Chapter Text
Rudo's pov
The talk lead to more of him teaching Follo how to move about and get used to his new body. “I'm sorry again. You should have never gotten involved because I couldn't keep my teeth to myself.”
Follo bumped his side, they were making their way to the cafeteria for breakfast. “Don't worry about it, who wouldn't be excited about becoming a big dog.”
Kicking out, he tripped Follo, longer legs working against them. Rudo kept walking, leaving them to scramble back up. “It's wolf not dog, and don't say it out loud.”
“Okay, sorry! I'm just excited!” Follo caught up to him as they made it to the cafeteria, letting out a few grumbles while rubbing at his knees.
Rudo never thought being a WolfWalker was exciting, it was a curse that he had been hunted for and it couldn't even help when he needed it the most. If only he had a few moments to…. No he can't change what happened.
Grabbing food, sits down in his usual spot and starts eating. Follo settled beside him as well as they ate in silence. Tomme makes her way in, sending them a wave before grabbing a plate herself and sitting in front of them. “Good to see you both up early today! Follo, you feeling much better?”
“Yup, the day off was exactly what I needed.”
“Good, I was worried since Gris said you were passed out and wouldn't wake up when he checked on you after the mission yesterday.” Tomme said and Rudo noticed another figure enter the cafeteria. Gris B-lining it towards them.
Follo just rubbed the back of his head, “Yeah I don't know why I wouldn't wake. Whatever Eishia gave me must've knocked me out.”
Gris stopped in front of Follo and started looking him over. “Maybe don't fall asleep with your window open next time. There are plenty of things that can sneak in even with Shikage's protection since the window is open.”
All of a sudden, Rudo remembered Enjin telling him about the invincible shut in. How they protect the HQ base from attacks and unwanted guests. It never occurred to him that he couldn't make it back to his body if the door or window had ever closed behind him.
“Will do Gris, but my room is on the 3rd floor, what could possibly get inside?”
Hands cover Rudo's eyes and he tries to bat them away, deep in thought and listening to the conversation around him to realize someone snuck up on him. But only a few people could, “Riyo, get off me! Before I bite you!”
Laughter from her and another person who annoyingly sounded like Enjin, “Woah now, Riyo you better take that threat seriously. You do not want to be on the other end of those.”
Her hands release him just in time for a wooden staff to hit him on the head. “Hey, no threatening teammates!” Zanka says.
Smaking the staff away as well, he let out some choice words that everyone laughed at. What the hell was everyone teaming up on him again. Quickly shoved everything in his mouth, no longer listening. Until Enjin leaned on him like a personal armchair. “We got a mission already, you and Zanka take it. A few supporters will join you.”
Rudo exploded, pushing Enjin away, getting up to put his plate away. Growling out “Okay! Stop annoying me!”
Zanka calls out before he leaves the room. “Be down in the lobby in 30, we'll leave soon afterwards.” Then the door shuts them all out. Letting out a sigh of relief, it is nice to have a group that doesn't outright hate him, but they get to be too much once they all start at him.
~~~~~
The mission went fine, they had found and defeated the trash beasts easily. Gris, Follo, and Tomme came with. Easing Rudo's worry for his new wolf comrade, keeping an eye on him.
It didn't occur to him that he was staring too much though when Zanka had bonked him aside the head with his staff for the second time that day. “Focus and watch for trash beasts. Our supporters know how to handle themselves on the field.”
Whatever, he'd flipped Zanka off before taking off to search for any more movements while the others talked to the townspeople.
“Good job today!” Gris praised them on the way back.
Rudo just huffed and looked out the window. Sitting to the side, Follo in between him and Zanka who had tried to lecture him about his takedown today. It worked, Rudo didn't see any issue with catapulting himself in the air to activate a broken drill and drilling a hole through the beast top to bottom.
Follo had clapped him on the back when the beast had disintegrated, making him happy, before Zanka had stomped over angrily that he left himself wide open for the best to bat him out of the air if it was quick enough to see what Rudo was going for.
Over dinner Rudo recalled it for Enjin.
“Kid. You're gonna give poor Zanka here a heart attack before he's in his 20's” Enjin said leaning on the other.
Rudo had expected his mentor to hate being leaned on, burst out in yelling, but they just let their team lead do whatever as they ate, unbothered. “Agreed, we are doing joint training with Riyo tomorrow morning. Just because you landed it on that trash beast doesn't mean every one will be the same.”
The redhead smirked at him before including in a playful tone. “If you can land a hit on me just like the move you did today. I'll get you Enjin's stash of candy in his room, he's got the good stuff. Here.” She hands over a piece of chocolate.
“Hey!” Enjin calls out and reaches across the table, but it is already in Rudo's mouth and eaten before he can do anything about it. “Those are for emergancy's!”
“Rudo's training is an emergency. He needs to get better or else he dies.” Riyo says, a smile still on her face. Enjin just grumbles about moving it to a new place before Riyo raids it again.
Everyone breaks from dinner afterwards, heading to lounge areas or to their rooms for the night. Rudo spent his time off after the day in his room. Taking apart and fixing items that could be fixed.
If he took one apart and it couldn't be fixed, then he'd just put it back together as well as he could, then take it out to use on missions. The drill used today was a good example. It didn't have a battery, and its side was bashed open during the fall. Okay that was the main reason it was unfixable.
Itching to get back to his room all day, he'd need to reorganize his piles of fixable vs weaponable trash items.
Engrossed in his task, grumbling when he realized more items were in the unfixable pile now after being tossed around. He jumped when someone knocked on his door. “Come in.”
Follo had opened the door and shut it behind him. He was out of his support uniform and in comfy looking clothes. Making Rudo realize he was still in his work uniform.
“What do you want?”
Follo looked nervous. “Sorry again for throwing them around. But I didn't know how to get over here or sneak back in through my window if it was closed again.”
Sighing, Rudo picked up a blender to put on his workbench to fix up. “It's fine, you are adjusting. It wouldn't hurt for a few nights if you stayed in here to get used to it. We shouldn't go out into the trash fields though.”
Follo nodded in agreement, “It shouldn't be hard to do that.”
That's what he said, but after Follo had fallen asleep. His wolf form had popped out and it was horrible. Trying to look through his trash piles, making items tumble down and onto the floor, disrupting his organization again. Or just standing over his shoulder, blender taken apart, unable to focus because wolf Follo was right there.
“Enough, get back.” Rudo said, pushing his stuped big head away. “I am unable to focus.”
Follo whined and he guessed the other said something he couldn't understand. Then realizing that, bumped Rudo with his nose and gestured to the bed.
“Fine, I get it.”
Rudo got up, he needed a specific part to fix the blender. Maybe he'll ask Enjin to let him go searching for it tomorrow to fix the item, deep clean it, then put it in the kitchen for people to use if they want.
Crawling in bed, wrinkled his nose, Follo was bigger than him and took up most of the space. “This is my bed, why are you sprawled out like it is yours?”
Follo did not reply, just looked away, acting like he didn't hear Rudo. Leaving Rudo to kick their legs to make space for him. That made the other jerk in reply, looking down at their back legs questioning.
Getting settled, annoyed that he let the other crash in his room now that he needed to sleep. Luckily he can force the shift to make his human body rest quicker than trying to fall asleep naturally. That was one good thing about this, his human body sucked at sleeping. It was easier to force a shift than to let it happen on its own.
He had 1 second being a wolf before he was tackled, black and red tinted fur is all he can see. “Get off me!” He tries to growl out through the fur.
Follo rolls off him finally, “Fine, but what did you do prior? Staying inside at night is harder than I realized. I feel energized and want to run!”
He snorts out a few stuck hairs in his nose, “nothing, that's all I ever did. W-we weren't allowed to be outside before.” Rudo says shaking out his anxieties and then going to squeeze under his bed, being in his den would make him feel better. He didn't want to say he also wanted to go outside again. That would get Follo to double down in trying to go out also.
Curling up in a ball, he thinks if he tries hard enough he can fall asleep as a wolf sometimes. Even if that has been impossible since being on the ground.
A snout pokes into his den.
Rudo growls at being disturbed, “I let you sleep in my room to not be alone, but no, this is my den!” Follo does not head the warning. Scratching at the ground, forces his way inside. Rudo no longer enjoyed that he made it big enough for two people in the space under his bed.
“It's nice!” They said, settling in.
Rudo kicked him in the head with his back paw. “Quiet, and I'll think about not kicking you out.”
Follo whined before turning towards Rudo. “Hey when you kicked my sleeping human body, I felt it! Is that normal?”
Rudo sighed, drooping his head on top of his paws. “Yes, if anything happens to either your human body or soul wolf form, it will appear on both, see.” His paws were scarred and patchy with fur between the marred bits. “But my gloves are worn by my human body so these paws don't hurt as much.”
Thinking Follo looked him over and then looked concerned. “What about when Enjin said you bite earlier today. Did you bite someone else?”
“Don't worry about that, biting someone while a human doesn't do anything. It is only when the wolf bites someone that they change. Goes for healing as well, you need to be a wolf for that.” Rudo says, trying to curl away from Follo to get away from touching them, but his den under the bed isn't big enough, so he gives up and accepts he is just going to lay there next to Follo.
~~~~~
Rudo slept in wolf form that night for the first time on the ground. Not wanting to admit it was because Follo was there helping him sleep.
No missions were assigned, so it was a day full of training.
Meaning he was repeatedly trying to land a successful hit on Riyo from above. It went on for hours, everyone else had stopped training but Rudo was determined to get Enjin's stache of chocolate. So the supporters had come out to watch as well.
Kicked to the ground yet again from Riyo's advantage point on top of her scissors. “Rudo have ya realized this isn't going to work yet?” Zanka called out. Looking bored, but analyzing each move and calling out his flaws.
Getting up Rudo forgo dusting himself off, throwing himself at the wall to kick off it, to get high up in the air, needing to get higher than Riyo to attack from above. “It would help if you gave me pointers to land a hit on her!” He threw a handful of dust at Riyo, maybe if she was blinded she couldn't see him attacking. Closing her eyes, maybe he did get it this time!
Riyo had timed his trajectory, kicked him into the bleacher full of people who scrambled away when they realized they were taking fire.
“Absolutly not, I'm here to help ya get better, not to win extra sweets.”
Rudo takes a second to breath, that landing hurt, he is half slinked off the bench with supporters looking down at him.
Follo catches his eye, quickly he looks over and Riyo is brushing the dust out of her hair not paying attention. “Follo, help me and I'll share the spoils with you!” he says quietly. Then groans loudly.
Follo goes to speak but Rudo shoots a glance his way, shutting him up.
“District her once I'm in the air.” He says quietly to the group but he doesn't care if these guys hear, just that Follo helps. Getting to his feet. This time takes off running to the opposite side where a pile of his trash items are. “Last one for the day!”
Riyo settles back on her scissors, “You better impress me! Or I might eat all of it myself.”
It's a lie, Riyo doesn't like sweets, but it got Rudo to scan the pile quickly. He had one more use for 3R and they knew it. Grabbing what he needed. Jumpted up high in the air again. He activated his gloves and threw an item. Riyo didn't even move to dodge, it didn't even try to touch her.
“Are you even-”
“Got it Rudo!”
Follo had called out loud and clear right behind Riyo. She turned slightly to see him holding a broken ruler. That was enough for Rudo to take the measuring tape he did activate and send it out to wrap around Riyo's leg still intertwined with Ripper.
That was all Rudo wanted, he didn't even throw himself to be too close to her. Hitting the ground, he rolled to medigate the fall. Happy to show her, he also knew how to fall correctly now.
“Thank you” he whispered to the measuring tape before deactivating the object as it crumbled away. Riyo also deactivated Ripper and ran over to give Rudo a high five.
“Really, using Follo to help ya?”
“Yeah! You were there distracting the trash beast before as well and that's why it worked, so I did the same thing. Riyo was distracted for that single moment I needed, thanks Follo!” Rudo high fived him as well as he came running up.
“I'm impressed, but also annoyed about that try prior, you own me a bottle of shampoo. But candy has been acquired. I'll drop it off after dinner.” Riyo says before heading out with the others who came by to watch.
Rudo can't complain, he's too happy that it worked and he'll get sweets tonight.
~~~~~
Follo's pov
Shuffling into the room weirdly, Follo was trying to hide a plushie behind his back. Rudo didn't seem to notice, already getting started on eating the pile of chocolate on his desk. Riyo must've dropped it off not too long ago.
Glad they had all their attention elsewhere as he set the plushie under the bed and into the den. Rudo had said it wasn't for sharing but Follo had a rough idea that he would probably be spending a lot of time here at night. If he ever found himself to not, then maybe Rudo would find comfort in the item.
They hadn't noticed and Follo let it slide that a portion of the candy had been eaten before he showed up.
Spending the evening eating the candy left over, chatting about their training. Eventually both calling it early to head to bed. Rudo grumbled about space but he didn't kick Follo this time.
Rudo had shifted first, and Follo can hear him pacing beside the bed. Waiting. Somehow the other could force the shift and didn't need to fall asleep first. Unfortunately energy in his paws today unlike yesterday's exhaustion after a mission and staying up late working. It took Follo longer.
Shifting out into a wolf, he landed right on Rudo. “Are you sure we can't go outside today?” Was the first thing he asked once they could communicate again and he had Rudo pinned momentarily.
Rudo shoved him off before thinking for a moment but shook his head. “No, what if we run into anyone.”
“We won't, I know where they go for nighttime walks. We'll stay away from there.” Trying to convince the other. “I've been here longer, remember. Plus I can smell if someone is close!”
Could see the thoughts rattle around in Rudo's head. Just one more push.
“You can go trash hunting while we are out there and bring items close to pick up in the morning once we wake up.”
“Fine!” Rudo said and quickly switched back to his human form, opening the window. Propping it open with a pole he had in one of his piles
He was almost laying down again when Follo yipped excitedly and jumped out of the open window. Striding a few paces away from the building to not get caught. Pausing to wait.
Taking off once Rudo was out the window making him chase after. His legs were longer and thought that would make it hard for Rudo to catch up but they did so easily, bumping shoulders with Follo and making him stumble. When he caught his footing, threw himself back at the white wolf. Who dodged by pulling back. Unable to correct himself he ended up falling, rolling a few times before stopping.
“Was that necessary?” Follo said, shaking the dust and debris from his pelt.
Rudo ignored him, already shifting through the piles of trash to find fixable items. Maybe he should as well, maybe he can find something for himself, even if nothing would compare to his hammer. A souvenir for his first time out with Rudo as a wolf and not fearing for his life at what was happening.
Sniffing about he never saw anything interesting when out with Rudo before becoming this WolfWalker, but he needed to practice and get more used to all this form has to offer.
Looking through the trash piles became sniffing through the trash piles. Trusting his nose as it steered him away from Rudo. A different pile all together. Something catches his nose. Follo starts digging to get to what his nose has deemed he needs.
Claws scratch on an object and he stick his face into the hole he dug, sniffing and realizing. It is a round leathery object. He can't grab it with his hands now turned paws, so instead uses his mouth. It gives under his teeth as he gets a good hold on the object.
Slightly tugging at it, it doesn't budge. Teeth locked in place. Follo plants his paws outside of the hole, using his shoulder the push against the pile as he gives it a good yank.
The item comes loose!
But all that inertia has Follo tipping back and rolling down the trash pile. Yelping and sending the object flying.
“Shit. What are you doing Follo?” Rudo said as he rolled past.
Landing at the bottom, Follo quickly jumps up, looking around. “Did you see where it went?”
“What went?” Sounding confused, but Follo remembered the smell. Breathing in through his nose, the trail appeared as he followed it until he could see it sitting a few feet away. Diving and grabbing the object he was looking for between his teeth. Unable to stop himself, shakes the object in his mouth. This is so much fun! It's like the dogs that ran around up north, he always wondered why their play looked so aggressive. It was fun!
So he proceeds to shake the leathery item back and forth to his heart's desire. Releasing it, the now flattened ball goes flying. Letting out an excited yip, Follo takes off after it excitedly.
Watching where it landed, he didn't need to search for it this time. Grabbing the object with his teeth and looking around. Rudo isn't chasing after him?
Rudo seems to have gone back to his own trash searching, digging around in the piles. That kind of ticks Follo off. He had found a perfect item for them!
Thinking about how to include Rudo, the kid works too much and it seemed like he needed help teaching him how to play. As a human and a wolf. So he turned to calculate, and released the grip on the item. It falls. Landing right beside them!
Rudo jumps back, frightened by the fallen item, but then ears perk at Follo’s quick approach. They don't attempt to grab it though. Leaving it open for Follo to grab and proudly presents it to Rudo. “This item! This is perfect!”
Rudo looks at him and tilts his head, “What is it?” Then he goes to sniff at it to try and tell more about the item… but Follo pulls it out of his reach to smell.
That made Rudo pause, and can see a little twitch of his brows furrowing. Taking a step to get close to the item.
Follo moves it out of his reach again.
A low growl starts in Rudo's throat as he barks out, “What are you doing!”
But Follo just snorts and brings it closer to Rudo bumping him in the side with it, then takes off.
Finally, Rudo gave chase.
Follo wills his legs to stride faster, as Rudo is running close behind him. Snarling when he lunges forward and Follo vears away. This goes on until Follo is starting to run out of breath. When that happens and he turns his head to the side to see where Rudo is, but all he sees is teeth as jaws slam down to bite at the leather.
Too slow to jerk it away, they came to a stand still. Red eyes stare into his own, breathing heavy… both unwilling to release their grip on the leathery item.
“Release it”. Rudo growled out.
Follo doesn't feel like doing that. Snorting out a “No!” That was all the warning he gave before yanking and starting to teach Rudo to properly play.
~~~~
“Can't believe we didn't even find the part I was looking for.” Rudo huffed annoyingly jumping into the room.
Follo had followed behind, taking better aim and not making a mess of the younger’s room this time. It was getting close to morning so they made it back before the others had a chance to wake up.
“Yeah but we found this and that is so much better!” Follo spat the leathery ball on the ground, it had stayed firm and didn't tear even as they played and thrown it between each other for hours. Trash finding forgotten as when Rudo would try, he would swoop in and bait them to play more. They had both gotten better and traversing the trash piles with their wolf bodies and he even got cut a few times,
Rudo had shown off how the healing howl worked. This time it was quiet and short, but Follo got the gist of it and could hopefully do it when needed. But Rufo was certain they wouldn't need to heal someone often. They had Eishia at HQ and that was better than spilling their secret.
No clue why Rudo thought this was the worst thing ever. It was super cool!
They both hopped back into their human bodies and Follo had gotten up snatching the leather flatten ball off the ground. “I'm taking it back to my room, as a souvenir. Maybe I'll also have a collection of trash.” Glancing at the pile in the room. “Just not as big as yours.”
Rudo who was annoyed before looked angry now. “Nothing is wrong with my collection of trash! Out!” Pointing to the door. Follo had thought about not, but it would be best for him to get back to his room to get ready for the day.
Leaving the room, feeling energized even if they had run all over the surrounding trash fields most of the night. Thinking of the now empty spot on his shelf where the plushie used to sit, that would be good to put this.
A good trade, even if Rudo hasn't knotice his addition to the den yet. Maybe he can add something else to it as well.
In thought, a door opening caught his attention.
Gris exited his room. Eyes meeting Follo felt his his face crinkle into a big grin. “Mornin’ Gris!”
“Morning Follo.” Gris said much more groggily, like they didn't get enough sleep. Yawning and scratching at his stomach before looking down at what Follo was holding. “Where'd you get that?” Suddenly sounding more awake this time.
Quickly hiding it behind his back, trying to think of something that didn't sound too suspicious and not an outright lie to his superior.
“I got it from Rudo, we both crashed after eating all that candy from the bet yesterday. He also gave me a fixed item as well.” Follo let out a small laugh, side stepping around Gris. “Well better get to getting ready for the day!” Follo says basically runs away, still trying to keep the object hidden until his room down the hall.