Chapter Text
In a world as chaotic and cruel as the Ground, Many a giver would rely on their vital instrument as a means of survival. However, in such a world, what keeps these (somewhat sane) people persisting through the trials of the ground instead of yielding? For some, it may be due to the need of proving oneself;that they’re more than the surname they were born with and not a failure. For others, it could be a desire to happily take their revenge while building themselves up day by day.
For Amo Empool, she manages to be a healer of hearts as a cleaner for…
Love?
Somehow, whether it was a testament to the cleaner’s effort, or some omnipotent force weaving fate, the cleaners had very few requests today. This rare downtime was used by many of the givers to recuperate in anticipation for their future missions while Team Akuta was stumped with what to do with this time.
“Welp, I’m going out. No use sitting around. Especially when we know that there’ll always be trash beasts on the horizon.”
Whether it was his work ethic or stubbornness,, Janka had no intentions of using this respite from his usual work of cleaning. So instead he was headset on training elsewhere and if he came across an area that needed cleaning, all the better.
“C’mooooon”. Enjin Hollered.
“While your foundation could always be improved, you could at least appreciate your current growth and rest until our next job.”
“I’m sorry, but I have to do this, Enjin”.
“Whatever you say, Zanka. Just don’t bust yourself up in the event we do have a job tomorrow.”
“Understood.”
After Janka headed out from the Cleaner’s Hq, Enjin’s pestering and curiosity turned to his-currently awake runt, Rudo Surebrec.
“So Rudo, what are you gonna do for now? It would’ve been nice for you to go on another job today, but it’s fine to use this time to rest and stuff.”
“I think I want to do stuff”
Rudo has always valued the objects around him and being in the Ground has accentuated this trait of his and even gave him strength through 3R.
He did appreciate this rare break from cleaning but the only thing he could have thought of doing with this break was-
“I’ll be in my room repairing things.”
Enjin proceeded to grin at Rudo’s statement
“Well, that’s fine by me. Just don’t do anything stupid”
“Also take shower, you’re dusty”
“WH-WHAT? I JUST CAME BACK FROM ONE?”
Rudo bared his fangs momentarily as their attention shifted to Enjin’s incapacitated runt.
Riyo was half asleep on the couch. Only a millisecond after Semiiu informed their group on the lack of jobs, she crashed on the nearest piece of comfortable furniture and intended to stay in this relaxed state for now.
“Well I’ll be here if you need me, kid.”
“Right. See ya.”
Then, she appeared in the main lounge.
Amo hasn’t been given many opportunities to go on missions as a member of team Front, but the healer of hearts wanted to make use of her time to benefit not only herself, but the stalwart catalyst for her growth, Rudo. The boy who was able to reach out to her.
She was glad to have met such a wonderful group of people like the cleaners. With her mind and heart set on healing the hearts of as many people as possible. She also sought to live her life, to learn and grow as a person.
For now, she had ample time to wonder what she would do today and-
“Hey Amo!”
Enjin expeditiously set his sights on Amo to be the target of his pestering but her patience for him was as low as his self-preservation skills against her
“Whatcha gonna do on this wonderful day?”
“Might as well pass the time doing something. Right?”
“Amo thinks that you forgot yourself and should leave her alone”
“My bad. You ought to lighten up for now, however..”
Enjin made a poor decision at this moment. He decided to add a throwaway statement that would lead to his demise…
For the rest of the day at least.
“If you’re that bored, you could go see Rudo. He would LOVE your company”
Once Enjin finished his statement, Amo already found an unopened soda can to throw at Enjin’s head.
“I have nothing left to say to you. Bye.”
Riyo sensed the patheticness of Enjin and immediately woke up from her cat nap.her red hair in a mess but didn’t matter to her as she focused her green eyes on the perpetrator of this assault.
“Oh hey Amo!”
“Whatcha doing right now?”
Amo excitedly stepped over Enjin’s body to get closer to her mentor.
“Hi Riyo! Amo was just thinking about what I wanted to do today with this break”
Riyo thought about it for a second. And for some reason, a grey dog came into her mind.
“Why don’t you hang with Rudo or something? He would appreciate the company if he didn’t leave.”
Amo was petrified at the idea of being alone with Rudo.
This would hypothetically be their first time being with one another after all
Riyo noticed Amo’s Reticence after her suggestion and wanted to at the very least elaborate.
“I mean, you haven’t been able to interact in a while but now’s the great time for that!”
“Should I just walk into his room? It’s not nice for Amo to barge in, especially if he’s busy.”
The cogs in Riyo’s brain were slowly turning as they attempted to figure out what she can do for Amo. She wanted to make Amo feel comfortable but she also wanted her to be confident in spending time with Rudo. But as the cogs in her brain moved faster she had an idea.
“Wanna Bake cookies for him?”
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
“Amo would enjoy doing that with Riyo!”
“Well it’s settled!”
As they exited the main lounge, Enjin’s body remained incapacitated.
A few moments later:
Ever since Riyo became Amo’s self assigned trainer, she had given herself a front row seat to Amo’s growth in her short time with the Cleaners. In a similar vein to Zanka , she also held the responsibility in assessing Amo so she can better understand her and what’s necessary for her learning.
It just so happened that Riyo decided that baking with Amo would be a fun thing to do in the meantime.
The kitchen had enough ingredients to make a few cookies and as Riyo brought out the ingredients from the cabinets and refrigerator, Amo had something on her mind
“What made Riyo suggest this?”
Riyo put down the flour onto the table and shrugged
“I think Rudo would really appreciate this. Especially coming from you.”
Riyo brought Amo closer, shoulder to shoulder, and widened her grin.
“And besides, he has a bit of a sweet tooth.”
“Well please guide Amo through this!”
“Gotcha”
“Right now, could you take that flour and baking soda over there and put it in a bowl for me?”
“Right!”
As Amo dealt with the dry ingredients, Riyo had the opportunity to work on the wet ingredients.
Thankfully, Sugar cookies are a simple process so in the meantime, Riyo put on a disposable mask and mixed the butter, sugar, vanilla, eggs, and any other necessary parts that Amo wasn’t dealing with.
The smell from the wet ingredients didn’t bother Riyo thankfully and the smell was strong enough to get Amo’s attention.
“Wow... What shall we do next?”
“Oh, could you mix the two bowls together for me? I’ll start getting the baking sheet out”
“Of course!”
As Amo happily combined the ingredients, Riyo took out the baking sheet and got ready to get her hands dirty by placing the dough onto the sheets.
“Hey Amo, you’re ready?”
“Yup! Now Amo is closer to completing this task, thanks to Riyo of course.”
As Riyo and Amo shaped the dough into balls and placed it on the tray, Riyo began to realize an imperative part of the baking process was absent…
“Soooooooo, Amo I think I forgot to do something.”
“Oh what was it? Did you need to add any other ingredients to the dough? Or?”
Riyo darted her eyes away from Amo in an attempt to avoid responsibility. Only to crack under the pressure from Amo’s eyes that were waiting for any answer Riyo was about to give. Lie or not.
“I forgot to preheat the oven,”
…
“It’s okay, Amo will just do it now”
Riyo let out a big sigh and was appreciative of how Amo was understanding of her simple mistake.
“Well this might take a while so in the meantime, I wanted to know some things, Amo.”
“Yes?”
“How do you feel with the cleaners?Team front I mean.”
“Well Semiu is always helpful and uncle Corvus continues to give Amo pointers so it’s enjoyable. However, I lament not being able to connect with other cleaners due to my inaction”
“What do you mean? You just joined the group. And besides, it’s pretty common for most cleaners to leave HQ as soon as they arrive due to all the incoming jobs.”
Riyo leaned closer to Amo and puts her hand on her shoulder to emphasize her next point
“I understand that adjusting can be difficult, and it’s only made worse when people have hurt us before, but now, we have the opportunity to grow with people who care about us, and become stronger.”
Riyo’s grin began to widen.
“As your trainer, I’ll be sure to witness your peak and much more”
Amo began to smile as Riyo’s kindness touched her.
“Ever since Rudo reached out to Amo with warmth and kindness, the world has widened for me. I wish to reach out and heal others around Amo as well. The ground needs someone to heal and reach a hand out to others and Amo will continue to do everything she can to do that!”
“Amo won’t disappoint you, Riyo.”
The oven dinged to signify the end of this conversation as Riyo shook up.
“Well now we can actually bake those cookies Amo”
“That didn't take long thankfully.”
It didn’t take long for the cookies to finish baking and cooling in the oven and for the two cleaners to eventually tidy up the kitchen area.
“You sure you don’t want any cookies? Amo is sure that they’re great.”
“I’m sure they’re great too but I gotta pass. And besides, you and I both know someone who’d appreciate them.”
“Amo is still grateful for all you’ve done today”
“No problem! Consider it a training session.”
“Well what will Riyo do no-”
“Take another nap.”
Riyo then returned to the main lounge, dragged Enjin’s body to a piece of furniture and proceeded to lay down and continue taking advantage of her break while Amo headed down the hall to a certain cleaner’s room.
Later:
Rudo had made excellent progress in repairing a majority of the junk in his room.
The usual piles of abandoned items and trinkets that would encumber all guests in his room were placed with much smaller organized boxes that Rudo would deal with another time.
As he worked at his desk. He was smiling gently since he was repairing an abandoned doll.
It was a rabbit plush that had a large tear through its center.
He was lucky enough that the toy didn’t lose much stuffing but stitching it back together would still take some effort.
Rudo was grateful enough to have learned how to stitch from Regto since he felt bad seeing him repair all of his torn clothing in the sphere
By the time he pulled his thread through the original wound one last time, the rabbit was in a much better shape than he found it.
It had been a while since he started so he started thinking about taking a break.
It was at this moment that he heard a knock from the door
Rudo went over the door and was able to feel the amicability of the girl in front of him
“Oh! Hey Amo.”
“Hey Rudo! May I come i-”
“YEAH!”
Without hesitation, Rudo invited Amo to his room for the first time.
“Please mind all of the items around. I was just fixing them up.”
“That’s fine. You must have been working hard this whole time.”
“O-o-oh you can sit on my bed. It’s still clean.”
“Thank you.”
As Amo sat on the bed, Rudo decided to grab his most recent achievement off of his desk.
“Hey Rudo, what’s that?”
“Oh!”
He sat down next to Amo and was ready to explain what he had in his hand
“This was a Plush I found in a trash pile after a mission a while back.”
“I…Didn’t want to leave it alone so brought it back here and repaired it.”
“Why don’t you take it?”
“Really? Thank you so much, Rudo! I’ll cherish it.”
“Yeah just be careful since it’s still a bit dusty.”
Amo begins to start giggling.
“So Rudo gave Amo a dust bunny?”
Rudo thought about it for a second and gave a slight chuckle.
“Yeah. I did.”
Amo’s joy stopped once she gave a large sneeze due to all the dust.
“Oh! Bless you.”
“Th-thank you.”
“Ah! Amo wanted to give you these, Rudo!”
Amo revealed the cookies she had made with Riyo's help to Rudo.
“They’re…For me?”
“Of course! Think of it as a thank you for… This bunny you gave me!”
Rudo gave a slight smile because any more would heavily distort his face beyond recognition.
“Thank you, Amo”
“They taste great!”
Under any other circumstances, Rudo would have gone on a sugar craze and become a monster. But as he looked at Amo, he couldn’t help but behave himself and appreciate such a great gift.
“Hey Rudo”
Amo proceeded to headbutt Rudo's shoulder ever so lightly to get his attention
Rudo began to blush
“Huh?”
“Anything else you’ve been doing?’
“Well the last trash beast we fought was from yesterday, It had an ugly face but it was no trouble with Riyo and Zanka.”
“How about you?”
“I’ve been speaking to Uncle Corvus a lot lately . He’s always supported Amo ever since she joined Team front.”
“Working directly under the boss must be nerve wracking huh.”
“No! Not at all! Amo likes it! Amo just hopes that she can go on missions with Rudo and the others.”
“I hope that I can go on a mission together very soon then!”
“With you I mean.”
“Amo would like that a lot”
The peace that Amo felt while in Rudo’s room affected her entire being.Despite the odd mess and lack of order that others might see in his room, Amo recognized it as Rudo being unapologetically himself. It was his way of comforting himself and others with the idea that “Everything has value”. But to affirm these ideas in Amo’s head, she scooted closer.
“Say Rudo?”
“Yeah?”
“What made you start collecting all these items from missions?”
“How does it make you feel”
Rudo then short circuited. He wasn’t expecting such a question but he got over it immediately and answered the question.
“In the sphere, I was constantly treated like the trash people abandoned. It didn’t help that there was barely any way to improve my living conditions.”
“So why not? Why not care for the things that were abandoned by people? When I do, I can make them my treasure!”
“A lot of things happened to me before I came down here, but I want to work towards my goals and continue protecting my friends and treas-”
Rudo began to focus on Amo’s face as she was staring deeply at his red eyes that were reflecting his determination.
“Oh sorry. Was I talking too much?”
Amo began to laugh and give an earnest smile to Rudo.
“No! It’s just that, you’re a king then Rudo.”
“What do you mean?”
Amo believes that Rudo is blessed with the ability to see the value in all things. If you’re able to see one person’s trash as your treasure, then you can become a king here.
“Amo thinks that you would be a great ruler!”
Rudo didn’t say anything after that. The only thing he was able to do was get closer and embrace Amo.
“R-rudo are you alright?”
Amo realized how comforted she felt in Rudo’s arms.
So in complete Silence, they kept embracing each other and even though it was a moment. It stood as a testament for their appreciation of one another.
For Amo, her persistence as a cleaner and her strength grew due to the love she felt for him. Out of her own volition, she wanted to keep aiding Rudo and interacting with him. After all, he introduced so much to her. Idiosyncrasies and all,
Shortly after, Rudo realized what he did on impulse and was frantic
“Uh-uh I’m sorry! I didn’t mean-”
“No! Don’t be! Amo Enjoyed it.”
The two were rapidly increasing in a tint of red each second that nothing was said.
But then, Amo just started looking at Rudo’s window.
It was a fine view but it effectively broke the tension as Rudo did the same.
No more words were needed for either giver to recognize how much they enjoyed the other’s company.
After some time passed. Amo felt it was time to make her exit after this long day.
“Rudo, thank you once again for this time”
“Hey Amo, I really appreciated everything you said. I hope that I can be a king that you’re proud of”
Amo snickered
“Amo hopes to see that soon.”
Just as Amo was ready to exit Rudo’s room, she paused.
“Hey Rudo, one last thing.”
“Hm?”
Amo then caught him off guard with a kiss on the cheek. It was swift but effective enough to communicate her feelings.
“See you later!”
Rudo was petrified. He had no reasonable thoughts at this point and was forced to just stand and remember the moment.
“Hey!”
Enjin and Riyo were walking towards Rudo and saw him as still as a totem. Enjin with a noticeable knot on his head and Riyo seeming very refreshed.
“You looked like you’ve seen a ghost dude. You good?”
Rudo wasn’t responding to either of the two’s comments so they believed that he was a lost cause.
“Well Zanka is still out for a bit but tomorrow, we can hopefully get back to business as usual.”
“You should get some rest, kid”
“Right.”
With that, Rudo laid down flat on his bed as he was forced to wonder whether or not the events of today were real.