Hoseok focus

Namjoon, Jin and Jimin stormed out of the elevator when the V's door closed.

"Did he just close his fucking door into my face?" Hoseok exclaimed and looked at Jungkook.

The younger moved his head in a mix of a nod and a shake, as if he was not sure if he should confirm this rudeness. He was fuming. First Yoongi, now Taehyung. Those two were about to reach the top on his whom-to-give-a-nice-punch-list, and he could feel the anger grow inside his chest.

"If someone's searching for me, I'm in the gym. I need to calm down before I knock someone out," he growled and passed the group of white turtlenecks to get to his room at the elevator-end of the hallway. He needed to get something out of his system.

"Remind me never to piss him off," he heard Jimin say before his door closed behind him. As annoying as the Charmer might be, he was damn right.

Furious, he stripped off his clothes and changed into the comfortable sportswear of the E II military ships. He always had wanted to try the ship's gym, so why not now?

With energetic steps he walked down the stairs to the next floor and entered the giant gym. One whole floor was only for sports. The left side was covered in equipment for muscle training, all shiny metal and gray upholstery, and the right side was a wide space for functional training or anything that required just a floor and a mirror. The last one made something in his chest flutter, but it was overruled by the crimson madness. If he truly hated something it was disobedience, because it caused the most damage of all bad habits.

"Bang! Play something aggressive," he instructed the AI and started a treadmill to warm up.

Hard beats and an aggressive treble flooded the room and he smiled coldly. This was perfect.

After two minutes of sprinting, Bang informed him that his performance index was bad and that he should decrease the speed, but he ignored the AI. He needed to get exhausted, otherwise he would explode. Another three minutes later, he jumped off the machine, skin damp from sweat, and went over to the bench to stem some weights. It was reckless to do this without a backup, but he did not care. He placed his typical weight onto the rod and laid down.

The music fueled his mind when he began to drain himself. Training always had helped him to calm down and it already showed an effect. He felt the aggression changing into concentration. Breathing rhythmically, he pushed the weight up, but just high enough to not grand his muscles a break, and slowly the familiar burn began to tickle under his skin and he felt the sweat rolling off his forehead.

But suddenly, a pair of hands steadied the rod and became his backup. Confused he tilted his head back to meet a red-eyed Taehyung. What was the V doing here? His anger dissolved completely, and he put down the weight to sit up and look at the other. Had the pilots been fighting? No, that could not be it. Taehyung would have some black eye not red ones, if they had had a fight. But why had the man been crying?

"What happened?" he asked, back into captain-mode.

"I just heard a very... very tragic story," Taehyung answered, sounding tired.

The pilot did not seem like he wanted to tell him more, so he kept it at that.

"Seems to be a soldier thing to come to the gym when one's struggling with emotions," he said instead and tilted his head at the V. "You want to join me?"

The younger nodded and looked around to find something he liked for a warm-up.

"You sure, you don't want to change?" Hoseok asked him, pointing at the long-sleeved uniform.

"I'm sure the ship has washing machines that can handle a sweaty uniform," the other replied and looked a little better than before.

"Sadly, it doesn't have cleaning robots," Hoseok said and smiled slightly in pain. Getting the crew to clean the ship would be a pain in the ass. But on the other hand, he could teach them some discipline by wiping the floors. Now that he thought about it, he took a liking in the idea.

"Isn't that the reason for the gray floors?" the V asked.

Hoseok chuckled. This man was something else.

"Get your ass ready, so we can start training!" he commanded with a smile and the other jumped onto one of the spin trainers with his iconic rectangular grin. But his eyes still looked sad, and Hoseok promised to himself to make them shine with the usual spark by the end of the session.

Ten minutes and one hundred sit-ups and squats later, Taehyung was finally done with his spin-trainer warm-up and ready to join him. They decided to do some training for the legs first, so they could continue talking.

"Did it bother you so much that I closed the door in your face?" Taehyung asked with a hidden grin, "I'm sorry, by the way."

Hoseok snorted in disbelieve. Was there no respect taught to the soldiers on V? He was about to make the younger call him captain again when he reminded himself of his biggest problem. His position always seemed to keep him distanced from the rest of the crew and Jimin. He would have to change something about that if he wanted to win their trust. Because trust was worth way more than respect in a battle.

"Yes, it pissed me off," he answered with a sharp look towards the younger.

The man just hunched his shoulders and grinned apologetically.

"But you can apologize by helping me. I need your advice," he admitted then, and the V's eyebrows shot up. "You seem to get along with everyone in one way or the other."

"I'm working on it."

"How can I get closer to my crew?" he asked the question that had burned on his tongue since yesterday. It sounded pathetic even to him, but he had no idea how to bond with them. He had nothing to talk about with Jin or Yoongi, Jungkook looked at him like he was his father, Taehyung was weird when he was not sad, Jimin mostly annoyed him, and Namjoon... well, Namjoon was Namjoon. He was giving everyone a hard time in getting closer to him.

The other looked like he had expected something else.

"That's all?" the younger asked.

Hoseok snorted. All? This was the fucking most important thing he had to do over those fifteen weeks.

"Yes, that's all," he pressed out pissed.

"Follow me," the V said and stood up from the leg press, making the weights rattle loudly. Hoseok obeyed.

They walked over to the free space and Taehyung stepped in front of the mirror. "Bang!" he called out over the music, "Play something that's good for dancing, please."

Hoseok's eyes widened in surprise. How did the boy know?

"You used to dance, right?" the pilot asked him with a look over his shoulder.

"How do you know?" was all he could ask, too astounded to think of an answer by himself.

"Let's just say I have my sources," the other replied and tried to suppress a smug smile. Hoseok rolled his eyes but decided to let it slide. Damn V-hackers. But there seemed no point in parenting a grown-up man from a different solar system with a slightly offbeat moral codex. Bang might not even have noticed the intrusion in his database.

"So, you want me to dance to become a better captain?" he asked.

The V turned around and put his hands on his shoulders. "You got me wrong there. I'm not trying to make you a better captain, I'm trying to make you more human."

That coming from someone as alien as Taehyung was a little strange, but he understood. Becoming a better captain, in this case, meant becoming someone one could relate to. Someone who was as much a human as everyone else, though he was not. But most people tended to forget that his homeplanet was not Earth.

"Dance for me, captain Jung!" the younger said playfully and stepped back to watch him.

A little nervous he tried to recall some moves and techniques from his teen years. And slowly, everything came back to him. He tried some of the easier choreographies and found his way back into the easiness he had forgotten over the years in military. Dancing was of no use in the space force, so he had given it up. But right now, his younger self seemed to break out of the small shell he had stowed it in, and the old energy that came with expressing himself through body language trickled through his veins. The smile on his face was inevitable, and he even laughed after managing the backflip he had trained over months back then.

"Did you see that?" he asked Taehyung, completely hyped by his success.

The younger grinned happily and nodded. "I had no idea you were this good."

"I was the king of dance in my school," Hoseok laughed and tried a more complicated combination.

It felt like all the moves from back then wanted to be danced, and he gave in to it. His chest was bubbling with joy, and, somehow, he missed his snapback. It would look perfect with the wide black sports clothes. The beats changed, and he slid into the new songs effortlessly, just letting his memory guide him. Even if this would not gain him anything, he was still glad that the V had made him dance. Because right now, the world seemed a little brighter.

After what must have been half an hour or more, he finally stopped exhausted.

"This was great, but how's that going to make everything better, Taehyung?" he asked and turned around to the pilot who sat on the wall to his right.

Instead of an answer, applause sounded through the room, and Hoseok stared at the live feed above the alien's head that showed the crew in the gun training room, clapping and cheering. Well, except for Namjoon. The Brain was clapping politely and just looked like he would never have expected his captain to dance. But he was showing a positive response.

"You trust me now?" the pilot asked with a wide grin.

He had made it, Hoseok realized, he had made Taehyung's eyes sparkle again. Satisfied he crashed on the wooden floor.

"Bang," he heard the deep voice of the younger, "I want a personal copy of this."

"Like you wish, officer Kim," the AI said.

"Call me Taehyung," the pilot responded and closed the video feed with a wipe of his hand.

What was it with his crew and letting the AI call them by their first name? It was not as if the computer cared. But if it made them feel better, he would not object.

"Can you answer me another question?" he asked the V when the man handed him a bottle of water.

"Depends on what you're going to ask." Attentive coffee eyes looked at him. It was weird to see Taehyung this serious and concentrated. It made the younger look much older.

"How do I reach Namjoon?" he asked the pilot.

The cocky smile was back on the other's face. "Didn't you notice?" he asked.

"Notice what?"

"Brains connect over sharing their knowledge. What did you think I made this strange request for this morning?"

Hoseok's jaw dropped. This had been the reason for the stupid question for something funny? How does one get such ideas? Deeply impressed, he looked at the younger. Taehyung was developing into one of the most cunning persons he had ever met. Maybe he should listen to the man more often. His brabble seemed to have some hidden meaning.

"And start seeing Jimin as part of the crew," the V added with a knowing look.

Hoseok just nodded. He would try.

"Let's go eat lunch with the others," Taehyung suggested and held out a hand to help him up.

The mentioning of meeting the rest made his stomach feel weird. The little show he had given involuntarily had changed something and he was not sure if he could handle it already. After all, a dancing captain was not exactly someone he would have taken seriously back in the old days. On the other hand, this crew was not exactly military nor ordinary, so maybe the alien's unorthodox methods were the best. Well, they were the only for now.

"Don't worry," the young pilot read his thoughts, "See it as an experiment. You dropped the last ingredient into the mix and now you can only wait and look if it blows up or transforms into something greater."

This did not make him feel much better, but it seemed to be a way of handling the situation. So, he followed the younger out of the gym and up to the kitchen. He would shower later. After all, they would have the functional training for all of them after lunch.

"Cap- Hoseok," Jin began when they entered the kitchen. Bang must have told them to come. No, most likely Jimin had concluded they would come up now. "You should not wear your sweaty sportswear in the kitchen. Those rooms are too cold for this. You'll get sick."

Taehyung gave him a knowing look over his shoulder and walked towards the machines.

"I know, Jin, but I'm perfectly aware and know the risk. In fact, it's Taehyung's fault that I didn't shower and dress back to normal." This was a lie and the young pilots face showed him that he knew that, but the playfully offended face the other made was just too funny.

Hoseok chuckled and gave the food machine his fingerprint.

"Well, I'm not complaining about some work," the doc concluded with a shrug and sat down with his lunch. Was Jin always that nonchalant?

"What's the reason for the low temperature?" Jimin asked, already munching on his bar.

"16.5°C are perfect for thinking, so the uniforms have been designed to cope the physical disadvantages and support perfect mental performance," Namjoon answered. He still sounded like a machine, but Hoseok accepted it. He was a little sorry for having cut off the man so bluntly the last times.

He acknowledged the words with a nod towards his commander and sat down with his warm water and food bar.

Yoongi entered the kitchen and Taehyung froze. Concerned Hoseok watched the two, but apparently the younger had found something in the white-haired man's face that made him relax and even smile. What had Yoongi told the boy that had him left so shook? Those two were like a pair out of a cheap drama, always stepping forwards and backwards. Sometimes they were like best buddies, then one ignored the other.

He shook his head. There was no way for him to find out, so he left them to themselves. One breakthrough per day was enough for him, and today had been a big one. Satisfied, he took a bite from his food. He was curious about what would happen within the next days.

>><<

I wrote this chapter shortly before Hobi made his birthday vlive and talked about him wanting to dance more to feel like his younger self. This is not the first time something like this happened. The decision that Hobi studies literature in Bored Brains was made before he revealed that his dad was a literature teacher, and the idea with the mattress on the roof is now in the Euphoria video. It's scaring me.