The Captain’s last words were ringing in Jaegoong’s head like a terrible reminder of his own incompetence.

Of course Changmin would turn out to be the Captain’s brother. Of course he and Yoochun would have made their displeasure of him widely known before finding out the relation. Of course. Because this was Jaejoong’s life now.

But the words. The raw words that made Jaejoong feel so regretful, were echoing, sinking into him.

Kyuhyun, who seemed far too young to be traveling regularly on a ship, probably living on it too, had hightailed it from the cabin almost the second the Captain had appeared, and Jaejoong hadn’t even gotten a chance to once more thank him for bringing breakfast.

Then it had been just Jaejoong and Yoochun, the Companion and his brother. The Captain.

Tensely Jaejoong had watched as Changmin stared his brother down, offering finally, “I’m not, as you just so said, a serving boy. But I’m a decent human being, and I refuse to let anyone on this ship go hungry. It was a simple task, Yunho, and I didn’t exactly have anything else to do. Would you prefer I go to my room and lounge about, maybe complaining of how terribly difficult my life of luxury is? The same life you’d judge another man for having?”

“You’re so funny,” Yunho said with a straight face. “But since you offered, what I’d prefer is if you wouldn’t go wandering around, looking for people to spill all of our childhood to.”

Jaejoong’s mouth had gone dry, sensing things were likely to get worse before they even had a chance of getting better.

“A childhood you should have no shame of,” Changmin threw back. “Or are you trying to protect the image you’ve build of yourself for people who don’t know you better than that?”

“I should be proud of having to dig through garbage to feed myself and you?” Yunho hissed out. “Of course, what was I thinking? Let’s go tell everyone we see!”

Jaejoong pressed back on his bed as slowly as possible.

Hunger was one thing Jaejoong had never known. He’d known fear with his father, fear of being controlled, beaten, intimidated and made to feel insignificant or lacking. He’d spent a life being told what to wear, where to attend school, who to keep as friends, and even how chaste to keep his body. But hunger? There had never been a day when he hadn’t eaten three full meals, and snacks in between whenever he wanted them.

When he really thought about it, his family had probably thrown out, in terms of excess food, more in one day than some people saw in a week.

It was humiliating to realize.

Looking sad, Changmin had told his brother, “I didn’t know you were ashamed of that point in our life. I’m not. I’m proud of it. Maybe you think that’s stupid, but I don’t. struggling like that, it made us into what we are. It made us appreciate our lives, and we wouldn’t be where we are now, if we hadn’t endured that. It was our lowest point, Yunho, but I had you back then, so I felt as rich as a king. I’ll always feel that way, as long as I have you.”

Yunho’s shoulders fell in that moment and Yunho looked so fragile Jaejoong had wondered how he’d mistaken him for anything but a beautifully flawed human being.

The regret had been too clear on Yunho’s face in the seconds after that, along with the further drooping of his shoulders that indicated weariness.

“This isn’t the place for us to talk about this, Changmin. But you’re confusing me being ashamed of the things I had to do to keep us alive, for me being ashamed of you. That’s not the same thing. They couldn’t be further from each other. Understand?”

Jaejoong had felt Yoochun’s eyes on him and when he turned to meet his gaze, even Yoochun looked a little guilty.

Changmin gathered himself up and said, “I guess we’ll talk about this later, then. I’m going to go see if Ryeowook’s finished in the kitchen yet. I trust you won’t think that I shouldn’t wash dishes, either.”

The moments after Changmin had left, long and silent and drawn out in an agonizing way, had been a hundred times worse than those that had come after Kyuhyun’s departure.

The Captain had so unexpectedly lingered, eyes fixed on nothing across the room and Jaejoong’s throat felt swollen up, and his tongue like cotton.

Finally, blessedly, it had been Yoochun who offered, “Captain?”

Giving a short twitch, the Captain rounded back on them, a dark look on his face. “Don’t,” he said, all traces of raw hurt from his face gone, “think for a second that I’m some saint, no matter how Changmin paints me to be. I’ve killed men before, and I’ll probably kill some more before the year is up. I don’t rescue small kittens from trees, or give charitably. I’m not a nice man. As far as you should be concerned, I’m a mean old man.”

“Your brother seems to think otherwise,” Jaejoong had said brazenly, as if his brain had disconnected with his mouth.

“Changmin sees the good in people too frequently. It’s a character defect, but it’s one I’ve learned to live with.”

Jaejoong still remembered how he’d pursed his lips, considered his words very carefully, then said, “Being a mean old man, to use your words, isn’t the same as being a protective older brother. If I had a brother, I’d do whatever it took to protect him, too, especially if he didn’t see the same kinds of threats I did in the world around us.” Or a sister. His baby sister.

Yunho gave him an oddly pensive look. “And you have a clue about the kinds of dangers that surround us constantly, but are often hard for some people to see?”

Head nodding, Jaejoong had said, “Especially the kind that masquerade as respectable, when really he’s a monster.”

The confusion on Yunho’s face hadn’t matter then. Not when all Jaejoong could suddenly think of were the times his father had gripped him tightly in public, a reminder that he was wolf in sheep’s clothing, and it was not to be forgotten. So may times had he stood next to his father in pleasant company and raved about his father’s compassion, gentlemanly nature and generosity, only to suffer what could likely be considered torture the moment they were alone and his father could exercise his disappointment in him.

So much pain and so much unhappiness had accompanied Jaejoong from childhood into his teenage years, and not let up the least bit as he became an adult. If anything, reaching the age of maturity had given his father extra room in which to hurt him.

And nearly everyone, from Alliance officials to the respected contributors of the community, thought he was a kind and gentle soul, most of all to his son.

“Hero,” Yoochun had said, touching his elbow gently and nodding knowingly.

“I’m not a nice man,” the Captain said finally once more, but Jaejoong couldn’t believe him. Not now. Not after seeing how he’d handled his brother, especially as Changmin had spewed near insults and accusations at him.

There was so much love in the Captain for his brother, there was no way he wasn’t more than what he seemed.

“We didn’t ask your brother to come here,” Yoochun spoke up. “He probably won’t come again, either.”

A smile broke on Yunho’s face making him look lovely to Jaejoong. “You don’t know Changmin very well. I suspect you’ll be seeing a lot of him, especially if he knows it irritates me for him to be here.”

“We can’t stop him from coming,” Yoochun challenged.

“Look.” The Captain had dragged a hand over his face, rubbing almost harshly. “I’m not a nice man. I’m not going to argue that with you. But I’m not a needlessly cruel one, either. You don’t need to stay in your rooms and miss meals to avoid me. On this ship, you’ll never be a prisoner. This ship means freedom.”

“Freedom,” Jaejoong said, and gods if that wasn’t the most beautiful word he’d ever heard in his life.

“Freedom,” the Captain nodded. “That’s what ships should always represent. Now, for obvious reasons there are some areas off limits to you including the bridge, engine room and cargo bay, but anywhere else you want to go, just go. Neither of you look the type to do well with being cooped up in such a small space. You want to stretch your legs, you don’t need to be afraid to. No one on this ship will hurt you, provided you don’t hurt anyone.”

Yoochun asked skeptically, in a way that now Jaejoong thought was a horrible idea, “Just like that? What if we had ulterior motives?”

“Oh, I know you do,” the Captain said, not sparing a moment for Yoochun. Instead his full attention was Jaejoong, his brown eyes piercing in deep, making Jaejoong’s heart beat just the slightest bit harder. “I know you’re not who you say you are.”

Jaejoong had said, so evenly he was proud of himself, “I’ve been more honest with you, Captain, than I would have been with any other stranger.”

“I meant no harm,” the Captain replied back with a laugh and Jaejoong had thought, or maybe hoped, that the man was starting to warm up to him. Or just be a little less uptight. “Everyone has an ulterior motive. Everyone lies. That’s part of being human. Now, like I said before, your lies hurt my family and I’ll toss you out of the airlock before we get halfway to the Moon Hub, but otherwise, you should keep your lies. Lies protect people.”

It was like Yoochun wasn’t even there. In that moment, the only person Jaejoong had been able to see was the Captain, his forehead free from creases proving he didn’t frown nearly as much as he probably wanted them to think he did.

Jaejoong smiled. “Understood.”

That clearly hadn’t been what the Captain had expected. Maybe he’d been expecting some more arguing, or snappy, sarcastic comments. So he was thrown, for the first time seeming adorable in his awkwardness.

So the Captain could be adorable just as much as he could be fierce.

For some reason, nothing more had ever pleased Jaejoong than such an observation in the moment.

“So we’re clear?” the Captain asked.

Jaejoong had said, “Shiny.” Then he’d frowned and asked quietly, “that’s the right word, correct? I’ve been doing my best to read up on space vernacular. I want to fit in.”

Next to him Yoochun had smiled in an amused way.

The Captain had grinned in surprise. “You … ah … correct.”

The Captain was blushing. He was honest to gods blushing and Jaejoong thought it fitted him in a splendid way.

“Hero is … an overachiever,” Yoochun teased. “He loves to learn.”

“Learn what?” Yunho looked at him captivatingly.

Jaejoong felt pleasure curl in his chest, right around his heart. “Anything and everything. It doesn’t really matter to me, as long as it’s new. It’s all interesting.” It was the one thing Jaejoong had never tired of. Learning. Growing. Becoming more. He devoured ancient languages like desert, mastered new instruments merely for the fun of it, and breezed through books in record times.

Yoochun looked to tease that his mind just worked too fast--far faster than anyone else’s, but Jaejoong thought it was just him being more curious than anything else.

“I think you’ll make a great teacher,” the Captain decided.

Jaejoong’s mind had short-circuited for a moment. “Teacher?”

Yoochun had given him a sharp look.

“Ah!” Jaejoong had recovered as quickly as possible. “Maybe. I guess.” Was that what he’d really end up doing? Would he land on some recently terraformed planet that was barely beginning to master running water? Would his days be occupied completely by teaching children to count and write in prose and do basic algebra? Would he ever have the chance to save a life again? Properly? Would he ever have an operating room to call his own once more? A real hospital to work in?

The Captain pressed his lips together, then eased out, “The engine room is off limits to you by yourself, but if you had someone like me, or my first officer Leeteuk, you could go and have a look some time. I’d wager a month’s rations that you’ve never been on a ship before. There’s plenty to learn about a ship.”

Jaejoong shot him a playful look. “I’m a rich little spoiled boy, remember, Captain? Surely you don’t think I’ve never been in space before.”

The Captain threw his head back and laughed. He really laughed and laughed and in response Jaejoong had found himself smiling back.

“Maybe,” the Captain had argued, “a tiny little space shuttle, fitted for luxury in the half hour it takes to go from Helios to one of its three moons, but not a real ship. Not like this one.”

The Captain’s perceptive abilities were startling. “How’d you guess?”

The Captain assured Jaejoong, “It isn’t a guess. It was obvious. The way you walk. Even the way you’re standing. We can get the ship to produce standard gravity to mimic the kind you’re used to feeling planet side, for the most part at least, but your brain can still notice the slight differences, and it’s telling your body something feels wrong even if you don’t realize it is. Your body is trying to compensate for an unnatural feeling. It causes you to brace your legs an unnatural space apart, and I’ve seen you look down several times in the past few minutes alone. You’re reassuring yourself that you’re still standing, even though part of you knows you already are. The brain is a tricky thing to train for space travel.”

At the mention Jaejoong had looked down at his boots. He was standing in a more defensible position, and he hadn’t remembered getting into it.

But Yoochun wasn’t.

Which was odd, because to the best of Jaejoong’s knowledge, Yoochun had never been off Helios. Not even when Jaejoong and his sister and their father had traveled. During those times Yoochun had remained at home, with Jaejoong’s mother.

“--interested?”

Jaejoong had let himself get so lost in his pondering he’d missed the beginning part of the Captain’s question. “Sorry.”

The Captain grinned and repeated in an indulging way, “I wanted to know if that was something you were interested in. Do you want to see other parts of the ship?”

Was this really the same man who’d accused him of being selfish and arrogant and unappreciative? The man who’d been combative to a fault and unlikable?

Jaejoong hadn’t trusted his words. Not even slightly. So he’d just nodded.

“Good,” the Captain said, seeming so relieved. “Maybe tomorrow?”

Jaejoong was startled a little as Yoochun pressed in close to him suddenly and said, “We should get to our meal then, Captain.”

Jaejoong had honestly never wanted to throttle Yoochun before in his life. Never. But never had Jaejoong wanted to talk to someone as badly as he wanted to talk to the Captain now, either.

The Captain had taken a step back towards the door to the room, one hand puling it open in a reluctant way. And he looked for several more seconds like he wanted to say something, so despite Yoochun’s slight nudging, Jaejoong waited patiently.

Eventually the Captain managed, “Do you know what a ship sweet spot is?”

Jaejoong shook his head. “More space colloquialisms?”

“Phrase,” Yoochun intercepted when the Captain looked uncertain. “Slang.”

For a brief second Jaejoong had wondered if he’d made the Captain feel stupid. He was more than ready to berate himself when the Captain shrugged and said, “Not so much. But it’s a thing on every ship, though it’ll be different on each one.”

“What is it?” Jaejoong asked, leaning forward.

The Captain nodded to their breakfast plates that were quickly losing heat. “Finish your breakfast before it’s wasted completely. Then when you leave your room, follow the walkway all the way down to the end. Go up two flights of stairs, back down the hallway in front of you and look to the starboard side. You’ll know it when you see it. It’ll be a tight squeeze, but it’s worth it.”

Panic had flushed through Jaejoong. “Starboard side?”

If the panic before had been something, it was suddenly full blown terror seconds later. Because the Captain had reached for him, turning him gently to put his back to the door, and also to the Captain’s chest. They’d been so close Jaejoong could feel the natural body heat from the Captain, and it had made him flush with dizziness.

“You’re facing the bridge now,” the Captain had said, his mouth too near Jaejoong’s ear fro him to think. Not even Yoochun’s disapproving look was enough to spoil it. “To avoid confusion in case of an emergency, we use technical terms so everyone can understand quickly.” The Captain touched the soft skin at Jaejoong’s left wrist. “That’s your port side.” Then he repeated the motion with Jaejoong’s right and said, “This is starboard. Got it?”

Jaejoong swore there was no way the Captain couldn’t feel his heart beating so hard it was actually physically painful. “I understand.”

“Good,” the Captain said, releasing Jaejoong.

Blandly, Yoochun had reminded, “Our food is going cold.”

The Captain had moved swiftly to the door and pulled it open completely.

And Jaejoong had sworn he was going to collapse on the spot. No man had ever touched him so simply yet so sensually before. Plenty of men had lusted after him, leered at him and made crude comments. Plenty had accused him of being a tease as he rebuffed their efforts, but none of them had ever shown the surprising care like the Captain had.

“Go to the ship’s sweet spot,” the Captain all but commanded, finally looking at Jaeejong like he did the crew he considered family. “It’ll be worth it.”

Jaejoong promised, “After breakfast.”

He was turning back to the food before he heard the Captain say, “I meant what I said earlier.”

Jaejoong glanced at him over his shoulder. “About the airlock?”

The angry look on the Captain’s face was concerning. “No,” the Captain rushed out. “About you being safe here. As long as you’re on this ship, you’re under my protection. Even if that’s for a few days, you never have to worry about being in danger, or being scared. You can say what you want, think what you want and do what you want, you don’t have to fear someone hurting you.”

“I …”

The Captain’s eyes narrowed. “A coward hurts others simply because he can.”

Such fear flushed through Jaejoong that he knew he’d given everything away immediately. Without saying a single word, he’d betrayed himself.

“Captain.”

With a guarded face, the Captain said, “I’ll stop by later to see what you thought of my girl’s sweet spot. And I’ll expect to see you at the next sit down meal.”

The Captain’s words … his insistence that there’d be no fear of physical attack on the ship, and his reassurance of protection was …

“Thank you,” Jaejoong had whispered after the Captain’s retreating form.

That had been fifteen minutes previous. And for those fifteen minutes Jaejoong had forced himself to eat cold eggs all the while ignoring the almost furious expression Yoochun was shooting in his direction.

But eventually not even Jaejoong with his legendary patience, could endure any longer.

“Well?” he demanded of his friend. “What’s made you so mad?”

Yoochun wasted no time demanding, “How about the tiny little hearts in your eyes every time the Captain said a kind word to you?”

“Are you serious?”

“Excruciatingly,” Yoochun said, stabbing at his eggs with his fork. “I swear to the gods, I thought I was going to have to catch you. You were about to swoon, right? In a desperate attempt to get the Captain to catch you?”

“You probably would have let me hit the floor, had I fainted.”

“Maybe,” Yoochun admitted. Then he pulled his fork away from his eggs and leveled it up at Jaejoong. “Don’t.”

Jaejoong rolled his eyes. “Don’t what?”

“Don’t you don’t what me.”

Okay, so maybe Jaejoong had an inkling to what Yoochun meant. But it wasn’t really his fault. The Captain had gone from an to a knight in the span of around ten minutes and only someone as uninterested in love as Yoochun would be unable to notice how appealing the Captain truly was.

Jaejoong asked Yoochun, “Why does it bother you so much that the Captain isn’t as bad as we thought he was? Why does it bother you that he’s capable of being compassionate and wonderful?”

“You got all that from the conversation?”

Jaejoong challenged, “I got all that from the way he handled his brother while they were disagreeing.”

Yoochun gave one more jab with his fork towards Jaejoong and said again, “Don’t. Men like the Cptain … they’re not meant for people like you. I’m not saying that to be hurtful, Jaejoong. But men like Captain Yunho are nomadic by nature. They never stay in one place for long, they rarely find it in themselves to commit to a single paramour, and I guarantee you he’s spent more at Rim brothels in the past few years than you’ve spent on anything for yourself in your entire life. Stay away from him, Jaejoong. He’s trouble for us.”

Being reprimanded by the man who tapped up his ribs for him any time his father was in a particularly foul mood, was not Jaejoong’s idea of friendship.

“I’m hardly going to be waiting for him in his bunk tonight, and between his sheets,” Jaejoong scoffed.

“Would that you could,” Yoochun said, daring Jaejoong to deny it. “But I’m not putting this all on you. You weren’t the only one with hearts in your eyes. And you’d better believe I’ll be doing exactly what the Captain said I would a day ago. You can sleep at night. I’ll be sitting with my back against the door.”

That gave Jaejoong significant pause. “What? I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Are you serious?” Yoochun stuttered his words.

“Are you implying the Captain has even the faintest attraction to me?” Jaejoong asked, crossing his arms over his chest with a huff.

Yoochun shook his head slowly. “I can’t even have this conversation with you. Jaejoong, you’re not this oblivious, right? You can’t possibly be.”

“The Captain deciding to be nice to us doesn’t mean he suddenly likes me, and certainly not in that way.”

“That way,” Yoochun repeated with a pitchy tone. “Jaejoong, the Captain was looking at you like he’d just discovered boys all over again for the first time.”

Jaejoong posed, “What if he prefers the company of the fairer ?”

Dumping his plate to the side, Yoochun said definitively, “If he prefers women, when we finally get our feet on solid ground, I’ll kiss the first horse we see. With tongue.”

“You’re tactless and crass sometimes, Yoochun.”

But if he was right …

No. Jaejoong couldn’t let him get distracted by the Captain. Captain Yunho was extremely attractive, and in possession of traits that Jaejoong found admirable in a match. But he’d just run away from the only home he’d ever known in order to find himself, and rely on himself, and become who his father had never let him be. A romance of any sort, be it short term or more, was not something he needed to complicate things.

“Don’t draw his attention any more than you have to,” Yoochun advised, “or we may find out that the Captain is indeed, not a nice man.”

Worry snapped Jaejoong to seriousness. “Why do you say that?”

Jaejoon watched as Yoochun reached for a nearby data pad. He tapped the screen a few times then turned it around for Jaejoon to see. And on the screen were their faces, information, and a reward posted.

“Oh, no.” Jaejoong reached for it, drawing it near, hardly able to believe how bad things had gotten so quickly. “My father put this out?”

Yoochun nodded. “Probably within hours of our disappearance, if even that long.”

Jaejoong skimmed over the information. “But I’m of legal age. He can’t …” And there it was. The reason his father could post such a bulletin.

Mouth puckered, Yoochun said, “I’m still his property. Well, to be fair, so are you, no matter what the law says. But in monetary terms, I’m his property. And he’s listed me as a runaway, with the strong belief that I kidnapped you. This way he’ll be legally justified in dragging us back when he catches up with us. And Jaejoong, if you bait the Captain in any way, or captivate him in the slightest, he may get it in his mind to try and learn more about you. He’ll try to run our papers, he’ll come across this almost immediately, and I don’t think I need to tell what I think he’ll do.”

Jaejoong saw Yoochun’s reasoning crystal clear.

The reward posted for Yoochun was a quarter million credits, and half a million for himself. The reward money for alerting the authorities to their location was enough to tempt a saint, or rather, men who were in need of money and a crew to feed.

“You think he’ll jump at the chance to make three quarters of a million in credits.”

“That’s more than he’ll see in his career,” Yoochun said. “A few times over. It won’t matter if he thinks you’re pretty or funny or anything. He’ll want the money. So we need to keep him from being too interested until I finish our new identities.”

“Huh?”

“We are going to need papers eventually, you know,” Yoochun told him patiently. “So I’m going to create some for us. But it’ll take time to make them look good. I should have them finished by the time we hit the Moon Hub, so don’t worry about that. You worry about keeping the Captain off you like a dog in heat.”

In a small voice, Jaejoong confessed, “He is attractive. And not a total jerk like we thought. Just rough on the edges.”

Yoochun said, taking the data pad back, “He could be one of the seven reverent saints for all I care, Jaejoong. Don’t let him think you’re interested, even if you are, for some strange reason. I would have thought the first time I saw you actually show romantic interest in another human being it would be one of a higher pedigree.”

Jaejoong let himself flop back on the bed. He didn’t want to talk about the Captain anymore. So instead he inquired, “If my father has our names and faces circulating around, with a crazy reward like that, do you think we’ll manage to find passage on another ship?” He shifted to keep Yoochun in his sight. “Safe passage?”

With a sigh, Yoochun admitted, “It makes things far more difficult, I admit. But not impossible. But while we’re on the subject, we need to talk about the Moon Hub. I’m pretty loathe to admit it, but the Captain wasn’t merely just blowing steam the other day when he tried to scare you with his words.”

“So it’s not a friendly place, then?”

“Not even close.” Yoochun rested his elbows on his knees, legs crossed under him. “The Moon Hub is basically one giant brothel. But it’s near Core planets so no one dares call it that. Of course neither is it sanctioned by the Companion’s Guild so it really is giant house. But my point is, it’s very, very popular with the Core residents who have a lot of money and want to get away with things that they typically can’t. The port was built into the Hub, which is situated on a space station in permanent orbit around Gwanghwamun.”

“And enough ships visit the Moon Hub for us to pick out a good transport?”

Looking more sure, Yoochun said, “Absolutely. At any time the Hub caters to around fifteen to twenty large sized transports at one time, and many more smaller. The station is fairly big and a lot has risen up around it over the years. Shops, residences and all kinds of services are offered. Jaejoong, the Moon Hub is Alliance property so we’re going to have to be extremely careful where we show our faces and for how long. We need to be in and out quickly.”

Jaejoong rolled to his side, his fingers aching from misuse. Every day for the past eight years he’d practiced his surgical skills. Since medical school. His fingers were twitching to hold a scalpel and flex his wrists in an expected way. When he and Yoochun had fled the house he’d had to leave behind all of his equipment, save for the tiny travel case of basic tools he kept already prepared in his suitcase for unexpected trips. If the need got much better he’d have to break them out and work with what he had, even if it was only miming the motions.

“I have a contact,” Yoochun said unexpectedly. “We’ll meet him at the local bar. It’s safest there, with minimal surveillance and very little security.”

Safer. Not safe.

“Your contact will help us?” Jaejoong asked.

“He will.”

Jaejoong wanted to pry as to who the contact was, or even how Yoochun, a house kept, indentured servant had a contact, but it hardly seemed worth the fuss. There’d be time for questions later on.

“We need to be prepared for a fight. For the possibility of one.”

At those words Jaejoong sat up. “What kind of fight? With the Alliance’s men?”

Tightly, Yoochun corrected, “No, though in this instance I’d take them instead, if you can believe it. No. Jaejoong, the Hub is filled with degenerates and predators. What makes them especially dangerous is their money. And if they see you as an opportunity, even for a second, I may not be able to keep you safe.”

“I can take care of myself,” Jaejoong protested. “I had--”

“One class in self defense at the academy,” Yoochun answered for him. “And your father pulled you from it the second he grabbed you and you were able to twist out of his grip and get away.”

His father had beat him until he was coughing up blood that night. Jaejoong remembered it with startling clarity. He’d spent most of the night afterwards sprawled out on his bathroom floor, Yoochun hovering over him with the miniature diagnostic scanner, monitoring his condition with tears in his eyes, waiting for the first sign of internal bleeding.

He’d been sixteen.

“When we get off the ship,” Yoochun said, and Jaejoong tried not to let on in the slightest how little he wanted that to happen, “we’re going to do everything possible to make the two of us look like low bred common workers. I’m going to go talk to the Companion--Changmin, and see if he has anything to cover your head--you’ll give us away with just the softness of your face. You’ll have to stick to me like glue, keep your head down and try your best not to be made.”

“It can’t possibly be this bad,” Jaejoong said in disbelief.

Yoochun continued, “I don’t want anyone to even see your face if it can be helped, and we’ll have to try and do something about your posture. You walk like you’re well bred, which is a problem. The bastards that run the houses will take you as a hot commodity if they think you’re from a family that bothered to educate you and keep you clean.”

Jaejoong kicked out a bit childishly on the bed. “Why do I have to go through all this? Why not you? Why can’t I just pose as a customer, or some scary space pirate?”

There was no answer.

“Yoochun?”

“Because,” Yoochun finally said, his voice slow and deliberate, “some people just look like easy marks, Jaejoong. There’s no other way to explain it. Some people look like they’re weak, regardless if they are or not, and some people will draw predators. No Madam or Master on the Moon Hub is going to look at me and think they can charge a king’s ransom for me. The same can’t be said for you.”

Jaejoong asked, “If someone tries to grab me or … you know … won’t there be a police force to do something about it?”

“Who do you think half the customers are?”

Jaejoong flopped back. “Great.”

Unexpectedly, Yoochun told him, “If we’d had time to prepare for hitting the Moon Hub, maybe you wouldn’t have to go in disguised. There are only three ways to avoid remaining unmolested, for lack of a better word, at the Moon Hub. First, be a customer, and trust me, you’ll be able to tell which ones are from the moment you see them. Two, travel with a large enough group that very few people will want to turn a simple snatch and grab into a full on brawl or possible riot.”

“And three?”

Yoochun arched an eyebrow. “Pack enough heat to make those bastards think twice. Or not think at all if they try to mess with you.”

This peeked Jaejoong’s interest. “You can take weapons onto the station?” In Alliance heavy space, particularly near the main Core planets, firearms were strictly forbidden on space stations. Sometimes even the local police force were forced to go without.

“Technically,” Yoochun said, a small grin tugging at the edges of his mouth, “all visitors are expected to check their firearms into lockboxes when arriving, but there are plenty of ways to get around that. And we’re not exactly equipped for a firefight in any case.”

Jaejoong pointed across the room to where his boots were stashed. They were the same ones he’d put on right before dinner, the ones that made his feet hurt after sixteen hours standing at the hospital, but were expensive and beautiful. “ I have a small knife in there.”

Yoochun shook his head. “Haven’t you ever heard about bringing a knife to a gunfight? Never mind. My contact at the bar will provide a weapon for us. We just have to get to him.”

Tucking a hand under his chin, Jaejoong reasoned, “We could have waited for another ship. One going to the Rim. This seems like a really bad idea. We’re going closer to the Core, which means closer to the Alliance which my father’s money can buy, and to a space station where we’re in danger of being robbed, and murdered.”

“Scoot,” Yoochun said, nudging Jaejoong with his socked foot. A second later he climbed in next to him on the bed, hands tucking behind his head. “I don’t know for sure, but I think your father was right behind us. It couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes before he realized we were gone. He would have figured we were making for the space port pretty quickly, or even just covered his bases there incase we decided it at a later date. If we hadn’t gotten on this ship when we did, we might not have made it out at all. That’s what I think. I think we would have gotten caught. And I’d probably be dead, and you’d be either close to it, or already married off to whoever that guy was.”

Probably.

Inches apart, Jaejoong soaked up Yoochun’s comfort. “I never thanked you. You saved my life.”

Yoochun snorted. “I saved you before we made a run for it. You were the idiot who was threatening to throw himself out his window.” Yoochun turned his head toward Jaejoong. “You were really going to do it too, weren’t you?”

“I don’t know,” Jaejoong said honestly. “But I think so. Yes.” Never had he felt such desperation in his life. Never had he felt before that death was better than living on in the condition of his current life.

Laying together on the narrow bed, Yoochun said, “You don’t ever have to thank me.”

“Yes I do,” Jaejoong insisted. “Of course I do. Who else would risk their life for me? Who else would take that kind of risk?”

Jaejoong hugged tight to Yoochun as he replied simply, “Anyone who considered themselves your brother.”

The feeling was mutual.