a/n: i am very quickly using up my reserves of prewritten chapters :) happy new year from the west coast

FOUR

“Jeon Jungkook!” Via said, shaking the unconscious man. She had returned to the bathroom after fifteen minutes wondering why he hadn’t finished getting dressed and found him passed out over the tub. “Stupid boy.” She muttered, check his pulse. His heartbeat was steady, she could swear she could almost hear him snore.

He was sleeping.

Via didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or kick him. Instead, she resorted to draining the water from the tub and hauling him into something of a sitting position. She dries everything she could and peeled off his underwear without thinking twice. It was either she protects his modesty or let him sleep with wet underwear.

He would thank her later. Careful to keep her gaze on his face as she struggled to clothe him. He was lean, nothing but muscle and bone, but tall and very unconscious making it difficult to slip a shirt onto his body.

Giving up, she gripped him under his arms and dragged him back into his bedroom, dumping him on the bed. She had half a heart to arrange the blankets on top of him before she checked the lock on the door again and collapsed on top of the covers beside him. She reached behind herself, pulling the gun out of her pocket and set on the bedside table.

Via tried to stay as alert as possible, but the lack of sleep from staying up the previous night got to her and she found herself falling asleep beside Jungkook.

“Holy ,” Jungkook muttered, wide awake when he realized that the lithe body curled up beside him Via. He felt much better after waking up, but he couldn’t quite remember how he had got on his bed. The last thing he remembered was the bathtub. He shifted under the sheets.

He was wearing pants and clean underwear. He turned to look at Via’s sleeping figure, unsure of how to react. He was contemplating feigning sleep when she moved slightly.

“You’re awake,” she pushed herself into a sitting position, reaching for her hair and scooping it up into a ponytail. “Good. How are you feeling?”

“Better,” Jungkook said cautiously. “Did you give me a bath last night?”

Via shrugged, throwing her legs off the bed and leaning down to tie up her lace. “Will you feel better if I said no?” She stood up and moved to where she had left a bottle of water out and tossed it to him. He caught it swiftly.

“No, not really,” he grumbled, unscrewing the lid and tipping it into his mouth.

“Then I did give you a bath last night,” Via said, pulling out a package fruit snacks. “But fainted in the bathtub and left me to all the heavy lifting.”

Jungkook choked, sputtering water and pulling the water bottle away from his face. Via turned to look at him curiously, cataloging his reaction.

“You saw-” his voice was small.

“Everything,” Via raised an eyebrow, “why? Did you want to sleep with wet underwear?”

Well. He didn’t. He shook his head, he didn’t think he could win this argument and instead pushed his legs off his bed and stood up, pushing the covers off his body. Cold air touched his bare torso. He turned to Via, raising a charcoal brow.

She shrugged again. “I tried to put a shirt on you, but you have very long arms and you’re not a still sleeper.”

Jungkook moved to his closet, pulling a hoodie over his head. All the previous haze from last morning was gone. He checked the time. Three am.

“You saved my life,” he said, turning to her in time to see her pull out another pack of fruit snacks out the grocery bags. She contemplates his words, turning to lean against his windowsill.

“And it looks like you’re out of work,” Via states. “You worked- with the winnings from fights?” He turned to look at her, hesitating for a moment.

“Something like that,” he said finally. “Are you going to take me back to ANGL compound?”

“I received no order to do so,” Via said, popping the brightly colored candy into . “I was just told to watch you, make sure you didn’t die. But I would prefer to return to the compound, this place is disgusting.”

“Hey now,” Jungkook said, feeling the strange need to defend his ty apartment. “It kept the reanimated out.”

“Barely,” Via said motioning towards the door where the door handle had been ripped out and the entire door was being barricaded by his dresser.

“You moved the dresser?” He asked, glancing her up and down.

“I did,” she didn’t allow any room of argument. “Now will you return to ANGL with me? It isn’t safe in the area; the new reports are talking about four reanimated attacks one after another. Or shall I continue to babysit?”

“Babysit who?” He asked, confused. There was a baby?

“You, of course,” Via said, examining her pearly nails. “Remember? I gave you a bath and dressed you, put you to bed-” she trails off.

“I don’t need a reminder,” Jungkook grouched and when he didn’t move from where he stands in front of her closer, she moves to sit back down on his bed. She barely slept, forcing herself wide awake at every sound, listening for the undead. If he wanted to stay here, then she was going to take the bed.

“What are you doing?” He asked, and she lay back on the bed, throwing her arm over her eyes.

“Taking a nap, if you insist on staying in your pitiful apartment then I will protect you from the bed. You don’t mind taking the first watch, do you?” She said, shutting her eyes. Jungkook, while he might be decommissioned, she could tell that he could his own if any reanimated broke through the dresser and with him finally conscious, she felt fairly confident enough to allow herself into a deep sleep.

He was quiet, she tracked his movement as he sat down at the foot of the bed. Sleep was so close, she could feel it taking the edge away.

“Janson said that you have no memories past sixteen months,” Jungkook’s voice was different. Via forced the sleep away.

“Yes,” she said.

“And you have volunteered for the ANGL program?” He asked.

Via remained silent for so long that he thought she had fallen asleep.

“It’s more complicated than that. I didn’t volunteer. It’s all I know. They have been conditioning me for the field for since I took out almost half of their men when I first woke up.” She said, letting her arm fall so she could look at him. For the first time, her eyes held something. “I know so little, but the reanimated attacks are what I have been trained for. I will likely be put in the field if you chose to be my partner or not.”

Jungkook searched her eyes, but the glimmer that had once been there had disappeared. The haunted look remained. He couldn’t tell if it scared him or intrigued him.

“Also, my IQ and my lack of memories means that I have an incredibly low EQ. If I don’t kill the reanimated, I’m likely to become a serial killer.” She rolled onto her stomach and promptly begun to snore.

Scared him. Definitely scared him

“Look at what the cat dragged in,” Janson said watching as Via gracefully stepped into the common training ground with a less than graceful Jungkook on her tail. Janson had just finished up with a meeting regarding the current angels, and many of them had taken up playful sparring. Now, those not currently locked in combat, watched as they strode across the room.

“I don’t understand that saying,” she says, furrowing her brows to look between Janson and Jungkook. “Am I the cat?”

She walked past a floor brawl that came centimeters to brushing her without blinking. Jungkook brushed hair out of his face.

“I despise that saying,” he growls.

Via turns to him. “Is it because you’re the cat?”

“It’s good to see you alive and well,” Janson said, sitting back down at his table. “Via told me about what happened at your- workplace.”

“Not everything, I hope,” Jungkook shoots Via a look. She shrugs.

“And it’s good to see you back on grounds. Have you reconsidered my offer?” Janson asks. He’s a practiced man, but it didn’t take a genius to see the eagerness on his face.

“I’m in the process of considering it,” Jungkook turns to the angels that had ceased sparring to watching them converse. “I’ve been out of commission for a while. You sure you still want me?”

“Nathanial, Ryan,” Janson calls. Two males in their mid-twenties step forward. They’re sweating from training, but they swing their staffs energetically. “Test your strength, if you must, they’re my best as of right now.”

Jungkook steps onto the training mat. Ryan tosses him an extra staff. They face him, bodies organizing themselves into ready position.

“Your name?” Nathanial asks. His hair is blond, cropped close to his face military style. His partner has almost the same cut.

“Jungkook,” he says, swinging the staff a bit. It was heavy, nothing like the light weight staffs he had trained with. His muscle mass had only decreased since he’d quit, he doubted he could fight with this weapon for long. He had to take them down quickly.

“What kind of name is-” Nathanial starts and Jungkook shoots forward, swinging the staff with a technique he had not used in years.

Ryan grunts, obviously not prepared for the sudden attack, but brings up his staff to meet Jungkook’s at an impressive speed. The sound is as heavy as the wood and Jungkook plants his feet and brings up the bottom end of the staff to attempt another hit.

Before he can, a pain explodes in right knee and he is forced to drop and roll to avoid a headshot. Pushing himself back up to his feet, he grips the staff. He’s lost the element of surprise and the staff was only getting heavier by the second. He’s examining the two when he feels the presence of someone come up beside him and he turns slightly to see Via join him on the training mat.

“I’ll get Nathanial, he looks like someone that would pull his punches for a girl,” she mutters to him before stepping forward in a flash, leaving him to face Ryan without choice. He can hear the sound of their staffs meeting each other but he can’t turn to look because somehow Ryan has managed to slip behind him, landing a solid hit to his shoulder blade.

Jungkook whirls around quickly, before Ryan can pull his staff completely away, slamming his weapon into Ryan’s before bringing up the bottom half and landing a blow to his side. Ryan grunts, slamming his staff in Jungkook’s defensively positioned one so hard that Jungkook is forced to take several steps back. His back brushes a smaller frame.

“Nathanial didn’t pull his punches,” Via mutters to him and she nudges his side. He gets the message, whirling to switch places with he