Archive of Our Own

Xiao Zhan had been a classic arts and literature kid at school, the kind that made his parents fret about his science and maths grades. So it surprised everyone when he not only applied to the PPDC Preparatory Program but got accepted into the design group track.

His candidate notes credited him with, among other things, an active and frightening imagination.

Beautiful, Marshal Na Ying had said, when they first met. You dream up such beautiful things, and Xiao Zhan froze because he'd never told anyone about the dreams, or the actual reason he suddenly stopped wanting to study painting and signed up to work for the PPDC.

At the Academy, no one thought it was strange that he had such a detailed knowledge of Kaiju anatomy, or such strident views on their hierarchy and strategic thinking.

He came out of the Academy with just enough of the science to get by and they paired him up with an actual J-Tech engineer, a human-shaped hurricane named Li Qin. The two of them hit it off like a house on fire, and off they went.

Xiao Zhan quickly became known for wildly inventive work that was even mostly physically possible to achieve. The rest of the design group came to regard him and his brainwaves with affectionate terror.

As a bonus, he was presentable - more than, having been something of a minor celebrity at China Southern - and unlike most of the design group, who vastly preferred machines to people, he actually thrived off human contact. He soon became the group go-to for everything from conferences to fundraisers. Especially fundraisers.

Wang Yibo's incoming physical aptitude test scores were off the charts and everyone thought ah, a natural Ranger, particularly once they saw him together with Cho Seungyoun. They were so obviously a drift compatible pair that testing seemed superfluous.

Then came the first attack on Hong Kong, during which Seungyoun earned himself a commendation for his brilliance and bravery, as well as a lot of memories he couldn't shake. The prospect of becoming a Ranger lost its shine, and Yibo vehemently refused to even test with anyone else.

He was very good with his hands and understood how the parts of a machine fit together better than the actual J-Tech engineers. So he became a Jaeger mechanic straight out of the Academy and never looked back.

They met when Yibo marched himself up to the pointy heads to yell at the person who'd come up with such a crazy weapon design. It was like they had no idea flux cables couldn't do that, what kind of sadistic, twisted -

He'd stormed in all ready to have a good old fashioned J-Tech/mechanic fight and lost all his words at the sight of Xiao Zhan sprawled on the concrete lab floor, tangled up in flux cables from his gloved hands to forearms to torso. There were smudges over his ridiculous cheekbones, dark patches where sweat stuck his singlet to his chest, and he was humming a Jay Chou song Yibo vaguely recognised.

Yibo had just enough time to marvel that the incredibly hot guy also happened to have a pretty nice singing voice, and then said hot guy glanced up at Yibo and smiled like he'd been looking for him all his life.

"Hey, grease monkey. Wanna help me win an argument?"

And that, as far as Yibo was concerned, was that.

Maybe he should've been embarrassed by how quickly he agreed, but he'd never seen the point of second-guessing, and he wanted Xiao Zhan to keep smiling at him just like that.

Soon, everyone knew about the designer and mechanic who'd bicker and flirt endlessly whether they were eating in the mess hall or covered in machine oil, their hands buried in Jaeger parts, yelling at each other across a mechanic bay.

Yibo was having lunch with Xiao Zhan in the mess hall. Or rather he'd been hoping to have lunch with Xiao Zhan and they'd somehow acquired the company of others, which happened far too often for Yibo's liking.

Others from the design group or mechanics were one thing, but now he had Wang Dalu - who worked in LOCCENT and was the son of a Marshal - wearing a smirk, ignoring Yibo's death glare, and blatantly angling to be invited to sit next to Xiao Zhan.

"Meizi, how are those schematics coming along?"

Yibo glanced at Li Qin, expecting her to throw her book at Wang Dalu's face for daring to speak to her like that, except she was busy also smirking at Xiao Zhan.

Surely not.

"Nearly done, Dalu-ge. Don't hover, it's not cute," Xiao Zhan said, confirming Yibo's creeping suspicions. "I'll come see you when they're ready. Shoo."

To his credit, Wang Dalu cheerfully let himself be shooed away like an overeager poodle, but not before slapping down a crisp hundred yuan bill on the table with a self-satisfied grin.

Yibo frowned after his retreating back. He could feel his eye twitching. "You…let people call you meizi?"

"Sure. You can too, it just costs a hundred every time. Qin-jie, how much does the engineering group owe me all together?"

Li Qin looked up from her book, said, "half of them basically owe you their lives at this point," and went back to ignoring the conversation.

"I don't want their worthless lives, I want their money," Xiao Zhan said cheerfully as he plucked up the cash on the table between two fingers and made it disappear into his leather jacket.

His timing was impeccable - Yibo had just swallowed a mouthful of rice and came perilously close to choking from laughter. Beside him, Wang Zhuocheng wasn't faring much better.

"Ruthless and practical," Yibo finally managed. "As expected from Zhan-ge."

"Xiao Zhan is still the only person I know who can go into a meeting with logistics and come out with an increased budget," Wang Zhuocheng said absentmindedly. He went for the final piece of Wenchang Chicken.

Yibo stabbed his chopsticks into it so viciously that Wang Zhuocheng flinched. He then dipped it in the sauce and deposited it in Xiao Zhan's bowl as delicately as if he was handling Jaeger circuitry, and of course Xiao Zhan ate it in his usual far too slow and dainty for a communal mess hall way.

Honestly, it was like he'd never had to fight anyone for food. Which, come to think of it, was probably true.

"I made a good case for more funding," Xiao Zhan said between bites, entirely deadpan. "Yibo's the one who barely has to say a word for the geges and jiejies in supply to rush to do his bidding."

Yibo preened. It was true, after all.

Meng Ziyi cast a mournful glance at the now empty plate of chicken and the large pile of bones by Xiao Zhan's bowl.

"Maybe now we can confine your malign influence to each other," she muttered.

Yibo's heart skipped a beat. There was a pregnant silence, and then Xiao Zhan laughed.

"Not a chance. Can you imagine what Yibo would be like if he only had one person for all his attention needs?"

Just you. Just you would be enough, Yibo thought, and then, fuck.

Luckily Xiao Zhan hadn't been looking at him. Yibo had no doubt the entire disastrous chain of thought was written all over his face.

Unfortunately for him, Wang Zhuocheng was paying attention.

"Yes, imagine that," he said under his breath.

Yibo kicked him beneath the table in retaliation.

"Excuse me?" said an unfamiliar voice.

Yibo didn't look up from the remainder of his meal but Xiao Zhan, of course, did.

"Who are you after, Jimin?"

"I was hoping to speak to Wang Yibo."

The voice belonged to a young woman in a cool undercut and a black hoodie who seemed vaguely familiar.

"That's me."

"Do you - do you want to watch the Street Skateboarding World Champs final with me next week?"

Yibo's first instinct was to wonder why she thought to ask him of all people out of the blue, which was probably unfair. He was, after all, the reason Shatterdome Hainan had a rule prohibiting skateboarding in the mechanic bays. His second instinct was to look over at Xiao Zhan.

Xiao Zhan, who was staring down at his tablet with fixed concentration and didn't seem to be paying attention to the conversation at all.

"That's Thursday afternoon, isn't it? Sorry, I have an appointment with Zhan-ge," Yibo said, before the silence could get too awkward.

"And that's different from every other day…how?" Meng Ziyi said wryly.

Yibo ignored her.

"We're going to Sanya! He might finally let me teach him how to ride a bike!"

"Could you say that a little louder?" Xiao Zhan complained. "I think the other half of the mess hall didn't hear you."

Yibo drew in a deep breath. Before he could start yelling Xiao Zhan clamped his hand over his mouth.

"You're the one who told me," he said unintelligibly, and licked Xiao Zhan's palm.

"Ah! Gross!" Xiao Zhan giggled, batting at Yibo.

For such a lanky guy he could hit surprisingly hard. Yibo grabbed for his wrists. Xiao Zhan kicked him. Everyone else stood up and back from the table at once like it was a war zone.

By the time they both settled back into their chairs, the girl was nowhere to be seen.

"I haven't seen her around here before," Yibo said idly.

"That's Kim Jimin, you haven't seen her because she's from Central Command, unlike us grunts," Wang Zhuocheng said.

"What's she doing talking to me then?"

"For fuck's sake," Meng Ziyi exclaimed, turning to Xiao Zhan. "Is he for real?"

"Yibo is only attracted to people who smell like machine oil," Xiao Zhan replied airily.

There was a dark smudge along his left cheek all the way down to the corner of his mouth. Yibo looked away so he wasn't tempted to wipe it off with his own hand.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

The good old days, they would one day call them: the height of the PPDC, all nine main Shatterdomes operating, Hong Kong stuffed to the brim with almost thirty Jaegers.

In those days, even the satellite Shatterdomes like Hainan had multiple Jaegers to call their own, and enough production capacity to indulge J-Tech crews in their crazy brainwaves. That was how Project War God began, in drawings that poured out of Xiao Zhan after yet another dream in the middle of the night, and models and proof-of-concept mock-ups that Yibo made, because he was the only one who could turn Xiao Zhan's wild ideas into reality and prove that they might actually work.

War God's actual final name was Guan Di, and the first time Yibo saw it mostly assembled he thought it the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Certainly the most beautiful thing he'd ever had a hand in making, gleaming steel painted green and red and black just like the god of war who was its namesake.

Beside Xiao Zhan, Ayanga didn't seem quite as enamoured.

"Don't take this the wrong way but I think I might prefer Wudang Storm. What have you crazy bastards done to the turbines? Is that even safe?"

"That's our baby you're slandering," Yibo said. "How dare you."

"Without the hyperrevolver turbine how else were we meant to power all the extra weapons?" Xiao Zhan added.

Ayanga eyed the two of them in transparent despair. "One of you is meant to exercise moderation and restraint."

Yibo rolled his eyes. "What fun is that?"

Honestly, for a Ranger Ayanga was kind of boring. Yibo didn't know what Xiao Zhan saw in him.

"Gazi-ge, when Guan Di is yours, you and Yunlong better take good care of him," Xiao Zhan said very solemnly, as if he really was giving a child up for adoption.

"He'll still be yours no matter who gets assigned to pilot," Ayanga replied, and maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

Whatever else happened in the days to come, Yibo couldn't bring himself to look back on those days with anything but golden-toned nostalgia. Guan Di was the best thing he'd ever made, and he got to do it with Xiao Zhan.

He hadn't known there was anything else to ask for.

That Thursday, Yibo took his R6 out of storage so he could take Xiao Zhan to Sanya on it.

He'd been talking the entire Guan Di team's ears off so much about working on the bike that they all started referring to it as either his second job or his girlfriend.

Or boyfriend, Cheng Xiao said when she overheard them at it. She nudged Yibo significantly when no one else was looking and tilted her chin at Xiao Zhan, and didn't seem at all quelled by his glare.

Xiao Zhan was already waiting in the Shatterdome's underground garage when Yibo emerged with his bike, polished to gleaming the day before while Bouboo smirked and Yibo insisted he wasn't going on a date to anyone who would listen.

He didn't get to take his bike out often and wanted it to look good. Nothing wrong with that.

Anyway, it was worth doing just for the way Xiao Zhan's eyes lit up; he made appropriately impressed noises and ran his clever hands all over its elegant curves from windscreen to handlebars all the way down the top of the electric green chassis, a tactile inspection that he made seem like a caress, almost like it was Yibo's body he was touching.

Yibo hoped that Xiao Zhan was too busy ogling his bike to notice his unnatural flush, but no such luck - Xiao Zhan chose that moment to look back up at him, one of those intense, head to toe examinations that he only seemed to reserve for Yibo.

"What?"

The examining look softened into a smile. "You clean up nicely."

Bouboo had smirked even more as Yibo tossed things out of their shared tiny closet, trying to settle on what to wear.

When he was on base he exclusively wore clothes that he didn't mind getting stained and ripped. The few nice things he kept from home were shoved all the way to the back. After half an hour of his dithering Bouboo reached into the back of the closet, pulled out a studded jacket and shoved it at him. Thankfully he'd also found a clean shirt and a pair of unstained jeans to go with it.

"Not as nicely as Zhan-ge," Yibo said, both to be a shit and because he meant it.

Xiao Zhan was hardly ever seen in anything but hoodies, tattered singlets, ripped jeans, and stained overalls when he was in one of the mechanic bays. Yibo hadn't realised he owned any other clothes until the first fundraiser event they'd both been shoulder-tapped for, and then he'd been introduced to the other extreme of Xiao Zhan's wardrobe, which was an eloquent tribute to his love for expensive designer shit.

He was dressed somewhere between the two extremes, leather jacket and ripped jeans and those combat boots with the thick heel that made him tower over Yibo, who alternated between wanting to throw them out while Xiao Zhan wasn't looking and rejoicing whenever he heard the distinctive click-clack of Xiao Zhan stomping down the gangway like it was a catwalk.

"Don't you start," Xiao Zhan said. "We'll still be here by the time the sun sets."

"You could just learn to take a compliment."

"You're the one who - never mind, gimme that helmet."

Xiao Zhan pulled the helmet on. Yibo let him fumble with the chin straps for a bit before he leaned across, batted his hands away and buckled him in.

"That feel okay?"

He could feel Xiao Zhan's throat work when he swallowed. "Perfect."

His voice came out a little shaky. Nerves, probably.

Yibo grinned. "Don't worry, I won't do anything too crazy."

The bike shifted as Xiao Zhan got on, his hands settling around Yibo's hips, his grip firm and sure.

"Nah. I always feel safe with Lao-Wang."

Yibo's heart thumped so loudly that he was convinced Xiao Zhan would hear. 

It turned out to be one of his best and worst ideas. He spent the entire ride thrillingly aware of the warm, solid presence pressed up against him, breathing in Xiao Zhan's comfortingly familiar scent, a pleasant woodsy fragrance and the faint metallic hint of machine oil underneath.

Somehow they managed to make it to Sanya without Yibo getting fatally distracted and driving them off the road.

Sanya Bay stretched out ahead of them, golden sand and towering coconut trees and gleaming blue ocean, the beach crowded with umbrellas and sunbathers like a boiling pot of dumplings.

"You enjoyed that," Yibo said smugly.

Xiao Zhan's face was still flushed with excitement, and his eyes shone under the blazing sunlight as they strolled along the waterfront.

"It was fun," he agreed. "Lao-Wang is so cool! No wonder all the cute girls want to date him. Kim Jimin wasn't just asking for your sake, you know. She's genuinely interested and she knows a lot. Next time you should say yes."

"How do you know that?"

"I'm easy to talk to," Xiao Zhan said with an innocuous smile. "Everyone tells me their secrets."

That was the worst thing about Xiao Zhan. He was friendly with everyone, which to Yibo was basically the same as being friendly with no one. How was Yibo meant to tell whether he meant anything that came out of his pretty mouth?

"Lao-Xiao is so popular, no one can compare. I heard when you were at China Southern the mess hall would fill up whenever you were there."

Xiao Zhan waved a dismissive hand. "You should know better than to listen to rumours, Dance King of China Northern. Hey, do you want ice cream?"

Both their PPDC issued brick phones pinged before Yibo could answer, and then the sirens went off.

Yibo had heard Kaiju attack sirens plenty of times - on TV, in training videos, in the simulator, but nothing could prepare him for the moment the piercing shriek cut through the humid Sanya air. All at once he understood why Seungyoun couldn't stand to hear it again after Hong Kong.

"ETA ten minutes," Xiao Zhan muttered, staring down at the alert message.

All the operational personnel would've got an alert as soon as there was activity in the Breach, of course, but neither of them were Rangers or LOCCENT or direct tech support for an active Jaeger. They'd be no help even if they were back at base. The best thing they could do was stay safe.

"Let's get to a refuge," Yibo said.

Sanya was coastal enough to have evacuation drills. Not as frequently as the bigger cities on the Rim, but clearly the locals knew what to do. They were safely packed inside an underground refuge within five minutes.

Yibo had been through plenty of drills back when he was living on base in Shanghai for the Pre-Academy Cadet Program. He'd imagined the real thing to be overcrowded and smelly and loud. Instead there was a terrible silence. Even the children seemed to know better than to make a sound, even though it was standing room only and they were all but pressed together like sardines in a can in the brutal heat.

It wasn't until Xiao Zhan's head lolled onto his shoulder that Yibo realised he'd somehow fallen asleep. He stared in disbelief at Xiao Zhan draped over him like an angular blanket, shook his head fondly and laughed. Of course Xiao Zhan was the kind of person who would sleep through a Kaiju attack.

Yibo readjusted his stance so that Xiao Zhan wouldn't get a crick in his neck, and settled in to wait.

They were pressed up so close he could feel it when Xiao Zhan started shaking.

"Zhan-ge, what's wrong?" Yibo whispered, trying to nudge him awake.

Xiao Zhan pulled him closer in one rough jerk and clung on so hard it hurt, his nails digging into Yibo's arm and his back. His eyes were still squeezed shut, his pupils moving rapidly behind closed lids. He was shaking so badly that the strangers around them cleared out a small semi-circle of clear space, giving them a wide berth.

Yibo resettled Xiao Zhan in his arms as much as he could. Seungyoun had nights like this, after Hong Kong, and Yibo had hated how helpless he felt seeing him suffer, how little he could do. He hated it just as much now.

"Wake up. Zhan-ge? Wake up, you're scaring me."

The shaking seemed less bad when he spoke, so Yibo kept talking in a hushed whisper as they huddled in their little corner of the concrete bunker, about anything and everything - his bike, the calibrations they still needed to do on Guan Di, the first time he saw a Jaeger on TV - until the man in his arms went limp and still, and his grip slackened.

Xiao Zhan let out a shuddering sigh, raised his head, and the way he looked at Yibo then was like a drowning man at the shore.

"I heard you."

"Good. I'd be pissed if I wasted that many words," Yibo said, trying to keep his tone light. "You know I don't have a lot to spare."

Xiao Zhan laughed and gave him a friendly shove. Other than the pallor of his face, shockingly obvious under the harsh lights, he seemed entirely back to his normal composed, closed-up self.

"That's not what I meant. I heard your voice, and it stopped." Xiao Zhan shook his head, a self-deprecating curve to his smile. "I don't know why I'm surprised."

Yibo took a deep breath. "We don't have to talk about it."

"You're not at all curious?" Xiao Zhan asked evenly.

There was something odd about Xiao Zhan. He proposed things that seemed counterintuitive and bizarre and talked about Kaiju biology and behaviour like they were domestic pets and not monstrous alien creatures.

Nobody outside J-Tech would ever notice, and everybody in K-Science was already super weird about Kajiu. Yibo hadn't noticed at first, either, not until they started working together and he saw more and more of Xiao Zhan's designs. But Xiao Zhan never brought it up and so he never asked.

"Yeah. If it's about you then I wanna know. But only if you want to tell me."

"Severe Kaiju Blue poisoning," Xiao Zhan said abruptly.

"What - when?"

"Right after I started university. Just sheer bad luck. Yibo, do you remember the effects of Kaiju Blue poisoning?"

Kaiju bio hadn't been Yibo's best subject at the Academy, but he at least remembered the effects of the gross blue goo.

5% of sufferers report frequent vivid nightmares they can't wake from. Symptoms persist in a small minority even after the poison is completely purged from their system.

"The dreams -"

"I dream about Kaiju. All the time, still," Xiao Zhan said quietly. "Just now - "

The ground shuddered beneath them like the beginning of an earthquake. The entire shelter caught and held its collective breath, and then the triumphant blare of the all-clear fanfare cut through the silence, followed by an eruption of cheering and applause.

Yibo exchanged tense, relieved smiles with Xiao Zhan.

"We should try to get in touch with HQ," he said.

To everyone around them, the all clear was the end of the story. They were the ones with a personal stake in the Jaeger in the bay, and wellbeing of the people in it. They knew very well that Hainan only had one Jaegar on active duty and one set of Rangers.

Right on cue, Xiao Zhan's PPDC phone rang.

"Yeah. Hang on - Qin-jie? We're fine, what happened?"

Xiao Zhan stopped smiling and his face drained of colour as he listened. By the time he hung up, he looked positively grim.

"What's wrong?" Yibo asked impatiently.

"Successful defence. They even managed to save most of Phoenix Island."

"But?"

Xiao Zhan let out a heavy sigh. "Wudang Storm's in pretty bad shape. Gazi-ge too."

Three days after the attack on Sanya, Yibo found himself walking into the half full training room, staff in tow.

"Is this really necessary?"

A part of him didn't want there to be an audience the first time he sparred with Xiao Zhan.

"It's not just about a neural connection. It's about physical compatibility," Xiao Zhan recited as he strolled in with an ostentatious wave of his own staff.

He had taken off his jacket, leaving only a worn, loose white singlet underneath, the arm holes so wide they almost reached his waist. There was so much skin Yibo hardly knew where to look.

He told himself sternly to focus, and not to underestimate his opponent. Xiao Zhan would never stop laughing at him if the so-called prodigy of China Northern managed to fuck up his first move.

"Don't you think we're compatible, Zhan-ge?"

Xiao Zhan bowed very low and proper; Yibo matched it. He adopted a standard opening stance, staff held vertically in front of him, and Xiao Zhan instantly took a step to the side and matched him with the correct defensive stance, staff up.

One corner of his mouth curved. "Let's find out."

They eyed each other across the mat. Yibo took a sudden swing. Xiao Zhan stepped back just in time, like they'd planned it that way. His staff swept up. Yibo blocked. They sprung apart.

There was a smattering of applause around them that Yibo barely heard.

Xiao Zhan hadn't held back - the impact of his strike was enough to jar Yibo's hands. He grinned and drew back into a defensive ready stance.

"Zhan-ge, why weren't we doing this already? Have you been practising in secret? With other people?"

"With anybody I could convince to give me a go," Xiao Zhan confessed. "On the simulator, too, when I could sneak in."

"Why? I didn't know you wanted to be a Ranger."

Yibo was so greedy for any and all pieces of Xiao Zhan. He didn't understand how he could've missed it, and then he did - no one brought up that kind of thing around Yibo for a reason.

Xiao Zhan gave his staff a showy twirl. "I'll answer if you beat me."

Yibo smirked. "You mean when I beat you."

"Brat," Xiao Zhan said fondly.

It was supposed to be a dialogue, not a contest. They'd both been taught that much. But who said it couldn't be both?

Yibo attacked; Xiao Zhan countered. They moved and ducked and spun together like they'd choreographed it, like magnets snapping together, like the flow of current through a live wire, deaf to the appreciative oohs and aahs of their audience.

We are drift compatible. I knew it.

The result was more than obvious to anyone with eyes. They could go on like this until they both exhausted themselves. Or -

Yibo left an opening that Xiao Zhan saw and took, slicing down with his staff. Yibo dived under it, grabbed his leg, rolled him over and pinned him.

Xiao Zhan's hairline was damp with sweat, his singlet soaked and stuck to his heaving chest, outlining the rise of his pecs. A drop ran down his neck as Yibo watched, and he barely resisted the urge to lean down and follow the glistening trail with his tongue.

"I win. Say mercy."

"Mercy," Xiao Zhan said breathlessly.

Yibo threw his staff to the side with a clatter. His throat was dry. He had to swallow before he could speak, and his voice still came out hoarse. "Now answer. You promised."

Xiao Zhan acquired the determined, defiant look of a convicted man facing up to his sentencing.

"When you went back to being a Ranger, I wasn't going to let it be with anyone else."

Yibo froze, his heart hammering loud in his throat. That was when Xiao Zhan grabbed him by the back of his neck, rolled him over and sprung up while he lay there stunned, his skin still tingling from the surprising strength of Xiao Zhan's grip, his touch as hot as a brand.

"W-why?"

Just when Yibo thought he wasn't going to get an answer, Xiao Zhan spoke again.

"Why do you think, dumbass?"

Yibo floated through the next few days and straight into the drivesuit room on a cloud, all his nerves at getting into a Jaeger completely overtaken by his delight at Xiao Zhan's confession.

His Zhan-ge was braver and better than even he knew. And he liked Yibo back! And he wanted to be Yibo's co-pilot!

That last part didn't sink in until Xiao Zhan walked through the door in his own drivesuit, and stopped short at the sight of Yibo in his.

"Wow. You look good."

It was far from the first time Yibo had heard someone say so, and yet he'd never been quite so flustered by it as he was now.

"So do you," he said with great feeling. "Hey, we match."

Xiao Zhan's drivesuit had red stripes down the side to match the green stripes on Yibo's, the placement an exact match.

"You make quite a pair," Xuan Lu sighed as she finished strapping them in. "Mark my words, Central Command will have you two on a magazine cover within a month."

"Yibo's already been on one," Xiao Zhan said.

"How'd you know?“ Yibo asked, taken aback.

"I've known about the prodigy of China Northern since I was a cadet," Xiao Zhan said casually, right before their helmets went on.

Yibo opened his mouth to ask, only to be cut off by the chilly voice of Yunchang, Guan Di's onboard AI.

Initiating test sequence.

Conn-Pod secure and locked in.

Pilots on board and ready to connect.

Guan Di neural test commencing.

Beside him, Xiao Zhan took a deep breath that hissed its way through the mics. "You ready?"

"I was born ready," Yibo said automatically.

Xiao Zhan laughed. "If this is what it's like inside your head, I want a refund."

Initiating neural handshake.

Xiao Zhan looked across at him. His gaze was piercing even through the helmet.

"Zhan-ge, I - "

"Ssh. I'll know in a second."

Neural interface drift initiated.

The world exploded into blue light. Memories rushed by, both his and Xiao Zhan's, too quick to make out.

Back at the Academy, they'd been taught what to do. Don't follow the rabbit. Just open up and let yourself go.

Yibo did. There was nothing but the Drift, and the blazing sun of Xiao Zhan's presence in his mind, all around him, and he followed it home:

The first time he saw Xiao Zhan, he'd wanted him.

Overlaid with his memory of that day was Xiao Zhan's own, surprise and delight and isn't he the one who -

The Ranger track was never anything to aspire to for Xiao Zhan, not with his messed up brain chemistry. Not until that day. Not until he met Yibo, who made him feel present, alive, anchored to the earth. Whose voice pulled him out of his poison-induced nightmares of hiveminds and death in far away places.

Ever since he knew what a Ranger was Yibo wanted to be one, and the day he met Seungyoun he knew who it would be with. After Hong Kong he'd given it up, and never imagined doing it with anyone else until the day they told him Xiao Zhan was a candidate, and his entire world rearranged itself.

The truth was that Yibo had never dared to dream of it before then. He was so hungry for every little scrap of Xiao Zhan that the idea of having it all was too much. Impossible.

What took you so long? I'm greedier than you. I wanted everything. Right from the beginning.

You have it. You have me.