Archive of Our Own

All four of the moons that orbited Theron rose up into the sky. Only one sun remained in the sky, the other two having set a few hours ago but in the summer months they'd usually remain in place keeping the planet glowing for over nine months. Yunho watched the flashes of light that shot across the moons - ships, shuttles, anything with a core reactor that reached a certain speed - from the roof of his apartment building. His parents always called them shooting stars. A sentiment from a bygone era of Earth they'd grown up on decades before; Earth wasn't familiar to Yunho at all, he hadn't grasped onto the last remaining culture his parents’ generation had brought with them to the colony.

Yunho didn't need old world culture. He didn't need the stories of Earth heroes or forgotten empires in forgotten countries. Yunho had Mingi, and to a ten year old the only important thing in life was his best friend.

Mingi was a constant in Yunho's life. The only kid who'd stuck around at school, the only other boy who liked climbing up the back alley buildings with him despite their mother's warnings. When Yunho scraped his knees it was always Mingi who patched him up. Whenever Mingi got caught by the older kids it was always Yunho who came to his rescue.

“We're like the moons, y’know.” Yunho pointed up at the sky.

Mingi would've looked confused, if Yunho could see his face underneath the hoverbike helmet. The tinted eye screen was scratched up, the red paint peeling off in awkward stages, and unreadable brand names decorated the helmet overall. Realising Yunho couldn't see the raise of his eyebrows, Mingi tilted his head comically - a loose part of the helmet clanking loudly against the metal.

“They're inseparable. One moon moves and the other follows, they're always circling the planet together. That's like us - we're always together.” Yunho explained.

“But there's four moons.” Mingi's voice was muffled from the helmet. “And only two of us.”

“There will be more of us. One day, when we get out of here. We'll find a crew, or form a gang, and there's gonna be so much more than just four of us.”

“Can't we just stay as two? I like it being just us.”

Yunho threw his arm around Mingi's shoulder. He was taller than Mingi by just a few inches, but honestly that wasn't much of an achievement as Mingi was the smallest kid their age in the colony by a longshot. He ignored the scratching fabric of the regulation jumpsuit, ignored that it had become too large with the weight loss. The sleeves didn't fit as tight anymore so Yunho had to keep shoving them up to his elbows every few minutes. All the food had to go to his younger brother these days. Oftentimes anything Yunho could scavenge off the streets - not much, people didn't waste anything around here - he'd pass onto Mingi without a second thought.

“It will be just us two.” Yunho said, smiling with a gap in his teeth. “Nothing and no one comes between us. But we'll need some help if we're gonna take down space pirates.”

It was both a spoken and unspoken promise that the two of them would stay together for the rest of time. For the rest of their existence in the galaxies. Even at ten years old Yunho knew it was a big thing to promise, but it hadn't ever felt wrong to hand over his loyalty like that. They'd be together, that was certain. It was the only thing two boys in the Theron colony could count on.

Until it wasn't. Promises were always broken - Yunho came to learn that at a young age. He just didn't think it would be him breaking it.

Yunho had been selected for the Paradigm Corp. Aged eleven he'd joined the academy to be trained up into an elite level soldier, and he'd left Theron. Left his parents, his brother, and left Mingi. He'd been given this opportunity by the Crescent Fleet, he'd been saved from outright poverty and disease. In the following years he'd seen the Corps as this act of higher intervention saving him from the Theron massacre. He'd accepted that Mingi was dead. He accepted that he was a soldier in a larger war.

It wasn't until Mingi showed up on the prison ship Yunho was stationed on that he had to accept that his best friend wasn't dead. Mingi - along with these two brightly coloured criminals in similar helmets to that Mingi had worn as a ten year old and holding outlawed weapons - had come to save Yunho from the Paradigm Corp - an institution he thought was meant to save him.

☆☆☆

Soft snores awoke Yunho - ‘soft’ would've usually meant quiet enough for him to get another hour or two in, but the fluorescent lights flooding in from outside the room meant Yunho had no choice but to open his eyes. Wooyoung was curled tight around a few cushions, his face hidden from the light and keeping him passed out like a dog. The bedroom wasn't big, two beds built into two of the walls and a hammock tied up above (Jongho's, do not touch) but the floor was always piled up with blankets and pillows to form a makeshift bed for the rest of them. A ship this size never had enough free space for more than one bedroom. They took turns with the beds, they were civilised enough with each other to share.

He stepped over Wooyoung to the door, pushing it the rest of the way open. Whoever had gotten up last must've forgotten to close it, or had left it open on purpose to spite whoever woke up next.

“Morning sunshine.” Jongho said.

Yunho had to look up to find Jongho, tied up to a climbing harness and hanging off the ceiling with his feet planted on the wall. The youngest member of the crew had a panel in the ceiling open and was cutting away at the multicoloured wires that poked out. It explained the bright light, at least, as Jongho had not only a head torch strapped to him but three hand held torches too.

“Jeez, Jongho, turn one of those off.”

“And lose peak performance visibility? No thanks, I need all the light I can get.”

“You're going blind, I swear.” Yunho muttered as he walked off.

The worst part about a ship this small was manoeuvring around it. All these ladders and trap door openings did wonders for Yunho's spine functionality - how Hongjoong hadn't popped a disc yet was a cosmic mystery - as he pulled himself up to the upper deck. It was larger than below, more spacious with windows that would let natural light flood in anytime they were on a planet instead of the void of outer space. Though today the main deck was dimmer in comparison to Jongho's spontaneous lamp convention.

Seonghwa and San were in their usual places sitting around the table, holographic maps shining and glitching in front of them. San pointed out something, Seonghwa followed with his eyes but made a disapproving look. As usual. Everything was the same as always.

Four years on the ship - the Aurora - and Yunho had grown accustomed to the regularity of everyone. The crew were nowhere near as stringent with order and regulation as the Corps had been, really the ship ran on chaos most of the time. But there's function in chaos, there's patterns in chaos. Seonghwa liked starting his day with the maps, with trying to find where they were going next. Jongho was always working on something, always taking a gun apart or implementing something new into the ship's hardware, but it was just a guessing game of where he'd jump to next. If Yunho could count on the routines of his friends then Hongjoong would be hanging around in the cockpit with Yeosang.

“Put the coordinates in.” Hongjoong said to Yeosang.

The latter was in the centre pilot's chair. In any other crew that chair would've been designated for the captain, but here it was Yeosang who'd staked his claim to it. Hongjoong was the captain, sure, but his flying skills meant certain death if they actually let him pilot the damn ship. Hongjoong flies on the defensive; he shoots first and cranks the core up to the maximum speed. Whereas Yeosang actually knew how to fly like a sane, normal person. Yeosang was the main pilot while Hongjoong was reserved for only special circumstances.

“We're going on a supply run.” Hongjoong said, realising Yunho had entered. “Well, only Yeosang and Seonghwa, and myself of course. You're welcome to join us.”

“Where to?”

“The Wonderland Cluster.”

Yunho hated the Cluster. It was this fucked up sort of place, all dark and closed off into thin walkways and alleys. It was a cluster of thousands and thousands of disused ships shoved together into someone's idea of a nightclub slash black market. Everyone who lived in the Cluster was shady, edgy little creatures who fed on scamming people out of everything they owned - and organs, Yunho had seen so many organs in that place. Sure, Yunho had grown up in a similar place with similar scummy people. But the Cluster was like the backstreets of Theron on steroids and then some.

The last time they'd gone to the Wonderland Cluster it hadn't ended well. Yunho had been locked in a cage for almost two days, his weapons all taken and sold within the first hour, and the furry creature two crates away kept making suggestive comments about his ass. It was funny looking back on it, especially with Mingi's perspective, but Yunho never wished to risk it again.

“I'll pass, thanks.” Yunho replied.

Wooyoung had woken up by now. He collected bowls in the small kitchen as Yunho walked in, sitting down on one of the bar stools. Yunho didn't need to eat for another few hours, he could go a full quarter cycle with only one meal - a habit he'd begun when the famine hit the colony, and a habit he'd kept up in the Corp - which proved useful on low supply days like today.

“What's Hongjoong got planned for today?” Wooyoung asked, coming to sit close next to Yunho.

“Supply run in Wonderland.” Yunho tried not to show outward disgust at the Cluster, knowing Wooyoung would take the opportunity to tease him about it.

“Fucking great!” Wooyoung clasped his hands together. “I've been needing to find more of those funkt hinge thingies.”

“Delta hybrid locks?”

“Yeah, delta-whatever they're called. San wouldn't give me the last of his.” Wooyoung said.

Yunho kept Wooyoung company as he ate. No one ever ate alone on the ship - it was bad luck, or suspicion, or a reaction to situations they'd been caught up in over the years. No one ever slept alone either, not for long at least. Once one of the crew announced their departure it was like clockwork that another would follow, and then two more, until finally all eight of them packed into the small bedroom. Besides, Wooyoung liked having someone to mindlessly chat with in the mornings.

☆☆☆

“Captain's dragging you out to Wonderland too?” Yunho asked, walking up behind Mingi.

Mingi, who had the straps of his dungaree pants hanging off his shoulders and a tool belt clicked around his waist, picked up an empty crate and loaded it into the faded red shuttle. The lowest deck was the smallest, only fitting two shuttles and a tight floorspace they liked to call the loading bay. Originally this part of the ship would've just been used for storage for short half year deployments, but now it was home to the two shuttles they'd stolen.

“Nope. Solo mission to the Liberty Quarter.” Mingi replied.

He turned to face Yunho, leaning to half sit on one of the crates and folding his arms across his chest. Mingi was taller now - not taller than Yunho, but no one ever was - and had bulked up into a man that was barely recognisable from that runt of a ten year old. No longer did his cheeks carry any youthful expressions but instead served as the canvas for scars. One scar in particular, the largest, stretching from the peak of his cheek bone up to the side of his head. Yunho didn't know how the scar had ended up entrenched in his friend's face; the scar wasn't there when Yunho left Mingi behind on Theron, but it was there when Mingi didn't leave Yunho behind on that prison ship.

Another stark difference had been Mingi's hair. Bright pink, buzzed right down to his scalp. Ten year old Mingi had rich black hair that had never been cut, growing wild and unkempt to his shoulders, always falling into his eyes at the most inconvenient times. Yunho always found himself wanting to reach up and push his hands through the pink spikes of Mingi's short hair. He came close to it some nights when Mingi would curl up next to him on one of the beds. But there was always some invisible force that stopped his arms from moving to close the gap.

“Room for another?” Yunho looked past Mingi and into the shuttle - he knew the red shuttle had two seats, but Mingi could've already placed a crate in the passenger chair.

“Depends.” Yunho saw the slight smile that threatened to show on Mingi's face.

“On what?”

“On who's asking.”

Mingi pushed himself up from the crates and walked across the small loading bay. He picked up a packed bag, the same fabric at the tool belt, and tugged it over his shoulder. Mingi knew who was asking, Yunho knew that.

The relationship between the two of them hadn't changed in the years Yunho had been gone. In thirteen years separated the both of them had changed so much - in ways neither of them spoke about much - and in the four years back together they'd managed to stick themselves back into those old moulds. Jokes and casual commentary passed between each other easier than with anyone else. Like those years had never happened. As if Yunho and Mingi still ended their days by climbing up to the roof of the apartment building.

Mingi climbed into the pilot seat of the shuttle and pulled the harness over his shoulders to secure himself in place. He looked over his shoulder to Yunho, then patted the empty passenger seat.

“You coming or not?”

A wide grin. Yunho matched it with his own smile, his own silent agreement and a sign of joy at Mingi's willingness to take his friend along. Everyone knew Mingi preferred solo missions, the ones where he could disappear off for a cycle or two without any distractions. It was always a hard ‘no’ whenever Wooyoung or Jongho asked to tag along, always an excuse pulled out of his ass to explain why Hongjoong shouldn't come with him despite being their leader. But there was never a no given to Yunho.

Okay, to be honest, there had been a shift in their relationship these past four years. Something was different; it wasn't the same friendship they'd shared in their childhood. Firstly, Yunho found he wasn't able to protect Mingi as much. Older kids with cheap laser stunners chasing the two of them out of arcades had been exchanged for Paradigm soldiers with the latest high tech weapons and now the pair of them were on equal footing for strength. Yunho wasn't much stronger, or taller, than Mingi meaning their skill sets matched now - Yunho couldn't stand in the way of the firing line as easily, holding his hand out to block Mingi from it. It wasn't that Yunho felt like he was useless, but that Mingi had just become capable. More capable than himself, probably.

There was this dichotomy between them. A difference in how they fought the enemy. Yunho was militaristic, trained in order and precision to hit the kill spot every time. Yunho was an organised soldier while Mingi had learnt everything on the fly with scraps and home made IEDs, under the mentorship of a captain raised by outlawed pirates. Mingi fought violently but differently. There was less control, but no less focus. Yunho supposed that the same point that caused their skills to branch off into different directions had also been the same point that they had branched out as people.

Yunho, from day one on the Aurora, had noticed that there was nothing of that scared kid left behind in Mingi. The man in the shuttle next to him now wasn't the same kid from Theron. Scars and short hair was just the beginning of it.

Part of the change had been one sided, too. All of it encompassed inside of Yunho, rattling away like a faulty core reactor ready to blow them all up. Yunho never spoke of his feelings to anyone, fuck, he didn't even think about them. But it was undeniable that his feelings of friendship towards Mingi had evolved into something far from platonic. Far from being an emotion he could bring up in conversation. How he felt about Mingi was clouded by being a soldier. The Paradigm Corp instilled into him the ability to shut it all down, push it all so far deep that nothing could pull it back up again no matter how hard it was pulled. Order and regulation. Regulation and scripts, keeping everything in place. Regulation. Regulate it. Keep it all up to regulation. What he felt for Mingi wasn't part of the regulations.

Though Yunho supposed the Paradigm regulations hadn't factored in Mingi. That they'd never dealt with the likes of Mingi before.

☆☆☆

Liberty Quarter was nothing like the Wonderland Cluster. Two different ends of a galaxy and two different sides of one smashed to pieces coin. Trading ports always came with risks, either the sketchy vendors of places like Wonderland or the general corruption of vendors under the Crescent Fleet. Everything was corrupt under Crescent. Everything.

Even the word ‘liberty’ felt corrupt. How an empire could take freedom and crush it into neat little rows of regulated plants with perfect cities full of perfect citizens. Pristine skyscrapers that stood for a society with no hate, no crime, no suffering and yet anyone who looked into those overly polished glass windows could see that everyone was full of all that hate underneath their perfect uniforms.

Of course it ranged. Not everywhere was perfect. Not every colony was able to disguise the corruption. Theron was under Crescent Fleet, Yunho had grown up consuming the perfectly formulated propaganda of the fleet and he'd believed it all. He believed that ships like the Aurora and the crews on board those ships were enemies. And now he was part of one of those crews.

“Hongjoong wants Leipa strings.” Mingi said.

“Liepa? Is he trying to kill you?” Yunho stressed his voice. “They're outlawed everywhere, Liberty of all places is not going to have them.”

“He knows a guy.” Mingi shrugged.

Oh god, Mingi was definitely going to get himself killed. Liberty was crawling with Paradigm soldiers - Yunho had managed to not look at a single one so far, instead keeping his eyes down so only their polished black boots were visible - and an illegal Liepa trade wasn't ever going to go down well, no matter how good Mingi was. Liepa themselves were tricky little fuckers - these small hairless creatures with three eyes and curling tails, claws that stung for days if you got scratched. It was their teeth that were valuable though; the hairline thin strings that grew out from their teeth to bind their jaws together were worth more credits than the average person carried around on them. Yunho didn't even know what Liepa strings could do, let alone what Hongjoong wanted with them.

“Here,” Mingi handed Yunho his holographic pad with a list of other items glowing on it. “Try finding these for me, use Seongwha's tab.”

If one thing was always constant with the crew of the Aurora, it was that they used Seonghwa's money whenever he wasn't with them. It's not like he was going to miss it anyway.

Before he knew it, Yunho was alone in the trading centre. Mingi pretty much evaporated into thin air amongst the crowds of people - too many people - that filled the tall ceiling halls. If Yunho knew what a cathedral looked like, he'd compare the halls to that. He'd never been one for hoards of people, never liked the feeling of having to press up against people's bodies just to get somewhere in fifteen minutes when it should've taken five. People always said the ‘c’ in Crescent stood for corruption, but Yunho felt like it really stood for crowds.

Eventually Yunho came across one of the smaller stalls, operating out of a store front lending its space to four other stalls. Bright advertisement screens blinded him overhead, even brighter lights and louder tannoy announcements. Everything from ‘buy premium organic Mulia stones now!’ to ‘Crescent approved shuttle upgrades available in centre court!’ all of which overwhelmed Yunho's senses. This stall, he realised, had a medium sized container Nacelera gel-oil which was second on the list Mingi had given him. He picked it up, then extended his arm out to grab at the bowl of cerulean crystal pebbles. He'd heard they were good for massaging back pains, and he sure as fuck needed that.

“Not for you!” The vendor shouted, her hand coming to smack at Yunho's before he had even touched the bowl.

The vendor, a hunched over Vikridian (of the light blue variety) woman with a scowl that could kill.

“Why not?” Yunho asked, his voice having raised an octave in anger.

“Humans not permitted!” Oh, right, Crescent laws.

“Fine! Fine, okay!” He yelped as the woman kept smacking his hand, even though he'd moved it away. “I'll just buy this then.”

Fortunately the Vikridian allowed him to buy the gel-oil in peace. But she'd already brought attention to them at the stall, a trio of Paradigm soldiers coming to loom around the gathering of stalls, obviously with the intention of watching Yunho. Faintly, in the back of his mind, he wondered if he knew those soldiers - their faces were covered with black helmets, keeping their identities hidden, so there was no way Yunho could pinpoint a specific person from his unit in the Corps or anyone he'd trained with back in the academy. He was grateful for it. For not being able to look at any of them in the eyes, not being able to recognise himself in their faces. But, fuck, Yunho was scared of them. Terrified, even.

They put him on edge, made his breath quicken and his blood rush through him. Yunho always felt his skin grow cold at the sight of the Paradigm, like his body was preparing itself to get killed within the next few moments. The mantra of ‘run’ had already begun its circulation in his head. Yunho shoved the gel-oil into his bag and tried his best to back off from the stall slowly enough to not look suspicious but still fast enough to get away from those looming soldiers.

Where's Mingi? He wanted Mingi back, wanted safety in numbers. No - fuck! - keep calm, Yunho, keep it cool and calm and safe and regulated. No, not regulations. He wanted to get away from all the regulations; run away from that military uniform, run from the tone of voice they spoke in, the orders they barked out at him. Memories of the academy, of the barracks, flooded back to Yunho and suddenly blinded him, forcing him to take off running once he'd found a gap in the crowds.

He's not going back. They're not taking him back. They can't take him back, Mingi wouldn't allow it, Hongjoong wouldn't let it happen. Yunho couldn't go back. He wouldn't go back. They can't force him to be a soldier again.

The crowds broke even more, filtering and thinning out the further Yunho got from the centre halls. Outside was calmer, the citric air serving him better than the humidity inside. There were less Paradigm soldiers outside too. Less threats. Less for Yunho to run from. Safer. Better outside. Instinctively, he looked around for Mingi.

☆☆☆

It was over an hour before Yunho found Mingi. Near the forty five minute mark he was convinced the Leipa trade had gone horribly wrong, that the Paradigm soldiers had infiltrated and taken Mingi prisoner - or worse, but Yunho refused to let himself think of that possibility.

But no, that hadn't happened at all. Instead Mingi was sitting on the edge of a fountain, the pink water splashing loudly so that Yunho had to raise his voice.

“Did you get it?” Yunho asked.

“Safe and sound.” One of those Mingi grins, the ones Yunho liked so much, and a light tap to the bag slung over Mingi's shoulder.

Mingi looked happy - he smiled when he lifted his face up into the sky, letting the sunlight wash over him. Liberty had three suns too, and while one of them burned a violent red instead of pale yellow or bright blue Yunho could only think of the suns that Theron spiralled around. He tended to not think of Theron itself as a planet, but rather the people on it, the things he experienced there.

“Reminds me of home.” Mingi said, nodding up to the three stars.

‘Home’. That word. Yunho knew it was coming, he could've predicted Mingi's exact sentence five minutes beforehand. And yet Yunho couldn't place the word; Yunho couldn't find comfort in calling it home, he struggled to attach the word to an actual place. Naturally he'd just attributed ‘home’ to his mother's singing, or the sound of his younger brother laughing at their dad, and to Mingi, but never had he placed that word in front of the apartment building like a doormat. Did Mingi really think of Theron as home? After everything that happened there, everything that went wrong, did Mingi actually see it as his home or was he just saying it for Yunho's sake?

Theron was different for them. To Yunho, Theron was rough around the edges but it was peaceful. To a child at least, nothing seemed wrong except the cracked walls and the small food portions handed out by the authorities. Yunho could only view Theron through the viewpoint of a ten year old, through the eyes of a child. But for Mingi, Theron was a place lined with horrors and misery. He'd never asked Mingi about what had happened, the conversation had never come up out of a deliberate and delicate avoidance of it. Yunho didn't need to ask, to be told, that Mingi's memories of ‘home’ weren't the idealised childhood ones that Yunho had.

Yunho couldn't consider Theron as ‘home’ anymore. His home was with his family, and they had died along with the planet.

“Are you feeling alright?” Mingi asked.

“Yeah, all good. Just thinking.”

“Thinking?” Mingi raised his eyebrow, then smiled. “I didn't know you could do that.”

Yunho sent a sharp jab into Mingi's ribs, electing a short laugh instead of a yelp. Soon enough Mingi jumped up to stand away from the fountain, he kicked his shoe into one of Yunho's playfully.

“We should start heading back.” Mingi said, Yunho nodded.

He'd like to say the journey back to the shuttle was calm, that it went smoothly as the two of them mindlessly talked as they walked. Instead it went horribly, the second Yunho caught sight of a Paradigm soldier checking the bag of a random person not too far from them. Mingi had seen it too, his posture changing from carefree to hunched slightly, trying to lessen the attention he'd gained from being one of the tallest people around. A hand slipped around Yunho's waist unexpectedly, he'd almost jumped out of his skin at the touch.

Yunho heard ‘Leipa’ spoken within the crowd, he didn't know who'd said it, or where it had come from. But the word shot to his stomach. The panic from before set in again.

“Asshole sold me out.” Mingi said beneath his breath. “They know about the trade.”

The hand around his waist guided Yunho. Mingi pushed the pair of them towards the walls, to the outer edges of the crowds. The hall had marble pillars lining each wall, with gaps that acted as a blindspot to the main body of the crowd. Mingi pushed them behind one of the pillars just as another Paradigm soldier came over in their direction - though thankfully not directly at them. The movement was too fast, causing Yunho's head to whip violently and crash into the pillar. Except the impact never came. Hands shot up to cushion the blow; Mingi's hands trapped between the marble and Yunho's faded silver-blue hair.

“I'm going to do something now. Feel free to punch me after, but you have to trust me.” Mingi spoke so fast that Yunho could barely register what he'd said.

There was no more than a split second between Mingi speaking and then the contact of lips on his. The hands in Yunho's hair had manoeuvred his face to hide even more from the crowds of people, from the soldiers. Mingi was kissing him. Kissing him? Yunho didn't know what to do, didn't know how to react. Another second passed with just Mingi pressing into him, and Yunho knew he had to act back. A deep breath through his nose, Yunho tried to relax himself. At some point his eyes had closed - when? He couldn't tell you - and Yunho could only feel Mingi. Only hear him, only reach up his own hands to latch onto Mingi's forearms. Only Mingi. Yunho opened his lips slightly, at first trying to pull in air to stop himself from getting lightheaded, but Mingi took it as an opportunity to kiss deeper.

Yunho tilted his head slightly, trying to align his lips with Mingi in a better position. And then Mingi pulled away. Wide eyes staring straight into his own. Yunho's brain was twelve steps behind; he reacted slowly, not really realising that Mingi had fully pulled away now and brought his hands away from Yunho's hair.

“They're gone.” Mingi said, he looked into the crowd for a small moment.

“What the fuck was that-”

“I had to hide our faces.” Mingi tapped Yunho's hip gently, bringing him away from the pillar. “Time to go. We should hurry.”

Yunho pushed the feeling of Mingi's kiss away. Shoved it deep down and told himself he'd think about it later - probably never - so that he could focus on the task at hand. Mingi wasn't the priority. Mingi wasn't the centre of the universe. But Yunho couldn't help but feel as if Mingi really was the most important thing in this entire trading quarter.

☆☆☆

They didn't speak much in the shuttle. An unspoken agreement that they wouldn't talk about it settled in the air - you could hear a pin drop in the silence.

Don't think about it. Don't think about it. Don't think about it. Don't think about it. Don't think-

What did it mean? It was obvious what it meant, Yunho tried to tell himself. Mingi kissed him because it was the only option they had. It was strategic, a rushed plan so their asses wouldn't be handed to them. It was either kiss his best friend or get publicly executed for the entertainment of the Crescent Fleet - typical, normal best friend stuff. Every guy would do something like that, would sacrifice a smidge of their dignity, in order to save everyone. For the greater good, that's what it had to be. Mingi kissed Yunho because they were on a mission, not because of any other reason that Yunho's brain liked to supply.

Yunho pulled at the purple nylon fabric of his pants, pulled at where his clothes were baggy at the knees. Running his hands across the plastic feeling of it, Yunho tried to calm himself down, he wanted to think of literally anything else.

Yeosang would play chess with him later, if he asked. They'd huddle on the couch in the main deck and they'd play chess, probably fish out Hongjoong's music discs for ambient noise. He could avoid all this. If Yunho wanted to, he could convince Yeosang and Seonghwa to stay up with him all night so that he wouldn't have to face Mingi when everyone else went to bed. How could he sleep next to a guy who'd just kissed him as a defence mechanism?

“We should start bringing helmets to these kinds of outings.” Mingi said, he let out a light laugh.

Mingi was directly referencing their kiss, right? He was thinking about it, just as Yunho had been. Don't let that thought go to his head, Yunho was already bad enough. But then the suggestion of helmets meant Mingi wasn't thinking about the kiss positively - Mingi wanted to avoid ever doing it again, he wanted another way to hide their faces.

Shut it down. Compartmentalise. Mingi didn't want to kiss Yunho again, so Yunho had to stop all thoughts about it. Forget it, throw it away. Never happened, never will.

“You don't mind, do you? About what I did.” Mingi asked.

“No. You did what you had to.”

“That offer to punch me is still on the table, y’know.” Mingi tried to joke about it. “We could make it this big show in the cockpit, have San film it for sentimental sake.”

“Masochist.” Yunho mumbled - he couldn't help but smile slightly.

“I'm serious, Yun. It wasn't that cool of me to do, I should've made it clear that I was gonna- That I was gonna do that. So feel free to punch me. Revenge shot and all that.”

“I might punch you if you don't shut up about it.” There it was. The snap Yunho had to force, just so he could make himself stop thinking about it.

Yunho let himself laugh quietly, to clear the air of any tension he'd accidentally caused. Mingi was smiling, it had to be somewhat of a good sign at least. A sign that the two of them were fine - two guys could kiss and still have everything be alright by the end of it. Maybe Yunho had hang ups about kissing people because Seonghwa had let that alien girl get too close to him and half an empire almost collapsed as a direct response to it. They didn't let Seonghwa go out on diplomatic missions anymore.

Maybe Yunho actually could just punch Mingi. Let it all put in a friendly sparring match the next time the ship landed somewhere quiet. There was no space on the Aurora herself for Yunho to take out his stress on his best friend, so he'd have to wait.

The shuttle jolted violently. The lights above them flashed red, blaring alarms filled their ears. Mingi swerved just as violently.

“They're fucking firing at us!” Mingi sounded more offended than afraid.

Yunho could see the Paradigm fighter jets in the holo-screen projected onto the windshield of the shuttle. They'd caught onto the Leipa trade, they'd realised who'd been behind it. There was nothing Yunho could do from the passenger seat.

Feeling helpless around Mingi was new. It wasn't something he was used to, not something he expected. Mingi had become this force at some point - Yunho didn't know when, he suspected it would've been soon after Yunho had left Theron - and became invincible in his head. Confidence, never fear. Always taking charge without even thinking about it. And yet Yunho was stuck. He'd gone backwards, he'd grown weaker over the years, not stronger.

Yunho couldn't even drive the shuttle. Paradigm was attacking and Yunho couldn't do anything.

“The tails gone, they've hit the-”

Smaller shuttles crashed faster. Fell faster, burnt up in the atmosphere faster. Another hit jolted the shuttle again, sending Mingi's head into the centre console and knocking him out cold. Instinctively, Yunho reached out to grab him before passing out himself.

☆☆☆

Yunho had been in four crashes in his life. Somehow, with luck from who knows where, he'd come out fine from every single one.

The first crash was back on Theron. Probably seven or eight. Mingi's older brother had stolen a hoverbike and taken it on a joy ride outside the main city, and of course Yunho had jumped at the opportunity to drive it when Minkyu suggested it - looking back on it now, Mingi's brother was probably joking and hadn't expected the kid to grab onto the handles so fast. He'd driven straight off the road and into a bed of rush berries. No broken bones, and Mingi had fallen off the bike before the impact, but Yunho's skin itched relentlessly for weeks after.

The second crash was the worst. Yunho didn't like remembering it. He hadn't been harmed in the event itself, but it was the General who'd punished him after. It was his first year after graduating from the academy, his first year in the Paradigm Corp, with fighter jet protocols being run every morning. Yunho preferred being in the navigation seat, he liked sitting in the back and focusing on the logistics, but this time he'd been forced into the cockpit against his wishes. You couldn't protest in the Corp, don't even think about it. So when Yunho accidentally let the jet drop prematurely it crashed onto the strip, crushing the wings into the body of the ship. Standard punishment for equipment destruction was a day or two in solitude - Yunho had been locked away for a week.

Crash three was the largest, the one that caused the most havoc. The Aurora went down - a combination of running out of fuel and the damage it had taken trying to leave the dock of Myslian in the Siren Quarter - and Yunho couldn't remember much of it. There were reminders of the crash that he saw every day; the entire front portion of the main deck had to be replaced, the blue paint job standing out against the silver of the rest of the ship, as well as the robotic leg Hongjoong now kept hidden from sight under his pant leg and boot. They'd all been touch-and-go for a while after.

Yunho couldn't place the severity of this fourth crash. Kneeling in dark orange sand, he brought his hand up to his forehead. Blood covered his hands, but not a lot. He'd be fine, he was awake and his vision hadn't blurred out yet, so he was probably fine. Crawling out of the wreckage, Yunho's mind immediately turned to Mingi.

Mingi was not fine.

Tugging at the metal of the shuttle, Yunho managed to find Mingi unconscious and still strapped into the pilot's seat. When he went to pull Mingi out Yunho realised a piece of metal was lodged into Mingi's abdomen just below the ribs, cemented in place from the force and the smell of blood flooding Yunho's senses.

“Mingi, hey! Hey, hey, wake up for me.” Yunho held his friend's face, not wanting to move him too much.

He pressed his hand up against the wound, trying to force his weight into putting pressure on it. Yunho tried to remember what Jongho taught him, tried to recall the basic medical training from the academy. The Corps never focused much on saving injured soldiers - they emphasised leaving the sick behind, claiming them to be a liability. Yunho couldn't leave Mingi here. He was still breathing, Yunho could feel the rise and fall of his chest with each intake of air, and Yunho couldn't leave him even if Mingi was dead.

“What's Hongjoong gonna say, huh?” Yunho rambled. “He's never gonna send you on a solo mission ever again after this - you'll be stuck cleaning the ship with Seonghwa forever.”

The heat was getting to Yunho. This planet had the same three suns as the Liberty Quarter, but was so much closer to one of them causing Yunho to sweat even more as he panicked. He couldn't see anything around. Just sand and desert and nothing. Fuck, what a great place to be stranded.

Yunho had to do something. Looking at the wreckage, Yunho decided he had to move Mingi out of it. Shuttles like this one could blow up any minute, or not at all, Yunho didn't know what he was dealing with. The downside to stealing all their equipment was that the crew never really knew the full extent of it, how it worked or how it broke. Pushing down on it, Yunho broke the jutting metal off from the main body of the shuttle. It was still impaling Mingi, but it was easier to move him now.

It looked worse with Mingi lying in the sand, a few feet away from the shuttle. It looked worse now that Yunho could see how much blood was soaking through Mingi's clothes. Pale blue fabric almost unrecognisable. Yunho took off his own jacket and used it to pillow Mingi's head. Yunho felt tears threaten to break out, felt himself choke up as he looked down at his best friend. He kept pushing pressure around the metal but he couldn't keep it up forever. He didn't know what else to do.

“I'll fucking kill you if you don't wake up from this.”

Yunho placed his forehead against Mingi's, closing his eyes to block out everything that wasn't his bed friend.

“I kept our promise, Min.” Yunho whispered. “We're still together. It's still just us, right to the end. I'm still with you. Just like those moons.”

There were steps in the sand. Yunho didn't move when he heard it, he didn't look up to find out what had made the sound. Something was behind him, but Yunho really didn't care anymore. A hand - he assumed it was a hand - came to rest on his shoulder.

A robot stood behind Yunho. Loomed over the two humans in the sand. He looked up at the robot, a tattered poncho and a cowboy hat hiding its face. Yunho watched as it pulled a bag around from its hip and pulled out bandages, handing it to Yunho.

“For your friend.” The voice was digital, radiating out from speakers instead of a mouth.

Yunho took it, not knowing what to say or how to react. Robots weren't a common sight anyway, not after Crescent outlawed them. The crew often came across fugitives and banned weapons that the Fleet wanted wiped out, but they never came across robots.

“I am Cowboy. I am here to help.”

☆☆☆

Yunho sat frozen in the transport shuttle. His uniform tight around the chest, constricting his breathing as he desperately tried to draw in more oxygen. It was a hopeless attempt, the helmet covering his face limiting everything from air to sight. And yet all Yunho could do was watch.

Paclite was collapsing in on itself. An entire planet eating itself from the inside out. Yunho's Paradigm unit had been stationed on the planet for over a year and everyone he met thought they were being saved. Yunho thought he was there to save them. But now he was sitting in a transport shuttle as his unit abandoned the planet, having never had the intention to save anyone, and he watched as the planet died.

He knew people on Paclite. He'd grown close with people, made friends with people there. Every cycle he'd visit Boiwei family with too many children to count and he'd spend his time entertaining every single one. Yunho had a life on Paclite whenever he was granted time off from the Corps, and now it was destroyed.

“Finally getting off that disgusting excuse for a planet.” One of the soldiers said - Yunho refused to remember his name, refused to remember his face.

“The place reminded me of Theron the whole time. People crying out for no good reason, just trying to con us out of supplies.” Another soldier said.

Yunho had tried his best to forget Theron. He'd been trained to not react to the name, not react to any memories that forced their way to him about the planet. Rumours had always circulated about what had happened to the colony but any official news wasn't permitted. Yunho didn't know what had really happened to everyone he knew there. These soldiers had been on Theron. Yunho watched a planet destroy itself at the hands of Paradigm, at the hands of Crescent, while he sat next to those who'd done the same to his home.

He couldn't do this. He couldn't stay here. He couldn't stand by and allow this to happen - Yunho couldn't be a part of this destruction. It was Yunho who killed Paclite. Everyone he knew on Paclite was dead because of him. Because he was a soldier in the Corp.

“Lighten up, kid, don't sit there like a statue.” One of the soldiers pushed Yunho's shoulder lightly.

Yunho didn't move. Regulation taught him not to move, not to speak, to keep his eyes open and his breathing quiet. Yunho felt like he was in active enemy fire rather than a Paradigm shuttle surrounded by his unit - people who were meant to be more than family, but had still been trained to forget family.

He didn't know how to get out. There wasn't a way to get out. No one left the Corp, not unless they died. Yunho had to get out. He had to leave.

Paclite was his fault. Theron was his fault. Yunho should've never left the colony, he shouldn't have left home. Yunho left his family all those years ago and that was the start of it all, that was their end.

“Sparky over here's gone silent on us.” Yunho wasn't aware anyone was trying to talk to him.

Blocking people out was Yunho's best defence. His best skill, his first skill really. Shut up yourself and everyone else shuts up too.

“Don't you feel…Guilty?” Yunho asked, probably too quiet for the whole group to hear.

“What?” The closest soldier to him replied, no one else paid any attention.

“Guilty.” He said again. “Everyone on Paclite is dead, and it's our fault. Doesn't that affect you?”

“We don't feel guilt. We had a job and we did it. If anyone should feel guilty it's those people on the planet, for not getting out in time.” She said, and Yunho felt bile rise in his throat with every word he heard.

His fists clenched, really his whole body tensed up. The urge to run was useless in a confined shuttle. There's no way Yunho could hijack the cockpit and escape with everyone armed around him - either way, Yunho was a lousy pilot.

“Are you expressing doubts, sergeant?” Yunho didn't reply to the unit commander.

A cycle and a half later Yunho was assigned as a prison guard on Horizon A8. Everyone in the Corp knew a prison assignment was a death sentence, a way of being shunted out of sight by the Fleet. Horizon was a punishment.

He'd never been happier, as it turned out, stranded on the edge of a galaxy on a prison planet.

☆☆☆

Cowboy handed Yunho a bowl of something green and soft, bringing Yunho out of his thoughts - away from the memories he'd found himself consumed in.

Yunho was sitting on the porch of this little run down shack, the roof was falling in on itself and the wood - whatever kind of wood it was - dipped with rot every time Yunho stood on it or touched it. Cowboy said the place had been here long before either of them showed up.

“Thanks,” Yunho said, taking the bowl. “This is uh… Really good.”

“Food is useless to me. This is left over from my dear friend - he is gone now, but I keep it for him.”

The robot came to sit on the porch close to Yunho. Cowboy was tall, lanky, and had to duck under the doorway - taller than Yunho. It was clear that someone had once lived in the shack but the dust lining the windows made it clear only Cowboy had been around for a long while. The green sludge had no taste so at least Yunho couldn't be disgusted by it. It was still too hot outside, Yunho had stripped his overshirt off a while ago - he wasn't getting it back, not now that it served as more makeshift bandages for Mingi. They'd managed to force the metal out of Mingi's side. Managed to patch it up but Yunho worried about any infections getting in.

“Your friend is awake.” Cowboy said.

Mingi was pushing himself up to sit against the wall when Yunho entered the only room in the shack. The blanket from the bed had been pushed away with the movement. His eyes were tired, face drained of most of its colour. Yunho nudged Mingi's legs back slightly so that he could sit on the edge of the bed.

“You should lie back down.” Yunho said.

“Where are we?” Mingi's voice croaked.

“Some dune planet not far from Liberty.”

Yunho caught Mingi's grin. Caught as Mingi leant forward to rest his head on Yunho's back - Yunho hadn't initially sat to face Mingi, out of some sort of fear of what he'd see.

“We didn't get that far?” Mingi's voice vibrated through Yunho's skin.

“You never get far.” Yunho finally turned to face his friend, then took up the hem of Mingi's shirt. “Let me have a look. Does it hurt?”

A quick yelp of pain was enough of an answer for Yunho. He peeled away the bandage, it stuck to Mingi's abdomen with the dried blood. What was Yunho even meant to do? He had nothing here, nothing to clean Mingi up with, nothing other than bandages that were in no way ‘new’. Robots don't even need bandages, it was a miracle Cowboy even had them on hand. Another sound of discomfort when Yunho accidentally pressed too hard.

“Are you okay?” Mingi asked.

“Yeah. Yeah I'm fine, I'm not the one bleeding out.”

“There's blood in your hair.” Mingi raised his hand up to touch the gash in Yunho's forehead.

The feeling of Mingi's hand in his hair was scarily too similar to what had happened on Liberty. To what a hand in his hair had led to, but this time there were no soldiers to hide from.

“It'll wash out.” Yunho replied.

He wrapped the bandages back around Mingi's abdomen, using the old ones because there was nothing else on hand. He'd clean it up better once they were on the ship. He'd fix Mingi up properly once Wooyoung got the med bay cleaned up on the ship. Yunho would have everything under control once they got back. Mingi was awake and speaking, that had to mean he was fine. Slurred speech was just from the blood loss - nothing to worry about, Mingi was fine.

Once Yunho pulled the shirt back down over the bandages, Mingi rested his head on Yunho's shoulder. An attempt as some sort of embrace, an attempt at comforting Yunho as if he'd been the one to get smashed to pieces in that shuttle crash.

Cowboy came into the room. Yunho wanted to push Mingi off him, make it look like the two of them hadn't been sitting so close to each other. But Cowboy didn't look like it cared that much, didn't seem bothered at all. Yunho supposed Cowboy couldn't feel anything at all, being made of wires and metal and all, but he'd heard the stories about sentient androids before.

“Hey, Cowboy, do you have anything else? For the pain, I mean. Mingi's pretty beat up over here.”

“I will look.” Cowboy said, turning to a cabinet in the corner. “My dear friend took many medications in his last days. He is gone now, but not his pills.”

Yunho figured Cowboy must've been close to this person - his friend - that used to live here. Cowboy must've felt some sort of emotion towards the guy, empathy or the likes. Yunho wondered if it was love. If a robot could love a person, and if it could see that same love in Mingi and Yunho. The thought of it scared him - his emotions being so clear and noticeable when all Yunho wanted to do was hide it all away.

Could Mingi tell? Had he known this whole time - known in that crowd on Liberty - and just hadn't mentioned it?

Cowboy handed a couple pain meds to Mingi who managed to choke them back well enough.

“They will make him tired.” Cowboy told Yunho.

Mingi finally settled on the bed, allowing Yunho to fuss over him more once Cowboy disappeared outside again. This time Yunho couldn't help but put his hand in Mingi's short hair. It wasn't that large of an act when he really thought about it - the whole crew were touchy with each other, always clinging onto each other just because it felt natural, but Yunho seemed to always be apprehensive about holding Mingi in the same way.

Mingi didn't seem bothered about the touch. Really, he leaned into it. Yunho blamed it on the meds, blamed it on the fact that Mingi would probably pass out asleep soon enough. The bed was uncomfortable for Yunho just to sit on and he hoped Mingi wouldn't mind the broken springs in the mattress.

“Nice robot you've got there.” Mingi mumbled.

“Thanks, I picked it up on the milk run.” Yunho joked knowing it fell on deaf ears as Mingi fell asleep.

Yunho didn't leave the bed for a while, preferring to watch over Mingi until at least two of the suns set. Cowboy mentioned that the third never set, but that it at least got dark enough for humans to sleep a couple hours. He kind of hoped Mingi wouldn't mention any of this to Wooyoung or San, knowing they'd take the piss out of him even if it stemmed from friendly jokes.

☆☆☆

“Do you remember that one time, with the Echaron rats, when they bit through your dad's hover car?” Mingi asked, laughing between his words.

“You're the one who set them loose.” Yunho replied, remembering the hysterics his parents had been in.

They'd spent most of the night talking about Theron - home, as Yunho kept accidentally calling it - as Mingi couldn't bring himself to sleep anymore. At this point in the night though it was better to sit out on the porch instead of staying inside.

“I did it because of you!” Mingi laughed. “You kept going on and on and on about the rats, about how much you wanted one as a pet so I got you one!”

“Mom would never let me get one. Some of them grow larger than dogs, y’know.”

“Your mom was so close to killing me.” Mingi groaned, it was like the pair of them were stood in Yunho's kitchen as children again - his mother's voice so clear in his mind like she was right there with him.

Yunho watched as Mingi led back on the porch, letting his hands rest just above his bandages and looking up at the last sun in the sky. He didn't know why they were talking about Theron, why Mingi had brought it up when neither of them ever spoke of the colony or their families. Yunho couldn't remember the last time Mingi had even said his older brother's name or mentioned anything in passing about his parents. Not that Yunho ever did either, but the other guys did - San was still in touch with his sister, and Jongho always spoke of his family even though he hadn't seen them since he was fourteen. Not all of them had lost their families, not like Mingi and Yunho had, but it was better to never talk about them.

This planet didn't remind Yunho of Theron at all. No similarities at all. It comforted Yunho in a way, some weird sort of way, that everything was so unfamiliar to him. He'd never been one for dune planets and endless sand stretching out to unknown horizons, but here it felt safe and calm and like Yunho didn't need to worry about being stranded out in space. Yunho hadn't even begun to think about getting in contact with the Aurora, if it was even possible, instead focusing only on how Mingi was doing.

“And then there was my cousin's wedding. Jeez, that one really was your fault.” Mingi's voice came out the happiest it sounded in months.

Lately Yunho couldn't stop thinking about Theron. It was eating away at him.

“Mingi.” Yunho said.

“I'm serious! It was all your idea to mess with the catering-”

“Mingi.” Yunho interrupted - his chest tightened in that sickening way.

Yunho didn't need to turn around to know Mingi was looking at the back of his head, going silent so that Yunho could say whatever he was trying to say. Mingi wouldn't want to hear this. Yunho should stop himself before he gets started.

“Was it…Was it really a massacre? I never-” Yunho hesitated. “I could never find out, they'd never tell me.”

Mingi shot up, pulling at his bandages as he moved too fast. When Yunho looked at him Mingi's eyes were wide, almost scared at the mention of it. Regret, guilt maybe, filled Yunho's chest as he looked at Mingi's face. Tentatively he held out a hand towards Mingi's knee.

“I don't- I shouldn't have- I don't know anything about it. I don't know what happened.”

“You can ask. You should've known about it - I should've told you a while ago.” Mingi placed his hand over Yunho's. “It took over a month. And…And only twenty of us made it out.”

“My family?”

Mingi shook his head. Only a small moment, avoiding eye contact. Conformation for something Yunho already knew, something he'd already come to terms with. But knowing something and hearing someone tell you it felt like two different things, different emotions that overwhelmed him like an erupting volcano. A whole colony reduced to twenty people, probably less now. An entire planet, and now it was only Yunho and Mingi who could remember it.

“It was Paradigm.” Yunho intended for it to be a question, but when the words came out Yunho already knew the answer.

Mingi hesitated to reply.

“Yeah.”

And then the anger bubbled up. Worse than a volcanic eruption, more like a black hole opening up and swallowing everything around him. The gentle grip on his hand didn't stop it from curling up into a ball. Yunho felt the need to run away again. He almost did, he almost stood up with the intentions of locking himself in the shack - but that would be unfair to Mingi, and Mingi was really the only thing Yunho could care about anymore.

“I should've never left. I shouldn't have joined Paradigm, it was wrong of me.” Yunho's voice shook just as much as his hands did.

“You didn't know-”

“It ate away at me. It consumed me, y’know. Every day I woke up and I was this- This shell of a person. I used to think I was special, that Paradigm chose me specifically because I was so special. But I'm not. They just say that, they just want bodies. Faceless soldiers that can be replaced within seconds by another faceless soldier.”

Yunho's vision blurred with tears. A few of his words never made it out of his mouth, instead only hiccuping back threatening sobs.

“And then I kept wondering. If it was even worth it, if what I was doing was helping anyone. We weren't even soldiers by the end of it, just blood being used as fuel. I couldn't stop hating myself for giving everything up for Paradigm. They've taken everything from me.”

He didn't realise Mingi had shuffled closer to Yunho, didn't feel it when arms wrapped around him in a tight embrace. Vaguely he recognised the sound, the feeling, of words being whispered into his hair.

“It's funny, really. The only thing - the only thing - that ever had my name on it was a gun. A fucking standard issue gun.” Yunho's eyebrows knitted into an angry expression. “That's all I was to them. A weapon. Not a person.”

Mingi kissed him then. A light, chaste kiss. It ended before Yunho could really think about it. Realistically, Mingi had probably only kissed him to shut Yunho up. To stop everything from crumbling down around them. But that didn't stop Yunho from leaning in closer and kissing Mingi himself. A real kiss, a better one. Distracting, that's what it was. Later he'd describe it more as destructive. Mingi kissed back, Yunho felt lightheaded. It wasn't like what had happened on Liberty. Mingi didn't kiss him like a defence mechanism but instead it was calming. Peaceful.

“You didn't know it'd be like that.” Mingi said between another kiss.

“I should've.”

☆☆☆

It took a couple days for Mingi to regain enough strength to walk around on his own. He stumbled more often, and liked holding onto the doorframe when he could, but he was up and about. It was better than what Yunho could wish for.

Yunho had spent one of the days making a wooden crutch for Mingi out of leftover materials Cowboy had lying around.

Strangely, Yunho felt completely comfortable here. The shack was nice - relatively - and he'd grown used to the heat as long as there was shade nearby. Cowboy was good to have around, even if it did interrupt some things Yunho would prefer to keep private. One of the times Cowboy came into the shack unannounced it was holding a bundle of metal and wires. Mingi had his hands in Yunho's hair - not doing anything in particular, he just liked the feeling of it - when he noticed the robot.

“What's that you've got there?” Mingi asked.

Cowboy splayed the wires across the floor, being careful not to step on any of the ends.

“A former radio. My dear friend smashed it up a long time ago, but it was too pretty to throw away.” Cowboy said.

“Can it be fixed?” Yunho asked, suddenly the possibility of rescue was opened up.

“It can be attempted.”

The robot sat down close to the bed and began untangling wires, sorting them into lines of shared colours. Mingi asked if there was anything he could do to help, but Cowboy had turned him down. After a while - though Yunho had fallen asleep for a part of it - Cowboy announced that it needed to find more pieces, something more solid to connect everything to. They didn't see the robot for a few hours, not until it came back from who knows where with even more scrap metal.

There was this sort of peace in watching Cowboy work. It was meticulous, organised but each movement didn't make sense. Every time Yunho thought he'd figured out what the robot would put together next it would turn the opposite direction and pick up a wire Yunho hadn't even seen yet. And yet it worked. Progress was being made.

“Hey Cowboy.” Yunho called over to the robot. “What was your friend like?”

Cowboy paused briefly, gently laying down a sheet of metal on the floor. Its legs were crossed neatly, like a child in a classroom. Hands crossed over each other when it looked up at the two humans.

“He was loved. And he is remembered.”

Yunho recognised the grief in Cowboy’s words. Even if the robot had no other tones in its voice or a face to express its feelings, Yunho could feel that Cowboy still mourned. But the robot lived with that grief, it had told them that this human friend had been gone for a long time already - somewhere inside of Yunho blossomed with the idea that he could live with the grief too, that he didn't have to let it hold everything back anymore.

This robot had shown more emotions in the span of a few days than Yunho had ever seen in the Paradigm Corp.

Yunho was scooping more of that green sludge into a bowl for Mingi when a static noise came from Cowboy’s radio. It was in more of a put together shape by now, but Yunho hadn't expected it to actually make any sound. He rushed over to it, kneeling next to Cowboy with the bowl forgotten.

“Is it working?” Yunho asked.

“Almost.” Cowboy replied.

“Is there a keypad? Anywhere to put a code into?” He picked up the radio gently, turning it around delicately to look at it.

“Code?” Cowboy asked.

“Communications code. Every ship has one, it's how we stay in touch.”

One light tap from Cowboy and a small electronic pad shot out from the box. It glowed blue, reminding Yunho of the holographic screens back on the Aurora. Quickly, he typed in the digital code for the ship.

And then he waited. They waited, all three of them, for something to happen. For the static to even out into words, into the voice of someone they knew. Yunho sat there on the floor, still as stone, waiting.

He kept waiting.

“Yunho-” Mingi tried after Cowboy had stood up, apparently already giving up.

“It'll work. Just give it another minute.”

Yunho took the radio outside. And he sat there for longer, just hoping it would work. Hoping - praying, if old world practices could still be held - that someone would answer the mayday alert he'd sent out. Yunho sat out there all night. He ignored the concern in Mingi's voice every time his friend came out to check on him. ‘Obsessive’ wasn't even the word for it.

“I'm gonna get us out of here, Min.” Yunho said on the second night of listening to the radio.

“I know you will.” Mingi kissed the side of Yunho's face.

“I'm not leaving you again.” A promise, no, Yunho couldn't keep making promises.

“That's not what I'm worried about-”

The static cut out suddenly, instead being replaced by what sounded like a word. A cut off, crackled word. But a word nonetheless.

“-in, come in-” The radio spluttered out. “Crew of- rora”

“Did that say Aurora?” Yunho couldn't believe he was actually hearing the radio work.

He scrambled to move the radio around, the static increasing and decreasing depending on where it was placed. The words became clearer, enough for him to recognise the voice.

“San? Sannie, is that you?” Yunho spoke into the small mic that stuck out from the radio.

“Yun- That Yunh-”

“Yeah, yeah it's me, I'm with Mingi. Do you have our location?”

Was this hope? Yunho needed the navigation on the Aurora to work, it didn't have the best reputation but he needed faith in it. He needed Yeosang to lock in their coordinates. Please, he needed this.

The two of them waited for another silent moment. Waited for San's voice to come through again.

“Affirmative. Loca-” The static interrupted again. “Confirmed locati-”

That's all Yunho needed to hear. He smiled wide, so wide it hurt. Spontaneously he grabbed Mingi, kissing him without even thinking. Held his hands tight to Mingi's face. San had their location, the ship would be coming. Yunho knew it was bad luck to celebrate too early but he couldn't help it; they'd make it back to the ship, he'd be able to get the right medical care for Mingi. They would be okay. He had to believe that they'd be okay.

☆☆☆

Yunho wasn't a soldier. A Paradigm soldier was something so entirely inhuman - a creation of corporations and corruption. Yunho wasn't corrupt. He wouldn't allow himself to be, not anymore. No one ever left the Corp, no one could freely walk out unless they were lying in a casket - but Yunho had. He wasn't a soldier anymore, he'd never be one again. He didn't have a gun anymore, Yunho himself wasn't a gun. Not a weapon or a body. Paradigm could've gotten someone like Yunho, they could get someone like you or anybody else. Paradigm only wanted bullets for their guns.

He knew his past couldn't be changed. Yunho couldn't go back to stop his eleven year old self from joining the Paradigm academy. He couldn't prevent the famines that starved his family, couldn't prevent the massacre of his people. But Yunho did have a future. A life to make.

When the Aurora landed in the orange sands of the planet Yunho could've cried. Both out of joy that he'd be going home - he didn't exactly know where ‘home’ was or who it was but the ship came pretty close to it - but also out of sadness for leaving the dune planet. He'd grown fond of it in a way, even if there was hatred for it too. Yunho couldn't explain how complicated it was. The planet didn't even have a name, before the two of them it had only a robot for a population. This planet didn't exist in the way places should - it had no identity, no culture or people, no heart that kept it on the map. But Yunho knew a part of himself would always be on this planet. Alone, quiet, far from reach. It would always be here.

“You coming with us?” Mingi asked Cowboy when they watched the ship land.

“We could do with someone like you.” Yunho said. “Jongho would be jealous of you, but you'd get along fine.”

“I must stay here. My dear friend rests here, I must stay with him.” Cowboy replied.

Yunho wrapped his arms tight around the clanking metal frame of the robot, tipping its cowboy hat slightly off kilter. He'd miss the robot - Yunho wished he could take it with them. Neither of them could argue with Cowboy’s reasoning, knowing that they too would spend the rest of their lives on an abandoned planet for the other. In a way Yunho admired the affection Cowboy had shown, how the robot loved so much despite being built and programmed not to.

Jongho was the first to greet them on the ship. Yunho had his arms around Mingi to support him, the step up into the loading bay proving difficult. His intentions were to drag Mingi up to get medical attention straight away, but Jongho wasn't having it.

“We looked for you guys for days. Fucking days. You don't make it easy for us.” Jongho said, though he looked overjoyed to have the two of them back.

Seonghwa, of course, cussed Yunho out for not treating Mingi's wounds properly. Though Yunho was happy to stand there and take it. He promised to start taking up more of the medical care duties so he could learn - Yunho didn't want to think about the ‘just in case’ scenarios this soon.

“So,” Wooyoung threw an arm around Yunho later in the day, after leaving the planet behind. “Did you and Mingi get friendly on your trip away?”

“It wasn't a couple's getaway, Woo.” San said.

“Doesn't mean they couldn't make it into one.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Yunho shoved at Wooyoung lightly.

“I just wanted to know if you and Mingi… y’know - bonded.” Wooyoung had this sly smile on his face, and Yunho would be lying if he said he hadn't missed it.

“I don't get it.” Yunho replied.

“He wants to know if you two banged while you were stranded.” Jongho butted in with a nonchalant tone, not even looking up from the latest project he was screwing bolts out of.

Yunho ignored the feeling of turning red at the suggestion. He ignored the cackle Wooyoung let out, and the smile Jongho cracked when he thought no one was looking. Yeah, Yunho didn't exactly miss this part of his friendship. The lack of a reply - Yunho had been too slow to shut Wooyoung down - had been answer enough. He'd never be able to deny anything ever again.

Finding Mingi resting in the bedroom - on one of the beds this time, despite it not being his turn for another half cycle - Yunho crawled over to settle himself next to his best friend. Yunho wasn't that clingy of a person, but he curled his arm around Mingi's anyway. Mingi was looking better, with better medication that handled the pain and cleaner bandages wrapped with a better technique. Yunho realised how badly he'd fuck up with it all, how easily everything could've gone south so quickly. Even with the help of Cowboy, Yunho had been treading rising waters this whole time.

Yunho wasn't a soldier anymore, because he was loved. Mingi's willingness to put up with him, Mingi's kisses, everything about Mingi made it clear to Yunho that he was loved.

“Yunho.” Mingi said, Yunho hummed quietly as a reply.

For a small moment Mingi didn't say anything, instead just pushing the hair out of Yunho's eyes.

“I don't blame you for what Paradigm did. I don't see your face when I think about what they've done - it wasn't you.”

Yunho stayed silent, not knowing what to say if his voice would even form words. He was sure if he tried it would just come out as nothing at all or, worse, a wrecked sob.

“You blame yourself for it, I see it in your face all the time. But I don't blame you.” Mingi spoke clearly, looking straight at Yunho.

Yunho wasn't a Paradigm soldier anymore. He hadn't ever been, despite what the universe or his memories tried to tell him, because Mingi had never seen him as one. It was always Mingi that was more important, never a military institute or the empire that controlled him. It was only ever what Mingi thought.

☆☆☆

On the roof of Yunho's apartment building on Theron, the two boys sat looking up at the moons in the night sky. Yunho's face was illuminated by the faded light of the last sun to remain in the sky - that sun in particular had always been Yunho's favourite. Their eyes followed the lines of ships that came to dock on the planet; they watched each and every ship shoot past the surfaces of the moons.

Mingi flipped up the eye screen of the biker helmet he was wearing, finally revealing his face to Yunho. The helmet was too big for the kid, especially with how small he'd become in the past few months.

“You're my best friend, Yunho. And I'd travel to every galaxy if it means I can stay with you.” Mingi said.

“Who says you'll have to? I'll always be around.” Yunho asked, unsure at the sudden burst of dedication from his friend.

“I know what you're like, Yun. I'll have to come looking for you eventually.” A wide grin, one tooth missing.

Yunho wasn't quite sure what love was, or what it meant, when he was ten but it wasn't hard to figure out that he loved Mingi. He'd touch every star for Mingi, he'd pilot any ship or shuttle for Mingi. Everything had always been for Mingi, even when they were kids watching the moons circle around Theron.

At least now, over fourteen years since they sat on that rooftop, Yunho knew what loving his best friend felt like.