Round 29: One Week (Part 1/2)

[olymficsmod]

Title: One Week
Team: AU
Rating: R
Fandom: TVXQ
Pairing: Yoochun/Jaejoong, mentioned Changmin/Victoria
Summary: One Week was all it took to change Yoochun's life forever. Trigger warning for suicide.
Author's Note: I want to thank my best friend and beta, your encouragement meant a lot during this.
Prompt Used: MBLAQ - It's War


Shouts followed as Yoochun ran through the crowd on the promenade of the station he had docked at. The station wasn’t one of the more heavily populated but got a certain sort of traffic, which was, of course, why he had chosen it. He ducked around a corner, barely missing the stall set up just on the other side, hearing the crash behind him that said his pursuers had not been so lucky. He glanced over his shoulder as he ran down the straightaway, grinning as he turned back and kept on going, the security personnel behind him still trying to sort out the tangle of limbs they had fallen in.

He slowed his pace a little. It wasn’t unusual on these sorts of outlying stations to see someone jogging, but outright running had a greater chance of getting people to pay attention, and that wasn’t really what he needed right now. His ship was on the other side of the station, being loaded with a cargo he had agreed to ferry, and the key to it was safely in his pocket. He just needed to distract the station security long enough that the cargo could be secured properly. He figured that the small stunt he had pulled was just enough to do that on a small station like this.

He slowed down as he approached one of the cross-station lifts, glancing around for security in their bright red uniforms and chuckling a little as he didn’t see anyone. What he had done was perhaps not the best way to get the attention of security, but it had worked and no real harm had been done. Most people likely hadn’t even realized what the alarm was before it had been shut down. The lift opened in front of him and he got in, pressing the button on the station map for the exit closest to his docking slip and then holding on as the high-speed car moved up and then sideways on its journey.

The lift opened again after stopping with a small bump and he walked out after a quick glance around. He stopped here often enough that he remembered the layout of the station, but not often enough that security would necessarily recognize him or remember his ship, since he normally didn’t cause trouble, but it never hurt to be a little careful. There were no signs of security personnel in the corridor, so he stepped out and hurried down to the slip he was docked at, meeting the tall man he had accepted this cargo run from.

“Changmin,,” he said as he approached, getting the man’s attention from the data tablet in front of him. “Is the cargo secured? I’m ready to get off this station.”

“I’ll bet,” the man scoffed slightly. “Was it really necessary to sound the fire alarm?”

“I am a man of opportunities,” Yoochun replied with a shrug.

“Whatever,” was the slightly surly reply. “I expect to see you at Station Alpha Three in a week, no excuses. The prisoner has been secured in the cabin across from yours, since it was empty. You have the key?”

“Prisoner? I thought you hired me for cargo.” Yoochun frowned and pulled the key he had been given from his pocket. It didn’t look like a key normally used on prisoners. It was flat and small, a data chip usually used as a locking device on cargo containers designed for goods, not people.

“Prisoner, cargo, it is all the same as far as I’m concerned. Feed him, give him water, keep the key safe and don’t let him loose. I hope I don’t have to tell you not to trust him.”

“Wait, wait, why not just send him on a Justice transport? Or something military?”

“Too dangerous, he’d have too many chances to start a riot or get access to a weapon -- again.”

“So you send him with me?”

“You’re a civilian, Yoochun,” Changmin sighed. “You aren’t allowed to have weaponry on your craft, and you fly alone. I also happen to know you are deeply in debt for that last round of repairs you needed on your engine since you won’t hire an engineer. Just take the money, do the job, get out of debt and hire someone to keep your engines from blowing up on you, okay?”

Yoochun didn’t get the chance to answer as Changmin turned, walking away with a haughty air that never failed to annoy him. He was stuck, and Changmin knew it, but if he was caught on the station with a prisoner on his ship and without a valid bounty hunting license, he’d be in deep trouble, worse than setting off a false fire alarm, so he shook his head and keyed in the code for the door, walking onto the docking slip and then through the open airlock onto his small cargo vessel.

Departure from this type of station was always one of the most nerve-wracking parts, aside from docking. There was a Flight Office, but getting a real person and not the computer was a rarity, and there were always those who decided they didn’t want to wait for authorization. He knew that feeling, he was in the middle of it right then, sudden nerves crawling over his skin and making him more than a little anxious to be on his way and out in open space again.

He keyed in the command to release the docking clamps and the magnetic lock at the airlock, sighing as the ship’s artificial gravity kicked in as the ship was no longer connected to the station, and he felt lighter. He took a deep breath, feeling his lungs expand further than they did in normal gravity and grateful for it. He much preferred the lighter artificial gravity of space travel to the heavier feeling of being on a station or a planet. He turned the sensitivity up on the sensors as he floated away from the station gently, assisted by occasional taps at the thrusters, and when he saw no other vessels coming or going on his screens, he used thrusters to get enough distance, plotting in a course for the next station. It would take a week to get to Alpha Three, just like Changmin expected, but he would need to stop to refuel on Beta Four.

Once the engines were up to speed and the ship was on course, he turned on the autopilot and stood, stretching a little and trying to gather himself before going to check on his ‘cargo.’

Lights flickered on in the narrow corridor as he stepped out of the bridge, leaving the hatch open behind him. There were only three other hatches in the small area: the hatch to his quarters immediately to his left, next to the bridge, the hatch to the rest of the ship at the opposite end of the corridor, and the one immediately to his right, where whoever Changmin had captured had been placed. The lock blinked red on the panel next to the hatch, and Yoochun shook his head, wondering why Changmin was so paranoid about this one. He had seen how Changmin restrained prisoners in the past when he had run actual cargo for the man. He didn’t understand why he saw the need to lock the man in when he likely was chained hand and foot and to the bed.

The panel turned green as Yoochun pressed the button to open the hatch and the metal door slid aside with a small grinding noise. Yoochun made a mental note to make sure the tracks were greased after this job. He looked up and found the prisoner in the place he had expected, lying on the bed against the wall, chained hand and foot, the chain secured with a lock to the bedpost and a loop of metal welded to the floor that had definitely not been there an hour before. He would have to talk to Changmin about that. The man wasn’t sleeping, Yoochun could see that in the way his eyelids fluttered and his nostrils flared. He was pretty, something Yoochun couldn’t help but notice. He had fine, almost delicate features and a rather sharp nose, but the rest of him was all lean muscle. He obviously was not inclined to laziness, not with a build like that. Yoochun stepped into the room, moving to where he could see better.

The chains were all standard issue, so standard that even Yoochun had a key that would likely fit all of the locks hidden away in his quarters, along with a set of restraints in storage. Those he was allowed by law to have, as a Captain of his own vessel. Though, normally he would be required to send out an SOS to Justice for a pick-up if he had cause to use them. What made him pause and his hand move toward his pocket was the wide cuff circling the man’s left wrist. It was the same steel color as the rest of the restraints, but Yoochun had seen cuffs like that, before. Made of an alloy of alien design, it conducted electrical energy as well as psychic, and the cuff was designed to deliver an unpleasant shock if the person wearing it attempted escape. Exactly how it did so made no sense to Yoochun, but he knew they worked, he’d seen them in action before. The cuff was supposed to be illegal outside of government use, and Yoochun frowned. Someone had done something special to make Changmin this vindictive. Yoochun was just glad it wasn’t him.

The man on the bed opened his eyes slowly and Yoochun thought, for just a moment, that he caught a gleam of purple at the edges of the dark eyes, but it was gone so quickly he told himself that he had imagined it. The way the man looked at him was heavy and cold. He swore for a moment, later, that he could feel it pressing down on him as if he were standing on a heavy gravity world, and his breath hitched and caught in his chest for a brief moment. He looked away and the feeling subsided, leaving Yoochun shaking his head.

“Changmin doesn’t usually go this far with the restraints,” Yoochun remarked. “Makes me scared to find out what kind of kinky porn he has stashed away.”

There wasn’t much reaction, but Yoochun swore he saw a small, one-sided smirk of the man’s lips.

“I’m Yoochun,” he said then, as he leaned back against the wall opposite the bed. “I’ll be taking care of you until we get to Alpha Three.”

“Of course you will,” was the low-voiced response. “You’re the only one on the ship. Please, don’t try to bullshit me, and I won’t lie to you. I observe, and I do my research. From the size of the cargo bay I was walked through, and the size of the corridor outside that hatch, this is a small ship meant for two crew, three max, though that feels a little crowded after a while.”

Yoochun was quiet for a moment, but managed to keep his jaw from dropping open, and that was something, at least.

“Ok, then, let’s get the worst out of the way right from the start. Why does Changmin have you secured with more restraints than I have seen him use on hardened killers?”

“Short answer: I shot his girlfriend. It kind of made him mad.”

Yoochun swallowed hard. Changmin hadn’t said anything about Victoria being hurt when they spoke last. In spite of the scorn and sarcasm that were normal for Changmin, the two had known each other growing up, and he had thought they were closer than that.

“Oh, he didn’t tell you, and that gets under your skin, doesn’t it?” The soft question brought Yoochun’s attention back to the man on the bed. “I’m willing to bet they also didn’t share the truth about how they met, and he didn’t want to explain it to you, so that is probably why he didn’t tell you.”

“Why did you shoot her?”

“I was hired to kill her.”

Yoochun looked the man in the eye, again thinking he might have seen a gleam of purple in his eyes before it was gone again.

“There was nothing about a child in the file I was given. By the time I realized the little girl calling for Mommy was talking about my target, all I could do was jerk the barrell and hope I only wounded her.”

“A hit man with a conscience?”

“I may kill and do other nasty jobs on occasion for a living, but I do have some limits.”

“So that means I should what, forgive you? Thank you for only wounding my friend, instead of killing her?”

“No, but you can’t claim to be an upright, law-abiding citizen, you know. Once Changmin was on my trail, I looked up everything I could about him and everyone he associates with. You don’t have a bounty hunting license, you aren’t with Justice or have a military clearance, so me being here right now is illegal. Especially with this cuff around my wrist and the key to it sitting in your right hand pocket.”

“I’m not giving it to you.”

“Of course not. But before you go off to think about everything, probably call Changmin and yell at him for a bit, let me ask you one more thing. If he doesn’t want me to escape, why did he give you the key? Wouldn’t it make much more sense to keep it, safe and secure on a separate ship, while you take all the risk of maybe getting caught taking me to Alpha Three?”

Yoochun didn’t answer, only stepped out of the room and closed and locked the hatch behind him, cutting off the low chuckle from the man in restraints on the bed. He didn’t want to agree with a hired killer, a man who had freely admitted to being hired to kill the woman that his supposedly close friend loved. Yet, at the same time he could not dismiss the questions he had, questions that same hired killer had put into words for him.

Hours later and all Yoochun had managed to do was not call Changmin and yell. He wanted to, he wanted to more than he could say, but he didn’t. His friend of several years had been keeping secrets, rather important secrets from what Yoochun could tell, and it left a bitter taste in his mouth.

He had gone back to the bridge, checked the sensors and the flight controls before he sat down and pulled up the database console. Searching took time, but he was still close enough to the last station to make use of their database, since he was sure the information he was looking for wouldn’t be in his own. He only carried information on alien species that he came into contact with on a regular basis, and much of that was data for the translation software. His search was simple: species that appeared -- or could appear -- human and that had purple eyes. He came up with only one possibility, and according to the database, they were extinct and hadn’t been seen in over a century. Yet he was very sure that he had one restrained in his normally unused crew quarters.

He ran a hand over his face and back through his shoulder-length hair, pulling out the tie that kept it in a low tail at the back of his neck. He couldn’t get any more from the database, and it seemed like the only people who might have something to tell him were a friend who had been lying to him, and a prisoner who admitted to being a killer for hire. His stomach rumbled and he put the hair tie back in its place, pulling his hair off his neck and then went to go fix something for the two of them to eat.

Dinner was quiet, Yoochun not willing to talk at that moment, and his ‘guest’ seeming to understand that. He had loosened the restraints on his wrists enough that he could use his hands to feed himself, and had allowed him the use of the facilities behind a narrow door next to the bed. Once that was all done, Yoochun had secured him for the night and gone to try to get some sleep.

An hour later, he had been up and making a call. He knew Changmin would still be in transit to Station Alpha Three, just like he was, so Yoochun put in a call to Changmin’s home.

“Hello?” The woman who answered the call was young, but she looked tired, and there was a wrapping showing from under the edge of the sleeveless top she wore.

“Hello, Victoria,” Yoochun answered, summoning a smile from somewhere, even as he wanted to be angry as he made note of the bandage. The smile slipped as her eyes widened and she shifted a little to her left, hiding her shoulder from the camera.

“Yoochun, I didn’t expect you to call. Changmin isn’t home, he’s out on a bounty with Yunho, I don’t expect him home for a couple of weeks.”

“I know. I didn’t call to talk to Changmin, I wanted to talk to you.”

He didn’t like seeing the way her eyes shifted, or how uncomfortable she looked. More than anything else, that was enough to tell him that they had been hiding something, and she knew they had been caught at it.

“Yoochun, I... I don’t know what to say right now,” she said after a moment, finally looking back at him through the screen.

“Just tell me this much: Is there a reason someone would want you killed? A reason that you and Changmin were keeping from me?”

She looked like she was maybe going to cry for a moment before she took a deep breath and nodded.

“I know Changmin and I never really explained how we met. I’m not sure that now is a good time, either, but let’s just say that I haven’t been a good girl my whole life. I’ve done things I’m definitely not proud of, and some of those things came back to haunt me.”

Yoochun sighed, running his hand over his face and then covering his eyes for a moment. It hurt, the confirmation that his friends had been lying to him, no matter what the reason. Changmin had known everything about him, from when they met to now, he had never hidden anything from Changmin. But apparently, Changmin didn’t see the need to do the same, and that hurt more than he wanted to think about, right then.

“Yoochun, he was trying to protect you. When I came into his life, I know you were having a really rough time, and he thought it would be best to wait. I let him choose how to handle it because he knew you better. I’m sure he meant to tell you someday--”

“Someday?” Hurt became anger faster than anything else, he knew that one from experience, and this time was no different than the past. “When was ‘someday’ going to be? The two of you have known each other for four years. What could be so bad that you can’t tell me after four years?”

“Yoochun, I really don’t think this is a good time to talk about this. Wait until Changmin is back, then come see us. I promise we will talk, then. I’ll tell you everything, I promise, but not like this.”

He stared at the screen for a moment before he spoke again, but try as he might, he couldn’t keep the hurt from his voice.

“I’m on a job for Changmin right now, transporting a prisoner. A prisoner who claims to be the one who gave you that nice bandage you’re trying to hide from me, Victoria.” He felt a small measure of satisfaction in the fact that she visibly winced and sighed. “I will talk to Changmin when I see him next, and we’ll see after that.”

She nodded, and he cut the connection before drawing his legs up into the chair with him and burying his face in his hands. When the alarm he had set to keep him on something like normal time chimed, he was still awake, and he pulled himself out of the chair with difficulty, his body stiff after so long in the same spot and his eyes feeling puffy and sore.

Breakfast wasn’t fancy, but the fruit was fresh and juicy, and it would do since he didn’t feel up to anything more complicated than slicing the bright purple Chan fruit and removing the seed in the middle. He rinsed the seed and dried it, then placed it in a jar he kept in the cupboard. Off-worlders who returned Chan seeds when they visited Chielo Prime were given a very nice discount on supplies, and Yoochun had learned to take advantage of things like that whenever he could. Another two of the seeds and he might be able to fuel for free the next time he was in that area.

He entered the spare room and quietly released the man on the bed, though he noticed the raised eyebrows. He shrugged in answer as he set aside the chains he had taken from the man, making sure they didn’t tangle as he lay them on the bed and let the man use the facilities. When he returned, Yoochun gestured to the seat he had pulled from its slot in the wall on the other side of the pull-out table, and the plate of fresh, sliced Chan fruit.

“I am guessing that you have maybe tried talking to your friend, and you didn’t like the answers you got,” the man said as he sat down. Thin fingers reached for a slice of the fruit, and he hummed in appreciation at the taste. Chan fruit wasn’t easy to come by this far out, but there was a reason it was popular on every planet and station in the known galaxy. “My name is Jaejoong,” he added after he swallowed his first mouthful.

Yoochun ate an entire slice of the fruit before he responded, glad he had someone to share it with, since it never tasted quite as good after being refrigerated for a while, and he could never eat one all by himself, since they were easily as big as his head.

“I haven’t been given any answers, yet.”

“And that would be what you don’t like,” Jaejoong said as he reached for a third slice of the fruit. “Truth from any source is better than nothing, especially when the people you trust are hiding something.”

Yoochun only nodded.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know all the specifics of what she has done in her past, I can’t tell you what she might have done that would make them hide this, as far as I’m aware. But, I can tell you who hired me, and what little I was told of why.”

Yoochun sighed, and picked up another slice of fruit. “After we eat. This is too good to waste by having my appetite spoiled.”

Jaejoong just shrugged and the two continued to eat in silence, until the fruit was gone and the juices licked from their fingers. Yoochun sighed, then picked up the plate the fruit had been on and pushed the button to slide the table and chairs back into the wall after the two men had stood.

“Do you plan to put the chains back on, now?”

Yoochun shook his head at the question. “I thought you might like to join me in the kitchen for some coffee.”

“That is rather trusting, isn’t it?”

“Maybe so,” Yoochun said with a shrug as he walked out the door, “but you have been honest with me so far. Besides, I have no weapons on board, and I am well aware of what that piece of technology on your wrist does. Try to hit me over the head with the coffee pot, and I am pretty sure it will consider that an escape attempt.”

Jaejoong laughed, one hand coming up and covering his mouth as he did, and Yoochun could only stare. The change of expression changed him entirely. If all he had ever seen was this laughing man, he never would have believed he could be a hired killer.

“I think you’re right about that. This bracelet does tend to limit what I could do, though I have no intention of trying to escape. Changmin has no proof I was actually trying to kill his girlfriend, though I’ll admit it all looks suspect. Still, I think I can likely get off with a light sentence.”

“A light sentence?” Yoochun glanced back over his shoulder as he led the way through the doorway to the rest of the ship and down a few steps to a catwalk above the cargo bay. The door to the kitchen was just down on the left.

“Of course. I was just hiding in an out of the way place to clean my highly illegal rifle, and it went off. I’ll do two years, maybe three at the worst. It is much better than the sentence for attempted murder.”

Yoochun chuckled. He had to, there was simply nothing else he could do. When he looked back, Jaejoong was smiling and the sight was enough to make him pause for a second before he took out coffee and filters.

Jaejoong looked around the room curiously as Yoochun watched him without trying to seem like he was watching him. He watched Jaejoong pause at the catering unit on the wall that dispensed perfect molecular recreations of food, which was more than enough for most people, to the point that cooking was almost unknown to people in Yoochun’s line of work.

“You make your own coffee?”

Yoochun nodded once the pot was set in place and the water was heating. “I do. I can’t stand the taste of the stuff from the caterer. Though, dinner will probably be from it, since I don’t cook much.”

“Most people don’t bother.”

“I grew up planetside. My mother used to cook all the time, so having canned food when I know what fresh, real food tastes like isn’t something that I really enjoy.”

Jaejoong moved from where he had been standing near the table and moved to the cupboards, looking in each one and making small noises here and there. Yoochun watched curiously as he then moved to the cold storage and opened it, looking inside and making more noises.

“You don’t have a lot of variety,” he said after a moment. He closed the door and turned back to Yoochun with a friendly look. “I can do something with what you do have, though. If you trust me not to poison you, that is.”

“You cook?” Yoochun looked over the man again, surprised that a hired killer would have cooking in his skill set.

“I’m not always an assassin, you know. I’ve done other things, too. On one assignment, I was looking for information, and the best way to get it was to join the kitchen staff for a certain prominent politician. I learned a lot while I was there, and you’re right, it isn’t the same.”

“I think we can come to an agreement,” Yoochun said after a moment. “Though if I look over your shoulder, don’t be offended.”

The kitchen was filling with the aroma of fresh-brewed coffee, and Yoochun got down two mugs and poured for them, waiting at the table while Jaejoong added a little creamer to his. He watched as Jaejoong came and sat down across from him, the smile faded from his face.

“You said you would tell me about your assignment,” he said, watching Jaejoong over the edge of his coffee mug.

“I did. I don’t have much, though, like I said. I don’t usually ask a lot of questions. Asking questions can get you killed in my line of work.” Jaejoong took a sip of the coffee and set his cup down. “All I can tell you is that I was hired by the Omega Faction from Orelius Five. From the venom in the way the job was worded and the rather large price they were willing to pay, I am guessing she was working for the Alphas at some point.”

Yoochun put down his coffee cup and flexed his hands.

“Orelius Five, you said?”

“Yeah, something to do with the war there four years ago.”

Yoochun closed his eyes at the words, tears welling up again that morning. The pain was still there, all those years later. He had thought it had faded, he didn’t even think about it anymore, but there it was, fresh and heavy and sitting on his chest, making it hard to breathe.

“Yoochun? Yoochun, are you okay?” He looked up into worried eyes, the eyes of a stranger, but one who had been open and honest with him, at the very least. He didn’t hide anything about himself, good or ill. Yoochun nodded.

“I’m okay.” He cleared his throat. “My brother, my little brother was fresh out of school when the war broke out, he volunteered to help with the relief effort for the refugees. There was some small incident that happened near the refugee area, he went to help someone who was injured, and he was killed.”

Yoochun looked up at Jaejoong, who was sitting silent, his face a blank mask but his eyes dark and moisture gathered in the corners. He shook his head and got up, leaving the room as he muttered something about throwing out the coffee and a shower.

Later that day, after a dinner Jaejoong had put together which had left Yoochun surprised at the variety of items he had actually had in the kitchen, he was sitting on the bridge when he heard footsteps behind him. He glanced over his shoulder when the steps paused at the hatch to the bridge and he gave a nod to Jaejoong, waving a hand toward the extra seat next to his. The bridge was small, just like most of the areas on the ship that had nothing to do with storing cargo or housing the engines. There were two seats side by side, which put all of the necessary instrumentation in reach from either seat, the perfect configuration for a vessel that was often crewed by two men, or even one in Yoochun’s case.

“We’ll be at Station Beta Four tomorrow morning,” Yoochun said after a moment. “We’ll be getting fuel and maybe a few other supplies, but I’ll need you to stay on the ship.”

Jaejoong nodded. “Of course. I expected that.”

Yoochun smiled slightly, then turned his head when a small ping sounded from another screen. He pressed a few buttons and smiled at the words that scrolled across the screen as they were decoded. He didn’t take jobs like this one often, but the large amount of legitimate cargo on this job would make it easier for him to finish his job for Changmin and this offer.

“Well, we will be a few hours later than Changmin expects us, but nothing to worry about,” he said. “I’ll be picking up some cargo bound for Station Alpha Three at one of the Alpha Five substations,” he explained after seeing Jaejoong’s questioning look. Jaejoong nodded, a look of understanding crossing his face.

“Any chance you plan on picking up a pilot at Beta Four, too? Or are you used to navigating asteroid fields?”

“Ah,” Yoochun said, shaking his head a little. “You looked at the course plan.” Jaejoong nodded. “The field is actually a lot more stable than people realize. There is an actual path through it if you have a small enough vessel, which I just happen to have.”

Jaejoong arched a brow in response, and stood from the second seat. “Well, then since you seem to have everything in hand, I’m going to go to my cabin and see what you have in the entertainment section of your database.”

Yoochun chuckled a little, aware that he had a lot of movies and a few books, but his personal taste wasn’t always what other people liked. Changmin had complained on more than one occasion when he had traveled with Yoochun, and Yunho brought his own disks and data sticks when he had to hitch a ride with Yoochun for one reason or another. Once Jaejoong had left the bridge and he heard the hatch to the room he was using close, Yoochun sat back in the chair, checked a few monitors to make sure everything was where it should be and then leaned back to get more comfortable as he called up a movie that he used to watch all the time with his brother. It wasn’t his normal taste, but Yoohwan had loved it, and he watched it every once in awhile, still.

The next morning found Yoochun on the station at Beta Four with a list of items Jaejoong had asked to have for the kitchen. Based on the results of his scrounging the night before, Yoochun was more than willing to provide the requested items, since the majority of them were fairly common and cheap to acquire. There was one spice that Jaejoong had asked for that might be hard to find, but he didn’t think he would actually have much problem since Beta Four was a well-traveled trading hub.

He was just finishing up his negotiations with an old woman for a small handful of the spice, the price astronomical in his opinion, even after he had bargained it down to half the original asking price, but Jaejoong had assured him the result would be well worth any expense. He hoped that held to be true as he pocketed the small bag of precious spice, wrapped to prevent any of it escaping until it was needed, and looked up at the sound of booted feet marching in unison down the metal paneling of the station floor. He watched curiously with everyone else as a squadron of Federal troops marched by in their black uniforms, boots gleaming and energy rifles held over their shoulders. A knot formed in his belly as they passed, and the whispers started to move through the markets. Inspections. Exactly what Yoochun had been hoping to avoid.

He moved as quickly as he could without drawing unnecessary attention to himself and made his way back to his ship, the bag of food slung over his shoulder and bouncing heavily against his back as he moved. Once on board, he hurried through to the kitchen, leaving the bag on the counter and hurrying down the small corridor toward the bridge and the crew quarters. He heard the communication lines giving out their distinctive chirp as he approached and pressed the button to answer the call without even sitting down in the seat.

“Vessel Alpha-Gamma-Eight-Five-Nine, this is Flight Control,” came the slightly bored sounding voice of the official on the other end.

“Flight Control, this is Alpha-Gamma-Eight-Five-Nine, go ahead.”

“A Federal officer will be at your airlock in five minutes for inspection, no clearance will be granted until the inspection is completed.”

“Understood, I’ll be waiting.”

Yoochun closed the line and reached into his pocket. There was no other choice. He could explain Jaejoong, but not the cuff. Any Federal officer with two brain cells would know what that cuff was and he’d be in Federal Detention right along with Jaejoong before he knew it. He stepped out of the bridge and knocked on the closed door of Jaejoong’s cabin before opening the door.

Jaejoong stood from the bunk and Yoochun stepped forward, reaching for his left wrist. Jaejoong almost pulled back before allowing the touch and watching the cuff fall away into Yoochun’s hand after he inserted the data chip.

“Federal inspection,” Yoochun said, and Jaejoong nodded. “I hired you on a trial basis at the last station, and that is why you aren’t on the official crew register. It’s frowned on, but not actually illegal.”

“And the cuff?”

“Please, you pointed out already that I’m not exactly an upright, law-abiding citizen. An operation like mine, I sometimes need to do a little bit of work off the books, shall we say.” He turned with the cuff in hand and Jaejoong followed as he went down to the engine room and into the storage room there.

Yoochun reached behind a box of wiring and other small odds and ends, and pressed on a bit of the metal plating in several places before a piece of the paneling dropped back and slid silently to the side. He reached inside and placed the cuff down, covering it with a bit of inertial webbing to make sure it stayed where he placed it. Once it was secure, he pressed another place beside the small compartment and the bit of paneling slid back into place and melded seamlessly with the rest.

“A little bit of alien tech, undetectable unless you know exactly what you are looking for,” Yoochun said with a smile as he stepped back and put the box back in its place on the shelf.

Jaejoong and Yoochun walked back out of the engine room and Jaejoong’s eyes moved constantly around the place, making mental notes about the layout of the ship. He wouldn’t be expected to know the place for every single thing on board, not after less than a week on her crew, but he would need to know the major things. Luckily, except for minor things like that little compartment Yoochun had just shown him, the ship seemed to be pretty stock for her class, which meant Jaejoong would be able to pull off a story of having served as a pilot on one before. The fact that it was the truth helped.

The buzzer sounded at the airlock as they arrived and Yoochun promptly pressed the button to open the bay doors, which were large enough to allow in carts pulling cargo or even small shuttles, though a shuttle would need a pilot that was both expert and more than a little crazy or desperate. Yoochun hadn’t had a reason to put a shuttle in his bay before, but he had heard of it being done. He had also heard of it being botched, and that was something he never wanted to think of, personally.

The officer in charge stepped into the bay with a few soldiers behind him and after a quick look at Yoochun and Jaejoong, neither of which looked exceptionally professional that day, he waved the men inside with terse orders to “search everything.”

“Which of you is the captain of this vessel?” His voice dripped with disdain on the last word and Yoochun bristled a bit, but managed to keep a straight face as he stood a little straighter, fully aware of the ripped jeans and dirty boots he wore. He had been trying to look a little on the poor side when he went to the market, since he found he was usually able to bargain people down more when they thought he might be down on his luck and just sick of caterer food. People on stations didn’t use the caterers as much as those ship-board did.

“I am,” Yoochun said.

“There is only record of yourself on the official crew listings for this vessel, Captain Park.” Yoochun could hear the sneer in the officer’s voice as he gave him his proper rank.

“Yes, Major, is it?” He had no trouble telling the man’s rank, but he could see the way it annoyed him and gave Yoochun a small bit of satisfaction. “I hired a new pilot on a provisional basis. I’m giving him a try until we get back to Alpha Three. Didn’t want to mess with the paperwork until I was sure he would be sticking around. My last one didn’t, and it was a pain in the ass.”

The Major looked over Jaejoong, frowning, then back to Yoochun. “While not strictly against the letter of the law, I must insist that the paperwork be filed sooner rather than later. Such issues cause more problems than they are worth.”

“I will do that, Major,” Yoochun said, nodding his head and trying not to let on that he wanted to laugh at the sour look on the man’s face.

The next few minutes seemed to take forever as the three stood in silence while they waited for the soldiers to return, which they all did empty-handed, save one. The man who had gone forward to inspect the crew quarters and the bridge returned holding a set of restraints coiled loosely in his hands, the metal links clinking together as he walked.

“Sir, I found these on the bunk in one of the crew quarters.”

“Captain Park,” the Major said, and Yoochun wanted to punch him for that smug look. He had forgotten about the restraints and hadn’t put them away. “Would you care to explain this?”

Yoochun could feel his face turned red as he tried to think of anything to explain them. He felt Jaejoong lean against him, one arm circling Yoochun’s waist. He looked to the side to see the sly smile spread on Jaejoong’s lips.

“Major, I’m sorry. It isn’t what it looks like. Well, I guess it might be,” he said and Yoochun could feel his jaw drop, wondering if Jaejoong was, for some strange reason, about to betray them both. “See, the Captain likes things a little... kinky, sometimes.” Jaejoong laughed and Yoochun could feel his face burning. “Of course, I do, too, so it works great. You’re not going to arrest us for having a little fun, are you?” Jaejoong winked and Yoochun let out a small noise that came horribly close to being a whimper as he looked back to the Major.

The Major’s face was red, and his mouth opened and closed a few times before he motioned to the soldier to hand the restraints off to Yoochun. He then turned and curtly ordered his men out of the ship. Yoochun pressed the button to close the bay doors as soon as they stepped past them and once they were closed, he collapsed against the controls, laughing along with Jaejoong.

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