Chapter Text
On the night of his big brother's coronation, the youngest prince of Planet Alderaan disappears into the night, leaving behind nothing but a short note and an empty ship station.
The morning after the palace is in shambles, the whole planet, in fact, has been awoken at dawn with news of the young prince's disappearance. Giant holographic messages informing the public of his disappearance are projected across the skies, the prince's sharp face, tall and near intimidating in the intensity of his eyes, looking over them in all his misplaced glory. The King and Queen sit stoic on their thrones, fists clenched and lips bit, a mix of disdain and sorrow swirling in their hearts and heads.
At their side stands Prince Jungkook, the almost king, eyes on the ground, lips pursed in a barely contained smile, all knowing. Next to him stands Kim Jisoo, the royal advisor, equally knowing but far more perplexed. Across them, at the far end of the throne room, sits Prince Taehyung of Planet Naboo with his younger sister Princess Jennie, a severe looking woman with dark hair down to her waist and sharp catlike eyes, a sheer contrast with her brothers wide, near innocent, eyes and constantly smiling lips. Prince Taehyung looks peaceful, Jungkook shares a short smile with his almost husband.
Jisoo fixes the royal with a glare. "You knew this was going to happen," it reads.
Jungkook simply miles pleasantly. Jisoo sighs, knowing the answer is yes.
Outside the throne room, the planet is in a frenzy. Every Alderaanian, young and old, rich and poor, soldier and poet, is out, looking for the missing Prince - the prize for finding him plastered across the sky. A noble, noble sum, one which would keep your bellies full and your fees paid for millions of lifetimes. Yet, the search proves to be fruitless. Even with every citizen of Alderaan grasping to find the prince, the young boy seems to have disappeared into thin air, right off the face of the planet. After all, that one ship station had been empty.
Jungkook smiles to himself, Taehyun was probably all the way in Planet Dragobah by now.
"That boy!" The King says, exasperated, "does he not know of the danger out there? Running away like this, how foolish!"
"Now, now, Sir," Jisoo says, voice calm, although from the corner of his eyes Jungkook can see that her palms are clenched behind her back, "we don't for sure whether or not it was a run away yet, it could just as well have been a kidnapping."
The Queen sighs, "what does it say of me as a mother that I find that more comforting?"
"What are the chances of that, though," The King seethes, "Jisoo, you of all Alderaanians know the level of security we had that night - if there were kidnappers there, they were either geniuses or our guards, that we've spent years training, are for more incompetent than I had originally presumed." Jungkook smiles to himself once again, Taehyun was the genius in all of this, although that was perhaps best left unsaid.
"If I may, Your Majesty," Prince Taehyung says, voice serene - Jungkook smiles again just by hearing it, "a cousin of ours pulled something like this a few years ago, running away that is. I could perhaps get you in contact with his parents, granted I don't know how much it would help given that they never found him. Still, they made friends with quite a few broadcasting stations across the Orion Nebula that could be helpful."
"Anything would be helpful right now, Taehyung," The Queen says with a smile, "thank you."
"Of course," Taehyung says dipping his head. Jennie sighs, "we'll get in contact with them right away," she says, "if we may be excused, Your Majesties," she drops into a small courtesy. The Queen nods and just like that the two siblings are gone, Taehyung brushes his knuckles against Jungkooks as he leaves, Jungkook almost gives in and kisses him right there, but duty - and well, his brothers disappearance - calls.
"Our first line of action should be contacting everyone we can across the Nebula, it's only been a day he couldn't have gone too far," The Queen says, looking at her husband with pleading eyes. "If I may, mother, Taehyun is the best pilot the palace has seen in decades," Jungkook says, "there's no telling how far he could be by now, especially if he stole a ship that could do Hyperspace Jumps."
"He did," Jisoo adds, wincing.
The King lets out a long groan, sliding further into his throne, a position unbecoming of a king. Jungkook smiles to himself once again.
✧✧✧
There are few planets Beomgyu hates docking on as much as he does Dragobah.
Dragobah, for starters means that he needs to land The Blue Orangeade on a shitty, always dirty dock filled with far too many ships and far too few open stations. Blue deserves better that the docks on Dragobah, Blue deserves to land on the best, cleanest, most efficient docks the Orion Nebula has to offer - she's the greatest ship out there, of course she does. Yeah she's a little bit battered and maybe she's seen more than most ships of her production should be seeing, but still, she's hardy as ever, and the most beautiful ship Beomgyu has ever laid his eyes on - granted he may be speaking from a position of bias.
The second worst thing about Dragobah, is that minute Beomgyu steps out of The Blue Orangeade, he's going to be in a constant state of anxiety regarding her safety. Sure, nobody has been able to steal Blue before, even though many, many have tried and so far no one has been successful, but never say never. Docking on Dragobah also means that Beomgyu's time while on this godforsaken planet will be spent littered with more anxiety than getting chased by pirate hoards in hyperspace. Good times really.
Lastly, the actual absolute worst part about docking on Dragobah, is that the people there are shitty (well maybe just in the central hub but that's where they always land so that's all Beomgyu's been exposed to). Every time Beomgyu has to register Blue into a loading dock at Dragobah, or ask a random Dragoban on the street for directions, he either gets flirted with, threatened or ignored and no, he's not sure which one of the three is worst.
"Hello sweetheart, long time no see," The man at the loading dock entrance says. It's the same guard that's been there the last few times The Blue Orangead visited Dragobah - which is unbearable awful for how much its pilot and Navigator hates it there. Unfortunately their captain seems to have a bit of a soft spot for the planet, and Beomgyu can agree that its the best place in the Orion Nebula to get information. The Man is tall and greasy haired, and although Beomgyu can't recall his name he remembers his face clearly, beady eyed with a permanent grin on his face, ugly and crooked. "What's got you and your pretty little ship down here again," He asks, lips spreading into a grin.
Beomgyu huffs, wishing one of his crewmates could handle this part of the process - Beomgyu may be an extrovert but he's still more than a little shy. Unfortunately for him, the rest of his crew is passed out in their cabins, worn out from an attempted ship-napping a couple hours ago.
"Looking for some extra parts," Beomgyu says through his teeth, "can you give me my docking code now please."
The man clicks his tongue, "always so catty," he muses, voice light, "I guess you can afford to be with a face like that, I would just get beaten up."
Beomgyu raises a brow but doesn't say more. The man looks at him for a second, probably bored and looking for a bit of conversation, before realising that Beomgyu isn't going to say anything more and sighing. "Go to station INF-3, your docking code is C40-QRT" he says, pressing a couple quick buttons on his interface to let Beomgyu in, "you're lucky it's a relatively empty day today - remember 30 Dragoban Crowns for every hour you dock in here."
"Got it, thanks," Beomgyu says plainly as he maneuvers Blue through the narrow gateways.
"Any time, dollface," The Man at the gate replies as Beomgyu makes his way through.
When Beomgyu has successfully found and docked at station INF-3, he powers down blue and stretches his arms over his head, getting up and making his way to the sleeper cabins to wake up his crew. He's been sitting too long, and his knees and fingers are stiff with piloting for the last 7 hours all on his own. That's why they're here actually, something wrong with their autopilot programming, something that probably runs pretty deep considering even Huening Kai couldn't figure it out without them having to go get new parts and he is the best repairman in the galaxy (granted this may be a self declared title).
Beomgyu wakes his crew members up one by one, starting with Yeonjun and giggling as their oh so fearless captain whines for "just five more minutes, come on Gyu, please!" Huening Kai is the easiest to wake up, jumping out of bed and immediately latching Himself to Beomgyu, arms around his waist as he attempts to make a cup of coffee. Soobin is the most helpful, waking up with a five minute delay and then sorting through their dragoban currency, they're running a little low but its just about enough to make up for their docking prices, a meal and a couple of parts without them having to exchange any of their other currency.
Yeonjun, of course, saunters in last, impeccably dressed as usual but with his eyes still sleep laden. He collapses on a chair and spins himself around slowly, the rest of their crew stares at him silently, Kai with a grin, Beomgyu with a frown, and Soobin with a careful face of tired neutrality. The oldest man dramatically lays a hand over his eyes, leaning his head back in his chair and letting out a long groan. "Gyu-ah," Yeonjun says, "what are docking prices now? Have they increased since the last time we came here?"
"Just by 2 crowns," Beomgyu responds, taking a long sip of coffee, "30 Dragoban crowns versus the 28 they were last time we came."
"That's a quick rise," Huening Kai hums.
"It's an expected one," Yeonjun says, "they're gentrifying Dragobah my dear crewmates, soon this place will be - oh god - it'll be - it'll be clean!" Yeonjun splutters (secretly Beomgyu thinks Dragobah getting a little cleaner wouldn't be the end of the world but clearly Yeonjun seems to think different).
"What they're doing is getting richer," Soobin corrects, whacking their captain lightly on the back of the head as he too gets himself a cup of coffee, "the new Dragoban government's doing well actually, wealth gaps are smaller, infrastructure is better - it makes our use of Dragobah as a location for shady tech and shadier info a little tricky, but all in all its quite great. Plus it's a young government, we even have some friends on there."
Beomgyu chuckles as Yeonjun throws the tallest man a menacing glare, one which would've made anyone outside the crew of the Blue Orangeade run away upon sight. Soobin, on the other hand, just sends Yeonjun a blank stare and continues to sip his coffee. "Okay so what's our game plan for today?" Huening Kai says, plopping down in a chair next to Yeonjun and stuffing himself into a cross legged position - he's far too big for it what with his height and rapidly growing muscle mass, but he still insists, "what all do we need to get aside from help for our autopilot programming?"
"One of our gears is getting a little stiff so I wanted to pick up some replacement stuff," Beomgyu says, sipping the last remnants of coffee from his cup, "plus we'll need to stock up on fuel." He turns the cup over to make sure its all empty and then adds, "plus coffee."
"Food in general," Soobin says, grabbing both his and Beomgyu's cups and rinsing them, "we can't keep stopping at planets for meals, sooner or later we're gonna have to go back to ramen and snack foods."
"Alright so food, a new gear, and a new auto pilot system," Yeonjun says, nodding to himself, "and I'm supposed to meet an old friend of mine sometime later today."
Soobin raises a brow and Beomgyu lets out a long groan. "So we're all splitting up then?" He whines, throwing his arms up in the air and collapsing against Soobin, who with his height and stature barely flinches at Beomgyu's weight being essentially draped across him, "you know I hate travelling alone in Dragobah." Soobin reaches down to ruffle his hair, looking appropriately sympathetic, but Yeonjun just brushes him off with a wave of his hand. "Don't worry, Gyu-ah, our coms will be available at all time,"Yeonjun reassures, "you'll be fine kiddo."
"You're like a year and a half older than me," Beomgyu grumbles under breath, slipping of Soobin and settling down opposite Kai and next to Yeonjun on their table. "Don't worry, Gyu-ah, I hear the streets are a lot better now that the new government is in place," Soobin says, taking the final seat so they're all facing each other on their little circular table, "anyway when are we leaving?"
"The minute one of you makes me a coffee," Yeonjun says, grin blinding.
He receives three blank stares in return and mutters under his breath the entire time he brews his cup.
The streets of Dragobah are never fun, but Beomgyu can see what Soobin meant when he said they were getting better.
There's still litter everywhere, but that heavy stench of equal parts motor oil and alcohol is now more or less just the former. Plus the infrastructure is a little bit better, the billboards more clear and street lights more functional (even though Beomgyu sees no reason for them to be on in the morning, Dragobah is an overwhelmingly bright planet with its 3 suns and 12 moons.) The people, Beomgyu quickly realises, are still as bad as before. Beomgyu comes prepared, carrying a large cloak with him that hides his clothes and covers his head, he also has his daggers with him in case things get nasty - although that's a requirement pretty much anywhere they go, such is the life of a pirate. Either way, Beomgyu is ignored for the most part, thank god, but he spots uncomfortable looking girls and boys getting catcalled and brushed up against and a shudder runs down his spine.
There's only one place in Dragobah that Beomgyu really trusts with his equipment, and thankfully he knows the way there with his eyes closed, so he's easily able to navigate around creeps and freaks alike to get to Lia's without an fuss. Lia's Second Hand Emporium is the best second hand tech store in the Orion Nebula, at least out of the ones Beomgyu has visited, and he's visited a lot. It would be even better if it was on any planet other than Dragobah, but Beomgyu can grudgingly admit that the stuff wouldn't be as good anywhere else. The other reason it's good is that Beomgyu knows the owner like the back of his hand and that she knows him just as well.
"Beomgyu!" Lia shrieks when he steps through the iron doors, "I didn't expect to see you out here today!"
The store is empty, save for Lia, mountains of second hand ship equipment, and a single other Dragobian. Beomgyu's never been great with identifying species, that's more Huening Kai's area of expertise, but he can tell that the guy is most definitely human adjacent - just far taller than average and with pointed ears, electric blue eyes and dark runes running down his face and arms. He turns to face Beomgyu for a second, just as he draws his hood down, and then quietly goes back to scouring the shelves, Beomgyu doesn't pay him much notice. Lia looks the same as before, button nose and bright eyes, with a long head of wavy brown hair held up in a tight ponytail. Her black boiler suit is covered in grease patches and stray strands of fur from the street animals she insists on feeding every day, and she's still got that signature Lia smile, where his eyes disappear into crescents and her lips spread so wide they could split her face in half.
"Hi noona!" Beomgyu says cheerily, as the older girl rushes towards him. Lia, being of monstrous strength that she is despite her outward appearance, wraps her arms around his middle and hoists him off the ground spewing, "oh my god, you're even lighter than before! Have you been eating well! Do you want me to fetch you a meal? Are you taking care of yourself?" Beomgyu lets out a choked little laugh, "maybe put me down and I'll tell you?" He teases, although his voice comes out short and clipped with the force of Lia's arms around his stomach. She apologizes through a laugh and sets him down, and Beomgyu quickly wraps his arms around her in a gentle hug, "I've been good," he says as they seperate, "and no, don't worry about the food, the crew and I are meeting at Irene's for some food later."
"Ah, space pirates of taste," Lia laughs, "anyway, what can I help you with o' great pilot?"
"Just looking for some parts," Beomgyu replies, "a couple of my gears have gotten super stiff and no amount of lubricant is helping - you got anything for me?"
Lia nods delightedly, "of course!" She says, "just put your cloak up and follow me."
Beomgyu does, grinning as he slips off his cloak and stretches his arms, free from the heavy discomfort of having the fabric weighing down on him. Dragobah is a hot planet, and Beomgyu feels way better like this, in his light white blouse and black slacks, the boots are still not quite suited for a hot planet like Dragobah, nor the various straps and holsters on his pants, but such is life of a pirate. Beomgyu follows after Lia with the glaze of eyes on his back, he chooses to ignore it and continue forward as Lia leads him to some corner of the store.
"Okay so we managed to get a whole bunch of these a couple days ago," Lia says, smiling broadly, "most are barely used so you can take your pick. Just go through them yourself and I'll help out the other guy, okay?"
"For sure," Beomgy replies steadily, eyes gleaming as he's left alone with the equipment. Lia was right when she said most of it was barely used, the equipment is glistening clean, and when Beomgyu picks a few up to test them he finds that they move fluidly, smooth as butter. He sorts through them before finding a few that match exactly to the colour of The Blue Orangeade's interior, Beomgyu picks up 3 (better safe than sorry) and makes his way to Lia's checkout counter. He's met with a sleeping head and dark red hair; Lia's younger cousin, Yuna, sits there, dozing away on the counter, arms crossed under her head. Beomgyu chuckles and flicks her forehead gently, giggling as he watches the girl blink awake. "Beomgyu Oppa?" She squints, "Oh my god it is you! Hi! You look so good, oh my god! You're hair's so long! You look thinner too, have you been eating?"
Beomgyu chuckles over how similar the two cousins are before saying, "thank you, and yes I've been eating fine, just life on the move will do that to you," he says smiling, "just wanted to pick up some of these," he drops the gears on the counter, "and thought I might as well stop by here." Yuna gets to work immediately, catching Beomgyu up on the gossip as she does so ("Okay so, there's this girl that I'm pretty sure Lia Unnie's like in love with okay, they're the same age but she's super cool and intimidating and works for the city council, ooh, and she has these two assistant type girls who I'm pretty sure have an enemies-to-lovers arc going on it's super sexy I want them to make out so bad-").
She stops talking as Lia and the man from earlier arrive, Lia sliding in next to Yuna at the counter and the man handing over a couple of crowns and walking out of the store. Beomgyu notices a tiny bag in his large hands, wrapped up in old newspaper with something glistening at the side. "I hope Yuna didn't bore you too much," Lia says, throwing her cousin a short look, "also that'll be 15 crowns," she says. Beomgyu hands over the money and reassures her otherwise, "she didn't say much," he says with a grin, "except something about a girl named Yezi? Yeji? Which one was it?"
"Yeji-" Yuna starts, before Lia, now as red as her cousins hair, slaps a hand over her mouth.
"No one! That's no one! Gya-ah, forget about it," she says frantically, "please," she adds as an afterthought.
Beomgyu chuckles, "will do, Noona," he says, "now I should get going, if I don't get to lunch on time Yeonjun will complain about it for 7 hours."
Beomgyu waves goodbye as he steps out the store, Yuna yelling out a "say hi to Huening for me!" as he grabs his cloak and steps out onto the streets once again. He double checks his little newspaper parcel, just to make sure it's all there before he's too far away from the emporium. He sighs in relief, seeing that everything is where it's supposed, before quickly stopping at a relatively empty alley corner and draping his cloak over her shoulders once again and pulling his hood over his head, he subsequently tucks his gears into a pocket in his cloak. He's about to go find his friends at Irene's before hears a steely laugh from the side, and his turns his face to see the guy from the store, standing a mere 6 feet away from Beomgyu, eyes fixed on his face.
"Something funny?" Beomgyu asks, lips setting into a thin line.
"Nothing to worry about," The man says, his voice is steely and has an inhuman of insect-like buzz to it, as if it's being filtered in through a fan, "just wondering why someone with a face as pretty as yours is covering it all up."
Beomgyu groans in his head, but his body is immediately on high alert. He does a quick look around and sees that there's no one there except him, the guy from the store, and a stray animal of Dragobian descent that Beomgyu doesn't recognize. Fuck. He clears his throat and shakes himself off for a second, "well, now that you've seen my face, I should get going," he says, before he's quickly stopped by a steely grip on his palm.
"Oh come on doll, don't be like that," the man says, his lips spreading into something ugly, "why don't I take you out for lunch, huh? Show you around Dragobah, you don't look like you're from around here, are you?"
Beomgyu does a quick once over of the man, and quickly registers that while Beomgyu can most definitely hold himself in a fight, this guy is almost a foot taller than he is and probably a lot stronger, given Beomgyu doesn't have much upper body strength at all. He has his pistols on him, but that makes noise and this isn't quite the place to make a scene, and the coms are useless - as they always are in situations like these no matter what Yeonjun says - because the dude is too close to not hear Beomgyu call for help. So instead, Beomgyu take a deep breath, forces a smile and says, "I'm sorry, I'm supposed to be meeting some friends for lunch," he says, trying not to let his panic into his voice, "can you please let me go now."
Beomgyu does an inward shudder as he gets a laugh in response, and then he's quickly pulled closer, now facing the man, with his hand now clenched around his chin instead of his wrist, forcing him to look up at him. The man uses his other hand to pull Beomgyu's hood off before it promptly settles itself on his waist. Beomgyu's hands slowly reach for his pistols under his cloak, but he refrains from pulling them out just yet.
"Come on, doll," The man says, words sweet but dripping venom, "a pretty little thing like you shouldn't be wandering the streets of Dragobah alone," his hand clenches tighter around Beomgyu's jaw, sharp nails digging into the skin of his cheeks, "you know that don't you, doll?"
Fuck, Beomgyu really may just need to use to pistols if this goes on. He keeps his gaze steady, not letting any signs of his paranoia show, after all, if things get really bad he's covered, but the man is still taller and broader and stronger than him and Beomgyu really wants an easy day today.
"Please, sir, I should really be going now," he says carefully, voice steady, "I don't want to keep my friends waiting,"'
"Oh but we only just got to know each other," his fingers press harder down on Beomgyu's face, "Beomgyu? Was it?"
That's it. Beomgyu's very frankly had enough of this, so he hardens his face into a glare and reaches into his cloak to pull out his pistols. He's about to strike, pistols firm in his hands and senses attuned to any other oncoming attacks, when he's stopped by a new voice.
"He said to let him go," The stranger says, voice firm and elegant, he obviously comes from money, Beomgyu can tell by the clear enunciation and powerful volume, he talks the same way Yeonjun did when Beomgyu first met him. Beomgyu turns to look at him and sees a man around his age, with platinum blonde hair and a long, incredibly menacing - and incredibly expensive - looking sword, outstretched and pointing towards Beomgyu's harasser.
One look at him tells Beomgyu that his hunch about the boy coming from money is correct. He's wearing a dark blue tunic with expensive looking gold lapels that his short white cloak does a terrible job of hiding, not to mention the tall black boots on his feet that probably cost more than everything Beomgyu has on put together. Still, he's attractive, the stranger, about the same height as Beomgyu but a fair bit broader. His face is all sharp angles and hard lines, strong nose and sculpted jaw, lips curled into a snarl and dark eyes piercing, eyebrows pulled towards his eyes menacingly. Despite his cear readiness to attack there is a sort of naivety to his eyes, as if he's not sure whether or not this is a good idea but he's poised by some sense of duty to help anyway. His eyes waver a little, flickering to Beomgyu's face and then back to the Dragoban.
"He said," the stranger repeats, "to let him go."
The fingers around Beomgyu's fingers loosen ever so slightly as a laugh wracks through the Dragoban.
"You?" He says, voice dripping with spite, "what will you do?"
Then within seconds, as if in some sort of flash, there's a sword under the Dragoban's chin and Beomgyu is pulled away and tucked behind the blonde man. The Dragoban does a double take, blinking once, twice, before anger takes over his face and his lips twist into an ugly snarl, electric blue eyes morphing it sharp, menacing red. The stranger doesn't give him time to react though, pulling down his sword and stabbing it through the Dragoban's right thigh, sending him plummeting to the ground. He does it so fast that Beomgyu doesn't even process what's happened till the Dragoban lets out a howl of pain followed by a series of curses. The stranger pulls his sword out just as cleanly as he's thrust it in, the metal stained scarlet - Beomgyu tries not to look at it, he's never been good with blood.
Before Beomgyu can fully process everything that just happened, a firm hand wraps itself around his wrist, blistered at the fingers but smooth everywhere else, like those of a musician or a swordsman. The stranger pulls Beomgyu through the alleys, rushing past various street dwellers who shout obscenities as they rush past them. Beomgyu's a fast runner, but he can barely keep up with this man, and he heaves, gasping for breath when they finally come to a halt in yet another deserted alley. Beomgyu gasps for air, bending over, hands on his knees. The blonde stranger is facing away from him, keen eyes on the street, as if looking out for any more danger.
The stranger turns around, piercing brown eyes meeting Beomgyu's, "are you okay?"
Something about the sincerity in his eyes and voice bugs Beomgyu - because really, contrary to how it may have looked, Beomgyu really was in control of the situation, he could've taken care of the Dragoban no problem! What did this guy think he was? Some sort of damsel in distress?
"I was handling it," Beomgyu says, throwing off his cloak to make sure none of his possessions had fallen out in their mad scramble away from the Dragoban. He groans as he realises one of his three freshly bought gears has fallen out. "I would've been fine without your he- i mean, interference!" Beomgyu curses his fumbling and then does his best glare at the boy, the one where his eyebrows knit together and his eyes narrow. It clearly has no effect on the strange, who simply stares back with a blank face and a poised, disbelieving eyebrow.
"That's not what it looked like to me," He says, "you didn't look like you were handling anything."
"How would you know, you butted in before I had the chance to even do anything!" Beomgyu says, leaning forward and jabbing an accusatory finger at the stranger's chest (unfairly firm chest, he notes bitterly). The blonde blinks down at him, wide eyed, and slowly raises his arms up in surrender. "Okay, okay, jeez," he says, "i get it, you were fine, sorry for saving you!" Beomgyu retracts his finger, instead crossing his arms over his chest like an angry toddler. The stranger rolls his eyes and Beomgyu holds back the urge to flip him off. "Now where have you taken me?" He asks instead, voice accusatory. Beomgyu doesn't like new places - especially new places on Dragobah of all planets.
The stranger blinks, once, twice.
"Uh," he says, eyes on his fiddling, "I, um, don't know?"
Beomgyu blinks, once, twice.
"YOU WHAT?"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" The blonde says, as Beomgyu leans into his space again, seething, "I just grabbed you and ran!"
"You can't do that on Dragobah!" Beomgyu says, he holds back a scream so his voice comes out like a hiss instead. "Do you know how hard it is to navigate this place? How many people there are out here just waiting to attack or mug you? Have you never been here before or something!" He asks, throwing his arms in the air and trying to ignore the heat rushing to his face, he always turns red when he's angry. His voice grows louder and louder as he talks, breaking in places at his desperation.
The blonde stares at the ground, a guilty sort of look passing his face. His eyebrows are knit together, as if he's not used to being yelled at like this, and his fingers are twisted together in a way the looks almost painful, as if he's holding himself back from some sort of snarky reply.
"Oh my god," Beomgyu says, "you've actually never been on Dragobah before?"
The stranger doesn't reply, Beomgyu takes it as a yes. He sighs heavily, massaging his temples. "No wonder you're wandering around here in clothes like that," Beomgyu mutters, "how have you not been attacked yet."
The stranger shrugs weakly. "The sword came in helpful," he replies.
Beomgyu's eyes widen, "how many people have you stabbed since you got here?"
"Seven I think - although one was a group of 4?"
Beomgyu's eyes pop out of skull. "Has noone ever warned you about making enemies?" He exclaims, he's not sure whether he's impressed or scared.
"I didn't attack anyone who didn't attack me first!" The boy defends himself, finally meeting Beomgyu's eyes again, "besides, I need the money I've got on me," he says under his breath, "given that someone decided to steal my ship." Beomgyu feels pity wrack through him, and immediately feels bad about yelling at the boy. He couldn't be any older than Beomgyu, after all.
Beomgyu sighs, "what's your name?" He asks.
The boy falters for a second, eyes swivelling back and forth from his feet to Beomgyu's face. "Uh," he says eloquently, "Taehyun, I'm Taehyun."
"Taehyun what?" Beomgyu asks, raising a brow.
"Uh, just Taehyun."
Beomgyu regards him for a second, giving him a quick up and down. He's clearly lying - and Beomgyu can't disregard the guy as a threat, given that he's evidently good with a sword and could most probably (definitely) beat Beomgyu in a fight. But his eyes and actions seem sincere, if a little naive, so Beomgyu sighs and says, "I'm Beomgyu - where are you from?"
"Alderaan."
Beomgyu nods, "pretty place," he says, and it is. Suddenly Taehyun's situation makes sense, Alderaan is a prosperous planet, full of wealth and luxury and the prettiest architecture Beomgyu has seen in the Orion Nebula, and Alderaanians barely ever leave their home. Taehyun nods in response, eyes on Beomgyu now, no longer shying away on the floor. Beomgyu nods once again, "okay, how long have you been here and how much money do you have on you?"
"A little less than a day," Taehyun says, with a nod, "and not enough."
Beomgyu lets out his nth sigh. "Alright," he says, "we're going to find my friends and get you some food - then we'll figure out what to do with you." Taehyun nods wordlessly as Beomgyu reaches into his cloak and pulls out his communication device and dials up Soobin - not Yeonjun, never Yeonjun, sometimes Kai, mostly Soobin. The comm clicks alive and Soobin's voice filters into Beomgyu's ear.
"Gyu? Where are you? Yeonjun, Kai and I are all at Irene's already?" He says. Beomgyu can here the tell tale sound of clanging plates and boisterous laughter at the back. He licks his lips.
"Things got a little out of hand," he replies, and then before Soobin can ask says, "can you send me a pin to Irene's, we got a little lost, thanks!"
Beomgyu cuts the call as Soobin lets out a confused sounding "we?"