Archive of Our Own ^beta

It had been an unusually wet week at Piston Peaks. A record setting level of unusually wet.

A perfect mix of wind, clouds and some other meteorological mumbo jumbo had come together to give the park the largest rainfall it’d had in about 8 decades. For about 5 days straight, it had basically been pouring, the occasional flash of lightning and crack of thunder lighting up the dark, dreary sky.

For the PPAA team, it was both a blessing and a curse. The torrential downpour meant that any spot fires started by the lightning were immediately extinguished, and, once the rain cleared up, the well watered plants would hopefully be less vulnerable to improperly extinguished campfires and littering smokers.

On the other hand, however, the rain had already caused terrible flooding in certain areas, the torrents of water triggering massive mudslides, ripping through the already unstable areas of the park with ease.

These slides had gotten so bad that Superintendent Jammer had rallied every person who could help with cleanup both inside and outside the park’s boundaries. This meant the smokejumpers had been sent out multiple times ever since the rain had started. They worked for multiple long, hard hours clearing debris, doing their best to keep the major roadways in working order. No jacket could truly keep them warm as they were pelted by icy sheets of rain and no rubber boot could help when they had to fight their vehicles through knee-deep pools of muck.

By the end of most days, a couple of them were so exhausted that they decided to completely forgo dinner and simply crash in their hangar. (A part of that may have been because Dynamite had been exhausted enough to face plant into a bowl of soup at the start of the week, much to her very sleepy embarrassment. None of her teammates wanted to be the next one to try and make their food a pillow.)

The others had done their best to make the gravelmunchers less miserable, making sure the showers were always open when they returned and a warm drink or meal ready for them once they were cleaned up. Any chores that were usually done by the ‘jumpers were done by someone else, the crew especially appreciative of that. It was the least the others could do, all of them not having much else to do in the bad weather.

Maru had very sternly told the pilots that they should keep flying to an absolute bare minimum whilst the storm raged on. He’d even gone as far as to fully ground Cabbie altogether, forbidding him from flying unless it was an absolutely catastrophic, life or limb threatening emergency and the others needed backup. (Maru knew the man was a good pilot, but the plane he flew was pretty infamous for how shoddy it was. Cabbie had already had multiple near heart attack inducing close calls during his many years on the team, and for both Maru’s peace of mind and Cabbie’s safety, he’d been the one fully grounded.)

It was perhaps a bit overkill, but Maru knew quite a few of the people on the Wall had been lost flying in conditions much nicer than what the park was currently dealing with. He didn’t want to add any pictures to it just because someone decided they could handle the wind or rain.

(He didn’t know if he’d ever forgive himself.)

Right now, Maru was elbows deep in Cabbie’s plane, doing some non-essential but still long overdue maintenance. The man was, hopefully, not going to be flying anywhere anytime soon, so it was one of the rare chances Maru had to give the entire bird a thorough tuning.

The only two out right now were Blade and Windlifter. Blade had flown out to a meeting with the superintendent a couple of hours ago at the lodge, and Windlifter had been called out to provide some supplies to a clean-up crew set up in an area incredibly hard to access via the ground.

Everyone else was in the main hangar, likely relaxing, chatting and probably enjoying the time off. The smokejumpers were probably making as much use of every second they had to relax, having returned from a cleanup only a couple of hours prior.

Maru himself couldn’t relax. He knew Blade and Windlifter were expert pilots, both were incredibly familiar with their respective helicopters and were not strangers to bad weather, but it didn’t stop him from worrying. He’d been both a medic and mechanic long enough to learn to never think in absolutes. Whatever could go wrong, had already gone wrong before and would no doubt go wrong again.

The work on the plane was soothing, the motions so familiar he could do them in his sleep, but he couldn’t help but keep glancing at the radio on his workbench. Patch wasn’t in the tower, so if something went wrong, they’d try to radio him directly.

He sighed, trying to focus his full attention back on the mechanical parts in front of him, letting himself get lost in the rhythm of it. (Check, adjust, move on. Check, adjust, move on. Check adjust move o-)

“Windlifter to Maru, Windlifter to Maru.”

The sudden voice from the radio startled him, concern following soon after as he put down his tools and walked over to the table. He took a deep breath, a million different bad scenarios filling his head as he grabbed the microphone, preparing for the worst but, almost foolishly, wishing for the best.

“Yeah, I copy Windlifter. What do you need?”

“Do you still have that heat lamp?”

That threw Maru for a loop. It was an incredibly odd thing to ask for, but it at least meant Windlifter wasn’t in any trouble like he’d feared. “I think so?”

“Good. Can you grab a couple of towels and blankets from the main hanger as well? Take it all to my hanger, I’ll be there in 10 minutes”

“I know you’re usually pretty cryptic, but this is a new level of cryptic. What do you need all that for?” He waited a couple of moments, but got no reply, scowling a bit.

“Windlifter? I know you can hear me. Whatever you're doing better have a good reason, and if you get in trouble for it, I’d like to go on record saying I was not an accomplice in any way.” He put down the microphone and began to scan his shelves, trying to figure out which box he’d stuffed the old heat lamp into. (He really needed to sort his shelves. Each box was overflowing with various odds and ends, everything from large bits of scrap metal to old, broken electronics stuffed into the same boxes. The only way to find anything was to dig through each box or just hope he remembered which one he’d put something in.)

Once he unearthed the heat lamp, he tossed on his coat and pushed open his hanger door, cursing as he booked it through the cold rain towards the main hanger. He immediately bolted inside once he reached it, the brief time outside enough to make him shiver ever so slightly.

His entrance drew some looks from the team. Cabbie, Dusty, Patch and Dipper were all lounging on the couch and various recliners situated around the TV, some cooking infomercial currently playing on the shitty little screen.

The smokejumpers were situated at the table, a game of Uno set out and currently being played. None of them noticed him enter, a large, rather intense argument being the focus of all their attention. The bickering only grew louder as Avalanche very nonchalantly placed down a +4, a very irritated Blackout, likely the recipient of it, nearly lunging out of his seat at him.

It appeared everyone had made themselves familiar with the packets of hot chocolate and apple cider stashed in the back of the pantry, many of them currently clutching their own drinks in one of the many, many mugs that had slowly made their home in the cabinets over the years.

(The smokejumpers loved getting people silly mugs for their birthdays, and over time the cabinet the mugs were kept in had become very well stocked. On one hand, it meant they would never run out of mugs to use regardless of how many people were on base. On the other hand, though, Maru was pretty sure if Blade got another mug making fun of his grumpiness, he was going to use it as a weapon against whoever gave it to him.)

Patch put a bookmark in the book she’d been reading and looked at Maru. “Are you finally done with the tune up? We saved some hot chocolate for you if you want it.” She jutted her chin towards the counter, a mug and packet of hot chocolate mix sitting by their electric kettle.

“I appreciate the offer, but I’m not quite finished. I just got a radio from Windlifter. He wants me to grab some stuff for him.” He made his way over to the little closet nestled in the side of the room, starting to root around for something he thought Windlifter would find suitable with the basically nonexistent context he’d been given. They mainly used the closet to shove the extra towels, blankets, pillowcases, and other fabric things they didn’t need on a daily basis. It was mainly unearthed when new recruits came around, or in the very rare cases it actually got cold during the season.

The rain that week had tanked the temperature, especially at night, meaning the pickings were a lot slimmer than usual. A lot of the best blankets had already been snatched up by those who hadn’t had extras tucked away in their own hangars.

“Is Windlifter alright?” Dusty asked, currently sitting cross-legged on the one bean bag chair they had in the main hangar,  one of the pilfered closet blankets wrapped around his body. His hands were cupped around a #1 dad mug that had a very excessive amount of whipped cream sticking out of it. (The dad mugs were a running joke accidentally started by the smokejumpers. The first one had apparently been meant for Cabbie, but had gotten mixed up with a different gift and had been given to Dipper instead. From then on, regardless of gender or age, everyone had gotten a fitting #1 dad mug for their birthday.)

“And what’s with the lamp?” Cabbie added, head tilted over the back of the couch to look at him.

“He’s just fine. Honestly, I’m not even sure what he needs all this for, but he would've made it damn clear if he was in trouble. He’s cryptic, but he’s smart enough to be straightforward when it comes to his safety.” Maru piled some of the towels and blankets into his arms, not quite sure how many Windlifter wanted, but assuming the ones he grabbed would probably be enough. He began to head back over the door, careful to sidestep the aggravated gesturing of Drip, not keen on getting smacked in the face. All of the smokejumpers were still too deep in their argument to notice him at all. (The ‘jumpers were all too competitive for their own good sometimes. They had, somehow, managed to get Monopoly permanently banned on base.)

“I’ll be back in a bit, make sure no one steals my hot chocolate.” He threw open the door, braving the rain once again. He heard the distinct sound of helicopter blades through the howling wind, able to see Windlifter begin his landing, the bright green of his helicopter just barely visible through the torrents of rain.

Maru walked over to Windlifter’s hangar, tugging open the door and letting the helicopter roll in once it landed. Maru, now soaking wet, closed the hanger door behind him, watching Windlifter hop out.

The first thing Maru noticed was a large, sopping wet cardboard box gently cradled in Windlifter’s arms. The second thing he noticed was the collection of scratches littering his arms and parts of his face. Most of them were pretty shallow, but the deeper ones were still sluggishly bleeding, leaving little lines of red trailing down Windlifter’s skin.

“What the hell attacked you?!” The scratches were too small to be a bear or some other big predator, but he couldn’t pinpoint what might’ve been the actual culprit. He couldn’t think of any animals in the park with claws that were just the right size to match the scratches whilst also having the gall to actually attack a human.

Windlifter ignored the question, carefully maneuvering the box so that he could grab the heat lamp from Maru. “Put the blankets and towels on the bed. You might need to help me hold her,” he said, seemingly not at all worried about the fact he was actively bleeding. (It wasn’t enough to actually kill him, but the point still stood.)

He walked over towards the door leading to the small living quarters attached to his hanger, awkwardly trying to grab at the handle with his hands full. Maru stared at him, rolling his eyes and stepping over to help him open the door. “Her? Windlifter, what the hell do you have in that box?” He narrowed his gaze, the taller man very pointedly not meeting his eyes as they shuffled into the room.

Each hangar had a small room attached to it, and while not very big, they were cozy in a good way. They could hold a bed, a desk, and a couple of other pieces of furniture all comfortably, more than enough for the team during the working season.

Windlifter hadn’t decorated his as much as some people on base, but it was still very distinctly his, various personal items hung on the walls or displayed on the wooden bookshelf tucked in one corner.

Windlifter laid out a couple towels on his bed, placing the soggy box on top of them, the sagging cardboard drooping so much that Maru was pretty sure it was going to cave in on itself any second. He then kneeled down and began to rummage under his bed, eventually pulling out a slightly dusty, but empty, storage box. He laid it on its side and set up a couple of blankets within it, placing the headlamp on the bedside table nearby. He fiddled with both for a couple moments, turning to Maru once he was seemingly satisfied with their placement.

“Hold this. When I pull her out, dry her off.” He handed Maru a towel, grabbing one himself.

“Are you gonna tell me what you dragged back into base? I have multiple guesses and each is more likely to give Blade an aneurysm than the last,” he drawled, holding the towel regardless, watching as Windlifter slowly peeled back the flaps on the top of the box.

After a moment of stillness, Windlifter suddenly lurched forward, grabbing something from the box. Immediately it began to screech bloody murder, claws raking wildly through the air as the very irate creature tried to enact revenge against the towel holding it.

After a bit of struggle, Windlifter managed to fully restrain the beast, the animal resorting to yowling angrily in protest. It took Maru a couple seconds to even figure out what the animal was, quickly realizing that it was a cat.

A very wet, very miserable house cat.

She looked to be some large, fluffy breed, her mainly white fur dotted with black and orange patches. She currently looked quite scraggly, her coat soaked through and her eyes wide with terror and anger. She currently resembled a drowned rat more than a regal feline in Maru’s humble opinion.

“Where the hell did you get a cat? Last I checked, Piston Peaks isn’t exactly known for its domestic cat population.” He began to dry the cat off, the beast glaring murder at him the entire time, trying to buck free from WIndlifter’s hold and attack him for his troubles.

“She was probably dumped. The box was taped shut when I found her. She got spooked and tried to run when I opened it. She did not take kindly to me grabbing her.”

Maru chuckled, jolting back a bit as she managed to get a paw free, just barely missing his fingers by a couple centimeters. “Yeah, I can tell. You look like you fell in a pile of thumbtacks.”

Windlifter rolled his eyes, clearly not as amused with the situation as Maru was. Once the cat was as dry as they could get her with just a towel, he put the feline down in the box, the animal immediately pressing herself into the back of it. She swatted at Windlifter’s hand as he pulled away, ears pinned back and tail lashing side to side, furious at the human for daring to touch her.

Maru watched as Windlifter reached in again, a very tiny bundle being placed into the towel he held. He gaped a bit as he looked at the tiny calico kitten now nestled in his hands. It couldn’t have been older than a week, eyes still closed and ears folded against its head, tiny mewls escaping it as it wriggled, pawing blindly at the air.

“My guess is that she was abandoned by her owner after she gave birth. They didn’t want to deal with all the kittens and for some reason thought it was a good idea to get rid of the ‘problem’ here. By taping them in a box and dumping them in the middle of the woods,” Windlifter growled, starting to dry another kitten.

Maru blinked a couple times, snapping out of his momentary stupor. He quickly started to rub the kitten dry, now beginning to realize just how long they might’ve been stuck out in that box. Maru didn’t know much about kittens, or animals in general, but he knew animals this young were incredibly fragile. Many of the kittens in the box were concerningly still, the next one he grabbed only barely reacting to his touch as he scooped them out, body concerningly cold against his fingers.

For a couple of minutes, the two silently dried off the kittens, all of them starting to wriggle and come back to life once they were warmed up. The mama cat swiped at Windlifter’s hand each time he placed a kitten in the box with her, but the towel prevented any further scratches to his hand despite her best efforts.

In the end, there were 8 kittens, all with the same calico pattern as their mother. They were all currently latched to her belly, tiny ears wiggling as they suckled, the mother cat grooming them as they drank.

Windlifter began to fold up the damp towels, a small smile on his face as he watched the fluffy family lay in the warm box, any remaining dampness being slowly dried by the heat lamp.

Maru sighed, standing up and wiping his hands off on the towel. “Now that they're all dried off, you're coming with me. I’m not letting you get sick because of an infected scratch,” he pointed at Windlifter, the tone of his voice leaving no room for protest.

He simply nodded, “We’ll grab some food for her on our way back. She is likely hungry,” he said, starting to pull on his coat and boots, eyes still glued to the cats. His expressions were always very subtle but Maru could tell he was concerned, his mouth slightly downturned and brows pinched together.

Maru gave him a pat on the arm, careful to not hit one of the scratches. “She’ll be fine for a couple minutes on her own. I bet the others would be real excited to see them all, Dipper quite the fan of cute critters in general from what I remember”

“She’s still quite unsure. The smokejumpers will likely want to see them. Do you really think that’s a good idea?” He meant it as a rhetorical question, but Maru just smirked, an idea already forming in his head.

“Well, do you have any chores you’d like to pawn off on someone else? I’d bet an arm and a leg that the smokejumpers would be willing to do them if it meant getting to see some cats.”

Windlifter looked thoughtful for a moment, a small smile growing on his face. He gave a silent nod, already probably scheming of ways to maximize how many tasks he could offload onto them.

With that settled, the two of them headed out into the rain.

—-------

Blade somehow felt the most exhausted he’d ever felt in all his years of working as chief. (Although, to be fair, every day felt like it was his new record for just how exhausted he could be.) He’d just landed, storing his helicopter in his own hangar and heading to the main hangar, yearning to settle down for the evening with a warm drink and maybe some board games if he felt generous.

The rain had eased quite a bit, having gone from a downpour to just a light, pleasant drizzle. He pushed open the door and paused as he saw only Patch and Dusty, everyone else nowhere to be seen.

Dusty was laying on the couch, a pillow propped up behind his head and a couple blankets piled on top of him. He appeared to be in the middle of a nap, completely dead to the world around him, a thin line of drool trailing down his cheek.

Patch appeared to be starting dinner, various vegetables piled around her cutting board and something sizzling in the frying pan on top of the stove. She paused in the middle of chopping a carrot to look at him. “How was the meeting?” She asked, turning back to her cutting board, continuing to dice the carrot.

“It was how you’d expect a meeting to be. Important but boring,” Blade had never been good at sitting around with nothing to do but listen, and he probably never would. “Where did everyone else scamper off to?” It was only 5pm, way before anyone would usually settle down in their rooms for the night, so it was odd that the hangar was so empty. It wouldn’t shock him if the ‘jumpers headed to bed early, but for Dipper, Cabbie, Maru and Windlifter to all be asleep already was very odd.

“Go check Windlifter’s hangar, he brought something,” she paused for a moment, looking for the right words, “interesting back to base. The others are over there right now.” Her tone was neutral, but her phrasing set off multiple red flags. Blade felt a headache start to form just trying to fathom what Windlifter might’ve snuck into his hangar based on how vague Patch was being.

“Are you going to tell me what he brought back, or am I going to have to go see myself?”

“Go see for yourself, and while you’re there, tell them dinner will be ready in about 45 minutes.”

“Wilco.” Blade sighed deeply, starting to make it way over to Windlifter’s hangar. There was a part of him that wanted to just lock himself in his own hangar and go to bed, but he knew he had things he still needed to do. He found plenty of fulfillment as chief of the base, but sometimes even that couldn’t do shit against the eternal exhaustion he felt had made its home in his very bones.

Once he reached the hangar, he knocked on the door, only waiting a couple moments before a voice that sounded suspiciously like Maru’s yelled, “come in!”

The scene before him was certainly interesting as he entered the room. People were sitting on every sittable surface, the space not exactly built to hold 9 people, but they made it work it seemed. Most of them were holding tiny kittens, the smokejumpers exhibiting a level of careful restraint that was pretty out of character for them.

Windlifter himself was sitting in a chair in the corner, looking mighty pleased with himself as a very fluffy adult cat laid on his lap. Dipper kneeled next to him, holding an open can of tuna that was being very eagerly lapped up by the cat. Windlifter had a variety of adhesive bandages littering his arms and face, seemingly raided from Maru’s extensive stash. (Blade had a couple good guesses as to why he needed so many of them and each lead back to the cat settled on his lap.)

Drip was sitting on the bed, a kitten currently trying to attack his fingers. His eyes were visibly red and he was sniffling, showing the very obvious signs of an allergic reaction. (Blade was surprised to see that Drip of all people was allergic to cats, but to be fair, the likelihood of encountering one in Piston Peaks was near impossible, so he might’ve just not thought to mention it.)

“I was wondering when you were gonna get back,” Maru said, sitting on the floor beside Cabbie and Pinecone, a very sleepy kitten curled in his hand. The little thing was seemingly enjoying the gentle scratches Pinecone was giving it’s cheek, it’s tiny rumbling purr making that fact clear enough.

“Where did you even find all these cats? The nearest town is a nearly half a day drive in good conditions and, last I checked, the lodge isn’t even legally allowed to adopt any animals.”

“During my supply run I found them taped in a box.” Windlifter frowned, shifting in his chair slightly as the mother cat curled in his lap, the tuna can now polished off and a nap seemingly the next order of business for her.

“Can we keep them?” Drip pleaded, all the ‘jumpers immediately giving him the biggest, sweetest puppy eyes they could manage. (It would certainly be a bit more effective if Drip didn’t look like he was going to devolve into a sneezing fit any second. Not that it would be enough to make Blade let them keep the kittens. He’d become very resistant to their puppy eyes after the many, many, many times the ‘jumpers had tried to keep orphaned baby animals they’d found.)

“You already know the answer to that, Drip,” he crossed his arms, “once the conditions are good enough, Windlifter is going to fly to town and give them to a shelter, right? ” He gave the man a rather intense stare, not wanting him to get any ideas from the smokejumpers who had now turned their puppy eyes on him.

Windlifter just nodded, gaze affixed to the fluffy ball in his lap, calloused fingers very slowly running across her soft fur. “I’ll go once it’s safe enough to.”

That earned a couple pleading cries from the ‘jumpers, all of them already quite attached to the tiny kittens. Sadly for them, it all fell on deaf ears it seemed, Windlifter ignoring them completely as he petted the cat.

“Well, as nice as this is, I still need to finish maintenance on the C-119. Call me over once dinner’s ready.” Maru rose to his feet, heading towards the door. As he did, he nonchalantly grabbed Blade’s hand and placed the kitten he was holding in it, snorting as he saw Blade’s befuddlement. The chief was quick to cup his other hand around the wriggling little fluff ball, not wanting to drop it.

Blade leveled him a stern look, but Maru had long grown resistant to his icy glares, having spent way too many years around the chief to be fazed by them anymore. The mechanic simply grabbed his coat and left, a hearty chuckle following him as he headed back to his hanger.

Blade sighed, rolling his eyes and sitting down on the bed. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to stay a couple minutes, at least to take a quick mental break before he headed back to his hangar to catch up on paperwork.

And it was his own business if he just so happened to lose track of time and stay there until dinner.