Like Fire and Rain / Enjin x oc'fem/ Prologue
The first few weeks living with Regto were quite comfortable from my perspective, but for Rudo it was quite the opposite.
He didn't express any emotion, he wasn't interested in anyone or anything. The only time you could see a small smile on his face was when he hugged me at night.
I still remember when Regto and I found Rudo banging his head against one of the walls of the still unfurnished house. I was the first to react, followed by Regto.
I run over and crouched down to pull his head, now covered in blood, away from the wall.
“Rudo! What are you doing?” Regto asked.
“You told me I shouldn't hurt anyone,” Rudo replied.
“That's no reason to do this!” I insisted.
Regto leaned back, put a hand on his forehead, and closed his eyes.
“Okay, but why are you doing this? What were you thinking?”
Rudo didn't answer, and all we could hear was his breathing.
“Rudo,” Regto said. “Your hands aren't supposed to hurt so much now, and you're better, right?” he said with a slight smile. “Besides, you haven't seen anyone in a while, so...”
“Tell us what's making you act like this!” I interrupted Regto.
Rudo remained silent and fixed his gaze on me.
“I don't... know,” he said quietly. “Nothing in particular,” he began. “It's just that I'm always... always in a bad mood. That's all.”
“But I can't explain why I feel this way. It's something I don't understand,” he continued.
Regto and I looked at each other, uncertain and doubtful. I stroked Rudo's head again and Regto spoke.
“I understand, it may be that because your parents abandoned you, deep down you think you have no value.”
I nodded, but deep down I didn't totally agree.
“It's decided,” Regto stood up. “I'll treat your forehead and you'll come for a walk with us.”
Hearing this, I smiled, let go of my brother's hair, and stood up, putting my hands on my hips.
“That's right, that's right!”
“Maybe you should find a distraction like your sister,” I nodded. I raised my hand.
“You could also help me clean,” I said as an example while looking at Regto. He turned his head and pretended not to hear anything.
I bent down to help Rudo get up while listening, once again, to Regto.
“Tosio,” Regto shouted as he turned and spun around. “Someday this house will be full of things you like.” “Just let me know if you bring a boyfriend or something.”
Regto's sudden remark made me almost let go of Rudo, and he fell. Luckily, I was able to catch him before that happened, but my cheeks turned red and I rolled my eyes.
“W-what are you saying?!”
My opponent burst out laughing and pointed at me with his finger while looking at me with a mocking smile.
“What's wrong, taru? Do you have a boyfriend?” he asked mockingly.
I quickly shook my head as I hugged my brother tightly with one hand. With the other, I pointed at Regto and said, “Shut up!”
He kept laughing as he walked to the door and left.
“Let's start helping your brother, shall we?”
We all went out together to try different activities that might distract Rudo, although he did everything while holding my hand.
First, we decided to go to a small bookstore. Regto showed Rudo different types of books, but none of them caught his attention. Unlike me, since I picked up a lot of them. We left after a while, and Regto found a somewhat worn ball, which he kicked in Rudo's direction, but obviously, he kicked it lightly.
The black-haired boy frowned.
“Rudo, if you don't let go of your sister's hand, you won't be able to play well,” I said as I passed the ball back to Rudo.
He frowned and reluctantly let go of my hand. With the ball at his feet, he looked at it for a few seconds, attentively and silently, then grabbed it and began to caress it while pressing it to his chest, an action that made me hug him tightly and Regto make a horrified and tired face.
I came up with the idea of the kitchen because I would love for Rudo to help Regto and me cook. How wrong I was.
We returned home and went over to where the pots and other kitchen utensils were. The blue-eyed one bent down to open a cabinet and take out a wooden board, and I grabbed a knife from a drawer. I asked Rudo if he could bring me some radishes from the refrigerator, and he nodded.
“This... this is a tomato, Rudi.”
Finally, I had to go with him to show him what a radish was. He nodded several times when I showed him the radish.
We washed it and placed it on the wooden board that Regto had set out, and gave the knife to Rudo.
“Okay, you have to use a little force and cut it into pieces. Although to start with, you can cut it in half,” Regto explained as he looked at my brother.
He nodded, raised the knife, and cut the radish... apart from the wooden board, of course.
We decided it would be best to take it out of the kitchen.
After a few hours, the sun was beginning to set, and we still hadn't found a distraction for Rudo. We went outside. Regto looked up at the sky while Rudo and I sat hand in hand on the steps of the house.
“It's not for lack of motivation, but if you would just let go of your sister's hand a little, it would help,” Regto sighed as he frowned at Rudo. Rudo grunted in response. “We'll keep looking tomorrow.”
We decided it was time to go inside and wait for the next day, so I started to get up from the stairs next to Rudo, but then I felt a slight tug on my hand from Rudo.
He was pointing toward the horizon. I followed his gaze until I saw a gate with bars separating the two areas of Altomundo. Just as I was about to answer, Regto beat me to it.
“Oh, well, it's just a man throwing out the trash.”
The three of us remained silent as we watched intently as the man threw away the trash and then went back to his house.
Rudo's hurried footsteps made him stop talking and watch him run toward the barred door and then cross it.
“Rudo!” Regto and I shouted in unison.
He ignored our calls and crashed into the trash can. But he didn't care. He got up from the ground and jumped a few times to grab the bag the man had thrown away earlier and reached inside. He managed to pull out a strange white mask from the bag.
I stopped running and crouched down next to Rudo to look at the object. I grabbed his shoulders and saw tears begin to well up in his eyes, which worried me even more.
Regto stood a few steps behind us, frowning at Rudo as he began to think aloud.
"Could it be that... you feel the same way as that object?
My eyes widened and I stopped looking at Rudo to turn my gaze to Regto.
“What are you getting at?” I asked, glaring at him.
He scratched his neck and began to approach us, but Rudo's voice stopped him in his tracks.
“It's just that I feel really sorry that they threw it away,” he explained, wiping his eyes with his arm to remove some tears. “It's like new.”
Regto and I listened attentively to my brother's words and smiled warmly. I laughed and hugged Rudo while giving him little kisses on his hair.
“What a strange little brother I've ended up with...”
“What are you talking about?!” he shouted at me
Regto and I laughed. In the end, we all got home with a distraction for Rudo. Repairing objects that had been thrown away.
