The Road All Runners Come

Part 1/3

Notes: I get into some fairly serious homophobia here. It's mostly in retrospect, rather than happening to the characters in the story's "present" but I mention some triggery things that happen to young LGBTQ folks. (More triggery than Fighter's dad, if you've read the previous stories in this crossover series.) Please don't read this if you think that might upset you. ::hugs::

Big thanks to Tiarra, Dawn, Rachel, Amanda, and Pauline, who contributed several useful plot ideas to keep this fic from languishing in my WIP folder until the end of time.

Win was a little ashamed that his first thought was that a dog had been rummaging through the café's garbage. Obviously, he couldn't have known, but still.

When he came outside and found a man, well, a boy really, going through the garbage, it took some time for his brain to recognize what he was seeing. The boy must have heard him, because his head shot up and he took off running out of the alley.

Win stood still for long enough that Trey leaned out the back door. "Hey, you coming back?" she asked, looking at him oddly.

"I...yeah. Sorry." He shook his head and followed the line cook back inside.

Fortunately, his job waiting tables didn't require a whole lot of his attention, because he couldn't stop thinking about the boy he'd seen. He looked like he would be adorable if he got cleaned up and got a few good meals in him, but the look on his face...someone had hurt him. Someone had frightened him and Win inexplicably felt the need to find whoever it was and hurt them.

Mopping the floors after closing that night, he wondered who the boy was. Was he homeless? You didn't see a lot of homeless people in a town like this, he thought. Didn't they generally prefer the big cities where there were more places to go for help?

His mopping slowed as he realized how lucky he'd been to not have that as his fate. How lucky he was that he'd left home with some resources and found a new place here so quickly.

"Win, you okay?"

Win looked up at Zon, who was looking concerned. "I...there was a kid going through the trash tonight." He wasn't entirely sure why he said it but it seemed right.

Eyes wide, Zon gaped at him for a second. "Was he okay? Where did he go?"

"I think he was looking for food but he ran off." Win dumped the mop into the bucket and sank down on the nearest chair. "I've never seen him before."

Zon shook his head. "Thank you for telling me. I'll ask around and see if anyone knows anything. We can give him some food, at least."

Win felt tears prick the back of his eyes. "That'd be good."

"Go on up and get some sleep," Zon said, waving at the bucket. "You're basically done and I'm heading home in a minute."

"Thanks." Win stood. "Thanks for everything."

Zon nodded, grabbing the bucket to dump it out in the kitchen. "See you tomorrow." He scurried away, uncomfortable as always with being thanked for things.

It took a moment before Win could stand but he finally walked around the back of the building and climbed the flight of steps to the small apartment. He knew that Zol and Zon weren't charging him anywhere near the rent they could, which they insisted was because he was also acting as a night watchman.

Yeah, it was a bullshit excuse but he wasn't going to argue with having a roof over his head, good bosses, and a job. Slumping on his couch, he kept thinking about the boy.

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Team was hungry. Well, that wasn't new, since he was always hungry, even...before. But now he was really hungry. And scared. And lonely.