SH 2014: Drift-Compatible for exolted
For: exolted
From: ANONYMOUS until May 22, 2014
Title: Drift-Compatible.
Rating: PG
Pairing(s)/Focus: Suho/Kris, Sehun/Tao
Length: 3122 words
Summary: So Joonmyun might have threw his possible drift-compatible (non-crush) partner over his shoulder on their first meeting.
Notes: I might have taken the prompt and deviated alot from it. Regardless, I hope you like it. There is so much potential with 'mind-melding', ah that gave me alot of ideas. Have an awesome Suholiday! (=
Even before he had started a Ranger, the name ‘Kris Wu’ was a familiar name to him. The man was well-known in Asia as the youngest Jaegar pilot in the century to be accepted into the academy. It also didn’t help that the man had devastatingly good looks, an amazing battle score and was the ex-President of China’s son. Nah, Joonmyun didn’t hero-worship the guy. Posters of that handsome pilot on every square inch of his bedroom wall just magically appeared one night and he was too lazy to remove them. Yeaaaaap.
So the story was that the guy’s older partner had retired and he was on a worldwide search for a new one. That was a common problem with Jaegar, you needed two pilots to operate it and they had to be drift-compatible. Drift-compatible pairs were rare and Kris Wu was unluckily stranded till they could find him another suitable partner. A lot of pilots were left stranded permanently once their partners left.
Now, this is where cute, bumbling Joonmyun comes in. All the pilot training centres all over the world were on always on the lookout, whenever someone started their training; they had to take a series of mandatory personality and aptitude tests. That could help the centre figure out if they had a possible drift-compatible trainee on their hands, or better, a match to a current ‘widowed pilot’.
Of course, other than those tests, there were also the physical tests, in-sync tests with their possible partner etc. Well, it wasn’t like Joonmyun was looking to be someone’s partner so he didn’t think too much when he took the tests a few weeks ago. A rookie (he was maybe six months into his first year) and barely clocking up enough flight hours to boast about at the dinner table, when Joonmyun was informed he could be Kris Wu’s partner.
Finding a possible partner for a ‘widowed pilot’ was amazing, it was a rare, uncommon and should be a cause for celebration.
Joonmyun should have been elated, but he was terrified instead. Firstly, he wasn’t training to be a Jaegar pilot; they were always the cream of the crop and had to go for further training at Jaegar bases once they graduated pilot school. He content with doing okay in his classes and was planning to continue working at this training centre and flying the smaller machines they had here after graduation.
The complexity of the machine, the mind meld the two pilots had to do, Jaegar was another ballgame altogether. Joonmyun did not sign up for this!! There was no way to get out of it too, Drift-compatible pairs were so rare that the government always made sure to make them Jaegar pilots.
Secondly, he heard the horror stories before. So, he sort of liked the guy, but he also heard enough about him to not hope never to work with him, not like he was expecting they would have the chance to. Kris was absolutely terrifying at work; he made lab techs run out of the room sobbing, people got out of his way when they could. Kris Wu was a professional. His expectations were sky high, he was strict, demanding, and picky about his work, expecting everyone to be as disciplined as he was. Sadly, this was usually not the case and that lead to a lot of terrified tears from the staff. Joonmyun would probably last ten minutes before he started crying too.
+
It was a fine, sunny afternoon when Joonmyun was happily settled on the plushy sofa in his best friend’s office. He was content to spend his lunch break right there, minding his own business while his friend worked through his lunch.
Chen was always way too busy for Joonmyun nowadays; his friend did have a lot of responsibilities and had to put in as many hours as he could after being promoted.
Joonmyun on the other hand, was more interested to spend his lunch time not working. He loved using the best friend card and hogging the sofa in Chen’s office. He could still afford to relax a little; he was just a rookie pilot after all, unlike someone who was the overseeing all the computer systems in the centre.
Ah, lunch time. The best time of the day other than well, the end of the work day! For an hour, he could eat, nap or play 2048 on his phone. For today however, Joonmyun was all ready for a quick doze, the football match did end at five in the morning and his eyes were struggling to stay open all morning.
Dozing, he jolted when the loud blast of the annoying announcement tingle resonated throughout the room.
‘Trainee Kim Joonmyun from section C57, please report to the Central Training Room immediately. Repeat, trainee Kim Joonmyun …’
Laughing fondly, Chen looked up from his messy desk and smirked at his friend who was blearily rubbing at his eyes. ‘Looks like they calling for you, Joonie.’
Scowling, Joonmyun rubbed at the back of his neck before standing up. Why did they have to interrupt him on his lunch break? Bunch of slavedrivers! He murmured angrily as he plodded reluctantly out of the room.
Chen and Joonmyun were neighbours who spent their childhood mooning over the coolest Jaegar fighters, spending their days fighting imaginary wars against pillows of ‘Kaiju’. The older of the two was bright, very gifted in technology and had joined the force when he was of age. Chen rose to a respectable rank within a few years which explained the plushy room, which his younger friend tried to hog as much as he could (the dorm facilities for rookie pilots weren’t the nicest).
When the time came, Joonmyun had chosen to sign on to be trained as a pilot as he didn’t know what to do and his school results weren’t good enough to join his friend as a lab tech. He didn’t expect however, it being so much hard work and taking up so much mental strength; he was always so lost during strategy and drained after combat sessions. Still, his training was fun; he loved his new job and couldn’t wait to graduate.
Lost in thought, Joonmyun pushed open the door of the training room absentmindedly. He was almost reaching the cluster of men at the end of the room when he recognized who was talking to his trainers in the room. His eyes widened.
Those shoulders that was unmistakably broad. That familiar posture, the long legs! Joonmyun felt like he watching a movie. He felt like when Kris freaking Wu turned to him, he could feel the angels singing and the birds chirping and flowers blooming and someone giving birth and wait… what?? But the main point was that the guy on his bedroom wall, the guy on his phone, the guy on his computer, was in front of him. He needed a keyboard now. So he could commence in frantic keyboard smashing and head banging. Now.
Turning around abruptly, he glared at the door as he tried to take deep breaths to calm himself. Yes. He, Kim Joonmyun, could definitely behave like a normal human being in front of Kris. Well, at least attempt to. He was already feeling faint; his legs were probably going to give way soon, with all the trembling his body was doing. Shit. Peripherally, he knew his intimidating combat trainer was speaking to him but he couldn’t hear a single thing. His brain couldn’t process anything. Kris freaking Wu freaking was freaking here…
Trying to check if he was already drooling as surreptitiously as he could, Joonmyun flinched when there was a sudden grip his shoulder. Reflexively, he reached up, proceeded to twist the said hand and block the other hand that was coming next. He might have also flung the owner of the hands over his shoulder before he recognized who was on the floor staring at him bewilderedly.
Now, Joonmyun was never gifted in the height area (he probably didn’t even reach Kris’s shoulder if the height posted online was accurate), but he did take twenty years of Taekwondo lessons and ohmygosh, Kris freaking Wu was staring at him. Wait, did he just throw Kris freaking Wu aka his major non-mancrush on the floor???
Frozen, he had continued making eye contact with Kris. It was at that moment that Joonmyun’s legs really gave way.
+
‘Herrr, here you go…’ Lab coat guy stuttered as he timidly held the file out to Kris and refused to look up from his staring battle with the floor.
So his reputation preceded him even in Korea.
Irritated, Kris growled at him, ‘Look up. Don’t you know it is rude to talk to someone without making eye contact?’
Lab coat guy jerked his head up and blinked at him before averting his gaze to the file in his hand.
‘Tell me more about him.’ Kris shook his head resignedly, before flipping the file open. Techs these days.
Kim Joonmyun, 21, 173cm, Country: Korea.
Hmm this guy was younger and shorter than he expected.
8/10 for his last strategy test.
Lab coat guy whimpered in fright when Kris furrowed his eyebrows.
‘Well, he seems a little weak but he is one of our best trainees.’ The guy squeaked; wringing his hands nervously as Kris scanned the page. Brushing him off, Kris returned to reading the report. The heads had informed him that they may have found a drift-compatible partner for him. After being out of the scene for so long, Kris was itching to get back; he had practically teleported, he travelled half the world and had gotten himself to Korea within a few hours.
‘How long does he have left till he graduates?’ Kris asked stonically.
Lab coat guy whispered something Kris couldn’t catch.
‘Speak up. I can’t hear you.’
Flustered, lab coat guy tried whispering again before deciding to raise two shaking fingers.
Sighing, Kris perked up slightly when a familiar face entered the silent room. Huang Zitao had trained with him when they were younger, but instead of being a pilot, he had decided to concentrate on combat.
Zitao was definitely the kind of guy he would never want to meet in a deserted alley, or even a battlefield, unless they were on the same side. Still, he couldn’t stop the smile from breaking out when they met eyes. His best friend was here!
Dismissing the tech, he waited for a loud exclamation of ‘Gege!’ and then Kris had 183cm panda hugging his middle gleefully. The aegyo that hid the lethalness was just a ruse; it was also a weakness Kris could never refuse. Zitao had gotten him into all sorts of trouble when they were in training.
Grinning, he gave the styled blond hair a pat and that sent the instructor reeling back and frantically touching his hair.
‘Ge! Don’t do that! He might come in later!’ Zitao whined.
‘Sorry sorry, I forgot about your eye candy.’
‘Shhhhh!! Ge!!’
‘Alright, alright. There’s no one around to hear us anyway, Zitao.’ Kris replied teasingly.
Zitao pouted, ‘Just don’t touch my hair okay? I need to look good.’
Kris and Zitao had kept contact over the years and Zitao was ecstatic when Kris told him he was coming over. Although he knew Joonmyun from his classes, he still did a bit of quick snooping for his favourite gege.
‘Okay, I did the snooping. Yes, you don’t need to thank me! He’s really good in combat class, but I’ve heard that he’s not very good in Strategy. I asked Yixing who asked Baekhyun who asked Chen who is his best friend and the head of the systems here what he is like and Chen said he is kinda dumb and likes hiding in Chen’s office. Also, Kyungsoo, the guy at the canteen, told me they liked to ride bikes together. I mean, who bike ride these days?! We have so much quicker forms of transport…’ Zitao’s rant faltered when the door opened to reveal a guy with neatly styled blonde and black hair.
Kris glanced at the famous eye candy and stuck out his hand. ‘Hi, I’m Kris Wu.’
The guy nodded at him and returned the handshake. Smiling shly at Zitao, Sehun said: ‘Hi Taozi.’
‘Hi err hi!’ Zitao replied, his voice two octaves higher than it was previously.
Kris stifled a laugh. Ah, young love. He mouthed ‘Taozi’ wolfishly at his friend before leaving the two of them to it and continued reading the page on training scores. He needed to know everything about his possible partner.
Soon, more people joined them in the room and he was getting antsy. Why wasn’t Joonmyun coming? He really wanted to meet him as soon as he could, this was his first time getting a possible match in the five years he had been ‘on leave’ and he had high hopes for the guy.
‘Joonmyun? What are you doing over there? Come over here quickly!’ Zitao asked sternly, breaking Kris’s concentration. Zitao’s voice was a total 180 change from ten minutes ago. ‘We don’t have time to waste, let me introduce you to someone.’
Zitao was professional, that was something Kris and he had in common. They demanded a lot from themselves and from the people around them, never allowing anything to affect their work. They didn’t win ‘Best Trainees’ in their graduating years respectively for no reason. Behind the façade however, both were easy going men with shopping addictions.
Kris whipped his head over to stare at the man who was a few steps away from them. He had milk brown hair, really nice lips and wow, such thin hips. No, Kris Wu, are you checking your possible new partner out? Concentrate! Mentally berating himself, he was confused when the young man suddenly turned and gave them his back.
Weird. Zitao said Joonmyun wasn’t very smart but he didn’t say anything about him having mobility problems right?
Curiously, he went over, wanting to ask him if anything was wrong. Ignoring Zitao’s ‘Ge, I don’t think you should.. .’, he put a hand on the smaller man’s shoulder and in a blink, found himself on the floor, staring up at the prettiest pair of eyes he had ever seen.
Oh good, at least his possible partner had good reflexes.
He grimaced. He must really be getting old, for someone so young to get a drop on him. Pursing his lips, he tried to explain to Kim Joonmyun that he was just going to ask what was wrong when the guy just crumbled to the floor in front of him.
He raised his eyebrows and looked at Zitao. What was going on?
+
Joonmyun had already received a schedule for the next day, he and Kris were staring their day with a four am run and various activities throughout the day to foster bonding between the two off them. He was nervous, he was going to spend the day with Kris freaking Wu but he knew it was going to be tough. He probably also wasn’t going to be able to sneak into Chen’s office during lunch.
Morosely, he had texted Chen to come to his dorm when was done for the day, in hopes that his best friend could comfort him. He was probably wishing for too much.
‘Well at least you don’t have to confess once he reads your mind?’ Chen said, doing his best to school his expression to one of empathy.
‘Don’t say it like it’s confirmed that we’re drift-compatible!!’ Joonmyun moaned.
‘You do know the chances are really high right? I heard Baekhyun started looking for permanent accommodation here for him already.’
‘I’m gonna dieeeeeeeeeeee. He will definitely never forget that I threw him on the floor the first time we met today.’
‘Well, that certainly will leave an impression. Maybe he will think you’re cool? Whatever he thinks, Kris Wu is a professional. Don’t worry! Plus hey, you get to work with the man of your dreams,’ Chen grinned, adding, ‘Or should I say, wet dreams?’ while wiggling his eyebrows.
The lump on the bed grunted and continued squirming.
‘Are you seriously jacking off under your sheets while I’m still here?’
Freeing his head from the comforter, Joonmyun glared at his best friend of fifteen years.
‘Well, continue doing whatever you’re doing then, if it helps you.’ Chen laughed as he made himself comfortable at the end of the bed. His best friend was so cute.
Petting Joonmyun's leg, Chen said reassuringly: ‘Just do your best tomorrow, Joonie. If you guys are compatible, you’re going to learn a lot from him and fight a lot more amazing battles. If you aren’t, you guys will go your separate ways and you will just continue doing your job. Don’t worry too much. You’ll always got me to fall back on okay?’
‘Thanks Chenchen.’ Joonmyun smiled, reaching out to hug his best friend. His best friend could be such a sap sometimes. Chen was busy most of the time and the rest of the time he was an ass to Joonmyun. Kind Chen was such a rare occurrence, Joonmyun needed to remember this moment forever.
‘I hope you guys are compatible. When you guys meld minds, I want to see his expression when he discovers all your posters of him.’ Chen giggled as Joonmyun shoved him off the bed. Nah, Chen was always an ass, whenever he wasn’t busy with work.
+
Other than Joonmyun, there was another person at the centre fearing for his life. Scampering off when Kris dismissed him, lab coat guy had made his way as fast as he could out of the room. He had squeezed himself into a corner to hide in fear when the door suddenly banged open and revealed the head of Combat Training.
Dealing with Kris Wu was enough for one day. Huang Zitao was another scary person and he resolved to do his best to be as invisible as wallpaper.
Thankfully he was finally given permission to leave and he was in the canteen having his dinner when he heard the news that the poor rookie Joonmyun had fainted after meeting Kris.
He wasn’t that surprised honestly. Kris barely said a few words to him and his heart was still palpitating in fear hours later.
Three weeks later, lab coat guy might have passed out too when he heard that Kris would be permanently attached to their training centre for the time being as his drift-compatible partner was still training here. Though he pitied the poor boy that was unluckily drift-compatible with the famous pilot, he himself was definitely going need something for his own heart soon.
1. Basically the Jaegar are huge machine-like 'transformers' you use to fight the evil monsters (the Kaiju).
2. 'Mind meld' is the process where Jaegar pilots/ Rangers share memories, instinct and emotions to become of 'one mind' so they can control a Jaegar together.
From: ANONYMOUS until May 22, 2014
Title: Drift-Compatible.
Rating: PG
Pairing(s)/Focus: Suho/Kris, Sehun/Tao
Length: 3122 words
Summary: So Joonmyun might have threw his possible drift-compatible (non-crush) partner over his shoulder on their first meeting.
Notes: I might have taken the prompt and deviated alot from it. Regardless, I hope you like it. There is so much potential with 'mind-melding', ah that gave me alot of ideas. Have an awesome Suholiday! (=
Even before he had started a Ranger, the name ‘Kris Wu’ was a familiar name to him. The man was well-known in Asia as the youngest Jaegar pilot in the century to be accepted into the academy. It also didn’t help that the man had devastatingly good looks, an amazing battle score and was the ex-President of China’s son. Nah, Joonmyun didn’t hero-worship the guy. Posters of that handsome pilot on every square inch of his bedroom wall just magically appeared one night and he was too lazy to remove them. Yeaaaaap.
So the story was that the guy’s older partner had retired and he was on a worldwide search for a new one. That was a common problem with Jaegar, you needed two pilots to operate it and they had to be drift-compatible. Drift-compatible pairs were rare and Kris Wu was unluckily stranded till they could find him another suitable partner. A lot of pilots were left stranded permanently once their partners left.
Now, this is where cute, bumbling Joonmyun comes in. All the pilot training centres all over the world were on always on the lookout, whenever someone started their training; they had to take a series of mandatory personality and aptitude tests. That could help the centre figure out if they had a possible drift-compatible trainee on their hands, or better, a match to a current ‘widowed pilot’.
Of course, other than those tests, there were also the physical tests, in-sync tests with their possible partner etc. Well, it wasn’t like Joonmyun was looking to be someone’s partner so he didn’t think too much when he took the tests a few weeks ago. A rookie (he was maybe six months into his first year) and barely clocking up enough flight hours to boast about at the dinner table, when Joonmyun was informed he could be Kris Wu’s partner.
Finding a possible partner for a ‘widowed pilot’ was amazing, it was a rare, uncommon and should be a cause for celebration.
Joonmyun should have been elated, but he was terrified instead. Firstly, he wasn’t training to be a Jaegar pilot; they were always the cream of the crop and had to go for further training at Jaegar bases once they graduated pilot school. He content with doing okay in his classes and was planning to continue working at this training centre and flying the smaller machines they had here after graduation.
The complexity of the machine, the mind meld the two pilots had to do, Jaegar was another ballgame altogether. Joonmyun did not sign up for this!! There was no way to get out of it too, Drift-compatible pairs were so rare that the government always made sure to make them Jaegar pilots.
Secondly, he heard the horror stories before. So, he sort of liked the guy, but he also heard enough about him to not hope never to work with him, not like he was expecting they would have the chance to. Kris was absolutely terrifying at work; he made lab techs run out of the room sobbing, people got out of his way when they could. Kris Wu was a professional. His expectations were sky high, he was strict, demanding, and picky about his work, expecting everyone to be as disciplined as he was. Sadly, this was usually not the case and that lead to a lot of terrified tears from the staff. Joonmyun would probably last ten minutes before he started crying too.
+
It was a fine, sunny afternoon when Joonmyun was happily settled on the plushy sofa in his best friend’s office. He was content to spend his lunch break right there, minding his own business while his friend worked through his lunch.
Chen was always way too busy for Joonmyun nowadays; his friend did have a lot of responsibilities and had to put in as many hours as he could after being promoted.
Joonmyun on the other hand, was more interested to spend his lunch time not working. He loved using the best friend card and hogging the sofa in Chen’s office. He could still afford to relax a little; he was just a rookie pilot after all, unlike someone who was the overseeing all the computer systems in the centre.
Ah, lunch time. The best time of the day other than well, the end of the work day! For an hour, he could eat, nap or play 2048 on his phone. For today however, Joonmyun was all ready for a quick doze, the football match did end at five in the morning and his eyes were struggling to stay open all morning.
Dozing, he jolted when the loud blast of the annoying announcement tingle resonated throughout the room.
‘Trainee Kim Joonmyun from section C57, please report to the Central Training Room immediately. Repeat, trainee Kim Joonmyun …’
Laughing fondly, Chen looked up from his messy desk and smirked at his friend who was blearily rubbing at his eyes. ‘Looks like they calling for you, Joonie.’
Scowling, Joonmyun rubbed at the back of his neck before standing up. Why did they have to interrupt him on his lunch break? Bunch of slavedrivers! He murmured angrily as he plodded reluctantly out of the room.
Chen and Joonmyun were neighbours who spent their childhood mooning over the coolest Jaegar fighters, spending their days fighting imaginary wars against pillows of ‘Kaiju’. The older of the two was bright, very gifted in technology and had joined the force when he was of age. Chen rose to a respectable rank within a few years which explained the plushy room, which his younger friend tried to hog as much as he could (the dorm facilities for rookie pilots weren’t the nicest).
When the time came, Joonmyun had chosen to sign on to be trained as a pilot as he didn’t know what to do and his school results weren’t good enough to join his friend as a lab tech. He didn’t expect however, it being so much hard work and taking up so much mental strength; he was always so lost during strategy and drained after combat sessions. Still, his training was fun; he loved his new job and couldn’t wait to graduate.
Lost in thought, Joonmyun pushed open the door of the training room absentmindedly. He was almost reaching the cluster of men at the end of the room when he recognized who was talking to his trainers in the room. His eyes widened.
Those shoulders that was unmistakably broad. That familiar posture, the long legs! Joonmyun felt like he watching a movie. He felt like when Kris freaking Wu turned to him, he could feel the angels singing and the birds chirping and flowers blooming and someone giving birth and wait… what?? But the main point was that the guy on his bedroom wall, the guy on his phone, the guy on his computer, was in front of him. He needed a keyboard now. So he could commence in frantic keyboard smashing and head banging. Now.
Turning around abruptly, he glared at the door as he tried to take deep breaths to calm himself. Yes. He, Kim Joonmyun, could definitely behave like a normal human being in front of Kris. Well, at least attempt to. He was already feeling faint; his legs were probably going to give way soon, with all the trembling his body was doing. Shit. Peripherally, he knew his intimidating combat trainer was speaking to him but he couldn’t hear a single thing. His brain couldn’t process anything. Kris freaking Wu freaking was freaking here…
Trying to check if he was already drooling as surreptitiously as he could, Joonmyun flinched when there was a sudden grip his shoulder. Reflexively, he reached up, proceeded to twist the said hand and block the other hand that was coming next. He might have also flung the owner of the hands over his shoulder before he recognized who was on the floor staring at him bewilderedly.
Now, Joonmyun was never gifted in the height area (he probably didn’t even reach Kris’s shoulder if the height posted online was accurate), but he did take twenty years of Taekwondo lessons and ohmygosh, Kris freaking Wu was staring at him. Wait, did he just throw Kris freaking Wu aka his major non-mancrush on the floor???
Frozen, he had continued making eye contact with Kris. It was at that moment that Joonmyun’s legs really gave way.
+
‘Herrr, here you go…’ Lab coat guy stuttered as he timidly held the file out to Kris and refused to look up from his staring battle with the floor.
So his reputation preceded him even in Korea.
Irritated, Kris growled at him, ‘Look up. Don’t you know it is rude to talk to someone without making eye contact?’
Lab coat guy jerked his head up and blinked at him before averting his gaze to the file in his hand.
‘Tell me more about him.’ Kris shook his head resignedly, before flipping the file open. Techs these days.
Kim Joonmyun, 21, 173cm, Country: Korea.
Hmm this guy was younger and shorter than he expected.
8/10 for his last strategy test.
Lab coat guy whimpered in fright when Kris furrowed his eyebrows.
‘Well, he seems a little weak but he is one of our best trainees.’ The guy squeaked; wringing his hands nervously as Kris scanned the page. Brushing him off, Kris returned to reading the report. The heads had informed him that they may have found a drift-compatible partner for him. After being out of the scene for so long, Kris was itching to get back; he had practically teleported, he travelled half the world and had gotten himself to Korea within a few hours.
‘How long does he have left till he graduates?’ Kris asked stonically.
Lab coat guy whispered something Kris couldn’t catch.
‘Speak up. I can’t hear you.’
Flustered, lab coat guy tried whispering again before deciding to raise two shaking fingers.
Sighing, Kris perked up slightly when a familiar face entered the silent room. Huang Zitao had trained with him when they were younger, but instead of being a pilot, he had decided to concentrate on combat.
Zitao was definitely the kind of guy he would never want to meet in a deserted alley, or even a battlefield, unless they were on the same side. Still, he couldn’t stop the smile from breaking out when they met eyes. His best friend was here!
Dismissing the tech, he waited for a loud exclamation of ‘Gege!’ and then Kris had 183cm panda hugging his middle gleefully. The aegyo that hid the lethalness was just a ruse; it was also a weakness Kris could never refuse. Zitao had gotten him into all sorts of trouble when they were in training.
Grinning, he gave the styled blond hair a pat and that sent the instructor reeling back and frantically touching his hair.
‘Ge! Don’t do that! He might come in later!’ Zitao whined.
‘Sorry sorry, I forgot about your eye candy.’
‘Shhhhh!! Ge!!’
‘Alright, alright. There’s no one around to hear us anyway, Zitao.’ Kris replied teasingly.
Zitao pouted, ‘Just don’t touch my hair okay? I need to look good.’
Kris and Zitao had kept contact over the years and Zitao was ecstatic when Kris told him he was coming over. Although he knew Joonmyun from his classes, he still did a bit of quick snooping for his favourite gege.
‘Okay, I did the snooping. Yes, you don’t need to thank me! He’s really good in combat class, but I’ve heard that he’s not very good in Strategy. I asked Yixing who asked Baekhyun who asked Chen who is his best friend and the head of the systems here what he is like and Chen said he is kinda dumb and likes hiding in Chen’s office. Also, Kyungsoo, the guy at the canteen, told me they liked to ride bikes together. I mean, who bike ride these days?! We have so much quicker forms of transport…’ Zitao’s rant faltered when the door opened to reveal a guy with neatly styled blonde and black hair.
Kris glanced at the famous eye candy and stuck out his hand. ‘Hi, I’m Kris Wu.’
The guy nodded at him and returned the handshake. Smiling shly at Zitao, Sehun said: ‘Hi Taozi.’
‘Hi err hi!’ Zitao replied, his voice two octaves higher than it was previously.
Kris stifled a laugh. Ah, young love. He mouthed ‘Taozi’ wolfishly at his friend before leaving the two of them to it and continued reading the page on training scores. He needed to know everything about his possible partner.
Soon, more people joined them in the room and he was getting antsy. Why wasn’t Joonmyun coming? He really wanted to meet him as soon as he could, this was his first time getting a possible match in the five years he had been ‘on leave’ and he had high hopes for the guy.
‘Joonmyun? What are you doing over there? Come over here quickly!’ Zitao asked sternly, breaking Kris’s concentration. Zitao’s voice was a total 180 change from ten minutes ago. ‘We don’t have time to waste, let me introduce you to someone.’
Zitao was professional, that was something Kris and he had in common. They demanded a lot from themselves and from the people around them, never allowing anything to affect their work. They didn’t win ‘Best Trainees’ in their graduating years respectively for no reason. Behind the façade however, both were easy going men with shopping addictions.
Kris whipped his head over to stare at the man who was a few steps away from them. He had milk brown hair, really nice lips and wow, such thin hips. No, Kris Wu, are you checking your possible new partner out? Concentrate! Mentally berating himself, he was confused when the young man suddenly turned and gave them his back.
Weird. Zitao said Joonmyun wasn’t very smart but he didn’t say anything about him having mobility problems right?
Curiously, he went over, wanting to ask him if anything was wrong. Ignoring Zitao’s ‘Ge, I don’t think you should.. .’, he put a hand on the smaller man’s shoulder and in a blink, found himself on the floor, staring up at the prettiest pair of eyes he had ever seen.
Oh good, at least his possible partner had good reflexes.
He grimaced. He must really be getting old, for someone so young to get a drop on him. Pursing his lips, he tried to explain to Kim Joonmyun that he was just going to ask what was wrong when the guy just crumbled to the floor in front of him.
He raised his eyebrows and looked at Zitao. What was going on?
+
Joonmyun had already received a schedule for the next day, he and Kris were staring their day with a four am run and various activities throughout the day to foster bonding between the two off them. He was nervous, he was going to spend the day with Kris freaking Wu but he knew it was going to be tough. He probably also wasn’t going to be able to sneak into Chen’s office during lunch.
Morosely, he had texted Chen to come to his dorm when was done for the day, in hopes that his best friend could comfort him. He was probably wishing for too much.
‘Well at least you don’t have to confess once he reads your mind?’ Chen said, doing his best to school his expression to one of empathy.
‘Don’t say it like it’s confirmed that we’re drift-compatible!!’ Joonmyun moaned.
‘You do know the chances are really high right? I heard Baekhyun started looking for permanent accommodation here for him already.’
‘I’m gonna dieeeeeeeeeeee. He will definitely never forget that I threw him on the floor the first time we met today.’
‘Well, that certainly will leave an impression. Maybe he will think you’re cool? Whatever he thinks, Kris Wu is a professional. Don’t worry! Plus hey, you get to work with the man of your dreams,’ Chen grinned, adding, ‘Or should I say, wet dreams?’ while wiggling his eyebrows.
The lump on the bed grunted and continued squirming.
‘Are you seriously jacking off under your sheets while I’m still here?’
Freeing his head from the comforter, Joonmyun glared at his best friend of fifteen years.
‘Well, continue doing whatever you’re doing then, if it helps you.’ Chen laughed as he made himself comfortable at the end of the bed. His best friend was so cute.
Petting Joonmyun's leg, Chen said reassuringly: ‘Just do your best tomorrow, Joonie. If you guys are compatible, you’re going to learn a lot from him and fight a lot more amazing battles. If you aren’t, you guys will go your separate ways and you will just continue doing your job. Don’t worry too much. You’ll always got me to fall back on okay?’
‘Thanks Chenchen.’ Joonmyun smiled, reaching out to hug his best friend. His best friend could be such a sap sometimes. Chen was busy most of the time and the rest of the time he was an ass to Joonmyun. Kind Chen was such a rare occurrence, Joonmyun needed to remember this moment forever.
‘I hope you guys are compatible. When you guys meld minds, I want to see his expression when he discovers all your posters of him.’ Chen giggled as Joonmyun shoved him off the bed. Nah, Chen was always an ass, whenever he wasn’t busy with work.
+
Other than Joonmyun, there was another person at the centre fearing for his life. Scampering off when Kris dismissed him, lab coat guy had made his way as fast as he could out of the room. He had squeezed himself into a corner to hide in fear when the door suddenly banged open and revealed the head of Combat Training.
Dealing with Kris Wu was enough for one day. Huang Zitao was another scary person and he resolved to do his best to be as invisible as wallpaper.
Thankfully he was finally given permission to leave and he was in the canteen having his dinner when he heard the news that the poor rookie Joonmyun had fainted after meeting Kris.
He wasn’t that surprised honestly. Kris barely said a few words to him and his heart was still palpitating in fear hours later.
Three weeks later, lab coat guy might have passed out too when he heard that Kris would be permanently attached to their training centre for the time being as his drift-compatible partner was still training here. Though he pitied the poor boy that was unluckily drift-compatible with the famous pilot, he himself was definitely going need something for his own heart soon.
1. Basically the Jaegar are huge machine-like 'transformers' you use to fight the evil monsters (the Kaiju).
2. 'Mind meld' is the process where Jaegar pilots/ Rangers share memories, instinct and emotions to become of 'one mind' so they can control a Jaegar together.