“Don’t tell me you don’t think that this entire situation is absolutely ridiculous?” Soonyoung grumbles, arms crossed and foot tapping impatiently on the tiled glass floor of the elevator as the different levels fly by. “I didn’t even tell anyone about joining the expedition for the longest time. I mean, how does this always happen.”

“I sincerely hope you’re joking,” Minghao tells him with a chuckle, patting Soonyoung’s back in mock pity. “You both are team leaders of your respective classifications that graduated the same year from the same institute. You two practically grew up working together, I really don’t know why you’re surprised that you and Wonwoo are unintentionally taking on the same missions when you’re always doing it.”

Soonyoung scoffs but doesn’t refute the younger man’s words, well-aware that he isn’t wrong; their shared educational background meant that they were both partial to similar jobs as well. “Yeah, well, it doesn’t make teaming with him any more fun,” Soonyoung retorts, just as the doors of the elevator open into the reception office of Wonwoo’s laboratory floor at the space station. Everything here is bright white and perfectly pristine, the wall paneling neat and clean, which is a giant contrast to Soonyoung who is sweaty and grimy and covered in plasma engine matter from fine-tuning his latest bot just minutes before Wonwoo called him up to his lab.

Sure, Soonyoung might look like a complete mess now—the same could be said for the state of his workspace at the base of the space station, although he won’t address the fact that it’s always in a state of disarray because Soonyoung can’t be bothered to clean when he just wants to build all the time—but when Wonwoo sees what his brand-new droid can do during the new tech showcase tomorrow, his stupid dumbfounded expression will be worth the haughty disdain Soonyoung is bound to face in a few minutes.

“And anyway, Wonwoo and I are mortal enemies until he acknowledges that my automatons are just as useful as his stupid VR modules! At this point I’m sure he just says things on purpose to get on my nerves. You can only go so far with surveyor drones! Why is he always like this?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure working with your mortal enemy is the most mentally taxing thing in the universe,” Minghao indulges, rolling his eyes as he promptly shoves Soonyoung out the elevator to get off at his stop. “Now hurry off and I’ll see you at the canteen for dinner later. Jeonghan specifically asked for everyone so make sure you and Wonwoo don’t get caught up in each other again and forget to show up like before, otherwise you both might actually die. Joshua can only save you so many times.”

The doors slide shut before Soonyoung can even turn around and sputter out a rebuttal, making a face at his reflection on the surface of the elevator doors before heading towards the laboratory entrance with a long sigh. The receptionist AI bot doesn’t even need to acknowledge Soonyoung when he walks by, which truly attests to just how many times he and Wonwoo have worked together the past few years; at this point Soonyoung just fears that they’ll never stop seeing each other.

The laboratory gates open, spraying Soonyoung with disinfectant steam as he passes through, not that it’ll really do anything considering that plasma matter from droid engines need a different cleaning agent to remove the grease he’s always covered in. One of these days Wonwoo will give up trying to pretend that he’s not a clean-freak and have Soonyoung come and install the plasma disinfectant himself, and Soonyoung grins smugly at the fact; in the end, it’s always the little victories that count.

“Soonyoung! Over here,” Wonwoo’s voice calls for him the second he enters the lab, and the engineer turns around to face the direction of the sound. He spots the taller man in his white lab coat and glasses, situated in front of an electron microscope with a tablet in hand and a deep furrow in his brow as he looks over whatever data he’d gathered. Soonyoung looks around the large space as he heads towards the back of the lab, noting that it is devoid of people and robots.

“Where’s your team?” he questions when he reaches Wonwoo, careful not to touch anything lest he contaminates something important.

“I dismissed everyone for the night. You should know, expedition prep is taxing,” Wonwoo replies, glancing up from his tablet before doing a double take at the state of Soonyoung’s clothes. His nose wrinkles in disgust, although he schools his expression just as fast, and Soonyoung tries not to laugh. “Do you ever shower?”

“I didn’t, just for you,” Soonyoung sings-songs, leaning in close and chuckling when Wonwoo leans so far back he nearly falls off his stool. “I was working on a droid when you called. The showcase is tomorrow, remember?”

“Right. Let me guess: prawn suit version one-four-two, am I right?” the scientist asks pointedly with a raised brow, and Soonyoung’s face heats up because that actually was the exact number he was on now—and knowing Wonwoo, it probably actually was a total guess, too.

“I’d like to see you get it right on the first try, jerk.”

“Yeah, well, if you’d just scrap the damn prawn suit and start again from scratch instead of working a lost cause to death like you always do, then maybe you’d actually get somewhere.”

“Just because you don’t think the prawn suit is worth doesn’t mean it isn’t any good, thank you very much. I’ll ask for your input when I actually want it,” Soonyoung bites back. “Let’s just cut to the chase, why did you call me up here? It couldn’t be just to put down my life’s work, right?”

Wonwoo rolls his eyes before handing over the tablet and moving aside to give Soonyoung space in front of the microscope. “Life’s work. Right.”