Hunkered down under the quiet engine with a slender screwdriver clenched carefully between his teeth while his skilled hands fiddled with loosening the bolts around the containment panel so he could look inside, Kibum hummed to himself contentedly.  After their last run, they’d managed to come away with a hefty sum that would finally be able to replace the faulty parts in the engine, so long as they made it back to Station 241: Titan.

                “Let’s see,” he murmured around the metal tool, finally yanking off the cover panel to take a look at the singed wires inside.  “Man…” he groaned after a quick once over to confirm what he thought.  Sitting back on his heels as he scratched at his pink and white bandana wrapped around his head, which had the added bonus of spiking his black hair up and out of his face in a stylistically messy arrangement, Kibum called out, “Taemin sweetie.  You fried the booster relay panel again.”

                A small camera on the wall in the engine room came to life to project the holo-image of a slender young man dressed in oversized clothes and messy, shoulder length hair.  Pouting, he explained, “But I thought you wanted to get away without being caught.”

                Kibum narrowed catlike eyes at the hologram and planted his fists on his hips.  “Of course, but I also want the ship to stay intact or we’ll never get the new parts we need,” he huffed.  “And did you change your programming again?” he sighed with a hand gesture and a head tilt at the boy.  “You’re supposed to have fitting clothes and at least tame hair,” he explained, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers and nearly poking himself in the eye with his tool in the process.

                Abashed, Taemin ducked his head so his hair fell partially into his face, pulled on the bottom part of his shirt, and dug his toe into the ground.  “But I want to wear comfy clothes…” he pouted in a small voice.

                Unable to resist that pitiful show, Kibum groaned theatrically and rose to his feet in one swift motion.  “Ugh.  The programmer that programmed you was cruel Taeminnie,” he chided, stepping forward to lean towards Taemin with his hands clasped loosely behind his back.  “You can stay like that for now.”  The hologram beamed immediately, ready to bounce in place.  “But!” Kibum stalled him, raising the screwdriver between them in lieu of his finger, “we’re making some adjustments when we get to Titan.”

                Taemin audibly sighed – the sound component was not necessary so he was doing it on purpose – and nodded his head.  “Fine.”

                “Good,” Kibum chirped with a satisfied nod that turned into a look of confusion.  “Have you seen Jinki?” he asked with a furrowed brow.  “He should have been back by now.”

                “You’ll get wrinkles if you keep making that face,” the hologram teased playfully, to which Kibum made an offended face in return.

                “You little… I need to talk to your programmer,” Kibum chided, laughing once as he continued to wait for the answer to his original question.

                “He’s in the kitchen,” Taemin answered with a laugh, doing a little dance in place to pass the time.

                “Still?” Kibum quirked a thin brow.  When the hologram simply looked at him without responding, he stifled a sigh and shook his head with an amused laugh.  “I see.  Guess I better go check on him,” he grinned, flashing white teeth in a dazzling smile.  “Set us on a course for Titan using impulse power in the meantime.  We don’t want to burn any other acceleration panels up if we can help it,” he explained as he walked away, stuffing tools back into the various pockets of his coveralls.

                “Aye, Captain,” Taemin saluted smartly before his image faded and the ship began to move slowly through space.

                Kibum smiled and pulled his white, long sleeves back down his arms.  It would be cooler when he stepped out of the engine room after all.  As he moved, various clicks and clanks sounded softly from his clothes; he could have used pouches but this was more convenient since they had everything he needed and he liked the personal patches he’d sewn on them.  Plus, black was a fabulous color and it hid grease stains remarkably well.  Unlike on his hands.  Ah well.  At least he’d be able to wash them when he got to the kitchen.

                As soon as the kitchen door slid open and he saw the wooden cup sitting on its side in the middle of the floor, he knew exactly what had probably happened.  Entering the surprisingly domestic area, considering it was inside a spaceship, Kibum noticed a body lying on the floor behind the counter.  The man was lying face up with straight brown hair pooling on the floor under him; a hopeful gleam in his brown eyes paired well with the happy smile he sent Kibum’s way when he turned his head to see who entered.

                “Kibum!”  The relief in his voice was palpable as he pushed himself into a reclining position on his elbows.

                The Captain crossed his arms over his chest and wandered close to lean over Jinki so that they were upside to each other.  “Don’t tell me another motor function wire short circuited,” he sighed, waiting for a response.

                “Probably,” Jinki nodded in answer, his Adam’s apple more than prominent with the way his neck was arched back.  It made Kibum want to poke it, but he didn’t.  “I had your tea ready too.  But then I stepped back and… couldn’t stop myself,” he finished sheepishly.

                “Yep,” Kibum nodded to himself, squatting down behind Jinki so he could hook his hands under his arms and help him into a forward sitting position so that he was nearly folded over his legs.  “Up you go,” he encouraged, hearing a forced enthusiastic ‘Whee’ from the other man as he did so.  Kibum pulled the back of Jinki’s russet brown shirt up, exposing the pale expanse of synth-flesh so he could open the small panel at the base of his spine.

                “That tickles,” Jinki laughed as a square patch of skin peeled up, revealing a series of microfiber wires and metal joints within.

                “At least your touch receptors still work,” the Captain smiled, opening one of his top pockets to pull out a pair of mini-pliers and another, smaller than earlier screwdriver.

                “For some reason, that never shorts out,” the other man shrugged, his voice somewhat muffled from talking into his legs.

                “Which could be a good thing,” Kibum teased as he traced a fingernail up Jinki’s spine, eliciting a delightful shiver.

                Jinki made a strange grunting sound as he pushed up enough to look over his shoulder so he could give the Captain a pleading look, “That’s not fair.”

                “What’s not fair is that we keep finding all the faulty repair parts for you,” Kibum muttered with a degree of irritation as he focused his attention on the delicate work at hand.  “Ow!” he hissed when a spark jolted him, burning his fingers.

                “Sorry,” Jinki murmured reflexively, trying to keep as still as possible.

                “My fault,” he shook his head, angling his hand just so he could find the wire that was fried.

                “You wouldn’t even have to do this if I hadn’t lost my legs in the first place,” the downed man sighed, slouching forward further.

                Kibum’s lips pressed together and he paused, sighing through his nose.  Carefully, he pulled his hands free so he could hug the other man from behind, circling his arms around the thin torso so he could feel the natural warmth of his chest.  “That wasn’t your fault either, baby,” he promised, laying his head against the back of Jinki’s shoulder.

                After a brief moment, Jinki’s arms rose up and circled back unnaturally far to hug Kibum in return.  “But I guess there are some advantages,” he tried to smile, looking back to see the top of Kibum’s head.  “Your hair looks good like that, by the way,” he added as the smile became more genuine.

                “I know,” Kibum laughed, shifting to rest his chin on the other’s back so he could look him in the eyes instead.  “Alright you.  Give me just a sec and I’ll fix you right up.  Then we’re getting tea and then we’re fixing that damn engine so we can get back to Titan.  As long as Taeminnie doesn’t burn the relays up again,” he exhaled with a frustrated sigh.

                “I won’t!” the artificially intelligent computer pilot grumbled in response, obviously listening in on the conversation.

                “You’re the one that gave the programmer free rein when he developed the AI for your pilot,” Jinki reminded him with a bemused smirk.

                “Don’t remind me,” the Captain rolled his eyes as he untangled himself so he could fix his partner up the rest of the way.  “At least Jonghyun and Minho aren’t quite so mischievous,” he laughed, tweaking one more wire before he screwed the binding back in place and then closed the panel at last.  “There!  Now try!” he commanded with a playful finger in Jinki’s face.

                Without a word, Jinki managed to bend his knees and then clamber to his feet before he took a few practice high steps and then jumped in place.  “Mobility check done!  Success!” he turned to give Kibum a thumbs up and warm smile.

                On the other hand, Kibum was trying hard not to giggle.  At Jinki’s perplexed look, he burst out laughing, covering his mouth with his palm.  “You look so cute when you do that!” he flailed, squirming in place.

                Wrinkling his nose, Jinki moved to grab his partner in his arms, holding him close.  “Well you look cute all the time,” he promised, kissing his nose so that Kibum wrinkled it cutely.

                “I’m y, thank you,” he retorted with a knowing look that made Jinki smile harder.

                “You’re both,” he insisted, pecking him on the forehead this time before stepping away to retrieve the fallen tea cup.

                After the accident that had damaged or destroyed the majority of Jinki’s body, they’d had most of it replaced with artificial limbs, officially making him a cyborg.  The core of him was still mostly the man he’d been before, but his arms, legs, and quite a bit of his skeletal structure had been changed out or modified to better accommodate the new extensions.  It was actually quite the improvement, when his systems weren’t shorting out or failing entirely.  The latter was why they’d stop trying to keep glassware and resorted to wood: it wouldn’t break so easily when dropped.  And Kibum refused to use plastic because it made the tea taste funny.

                “Alright.  You get the tea and I’m gonna wash my hands,” Kibum explained, holding up slick, grease smeared palms with a disgusted grimace.  He liked tinkering with things, but sometimes it was depressingly messy.  He listened to Jinki’s slightly uneven steps – the damn wiring wasn’t relaying the signals seamlessly – and got a glob of the goopy evaporating hand soap next to the dish sterilizer.  Water was a precious commodity so they used other alternatives when possible.

                He was just brushing the disintegrating residue off his hands when a different voice sounded over the coms.  “Captain.  I’m not entirely sure, but it appears as if there’s some sort of bio-organic creature moving around inside the hold.”

                “Is it a monster?” Taemin chimed in immediately, his morbid curiosity evident in the tone.

                Kibum rolled his eyes with a wary look at Jinki, who appeared just as tense, and stated, “Jonghyun, I’m going to need you to define ‘moving around’ and ‘bio-organic creature.’”  The surveillance and defense android had been a great addition to the Shinee ship, but he was sometimes a bit vague in his descriptions.

                There was a notable pause as he obviously tried to think of a way to explain.  “I would say it’s looking for a way out and it is a small creature about the size of an old Earth shoebox with a mechanical skeletal structure and organic soft tissue.  It seems to be contain- oh no it’s not!” he interrupted himself in a drastically changing voice.

                “Eh?!” Jinki and Kibum gasped in tandem, exchanging wide eyed looks.  “Where’s it going?!” the Captain demanded, dashing towards the nanobyte storage unit.

                “I’m not entirely sure, but early trajectory results indicate the engine room is likely,” Jonghyun explained with a tense timbre in the voice.

                “No!” Kibum yelped, unlocking the unit so he could step through the nanowall, shivering as the millions of tiny bionic droids washed over him harmlessly.  On the other side was a veritable cabinet of weapons and he snagged two stunners, a net gun, and two electro-bludgeoning tools before he stepped back out and gave half to Jinki.

                “Should I activate the onboard weapons system?” Jonghyun asked, obviously eager to engage the intruder.

                “Of course!” Kibum grumbled, pausing when Jinki gave him a slightly worried grimace.  His eyes narrowed slightly and he sighed.  “Stunning and containment units only!”

                “Aw…” came the automatic, subdued response.

                “You know he likes his weapons,” Jinki shrugged with an almost apologetic look on his face, one shoulder twitching as he spoke.  They both looked at the limb with similar expressions of annoyance.  “It’s fine,” he promised when nothing else happened, rolling it out himself.

                “I swear,” Kibum huffed as he took the lead.  “I will personally shred the next person that sells me a faulty replacement part!”         Jinki leaned away from the dangerously vicious look before his lips curled into an amused smile.  “Jong!” the Captain barked as the pair exited the kitchen, one set of steps slightly out of synch while they ran.  “Where is it?!”

                “AH HAH!  Found you!” Jonghyun crowed over the coms.  The ship hummed from the initial power draw and then they all heard the sound of electricity sizzling in the distance.  “Hey!  Hold still!” he growled, too distracted to answer Kibum’s question.  “No!  I hit you!” he scowled when another sizzle sounded off.

                “This way, Captain!” Taemin called as his holo-self appeared down the hall, waving at the pair to follow his lead.  “It’s fast!” he explained, his image flickering from camera to camera so the two behind would continue to see him.  “And heading for the engine room.”

                “If it gets there, we’re really gonna be dead in the air,” Jinki reminded behind the Captain.

                “Then go faster!” he called back in frustration.

                “Yes, sir!” Jinki beamed, immediately putting on a burst of speed that allowed him to power past the unmodified human and clang noisily down the hallway.  It would have been impressive if he didn’t clip his shoulder on one of the support beams as he went.  “I’m okay!” he called with the uneven clambering of him trying to recover.

                “Be careful!” Kibum groaned with a shake of his head.  “Jong, report!”

                “Got it!” he cheered after the ship rocked slightly, the force indicative of a detainment attempt.  “Take that you little- what!?”  That wasn’t good.  “It chewed through the containment field!” Jonghyun wailed like a lost child.

                “Yah!” Jinki’s voice echoed down the hall, followed by a noticeable clang.  “It’s biting me!  It’s biting me!  Ow!” he yelled around a series of bangs and whirs just out of sight.

                “Jinki, move!  You’re in the way!” Jonghyun grumbled, apparently trying to get a clear shot.

                “I can’t!  It won’t let go!” Jinki wailed plaintively.

                And as soon as Kibum rounded the corner, he saw why.  The bio-organic entity was a shaggy furball of a thing with long, silver hair, four short legs, and essentially a mouth for a head.  Said mouth, full of sharp teeth, was also latched onto Jinki’s hand.  Jinki was sitting on the ground flailing the hand that had the creature attached before he tried to use both feet and his other hand to pry it off.

                Watching his partner roll around on the floor with his hands and feet in the air as he tried to free himself was almost funny, except he still didn’t know what they were dealing with and that was a problem.  “Hold onto it!” he commanded, sprinting the rest of the distance like a majestic runner in a race.  Taking a final, running leap, he pointed his stunner with both hands, aimed and fired!

                Jinki yelped while the creature made a strange, electronic grumbling sound.  Kibum grinned but realized he was going to land on Jinki.  And the creature.  With an abbreviated wail and a series of flailing arms, he landed with one foot on the floor and one on Jinki before the latter folded so he wouldn’t actually step on him with his full weight.  Crashing to the metal grating in an uncoordinated fall, he was preparing himself for worse before strong arms caught him close and protected him from any further harm.

                “Gotcha!” Jinki cheered with a pained grunt when they came to a stop, leaning against the nearest wall.  “Ow,” the cyborg hissed, rubbing the back of his head where he’d hit the metal the hardest.

                “Thanks,” Kibum exhaled in relief, the brief feeling dissipating just as quickly in the next instant.

                “Incoming!” Jonghyun warned, unable to fire defensively with the Captain and Jinki so close to the creature.

                “Yah!” Kibum screamed, snatching up the stunner from Jinki’s side – it was the nearest weapon he could find – and aimed it at the jumping creature.  The wide open maw yawned at him and he unloaded three shots into it, but it kept coming.  He fired a fourth as the creature managed to swallow the gun and his hand before clamping shut around both.  “Wah!” the Captain shrieked, staring in shock at what had happened before he tried to shake it off in response.

                “Kibum!” his partner yelped behind him, reaching both arms around to try and help automatically.

                “Get it off!  It’s biting… me…” he started to yell before a strange sleepiness swamped his senses, sending Kibum into spiraling unconsciousness.

                The next thing he knew, Kibum was aware of a small ruckus happening in his general vicinity.  Something metal clanged to the floor, followed by a series of smaller clangs, and then he heard Jinki apologize.  "Sorry!”

                “Please remain seated until your equilibrium has been restored,” the familiar voice of Doctor Minho instructed in a calm tone.

                “But I want to see.  Is Kibum going to be okay?  Did that thing hurt him badly?  Is he going to die from the poison?” he rattled off a series of worried questions that made Kibum frown in confusion as he pried open his eyes to look around the sickbay.  Poison?

                “He’ll be fine,” Minho soothed in that smooth, deep voice of his just across the room where he was cornering Jinki so the other would remain seated.

                “When?  And why is that thing in here too?” he grumbled, obviously pointing at something nearby.  Following the direction slowly, Kibum noticed the creature from earlier lying inside one of the small containment units in the sickbay.

                “Any time now.  And don’t worry.  It’s been heavily sedated.  The stunner worked to completely override the electronic component of the creature and it is now sleeping peacefully under the influence of a powerful tranquilizer,” the doctor explained succinctly.

                Only partially annoyed at finding himself in the sickbay, Kibum groaned, “Must you two be so noisy?”

                “Kibum!”

                “Ah.  You’re awake,” Minho smiled, turning around to approach the bedside so he could get a closer look at his patient.

                Kibum managed a crooked smile up at the handsome android, meeting the large expressive eyes with a groggy gaze.  “What happened?”

                “That thing poisoned you!” Jinki scowled as he got up to get closer too, but found that he was unable to walk a straight line and therefore fell into a side table, knocking another tray off the surface.

                “Jinki,” the doctor and Kibum sighed in unison.

                Minho shook his head and focused on his patient.  “It merely injected you with a minor neurotoxin present in its saliva that caused almost immediate unconsciousness.”

                “What is it?” Kibum grumbled after mulling that over for a second.

                “Apparently, some sort of defensive unit meant to apprehend and disable possible intruders.  It would appear you picked it up from the last ‘salvage’ run,” Minho chuckled, a crooked smile pulling at his full lips while the wavy strands of his dark brown hair gracefully fell around his face.

                “Oh goodie,” Kibum drawled, rubbing the back of his good hand across his forehead.  He glimpsed at the bandaged wrist with a questionable look to the doctor.

                “The wound has healed but in order to prevent scarring, I have left it wrapped with a regenerative serum,” he explained, gently taking Kibum’s hand and tracing the bindings with long, elegant fingers.

                In the corner, Kibum could see Jinki’s slight glower and he took pity on his partner.  “Good to know,” he nodded, freeing his wrist so he could carefully sit up, waving off Minho’s assistance.  “So what now?” he wondered, peering at the creature.

                “We should get rid of it,” Jinki nodded matter of factly, carefully getting to his feet so he could slowly and awkwardly make his way closer, looking like a toddler taking his first steps.

                “Did your equilibrium modulator go out again?” the Captain frowned in amazed annoyance.

                “It would appear so,” Minho confirmed with a nod as both observed the cyborg’s labored progress.

                “Stupid, incompetent part suppliers,” Kibum grumbled as he swung his legs over the side of the table and looked around.  Eyeing the creature speculatively, the Captain called out, “Jong.  How much damage did you do to the ship?”

                “I didn’t even scratch her!” the surveillance and defense android retorted.  When Kibum cleared his throat to make him think again, he begrudgingly admitted, “It’s just cosmetic.  I scorched a couple walls with the modified stunners,” he explained nonchalantly.  A quiet, suspicious hum made him change again.  “Ugh!  Alright.  I burned up one of the wall panels and short circuited the wires leading to the sleeping quarters.”  Kibum introduced his face to his palm with a loud smack.  “Sorry?” the android cringed.

                “Taeminnie?  How close are we to Titan?” the Captain asked instead, wincing as he diverted his attention.  He was grateful when Jinki finally made it to his side so he could grab one of his hands and hold it reassuringly, their fingers threaded together.

                “It’ll take us another two days at impulse speed,” the pilot responded without materializing in the sickbay.

                “We still have impulse power?” Kibum blinked in surprise.

                “Yep!  Jinki managed to catch the thing before it got to the engine room.  That was right around when he started losing his balance though,” the AI explained helpfully as Jinki smiled with a bashful expression.

                “I see,” Kibum smiled, reaching up to caress his partner’s cheek with his other hand.  “Definitely gonna have to get you fixed up after that,” he promised with a sultry wink.  Jinki’s face reddened further but his smile never wavered.

                “So what would you like to do with the creature?” Minho prompted as he gestured towards the contained being.

                “Hmm,” Kibum hummed as he tapped his finger.  “I’m thinking about keeping it,” he grinned earning a groan from Jinki.

                “But it almost took your hand off, Kibummie,” his partner frowned.

                “Not really,” Minho shook his head.  “The wounds were mostly superficial and it seems to be designed mostly for the purposes of disabling opponents with the neurotoxin it has.”

                “See?” Kibum laughed with a delightful twinkle in his eye.

                “You’re not helping,” Jinki grumbled with a deadpan expression directed at Minho who didn’t even flinch.

                “I’m sure I can reprogram her-”

                “Her?” Jinki interrupted.

                “Doesn’t she look like a Princess to you?” Kibum asked innocently as he pointed towards the silver hair thing.

                “Kibum…”

                “And then we could have a pet-”             

                “But we don’t need a pet.”

                “Then a guardbot thing that doubles as a pet,” Kibum reasoned sweetly.

                “We could use the money though,” Jinki tried to argue, a perplexed look on his face.

                “We haven’t even sold our haul yet.”

                “You’re not gonna let this go, are you?” Jinki sighed resignedly after a moment.

                “Nope,” Kibum giggled, giving Jinki’s hand a little squeeze before he pulled him down to kiss him quickly on the cheek.

                The cyborg sighed again and laughed at himself.  “Alright.  I never could tell you no anyway,” he admitted, straightening up slightly.  The serene expression flashed to one of surprise when he started to fall backwards though, unable to properly control his balance.  “Ah…” he started to say before Minho’s hand in the middle of his back stopped him.

                “Come here, you,” Kibum laughed with a shake of his head as he grabbed the front of Jinki’s shirt with both hands and yanked him close.  “I think you and I need to trade places now,” he nodded with a playful grin as Jinki’s cheeks flushed again.

                “Should I leave the room?” Minho inquired, one brow quirked and a half-smirk tugging at one side of his mouth.

                “Definitely,” Kibum agreed with a coy wink before he turned his attention back to Jinki.

                Minho left the room after disabling the interior monitoring system.  “Hey!” Taemin complained over the system.  “Why’d you do that?!” he demanded.  “I wanted to see!”

                “You’re too young for that,” Jonghyun retorted with a snort.

                “You’re barely older than I am!” Taemin retorted.

                “But I’m still older!” the older system smirked.

                Both quieted immediately when they heard, “Jonghyun!  Taemin!  Be quiet.”

                “Aye, Captain!” they agreed in tandem, promptly finding something else to occupy their time.