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Wooyoung doesn’t know quite what happened to cause this but he is sure it’s Hongjoong’s fault. He is sure of this fact after his third attempt in the last hour at buttering up Seonghwa yields him the same result of a locked engine room door and complete radio silence from all around. He had been working on a new project which Seonghwa had been graciously letting him keep down here to avoid mess on the main areas of the ship but he was now completely barred from it for seemingly no reason, which brought him to his current conclusion.
Hongjoong fucked up.
With a defeated huff he turned and started his trek back up the stairs considering his options, he could go and see if this truly was Hongjoong’s fault and if it is, what exactly happened to turn their home and caretaker into ignoring them all of a sudden, or he could attempt to avoid both parties entirely by taking a nap and hoping they will have kissed and made up by the time he woke up. Though it was with growing dread he reached the main floor and was debating his choices he could already hear raised voices from the other side of the ship, most likely already arguing about it.
Before he could even start making his way to the main deck he found Jongho coming up the other set of stairs with a curious expression which Wooyoung met with his own exasperated face in response, but waited on the beastman to catch up so they could walk together.
“Do you know what happened?” Jongho started as they walked down the ship's hall, silent except for the nearing voices that were beginning to lower in volume, the previous argument clearly slowing down. “Everything just shut down in the lab and I was worried it was a power outage, but most of the ship seems to still be running, at least the base workings.”
“No clue,” Wooyoung answered younger with a huff, “I’ve been trying to get into the engine room for like an hour and nothing. It’s not like Seonghwa to just ignore me, even if he doesn’t want me there that day. I’m a bit worried something’s happened.”
“That’s about when the lab shut down too, I was trying to get it up and running again but every time I tried to get input, nothing!” Jongho explained ear flicking in annoyance as they reached the main doors and watched them slide open with no apparent issue revealing the chaos they had been missing.
Inside the bridge was the rest of their rag tag team, San in the lounge area with their newly awakened member Mingi, the pair seemingly twisted over on the couch to lean over and watch the rest of the crew. Yunho was sat in the pilot's nook, chair spun to face the centre of the room as well with a frustrated look on his face with Yeosang standing at his side with his own expression of bewilderment as he also watched on in alarmed concern, one of the cups from the kitchen held loosely in his bionic hand. Although upon entering Jongho and Wooyoung's attention was immediately captured by what everyone seemed to be watching, Hongjoong, their Captain and friend, sprawled out on the floor of the bridge in despair.
“What the fuck.”
“You just missed it,” San said from where he was peering over the couch, “Hongjoong came in after everything just stopped, already mad, Yunho and him have been yelling-”
“It was a discussion.” Hongjoong butted in defensively and depressingly.
“-discussing” San continued with a placating look. “For the last half an hour. I was starting to think we were going to have to restrain Hongjoong.” and when Wooyoung with a raised brow cast his judgemental gaze to the man on the floor, San finished with an awkward tone, “Uh, he gave up.”
Wooyoung and Jongho shared a look before Jongho seemed to choose peace by shrugging and making his way over to the main table to observe passively like watching a bug in a jar. While Wooyoung chose a much more proactive approach, walking over and crouching down by Hongjoong’s head.
“What did you do?” The question gets him a muffled groan as Hongjoong screams with frustration into the arm thrown across his face and a ‘thank you!’ is yelled out from the pilot station.
“Why does it have to be my fault?” Hongjoong complains when no one else says anything to Wooyoung’s question. “Why couldn’t it be someone else’s fault?”
“Are you saying it wasn’t your fault?” He retorted in a disbelieving tone, moving to sit cross legged above Hongjoong’s head, leaning over him and hiding him in the shadow.
“That’s what he was claiming until Yunho pointed out the fact we are now free floating in space and none of the controls are working.” Yeosang piped up, now sipping what Wooyoung guessed was some sort of tea. “That was about when he seemed to give up on the pretence and took refuge, on the floor.”
Humming from his seat Jongho nodded in thought before commenting, “To be fair, it’s not like Hongjoong can just storm off after a disagreement.” Which received another sad noise from the man himself adding another point to this being a lovers spat.
Wooyoung hummed in agreement, looking at the sorry state of the usually confident man, “But what actually happened to make him act like this? What happened to make Seonghwa act like that? They’re usually so…”
“Romantic?”, “Sickly?”, "Embarrassing?", “Close?”, “Pining?”
“Yes.” Wooyoung agreed when everyone felt the need to pipe in on how in love the pair usually acted both in private and in front of the crew. “It just feels so wrong to see him like this.”
Hearing Yunho hum in agreement he looked up to see the older man looking less annoyed and more contemplative, “Well, we’ve been so busy since you and San joined and then it was only a few weeks before Jongho’s whole fiasco.” Yunho started in thought completely ignoring Hongjoong’s ongoing complaints, “Then it was only another week or so before Yeosang and technically Mingi joined as well, the two of them have been pretty preoccupied with keeping everything running but in the months when it was just us…”
He gets cut off by Hongjoong's groan of “Nooo–” and moving his arm to waft in Yunho’s direction with a hushing noise. “Let’s not drag up past transgressions please.”
“Alright, but either way, it’s not like it’s their first fight.” Yunho explains while rolling his eyes, choosing to save what remained of Hongjoong’s dignity by glazing over past events in favour of focusing on right now. Events Wooyoung will definitely pry out of one of them later. “He acts like it's the end every time Seonghwa is upset at him.”
“What if it is the end!” Hongjoong countered dramatically while Wooyoung and the rest of the crew stared at him in disbelief, “It could be! He’s never been this mad before.”
“Of course it’s not the end.” San, his angelic partner soothes from the couch, while Yunho mutters something sarcastic under his breath, “You both just need some time to calm down and you can make it up to him.”
Head rolling over to the lounge area Hongjoong asks softly, “You think?”
“Definitely.” San agrees, smiling gently at Hongjoong’s slumped form.
As Hongjoong was finally calming down and everyone was beginning to settle, Wooyoung spoke up again, “So, what did you do, and stop deflecting about it.” He then chose to ignore the resulting groans and watched as Hongjoong glared up at him in distaste. “Hey don’t look at me like that, I’ve been banned from the engine room because of you, now I’m your problem.”
This got a blank look in return, “He locked you out the engine room?”
Wooyoung nodded in agreement, “Jongho’s whole lab has been shut down too. The whole place is running on bare bones right now, so what did you do?”
The whole crew is then witness as Hongjoong rolls over face down on the floor, hair falling around his face and a muffled voice comes out from him in a despairing tone. “I fucked up.”
“Yes, but how did you fuck up, ” Wooyoung’s comment is met with another sad noise and a withering look from Yeosang which led to him hastily tacking on, “come on Cap, we care about you both, let us help.”
“I don’t know if you can.” Hongjoong responded from his Plank of Shame. “It started over something so stupid, I don’t even remember what we were talking about. Then we were no longer just talking, we were arguing and then yelling and I got so worked up. I started getting cruel about it, I don’t know what happened I was suddenly just so mad over nothing and took it out on him–”
“Well it sounds like you can explain that to him,” Mingi tries to offer. “All couples argue sometimes.”
“Yeah,” Hongjoong agrees, despondent and miserable, so Wooyoung tries his hand as well.
“You are a vicious little guy sometimes, he can’t be that surprised that you result to that when you're mad.”
“He’s not surprised.” Hongjoong muffled voice says, “He said we should talk about it when I was calmer and I told him to fuck off…”
“...You told him to ‘fuck off’?” Wooyoung asked.
“I told him to fuck off and he’s fucked off!” Hongjoong confirmed in despair, “He just stopped responding and when I came out to the main deck nothing was online, he just clocked out!”
Wooyoung mildly hears a quiet, “I didn’t know he could do that.” Whispered from Mingi to San who just shrugged in response, more focused on the man before him.
“He is probably just taking time to calm down, you should do the same, he will talk to you when he’s ready.” Wooyoung offered in comfort trying his best, unsure how he got here when his original plan was to also argue with Hongjoong over this.
“Wooyoung’s right.” Yeosang agreed, nodding when Wooyoung shot his brother with a thankful smile. “Seonghwa is reasonable, but he has feelings too, and he has had far less time to get used to them than any of us.” He reminded them all, “He is still learning himself and he most likely just needs to work through what he's feeling so he can come back with a clear mind. Something you should consider as well Captain.”
“Well if he’s so reasonable why has everything shut down huh?” Hongjoong retorted sulking and Wooyoung just knew he knew they were right.
“Seonghwa is one of the wisest, gentlest, and kindest beings I have ever met.” Wooyoung started slowly and Hongjoong moved to sit up, sat across from him on the floor as he continued, “He is also one of the pettiest and that is impressive. Your partner is a massive bitch sometimes and you know it.”
“I know…” Hongjoong says it almost wistfully and it has more than just Wooyoung's face curling in disgust at the unwanted image in their heads.
“Come on,” Wooyoung starts standing up, moving to take Hongjoong's hand and drag him up as well, “Not much we can do about it now, lets just relax for now.”
“What exactly can we do if nothing's working?” Yunho asks as he watches the pair join San and Mingi in their small rec area with a raised brow as he places Hongjoong on one of the chairs and sits himself down in front of it with a few pillows.
“You’re telling me you don’t know any games soldier?" Wooyoung retorts with a cheeky grin, laughing at the huff he gets from the pilot. “I’m sure we can teach you a few. Everyone’s joining in on this or it's not as fun.”
A quick pout from Mingi had Yunho folding with a laugh as he stood and joined the pair on the couch, adding himself to the mess of torsos and limbs in a way Wooyoung was impressed by how easy it looked. He was also impressed their couch could seat three men that buff with no one looking squished.
Yeosang and Jongho seemed to share a look before sighing, “Not like there is anything better to do right now.” Jongho offers which the doctor nods at leading to them sharing the loveseat on the other side of the couch as Wooyoung makes suggestive brows at Yeosang and he stares back in annoyance while Jongho manages to miss by talking to San near him.
“Better watch out, Wooyoung cheats–”
“I do not!”
Watching as the crew laughs, Hongjoong still a bit disheartened but joining his crew, Wooyoung lets Yeosang's comment go with little more than exaggerated whines knowing it was his own petty revenge for the looks just thrown his way about his growing relationship with the beastman. He can’t help but smile as suggestions are thrown out and shut down, everyone arguing over which game to play and teasing remarks being sent back and forth in casual camaraderie, and when they finally chose something from Jongho’s home planet, as he starts teaching them the rules Wooyoung thinks about how they should do this more often.
While everyone has been getting used to living together on the ship, most people have their own haunts they prefer to stick to and very rarely since Mingi woke up has the whole crew just sat down together like this and as he watches the crew Wooyoung vows to start corralling them into team nights more often. Hopefully with a happier captain and more present Seonghwa.
He wasn’t sure when Hongjoong managed to slip out later that night cycle. The crew had ended up staying on the bridge for hours, eventually leading to everyone half sprawled out atop of someone else while half asleep. Which is why when through blurry eyes looking around he was surprised to see a lack of the captain around. Mumbling a question on his whereabouts he got various tired negatives till Yeosang sleepily piped up from where he was clearly unknowingly using Jongho as a pillow, informing them how Seonghwa seems less distressed than before and that he assumes they are working through the fight privately.
He then pauses for a minute looking mildly perturbed and suggests leaving them to it before he’s already back asleep and snuggling back into a suddenly very red and still Jongho.
A few hours later when the ship's functions suddenly come back on all at once and the engines seem to whirr back to life with fever, no one is surprised. When Hongjoong comes back shortly after that, smiling dopily and almost floating into the room on a high, cheeks dusted red and eyes hazy, all they do is tease him gently and tiredly before offering him a space back in the pile of bodies. Wooyoung himself moved to be curled up by the Captain and mumbled, “All better?”
“Yeah,” Hongjoong agrees quietly, as he relaxes into the group slowly, clearly listening to the thrum of the engine under them, Seonghwa's own way of joining in finally felt again. “We are all better.”