Work Text:
“Bring the next one in,” Youngjae says. Sweat drips from his temple to the hard mat. His left knee twitches. He shakes it, cursing his tense nerves.
Yongguk hesitates. “Are you sure?”
Youngjae nods, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. “Yeah.”
Yongguk looks down at his clipboard and calls out the next name on the list. “Moon Jongup!”
A young man, muscular but not overly so, walks in. His shock of silver hair glows in the yellow lights of the training room. He smiles at Youngjae when he stops at the opposite end of the mat.
Jongup is an aggressive fighter; Youngjae never would have guessed just from looking at him. He’s pushy, forcing Youngjae to defend himself, and his moves are incredibly stiff. It doesn’t take much for Youngjae to pick out the weaknesses in his moves. He throws Jongup to the floor in four moves.
“That’s it!” Yongguk announces.
Jongup stands up and bows to Youngjae without a word.
“Who’s the next one?” Youngjae asks. He squats, wincing at the sharp pain that shoots through his left knee.
Yongguk looks down at his clipboard, but he doesn’t say anything for a long moment. “Moon Jongup was the last one.”
Youngjae sits, spreading his legs out in front of him. “Wait, really?”
“Yeah,” Yongguk replies. “Go rest for now. Get your knee checked, too.”
Youngjae hums in response. That was the third batch. Why isn’t he compatible with anybody? The tests should be accurate, right? He should have been matched with at least one person by now.
Yongguk sighs. He pats Youngjae’s head. “Don’t get so worked up about it. Someone will turn up eventually.”
Eventually.
Youngjae hates that word. Eventually. That doesn’t tell him when he’ll find a partner. In a week? A month? Two months? They don’t have two months. They’re barely surviving as it is.
Yongguk walks out of the training room with the tap of his boots on the bare concrete. Youngjae follows soon after, taking deep breaths as his knee protests.
Himchan’s gonna give him hell when he sees him.
When Youngjae reaches the infirmary-slash-lab, he sees Himchan sitting in his chair, wheeling back and forth between the messy tables. He was originally studying to be a doctor, but he began studying kaiju anatomy after the first attack.
“Is your knee acting up again?” Himchan asks. He doesn’t even look up from the kaiju specimen in his gloved hands.
“Yeah,” Youngjae replies.
“Have you been wearing the brace I made for you?”
“No…”
Himchan finally looks up at Youngjae. He’s frowning. “Yoo Youngjae, what the fuck? What’s the point of making a brace for you when you won’t even wear it? Do you want your knee to get worse?”
Youngjae looks down at his feet. He won’t admit that he didn’t like the feeling of it earlier.
Himchan sighs. “Go sit down on the table.”
Youngjae makes his way to the table. If he just rests for a while, it’ll go away, and he’ll be fine. It’s all just a minor inconvenience.
“You know, you’ll make a great fuckin’ pilot, but if something happens to your knee, I don’t know how that would affect your piloting,” Himchan says. He wheels over to Youngjae as Youngjae rolls up the left leg of his pants.
“You know what’d be great?” Youngjae says as Himchan begins inspecting the knee. “If I could find someone compatible with me.”
Himchan looks up for a moment, and it’s easy to see the shock on his face. “You haven’t found anybody yet?”
Youngjae shakes his head. He holds back a hiss of pain as Himchan begins prodding his knee.
“If you wore the brace,” Himchan says, his voice going into that annoying sing-song tone when he gets all smug. He frowns. “This is really swollen…”
“It’ll get better,” Youngjae insists. “Don’t you have ibuprofen or something?”
“Are you going to wear the brace?” Himchan asks.
“Yes, I will! It was just for today, okay?” Youngjae says.
Himchan stands up from his chair and walks to a cabinet that’s nearly swamped in gathering papers. He pushes a couple stacks to the side to open the doors. “I might have something, but you really gotta take it easy today, okay?”
Youngjae hums. He knows his limits. He knows when to stop himself from crossing the point of no return.
Himchan comes back with a tiny bottle. He drops it into Youngjae’s hands. “There are five in there. Take it once a day. If you run out, come back, but you shouldn’t because you’re going to rest and wear your brace, right?”
Youngjae cowers a little under Himchan’s glare, but he manages to nod. “Y-yeah.” He hops off the table and heads toward the door. “Thanks, Himchan!”
When Youngjae rounds the corner, he bumps into someone and nearly falls to the floor.
“Wha––“
Without even thinking, Youngjae’s arms dart out, catching onto something.
“Um.”
It takes a couple seconds for Youngjae to realize that he just caught someone. A young man. In a suit. Why would someone be wearing a suit in here?
“Oh, shit, sorry about that,” Youngjae says as he helps the man to his feet.
“No, no, I’m sorry,” the man replies. “Thanks, though.”
He’s loud as shit, especially in the tight hallway where the sound just bounces everywhere. Youngjae doesn’t flinch as his eardrum vibrates, he just smiles because he was raised to be polite to people.
Youngjae smiles and as he’s about to turn to leave, the man stops him.
“Sorry, but do you know where Bang Yongguk’s office is? I’m supposed to meet him.”
Youngjae is curious now. What business does Yongguk have with a fancy guy like this? “Yeah. I’ll take you to him if you’d like.”
The guy beams. “Cool, thanks!”
He walks beside Youngjae, their steps almost immediately falling in unison.
“So what’s your name?” he asks. “I’m Daehyun.”
Youngjae glances at Daehyun through his peripherals. “Youngjae.”
“Nice to meet you, Youngjae,” Daehyun says. “I’m here from Los Angeles––“
Youngjae eventually tunes him out. Not only is he loud as shit, but he’s talkative as shit, too. It’s almost amazing. But Youngjae smiles and nods because he was raised to be polite, goddammit.
When they reach Yongguk’s office, Daehyun bows deeply to Youngjae before knocking on the door.
“Come in,” Yongguk says.
“Hey, thanks again,” Daehyun says.
Youngjae smiles and waves as Daehyun pushes the door open. Even after the door closes, he’s hesitant to leave because just what is someone like Daehyun doing here? If he listens closely, he can almost hear them talking, but he forces himself to walk away.
//
The next morning, Youngjae bumps into Daehyun again.
“We gotta stop meeting like this,” Youngjae says with a light laugh as he helps Daehyun up.
Youngjae notices Daehyun isn’t in a suit anymore. He’s wearing a Pan Pacific Defense Corps sweater over a pair of standard-issued Jaeger Program pants. Seriously, just why is he here?
“Yeah,” Daehyun says. He shrugs. “I’m clumsier than I used to be.”
Youngjae is about to walk away, but he stops himself. “Have you had breakfast yet?”
“I was just about to get something,” Daehyun replies with a smile.
Youngjae gestures for Daehyun to follow.
“You mentioned you used to be in Los Angeles, right?” Youngjae asks. “What brings you to Seoul?”
Daehyun hesitates. “Yongguk recruited me. There aren’t a lot of pilots left, so he’s gathering the ones who are left.”
“But you need a co-pilot,” Youngjae says. Eventually. Maybe this is his eventually. “And, coincidentally, so do I.”
After breakfast, Youngjae drags Daehyun into the training room. Yongguk stands in his usual spot, clipboard in hand, with a disapproving look on his face.
“Nothing about your personalities seems compatible,” Yongguk says, but Youngjae doesn’t care. He’d rather take a chance on this than die without doing something for humanity.
Daehyun stands in front of Youngjae, hands clenching and unclenching.
Youngjae feels his knee twitch.
“Start,” Yongguk says.
Daehyun seems to change into another person. He moves with a fluidity that complements Youngjae’s techniques. Youngjae senses something awkward, a little tense, but Daehyun covers it up pretty well.
It’s all over in under a minute.
“I’ve decided,” Youngjae says, looking up at Daehyun from the floor.
Daehyun doesn’t say anything, but Youngjae can see it in his eyes. He knows, too. They’re drift compatible.
Yongguk doesn’t say anything. He writes something down on the clipboard. “Alright. Meet me in my office tomorrow.”
//
The first time they’re in a jaeger together, they nearly blow up the entire station.
Youngjae hears Yongguk’s voice in his head and in the jaeger’s speakers.
“Stop! Stop chasing the rabbit!” The next time his voice comes, it’s farther away. “Shut it down!”
Youngjae is thrust through a flurry of memories. He can’t distinguish which are his and which are Daehyun’s. They pass too quickly, too blurred to view properly, too slurred to comprehend.
Youngjae finds himself on a street. His body seems to move on its own. The remains of a wrecked jaeger lay in front of him. A kaiju roars behind him, but it’s so far away. He spins around. He’s on the ground again. His ear is bleeding. Ringing. Everything is ringing.
Youngjae realizes this is a memory, but it isn’t his.
It’s Daehyun’s.
“Daehyun, you need to stop,” Youngjae tries to say, but it doesn’t come out.
A name comes out instead.
And then it’s gone, only to be replaced with something else.
Youngjae is in a city. Seoul. He’s in Seoul. He tries to move. His leg is trapped underneath a collapsed beam. He tries to scream. Smoke fills his lungs instead. His eyes burn. He can’t feel his leg.
“I said shut it down!”
Youngjae opens his eyes and he’s back in the jaeger. He breathes hard. He can hear Yongguk yelling through the speakers. Sweat drips from his temple. His knee twitches.
When he gets out, he falls to his knees, tears stinging his eyes. He doesn’t know why. He rips his helmet off his head, throwing it to the side.
“Youngjae?” Daehyun asks. He places his hand on Youngjae’s shoulder. “I’m… I’m sorry.”
Youngjae gulps. He looks up at Daehyun, even though his vision is blurry, and forces a smile. “It’s… It’s fine. It’s all good.”
After that, they don’t talk about what they saw, but somehow, it brings them closer together.