A/N: "But AmRo, why are you jumping headfirst into a new fandom when you have so many other unfinished fanfics to work on? Some of which you haven't touched in a year?"

Because my friend has introduced me to this show, I watched it all in two days, and this is what my soul needs right now.


Of the many gifts that Enid had received from Rad over the years – many as jokes and some not – this had to be one of the strangest.

Well, the gift itself was not weird; a thick, plush, well-made purple turtleneck sweater, dotted surprisingly tastefully with shuriken and snowflakes made of kunai, and perfectly her size. This thing could have been knitted directly onto her body and it wouldn't have fit any better. K.O. got one too, blue and white with the professional symbols of his current ten favorite heroes of the month. The kid was currently squealing and rolling in it, while trying to contort himself around to see every one (never mind that he had gone over each when he had seen them, happily stumbling over his words as his brain moved faster than his mouth could keep up; it was adorable). Quite frankly, these sweaters were glorious.

What was strange was how Rad said he came to obtain the sweaters. Enid would have believed that he knit them himself. Laughed long and hard at the mental image, but she would have believed it, one hundred percent. Of course, she would never get an admission like that from Rad; he was as free-flowing with his feelings as a toilet stuffed with socks. As such, instead of what Enid believed to be the hilarious but honest truth, they got this tripe.

Namely, that the sweaters were knit by his grandmother.

That lived on another planet.

And had never met them before.

And never mind not knowing what a damned kunai was, most certainly couldn't reproduce insignias from Earth heroes from memory.

Because in this lie-hole Rad had committed himself to digging, it wasn't like he had asked her to make them for his friends (because that sounded sensitive enough to bruise his macho ego that had all the defenses of a ripe peach), but because she had made them for him, and he just decided to give them to his friends.

If K.O. hadn't been immediately adjacent to her, Enid would have flipped Rad the finger.

K.O., pure, precious cinnamon roll that he was, believed it hook, line, and sinker. While Enid did occasionally feel the slightest bit of guilt for routinely putting cracks in the sibling-like hero-worship the kid felt for Rad, she felt it was her duty as someone with a good grasp of common sense to not allow her youngest friend to be led astray. K.O. was a smart kid, and would eventually start asking questions on his own, but she felt it would be better for everybody if she hurried it along.

For her own sanity is nothing else.

Also, big as Rad was, it was totes fun to make him squirm.

"So, not that I don't appreciate the gift and all—really, it is so comfortable I may sleep in it tonight—about this 'grandmother' that knit these…"

Rad hooked his thumbs through the belt loops in his pants, leaning heavily against the end of her counter. If he had any inkling of where she was going with this, he didn't show it. Granted, it took more effort than that to unseat him from a story he was attached to.

"Yeah, she's pretty amazing. Almost as amazing as I am. And since she spoiled me with so many sweaters, I decided to be a great friend, and give them to you guys. They seemed to fit you both better anyways."

Except that Enid had seen that cat-faced crop top sweater he was wearing before, months prior to today.

K.O. was seated on the floor, still happily rubbing his face into the collar of his sweater. It was precious.

"You're not kidding. It's so comfortable! Like it was made for me!" He popped up off the floor to throw his arms around Rad's waist. "When you call her, or write, or… whatever you do to get messages between planets, please tell her thank you for me!"

"Isn't that so convenient that you just happened to be gifted sweaters that fit K.O. and I so well, Rad." Oh yeah, he knew what was up, given how he scowled at her. She shot him a sharp, cheeky grin, and continued on regardless. "Never mind that apparently aliens knit with some kind of wool polymer and not whatever microweave space textile is all over the inside of your house."

"Well, you heard him, Enid. He just felt these were better fitted to us. Gotta say, I love mine!"

She snorted, crossing her arms and leaning over the counter, canting her head in Rad's general direction.

"Me too, kiddo, but really? I want you to take a good look at that sweater, and then take a good look at Rad, and tell me what part of him that sweater was possibly made to fit." And she shot aforementioned alien a glare in response to the smarmy grin sliding slowly across his face. "Rad, I want you to swallow that horribly inappropriate mistake I can see forming in your mouth."

"Hey now, I wasn't actually going to say it. K.O. is right here." He held up his hands in some halfhearted effort to placate her. It meant nothing next to that smirk that simply continued to grow. "But you know I was thinkin' it." And Enid was sure that if she had been anybody else, he would have followed that up with a click of his tongue and a pair of finger guns.

K.O. regarded his sweater closely, fingers fondly tracing each symbol on the front. He looked several times from Rad to the garment, as if trying to visualize his larger friend wearing it.

"Hm, you're right." He plopped himself back on the floor, as if getting off his feet helped him think. He leaned back, cocked his head, and regarded her. "But then, why would Rad's grandmother make him sweaters that don't fit him?"

"Why do you think, K.O.?" And she put about as much sarcasm into those words as she was able. K.O. had learned more about Rad during the course of one day than Rad let most people know about him after years. Surely he was connecting the dots by now. Highly likely, given how Rad was growling unhappily somewhere off her shoulder.

K.O., however, was too good for this world, and never thought his friends would deliberately deceive him. Too good, and not yet worldly enough. Instead, he rocketed back to his feet, bouncing on his toes excitedly.

"Because he told his grandmother aaaaaaall about us, and begged her to make us some sweaters, too!"

If that wasn't adorable enough, watching Rad choke hard on his snarl certainly was. If Rad could bathe in attention then he would, but the bright, unsullied admiration that K.O. had for the two of them shocked even him on a regular basis. Rad snorted and crossed his arms over his chest, turning his head to hide his flush. He was committed to his lie, but even he wasn't coarse enough to completely rain on K.O's parade.

"Yeah sure, if that's what you wanna think…" And while he didn't budge when K.O. threw his arms around his waist again for another hug, he also didn't do anything to discourage it. Which was as good as an invitation for K.O.

"Aw, thank you Rad! You're such a good friend, even when you try to be tough about it."

He flushed harder, and Enid could only grin as she watched him pout around his tusks.

"I don't 'try' to be tough about anything."

"And he certainly doesn't pretend to be tough about the bags of unused yarn in the back of his van." She snickered when Rad glared at her, lip curling.

K.O. tugged at the car keys on his belt loop to get his attention.

"Why do you have yarn in your van, Rad?"

"I don't."

"Are you doing a project with it?"

"No, because I don't have any yarn."

Enid leaned over the countertop to give the kid the loudest stage whisper she could muster.

"It's there, K.O. I saw it this morning." Rad reached over to give her a shove to her shoulder, which just set her to laughing.

K.O. was back to bouncing on the balls of his feet, glancing excitedly between the two of them.

"Can I go check?"

Rad grunted, putting a protective hand over his keys.

"Of course not. Van is locked, little man."

"I'll just peek through the windows!" And he darted out of the store. For such a little guy with short legs and bare feet, he moved remarkably swiftly when motivated.

Rad leaned off the counter just enough to yell after him as he left.

"Well whatever! It's not my yarn, okay? Clearly, somebody misplaced theirs…"

"Hey K.O.! When you get back, be sure to ask Rad how someone else's yarn got into the back of his locked van!"

And the little cinnamon roll turned to smile at her, waving as he went.

"I will!"

And he was off.

The instant the doors to the bodega closed, Enid gave Rad a solid punch to the shoulder, laughing.

"Your grandmother? How deep in your ass did you have to reach for that one?"

Rad tightened his arms over his chest, and decidedly did not look at her.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Enid gave him another friendly backhand to the shoulder. If he weren't such a big brute who fought robots with her on a regular basis and had suffered far worse injuries that some wrassling from a friend, she'd be slightly worried that she was gonna put some bruises on him.

"The hell you don't. You only go back to visit your fam in space every couple years, and it's been at least that long since your last trip. So I'm calling bull on your crap. We both know where those sweaters really came from." She nuzzled into the collar of her turtleneck. "Good job, by the way. This took skill."

Rad threw his hands up in exasperation before letting them fall back to his sides with a loud groan.

"Ugh, just 'cause you don't believe me—"

"You can come off it now, Rad, K.O. is nowhere within earshot. Besides, I really don't think it would lessen his opinion of you in the slightest. Unfortunately."

He growled, crossed his arms back over his chest, and turned on his heel to "flee" to his stockroom for solace. Big softie. His pride wouldn't let him leave without a parting remark of some kind. Even if it was weak.

"Whatever." And with that, the wild Radicles attempted to make a hissing retreat to his lair.

Oh, no no. Like she was gonna let him escape from this. She managed to reach over the counter and grab his elbow in both hands. She got a vicious sounding snarl in response, but he stopped walking instead of trying to drag her from the counter. She gave an insistent tug, and he let her guide him back towards the register. She gave him a gentle pat to the arm for good behavior, which got her nothing but an angry grunt.

"Don't be so salty. Look." K.O. was standing out into the middle of the parking lot, grinning and waving his arms while Brandon and RMS amused him by at least pretending to listen closely. Every so often, K.O. would hold the hem of his sweater out to show it off, which made very clear what he was speaking excitedly about. Enid felt Rad relax a touch under her hands. "He hasn't even made it to the van yet, and he left here at a full clip. He just has to stop and talk to everyone he sees about his awesome new sweater his best friend gave him. You just made his day. Literally. How long did these take? A couple months, at least? Especially if you take breaks to beef or whatever."

And just like that, she felt him tense up again, and try to move away from her. She kept one hand on his elbow and managed to hook her other arm around his neck in an only halfway-awkward, semi-rough side-hug. So basically, like most of their hugs. He didn't like it, but didn't struggle as much as she thought he would. He was only one curled lip from baring his teeth at her, though.

"Aw, c'mon you buff baby. Cheer up, we like them." Enid put her chin down on his shoulder, and it had the intended effect; namely, he got less rigid, and slowly softened back to some semblance of his less guarded normal. Outside, K.O. had finally allowed Brandon and RMS to escape, only to go bombard Sparko with what was likely the saga of his new sweater. Eventually, Rad let out a deep breath, and relaxed slightly into the side hug. Tactile goober couldn't resist. He bumped her shoulder with his, and snorted.

"Tsk, I know. I give the best gifts."

Even mumbled halfway under his breath, the swagger was a good sign that his ruffled spirits were back on the rise. He got awful sensitive about his pastimes, especially those that didn't contribute to the defensive armor that formed the image he liked to project. There were several people around the plaza that had found individual holes in the wall, but only she and K.O. (and presumably Rad's own parents) knew the extent of it. And he did not like it. Enid was slowly learning moderation in poking the tender spots, especially when he was feeling particularly recalcitrant.

"There's our favorite meathead, back in form." She released him with a rough pat to the back. "But keep telling yourself that."


A/N:

Radicles might be my spirit animal. XD

It should be noted, this collection will be simultaneously ignoring and acknowledging that these people are lycanthropes in people-suits. It will be clearly obvious in each chapter which I am going with. I'm kinda unsubtle. XD

I'm still searching for typos. I know they're here.