Chapter Text
Gun's head hangs low and his tear filled eyes are glued to the ground as he wanders aimlessly around the campus after being yelled at by his roommate, his friend, and his crush Yotha before he left to go to his brother's bar.
("I can take care of my own life!") Gun hears in his head again and tears begin to fall with unwelcome heaviness down his face. His blurred vision doesn't let him see the group of people walking towards him.
Gun collides with someone and falls to the ground he had been glued looking at. His palms sting and he whines in pain as they are scraped open.
"You okay?" Gun is questioned and he can since someone is kneeling in front of him.
"yeah." Gun replies softly and with a little sniff as he wipes his tears away with the back of his hands.
"Stand up Jun this guy is already crying and the last thing he needs is your ugly mug in his face to make him cry harder." Dylan says as he puts his arm around Jun the person Gun collided with shoulder.
"My mug is very handsome, the handsomest in our group and I don't think the crying "puppy" will dislike it or cry harder after seeing it." Jun says to Dylan as he stays kneeling in front of a more vision capable Gun.
"What did you two find?" The rest of Mars asks Jun and Dylan as they stop walking just behind the two of them.
"A crying "puppy"." Jun supplies as he checks Gun's hands and face over.
"He's hurt." Nano and Thame say.
"In more than one way." Pepper chimes in as he picks up on Gun's hurt feelings and heart.
"Up you come little "puppy"." MARS say together as they help Gun to his feet.
"You sure you're okay?"
"And you don't have to say yes just because you think it's what we want to hear."
"I'm fine.. I'm really... fine.."
("I can take care of my own life!")
"I'm fine...with the person I...thought wanted my care and wanted to take care... not.. wanting.. me involved with.. their life... anymore..." Gun blurts out his lips quivering as more tears form in his eyes. Jun and Dylan grab Gun's wrist keeping him from wiping his eyes with his slightly bloody palms.
"Explain what is going on while we treat your hands." Pepper tells Gun in a calming big brother voice as he silently directs Nano and Thame to go get a first aid kit with his eyes and for Dylan and Jun to keep holding Gun.
Gun pours his heart out to the kind hearted strangers for hours, and MARS comes to the conclusion pretty quickly that everything might not be what they appear to be between the crying "puppy" they found, looked after, and temporarily adopted, and his crush Yotha.
"Thank you for looking after me and listening to me." Gun says to the members of MARS as they walk back to his dorm building. A small genuine smile on his face that the members of MARS return with varying sizes of smiles.
"Beagle!"
"What are you doing outside so late?" Yotha asks concern and tightness in his voice as he spots Gun smiling at and surrounded by a group of guys he doesn't recognize.
Yotha's name isn't even spoken aloud by Gun before all the members of MARS picks up who he is to the "puppy" they have been looking after tonight.
Jun picks up on the concern and other emotions in Yotha's voice and ignores the warnings to behave himself from the rest of his group as he puts his hand around Gun's and places a kiss on the top of it.
Yotha sees red at witnessing His Beagle getting touched like that and his body burns with jealousy as he moves forward, and yanks Gun against his chest and away from the guy he really wants to punch.
"Check your bandages before you go to bed and apply new ones in the morning." Jun tells Gun as he places a small plastic bag around his wrist. Ignoring and inflaming Yotha's jealousy even more.
"I will."
"thank you.. thank you again for everything." Gun says going pink in the face from such unexpected actions.
"See you around, Our "puppy"." Jun says looking Yotha dead in the eyes and grinning like a chaos goblin when he sees just how wrong the crying "puppy" is about his crush not wanting him to be involved in his life.
MARS goes their separate way from Gun and Yotha already making bets with one another on how long it will take for Yotha to figure out how to tell Gun he wants to be in his life still and that he reciprocates Gun's feelings.
"I can make it real quick."
"Pepper, Thame. Can MARS hold a concert here tomorrow?"
"An unofficial one, sure, why?"
"You'll see." Jun replies cryptically as he plans to rain havoc down on Yotha.
Back in their dorm room Yotha paces as he loses his mind watching his Beagle being guarded and distanced with him while looking after his hurt hands that were kissed by another guy. As he casually throws out similar words he used earlier during the height of his pain and anger about his mother at him.
The rest of that night is used to plan a concert by MARS, and by Yotha as he sits sleepless on the edge of his bed. Eyes not leaving Gun's face while being eaten up by the feelings he's losing the person he wants to look after, the person who he likes, and he wants to let himself love.
In the morning a haggard Yotha follows his quiet and evasion Beagle around trying to make up for the wounds he caused with his words last night. Not knowing what else to do other than staying as close as possible even when he is rejected.
The tightness in his voice when he saw his Beagle with other guys going to his heart and the burning feeling growing stronger every time Gun touches his bandaged palms.
Yotha's following Gun leads them to the crowded quad set up for the concert MARS planned without their agency's approval but still gathered quite the audience.
"Hello everyone we are MARS!"
"This is a special guerilla concert and we would like to invite our temporary mascot, Our "puppy" to the stage!" Jun says into his mic, his voice going out loudly over the quad through the speaker by the stage as he points right at Gun.
Jun grins with pure hearted, but chaotic joy as he spots Yotha's tense, jealous body trying to keep Gun by his side and failing as Gun red eared and ducked head comes to the stage.
Jun takes Gun's hand kissing it again making the audience shirk.
"Your Yotha cares about you." Jun whispers in Gun's ear as he places a hand near his head as he begins to sing.
The rest of MARS kicks into professional mode even as they sneak eye-rolls in Jun's direction for his plan.
("I can take care of my own life!") Yotha hears himself yelling at his Beagle and his heart aches with how true and untrue those words are. It's true he can take care of himself, but it's untrue because he doesn't want to just take care of himself. He wants to be taken care of and he wants to take care of Gun.
MARS dance and sing around Gun and Yotha gets unbelievably jealous that his green eyed monster is red eyed and he sees so much red as he bolts towards the stage, towards his Beagle to take him back from others, to make him His.
Jun sees Yotha coming before Gun does and he puts his hand on Gun's shoulder and turns and pushes him across the stage as Yotha steps onto it.
"Beagle!" Yotha exclaims as he gets his arms around an off balanced Gun's waist and pulls him flush to his body.
"I'm fine..I." Gun starts out but is interrupted as Yotha kisses him. Hard, desperately, and with all the love his Beagle put there.
"You don't have to take care of yourself and you don't have to stop caring about me."
"I like you wanting to take care of me."
"I like you, Gun."
"I love you and you have to take responsibility for my feelings." Yotha confesses the red in his vision clearing as he looks at the cute blushing face of his Beagle.
"Congratulate Our "puppy" everyone."
"The one he loves, loves him back." MARS say together and their fans cheer and clap.
"Told you he cares about you." Jun tells Gun as he tries to put his arm over his shoulder only to be glared and growled at by Yotha as he pulls his Beagle closer to him.
Gun who had been overwhelmed since hearing Yotha's confession hides his face in Yotha's neck as he comes back to the reality the two of them have quite the audience.
"I love you too." Gun whispers and Yotha strokes his hair as he shepherds him off the stage without letting him interact with anyone else. Especially not the group of guys smiling triumphantly at him.
A couple brought together by MARS is spread like wild fire over the internet and the group is escorted off the campus they held their guerilla concert at by their agency staff. Cupid's next target is picked as Thame spots a handsome photographer in the crowd around him and his group.