Chapter Text
The room was silent for a long moment.
Then a tingly feeling began to run through Fabian’s body, as if spreading from his heart to his limbs to his head. Suddenly, he felt himself able to move again. He stumbled back, ears ringing, hands shaking, body thrumming. “Whoa,” he murmured under his breath.
Slowly, the masked kid began to sit up.
Fabian quickly stepped back toward them, reaching out a hand. “Hey— you okay?”
They were still for a moment, ignoring Fabian’s hand. Then, their shoulders began to shake. A small, muffled choked sound escapes from behind the mask.
“A-are you crying?” Fabian knelt down. “I-I’m sorry.”
Pok materialized behind him, looking sobered. “Is he—”
The kid grabbed at their mask, pulled it off, and began full-on sobbing.
Fabian bit his lip and ignored Pok’s sharp intake of breath from behind him. “H-hey, hey, I’m sorry—”
The kid looked up, and Fabian took in the face of his opponent for the first time. It was that of a small goblin boy, huge feline-like yellowish eyes, with drooped ears and curly dark green hair. Freckles were scattered across the bridge of his nose. Fabian felt himself freeze for a second at the way his eyes were clearly filled with tears.
“Go away,” he said softly.
“I’m really s—”
“Go away!” he yelled, loud, wild, feral this time. Fabian flinched away when the little goblin bared his fangs.
“I’m… sorry,” he said again, really unsure of what else he could possibly say. He began to back away. Then he stopped. “What’s your name?”
The kid was silent for a moment, save for his sniffles. Then, so softly Fabian almost missed it:
“M’name’s Riz.”
“Riz, got it.” Fabian stopped for a moment longer, swaying at the spot, before quickly running back and taking off his wristwatch. It was expensive, leather and gold, far too expensive for anything that should be given to an eleven-year-old boy, but the Seacasters were an opulent family. He gently put it in the boy’s lap.
“This is… the most valuable thing I own right now,” Fabian said quietly. “I hope you— I— here, just take it.”
Riz didn’t move. Fabian slowly backed away.
“I’m sorry. I’ll go now.”
He turned on his heel and ran out of the battle ring.
- - -
Once Fabian had stormed out of the dojo, he whirled around to the angel.
“What— what happened? Did you see that kid? He was crying so hard!” Fabian felt tears begin to spring to his own eyes, and quickly wiped them away. “I— it was kind of fun the first time, but— but he was— he—”
Fabian cut himself off. He couldn’t even begin to articulate the weird clenching feeling he’d felt, like a fist closing over his heart, when he saw the devastated face of the little boy.
Pok was looking pale, out of it. He turned to Fabian. “Fabian, I—”
Fabian interrupted. “That was… I hate that. I don’t want to do that again. That was really, really bad.”
“Fabian—”
“I don’t need to be a professional adventurer. I don’t want to do this anymore.”
“F—”
“Go away! Leave me alone!” Fabian shouted, cutting off Pok’s words. He didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want to hear it at all.
He didn’t know why this one stranger’s tears hurt so much, but they did.
Pok went silent and watched Fabian for a few moments. Fabian could feel his eyes burning. He wanted to cry, but not in front of Pok. Not in front of anybody.
“Go away,” he said, echoing Riz’s words to him just a few moments prior. “Please.”
Something unreadable crossed Pok’s face. An agonizing silence followed before Pok finally said quietly, “As you wish.”
The angel disappeared, and the tears began to flow.
Little did Fabian know, he wouldn’t see Pok again for a very long time.
- - -
Sandra Lynn Faeth did not anticipate having to deal with so many crying kids today.
She had arrived at her shift for the receptionist table at the battle ring early and settled in for a day like any other. Riz, the talented little kid that often frequented with his dad, showed up as usual. Then, surprisingly enough, another little boy—one who didn’t even know his score, no less—showed up, eager to fight and singling out the only other child at the arena right away. Sandra Lynn hadn’t stopped him—sure, Riz was strong enough to beat pretty much any other kid his age, but it wasn’t really Sandra Lynn’s business to stop him.
What she did not expect when the new kid, about an hour later, ran out of the ring crying, was to glance over at the arena, only to see Elmville Battle Dojo’s newest child prodigy sitting in the middle, a puddle of tears.
She’d grown to like this kid, so she set up a sign at the desk and went over to investigate.
Turns out, this random child from who-knows-where absolutely beat the shit out of the poor boy, who wasn’t used to losing at all.
“He said he’d never battled anyone before, though,” Riz had said wetly. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
She spent the rest of that day comforting the boy until his mother came to pick him up. Strangely, she didn’t see him come back in for the rest of the week. Or the rest of the month. Or at all the following summer.
She didn’t see Riz again at the battle ring, not even years later after she’d quit.
The other kid, however, she grew to know from the stories that would be whispered. Fabian Seacaster, newest one-hit-wonder child prodigy that defeated Riz Gukgak in a one v one first try, then never appeared again.
She didn’t particularly know what to make of it.