A pin drop could probably be heard throughout the lab from the way silence fell across the two scientists when the boy on the floor made another noise, this time sounding distressed. 

“We have to move him,” Heechul said, being the first to realize that the boy’s wounds needed attention. “You have to bring him to the table,” he said, watching Hyukjae’s eyebrows draw together, but there was no other way. Hyukjae, despite having spent the last few years holed up in a lab, was the stronger of the two. The man had muscles like no one’s business— probably from lifting all that heavy machinery all day. 

“Come on, Hyuk, we’ve gotta see if he has any serious injuries,” Heechul urged again, this time pushing Hyukjae forward a little. Hyukjae missed his footing and tripped, but grabbed onto the lab table nearby as he tried to stop himself from stepping on the boy. 

He shot a glare over his shoulder at Heechul who just shrugged before making motions with his hands for Hyukjae to get on with it. 

“You move him and I’ll go grab some supplies from the biology lab next door.”

“You mean steal them?” Hyukjae deadpanned, causing Heechul to wave it off. 

“Borrowing, stealing, it’s all the same thing.” With that he left to go get whatever kind of supplies he was talking about. 

Hyukjae was still caught up in a trance. Not yet wrapping his head around what was going on, the closed off scientist, who didn't tolerate people too much, just went along with Heechul’s instructions and stooped down next to the boy. 

Hyukjae was hesitant to touch him, but did it anyways since he didn't want an angry Heechul breathing down his neck when he got back. So he scooped up the boy, not really paying attention to his face as he more focused on how weird the body felt in his arms. Hyukjae imagined this is what it would feel like if he was holding a dead person he’d just killed. The thought had him cringing, but luckily Heechul came back just in time to yell at him. 

“Watch his head!” Heechul said, pointing out the fact that Hyukjae had somehow neglected the boy’s head so that it was lolling off to the side completely unsupported by Hyukjae’s hands. Hyukjae didn't know what Heechul expected him to do about that, though, so instead he rushed over quickly to settle the boy down onto the table top where Heechul was setting his supplies down on. 

Hyukjae went to lay the boy down on the table, but he must’ve done something wrong again because Heechul snapped at him, “Be gentle!”

Hyukjae didn't know what Heechul meant; he hadn't dropped the boy or anything, but he tried to move much more slowly this time as he settled the boy on the clear countertop. Heechul had managed to grab a stethoscope and a medical kit from the other lab. 

After that, Heechul pretty much ignored Hyukjae as he got to work on the boy, first checking his vitals then moving on to patching up the bruises and slight burn marks covering his body. 

Heechul did all the work much without Hyukjae’s help as the scientist hovered off to the side, staring quiet blankly at the boy, still not fully wrapping his head around all that was going on. 

“Thankfully he was just a little bruised up,” Heechul said after he'd finished wrapping the last gauss around the boy's leg. He pulled off the stethoscope and started repacking the first aid kit. “Everything seems to be in check. Now we just have to wait for him to wake up.”

Hyukjae nodded mechanically, only half listening to Heechul. His mind was busy in other places. 

His machine had worked! All those years, those stressful nights and disappointing days, he’d finally done it! 

For the second time today, Heechul couldn't understand the reason behind Hyukjae’s growing smile. 

“Hyukjae,” he called, getting the scientist’s attention. 

“Heechul, do you realize what’s happened? We have to call the board and let them know!” Hyukjae exclaimed, getting an excited look on his face, almost as if the fact that there was a boy lying on the table had gone right over his head. 

Heechul’s eyebrows knitted together. “And tell them what?” he asked slowly, watching as Hyukjae moved excitedly over to his desk to grab his cellphone. 

“We have to tell them the project works! I can’t believe it, things are finally going right,” Hyukjae explained, already looking through his contacts for the main office of the research board. But Heechul, realizing something Hyukjae didn’t, ran over to grab the phone. 

Hyukjae’s face contorted in confusion when Heechul held up his hand for Hyukjae to give him a chance to explain. 

“I know that you’ve just broken the science world and everything, but you need to wait a minute and think things out before you make any rash decisions. For one thing, the kid—”

“What rash decisions? Do you not understand what this means for us?!” Hyukjae asked, getting angry that Heechul seemed so blinded by some boy they didnt even know the name of. 

Heechul sighed, putting a hand against his mouth as he stared at the tiles, trying to think of a way to explain himself so that Hyukjae would understand and not get upset. 

“Hyuk, I hate to break it to you, but if you go to the board now, your story might not add up.”

“What do you mean?” Hyukjae demanded, narrowing his eyes. 

“Think about it, you can go claiming that your time machine worked, but all you have to show for it is is broken piece of junk and some kid that we don’t know anything about yet. To the board, this could all seem staged.” Heechul grew nervous as he watched Hyukjae process what he’d just said.

It only took a second before Hyukjae blew up. “But it did happen! You can’t stand there and tell me that everything we’ve done, all the hopes we had for the future of our invention to do something good for the world, is ruined all because of some glitch that ended up bringing some useless kid to us!”

“Hyukjae, calm down, you might wake him up,” Heechul said trying to get Hyukjae to quiet down, but Hyukjae only got angrier by the way his mouth twisted into a snarl as his eyes darted back to the boy laying on the table. 

“He’s the cause of all this!” He shouted suddenly, pointing a finger at the boy. He gestured wildly around the lab as if to emphasize his point. His machine was gone, three years of hard work gone down the drain, and all due to some random kid?

From across the room, the time machine gave one last dying hiss, drawing Hyukjae’s attention over to it. His breath was coming shorter now from the way he was getting worked up, and Heechul went over to guide him into a chair. 

“Stop jumping to conclusions and just calm down. I know this might be overwhelming right now, but we shouldn't be making any decisions tonight when everything’s still so confusing. What if we just call it a night and when our heads have maybe cleared a little in the morning, we can come up with a better solution, ok?” 

Hyukjae took a few deep breaths, attempting to reason with what Heechul was saying. But his mind wanted so badly to do something. His invention had finally worked and now there was nothing that could be done about it. That thought infuriated him, but a pat on the shoulder had him looking up. 

“Don’t loose hope in this, I’m just saying that maybe we should make sure our ducks are all in a line before we present them to other people,” Heechuk advised, watching the fire ease a little in Hyukjae's eyes before Hyukjae let out a frustrated sigh. 

“Fine.” Hyukjae glanced at the boy behind Heechul, resisting the urge to get riled up again. “But what are we going to do with the kid?” 

“You’re going to have to take care of him for the night.”

That might’ve been the wrong thing to say to Hyukjae, though, who shot up from his seat in a panic. Hyukjae quite honestly had no faith that he could properly care for another human being, especially someone h