The following day his mind was now sufficiently filled with answers to burning questions, though the answer to his last question left much to be desired. What was the point of asking his Da if all he had to say was that I’ll figure it out when I’m older? Adults seemed to just say that when they didn’t want to answer.

  Anyways, now onto more important things!

  Like snooping on his brother.

  He only had a couple hours, Aunt Jieun needed his help for dinner prep as always, but he was gonna try and make the most of the time he had.

  He made his way over to the central building of the clearing since that was the easiest of the locations Aunt Jieun gave him to check. When he got there he took a peak inside and saw his brother laying flat on his back, just sort of staring at the ceiling.

  All alone.

  He moved away from the window and tried to quietly open the front door, but the hinge squeaked and alerted Yew to his presence almost immediately.

  His brother turned on his side and stared at the boy from his place on the floor, head resting on his arm. “Willow? What’re you doing here?”

  Willow thought about lying or thinking up some kind of excuse, but decided it wasn’t worth the trouble.

  “Lookin for you.” He called to his sibling.

  Yew blinked a few times before sitting up. “Aunt Jieun need me for something?”

  He shook his head, which just further confused the teen.

  “Then Da needs me?”

  Another shake of the head.

  Yew both looked and felt surprised, his minimal qi surging in an erratic pattern. “You need me for something?”

  “I guess?” Was the quiet reply.

  His brother gestured him over to the spot by his side. “Then come on in and take a seat. It’ll be a bit before Rom gets here, so I could use a distraction.” Willow felt the discomfort of his brother at the end there, something clearly bothering him.

  So of course he had to ask.

  “Are you all right?” The boy asked his older brother as he took a seat and brought his knees to his chest, resting his head atop them. “You’ve been weird lately.”

  Yew chuckled. “I’ve been weird, have I? Coming from my sister who just recently turned herself into my brother I’ll take that as a sign that I’m the most normal I’ve ever been.” He glanced over to his sibling. “Which are you right now by the way?”

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  At Willow’s confused look he clarified. “Brother, or sister?”

  “Oh, right, brother still.” He was still getting used to being a boy, but at this point he’d kinda come to the conclusion that there wasn’t much difference right now. Maybe when he grew older he’d notice more changes, but as it stood he didn’t really care which form he wound up in at the end of core training each day.

  At the end of it all he was still just Willow.

  “So how's boy life been treating you?” His brother asked, seeming genuinely curious.

  “About the same.” He tilted his head as he looked at Yew. “Should it be different?”

  From the way Aunt Jieun had acted it seemed like this should be a bigger deal than it turned out to be. His family barely batted an eye, and while he hadn’t told the Fabers yet, he was still gonna when the timing was a bit better.

  “No idea how it is for you, but I’d imagine it’d be quite different for me.” His brother replied, looking off into the distance.

  “Being Da’s only son, there’s a certain… pressure.” He fidgets a bit, knocking on the stone floor with his knuckles. “Not a lot, not a ton, as he’s fairly lax in how he runs our home compared to the Xin’s and Faber’s. But if I was just one of three daughters I think that pressure would be gone. Wouldn’t be caught in Da’s shadow.” He looks down for a bit before straightening up.

  “Sorry about that, shouldn’t be saying this kinda stuff to you.” He gave Willow a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Besides, you came to me cuz you wanted something right? What is it, little gremlin?”

  The boy started to fidget, aware of how the question he was about to ask would sound, but he couldn’t think of a better way to frame it.

  “Why have you been nicer lately?”

  Yew’s smile twisted into a slight wince. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, clearly trying to think of a proper response, before eventually deciding on.

  “The balance is off.”

  “Huh?” The boy said, quite perplexed.

  “Maple was nice, I was mean. There was a balance.” He held his hands out like a pair of scales, demonstrating what he viewed as the previous equilibrium. He then shifted it to show what he saw as the current state of things, with one hand far above the other.

  “Maple’s gone. There’s no one here to balance my meanness.”

  While Willow thought the whole balance thing was silly, he did have a potential counterargument. “There’s Aunt Jieun?”

  He smirked. “Nah. She’s great, don’t get me wrong, but she can be meaner than me when she wants to be.” His smile faded. “I saw some of the aftermath of Bai’s training.”

  He shook his head a bit to clear away the memories. “So I realized I should try to reign in my snark around you, at least a bit.” He looked around the empty room.

  “Plus, with Bai gone, and Rom busy with his smith training, I’ve kinda just been left alone with my thoughts.” He grimaces. “Didn’t really like what I’ve been hearing.”

  Was that why he had seemed so sullen for the time after she left? Willow had thought it was just because one of his friends was gone. He didn’t realize just how much loneliness was affecting his brother.

  Yew took a deep breath and looked straight into Willow's eyes.

  “I’ve been a shit older brother, and… I’m sorry. Hope you don’t hate me.” He averted his eyes at the last comment, and awaited his brother's response.

  Willow did not know how to react to the amount of sincerity his brother was now showing.

  Where was the snark?

  The quips?

  The mean comments?

  Was it weird that he almost missed their old dynamic?

  He scooted a bit closer to his brother and gave him a hug.

  “Stupid Yew, of course I don’t hate you.” The boy said, voice muffled by the embrace.

  “You’re my brother.”