Stretching his back with a long, fluid motion, Kihyun groaned, his raised arms whacking against the low ceiling of the interior of his spaceship. He’d been cooped up in his tiny ship for almost a full week now, and truthfully, he was getting a little stir crazy. It was times like these that made him question his decision to become a bounty hunter, where he’d often spend weeks at a time chasing a target throughout the far reaches of the galaxy. Not to mention the whole fact that he was alone out here; just him and barely enough space for a bed, fridge, and toilet. He wasn’t completely alone, though, and the tinny sound of a voice calling through his transmission device immediately broke him away from his daze of tedium.

“Alright I received a tip from my dude at that sketchy bar on Psamathe that our target is sticking around Limnatides,” Minhyuk’s raspy voice sounded throughout Kihyun’s ship, filling the space with his terrible news. Kihyun groaned loudly, rubbing a hand down his face in exhaustion.

“So, you mean to tell me that I’ve been heading in the wrong direction for almost seven whole days now?” Kihyun replied, reaching over for his mug of coffee and taking a sip, ignoring the fact that it was ice cold and unsweetened. Minhyuk chuckled a bit, but the sound lacked all amusement.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m telling you. You and I both know that Minghao’s intel is always accurate, we should listen to him and head over there before the target decides to evade us again,” Minhyuk said, and Kihyun frowned in frustration, knowing that he was right but still annoyed with how fruitless his efforts had been. 

“And by ‘we’, you mean I should head over there, right?” Kihyun asked, his voice cold and bitter, already reconfiguring his guidance system for the new destination. Minhyuk chuckled a bit, this time with a little more amusement.

“That’s exactly what I mean~” Minhyuk said, his voice a bit teasing. “Good luck catching our culprit, Kihyunnie~” he continued in a playful tone, before hanging up, the short beep signaling the end of their transmission filling the air. Kihyun angrily grabbed his coffee, taking a longer swig before wincing at the disgusting taste, slamming his fist down onto the warp speed button and surging forward as his ship races towards the new destination. It would all be worth it, he just needed to remember how huge this guy’s bounty was and how much cash they’d be swimming in if Kihyun was able to catch him in time.

Leaning back into his chair, Kihyun runs a hand through his hair, trying to stay positive and not think about how he’d be flying for at least another three days before reaching their target… honestly, he was starting to miss human contact more than he’d care to admit, and needed to fool around with somebody, anybody. He would even take Minhyuk at this point, he’d sooner go down that road again than deal with his own urges by himself, like he’d been doing every day for a week. Running his hands down his torso, Kihyun bit his lip, desperate to feel somebody’s else’s hands on his body… But, without that option, he trailed his hands down lower, getting to the waistband of his pants, his cheeks flushing as he dips his fingertips into his underwear, inching closer to his di—

Suddenly, a loud crashing sound flooded Kihyun’s ears, and he jolted forward, eyes wide as he tried to detect the source of the noise. Luckily, he wasn’t dead or being into the windless void of space, so hopefully that meant that his ship wasn’t hit by anything. He walked around the parameter of his ship, seeing that everything was still in order and then walked back to the cockpit, glancing over the various displays and buttons, trying to find the malfunction. The ship was still moving, just at a very slow speed, and Kihyun bit his lip, finally spotting the blinking warning light over the warp-speed drive monitor. , this must mean that his drive finally gave out on him… this ship was getting a little rusty, and the warp-drive was probably a decade old… it was in need of a part exchange.

“,” Kihyun cursed in a low voice, flopping down onto his chair and opening up the navigation hologram, searching for a place he could get the broken part in the area. Surprisingly, Kihyun was able to find a welder on a scrap-metal planet that did ship tune-ups not too far from here, so Kihyun selected it, telling his ship to fly in that direction. Hopefully this would turn out for the best; sometimes scrap-metal planets only had parts from the previous century and older. Kihyun shook his head, tugging his lip between his teeth as he watched the astral bodies slowly pass him. He had no other choice, this was the only place in lightyears that even offered ship services, and he didn’t have a warp drive to take him that far in a timely manner. Steeling himself, Kihyun spotted the glimmering surface of the scrap metal planet, pushing the ship to go just the slightest bit faster as he entered the gravitational field of the planet.

Hoseok had always been alone, ever since he was a child. Yeah, he had his grandpa, who had been wheel-chair bound since before Hoseok could remember, but when you live on an entire planet with only one other living creature on it, you started to get pretty used to the solitude. Hoseok’s friends were the crappy robots from the 23^rd century, all milling about the planet aimlessly for decades, having been dumped there after a mass recall on planet Earth. His knowledge of humankind came from the old stories his grandpa told him and the somewhat functioning cellphones and laptops all over his planet… which wasn’t a whole lot, until Hoseok became a teenager and finally built his own spaceship to explore the surrounding planets.

Despite having travelled at least a little bit, Hoseok still has never fully explored even the solar system that his planet is in, and is still a little awkward when it comes to communicating with other humans. Space pirates and bounty hunters occasionally stopped by for tune-ups and repairs, and this was pretty much the only time Hoseok could test out his social skills. One could say he was rather inexperienced with people, and, truthfully speaking, Hoseok was. He’d still never held somebody’s hand before, let alone do all of that other… er stuff he’d seen on some of the old laptops that always made him feel tingly. 

Grabbing a small washcloth and dabbing away at the sweat on his forehead, Hoseok exhaled deeply, squinting his eyes at the piece of metal he was currently trying to bend to fit the perfect shape for his rocket’s upgrade. The metal was hot, heated up to a rather high temperature so it could be shaped, and sparks flew every time Hoseok would lower his hammer to it. He was pretty used to both the loud banging noises and the sparks, however, and was able to immediately hear the sound of a foreign object bursting its way into the atmosphere above him. His planet was small, and there wasn’t anything interesting happening literally anywhere but where he was, so Hoseok knew that it wouldn’t be long before the ship found its way to his location. Smiling excitedly, Hoseok began banging his metal harder, eager to see who had come to visit his little home today.

When Kihyun landed on the scrap metal planet, he was expecting an older, married welder with like eight kids running around… he certainly wasn’t expecting a y, 20-something who was barely clothed and pounding away at a piece of metal. Approaching the shack that the young welder was standing in front of, Kihyun shuffled his boot-clad feet, his lips hungrily as he took in the fine piece of man before him. His hair was white and blue, falling into his eyes in the most attractive way Kihyun could fathom, his gaze demure and interested as he looked over at Kihyun. God, and he was shirtless too, his gorgeous, toned torso on full display- only barely covered by the work-apron he was wearing. Kihyun felt his heart throb, shoving his hands into his pockets and his lips as he walked up to the man.

“Hey there,” Kihyun greeted, smiling flirtatiously at the gorgeous man. Hoseok blinked a few times, his cheeks flushing as he processes just how charming the man is approaching him. It wasn’t often that a bounty hunter stopped by that actually looked presentable- but this man, he was more striking than any human Hoseok had ever seen before. Biting his lip, Hoseok set down his hammer, his hands moving to take off his apron. Body smudged with soot and shining with sweat, Hoseok approached Kihyun, wiping his hands on his apron.

“How c-can I help you?” Hoseok asked, wincing at his stutter. Kihyun pushed back his pink hair while clearly eating up the visual feast before him. It’d been so long since he’d seen a man with such a flawless body, and the way he was looking at him, like Kihyun was some kind of god… Kihyun loved it.

“My warp drive’s malfunctioning, I don’t really know what part,” Kihyun replied, leaning his body towards Hoseok’s, watching the man adjust the waistband of his pants with hungry eyes. Hoseok hummed thoughtfully, trying to ignore how intensely Kihyun was looking at him as he walked up to the man’s ship. Running his hands along the side of the ship, Hoseok whistled, impressed by how well taken care of his ship was despite how it was clearly an outdated model. 

“What a beautiful ship,” Hoseok complimented, running his hand along the underside before pulling out a screwdriver from his pocket. Kihyun smiled proudly, leaning against the ship beside Hoseok, staring at him with hooded eyes. Kihyun watched interestedly as Hoseok began opening up the side panels, locating the warp drive quickly and inspecting it.

“Thank you… ah, I don’t know your name yet,” Kihyun said, wanting to get to know this man better in more ways than one, but asking for a name was usually a pretty good start. Hoseok pushed a strand of hair behind his ear, inspecting the warp drive as he replied.

“I’m Hoseok,” he responded, and Kihyun hummed lowly, arching his back and trying to look y, his eyes half-lidded and hips arched forward.

“It’s nice to meet you, Hoseok,” Kihyun responded, tilting his chin up so that his pink hair fell away from his forehead, exposing his sharp eyes even further. “I’m Kihyun,” he introduced. Hoseok nodded, but his heart was racing so hard he could practically hear it. Was this what flirting looked like?

“Um, so I think I found where the issue is,” Hoseok said, clearing his throat a bit. Kihyun’s grin grew, and he raised an eyebrow, enamored by how easily Hoseok was to fluster.

“What’s the damage, baby?” Kihyun asked, his voice almost lecherous as the pet name dripped from his lips. Hoseok physically jolted, a whine slipping from his lips as he dropped his screwdriver, heart racing. Kihyun chuckled, raising a brow as he bent over, purposefully turning has back to Hoseok so the man could get a good view of his as he did so.

“I-I um, I think this part just busted from age, it’s an easy fix,” Hoseok says after a few seconds of collecting himself, flickering his eyes away from Kihyun’s , attempting to keep Kihyun’s decency intact. Once Kihyun handed him his screwdriver, Hoseok began walking back to his shop, gesturing for Kihyun to follow him.

“That’s good to hear~ if you don’t mind me asking, are you married, Hoseok?” Kihyun asked, slowly following after Hoseok as he led them back to his shop. Hoseok chuckled softly, rubbing the back of his head embarrassedly as he went through his drawers, trying to find the right adapter Kihyun would need.

“No,” Hoseok replied, his lips before biting them, his hands rifling through the loose parts, working hard to locate the part. “I actually haven’t ever dated… anyone,” Hoseok continued, his voicing trailing off as he finds the right part. “Ah! Here it is,” Hoseok said, nodding to himself, forgetting that he even admitted to his own inexperience to Kihyun. Heart pounding, Kihyun raised his eyebrows, wiping his forehead as he attempted to calm himself down.

“That’s great,” Kihyun replied, following after Hoseok as he ran back to Kihyun’s ship. , and Kihyun was about to defile this innocent thing… feeling a little guilty for his depraved thoughts, Kihyun already started reaching for his wallet, planning on tipping the man a little extra. As he was rifling through his cash, Hoseok was busy fixing Kihyun’s ship, and finished it within minutes.

“Ok it should be fixed now,” Hoseok said, beaming happily. “Where are you headed, by the way? People don’t usually fly through here,” Hoseok asked, screwing back on the side panel of Kihyun’s ship.

“Oh, I’m going to Limnatides,” Kihyun plainly replied, knowing that it held some implications but letting Hoseok jump to those conclusions on his own. He casually handed Hoseok some cash, knowing that it was more than enough to cover the cost. 

“Eh? Why are you going there, isn’t that place super seedy?” Hoseok asked, tilting his head as he quietly accepted the money. Kihyun seemed so cool- definitely not the type to be hanging around that dump of a place for very long… plus, at least judging by this stack of cash, he had more than enough money to go somewhere nicer.

“Well, I’m a bounty hunter, heh. My target is camping out at Limnatides, and I’m going to catch him and collect his bounty,” Kihyun explained, pulling out the keys to his spaceship and waggling them around. “I’ve been in pursuit for a week now… a week solid,” Kihyun said, chuckling without a single ounce of amusement in his voice. Hoseok frowned, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he gave Kihyun a sad look. 

“You must be lonely… I have my grandpa here so I’m not usually alone,” Hoseok said, and Kihyun shrugged, stepping a little closer to his ship.

“During those long trips, I do start missing human contact pretty bad,” Kihyun replied, his lips. Hoseok felt a weird bolt of electricity race down his back, and he couldn’t stop himself from saying the next words that came to mind.

“Then, if you’re ever in the area during your travels, you can always stop by here?” Hoseok offered, tugging his lip between his teeth and blinking over at Kihyun. Kihyun felt a smile spread over his face, and he nodded, enamored by the innocence of this welder boy.

“I’ll stop by again, babe~” Kihyun said, winking over at Hoseok before jumping into his ship. He started the engine, seeing on the monitor that the warp drive was back online. He waved at Hoseok through his window, giving him a thumbs-up before blasting off at warp speed through the atmosphere of the small planet. Hoseok waved at him as he flew off, his heart racing at the thought of Kihyun coming back to visit him again. He left him so shook up, Hoseok could hardly think straight, and he ran a hand through his hair, trying to collect his thoughts. He didn’t even know what to do- he’d never felt this way about another person before…

One thing Hoseok did know was this- he hoped that Kihyun would come back and brighten up his metal-filled life again <3