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Yoongi leans his head back and looks up into the unfamiliar sky. Dark purple. Three moons. Kind of cool. Or at least it would have been, if he hadn't been stuck on this godforsaken planet with no easy way of getting home.
"Jimin? Oy, Jimin, are you there?" There's nothing but static on the other end. Jimin had said there would be a chance of interference. Something long and technical and honestly, Yoongi had lost interest after the first sentence. Maybe he should have paid more attention. Not that he can change that now. All he can do is follow the protocols and hope that everything works out.
It usually does, after all. Yoongi has gotten pretty used to getting stuck on strange planets or moons. Even a meteor once; that was fun.
If nothing else, the atmosphere is relatively decent. No need for waddling around in a space suit feeling ridiculous. The air is thicker than the one back home and it's a little harder to breathe, but far from impossible. The planet around him is arid, mostly consisting of rocks and sand and more rocks. Nothing too interesting, but Jimin had been asking for samples from this place for months already. Fuck knows what he's hoping to find.
"This had better be worth it," Yoongi mutters to himself, because there aren't anyone else to talk to. He keeps talking to himself as he goes through a mental checklist; lock up the pod, set up camp, check the perimeter, take the samples he was sent here to get in the first place. He might be stuck for who knows how long, he might as well do his job. Even if he's not entirely happy about it. He had a date tomorrow night, damnit, he's not going to make that now. "When I get back, Jimin, I swear to god, I'm gonna ram these rocks so far up your ass you'll be spitting pebbles for weeks."
"Charming," a voice says somewhere to his left, and Yoongi falls over in sheer surprise.
"What the, who the, fuck."
"Yeah, I think that covers it." This time, the voice is accompanied by a person, ducking out from behind a large rock. As far as Yoongi can tell, it's a human. Just casually hanging out on a deserted planet eons away from anywhere civilized.
What the fuck.
He scrambles back on his feet and grabs the gun he carries just in case, pointing it at the stranger. "Who are you? Stay away!"
The guy raises his hands and laughs. Fucking laughs, as if this is the funniest thing he's experienced in ages. "Take it easy, would you, I'm not gonna hurt you. I saw your ship landing, I got curious. This place doesn't exactly get a lot of visitors. I'm Hoseok, now could you please lower that thing?"
Yoongi glares at him, but lowers the gun nonetheless, and introduces himself, explains what he's here for and that something's wrong. Communication cut off, engines not running right. No chance for lift-off any time soon.
Hoseok nods enthusiastically. "Yeah, there's a strong magnetic field surrounding the planet, makes most system go haywire. You're not gonna be able to contact anyone via radio."
"Shit." Yoongi is still on guard, not sure if he can trust this guy, but then again, if he wanted to cause any harm, he'd probably done it already. Besides, he's going to need help if he wants to get out of here. The view might be cool, but this is not a planet Yoongi is interested in living on for the foreseeable future. "Is that what happened to you? You came here and got stuck?"
Hoseok shrugs and sits down on the ground. "Something like that."
The evasiveness of the reply grates on Yoongi's nerves even more; he wants to haul a few rocks at the guy's head and force him to answer properly. He doesn't have the time or patience for bullshit. In the end, he manages to keep it down to a loud sigh. Might be best to wait a little before resorting to violence, though it's definitely an option he's open to.
"Have you been here long?" Yoongi decides to be chatty and interested instead. It might be faked, but he can pretend pretty well. Years of working alongside Jimin has taught him how to look attentive while he's really daydreaming. "I can't imagine there's a lot to eat or drink here, so either you get supplies from somewhere or you came here with a fuckton of stuff." He stores away the samples of rock and sits down on the ground as well, keeping a safe distance. If nothing else, the planet is pleasantly warm, so he's in no danger of dying from exposure or something equally lame.
Hoseok tilts his head and hmms, as if he's not sure how honest to be. The guy definitely looks human. A bit strange, yes, but human kind of strange. No blue skin or extra eyes or tentacles anywhere. Yoongi decides that's a good sign. Humans he can deal with. Alien species are a bit more tricky; he still has the scars from that tentacle chick a few years back. "I've been here for three months, roughly," Hoseok says eventually. "I did have a lot of supplies with me, and there are some edible things here as well."
"So you are stuck?" Yoongi is nothing if not persistent.
"Maybe." Apparently, Hoseok is equally stubborn.
Yoongi glares at him again, but Hoseok just grins at him and starts talking again. Tells him about the planet; the surrounding area, the sandstorms that wash over the landscape every now and then, the too long nights and too short days, the scarcity of water, the movements of the moons and planets in the sky. If Jimin had been here, he would have jizzed his pants in excitement. To Yoongi, it's less than fascinating, but he still takes notes because he knows it's valuable information. These are the kind of things that will be entered into the database, and he can add another planet successfully explored to his increasingly long list.
Honestly, Yoongi is in it for that exploration. Not many people can say they have visited nearly a hundred planets in a dozen different solar systems. He's always liked traveling, flying, and going into space had always seemed like the next logical step. He's always been a nomad. Too restless to stay in one place very long. It's why his belongings are in two boxes and a bag in Jimin's apartment, and why Yoongi rarely stays anywhere more than two nights in a row.
Besides, saying he's a space explorer works like a charm as a pick-up line.
When Hoseok is done talking about the planet, he bounces back onto his feet and wanders around. "It's nice having company," he says with a dumb grin and Yoongi really does consider throwing rocks at him.
"I don't plan on staying."
"Oh, come on. What's the harm? Take a vacation from all the science stuff, I bet you have plenty of vacation days saved up, and it's not like anyone can call you up and yell at you."
Yoongi rolls his eyes and gets back on his feet as well, sets about making himself a meal. He doesn't offer any to Hoseok. The allotted rations are meager, to say the least, barely enough to feed Yoongi for the set amount of time the mission is supposed to last. "If I was going to take a vacation, this place wouldn't be my first pick."
"Well. You don't have a choice, do you?" There's something almost smug in Hoseok's voice and Yoongi is certain that the bastard knows exactly how to get the communication systems to work, or even how to get off the planet. He's equally sure that Hoseok isn't going to tell him, even if Yoongi threatens bodily harm.
He tries it, though.
His second day stuck on the planet, he grabs Hoseok by the shoulders and tries to shake some sense into him. On the fourth day, he really does lob a rock at Hoseok's head, snickering when Hoseok spends the next hour whining about it. After a week, Yoongi finally threatens Hoseok with the gun, tries to make it as menacing as possible.
"If you were going to shoot me, you would have done it a long time ago," Hoseok says with another of those dumb smiles of his, and fuck it, he's right. Yoongi has never used the gun, hardly ever bothers to actually load the damn thing.
He is so screwed.
So a vacation it is, then.
Despite being stuck against his will on a planet that is boring as fuck, it's pretty nice. Yoongi has the time to take more detailed notes than he usually bothers with, and he takes so many samples that he's sure Jimin's going to end up proposing to him when he does get back home. Or maybe he'll propose to Hoseok, considering that he's the one who points the different rock types and vegetation out and helps Yoongi gather it all.
Hoseok does make the involuntary stay a lot better. All things considered, Yoongi figures it's the least he can do.
Where Yoongi's pod is small and functional, Hoseok's ship is spacious and homey. Lived in instead of focused on necessities, piled full of bits and pieces instead of bare surfaces. It doesn't take Yoongi long to practically move in, making himself at home. Hoseok winks and says they can share a bed; Yoongi snorts and takes one of the empty bunks instead. He has to practically dig it out before he can use it, but it's worth it.
Okay, so maybe he does end up stumbling into Hoseok's bed after Hoseok offers him too much home-brewed alcohol, but he doesn't think he's to be blamed for that.
"I knew you liked me," Hoseok tells him the next morning, hovering above Yoongi and looking far too bright and chirpy considering how early it is and how much Yoongi's head is pounding.
"I fucking hate you," he mumbles, but drags Hoseok back down anyway. It's not as if they have anything to get up early for.
The longer he stays, the easier it is to stay. When he has company - especially company like Hoseok - he doesn't get bored like he normally would. There's always something to talk about, something to do, some new place to explore. When the sand storms rage across the landscape, they bolt the doors and stay inside for three days; by the end of it Yoongi feels like he knows Hoseok better than he knows anyone else.
He catches himself thinking that just staying here for months on end wouldn't be so bad when he's not alone, and mentally smacks himself for thinking something so sappy in the first place.
Besides, there's his work, and Jimin, and the rest of his colleagues, and his family.
"I can't stay here forever," he tells Hoseok. No preamble, no demands. Just states it, because it is a fact. "Vacations are good and all, but people back home are probably going nuts." At least Jimin is. He's the only one who gives enough of a shit.
Hoseok hmms and leans his forehead against Yoongi's shoulder, practically rubs against him like some spastic puppy. "Yeah, I guess staying here forever wouldn't be perfect, would it?"
Two days later, Yoongi wakes up to find all his belongings and all the samples he has collected over the weeks stacked in Hoseok's ship. "What," he says, but it's not really a question. By now, he has given up on trying to figure Hoseok out. It's much easier to just go with the flow, accept the insanity instead of attempting to fight it. Hoseok usually knows what he's doing, anyway, even if it doesn't seem like it.
"I can't fit the pod in here," Hoseok says. "I grabbed everything else, though."
"You grabbed-- What?" Yoongi feels like he's three steps behind.
Hoseok presses a few buttons and the ship's engines sputter into life. Okay, more than three steps behind. Yoongi just stares as Hoseok prods the control panel and the ship first hums, then roars. Minutes later, they're in the air, soaring higher and higher and they'll be in actual space in moments. On their way home.
Fucking Hoseok.
"I knew you knew how to get off the planet," Yoongi grumbles. "I could have left after a day like I was supposed to."
Hoseok laughs and flings an arm around his shoulder, steering the ship with his other hand. "As if I was going to let you go that easily," he says, and even if Yoongi rolls his eyes over the cheesiness of it, he can't help but smile as well.