Chapter Text
When that cursed day came around, Enjin was—funnily enough looking for Riyo.
He had found the most abhorrent looking frog plushie, that reminded him of the redhead a lot—the eyes were wide and stupid looking, it was similar to a look Riyo had when she got overly silly. A look she constantly had when both of them ganged up on one of the boys, and teased mercilessly, that stupid weird bulging silly eyes look of hers that Enjin found hilarious.
So of course, Enjin had to buy it the minute his eyes landed on it. It wasn’t a weird thing, he always bought stuff for Akuta members. Stuff that reminded him of each and every one of the kids.
And Enjin was finding himself constantly buying stupid looking plushies for Riyo, it made her laugh and smile. And for Enjin, that was a reward.
Cause she deserves all the good things he could offer her.
He had just returned from a solo job, and the first thing he did was knock on her room’s door.
No answer. It told Enjin that she wasn’t in her room. So he back tracked and decided that it was best to head to his room, change, and get some damn food in his system.
And that’s exactly what he did.
Down in the dining hall, Enjin was greeted by the sight of a pissy Rudo.
“What got ya panties twisted, sunshine?” The tattooed blond asked, and Rudo whipped his head around to look at Enjin. A sudden look overtook the kid’s face, as if he wanted to tell Enjin something—but Rudo huffed his cheeks instead, lower lip sticking out as he clenched his teeth.
“Nothin’….” Rudo shrugged, and it was absolutely anything but nothing, “alright, doesn’t sound like nothing though.” He blobs down next to Rudo, arm landing on the boy’s shoulders as he squashes the kid with his weight. “Come on~ tell me what got ya pissy, fess up kid—“ Enjin threw him a dirty smile, he knew how to get Rudo talking “—trouble in paradise wit’ ya girl?”
The girl in question was none other than Riyo. Who Rudo’s been seriously with for about eight months now.
At first, Enjin didn’t know what to think of the two together. He initially chalked up to kids and their outrages hormones that made it so that they needed an outlet or whatnot.
And Enjin totally believed Riyo was using Rudo as an outlet, and it seemed like that to everyone else.
He didn’t say anything at first, he believed Riyo knew better than to do that kind of thing to Rudo.
And he was right, because one late night conversation in his room with the girl told Enjin everything he needed to know. And understand that this was an honest thing between them.
And Enjin’s happy for them, mostly for Riyo, because he knew it was hard for her to admit her feelings to herself before she did to Rudo.
“Actually… it is.” Rudo’s answer throws Enjin off, the blond blinks repeatedly.
“Oh…” he was cringing inwardly, noticing the butthurt look on Rudo’s face, “what happened?” Enjin was trying to be calm about this—and he’s not proud that his first thought was what the fuck did Riyo do? Because it could be Rudo who started it, and he doesn’t want to take sides—fuck! This is torture!
“Riyo—she’s—“ Rudo sighed, scratching above his eyebrow in frustration. It seemed to Enjin like he was having a hard time even wanting to talk it out.
“She’s been doing something, and—I don’t like it, I keep telling her to stop, she ain’t listening to me…” there’s a slight pause before Rudo found his voice again, giving Enjin a side glance as he continued. “It’s disgusting… and I don’t want her doing it, but she brushes me off and says she likes it and it’s fine and that I don’t have to like since she’s the one doing it and all.”
Oh for fucks sake—can the ground just swallow me! Enjin for a fact knows that whatever this is, has to be—something like—ya know! Kind of thing, and he ain’t proud by the slew of things that Rudo could possibly mean that are now running through his mind now.
Enjin feels like throwing up, he really does. But doesn’t want Rudo to feel ashamed for talking to him about—this. But Enjin can’t handle it, no way, he can’t.
“Rudo, pal,” he placed a hand over the boy’s mouth, Enjin’s face turned sour, and Rudo gulped at that. “I—you can, you can talk to me about anything that troubles you with your relationship, okay? I’ll listen, throw in my two cents or whatnot, that’s that—“ Enjin takes a deep breath and followed it by a deep exhale, “—but, I ain’t listening or engaging in conversations with you about that. Got it? It’s also the last thing I wanna be made aware of. So keep what you two do in the sheets, to. Your. Goddamn. Self.”
The silence that followed between the two was… awkward, and horrifying as it dawned on Rudo that Enjin thought he was talking to him about—what he and Riyo get to on their private time together—the screech that the Spherite lets out is grating and loud, and it causes the entirety of the dining hall to turn their heads in Rudo and Enjin’s direction.
“I WAS NOT TALKING ABOUT THAT!”
Oh, fuck. And Enjin, with a tired expression, realizes his mistake.
And a part of him is relieved it wasn’t about that.
Rudo pulls him outside in panic and embarrassment, unable to handle the looks everyone was giving him in the dining hall. And Enjin allows him to, wanting to get away from the awkward stares himself.
It takes Rudo a full five minutes to recover, and when he does, he just glares at Enjin with a pouty face and simply says, “can you go talk to Riyo? She’s up on the roof of the building.”
And Enjin does just that.
It takes him a while till he reaches the top of the building, taking the elevator and then the stairs for the rest of the way.
And then he’s on the roof, stretches his body out and takes a whiff of the air.
I know that stench, is that—
It takes Enjin a split second to figure out that he’s smelling smoke, from a cigar.
He follows the source of the smell, mere steps brings him face to face with the person that’s the cause of the smell, the person that’s been smoking and stinking the roof with the smell.
And the sight makes Enjin do a double take.
Because it’s—
“WHAT THE FUCK RIYO?!”
The shriek that comes out of Enjin’s mouth is mortifying, filled with horror, and absolute shock as he watches Riyo, who’s leaning against the parapet wall, and huffing out a copious amount of smoke from her nostrils—and a fucking cigarette is clutched in her hand.
Her eyes catch his, and Riyo is equally mortified to see Enjin standing there, mouth wide open and staring at her hand that was holding the cigarette in her right hand. She’s sweating anxiously, beads falling down as Riyo mutters to herself ‘shit, busted’—and to be fair, the redhead hadn’t anticipated Enjin’s return at all, nor the fact that he’d be on the rooftop all of a sudden.
It’s an agonising moment of shocked stares being exchanged between the redhead and the blond man, both are still and gaping at one another.
Enjin didn’t know what to expect today, or any day to be fair. But he never expected to find any of his team members engaging in any sort of bad habits, mainly ones that he is guilty of—such as smoking.
He never had to worry about that before, mainly because… well, it was an unspoken thing, that Enjin wasn’t a rule model, and was not a great example to go by.
Like—for anyone, ever.
In his defense, Enjin didn’t think any of the kids would pick up his bad habits. Zanka’s a hard ass and came from a noble family, so he scoffed at the sort of stuff Enjin did. Rudo’s a loud mouthed pipsqueak who deep down was a good kid all around, and had Gris as a solid role model to keep him in line and to advise him and set him straight against Enjin’s notorious bad habits.
So of course, Riyo would be the one to pick up his bad habits. And she picked the nastiest one.
Maybe it shouldn’t be a shock to Enjin, ever since he picked up the girl years ago she’s been attached to him, imitating his every move at times to try and earn herself a place to belong, thinking that acting like him would make Riyo come across more like…. A human, rather than a tool.
His train of thoughts was cut off as he got another whiff of the smoke scent that came from Riyo’s lit cigar, and Enjin registered right away that—he needed to scold her.
“THROW IT!”
—xXx—
“And you’re hiding in my room because…?” Rudo asked, not bothering to take his eyes off from his latest project to look at the redhead that was barricading his door and windows.
“Enjin caught me smoking!” Riyo heaved in a panic as she sealed his window shut, the first time he’d ever seen her act like this—usually she didn’t care what anyone had to say about whatever it was that she got up to—but Enjin had yelled at her, actually began chasing her the minute she threw the cigarette on the ground.
Thankfully, she managed to lose him quickly in the chase, and made her way down to the nearest place that wasn’t her room (since Enjin had a key to her room, hiding there would be useless).
And so, Rudo’s room was her current refuge.
“I told you, eventually he’d find out.” Rudo sighed, and Riyo didn’t miss the disappointed undertone to his words.
In truth, Riyo never planned on ever smoking, or getting into the act completely. But not long after the doll festival almost a year back.
After the mess of the doll festival, and the shit she’s been dealing with and trying to suppress after Rudo had asked her back then to kill him if he started acting crazy—Riyo needed something to numb the thoughts, make her feel anything else but the constant tiredness that she had been dealing with.
And so, she started smoking as a way to cope—she’s disgusted with herself, mind you. But the minute she started smoking she couldn’t stop.
She had gone to great lengths to hide the fact that she smokes, never smoked in her room, never smoked when Enjin was near, never smoked when the majority of the cleaners were home and near. Always smoked on the roof since no one hardly ever went up there. Made sure to always change her clothes after smoking, something Riyo always did, more so considering she never had a specific smell to her—so the smell of smoke on her with no sight of Enjin around would be a dead giveaway.
Riyo was always careful.
Until she slipped up the first time.
And Rudo caught on that she was smoking.
The day Rudo found out, was a complete accident and laziness on her part. She had just came back from a job that day, and had been so tired to do anything—but she needed the little buzz she always got from huffing some smoke, and so she went to the roof, took a couple of minutes to herself, and once Riyo had her fix of nicotine for the night—she went to see her boyfriend for some cuddles, completely forgoing changing her smelly clothes, believing that Rudo wouldn’t notice the ashy smell of cigar on her already trashy smelling clothes.
Fortunately, it wasn’t the smell that gave her away.
It was the kissing.
As soon as Riyo went in for a quick kiss the minute they laid down in Rudo’s bed, the Spherite pulled away quickly, throwing a disgusted look at Riyo—which then was followed by Rudo focusing on her smell, and then realizing that Riyo was, in fact, smoking.
“…were you around Enjin before coming here?”
“Uhhh…. Why’re you asking?” Riyo blinked, but still managed to keep a normal face while Rudo pulled away slightly from her, setting upright on his bed. “I mean, I was. But why’s that important?”
Rudo squinted his eyes at the redhead, not completely convinced, but he was sure that his suspicions were right.
One, the smell was there, Rudo knew it, he’s been around Enjin long enough to know the smell by even the tiniest whiff—and judging by it, Riyo was using the same brand Enjin smoked.
Second, when she kissed him just now, Rudo gagged at the terrible taste he got from her lips. The sudden chalkiness to her usually soft lips, it threw him off.
“Riyo.”
“Yes?”
“…you’ve been smoking, haven’t you?”
……
And that was almost two months ago, since then, Riyo had been more careful to make sure she didn’t slip up again like she did with Rudo.
To say that Rudo was livid at her was an understatement, in fact, he stopped talking to her for nearly three days when he found out she’s been smoking.
Riyo barely managed to get him to forgive her, she had to bribe him with a whole month’s worth of sweets, and extra cuddles (which is a win for her too) to get him to lay off with his anger about smoking. She’s been more careful about smoking now that Rudo was aware she did so, indulging the habit more on the days he wasn’t around and out on a job.
But there was a down side to Rudo finding out. He's been withholding cuddles from her. If he noticed she was doing it, she had told him she'd quit—but then he’d find her doing it when he searches for her and finds her on the roof. And no cuddling has been putting her in a sour mood.
(she really, really likes to cuddle, okay? Rudo’s cuddles are the best, and she loves it. Don’t judge her!)
Unfortunately she had the itch more so today than any other day, she tried to shake Rudo off for a while to sneak up to smoke—but just as she was heading up to the roof from her room, Rudo caught her going up as he came to see her, and caught the packet of cigars and the lighter in her hand as she was stuffing them into her pocket.
And a fight ensued between them, more so because Rudo was worried for her health. Something that Riyo wasn’t used to, and didn’t know how to respond to such genuine concern—so she lashed out, unintentionally.
She wasn’t used to this level of concern over trivial things, when she got injured, yes, people got worried, and she was used to that. Enjin hovered over her in the infirmary when she got injured more than anybody did, more than Rudo does sometimes. And she’s used to Enjin worrying over her, because the kind of relationship they have with each other made her see him like her older brother, and older brothers always worry.
But Rudo losing it and becoming concerned over her for smoking, indulging a bad habit that Enjin himself did—didn’t make sense to Riyo, and she couldn’t handle him being too pushy when he meant well.
It made her feel bad for lashing out at him, she still does.
“How did he even know I was up there?” Riyo groaned, blobbing down on Rudo’s bed, thankfully she didn’t notice how the Spherite suddenly stiffened at her words.
“The fact that you thought you’d be able to hide it this long is worrying,” Rudo sighed, finally turning around to look at his girlfriend with disapproval, “I said it once, and I’m saying it again—“ crossing his arms over his chest, Rudo tried making himself look more firm and cross, “—stop smoking.”
“Fat chance.”
“RIYO!”
“I’m not quitting! I like smoking!” Riyo stuck her tongue at him, huddling into the upper edge of his bed near the corner of the wall with a pout, hugging her knees to her chest, puffing her cheeks as she averted her gaze from Rudo. “It helps me relax…” the redhead whined, a move she knew always shut Rudo up whenever he started scolding her over anything.
But this time, it wasn’t working.
And to Riyo’s absolute horror, Rudo lifted his hand to his choker, “Enjin—“
“Don’t you dare.”
“—Riyo’s in my room.”
—xXx—
A few minutes earlier with Enjin.
“Has anyone seen Riyo?!”
Semiu and Gris looked up from where they sat in the lounge room, to see a disheveled looking Enjin coming into the room, with messy hair and out of breath.
Semiu threw him a questioning look, arching one of her eyebrows in confusion, “nope, why’re you asking?”
“I think I saw her awhile back, it looked like she was angry about something, why?” Gris asked, closing the book he’d been reading.
Enjin grumbled, rubbing his face in frustration as he placed a hand over his hip, “you won’t believe what I caught her doing…” the tattooed blond sighed, and Semiu and Gris shared a worried look, then turned their gazes back to Enjin, waiting for him to continue.
“She was smoking, can you believe that?!”
…
A choked laugh erupted suddenly, causing both Enjin and Gris to look at Semiu with confused stares. Both men were surprised to see Semiu losing it, rubbing over her eyes with her fingers.
To be fair, Semiu tried to control her laughter, but every time her eyes met Enjin’s horror filled eyes, her laughter increases and drags on longer than it was normal for Semiu.
“Oh, boy—it finally happened,” she wheezed uncontrollably, wiping a tear away as she continued laughing. “One of them kids picked up your bad habits.”
“This isn’t funny!” Enjin protested, clearly in distress as he held his fists in his hair, groaning as Semiu continued to laugh. “I’m serious! I just caught her on the roof smoking! And when I yelled at her to throw the damn thing—she sprinted past me and got away! I was out of breath while she made it down the stairs in mere seconds!”
“And take a guess why you couldn’t catch her?” Semiu said, a hand over her chest as she tried to even her breathing out after that laughing fit, trying to compose herself. “…I don’t see how that’s relevant.” Enjin muttered, shooting Semiu a nasty glare.
He knew that smoking for as long as he did actually did cause some lasting damage, one of them was that he suffered with severe shortness of breath once he tried hard physical exercises, running was something he couldn’t do easily any more. But he could power through the shortness of breath when necessary.
“Very relevant, actually.” Semiu scoffed, scooting over where she sat to make room for the tattooed blond to sit down. “Can’t say I’m surprised that Riyo’s smoking, in fact I had my suspicions.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” Enjin grumbled, blobbing down on the couch next to the white head woman, “wasn’t my place—plus, figured it was no problem with you, since you know, you smoke and all. Shouldn’t be surprised that the girl that hangs around you constantly and hangs on to every word you say ended up picking up your nasty habits.” Semiu shrugged, arms crossed over her chest, one leg perched over the other, and Enjin didn’t miss the clear disapproval and accusation Semiu threw his way.
She was literally saying, Riyo smoking is your fault.
And damn it, it really was.
“…wait,” Enjin suddenly said, a look of realization settling on his face as he thought back on a certain interaction today. “Rudo knew?!” The tattooed man was baffled as the realization hit—the kid knew! And he purposefully told him to seek Riyo at the roof, so Enjin would find her. And catch her smoking.
“Oh—that makes sense then, he was angry today,” Gris piped up, a hand over his chin in thought, “I heard him argue with Riyo when I was coming down. And then I saw her storming away,” the scarred blond looked over to Enjin, “and when I approached Rudo to talk to him and find out what’s wrong, he stormed away too. But I heard him say something like ‘I’m telling Enjin.’ Or something along those lines.”
“Oh, so he was tryin’ to snitch on her. Boyfriend of the year, honestly.” Enjin grumbled, so he found out why Rudo had been pissy when he came back earlier. That’s a plus, but on the other hand, a member of Akuta is a snitch and that wasn’t something Enjin liked. But maybe he’ll let it go because Rudo had Riyo’s best interest in mind by pulling that stunt.
“He cares about her, which I would say is better than turning a blind eye to it.” Semiu said, turning to Enjin with a firm look, uncrossing her arms and resting one of them behind her on the couch’s backrest. “You need to fix this, bonehead.” The Golden eyed woman spoke, the disappointment in her voice was clear as day as she glared down at Enjin. “It’s one thing for you to smoke, but if one of the kids starts picking up your habits, it becomes a problem—one you have to set straight.”
“And how exactly do you want me to do that?!” Enjin grumbled again, hand running through his hair, frowning with a pouty lip.
“Easy, set an example. A good one, Riyo always looked up to you—more than anyone. Since the moment you brought her here, she’s been trying to act like you all the time when she first joined, following you as her example to be a person.”
Enjin was quiet for a moment, soaking up Semiu’s words. Set an example she said, well, damn. He wasn’t a role model, made it clear he didn’t want anyone to imitate him.
But here was Riyo, imitating him, the first person she ever allowed herself to trust. The person she saw as family, as a brother, maybe even sometimes a father figure. He knew that much, and he was fond of her as much as she was of him.
Yeah, fuck. It really was on him, it was his responsibility to set this bad habit straight.
Because truly, out of everyone. He couldn’t stand seeing Riyo pick up his nasty habits. He could handle it if it was Zanka or Rudo, but not Riyo.
Just as he was about to open up his mouth to thank Semiu for talking some sense into him—Enjin’s choker began to buzz.
And what came through was Rudo’s voice.
“Enjin, Riyo’s in my room.”
—xXx—
When Enjin reached Rudo’s room, he was met with the loud noises of things crashing that made him stop dead in his tracks—and almost turn back.
Alas, he had to talk to Riyo, so he braved up and pushed open the door.
The first thing that greeted him was Riyo, pushed down on the floor, arms held back with her wrist pinned to her back. Rudo was on top of her, placing his whole weight on the girl as he pinned her arms back, wrists clutched in his gloved hands.
“Took you long enough, turdface!” Rudo scowled at the blond man as he stood in the doorway to his room, Riyo struggling underneath him to get up—but damn it! Rudo had gained a lot of weight over the past few months and had grown a bit taller, which made it difficult for Riyo to shake him off like she usually was able to during hand-to-hand training.
So Riyo resorted to kicking his back with the heels of her feet, in hopes of trying to put him off balance, “Enjin! Get him off me! He’s fucking heavy!” Riyo pleaded, groaning as Rudo reached one hand behind to pin her legs down, “stop kicking me! I’m doing this for your own good!” Rudo argued, growing visibly tired of Riyo’s fighting. “Oh—bullshit!” Riyo argued back, struggling to free her legs from his hold.
“Alright, alright!” Enjin sighed, moving inside and shutting the door behind him. “Get off, she’s a fucking twig, could easily snap in half if you don’t get your fat ass up.” Sure, Riyo was small in comparison to everyone, but was probably the most physically gifted member of Akuta due to how she swung her large scissors around and those needed quite the muscles to be used. He moved Rudo off of the girl, and immediately crouched down to Riyo’s level as she still laid on the floor for a second.
“We have a lot to talk about.” Enjin said, his tone wasn’t mad or anything, and it was clear to Riyo that he just wanted to talk. “Alright.”
They took the conversation up, Riyo sat on the edge of Rudo’s bed, with the Spherite sitting next to her, and Enjin was sitting on Rudo’s workbench chair.
It took Enjin a couple of minutes of trying to start up the conversation, and then shutting his mouth in doubt. And then he finally found his words.
“What will it take?”
Riyo blinked in confusion, giving him that wide stupid frog-like look that always cracked him up. And damn it, Enjin nearly laughed at that, but he needed to hold himself back—he needed to be serious here, nor was it the time to laugh even if the look was cracking him up.
“What will it take for what?” Riyo asks, tilting her head to the side in further confusion. Eyes focused on Enjin as she waited for him to talk, “what will it take for me to do—“ Enjin began, pointing to himself as he spoke, and then pointing his hand at the redhead in front of him “—for you to quit smoking.”
There was a beat, a sudden pause that took over the room as Enjin said that. Riyo’s eyebrows rose in surprise, eyes wide and blinking, and lips going thin as she registered what he said. Rudo next to her was baffled, gawking at Enjin—clearly not expecting this outcome. What he had expected however, that he’d force Riyo to quit right away, cold turkey, no questions asked. That’s the kind of thing someone would expect from ‘do as I say, not as I do’ Enjin.
Riyo’s silent, her eyes darted nervously to Rudo for a second, then back to Enjin, then to her lap, then back at Enjin again.
Her mouth hangs open for a split second, and then her lips are pursed, as if pondering what she could demand. Trying to think of the most bizarre request that Enjin couldn’t fulfil so he could get off her case.
And then she opens her mouth, a little challenging grin takes place on her face, “if you quit, I’ll quit. I’ll commit to it if you quit smoking with me.”
“Deal.”
“Knew you wouldn’t—Wait, what?!”
If Riyo wasn’t shocked by Enjin’s calm demeanour and how he’s been handling things since he came into Rudo’s room. Then she was now. She turned to look at Rudo, finding her boyfriend to have the same shocked reaction as her.
“Wait, wait, wait—you’ll actually quit?” Riyo asked, noticing the look of regret that settled on Enjin’s face. Probably realizing what he agreed to, “you know what I’m asking, right? For you to stop smoking too?” The redhaired laughed in shock, still processing the situation.
“I know what you asked, and I know what I agreed to.” Enjin calmly answered, fingers intertwined as he rested his hands on his stomach, leaning back into Rudo’s chair. “I ain’t a fucking hypocrite. I know that I’m the reason you even considered smoking, forcing you to quit while continuing to do so wouldn’t be smart, nor would it be fair.”
“Holy fuck, he’s actually serious.” Rudo scoffed in surprise, and Riyo let out a breathless sound in response. “He is.” She stared at the blond, still not convinced this is real, and that it’s just Enjin pulling her leg.
“So what we agreed on,” Enjin leaned forward, extending his hand towards Riyo to shake on it, “we’ll quit together, cold turkey, starting today. My packets, your packets—all get thrown, and we just quit. Sounds fair?”
Hesitantly, Riyo reached her hand out, taking Enjin’s larger one, and shaking on it. “Sounds fair.” She agrees, a part of her still isn’t convinced that Enjin’s committing to it. But Riyo still agrees nonetheless.
It’s probably good anyway that this is happening, Rudo wanted her to quit for a while. Stopped giving in to her cuddles because she was still adamant on smoking.
This is basically two birds one stone kind of thing, she quits smoking, and Rudo’s happy and cuddling her again.
Besides, quitting wouldn’t be that hard, would it?