DWN-009

"…"

His mouth hung open as he looked on in silence, finally moving after the short delay. He knelt down next to Quick, attempting to lift him up— despite how difficult that was to do with drills.

“Quick?!" Crash asked, looking at his closest brother in concern. By that point he realized that Quick was offline, and his processor frantically attempted to find a reason why Quick was offline in the first place.

"Metal, help me pick him up, damnit!" He snapped, turning to Metalman. Who the hell could have sent Quick offline—?!

"………"

Crashman paused.

With the help of Quick’s distrust of a certain ‘bot (and Crash following Quick in that belief, partially because he listened to Quick but also for his own personal reasons), Crash came to a conclusion. The wrong one, but he didn’t know that.

He's now wondering why this hadn't been brought to attention sooner, if Quick was allegedly under punishment, but he'll figure that out later. He's more concerned with trying to pinpoint a reason their brother was stone cold on the ground rather than running around taunting him or over-babying Crash like the annoying little brat he could be.

"Metal, help me pick him up, damnit!"

"Ah-- My apologies." He obliges, kneeling down to scoop up Quick and heft him over his shoulder. He's about to tell Crash not to worry, that he'll bring Quick to Flash right away and this would all be over soon... But Crash's next conclusion causes his eyes to narrow and glint dangerously, voice a low growl.

Quick and Crash might dislike Shadow Man, but Metal has grown very fond of him.

"Not really," he admits slowly. "Usually if you win you end up with suspension or threats of juvie." He’s not going to admit whether that’s from personal experience or not, though. Some things he never intends to go into detail on. 

"Suppose I should just stick with my current plan then," he murmurs, more thinking out loud than talking to his brother any more. "Or get a girlfriend just to shut people up." He shook his head and all but faceplanted onto the surface of the table in front of him.

The mention of juvie raises a few alarms, though Alto says nothing. He'd heard vaguely that Blake had been raised in foster homes and had a bit of a spotty history, but he didn't know much more than that and didn't plan on pressing it unless Blake told him himself. Some things were meant to remain in the past.

"You could get in much worse trouble if they find out you've been crawling around in the vents, though." Alto warns, though Blake's next train of thought throws him off entirely.

He shrugs slowly, then shakes his head. "Not really. And…" He pauses and sighs. "I can fight if I have to? I could take them out, I just didn’t want to…" He trails off with a wince. "don’t want to bring trouble to you all, though."

It's as simple as that. Alto stretches, yawning quietly and sneaking a glance back up at the counter. It's quiet up there, at least. Sometimes he'd have to head back around now and restore order if things got busy, but thankfully today seems to be a slow day.

Returning his focus to Blake, Alto listens intently to his brother's plight. Reaching out across the counter, he pats Blake's shoulder sympathetically.

"Trust me when I say fighting doesn't fix the problem, Blake. Never fixed it for me, anyways." Something in green eyes softens with affection at the desire not to cause trouble. What a good kid... "N' changing yourself because of stuff going on at school honestly isn't worth it, either. Again, see Exhibit A."

He thinks over Alto’s question, momentarily oblivious to the changing expressions on his brother’s face - mostly because he’s lost inside of his own thoughts as he considers how to answer him.

The redhead lets out a noncommittal noise as acknowledgement of his brother's words, now wondering how exactly he would bring this up to Soprano later. After all, the way he dealt with bullies as a kid was to retreat into himself and just let them have their fun until they got bored. Then in high school he'd... Well... Made himself nigh unapproachable. Alto's not sure he ought to recommend either of those actions to the poor kid.

"...You didn't answer my question, though," Alto says in response, "As nice as it was to indirectly get more information about the situation from you, the question still stands: Do you want a haircut?"

It would appear that Crash picked up the signal as well, for his eyes grew wider and he actually let go of Metal’s arm altogether. “Nah, I can feel it too!”

Eventually, Crash and Metal would stumble across a certain speedster face down in the dirt; He'd been there so long he's cold to the touch, and it seemed he'd been collecting dust...

Blake hadn’t thought that his weak attempt at a distraction would work, but he’d hoped it would nonetheless. He doesn’t really want to talk about it, not when he’s still unsure of just how welcome he is among his adoptive brothers; not when he’s still unsure of whether they’l reject him or not. But discomfort or not, he’s been well and truly caught, and he’s going to have to say something if the way Alto’s looking at him means anything.

"…"

How’s he supposed to say it? That during his day there he was asked out by an attractive guy - and while he hadn’t said yes, he hadn’t exactly turned him down either, and when it clicked that he was a.) not a girl b.) apparently receptive to another male’s advances (he wasn’t! he… doesn’t think he’s interested in dating… anyone right now, actually… life is too different to want to date…), any possibility he had of being accepted into a decent social circle was shot.

… and then hit over the head with a shovel and buried in an unmarked grave.

"That school doesn’t clean their ventilation system very well," he says instead, well aware that it’s not what Alto’s looking for as an answer. Too bad that cryptic sentence is all he’s sure he can get out on the subject. 

Well, and one more thing.

That silence is a bit unnerving; Had things really gotten so bad at school? The elder of the two steels himself, mentally preparing for whatever it was that Blake had to throw at him. Alto has to wonder... Was this how Soprano felt when one of their family members approached him with a problem? Nervous? 

He's prepared to commit an entire sob story to memory -- to talk to Soprano about later, in fact, so that their older brother could perhaps provide some insight on how to fix things -- when Blake finally speaks once more. The first sentence throws Alto for a loop.

"...The ventilation systems? Blake, how do you know the vents aren't--"

He's cut off by his little brother's next words, and finally the first set begins to click into place: 

"…Do you think I should get a haircut?"

...Was Blake being bullied, or something...? That would certainly explain the, uh... mention about the vents. Alto's stern expression softens; He can't possibly keep that face now that he knows what might be up.

"They've been fine," the boy returns evenly, not taking his eyes off his adopted brother, "Boring, but fine. What's bothering you, Blake?"

Was that a hint of protest in Metal's tone? Alas, even the serious and work oriented Metal wasn't immune to his youngest brother's dangerously high cuteness levels. The taller of the two sighs, relenting at last.

Heat brought up a good point.