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The Sphere was cold.
Always nipping at Rudo's skin, forcing him to bundle up to prevent from chills. Sometimes, it would be warm enough for a single layer, but that time lasted a month of the year at best.
Something about how high up they were, Regto mused. He then settled Rudo into a lesson about altitude, air currents, and temperature that Rudo only half-remembered.
He wished he could remember more.
The Ground is warm.
Extremely warm, in a way that has a constant sweat sheen on his skin, even out of his obnoxiously hot uniform. He doesn't understand how the others can tolerate it. Then again, he doesn't understand how the others can tolerate the air quality either. They were born in it, and Rudo wasn't, and that fact is becoming more and more apparent as the season gets warmer.
"Can we roll the windows down?" Rudo grumbles, jolting as Enjin hits another bump. "It's stuffy as hell."
Enjin glances in the rearview mirror. "Sure, this one's manual, though, you'll have to crank it down."
After that first word, Rudo's hands already clasp around the handle, winding the window down and gasping as a billow of air passes through. It's not cold by any means, but it helps. He leans his head against the doorframe, breathing in the fresh-er air, the breeze brushing against his neck and helping him cool down.
"Actin' like ya were suffocatin'," Zanka teases, "it ain't even that hot today."
Rudo jerks his head towards the other, eyes narrowing. "You're just pretending you're not suffering in all that." He gestures at Zanka's uniform, scowling.
"Ay, what's wrong wit my clothes?" Zanka snarls, and Rudo rolls his eyes.
"You wear like, thirty layers! How are you not dying in this heat?" He retorts.
Zanka grips his staff tight, anger slowly ebbing into confusion. "It's not that warm?" His eyes dart to the others in the truck. "It's barely anythin'. What are ya talkin' about?"
Rudo opens and closes his mouth. "Nevermind," he snaps, turning back to the window. He leans back towards the breeze. Zanka looks like he wants to say more, but considering their spats, wisely decides to shut his mouth.
Rudo notices the way that Enjin and Gris' eyes constantly flicker to him in the mirror, the way Riyo's fingers thread through his hair then remove at the sweat building in his scalp.
Tomme offers a cold rag to put on his neck, and it helps a bit. She settles back next to Follo, who looks at him with an unreadable expression. He turns away.
He'll just have to get used to it like them. That's all.
When they park the car in a lot, arriving in a small town, the hot air grows stagnant.
Rudo does his best to ignore the way his clothes start sticking to him as he trudges towards wherever these people have spotted trashbeasts gathering. He adjusts his hip bag, pulling it around his shoulder. The black undershirt of his uniform is smoother than the course material of the jacket, but its thick enough to provide some protection.
And thick enough to cause a sweat-stain seeping through his entire back.
Rudo grits his teeth, swallowing the complaints on his tongue. There's no time for that now.
Enjin has them fan out in the search. Really, it shouldn't have been an entire team type of job, but he's still on his "team bonding exercise" kick that nobody's really been able to stop. And as much as Rudo hates to admit it, he thinks the tussle with the Raiders made the guy a bit paranoid of letting them too far away.
"Still no sign of anything, are we sure that these people saw something?" Riyo says after an hour, and Enjin sighs.
"Might've moved on or collapsed back into trash. Let's ask the townsfolk if they've seen anything. I'm taking Rudo and Follo to eastside. Zanks, Ri, you're getting supervised. Don't think I forgot the time you two tried to extract information from the civilians."
"That was one time," Zanka protested loudly, and Rudo stores that story away to ask about later.
Gris and Tomme simply laugh as they follow
Rudo sighs. He thinks he'd much prefer teaming up with Riyo. He walked over to where Enjin spun Umbreaker around his wrist, mentally preparing for whatever awkward conversation Enjin was going to initiate.
The man smiled seeing him, but it faltered for a minute. "I'd say you don't look so hot, but kid, you look like you're about to boil over. You okay?" A hand suddenly raises to his forehead, brushing away his sticky bangs. "Shit, you're not going on jobs sick, are you?"
"No!" Rudo protests immediately, ducking out of Enjin's touch. "It's just—it's just warm out."
Enjin frowns. "It's really not, kid. You were like this in the car. I think we should head back and check up with Eishia."
"I'm fine," Rudo insists. He crosses his arms. Why was everyone making such a big deal about it? He rubs at his forehead with the back of his sleeve, wiping away the sweat on his face.
It was mid-afternoon, meaning the temperature was getting to its hottest. Rudo was extremely glad there were ever-present clouds; he might have actually burned to a crisp if the sun shone like on the Sphere.
He felt dizzy, and probably more than a little dehydrated. He reaches for his canteen, and Enjin gently grasps his wrist.
"Rudo." He looks up, blearily. "Rudo—oh, okay. Down, down now."
Suddenly, he's on his back, staring up at the sky as golden eyes look at him worriedly. A hand presses to his forehead again, and Enjin curses. "Follo. Do me a solid and take Rudo back to base. I think he's coming down with something."
Of course, they wouldn't let it go.
Rudo whines helplessly, trying to protest, but Enjin sends a withering glare that makes him quiet instantly. "C'mon, jacket off. You're going back to HQ. Non-negotiable." He's already unbuckling Rudo's bag, throwing it somewhere—he assumes towards Follo.
Follo yelps, catching the bag full of salvaged trash and nearly fumbling with it for a second before he straightens. He blinks at Enjin for a few moments. "Uh, why me?" He questions, and the man sighs as he ticks off his fingers.
"Kids are gonna need me if we do find a trashbeast, you can drive better than me if Rudo's sick enough to hurl, I'm not going down an adult 'til I'm sure this beast isn't here."
Follo snaps his mouth shut, looking at the side. "Okay," he states in a tone Rudo hasn't heard before, "I'll take him back." He helps Rudo sit up slowly, waiting until the boy's head stops spinning before reaching under his arm to help him to the car.
Enjin beams. "Great. I'll call for ya to come back once we're finished up here, 'kay? And put the pedal to the metal, I swear this town is half ghost already." He shivers a bit before saluting both of them. "Don't lose our Rudo. I'm trusting ya!"
Follo nods slowly. "Right, sure thing."
The car ride back is quiet. Follo doesn't turn on the radio, and Rudo is too uncomfortable with the way the sweat trickles down his back to take on music assaulting his ears.
He leans over carefully, cranking down the window and letting the air hit him again.
The heat is really getting to him this time. His brain has started to feel stuffy, and he closes his eyes as the warm breeze smacks against his face.
If this were barely any heat, would he be able to survive the Ground's hottest days? When even the others were sweltering? Rudo bit his lip.
He hated feeling so weak in front of them, unable to tolerate something so simple as the weather when all the others walked in it like it was nothing. It was just another reminder of where he was from, the gaping chasm of differences between him and everyone else here. He hated that feeling. It clawed into his chest, a gnawing loneliness that he couldn't mend.
"Is there… any A/C in this fucking truck?" Rudo manages to slur out, and Follo looks at him and winces.
"Sorry, refrigerant is hard to come by. It's just gonna cycle air. Windows are a better bet."
"Mmgh," Rudo grunts, shifting. He's glad Enjin made him take off his jacket. He pulls up the sleeves of his undershirt, careful not to catch any of his bandages. He has a thought of chucking the entire shirt off, but he's really not sure if he'd like to be shirtless in front of Follo.
The other sighs, pulling over and putting the car in park. "Hold on one sec," he says, unzipping his own uniform.
Rudo squawks for a moment as Follo pulls off his undershirt. "Follo, what the f—"
It's pressed in his lap. Pulling his coat back one, Follo slips out of the car, standing behind the back doors, and soon a pair of pants joins.
Rudo blinks, confused.
A head pops around, Follo squinting at him. "Go on, and give me your pants, I really don't want to go back to HQ in my underwear."
His confusion must be finally visible, because the other boy suddenly flushes red. "Oh, shit, sorry. I thought you realized. Like, back in Tori. My clothes are made of lighter material than the standard stuff August uses." He rubs the back of his neck. "I thought it might… help so you don't pass out on the way back 'cause Enjin might murder me if I end up dragging you into the infirmary."
"Huh," is all Rudo can manage, intelligently. He stares at the offered shirt, grabbing it. Even through 3R, he can tell it's a thin material. And shortsleeve, which definitely helps his predicament.
"You don't… have to. Oh fuck, I really should've asked first. I feel really stupid now. This is weird, isn't it? Sorry, nevermind, we can forget about it and—"
Slowly, Rudo pulls off his own shirt. He sighs at the lack of sticky sweat before slowly pulling Follo's shirt on instead. It's loose, cool, and very much not a humid death-trap. The material is strange. Much more breathable than the material of his undershirt. Follo politely turns as Rudo swaps his pants as well, finding the same effect. He tosses his into the driver's seat, which is immediately snatched up.
Not much later, Follo pulls himself back in, grimacing. "Yeah, your pants are thick as hell, man. Can see why you were struggling. August makes 'em practical, can't blame him."
The car is put into drive, and they continue their journey back to base.
"Are you… How did you…" Rudo starts, but he's unsure how even to broach the subject of whatever just happened in the last ten minutes.
Follo shifts in his seat. "I was born and raised in the North Ward. It snows there, like, half the year. Took me a while to get used to the temperature down here. Still not a huge fan. I should've figured, Sphere all the way up there, it's probably pretty cold normally, right?"
Well, that explained a few things. Rudo nods. Follo smiles briefly.
"You'll get there eventually. But you should probably ask August to modify your clothes. It's just gonna get hotter. It sucks. And hey! We can put a cooler in the trucks on missions. Keep some iced rags and water. Label it to keep the others out." He laughs lightly at his own joke before glancing back at Rudo. "Seriously, though, can't have you passing out from heat exhaustion on missions, you're too important for that."
Rudo winces. "Yeah, sorry."
Follo offers him a smile. "Just take it easy, Eishia can check you over when you get back, then you can sit under the A/C for the rest of the day." He hums for a moment. "Never thought I'd have any struggles in common with the kid who fell from the sky, huh? Kinda cool."
A groan comes from the other, and Follo furrows his brows, before snorting as he realizes his pun. He erupts into a fit of giggles, covering his mouth with his hand as he continues.
Rudo shakes his head, leaning against the window again. "Thanks," he mumbles out, hoping it conveys enough.
Follo's giggles die down, and he glances back over. "'Course," he says with a shrug and a smile, "it's my job, isn't it?"
Silence slowly fills the space between them as Rudo's eyes grow shut once more. The temperature with his new clothes is much more bearable, and his head starts to clear again.
Follo turns the radio station on low, and Rudo finds himself lulled into sleep as the breeze gently cools the car, making it much more comfortable for the both of them.