The first sign is the computer shutdown.

Things are quiet on the ship, the hum of the engine and the buzz of the monitors fading into the background. Luhan and Chanyeol are busy running routine checks on the navigational panels, shy smiles passing between them, when they flicker. The displays disappear momentarily just before they return, the same dull blue flooding the room as if nothing had happened at all.

"Strange," Luhan voices, but doesn't think anything of it. It's possible that Jongade, flipped a wrong switch in the tech room. Or maybe they passed through a small black hole and their technology malfunctioned momentarily.

But Chanyeol is worried, face pulled tight and his usual jovial self seems to have slipped away. "That shouldn't have happened," he mutters, immediately running checks on the main navigational panel. His fingers are typing furiously, eyes flitting over the screen hurriedly as he tries to trace back the malfunction.

"Things happen sometimes," Luhan dismisses, kicking back in his chair, though the way Chanyeol is so concentrated has him just a little worried. "The magnetic disruptions from minor black holes are probably the cause."

"And has that ever happened before?"

Luhan sighs. "No, not exactly, but what else is there out here?"

The two navigators turn their heads to the sound of the door opening, revealing Jongdae whose face is flushed and chest heaving for air. "Did you guys see the malfunction?" he asks, heading for one of the tech panels embedded into the wall.

"Yeah- but it's nothing, right?" Luhan asks. Chanyeol is still running tedious checks through the mainframe.

"We're not sure yet," Jongdae says. "It could've been a glitch but we've never seen something like this before. And until we run secondary checks throughout the system, we won't know the cause."

The lights suddenly flicker for a moment and they're plunged into darkness. Luhan's breath catches in his throat and hands come to grip the table tightly. The backlight of the monitors is gone, the soft hum of the computer stops, and even the universe outside the window seems to darken considerably.

He squints. There's a light in the distance that's flying closer. He steps closer to the window, slowly and carefully, trying to see where that light's coming from-

"Luhan! Back away from the window!"

The glass shatters instantaneously, fragments flying at him and he falls to the ground, hands over his head just moments before the glass falls against his back. The alarm sets off as the cabin tries to readjust the oxygen pressure. Luhan stands slowly, vision swimming as his lungs get increasingly tight. Chanyeol's already at his side with an oxygen mask pulled from a panel in the wall. He takes a quick breath before he shoves it over Luhan's mouth- his lungs relax but it's only marginally easier to breathe again because just next to their ship is one he doesn't recognize. It's smaller than their own, but almost an identical copy. There's a symbol inscribed on the side that sends fear spiking through his veins and lets the panic roll in his stomach.

It's a Caius ship.

Things are starting to meld together as Chanyeol drags him away from the window and out of the room. The oxygen mask falls from his hand, unneeded any longer, as they run through the corridors to find anyone on the ship, Jongdae following behind.

It's like his legs are on autopilot because his mind is ten miles behind of where's running. Things were just fine a minute ago, things were actually almost perfect. His knees suddenly lock up and he falls. It's all just too surreal, like this should be some glorified fairy tale about space fighters being taken surprise by pirates but everything ends well in the end- like the captains would tell the students in flight school.

This is nothing like that.

They're stopped at the end of the hall by a man they don't recognize. His hair is as black as the empty space of the universe, his eyes unyielding and cold. And what's more disarming than the feeling from his eyes is their color. Green, bright green like the grass on Earth; the mark of a Caius inhabitant. But strapped around his waist is a gun holster and strapped to his back are swords.

The man smirks. Luhan feels the temperature drop instantaneously, goosebumps flying to the surface of his skin and he gasps.

They turn back to find another man behind them. He's so similar to the first- muscular, slim build and the intense green eyes. But instead, this man has a gun cocked in his hands, pointed right for them.

"There's no escape."

"You're coming with us."

They lunge at the same time, and if Luhan hadn't predicted, he'd have been caught by them both. He ducks out of the way and pulls out his gun, trying to make quick work of loading it but his fingers are shaking and the bullets drop with a heavy thud to the ground.

", , ," he mutters, desperately trying to load up his gun. There are grunts of combat as Chanyeol and Jongdae try to take the two men on fist to fist. Their opponents already have a hold on their weapons and neither Jongdae nor Chanyeol are particularly well trained in hand to hand combat.

"Do it now!" the second man says, tossing over a pill bottle. The man fighting Chanyeol catches it and both men simultaneously shove the pills into the unwilling mouths of the EXO ship recruits.

They go limp almost instantaneously.

Luhan screams curses in his head as he finally gets his fingers to cooperate and his gun firing and he shoots at the floor, but neither of the men flinch. They hoist Jongdae and Chanyeol over their shoulders and whilst the bullets are flying behind them- one barely nicking the first man's shoulder- they push through the rapidly crumbling floor.

There's a blast and the wall behind them blows, draining into the universe and opening up to their ship. With a smirk, they're off with the bodies hung over their shoulders and disappearing alongside their ship under the darkness of the universe.

Luhan feels his hands slack around the gun and nausea rolling in his stomach.








The commotion on the ship soon dies after. The alarms get turned off, the usual hum of the ship returns, though it's accompanied by the buzz of open electrical circuits and the clank of metal as pieces of the ship slowly fall apart.

Yifan calls all who are left to the conference room. He's taken his place at the head of the table, personal monitor already in front of them and projecting a 3D hologram of the layout of the attacker ship he'd manage to get before the Caius ship flew off. He looks horribly stressed, brows furrowed and eyes concentrated as he flips through screen after screen on his monitor. He doesn't even notice when Luhan enters.

Kyungsoo, Minseok's mechanic trainee, has to clear his throat twice for Yifan to even acknowledge Luhan's entrance. He looks pretty beaten up, his cheek beginning to swell and blood still caked at the edge of his lips. Yifan isn't looking much better, though there are more shallow cuts to his face and the back of his hands than bruises. He motions Luhan to take his seat, but the table is so blatantly empty. Where ten chairs around the table have now turned to seven empty ones- no Minseok, Joonmyun, Jongdae, or Chanyeol to take their seats.

Yifan sighs, rubbing his tired eyes and running rough hands through his hair, clenching tightly at the blonde strands. He huffs and stares back at the schematics, and Luhan isn't sure what to say to comfort his captain. Yifan has never looked more unsure of himself.

The door slides open, electricity cracking from the open wires, and Yixing comes in with Baekhyun, Yifan's trainee who's now sporting a splint on his left wrist and a fairly bruised up face. Understanding the tension in the room, they take their seats on either side of Luhan and Kyungsoo. It makes Luhan feel even more sick, like boulders sitting in his stomach, at how beat up they all are.

Yifan take a deep breath and gathers himself together. "How something like this could have happened, I honestly don't know," he starts, avoiding eye contact with his crew. His fingers tap nervously on the table. "And I feel like an idiot to have let something like this happen."

"Yifan, it's not-"

"Don't tell me it's not my fault, Yixing. Because I'm in charge of every goddamn person on this ship and now half of us have been abducted to a ing Caius ship!" Yifan yells as his hand slams down on the table. The sound is harsh; Luhan's chest gets tighter. "Furthermore, we don't even know-"

Yifan has to stop there, his voice beginning to waver dangerously and his throat closing up on him. He tries to calm himself back down, eyes glancing back at the schematics of the enemy ship.

The silence grows suffocating as Yifan just stares at the hologram, not saying a word. Luhan starts to fidget in his seat, occupying his hands with the hem of his shirt.

"Let's call for reinforcements then," he suggests. But he's met with cold stares and a darkening atmosphere.

"We don't have time for that," Yifan says. He turns the schematics around a bit, the room holding their silence. "We'll have to go in and recapture our members."

"Are you insane? We'll get ourselves killed!" Luhan exclaims, feeling nervousness threatening to clog up his throat.

Yifan glares at him. "Then what do you suggest we do, Luhan? Because last time I checked, you weren't the captain," he snarls, words laced in poison. It hurts more than Luhan ever thought possible. Yifan is never disrespectful, even in the worst of situations.

"Call for reinforcements. I'm not going in!"

In a flurry of movements and the harsh sound of the chairs scratching against the ground as they're pushed aside, Yifan grabs his collar and twists the fabric in his hands. Luhan swallows thickly but holds his gaze. Yifan seems to be just as stubborn.

"So you're telling me that you're just going to let your friends and teammates go like that? You're not going to even try?" Kris tugs even harder, the fabric almost choking Luhan. "Your friends would do the same ing thing for you, Luhan. And you're telling me that you don't like them enough to do that for them? Are we only pawns to you?" he seethes. His eyes are livid and he looks seconds away from snapping.

Luhan feels the anger hot in his chest. Who is Yifan to tell him what's right? It's his father's story just waiting to happen all over again. When their ship gets overtaken, his father rushes in to save his team, just to be ditched by them in the end and have the enemy kill him off. Luhan's not about to have the same fate. It's too early for death.

But there is Chanyeol, always too busy to see where he's going with the stars clouding his eyes. Chanyeol, who made that control room feel just a little warmer, and his heart would beat just a little stronger. Stupid, stupid Chanyeol who promises he'll stay to help him, who kisses him, just to let himself be taken away.

Yifan lets go of his collar, exhaling as he weakly sits back in his spot. Somehow, he's aged considerably in the last few hours.

Luhan stomps out of the conference room, angry, with his father's pocket knife heavy in his pant pocket.








He only gets a moment to breathe before Yixing quietly slides the door open and plods into the infirmary. He takes a seat next to Luhan on the cot, leaning back against the wall and sighing.

"You do realize that no matter what you say, we're still going in," he says. Luhan doesn't turn over and Yixing doesn't tear his gaze from the opposite wall. "Yifan is stubborn, but he's right. Joonmyun and Minseok are like our brothers, and Jongdae and Chanyeol are just as important to me. And if I was in their place, I'd be terrified right now."

Luhan's hands still their fidgeting. He tries to count his breaths. "I mean just think about it," Yixing continues, "if they are alive, then they must be so scared. Maybe they don't know where the others are- like they're being held captive alone. They don't know when or if we'll be coming to save them. Maybe they tried to fight back, scared and unsure, and who knows what could've happened then. They're sensible people, Luhan, but there's no amount of training to prepare for when something like this actually happens."

Luhan swallows thickly, wanting desperately to shove a pillow over his ears and scream until the sound dies away- until he can overpower the guilt screaming through a megaphone in his ears.

Yixing looks at him with caring eyes and speaks softly, and Luhan almost thinks how similar it is to how his father used to talk to him. "We are going onto that ship and getting our teammates back. You have a choice, Luhan."

And Yixing leaves with a timid smile and a pat on the back, and Luhan doesn't scream until Chanyeol's shy smile and pink dusted cheeks flash through his mind and claw brutally through his heart.








Yifan works with Kyungsoo for four days to set up programs to find the Caius ship, and in the meantime, Luhan can't stop thinking about Chanyeol. It's burdening, it drives him crazy, and it nearly throws him into a panic attack that Yixing has to get him down from because somehow, his anxiety medication has been misplaced. But once he's calmed down again, he realizes that it really can't go on like this. Things have to get worse before they get better.

So on the fifth day, the programs are all set up and running: one to hide their approach, one to count the enemies, and one to deactivate all sensors and video monitors once they step on board. All that's left for them is to dock and grab back the captives.

Yixing puts a comforting hand on Luhan's shoulder. "You ready?" he asks. HIs voice is calm but his hand is subtly shaking on his shoulder and his eyes are unsure.

Yifan gives them a more forceful pat on the back, causing them both to stumble forward. "Guys," he says, "we've gone through so much worse than this. We are the coveted EXO ship! We've navigated through asteroid fields and flown to unknown ends of the galaxies. We dropped off rovers on Skylar that discovered water for new life. And this is nothing in comparison."

Luhan manages to pull out a smile. Yifan is the captain for a reason, even if half the things he said are complete bull.

"So we're good?"

Luhan nods. Their plan is absolutely crazy. It probably would've been smarter to go for reinforcements, rather than go back and save their comrades. Yes they were skilled and yes they were well trained, but this was like fighting blind. They're well equipped but don't know where to aim.

And yet, his friends are on this ship. His stomach twists itself in knots when he thinks about what could've happened to Joonmyun or Minseok, or any of them. It could've been him that had been taken and if Yifan were like him, he would've left him for the enemies.

Luhan exhales, fingers coming to rest on his holster.

"We're breaking up into four teams. Each of you, head out to your respective captive's location and only fire if you need to. Don't draw unnecessary attention to yourself. If you get drawn into combat you can't handle, send out a signal to us and we'll come as soon as we can. "Understood?"

Understood.

Luhan is reluctant to leave. They all are, but Yifan heads out to the main corridor first, Baekhyun tagging quickly behind him. The rest of them wait until their footsteps have disappeared before Kyungsoo leaves them with a nod and disappears in the opposite direction, hand clenched firmly around the hilt of his gun.

"Good luck," is the last YIxing says with a soft smile before disappearing.

Luhan takes a deep breath, attempting to settle the storm in his chest before going out into the corridor.








Luhan felt nowhere nearer to the training docks then when they'd boarded the ship. It felt far too long for wandering silent hallways, pressed close to the wall with his gun clenched tight in his fist for a ship smaller than their own. His palms were beginning to sweat, and more than once the gun had slipped from his grasp, clattering loudly to the floor.

He hasn't heard any confrontation since he'd split up from everyone, and that relieves the tension just slightly. But the quiet is unnerving- his fingers are trembling and his breath comes out shaky. They should've just called for reinforcements or head back to base to think of a real plan.

In his mind, he doesn't forget the story of his father. It would be easier to forget the prisoners on this ship and go away- send someone else to deal with the problem. It's the smarter thing to do, he thinks bitterly to himself. They're battling dangerous enemies and Luhan knows that it goes against all reasonable logic to board their ship and fight a losing battle.

And in his heart that's thrumming so loudly in his head, he wants to forget. He wants to forget about Chanyeol and how useless he can be at everything that isn't his job and how funny he is and how his smile can burn like the sun. He wants to forget the warmth of Chanyeol's lips on his and the stars in his eyes and the passion and enthusiasm that's as dazzling as watching meteor showers from Earth, because letting Chanyeol go would be so much easier if Luhan didn't let his walls crumble in the first place.

There's a soft pattering of footsteps. Luhan freezes in his spot and holds his breath. He slinks into a dark corridor- and he's so close to the training dock now but his gun is threatening to slip from his hands again because he's so ing scared.

Two figures run by, and Luhan doesn't allow himself to breathe until he can't hear their footsteps anymore.

He exhales shakily. Almost there, he thinks, quickly making his way through the last few corridors and to the training docks. When the door slides open, he quickly scans the area. There are four doors on either side, each leading to their own practice room. There are no windows, and Luhan shivers at how cold the room is kept.

His knees are nearly shaking when he approaches the last of the four doors. His heart stops when he sees it's Chanyeol, curled up against the corner and back turned from the door. Luhan's heart leaps from his chest in relief as he makes quick work of the door, trying to get it unlocked.

Chanyeol notices the commotion and turns around, but he doesn't make a sound. He does not smile, his eyes don't shine, he does not say a word.

The door slides open with a sound Luhan was never more grateful to hear and his mind is going so fast because Chanyeol's here and unharmed and-

"Don't come closer."

Luhan stops in his tracks, grip tightening on his gun. Chanyeol stands to his full height and fully faces Luhan. His face is impassive, he does not even flinch at the sight of Luhan, and that sends another shiver down his spine.

"Chanyeol? It's me," Luhan says slowly, closing the distance between them but the younger stands still, frozen, hand clenched tightly around the gun in his holster.

Luhan's breath suddenly catches in his throat when Chanyeol suddenly takes long strides towards him, gun wielded until they're so close that the barrel of the gun is pressed right up where his heart is beating heavily against his chest. Luhan's breath grows erratic, trying to swallow against the lump in his throat. His dry lips try to form words, his hands try to pull his gun from the holster and hold it up. That's what the old him would have done, and it would've been easy too. Just take it and aim- one heart for another.

But now, Luhan's hands are shaking so horribly and his lips are trembling and his heart is quaking in his chest. His eyes are frantically searching in Chanyeol's, but he finds nothing more than a mechanical grey lifelessly glaring back at him.

Chanyeol's lips move, teeth grinding against each other. "You have to put me down," he grinds out, and there's a flash of sadness in his grey eyes. His hand just barely trembles with the gun pressed against Luhan's chest. "T-This program chip they injected me with… can only be stopped if it's taken out." Chanyeol's body flinches violently, and he presses the barrel of the gun harder against Luhan's chest. "Kill me. Now."

Luhan's heart drops to the pit of his stomach, feeling like fodder for a fire that burns so readily. His voice is weak as he tries to speak. "You can't be serious, Chanyeol-"

Chanyeol does not reply, but instead fires a warning shot into the deck floor. The sound reverberates in the silence; it leaves Luhan's ears ringing. Chanyeol's crying. The tears drip slowly down his cheeks, which Luhan had always admired the pretty red flush they'd carried. He furiously tries to reaffirm the grip on his gun but his hands are like jelly. Chanyeol doesn't make a sound as the tears run down his face, he doesn't gasp for air, his facial expression doesn't change in the slightest, his voice doesn't waver. "Please, kill me."

"Chanyeol, we can't fight you- I can't! You know that!" Luhan wants to scream, let the poisonous pain bubbling in his heart be known. "You said you were going to be there!"

But Chanyeol's hurting worse than him, he understands. The situation is bleak. He doesn't see many options.

The navigator's soulless eyes beg once more. The tears are still falling. "Do it." He unlocks the safety of the gun, it, and aims it once again at Luhan's heart.

Luhan takes a deep , shaky breath, and draws his gun. His palms are sweating and the gun drops, clattering to the floor. He rubs his eyes and picks up the gun again, unlocking the safety, and taking aim for Chanyeol's heart.

There's a moment of silence before the first shot is fired, but it's Chanyeol who unwilling fires the first bullet. It whizzes past Luhan's ear and sinks into the wall behind him. And Luhan thinks that it must've taken all of Chanyeol's will to miss because programs are accurate. Programs have done test runs to be perfected and Luhan knows that Chanyeol really has no will of his own. The next shot will not miss.

With every step back that he takes, he fires a shot. He makes sure ever one misses by at least a foot, if only just to prolong Chanyeol firing back at him. But Chanyeol doesn't back down, and he turns to be a fairly skilled fighter with a gun because every bullet he fires gets closer and closer to dangerously weak places that will only take one bullet. One bullet, and that could end Luhan.

But Luhan gets an idea. It's crazy and horrendously stupid, yet there aren't many options and if anything could have a chance of working, he's willing to go for it.

"Chanyeol!" he shouts above the gunshots. Unfazed, Chanyeol continues to fire and Luhan fires back, nearly missing ever bullet coming his way. "Chanyeol! Where did the inject the chip?!"

Chanyeol blinks, he stalls, and his teeth grind against each other as he tries to talk. "In my right thigh," he forces out, grudgingly firing another shot that blasts through the glass door to the training room and shatters behind Luhan, glass raining down on him as he hits the floor.

But in that instant, in that brief break as the glass showers over his body, he takes his gun and fires it at Chanyeol's thigh. Chanyeol's gun clatters to the ground, and he soon follows, an ear splitting scream belting from his throat. It's so painful, Luhan's chest feels so tight, but he's determined to save Chanyeol because he's come this far and Chanyeol means so much to him that he can't even believe before that he'd wanted to leave him there to suffer. His dad's voice is still ringing in the back of his head, but he can't hear it over Chanyeol's labored gasps as he grips his leg, deep red blood spilling over his fingers.

Luhan runs to Chanyeol, pocket knife already pulled from its place and wielded. Chanyeol's breathing heavy, but the program is still running and he's still so emotionless. "Where's the chip?!" Luhan asks again, frantic and teary eyed with the blade of his knife pressed just above the bullet wound. Chanyeol struggles to speak; his eyes are angry. Within a second, he's got his hands wrapped around Luhan's neck and he starts to squeeze.

Luhan tries to keep his grasp on his knife. Tears start spilling from his eyes and Chanyeol's grip slowly gets tighter. It's wavering, the tightness of Chanyeol's hands, because Luhan's life is within his grasp and deep down in his heart, he's still there. The same clumsy boy who'd fall off his top bunk, sleep through roll call, who'd fall on the navigational mainframe and reset the ship's course all over again. He's still there, and he's desperately asking for relief.

"Just next to the bullet wound," he grits, face turning red from effort as his hands start to tighten further around Luhan's neck. It's growing uncomfortable, but Luhan can still weakly breathe. He sets the blade of the pocket knife right against the bullet wound, hands dyed in crimson and Chanyeol's leg still slowly spilling blood. He looks up for confirmation and when Chanyeol nods, he takes a deep breath.

He presses the blade to Chanyeol's thigh, ripping the fabric of his pants apart as he slides the blade quickly against the skin. It's a long cut, nearly running from his pelvis to his knee, but it's shallow. The blood is starting to spill and Luhan's vision is going blurry, so he quickly sticks the blade of the knife into the cut and searches for the chip. Chanyeol's breaths are growing heavier, Luhan's vision is slowly beginning to darken around the edges as his hands become stained red. His chest hurts and his heart is beating like drums in his head.

His knife, slicing through tissue, suddenly gets jammed. And though Chanyeol's hands are so constricting on his throat, he manages to sigh in relief as he cuts the embedding of the chip from the tissue and carefully pulls it out. The relief is instant. Chanyeol's hands loosen completely from his throat and fall limply against the cold floor. He smiles, just how he normally does, but immediately passes out, eyes rolling to the back of his head just as his body collapses on the floor.

Luhan smiles, vision clearing from the darkness but it's still blurry from the tears he's crying. His bloody fingers are shaking with the chip in his hand, and he quickly places the chip on the ground, smashing it to pieces with the back of his knife.

With a heave of his chest, he barely manages to turn his head before he retches, acid in his throat the last thing he feels before his vision goes dark and he passes out.








When Luhan awakens, he feels the familiarity of coarse bed sheets against his bare arms before he even attempts to open his eyes.

He exhales. It takes him a few minutes for him to fully come back to himself and to even garner the courage to open his eyes and move himself. There's something scratchy around his throat and around his palm, and his chest feels like it's being compressed. His arm feels dull and heavy with the IV line in it. He groans as he tries to get himself to sit up.

"Woah there, slow down," he hears. It sounds like Yixing, but he hasn't even managed to turn his head. "Don't move too much before you're ready to."

So he lies there, breathing, trying to wiggle his fingers and toes to make sure everything is working and nothing's missing. He sighs, hoping his vocal chords don't sound so pitiful when he gets around to talking.

"Yixing, what happened?" he croaks, wincing at the sound of his voice as harsh as nails scratching down a chalkboard.

"We managed to get you and everyone else out of that ship with as little combat as possible," he says. His cool hands slide under Luhan's back and they struggle together to sit him upright. His head spins for a moment before finally getting his bearings. Only three other beds are filled up in the infirmary. Joonmyun is already propped up across from him, slowly eaten this soup. His wrists are bruised up, dried blood still caked on his skin in places. He's got a sling on his shoulder and an icepack on his swollen, bruised eye, but he still manages to send him a cheerful grin.

"Nice to see you awake, Luhan," he says, mouth dribbling soup. Luhan pulls a disgusted face, fingers twisting in the bedsheets. "Gross, Joonmyun," he mutters. All Joonmyun does is laugh and continues eating.

Jongdae occupies the bed next to Joonmyun, though he's still asleep. Similarly to Luhan, he's been hooked up to an IV line. His chest rises and falls rhythmically and he doesn't look too beaten up. That's enough for Luhan to know that he's safe.

And then to his left, he notices Chanyeol awake, lying on his back but head turned to face him. His leg is propped up under the bed. And there's a soft smile on his face, eyes slowly growing watery and hands pulling the comforter tighter around his body, making himself seem so much smaller.

Luhan's heart starts beating faster. His eyes start to tear up and the first thing he wants to do is jump from his bed and have Chanyeol hold him securely in his arms, letting him know that he'll never leave and this will never happen again.

But his first reaction is to be angry. "Park Chanyeol, you dumb er," he sneers, tears starting to fall- and he gets so frustrated because now is not the time to be crying but he is and so more tears start falling and his futile attempts at rubbing them away don't help. "Park Chanyeol, you dumb ing idiot!"

"Hi, hyung," he says meekly, voice barely above a whisper.

"Park Chanyeol, you idiot." Luhan chokes on the sobs squeezing his lungs.

"I know."

"You're absolutely despicable! Telling me to kill you like that-"

"I know."

"You're such a ing idiot!"

"So I've been told."

Luhan cries so hard that Yixing has to help him stay sitting up and wipes his eyes and nose for him like a child. He holds him in the hug that Chanyeol can't and Luhan feels comforted enough. His hands come to touch the bandages around his throat, and somehow, things finally feel good again.

"Park Chanyeol," he quietly sobs into Yixing's clothes, "I'm so ing glad you're okay."

And Chanyeol can't help but smile, teeth gleaming and eyes shining bright again.








The commotion of the past few days has finally died down and a calm silence has begun to envelop the ship. The buzz of the lights, the hum of the engine, the rhythmic beeps of the monitors have begun to fade back into the background again. Sometimes, if Luhan sits in the control room quietly, he can hear the buzz of broken electrical circuits and the sound of hammers clanking against metal. Though the damages were minor, the ship is being rebuilt again- now with a stronger foundation than when it began.

And the sky looks clearer than Luhan's ever seen. Outside the command centre's window, the glow of the stars has become an addiction. They're almost tangible, shining so close and so peaceful, even when cloaked in the infinite expanse of space.

Luhan fiddles with the navigational panel, sighs, and leans back in his chair. It feels like he hasn't slept in weeks and the eye bags feel heavy on his face. His hands still tremble sometimes, especially at night when he wakes up in a cold sweat and feeling like he can't breathe, but he reminds himself that it's all over, and the tremors come to pass.

But he still feels like he's been into a black hole. In his heart, things seem so unfamiliar. The ship has returned to it's hum drum state, but Luhan feels like he has to keep moving because things are still moving too fast. Their ship is flying through space and the stars are passing by so quickly and Luhan's still reeling from the ship invasion, but the ship has somehow stopped in time and things are slow and calm.

Luhan turns his head to the sound of the door sliding open, frantically finding a grip on the handle of his chair to be relieved that it's Chanyeol, struggling with his crutches. The younger's face is fully concentrated, teeth digging into his lips and his brows furrowed. He huffs, blowing at his bangs that have grown over his eyes. He favors his left leg, right thigh mostly casted now until the tissue heals back, as he maneuvers the crutches up the small two steps to his chair.

"I'm still figuring out these damn things," he mutters, hobbling on one leg as he ponders about how best to hoist himself up the stairs. Luhan's standing at the top step, ready in case Chanyeol tips backwards. But Chanyeol manages, hopping up the stairs on his foot, crutches in one hand, until he makes it.

He sighs, shifting the crutches under his arms to make them comfortable again. Luhan is so intent on watching, that the kiss Chanyeol bends down to press on his cheek takes him by surprise. He flushes a deep red, spreading to the tips of his ears.

"Chanyeol!" he shouts, weakly slapping Chanyeol's bicep. His nervous hands tug at the hem of his sleeves, pulling them further over the palms of his hands.

"What? Wasn't that why you were waiting for me at the top of the stairs?" he teases, cheeky smile burning bright. His eyes are twinkling with mirth, disappearing behind his happy smile.

Luhan buries his face in his palms, groaning before letting his heavy head rest against Chanyeol's chest. It's warm, and the beating of Chanyeol's heart is comforting. Luhan's breath hitches unnoticeably, and his heart stutters in his chest. "No!" he protests, weakly pounding his fist against Chanyeol's chest.

Chanyeol awkwardly shifts on his crutches before placing his warm fingers under Luhan's chin to tip his head up. Their eyes meet and Luhan's heart burns like the sun, a searing, warm pain inside his chest that feels good- that feels like it belongs there. He swallows thickly, feeling the shine in Chanyeol's eyes draw the breath from his lungs.

Chanyeol presses their lips together. Luhan feels the sun bursts go off in his stomach, making a shiver wrack his spine. His hands find themselves around Chanyeol's waist, feeling the ridges of bandages through his thin shirt as he presses back, lips molding against Chanyeol's and it's beautiful. Luhan's seen supernovas and constellations and auroras but nothing has compared to how beautiful this is. It's slow, like they've got all the time in the universe to feel each other, to understand the beatings of their hearts together. And it's so nice.

Luhan pulls away, breathless, though lips so close that Chanyeol's breath ghosts against his lips. "I allowed you to slack off for a little, but now it's time you pick up the pace and get back to studying," he says, smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

Chanyeol nods, grin already wide on his face. "You're the boss," he says, taking his seat and letting his crutches rest on an empty chair. They slide off, clattering onto the floor and Chanyeol groans, being just too far away to stretch and reach them. "Why me?" he asks, stomping his foot childishly and rests his head between his hands, sighing dramatically.

Luhan chuckles, tugging Chanyeol's hands away from his face and holding them in his. They're larger and much warmer than his jittery fingers, but they're sweaty and nervous and they tremble in his palms. "We'll figure it out later," he says, squeezing Chanyeol's hand just slightly in his. The stars are shining bright outside, but the ones in Chanyeol's eyes are the brightest of all. "We've got plenty of time."

And Chanyeol smiles, tugging their intertwined hands towards him so they're closer- so he can press another kiss to Luhan's lips. "You're right. We've got all the time in the universe."

Luhan thinks he's finally found his shining stars again.

A/N: haha well idk what to say for this fic xD took a lot of mountain dew and chocolate to get through, but i really enjoyed it. thanks for reading and let me know what you think!

I also just made a twitter and i would love to make some friends and follow you all ^~^

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