The TwistUp tournament ended with a triumphant Jeon Jungkook besting Min Yoongi in the last round--at which time Tae and Hoseok pranced around scattering handmade confetti, like flower girls at a wedding, over Yoongi's limp body flattened against the floor and Jungkook's almost-headstand of victory.

After the lights and colors and giggles all came to an end, everyone made themselves busy with cleaning up the random cups, plates and handmade confetti scraps.

Yoongi had a mission, though. Once he'd regained enough stamina to crawl up off of the floor, he found and yanked the at the collar of little Woozi's cotton T-shirt and dragged him to the side of the room. Woozi's small dark eyes turned into bright, black diamonds, glinting with panic as he was dragged along in Yoongi's clutches like a small dog on a short leash. 

"Free drinks for everyone, eh?"  Yoongi let go of Woozi's shirt and stepped back to take in the sight of the small young man with panicked eyes. "I know it was you. No one else is smart enough to break the lock codes on my booze box. Yah little shit." Yoongi's words were harsh, but they were delivered with a sugar-sweet smile.

He's...amused?  Woozi gulped. "Tae wanted to boost morale. I said I'd help."

"Well, it worked. Good job, kid."

A hopeful almost-smile flickered at the corners of Woozi's little mouth.

Yoongi growled again, "But don't you ever. Ever. Touch my booze box again. Got it?"

Woozi nodded quickly, his shaggy pink hairs falling into his round glasses. "Understood, Suga-nim."

"Good."

Across the room, Jungkook was crouched down on his hands and knees, busying himself with plucking bits of paper confetti up off of the floor as his baggy black sweatpants scrunched up against the cold metal tiles.

Almost... done... there.

Jungkook stood up straight with a triumphant smile on his face. His eyes skimmed the life and sound of the room, landing on the silvery hair and silken attire of Taehyung. 

Tae was happily humming a small tune to himself and seemed to be color-sorting the bits of paper confetti that were laying in one of his palms.

Jungkook chuckled at the sight, his heart overflowing with warmth. As Jungkook stood there grinning like a fool, Shae walked up and gave Jungkook's arm a shove.

"Kookieeeeeeee."

Jungkook only grinned even harder. 

"Shae, are you drunk?"

Shae looped her arm through his and leaned her head into his shoulder while making a childish humming noise. 

"I'm not sure."

"Maybe I should take you back to your room to lie down, Shae," he said with a laugh. "Or find Ava to help you."

Shae nuzzled into Jungkook's shoulder. "Mmmm but this is so nice."

Jungkook reached down and flicked Shae in the forehead. "C'mon, Shae, don't be a pest."

He laughed at the sour face she made up at him as she let go of his arm.

"Kookie, why can't you get along with Joon?"

"Well, that was a sudden turn of the conversation." Jungkook reached out a hand to her shoulder as if to guide her, but she pushed his hand away. "I think we should talk about that when you're sober, Shae. For now, let's...."

"No. Kookie, I wanna know."

"I'm not going to argue with you right now. So c'mon, let's just...."

But Shae stepped closer to Jungkook.

He felt a wave of magical energy like a heat wave rush against him. And Jungkook realized that Shae's hands were balled into fists and flickering with ethereal blue flame. 

"Jeon Jungkook. You better answer me."

Jungkook swore to himself. He didn't have any of his Mysterium-infused weapons or gear on hand, and his own runes were at an all-time low in energy. They'd not been tuned up since before the Ganche Games arena fights. Which meant that, unless he could tap into is Gwangju Ai powers somehow, he had no magical moves to make against his drunken Satoor Ai.

He lifted his hands high and took a step back. "Shae. Listen to me. I'm on your side, remember."

Shae's fiery fists fell to her sides. The entire room had gone deathly quiet. All eyes were on them.

"So, let's just agree that we're on the same side. There's no need for this...violence."

Shae, he realized, was...crying. She whipped at her cheek with the back of one of her fiery hands, though the flame didn't hurt her face in the least. "I just want us all to work together, Kookie. All of us. But it all feels so broken and I don't know how to fix it. I don't know if I can but I want to. Y'know what I mean?"

Jungkook's voice cracked. "Yeah, Shae. I do."

The moment was broken in an instant. 

A hand latched onto the back of Shae's neck, and a warm green light spread from that palm into her skin. Shae's eyes rolled into the back of her head, and her drunken form slumped sideways, limp, all blue flame having vanished.

Hoseok scooped her up before she fell hard into the floor and pulled her up against his chest. He sighed.

"You alright, Kookie?"

Jungkook looked from Shae to Hoseok, utterly confused. How did he do that...so effortlessly? I didn't feel any kind of weird spirit-magic reaction like in the arena when Hoseok and Lilith tried to threaten her then. And she didn't magi-react, either. Jungkook looked down at his hands, then up again at where Hoseok was holding Shae's limp form.

"Yeah." Jungkook glanced across the room to see Taehyung watching him with sad eyes now. "I'm fine, Hobi."

The unusually sober redhead nodded. "I'll take care of her, Kook. Make sure she doesn't do any damage. I still have some Mysterium left in my runes to go around."

Ava ran to follow Shae and Hoseok out of the room—but Min Yoongi stepped forward and reached his arm out against her chest to restrain her.

Ava's fierce eyes flickered in a challenge. Yoongi held firm beneath them.

"She might be dangerous right now. You saw her hands, Ava. She's...she's never done that before, has she? Made a flame? Or lost control?"

Ava scowled harder.

"Hoseok can handle himself. Just, leave her be until she's sober again. Ok?"

Ava gave an angry shrug and Yoongi's arm slipped off of her. "This is all because of that asshole Kim Namjoon. And...this is all because of me."

Yoongi barked a laugh. "That seems a little presumptuous of you, kitten."

"This isn't a joke. And I'm not your 'anything,' Min Yoongi, so don't call me that." Ava shouldered hard against his arm as she pushed past Min Yoongi and stormed her way from the room.

"Hmph."

Yoongi turned. Everyone in the room was staring at him, and he glared shamelessly back at them.

"The fuck are you lookin' at? Clean this shit up."

Then he strolled out of the room, too, shoving his hands deep into his pockets.

Woozi physically deflated as he watched the scene unfold, his typically intense gaze turning into a proper scowl.

Tae had walked over to Jungkook's side. The elegant man looped his arm through Jungkook's and leaned into his shoulder with a sad sigh.

So much for lightening the mood, Tae thought.

__

Hoseok carried Shae to his suite. When he kicked open the door, he cursed himself for not cleaning up his room that morning.

"Oh god."

He gently lay Shae's unconscious body onto his bed, then proceeded to the bathroom of his suite for a small trash bin and a wet towel. Once the bin was on the floor beside her bed and the towel was cooling her forehead, he began to rummage through his cabinets for some painkillers and crackers, and then he set these with a bottle of water onto his bedside table.

"She looks a little green. Perhaps I should wake her so she can just throw it up."

Hoseok's playful eyes had turned calm and thoughtful. Shae groaned in her unconscious state and rolled onto her side, her body curling into itself and one arm wrapping tightly into her stomach.

Hoseok sat on the edge of the bed and reached down to touch her forehead, sweeping her blonde hairs back from her face and registering the temperature of her skin.

"Damn. She's definitely never had Ursoo Whiskey before." Hoseok giggled to himself. "I mean, I remember the first time I had some."

Shae's groggy eyes squinted open and up towards the sound of Hoseok's voice. She was frowning. He didn't seem to notice her grumpy gaze as he kept talking.

"Pretty sure I ended up doing a striptease on top of the dinner table that night to this Earth song, Hit Me Baby One More Time. Yoongi still has the video receipts somewhere...."

Shae closed her eyes and groaned lightly again. Hoseok smiled and swept his hand through her hair in a calming motion.

"It's gonna be alright, Shae. I mean, on the bright side, at least you didn't also do a striptease in front of everyone. Not that I'd totally have hated that, but, for your sake at least."

Shae mumbled groggily, the sound hardly perceptible, "What even are you, Jung Hoseok?"

His hand jumped back from her forehead, his eyes went wide, and his mouth fell into a small O shape. "Are you awake?"

"No."

"Ok." He smiled brightly down at her. "Well, in case you need to throw up, there's a trash can right here. And... in case you need to let out some blue-fire-angst again, I'll be here, too. Punching bag at the ready."

"As long as you don't start singing Brittany Spears," she mumbled.

"Well, yah gotta admit, that song would be spot on for the occasion. If you're into that sort of thing."

"Hobi."

"Hmm?"

"Shut up."

Shae was smiling into the pillow with her eyes closed again. She pulled a separate pillow into her chest and nuzzled into it, sighing the smell in deeply—like oranges and cinnamon. Her breathing slowed soon after.

"Oh good. She really is asleep now." Hoseok got up from the edge of his bed and gave his room a once-over. "Well, I better clean this mess up before she wakes up. Or she might think someone's been in here tryna rob me, and then lose her cool all over again."

__

Yoongi had followed Ava out into the hallway. He watched her shuffle to the left, then to the right again, undecided at which direciton to take.

"Lost?" Yoongi was unsmiling— and feeling even more biting than his usual self.

"You can't get lost. It's a circle."

"One would think." Yoongi turned left and started walking, his hands still in the pockets of his khaki pants.

"Where are you going?"

He didn't answer.

Ava sighed dramatically and started after him.

"I'm not gonna hold your damn hand or anything so don't ask," Yoongi remarked sourly.

"What am I, four?"

"Based on your attitude, that's not a far-off summation," Yoongi snapped.

Ava glared into the back of his head.

Soon enough, Yoongi veered left and rested his palm on the security pad propped up next to a uniquely armor-sealed room. None of the living quarters had the same thick plated doorframe or security panel measures. When the door opened, Ava couldn't help but pause and peer curiously inside. It was too dark to see much.

Yoongi glared her direction. "This is my workshop. I go here to get away from people who are annoying me."

"Oh?" Some of the bite in her voice faded into curiosity.

Yoongi stepped through the doorway and flipped the switch of a table lamp inside. Though the room was still dimly lit, she was able to make out the form of a messy desk, metal shelves to one side, and some kind of lumpy metal shape that looked like a terribly rendered statue of a man.

"Well that's appetizing," she commented sarcastically.

She started to step through the doorway but Yoongi placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"What?"

He said sternly, "I said this is where I go to avoid people who are annoying me."

Ava blinked twice, hard.

Then the metal door flickered shut—right in Ava's face.

"THE AUDACITY." Ava stormed away from the door of his workshop, fuming like a screaming teakettle. "And after this morning...this is the kinda shit he's gonna pull on me?! Oh no, honey. This. This is war." Ava stalked towards her room, feminine fury churning in her veins.

At the same time, Yoongi slumped into his workshop chair and leaned back into it with his eyes closed. He muttered to himself, "I was just tryna help."

He kicked a nearby crate with his foot, the contents rattling. His toe throbbed as a result.

"This is why I hate helping people. And people in general. I just thought that after this morning... But it doesn't fucking matter, anyway." He kicked the crate again, a little less hard, and then leaned into his desk and pulled a jumble of tangled wires towards him, letting his mind tune into the puzzle at hand and tune out of the frustration buzzing inside of him.

--

Much later that evening...

Shae woke with a gasp, sticky sweat coating her frame. Her fingers clawed at unfamiliar sheets and her panicked eyes flickered about the room: Hoseok's room. Thankfully, the side table light had been left on, so she could see clearly enough to remember where she was and why she was there.

Hoseok was slumped over in a mess of spare pillows and a singular fuzzy blanket, his shoulder shrugging into the wall. He rolled over on the floor and squinted sleepily up at Shae.

"Hobi?"

"Mmmm."

"Are you awake?"

"Eh."

"Ok."

"Bad dream?" he grumbled as he rubbed at his eyes with the backs of his hands, his body stretching long and his feet curling outward.

Shae pulled the blankets tighter into her chest. "Yeah." The way the cinnamon and orange scent washed over her... made her feel a bit comforted.

Hoseok's groggy squint continued for a moment longer. His body slackened into a comfortable blob. "What was it about?"

"This is gonna sound weird, but... there was that great white tree in it. And then for some reason, you and Tae and Kookie were all in it, too. You talked to me about houses, Hobi, and about family heritage. It was weird."

"I've been known to ramble in strange voices at times," Hoseok answered through a lazy yawn.

"This isn't funny, Hobi," Shae answered with a slight tinge of panic in her voice.

Hoseok sat up slowly and leaned his back against the wall, folding his legs beneath him. "If this is some kinda mind-degeneration space disease or something, then all I gotta say is this isn't the first way I thought you were gonna kick the bucket."

"C'mon, this is serious."

"I mean, I feel fine," he said sleepily, pulling his pillow into his chest. "You look fine to me too. In all manner of perception." He smirked, but she didn't seem to catch his double-meaning.

Shae rambled to herself, "I just don't know what it means, everything you said in the dream... Serving others, or Era will suffer? It's a giant mess to my ears."

"Maybe your ancestor's spirits were tryna warn you not to blast people up at random with blue fire just because you're upset."

Shae glared down at Hoseok.

He shrugged his shoulders innocently, then went on, "I mean think about it. You go a little off. The weird juju happens. I'm not a rocket scientist, but it makes sense enough to me."

"...maybe. But it still doesn't explain some parts of the dream. Or why you were in it. You're not even a Gwangju Ai."

"I mean, I'm a healthy hot-blooded young male, thank you very much. If I just happened to be in your dream for said reason, well, sue me." Hoseok's playful smile warmed his eyes.

Shae looked very unimpressed with his answer.

Hoseok went on, "I usually have dreams that are way more fun than dramatic monologues and weird ass mystical trees, so I'm more bummed than anything for your sake."

"Fun?" Shae's annoyance became mingled with curiosity. "What do you mean by that?"

"I'm not sure it'd be socially acceptable for me to elaborate so...I won't. Unless I get to know you better and deem that you won't actually judge me. But we're not there yet."

"I mean, I know about your striptease escapades. How much worse can it get?"

"HA. Oh, it can get a lot worse."