"what the fuck is sands of time, even?!" jihoon cussed for nth time. soonyoung finally decides to answer one of jihoon's whims.

"sands of time is this little glass orb filled with sand. joshua made it, and it's not like any other sand snowglobe you'll ever see—it allows you to pass abilities to inheritors, or an heir you might find worthy of your power." soonyoung fished out his phone, checking the location of their raid.

"who even makes a sand snowglobe? isn't that supposed to be called sanglobe?" jihoon inquired. soonyoung shrugs, making jihoon frustrated again—he's got a mission, but his partner won't cooperate and won't tell him details. how will this be accomplished?! "at least fill me in with details, you fuckass!"

"i'm busy right now, can i ignore you some other time?"

jihoon laughs in disbelief. is this sass? hey, at the least, jihoon's trying to get the job done even if he doesn't like these types of stuff!

"okay, you can annoy me now. we're here." soonyoung stops walking, and turns to face the building. he sighs in relief. "my gps worked!"

jihoon was frozen.

"yo shrimpy, what's up? don't you have some sarcastic comment?" soonyoung laughs, staring at jihoon. soonyoung's face falls, and then it scrunches. soonyoung didn't know if he should ask jihoon why he's frozen. it was a new expression that soonyoung saw of jihoon—and it was scarier than the usual face he makes.

because my childhood abusers are in that building, dumbass! jihoon wanted to say, but he didn't. raising his voice would alert the people inside that hellhole.

"this..... this is where i'm from." jihoon's gaze turned darker, as if he's filling up with anger. he is, indeed, filling up with anger. "i can't do this. if they see me, they'll pull me back in that hellhole. i agreed to join your team so i won't be locked back in there."

oh, he was one of fukuro mafia's victims. soonyoung sighed, gazing softly at the smaller boy. "remember my ability, mind control? i controlled your bodies before, through your minds, since it's where the commands come from. but, mind control has a lot more to it. i can erase memories, see memories, read thoughts sometimes, and brainwash. just keep your head held down and when we have to face someone, i'll remove their memory of you. thought this raid is more of fighting than speaking with mafiosos," soonyoung states. "got it?"

"but what if there are too many people who recognize me from first glance? won't that be hard for you? they'll catch me! how about you just get sands of time alone?!" jihoon proposes, panickingly tapping his foot. "what if they throw me in the basement again? i don't want to go in there!"

"relax, shrimpy, you have an ability and you can use it against them, right?" soonyoung places a hand on jihoon's shoulder softly. though jihoon flinched at the sudden touch, the tension goes down a little. "you can fight them, okay? change of plans, let's bolt in and get sands of time, then get out of here!" soonyoung's hand falls down to reach for jihoon's hand.

his hand is so cold. soonyoung thought.

"n-no! we can't be fast enough! we'll be caught, i'll be locked up!" jihoon protested, and soonyoung's grip on jihoon's hand tightened.

soonyoung chuckled, gazing directly at jihoon's honey eyes as he spoke. "i'm not going to let you be stolen away from me, shrimpy. trust me, even just on this one."

jihoon nodded. at the state of calmness, jihoon formulates an idea. his grip on soonyoung's hand tightens, and then he states what he had in mind. "soonyoung, i can move fast! just hold my hand and you'll be fine. do you know the exact location of the sand snowglobe?"

soonyoung gives jihoon a sad look. "the basement." soonyoung figured that jihoon might have bad memories there; what would you expect from an orphan squandering mafia organization in dire need of guards(that die first in fights, by the way)?

"okay." jihoon says, making the doors open. soonyoung gets a view of what the front desk looked like, before jihoon zoomed right in and down into the basement.

woah. jihoon is the definition of speed. soonyoung was in awe, but he had no time to think about it longer because they were in a mission.

"wait, bad idea. there are guards."

"make them float, jihoon, now! i'll control them so they won't call for backup! find sands of time!" jihoon does what he was told, and then he proceeds to zoom everywhere to find sands of time. jihoon knew that the basement was a whole ass fully equipped underground lair, and there are several rooms that jihoon had to check out. this will take time.

soonyoung, meanwhile, was focused. he was contolling the guards' minds one by one, while dodging bullets that came from the uncontrolled guards. "did you really have to shoot? ugh, now your backup will come!"

soonyoung successfully puts all the guards under control. he got one or two gunshots, but that's about it. those were just rubber bullets anyway. he rubbed the pain off while waiting for backup to come—and they came almost instantly. so, soonyoung had to put up with the pain while fighting them.

"stop right there!" a brave guard dares to defy soonyoung. soonyoung only smirked, like he already won the battle right before it started.

"okay, jihoon! put down the guards!" the guards fall to the floor. the controlled guards make a formation in front of soonyoung, protecting him. "okay, my minions! shoot away!"

tons of gunshots were heard. soonyoung just watched his lackeys and the guards fight, shedding blood everywhere. gladly, there was blood, unlike when soonyoung got shot. soonyoung was attacked by rubber bullets, and if his lackeys attack using rubber bullets, too, soonyoung's going to lose.

jihoon comes back after an hour, which irritated soonyoung—backup kept on coming and soonyoung had to put up with them. "is this it?!"

soonyoung gives jihoon a nod once he confirms that jihoon did find sands of time, before looking back at the fight between soonyoung's lackeys and the guards. "you took too long!"

"there were lots of rooms, dumbass!"

"fuck, then let's just go!"

jihoon makes all the lackeys and guards float, before holding soonyoung and zooming out. soonyoung was hooting, feeling like he's flying at this speed. "shut your mouth, you're embarrassing!"

"they can't see us anyway, we're going too fast!" soonyoung laughs. "and i love it!"

jihoon stopped when they reached seventeen's base. soonyoung gets back on his feet, fixing his disheveled hair before walking in the building. soonyoung and jihoon immediately talked to seungcheol and told them about the mission—earning some praises at how fast they got it done, and earning some time for chan to rest. turns out that he'd been training with seungcheol for too long.

"okay, now we need to do a report. what is this, school?" jihoon crossed his arms, grunting at soonyoung.

"you do it yourself." soonyoung says, entering the elevator. jihoon follows. "we have brains so we can make reports, unlike you."

"hey! i'm not stupid!" the elevator tings right after jihoon spoke, so the two walk out of the elevator. the 4th floor is revealed to have lots of electronics and computers, probably for missions and report-making.

"this is joshua's life. don't destroy anything, shrimpy." soonyoung sits in front of a computer, before throwing a sample document at jihoon. jihoon caught it with a grunt, flipping through the pages before sitting down in front of a computer, just across soonyoung. "if you don't understand anything, don't be shy. ask me, i'll make sure to tease you about it—"

"BLAH blah blah, just do your work!" jihoon shouts, making soonyoung laugh. "does your mouth ever stop blabbing?!"

jihoon smiled a little, while he typed away. it was hard thinking about something else while doing a report(he's even following a file format that he's not familiar with), but he managed to multitask. what was he thinking about, anyway?

"i'm not going to let you be stolen away from me, shrimpy. trust me, even just on this one."

soonyoung was a big jerk, jihoon hated being with soonyoung for that. jihoon didn't like being with someone who answers his rhetorical questions and sass(you're not supposed to answer that!) except for that one time earlier today.

soonyoung filled jihoon's empty and shaking hands with warmth, and jihoon liked it. for once, jihoon liked being with him.

he might not be so bad after all.