Work Text:
The sizzle of the grill.
Sounds of the coffee dripping into the pot next to the stove.
Smell of eggs hitting the heated surface of his work space.
It was something that was all too familiar for Kyungsoo, it was all a part of his rhythm, it was as comforting as it could be monotonous sometimes.
But he wouldn't give this work up for anything else at the moment, even if it meant it was him and one other server working the late night shift, with only each other and a pot of coffee to keep them company until day break.
That was until about a month ago, when a new face had entered their diner, and Kyungsoo would be lying if he said he wasn't surprised to see someone like this man walking into their small establishment. After all it was usually the hangout spot of older folk, weary travelers, and more than the occasional trucker or biker.
But this man had been none of these things.
No, instead this man looked like he had walked out of a fashion magazine, or that maybe he was coming back from a shoot of some sort.
Kyungsoo had listened to the conversation through the small service window, and he could tell that Mark was thinking the same thing. The younger man often worked this shift during the weekends to make some extra money for college.
Sometimes even doing work when the diner was completely void of patronage.
The model-like man had a simple order, eggs sunny side up and a glass of orange juice to go along with it. Nothing more and nothing less.
And once the stranger finished his meal, he simply paid and left, and Kyungsoo wouldn't think anymore about the model like a stranger with the smooth voice.
Although that turned out not to be so true, as surprisingly the next night, the same man appeared again, ordering the same meal of eggs with orange juice.
And like the last time, once he was done eating he simply paid and left, having made little to no small talk.
This continued on for the next month, and at this rate it had become part of his routine of sorts, although tonight he found the rhythm a little disrupted.
Tonight he was the only one manning the counter and the kitchen, the usual person with him on shift was out for the night and it was more than too late to call for a replacement. But given the usual amount of traffic that came through here on nights like this he expected that it wouldn't be too much trouble for him to deal with all by himself.
Kyungsoo's eyes travel to the clock again, about a couple minutes from one.
He couldn't figure out why he was so anxious about the time, as he wiped down an already spotless counter, and fixed an already perfect display for a pan of pie.
Perhaps it was because for once he would be the one who was directly interacting with the stranger.
The clock hit one, and at the same moment the bell on the front door to the diner opened up, bringing in the warmer night air to clash against the artificial cold of the air-conditioning system.
Looking at the man now, he notices that his hair had decidedly changed from the faded purple that it had been last time, to a startling white.
A slight chill runs up his spine as they make eye contact, after the man's appraisal of the space, but the man takes a seat with an easy smile at the counter right in front of him.
"Mark's not here?"
Kyungsoo shakes his head.
The man merely responds with a hum.
"I'm guessing that you will have your usual?"
The man's gaze shifts back over to him, and he thinks that he can see a flash of something on his neck, a tattoo perhaps. "Yes, thank you."
Kyungsoo gives the man his best customer service smile, although he was sure that it wasn't anything like Mark's even if the younger man had assured him that he had a pretty smile.
Getting back into the kitchen relaxes him a little bit, separated by the walls and the door save the service window. He could feel the gaze of the other man when he had to pass by it as he moved through the small kitchen, soon filled with the smell of eggs and bacon.
"Here you are, two eggs sunny side up and bacon, with orange juice." Kyungsoo tops off the glass with the bright yellow substance, slightly chilling the glass as it rests in the new container.
The man smiles again, and it was as gorgeous as the rest of him, a set of straight white teeth accompanying the warm skin and plush lips that soon covered them as he looked down at his food.
"As perfect as always." The man begins cutting into the eggs, making the yolk run out across the rest of the egg and his plate. "I always wanted to give my compliments to the chef."
Kyungsoo laughs a little. "Thank you," he mumbles. "Let me know if you need anything else."
The man nods, proceeding to dig into the rest of his plate with gusto, adding new sound to the softer din of the air conditioning as background noise in the rest of the space. Kyungsoo decides to busy himself with making sure that the grill is clean enough for the next time he has to cook, although it is just an excuse not to have to hover over the other man while he is eating.
Although after a few moments Kyungsoo once again exits the kitchen. "Is everything alright?"
The man looks up from his plate again, hair sort of falling into his face as he nods. "It's wonderful, as always."
Kyungsoo nods and then smiles a little. "Would you like some more orange juice?"
The man nods again, and Kyungsoo reaches for the item out of the small fridge right in front of him. As he refills the glass he takes the time to really take in the other man's appearance, a jet black outfit that looked like it was something straight from his own closet if he were to be honest. And looking back up, he catches what was on the side of the other man's neck, and it is indeed a tattoo, a pretty simple star, no other colors, but in the center is something that looks like a tree branching out to the very edges of it.
But it looks as if one of the branches are missing from the tree.
"Do you have tattoos?"
Kyungsoo is startled out of his examination, ears slightly going a little hot at being caught. "Ah." He turns his attention back to the fridge. "No, I don't actually... sorry for staring?"
The other man's eyes sparkle a little in amusement, although his laughter is warm. "It's alright... it's in a place that's sort of hard to miss."
"Does it have any meaning... if that's not too much to ask. I know stuff like that can be quite personal." Kyungsoo absentmindedly cleans the kitchen counter spot in front of him, even if he knew once again that there was literally nothing left to clean there.
The man's hands go to his neck briefly as if having to reaffirm that it's there before he began to speak once again. "Ah, sort of... me and my friends sort of have the same ones."
"That's bold." Kyungsoo blinks.
The man sips at his orange juice again, making a movement with his head as if he was slightly agreeing with the statement. "I know... it almost sounds as bad as getting one with a significant other, right?"
Kyungsoo cleans a glass, biting his lip, nodding in agreement.
"You're not the first to think the same." He smiles again before taking a bite out of his piece of bacon. "So, what's got you out here working a dead night shift? You don't look like the type that should be out here."
Kyungsoo shrugs. "The money. I know it's not normal for a college age student to be doing such a thing, but I think it beats a party."
The man nods in agreement again, this time leaning a little more forward on the counter, some of the silver zippers on his jacket that Kyungsoo was just noticing coming forward into the light as well. "Why? Do you like the silence?"
Kyungsoo again nods a little. "Something like that... I guess, I don't know."
"I can appreciate that. Sometimes it seems like the world is a little too loud. Makes you miss details about it since it's constantly evolving." Another piece of egg goes into the man's mouth.
Kyungsoo could say that the man had totally hit what he was on the head, all too often his head felt foggy when there was so much going on, like someone was constantly trying to pull his attention in a different direction.
Here it felt like he had a different grasp on all of his senses.
"Yeah..." Kyungsoo agrees, finally putting down the last glass that he has to clean. “Something like that.”
The rest of their time goes by quickly, making small talk here and there as Kyungsoo handles things here and there around the small diner, although he does note that the other man hangs around even after his plate is long clear, save the glass of orange juice that the man seemed to be savoring.
It was definitely unusual from what he had seen, so he didn't know why the simple action made him so nervous.
The man had the right to sit there as long as he would like as long as he was eating or drinking something.
Kyungsoo walks over, with another polite smile etched on his lips. "Is there anything else I can get you?"
The man gives him another pleasant smile, downing the last of his orange juice, leaving behind the light froth from the drink coating the glass. "Jongin."
Kyungsoo blinks, for a moment.
"My name is Jongin," he clarifies with yet another pleasant smile.
"Oh... well, is there anything else I can get you Jongin?" Kyungsoo chuckles a bit, feeling his nerves being diffused.
Jongin reaches back into his pocket, pulling out his wallet. "My bill, and a small cup of coffee for the road please."
"Coming right up."
Kyungsoo goes over to the coffee maker, restarting it so that Jongin wouldn't have to drink the old brew that had been sitting around since probably right before he got to his shift. He slightly rolls his eyes in annoyance, getting everything cleaned out and up before going to ring up his things, setting the small piece of paper in front of the other man.
"There will be a wait on the coffee sorry about that."
Jongin once again gives him another smile. "No worries."
The blanket of silence falls around them again, and Kyungsoo taps against the countertops nervously. It would be weird to just leave the other man out here to go scroll his phone in the back of the kitchen until the coffee was done.
"So, what do you do? I've noticed that you're out a lot... much like me, what's someone your age doing here?" Kyungsoo leans against the countertop.
Jongin blinks at him. "Ah, I suppose it's only fair, but again, like you... work."
"So you get off around one am every time."
Jongin's eyes search his, and the intensity of them has Kyungsoo instinctively wanting to look away, at something, at anything else but he doesn't.
"You could say that yes."
Kyungsoo is eternally grateful when the smell of the freshly brewed coffee reaches his nostrils, along with the slight sputtering that sounded akin to something wheezing with his last breath, although it had with time become simply background noise to Kyungsoo, now for some reason it was like a brand new sound to his ears that needed attention.
Like there was something that he needed to be made aware of, his hand pauses as he reaches for the glass pot sitting at the station, right next to his hand the to go cup.
Again his senses go wild, as if he had never seen this particular coffee maker before, the old blue coloring on the sides worn from the many years of use and abuse, nozzle, and lights signaling that there was power going through the machine to make it work.
Around the red colored handle of the pot is where his brow furrows and where his eyes and mind try to make sense of what he is seeing.
Had the handle always been that bright a red?
He could've sworn that it was as black as one of his favorite sweaters, with that industrial shine of the plastic mostly worn due to the number of uses.
Even if you wiped it off eventually it went back to the dull used black color.
"You see it... the handle on the coffee pot."
Kyungsoo's head turns around at Jongin's statement, once again the intense brown eyes locked onto him, but none of the playfulness was there from earlier, all he could see was the seriousness in his gaze.
"I..." Kyungsoo's gaze turns back to the coffee pot, to find it back to the dull black that he remembered and he takes a step back, blinking as he once again turns his attention to the area.
Once again noticing a shimmer or something on one of the walls, one of the pictures on the wall with the owner and his family, but it all seems wrong somehow, something off in the fundamental smiles of the people in the photo.
The hole where he knew there was supposed to be the beloved rose bush that the owner had bragged so much about his daughter up-keeping and planting herself, now there was just distorted space.
"You can see it, the bush in the picture... it's wrong," Jongin remarks simply.
Kyungsoo swallows a little thickly and then nods, but he doesn't remove his eyes from the hazy area. "It’s supposed to be a rose bush," he remarks as if that was going to help anything.
"Distorted reality," Jongin says again before Kyungsoo could have the chance to even ask anything else.
This snaps his attention to the white haired man again. "What?"
"Distorted reality..." Jongin stands and hops over the counter, to stand behind it with Kyungsoo, arms crossed. "Because of dual orbits."
Kyungsoo shakes his head in confusion, forgetting for the moment that the other man wasn't supposed to be on the other side of the counter.
That it could cost him his job if his boss checked the cameras and saw that he hadn't immediately run Jongin back to the other side.
"And that means?" Kyungsoo presses when Jongin doesn't say anything else, but merely continues to stare at him.
Intense eyes once again rake over his form, and this time Kyungsoo does tear his eyes away in time to see the haze, distorted reality, or whatever it was to begin to move closer to them.
"I knew it.... you're the ninth."
Kyungsoo doesn't even have the time to even process what the words could fully mean, when Jongin is yanking him back, pushing him behind his slightly taller frame. His expression turned into a frown as the once-invisible foe grows in size as it takes more space along the counter top, warping everything that it comes into contact with.
Even the lights above their heads begin to flicker.
All of the energy in the room begins to make his hair stand on end.
Out of some silly habit he pulls out his phone to call for some type of assistance, but the device wouldn't even turn on.
"How long have things been different?"
The question from the other man has Kyungsoo looking up from the device, pushing it back into his pocket as they continue to move ever forward, but despite this he wracks his brain for the instances that he had quickly dismissed as his own brain now remembering correctly.
A poor night's sleep from staying up far too late to finish up a college essay the night before.
"A while I guess." Kyungsoo shakes his head. "What does this have to do anything, and what do you mean I'm the ninth?" His brain finally swings back around to the initial phrase the man had said.
Jongin's gaze meets his. "We have to get you out of here first." The white haired man lets out a curse under his breath. "How long have they been waiting here?"
"Has who been waiting here?" Kyungsoo presses, as his back finally touches the back of the countertop, giving them nowhere to go against the approaching glimmering field.
"Trust me, that's not something you want to find out at the moment." Jongin's gaze falls to behind the counter. "Over the counter we need to get out of here."
Kyungsoo almost says something stupid again, about how he couldn't leave his post and the whole diner unattended, but the way that certain objects inside of the shimmering shield were doing more than beginning to shift and change under its influence was enough to have him scrambling over the side of the counter, Jongin jumping nimbly behind.
Kyungsoo stops briefly to grab his jacket but Jongin pulls him by the arm, pulling him out side into the slightly cooler air, and leading him over to what he could only assume was his own motorcycle, glimmering slick and black under the artificial lights.
"Here." Jongin throws him a helmet.
Kyungsoo just barely catches it with a slight stumble as he goes to put it on, sparing one look back at his workstation, seeing the glimmer exiting the door and now he thinks that he can see what look to be red glowing eyes coming from the space.
Kyungsoo spares no time then, climbing onto the motorcycle after Jongin makes it roar to life in the otherwise vacant and silent parking lot. The other man pulls off as soon as Kyungsoo is seated behind him, making the other man cling to him tightly as they peel away, the tires kicking away large amounts of gravel as they enter the roadway without hesitance.
Kyungsoo yelps, his heart going farther into his throat as he feels heat and then an explosion sound from behind them, sparing a glance backwards he sees what was once his workplace now totally engulfed in flames.
To think that he would've been in there had it not been for Jongin, probably swallowed by that shimmer, and then blown to hell.
The thought has him swallowing, but there's nothing there to wet his mouth except for cotton it seems as they ride further away from the blaze, smoke rising in the distance and soon sirens could be heard in the distance, as it was sure that someone passing along the roadway would report that the building was in a total blaze.
They ride through the night, for a while nothing except for them and the occasional passing car to mark that they weren't the only ones that were riding the dark strip of road, something other than the roar of the engine of Jongin's motorcycle and the wind whistling past.
Eventually Jongin pulls off after what could have been minutes, an hour, Kyungsoo really didn't know, his mind was still trying to process what had just happened.
How his life had more than likely changed, even if it hadn't been spoken out solidly through the air.
Voice and action giving it truth.
But his brain does register as they pass a bunch of old abandoned buildings, warehouses long since closed, only home to the echoes of the past and the wind that came through.
But that didn't deter Jongin from pulling into the nearest one, the smell of air, metal, and rust meeting Kyungsoo's nostrils.
His ears fill with the ringing of silence once Jongin cuts the engine, the only thing providing light was the moon from one of the broken windows, highlighting Jongin's white hair and giving shapes unseen to light.
Kyungsoo sits the helmet back onto the seat of the bike, as he dismounts with slightly shaky legs, his heart still in his throat and his eyes looking for shimmer.
But then he turns to Jongin, the white haired man calmly removing himself from the bike.
"What the hell was that? Did they just blow up-" The words almost make Kyungsoo sick, sharp like bile against his tongue. "Did they blow up the diner?"
Jongin is silent checking around the area, for a moment not answering Kyungsoo's question right away, a part of his brain so helpfully providing that he might've been checking for the same shimmer that he had, although Kyungsoo might guess that the other man might be more adept at it than he was.
Whatever it was that allowed them to see whatever was going on.
"Yes," Jongin answers simply. "They planned to get rid of you."
Kyungsoo's mouth hangs agape at the statement. "What? Why? I..."
And then Jongin's voice flashes through his head.
He was the ninth.
"Because I'm the ninth?"
Jongin nods, running his hands through the white locks, no roots to be seen that made Kyungsoo briefly wonder if the color was actually completely natural.
And honestly at this point, it might be more acceptable than whatever he had witnessed.
"What exactly is that supposed to mean? I... I just work at the diner."
Jongin gives him a look, one that Kyungsoo can't quite decipher as either the other man being sorry or whether or not he was pitying him.
As if he should have to voice out loud what Kyungsoo knew himself already to be true.
He wasn't just a cook anymore.
Wasn't just a college kid anymore.
No matter how much he wanted to just bury his head under the sand, and pretend this night never happened.
"Will they come back?" Kyungsoo asks.
"Yes." Jongin spares another look outside, before turning back to Kyungsoo. "Hopefully we're gone by then, it'll buy us more time to get you to safety."
"Why did-- do they want to kill me?" Kyungsoo crosses his arms, as if his body was trying to protect him from the very thought of death, keeping him from the cold laced fingers.
Jongin is silent for a moment more, eyes analyzing Kyungsoo from head to toe it seemed again, but this time instead of the mild mannered man serving him at the counter was a man standing in front of him, changed by the night's actions.
By knowledge acquired, a slight sheen of sweat still coming from his brow, frame slightly shaking with left over adrenaline.
"To put it short... we've been looking for you too, I'm part of a group that's combating things like you just saw tonight." Jongin shifts on his feet again, continuing on his small monologue. "But it's impossible to defeat them unless we're all together."
Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow, noting how his life was starting to turn out like some type of novel, although if Kyungsoo ever wrote about this he was sure that it would indeed make for a great story.
Given any of it were true, and it wasn't the case that Jongin was just some crazy serial killer who had just lured him to his death, and burned down his workplace.
"And I complete that?"
Jongin nods.
Kyungsoo runs a hand through his short hair. "Why should I believe you? You-- you could kill me."
Jongin just stares at him, unmoved by the words. "They will kill you."
Kyungsoo releases a sigh at that, kicking the invisible rock that he wishes was there to send flying across the floor of the warehouse. "Who are they?"
"We're not really sure ourselves... but we know that they're old, and that this isn't their first time to try this. We call them the Red force."
Red eyes briefly flash in his vision.
"Fitting," Kyungsoo mutters, he turns his gaze back from the ground. "So, what am I supposed to have abilities or something?"
Jongin nods. "Yes."
"Great I'm a superhero." Kyungsoo snorts. "That'll look great on my resume."
Jongin flashes another tiny smile at him at the words, just as they're joined by the sound of more motorcycles entering into the space of the warehouse. The suddenness causes Kyungsoo to jump closer to Jongin who seems less than concerned as he holds a hand up against the headlights obscuring their vision.
"Can you please not blind us, it took you long enough," Jongin remarks, lowering his arm as the bikes finally shut off.
Kyungsoo blinks away the spots from his eyes, adjusting back to the moonlit room as five individuals walk towards them.
"This is him?" A voice asks, soft and friendly, and Kyungsoo can feel the way that their eyes shift to him, immediately analyzing him much like Jongin had done.
"Yeah, I was lucky. They struck tonight... and to think you told me not to come tonight, Hun." Jongin crosses his arms.
A rather stern-looking man rolls his eyes. "How was I supposed to know they'd strike tonight?"
The man Jongin had called 'Hun' approaches and he can see familiar branches furling out on his arm, but unlike Jongin's there was no star encapsulating it, but like the white haired man's his also had eight branches, and room for one more to make it complete.
"I know that this must be overwhelming." The man who had spoken initially made himself known, offering a smile to Kyungsoo, there was nowhere in plain sight that he could see the tattoo that adorned Jongin and his other teammate. "I'm Junmyeon."
"Kyungsoo..." he replies.
"We shouldn't hang around too long, from the looks of that fire, it won't be long until they try to make their move again, and without his abilities at the moment he's practically defenseless," another man remarks, about the same height as Junmyeon, and much like Jongin his hair was a strange color.
More silvery, like he had captured starlight and placed it into his hair instead of hair dye.
"Right, Baekhyun.. let the others know that we're on our way and to be on the lookout."
Baekhyun gives a short nod, heading back over to his bike.
Kyungsoo bites his lip, feeling the skin beneath, slightly peeling as he worried it. "I'm a danger aren't I... if I try to go back?"
Junmyeon gives him a solemn nod. "It's better this way... they'll use anyone to get to you. So the more distance the better."
Kyungsoo thinks about it for a moment longer. "I'll go with you."
Junmyeon smiles, as if he thought it was cute that Kyungsoo had said that, when he knew that at this point the group would probably do whatever was necessary to keep him with them, and that there wasn't really much of a choice other than go with them and trust that they weren't actually a group of serial killers.
Or go it alone and almost certainly die, and possibly take his friends and family with him.
"Good. We're going now." Junmyeon turns on his heel, the man named Hun giving him one last look over before turning around as well.
And the other two briefly give him a nod, one man with ink black hair and eyes blue as eyes, and the other with mischief laced in his gaze with a curved smile and a friendly wave of his hand, for a moment Kyungsoo thinks that he can see lightning dance across his palm before he turns away as well towards his own bike.
Kyungsoo turns his gaze back to Jongin, as they’re left alone again. “Saving the world, right?”
Jongin flashes another fully white smile. “Saving the world.”
Kyungsoo sighs, trying to shake his nerves back, and the pit in his stomach. “I guess there are tougher things.”
Jongin claps his shoulders, steering him back over to his parked bike.
And his new destiny.
“That’s the spirit.”