Chapter Text
It took around 10-15 minutes for the heroes to get their thoughts together enough for them to continue.
Yeosang grabbed the book from where San had placed it, the feline still resting on his chest. “Ar-are we all ready to continue” Yeosang stuttered at the start of his sentence but his brothers didn’t comment on it. The other males nod, though San’s, Wooyoung’s and Mingi’s were hesitant.
Yeosang took a deep breath, feeling San nuzzle into his chest softly, before he opened the book to the chapter he was going to read.
It’s a knock that pushes Jongho out of his dreams.
Hongjoong smiled sadly, upset at his past self for waking the young boy up from, probably, much needed sleep.
Yeosang frowned at Jongho hurting himself, however accidently.
Immediately, he’s awake,
‘ Trauma response, he had to be awake quickly in case of being attacked while out on late night missions ’ Mingi frowned as he thought that.
sitting up so quickly that he chokes on a pained breath when his ribs move.
Hongjoong was even more upset at his past self when he heard that. Running deft fingers through the youngest’s hair, since they softly moved Jongho back to his pillow/mattress during the break between chapters, Hongjoong calmed his thoughts before focusing back onto Yeosang and the book in his hands.
His abdomen feels worse, too, a quiet ache that hurts more when he pays attention to it.
They all have experienced that certain feeling. When they pay attention to one of their worst off injuries, they always hurt more than when they originally got hit.
As he rubs at his eyes to get sleep out of them, mumbling something indecipherable that equates to permission to enter, the door opens to reveal Seonghwa and someone Jongho doesn't recognize.
The captain was going to say something but then remembered that he was kicked out before Jongho was fully conscious.
He’s a smaller man, with a shock of messy red hair that looks frizzy even though there’s no humidity in the room.
“Downside of having electric based magics huh Cap” Yunho teased, knowing that another reason Hongjoong’s hair looks frizzy was from the many, many , hair dying adventures the slight captain went on every other week if he can.
His eyes, though, are dark and attentive, posture wide and proud, like he’ll fill the space with his presence alone.
“I don’t know how to feel about why, exactly, Jjongie can read new people so easily.” Hongjoong grumbled, voice low yet comforting for his brothers.
With how much sparkly jewelry he has and how one of his hands is wrapped in gauze, he just might.
San and Wooyoung chuckle lightly as they hear that.
The other heroes were just glad the two ‘trouble makers’ were feeling slightly better.
At the mention of gauze wrapping around his hand; Hongjoong flexed his hands, which he wrapped in some spare fabric Watcher gave him so he could stop the flicks of lightning from bouncing off his hands.
Seonghwa, oddly enough, seems to fit next to him despite how differently he presents himself. He’s relaxed, with a single dainty earring-
“I hate the implications of him being able to notice if we’re relaxed or not and the little details, like Hyung’s earring, so easily.” Mingi said softly.
-and wearing a white blouse as opposed to the man’s baggy tee and bright yellow bucket hat.
The heroes were all familiar with their captain’s…unique style of dress and so they just smiled softly.
“Hello, Jongho-ssi,” Seonghwa says with a gentle smile as he lets the stranger walk in first. “This is our Captain. He wanted to ask you some things.”
Ah. Jongho has been waiting for the niceties to drop.
“That wasn’t gonna happen sweetheart” Hongjoong mumbled softly; feeling Wooyoung, who was still on Hongjoong’s lap, shift to also place a slender hand in Jongho’s fluffy hair.
Jongho turns his eyes to the Captain and bows his head awkwardly. He can feel his head pounding again, but everyone here is probably older than him, so it’s proper to bow regardless.
“Not when it hurts you, and especially when you have a concussion” San said, with his brothers nodding in agreement.
Yeosang’s eyes narrowed when he continued to read.
And they are certainly higher in status in other ways.
The Captain, despite the frown on his face,
“I was frowning because, like Sannie said, Jjong didn’t have to bow to me with a concussion. Also the fact i had to fucking recusitate him the night before was another reason.” Hongjoong explained.
bows back before saying, “I know you had a rough night, Jongho-ssi, but it’s important that you tell me anything you can, all right.?”
Seonghwa was glad that Hongjoong approached the boy who became their littlest brother softly instead of demanding answers like he was going to the night before.
He’s nicer than Jongho was expecting.
Hongjoong frowned a bit but understood that Jongho didn’t have very good interactions with Heroes in the past.
Yeosang snorted softly at what he was about to read.
Brusque, maybe, but he was expecting an interrogation with, like, intense lights and staring and shit, so this is much better.
The boys were grateful for a bit of humour, no matter how tiny that bit was.
“I’ll answer what I can,” Jongho says.
The captain actually smiles at that, even if it doesn’t totally reach his eyes.
“Thank you,” he says, sitting at the end of the bed with his legs crossed. Not very professional, but Jongho isn’t complaining.
The boys snort while Seonghwa smiles amusedly “trying to get Hongjoongie hyung to be professional in our home, safe houses included, is like trying to get corrupted heroes behind bars, nigh impossible.” Wooyoung chuckled.
“We found you in the Seocho district, by Dongsan-ro. Do you mind telling us how you got there?”
“He bolted there, that's how” San grumbled, poutling playfully.
Jongho looks down, quilt in between his fingers as he fidgets.
“Boss texted me to meet by the Han river at midnight,” he says, trying not to mumble. “In the Apgujeong district. I think it was by a department store, I don't know. We just had to count shipments and then leave. We do it once a week, and sometimes I get picked and sometimes I don't.”
“I have a feeling he’s picked more often than not since he’s one of the higher rank, I don't want to say henchmen cause he’s not but that's what he was when he was with HALA” Yunho said.
The Captain hums and nods along, trying to smile gently but it doesn’t work to calm Jongho’s nerves.
“And that's why Hwa was with me, along with having to check on him” Hongjoong said, earning fond laughs from his brothers.
“So you’re in contact with someone in HALA?”
“Yes, but I’m sure it’d be hard to track, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Jongho looks up to frown at him. “I’ve never seen anyone. I don’t know my coworkers’ faces, and they don’t know mine. Boss just knows bank accounts and numbers.”
The heroes frown at how…alone their youngest brother was before meeting the group of 7.
“Do they know your name?” The Captain’s face has changed, his eyebrows furrowed, something like concern in his eyes, but Jongho isn’t sure.
Hongjoong nodded, for he indeed had concern in his eyes for the younger male.
“Boss probably does.” Jongho shrugs. “I don’t know about anyone else. We don’t really talk. At least, they don’t talk to me.”
“Why not?” Odd question.
If he didn’t know Hongjoong as well as he did, San would also clock that as a weird question to ask when gaining information.
“Don’t know. Maybe ‘cause I’ve been there the longest?” Jonho hums, considering his words. “I’m not very friendly, I guess.
“Oh he’s a soft little teddy bear” Mingi coo’ed.
And they know me from the fighting ring, so they could just be afraid of me.”
Yeosang considered that to be partially true once he remembered how…scared the villain, what was his name again, was when Jongho was getting information on where San could’ve been.
“There’s a fighting ring?” The Captain’s eyebrows raise now, and he’s leaned forward a bit. He has stars in his eyes, too.
Hongjoong swallowed the small whine in his throat when he heard that.
Jongho nods. “I’ve been going there for five years. HALA hired me to work for them after I got into the top thirty, which took me about a year to do.
“That's still pretty impressive.” Yunho said, proud of how strong his baby brother was, though he still despised the exact reason why Jongho had to be so strong.
I’ve been working for them ever since.”
“Do you think you could tell us where the fighting ring is?”
Jongho frowns. “No, I’m sorry, Captain-ssi.”
‘ Baby, ’ Yeosang whines in his head about what Jongho expects to happen when he couldn’t tell Hongjoong the answer to his question.
He waits for the debilitating disappointment, the resulting anger that will burst through the air, the lightning strikes and the sparks and the crackling—
Hongjoong let the low whine out this time, burying his head in Wooyoung’s shoulder and he fought to keep his tears at bay.
Wooyoung nodded towards his best friend while he manoeuvred so he could wrap an arm around his hyung. Yeosang smiled softly before he went back to the book in his hands.
“Ah, that’s too bad.” The Captain shifts, pulling his knees to his chest to get more comfortable. He frowns a little but doesn’t look upset. “It’s okay. How about you tell us how you got nicked-
“Was more then a fucking nick past me” Hongjoong cursed at his past self.
-so badly that our Crow came in covered in your blood?”
Jongho has to fight looking down.
Yeosang scowled, causing San to try and smooth the angry pout away with a soft hand.
“It's kind of embarrassing.” he starts with a dry half-laugh, rubbing the back of his neck. “I was running away with the rest of my coworkers, and i guess Crow and Black Cat were getting too close, because-”
Jongho pauses, finds that it’s harder to say than he thought. He clears his throat.
“How hard must it be to vocalise something that traumatic.” Seonghwa said, having been silent for most of the chapter so far.
“Someone needed to distract them so everyone else could get away,” he settles on, keeping his tone neutral. “So, yeah, I got stabbed by a coworker.”
“He said that so calmly, it kinda scared me” Seonghwa mumbled, watching as Wooyoung twisted to sit sideways on Hongjoong’s lap with his legs on the oldest of the heroes.
Mingi ended up pushing Wooyoung’s pillow further into the circle so the barrier magic user could be close enough to Jongho’s prone form to run gentle fingers through the maknae’s hair.
The boys spend the next 5 minutes rearranging the circle. They were all still in the circle order from before but San’s and Wooyoung’s pillows were pushed out of the circle, since they were on laps (they don't look like they’ll be moving back to sit on their pillows anytime soon), and the others all moved in closer.
“You-?” The Captain blinks. “You could’ve died, Jongho-ssi! You did die!”
Yeosang sighed, and slouched as much as he could while sitting and San being on his lap.
“That’s the point, yes.”
The Captain’s face is dark,
Just like the rest of his brothers.
lips twisted into a scowl.
Just like right now causing Wooyoung to giggle slightly as he nuzzled into the space underneath his hyung’s chin.
From how much his jaw tightened, he must be gritting his teeth,
“Oh I was” Hongjoong grumbled.
but Jongho doesn’t know why.
“Well now that just hurts a whole lot more than a knife to the skin” Yunho said.
“Is that normal?” Seonghwa suddenly asks, and Jongho realizes the hero had taken a seat at his desk. He’s watching them with a frown, eye unreadable.
“I’d say so,” Jongho says with a nod. “There’s a lot of henchmen, as you guys put it, so we’re all expendable.”
“Youngie, not right now yeah” Hongjoong mumbled to the crow on his lap, feeling the male tense. Said crow smiled softly, understanding that it’s not the right moment for his dramatics. Wooyoung turned that soft smile towards his other hyung when he felt Seonghwa’s slender hands resting on his ankles.
Seonghwa gives the Captain a pointed look. Jongho doesn’t know what it means.
“So they don’t mind murdering the lot of you.” The Captain sounds incredulous, his words scathing.
“Of course not,” Jongho says, narrowing his eyes.
Mingi sighed, ‘ I don't like how defensive he was those first few weeks. ’
He has to fight the annoyance bubbling in his chest. Heroes are heroes, after all. “Do you have any idea of what HALA does? Who works for them? We’re all vagrants in one way or another. It’s a job, and those are the risks.”
“If you died, then no one would’ve looked for you?” The Captain’s eyes are burning, electrified without magic. “Is that what you’re telling us, Jongho-ssi?”
“Ok i might have been a bit demanding but you boys would be the same if you were told that it was expected that you would die sometime while working with HALA.”
Jongho falters, remembers twinkling eyes and giggling and—
“Yes,” he says, lifting his chin.
The males frown at that, hating how afraid Jongho was to even mention he has a little brother, scared that something would happen to the little boy.
“I’m by myself. There is no one.”
“No family?”
“No one,” Jongho says firmly. He doesn’t look away.
“it’s important that you stay here, then,” Seonghwa says. “I don't know where you’re staying in Seoul, but you need consistent help to heal properly. At least until your wound closes.”
Yeosang swallowed heavily, pushing down the lump in his throat lodged beside the whine also in there.
Jongho digs his teeth into his cheek, eyes sliding from the Captain to Seonghwa. He doesn’t want to leave Jaeho alone in Seoul.
“While Jjongie is still hesitant to leave the house, why don’t we check on Jaeho when we’re out on patrols, if we can’t bring him to HQ yet” Yunho spoke up, having his own little brother to worry about as well, wanting to at least give Jongho that peace of mind while he, himself, couldn’t go check on his only family due to the fear of being caught by HALA agents.
The other males agreed though before they could continue planning, Seonghwa got them back on track “we can flesh out more of that idea once we’re either finished with this chapter or back at home where Jongho would be able to participate.” His boys agreed and turned back to focus on Yeosang’s soothing voice.
He visits him every other week, and he doesn't want him to think Jongho abandoned him like their mother.
‘ So Jongho didn’t tell his baby brother about their mother being dead, I wonder why and I wonder what transpired that led up to Domino dying and Jongho finding out about being the child of the biggest villain in Seoul. ’ Mingi thought, rubbing soft circles on Jongho’s ribs, since the healer rolled onto his side, face towards the barrier user’s thigh.
Seonghwa must see something in Jongho’s eyes because his eyes flash with an emotion Jongho doesn’t recognize.
“I saw his hesitancy and worry and figured out he was protecting someone precious to him.” Seonghwa explained when the younger four males turned to look at him.
“That’s enough interrogating, Hongjoong-ah,” he says to the Captain, who immediately balks at the name.
“Look, not one of you two menaces told me he knew half our real names so don’t blame me for being worried.” Hongjoong huffed, digging his fingers in Wooyoung’s side in retaliation while giving San a playful stink eye.
“Seong- Song! What is wrong with you? He’s right there-!”
“And he knows most of our names already.” Seonghwa rolls his eyes, but his lips quirk up.
“You enjoyed that way too much hyung” Wooyoung teases, seeing the proud smirk on the oldest’s lips.
“Calm down. What’s he going to do? Tell the press?
The boys snorted at that, knowing that even if Jongho was in the condition to leave the safe house, he wouldn’t go to the press with their names since he also didn’t want to bring unwanted attention to himself and/or his baby brother.
You know no one actually cares about us or what we do.”
Despite it sounding harsh, Seonghwa was correct in that statement. The hero organisations only cared about the heroes that cared about fame and money and that's not ATZ, they care more about saving people then fame or money.
“For now,” Hongjoong says, scowling, but it turns into a pout when he meets Seonghwa’s eyes. He sighs. “Whatever. I’ll be back later.”
He unfolds his legs and leaves the bed, straightening his shirt and necklaces before he makes his way to the door.
“It was nice to meet you, Jongho-ssi,” he adds, like it’s an afterthought, before he shuts the door behind him.
Hongjoong winced at that. He didn’t mean for it to come out that way, he just had too much on his mind and wasn’t really focused on his manners.
Jongho frowns.
“He means well,” Seonghwa says, apologetic.
“I’m sorry bub.” Hongjoong whispered as he placed a hand on Jongho’s hip, watching as Mingi’s large hand rubbed soft circles on the younger male’s ribs.
“He’s just a bit… stressed.”
Yeosang snorted softly, knowing that Hongjoong wouldn't be offended considering the Captain could see he was not very welcoming either.
Jongho decides not to say that even though he’s been stressed for over half of his life, he doesn’t act like that.
“Probably because he had more to lose then Hyung if he acted like that to his ‘employers’ huh” San whispered to Yunho, who he moved to sit on when he realized Yeosang was having difficulty reading the book with him on the mimic user’s lap. Yunho nodded softly in agreement, running soft fingers up the sides of the shapeshifter.
“Here, let’s redress your wound.” Seonghwa pulls the chair over to the bed to sit closer, hands filled with a roll of bandages and a bottle of antibiotic ointment.
Jongho complies without a word, slowly sitting up straighter so he can unwrap his bandages. There’s a pang of hunger-
“He didn’t have food until we gave him some, did he?” Wooyoung said softly, though it was still loud enough for his brothers to hear. “I think so bub.” Seonghwa sighed.
-that makes him dig his teeth into his lip, but he says nothing.
Seonghwa scowled at that, not knowing why the younger male dug his teeth into his lip until now.
He’s gone without food before. He can do it again.
Yeosang’s voice trailed off at that, not at all thrilled his youngest brother had to go through that.
The males gave Yeosang sometime to get his voice back since they were also stuck on that small piece of information ‘ no wonder he barely ate when with us, he had to survive off of infrequent quick meals and he didn’t want to get use to frequent meals that actually filled him up in case he went back to how he was living before. ’ Yunho thought with a pout.
“So what family did you leave behind?” Seonghwa asks, simple and conversational like he has been, but the question sends a shot of adrenaline up Jongho’s spine.
“I’m not leaving him behind,” he bites back, defensive, before he realizes his mistake.
“Don’t worry Jjong, Hwa hyung has always been able to get you to slip up” Mingi stage whispered towards his sleeping brother earning chuckles from the other males in the room.
Seonghwa gives him a smile, the one he gave when they first met and said hello. It makes the features of his face soften.
“A brother, then?” he asks, taking the soiled bandages from Jongho.
“How much did he bleed through the bandages hyung” San suddenly asked “i didn’t really have a good look though i know for a fact he did bleed through while he was sleeping” Seonghwa replied.
“What’s he like?”
His eyes shimmer blue again, and Jongho feels the droplets before he sees them this time.
“Why do you want to know?” Jongho eyes him, fists clenched, shoulders tense.
“I’m just curious.” Seonghwa shrugs, focuses on turning his hand so that the water flows just the right way. “I have a hyung back home. I was raised in a really small town, so we hung out a lot growing up. He’s a nurse.”
“That’s where you learnt how to patch us up enough to not die” Yunho said, causing Seonghwa to laugh while he nodded in agreement.
Jongho keeps quiet, studying him still, watching for any suspicious movements.
Seonghwa smiled sadly at that.
It’s one thing for superheroes to know his name and his face, but his brother’s? No. Absolutely not.
“I wanted to be a nurse, too,” Seonghwa says. “Just like him. But then my magic unlocked when I was nineteen, and off to the Academy I went.”
Seonghwa smiled softly, not having seen his hyung for a couple years. None of the boys who have siblings have really seen or properly talked to them for the years since they graduated, even then, they were only allowed to send a letter once every month when they were in the Academy.
He drops his hand and opens a drawer under the bed to take out a hand towel. He dabs at the wound, feather-light, but Jongho still has to stifle a wince.
“I didn’t really get a lot of medical training, to be honest,” Seonghwa says, smiling sheepishly, but it's sad.
The boys all knew that Seonghwa wasn’t an official medic but he was the closest thing to one that they fully trusted.
“I learned most of it from my hyung. Usually when I scraped my knee or my hands, or something else, because I got hurt a lot back then.
Yeosang chuckled softly, knowing that it was still somewhat true.
I’ve always been clumsy.”
“You still are hyung” Mingi teased, earning a soft chuckle from the oldest of them.
He puts the roll of bandages and the antibiotic ointment on the bed, pushing it closer to Jongho to let him know he’s done.
Jongho hesitates, feels a weird tension in the air. Seonghwa seems a little spaced out now, but when he sees Jongho watching him, he gives a smile that only makes him look like he’s in pain.
Everyone knows that smile. It’s the smile that Seonghwa uses when he’s trying to reassure the other males but he isn’t quite present in his body.
“He’s my dongsaeng,” Jongho says, cautious with his words as he picks up the ointment. “I’ve always taken care of him. I practically raised him.”
Despite Seonghwa saying to put the planning on hold, Yunho’s mind wouldn’t stop coming up with plans and then dismissing them when he realizes a flaw in it.
Seonghwa hums, attentive but calm. “Is he alone now?
Hongjoong’s eyes widened ‘ fuck, was he able to contact Jaeho-ah when he went to get things from his apartment ’
Do you need to go to him?”
Jongho pauses, fingers wet with the antibiotic.
“He’s safe,” he says, continuing to apply the ointment despite how much it sends wave after wave of pain.
“He’s safe but that doesn't mean he’s happy or he’s aware that his big brother is also safe.” Mingi mumbled, trying not to think about how much pain his youngest brother was in that simply applying an ointment hurts him so much.
“Does he know you are?”
Mingi waved his hands in agreement and to get his previous point across, nearly hitting Yunho in the face before the other male caught the younger’s hands to stop the flailing.
Jongho scoffs as he wipes the excess ointment onto the hand towel. “I never wasn’t safe.”
“So then-?”
“He knows nothing, Seonghwa-ssi,” Jongho says, meeting his eyes. “He’s thirteen.”
“And how old are you?”
Jongho eyes him warily as he finishes wrapping his torso. “I’m nineteen. Why?”
“Cause you are far too young to have gone through the shit you’ve gone through” Seonghwa grumbled.
Seonghwa’s eyebrows raise to his hairline.
“You’re younger than I thought,” he says, and his voice is even softer than it usually is. “Most of the team is twenty. You really were so prepared to die right there in the alley?”
“I didn’t choose to get stabbed,” Jongho says, huffing. “It just happened like that. I would’ve liked to see my little brother, but beggars can’t be choosers.”
The heroes hum in agreement at that ‘ No. Beggars can’t be choosers can they. ’ Wooyoung thought sadly, remembering how he would choose his brother over going to the Academy if he was just given the choice, though that's probably why he didn’t get it, because the Academy knew he would never choose to go with them.
“No, you’re right.” Seonghwa nods, smiling that sad smile again. “Thank you for telling me about him, Jongho-ssi.”
“As much as I appreciate your help,” Jongho starts with a glare, “if anything happens to him because of any of you…”
“Is that why you said to wait for Jongho-ah to be awake” Mingi said towards his oldest hyung. Said hyung nodded.
“Of course, of course.” Seonghwa chuckles, eyes curling with something like fondness,
“I've said it before and I'll say it again, we all got attached to him way too fast.” Wooyoung said, snuggling more into his hyung’s chest.
and Jongho’s shoulders relax, heart warming for reasons he doesn’t understand.
Seonghwa shared a soft smile with Hongjoong at that.
Seonghwa’s laugh reminds him of the Han river’s waves rising and falling, rippling under the moon, quiet and calm.
Seonghwa’s cheeks were flushed pink at the complement from Jongho while the others coo’ed at the oldest male.
He almost hears them, if he thinks hard enough.
He blames it on the recent memory of the river and not how when Seonghwa moved to tidy up his desk, he is as graceful as water.
“I’ll get you something to eat, all right? I’m sure Wooyoungie or Sannie will be here soon.”
As Jongho watches him leave, there’s a disappointment that twists his insides, though he doesn’t know why.
Yeosang gently closed the book once he finished “that was a calmer chapter then the ones before” Yunho tried for a bright smile and light tone of voice but he was both emotionally and mentally tired from hearing about Jongho’s struggles that it wasn’t as bright or as light as he wanted.
The other boys nodded in agreement before Hongjoong let his boys have a longer rest than normal, some went to have a look at the bookshelves along the walls while the rest circled around in a small group in the corner. One of the heroes stayed with Jongho at all times because despite the place they’re in being safe, they still don’t feel comfortable with leaving Jongho alone.