Keep Climbing

Walk | Talk | Think

The old man chuckled, and for once Yin did not feel it was a sound made at her expense. Her temper remained unprovoked as she waited, studying him in his silence until he formed an answer for her, offering thanks to her accidental compliment. She said nothing, reacted with nothing more than a blink while pondering how it was she could have found what she assumed her brother would be like in a few years as opposed to how she ought to find him now. Would he ever show again? Did he know of this stranger who resembled him in manner if not in appearance? Yin supposed they would have gotten along swimmingly from the start, and had she been present she likely would have been staring irritatedly away waiting for the moment they could leave. Funny how she had finally found value in someone when her brother was not there to see it.

"He is," she answered, her tone still more or less flat despite the sentiments the conversation was bringing up. Or was. There was no telling where Yang had gone, what he had gotten into, during their time apart. There was no way for her to know that he was safe let alone alive; so much time had passed since their last run in that he could have been anywhere. Somehow she needed to find him again, that crazy, too-soft twin of hers. She needed to protect him with her guardedness, counter his naive optimism with her protective cynicism. "Better than I'll ever be."