Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

hej thx for coming here; I’ll try to keep this brief

in this world we have Avarinths (Avas/Avi), Vorthen (Vorths), and Quisvians (Quivi)
they’re all different human-adjacent species

avarinths: different eye colors & rarity in order(l-m): blue, pink, purple; good vision; have “blooms” where they have lengthy urges to impress mates by showing mental and creative prowess
vorthen: can have various different hair streak colors; easily can get pent up and aggressive due to evolutionary factors of having to deal with predators by brute force, if they don’t find a healthy way to handle this then they likely end up how the Avi in this story experience them; generally good smell sense again due to evolution
quisvians: have facial markings that they’re born with; often are more sly or witty; good hearing

um I also like don’t use actual names idk if I’ll change that but for now it’s just their initials
BC (bang chan) LM (lee minho (know)) SC (seo changbin) HH (hwang hyunjin) HJ (han jisung) LF (lee felix) KS (kim seungmin) and YJ (yang jeongin)
sorry to all baby stays who don’t remember their initials but this was necessary for secrecy 🙏🙏
also VV refers to any Vorth that the Avi aren’t aware of the name of

the avi are: purple: LM, LF, HJ, & HH; pink: YJ
vorthen: BC + SC
quivi: KS

guys I’m suddenly realizing that this isn’t very accessible
if anyone cares enough to complain abt the difficultness of this fic I’ll help you guys and change stuff lol

also I’m sincerely very sorry if I missed any tags—I don’t really remember most of the little details I wrote so pls pls comment if I missed anything and don’t read this if you don’t like stuff similar to what the tags are (nothing MAJOR major is missed, promise)

Chapter Text

-imperfect present-

Knock. Knock.

Simple as a knock.

Jisung was tired, terribly tired. And he wasn’t allowed to answer the door. He laid limply on the floor of V’s cursed bathroom because V told him he was allowed to take a nap. 

But, only in my bathroom, Ava, he had said, and Jisung couldn’t find the energy to argue. V only seemed mildly disappointed about this, not realizing that Jisung in the end didn’t care where he could sleep as long as he got to sleep.

But he couldn’t sleep. 

He was way too alert for no reason. Scared, really. But he didn’t know why.

Maybe because nobody ever knocked on the door. 

And as he heard the creaking of the floorboards- the sound of someone clearly walking towards the front door- he couldn’t help but close his eyes and listen. 

Minho often told stories about how the Vorths had set up false rescues to test and teach the Avi in the house to never trust anyone claiming to “save” them from this hell. He told Jisung to never go along with a rescuer. He didn’t know what to think about that. 

Be suspicious of knocking, Jisung. The majority of the time I’ve heard knocks, they were tricks, Minho would tell him. 

What if that was what was happening now? Had the Vorths orchestrated another test? Would this end up being real?

At the thought of this, Jisung was overcome with an intense sadness that he hadn’t felt in a while.

He was ruined; broken. His brain was fried. Overdosing a dozen times and being constantly so drunk he could hardly stay awake for months on end did no good for a person. His speech was messed up, his coordination was messed up, he was always so tired, and… the hallucinations…

He’d like to be able to say to himself: “At least you’re alive!” But death would be endlessly better than living here, like this.

He wanted to leave. But nobody would want him.

Jisung felt a tear slip down his cheek, and he knew it was time to immediately stop thinking before he started sobbing. He was just so scared. The Vorths wouldn’t even let him die. They were like demons, constantly haunting his waking moments and his nightmares and his delusions. He wanted to leave. He really did. But Minho would never entertain it.

Whenever he scarcely brought up leaving, Minho would get all quiet and would space out, and that by itself scared Jisung enough to stop trying to talk about it. Similar things happened with Hyunjin, but he just told him, “Never try to escape. Never ,” and that was the clearest answer he could get out of anyone.

Jisung didn’t try anymore after that. He was dealing with enough worries with his secret… affair with Minho. It was complicated. So he just gave up. If he was meant to leave, he decided, then the universe would make it happen. 

Also, he tried not to think about all that. It was all too sad and terrible for him to think too long about. The Vorths hated when he freaked out like he would if he thought too much. 

“———!” 

A muffled shout sounded through the house, shocking Jisung out of his mind. But, he didn’t bother minding it too much, trying to just sleep like he was supposed to.

He curled up on the cold tile floor, trying to tuck his bare arms into his chest so they wouldn’t have to face the freeze of the tile.

He breathed in deeply, trying to stop his mind from racing. 

Inhale, exhale. That was all.

His legs and arms hurt, yes, but it wasn’t a big deal. It really wasn’t. All that had happened was that… he misspoke a few times too many to V, and he got mad. So Jisung was punished. That was all.

He shivered remembering it. 

He sat up with a sudden burst of upset, feeling an intense sensation of bad. He didn’t know what it was, but everything was just suddenly too much.

Jisung backed up into a corner and held himself tightly together with his burning arms. 

V whipped him, that was all. Sure, he cut him up a bit as well, but it was for a reason. It wasn’t a big deal.

It wasn’t.

Unable to stop, he covered his mouth to stifle a sob. They hurt him all the time, and he still couldn’t force himself to calm down. Even after all this time. He was just scared . 

Jisung dug into his lacerations to force the tears away from himself. Stop. This was it. He needed to stop.

Jisung steeled himself away from the bad thoughts and instead focused on the noises from other areas within the house. A bit of a racket was coming from the front door’s general area, which worried Jisung. Well, rather, a loud racket. 

Already locked in here from the outside, he couldn’t leave even if he wanted to, but this situation might prove to be an issue.

“HEY- GET DOWN, NOW!” Jisung clearly heard a distant voice yell, making him freeze in place.

BANG!

A loud explosive noise resounded throughout the house, making Jisung jump and scaring him to his core. 

It was a gunshot.

He felt his blood run cold as a million thoughts sped through his mind. Maybe this would be it- he could finally be killed by putting up some sort of fight with this possible intruder. He felt his heart start up again at the thought, and he sat up a bit more attentively.

The house was silent besides the sound of multiple people’s feet rushing through the house. 

But, a minute later, when he heard the sound of V’s bedroom door being opened, the Ava’s heart inexplicably dropped. He tried to fight the instinct to run and hide, opting to simply curl in on himself and pray that he would be okay.

His body shook with terrible tremors as he listened to the person seemingly search through the bedroom. He heard drawers opening, cabinets shutting, and things being thrown about. 

Finally, footsteps approached the bathroom. He couldn’t help but freeze in sudden terror as the bathroom door opened. 

It was somewhat violently thrown open, but, strangely, he heard nothing but silence afterwards. 

He held himself tighter and prayed again to anything above that he would be alright.

Finally, after a few agonizing moments, the intruder approached Jisung. He sensed them kneeling down in front of him and silently observing him.

He stayed frozen until the person spoke.

“Hey, love. Can you look at me?” A strangely sweet voice rang out in the bathroom, a stark difference from the silence from before.

It didn’t sound like a Vorthen, which was the only reason that Jisung was able to look up.

His fearful eyes met the pink ones of the Avarinth ahead of him.

Instantly, nearly all the tension slid out of his body. The Ava in front of him smiled softly at this, before reaching out to hold one of Jisung’s hands.

“Hello. I’m Jeongin,” he softly spoke. “You need to come with me. The Vorthen in your household were… arrested. I’m sorry this is happening so fast, but we need to leave.”

Jisung stared silently back at Jeongin, suddenly remembering Minho’s warnings. He looked a little deeper into the other Ava’s eyes, and completely disregarded all that Minho had told him. He nodded at Jeongin, whispering a quiet “Okay,” and then carefully standing when Jeongin led him up, hoping the other couldn’t feel how badly he was shaking.

After making sure Jisung was stable, Jeongin walked them over to the bathroom door, where he abruptly stopped.

Jeongin glanced worriedly at him, asking quickly, “What’s wrong?” 

Jisung stilled. Words were mush in his mouth, and he was still barely cooling down from a breakdown. “I- n- no,” he muttered, staring anxiously into Jeongin’s eyes. When he didn’t respond further, Jisung tried to continue. “Can- can’t go,” he spoke, shaking his head for clarification. 

“Hun, you need to go. We have to leave, okay? You’re hurt, aren’t you?” Jeongin asked, to which Jisung hesitantly nodded, figuring he could trust a fellow Avarinth. “Okay. We need to patch you up so you’re not hurt anymore, alright?” 

Jisung tightened his grasp on Jeongin’s hand and averted his gaze. 

“Come on, hun,” Jeongin spoke, lightly dragging Jisung out of the bathroom. Jisung didn’t try to protest again, too worried about the consequences. Jeongin seemed way more in control than him, and he didn’t want to face the potential wrath of him.

Jeongin led Jisung back out of the house and outside, onto the front lawn. He really couldn’t stop the anxiety from rising in his chest. He wasn’t allowed to be outside. The Vorths would kill him if they saw him here. Jisung couldn't resist glancing around to see if they were nearby.

Staring intently at the ground, Jeongin led him over to someone named “Seungmin,” who he had started talking with.

The only part that Jisung caught of their conversation was that “they” had told Seungmin that someone was still in the house- that there were four Avi. Jisung looked up slightly, just enough to catch sight of Felix and Hyunjin huddled together on a folding bench slightly behind Seungmin, both silently staring at nothing.

Oh. Jisung knew where the missing Avi was. But it might prove to be a problem…

“Hey, Ava?” Jeongin spoke, tapping Jisung’s hand to get his attention. Jisung looked up, realizing Jeongin was talking to him, catching the other’s gaze.

“Do you know where the fourth Avi in your house is?”

Jisung blinked, before slowly nodding, being sure to keep his gaze strictly on Jeongin, not daring to look over at Seungmin. 

“Good, love. Can you lead me to him?” Jeongin titled his head in a question.

Jisung stayed silent for a moment before nodding once more, determining it was better to go along with this than fight it.

With that, the two left the other three behind. Jisung was worried that this “Seungmin” might think he was rude for not making any interaction with him, but assumed that by the way they were talking, this was serious enough to skip introductions. As they entered the house, Jisung led the way up stairs and through hallways before they both finally reached a door that he stopped in front of.

“He’s in here?” Jeongin asked, and Jisung nodded.

They both stood there in silence before Jisung bit the bullet.

“D’ we… g- we go… in..?” He nervously inquired, fidgeting with his hands, to which Jeongin indicated the affirmative. 

“M’kay…” Jisung whispered, turning the doorknob and leaning into the open space of the agar door, effectively blocking Jeongin’s view of the room.

What he saw was terrible. It almost made him cry just looking at it. He looked back at Jeongin, unsure as to whether or not he was impatient to get in. Seeing nothing of the sort, he quickly glanced back again. 

In the corner of the room adjacent to the wall the door was on, sat Minho. He was covered in blood and cuts and bruises, looking half dead on the floor. Jisung felt the pit in his stomach grow larger and larger.

Worried he was taking too long, he opened the door more for Jeongin to enter, and slowly creeped inside. Jisung’s pace quickened as he approached Minho, before he dropped to his knees and instinctively felt the older’s neck for a pulse. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t be…

As soon as he felt the familiar beating of Minho’s heart, Jisung calmed down significantly, not bothered when Jeongin sat next to him. 

“My god…” Jeongin muttered. Jisung ignored him and smacked Minho’s face to wake him.

“Minho,” he quietly spoke into the Ava’s ear.

Jisung watched hopefully as Minho’s eyes slowly blinked open and focused on him. 

“Minho,” he repeated.

“Jisung,” Minho grudgingly grunted in response, reaching out for Jisung’s hand, and putting it against his cheek when it was in his grasp.

Eventually, Minho’s gaze fell upon Jeongin.

Judging by his expression, Jisung assumed he was a bit shocked, but he seemed far too exhausted to be able to properly show it.

Minho’s eyebrows nervously furrowed slightly, and he looked back at Jisung.

When Jisung caught his gaze, he spoke. “We- we need to- to leave, Minho,” he stuttered out. He didn’t bother to pay attention to the self-consciousness that came from misspeaking in front of a stranger; there were more pressing matters.

It took a good moment for Minho to process this, his eyes falling away in the process, before they suddenly snapped back to Jisung, and he vehemently shook his head. Minho sat up with vigor that he didn’t seem to properly have, and both Jeongin and Jisung rushed to make him stop. 

“No. No , Jisung,” Minho spoke, panic filling his voice. “No-” the Ava grabbed onto Jisung and forcefully pulled him closer- “we can’t. ” 

With that, the two of them looked over at a somewhat startled Jeongin, like he could solve their problems.

“We need to leave, okay? I have a medic outside and an ambulance is coming. I’ll be with you guys the whole time. You’ll be safe,” Jeongin insisted. 

“ No, ” Minho hissed out, trying to put himself in front of Jisung to guard him. “No-” he cut himself off as if suddenly hit with an incredible idea- “Please just let him stay. I’ll go with you, just don’t take him too,” he begged.

Jisung’s eyes widened at the proposal, and he was about to protest when Jeongin beat him to it.

“Minho, love,” Jeongin gently started. “I was in the same situation as you a few years ago. But I’m good now, aren’t I?” He said, showing his blemish-free, yet scarred, arms to the two Avi. Jisung felt his heart drop just looking at it. 

“You need to go to the hospital. Both of you. Badly. We need to leave as fast as possible. Please come with me.” Jeongin put his hands together in a pleading gesture. 

“Whe- where are the Vorths?” Minho asked, stumbling over his words.

“Arrested. They’re already on the way to the police station. They’ll never be able to hurt anyone again. Please come. Your other Avi are already outside.” Jeongin said, the last part shocking Minho out of his funk.

“They are..?” Minho glanced over at Jisung, who nodded after a moment. 

“We need to- to leave,” Jisung repeated. 

Minho stared at Jisung with a pained expression, which made Jisung’s heart crack a bit. This situation was terrible. He was going against everything Minho had told him, and was too scared to stop doing so.

“ Please ,” Jisung added, trying to depict his fear through his voice. Minho would know. He would figure it out. He always did. 

Minho’s eyes vaguely shone with understanding, and though he seemed very hesitant, he slowly attempted to stand up, dragging Jisung with him. Moving so quickly ended in Minho crashing against the wall behind him, effectively stabilizing himself but for a price.

Jisung watched worriedly as Minho winced and hence shoved him away a bit. 

“Ah- slow- slowly, Minho,” he said, putting his arm around the other to try and help him stand.

“Fuck…” Minho quietly cursed, shaking on his unstable legs. 

Jisung softly hushed him and straightened him to face him properly. “I can’t- carry… you, Minho. I would , b- but… put your… your weight on- on me. Okay?” 

“Hey, I’ll help you too.” Jeongin chimed in, breaking the two’s concentration on each other. “Do you think you can walk fine? I might be able to carry you.” 

“Um… it’s okay,” Minho spoke. There was a hint of coldness in his voice, which made Jisung nervous. 

“Alright,” Jeongin responded, not seeming to have picked up what Jisung did. “Let’s go.”

Jeongin turned around and walked over to the door, before waiting for Jisung and Minho who hobbled along together after him. 

“Go as slow as you need to,” Jeongin softly advised, letting the other two pass through the door he was holding open.

Jisung looked back at the Ava and nodded, while Minho just ignored him. 

The feeling of Jeongin’s presence behind Jisung as they walked to the staircase scared him. Having purposefully slowed down to try and get Jeongin to pass them, Jisung was disappointed when Jeongin had matched his pace.

Jisung made sure to stop him and Minho at the top of the staircase to wait and make sure Jeongin knew they wanted him in front of them. 

While they waited, Jisung glanced over at Minho.

The first thing he noticed was how suddenly pale he looked; and his hands were shaking where they were grabbing onto him.

Not good. 

Jisung blew air at the Ava to catch his attention. When Minho looked over, Jisung made meaningful facial gestures and expressions to try and silently get his point across. You okay?

Minho swallowed and nodded after a moment, appearing out of breath. Jisung held onto him tighter.

A second later, Jeongin caught up to them, and the moment was gone. 

The three of them started down the stairs, Jeongin next to them this time and trying to help Minho get down safely. Minho didn’t try to fight his help.

Each step down they made, Minho seemed to be getting worse and worse. His legs shook, he couldn’t well stabilize himself, and he breathed heavily. Jisung didn’t know if he would even make it outside.

Once they reached the bottom of the steps, Minho unexpectedly sat down, dragging Jisung with him. 

Jisung accidentally let out a surprised noise at this, before breathily exclaiming: “Minho!”

“Shh,” Minho muttered, pulling the other closer and trying to massage one of his own legs.

Jisung exhaled and reached over to grab the hand Minho was massaging with. “Care- careful,” he sincerely said, looking Minho in the eyes.

Sighing, Minho stopped and slowly stood back up again. Jeongin just looked confused at the interaction when Jisung glanced over at him, but he didn’t think too hard about it.

The three of them slowly continued through the house, eventually making it to the front door. 

Minho basically froze in place when they had nearly made it to the door.

Both Jeongin and Jisung glanced surprisedly at Minho, and Jisung got a terrible feeling in his stomach. 

“Minho. Minho, come-” Jisung took a moment to swallow down the block in his throat preventing him from fully talking- “on.”

Minho stared over at him with scared, empty eyes. Jisung could’ve vomited right then. 

“Minho, le- t’s go, ple- …please,” Jisung quietly pleaded, not exactly wanting Jeongin to hear him. Minho needed to go. Jisung didn’t know what would happen if he didn’t. He couldn’t handle any more right now.

After a moment of Minho silently staring back at him with the same expression, Jisung simply cracked and abruptly burst into tears. 

His throat closed up far before his eyes had become blurry, so he was fast hiccuping and sobbing whilst trying to muffle himself and cover his face with his hands. 

Through the blur in his eyes, he faintly saw Minho and Jeongin reaching out to him, but was panicking too much to be able to hear. The roaring of the world was all he heard, and it didn’t relent.

It was so loud, and people were touching him, and Minho was going to be hurt, and maybe he would be too, and the Vorths were going to kill them when they saw what was going on. Jisung was so, so scared. 

Jisung covered his eyes and mindlessly dropped to the floor, curling up into a ball, trying to make himself disappear. He didn’t want to be hurt. He didn’t . Please, please, please . He would beg or cook or clean or anything else; he just didn’t want to get hurt. 

Soon it was only his own sobs that filled his ears. The roaring was gone, and he only heard his own broken heart. It was worse in some ways. 

Distantly, he felt someone placing their hands over his own that were covering his eyes, one of their arms wrapping around his back and attaching to a body that was pressed into his side. Another hand gently rubbed his back, and Jisung could’ve thrown up. 

Jisung felt someone rest their head on his shoulder close to his ear and whisper, “Shhh, I’m sorry, Jisung. You’re okay…” 

After a moment, Jisung realized that he recognized that voice, and he anxiously removed the hands over his eyes and glanced to the side, locking eyes with Minho. 

The pity that Minho’s expression immediately switched to when he saw Jisung’s face made him feel so much worse. He could feel the tears rolling down his face and knew that his eyes would be super red. Jisung hiccuped and gagged, just wanting to leave and get away.

He was still in this house. He wanted to escape.

Carefully, Minho helped lift Jisung, and Jisung walked in a daze with him and Jeongin out the front door. At some point, he was dropped off on a bench, where he spaced out and lost control of his mind.

He knew that getting like this was bad and that the Vorths hated it, but he was powerless to stop it. Either way, being here just felt so… good. He was gone from the world. Nobody could hurt him here. 

But it was bad. It was really bad. S hated it. He hated it so much, that Jisung would often wake up from this in pain so terrible he just passed out. 

So he shouldn’t be here, but he couldn’t stop. When it got this bad, his mind just reverted back to how it was on the alcohol and in the withdrawal of it. 

His brain was broken. It was permanently messed up. He couldn’t help it. 

But he was still so sorry. He tried to fix it so many times but nothing worked. Even when he tried not to, he just fell back here; in the emptiness of the world that infiltrated his consciousness.

Something warm was wrapped around him, but he wasn’t there to notice it. Soon flashing lights filled his eyes, then it all went dark, then all bright again. 

But he was still gone. 

***

-perfect past-

“Sit down.” Sire spoke with a dangerous undertone, while Vorth and Master just stared. Minho didn’t move.

“Sit. Down!” The vorth suddenly shouted, appearing to have lost his temper. 

Minho shivered, and scrambled to sit on the couch, next to his Avi. The hairs on the back of his neck stuck out, and he sunk into himself. He stared down at his knees while Sire began to lecture him.

“You’re a fucking dumbass. What the fuck are we even keeping you around for if you’re trying to burn down the goddamn house?”

Minho felt tears start to grow behind his eyes. Sire was so loud. 

“You’re getting punished. Now.” 

Death would have been infinitely better than this. Why had he never succeeded in killing himself before? 

“So… anyone have an idea?” Sire asked, fake sweetness filling his voice. It was directed at the Avi sitting with Minho on the couch. 

Minho clenched his hands in his lap. He silently prayed that the Vorths wouldn’t involve anyone other than himself. 

The room was silent for a good few moments. Only Sire’s angry breathing could be heard. 

“No?” Sire mercilessly laughed to himself, anger barely hissed beneath the surface, before saying: “Great. We’ve got a fantastic idea then.”

Sire laughed once more before approaching Minho with quick, violent steps. “Get up,” he hissed at him. 

Minho hurriedly stood, too scared to do anything that would egg the Vorths on more. He hadn’t meant to. He just set a napkin on fire. On accident. That was it . Minho fought tears back from his eyes.

“You’re going in the basement.”

Minho’s head snapped up on instinct, his eyes wide with horror. 

“No.” He blurted out.

Sire’s eyes darkened with anger. “No?” He asked incredulously. “Yes, Minho. Yes ,” he laughed out, smiling so largely Minho never expected him to punch him.

Suddenly, Minho’s skull exploded with pressure, knocking him to the floor, where he tried to hurriedly crawl away, but was stopped when he ran into Master. One look up at him, and Minho knew he was done. 

No. No. He needed to de-escalate. Minho did the only thing his mind was screaming at him to do, he bowed down and started begging, choking words out through the knot in his throat. 

But it didn’t stop them. Minho felt hands grabbing at his legs and arms, and he instinctively started kicking and hitting at whatever he could. He didn’t want to go. He couldn’t . Oh shit , no, no…

Quickly, Minho spiraled further and further down. Flashes of memory blurred into his vision, nearly taking over his mind. 

Laughter. He was in a tree. A hundred feet off the ground.

And slipping. Fast. A sob tore out of his throat when he accidentally looked too far down. He clung tighter, but was weakening quickly. It was so dark. Minho didn’t know what time it was.

“Please, please,” he whispered, begging to nobody for relief. 

The Vorths were at the bottom, waiting for him. Why did they do this? Why did they keep putting him up here; torturing him like this? 

Minho suddenly screamed as he slid down a good foot, where he scrambled for a grip. A burst of laughter erupted from below, and Minho sobbed. There was no escape. He would fall no matter what. And they would get him even if he didn’t. 

“Keep crying, bitch!” Someone yelled up from below, which was followed by even more laughter. 

He wouldn’t die from this fall. He never did, but he prayed every time that he would. It would never happen; the Vorths down there wouldn’t let it. 

At this point, all he could do was look up at the sky, staring at the moon and the stars that had cursed him all his life, and he begged for their help and mercy, before letting go. He heard a blaring noise in his ears as he fell, and was su dden l y k no c ke d out o f hi s memories. 

As he came to, Minho realized that the screaming was himself. He was screaming bloody murder at the Vorths, pleading for them to stop. None of them looked down at him, they simply dragged him off, over to the basement door. 

He couldn’t go. He couldn’t let this happen to himself again . He made one final attempt at getting away right before they reached the door, kicking and crying, knowing that they wouldn’t take pity on him. They never did. 

With one final burst, the door was opened, and Minho was thrown in. Minho scrambled to get a bearing, nearly tumbling down the stairs and into the black abyss underneath him, when the door was slammed behind him. 

Anxiety rose in his chest like a wildfire. He launched himself back up the stairs to the small platform in front of the door, and started banging on the door, hitting it with all his might to get someone’s attention, while still keeping a terrified eye on the ominous darkness below him. 

“Please- ple- please,” he sobbed out, gaining fervor as the situation set in. “M- master, please,” he continued, knowing it was him who orchestrated this whole thing. “I’m sorry-“ he got interrupted by his own sobs- “I- I didn’t mean to! Please, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he cried, banging harder and harder on the door. 

No noise came from the other side. Everything was silent besides his racket.

Minho cried harder and harder. There really was no escape.

Chapter Text

-imperfect present-

Felix hurt. He hurt badly . He must’ve fallen asleep or something in the ambulance, because last he remembered, he was riding on a cot in there. But now, he was in a bed with stiff sheets in a sterile room. 

And cords were coming out of him. 

But, a bonus: apparently he had been put in some very very soft hospital clothes, because that was where he assumed he was in. Or some sort of lab. 

Yet, there was only so much to distract himself with. He was so uncomfortable, everything was jabbing into him in different ways, and it hurt so bad he almost started crying. 

He didn’t remember it hurting this much in the morning, but maybe his adrenaline had just run out. 

And his stomach was cramping horribly, like he was terribly sick. The nausea was overpowering, and made all his senses mix into a confusing haze that he couldn’t well wade through. 

“Ow…” he whispered into the air, trying to relieve some of his pain by vocalizing it. 

It only sort of worked. 

Overwhelmed by this failure, two thick tears slipped out of Felix’s eyes. He was so alone, he wanted one of his Avi. But were they even okay? Felix had no idea if something terrible had happened to them after he passed out.

And that thought scared him. The amount of unknown was far too large and frightening for Felix to deal with. 

A sharp pain shot up Felix’s arm as he tried to adjust himself, and he winced and curled into it. Master had carved into his arm with a knife a week ago, because he had talked back. It hurt. He cried so hard then that he got sick the next day. The tears he was dealing with now worsened immensely at this setback.

Minho had tried to help him, but he was so exhausted from not being allowed to eat for a few days that he couldn’t do much. Minho had burnt the dinner he made, and the Vorths were incredibly angry. None of the Avi ate that night. Minho didn’t for the next five. 

“Minho…” he cried out, sickened at the thought of anything bad happening to him. He hated this life. Everywhere he went, he or someone else got hurt. It made him feel so horrible and helpless inside, and he could do nothing about it. 

He wanted one of his Avi. He needed one. 

Felix glanced around the room again, peering through his tears, and he found a strange red button that he had somehow missed, resting on the side table. 

He immediately pressed it, not taking the time to think about the consequences. 

And he didn’t bother thinking about it for the next minute he spent laying in this bed, eyes shut to breathe and calm down. 

The Vorths always reprimanded him for being so emotional. But their punishments only made it worse. He needed to calm down. 

Suddenly, the door opened, and Felix’s eyes flew open. 

A stranger walked in, carrying a notebook and wearing… medical gear, and Felix scrambled to sit up. 

“Hi Honey, I’m NURSE, what did you call me for?” The lady asked, walking to stand next to the bed Felix was on. 

Felix stared into her eyes, and was relieved when he saw she was an Avarinth. And, with a shock, he realized she was a purple Avarinth. 

Felix cleared his throat and grunted out a noise. “I- ah- mm… a… an Ava?” He spoke, voice gravelly. 

“An Ava? Do you happen to want one of yours? I’m sorry, but all of yours are sleeping right now,” the nurse kindly said. She spoke kind of strangely, posh-ish.

Felix looked down at his lap, and couldn’t stop a few more tears from falling. This was so overwhelming. Why had this lady come here anyways? 

“Hey, hun-” 

A knock sounded on the door, and Felix froze up, eyes wide and locked on the door. Slowly, it opened, and Felix saw the nice Avarinth that had helped them get out of the house. Jeongin. 

“Hey, sorry… is everything okay in here? Sorry, Felix, I heard you crying,” Jeongin worriedly spoke. 

“Oh, just perfect timing… Jeongin?” The nurse questioned, seemingly unsure of the other's name. 

Jeongin smiled and nodded, slowly making his way over to Felix. 

“Would you mind staying in here and explaining things to Felix for a bit? He’s a tad lonely, and none of the others have woken yet,” she softly explained.

Nodding again, Jeongin walked closer to Felix and sat on a chair next to the bed. 

“Alright, I suppose I’ll leave now, if everything will be good?” She asked in a question, directing it at Felix. 

Felix shakily nodded, unsure of what really was going on.

The lady smiled at him and took her leave, shutting the door quietly behind her.

Once they were alone, Jeongin leaned closer to Felix, and wiped away the tears on his cheeks. “You alright, love?” He asked, hand gently rubbing Felix’s arm.

Felix averted his eyes as they wetted once more, and he stayed silent. He wiped his own tears, and tried to avoid making any sort of contact with Jeongin. He was having difficulty talking as it was, he couldn’t talk about this. 

“It’s okay, Felix. I know this is really stressful, but everything will be okay. You’ll be fine, your Avi will be fine, everything’s alright. What are you thinking about?” Jeongin asked again, gently turning Felix’s head to make him look at him. 

Felix’s heart seemed to fill with lead at this, and he sunk into the bed. At this point, he felt obligated to speak, but he felt so hurt and was shaking so badly he didn’t know if he even could. 

“Minho…” he mumbled, providing as much as he could for his answer.

“Minho? He’s okay, Felix. The nurses had to have him sleep longer than everyone else because they were worried he’d be more scared than the rest of you… but he’s perfectly stable, please don’t worry.” Jeongin rubbed Felix’s arm with his thumb to try and soothe the Ava. He couldn’t tell if it worked.

“Mmm… but- but the… he was punished. He can’t leave,” Felix added on, his head starting to hurt with the effort he was putting into talking. 

Jeongin silently shook his head, trying to reassure Felix, before speaking. “No, Felix. He’s not being punished anymore. Those Vorths have no control over you now, okay? Never again.” 

Shaking his head, Felix pulled his arms close to his chest, trying to self-soothe. “No- no…” he muttered, before his mind flipped to another subject. “Jisung? What about… him..?” 

“Oh… he’ll be okay, I can tell you that, Felix. Um… I have a question for you though, if you don’t mind answering, do you know what happened to him? The nurses have been really concerned and he hasn’t been awake for them to conclude anything.”

Inhaling, and slowly exhaling, Felix was reminded of all the horrors that had happened with Jisung. He felt so bad. He was never able to help him.

“Uh- Jisung… ever since the… the drinks… he was always anxious. Now it’s worse. I couldn’t help him, none of us could,” he murmured, feeling the grief overtake him like a storm once again. 

All of them felt terrible. Minho might’ve felt either the worst or the best about it. The two of them had gotten very close, and Felix was so glad that the Vorths never tried to permanently separate them. He and Hyunjin were probably in the same boat though. Being a bystander to that type of terrible mind-breaking abuse was horrible.

Felix couldn’t imagine how Jisung felt. Often when Felix saw him, he would just be staring into the distance, crying, silently cleaning something, sleeping alone, or secretly sleeping with Minho. Jisung was full of bad energy that had corrupted his brain, and Felix was so sad for him. 

Felix loved the nights where they all were allowed to sleep in the same room that night, and always took the chance to spoil Jisung as much as he could with food and comfortability and love, and Jisung always seemed so peaceful when he had done so. They all loved Jisung, and always doted on him when they were around as he slept.

He slept a lot. His brain couldn’t handle the world otherwise. Felix tried not to think about that.

“Do you want to talk about him at all..?” Jeongin quietly eased in, slowly making Felix slip out of his thoughts. 

“Hm…” Felix debated, staring at his lap for a few moments. “The Vorths… he kind of… had a sleeping… schedule. Sometimes I got to look after him,” Felix spoke, voice barely above a whisper. He could feel his heart splintering and sinking in his chest the more he thought about this. 

“He’s…” Felix tried to start, but was unable to finish. He couldn’t think of how to complete the sentence. Broken? Constantly scared? Hopeless? Unloveable? No. That wasn’t true. Only the Vorths said that, and Felix loved him in secret. 

“…We all love him,” was all he could come up with. He had to get that thought out of his mind. That was one thing that Felix confidently knew the Vorths were wrong about. They all knew that.

Jeongin nodded understandingly, and responded, “I know you all do. You must be very special to each other, hmm?” 

Felix nodded, glad to have released the bad energy from that idea that the Vorths had planted into his head. He tried to ignore the pressure behind his eyes and the sharp pain that erupted from his lungs when he breathed. “I love him. And he’s so… gone. It’s so sad .” His voice broke at the last sentence, unable to contain the emotion that hid behind it. He closed his throat so he wouldn’t sob out loud, and hugged himself. 

“Please don’t- don’t tell the Vorths I said this. I can’t love him. We can’t love him,” he suddenly pleaded, teary and struggling to hold back his emotions. “I love them all,” he confessed, starting to quietly hiccup. “Please don’t separate us.” 

Felix stared up into Jeongin’s eyes, and sobbed aloud, praying that the other wouldn't use his words against him. They couldn’t be separated. Jisung wouldn’t be safe with people who had no idea how he worked, and Minho would wither more and more without them, and Hyunjin does terribly without their support, and Felix would be so, so sad. It couldn’t happen. Felix wouldn’t want to live to see a life like that, and he was sure the rest of them felt the same.

“Shh,” Jeongin hushed him. “I won’t, Felix. Please don’t worry. I would never do that,” he reassured. “I would never tell, and you’re all staying together. Whether you end up staying with me and my family, or live on your own, or anything else, you will be together if that’s what you want. I promise you.”

Hiccuping through his tears, Felix nodded to show he heard the other Ava. That didn’t mean he believed the other, but he wanted so bad for it to be true.

Please, please, please, he prayed to himself. 

He would rather die than leave them. 

Chapter Text

There were people and hands and tubes and syringes and pain and Jisung was freaking out. He sobbed and cried as the world spun around him, too strange and alien for him to be able to see.

All he remembered was waking up in a strange place after something bad happened at home, and then being wheeled around from place to place.

Jisung didn’t know what to do. Nobody made any sense.

He called out to them, begging for some sort of help or relief or anything, and they ignored him. They came close to him and he crawled away as quickly as he could. They were going to hurt him. Jisung didn’t know these people.

“Please- it hurts, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he sobbed out, his voice coming out as pure vibrations in his head.

He couldn’t even hear himself.

This revelation didn’t make things any better. It felt like bats were screeching in his ears and tearing apart his limbs. And all the ants crawling over his skin. Was he outside? He couldn’t tell, but there were people here.

Jisung scratched at his ears and skin and everything to try to stop the sensations. He hiccuped and cried harder as nothing worked.

“Please, please, I’m sorry,” he repeated, trying to get everything to relent.

The place was so bright that Jisung just had to shut his eyes and try to cover himself up. He curled as tight into a ball as he could, and held his shaking hands to his chest.

Here, he felt his heartbeat. It was racing. He was racing. Had he been running? Jisung didn’t remember running, but he must’ve been.

At a sudden incomprehensible yell, Jisung screeched and scrambled backwards. His mind blared with danger he couldn’t even see, and he scratched more and more desperately at his ears to try to stop the noises.

Don’t hurt me, please don’t, was all he wanted to plead out, but his throat had closed up. He couldn’t talk and couldn’t see and couldn’t breathe and he was so scared.

A moment later, he realized he was wailing, almost screaming aloud.

Not even a second after this realization, something grabbed his arm, and yanked it out of where Jisung had it kept safe. Jisung was too terrified to react, so he just sat and continued sobbing.

He couldn’t talk, couldn’t get these people to stop, couldn’t stop the world.

Instead, he majorly subconsciously did the only other thing he knew how to do.

He gave up.

Not to the panic, or the terror filling his chest, just to the people. The fear still gripped his neck like a vice, but he stopped fighting, falling completely limp and pliant for these people to do whatever they wanted.

Jisung felt hands brace on his back as he fell backwards, and they gently lowered him to the bed.

He was blind, and still deaf, but he could feel his sobs. They racked through his body like shivering tremors, and he curled up on his side to try and lessen the pain.

Jisung felt a small prick on his wrist, before the arm that had been taken was placed back with him.

Breathing and shaking, he hugged his arm close to his chest and tightened his grip around himself, heaving in breaths as more people hustled around him.

He silently whispered to himself within his gulps of air, trying to calm himself down, only just noticing he had been rocking himself.

A warm blanket was placed over him a moment later, and he grabbed onto it like a lifeline, stuffing his face into it and letting his tears wet it.

He was only given a blanket when it was time to sleep. But never one this nice and thick. Jisung felt a strange sense of joy fill his heart, even as he sobbed. Now must be the time to sleep.

Someone’s muffled voice filled his ears, and Jisung suddenly saw a flash of a pair of beautiful blue eyes.

Ava, was all his mind could think. It was an Avarinth.

Ava, Ava, Ava. Jisung didn’t know an Ava with blue eyes.

Suddenly, with a frantic sense of panic, Jisung reached out to the Ava and grabbed some part of them, eyes locked on theirs.

Ava. They were real. Who was this?

Jisung hiccuped and abruptly lost his focus. His eyes opened back up to a blurry mess of lines and colors, and he forgot all about the Ava.

Jisung fell back to the bed, unsure what he was doing, and let his fear overtake himself once more.

He was bound to die here, he worriedly realized. He was going to die. These people would kill him, without a doubt, and he wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop it.

This thought caused a knot of terror to twist up in his stomach, and he clenched painfully at his chest to try to stop the feeling. A bout of nausea was thrown in his face by the sudden twisting, and he sobbed and dry-heaved onto the sheets.

He was going to die. He wanted to, or at least he thought so, but this was such a scary way to go.

He opened his eyes and gazed into the blurry mess that laid beyond him. He sobbed aloud once again, clutching at himself to try and stop all the sensations.

“Jisung,” a gentle voice spoke, the sound reverberating strangely around his brain. Minho. That was Minho’s voice. Suddenly, Jisung was struck with an uncomfortable thought. Would his Avi be upset with him if this was how he died? They had a weird unspoken rule about death, but Jisung didn’t know how this case applied to it.

But, based on Minho’s tone, which of course Jisung would recognize, the other Ava wasn’t mad at him. Jisung comforted himself with this fact.

“Minho,” he whispered back, trying to look around to see where the other was, but failing due to his faulty vision. He choked down a sob that rose from his throat, and tried to sit up.

He tried to breathe clearer so that Minho wouldn’t see him as such a mess, because Jisung knew that that made him sad. Jisung still couldn’t see him.

A hand spawned on his shoulder as he tried to move more, and Jisung flinched back, staring wide-eyed at the offending hand.

“Hey…” Minho spoke again, and Jisung forgot about the hand. Where was he? Jisung wiped vigorously at his eyes to try and clear them, but it didn’t work, as his tears came back hardly a second later.

Trying to exhale, he accidentally sobbed aloud again, before a flurry of random muffled noises filled his ears. The sound was so sudden that Jisung could only assume he just hadn’t noticed it before, but he didn’t care enough to think much about it.

“Minho,” Jisung repeated, slightly louder this time, although he felt his throat crackle and croak, so he wasn’t sure how well it came across.

Jisung still couldn’t find Minho. At this point, he was starting to get nervous. The anxiety that had disappeared from existence the moment he heard Minho’s voice was returning once more, and it seemed worse.

He huffed and tried to focus his brain, but was unable to. His mind kept racing on even when he tried to stop it. Minho was gone. Where did he go? Did he leave Jisung? But Minho was supposed to protect him, he always did- how could he if he wasn’t in the house with him?

Even though Jisung had no idea what happened, or how, he knew that Minho was not close to him at all.

Looking around again, Jisung desperately tried to find something that looked familiar to him, but everything was just so white and bright.

There was no room in the house that looked like this.

Where was he? Where was he? A surge of panic filled Jisung’s chest again, and he tried hard to get away from the brightness. It was wrong- he shouldn’t be here. He couldn’t imagine how mad the Vorths would be if they saw him out here like this.

With that as way more terrifying motivation than he needed, Jisung hurried to grab whatever he could to hide himself with. He happened to grab the blanket that was on top of him that he somehow completely forgot about, and he crawled backwards and carefully yet quickly draped it over himself, where he made himself as small as he could and hid down.

Like this, his hands were right over his heart again, and he felt how quick his heart was still racing.

He didn’t want to die when Minho was so far away, he realized. He would be sad; Minho would be sad. Jisung hated seeing how sad Minho was when he came back from the Vorths to him. He would whisper to him so sweetly and make him feel so peaceful as he drifted off to sleep, but when Jisung woke, he could always fully tell how upset and hopeless Minho had felt.

Jisung would kiss Minho then. He wasn’t sure if Felix or Hyunjin ever saw them, but he knew they wouldn’t tell.

And, the Vorths never knew. In case they ever did find out, Jisung made Minho promise to him that he’d tell them that Jisung was having a mental break. So Jisung was free to kiss Minho as much as he wanted, and seeing the relief on Minho’s face afterward was worth it every time.

Minho rarely kissed Jisung back, because they both knew that there was no real excuse for him in case the Vorths caught him doing it, but he’d whisper in Jisung’s ear at night how much he loved and cared about him.

Jisung didn’t realize until now how drenched his cheeks were with tears. Thinking about Minho made him so happy that he cried sometimes. Jisung couldn’t tell what these tears were from, though. It must’ve been an intense mix.

But he didn’t care. Minho was in his mind and his heart and his ears, and Jisung fell asleep hoping that soon he’d be a part of every one of his senses.

Chapter Text

“Minho, you need to lay down. It’s not safe for you to walk around yet- you've lost a lot of blood,” a nurse spoke.

Minho just glared at her. 

“We’ve been working on the blood transfusions, okay? You’ll be fine after a few more days, but this massive of a transfusion takes time and recovery. Do you understand that?” She asked, not sounding mocking, much to Minho’s surprise. 

He slowly nodded, fighting with himself to not get frustrated. 

“Okay. Thank you so much, at the rate you’ve been improving- mentally and physically- you’ll probably be able to have visitors soon, so your Avi can come visit you; Felix has been really anxious to. Don’t tell anyone I said that, though,” the nurse winked at him, and he stared at her, trying to hide how that news affected him. 

Minho hadn’t been… great to these people, which he wasn’t feeling well about, but it just spewed out of him on instinct. And instinct obviously and rightfully told him how horrible this situation was for him to be in.

Instinct told him to fight them, so he did. Like what happened a minute ago. Not to mention what happened when they tried to get him into the ambulance. Minho made it very clear how much he hated cars, and they eventually had to tranquilize him or something like that to pacify him. He didn’t really know what they did, he only knew that he fell asleep and woke up at this hospital.

Thinking about all this, he had no idea what would happen the moment things switched and the Vorths took them back. 

He just tried not to think about it and how it would affect his dear Avi. Maybe the Vorths just wanted them to be more physically healthy for some reason, but Minho really tried not to think about it. 

He would know when the time came. It wasn’t worth the anxiety now.

But that was much easier to say than to actually try to do . 

Minho’s throat was dry and constantly kept closing up on itself, his hands and arms and legs were shaking so much he had to sit like a ball to keep people from noticing, he could hardly speak, he had a terrible headache. And those were the only things he noticed, who knew how mentally messed up he was right now? The nurses and doctors told him that his brain could be having “some difficulty” or whatever due to the blood loss, which as a whole confused Minho.

He’d lost blood like this multiple times before, and nothing had ever been done about it, and while he did feel… off after those times, everyone here was making it seem way more serious than it really was. 

And it was fine after some time, anyways, so everyone going so overboard made Minho worried about what the Vorths were planning. But he wasn’t supposed to think about that. Nothing at all about that. 

Which was hard because it was basically the only thing that mattered in his life right now. Well his Avi obviously mattered more, but they were also directly impacted by this whole thing, which immensely boosted the importance of this situation. 

So what was he supposed to do? What was the point of ignoring the situation? 

He couldn’t really figure that thought out, so he just opted to ignore all of it and focus on the present.

The nurse told him that Felix was worried about him. They hadn’t actually told him any news about any of them this entire time, they mostly only used them as bargaining tools to make him act nicer, so that meant that Felix was okay. 

It suddenly struck Minho that this would be the perfect time to ask- he was alone with this one other nurse who had proven to know something about his Avi, and no other species was there to stop him. 

Minho cleared his throat and quickly, before he could stop himself, said: “Excuse me?” 

The nurse lady looked back, seeming a bit surprised. It might’ve been about the fact that he’d spoken, or that he was being more polite than he had been the entire time, but he didn’t dwell on it. 

She tilted her head to the side, prompting Minho to continue. 

“How-” he cut himself off to clear his throat once more- “sorry, how are… they?”

The nurse blinked at him before understanding dawned on her, and she looked at him with a look Minho didn’t quite understand.

“I’d say most of them are doing well right now, has anybody told you anything?” She asked, her face mostly back to normal. 

“Um, no… sorry,” Minho apologized, trying to maintain eye contact with the nurse. 

“Oh. Huh,” she looked down, thoughtful, before returning her gaze to his. “Well, they’re all okay. Uh, Felix has a pretty injured arm, if you know anything about that, and we aren’t sure whether it’ll actually heal fully or not. Hyunjin has had a pretty bad infection, but he’s improving on antibiotics. And Jisung… um, he was brought into the mental ward in the hospital, because he’s been having… trouble .”

Those last words made Minho’s heart sink incredibly quickly. 

“What?” He blurted out on accident.

The nurse backtracked quickly. “He’s okay, he’s okay, don’t worry about that. The doctors and nurses over there are specialized in people who are similar to him. They’ll be able to help him stay calm and heal.”

“What? Why? He- he doesn’t need that,” Minho said, speaking as if he’d be able to convince these doctors to stop. Any special treatment for Jisung only meant terrible things for him. Minho couldn’t imagine what they’d do to try and fix him. 

“He’s been having hallucinations and, as we really only can assume, has been dissociating for the majority of the time you guys have been here. The doctors over there have made sure he’s been safe. I, uh, switch between that section and this one, that’s how I know,” she supplied, not at all calming Minho’s nerves. “We can’t identify what’s wrong yet, but we’re working on an MRI and PET scan to see if anything physically is damaged.”

“But he’s okay ,” Minho insisted.

“Yes, he is okay. We want to help him as much as possible, which is why we’re doing this for him,” the nurse told him.

She didn’t understand. She didn’t, and Jisung would end up hurt, terribly, for all Minho knew.

“You can’t fix him, it- it doesn’t work like that.” Minho’s voice was becoming more and more panicked the more he talked, and the nurse’s face twisted further and further back into that strange expression. It worried Minho.

“Hey,” the nurse said, stepping closer to where Minho was sitting. “Everything’s going to be okay,” she said in a soft tone. 

Minho just stared intensely at the floor at this, trying not to unleash the upset that boiled beneath the surface of his skin. 

The nurse sighed at his lack of response and said: “You’ll be able to see your Avi once you’re finished and recovered enough from the blood transfusions.” And with that, the nurse turned around and left, leaving Minho to drown in his worries. 

***

(perfect past)

Pain. Pain was the entirety of Felix’s existence. There was nothing more, nothing less. Just pain. Pain.

Vorth had taken Felix today, because Fcelix had been in one of those strange moods where Avarinths have the instinct to impress their partners. Vorth loved to crush this out of him. 

As far as Felix knew, these times were called “blooms,” which had some complex connection to the whole event that he never quite learned about. 

But the Avi’s blooms in this house were some of the absolute worst times for them. Only Minho was sometimes able to stop the urges that came of this, but the rest of them were almost always doomed. 

Sometimes Felix was able to just barely let out his instincts and satisfy them as much as he dared by arranging his sleeping setup nicely or folding his clothes in the most difficult and intricate way he could manage. 

The Vorths only ever caught on to when he’d mess with his bed setup, so he tried his hardest to do as little as possible but still relieve some of that burning pressure in his chest.

But today, Vorth had him. Felix didn’t know how he knew that he was blooming, but V just grabbed him from the Avarinths’ bedroom a day ago and locked him inside his own. 

Vorth almost always was the one who took him during his blooms. Sire normally took Hyunjin, but occasionally did also take Felix. Minho was reserved for Master, which made Felix so scared to think about. Jisung hopped between everyone, although he rarely even had his blooms. 

And Felix, now, was with Vorth. The Vorthen liked them especially much during their blooms because it was essentially an incredible time to get them at their most vulnerable and crush all their hopes and dreams. And it worked well.  

“Felix~,” Vorth suddenly entered the room, saying the Ava’s name with a sing-song-y voice.

Felix shrunk back into the corner he had been tied up in. Vorth had wrapped an insanely thick rope around his ankle and shackled him to a hook on the wall. Felix was powerless to stop him.

“Hii, my dear Ava,” he smiled sinisterly, approaching Felix with confident steps that practically leered at him.

Felix tried to blend into the darkness of the corner.

Once V had reached Felix, he kneeled down and presented him with a small, glossy wooden box.

“I’ve got a gift for you,” he spoke, eyes like black holes sucking Felix’s soul out as he stared into them.

Vorth nudged the box toward Felix, gesturing for him to take it. Felix shakily reached out, not at all willing to deal with the consequences of disobeying. 

As he did so, V inches closer and closer to him, cornering him against the wall.

“Open it, baby,” Vorth whispered in his ear, and Felix felt a rush of chills shoot down his spine. He was too close, Felix felt an urge rise in his chest from the fear that filled his body telling him to fight and get this person away . But the terror in his veins overpowered that urge, forcing him to simply comply.

He opened the box.

Inside, lay a beautiful, expensive looking… red…

Whip. 

It was a whip. 

And accompanying it, was a set of high-end carving tools that Felix knew were made especially for Avarinths to craft. 

Felix stared at it, and felt his breath pick up. He pushed himself deeply into the wall, trying to force some kind of pressure to distract himself from what he was holding. 

“Do you like it? You’re going to carve it, put the gorgeous designs I know are inside of you all right , on , here ,” V spoke, putting emphasis on the last three words, and gesturing to the whip that sat inside the box.

Felix hardly even registered V’s words above the hurricane in his brain. His heart beat so loudly in his head that Felix figured it might burst out of his chest. 

Abruptly, he dropped the box, and curled up tightly into the safety of the corner behind him. His mind was racing so fast and hands shaking so badly he couldn’t pay attention. 

Panicked tears rose up in his throat, and the Ava dug his fingernails into his legs, trying to will himself to not break down. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t get hurt more .

It didn’t help. 

As soon as Felix felt a hand on his knee, he lost all control. 

He flinched terribly and slammed himself back fully into the corner, trying to get away from Vorth. A sob was released from his mouth, and he hurriedly covered his mouth by clamping his hand over it.

Another hand grabbed onto the arm he was using to cover his mouth, and ripped it away, harshly pressing it into the wall. 

Felix sobbed aloud again, terrified by the helplessness that came from this situation. “ Please, ” he cried, begging Vorth to not do what he knew would happen. 

Vorth simply shushed him like he was some baby, before whispering demeaningly, “You are going to stop right now , unless you want me to whip you exactly where we’re sitting.” 

The threat hung in the air like a swarm of bugs above them, and Felix cried and apologized repeatedly, begging for V to retract his statement.

“I’m so- I’m sorry-“ he was interrupted by a sob that tore through him like an earthquake- “ please , I’ll do it, I’ll do it.”

Vorth just stared at him, unimpressed, before reaching to untie the rope around his ankle. 

Felix was struck by an overwhelming sense of relief at this, suddenly so glad that he was with Vorth and not Master. Master hardly ever gave into begging. 

Felix kept on hiccuping and sobbing, yet at less of an extreme, as V finished untying the knot, and yanked Felix to his feet. 

“Pick the box up,” he demanded with a stone-cold voice, and Felix hurried to do so.  

Once V saw he had done so, he pulled Felix over and up onto his bed with an unrelenting crushing force around his wrist. 

Felix went up easily, not complaining as Vorth tied him up again to the bed frame, and tried to stop the torrent of sobs ransacking through him. 

“Good boy,” Vorth muttered as he settled in behind Felix and pulled him against his chest.

Felix felt his breath catch in his throat, and another spike of fear seared through his blood. He stared silently into nothing as V adjusted himself and fully sat down.

V reached around Felix to open the box once more for him, and gently laid out its contents onto Felix’s lap. 

One carving tool, a second, and a third, and leather polishing materials. The last object was placed down, a heavy weight on Felix’s legs. The whip. 

Felix felt his heart pick up faster once more as he stared at it.

The two of them sat in silence for a moment, before V huffed irritably and ordered: “Get on with it.”

But this was wrong in every way. For one, Vorth wasn’t his mate. Hyunjin and sometimes Minho or Jisung had always prior been the target to all of his bloom ministrations, never ever one of the Vorthen. Felix would never willingly make such an intricate piece of art for a Vorth . 

And secondly, he would be doing this just for V to whip him with it when he was done? 

And bloom gifts weren’t something to be taken lightly, either. They came from the heart, not from being forced to or otherwise risking getting horribly beaten. This was a mock to all Avarinth culture, and it made Felix sick to do this.

Why would he participate in something so wrong like this? 

But, as V’s hand slowly and methodically wrapped around Felix’s neck, he was reminded why. 

Felix was not the one in control in this situation. Getting his heart broken over a stupid bloom gift and getting a small whipping was nothing compared to what Vorth would do if he didn’t comply. 

So, with rushed, shaking hands, Felix grabbed the carving tools and the whip that feared him to look at, and began carving as quickly as possible.

He carved straight from his heart. Any other disregard of his intense desires would have made him break apart into a million pieces. 

Jagged lines began filling the wooden handle of the whip, and Felix was quietly crying so hard he could hardly focus or put any thought into it. A twisted, dark figure appeared from where his hand etched, along with several empty branches that soon became of the prior meaningless lines. 

This was one of the most stark differences he had ever seen in one of his bloom gifts. 

Nature, promises of love, and animals and figures of peace would normally be exactly what he’d portray. Life. 

Life here, with these Vorths, was no life. That was all he was inspired by.

He couldn’t think about how Vorth would see it through his own eyes. Maybe he’d just see it as any other Ava bloom gift, but Felix knew that that was only because he was too stupid to rationalize the fact that such gifts might have meaning. Just like every other Vorth. 

No. He shouldn’t think that. Of course Vorth wasn’t stupid! Vorth would kill him if he found out that Felix thought that. 

Felix shivered and continued carving. 

He carved for at least an hour or two, where Vorth just sat behind him, a constant looming presence, watching something that seemed inappropriate on his phone, if Felix could tell anything based on the sounds. The only time Vorth spoke to him during this time was to tell Felix not to get his tears on the leather, because water damages leather or something like that. Felix just nodded to him and continued crying and doing what he was doing.

By the time that he was done, Felix carefully placed every piece back into the box and gathered all the tiny pieces of wood he had carved away into a tiny bag that was also in the box. Here, he simply waited with baited breath until Vorth noticed he was finished. 

He let his mind race on and on as much as it wanted about how bad this situation would be once Vorth realized, and how he should just take the chance he had now and run away, but he ignored them and let himself drone on.

It took a good amount of waiting before V noticed that he was done. The only warning that Felix got was a yawn before V said, “You’re finally done? Great,” and gently reached around Felix to click the box shut, then untied the Ava, before violently shoving him off the bed. 

Felix nearly screamed aloud, only just managing to stop himself, as he tumbled down and landed hard against the cold wood floors. He winced as he had landed on some bone in his ankle, but didn’t have time to think about it before Vorth was on him. 

“Get to the wall,” V ordered, basically growling at Felix through his teeth as he spoke, and kneeling over Felix like a massive statue.

Felix hurriedly crawled backwards, not stopping until he abruptly hit the wall behind him. 

He watched as Vorth stood up and grabbed the box from on the bed, opening it and examining his work. Felix didn’t know if he wanted V to know what he meant by the images or not, but either way he was starting to regret them. He didn’t care anymore that V had asked for a bloom gift and gotten exactly what he deserved for one, Felix should’ve just made it good and kind . Maybe then he wouldn’t be beaten as badly. 

V smiled a sick smile as his eyes traced back and forth over the whip, and Felix assumed that he didn’t understand the meaning. Relief immediately washed over him at this thought, and he let his guard up for a moment to breathe as he watched V. 

“Hmm,” V hummed, looking up at Felix. “Too bad all this talent was wasted on you ,” he spat out, and instantaneously swung the whip back.

This was the only warning that Felix got before the whip came whistling straight towards him. He screamed aloud and instinctively protected his head with his arms as quickly as possible. 

The whip landed as a burning slice through his chest and arms, and he sobbed out at the horrible feeling, dragging his knees up to protect his vulnerable parts. 

The next attack came just as unexpectedly as the first, leaving Felix gasping and gripping, pained, at the spot he was hit. 

He hardly was able to glance a panicked, begging look at V before he struck him again.

Felix lifted his arms above his head as he saw it coming, trying to ward off the attack. 

It didn’t work, at all , and just left Felix with thick incisions in his skin that felt like lava. Felix felt as they quickly blossomed with blood that began oozing down his arms, and cried out as the whip came back again. 

“ Ow ,” he sobbed, clutching his chest to stop all the pain. Felix’s neck snapped up as he heard Vorth winding the whip up again, and he cried out: “ Please , please I’m sorry- it- it hurts .”

To Felix’s horror, his pleading did nothing to deter V this time, which Felix quickly learned when the whip came striking back down onto his shoulder. 

He was shoved down by the force of the whip, looked up at V with terrified eyes, and, seeing the whip swing back again, sobbed out and panicked, crawling away as well as he could. 

The whip crashed down this time on his back, making Felix flinch so hard that he lost his footing on the ground and completely collapsed. “No , please, ” he whimpered, panicking and continuing trying to get away. 

Right after this, he crashed back into the corner that he had been tied in prior, and Felix felt a spark of fear ignite in his chest. He was stuck. He couldn’t get away anymore. 

“Please, please !” He begged, wincing as he put pressure on the lacerations on his body as he sunk deeper into the floor and put his hands up in surrender. His chest heaved with gasping breaths as he stared up at V and cried tears of pure terror and helplessness. 

Felix couldn’t stop his sobbing. “I’m sorry, please,” he cried, hiccups and sobs wracking his body so intensely he felt like he’d pass out from the lack of air. 

When Felix saw a flicker of movement and saw the whip swing again, he screamed bloody murder, and realized that V was whipping him harder and harder . 

“Ow, agh,” he moaned, lost in the overwhelming sensation of pain . “It hurts ,” he sobbed again, hugging himself and trying to shrink into the corner and the floor. 

The next times that Vorth whipped him passed by in a flurry, all hazing together into a blend in his mind that just hurt and kept hurting. It just happened again and again, over and over, and Felix kept getting beaten further and further down into the floor. 

At one point, Felix blearily realized that V had stopped whipping him, and that the pain he was feeling was just from his already existing wounds. Worriedly, he forced himself to look around the room to find Vorth, and he realized that he was on his bed, sleeping. He tried to muffle his sobs when he saw this, and he curled up into a terrified ball and just cried his eyes out. 

Everything hurt so bad. Felix hoped and prayed that Vorth would be satisfied with this and would let him rest and maybe be verbally abused a bit, but that was all. He didn’t think he could take any more after this. 

He blinked weakly down at his ankle, and saw the rope back around it, soaked in his blood. He didn’t know where the blood exactly had come from, but he was too exhausted and hurt to try and find out. 

With a sigh that made a show of all the terrible emotions he was feeling, Felix shut his eyes, and let himself succumb to his exhaustion. 

Chapter Text

Water splashed quietly around the tub as Hyunjin washed himself. It was weirdly quiet, and Hyunjin found himself trying to go as quickly as possible to get out of this weirdness.

He was only supposed to bathe for five or so minutes, and they only got this tub that they all shared. Hyunjin normally didn’t take all that long anyways, but his hair had been getting longer recently, so it took him longer to wash it. This made him nervous, but he wasn’t allowed to cut it.

Hyunjin was only bathing now because he had gotten punished the day before and was “disgusting” now that he had woken up. Sire threw him into the Avarinth room in such a rage about his grossness that Hyunjin ended up twisting his ankle.

It hurt, but not as much as all the bruises all over his skin. Sire beat him up because he talked back. Hyunjin didn’t quite think he actually “talked back,” but he knew his opinion wouldn’t get him anywhere.

But it hurt; it hurt a lot. And he was just exhausted at this point. He realized recently that he just didn’t think that this- any of this- was fair, but he was worried to think like that. The Vorths wouldn’t like it.

And it just made him feel upset to think about. So he tried not to, but with this quiet, he just couldn’t stop. It wasn’t fair. And he couldn’t do anything about it, or he’d be hurt horrendously.

And he hurt so bad. He was aching, and couldn’t sit comfortably, and it was so unbelievably uncomfortable. Hyunjin, for one, didn’t do well under such uncomfort. It felt like such an intense intrusion on himself to feel this way, and for what?

For making an invisible mistake?

What was the point?

…Hyunjin didn’t know.

He sat in silence, staring off into the water, seeing everything and nothing in it.

Everything and nothing.

The water wasn’t too high, because he wasn’t allowed to waste that much, but it definitely mostly covered his legs when he stretched them out.

And it was dirty at this point. Full of dirt and blood, it was just cloudy and weirdly colored.

The tub was pretty small, so he could get away with using a bit of water for a lot.

Looking into the water, he saw visions of people and strange looking figures, reaching out to him, beckoning him.

He fizzled them away with his hand.

Sometimes he thought of what lay beyond the water, in the everything and nothing. He’d heard conflicting stories of it. Minho used to whisper to him about the great universe, while the Vorthen told them of demons.

Hyunjin didn’t know what to believe, so he made up his own mind about it. It was everything and nothing, just like everything else.

Except for him. He’d need to reach that in his own way. Hyunjin glanced back down at the water, and saw the visions again. He was tired.

He wanted to reach it. He didn’t want to exist here anymore.

The water was beautiful. It was everything. And he was nothing. The Vorths drilled that into him daily. Maybe if they combined…

Hyunjin didn’t have much time. He didn’t know how long it took to leave the existing world, but he was so tired.

He slowly and carefully inched down deeper in the tub, scared that someone might hear him if he was too loud. It was too quiet. He was thinking a lot.

The water rose higher and higher, until it reached his chin. Hyunjin stared at it in silent awe, before he took a breath in, then out, and slipped under the surface.

It was quiet. The quiet here seemed impossibly quiet, so Hyunjin just sucked it in and let it float around his mind.

He didn’t think anymore here, it was far too peaceful.

It still hurt, but the longer he waited, the more numb he got. Hyunjin was elated. This must’ve been what he had dreamed of; the heaven the Vorths told him he’d never get to. They were wrong. They must’ve been wrong. If they were wrong about this, what else could they have been wrong about?

Hyunjin couldn’t quite get himself to ponder over that question, but just having been in the presence of it made him calmer, happier.

Hyunjin could’ve smiled in that moment. He could’ve, if it hadn’t been ruined.

It happened all at once, for all Hyunjin knew. Suddenly, an arm was thrust down into his peaceful haven, shattering it immediately, and violently tugging him out of the gentle comfort of the water.

He gasped air in, and instantaneously heaved into the water.

The arm hauled him up and out of the tub by the grip on his arm, and Hyunjin blindly stumbled out, dripping wet and shuddering so hard that he immediately fell to the ground.

Someone screamed into his ear, and Hyunjin, in a horrifying revelation, realized that the voice was one of the Vorths.

His head was yanked to face upward by his hair, and he locked eyes with V. Dread immediately filled his system at this, seeing how angry V looked.

And, staring into his eyes, Hyunjin just froze.

“What the fuck is this, Minho?” Vorth asked, turning around for both him and Hyunjin to see Minho, who looked stunned and wide-eyed.

Hyunjin’s heart sank, and he felt the pit of dread in his stomach grow immensely.

“So, did you lie to me, or were you trying to cover for him?” V dangerously questioned, shoving Hyunjin to the floor and stalking towards Minho. “Hmm? Tell me,” he hissed, and Hyunjin was shocked at how calm Minho seemed. He just seemed startled, accepting, not crying or whatever like Hyunjin would be.

Hyunjin had a small coughing fit, and missed half of what Minho said.

“-or him,” was all Hyunjin heard.

“Right. That’s the final fucking straw for you, bitch. Come,” V spoke, and grabbed Minho’s wrist, leaving and dragging him off so quickly that Minho stumbled and tripped.

Hyunjin gasped aloud when he saw Vorth slap Minho across the face at this, making a terribly loud sound. Hyunjin stayed silent otherwise as he watched V drag Minho out of the Avarinth room, and almost immediately started crying when the door slammed shut.

Oh god. It was his fault that Minho would be getting hurt. A lump grew and grew in his throat so fast that it blocked off his airway and he coughed, heaved, then threw up on the tile floor. Goodness, how he would turn back time to stop his stupid mind from trying to kill himself in this fucking bathtub.

He covered his mouth with his hand and exhaustedly sobbed into it, hating the taste of vomit in his mouth. Disgusting. He was disgusting.

Chapter Text

(imperfect present)

Jisung was silent. And hiding as well as he could without being disrespectful.

He was covered almost completely with a wonderfully thick blanket that soothed his instincts so nicely, with only his head sticking out. And he was fully in the corner of the room, sitting against the corner walls on top of his cot.

But he was shaking horribly. He just couldn’t stop it, even when he tried. The nurses said that it was okay, even though he completely believed otherwise.

These nurses came and went like shoppers, grabbing and checking things wherever they went. It gave Jisung a headache to watch them, so he just quietly hummed to himself to try and calm down.

He was tired, but not enough to sleep. So he just rested, playing back memories and thinking about what the nurses told him. He had a bad breakdown for the last days or so. The nurses said it was going to be okay, and that his Avi were looking after him, even though they couldn’t visit him right now. That made Jisung happy.

He wanted to ask when he would be able to see them, but the words just wouldn’t come out of his mouth. And he was okay with that for now. Talking was exhausting and he was terrible at it.

He really always had been, it was just worse now.

And he was okay with it. Not quite happy, not quite sad, just okay. That was all.

Jisung exhaled softly, feeling the air through his body and feeling his life. He was alive. It was a strange concept, especially with how his life had turned out, but it was anyway. It just was. It is and it was. Always.

“Shh,” a voice whispered in Jisung’s ear, and he ignored it. He was used to it, long used to it by now. Hyunjin would say they meant something, and Jisung couldn’t deny that, but Hyunjin wasn’t the one living with them.

Ambivalence was a safe spot for him.

“His… heart,” the voice cried, and Jisung hummed louder. This always got worse for him after a breakdown. Felix said it was something to do with stress or something, and Jisung trusted him about those things. Felix knew people back in the place he had been before the Vorths bought him, so he was his best source of true information.

And, Jisung was used to it, but he didn’t really want to deal with this right now. It was important for him to hear, so hearing endless rambling about things he couldn’t comprehend in his mindset was not helping.

“Shhh!” The voice hushed him again, and Jisung furrowed his brows.

“Shhhhhh,” he whispered back, drawing it out for emphasis.

Strangely, the voice was silent after that, and Jisung was satisfied.

He nestled deeper in his blanket at this, and hid his nose under it, breathing in the clean scent of it. The nurses told him that some… someone from like a… star… group or something… Jisung didn’t know what they said exactly, but they told him that that group gave him this blanket.

Jisung assumed that they told him that so he could be grateful to them, and he was. This was honestly better than anything he’d gotten in the last two years with the Vorths.

He was very grateful.

They also said something weird to each other that Jisung couldn’t understand about sponsors and homes and placement and specifically: “definitely not facilities for them,” which all made Jisung’s head spin. He was supposed to be listening, but what was the point if he couldn’t understand?

But he was sure that that didn’t matter right now. All that did matter was that he kept himself as safe as possible. That’s what Minho always told him, and he trusted Minho’s wisdom like no other.

Jisung was glad that Minho didn’t have anything negative to say that actually came from his heart about their relationship.

“I’m sorry, Jisung. We can’t be together,” he’d whisper to Jisung, and Jisung would ask in return:

“But you love me?”

And Minho would smile at him and nod. “Always,” he’d say, cupping his hands around Jisung’s ear and whispering in, like sharing a secret.

And that satisfied Jisung. Minho had told him the “why” of that a thousand times, so just hearing that Minho still loved him despite the “why” was fine with him.

Jisung shut his eyes. This thinking really was giving him a headache. If he got too worked up and reactive, he’d probably break down again. And he didn’t want that to happen.

Jisung heard someone walk into the room, and opened his eyes. Some especially official-looking Ava was approaching him, and Jisung stiffened in his spot.

“Hi, Jisung. I'm DOCTOR, and I’m just here to ask you a few questions, okay?” She spoke softly and smoothly, pulling a rolling chair up to the edge of Jisung’s bed.

Jisung nodded and hugged himself under his blanket.

“Alright but first… as I’m sure you’d like to know, none of your vitals or anything have been terrible, we have you hooked up to an IV over there to give you the nutrients you need and… any questions about that area of things?”

The doctor nodded after Jisung shook his head, and continued talking.

“Okay, well, has anyone told you about what’s happened and what will happen?” She asked, to which Jisung shook his head once more.

He’d been unresponsive the majority of the time he’d been here anyways, so he wasn’t sure what she expected.

The nurse smiled softly and said, “That's fine, I can explain to you. I’ve had this talk with the others as well. To summarize, the Vorths you and your other three Avi had been living with were arrested, and there is no doubt that they’ll be locked away for a long time.” Jisung detected a hint of disgust hidden under her voice.

The doctor paused for a moment before continuing. “What that means for you Avi, though, is that you will be either taken in by a household who is able to help you, or you will be put into an Ava rehabilitation facility. Now, Stray Kids, the primary group who arrested your Vorths, has actually offered to take the four of you in, which is very rare in cases like this.”

She took a moment to shuffle through some papers she was holding, then began again. “Unfortunately, if the four of you choose not to go with them, then nobody can guarantee that you four will be able to stay together in the future in facilities or homes. But, remember that this choice is entirely up to you four, and you have until you are discharged to make a decision. Do you understand that?”

Her words felt like mush in Jisung’s brain, but he nodded anyway to please her. He hadn’t even begun trying to comprehend it after absorbing the words, so he supposed he’d have to lock them up for later.

“Okay, good. Other than that, there will be a detective from the police department that will come and interview all of you for your statements as soon as you’re all healthy enough, and then you hopefully won’t have to directly deal with the court yourselves. That’s it.” The doctor organized her papers again, and sat them down on her lap, pen in hand, before looking back up at Jisung.

“So, I just want to ask you some questions to get a basis for your situation. Do not feel pressured to answer if you don’t want to, this is purely voluntary,” she affirmed strongly, trying to emphasize the point for a reason Jisung didn’t quite grasp.

“Can you tell me if you’re hurting anywhere?” She asked first, and Jisung averted his eyes, staring at the blanket covering him.

He did hurt, but he didn’t think about it. And he didn’t want to tell her. Minho said never to tell your weaknesses if not necessary, and this didn’t seem so. She was just an Ava, after all.

But maybe there was a Vorth she had been ordered to do this by? Were they going to hurt Jisung?

Jisung’s heart sped up at this thought, and he hastily nodded to prevent any pain from being directed at him.

The doctor carefully nodded, writing something down on a piece of paper. “Okay, would you mind telling me where, Jisung?” She gently asked, not prodding as hard as Jisung expected.

Tightening his grip around himself, Jisung felt his heart rate increase even more. He really didn’t want to. Really. Felix and Hyunjin had never had much of a problem with this sort of thing, but Jisung badly did. Felix called it self-preservation or something, and Sire said it was a bad thing.

He tried not to think too hard and just shrugged, too nervous to share eye contact with the doctor again.

“Alright, that’s no problem, you don’t have to,” she simply replied, not seeming to care nearly as much as Jisung predicted.

Jisung hid further in his blanket at this, unsure why this doctor was being so unpredictable.

“How have you been feeling in your head recently?” She asked, and when Jisung just stared blankly at her, reiterated. “Can you explain what your mind feels like?”

Jisung glanced away, and stared at the wall for a moment, before his eyes went back to his blanket. “Um,” was all he could push out of his mouth.

His heart squeezed up the longer he didn’t properly respond, and he felt his chest constrict.

I’m sorry, was what he wanted to say, for being so incapable, but it just wouldn’t come out.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. Uh, how about this, let’s have this conversation in a few days with one of your Avi, yeah? Would that be better?”

Jisung’s face bled with relief, and he looked up and nodded somewhat desperately.

The doctor smiled at him, and stood up after a moment. “Alright. Well, I’ll see you in a few hours when I have more data on your test results, and we’ll go from there, okay?”

Again, Jisung indicated the affirmative, and the doctor left after a few moments of messing with things around the room.

Once he was finally alone again, Jisung burrowed himself under the blanket and held himself as tightly as possible. It felt like there was a black hole in his chest sucking up every decent thing inside of him, leaving an aching emptiness of what was once not at all so upset. It hurt, really, and he felt like he may start crying again, so he was just trying to relieve the pressure.

This was all just terribly overwhelming and Jisung really was beginning to be tired now.

That all went really fast, and Jisung was falling away even quicker.

His eyes unfocused, and he eased back further and further into the wall, relaxing until he eventually fell asleep.

Chapter Text

“Not anything like I expected,” Hyunjin muttered to Felix as they sat down at a table in the cafeteria. 

“I know, right?” Felix agreed, sitting down so close to Hyunjin they were touching. 

Felix sighed, and leaned his head to rest slightly on Hyunjin’s. 

“You okay?” Hyunjin asked, turning his head and putting his hand on Felix's arm.

“Mhm,” Felix hummed, putting his hand on top of Hyunjin’s. “Jeongin should be coming soon, right?” He asked after a moment. Felix had hung out with Jeongin a bit the day before after he left Hyunjin in the dust, but neither of them were going to talk about that.

“Yeah, he should,” Hyunjin replied, nodding slightly.

Felix looked down at his food and felt something weird clench in his chest. 

He felt so alone, so lost. Nothing was the same here. Felix couldn’t imagine what would happen once they were discharged from the hospital. 

He knew Hyunjin felt the same. Gently, Felix rearranged his arms so that his were wrapped around one of Hyunjin’s. 

“We should eat,” Hyunjin spoke out, but with the way it almost got stuck in his throat, Felix knew he didn’t want to. 

Felix looked Hyunjin in the eyes, and had a strange thought. Why had they never gotten together like Jisung and Minho? He supposed that Jisung and Minho were a unique instance, being with Minho’s resistance and Jisung’s mental state, but it still didn’t make much sense. It was like there was some unspoken wall between him and Hyunjin that they both acknowledged but never talked about. 

“Yeah,” he breathed out after a moment too long spent looking into Hyunjin’s eyes. 

While they both agreed, neither of them moved.

The silence stretched on before someone approached, and sat down across from them. 

“Hey.”

Felix and Hyunjin looked up in sync, and were met with Jeongin smiling softly at them. 

“Hi,” Felix responded after it seemed like Hyunjin wouldn’t. 

“Um… I should update you on Jisung and Minho…” Jeongin muttered, digging through a bag he brought before pulling out a phone.

Felix could tell that Hyunjin was a bit shocked by this, by how he incredulously looked over at Felix, to which Felix nodded. Felix had seen Jeongin’s phone yesterday, and was equally as surprised. He never asked about it though. He didn’t understand why an Avarinth would have a phone, especially when he knew that Jeongin lived with two Vorths. 

That thought sent a chill down Felix’s spine, but he tried to ignore it and focus on what Jeongin was preparing to say.

“Okay. The doctors told me that-” Jeongin paused to look at something on his phone- “Minho is looking to be able to have visitors, but cannot be up and walking due to his blood transfusions, which I think you guys have heard about..?” He asked, glancing up at the two opposite him.

They both nodded together.

“Good. And Jisung… they did some scans and it does look like there’s some brain damage, but it’s unclear what exactly caused it… um… I’m sorry, you guys don’t need to answer, but do you have any idea about any of that?” Jeongin questioned, seeming a bit nervous to ask.

“Hm…” Felix hummed, thinking he partially told Jeongin earlier, but he really didn’t remember. 

He glanced at Hyunjin, and tried to see what he thought about this. Felix didn’t get any clues from Hyunjin. His eyes just seemed a bit empty. Felix squeezed his arm in comfort, and started speaking. 

“He sees things now,” was what he mumbled out, not wanting to set the thought free into the world. Felix felt Hyunjin nod, and Felix anxiously glanced back up at Jeongin.

Jeongin nodded empathetically, and it seemed like he wanted to say more, but he bit his tongue. Felix appreciated that. 

“Okay, well as soon as the doctors over there can make sure he’s stable, he’ll be able to be transferred back into your section, so that’s good, right?” 

Felix just stared blankly at Jeongin when he said this, one major thought haunting his mind. 

“Are they going to… um… se… sedate him?” Felix eventually asked, the question weighing far too heavily on his tongue, he almost couldn’t breathe if he didn’t get it out. 

“Oh, no, they’re not using any harmful drugs, don’t worry. You’ll see he’ll be fine, okay?” 

Felix exhaled relievedly, and asked clarifyingly: “ No drugs?”

Felix felt Hyunjin tense up slightly when he asked this, and Felix rubbed his arm to try to get Hyunjin to calm down and trust him. 

“Nothing to hurt him, I promise.”

Felix nodded, and finally picked up the fork from the plate sitting in front of him. 

“Oh, yes, you guys need to eat, sorry, I’ve been talking too much,” he lightly spoke, urging them on to eat their food, to which they both did at the encouragement of an outsider. 

They all sat in silence for a long stretch of time. Felix simply focused on eating his food, not registering the taste through the buzz in his brain. 

Felix felt Hyunjin get tenser and tenser as they ate, and he didn’t really know what to do about it. He was tired, and this all was work. He wanted to comfort his Ava, but there was just so much going on. The conflict in his brain was beginning to really stress him out. 

“Hey, um…” Jeongin suddenly spoke, his voice cutting into the silence in a way that made Hyunjin jump. 

“I’m probably not going to be able to come tomorrow. I’ve been trying to visit as much as I can, but… um… things are getting complicated. We need to visit with the city to finalize things and whatever so… yeah.” Jeongin was staring down at the table when Felix looked up at him, so Felix just uncomfortably gazed back down at his plate.

“I’ll try to get as much information about Minho and Jisung as I can, okay? Uh, I have contact with the doctors…” Jeongin sighed, and stood up. “Everything’s going to be okay. I’ll be back soon, tomorrow if I can, but I need to be going now. I’m sorry I couldn’t stay for longer.” 

Jeongin maneuvered himself out of the cafeteria seat, before turning back to Felix and Hyunjin. “You guys are all so strong. I’m so sorry everything-” Jeongin gestured out to nothing, trying to encapsulate everything- “happened to you. You’re all safe now. Everything will be okay,” he repeated, seemingly trying to press that into the two Ava’s brains.

Felix tried not to think at all about the “everything” that Jeongin mentioned. 

Smiling softly at them, Jeongin stepped away, and Felix watched as he left. 

The Ava slumped disappointedly, feeling like something had dug into his heart and was actively emptying it out. He wanted Jeongin to stay longer. Jeongin had been such a support, that Felix felt so upset and selfish based on how he felt that he left. Felix really was just selfish. Jeongin had no obligation to help.

He didn’t. Felix breathed in and out, and sat up straighter, picking up his fork, and trying to eat again. 

A sigh was breathed into his ear, and Felix looked over at Hyunjin. 

“What?” He gently asked, nearly whispering. 

Hyunjin glanced at him and squinted his eyes, before shaking his head and looking at his food. “I just… I don’t believe him,” he admitted, not looking back at Felix.

The two stayed silent for a moment before Felix muttered, “Me neither.” 

Confessing this, Felix felt his emotions begin to build up like rocks smashing down on him. He tried to keep his tears back, but felt his eyes get wet. Shakily exhaling, he said: “But we’re not supposed to think about that, right? It’ll be okay.”

Felix felt Hyunjin adjust himself next to him, turning so he was facing Felix more.

“It’ll be okay,” Felix tearily repeated. He felt arms wrap around him, and Felix turned into them, letting some tears escape from his eyes. 

“It’ll be okay,” Hyunjin affirmed, even though Felix was sure he didn’t quite believe it. 

After a minute or so, Felix pulled back, anxious of the people around them suspecting anything, and secretly interlaced his hand with Hyunjin’s.

Hyunjin looked at him, surprised by this, but didn’t try to stop the contact. 

Felix wiped his eyes, trying to calm his heart and mind.

“Even if whatever’s up above fails us again,” Felix quietly spoke to Hyunjin, keeping eye contact for as long as he could, “I’ll still love you.”

Appearing almost pained by his words, Hyunjin stiffly nodded, exhaling sharply and dragging his free hand up to Felix’s face. “I’ll love you too, Felix. You’re one of the only good things this world has given me.”

Smiling somewhat grimly, Felix felt the situation sink into his chest, and partially fill up the hole that had just been dug into it. “Me too,” he quietly responded.

A comfortable silence stretched over them for a moment, where they both just sat and ate and breathed together. Felix still had a hole in his heart, but it felt better. He could breathe easier now. 

Just as Felix was about to inhale to say something, a strange yet familiar ding sounded in the cafeteria. 

Felix and Hyunjin both looked at each other, before Felix stood up. It was a phone notification, and the ding was far too close to them. 

Glancing up and over the cafeteria table, Felix realized with a shock that Jeongin’s phone was laying right there. He quickly snatched it before anyone around them tried to steal it, and sat back down.

“Jeongin left his phone,” Felix breathed out to Hyunjin, holding it up in partial disbelief. He gently set it down on the table, and was unable to stop himself from looking when it turned on automatically. 

A message had popped up on the screen. Hyunjin suddenly gasped and hurriedly grabbed the phone from where it sat.

“What?” Felix immediately asked, his nerves spiked from this weird situation. 

“Oh my god… ” Hyunjin mumbled, his face immediately twisting into something so wrong that Felix almost freaked out. Hyunjin turned the phone towards Felix, and Felix finally read the horrible words on the screen.

URGENT: Patient Jisung’s condition has worsened. Contact the Mental Unit immediately .

***

It had been two days. Minho was exhausted . It seemed that the people at this hospital hated him. Or fate as a whole did. 

He’d been told that Jisung had gotten worse. That was the only way he could think of saying it. Minho quite honestly felt sick. Just thinking about it and Jisung’s state made him feel so horrible, like he could have prevented all of this. 

They told him that Jisung had been put into a “medically induced coma,” which essentially meant they drugged him even further out of his mind and now he was completely at this hospital’s mercy. 

They moved him back to the normal care unit for Avarinths, but Minho still couldn’t visit him, even though he had apparently “basically” recovered from those blood transfusions. 

So Minho was bitter, and assuming that at this point he may just not ever see Jisung again, which pained him deeply to think about. 

He also really hoped that the reason that he’d been cut off from the world was actually because of his transfusions and not because of some crazy terrible truth that was just hiding right around the corner. 

So that was his current situation. And Minho was quickly running out of patience, which was such a stupid thing to say when he knew that he had no power here. While that information only really made things worse, he knew he needed to accept it and find his place. 

Right now, his place was to sit and look pretty for this hospital. They could ignore everything that was really wrong and pretend that they were helping him all they wanted, soon he’d supposedly be out of here anyways; either back to the Vorths or to whatever strange future the doctors kept mentioning.

Minho sighed mindlessly and sat up in his bed. He was used to needing to wait like this, but it just felt so useless. The inevitable ending of this situation loomed far too heavily in the near distance, so Minho didn't quite get how the doctors were all just ignoring it entirely. 

And, he really wondered how the Vorths were managing. They’d never been more than a day without hurting one of them, so Minho was fighting the idea that maybe he was just being singled out and his three Avi were being abused behind his back. 

That thought really made his heart ache. He was always there to help them after the Vorths hurt them, so them suddenly being all on their own made Minho really nervous. 

Minho hoped that the Vorths hadn’t gotten that smart. They were more experts in physical anguish, not so much mental anguish, though the two did tend to go hand in hand. 

And Minho was pretty sure that Vorths didn’t get as much satisfaction off of mental pain than physically inflicting it. 

Visions of his poor Avi in states of pain so bad they could hardly move flashed in front of his eyes, and Minho had to shut his eyes tightly to fizz them away.

They didn’t deserve any of this, he was sure of that fact. Minho was honestly disgusted just thinking about it. Nobody deserved that. 

And now he was just sitting here, unable to do anything. He prayed that his Avi would be okay.

“ Minho…” Jisung’s broken voice filled Minho’s ears and mind, dragging him back to one of those terrible days. Jisung shakily exhaled and sobbed, “ It hurts,” he cried to him. 

“ Shh, honey, I’ve got you…” Minho had whispered, hugging Jisung close and dragging his head to rest against Minho’s chest. 

Minho could throw up just thinking about that. He really almost felt lightheaded. That could’ve been due to the whole blood loss and regaining thing, though. Minho wasn’t a doctor, he didn’t know. 

Also a strange thing: he dreamed last night. Minho hadn’t dreamed in many, many years. And after doing it again, he decided he hated dreaming. 

He dreamed a nightmare, that he was back with the Vorths and they were screaming and flinging things at him and his Avi. For some reason, the objects flew right through him and always landed a hit on one of his Avi, and they were all crying for his help, but it seemed like they didn’t even know he was there. 

“I figured you would have learned your lesson now, hmm?” Sire angrily said to them, sticking his finger in Minho’s face and threateningly holding some sharp object above him. 

Minho found he couldn’t speak, or move. He was just stuck in place with the chaos around him, fully processing all of it but unable to do anything . 

That was one thing that scared him. Not being able to help his Avi at all like that. 

Minho had been so relieved when he woke that it almost overwhelmed his concern about the future. 

Sitting up fully, Minho locked his arms around his knees and pulled them up to his chest, feeling and breathing through the fire that sprouted through his limbs at the movement. 

He didn’t even really remember what the Vorths had done to him a few days ago, but from what he saw he assumed it was just more of the usual. Every once in a while they got more unique with their ideas, doing something like electrocution with shock collars, which they used to do a lot with Minho, so much so that Minho had a good few weird lightning-shaped scars that were burned into his flesh. Minho could still remember how it smelled. Disgusting. 

Minho pushed that thought back to the back of his mind, and refocused on the present, squinting at the wall as a small show of his emotion. He was stressed out right now. His chest felt so tight he may burst at any further pressure. 

It wasn’t a great state to be in, and Minho knew he needed to calm down, but he just couldn’t. This world just really hated him. He legitimately could not continue on if they really took Jisung away from him. 

“ Minho ,” Jisung’s voice rang out again, and Minho squeezed his eyes shut, trying to get him out of his head. He really needed to not think about Jisung. Every thought brought others that just got worse and worse.

“ Hyung…”  

Minho threw his hands up to cover his ears, sick of the memory. The first time Jisung called him “hyung” in front of the Vorths was a terrible day. Minho genuinely wanted to rip his brain out for just letting the memory back into his mind like that. 

He didn’t deserve respect. “Hyung” was a title of respect. The Vorths beat that idea into them so many times Minho couldn’t even remember all of them. 

So Jisung and the other Avi never called him anything other than his name after all that. That was one thing that Minho let himself secretly be upset about, but he’d never say why, even to himself. 

“Minho,” Jisung repeated in his head, and Minho sighed and sat back against the pillows on the bed he was on. 

He rubbed his eyes to see clearer, and stared down at his legs. The hospital had put him in shorts, so he could see… all the bandages on his legs. And there were quite a few. 

He was a bit… nerve-filled about how all those doctors and whatever saw all of his injuries and each knew exactly how bad his injuries were, because normally not even his Avi knew that. It felt a bit like an invasion of his privacy, but he knew that it was not nearly as big of a deal as he felt it was.

Acceptance was key. 

He’d be over it by the time he was brought back to the Vorths anyways. It really wasn’t smart to dwell on such trivial things like that when the safety of his Avi mattered. 

And while he supposed it was a way to stop thinking about it, he definitely should prioritize worrying about his Avi than about his stupid complaints. 

“Minho!” 

A groan nearly erupted from Minho’s lips, just managing to be pushed down by the uncomfort of his situation. 

Jisung kept shouting his name in his head like a mantra, and Minho couldn’t get it away. 

“My Av… Ava…” 

Maybe being haunted by Jisung’s voice was better than not getting any sense of him at all. A memory was better than nothing. 

Minho figured that’d be a good way to think about it, so he settled on that.

…

Minho’s thoughts were silent for a while after that. There wasn’t much to do here besides think, and Minho didn’t have an infinite amount of things to think about. Especially after so many days of doing this. 

But he was used to doing this. He didn’t get much engagement in his life other than pain, anyways. He did suppose that that was entertaining enough, though, so what did it matter?

He was hurt now, so maybe he could just focus on that. Get lost in it for a bit. 

Abruptly, Minho was struck with a horrible feeling in his chest. He’d just managed to forget about what would happen in his future- why did he need to remember it now?

He was going to be so fucked. He shivered thinking about it, and felt his heart beat into his throat. 

Why did he need to live like this? What had he done in some past life for the universe to grant him all of this ?

Minho breathed in and out shakily, and honestly wished that he never had been taken.

Chapter Text

“Minho!” Felix breathed out, rushing into the room. Hyunjin followed closely behind, nervously peeking from behind the door before entering. 

Hyunjin walked in, seeing Felix already by Minho’s side, and Minho looking like he may cry. 

Minho exhaled heavily, his eyes traveling over to Hyunjin, who was beginning to walk over. 

“Oh you’re okay, I’m so glad you’re okay!” Felix hurriedly spoke, grabbing Minho’s hand and crouching down. “You’re okay…” he muttered, staring into Minho’s eyes with almost bewilderment, seeming like he couldn’t process it. 

Minho silently swallowed and nodded, gazing up at Hyunjin once he reached his cot. 

“Hi, Minho,” Hyunjin simply said, unsure about what to exactly do. Seeing Minho again like this was strange.

“Are you guys… okay?” Minho asked after a moment, his eyes having traveled over every inch of them. 

“Yeah- what- why are you worrying about us ? You like- almost- almost died , Minho!” Felix shouted, getting louder and more emotional with each word. 

Minho’s eyes widened, and he tugged Felix closer by the hand that was in Felix’s. “Hey, Felix… I’m okay now, okay? I always am, right?”

Felix nodded, seemingly teary, and sucked in a breath.

“I haven’t heard anything about you guys- I- are you really… okay?” Minho asked, voice getting serious, and Hyunjin knew that this meant Minho wasn’t going to let them lie to him.

“Yes, Minho. I promise,” Hyunjin sincerely spoke, stepping closer to Minho’s bed, where the older was still sitting. 

“And Jisung..?” Minho hesitantly brought up, needing to know but not wanting to. 

Hyunjin and Felix shared a glance, and Hyunjin steeled himself in place. Minho seemed to brace himself for bad news. 

“Um… he’s okay. We actually were going to ask you to come visit him with us. Today’s the first day that we can visit either of you.”

Minho looked up at Hyunjin at his suggestion, and seemed to think. 

“ I can visit him?” He asked, clarifying, to which the other two Avi nodded. 

“Well, of course , I will then, yes- I mean- yeah, yes,” Minho spoke, seeming a bit strangely desperate. 

“Okay. The doctors did say that you needed to be careful about walking though. Be slow and stop if you feel lightheaded and all that stuff,” Felix provided, moving out of the way for Minho to step out from his cot. 

“I, uh, haven’t walked for a few days. Sorry if I’m weak,” Minho muttered, scooting himself to the edge of the bed and then slowly sliding off until his feet hit the ground. 

Felix and Hyunjin both tried to spot Minho as he stood up straight, and while he was slightly wobbly, he managed alright on his own, so the two let up. 

“You guys know where Jisung is?” Minho asked, and Hyunjin murmured a quiet yeah in response, before Felix gently started to lead Minho to the door by his grip on his hand. 

“Oh,” Felix uttered as they left the room and entered the hallway. “Hyunjin, isn’t Jeongin coming today? He didn’t yesterday. I still have his phone.”

“What?” Minho immediately cut in. “You have who’s phone?” 

“Um… Jeongin’s? He’s the Ava that got I think you and Jisung out of the house..? Felix responded, phrasing it as a question to see if Minho remembered. 

Minho stayed silent for a moment as they slowly walked, all of them keeping pace for Minho, trying to remember. “Why do you have his phone?” 

“He forgot it when he visited two days ago,” Hyunjin replied this time. 

Minho stared unnerved-ly at Felix, who shrunk a bit into himself. 

“Minho, I think it’ll be alright. Jeongin’s nice, right Felix?” Hyunjin continued, sensing the nervous energy coming from Minho. 

“Yeah… I don’t think he’d get upset about this…” Felix muttered, eyes seeming a bit lost, staring into nothing as they made their way down the hallway. 

After a lengthy stretch of silence, Felix spoke up again, cutting through the quiet. 

“Oh. This is Jisung’s room,” he said, stopping abruptly, then approaching the door. 

After taking some time to collect himself, Felix glanced back at the other two Avi, who were staring a bit confused, before turning back and opening the door. 

Inside, when Hyunjin peeked over Felix’s shoulder, he saw Jisung, hooked up to an immense amount of machines, and a very noticeable IV. 

Felix slowly began to walk inside the room, the others following behind him. They soon made a circle around Jisung, who was watching with heavy eyes.

“Urgh,” Jisung sounded, trying to speak but just grunting. 

He looked worried, which concerned the other three Avi. 

“Lll…” he sputtered out, reaching for Minho. Jisung coughed, seemingly clearing his throat, as his eyes traveled to each of the new people in the room. 

“Jisung…” Felix quietly spoke out, stepping closer to Jisung’s bed. 

“Uh, Minho, I don’t know if anyone told you but Jisung’s supposed to be a bit drowsy from the medication they gave him,” Hyunjin muttered to Minho, leaning closer to say it quiet enough for Jisung not to hear. 

“Yuh- You,” Jisung eventually managed to say, his arm still vaguely reaching for Minho. 

Jisung’s eyes fluttered shut for a moment, before opening again. 

“Fak- you- ‘rr fa- fake,” Jisung quietly murmured, grabbing for the thick blanket that was draped over him. 

He pulled it over his head, and the three Avi stood there, staring and speechless. 

A good few seconds passed before anybody moved, Felix being the one to do so. The Ava reached for the blanket and lightly tugged it off of Jisung. 

Jisung grumbled and sat up a bit, rubbing his eyes. 

Opening his eyes, Jisung stared at the three Avi around him, before frowning, eyebrows furrowing. 

“Jisung..?” Hyunjin uttered, trying to get his attention, or just get him to say something coherent. 

Felix reached out and carefully placed his hand on top of Jisung’s closest hand to him, and Jisung flinched slightly at the contact.

Gazing up, confused, Jisung slowly interweaved his fingers with Felix’s and seemed surprised. 

“Hmm..?” He hummed, feeling and massaging around Felix’s hand with his fingers. 

“It's me, Jisung,” Felix spoke after a second, and Jisung nodded in response. 

“ Yes ,” he whispered. Jisung relaxed back into the bed, staring down at the hand he was holding. 

He slowly breathed for a moment, before regaining vigor and lifting his other arm again. 

Jisung abruptly gasped aloud after looking up, blurting out, “Hyunjin… Minho,” without seeming to be able to stop himself. 

Hyunjin couldn’t tell if he only just realized they were there, but either way Hyunjin was glad that Jisung acknowledged them. 

Audibly inhaling, Jisung murmured, “Min… ho ,” and reached his arm out further.

Minho took the hint and grabbed his hand, moving closer and kneeling next to the bed. 

“Hi, love,” Minho whispered, brushing the hair out of Jisung’s face with his free hand. 

“Ava,” Jisung whispered in response, the word barely coming out as more than a breath. 

Minho sighed and put his head down. Hyunjin knew he was trying to just stay calm. 

“M- Minho,” Jisung muttered, and Minho glanced back up. “Love… love you…” 

For a few moments, nobody spoke, Hyunjin and Felix a bit stunned by the proclamation. 

Exhaling slowly after a moment, Minho quietly responded, “I love you too, Jagi.”

Hyunjin watched silently as Jisung softly smiled and Minho rubbed his hand, the latter never looking away from the former. 

Hyunjin glanced over at Felix, who he found was already staring at him. 

Felix pointed at the other two Avi, and tilted his head.

Hyunjin just shrugged. 

Both he and Felix knew that they had some strange, forbidden relationship, but he didn’t know that they said those types of things to each other. 

And they both trusted Minho, either way. Minho would be careful with such a secret. 

Hyunjin turned his attention back to Minho and Jisung, not noticing how Felix was inching closer to him. 

“Hey, Jisung..?” Minho spoke in a hushed voice. 

The Ava’s eyes flitted over to Minho, and he hummed in his throat.

“Are you feeling okay?” 

Jisung inhaled, shutting his eyes and tensing then untensing himself. “Mhm,” he uttered, laying stock-still.

“Yeah? That’s good,” Minho replied, seeming unsatisfied but not willing to push any more. 

Another quiet moment passed, and Hyunjin nervously looked around the room. He felt horrible seeing Jisung like this, and he was sure that Felix and Minho felt the same. It was just like before. 

Staring down at the floor, Hyunjin sighed and embraced the silence in the room. 

Back maybe two years or so ago, Vorth brought Jisung home. Minho told Hyunjin and Felix that Vorth had previously mentioned to him that he wanted another Ava, and it seemed then that it had become a reality. 

But… it wasn’t. At least not really . 

Within the first days that Jisung was at their home, the Vorths began giving him drugs. 

It was majorly alcohol, at least as far as Hyunjin knew, but he also knew that the Vorths had forced him to take other drugs like cocaine, or meth. 

Jisung had more overdoses than Hyunjin could even remember, and he was only ever saved by being taken away to some house outside of town, where he always ended up okay , but way more physically hurt than before. 

None of the Avi knew what happened on those “outings” because of how exhausted and quiet Jisung was after them. Normally he’d just sleep for a day or two and by then all of them had resigned to not talk about it. 

Hyunjin hated to think about it, but he also knew that actually living it had to be so much worse. While Hyunjin was pretty sure that all of them tried to ignore that sort of thing, Hyunjin didn’t know how possible that was when it affected every aspect of your life. 

That thought always made his chest hurt a bit. While they all had things they kept secret that affected them a lot- like Minho’s time before Hyunjin first came along, Felix’s life at the private Ava selling agency, and Hyunjin’s bloom experiences with the Vorths- Jisung’s all seemed so much more present and active in his life. 

He was, a large amount of the time, with the Vorths, or so high on drugs he couldn’t even function. And Hyunjin knew that Jisung had terrible hallucinations and delusions those times. But recently, as of around a year ago, the Vorths had been urged heavily by their friends to stop drugging Jisung entirely because he’d end up dead soon, and dealing with a dead Ava was a big responsibility that the Vorths just didn’t think it was worth to take over something like that. 

So, surprisingly, the Vorths did collectively decide to stop. And Jisung’s withdrawal period was arguably even worse than when he was on the drugs. 

It made Hyunjin sick to think about it. So much so that-

Hyunjin flinched as an arm wrapped around his own, and his eyes immediately landed on Felix, who had somehow managed to make his way all the way over to Hyunjin without him noticing. 

Felix didn’t say anything, he simply sighed and rested his head on Hyunjin’s shoulder, gazing off at Jisung. 

Staying silent, Hyunjin followed his gaze, seeing Jisung’s possibly sleeping form, with Minho still holding his hand, kneeling by the bed, staring into nothing. 

Seeing this, Hyunjin was reminded again of how much this was reminiscent of Jisung’s drugged out state. It really struck a bad cord inside of him, and he couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

Felix slowly maneuvered his arm until his hand was in Hyunjin’s, and he gently squeezed the other Ava’s hand. 

Hyunjin glanced over at him, a bit puzzled, but Felix just weakly smiled at him and leaned against him. 

Gazing back to Jisung, Hyunjin relived the memories. Jisung on the edge of consciousness, and Minho by his side silently crying. None of them were sure if Jisung would die any of those days or not. 

Minho would shake and shudder on such days, his knees hardly able to hold himself up with the anxiety that weighed so heavily on his back. 

To be frank, Hyunjin wasn’t sure what really went through Minho’s mind those times. He was sure it was torture trying to get through that, and never wanted to imagine how it felt. 

Minho and Jisung had a true, raw connection. Like Minho would probably say, their fates were intertwined by the hands of the universe, and Hyunjin really believed that, or some variant of it. 

Minho only really cried over the Avi, and always so quietly that you could only tell he was crying by seeing his face. He loved them, Hyunjin was sure of that. 

And seeing someone who cared so much about them be so lost like this, right now, was so disheartening.

And Hyunjin didn’t know what to do. 

“Hyunjin,” Felix gently whispered into Hyunjin’s ear.

The said Ava turned his head, looking straight into Felix’s eyes. 

“It’s all good, let’s leave them be… how about we sit down, yeah?” The younger Ava didn’t wait for a response, just turning and leading Hyunjin to a bench on the side of the room. 

When they sat down, Felix pulled Hyunjin closer, and he went with it, letting Felix loosely side-hug him. Felix huffed a breath out, and Hyunjin moved his arm to rest around Felix’s waist. 

Smiling bittersweetly at this action, Felix’s eyes drifted to the floor, before his face turned out of Hyunjin’s view. 

”Are you… okay?” Hyunjin asked after a moment, noticing Felix’s upset expression. 

”Yeah,” Felix sighed, shutting his eyes for a moment before reopening them. ”Jisung’s just so…” the Ava trailed off, not speaking for a few seconds. 

”I’m remembering how he used to be,” Felix eventually quietly provided. 

Gazing understandingly, Jisung nodded. ”Me too,” he mumbled. ”I hope Minho’s handling this okay. He hasn’t been around us in a while.” 

Humming bitter agreement, Felix glanced back up at the two on the opposite side of the room. 

The expression on Minho’s face was of total dejection. Hyunjin’s heart panged at the sight, and he uncomfortably resituated himself on the bench.  

”It’ll be okay,” Hyunjin heard Felix whisper to himself. 

Hyunjin squeezed Felix’s waist, rubbing it with his thumb. 

They sat like that for a while, silently watching everything and nothing. Minho’s face eventually cooled into a dull sadness, and Jisung soon fell asleep. 

But Minho never left Jisung’s side for the time they were in there. He just sat, watched, and waited. 

None of them left the room for a long time after that. 

Chapter Text

“Wha… t?” 

“We're gonna go out to the cafeteria for food, do you want to come?” Felix repeated simply, seeing Jisung’s confusion. 

“I-“ Jisung coughed to clear his throat. “I can?” 

To this, Hyunjin nodded. “The doctors told us you’re free to go wherever.”

While this conversation was happening, Minho was silently watching. Jisung was still pretty out of it due to whatever medication they gave him, but was cleared to go out of his room for some reason. Minho didn’t understand that. 

This hospital didn’t make sense. It was just stupid, and he was upset. His Ava was drugged into nonsense again because of whatever this hospital determined was right. 

They were quite literally under complete control of this hospital. And a hospital has way more resources than the Vorths ever would.

Minho was seriously bitter. He just wanted this to end. He wished he could go back to how things used to be. 

But here he was, and he’d do anything to make sure his dear Avi were happy and safe. So he was trying to be calm, and that just resulted in him being quiet. He didn’t know what the other Avi were talking about anyways, he was just going along with it because of course he would. 

But essentially he was trying to not go crazy and restrictive because of everything that was going on. It all made alarm bells ring and ring in his head, but Hyunjin and Felix seemed pretty okay, and since they’d been out the longest, Minho knew he didn’t have much standing. 

He trusted Hyunjin and Felix, anyway. If they thought there was danger, they would not be taking initiative to bring them all to get food. 

But, that did not leave out the possibility of there being danger there anyways. 

Either way, Minho wouldn’t ever blame Hyunjin and Felix for it.

And also either way, they’d suffer the consequences for it. 

That was all there was to it. And Minho couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

Looking up, Minho locked eyes with Jisung, who smiled loopily at him. 

“Minho,” the younger Ava spoke aloud, extending his arm once more. 

“Mhm, Minho’s coming, Jisung,” Felix gently spoke, rubbing Jisung’s arm with his hand. 

“Oh- kay,” Jisung affirmed, nodding and sitting up straighter. “Minho,” he repeated, smiling so sweetly it made Minho’s heart ache. 

Jisung didn’t deserve any of this. He was always so kind, even when he first came and wasn’t being drugged. None of his Avi deserved this. 

Stepping forward, Minho took Jisung’s hand, and helped him move to slide off the bed, gently leading him with his free hand. 

When Jisung tried to stand, he leaned heavily on Minho, who supported him carefully, letting him get used to standing. 

Their hands were warm against each other, and Minho was reminded that they were alive . Alive and breathing, and this was real. The thought seemed almost implausible. But it was true.

Minho watched as Jisung breathed in and out, turning to Felix for direction, before Felix walked in front of them, bringing Hyunjin with him out the door. 

Once Felix and Hyunjin were obscured by the walls of the door, Jisung glanced over at Minho.

Minho was already staring at Jisung, and saw as the younger’s eyes flickered up and down on his face. 

They were silent as Jisung’s hand traveled up to cup Minho’s face with a gentle grasp. 

Jisung stared deep into his eyes, and Minho did the same. 

The moment seemed to last forever. Like surface tension, only one small movement would fracture the stillness, and yet they hadn’t moved. 

In an instant, Jisung pulled Minho’s face closer by his hand, and pressed a soft kiss onto his lips.

Minho felt as if his head had been stuck under water this entire time, and he only just reached the surface, after nearly drowning. It was refreshing . 

As Jisung pulled away, Minho was nearly breathless. He dragged his arm, limp from the sensation, to rest with his hand on Jisung’s shoulder. 

A breath was sucked into his chest with a sudden realization, something so profound he could hardly stomach it. 

“I love you,” Minho suddenly confessed, something he wasn’t able to say very often. 

Why? Because of the Vorths, he told himself. But why should that stop him? 

Jisung smiled. It was a genuine smile, and it made Minho’s chest constrict and knot itself all up. 

He exhaled shakily, and lifted the hand that held Jisung’s, pressing it to his lips in a gentle kiss. 

A simple sign of his devotion. 

He truly loved Jisung, and could hardly withstand the urge to hug him and kiss him and just feel him, to know and fully confirm that he was alive, and with him. 

“Really, Jisung. I love you so much,” he continued, fully trying to express himself, but not feeling satisfied. It wasn’t enough. Minho didn’t know how to show his feelings, and he had no idea how much longer he had with Jisung.

“I love you… you too, Minho,” Jisung whispered, and he pulled away fully, still holding his grip on Minho’s hand.

“Okay… we… ‘ll go now, yes?” Jisung muttered, and Minho nodded silently, swallowing thickly, his eyes lingering for a bit too long on Jisung’s face. 

Jisung slowly stepped forward, and Minho guided him along, leading him towards the door. 

Reaching it, Minho caught a glimpse of Hyunjin and Felix whispering to each other, though they quickly stopped once they saw Jisung and Minho. 

“Hey,” Felix spoke, meeting Minho’s eyes. “We can go as slow as we need to for both of you, don’t rush yourselves.” Felix nodded meaningfully at Minho, who didn’t say anything in response.

Now that he was out of that earlier moment, the comfort of being alone in the presence of his dear Jisung, he was lost again. 

The only way he could compromise with himself to keep going was to decide to shut down his spacial awareness and just focus on walking. 

He’d heard someone say “one foot in front of the other,” or something like that, and that’s what he was doing. Whilst making sure Jisung was okay, of course. He couldn’t give up on that. 

Jisung’s hand was firm in his grip, and Minho squeezed it once in a while, a signal he used to do with Jisung. 

When Jisung was still under the control of all those drugs, Minho had come up with a simple system to assure himself and Jisung that Jisung was still alive and responsive. All it was was Minho would set his hand in Jisung’s, and squeeze gently, and Jisung would squeeze back once, twice, or three times in response, meaning horrible, okay, and good, respectively.

If Jisung was awake and didn’t reciprocate the squeeze, then it meant something bad no matter the reason. 

Minho could usually infer how Jisung was, but it soothed him to hear directly from Jisung. 

Here, Jisung squeezed back twice every time, which made Minho feel a bit better. 

And Jisung never lied; or at least not to Minho. He had no reason to, and Minho never pushed too far when Jisung didn’t want to tell him something, so he was comforted by the response. 

After some period of time, having traversed through many halls, they reached the opening to the cafeteria. 

While Hyunjin and Felix immediately entered, Jisung and Minho slowed in unison. 

Minho glanced over at Jisung, who looked apprehensive. 

“Mm…” Jisung hummed, trying to express his uncertainty. 

Tilting his head in the direction of the cafeteria, Minho silently asked Jisung a question. 

Not responding for a moment, Jisung eventually shrugged, and tugged on Minho’s hand, stepping forward. 

Jisung was the one who led them both into the cafeteria, where a number of other Avi were sitting. Making their way past, they caught up to Felix and Hyunjin, who had stopped, noticing their absence.

The four of them silently continued on, to some sort of counter table with a place to insert food on the other side. 

After a whisper from Felix, Hyunjin went ahead and grabbed a tray from the counter, moving on to the food on the counter. Felix stayed behind, grabbing a tray that he stated was “for you two,” but Minho wasn’t quite paying attention. 

Once they reached the area where Hyunjin was, Felix asked, “What do you guys want? You can choose whatever.” 

Jisung pressed himself closer to Minho, who looked up at Felix and stuttered out: “Uh- um…”

The three of them stayed silent for a good few seconds while Minho failed to answer, before Felix finally relented and suggested: “I can choose for you guys..?” 

Sighing discontentedly, Minho nodded. 

He was relieved that Felix had proposed that idea, but couldn’t get over the fact that he couldn’t answer such a simple question for both his and , more importantly, Jisung’s benefit. 

He was out of his depth, extremely so, but that was no excuse. 

Somewhat exasperated, Minho glanced over at Jisung, who only smiled when he returned the gaze, not seeming upset with him at all. 

At this, Minho just gave it all up. He’d need to do better next time, but Jisung didn’t care, and the Vorths hadn’t been here, so who gave a shit about it? He had larger things to worry about. That was all.

Finally over his stupid dilemmas, Minho focused back on reality, where Felix had apparently finished with the tray he was holding, and was leading them over to a booth table, where Hyunjin was already sitting. 

Minho didn’t realize he was stuck in his thoughts for so long. 

“Hi,” Hyunjin greeted them as they all sat down, Jisung and Minho on one side, with Minho on the outside, and Hyunjin and Felix on the other side. 

Felix had placed the tray down in front of Minho and Jisung, who didn’t touch it until Hyunjin began eating with Felix. 

Reaching for his fork, Minho gestured to Jisung to do the same. 

As they ate, Hyunjin mumbled something under his breath, which Felix glanced over at him for, and whispered something in response. 

Minho watched this in silence, not bothering to intervene. 

Hyunjin’s eyes flitted over to Minho, before quickly turning away, which made Minho a bit suspicious. 

Still though, he didn’t try to ask what they were talking about, just simply eating and making sure Jisung was too. 

“Um…” Hyunjin eventually spoke out, to which Minho focused his eyes back on the other Avi again.

“So, Jisung, darling, do you remember the Ava that helped you out of the house?” Hyunjin asked, leaning in slightly towards Jisung, and notably using much sweeter words than usual. Minho assumed that it was because of Jisung’s worsened state, because they all normally did that then. 

Turning his head to the side, Minho watched as Jisung thought for a moment then nodded. 

“Okay, that’s good,” Hyunjin nodded. “He’s been visiting the hospital a lot, and last time he visited, he told us that… um,” Hyunjin trailed off, looking over at Felix for help. 

“Minho, you should hear this too,” Felix spoke, and Minho swallowed, nodding.

With this, Hyunjin finished his sentence off. “He told us that uh… interrogations… ” 

“Interviews, essentially,” Felix provided.

Hyunjin nodded. “Um, a detective, supposedly, is going to ‘interview’ us,” he finished, using air quotes around “interview.” 

When Minho and Jisung just stared blankly at them, Hyunjin began looking a bit uncomfortable. 

“Jeongin told me that this detective is… working on a case… uh, our case..? And… wants to know about the Vorths?” Hyunjin stated it in a question, like he didn’t even know what he was talking about. 

“That’s bullshit,” Minho quietly muttered after a moment.

Felix sighed. “I know, Minho, but as far as we know, Jeongin never said we had a choice.” 

Eyes averting to the table, Minho clenched his fists to release some of the pressure in his chest. 

A moment later, Minho felt a hand envelop his underneath the table. Surprised, Minho turned to look at Jisung, who was squinting at him. 

Jisung’s hand fought its way around Minho’s until it opened Minho’s fingers and interlocked inside them. Blinking at Jisung, Minho didn't move as Jisung inched himself closer. 

Once close enough Jisung leaned in to whisper in Minho’s ear. “You- you’re… I had a…dream…” he whispered, pausing for a moment to collect his thoughts. 

Jisung didn’t really have dreams often, even though he slept so much, but they were all strangely… real-life-adjacent.

Minho didn’t know why that was, but hearing about Jisung’s dreams gave him some amount of insight. 

“It…” Jisung huffed, glancing down to continue thinking. 

“We w- we were… outside ,” he mumbled into Minho’s ear. “And- together. Y- …ou held my hand…” 

Jisung paused for a moment, where Minho just waited for him. “The… the um… we were un- under the bridge , remember?” 

Jisung pulled back to see Minho’s reaction, and Minho nodded at him. Jisung used to hide in a hidden spot under the bridge that led from Vrysholm to some other county area, and he often talked about it to Minho. It was his hidden reprieve, and Jisung loved that place. 

Jisung nodded in response. “Yes,” Jisung continued. “That was… lo- long ago. Can’t- really… rec- remem- ber it.” 

Minho knew that. Jisung didn’t quite recall much about it anymore because of the drugs and how young he was when he was able to hide there. 

“ But , it was all… all… it was- was hardly there. ‘T felt like a… sheet of ice , you know..?” Jisung breathed in, then out, and returned to talking. 

“Like ‘f I stopped , it’d… br- break. Um… but you . You were- I was… uh, hyper… aware of you, yes?”

Minho rubbed his thumb over Jisung’s hand, noticing how his words were starting to fail a bit. 

“I was so… happy i- in the- my dream. You did… looked, too. B- but, alll-”

Jisung’s mouth got stuck on the “L” sound for a moment, so he sputtered and reset himself. 

“Al- so, you looked , uh, healthy..? ‘T was wei- weird ‘cuz ‘ve never seen- seen you like… that. Sun-ish. You… glow…ed.” 

After this, Jisung slowly pulled away, and Minho turned to look at him. 

“Yes?” Jisung asked, seemingly if Minho understood and fully got it.

Minho nodded. “Thank you, jagi,” Minho quietly spoke, giving Jisung’s hand a gentle, long squeeze. 

Glancing back over at Felix and Hyunjin, he found them eating and doing their own thing, hardly paying attention. 

Minho looked back at Jisung, and scooted himself closer, not being able to help himself. 

When he gazed back up, he saw Felix looking at him. 

“Oh, Minho,” Felix suddenly blurted, seemingly having remembered something. “They said we’d spend… I think at most a week more here..?” 

Felix glanced at Hyunjin, who nodded to him, and he looked back at Minho. 

“So that means… we’ll need to talk to Jeongin about what we want to do- for the future- soon.”

Exhaling, Minho tried to fight any instincts to react. It was okay. It needed to happen no matter what happened, whether they’d send them back to the Vorths or whatever else. 

Goodness, Minho really didn’t want to be in this situation. 

“Okay,” he mumbled after a moment, trying to give Felix any response. 

Felix sighed and leaned forward. “We’re all going to be okay, it doesn’t matter what happens,” Felix spoke, reaching his hand out over the table to rest on top of Minho’s which was still holding his fork. 

And Minho tried to get himself to believe it. 

Chapter Text

“Hi, Minho and Jisung. I’m Jeongin. You’re both looking a lot better,” Jeongin spoke, smiling at them as he sat down next to Felix. 

Jisung nodded at Jeongin, while Minho just stayed silent. Minho didn’t know how much better he looked with all the bandages and whatnot covering the majority of his body, but he didn’t care enough about it to dwell. 

As Minho took in Jeongin’s appearance, he realized how healthy and uplifted he looked. It didn’t really make sense in Minho’s mind.

“Okay, so… let’s keep things simple for now… um, I wanted to talk to you four about the interviews. I’m so glad that you both have been cleared to leave your rooms safely now, that’s a great sign for the future, and…” Jeongin glanced at Felix and Hyunjin.

“You two… I’ve talked to Seungmin about coming to your section with me so you can properly meet him, and Minho and Jisung, you can come too if you’d like to meet him. He’s the Quisvian doctor who helped you out the other day, remember?” 

Minho shared a glance with Jisung, and both of them seemed pretty clueless. 

Jeongin didn’t seem to care much though, since he just moved on. “That's fine,” he said, before continuing. “Um, anyways, as I already kind of explained to Felix and Hyunjin,” Jeongin spoke, turning to face the other two Avarinths.

“The detective working on your case thinks it will be worth interviewing each of you for your official account on what happened with the Vorths.” Jeongin nodded to himself.

“Um, if we don’t do this, then you four will risk needing to go into court to testify.”

Jeongin’s words settled on Minho’s brain like rocks, and he was fairly uncertain on what to think.

Jeongin sighed, before continuing to talk. “I, uh, had to testify a few years ago against the Vorths that I had been living with. Which really sucked. I… struggled a lot with that.” Jeongin paused for a second, staring down at the table. 

“You’ll need to testify in front of your Vorths. That takes way more courage than I could ever have in that moment, so I really suggest doing the interview,” he finished off, finally meeting Minho and Jisung’s eyes again, trying to emphasize the suggestion. 

Minho and Jisung looked at each other again, and Jisung had a much different look in his eyes now. It was almost pleading, which caught Minho off guard. 

Jisung after glancing over at the three on the other side, hurriedly leaned in and cupped his hand over his mouth, whispering: “Minho. Please.” The way that he mumbled it made Minho instantly know how far under the drugs Jisung still was, and it pained him to have this conversation now, like this. Jisung was normally a lot more panicky on drugs.

Minho mouthed, interview? to which Jisung nodded a bit desperately, looking worried.

Taking a moment to think, Minho knew how Jisung would crumble under the gaze of the Vorths. He always did, and pressure like a courtroom would do him even worse. 

Either way, Minho did think that the interview was the safer option for all of them, despite how bad it made him feel to even consider it. 

Being in front of one person who was pressuring them was much better than a whole courtroom. Plus, the Vorths probably wouldn’t be there to witness it, so it was infinitely better without that pressure. 

Minho looked back up at Jeongin, and hesitantly muttered, “Okay…” to show he was considering it. 

Jisung audibly exhaled at this, before sucking in a breath. 

“What- what if they’re- he’s talking- wi- with them, a- and…” Jisung softly murmured, sounding panicked but still so quiet. 

Everyone looked at him when he said this, and Jisung withdrew into himself. 

“Sor- sorry, I- I didn’t-” Jisung quietly rushed out, trying to fix whatever he just messed up. 

Minho put his hand on Jisung’s shoulder, trying to break him out of his panic. 

“ Jisung ,” he spoke with force, trying to get his tone to break through the barrier in Jisung’s mind. 

Jisung looked at him, eyes wide, and shut his mouth. 

At this, Minho breathed out a breath of relief. “Shh, please calm down,” he whispered, trying to watch his words around Jeongin. He wanted to comfort and effectively calm Jisung, but didn’t know how to without arousing suspicion in Jeongin.

“Jisung, I promise , that’s not going to happen,” Jeongin affirmed, almost pleading with Jisung to believe him. 

Jisung stared at his lap, trying to ignore Jeongin to calm himself down. 

So, Minho forced himself to look away, and look at Jeongin for Jisung. 

He did not want to do these “interviews” but it was clear that the alternative was even worse. Even if this all was just to humor the Vorths, it was much more worth it to do the interview. Cooperating would prevent making things worse anyway.

“We’ll do the interviews,” Minho spoke, hushed from trying to control his voice.

Jeongin blinked at Minho in surprise, and slowly nodded. “Okay. Thank you, Minho. Felix and Hyunjin agree as well, yeah?” Jeongin asked, glancing over at the other two.

They both nodded, and Jeongin looked back. “So that’s good. I’ll tell the detective, and she might be able to organize interviews for tomorrow even, but she has a very busy schedule, so it really depends on when she’s open.”

For some reason, Minho was a bit relieved by the fact that the detective was a female. Felix had once told him that female Vorths had less of the instinct to prove themselves to their mates, so they never really wanted to hurt the Avi themselves. And that checked out in Minho’s experience; mostly only male Vorthen had tried to hurt him when he was out on the streets. 

And Minho figured this detective would be a Vorth because normally , as far as he knew, only Vorthen had jobs like that, but because of all the Avarinth doctors and nurses he’d seen, he wasn’t so sure of that anymore. 

“Oh, also,” Jeongin started again. “Common practice for this type of interview is that they separate interviewees until after the interview, so you can all be together after the interview, just not right before,” he informed. 

Minho saw Felix nod at Jeongin, who gave them all a small smile. 

“Uh, lastly, soon you all will be discharged. By then, you need to have a plan that you’ve told to me about what you all decide to do. You four can stay with my household at our house, we have two Vorths, then me and Seungmin, or you can choose to go to a specialized facility where you four may be separated.” Jeongin let his words settle in the air before he continued. 

“Some households offer to take Avi in from the facilities, but it’s very rare that they’ll take in four at once. And, there’s no knowing who you may end up with. My household fortunately is equipped to handle four new people if need be, so… I don’t know, considering all that, you should take a few days to think and discuss it. You don’t need to give me an answer now.” With that, Jeongin grabbed a cup from his bag, and took a sip from it. 

He exhaled, and finished off with: “Please don’t worry too hard about it. I’ll help you all through it either way; I won’t let anything else happen to any of you. None of us deserved this.”

With that, Jeongin stood up. “I need to go talk to the doctors and the detective, um… I’m sorry I couldn’t stay longer to really talk to you, Minho and Jisung, but I’ll be back tomorrow, alright? 

Jisung, again, was the one that nodded, and Minho just silently watched as Jeongin eventually turned around and left after Felix uttered a quiet goodbye to him. 

Now that there were no real distractions, the reality of the situation began slowly weighing further and further down on Minho. 

He’d just willingly put his Avi in harm's way. What kind of person was he? Honestly: what the fuck was wrong with him? Minho leaned back and crossed his arms around his torso in as protective a position he could get without arousing suspicion. 

He said he cared so much about Jisung and the others, but his actions didn’t back that up at all. He didn’t deserve any of them. They were essentially a gift to him, and Minho hated himself for that. The universe had “blessed” him with them, and thus put them in this situation? 

Minho always lived with that guilt. Them coming here was the mark of their death and Minho’s continued living. Minho only lived on because of them, because that’s what he deserved. 

He lived in a world of as much pain as came from his actions, which he always tried to make more and more to lessen the burden on his dear Avi. He deserved it. What was Jeongin even talking about that “none of us deserved this”?

That was such a blatant lie that Minho wanted to snap his arm in half for not speaking on it. None of them deserved it, but Minho was clearly a part of “us,” which completely made the statement untrue. 

Minho deserved it because he was so glad that they had come and made his life so much better, when in turn it did the complete opposite to all of them. He was spoiled in such a terrible, twisted way by the universe, and he hated it.

He tried to redeem himself every day by covering and taking the blame for his Avi, but he didn’t know when it would be enough. He didn’t know if it ever would be. Maybe an eternity of suffering was all that could make up for the lifetime of his dear Avi’s. 

Fuck himself, honestly. He deserved to be with the Vorths for as long as he lived.

He didn’t belong here.

***

Interviews. Jisung had heard about them, but didn’t actually think they’d be happening today . 

And, he… he was going first? Someone told him that in the mess of the morning, but Jisung couldn’t quite remember who, or really what they said. Also, he and Minho were getting one-on-one interviews, and nobody else, for some reason.

But Jeongin would be here soon, and Felix and Hyunjin assured Jisung that Jeongin was nice, and he believed them, of course, so that was okay. Apparently, Jeongin would be staying with him before and after the interviews, because of some reason Jisung wasn’t listening to. 

All Jisung could focus on was the fact that he’d be away from Minho again for a good while, so his brain automatically shut down and went into overdrive trying to make the most of his time. 

The Avi had promised him that he’d see Minho again after, and Minho also looked upset, so Jisung felt he was validated and figured it was okay to latch onto Minho before he left. 

Also, Jisung felt weird; still. Minho had told him that he was under “medication,” which made Jisung suspicious, but everyone said it was good and necessary, so he didn’t dwell on it. 

But his brain was just wrong. He wasn’t gone anymore, it was just messed up. He couldn’t think or walk right or whatever else, so he didn’t think an interrogation would be great in this state. 

But everyone else seemed to think the opposite, so he gave that idea up. 

Regardless, he was with Minho until Jeongin came. Minho had whispered to him not to tell anyone much, and Jisung just nodded and latched onto his arm like a parasite, hugging it tight and leaning his head onto Minho’s. 

Minho seemed to enjoy this just as much as Jisung, so Jisung made sure to continue for as long as possible. 

It was calming, really, even though the time seemed to blur and bend into itself, passing so quickly. But he was just able to sit and stare into nothing, in the presence of his love, and think about nothing. 

He was able to put off most of his worries in turn for just pure silence, which was what he was doing now. He heard pure silence as he bathed in the comfort of Minho. 

Huffing out a breath, Jisung hugged himself closer to Minho, who turned a bit to face Jisung. 

Jisung looked up, and locked eyes with Minho.

Giving a small, bothered-looking smile, Minho whispered: “Hi, jagi.”

Not responding, Jisung kept looking, eyes flicking between Minho’s lips and eyes. 

Eventually, Jisung gave up his secret thoughts, and relaxed down into his spot, replying: “Hi.” 

Seemingly suddenly struck with a thought, Minho straightened himself, and softly mumbled to Jisung: “Honey, have you had any hallucinations?” 

“Yes,” he simply responded, before realizing that Minho might want more info. “I- that’s- um… ‘t’s why the- they drugs… ‘d me,” Jisung muttered, turning his face so it was mostly hidden from the outside view. 

“Oh…” Minho murmured, and Jisung exhaled sharply. 

“‘T worked, though… wei- weird…” Jisung quietly whispered, mostly to himself.

“Hm?” Minho hummed, questioning what Jisung said. He probably hadn’t heard him, Jisung figured. 

In response, Jisung just hummed, not willing to repeat himself. 

Hardly a moment later, a knock sounded on the door across the room, which made Jisung jump. 

He grumbled deeply in his throat and loosened his grip on Minho, still holding on but making sure to maintain some space. 

As the door opened, Jeongin appeared from behind it. 

“Hey,” he softly greeted them as he stepped in. 

Jisung slowly moved himself further and further from Minho, worried about what Jeongin may think. 

Jisung didn’t respond to Jeongin, and as far as he knew, Minho didn’t either, so it was kind of awkward as Jeongin approached them. 

Jeongin smiled as he sat in a chair near them. “Okay, Felix and Hyunjin are at separate tables…” Jeongin took a moment to turn and point somewhere across the room, “over there, and I just checked, it’ll be about half an hour before the detective is ready, so Jisung, would you mind coming with me now?” As Jeongin asked this, he stood back up.

Straightening in his seat, Jisung nervously prepared himself to stand up. He really didn’t want to go, and showed his dissatisfaction to Minho by sadly gazing over at him. Minho squeezed his hand in response.

“We’re just going to be going over there,” Jeongin added, pointing to a nearby table. “You’ll still be able to see each other, don’t worry,” he continued as Jisung slowly stood and walked over to him. 

Once Jisung made it to Jeongin, Jeongin led him off to the table he prior indicated, making sure to let Jisung take his time. 

“Sorry, Jisung. I know you two want to stay together, but the detective told me it just couldn’t happen. It’ll only be for about an hour.” 

Nodding his understanding, Jisung uncomfortably fiddled with his sleeves, not used to being in Jeongin’s presence. 

“Oh, Jisung,” Jeongin spoke, and Jisung glanced up at him, seeing his smiling face. Jeongin’s smiling confused him. 

“Felix told me that you and him were born one day apart, isn’t that cool?” 

Jisung blinked at Jeongin for a moment, his mind blanking for a good few seconds before it caught up. “Oh, um, ye- es,” he nodded, trying not to let his face betray his embarrassment for misspeaking. 

He needed to stop doing that, now. He couldn’t misspeak in front of the detective . That’d be horrible. 

“Yeah, your Avi seem nice, right?” Jeongin continued as if he didn’t notice, which calmed Jisung a bit, but he also didn’t understand why Jeongin was still talking.

Jisung stared down at his lap and nodded, not feeling like verbally replying. They were very nice, not just nice. Maybe Jeongin should know that. 

“Very,” he opted to quietly say, which was apparently simple enough for him to not mess up. As he prided himself on this small victory, and couldn’t help but feel the atmosphere begin to change around him. 

It became darker, worse, almost like in a dream. Jisung sat upright, suddenly a bit more alert and worried, and scanned the room. He didn’t see anything that physically changed, but it felt wrong. Something was here. 

Uh oh. Minho always told Jisung to tell him if he was having a hallucination or delusion or whatever, but he was way over there, and Jisung wasn’t allowed to talk to him now. 

Jisung sat back, and tried to force it away, breathing and trying not to focus on the increasingly suffocating atmosphere. 

“Jisung? Are you okay?” Jeongin suddenly asked, and Jisung’s eyes snapped over to him. 

Oh no, why did Jeongin need to notice? Jisung swallowed thickly and nodded as convincingly as he could, before he abruptly heard a wisp of air whistle through his ear. 

Jisung’s jaw clenched on itself, and he subconsciously drew his limbs closer together. Someone needed to know, Minho always told him to alert any of the Avi so they could keep him in reality, and that he needed to trust them unconditionally then, but Jisung didn’t know Jeongin, and Jeongin didn’t know about his whole deal. 

This wouldn’t be good. 

Jisung’s heart beat loudly in his ears, and he forcibly pushed out an exhale to keep himself breathing.

“Shh!” A voice hissed in his ear, and Jisung tried to look over as nonchalantly as he could manage, but he was sure Jeongin noticed. There was nothing there. Jisung shivered. He was used to this, but not used to having this happen when he needed to do something about it but couldn’t. 

“Get up ,” the voice ordered, and Jisung pressed himself further down into the chair. 

Breathing heavily in his ear, the voice murmured something incomprehensible, and Jisung worriedly glanced to see if Jeongin was watching him. 

He was.

“Shhh… but a- you…” the voice continued on, whispering sharply in Jisung’s ear. 

“Are you okay?” Jisung heard again, and his eyes snapped up at Jeongin, but he had no idea if it was him who had said that. The voice in his ear was far too distracting for him to have picked up anything to identify the second voice. 

“Jisung?” Jeongin spoke as Jisung watched him, and Jisung blinked at him, trying to get him to explain. 

“Are you alright?” Jeongin repeated, and Jisung breathed a little easier. 

“Um,” Jisung pushed out, not able to come up with anything to say. 

Suddenly, something dark caught his eye, and Jisung’s eyes instinctively flicked over, catching sight of a floating… mixture of things . He knew this thing. He’d seen it before. It was eyes and sticks and darkness and metal and everything and nothing. Jisung pursed his lips and dug his fingernails into his palms, trying to force himself out of this. 

“Jisung,” Jeongin spoke again, and Jisung glanced back, but couldn’t stop his eyes from immediately turning back to the thing. 

He couldn’t look away. If he looked away, it would move, and Minho told him he always needed to be as aware as possible during his hallucinations. Maybe it wasn’t a hallucination. Was it real, and some terrible otherworldly demon or angel that had come for him? 

It didn’t matter. Any form it was would mean bad news if he stopped looking at it. 

“Jisung, what is it?” Jeongin asked him, sounding a bit worried. 

Jisung tried to respond, but failed, unable to come up with the words he needed. 

“Jeongin,” he said instead, trying to keep Jeongin’s attention. He needed to tell Jeongin about this; that’s what Minho would want him to do. 

“What’s up, Jisung?” The other Ava questioned, scooting his chair closer to Jisung. 

“Um. I- I…” Jisung tried, still unable to get anything real out. “I see… see it ,” he landed on, hoping his voice was loud enough for Jeongin to hear. 

As he breathed in and out, Jisung saw the thing twirl and twist its spindly parts around, and Jisung braced himself for whatever was coming. 

“Hm? What do you see, Jisung?” 

“Uh… mmm…” Jisung stammered, not knowing what to say.

“ What do you see?” The voice whispered, and Jisung immediately scratched at his ear, trying to get it out. 

“ Jeongin ,” Jisung uttered again, gripping onto the seat of his chair like a lifeline. 

“Hey, Jisung, you’re all good. There’s nothing here, okay?” Jeongin assured him, and Jisung was finally able to rip his eyes off of the thing and stare deep into Jeongin’s.

“ It ,” Jisung repeated, trying to emphasize his point, and maybe some of his panic.

Jisung tried to turn his head back over, but stopped at Jeongin’s voice. 

“Jisung!” Jeongin quickly uttered, continuing fast so he didn’t lose Jisung. “Just look at me,” he told him, and Jisung tried his best to, even though all of his instincts screamed otherwise.

“You’re safe here. It’s only us and your Avi in this room, nobody else,” Jeongin pressed, leaning closer to get Jisung’s focus even more. 

“Okay, Jisung?” 

Jisung swallowed, and nodded. “Okay,” he quietly replied, eyes lingering on Jeongin for a moment more before dashing back to the other side of the room. 

It was gone. 

Jisung breathed a sigh of relief as he noticed the heaviness subtly lift from the room. 

“You’re going to be fine, Jisung. Don’t worry. Just do your best and the detective will be happy. She’ll be fine with it no matter how well you do.”

Looking back at Jeongin, Jisung thought about his words for a moment and accepted them as they were, nodding and trying to calm his heart. 

He figured he could trust Jeongin since he was an Ava, and because of how Felix and Hyunjin seemed to trust him, so he tried to give his words some weight. 

He’d be finding out the truth either way in a bit, so it didn’t really matter. 

Jisung stared at the floor, and tried to think. Jeongin had helped him. He’d need to talk to a detective. Okay. Then he’d be with Minho again. Great. 

Abruptly, as if on cue, someone knocked on the door, on the other side of the room from where Jeongin came in from.

Jisung immediately looked over at it, and watched nervously as someone opened the door. 

“Jisung?” A woman spoke, locking eyes with Jisung. 

Swallowing, Jisung nervously stood at Jeongin’s encouragement, and walked over to the lady.

She, an Ava, as Jisung noticed with surprise, smiled at him as he came over and said: “Hello, Jisung. I’m DETECTIVE. I’m going to be asking you a few questions, okay?” 

Jisung nodded silently, entering the room as the woman held the door open for him. 

It shut behind him with a quiet click, and the lady led both of them over to a desk. 

“You can sit right here,” she told him, pointing to a chair, and sitting on the other side of the desk from that chair. 

“Okay,” she muttered once they were both decently situated. “So, first, do I have your permission to record this conversation?” 

Blinking, Jisung took in this information and felt a pit form in his stomach. That wasn’t good news. That just meant that she’d tell the Vorths what he said. 

Remembering how Minho had told him not to say much, he resolved to listen. And it was best to cooperate anyways, he knew. 

“Okay,” he simply responded, and the lady nodded and pressed a button on the desk. 

“Alright, thank you. Again, I have your permission to record this conversation?” She asked again.

“Um, yes,” Jisung spoke, confused. Why she asked again, he didn’t know, but he supposed it didn’t matter. 

“Great. So, I want to ask you questions about the Vorthen that you stayed with. First of all, you’re perfectly fine to not answer something, or whatever else, I would just like a record for the courts so they don’t mandate your presence.” The lady took a sip from a cup, waiting for Jisung’s acknowledgment, before continuing once he nodded. 

“Okay. So, can you confirm that the Vorthen who you lived with, VV, VV, and VV, physically abused you and the other Avarinth, Minho, Hyunjin, and Felix, who lived with you?”

Taking a long moment to process, Jisung tried to make sense of the words swimming around in his brain and ears. “Ye- yes, sorry,” he settled on, figuring the question was simpler than he thought. Also, he was sure the lady already knew based on his appearance the answer, so he may as well tell the truth.

“Thank you. And, can you describe to me some things that they did to you?” the detective asked next, which was really what made Jisung hesitate. 

“Um,” he muttered, trying to figure out what to say. “They, um, h- ha- had me take… drugs..?” Jisung silently cursed himself for misspeaking so badly.

“By that do you mean they forced you to take drugs?” She questioned in return, and Jisung felt himself grow more and more nervous.

He exhaled and uttered: “Yes.” 

“Do you know what drugs?” 

Jisung clenched his fists and tried to think, but couldn’t come up with anything. “No, I’m- I’m sorry.” 

The lady nodded calmly, and kept talking. “Okay, and what effects do you think those drugs had on you? In the long run?” 

“Uh… um… it… my speaking..? An- and my… brain?” Jisung decided on, not really quite sure of the answer. 

“Alright. Thank you, Jisung. Did they do anything other than what involved drugs?” 

Exhaling slowly, Jisung breathed for a moment to try and calm himself. This was a lot more stressful than he expected. His hands had started shaking at some point, and Jisung didn’t know if that was a problem or not. 

“The- they, um, um…” Jisung trailed off quickly, unable to force himself to say anything. However, realization quickly settled inside him, and he knew he had to say something. 

“They use- they used knives, and, and… th- things- on- on us…” 

Jisung’s voice had gotten quieter and quieter as he spoke, and Jisung was helpless to stop it. His heart was beating so hard in his chest from the forced memories, and he knew he needed to calm down if he would stay okay here. 

So, he dug his nails into his palms and breathed as evenly as he could manage, forcing his brain to stop moving.

As he abruptly sucked in a breath, suddenly almost on the verge of tears, he mumbled, “I’m sorry- I- I…”

“That’s okay, Jisung. Thank you. I have one more question, and then you’ll be free to go back. When exactly were you taken by the Vorths, and how?” 

Taking a few more seconds to calm himself, Jisung eventually managed to answer. “They… they took me- took me home off t- off the streets, um… may- maybe um, two… two years ago..?” 

“Alright. Thank you so much, Jisung. Now, you can exit out of that door-” the detective pointed to the door behind Jisung, which they had entered from- “and I’ll call in someone else in in a minute.”

Jisung nodded silently, and carefully stood, approaching the door, and gingerly opening it, quietly shutting it behind him. 

He walked back to the table Jeongin sat at, and sat back down in the chair he sat in before. 

“Hi, Jisung, how’d it go?” Jeongin asked, looking up from the phone he held in his hand.

Jisung felt the hole in his chest crumble larger and larger, and he stared down at his lap. He exhaled carefully, trying not to let his emotions take control, but he couldn’t stop the singular tear that slipped from his eye.

Almost immediately, Jeongin seemed to notice this, if Jisung could assume anything based on the fact that Jeongin scooted his chair closer.

It was only a moment before he spoke. “Oh, Jisung… hey, it’s all good, we’re all okay here. The Vorths can’t get to you anymore,” he quietly comforted him.

Jisung didn’t respond, overwhelmed with the task of breathing without breaking. He sucked in breath after breath, and wiped his eyes to remove the moisture. 

The two of them stayed quiet in the silent room, as Jisung worked through his thoughts and emotions. Being so officially brought back into the world he’d been away from for a good week or so really messed with him. 

Shakily exhaling, Jisung looked up at Jeongin. He wouldn’t cry with the pressure of Jeongin actively seeing his face, Jisung figured. 

“See? Yeah, we’re okay, everything’s alright,” Jeongin softly spoke, reaching out to hold Jisung’s hand in his. 

Jisung blinked down at the hand, momentarily stunned. He looked back up at Jeongin, confused. This didn’t seem to deter Jeongin, who just sat and smiled softly at him.

Why was Jeongin holding his hand? Jisung didn’t understand, and he was too tired to stop him. But, wasn’t that something particularly intimate- something Avi should never do with each other? Avi weren’t allowed to be together or anything of the sort- and as far as Jisung knew, they couldn’t even be friends. 

Holding hands was certainly friendly, so Jisung had no idea what to do. Jeongin was supposedly more informed on reality than Jisung, so maybe he just knew that it was okay to do? 

Jisung didn’t know, and was really exhausted now, so he just didn’t do anything, and accepted the gesture as it was: a comfort between Avi. 

Gazing back down, Jisung spaced out for a bit on the floor, just focusing on breathing like he was sure Jeongin would want him to. 

He felt himself gradually getting more and more tired as time went on, and he eventually noticed that Jeongin had started rubbing circles into his hand. 

Goodness, he was tired . The past few days, he’d pretty much only been sleeping or resting, as he’d been doing for most of the days and weeks prior, and he felt the recent activity catching up to him. 

Honestly, he just wanted to sleep this all off and sleep the world away. Sometimes he wondered if life would be better if he could just be drugged to hell for the rest of time. 

Of course, Jisung couldn’t deny the negatives of that idea: the intensified amount of hallucinations and delusions, the complete inability to sense and understand his surroundings, and the sicknesses that came from it. 

But, they weren’t really that bad when you looked at the benefits.

He was drifted away from his mind, into a place of nothingness and the blend of everything real. Most of his memories from then were just fuzzy nonsense of pain and illness that never quite made contact with his subconscious. He recognized consciously that it all happened, but his brain never really was able to process it. 

And he was perfectly fine with that. 

But, regardless, it was just so easy to lose himself in that haze of being high, and nothing was really real there. He didn’t really know what to think about drugs. They ruined and saved him at the same time, but the Avi also didn’t seem to like them, and always avoided bringing it up with him. 

Jisung really wanted to know their perspective on drugs, because he didn’t understand why they acted like that. He considered it may have something to do with how sad Minho got when he got insanely high, but thinking so hard about it gave him a headache.

Minho. He really wanted to be with Minho again. Looking up at the room, Jisung found that Minho had disappeared, and at the realization, he felt his heart sink.

Had Minho been taken by the detective? Why hadn’t he been paying attention? 

Jisung, resigned, relaxed into his chair, a bit distressed. He supposed that was also a negative of the drugs; he couldn’t watch out for Minho. Oh goodness, that was a massive negative. Where was Minho? Why was Jisung being so neglectful?

Jisung felt as if he could cry again. He just wanted Minho to be with him and be okay. What if the lady had taken him away, back to the Vorths? And Jisung had just let it happen? 

There were no words to describe how terrible Jisung felt. His chest and heart just ached. There was too much going on recently- Jisung just wanted to be done with all of this. 

He didn’t even know what the point of this all was. Okay, no, that was a thought way too much for him to handle right now, he needed to stop. If he didn’t, who knew how he’d end up. 

Taking in as calming of a breath as he could, Jisung looked up, and saw Jeongin looking at him.

“You okay, Jisung?” He asked, rubbing Jisung’s hand. 

“Wh- um, where…’s Minho?” Jisung asked, biting the bullet and effectively not answering Jeongin’s question. 

“Oh, he went in with the detective a few minutes ago. He should be out soon, I think,” Jeongin helpfully supplied, and Jisung immediately felt a wave of relief and upset rush over him.

He really needed to be better. But for now, he’d just wait for Minho to return. 

Chapter Text

“Hello, Minho. I’m DETECTIVE, and I’d just like to ask you a few questions, alright?” 

Minho just stared at this female Ava as she spoke, and couldn’t help his unbelief. A female Ava as a detective seemed totally out of pocket. This must be bullcrap.

“Okay, let’s get started then,” she eventually spoke after Minho failed to answer. Exhaling with a heavy breath, she smiled invitingly at Minho and spoke: “First, do I have your permission to record this conversation?” 

Bristling, Minho felt his face turn cold. Of course. He should’ve expected this. Minho breathed in a difficult breath and muttered, “Okay.” It was better to go with what they say than resist. He knew that.

“Great,” she replied, pressing a button on the desk. “Now for the record, I have your permission to record this conversation?” 

“Yes,” Minho affirmed, feeling uncomfortable with the formality of this situation. It would’ve been one thing to just say whatever and deal with what she told the Vorths, but a recording was cold hard evidence; straight from his mouth. And recordings never ended well in the Vorths’ hands. 

“Okay. So, I’d like to ask you about your experience with the Vorthen that you had lived with. Can you verbally confirm to me that VV, VV, and VV were the and the only Vorthen you and Jisung, Hyunjin, and Felix lived with?”

“Um, yes,” Minho affirmed, fidgeting with his fingers on his lap. 

The detective nodded, humming. “Great, and they physically abused you and the other Avarinths in your house?”

Minho stopped fidgeting at the mention of this, and honestly envied the way that this lady could so easily just bring it up. She just didn’t understand, Minho resolved. “Yes,” he quietly responded, voice not quite working as he wanted it to. 

Placing her elbows on the desk, the lady leaned forward and softly asked: “Can you describe to me some of the things they did to you?”

Feeling his chest clench up, Minho shakily exhaled and let his eyes bore into his knees. He didn’t know if he should or could even respond to this. 

What would the Vorths want? They’d want him to be as uncomfortable as possible, so they would want him to speak as honestly as he could about the things they’ve done to him. But, Minho had a hard time speaking about those things with his own Avi , he didn’t know about this.

“Uh- um…” Minho muttered, and realized that he just couldn’t get anything out. His throat had closed up and his mind had completely blanked- Minho was utterly lost. 

He panickingly glanced up at the detective, who was gazing pitifully at him. 

“That’s okay, how about this: I’ll list a few things, and can you tell me if they’ve done that to you?” 

Nodding, Minho felt a bit relieved, but still couldn’t stop from feeling like he was anticipating some sort of terrible attack. He just felt dread ; he didn’t know if that was because of his instincts or because of everything else going on.

But, before he could dwell further, the detective spoke again. 

“Have they ever starved you?” She asked, and Minho shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

Yes? He felt like that was obvious, and not nearly as bad as what he expected. “Uh, yeah,” Minho replied, trying to keep his focus on his lap. 

“Okay, have they hurt you with knives?” 

At this, Minho felt a bit exasperated. Yes , they did, didn’t this woman know that? She obviously had read into him if she knew all that about who he lived with and whatever, so she definitely knew what types of injuries he had. 

“Um, I’m sorry, uh, they’re why I have these, ” Minho told her, putting out his arms and pulling up the sleeves to show all the bandages and whatnot covering them. “Is that… enough?” He asked, pulling his arms back and hiding them once more. He was a bit annoyed but also did not want to risk his actions as being disrespectful, so he tried his hardest to be respectful yet concise.

“Oh…” the lady muttered, seeming a bit surprised.

At this, Minho felt a wave of regret hit him. Why’d he do that? He could handle embarrassment, why did he feel the need to do that? Goodness- he should’ve just went along with whatever this lady was doing.

“Well, if you’d feel comfortable doing so, would you tell me how you got at least one of those wounds?” 

Exhaling, Minho resigned himself to his fate, and figured he deserved this now. “Um, I got… this,” he hesitantly began, pulling his sleeve back again and pointing to a wound that wasn’t bandaged. “From, uh, a… axe..?” 

“From an axe? And who did that to you?” The detective asked, sounding weirdly sympathetic.

“Uh, well… this one, they all cut into, so…” Minho trailed off, unsure how to answer. He was already speaking so curtly and quietly that Minho couldn’t tell how well the woman understood him. 

“Mm, okay, thank you, Minho. I have one more question. When did you begin living with the Vorths, and how did that happen?”

Right… Minho didn’t get why she would need to ask that question. It seemed stupid, but maybe that was just because of all the negative things he associated with that time period. 

“Ah… s… six years ago? They, uh, I was homeless, so they just… took me home,” Minho mumbled, idly scratching his arm with one of his hands. 

“Forcibly?” The detective asked.

“Hm? I’m sorry…” voice fading out again, Minho felt embarrassment sink into his skin. 

“Did they forcibly take you home?” 

Oh. Okay. “Ye- yes, they did,” Minho murmured, and he felt frustration building in his chest. He didn’t know why he felt like this, but this all just made him feel so terrible inside. 

“Alright… thank you, Minho, that’s all. This was very helpful, thank you,” the detective spoke after a moment. 

“You can leave out of that door, and I’ll have all of you in in a few minutes.”

Minho silently nodded, feeling his chest burn with so many emotions, and stood, nodding his head in a sort of bow, before quietly exiting the room. 

Immediately, his eyes landed on where Jisung and Jeongin were sitting, and Jisung seemed… off. More off than normal.

Jeongin, hearing the door shut, turned around to see Minho, and waved him over.

Having been invited, Minho gladly walked over to Jisung, and brought a chair to sit next to him.

“Jisung?” Minho quietly spoke, and Jisung blearily looked up. 

His eyes were red, and Minho felt his heart sink. Reaching out, Jisung made a pained sound in the back of his throat, and Minho immediately grasped his hand. 

“You- you… ‘re oka- y..?” Jisung mumbled, tugging on Minho’s hand. 

“Mhm, it’s all good, jagi,” Minho hummed, not paying attention to his words and surroundings. 

Jisung seemed satisfied by this, shutting his eyes, and when Minho played back what he said in his mind, he realized.

Minho’s startled eyes immediately darted over to Jeongin, who was just smiling at them. His face did turn a bit concerned at Minho’s expression, but Minho just turned away as fast as possible and tried to get rid of the whole instance. Either Jeongin didn’t notice that he called Jisung that, or he didn’t care. Minho was fine either way. 

Minho scooted his chair closer to Jisung’s and put his hand on Jisung’s arm, examining it. 

“Wha… ‘s yu do ’ng…” Jisung slurred out, his eyes peeking open. 

“Shh,” Minho hushed him, and Jisung squinted his eyes at him. Minho turned Jisung’s arm and pulled up his sleeve, gazing and then grazing his fingers over a wide wound embedded in his skin. 

“Ow,” Jisung mumbled, his eyes shut once more. 

“It’s not infected anymore, Jisung,” Minho spoke, covering Jisung’s arm back up. 

“Aw,” Jisung murmured, softer than before.

Minho straightened at this, and his eyebrows furrowed. “Jisung, sepsis isn’t fun. I’ve told you that. Remember what happened with Felix?”

Groaning, Jisung muttered something too quiet for Minho to hear. 

“And with how you already are…” Minho murmured, mostly to himself as he turned his attention to Jisung’s other arm.

“What,” Jisung uttered, eyes opening once more. 

“No illness for you, bottom line,” Minho spoke louder, pulling Jisung’s other sleeve up. “Hm,” he hummed, surprised.

“Whaat,” Jisung repeated, drawing out the “a” for effect. 

“Your arm looks good,” Minho remarked, looking up at Jisung’s face and leaning in to see his neck. “And your neck… that’s good.” 

“ Why co- could… n’t you do ‘s earlier,” Jisung quietly asked, and Minho glanced over at Jeongin, who was still looking at them. 

Jeongin’s eyes seemed soft, and he looked sympathetic. Minho didn’t find him a threat. 

Sighing, Minho tried to answer honestly. “There’s no doctors here,” he answered, trying to keep his voice low so Jeongin didn’t quite hear. Minho knew that one of Jeongin’s housemates was a doctor. He didn’t want Jeongin to be offended. 

“Oh… kay,” Jisung huffed out, his eyes wide open now, and staring at Jeongin. 

“Minho,” Jisung spoke out after a brief silence. When Jisung caught Minho’s eye, he whispered: “Come closer,” his eyes flickering between Minho and Jeongin, and trying to be secretive. 

Taking a long stare at Jeongin, Minho decided to test the waters. Jeongin hadn’t reacted when he called Jisung “jagi,” so it was best to try and see now how he’d react in this sort of setting. 

Minho moved his chair closer while maintaining eye contact with Jeongin, who just smiled at the action. 

“You two are a cute pair,” Jeongin said, and Minho froze.

What.  

Stunned, Minho glanced over at Jisung, who also seemed a bit disturbed, and they stared at each other for a second before Minho turned back to Jeongin. 

Did Jeongin know? Was that just a thing to say?

“Um, I’m sorry?” Minho said after a brief silence. He figured this direction would be the safest to go in.

“You’re… cute, sorry should I not say that?” 

“Oh… no, thank you, Jeongin. It’s okay,” Minho muttered in response, turning back to Jisung and trying to convey how he thought that they might be safe. 

Minho moved himself even closer to Jisung, and tried to disguise the meaning for his closeness by continuing to survey Jisung’s skin. 

He sighed, and ran his fingers through Jisung’s hair, pulling it up so he could see the skin underneath, on the back of Jisung’s head. 

“Does this hurt?” Minho asked, pressing softly against a large bruise on Jisung’s head. 

“Mmm…mhm…” Jisung hummed, letting Minho do whatever. 

Exhaling audibly, Jisung blinked his eyes open at Minho, and smiled weakly. 

“Minho,” Jisung mumbled. “I mi- missed you.”

“I missed you too, Jisung,” Minho breathed out, almost whispering the words into Jisung’s ear.

“Mm, Minho,” Jisung repeated, gazing up at Minho with tired eyes. “I had a… a um hallu- hallucina… tion earli- er.”

“Oh… can you tell me what happened?” Minho softly asked, brushing back Jisung’s hair and checking out his fingers. 

“Um. I, uh, it…” Jisung stammered, voice quickly fizzing out into an uncomfortable silence. 

“Take your time, jagi,” Minho whispered into his ear, trying to comfort his dear Ava. 

Jisung nodded acknowledgingly and swallowed, trying to recenter himself.

“It wa- it was um whis pers and… I saw… sss- saw something,” Jisung quietly supplied, staring down at where Minho was inspecting his fingers. 

“What’d you see, hmm?” Minho questioned further, soft and not pushing. 

“The… the angel, uh, thing . Remem- remem…ber..?” 

“Yes, I remember, Jisung. Thank you for telling me-” Minho leaned closer into Jisung’s ear- “love.” 

Minho felt Jisung’s body shudder, and he tried to muffle his smile. He was teasing. They hardly ever got to tease each other.

“Minho,” Jisung said, much louder than before. 

He stared at Minho with furrowed eyebrows, and a sharp eye, before huffing and looking away, over at Jeongin. 

Minho looked over too, and Jeongin was just sitting there, a calm expression on his face, and watching them. 

“Oh, Minho, how was the interview?” Jeongin asked, seemingly remembering he wanted to ask that.

Freezing in his spot, Minho exhaled sharply and tried to think. “It was alright.” 

Nodding, Jeongin replied with: “That’s good. I’m glad you four decided to do this.”

Acknowledgingly, Minho nodded, even though he didn’t really agree. 

Abruptly, they all heard the door open, and the detective woman call out: “Can everyone please come with me? Jeongin, you can stay, it’s alright.”

At this, Minho and Jisung glanced at each other, and begrudgingly stood in sync. 

“Good luck,” Jeongin whispered to them as they left, putting his hands up in a “fighting!” position. Minho didn’t respond, and he wasn’t sure if Jisung did either. 

Felix and Hyunjin entered the room before he and Jisung, and Felix held the door open for the two of them, staring nervously at them. 

Minho discreetly used his hand to rub Felix’s arm in an attempt to soothe him. 

Now, the real interview would begin.

Chapter Text

“For future purposes,” the detective started as they all sat down where she gestured for them to. “I’m going to need to record this conversation, okay?” 

She ended off looking at Hyunjin as she said this, whose eyes panickingly flickered between her and the Avi before he eventually nodded. 

“Alright. Thank you guys for doing this… to start off, I’m DETECTIVE, and I have you here today to ask you questions about your time with the Vorthen you lived with so none of you need to testify in court.” Brushing hair out of her face, the detective looked at all of the Avi and asked, “Any questions?”

When nobody answered, she nodded acceptingly. “Okay so… Felix, let’s start with you… how did you begin to live with the Vorths?” 

Seemingly startled, Felix sputtered for a moment before saying: “I- um, they bought me from a, uh, a private seller?” He looked up at the lady for confirmation or validation or something, and was visibly relieved when she nodded at him. 

“Mhm, and about how long ago was that?” She asked in return when Felix didn’t say anything further.

“Um… three years, I think.” 

“Right, thank you, Felix. Hyunjin,” she began, turning slightly to look at Hyunjin, “how about you?” 

“Oh, um… they bought me off of… ah… one of their friends,” Hyunjin muttered out, visibly fidgeting with his hands as he spoke. 

“How long ago?” The detective prompted, and Hyunjin hummed uncertainly. 

“Four years ago, I… assume.”

Meaningfully nodding, DETECTIVE gazed over at Minho, and then back at them all. “So, Minho and Jisung already told me about them… I’m hearing that Minho was alone with the Vorths for about two years?” 

When nobody else moved an inch, Minho opted to begrudgingly be the one to affirm the lady’s statement, simply nodding. 

“Okay, thank you, Minho. Now, I’d like to ask you all how a typical day for you would go with your Vorthen. Minho?” 

Eyes snapping up, Minho froze up a bit, and had to take a moment to center himself. 

“Well… I normally make breakfast for everyone in the… the mornings… I clean, or uh, prep, or help the Avi while the Vorths are at work… um… if I can’t make dinner later I’ll do it then…” 

“Why couldn’t you make dinner sometimes?” The detective butted in, and Minho’s eyes sharpened, focusing as hard as possible to make all those other sensations go away. 

“ Because of the Vorths. ” Minho monotonically muttered, trying to not let his emotions sink into his skin. 

The detective didn’t answer right away after this, until she eventually spoke: “Okay, please continue, Minho.” 

“ Then, most of the time I went with… one or… a few of the Vorths.” 

The woman wrote something down in a notebook she was holding, and moved on. “Jisung? Could you tell me how your days normally went with the Vorths?”

Minho felt Jisung jump when his name was mentioned, and felt him freeze up at the question. 

“Uh- mm, I… I-”

Minho watched as Jisung’s face slowly filled with panic, and Minho grabbed his hand under the table. 

Able to tell that Jisung was trying not to react to this, Minho made sure to simply hold him and let him work his way through this. 

“I… sleep , um, I clean, and… Vorths, and sl- slee… p…” 

Jisung was staring at the floor as he said this, which made Minho nervous. He didn’t know how well this woman would like Jisung being disrespectful like that. 

“Thank you, Jisung. Felix?” 

Jisung slumped down after the woman stopped focusing on him, and squeezed Minho’s hand, slightly pressing his nails into the skin. Minho squeezed back, knowing it was just a helpful piece of comfort for Jisung.

“I clean, and sometimes help Minho cook, and… go with the Vorths sometimes,” Felix spoke, noticeably louder than the rest of them. 

“Mhm, Hyunjin?” 

Exhaling softly, Hyunjin said: “I’ll… be with Minho with the Vorths in the mor- in the morning, and… clean… and sleep.”  

“Right. Thank you guys,” the detective said, writing in her notebook. Once she finished, she looked up again at the Avi. “Jisung, you said you went with the Vorths. Can you tell me what would happen when you did that?” 

Goodness. Minho squeezed Jisung hand a bit tighter to try and ground him, but tried to not make it obvious. 

“Um,” Jisung said, before suddenly gasping in a breath of air. “I- I…” he exhaled heavily, and Minho turned toward him, not anymore caring too much about visibly doing nothing.

Minho grasped Jisung’s arm and squeezed, being just rough enough for Jisung to be able to shut his eyes and soak it in. 

“I, u- um,” Jisung stuttered out, looking a bit less panicked, but more lost. Minho didn’t know what to think about that. 

“I… V- V would l- ike to, ah… sit… with me, and- and-” Jisung took in a shaky breath, and Minho squeezed a bit harder. Jisung really looked like he was panicking. 

“Some- ti…mes, he would maa- make me, um… talk… um…” Jisung’s voice shook at the end, and his voice became quieter. 

“And, and… Vorth, did- didn’t like me to- to… talk, wrong.” 

The detective nodded, before asking a follow-up. “What happened when you talked wrong?” 

“ Um, ” Jisung repeated, his voice turning watery. Minho immediately looked at him, and saw how wet his eyes looked. He was staring into space, and his hands were shaking terribly. Minho wanted to comfort him but knew this was not the time to do so. 

So, he took Jisung’s hand with his free hand and squeezed it tightly. Minho prayed to the universe that this would help in any amount.

“He- he h- hurt- m… e,” Jisung choked out, slowly withdrawing back deep into the chair and into himself. Taking in a shuddering breath, Jisung made a small sound as he exhaled, and Minho began rubbing deeply into his skin with his thumb. 

“Thank you so much, Jisung,” the woman thanked Jisung, and it surprisingly seemed genuine. 

After Jisung nodded, and everyone moved on from focusing on him, a few minuscule tears slipped from his eyes. 

Minho’s heart sunk at the sight. He wanted so badly to comfort his dear, but really didn’t think that it would be at all appropriate. 

So, he simply squeezed Jisung’s hand once more, and held it with both of his hands. 

Jisung weakly dug his nails into Minho’s hand in response, which Minho was happy with. Any sort of acknowledgement from Jisung made Minho happy.

Minho was pulled back to the present by the detective speaking once more. 

“And Hyunjin, you told me that you were with Minho and the Vorths in the morning? Can you elaborate?” 

At this, Hyunjin sunk into himself like he was being publicly shamed or something, and meekly responded. “Um, in the mornings… Minho and I get up early sometimes for the… the Vorths… is that, uh, self explanatory?” 

“They would hurt you?” 

Hyunjin exhaled and breathed out a quiet: “Yeah.” His gaze was sharper now. Upset. Soured.

“Okay,” DETECTIVE responded, sounding sympathetic. “Now, Minho, you were alone for two years with the Vorths before anyone else came along-”

Minho’s blood turned cold when he realized where she was going with this. 

“-would you care to tell me about that experience?” 

The room was silent as Minho tried to process his reality. He could practically feel the uncomfortableness wafting off of the other Avi, and Minho wanted to curse himself to all hell. 

No, just no. He did not talk about this, and nobody ever asked. Who did this lady think she was to go sauntering around in their business? 

“Um, no.” 

The detective seemed surprised at his response, but Minho just stared at her, cold as stone. 

“Hm? I’m sorry?” She asked, pretending as if she hadn’t heard him. Was this some type of ploy to intimidate him? Well, Minho was not giving in to this. 

Who the fuck did she think she was? 

“I said: no.” Minho so badly wanted to say more, but held himself back. He wouldn’t go too far unless she did before him. 

“Minho, just tell me about your time,” the woman pleaded, and Minho felt his agitation growing and growing. 

He wanted to tear through his skin and hurt and feel the pain he was supposed to be feeling right now. Nothing made sense—why had the Vorths not taken them back yet? Why was Minho not feeling nearly as much as he used to anymore? How the fuck did this woman think she was important enough for Minho to spill his guts out for her?

How did she have the gall? She was just a fucking Ava like them- she had absolutely no power to be damanding something like this.

“I said no ,” Minho hissed out, feeling pressure build up in his chest. 

“Hey, I just wanted to know-”

Minho couldn’t stop himself from bursting hearing that she was still continuing. “No- can't you listen? I said no. ” He made sure to keep his voice down, spitting out the words with venom that burned even his skin as they flew out.

“Hey,” Minho heard Felix’s voice cut in, and he felt Jisung’s hand tug back on his arm. 

When he glanced back at Jisung, he saw how panicked he looked, and he felt his heart break and his resolve strengthen even more. It was this woman’s fault that Jisung was like this. 

“Um, Minho doesn’t talk about that,” Felix quickly told the detective, and Minho allowed himself to be pulled back by Jisung, still feeling so tightly strung. 

“I-” Minho tried to speak, but was immediately cut off by Jisung.

“Shh!” Jisung hissed in his ear, grabbing his arm and digging his nails deeply into it. 

Minho stared over at Jisung with some sort of feeling, but allowed himself to be swayed. For the benefit of Jisung. 

“Right. I’m sorry, Minho. Please, don’t feel pressured to say anything, I-”

“ Don’t pretend, we all know th-”

Gasping as he felt a sudden pressure knock the voice out of him, Minho stared at Jisung again in disbelief. Jisung just smacked him. Was he going crazy? 

While he wanted to ask what the hell was going on with all of this, he restrained himself and resolved to just continue staring intensely at Jisung. 

“Um,” the detective spoke again after an uncomfortable silence that stretched after Jisung hit Minho. “As I was saying… I’m sorry, I can tell that this is all triggering you, Minho. I’ll try to make this more comfortable for you all, okay?” 

These words ticked Minho off. Triggering him? What the fuck. He was just so far into the disbelief that he wondered if he’d ever know what was really going on. This was just insane. 

With this, the woman moved on from him, and Minho could’ve screamed or cried or punched someone or all three of them- he just felt horrible after that. 

Everything that happened… goodness Minho could hardly even get himself to think about it. It was just… 

Minho vaguely felt himself get pulled back to rest fully in the chair by Jisung, and couldn’t get himself to fully register it. 

He was so lonely… At one point, he thought he may genuinely die from heartache. He didn’t want to think about it, but the memories came back regardless.

“Ah, I’m so glad you brought the bitch back.” 

“Yup. Now pay up.” 

They’d take him on those car rides…

“Ah- ugh,” Minho moaned in pain, gasping for air to fill his burning lungs. He sobbed aloud when another Vorth grabbed his hair and heaved him across the floor. 

“Pl- ease,” he begged. Begging worked sometimes, and now it was his only hope. “It hu- hurts, ah, please .” He’d beg until his throat was raw and his lips were bleeding, and they never stopped. 

A knife would lodge itself into his side, and he’d scream and cry, only for it to twist and dig deeper and deeper. Sometimes he’d hyperventilate so hard he’d just pass out, but that wouldn’t happen this time. 

They’d bind his wrists, blindfold him, and force him to wear noise-proof headphones. The sensory deprivation was one thing that especially got to him. He couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, and had no way to anticipate anything. 

Minho would be so dehydrated after those times because of all his tears. Then, Vorth would bring him to his room and sit him down on his bed, grabbing a hefty bottle of water. He’d have Minho sit with his side pressed against his chest, and would wrap around him, forcing him to drink the water. Minho threw up a few times, but after he was whipped and beaten around, he learned how to stop himself. 

He learned how to take it, let everyone do whatever they wanted to him. That was his only option. 

Minho would be so scared. He’d beg and sob and do anything he could to try and convince at least Vorth to not make him go. Anything was better than being sold off like that. Genuinely. 

“Vorth-“ Minho was interrupted by an involuntary sob. “please- I, I’ll le- let you do-” another hiccup- “anything. please, Vorth, plea- please .” Minho was on the floor, kneeling, and uncontrollably shaking and sobbing as he begged and begged. He never did anything like that anymore. It stopped working after a while.

The world may as well have ended each time he was sent off. 

Sometimes the Vorths would punish him just to make him beg. They’d hurt him and hurt him until he begged for the pain to stop, and taught him that begging for their mercy was the only way he’d ever be able to get out of it. 

But sometimes he couldn’t beg, couldn’t speak. He’d just sob and hiccup and lose all sense of himself. 

Minho was shocked out of his memory by Jisung blowing hard in his ear. He flinched and turned, seeing Jisung, who looked worried. 

Stop , Jisung mouthed, and Minho finally noticed the tears running down his cheeks. Jisung’s breath hitched, and he looked away, ashamed.

Shit , he thought and wiped at his eyes, turning back to stare at the floor. It felt like there was a gash in his heart, and that thought almost made him break. 

He exhaled purposefully, and focused on the feeling of Jisung dragging his nails over his skin. 

Eventually, he was able to tune back into the conversation, where Felix was telling the woman something about cameras, but he wasn't really able to listen. 

All he could focus on was Jisung. His love. He truly loved Jisung. 

Just that thought panged his heart. He couldn’t love Jisung, and it was so immoral to him to do so. Jisung didn’t deserve to have such a fate to be under the clutches of Minho’s liking, because of the terrible circumstances that came with it. 

And Minho couldn’t really do anything to repent for that. All he could do was continue living as he was, and make it however worse for himself as he could, and however better for everyone else. That was all, and he lived by that. 

He wasn’t quite “living as he was” anymore, however. And that really messed with him. Jisung was still so hurt, and Minho couldn’t do practically anything to help. 

“Minho?” A voice suddenly spoke, breaking Minho out of his mind once more. 

He looked up, and saw that the detective had spoken to him once more. He immediately felt his blood turn bitter, and he tried not to visibly react. 

“Do you know if the Vorths ever videotaped any of what they did?” 

Strainedly exhaling, Minho stared coolly at the woman. Why was she still pushing? Why ? 

Maybe this was how he’d repent. 

With this realization, Minho realized he needed to respond. It was the only way he could continue to live in the pain he deserved. 

“Yes,” he forced out, breathing heavily with his ever-growing agitation. 

“Hm, so do you think that someone would be able to find those videos if they were to go through the Vorths possessions?” 

Squeezing his hands into fists so hard that they hurt, Minho tried to get past his distress and respond. “ Yes.” 

When the woman breathed in to ask another question, Minho leaned back and shut his eyes as tight as possible, trying to keep himself calm. 

“Um, okay. I think that’s enough for you, Minho. Thank you,” she eventually spoke after an awkward silence. 

Not responding, Minho felt Jisung inch his hand tighter around Minho’s arm, and Minho let him. 

He spaced out for the rest of the conversation, wondering why he was acting like this, and why everything was as it was…

Minho sobbed so hard he almost threw up. “Mnh- Vo- Vorth, please…” he cried, before Vorth sliced the skin down his arm once more. 

“H- haah…” he breathed out, unable to muffle his noises beyond the pain clouding his brain. “Ghh- pl- ease- it hurt-s… hihh…”

“There you go, Ava. You’re doing great.” 

Vorth’s voice rang through his mind like a siren, and he couldn’t help the gasping sob that erupted from his mouth. 

Everything hurt. Minho couldn’t focus on anything that didn’t hurt, because there wasn’t anything. And Vorth was recording this. But quite honestly, that was the least of his worries. 

“Agnh… hah- plea-se nm, hiih-” Minho gasped and heaved for air, sobbing so hard he could barely breathe, much less speak. 

And V kept going. Minho didn’t know how long he’d been here already, but it had been long enough for him to completely break down. 

“Mhn… Vor- Vorth,” he cried, pleading as well as he could manage in this state. 

When Vorth made no move to heed to his pleas, Minho lost motivation to keep trying. Everything hurt too bad to try and keep talking if it was futile. 

Making incomprehensible sobbing and sniffling noises as he bawled his eyes out, he tried to open his eyes to see, but his vision was far too shaky and blurry to see. 

“Fuck, Ava… you cry so beautifully,” Vorth muttered, before violently yanking Minho’s head back by the hair. “Ah… god,” he mumbled, exhaling loudly. “I can do whatever I fucking want with you, isn’t that right?” V whispered this into Minho’s ear like a snake, and Minho instinctively arched himself away. 

“Hah, that’s right,” V again muttered, smacking Minho hard against the cheek. Minho gasped, arms moving up to instinctively try and stop Vorth from continuing, but it only pulled on his wounded arms and dug the ropes around his wrists further into his skin. 

At this feeling, Minho just sobbed. He couldn’t fight back, couldn’t stop it, and was so alone. The only Avi he’d ever really seen in his whole life were in some sort of situation similar to his. Either they were Avi of the Vorths’ friends, or were under some sort of company, or happened to be killed on the streets by packs of Vorths. Avi never had a happy ending.

His world was full of Vorths in this damned town, and he could never ever get away. 

He’d tried to kill himself once already. The Vorths would never let him leave this world unscathed. 

When Minho saw a flurry of blurred movement rise up in a flash, it only hit him once it was coming back down when he realized what it was, and he-

Jumped violently, immediately turning to look at Jisung, who had blown in his ear again. Minho hurriedly looked down, and he realized that he was still in the interview room. 

When he looked to the side, he saw Felix and Hyunjin standing nearby, appearing worried.

Confused, he looked back at Jisung, who stared at him for a second before whispering: “We. We are… lea- leaving, o…kay..?” 

Once Jisung stood, Minho followed, and they all left out the door, with the detective trailing behind them. 

Jisung and Minho immediately walked over to Jeongin, who was still sitting in the same spot. 

“Hey… did it go alright? You two don’t look too… well,” Jeongin spoke, standing up. 

Minho glanced at Jisung, and then back at Jeongin, and sighed. 

“If either of you want to talk, I’m here, okay? You’re not alone in this. I’ll always be here,” Jeongin assured them after neither spoke up, speaking in a lower voice due to the detective approaching. 

“Hello, Jeongin. We’re done for today, and I believe that this will be enough for the courts, so… success!” The detective smiled as she spoke, putting her hands up in a sort of cheering gesture. Did she even realize what she had done to him and HJ? “Good job, everyone. You all really did good.” 

With those final words, the detective waved and walked back to the office at the other side of the room. 

“It’s done..?” Minho quietly asked Jisung, who looked up at him and nodded gently. Something about Minho’s manner must’ve concerned Jisung here, because suddenly Minho found him in front of him, and holding tightly onto his arm, peering into his eyes. 

“Hey.” Jisung spoke quietly but firmly, and Minho wasn’t quite sure what he was doing. 

He swallowed thickly and stayed silent as Jisung grabbed his other arm with the other hand and pulled him slightly closer. 

“ Hey.” Almost hissing it out this time, Jisung furrowed his brows slightly as he spoke. 

“Um,” Jisung abruptly loudly spoke, spinning around to face Jeongin. “Is there… there… a, um, a bat- bath room ?” 

Minho stared, mildly confused at Jisung after he asked this, and Jeongin blinked at Jisung for a second before nodding. 

“Oh, yes. Right down the hall. I can lead you if you’d like?” 

“Ah, yess- yes . Thank… um, thank yu- you, Ava,” Jisung stuttered out, and Minho noticed how affected he also seemed. He was stumbling over his words more than usual. 

“Of course. Let's go, yeah?” 

When Jisung nodded and stepped forward, pulling Minho along with him, he finally understood. Oh, may the universe bless Jisung to his death. Minho loved him terribly. 

Jeongin clearly noticed this, and appeared to shrug, before saying: “Felix and Hyunjin, I’ll be back in a moment. Just stay here,” and turning around to leave out the door. 

Jisung dragged Minho along after Jeongin, and Minho began to feel a bit self-conscious. Jeongin had already said that they were “cute,” what else would he think if they were clearly going to the bathroom together? 

But, with how calm and nice Jeongin seemed, Minho didn’t know what to think. 

Once they reached a door down the hallway, Jeongin stopped and opened it up, before turning to face Jisung and Minho.

“Take all the time you two need, okay? Really. I know that was difficult, but you’ve got this.” Jeongin put his hands up in a fighting gesture, and turned around to leave.

Minho watched as he left, but was eventually pulled into the bathroom by Jisung, who shut and locked the door behind them. 

After this, Jisung grabbed Minho by the arms once more, and stared deep into his eyes. “Hey,” he quietly repeated once again. After a moment, Jisung pulled Minho into a hug, locking his arms tightly around Minho. 

“You- youu… talk t’ m- me, Minho,” Jisung whispered, pressing a soft kiss under Minho’s ear. 

Sighing, Minho grumbled a bit before also wrapping his arms around Jisung. “I’m sorry, Jisung…” he mumbled, his hand coming up to run through Jisung’s hair. Every time Jisung talked, Minho was reminded of all the horrors he went through. And Minho loved him. How fucking terrible. 

“I’m so sorry…” Minho’s voice became teary at this, and he held Jisung tighter. Jisung hummed uncertainly and nuzzled his face into the curve of Minho’s neck. 

He breathed out shakily, feeling but resisting the urge to squeeze Jisung like a sponge. “I love you, hun. You know I don’t talk about those things… I shouldn’t get like that though. I’m sorry,” Minho breathed out, feeling stones settle in his chest. 

“Mmm… n… no. It’s ‘kay. I do that…” Jisung murmured into Minho’s ear. 

Minho sighed again, and softly responded, “It’s different, love. I need to protect you all in situations like this, yeah?” 

“But… Minho. No- none of us… know this. We don’t know… um, w- …what will hap- pen. We all lo- look out for eac’other, mhm,” Jisung whispered, and Minho could feel his breath fanning on his ear. 

Minho hummed, trying to think about this, but unable to let go of his guilt. “I’m sorry, honey,” he repeated once more, not ready to confront what Jisung brought up.

“Mm, well. I forgive— you,” Jisung whispered, patting Minho on the back. 

Don’t forgive me , Minho wanted to say, but he bit his tongue, just breathing in the air of Jisung. Jisung didn’t deserve this. And Minho didn’t deserve to be forgiven. 

“You good, jagi? I know you weren’t doing too well,” Minho asked after a brief silence, rubbing his thumb into Jisung’s waist. 

“Mhm,” Jisung hummed, sounding a bit breathy. “Just um… want t’ stay. Li- …ke this…” he mumbled, face turning so his lips were against Minho’s skin.

Once he breathed in and out once more, Jisung kissed into Minho’s neck, lips lingering a bit too long. 

“I love… you, Minho. You… you won’ leave m- …me, right..?” Jisung’s voice was a bit more muffled than before, but Minho could still sense the underlying nerves in his voice. 

“No. Never.”

And, if Minho and Jisung happened to end up kissing a bit too closely in this hospital bathroom, none would be the wiser.

Chapter Text

“Are you nervous?” Felix softly asked, leaning closer to Hyunjin. 

“Hm?” Hyunjin questioned, not quite hearing what Felix said. 

“For Seungmin to come? Are you nervous?” Felix repeated, placing his hand on the edge of the seat to lean closer. 

“Seungmin is coming?” 

“Um… yes? That’s why Jeongin just left,” Felix supplied, seeming confused as to why Hyunjin was confused. 

“Oh,” Hyunjin responded, nodding and looking over at Minho and Jisung, who were whispering to each other. 

“…So?” Felix eventually asked, not having gotten an answer yet. 

Hyunjin glanced back over at Felix and said: “Uh, yeah. I don’t think any of us have really interacted with Quivi.” 

Felix seemed to consider this for a moment, before nodding. “Yeah, you’re right.”

The two of them remained silent for a while, just watching Jisung and Minho. 

Jisung looked really nervous, and yet he had insisted on going. Hyunjin didn't understand that, but Jisung wanting to go of course forced Minho to go as well. So now they were both here, and neither seemed too hot. 

Minho looked as if he’d burst at anything bad happening, and Jisung just looked scared. Hyunjin knew that they were holding hands under the table, as usual, which he found amusing. 

They were perfect for each other, quite honestly, and it made Hyunjin upset with how they weren’t allowed to be together. 

It was Avarinth biology. How could that be against any rules? 

He thought that biology was all that was a hard truth in the world, but nobody else seemed to think so. Vorthen could always act to their instincts’ desires, but not Avi. Hyunjin didn’t know how that applied to Quivi, though, and he supposed he’d better think about that. 

Because the Quisvian, Seungmin, was coming. He would talk to them about the future, Hyunjin knew, and Seungmin’s arrival meant that they were leaving soon. 

God, that thought truly terrified Hyunjin. None of them knew what would happen, and Hyunjin knew they all were equally as afraid about it as he was. 

Either way, Hyunjin knew they’d end up with more Vorths. But, the question was whether to trust Jeongin, take a chance and lose each other, or to believe in what would likely be the case and know they’d end up back with their Vorths. 

Obviously, as far as Hyunjin and he knew Felix were concerned, only the latter and former were acceptable options. They would do everything they possibly could to make sure that they could all stay together. 

“Hi, guys,” a voice suddenly spoke, and Hyunjin looked up to see Jeongin walking over with someone who was clearly a Quisvian, with geometric-triangular golden facial markings.

The both of them were in decently casual wear, as far as Hyunjin could tell about normal fashion, so he really never would have guessed that the Quisvian was a doctor. 

“Hey. This is Seungmin,” Jeongin introduced once they made it to the table the four Avi were sitting at. Seungmin gave them all a small wave, and Hyunjin was struck with a sudden remembrance. 

Seungmin helped him and Felix at the house. Right. Hyunjin didn’t know how he completely forgot about that, but the Quisvian seemed so familiar now that he realized.

“Seungmin, this is Felix and Hyunjin,” Jeongin spoke, pointing to said Avi. “And Minho and Jisung,” having done the same with the other two Avi, they both looked a bit startled that he’d pointed them out.

“Hi, everyone,” Seungmin gently spoke, sitting down in a chair on an empty side of the table. Jeongin sat next to him, and Seungmin breathed in to speak again. 

“So, there’s two reasons why I’m here,” he began, holding up the number two. “One, to introduce myself because it’s likely that this is not the last time we meet, and second, to talk to you four about your futures.”

None of the Avi responded to this, so Jeongin ended up speaking up. 

“I’ve already told you guys a bit about your options, so I’m sure you’ve had some time to think about it… um, what happened to me was I was taken by a justice agency, who put me into an Avarinth facility, and then the Strays offered to take me in. I don’t know why I accepted, but I’m glad that I did,” Jeongin provided, smiling at Seungmin. 

“Mhm,” Seungmin nodded. “I’ve been friends with the two Vorthen, Chan and Changbin, for most of my life. I honestly wouldn’t have lived to this day without them. I was homeless for a while because my parents kicked me out, and at one point they saved enough money for us all to get an apartment in the city together.” 

Hyunjin stared down at the table as Seungmin spoke, trying to absorb the information. 

“Then I got a job and went to college, and they both got a job for the government to uncover illegal trafficking and such organizations, and ever since Jeongin came along we’ve all been a nice team for it.” 

Okay. The impromptu life story wasn’t quite what Hyunjin expected, but he supposed it would come at some point. 

“Yep, sooo…” Jeongin continued, appearing to think for a moment. “You can all choose for yourselves, or decide together, but your choices are to all go with us,” Jeongin spoke, gesturing to himself and Seungmin, “And our two Vorths, or you can go to an Avi facility, and likely be separated. Um, the government stuff is pretty complicated, so that’s pretty much all we can do, and we need to decide today to get the paperwork done in time.”

After Jeongin said this, there was a long awkward silence where Hyunjin figured they were supposed to respond in some way, but none of them did. 

Hm.

“Right. So, can I hear what you guys have to say about this?” Jeongin prompted them, and it took just a few startled glances from each of the Avi to each other before they said anything in response.

“I don’t want to separate,” was what Felix quietly said, seeming much more meek now in the presence of this Quivi. 

Nodding understandingly, Jeongin then asked: “Do the rest of you agree with that?” 

Again, as everyone hesitated, Hyunjin figured he may as well answer, since he did agree. So, he simply nodded, noticeably followed by Jisung and Minho doing the same. 

“Oh, okay.” Jeongin glanced over at Seungmin for a moment before shrugging. “So would any of you prefer going to an Avi facility then?” 

Once yet another silence followed, Jeongin attempted to change his approach. 

“Can you, um, just nod if you don’t want to go to an Avi facility..?” He tried instead.

Hyunjin felt a bit embarrassed by how Jeongin had clearly adapted his strategy for them being completely silent, but nodded anyway. 

When he looked over, he noticed that Jisung looked a bit pale, but saw that they all nodded once more. Okay, great. So that decided things. 

“Alright,” Jeongin said, nodding. “I know that this is not the ideal choice, but it really is the only one that can for sure keep you guys together.” 

From across from him, Hyunjin audibly heard Jisung exhale shakily.  He instantly looked up, and saw Jisung, with his eyes lost to space. Uh oh. 

Looking over to Minho, it was clear that he had noticed, as he was turned slightly towards Jisung and fussing with something under the table. 

He glanced over at Felix, who did not seem to notice what was going on.

His eyes flitted over to Jeongin, who was quietly saying something to Seungmin, before immediately turning back to Felix. 

Tapping Felix on the arm, once he got his attention, Hyunjin discretely gestured over to Jisung. 

Oh, Felix mouthed to him, looking a bit stunned and lost.

Felix visibly kicked Minho from under the table, and Minho glanced up at him, looking a bit annoyed. 

Is he okay? Hyunjin saw Felix mouth, and Minho’s face turned a bit uncertain, before he shrugged, turning his attention back to Jisung. 

Sharing another glance with Felix, Hyunjin felt his heart rate increase. Something about this had triggered Jisung, and Minho did not look great either. But Minho had also been really stressed recently, so maybe it was that? 

He didn’t know, but something needed to be done. 

Or maybe not. Maybe Jisung would get over it. But did that ever really happen? Not really. 

“Okay, mainly Felix and Minho, I just wanted to explain a bit about what will happen soon since I haven’t done that to either of you yet.” Jeongin didn't seem to have noticed. 

Jisung wasn’t being spoken to. 

Okay. 

Hyunjin mentally prepared himself for what he was about to do, before he eventually just blurted out: “Excuse me?” 

“Hm?” Jeongin hummed, looking surprised that Hyunjin had spoken at all. 

Hyunjin froze for a second before his brain caught up. “Um… is it okay if I go with Jisung to his doctor? I think she wanted to talk to him,” he spoke, letting the lies shamelessly flow out of his mouth. It didn’t matter. 

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Jeongin agreed, glancing at Seungmin and giving a small shrug. 

“Okay. Mm… thank you,” Hyunjin mumbled out, standing up and quickly reaching out a hand for Jisung’s. 

Jisung didn’t react at all, so Minho took his hand and placed it into Hyunjin’s, where Hyunjin then tugged on it and pulled Jisung up and out of the bench seat. 

Hearing Jisung make a small squeak at the action, Hyunjin hushed him and dragged him away. He didn’t look back as he walked away, focusing on just leaving and getting to a safer space. 

“Hyunjin,” Jisung breathed out as they walked, but the older didn’t stop for him. They needed to get back to Jisung’s room. That was all Hyunjin could focus on. 

They passed some doctors and whatnot walking about, but Hyunjin made sure to not pay attention to them. 

Finally, they made it to Jisung’s room, and Hyunjin dragged him in and quickly shut the door behind them. 

When he turned around, Jisung was staring at him, and Hyunjin couldn’t even tell if he was really looking at him. 

“Hyunjin, I… I’m sorry,” the younger gasped out, suddenly grabbing Hyunjin by the shoulders. 

Hyunjin grasped Jisung’s wrists, and carefully uttered, “Hey, you’re okay, breathe, darling.” For some reason, Hyunjin’s words had the complete opposite effect from what he expected, and Jisung just fell even further into his panic.

“I- I… pl- please, Hyunjin, I can’t.” Jisung heaved in a breath, his grip on Hyunjin’s shoulders tightening to an uncomfortable level. 

“Hey,” Hyunjin more forcibly spoke, gently pressing Jisung back until he stepped backwards. 

“N… no, the- the Vorths, Hyunjin, the Vor…” Jisung swallowed thickly, staring off into the distance. 

“You’re good, honey, come on,” Hyunjin softly spoke, directing Jisung to sit down on his bed. 

Once they both had sat down, Hyunjin looked back at Jisung, and saw tears glassing over his eyes. 

It only took a second before they spilt over the surface, and Jisung was silently crying. “I ca- can’t, Hyunjin,” he tearfully muttered, voice shuddering as he breathed. 

“You can't what, honey?” Hyunjin asked, moving closer and putting his arm around Jisung. 

“I don’t- I don’t wa- nt to- to get hurt ag- again,” he softly responded, failing to keep his voice steady. 

Hearing Jisung’s voice like this brought painful memories back to Hyunjin’s mind, which he tried to ignore in this moment. 

“Shh, honey, I know. I know. But we’ll all be together, right? That’s all that matters,” he comforted, talking so low that he may as well have been whispering. 

Jisung choked on a sob and nodded, turning to wrap his own arms around Hyunjin. 

“I- I’m… some- o- one’s talking t’ me,” Jisung eventually whispered, clutching onto Hyunjin like a vice. 

Oh. Fuck. 

Hallucinations and panic attacks did not go well with Jisung. 

“What are they saying?” Hyunjin gently asked, making sure not to sound too desperate to know. That might mess this moment up. 

“Um… whispers… they- they took the Vorth’s… hea- hearts,” he mumbled out. “And their… heads,” he added in an even softer whisper, so quiet that Hyunjin nearly missed it. 

Their hearts and their heads? Minho sometimes told him how Jisung’s hallucinations almost always had some strange meaning to them, but Hyunjin did not understand this. 

“Mm,” Hyunjin hummed, trying not to have Jisung think he wasn’t listening. “That’s okay, darling. How about you lay down and try to rest?” He suggested, to which Jisung grumbled and loosened his grasp around Hyunjin.

“Don- you, don’t lea…ve me, please..?” He asked, sharing nervous eye contact with Hyunjin, hiccuping in between breaths.

“I won’t, don’t worry,” Hyunjin affirmed, gently pushing Jisung to lean backwards and fall against the bed. 

“Just try to sleep, dear,” he whispered to Jisung, running his hand through his hair. 

“Don’ want t’ sl…eep,” Jisung mumbled, staring up at Hyunjin with his teary eyes. 

Hyunjin wiped away the tears from Jisung’s face. “I know, honey, but you know what happens when you don’t sleep like this, yeah?” 

“Mhm,” Jisung begrudgingly grumbled, letting his eyes flutter closed.

Sobbing aloud once more, and sniffling, Jisung blindly grabbed for Hyunjin’s hand.

Hyunjin helped him, grasping his hand in a gentle hold, and rubbing it soothingly. He was sure it was difficult for Jisung to calm down so suddenly, going from such a high stress scenario for him to trying to go to sleep in just a few minutes, but it really would be beneficial. Jisung just needed rest sometimes. That was his only “cure.” 

So Jisung just needed to sleep. Having him freak out in the middle of that meeting would’ve been horrible for all of them, so Hyunjin was actually really glad that he was able to do this. They all tried the hardest they could to help each other. 

Really, all of them were the nicest people Hyunjin had ever met in his entire life. Genuinely. Even with all their faults, they all just cared so much. Sometimes, Hyunjin didn’t understand it all, but them just existing made it somehow work. 

They would all do so much for each other. It really made Hyunjin’s world. He was almost fully convinced that they all were guardian angels sent to him by God or something, but he supposed that that was a bit self-centered. 

Whatever. Minho always told him that it only mattered what he believed anyways, so they all were angels. 

And the God above gave them all this fate either way, so who cared? Hyunjin was learning not to.

Chapter Text

It was hot. Jisung was hot. 

His hands wouldn’t listen to his sensible brain. 

He could’ve been addicted to those lips. 

Minho was a whole new kind of drug. 

The world…

Was spinning.

Or maybe he was.

But Minho’s hands were firm on his skin. 

Sparks shot through his body, and Jisung couldn’t get enough of it. 

“Minho,” Jisung had breathed out, unsure why he was even saying the other’s name. 

He made a strange guttural noise that sounded terrible, but… 

It wasn’t. Not at all.

Jisung didn’t even know where he was; but he supposed it didn’t matter. 

He was with Minho.

Minho.

Their kisses melted into Jisung’s brain like acid. 

“I love you, jagi.”

The words have never felt more right.

But it just wasn’t enough.

They were free now. Why ever stop?

Minho didn’t. 

It was dark here—safe. It felt like a secret, yet it wasn’t hidden. 

Minho laughed softly into his ear. What a wonderful sound. How had Jisung never heard it before?

Jisung was saying something that he couldn’t understand, but it flowed out of his mouth like running water. 

Easy. It was easy to be here with Minho. 

His hands were like velvet, brushing against every part of him. 

Jisung felt warm, and his heart did too.

Such a strange sensation. 

Muffled words filled his ears.

He twisted his arms around Minho, assuring he wouldn’t leave him. 

Melting down into his hold was all he could do. 

His heart,

Beating. 

Jisung could feel it.

His heart was in his hand.

And it beat, yet his own was strangely erratic against it. 

“Love y…ou, love you hyung.” 

He was repeating it over and over. 

It felt so natural.

Jisung loved Minho.

He was the warmth in his heart. What kept it beating.

This world was nothing, and he was everything. 

***

Jisung woke up slowly.  

He was awake, but his mind wasn’t there. 

He couldn’t stop thinking about that .

The room smelled sterile, and it sort of made him uncomfortable. 

But whatever. 

Someone was talking. Well, Jisung figured he heard whispers, but he could have been hallucinating it. 

So he just ignored it. 

There was a buzzing, though. He thought it was some sort of heating machine or something, but he had no idea. 

Hmm…

Jisung hummed to make sure his voice worked, and peeked his eyes open. 

Nobody was in his direct line of sight, which concerned him. He did remember telling Hyunjin to stay with him… right?

Maybe Hyunjin thought he was too stupid to realize he left. His heart hurt thinking that, but most people seemed to think that way, so it was certainly a possibility. 

Minho didn’t think that way. 

Minho. Goodness. Jisung’s brain was suddenly flooded again with memories of that dream… but he didn’t mind it. 

Glancing to the side, Jisung’s eye caught sight of people. Three people, and Jisung coughed in his throat to clear it, or maybe to try and catch their attention. He couldn’t quite see or tell who they were. 

One of them looked directly at him, then slowly stood, catching the attention of the other two.

They walked over to Jisung, and Jisung could finally tell who it was. And he was delighted. Minho. 

“Mmm,” he hummed, letting Minho know he saw him. 

“Hi, jagi,” Minho whispered to him, kneeling down near Jisung’s face. 

The only noise Jisung could get himself to make was a grunt, so he settled for that for a response. He tried not to think about what the word “jagi” reminded him of. 

Smiling softly, Minho asked: “Are you feeling better? We can talk if you want, I’ll tell you what Jeongin told me.” 

Breathing out an exhale, Jisung nodded gently, not able to take his eyes off of Minho. 

He barely even noticed Minho asking the other two in the room to come over, too lost in the entirety of Minho. 

It took a good minute or so before he realized the other two people were Felix and Hyunjin, and was honestly relieved when he had. 

“Okay. Can you listen for me, Jisung?” Minho asked, and Jisung nodded on instinct. Of course he could. 

Still, Jisung couldn’t take his eyes off Minho for long enough to even really take in the states of Felix and Hyunjin, but Minho didn’t seem panicked, so it must’ve been fine. 

“We’re going to be leaving once the hospital can finish Felix’s arm scans, which should happen in a few days,” Minho told him, staring off at what Jisung figured was Felix, but he didn’t know for sure. 

“Um… Seungmin said they’d do it in two and we’d leave a day after then..?” Felix stated, saying it like he was unsure. But Minho nodded, so he must’ve been right. 

“Uh, yes, but Jisung, darling, you slept through the day and night so… that’ll be in two days.”

Jisung hardly processed this information, too enraptured by Minho , before it eventually sunk in. 

Hm. Okay. So… their safe sanctuary would be over in two days. That made him upset, but he just focused on Minho and the feeling majorly went away. 

His Ava would keep him safe. 

That thought only lasted until Jisung realized the look in Minho’s eyes. 

He was nervous. Maybe even scared. This realization only made the sensation in his chest grow even greater than before. 

Oh no. 

“Oh! Also, apparently Quisvians can like detect your pain or something. That’s why there’s so many Quivi doctors here,” Felix eventually added, but Jisung could hardly hear him over the look in Minho’s eyes. 

His eyebrows furrowed and he stuck an arm up to touch Minho’s face. 

When Minho saw what he was doing, he moved to grasp Jisung’s hand and, having done so, asked, “What’s up, Jisung?” 

Grumbling, Jisung pulled his hand away and lifted it to his lips. He pressed a kiss into it and quickly returned it to Minho’s face, lightly hitting it against his cheek. 

The older Ava’s eyes squinted as he smiled, grabbing onto Jisung’s hand again and muttering: “Thank you, Jisung.” 

It was like a secret.

But they knew. 

Jisung tried not to let his face flush at the new reminder of that dream. His eyes unconsciously flitted down to Minho’s lips, before he forced himself to look elsewhere. Back in Minho’s eyes it was. 

He loved Minho. He was hardly able to keep his eyes off him. Hm. 

He called Minho “hyung.” In that… dream of his.

Jisung hadn’t done that in a long time. And for good reason. So why would he do that? He didn’t even want to, considering the consequences, so he didn’t know why his subconscious had him do that. 

Minho loved when Jisung called him hyung. It was a secret only they shared, way more secret than their little… relationship status. “Hyung” was far more forbidden in the Vorths’ eyes, which Jisung knew because he’d seen Vorth watching some strange video of Avi doing partner-like things to each other.

He’d also said to him and Felix how… some word Jisung didn’t remember… cool, maybe, it’d be if he had them two do that. 

But none of them ever had them say “hyung” to each other for fun. No way. 

Hmm… 

Suddenly, Jisung thought of the fact that Minho liked to hear about his dreams, along with his hallucinations (for some reason Jisung could never remember, but it made Minho happy so he didn’t care), and he quietly grunted out: “Minho.” 

“Hmm?” Minho replied, and Jisung belatedly realized that he’d just been silently staring at Minho that entire time. 

“I dream…ed,” he whispered, and Minho nodded at him to keep going. 

“It- um…” Jisung stumbled over his words, realizing he wasn’t sure how to tell Minho about… that. 

“What happened, hun?” Minho prompted, and Jisung’s eyebrows furrowed in thought. 

“Ummm…” Jisung continued to stall, before leaning a bit closer and cupping his hand under his mouth to indicate he wanted to whisper.

“I- um, it was us… we wer- were u- uh… doing forb- …forbidden things… yes?” He quietly murmured once Minho brought his ear to Jisung’s mouth. 

Pulling back to see Minho’s reaction, Minho nodded, and Jisung hesitantly continued. “Uh, I ca- alled- called you… ‘hyung ,’” he breathed out, becoming subconsciously quieter at the last word.

“Oh, okay… thank you, Jisung,” Minho gratefully replied, pulling back and visibly thinking.

He figured Minho knew what “forbidden things” he was talking about, because of the hints in his tone he tried to make, but wasn’t quite sure.

“Oh, Jisung, love,” Minho suddenly spoke again, and Jisung refocused his attention on the present. 

“Hyunjin told me you had a hallucination, hmm?” 

Oh, yes. 

Something about what Minho said made Jisung’s heart feel warmer, yet he wasn’t sure what. Simply nodding, Jisung waited for Minho to continue, not catching the hint. 

“Can you tell me about it?” Minho eventually asked, and Jisung realized he probably implied that earlier.

“Ah, y- es… they to- took… the… time,” Jisung muttered out, squinting his eyes as he thought. “ And their heads, a- arms… um… ‘told me t- …to, uh, ‘sleep and see,’ I th- I think…”

“Lots of seeing,” he added after a moment when Minho didn’t respond.

“Right,” the older Ava nodded, thinking. “And after that you had that dream?” 

Nodding in affirmation, Jisung exhaled softly, trying to release the tension in his shoulders.

“Did you like the dream?” 

The light blush that overtook Jisung’s face was unstoppable as those words sunk in. 

“Mhm…” he quietly answered, a bit hesitant, but was relieved once Minho smiled softly at him. Did Minho understand?

At this, Jisung remembered that Hyunjin and Felix were still sitting next to him, but when he glanced over, they were engrossed in their own conversation. That was good. 

Minho looked a little bit more calm now that Jisung looked at him again, which lifted a bit of weight off his chest. However, he was moderately sure that this was only the calm before the storm.

He was pretty sure they’d need to drive in a car again, and Minho absolutely hated cars. None of the Avi knew why, but they never asked because of how delicate the subject was for Minho.

The good thing was that they rarely went on car rides anyways, but sometimes the Vorthen took Minho on “vacations” that Jisung had heard were primarily car rides, so…

Uh, yeah. Sometimes Jisung also took rides over to doctors’ homes for medical help when he overdosed, and all Jisung learned from those was that roads were weird when driven over, and that it was appealing to Vorths to hurt Avi in danger machines like cars. Maybe that had something to do with Minho’s fear. 

Either way, Jisung was glad that Minho felt better, at least a bit for now. He knew how it felt to be that anxious for so long. And it’d been a while since they had that talk with the Quivi. 

Exhaling sharply, Jisung felt a sensation creep up his chest remembering all of this. Goodness. They’d be leaving in two days. 

That wasn’t good. The panic he felt yesterday dug its way to the surface, and he swallowed hard, trying to keep it down. 

Staring extra hard at Minho, Jisung made himself think Minho’s not panicking, so you shouldn’t be. But that really only worked so well; just look at what happened yesterday! 

And really, Jisung didn’t want to burden any of them too badly, even though he kept on doing so , he just didn’t want to if he didn’t have to. But… he just couldn’t stop. 

His heart truly hurt like this, like there was something wrong with his chest, and throat. The panic was just rising, fighting its way up until it could sprout and engulf him in fiery havoc. 

And Jisung couldn’t stop it like this. He was in public, albeit in a hospital room, but there wasn’t anything to do here. Before, he’d gone to the bathroom with Minho, but the conditions were not at all right for that now.

He was in a hospital bed. In a hospital. So far from his life. His worthless life. 

At least Minho was here. 

Chapter Text

The sun was setting. 

Their world was ending, and the sun was setting. 

The doctors had told them that Felix’s arm had permanent nerve damage from the trauma inflicted against it, and that it may never work right again. Felix cried hearing that, so now they were all sitting here, watching the sunset through a window in the cafeteria. 

Apparently the cafeteria was open all day and night. 

It was beautiful. Felix had never seen such a sunset like this. 

Tomorrow, quite literally tomorrow , they’d be leaving. They also told Felix that he had some sort of virus. Something like the flu, and that he’d probably get “pretty sick considering his current condition,” which just made this all worse. 

And he did feel sick. But he was too absorbed in everything that had just happened to really notice it. Adrenaline or something. Whatever. He didn’t care anymore.

Why did it matter?

Who cared about all the pointless shit he knew from being educated at that Avi seller? It didn’t even fucking matter. 

All he really was good for was cleaning, and now he couldn’t even be half good at that. What was the point? 

He just didn’t know what to do. He felt like he should be angry and screaming and throwing shit or whatever, but he just felt done. He’d never really been able to get mad like that, it just felt like this was how it was, and maybe it was his fault, but it happened anyways. 

The only thing he could do in this miserable life. Anything not to get hurt, and now he couldn’t even avoid it. 

Felix sighed and inhaled shakily, trying not to let his tears overtake him anymore. He leaned against Hyunjin heavily, not even caring about what others might think. He was just heart-wrenchingly upset. 

Sometimes he didn’t understand what Jisung meant when he told him that he felt as if his heart was under pressure, but it was in these moments that he really knew. It was like he’d implode or something, but he knew that this pressure wouldn’t go away so easily. 

He just didn’t know what to do. He wanted to break and explode, but didn’t have the motivation to do anything besides sit here and watch the outside world. 

There was a crazy system of roads just beyond the highway, leading to a city somewhat far away.

Jisung, for some reason, was mesmerized by these roads, which was a tiny bit of light in this shitty situation. Jisung always managed to lighten all of their moods somehow, Felix didn’t really know why. 

He was kind of like a cat. Well, Avi were known for their cat-like features anyways, so he supposed it made sense. He didn’t really know. It felt kind of demeaning to consider Jisung similar to a cat considering his circumstances, but he didn’t think Jisung would mind too much. Jisung liked cats. 

They all did. Apparently, or as far as Minho had told them, a cat used to frequent the area he lived before the Vorthen, and it’d sleep with him sometimes. 

That story always made Felix feel a bit more hopeful for some reason. Everyone had seemed to treat the street cat well, according to Minho. So maybe there was some hope in the world.

Not here, though. But at least a cat had a better life than him. 

Felix bristled thinking about that. That thought made him a bit bitter. He didn’t understand why a cat , something with arguably less meaning for its life than Avi’s, could live better than them. All the Vorthen that Felix met hated animals, maybe even more than Avi, which Felix never understood (they were alive , so..?), but that was the only constant information he got about them. 

If Felix ruled the world, he’d probably put every Vorthen he’d met to jail and make the world a haven for animals and Avi. But unfortunately that wouldn’t be the case. 

It never fucking would.

Feeling his tears fight their way up once more, Felix sighed and squeezed his eyes shut. 

Minho was right. This was bullshit. 

A moment later, Felix felt Hyunjin squeeze his arm, and he begrudgingly opened his eyes, looking around.

Jisung was still just watching, and Felix caught a glimpse of Minho’s hand on Jisung’s.

Seeing that they were still up to their typical ministrations, Felix calmed a bit.

The world was going on. Still. It hadn’t quite ended.

Yeah. People, Avi and the like, had been walking about ever since they’d sat down here. They were still doing stuff . Even while his world was crashing down. 

Felix exhaled sharply and brought his hand to hang onto Hyunjin’s arm, just to stay connected to this world. This moment. 

The sun was gorgeous. He understood why Jisung couldn’t take his eyes away. Honestly, he was pretty sure that none of them had seen a sunset in a long while.

And it was just beautiful. It seemed so romantic for some reason. Painting the sky would be such a wonderful bloom gift; Felix couldn’t help but wonder if he could ever do such a thing for anyone. 

In his heart, he deeply yearned to, but his mind was doubtful. He knew how his blooms went. That simply wouldn’t be possible. Well, Minho would tell them stories of the clouds and stars that danced around the sky to create masterpieces like they were looking at now, so maybe Felix could have a chance at asking them to help him out. 

Maybe. Ugh. He felt so exhausted by all of this.

Felix squeezed his hand into a fist with the sudden onslaught of anxiety that rushed over him. Oh god. Tomorrow they would be leaving. And they’d be sleeping after this. So it was basically only a few hours away. 

Fuck. They’d be leaving their past Vorths, and would be taken in by new Vorthen who lived with Jeongin. And they didn’t know these Vorths; as far as Felix knew, they had no connection to the past Vorths- they didn’t even live near them. 

So who knew what they would be into when hurting Avi. Felix had been exposed to a decent amount of exotic people and strategies, but he didn’t know if these Vorthen would be any similar. 

And well, he supposed that there was only one way to find out, but he didn’t want to at all. Maybe they’d made a terrible mistake trying to stick together. But it would be worth it, right? 

Felix didn’t know anymore. He didn’t know, and didn’t know if maybe they could’ve just gotten only-Avi households if they’d gone to a facility. He just didn’t know . And maybe this mistake would plague all of them for the rest of their lives. 

But at least they would (maybe) be together..?

***

It was D-Day. Today. 

One of the doctors had met with each of them recently and told them what medication they’d all need to take, and they all got a bag to hold stuff in. 

And now they were all in the cafeteria once more. Minho was trying to keep it together. 

He just didn’t understand. Why hadn’t the Vorths come and take them back yet? 

He was so used to it happening every time that this just made no sense. It was bound to happen- and if not now, they’d find a way to get them back. 

So he just didn’t understand why this all was happening. And now, he’d be going in a car to a new house after meeting with these goddamn new Vorthen. 

Jisung had cried going to sleep last night, and Minho just didn’t know how to help him now. He didn’t know if he could anyways. It was like back in the interrogations; he was just shutting down. 

He had managed to help Felix with Hyunjin by coming up with the idea to watch the sunset, but that didn’t feel like anything.

It was silent at their table, each of them just staring into space as they waited for something. Something or nothing. 

Goodness. He just didn’t know what to do. He so badly didn’t want to do this, and was fighting inside himself with whether or not to try and escape from this. 

But he knew what would happen if he did that- and more importantly, what the effect would be on his Avi. But would it really be better to just go with this? 

He didn’t have a choice, he kept needing to remind himself. None of them did, not anymore at least. 

So why was it so hard to accept it this time? Things like this have been happening to him for years - why now was he feeling so terrible? 

Realistically, he knew why, but he just didn’t get it . Why did this have to happen? Why had their whole world been upturned, again? 

It was at times like these where Minho would just stare out a window, looking for answers from any piece of the universe. 

A flurry of birds flew out of one tree, out into the distance, and Minho saw some people walking on a pathway, as the wind rustled through trees. The world was pulsating like one big beating heart.

What was the purpose? What was the meaning ? Jisung had had dreams and visions of that mechanical creature, which always seemed to come out during the worst times, of him and Minho, and voices of hearts and hushing. 

The hushing was normal- it had been so ever since the Vorthen had made Jisung so scared to talk. 

And the creature had appeared for Jisung during multiple of his overdoses, and when he was experiencing that severe withdrawal from all those drugs the Vorthen used to give him, along with other various times. 

Jisung would always see it and clutch at his heart, like it was trying to take it away from him. It was one way Minho knew that he was seeing it. That along with him panicking about his heart beating too fast, but that didn’t only happen then.

Right after the Vorthen had all left for a business trip, leaving the Avi with zero food except for the amount Minho had managed to sneak out of the kitchen, it appeared. Along with a few of the days that any of them would come back to the Avi room at night, beaten to an inch of their life. 

It was obviously a sign for something , Minho just didn’t know what yet. Sometimes the creature scared Jisung, sometimes it weirdly comforted him. 

Jisung had been enraptured by the sunset last night. It was honestly cute. Afterwards, however, Jisung had whispered to him that as the clouds drifted, he heard voices “from them,” talking about how wondrous the sun smelled, filling their own lungs and blood with its energy. 

This struck Minho as particularly strange, but he couldn’t understand the meaning. On top of that, yesterday night Jisung had started crying, before he hugged Minho, mumbling what Minho understood as: “ My… su…n,” and hanging onto him silently for a good minute before eventually breaking away and mumbling a goodbye, entering his room. 

So Minho was just left there, standing kind of stunned, in that hallway. It was all just weird . 

So now they were here. And Minho was still stunned. 

It just didn’t feel real. Like he’d wake up having been left in that room for days. Maybe it was a fever dream, or some crazily complex hallucination. Even Hyunjin got them sometimes, so it was possible. 

A door creaked open across the room, and Minho immediately froze up. Fuck. Fuck this world. Fuck his life - why hadn’t he just jumped out that window over there? 

There would be no escaping it now. Minho shivered just thinking of the consequences of being a new Avi for this household and trying to escape. Vorthen always quickly put them in their place; and always rushed to stake their claim. 

Oh god. Minho almost forgot about all the initiation rituals. Maybe he should have asked Jeongin more questions- every Vorthen had an initiation ritual when they got a new Ava, everybody knew that. What would these Vorthen do? 

Minho could only guess. From what he’d heard, there'd been torture rooms up for rent that they sometimes used, or they’d rent out a room at a hotel or a house in the country, or they just did their thing at home. Minho’s Vorthen liked to make a big thing about it, going to some fancy hotel alone with the Ava and doing whatever they wanted, along with taking them out in public in town to let Vorths laugh and leer at them. 

That town fucking sucked. Yet it was all Minho had known. He’d lived in Vrysholm for years and years on the streets and whatnot before he was taken. He’d never been outside it except for when the Vorthen would take him on joy rides. 

And except for now, of course. They were just outside the city. Not quite near Vrysholm at all as far as Minho knew. 

The sound of footsteps shocked Minho back to reality, and his head snapped up to see Jeongin and someone who was undeniably a Vorth. This Vorth had gray-ish-blue streaks in his hair, something disturbingly unique from the colors Minho usually saw. 

Oh fuck. Almost on the verge of panicking, Minho hurriedly glanced over at Jisung, and discreetly inched his chair closer to him seeing his nervous face. 

He couldn’t help Felix or Hyunjin from the opposite side of the table, but he sent a hopefully helpful gaze at them.

He didn’t know; he couldn’t tell. A Vorth was approaching. Fuck. 

Subconsciously sinking down into his chair, he tried to breathe to calm himself but just couldn’t force it. It was okay. It was okay- he had to do this. It was serious this time; he’d been able to force himself to be calm many times before for his Avi, and this was one. He needed to be strong.

“Hey,” Jeongin quietly said as he walked up with the Vorth, and Minho could hardly force himself to even look up from where his eyes were locked on his lap. 

Oh goodness, Minho couldn’t just break down right here- he couldn’t, he couldn’t . 

“Um, this is Chan,” Jeongin continued, drawing a chair up for himself to sit in. 

No- no, no. Was this really happening now? Minho would be back in more Vorths hands again? Why did he let this happen to his Avi? How could he?

“He was the one who mainly helped organize getting you guys out.”

Oh, great . Praise the Vorth. Praise him, he saved you! All of you— amazing! Praise him. Praise him! Praise him, praisehim praisehimprai-

“Uhmm, say something, Chan,” Jeongin asked, ordered- demanded. How could an Ava have the gall ? Was this Vorth going to show the Avi their place right now? By smacking the disgusting fucking attitude out of Jeongin? Of course he would- of course!

“Uh, yeah, I’m Chan, Jeongin is trusting me to drive you all back to our house, and please don’t feel too stressed out by this- you can tell any of us if you need a break or anything, we’re just going to take this transition slowly, yeah?” 

Wow, a trickster, huh? Why was he talking like this? Why was he talking like this? Oh fucking hell- why why why? No Vorth fucking talked like that, even as a joke. Oh, what had Minho gotten them into?

“We have a few empty bedrooms in our house, so you all can do whatever you want with those; stay together in one, or separate, or whatever,” the Vorth kept talking, and Minho felt his mind drift away and away .

No- no. He needed to focus. He had to. He had to-

“And, as for an update on the Vorthen you used to live with, the government has seized ownership of their home and started investigating the rest of that town, and they’ll be in jail for a long while. The court date is about a month from now.” 

Government, investigating, jail, court, jail, jail, jail. Now that a Vorth spoke those words, Minho fully felt the weight of them pressing down on him. 

And for some reason, they came with the crushing pressure of guilt . Like he could’ve saved his Avi, or just could’ve done better. How much could he mess up people's lives in this lifetime?

”So… with that, I’ll take my leave and tell Seungmin to come in, hmm?” 

Minho vaguely saw Jeongin nod at the Vorth, before the Vorth stood and said his goodbyes, leaving the cafeteria from where he came from.  

Jeongin had turned to watch him go, and turned back to face the Avi at the table. Only now could Minho get himself to look Jeongin in the eyes. 

”You guys alright?” Jeongin asked, voice lowered a bit like he was sharing a secret with them. 

From what Minho couldn’t really see, none of them replied. 

”Please, just trust me for now when I say that you’re going to be safe with us. It’ll all be over soon.” 

Minho couldn’t tell if Jeongin’s words held any weight. And right now he didn’t really care enough to figure it out. 

It just meant nothing to him.

Not right now. 

He didn't know if it ever would.

Chapter Text

Minho glanced over to see Jisung, and rubbed his knee comfortingly when he again saw a negative expression on his dear Ava’s face. He felt terrible that he couldn’t do anything to help him right now, and just didn’t know if he could fix it. 

But, before he could mull it over anymore, the door opening sounded throughout the room. 

Goodness. This time, Minho looked up right away, and was met with the sight of Seungmin approaching them. 

His mind was empty as the Quisvian neared them, sitting down in a chair next to Jeongin.

”Hello, I actually just finished going through the paperwork with the hospital, so this is convenient…” Seungmin said to Jeongin, not trying to hide his words from the other Avi. ”I think it’s about time to go, yes?” 

”Um, well,” Jeongin muttered before turning to face the other Avi once more. ”I promise, this is going to be different for you guys. Just think of where I ended up! Please just trust me for now, I’ll help you all through this.” Jeongin sounded a bit desperate as he said this, which confused Minho in a way that did not help his situation.

”Mhm, you’ll be safe. You can all just relax in your rooms for today, we’re going to take our time. We’re hoping that tomorrow we’ll be able to all properly introduce ourselves,” Seungmin added, moving his chair to prepare to stand up. 

Jeongin followed him soon after, gesturing to the Avi to do the same. 

As Minho begrudgingly stood up, he realized how serious this was. It was really happening. He suddenly felt sick to his stomach as he glanced over at his Avi, and he grabbed Jisung’s hand to pull him over. 

”It’ll all be okay,” he mumbled to the younger, unsure if he really was trying to comfort Jisung or himself. 

”It…’s okay , Minho…” Jisung whispered in response. Minho didn’t really understand what he was trying to say, but assumed he was just trying to enhance the strength and comfort of his words. 

When Minho looked up once more, he saw that Seungmin was already walking away, and Jeongin had been talking quietly with Hyunjin and Felix, who both looked a bit queasy. 

Oh goodness . Minho gripped tightly onto his bag with shaking hands, letting go of Jisung’s, and guided him forward. It was okay. This would happen regardless. He couldn’t do anything to stop it, all he could do was damage control, and he needed to be present for that. 

Focus on that; be smart about this. He had to. His Avi’s fates were on the line. 

Swallowing thickly, Minho followed after Jeongin, Felix, and Hyunjin as they began walking forwards. For some reason, Felix was holding hands with Jeongin, who was gently dragging him on. 

Minho might’ve heard something along the lines of Want to hold my hand? and Is that allowed? from the two, but he really wasn’t paying attention. 

He had to pay attention. That was non-negotiable. 

Making their way through the cafeteria, then out the door, Minho honestly felt like he could throw up. Or maybe his veins would burst from how hard his heart was pumping, or his hands would just shake out of his wrists. 

Was he giving in by doing this? Could he have avoided it? He didn’t know. And he may have made a fatal mistake for all of them. 

Lost in his thoughts and anxiety, Minho shut down more and more the closer they got to the entrance of the hospital. 

It was right there. A glowing bar of light coming from the wall, that would mean life or death for them all. He couldn’t run now. The Vorth was standing right outside the door. Or at least someone was. The door opened smooth as cutting soft butter, letting in a rush of wind and dread.

So badly, Minho wanted to be selfish right now. But he couldn’t leave- couldn’t get away. He was stuck. 

Someone was talking, saying words that made no sense to Minho’s brain, and they started moving again, so Minho walked and walked, across the stone, the asphalt. 

The ground was rough against Minho’s shoe-covered feet, and it was all he could focus on. The road to his death. The only destination available for him in this world. 

He couldn’t get away. 

They stopped at some point, and Minho had managed to get the mind to look up and try to understand what was going on. They were standing next to a car. A car, alone in the near vicinity. 

No- no, no… 

But, the Vorthen always told him before he was taken on an outing; he wasn’t ready, he couldn’t do this now. 

The voice of one or many Vorthen filled his ears and infested his mind with pure horror. 

He hadn’t even- where was Vorth? Vorth at least, always , took him here, where was he ? Oh fuck- no, no- he’d beg or plead or whatever, he always did, why was this happening? What had he done?

He’d apologize and let them do whatever they wanted to him at home- just not here, please, not here. 

Someone touched his hand, and he flinched horribly, backing up and trying to see , but his mind was whirring so fast it blurred his vision like a tornado. 

Oh no . They were going to force him in there, weren’t they? Running or disobeying would just make this so much worse- what had he done ? 

Again, someone grabbed onto his hand, and Minho flinched like a maniac once more, and tried to get away, but they held a firm grasp, soon grabbing onto his other hand. 

No- no, he couldn’t do this- he couldn’t, he couldn’t . 

Throat closing up so hard on his breathing, Minho choked and gasped for air, hardly even in control of how his body was reacting anymore. 

Some muffled voice weaved its way into his head, and soon he was being pulled away. 

No, please , no. He wanted to plead, to try and get these people to stop, but he couldn’t get the words out. 

Vaguely, he felt the hands around his release, soon to be replaced by someone grabbing his face. 

Abruptly, they shook his head back and forth, the hands soon interweaving themselves into his hair, drawing circles into his scalp with their nails. 

It didn’t even hurt for some reason, but Minho still grabbed onto the person’s arms, limply trying to push them away. 

And they didn’t stop. Someone was quietly speaking to him, far too hushed to be heard over the static in his ears. 

It felt like forever that Minho was just stuck in this panicked daze, with these two people all over him. 

Soon, through the haze, he heard someone mumbling into his other ear: ”Jagi.”

This, for some reason, was what shocked him out of his head, the world crashing back onto him like a pile of bricks. 

Jisung was standing directly in front of him, and Jeongin was to the side, but Minho majorly ignored him. 

” Jisung,” Minho desperately breathed out. He tried to make sense of things as well as he could, but all he could see was that car. ”This- no , I- we can’t , I can’t,” he panickingly whispered, pulling Jisung closer so he could hear. 

”Hey, Minho, it’s okay, we’re all here with you,” Jeongin gently spoke to him, and Minho glanced over at him, before hurriedly turning back to Jisung. 

”Jisung- I’m sorry , I…” Minho tried, voice fading away as he heaved for air and tried to let the world settle around him again.

”Shhh,” Jisung hushed him, cupping his cheek way too intimately for this moment. ”Jeongin- h… he knows, ah, what to- to do, mhm? We… trus…t him,” he whispered softly, and Minho could just see how nervous he also was. 

”Come on, Minho, yeah? We’re all good, the ride’s only a few minutes, okay?”

Minho shook his head, muttering: ”I- I can’t, I can’t…”

He breathed in a shaky breath, pulling Jisung’s hands down from his head and holding them close to his chest. 

”It’s okay, we can wait as long as you need,” Jeongin quietly told him, causing a pillar of guilt to stab through Minho’s chest. 

”No- no, we can’t, they’ll just be more mad…” Minho mumbled in response, looking off into the distance. 

”Hm? Who, Minho?” Jeongin asked him, gently prodding.

”The Vorths ,” Minho shakily whispered, almost spitting out the words. 

”They’re not going to be mad, I promise. If they are - which they aren’t, and they won’t be- I’ll tell them what’s right. Please don’t worry about that,” Jeongin responded, gazing at him almost pityingly.

”Don’t lie to me, Jeongin…” Minho softly countered.

At this, Jeongin audibly sighed. ”Please just trust me for now. We’re going to make it home, I’ll help you settle in, and you all can relax. Just trust me right now. Nothing’s going to happen in the car or at home. I’ll be right next to you.”

Still, Minho couldn’t tell if Jeongin’s words truly meant anything, or if he was just aimlessly talking. 

”Just… please, let’s go,” he murmured, not meeting eye contact with either of the Avi next to him. 

”Okay… we’ve got you, Minho. You don’t need to worry.” With that, Jeongin turned and started walking to the car. 

”Stay behind me,” Minho muttered to Jisung, voice a little sharper than he meant for it to be.

Jisung hummed in partially uncertain affirmation, and Minho hesitantly started for the car, after Jeongin. 

The closer he got, the worse his throat clogged up. Jeongin, having made it to the car, climbed in through the side door, and Minho just utterly froze in his spot. 

He would have gotten lost in his mind again, if not for Jisung placing his hand on his back and gently pushing him forward. Stumbling, Minho was somehow right in front of the door a moment later.

He nervously glanced in before taking the final step, seeing two rows behind the driver’s row. The open door exposed aisles to each of the rows, and he was able to see Hyunjin and Felix sitting in the front row, and Jeongin in the back, a hand outstretched to him. 

Swallowing hard, Minho dragged himself up into the back row, turning midway and grabbing Jisung’s arm to ensure he was following. 

Jisung climbed in after him, sitting down in the leftmost seat, while Minho sat in the middle, Jeongin next to him. 

He didn’t think about how this car’s layout was almost exactly the same as the main car he used to go in, this one just had one extra seat in the center row. And he certainly didn’t think about how similar this fullness of the car was to back then. 

Nor did he think of the terrifying driving that the old Vorths would force him to experience as the Vorth in the driver's seat backed out of the parking spot. 

No- no way. Why would he? 

And yet he was in the center seat once more. Open and vulnerable to attack from any side. Just like before. 

Was this all just one terrible dream? Had he been here all along?

”Hey, you’re okay, Minho. Just try to breathe,” Jeongin gently instructed from next to him. 

Glancing over at Jeongin, Minho tried to just stare blankly at him like he was okay, but from Jeongin’s reaction it was clear he didn’t do it too well. 

”Oh, Minho…” Jeongin muttered, sitting up straighter and moving a bit closer. ”I know how difficult this is for you, but all your Avi are here, and you’re safe now, okay?” 

Exhaling, Minho looked away and stared down at his lap where his bag sat. 

Sometimes the Vorthen would have him bring his own bag of ”toys” for the Vorthen to play with and use on him. Master mainly was the one who got a kick out of it, and it was honestly horrible. He felt so stupid here with this bag. 

A moment later, Minho felt a finger prod into his hand, and he turned to look at Jisung. 

When their gazes met, Jisung just blinked at him and silently took Minho’s hand in his own. The older Ava didn’t think much about this, just taking in the comfort it provided. 

Right. His Avi were here with him. But was that a good or bad thing? Minho couldn’t tell. 

”We’re almost there, just a few more minutes,” Jeongin quietly told him from his other side, to which Minho just stiffly nodded. 

The only good thing he could figure out from this was that the driver was remarkably good. This ride was honestly so smooth Minho felt that they could’ve just been gliding over air.

And that really only made it more unsettling. Were these people just insanely rich or something? From what he knew, his Vorths definitely had money to spare, but not to what this car likely entailed.

But being rich was not a good thing for him. That just meant that these Vorthen had more money to waste on torturing their Avi. 

This just kept getting worse and worse. At least they only had two Vorthen. Unless they had lied about that to convince them to go with them. 

Right. Well, also, two Vorths that were akin to Master would be way worse than one that was and two that weren’t really. 

So he just needed to wait until he properly met them to decide if he was ”lucky” or not. 

”Almost there,” Jeongin said, so quietly that Minho knew it was only for him to hear. 

It should have been embarrassing. But the only change in emotion that Minho felt from those words was a small spark of warmth in his heart. Even in the midst of this hurricane. He terribly wanted to hide away with his Avi, and maybe Jeongin too now. 

They cared about each other. Jeongin did so more than almost anybody else he’d essentially just met. Maybe Jeongin would be the only new good thing that would come out of this decision.

And otherwise… Minho shivered just thinking of the possibilities. 

Jisung gently squeezed his hand, leaning slightly against him. 

Too much was going on. Minho’s mind was all over this car, his thoughts scrambling more the more this journey continued. 

How long would this be? How long?

Every time he shut his eyes, he saw the past once more.

It was like he was sitting here in his past body, not there , but experiencing everything. The knives, ropes, those collars around his neck… he still had the scars. Would these people be upset with how much his body was already littered with scars? 

Feeling phantom pains sprouting from his arms, he adjusted himself so he was lower in the seat, trying to hide from the visions. 

Nothing- it was nothing. He was okay. He wouldn’t shut down in front of his Avi when he needed to protect them. He wouldn't couldn’t. 

Oh god. No. He needed to calm down. Someone stabbed into his leg- no, no… Jisung rested their hands down on his thigh, and whispered something as the car veered to the side. 

And a taunting, horrifying voice came from the front, saying- The bitch can’t even keep his mouth shut- ” Oh, just one more minute, Seungmin.”

No. No, he had to be calm…

”Jisung, Jisung,” Minho panickingly whispered, suddenly gasping for air out of absolutely nowhere. No. It wasn’t anything. 

The car didn’t veer violently to the side only to utterly flip over, sending them all flying into the broken glass thrown across the pavement, oh no, no…

”Mm?” Jisung hummed, voice piqued with an edge of concern. 

”I need- I -” he choked out, voice failing on him. ”I need to- to calm down ,” he tearily whispered, unable to stop the tears from flowing to his eyes as he just saw more and more .

He gasped in a breath, freezing for a second when Jisung suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders. ”I- stop it, stop it… I can’t- I’m not here, I’m not ,” he incoherently rushed out, grasping at Jisung’s arms.

”I’m not…” he whispered, voice breaking as his tears finally slipped. 

”Shh,” Jisung hushed him once more, wiping the tears off his cheeks. 

He inexorably sobbed aloud, before he threw his hand over his mouth to stop the noises, horrified. 

No- he couldn’t be breaking down here; there was a Vorth in this car for goodness sake! No, he couldn’t, he couldn’t…

Jeongin’s hand from behind him rested on his shoulder, and Minho crashed back to his seat, muffled sobs wracking through his body.

He shook his head, trying to force everything out of there, and clamped his hand around his mouth. 

It was nothing . He wasn’t thinking about how terrifying it had been to be all alone with seven or so Vorths in a locked, speeding car for hours day after day . And not about how he’d hurt and ache for days on end afterwards, crying and begging for V or anyone to stop the pain. 

”Ah… Vorth- please, I- I’m sor- I’m sorry,” he’d cry as V would deeply massage his wounds only hours after- no. He wasn’t thinking about it. 

He wasn’t.

Jisung rubbed his knee gently, and purposefully dug his nails into it. 

Focusing on this real pain, Minho forced himself to breathe it in, and actually look . 

There were trees and buildings outside, and it didn’t look like they were in the city. 

He forced down a sob that tried to rise in his throat, and he gently pressed down on Jisung’s hand to ask him to be more forceful. 

Jisung complied, and Minho sunk into the seat.

It was nothing. He hadn’t started crying.

Sniffing, Minho quietly sobbed again, as Jisung again wiped his tears away. 

He shakily rubbed at his neck, trying to assure himself that there weren’t any true pains there. Jisung, seeing this, dragged his hand away, and Minho stared at his lap.

Jisung knew all about all the scars on his neck. That was all there was to say about it. 

It was nothing. 

”I’m sorry,” Minho softly murmured, wiping his eyes himself with his free hand. 

”Don’t be sorry, Minho. We’re almost home,” Jeongin replied. 

This information almost made Minho start crying all over again, but he forced himself to stop. He just wanted to go back. 

This was such a roller coaster. How had Minho let himself go so badly? 

He honestly couldn’t tell if he felt embarrassed or not. He was just exhausted. He didn’t care. So fucking what if Jeongin told his Vorths that he started crying like a goddamn child? Minho would do it again and again in this new house, so who fucking cared now?

He’d learn not to if he needed to. 

Goodness. This was a mess. He was a total fucking mess. You’d think he’d have it under control after all these damn years, right? Well he sure thought so! 

But of course not! This was why he was born an Avarinth, wasn’t it? Because he was such a fucking failure? 

Inadvertently sobbing aloud again, Minho’s veins abruptly filled with a burning fire, and he aggressively dug his nails hard into his thighs. It burned so perfectly that Minho actually managed to breathe clearly for a moment. 

”Minho! Careful, please , you’re okay,” Jeongin spoke, a strange edge to his voice that didn’t make sense to Minho. 

”I can’t…” Minho breathed out once more, fighting to keep his voice steady. 

”Shhh,” Jisung’s soft voice filled his ear delicate as a flower petal, gently grabbing hold onto one of his hands once more. 

”No- they’re gonna… it’s gonna…” the older Avi trailed off, staring into space. 

”Nothing’s going to happen. Nothing at all,” Jeongin again affirmed, moving to carefully rub shapes into Minho’s arm. 

Exhaling sharply, Minho squeezed his eyes shut and forced those words to the forefront of his mind. Nothing, nothing, nothing. That was all.

Trying his hardest to not move or think at all, he breathed in and out like a broken record, clutching desperately at Jisung’s hand. 

Suddenly, or, rather, slowly , the car began to stop. 

And everything that Minho had managed to drop rushed back at him like he was a magnet or something. 

He immediately swallowed hard, breath utterly caught in his throat. 

”Okay, we’re here,” someone said from the front, but Minho hardly heard it. He had to calm down. He had to keep going. 

The two in the front seats exited the car, one of them opening the door on Jeongin’s side. 

After nobody left inside the car moved for a good few seconds, Jeongin took initiative and pulled himself out, turning around and gesturing for Minho to follow. 

Eyes wide, Minho blanked for a moment before hurrying to grab his bag and Jisung’s hand, forcing his body to move quick.  

He mildly forcefully dragged Jisung after him, who went easily and soon settled at his side as Felix and Hyunjin also exited. 

Once everyone was out, Minho realized that both the other people in the front had seemingly disappeared, which made him genuinely concerned about his spatial awareness. He was better than this.

”Okay…” Jeongin spoke, moving to shut the door. Once he did so, he turned back to face the four Avi. ”How about you all come with me? I told the others to stay in their rooms for now, so the coast will be completely clear for us,” he informed, beginning to walk up to the front door. 

This house was surrounded by woods, so much so that Minho couldn’t even see any other homes nearby. Nowhere for you to run to , a voice whispered in his ear, and he fully agreed. At least there were places to hide in a forest. 

Suddenly realizing his position when nobody followed Jeongin, Minho began walking forwards after him, followed by the rest of the Avi. 

He watched silently as Jeongin carefully opened the front door, stepping in and waving the other Avi in as well. 

”You can leave your shoes here,” Jeongin provided, taking his own shoes off. Minho, and soon the rest of his Avi, followed Jeongin’s example soon after, leaving their shoes in a strange yet neat pile in a corner. 

Once they were finished, Jeongin nodded at them and began walking down a hallway. ”Okay… so I’m assuming that you’d all like to share a room, which is perfectly fine with all of us, so…” he stopped in front of a door, before opening it. Minho didn’t quite understand how Jeongin knew that, but didn’t dwell on it. 

”This room will be perfect,” the Ava said to himself, leading them all in. 

”Okay. We have blankets, there’s a dresser and a closet, um, great big bed, and a couch, and that room is a private bathroom,” Jeongin told them, pointing around the room like a realtor. 

”Feel free to use absolutely everything in here if you guys want, we got it for you. Also use the bathroom whenever and… yeah. That’s it for that, but for now…” Jeongin trailed off, turning and locking the door behind him. ”Oh yeah, use the lock if you want,” he added, walking across the room.

This room really was ”perfect.” Minho had never seen anything like it. A couch in a bedroom? Why? He didn’t know, but it seemed way too luxurious for Avi to have. And a lock?

Wait. Jeongin just locked the door..?

”Okay. Come here, you guys,” Jeongin softly asked, sitting down on the bed and opening a drawer from the large shelf next to it. 

Minho put his bag down, and they all walked over, trailing like lost ducklings. 

When Jeongin saw them all just standing there, he said: ”Get on the bed, it’s okay,” smiling softly at them. 

Eyebrows furrowing in confusion, Minho again took initiative, bringing Jisung along with him up onto the bed. 

The other two Avi did the same, and Jeongin continued rifling through the drawers. 

Eventually, he pulled out a pile of blankets, setting them gently on the bed, before turning to face the Avi once more. 

”Okay. Uh, I just wanted to… you guys don’t mind if I stay with you tonight, do you? Sorry, I haven’t ever had another Ava to live with…” 

”It’s okay, of course,” Minho quietly responded, and Jeongin’s face immediately became a bit less nervous at his words. 

He smiled and breathed out a heavy breath, saying: ”Thank you, um, I don’t know… I just wanted to try and do my own introductory thing, even though we’ve already met, but… you’re part of the house now, so…” 

Jeongin breathed in another breath and smiled a bit bashfully. ”This was really difficult, and you all need serious rest, so I prepared a little… uh, well, I got food and we have blankets, so we can all just chill.” 

”Now…” Jeongin continued, standing up and walking to a tiny fridge against an adjacent wall. ”Minho, dear, I know you especially need this,” he continued on, grabbing things from the fridge and walking back over to the bed. 

He laid everything out on the bed and sat down once more. ”We’ve got soup, smoothies, fruit, all that stuff, eat as much as you guys want, and…” Jeongin turned over to the blankets he had left on the bed, grabbing them and handing one to each of the Avi. 

”Did you guys ever watch TV?” He asked, laying out his own blanket. 

”Um, not really,” Minho quietly responded for the rest of them, not doing anything with the blanket he was given. 

Nodding meaningfully, Jeongin slid off the bed and stood. ”Okay. I’ll be back in like… a minute, just wait,” he told them, before walking across the room and exiting. 

”Minho…” Jisung mumbled from next to him, and Minho turned over, seeing Jisung encapsulated in a blanket that was definitely not the one that Jeongin had given him. 

”Where’d you get that?” Minho asked, eyebrows furrowed in concern.

”Um, they- they, uh, gave i- they gave it to… me. When I, um, got to… the hos…pital.” 

Blinking, Minho tilted his head in confusion. ”The hospital did?” 

”No,” Jisung muttered, shaking his head. ”The… stray…” 

Taking in this information in silence, Minho sighed. Right. Further wrapping them around their fingers. Great. 

”Okay…” he muttered, trying not to display his dissatisfaction. 

”Minho,” Hyunjin spoke from next to him, and the older turned to glance at him. ”Please just relax. This might be our only chance,” he softly pleaded. 

Face softening, Minho exhaled. ”Love, you can never know what will happen. I can’t let you guys get hurt because I wasn’t paying attention,” he whispered, and Hyunjin averted his eyes. 

”We all look out for each other,” Hyunjin mumbled in response, clearly unsatisfied.

”But I have experience , Hyunjin. I know how this works.”

”But that doesn’t mean-”

Jisung cut himself off immediately once they heard the door open. 

”Thank you!” The voice of Jeongin shouted out to someone behind the door, and rolled in some cart with a TV on it. 

”Hi, I got a TV,” Jeongin said to them once he shut and locked the door once again, and Minho just stared in silence. Just… what ?

Grabbing a cord from behind the TV, Jeongin dragged it to a socket in the wall and plugged it in, before grabbing a remote from the cart. 

He walked over and got back up on the bed, pressing some button on the remote. 

”Do any of you have shows that you like?” He distractedly asked them, turning the TV on and doing something else Minho didn’t understand. 

When he was answered by silence, he turned to face them, and said: ”No? Okay.”

”Then we can watch…” he mumbled, changing things on the TV remarkably quickly. Like he was used to doing it. 

”A nature documentary? About… birds?” He glanced back at the Avi as if for approval, and after awkwardly sitting there for a moment, Minho shrugged uncertainly. He had no idea about this stuff. And this was incredibly unexpected.

”’Kay. We’ll just do this then,” he decided, before scooting back against the headboard. 

”Hey, Jisung. You like that blanket?” Jeongin quietly asked, seeing Jisung next to him, completely wrapped in it and staring at him. 

”Mhm,” Jisung nodded, blinking slowly. 

”I’m glad. I picked it out for you, y’know,” he smiled, nestling down and putting his own blanket on top of himself.

”Oh… thank… you,” Jisung slowly spoke, clearly trying to keep his words straight. 

It was almost embarrassingly obvious that Jeongin had noticed this by how he simply nodded and glanced at Minho in almost confusion. 

Jeongin pressed a few more buttons on the remote, before a video eventually started playing, the volume being a comfortable level. 

”Right… let’s eat, you guys need food; doctor’s order,” the Ava told them, leaning forward to pick up the food he placed on the bed earlier, then passing them out to the other Avi.

”Please eat, really. You’re all still recovering, you need nutrition,” Jeongin told them, gesturing for them to eat. 

”Thank you, Jeongin,” Felix softly said from the opposite side of the bed, nodding his head in a bow and grabbing the food he offered him. 

”Oh, it’s nothing, no need to thank me,” Jeongin hummed out, smiling softly at Felix and opening his own container of food. 

”Really, Jeongin. Thank you, you’ve been so kind to all of us,” Hyunjin sincerely spoke, folding his hands together in his lap. 

”Ah… you guys, this is… it’s normal, okay? This will be your life now. You’re safe here, I won’t let anyone hurt you again,” Jeongin again affirmed, eyes traveling to each of them to express his sincerity. 

”Okay, let’s watch this now, yeah? And eat your food,” he ”ordered,” pointing a finger at them and smiling playfully. 

In this silence besides the noises of the TV that followed, Minho was finally able to think again. 

So, Jeongin was joking with them. Strange, really, but it made Minho feel something not too terrible, so he didn’t try to make it bad in his head. 

And he had food for them. And brought an entire TV- with someone else’s help, for goodness sake- just for them to watch a documentary on? As far as he knew, two out of three of the other people in this house were Vorthen, so it was way more likely for that helper to have been a Vorth. 

That just made no sense, so he stopped thinking about it. 

So… this bird documentary. Minho knew utterly nothing about birds, aside from the fact that they had feathers and could fly- the basic things- and he just didn’t quite understand what the point of watching this was. Why learn about birds? Why not learn about something actually useful in life? 

Well, Jeongin had done all this for them, so he supposed it was fair to not judge him on this choice. And why did it matter? Tomorrow was the next ”big” day in their lives, this was just distracting from it. 

And anyways, this all just didn’t make- 

”Minho,” Jisung whispered into his ear, and he glanced to the side to see an exhausted-looking Jisung staring at him. 

”C’n you… ask if- if I… can …sleep..?” The Ava breathed out, staring at him with eyes that just made Minho sad. 

”Of course, love,” Minho softly whispered back, before gently clearing his throat and, without giving himself time to doubt himself, uttering out: ”Jeongin?” 

”Hm?” The other hummed, turning to glanced over at him. 

”Is it alright if Jisung sleeps for now? He, um, does worse without sleep,” he said, providing a likely insufficient amount of information. 

”What do you mean?” Jeongin asked in response, his head tilting slightly in a question. 

”Uh… has anyone told you what happened yet?” Minho asked, partially to deflect from the question. 

”No..?” Jeongin responded, sitting up a bit straighter. ”Is everything okay?” 

”Yes, it’s just…” Minho’s voice trailed off, unable to find the words he needed. 

He glanced back at Hyunjin and Felix, maybe for help, or just something, and Hyunjin quickly came to his savior. 

”The Vorths had Jisung take, uh, a bunch of drugs for a while, and he overdosed a few times… he had hallucinations and… that sort before everything but, well, it- it just made it a lot worse. Sorry we haven’t told you, but if we’re going to be living with you now, then…” Hyunjin’s voice got quieter and quieter as he talked, eventually just completely fizzling out.

”Then you should know,” Felix finished for him, nodding meaningfully. 

”Oh… I’m so sorry, of course he can sleep- Jisung, you don’t need to ask, please just go ahead if you feel you need to,” Jeongin said, placing a hand on Jisung’s shoulder. 

Nodding, Jisung softly muttered: ”Than…k you, Jeongin.”

”It’s no problem, really, honey. Did you eat anything though? I don’t want you getting sick,” Jeongin tamely uttered, relaxing a bit down in his spot. 

”Oh… no… I’m- I’m sorry,” Jisung breathed out, subconsciously leaning towards Minho, away from Jeongin. 

Minho placed his hand on the younger’s shoulder, massaging it gently to try and calm his nerves. 

”Okay… well, could you try to eat something? Just in case you aren’t awake for dinner?” Jeongin requested, carefully placing his hand atop Jisung’s. 

”It’s fine if you don’t want to, really. I just think it may be good,” he added. 

”M’kay… um, but… may- may I ask, um, some …thing..?” Jisung whispered, eyes drifting away. 

”Yes, no need to ask, hun.”

”Uh… why… isn’t it- isn’t it against, um, against the- the rules to …hold hands..?” He asked, his eyes still firmly averted, shoulders raising when Minho’s hand froze. 

”Mm, no… we don’t have rules like that here…” Jeongin was still smiling, but he looked a bit confused now.

”But Avi- Avi ca…n’t, um do in- intimate things like- like th- like that, sorry,” almost grumbling the words out, hardly hiding his distaste, yet still being apologetic for his misspeaking. 

”It’s fine, Jisung. Just know that we don’t have rules like that here, okay? You guys can do whatever you want with each other,” Jeongin assured, rubbing Jisung’s hand. 

”Okay. Thank- thank you…” he sighed out, resting his head back on a pillow and tiredly staring off into nothing. 

”Oh, if any of you want to shower, feel free. I’m not sure how well the hospital can do that if they did; or just go to the bathroom. It’s that door,” the other Ava told the rest of them. 

Then, Jeongin rustled with something out of Minho’s view, picking something up and holding it out to Jisung. 

”Here, Jisung. Could you eat some of this for me? It’s just fruit yogurt with some granola,” he provided, watching patiently as Jisung’s eyes came back and glanced over at him. 

”Mmm… ya.” He mumbled something unintelligible after that, gingerly taking the yogurt from Jeongin. 

Watching as Jisung just stared at it, Minho discreetly moved slightly closer to him, disguising it as just encouraging him to eat, putting his hand on his shoulder once more. 

The younger Ava took a gulping breath in, and carefully peeled off the top wrapper, using the spoon Jeongin gave him to slowly mix the yogurt for a moment. 

Minho looked back up at the TV to see a mother crow nursing her children, and stared for a few seconds. His mind was empty as he watched, and eventually he just needed to tear his eyes away. He glanced over at Hyunjin and Felix, seeing them both engrossed in the show. 

They normally took their chances to relax when they could, which made Minho glad. They really deserved to rest, even though most of the time they couldn’t.

Fairly obviously, Jisung then rested his head on Minho’s shoulder, huffing and resituating himself. 

Glancing over, Minho saw that his Ava had finished his food, somehow in that seemingly short time. 

Maybe he had been staring elsewhere for longer than he recalled. 

That seemed to be happening a lot lately. 

A lot.

Chapter Text

Minho was woken by the sound of quiet sobbing.

It wasn’t unusual, but Minho had never really gotten over the initial shock of fear that he felt when he heard that.

Blearily opening his eyes, he tried to think of when he had even fallen asleep, but came up with nothing. As he glanced right, he saw Hyunjin and Felix peacefully sleeping under the covers. 

Seeing this, he noticed that there was a blanket on top of him. Strange. He certainly hadn’t done that. 

Abruptly, another sob followed by a quiet whisper drifted into his ear. He turned left, where he suddenly remembered Jisung and Jeongin had been lying. 

When he looked over, he saw Jisung’s body shaking horribly, convulsing with each sob, and Jeongin was turned into him, trying to calm him. 

”Jisung,” Minho pushed out, adrenaline sparking in his veins, causing him to lean over and try to see what was wrong. 

”Jisung, shh, shh,” he hushed, grabbing onto his hand and squeezing it to provide Jisung with some grounding. ”What happened?” He asked, not clearly directing his question at Jeongin or Jisung.

”I don’t know… I think he had a nightmare, but he’s really deep into it,” Jeongin hurriedly responded, clearly worried. 

Goodness. Jisung mostly only had nightmares like this when he wasn’t sleeping with anyone- essentially the whole reason they had that sleep rotation in place- so this obviously was bad. 

Normally, Jisung’s anxiety was calmed immensely when he slept with all of them, but this whole situation must've been especially stressful for him.

Gosh- if only he hadn’t been so damn self-absorbed. 

Sighing, Minho placed his hand over Jisung’s neck, feeling his pulse, and Jisung put up no fight to stop him, just letting out another sob. 

”This doesn’t usually happen when he doesn’t sleep alone,” Minho muttered, providing a bit of context for Jeongin.

”How do you normally calm him?” Jeongin questioned, glancing up. 

Like this, Minho could really see the concern in the other Ava’s eyes. He looked nervous- almost afraid. 

”Um… please don’t tell the Vorthen about this, but a lot of the time we’d just go in the bathroom or closet and just hug and whisper to him,” Minho told him, a bit hesitant but knowing he needed to tell Jeongin this if they were to work together in this house. 

”Okay. Should we do that, then?” The other Ava asked in a bit of a rush, suddenly reminding Minho of his own. His Avi always looked up to him for advice, but Minho still felt immensely out of his depth here.

”Is it okay..?” Minho asked in response, still trying to figure out the dynamics here. 

Jeongin hadn’t seemed to have considered anything other than Jisung’s issue. Sitting in silence for a moment, Jeongin nodded. ”Yes, of course. Always.”

While he was sure he looked very skeptical, Minho nodded back, sitting up slightly. 

Doing the same, Jeongin slowly pulled himself out of the bed, turning to face Minho and gesture him over. 

”Jagi, come on, love,” Minho whispered in Jisung’s ear, pushing him gently towards Jeongin. 

”Hha- please Minho,” Jisung cried out, unable to stop his crying.

”Shh,” the older hushed Jisung, pushing with a bit more force, enough to make his Ava begin to move. ”Off, okay?” He directed, a firm hand on Jisung helping to lead him. 

Hiccuping, Jisung cried aloud once more when he managed to stand up, covering his mouth with his hand. ”’M sorry,” he tearily whispered, trying to muffle himself as Jeongin held onto his hand. 

 ”Ready?” Jeongin whispered to Minho, before turning after Minho nodded. 

He led the two Avi off to a door that Minho remembered he had pointed out to be the bathroom earlier, opening it and letting them inside. 

As Jeongin gently shut the door, Minho quickly surveyed the room, grabbing Jisung when he was satisfied. 

”Come on, my love,” he whispered to Jisung, bringing him off to a moderately bare wall and dragging him to the floor. Minho sat against the wall and pulled Jisung against him, making sure to manually press Jisung’s bare feet into the cold tile. 

With Jeongin approaching, Minho glanced up and sent him a pleading look. ”Please don’t tell the Vorths; I know this is wrong but-”

”No, no, it’s okay, I don’t know what your Vorthen told you, but this is normal for Avarinths. Please don’t feel worried doing this,” Jeongin cut the other off, sitting down next to him and Jisung. 

Minho continued staring at Jeongin with a pained expression, before exhaling and redirecting his attention back to Jisung. 

He was crying silently into Minho’s shoulder, body still trembling. 

”What happened, honey?” Minho gently asked him, running his fingers through his hair. 

Inhaling shakily, Jisung attempted to say something, but was cut off by his own sobs. 

Having visibly winced at this, Jeongin wrapped his arm around Jisung’s shoulder and held him tightly. 

Because he tried to speak, Jisung’s crying just became worse and worse. Eventually, he was full-on sobbing once more, which especially spiked Minho’s worry. 

”Shh, shh, jagi,” Minho tried again to hush him, pulling him a bit closer. 

”Sorry- hihh- I- ’m sorry, please,” Jisung sobbed out.

”It’s okay, you’re okay, love. No one’s here right now,” he whispered to him, rocking him gently.

A painful, strangled sound escaped Jisung’s throat as he tucked his arms and legs into himself. ”’M sor- sorry, I’m sorry ,” he cried, leaning harder into Minho. 

”Are you hurt?” Minho gently prodded, not having been fully convinced by Jeongin’s prior explanation.

”Haah- I- hhih- mmh…” Jisung choked on his sobs, utterly unable to speak. ” Pl- ease, I…”

”Shh, it’s okay, you don’t have to speak,” Minho whispered, pulling Jisung’s head further into his shoulder. He gently pet his Ava’s head, glancing over at Jeongin.

Is he okay? Jeongin mouthed at him, still wrapped tightly around Jisung.

Squinting, Minho shrugged and shook his head, refocusing his attention on Jisung, continuing to rock him gently back and forth. 

”We’ve got you, jagi. You’re all good,” he whispered into Jisung’s hair, placing a kiss upon it without even thinking. 

Abruptly freezing, he realized what he had done and his eyes hurriedly flitted to Jeongin. He breathed a labored sigh of relief when he saw what he assumed was Jeongin not paying attention, and he tried to disguise what he did by just resting his cheek into Jisung’s head. 

” Minho,” Jisung cried out once more, grabbing onto him with shaky hands. 

”I’m here, honey,” Minho affirmed for Jisung, rocking slightly harder. 

”’M sorry, I- I’…m sorry ,” he sobbed, hanging onto Minho like a lifeline. 

”Why are you sorry?” Minho muttered, shutting his eyes and focusing on the rocking movement. It was calming. He really hoped it was so for his Ava as well. 

”Y- you- you-” Jisung was cut off by a sob- ”it’s my- my fault- I-” Sniffling, Jisung made a pained sound, digging his nails into Minho.

”Shh, hun, it’s okay, you’re doing great.”

At this, Jisung just sobbed. ”St- stop, please… they- ’re ta- talking , please,” he pleaded, body steadily becoming rigid. 

”Oh love… shh, come here.” Minho gently clamped his hands over Jisung’s ears, adjusting himself so that Jisung would be more comfortable. 

”Um, Jeongin, would you mind putting his hand on your throat and humming? Felix often does that for him,” Minho whispered at the other Ava, tilting his head slightly and hoping his expression was kind enough. 

Jeongin wordlessly nodded in response, gingerly pulling one of Jisung’s hands off of Minho and pressing it into the base of his throat. Humming out a single note, Jeongin rubbed circles into Jisung’s hand, hoping the sensations could distract him. 

After a moment, Jeongin stopped humming and spoke. ”Is he having a hallucination?” He asked, still pressing Jisung’s hand into his throat.

”Yeah… it happens a lot when he’s like this,” Minho told him, eyes gazing tiredly at the other. 

”Did he ever go to the doctor for that?”

Swallowing thickly, Minho sighed. ”Let’s… not talk about this right now,” he muttered, trying not to think about what Jeongin brought up. 

The doctor was something they never talked about. One of the Vorths’ friends was a doctor, and he’d visit from time to time when needed, taking payment by expertly hurting them to his liking. 

It was just horrible, and Minho was pretty sure that the Vorths took Jisung to him when he overdosed. He couldn’t imagine how terrible it had been for Jisung to be alone with him. It honestly made him sick to think about. 

And truthfully, he was infinitely glad that this house’s doctor was a Quisvian. 

”Sorry, you’re right, I’m sorry,” Jeongin meekly responded, appearing a bit guilty for having brought that up. 

”It’s fine, it’s nothing. Don’t feel bad.” He hadn’t meant to make Jeongin feel bad, and really hoped that Jeongin could just forgive himself about it. 

In a few seconds, Jeongin had started humming again, and they put that moment behind them. They needed to focus on Jisung right now. 

To be frank, Minho was surprised by how Jeongin was managing this. But, he supposed he should have expected it based on how he’d acted back at the hospital. 

For the next few minutes, they sat and comforted Jisung until his sobs wore down into muffled hiccups, and he pulled Minho’s hands away himself. 

”You okay, jagi?” Minho asked him, brushing his hair out of his face. 

”Mm…” Jisung mumbled, glassy, red eyes boring into Minho. 

”I- ’m… sorry,” he whispered, pulling away slightly from Minho, and gently placing his hand on Jeongin’s that was resting on his shoulder. 

Letting his hands fall, Minho rested them on Jisung’s waist, stopping him from pulling away further. 

”It’s okay, honey. Do you want to talk?” Minho asked him, voice cutting the silence of the room sharply now that Jisung wasn’t crying so hard. 

”Mmh… no,” Jisung mumbled in response, awkwardly fidgeting with his sleeve. 

”Do you want to stay here longer?” 

A wave of discomfort washed over Jisung’s face, and he shook his head. ”I… I’m so…rry. Can we… we go ba- back to- to bed..?” His eyes were stuck to the floor as he whispered this, voice trembling as if he’d break down again if someone just snapped their fingers.

Not able to come up with an answer, Minho glanced at Jeongin, who just stared at him for a second before he seemed to fall under a realization. 

”Mhm, we can go, Jisung-ah,” Jeongin quietly replied, sneaking in a nickname that made Minho pause for a moment. 

Before he could think about it, Jeongin was separating himself from Jisung, carefully standing up. Minho rushed to do the same after he was stuck to the floor for a second too long, pulling Jisung up with him. 

”You sure you’re okay, love?” Minho asked once more, holding Jisung in place. 

”I wa- want to… sleep,” Jisung murmured, turning away but grabbing onto Minho’s hand to lead him. 

”Um… Jeongin?” Jisung whispered out, carefully grasping onto the other’s sleeve. 

Pausing, Jeongin turned around. ”Hm?”

”It’s okay to- it’s- it’s… okay to… to hug..?” Jisung’s wispy voice stumbled over itself as it entered the air, coming out in tearful breaths. 

”Mhm, yes. Whatever makes you feel comfortable, sweetie. Don’t worry about it.” He walked over to the bathroom door as he said this, pausing before he opened it. 

”If you’re worried about the Vorths coming in, they will not . And, the door’s locked anyway.” He winked back at Minho and Jisung, before promptly opening the door and stepping out into the darkness of the bedroom. 

The TV was still on, the only source of light in the room. Even the windows were pitch-dark behind their curtains. 

”Are any of you scared of the dark? I left the TV on just in case,” Jeongin whispered to them, much quieter now that they were back in the bedroom, where Hyunjin and Felix were sleeping. 

Minho wordlessly pulled Jisung closer to himself and nodded. ”Yes, thank you, Jeongin.” 

”I’m scared of the dark too,” Jeongin whispered back after a moment of silence, giving them a visible toothy grin and walking across the room to get back on the bed. 

As he situated himself, Minho and Jisung carefully walked over, and climbed on as well, in their same positions as earlier. 

”Here, Jisung,” Jeongin quietly said, handing Jisung something he had been messing with a second ago. ”Water. I’m always really thirsty after I cry,” he supplied, grabbing his blanket and draping it over himself. 

”Ah… tha…nk you,” Jisung softly replied, nodding his head in a bow and taking a big sip. 

With this, Minho decided to give up and go underneath the sheets- he was too exhausted to really care now, and someone had already put a blanket on top of him before. And honestly, it was worth it right then with how they engulfed him with the strangest warmth. It almost felt unreal. 

Before he could lose himself to the night, he tapped Jisung on the shoulder and gestured for him to also get under the blankets. 

Nodding, Jisung gingerly went under, covering himself up majorly by his own blanket, placing it on top. 

As he did so, Minho inched closer to him, grabbing his hand under the covers. 

Almost immediately, Jisung glanced over at him, eyes full of plain upset, and Minho lifted the blanket with his hand, making room for Jisung to lay with him. 

Blinking, Jisung stared at the open spot for a moment before carefully crawling over, situating himself underneath Minho’s arm, pressing himself into his chest. 

Once Minho lowered his arm to rest around Jisung, he carefully maneuvered Jisung’s blanket to make it seem as if they weren’t currently hugged together under the blankets. 

Doing this, he ducked under the sheets and covered both his and Jisung’s heads with them, pulling Jisung even closer to himself. 

”Love you, jagi,” Minho whispered into Jisung’s ear, rubbing his back as the Ava’s breathing finally began to even out. 

”I love- love you too, jagiya,” Jisung responded in a hushed voice, tilting his head up to stare at Minho.

It was even darker here under these blankets, almost blindingly so, and yet somehow Minho wasn’t surprised when Jisung pressed a soft kiss onto his lips. 

He smiled warmly, genuinely , into the darkness, and pressed his own kiss into Jisung’s forehead. Truly, he loved Jisung.

He knew how much Jisung needed this right now, and was more than happy and willing to help. 

And, he trusted Jeongin. Something told him that this was just okay to do, so he was doing it. 

Something will happen tomorrow. But now, he was with his Avi. His Ava. It didn’t matter right now.

Chapter Text

(perfect past)

”That’s not what I fucking said to do now, is it?” 

Hyunjin made a high-pitched noise in the back of his throat, backing himself into the counter. Oh no no- he didn’t mean to he didn’t mean to-

As the Vorth- Master , he’d learned- took his final step towards him, he flinched and shut his eyes, just in time to get wholloped across the face with the Vorth’s palm. 

Gasping, he sunk into himself, eyes blinking open in preparation for whatever else might come. His chest hurt. He couldn’t take anymore of this. 

”What do you say, hm? Apologize,” Master hissed at him, placing his hands on each side of the counter behind Hyunjin. Crowding him in even further. His hot breath fanned across his face. It burned Hyunjin’s lungs like a poisonous gas. His breath hitched uncontrollably- but no words came out.

” Apologize,” he repeated, as soon as Hyunjin didn’t respond, voice hunting through Hyunjin’s ears like venom in his veins. 

”I’m sorry,” he spoke breathlessly, eyes unable to meet Master’s any longer. ” Please , I-”