Totoka River a snapshot in the family album

Her refusal comes as an insult to him, even if the intent was otherwise. For all her talk of his abandonment, he finds it hypocritical that she should deny him and herself the opportunity to bridge the gap between them. As if she could not drive the stake further, she trades what little true family she had left in exchange for those who would come and go and leave her without the slightest regard for what they had. What he offered was not without its unpredictability, but he was her brother, and blood was everything. “But I am your family. Or is blood no longer thicker than water?” His brow narrows a fraction as he leans his head in back to rest on his shoulders in affront.

But he does not wait for the answer, knowing that she would not go with him even if he begged. He knows her loyalties are strong, and while she had been by his side for so long, those loyalties no longer lied with him. With desolate optics does he issue a cold scowl, “I think now it is you who betrays me, sister.” Loyalty; it was the one thing he craved and would never receive. He turns his back next, departing his sister’s company without even a simple goodbye. She made her choice, just as he had, and he would not put up a fight to keep her under his wing if it was not by her own choice. Vaati would always care for her, kill for her, and likely catch his death by worrying for her -- but it was clear she was no longer his responsibility. Instead, he spares both of them a potentially weathering farewell and carries himself away without batting an eye to look back.