Jungkook focus

Bang woke him up with the standard board alarm, a perfect mix of several frequencies that stimulated the brain. Today was the first day of training, and Hoseok had probably woken them all up to have breakfast together. Jungkook liked the shared meals. It reminded him of his time at the space force, and he got the feeling that their captain knew that it had a positive effect on teambuilding.

"Good morning, Bang," he greeted the AI, before he sat up with a groan to get ready for the day.

His left hand moved to his injury by reflex. After waking up, the scar always ached slightly. It was like the damn thing wanted to remind him that he was a veteran. But he was only twenty-four, for fuck's sake, this could not have been it. With the usual morning-anger he stood up and went to his bathroom to rearrange his hair and wash away the drowsiness with a splash of water.

He stared at the white scar on his bare chest. It was quite ironic that though he had been treated with advanced medical technique his injury had left a scar. The process of healing had taken much longer than the docs had predicted and had left him with this strange mark. Hoseok had said that nature wanted him to carry this sign of his survival, and those words, for some reason, had pacified him. He had shown death the finger, and he would get back on track. The captain truly had been his brightest light in those days.

He sighed and went back to his room to get ready.

Dressed up in his black uniform and with the gun on his leg, he headed towards the elevator when suddenly a door opened next to him and made him jump back.

A startled Taehyung looked at him. "Calm down, buddy. I may be hungry, but I'm not into human. Tastes awful." The V's tone was way too serious.

Jungkook did not know if he should find this funny, so he kept silent and just continued walking.

"You seriously should talk more," Taehyung pointed out, and Bang opened the door of the elevator for them.

"But why?" Jungkook asked with a playfully innocent smile and stepped inside, "You're doing a marvelous job in talking more than enough for both of us."

The pilot looked at him like he had told him he hated puppies. Those looks were priceless, and he could not hold back the evil chuckle that bubbled up inside his chest.

But within the blink of an eye, Taehyung's expression changed to a cunning smile. "Wouldn't have guessed you could be such a sassy bunny. But you know: The cistern contains, the fountain overflows."

Jungkook took a second to just shoot the other a dark look for calling him a bunny (it undermined his masculinity), before he began to think about what the pilot actually had implied. When he understood, his mood sank even further. But then he just snorted smugly. "Well: One can easily go without a fountain, but without cisterns society is screwed."

Now, it was Taehyung's turn to frown. Frustrated the V chewed on the inside of his cheek and looked like he plotted some evil payback. Jungkook just chuckled and turned towards the door. The elevator opened, and they walked down the hallway to enter the kitchen. The captain was already present and sipping on his clear coffee, or warm water. Jungkook could not tell. It was no wonder the man was the first one up; he was a machine when it came to discipline, and he was his role model in personality and running business. The fact that this man had saved his life might add to this, but Jung Hoseok was adored by everyone who met him. Even cocky Taehyung showed respect towards the captain whereas the rest of the crew got treated like longtime friends, and that must mean something.

"Good morning," the captain greeted them, and Jungkook just nodded firmly while Taehyung grinned widely and bowed deeply. It was a strange mix of respect and cockiness, but after all, the V was strange.

When they all had their food and drink, Jimin and Jin entered the room, followed by Namjoon. Since Jin's outburst, the commander carried an expression as if he always was in deep thought and he had become very quiet. What the doc had said seemed to have left an impression. Jungkook was grateful for the sake of Jimin. His friend was anything but dumb, he probably was smarter than most of them save for Namjoon, but the commander always had made the small man feel like he was stupid.

"Now that-" Hoseok began but stopped with a frown, "Where's officer Min?"

Everyone answered with a shrug.

"Bang, transmit me into the officer's room," the captain demanded, and the AI obeyed. "Officer Min, I expect you in the kitchen in five!"

A growl sounded from the other end. "'m perfectly able to han'le a gun. Lemme sleep," the white-haired man's voice spoke, sounding even huskier than normally.

The captain's nostrils twitched, making him look like he was about to kick in a wall. Hoseok barely became angry, but if he did, he was intense, very intense. Jungkook had experienced it several times at AESF, and he had always been glad to not be at the receiving end.

"Let me handle him," Taehyung said and jumped up with a devilish grin.

"Bang, grand Taehyung excess to officer Min's room. It's a military order of immense importance," the captain growled and nodded towards the V.

The pilot looked like it was his birthday and ran out of the room.

"Are you sure that this was a clever idea?" Jin surprisingly asked, making everyone look at him. "From what I experienced, the chances are high that one or the other might come back as a dead body. By how much Yoongi values sleep, I'd bet on Taehyung as the dead body, no matter he's a soldier."

Everyone looked at the doc in shock.

"On the other hand," the man continued, "There is also a small chance that Taehyung will succeed, but then officer Min will be in a very bad mood. Either because of the sleep or because Taehyung has forgotten about personal space again. Or both."

Jungkook looked at their captain and saw the suppressed smile that threatened to lift one corner of the man's mouth. "I don't care for Min Yoongi's mood. If my information is right, the man is perfectly able to handle the stress. We're heading into a battle, and I have no use for a disobedient soldier," Hoseok clarified.

The air in the kitchen suddenly was very cold, and even Jungkook felt overly intimidated by the brunette's piercing ebony eyes. Their captain had made his point very clear, and everyone seemed to be reminded of their real position. Though they called each other by their first names, in the end, Hoseok was the one in command.

Five silent minutes later, a happily grinning Taehyung entered the kitchen with a dead-eyed Yoongi whose arms where disabled on his sides by the gray turtleneck that had been put on him like a straitjacket, and who wore navy-blue silken pajama pants with white dots. Not to speak of the messy white hair and the bare feet. Jungkook was able to hold back his laughter, but Jimin busted out in amusement, warming up the icy atmosphere in the kitchen. The pale man looked hilarious.

"You're welcome," the V said and pushed the smaller man into the seat next to his, before he got a drink for his colleague.

"Very nice," Hoseok said with a cold smile. The man could be really toenail-curling.

Jungkook looked at Jimin who was sipping on his drink, silenced by the frosty captain. He had not visited the other after the outburst at dinner. Though he really had wanted to check if everything was okay, he had decided that his friend most likely needed some alone-time to calm down again. Plus, and that might be the true reason, he had been unsure of how to behave after the pill-incident. But much to his relieve the Charmer looked like he no longer cared. He would talk to him this evening, Jungkook decided and concentrated back on his food bar.

"What's this?" the co-pilot suddenly asked, looking at his greenish drink.

"Poffee," Taehyung stated and looked delighted. His own drink had the same color. There were actually people who drank this peppermint coffee?

"This looks poisonous," the white-haired stated with a judging face.

"You didn't even try," the V pouted and turned away.

Yoongi sighed. When he tried to reach out for the mug, he had to realize that his arms where still fixated in the shirt. "Does this kitchen contain straws?" he asked resigned and turned his head towards the interactive wall.

Now, Jungkook laughed with Jimin and Jin. Yoongi would probably never admit it, but he was as weird as the V.

"Why would you ask for a straw when you should ask to be freed from your shirt?" Jimin asked the question Jungkook was thinking of, interrupted by giggles. The small honey-haired almost hit his head on the table from laughing.

"Because," the pilot explained with an I-don't-know-why-you're-laughing face, "The chances of my little alien getting me the straw is higher than those of him freeing me from this." The white-haired had emphasized the nickname with a sickeningly sweet tune.

My little alien? Everyone's eyes were filled with question marks. Sugar and little alien? How close were those two?

"Your little alien?" Jimin asked, but the V just grinned satisfied into his drink.

"This ship indeed contains straws," Bang's voice intervened in its typical business manner, and a small drawer opened to display individually packed straws in all colors.

"I'd like to have a white one," the older pilot growled towards Taehyung who stood up to get a pink one.

"I hate you," was the last thing they heard from the tied-up man, before he began to suck on the straw.

"Bang, would you prep Yoongi's food?" Taehyung asked nicely, and the food machine woke up.

"He can do that without the fingerprint?" Jin asked with raised eyebrows.

Jimin answered. "Of course, he can. Why would you need a fingerprint when you have eyes everywhere and a biometrical scanner, plus a voice identifier?"

Jin looked flabbergasted. "Then why am I still pressing my finger on that machine when Bang could prep my food the moment I enter the kitchen?" The man seemed sincerely agitated.

"Because you don't always want to eat when you enter the kitchen?" Jimin suggested.

"Of course, I do," the doc replied and looked like he could not understand why one would need the kitchen, if not for getting something to eat. He really showed a great affection towards the food though he always emphasized how he hated those bars.

The order was ready, and Taehyung got up again to get it for his colleague. Jungkook was curious if Yoongi would say something about being fed by the younger, but, apparently, he was okay with it. Or Taehyung must have given the man a lecture that had left an impression. He wondered what that could have been.

"Namjoon," the V began after some minutes of silent breakfast while he still held the food bar for the white-haired who occasionally switched from nibbling on the pink straw to taking a bite. It was a strangely endearing picture of a weird friendship. "Say something funny."

Everyone looked at the first pilot like he had said something very stupid, but before anyone could tell him that even the probability of an AI joking was higher than the one of a Brain being funny, Namjoon spoke.

"The universe oscillates." Everyone looked bewildered.

Except for Taehyung who looked like he had heard something that displeased him. "That's a theory. Another theory says that a god created everything. And whereas the version with a god is pretty satisfying, your version leaves us with the problem of the chicken and the egg*. Try again."

Namjoon thought for a moment, then he made a new attempt, "The average density of black holes -the proportion of its mass to its volume- equals that of our universe. That allows the assumption that inside of every black whole could be a small universe. Or-"

"-even we could be inside of a black hole," Taehyung concluded and looked surprised. "That actually was a funny fact."

Jungkook stared at them like the rest of the crew, unsure of what to think. Up until now it had only been Namjoon who had come up with this physical stuff, but the V seemed unexpectedly informed, too. A look at the commander's face showed Jungkook that the man was smiling softly. His jaw dropped. Taehyung had made the Brain smile.

Silence followed the unusual exchange, and, apart from Taehyung and Namjoon who seemed to be in their own little world each, it was uncomfortable. Jungkook realized that Taehyung normally dominated their table talks, but now that the pilot was silent (something that was rare), no one knew what to say. Jimin would not open his mouth because he wanted to prevent getting lectured or being boring with his monopolized knowledge of psychology, Jin always had his mouth full, Yoongi was much like him, only talking when he had to say something important (with the exception of talking to his little alien), and Hoseok always seemed to be out of the picture. Jungkook knew the captain well, but the other crewmembers seemed to have problems with getting closer to him. This hopefully would change over the weeks they would train together.

"Like discussed yesterday," the brunette's intense voice cut through the silence, "Jimin, Jin, Namjoon and Yoongi will receive gun training from Jungkook. Taehyung, I want you to make some hits, too. I guess your last gun training has been before entering E II Academy." He looked at the pilot who nodded in response. "Kook, I suggest doing the lessons about basics as a group."

Jungkook nodded. He had thought about this, too. It probably was best to first make them disassemble and assemble a gun to get used to its weight and mechanisms, before starting to shoot, because Jin looked like he could have a disliking in weapons and Namjoon looked like he would drop the gun rather than pull the trigger.

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Half an hour later, they all stood inside the small elevator to go down several floors where the gun range was. Jimin's back was pressed against his chest and he could smell the smaller man's mint shampoo mixed with something darker. His head became dizzy from the scent, and he silently begged the little box to go down faster while fighting the urge to bury his nose in the soft honey strands in front of him. Jimin's presence was quite overwhelming for him.

He breathed out relieved when the doors opened, and Hoseok led them into a long room with four shooting stands and a table with eight chairs, much like the one in the kitchen. The lights woke up when they entered, and everyone waited for the captain's instructions. The man turned around and smiled evilly.

"Yoongi," he said in a sickeningly sweet voice, that held an undeniable threat, "You said you're perfectly able to handle a gun. Show us."

The brunette held his hand out towards Jungkook who placed his gun into it, and the captain instructed everyone to get a pair of the ear plugs. While the rest of the crew prepared, Hoseok disassembled the gun and placed the parts on the table.

When everyone was ready, he gestured the white-haired pilot to begin. Jungkook was curious, too, if the man had just had a big mouth or if he really was able to handle a gun. Yoongi stepped in front of the table and took an attentive look at all the parts. Someone had helped him out of his pullover-prison and he wore the turtleneck like one should.

"Show us what you got," Hoseok said.

First nothing happened, but suddenly the cat-eyed man moved so fast that even Jungkook with his trained eyes and knowledge of a gun was barely able to follow. The older slid the barrel into the slide with his left hand while he grabbed the spring with his right, pushing it into the foreseen place right after. Then his left grabbed the assembled slide and his right the gun body, and he connected them with the iconic satisfying click, only to push in the magazine in a speed that made it difficult to follow the process with the eye. While he turned around he unlocked the weapon, and then he pulled the trigger.

"Perfect hit," Bang said who had enabled the target behind Yoongi, apparently having expected the pilot to shoot. The blue, dotted pajama pants suddenly did not look silly anymore.

The room was filled with a deafening silence.

Jungkook let his gaze wander over the faces. The captain had both eyebrows raised and was obviously impressed, Jimin and Jin still were hunched from the shock of the explosion, Namjoon was absolutely neutral as if this had not been impressive at all, and Taehyung looked something between amazed and terrified. The emotional mix of the first pilot was rather unique. Why was he scared? He had been a soldier, too, before he had come to Earth, had he not?

"Please tell me that you're addicted to morphine," the V broke the silence. His voice was muffled by the ear plugs, but everyone had understood him and looked at him confused. But Taehyung had only eyes for Yoongi who turned around to his colleague with a guilty face. The younger pilot began to shake his head viciously and took a step away from the shooter. But like they were connected with an invisible bond, the white-haired stepped forward and lifted a hand, though, before he could open his mouth to speak, the V stormed out of the room.

Everyone stared at Yoongi. What had just happened?

"Excuse me," the man said and followed Taehyung.

Some seconds passed until the captain broke the silence. "Well, seems like he can handle a gun. Kook, if you would start the lesson." The brunette pulled out his ear plugs and gestured everyone towards the table and they sat down.

The atmosphere that surrounded them was awkward. The scene they just had experienced had been so scurrile. What was it that Taehyung knew? What was it that made him react this way?

Jungkook shook his head. Taehyung and Yoongi were two grown men. They could handle this by themselves. Judging by what he had seen, they were pretty close anyways, so there sure would be a way they figured this out. He concentrated on the task at hand. How to teach a psychologist, a physicist and a physician how to work a gun safely and with the goal to hit a target? Time to start with the basics: names. Only now he realized that Yoongi had taken his gun with him. A bad feeling took over his chest and he looked at Hoseok with uneasiness.

"Min has my gun."

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*I doubt that anyone would not know the problem of the chicken and the egg. It's the following: What came first, chicken or egg? Translating to: What was in the beginning? What started the cycle?