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Messing with her friends during long car rides was one of Riyo’s favourite ways to pass the time besides napping.
Playing with Rudo’s hair to get that comedic mix of stunned confusion and happiness or resting her boots on Zanka’s shoulders so he’d get all huffy and annoyed was entertaining enough, but her favourite part was the way Enjin would play along and tease them with her before bursting out laughing. He had the sort of laugh that made you start laughing as well and she always liked hearing it.
After completing the day’s mission, Team Akuta headed back to HQ with the satisfaction of a job well done.
Enjin flicked the radio on, humming along to a song Riyo wasn’t familiar with. Zanka quietly started cleaning his Lovely Assistaff, gently rubbing off the grim that clung to it from the trashbeasts they had just taken down. Rudo watched him through bleary eyes, slowly drifting off as that post-mission drowsiness hit.
Typically, this would be the perfect time for Riyo to doze off, but she was feeling oddly restless, shifting in her seat every few seconds in hopes of finding a comfortable position. Eventually, she gave up, settling in her seat with a quiet huff.
With the option of taking a nap no longer available, Riyo set her sights on the next best thing — teasing her friends.
Enjin caught her eye in the rearview mirror, shooting her an amused look as she covertly shifted behind Zanka. Her target was too busy examining his vital instrument to realize the danger he was in until Riyo blew on his ear.
Zanka let out a high-pitched shriek, slapping a hand over his ear protectively and turning to her with an indignant look on his face. “You said you’d stop doing that!” he said accusingly.
“Doing what?” Riyo asked, feigning ignorance.
“You know what I’m talking about!” he snapped, his face flushing with embarrassment as Riyo grinned at him. His dramatic reactions were what made him her favourite person to tease.
“Aw, c’mon, Zanka, everyone’s a little ticklish. There’s no shame in it,” Enjin chuckled, his playful consolation only causing the blush on Zanka’s face to darken.
“I am not–” Zanka cut himself off with a groan, hiding his face in his hands and muttering under his breath. “You guys suck.”
Normally, Riyo would keep poking and teasing him, but Enjin’s sentence had caught her attention. He’d said everyone. Did that mean him as well? In all the time she’s known him, Enjin has always been pretty unaffected by her teasing, laughing at her attempts to mess with him or turning it back on her with a smirk. It wasn’t like it was impossible to do either, since Semiu liked to tease him from time to time.
Regardless, Riyo had a theory she wanted to test. If Enjin really was ticklish, it would be a great way to mess with him, but if he wasn’t, he’d probably turn it back on her, which wasn’t nearly as fun.
Which meant…
Enjin caught Riyo glancing at Rudo’s sleeping figure in the rearview mirror before a sly grin spread across her face, no doubt coming up with some crafty prank to play on the unsuspecting Spherite.
Poor kid. He’d need to get wise to Riyo and her tricks soon, or he’d become her new favourite victim.
With the number of times Riyo had burst into his room or caught him off guard, Rudo figured he should be used to her antics by now.
Unfortunately for him, that simply wasn’t the case. So when she slammed his door open just as he was getting ready for bed, he nearly jumped out of his skin, tumbling off his mattress and accidentally slamming his elbow on the bedframe in a futile attempt to catch himself.
“Ooh, my bad,” Riyo winced as he let out a low hiss, rubbing the sore spot to get rid of the odd sensation that always came with hitting his elbow against anything. “I’ll try to knock next time?”
“Thanks, I guess,” Rudo grumbled before brushing off the incident as the ache slowly faded. “What’s up?”
The grin on Riyo’s face set alarm bells ringing in his head before she even opened her mouth. “Wanna raid Enjin’s stash of sweets with me? August says he’s got the good stuff.”
Rudo’s mouth watered at the mere thought of sweets, temptation warring against his logic for a moment before he shook his head. “We shouldn’t. It’s Enjin’s.”
There was a long moment where Riyo stared at him with this unreadable look in her eyes, her gaze sharp and assessing, before shaking her head as if to ward off unwanted thoughts. “You know, Rudo, I can never figure you out for some reason.”
A knot tightened in Rudo’s chest, cold dread washing over him at those familiar words. Where had that come from? Had he messed things up by refusing?
It wasn’t right to steal from others. Especially when it came to food. Food was scarce up in the slums of the Sphere, so stealing food, especially something as luxurious and rare as sweets, left a bad taste in his mouth.
“What do you mean by that?” Rudo muttered, his eyes dropping to his gloved hands as he braced for the worst.
Riyo hummed thoughtfully, walking into his room and making herself comfortable in his recently vacated bed. “I just never know what to expect from you. Your vibes and personality are like, miles apart,” she explained with a soft snort, waving a hand in his general direction. “You seem like the troublemaking type, but you’re super polite and awkward most of the time. It’s confusing, but also kinda cute.”
Oh. Oh.
Something loosened in his chest as he realized she hadn’t meant any harm. It was hard to get used to how differently people perceived him down here. Even after all the time he’d spent with Cleaners, it still felt like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Rudo hated it. He wanted—
Wait.
His neck cracked when his head snapped in Riyo’s direction, eyes wide as he realized what she’d called him. A strangled sound escaped his throat, his thoughts incoherent with panic and confusion.
She said he was… a girl said he was cute. Out of nowhere!
Riyo tilted her head curiously when she met his gaze. “Why’s your face all red, Rudo?”
“Nothing! It’s nothing,” he squeaked out, ducking his head to hide his burning face. She was always doing stuff like this and he could never tell if she was messing with him on purpose or not.
“Well, anyways, if you don’t wanna raid his sweets stash, how about coming to snoop through his room with me?”
“Isn’t that the same thing as raiding his room?” Rudo asked, peeking at her through his bangs.
Riyo wagged her finger at him, tutting in disapproval. “I’m disappointed in you, Rudo. Raiding is when you steal something from someone, like sweets. Snooping is when you try to find information about people’s deepest, darkest secrets, like reading someone’s diary. I haven’t snooped through Enjin’s room in a long time and I think it’d be fun.”
“It kinda sounds like you snoop through everyone’s room,” Rudo pointed out as the last vestiges of his embarrassment faded away.
“Not everyone,” Riyo argued. “Just people I’m close with. A person’s room can tell you a lot about them as a person and I like knowing things about the people I love.”
A person’s room can tell you a lot about them as a person… Despite being the first person he’d met here on the Ground, Rudo sometimes felt like he barely knew a thing about Enjin. He was easy to be around and trust, but he didn’t seem to like talking about himself much and Rudo always felt too awkward to ever ask him. What was he even supposed to ask? His favourite colour? How he got that scar on his head? How Umbreaker became his vital instrument?
Back in the slums, practically everyone knew each other and Rudo mostly kept to himself, so he’d never really had to work to get to know someone. Things were different here. Regto’s old lectures that once flew over his head made sense here and Rudo was constantly experiencing new things, learning to live outside his old comfort zone.
Still, Rudo struggled when it came to dealing with people and social situations. The thought of snooping and getting to know things about Enjin without having to ask awkward questions was getting more tempting by the second.
“C’mon, you know you want to,” Riyo goaded, mischief gleaming in her eyes.
With that final push, the last of his resolve crumbled and he gave in to temptation. “As long as we don’t get in trouble.”
“Awesome!” Riyo jumped from his bed and practically skipped out the door, leaving him to scramble after her. Once he caught up, she said, “Don’t worry about getting caught, I’m a pro at snooping undetected.”
“That’s reassuring,” Rudo muttered, wondering how many times she might have snooped through his room. It wasn’t like he had anything to hide — the only personal effects in there were the piles of so-called trash he’d fixed up — but he was kinda curious. “Have you ever snooped through my room?”
“Loads of times,” Riyo admitted with an unrepentant grin. “You’ve never noticed, but Enjin will if we’re too obvious, so just follow my lead. Got it?”
Something in Rudo warned him that this was a bad idea, but he was too curious to back out now. Besides, how much harm could a little snooping do?
“Got it.”
After weekend missions like today’s, Enjin, Semiu, and Gris would usually head to a bar to destress over drinks and talk about boring things Riyo had no interest in. Sometimes they came back in the early hours of the morning, completely sloshed, and other times they came back early, tipsy and in good moods.
Considering Enjin had a solo mission scheduled tomorrow, Riyo was fairly sure it was the latter tonight. The man wasn’t a big drinker to begin with – that title belonged to Semiu.
Regardless, she knew she could expect them to be back sometime around midnight, which left her and Rudo approximately an hour to snoop through Enjin’s room before he returned and she initiated her plan.
On the way, she had taken the opportunity to show Rudo all the different bedrooms since he only ever got a basic tour of the base and its facilities. Zanka, Follo, August, and Tamsy were all on the same floor as Rudo, while the rest of them were spread out across the upper floors. Riyo’s own room was directly above Rudo’s and just down the hall from Enjin’s, which she pointed out to him.
Enjin’s door was covered in graffiti, with Gob’s half-finished piece leaving it a mess of red and black that vaguely resembled Enjin’s tattoos. The artist would never be back to finish his mischief or be chased off by Enjin for one of his numerous pranks, and Enjin would never remove the art in memory of a friend lost too soon.
Riyo shook her head to brush off those sombre thoughts, opening the door with a dramatic flourish. It looked just as she remembered.
Enjin’s walls were a boring ivory colour, decorated with posters of his favourite music artists. There was a calendar pinned near the door with reminders written on certain dates in his familiar scrawl (Riyo’s mouth twitched into a small smile when she saw that her birthday was crossed out on the calendar, with a reminder to get her a gift written in bright red pen). To the right was his unmade bed, with its rumpled red and black sheets that he was always too lazy to tidy up. By his bedside was the cabinet where he stored his vinyl collection and on top of it was his beloved vintage record player. In the center of the room, there was a soft blue carpet and a short table with books, magazines, ashtrays and crockery strewn across it. To the left was his closet, its doors left open to reveal a wide variety of clothing, and next to it was an old rocking chair piled high with laundry he clearly hadn’t done for some time. Right by the other side of the closet was a closed door that led to a small but typical bathroom with white walls, a shower, a toilet, a sink, and a mirror with cracks by the side.
The room wasn’t particularly remarkable to the naked eye, but Riyo knew better.
Beneath the carpet was a loose floorboard where he hid the dirty mags he didn’t want to share with Semiu. In his closet was an old leather jacket that smelled faintly of a cologne he didn’t use and hid a pack of yellowed envelopes with letters in its pocket that Enjin had directly asked her not to touch or read. Behind the cabinet was an out-of-commission dumbwaiter, which he used to hide his stash of snacks.
Enjin had installed a lock in that last one after she’d raided his stash one too many times, but he should’ve known better than to think one measly little lock could keep her out.
However, none of those were the best part of Enjin’s room.
In the ceiling just above his bed was a loose panel. When pushed, it revealed the secret entrance to one of the oddest areas in headquarters. It was an empty space with room to fit three people about Enjin’s size and it connected to all the vents in the building. Sound travelled easily through those vents and just by sitting there, you could hear all sorts of things, like the loud metal music Tamsy liked to listen to on his days off or August’s off-key singing while he worked on another project.
It was one of her favourite places to just lie down and relax on a bad day.
Truthfully, Riyo had discovered it by accident. In her early days as a Cleaner, when Enjin used to keep a more watchful eye on her, he had nearly caught her snooping through his room. She had clung to the ceiling panels in hopes of not being detected until she could slip away, but she’d unknowingly grabbed the loose panel and fallen to the ground at the older man’s feet. Enjin hadn’t been angry with her. In fact, he was just as curious about the space as she was. In the end, she didn’t get in trouble, and it was then that she realized she could truly trust Enjin.
Riyo snapped out of her daze, remembering that she’d left Rudo standing there while she got lost in her thoughts. She turned to him with a grin. “So, what do you think?”
Rudo’s eyes wandered the room curiously, his eyes lingering on the vintage record player for a moment before recognition flashed in his eyes. “That record player… Enjin asked me to fix it for him a while ago because it wasn’t working right. Is it important to him?”
Riyo snorted. “Important to him? The amount of care he puts into that thing is second only to Umbreaker — he adores it.”
“Oh… so he’s really into music, right? Are those posters of musicians or something?”
“Yeah, his favourite is actually Too Lily. She’s a really well-known singer down here.”
The two of them spent the next hour picking through Enjin’s room. It had taken Rudo some time to relax, but he’d gotten there eventually, asking all sorts of questions about Enjin and the Ground.
Riyo had shown him where Enjin hid his dirty mags and cracked up when Rudo’s whole face turned red as he realized what she’d shown him. After some consideration, she’d also shown him the vent space in the ceiling and he’d been in awe of it as well, lying down next to her and listening to all the sounds that travelled through the vents.
By the time the hour came to an end, she’d talked Rudo into eating a few stolen sweets from Enjin’s stash and convinced him to try on some of Enjin’s oversized clothes with her. Watching him waddle around in those ill-fitting clothes felt like the most fun she’d had with anyone in ages, and she’d quickly lost track of time, unaware that midnight had arrived until Enjin’s voice echoed from down the hall.
Riyo and Rudo both froze, sharing a panicked look before she gestured for him to hide. Rudo dove under the bed while she went for the vent space, moving the loose panel back into place so Enjin wouldn’t notice.
She held her breath, staying perfectly still as she peeked through a little space between the ceiling panels and watched as the door creaked open and Enjin stepped in. As she suspected, he had come back barely tipsy and quickly noticed something was off about the room the second he walked in.
“I could’ve sworn I closed the door,” Enjin mumbled, eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he stared at the door Riyo had left ajar in her haste to hide. He turned back to the room, eyes sweeping over it a little more carefully.
It was silent for a few moments before his gaze abruptly turned to the window. The locked window.
As in Riyo’s preferred escape route.
He knew her too well.
A playful smirk spread across Enjin’s face as he kicked the door shut. “Alright, you little shit. I’ve got time for a little hide and seek.”
Rudo should’ve known better than to think this would end well. He really should have.
He’d gotten too caught up in the fun of it all — poking around Enjin’s room, dressing up in his clothes and asking Riyo all the questions about the Ground that he hadn’t felt comfortable asking before — that he’d forgotten that they weren’t supposed to be in here to begin with. Now, not only was Enjin back but he’d also caught on to their snooping and was actively searching for them in a space with only a handful of places to hide, most of which he was already aware of.
And here Rudo was, sitting duck in the most obvious hiding spot known to man — under the bed.
“Ready or not, here I come!” Enjin sang.
He was so screwed.
The floorboards creaked ominously as Enjin slowly circled the room and Rudo watched with bated breath as those boots drew closer to his hiding spot, close enough that he could see the small yellow stitches and the effects of years of wear and tear on their leather.
He stopped breathing altogether when Enjin came to a sudden halt just next to him, which also happened to be directly beneath the vent space where Riyo was hiding. A selfish part of Rudo hoped she would get caught first since it was her idea. Plus, she was the only one Enjin was expecting and it would give him time to run off.
Enjin turned away after a heart-pounding moment, heading back in the direction of the closet and the bathroom and leaving Rudo to quietly catch his breath. If Enjin decided to check the bathroom, he might have time to bolt before he got caught.
His hopes for escape were quickly dashed when the sheets that hid his position under the bed were suddenly torn away, leaving him exposed. His stomach sank as a familiar tattooed hand snaked out and grabbed his arm.
“Gotcha!” Enjin crowed, grinning like the cat that got the canary as he peeked under the bed. Rudo could smell the faint scent of alcohol from his direction. “I didn’t think you’d pick such an obvious spot, Ri — wait, Rudo?”
“Yeah,” Rudo sighed, resigning himself to his fate. Enjin let him go, stepping back to give him enough space to shimmy out of his hiding spot, and soon he was sitting on the bed, awkwardly avoiding eye contact as Enjin loomed over him with an expectant look on his face.
“So… care to explain what you were doing down there? Better yet, explain why you were in here in the first place,” Enjin asked curiously. He didn’t seem particularly upset, which was reassuring, but Rudo really didn’t want to try explaining the odd motivation behind his actions, so he settled for half-truths.
“I was just… curious. You asked me to fix your record player that one time, and Riyo mentioned your room was right next to hers, so I just wanted to check it out, I guess,” Rudo muttered, his face heating up despite himself.
“Right,” Enjin said slowly, his eyebrows raised skeptically as he looked Rudo up and down. “I suppose checking it out meant playing dress up, too?”
Only then did Rudo remember that he’d forgotten to take off the huge band t-shirt Riyo had talked him into trying on in his hurry to hide.
Someone kill him right now.
The shirt dwarfed him and fit like a short dress even with his regular clothes beneath it. His face grew hot with the awareness of how childish it made him look, especially after being caught in such an obvious lie. “It looked cool,” he muttered, sounding more defensive than he had intended.
Enjin snorted, clearly finding amusement in Rudo’s suffering. “Alright, kid. Cut the shit, I know Riyo was behind this, so where is she?”
As if on cue, Riyo dropped down on an unsuspecting Enjin with a look of pure glee on her face. Enjin yelped, stumbling beneath the unexpected weight as she clung to his back before quickly steadying himself. He opened his mouth to say something, but the only thing that came out was an odd wheeze, his face spasming for a moment before he started laughing like a madman.
Bewildered, Rudo could only stare as Riyo dug her hands into Enjin’s sides, alternating between poking and clawing at the man's torso until he crumpled to the ground, squirming and flailing on the carpet like a bug. His laughter was loud and hysterical at first, then it petered off to silent, wheezing laughter, only to jump in volume once more when Riyo poked a new spot.
“Holy shit,” Riyo snickered, her green eyes alight with awe and mischief. “This is awesome, I did not expect that to work so well. I can’t believe I didn’t know you were ticklish, Enjin!”
“You little shIT—” Enjin began indignantly, fruitlessly trying to grab at her before he was swallowed up by another wave of incoherent laughter as Riyo’s hands darted from his sides to his neck, more high-pitched than the last because of the way he scrunched his shoulders up in an attempt to protect his neck.
Rudo’s mouth twitched at the unexpected sound, pressing his lips together in an effort not to outright laugh. It seemed that the longer Enjin laughed, the more he sounded like a screeching kettle.
“Who would’ve thought The Enjin would be so ticklish? I bet Zanka would be thrilled if I told him.” Riyo teased, smug satisfaction tugging at her lips as the man’s struggles grew weaker and his laughter more breathless. She paused in her assault, giving Enjin a moment to catch his breath before turning to Rudo. “Wanna give me a hand here?”
“What?” Rudo blurted out, startled by the offer. His eyes darted to Enjin, who hadn’t twitched from where he was slumped on the floor. “I don’t really… I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Good call.” That was the only warning Riyo got before Enjin yanked her off his back and launched a counterattack of his own.
If Enjin’s laugh sounded like a whistling kettle, Riyo’s sounded like she was screaming bloody murder. Rudo nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound, but Enjin only grinned, ignoring her desperate protests as he dug his fingers into her underarms and stayed there even as she kicked and flailed.
“You really can’t take what you dish out, can you?” he said, his voice full of vindictive mirth that made Rudo glad he’d decided to stay out of it.
He glanced at the door, wondering if he could make his escape while they were distracted, but something made him hesitate. It would be an asshole move to just ditch Riyo after she’d gone out on a limb to save him, but it was technically her fault they were in this mess…
“Th-this isn’t faAIR!” Riyo shrieked, her words barely coherent beneath her giggling.
“You want to talk about fair after the stunt you pulled?” Enjin scoffed. “Suck it up, ankle biter.”
“H-hey!”
Rudo was going to regret this, wasn’t he?
He launched himself at Enjin, tackling him off Riyo with surprising ease. He tried to clamber off him once he was down, but Enjin’s arms coiled around him like a snake, trapping him in a headlock.
“Let go!” Rudo grunted, struggling to break Enjin’s grip.
“Should’ve stayed out of it if you didn’t wanna pay the price, brat!” Enjin shot back, his voice tinged with amusement.
The two of them grappled for a couple of seconds before Rudo managed to slip free, his face flushed with effort and strange exhilaration as he scrambled back. It had been a long time since he’d played or wrestled with anyone like this.
“Hey, Rudo!” Riyo called suddenly, grinning at him from the doorway. There was an odd glint in her eyes as she waved that made Rudo instantly suspicious. “Thanks for the save! Good luck!”
Good luck? Why would he need —
Riyo slammed the door shut in his face, the sound of her footsteps echoing in the hall as Rudo stood there in stunned silence. A tattooed hand clamped on his shoulder, his face going pale as he realized that Riyo had practically used him as a scapegoat, and he’d fallen right into her trap.
He knew he should’ve ditched her when he had the chance!
Riyo hummed cheerfully as the sound of Rudo’s cackling laughter echoed throughout the whole floor. Aside from a few hiccups, everything went according to plan, and she now had a brand new way to mess with Enjin to use as she saw fit.
He’ll be on the lookout for her for a couple of days, but it was fair game after that. Maybe she could trick Gris into helping her next time?
A sharp rap against the car window roused Enjin from his brief nap, his bleary eyes barely making out Semiu’s familiar figure. He rubbed his face tiredly, yawning as he rolled the window down. “Hey stranger,” he greeted jokingly.
“Hey yourself,” Semiu replied, her eyebrows furrowed with barely concealed concern. “You were supposed to be in over an hour ago. Tomme said you got injured — did you hit your head?”
“My back, actually,” Enjin corrected, wincing a bit as he stretched. His back ached something awful every time he moved, but it was just a bruise in the end. “Trash beast bruised it a bit, nothing to worry about. I just wanted to catch some sleep.”
“Your bed is literally less than a five-minute walk away and is significantly better for back pain than the seats in this old thing,” she informed him dryly, absently patting their old SUV as she spoke.
Enjin snorted, pulling the keys out of the ignition and stepping out of the car. “Like you’d let me get away with not writing a mission report before that.”
“I wouldn’t be on your ass so much if you didn’t keep using Rudo as an excuse to slack off,” Semiu countered, shooting him a sharp look as he grunted in pain. “You sure you don’t need to get that checked out?”
He waved her off easily, reaching into his jacket to grab a cigarette and a lighter. There was no need to worry Eishia over something minor, plus, he didn’t feel like being told he should quit smoking again. He knew it was bad for him, but everyone down here had their vice, and this was his.
Enjin flicked the lighter’s sparkwheel a few times before the flame finally got going, flickering in the draughty stairwell as the two of them walked up the stairs in companionable silence. He brought the lighter to the end of the cigarette held loosely between his lips, waiting for it to burn before taking a deep inhale. He exhaled after a few seconds, taking a few more puffs before Semiu broke the silence.
“So how’d you get all roughed up? Trash beasts usually don’t phase you.”
Enjin shrugged, not particularly inclined to over-examine his mistakes. “Just got a little distracted, I guess.”
“You guess,” Semiu echoed, eyebrows raised skeptically. “What distracted you?”
“You know, the typical — thoughts, civilians, stuff like that.”
He could feel her gaze boring into him, sharp and discerning the way it always is before she decided to let it go. Semiu knew he’d talk to her if he needed to. He’s never really been the type to bottle things up.
“There’s no shame in admitting your age is catching up to you, you know,” she teased instead.
Enjin shot her an offended look. “You’re barely younger than me, you have no room to talk about age.“
“We both know I wear it better,” she countered, smirking when Enjin rolled his eyes in response.
They made their way up to the lobby, where he was subsequently dragged off to write his mission report and complete some of his piling paperwork. By the time he was done, the sun had begun to set, and it was too late for a nap, so he headed up to the roof for a smoke break.
The roof access door creaked when he pushed it open, closing with a loud bang as he started towards the right corner of the roof, which had the best view of the sunset.
The polluted world they lived in didn’t afford them the beauty of nature often, but it made the sunsets all the more striking, filling the sky with fiery shades of red and gold. Enjin was never the romantic sort, but it was a good way to relax, especially with the expensive cigarettes he saved for special occasions.
It’s been a while since Enjin got the chance to unwind like this, with Rudo’s arrival pushing them to investigate the mystery of the Sphere and the border separating them along with dealing with the increased attacks from the Raiders. Thankfully, things have calmed down in the last few days, and everyone on base seemed to be making the most of it.
Especially Riyo.
Enjin glanced to the side as the sound of heels clicking against concrete alerted him to her arrival. “Look what the cat dragged in,” he chuckled as she joined him at the ledge. “I didn’t see you this morning. Hiding after your little stunt last night?”
“Why would I need to hide?” Riyo said with a smug little grin, resting her head on her palm. “It’s not like you can catch me, old man.”
Enjin made a face, grumbling, “What with the age jokes today? Being surrounded by babies doesn’t make me old.”
“You keep telling yourself that.”
Enjin clicked his tongue, reaching out to flick her ear in retaliation. “You’re a little shit, you know that?”
Riyo swatted at his hand, her smile dimming a bit as she caught the subtle shift in his mood. Enjin turned his gaze back to the sunset, taking a deep inhale of his cigarette as his thoughts took a familiar dark turn.
It messed with him more than he’d like to admit whenever he remembered how young a majority of his team was, how young a majority of the Cleaners were. They were a bunch of kids that the world had massively screwed over and Enjin knew that, but seeing them act like the kids they were, seeing Riyo and Rudo genuinely laughing and messing around like last night, made his chest ache a bit.
It was a stupid thing to agonize over, considering there wasn’t much he could do to change the past, but it got to him from time to time. It was the whole reason he’d been so distracted on his mission today.
There was also the looming threat of the Raiders and everyone else who wanted a piece of Rudo to worry about. The kids on his team were all capable fighters, but they were still kids at the end of the day, and it was Enjin’s responsibility to protect them. The fact that he was beginning to doubt his ability to do that did nothing to help his growing anxiety.
Enjin exhaled slowly, blowing smoke out of his nose. He stubbed the cigarette out on the ledge, irritated with his own gloomy thoughts.
So much for relaxing in the sunset.
“So how’d you rope Rudo into helping you snoop through my room?” he asked Riyo suddenly, hoping to distract himself from his doubts and perhaps a little curious to know the answer. Rudo wasn’t exactly the nosy type, so it had been a bit of a surprise to see him there the night before.
Especially with him wearing Enjin’s clothes. They made him look like a little kid playing dress up, and it made Enjin wanna laugh whenever he thought about it.
“I didn’t really rope him into it,” Riyo denied, shrugging when he shot her a skeptical look. “I didn’t. I think he’s just curious about you.”
Enjin blinked. “Curious about me?”
“Yeah, he was asking me a bunch of stuff about you while we were in there.”
“Why didn’t he just ask me, then?” Enjin asked, a little perplexed. It didn’t feel like an exaggeration to say that he was closest to Rudo out of all the Cleaners, so it was a bit odd that he hadn’t just asked Enjin.
It was Riyo’s turn to give him a look, incredulity written all over her face. “You’re a pretty private guy, Enjin. I can count the number of times you’ve talked about yourself on, like, one hand.”
“Sure, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ask me stuff about myself,” Enjin argued, sounding a little more defensive than he intended.
Riyo shrugged again. “I get that, but Rudo’s only known you for a little while. He’s probably nervous he’s gonna mess up and ask something he shouldn’t.”
Enjin hadn’t really thought of that. There were a lot of things he didn’t particularly enjoy talking about but he’d always tried his best to be approachable, especially with the younger Cleaners. He was a little more focused in his effort to be there for Rudo, whose whole world had recently been flipped on its axis, but it was proving to be a lot more difficult than he thought.
It really made him wonder just how messed up things were on the Sphere.
“I’ll talk to him about that,” he decided, absently rubbing the crick in his neck as he stretched his aching back. Dinner would be starting soon, judging by the dimming sky, and it was a fair bet to assume he’d find Rudo in the cafeteria during that time — that kid didn’t play about his food.
Riyo hummed in response. “Speaking of Rudo, how pissed is he at me?”
Enjin barked out a laugh. “Pissed is an understatement, you should’ve seen his face when you ditched him,” he said with a grin. “He’s never gonna trust you again.”
“Probably not,” Riyo agreed, not looking particularly bothered by the fact. Instead, she was smirking, her eyes shining with familiar mischief. “It was worth it, though.”
She took the opportunity to jab him in the side, drawing an involuntary squawk from him as he jerked away. She retreated before he could even think of retaliating, giggling when he rolled his eyes at her.
“Seriously, what’s with you trying to tickle me?” Enjin huffed. He knew she liked messing with people but he’d never really been her target.
“I like hearing you laugh,” Riyo confessed, candid in a way that startled him. “You have one of those weird laughs that make people start laughing too. It’s funny to hear.”
Enjin shot her a disbelieving look. “So I’m being tortured because I have an infectious laugh? I don’t know if I should be flattered or annoyed. Couldn’t you have just told me a joke or something?”
“It’s hardly torture,” Riyo snorted, “And besides, messing with you is more entertaining.”
If that’s the game she wanted to play, Enjin wasn’t about to take it lying down. It seemed that she forgot that he wasn’t as easy to mess with as Zanka and Rudo, and it was Enjin’s sacred duty as her team leader to remind her.
“You know, I was totally gonna let yesterday go,” he began, letting a menacing smile spread across his face as he straightened up. “But now that I think about it, it’s hardly fair that Rudo was the one who took the fall for you.”
Riyo froze, clearly not expecting that response, but she quickly came to her senses as soon as he began stalking towards her, escaping back into the building and bolting away like the devil was at her heels.
Enjin chuckled, feeling lighter than he had all day as he leisurely followed after her.
Playing around with the kids didn’t magically fix their pasts or his own doubts, but neither did agonizing over them. There was nothing he could do besides try his best to protect them and be there for them, and if that meant goofing off with them and giving them the space to be kids from time to time, he was more than happy to do it.
Especially since it meant he got to terrorize them when they got a little too bold.
By now, Riyo will have a considerable head start, but Enjin had a good idea of where he might find her. And if he recalled correctly, there was another person who’d love to pay her back for her little stunt yesterday…
Hopefully Rudo was in the cafeteria like he suspected, because Enjin only had the energy for one wild goose chase tonight.
He paused at that thought, abruptly reminded of Semiu and Riyo's earlier words.
God, was he actually getting too old?