Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Phoenix was wet as balls. Ok, maybe that’s a bad way to describe it, his balls are not wet at all. What he meant to say was that he had no time to dry his hair after the speed-shower he took. When he exited the shower rooms that the gym area had, it was already time to go down to the lobby. Hell, he didn’t even know a hotel’s gym area would have locker rooms and showers, even if it was 5 stars. It was right next to the pool area, though, so he supposed it made a bit more sense.

He was just glad he didn’t have to run back to his own room so he could unstink himself after sweating fat balls for hours. Fuck, he has got to stop using balls as an idiom, that made him sound mad homosexual… Well. He does swing both ways. But he doesn’t like balls that much, alright? Sweating big breasts just sounded way stranger, he’ll pick balls over boobs for this specific context.

“Was there really no time at all for me to just use a hairdryer for a min’?” Phoenix asked, a towel sloppily wranged around his neck. “I’m sopping wet, mate.”

“Not sopping, don’t be so overdramatic,” Jett said as the elevator went down, leaning against the elevator’s mirror. “You’re just a bit damp.”

Phoenix scoffed in mock offense at Jett’s dismissive response. “I’ll have you know I was a theater kid, exaggeration’s in my veins.”

“Yeah, and look how that performing art school turned out,” Jett replied dryly with a hint of amusement in her tone. “Burnt to a crisp. Sure wonder who did that.”

“Oi, I told you that tidbit of my past in a moment of bonding, not for you to use it against me!”

“Yeah yeah,” she pocketed her phone as the elevator reached the first floor. “Pipe down brit boy, we’re here.”

Phoenix simply grunted in annoyance as he followed Jett into the lobby area, both of them looking around for their fellow agents. Gekko spotted them from some couch area and called them over, and Phoenix immediately realized that they were the last.

“Yeah, good morning to you guys too,” Jett waved quickly as Phoenix came to a realization. Killjoy and Raze were nowhere to be found. He and Jett weren’t last, that spot’s for the lesbians.

Phoenix glanced over at Yoru and caught him staring while all the others chit-chatted. Geez, was he looking particularly ugly today? Why was Yoru stealing glances at him so much? “Bro, Yoru, is something off with me or what?”

Yoru immediately took his gaze off of Phoenix before responding in the same old cocky tone. “Nothing. Just surprised you survived to be here.”

Phoenix narrowed his eyes. “Wh—hey, what the hell are you tryna say here, mate?”

“Just an observation,” Yoru snickered. “No need to get pissy.”

“Now now you two, don’t bicker on such a sunny Shenzhen Sunday,” Gekko interrupted before Phoenix could retort to Yoru.

Iso decided to butt in too, only for the sake of correcting Gekko. “It’s Saturday, Gekko.”

“…Sunday for the alliteration.”

“It still would have worked if you used Saturday,” Iso deadpanned.

“Well Saturday doesn’t have a “sun” in it!,” Gekko rebutted with a pout.

“Whatever floats your boat,” Iso dismissed and let it go, not bothering to go down this road. He then grabbed his bag off the ground, standing up from the couch and gesturing towards the exits. “We should get going. I have the directions to the metro station.”

“We’re taking the metro?” Neon asked, standing up as well and throwing her own handbag around her shoulder. “Can’t you just call a taxi off the side of the road around here?”

“We’d have to call two,” Iso began as the others also got ready to leave. “And it’s better to get used to the metro sooner than later. It’s a lifesaver.”

Neon just nodded in response, deciding to go along with it as they all left the lobby. Just when they exited the doors to the outside of the hotel, Phoenix realized that a few certain someone’s weren’t here. “Hey, call me crazy, but did we forget someone?”

“Killjoy and Raze?” Neon glanced back at Phoenix, who nodded furiously.

“Yeah, them! Where’ve they gone?”

Iso answered in Neon’s place as he led the other 5 to a crosswalk that led to the metro station, which was conveniently nearby. “Killjoy’s sleeping in and Raze is staying with her in their room. They’ll be arriving some point later.”

“Wow, stealing my line like that,” Neon huffed playfully, crossing her arms while she impatiently waited for the light to shine green. “Real gentlemanly of you, Iso.”

“Yeah, yeah, no need to thank me,” Iso replied just as sarcastically right when the light turned green. With a quick glance on both sides of the road, Neon and Jett immediately raced to the other side.

Yoru sighed as he trailed behind the others, unimpressed and too used to these antics. “Did these morons never learn to not run across the road?”

“Oh, they have, they just don’t give a flying fuck,” Phoenix shrugged as he walked with the other boys, Neon and Jett having already reached the other side. “If one of us does get hit by a car, we can just blame it on Iso, no?”

“Yo man, hop off Iso,” Gekko said despite snickering at the idea.

“I was never “on” him, mate,” Phoenix sniggered at his own joke.

Gekko sputtered, immediately flushing at what Phoenix was implying. “You know I didn’t mean it like that!”

“You guys are acting like I’m not right in front of you,” Iso interrupted right before Phoenix could say anything, not bothering to even glance back at the 3 others.

When they reached the other side, Neon and Jett had already found their own way to the metro entrance and gone ahead. Phoenix and Gekko both looked away from each other, feigning innocence when Iso called them out.

“What? Us? We didn’t say nothing,” Phoenix whistled, following Iso to the escalator down to the metro.

Gekko nodded, getting on after Phoenix. “Yeah, Iso, what are you talking about, bud? Do we need to get you some professional help?”

“You both are absolute children,” Yoru grunted from right beside Phoenix.

Iso just sighed as he stepped off the escalator and saw Neon and Jett. “Oh, there you two are. You guys got… candy?”

“Yup. You people were taking ages so we checked out the shops over there,” Jett replied, motioning towards the mall that was linked to the metro station. “And yes, Iso, we were both capable enough to set up WeChat pay.”

“Shiiit, you can just go from the mall to here?” Gekko said, seeming strangely interested at the convenience even though it wasn’t that much of a mindblower. “That’s epic.”

“You got me there, Jett,” Iso chuckled before turning his attention to Gekko. “Is that… surprising?”

“For an American, yeah,” Yoru and Phoenix said in sync.

Yoru glared at him. “Don’t copy me.”

“Don’t copy me!” Phoenix retorted childishly.

“Hey, what’s with the double teaming?!” Gekko cried out, hiding behind Iso. “Defend me here!”

“I mean, I can’t really defend you here,” Iso replied semi-apologetically, but for the most part he just seemed amused. “I wasn’t aware that Los Angeles even had a metro system until you mentioned how inconvenient it was a week or so ago.”

“Wowww, even you admit it’s inconvenient, huh,” Phoenix said smugly, much to Gekko’s annoyance. “Just give it up already.”

“Ok, we have a sick ass railway system though, so hop off!”

“This is like a bad sitcom,” Jett commented from the side, chugging down a handful of skittles before catching Phoenix’s stare at the bag. “No. I’m not sharing.”

“I see how it is,” Phoenix pouted, breaking his gaze away from Jett’s candy. “Fine. I’m not paying for your ice cream next time we go out for some.”

“You still are going to anyways.”

“Nuh UH.”

“Yuh huh.”

“You guys do know that we look like insane 外国人 bickering in front of the metro station, right?” Iso interrupted, glancing around at the people passing by them. “It’s not long before somebody who thinks we’re lost comes over and uses broken English they were forced to learn in school to try helping us.”

“…What’s a why guo ren again?” Gekko asked awkwardly.

“Didn’t I tell you this on the plane?” Iso said, and Gekko nodded sheepishly. “It means foreigner. Someone not from China.”

“Right, yeah, I totally remembered that,” Gekko smiled dismissively. Iso just shook his head in disappointment.

They all walked through the funny detector of the station, and surprisingly enough, none of them got stopped for anything weird in their pockets. A feat.

“Yo, you should put Wingman on there,” Jett joked, pointing at the X-ray machine that scans through your bags.

“Huh,” Gekko didn’t seem to realize it was a joke, looking down at Wingman who was aggressively shaking his head. He chuckled at the reaction before looking back at Jett. “Yeah, nah. Sorry dude.”

Jett rolled her eyes. “I was joking about that, Geico.”

“Ohhhh.”

Then there was the part where you had to scan your card, QR code, or whatever you used to pay for the metro. Obviously, none of them except Iso had set up any metro cards.

“Did any of you guys set up metro cards like I told you to yesterday?” Iso asks, looking back at the other 4 with a look that already expected disappointment.

“Er… I kinda gave up after the 4th screenshot I had to take for Google Translate from that funny Shenzhen transport app,” Gekko admitted, looking away.

Iso narrowed his eyes. “You could’ve just asked me for help, Gekko.”

Before Gekko could defend himself, Phoenix chips in too with his excuse. “Oh, yeah, I had no clue what the app was tryna get me to do. I’m pretty sure it asked for my credit card details.”

“It was asking for your phone number.”

“Oh.”

“Uhh, I was gonna do it this morning, but I had some urgent matters to attend to,” Neon whistled, twirling her hair. “Real urgent.”

“Like arguing in the protocol’s group chat about holes and water?” Iso asked accusingly, causing Neon to squawk dramatically.

“I thought you muted the group chat?!”

“Usually, but I unmuted it for one conversation a few days ago and forgot to mute it again,” he shrugged before turning over to Yoru, who was combing through his hair as if trying not to draw any attention to himself. “And you. You were also spamming my notifications.”

“So what?” Yoru didn’t meet Iso’s eyes.

Iso crossed his arms to add onto the “disappointed asian parent” look he was unintentionally sporting. “A straw has two holes, by the way—”

“YOU.”

“Exactly!” Neon pumped her fist enthusiastically as Gekko held Yoru back from committing a criminal act in public. “Thank you, Iso!”

“—and water isn’t wet.”

“What the FUCK.” Nevermind. Neon’s just as mad as Yoru, and Jett hands her a snickers to prevent her from irrationality. Yoru’s conflicted; on one topic, Iso was a wrongen, but on the other, he was one of the rare smart ones. He decided to spare him for now.

Iso looked over at Jett, expecting her excuse, but she just shrugged. “Not even gonna save myself here. I was just too lazy to set up a card.”

Before he could let out his 50th sigh of the day, a random lady walked over and expressed some sort of concern. Iso’s disapproving look at the rest of them was replaced with a polite smile as he replied, replying in Chinese. Something about a “day boo chee” and “peng yo”; Phoenix’s Chinese was too scuffed to decipher it.”

“See? Insane 外国人 theory always applies,” Iso said flatly after the woman walked away before gesturing to the ticket booth. “Anyways, you guys should go get yourself tickets. I’ll get you all metro cards later.”

“…You’re not coming to buy them with us?” Gekko looked like he just saw a ghost. “Iso. My guy. My bro. My man.”

“Gekko, all you need to ask them is for a ticket to the Shopping Park station. Gongwugongyuan zhan.”/p>

“I can’t speak Chinese!” Gekko whined, grabbing Iso’s hoodie and tugging insistently.

“Well, Jett, Neon and Yoru know enough to get you guys tickets,” Iso said, gently grabbing Gekko’s hand and putting it back to his side before looking over at the 3 he mentioned.

Neon shook her head. “I only know how to swear.”

“I only know a few words from Sage but I have no clue how to piece together a sentence,” Jett said, turning to Yoru along with everyone else.

“I’m not doing it.”

“Ok, fine, I’ll ask,” Iso groaned, not wanting to stand around in the station any longer. The security guards nearby and the ticket booth workers were looking at them funny. “You guys would actually die without me.”

“Thanks, bro!” Gekko grinned, hugging Iso with no hesitation or second thoughts. Iso seemed to flinch at the sudden contact, but brushed it off and smiled back. After Gekko let go, he went in front of them to ask the workers for tickets, pulling out his phone to pay.

Jett and Phoenix looked at eachother. Sus. If either of them tried to randomly hug Iso, they would probably end up having to call Sage. On the other hand, Yoru and Neon were too busy muttering Chinese curses at each other in some sort of profanity flex off. After paying for the tickets, Iso led them in and down yet another escalator. They were just in time for the metro, surprisingly, and Phoenix whistled at their perfect timing before hopping in.

There weren’t enough seats for all of them. Jett seemed to immediately notice this and got Neon to sit in the most comfortable space together. Yoru was going to sit down, but Phoenix stole his seat at the last second. Pretentious bitch.

“Too slow, mate,” Phoenix said cockily, and Yoru flipped him off in response while leaning back on one of the poles. Some 8 year old nearby seemed to take notice of the gesture and pointed at the two with a wide mouth, saying something to her mother.

Iso, who had given his seat to an old lady, cringed at whatever the child said in regards to Yoru and Phoenix. He leaned against a wall and put his earbuds in, putting on his playlist while waiting for their station. “…Tell me when we reach our stop.”

Gekko gave him a thumbs up from across before starting to mess around with his critter crew, attracting a few looks, but nobody chose to comment on it. No one questions anything on the metro except for curious kids.

Phoenix’s amusement was only more evident at the random child’s comment that he didn’t even understand. “Pfft, wow, you’re such a shit role model, Yoru. You’re traumatizing the kids.”

“Shut up,” Yoru pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance, turning to the other side of the pole just to avoid seeing Phoenix’s smug ass expression.

“Literal children,” Neon huffed to Jett, earning an offended look from Phoenix who was basically just across from them. She simply responded with a middle finger as well.

Jett whined overdramatically to mock Phoenix from moments ago. “Noo, Neon, think of the kids!”

“Oi!”

Not much time passed before they reached their station, and they all hopped off the metro to get on another escalator back up. Conveniently enough, and reasonably so, the mall was linked right to the metro station. There’s a reason why the station’s called Shopping Park.“

“Alright, so where we goin’ first?” Phoenix turned to Iso, who was checking his phone.

“3rd floor,” Iso answered, pocketing his phone again and heading for the escalators while the rest followed him. “There’s a few cool places there. We can get some drinks at the Heytea.”

Neon tilted her head. “The what?”

“Drink shop,” he replied and Neon just nodded, their random chatter continuing until they finally got from Floor B1 to 3.

Right in front of them when they got off the escalator was the Heytea, but before Iso could lead them in, Gekko pointed at a flashy place right next to the drink shop. “Hey, what’s that? Why’s it got so much claw machines?”

“Oh, that. It’s a place where you get a lot of cheap, knockoff plushies from claw machines and exchange them for bigger—“

Jett, Neon, Phoenix and Gekko were already running over there like a group of overexcited children.

“…prizes,” Iso sighed, watching them scurry off before turning over to Yoru, who was the only other one who stood still. “Want to get a drink?”

“Sure.”

“So they’re gay,” Jett huffed, pocketing her phone while shoving in another 100 RMB bill into the token machine.

“Happy pride month,” Phoenix whistled to Gekko, who was doing a bad job at hiding how flustered he was.

“I’m just a good bro,” Gekko swatted at Phoenix with an unconvincing pout. “And you’re not any better when you’re all blushy wushy over Yoru!”

“Wh—don’t yell that so loud, mate!” Phoenix cried out.

Neon chortled, grabbing her little box of… a lot of tokens. “Not like anyone understands or cares.”

“Still!”

“They got whole shopping carts for the plushies?” Jett said, grabbing one, putting her token tray on the top of it, and immediately going for one of the claw machines with some cute bunny plushies inside of it. She put in 2 of her coins and started trying to catch it. Phoenix did the same, instead going for one right across of Jett’s with some weird burger looking plush.

While those 2 were already on the grind, Gekko and Neon went to check out the prizes you could exchange. “Holy shit, that is a huge Pikachu.”

Neon glanced up to check what Gekko was referring to, and her jaw immediately dropped. “Oh wow. That. That sure is a fat ass Pikachu.”

“Don’t fat shame him!”

“You know what I meant!”

It wasn’t only a Pikachu, though. There were also the other Gen 1 starters, a pidgey, and an eevee. All equally huge and costing 3o whole small plushies for exchange. There were also big plushies of other iconic video game characters, notably Yoshi’s and Kirbies. Smaller versions, too. Also a lot of anime figures on another shelf, and some Pokémon figurines. Woah.

“I’m getting that damn Pidgey for Jett,” Neon declared with absolute certainty, turning on her heel to get her own cart and getting to work. Gekko looked longingly at the collosal Yoshi plush at the very top and swore to his ancestors that he would get it no matter what.

Phoenix, who was still struggling to get this one damn burger thing, let out a loud groan when the plush bounced off the edge of the chute. “It’s been like 7 tries, bruv, does this machine have something against me?!”

“Skill issue,” Jett said, looking down at her crate of 2 plushies before going onto another machine and immediately getting one first try. She turned back to an annoyed Phoenix with hee typical smug, competitive look. “It’s just that easy.”

“You’re just gettin’ lucky!” Phoenix retorted, missing yet another attempt. “This damn burger hates me!”

“Why don’t you just, I dunno, go to another one?” Neon asked with a shrug. “If it’s really that hard.”

“…You’re right,” Phoenix said, defeatedly giving up on the burger and moving to the left.

Neon took that as a chance to take a shot at the burger. She got it on the first try with ease, and even she was surprised as she crouched down to grab the plush out the bottom. “Oh wow. It truly was just a skill issue.”

Jett, who was watching the exchange from the corner of her eye, began cackling at the disbelief on Phoenix’s face. “Sucks to suck!”

“Oh, this shit is just rigged now, innit!” Phoenix whined, banging his fist on the machine in annoyance when he missed the chute. “Bloody hell!”

“Maybe if you weren’t so British these machines would be nicer,” Jett teased, her smirk only growing bigger as she got another plush.

“Oh, bug off.”

“I’ll go get the drinks, you two keep the beef up,” Neon said, leaving her crate under Jett’s watch and heading over to the Heytea just next door. It didn’t take long before she was back with Yoru and Iso by her side, each holding two drinks each.

“Here,” Iso said, handing Gekko his drink and taking a sip from his own boba before looking at Gekko’s box of tokens. “…How much money did you spend on that?”

“Only… er… 200 RMB,” Gekko answered sheepishly, avoiding eye contact with Iso. I mean, c’mon, 400 tokens is a lotta tries. “Why?”

“I leave you guys alone for 5 minutes,” Iso didn’t even sigh this time. He’s already out of disappointment. He looked over at the prizes, immediately catching sight of the fat Yoshi. “Let me guess. You’re going for the Yoshi?”

“Wowww, you know me so well!” Gekko chirped playfully, before pointing over at the prize shelves. “What’re you gonna go for?”

“I’ll just help you with the Yoshi,” Iso said, fighting back a smile. “You’ll take forever trying to get so much plushies all by yourself.”

“Really?” Gekko asked, looking up at Iso starry-eyed. When Iso nodded, he beamed and wrapped an arm around Iso’s shoulder, pulling him closer. “Hell yeah! You’re the best!”

“Do you see this shit Phoenix,” Jett muttered to Phoenix who was at the machine right next to her. Both of them pretended to be focused on the claw game, but they were suspiciously glancing over at Iso and Gekko’s exchange.

“Yeah,” Phoenix’s eye twitched when he lost yet another plush because it bounced off the chute's rim. “Bloody bollocks!”

“Bloody what?” Jett snorted, pumping her fist when she got the plushie she was going for.

“Fucking hell!”

“What’s poppin?” Raze yelled as she and Killjoy pulled up, skipping to the other’s sides in one of the machine aisles while her girlfriend bought them tokens. “I finally got the sleepyhead to wake up.”

“How’d you two get here?” Iso asked curiously.

“We got metro cards!”

“Wow… you’re the only two who listened to me,” Iso said, side-eyeing Jett, Gekko, and Phoenix who looked away guiltily.

It didn’t take long before Killjoy and Raze began grinding away as well. Raze left for a bit to get the two drinks at the HeyTea, leaving Killjoy to the claw machines, and… oh wow.

“How the hell are you so good at this?” Neon looked over at Killjoy, who was getting the plushies first or second try every time.

“I know exactly how these machines work,” Killjoy answered with a smug smile, throwing another plush back into her cart. “There’s a pity system. After enough tries, the machine makes it way easier. I’m just going through the ones I see people give up on, because they’ve tried it so many times, so it’s definitely close to the pity.”

“Woahhhh…”