It wasn't particularly difficult fitting in with the other members of Guernica––of course, Youngjae had Junhong and Daehyun there––but Youngjae wasn't the most sociable person; there was a reason his only friends were Jieun and Junhong (and maybe Daehyun). He sat at the table, his hands in his lap as the others talked amongst themselves and Daehyun cooked in the adjoining room, presumably the kitchen. It was only moments before when Youngjae realized just how hungry he was.

"So," Junhong started, and it took Youngjae a moment to realize that Junhong was talking to him, "what's going on back in the city?"

Youngjae shrugged almost apathetically in his fatigue. "Not much. Some celebrities began dating. Some soccer team won the championship. Not a lot you'd be into, really. No riots either, if that's what you meant, though."

Junhong laughed, the sound echoing pleasantly against the walls and his head tipped backwards. "Good to know you haven't changed while I was gone."

"What's in the duffel?" Himchan suddenly asked, his eyes wandering to Youngjae's bag beside Daehyun's knapsack sitting on the other table.

Youngjae blinked, turning around to follow Himchan's gaze. "Oh, uh, just some of my...stuff. And a robot."

"Robot?" Yongguk asked cautiously. His eyes narrowed, making him more intimidating than usual.

"Y-yeah," Youngjae replied, standing up from his seat to fetch the duffel. He felt conscious of all the eyes on him, but he willed himself to ignore the tense feeling.

Within moments, Youngjae had the duffel bag open and pulled the spherical robot out. Almost immediately, the entire room was screaming for him to put the thing away. Eyes wide, Youngjae stared at the four who stared back, their own eyes wide with panic and mild horror.

"Why the do you have that?!" Yongguk roared. He stood up, the anger practically flowing off of him in waves.

Yongguk circled around the table to Youngjae, and grabbed him by the collar, lifting him up until his toes were just barely brushing the floor. In utter shock, Youngjae looked to Junhong for help, but the younger had a look of fear on his face. And there was something else Youngjae saw: betrayal. Why, hyung? Junhong seemed to ask. Youngjae caught glimpses of Jongup and Himchan, but they didn't have any sort of warmth in their expressions anymore.

"How did you get that thing?" Yongguk asked, his voice going dangerously low.

Youngjae felt himself shaking, and the only thought that seemed to stand out against everything else was I'm going to die right here by this man's hand.

"Were you planning to turn us in once you found us?" Yongguk continued. When Youngjae failed to answer, Yongguk opened his mouth to let out another question, but was interrupted.

"Guys, what the hell is going on?" Daehyun slowly asked, his hands carrying a large bowl of food; the curtain covering the doorway swished behind him. When he saw Yongguk and Youngjae, he hurriedly placed the bowl on the table, pried Yongguk's hands off Youngjae, and stood in between the two, acting as a protective wall in front of Youngjae. "Yongguk, what happened?"

"Explain to me what that is, Daehyun, because our new 'recruit' brought it in with him," Yongguk replied, pointing to the robot still peeking halfway out of Youngjae's duffel bag. "Did you know about that?"

Daehyun stared at the robot for a moment, then back to Yongguk. "Well, yeah––"

"Then why didn't you tell us about that earlier?" Yongguk asked. Despite the few small inches he had over Daehyun and Youngjae, he seemed to tower above them, making those inches seem like feet.

"It...slipped my mind," Daehyun said, his voice carefully steady. "Sorry."

"T-there's..." Youngjae paused for a moment when everybody shifted their attention back to him. He cleared his throat, and returned to the duffel bag to grab the robot again, this time his courage mixing with the slight adrenaline. He tried to keep his voice from trembling as he continued. "There was a microchip that connected this to a mainframe at Council in New Seoul. I took it out, so it's a harmless bot now."

"Why is there a hole in the middle of it?" Junhong asked. When Youngjae looked at the younger, there was still some fear on his features, but a bit of curiosity had surfaced.

"Daehyun...shot it," Youngjae replied, his finger absentmindedly brushing over the jagged edges around the bullet hole.

"Then why did you pick it up?"

Youngjae thought about it for a moment, and realized he couldn't think of an answer other than he wanted to dismantle and examine its insides.

"Why not? He worked on that thing for almost an entire night and afternoon," Daehyun suddenly said, pulling Youngjae out of his thoughts. "I didn't think it'd still be functional, but he managed to fix it. With just my Leatherman."

As if for emphasis, Daehyun took out the small multi-tool from his pocket. Afterwards, Daehyun took the robot from Youngjae, and turned it on. The center glowed a familiar red, and lifted itself from Daehyun's hands. It wandered the room, it's spindling arms dangling on its side like a lost child.

There was tense silence as the other members stared at the robot in terror, seemingly waiting for it to scan and report them to the Republic, but it did no such thing. Eventually, Junhong walked right up to it, leaning close enough to nudge it with his nose––which is what he did shortly afterwards. The robot floated backwards in recoil for a moment before doing the same thing to Junhong.

"I think it likes me," Junhong stated, and the awe in his voice was unmistakeable. He turned his head to look at the others, and smiled when the robot nudged him again. "Yeah, it definitely likes me."

"Robots can't––" Youngjae let out a small grunt as he was elbowed in the side by Daehyun. He gave Youngjae a cautious look and shook his head ever so slightly.

"I'll be right back."

Youngjae looked away from Junhong to see Himchan suddenly standing up. He walked away from the group to a doorway and disappeared into the corridor, his footsteps echoing slightly against the metal floor. Looking back and forth between the group and the doorway, Jongup eventually stood up as well and followed Himchan down the same hall.

"Don't mind Himchan," Yongguk said, waving his hand almost nonchalantly. "Jongup takes care of that."

Soon, an awkward silence fell onto the group, but Junhong seemed unaffected as he continued to play with the robot. Then, Yongguk stepped towards Youngjae, and the younger backed away slightly, still wary of what Yongguk might do. The leader rubbed the back of his neck nervously, but looked at Youngjae with sincerity in his eyes.

"I'm sorry about lashing out at you. It's just I'm trying to protect this group, and I...actually didn't completely trust you."

Youngjae smiled at Yongguk, the corners of his mouth moving upward just slightly in hopes of reassurance. "Trust is a two-way thing. I'll trust you, and you can trust me."

"Yeah, you're alright in my book," Yongguk said, slinging an arm around Youngjae's shoulders. "The fact that you can fix up a bot like that––and only with Dae's Leatherman... You're a ing genius!"

Youngjae felt his cheeks grow warm, and looked at the ground. "T-thanks."

"Okay, so while you two are having a moment, I'm going to start eating," Daehyun annnounced as he headed back into the kitchen to fetch utensils and plates. "Junhong, do you mind helping me?"

"But I'm playing with the robot!"

"I don't care if you are!"

//

"So, um, I was wondering," Youngjae started as he finished eating, "why...do you call yourselves 'Guernica'?"

There was a smug smile on Yongguk's face as he swallowed a mouthful of food. "It's one of Picasso's paintings representing a Spanish civil war in the 1930s, I think, both from the Old World. Anyways, the city Guernica was a stronghold for the war, and was bombarded by both German and Italian warplanes. To me, 'Guernica' represents our spirits that refuse be oppressed and how we will fight for our peace and independence until the day we die."

Youngjae stared at Yongguk, absolutely speechless. Frankly, Yongguk was considerably more intelligent than Youngjae had given him credit for; intelligent to challenge Youngjae's grandfather even.

"He thinks he's super intelligent just for knowing that," Daehyun muttered into Youngjae's ear, and Youngjae let out a chuckle, but that didn't diminish his growing respect for Yongguk.

"But I am, aren't I?" Yongguk asked, sending an impish grin to Youngjae.

Before Youngjae could reply, Junhong stopped shoveling his food into his mouth to simply say, "No, you're not."

"Did you say something, you punk?!" Yongguk exclaimed, swiftly trapping Junhong in a headlock. Caught by surprise, Junhong began coughing, and begged for the leader to stop.

Youngjae looked at the sight for a moment when Jongup walked into the dining hall and sat next to Junhong. Attention diverted, Youngjae stared at Jongup, who took half of what remained inside the bowl of food Daehyun had prepared.

"Where's Himchan?" Daehyun asked, his words slightly slurred by the food still in his mouth.

"Sulking," Jongup replied tiredly. Then, he looked at Youngjae, who quickly returned his attention to Yongguk and Junhong. "Himchan says you're alright. He's just not used to newcomers, is all. He used to work alone before we––"

Jongup bit his tongue as he held back a yelp of pain, or what looked like pain to Youngjae. "No, never mind" was all Jongup said before starting to eat his food.

Youngjae looked back and forth as an uneasy silence fell atop the group––he noticed how easily things like this were happening lately. Yongguk had let go of Junhong's neck and ate the remainder of his food; Junhong picked at his own food and shifted it around his plate from time to time; Jongup ate without so much as a glance up at anybody; Daehyun fidgeted in his seat, the bench squeaking occasionally at his movements.

When Daehyun suddenly stood up, carrying his plate, Youngjae immediately followed him into the kitchen.

"What's going on?" Youngjae asked as Daehyun walked up to the sink to place his plate in the basin. "Why's everybody like that?"

"I'm not allowed to say. It's Himchan's matter to discuss," Daehyun replied in a low voice. He held out his hand to Youngjae. "Plate."

Youngjae handed the plate to Daehyun. "Okay, but why did everybody go quiet like that?" Without even realizing, Youngjae's voice had lowered to the same volume as Daehyun's.

"Look, it's kind of a sensitive matter to Himchan, and we swore to never talk about it again––even if he wasn't in the room," Daehyun explained, and it seemed as though he was shutting Youngjae out. He the tap to rinse the dishes. "He'll tell you when he will."

Youngjae leaned against the counter, and crossed his arms. He was aware of the fact that he probably looked like a pouting toddler, but his curiosity was gnawing at his sanity. Still, he had to respect Himchan's privacy, and––assuming that he was still on the older's bad side––he didn't want to leave any more bad impressions.

//

"You'll be rooming with Daehyun," Yongguk announced later on that day.

The leader decided to give Youngjae a tour of the bunker; they'd already seen the weapons room ("It's under Jongup's sole control" as Yongguk instructed), two bathrooms, and a control room ("Yongguk's other bedroom" as Daehyun called it) when they stopped at the bedrooms. One was for Yongguk and Himchan, another for Jongup and Junhong, and the last to Daehyun.

"We don't have any other rooms. Sorry about that," Yongguk apologized with a shrug.

You don't seem too sorry, Youngjae thought as he strolled into Daehyun's––now his own––room. "That's alright," Youngjae replied.

"I'll, uh, leave so you can get settled in, then," Yongguk said before closing the metallic door. "Just holler if you need anything."

Nodding, Youngjae watched until the door was completely shut. He slowly spun around the room, taking it all in. It wasn't all that different from the hotel room in District 8; instead of cots to sleep on, though, a single bed sat in the room against a wall, a desk was just right of the bed, and drawers with clothes overflowing from it stood against the wall opposite to the desk. Pictures of people and landscapes were taped to the wall above the bed.

Youngjae dropped the duffel bag on the floor, and laid down on the bed to look at the ceiling. Technically, he was now a fugitive, right? He ran away with a criminal when the Republic was looking for him, and was now in the heart of said criminal's hideout. Youngjae let out a quiet laugh. His entire situation was a ridiculous cliche, and what was he going to do about it? What could he do about it?

Reaching up to the ceiling, Youngjae imagined the infinite sky and almost-too-radiant sun above him with trees swaying in his peripherals; if he closed his eyes, he could almost hear the leaves rustling. How long was he supposed to stay like this, underground and hidden from the Republic, hidden from the thing that he grew up believing to be flawless and untouchable? Unconsciously, Youngjae found himself missing everything he'd known in back District 4. Surely, he couldn't be stuck down here forever. He didn't belong here. He belonged in New Seoul in his apartment with a robot on his desk and an unfinished report on his laptop. Youngjae moved his arm to look at his transceiver watch, but stopped halfway, suddenly remembering that he left it in––

"What are you doing?"

Youngjae's eyes flew open, and he instantly sat up, feeling a blush creep onto his face. He saw Daehyun standing in the doorway with a perplexed look on his face. "N-nothing! I was just––"

"Admiring the ceiling?" Daehyun interjected, and he laughed when Youngjae spluttered even more.

"I'm just tired," Youngjae replied defensively after regaining some of his composure. It was a poor excuse, even for him.

Daehyun pulled his phone out of his pocket, and said, "Well, you were up since 3 this morning. It's understandable. I can just show you tomorrow."

Now Youngjae's interest was piqued. "Show me what?"

Daehyun narrowed his eyes slightly, but Youngjae caught the amusement in his tone. "I thought you were tired."

"You can't just tell me you're going to show me something and not elaborate," Youngjae protested in defiance. He stood up and walked up to Daehyun with his arms crossed. "Show me."

Daehyun did a mock Legion salute before turning around. "Sir, yes, sir."

A/N: Happy new year, guys! Did you have fun? I know I did because I played Pokemon the whole time. Don't call me lame there's at least one other person who probably did the same thing.

Anyway, this was a blatantly painful filler chapter, but it was suprisingly fun to write. Also, take your guesses at side pairings because there will be plenty of them. I can't just make it all DaeJae because where's the fun in that? Updates will be slower than usual because school will be starting again soon, but fear not, readers, for I have a will made of steel and a heart spun of gold that cares. Most of the time.

Thanks for reading / subscribing / commenting~