[got7] one day, robots will cry (6/7)

[tacocatwrites]

Fic: GOT7, JB/Jr., Yugyeom/Bambam
Summary: Jaebum is the owner of an android repair shop. Jinyoung is a prototype that gets abandoned on his front step one night in desperate need of repairs, and also quite possibly the best thing that ever happened to Jaebum.
Rating: PG
Contents: Slice of life with android stuff mixed in.
A/N:Title is from the Cobra Starship song. All pseudoscience stuff is 100% made up, probably illogical, and not based on reality.

Series tag is here. Also on AO3.



“Hyung! Jaebum hyung!”

Youngjae’s hands are shaking Jaebum’s shoulders, but it seems like his voice is coming from very far away. He vaguely realizes that they are in the rain, that he is still crumpled to the ground after unsuccessfully trying to chase the JYP van carrying Jinyoung. Jinyoung, who had turned himself in so that Jaebum wouldn’t get involved.

Stupid, Jaebum thinks to himself. Like I’m just going to give up on you because you turned yourself in, you idiot.

“Yugyeom-ah, help me out here,” comes Youngjae’s faraway voice again, and this time large hands are pulling him to his feet. Then, without warning, Youngjae actually, physically slaps him across the face. Not very hard or anything, though it definitely sort of stings. Well… at least Jaebum feels like his feet are back on the ground again.

“Youngjae…? Yugyeom…?” He glances between the two of them, rubbing his face bewilderedly.

Yugyeom looks scared out of his wits, holding an umbrella over himself and Youngjae, who is frowning heavily.

“Snap out of it already, hyung!” Youngjae says, huffing impatiently. “I already called Mark hyung and everyone. They’re coming over to the shop right now, so let’s hurry and go back.”

“R… right.” Jaebum blinks, then nods. He pats Youngjae’s shoulder as they head back to the shop, more than a little proud.

“You’re really grown up now, you know that?”

Youngjae only huffs again. “Of course I do.”

--

When they get back to the shop, Mark, Jackson and Bambam are already there. Mark and Bambam are reading something on his laptop, and Jackson has to be fetched from the practice studio, where he had apparently reverted back to his pre-dance crew days and started brushing up on fencing drills.

“Well? Are we gonna go rescue Jinyoung yet?” Jackson asks as soon as he comes up the stairs, sabre in hand and practically vibrating with even more nervous energy than usual.

“Plan first, dramatic rescue second, hyung,” Youngjae reminds Jackson before Jaebum can get to it, so he turns to Mark instead.

“Mark, what have you got for me?”

“When we first started investigating, I got in contact a while back with a few people who used to work at JYP,” Mark explains as he brings up a blueprint of JYP headquarters on his laptop’s hologram projector. “I explained the situation to them and got some leads, but we’ll have to break in there and hack the system ourselves if we want to get much farther.”

“Right.” Jaebum cracks his knuckles, pulling out his own holo-display and quickly inputting all six of their names on it. “So, here’s what I think about how we should divide up the work…”

--

The first phase of ‘Operation Rescue Jinyoung and Stick it to The Man’ (as Jackson insists on calling it) goes almost too smoothly.

Getting to HQ without drawing attention proves easy with the help of the cover of night, Mark’s contacts, plus a real time aerial map of the area courtesy of Youngjae hacking into a satellite feed. After that, it’s only a matter of knocking out the two security guards posted before either of them can alert anyone else.

“This is too easy,” Jackson confirms triumphantly as he relieves one of the freshly-incapacitated security guards at the northern (and most vulnerable, according to Youngjae) entrance of his more useful-looking possessions.

“Only because I didn’t give them time to know what hit them, but we only have a few hours before their shift changes,” Mark reminds him, though he thinks Jackson’s attitude is good for morale at least.

“We’ll need less time than that to save Jinyoung,” Jackson says with a cocky grin, testing the weight of the security guard’s baton and taser in his hand.

“Less talking, more moving. We don’t know exactly how many people are around until Youngjae can access the camera feed,” Jaebum reminds them both through his earpiece. He’s on the other side of the perimeter, making sure Bambam and Yugyeom get to their positions safely before doubling back to meet up with Jackson and Mark for the main portion of the break-in.

“According to the blueprint, there should be a cargo elevator on your left at the end of the hallway if you go through those double doors,” Youngjae’s voice comes through their earpieces. He’s set up in the van parked outside HQ and responsible for being their navigator and hacking the security system, both of which are absolutely crucial to say the least, but if he’s nervous at all he doesn’t sound like it.

Jaebum catches up to Mark and Jackson just as they climb onto the cargo elevator.

“So you two will help Youngjae get into their servers as soon as Bambam and Yugyeom start the diversion,” he reminds them. “And I’ll go ahead to the lab where they’re keeping Jinyoung once Youngjae can locate him using the security system.”

Mark nods. “That’s the plan.”

“You sure you’re gonna be okay on your own, hyung?” Jackson frowns.

“I’ll call you guys if I need help, don’t worry,” Jaebum assures him, though both Mark and Jackson still stare at him doubtfully.

“I dunno if you’ll need this, but take it.” Jackson hands Jaebum the weapons he collected off the security guard, before pointing to the long, thin case strapped to his back. “I brought my sabre with me, so I’m more than fine.”

“Of course you are,” Jaebum laughs, before turning to Mark. “What about you, Mark?”

“I’ve got it,” Mark shrugs. He has a taser and a baton strapped to his belt just in case, but he probably won’t need them-with years of practice in martial arts in addition to familiarity with weak points in both humans and androids, Mark figures the security guards earlier were proof that he hadn’t gotten too rusty at fighting.

“Reminds me a little of the scrapes we used to get into,” Jaebum says, as if reading his mind, as the elevator stops.

“This Mark hyung and Jackson hyung’s stop,” Youngjae says through the earpiece. “The servers are kept under lockdown on the floor below, but the stairwell should be no problem to get through from that level. Jaebum hyung, you’re going up again and hiding in the7th floor storeroom until I have control of the system.”

Mark and Jackson step off the elevator. Before the doors close, they both turn and salute Jaebum.

“You guys both better come back in one piece,” Jackson says, and if Mark didn’t know any better he’d think Jackson of all people was actually a little nervous.

Jaebum smiles wryly and returns the salute. “Same for you two.”

He watches the elevator doors close, and even though Mark knows Jaebum will be fine, it takes Jackson smacking him lightly on the shoulder for him to regain his focus.

The two of them make their way quietly down the hallway, keeping their eyes out for anyone around. Mark stops the two of them before they round the next corner-they’re almost at the server rooms, but there’s also definitely a security patrol up ahead, probably androids.

“Alright hyung, ready to start some trouble?” Jackson says under his breath, winking and grinning as casually as if they’re about to go on stage for a dance performance or something, and not risking their asses in some corporate jungle.

Mark can’t help but grin back a little anyway. The adrenaline rush is undoubtedly the same, and more importantly, Jackson still has his back.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

--

Yugyeom thought he was doing the sensible thing when he volunteered to help create the diversion. Mark’s hacking skills were needed for the server room team, and while Jackson’s personality was the opposite of stealthy, his style of fighting was much quieter than either Yugyeom’s or Bambam’s, so that was that. But Jaebum wouldn’t quit the overprotective dad act, right up onto insisting he go with Yugyeom and Bambam to their starting positions.

“Hyung, it’s fine. We probably won’t have to fight, we’ll just be running most of the time,” Bambam says cheerfully as they creep around the edge of the building. “Worse comes to worse, Gyeommie can just pick me up and we’ll go flying out the window!”

“How reassuring,” Jaebum says dryly, even though he’s the one who upgraded Yugyeom’s shock absorbing, speed, and strength capabilities above the technical legal limits when he customized him, then boosted them again in preparation for the rescue. They’d probably be fine. If he stuck the landing, anyway…

“Hey, you okay?” Jaebum’s voice drags Yugyeom back to reality, and he rolls his eyes like he was paying attention all along.

“Yeah, just going over the plan again in my head,” Yugyeom lies. He knows what he’s supposed to do anyway. Though JYP has fairly heavy security for a night patrol, it’s not like they’ll have every last scientist chasing them down when it comes down to it. It’ll probably be fine.

“Bambam, you keep an eye on him for me,” Jaebum says to Bambam as they reach the point on the perimeter Youngjae directed them to. “Make sure he doesn’t go too crazy.”

“You got it, JB hyung,” Bambam grins, giving him the thumbs up. “Bring back Jinyoung hyung quickly, okay?”

“I’m not a little kid or anything, hyung,” Yugyeom complains, but Jaebum only reaches up and ruffles his hair.

“You’re a kid to me,” he insists, and Yugyeom makes a face at him.

“Go get Jinyoung hyung already. We’ve got this.”

Yugyeom and Bambam wave as Jaebum leaves. As soon as he’s gone, Bambam holds up the small explosives in his pocket with an eager grin.

“Not yet, Bambam,” comes Youngjae’s voice through their earpieces at that exact moment, almost like he’s a mind reader. Not that Yugyeom would be surprised if he could, a little bit.

“I’m pretty sure you’re the one who needs to not go crazy,” he tells Bambam as they follow Youngjae’s next directions, and Bambam doesn’t deny it in the slightest.

The next parts of the plan go fairly well, all things considered-the explosions he and Bambam set blow the power for a short time, enough for Mark and Jackson to get into the server room before the backup kicks in. After that, it’s only a matter of keeping security occupied while Mark and Youngjae hack the system so Jaebum can get to Jinyoung.

Yugyeom thinks everything might actually go according to plan until they’re running up the stairwell from an android patrol group and Bambam suddenly lets out a yell as he trips and falls over.

“Bambam…!”

Yugyeom whips around, screeches to a halt. His bio-scanners know immediately that Bambam twisted his ankle when he fell, so he picks him up, throws him over his shoulder and runs faster, immensely grateful that Jaebum raised his parameters because apparently JYP did the same.

Still, it’s not long before Yugyeom can’t keep up sprinting speed any longer, but luckily Youngjae manages to hack into a secured door on one of the third floor storerooms for them to hide in.

“On your left!” comes Youngjae’s orders in his earpiece, and Yugyeom kicks the door open and barricades it shut. It’s only a matter of time until they’ll have to run again, but it’s better than being caught now.

“Are you okay?” He drops to his knees next to Bambam, who’s poking at his swollen ankle with a sullen look on his face.

“I really screwed up,” he says with a sigh. “Youngjae hyung can’t keep opening doors for us, he has to concentrate on finding Jinyoung hyung. I don’t know what to do next.”

“It’s… it’s not your fault,” Yugyeom says helplessly, though he knows they have to do something. He’s in the middle of wishing very badly that one of the hyungs were here with them when Bambam exclaims something in Thai and points to the opposite wall.

“A window! Why don’t we get out that way?” he suggests in Korean once he’s contained himself, and Yugyeom has a bad feeling as he goes over to check it out.

“Hmm…”

It looks like there used to be a small office there, since the windows are fairly large. Yugyeom shoves one open by brute force, and when he sticks the upper half of his body through the opening he’s sure they could both get out of it, but… the third floor seems a lot higher up than he originally thought. And he’d be carrying Bambam…

He goes back over to Bambam, who looks up at him with those huge eyes that Yugyeom forgot how to say no to, somewhere along the way. “You can do it, right?”

Yugyeom swallows, nods. An ordinary human could survive this fall if they were lucky, and he’s capable of more than that; it’ll be okay. As long as he doesn’t mess up, that is.

“Yeah. Do you trust me?” he asks, just to make sure as he scoops Bambam up in his arms, carries him towards the window.

“Of course I do, dummy.” Bambam wraps his arms around Yugyeom’s neck and buries his face in his chest, and Yugyeom feels his face grow warm despite the danger they’re in.

He gingerly lifts one leg over the window ledge, then the other, so that he’s sitting in the open window. The night breeze blows cool against his skin, but with Bambam in his arms it doesn’t feel so bad.

“Bambam-ah,” he says, voice trembling a little.

“Chickening out on me now?” Bambam sounds like he’s joking, but looks just as scared as Yugyeom feels.

Yugyeom shakes his head. There are noises from the other side of the room; they’re running out of time. He has to do it.

“Don’t go back to Thailand,” he says quietly, his grip around Bambam’s small frame tightening. “I love you, so… don’t go anywhere without me, okay?”

Bambam laughs softly despite everything, tilts his head up to kiss Yugyeom on the cheek. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Yugyeom smiles.

And then, they jump.

chapter seven