Take Me to the Sky | BTS+

Who Said Parenting Was Easy?

After some back-and-forth audio transmissions, Lilith managed to negotiate her way into landing safely in Noon Mool's aircraft hangar. One stipulation was that Lilith wouldn't get out of the aircraft.

She also failed to mention that Hoseok was passed out onboard--and Ava and Shae weren't about to ruin that surprise, either.

Shae and Ava dropped down through the rusty bottom hatch, and then Lilith lowered Jungkook's barely-concious body down between them. The ladies helped to hold Kookie up on either side and walk him out from underneath Lilith's spacecraft. His eyes weren't opened quite yet but his limbs wobbled along.

Soon enough, Lilith had fired the engine's back up on her rusty chicken-like transport shuttle, and she then was gone.

There stood Joon, Tae, Jin and Chimin in a neat row, waiting for them.

Tae's elbows hugged his sides, his shoulders slumping up slightly and his gaze blank through today's clear-framed glasses. He had a clipboard in one hand and wore a flowing navy blue shirt halfway tucked into loose fitted grey slacks. Such a skinny frame in such loose attire, he was all angles. His shaggy auburn hair was looking extra shaggy, Ava noticed delightedly, as they walked closer.

The good doctor Jin wore fuzzy slippers with a happy lamb face on the front of each one and a pastel blue two-piece pajama set, accessorizing his peeved expression and firmly folded arms. He was wondering why the heck he really needed to be here for any of this—but Joon had pinged him a message that requested Jin specifically be present upon landing: "They'll need a once-over." So there you have it.

Joon didn't know where to look. He was still in his black-on-black silk suit, and Shae thought she'd never seen him looking so lethal. He'd taken off his black suit jacket though, and his tie hung loose around his pulled-open collar. There were red marks on his hands and face, but Shae tried not to look at them too closely.

After a few steps, Jungkook shoved himself groggily out of Shae and Ava's assisting arms, shaking his head and feeling relatively awake. The superhuman was returning to proper form.

 ____

Jin watched the scene before him unfold with the enthusiasm of a cat staring lazily at, well, anything and nothing at all. He observed Joon step shyly towards Shae as he spoke in a low voice that obviously Jin could still hear, "Are you alright?"

Shae looked down at her fidgeting hands and nodded.

Oh, the tension, Jin grumbled. Oh, how dreadful. They all seem perfectly fine, and it doesn't take a medical expert's opinion to tell you that.

____

Chim, on the other hand, was beaming like a proud parent at the sight of Shae, Ava and Jungkook's return. It was like Chiminie might break into applause at any moment in his glittery black-on-black ensemble.

"'Sup guys," Jungkook said, going over to give Chim a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"Nicely done, Jungkook. Managed to get those codes in the nick of time," Chim said, sending a playful almost-punch towards Jungkook's gut, but freezing his arm just in time. Jungkook reacted by jerking his hips away, his reflexes back to normal once again--but that was all it took. Chim and Kookie suddenly transformed into six-year-old boys in grown men's bodies, and started to chase each other around the aircraft hangar. They giggling and shrieked, their footsteps and shouts echoing like a roguish choir.

It was as if nothing had ever been wrong with Jungkook. Chim felt relieved at the thought, because he'd been monitoring his friend's vitals whenever their top operative had...fallen into a random state of shock. For the second time in a few weeks.

But analyzing that was for another time, Chim thought.

____

Jin said in his most aloof of voices, "Get into a bind, did we?" He stepped forward between Joon and Shae, bored by listening to the two's inability to string long sentences together to speak to each other.

"I'm fine, really. Just had a bit of a fright for a second, that's all." Shae could sense Jin's annoyance, so she spoke softly and quickly.

"Ah, lover's quarrels," Jin said, his voice dripping with condescension.

Joon's eyes were arrows shooting death threats at the black haired doctor in his pastel pajamas. "Don't be an ass, Jin."

Jin ignored him.

The sassy doctor held Shae's face in his fingers with the romantic nuance of an angry bullfrog, tilting her head one way and the next and shining a light into each of her blue eyes. Normally dilated pupils. He tilted her chin back slightly to peer at her throat, which looked only a little pink, then quickly dropped her chin from his hands and shrugged. "Just fine. Just as I suspected."

"Hmph," was all Joon answered.

Shae couldn't tell who looked more annoyed, Joon or Jin.

"If anything, we should be worried about Jungkook," Jin pointed out. "And whether or not he's still good after his major surgery."

"He seems fine to me," Joon grumbled, as the sound of Jungkook's raucous laughter echoed somewhere over their heads. "What I wanna know is how the heck you both ended up on a ship with that woman, of all people! Was Lilith even at the gala?"

Shae and Ava exchanged looks. "Uhhhhh...."

Tae finally spoke up, "Perhaps we should save the questions and let the ladies change and retire to their quarters to rest. They've just been through quite a lot. I've already ordered some herbal teas and hot soup to be sent to their suite."

Ava asked, "How are you always so thoughtful, Tae?" 

As her date had once again left her flying solo, Shae saw an idea flicker in Ava's features and settle into place.

The perfectly sober woman in the emerald dress cozied right up to Tae's side, looped an arm through one of Tae's, and nuzzled her cheek into his silk-clad shoulder. She was all clumsy cuteness and, "Oh, look at me, remembering that I'm tipsy...." Except Shae was absolutely certain that her best friend was 100% sober... and at least 95% done giving a shit either way for the day.

Tae became adorably confused at her nuzzling touch, lost track of whatever he had just been saying so calmly, and almost dropped his clipboard.

____

Jungkook was now crawling along the lower edge of a metal beam just above their heads and laughing maniacally while Chim jumped and jumped but still couldn't reach Jungkook's ankles.

Joon shouted up at them like a dad scolding two sugar-hyped children, "Stop messing around! Get down from there right now!"

They blissfully ignored him.

____

Jin watched it all unfold like a live action version of the very fictional drama he had just been enjoying before he was so rudely interrupted by all of this nonsense: 

Ava's childish smirk and not-so-innocent nuzzling, and Tae's puppy dog panic. 

Jungkook dangling dangerously from a beam on the hangar ceiling, the edge of Kookie's foot caressing the top of Jin's perfect black hair. 

Chimin shoving Jin out of the way, poised and ready to catch Kookie by the ankle and yank him to his doom. 

Joon glancing over at Shae with a sappy koala bear glaze over his face, then looking hopelessly at his childish display of subordinates, with an expression of pure defeat sinking into every bruised muscle and feature. 

Shae fiddling with the train of her dress and pretending she didn't notice Joon's meaningful look a second ago—but Jin knew that she knew. The girl was blushing, for goodness sake, and for what?!

Jin sighed. He brushed his black bangs out of his face as he tilted his head back dramatically, and said aghast, "It's so exhausting to always be the most competent person in the room."