Chapter Text
Time was weird on the hidden floor. It could have been the fact that for the first time in a while, Bam wasn’t bombarded with life or death situations or midget FUG slayers. Man, the hell train was rough. To be fair, he was going to face possible death with his fight against Data Jahad tomorrow, but at least he’d had a month to prepare for it.
Having free time was almost strange. Back when Bam was in FUG’s clutches, he barely had enough free time to think. After a day of gruelling training, he would pass out as soon as he got back to his quarters. Not that any sleep there was restful when his friends' hypothetical deaths played on a loop behind his lids. In comparison, Data Eduan was quite the merciful master.
On most days, they were done by sun down. Whether it was out of sheer laziness or pity, Bam didn’t care, because he was able to eat dinner with his friends every night. He had the time to bask in the warmth of a nostalgic moment that slipped through the cracks of his fingers.
It was in a lull of celebratory nights spent drinking and team-bonding where Bam had a realization that hit harder than one of princess Yuri’s kicks.
He was hopelessly in love with Khun.
While the realization was a kick in the gut, the fleeting moment from where his realization bloomed was pretty uneventful:
He’d had the same dream again. The dream where the golden girl dusted in freckles stopped shining. She was the star that illuminated his dark world, but he wasn’t worthy of shining next to her, so she pushed him from her place in his sky.
Rachel’s dream-push managed to send him into consciousness. He bolted upright, panting.
Bam glanced around the dark room, hoping he hadn’t roused Rak or Khun with his abrupt awakening. Rak was blissfully asleep on the floor between his and Khun’s beds, snoring rhythmically. Khun, on the other hand, was a soundless, unmoving lump under his sheets. He was glad to see Khun getting some much-needed rest after his brutal ice-shinsoo training. Rak and Khun were too competitive for their own goods.
His focus shifted to the light filtering in through the sliding glass doors. Feeling that it was unlikely for sleep to claim his troubled mind again, Bam shifted into a sitting position and slid on his flip flops. The falsely replicated, glittering stars drew him to the balcony.
He gazed at the stars with tenuous resentment. They took her away from him. He was surprised his sworn enemy wasn’t a shooting star with the sole purpose of crashing down on him when he least expected it, like his unwavering love for Rachel.
The sound of the glass door sliding open pulled Bam out of his reminiscing. Khun slid through the gap sporting a severe case of bedhead and a shy smile. Adorable.
“Khun?” Bam asked, turning his head to hide his reddening cheeks. Bam had been blushing around Khun a lot lately. “What aren’t you asleep?”
“I made coffee.” he replied, holding a mug out to him as proof. Bam accepted it gratefully, relishing in the warmth radiating from the glass.
“Thanks, but you didn’t answer my question,” Bam took a sip. “Why are you awake?”
“I could ask you the same question.” Khun countered, making his way to Bam’s side, “Care to explain why you’re glaring at the sky at two in the fucking morning?”
Bam sighed. “I was..” he glanced warily at Khun, “thinking about Rachel,” he continued against his better judgement. He couldn’t lie to Khun.
He saw a hurt look pass through the bluenette’s features, but it was gone as soon it came. Khun said nothing. He merely glanced at the sky, as Bam had done minutes before.
Bam nearly jolted in surprise when he felt cold fingers slip between his. Khun gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, his eyes remaining on the shinsu sky as if he hadn’t just given Bam heart palpitations.
Golden eyes shifted to the lightbearer next to him, and Bam was almost taken aback. Bam had always known that Khun was a fairly attractive guy. There were several times where caught himself staring at him for longer than what would be considered normal. But under the false glow of the stars, Khun was breathtakingly beautiful.
The light cast a luminous shine on Khun’s unkempt hair which Bam’s fingers ached to run through. The coffee must not have kicked in yet, because Bam found himself acting on his jittery impulses and smoothing down a stray strand. It was silky.
Khun’s widened eyes jerked towards him, searching Bam’s face for an explanation. The same eyes that light up with mirth as complex strategies unravel in his mind. His fingers trailed down from where they were tangled in Khun’s hair until they ghosted over his eyes.
Khun sighed as his eyes slid shut. Bam brushed against his eyelashes before his fingers moved further down and rested delicately against the curve of Khun’s cheek. His plush lips were parted in surprise. Lips that bore the gateway into outsmarting anyone. Bam wondered if they were as soft as they looked. He brushed over Khun’s lip with the pad of his thumb.
Khun gasped, his striking blue irises mingling with gold once again. Bam wanted to drink up that glorious sound. He felt himself leaning forward, possessed by his urge. All sense had left Bam.
“Bam…” Khun said weakly.
It was just one word. One syllable. But it brought Bam back to reality. Khun was Bam’s anchor, grounding him in his sea of recklessness.
Bam retracted his hand and took a step back. Khun’s surprised expression was probably mirrored on his own face. “I’m so-” he began.
“It’s okay.” Khun cut him off. He averted his eyes, morphing his expression into one of nonchalance. “Anyways,” his voice shook, “I should try and get some sleep.” Khun nodded his head in the general direction of the sliding doors.
Bam was too shaken up himself to stop the baffled bluenette from taking his leave. He had just tried to kiss Khun. Bam put his head in his hands in embarrassment.
How could he have been so blind as to not realize it earlier? Rachel was his shining star, but Khun? He was his sky. And there were millions of stars in the sky. If he lost his star, he could always find another one, but if he lost his sky, the world would come crashing down.
Rachel may have filled the hole in Bam’s heart at some point in his life, and that’s why he couldn’t help but chase her, but Khun didn’t complete Bam like Rachel did. It was more than that. Khun made Bam soar to heights he could never even imagine reaching. With Khun by his side, Bam felt like more than the lonely boy in wilted rags that he once was. Bam felt unstoppable.
Bam loved Khun.
Once again, Bam was in a hopeless situation. He finally realized he was smitten with his best friend, yet he was at the edge of another life or earth situation. Bam indulged in the idea of telling Khun about his feelings after his enlightening realization, but it wasn’t like it was easy to talk to Khun these days.
Khun had been avoiding him ever since that night on the balcony a week ago. It was clear when Bam had even tried to talk to Khun about it the morning after it happened, but the blushing bluenette brushed him off, stuttering out excuses regarding his busy schedule.
“Blue turtle still won’t come out of his shell,” Rak had said, shaking his head in disbelief after Khun practically ran out of their room.
Since his bumbling escape, Khun had been cooler and more composed around Bam. It was the same coolness that he regarded everyone with.
Bam wasn’t blind, he noticed how Khun treated him differently than the others. Bam was the one person Khun let his guard down around, but now it feels as if Khun was surrounded by special Bam-proof walls, prevalent in every calculated smile he gave Bam in the past week.
The training with Data Eduan got more rigorous as his fight with Data Jahad drew closer. Bam’s free time was so scarce that he hadn’t even seen Khun in a few days. And to make things even worse, he had to pretend he wasn’t having far-from-innocent thoughts about his master’s son. He felt a little awkward around Data Eduan, to say the least.
The only plus of these last few days was that the constant training served as a distraction from the bewitching bluenette that occupied his thoughts. He had to focus on getting stronger so he could see Khun again.
*
*
*
“Son of V, wake up.”
Bam’s eyes fluttered open. Eduan was towering over him with a solemn look painted on his face. “It’s time.”
Bam had tried to cling on to a few hours of sleep before his fight with Data Jahad, considering he had been training non-stop for days on end.
He sat up slowly, allotting a few moments to gather his thoughts.
“If you have something to say, you should say it,” Eduan said, blankly staring at something far ahead of them. A gentle breeze sifted through his pale blue hair. He had the same hair as Khun. “You might never get the chance to do it again.” Bam’s eyes widened at the implication. How did he know about his feelings for Khun?
“Don’t look so surprised,” Eduan said, the ghost of a smile on his face. “I’ve seen the way you’ve been drooling over my son.”
Well, Bam thought, Khun had to have gotten his perceptiveness from somewhere.
“It’s not that simple of a task.” Bam defended, following his remark with a drawn out sigh. He rested his chin on his knees.
“How do you expect to beat Jahad if you can’t even muster up the courage to tell the one person who could never find any faults in you that you love them?” Eduan probed.
He wasn’t wrong, but Eduan’s words only angered Bam. Who was he to get involved in his son’s life after ignoring his whole existence his whole life?
“Why do you even care?” Bam muttered bitterly.
“I don’t know what became of me out in the tower to make him hate me so much,” he regarded Bam with a sad smile, “But the me that I am now wants to see at least one of my kids get a happy ending.”
*
*
*
The journey to Data Jahad was painful. Bam had sent several longing glances in Khun’s direction, but Khun skillfully deflected each one. To make matters worse, Endorsi clung to him the whole way, serving to be another obstacle in Bam’s path to Khun. The scheming lightbearer had probably planned for this.
As they reached the elevators that would send Bam to his probable death, Bam felt the beginnings of unease flitting around inside him. It definitely wasn’t his nerves, FUG had beaten his nerves out of him. The anxiety he felt when his friends' lives were dangled over his head as blackmail made every other situation pale in comparison.
It was probably Eduan words nagging in his mind. He glanced at Khun. He couldn’t leave things between them like this.
“Khun, I need to talk to you.” Bam declared. He grabbed Khun’s wrist before he could protest and dragged him away from the group.
“Why does Khun get a special goodbye?” Endorsi whined. Bam pretended not to notice the knowing wink Eduan sent in their direction.
“Bam, wait!” Khun objected. He struggled to keep up with Bam’s brisk pace, almost tripping over his own feet. Bam stopped once they were out of sight from their friends, but he still kept a firm grip on Khun’s wrist, preventing him from escaping.
“Bam, what are we-” Khun began.
“Why have you been avoiding me?” Bam cut him off. Khun opened his mouth, probably to side-step Bam’s blunt question, but Bam intercepted before he could say anything. “Don’t even try and deny it,” he warned.
Khun looked down, guilt apparent on his face. Bam almost regretted confronting him. Almost.
Bam let himself look at Khun for the first time in a few days. He was wearing his hair down today. It was almost long enough to graze against his shoulders. He still remembered how silky it felt against his searching fingers.
He couldn’t stop his eyes’ inevitable journey to Khun’s lips. They glistened under the light, likely from the chapstick he saw him apply earlier. Bam’s jaw had quite visibly dropped at the sight.
Khun looked up at him and Bam almost got lost in the galaxy of his eyes.
“I-” Khun started, probably having calculated the perfect excuse for the obvious cold shoulder he had been giving Bam in the past week. Bam cut him off once again, grabbing Khun’s waist with his free hand and pulling him flush against him, finally bridging the gap between their lips.
Bam was never one for thinking about consequences. He was more of an act first think later kind of guy. And when Khun was involved, his recklessness increased tenfold. Khun was the one who thought things through, not Bam.
Yet, it was hard for him to regret his impulsive actions when he could taste Khun’s mango chapstick. When he could feel Khun’s blustering heartbeat against his chest. Khun remained frozen as Bam’s lips moved against his. He let go of Khun’s wrist so he could run his fingers through Khun’s hair, and before he could stop himself, Bam dragged his tongue across Khun’s lower lip. Khun gasped.
Bam wanted to hear what other sounds he could pull from the bluenette, but now wasn’t the time. Bam pulled away slightly and rested his forehead against Khun’s, feeling rather than hearing his soft pants. Khun’s eyes were shut, his eyelashes fanning across his pink cheeks.
“I love you” Bam whispered against his lips. Khun’s eyes parted once again, shock weaved into his features. He was glad to see ‘expressive Khun’ make a reappearance.
Bam admired the mess he made of Khun as he took a step back. The light bearer was flushed red and gasping for air. His signature pin-straight hair was mussed. For once, the snarky bluenette was speechless.
Seeing such a mesmerizing sight before him, Bam left one last peck on the bluenette’s lips before he made his way back to the elevator. He was afraid that if he stayed there for a second longer, he wouldn’t be able to leave. The taste of mango lingering on his lips reminded him of what he was fighting for.
*
*
*
Bam had once again barely scraped past death. If he didn’t have the red thryssa as an extra burst of power, he probably would have lost to Jahad.
When Bam woke up, he was surrounded by an array of familiar faces. His eyes immediately sought out for the lightbearer draped in tones of blue.
“Bam!” Endorsi yelled. “You’re awake!”
Bam almost shrank back from the relieved eyes that snapped in his direction. He tried to sit up, but was immediately greeted with a searing pain shooting up his neck. It was then that he finally noticed the bandages that clung to various parts of his body. He had taken quite the beating.
“Don’t sit up.” Princess Yuri demanded, making her way to Bam’s side. Bam glanced around the room once again. Something wasn’t right.
“Where’s Khun?” Bam asked warily. The cheerful complexion in the room suddenly darkened. Bam’s heart sank.
*
*
*
Bam felt like he was underwater. He wished he could just swim to the surface of what he hoped was a cruel hallucination. He could hear Evan talking next to him, but everything around him blurred together into a void of sounds and colours. All he could focus on was Khun’s sleeping face.
Khun was in a coma. And it was Rachel who put him in it.
A shooting star fell from his sky.