Chapter Text
It was supposed to be a simple outing. They weren’t even fighting any trash beasts, or investigating any leads, they were just helping the mayor of Canvas town with something that honestly Rudo couldn’t remember.
The chosen group was made up of team Akuta and team Child, but without Enjin, Gris or Tomme. Enjin had gone off on some personal quest and Gris and Tomme were helping out another team with some extra support. This would have been fine except without Enjin’s ability to temper Zanka and Gris’s ability to temper everyone else, he could tell everyone was starting to get on each other’s nerves. And unfortunately most of that irritation was stemming from the antics of the youngest four.
Dear seemed to be extra grumpy for no particular reason, Guita was practically bouncing off the walls, Remlin was so bored she was painting prank spells on every spare surface, and Rudo… hates to admit that he’s also part of the problem.
The thing is, Rudo hardly ever sleeps, not because he doesn’t want to but because either his brain won’t shut down, his hands hurt too much, everything is too loud, too quiet, too bright, too dark, you get the picture. Usually he’s able to squeeze in just enough sleep to get by, a couple hours here or there. These past couple of days however, he thinks it would be generous to say that he’s got three hours of sleep in total. And when he’s this tired, his focus becomes non-existent. That’s probably why he doesn’t even remember what they’re doing here. It’s also why he’s been getting distracted by every single piece of garbage they come across.
Rudo can tell that Zanka’s been getting more and more irritated every time he has to drag him away from a pile of trash, or repeat something that was already said. And Rudo really was trying to pay attention, he really was but he just saw something shiny in that dumpster and he just wants to look really fast- he hears someone cry out, and then Remlin’s cackling, he heard Dear give a frustrated grunt and stomp his foot, Guita shrieking as a loud crash sounded, and-
“THAT’S IT!” Someone shouted, and the air went abruptly quiet. Rudo didn’t even get the chance to look up before he was being yanked away from his shiny prize by the hood of his jacket and came face to face with a fuming Zanka. The young giver winced sheepishly, ready for the older boy to start yelling at him, but surprisingly he turned to face the whole group before starting his tirade. “If you four can’t stop actin’ like children, then you’re going to be treated like children!”
Rudo felt himself being thrown forward by his hood towards the other three kids and he stumbled a bit before turning around a bit indignantly. But before he could protest the rough treatment Zanka continued, “while the adults do what we came here for, ya’ll are goin’ to run an errand!”
“Hey- I’m an adu-“ Rudo started but his voice overlapped with other protests,
“hey, you can’t just-“
“we’re just having-“
*Grunt*
“I DON’T CARE!” The staff user shouted over all of them, the glare on his face promising that one more word would get them punted across the city with said staff.
Rudo could practically feel all of their backs snap straight, even though he would deny being intimidated by the obnoxious teen till the day he died. “I’ve never met a bunch as immature and irritating as you gremlins, and if you can’t so much as listen to a single word, then you don’t deserve to be told any! Now get out!!” Zanka flung his arm out to the opening of the alleyway they were walking through, but none of them moved. That’s when Bro spoke up,
“um Zanka, maybe you’re-“ The giver’s staff lit up as he activated his powers, and the four frozen kids jumped as they scrambled towards the street,
“hey, hey, no need for that!”
“We’re gonna die!!”
“Zanka…”
Normally Rudo had no respect for his mentor’s anger, but he had to admit that he had been fraying the guy’s patience all day. Was this snap of sanity Rudo’s fault? He wondered when suddenly he was smacked in the face with something and he stared, bewildered as whatever it was fell down into his hands. A bag of coins.
“And don’t come back until you get all of it!!” Then he was being tugged down the street as he, Remlin, Guita, and Dear ran from the murderous aura being blasted their way. They stopped a couple of blocks down, panting and catching their breath.
“Man,” Remlin gasped, her stamina the worst out of all of them. “I’ve never seen Zanka that mad before.” Guita let out a breathless giggle,
“then I guess you haven’t been around him much.” Rudo would have to agree, Zanka is prone to anger, especially when Rudo was trying not to make him mad. Rudo looked down at the bag of coins again.
“What are these for?” He questioned, and he was answered with an annoyed grunt as Dear snatched it out of his hands, and reached into the pouch pulling out a folded piece of paper which was then slapped back into his hand with no small amount of irritation.
Rudo unfolded it and… “a shopping list.” He stated. At least it wasn’t the endless amount of drills Zanka made him do when he messed something up, but with how tired he was it might as well been.
“I didn’t think I was being that loud.” Guita pouted, folding her costumed arms.
“Yeah, and I was just having fun,” Remlin added rolling her eyes, “that guy has his whole stick up his butt.” Dear simply glared at the ground, and Rudo sighed. Looked like he was the oldest again, and he didn’t appreciate the anxiety of the sudden responsibility being dropped on his shoulders.
“I guess we’d better get started on this,” he said, trailing his eyes down the piece of paper “it’s pretty long.” And that wasn’t an exaggeration, it had all kinds of inane things written on it, from magazines, to hair ties, and- wood polish, Zanka? Seriously? The paper was snatched from his hands by Remlin and she let out a frustrated groan at the length.
“This is so stupid.” She growled with more irritation than Rudo had heard come from her before. He’d seen her grieve after Gob died, and saw her guilty after Zanka got hurt that one time, but she’d always been pretty joyful and easygoing in the spherite’s eyes.
“Hey come on!” Guita chirped, “it’ll be fun! We can even use some of it to buy candy!” She dangled the bag of coins in the air enticingly, and Rudo was immediately on board.
“Let’s go!” He shouted, plowing ahead eyes already on the prowl for a sweets vendor. He heard the others fall in line behind him, but despite the group’s initial focus on finding things to waste the money on, their quest began falling apart almost immediately. Rudo swears he just stopped for one second to look at something discarded on the side of the road, when he heard a crash and a disgruntled shout.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?!” The young giver’s head immediately swung around to find the source of the commotion and saw Guita crouched guiltily in front of what looked like some broken glass and Dear standing sullenly to the side.
He immediately started to make his way over as the young giver began to stammer out an apology, an unfamiliar sight on the usually confident girl. “You gonna pay for this?” The man shouted again, and Guita began digging through her costume to find the bag of coins.
“yeah, yeah, of course man! I’ve got some coin right here, just lemme, uh…” her nervous smile strained further and her hands patted more frantically as her searching came up empty. That’s when Rudo was finally able to push past the crowd and arrive next to the two young givers. He glared at the man standing menacingly over them and demanded,
“what’s the problem?” The portly man’s icy glare latched onto Rudo and he loomed over them further as he shouted,
“this little girl broke my merchandise with her spazzing!” He could hear Guita wince and the sounds of her searching continue. Wasn’t she the last one with the money?
“So what?” Rudo shouted back, “it was clearly an accident, you don’t need to yell at her!” The man took a furious step into Rudo’s space, but the spherite didn’t move an inch.
“If she wasn’t being such a spastic brat then she wouldn’t have crashed straight into my table!” The man roared in his face, and Rudo’s gloves creaked as he clenched his fists against the desire to slug this man where it hurts.
That’s when things somehow got even worse.
In his peripheral vision he saw movement, and before anything else could happen, Dear slammed an uppercut into the guy’s crotch.
The moment seemed to freeze as both Rudo and Guita stared in disbelief. Then things slammed back into motion as the man bent over with a furious shout of pain. Rudo snatched Guita and Dear by the arms and ran as fast as his legs would take him while the sound of livid cursing echoed behind them.
They stopped another couple blocks away as soon as they were sure no one was following them.
“What the heck, Dear?” Rudo panted and Guita nodded in agreement as she crouched tiredly on the ground.
“Yeah Dear, what would Bro say?” And to that, Dear’s glare sharpened from cutting glass into pure ice as he spun around and started to stomp away.
“Hey!” Rudo exclaimed, grabbing him by the shoulder and the kid shoved him off, but quit walking away. The gloved giver took a deep breath. “Okay.” He stated. He was the oldest. The most responsible. He needed to take charge of the situation. Guita was still crouched on the ground, expression unsure. Dear was turned away, arms folded and shoulders tight. Remlin was-
…
Where was Remlin?!
Rudo turned around frantically as if she was hiding nearby, but he hadn’t seen her with Guita and Dear. “Where’s Remlin?” He exclaimed, oh heck he’d already lost one of them. The kid was probably kidnapped and being sold or fed to trash beasts and it was all Rudo’s fault for getting distracted by the stupid garbage-
“Hey, it’s okay!” Guita broke through his frantic thoughts “she was with us just a second before you came over, she’s probably still back where we came from!” Rudo took a deep breath and nodded. Ugh, he couldn’t even stay calm when it mattered, some “protector” he was. He took another deep breath. It was fine. They would just have to go find Remlin and everything would be fine.
“Okay!” He declared. “Let’s go find Remlin!” Guita nodded enthusiastically, matching Rudo’s energy, whereas Dear slowly slogged behind them.
By the time they got back to the previous area- carefully avoiding any crotchety old dudes- they didn’t even have to look for Remlin because the kid had almost painted an entire wall in front of an adoring crowd. Annoyed, Rudo shoved past the onlookers and stopped right in front of the ecstatic artist.
“Where have you been?” He demanded, and the kid barely glanced at him,
“Right here dude, what’s got your panties in a twist?” Rudo was abruptly confused. He didn’t wear panties. Did she mean underwear? Why would they be twisted? Is that something that commonly happened on the ground? He was broken from this important train of thought when Guita jumped in saying,
“We were looking for you! Why did you run off? We still need to finish the shopping list!” The long annoyed growl startled both Rudo and Guita. When someone who’s normally cheerful and fun gets upset, your first instinct is usually to wonder what you did wrong.
“I don’t want to shop. I’m done shopping, just leave me alone!” Dear gave off his loudest grunt yet, and kicked Remlin in the shin.
Immediately Guita yanked him away by the back of his shirt as the artist yelped in pain. That’s when all the shouting started. At this point Rudo didn’t even know who was saying what, just that Remlin was yelling at Dear, Dear was trying to escape Guita, Guita was shouting at Remlin, and Rudo was shouting at all of them to calm down.
“THERE YOU ARE YOU LITTLE PUNKS!!” And their shouting abruptly stopped. Rudo didn’t even have to turn around to know that the crotch punch man had found them.
“RUN!!” Guita shrieked and for the third time that day, the white haired giver found himself sprinting down roads and through alleys to escape an enraged pursuer. It took them longer to loose him this time and by the time they felt they were safe enough to stop, Rudo was ready to call it a day and lay here until he withered away. Instead, he spun to face a gasping Remlin,
“why are you being such a jerk?” He meant to yell it, but it came out more genuinely than he intended. He was legitimately confused as to why the kid was in such a foul mood. Remlin hung her head down low, looking defeated.
“I- I’m sorry.” She panted, and they were all silent as she gathered more words. “I just… do you ever…” she grunted in frustration, reaching her hands up to tug at the pony tail on top of her head. “Do you ever get so bored that you get mad?” Rudo paused. He’d gotten angry at plenty of stuff. And he’s definitely been bored before, but never so bored that he felt like yelling at someone.
“Sometimes people want me to do things that make me so bored that I’m mad that they want me to do them. But I do them anyway because it’s not really their fault and then I get mad while I’m doing it because I hate how bored I feel and I’m mad because I want to be able to make myself do it but I can’t, and-“ she breaks off into another whine of frustration burying her head deeper between her bent knees.
Rudo wasn’t sure he understood, but he knew that Remlin was very active and creative. He’d seen the way her mind works, the hours she spent on each piece of art, and the passion and energy she put into it. If Rudo’s mind worked that way, then maybe doing regular boring things would make him mad.
“I get it.” Guita piped up softly, unusually subdued. “Sometimes I get so excited about something that I don’t pay attention to what’s going on around me. I break stuff, or talk too loud… or too long.” Rudo knew that Guita had a lot of energy, and that she liked to talk about Kaiju, but he didn’t realize that she might sometimes feel insecure about it.
“I can’t help myself, and I get angry sometimes afterwards that I couldn’t stop moving or talking… because then I get annoying.” Remlin immediately put a hand on top of Guita’s costumed one.
“I don’t think you’re annoying!” The kid exclaimed, eyes wide like she couldn’t believe that the girl would think such a thing. Rudo nodded in agreement.
“I think you’re fun, Guita.” He added, “everything is more fun when you’re around.” Even when Guita showed up when Rudo was having his confrontation with Zodyl, when the costumed giver popped out of nowhere excited about being inside a trash beast, things weren’t necessarily fun, but the spherite felt like if Guita could be so happy and unserious about the whole thing, then maybe things would turn out okay. Remlin gave a grin,
“seriously, it’s not a party if Guita’s not around!” The girl’s bottom lip wobbled as her eyes grew shiny. She quickly reached up and scrubbed at her face as she gave out a wet chuckle.
“Thanks you guys.” She sniffled. Then she turned and took Remlin’s hand in hers. “And I’m sorry Remlin, that we didn’t notice you were having a hard time.” Remlin’s eyes widened as her face turned red.
“Ah, it’s no big deal. I should have told ya but… sometimes I don’t notice I’m so upset until it’s too late.” Rudo understood that more. Sometimes his anger would build up to the breaking point without him realizing that it was that far until he had already snapped.
“Then maybe we need to get better at taking breaks.” He said, aware that statement was very hypocritical for him, seeing as the last break he took was probably three days ago. Well, he could work on it too.
“Yeah!” Guita exclaimed, “why do we need to be rushing all the time? Let’s stop and smell the roses, draw some pictures, eat some candy!” Remlin’s eyes were looking suspiciously shiny when she suddenly changed the topic.
“Speaking of breaks,” she said looking at Dear, “why did you try to break my shin little gremlin?” The youngest of their group, who had been sitting silently throughout their conversation simply glared at the ground.
“Yeah, Dear, you’ve been extra grumpy and scowly today, even for you.” Guita added. Rudo frowned.
“Yeah, does he normally punch people in the crotch?” He asked. The kid usually had big crotch punching energy, but Rudo wasn’t sure how often he actually gave into the impulse.
“He what?!” Remlin exclaimed looking absolutely delighted, but before the oldest of the group could respond, Guita made a noise of realization and asked softly,
“is it because Bro is going away for the weekend?” For a second there was no reaction. Then Dear’s eyes absolutely flooded with tears. Rudo froze as Guita gasped in surprise and Remlin’s hands hovered frantically in the air as if she could ward the tears away.
Guita immediately hooked her arm around Dear’s shoulders and pulled him close, and he let her, turning his face into her costume as the tears dripped down his cheeks. Guita hummed in sympathy.
“You and Bro have been together for a long time huh.”
The smallest giver gave a wobbly grunt.
“You probably haven’t been apart for that long before.”
Another tearful noise.
“It might be scary to be alone.”
Dear’s breath hitched and he pressed his face deeper into Guita’s side as his shoulders shook.
Rudo didn’t know the circumstances behind Dear’s living arrangements with Bro. He didn’t know if they were related, or if Bro was someone like Regto who took in kids who needed someone to take care of them. How did Dear become a giver so young anyway?
“You don’t hafta be alone!” Remlin exclaimed, “we can be with you! It can be like a sleepover!”
“Yeah!” Guita agreed enthusiastically, “maybe they’d even let us stay in Canvas town!”
“As long as we avoid crotch punch man.” Rudo mumbled and Remlin barked a laugh.
“Crotch punch man” she choked out, and Guita started giggling. Dear’s shoulders began shaking again, but this time it came with sound of soft laughter. That just made them laugh harder and soon the alleyway was echoing with wheezing cackles. Even Rudo found his lips twitching, but he didn’t want to ruin the mood with his awkward unpracticed smiles.
Still, the atmosphere felt lighter, and the white haired giver found himself relaxing. When the giggles finally died down and Dear had wiped the tears from his face, half of which were thankfully from his silent laughter, Remlin turned to Rudo and pointed at him accusingly.
“And what about you?” She demanded. Rudo blinked.
“Me?” He asked dumbly.
“Yeah man, like I know you like trash, but every time we look away you’re off in a dumpster and not a single word anyone has said has made it into your skull.” Rudo blinked again, then felt embarrassment begin to heat up his face.
“Oh, uh I’m just tired.” He responded and the artist frowned.
“That’s it?” She asked, looking disappointed. The spherite rubbed his neck awkwardly.
“Uh yeah, I just haven’t slept in a while.” Guita cocked her head to the side.
“How long is a while?” She asked suspiciously. He knew that he was kind of notorious at the base for not sleeping much, so this probably wouldn’t come as a surprise to her or Dear. He shrugged,
“A couple of days.” Guita’s mouth dropped open, and Dear’s eyes went wide. Okay, maybe he was wrong.
“Days?!” Remlin shouted, “you haven’t slept in days?!”
“Just two!” He replied defensively. He knew it wasn’t that great, but honestly, he’s had it way worse. The artist slapped a hand to her forehead.
“just two” she repeated in disbelief. Guita just looked confused.
“Why don’t you sleep?” She asked and Rudo sighed.
“It’s not like I don’t try,” he explained, “I just can’t sometimes.” He really does wish he could sleep. Sometimes he’s so tired he wants to cry but his body just won’t let him pass out.
“Why?” She asks again and Rudo groans. He’s never had to really explain why even with Regto. The man had simply accepted that Rudo couldn’t sleep sometimes and would just keep him company, soothing the pain in his hands, reading to him, humming a song until either Rudo finally fell asleep, or the sun would rise.
The giver felt a sudden stab of grief in his chest. Every day he would think of something new that he would never experience again. Regto’s smile, Regto’s teasing, the way Regto would cook oatmeal, the smell of Regto’s thick coat when he would hug him. The specific way Regto would wrap his hands. And now Regto’s voice humming or reading him to sleep.
He felt a sting from behind his nose, and his eyes started to burn. He swallowed hard against the lump in his throat, willing himself not to cry. Especially in front of a bunch of kids, how embarrassing.
“I don’t know,” he finally choked out, avoiding eye contact with all of them. “Sometimes- sometimes my hands hurt, sometimes everything is just too different, and sometimes it’s just for no reason at all.”
He paused again to force the tears back down but he could feel the pressure of them building behind his eyes. “Regto-“ he choked off. “Regto would help but…” he stopped talking. If he opened his mouth again the tears would start spilling out. He heard a questioning noise.
“Regto is…” Remlin trailed off.
“Your dad.” Guita finished, and Rudo nodded, still not trusting his voice. A hand placed itself on his gloved, trembling one and he looked up to see Dear, face still streaked with the remains of tears, eyes sad and knowing. It’s stupid, he thought, as the tears spilled over. He’s supposed to be the oldest, he’s not supposed to cry, but he did anyway as he felt more than one set of arms wrap tightly around him and he felt the shaking hitched breaths of the others as he clung back.
~~~
When the four of them finally emerged from the alleyway passerby’s were greeted with fours sets of swollen, red eyes and runny noses.
“What time is it?” Guita questioned, glancing around presumably to find a clock.
“Yeah, we kind of wasted a lot of time, I wonder if we’ll be able to get all the shopping done before Zanka murders us.” Remlin mumbled, and Guita let out a loud gasp.
“I forgot! I lost the money!” Rudo’s gaze snapped to her’s.
“You what?!” He cried. If they lost Zanka’s money, at least they could avoid him. Rudo had to practically live with him! Guita moaned in despair.
“I swear I had it with me, I don’t know what happened!” Dear cleared his throat, and the white haired giver glanced down to see him raising an expectant eyebrow at Remlin who was looking more than a little guilty.
“Uh yeah, about that.” Rudo felt a scowl fix to his face. “Don’t look at me like that!” The artist cried, “I took it when I was mad, and I only spent a little bit!” She fished the pouch out of her pocket and dropped it into his palm. Rudo paused.
“That is more than a little bit!!” He screeched and the kid winced. The bag was at least half empty!
“What did you even spend it on?!” Remlin drooped.
“Paint.”
The oldest took a deep breath.
“Paint?”
Remlin didn’t respond.
“Uh…” Guita piped in. “Isn’t your jinki like, a magic paintbrush that makes… paint?” The artist stayed silent as she got on her knees and slammed her forehead to the ground.
“I’M SORRY!!” She cried and slammed it again. “FORGIVE ME FOR MY SINS!!!” Rudo yanked her up by her shirt collar as people began to stare.
“Stop that!” He shouted but the kid went limp in devastation. “It’s fine, we’ll just have to be really good hagglers in order to get everything on the list.” They all paused. “Does anyone know how to haggle?” He asked, and the rest of group drooped in despair.
~~~
Surprisingly the best haggler of the group happened to be Dear. He was the perfect combination of cute and intimidating that got prices down to up to half their original price.
Remlin was Canvas town’s resident darling so she also had success without having to try much, but she needed to take quite a few breaks to keep her stamina for shopping up.
Guita’s method was a bit hit or miss as she would cause chaos and talk the seller’s ears off until they would either kick her out, or give her a lower price just to get her to leave. She grinned at her newest discount.
“I guess being annoying can be a good thing!”
Rudo… he was lucky if they would sell it to him the first place.
“You gotta stop scowling.” Remlin reprimanded, poking the space between his eyebrows. “We know you’re nervous, but to everyone else it looks like you’re going to murder them.” Rudo let out a grunt of defeat, and Guita hummed.
“Maybe someone who hasn’t slept for two days isn’t the best at negotiating.” And unfortunately, the white haired giver had to agree.
So he ended up being a body guard to Dear. The occasional scowl to warn against upsetting the kid with a price too high had limited success. And so, hours later, their arms were full of purchases with a single coin left over.
They all stared at it, lying in the center of Guita’s palm.
“Yep,” Remlin declared, “I am too tired to even think of buying anything else.”
“Agreed.” Rudo and Guita wearily conceded. Dear gave a tired nod. The artist slipped the coin into her pocket, and they all stumbled their way back to the hotel room their teams had rented.
When they arrived, the room was empty, and had an interesting smell, like incense or perfume. Maybe freshly cleaned. The older givers probably weren’t finished doing whatever they were doing. Rudo still couldn’t remember what the purpose of their visit was.
Remlin flopped onto a bed, purchases and all with a loud groan. Dear climbed on beside her and smashed face first into the blankets. Guita decided to flop onto the floor not even making it five feet from the door, and Rudo collapsed into the nearest chair letting his bags drop to the floor.
“Ugh,” Guita whined, “I’m never doing favors for Zanka ever again.”
“Here here.” Remlin agreed wearily.
“S’ not like we had a choice.” Rudo grumbled and took a deep breath, feeling his body sink further into the plush armchair. He could fall asleep here, he thought, his eyelids heavy.
Wait.
Rudo’s eyes shot open as he leapt to his feet, only to be slammed by a wall of dizziness.
Guita was limp in her pile on the floor. Remlin and Dear were breathing deeply on the bed, fast asleep.
This wasn’t right. They were all tired, but not this tired.
The strange smell of incense had gotten stronger, and Rudo’s knees buckled as he heard the front door open. He looked up, vision swimming as he saw a group of strange men enter the room. He tried to get up, tried to move but his weak limbs weren’t listening to him.
When one of them reached their hand into his blurry vision he immediately bit down as hard as he could. He heard a strangled cry as the taste of blood filled his mouth, and then something slammed into his head and he was out.