Chapter Text
Everybody can have a bad day.
It’s ridiculous to think that you can go around without any setbacks or inconvenience in life. Especially if one lives on the Ground, where everyday the probability of getting your head bashed by flying trash was higher than finding a flower by the sidewalk.
Still, Follo thinks Rudo’s bad luck needs to be studied, because he could swear that the kid is on a grandiose, life-long quest to fill up the most messed up bingo card ever given to someone.
Case in point:
Said kid was out cold, laying on the infirmary’s bed while hooked on an oxygen mask. The rhythmic rise and fall of his chest was a huge contrast from a few minutes ago, when his breathing had finally stabilized after a very stressed Enjin had convinced his stubborn ass to settle down.
Eishia, a literal life-saver as always, had been able to reverse the lung damage and the eye irritation caused by the inhalation of toxic fog from noman’s land fairly easily. To everybody’s relief, Rudo would be able to leave the infirmary tomorrow and be back in action after a few days of taking it easy.
And it was all thanks to Follo apparently, or at least that was what Eishia and Gris had said. Had it not been for his quick thinking and switching Rudo’s malfunctioning gasmask for his own, the damage would have been much more severe.
It’s not something that special, he thinks. It had been an automatic reaction honestly.
Rudo had been acting strange during their last fight and Follo, used to keeping an eye on all his companions, had caught it almost immediately.
Usually the boy is a whirlwind of movement on the battlefield, always on the move with whatever new weapon his 3R could conjure. So when Rudo stumbled the first time, even though none of the trash beasts that they were fighting had managed to land a single hit on him, Follo suspected that something was wrong.
Then, when the kid suddenly fell to his knees and started clawing his fullface, he knew that things were gonna be bad. Rudo’s desperation was so great that, rather than undoing the clasp of the face mask, the boy had ripped the whole thing with the strength only a desperate rush of adrenaline could give you.
The scene was gory to say the least, taken straight out of one of those scary movies Riyo sometimes drags them to watch. The poor kid was bleeding from both mouth and nose, tears in his eyes from the burning chemicals in the air, coughing out like a maniac in a desperate attempt to expel all the toxic air from his lungs. Uncaring of how all the noise was alerting all the trashbeast around them.
While sprinting towards him, Follo wondered how he could have gotten so intoxicated so fast until out of the corner of his eye he saw a rip in the oxygen cord connecting the mask to the tank. No wonder Rudo had wanted to take the mask off with such urgency. If the cord had been broken from the start then the miasma must have been building up inside the airtight mask, suffocating and burning the kid’s throat from within.
Without thinking twice, he had planted Alan in front of the boy and took the brunt of what would have certainly been a fatal blow from one of the trash beasts. It was fine though, Alan could resist any hit and, behind its protection, he could buy time for Rudo to catch a break and put on his spare gas mask.
Everything would be okay, they’ve got this.
Or so he thought.
A new round of coughing made Follo look behind him only to see that the kid was still gasping for air, even though he had managed to put the new mask on.
For a moment Rudo had met his eyes with so much confusion and fear that it made Follo panic too and he got the message instantly.
Shit, the spare mask wasn’t working either.
In both an act of bravery and recklessness, Follo had let go of his hammer( hoping, praying, that the beast assaulting them wasn’t too smart to stop attacking them from the front) and in a swift movement, he snatched Rudo’s faulty mask off his face and planted his own spare one on his bleeding mouth. He had tried to shield the boy’s eyes too, but there wasn’t much he could do to help but put his hand over them and hid Rudo’s face as much as he could within his big hood.
The rest is kinda of a blur. He remembers Enjin and Riyo covering their retreat and Gris helping him move Rudo to the car while the other Supporters helped them patch the kid up. After that, the trip back to headquarters had been a race against time, trying to keep Rudo from suffocating while hyperventilating.
Follo didn’t let go of Rudo for even a second. Refusing to lose sight of him until he was in Eishia’s hands and out of danger.
Enjin sighing and sitting on the stool next to him wakes him up from the awful memory. The man is as tired as the rest of them, hair unkempt and twitchy hands definitely dying to grab a cigarette. Well, he can sympathize with the guy, after all it’s one of his kids on an infirmary bed -again- so Follo understands the groan of exhaustion that escapes from his mouth. “You guys can go, I’ll stay here tonight”
”You sure?”Asks Gris, worry still present on his face, both for the boy sleeping on the bed and the exhausted man sitting beside him.
”Yeah, yeah the kid is fine now, so shoo. Go give Semiu the full report”
Knowing that what the man was saying was right and not wanting to spend the night moping uselessly in the infirmary , both Gris and Follo say their goodbyes and leave Rudo to rest under Enjin’s watchful eye.
It’s gonna be a long night for him, Follo thinks.
The hallway is empty, most of the anxious people that had gathered around Rudo’s bed had already left, to either sulk in peace or distract themselves with work and neither Follo nor Gris are in the mood to engage in small talk.
This day has surely been a mess.
While walking in silence, Follo fidgets with the rubber tubes of his gas mask. Anything to keep himself from feeling that sense of helplessness when he remembers Rudo gasping for air in that damn bed and he couldn’t do anything more than watch.
Yet it’s not that particular memory that bothers him the most.
It should’ve been an easy mission or at least as easy as one mission into no-man’s land should have been. Team Akuta had been in plenty of dangerous excursions before and even though Follo was a new addition to the frontline roster, he too had experience with polluted zones already.The only new variable introduced, had been the two new Supporters assigned for this mission.
Now that Follo is a full-fledged Cleaner, there was a vacant spot that needed to be filled on the Supporter side and since there had been a new batch of recruits fresh out of orientation that needed on-field training, who better than Gris and Team Akuta to show them the ropes?
Everything had started great. Despite the bickering and the teasing, team Akuta worked great together as always and the trashbeasts were well under control. Hell even the new Supporter recruits, while a little green, were doing just fine.
That is until shit hit the fan, the situation had become chaotic and all of them had to adapt on the fly to make sure that Rudo could make it out alive. It happened so fast that the new Supporters couldn’t do much more than take a step back and watch as Gris and Follo took over the situation. Which is totally normal by the way. When you are face to face for the first time with the reality and hardships of what being a trashbeast hunter entails, it is natural to freeze in fear, unsure of what you can do. He himself can attest to that.
What is not normal, Follo thinks, is for the newbies to be laughing and smiling in the background, especially when one of the Cleaners, a teammate, was being rushed into the car coughing up blood and gasping for air. And look, everyone has their quirks and their own ways to cope with stressful situations and Follo is no one to judge, but no matter how you look at it, whispering and giggling with your mates like that when everyone is rushing to do something to help is questionable.
Really questionable
Follo narrows his eyes in thought and he fidgets with the mask once more, testing the elasticity of the tube one more time by yanking it with a little more force than before.
While the Cleaners' full faces were more elaborated and customized, all simple gas masks follow the same standard model, no matter if it was a Cleaner or a Supporter wearing it. More importantly they were designed and constantly upgraded by Auguste himself, which made them one if not the most higher quality masks one could get on the Ground. The only thing comparable was perhaps the military grade ones that the Hell Guard used.
All that to say, that these things don’t malfunction that easily.
They shouldn’t.
“Follo is everything alright?”Gris’s voice startles him out of his musing. Follo completely forgot that he had been walking alongside him all this time.
”Hmm? Oh yeah sorry” he answers absentmindedly, but the gears in his head keep on turning, a loud voice telling him that something is still not adding up. “Actually I think I left something in the car with all the commotion. Is it still in front of the entrance?”
”Hm? Oh, no the other supporters already drove it to the underground parking lot”
”Right, go ahead without me then. Don’t worry I’ll see you later and give Semiu my report.” He yells, turning around and heading towards the elevator, without waiting for an answer from Gris.
———
The garage is a hub of familiar movement and chatter, with Supporters going up and down with crates and tools in their hands. Some preparing to set out on their own missions, some cleaning up and reorganizing the gear for their respective Cleaners.
Follo waves at a group of Supporters that wave back at him with enthusiasm, some of them he is familiar with, after all he had been one of them not so long ago.
“Heya Follo no time no see!” greets a tall Supporter. He recognizes this one in particular, since they joined the organization at the same time.They had gone together on a few jobs, some after mission parties and whatnot so Follo genuinely happy to see them ”Man you look good in that uniform, mister Giver.”
“Eh? Oh, thank you!” Follo sheepishly responds, fidgeting with the lapels of his Cleaner’s coat. He forgot he still hasn’t changed out of his uniform after they got back from the mission.
To be honest, he hasn’t gotten used to this either, to being called a Giver that is. Even things like this, talking to people who he used to work with is sort of bizarre, because technically speaking he is their “superior” now.
He always thought that, when he finally (if) he got to awaken as a Giver, everything would click together and make sense. That when he finally became part of the “elite” he could finally take control of his life.
Yet surprisingly, after the euphoria of that first awakening in Kremnos, Follo didn’t feel much more different than before.
He is still just Follo.
“What brings you here mister?” Asks the Supporter “Wanna help us with the inventory? You know for all time's sake?”
Oh hell no, if there is something that Follo won’t really miss,ever, is reviewing the endless, tedious inventory lists after a mission. “Thanks, but no thanks. I think I dropped something in the car. Are the jeeps we used today still here?”
”Hmm? Yeah they are at the back, we haven’t cleaned them yet, so whatever you dropped should still be there.”
”Cool, thanks. See ya later!” He says as he waves goodbye to his ex-teammate and hurries to the back of the garage.
As told, the jeeps are parked at the very end of the parking slot, still dusty and dirty from the mission back at the desert. Surprisingly, when he opened the trunk of the car, all of their gear was still in the back of the jeep, waiting to be transported to August’s workshop for maintenance. That also included Rudo’s busted full face that had been haphazardly thrown into the trunk of the jeep after they had hurried him inside the car.
Follo takes the mask and examines it. Aside from the disturbing stains of blood in it, the latches and the filters seemed to be fine, even after Rudo had yanked it violently when he couldn't breath. Auguste’s craftsmanship is impeccable as always.
Next is the oxygen tank. Like the mask, nothing seemed to be wrong when he turned the valve. No leak or pressure issues that he could’ve seen when they made their first gear check. However Follo does spot something wrong or rather the absence of something that should be wrong.
The tube connecting the oxygen tank and the mask was missing.
Follo searches every nook and cranny of the trunk trying to find it. He even searches inside the other cleaners’ bag and under the front seats without any luck.
For a moment, he thought that maybe it simply got lost in the chaos back at the mission site. After all, with Rudo coughing up blood and the trashbeasts still trying to rip them to shreds, nobody had time to worry about what had happened to the broken cord. The logical thing would be to assume that it was now part of the endless sea of trash on the ground and that’s that. Perfectly plausible.
Follo knows better though and he is now sure that his intuition was right, because there was something else missing from the scene.
Rudo’s normal gas mask was also gone.
That was simply one hundred percent not possible. Mainly because, after he had replaced Rudo’s mask with his own, Follo had been clutching the boy’s defective mask during the trip back to headquarters. He even had the time to check it and see that the cause of the malfunction had been a broken tube. Just like the one in Rudo’s full face.
Which even back then had struck him as odd that it had happened twice, seeing as Auguste doesn’t make mistakes like these and that the Supporters recheck all the gear for anomalies before letting the Givers into the field.
Eventually, he had to let go of the gas mask when he had helped Riyo get Rudo out of the car, but even then he was sure he had tossed it on the dirty leather seats.
It could have not just disappeared on its own.
A heavy feeling starts to settle on Follo’s stomach. Something was wrong, very very wrong. Worst of all, the dots were connecting far too easily, creating an image that Follo didn’t want to believe.
“Heya Follo found what you—Oh! Are these still here?” Suddenly the supporter from before appeared right behind him, looking at the Cleaner’s gear bags inside the trunk with an irritated face”I’m sorry Follo. I thought the newbies that parked the car had already cleared them out. Man these new recruits sure are sloppy.”
“They just parked and left?”
“Yeah, in a hurry at that. I get that they were tired from an awful mission, but damn the least they could do is take those bags with them. I swear we weren’t this lazy when we joined.”
Follo allows a frown to show on his face for a second, before quickly gathering all the gear and bags in his arms, including Rudo’s full face that was now sitting atop all of them.“No problem, I’ll deliver these to Auguste myself”
”Once a Supporter always a Supporter huh? Here let me help you with that.”
Follo laughs and tries to cover up his nerves when the other Supporter takes some of the bags in their arms, making sure that he keeps Rudo’s full-face with him. Not wanting to lose sight of one of the only pieces of evidence he has.
Because as much as it hurts, he can’t trust anybody in this garage right now.
To keep up appearances and to make sure that nobody realised something was wrong, he walks with the other Supporter to the exit, chatting amicably, talking about everything and nothing. The mood turns sour however when they reach the elevator and the other Supporter expression changes into worry when they glance at the bloody full face on Follo’s arms ”Hey umm, I heard about the new kiddo, the one Enjin took in. Is he gonna be okay?”
“Yeah don’t worry, he is a tough guy” he reassures them with that trademark business smile he had perfected back when he was a Supporter. Still his eyes refused to stop looking at the drops of blood inside Rudo’s mask “He’ll be fine.”
———
There are a few different ways that this could go, Follo thinks. If his suspicions are true and this is a case of internal sabotage, he needs to proceed very carefully.
It’s most likely that the physical evidence has already been disposed of, so trying to prove anything through that is out of the question. That only leaves a confession directly from the perpetrator's mouth, which was easier said than done.
He is positive that at least three of the Supporters assigned to the latest mission are involved, but confronting all of them together head on would result in them closing ranks and give them time to consolidate alibis between them, making it impossible for Follo to prove his accusations should he bring this matter to the either Gris or the boss.
No one wants to believe that their own comrades had orchestrated a plot to sabotage one of their teammates after all.
“If you are fighting a swarm then you can either go against the weak link first or their leader to break their ranks . Either way you’ve gotta single them out and isolate them in order to catch them by surprise. Divide and conquer.”
Zanka’s words from one of their training sessions resound inside Follo’s head. It’s not something new to him, after all part of his job back in the supporters was to corral and make sure that no trashbeast could escape the Cleaners.It’s just that for the first time he is now the hunter going for the kill and he knows exactly who his prey should be.
Following the principle, Follo decides to go for the weak link, which in this case is the Supporter that couldn’t contain his glee back at the desert when Rudo had been bleeding from every orifice. If the bastard couldn’t contain himself at the crime scene it is most likely he will fold when pressured.
However, you can catch more flies with honey as they say. So Follo, with a plan already made up in his head, takes a few deep breaths to steel his resolve and enters the locker room of the HQ’s gym.
Normally Cleaners come and go as they please, their schedule more flexible and erratic than the Supporters, who have a few free hours in between duties and formal training. That’s why he knows the newbies always come in the morning, right before they clock in for the day.
Another thing that Follo has noticed of his particular prey is that out of this little group of assholes, the one he has chosen to “interrogate” is the last one on the totem pole.
Anyone can tell at first glance that there is a clear hierarchy in this so-called “friend” group and that our guy is clearly the errand boy for the rest of the assholes. Mainly because Follo has seen how these bastards will always make this one pick up the biggest crates, take most of the paperwork or leave him behind to clean up whatever mess they had made in the canteen. Which is perfect for Follo. He could exploit that.
Just as he expected, the Supporter he is looking for was in the locker room, putting the dirty, smelly clothes of his “friends” inside three big bags that he would have to carry himself to the laundry room two floors below this one. Follo feels slightly bad for the guy, but the pity lasts for only a milli-second when he remembers Rudo’s pale, bloody face laying on the infirmary bed.
He casually approaches the locker opposite from the Supporter and opens the door, slowly pretending to change into his workout clothes.
“Hmm? Oh, Sup’ Follo!” The Supporter turns his head around and greets Follo, who waves at him like nothing was wrong in the world “What are you doing here at this hour man? I thought you will be with the other Cleaners ”
“Yeah well, I’m so used to this schedule that it feels weird not coming in the morning you know?”
“Old habits die hard I guess huh?”
”Yeah, you could say that” Follo answers nonchalantly. The last thing he wants is to have a small chat with this guy, but he has to suck it up, be nice and unsuspectingly lead him into a false sense of security."So, how are you doing after your first mission in a polluted zone?”
”Man this shit was different than how they teach it at orientation I tell ya. I’ve never set foot in no man’s land before, that place is nasty. Are all the missions like that there?”
“Yeah, well I gotta say that this one was more of a shit-show than usual.” Follo says, fake irritation in his voice to sell the words he is about to say “Especially with that little shit messing it all up again. I swear he always wants to be the center of attention”
There, the bait is set and it seems to work instantly. The bastard perks up at Follo’s tone and turns around to face him with a fucking smirk. Hook and sinker.
“Say, is it true what they say? That he comes from the Sphere?”
”Seems so? I don’t listen to half the shit he says, but apparently it’s true”
”Man he is nothing special though. I could take him myself, Jinki and all. One punch and he would go down!”
You wish, Follo thinks. Rudo may weigh as much as a dry leaf and is built like a scarecrow, but Follo knows first hand how much raw strength and stubbornness that small body has. The kid had drop-kicked a trash beast trice his size and deterred its course all by himself to help Follo deliver the fatal blow with Alan that time in Kremnos village. No Jinki, no weapon, only his shoes and reckless determination, simply to help the guy that had tried to punch him only a few minutes ago. So yeah, if this guy tried to square up with Rudo he would end up on the floor in two seconds flat, nursing a few broken ribs and a destroyed ego, while Follo claps in the background.
He has to focus and bite his tongue though. He can’t get the cat out of the bag, not yet.
“Yeah, he goes around thinking he is hot shit, but he is all bark and no bite. Did you know he froze on his first mission? Gris had to bail him out when he almost pissed his pants when a trashbeast tried to eat him” Another lie. It had been Follo who had messed up and fell on the ground about to be torn to shreds. Yet Rudo, freshly fallen from the sky, had risked his life and put himself between the beast's claws and a nobody who he didn’t even know.
“For real?! Oh man I’ve gotta tell the rest of the guys!They are gonna love this!”
“Hahah, What, you guys have a secret hate club or something?"Follo asks, maybe a little too on the nose, but luckily the guy doesn’t seem to notice. Too happy believing he had found another hater to recruit.
“You could say that. Why, you wanna join?”
“Honestly, yeah. Everybody in the team is just blind or something and dotes on the little shit for no reason. He is just so fucking annoying! I wanna grab him by the neck and choke him every time he opens his mouth. I hate him”
”Damn man, I feel ya! You happy then, that he ended up in that bed?
”You don’t know how much”
”Well then you are welcomed then!”
”What do you mean?”
“You didn’t think it was weird that both his masks failed on the last mission? That is because I made it fail!”The bastard proudly proclaims with a smile from ear to ear “It was too easy really. As you know, nobody pays attention to Supporters messing with equipment!”
It shouldn’t surprise him. It shouldn’t really. He already knew what this guy had done. It’s just—It’s the tone he is using, the pride and joy in which this bastard admits to hurting someone that shocks Follo into silence. Like it’s just a simple prank and not a despicable act of betrayal that had landed someone in the infirmary with severe intoxication.
“Hey, maybe next time we could mess with his food? If you want to, you could be the one to do it!You know, just mix something from under the sink in the kitchen? And since he always surrounded by trash, people would just think that he got sick from messing with the shit outside”
Poison. This guy is talking about poisoning Rudo’s food. This bastard is happily telling Follo to maliciously tamper with a kid’s food. A kid that just recently stopped guarding his plate and accepting meals from others without suspicion in his face. He is happily talking about Follo abusing that trust in order to hurt him.
”Don’t worry about going too far with it, we are Supporters.We can make any evidence disappear for you!
Follo sees red.
He should have kept a cool head. He should have let this bastard run his mouth a little more, let him give him the names of the others involved, but he just couldn’t.
He remembers Rudo scared, confused and bloody, clutching his mask, back at no man’s land and his fist just moves on its own.
The bastard shouts from the floor, tears in his eyes as he tries to stop the blood pouring from his nostrils. He has to admit that the crack of the nose when his knuckles connected with his face was inmensly satisfying.
“Wha-what the fuck Follo!”
”You are a fucking disgrace. You really are no better than the garbage outside.” The words come out of Follo’s mouth through his clenched teeth with so much vitriol and revulsion and yet Follo doesn’t think they convey the depth of the rage he is feeling. ” You are a Supporter! The Cleaners rely on you to have their backs! How could you do that to people that trusted you! And for what?! Afucking laugh?!”
He takes a resounding step towards the cowering bastard still on the floor nursing his bleeding nose, eyes wide from realizing that Follo was not on the same page as him when it came to his opinion on the little Spherite. Never had.
Sensing the impending danger, the son of a bitch pathetically scrambles for the exit of the locker room, but Follo is not done with him. The bastard needs to answer for what he and his friends had done and Follo is not gonna let him get away that easily.
The guy tries, he’ll give him that. He manages to go through the door into the corridor before Follo catches him by the collar of his jacket and tackles him into the floor once more. What ensues is an all out brawl that ends with Follo attempting to restrain the resisting son of a bitch, who tries to punch, kick and even bite his way out from under him in vain.
“Not that I care too much, but what the hell is going on here?”An aloof voice suddenly rises above the ruckus in the hallway and both Follo and the bastard struggling under him turn around to see Zanka appear out of nowhere, Lovely Assistaff in hand, most likely on his way to the training room.
Like always Zanka tries to feign indifference, but he knows that the Giver is curious as to why his new tenmate is wrestling with a Supporter by the way his eyes fixate on the both of them on the floor and Follo also knows that, once the words he is about to say come out of his mouth, he would want in on the fun too.
“This fucking bastard and his friends sabotaged Rudo’s gear! They almost killed him!”
Saying it out loud, confirming it to the world, makes his blood boil even more and he is very satisfied when Zanka’s eyes get sharper and land with cold intent on the sabotager, who shivers with fear now that THE Zanka Nijiku is involved in this mess.
He may have been a little too distracted in his satisfaction though, something that the sabotager uses to his advantage to knee him on the stomach, break free from Follo’s hold and get up on wobbly feet.“I didn’t do jack shit! Or at least you can’t prove anything, it’s your word against mine!”
Very slowly, ignoring the pain on his stomach, Follo gets up too, takes something small from his pockets and raises it for everybody present to see.”It think it’s your words against your words actually”
”What the fuck are you talking about?!”
He can see Zanka from the corner of his eyes, rising a curious eyebrow, but without breaking eye contact with the bastard, he clicks play on the recorder that he had hidden in his pocket the whole time and the vile conversation from before echoes on the empty hallway, loud enough for everyone present to hear everything.
”You really shouldn’t be proud to be a piece of shit out loud in public” Follo proclaims, as the sabotager’s face pales with the realization that he had been set up from the beginning. It’s the last nail in the coffin for this piece of rotten garbage.
The coward looks at both Zanka and Follo with panic in his eyes and, in a last attempt to save his ass, tries to run away. Where? Follo doesn’t know. It’s stupid to believe that you can run away from a guy that was literally trained to catch the scum of the earth since the day he was born.
”Oh no you don’t”
With a remarkable speed that Follo envies for a second, Zanka activates his Jinki and throws it javelin style towards the fleeing guy. The bastard doesn’t even make it to the end of the hallway before Lovely Assistaff catches him by the neck and pins him face to the wall with such force that the plaster cracks where the two tips of the blue staff were now embedded.
It’s a miracle and a testament of Zanka’s self-control that the guy doesn’t break his neck, no matter how much Follo wishes he would.
”I suggest you keep your mouth shut all the way to the boss’s office.”Zanka threatens, menacingly approaching the quavering shithead on the wall” Otherwise it’s going to be that guy’s hammer that falls on your head next”
Said hammer glints when Follo takes Alan out from under his shirt and for the first time since they started this, the bastard doesn’t know who to be more afraid of.
Good
Accepting his defeat, the guy finally surrenders and agrees to cooperate, as Zanka yanks Lovely Asistaff off the wall and lets him fall to the floor like the worm he is. Follo doesn’t deny him the extra kick he gives the soon to be ex-supporter to make him follow them to what is surely going to be his last day in this building.
The last day of his life, probably, when the other people of the Akuta team hear about this, Follo thinks.
———
The guy doesn’t die the moment the accusations are made in front of the boss. Neither when Enjin is called to the office and hears the incriminating tape. Although if looks could kill, the bastard would be dead ten times over already.
In all his years as part of the organization, Follo had never seen such an icy expression coming from the usually amicable and kind boss of the Cleaners. His face is stone cold and those silver eyes that could see into people’s souls never leave the piece of shit that was now cowering under the pressure of Arkha Corvus' stare.
Enjin too was seconds away from snapping, his grip on Unbreaker so tight that the plastic of the worn handle threatened to break under the pressure. One look and you could see the man was trying really hard to regulate his breathing and calm down in order not to jump the bastard right here. The bastard who not only had deliberately hurt one of his strays in the most cowardly and despicable way one could imagine, but also had potentially ruined all the hard effort that team Akuta had put into making Rudo trust and feel safe around the Cleaners.
Both Enjin and the boss are professionals though and don’t let their feelings interfere with their duty as leaders, which in this case is trying to see how far this conspiracy went and how many people were involved.
The guy tries to fight back, tries to deny, redirect and confuse, clinging to a pitiful sense of misplaced loyalty to his so-called “friends”. A futile attempt really.
He doesn’t stand a chance, both the boss and Enjin grill him with questions relentlessly, not letting up for hours, never allowing him a minute of respite to try and break his very frail walls and get the truth out of him. The only moment their attention is not on him is when they turn to Follo to ask him questions. Questions that he is glad to answer, only so that he could add more fuel to the funerary pyre of this asshole and his friends.
In the end, cornered as he is by these two very scary men, the Supporter ends up giving up the names of everyone who was involved in this whole mess, from the masterminds who came up with the plan, to the people who aided him in committing the act and even those who just knew and never opened their mouths to stop it. Some of them were still inside HQ which meant it would be easy to apprehend them. Others were unfortunately already deployed to other assignments, but they would be immediately detained the moment they set foot back inside the building.
Then, when the traitor is finally worn out and mentally defeated after three hours of grueling interrogation, the real question finally comes out.
“Why did you do it?” Asks the boss, his grave voice echoing with finality inside the office.
The sabotager hesitates, but with a feeble voice he answers ”I-I just…It’s not fair. I’ve been working hard, day after day, after day but it’s never enough… And then that Spherite comes in and gets to be the hero of the story? After all they have done to us?!Buried us in shit and garbage and he gets to run around the halls like he owns this place because he is a little special snowflake?! Fuck that! We deserve the praise! I deserve the praise! We are the ones doing the shitty jobs, cleaning the fucking messes you Givers always leave behind and then, you turn around and fucking let that little shit fuck up as much as he wants to!? Bullshit!”
In the silence of the office the voice of the sabotager keeps rising and rising until at the end of his pathetic speech —in a misguided feeling of bravado and entliment— the guy abruptly stands up, chair falling behind him with an undeserving, accusatory finger pointed at Corvus.
Still, nobody bats an eye. Nobody is impressed. In the end Enjin finally has his moment of catharsis when the tip of Unbreaker slams dead center on the idiot’s forehead, making him fall on the floor unconscious. What went through his head when he decided it was a good idea to yell at the boss, he would never know.
A fool to the very end.
“Oh well, I guess that concludes the interrogation.”The boss sighs, his signature smile coming back on his face now that the ordeal is over “Once more, good job Follo and Zanka.”
“Leave the rest to us. We’ll call you again if we need you for the details. And yeah, good job again Follo!” Enjin praises him with a proud smile and a hand on his shoulders.
Yet for some reason, as he looks upon the unconscious body on the floor, Follo doesn’t feel any sort of comfort or pride.
In silence he leaves the boss’s office, with Zanka right behind him. The moment the door closes all the tension that he had accumulated these past two days bleeds out of him with a long, loooong sigh that leaves him feeling empty.
”What you did was really well planned and calculated, I’m quite impressed.”Zanka says, sounding surprisingly sincere for once. This, Follo realises is the closest thing to praise that could come out of the other boy’s mouth, something that would normally make Follo’s chest swell with pride, but somehow the words don’t register through the mental fog in his head, or rather there is something in him that does not want to receive it.
”You okay?” The younger Giver asks, confused and concerned at Follo’s lack of response to his rarely given approval.
”Yeah just- just tired"Exhausted truly, he just wants to go to his room and collapse on his bed and be done with today, if his brain allowed him to“I still can’t believe they did something like that.”
“Cowards like him make excuses for their mistakes. They try to cover up their failures by blaming others.”the other boy responds”That is why scum won’t raise any further than that ”
“Excuses huh?”
“Anyway, no point in obsessing over what losers are thinking about. I’m gonna be productive and hit the training room for now” Liar, Follo thinks amusingly. The training rooms are on the other side of the building, the road he is taking leads directly to the infirmary, where coincidentially, a little Spherite must still be resting. Most likely alone now that he thinks about it, seeing that Enjin is inside the boss’s office.
Zanka must be worried. After all, not all the people wanting to hurt Rudo have been caught yet, so the idea of leaving the kid defenceless on that bed must be triggering his paranoia. Not that he would ever admit it though.
Part of him wants to go with him too, wants to see Rudo safe and sound and confirm that everything is okay. The other part fears it. Follo’s stomach coils at the thought of seeing Rudo when they inevitably tell him the truth about his “accident”, about how somebody that he had trusted had betrayed him out of spite.
He dreads to see Rudo’s face when he hears the recording.
Ultimately, his cowardice wins and he stays put, watching Zanka leave. Still Follo feels like he should be saying something
“Thanks for the assistance by the way”
”Nah I was just passing by, this was all you” Zanka says, not bothering to stop or turn around “Good job Follo”
——
Blessed fresh air (or as fresh as you could find on the Ground) hits his face the moment he sets foot on the empty courtyard. A welcomed reprieve from the suffocating and tense atmosphere inside the boss’s office. Luckily there is no one around at this hour, only him, the stinky breeze of the Ground and a very inviting lone bench where he can finally plant his butt and rest for the first time since he woke up today.
The silence is appreciated too, needed actually, because no matter how much he tries and begs it to, his brain won’t shut up.
It’s simultaneously his blessing and his curse. That annoying habit of relieving every memory, moment, detail and action he has ever made over and over in his head and then analyzing it meticulously. It’s the ability that allowed him to discover this whole petulant plot of sabotage, but unfortunately it is also the one that flageletes him with a reminder of every mistake he has ever made.
He should be proud, he thinks. He did something huge today, something useful. He helped protect and neutralise a threat to his friends practically all by himself. So why couldn’t he feel any of it?
No, he knows why.
“We deserve the praise! I deserve the praise! We are the ones doing the shitty jobs, cleaning the fucking messes you Cleaners always leave behind and then you turn around and fucking let that little shit fuck up as much as he wants to!?”
He looks up at the cloudy sky, trying to focus on the slow movement of the grey pollution in an unsuccessful attempt to empty his head. However, the angry voice of that traitor loops on repeat like a broken record incessantly inside his brain.
Praise, he had wanted praise, acknowledgment for his actions.
That is why he had hurted someone that never did anything to him, barely had a proper conversation with. Because it was easier than accepting that, despite his efforts, he was still a nobody.
There is a sting deep in Follo’s chest, an ache that feels like an old wound that hasn’t properly healed yet or rather one that stubbornly refuses to heal. A persistent anxiety at the back of his head that he knows very well. A familiar sense of inadequacy.
It feels like guilt.
“I-I just…It’s not fair. I’ve been working hard, day after day, after day but it’s never enough…”
He really wishes he could stop thinking.
However that isn’t who he is. Follo’s mind never stops running when he tells it too.
He should get up. He should go back to his room and catch some Zs and end this awful day and get ready for the next couple of busy days he is gonna have to help catch the rest of offenders with the evidence he has gathered. Days where he would have to endure hearing what a good job he has done.
To listen to the praise he doesn’t think he deserves.
”Follo?”
Gris’s voice cuts through the noise in his head, a little frown on his scarred face as he appears out of nowhere through the door of the courtyard and approaches the bench where Follo is sitting.
Normally Gris’s presence is a comfort to Follo, the man a beacon of certainty and safety in all aspects of his life. The closest thing he had to a mentor, a person that has seen Follo at his lowest multitude of times. Perhaps a few too many times, he thinks.
He really doesn’t want to worry the man, especially with something so stupid and pathetic. So he greets him, signature fake smile on his face, hoping it would be enough to misdirect the man into thinking he is just exhausted. Unfortunately, he knows that Gris wouldn’t be fooled that easily. It’s the man’s greatest and worst quality after all, getting involved in everybody's business no matter how much Follo wants to be left alone.
Gris sits down on the bench next to him, trying to mask his curiosity as to why Follo was sitting alone in the courtyard. “I just came out of the boss’s office. Both he and Enjin explained everything to me. Semiu was there too and we already have a course of action effective as of now.They also told me it was all thanks to you, great job Follo!”
Again with the praise.
Good job, they say, over and over and over.
It’s strange, this is all he had ever wanted. In the past he craved it, like water, like clean air. Now it just tastes bitter in his mouth.
Fake.
”Have you…have you talked with Rudo yet?”Follo asks, partly because he truly wants to know, partly because he wants to deviate the topic of conversation away from him without sounding ungrateful.
”No, It’s been decided that it would be best not to tell him anything, at least until we sort this whole mess out. Ah, but Enjin told me he just woke up. He said his voice was a little raspy and he talked funny, but seemed to have an appetite which is a good sign. Eishia is gonna send him to his room tonight”
”That…that is good” he says and he means it, but there is a little knot on his throat that makes it sound insincere, something that makes Gris look at him a little confused.
”I was about to go see him right now. How about we go together? I’m sure he will be happy to see you too.”
Follo doesn’t respond. He should though, he should politely decline, make an excuse using his usual pleasantries. He is good at that. Yet he can’t muster a single word out of his mouth.
“Follo, is everything alright?”
”Yes, no, it’s just— did boss make you hear the recording?”he answers exhausted, hiding his face in his hands and sighting while resting his elbows on his knees.
“Yes? Like I said, good job on deceiving the guy into a confession.”Gris clarifies, putting a hand on his hunched back, trying to catch a glimpse of his hidden face.”What got you so upset? Tell me”
“The things he said, they made me sick”
”I get it, I too-“
”No you don’t understand!”Follo shouts finally raising his head and looking at Gris shocked face “I- fuck! I used to think that too!I used to resent Rudo like that! You heard the things I said too!”
”Follo you didn’t—those were all lies“
”No, not in the tape! The things I said, the things I did back at that village! You hear it, you saw it!”
Kremnos village it’s still fresh in his mind, now more than ever. It was a turning point in his life after all. The triumphant moment when he became a Giver, everything he had ever wanted. It is however a bittersweet memory, because it was also the lowest, most pathetic moment in his life.
He still remembers all the nasty things that he had said to Rudo, about his past that he didn’t have any right to use against him. How he had dumped all his frustrations and jealousy on him when they were not his burden to bear or his responsibility to sooth, only to lash out when confronted with the truth and punch him in the middle of fighting a fucking trashbeat.
And wasn’t that the same that the sabotager and his friends had done? Pick up an innocent target to abuse in order to make themselves feel better?
”I’m just as bad as that bastard and it makes me so fucking mad! The worst thing is that I don’t feel like I’ve changed one bit from that day! I’m still the same loser that—!”
He rants and he feels he would’ve kept on ranting and ranting hadn’t a blinding pain on the back of his head made his brain honest to god, completely shut down for a second. Because of the shock, it takes him a moment to realise that the reason he now has a raging headache is because Gris, kind and polite Gris, had smacked him on the back of his head with all his brutal might.
The man is a gentle giant, but a giant nonetheless, capable of breaking a wall with his bare hands and well, while it has been proven that Follo has a thick head, he is not sure his skull can withstand that force without cracking!
“Sorry! Did I hit you too hard?!”Gris frantically apologises, the same hand that had smacked him was now gently trying to soothe the sore spot on his head that he himself had created. “Sorry sorry! Still, I really needed to beat that stupidity out of your head”
“You could’ve just shaken my shoulder or something, not given me a contusion, jeez!” Follo whines. It takes a moment and more back rubs from Gris for his vision to stop spinning after the pain of his head finally subsided. Reluctantly he has to admit that as painful as it was, Gris method of distraction had indeed worked. After all his brain had successfully shut up so…Hurray?
They stay like that for a few more minutes, the silence and the gentle hand on his head doing wonders to soothe Follo’s nerves, but again, Gris is not one to let a matter go. Especially when it concerns the well-being of the people that he cares about.
”Follo I need you to look at me please.”Gris demands with such a soft voice that Follo can’t do anything else but to comply and look at the man’s eyes “Since the moment I’ve met you, that first day in your hometown, you’ve never stopped moving forward. Even when you made mistakes, you never blamed anybody else for them. Above all else you never wished anybody any harm. Sure, you said a lot of hurtful things to Rudo back in the village, things born out of frustration and miscommunication and you may have dumped all of them on him at the most…let’s say inappropriate moment. However, you had proven moments after, that you don’t have a vindictive bone in your body kiddo. You would rather get back up again and get hurt protecting others to atone for your mistakes, than make excuses for them.”
Oh, this…this hits differently. Maybe it’s because it’s Gris, his unofficial mentor, smiling at him, eyes full of pride and sincerity, that the words of praise finally make some sense. Had it been anyone else, Follo would have not believed them. He would have thought they were just placating him, trying to cheer him up with hollow words so that he would stop his moping and get back to work. Not Gris though, he means every word he says, with a conviction that more than once Follo wishes he could have as well. And well, what else can he do but believe all of it? After all, if anyone knows him better than himself in this building it is Gris.
“However, I would really appreciate it if you didn’t use yourself as trashbeast bait while bleeding out from your stomach next time. You almost gave me a heart attack back then”
An apologetic laugh escapes from Follo’s mouth at the memory of his impulsive, so-called act of bravery. He has to admit that in hindsight it must have been a little bit of a temerity on his part in order to look cool. Sue him and his rush of adrenaline I guess.
“To be fair I was kinda winging it. I don’t know what I am doing half of the time”
“I’ll let you in a little secret, neither one of us do either”
”Not even you?”Follo jokes.
”Not even me, not even Tomme or Enjin… especially not Enjin” Gris answers, clearly a joke to lighten up the mood, but he can’t help but feel that it was also a half-hearted warning about following in his team leader's careless footsteps. Regardless it works.“Everyone here has a long way to go and you kids have a lot to learn, both you and Rudo,”
“Me more than anybody apparently. I’m not a natural like Rudo is” he jokes again with a half-life and a half-truth, but once more Gris is determined about not letting him fall back into his self-deprecating habits it seems.
”I wasn’t talking only about fighting. Let me tell you something, I don’t believe in that speech of geniuses you kids are all so obsessed about.”Gris sighs like an old man exasperated with his children shenaningans”Rudo is Rudo and he is who he is because of the circumstances that made him. The very same can be said about you. The two of you had very different lives and experiences, but what unites the both of you and make you shine in that special way is that when it was the time for you to choose, you two chose to be better.”Gris says as he gently pokes the scars on his temple, a permanent reminder of the day he gained his Jinki. The day he decided to take control of his life once and for all.” It’s good to be humble Follo, but while you shouldn’t make excuses for your mistakes, you shouldn’t diminish your own accomplishments either.”
Follo looks at Gris, at his eyes full of pride and affection towards him…Man, he really should stop giving these sincere and heartfelt speeches or else Follo’s little red, embarrassed face and his pathetic, little heart won’t survive.
Fine, he might as well give up and concede defeat. Maybe Gris is right, maybe he has been a little too harsh on himself and a little over dramatic. Maybe he trully isn’t as much of a loser as a guy willing to hurt a kid simply for self-validition.
“I know that whatever that guy said triggered you, but don’t let it get into that head of yours.”
“Still, I said some terrible shit in that tape and I feel bad. Even though they were all lies, I don’t want Rudo to believe any of it”
”I think you should give Rudo more credit. Besides, aren’t you two friends now? I’m sure he will understand if you explain it to him”
Once more the man is right, Follo thinks. Rudo and him are friends, because they talked. Because he explained himself and came to an understanding, despite the two of them being two completely different people, they made concessions and decided that they wanted to be friends.
Man, Follo feels embarrassed, but for different reasons now.
“Yeah you are right. Maybe…maybe I should talk to Rudo and not jump to catastrophic conclusions on my own”
”Aaaand…?”
”And ummm, not… not be so negative about myself?”
“Good enough for now”Gris nods, not completely satisfied, but willing to concede for now. Probably aware that it had been a long, arduous, emotional day for the poor boy next to him.
Follo silently thanks him for that.
The lights of the courtyard flicker and turn on, sunset already falling and turning into evening, making Follo realise that they had been talking outside for too long. Gris looks at them and with a sigh stands up, offering a hand that Follo gratefully takes.
”Come on, it's late. Let’s go get you something to eat, it’s been a long day for everybody.” Gris says, rising from the cold bench holding Follo’s shoulder and guiding him inside the building.
"Tomorrow you can decide how to move forward with this.”
——
The next day comes by and Follo doesn’t feel as tired as he thought he would. The ball of anxiety that normally lodges in his chest after he thinks he messed up is not as heavy and suffocating as it was in the past. He could even say that he felt relief, like some sort of invisible weight was lifted from his shoulders. Turns out talking to people you trust about your problems is actually beneficial to your health.
Go figure.
So with a lighter step and a clear mind Follo is able to help Gris and Semiu fill out a proper report of the sabotaged mission and prepare a proper course of action for the rest of the week. It takes them three days to organise everything, three days in which praise and compliment never stops coming and while it’s a little embarrassing to be the center of attention, this time those words and gestures don’t make his stomach coil with guilt or anxiety.
He has to admit that he is being a little bit of a coward though, because he still hasn’t gone to talk to Rudo. In his defense, he has been working with Semiu from morning to evening, so he doesn’t think his brain would have been able to handle a more profound conversation than ordering his dinner at the cafeteria at the end of the day.
Regardless, it’s the end of the fourth day and for now, everything that had to be done on his part is already settled, so postponing the inevitable is starting to sound like procrastination. So no more excuses then, gotta face the music as they say.
Color him surprised then when, as if the universe had heard him, he finds said teenager nervously hiding in the corner of the hallway, peeking his head over the wall as if trying to see if someone was following him.
“Rudo?”
“WHAT THE HE—!”Like a startled cat, Rudo jumps in surprise, turning around hissing and baring his teeth as if ready to bite. Luckily, all hostility disappears with a sigh of relief when he realises who had called his name “Oh it’s you Follo!”
“You…okay?”
”Shhhhh, keep it down!” Rudo shushes him, peeking out of the hallway corner again. Alarm bells ring in Follo’s mind then.Was somebody following Rudo? Was somebody trying to mess with him again?
“What’s going on? Something wrong?”Follo asks, as he too looks around the corner, scanning the hallways for any potential danger or aggressor only to find the whole place empty.
“Yes? No? I dunno, everybody is acting weird!”
Everybody? As in their teammates? Follo thinks. That made him relax a little and turn around to look at Rudo’s anxious face. Still there was really something wrong with the boy if the uneasy fidgeting with his gloves was any indicator, although he has an inkling as to what it may be the cause.
”Weird, how exactly?”he asked, gently trying to coax an answer from the nervous boy.
”I don’t know! Like—Zanka for example! He has been in a shittier mood than usual and extra fussy all day. But when I tell him I’m sorry for getting hurt again he just looks at me weird and messes up my hair”
Ah yeah, Zanka would do that. Most likely he is keeping Rudo as close to him as he can, acting as some sort of deterrent against anybody stupid enough to try to mess with the boy while he is with him. He must be pissed that all of this had happened when he wasn’t on this mission to help. Although if asked (especially if Rudo asked) he is sure that Zanka would just say he is annoyed that he has to babysit an injured Rudo again, too prideful to admit he was worried.
“Then there is Riyo! She has been following me everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE! I’ve found her camped in front of the communal bathroom door like a watchdog every time I go in there!”
Follo grimaces at that. Riyo can be downright scary when she wants to. She is laidback and easy-going most of the time, but there is definitely something off about her that triggers Follo’s fight or flight instincts. A predatory glint in her eyes that makes him shiver, reminiscent of a beast on a hunt ready to mercilessly pound on an unsuspecting prey. She must be pissed too and like Zanka, she must be trying to see if she can catch any of the sabotagers by staying closer to the boy. Rudo should be glad that she is not following him inside the bathroom though. Riyo is nothing but relentless.
“Enjin too has been more annoying than ever! Everytime I try to go outside to go dumpster diving, the turdface just drags me back to my room to play cards or help me repair something!”
Makes sense, Enjin wouldn’t want Rudo out in the open on his own. Outside he was more vulnerable to attacks and there is no guarantee that there is not gonna be any sort of ambush, although it’s unlikely that any of the Supporters involved had the gall to confront a Giver, especially a seasoned one like Enjin, in an all-out assault. The man can say he hates high-maintenance children all he wants, but he cannot fool anyone when he is desperately trying to keep his children out of harm's way. Or at least anyone except Rudo apparently.
”And when I actually manage to go anywhere alone, Gris and Tomme stop talking the moment I enter the room and if I ask them what is wrong they just tell me not to worry about it and send me off somewhere with an excuse!
Ah yeah, Gris and Tomme must be discussing how to take care of the Supporters that they haven’t caught yet and since they had agreed not to tell Rudo any of what is going on, for his own sake. They must have wanted to spare him any sort of trouble or anguish.
“It’s driving me nuts and worst of all, nobody is TELLING ME ANYTHING!!!” Rudo tries to shout, but his windpipe must be still a little sore, so his voice can’t raise above a raspy, broken whisper, aggravating his frustration even more. However, maybe tired because of the injury or maybe because of the anxiety of the whole situation, Follo sees Rudo’s face just fall and with the most pitiful voice he has ever heard from him, the boy just meekly asks “Did I do something and I didn’t notice again?”
“NO!” ”Follo screams louder than he wanted to, but Rudo doesn't look convinced, “No you didn’t do anything wrong Rudo, it’s just-oh man”
In hindsight, maybe keeping the whole thing from Rudo, the victim, is at this point kinda cruel. People in the Cleaners were not subtle at all and Rudo may not be able to pick up social cues as easily as the rest of them, but he is not that dense to not see that the people around him are acting weird and secretive. Ironically that must make him paranoid and nervous, which is exactly what they were trying to avoid by keeping him in the dark about the people who had tried to hurt him.
People that Rudo had trusted.
Follo takes a deep breath and decides that this might be the best moment to come clean “Look, how about this? Let’s go hide in my room and take a break. I promise I will tell you what is truly going on. I’ve got a lot of snacks to pass the time if you want to” he offers and the bribe seems to be appealing enough for Rudo to lighten up and agree with a wordless nod.
With the promise of snacks and answers, Rudo follows him in silence to his room, both of them cautiously trying to avoid being caught by their overly protective teammates. When they arrive and Follo opens the door, the boy enters for the first time ever and looks around with curious eyes. His room is nothing especial, in fact a lot of things on display, like the posters or the photos on his drawer are the same that he had in his old room back at his parents house, but he supposes that to Rudo the trinkets and souvenirs he had brought from his hometown must be an interesting novelty, judging by the way the boy is looking around. That or he must be wondering where the older boy is keeping his snack stash.
Guiding the kid by the shoulders, Follo makes him sit on the carpet in between the small coffee table and the bed as he takes a tin box from his desk, turning upside down and dumping his whole stash of snacks in front of the very delighted boy. Rudo doesn’t even wait for Follo to sit down next to him to pounce on the pile of treats, selecting a bag of chips as its first victim. A bag that Follo wordlessly opens for him when he sees the boy struggle with his gloved hands.
They don’t say anything for a while, Follo just lets Rudo savour the snacks and settle down a little, his angsty mood from before all but evaporated thanks to the crispy chips. However, as endearing as it is watching Rudo devour his weight in snacks, Follo knows that this is not what they came here for exactly. So with a deep breath, the older boy gathers his courage and breaks the silence.
”Alright, so… you wanted to know why everybody is acting weird right?Well the thing is… your masks, the ones that malfunctioned on the last mission?”
“Oh yeah that was a huge mess.”Rudo says in between mouthfuls of chips, brows furrowed in thought“Is that why they are mad? ‘cause I fucked up?” He stops, voice unsure once again, not fully convinced that he is not the cause for the awkward atmosphere all around him.
“No, they are not ma—Well they are mad, but not at you!”Follo hurries to explain, desperate to dissipate any wrong notion that anybody is blaming the boy for anything. “You didn’t mess up Rudo, you didn’t do anything wrong . Someone….Someone in the Supporters deliberately busted your gear.”
“Oh…”Rudo says, red eyes big and bright with surprise, but not with shock at the revelation. ”Why would they do that?”
”To… to hurt you”
”Yeah but like. Why? What did I do to them? Did I say something weird?
”No, you didn’t. Sometimes, people are just…cowards. And rather than face their flaws head on they try to find a scapegoat for their shitty feelings. It just happened to be you this time.”
”I still don’t get it” Rudo proclaims, brows furrowed in confusion.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to. It’s not your responsibility to understand.” Follo states and he means it, because despite being socially obtuse and downright antagonistic at first glance, the truth is, Rudo cares. He cares about the Cleaners, about his friends, about the people he works with and shares his everyday life. He wants to understand and get along with them and tries, genuinely tries, to learn.
This time however, there is nothing for Rudo to understand.
“Anyway, the reason the rest of the team are being “weird” is because we haven’t caught everyone that is involved with the sabotage. So they wanna keep an eye on you, just so that they are sure you are okay.”
“Oh, I—well— they don’t need to! I can take care of myself!”the boy shouts, crumpling the bag of chips with excessive force and tossing it away, trying to desperately distract Follo from his clearly flustered face.
For a moment Follo takes pity on the boy, obviously not used to people openly caring this much about him, and hands him a pack of gummy bears as a way to spare him from the embarrassment of the subject.
And perhaps, it is time to get to the truth of the matter that made Follo bring Rudo to his room in the first place.
Give him some credit. Gris’s words replace the cacophony of anxiety that normally assaults Follo when he hesitates. Rudo and him are friends, and even if he doesn’t believe in Follo’s true intent behind his words, he is confident that he can make the boy understand.
Follo is never gonna walk away from a friendship without fighting for it again.
“Hey ummm, I gotta tell you something else.”He says, Rudo’s attention still on the bag of colorful gummies on his lap “The way we discovered who hurt you is because I lied and I made one of the guys confess while hiding a tape recorder. If you decide to listen to said recording,well… you are gonna hear me say some mean things about you that I absolutely don’t think at all! I had to make him believe that I was on his side, but none of the shit I said in there is true, okay? None!”
Rudo to Follo’s surprise, keeps on eating, popping gummy bears one after another into his mouth while looking at. Follo with his big red eyes “Did I say something wrong to you again?” He asks, however his voice doesn’t sound upset or angry, rather he sounds curious, like he is waiting for Follo to answer so he can make his judgement.
”What? No! Rudo I told you—
“Are you mad at me?”
”NO!”
”We are still friends right?”
”Yeah of course!"
”Alright I believe you”
“…Ju-just like that?”
”Yeah?” Rudo pops another gummy in his mouth, a confused face matching Follo’s very own. ”You said they are lies right?To catch the guy no?"he inquires again and Follo aggressively nods in affirmation” So yeah, I believe you”
Just like that.
That easily.
”Rudooooo!”
Yeah, It’s embarrassing. This whole ordeal has been embarrassing, dealing with his insecurities and messed up feelings has been, in hindsight, a mess. He has been a mess. So why not embrace it?
The dregs of tension and anxiety that were reluctantly clinging to his mind evaporate instantly, tears of joy overwhelm him and the urge to just grab Rudo and squeeze him takes over completely. The danger of being bitten and punched by the starttled teenager be damned.
”Why are you crying?! Why does everybody cry when I open my mouth?!”The poor kid shouts, struggling and trashing in vain, trying to pry Follo off him like an angry cat, too overwhelmed by the older boy’s sudden change in mood.
”You really are a good kid, you know that?”Follo proclaims, arms circling Rudo in a tight squeeze.
“”O-Okay now you are being weird too! Let me goooooo! And I’m not a kid, you are just a little bit older than me!”
Eventually and very reluctantly Follo eases his hold on the smaller boy, but refuses to let go completely, letting a hand linger on Rudo’s shoulder that keeps the connection in an awkward one shoulder hug. The kid mumbles in frustration, but the contact mustn't be that aggravating seeing as he hasn’t swatted Follo’s hand away yet.
“Sorry, sorry, but remember what I said when you talk to the boss alright? No matter what the bastard says or what you hear, you did nothing wrong. It’s all that shithead’s fault and no one else's. He is a disgrace to all the Supporters.”
”I get it”
”Good. And I promise you that nothing like this is gonna happen ever again. Only Tomme, Gris, me or Supporters we personally authorise are gonna check team Akuta’s gear. You hear me?” He states, putting all his conviction in every word he said. Doesn’t matter that he is now a Cleaner, doesn’t matter that he is on the frontline now, doesn’t matter who he is partnered with or who the Supporters assigned to his squad are. He is going to meticulously check and re-check every single piece of equipment they have.
He is gonna make sure that his friends are safe.
Because Follo has decided this is the kind of person he wants to be. This is the kind of person he always has been. His Jinki, a weapon that turned into a massive shield to protect the people around him, is the culmination of that. It’s not a matter of being a Supporter, a Cleaner, a genius or a background character. It’s about what you do with the tools you have at your disposal. Every step counts, no matter how small.
“Alright… Thank you. Although you could like, teach me you know? How to like, check the equipment and maybe I could repair it too…So you don’t have to do it yourself…”
“Sure I could do that. Or we could even ask August to let us keep the busted gear from now on. You could use them for spare parts at least or as a weapon for your Jinki”
“Really?!” He shouts, excitement radiating from his face at the promise of new gadgets to tinker with. Yeah, this is who Rudo is. Give him junk to obsess over or a few sweets and all anxiety and will disappear in an instant. For all his angst and … he is actually a fairly easy kid.
Alas that moment of childish elation is soon interrupted.
”Hey, is Rudo in there!?”The booming voice of Zanka and the loud pounding of the door makes both Follo and Rudo jump in surprise, snacks flying in the air and scattering all over the coffee table.
Like a child caught in the act by his angry mother, Rudo tosses the bag of gummy bears and tries to hide under the bed. For some inexplicable reason, Follo covers him with one of his blankets to help him hide from Zanka, although he doesn’t even know why. Unlike Rudo, Follo does lock his door and Zanka is not gonna barge in without permission. He thinks? Not sure. Zanka tends to lose his usual composure when Rudo is involved.
”Ummm Noooo?”Follo replies. Even from the other side of the door, Follo knows Zanka doesn’t buy his answer even for a minute, but after a few deep breaths and an awkward silence (and perhaps out of respect for Follo’s privacy) he seems to give up.
”Okay, well if you see him, tell him he better drag his ass back to the infirmary for his check up and he better not be eating junk before dinner. Wherever he is!”
When the coast is clear and neither of them can hear Zanka’s footsteps anymore, Rudo pokes his head out from under the bed and glares at the door “See! Insufferable!”
“They are just worried about you, you know?”Follo laughs, helping Rudo get out of the mess of blankets ”They feel bad they didn’t notice that something bad was happening to you.”
”Well they shouldn’t”he protests, sitting next to Follo who can see a little blush on Rudo’s pouting face“It’s not their fault. It’s those guys' fault, isn’t it?”
”Damn right”
With a nod and an affirmative grunt that seems to settle the matter, Rudo grabs a package of chocolate chip cookies without any hesitation, as if the threat from a very angry Zanka had gone from one ear through the other, and presents it to Follo, most likely waiting for the older boy to open it for him, making him complicit of his mischief.
”You heard the man outside the door, no snacks before dinner” Follo says, barely containing his amusement.
”No, I wasn’t here remember? So technically I couldn’t have heard him.”
”Heh, you little shit. Fine, let’s finish these cookies and then we will go to see Eishia. Deal? ”
“Deal”
With that Follo once more opens the bag of chocolate chip cookies and watches Rudo decimate yet another snack, effectively cutting his personal stash in half. Not that Follo minds, if anything he deserves it, both of them really.
They stay like that, talking about how Supporters do their gear maintenance, speculating what kind of weapon a broken oxygen tank would turn into with 3R while opening yet another bag of chips despite their previous deal to stop before dinner time. Only a call to their chokers from a very crossed Gris asking where the hell was Rudo and why wasn’t he at the infirmary, clued them in that they had lost track of time.
With that they leave Follo’s room behind, snack stash almost depleted, but honestly Follo doesn’t mind.
He will just need to buy more for Rudo next time.