Roger will go by She/Her and He/Him pronouns in this fic. Also Junk Lord and Roger's ship name is Missing cat. Red Poncho Roger Au teehee

Junk Lord sat safely in the junk pile, no one to bother, no one to mess with his cats. Better yet, no one even stepped foot in here, he smiled to himself in pleasure and rested his head down.

Until he heard some rustling in the bushes near the junk pile, Junk Lord viewed this as a threat near and rises his upper body upwards grabbing onto one of the cats for protection.

The rustling didn't stop and Junk Lord got closer and closer the more the rustling became obvious the more the cat was ready to attack. Until the figure revealed herself with the red hood down and sickly pale skin looking blue in the moonlight. Junk Lord's aggressive expression faded and he put the cat down, blinking at Roger. "Tom! Hi hi hiya!"Roger happily went forward towards Junk Lord to wrap his arms around him in a hug.

Junk Lord's face lit up, almost forgetting he told Roger it was fine to call him by his real name. He had done this 10 times already so why did Tom feel a thumping in his heart whenever it happened?

Junk Lord smiled, "Roger, your parents got you a poncho? Alright! There's been a lot of June gloom so at least you got something to keep you dry...". Roger looked off to the side dull in the face, seeming uncomfortable at the 'statement'. At first Junk Lord didn't pick up on her discomfort, but once Roger put his hood back on he figured something was up yet stayed quiet. "I gotta go now...Nighty night"Roger said making his way away from the Junk Pile and to the bridge.

Tom watched Roger walk away, he assumed Roger was off to just be home. Huh, lucky him.

There was something that confused Junk Lord, Roger would mention his mom and dad every now and then when their friendship was raw and ripe. Roger would say how his mother barely cleaned her glasses and her perfectionist  nature not letting a single grey hair go uncovered with blonde hair dye and how his dad would buy his mother the shiniest of pearls and dresses made out of silk. Hearing that would sometimes make Junk Lord jealous, something about how his dad just being there, loving his mother and how Roger would mention the places her dad took him when he was little, really little.

Something about that would make Junk Lord envious, almost mad.

He was looking at the kid who had what he could never have, no matter how many boyfriends his mom brought home to their apartments and eventual houses, he didn't know if she actually liked them or just wanted to fill the void of a father in Junk Lord's life. But none of the men were men he would consider someone he could look up to, he thought to follow the footsteps of his mother but she worked two jobs just so he'd be able to go to school, eat three meals a day and things she knew he needed. So she couldn't be much of a roll model if she basically lived at work so Junk Lord tried walking in the steps of her boyfriends, but they were the same, trying to help the single mother just as much as she tried helping herself and Tom. He never remembered much about them, expect they were just older friends to him who shared some interests with him. He remembered one he liked a lot. He was one of her boyfriends she met at work, a nice guy. Loved children but couldn't have his own and everything she loved in a man.

He remembered the most about him out of the other boyfriends and the one to last the longest, Junk Lord remembered he'd play with him when his mom was at work, color with him, listen to him talk for hours no matter how stupid the topic was and even showed up to his dumb elementry school plays it was really dumb to him but seeing how he cared to show up made him happy. But that couldn't last forever, this boyfriend wasn't doing well mentally according to his mother and apparently his lips couldn't stay on hers. He could remember the silent tears of anger that ran down his face, things were going good why did it need to just be taken from him? Did the world decide it just didn't want him to be happy?

The next day

The stones Junk Lord walked over pressed into the bottom of his duct taped covered feet, clinching the long black planner, the stickers he was thankful weren't peeling off no matter how much he may have wanted the non binary one...And the Boy Girl sticker looked cool and the red '2023' on the center looked cool.

(Omg fun fact about the planner, the planner is a reference to my online friend's planner book. He showed it to me and I loved it, this is the same friend who made those bracelets that were referenced in my Dark Craigson Au)

He saw one of the cats were clawing at it when he was on his way to the Junk pile and figured someone dropped it.  Craig had told him about a lost and found he found a cube at so he recalled the directions to himself as he walked.

The walk was rather long and one of the cats wasn't keeping still in his trash bag pant leg, when he entered he saw two lines. One for 'Losers' and one for 'Finders'. But Junk Lord was too distracted to notice at first cause the atmosphere interested him, the large place was a sight Junk Lord wanted to see.

Junk Lord took his steps towards the front counter where the tan skinned Muslim girl stood behind it, a stuffed fish toy with sewing marks almost all over the place remained next to her.

Junk Lord made his way to the line for Finder and basically bombed the planner on the counter, he felt it up in the air and just plopped it down on the counter. The girl lightly groaned at the unawareness of Junk Lord but took the planner and examined it, "Ah, I see you found this planner book...May you recall where you found it. Please be very specific"Salma spoke after looking at the planner, avoiding opening it up. "Oh yeah, I can do that...Well, a few minutes ago I was walking to the Junk pile then on my way there I saw one of the cats clawing at it, and Uh...Oh yeah, then I came here"Junk Lord.

Salma sighed and filled out the clipboard sheet in front of her, she didn't say much and slipped it in the vacuum tube. Or at least tried to due to said planner's width, Junk Lord was too disinterested to see how or if she's get it through.

He let the cat run out his trash pant leg and let the cat climb up him for him to carry it.

Junk Lord got back to what he was doing earlier, he even noticed a banned poster and he even noticed Richard on it. He was spinning his head around so much to look at everything he almost bumped into the items separating the the sections into lines, but he later felt thankful when his eyes met the billboard of posters. He almost dropped the cat when he saw Roger's face on one of the them, with the capitalized red words spelling out 'MISSING'.

Surprising enough, Roger never tried hiding that often. He spent his days under that bridge jumping out from it whenever a kid passed through it, seeming sociable enough walking through the creek freely whenever she wanted and talked to every kid that caught her attention. Junk Lord would say it was out of reflex but as fast as he could snatched Roger's kidding poster in his fist and sprinted out the Lost and Found ignoring Salma calling after him about ripping the poster off the billboard like that.

Junk Lord looked at the soon setting sun, he had to hurry to the bridge.

Junk Lord felt himself sprint to the bridge, his pace getting faster by the second. He had to get there before the dinner horn went off. How did he not see this sooner? He had never been to Roger's house and the one time he mentioned a sign of his parents paying attention to him was that dentist appointment she mentioned to him.

Soon, Junk Lord was at the bridge.

But Roger was just getting to the bridge just like Junk Lord, he was wearing that red poncho and white pants carrying those bow and arrows. Junk Lord held the poster in front of Roger's face "Tell me", the question was straight forward and sharp he wasn't fucking around knowing she was hurt.

Roger was taken aback by the poster, he hadn't seen his face on one in ages, the last time he did so he was ripping his missing posters from the neighborhood and from a few trees at the creek. That's why none of the creek kids have told their parents about her "Ah, um..."She couldn't form a single sentence.

Junk Lord saw Roger's struggle and sighed, he walked towards her and grabbed onto her hand so he could form a kind of security around him, protection she knew she couldn't get anywhere else. Roger picked up on it.

"I...I couldn't stand being there...My parents, they...They used to know I'm there but they wait so long to just do something, I tried to tell them my teethies hurt...They just thought I wasn't brushing properly it took them so long before they made a dentist appointment, that's when I knew I couldn't stay...".

Junk Lord blinked his eyes, for once in a bit, he felt like shit.

Oh. Oh no, what was he thinking? He was jealous of someone with a household no better than his.

"So Roger, you're homeless?" Roger nodded. Now Tom was really stuck, the house he lives at is only a two bedroom house and it was obvious she didn't want to have another person to care for let alone in her house. Then again she's hardly ever home and starts her first job 7-4 then begins her second job 8-2am so she only got 4 hours to herself depending on how long dinner takes. Wait, maybe there was a way to give Roger a place to stay, even if it wasn't for long.

"Oh, so is that why you started wearing that red poncho? So you can hide from anyone who might recognize you?"Junk Lord went in for another question "Uhhh...No, actually. You see, Craig and his friends have been looking for this thing called the Heart Of The Forest...."Roger reached into his white pant pocket to take out two cubes that were clearly stolen "Xavier...He, he caught me trying to take down a wanted poster of me and said he won't tell anyone where I am as long as I sabotage Craig and his friends journey to find The Heart Of The Forest...".

Junk Lord looked shocked, Xavier was a name he even thought he'd hear again but now that Roger is envolved he was furious. "*Sighs* Roger, it's okay, it's okay...Just...Try to stay hidden I'll try to fix this..."Junk Lord sighed pushing his hair back a lot, seeing how upset he was there should have been a white hair growing. But he knew he was gonna find a way to keep Roger safe.

The next day

6:58...6:59...Finally, 7am. Xavier's mother's heeled shoes trailed out the door and into her car and driving to work. Xavier's father left 10 minutes ago so Xavier and his sister were getting ready to just do what they wanted for the rest of day since it was Summer, Kenneth was supposed to be home from college soon so that made it better for Junk Lord.

Cheyenne wasn't paying attention to anything around her and Xavier was gonna take a moment to "Touch grass" in the backyard, at least that's what Cheyenne kept telling him. The little bastard had his iPad with him. Junk Lord tip toed to hide in the bushes, he wanted him be on his iPad, Junk Lord went in for a closer look once Xavier changed in position and realized his iPad screen to him and it was a picture of Roger walking into the creek trying to take down as many Missing posters of himself as he could but Xavier snapped a picture of it and used it as blackmail.

This unleashed a rage in Junk Lord again but kept his cool as he felt two of his cats crawl around in his trash bag pant legs. The two cats slowly got out his pant leg and sat before me, Junk Lord sat up smiling at the four vicious cats "Okay babies, just like how I taught you...Get the iPad kid"Junk Lord rephrased for the cats slowly making an exit in the bush for the four cats and they all charged at Xavier scratching and biting him.

Junk Lord exhaled waiting for a good moment to reveal himself as Xavier screamed, he struggled against the cats and Xavier gently tossed the iPad to the side to avoid the cats damaging it, that's when Junk Lord quickly strikes.

He flung himself out the bush and grabbed roughly onto Xavier's iPad, despite how much he trusted his cats to keep Xavier busy he knew he had to be quit. "Do it...For...Her..."Junk Lord repeated the phrase to himself until the blackmail was gone.

Junk Lord inhaled and exhaled and raised himself up and walked towards Xavier, the cats had just finished up with him as he sat there heavily panting covered in scratches. "What is wrong with you and your stupid cats?!"Xavier shouted crawling towards his iPad to hold it tightly to his chest "What's wrong with YOU?! These cats attacked you cause you've been blackmailing Roger and making him do your dirty work while you sit on your ass at home! You deserved it"Junk Lord yelled in his face not letting a single thought go unsaid.

He never even bothered to hold his rage, he knew Roger didn't like it but she didn't have to know "Now, I saw how you screamed when my cats rightfully scratched you up, I know what you've been doing to Roger and your blackmail won't work anymore. If you don't want to see me or my cats again you'd leave Roger alone". Xavier scoffed turning his head, he was still angry from the sudden cat attack to Junk Lord's irritation "How bout you help feed my furry-" "Ugh! Fine, get your damn beasts away from me!" "You know what'll happen if you keep doing anything to him"Junk Lord mumbled as one of the cats were getting ready to pounce on Xavier once again.

Surprisingly, the two came to an agreement and Junk Lord and his cats left Xavier to figure out how he was gonna explain the scratches, and Xavier left Junk Lord to figure out how to protect Roger.