Chapter Text
It’s been ten years since Gypsy Danger closed the breach.
Humanity and the planet knew three years of peace.
People began to return to the Pacific Rim, plants and animals reclaimed their habitats.
Life prevailed.
But the human population had been devastated. Nearly one billion lives had been lost.
Many argued that the danger was past and resources should go to rebuilding.
But others knew better than to shut down the Jaeger program.
July 10, 2028: Seisomographs detected disruptions in over 20 locations across the ocean floor. New breaches. Smaller, but more concerning than the breach at Challenger Deep as hundreds of small Kaiju lifeforms, larvae, spilled out into the waters in a matter of hours.
The Kaiju were hunted but most vanished into the depths, adapting, and growing.
New Jaegers were commissioned, preparing for another invasion.
The top secret HALA research base was established outside the Kuril Islands, near the largest breach in the Pacific. HALA scientists and agents were tasked with studying the Kaiju, discerning their new invasion strategy, and discovering their weaknesses.
For another two years the seas were quiet.
No direct attacks on human settlements took place. Scouts witnessed strange behaviors and hunters were able to capture larger specimens for study.
April 3, 2030: Category 1 and 2 Kaiju started appearing again and the Jaegers were back to full power, defending coastlines, islands, and shipping lanes. They were more efficient Kaiju killers than ever before.
But the Jaeger program’s best kept secrets had been tucked away in the frigid north pacific, sheltering beneath the waves with the Kaiju.
15:32 KOST
February 28th, 2035
HALA Hangar and Research Base
Pacific Ocean
The wind whipped his hair and the ocean mist viciously clawed at his cheeks as Seonghwa ducked under the helicopter’s blades. It was nasty weather today on the seadeck but he suspected that was often the case in these waters.
The HALA compound was located in the north pacific, just east of the Kuril Islands and the Sea of Okhotsk. Notoriously cold and notoriously stormy with nothing but churning waves as far as the eye could see.
Seonghwa wasn’t sure what he had done in a past life, or this one for that matter, for him to end up in such a desolate, empty place. But this hunk of concrete and metal may be his last chance at assuring years of blood, sweat, and tears didn’t go to waste.
The man crazy enough to give him a shot stood straight and unbowed by the tempestuous winds.
“Welcome Ranger Park,” Marshal Kim Yonghwan gave a curt nod but kept his hands clasped behind his back. Seonghwa returned the greeting with a deep bow, trying his best to hide his discomfort with the title. He rose from his bow to see the Marshal had already turned away from him and was walking towards the giant elevator that would take them below.
As the door slid closed, the air stilled. The world was finally quiet again after hours and hours of helicopter noise, wind, and rain.
He took a deep breath, letting the buzzing in his head subside and the solid floor beneath his feet ground him. Even if it was an elevator.
“Thank you Marshal Kim, for this opportunity. I promise I will try my hardest.” Seonghwa said with another bow, holding it.
“Eden.” He corrected. “We may technically be a military installation, but unless you see some mainland brass walking through here for inspections, you aren’t going to be subjected to a bunch of bureaucratic bullshit. We run a tight crew. There’s less than 200 people in this whole compound. Everyone knows their jobs and do what they need to do. It’s harsh, lonely, and deadly. We don’t need decorum to put even more distance between us. You can call me Eden.”
It was a unexpected declaration but Seonghwa was frankly relieved. After a year of nothing but bureaucracy, spinning his wheels, and being ignored on the sidelines, he was at the end of his rope with military rigidity. The threads of his sanity thoroughly frayed.
The elevator was still descending. Slow but steady. Designed to move massive equipment, it could handle literal tons but that meant it grated along at a snail's pace. Seonghwa wondered just how deep they would end up. He tried not to think of the crushing weight of the water pressing in on the walls.
“You read the mission brief?”
“Um, yes si…yes.” dropping the ‘sir’ was weird. “It was pretty vague though. It’s a pilot contract but it didn’t specify the Jaeger, the number of other candidates, or how long the trial process is expected to take.”
“That is because the Jaeger is top secret and currently non-operational. And there are no other candidates. No trials. Just you. This is a secret base in international waters, kid. We are out here to break rules and avoid regulation. That brief was necessary to get you here but what actually follows? Well, that’s up to you. The fact that you chose to sign it tells me you have nowhere else to be anyway. And that you might just be crazy enough to survive here.”
The truth of that stung but Seonghwa couldn’t help but fixate on the ‘no other candidates’ portion of that entire shitstorm he’d just revealed.
“But…what if we aren’t compatible?”
“No one is compatible with Kim Hongjoong. That’s why I brought you here. You don’t need your co-pilot to be compatible right?”
Seonghwa gulped and nodded, fidgeting with the leather gloves chafing uncomfortably on his clammy hands.
“Good. Maybe you can break through his thick, titanium, stubborn, stupid, brilliant, fucking skull. Cause I’m about ready to put a hammer through it.”
The doors rumbled open to a massive hallway. At the end was the hanger. It was easily a hundred yards away but Seonghwa could see the dull glint of metal, and the sparks of welders and plasma cutters dancing dozens of feet in the air. The smell of smoke, oil, and coolant filled his lungs like an old friend. It had been too long since he’d been in a proper hanger.
He was forced to look away when a new face entered his field of vision, a kind smile on soft round features.
“This is Maddox. Better get friendly, cause you’ll be seeing him alot. He takes care of the Rangers. Health, psych, fitness, accommodation, even training. He’ll make sure you have everything you need and keep you ticking. If you have any issues, go to him.”
Seonghwa was amazed the young officer wore so many hats, but Eden had said it was a small crew. And with a facility this large, many of them would be dedicated solely to keeping the place running.
“Good to meet you Ranger Park. Should I show you to your bunk and get you oriented? It can be a little confusing down here.” Maddox held out his hand to shake.
“No, you can do that later. I need to talk to Hongjoong. Where is he?” Eden said, already sounding short of patience just at the thought of his new copilot.
Seongwha was feeling worse and worse about this by the second.
Maddox sighed. “Where is he ever? He’s in his office.” Maddox says with air quotes. “Are you sure you want to bother him right now? Maybe he’ll come down for dinner today.”
“Yeah right.” Eden growls and he’s off down the hallway to the hanger, not waiting for the other men to catch up. They followed a few steps behind. Maddox pointed out different rooms and amenities as they passed by but Seonghwa had a hard time paying attention as they approached the hanger.
“The cafeteria is here but most crew and officers bunk on the 2nd level. Only the rangers have bunks down here. I know how you like to stay close to your Jaegers. The requisition office is on 3 so you’ll need to go up if you need any clothes or personal supplies or whatever. If there’s any specific snacks, hygiene products or anything you want let me know and I can put it in the next order. It will take about a month for it to arrive but it’ll get here eventually.”
Seonghwa felt bad that he probably wouldn’t remember any of what the nice officer had just said as they took the final step across the threshold of the hanger. Three Jaeger’s stood tall in all their glory.
On the right was a sleek, black Jaeger. The smallest of them by a fair bit but she looked no less deadly. Her armor gleamed, oddly reflective, almost wavering like a mirage above asphalt in blistering heat. While it stood upright it almost looked more catlike than the humanoid shape of most Jaegers. It definitely had a tail.
Beside it was an even more curious sight. Hanging off the wall was a…plane? He really wasn’t sure. It was armored in the same inky black carapace, shifting and dancing with the light. It looked like some kind of insect. Butterfly? Dragonfly? It perched delicately on the wall, wings tucked into its sides.
In the center bay was a hulking behemoth. Vibrant orange and electric aqua, battle scarred, and heavily armored. Next to it sat the biggest gun Seonghwa had ever seen in his life. The largest plasma railgun in the world. Really the only one operating outside of labs and testing grounds.
The General.
And its Jaeger, Answer.
And boy was she the answer to some big Kaiju shaped problems. During its third battle soloing a category 3, the first of its size to emerge since the second breach, the General was fired successfully, demolishing the Kaiju in a single shot.
But it discharged the residual energy improperly causing a 3 mile wide explosion that would have done the same damage as a 7.0 magnitude earthquake had it been near a city.
Luckily they had intercepted far enough from any population center to do too much damage, but that had sealed Answer’s fate.
The reports said she was just decommissioned, too damaged after the fight and the explosion to be repaired, and Answer faded into obscurity.
But Seonghwa knew better.
Answer and her pilots were some of the best Kaiju killers out there, but they were also a massive liability. He has suspected she was out there somewhere, manning the front lines far from civilization. The firepower was too great to waste.
He never expected to be serving in the same hanger as that beautiful beast of a machine.
And on the left was…a mangled corpse.
At least that’s what it looked like. A leg and an arm were both detached. One sitting to the side, the other fully disassembled, being worked on by a couple mechanics. Most of the dingy white armor had been removed and was stacked to the side. Her head was completely detached, dangling a good 20 feet above the rest, high near the top of the hangar.
Seonghwa and Maddox followed Eden as he turned towards this sad Jaeger.
They passed some pieces of armor as they headed towards the service elevators on the back wall, and he noticed that some smaller pieces had been pulled aside. These had a fresh white base and intricate designs painted in every color of the rainbow along the seams and corners, standing out proudly against crisp clean white. They would probably be barely visible from a distance when assembled, but up close it looked like embroidery. He had never seen anything like it on a Jaeger.
The three men crowded into the small, open air service elevator and rode it to the very top. As they rose to the helm, her features began to take shape. Seonghwa leaned over to look closer, the leather of his gloves creaking at his tight grip on the railing.
She was lovely. Sharp angles flowed into softer lines giving it a more feminine quality; the pieces fitting together in a delicate balance, rather than the harsh, straight lines and heavy joins of most Jaegers.
Here the painted designs were most elaborate. Much of it was done in varying shades of white and cream to provide subtle contrast, but then there were bright spots of color sparkling like gemstones.
Even in her dissembled state, he could see she was beautiful.
And someone was deeply in love with her.
They stepped through a door that led to a short hallway. In the middle was an opening that led right into the cockpit.
“I think I’ll stay here.” Maddox said, throwing his thumb over his shoulder at the elevator. He went back to the catwalk and leaned on the railing, enjoying birds eye view of the cavernous hanger.
Eden stepped right up to the threshold of the cockpit but went no further. Seonghwa could hear faint sparking and see flashes reflecting off the opposite wall of the cockpit, where clearly another door to a workshop behind it was located.
“Hongjoong.” Eden said, loud and clear enough to be heard over the crackling. It paused momentarily.
“Go away.” A flat voice echoed off the thick tempered glass of the giant helmet. The crackling and flashing resumed.
“Hongjoong, come out here.” Exasperation was strong in Eden’s voice but Seonghwa could see he was attempting to mask his ire.
“I’m working.” The welder didn’t even stop this time.
“For fucks sake Hongjoong. Either you come out here, or I’m coming in.” Eden yelled, his fuse already a hairsbreadth from extinction. He suspected Eden had been at this point for some time now.
A small crash and a lot of cursing followed that declaration.
“Do NOT step foot over that line! I swear to god if you fuck up my wiring Eden I will beat your ass so hard…” a couple more clinks and clanks of tools and who knows what accompanied the loud stomping.
Eden smirked and quietly said to him, “Always works”.
The amount of rage that came roiling through the door did not match the small stature of the man that now stood before them. He was in a welding apron two sizes too big that hung down past his bare knees and halfway down his calves.
Had he been welding in shorts? That question fled from Seonghwa’s mind as soon as the little ball of fury ripped off his welding mask.
The man had short, messy, bleach blonde hair, a delicate pointed nose, rows of perfect pearly teeth inside a cute if currently snarling mouth. Bright, piercing eyes flashed from anger, to confusion, but had now settled on narrowed suspicion.
“Who’s that?” Hongjoong gestured dismissively towards the new ranger with his welding mask.
“This is your new co-pilot,” Eden said plainly.
This explanation clearly did not please Hongjoong.
He raked his eyes slowly up and down Seonghwa. The taller man wanted to squirm under the intensity of the analytical gaze but he held his composure making sure to meet his eyes when they came back up. Though Hongjoong didn’t seem to care to make that connection.
“I don’t need a co-pilot,” he didn’t even have to look down to avoid stepping on the tangled vines of cables and wires as he turned to return to his shop.
“We talked about this, Hongjoong. I told you I was going to find you backup and now it’s here. There’s no avoiding this.”
The small ranger whipped around and stalked back towards them with alarming speed. Seongwa flinched back a step but Eden held fast as Hongjoong jabbed his helmet into his chest. Clearly he was accustomed to these outbursts.
“You didn’t bring me backup. You brought me a fucking paperweight. An anchor. That’s all they ever are. Too slow, too stupid, too weak. How’d you even lure him here anyway? Some Academy reject that couldn’t get into any other program?” he flashed a mean smile at Seonghwa that didn’t reach his eyes, but he could feel the venom in it anyway.
It didn’t help that he had hit the nail on the head.
Seonghwa hadn’t failed out of Ranger Academy. Far from it. He had top marks. But it was true that no other program had chosen him.
Like everyone else, he applied to different Shatterdomes before he had even graduated, hoping to get recruited early. Scouts would observe training, making offers to the best candidates. And on paper, he was one of the best. But he waited around for over a year after graduating, crumpling up tear stained rejection letters one after the other.
Then came a strange offer from HALA. A program he had never even heard of, let alone applied to.
“This isn’t a negotiation Ranger. If you wish to keep that title, you will work with him. And you will have a copilot if you ever want to see Horizon leave this hangar.” Eden said matter of factly.
“Auxiliary pilot,” Hongjoong corrected, the threats seeming to have tempered his flame somewhat.
“If that helps you sleep better at night. Dismissed.”
They both turned sharply and walked separate directions, leaving Seonghwa standing awkwardly alone. He watched the blonde disappear around the corner, back into the smokey shadows of the workshop.
He scurried to catch up to Eden but he wasn’t going back to the service elevator. Instead he continued down the dark hallway to a service door at the end. A black cloud hung over the Marshal’s head. He hadn’t even seemed to notice Seonghwa following him until he reached the door.
“Go with Maddox. He’ll get you settled.” Eden let out a heavy sigh and rested his hand on the door knob. “I have a meeting.”
He swept through the door leaving Seonghwa standing alone in the dark hallway, only lit by the dim glow and flashes from the welder. He made his way back towards Maddox and the service elevator,pausing as he passed the cockpit, taking a moment to really study it.
There was one apparatus for a pilot. Only one. The other had been removed, or maybe it was never installed. Where the co-pilot would normally be, instead there was just empty space, but hanging from the ceiling was some kind of orb of black glass. It hung there like some sinister disco ball. Seonghwa had never seen anything like it in a Jaeger. He couldn't fathom what it was for. From it flowed many of the wires that turned the floor into a webbed tripping hazard. Some led back to the workshop, some led to the pilots station, which also looked like it had been stripped down and modified.
Another curious thing he noticed was that all the cables were black. Usually wiring was color coded so it was quick and easy to find whatever line needed servicing. But not here. Wiring must be a nightmare. He noticed even more swirls of paint dotted around the room on various panels. Hongjoong must have painted them.
Odd.
Hongjoong was proving to be quite the mystery.
Tucking this information away in his head to ponder later he met Maddox out on the landing.
“Eden not coming?” The officer asked.
“He said he had a meeting.”
“Mmm, probably to inform the program director of your arrival. Director Kim Gyuwook doesn’t come to the compound often but he takes care of us. Makes sure we get our funding and keeps the Pan Pacific Defense Corp off our asses. He’s more of a suit than a military type but he’s a good guy. You’ll probably meet him at some point. He gets all our crazy projects greenlit. Speaking of crazy, that didn’t sound like it went well.” Maddox said. He didn’t look surprised. Or even discouraged. Just mildly amused.
“He didn’t even say a word to me.” Seonghwa sighed.
“Sounds about right. He’s a tough one, Hongjoong. Don’t let him get to you. He’s not as bad as he seems. He’s too smart for his own good and has trouble connecting with people. One of those lone wolf eccentric types ya know? He just wants to execute his vision and to hell with everything else.”
“And what is his vision?”
“Solo piloting.”
“That’s impossible.” But Seonghwa wasn’t surprised. Everything Eden and Hongjoong had said, plus the state of the cockpit had all pointed him towards that conclusion.
“He doesn’t think so.” Maddox chuckled. “But I agree with you. I don’t think it’s possible. It’s just too much for one brain to handle. But he’s got all kinds of ideas. The Horizon has been his baby for over a decade. He’s built and torn her apart in her entirety probably three times by now. In parts of course.”
They get on the elevator and ride it down one, two, three, four levels, he counts. Seonghwa could see that all the floors of the compound could be seen from the hanger. Most of them were bunched towards the top. He counted 10 but surely he missed some before a huge gap of solid concrete walls, probably 80 feet or more met with the base of the hangar.
“A decade!? How old is he?” Seonghwa couldn’t imagine the other ranger was much older than himself.
“27. Director Kim plucked him out of the youth engineering program at 16 and gave him the Horizon as a pet project. Gyuwook is the director of this compound but that’s because we are an unofficial offshoot of the R&D sector of the PPDC, which he heads. He saw Hongjoong as a brilliant young mind shackled by the rules and red tape of academia. He was right but I don’t know if his gamble paid off. It did at first, but he hasn’t produced anything usable in the last 5 years and the PPDC is threatening to shut down the Horizon project. That funding does more than pay Hongjoong’s whims. It provides funding for all the Jaegers.”
A heavy pause hung in the air between them, seconds counted down by the clicking chain of the lift.
“Which is why you are here. You are our last resort.”
“But if I’m a copilot, then he’s not achieving solo piloting.”
“PPDC isn’t looking for solo piloting. That’s Hongjoong’s particular obsession. But he has designed much more than that into the Horizon. Some of his inventions have already made their way into the designs of every new Jaegers. You know the nanoscale weave that came out a few years ago?”
Seonghwa’s eyes bulged in realization. That technology had changed how every piece of a Jaeger was manufactured.
“That was our Hongjoong. He discovered it was possible and led the team that figured out how to manufacture it. More flexible joints, lighter weight, better neural links and reaction times. And Horizon has that pushed to its maximum. But now he’s stuck on this solo piloting dream. He won’t work on anything else.”
“Wait, so he’s an engineer. Not a ranger?”
“He’s both. In order to test some of his mods properly he felt he had to learn how to pilot. And he loved it. He's an excellent pilot. Knowing your machine inside and out probably helps with that. He knows just how far he can push them. But he despises drifting with others. Always complaining about how he never felt like they allowed him to take the Jaegers to their fullest potential. They can’t see how they work like he can. It got worse and worse as the years went on. He’s a monster in the drift. He even put one cadet in a coma for a few weeks. So…solo piloting.”
Seonghwa blanched. And he had to try and drift with this guy.
They had walked down the open deck of level 5 towards the hulking shadow of Answer. As they approached Seonghwa could hear music bumping louder and louder. So loud that he could barely hear Maddox yell over the din.
“Yunho! Time to meet the new guy,”
A man was leaning back in a rolling chair, holding what looked like a circuit board up to the light cast by the flame of a bunsen burner, large goggles perched on his gently hooked nose, magnifying his eyes to look huge and buglike. His mile long legs were crossed upon the desk in front of him.
He reached over and turned the music down on the old boombox that rested on the end of the work table. He pushed his goggles up into his fluffy black hair revealing a handsome face with boyish charm, aided by a friendly smile.
Seonghwa immediately felt at ease with him. He had a very different vibe from Hongjoong.
Thank goodness.
“Hey man!” he held out his hand to shake. Seonghwa clenched his gloved hand before reaching out to Yunho. “Glad you’re here. Welcome to the chaos! Park Seonghwa right?”
“Yes. Thank you. I’m honored to be here.”
He couldn’t stop his wandering eyes. One of Answer’s shoulder panels was open, revealing the mount for The General, the computer components exposed. It was far beyond Seonghwa’s comprehension but fascinating all the same.
Yunho leaned forward, perching his elbows on his knees, and flashed a cocky grin. He jutted his chin up towards Answer.
“You know our girl?”
“Oh, yes.” Seonghwa said, stepping a little closer to the Jaeger. A deep gash in the armor called to him. Put there by the savage claws of a kaiju. He longed to reach out and touch the jagged edges, but he held back. “And I’m glad I was right.”
“Oh yeah? Right about what?” Yunho cocked his head, enjoying the sparkle in the new Ranger’s eyes as they danced over every scuff and scratch.
“That Answer was never decommissioned. You guys had too good of a record to be sidelined. But after the Guam mission I never thought I’d actually see her again. I’m glad her pilots are ok too.” he smiled warmly at Yunho, who returned it with a wink.
Seonghwa was gonna like him. He could tell.
“Where is Mingi?” Maddox asked after the other pilot.
“Napping.” Yunho jabbed his thumb over his shoulder at a hammock mounted in the back corner of the workstation.
It was hanging heavy, one leg dangling out the side. The rest of the large man was cocooned in the canvas.
Seonghwa couldn't believe that anyone could sleep with all the banging and clanging and buzzing of tools and equipment in the hanger. Not to mention the music that had been blaring when they arrived.
Yunho picked up a screwdriver from the table and hucked it with precision at the lump in the hammock.
A head of short pink fluff popped up from its cozy cocoon, accompanied by eyes still nearly shut with sleep, and big pouty lips.
“Time for dinner?” his voice was warm, and deep, and full of gravel.
“No, sleeping beauty. The new Ranger is here. Say hi.” Yunho giggled. Mingi fixed his sleepy gaze on Seonghwa.
“Sup.” And that was it. Mingi rolled back over in the hammock and disappeared behind its walls.
“He’s in recharge mode. He’ll be more friendly at dinner. Promise.” Yunho said apologetically.
“I’m gonna show him around down below. We’ll see you guys in the mess later.” Maddox led Seonghwa gently away and back to the elevator.
“Don’t worry. You’ll be seeing lots more of them. But I have a report I have to deliver before 6 and I still haven’t even shown you where you sleep.” He explained as the elevator rumbled back down to the ground floor.
They crossed the hanger floor at a brisk walk, dodging zooming forklifts and gators pulling trailers full of parts and materials. They passed the cafeteria again on the way to the hall leading to the barracks.
“Dinner is served at 5:30. The fare is decent but simple. And gets repetitive. So really, if there’s any treats you want, don’t be afraid to ask. The barracks are down this way. There are only 8 rooms. Like I said, only the Ranger bunks are down here, but you each get private rooms with your own bathroom. Lucky. There is also a small lounge. There is a much larger one on deck 3 which you are welcome to hang out in. There is a gym on deck 4. But the Kwoon training room is here.”
He pushed open a large swinging door. On the other side, two men were locked in fierce battle. One was shirtless and had short black hair, his bangs just long enough to hang into his feline eyes. His classically handsome face was trained into serious, serene focus as he twirled through the air with staggering speed, his broad shoulders twisting to power a kick that looked strong enough to snap the neck of his opponent had he failed to duck in time.
But his smaller adversary was just as quick, and impressively flexible as he bent backward in an impossible looking arc and caught himself with one hand on the mat before snapping back up throwing a punch at the gut of the shirtless man.
The punch was deflected, and his wrist was snatched. A high pitched cackle rang through the space as he was tossed effortlessly through the air. He rolled out of the throw with surprising grace and a wide grin. He shook his long fringe out of his face to reveal mismatched eyes and a strong hooked nose.
He was devilishly handsome. A striking contrast to his more statuesque opponent.
Seonghwa was enraptured by their sparring. They read each other so well but at the same time were always looking for the upper hand. Their fighting styles were so different yet they flowed together perfectly.
They were drift partners. They had to be. He had only ever seen partners dance together this well.
The shorter man was getting backed into a corner but he didn’t look concerned. If anything his smile grew wider as they got closer and closer to an assortment of training equipment as he ducked and dodged.
Seonghwa was about to shout a warning, worried he could trip and injure himself. It was an entirely unfounded concern however. He ducked the next kick and picked up the yoga ball next to him and launched it at his opponent.
“AH!” the buff man shouted as it smacked him square in the face causing him to stagger back a few steps, arms flailing wide for balance.
The trickster pounced. As the ball bounced away he jumped up, wrapped his legs around his partner’s waist and twisted, slamming him bodily to the mat. He pinned him down, straddling his hips and locking his arms above his head.
A clear victory.
The loser’s stern battle face broke, eyes turning to crescents and dimples gracing his cheeks as he laughed.
“You dirty cheater!” he yelled.
“Aw don’t be a bad sport Sannie. You like it when I play dirty.” the victor ground his hips down into his captive’s who groaned.
Maddox clapped his hands together loudly, snapping the room to his attention.
“Ok! That’s enough. Before you traumatize the newbie.” He shouted. “This is San and Wooyoung, pilots of the Aurora. Guys this is Seonghwa. The new Ranger.”
“Ah, Joong's new victim! You’re cute.” the man on top said.
“Ignore him. I’m San. Good to meet you! Please excuse me if I don’t get up.” he said sheepishly.
“No, please. Don’t get up. We are leaving. Just introduce yourselves properly later, yeah? I’m just trying to give him a quick tour.”
“Sure! We’ll see you at dinner!” San said, sending them a cute wave.
“We might be late. I have winnings to collect…” Wooyoung loomed over San.
“Jezus. Go, just go.” He said to Seonghwa, pushing him back out the door. He twisted around and yelled over his shoulder. “Don’t fuck in there or else you are paying to replace the mats this time!”
He let the door slam. Seonghwa thought he could just hear ‘no fun’ shouted back at them through the thick door.
Maddox ran both hands hard over his face and took a deep breath.
“Sorry about that. Sometimes I don’t know what to do with those two. They are making me prematurely grey, I swear.”
Seonghwa was sure his own face was beet red. So far the other rangers had not been what he expected. He was beginning to think Yunho had hit the nail right on the head when he had welcomed Seonghwa to the “chaos”.
They passed several identical doors until they reached the second to last in the row. Maddox tapped in the code to the door and it beeped to them in welcome.
“This will be your bunk. It’s nothing fancy but it’s private and that’s worth a lot when you are stuck in the middle of the ocean,” Maddox waved him through the door but didn't follow.
“Ok. I gotta run. Dinner is in…” the officer checks his watch. “Fuck, an hour. There’s a packet on the desk with maps and codes and phone numbers you’ll need. I’ll meet up with you tomorrow.”
He trips on his way out the door.
Seonghwa sighs and turns to better take in his new lodgings.
“And welcome to HALA!” Maddox’s head pops back around his door, startling the ranger out of his skin. “You’re gonna do great.” He flashed Seonghwa a cute smile. He couldn't help but giggle as the officer darted away, his swift footsteps echoing down the corridor.
Seonghwa closed the door, quiet falling gently over the room. The heavy door and thick walls did an impressively good job at blocking out the noise of the compound.
He turned to his bags which had already been deposited on the bed for him by staff. He methodically unpacked his personal effects. He hadn’t been able to bring much but he had his essentials.
His clothes went into the drawers and onto the hangers of the closet space. It was a rather generous amount of space for a single room. There was even enough for his gloves to have their own little drawer, packed with pairs of various weights and materials.
He mourned the loss of his favorite silk gloves. He had no idea where they ended up but he could not find them when he was packing in a scramble to leave on time for his flight.
He wondered if silk gloves would be too strange of a request for the requisition office.
He placed a picture of his parents on the desk next to the lamp.They had been so proud when he had told them about his new assignment. He had promised to call them when he was settled.
He would leave that for tomorrow.
He carefully unwrapped a TIE fighter desk clock from the scarf he had rolled it in for protection and set it next to the picture. A manila envelope sat fat and heavy beneath it.
He stowed his bags under the short metal frame of the double bed and moved on to the small attached bathroom, his little travel tote in hand. He would have to ask for some full sized products. It was unlikely the military provided his preferred skincare brand.
A shower was well in order to wash off the sweat and stress of travel. He never really liked helicopters.
He stepped into the tight cubicle and under the hot spray. Tipping his head back he let the water penetrate his thick hair and ran his fingers through its tangled lengths. He would need plenty of conditioner to work out the knots the wind and sea salt had blown into it.
He had been concerned he would have to cut his hair back to an acceptable military style. But after seeing Mingi and Hongjong's dye jobs, and Wooyoung’s hair almost as long as his own, he didn’t think anyone would care.
It was a relief. While the length had originally been the result of neglect, he had grown fond of it. He had let it go after he graduated, wondering if anyone would even notice or care.
They didn’t.
He was a ghost in the halls of the academy. He wasn’t sure if it was pity or fear that fueled his isolation from the officers and fellow cadets. While his fellow graduates slowly filtered out of the barracks, leaving empty cots behind for adventure and glory, Seonghwa remained.
Clean and refreshed he stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around his waist. He came to the small sink and mirror and studied his reflection as the water dripped down in cool rivulets over his chest and shoulders.
Shoulders that used to have a larger bulk of muscle.
He was still fit. He had continued working out and would spar with the younger cadets to keep his skills sharp. But as the months dragged on and rejection after rejection came through, he found himself struggling.
Struggling to eat. Struggling to sleep. Struggling to be silent when he cried in his bunk, so as to not disturb any of the new recruits he now shared space with.
His face had become gaunt. His abs were defined more so from lack of fat than from intense training. He used to avoid his own eyes in the mirror. They only showed him two black pits of emptiness. He was a sulking shadow, haunting the halls of the academy.
Not anymore.
He had a place to be now. A place he could prove his worth.
And no short, bratty, pretty, blonde engineer was going to take that from him.
Seonghwa walked down the line in the cafeteria ladling kimchi fried rice and daegu-jorim onto his tray. He was so hungry having barely been able to eat during the long day of travel. It was nice to see some classic Korean fare available. As he went down the line an interesting array of various cuisines caught his eye. Fish based dishes were heavily represented. Not surprising as they were in the middle of the ocean.
He had piled several pelmeni next to his rice along with a healthy dollop of sour cream. He decided to give the mappo tofu a skip today. Judging by the intense burn in his nose as he passed it, the spice level was not for the weak and he didn’t want to pay for it in the morning. Instead he reached for a steaming bowl of ukha soup that smelled delicious.
Prickling ran up his spine as he felt eyes lingering on him. He glanced down the line of people behind him. Two crew members were watching him closely and muttering to each other. Seonghwa couldn’t parse what they were saying but they were definitely talking about him. He really needed to brush up on his Russian.
He took a breath and placed the soup carefully on his tray. Out of the corner of his eye he saw their heads dart out to peek at him around the line again.
Oh god. Did they know?
Seonghwa silently begged the line to move faster.
The Russian men started laughing. He snapped his head over to check if they were looking at him again. They weren’t. But the woman next to him was now sending him wary glances.
He ducked out of the line and beelined for an empty table along the back wall. Was he allowed to eat in his room? He would have to ask Maddox tomorrow.
No sooner had he got his breathing under control and picked up his spoon, four more trays came crashing down on the table around him.
“No! You sit over there!” Wooyoung barked at Mingi who had tried to slide in next to Seonghwa, but the small ranger was quicker.
‘Young-ah! You know I like being on the wall!” Mingi pouted and whined.
“Well shoulda got here faster then.” he stuck his tongue out.
Yunho laughed and patted Mingi’s back as they sat down across from Seonghwa. San caged him in on the other side.
“Is that all you are eating?” San asked gently, concern furrowing his perfect eyebrows.
“Oh…” he stuttered, looking down at his half empty tray. “Uh. I’m ok. My stomach is a little…”
“The winds were terrible today. I’m sure the flight was rough. Mingi gets motion sick too.” Yunho chimed in. Mingi nodded along in agreement, taking a delicate bite of braised pork.
Seonghwa didn’t get motion sick but he was happy to accept the offered excuse.
“Sannie, go grab some stuff he can take to his room.” Wooyoung pointed at some coolers on the wall by the doors. San jumped up at the command and jogged off across the mess hall.
“Oh, I’m ok really.” He tried to protest.
“Eh, better stock up now anyway. The hall closes at 9. There are a couple vending machines but they are broken half the time. Midnight snacks can be hard to come by if you don’t have something in your room.” Yunho explained.
“So, which Shatterdome did you transfer from?” Wooyoung asked through a mouthful of rice.
“Um, I haven’t been in any other program.” They all looked confused at his answer. “I graduated from the ranger academy 18 months ago.”
“Are you younger than us? No offence. I just thought they’d bring in an experienced ranger to try and wrangle Hongjoong.” Yunho asked.
“I’m 27. I entered the academy later than most cadets.”
“So you are our hyung!” San said as he dumped a cascade of snacks on the table. One arm had been full of bags of spicy shrimp snacks, protein bars, packaged melonpan, and banana milk. In his other hand was balanced a delicate slice of fluffy japanese cheesecake which he placed gently on the empty space on Seonghwa’s tray.
He was grateful. In truth, the food in front of him was not likely to fill him up at all. In his desperation to escape the eyes of others he had resigned himself to falling asleep hungry.
“San and I have been piloting Aurora for about two years now. Yunho said you already recognized Answer. But we get five times the missions as that lumbering beast.”
“Eh! I didn’t hear you talking shit when that cat 2 shark variant was chasing you back to the compound.” Mingi pointed his chopsticks at Wooyoung. “You were yowling and running with your tail between your legs.”
“Oh piss off! We would have been fine if our stealth systems hadn’t gone down. We didn’t even have our main weapons armed! It was supposed to be a recon run. I about ripped Hongjoong a new asshole for that one.” Woo argued.
“So Aurora is a stealth unit?” Seonghwa was fascinated by the concept. Jaeger’s are so big the idea of hiding them in plain sight sounded ludicrous.
“She isn’t just a stealth unit. She is THE stealth unit. Best in the world.” San puffed out his chest.
“We are hunters. Trackers. We don’t just wait for the kaiju to attack. We study them, stalk them, and take them down in their own lairs.” A wicked, predatory smile spread across Wooyoung’s face.
“Don’t let them talk themselves up too much. A lot of their missions are to help the research team with Yeosang. He pilots the Legacy.” Yunho cut in.
“Was that the odd craft I saw hanging on the wall of the hanger?”
“Yes. Legacy is primarily a research vessel to gather specimens and data. But she can attach to Aurora and we can all drift and fight together or we can move separately. It's super cool.” San nodded with a giddy smile.
Three-way drifts were not unheard of but they were very rare. Seonghwa wanted to hear more about this strange not-quite-jaeger, but he didn’t get the chance.
“Speak of the angel himself… Sangie!!!” Wooyoung shouted across the hall waving his hand wildly.
A man with wavy platinum blonde hair and two heavy trays in hand glanced their way. He sent them a quick nod and continued towards the doors.
“Kang Yeosang, get your ass over here!” He demanded shrilly.
The blonde rolled his eyes and wound through the throng towards their table.
“Sangie, this is Park Seonghwa. Hongjoong’s new chew toy!” Wooyung introduced him. Not a flattering start.
“Nice to meet you.” His voice was deep like Mingi’s but smooth as velvet. Not at all what Seonghwa expected out of such an ethereally beautiful face.
Seonghwa nodded back politely.
Yeosang returned a polite if slightly awkward smile. Then he promptly turned around and started walking away again.
“You’re leaving? No, Sangie!” Wooyoung pouted.
“I’ll be back down in a bit. I just need to take Jongho his food.” he said, lifting up the full trays.
“Come to the lounge after! We are having beers with the new guy after dinner.”
“Ooh bring Jongho too!” San added.
“I’ll try but he was elbow deep in a tadpole when I left.”
Seonghwa would love to see that. Mingi however now stared at his food like it was made of tentacles and slime. He dropped his chopsticks unceremoniously on his tray with a sigh.
Yeosang made his exit. The other rangers tucked into their food and fell easily into friendly banter. Seonghwa was happy to just listen quietly and enjoy his food.
With Mingi last to finish his dinner they all filed out of the mess hall, Seonghwa having requested a bag from staff to carry all his new snacks.
Yunho beeped them into the lounge opposite the Kwoon training room. It was cozy, with a couple couches and chairs surrounding a coffee table in the center. A tv was hanging on the wall and a foosball table stood off to one side. A couple small tables and chairs lined the wall. At first glance the back wall appeared to be painted black, but once the lights turned on Seonghwa could see it was actually glass. Extremely thick glass that looked out into the vast, dark, empty ocean.
The other rangers poured into the room. Mingi opened a small fridge and pulled out beers for everyone and placed them on the coffee table. Yeosang slipped in quietly, snagging one of the bottles.
“Is Hongjoong coming?” Seonghwa asked nervously.
“Nah, he hasn’t come out of his cave all week. Been obsessed with some neural loader thing. He thinks he’s near a breakthrough.” Mingi rolled his eyes and took a swig of his beer.
“Oh, is he always…”
“A huge cunt?” Wooyoung finished helpfully, popping a cap off another bottle and handing it to Seonghwa. He was going to say ‘working’ but he couldn't argue with Wooyoung’s choice of words.
“No, not always. He can actually be pretty fun if you can drag him away from his precious workshop. Once he works through the tantrum and a beer or two he loosens up.” Seonghwa snorts at the feisty ranger’s description.
Wooyoung and San were piled on the loveseat, while Mingi and Yunho sprawled their long bodies across a couch. Yeosang had kindly offered Seonghwa the one armchair, while he pulled over a metal chair from a nearby table, spinning it around and sitting in it backwards.
He was more than happy to listen to Wooyoung and Mingi gossip about other officers and crew members. Yunho lamented how long he has been waiting for a shipment of parts to come in so he can finish his newest upgrade to the General. Yeosang was quieter than the rest but he even had some hot goss about a couple researchers he and Jongho caught doing it in a supply closet.
The atmosphere was so easy and open. It was nice to be around people who weren’t actively avoiding him or putting on a fake smile to mask their discomfort. The familiarity they all had was refreshing too.
Eden was right. There were no formalities here. Seonghwa had heard it can get like that between pilot teams. When you all risk your life together, it breaks down barriers fast.
Yeosang spent a lot of time in the labs. Which made sense considering he led the field team. Seonghwa was really looking forward to seeing the labs tomorrow. He was never allowed on the lab levels of the Nagasaki Shatterdome he trained at, which was a shame. The lab atmosphere always felt like home to him.
“Wait, I have a question.” he cut in, a sudden realization dawning on him.
“Shoot!” San encouraged him.
“Why is this place called the HALA compound? Why not the HALA Shatterdome?”
“Did it look like a Shatterdome to you when you flew in?” Wooyoung jibed.
“Well no. At first I actually thought we might have just been landing to refuel or something.”
“This facility didn’t house Jaeger’s originally.” Yeosang explained. “It was just a research facility. Albeit a big one, meant to get as many samples from the breach as possible. But when full size Kaiju started coming through, it needed to be protected.”
“This facility is not supposed to be public knowledge though so they built everything underwater. I don’t even want to know how much that cost.” Yunho said, rolling his eyes at the thought of the undoubtedly staggering figure.
“And they needed somewhere to hole away the problem children.” Mingi joked, poking Yunho with his foot who retaliated, trapping his ankle and pulling it across his lap.
“I’m not a problem child!” Wooyoung whined. San kissed him on the cheek.
“You are the definition of a problem child, jagiya,” he said. Wooyoung opened his mouth to argue but San didn’t give him the chance. “But you are also the best Kaiju hunter in the world.” This was all it took to placate the feisty ranger it seemed.
“WE are the best Kaiju hunters in the world.” Wooyoung leaned into San as he said it, placing a languid kiss on his partner's waiting lips.
Seonghwa had to look away from the overt display of affection before his jealousy became too obvious. He grabbed another beer out of the cooler on the table. He struggled to grip the twist off cap of his second beer through his gloves, the fabric catching and twisting. Maybe he should have worn the leather ones but they seemed like overkill just lounging around the compound.
San noticed his struggle and reached for it. Seonghwa flinched back when his hand entered his peripheral vision, but then handed San the bottle with a small ‘thanks’ when he realized the offer of help.
“So what’s with the gloves? You some kind of germaphobe?” Wooyoung asked as Seonghwa accepted his now open beer back from San.
San smacked him on the thigh and mouthed ‘rude’. Wooyoung just shrugged.
He may as well tell them. They’d find out sooner or later. It was the whole reason he was brought here after all. This was the place of misfits right? Weirdos?
“I wear gloves because…I…” how did he want to explain this? What would sound the least insane?
“I was invited to this program because I can drift with anyone. But in the academy, people found drifting with me…uncomfortable? Eden is hoping I will be able to drift with Hongjoong since he hasn’t been able to find someone drift compatible. Right?” he looked around the room at the others, hoping his explanation sounded normal enough.
“You can drift with anyone? Just like that?” Yunho snapped his fingers.
Seonghwa nodded bashfully.
“That’s amazing! Yunho’s the only one I’ve ever really tolerated.” Mingi said.
“Tolerate? You just tolerate me?” Yunho asked in mock outrage, tickling Mingi causing the giant man to giggle in a way Seonghwa did not ever expect to hear from him.
San leaned in, wonder and curiosity playing across his sweet features.
“Wait, how? You mean you don’t have to train with them, get to know them, or do any testing?”
“No, nothing.” Seonghwa shook his head.
“Slut,” Wooyoung scoffed over the mouth of his beer. San scowled and reached back to smack him on the back of the head causing Wooyoung to nearly lose the mouthful he had just taken.
“Young-ah!” San scolded as his co-pilot sputtered.
“What? Drifting with just anybody? That’s nuts. I had to fuck you before we finally got a clean drift.” San rolled his eyes. Seonghwa blushed, the alcohol making it worse.
“Wait, that still doesn’t explain the gloves.”
Of course Wooyoung wouldn’t take the bait. The room got quiet, everyone waiting on Seonghwa.
“I…don’t need equipment to drift. I can…do it by touch.”
The room went from quiet to silent.
And stayed that way.
For several agonizing seconds.
To Seonghwa it felt like an eternity, holding his breath, staring at the loose thread on his gloves.
“What?” Yeosang’s deep baritone broke the silence.
That one word blew the lid off everyone's confusion and the room burst into an earsplitting cacophony.
Mingi and Yunho laughed, clearly thinking he was joking, shouting ‘no way and ‘bullshit’. San once again leaned in with wide, curious eyes, asking a million questions Seonghwa couldn’t hear. Even Yeosang added some questions to the din, but he definitely couldn’t parse those over the other three practically shouting.
Wooyoung said nothing. Didn’t laugh. Didn’t ask any questions. He just watched Seonghwa silently with calculating eyes.
“Wait.” Wooyoung said, barely audible, “WAIT! SHUT THE FUCK UP.” He shouted at the other men. The rest of them listened, bringing their volume down to muttering between themselves.
“You aren’t fucking around. You mean it. You actually think you can drift with people just by touching them?”
“I can. It’s not exactly the same as when you use Pons and a neural handshake. It’s a little different than drifting but, yes. I can sync up with people by touch.” he said nervously plucking at his gloves.
“Sync up? What do you mean?” Wooyoung pried.
“I can feel emotions, sensations, even match heartbeats and things like that.” Seonghwa would leave it at that. He could do much more but he wasn’t going to freak them out more than they already were. He looked around the room and no one had a neutral face. They ranged from fascinated, to disbelieving, to mild horror in poor Mingi’s case.
“Alright. Prove it.” Wooyoung set his drink down heavily on the coffee table and got down on the floor in front of Seonghwa. “C’mon, Mr. mind meld. Show me what you got.”
He was volunteering?
Well, maybe this was good. He could just do a tiny bit. Wooyoung might be snarky but he saw how affectionate he was with his fellow crew. Seonghwa didn’t think he was mean for the sake of it. Just blunt and shameless. And if he was going to stay here and be accepted, he’d have to prove himself.
Prove that at the very least, he was not a liar.
Seonghwa took a deep steadying breath and sunk down to his knees with Wooyoung on the old carpet. He took his gloves off slowly, setting them gingerly on the table. He felt naked without them.
“Hold out your hand.” he instructed quietly. Wooyoung practically shoved his hand in his face. Seonghwa reached up and grabbed Wooyoung on the wrist over his shirt, maneuvering it back so it was held out between them.
“Ok, I’m just gonna do a little bit. I’ll just sync up our heartbeats. That one's easy and doesn’t feel too weird. You might feel some other mild sensations. Cold, heat, stuff like that. Are you ok with that?”
Wooyoung nodded his head enthusiastically, his big foxy grin spread wide. Seonghwa wasn’t sure if it was excitement about trying it, or excitement to catch him out in a lie. But he was not going to fuck around with this. The reactions of people he had tried this with before flickered through his mind.
He took a deep breath. He could do this.
“I need you to say it please.” Seonghwa said, failing to keep the waver from his voice. “This…is invasive. I could dive into emotions, movement, and more. I promise I won’t. I swear. But… I need you to say you agree.”
Wooyoung’s smile faded, seeing how gravely serious this was to Seonghwa.
“Sorry. Yes. That sounds fine. I trust you.”
Seonghwa took another deep breath and reached out towards Wooyoung’s hand. He let his middle finger brush featherlight across his palm. Seonghwa could feel that Wooyoung was buzzing, waiting anxiously to feel anything. He quickly backed off from his mind now that he confirmed the other man wasn’t scared.
He allowed his index and ring finger to rest on his palm as well. He settled on the surface of sensation for a moment making sure he did not fall too deep to the wide open book that was Wooyoung. First he synced their breaths, easy enough to do, but then he let his eyes flutter shut and feel for his heart and the hot flow of blood, the pulse of cardiac muscle, strong against his ribs.
He could tell when Wooyoung began to feel it as his heart rate picked up and Seonghwa’s followed along in perfect synchronicity.
“Woah, I feel that. Wait, how can I feel your heart? What the fuck!?” The small man held still but Seonghwa could feel him brimming with excitement, about to spill over. He reached over to the table and swiped the cold condensation off the bottle resting there. Wooyoung yelped.
“Holy shit! I feel the water. It’s cold!” He looked down at his own hand, marvelling at the phantom sensation.
But then he was gone.
Seonghwa felt nauseous at the sudden loss of connection while Wooyoung turned his hands over in front of his face in amazement.
Then Wooyoung surged forward grabbing both of his wrists and Seonghwa was assaulted with a rush of everything. Everything Wooyoung was feeling, smelling, tasting, the song playing on repeat in the background of his mind, the pleasant soreness from his earlier training with San, the slight spin from the buzz of alcohol, it was too much.
He wailed at the torrent in his mind that all hit in a fraction of a second. He and Wooyoung reeled back from each other, Seonghwa slamming his shoulder into the armchair, nearly knocking his own wind out. Wooyoung had collapsed back, caught by San before he hit his head on the table.
Yunho rushed to Seonghwa’s side and reached out to steady him but he lurched away again, crawling back the little he could manage through his dizziness, desperate to avoid another onslaught.
Yunho backed off. He grabbed Seonghwa’s gloves from the table, placing them next to him and then sat back on his heels.
Seonghwa snatched up his gloves. It took him two clumsy tries to get them on while the nausea and dizziness subsided. He was sweating now. Great. He probably looked insane.
Wooyoung was also still recovering, but he at least had the presence of mind to look guilty.
“I’m so sorry Seonghwa.” he gasped. “I… I didn’t realize. I’m sorry.”
Seonghwa pushed himself back up to slump against the cushions. Yunho hovered, wide eyed, but ready to catch him in case he lost his balance, while San pulled Wooyoung up into his lap.
“You see why I wear gloves.” Seonghwa grumbled.
“I thought you had more control I guess. Man that’s crazy. Does it always make you feel sick.” He said, scrunching up his face against his own little wave of nausea.
“Not if you aren’t whiplashed in and out of it by a tipsy spaz,” he said with a slight chuckle. The tension in the room started to disperse.
“I’m sorry again. That is amazing though. You should all try it.” Wooyoung looked up at San with a giddy smile but the rest looked wary.
And Seonghwa couldn’t blame them. It didn’t exactly look pleasant from their perspective.
“Hard pass.” Mingi said, taking in Wooyoung’s state.
“I don’t have it in me to do that again tonight.” Seonghwa was exhausted now. His nervous system had just been put through the wringer and he was out of practice as it was.
“So it goes both ways.” Wooyoung asked, snuggling into his boyfriend, starting to get a sleepy look on his face.
“Of course. It’s drifting. Kind of. Though since I’m the one making the connection, it hits me a split second sooner. Or at least that’s what the brain scans indicate.”
“How does it work? Can others learn it?” Yeosang asked.
“No. I’m…ugh, special.” Seonghwa rolled his eyes as hard as possible. “In theory there
could be other people who do it but not anyone who’s already been born. My parents are scientists. My mom is a neurologist who works on drift technology, and my dad was a Kaiju biologist. Kaiju are hive minds. They were studying how that worked neurologically to see if it could be used for a more biological form of drifting. Drifting doesn’t just double the neurological output, it squares it.”
The rest of the men nodded, remembering this from their schooling at the academy. “So you can imagine this could have a lot of uses, even outside of the Jaeger program. Surgery could be faster, safer, more efficient for example. Any complex task that requires more than one person to pull off could be improved by drifting. The military applications are endless of course. But you can’t put everyone in the big suits and be all wired up, it’s impractical. If you could find a way to do it biologically, built in drift compatibility, well…the possibilities are endless.”
“It looks like they figured it out.” Said San.
“Not exactly. They were using themselves as test subjects. Well mostly my dad. He would make crazy genetic slop and inject himself with anything he thought might work. He was obsessed. My mom was more conservative but boy did she love scanning his brain. The walls of our house were covered in printouts.” He chuckled. “Well he never achieved changing his DNA enough to manifest it in himself. But clearly he changed it enough to affect his sperm. My mom got pregnant with me during their research. They got married after she found out. They were in love but never bothered before because they were so engrossed in their work, but it made sense if they were gonna have a kid. I practically grew up in their lab. They have no way of knowing which of his harebrained experiments did the trick."
He knew he was rambling, but he was too tired and tipsy to care. Fond memories of playing dinosaurs on an empty lab table, using beakers and vial stands to set up obstacle courses for them, and making funny faces through the glass of his dad’s living kaiju specimens, played in the background.
“It took me a long time to learn to talk cause I could just tell them how I felt or what I wanted through touch. I didn’t understand why anyone bothered talking. Until I was old enough to understand I was the only one who could do what I do.” It had been a terrible, isolating realization. That the world did not feel as he did. Didn’t connect like he did. And that others were scared or even repulsed by his touch. “I joined the Jaeger program cause I thought that made the most sense for me. But clearly that didn’t work out.”
“That must be awesome for sex,” In comes Wooyoung again with the crude but astute observation. Seonghwa didn’t even have it in himself to blush. The rest of the room couldn’t help but laugh and jeer and he couldn’t blame them.
“I assume so.” he grunts as he reaches over to pluck Wooyoung’s unfinished beer off the table and kill it.
“Wait, you assume? You don’t know?” Mingi barked.
Thanks, Mingi. Couldn’t any of them let him off easy?
Seonghwa looked around at each of them waiting with bated breath for his answer. He doesn't know if he should be offended that this seems to be the question they are most interested in the answer to. Or if that’s just human nature.
“Is there more beer?” he asked, making a show of looking around the room.
“Oh my god you’re a virgin!” Wooyoung yelled. Very loudly. San, ever the sweetheart, but half a second too late, clapped his hand over Wooyoung's loud mouth.
“Yes. I’m a virgin. Happy? I’ve kissed a few people, but they freak out so it’s never gone past that. It’s very overwhelming if you aren’t used to it and I can’t turn it off. I have some control if I really focus and keep a light touch, but obviously that is not the case during… intimacy.” He throws his hands into the air and slouches further into the chair, wishing it would swallow him whole. “So there you have it. I’m a gross mutant freak.”
“You aren’t gross.” Yunho said sweetly, “Technically you are a mutant though.”
Seonghwa slapped a hand over his face. He was a mutant. Lucky him.
“But I think that’s pretty cool.” the lanky man finished. “And you are definitely among many freaks here. So rest easy.”
“Wow, ok. Speaking of rest, this was far too exciting. Your superhero origin story is insane and I’m exhausted. I can’t even process all that right now. A virgin! San, take me to bed.” Wooyoung adjusted himself in San’s lap, perfectly poised to be princess carried.
But San didn’t put his arms around Wooyoung. He stood and the smaller man squawked as he dropped to the floor unceremoniously. But San turned his back to him and squatted down a bit. Wooyoung popped up and jumped on his back, giving San a kiss on the back of the neck in thanks for the piggy back ride.
“You should head to bed too. Even though we are a bit of a rogue operation here, the kitchen still runs on military time and you wanna get up early before the good breakfast food is gone. Are you good getting back to your room?”
“Ya, I’ll be alright. Thank you.” Seonghwa watched as Yunho gathered up Mingi, and they walked together towards the barracks, fingers intertwined, Mingi whispering fervently in Yunho’s ear. No doubt talking about him. But that was ok.
Seonghwa looked around the now empty room. Yeosang must have slipped out silently. He wasn’t sure what to think of the quiet, ethereal, blonde. He seemed very familiar and comfortable with the rest of the rangers but he had kept to himself. Seonghwa would have to seek him out later. Him and his elusive scientist friend.
Seonghwa groaned as he got to his feet, now looking forward to the hard, lumpy mattress that awaited him. He unwrapped one of the melonpan and scarfed it, hoping it would soak up some of the alcohol.
Who knew what tomorrow would bring in this crazy castle under the sea.