Chapter Text
“Rufus, where are you going?”
“For a walk. Don’t you walk? Walking is good for you. You should walk more.”
Toni glared, though it was more playful than malicious, “Are you calling me fat?”
“What? No. No no no. Eh, maybe a little. I don’t know. I’d have to try pick up something heavy. Then pick you up. Compare. If you were fat, it’d be cool to carry you around though. Show how strong I am.”
Toni watched as his hands danced about with his words, like he was conducting some band only he could see. Their evening of drinking had been highly anticipated by Rufus, his excitement to finally enter ‘the adult world’ bubbling in the days leading up. Though the event hadn’t gone down as planned, he still seemed to be keeping up his spirits, the alcohol having simply caused him to ramble more as they left Lonzos.
“Man, do you ever wonder why wombats have such BIG noses? Like, imagine how much you could SMELL with a nose that big.”
“We shouldn’t go too far, I’m getting tired, and Gizmo said we could crash in his clinic-”
“Wait. Wait wait wait, idea. There’s somewhere I wanna show you.”
He dashed back to her side and linked their fingers, before almost jogging away towards the town's gate.
“Rufus...”
“I know you’re gonna love this! You’ll see it and your eyes will be like ‘POP’ and your brain ‘Whooosh-Pshow!’ and you’ll be all, ‘ Oh Rufus you’re the smartest, coolest, bravest, most daring person to ever exist ’ and then you’ll-”
There was an audible clack as his mouth snapped shut. Momentarily concerned, Toni put herself next to Rufus in order to look at him, but he still just had that massive goofy smile stretching his cheeks.
“Hmm? What? What’s up? Can’t get enough of my good looks? They are quite hypnotising.”
She snorted, “Like I’ll ever be able to forget a stupid face like yours, no matter how hard I wanted to. It’s going to haunt me forever.”
“OH do you believe in ghosts? I think the idea of something I can’t see following me is terrifying, but it’d also be sooo cool to be one cause you could get through any door or like possess someone and make them do a silly dance. Ha, I’d probably haunt Wenzel and throw his stuff around to make him think he was crazy.”
Through several more wild tangent rambles and with the fading town lights behind them, Toni still found herself smiling. Rufus was a wild, unpredictable menace that had started numerous disasters, yes, but he was also… exciting. No one else in town had any ambition or drive to be more than just another junk trader or mine worker. They repeated their same lives day in, day out, timed by the call of the Organon cruiser, with little change. But then Rufus comes by with a new idea, a wild opinion, a crazy scheme to get what he wants, and he drags everyone else into it. The thrill of something so fresh and new, it felt worth a few broken items and maybe a bit of fire.
A hand clamped over her eyes.
“Eyes, close ‘em! Nice and tight, no peeking.”
“We’re still walking though, is it safe?”
“Safe? Psh, trust me, I know this place like the back of my han- AH!”
The hand slipped from her face, and the warmth beside her disappeared, though she tightened her grip on their linked hands, and it all quickly returned.
“Hand. I was saying hand. My feet are a little lost, but trust my hand.”
He gave hers a reassuring squeeze. The one over her eyes squeezed too, which was less reassuring, but gave her a small laugh. After wandering up a semi steep incline, he brought them to a stop and let go, stepping away.
“Aaaaand open!”
He was in front of her, massive grin on his face and hands stretched up towards the sky. She followed his gesturing upwards, to where her eyes fell upon the glow lighting up the night sky. There were enough junk hills here to block out the lights from settlements, making the shine raining down on them even more radiant.
Elysium loomed high above.
“Well, pretty amazing spot don’tcha think? Perfect view, no distractions.”
He turned and wandered to the edge of the junk, taking a seat and letting his legs dangle, leaning back to bathe in the blue glow. Finally pulling her eyes from the ethereal city, she moved to sit beside him.
“I’m gonna go there one day, ya know? Get away from all this trash and junk and idiots, go somewhere where I belong. Oh, you can come too if you want.” He moved and bumped their shoulders together, “I’m sure I can change a few of my plans to handle two people. You might have to be lighter though, depending on when I get around to trying to lift you.”
She laughed, “Thanks for the offer, but bring up my weight again and I’ll punch you.”
“Okay, got it. No more talk on that. Zipped, shutting up, no mentions about your monstrous as-”
She punched his ribs.
“Ow, right, right. Actually shutting up, riiight... now.”
Silence graced them, and they both got lost in the sight of the city floating high above.
“So, you’re an adult now, right?”
He leant further back, “Man I hope so, or I’ll have to drink all that nasty stuff again. Yurrk!”
“Then it doesn’t seem right that an adult should be living in the orphanage.”
She eyed him when he didn’t reply, finding him absently chewing on his tongue.
“Maybe you could stay with me? Once you have a job you can pay a little bit of rent, and save the rest up to get your own place.”
He sat bolt upright, “Really? Stay? With you? Really ?”
“Sure. It’s pretty quiet having a place to myself. And maybe… we could get to know each other a bit better.”
She leant over and delivered another peck to his cheek, though this time she lingered. Even in the coloured glow, she saw him turn a shade of red. With a sudden burst of enthusiasm he jumped to his feet.
“WOO! I-! I’M-!”
He swayed on the spot, face scrunching.
“I’m…!”
“Rufus?”
“Yes. Rufus.”
He doubled over, and threw up. Toni jumped to her feet, and once she was out of the disaster zone, she carefully reached out to rub his back.
“Uh, happy birthday?”