Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Rudo had a headache, a headache pounding in time with the knocking on his door.

He had been in a sort of light doze all early morning, mind just hovering at the edge of sleep but never quite touching it. As if the sweet bliss of unconsciousness was toying with him and the ease of mind at having a night not plagued by bad dreams kept playing keep away.

It was honestly draining on his sanity, which was not helped by the aching in his temples, only exacerbated by the lack of rest and certainly not helped by the increasingly annoyed and harsh banging on his poor door.

Maybe that’s why they were all made of metal, any more of this and any normal old wooden thing would’ve already splintered–

‘’Rudo!!! Get ya’ lazy ass in gear, we have a job to do!’’ Came the familiarly aggravating yell of none other than Zanka at his door cutting through his thoughts.

Rudo groaned, his very bones felt glued to his mattress as he struggled to pull himself upright. Success in this feat only brought him more despair as the change from laying down for god knows how long, half awake and increasingly more uncomfortable morphed into him now being fully awake and plagued by the horrors of headaches versus gravity.

He scooted to the edge of the bed, gathering his legs and heaving himself onto his feet, where he proceeded to impersonate a 90 degree angle and slouch in on himself. Zanka was beginning to yell more obscenities at him through the door as he leisurely made his way over, almost tempted to just ignore the guy all together. 

but that was not an option, ignoring Zanka had never been an option and he was foolish to assume as such. 

A deep despairing sigh escaped his lips as he put his gloved hand on the doorknob and opened it to face the familiar rude brunette at the other side, who was in the middle of taking a deep breath to yell even louder and make his headache even worse . 

He gave the man a dead eyed stare, the one any teenager perfects if they were anything worth their salt. ‘’What… do you… want .’’ he growled, dragging the hand not currently holding himself upright across his face and through his hair in an effort to look a bit more put together. 

‘’Well you look like dogshit.’’ Came the gracious reply of Zanka, who was, as always, immaculately clean and ready, ready to win the day or whatever adults liked to say to pained and anguished children.

So much for trying. 

At least Zanka wasn’t trying to break down his door anymore. Rudo counted that as a win as yet another long and heavy sigh escaped his lips, so long and heavy in fact that he could see, to his mild satisfaction, Zanka physically cringe.

He relented, ‘’I feel like shit, my head hurts like a bitch’’ he rubbed at his temples, as if to minorly demonstrate the source of all his woes. He should probably tell Zanka he didn’t sleep at all last night, or that he’d practically been absorbed into his bed since yesterday evening, too tired from the general chaos that followed the cleaners around to do his usual midnight wandering.

But he didn’t tell the guy all that, because he didn’t feel like it . And Zanka wasn’t privy to his suffering anyways, the prick would probably use it against him somehow during whatever training his teacher had come up with now.

Or was it a job???

Zanka sighed, expression smoothing out from irritated to… slightly less irritated and, much to Rudo’s chagrin, even maybe a tad bit concerned. ‘’Well, we have an important job today and I was planning on showing you something…’’ he paused, his head tilted and a pondering expression on his face. ‘’ Here's what we’ll do, let's get some water in ya and you can take a couple of ibuprofen for that headache of yours and we’ll see how it goes. Worse case scenario we leave you in the car.’’

Rudo stared at him a moment longer, gears grinding in his head as he puzzled out what Zanka had just told him, he understood, being a cleaner meant having to train hard and be familiar with all aspects of working, as annoying as the man was, Zanka did actually take the time to teach him stuff and figure out his Jinki with the help of the rest of team Akuta. 

It was only natural for the man to insist he come along, unwilling to let his mentee miss out on anything crucial in fear of being seen as a subpar teacher in the face of Enjin’s constant assessment of their team.

Though, in the depths of his sluggish mind just one lightbulb flickered, a question in the dim gloom of teenage despair and the stabbing pain in his skull. 

‘’What’s Ibuprofen???’’ 

Zanka heaved in a deep breath, ‘’Oh boy.’’

Zanka was… admittedly right, Rudo had to give it to him, even if it caused him great anguish and he would rather rip out his teeth than admit it; He did feel a bit better after a glass or two of water and some of those mysterious pills, he could feel the headache fading away from stabbing to a dull ache and he was all too grateful to be distracted from it by looking out the window of the moving cleaners van.

Nearly the whole team seemed to be going today, Riyo had taken up her familiar spot all the way in the back, dozing lightly and not at all bothered by the bumps of the road. Rudo was in the meanwhile squished between the car door and Zanka on the backseat together with Follo while Enjin and Gris had the adult old men privilege of taking the front seats, Enjin behind the steering wheel in fear of the crew falling asleep to Gris’ more gentle road manners.

It was on missions like this that he appreciated being small enough to push himself into the farthest corner of his seat and away from anyone else being too close and in his space, especially while still recovering from that god awful headache. 

Earlier after he had woken up a little and gotten the medication, he’d rushed to get dressed in his cleaners outfit and jump in the van before it took off. Embarrassingly enough they had been waiting for him, although Riyo and Gris had assured him it had only been a few minutes since they themselves had loaded into the car. 

Enjin had taken that same opportunity to yell the word ‘tardy’ at him. At Rudo’s confused expression Follo had just insisted he ignore the man, unsure what exactly was going on in the blonde's head. 

‘’So, how's the brain pain goin’ now, twerp?’’ Zanka asked, breaking the boy out of his silent recap of his very eventful morning only for him to glare back at the stick-wielder with all the contempt he could now manage with a fully functioning mind. 

Follow leaned a bit forward in his seat to look over and across at Rudo, brown eyes wide and questioning. ‘’Brain pain?’’ The supporter asked and Rudo could feel an embarrassed flush creep up his neck and paint his face. 

‘’He means headache ’’ he shot another look at Zanka. ‘’I just wasn’t feeling too well this morning, it's why I was a bit late that's all.’’ Rudo muttered, sinking deeper into his seat as if that would hide him from the looks he was getting. 

Zanka snorted, ‘’Yeah right, he looked like a wet rat when I went to wake him up, t’ was really something. Gave him some pain meds tho, promised to see how he was doin’ when we get to the jobsite.’’ The man shared, clearly immensely proud of himself.

Rudo graciously decided to ignore the wet rat comment, because it made no sense and totally wasn’t an accurate description of how he had felt in the moment, Not. At. All. 

Rudo just had one question though, now that the topic had been brought up. ‘’Speaking of the job, what exactly are we going to be doing?’’ he asked, sitting up a bit in order not to  slump any further and slide fully out of his seatbelt through the sheer power of humiliation that Zanka had decided to curse him with.

Enjin hummed from where he was driving, glancing up through the rear view mirror to spot Rudo in the backseat briefly. ‘’Well, first of all, I'm glad you’re good now, Zanka did the right thing.’’ Rudo had to practically squint at the way Zanka beamed at the comment. ‘’As for the job… It's fairly straightforward but I don't suspect it’ll be easy just because it's simple. There’s been a couple large trash beasts harassing a small town at the edge of a safe zone, sounds like a quick n done job right?’’

There was a soft murmuring of consensus among the passengers, mainly in the back, even Riyo was listening now, her cool demeanor giving way to curiosity in the way she sat up, leaning against the backrest of Zanka’s seat. 

‘’Right, well, we were told these ones are smart . Gris, tell em’.’’ Enjin gave way to Gris, who explained these ones carried an eerie kind of intelligence according to the reports, how they would stalk and use traps to lure unsuspecting humans away from the safe zones, or managing to figure out clever ways past the village defenses. 

‘’Of course this could all be false information, rumours blown out of proportion by superstitious folk believing the trash beasts are anything more than beasts. But it’s still important we take into account all the information we’ve been given and take these guys down quickly and efficiently, understand?’’ Gris finished, a firm nod to himself that he had covered all the bases. 

The rest of the team had pretty much understood, making way for a small pause before Riyo started messing with Zanka’s hair, naturally sending the man into a spluttering but light hearted rage as his neat appearance gradually descended into a more disheveled consequence of letting Riyo anywhere near your head.

The rest quickly transitioned into usual chatter about their mornings, what to expect on the job and curiosity about the supposed smarts of these new trash beasts. Rudo had little to add except deflecting the off handed remarks about his still lingering headache, fighting off concern and the teasing about his rough start to today.

They arrived in no time, van crawling into a slow prowl along the road as they approached the entrance of the village. It wasn’t anything extraordinary, a few sturdy building complexes nestled in the crook of what looked to be an old stadium, buildings poking out here and there and fixed with their own protection from potential trash storms via overhanging sheets of metal that kind of reminded Rudo of drooping leaves. 

That was about as extraordinary as the small place got. They managed to hide their van in a secure little corner within the town, planted firmly between what looked to be a small community centre and an old library that was practically falling apart at the seams. 

They took their time climbing out, some getting ready to put on their masks and others, such as Rudo doing their best to stretch out after the long car ride there. 

‘’So…’’ Riyo started after a while, leaning against the side of the car and looking around into the near abandoned streets. ‘’Are we going to be asking around for info? Is there a contact here we need to meet? What’s up?’’ she asked, already starting to fiddle with something on her belt.

Rudo shared the sentiment, it didn’t seem like anyone was there to greet the group of cleaners, whether at the entrance of town or near the community centre. He was getting restless himself too as they waited for seemingly nothing, wandering out towards the street only to silently be herded back by either Gris or Zanka who were doing their own kind of drifting about. 

Hypocrites. 

Enjin gave a loud obnoxious groan, stretching his arms wide before leaning on his umbreaker. ‘’Nothing like that, this one’s more of a general complaint from multiple people. I'd like to speak to some kind of mayor but it seems like those beasts have scared half the place into their homes. Good on them too, i would do the same if I was in their shoes.’’ He shared, walking out into the street as the rest of the team followed in his steps, Gris lingering in the back of the group, seemingly keeping an eye out. 

It got Rudo slightly on edge, noticing the man being so guarded. But then again, the cleaners had dealt with their own fair share of traps by raiders and the like, and the concept of trash beasts now being able to fool people as well seemed a little too out of character for what seemed to be mindless creatures. 

‘’The reports have generally come from the side facing away from the safe zone, to no one’s surprise at all. So we could do with checking out stuff there first, if we find nothing we’ll just do a perimeter check and see where we’re at. Capiche?’’ Enjin finished, glancing behind him briefly as the group cut their way through town towards the danger zone.

Various levels of enthusiasm met the man's words, from Rudo’s halfhearted grunt at the vagueness of the information to Zanka’s resolute nod and Riyo’s cool affirmation.

Rudo slowed down a bit, matching his pace to Follo’s who was lingering near Gris as usual. There were no words exchanged between the two except for a mutual troubled look at what was no doubt going to be an interesting mission.

They marched on.

It wasn’t long before there came a quiet command for everyone to put on their masks as they officially stepped out of the safe zone and into the fields of trash and filth that lingered beyond. It was a sight that Rudo had become accustomed to in his short time on the surface, but nonetheless he still had mixed feeling about it, a sense of disgust at what the sphere had done but still a lingering excitement at the sheer volume of stuff , things lying broken and battered in between that no doubt could still hold plenty of value if used and cared for right.

A small shove from Zanka brushing past him broke him out of his usual day dreaming to notice that the rest of the group had already begun exploring the terrain, leaving him in his admiring stupor that the team had taken to calling ‘Rudo trash appreciation time’. 

Shit name if you asked him. 

He shook himself out of it, scampering after Zanka. 

‘’Didn’t you have something to show me? That’s why you just had to drag me out of my misery to be here right?’’ He asked, looking up towards his mentor who had a familiar conflicted scowl on his face. 

The man sighed, ‘’Don’t be so dramatic, be glad the meds are working and shut up. Yes, i did want to show you something, a technique i use with my Lovely Assistaff that i think you could benefit from out here in the field.’’ Zanka turned and started walking in a direction a bit further away from the others. ‘’We should be good here, tons of stuff around. Just keep your guard up, we still have a job to do.’’

Rudo followed him, unsure but not distrusting, he was admittedly curious and he knew Zanka was a good fighter, the man wielded his Jinki as an extension of himself and had knowledge about proper fighting that Rudo couldn’t even begin to comprehend yet.

‘’Grab something that’s like a stick, but don’t use your powers on it just yet’’ Zanka tacked on, prompting Rudo to look around, it was hard to discern any shape from one another, a metal pole could just as well be attached to a whole buried structure or send a mound of trash toppling if displaced so he had to be cautious.  

It also wasn’t too uncommon for any old stick to be attached to an unwieldy sign or be too heavy for him to comfortably hold onto. 

As that thought whirred by him he spotted it, not too far off there was a metal pipe sticking out of the ground. It had a prominent sort of iridescent sheen to it that glinted even in the perpetual gloom of the surface, it looked fancy, and weird, nothing like anything Rudo had ever seen down here. 

He trudged his way over to it, careful of where he set his foot on ground like this. The closer he got the more mesmerizing it seemed to get, colours warping in its reflection with every shift of perspective. 

Upon reaching it he spared no hesitation in wrapping his gloved hands around it, curious about the type of metal and endless possibilities running in his mind about what it could possibly have been as he tugged on it. 

It didn’t budge.

He tugged harder, really putting his all into it as he struggled with getting it out of the heap. He dreaded having to leave such a pretty stick behind, even if its original purpose was going to be for training with. 

He was so busy trying to wiggle the thing free that he barely noticed the ground beneath his feet beginning to tremble, a small gravelly rumbling vibrating up into his bones as he struggled against whatever the stick was stuck on. 

The floor shifted, the metal pole dislodged from the pile and sent him staggering, he spotted the glint of boney white teeth rising from the trash piles on either side of him.

He was standing in the open jaws of a trash beast, a trash beast that was now preparing to swallow him whole.

He could hear a warning yell coming from what was probably Zanka above the rumbling of the beast beneath him, too late as teeth prepared to snap shut all around him. A blind panic shot through his spine, a static shock traveling through his gloves and into the metal pole still grasped firmly in his hands and filling his bones with electricity as his Jinki activated. 

He raised the pole above him, twisting it so either end met either side of the beast's jaws rushing to trap him into its mouth. The small rush of adrenaline and static filling the air was met with the sudden warping of the iridescent pole, he could feel the previously flimsy metal strengthen and thicken, bringing the jaws to a stop as it lodged itself between trash beasts maw. 

The metal groaned as Rudo let go of it, feeling his power thrum through his veins and connecting him to the random object that had saved his life. He could hear the rest of the team yelling, could feel the ground shaking and the roar of multiple monsters barreling down on them from a short distance away.

It was an ambush.

Rudo looked around, unsure of how long the pole would hold up against the beast trying valiantly to close its jaw around him. He scrambled to escape, scraping against teeth and his clothing getting caught in places as he tried wiggling himself out of the monster's propped open mouth. 

He was met by Zanka’s hand grabbing his arm and helping him out just as the beast gave a final heave and shut its mouth on the metal pole, it pierced through both the top and the bottom of its protruding skeletal snout and it gave an agonized screech, whipping its head around in agony, pole now pinning its jaws shut. 

He could feel himself get dragged a bit further away, Rudo looked back up to see Zanka’s face five shades paler than it had been before. Both of them were breathing heavy with adrenaline, the brunette glanced over at him, a silent assessment of his wellbeing. 

Rudo gave his mentor a short nod, not being able to find his words in the face of shock of what just happened, of what could’ve happened if he didn’t think fast, if didn’t use his ability. 

‘’That was a good save, kid.’’ Zanka said, sighing in relief at Rudo being physically unharmed, despite being mentally scarred for life, probably.. But then again, the kid already had issues, what’s a little fright. 

A yell from behind them, debris flying past their heads as they could hear the others clash with the rest of the trash beasts. ‘’Enjin was right, these guys are smart. Look after yourself and make sure not to get in the way.’’ Zanka finished, a bit of the usual bite towards Rudo returning as the shock of almost seeing his mentee become trash beast food wore off. 

Rudo flipped him off, his mind already spinning with ways to defeat the monster that had just tried to trick him into an early grave. He turned to face the beast, spotting the metal pipe still lodged in his face.

In an effort not to waste all three uses of his Jinki he resolved to try and retrieve the pole, taking a running leap at the still struggling beast and clambering onto its leg and up towards its face. 

The beast wasn’t too terribly tall, it was more squat than proportionally massive. But it was still quite a task to attempt to climb it, nonetheless still not a challenge Rudo was willing to back down from.

He made it onto the things face in record time, trying not to lose his grip on its smooth skull like head and flinging himself towards the protruding iridescent pipe, he grabbed on for dear life as it gave another shake, the beast getting ready to try and ram its head against the ground once again in order to shake off what was now both the spherite and the metal stick turned weapon. 

Rudo grabbed onto it more firmly, and where it had previously shown no sign of budging in the face of the trash beasts struggle, it now slid smoothly out and into his hands. The creature roared underneath him, now able to stretch its jaw open wide in an agonized bellow that shook the very air.

He stumbled, glancing at the hole the pipe had left straight through both upper and lower jaw of the creature, giving him an idea. Rudo regained his footing, trying to scramble back up towards the thing's neck, but the thing gave a hard shake, bucking wildly, unable to reach him with its stubby forelegs.

The beast's efforts served only to launch him upwards and into the sky, he gave a roar of his own as he tried righting himself in the air, entering a freefall back down towards the trash monster.

He clung onto the pipe in his hands, maneuvering it just so to aim it down like a spear. He could feel the air rushing past him, the adrenaline pumping in his veins as he readied himself. 

With a mighty crack that split through the other sounds of battle around him he launched the beautifully iridescent pole straight into the top of the creatured head, piercing its skull and no doubt what would’ve been its brain if it had been anything organic. 

The beast gave one last roar of anguish, a death rattle as all its metal parts and trash started collapsing in on itself and disintegrating. 

Unfortunately for Rudo, he had not accounted for his own fall, continuing to sail down rapidly towards the ground and through the beast as it fell apart, followed by the metal pole now no longer in his grasp.

He could only shut his eyes as the sight of the ground rapidly approaching sent panic spiking straight into his heart. 

His body met the ground, hard. 

He could hear the crack and snap of his own bones and feel the violent lash of pain through his skull as it connected with the hard rubble underneath him. His heart was pounding in his ears and the world was silent for a moment around him as everything settled, brain working overdrive to process what had just happened.

It felt like the very air had been ripped from his lungs, mask barely hanging onto his face and his mind buzzing as everything around him seemed to go too slow.

He lay there for a moment, listening to the sound of his companions finishing off their own battles, guessing them victorious by the yells of enthusiasm ringing out through the landscape. Adrenaline worked overtime in his veins, keeping his heart racing and his eyes closed as he tried to get his mind to stick itself back into the real world.

A particular sound stood out to him, paired with an uncomfortable heavy feeling that stuck out through the snap crackle of his ribs through his ragged breaths. He peeled his eyes open, gaze stuck briefly on the thick black and grey-purplish smog fogging up the sky above him.

Dread crept up on him slowly though, his mind already working through what his body had not yet realized happened. His eyes slowly drifted down towards himself and away from the dizzying sky, towards the metal pole that had proved so useful just a moment ago now sticking out of his abdomen. 

The beautiful iridescent sheen it had seemed like a mockery now, his power had made it more to his own design, but it had kept the gleam that had lured him towards it in the first place. A weapon he breathed life into accidentally turned on himself.

He figured it was unfortunate, Rudo had always been unfortunate. But he had to admit this was shit luck, even for him. His mind felt heavy, a static running through his body and every broken bone. 

He felt tempted to just take it out, remove the problem as fast as possible. But his experience with previous injuries screamed at him not to, that it would only kill him faster. He mentally clamped down on his Jinki, a silent plea to keep using his powers so the pole would not crumple into dust still inside of him.

That sounded unpleasant, having old trash dust in his open wound while he was bleeding out?

Yikes.

Where were the others? He needed… he needed help, badly. There was a tiny nagging fear in the back of his mind about what would happen if he did die there, unable to enact his revenge, unable to set things right, to fulfill Regto’s wishes before following him into whatever afterlife awaited.

He turned his head to the side, towards the direction of voices. His neck felt stiff, no doubt from the fall, and it was hard to try and re-orient himself through the shock running rampant throughout his body and mind.

The others weren’t here right now.

Maybe he should… find them. Before they take off without him, like they almost had this morning. 

He wished he had stayed in bed, told Zanka he wasn’t feeling well afterall maybe or even stayed in the van. Would things have gone differently? Would one of the others have fallen for the trap, would that mean just one more trash beast to fight, to struggle against, for them?

Pulling the metal pole out or letting his powers shut off and having it disintegrate wasn’t an option. He wiggled around a bit, body protesting at the fierce ache that started up throughout his entire body as he moved. He clenched his teeth, ignoring the nausea that swelled in him as the injury around the pipe gave a wet squelch. 

Luckily, the pole seemed to move with him. He wasn’t stuck pinned in place like a morbid art work afterall, he could hear the faint calling of his name close by, no further than the next trash mound.

He worked his jaw, willing himself to call out, but all that came was a wet cough catching itself in his throat and making the pain flare up into angry flames. This was so much worse than that headache.

That headache. 

He could feel his brain mushing about, solutions to problems toiled uselessly in his mind as he forced himself upright, a groan escaping his lips as his hands scrambled to keep both himself and the pole literally sticking through his body steady. 

He felt sick, rising bile sticking to the back of his throat, he gathered his legs under himself and hauled himself up onto his feet, stumbling before coming to a tentative stop, both hands now wrapped around the pipe in his stomach, keeping it as still as he could through the slight tremble that had begun to creep up.

Another wet squelch as his arms wavered, followed by the pierce of pain in spite of the adrenaline. He began his trudge through the piles of trash and towards increasingly frantic voices, his name repeated in the panicked tones of Zanka and Follo and the steady baritone of Gris.

Each blink grew longer, thoughts in his mind disconnecting before coming together in abstract ideas that might’ve resembled thoughts, some lingered on the headache of this morning, others lingered on the anger that it just had to be him that managed to get stabbed by his own weapon. 

He crested the hill, eternally grateful that his legs were miraculously unbroken. He spotted the team not too far off, backs turned. It felt like an eternity before he reached the first person in front of him, his mind hovering around the sight of grey and blue as thoughts misfired in his brain.

‘’Zanka…’’ He muttered, clearly not loud enough, another call of his name by people oblivious that he was right here . He stumbled a bit closer, legs feeling increasingly heavier and his vision blacking out around the edges.

He tripped over his own feet a bit, landing himself right behind Zanka. He reached out, tugged on the man's sleeve. ‘’Zanka.’’ He called, not able to muster up any energy to be louder. ‘’Zanka, I don't… i don’t’’ his mind lagged a bit. ‘’I don’t feel so good.’'

His mentor seemed to finally have heard him the second time around, the man spun, eyes meeting him and his new friend that had nestled itself safely into his abdomen just as he finished his sentence. 

After a brief pause, Rudo’s remaining brain cells rubbed together. 

‘’Can I have some more ibuprofen?’’

Chapter Text

“What. The. FUCK?’’ Zanka’s yell cut through the sound of the others still searching for their missing spherite kid, giving them pause enough to realize they had found Rudo. Or well, Rudo had found them.

Rudo, who had a whole metal pipe sticking straight through his abdomen, as in, nearly coming out of the other side kind of straight through. The same Rudo who had just asked him if he could have some more ibuprofen . 

Rudo did not need ibuprofen right now, he needed professional help. The kid was swaying on his feet in front of him as the rest of the cleaners gathered around to gawk at the sight, the boy seemed to be growing paler by the second and his clothes only more soaked in blood as they stood there in shock.

It was only when Enjin and Gris arrived that the tension broke and the gravity of the situation settled like static in the air between them. Everyone was torn up from their own fights with the trash beasts, but looking at Rudo, who had started to kind of sag in on himself was something else entirely. 

‘’What– How did he even get here?’’ Follo mumbled, shock saturating every line of his body as he trudged after Gris, eyes meeting the same scene they had all been staring at for the last 30 seconds.

Those 30 seconds seemed to be what finally does Rudo in though, the kid wavers, eyes closing for a second too long before his knees buckle underneath him. Enjin shot forwards with a panicked hiss escaping between his teeth, one arm putting his umbreaker away on his belt and the other lowering the now collapsed teenager to the ground. 

‘’How did this even happen?’’ Gris cut in, ‘’Did anyone see anything…? Is that one of the weapons he made with his gloves?’’ The blonde man gestured towards the strangely iridescent pole, now carved with Rudo’s signature thick red accents and what was originally a grey silver was now black, emphasizing the different colours glinting off of the stick.

Zanka tilted his head, trying to gain his bearings and think back, ‘’I remember that thing, he used it to escape a trash beast's jaw trap, I think he went back for it to finish the fight? I can’t even begin to imagine…’’ 

A gentle tug on his hair had his gaze sliding over towards Riyo who had arrived to look just as baffled and disturbed by the scene, she broke through what was an inevitable spiral downwards in his mind, a frown playing through the cracks of her cool facade. 

‘’The kid’s a beast, he’ll pull though’’ she muttered, more a prayer than an assurance as they watched Enjin and Gris secure the pole in place with gauze, increasing noises of discomfort rising from Rudo as the semi-conscious boy could only afford to struggle weakly against what had to be horrific pain, eyes staring dully up at the sky and teeth bared in a weak grimace.

Every one of the cleaners knew this situation, had been in this situation, injured beyond anything they had experienced before and left trapped inside their own bubble of pain as others worked their hardest to help. Zanka could find it in himself to empathize with the boy, guilt giving way to anger towards himself for not keeping a closer eye on the reckless child. 

What he hadn’t seen before though was someone simply getting up after such a wound, but then again, Rudo was an… enigma, to say the least.

A small confirmation that Rudo was stable for now set them all in motion, Gris had picked up the boy, being the strongest among them. Even if Zanka knew from countless sessions of throwing the teen to the ground that his scrawny ass didn’t weigh all that much, being unable to carry anyone on your back, especially considering they had an object sticking out of them left the best possible method being a sort bridal carry, which was not easy to keep up without significant strength.

Embarrassing as the method was, it was a necessary evil. Rudo was in no state of mind to be bothered by anything beyond his own injuries, anyways.

The kid was unfortunately forced to stay awake, kept conscious by the incessant chattering of Riyo and Follo and their anxious fluttering about, there was simply no other choice, Rudo had to keep his ability active since they had almost no idea about if it would stay on or turn off and disintegrate the only thing keeping him from bleeding out even if the boy was to pass out fully.

it was decided they better not risk it. 

‘’Headquarters said they’d meet us halfway there with Eishia in tow.’’ Enjin spoke up, herding them all along back through the village, by now most people had come out at the commotion of them fighting all the trash beasts, people who were now left staring at their mismatched crew hurrying down the street with an injured kid in their arms.

It wasn’t long before they all crowded back into the car and the frantic whirring of the engine filled in the tense silence between them, unfortunately not loud enough to drown out Rudo’s pained whining as they tried to maneuver him the best they could.

It wasn’t long before they were speeding back out onto the open roads.

It hurt. Rudo hurt. Everything hurt.

His lips felt dry and chapped from the effort it took to heave in every breath, every pained creak of his ribs and the flare of agony coming from his abdomen as his diaphragm forced his stomach to rise and fall along with his breathing. 

He really wanted that ibuprofen.

‘’Kid, you need way more than ibuprofen right now.’’ The smooth voice of Enjin. His mind scrambled, confusion and disorientation an ugly mix in his thoughts, everything piecing itself together in slow motion while the world moved too fast around him. He wasn’t aware he had said anything out loud, but then again he had also been unaware he was in a car until now.

He felt a hand tug gently through his tangled hair, his eyes drifting until they met Riyo’s, the girl was leaning over the backseat backrest, head supported on top of one arm and the other reaching down to pet comfortingly at his hair.

Any other time he would’ve been uncomfortable, Riyo had stopped doing it after she noticed his discomfort at the physical touch but right now it was oddly grounding, everytime his eyes threatened to keep themselves shut as he blinked her hand would gently tug at a knot, dragging his eyelids back open.

His gaze drifted over to Follo, nestled besides Riyo in the very back of the van but, just like her, leaning over the backrest. He wasn’t one for physical touch, seemingly content with keeping an eye on Rudo.

And finally his pillow, head cushioned by none other than Zanka. Anxious blue eyes glued so resolutely towards the up and down of his chest that the guy didn’t realize Rudo was staring until a bump in the road forced him out of whatever weird attempt at glaring his wound away. 

The man scowled down at him, ‘’I should have never taught you what pain meds were, you won’t shut up about them...’’ Zanka grunted, still refusing to look away from the injured boy practically in his arms.

Rudo felt mildly offended, he was in pain, pain meds were for pain. Ipso facto, he needed pain meds. simple as that. Just as Zanka had taught him yesterday… or, was that this morning? 

There was a deep dark fog at the edge of his mind, calling him towards it, luring him in and waving away any logical thought that wandered by like it was a stalking beast hiding in wait to strike. His eyelids drooped again, he blinked and the idea of dragging his eyes back open seemed like a task too monumental.

The fog grew along with the pain as every jerk of the van sent agony licking up his spine and through his belly, he wanted it gone, he wanted to run away from the inescapable pain and find a way to hide from it. It reminded him of his hands, something unavoidable trapping him in a corner and laughing whenever he lashed out.

A sharp tug on his scalp as Riyo’s hands caught on another knot, an incentive to open his eyes again. 

But he felt… tired. 

A strangely good kind of tired, not the weary fearful kind of tired of anticipation before his nightmares chased away real rest. This was a genuine, bone deep tiredness that came with a long hard day, that accompanied too many bruises and a hurt ego but still left his bones tingling in satisfaction and his muscles burning. 

One of Rudo’s hands drifted down towards the pole sticking out of his stomach, eyes fluttering half open to gaze blearily at it still shimmering and shining proudly, even from its morbid position. gloves fingers fluttered around the wound and gauze keeping the precarious situation stable and he let his mind drift. 

He had never been more aware of how soft his skin was, how vulnerable his abdomen. Something primal in the back of his mind screamed as his gloved hand ghosted around the wound, fingers grazing the cold metal of the pipe and feeling the heat radiating from the edges of the wound it had inflicted on him, was still inflicting on him.

Someone suddenly grabbed at his arm, yanking his hand away from the injury. ‘’Don’t touch it, you dumbass!’’ Zanka’s sharp yell pierced through the fog, violently shaking him out of his wandering stupor and finally slamming him back down to reality. 

Back to the fact that everything hurts.

He returned a wide-eyed gaze back up towards his mentor, mind in a scramble. 

‘’Why?’’ was all he managed to croak out, voice rough and leaning more towards a whine than a genuine question. Everything was starting to move too fast again, his entire body was screaming and ringing alarm bells and his thoughts kept sticking to the agony like flies in a cobweb.

In reply Zanka looked at him weird before the duo was distracted by a strained chuckle coming from Enjin behind the wheel. ‘’You’re really outta it, huh?’’ the blonde man asked, Rudo turned his head towards his direction, only for his view to be blocked by the seats, though he could just barely glimpse the white knuckled grip he had on the steering wheel. 

Eyes wandered along the interior of the car, his mind clinging onto the sight of the leather seats and faint stains. 

‘’Maaaaan, this van is ugly.’’ he blurted out, anything to distract himself from the growing burning in his abdomen and the pain that came with every attempt to breathe. How long would they force him to stay awake and endure this? Could this be considered torture? Is he being tortured right now?

‘’Am I being tortured right now? Or– what was it… am i being hazed… Is this hazing? Im not that new y’know, ‘s kinda… late. Yeah, kinda late for being hazed which, i think i am–’’ He started, his mind blazing past him and his lips running before he could even attempt to think about anything coming out between laboured breathing. 

There were various reactions to this, he could hear someone chuckling, a groan of anguish and he could feel Riyo’s hand pause in its attempt to comb through his locks. 

Zanka shifted, still mindful of his lap currently being used as a headrest by one very beat up teenager. ‘’Great…’’ the stick-wielder groaned, ‘’Now he’s starting to talk nonsense, how much longer till we get there?’’

A mumbled ‘almost’ was all the answer that the man got, leaving him still guessing. 

‘’You never answered me–’’ Rudo interrupted, eerie big eyes staring up at anyone that would meet them. ‘’Rude… rude bastards.’’ The boy tacked on, Zanka couldn’t choose whether to be impressed the kid was still capable of talking enough to insult them or be annoyed that he went from nearly passing out to now trying to harass the people keeping him alive. 

Thus is the duality of Rudo. 

Zanka sighed, ‘’No, we aren’t hazing you. How do you even know what hazing is? Was that something on the sphere too? Where did you get this from?’’ he rubbed at his temples, dragging a hand over his face only to be interrupted by faint giddy giggling. 

Or well, as close to giggling a boy who couldn’t figure out to smile could get.

‘’Wh– What? Why the hell is he laughing now?’’ He panicked, glancing around for any kind of aid from the rest of the team who seemed to only give him sympathetic and grim looks. ‘’Why are you laughing?!’’ He looked down at Rudo only to be met by wild eyes and shuddering breaths, something was happening and it was bad . 

Rudo opened his mouth through the breathy laughs, hands gripping desperately at his own cleaners uniform in some kind of frantic scrabble to keep holding onto reality, tears were welling in the corners of the kids eyes and the tension grew tenfold in the tiny space of the car. 

‘’Becuase… It hurts–’’ Rudo managed to gasp out.

And all of the sudden there was silence, heavy breathing shortening to faint ragged wheezing, gloved hands going slack and eyes fluttering closed.

Panic erupted in the car and Enjin stepped on the gas.

Shit.

The last thing Rudo remembered was a faint tingling washing over him, a feeling of relief cutting off the pain running rampant through his body and lighting his nerves on fire. He could still hear the faint memory of ringing voices yelling through each other in panic as his mind slowly rolled itself back into consciousness.

He could no longer feel smooth leather seats and the movement of wheels across unstable terrain. Instead he was met with a too hard mattress underneath him and the feeling of paper like sheets tucked neatly around him, accompanied by a heavy silence.

But more prominently, the lack of a heavy metal pipe sticking through his body. He could feel an aching hovering at the edges of his awareness, a heaviness sticking to his limbs and plaguing every breath with an uncomfortable twinge through his entire torso, from his previously broken and now only bruised ribs down to what had to be a still healing scar on his stomach. 

Eishia was good, but even her powers had limits when it came to wounds too egregious to simply use her Jinki on the victim it was inflicted on.

He took another deep breath and willed his eyes open, trying to shake off the sticky static feeling that had forced them closed to begin with.

He was met by the familiar dimmed fluorescent lights of the headquarters medical bay, a confusing sight as he was sure the job they had been sent on was nowhere near base considering the length of the car trip there. 

He turned his head, neck aching and drawing out a stiff grimace onto his face. His mouth felt dry and his lips chapped and there was a horrible stinging in his temples, a familiar feeling of a headache rearing its ugly head despite the plenty of suffering he had already been inflicted.

A groan escaped him at the effort of having to actually use anything other than his eyes to look around, causing a shadow in the corner next to his bed to shift. A blurry figure dragged itself off of an uncomfortable looking chair, Rudo tried to blink away the bleariness but his mind was still busy trying to reboot to really make sense of anything.

Grey and blue hovered at the edge of his vision, approaching his bed in a slow kind of shuffle. The figure loomed over him and Rudo tried his best to squint up at it, brain scrambling to recognize the solemn face hovering in front of him.

‘’...Zanka..?’’ he muttered, words slurring and a small cough scratching at his throat, sending a spike of hurt through his pained ribs.

Zanka’s face turned from a troubled sort of reserved to surprised. ‘’Rudo? You awake this time, kid?’’ the man asked, a weary kind of question, as if afraid of a wrong answer. 

Rudo hesitated for a moment, long enough for Zanka’s face to grow worried and resigned again. He cleared his throat, ‘’Yeah, uh– I think? I think so… why wouldn’t I be?’’ a cough, ‘’What… How are we here…?’’

Zanka’s expression had already crumpled into that of strangely uncharacteristic relief in the face of Rudo’s questioning. The brunette quickly reaching over to help him sit up a bit more in bed before turning around and getting the chair he had been sitting in just moments ago and a small glass of water, with a straw probably so he wouldn’t choke.

As if he had been waiting for him to wake up.

He sat and handed Rudo the glass, who took it gratefully in his still shaking hands, having to hold himself back from chugging it all in one go out of sheer thirst, just to be rid of the nasty cloying feeling in the back of his throat.

‘’You were out of it for… quite some time, you woke up a few times throughout it all but you weren’t really all… there, y’know. Kept muttering about Regto sometimes…’’ There was an awkward silence, only filled by Rudo’s still laboured breathing and Zanka’s anxious fiddling. ‘’You were out long enough for us to move you back to headquarters after Eishia did her best healing you at the halfway point. We had more stuff here, so it was a logical move.’’ 

‘’Must’ve been a bad wound…’’ He muttered, finishing his glass of water and desperately wishing for more as he absently passed it around in his lap. 

Zanka groaned, leaning back in his chair and running a hand through his hair. 

‘’Rudo, you nearly died . You passed out, your Jinki disintegrated the weapon after a minute or two, you nearly bled out in the back seat of the company van.’’ The man stressed, voice growing near hysterically loud in the soft quiet of the infirmary. ‘’You were out for days .’’ 

Rudo was left staring at his mentor, mouth open despite being at a loss for words. There was a quietly growing shame marching up his neck and towards his face, flushing it pink. He’d made even Zanka, the man he targeted for most of his pranks, the guy who slammed him into gym mats in the name of training worry this much. 

‘’Im… sorry, alright. I'm sorry– for scaring you.’’ He gritted out through his teeth, eyes firmly locked onto his lap and the empty glass between his gloved hands. 

A pause and a heavy sigh. “No… Rudo– I…’’ a frustrated groan, ‘’Don’t apologize alright, it was just… unfortunate it happened this way. If anything i should apologize, i’m supposed to be your teacher and yet i couldn’t even keep my eye on you during that nasty fight that got you this busted up.’’ 

Oh, ohhh. Zanka felt guilty , guilty over… him getting hurt. He wasn’t irritated, despite every previous interaction with the guy telling him that by all means it would be very in character for the brunette to chew him out over some mistake, but at this moment, in the soft silence between them it hit him that maybe Zanka did care beyond getting him battle ready.

Even a little…

Alright, maybe much more than Rudo had realized.

He had spent so long trying to avoid his mentor, frustrated by his teaching methods and hovering. He had always assumed the man disliked him at worst and merely tolerated him at best, especially considering their rough start.

Rudo had always felt like he had been shoved onto Zanka, forcing the man to train him simply by becoming part of the cleaners and assuming that the guy had no choice but to accept him as his student, or felt obligated to live up to Enjin’s praise.

But the man sitting next to him, exhausted from staying at his bedside and damn near doting over him at the moment, painted another picture; One of a mentor, someone willing to guide Rudo, instead of doing it only because he was told. Of a man who had gotten him medicine, who had helped him climb out from between a monster's jaws, who had let his head rest on his lap while he was in pain.

His very image of Zanka was crumbling before his very eyes, cracks showing through the facade of their constant bickering and Zanka’s hard headed teaching. Something more reliable shining through, something caring and nurturing despite the shared taunting and constant bickering.

He needed to seriously re-evaluate everything, but the pain growing in his temple dragged all the attention away, taking up space in his already half awake brain.

He winced, hand drifting up towards his hand as if anything he could do would help something like a nasty headache.

‘’You good?’’ Zanka muttered, lifting one eyebrow in question and leaning forwards in his chair.

Rudo glanced back up at him, ‘’’s just a headache…’’ he muttered, sinking further into the pillows supporting his back and fighting the urge to close his eyes again and give into exhaustion. 

The stick-wielder stood, reaching over and grabbing the empty cup from Rudo’s increasingly limp hands before turning around and walking towards the door, muttering.

“Let’s get some more water and ibuprofen into you, I'll tell Eishia you’re awake while im at it.’’

A strange sense of Deja vu washed over him as Zanka softly closed the door behind him, leaving the teenager alone in the empty infirmary, pondering and tired.

Maybe Rudo had more people in his corner than he thought.