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“Enjiiiiin,” Riyo’s voice broke over the collar on his nightstand. Enjin rolled over, pulling the blanket over his head trying to ignore it. “Enjiiiiiin, it’s me, Riyooooooo.”
By the third or fourth chime of her voice, Enjin rolled his torso back and palmed around for the choker.
His eyes remained closed, hoping he could sleep midconversation. “Shut up, Riyoooo. It’s the middle of the night.”
“Enjin, you have to come get us.”
“I’m not getting shit-” Then the words sunk in. “Huh? Who is us and where are you?”
Her side of the line was quite far too long. “Uhm… We got into a bar fight.”
That took another minute to process, laughter replacing sleep. “A bar fight!? Who let you into a bar!?”
“Zanka started it!” Riyo defended.
“HUH!?” Now that he didn’t believe. “Where are you, I’m coming, I NEED to see this!”
And Enjin was in his car and driving down the ward to some shitty little dive bar that didn’t ask anyone for their age despite the many young looking faces. Including three very familiar faces sat guilty ridden at a stand with what Enjin assumed to be the owner of the establishment.
Enjin shoved his hands in his pockets and mosied on over. Riyo and Rudo were the two to pick their heads up, Zanka remained picking salt in the wooden table’s grain. “What on the ground happened here?”
All three of them had some sort of injury, but Riyo was shockingly the cleanest. They all sat in silence, looking at each other like they hadn’t come up with a good enough lie yet.
“Someone tell me or I leave and let this nice man handle it for me?”
“Someone put something in Riyo’s drink!” Rudo blurted out. “Zanka drank it!”
“Huh?”
Zanka did look a little… out of it, he guessed.
“I shaw this guy put somethin’ in her drink, and I just grabbed it, dranked it, hit him in wit’ da glass.” Zanka’s words were slurred together, accent unbearably thick. The poor thing was a lightweight on the best of nights. Now he had something more than alcohol in his system. Didn’t seem like a roofie, or he’d be out cold by now, but maybe something that shouldn’t be mixed with alcohol.
“And from there, Rudo got involved, so other people jumped in, so I jumped in- AND I didn’t even know about the drink thing yet!” Riyo explained.
Enjin blinked a few times, if not for Zanka’s cloudy expression, he wouldn’t have believed it at all.
“Sosososososo you actually started the bar fight?” Enjin put his hands on his hips and looked at the owner. “I’m sorry man, do I owe any damages?”
“Nah, I just wanted an adult to come take these hooligans home before they cause any more problems!”
“Consider it taken care of,” Enjin swore. “C’mon. Your mother is going to be so upset with you when she hears about this.”
Riyo and Rudo slipped out of their seats, Zanka needed more help standing, so Enjin tucked his arm under his shoulders and lifted. Their height difference made it awkward, but it was better than leaving him or picking him up.
Once outside, Rudo was already talking about how it wasn’t even really their fault, and that creep left before Enjin arrived and no one even saw what happened and imagine if Riyo--
Enjin cackled out of laughter. He shoved his free hand into Rudo’s hair and ruffled the already fluffy mess. “You guys are my fucking heroes!”
The three of them blinked in surprise.
“Cmon!? Starting a bar fight, are you kidding me!!! That’s my dream. And Zanka, you’re so fucking stupid- you saw the drink get spiked and you downed it?”
“Does it help to say I whas already drunk?”
“The image in my head? Yes. Does it help your case for not being the stupidest kid of the night, no.”
Zanka made a really stupid looking pout, Enjin couldn’t help but laugh more as he helped Zanka into the backseat of the car.
“Who gets shotgun?” Riyo asked.
“No one!” Enjin kept his hand on the door as Rudo and Riyo climbed in with various degrees of pouting. “I gotta punish you somehow. So… You guys eat?”
“No,” Rudo crossed his arms over his head. “I ORDERED food, but the fight happened and I never got it.”
“Aawwwwwhahahah, poor bababbyyyyyy~” Enjin mocked as he got in the driver’s seat. “Yo, Zanzan, what do you think you can stomach?”
A few slow blinks and a few ‘uhm’s later. “Hamburger…”
“Yeahhh!!” Rudo and Riyo echoed in excitement. “Burgers!!”
Enjin cackled again before driving around the ward for a place still open this late. They found another bar, and Enjin went in alone. Leaving his three brats alone in the back seat, knowing they can’t be trusted in a bar anymore.
He sat up on a stool at the bar and waited for the bar tender's attention. “You still serving food?”
“Sure, whatcha want?”
“4 burgers and fries?”
“Sure, that’ll take a hot second.”
“No prob, I’ve got time.” Time to let them sit and think about what they did, if he was a more responsible adult, he probably would’ve taken them right home and scolded them for a few things. A) sneaking out, two; going to a bar without an adult present, and lastly starting the bar fight.
But he was not the responsible adult, and that’s probably why they called him instead of Gris or even Corvus.
He was the one who glowed with pride even when Zanka was in a sorry state. He was proud they could handle themselves in a situation, and he felt honored to be the one called. The trusted one. Their Enjin.
A lithe figure joined him at the bar. “Riyooooo,” Enjin raised his brows at her as she pulled herself into the stool next to him. “You’re not allowed in here.”
“You never said that.”
“I thought it was unspoken with the ‘stay put’ order.”
Riyo shrugged and grabbed a coaster to mess with. “Thanks for coming.”
“You guys owe me big tiiiiime,” He messed up her hair too. Zanka was next, he promised. “Especially if you don’t want Gris to hear.”
“Blackmail is beneath you, Enjin.”
“Is it? Are you sure?” It certainly wasn’t. Not about this. He wished he had something to take a picture with. “You good?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”
Enjin shrugged. “Some creep tried to dose you.”
Riyo’s lips puckered. “I can’t believe Zanka drank it! That was the crazy part.”
“For such a smart kid, he can be so fucking dumb.” Enjin snickered. “But I mean it, are you good?”
“I’m fine, just reeling a bit. Nothing major, just. I’m normally so careful with my drinks, but I let my guard down a little bit and I didn’t even notice until they told me.”
Enjin rubbed the upper half of her back. “Good to know you’ve got them on your side.”
“Yeah,” she tapped her fingers against the coaster. “Good to know you’d come too. That you’d drop everything for something as dumb as a bar fight.”
Enjin patted her back then rubbed his thumb against her spine. “Of course I would. No questions asked.”
Riyo leaned on him, green eyes turned down away from him. “We’d come for you too, yknow. Whenever you need us.”
Enjin smiled, leaned his head on top of hers and hummed happily. “I’m not the one taking spiked drinks and starting bar fights.”
“Oh whatever!” With a roll of her eyes, the bartender arrived with their food. He wrapped it up and Riyo helped him bring it back to the car. They ate in the car on the drive home, going extra slow so the far-to-gone Zanka didn’t throw up in his back seat.
Rudo and Riyo went off to bed and Enjin brought Zanka to the med bay, helped him flop right into one of the cots and spoke to one of the doctors about what he probably took.
“Enjiiiiiin,” Zanka whined.
“Whaaa,” Enjin echoed the needy tone as he walked back over.
“Do ya shill think m’cool?” His big doe eyes all wet and glossy. Enjin had to swallow a laugh, but committed to ruffling up his hair and getting another, far more pathetic, whine out of him.
“The coolest, man. Behave for the doctor alright? I’ll check on you in the morning.”
Rudo was waiting outside his room for him. “Wassup?” Enjin was more than a little ready for bed, but the kid seemed to be wide awake and bursting at the seams.
“I’m so pissed we just let that guy get away!” Rudo crossed his arms. “He wanted to hurt Riyo!”
Enjin nodded slowly, hand on Rudo’s shoulder to direct him into his room. “C’mon. Let’s talk about it.”