A couple hours had passed since Three had left Seagull’s mind. They had talked for a while about mindless things, but the constant telepathy had burned Three’s “mana”- at least, that’s what Seagull called it- a leftover habit from his childhood. He remembered playing old school roleplaying video games after Training Periods with his friends, cursing at the screen when he received damage and shoving popcorn into his mouth. He had felt nearly invincible while playing; his character had armor and was near the top ranks.

    Seagull wished he felt like that now, with his family-like group of friends split and scattered quite far and wide in space. He’d only ever heard bad things about Earth from his older connections, who had had connections to people from planets who had had connections to people from Earth. It was completely abandoned now, as far as Seagull knew- he wondered what a totally empty planet looked like.

    “Jungkook-ah? Jungkook! Jeon Jungkook!”

    Seagull shook his head to clear his mind when a hand passed in front of his face, and realized he had been staring straight ahead for the past half hour. “What?”

    “You’ve been out of it for a while.” Seagull’s eyes met Monster’s uncharacteristically soft ones. “You okay?”

    Seagull reached up to run a hand through his hair. “Yeah, I guess. The whole situation just isn’t settling right, I guess.”

    Monster sat down next to him, leaning against one of the windows. “Everything’s going to be okay. We’re going to land on Earth, safely, and find some way to contact Ereve. We’ll be back on our way to Mato; this is just a small delay, that’s all.”

Seagull could tell Monster wasn’t just trying to make him feel better, but Monster was also trying to console himself. As leader of the journey, he had a special responsibility weighing down his shoulders, and something like this would definitely hit him hard.

“Hyung,” Seagull said. Monster turned to look at him. And Seagull tried to tell him through unspoken words that it really would be okay.

Monster turned his head to look straight ahead, a small hopeful smile tugging at the corners of his lips. But as he blinked, Seagull could see the tears lining his eyelids.

 

    They sat in silence for a long time. They lost track of time, sitting together without a clock or a sun to tell them how far in the day- or night- it was. Suga’s pod had blinked in and out of their radar, which was a good sign- they were both headed the same way. Seagull only hoped that Jin’s pod was safe as well.

    

    Between the two of them, Seagull and Monster ate next to nothing from their packs, with worry gnawing on their insides. At least a day and a half had passed, and if the dashboard’s reading was accurate, they’d be within Earth’s gravitational pull in three normal hours.

    Jimin? Seagull thought hard, trying to make contact.

    :Yeah,: a sleepy voice replied. :You woke me up.:

    Why are you always sleeping? Seagull teased.

    :Cos you freakin’ drain all my power,: Three complained, and for a second, the connection was so strong that Seagull could see a mental image of Three turning onto his side inside his sleeping bag.

    Are you guys almost there? Seagull said, holding onto the image for as long as he could. No offense to him, but seeing Monster’s grim face every hour was making him even more sick to his stomach.

    :I guess so,: Three replied. :Couple hours away. I haven’t seen Jin-hyung’s pod on our radar though; I hope they’re okay.:

    A dash of fear struck Seagull, but he pushed it away. They should be fine. Hyung’s an expert, he knows what he’s doing. The pods are probably easier to maneuver than the ship, anyways.

    :Yeah,: Three sighed. A minute passed. :How much food you got left?:

    We ate barely anything, Seagull answered truthfully. Too worried to eat much. I think I ate like two slices of bread.

    :Yah, idiot,: Three admonished, and Seagull could almost imagine the frown. :Don’t starve yourself. Everything’s gonna be fine.:

    I’m just… Seagull bit his lip. So scared that something’s going to happen to us. Questions keep appearing that I almost don’t want answered. What if Earth is uninhabitable? What if we di-

    :Hey.: Three said sharply, cutting Seagull of. :Don’t say that. We’re a group of kids with weird powers; anything on Earth isn’t going to be able to harm us. Seriously. As scary as everything is, we can protect ourselves from it. If Earth is uninhabitable, we’ll make it inhabitable.:

    Seagull smiled weakly. Thanks, hyung. I think I’ll- go to sleep now.

    He could hear the smile in Three’s voice when he spoke again. :Good boy. And don’t you worry about anything. Sweet dreams…:

    

    Seagull next woke up to a loud creaking noise. Monster was at the dashboard, struggling with the stick shift.

    “Hey,” Monster said, beads of sweat dotting his forehead as he yanked the lever to the side. “How’s it going.” He then pushed it down and heaved a deep sigh.

    “Good…? Everything alright?” Seagull replied, crawling out of his sleeping bag and walking over to his pod-mate.

    “Now it is,” Monster replied and wiped his face with his sleeve. “Good timing, by the way. You woke up like ten minutes away from landing.”

    “It’s nighttime on Earth,” Seagull noted as the pod tilted a little and slowed down so it wouldn’t catch on fire. “Is our landing going to be soft?”

    Monster laughed. “Nope, better brace ourselves. I’ll be sure to have the legs come out at the right time so we don’t roll away like we did in practice.” Seagull joined him, and it felt good to laugh.

    As they neared the surface of Earth, they spotted a pod already stabilized in the ground and friendly faces waving up at them frantically. The other was several feet away, with its owners nowhere in sight.

    “Hold on!” Monster whooped. Seagull held on for dear life as the pod hit the ground and bounced a couple times, clenching his teeth. Monster reached out with one arm to press the “Land” button.

    A huge parachute flew open to slow the pod and to set it upright again, and as the pod floated down from the height of its bounce, legs shot out from the pod and embedded into the dirt. The pod lowered onto its legs and settled in a cloud of dust.

    Seconds passed before either of them regained enough stability to get up. Seagull glanced up through the window and spotted Three and V running towards them. He felt a grin sneaking up onto his face as he shouldered his pack and hurriedly opened the hatch.

    “JEON JUNGKOOK! NAMJOONIE HYUNG!” Their friends’ shouts echoed across the empty world. Seagull fell into warm, welcoming arms and only then realized how much he had missed his friends, even if only for a few days. He was content with simply listening to the sound of V and Three chattering loudly as they walked back to their temporary base camp.

    “Welcome back,” Jin smiled up at them and scooted over on a log so Monster could sit down next to him, who did so wordlessly but with a giant grin on his face. “How was your trip?”

    Seagull just shook his head and picked a seat on a rock. “Let’s not think about it.” V laughed and sat down next to him, and Three plopped down on his other side. “Where’s Suga-hyung and JJ?”

    “They went to go find firewood for a fire. Shouldn’t be too- oh look, they’re coming back now,” Jin replied. He had an arm wrapped comfortingly around Monster’s shoulders.

    “HEY!” JJ shouted, ran the rest of the distance towards them, and after dropping the firewood, tackled Seagull into a hug. Behind him, Suga’s usual pout widened into a splitting smile- a rare sight to see. “JIMIN-AH WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THEY WERE BACK?”

    “Hey to you too,” Seagull’s muffled voice came from under JJ’s body. “But I can’t breathe!”

    

    The seven of them sat together and talked for a long time, basking in the warmth of the fire Suga made. The night was chilly, but they were warmed by each others’ heat.

    “Which leads me to the topic,” Suga was saying as Seagull blinked sleepily against Three’s shoulder. “Why did we hit that asteroid belt?”

    “We didn’t know it was there,” Jin said, furrowing his brow. “But that doesn’t make any sense… Control Center had mapped out the entire route for us, there’s no way that they hadn’t seen a belt that large.”

    “Exactly,” V piped in. “Unless the Dark Mage created that belt in the past week, we’ve been sabotaged.”

    “I doubt it,” Monster replied, shaking his head. “There has to be some other reason. We need to make contact with Ereve and fast.”

    “But how?”

    V’s question sent the group into silence.

    “I could-” Three began, but quickly shut up from Seagull’s glare.

    And it was silent again.

    “...Well,” Jin said. “I guess, everyone think on it. We should probably get some sleep to prepare ourselves for tomorrow.”

    “Exploring a new world,” sang Three quietly as he helped the half-asleep Seagull up and into a pod to sleep.

    “Oh,” JJ called out. The others stopped to pay attention. “Since we’re… alone now, can we not call each other by our nicknames? Let’s use our real names from now on, at least on Earth.”

    Monster grinned and clapped a hand on JJ’s shoulder. “Good idea, Hoseok.”

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Aaaand we're back! I've only been seing few views and basically no feedback from anyone but I'm still hoping for the best? I guess. Commenting would be super appreciated... Thanks for reading <3