Chapter Text
One dark and stormy night the wind was howling loudly and crashing against the windows of the cleaners HQ. Most of the members were fast asleep as the high speed gusts noisily bashed against the building, occasionally causing parts to be ripped off and the entire structure to shake slightly.
Rudo was one of the few awake at this late hour, the boy, illuminated by a small lamp he had placed beside him was busy with sorting through the huge piles of trash building up in the corner of his room analyzing which ones he could fix up and which ones had potential for him to use his jinki on to take down trash beasts with.
Just as he was grumbling about some ‘stupid turd face Zanka making fun of his trash obsession’, he heard a particularly loud crash. He jumped up, startled and dropped the already broken mug to the floor, shattering it to pieces.
“The fuck was that?” he whispered to himself. He tiptoed over to the window, not because he was scared or anything, why would he even be scared, it was just to make sure there wasn't any damage done.
He lifted a trembling gloved hand to the curtain and shakily whipped it open. He slowly peered out but couldn't see anything there. “Huh. It was probably just some trash that blew into HQ or sumthin'.”
Just then he heard two pairs of footsteps running through the halls. “Shit.” He ran over to his door and slammed it shut, his heart was hammering in his chest. I'm so fucking scared.
He leaned against the door and slid down to the floor, head buried in his hands. I'm just being paranoid. Right?
Then he heard the footsteps rushing towards his door. Shit, shit, shit. I can't die yet. I haven't even used a plunger the right way yet!
The footsteps were slowing down.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
…
The footsteps came to a stop. Rudo snapped his eyes shut.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
Crap they're banging on my door!
“Rudooo, let us in!” Cried a familiar voice.
Rudo opened his eyes. oh my god did I just get scared by Guita!? He stood up, shaking out of relief and carefully opened the door to see a teary eyed Guita and a worried looking Dear who had his arms crossed.
“The hell are you guys doing here, it's one AM?!”
“Rudo! We were so scared there was this huge crash sound a-and then me and Dear woke up and w-we didn't know what is was, w-we were gonna go get Bro but then we heard y-our door slam a-a-and-”
“Slow down, slow down. It's fine, it was probably just the wind, nothing to be scared about.”
The girl was hysterical, she could barely form a coherent sentence and Dear looked pretty shaken too. Rudo couldn't help but feel a lil protective of them, even though he was only a year older than Guita he was still the big brother in this situation.
“I suppose ye can stay in my room just for tonight.” Rudo mumbled looking to the side.
Guita's eyes lit up with joy. “Really!” She slammed herself into an ‘out of his comfort zone’ Rudo, engulfing him into a tight hug.
“You're my favourite brother ever, Rudo!” Guita exclaimed, receiving a pissed glare from Dear.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever, just stop making so much noise.”
Rudo made his way over to where he dropped the mug earlier and started picking up the pieces using his gloves as protection against the shards. There's no way I'm just gonna leave this glass on the floor when these two are here.
“You guys can sit on my bed or somethin’, just don't come over here for a sec”
The two kids ran to the bed.
“Rudo has to sleep on the floor!” Guita laughed teasingly.
“Huh! This is my room you turds” Rudo snarled. He looked over to see the pair sitting on the bed looking absolutely delighted with themselves, a stark contrast to how they looked just moments ago.
Rudo had finished tidying up the broken ceramic and was back to sorting through trash while Guita and Dear were lying beside each other on his bed fast asleep.
Although he was feeling more at ease than earlier he still couldn't shake this feeling of uneasiness off his back. That was a pretty loud crash earlier. It sounded like glass, I don't think the wind is that strong. Unless something got blown through a window… I'm being such a baby right now, even if someone broke in they would be easily overpowered, I mean one average Joe against a bunch of cleaners. Surely I have nothing to worry about?
“Kay, guys what do you want to do?” No answer. He looked around to see them both out cold, limbs sprawled out, sleeping on his bed.
I swear, what kinda people come into someone else's room, and takes advantage of such a kind invitation to sit on someone else's bed by fucking falling asleep!?
Rudo went over to them and carefully tucked them in so they wouldn't be cold (even though he would argue he just threw the blanket on top of them so he didn't have to look at them) and then he just laid on the floor using his gloved hands as a pillow. He probably wouldn't get to sleep anyway with all this noise.
Enjin is so gonna make fun of me tomorrow for looking like a zombie.
Surprisingly enough, Rudo did manage to drift into a light sleep only to be woken up not even an hour later by some kind sound that came from downstairs.
“Hmmhh?” he opened his sleep crusted eyes and stared at the ceiling. What was that? He then remembered that he wasn't the only one in this room and turned to his bed to find the two gremlins had also got their sleep disrupted by the noise.
Guita rubbed her eyes “Rudo?” she muttered quietly. Dear was clutching onto her arm so hard it was probably gonna lose blood circulation.
“Rudo, what was that!?” she cried out.
“I dunno, maybe I should check it out”
In reality Rudo did not want to check it out at all but for some reason he just couldn't stand seeing Guita and Dear so distraught.
“Don’t leave us here on our own!” Guita's eyes started to well up with tears.
“Uhh, it's fine don't worry you guys can come with me, i’d say it was just someone getting a midnight snack” Rudo really tried to reassure the two but his face was betraying him.
Rudo trudged over to his drawer, quietly opened it and took out two torches, one was black with an orange design and one was blue and held together by tape.
“Here take this in case anything happens, which it won't! Don't worry, ha, ha…”
He tossed the blue torch to Dear who caught it and then immediately started fiddling with the tape.
“Hey, careful with that, I haven't fixed it yet.” Rudo warned.
Dear shot him an unimpressed look.
“Hey at least it works, it's just a backup.” Rudo strode over to the door.
“You guys comin’ or what?”
“I wanna piggy back ride.” complained Guita.
“Uggghhhh. What about Dear?”
“Hey Dear, you don't mind walking right?” Asked Guita.
Dear thought about it for a second then shook his head.
“Yay! Piggy back time~”
“Fine, come on”
Rudo extended his arms behind his back and Guita hopped on and grabbed his neck so hard he nearly suffocated.
“Hey careful!” Rudo wheezed out while making sure to wrap his arms around the younger's legs tightly so she was secure and wouldn't fall off.
“Ok ready? Let's go”
And with that he quietly turned the door knob and carefully opened the door. He tiptoed down the hallway with Guita on his back and Dear trailing closely behind him.
The three descended down the stairs preparing themselves for what they were about to find.