Chapter Text
Out of the corner of his eye Yoongi sees Hoseok jump inside the pool fully clothed again, damp tanned skin glistening with the sun. He scrunches his nose, there's moss in the water and who knows what else could be hiding under the cloudy surface. It's dirty. Disgusting.
"What a fine piece of idiot." He murmurs to himself and shakes his head. Yoongi pushes himself away from the wall with his foot to stand up straight and then walks closer to the pool, as close as he can get while being careful not to step out of the building's shadow.
"Hey, mr. Sunshine!" he yells to get the other's attention, smirking at the confused look he gets in response. "Get out of the pool. We have somewhere to go."
Hoseok reluctantly steps out, rising his body temperature to evaporate the water from his skin and clothes in a way that Yoongi can't deny, looks very sexy. He pushes the thought to the back of his mind, assuring himself that's a normal way to think about your friends, platonically.
"Where do we have to go?" Hoseok asks puzzled, looking up at Yoongi as he ties on his shoes while sitting on the grass, the plants around him growing and leaning to meet his warm skin. A great contrast to the way everything stretches away when Yoongi put his foot onto it, the patch of grass he steps on almost immediately drying out and turning yellow.
"Well, for the millionth time Hoseok, first there's an apartment with a plague problem on the 42nd. There's another place afterwards but the client wasn't being very clear on what was going on. He wanted to remain anonymous or some shit." Yoongi shrugs lazily. "You know how people are." He finishes and slips on his sunglasses then opens his dark umbrella before starting to walk away from the abandoned public pool.
After The Last War a large portion of cities and attractions remain unoccupied. The surviving population of the end of the world leans on the younger side, a lot of kids and teenagers still too afraid of what lurks outside to leave the hiding spots they now call homes. Even though the streets remain mostly silent, they're now livelier than they were right after the rebirth. It's not as uncommon to run into someone now, but people still mostly only mind their own business.
War had really taken its toll on everybody. Survivors are oblivious as to who had won —if anyone had that is— but its not like anyone really cares to know anymore. There are far more important things to worry about now, seen as war had messed up with the balance of pretty much everything. People are finally getting into the flow of things again but the alterations to reality have caused a lot of inconveniences that would've sounded like pure sci-fi before and most are still not ready to face.
Hoseok follows, stepping on the same spots Yoongi does to return the grass it's healthy look. Their bodies both changed in the way energy flowed around them. Hoseok was granted the ability to enhance it, which caused everything and everyone to be drawn to him. He makes things feel stronger, more alive and healthier. Additionally he's able to control his own body temperature and the one of things he comes in contact with. On the other hand, Yoongi sucks the energy right out of everything, so it's only natural everyone tends to avoid him. The only thing he avoids though, is sunlight. It's too much energy for his body to be able to cope with directly for longer than an instant. His skin starts burning and he fears it'll make him burst if he chose to stand under it, which is why he prefers the shadows. Hoseok says it fits his aesthetic though, whatever that's supposed to mean. Yoongi is sensible to energy, which means he's well aware of the way it moves all around them, an ability that has proved to be really helpful in the threatening world they now live in.
They are opposites, so naturally, they go well together. They're drawn to each other for reasons they can't quite comprehend, but also because neither wants to be alone. Ever since the day Yoongi stumbled into Hoseok— almost killing him but it's okay because he forgives him— who was hiding in the subway tunnels scared out of his mind, they have refused to part ways.
"Careful, there's a patch there." Yoongi says, pointing without turning to the spot Hoseok was about to put his foot on. Patches suck the living energy out of anything that gets in contact with them, like tears in the reality that absorb it all and make your entire existence vanish in the span of seconds. Hoseok walks around it, amazed as he always is at Yoongi's awareness of everything surrounding them.
"Sometimes I wonder where I'd be without you." He says in awe as he walks, careful to step only where the other boy steps.
"Dead, probably." Yoongi replies seriously. Hoseok slaps him in the back of the head jokingly and they both laugh. Hoseok's own ability with energy makes him able not only to tolerate Yoongi's aura of misery and pain but also to touch him without any danger to either of them.
Hoseok is the only person Yoongi imagines capable of being his friend.