#Then put it into the popper and let it keep popping even when it beeps again

[undyinglantern]

logically I don’t even think I’m doing horribly (the guy training me told the manager I was doing “pretty well” about handling a “mini-rush”) but mentally my mind keeps telling me oh he’s just lying because we keep getting out breaks at the same time and since I’m practically tailing him of course he’s say that to be nice during the only opportunity to speak to the manager. Only since I’m around and can listen in is he saying something nice.

[sibillascribbles08]

Blow It Out

Echo’s birthday feat. clone universe. A bit of angst but good feelings in the end.

Apologies if you have no prior context, main things to note, Zane isn’t around and Gizmo is now 8ft tall.

    Typically the factory was an empty place. Only select people even dare tread into it, much less actually climb the tower. 

    That’s why, when Echo heard footsteps, he reacted to his instinct to draw his pistol.

    “Who’s there?” He pointed the gun down the hall, letting the cameras in his eyes adjust to the low light.

    Cryptor stood there, hands up. “Only me, Echo. You may want to refrain from being so quick to draw a weapon in the city. You’d get an alert if there was a threat.”

    Echo snorted but put his gun away. “What do you want?” He turned his gaze back to what he was staring at earlier. A worn out frame. The corner of the glass chipped. Underneath was an aging picture of his father and Dr. Borg. It was some commemoration of yet another technological advancement made under their collaboration. A collaboration that only lasted a short while, he had read, as his father passed away less than a year after the two started working together. 

    “Gizmo was looking for you. Said you wouldn’t respond to your messages.” Cryptor came closer, tucking his arms behind him. His pink eye glanced at the photo on the wall. “I didn’t expect to find you on this floor.”

    “I hardly have any other reason to come in here.” Echo crossed his arms, trying to look as annoyed as possible. He certainly felt that way the longer he stared at the picture. It was just one of many, too. There were dozens more in the hall. An entire hallway committed to his father, celebrating his achievements, the things he’d done.

    If only they knew. 

    But even if they did, would they have cared?

    Cryptor stood beside him. “Gizmo mentioned your birthday. Is that why you came out here?” 

    “Sure, whatever.” Echo shoved his hands in his pockets now. “I know he likes to celebrate it, but I’m not sure I do.” He kept staring at the photo. “Just reminds me that I woke up to an empty lighthouse and an empty promise.” 

    “It’s understandable.” Cryptor took a step back. “I can tell him you wish to be alone right now.” 

    “Don’t speak for me.” Echo sighed. “And don’t tell him I won’t show up cause I will just...need some space to think.”

    Cryptor stopped walking away, but didn’t say anything. 

    The silence drew on for too long. It made Echo nervous. “He gets so excited about it that it helps, sometimes. Makes it feel a little less terrible.” He made his way down the hall. None of the lights worked, but the sun from the windows was more than enough. It amplified the dust in the room. 

    He kept looking at the photos and the plaques, some of which showed signs of tarnish. Eventually he reached the one with Dr. Julien and Zane. 

    Echo narrowed his eyes and ignored the temptation to throw it out the window. “Why do we even keep this place around?”

    “I imagine if you wanted to clear out this floor then–”

    “No, not just this floor.” Echo gestured around him. “This whole building, the factory, the tower. Why not just torch it and replace it with something else?”

    Cryptor let out a long sigh. “Echo I can’t count the number of times I’ve had this conversation with others.” 

    Echo turned to look at him. “Doesn’t that just prove that we’re all in agreement.” 

    “But that doesn’t prove you’re right.” Cryptor frowned, staring down at him. “Maybe one day, farther in the future, we will take this place down and replace it with something else, but doing so right now won’t help any of us recover from what happened.”

    “Oh bull shit.” Echo rolled his eyes. “How is keeping such an awful reminder around good for anyone?” 

    Cryptor kept his gaze firm. “It reminds me to keep myself humble. And for a lot of the kids, erasing all of this would be an expression that their past means nothing.”

    “What? Are you telling me the kids want to keep this place around?”

    “They do, if you ever bothered to speak to them you’d know that.” Cryptor turned his gaze to the pictures. “It’s a hellish memory to them, yes, but in their mind they conquered it. The empty building serves as a reminder that they overcame it.” He shifted his stance, folding his arms behind his back again. “If you wish to clear out this floor, I don’t see how it would be a problem, though you may want to ask Pixal if she wants that picture of Zane.” 

    Echo glared at it. Part of him didn’t understand what Pixal saw in Zane, but he also knew his hatred toward his sibling was mostly because of their father. Zane was probably fine, just as kind and heroic as everyone said. 

    Not that Echo would ever find out. His anger tried to latch onto the fact that it was Cryptor’s fault Zane was gone, but he squashed it back down. 

    Ultimately, outside of Gizmo, Cryptor had made the most effort to be kind to him. Despite the time Echo shot Cryptor over that time machine idea. He regretted the fight not long after, when Gizmo gave him a long lecture. 

    Maybe life right now wasn’t ideal, but there was no proof going to the past and changing things would actually make it better. 

    Echo shook his head. “She has enough pictures of Zane. Maybe I’ll let Jay have it instead.”

    “Oh?” Cryptor tilted his head. “Are you two friends now?”

    “I mean, he’s cool, even if he’s super jumpy.” Echo shrugged. “I work with him enough, and he doesn’t tell me to stop talking.” 

    “It’s just good to see you socializing in some form.”

    Echo glared at him. “Hey, I’m not a hermit or anything, unlike you Mr. Security Office.” 

    “I have quite a lot of work to do.” 

    “Yeah, well so do I.” He spun on his heel and began to head down the hall again. “City won’t rebuild itself.” 

    “That’s why you’re spending time up here.”

    “Hey, it’s my birthday, I get the day off.”

    Cryptor chuckled. “Of course. I’ll leave you to it then. Don’t leave Gizmo wondering for too long.”

    Echo looked back to see Cryptor leaving, but didn’t say anything. Being alone in this hallway wasn’t entirely wise, but he didn’t want to force Cryptor to stick around either. He probably should just head back to the apartment. 

    He began to head to the stairs when a glint of bronze caught his eye. He stared up at the plaque on the wall, reading the text engraved on it. 

    Dr. Edward Julien. Brilliant Inventor and Loving Father–

    Echo snatched it off the wall so hard the nail came with it. He tossed it on the ground and tried to stomp on it, but of course it didn’t do any damage. He once again thought about throwing something out the window, but that may end up causing more damage than it was worth. 

    He stared at it, jaw clenched, begging for his anger to recede. At least for the time being. 

    When it finally did, he moved his foot and picked the plaque back up off the ground. He stomped down the hall toward the staircase with it tucked under his arm.

    He had an idea of what to use it for. 

۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵

    Pi-ting! 

    Another bullet bounced off the bronze surface, leaving another harsh mark. Echo narrowed his eyes and opened his gun to add more bullets. 

    “Echo?”

    He looked over to see Jay peeking around the building. Echo thought he picked a spot far out of the way, tucked behind one of the buildings they were still repairing. 

    “Wh… what are you doing?” Jay glanced at the gun and then the plaque. 

    “Target practice.” Echo finished reloading the gun. He snapped it shut and fired off all six rounds.

    Jay squeaked and ducked as the bullets ricochet around the area. “Hey! That’s dangerous.” 

    “Maybe for you.” Echo muttered but still put the gun away. “Did you need something or were you just curious?”

    Jay slowly stepped out. “Ah no, just curious when I heard the noise.” He looked over at the plaque, squinting. “Um… where did you get that?”

    Echo answered flatly. “The tower.” 

    “Where in the tower?”

    “On the floor with the rest of the stuff about my dad.” Echo pretended to study his knuckle joints. “There’s a photo of Zane up there, by the way, if you want one.” 

    “Oh.” Jay almost looked frightened. He pulled his hands closer, one of them rubbing his wrist. “Would probably be weird to see that, to be honest.” 

    Echo raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

    “Just, you know, it’s been so long.” He gave off his usual nervous laugh. “Um, to be honest I’ve almost forgotten what he looked like. How sad is that?” His gaze fixed on the ground before he blinked and straightened up. “Oh, sorry, haha.” He waved his hands. “Didn’t mean to go on a tangent there.” 

    Echo shrugged. He wasn’t much for sympathy, couldn’t even understand Jay’s position, but he was on friendly enough terms he didn’t want to leave him upset. “If you forgot maybe the photo would be a good idea. Your other friends might appreciate it too.”

    “Yeah.” Jay sighed. He walked over to the plaque and picked it up, trying to read the text that was left. “Ah, yeah, your father. Should have guessed.” 

    “It’s a decent substitute for punching him in the face.” Echo glared at it. 

    “Aha, well, I’ll leave you to it.” Jay put it back down. “And I’ll see you later. Try and watch the bullets though, don’t know who else might be around.” 

    Echo didn’t reply to that. He watched Jay leave with an awkward wave. He knew he shouldn’t be this bitter or cold, but his irritation made it hard to act otherwise. 

    He looked at the plaque, wanting to deface it more, but knew Jay was right. He should find somewhere safer to do this. 

    He sighed and went over to pick it back up. He checked his messages. Ten of them from Gizmo. 

    No sense in avoiding it anymore, he really should get back. 

۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵

    Echo headed up the steps to the apartment and tried the door. Locked. He pulled his I.D. card out of his pocket and scanned the door. It opened with a click and he pushed it the rest of the way with his knee. It was dark inside. Was Gizmo out? Echo extended his free hand to flip on the lights.

    POP!

    Echo screamed from the sound, and would have gotten ready to fight if the colorful confetti didn’t cross his vision.

    “[Surprise!]” Gizmo beeped, party popper in the claws of his vacuum tubes. 

    “G-Giz? What are you doing?” Echo stared at the confetti that was now on the carpeted floor. 

    “[Surprise party.]” Gizmo put the empty popper away as one of his vacuums already worked to clean up the confetti. “[I was told that was how it worked.]” 

    Echo let out a long sigh, now that his panic was subsiding. “I suppose, but it’s not like I forgot it was my birthday.”

    “[I will have to try harder next year.]”

    He snorted. “Okay big guy.” He glanced around Gizmo into the small living room. Even from here he could see a pile of wrapped gifts. “What are all those?”

    “[Presents!]” Gizmo’s beeps came out as a pleasant chime as he walked over to them. He pointed at them one at a time with one of his hose arms. “One from me, Cryptor, Mindroid, Pixal, Jay, and even Toby.” 

    “Oh.” Echo wasn’t sure what to say to that. He didn’t expect this many people to even send him presents. “Were you advertising my birthday?”

    “[A bit. These people are also your friends, yes? It would make sense to invite them to celebrate if they want.]” 

    Echo wasn’t sure if he could call them his friends, but they went out of their way to do this, so it was something. 

    He was silent for a while, lost in his thoughts, so lost he wasn’t aware that Gizmo was reaching for the plaque until it was snatched from his grip.

    “Hey!” Echo protested and made a dive for it, only for Gizmo to hold him back with one of his hands. 

    “[What is this?]”

    “I know you can read Ninjagian, you know what it is.”

    “[Why are there such violent scuff marks on it?]”

    Echo sighed. “Target practice.” 

    Gizmo let go of him and handed the plaque back. “[Do you really think it wise to keep holding onto your anger toward him?]”

    “I have plenty to be angry about.” Echo snatched the plaque. “You know as well as I do. I’m not sure why you don’t hate him more. He left you on the island to rot too.”

    “[Yes, but he is dead, and we are not.]”

    “We would have been if Toby didn’t learn we existed from another universe.”

    Those blue eyes stared through him. “[Things worked in our favor. However lucky you want to call it, we are able to live our own lives out here. Why is that not satisfactory to you?]”

    “I don’t know.” Echo admitted. He ran his thumb over the dents in the metal. He couldn’t feel the texture, just the rises and dips. “I don’t know how to stop wishing for something I can’t have.”

    “[Which is?]”

    “To ask him why he thought it wouldn’t matter if he left us there.”

    “[And would an answer actually satisfy you? Or make you feel worse?]”

    Echo didn’t have an answer to that either. He didn’t know. Either their father admitted he was just as terrible as Echo thought or it was played out as some kind of accident. That he intended to come back but died before it happened. 

    Gizmo walked toward the kitchen. “[Well, you know what they say, sometimes wishes you make on birthdays can come true.]” He came back with a small candle. His two hose arms lit a match in order to ignite the candle. 

    Echo snorted. “What, you think I should waste a birthday wish on that?”

    “[It is up to you.]” 

    Echo took the candle, pondering it. He could wish for it, he already did after all, but Gizmo was right. An answer wouldn’t satisfy him. 

    He needed something else. He needed something to better anchor him in the life he had now. If only he had a clue where to start.

    Regardless, he reached out and pinched the flame, putting it out. 

    Gizmo’s hand rested on his head, ruffling his hair through his hat. “[Happy Birthday, Echo. I understand being made isn’t an entirely fond memory for you, but I am glad you are here.]”

    Echo couldn’t keep himself from smiling. “Thanks, Giz. Glad you’re around too.” He headed over to the coffee table and tossed the plaque aside onto the sofa. “So, which of these should I open first?”

۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵۵

    Mindroid hummed as he worked on cleaning up all the dishes from breakfast. Always a lot to go through, but worth it. The kids ate so much more these days than they did when Mindroid first started caring for them.

    The ping in his head caught him off guard for a moment, even more so when he saw who it was from. 

    Unusual for Echo to send him a message.

    >Hey, tell the kids I said thanks for the present. Though Gizmo’s griping just a bit about the glitter cards. I probably should come around and see them sometime, huh? Is there a good time for that?

    Mindroid couldn’t keep himself from smiling as he went back to his dishes.

    >Almost anytime is fine, though afternoons are best. Just let me know before you show up.

    >Yeah, no problem. I’ll swing by in a few days. 

    >I look forward to it. 

[shijiujun]

[ENG] History3: Trapped Novel - Chapter Ten

~7,000 words 

Translation Masterpost can be found here

Disclaimer: Translations are entirely mine and Wei’s - these are not official translations and some phrases have been changed for better English interpretation so you’ll definitely see better/different translations elsewhere. Also keeping in mind when we translated this we aren’t exactly thinking about the style of writing and this translation is as close to the novel as we can make it XD So yes, some parts may be a little awkward to read. And yes some teeny weeny details and words may not turn up in the translation because the Chi to Eng mind acrobatics didn’t work out. If you see asterisks, scroll all the way to the bottom for notes!

Full chapter below the cut

*Note: I didn’t translate about 4 pages of the smut scene, it was taking me a little too long and I decided to drop it, so you’ll have to find alternative sources for that, but it doesn’t really impact the story much XD

Chapter Ten

Hospital

Jiang Jin Tang walks towards Tang Yi who is seated on the bench, and sighs, “You look like you’re in worse shape than the one currently inside.”

“Is… Is he okay?”

“He’s not going to die anytime soon, but I severely suspect that Meng Shao Fei has issues elsewhere.”

“Where?”

Jin Tang, who usually speaks ill of others with ease, says, “His brain!”

Tang Yi glares at the man clad in a white doctor’s robe, and cannot be bothered to respond.

“That guy keeps getting hurt because of you, and he’s the one who actually got shot, but the first thing he does after waking up is to worry about you, if this isn’t brain damage, what else can it be?”

“...”

“Tang Yi, just because Meng Shao Fei didn’t die the first two times doesn’t mean he’ll be so fortunate the third time. I don’t want you to regret this for the rest of your life, so as your brother, there are still some things I have to say. Love is just like life itself. Sure it’s beautiful, but it can also disappear at any time, so if you treasure this relationship, you have to let go of that burden in your heart. You can’t keep putting him in a spot and making things difficult for him,” Jin Tang says, somber and patting Tang Yi firmly on the shoulder.

“Okay, hurry in and go see him! If anything else happens, just look for me.”

“Thank you.”

Jin Tang shakes his head and smiles, then picks his vibrating phone out from his pocket.

“Be good, Tang Tang! I’m now in Mali and once everyone in the team and the equipment arrive, we’ll set off. The first treasure I dig up I’ll show to you first, you can’t tell anyone, okay?”

As he watches the message Jiang Zhao Peng sent over, Jin Tang’s lips curve into an indulgent smile.

Inside the ward, Shao Fei, who has already woken up and heard the conversation outside, immediately rips off tubes linked to the machine monitoring his vital signs. He closes his eyes and pretends that he’s in a coma.

Beep-------

Tang Yi barely steps into the ward before the distress signal sounds, and the curved lines on the monitor screen visibly flatlines. Going white immediately, he rushes to the bed and just as he’s about to press the button to ask for help, the person lying in bed hugs him around his waist.

“You’re this worried about me?”

Tang Yi freezes in shock, and the hand reaching out for the button retracts. With a stern, angry look, he glares at Shao Fei, who is grinning and happy, “Aren’t you a little too happy for an injured person?”

“Aren’t you a little too angry for someone who’s my boyfriend?”

“Hmph!”

Still chuckling, Shao Fei pulls at Tang Yi’s sleeve, gesturing for him to sit at the side of his bed. Afraid that Shao Fei would tear out his stitches, Tang Yi does not dare resist and can only sit down, his bad mood apparent on his face. Shao Fei touches lightly at Tang Yi’s wrists where the metal handcuffs sit.

“Don’t be angry, it's a reflex for me to try and snatch a gun, or put myself in the way of a bullet. I’m a police officer, after all.”

“I’m angry at myself,” Tang Yi frowns, holding onto Shao Fei’s icy hands.

“Then it’s better for you to be angry at me! Even if we had to do this again, I would still do the same thing.”

“I know you’ve been trying to stop me from killing others.”

“That’s right. Li Zhen Jie said it before, revenge can only bring you temporary satisfaction, but the consequences you will face for your actions will haunt you for life, and it’ll cause pain to the people who love you.”

“That includes you?”

“Of course!” Shao Fei shoots Tang Yi a look out of the corner of his eye, and continues, “Let me ask you, why did you think Tang Guo Dong tasked you with reforming the gang?”

After a moment of silence, Tang Yi replies, “Lao Tang said he didn’t want the brothers to continue a life like this, where they wouldn’t know if they were going to live or die tomorrow. He wanted everyone to live normal lives.”

“And if you, as their leader, did something illegal, would your men still try to turn over a new leaf?”

“....”

Tang Yi stares at Shao Fei. He did not actually think this far.

“Tang Yi, revealing the truth to everyone, letting the culprit be punished under the law, that’s justice. That’s answering to the victims, but if you handle this on your own, all people will see is a gangster killing a cop, then what Zhou Guan Zhi did will be hidden forever. Is that what you want to see? Is this the Xing Tian Meng that Tang Guo Dong would have wanted to see?”

Tang Yi sighs, and says, “... I’ll hand He Hang over to the police.”

Shao Fei smiles as he looks at the man he’s so deeply in love with, waiting for him to continue.

“And Zhou Guan Zhi too.”

“Thank you, and…” Shao Fei reaches for Tang Yi’s face on his uninjured side, pressing close and kissing his lips.

Tang Yi’s eyes close as he accepts the kiss. It’s a kiss filled with gratitude, love and happiness.

Half a minute later, Shao Fei pulls back and gazes into Tang Yi’s open eyes. 

He says, “I love you!”

Knock knock.

Zhao Zi, who has been waiting for quite some time outside the hospital ward walks in. He looks at the man currently staring at Shao Fei, and reminds him, “Time’s up, Tang Yi, let’s go!”

He then takes out a jacket he prepared for this, covering Tang Yi’s hands to keep anyone from gossiping about his handcuffs if they see it while the both of them are walking out. However, Tang Yi simply shakes his head, standing up straight, and leaves the ward without turning back.

A room in a house

In an old, dilapidated room. Captain Shi sits in a corner looking at photos of his daughter in the wedding dress boutique on his phone. Two police officers in casual dress are guarding him nearby. One of them is scrolling through his phone, and the other one is resting with his eyes closed, seated on a chair with his arms crossed. 

A little while later, the doorbell rings. The man on his phone walks to the door, and lets the person on the other side of the door in after verifying his identity.

“Boss!” Shao Fei calls, wearing the $60,000 NTD suit he bought at Tang Yi’s store, in his hands a traditional wedding cake.

Captain Shi looks at the person who’s just come from a wedding eagerly, and asks, “How did it go?”

“You can see for yourself,” Shao Fei takes out his phone and plays the video he recorded of the wedding.

Slowly opening the banquet hall’s doors, the bride stands there alone without her father, a bouquet of flowers in her hands. Her makeup done up so beautifully, the woman glances down at the red carpet with red-rimmed eyes, pausing for a bit before looking up and smiling widely. She picks up her courage and takes the first step forward.

On both sides of the red carpet, her close friends scatter flower petals and pop party poppers, representing their well-wishes for the new couple. Under the eyes of the marriage officiant, the bridge and groom exchange rings, completing the wedding’s most important ritual.

Captain Shi looks at his daughter’s wedding video, and nods profusely with his eyes wet.

Shao Fei pulls a chair over so he’s sitting opposite Captain Shi, and places the wedding biscuits on the table. “Xiao Ya asked me to bring these to you, there’re biscuits, and also the tea you like to drink, and wedding photos.”

“Ah Fei… thank you…”

However, the man does not accept the gifts, as if afraid of dirtying the beauty and goodness of the moment with his hands that are awash with sin and guilt. Shao Fei looks at his Captain, who’s almost a shell of his usual self. 

The back of his nose burns as he says, “You and Li Zhen Jie have always been my role models and I have always believed in every single thing the both of you taught me. I remember the first day I joined the team, you told me that justice is just like lighting a lamp against the wind and police officers are the protectors of the lamp, so we have to be alert at all times. Because only when the lamp consistently lights up the path in front of us, can we then help others to walk down the correct path too. But you destroyed the person who was supposed to protect the lamp, tried to cover up the truth from four years ago and even allowed everyone to suspect Li Zhen Jie, and to point fingers at her.”

Captain Shi listens to the words he used to say, and lowers his gaze in remorse, “I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness. After all, having to choose between being a father and being a police officer, I selfishly chose to be a father.”

“Boss, do you regret it?”

The man shakes his head and replies bitterly, “When Ah Zhi told me four years ago that he killed Li Zhen and Tang Guo Dong, and destroyed the evidence after, I was relieved. If I didn’t have that sum of money that year, I wouldn’t have been able to see Xiao Ya on her wedding day.”

“Boss…”

Captain Shi looks at Shao Fei and with a complicated expression, he says, “Ah Fei, I actually resented you.”

Shao Fei returns the man’s gaze, stunned at the revelation.

“When everyone was no longer interested in the case at all, you were the only one persisting in bothering Tang Yi, insistent on finding out the truth, as if you weren’t afraid of standing on your own against the rest of the world.”

“But you never once truly stopped me.”

“Because I wanted to see just how long you would last. I even hoped that when you had to choose between justice and obstruction to that, you would choose to give up. Then at least I could comfort myself in the knowledge that you and I, we aren’t so different after all,” Captain Shi says in a self-deprecating manner, raising his head to look at the impulsive young man who really has caused him quite a lot of trouble up until now.

“Aren’t I really bad? I’d fallen, and wished that the people around me would be just like me. I’m sorry, the Captain you admired is actually such a despicable man.”

“No! Boss, you’re not,” Shao Fei stares at Captain Shi resolutely, finally saying the words he wanted to, hidden away under the guilt he felt, because he blamed himself too. “You didn’t stop me because you were waiting too, no, even anticipating the moment I would find the truth and expose you and Zhou Guan Zhi. It’s true that between being a father and being a police officer, you chose to be a good father, but you didn’t give up on the other part of you, the part that’s a police officer.”

Faced with Shao Fei’s understanding, Captain Shi, who has been suppressing all his emotions, finally lets his tears run free as he sobs, covering his face.

“If Li Zhen Jie was still alive, I don’t think she would have hated you. Though she might have kicked your ass,” Shao Fei jokes deliberately, trying to lighten the melancholic atmosphere between them and rubbing at his nose, his face full of tears too.

Captain Shi looks at the man sitting in front of him and recalls his colleague, the woman who worked harder than any other man he knew. 

His shoulders shake slightly as he says, “She wouldn’t have just beat me up, but scolded me too. She would have scolded me for living like a coward…”

Outside the room, the rays of the setting sun eventually shine over the both of them, but in the corners where the sunlight could not reach, darkness still remains. 

Before their meeting ends and just as Shao Fei is about to leave, Captain Shi suddenly moves in front of him.

“Shao Fei, I’m leaving Team Three in your hands,” he says knowingly, patting at Shao Fei’s shoulder.

Cemetery

Tang Yi stands before a gravestone and stares at the music box on the ground, before pulling out his lighter and lighting a cigarette at the side. From afar, Chen Wen Hao walks over with a bouquet of flowers, and after seeing Tang Yi, he hesitates. Then he walks over to the grave and places the bouquet on the flat surface.

“Li Zhen, I’m sorry… All these years, I vented my anger and hate on Tang Guo Dong, hating him for causing me to end up in jail, hating him for not stopping you from aborting the baby and even suspecting that he liked you. That day was the first day of my release from prison, but I saw the both of you together. That was the first time in 24 years we were meeting, but I didn’t expect it to be the last…”

“When I was younger, I didn’t have much money and when I gave you flowers I could give you only one stalk. How sad was that? But you always smiled so happily, so I thought, if I could earn more money I would be able to buy more flowers to make you happy. I ended up walking the wrong path, and didn’t dare to let you know, so I lied to you instead.”

“If that year, I chose differently, would you not have left me then? The three of us, a family, would we have been able to live like normal families, having meals at the dining table? Maybe we wouldn’t have had much money, but we would have led a normal, stable life… we would have also been… happy…”

He finishes his sentence and falls silent, his face filled with tears as he cries.

It is said that every person has to face the consequences of the decisions they make. Then, the price he paid in his lifetime was really just too much, too much…

Tang Yi walks over to Chen Wen Hao’s side, and places the lighter before the gravestone. To the photo on the stone, he says, “After you gave me up for adoption, I ran away from home because of my relationship with my adoptive father, and then I was given a home by Tang-ye. He loved and doted on me as if I was his biological son. Don’t worry, I’ll continue reforming Xing Tian Meng. I believe that this is what you would have wanted to see, the you who spent your life fighting drug dealers.”

Chen Wen Hao supports himself on his knees as he gets up, and now that he knows the truth, he feels as if he’s aged in a flash. He is no longer the fearful, big drug lord, and no longer the vicious Chen-ye he was known for. He is merely an old man in his sixties, a man who’s finally seeing his own son - a father.

He takes out the thumb drive saved with the list of Xing Tian Meng members and business deals, handing it over to Tang Yi.

“This is something I bribed Jack to gather for me as I was plotting revenge against Tang Guo Dong. Every step I’ve taken in my life has turned out to be wrong, and even as I stand before my son, I don’t have the right to ask for his forgiveness.”

Tang Yi’s grip on the thumb drive tightens. He nods at the man before him respectfully, and with a complex expression he leaves the cemetery. At the stairs, however, his footsteps pause and Tang Yi covers his face as he sobs.

At Zhao Zi’s house

“What are you doing?” Zhao Zi asks in confusion, looking at Jack in surprise, who’s standing at his door with his small luggage.

“From today onwards, I’m moving in with you.”

Jack beams, picking up his bags and ready to walk in, but the owner of the house stops him with both arms spread wide open.

“Who said you could move in?”

“You did!” the red-haired man cocks his head to the side, and grins, “Didn’t you cry and ask me to stay?”

“Yes I did, but when I asked you to stay then, and this kind of staying… it’s different!”

After realizing all the things that Zhou Guan Zhi did, Zhao Zi was so depressed that he sat in the middle of a square with a bottle of beer and started sobbing. After hearing that Jack too, was going to leave and go somewhere else, he hugged him and began to sob even louder, shouting that he wanted Jack to stay at his side.

Jack sets his bags down and stalks towards Zhao Zi until he cages the man against the wall. Staring into his eyes, he says, “Do you know how much I gave up, just because you said that?”

The ambush in Cambodia, the deal he had with Yan Zheng Qiang*, the status and position he had in Xing Tian Meng, and so many opportunities from where he could have earned a lot of money. All of it, he abandoned without a second thought.

“Huh?”

“So I’m now a pitiful bug who has no income and no home to return to, you have to be responsible and feed me well.”

“Huh?” Zhao Zi looks at the man who’s given up on everything, dumbfounded. “Wait, no, where’s your family?”

Jack’s expression goes still, and then speaking a half-truth of sorts, he answers, “How would someone like me, who lives in danger every single day, have any family left? No matter where I go, I’m alone, and it gets pretty lonely…”

Zhao Zi looks at this person, who also longs for someone to be at his side just like himself, and his resolve wavers.

“So just let me stay~ Not only will you have another person to share the bills with, but I can take over things like housework and the most important thing is…”

Jack, an ex-mercenary who has never let an opportunity to get the best deal in any situation go, takes the chance to persuade Zhao Zi, “My cooking is pretty delicious, no? As long as you let me stay, I promise you that I’ll take care of your three meals daily. How about that? Isn’t this a really good deal?”

Zhao Zi, a known glutton, swallows. He has to admit that the last point Jack made is the most tempting one. However, if Jack does everything, then what is he going to do?

“You don’t have to do everything in the house. Since it’s housework, everyone in the house has to contribute, that’s why it’s called housework.

“So…” Jack’s heart warms, and he immediately snatches a kiss from Zhao Zi. “Shorty, can I move in, and become a part of your family?”

“Hnn!” Zhao Zi nods seriously, biting at his bottom lip.

“Then let’s have our meals together, do housework together, you’ll take care of the odd days, and I’ll take the even days including Sunday.”

“Okay!”

Just as Jack is preparing to swoop in for a kiss, his hands holding Zhao Zi’s face, they suddenly hear Zhao Zi’s stomach rumbling, and the romantic atmosphere dissipates immediately.

“Pfft, is it 6pm already?”

“Hnn….” Zhao Zi laughs sheepishly, rubbing at his stomach that is even more precise than a clock.

Jack pats him on the head, then moves towards the kitchen, “I’ll make you dinner right away. First, I’ll feed you, and then after… it’s your turn to feed me.”

“Wait! What do you mean, it’s my turn to feed you? Jack you better explain! Jack!”

The Tang manor

“Have you stared enough?” Tang Yi picks up his teacup and glares at a certain doctor, who’s staring at him incessantly.

“Not yet, I specially came over to see what it would look like, for an ice mountain to be melted by the power of love. Pfft, it’s practically like an antique that’s just been unearthed, of course I have to look at it a few times. But Meng Shao Fei is really something, because only he can fall in love with a boring hard shell like you, who doesn’t like to talk?”

However, Jin Tang, who is gleefully ribbing at the Xing Tian Meng leader in an unusual turn of events, is quickly defeated in the next second with Tang Yi’s words.

“I didn’t think you would have the time to talk rubbish here with me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Andy didn’t tell you?”

Jin Tang frowns, sensing some conspiracy in the air, “He didn’t tell me what?”

“Andy got some news today and told me that there’s a British man in the archaeological group who’s clinging onto your Xiao Shu Gong, and he even insists on squeezing in the same tent as him every night to sleep.”

Jin Tang snaps to his feet in shock and the usually gentle and composed man turns to Tang Yi with ferocity in his eyes. He glares at Tang Yi, “Fuck, why did you only just tell me this?!”

“I thought you already knew.”

“Damn it!” the man cursed, taking out his phone and calling his secretary. He says anxiously, “Book a flight for me to Mali right now… Of course I know there’s no direct flight there, why would I have called you otherwise? Settle this in the next hour, I want to get to my destination in the shortest time possible.”

After delegating the task to his secretary, Jin Tang hangs up and glares at Tang Yi again, huffing in anger, “What are you looking at! Have you never seen me angry?”

“I see you angry rather often, but I’ve never seen you jealous. It’s just like an antique that’s just been unearthed and it really does deserve a few more looks from me.”

The words he used to tease Tang Yi earlier are now being used back on him, word for word, and Jin Tang doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. In the end he puts up his middle finger and says, “Fine, you’re ruthless, teasing me like this.”

“It’s true that you have to wait in relationships, but if you always bury what you are truly thinking deep in your heart, the other person will never know how you feel. I don’t want to see you end up like that.”

Jin Tang looks at Tang Yi, stunned. His lips then curve in a smile, “I really didn’t expect to hear such deep thoughts from you.”

“I didn’t expect to think this way either.”

“But it’s good that you’re like this, you’re finally looking more like a human.”

“If you need any help from me, just let me know, don’t be shy.”

“Don’t worry! I definitely won’t stand on ceremony with you.”

Both men raised their teacups and smiled at each other. In the other’s eyes, they could see the vibrance of happiness shining through.

Outside the police station

Tang Yi has just parked his car in front of the station, and suddenly a huge motorbike zooms past the side of his car, then emergency brakes.

“Ah, what a coincidence, hi ex-boss,” Jack greets with a harmless, innocent smile as he takes off his helmet and reveals a mop of eye-catching red hair.

Tang Yi alights his car and looks at Jack coldly, “You resigned for another reason, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t,” Jack hangs his helmet on the handles and shrugs, “I just happened to find the life I want to live, there’s no other reason for it.”

At the same time, Shao Fei walks out from the station building, and looking at the guy seated on the bike, he says, “What are you doing here?”

“Please, even you guys are lovingly fetching each other from work, isn’t it normal for me to wait for someone to get off work too?”

Looking at Jack’s face, Tang Yi quickly changes the subject and says, “Chen Wen Hao told me that you used me to get access to Xing Tian Meng’s confidential documents, so previously, when you tried to assassinate me and failed, and was subsequently bribed by me, that was fake too?”

Jack’s expression stills, and knowing that he cannot continue to deceive him, the man regains his composure. He admits, “It was planned. Following you at your side was also so I could get information, but you still managed to get the thumb drive back, didn’t you?”

“Did you think I would let it go like that?”

Tang Yi will show no mercy to the people who have used him.

Jack forces a smile and says, “Let bygones be bygones. I had my own difficulties too. And to protect the happiness I managed to get after so much hardship, I’m afraid I would have to do something to you.”

“What do you mean?”

Shao Fei can feel the murderous intent coming off Jack as he speaks, and immediately moves to stand between both men, pushing Tang Yi behind him protectively.

“Nothing, I just want to remind my ex-boss that there is only interest between people and no real feelings or relationships. I have to lie in order to attain my goal, so we shouldn’t concern ourselves with these small things, don’t you think?” Jack shrugs again and bats his eyelids at Tang Yi.

Just as he does that, he hears another voice sounding from behind him, “So between you and me, we’re just using each other as well, there aren’t any real feelings?”

He sees Zhao Zi’s upset expression the second he turns his head around, and immediately shakes his head, denying, “No. I didn’t, shorty, listen to me!”

“Ah Fei, I’m staying at your place today,” Zhao Zi glares at Jack and walks over to Shao Fei to put some distance between him and the red-haired asshole.

“I object!”

“Overruled! Ah Fei I’m going with you.”

“You’re not allowed! We’re going home.”

“I don’t want to!”

Jack knows that it’s inconvenient to have this conversation right outside the police station, and so he decides to simply carry Zhao Zi and put him on the bike instead.

“Wah- Ah Fei, save me!”

“Zhao-”

“If you don’t want to die, then don’t interfere!” Jack glares at Shao Fei who’s intending to stop him.

With one hand around Zhao Zi’s waist and the other securing a knot around Zhao Zi’s waist with the jacket around Jack’s middle, he ties Zhao Zi to him. Then he slams his foot down on the accelerator and leaves the precinct quickly.

“Ah Fei! Ah Fei save me, Ah Fei!”

And the cries for help fade away as the bike goes further, and further.

Shao Fei stares at his good friend being kidnapped right outside of the station and it takes him a long while to break out of his trance. Pointing in the direction that Jack and Zhao Zi left in, he asks the Xing Tian Meng leader next to him who’s smiling mysteriously, “When did the both of them get together?”

“Who knows?”

“Hey! You were finding trouble with Jack deliberately earlier, right?”

“He’s a talent, but unfortunately there’s no leash that can hold him, so I obviously had to teach him a lesson. Only then can we use him in the future.”

“Don’t tell me you still want him to work for you”?

Tang Yi laughs and lets the silence speak for itself. Shao Fei gapes at Tang Yi, looking at this handsome but incredibly scheming man.

At Zhao Zi’s house

“Let me go!”

Jack takes advantage of his height to secure Zhao Zi over his shoulders in a fireman’s lift, and only after they’ve entered through the gates and the door does he put Zhao Zi back on the ground.

“Don’t be angry, listen to me-”

“I don’t want to! I don’t want to be used by you!” Zhao Zi presses his hands over his ears, even lifting his leg to kick at the other’s calf bone.

Despite being so skilled at fighting, Jack does not move or retaliate, only tolerating the pain and pulling the angry person before him into his embrace. At the same time, he pinches at Zhao Zi’s chin and angles his head up, forcing a kiss on Zhao Zi.

“Mmm…. mmm…. Go away!” Zhao Zi pushes Jack away for forcing the kiss on him, his eyes red as he glares at him.

“Zhao Li An! Listen to me!”

It’s Jack’s first time seeing the shorty this furious, and even though Zhao Zi’s eyes hold no plausible threat to him, Jack is still properly startled and all he can do is carry Zhao Zi to the counter, trapping him against it.

“...”

Zhao Zi stares at Jack in shock. This is the first time Jack has been so fierce to him.

“I won’t explain myself for what I did in the past. I admit that in this time, there were both truths and lies in the things I said to you, but I’ve never used you! Never!”

“How do I know what you’re saying are truths, and which are lies? Even the Chief I really trusted, even the senior who was so important to me, these people I can’t even trust. Why should I trust you?”

What happened with Captain Shi and Zhou Guan Zhi dealt Zhao Zi a heavy blow, and he even doubted himself, was it him who was naive and had too much faith in human nature? Does he have the right to be a police officer, even? Why is it that the Captain and colleague he had meals with every day, both had other sides to them that he missed?

Jack looks at his shorty who has lost control over his emotions, and emphasizes, “You don’t have to believe in everything else, but there are two things that you have to believe in.”

“What two things?”

“The first is, I like you.”

“And?”

“Second, I stayed because of you. These two things, you better remember them clearly in your heart!”

Zhao Zi looks at Jack with wide eyes and listens as Jack continues to confess to him.

“In the beginning, I was just curious about you, wondering how you could be both so naive and lustful.”

“I’m not!”

“You are, and you even touched me.”

“You’re the one who wanted me to touch!”

“Whatever, anyway, I was totally attracted to you. This is the first time I’ve cared so much about someone else, worried that if I’m not around, are you having your meals properly, worrying if you are lonely by yourself at home, worrying if you are crying in a place I don’t know… So I decided to stay, because I didn’t want to leave you!”

Zhao Zi, seated on the counter, blinks and rubs at his nose. Somehow, everything that Jack is saying strikes all his pain points and he feels like crying.

“If you still don’t believe me, and if you still want me to go, I’ll go. But you have to be prepared, because the moment I leave, you’ll never see me again.”

“You’re lying to me again, right?”

“No, I’m serious. So you have to make the decision. Do you want me to go? Or do you want me to stay?”

“I…”

Jack waits for Zhao Zi’s answer anxiously. This is the first time he is so uncertain about what he’s doing. However, Zhao Zi continues to look downwards, biting at his lips and refusing to speak. Taking Zhao Zi’s silence for rejection, Jack’s shoulders drop in disappointment.

“Forget it, I’ll go…”

The moment he says that, Jack hears the reply he’s been waiting for.

“Stay!”

“Really? You want me to stay? Why?”

“Because…” Zhao Zi’s ears go hot, and he says in a small voice, “I like you.”

The ends of Jack’s mouth curve, and then he’s kissing Zhao Zi’s lips hard.

“Mmmff, Jack... “

Zhao Zi, who was teased by Shao Fei for being single all his life, now realizes that kisses aren’t just like bland honey water, but a really, really sweet chocolate pie that is enough to make his legs go weak. Through the hands cupping the sides of his face, Zhao Zi can feel Jack’s body warmth, and also the way Jack’s fingertips are trembling, just that little bit.

It seems that even for Jack, who always seems to have everything under control and doesn’t understand the meaning of fear, there are also times where he feels insecure. It’s not only just Zhao Zi who is afraid of being rejected.

“What is it?”

As Zhao Zi is trying to hold his laughter in, his shoulders shake so much that Jack notices, and so Jack pulls Zhao Zi over to look at the giggling shorty.

“So you were actually so afraid of me rejecting you?” Zhao Zi stares at Jack, exposing the thoughts the other man was trying to conceal.

The red-haired man pretends to be angry and glares at Zhao Zi, but his eyes are full of adoration as he looks at the source of happiness that the heavens has finally put into his grasp. And only before this person, Jack has no need to lie or hide.

“I was very afraid.”

“Why?”

“Because I didn’t know how I could go back to being the person I was before.”

Jack was once obsessed with the thrill that uncertainty could bring, because he was very confident of his own abilities. As long as he worked hard, he could always obtain the things he wanted. However, with love, he could not be sure of how much Zhao Zi liked him, and there was no guarantee that even with his best efforts, that Zhao Zi would return his affections.

Moreover, once he experienced not having to pretend in front of someone else and letting go of all his defenses, much less having to lie to them, he no longer wants to put his armour back on and go back to the battlefield, where he can trust no one else but himself.

Zhao Zi nods, and then angles his head upwards to look at the man who’s much taller than he is. He says, “I understand, because since you came into my life, I feel like being alone at home is so lonely! It’s not as if I didn’t stay alone before, but now even when I eat, it doesn’t taste as good as when I eat with you, it’s not like…”

“It’s not like the food isn’t exactly the same,” Jack continues for him with a smile.

“Hnn! It really, really is like that.”

“Hold on! Shorty, don’t tell me you realized you like me because you found that the food you were eating tasted bad?”

If that really is the case, then he will be jealous of every food item that ranks before him in the shorty’s heart.

“Of course! What about you? When did you start liking me?”

“I’m not going to tell you.”

“Hey! How can you be like this, it’s not fair, I told you my answer!”

“You really want to know?”

“I do.”

“Then…”

“Ah!”

Jack suddenly picks Zhao Zi up in his arms and walks over to the dining table next to them, putting the shorty on the surface of the table. Then he begins to unbutton Zhao Zi’s shirt.

“Let me eat first, and then I’ll tell you the answer.”

Zhao Zi’s face turns hot, and he looks down, shy, “If you’re hungry… then… then go have supper…”

His smile oozing charm, Jack turns to the side and steals a kiss from the corner of Zhao Zi’s lips, “My supper is you - Zhao. Li. An!”

“But I’m not tasty.”

“Tasty or not, I’ll let you know what I think after I’ve eaten, so… let me first take off the packaging.”

“But…”

“Shhh!” Jack smirks, then presses his face against the side of Zhao Zi’s ear and says softly, “Didn’t your grandma teach you, when someone is eating you, you’re not supposed to talk?”

“No,” the honest and innocent Zhao Zi answers after actually considering the question. He shakes his head and clarifies, “Why can’t I talk?”

“Because…”

Fingers unbutton the last of the buttons on the shirt and Jack’s hands guide Zhao Zi’s arms out of the shirt’s sleeves. When Zhao Zi is finally half naked seated on the dining table, Jack continues, “Because when other people are busy ‘eating’ you, all you need to do is to moan nicely.”

Suddenly, Jack crouches down and moves towards the soft bumps on Zhao Zi’s chest, then bites down on one.

“Ah-”

Startled, Zhao Zi glares at Jack. No one has ever done this to his nipples. Jack is lightly biting on them. It stings a little, but more than that, whatever he is feeling right now he feels it strongly, but is unable to put into words.

“Jack…”

“Hmm?” Jack responds to Zhao Zi who is experiencing this for the first time, in a deep, nasal tone.

“It’s… It’s so weird…” 

Not only is Zhao Zi’s face hot now, both of his ears are scalding hot too.

“It’s tasty,” the person with his head bent low mumbles, and then Jack begins to tease at the hard nipple he was lightly biting at with the tip of his tongue.

“Mmm...hmmm”

It feels really weird. Not only does the area where Jack is attacking feels weird, even a more embarrassing part of him is beginning to rise, and he’s feeling both uncomfortable and good at the same time.

Jack grins and enjoys the way Zhao Zi is reacting to him. He releases the pressure on Zhao Zi’s chest and the moment Zhao Zi relaxes, Jack immediately goes after the other nipple, continuing to use his teeth and tongue to bully the pitiful and soft little thing.

“Ah-hah… Jack!”

Angling his eyes downwards Zhao Zi can now clearly see the bumps shining with spit, and the usually soft area is now both red and hard from Jack’s ministrations. Even the soft tip has swollen into a little ball.**

“So delicious,” Jack finally looks up to appreciate his work.

“Look! It’s so red now!”

Zhao Zi looks down at his chest, and both his left and right sides have been bitten until they’re both red and swollen, and it feels itchy too. He cannot resist but scratch at the bumps, but then he hears Jack swallow and make a ‘sssss’ sound.

“What’s wrong?”

“Shorty, it seems that I’ve underestimated you, after all.”

“Huh?”

Jack then grabs onto the bewildered man’s hand, dragging it to the lower half of his body. That’s when Zhao Zi realizes, where the denim is hugging taut around something, Jack’s member is obviously hard.

“You-”

Zhao Zi is too embarrassed to continue speaking, and the skin from his face all the way to his neck flushes entirely red.

“It’s all your fault, so you better take responsibility.”

“Huh?”

“This is the first time I’ve gotten so hard so quickly, and…”Jack smirks and moves to Zhao Zi’s ear, and with a warm exhale, he continues, “And wet.”

[I’m skipping the rest of the smut scene! Sorry guys think you’ll have to find alternative sources for the translation of this part.]

“So tired…” Zhao Zi pants as he lies on the wooden dining table. Looking at Jack who’s pressing down on him, he grins, silly.

“What is it?”

“Am I… tasty?”

“You are. You are very tasty,” Jack grins and gives Zhao Zi his highest compliments.

Jack then carries his lover to the second floor and helps Zhao Zi to wash away the remnants of their lovemaking, before putting him on their bed.

“Hey… Will you still leave next time?”

“Since you’ve asked me to stay with so much passion, I wouldn’t be a man if I left you,” Jack’s hands move over Zhao Zi’s body under the blankets covering the both of them.

“Don’t… I’m so tired…”

Zhao Zi dives into Jack’s embrace, closing his eyes. Staring at Zhao Zi’s face, Jack looks as if he’s about to confess to him again.

“I’ve never thought so much about anything, until I met you. In the past, I always thought that settling down was such a boring thing as that kind of life would be stagnant without change, and only thrill and excitement could fulfill me, could make me feel alive. You made me realize that a normal life is happiness, so… shorty, be prepared! Don’t you ever think of leaving me.”

Jack presses a kiss to Zhao Zi’s forehead, and softly says, “Goodnight.”

He doesn’t realize that Zhao Zi hasn’t fallen asleep. The shorty smiles happily and sinks into his dreams.

Outside the courthouse

Shao Fei holds onto Tang Yi’s hand before the courthouse, and ignoring the looks of everyone around them, gazes at Tang Yi.

“After you go in, don’t refuse to talk to people.”

“Why are you saying this for no reason?”

“If people talk to you, don’t just keep quiet, and don’t ignore them.”

It was a different society in prison with its own laws and rules, and Shao Fei didn’t want Tang Yi to have any accidents inside.

“Hnn,” Tang Yi agrees, nodding.

“You’re no longer the boss when you go in, and I know you will find it hard to get used to, but tolerate it. If you don’t cause any trouble, you’ll be out in no time.”

“Hnn.”

“I’ll come see you every week, if you’ve got anything you need, let me know.”

“Hnn.”

“And one last thing…”

“What?”

Shao Fei chuckles, and says, “Don’t miss me too much.”

“Sorry, this is the only thing I cannot do.”

Hugging the lover he’s about to separate from tightly, Tang Yi suddenly feels anxious.

“Don’t worry, I’ll wait for you on the outside, no matter how long you’re in there for,” Shao Fei promises, tearing through Tang Yi’s facade of calm as he pushes himself away from Tang Yi’s chest, looking into the eyes of the man who’s about to serve his sentence.

“I’m not worried about this.”

“Please, you are obviously so concerned about this.”

“You’re the only person in the world who thinks so.”

“That’s right! Because I’m the only one who understands you, so…” Shao Fei smiles, and using the words he said to Tang Yi in that dilapidated house in the mountains, he continues, “I’ll keep watching you.”

“You’ll keep watching me?” Tang Yi finally smiles, recalling the night they were hiding on the mountains as he stares at Shao Fei.

“Yes! I’ll keep my eyes on you always, both of them!”

“Okay.”

Still smiling, Tang Yi kisses Shao Fei one last time, before turning and walking towards the courthouse.

“Tang Yi!”

Tang Yi pauses in his footsteps, but doesn’t dare to turn back.

“I’ll miss you.”

Again, Tang Yi moves forward and walks into the courthouse with determination, prepared to face the sentence that is waiting for him.

Facing a future where he is no longer alone!

---

Notes:

*Yan Zheng Qiang is the name of the Interpol chief, you know the one that scolded Shao Fei and then colluded with Jack by the riverside?

[silasnce]

Zombie Apocalypse AU! Shance

< Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 >

Keith pulled a wrapped dagger from the inside of his jacket as soon as the Garrison came into their line of sight. Pidge shrugged off and dug around in her bag as they all slowed to a stop, “We need a game plan. This is a big place, and we have four people now. It wouldn’t be dangerous to split into groups of two and break in on opposite sides.”

She pulled out another pistol and held it out to Shiro, “Here. You’ll go with Hunk. You two are Team Blubber Butt.”

Hunk’s jaw dropped, “Hey!”

“Keith and I will be Team Kickass,” Pidge slipped her goggles to the top of her head.

Shiro rolled his eyes before unloading the mag of the gun to check it out. Hunk huffed, “Why Team Blubber Butt? Why not, like, Team Cool Guys or something?”

“‘Cause it’s Shiro’s first mission with us,” Pidge threw him a smirk.

“It’s not my first mission!” Hunk groaned, “C’mon, Pidge!”

“Fine. Fine,” Pidge slipped the army bag back over her shoulders, the tablet now in her hands, “You’ll be Team Knock Knock.”

“Knock knock?” Shiro scrunched his face up.

“Who’s there?” Pidge asked before laughing. Shiro blinked before a few chuckles worked their way out of him.

Hunk just huffed, “Yeah. Yeah. Real funny. Why Team Knock Knock?”

Pidge’s grin grew, “Because you two are going through the front door.”

“What?!” Hunk shouted, “You’re joking! Please, tell me you’re joking! She’s joking. Right, Keith?”

“C’mon, Keith. We’ve got a wall to climb over. Good luck, boys!”

Keith simply shrugged and followed Pidge as she continued towards the Garrison, leaving Hunk and Shiro to figure out what they were going to do on their own.

“We’re screwed,” Hunk groaned.

Shiro patted the other’s shoulder, “We’re not screwed.”

“You saw the entrance on the tablet earlier! There’s zombies all over it!”

“There are,” Shiro smiled, “which is why it’s going to be easy.”

At Hunk’s confused look, Shiro further explained, “I’ve been travelling by myself for a year. You tend to pick up a few things.”

“Okay… How are we going to do it then?”

“Do you trust me?”

“Well, I did,” Hunk rubbed the back of his neck, “but now that you’ve asked me that, I’m starting to question it.”

Shiro laughed, snapping the magazine back into the gun he was given. He cocked it and shot it into the air, the sound echoing loudly around them. Hunk yelped, “What do you think you’re doing?!”

“We need a straggler,” Shiro flipped the safety on and tucked the gun away into his backpack.

“A straggler?! You’re going to draw a horde right to us!”

“You have a bat, right? Thought I saw one with your stuff a couple nights ago.”

“Shiro!”

Shiro glanced over to him, “Do you have a bat or not, big guy? We’re gonna need it.”

Hunk ran his hands through his hair in frustration, taking in a deep breath before letting it out slowly. He then shrugged off the hiking pack he lugged around, flipping it around to his front to pull out a small, wooden bat. Shiro slipped his pocket knife out of his pocket. Then, he pulled up the sleeve on his right arm. Honey brown eyes nearly popped out of Hunk’s head, “What are you doing?!”

Instead of answering, Shiro drew the knife over the flesh of his arm, blood beading along the thin cut. He put his knife up before shaking his arm a bit with a wince, “That should do it.”

“That should do what?! Have you lost your mind?!” Hunk looked two seconds away from having an aneurysm.

“Surprisingly, no,” Shiro shoved his sleeve down as distant footsteps sounded behind his comrade. He took the bat from Hunk and walked past him, heading towards the sound. Hunk could only stare, frozen in fear, as the zombie came into view. It sprinted right for Shiro with an unearthly shriek. Shiro readied the bat, swinging it to rest on his shoulder as he widened his stance. He waited until the undead being lunged the final stretch at him before swinging the bat hard.

A sickening crack resounded in their ears. The zombie crumbled to the ground. Shiro gave the corpse a few more whacks as a precaution before offering the bat back to Hunk. Hunk took it, a gag erupting out of him. He dropped it with another gag, “Dude, I can’t believe you did that.”

“Got a medical kit? I need to cover this cut before any more pass by and get a whiff,” Shiro pulled his sleeve back up to examine the cut. Hunk immediately dropped his bag and turned to dig out his first aid kit. Soon, antibiotic ointment and bandages were being pressed into Shiro’s hands. Shiro quickly patched himself up before handing the medical supplies back to him.

Hunk asked as Shiro fixed his shirt sleeve back into place, “So, why was that necessary?”

“You’re…” Shiro grimaced sympathetically, “not going to like this, but we have to cover ourselves in its scent.”

“Its scent?”

“Yeah,” Shiro averted his gaze, “The zombies at the entrance won’t pay us any mind walking in if we smell like them…”

Hunk’s face paled, “Oh, man…”

The entrance loomed over them as they passed through, deliberately walking slow. Hunk breathed through his mouth, afraid that, if he did so through his nose, he’d puke. Shiro had covered his cheeks, forehead, and arms with the decomposing insides of the zombie he had beaten to death. Shiro led the way through the first entrance leading into the large courtyard. As he had said, the zombies didn’t even turn their way as they shuffled past. Hunk didn’t relax until they stepped inside the building.

He gagged before questioning in a hushed, strained whisper, “Do we have to keep this on the entire time we’re here?”

“It would be ideal,” Shiro responded before asking, “Where do we go from here?”

“Actually, we need to contact Pidge before we do anything,” Hunk dropped his bag and dug out a walkie talkie from one of the many outer pockets. He clicked it on and turned the volume low before pressing the button on the side, “Team Kickass, Team Knock Knock has reached point B. I repeat. Team Knock Knock has reached point B. What’s the next move? Over.”

After a moment, Pidge’s voice crackled through the speaker, “Awesome. Keith and I are heading up to the upper floors and rooftops. You guys take the lower floors and the cafeteria. Be safe. Over and out.”

“Roger. Over and out,” Hunk slipped his bag back onto his shoulders, keeping the communication device in his hand, “You heard her. I vote we look through the instructor lounges and cadet dorms first, then head to the lunchroom.”

Shiro nodded before moving forward through the dark halls. Some of the lights seemed to still work but flickered ominously. Hunk stuck close to Shiro’s side, eyes sweeping their gaze around nervously as they snuck around. They stuck together for a while, going through the lounges with care. Soon, however, they became more comfortable and separated to check the dorms separately in order to quicken their search.

The thirty-fifth room Shiro stepped into was the one that truly caught his attention. Upon keying in the instuctors’ pin to override access to the room, - which he hadn’t had to do for many of the rooms since they were open due to the mad dash people made to escape during the outbreak - it beeped a negative tone and refused to open. He pressed in the keycode again, getting the same response.

“What the hell?” Shiro mumbled before turning to the room Hunk was currently looking through across the hall, “Hunk. This room’s not opening up?”

“One sec,” Hunk shut the drawers he had been digging in before making his way to the door Shiro stood in front of. He looked at the plaque next to the door, and his breath caught, “Oh…”

“Oh?” Shiro’s eyes wandered to the plaque before widening. There on the plaque were listed two names: Cadets Hunk Garrett and Lance McClain. He whispered, “Oh…”

Hunk tapped in a different pin, the doors opening instantly. He swallowed thickly before stepping inside and looking around. The room was exactly how they had left it. Beds were messed. Their photos of friends and families taped to the walls by their bed as well as posters and postcards from home. Shiro followed him in, looking around curiously, as Hunk began grabbing some of the things he left behind before. He started packing them into his bag.

One photo on the wall opposite of what had been Hunk’s side of the room caught Shiro’s attention. He walked over to it, staring at the two boys pictured. One of them was Hunk, and the other…must be Lance. Ocean blue eyes were crinkled from the wide smile the boy was sporting. A party hat was strapped onto Lance’s head. Must’ve been someone’s birthday. His arm was slung around a laughing Hunk who seemed to have cake icing smeared over the side of his face. Hunk’s birthday, maybe? Hunk’s hand came into view and ghosted over the picture, “My best friend. That’s who we’re looking for…”

Shiro shifted his gaze to him, choosing to stay quiet. Hunk continued anyway, “We were actually here when he went missing. Pidge and Keith thought it would be a good idea to look for supplies here since no one in their right minds would set foot in this place since the outbreak, and there might’ve been some good stuff that was left behind. Lance agreed. We planned every step, and we didn’t even…”

He sighed heavily, the weight of the world seeming to settle over his form, “It was easier to get in before. Pidge had poppers. Ya know, those fireworks that are little pellets?”

“Yeah,” Shiro sat down on the edge of Lance’s old bed.

“She used them to distract the zombies to get us all through the front. We split off into two teams. Lance and I were Team Ready to Mingle. Pidge had wanted to call us Team Bubble Blowing Babies, but Lance wasn’t having it,” Hunk laughed softly, “Then, Lance and I ran into a horde in one of the lounges. We ran, but Lance ended up tripping and scraping his hands. You know how zombies are with blood. He made us separate, so he could lead the zombies away. We all made it out. Except for him…”

Hunk sat down beside Shiro, “Keith wouldn’t leave here without running through the place to look for him himself, but it was like Lance never existed. There was no trace of if he was okay or if he escaped. We waited for his tracker to be flipped, but it didn’t light up…”

“Until last week,” Shiro mumbled.

Hunk nodded, “Until last week. A couple days before we ran into you.”

Shiro didn’t know what to even begin to say in order to comfort him. Silence stretched between them. The walkie talkie, which had been moved to Hunk’s pocket, crackled to life, startling them at the sudden noise. Keith’s voice filtered through, “Hunk, I think you should come see this… Bring Shiro.”

Hunk stood and dug out the walkie talkie with trembling hands, tears could be seen just on the edge of his waterline. He took a deep breath before pressing the button to speak, “See what?”

“Lance was here.”

[jungnoir]

one of those days;

park jinyoung | "It’s 2am and I’m drunk and I need some salt for my fries and I know your awake so OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR" neighbor!au. | 1.9k words. | fluff. requested.

When you pull your headphones off for the first time that odd Tuesday night, you’re surprised to find that something loud and heavy is hitting your front door in quick succession, not seeming to let up even as you stare dumbfounded at the oak door in silence. It was late, way late, and none of your friends in their right mind would be awake right now and banging on your front door like a crazy person. Any friends of yours with eyes still open right now were on the other side of your computer screen, currently fighting dungeon trolls while you were on pause to get a cup of water. Whoever this was, you were almost certain that you didn’t know them.

Grabbing the nearest object to you, you find that it’s your gaming championship trophy sitting close to the front door, where whatever strange fate awaited you. There was no telling who could possibly be banging down your door at two in the morning, but you were prepared to bash their skull in if they tried anything funny.

Standing on your tippy-toes, you level your eye to the peephole and look through, and find yourself thoroughly shocked at the head of pitch black hair within your view. In seconds, you’re yanking your front door open with a sheepish smile, “J-Jinyoung, what brings you here so late at night?” Shit. I was probably yelling too loud during that last scuffle with the demon pirates.

Park Jinyoung was, for lack of a better word, cranky. He was your next door neighbor, and frequently brought up any and all complaints he had against you (which weren’t few and far in between, mind you) whenever he felt the need. The most you knew was that he was a personal assistant for some really high-up dude at a stuffy office downtown, and he would often have to get up at four a.m. just to beat the traffic to get to work. You’d hear his soft, operatic singing in the shower stall across from yours, and you’d know he was ready for work instantly.

He often didn’t make it home until seven, which left you wondering why he wasn’t completely knocked out cold on his comfy bed by now, but with the way he was eyeing you, you had a feeling something was keeping him up. And damn did he reek of alcohol. 

Taking another look, you realized Jinyoung’s eyes were burning red, his skin flushed and puffy, and his hands... holding a plate of fries. They were slightly burnt, too, the poor thing. “Salt.” Is all he says after a few beats of awkward silence.

“...Salt.” You repeat back, and his head nods up and down in a stiff fashion. He holds out his plate of fries to you and you swear you see a tear roll down his cheek when he looks at the fried potatoes, looking none too appealing to you. 

“I... I made fries,” he starts, stating the obvious, “I got home and I dumped half a bag of curly fries into the oven but when I bit into one... it was dry. Tasteless! So I went to the cabinet to get some salt to season them but I was out! I just bought salt the other day and now I’m out! Why does this have to happen to me? Of all days, today is the day I run out of salt. Does God hate me? Is he punishing me for not saying hello to Mrs. Ahn on the fourth floor? I mean, you can’t really blame me, she always says ‘Good Morning’, even when it’s like eight at night! I’ve tried to tell her that morning has long since passed but she does the same thing everyday on repeat and it really grinds my gears-” “Jinyoung, are you drunk?”

The boy stops, halfway through his spiel, and his slightly crazed gaze makes its way to you. He takes a breath and shuts his eyes, exhaling roughly. Then he shakes his head and his usually immaculately styled mane falls into his eyes in an oily mess. “I haven’t slept for more than five hours in the last two days. My boss keeps piling work on me and I can’t even see straight right now so I’m not exactly sure why I went to you instead of Jackson across the hall- no, wait, I do. It’s because you’re always awake.”

You let out a little giggle, but it’s laced with a soft layer of pity that has you removing the plate of fries from his hold and placing it inside your apartment. Much to Jinyoung’s surprise, you hook your hand into his and pull him inside, and his eyes immediately fly around your apartment the moment he enters.

Granted, it’s not the cleanest it could be right now, but it is nicer to be in than his own home.

His home, where everything is in its place and there’s hardly anything homey to decorate with (he still hadn’t collected that last box of his things from his parents’ place), is sometimes so cold that he finds it easier to leave for work everyday. The threat of something cosy and comforting would be far too tempting. 

And your home is just like that. Warm looking, blankets strewn over overly stuffed couches and cute, oddly colored trinkets lining the walls. There are stacks of books along the floors and a pretty impressive entertainment system in your living room, right next to where your desktop sits on your desk. He realizes he’s interrupted you in the middle of something, and he feels the guilt hit him hard, “Were you busy with work? I’m sorry.”

You shake your head with another lighthearted laugh, “Work? I game for fun, man. Though, technically, game review is my job, but it does call for me to be up at all hours of the night testing out said games to their full extent,” you say, and then stop halfway into your apartment to lean in closer to Jinyoung, “don’t tell anyone though, I’m really just playing an RPG right now. My boss has been on my ass about getting this new game finished and I couldn’t care less.” 

Jinyoung’s eyebrows raise some, “You game for a living?”

“’Course,” you grin, releasing him to enter your kitchen. The lights inside are different colors of the rainbow that look oddly attractive, even if they do look extremely inefficient. You fish out a few tupperware bowls from your fridge and a paper plate at the same time as you talk, “it’s why I’m always up gaming. I have a lot of work to do. Fun thing about it is that I rarely have to go to the office, so I’m always just lounging around here.”

Jinyoung watches in awe as you scoop various sides and meats onto the paper plate. He had always assumed you were just some lazy college student mooching off her parents’ money for tuition and living on her own just so she could play games well into the morning hours and be as laid-back as possible. Turned out, he’d been completely wrong.

He can’t stop himself from apologizing, “I’m sorry.”

You’re just popping the plate into the microwave when he says it, the boy looking like a disobedient puppy that had just been reprimanded by its owner. All you can do is smile, shrug, and go back to staring at the microwave. 

The apartment fills with the sounds of multiple electronic beeps a minute or two later before you’re fishing out the plate and wrapping it tight with aluminum foil. He watches as you slip the plate onto the island between you two, gaze warm and... inviting. “I made sure to exclude a slice of the cherry pie I made, since you’re allergic to those.” You remembered that offhanded comment he made from two years ago? He hadn’t even said it to you, rather to Jackson who had offered him a sip of his cherry milkshake. Now that he had thought about it, you were in the hallway when it happened. Hell, he just barely remembered it.

“You like... to cook?” Jinyoung felt awfully bad, what with you remembering he was allergic to cherries, something he hadn’t even told you directly from two years ago, and him not even knowing your own profession. But you sure knew his; he used it as an excuse to complain to you often enough.

“Since I’m always at home, I decided to take up a hobby. It’s a nice thing to do with my hands every now and then, you know? You should come by whenever you’re running low on real food, okay? I make plenty for just a girl who lives alone, and those plastic knock-offs you call french fries can’t hardly be good for you.” Your tone takes on a slightly motherly tint to it that has Jinyoung involuntarily straightening up, much to his embarrassment when you smile. 

He takes the plate with careful hands, feeling the overwhelming swell of stressful emotions he’d been harboring for the last week oozing off his shoulders like mud. Something about being in your comfortable home, smelling your delicious cooking, and being comforted by the friendly smile on your face made Jinyoung feel a whole lot better all of a sudden.

Rubbing at his wet eyes, he put the plate down and pulled you into a hug out of nowhere, his arms wrapping around your shoulders and crushing you to him. On any other day, this would have seriously caught you off guard, but not today. 

You had been seeing Jinyoung’s mood deteriorate for the last few days, his anger catching up to him before his mind could. You tried often not to take it to heart, for you knew he was going through a lot more than he was letting on. All he really needed was a hug. A nice, warm, comforting hug from someone who could take a minute to care.

Your arms held his tall body close, hands rubbing up and down on his cardigan to warm him up some. “Why don’t you call in sick tomorrow, hm? Take the day off just for you. You can even come over again if you want. I’ll show you some good anime to binge, make these bacon-wrapped jalepeno poppers I’ve been dying to try my hand at… what do you think?”

Jinyoung was not close to you, but he wasn’t very far from being considered a friend either. Even if he did often complain about your loud yelling or the music you played on high volume or the stray cats you coaxed toward your balcony (and inevitably toward his to bat down his potted plants every other week), you were also letting his drunk self meander in your kitchen, and you were making him a to-go plate of homemade food to fill him up because you cared. 

You may have been odd, and the very opposite of Jinyoung in every way, but it wasn’t so bad if you allowed him a quick get away from adult life every once in a while. You had preserved a childlike wonder that Jinyoung hadn’t even realized he admired more than he did not. You were a pretty cool person after all.

“Sure. Why not?” It just took a few too many beers and a half bag of unseasoned curly fries to realize that.

[zrtranscripts]

Virtual Race, Fall 2016 (Training Mission #1)

if self == Employee: print shirt()

SAM YAO: [laughs] Barbed wire, electrified fence, spiked wall, and gun turrets. That is a lot of security for a T-shirt factory. What are they printing here, limited edition Articuno shirts? … Janine? That’s a rare Pokemon. I’m saying they must have been making something valuable here.

JANINE DE LUCA: I understood your reference, Mr. Yao. I simply chose not to reply to it. I’m planning our strategy for entering the building.

MAXINE MYERS: Yeah, this is serious. We have three weeks now until Junin 2 season. I don’t want to have to be the one to say this, but the Junin 2 hemorrhagic fever is deadly. Just because we have to deal with zombies now doesn’t mean other diseases have gone away. With no healthcare available, an ordinary flu could kill. And Junin 2 is no ordinary flu. The government only held it at bay last year with the help of Xia-Hifa.

SAM YAO: Yeah, I remember. Bulletins on the news all the time about Junin 2 safeguards, and “always take your flu mask,” and stuff. But well, everything was fine last year. Just a few isolated cases.

MAXINE MYERS: We warded it off. Mass mosquito spraying, rapid isolation, and treatment of infected people. But it’s going to come back, zombie apocalypse or not. We know Xia-Hifa were holding their vaccine to ransom for tax credits from the government, and we need it. So I got to ask, Janine: isn’t there a more direct way to get hold of the vaccine than T-shirts?

JANINE DE LUCA: Unfortunately not, Doctor. Six teams have tried to get into Xia-Hifa Biologics to retrieve the vaccine. Six teams have failed. But each of them has given us valuable intelligence. We know that one of our team members must pose as a new employee with Xia-Hifa in order to pass through the security systems.

SAM YAO: Yeah, so that’s you, Runner Five. Your body and biometrics most closely matched an employee we found on their new hires database. We think we can fudge it. But you need one of their special biometric T-shirts. So uh, yeah. That’s why all the security outside the factory.

MAXINE MYERS: Xia-Hifa Biologics protected themselves well. Even now their employees are dead, their protective measures are still working. Every bit of their system was automated. It just keeps going even though the people are dead.

JANINE DE LUCA: We have a window in the security camera sweeps in ten, nine…

MAXINE MYERS: So we’re running for the electrified fence?

JANINE DE LUCA: Which I will deactivate.

SAM YAO: And then climbing the wall, and then just running.

JANINE DE LUCA: Two, one, go. Now! Go!

[fence rattles]

SAM YAO: Okay, okay. Everyone’s inside the perimeter fence, and we haven’t set off the alarms. And the previous team has left the building’s door open, so that’s good news.

JANINE DE LUCA: We have to keep watching out for those alarms, Mr. Yao. Xia-Hifa was totally independent as to power. All buildings related to their operations use solar, wind, and other renewable sources. It’s one of the many challenges relating to this extraction.

SAM YAO: The other being that their defense systems are still working?

JANINE DE LUCA: We suspect so, yes. The automatic defense system has been partially corrupted. It’s not accepting its fail-safe override codes. Previous teams have sent us the message that you must be recognized as a Xia-Hifa employee to be allowed to access the lower levels of the building. As well as that puzzling last message about the importance of bringing a laser targeter. 

Believe me, Runner Five, if there were any way to retrieve that vaccine that did not involve putting you on the employee roll, I would have found it. We are all here to do our duty.

MAXINE MYERS: Okay, so, what’s the plan?

JANINE DE LUCA: Runner Five, you will enter the building through the main door and follow the signs to Xia-Hifa employee center. The system should recognize you as a new employee. The rest of us will enter through the side door and take up positions as workers in this facility. Mr. Yao, you will be at the far end of the building on the T-shirt electronics. Dr. Myers, you will be on the upper gantry keeping watch. I will be scouting the building for trouble. Runner Five, you will be running. We will communicate via headset. If all goes according to plan, we should be able to issue you with your regulation T-shirt.

SAM YAO: And if it doesn’t go to plan?

JANINE DE LUCA: It will go to plan. Runner Five? Main entrance, now. Run!

[soothing music plays]

COMPUTER: Welcome, new employee, to Xia-Hifa Biologics, “winning the human race.” We’re so glad you’ve joined the team, ERROR: EMPLOYEE NAME NOT FOUND. Every employee at Xia-Hifa is an individual. We are here to assess your unique gifts and push you to attain your highest possibility. For that reason, please follow the path lined with blue lights as quickly as possible. This will help us assess your energy and commitment. Go!

SAM YAO: I’ve heard about this test, Runner Five. They want to see that you’re an energized employee. You have to move as fast as you can. Now, run!

[computer whirs and beeps]

COMPUTER: Your biometric scan is complete, ERROR: EMPLOYEE NAME NOT FOUND. Well done! Your enthusiasm and energy scores are among the highest recorded. We’re intrigued by you.

SAM YAO: All right! All right, that’s good. Great, okay. Uh, Janine, what next?

JANINE DE LUCA: Next, the computer will tell Runner Five to -

COMPUTER: Please wait patiently while we analyze your data.

[zombies groan]

SAM YAO: Uh, did everyone else hear zombie noises just then? I’m by the T-shirt printing machine. I can’t see anything.

JANINE DE LUCA: Are you sure you didn’t imagine it, Mr. Yao?

MAXINE MYERS: Uh, no. I’m on the upper gantry, and uh, I think this T-shirt factory wasn’t just used by Xia-Hifa.

JANINE DE LUCA: That’s right. They also did some commercial printing in a separate area of the building.

MAXINE MYERS: Wedding T-shirts? Hen nights? Maybe they did tours when you’d come and see your T-shirt being printed.

JANINE DE LUCA: Possibly?

MAXINE MYERS: Runner Five, there are seventeen zombies breaking through the partition wall. They must have been trying for a while, but they’ve got in now. I think they were, uh – yup. Yup. I’ve got it on my binoculars. Um, they were all on “Sandeep’s hen party, last chance to go wild.”

SAM YAO: Wow. That was painfully accurate.

JANINE DE LUCA: Dr. Myers, help me track the location of the zombies and I will dispatch them.

COMPUTER: Please wait patiently while we analyze your data.

[door bursts open, zombies growl]

SAM YAO: Now, I’m just going to suggest, Runner Five, that we try a new strategy. Don’t wait patiently. The employee orientation center is along that path lined by red lights. Just go there. Run!

[zombies growl]

SAM YAO: Um, Janine? Janine, come in.

JANINE DE LUCA: Mr. Yao, there seem to be more of these zombies than anticipated.

MAXINE MYERS: Janine just got one with a… is that a stapler? Did you kill a zom with a stapler, Janine?

JANINE DE LUCA: A professional grade stapler, not a desk stapler.

MAXINE MYERS: Wow, who’s hen night was this? That one looks like she was a pro wrestler in her pre-apocalypse life. Look at those muscles in her shoulders, wow!

SAM YAO: Maxine, are you eyeing up the zombies?

MAXINE MYERS: I uh, have varied tastes, Sam. But yeah, I’m… but only if she weren’t dead, which she is. It’s been a while, Sam.

JANINE DE LUCA: Mr. Yao, are you ready to activate the T-shirt manufacture? Runner Five is about to pass Point Q on the plan.

SAM YAO: Ready!

COMPUTER: Welcome, new employee. We will now create your special wardrobe, to be worn around Xia-Hifa at all times. Your supervisor will enter your details into the system now.

JANINE DE LUCA: Mr. Yao, that’s you. Press the button to begin the process.

[alarm sounds]

COMPUTER: Unauthorized entry in wardrobe manufacture process.

SAM YAO: Oh God! Janine, I think one of Sandeep’s hen party has got herself wedged in the machine. She looks like she fell over on some sprayed whipped cream. I’ve got to get her out of there.

JANINE DE LUCA: Runner Five, go and help him. I’ll deal with the zombies.

MAXINE MYERS: Be quick. The zombies are being attracted by that siren.

[party poppers pop, zombies growl, glass shatters]

SAM YAO: Wow! That’s a good one, Five. Thank goodness they were carrying all those bottles of champagne. And another headshot! I can’t believe that one’s still letting off its party poppers. Is it possible for a zombie to be pissed? Like, if it was pissed when it died?

COMPUTER: New employee, you have only 216 seconds to complete employee registration or your biometric measurements will be voided.

SAM YAO: Oh, crap. Five, we’ve dealt with these zoms now. You need to be in position over there in that area lit up with green lights when they deliver the T-shirt. Go, quickly! I’ll sort it out at this end. Run!

[machine creaks]

JANINE DE LUCA: What’s that sound, Mr. Yao?

SAM YAO: Um, I think maybe we didn’t get all the zombie bits out of the machine. It’s sort of uh, smoking.

[bell rings]

COMPUTER: T-shirt printing complete, RUNNER FIVE.

MAXINE MYERS: You gave the machine the name “Runner Five”?

SAM YAO: I panicked!

COMPUTER: Welcome to Xia-Hifa. This shirt is biometrically coded to you alone. Unauthorized wearers will face defensive measures.

MAXINE MYERS: Defensive measures?

COMPUTER: Your speed and agility in completing your orientation have been noted. You have qualified for a further round of testing. ANNIE can’t wait to meet you!

[fire alarm sounds]

SAM YAO: That sounds sinister.

COMPUTER: Fire detected. Automatic lockdown of the building in 500 seconds.

JANINE DE LUCA: We need to get out of here now. Everyone to the rendezvous point. I hope you understand what this means: we’ve destroyed that T-shirt printing machine. If we don’t get into Xia-Hifa and pick up the vaccine for Junin 2, no one else will be able to, and the virus will emerge again, and then humanity really will be sunk. We’re the last hope.

[askfrankpritchard]

Happy Late New Years

She sat in her cockpit waiting for the person on the other end of the infolink to pick up. It rings four times before it stops. “Hey Malik! Ready to get the show on the road?” “I'll be down there in five David, see you then.” The infolink clicked off and Malik adjusted into her seat as she readied the VTOL for flight. She quickly glanced at three small photos on her control board. The first was a young woman in her 20’s with a blond bob and a warm smile. Malik smiled back as she remembered her days with Evelyn Carmichael. The next one beside it was a picture of a well groomed Adam Jensen about to go make a speech. He tried his best not to fumble while speaking. The last one was a blurry photo of Frank that she managed to sneak while Adam distracted him. They were so close to a perfect photo. “We’re coming for ya lazy boy,” she booped it and adjusted her headset. She landed her VTOL and opened the side door so David could climb in. He hopped on with two Vintage Champagnes under his arm wrapped in a light cloth. “I brought some spirits for when the occasion arises,” David paused to sneeze, ”I hope they're to your tastes.” “Gesundheit and you better not drink those in the VTOL, you know how I like to keep it clean.” Malik warned him. “So where is this place he’s staying in? All you’ve told me is that it's abandoned and rundown.” David inquired. “It's an old decrepit school that was torn down not too long ago. And from the looks of it the roof will cave in. I'll have to land nearby…” Malik lands in some nearby open space right next to the rotting building. She walks around until she finds tons of wires  and the soft glow of light coming from what was supposedly the band room. She walks in to see Pritchard snoozing on his old leather couch in need of a shave and a week's worth of sleep just by looking at the bags under his eyes. Malik creeps up and gently shoves him just enough to make him freak out and sit up spastically. “Malik, what the hell are you doing here? How did you even find me?” “With magic Frank, now hurry up and get up! Let's get you out of this dump, it's New Year!” “I wasn't planning on going anywhere today if you hadn't noticed,” Malik offers her hands to help Frank stand up as he popped his back and accepted the gesture. “And that's why we’re here, now come on!” She started to drag him away and he stumbled a few times trying to get his shoes adjusted. “Wait, we’re? Who else?” Malik gave no answer and just dragged him on. On their way out, Frank swatted at the light panel to turn off everything and lock the door. “Don't you think the lasers are a bit too much?” Malik questioned glancing back briefly at the mentioned lasers then at the scruffy man. “Well that depends, would you like it if a bunch of looters with shotguns waltzed in and demanded everything you own? I think not. Where are you taking me Malik?” He asked quite rudely. “You always ask so many questions Mr. Paranoid, but to answer your question, I'm taking you to my VTOL.” “Oh how specific.” Emphasizing on the last word. “Just shut up and trust me.” Malik hadn't meant it to sound mean, but he can be a bit stubborn sometimes. “Your chariot awaits,” joked Faridah as she gestured toward her VTOL. The side door of the B-EE slid opened to reveal a dashing CEO crossing his legs and waving at Frank. “Happy New Years, son!” David cheerfully said as he patted the cushioned seat beside him. “Well doesn't this feel familiar. Coming out of a dingy hell hole to be seated next to a CEO who's crazy enough to offer me a job.” He ducked inside and plopped down wincing a bit from the lack of cushion. Cheap seats. “What do you want me to do today?” Frank said in an almost practiced tone. “I'm hurt Frank, but that's not why I'm here.” “Oh goodie, so what was the reason?” “To get you out of that dump and celebrate New Year's with us!” He handed Frank a wine glass he had hidden then reached under the seat for the Champagne de Prestige and right as he was about to open it Malik came on the coms. “You better not be opening that sticky liquor inside of a moving  aircraft and especially not inside of my VTOL.” She signed off with an angry click, but not before another announcement, “ETA is five minutes. I'm sure you can wait that long.” “Well you heard her Frank. We’re just going to have to wait to celebrate.” David huffed as he put the bottle back. The VTOL landed on a helipad with a bump. The heavy doors sliding open as a gust freezing wind came gliding by. “Let's hurry inside. An old man like me shouldn't be out in the cold like this.” David chuckled. Frank hugged his jacket closer scrunching up as he followed David to a door that led inside to an apartment complex. Malik followed just behind as they descended two flights of stairs arriving at a dark wood door. David mumbled under his breath while typing in the code, “Oh,...4...5..1.” Beep beep beep. He pushed the door open and guided his guests inside. “Welcome Frank to your new home! Sally, play some music for us.” An A.I. voice came on softly, “Certainly.” A calm and slow jazz played quietly as David pulled out the twin vintage wines and scrounged around for glasses. “My /what/?” Frank stood there dumbfounded as David handed a glass to him and Malik. “A real place to live in, son.” He struggled to open the bottle. “Because,” Malik butted in, “ living in an old torn apart school with the roof nearly falling on your head is not good for our favourite handsome hacker.” She changed her tone at the end as if speaking to a cute baby. Malik quickly pinched his cheek and Frank just as quickly moved his head away. Trouble is brewing as David is still trying to open the bottle. “Frank, don't play this game with me. Just let me pinch your cheek!” Moving even quicker than before, she managed to graze him as he took a few steps back. “Malik please, you should know that's never going to w-” There was a loud pop and a shout of approval that came from David. “I got the slick thing to open! Now we can toast.” He poured each of them a fizzling glass as they clanked together. “To the New Years!” “To- how am I going to pay rent?” The question Frank meant to ask earlier but got distracted by Malik. “The first three months have been cleared for you, so you either have to find better freelance jobs or you could work for TF-29 that is deployed here in Detroit.” David suggested as he handed Frank some official looking papers. “These should help with nailing you that job.” Frank set them under a brighter light in the living room to get a better look at them. “I... don't know what to say…,” He spoke quietly, “Tch, how cliché” Malik noticed that Frank was choking up and on the verge of tears. “Welcome home you nerd,” she slugged an arm around Pritchard, “And to a new beginning!” Malik cheered as they all raised their glasses and drank. “David, this is sparkling grape juice.” Malik teased. “I forgot my glasses when I went to the store! All of the labels were blurry.” Suddenly Frank started bawling and sat himself on the bare couch. “Aw Frank! You spilt some of your sparkling grape juice!” Malik ushered over to him and gave him a huge bear hug and wiped some of his tears away. He rubbed his face with his off-white sweater and in between sobs he whispered, “Thank you guys... so much.” “Anything to help an old colleague and friend, Frank. Now let's finish off this kid's liquor before it goes all flat.” “I'm going out to get some real New Year's drinks guys. I'll be back in a few and Frank,” he briefly looks up at Malik, “don't get your sweater soaked.” She winked goodbye as she set off to the nearest store that sold wine. “Now here's some real spirits! Thank you Malik!” David said as he walked out to the patio where Frank sat looking at the fireworks that have gone off early. When the digital clock twitched to twelve they all cheered and filled their wine glasses as an army of fireworks went off. "Happy New Year's," Frank paused to hiccup, "I love you both so much." "I'm cutting you off. We don't need a sobbing AND drunk Pritchard." Malik takes his glass away and sets it far, far, away. "Aww." He hangs his head and fakes some sniffles, "I drank the last of the wine anyways." He turns his head to the noise across the street of some other people cheering and lighting off whizzers and poppers. Malik moves her arms over Frank and David's shoulders and hugs them close. David is half asleep and Frank is genuinely smiling. "You definitely need smile more often. Such a cutie" Frank ends up falling asleep in his new real bed with real matresses and pillows and for once gets a good night rest of sleep. Malik drops David off back at his flat and heads home herself to celebrate in her own time.