Work Text:
‘You got me going dumb, du-du-dumb, dumb, du-du-dumb’
Jeongin groaned, flailing at hand out from under the blankets for his phone as his ringtone blared – it was either his mother or Hyunjin, and Jeongin was off-shift but hell hath no fury as either of them scorned, so he blindly hit the screen as he emerged from his cocoon of blankets.
“Oh my god, your hair!” Jeongin winced as a shriek filled the room. Ah, Hyunjin.
“I’m going to hang up now,” he grumbled, eyes still glued shut. He must’ve been an absolute sight, his face puffy from sleep, mouth pinched with a softened grumpiness, and his hair sticking every which way.
Hair that was bleached near white and still smelled of chemicals and dye.
There was a familiar weight pressed against Jeongin’s back as Beomgyu propped his chin on Jeongin’s shoulder. “Do you like it?” he asked in delight. “I did it all by myself.”
“I was coerced into this,” Jeongin corrected sleepily, but Hyunjin was hardly paying him any mind, the traitor.
Jeongin took the time to wake slowly, just listening to the way Beomgyu’s voice settled in his ear like a soft melody as he answered all of Hyunjin’s questions about toner and time spent – questions Jeongin frankly couldn’t answer, despite it being his own hair.
“You should have waited until you got back,” Hyunjin said, pouting at them both in feigned hurt. “Felix and I were planning on trying something new, we could have all done it together.”
“We’re not back for another month,” Jeongin reminded him with a yawn, face scrunching up in a way that was surely unattractive. “You’re way too impatient for that.”
“This is slander!” Hyunjin exclaimed, indignant.
Beomgyu let out an amused sound as he stroked his fingers through Jeongin’s hair, gentle as a breeze. “You’re free to do mine,” he offered, and Jeongin cracked his eye open just in time to see Hyunjin’s face light up.
It was the briefest of moments but something about it rested heavily in Jeongin’s chest – the soft thump of Beomgyu’s heart against Jeongin’s spine, the familiar curve of Hyunjin’s smile; Jeongin did not often think of euphoria, and yet.
And yet.
“Ah shit,” Hyunjin said, and the moment sank deeper to disappear into Jeongin’s chest as time continued forward. “I’ve gotta go, we’re prepping for a new embryo today and I promised Chan I’d get all the rookies there to watch the whole thing. Ugh.”
“Goodbye, Satan,” Jeongin said and felt a little betrayed when a note of fondness escaped him.
“Bye, Jinnie,” Beomgyu crooned.
When Hyunjin’s face vanished from the screen, Beomgyu sagged into Jeongin properly, cheek nestling against a shoulder as Beomgyu wound himself around like a strange cross between a housecat and an octopus, limbs everywhere at once. “You going back to sleep?” he asked, his voice rumbling through Jeongin’s chest, threatening to bring that warmth back to the surface.
Jeongin shook his head, resigned to being awake, even if his official shift was still hours away. “No, it’s fine,” he said, tilting his head back to thunk against Beomgyu’s shoulder.
The ceiling that stared back at him was made to be water-proof, plain and unassuming, and as he contemplated it, the rest of the world filtered in around him – the serene rocking of the cruise liner, the ever-present roar of the ocean, and Beomgyu’s fingers curled gently in his hair.
“How’s Kkami?” Jeongin asked, glancing towards the bay that was set below their private quarters, the one part of the ship that opened to the ocean itself to allow them easy access to their Reckoner.
“He’s good, we went feeding this morning,” Beomgyu said, letting Jeongin go and sliding back off the bed. Unlike Jeongin, he was dressed in his wetsuit, the midnight black stretched tight over lithe muscle and his custom Otachi attached to his hip. The sea breeze had turned Beomgyu’s hair wavy weeks ago and it gave him a boyish, tousled look to offset the intimidating cut of the Reckoner uniform, further aided by the playful twist of his lips as he looked at Jeongin.
Rubbing at his face, waking bit by bit, Jeongin slowly rolled out of bed. “Breakfast?” he asked, throat scratchy.
Beomgyu snorted, reaching over to the bedside table to grab a lidded cup, ice clinking as he handed Jeongin an americano (triple shot, blonde, just the way Jeongin liked it). “It’s more like late lunch, but they’re doing sea bass in the banquet hall.”
Jeongin grimaced and shook his head. He’d rather pick up a smoothie by the pool than venture into the banquet hall while the guests were in full force – there was something about being in an enclosed space with a throng of people while already floating in the middle of the ocean that made Jeongin’s nose wrinkle.
“I’ll hit the gym,” he said, tugging on a pair of sweats. “Trade off at four?”
Grinning, Beomgyu ducked in and pressed a kiss to Jeongin’s cheek, and the angle meant Jeongin couldn’t quite see him but he could feel the curve of Beomgyu’s smile. “Sure thing.”
Jeongin held his breath, trying to tamp down a flush that had no right to creep up his cheeks. “Thanks for the coffee,” he muttered, feeling betrayed as the warmth from earlier began to swell in his chest.
(It was stupid, it was stupid, Beomgyu was… oh god, Beomgyu was his boyfriend. They’d been dating for eight months.)
And, as if he was drawn to the flame in Jeongin’s chest, Beomgyu swooped back down, this time to press a kiss to the dimple that had appeared with Jeongin’s fluster.
***
The Empress was an opulent jewel on the sea, for those who cared for that sort of thing. Gleaming white surfaces, elegant decor, a flock of attentive staff, all of it spoke of not just expense, but of taste. High taste, exquisite taste, and it had to be – contracting a Reckoner was exorbitant, left to only the most elite civilian vessels. Only the best for the best and all that.
This was also Jeongin’s third tour with the Empress and the novelty had long since faded. Not in a bad way, but rather than feeling like he was stepping through a beautifully crafted facade, this place had come to resemble something closer to home.
(It couldn’t be home, not really, not like their apartment in Jeju. It didn’t have Hyunjin, so it was merely the closest thing to being home when home was far away.)
Still, Jeongin had come to regard the sprawling floating city with some fondness. He wasn’t big on the guests – they expected and required pandering, catering, pampering, and that all felt exhausting – but the cruise staff and the ship’s crew had welcomed him and Beomgyu with open arms. There was always someone to work out with, always someone ready to fix Jeongin’s favorite snacks, always someone to play video games with.
(It was hard not to be at peace on the Empress when Jeongin could look across the main deck and see Beomgyu perched on the railing, curled over his favorite guitar, the gentle touch of his fingers against string impossible to look away from.)
“On your own today?” a voice asked and Jeongin glanced up from where he’d been leaning against the counter as Hoseok appeared from the back, towel thrown over his shoulder. The older man had taken a shine to the Reckoner pair after their second tour to Europe and that meant experimental smoothies and forbidden snacks, which was why Jeongin always swerved back to the stand tucked next to the hot tubs after a workout.
“Beomgyu’s on duty,” Jeongin said, gesturing vaguely towards the back of the ship. Beomgyu was somewhere there, maybe at the training bay, his feet kicking in the water as he monitored Kkami.
“What a shame, I rarely see the two of you together,” Hoseok comments, already getting to work on a smoothie – bananas and pineapple made a good base, but then he produced a chili pepper and Jeongin narrowed his eyes. The man laughed, raised his hand placatingly. “It’s not a lot, just a little surprise. It’s good, I promise.”
There was another long moment where they just stared at each other before Jeongin huffed and lowered his gaze, acquiescing to the fated pepper. “It’s fine… we just have to be on shift at different times,” he explained.
It had been the entire point of pairing him and Beomgyu up when Hyunjin had stepped down from Kkami’s training – Park Industries had wanted to test the efficiency of splitting the burden placed on Reckoner handlers, and that meant that Jeongin and Beomgyu split the days, one of them always suited up, even when they curled up for a nap together.
(Sometimes the logistics of the job were deeply unsatisfying. Jeongin liked when they were back in Jeju and they could both curl up with Hyunjin for a full night’s sleep, Beomgyu dead weight on Jeongin’s shoulder, Hyunjin’s face smashed into his ribs.)
“Seems like such a boring job,” Hoseok said before the blender roared to life, fruit and ice and questionable pepper whirling around in a frenzy. “It’s been so quiet since I’ve been aboard, they really don’t give you much to do.”
Jeongin shrugged, waiting for the man to plop the glass down in front of him, tropical, bright, with a stupid little paper umbrella resting on the top. “You’ll be grateful we’re here sooner or later,” was his only response before bidding the man farewell. It wasn’t a barb, it was just a fact.
Jeongin took to wandering, settling in a nook near the potted trees next to the climbing wall so he could enjoy the ocean breeze while being hidden away from the ship’s population. As it turned out, the pepper… wasn’t bad. The kick was a surprise,
From over the ship’s railing came a geyser of water, attracting the shrieks of delight from a gaggle of children. Kkami circled the Empress, his imprinted compassion, his only mission, in wide lazy circles, far enough away that the guests wouldn’t be alarmed at his size – the cetoid was only maybe a third of the length of the Empress but that was still massive when the cruise liner was basically a floating city, nearly 300 meters from tip to tail. Kkami was all the more unnerving with his armor plating and rows of teeth, but children seemed eternally charmed by him.
He was a monster, but he was Jeongin’s monster. And Beomgyu’s monster.
Their monster.
And maybe it was the way Hoseok had spoken, the surety of their safety, or maybe it was just because they were long overdue for some trouble, but Jeongin had just finished his smoothie when a siren sounded off, wailing from all corners as emergency lights began to flash red, bright with warning.
An automated voice came over the speaker system. “Dear guests, there are turbulent waters ahead. Please proceed below deck, you may return to your rooms or gather in any of the five recreational rooms located on each level. All ship personnel – please secure the deck, code eight-five-three-zero.”
It was the code that caught Jeongin’s attention as guests filed away with little complaint. The ship locked down for turbulent water every few days, but the code was normally different, a shell code meant to just acclimate guests to the drill of going below deck when told – harmless, meaningless, a ploy that was just a means to an end.
This wasn’t the same code. This code meant something else entirely, embedded so deep in Jeongin’s brain that he sometimes found himself tapping it out with his fingers when his mind wandered. It meant one thing.
Pirates.
Pirates that roamed the sea, that hunted for prey, that had taken to a post-Flood world like a duck to water as they sailed across the oceans, leaving terror in their wake.
Pirates Jeongin and Beomgyu had trained to deal with.
As he scooped up his gym bag and made for the nearest exit, a junior officer appeared at his elbow. “Captain said you’re welcome on the bridge,” she said, gesturing politely for him to follow her. Though she kept her voice and her movements relaxed, there was no hiding the unease creeping in the corner of her eyes, the tension in the way her mouth was set.
“Of course,” Jeongin said, ducking his head and following her to the bridge as staff scurried around them to secure the deck. She led him to an elevator that brought him directly to the bridge, the highest part of the ship, overseeing the rest of this massive, massive ship as it churned through the waters.
“Hello,” the captain greeted, a heavyset woman with an air of experience that many around her seemed to lack. “Thank you for joining us.”
Jeongin came to join her in the middle of the bridge, eyeing a series of monitors displaying all kinds of read-outs he didn’t understand. “What’s going on?”
“There’s one main ship with maybe ten smaller skiffs,” the captain said, tapping one display. “They’ve cobbled together some decent cloaking tech, probably figured out how to steal it off some decommissioned military ships. They’re looking to surround us, board, and call it a day.”
It made sense – attacking the Empress to loot was fruitless, with the risk far outweighing the reward, but the guests aboard… from diplomats to trust fund babies, the ship was stuffed to the brim with hostage negotiation hopefuls, something Jeongin remembered during the pre-cruise assessments.
“All hands on deck, here they come,” the captain ordered, glancing at Jeongin. “Your beast better be worth it.”
Jeongin just stared back at her for a moment before turning to the window. He had no control over that, at this point.
Instead, there was Beomgyu as he swept onto the main deck like a wraith, black and foreboding and dangerous. The Beomgyu that smiled sweetly and played guitar and tried to cheat his way out of doing laundry was gone, leaving behind nothing but steel and sharp edges and determination and danger.
But this Beomgyu… Well, Jeongin knew him too.
As the sole moving figure on the deck, all eyes were drawn towards Beomgyu as he made his way to the nearest railing, Otachi strapped to one wrist while his tether was hooked to the other wrist. Jeongin could see the small fleet barreling towards them in the distance, as Beomgyu swung up onto the railing, bracing himself with the tether as he leaned out over the open waters.
For a moment, all was silent. The waters around the Empress were practically tranquil – Kkami must have dived deep into the blue depths during the commotion.
The tension on the bridge was so thick, Jeongin almost burst out laughing just to shatter it into little broken pieces, but he didn’t; he stayed still, eyes fixed on Beomgyu as Beomgyu raised the Otachi and fired off a single, damning command.
Destroy.
(“Did you watch?” Beomgyu asked later, feeling like a secret on Jeongin’s tongue. Jeongin was the one suited up now, but it was dark and quiet, with Kkami just a signal away. “Did you see me?”
The two of them were cocooned under the covers, and that made it… easier, made it less dangerous. There were no prying eyes, no weight of expectation – a weight Jeongin pressed down on himself with his own hands, but a weight set aside for the time being.
“I did,” he answered, and felt rather than saw the way Beomgyu’s pretty little mouth curved into a smile.
How strange, that Jeongin could think of the way Beomgyu had wrought death and destruction with tenderness, with that same warmth in his chest from earlier. Jeongin did not often think of euphoria, and yet.
And yet.
“Do you think Hyunjin knows?” Beomgyu wondered, distractedly biting at Jeongin’s lower lip.
“We’ll tell him ourselves,” Jeongin said, a soft tease against Beomgyu’s mouth, a little confession of his own, as that warmth pushed out against his ribs.)