The Silent Spark
The rec room in Westdentia's North Dorm buzzed with electric tension, a mix of video game soundtracks and teenage banter layering the air like static. It wasn't a formal tournament, but the crowd was thick, circling two central monitors where the reigning champions, Liam and Louis Reinhardt, faced off in a final round of Battlecry Nexus.
While Liam was the strategist—the mind always four steps ahead—Louis was the unpredictable one. His style was chaotic genius. Where Liam made perfect plays, Louis made impossible ones. The kind that made people throw off their headsets and yell at the screen.
"Louis Reinhardt! You absolute madman!" someone shouted as he pulled off a clutch 1v3.
Louis didn't react much. Just that slight grin. The tilt of his head. A flick of his wrist as he fired off a taunt in-game.
They didn't talk during matches. They didn't need to. Liam and Louis had been tag-teaming since they could walk. From crawling races to dominating digital arenas, they were always in sync—except in personality.
Liam liked plans. Louis liked fire.
After the match ended, the room exploded in cheers. Louis leaned back, tossing his controller onto the beanbag beside him, and glanced at Liam.
"Still think your strats can beat raw instinct?" he asked, smirking.
Liam rolled his eyes. "Luck isn't instinct."
Louis chuckled, stretching. "Tell that to the killfeed."
He pulled out a water bottle and took a swig, his gaze briefly drifting toward the window. Snow drifted down slowly, blanketing the courtyard outside. It reminded him of home—of nights curled on the couch with cocoa, Giselle's arms warm around them as she read fairytales with the kind of voice that could make even their father, Logan, pause at the doorway to listen.
Louis had always been a mama's boy, though he never said it aloud. Giselle saw through him—understood that the fire he carried wasn't anger, but energy. Potential. Impulse.
There were times he stayed up late just to talk with her. About school. About the pressure of being a Reinhardt. About why sometimes, he felt like the loudest one in a house that was already so full of people and still felt unheard.
"You don't need to be the best at everything," she'd say, tucking his hair behind his ear. "You just need to be the best at being you."
But lately, even Louis had started to feel the shift. Leina wasn't just the baby anymore. She was stepping into a world way bigger than their living room fairy tales. A world of expectations, of public stages and silent battles.
He didn't always know how to help her. But he watched. He noticed. And he cared more than he let on.
He was pulling out his phone to text Giselle when it buzzed with a new message:
He noticed Liam tensing up.
Sensing the shift in his twin's posture. "What is it?
Liam didn't answer at first. His eyes had locked onto the screen of his phone, where a single message burned into his brain:
Leina's debate group sabotaged. She's shaken.
He swore under his breath, something rare for him. Without another word, he shoved the phone into his pocket and stood up so fast the beanbag flipped sideways.
"I'm going," he said sharply. "It's Leina."
Louis blinked. "You mean—?"
"She needs us."
Louis had already seen Liam bolt ahead, slipping past stunned classmates. Now, he was right behind him.
No jokes. No one-liners.
Just two brothers, tearing through Westdentia's snowy walkways with the singular purpose of being there before their sister even realised she needed them.