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straykidsinspace · 6 years

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messages across the galaxies ✧ woochan space au

↠ group: stray kids ↠ pairing: woochan, side pairing: changjin ↠ genre: space!au, sci-fi, romance, a lot of angst ↠ word count: 1.7k ↠ part: 1/5 (moodboard)

↳ @brandipandii i hope this is worth the wait and that you had an amazing christmas and new year ^^

“Take my hand you idiot…”

Chan’s voice was bordering on exasperated, face a mess of red and pink hues as he blushed and bashfully turned away. It was his final hours on this planet and he wasn’t going to let his nerves get the best of him, not this time, or at least that was what he wanted to believe. The man in front of him was not nearly as flustered, expression seemingly passive and Chan wondered whether he had been too harsh blurting out the words only seconds earlier.

That was when their fingers entwined, lacing together like a ribbon and being tied securely in place, Chan had never felt so complete.

And then it all ended.

Two years had gone since that day, the day when Chan had been set against flying to the outer reaches of the cosmos, but the boy had had no choice. He had trained for years, almost a decade, to be able to fly through galaxies and soar beyond the boundaries of the naked eye, but it had not been his choice. Had Chan been able to decide his own fate his feet would’ve stayed firmly rooted to the ground, writing music and living a quiet life, not one of a coveted celebrity.

“The explorer of our times” They had called him, before Chan had even stepped foot in the rocket, the expectations had weighed him down like a blanket of shouting opinions and criticisms. You either loved him or hated him said one interviewer, another had noted that he was nervous and not fit for the job. But his screaming fan base had only deafened and hurt him more than they had realised. It was not their fault, being a space explorer was no easy feat and he should’ve realised the consequences.

Now it was all too late, he’d lost everything before he could save it and the planet was millions of light years away, awaiting his return when there was no hope of even that now.

Everything had gone wrong.

So, so wrong.

“Cadet nine, please make your way to the central bay for routine checks thank you.”

Chan woke up in a cold sweat at the voice, having been drifting between the realms of consciousness and not for hours on end. He hadn’t slept well since arriving on the new hangar, supposedly being used to take him home but he knew different. It was all false hope, they had been stranded in space for at least seven months - Chan did not know the exact date but it had been long enough - however the leaders of their crew had not wanted to worry them, carrying on as normal and they would do for as long as they possibly could. Until someone stepped forward and spoke of the real situation, everything would be normal, normal was now all that Chan knew.

Dragging himself from the warm confines of his bed, Chan began to get ready, his uniform was completely black in colour, head to toe in midnight shades, matching his hair which had started to uncomfortably curl around his features, he should probably ask someone to cut it - maybe Hyunjin would help him? Shaking his head of the random thoughts, the man walked towards his mirror, noticing the ever growing bags under his eyes and sighing, trudging out the door of his room and down the industrial, narrow corridors of Hanger A67.

The central bay was as blunt and as plain as it sounded, in the heart of the ship it was filled with equipment and supplies - now running dangerously low. Chan only visited here when he was told to, and sometimes not even then, the room was claustrophobic and Chan could almost feel the breath being sucked from his lungs as he stood there that chilly morning, obviously the heater was finally giving up on them.

“Cadet nine, did you sleep well?”

“What do you think Changbin?”

The jokingly serious tone of his best friend always managed to lighten up his mood slightly, the younger had a sense of unparalleled wit and appeared to be the only person in the room who was actually happy today. Everyone else was sullen - who wouldn’t be after being awoken at 6am on a Saturday - but there was no room for slackers in space. Their captain often jeered at them with the threat of flushing them into a black hole if they were tardy, safe to say it worked.

“Alright cadets, prepare for routine checks!” The booming tone of their leaders voice sent everyone into autopilot, hands tucked carefully behind their backs as they looked ahead, scared to do so much as blink. The captain went by the name of Jaebum, a cold and calculating man, a cliche if ever Chan had met one and he constantly wished to make their lives orderly, something of his own personal chess game.

“Cadet nine, look here.” Jaebum scoffed as Chan followed his order, hair swishing and falling over his eyes.

“Get that stupid hair cut today, you’re on cleaning duty with Cadet 2.” Chan heard Changbin groan from beside him, of course today of all days he was on cleaning duty. Chan enjoyed almost any other job but cleaning? That was like servants work, but the hangar didn’t have those so he had to put up with the task at hand.

Jaebum dismissed the two of them quickly enough so they could get started, it was a known fact that cleaning duty over ran into dinner and lunch was guaranteed to be missed. So the sooner they began the sooner they could not die of starvation - not that it mattered, Chan knew it’d happen for real soon enough. Changbin rounded a corner into the supply cupboard, finding their other friend Hyunjin, sorting through boxes of needles and threads, a large hole in his shirt being the culprit for the boy’s distress.

“Oh h-hey guys!” Hyunjin reached up to wave before rubbing his reddening eyes, had he been crying? Again? Chan always knew that Hyunjin was probably one of the weaker cadets, he was amazingly smart and had the best style of the entire crew but the boy cried at everything and couldn’t carry a paint jar by himself.

“And before you say anything, I’m fine, its just dusty. I totally didn’t throw a tantrum cause there’s no decent thread.” The boy whined and grumbled, back turned to Changbin and Chan as he carried on sorting through everything.

“Are you sure Hyunjin? We can always help- I mean, okay, let’s go!” Changbin chirped as he remembered what job they were doing that day, quickly going to grab some brooms and cleaning products, bundling it in their arms and bidding farewell to Hyunjin. Chan pretended to ignore his best friends flushed cheeks as he took several last glances at Hyunjin, shrugging it off with a grin. At least he had some blackmail material now.

It wasn’t long before the two of them found a problem.

Changbin had done nothing more than trip over his broom when they had been cleaning in the infirmary bay and he’d gone splaying into what they’d both thought to be a locked door. Apparently, it was anything but that.

The door gave a resounding crack, heads peering out of other rooms to see what the commotion was but Chan quickly shooed them away, going to help his friend. Changbin had looked worse but the smaller man was definitely disgruntled, laying on top of the door with a grim expression. Complaining about his fate and doing cleaning duty being the worst thing in the world (quickly correcting himself to universe soon after), Changbin rose to his feet to inspect what had happened exactly. The locked door had come clean off its hinges, rusty and rotted after months of disrepair, within the room itself Chan could see nothing except lights blinking from the outside of the hangar ship, a small porthole showing the vast nothingness of space.

Taking a few steps inside, by passing an annoyed Changbin, he bent down in front of what appeared to be a desk, fingers lightly running over the dusty surface as he felt his nose twitch at the smell, it was old, everything was old. Chan knew that some parts of the hangar were older than others, in disrepair and left to corrode away to nothing but they’d been show all of those rooms so they could avoid them; all except for this one.

“Hey, what’s that?” Changbin’s voice rung out as Chan was brought out of his reverie, looking at where the younger was pointing; it appeared to be a large metal box, thin and retro looking, as if it were meant for a time long before their own.

“I’m not sure.” Chan grabbed his torch from his back pocket, bringing it up to the object and looking curiously at the parts that held it together. “Maybe just a sort of safe or prototype for something they built in previous missions on here?” The man’s answer was logical, Changbin nodding in response as the two of them settled before the box, prodding it but to no avail.

“Cadets! Get back to work before your snacking privileges get taken away. And yes, I am mean enough to carry out that threat!” Jaebum shouted not a moment too soon, tearing his gaze away from the box, Chan scrambled to his feet.

“I’m going to take it, y’know, for ‘research’ and stuff.” Chan cleared his throat, Changbin only eyeing him suspiciously before picking up the box, metal cold in hands. It was surprisingly heavy, he noted, holding it beneath his arm as he hurried out the room. Excusing himself momentarily, Chan rushed towards his quarters and placed the box on his desk, lining it up next to his pencils and small book collection.

“Cadet nine what the hell did I say?” Jaebum shouted as the man appeared back in the hallway, arm raised in a salute within an instant.

“That I should get back to work or have my snack privileges taken away.”

“Exactly, have fun without biscuits and cake for a week.” And with that, the captain stalked away, Chan left standing in the hall, sighing wearily and grabbing his broom once again.

#skss2018 #woochan #stray kids #kim woojin #bang chan #stray kids imagines #stray kids fic #stray kids au

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