Chapter Text
Rudo will never forget the day that Regto took him in, and now Rudo will never forget the day he lost Regto too.
Both days where rainy ones filled with the noise of thunder and the rain hitting the ground. Rudo sat by a dumpster eating whatever he managed to find editable from inside it. He didn't think much of the taste only thinking of the small fact that he got to eat today and that is all that matters here in this moment.
The day turned into night as the albino watched all the shops close for the evening in his corner of the alleyway. He pulled the cardboard back to his corner as it got moved earlier this morning, then grabbed his makeshift pillow that was random soft scrapes in a plastic bag and was ready for bed when the shop door that lead to the dumpster slammed open revealing a messy mop of black hair that matched his beard.
Rudo and the man both stopped in their tracks red wide eyes meeting black ones.
The dark haired man slowly set down the trash he was going to run out to the dumpster trying his damn best not to scare the child who was already on his feet ready to bolt at one wrong move.
"Hey." The man who would later be known as Regto started talking in an almost whisper fashion. Rudo did nothing but glare back with an un-trusting look like a frightened dog showing teeth at a dog catcher. "Look I don't feel comfortable leaving a kid out here on a freezing night."
"Not my problem." The albino kid practically spat back. "Your outside my store to be fair." he let out a long sigh. "Look how about you just have a meal with me and we can figure it out from there, I know a really good spot that sell's bur-"
"NO!" The albino cut him off "I'm not some pity case for you to take in, I don't need your help or ANYONE'S for that matter!"
Regto just let the kid yell it out, sure that it's been way to long since the kid has been able to feel his problems in a semi-normal way.
"Why is it only now that someone actually cares?! Why?!" The albino practically screams.
Something inside Regto's gaze softens. "I don't know kid." He takes a step closer to him abandoning the trash. "But I do know that this is an unfair world and bad things happen to good people and I'm sorry."
Rudo just stared back at him for a short moment of silence before returning his gaze to the filthy concrete floor.
"Do you want that burger?" He asks again in an the same gentle tone. Rudo gives a short stiff nod starving still, following the man that would later become a father to Rudo.
But now.. In this moment.. It all is crumbling apart and falling right through his fingers.
Rudo runs to Regto who's blood was pooling around him in the living room of their cheap two bedroom apartment.
The same apartment that Regto brought him to the day they met. The same apartment where Regto would learn to cook for Rudo and learn to care and how to love Rudo like he was one of his own. And now the same apartment where Rudo would learn how to say goodbye.
"Rudo." he says as the mess of white curls sob ugly onto his bleeding chest holding the fabric of his sweater oh so tightly in his hands.
"No! Your going to make it I'll call for help, I'll, I'll-"
"Rudo!" He coughs out blood from the force of the yell. "Please Rudo, make this world something worth living in." Regto tells him grip tight in the boys shirt with his eyebrows pinched together like he was worried and in pain .
"No! Don't talk like that, I'll get help just stay! Please stay with me!" Rudo begs, to who? Because from the way it looks Regto's eyes have already slipped shut when Rudo wasn't looking and his hand had already fallen limply to the floor.
When Rudo notices this he scrambles off the floor and runs as fast as the feet of a ten year old boy could take him. When Rudo run's into the kitchen he almost trips from the change of carpet to a tiled floor. However in a Rudo like fashion this doesn't stop him, as he yank's the blue home phone off the counter dialing 911 as quick as he could with his violently shaking hands.
He didn't waste any time, as soon as he heard a rough voice answer, "911 what is-" Rudo immediately started yelling into the phone with violent sobs that shake his whole body, because the only person who has ever loved Rudo and has ever cared for Rudo was dying!
"PLEASE YOU HAVE TO HELP!" "There- there was an accident and he's not breathing." "There's so much blood, I don't know what I'm supposed to do!" Rudo franticly shouts into the phone between all the sobs and hiccups in panic. "Please you have to help! Please!" he begs.
"Okay, Okay lets take a breath." The operator waits for Rudo to do this before he continues. "I'm Corvus, Can you tell me your name?"
"Rudo Surebrec, My dad's Regto!"
"Do you know where you are?" Corvus keeps his voice calm and clear for the kid. "We're in the Sphere apartment complex door 209! Second floor, Hurry please! I can't lose him!" Rudo sobs into the phone with heartbreaking cries for help that no kid so young should ever sound like.
"Okay good, your doing good can you go make sure your door is unlocked for when we come?" Rudo runs across the house phone still in hand and pushes the door wide open letting some of the rain inside.
Corvus speaks again, "Okay I've sent people to come help, please stay on th- BEEP!" After Rudo hears that he hangs up the phone, throwing it on the ground and runs back to Regto who hasn't move an inch, still as deathly still as when Rudo left him.
"You hear that?!" Rudo grabs his limp hand that's quickly turning cold. "Help is coming so please, please hang on just a little longer." Rudo sobs into the hand. "I can't lose you."
Rudo continues to talk and beg at Regto hoping for any kind of response as they wait for an ambulance.
After about fifteen minutes paramedics and policemen run through the open door, carrying all sorts of different things.
Rudo doesn't process that they had already busted through the door and misses when a strong pair of arms wrap around him and yank him away from Regto.
"WAIT!" Rudo screams flailing, trying to get whoever is pulling him away from his dad to just let go. Paramedics gather around Regto blocking Rudo's vision of him as he continues to scream for them to let him go. The person bends down and says something to Rudo, but he completely misses it in his own mist of panic.
The person holding back Rudo pulls him away to one of the corners of the room yelling for something, Rudo doesn't know he doesn't hear them all he knows in this very moment is that he can't see his dad and that he needs him, now. Rudo doesn't feel when feel when his sleeve is pulled up by another individual and only notices the small prick and the sudden sleepiness that takes over him as his eyes slip shut.
Rudo dreams of Regto, he dreams of him carding rough fingers through his white hair, he dreams of Regto's gentle hands bandaging his arms and telling Rudo about random customers Regto deals with. Rudo dreams of the way things should be.
It takes a while for Rudo to come too consciousness, when he do he still feels so, so sleepy. Eyelids still feeling heavy as he tries to blink away the sleepiness he feels. And where was Regto? Wasn't he just here with him?
"Hey." A voice Rudo's never heard before call's him. Rudo blinks a few more times before he turns his head to look over. The person in question wore a lovely blue sweater, black jeans and had soft brown hair that was loosely tied off to the side in a ponytail.
"Can you hear me?" The lady asks in a almost nervous tone.
Rudo looks around at his surroundings not sitting up just yet. He notices immediately that he's not at home, everything is in a white or a very light blue shade. The sheets on his bed are white, The blinds to the window are closed in a light blue shade and he's connected to so many wires it makes Rudo kind of feel like a robot.
"Heh, that's kinda silly" Rudo says out loud not realizing it.
"What is?" The lady asks in a soft tone that covers up all the concern she's actually feeling. Rudo doesn't respond just turns his head back to her. Then it hits him like a semi truck.
Rudo sits up so quick realizing his wrists are tied to the bed.
"Where's Regto?!" He says in a panic yelling at the kind lady.
She presses her lips together maintaining the eye contact. "Unfortunately your father was already gone by the time we got to him." She says in a pitiful tone.
Rudo's whole world stops as his gaze drops to his lap watching as his own tears fall onto the white sheet that covers him. She says something else to him and he doesn't catch it at first, just letting himself cry as an intense wave of grief crashes over him.
Rudo feels a hand rub circles in his back. "I'm so sorry for your loss Rudo." The woman tells him trying to soothe him enough to tell him the next steps.
After a while longer of this Rudo sinks back into the bed looking over at her with exhausted eyes.
The woman tells Rudo that her name is Tomme and that she will be taking his case as his social worker. She explains to him what foster care is and how it works. Tomme also tells him that his new guardian was in the waiting room waiting to meet Rudo.