Unlikely Heroes

Chapter 35

Rufioh stayed with Horuss over the next year, he found a job at a comic book store. He really enjoyed it, especially since he could read all the comics. He always read the Captain America comics, when he finished those he read the other marvels. He never minded the questions people asked about his missing finger or limp. Everyone would always be so entertained when he told his stories. The only thing that bothered him was when there were loud noises from the costumers, but the other employee there would take care of them if they bothered Rufioh too much.

Rufioh did visit his family on occasion. He got along better with everyone, even Simon. He thought that everything had settled down finally, that is until he went to his parent's house one day. He walked in, like usual, calling into the house. "Hello?? It's Rufioh. I'm now inside the house!" He made sure not to scare anyone.

Simon poked his head out from the kitchen. "Come here for a minute Rufioh..."

"Alright..?" Rufioh walked into the kitchen and sat at the table with Simon. "What's up?"

"Well,..." Simon sighed. "The government has told me that you need to take this." He handed Rufioh some pills. "And that you'll need to give back your medals and uniform..." Simon rubbed his face.

Rufioh stared at the pill bottle. "You told didn't you?"

"What do you mean?" Simon asked.

"You told the government that I was dating another guy. You destroyed me... Do you realize what this does to you?!" Rufioh stood up, slamming his hands on the table. "You always do this! You always find the worse way to handle things with me!!" He started walking away, leaving the pills.

"Wait! Rufioh! What do you mean?" Simon got up as well.

"I mean! I mean, that ever since Tavros was born or since I was four you've been like this! You've been harsh on me, sometimes for things I don't even know! You were hard on me for wanting to be with mom! I didn't know why you were so pissed when I said her and not you! Yeah I get that you're a parent, but sometimes the shit I heard you say effected me! When I got in that car crash and saw my mom get taken away to a hospital I didn't know what to think! I thought she was dead! I still don't know what the hell happened to her! You never aloud me to know! You always took you anger out on me when I did something! You've always thought of me as a disappointment! That's all I am to you, aren't I?" Rufioh just went off at his dad, explaining to him how he felt and why. Simon had never heard this from Rufioh.

"I don't think you're a disappointment..." Simon started. "I've never thought of you like that! You have so much of your mom in you!" He reached out to Rufioh, but he was pushed away. "I didn't want you to become her! I still don't want you to. That's why I want you to do this. To fix you..."

"'Fix'? What's there to fix? I'm not a broken toy! How do you plan on fixing me? Giving me some shitty medication to make me lose my mind? Yeah! That seems like it'll fix me plenty!" Rufioh covered his face and groaned. "I saved your life twice and you repay me by making me give away things I worked for...and my mind." He walked to the table and picked the pills up. He didn't say another word to Simon, but he could tell he hurt Simon. He didn't care at the moment.

Rufioh returned his uniform to Simon, who took it to the military. Rufioh did  what he was told and took pills, sometimes blacking out for a couple of hours. Horuss was terrified every time this happened. Rufioh never explained what they were, he didn't want Horuss to worry anymore than he should. This went on for the next three years, Rufioh slowly losing his mind more and more everyday.

One day he found Damara walking, he decided to talk to her. He hadn't spoken to her in a long while. "Damara!" He yelled, catching up to her.

'What?' She responded in Japanese.

"I need to talk to you!" Rufioh walked along with her. "Do you realize what you did?"

'No, what did I do, Rufioh?' She said, not looking at him.

"Obviously you're still mad at me." Rufioh groaned. "You told my dad, who told the government about me and Horuss. Which, caused them to give me some weird ass pills that make me black out and go insane!!"

'That's you're problem!' Damara stopped, finally turning to him.

"Look, I said I was sorry! I'm still sorry! I've been sorry for five years Damara! Please! Would you at least forgive me for that?" Rufioh begged, sighing and looking down at Damara.

Before Damara could answer, a voice came down the street. "RUFIOH!!!" A boy was running at him.

"Who-?" Rufioh turned around to see Karkat. "Karkat!!" He let Karkat ram himself into him. "What are you doing here?! You're so big now, damn kid!"

"You are basically the same! I wanted to come and visit!! I brought Gamzee as well." Karkat stopped hugging Rufioh and pulled Gamzee over.

"Hey, Gamzee! Oh!" Rufioh looked over at Damara, who shrugged. She said something quietly. Rufioh took it as an acceptance for the apology. He gave her a look that meant Karkat knew something different that what had happened. "This is damara. She doesn't speak English, but she understands it just fine!"

"Your girlfriend, right?" Karkat asked, which wasn't true anymore.

"Yep! The one and only." Rufioh lied, knowing that Karkat would ask more questions than he wanted to answer.  "How long are you in New York anyway?"

"...eh, a few weeks. We are staying in hotel near by!" Karkat pointed away.

"Why don't I show you around while you're here? I'll show you all the things I talked about back in the war. Also, there are more captain America comics out." Rufioh smiled at Karkat, who was smiling back. Damara said something to Rufioh, who shook his head. "He was eight when I met him. I basically took care of him till the war ended. He was a good kid... Still is." He started a random conversation with her. She hadn't asked about Karkat at all, but Rufioh didn't want to answer her in front of Karkat and Gamzee. She took the answer as him trying to explain 'I can't talk right now, but yes I know I just lied.'