want him dead.
Hilo was looking at her and through the blood streaming down his face, she saw the same gut-wrenching thoughts swirling through his mind. He looked horrified; Shae had never seen that expression on him before.
Footsteps sounded on the floor in the hallway and then Lan was in the kitchen doorway. Shae watched him take in the shattered vase and the ruined contents of the refrigerator splattered across the floor. She watched him assess the two of them. Hilo propped up on one elbow, the other arm clutching his wounded side while blood dripped from his nose onto the tile. Shae with her split lip and knuckles and the bruises rising around her throat and her wheezing breaths.
“What the hell is wrong with you two?” Lan burst out and that was when Shae realized he was really mad. It wasn’t that she’d never seen Lan angry before, but she had never heard that tone of voice from him. He sounded like he was seconds from having an aneurysm. “You graduated from the Academy three days ago and the first thing you do with your new jade is beat the shit out of each other? I’d hoped that graduating and getting jade would finally imbue the two of you with enough maturity to figure out how to work out your differences like adults, but obviously I was wildly optimistic.”
Shae bowed her head, face burning with shame. “It won’t happen again, Lan. We’re sorry.” Her voice sounded rough as gravel after her throat’s run-in with Hilo’s Strengthened hand.
“You’ve told me that before and it’s always been a fleeting promise,” Lan growled. “Why should I believe you this time?”
“Lan,” Hilo said. Even ignoring the thickness from his bloody nose, the tone of his voice was strange, earnest in a way that took Shae aback. It wasn’t a voice Hilo had ever used on her before, but then again he always had liked Lan better than her. “It won’t happen again.” The effect was somewhat spoiled by the fact that he had to spit out a mouthful of blood as soon as he stopped speaking.
Shae risked lifting her head a little. Lan was studying the the two of them again. He was calming down already–Lan’s anger was always fleeting compared to hers and Hilo’s. After a moment he seemed to decide that if nothing else she and Hilo were as contrite as they could be made to be at the moment. He crossed the tile and knelt down next to Hilo. He tilted Hilo’s face upwards with careful fingers and frowned at him for a moment before unceremoniously resetting his broken nose. Hilo cried out in pain and surprise and pulled away. “Fuck, Lan. Do you have no bedside manner? You could have at least warned me!”
“And–given the context–what exactly makes you think you deserve bedside manner?” Lan snapped. Okay, Shae had obviously been wrong about his anger fading. Hilo ducked his head in a shocking display of visible shame. “Did she finish Uto’s job for him and break your ribs?” Lan asked.
“No,” Hilo grumbled without looking up. “I figured out what she was doing in time to raise a little Steel.”
“Good, because I don’t want to be the one who has to explain to Grandda and the Horn that you have to miss your first day as a Finger because you broke your ribs in a dumb fight with your sister,” Lan said, standing up. “Find something that’s not a kitchen towel to catch the blood from your nose and then come right back here.”
Hilo worked his way carefully up off the floor, clutching his chest in a way which made Shae wonder if he had been entirely honest about his ribs–she hadn’t noticed him raise any Steel, but maybe she’d been distracted. Lan turned away from him and crossed to Shae. He knelt in front of her and gently touched her neck. She felt him Channelling and fought the urge to block him with Steel. He didn’t do any healing, though, and after a moment he stopped Channelling and got up, evidently satisfied that Hilo hadn’t managed to crush her trachea or anything.
Hilo came back, still with a bracing arm around his chest. He’d found a cleaning rag for his nose. Shae briefly thought that must smell strongly of cleaning supplies, but she supposed he probably couldn’t smell anything right now through all the blood.
“Alright, now that we’ve established that neither of you are about to keel over from the injuries you’ve given each other, I want you two to clean this mess up,” Lan gestured around the wreck of the kitchen. “The blood, the glass, the spilled food, all of it. I want this place spotless. And then you need to come up with a really good apology for Kyanla, because she’s the real victim here. You’ve just made her job a hell of a lot harder.”
Shae hadn’t even thought of Kyanla and remembering her made her duck her head in shame again. She wondered how much of the food that had been ruined when she’d pushed Hilo into the refrigerator had been for dinner tonight.
“We are really sorry, Lan,” she said without looking up. It didn’t feel like enough, but she wasn’t sure what else to say.
“You better be,” Lan grumbled.
“We are,” Hilo promised. “We’ll clean up and make it up to Kyanla. And to you.”
“You can make this up to me by making sure it never happens again,” Lan said and then swept out of the kitchen.
Shae didn’t lift her head until the sound of Lan’s footsteps had faded into the house. When she looked up, Hilo was leaning gingerly against the island, looking after their brother. It was hard to judge his expression with the rag blocking half his face, but his eyes were stricken. Perhaps that made sense, Shae was pretty sure Hilo cared more about Lan’s good opinion of him than he did their grandfather’s.
After a moment, Hilo pushed off the island and moved to stand over her. He extended the hand which had been bracing his ribs to her. She studied him for a moment then took his hand. If he had to drop the rag to brace himself on the island to pull her to her feet, neither of them mentioned it. They both knew that offering her a hand up had been the closest thing to an apology that he would give her. Just like they both knew that Shae immediately bending back down to pick up the rag and hand it back to him was the closest thing to an apology that she would give him.
They cleaned the kitchen in near silence save for what few words needed to be exchanged to divide tasks. It wasn’t the same kind of silence which normally followed their fights, though. That had always been an angry, petulant silence, this was a shell-shocked, thoughtful silence laced with the knowledge that something about the way they’d always interacted with each other had just changed, hopefully for good.