mo' WIPs, mo' problems

[kenkabu]

I started writing a Pacific Rim AU a few days ago because I have no self-control. Here's a short part of it!

UPDATE (Sept 4): I added more! This is the entire first chapter. Unbeta'd, around 10.7k words.

Details: Baekhyun/Chanyeol mainly, some Chanyeol/Kris, and mentions of other side pairings; PG-13 (this part)
Notes: Chanyeol and Kyungsoo pilot a Jaeger together, until a Kaiju battle leaves Kyungsoo pretty much confined to a hospital bed for the indefinite future. Chanyeol needs a new partner. Baekhyun steps up.



He's always been fast, but this guy is faster. One well-timed kick to his ankles sends Chanyeol landing flat on his back with a grunt, Baekhyun's pole two centimetres from his nose. Chanyeol goes cross-eyed looking at it. He raises his hands in surrender, dropping his own stick.

"Two-oh," says Kris.

Baekhyun lifts away his stick, grinning. "Are all Rangers this easy?" He's panting hard, but the smugness is reeking off him in waves, Christ. He's thinks he's got it made. Like he's a cat drenched in cream. Chanyeol wants to drown him. He heaves himself up and grabs his pole again, sliding into an attack stance. Exploratory dialogue, his ass. He was trying to be nice before but fuck that-this pencil-armed pipsqueak is going down.

Chanyeol charges.

Five blocked hits later, he's on his knees, the length of Baekhyun's pole laid cool and steady across the back of his neck.

"Three-oh-"

Chanyeol swings out his arm, his own pole crashing into the flesh of Baekhyun's left thigh. Baekhyun grunts in surprise, and Chanyeol grabs him, sliding out a leg, and yanks Baekhyun over him. Baekhyun trips over Chanyeol's back and crashes to the floor. Chanyeol aims his stick at the centre of Baekhun's skull and gives him a not-too-nice tap.

"Three-one," calls Kris, finally with some emotion.

Baekhyun scrambles to his feet. He's not smiling anymore.

"Cheap move," he says.

Chanyeol shrugs. "You started it; you jumped in before Kris blew the whistle."

"You were ready. Nothing wrong with being proactive." Baekhyun holds out his pole, and Chanyeol mimics his position. They circle each other.

"We follow the rules of the arena out of respect, you dick."

"Boss man didn't seem to mind much." He doesn't take his eyes off Chanyeol as he tilts his head at Kris, who's standing at the top of the stairs, presumably watching them without expression.

"I'm not your father, Baekhyun-sshi, or your warden," Kris says, sounding neither offended nor amused. "I'm not going to give you a slap on the wrist just because you decide to show off in a dialogue combat. The point of this exercise is to find a Drift compatible partner. How you do that is totally up to you."

There's that smirk again, the one Chanyeol wants to punch off and set on fire. Baekhyun says, "Then I guess you guys won't mind when I do this-" and skids up beside Chanyeol, swinging out his pole horizontally, going straight for the axis of Chanyeol's solar plexus. Chanyeol just manages to block it with his own pole; the smack of impact vibrates up to his shoulders. He feels it in his teeth. If that had actually hit, he'd be out cold, no question.

"Holy fuck!" he grits out, shoving Baekhyun away from him. "Are you nuts? This isn't a fight to the death!"

"If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead," says Baekhyun teasingly. He skips backwards and curls two fingers at Chanyeol. "Come on, handsome. Show me what you've got."

Chanyeol sucks in a breath and readjusts his grip on his stick. His palms are sweating.

"I'm out," Kyungsoo had said, when Chanyeol was finally allowed into his room in the medical ward, a full thirty-six unacceptable hours after Kyungsoo had been wheeled in. The starch white of the bed sheets made the array of bruises stamped across Kyungsoo's skin seem oversaturated, like someone had stained fruit juice on him while he was asleep. Blueberry splotch across his right cheek, grape all the way down his neck. Lips swollen with strawberry. His arms were covered in bandages, Chanyeol didn't know what colours they wore.

Chanyeol said, "You're what?" and lamely handed over his get well soon present. Kyungsoo gave the plush, googly-eyed Ugly Doll half a second of belligerent perusal before he placed it, very neatly, on his bedside table, where three glasses stood in a perfect row next to an identical arrangement of three white caps, full of pills. It seemed to cost him an alarming amount of energy, but Chanyeol knew better than to do it for him.

"Doctors said I'm out for good," Kyungsoo continued, leaning back with a wince. "Femur fractures apparently aren't the joke we thought they were." He was frowning down at his hands, but when he looked up at Chanyeol, there was a trace of regret on his face. Great. Just when Chanyeol thought he couldn't feel any worse.

"Femurs? Really? And what do you mean for good? For good good?" Chanyeol demanded, because what the fuck. His own femurs were the size of Kyungsoo's entire torso and he'd somehow gotten out of that last Kaiju battle with both of them unscathed. Not even a nick on the knee. Meanwhile, Kyungsoo had been nearly crushed to death as their Jaeger had been body slammed into an airplane tarmac from a thousand feet in the air. It'd put that freak pterodactyl thing in the perfect position for a force beam in the gut-Chanyeol hadn't even had to aim-but it wasn't a nice winner's prize, trying to heave a 2200-ton monster off you one-handed while your co-pilot was struggling for breath literally right in your ear, because half of your cockpit had caved in on him. As Chanyeol had frantically unbuckled Kyungsoo from his harnesses, he remembered blabbering on about how they needed to install crumple zones in the Conn-Pod. This kind of injury was idiotic. It was like getting a concussion from biking without a helmet, which-fine, helmets were for dorks, but, speaking figuratively. At this point Kyungsoo, eyes crusted shut with the blood leaking from his temple, had bleated weakly for him to shut the fuck up, and Chanyeol had been so relieved he'd nearly pissed himself; at least that meant Kyungsoo would live.

"I mean, for a large number of years, possibly until I die," Kyungsoo snapped. "94 percent of my right leg is shattered and I have a metal rod up my spine. I'm going to be in recovery for at least ten months. We'll see how I test after that, but I won't ever be as strong as I was before."

"But-but-that's so unfair!"

"Stop whining," Kyungsoo said tiredly. "Congratulate me for being alive."

"Congratulations on being a spoilsport," Chanyeol accused, overly loud. He pressed two hands to his cheeks. "Congratulations on being so short that when you fall, you land on-sideways, on your face? Shit, I don't know." He tried not to sniff. He sniffed.

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. He nodded at his bedside table, where the Ugly Doll sat, sticking its tongue out at the world. It encapsulated exactly how Chanyeol felt, except with a lot less tears and mucus. "There's tissues in the first drawer," Kyungsoo said, gentler than his usual. "Wipe your face before you hug me. I'm sanitized."

That was two weeks ago. One week after that, Chanyeol had marched into Kris' office and said exactly what Kyungsoo had told him to say, under penalty of never acknowledging Chanyeol's presence again. Well, it was almost exactly verbatim. Chanyeol left out the parts about him not being "a self-centered toddler on stilts" and not tarnishing the legacy of "my trusted superior, Do Kyungsoo." The rest was something he'd pretty much planned to say anyway, but couldn't without Kyungsoo's approval. But Kyungsoo had seen right through him, as always.

"You can do it," he'd said, smiling-for once encouragingly. "You get along with everyone. You'll have no problem finding a new co-pilot."

The way that his voice had cracked on "new co-pilot" had caused a reactionary rupture, right through Chanyeol's heart, but it's not like they'd never planned for this situation. They walked around in skyscraper-height, armoured mecha for a living. Accidents were part of the biz. Didn't change the fact that there was still a planet to save.

"I'm glad," was what Kris replied with, after Chanyeol formally declared his intentions. Kris pulled up a chair beside him so Chanyeol could collapse onto it and bury his face on Kris' desk. It was, for a large stab of dark red wood, strangely comfortable. Or maybe that was the stuffed animal that Chanyeol's forehead had landed on. From the soft, short fur, it felt like the pancake-shaped panda one.

Kris' long fingers slid across Chanyeol's nape, massaging. "You don't have to do this so soon, you know," he said. "Take some time to think about it."

Chanyeol wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry-sometimes even he couldn't explain how a person as soft-hearted as Kris had made it to become Lieutenant Marshall of the Yellow Sea Battledome. At age 28, no less. Kris always had a bad habit of playing favourites, but this was a bit much. Yesterday a pair of category-II Kaiju had emerged out of the breach, twin terrors with sixteen legs apiece and heads covered in crackling pincers, and had destroyed one-fifth of Daecheon before the Mark-3 Jaegers, Starbuck Wild and Deus Ex Eclipse, had managed to smash their brains in. Of all the resources that ran limited, time was their most valued of all.

"No, no, it's okay," Chanyeol said. He lifted up his head blearily. Kris was looking at him, brows pinched, like he was debating between sweeping Chanyeol off to a safehouse somewhere, away from all this, or trying to give a pep talk that they both knew would just end up with Chanyeol laughing his ass off. Chanyeol attempted a smile, and maybe got halfway. "The present's a present, isn't that what you always say? Sign me up for candidate testing."

"If you're sure."

"Don't I look sure?" Chanyeol joked.

"You look like a guy who's only managed to keep himself together because his best friend didn't actually die even though he was convinced he was going to."

Well, Chanyeol couldn't argue against that. "I'm all right," he said, as much as for Kris' sake as for Kyungsoo's, who later would probably be able to read this meeting off him like it was stamped on Chanyeol's face in bright red ink. "It's a mindfuck though, to share the thoughts of someone who thinks they're about to die."

He already resigned himself to nightmares following him to the grave: Kyungsoo's internal screaming, the flood of images from Kyungsoo's life all melding together with his fear and pain and distress, then his own face, flickering, smiling, as Kyungsoo tried to say goodbye.

That's when Chanyeol had yanked off his Pons helmet. He never got to hear whatever Kyungsoo's last words for him were intended to be-he didn't know if that was a good thing or not.

"Have you talked to the therapy techs about it?" Kris asked.

"Yeah, but," Chanyeol blew out a breath. "They can sympathize, but they don't get it. You know?"

"Yes," Kris said quietly. "I know." His eyes dropped to the panda Chanyeol was absently playing with. Chanyeol jolted, then hastily opened his mouth to apologize, but Kris overrode him. "I'll set up an afternoon in the combat room for you."

"Thanks," said Chanyeol. He didn't really mean it very much, but Kris didn't call him out.

Two weeks ago, he'd been short a partner. One week ago, he'd asked Kris to line up a selection of their best and brightest to follow in the footsteps of Kyungsoo, three-star Ranger and Chanyeol's childhood friend-and despite his frustration that Kyungsoo was decommissioned at all, Chanyeol had been tentatively excited about what his potential new partner would bring to the table. It would be a brand new chapter in the annals of Calamity Stampede, and Chanyeol had been hopeful that whoever he'd pick as co-pilot, he or she would become Chanyeol's new bestie.

Right now, he wants nothing more than to go back in time and take up Kris' offer of some time off. Or even better, go back in time and pulverize that winged Kaiju from the air so Kyungsoo never would have gotten his body torn up almost beyond repair.

The third candidate had been a devil in disguise. Byun Baekhyun is the same age as Chanyeol, one full head shorter, stands at the top of his class from Jaeger Academy, and wields his ambition like a sword. Chanyeol has no idea what the fuck Baekhyun is so desperate to prove and why he needs to pummel Chanyeol's ass to prove it, but by the time their five-strike match had ended, Baekhyun winning five-four, Chanyeol had been in so much pain that Kris cancelled the rest of the combat interviews for the day.

"Who is this guy?" Chanyeol whines, bending over so Yixing can press more ice packs to his back. He'd returned to his room to seethe and lick his own wounds alone, but Yixing had found him anyway, first aid kit in one hand and a box of temperature packs tucked under his arm. Gossip travelled faster than Kaiju signatures around these parts.

"He's Byun Baekhyun," Yixing recites. "26 years old, born in Bucheon, Gyeonggi; he was recruit-"

"He's an arrogant fuckface, is what."

And Chanyeol's not just saying that because he's bitter he lost the match. There are people like Baekhyun who speed full throttle through life knowing exactly how talented they are, giving little effort to lesser endeavours like humility and modesty. Chanyeol knows, because he's the same type. Who knew it would be so enraging to see someone else wear a similar mask?

Yixing smiles. "He scored very well in all his aptitude tests. His Jaeger simulator scores are 45 drops, 44 kills. On paper he looked like a really good match for you."

Chanyeol whips to him, suspicious. "How do you know his scores? Did Kris let you read his file?"

"He didn't let me read anything," Yixing says placidly.

"But you did read Byun Baekhyun's file."

"Oh. Yes."

"And?"

Yixing bites his lip, dimple poking out momentarily. "He seems nice."

"Oh my god," Chanyeol sighs, aggrieved beyond expression. "You think everyone's nice."

"I think that people who are interested in risking their own lives to protect others are nice."

"Sure, but then there are those here who are legit dickwads, who signed up to get their giggles from beating up giant undersea creatures from another dimension."

"I've never thought of you as a dickwad," Yixing says, after a pause.

Chanyeol stares at him. He's never actually figured out a foolproof way to tell when Yixing was joking. Yixing pats Chanyeol's cheek with an Icy-Hot pack. "Okay," Yixing amends. "Maybe at first. Just a little."

"I knew it," breathes Chanyeol. He narrows his eyes. "Wait, you're distracting me on purpose with complimentary insults. Tell me what else Baekhyun's file said."

"What do you want to know? He's got a red belt in hapkido, but apparently is qualified enough for black. He has really good grades in everything, even IT. He has one older brother left, who's gone into the government militia." Yixing stops to think. "He was head of Stage Production in his high school drama club. He likes music. His favourite singer is-Rain? His favourite colour is, um-I forget."

"Is this a dating profile?" Chanyeol squawks. "I don't care about all that!"

"Good. You only really need to know one thing anyway, which is if he's Drift compatible with you," Kris says, walking into the room. He glares at Yixing. "Don't snoop in my files when I go to the washroom."

Chanyeol glares too. "Don't forget to the lock the door properly after you come in."

"Ah," Yixing says, blinking once. "Sorry," he inclines his head to Kris, then again to Chanyeol.

"By the way, he's not," says Chanyeol to Kris.

"He is," says Kris. "And you know he is."

"Welp, look at the time," says Chanyeol quickly. He slaps his hands on his thighs and pushes to his feet. Several of his joints pop in succession, which everyone politely ignores. "I think I have to go empty Kyungsoo's piss bag or something. Can't leave the poor guy soaked in his own fluids forever."

Kris grabs him by the arm. "Hold up," he says. "Sit." Chanyeol finally notices that he's carrying two folders: one tan yellow, fresh and crisp and thin, and the other bright orange, jammed full with papers and post-its and every corner creased. Chanyeol recognizes the orange one right away; even if it hadn't said PARK CHANYEOL on the label, it still has him written all over it.

The tan one-

"Hm?" says Yixing, pointing. "That's what I was reading before."

"Noooo," bleats Chanyeol. "I don't want him! You can't make me!" He tries to squirm out of Kris' grasp, but stupid Kris with his XXL-size hands doesn't want to let him go. Somehow he ends back on his bed, Yixing reapplying semi-melted ice to his bruises like the last five minutes never happened. Kris stands in front of him, holding out a wallet-sized photograph of Baekhyun grinning for the camera and holding up a peace sign.

Chanyeol squints at the picture. "Is he wearing eyeliner here?"

Kris shrugs. "He said he preferred how he looked with it, because they made his eyes seem bigger."

"Ah ha! We can't be Drift compatible then! Look at my big, beautiful eyes," Chanyeol says, pulling down his lower eyelids and boggling at Kris. "If we started working together, we'd have insurmountable tension because he'd be super jealous of my natural good looks."

"You are almost laughably compatible. You guys carried on one round for over ten minutes. Once you stopped committing to formalities, you were perfectly matched."

"I was trying to fight back! You can't seriously be commending that douche for breaking all the rules!"

"I'm not. But once you saw what he was doing, you met him head on and it was a textbook case of good dialogue sparring. Don't play dumb. You saw how attuned you were and were getting frustrated about it, that's why you got sloppy near the end and didn't win."

"Wow, ten minutes?" says Yixing. "Not even Lu Han and I lasted that long."

Chanyeol pulls a face. "That's because you guys would have done the decent thing and stopped once you saw the opponent getting tired. This guy just kept on going."

"He was tired too, but you also kept on going," Kris the traitor says.

"Only because he wasn't backing down," snaps Chanyeol.

"Exactly. Neither of you could make the other concede. That's what I'm saying."

"I am handing in my resignation papers tomorrow morning," Chanyeol announces. "I'm retiring. It was nice knowing you, Yixing hyung. Kris, not so much."

"You should have faked your own death if you wanted to retire peacefully," says Kris, unruffled. "I'm only doing what you asked me to do. Answer this question, and don't think: What's the most important quality to have as a Jaeger pilot?"

"Heart," Chanyeol says automatically. Cheesy answer, maybe, but it's what Chanyeol believes. Because of the neural technology Jaeger piloting was based on, most people answer with "brains," or "an open mind," or "strong self-identity." And that's true, they wouldn't be able to get anywhere without their brains being able to Drift, synchronize, and complete a neural handshake. Strategy, tactical maneuvers, reacting to spontaneous events-piloting relies on intelligence. But what use is all that without the heart to back it up? Rangers were molded for one single thing: to fight Kaijus. For that, you need drive, resilience, endurance, the will to get up even when you're knocked headfirst into the ground, the conviction to win because you and your two thousand ton action figure are all that stands between a ferocious kraken monster and the annihilation of a coastal city, the potential loss of millions of lives, the creation of hundreds of new orphans. Brains are just the plug, the hardware. Heart powers the Jaeger.

Chanyeol balks at Kris' burgeoning smile. "What, what is it? What did I say?"

"You'll never guess what Baekhyun replied to the same question," Kris asks dryly, flapping the glossy 4x5 at Chanyeol. Baekhyun's black-lined eyes were front and centre, almost mockingly alluring, and make weird butterflies gurgle up in Chanyeol's stomach before he viciously stamps them down.

"He said heart too?" Chanyeol says, resigned. He can't seem to take his eyes off Baekhyun's photo. He's sort of appalled by Baekhyun's fingers: they're really freakishly long. Baekhyun's a freak. Now Chanyeol has to be associated with him, if he can't convince Kris that they're actually long-lost enemies who've grown so familiar with each others' nuances that of course they give off the impression of being Drift compatible. When in truth, they'd tear each other apart as soon as the other's back is turned.

"No," says Kris. Chanyeol looks up at him, surprised. "He said, 'Staying alive.'"

A bark of laughter shoots out of Chanyeol unwittingly. He relaxes a bit, despite himself. Baekhyun's not wrong.

Full disclosure, it had been a really good spar. His pride doesn't want to admit that he was trumped by a rookie, but he can't deny that it'd been stomach-in-your-throat thrilling. Chanyeol even remembers smiling at some parts of it, because once they really started going all out, it'd been-fun. And he'd seen that same recognition sparkling in Baekhyun's eyes, from across the small arena. Chanyeol hadn't felt that exhilarated in hand to hand combat in forever.

Heart; life. Jesus, when did Chanyeol's life turn into a movie script? He asked for this, but he didn't ask for this.

Chanyeol lets out a breath, shaking out his shoulders, then reaches out to pluck the photo from Kris' fingers.

"What does Calamity Stampede even mean?" Byun Baekhyun asks, staring up at Calamity Stampede with a slightly puzzled expression. He has to crane his neck a long way. He's about the same height as Kyungsoo. At least they won't have to refit Kyungsoo's spinal clamp in the Conn-Pod.

"It means that we're here to bring mayhem and to brawl and to open a can of whoop-ass on ugly Kaijus," says Chanyeol.

"I guess it could be worse," says Baekhyun. "At least it's not named Deus Ex Eclipse."

"Hey, that's a cool name, okay," retorts Chanyeol. He feels some obligation to defend Sehun and Jongin's honour. Or maybe he's just irritated they have another point of similarity, because Chanyeol thinks Deus Ex Eclipse sounds kind of dumb too.

"How long have you piloted her?"

"About a year," says Chanyeol proudly. "Kyungsoo and I are her first pilots."

"Yeah, I know." Baekhyun raises a thumb to scratch at his nose. "Mark-4, huh."

"Yep. Completely digital." Chanyeol gives a loving pat to Calamity's bright red foot. "She's got a long-range missile where the nuclear core would have been, and power thrusters on her feet. She can fly short distances, too, because she's so much lighter than previous models. She's awesome."

Baekhyun lets out an impressed whistle. "She really is. Can't believe they gave her to you."

"What's that supposed to mean!"

"Relax, I'm just teasing," Baekhyun says, laughing. "You and Kyungsoo-sshi were a really good team. Your kill stats are nuts. I was sad to hear what happened to him. I read that it was a close call."

Chanyeol looks away, uncomfortable. "Yeah, well-Kyungsoo doesn't take shit from anyone. Of course he'd make it out okay." He sways left, then right, then comes to a decision. "You should meet him before we try to Mind Meld. If you can."

"Not a bad idea," Baekhyun says quietly, eyes on Calamity's scuffed red finish. "I'll ask for clearance."

"Just come with me next time I go visit," says Chanyeol. Baekhyun looks up at him, a hint of surprise flashing over his face.

"Sure."

"Good." He spins around. "Now follow me thiiis way."

Calamity's still in repair after Chanyeol and Kyungsoo's last battle; technically Chanyeol shouldn't be crawling all over it, getting in the way of its reconstruction. But after much begging and pleading to Calamity's team of mechanics (Chanyeol's best performance since Jongdae had caught Chanyeol messing around his control board and Chanyeol made up an excuse about debugging the mainframe), Chanyeol and Baekhyun are allowed up the scaffolding elevator to the top level, where a team of three grey-jump-suited engineers are pointing at blueprints, sheets of numbers, and at Calamity Stampede's pointy-eared head. Minseok's in the centre, bangs pressed flat underneath his fluorescent hard hat, tapping a T-square against his neck thoughtfully.

"Please don't make any new spec changes without my say-so," Chanyeol tells them, trying to imitate that severe look Kyungsoo always wore so well. "I'm still recovering from when you guys shaved off half of Calamity's shoulder plates."

Minseok looks over at him. "They stuck out too much. They were impeding your speed by eleven percent," he explains, even though it's probably the hundredth time he's done so. Chanyeol had been really upset; he'd loved those plates. They were so medieval knight. Now they're practically Madeleines. Was such a huge decrease in overall coolness factor worth the eleven percent boost in aerodynamics? Debatable.

"It's courtesy to get prior approval from pilots!" Chanyeol says, wagging his finger. Minseok shakes his head, unimpressed, and gets back to conspiring with the others. Chanyeol pretends they utterly respect his opinion and leads the way to the outer stretch of the scaffolding, Baekhyun a few paces behind. He jumps onto the (now, sadly much less broad) shoulder of Calamity, and finds a nice spot to take a seat, his legs stretched out in front of him. A minute later, Baekhyun sits down beside him, looking considerably less comfortable. He keeps darting looks over the slope of the plate, as if judging the distance he could slip.

Chanyeol hides his grin. For a split second he wonders how funny it'd be if he gave Baekhyun a little shove, like he's trying to knock him over-would Baekhyun yell? Shriek like a girl? But nah, Chanyeol's not that mean. Plus Kris would destroy him.

Under light of a new day though, Chanyeol doesn't have any urges to kill Baekhyun at all. Maybe Baekhyun is really thankful that Chanyeol picked him as partner, because he's different from what Chanyeol expected. He's a lot more transparent, for one thing: he's taken in everything on Chanyeol's Jaeger tour with wide eyes and unabashedly interest in everything, with just enough nervousness to see, and in general is a million times more tolerable than the cocky spitfire that Chanyeol had faced two days ago in the combat room. His sense of humour is as sharp as ever, but away from a fight setting, it errs on the side of charming rather than hostile. Baekhyun outside the arena is less leering wolf and more yipping dog-bark worse than his bite, and distracted by loud noises. It's like someone dialed down his charisma switch a few notches. Much easier to tolerate.

So many pilots have a split side like that: Yixing and Jongin also rev up to an entirely different scale when they're inside a Jaeger. Tao, too. As if there's a dangerous part of them that they only feel safe letting out when they have a legitimate excuse, like protecting humanity.

"Nice view up here," Baekhyun says.

"Yeah," agrees Chanyeol. This high up, they can see the entire north-south pavilion of the Shatterdome: heavy concrete walls veined with pipes and tubing and cables, ant-sized people milling below, thick shafts of morning sunlight piercing through dots of windows in their concave roof. Way on the other side of the facility, Starbuck Wild stands in all her ("No, he! Starbuck's a boy!" Lu Han always proclaimed, to no avail) majesty, armour freshly buffed, gleaming brown and green like a forest after rainfall.

Hidden from view by the eastern and western antechamber walls, Deus Ex Eclipse and TK Melee stand, respectively, one in ready mode for his next mission and the other patiently waiting out his sentence in purgatory. Chanyeol's Jaeger is the only Mark-4 model, but all the mecha are extraordinary in their own way: Starbuck with her popping and locking function, Eclipse with his wheels and sleek agility, TK with his baton-sword weapon-still legendary, after all these months.

Chanyeol remembers the first time he'd stood on Calamity's shoulder, struggling to rein in the swell of emotion he'd felt at being such a tiny body atop such a mighty machine, and yet holding the power to save humankind in his hands. That hope for the future so rich he could taste it, so bright he could see it, dwarfing even the immensity of the Jaegers. He imagines that his expression was exactly what Baekhyun's expression is now: jaw loose, barely blinking, rapturous.

Baekhyun looks sideways at Chanyeol. He's practically glowing. "This is really happening, isn't it? I'm a Ranger now."

Ah, the eagerness of greenhorns. Too sweet. Chanyeol grins, making sure to show his canines. "I can punch you, if you want to make sure you're not dreaming."

"Or I could punch you instead?"

"Welcome to the family," Chanyeol says hurriedly. "For better or worse, you're stuck with us now."

"Thanks," Baekhyun says, smiling a bit too. He licks his lips, then says, "Look. Sorry I was so rough yesterday. I went through the Academy really quickly, so it sort of gave me a bit of a reputation. I got used to catering to it. It wasn't anything personal."

"Huh," says Chanyeol. He takes that in. Says again, "Huh."

"I'm more chill most of the time, honestly."

"I'll believe it when I see it. But whatever, guess that reputation worked out for you in the end. Look at where you are."

"Yeah," says Baekhyun, returning his attention to the Shatterdome. "Can't complain, right?"

"Exactly. That passion will be good, out on the field."

"So Kris told me."

"Dear god. He gave you one of his terrible pep talks, huh. How was it?"

Baekhyun's downwards curl of the lip tells Chanyeol everything he needs to know about that. "His points were good. Execution sucked."

"He's much better when he's on the spot, or speaking to crowds. It's when he has to be sort of sentimental that he turns into this, like, awkward uncle talking about pregnancy or something."

"You don't need to reassure me about Kris," says Baekhyun. "Everyone in the Academy admired him." He considers Chanyeol warily. "I heard that he was the one who convinced you to give me a shot."

"Eh," Chanyeol says, feeling a bit embarrassed. This place really is just a teeming cesspool of gossip. "I was just being a sore loser, I think. It was sort of obvious that we did mesh well. You think so too, right?"

Baekhyun laughs once. "I'm sitting here, aren't I?"

"Right! Yes! So, uh, let's see." Chanyeol straightens up and claps his hands. "What's your favourite sexual position?"

Baekhyun freezes, eyebrows shooting up. "Excuse me?"

"I asked, what's your favourite sex-"

"I fucking heard you the first time!" Baekhyun snaps.

Chanyeol bares his teeth. "Well?"

"Well what? Why would you ask me that out of nowhere?"

"Because, dumbass, we're co-pilots now! We're going to have to Drift together! Today is a get-to-know-you mission. Better to air out all the dirty laundry now, sooner or later we're going to find out everything about each other anyway. So let's get the embarrassing shit out of the way. Do you want me to go first? I like doggy style."

"Ugh," Baekhyun says. "Why start with sex questions? Shouldn't you first ask me about my traumatic family past or whatever? "

"Mother and father were killed by a category-III Kaiju when you were fourteen years old, and your older brother took care of you until you decided to enroll in music for university. Your grandparents died from drinking water contaminated with Kaiju Blue as a result of the Han River Epidemic. You lost your sister-in-law when her building collapsed from a Breach quake that caused a tsunami in Busan. Your brother enlisted in the military, you decided to enlist in Jaeger Academy. I guess it is a pretty sad life, but literally everyone in this facility could write a tearjerker based on their shitty circumstances. Uh, but if you want to start with easier questions, what's your favourite movie?"

Baekhyun doesn't say anything. Maybe looks a little taken aback.

"I read up on you," Chanyeol explains. "I'd be an idiot not to find out as much as I could about the dude I'm going to be sharing thoughts with. You were given a file on me too, weren't you?"

"Yeah," says Baekhyun, more slowly. "Lost your dad at age ten, your mom at eighteen. Your older sister went on an undersea expedition to document Breach impulses, and communications to their submersible was lost; they've been missing for years."

Now it's Chanyeol's turn to be quiet. He meets Baekhyun's eyes steadily, but it takes him a while to say, "You didn't say dead."

"What?"

"Yura's ship and crew. They're dead. It's been over two years. Everyone thinks they're dead."

Baekhyun says, "Do you think they're dead? They never found the ship."

"I-" Chanyeol wets his lips. He doesn't want to. The reports said that when the DSV Verne was closing in on the Breach at a distance of 500 metres, a huge eruption of electromagnetic impulses had completely fritzed out all their communication signals. They blipped out. One minute later, radars detected the signature of a category-III Kaiju that eventually swam over to Taiwan and took out three kilometres of their downtown cities before it was brought down by TK Melee. The submersible was never found. The Kaiju's stomach was ripped open, its contents found inconclusive. Search parties scoured the sea floor around the Breach for months, even following the direction of the ocean currents, but Verne seemed to have disappeared without a trace.

But evidence or not, the point is that Yura is long gone. What haunts Chanyeol is whether she spent her last moments on Earth, being crushed in a Kaiju's mouth, or across the portal, in the Anteverse, in the realm of nightmares.

"I think," Chanyeol tries again. "I think... yes. I mean, how could she have survived?"

Baekhyun shrugs. "How could we have a bridge to another dimension at the bottom of Pacific Ocean?"

Chanyeol laughs hollowly. "No clue." He draws up his knees and curls his arms around them. It's been a while since he thought about Yura. He'd taken down a lot of her photos from his dorm room walls after he'd first moved into the Battledome because other residents kept joking that they were pictures of him in drag. Now it hurts too much to find them to put them back up.

Baekhyun crosses his legs, leaning back onto his elbows and raising his face to the sunlit roof. "It's The Matrix," he says. "The first one. And my favourite position is reverse cowgirl. Except cowboy, not girl."

"You on top or bottom?" Chanyeol prods, cracking a smile.

"Either or, but I guess-on top? But bottoming." Baekhyun scratches his neck. "This is a slightly traumatizing conversation, I hope you know."

"This type of trauma is easy to handle, though," says Chanyeol. "Your turn, ask me something."

Baekhyun cups his chin on his palm, humming. "Most embarrassing sexual experience."

Easy. "Tried to do it in the Conn-Pod once. Got stuck in the machinery wires with my dick out. The only reason we managed to get free was because apparently the analog voice feed wasn't fully cut and Jondgae-he's our operative technician, you'll meet him later-was listening to the entire thing from his desk. He blackmails me with the recording. Haven't managed to get my hands on it yet, but once I do I'm going to ground that thing to dust."

"Holy shit." Baekhyun's laughing hard. "Who was the unlucky lady?"

"Guy. His name was Tao."

Baekhyun blinks twice. "Tao, as in Huang Zitao? Former pilot of TK Melee? Kris' old co-pilot, Tao?"

Chanyeol winces. "You make it sound so sordid," he whines. "It was a dare, okay? We weren't together or anything."

"Hey, I don't care, whatever floats your boat," Baekhyun says, laughing even louder. He's clutching his stomach. "Oh my god. That's fucking hilarious. I can't even imagine how Kyungsoo and Kris reacted. I can't wait to meet Jongdae."

"They were totally not mad about it, I'll have you know," Chanyeol says. Lie. He's breaking out into a cold sweat just remembering Kyungsoo's appalled face when he'd opened up the Pod door. Kris had taken the news marginally better, but maybe that was because it hadn't been in his Jaeger that they'd been caught. Or maybe he hadn't felt the need to scold so much because Zitao, miracle upon miracles, had actually been embarrassed by what happened. Jongdae even noted it on his calendar in blue highlighter: tao felt shame today!!!! It's not one of Chanyeol's favourite memories of Tao, although the sex had been good.

He hastily changes the subject. "Okay, now you."

Baekhyun tilts his head back and forth for a bit, mulling. "I tried to use butter as lube once."

"No way," Chanyeol says.

"In the washroom of a restaurant."

"Oh god?"

"Where I was booked as the musical act for the evening."

"Oh god."

"We were in the employees only washroom and the guy who ended up unlocking the door was the owner of the restaurant."

Chanyeol buries his face in his hands, trying to smother his shocked laughter. "That's-wow."

Baekhyun smirks. "The other dude got fired, but I still got paid. Except I couldn't use butter for, like, two months after that." He scoots a little closer to Chanyeol. "Hey, what's the worst thing you've ever said to someone? Have you ever made anyone cry?"

The second busiest time in the Shatterdome, after prep for Kaiju battle, is a daily event: lunch in the cafeteria. It's when pretty much the collective facility of around 250 hundred people are all up, awake, and ravenous. There's not nearly enough tables to accommodate everyone so lunchtime spans basically from 11:00 to 2:00, but the early birds get the worm: there's a limited number of good dessert choices available-and Chanyeol has strong opinions about good desserts.

At 11:30 he's leading Baekhyun through the growing mass of people, explaining the ins and outs of getting the best table, the best food, how to cut in line without people noticing. When he turns back to make sure Baekhyun is still within hearing range, he finds he's lost his audience.

"Uh huh, yep, desserts, how interesting," Baekhyun says, distracted. He's still behind Chanyeol, but his attention is craned backwards on the bent heads of Yixing and Lu Han, sitting at their usual table. Lu Han, as if feeling someone's gaze on him, raises up his chin like a meerkat and spots Chanyeol and Baekhyun in line for food. He waves; Chanyeol waves back.

"They're shorter than I imagined," Baekhyun muses.

"I dare you to say that to Lu Han," says Chanyeol. "Once I asked him if Starbuck was so tall because she was overcompensating for something-he kicked me so hard I couldn't sit down for the rest of the day."

"He sounds terrifying," says Baekhyun, rolling his eyes.

"Don't be fooled by his pretty face! He's a demon!"

"He does have better kill stats than you," says Baekhyun.

Chanyeol sputters. "That's not what I meant. He's been a Ranger for way longer than I have!"

"Wait, how old is he again?"

Chanyeol opens his eyes as widely as he can and leans in close to Baekhyun. "No one knows," he whispers dramatically. Baekhyun cringes away.

"His files say he was born in 1990," says a new voice. Chanyeol turns around to see Jongdae standing behind him holding a full lunch tray. At the left corner sits a triangular container holding a slice of-yes, strawberry cheesecake.

"How the hell did you get here so early?" Chanyeol asks. "I thought you were helping tune up Starbuck's comm modules this morning."

"I have my ways," says Jongdae slyly. He grins at Baekhyun. "Baekhyun, right? Greetings, human, welcome to hell."

"Thanks for having me," Baekhyun says, dipping his head. "You're-"

Jongdae's grin is, as always, suspiciously enthusiastic. "I'm Kim Jongdae! I give orders."

"You give Kris' orders," says Chanyeol.

"It's still me giving them. Close enough."

"Jongdae's, like, an annoying narrator of a TV show. He's the technician who walks us through our neural handshakes and stuff. You'll be hearing a lot of his voice. Unfortunately."

"Excuse you, I've got the voice of an angel. You'd be seafood without this voice."

"Ah, Jongdae-sshi," says Baekhyun. "I've heard of you!"

"Oh! Have you?" Jongdae says, surprised and pleased. "Good things?"

"Brilliant things. Something about a personal recording of someone's very embarrassing incident in the cockpit of-"

"Whoops, the line's moving, we really have to be going," Chanyeol interrupts loudly, grabbing Baekhyun's arm and dragging him away. "See you never, Jongdae."

Jongdae's laughter trails after them like they're in some sort of awful sitcom. "I'll save you guys a seat!" he calls out. Chanyeol resolutely ignores him.

When they finally reach the front of the line, Chanyeol quickly piles as much food as he can onto his tray without spilling anything, then beelines for the dessert section. His heart leaps: there's a single portion of cheesecake left, lit ethereally under the fluorescent-lined hood, and there are still three people in front of him. He tries to subtly sneak his arm under them to grab the plastic container, but right as he's about to touch it, someone picks it up and drops it on his own plate.

Chanyeol looks up. "You ass," he says.

"Move too slow and you're going to get burned," says Kim "I'm way too satisfied with myself" Jongin. Sehun is next to him and Chanyeol notices two servings of cake on Sehun's tray.

"You can't take two!" he yelps. "That's swindling!" He darts in to steal one of the containers, but Sehun pulls his tray away.

"That one's for Joonmyeon hyung," he says.

"If he's not here to get it himself, then that's his problem," argues Chanyeol, grabbing again. Sehun dodges and Chanyeol grasps air. He's a fucking eel.

"Just get a date square," Sehun says, indicating the sheet of gooey brown bricks on the other end of the cart.

"They disappoint my palate," Chanyeol frowns, but he grabs three anyway for the sugar. He's not worried about fair play with them; the caf never runs out of date squares. "This is Jongdae's fault. We wouldn't have missed our chance if we hadn't talked to him. Right, Baekhyun?"

"Who?" says Jongin.

"The new guy," says Sehun. "For Kyungsoo hyung."

"This guy," Chanyeol clarifies, nodding over his shoulder to see-not Baekhyun.

"You lost your new partner already," snickers Jongin. "Great start."

"Shut up, I-" Chanyeol swivels his head around, finally spotting Baekhyun all the way back by the salad bar, chatting easily with a random staff member who's refilling the vegetables. They watch as Baekhyun helps the chef dump in a new batch of green olives, then picks out a few olives to taste when the chef bends down to pick up the next ingredient bin. His lips curl down: too salty, apparently. Chanyeol could have told him that.

"You like him?" Jongin asks quietly.

"I guess he's exceeded my expectations?" admits Chanyeol. "But they were low in the first place, so-take that how you want."

"He won't match up to Kyungsoo hyung," says Jongin. He sounds so sure.

Chanyeol kind of agrees, but that bothered him a lot more yesterday than it does today.

"I don't think he wants to," Chanyeol says, and picks up another date square for Baekhyun, just in case.

"Family meeting, family meeting," Lu Han calls excitedly, as the four of them approach their table. "Rangers assemble!" He presses closer to Minseok so Sehun and Jongin can sit on his left. Chanyeol and Baekhyun take a seat on the other side of the table, next to Jongdae and Yixing. Lu Han beams. "We all came to eat at the same time today! Now we're the coolest table in the caf. Oh, except for Jongdae-sshi."

"That's discrimination," says Jongdae. "Use more inclusive terms!"

"Minseok hyung's not a Ranger either," adds Sehun.

"But he knows how to pilot, so that counts," says Lu Han, smiling at Minseok. Minseok tilts his head a bit, but continues quietly eating his food. There's a smear of machine oil above his left eyebrow and Lu Han's eyes keep darting to it, pained, like he's not sure whether he wants to rub it off or to take a photograph so he can immortalize it forever. He tears his gaze away with obvious effort.

"Baekhyun-sshi!" he says.

"Yes!" says Baekhyun, sitting up straight.

"Is Chanyeol doing a good job of showing you around? You're having a good time?"

"It's been all right," Baekhyun says teasingly. "Chanyeol could up his game a little. I had to introduce myself to Jongin and Sehun."

"You butt in before I could do it!" protests Chanyeol.

"Then do it properly now," says Lu Han.

Chanyeol sighs. "Baekhyun, this is Lu Han and," he points past Jongdae, "that's Zhang Yixing." Yixing bows a little. "They're pilots for Starbuck Wild. Which you already know. And you already know Minseok and Jongdae too. You guys, this is Baekhyun, my new co-pilot."

"Nice to meet everyone," says Baekhyun. "I hope we'll work well together."

"Of course we will," says Lu Han. "Any friend of Chanyeol's is a friend of ours."

Yikes. They're friendlier for sure, but to call them friends on their first day together is, in Chanyeol's opinion, a bit of a leap. Evidently no one informed Lu Han of Chanyeol and Baekhyun's overly antagonistic dialogue spar-Baekhyun apologizing today only belatedly eased the pain of Chanyeol having a heat pack plastered to his ass the entire night. But Baekhyun doesn't miss a beat, grinning back equally brightly. "Yup! Likewise."

"So when are you and Chanyeol going to go for a test run?" asks Jongdae. "Let me know so I can set up the program."

"Soon, soon," says Chanyeol. "Calamity's still getting fixed up. Which will finish in-?"

"She'll be ready by tomorrow," says Minseok calmly. "Pass the ketchup, please."

Lu Han gives him the ketchup bottle. "That's crazy. You're working too hard," he complains. "Hasn't it only been a week since her last battle? Where the entire right side of her body was totalled?"

"It's been over two," says Minseok.

"Still."

"It's necessary. I was speaking to Joonmyeon the other day. And he's been noticing an increasing frequency of category-III Kaijus coming from the Breach. And the time in between successive Kaiju attacks is decreasing."

"I don't like it," says Jongin. He puts down his fried chicken and adds, "When Sehun and I first started piloting there were intervals of, uh, a month, between attacks. Now it's weeks."

"And they're meaner and smarter than they used to be," says Sehun, stabbing at his rice. "I want a vacation."

"You can vacation forever once we figure out how to close the Breach!" says Lu Han.

Jongin snorts. "Yeah, like that's going to happen."

"It will! We have to. What else are we going to rely on, that Wall of Life they're thinking of building in Alaska?" A ripple of laughter passes across the table. No one takes that project initiative seriously.

"Do you..." Yixing starts to say, looking surprised at himself for the idea, "think that there's going to be a category-IV Kaiju one day?"

The laughter stops.

"Oh my god," says Lu Han. He reaches over to slap Yixing's head. "Don't say it out loud! Now we're jinxed!"

"Ah, but-"

"We can deal with that when we have to," says Jongdae. "Let's not stress over maybes." He's trying to sound reassuring but it's more like he's softening the pain of a delayed death sentence. The sentence is still there. Category-IV will happen, because category-III happened, and category-II happened. It's year five of the Kaiju War, and though all signs point to humanity as the winning side, it comes at a cost. Because Jaegers are the first line of defense against Kaijus, as long as they keep coming through the Breach, Rangers will have to continue fighting. Until the Breach can be destroyed, the biggest issue is who will outlast the other: humans, with their technology and their need to survive, or the creatures of the Anteverse, with their seemingly endless population and a need to destroy? When Chanyeol had first entered Jaeger Academy, his director had started off his entrance speech with, "Graduating from this school is your only way to fight inside a Jaeger, and it is all but a guarantee that you will die in one."

So few Rangers live past the age of 40. Chanyeol's short-term goal is to make it to 30 without any major loss of physical or mental faculty. If he can pass 30 in one piece, he thinks he has a chance for a few more good years before age starts getting the better of him.

Kyungsoo always called him out on being optimistic to the point of stupidity.

Kyungsoo's not wrong about much, but he's wrong about that. Chanyeol's optimistic because he's smart. His job is literally kill or be killed: optimism is the only way for him to stay sane.

Some days, though, yeah, it's hard to be optimistic. Like two weeks ago when Kyungsoo had suffered over twenty hours in surgery, unconscious and a thread away from death, or the day the search parties officially decided to stop looking for Yura and her crew, or early this year, when TK Melee dragged himself out of the stormy Pacific Ocean onto the Eastern beaches of Taiwan, three-quarters of its body limp and crumbling-Jongdae finally, finally picking up their signal only to be met with the tinny, broken buzz of Kris' voice, crying for help like a lost child.

That's the most ironic part of being a Ranger. The things that make you want to stop fighting are the best reasons to never give up.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun lucked out today; it's been a while since the group of them shared a meal together, and this is a great introduction to the other soldiers on their team. It's different without Kyungsoo here, cutting up Jongin's meat for him or frowning at Sehun for double-dipping into Kyungsoo's sauce, but this is nice, too. Lu Han is nagging at both Yixing and Minseok to eat more, holding up a forkful of broccoli up to Yixing's mouth. Sehun is meticulously removing all the mushrooms in his rice dish onto Jongin's plate, while Jongdae and Jongin share recent horror stories about Joonmyeon's perpetually messy office. Tiny pockets of normality within an era of chaos.

Chanyeol nudges Baekhyun with his elbow. "So tomorrow, we'll Drift," he says. "Be ready."

Baekhyun's smile is half cocky, half cute. "Born ready," he says, and salutes Chanyeol with his chopsticks.

If you're not a hyung, Kyungsoo greets with the pointy end of the stick. The first sentence he says to Baekhyun after, "Hello," is, "Your simulation scores are 45-44. What made you fail that one time?"

"Wow, you don't mess around, do you," Baekhyun asks sarcastically. "It's an honour to meet you, by the way." He pulls back from the handshake and spares a suspicious glance down at his palm like he's afraid Kyungsoo might have left poison on him somehow.

"You didn't say it was an honour when we met," Chanyeol complains.

"Why would he?" Kyungsoo says tonelessly.

"Ouch." Chanyeol grabs his chest, feigning hurt. He shakes his head sadly at Baekhyun. "Kyungsoo's a total hard-ass most of the time. You should be thankful that he's not making you call him Kyungsoo-sunbaenim or something."

"No one asked you," says Kyungsoo. He nods to the empty cup on his bedside table. "Get some water for us, please."

"There are supposed to be nurses for this sort of thing," Chanyeol gripes, but grabs the cup and heads out into the hall.

So Kyungsoo wants some time alone to size up Baekhyun without Chanyeol playing obnoxious hoverer. Chanyeol can manage that. Still, he leaves the door to Kyungsoo's open a sliver so he can listen in when he comes back. The last thing he hears before he rounds the corner is Baekhyun's awed and slightly fearful voice, saying, "Wow, you're even more intense than I imagined," and Kyungsoo's answering snort of laughter.

The hospital wing is quiet tonight, but outside of its quarantine, evenings in the Shatterdome aren't that different from the days. Kaiju emerge from the Breach at indiscriminate times, so the population of night workers are only really distinguishable by their quieter, more somber personalities, and the dark rings under their eyes. When Chanyeol had first met Tao, he'd thought Tao could totally pass for night shift.

Chanyeol refills Kyungsoo's cup from the water cooler by the vending machine, then pulls out a paper cup from the dispenser for Baekhyun. When he looks up, he notices a familiar sloping set of shoulders, crossing the adjacent hall.

"Yo, hyung!"

Yixing pokes his head back, surprised. He smiles. "Hi."

"What's up? What are you doing in this astringenty neck of the woods?"

Yixing holds up a small, orange prescription bottle. "Some painkillers," he says regretfully.

"Oh shit, don't tell me your waist is acting up again?"

"My waist? Oh. Yeah. It's not bad during the day, but it's hard to lie flat. Except I want to sleep sometimes. So I got the painkillers."

"You deserve them," jokes Chanyeol. He holds up his two cups of water. "I brought Baekhyun to meet Kyungsoo. They're chatting right now."

"About you, maybe?" Yixing laughs.

"Probably. No, definitely. I should probably get back to check up on them. I mean, in his casts Kyungsoo can't kill anyone, but-"

"Yeah, he can glare pretty hard. You don't want to scare Baekhyun-sshi away."

Chanyeol licks his lower lip. "Hey, uh. You've met him now. Do you think Baekhyun was the right choice?"

Yixing answers carefully. "I think... I think he's a strong person. You can feel right away that he's on the bold side. That's good for a Ranger, in my opinion."

"He can be rude, though," says Chanyeol. "What if he doesn't listen to me?"

"He will. A squabbling couple can't pilot a Jaeger."

Chanyeol shudders, imagining Baekhyun in a floral-patterned apron, bustling around the kitchen while yapping nonstop about neighbourhood gossip; then Chanyeol sitting at the table, flipping through the newspaper and trying not to become annoyed at the incessant verbal soundtrack.

Being a Ranger can be terrible as fuck sometimes, but there's no question that Chanyeol would rather be where he is than anywhere else in the world-he doesn't have the personality to settle down in a house, with partner and kids and a regular nine to five job. It's too-sitting duck. He'd probably get hives from the boredom.

"What does Kyungsoo think of him?" Yixing asks.

"That's what I'm going to find out. I think they'd get along, though. Baekhyun's personality is pretty similar to mine, and Kyungsoo's put up with me for-god, over fifteen years. Wow, it hurts to count that."

"It's because you've known each other since you were children," says Yixing. His gaze lowers a bit, contemplative, before he pulls his eyes back up to Chanyeol. "I hope it goes well for you guys. It's not easy to find form new co-pilot teams. You're really fortunate to have met Baekhyun, and that Kyungsoo is being so accommodating." He sounds so genuine that it makes Chanyeol feels guilty.

"Yeah, I know, I know," says Chanyeol. "I've got to get back. Have a good night, okay? Be careful with your pills."

"I will," smiles Yixing. "Give Kyungsoo my best. I'll visit him again soon."

When he tiptoes over to Kyungsoo's room, pushing his ear into the crack of the door, Chanyeol hears nothing, just the steady blipping of Kyungsoo's heart monitor. Shit, what if Kyungsoo really did kill Baekhyun? Chanyeol kicks open the door, mouth ready to scream, only to find-a staring contest. Or a glaring contest?

"That took you a long time," Kyungsoo says, not looking away from Baekhyun.

"I-I was talking to Yixing in the hall. What are you doing?"

"What do you mean? We're just chatting," Baekhyun says stiffly. He rolls his shoulders and finally breaks gaze with Kyungsoo. He nods at the cups in Chanyeol's hands. "That one's mine? Thanks." Chanyeol hands it over and Baekhyun tosses the entire thing back in three gulps.

"Okay, this isn't going to fly," says Chanyeol. "What were you guys talking about? It's like-tension central in here."

"Kyungsoo-sunbae thinks we shouldn't Drift tomorrow," says Baekhyun. He crumples up the cup in his hand.

"What? Why not?"

"Because supposedly, we're not ready."

"No, you're not ready," says Kyungsoo. He looks up at Chanyeol unsympathetically. "He doesn't know what it's like to lose something."

"Are you out of your mind? He's lost his parents and his sister-in-law. His brother is in the military."

"No, lose, like a fight. He's never lost a fight, so he has no idea what defeat is like."

"Why does that even matter?" Baekhyun says loudly, pushing his hands through his hair. He stretches out on his chair, every line of his body screaming frustration. "Isn't it more important to win? I thought that was the point."

"Real life isn't a simulation," Kyungsoo says. "Sometimes survival is more important. You have to know when to retreat. We're in a war-we can't afford to sacrifice all our chips in every battle. You want to fight until you're forced down? You'll ruin your Jaeger beyond repair and we'd drain our resources dry in less than a decade. You know how much it costs to build a Jaeger?" He looks like he wants to shake Baekhyun. Luckily he's inhibited by his wraps of bandages and casts. Chanyeol still hurries to stand between him and Baekhyun, just in case either of them start shooting laser beams out of their eyes or something.

"You think I care about saving money over lives? If it's only me versus a Kaiju, keeping it from-"

"That's what I mean. You don't know how to compromise. I read your file-your hotshot reputation from Academy-people loved you, respected you. Probably were afraid of you as well. You were so popular you dominated your class. But when you're Drifting for real, it's not just you. It's Chanyeol, too. And you guys aren't alone, there's Lu Han and Yixing, and Jongin and Sehun. There's your commanding officers, whose orders you're expected to follow. The Jaeger Initiative is a worldwide group effort. You're in a team now. There's no room in it for people who put themselves first."

"I know that," Baekhyun says, teeth gritting. "You think I'm some kind of idiot? Of course I know-"

"If you got an order to turn back, in the middle of a battle, would you do it?"

"I-" Baekhyun blinks. "It'd depend on how close I am to finishing the Kaiju."

Kyungsoo's lips purse. "Not on how close the Kaiju is to finishing you? Keep your lone ranger tendencies for when you're really backed up against a wall."

"My-fuck you, I don't have lone ranger tendencies-" Baekhyun pushes to his feet.

"Woah, woah, let's all just calm down for a second-" Chanyeol interrupts, holding up his hands.

"I'm calm," Kyungsoo snaps, at the same time Baekhyun says, "We're fine."

Chanyeol takes a deep breath. "Okay, then, let's go through this slowly. Doesn't Baekhyun have one loss from his Jaeger Simulator scores? Did you forget about that?"

"His partner had a nervous breakdown during the fight. He says it wasn't his fault," says Kyungsoo.

Baekhyun bristles. Chanyeol sees his fists clench. "What the hell are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying that you and Chanyeol need to talk more and get to know each other better before you Drift! If you go head first into this the way you are now, you're going to chase the rabbit down the hole and never come back out."

Chanyeol's starting to get annoyed too. Kyungsoo has been lying in bed this entire time, he hasn't been interacting with Baekhyun like the rest of them. He doesn't know. Baekhyun's gotten along fine with the other Rangers, he came recommended by Kris, and, most importantly, he and Chanyeol have talked. They had an entire humiliating conversation about ill-timed diarrhea on top of Calamity and by the end of it Chanyeol was laughing so hard his stomach hurt-how is that not getting to know each other better?

Unless-Chanyeol stops. "Are you jealous?" he blurts.

Kyungsoo stares at him, eyes widening hugely. "What?"

"Because you sound sort of bitter," Chanyeol rushes to say. "Like, 'doth protest too much' bitter. I get it, though. I would be too, probably, if I were you? But you were the one who encouraged me to get a new partner! It's not like you didn't know what would happen once I did."

"I'm not jealous!" Kyungsoo shouts.

"You should trust in my choice," says Chanyeol.

"It's not that I don't-"

"Then quit playing little miss martyr!" Baekhyun jumps in. "I'm fucking trying to be the best Ranger I can be! This is going to help Chanyeol, too. It's good that I can win. It means I'll keep on winning!"

A muscle Kyungsoo's jaw ticks. "Then you'd better," he says coldly. "I hope you do, honestly." He doesn't move an inch, but he seems to pull back bodily from the conversation. He looks down at his slung up right arm-in the ensuing silence, with his hospital gown practically swamping him, his chin lowered, and his small body only taking up half the hospital bed, he gives off the impression of a schoolboy, left behind while all his friends went off to play elsewhere.

"Hey," Chanyeol says, suddenly worried. Has Kyungsoo always been so pale? Chanyeol forgot, with how intimidating Kyungsoo can be, that Kyungsoo's still in recovery from getting half his body crushed. This conversation must have completely strained him. "Kyungsoo, you shouldn't push-"

"I'm fine," Kyungsoo says quietly. Then he adds, "I'm sorry for losing my temper." He sucks in his lips, flicking his eyes up to Chanyeol. "I trust you. You don't ever need to doubt that."

"I-okay, uh. Good. Great. Thanks." Chanyeol and Baekhyun share a glance. Chanyeol shrugs, helpless. He's just as lost as Baekhyun is.

"Hey, Baekhyun," pipes up Kyungsoo.

Baekhyun jumps. "Yeah?"

His next few words seem like agony for Kyungsoo to get out. "I'm giving you a hard time, but at the end of the day, if you keep Chanyeol and the other Rangers safe, then I have nothing to complain about. So-good luck, I guess."

"Thank you," murmurs Baekhyun awkwardly.

"I mean it. Chanyeol can be a bit of an idiot-"

"Oi," says Chanyeol.

"-so honestly, you'll need all the luck you can get."

A smile cracks its way onto Baekhyun's face. It's the same one that Chanyeol had seen when Baekhyun put his hand on Calamity Stampede for the first time, feeling the thick casing of her foot underneath his palm. Even though she wasn't online, Baekhyun's smile had been amazed, as if he could feel her humming with life, as if she was saying hello. Chanyeol, watching, had felt a tug of something deep in his chest, like the raising of an anchor. If Kyungsoo had seen Baekhyun then, would he be doubting Baekhyun's abilities now? Or would he agree with Chanyeol thinking that Baekhyun, with his stubbornness and confidence and giggly smiles, had the potential to be incredible?

"Don't worry about luck," says Baekhyun, strong and sure. "We've got the skill."