Chapter Text
Nights on the ground had always been too quiet for Riyo’s liking. The bombastic noises and chaotic excitement of the day evaporated the second the clouds decided to get darker. And, with everyone turning in for the night, for her, that would often lead to an extreme case of boredom.
She lay back on her bed, her foot thumping against the foot-board anxiously; she’d already finished polishing Ripper, so that was out, and she didn’t think Bro Santa would appreciate her waking up Dear and Guita. He’d probably say something about them needing sleep to grow and she was not in the mood for a lecture this late (or ever). She stretched her limbs over her head, hoping that would jolt some life back into her.
Nope, she was still bored.
It was officially time to go find another Akuta member and pester them into staying up with her. She mulled over the possibilities: maybe they could sneak something from the kitchen, play a round of cards, or just stay up late talking about anything and everything; even just having some company would be better than being alone.
The question was, who was gonna be her lucky partner in crime?
It was a fairly easy choice, considering Zanka was still recovering from his fight with Jabber, he needed all the rest he could get. And Enjin was probably long dead to the world, passed out in his room, or the couch in the common room, or some secret third place; that man really could sleep anywhere.
So that left only one person.
In the quiet of her room, she grinned to herself.
She’d been hoping to have an excuse to visit the ex-Spherite again. The question was, were his windows still unlocked?
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Riyo quickly discovered that, yes, Rudo still didn’t bother to lock his windows at night, something that, if she were a responsible teammate, she should lecture him for. But where was the fun in that? Besides, lecturing was better saved for someone like Zanka.
Grabbing the frame, she swung into the room with the grace of a gymnast, dismounting onto the disheveled covers on his bed with a bounce. She glanced around the dark room, looking for the young cleaner.
The room looked like a polluted zone; Rudo’s room had acquired a good number of trinkets since she’d last visited. One corner was home to a number of various objects, some in disrepair, others in decent enough condition, which was impressive enough considering they were on the ground. Tools were scattered about, from hammers, to a rusty wrench that she recalled Rudo rescuing from a trash pile during their last mission. Unlike most givers, who kept to their one item, the boy had amassed a very impressive collection, from a stack of bowls, to a violin missing its strings, and even a broken microwave; she wasn’t even going to try to guess how he planned to use that.
And that wasn’t even mentioning the ‘normal’ disarray of a teenage boy’s room: shirts littered the floor, whether they were clean or not was anyone’s guess, dresser drawers hung open, looking like they were clinging desperately to the edge. There were even a couple of posters haphazardly tacked to the walls. The phrase ‘organized chaos’ sprung to Riyo’s mind.
Reassurance washed over her, a serene smile stretching across her face. She’d been worried about how Rudo was settling into his new home, hell, if he even felt safe enough to call HQ his home. From day one, Riyo had never met someone so jumpy and skittish before. It was honestly hilarious. But she did hope that one day, Rudo would feel comfortable, and she did her best (in her own Riyo way) to make him feel welcome.
This messy room of ‘organized chaos’ was proof that he was putting down roots, leaving his mark on the room.
Shifting her head, she finally found the owner of said ‘organized chaos’.
Rudo sat hunched over his workbench. It looked like he was deeply absorbed in some project. He seemed to be drawing something, his face inches away from his paper. And he hadn’t noticed her presence yet.
An evil grin slid across her face.
Sliding off the bed, she inched her way behind the bench, her hands raised like a tiger ready to pounce.
Her target was in sight.
Nearly there…
Her hands clamped down on his shoulders, and she leaned right into his ear.
“BOO!”
She remembered seeing a cat in town once. A scrawny, scrappy looking animal, likely a stray. It had been sniffing along the ground, maybe hunting, or maybe it found something it liked, she couldn’t tell the difference. Until a noise from an alleyway had startled it. The cat achieved lift off, launching itself into the air, all four paws leaving the ground. Its tail puffed up, like it had just finished rubbing against a balloon, fur sticking out in all directions. Then it let out a startled yowl, before taking off back down the street as though its tail was on fire.
The only difference between the cat and Rudo, was that Rudo had jumped higher and shrieked louder than that kitty ever did.
There was no force on Earth that could contain her howling laughter.
When Rudo finally came back down, physically and metaphorically, his face looked so tight, with a sneer that reminded her of a tiny, furious puppy, she couldn’t help but laugh harder.
“Riyo?! What the hell?!”
“What?” She said, through her cackles, “you should be used to my signature greetings by now!”
Her smirk grew, ruffling the boy’s fluffy, white hair, which he shook off with a growl.
“Knock it off”, he whined, attempting to duck out of her reach and failing miserably. She raised her hands in mock surrender; she knew when to back down after some good-natured teasing.
“So”, Riyo glanced around Rudo, trying to catch a glimpse of what he’d been working so diligently on. “What’s got you up this late, hmm?”
Rudo immediately broke eye contact, a blush quickly rising up his neck and spreading across his cheeks. “It’s just a picture.”
Riyo nodded, assuming Rudo’s new fascination for drawing was the product of his hangout with Team Child and Remlin (word traveled quickly around HQ about Rudo’s little play-date; she wished she had been there to see it).
“Lemme see it.”
“No way!”
Faster than she could blink, Rudo was in front of his workbench, throwing his arms out like that would keep her from seeing it.
“No! I mean, it’s no good!”
She raised an eyebrow. That had been a strong reaction. Of course, it wasn’t impossible that Rudo was just embarrassed over his amateur drawing skills, but the tone in his voice was so…defensive.
“It can’t be that bad. Come on.” She tried again, only for Rudo to shake his head and point an accusatory finger at her.
“You made me smear it! So no, you don’t get to see it!”
Okay, she felt a little bad about that. Clearly Rudo had been working hard on…whatever he’d been working on, and it meant something to him. With a hand on her hip, she leaned over his shoulder to see.
A man she’d never seen before stared back at her. He was only half completed, still missing his nose and mouth. Whoever this man was, he would look much better with a smile. And there was one very out of place line starting at what was probably supposed to be this person’s eyebrows. It cut clean across from his forehead to the bottom of the face.
Tracing over it with her finger, she said, “You could just erase it. No harm done.” She reassured him.
But Rudo shook his head. “It’s…it’s fine. I’ll just start over”, he grumbled, reaching past her and snatching the picture from his desk. The way he crushed it into a ball and chucked it to the floor made her wonder if he had a personal vendetta against the picture. “It didn’t look right anyway.” Then he shouldered past her and took his seat. Rudo slid another piece of paper off the top of the stack and went back to work.
It was then she finally noticed the other crumpled papers scattered on the floor. There were at least seven of them, not counting the one that just recently joined its buddies. Curiously, she unfolded one and was greeted by the same man she’d seen in the earlier drawing, albeit a little bit more complete. This one had wider eyes than the last one, ridiculously big, taking up nearly half the face. The hair was different too, where the last one had wavy hair, this one sported a nearly stick-straight style.
She unfolded another one.
Again, the same man. This one sported a chin-length bob cut and windowed bangs, making it look like he was peaking through a curtain.
She glanced at the other papers near her feet.
How many of these had the same man drawn on them? Who was this mystery man? And why was Rudo so focused on drawing him?
The questions just kept piling up and Riyo could tell from Rudo’s stiff posture and silence that she wouldn’t be getting any answers.
She glanced at the drawing again, and shrugged.
It’s not like any harm came from drawing. Maybe Rudo was just practicing so he could impress his friends the next time they hung out. It wasn’t like Remlin didn’t get engrossed in their art when they drew.
Even though an uncertain feeling nagged at the back of her mind, she pushed it further back.
It’s nothing to worry about.
With that cleared up, at least mentally, she remembered her original reason for coming here.
“Mind if I hang around?” She drawled, lazily.
Rudo didn’t even turn to face her. “I… guess you can…just don’t scare me again.”
“No promises”, she sang with a wink, even though he wasn’t looking.
She settled herself back on his bed, folding her hands behind her head, watching the shadows from the lamp dance across the ceiling. Next to her, was the very audible ‘scritch’ and ‘scratch’ of an artist working late into the night, every so often interrupted by mutters that made her wonder if she should’ve pushed more about the drawing.
“No…that’s not it either…”
“Wait…is that right?”
“Come on, remember…remember!”
A sinking feeling settled into her stomach, as she rolled over onto her side.
It’s…probably nothing to worry about.