Work Text:
Hyunckel could not help but snort as he picked himself up from where Popp's Zoom spell had deposited them both in a heap, a small smile pushing itself onto his lips regardless of how he felt about the matter. This really took him back...
Popp spat, hacked and coughed on his mouthful of dirt and grass where he picked himself up from the ground they had unceremoniously crash landed into, glaring up at him with tearful eyes. Whether they were from humiliation or to help him clear the wide smears of dirt from his face, he couldn't say.
“And just what are you smirking about, huh?!” his companion snarled, throwing an accusatory finger towards him. “Here to laugh at my failure, is that it?!”
Hyunckel's smile softened further as he regarded his embarrassed friend. Such an obvious taunt could do nothing for him. With nostalgia as much as respect for his distress he allowed his head to tip back until all he saw was the unending blue sky high above them filled with an all-encompassing warmth. On days like this, he could just imagine Avan grinning down at them, barely fighting back laughter as he clutched his abdomen with all of his strength and tried to assume his teacher facade.
“I was just thinking how the same thing happened when Avan first learned Zoom, too.”
That silenced Popp's tirade as quickly as it began, his eternally open expression fallen into blatant disbelief where he observed him in his periphery.
“...Really? Even Avan?”
Although difficult still, Hyunckel chose not to crush the warmth that radiated from his chest with the memories, the affection which pushed itself onto his features. It wouldn't do Popp any good if he closed himself off, especially right now.
“Even for him, it took far longer to master than most. I suspect he felt self-conscious about dragging me along with him, but he just couldn't leave me alone when travelling such vast distances. I would say it took fifteen, maybe even twenty tries before we landed on our feet above the ground instead of in it.”
“...Huh,” was all Popp managed to say, blinking with surprise. “Everything always seemed to come to him so easily, I just assumed... he was always like that. Like Dai.”
Now it was Hyunckel's turn to hum.
“While he certainly adopted new skills quickly, a genius in combat and a brilliant tactician, studious in every way, outside of battle was a different story. He loved to experiment, and even with his experience, predictions, and understanding of the world and its inner workings, things didn't always turn out the way we thought they would. And with Zoom... There are more factors at play than one might expect.”
Popp leaned back against the thick soil wall of the tiny crater he had created upon landing, hugging his knees, watching him with rapt attention, so Hyunckel continued.
“In addition to careful control and a constant release of your magical power, which is somewhat proportional to the number of people you're ferrying, you have to adapt to the strength of the winds and any flying creatures you might risk crashing into, all while maintaining a clear image of your destination in mind. And when you reach it, not only do you have to steadily reduce your speed to almost nothing by the time you touch the ground, but that amount changes with every trip, since you have to judge it accurately by how much weight you're carrying. While all that probably comes with practice, it's not something one tends to think of consciously.”
“...Huh,” Popp repeated, genuinely surprised. A floppy wrist waved a flippant hand beside his cheek as his eyes closed on their own. “You know, for a musclehead, your mind's pretty sharp.”
Unaffected by the taunt, Hyunckel simply smiled down at him.
“Avan only apprenticed the best. I think you know that better than anyone.”
At last Hyunckel pushed himself up, dusted down his breeches and offered a hand. For once, Popp offered no reservations or mockeries about accepting it to be pulled onto unsteady feet.
“Anyway, the rough landing aside, we're here now. Let's press on.”
Once he was certain Popp wouldn't fall right back into the miniature crater Hyunckel allowed his hand to fall, stepped back to give him space to dust himself down, then turned to lead the way into the quaint little village that awaited them. If nothing else, his siblings were tenacious, Popp more than most. If he felt himself lacking compared to the others, he worked triple time just to surprise them with the progress of his new techniques. He grumbled now, but he always got the job done when he put his mind to it.
Confident steps carried him ever onwards while he listened to Popp's ramblings and maintained a subtle eye on their surroundings, fuelled by a lightness he rarely allowed himself to feel. After all, he owed it to Avan to look out for them. For him.