#and the grace brothers 🥺😌 hehehe

[deiaiko]

#20.7 Reason

The day passed by slowly for Agni. Grace had left to show Bam around the ship, and Agni had already become bored after playing three rounds of a racing game with Gyetang. He excused to feed Velt and let her out of the lighthouse bowl, leaving Gyetang to play on his own. Then he went off to read.

Grace and Bam came back about an hour later, and they decided to make dessert together to pass the time. Agni couldn't help but watch them enjoy themselves; it was a nice view in contrast to what Agni had with his younger self. At least Grace was in a far better mood than he was an hour ago, so Agni was glad for him.

His thoughts stopped when Grace locked eyes with him. Grace smiled upon noticing his stare, which Agni returned after restarting his brain. A few moments later, Grace walked up to him, delivering a cup of chamomile tea and leaving a lingering touch on his shoulder before going back to the kitchen.

Agni took a sip to hide his blush. The sweet aroma and warmth soothed him, and the sweet taste with a hint of mint was pleasant on his mouth. After letting out some steam when playing games, relaxing when solving riddle books, and keeping his mind from wandering to unnecessary places, he realized that he was also feeling much better himself.

He stole glances now and then to the Grace brothers who were still in the kitchen across, now seemingly getting bothered by Velt. He felt a smile tugging on his lips from watching their antics. It was such an unusual yet nice view. To think of how much Grace had grown, to see the stark differences and the similarities with Bam, and to be the lucky person that Grace fell in love with… Agni quickly looked away when Grace met his eyes again, somehow feeling embarrassed at such a cheesy thought. He summoned his lighthouse and began working to keep his brain occupied.

Dan and Novick announced their return some time later, joining Grace and Bam in the kitchen to put groceries away. Agni focused his hearing to make out what they were saying.

"Hello! Are you Viole? Gyetang told us you're visiting." Dan extended his hand to Bam. "My name's Dan, and this is Novick. We've heard a thing or two about you."

Agni tuned out their conversation when the electric eels that Dan had brought along finally made themselves visible, hovering near Agni to demand attention and seek for food. So Agni got up and refilled their pellet bowl, then went to sit in the cafeteria to listen better to the conversation happening in the kitchen.

"So…other than Hyung and Mr. Agni, none of you are FUG?"

"Nope," Dan replied.

"And you're okay with it?"

'Living together with FUG members.' Agni supplied Bam's unspoken sentence in his mind.

"It was a shocking revelation when they told us," Novick commented. "Because Agni is clearly from the Khun family and Grace didn't seem like a guy who would join a criminal organization."

"Yes. Exactly." Dan emphasized the syllables to make his point. "Though they told us that they joined FUG so they could keep an eye on someone named Bam."

"Not 'keeping an eye', Dan. You make it sound like I'm keeping him on a leash." Grace immediately refuted. "I'm here to look out for him, to keep him company. And by the way, this is Bam."

"Huh." Agni imagined the gear on Dan's brain halted for a second before resuming. "Wait…so Viole and Bam are the same person?"

Right. Dan, Novick and Gyetang had heard the name Viole from Hwaryun or Jinsung when they came for a visit, and the team probably had known that Viole was FUG's newest slayer candidate. However, the name Bam was only used by him and Grace, and they never really talk much about him in public.

"Yes. Viole is the name that FUG gave him, while Bam is his name before that."

"Oh, then…should we…?"

"Viole is fine," Bam assured. "I don't mind either way."

It piqued Agni's interest, so he looked their way and saw Grace giving Bam a slightly surprised glance, but giving no further question.

Then they agreed to call him Viole, since they were already used to hearing that name.

"Wait!!" Dan flicked his fingers and pointed a finger gun to Grace, "It makes so much more sense now! So I assume Viole got kidnapped by FUG. If you can't get him out, then you're the one who went in, so that you can look out for your brother."

'They really do look like brothers now, don’t they?' Agni smiled at the thought. He wondered if Khun would one day consider him as one, too.

"Really, Hyung?" Bam gave Grace his puppy eyes.

"You didn't choose to be part of FUG. They gave you no choice." Grace patted Bam's back and squatted to check on the oven. "The least I can do is make it bearable."

Bam only stood there. "Why?" 

'Why are you doing this?' Was what Agni thought Bam wanted to ask.

"Why not?" Grace unlocked the oven and the delicious aroma of garlic bread filled the room. "I was you, once upon a time. You reminded me of myself, of the things that I've lost. All my regrets, it feels like I can fix them this time by helping you. So if you can live better than I have, it will make me feel more at ease."

Agni sipped his tea, finding the idea amusing. For him, he'd be more at ease knowing that their team had a better chance of survival, which also aligned with Grace's goal of keeping everyone alive. But in order to do that, they'd have to get through hellish training, and it had to be done if they wanted things to turn out differently. Which, in Agni's opinion, didn't count as living better. But Grace's definition of living better was different from his, knowing how much Grace treasured his friends. Working and training hard, coming back bruised black and blue and bloodied, sometimes close to passing out, was a small price to pay for him.

Masterlist

Previous

Next

Let me know your thoughts in the reblogs <3

☕ Buy me coffee ☕