Junmyeon’s room is messier than Sehun was expecting it to be. There are clothes strewn haphazardly across the floor, and Junmyeon blushes as he shuts the door, “Don’t mind the mess,” he says and makes to grab some shirts off the bed so there’s somewhere to sit, “If I’d been expecting company...” he trails off, dumping the clothes in his arms into a hamper.

The android’s fingers twitch, but it allows Junmyeon to guide it over to sit next to Sehun on the bed, “So,” Junmyeon claps his hands together, “I’ll be watching the door just in case, but they probably won’t get this far, so we should get to know each other... uh, I’ll start. I’m Junmyeon and I pilot this ship.” he looks to Sehun expectantly and Sehun sighs.

“I’m Sehun, I help Yixing in sick bay, mostly.”

Junmyeon turns his gaze to the android, calming smile back in full force for all the good it’ll do, “I’m Kyungsoo,” it intones, “Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Jongin are my friends; they’re helping me.”

It fiddles with its hands in its lap, almost as if it’s nervous, before continuing, “Baekhyun really is from Athena. We were going to lay low there for a while, patch me up. I— we never meant for this to happen.”

“It’s okay,” Junmyeon says, patting the android on the knee, “We all have our secrets. Unfortunately, this does mean we’re all fugitives now.”

“Weren’t you already fugitives once I stepped onto this ship?” Sehun laughs, unable to hold back.

Junmyeon groans, “I’m gonna let you in on something... we were really already kind of fugitives before you came, I mean, for starters, if anyone knew who Luhan really was we’d have been arrested years ago, let alone now. But this makes us known fugitives.”

“Who’s Luhan?” the android asks, synthetic curiosity seeping in its voice.

“The grumpy one,” Sehun supplies.

Junmyeon chuckles, “I don’t know how long you’ve been at the academy Kyungsoo, or even how much information goes in and out of there, but have you ever heard of the Bleeding Hart?”

Asking someone if they’ve heard of the Bleeding Hart seems like asking someone if they know who the empress is, even if they are an android. The Bleeding Hart are the biggest mercenary group the empire’s ever seen. They’ll take just about any job, and always favour dead over alive when it comes to bounties.

“Yes,” the android replies, cocking its head in a curious manner.

“Well,” Junmyeon smiles mischievously, “you didn’t hear it from me, but Luhan used to be their leader. Their founder, in fact.”

Huh, Sehun thinks, that certainly explains his hyper assertiveness. It doesn’t, however, explain why he’s here and not terrorizing the galaxy, or whatever it is the Bleeding Hart actually do for a living, “Then why—”

“Why’s he here?” Junmyeon finishes for him, “...it’s a long story?”

The android laughs; Sehun’s never heard one of them do that before. It sounds pleasant, natural. It’s almost eerie how human this “Kyungsoo” seems.

Just then, footsteps sound in the hallway and Junmyeon shushes them silently, readying his gun and moving towards the door. Three knocks, followed by, “It’s me, coast is clear. You’re definitely needed on the bridge.” Speak of the devil.

Junmyeon relaxes, opening the door to reveal a dishevelled Luhan. Sehun thinks he can see a spot of blood on his shirt and tries not to think about it.

Junmyeon runs off towards the bridge, and Luhan turns to stare at the room’s other occupants, “C’mon, we’re making a run for it, and I don’t think Jun would appreciate you going through his things.”

Sehun brushes past Luhan and makes for the common room. The whole way he hears the footsteps of the android behind him.

*

The common room is still and silent. As Sehun walks in, he spies Chanyeol laying on the couch, legs in Jongin's lap, and arms over his face. Jongin himself is asleep, or at least trying to be. While Baekhyun sits legs curled under him on an armchair, Zitao lying on his stomach in the middle of the floor.

“So... how about that empress, huh?” Sehun begins, and the room at large groans, mission accomplished.

The android rushes past Sehun and practically leaps onto the couch, “Are you okay?” it says, patting Jongin on the head.

Jongin laughs weakly, blinking drowsily, “I’m fine, I’m fine.”

Baekhyun starts whining, “Kyungsoo~ don’t you care about me?”

It turns to face Baekhyun with a stare more akin to those Sehun’s used to seeing from androids, but it just makes Baekhyun whine louder.

The android rolls its eyes and settles onto Chanyeol’s lap, wiggling back into his hold, ignoring Baekhyun’s increasing decibel levels.

It takes Baekhyun crawling across the floor on his knees for the android to pay him any attention, tugging his ear when he reaches the edge of the couch.

Sehun takes Baekhyun’s now empty seat, beating Zitao to the punch. Looking to his left, he sees the trio of former students still fussing over the android. Baekhyun bites his lip, furrowing his brows as he pokes at the tears in the synthetic skin.

The android winces, “Ah, sorry, sorry,” Baekhyun says, patting its face instead.

“Hurts,” its says, voice petulant, face pulled into a pout.

“I know,” Baekhyun pulls his lip out through his teeth, and pats the android’s cheek “Soon we’ll be home and we can find someone to patch you up.”

“Yeah,” Chanyeol adds, tightening his grip and giving a little shimmy, “better than new!”

If he were honest with himself Sehun would have to admit the android was pretty cute, but it’s not like its emoting was real. No good comes from treating androids as persons, that’s one thing his father taught him. It can only cause, pain, strife, and confusion, better to think of them as tools, because that’s exactly what they are.

Yifan steps through the threshold, face grimmer than it’s been in a while. He clears his throat, and the little circle around the android startles, turning to face him.

“Kyungsoo,” he intones, waving the android over. It extricates itself from Chanyeol’s grip and steps over to Yifan, eyes down.

“I need to see how bad your wound is,” he continues, reaching up to gently push the android’s face to the side, exposing the torn flesh of his neck.

Yifan hisses on an intake of breath, “Doesn’t look too good.”

“Doesn’t feel too good either,” the android chides, and Yifan lets go of its jaw with a short, “sorry.”

He coughs, and Jongin pipes up, “It’s getting worse too,” his comment is met with a harsh glare from the android and he deflates a little, shrugging.

Chanyeol’s face turns cold, “Is it?”

“Calm down Chanyeol, I’m fine,” the android insists, turning to glare again at Chanyeol before staring up at Yifan, “I’m fine. I can and will be fine until I can get help.”

“Where’s Yixing anyway,” Baekhyun butts in, “he should be able to do something at least right?”

Yifan shakes his head, “If Yixing tried anything he’d probably just make it even worse; he’s not the best with machinery of any kind.”

“Minseok then.”

“Not an option. He’s currently busy making sure we stay moving as fast as possible. Besides, intricate work isn’t his strong suit.” Yifan sighs, rubbing a hand through his hair, hard done-by.

Zitao perks up, looking to Yifan hopefully, smile spreading on his face, and Yifan shakes his head once sharply.

“Kyungsoo, you don’t have to put up a brave front okay. If it really has been getting worse it’ll start affecting your systems soon and that’s no good,” Chanyeol says.

“‘No good’ is an understatement,” Jongin rolls his eyes.

“Yifan~” Zitao croons, and Yifan shakes his head again, “Yi~fan~”

“No.”

“What else is there, who else is there come on,” Zitao scrambles across the room, latching onto Yifan.

“Too dangerous.”

“Says the man with a ship full of enemies of the state,” Zitao pouts up at Yifan, “besides, you love Jongdae; don’t lie,” and Sehun can see Yifan cave.

He closes his eyes, “We don’t even know where he is right now.”

“We don’t, but we sure know someone who can find out.” Zitao sing-songs, swinging Yifan’s arm twice before running out of the room.

“Are we gonna be cryptic, or...?” Baekhyun says, eyebrows behind his fringe.

“Jongdae’s a friend. There’s no one in the whole verse better with androids, inside or out,” Yifan says, smiling a bit despite himself.

“If he’s so great, why have we never heard of him?” Jongin says, and Yifan laughs.

“Because he’s also very secretive,” Yifan says, laughter still in his eyes.

Zitao comes back, popping his head through the doorway and breathing heavily with a large smile on his face, “Ishtar.”

*

Once they get a safe distance from the checkpoint, Yifan sends Minseok over to see if he can patch Kyungsoo up enough to keep him going until they reach their new destination.

Ishtar is almost as far away from them as Athena is. Sehun can’t possibly fathom why anyone would go there willingly. An outer planet in the truest sense, Ishtar is nothing but poverty and dirt, and apparently an android expert.

As Minseok comes in, Sehun walks out. He isn’t sure why, but he knows he isn’t keen on watching an android look so much in pain.

He wanders down to the observation deck, finding it empty. In the weeks since the boarders have joined Galaxy, someone has put a sheet over the mattress, and it’s almost endearing. Right now it just seems like a nice place to nap, surrounded by the darkness of space.

*

The door creaks open, and Sehun jumps back into consciousness, “Sorry,” it’s Yifan, “didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Mmm, it’s fine, your ship and all,” Sehun sits up straight, inviting Yifan in further.

Yifan leans on the railing at the edge of the deck. The silence stretches into the void.

“Don’t you have a ship to be captaining?” Sehun asks, unable to stop himself.

“Luhan’s more than competent,” Yifan replies, turning so his back is to the great window.

“So I hear,” Sehun laughs, “no one mentioned you were already criminals,” he leans back on his hands.

Yifan shrugs, giving a little smile, “There wasn’t any need to. There’s a lot you don’t know about us, just as there’s a lot we don’t know about you.”

It’s true. He doesn’t know much about the crew at all, doesn’t know where they’re from or even what any of their favourite colours are, “Maybe we should play some ice breakers?”

“You know,” Yifan says, pointing a finger, “that’s not a bad idea,” He stares up at the ceiling as if thinking about all the ice breakers they could play.

“You didn’t come here just to make smalltalk though did you, sir?” Sehun asks, shifting back upright.

“No, you’re right, I didn’t,” Yifan walks over to the mattress and sits down next to Sehun. In the back of Sehun’s mind he envisions a thousand conversations that have started this exact way, “Is having Kyungsoo on the ship going to be an issue for you?”

Yifan looks oddly concerned, like he wants Sehun to think he’ll be understanding no matter what, but also that there’s a hardline being drawn.

“No, why would it be?” and it isn’t, “I grew up around androids.”

“You seemed a little... uncomfortable back in the common room, that’s all,” Yifan clears his throat, “I can’t have you on the ship...” he huffs, “I can’t have you on the ship if this is an issue, that’s all.”

“It’s not an issue,” Sehun insists, feeling an odd mix of exasperated and confused, “It’s just an android, I’m not—”

Yifan cuts him off, “Promise me you’ll talk to him.”

“Who?” Everyone had seemed especially tense, and Sehun isn’t the best at reading a room.

“Kyungsoo.” Yifan holds his gaze unblinkingly.

“Oh... uh, sure, yeah,” it’s an odd request.

Yifan rolls his eyes and stands up, “Good enough for now,” he sighs, placing his hands on his hips and looking towards the door, “Dinner’s soon.”

He gets up to leave and doesn’t look back, but Sehun’s been around long enough to know an invitation when he hears one.

*

Two nights later Yifan makes his move. Sehun’s hanging around with Yixing, helping him tidy nooks that haven’t seen the light of day in probably longer than any of them have been in this ship, when a call comes over the intercom.

“This is your captain speaking. Everyone report to the common room in ten minutes. That is all.”

Sehun looks to Yixing for some sort of explanation but Yixing just shrugs, looking just as confused himself.

They head down to the common room, slipping inside to find most of everyone already assembled. Junmyeon wanders around the perimeter, taking pillows from chairs and placing them on the ground, while everyone else stands awkwardly to the side.

Sehun quicksteps over to Zitao, who’s doing his utmost to hold in giggles. Sehun smiles shaking his head, “What’s going on?” he whispers, and Zitao waves him quiet.

“I don’t really know,” he pulls Sehun in closer to his side, voice just as low, “Yifan-ge’s announcement was the first I heard of anything either.”

Junmyeon finishes laying the pillows with a flourish, gesturing to the room at large before placing his hands on his hips, “Alright,” he rocks on his feet once, “everyone sit down. Just pick a spot, any spot.”

No one moves. Junmyeon gestures again, smile straining. Everyone refuses to make eye contact. Junmyeon’s smile wavers, arms dropping, “Seriously, just... indulge me. Indulge Yifan.” He plops down himself, crossing his legs beneath himself and staring nonplussed at the wall.

Everyone shuffles around most opting to stare at the floor; Zitao pulls Sehun with him and takes a seat on Junmyeon’s right, who pats Zitao on the shoulder while Zitao preens. Typical.

After that the dam breaks. Well it springs a leak at least, as the rest of the room’s occupants trickle into seats of their own.

Chanyeol takes the place on Junmyeon’s other side with Baekhyun next to him. Jongin, predictably takes Baekhyun’s other side sheepishly. Minseok stretches his arms while Yixing tries to pull Luhan over to sit. Minseok shakes it out, clapping Yixing on the back before flopping down comfortably next to Jongin, who shifts to stare at his hands.

The door opens as Yixing finally wins (or Luhan finally gives up, it’s hard to tell). Yifan and... and the android shuffle in, while Luhan slumps down next to Minseok, who pats his leg, laughing when Luhan pushes his hand away.

The android seems sluggish now, movements jerky as Yifan leads him to sit between himself and Yixing, Yifan completing the circuit. His injury looks worse too, metal skeleton visible from nearly half way up his neck to his collar bone.

“Well, now that we’re all here you’re probably wondering what this is all about,” Yifan starts, all eyes turning to him, “It’s come to my attention that many of us are still practically strangers. Now, since we’re all kind of stuck together for the long haul I figure it’s about time we get to know each other.”

A small groan filters around the room. “I refuse to play that picnic game,” Luhan speaks up, finger pointing accusingly at Yifan who sighs.

“It’s been ages, and you’re good at it anyway. You always get to go on the picnic,” he rubs his forehead, “I say we just... go around the circle and introduce ourselves.”

He looks to Sehun expectantly and Sehun stares back, appalled at the thought that this is probably his fault for suggesting the idea in the first place. Yifan’s stare gets more pathetic and Sehun gives in to save Yifan’s dignity.

“We all know names here, but I’m Sehun,” he looks around the circle to see varying levels of paying attention and tries to get it over with, “My father’s the head of the Oh conglomerate, I ran away from home, but he thinks I’ve been kidnapped.”

That seems like enough of a ~fun fact~ so Sehun turns to Zitao, patting his knee once to pass the torch, choosing to ignore the looks from the academy student half of the room.

“I’m Zitao. Uh, I don’t really have a fancy story, but I used to be a pretty good pickpocket,” he smiles and Junmyeon ruffles his hair.

“I’m Junmyeon,” Junmyeon takes over, Zitao pulling back a bit to give him space to articulate, “I used to work in android lib, that’s how I know Jongdae, whose home we’re headed to, and Yifan offered me a place here so I took it.”

He shrugs a little, turning to Chanyeol, who cracks his knuckles emphatically, coughing exaggeratedly to clear his throat, “I’m Chanyeol.”

“Hi, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun intones nasally, earning a smack.

“I was training to be a pilot at the academy, and somehow let Baekhyun rope me into this dumb idea,” he smiles widely to counteract the end of his statement, and Baekhyun throws his head back in laughter.

“I’m Baekhyun,” he starts calming down, “I was actually rebelling against my family by joining the military, and I was training to be a medic.”

“What’s your family do?” Zitao asks, leaning forward.

“They’re performers. I practically grew up singing circuits,” his smile soft for once.

Baekhyun nudges Jongin with his foot, and Jongin shifts to a better posture, “I’m Jongin,” his voice cracks on the second syllable and he clears his throat, “I was training as an engineer.”

Minseok smiles slightly and takes over once it’s apparent that’s all Jongin has to say on the matter, “I’m Minseok, I keep our lady Galaxy afloat. I actually used to be in the military, but I dropped out to see the stars with Yifan.”

He turns to look at Luhan who sighs, world weary, “I’m Luhan. I used to be head of the Bleeding Hart and Yifan definitely doesn’t pay as well, but the jobs are less ty so it evens out.”

He leans back, seemingly satisfied with the stunned silence in the room, and Yixing takes over, “I’m Yixing. Uhh, I actually don’t have a story; I kinda stumbled into working for Yifan.”

“Literally,” Yifan mumbles under his breath and Minseok laughs.

It’s the android’s turn, and all eyes turn to him “I’m Kyungsoo, I worked at the academy on Ekwentsu doing cleaning duty mostly. Um,” his large eyes drift down and he scratches almost absently at his neck before wincing and placing the hand back in his lap, “Yeah.”

His head lolls forward in a couple of awkward nods, and Sehun finds himself smiling at the scene.

“And last but certainly not least,” Yifan starts, laughing at his own lame joke, “I’m Yifan. Minseok and I were actually school friends, and it was my idea to drop out. I ended up finding my lady here with a little help from some less savoury ladies,” Minseok cackles from the other end of the circle, “and now we just kinda are.” he finishes with a shrug.

It’s a final anticlimax to their little introductory game.

“Well, that was certainly worth all the trouble,” Luhan grouses, shifting his weight back on his knees.

Baekhyun hops up, cackling, “Who’s up for some foosball?” he smacks Jongin on the shoulder and pulls the foosball table out from it’s temporary place in the corner. Chanyeol whoops, quickly following his friend. Zitao follows, and Minseok goes with him. The rest meander soon after, but as Sehun shifts to get up Yifan sends him a look before pointedly looking at the android. Oh, right, Sehun had promised he supposes.

“So, uh, Kyungsoo,” he starts.

“You don’t have to bother,” the android cuts him off, “I’m hardly willing to put up with interaction out of obligation. That’s why I left the academy in the first place.”

Sehun feels shame smack him in the face, reddening his cheeks. No one’s ever been so blunt with him before; he’s far more used to tact.

“I’m not unobservant you know,” it continues as if in contradiction of its former statement, “I’m nothing but a bot to you? Whatever. Just don’t try to act like that makes you superior,” it fixes a cold stare at him, “I’m not a ing object.”

The android stumbles to its feet and joins the rest at the foosball table. Yifan looks over to Sehun expectantly, but Sehun doesn’t match his eyes, choosing instead to turn in early. He definitely doesn’t mope.