Work Text:
Rudo is sat in the car listening to everyone around them talk about something. Rudo's not in the mood to join the conversation which the cleaners respect at least. All Rudo wants to do is go back to headquarters and work on some items to distract their mind for a while.
"What? Hell nah!" Enjin glances in the mirror to where Riyo is sitting in the trunk.
"Aw, you're lame. Come on, take the bet!" Riyo teases with a shit eating grin.
"I'm not risking you cutting my hair short over a bet!" Enjin reaches around and grabs his cigarettes and slides one out, pointing it at her just to gesture. "Offer somethin' else and I'll take it on."
Zanka sighs and shakes his head. "Yer just gonna lose again. I've kept track of how many stupid bets yall take and you've only won three."
"Three is a lot!" Enjin says as he lights the cigarette and rolls down the window a crack.
Riyos stifling her laughter as Zanka speaks up. "She's won fifty eight."
Enjin coughs and glances back at them. "I let her win."
"No the hell you don't." Follo says from the passenger seat. "Actually I think I see you put in more effort to these silly bets than your actual work."
Enjin grumbles and puffs on his cig. "Don't tell Semiu."
Riyo beams at that. "Blackmail time then!"
"Ah shit, I shoulda just stayed quiet." Enjin flicks some ash out the window.
"You take my bet or I tell Semiu about how much we bet." Riyo smirks at him.
Enjin rolls his eyes. His kids are amusing. That would just mean Riyo rats herself out too. Plus he knows his daughter, she would never ruin their fun.
"Fine. I bet that I can make Rudo laugh first." Enjin glances in the mirror. That was their bet after all.
The spherite was currently in a daydream of sorts. Enjin always keeps an eye out for his kids and family, so he knows their quirks. For Rudo, the kid can slip into a daydream almost automatically and not be in reality for a while.
So lucky for them he can talk about betting on Rudo with the kid right there without him getting pissed!
Riyo hums in consideration as if she was contemplating it. It was her idea after all. "And what are you betting? Because if you lose I still wanna give you a new hair style."
"Absolutely not. No cutting." Enjin huffs.
"Cutting hair?" Riyo said amused. "Who said anything about that?"
"Enjin just say yes." Zanka huffs out. "It's not like she can mess your hair up. It’s already horrible, she’d just improve it."
"Whatever I style has to last at least half a day!" Riyo sits up a bit.
"Alright fine." Enjin waves his hand around. "But if I win you gotta do my chores for a day."
"Deal!" Riyo leans over while Enjin reaches back and they shake on it.
She looks at Rudo and nudges him. "Hey, Ru, wake up."
Rudo blinks a bit then looks at them. "I wasn't sleeping. What do you want?"
Riyo rests her arm on the back of the seat and hums. "I wanna know.. what makes you laugh?" She then reaches out and pokes his cheek, trying to upturn his lip. "I don't think I have seen you smile."
Rudo moves away, swatting the hand off with a huff. "I don't know what makes me laugh. Dad sometimes did.." Rudo trails off, biting their tongue. "Regto said I never smiled when I did though."
Riyo saw both Follo and Zanka staring intensely at her, very much silently telling her she may have fucked up.
Rudos only joined them almost two weeks ago. Everyone knew about how his dad was killed in front of him and he was framed for it. Riyo knew death like it was her friend, but she wasn't stupid to the fact others weren't used to it.
Plus something like that sounded horrid. She really didn't know how she would react if one of the cleaners were even injured in front of her, let alone killed.
"What jokes did he say to you?" Riyo tried. She wanted to make Rudo smile. That was the point of this bet. They wanted to make him happy.
Rudo sighed, instantly recalling all of the shitty jokes their dad said nonstop. "The usual dad jokes. Regto also was obsessed with books so if they learned a joke in there then they'd say it all of the time."
Riyo hummed in thought. "I don't know dad jokes.. he sounds like a funny guy though."
"They were." Rudo mumbles.
Riyo noticed his mood plummeting. Crap. This was her fault.
"Ya know what's white and full of rage?" Enjin perked up, trying to not only change the topic for Rudo's mood but attempt to do a dad joke.
"Me?" Rudo tried, staring at Enjin from the mirror.
"A polar bear."
The silence actually hurt.
Follo cracked up a second later. "Dude, that was actually the worst joke I've ever heard in my life!"
"But yer laughing!" Enjin argued back.
"At YOU, not at the joke!" Follo covered his mouth.
Riyo looked to Zanka and saw he was smiling faintly though he turned his head to hide it. She looked at Rudo to see his lips hadn't moved, but his eyes were expressive. He was happy.
"You almost got him to laugh." Riyo teased. She noticed from the corner of her eye how Rudo tensed up and all of that small amount of happiness vanished.
Why? What had she said? Maybe he realized he was close to doing so and closed himself off? No. She was good at picking up people's emotions. She knew that wasn't it but didn't know why Rudo was upset again.
"Wait, really?!" Enjin said shocked. He threw his cigarette out the window since he was done with it and rolled it back up. "I can think of more."
Follo, Zanka, Riyo, and Rudo all said 'no' at the same time.
"Damn, alright! Shit." Enjin mumbled, going quiet as he tried to think of actually funny jokes.
Riyo sat back in the trunk and listened to Follo and Zanka talking about random things for a while. When she suspected Rudo was daydreaming again, she sat up to check just to make sure.
From how his eyes were a bit glazed over and he wasn't moving much, yep. Riyo turned to Zanka. "Hey, have you noticed he sometimes acts.. weird?" Riyo spoke a bit quietly, motioning to Rudo to make sure he stayed in his daydream.
Zanka raised an eyebrow at her. "You mean more than usual? I don't think there's one normal thing about him."
Riyo whacked him lightly. "I'm serious, Zan! I know you're the smart one of us. Use that brain of yours."
Zanka looked away for a moment, sighed, then stared at Rudo for a moment. "Yeah. It's like something's.. off."
Riyo made a face akin to a scowl at him.
"No! No, not like that, damn." Zanka waved his hand a bit. "Like.. he won't tell us something important that bothers him."
"I get that too." Riyo looked back at Rudo. "Spherites are weird."
Enjin cleared his throat. "I've noticed it too. Can't figure it out though."
Beside him, Follo was nodding in agreement. "I think he's the type of person to rather die than talk about himself like some others we know."
Riyo rolled her eyes. Yeah, they had a lot of people like that. Still, that's why she and the rest had to be observant with people.
"Anytime he gets upset like that, try to remember what was said or done. We'll figure it out eventually."
Rudo was getting seriously weirded out by the others. They seemed way more invested in asking questions that were getting invasive. Not in a bad way, but in a way that Rudo knew as almost gentle prying.
He kind of understood. They knew nothing about spherites. Maybe they wanted to be more accommodating somehow?
Rudo was picking at the food on the tray, taking bites occasionally while the people around talked about their morning.
A lot of things were confusing. Their way of life was.. really different down here. Rudo had no idea about their customs, a lot of the words they used to refer to things, and more. A lot of things were specific too that didn’t make sense to him. Admittedly, Rudo was embarrassed to ask about it since it all seemed like common knowledge.
It felt like Rudo's identity was stripped in a way. It wasn't their fault. Maybe they should talk about it..
"Ru!" Riyo sat beside him and ruffled his hair eagerly. "Morning, sleep well?"
"I guess? Bed is still the same."
Riyo snorted. "You're funny. We don't have any jobs today, so I wanna do something with you!" She beamed, watching his reactions excitedly.
Rudo slowly chewed a bite of food and shrugged. "I guess."
"Yes! Okay, I was thinking we can brush your hair first, then I can style it." Riyo started simple at first. She wanted to hang out with Rudo in general, but she was also trying to pinpoint what could make Rudo upset.
"My hair?" Rudo reaches up and touches a few strands.
It's kind of cute seeing how confused he looks. Riyo nods. "Yep. I wanna style it a bit. Can I?"
".. I'd like that. Can I pick it out?"
Riyo internally screamed with joy. Externally she just took a bite of food with a gentle nod. Rudo was asking to actively engage in something!? Hell yes! This was amazing progress! She'd get to learn something about him!
After breakfast Riyo practically dragged him to her room and had him sit down. She grabbed a few things and set them beside him. "Go wild!"
Rudo looked through them all and picked out a few things.
Most shockingly to Riyo, he picked out a few bows with clips and some clip on earrings.
Rudo saw their shocked reaction and looked uncomfortable. "Is, uh, this okay?"
"Yes! Of course it is." She grabs a brush and sits beside him, having him move and turn. Riyo starts to brush his hair, getting any knots and tangles out from his wild mess.
It's soft and interesting how his hair is white but turns black. She can see new growth hairs start out black near his skull, and as they grow turn white.
Riyo loves peoples hair. It's like their story and identity. She doesn't know what Rudo's means, but she likes it.
When she is done, Riyo takes a few bows Rudo picked out and gathers some of his hair, sliding them in so he has the perfect amount all around his head that won't hurt from the weight or be too much.
She then grabbed the earrings he picked out. They were simple ring shaped ones. The bows had surprised her since they were more feminine, but the earrings were leaning on gender neutral or even masculine.
This was good insight into who Rudo was.
She attached them with a smile. Riyo then handed him a mirror. "Hows this?"
Rudo took it from them and looked at the work Riyo did through it, moving the mirror around. "Whoa." Rudo reached up and touched a few of the bows gently. "This is awesome."
Riyo was taking so many mental notes on Rudo. "You look awesome! I'd love to do this more."
Rudo seemed nervous, then nodded. "Okay. Can I do your hair?"
Riyo opened her mouth in shock, then smiled. "Yes." Hardly anyone asked to do her hair.
"I won't be good at it." Rudo admits. "Dad only let me brush, never style."
"That's lame. How are you supposed to get better if you don't practice? Just don't knot or cut my hair and I'll be okay. I can guide you too."
Rudo was currently fumbling to get her pony tail out due to the bulky gloves.
She reached behind her and undid it for him without teasing or anything. Riyo could feel him smooth her hair out then start to brush it gently at first, his movements unsure and nervous.
After a while she could feel Rudo's confidence grow. He was brushing practically normally now. Riyo took pride in her hair so she didn't have any knots or anything, but didn't mind Rudo's almost over brushing since he was both not used to this or long hair.
Plus it was a nice feeling. It felt like they were bonding a bit.
Rudo set the brush aside. "Did you pick out any bows you wanted?"
"Ah crap, I got so in the zone. Sorry." Riyo picked up a few random ones. She didn't really care what they looked like or whatever. "You know how to put them in?"
Rudo nods. "Yeah. They clip onto hair. It's simple."
"Nope." Riyo turns to look at him with a knowing grin. "Its possible to put them in badly. They could tug on the hair and hurt, or even slip out. Attach them close to the scalp, scoop the hair under the open clip, and make sure it's all flat and straight."
Rudo blinked at Riyo, absorbing the information like a sponge. Rudo nodded and sat on their knees to reach Riyo's head better.
She could feel a lot of fumbling due to his gloves. "Want me to hold them for a moment?"
Rudo went quiet and still.
Riyo almost logged that as something he got upset by, but then she saw two gloves in her field of view. She reached up and took them, holding them in her lap protectively.
Everyone knew how important someones jinki was. Of everyone, Rudo probably understood that the most.
She could feel his bandaged fingers carefully add bow after bow. Honestly there were too many and some she could tell would fall out soon, but she didn't want to ruin this moment.
It felt fragile in a way.
When he was done he handed her the mirror. Riyo handed him the gloves back, sort of like a trade, and admired his work. For his first time it was really not that bad. "You do better than Enjin already." She boasted.
Rudo flexed their fingers as they fit them back into the gloves. "How come no one really wears bows?"
"Hmm.." Riyo thinks for a moment. "They can get in the way I guess. Easy to lose.."
"Oh." Rudo seems to realize why they can be bothersome. "And we aren't doing anything today?"
"Nope. We can be bow-full all day." Riyo teased lightly. "So.. you wear bows on the sphere?"
Rudo nods a bit. "Yeah. Regto didn’t wear them much, but liked nail polish. Said it was a sign of wealth.." Rudo looks to their gloved hands with a frown. "I couldn't paint mine."
Riyo gives him a sad smile in understanding. "Theres more things you can do than just nail polish. Can you tell me more about your customs? I want to make you comfortable."
Rudo stares at Riyo for a long moment. "Like what?"
"Daily stuff! When you first came down here you did a lotta weird things until you learned some of our customs."
Rudo made a sour face and looked away out of embarrassment. "Don't remind me about how I didn't know you guys have daily hangout sessions.."
When Rudo first joined they just acted like how they knew from the sphere which meant basically isolation since Rudo kept to their room. Apparently the ground had a lot of customs related to doing stuff together with people.
Rudo was very quickly dragged out of the room they were getting used to and forced to participate in at bare minimum daily dinner meet ups where everyone ate and chat together. That didn't include the fairly often random get togethers of smaller groups of people.
"Aw but it was funny." Riyo poked him playfully. "You tried to hide in your room the whole time!"
"I still do." Rudo grumbled out.
"That's a lie." Riyo smirked. "You're having fun now aren't ya? So.. your dad wore nail polish? That's cool."
"Not really. Everyone on the sphere does. It's expensive so it's a sign of prestige, but they really enjoyed it." Rudo shrugs.
"Hmm... what colors does he like?"
Riyo noticed how Rudo tensed again. Was it the topic of his dad? Remembering he was dead? That couldn't be it because they had been talking about him for at least a minute prior.
"Regto wore blue most often. Matched, uh, the vibe. That's what they told me." Rudo shrugs. "Eye color and kinda the hair."
"Hmm.. did you paint his nails?"
Riyo notices Rudo's not looking at her anymore. Not good. She files this away to think about later and see if she can pinpoint what upset him.
"Yeah." Rudo says lightly. "I liked doing it."
Contradictory to his actions indicating he is upset, his tone is happy. Riyo is genuinely confused as to what could be bothering him. She prided herself on understanding people quite well, but Rudo was different and complex.
"Want to paint mine?" Riyo offers. She sees how Rudo looks at her hopefully.
"Really?" Rudo can't help but feel giddy. It was the first time since Regto's death that Rudo has felt this excited about something so mundane. They really want to do this?
Rudo sees Riyo nod and go to pick out a color. Rudo follows them and watches as Riyo sifts through the colors they own, then shows one off. "Hows this? Red glittery."
"I think it suits you well. It matches your hair."
"Good eye. You're better at this than Zanka. I let him pick out my color before and he picked orange. Not my vibe at all! He was pissed but eventually got me a green. He's actually really good at painting nails."
Riyo looks to Rudo to see him both interested and confused at.. something.
Riyo would say that maybe Rudo isn't used to guys being into feminine stuff, but that clearly wasn't the case if what he said was true about the sphere. It seems guys up there partake in more feminine things. Potentially.
She wants to learn more.
"So.. what all things do you wear up there?" Riyo asks as she sits back down and opens the nail polish for Rudo since he can't grip it with his gloves.
Rudo carefully takes the small brush out and swipes it on the rim, getting rid of the excess. "It's cold as shit up there. We all wear big fluffy coats."
"Any styles?" Riyo asks.
"Eh, kinda?" Rudo shrugs as they take their hand and starts to carefully paint each finger, making sure to be slow and careful since the gloves made accuracy more difficult.
"I mean.. on our side we had whatever was thrifted. Can't be picky. I like clothes that are really big on me and don't show anything. Regto liked more fancy coats but on warmer days would wear long skirts. Most on the rich side preferred all kinds of dresses. Pants were seen as poor.."
Riyo memorized every word and hummed. "That's really cool. Regto seems like he was a good dad."
Rudo made another face.
Riyo saw how his hands stopped for a moment as he thought over something Riyo said, then continued. "Dad was the only one to treat me like a person rather than a thing."
Riyo huffs. "What assholes. Can I ask what they did, or is that too much?"
Rudo paused then glanced at her. "It isn't too much. Doesn't really bother me. Dad talked to me a lot about not letting their words get to me."
Rudo painted over the pinkie and checked the work, then set it aside to dry as they moved to the next, dabbing the brush into the bottle.
"They called me a thing. An it." Rudo slowly inhaled, then started to paint the other fingers. "It's trying to sell trash again." Rudo said in a different tone.
Riyo's heart sunk hearing this. That was cruel as hell. Those people had used those pronouns in such a way to degrade Rudo. "Rudo.."
"No, don't pity me or whatever. I'm fine. I'm not an it. I know that." Rudo moved to the next nail, his movements still slow as they didn't want to waste any nail polish getting on skin.
"I'm not pitying you. I care deeply about you. Those assholes suck. Did you beat them up?"
Rudo looked up and stared at Riyo's face, contemplating something. "I wanted to. Regto told me it isn't good to throw tantrums or fight back. They are just jerkfaces who are stupid as shit."
Riyo nodded in agreement. "He is completely correct then. I'm glad you listened to him."
Rudo stopped moving completely.
Riyo thought he'd be happy, but when she looked at him he saw he was pissed off.
"You keep doing that." Rudo said with a genuinely angry tone.
Riyo knew he was always angry, but there were complex levels to it. This was him being angry. Shit. What did she do or say? Before she could ask him, Rudo shoved the brush into the bottle.
"Don't fucking talk to me." Rudo got up and left.
Riyo was genuinely stunned and confused. Weren't they just fine? What set him off? She hated not knowing because she didn't want to make him upset.
Riyo looked at her unfinished painted nails and frowned. She had to figure out what was going on with Rudo. And that hopefully it wasn't her fault by doing something she didn't understand.
Enjin was observing Zanka training Rudo today. Apparently a few hours ago Riyo made good progress until something pissed Rudo off. At least thats what Riyo told him.
So his and Zanka's goals were to not bring up his dad at all and see if that was what was going on.
It made sense to Enjin. He watched him die only a few weeks ago. He hadn't seen Rudo go through any type of grief other than anger. Like he was perpetually stuck on just that stage.
"You have to watch my movements." Zanka said firmly, holding his staff out. "You're attacking blindly."
Rudo glared at Zanka and huffed hard. "Your attacks are simple as shit! You're just pissed off that I attack randomly."
"Random isn't always good." Zanka whacks him with his staff lightly. "Get into the stance I showed you."
Rudo bends their knees and holds their hands out.
Enjin sighs when he sees Rudo get his ass kicked again. He looks over and sees Riyo watching from a distance with a look of sad longing.
He gets up and walks over to her, sitting beside her. "Don't let this eat you up, kid. He won't tell us what pisses him off. That's on him."
"But.. I think it's apart of his life that's natural to him that we keep fucking up somehow. I don't think he knows we aren't doing it on purpose."
Enjin hums contently and sits back, staring at Rudo, his eyes going to the bows in his hair. "Maybe. How about I just ask him?"
Riyo rubs some of her fingers across the ones that are unpainted. "Alright."
Enjin waits until Rudo's training with Zanka is done. Before the kid can sneak away to go hide in his room, Enjin grabs his shoulders and guides him to a quiet hallway.
"Rudo, what's going on between you and Riyo?" He doesn't even wait before laying the question onto him.
Rudo scowls at Enjin. "Why do you care? Everyone does it like it doesn't fuckin' matter."
Enjin actually gets pissed off. He pokes Rudo's forehead hard. "Get it through your thick skull, kid. We don't have a fuckin' clue what we are doin' that pisses you off. Tell us so we can stop doing what it is that makes you upset."
Rudo looks conflicted. "You.. don't know?"
"Not a fucking clue. We have all been trying to figure it out." Enjin stands back up and crosses his arms. "Riyo's the most determined. She's real upset that she does something that makes you angry."
Rudo looks away, then down at the floor. "I didn't realize you guys had no idea." He swallowed a bit.
"Why do you call me he..?" Rudo said so quietly Enjin almost missed it.
"What do you mean by that?" Enjin pressed for more information.
Rudo fidgets with both of the gloves and frowns a bit. "I don't know what he is. Or she. And you guys keep calling me by those. At first I thought it was something bad at first.. but everyone down here uses them. They don’t make sense to me."
Everything clicks all at once for Enjin. He relaxes a bit and sighs. "God, kid. We really need to talk about this. Tell me, what do you go by?"
"Uh," Rudo looks away. "Everyone on the sphere goes by they and them."
"So you guys don't have gender up there." Enjin realizes, connecting what Riyo told him to this. It all makes sense now.
Anytime they called Rudo's dad a he or used it on Rudo, he'd get confused and frustrated.
"Down here we have two main genders; male and female. Males use he and him. Girls like Riyo and Semiu use she and her. We normally use they and them to refer to people we don't know the gender of or several people at once."
Rudo was staring at him with an unreadable expression as he absorbs the information. "Oh."
"Yeah." Enjin pats his head. "We just thought you used those pronouns. So.. just to absolutely make sure, you only use they and them?"
Rudo nodded, then shrugged. "Everyones been calling me he a lot. It's growing on me."
"That explains why you get so stressed out when we call your dad he, huh?" Enjin smiled a bit at Rudo. "I'll be sure to tell everyone your proper pronouns. You gotta tell us these things. Who knows what other things will be misunderstood unless you say something?"
Rudo huffs and looks away. "Shut up."
"I'll take that as a yes then." Enjin nudges them playfully. "Want me to tell everyone or you?"
"Both of us I guess. I didn't know this would be such a big deal. So.. no one here uses they and them?" "Kinda? It's rare. My friend Gob has a kid that does."
"How do you know when someone uses a specific pronoun?" Rudo asks while they follow him. "Do you use he or she? What's the factor?"
Oh god. Enjin realizes in this moment that Rudo doesn't know what gender is. He actually doesn't know a difference between male and female. It's kind of cute and enduring. "Most girls have long hair."
Rudo thinks for a long moment. "Semiu doesn't but you said she uses she and her."
Enjin hums. "Yeah.. you're right."
"Does Bro use she and her?"
"..no. Okay maybe hair isn't a good factor." Enjin realizes he has a lot of work cut out for him in explaining this to Rudo. He was really bad at this.
He first takes Rudo to Riyo's room and knocks. It takes her a moment but she opens the door and stares at him then down to Rudo.
"Hey." Rudo said awkwardly. "I, uh, didn't realize you guys use weird pronouns here."
Enjin scoffs. "God you suck at this." He pats Rudo's head. "Riyo, he doesn't use either gender. Rudo's genderless. Everyone on the sphere is."
Riyo's expression lit up with realization. "Wait, that's what the issue was? That's such an easy fix!" She takes one of Rudo's gloves and holds their hand. "You should have said something!"
"Damn, I'm sorry! I thought... it was a weird way of calling me an it okay?" Rudo huffs out.
“You thought we were insulting you this whole time? What do you take us for, assholes?” She teased. Riyo then grabs Enjin's hand and yanked him in. "Lets finish our nail polish session."
"Do I get to pick my color?" Enjin asks, realizing he was being included in this.
Both Rudo and Riyo said 'nope' at the same time. They worked together to paint his nails in a rainbow way with Riyo explaining to Rudo about genders as best as she could and how there are nuisances and confusing bits so anytime they don't understand something to say so, and vice versa if any of the cleaners ever do something Rudo doesn't like so they could come to an understanding.
Rudo finished Riyo's nails while Enjin's rainbow ones dried.
It only took one day for everyone to be told. Rudo noticed the change instantly. How anytime anyone talked to him that they would use they and them.
Sometimes they'd slip up but.. he didn't mind. He kind of liked both terms now.