Guess Who — Roleplayer Guild

"Thank you so much, Robbie," Priscilla shouted as she wrapped her arms around him, almost causing the boy to drop the cotton candy and soda that he had just bought for her. As her lips pressed against his cheek in a grateful kiss, the boy's cheeks brightened to almost match the color of his girlfriend's hair.

Robert responded at first with an embarrassed chuckle, still not completely used to being showered in affection, before telling her, "It's no big deal. Besides, I got quite a bit of Lien from that last mission my team was on, so a bit of food and drinks for my adorable girlfriend are nothing."

The pink haired girl smiled before kissing Robert again, this time across the lips instead. Taking the cotton candy and soda from him afterward, she pulled off a small piece of the sugary sweet and enjoyed the feeling of it melting in her mouth. "So what's this about a new team? Did they really find a replacement for Grayson, Daniel, and me that fast?" she asked before sipping on her carbonated drink.

"Oh yeah! I completely forgot to introduce you guys. Yeah, after you and the guys disappeared they ended up making me the leader of a new team with Trad, Grane, and... Delta," he replied, looking down at the ground as he remembered the classmate who he failed to save. "Anyway, after how badly I screwed up, they brought Sand onto to the team so we cou- Sand! Shoot, I'm such an idiot."

Grabbing Priscilla's wrist without so much as an explanation, Robert began to drag her along the school grounds to search for the teammate he had unceremoniously ditched to hang out with his girlfriend instead. It was an exceptionally inconsiderate thing for him to do and he needed to apologize for it or else it'd haunt him for the rest of his life.

"Robbie, slow down," Priscilla told him, barely keeping up with the boy's long strides.

Several minutes would pass, but with how quickly Robert was sprinting down the halls, narrowly dodging in between groups of students and their families, he would find the bronze-skinned girl chatting with someone he would immediately assume to be her father in the gym where the race would be held. "Sand!" he shouted to get her attention before skidding to a stop. The boy wouldn't immediately speak as he tried to catch his breath from the marathon he had just ran around the campus. "Sand, I wanted..." he began, stopping to inhale and exhale. "To say I'm..." Inhale, exhale. "Sorry..." Inhale, exhale. "For ditching you earlier." One last long breath and he finally found his voice again. "That was really rude and impolite of me and I wanted to let you know that I feel really, really bad about it. I hope you can forgive me."

Meanwhile, the pink haired girl he had ditched her for earlier and had dragged with him on his quest for forgiveness, seemed to be staring daggers at Sand, crossing her arms in front of her defiantly. "So who's this?" she asked, the unmistakable sound of jealousy behind in her tone, one that would go right over her boyfriend's head.

"This is Sand, one of my teammates," he replied matter-of-factly.

"You didn't say she was a girl."

"Does it matter?" Robert asked, confused as to why she was bothered by it.

@Lazo@Awesomoman64@Nytem4re

In case you forgot who Tuck was.

Patter… patter… patter… 

The rain poured onto the cardboard shelter Robert had been using the past week, the newspapers he used as blankets barely insulating his body heat. As his stomach growled though, the boy realized he could no longer stay here for the night or he’d risk starvation along with hypothermia.

The next several hours would be spent with the ten year old scrounging through dumpsters for anything to eat. Usually he’d try to swipe a handful of people’s pocket change so he could make sure to not get sick from whatever he ate, but the weather was keeping people indoors. Mostly.

“Hey kid, what do you think you’re doing?” an aggressive voice called out behind him. Robert turned to face the instigator and found five teenagers, all at least eight years older than him, blocking the exit of the alley he had been scavenging in.

“I’m… just looking for something to eat is all,” he replied, his words catching in his throat due to the overwhelming force that stood before him.

The leader of the teens snickered before asking, “In the fucking trash?” Digging into his backpack, he pulled out a banana and held it forward as if offering it to Robert. “Tell you what kid, I didn’t have time to finish my lunch today, so you can have what’s left. You just have to take it from me.” Despite the act of kindness though, the boy still wasn’t convinced that they had the best of intentions. Slowly inching forward, he reached out toward the delicious yellow fruit.

“Psych!” the bully cried out before dropping it to the ground and crushing it beneath his shoe. Him and his friends began to laugh at their immature antics while their victim stared in shock, disbelieving how cruel they could be to a stranger. “Come on guys, let’s leave this idiot to sit in the rain.”

As the group walked away though, something began to stir within Robert. An intense anger and hatred he hadn’t felt in almost two years, the night his family was taken from him. How dare they trick him? How dare they offer food to him when he’s on the edge of starvation, only to take it away? How dare they leave him here to die? Looking back to the group with fire in his eyes, he let out an outraged scream before, bringing him back to their attention. The blades on his bracers extended before he charged forward.

And slipped on the banana peel.

Falling face forward into the puddle, Robert could only hear their laughter as he tried to lift himself off the ground, before feeling a foot suddenly kick him in the ribs.

“You think you can attack us? You’re crazy and stupid apparently,” one of them said before Robert felt another kick to the other side, causing the red haired boy to squeeze his legs against his chest in the hopes of avoiding any more attacks to the more vulnerable parts of his body.

Blows seemed to land anywhere they could: his head, his back, his shins, his arms. The only thing that finally brought the constant addition of pain was the sound of a new voice that had entered the alley. “Hey, you kids! What the hell are you doing,” the older voice yelled. Robert tried to look up and see who it was, but was soon met with a kick to the face, causing his world to go black.

When the ten year old would awaken again, he’d find himself no longer out in the cold rain, but inside some sort of restaurant with a functioning heater to boot. Getting off the table he had been lying on, the boy would feel a sudden wave of nausea from the impact to his head. Reeling back, he pushed back the table which created a loud screech.

“Ah, you’re awake,” the older voice from before said. “You took quite a few hits back there. Were even out cold for six hours. You’re lucky you didn’t need stitches.”

“W-who are you?” Robert asked, looking around the room, searching for the man who had saved.

Poking his head out from the kitchen, a very large, but friendly man smiled at the boy, holding up a plate of fish and chips. “The name’s Tuck. Here. You were looking pretty thin so I thought you could do with something to eat.”

Seeing the meal placed next to him, the hungry child threw his soaked sweatshirt off of his shoulders and dug into the fried food, not even bothering to dip it into any sauces. After already downing a handful of fries and one piece of fish, he look toward Tuck and told him, “Sorry. Thank you so much.”

“Hey, it’s no problem. If I’d known you were that hungry I would have cooked up more,” Tuck replied, not minding the kid’s lack of manners. “So why were those kids beating you up?”

Robert gulped down his newest mouthful and replied, “Because I attacked them.”

“And why would you go and do something like that?”

“They were being mean.”

“How so?”

“They were laughing at me and offering food, but then not giving me any.”

Tuck went silent for a few moments before asking, “Where are your parents?”

“... Gone.”

“Do you have any other family?”

Robert shook his head.

“How about you spend the night here then? I don’t want you going out there in the rain if you have nowhere else to go.”

The boy nodded and returned to eating, so Tuck to the opportunity to leave for the moment and head into the backroom of the restaurant. When he returned, he was holding a change of clothes. “Here, go to the bathroom and change into these. They’re mine so they’ll probably be several sizes too large, but I’d hate for you to catch a cold.”

Again, he nodded in response, stuffing the last of his meal into his mouth before taking the clothes offered and getting changed in the restroom indicated. The diner owner had been correct in his assumption that they’d be too large for Robert as the sweatshirt reached all the way down to his knees and he had to hold the pants up to keep them around his waist.

Seeing the boy in such a ridiculous state, Tuck held back a chuckle and told Robert, “Tomorrow we can stop by a clothing store to get you something new to wear.”

“What’s wrong with my clothes?” he asked, not knowing why he’d need anything new when they were only soaked in water. They would dry eventually.

“Besides the fact that they’re covered in stains to the point that I don’t even know what their original color was? They look like you’ve never worn anything else for an entire year.”

“Two.”

“Huh?”

“Two years. I’ve been wearing the same thing for two years.”

“All the more reason they should be replaced,” Tuck finished before signaling Robert to follow him to the backroom again. “Business has been slow the past few years so I eventually had to sell my home and start sleeping here every night. You can have the bed tonight and I’ll find somewhere else to rest.”

“I don’t want to be so much trouble. I can go back to my box and sleep there tonight.”

“Nope, not happening kid. I’d never be able to forgive myself if I let you go back out there in that storm.”

Months would pass, and it seemed to the boy that things were finally starting to improve. He had found somewhere he could call home, where he could always go whenever he was hungry, and best of all had made friends with not only Tuck but the rest of the diner’s staff.

This peace would not last though and Robert would soon realize that this was merely the calm before the storm.

Just like those many weeks ago, the rain was falling hard outside, making the young redhead glad that he was able to stay indoors now, tucked underneath a blanket as he sat next to the window. Even now it was almost a rare occurrence for customers to come to Tuck’s diner, sometimes causing Robert to wonder how he managed to keep it open, so when the bell above the door rang to announce that someone had come inside the stranger would get a few surprised looks.

“Hiya, Sheriff. What can I do for you? Feeling peckish?” Tuck asked the man, seeming to recognize him even without his uniform.

“No, I may be off duty right now, but I’m here on business,” the sheriff replied, taking a seat at one of the many empty tables.

Robert wasn’t sure what it was, but he had a very bad feeling about the new arrival, deciding to stay in the corner of the room and listen in and hope he wouldn’t be noticed.

“Well what is it that you need?” Tuck asked.

“I wanted to know if you or any of your employees have seen a certain thief that the county’s been trying to catch for the past couple years.”

“You mean The Hood? Can’t say I have. Only in the papers really,” the chef replied, glancing over to Robert’s direction for only a moment. “I haven’t heard anything about him in a while though. I figured we’d seen the last of him.”

“That’s what most people are saying back at the department. The popular theory is that he finally took something from someone he shouldn’t have and they’ve finally dealt with the punk. I’m not so optimistic. I think he’s in hiding, probably somewhere in the area since it’s usually around this district he was usually spotted in before. Maybe he really has called it quits, but that doesn’t excuse the list of crimes he’s committed that reach beyond my arm. We’ll find this kid eventually and I’ll be there to make sure the law is upheld,” the sheriff vowed, gritting his teeth. After calming himself down, he looked back to Tuck and asked, “Are you sure you haven’t seen anything.”

“Nope. Nada. Zip. Zero…”

“Alright, I get it. Just make sure that, if that changes, you call it in. Have a nice night,” the sheriff said, getting up from his chair and walking back out in the rain.

Once he was gone, the chef walked back to the still silent Robert who had heard the whole thing. “He knows I’m here doesn’t he? Or at least suspects so,” the boy said.

Tuck was taken by surprise by the observation, but nodded solemnly in response. “Yeah. I don’t know how, but I think he does.”

“You’re going to ask me to leave then… Aren’t you?”

“Robert-”

“It’s fine. I understand. It’s best for both of us if I don’t stay here,” the boy interrupted, dropping the blanket and finally turning around to face his friend. “Thank you for letting me stay here as long as I did. And all the nice things you’ve done for me too.”

“You’re always welcome back whenever you want.”

Robert hugged the man who’d helped him get back on his feet again, holding back tears as he told him, “I know.”

After the boy said goodbye, not only to Tuck but to the other two employees of the diner, Alan and Miller too, he would walk back out into the pouring rain and try to find a new shelter for the cold and wet night.

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