(no subject)
The lights flickered in the hallway as Seungho carefully made his way down the hallway with his pistols in his hands. He was joined by Byunghee moments later, both of their eyes constantly roaming.
"Where are the others?" Seungho whispered.
"Sanghyun's in the infirmary. He has a few guns in there among other things."
"Cheolyong?"
"Went to go find Changsun. They're probably in the engine room."
"Did you hear what I heard?"
"Yeah." They both stopped and pressed themselves again the wall when they came to the open docking port, a door that was supposed to be closed unless they were connected to another ship.
"Fuck," Seungho said as a bloody hand wrapped itself around the edge of the open door.
"Reavers."
--
Cheolyong ran into the engine room, face pale as he closed the door behind him, grabbing a wrench to wedge into the door handle. Changsun looked up from the part he was trying to fix and frowned. "What's going on?"
"Shh, keep your voice down!" Cheolyong whispered frantically, hurrying around the room and checking the corners. "Are there any spots in here where the metal is thin and something can break through it?"
"Just the door. I've been meaning to replace it with something stronger just in case there's a fire in the engine room or something. What's going on?"
"Of course the damn door would be the weakest part of this room." Cheolyong swore some more before handed one of his guns to Changsun. "I hope you're a good shot. There are Reavers on board the ship."
Changsun paled. "B-but I've never even held a gun before!"
"Learn. Fast."
--
Seungho swallowed as the Reaver came into view. Parts of his body were rotting, and half of his face was missing, along with an eyelid. His eye was crusted over, but Seungho was sure he could still see. He was prepared for the sight, but he wasn't prepared for the smell.
"Holy shit," Seungho said, coughing slightly. The sound of the cough was enough to alert the Reaver of his presence, and there was a screech as he lumbered towards Seungho and Byunghee.
More of them suddenly piled into the ship, running off in all directions. Seungho guessed there were at least seven or eight of them before he shot the one coming towards them. That's one down, and too many to go. The sound of the gunshot attracted a couple of them, and they were more able than the one he just shot.
"Shit, Seungho! Way to alert the rest of them!" Byunghee said, pressing his back to Seungho's. There was a Reaver behind them, ready to slash with its makeshift weapon before Byunghee shot it in the head. He winced as a spray of decaying flesh hit him. There were more shots behind him as Seungho fired on the pack that ran for them.
"We need to get to the rest of the crew and figure out where these things are hiding on the ship."
--
Changsun heard gunshots and screeching and felt himself start trembling. Cheolyong narrowed his eyes before standing up and aiming his gun at the door, just in case something decided to come through.
"Whatever you do, please don't shoot me," Cheolyong said. Changsun could hear the tremble in his voice, and he nodded, knowing the other man couldn't see him. There were the sounds of footsteps outside, and then the door rattled.
Changsun scrambled to his feet and held out his gun, trying to steady his hand. After a few tense moments, the rattling stopped, leaving Changsun with a small sense of relief.
Until a cleaver broke through the door and sliced through the metal with a loud screech.
"Holy shit!" Cheolyong shouted as bloody hands pushed at the metal to make an opening. Changsun swallowed and aimed. As soon as he and Cheolyong could see faces, they fired.
--
Seungho and Byunghee heard shots fired that weren't theirs. "The engine room," Seungho said, Changsun's face flashing in his mind.
"You go. The hallway's clear. I'm headed back to check on Sanghyun and make sure he's not dead."
Seungho nodded. "Stay alive. It's hard finding good people." He watched Byunghee's retreating back before hurrying towards the engine room. There was another pack of Reavers trying to get through a hole in the door, and the shots coming from inside weren't deterring them.
Seungho fired off a few shots of his own and drew attention to himself. Two of the Reavers came bounding towards him, and promptly dropped to the ground, bullets in their heads. When there was no more movement, Seungho counted the bodies. Five of them. He had no idea how many were roaming the ship now. He didn't know how many Reavers boarded before they discovered the docking port door was open.
They would have to do multiple sweeps of the ship to make sure all of them were dead before rounding up the bodies and ejecting them into deep space.
"Seungho? Oh thank god," Changsun said, poking his head through the ruined door. "Where's-" Suddenly, one of the supposedly dead Reavers reached up and grabbed Changsun's leg, sinking his rotting teeth into his calf. Changsun let out a yell, making Seungho freeze. A shot came from inside the engine room, stilling the Reaver once more as Changsun was dragged back.
"Jesus fucking Christ! Were you just going to stand there and let him chew his leg off?" Cheolyong yelled from inside. Seungho hurried forward and put another bullet in the dead bodies for good measure.
Changsun was white and staring at his bleeding leg with wide eyes. "Oh my god, am I going to turn into a Reaver now?" Seungho blinked at him a few times before shaking his head.
"No. That's not how it works. Come on. We'll take you to the infirmary. No doubt Sanghyun has a stack of dead bodies."
--
"Whoa, whoa! Don't shoot! Person capable of speech with no cannibalistic tendencies coming through," Byunghee said as he was suddenly face to face with the barrel of a shotgun.
"Oh. It's you. I've killed about six of them. More of them ran by, but I managed to cripple those. There should be a pretty obvious trail through the ship," Sanghyun said, wiping some sweat away from his brow. His shoulder was sore from the kickback of the shotgun, but it was better to be sore than dead.
"I'll go after the ones that escaped." There was a trail of blood leading deeper and lower into the ship, towards the sleep quarters, the galley, and the cargo hold.
"Probably shouldn't go without backup. The ones that escaped used the bodies of their friends to take the blunt of the shot so they could escape with a few scrapes. They looked newly turned too, no rotting flesh."
"Medic," Seungho said, shoving Byunghee out of the way and helping a limping Changsun to the exam table. Sanghyun glanced at the bloody leg and winced.
"Thought it was dead, huh? Glad to see you still have your leg," Sanghyun said, looking for a pair of latex gloves to pull onto his hands. "The sooner you treat it the better. I don't want it getting infected." Sanghyun gently moved Changsun so his leg was propped up on the table. He cut away part of the fabric of his jumper and took a closer look.
Out of morbid curiosity, Cheolyong peeked around Seungho, making his jaw drop in horror. "Is that... teeth?" he asked as Sanghyun grabbed a pair of tweezers and pulled out a white object from Changsun's leg.
"Looks like it. Gotta get these out, and disinfect it immediately. Who knows what diseases are crawling around on this thing?"
"Dear god," Changsun said quietly, color draining from his face again. He rubbed his eyes and ignored the sharp, jabbing pains in his calf.
"Byunghee, can you take care of the rest on the ship? Besides me, you've been here the longest. Cheolyong and I will take care of the Reaver ship."
"Yeah. I'll be fine by myself. If I don't come back in half an hour, assume something went wrong."
--
"Will they be okay?" Changsun asked, feeling a sense of foreboding emptiness after the other three left.
"Should be." Sanghyun took advantage of the new disinfectant and used liberal amounts on Changsun's leg after numbing it. There seemed to be steam coming from the wound, making Sanghyun blink. This was the stuff they used in the imperial army. "It won't get infected, not after this," Sanghyun said, putting the bottle away. "How does it feel?"
"Like someone tried to take a chunk out of my leg," Changsun said through gritted teeth. He spotted movement out of the corner of his eye, and before he could even realize what he'd done, he grabbed the nearest gun and pulled the trigger.
Sanghyun whipped around in time to see a Reaver fall over into the pile of his dead brethren. "Nice shot. I didn't take you for a quick shooter."
"I'm not," he said. Changsun's hand started to shake, and Sanghyun gently took the gun away from him.
"It's okay. We gotta do what we have to, to survive."
--
Seungho and Cheolyong came back from the Reaver ship looking a little worse for wear. Cheolyong's head was bleeding, and there was a small cut on Seungho's face. "There were a few traps on the ship that we weren't prepared for. Is Byunghee back yet?"
Sanghyun stared up at the clock in the infirmary. Forty-fives minutes passed since they left. "No."
Seungho turned around and left immediately for the rest of the ship. Cheolyong swallowed. "I'll go make sure nothing escaped on this floor." He reloaded his gun and stepped out into the hallway.
Sanghyun sighed as Changsun dangled his legs over the table. Shifting his weight, Changsun hopped down from the table and gingerly put weight onto his leg. "How's it feel?" Sanghyun asked.
"Better. I can stand on it. I can probably limp really fast."
"Take these." Sanghyun handed him a few guns and grabbed his shotgun. "I guess I can't convince you to stay here with Cheolyong."
"Gotta make myself useful somehow."
--
The good thing about having a gimpy leg was it forced Changsun to take his time and examine every part of his surroundings as he moved. Nothing escaped his eyes, though the light was playing tricks on him and making the shadows move.
He was halfway down the stairs when he heard the screeching and the gunshots, followed by curses. He limped as fast as he could towards the voices, checking everywhere for signs of movement.
Byunghee was standing over Seungho, knocked out on the ground, fighting off Reavers with a pipe. His hands were slick with blood. Changsun took out his gun and fired a few shots, drawing their attention towards him. They regarded him carefully before half of them split up to go after him, and the others stayed with Byunghee and Seungho to try and finish them off.
"Aim for the legs! Cripple them first before killing them!" Byunghee shouted. The two Reavers approached Changsun cautiously, aware of the gun in his hand.
Changsun fired off five shots. Two went into the first Reaver, sending him to the ground with a screech. Two missed completely, and one got the second Reaver in the stomach. Enraged, they flew at him, but never made it before they dropped to the ground, dead.
Dropping the empty gun, Changsun reached for his other one and fired shots at the remaining two Reavers. One went down, but the other got hit in the shoulder, reeling back with a snarl. Damn. Changsun was out of bullets.
"Get Seungho out of here," Byunghee said, gritting his teeth. He eyed the Reaver holding his shoulder. The Reaver pulled his hand away from the gunshot wound and licked the blood from his hand, grinning at Byunghee. "Just you and me now, Reaver."
He and the Reaver stared each other down as Changsun struggled to get Seungho up onto his shoulder. He didn't move again until they were safely up the stairs. Byunghee lunged at the Reaver with a pipe, and the Reaver screeched, swinging a chain around.
--
"What's wrong with him?" Sanghyun frowned as Changsun and Seungho appeared in the doorway of the infirmary. His leg was burning as Cheolyong and Sanghyun helped the unconscious Seungho onto the exam table.
"Looks like there's one Reaver left, and Byunghee is out of bullets." Sanghyun stood up and grabbed a shotgun, running out of the infirmary without another word.
--
The chain knocked the pipe out of Byunghee's hand, making him wince as it landed and rolled out of his reach. "You think you're pretty cool with that chain, don't you?" Byunghee asked, not expecting an answer.
The Reaver grinned and sent the chain his way again, wrapping it around Byunghee's leg and pulling. Luckily, Byunghee saw it coming and grabbed on the chain, pulling back with all of his strength. The Reaver pitched forward with a hiss, sliding on the metal of the floor.
Byunghee kicked at it, listening with satisfaction as he heard cracks. The Reaver screeched again, yanking at the chain. Byunghee felt his leg slip out from under him, sending him on his back.
In a flash, the Reaver was on top of him with an old, rusty fishook in his hands. There was movement, pain, blood, and a gunshot before Byunghee's vision went black.
--
Cleaning up the aftermath of the Reaver attack was no small task. Sanghyun had been working on Byunghee ever since Cheolyong heard him yelling and managed to get Byunghee back to the infirmary, dripping blood from a neck wound.
Seungho woke up with a splitting headache. One of the Reavers snuck up on him and bashed him in the head with a pipe. He felt like his head was going to split in two, but there were more pressing matters to attend to.
Changsun and Cheolyong helped Seungho dump the bodies into boxes and shoved them back onto the Reaver ship. Seungho rigged the engine to blow, and put as much distance between them and the ship as he could.
The Reavers, as it turned out, were looking for wires and electronics. They figured out their ship was failing them and frantically searched for things they thought they could use to fix them. The MBLAQ was torn apart.
--
Seungho disappeared as soon as his crew docked the MBLAQ on land. Changsun barely had any time to ask where the captain was going before he disappeared from the bridge.
Changsun stood in his oil-stained work clothes, loosely holding a wrench in his hands as he stared at the empty captain’s chair and sighed. Cheolyong wandered into the bridge and punched him in the shoulder. “He’s always gone as soon as we dock the ship. The sooner you make the repairs, the sooner you can go find him at his usual bar with his true love.”
Changsun frowned. If Seungho ran off to be with his true love, then how was he supposed to compete? The past few days were full of repairs. He hadn't been able to say a thing to the captain. Sighing quietly to himself, he turned around and headed deeper into the ship to make a list of things that would need immediate repair.
Their latest mission into deep space put a little bit more wear and tear on the MBLAQ than expected. Byunghee and the ship were the only ones with heavy injuries. Seungho thanked the gods for that and broke open a bottle of wine to share with the crew.
Except the crew was busy trying to save the ship from failing and stopping the bleeding from Byunghee’s neck, so Seungho drank it by himself, retiring to the bridge to plot a course for familiar land.
Changsun, being the newest member of the five man crew to the MBLAQ, couldn’t understand how Seungho just sit there and drink, so long as his ship was still running and his crew was mostly alive. He remembered standing on the bridge, eyes full of disbelief before asking him, “Would it kill you to care a little bit more? Byunghee could’ve died!”
Seungho took a swig straight from the bottle of wine and glanced over his shoulder for a second, taking in Changsun’s disheveled appearance. His dark blue jumper was stained with blood and oil, and from his seat, Seungho couldn’t tell which was which. “No one’s dead. We’re fine. Go patch up the ship and make sure she holds until we get back to land.”
A blast of steam from a broken pipe jerked Changsun out of his thoughts as he closed his eyes to protect them from the heated air. He staggered up a few steps before wiping at his face and reaching into a pocket. He pulled out some tape and wrapped it around the broken space of the pipe before moving on.
He passed by the infirmary where Sanghyun was helping Byunghee up into a sitting position. They managed to get the bleeding to stop before he lost too much blood and passed out. His face was paler than usual, but it didn’t stop Sanghyun from poking fun at him. “Didn’t you say you were a third tier fighter? You’d think you’d be able to avoid a slash from a Reaver.”
“Sorry if I didn’t realize I was fighting against Captain Hook-” Byunghee started coughing up blood again, and Sanghyun sighed, patting him on the back.
“There, there, old man. Calm down. If your blood pressure goes up before we can get your neck fixed properly, then the emergency stitches I made will rip, and you’ll start bleeding again.”
“What good is it having a medical school dropout on this ship? Why couldn’t we hire a real doctor?” Byunghee choked out, narrowing his eyes at Sanghyun. But the other man just shrugged and slapped his back a few times.
“Cheaper.” was his simple reply. Changsun knew, even from his short time on the ship, that Sanghyun was very accomplished, doing things to save the crew in various instances that would have doctors reeling. He was as good as any doctor that finished school, maybe even better.
“Hey, we’ve already docked the ship. The captain’s already on land. You guys should probably head to a hospital,” Changsun said, poking his head into the infirmary.
“You staying here to fix up the ship?” Sanghyun stood up, helping Byunghee up to his feel carefully. Changsun was wary on his feet, ready to step forward and help Byunghee in case he suddenly fell.
“Yeah. More like taking a catalogue of damages and fixing whatever I can before heading to town to buy what I need to fix the rest.”
“Cheolyong helping you like he’s supposed to?” Sanghyun asked, sounding almost bored as he threw Byunghee’s arm over his shoulder.
“No. But what else is new?” Changsun tried to shoot him a grin, but it never made it to his lips. Sanghyun just nodded and turned away from him, helping Byunghee towards the ship’s entrance and exit. He stood there and watched them walk away until he couldn’t see them anymore. Then the tape holding the broken pipe together broke, and steam shot from the crack once again.
Changsun stared at the blowing steam before running his hands through his hair and throwing them up in defeat.
--
“Special delivery.” Changsun flinched when he heard a box dropped onto the metal floor, shaking his entire body. Then he heard a slide as Seungho laid on one of Changsun’s makeshift boards on wheels and slid underneath the massive tangle of metal and gears next to Changsun.
“I asked for regular delivery,” Changsun said, gritting his teeth at the nonchalant smile on Seungho’s face.
“Well, the guy you ordered from suddenly remembered that I owed him some money or something and decided to withhold your order after he realized you worked for me. I told him he had a bad memory and to deliver the parts.”
Changsun grunted as he chuckled, tightening a bolt in place. His first priority was to fix parts of the engine. They hadn’t been damaged by the fight with the Reavers, but the parts were straining from how hard Seungho pushed the ship to land and starting to rust and break. “How’d you tell him he had a bad memory?”
“Punched him in the face.”
Both of them yelped when a pipe broke and sent oil spilling everywhere. Changsun groaned as Seungho pushed away from him, laughing loudly.
“Stop laughing, and hand me a towel.” Seungho snorted and handed Changsun a towel. He blindly grabbed for it, feeling around the air until Seungho’s hand caught his and pressed a towel into his fingers. Changsun tried to pull his hand away but found that he couldn’t. “Seungho?”
“Aren’t you going to wipe your face? Shame if you broke out. You have a pretty face.”
Changsun thanked all the gods that his face was covered with oil, otherwise, he’d have to see Seungho smirking at the way he blushed from the compliment. Byunghee and Sanghyun complimented his looks all the time, but it was different coming from the captain.
“I can’t if you’re still holding onto my hand.” It was quiet for a moment before he heard Seungho’s deep chuckle again.
“I’m not holding onto your hand. The towel is stuck on a gear. Hold on.” Changsun felt some rustling, then his hand fell to the ground, splashing some of the oil onto Seungho. Changsun waited until his face cooled down from embarrassment before he wiped the oil off. He turned his eyes and saw Seungho staring at him with amusement in his eyes. “I could hold your hand, though, if you like.”
Changsun frowned and rolled his eyes before sliding out from under the piece of engine. “If you’re not going to be useful, get out and send Cheolyong in here.”
Seungho laughed again and slid out, sitting up and holding up his hands in surrender. “As long as you fix my ship, I’ll do whatever you ask.” Changsun winced when Seungho yelled out Cheolyong’s name and stood up, making his way out of the engine room.
Seungho purposely bumped into Cheolyong’s shoulder on his way out, making the younger man roll his eyes in mock exasperation. “I don’t pay you to do nothing.”
“You don’t do anything.”
“I’m the boss. Get in there and help him.”
Seungho and Cheolyong traded a few more insults until Cheolyong walked into the engine room with a smirk on his face. Changsun blinked a few times as Cheolyong tore open the box and dug around, looking at the parts he ordered. “You have a lot of industrial strength tape here. This is the good stuff, too.”
“It’ll take too long to replace all the broken pipes, and regular duct tape isn’t strong enough to hold them together. Like that pipe in the hallway? I think I might have a steam burn from it...”
“Oh, that one? That’s been like that for years now. Everyone learns to just duck whenever they pass that spot. I guess it’s about time to fix it... Is this the list?” Cheolyong picked up a notepad and frowned at Changsun’s handwriting.
“Yeah. Wrote down all the places that needed fixing. There are some modules on the bridge that need to be fixed. I figure that’s your area of expertise.”
“Yeah, I guess... huh... Half this stuff I didn’t even know was broken. I’m surprised this ship can still maintain flight. But the captain is Seungho, so my surprise isn’t needed. I’ll get to work on this list. You redoing the engine?”
“Just the important parts.”
“So... everything?”
“Pretty much.”
--
Changsun had things he wanted to say to the captain. There were a lot of things he wanted to say, but he couldn't find the words to express his feelings, so he took to meaningful glances in the captain's direction.
"Is your leg bothering you again?" Seungho asked, raising an eyebrow. Changsun sighed and went back to eating his food. Apparently, his meaningful glances made him look like he was in pain.
"No, it's not that bad. What're you doing on the ship, anyway? I have repairs to do, and shouldn't you be out at the bar, doing whatever it is you do?" Or whoever it is you do, he thought bitterly. The feeling of bitterness was a slight surprise to him. He didn't control who or what Seungho did. He hadn't even admitted he liked him.
"You like me, don't you?" Changsun was caught off guard by the question, and it showed by the way he stuttered, tripping over his words as he tried to think of a suitable answer. "You don't have to answer me. I already know."
Seungho gave Changsun a smirk before getting up and leaving the galley. Changsun felt his face heat up, watching Seungho's back as he left. "If you already knew, then why did you ask?" he huffed, pouting as he stirred the contents of his bowl. Then it hit him. How did he find out?
--
"There's something odd about the two of them. I can't quite put my finger on it," Byunghee said, narrowing his eyes. His voice was raspy from the neck injury, but the hospital staff said he would recover. If it had been any deeper, Byunghee no doubt would've died from blood loss.
After spending a week on land, they were starting to become restless. Seungho spent most of his time on the ship helping Changsun with the repairs. The interior of the MBLAQ was starting to look less and less like a death trap.
"Yeah, I think I see what you're talking about," Sanghyun said, and together, they tilted their heads to the side, squinting their eyes at Seungho and Changsun working side by side. Changsun, however, resolutely tried to stay as far away from Seungho as he could without seeming too obvious, but he was very obvious.
"You think something happened between them?" Byunghee asked. "I heard Seungho hasn't been at his usual bar all week. The girls were all over me once they saw me walk inside, asking if Seungho was here, too."
"Weird." They tilted their heads to the other side. Seungho accidentally brushed his hand against Changsun's, making him immediately drop the wrench he was holding.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Changsun mumbled, leaning over to pick up the wrench.
"Looks like someone's in love," Cheolyong said in a sing-song voice behind them.
"What?"
"No way."
"What are you three talking about? You've been playing for a week, now get back to work!"
--
So, maybe it was a bad idea to admit that Seungho knew that Changsun liked him. Changsun was avoiding him like the plague. Nothing he did seemed to stop Changsun's habit of dropping things when he got nervous, or the way he stuttered every time Seungho asked him a question. At this rate, he was likely to have a heart attack and die.
Was he afraid that Seungho would judge him for his sexual preference? After his incident with the only two girls in his life, and considering Changsun's personality, Seungho wasn't surprised he turned to men. Seungho, himself, preferred a nice pair of legs and a nice chest, and Changsun definitely fit the profile in an unconventional way.
Changsun was asleep on the exam table with bandages around his torso when Seungho walked by, making him do a double take as he stepped into the infirmary. There were four lines of blood soaked into the bandages, making it looked like he was attacked by a big cat. "What happened to him?"
"Seems that the wires holding the new door to the engine room snapped and whipped him across the chest." Seungho blinked a few times.
"We haven't even left land yet."
"I know," Sanghyun said, flipping the page of the new medical journal he picked up in town. "I told him to go cut himself on the back too, so we wouldn't waste the bandages."
--
Changsun woke up to the sound of hammering echoing through the ship. "Whas goin' on?" he mumbled rolling over. The exam table was much smaller than his bunk down in the sleeping quarters, and Sanghyun didn't hold back a loud laugh when he landed on the floor with a smack. His knees throbbed, his palms throbbed, then his chest started to sting.
"Oh, right. The new door tried to kill me," he said with a yawn. After a few moments, Changsun pushed himself to his feet and wobbled unsteadily for a moment. His leg was healing up nicely, but it itched.
"Seungho went to go put up the door for you. I told him not to do it since he's not the handiest person around, but he insisted. You should probably go check on it."
"Yeah, probably should," Changsun said, rubbing the back of his head as he made his way towards the engine room. Sanghyun waited until he was out of sight before running out of the infirmary to find Cheolyong.
--
Changsun found a satisfied Seungho examining the door, sweat dripping down his face. "Hey, glad to see you're awake. I got the door up for you."
"Are you sure you know how to do it right?"
Seungho looked mildly insulted. "What? Of course. If you don't believe me, take a look for yourself." Seungho stepped inside the engine room and reached for one of the rags Changsun always kept in there to wipe away sweat.
Changsun examined the door while Seungho examined him discreetly. He worked hard to earn his keep. Seungho was sorry for the injuries marring his body, and he just wished there was a way he could get Changsun to open up to him. Though the crew of the MBLAQ were private people, there was, at some point, a time when they would tell Seungho about themselves. Whether it was after a job they managed to narrowly escape with their lives, or they were drunk beyond reason, Seungho would know their pasts, demons, fears, hopes, and dreams without asking.
And now, he wanted to know about Changsun.
“... is a little bit loose. Hand me the- Seungho?”
Seungho snapped out of his daze and grinned. “Sorry. What were you saying? I was thinking about the time we met, and you saved me from the police.” He took some pride in seeing Changsun’s face flush red.
“Nevermind, I’ll get it myself,” he mumbled, hurrying towards the toolbox. Seungho sighed and sat down, leaning against the wall where he managed to learn from a sleep talking Changsun that he liked him. He closed his eyes and sighed until he heard soft footsteps on the grating and opened up an eye.
Sanghyun and Cheolyong were pulling the door closed. “Hey, Changsun. Does this door lock from the inside or the out?”
“The inside. There’s an emergency wheel bolt on the outside though, just in case you needed to-” There was a thud, followed by the sound of whirling and a click. “... lock something inside.” Changsun dropped whatever tools he was holding and ran towards the door, pulling open the sliding panel. The distorted figures of Sanghyun and Cheolyong waved at him before leaving him locked in the engine room with Seungho.
“You saw them coming, didn’t you? Why didn’t you stop them?” Seungho was a little bit disappointed that Changsun sounded angry.
“By the time I noticed, the door was nearly closed. What was I supposed to do? Jam my hand between the door and the frame? I need both hands to shoot,” Seungho said, leaning back and covering his eyes. “Besides, the longer we’re in here, the more I dock their pay. I have a good memory when it comes to money.”
“So what are we supposed to do? Wait until they come let us out?”
“Unless you want to take the door down?” Seungho sighed and stood up, rubbing at his eyes. “Which would be a shame because I took forever to put that up so you could get some rest. Are you accident prone?” he asked, staring at Changsun’s chest.
Suddenly self conscious, Changsun covered his chest with his hands. Seungho noticed he wore the same thing every day. A different pair of the same cadet blue jumpers, a white tank top, his work boots and the cap, which sat on top of the tool box.
“You know, I’ve been wondering.” Seungho took a few steps towards Changsun, making him back up towards the wall. Seungho gently placed his hands on either side of Changsun’s head and tilted his head, eyes narrowed.
“Wondering what?” Changsun squeaked out, turning his head to stare at the wall.
“Why did you save me the way you did?” Seungho lifted a hand up from the wall and gently pushed at Changsun’s jaw with his finger so he was facing forward.
“I-It was the first thing I thought of. Police in those parts tend to stay away from... people like me.”
“I see. What makes you think that I don’t mind people like you?”
Changsun’s eyes widened. “What? I mean, I saved your life and asked you to give me a job. You had to, didn’t you?”
“I could’ve shot you, left you there for dead, and ran away.” They stared at each other for a minute before Changsun snorted.
“I don’t think you would’ve. You’re not that type of guy.” Seungho sighed and pushed away from Changsun, turning around and glancing towards the engine. Boxes of parts of were scattered around the room. He couldn’t stand this. If he had to spend another minute in the engine room with Changsun, the heat would probably make him strip his clothes and take him against the wall.
Seungho banged on the door, resolutely ignoring Changsun’s eyes on him. “You guys better unlock the door, or I swear I’m going to-”
Suddenly, he felt arms gripping his hips, spinning him around and shoving him against the door. The back of his head knocked into the door, making his vision spin. He was going to have to get his head examined before they left land.
Then his body flooded with the marvelous feeling of Changsun’s lips on his neck and hips grinding against his. He wasn’t sure if he should be embarrassed that he was already aroused, but if what Changsun was rubbing against his thigh was any indication, he wasn’t the only one.
“Oh god,” Seungho groaned, sliding his hands underneath Changsun’s tank top to run his hands over his stomach. He felt the muscles tense underneath his hands.
Changsun smirked into his neck. “You can just call me Changsun.” Seungho chose to ignore the slightly mocking tone of his voice as he grabbed his sides and pulled him closer.
“There’s lots of things I can call you- Ow, fuck,” Seungho nearly yelled when the door opened and smashed into his head again. “What is with you people and playing baseball with my head?”
“Oh, am I interrupting?” Byunghee drawled out, giving Seungho and Changsun an all-knowing grin.
“Yes. Now get out!” Seungho snapped, narrowing his eyes.
“Wish I could, boss, but the containers we’re supposed to transport are here.”
“Then put them in the cargo hold.”
“They’re already there but...” Seungho let out a long sigh as Changsun grinned and stepped away from him.
“Work calls.”
“We’re going to finish this later,” Seungho said lightly, following him out of the engine room.
--
Cheolyong was already going at the wooden boxes with a crowbar by the time the rest of the crew showed up in the cargo hold. Sanghyun was pulling a pair of thick gloves on his hands when a squeal erupted from the box.
“What the hell is in there? He didn’t say anything about a live transport! Fucking... He’s paying double for this,” Seungho said, glaring at the offending box. Cheolyong managed to get the top of the box off and coughed when the smell of sawdust hit his senses.
A small teddy bear poked its head out of the box. It was blue, and looked innocent enough. No gigantic claws adorned its paws, and it looked more confused than dangerous.
“Aww! Look how cute it is,” Cheolyong said, reaching out to pet it.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Sanghyun said, shaking his head.
“What? Why not? It doesn’t look dangerous. It’s just confused. Right?” The blue bear turned its attention to Cheolyong and smiled, revealing a row of razor sharp shark teeth that look impossibly huge.
“Oh, shit!” Cheolyong tried to pull his hand away, but the blue bear clamped down on his fingers before he could get away. “Get it off me! Get it off!” he yelled, shaking his hand vigorously.
Seungho sighed. Sanghyun stepped back to watch Cheolyong struggle with the bear, no longer thinking it cute and docile. “Aw, look. It likes you.”
“It wants to eat me! Get it off!” Then another bear poked its head out of the box. And another. And another.
“This is going to be a long job,” Seungho said as he watched the bears jump out of the box and go running after Cheolyong. All of his thoughts were drowned out with Cheolyong’s screech of ‘there’s more of these things?!’ until Changsun leaned over to whisper in his ear.
“I know a good way to distract you from this.”
“Only if it involves...” Seungho whispered a long list of things he wanted to do, and took even more pleasure in the fact that Changsun blushed a deep red.
“I’m not a whore,” Changsun frowned.
“Never said you were. I have a lot more names for you, and none of them sound like whore.”
“Can you guys cut the sex talk and I don’t know, save me?” Cheolyong said as his words started to slur.
“I’m sorry, what? I can’t understand you.” Seungho pretended to frown as Cheolyong fell to his knees, and the bears jumped on him.
“If you stopped struggling, you would see that they just want to be friends with you since their brother marked you as his own. The feeling you’re getting now is the paralysis venom entering your bloodstream. Don’t worry. It’s just to sedate you until the mating ritual is over,” Sanghyun said calmly.
“I am not geggin’ ma-red to a...” The paralysis set in, and the bears set out a tiny cheer as they jumped on his body.
“Are you just going to leave him there?” Byunghee asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yep.”
"Where are the others?" Seungho whispered.
"Sanghyun's in the infirmary. He has a few guns in there among other things."
"Cheolyong?"
"Went to go find Changsun. They're probably in the engine room."
"Did you hear what I heard?"
"Yeah." They both stopped and pressed themselves again the wall when they came to the open docking port, a door that was supposed to be closed unless they were connected to another ship.
"Fuck," Seungho said as a bloody hand wrapped itself around the edge of the open door.
"Reavers."
--
Cheolyong ran into the engine room, face pale as he closed the door behind him, grabbing a wrench to wedge into the door handle. Changsun looked up from the part he was trying to fix and frowned. "What's going on?"
"Shh, keep your voice down!" Cheolyong whispered frantically, hurrying around the room and checking the corners. "Are there any spots in here where the metal is thin and something can break through it?"
"Just the door. I've been meaning to replace it with something stronger just in case there's a fire in the engine room or something. What's going on?"
"Of course the damn door would be the weakest part of this room." Cheolyong swore some more before handed one of his guns to Changsun. "I hope you're a good shot. There are Reavers on board the ship."
Changsun paled. "B-but I've never even held a gun before!"
"Learn. Fast."
--
Seungho swallowed as the Reaver came into view. Parts of his body were rotting, and half of his face was missing, along with an eyelid. His eye was crusted over, but Seungho was sure he could still see. He was prepared for the sight, but he wasn't prepared for the smell.
"Holy shit," Seungho said, coughing slightly. The sound of the cough was enough to alert the Reaver of his presence, and there was a screech as he lumbered towards Seungho and Byunghee.
More of them suddenly piled into the ship, running off in all directions. Seungho guessed there were at least seven or eight of them before he shot the one coming towards them. That's one down, and too many to go. The sound of the gunshot attracted a couple of them, and they were more able than the one he just shot.
"Shit, Seungho! Way to alert the rest of them!" Byunghee said, pressing his back to Seungho's. There was a Reaver behind them, ready to slash with its makeshift weapon before Byunghee shot it in the head. He winced as a spray of decaying flesh hit him. There were more shots behind him as Seungho fired on the pack that ran for them.
"We need to get to the rest of the crew and figure out where these things are hiding on the ship."
--
Changsun heard gunshots and screeching and felt himself start trembling. Cheolyong narrowed his eyes before standing up and aiming his gun at the door, just in case something decided to come through.
"Whatever you do, please don't shoot me," Cheolyong said. Changsun could hear the tremble in his voice, and he nodded, knowing the other man couldn't see him. There were the sounds of footsteps outside, and then the door rattled.
Changsun scrambled to his feet and held out his gun, trying to steady his hand. After a few tense moments, the rattling stopped, leaving Changsun with a small sense of relief.
Until a cleaver broke through the door and sliced through the metal with a loud screech.
"Holy shit!" Cheolyong shouted as bloody hands pushed at the metal to make an opening. Changsun swallowed and aimed. As soon as he and Cheolyong could see faces, they fired.
--
Seungho and Byunghee heard shots fired that weren't theirs. "The engine room," Seungho said, Changsun's face flashing in his mind.
"You go. The hallway's clear. I'm headed back to check on Sanghyun and make sure he's not dead."
Seungho nodded. "Stay alive. It's hard finding good people." He watched Byunghee's retreating back before hurrying towards the engine room. There was another pack of Reavers trying to get through a hole in the door, and the shots coming from inside weren't deterring them.
Seungho fired off a few shots of his own and drew attention to himself. Two of the Reavers came bounding towards him, and promptly dropped to the ground, bullets in their heads. When there was no more movement, Seungho counted the bodies. Five of them. He had no idea how many were roaming the ship now. He didn't know how many Reavers boarded before they discovered the docking port door was open.
They would have to do multiple sweeps of the ship to make sure all of them were dead before rounding up the bodies and ejecting them into deep space.
"Seungho? Oh thank god," Changsun said, poking his head through the ruined door. "Where's-" Suddenly, one of the supposedly dead Reavers reached up and grabbed Changsun's leg, sinking his rotting teeth into his calf. Changsun let out a yell, making Seungho freeze. A shot came from inside the engine room, stilling the Reaver once more as Changsun was dragged back.
"Jesus fucking Christ! Were you just going to stand there and let him chew his leg off?" Cheolyong yelled from inside. Seungho hurried forward and put another bullet in the dead bodies for good measure.
Changsun was white and staring at his bleeding leg with wide eyes. "Oh my god, am I going to turn into a Reaver now?" Seungho blinked at him a few times before shaking his head.
"No. That's not how it works. Come on. We'll take you to the infirmary. No doubt Sanghyun has a stack of dead bodies."
--
"Whoa, whoa! Don't shoot! Person capable of speech with no cannibalistic tendencies coming through," Byunghee said as he was suddenly face to face with the barrel of a shotgun.
"Oh. It's you. I've killed about six of them. More of them ran by, but I managed to cripple those. There should be a pretty obvious trail through the ship," Sanghyun said, wiping some sweat away from his brow. His shoulder was sore from the kickback of the shotgun, but it was better to be sore than dead.
"I'll go after the ones that escaped." There was a trail of blood leading deeper and lower into the ship, towards the sleep quarters, the galley, and the cargo hold.
"Probably shouldn't go without backup. The ones that escaped used the bodies of their friends to take the blunt of the shot so they could escape with a few scrapes. They looked newly turned too, no rotting flesh."
"Medic," Seungho said, shoving Byunghee out of the way and helping a limping Changsun to the exam table. Sanghyun glanced at the bloody leg and winced.
"Thought it was dead, huh? Glad to see you still have your leg," Sanghyun said, looking for a pair of latex gloves to pull onto his hands. "The sooner you treat it the better. I don't want it getting infected." Sanghyun gently moved Changsun so his leg was propped up on the table. He cut away part of the fabric of his jumper and took a closer look.
Out of morbid curiosity, Cheolyong peeked around Seungho, making his jaw drop in horror. "Is that... teeth?" he asked as Sanghyun grabbed a pair of tweezers and pulled out a white object from Changsun's leg.
"Looks like it. Gotta get these out, and disinfect it immediately. Who knows what diseases are crawling around on this thing?"
"Dear god," Changsun said quietly, color draining from his face again. He rubbed his eyes and ignored the sharp, jabbing pains in his calf.
"Byunghee, can you take care of the rest on the ship? Besides me, you've been here the longest. Cheolyong and I will take care of the Reaver ship."
"Yeah. I'll be fine by myself. If I don't come back in half an hour, assume something went wrong."
--
"Will they be okay?" Changsun asked, feeling a sense of foreboding emptiness after the other three left.
"Should be." Sanghyun took advantage of the new disinfectant and used liberal amounts on Changsun's leg after numbing it. There seemed to be steam coming from the wound, making Sanghyun blink. This was the stuff they used in the imperial army. "It won't get infected, not after this," Sanghyun said, putting the bottle away. "How does it feel?"
"Like someone tried to take a chunk out of my leg," Changsun said through gritted teeth. He spotted movement out of the corner of his eye, and before he could even realize what he'd done, he grabbed the nearest gun and pulled the trigger.
Sanghyun whipped around in time to see a Reaver fall over into the pile of his dead brethren. "Nice shot. I didn't take you for a quick shooter."
"I'm not," he said. Changsun's hand started to shake, and Sanghyun gently took the gun away from him.
"It's okay. We gotta do what we have to, to survive."
--
Seungho and Cheolyong came back from the Reaver ship looking a little worse for wear. Cheolyong's head was bleeding, and there was a small cut on Seungho's face. "There were a few traps on the ship that we weren't prepared for. Is Byunghee back yet?"
Sanghyun stared up at the clock in the infirmary. Forty-fives minutes passed since they left. "No."
Seungho turned around and left immediately for the rest of the ship. Cheolyong swallowed. "I'll go make sure nothing escaped on this floor." He reloaded his gun and stepped out into the hallway.
Sanghyun sighed as Changsun dangled his legs over the table. Shifting his weight, Changsun hopped down from the table and gingerly put weight onto his leg. "How's it feel?" Sanghyun asked.
"Better. I can stand on it. I can probably limp really fast."
"Take these." Sanghyun handed him a few guns and grabbed his shotgun. "I guess I can't convince you to stay here with Cheolyong."
"Gotta make myself useful somehow."
--
The good thing about having a gimpy leg was it forced Changsun to take his time and examine every part of his surroundings as he moved. Nothing escaped his eyes, though the light was playing tricks on him and making the shadows move.
He was halfway down the stairs when he heard the screeching and the gunshots, followed by curses. He limped as fast as he could towards the voices, checking everywhere for signs of movement.
Byunghee was standing over Seungho, knocked out on the ground, fighting off Reavers with a pipe. His hands were slick with blood. Changsun took out his gun and fired a few shots, drawing their attention towards him. They regarded him carefully before half of them split up to go after him, and the others stayed with Byunghee and Seungho to try and finish them off.
"Aim for the legs! Cripple them first before killing them!" Byunghee shouted. The two Reavers approached Changsun cautiously, aware of the gun in his hand.
Changsun fired off five shots. Two went into the first Reaver, sending him to the ground with a screech. Two missed completely, and one got the second Reaver in the stomach. Enraged, they flew at him, but never made it before they dropped to the ground, dead.
Dropping the empty gun, Changsun reached for his other one and fired shots at the remaining two Reavers. One went down, but the other got hit in the shoulder, reeling back with a snarl. Damn. Changsun was out of bullets.
"Get Seungho out of here," Byunghee said, gritting his teeth. He eyed the Reaver holding his shoulder. The Reaver pulled his hand away from the gunshot wound and licked the blood from his hand, grinning at Byunghee. "Just you and me now, Reaver."
He and the Reaver stared each other down as Changsun struggled to get Seungho up onto his shoulder. He didn't move again until they were safely up the stairs. Byunghee lunged at the Reaver with a pipe, and the Reaver screeched, swinging a chain around.
--
"What's wrong with him?" Sanghyun frowned as Changsun and Seungho appeared in the doorway of the infirmary. His leg was burning as Cheolyong and Sanghyun helped the unconscious Seungho onto the exam table.
"Looks like there's one Reaver left, and Byunghee is out of bullets." Sanghyun stood up and grabbed a shotgun, running out of the infirmary without another word.
--
The chain knocked the pipe out of Byunghee's hand, making him wince as it landed and rolled out of his reach. "You think you're pretty cool with that chain, don't you?" Byunghee asked, not expecting an answer.
The Reaver grinned and sent the chain his way again, wrapping it around Byunghee's leg and pulling. Luckily, Byunghee saw it coming and grabbed on the chain, pulling back with all of his strength. The Reaver pitched forward with a hiss, sliding on the metal of the floor.
Byunghee kicked at it, listening with satisfaction as he heard cracks. The Reaver screeched again, yanking at the chain. Byunghee felt his leg slip out from under him, sending him on his back.
In a flash, the Reaver was on top of him with an old, rusty fishook in his hands. There was movement, pain, blood, and a gunshot before Byunghee's vision went black.
--
Cleaning up the aftermath of the Reaver attack was no small task. Sanghyun had been working on Byunghee ever since Cheolyong heard him yelling and managed to get Byunghee back to the infirmary, dripping blood from a neck wound.
Seungho woke up with a splitting headache. One of the Reavers snuck up on him and bashed him in the head with a pipe. He felt like his head was going to split in two, but there were more pressing matters to attend to.
Changsun and Cheolyong helped Seungho dump the bodies into boxes and shoved them back onto the Reaver ship. Seungho rigged the engine to blow, and put as much distance between them and the ship as he could.
The Reavers, as it turned out, were looking for wires and electronics. They figured out their ship was failing them and frantically searched for things they thought they could use to fix them. The MBLAQ was torn apart.
--
Seungho disappeared as soon as his crew docked the MBLAQ on land. Changsun barely had any time to ask where the captain was going before he disappeared from the bridge.
Changsun stood in his oil-stained work clothes, loosely holding a wrench in his hands as he stared at the empty captain’s chair and sighed. Cheolyong wandered into the bridge and punched him in the shoulder. “He’s always gone as soon as we dock the ship. The sooner you make the repairs, the sooner you can go find him at his usual bar with his true love.”
Changsun frowned. If Seungho ran off to be with his true love, then how was he supposed to compete? The past few days were full of repairs. He hadn't been able to say a thing to the captain. Sighing quietly to himself, he turned around and headed deeper into the ship to make a list of things that would need immediate repair.
Their latest mission into deep space put a little bit more wear and tear on the MBLAQ than expected. Byunghee and the ship were the only ones with heavy injuries. Seungho thanked the gods for that and broke open a bottle of wine to share with the crew.
Except the crew was busy trying to save the ship from failing and stopping the bleeding from Byunghee’s neck, so Seungho drank it by himself, retiring to the bridge to plot a course for familiar land.
Changsun, being the newest member of the five man crew to the MBLAQ, couldn’t understand how Seungho just sit there and drink, so long as his ship was still running and his crew was mostly alive. He remembered standing on the bridge, eyes full of disbelief before asking him, “Would it kill you to care a little bit more? Byunghee could’ve died!”
Seungho took a swig straight from the bottle of wine and glanced over his shoulder for a second, taking in Changsun’s disheveled appearance. His dark blue jumper was stained with blood and oil, and from his seat, Seungho couldn’t tell which was which. “No one’s dead. We’re fine. Go patch up the ship and make sure she holds until we get back to land.”
A blast of steam from a broken pipe jerked Changsun out of his thoughts as he closed his eyes to protect them from the heated air. He staggered up a few steps before wiping at his face and reaching into a pocket. He pulled out some tape and wrapped it around the broken space of the pipe before moving on.
He passed by the infirmary where Sanghyun was helping Byunghee up into a sitting position. They managed to get the bleeding to stop before he lost too much blood and passed out. His face was paler than usual, but it didn’t stop Sanghyun from poking fun at him. “Didn’t you say you were a third tier fighter? You’d think you’d be able to avoid a slash from a Reaver.”
“Sorry if I didn’t realize I was fighting against Captain Hook-” Byunghee started coughing up blood again, and Sanghyun sighed, patting him on the back.
“There, there, old man. Calm down. If your blood pressure goes up before we can get your neck fixed properly, then the emergency stitches I made will rip, and you’ll start bleeding again.”
“What good is it having a medical school dropout on this ship? Why couldn’t we hire a real doctor?” Byunghee choked out, narrowing his eyes at Sanghyun. But the other man just shrugged and slapped his back a few times.
“Cheaper.” was his simple reply. Changsun knew, even from his short time on the ship, that Sanghyun was very accomplished, doing things to save the crew in various instances that would have doctors reeling. He was as good as any doctor that finished school, maybe even better.
“Hey, we’ve already docked the ship. The captain’s already on land. You guys should probably head to a hospital,” Changsun said, poking his head into the infirmary.
“You staying here to fix up the ship?” Sanghyun stood up, helping Byunghee up to his feel carefully. Changsun was wary on his feet, ready to step forward and help Byunghee in case he suddenly fell.
“Yeah. More like taking a catalogue of damages and fixing whatever I can before heading to town to buy what I need to fix the rest.”
“Cheolyong helping you like he’s supposed to?” Sanghyun asked, sounding almost bored as he threw Byunghee’s arm over his shoulder.
“No. But what else is new?” Changsun tried to shoot him a grin, but it never made it to his lips. Sanghyun just nodded and turned away from him, helping Byunghee towards the ship’s entrance and exit. He stood there and watched them walk away until he couldn’t see them anymore. Then the tape holding the broken pipe together broke, and steam shot from the crack once again.
Changsun stared at the blowing steam before running his hands through his hair and throwing them up in defeat.
--
“Special delivery.” Changsun flinched when he heard a box dropped onto the metal floor, shaking his entire body. Then he heard a slide as Seungho laid on one of Changsun’s makeshift boards on wheels and slid underneath the massive tangle of metal and gears next to Changsun.
“I asked for regular delivery,” Changsun said, gritting his teeth at the nonchalant smile on Seungho’s face.
“Well, the guy you ordered from suddenly remembered that I owed him some money or something and decided to withhold your order after he realized you worked for me. I told him he had a bad memory and to deliver the parts.”
Changsun grunted as he chuckled, tightening a bolt in place. His first priority was to fix parts of the engine. They hadn’t been damaged by the fight with the Reavers, but the parts were straining from how hard Seungho pushed the ship to land and starting to rust and break. “How’d you tell him he had a bad memory?”
“Punched him in the face.”
Both of them yelped when a pipe broke and sent oil spilling everywhere. Changsun groaned as Seungho pushed away from him, laughing loudly.
“Stop laughing, and hand me a towel.” Seungho snorted and handed Changsun a towel. He blindly grabbed for it, feeling around the air until Seungho’s hand caught his and pressed a towel into his fingers. Changsun tried to pull his hand away but found that he couldn’t. “Seungho?”
“Aren’t you going to wipe your face? Shame if you broke out. You have a pretty face.”
Changsun thanked all the gods that his face was covered with oil, otherwise, he’d have to see Seungho smirking at the way he blushed from the compliment. Byunghee and Sanghyun complimented his looks all the time, but it was different coming from the captain.
“I can’t if you’re still holding onto my hand.” It was quiet for a moment before he heard Seungho’s deep chuckle again.
“I’m not holding onto your hand. The towel is stuck on a gear. Hold on.” Changsun felt some rustling, then his hand fell to the ground, splashing some of the oil onto Seungho. Changsun waited until his face cooled down from embarrassment before he wiped the oil off. He turned his eyes and saw Seungho staring at him with amusement in his eyes. “I could hold your hand, though, if you like.”
Changsun frowned and rolled his eyes before sliding out from under the piece of engine. “If you’re not going to be useful, get out and send Cheolyong in here.”
Seungho laughed again and slid out, sitting up and holding up his hands in surrender. “As long as you fix my ship, I’ll do whatever you ask.” Changsun winced when Seungho yelled out Cheolyong’s name and stood up, making his way out of the engine room.
Seungho purposely bumped into Cheolyong’s shoulder on his way out, making the younger man roll his eyes in mock exasperation. “I don’t pay you to do nothing.”
“You don’t do anything.”
“I’m the boss. Get in there and help him.”
Seungho and Cheolyong traded a few more insults until Cheolyong walked into the engine room with a smirk on his face. Changsun blinked a few times as Cheolyong tore open the box and dug around, looking at the parts he ordered. “You have a lot of industrial strength tape here. This is the good stuff, too.”
“It’ll take too long to replace all the broken pipes, and regular duct tape isn’t strong enough to hold them together. Like that pipe in the hallway? I think I might have a steam burn from it...”
“Oh, that one? That’s been like that for years now. Everyone learns to just duck whenever they pass that spot. I guess it’s about time to fix it... Is this the list?” Cheolyong picked up a notepad and frowned at Changsun’s handwriting.
“Yeah. Wrote down all the places that needed fixing. There are some modules on the bridge that need to be fixed. I figure that’s your area of expertise.”
“Yeah, I guess... huh... Half this stuff I didn’t even know was broken. I’m surprised this ship can still maintain flight. But the captain is Seungho, so my surprise isn’t needed. I’ll get to work on this list. You redoing the engine?”
“Just the important parts.”
“So... everything?”
“Pretty much.”
--
Changsun had things he wanted to say to the captain. There were a lot of things he wanted to say, but he couldn't find the words to express his feelings, so he took to meaningful glances in the captain's direction.
"Is your leg bothering you again?" Seungho asked, raising an eyebrow. Changsun sighed and went back to eating his food. Apparently, his meaningful glances made him look like he was in pain.
"No, it's not that bad. What're you doing on the ship, anyway? I have repairs to do, and shouldn't you be out at the bar, doing whatever it is you do?" Or whoever it is you do, he thought bitterly. The feeling of bitterness was a slight surprise to him. He didn't control who or what Seungho did. He hadn't even admitted he liked him.
"You like me, don't you?" Changsun was caught off guard by the question, and it showed by the way he stuttered, tripping over his words as he tried to think of a suitable answer. "You don't have to answer me. I already know."
Seungho gave Changsun a smirk before getting up and leaving the galley. Changsun felt his face heat up, watching Seungho's back as he left. "If you already knew, then why did you ask?" he huffed, pouting as he stirred the contents of his bowl. Then it hit him. How did he find out?
--
"There's something odd about the two of them. I can't quite put my finger on it," Byunghee said, narrowing his eyes. His voice was raspy from the neck injury, but the hospital staff said he would recover. If it had been any deeper, Byunghee no doubt would've died from blood loss.
After spending a week on land, they were starting to become restless. Seungho spent most of his time on the ship helping Changsun with the repairs. The interior of the MBLAQ was starting to look less and less like a death trap.
"Yeah, I think I see what you're talking about," Sanghyun said, and together, they tilted their heads to the side, squinting their eyes at Seungho and Changsun working side by side. Changsun, however, resolutely tried to stay as far away from Seungho as he could without seeming too obvious, but he was very obvious.
"You think something happened between them?" Byunghee asked. "I heard Seungho hasn't been at his usual bar all week. The girls were all over me once they saw me walk inside, asking if Seungho was here, too."
"Weird." They tilted their heads to the other side. Seungho accidentally brushed his hand against Changsun's, making him immediately drop the wrench he was holding.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Changsun mumbled, leaning over to pick up the wrench.
"Looks like someone's in love," Cheolyong said in a sing-song voice behind them.
"What?"
"No way."
"What are you three talking about? You've been playing for a week, now get back to work!"
--
So, maybe it was a bad idea to admit that Seungho knew that Changsun liked him. Changsun was avoiding him like the plague. Nothing he did seemed to stop Changsun's habit of dropping things when he got nervous, or the way he stuttered every time Seungho asked him a question. At this rate, he was likely to have a heart attack and die.
Was he afraid that Seungho would judge him for his sexual preference? After his incident with the only two girls in his life, and considering Changsun's personality, Seungho wasn't surprised he turned to men. Seungho, himself, preferred a nice pair of legs and a nice chest, and Changsun definitely fit the profile in an unconventional way.
Changsun was asleep on the exam table with bandages around his torso when Seungho walked by, making him do a double take as he stepped into the infirmary. There were four lines of blood soaked into the bandages, making it looked like he was attacked by a big cat. "What happened to him?"
"Seems that the wires holding the new door to the engine room snapped and whipped him across the chest." Seungho blinked a few times.
"We haven't even left land yet."
"I know," Sanghyun said, flipping the page of the new medical journal he picked up in town. "I told him to go cut himself on the back too, so we wouldn't waste the bandages."
--
Changsun woke up to the sound of hammering echoing through the ship. "Whas goin' on?" he mumbled rolling over. The exam table was much smaller than his bunk down in the sleeping quarters, and Sanghyun didn't hold back a loud laugh when he landed on the floor with a smack. His knees throbbed, his palms throbbed, then his chest started to sting.
"Oh, right. The new door tried to kill me," he said with a yawn. After a few moments, Changsun pushed himself to his feet and wobbled unsteadily for a moment. His leg was healing up nicely, but it itched.
"Seungho went to go put up the door for you. I told him not to do it since he's not the handiest person around, but he insisted. You should probably go check on it."
"Yeah, probably should," Changsun said, rubbing the back of his head as he made his way towards the engine room. Sanghyun waited until he was out of sight before running out of the infirmary to find Cheolyong.
--
Changsun found a satisfied Seungho examining the door, sweat dripping down his face. "Hey, glad to see you're awake. I got the door up for you."
"Are you sure you know how to do it right?"
Seungho looked mildly insulted. "What? Of course. If you don't believe me, take a look for yourself." Seungho stepped inside the engine room and reached for one of the rags Changsun always kept in there to wipe away sweat.
Changsun examined the door while Seungho examined him discreetly. He worked hard to earn his keep. Seungho was sorry for the injuries marring his body, and he just wished there was a way he could get Changsun to open up to him. Though the crew of the MBLAQ were private people, there was, at some point, a time when they would tell Seungho about themselves. Whether it was after a job they managed to narrowly escape with their lives, or they were drunk beyond reason, Seungho would know their pasts, demons, fears, hopes, and dreams without asking.
And now, he wanted to know about Changsun.
“... is a little bit loose. Hand me the- Seungho?”
Seungho snapped out of his daze and grinned. “Sorry. What were you saying? I was thinking about the time we met, and you saved me from the police.” He took some pride in seeing Changsun’s face flush red.
“Nevermind, I’ll get it myself,” he mumbled, hurrying towards the toolbox. Seungho sighed and sat down, leaning against the wall where he managed to learn from a sleep talking Changsun that he liked him. He closed his eyes and sighed until he heard soft footsteps on the grating and opened up an eye.
Sanghyun and Cheolyong were pulling the door closed. “Hey, Changsun. Does this door lock from the inside or the out?”
“The inside. There’s an emergency wheel bolt on the outside though, just in case you needed to-” There was a thud, followed by the sound of whirling and a click. “... lock something inside.” Changsun dropped whatever tools he was holding and ran towards the door, pulling open the sliding panel. The distorted figures of Sanghyun and Cheolyong waved at him before leaving him locked in the engine room with Seungho.
“You saw them coming, didn’t you? Why didn’t you stop them?” Seungho was a little bit disappointed that Changsun sounded angry.
“By the time I noticed, the door was nearly closed. What was I supposed to do? Jam my hand between the door and the frame? I need both hands to shoot,” Seungho said, leaning back and covering his eyes. “Besides, the longer we’re in here, the more I dock their pay. I have a good memory when it comes to money.”
“So what are we supposed to do? Wait until they come let us out?”
“Unless you want to take the door down?” Seungho sighed and stood up, rubbing at his eyes. “Which would be a shame because I took forever to put that up so you could get some rest. Are you accident prone?” he asked, staring at Changsun’s chest.
Suddenly self conscious, Changsun covered his chest with his hands. Seungho noticed he wore the same thing every day. A different pair of the same cadet blue jumpers, a white tank top, his work boots and the cap, which sat on top of the tool box.
“You know, I’ve been wondering.” Seungho took a few steps towards Changsun, making him back up towards the wall. Seungho gently placed his hands on either side of Changsun’s head and tilted his head, eyes narrowed.
“Wondering what?” Changsun squeaked out, turning his head to stare at the wall.
“Why did you save me the way you did?” Seungho lifted a hand up from the wall and gently pushed at Changsun’s jaw with his finger so he was facing forward.
“I-It was the first thing I thought of. Police in those parts tend to stay away from... people like me.”
“I see. What makes you think that I don’t mind people like you?”
Changsun’s eyes widened. “What? I mean, I saved your life and asked you to give me a job. You had to, didn’t you?”
“I could’ve shot you, left you there for dead, and ran away.” They stared at each other for a minute before Changsun snorted.
“I don’t think you would’ve. You’re not that type of guy.” Seungho sighed and pushed away from Changsun, turning around and glancing towards the engine. Boxes of parts of were scattered around the room. He couldn’t stand this. If he had to spend another minute in the engine room with Changsun, the heat would probably make him strip his clothes and take him against the wall.
Seungho banged on the door, resolutely ignoring Changsun’s eyes on him. “You guys better unlock the door, or I swear I’m going to-”
Suddenly, he felt arms gripping his hips, spinning him around and shoving him against the door. The back of his head knocked into the door, making his vision spin. He was going to have to get his head examined before they left land.
Then his body flooded with the marvelous feeling of Changsun’s lips on his neck and hips grinding against his. He wasn’t sure if he should be embarrassed that he was already aroused, but if what Changsun was rubbing against his thigh was any indication, he wasn’t the only one.
“Oh god,” Seungho groaned, sliding his hands underneath Changsun’s tank top to run his hands over his stomach. He felt the muscles tense underneath his hands.
Changsun smirked into his neck. “You can just call me Changsun.” Seungho chose to ignore the slightly mocking tone of his voice as he grabbed his sides and pulled him closer.
“There’s lots of things I can call you- Ow, fuck,” Seungho nearly yelled when the door opened and smashed into his head again. “What is with you people and playing baseball with my head?”
“Oh, am I interrupting?” Byunghee drawled out, giving Seungho and Changsun an all-knowing grin.
“Yes. Now get out!” Seungho snapped, narrowing his eyes.
“Wish I could, boss, but the containers we’re supposed to transport are here.”
“Then put them in the cargo hold.”
“They’re already there but...” Seungho let out a long sigh as Changsun grinned and stepped away from him.
“Work calls.”
“We’re going to finish this later,” Seungho said lightly, following him out of the engine room.
--
Cheolyong was already going at the wooden boxes with a crowbar by the time the rest of the crew showed up in the cargo hold. Sanghyun was pulling a pair of thick gloves on his hands when a squeal erupted from the box.
“What the hell is in there? He didn’t say anything about a live transport! Fucking... He’s paying double for this,” Seungho said, glaring at the offending box. Cheolyong managed to get the top of the box off and coughed when the smell of sawdust hit his senses.
A small teddy bear poked its head out of the box. It was blue, and looked innocent enough. No gigantic claws adorned its paws, and it looked more confused than dangerous.
“Aww! Look how cute it is,” Cheolyong said, reaching out to pet it.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Sanghyun said, shaking his head.
“What? Why not? It doesn’t look dangerous. It’s just confused. Right?” The blue bear turned its attention to Cheolyong and smiled, revealing a row of razor sharp shark teeth that look impossibly huge.
“Oh, shit!” Cheolyong tried to pull his hand away, but the blue bear clamped down on his fingers before he could get away. “Get it off me! Get it off!” he yelled, shaking his hand vigorously.
Seungho sighed. Sanghyun stepped back to watch Cheolyong struggle with the bear, no longer thinking it cute and docile. “Aw, look. It likes you.”
“It wants to eat me! Get it off!” Then another bear poked its head out of the box. And another. And another.
“This is going to be a long job,” Seungho said as he watched the bears jump out of the box and go running after Cheolyong. All of his thoughts were drowned out with Cheolyong’s screech of ‘there’s more of these things?!’ until Changsun leaned over to whisper in his ear.
“I know a good way to distract you from this.”
“Only if it involves...” Seungho whispered a long list of things he wanted to do, and took even more pleasure in the fact that Changsun blushed a deep red.
“I’m not a whore,” Changsun frowned.
“Never said you were. I have a lot more names for you, and none of them sound like whore.”
“Can you guys cut the sex talk and I don’t know, save me?” Cheolyong said as his words started to slur.
“I’m sorry, what? I can’t understand you.” Seungho pretended to frown as Cheolyong fell to his knees, and the bears jumped on him.
“If you stopped struggling, you would see that they just want to be friends with you since their brother marked you as his own. The feeling you’re getting now is the paralysis venom entering your bloodstream. Don’t worry. It’s just to sedate you until the mating ritual is over,” Sanghyun said calmly.
“I am not geggin’ ma-red to a...” The paralysis set in, and the bears set out a tiny cheer as they jumped on his body.
“Are you just going to leave him there?” Byunghee asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yep.”