Yoon focus

Yoongi sat on the bridge and waited for his time to take the test. Currently Taehyung was at the infirmary, so he had to wait for their switch-training. He had passed on breakfast to not be confronted with Hoseok and because he was concerned he would throw up if he ate before the fitness test. The captain's hurt face would not leave him alone, and he felt like he had to apologize to the man though he had done nothing wrong. Except for the insults maybe.

"Yoongi," he suddenly heard the scratchy voice of the brunette from behind him. He turned around to find a face that screamed 'sorry' from every wrinkle. So, he was not the only one who felt regret.

"Captain," he replied without second thought and saw Hoseok's mouth twitching unpleased at the mentioning of his title.

"I came to apologize," the soldier said and sat down in Taehyung's seat. "I should have been more attentive to the needs of my crew."

Yoongi just nodded. He did not know what to say.

"I'm just concerned. You're all scientists and veterans save for Taehyung, but still I'm leading you into a battle where you might lose your life," the younger explained and looked anywhere but into Yoongi's face.

"You want to increase our chance to survive," the Switcher concluded. He had expected something like this. After all, the training had been his idea of lengthening his life span, too. But sadly there was a difference between good intentions and something being good.

"Yes." The brunette nodded.

Yoongi smiled lazily. "It's not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change," he quoted.

"Did you come up with this?" the captain asked with a wry grin. He looked a little more at ease after he had been able to explain himself.

"No. Charles Darwin wrote that*," Yoongi explained. He always had liked the quote because it showed that through the eyes of science the average class was the one that would overcome time whereas extrema would fade out.

"So, neither Namjoon nor I are most likely to survive. Who is it then?" the younger asked and finally looked at him with the old confidence and the attentive glint in the dark orbs.

"Taehyung," he simply replied, "He's strong and he's smart, but he also is a master of hidden tactics and sneaky moves. If he can't reach his goal in the direct way, he'll approach the problem from another perspective or even let it be for some time." He knew all too well of that talent. His friend was a master of getting what he wanted in the most unexpected ways.

Hoseok's mouth formed into a crooked smile. "So, how are we supposed to compete?" he asked in a playful tone.

"Let's play Go**," Yoongi suggested and snorted when he saw the flabbergasted face of the brunette.

"Why Go?"

"Because it takes exactly that: the ability to adjust to sudden change," he argued with a shrug.

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They had played Go until it had been time for Yoongi to take the test. Hoseok was really bad at the game, so the pilot had suggested to play it more often. Now that the captain had changed the trainings plan, there would be enough time to train their brains, too. He did not know what exactly made the man change his mind, but he was grateful for the amendment. Now he would not feel like shit every evening.

The test went surprisingly well, and Yoongi was proud of what he had achieved over the last weeks, so he went to lunch in a better mood than ever. Maybe the fact he had been able to cry in Taehyung's arms last night added to the effect. He felt a little embarrassed, but mostly he was relieved. The V had opened a door that had been closed for too long because he had not possessed the right key to open it, and now he finally had found a way to let all the bad energy flow out of his system. He doubted that from this one time everything suddenly was good, but it was a start and he would continue processing his past to clean himself from all the hidden grief that ate at him.

Last night he had been able to let out all his emotions on the memories he had suppressed. His brother's death was the most important one. But it did not stop at that. He had hurt people he loved and gathered up self-hatred over almost two decades. So, it would take some time to clean his system from all the shit.

After lunch, Taehyung and he went to the bridge to have a hacking lesson. Hoseok had introduced the new plan at the gathering and had made today and tomorrow the first two free days. So, the V got out the old laptop which he always brought for those sessions and sat down with his back leaned against the window. Hoseok and the alien seemed to have a disliking in their seats, Yoongi had noticed.

He crotched down next to the younger and tilted his head to look at the small screen. This laptop was ancient. It was two times thicker than a hand and even had a handle to carry it like a briefcase, and the keyboard was an analog one, not to speak of the need of a touchpad to interact with the display. When he had first seen it, he had not even known it was a computer.

And when he had asked the V, if that was the old Windows system he had heard about in the history of computer science, Taehyung had looked as if he had personally offended him. 'Windows?' he had gasped, 'How dare you insult me like that. A true programmer uses Linux.' Yoongi had not quite understood what the problem had been. To him, both systems were ancient, but apparently there was a big difference.

"So, where did we stop last time?" Taehyung asked him and opened the terminal. [The TERMINAL is what makes programmers and hackers look cool. It's the black window with the white lines no-one understands when foreign to programming. Under Windows it's called cmd.]

The V had gone through all the basics with him, like creating a shell and several basic operating system files and their configuration to check if he was as informed as he needed to be. At first, he had groaned as to why he had to go through all the theoretical stuff again, but after a short time he had had to admit that he had forgotten many things over the last years.

"You showed me how to do a Format String Attack," he answered.

"Right," Taehyung mumbled and tapped something into the terminal's commando line. "Then today I'll show you what we can use that for."

Yoongi just nodded and leaned his head against the taller man's shoulder.

"When you get access to the system by shutting down, for example, the program that controls the login by a Format String Attack, you want to sneak yourself into the system as an admin by changing your user ID to zero. It's the ultimate ID with all rights and you're free to do whatever you like. You get access to the root. And that's where we want to go to really harm the system. The file we can do the most damage with at a short time is the autoexec.bat we talked about some days ago. We could also damage the BIOS, but if we need the enemy system to keep running, we should be satisfied with the auto-bat."

Yoongi nodded to show he had understood.

Taehyung continued to show him fragments of code and commands he had to use, and he tried to remember them all. Then the V would hand him the laptop, logged into a visitor-account, and told him to re-do what he had just learned. It was an effective way of memorizing the methods. Tomorrow they would do it again to burn it into his mind, and then Taehyung would show him the next trick.

"Can I try something?" Taehyung asked when Yoongi had successfully hacked the admin-account and had changed the language to Chinese.

"Try what?" Yoongi asked and closed the laptop to put it aside. He would let his colleague struggle with setting the autoexec.bat back to normal.

"To switch you back on," the V said.

"You have another idea?" he asked, trying to not let the pictures from last time distract him. Giving those thoughts space would lead to a conclusion he was not willing to accept, yet, so he pushed it aside.

"Yup, switch off!" the other demanded and Yoongi suppressed a smile. It sounded like he was a washing machine or a vacuum cleaner that simply could be switched on and off with a button.

Still, he obeyed and let his mind go blank. It was easy, just like breathing.

"Okay," he heard Taehyung's voice when he opened his eyes again.

And then he felt a hand stroking through his hair, and the beautiful clear state crumbled to pieces and a wave of emotions rolled over him. His chest tightened in a delightful way and his stomach tickled like he had swallowed a pack of lemonade powder.

"Fuck!" he breathed out and widened his eyes in shock.

"It worked!" Taehyung cheered and clapped his hands like a hyperactive five-year-old imitating a seal.

"How the fuck did this work?" he asked, half breathless from the gush of emotions and half amused by his friend's behavior.

"I've got no idea. This must be a touch that wakes something deep inside your head," the V said euphorically, "But who cares? We found a way to get you back!"

A small smile that grew rapidly spread on Yoongi's face. "We did it!"

"Bang!" Taehyung called out, "Is it already time for the protein snack?"

"Yes, it's about time," the uncle voice replied.

"Can you call everyone to the kitchen then, please?" the younger asked the AI.

"Of course, Taehyung."

"Let's go tell 'em!" The alien grabbed his hand and pulled him up to head over to the kitchen area.

After everyone had entered and had sat down, the overly motivated V turned towards Hoseok. It was cute how hyper Taehyung was because of their breakthrough. He was like a child that had understood something very difficult and wanted to show off to their parents.

"We did it," the alien whisper-shouted towards the captain, getting everyone's attention with the silly behavior.

"Did what?" Hoseok asked and took a bit of his protein bar. Those bars had an awful aftertaste, but it was necessary to support their body with enough energy and prevent losing muscles during the training.

"We found a way to switch Yoongi back!"

Now, everyone's attention was on the young pilot. Apparently, the news that he was a Switcher had spread throughout the crew without his knowledge. Well, it was nothing he needed to hide. Not from this bunch or weirdos.

"How?" Jimin asked with wide eyes.

"Like this," Taehyung said, and he felt the long fingers in his hair again and had to suppress the urge to close his eyes and lean into the touch. It was a little embarrassing, but fortunately everyone stared at Taehyung, so no-one noticed him getting hot cheeks.

Jimin's eyebrows looked like they tried to hit his hairline and Hoseok was no less surprised.

"But you do know that he'll have to do it by himself, don't you?" the brunette asked with one eyebrow raised skeptically.

Taehyung's mood seemed to sink instantly.

"That's no problem," Jimin intervened, "The brain does not distinguish between an experience that's intensely imagined and an experience that's real."

Yoongi cleared his throat. "So, basically, I just have to imagine how it feels, and it would have the same effect?"

"Yeah," the psychologist said with a determined nod.

"We should try that next," he said towards his alien friend who nodded in agreement.

Ten minutes later, they sat on the bridge again and started their training. Even Yoongi felt overly motivated.

"Okay, I guess I'll just stroke through your hair and you'll have to memorize it," the V said and reached out for him.

Yoongi close his eyes when the slender fingers began to play with his strands. It was so relaxing that he just wanted to enjoy this, but he had to do his job and remember it. He tried to burn everything into his mind: How the weight of the fingers felt on his head, the soft tugging on the hair, the way the touch tickled. And it was so hard to not fantasize about what else this hand could do to him. He realized that there was no use in denying it. He had fallen for the little alien. Suppressing a wry smile, he focused back on the gentle touch.

They sat for about five minutes before he opened his eyes again and nodded to signalize he would try it.

Taehyung's eyes burned on his skin, and he tried his best to ignore that and perform his magic. Switching off was no problem, but suddenly it felt hard to recall how his friend's touch had felt. It was only a vague memory of the weight and tickle, but nothing that was strong enough to switch him back on.

"It doesn't work. Get me back," he said, and in the next moment the flash of emotions prickled through his body when Taehyung reached out for him. A little sigh slipped from his lips.

The V chuckled. "You seem to like this way more than I expected," the younger mocked him.

"Shut up!" he hissed and bit his tongue to not let this happen again. He could not mess up their friendship. "Let's continue practicing."

>><<

*For those who not yet know CHARLES DARWIN: He's the man who developed the theory of evolution. That's the theory that says humans are the evolutionary result of monkeys, though Darwin found that out by studying birds on the Galapagos Islands. He saw that albeit all birds were from one family they had different beaks depending on the environment they had to find food in.

**GO is a Japanese tactics game played on a 19x19 raster field with black and white stones. But unlike in chess, the stones are placed on the crossing points of the lines with the goal to annex as much of the field as possible while circling the enemy and terminating him in doing so. It's a game that needs great discipline of the mind and a talent in foreseeing the next four to five steps.