Work Text:
Ken:
One more look through the plan just to make sure it would work. It didn’t matter if it was a simple job, it never hurt to be absolutely certain. Biting off more than you thought you could chew was a one-way ticket to vanishing off the face of the island.
They needed this job though. Ken needed it for a number of reasons, but Mud had been itching for a chance to grab some Scarab for a while now. They had been ‘just managing’ for far too long, and this looked promising.
There was an exchange between a couple of big Rotling families happening on the edge of the District. A shit ton of money would be involved. According to Ken’s sources, he and his brother Mud should be able to get into the storage and grab it before anyone noticed. They just needed to off a few grunts briefly, and they’d be golden. With Jack waiting for them to hightail it away, it should be an easy hit for them.
They’ll be fine, right?
Ken looked up at the shop. He had bought the place ages ago but still hadn’t gotten the Scarab needed to set up properly. With Mud and a couple of friends crashing with them, it was no more than a crappy apartment right now. This had the take they needed to finally get things rolling for his business. These were big names they were hitting too, names that had gotten far too comfortable to keep themselves secure. Plenty of people looking for work would want in on the District’s newest crew when they hear about it.
After working for other crime bosses and trying to find their footing for ages, he and Mud were finally going to have their names known down here.
“Mud!” Ken called. “Get yourself ready. We’re going on a job, a big one.”
“Finally!” Ken’s brother shouted. Mud’s slimy green head peeked out from the doorway. “Can’t wait to get some furniture in this place, I can’t be bothered with the suitcase anymore. What kind of gig have we got?”
“A big one.”
“How very helpful, you’d make a great tour guide.”
“Go get your fucking gear.”
Mud went to the cabinet where they kept the guns. Ken went back to scanning over his plans for the hundredth time. A decision needed to be made. Having an extra pair of hands would help, and he would need to give the kid a talk either way, but would it be the right time to…?
“Go get Breadhead too,” Ken eventually mumbled. “He’s coming with us.”
Mud turned to his brother, halfway through loading a handgun and with a perplexed look on his face. “Say that again, Kenny Boy?”
“Breadhead,” Ken repeated, gritting his teeth. “We’re bringing him.”
Mud raised an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t want him on jobs yet.”
“I know what I said!”
Taking a breath, Ken unclenched his fist and continued, “I thought about what you’ve been saying. The kid’s going to be a part of the business, and experience would do him some good. Besides, he might be of some use here. We’re bringing him.”
Mud still didn’t look convinced. Looking between the back door and Ken, he murmured, “you never listen to me, why would you start now? He’s still just a kid”
Ken could hear a piano playing faintly above him. The thought of putting his little bun in danger scared him, but at least he could sew extra limbs on in case of a proper disaster. As tempting as it was to leave him here at the shop, trying to explain it to him afterwards was just another headache waiting for him. He had to do this.
“We can keep him safe,” Ken grumbled. “I won’t make him do anything I don’t think he can handle, but the extra pair of hands would improve our chances nonetheless. This job is what we need to get the shop started. It has to go right.”
Mud sighed, sliding the gun into his jacket. “If you say so, you claimed fathership on the little rascal.” Leaning back, he called up at the ceiling “Breadhead! Papa Kenny and I are taking you on a trip!”
Ken sighed as he heard Breadhead stomp down the stairs. No going back now.
He went into the back room quickly before the debrief to check on the box. Everything was still in order. He was still concerned about how he was going to sneak it onto the site and bring it back along with the money, but there was nothing else for it. It was the most convincing story he could think of for the others.
Breadhead was with Mud by the time Ken returned to the shop front. Seeing those innocent, bulbous red eyes magically got Ken to relax a little. He smiled at his crusty boy.
“What do you say to going out on a little field trip with Papa and Mud?” Ken asked.
Breadhead grinned. “Sounds good, boss!”
*
Breadhead.
Breadhead had never been fully sure what ‘going on a job’ meant when Ken and Mud were going out, but they had just started and he was already having so much fun.
He got to sit next to Uncle Mud as Jack drove really fast through the District, and now they were at the city’s edge and he got a chance to look out at the sea. It was beautiful, and the large building they had stopped at looked so cool. He was having a great time.
Ken told him to stay in the car for ‘Step One’ as he and Mud pulled guns out. Breadhead sat in the car with Jack, listening to the radio as loud bangs went off in the distance. Once it stopped, Jack nodded to him to say he could get out now.
Breadhead found Mud and Ken struggling with the big garage door. There were bodies littered around the building, all of them tied up. Breadhead stood back for a while, feeling like he should be doing something. Once Mud had slid under the door, he decided to step in to hold it. He managed to push it up properly without a bother.
Ken stared at him in surprise while Mud smirked and said “And you wanted to leave him behind, Ken!”
Ken rolled his eyes as he entered. Breadhead followed, feeling bad for embarrassing him. He cheered up quickly when he saw the inside of the building, though. It was huge, with boxes stacked up to the ceiling! Breadhead couldn’t help but giggle. They were here on work, but just imagining running around here gave him the jitters.
“We have about seven minutes before someone arrives,” Ken told them. “The grunts won’t be going anywhere when they wake up, but we want to be out of here as soon as possible. The Scarab isn’t in a crate, but it could be tucked away anywhere, so make sure to check everywhere.”
Ken was staring at the ground when he said all that. Something seemed to be on his mind, but Breadhead didn’t want to bother him. Mud slid away, so he followed for a while before breaking away to do his own search.
There were a lot of boxes and working around them wasn’t easy. Breadhead searched as quickly as he could, while also trying not to make too much of a mess.
Soon enough, he pushed a crate aside to find an outline in the floor. He called Mud over, who helped him pry it open. Inside was a large, heavy chest.
“Right on the money, my boy,” Mud said with a grin and a thumbs up.
“Hey, Ken!” Breadhead called, heaving the chest out of the floor and holding it up. “We found the money!”
Ken didn’t respond. Mud called for him again, but there was still silence.
The pair came out from behind the boxes to see where he was. Breadhead found him eventually, surrounded by boxes in the corner of the room.
“Ken?” he called. “We found the money, shouldn’t we go?”
Ken grumbled something Breadhead couldn’t hear. He was looking in a box and didn’t seem to notice them.
“What was that?”
Ken pulled something out of the crate. “We need to bring this as well,” he said.
“What is it?” Breadhead asked. Ken shook his head, moving towards the door. He was trying to hide what he was carrying, but Breadhead heard it make a noise. It was a small, high pitched shriek.
He managed to catch a glimpse of what it was; it was a little person.
*
Mud.
“Ken, I need you to be honest with me. What the hell is that thing?”
Ken was leaning over the child, his arms around it protectively as if it was made of gold. He was glaring at Mud like he was about to pluck the little thing up and eat it. In truth, Mud didn’t want to touch it until he was told what it was his brother had dragged back to their shop.
Okay, maybe Mud was being a bit dramatic, because the one thing he could see clearly was that it was a person. A baby, even, so it probably couldn’t harm him at all even if it wanted to. What it certainly was not was a Rotling though. Its skin was solid and its limbs were not bent into corkscrews. It looked like an abomination compared to everything around it.
“‘That thing,’” Ken growled, “is the latest addition to the family.”
Breadhead stretched to peek down into the box. Mud didn’t want to tell him to keep away from it, but he had a hand on his nephew’s shoulder.
“Ken,” Mud said as sternly as he could around his brother. “Before you start spouting shit like that, you need to tell us what it is.”
“What the hell does she look like to you?” Ken barked. “She’s just a child!”
“Exactly! Ken, look at her. She isn’t one of us. She isn’t anything like Breadhead here, either. She looks so… alive.”
Ken slid back a bit, but was still on his guard. “What’s the problem then?”
Mud sighed, trying to calm down a little. “We don’t know what she is, Kenny. You just grabbed her from the storage, the one where a buncha murderous lunatics were stashin’ scarab and weapons. She’s something important, and that normally means that she’s dangerous.”
Mud waited for Ken to reply, expecting another yell. Ken didn’t lash out again though. Instead, he reached into the box and pulled the child out, cradling her carefully like she would shatter against the ground.
Mud stepped back as Ken approached, but forced himself not to flee. He looked at the child in his brother’s arms, and she looked back at him with giant bug eyes.
“She’s cute,” Breadhead laughed.
Mud gave Ken a hard stare, still waiting for answers.
“Mud, look at her,” Ken said. “I won’t tell you I know what she is, nor what those maniacs were doing with her, but… she needed somewhere to go.”
I at least knew where Breadhead came from, Mud wanted to say, but Ken continued before he could.
“You remember Paradise Lost? It was a risk staying behind to make sure you got out as well, but I could tell the place was killing you as much as it was killing me. You may be my brother, but that wasn’t the only reason I helped you. I knew that you needed me, and so I risked everything so you could come with me.
“I feel the same way then as I do now. This might be a risk, but I want her to be safe. I had to do something.”
Mud folded his arms. Ken was very convincing, but it was bothering him more and more about what the child was doing in the storeroom. He had looked at the plans; it made no sense why a child would be a part of a deal like that, no matter what kind of lab she might have been grown in.
“Ken?”
“What is it, Mud?”
“…You would never lie to me, would ya?”
Ken raised an eyebrow. “Where did this come from?”
“Would you lie to me, Ken?” Mud asked. It was hard to look foreboding next to Ken, but he did his best. “Be honest with me.”
Sighing, Ken shook his head. “I would not lie to you.”
“And you wouldn’t put me or Bready in danger?”
“Give it some time, Mud. If there is ever a sign that you two are in danger, I’ll do anything I can to protect you both.”
Breadhead, who had been hanging onto Ken’s arm to watch the baby this whole time, looked at both Rotlings. “Does this mean we’re keeping her?”
Mud nodded, patting Breadhead’s back. “Seems like you have a little sister now, kiddo.” He went to the front desk and looked into the bag of Scarab. “And we’ll need to do a room up for her.”
“Mud, I promised you a cut of it –” Ken began, but Mud cut him off.
“It’s a family fund, and we need to prioritise.” He looked at the door to the freezer. “I’ll try sleeping on a spare meat hook, it’ll at least be an interesting change.”
Ken grinned. “I’ll remember this, Mud. Thank you.”
Mud smiled back, but it was fake. Something was definitely up; Ken was never that thought-out when negotiating, especially on something as spontaneous as this. He was hiding something.
The kid looked fine, but Mud knew he was going to have to keep an eye on her, just to be sure.