Chapter Text
It was strange to see Zanka come home grinning like an idiot instead of his usual faux nonchalance, stranger still with that obvious bruise he sported on one side of his cheek.
Rudo quietly observed the unusual sight from his spot on the couch. Zanka, who had yet to notice him, was neatly placing his shoes on the rack by the front door, right next to where Rudo and Riyo’s shoes lay haphazardly. That unguarded smile remained on his face the whole time, which wasn’t long.
The moment Zanka looked up and noticed the look of curiosity on Rudo’s face, the smile dropped and his face contorted into a more familiar scowl, “Waddya think yer lookin’ at?”
Rudo stiffens at having been caught staring, and internally debates whether he should ask about what he had just witnessed. Well, something good must’ve happened for Zanka to smile so openly like that, right? So it shouldn’t hurt to ask. (He pointedly ignored the purple bruise.)
Scratching the back of his neck awkwardly, he asked: “Did…something good happen today?”
“Wha—No!” Zanka denied instantly, voice wavering. No longer looking at Rudo, he instead turned and speedwalked towards their shared bedroom, muttering under his breath the entire way, “Nope, nuh uh, nothin’ a’all.”
Zanka’s rambling was cut off once he shut the door, isolating himself once again.
“...was it my imagination, or was Zanka’s face a little red?” Rudo muttered to himself, looking at the room the older boy had disappeared into. Just as he contemplated the strange occurrence, the bathroom door beside the small living room burst open, revealing Riyo in her casual tees and shorts.
“Was that Zanka I heard earlier?” She asked, plopping down on the empty spot on the couch next to Rudo and making herself comfortable, legs stretching until they partially rested on top of his.
“Yeah, went straight to his room though.” Rudo scooched so his side was pressed up against the armrest, “He’s all smiley when he got back.”
“All smiley?” Riyo sat up, eyes practically shining with interest. She pulled back her legs and crossed them. Her entire body leaned forward as if listening in on a secret, “Like, smile smile? Not like, just looking friendlier than usual without his resting bitch face?”
Rudo leaned back a smidge to save his personal space, “Yeah, smile smile. He looks happy, like, really happy.”
The red-haired girl let out a low whistle, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips, “Wonder what could’ve happened, hey? Bet he aced a test or something.”
Rudo shrugged, “He didn’t say.”
“Well, if it is about school, we would know once he starts telling Enjin allll about it at dinner.”
With that, Riyo leaned back into her relaxed position on the couch, deeming the situation resolved.
Rudo glanced at the closed door of the bedroom, thinking back to the boy’s weird rambling and the bruise on his cheek. He still thought it was a little strange. Could it really just be that Zanka got a really good grade? (Again, might he add. That guy’s got the best report card in this household, not surprising considering how he buried himself in work all day.)
He looked back at Riyo, who had started to scroll on her phone during the time he was thinking, “Riyo, do you know how Zanka’s got that bruise on his face today?”
It took her a moment to look up from her phone, and another for the question to register. “Ohhh! Right, I almost forgot about that. Heard he got that from PE, you know, the usual stuff.”
“Is it the…Jab—something guy?”
“Yep, Jabber. Got competitive with him again during dodgeball or something.” She waved her phone in the air as she spoke, letting out a light giggle, “I bet their beef would be hella fun to watch, too bad we’re not in the same class.”
The name spun in his head like leftover food getting heated in the microwave, taking its time before the memories related to it emerged with a ding. Right, Jabber Wonger, the guy Zanka could complain about for hours. Rudo was pretty sure he was yapping about how the guy intentionally tripped him in the cafeteria last week.
Rudo nodded, slowly processing the words, “Huh.”
There was, in fact, no big reveal about any kind of mind-blowing grade Zanka received recently during dinner once Enjin got back from work.
The whole thing went as it usually would, which was excited rambling from Riyo and boisterous laughter from Enjin. Zanka was focused on his food, occasionally adding a few short commentaries here and there. Enjin had even asked him about the bruise, to which Zanka brushed off with a simple ‘PE accident.’
Rudo munched on his after-dinner candy while occasionally throwing discreet looks at the older boy, replaying their earlier interaction in his head.
Clearly, something else had happened to make Zanka so happy. Something not related to grades, and enough to override whatever thoughts he had after getting that bruise somewhere so easily seen on his face.
Rudo was probably overthinking it. He didn’t even know why he felt so invested in figuring out the reason behind Zanka’s smile—It was just an expression, after all! And it wasn’t like Rudo had never seen his smile before. Then why did this particular one make him so intrigued?
He shook his head as if the action could empty his thoughts. Whatever, it wasn’t his business, and it probably wasn’t that important anyway.
Scratch that, consider Zanka’s business to be officially Rudo’s. Only three days after the smile smile incident, Rudo noticed Zanka come home wearing a large, purple, and very obviously not his jacket.
Rudo sat at the same spot as before on the couch, where he was dutifully completing his homework before the front door opened. Attention caught, he watched the older boy shrug off the wet piece of clothing. Oh right, it had started to rain right after Rudo got home on the school bus. Zanka, however, with whatever club he had after school, had to walk back to the apartment.
“Hey,” Zanka greeted him, one arm carefully holding the wet jacket as he padded into the kitchen for water. The bruise on his cheek had already faded to a less noticeable yellow.
Rudo blinked, responding a second later, “Oh, hey.”
“Is the rain heavy out there?” He asked.
Zanka gulped down a glass of water before swiping back the wet strands of hair from his forehead, “Yeah, ‘s annoyin’ as hell. The weather guy said ’s gonna be a drizzle."
He scoffed, "Drizzle my ass.”
“Huh,” Rudo replied absentmindedly, more focused on the unfamiliar jacket instead. He didn’t get a good look at it while Zanka was wearing it, and now it was all bunched up under his arms. However, Rudo could still see hints of some kind of stitched design on it with metal rings. It didn’t give him much clue to where the jacket came from, but it was definitely not from Zanka’s closet. In fact, Rudo was certain Zanka didn’t even leave the apartment with a jacket that morning.
Interesting.
“Anyway, ‘m gonna go study. Call me when it‘s dinner.” With that, Zanka disappeared into his bedroom along with the purple jacket.
Call Rudo an overthinker, but he knew something was going on with Zanka, the feeling was practically tugging at him! First, it was the smile smile that had the blonde acting all weird about, and then it was the mysterious jacket he came home wearing.
Rudo knew what he had to do. He needed someone to pull him out of this meaningless spiral!
Pulling out his laptop, he logged onto his school email and opened a Google Doc, aka the Makeshift Chat.
There was no particular reason why they, Guita, Amo, Remlin, Riyo (who only appears in chat once a month), and himself, didn’t choose to communicate on any other social media platforms. But the Doc worked, so there was no reason to abandon it.
The makeshift Google Doc was created just two years ago, at first solely due to Rudo’s phoneless situation. Enjin was determined not to give Rudo a phone until he turned sixteen, but he was pretty sure Riyo got her phone way before that.
Guita also had her phone taken away a while back due to the unhealthy amount of Kaiju videos she was watching. That made the two of them the unfortunate phone-less members of the Doc chat.
So, with the intensity of someone so sure he was onto something, Rudo desperately typed.
Unsupervised Children
Rudo: I NEED HELP WITH SOMETHING.
Remlin: Need me to do ur poster design again?
Rudo: It’s related to Zanka.
Guita: WHAT IS IT TELL TELL TELL TELL
Rudo: I’m probably overthinking it but there’s stuff I’m noticing about him. The other day he came home with this huge smile on his face without explanation, and he’s all weird abt it when I asked. And today he came home wearing someone else’s jacket.
Remlin: HMMMM
Guita: SOMEONE ELSE’S JACKET??
Rudo: Yk how it started raining earlier? I guess he got it from someone since he left without a jacket this morning.
Amo: That reminds Amo of the romance stories she read before
Rudo: HUH WHAT
Remlin: OHOHOHOHOHO
Amo: Amo read about the jacket trope before, the love interest always gives the main character their jacket to shield them from the rain. Amo really likes that trope :D
Guita: WAIT IS ZANKA IN LOVE WITH SOMEONE??????
Rudo: Zanka and in love in the same sentence???
Remlin: OHOHOHOHOHO WOULDN’T THAT EXPLAIN THE SMILE THEN
Guita: AWWWWWW
Rudo: PAUSE. We don’t even know for sure if that’s the case. I can’t even imagine Zanka dating someone right now.
Remlin: Riiight, so we gotta dig into it!
Guita: WE NEED EVIDENCE
Rudo: Evidence?
Guita: Yuh like we can follow him around and see what’s up
Rudo: ISN’T THAT JUST STALKING?
Remlin: You told us you need help with something, this is the help
Rudo: Ok but we can’t just invade his privacy like that! Zanka’s scary when he’s mad
Remlin: Your already in “invading privacy” territory when you decided to tell us abt this
Riyo: *You’re
Riyo: What did I miss
Guita: SO WE GOTTA DO IT IN SECRET LIKE SPIES AND NINJAS
Amo: Amo thinks this could also be a secret relationship trope :D
Riyo: WAIT HOLD UP, ZANKA IN A POTENTIAL SECRET RELATIONSHIP? Oh hell yeah count me in for the detective work
Rudo: WHAT? ARE WE ACTUALLY STALKING HIM?
Riyo: Nahh don’t think of it as stalking, think of it like we’re making sure he’s safe, can’t let him be seduced by some weirdo right?
Rudo: SEDUCED?
Guita: OHHH so we’re like a Zanka protection squad?
Rudo: ZANKA STALKER CLUB MORE LIKE
Remlin: *Relationship investigation. Perfectly normal and safe
Riyo: Exactly. Rudo, wait for me to get home cuz I need to look at that jacket with my own two eyes.
Rudo: Sure?
Remlin: HELL YEAH WE STARTING THE INVESTIGATION TOMORROW
Guita: YAYYYYY
Riyo: Hell yeah!
Amo: :D
Rudo: WHAT
…the hell did he just start?
Later that night, Rudo lay in his bed right across the room from Zanka’s.
Lucky Riyo, getting her own room. Thankfully, this room would be Rudo’s after Zanka leaves for university.
He huffed, head turned to watch Zanka. The room was dark, the only source of light being the harsh glow from Zanka’s overworked computer. Somehow, the older boy was still hyperfocused on typing away at an assignment at his desk.
Riyo assumed Zanka must’ve dropped the purple jacket into the washing machine, since Rudo wasn’t able to spot it anywhere in the room. The two of them couldn’t even catch an extra glimpse of it between the time Zanka moved his clothes to the dryer, folded them, and arranged them in some secret compartment on his side of the room.
Seriously, did Zanka make the piece of fabric disappear into thin air or something?
“Don’t worry. If he’s cleaning it today, then he must be returning it to its owner tomorrow.” Riyo assured him after their failed investigation, “We just gotta watch him a little closer.”
He had done his best to describe the jacket’s appearance to the older girl, but she wasn’t able to match a face or a name to it. At most, Riyo thought it sounded somewhat familiar, that she might’ve seen it once or twice at school.
Rudo turned over in his bed so he wouldn’t have to stare at the bright light for any longer. Seriously, Zanka, dating someone? Or maybe— crushing on someone—or someone crushing on Zanka!?
He let out a strangled cough just at the thought of that.
“Ya good over there?” Zanka’s voice came from behind, “Ya sound like yer dyin’.”
“Just peachy,” Rudo blurted awkwardly, rubbing his throat.
“If ya say so. Night.”
The clic-clac sound of the keyboard resumed.
No, no, no way. Surely Zanka wasn’t the type to have spare time for dating, of all things? He was the definition of married to school! There was a better chance of him dating his little stick collection than an actual human being, Rudo was certain. He literally witnessed the guy kissing and whispering to the long blue stick a few days ago!
…Or was he? Dang it, the group chat’s words must be getting to him. He went to them so they could stop his overthinking, but instead, they dragged him deeper into it!
Giving a jacket to someone could very much be a friend thing to do, purely platonic. Rudo reasoned with himself. It was also very reasonable to be happy and smile smile over a friend.
RIGHT?
Someone help him.