Work Text:
There was a bitter aftertaste that came with knowledge.
The knowledge that in MCSR headquarters, people were running at this very moment. The knowledge that the library down the street from the MCSR headquarters was shutting down. The knowledge that the sun would set again today, and there would never be enough time.
Infume knew it all well.
He knew it all so well that he was here, in the park on the other side of Vastliche instead of making his way back to the Ranked dorm rooms.
His day had not been going as he planned for it to, but it was long past the point of mattering. Now, all that Infume wanted was a moment, or maybe closer to an hour, of peace and quiet, in one of the few places where he knew he wouldn't get bothered by any of his day to day annoyances.
Sure, the library was quieter then the park, but it was too close to the MCSR complex. There was always a runner somewhere in the library, and Infume knew he could only hide in the corner for so long before another netherite player found him and approached him.
Here, in a small little clearing he'd found between some bushes and trees, the only company he had was the birds in the canopies. There was the occasional cry of a child attempting to enjoy the small playground, but Infume had been here enough times to know that most of the equipment and games were broken. Parents didn't let their children near the slides due to the rust that had grown across its surface and the raised nails it held. The swing sets were in a similar predicament, more than halfway to their eventual decay, and there was no doubt that the chains would snap under the weight of any child who sat on the plastic.
It wasn't too cozy of a place, despite the quiet. The Autumn air was cold, and the grass had started to tinge yellow. Infume had already amassed a small pile of weeds from where he had been absentmindedly picking them from among the grass. It was kind of sad, the state of the park overall. Infume was sure that it hadn't looked like this when he had originally come to the city, but he hadn't been on this side until a year or two after he joined MCSR as a whole.
Moving to the bigger city had been a welcome change, but that didn't mean it had been easy.
His original placement tests had gone horrible, too sleep deprived to see straight when he'd been dropped into his first games of the season. He hadn't considered that the night sounds, all the honking cars and screaming people, would keep him awake compared to the almost stifling silence at home.
It'd taken him a month before he had found a cheap noise blocker, and even then he tossed and turned for another few nights.
Food was another thing. Back at home he had no questions of where he was going to eat, there were only really three shops to choose from, five if he included the really bad places, but here, it was like the stores sprawled infinitely. There was a different restaurant every three buildings. It had been so overwhelming when he had first navigated around it all.
He was slightly better at navigating now, if not because HBG had decided to take a chance on him. Silver had taken him out on numerous occasions to help him get a lay of the few blocks closest to the compound, and he had gone out with the rest of the ground for a few different outings outside of just Silver's attempts to teach him.
In the end, he'd found the park on his own, and it had immediately reminded him of home.
He thought back to the email sitting in his inbox, and he wasn't sure if it was reassuring anymore.
His phone buzzed in his hand, and he turned it over to look at the new notification. Ludwig had gone online. another buzz followed the first, and this time Infume didn't have to look to know it was most likely Fein asking if anyone wanted to join him in hatewatching. Infume would usually say yes, but watching too much Ludwig did not do good things for his soul.
He had a running theory it wasn't doing good things to his runs either.
Add his current mood on top of that, and he just didn't really feel like watching Ludwig right now. His day hadn't exactly been going as he wanted it too, between his morning runs and his mediocre lunch and his afternoon runs and then his hospital visit. He wouldn't have gone but Poundy practically forced him too.
The bushes rustled from across his little clearing, and Infume admired the sunlight shining off the pelt of the little rabbit that poked its nose in his direction. Sure, things had been bad today, but they weren't all bad. The sun was still shining in this moment, even if it had been on and off cloudy all day, and Infume could see the world getting dimmer as he thought about it.
Infume wasn't sure if he liked the snow or the sun more, but he knew he didn't like the cloudy days, and especially not the days accompanied by wind. Just another month and he'd be living his best life in the snow. Couriway would call him crazy for it, but really, what did Couri know?
The sun returned from its temporary leave, and Infume refocused on where the rabbit had been. It was gone now.
The sounds of the child by the playground was gone, but he could hear a bigger group of kids at the more sports inclined part of the park, yelling out to each other comms for whatever game they were playing. Soccer, Infume guessed from the little that he could hear. It was right in between lunch and dinner, so there was a considerable amount of people around, but they would be leaving soon.
Infume thought about it. Maybe if he left soon he could slip in a few runs before dinner. Maybe it wasn't a good idea, especially seeing as he had only won two games out of the ten he had run today but it was redeemable. Besides, the chilly air was starting to get to him, and the small blanket he had set out to sit on only did so much to shield him from the slightly damp ground.
He was seconds away from standing up and starting to pack up when a blur of bright blue fell from one of the trees around the spot he had found.
Infume froze. Rightfully so.
The person, Infume quickly realized, was collapsed in a pile of clothes and bones, just a few feet from where he was sitting. They weren't any older then Infume, he noticed, and then he started to worry over whether the person was fine or not. They did just fall out of a tree, and the position they were in did not look good-
All of his worries were assuaged when the person wiggled around across the ground for a bit, before straightening themselves up and jumping to their feet and laughing.
"Are you okay?" Infume asked when the other finally stopped giggling, and that was when the person realized that they were not alone.
The panicked screech that the child let out scared Infume, and then he was making eye contact with the boy through the curtain of blue hair over his face, a few shades darker than Infume's own. Infume blinked. Surely that wasn't easy to see through.
The visitor perked up upon seeing him. "Oh. Hi!"
"Hello?" Infume winced. It wasn't meant to sound like a question, but he hadn't expected the sunshine smile the other had, or the pure joy that seemed to exude from him.
Infume leaned back as joy incarnate hopped over to where he was sitting and sat down besides him. "I'm Hax!" The boy- Hax- Introduced himself. He seemed to think about it further and then spoke again. "And I'm fine. I've fallen out of that tree before, worst you can get is some bruises."
"Uh huh." Infume squinted at him. It wasn't really disbelief, He just wasn't sure if he believed the strangers sentiment. Or that he was real. "Well, I'm Infume." He ignored how Hax repeated his name under his breath as though trying to get himself to remember it faster, and instead he glanced at the tree the other had fallen out of. "Why exactly were you in a tree?"
Hax laughed again, and Infume found himself wondering how on earth his vocal cords made that sound. "I convinced Mongey and Rowl to play hide and seek with me so that I could sneak away from them." He sounded proud about it, so Infume didn't mention that he didn't know either of the aforementioned people. "They got told to watch over me, so I came up with a way to trick them into letting me out of their sight. I'm old enough to take care of myself now."
Infume blankly stared at Hax. "You just fell out of a tree."
Hax's expression thinned to a line. "Did I?"
They stared at each other. Infume didn't believe him, and he was proven right when he started snickering and then outright laughing.
"Are you always like this with people you've just met?" Infume couldn't help himself from asking.
Hax raised his hand brushing his hair out of his face for the first time since he'd fallen, and then rested his hand on his chin like he was trying to pose as an adult who was thinking really hard. Infume was struck by how blue his eyes were. He'd heard it commonly said by Couri or Fulham about his own eyes, similar to the light blue of the sky on a clear day or ice in a glass of water, but Hax's were closer to when the sky overturned to twilight, or the dark blue of the deepest oceans.
Hax shrugged. "I don't know. You seemed like you needed someone to talk to."
…What?
Infume was shocked. He'd touched a downed electrical line or a powered fence. 120 volts, directly to his brain.
MCSR was a nice community, but when someone was feeling down, they were usually just left alone. Infume had been feeling worse and worse lately, between the sickness slowly growing in his soul, and the constant decay of his run average and elo, and he'd resolved himself to avoiding HBG until it was over. He hadn't wanted to worry any of them, and beyond that he didn't want them piecing together that it wasn't just running anymore.
But Hax, this random person he had just met who had the disposition of a child who had just been given his favorite dessert just for the sake of being happy. He'd noticed all of the signs Infume was setting out, and Infume himself hadn't even noticed.
He wasn't used to being picked apart like that, wasn't used to anyone who could did pick him apart actually acting on whatever they saw.
Hax took his stunned silence as something bad, apparently.
"I can… go, if you really don't want company." He smiled reassuringly, though Infume could see the slight pain in his eyes. He put his palm flat on the ground and started to pull himself up. Infume felt like the sun was leaving with him.
"No!" Infume squeaked, and he grabbed Hax's wrist as he moved to crouching instead of sitting. "No, I- I mean. I wouldn't mind-" He sighed. "Some company would be nice."
Hax's smile returned to its full force, and he let himself gently falls backwards. Infume let himself smile back, unsure of what to do now.
"Do you-" Infume cut himself off, glancing to his phone, and then taking the chance. "Do you watch MCSR? Or well, Do you know what MCSR is-?"
"I do!" Hax blurted. "That's why we moved here. Well. That's why my family sent me here with Rowl. I'd been running on my own on some of the machines that you pay for outside of the city, and they got fed up with paying for it so often. I guess it was cheaper if they just paid for me to enter the MCSR program entirely."
Infume ran through every memory he'd had of the Ranked rooms. he'd never recalled seeing someone like Hax.
"Really? I don't think I've seen you in the building before?"
Hax's mouth dropped from the permanent smile it was in to an open mouthed gawk. "You're a runner?"
If Infume had thought Hax's eyes reminded him of the night sky earlier, it was only furthered by the way stars seemed to shine in them when he was face to face with someone he admired.
"I've yet to run into someone who runs outside of Rowl and Mongey! It's exhilarating right, running through the world as fast as you can, until you're face to face with the dragon, feeling the wind rush around you when you pearl-!" Hax's thoughts caught up to him. "Sorry. You asked a question. I was sent here to run, but I haven't really been able to convince myself to enter the buildings and do it," His smile turned sheepish, " I've only been in the Ranked building twice. I thought- Maybe visiting somewhere that reminds me of the plains could convince me to run."
Infume put his arm on Hax's shoulder, and took note of how cold the other felt.
"I think we all get moments like that." Infume smiled, letting out the short and awkward laugh that might convince Hax he really understood. "I should be running right now, since the end of the season is coming soon, but- It's just, not really been a good running day."
Infume turned to the backpack he'd brought with him and pulled out a small bag of goldfish, offering them to Hax. Hax gratefully took them.
They sat in silence for a minute before Infume remembered why had asked to begin with.
"Have you heard of Ludwig?" He asked. "Well, obviously you've heard of Ludwig."
"I have," Hax confirmed, "but I've never watched him play before."
Infume grinned and pulled out his phone. "Wanna watch it together?"
Hax was funny, Infume found out very quickly, and he found almost everything else funny. He was also really knowledgeable in running, and Infume got lost talking to someone who understood every thing he said without him having to explain. he made a mental note to ask Hax for his user. He was curious what his rank was if he was this in the know.
He had no clue how long they'd been sitting there in their own bubble isolated from the rest of the world, but eventually Infume tuned back into their surroundings enough to hear the voice calling for Hax from somewhere beyond the clearing.
He gently nudged Hax with his shoulder, getting the others attention enough and gesturing to the world for him to be able to hear it too.
Hax jumped, his eyes darting to the time displayed at the top of Infume's phone. "Shit." He stood up, wincing a little bit. "We were supposed to leave- I don't know, a while ago, I wasn't paying attention."
Infume stood up too, stretching his legs, He'd been sitting there for a little over two hours by that point, and it was getting around time for him to leave too. It was almost dinner time. "I'll come with you."
Hax gave him a look, and Infume continued. "In case they're angry at you or something. I'll explain to them what happened."
Hax nodded and then they were off, pushing their way through the half brush half bramble, and then stumbling out onto the pavement of one of the pathways.
"I'm over here!" Hax called, and a few second later, someone in a white shirt with greenish teal hair came sprinting down the sidewalk, grabbing Hax hard, picking him up off of the ground with the force of the movement.
"Where were you?!" They yelled, dropping Hax gently and checking him over for any injuries. "Universe above Hax, I know you don't like us watching over you all the time, but you've never left for that long before. Did it really bother you that much? Why didn't you say anything?" Their hands were resting on Hax's shoulders now, and Hax's eyes widened a little bit with guilt, his hair having been jostled around with the movement and falling back into his face.
"No, no! It wasn't-" Hax stammered, and eventually he must've figured out that words wouldn't help him explain. "I made a friend," He tried instead, and gestured to Infume who had been standing patiently a few feet away.
The person finally took note of him, and glared at him. "A friend." He looked back at Hax pulling him closer to himself slowly. "And not a kidnapper?"
"Rowl!" Hax growled, and Infume started. He thought he recognized that name, and looking at the person in front of him, he thought he recognized the clothing too. He knew this person, had seen them entering the Ranked quarters when he had been leaving occasionally. In fact, he was pretty sure he had run against him a few times. "He's not a kidnapper, and I'm not a kid. I'm the one that ran into him when I fell out of the tree-"
"You fell out of a tree?" A different voice called and Infume turned to the pink haired person approaching. They had a backpack on their back, the same color scheme as their hair and clothes, and another smaller blue backpack in their hands.
Hax's face paled a little bit, and Rowl's face got a little more red, though Infume couldn't tell if it was rage or worry.
Maybe it was time to step in. "He fell into a little clearing that I was sitting in. He seemed fine when he got up at first, but he winced when he stood up to come and find you, so I think he may have sprained an ankle or something."
Infume knew by the look on Hax's face that he was right.
The pink one sighed, reaching out to grab Hax and pull him from Rowl's arms, taking the chance to give Hax his backpack, who swung it on happily after digging through the pockets for his phone. "At least you didn't get really injured. Thank you for looking after him. I'm Mongey, and this is Rowl, though you probably could've guessed that."
"Infume." He returned, and he watched the glare in Rowl's eyes gentle to something more subtle. "It's nice to meet you, but I do need to get to the bus, and I'm sure you two can handle… him, if he can't handle himself."
Hax grinned, opening his mouth to agree, and Rowl interjected. "That doesn't mean you're getting out of this. Come on. We're already pretty late to when we were supposed to get dinner."
He frowned. Infume laughed and checked his watch.
"Goodbye! It was nice meeting you Hax." Hax waved vibrantly at him, before turning away with Rowl and Mongey, who started dragging him in the general direction of the parks parking lot. Infume spun around, starting towards the bus stop on the other side of the park, and he got maybe 20 steps from where he had left them before he heard Hax calling for him again.
"Infume!"
Infume turned, and Hax stopped in front of him, panting for breath and holding up his hand. His phone was clasped in it, and he shoved it towards Infume. "My player info."
He whistled a little on his inhale, grabbing Hax's phone from him and pulling out his own to copy it down. He'd forgotten to ask. The diamond rank next to Hax's player name didn't surprise him. he handed the phone back after the other had sufficiently gotten his breath.
"Am I going to need your information?" He asked, his eyes glittering, and Infume had the feeling Hax didn't get to share his player info off often.
He shook his head. "Unless you can't read the leader board, you shouldn't need it."
Hax stared at him. Infume was confused on why that would have surprised him for a little bit, but then he remembered the difference in leader boards. Any Ranked buildings outside of the city hosted the leader boards for that particular city, and the only time people outside the city saw the MCSR complex's full leader board was during Playoffs, when it was broadcasted. Hax had talked about how he hadn't been in the buildings nearly at all this season, so he likely hadn't seen the leader board of who was on it.
Infume looked past him to where Mongey and Rowl were waiting. "You shouldn't keep them waiting. Good luck on your season, Hax."
Hax didn't come after him again, though he thought he heard him yell towards Mongey and Rowl somewhere in the distance. The bus was a scheduled to come in a minute when Infume got to the small bench area for the park goers to wait. He took the time to glance back down at Hax's info, and pull up a replay from on of Hax's few games that season.
He thought about it, while watching the feed. Thought about every move that the player on his screen made, and compared it to the lack of motivation Hax was feeling. He thought about how he had been feeling that day, even before his visit to the hospital, and thought about how he hadn't felt motivated either.
He watched the game on his phone, all the way up until the bus stopped at the dorms, and he hoped that Hax ended up coming in to run again, because if there was one thing he saw in all his gameplay, beyond the pure passion he put into it and beyond the clear skill he had, it was someone who genuinely thrived in running.
Hax could get better, could shrug off the demotivation and smile in the face of all of his problems. Infume could run and run and run, and all that was waiting for him at the end of the line was his prognosis.
Except he had a new outlook on it now. Sure, maybe he would fail in the end, and his times would get slower and slower, but there was nothing as exhilarating as running, and even if he had to stop for a long period of time to recover, HBG would be there every step of the way, and no matter how long it took, Ranked would always be waiting.
Infume was grinning as he got off the bus. He had things to look forwards to.