Chapter Text
Last night had gone horribly, no matter how often his demon of a little sister tried to say otherwise. All throughout the morning, while he was trying to get ready for school, that was all she’d fucking talk about. Asking him about hypothetical plans to invite Cassian over again, berating him for “leaving a guest like that”, pointing out that he didn’t do all the dishes (he did, Naeun just put more dishes in the sink after he finished washing all of them and he decided that was a future him problem), when all he wanted to do was eat breakfast in peace. He couldn’t have gotten out that door fast enough.
But at least that was in the past now, and any of his sister’s suggestions to invite the villain for dinner again would remain hypothetical if he had anything to say about it. And at least he doesn’t have to deal with Cassian’s presence any more. Of course, there’s not much he can do if he happens to run into the villain while out on duty, but he hopes that doesn’t happen.
He just has to get through the rest of the school day and he can go home—or, no, not home. Home is where Naeun is. He’ll head to the library after school for some studying, and he can probably get away with not coming back home until it’s time for dinner.
Honestly, being in school isn’t even that bad. Yeah, the work isn’t fun, but everyone’s stopped asking him why he wasn’t in school for those few days he got turned into a kid, so it’s basically back to normal.
Speaking of ‘back to normal’, Gangu’s all but stopped glaring at him. Which is great, he’s glad that he no longer has his classmate trying to burn holes in the back of his head, but he’s just… confused. Uchan still has no idea why he was glaring at him in the first place, or why he was so adamant on avoiding him. Was it really just some petty issue that got better with time?
Uchan shakes his head, bringing himself back to what he was doing: packing up his books as he waits for the bell to go off.
He sighs as he zips his bag up, the bell ringing just as he does. He slings it over his shoulder and stands up. Let’s see, there’s one more class after this, then there’s lunch, and then he has three more periods before school lets out. Although he should definitely stay after; he needs to work on his English assignments, preferably without the constant distraction of Naeun’s teasing.
“I hear there have been a lot of villain attacks over there recently. Are you sure you don’t want to consider moving over here with me?”
“No, Yuri, we’ve been over this already. The most recent attack wasn’t even from a villain!”
“My point still stands! It seems like Gadam’s getting more dangerous by the day, and I don’t know what I’d do if you got hurt in one of those attacks while I’m up here. It’s safer up here! We haven’t had a single villain incident since I got here!”
Of course they haven’t, because Philadelphia probably doesn’t have inter-vilzone wars or one of the four masters of evil breathing down its neck. If it weren’t for the Northern Vilzone and Don King fucking with things, Cassian bets his life would have been a lot simpler and a lot less stressful.
He sighs and leans against the roof railing, gazing down at the ground below as he wonders just how different things would have been if not for them. “Look, I appreciate the thought, but I can take care of myself. You don’t have to worry about me. Just worry about yourself, alright?”
“But what if you run into a villain? Oh, what would become of my sweet baby brother then?”
“If I run into anyone stupid enough to pick a fight with me, then I’ll just beat them up, simple as that,” Cassian says, shaking his head. He’d really rather not have to deal with any more trouble, but he can more than handle himself when push comes to shove.
“Har har, very funny. What, are you going to bust out some sick martial arts to show those villains what for?”
“Maybe.” He could also just stab them. Shadow slicers are very good at stabbing.
Yuri sighs audibly. “I trust you, I really do, but just… stay safe, okay, Gangu? Don’t be stupid. Don’t try to be a hero. …I’d hate to lose you too.”
“I get it, I’ll make sure to stay out of trouble. It’s not like I go looking for it.”
“Says the man who attacked Driver with a grand total of 300 magic points,” Moros oh so helpfully reminds.
“Shut it,” he whispers at the spirit, glaring at him.
“What was that?”
“Nothing, nothing, don’t worry about it. You said there weren’t any incidents over there, right?”
“That’s right, it’s peaceful over here!”
“Then there’s no reason for me to come over there. The only way you’d get me overseas is if something happened to you—when I said that I’d fly over there if anything happened, I meant it.”
“Well then maybe I have to get myself into trouble to get my little brother out of trouble!” Yuri giggles. “Seriously though, stay safe. Don’t go out at night– and make sure you remember to lock the door! And you’re eating 3 meals a day, right?”
“Yes, yes, I’ve been eating regularly, don’t worry.”
“And you’re eating plenty of fruits and vegetables?”
“Of course, I have no plans to die from multiple nutrient deficiencies.”
“Make sure you’re also exercising! Just walking around every once in a while is good for you!”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” He was already planning on hitting the gym after school.
“And—”
“That’s enough, Yuri. I don’t need you reminding me about every tiny thing. I’m not a little kid anymore, okay? I can take care of myself.” Cassian pushes himself off from the railing, bored of just staring at the ground, and begins pacing.
“You say that, but I got a call from the school a little while back saying you’ve been calling out sick a lot recently.”
Cassian freezes and starts to sweat. “What?”
“Yeah, apparently you’ve been missing so many days that there’s a concern you may fall behind in your classes. What will you do about the finals if you keep missing lessons? The CSAT? Should I send you medicine?”
“If I need medicine, I am more than capable of picking it up for myself, you don’t have to worry about that.”
“But if you’re getting sick so often then you obviously need something! If it’s fatigue related then I can send you some Gongjin-dan!”
“No, it’s not that!” He’d really rather not have to choke down some disgusting medicine when he doesn’t even need it. “I just have some really shit luck with the flu! People are disgusting and they keep coughing and sneezing on me. But I get over it quickly! I’ll start wearing a mask regularly or something, okay?”
“Alright, but remember: fruits and veggies! A poor diet can lead to a poor immune system! I don’t want you living on store-bought processed foods, got it?”
“I’m not, don’t worry.”
“The amount of convenience store rice ball wrappers you throw away says otherwise. Not to mention the one you threw out a few minutes ago—”
“I thought I told you to shut it,” Cassian snaps at Moros. He doesn’t have time to make lunch for himself, and the free lunches provided by the school are… less than palatable. That cheap excuse for ‘food’ would probably land him straight in the hospital.
“Gangu? Who are you talking to? I sure hope that wasn’t aimed at me,” Yuri says in a tone that reminds him of Tuppence when she was about to chew him out for doing or saying something stupid.
“No, no, of course not! I was just talking to an inconsiderate friend,” he glares at the spirit floating smugly in the air, “who doesn’t know how not to talk when someone’s on the phone.”
“Oh. I didn’t hear anything, though?”
“I guess the phone just didn’t pick up his voice, which is good, because you don’t want to know the comments he’s making.”
“Yeah, because I’d rat you out for all your flimsy lies.”
It takes all of Cassian’s willpower not to bite back with a reply, conscious of his sister still on the other end of the line. God, how he wishes he could just grab Moros and squeeze.
“I’ll take your word for that. But if you say you don’t need medicine then maybe you should consider some vitamins or probiotics—”
“Yuri,” Cassian says firmly, causing her to pause, “I’m fine. I’ll take care to make sure I don’t get sick anymore, but I’m doing alright. I mean, my grades are still better than what they were before, even with all the sick days, right?”
“I guess you’re right…”
“You said you trusted me before, but I’d appreciate it if you tried to trust me a bit more. I’m not a baby anymore, and I’m not going to keel over the moment you look away. Worry about yourself for once, okay? You’ve spent far too much time having to worry about me.”
“...Okay. I’ve probably kept you long enough with my nagging, haven’t I?”
“Well– I mean—” He doesn’t want to agree, Yuri sounded so dejected saying that and he’d feel bad agreeing, but at the same time he does agree and wants this conversation to be over already.
She chuckles, the sound barely being picked up by his phone. “I get it, don’t worry. My break is almost over, anyways. I love you, Gangu, and you know that the first vacation I take I’ll be packing my things to come visit!”
“I’d expect nothing less from you, sis. Love you too, bye.”
“Bye bye! Take care!”
Cassian ends the call, pocketing the device with a sigh. Bullet dodged, he guesses.
Since he’s still got a decent chunk of time until lunch ends, Cassian settles by the roof doors, leaning back against the wall next to them. He props his elbow up on one knee, stretching out his other leg and leaning his head back. The sky is clear, the blanket of blue only being broken up by the occasional faint cloud or plane passing overhead. Without meaning to, his eyes slip shut, and he basks in the faint warmth of the sun that chases off the winter chill.
The next few minutes pass by peacefully, and off in the distance Cassian can hear the sounds of the city bustling below—some asshole laying on the horn, probably for some stupid reason like the person in front of them taking just a few seconds to many to start moving, people talking, a dog barking, pigeons being pigeons—
“Are you gonna fall asleep there, Cass?”
—and the voice of the most annoying companion since Navi.
“No, I’m not, now shut up,” Cassian hisses, not opening his eyes. “I don’t get a lot of chances to just relax so you can go fuck yourself.”
“Alright, damn, no need to be so rude about it,” Moros replies. Thankfully, judging by the silence from his spirit partner, he actually l istened to him this time.
He gets a few more minutes of blissful peace before the roof door swings open, hitting him in the leg, followed by the voice of the second most annoying companion since Navi.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there— Gangu?” Cassian doesn’t even need to open his eyes; he’d recognize that voice anywhere. Uchan. Just when he thought the bitch would stop harassing him, he just had to prove him wrong.
He groans, peeling his eyes open, blinking at the sudden onslaught of light. It’s not as bad as it could be though, since with the human giraffe Uchan standing directly in front of him, most of the direct sunlight is blocked.
“What do you want?” he asks, his voice lacking the normal bite it would have. The day’s actually been going pretty well, and shockingly he doesn’t feel the urge to punch Uchan in the face for all the shit he put him through.
Uchan, like the little shit he is, decides to take a seat right next to him, placing a lunch box down on the ground in front of him. “I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to find you up here, since you haven’t been here the last couple days. I was just coming up here for a quiet place to eat. But since you’re here… you wanna tell me why you’ve been glaring at me recently? And why you’ve stopped so suddenly? Did I, like, step on your foot and not apologize or something?”
‘Pretty sure you stepped on my face once,’ Cassian thinks, imagining the little hellion the psyker was as a child. “What can I say, I have calmed down over the past few days. My hatred for you does not burn as brightly as it once did.”
“Are you going to tell me why it burned at all?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know, weather boy.”
“I would, that’s why I’m asking you in the first place—”
The sound of screams in the not-so-far distance cut Uchan off, and both their heads snap to the direction they came from. A few moments later alarms start blaring from inside the school, muffled slightly, signaling to the students inside to evacuate. They scramble up, almost in unison, dashing not inside to evacuate but over to the other side of the roof to try to see what the cause of the commotion is.
The sight that greets Cassian’s eyes would probably put him in the running for the world record of fastest blood pressure spike.
He’s never seen anything more horrifying.
Over the past two encounters Cassian’s had with the villain, he’s gotten pretty acquainted with their outfit and the visual effects that play around them when they use a skill. It’s hard not to remember the face and outfit design of the person who ruined your weekend not once, but twice, and somehow keeps managing to slip out of Lampas’ hands. And given that the villain is only around a hundred or so feet away from the school building, standing on a floating block at least twenty feet above the nearest building, it isn’t hard to identify the villain as none other than Millennium.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me!” Was Lampas this bad at containing villains when he was a psyker? He swears they weren’t, but maybe he just never paid enough attention to realize how fucking incompetent they are. Or maybe this inability to do their jobs correctly is limited to the Lampas Seoul branch. Cassian doesn’t know, nor does he care, because all he can think of as he looks at the laughing villain is how much he wants to grind their face into the pavement.
Cassian is so engrossed in his rage that he almost misses the way Uchan dashes away from the railing, back towards the roof door. He realizes what the psyker trainee is trying to do quickly, giving chase. ‘No, no, absolutely not I am not dealing with that shit again!’
The fabric of Uchan’s school shirt tears as he grips it, pulling the psyker back with increased strength. The boy looks back at him with wide eyes, shock coloring his expression. A few moments pass and the stupid expression only gets more intense, traces of… is that horror on his face? It’s a little much for what he did, after all, is being pulled back by your classmate really that horrifying—
It is then that Cassian realizes that he is gripping the tattered remains of the back of Uchan’s shirt collar with a clawed hand.
“Well, shit.”
Has Uchan mentioned before how much he hates his life? Because he does. A lot.
The hand on his shirt pulls him back, ripping the already shredded fabric further as Gangu— no, as Cassian drags him away. It’s the same direction he was trying to go originally, towards the roof access doors, although with the angle he’s being dragged at they stop a few meters to the left of the door when they hit a wall.
Uchan doesn’t think about the destination, nor the screams overlapping the cackling villain in the background—okay, he’s definitely still thinking and worrying about that, but the thing at the forefront of his mind is this:
His classmate is a villain.
His classmate is the villain Cassian.
Guess that explains why he was glaring at him for so long— oh god that’s Cassian. The villain he followed, pestered and harassed as an eight year old. The villain he tried convincing to date his little sister. The villain—
Before his brain can bring up more embarrassing memories, Cassian all but throws him against the wall. His back collides with the bricks and a clawed finger is jabbed into his chest.
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” the villain begins, glaring daggers into his soul, “We’re going to ignore all of this,” a gesture at himself, “and you’re going to stay right here. Under no circumstances are you to leave this spot until Millennium is taken care of, got it?”
“But– I can’t just do that!” Even ignoring the fact that his classmate is a villain—which he is trying very hard to ignore despite the fact that he really should be thinking about reporting Cassian—he’s a psyker for crying out loud! He can’t just stand back and watch as a villain causes mayhem for the third time in these past few months!
“I think you can do that just fine,” Cassian says through gritted teeth, “I don’t care if it’s your job or your duty or whatever, you are going to stay away from that fucking fight.”
“But I have to—”
The villain places both hands on his shoulders, pushing him down with considerable strength until Uchan is sitting on the roof, back still pressed against the wall. “No, what you have to do is sit here—”
A look of realization flashes across Cassian’s face and suddenly Uchan is hauled up, being dragged again as he mutters something about how “This place is too open”. At least this time he’s being dragged by his wrist and not any part of his clothes; the villain’s claws aren’t ruining any more of the fabric.
The villain boss drags him to the roof doors, pushing them open and pulling him with him down the stairs. The alarms are much louder inside the building, and somewhere in the school he can still hear students and faculty scrambling to evacuate.
It’s only when they get to the bottom of the staircase that Cassian stops, spinning around to face him. His clawed hands are back on his shoulders, pushing him down again until he’s sitting on the stairs, staring up at the villain with confusion. “Okay, you’re going to sit here and do nothing while I go out there and handle Millennium.”
“My job is—”
“Nope, stop arguing with me. Your job right now is to sit here and look pretty because if I have to babysit you one more fucking time, I am going to lose it. If I see you anywhere near Millennium, I am just going to punt you into the sun, regardless of if you are an eighteen year old or an eight year old. Do you understand?”
“I—”
“It is a yes or no question, Uchan. Do you understand?”
“...Yes,” Uchan says after a moment, nodding, though it pains him to have to sit on the sidelines while other people fight.
“Great!” Cassian exclaims, releasing his shoulders and throwing his hands into the air dramatically. “I honestly expected that to be a lot harder than it was. Okay, now I should probably go deal with the bitch outside.”
The villain starts ascending the stairs, leaving Uchan behind. Before Cassian opens the roof doors to join the fray, however, he turns around, pointing an accusatory finger towards him.
“Remember: You stay here and look pretty. Don’t even think about sneaking off to try to join the fight or so help me god.”
With that, the villain pulls the doors open and disappears from view, leaving Uchan alone with nothing but the still blaring alarm and his thoughts to keep him company.
In the midst of having a slight mental breakdown over his classmate being the same villain who babysat him twice, one thought prevails in his mind.
‘He thinks I’m pretty?’
Cassian emerges from the shadows, heel hitting the sidewalk for just a moment before he breaks into a sprint. He scans his surroundings, a city block turned battlefield as the few psykers in the area try their best to apprehend the villain and evacuate the civilians. There’s a considerable amount of debris strewn about, crumbling off of various buildings and scattered from the wrecked remains of some streets—it seems like this encounter with the piece of shit known as Millennium is a lot more destructive than the last two.
A glance upwards reveals that Millennium isn’t in their previous spot high in the sky, and Cassian searches for the villain’s new location, taking note of the psykers’ locations dotted around the area as he does.
He locates Millennium quickly; they’re floating on another block (or perhaps the same block), far closer to the ground than they were when Cassian first saw them on the roof of the school. Now that he’s getting a closer look at the villain, he can see that they, along with the block, are slowly descending.
“It looks like Millennium’s abilities extend to more than just people,” Moros comments, appearing out of nowhere, “That block they’re standing on? It’s the byproduct of an ability, and I think they’re slowing its descent by slowing down time on it.”
“Thanks for the exposition,” Cassian snarks. It was useful information—the more you know about your enemy and their abilities the better off you are in a fight after all—but he feels like it would have been simpler to just give him the information from a scan. Speaking of…
“Moros, scan ‘em.”
The spirit sighs and a moment later the game-like status screen materializes in front of him. Cassian scans over the information in front of him quickly and dismisses the panel, turning his attention back to the villain.
A sneak attack would be the best course of action—Millennium has little recourse for sudden attacks from behind, even if getting closer increases the chances of getting hit by the age changing attack. But they’re susceptible to Cassian’s shadow binding move, so restraining them to the point that they won’t be able to shoot anyone with it shouldn’t be much of a problem—
“Cassian?” a familiar voice calls out from behind him, causing Cassian to skid to a stop, head whipping around to face him. Just like he thought, Jeff’s right there, dressed in his psyker garb ready to join the fray.
‘Great!’ Cassian thinks, for once not sarcastically, ‘Someone who I know is actually competent!’ Jeff knows and trusts him more than enough to help him execute a plan to stop Millennium, and unlike any of the psykers around here, he’s not opposed to cooperating with a villain—-especially since said villain just so happens to be his little brother.
Cassian waves Jeff over and, in the process, breaks one of the most important rules of the battlefield: never take your attention off the enemy.
He doesn’t see the way Millennium lights up as they spot him, pivoting to aim at him instead of the psyker they were previously going to hit. What he does see is the way Jeff’s eyes widen as he breaks into a sprint towards him. Cassian whips around just in time to see the bright beam headed straight for him—
—only for something heavy to slam into his back, launching him forward. Or rather, some one. In his periphery, Cassian can see the way Jeff calls sand and gravel to his command, forming a wall around the psyker to block the oncoming attack.
Cassian turns his head to get a better look at his brother, relaxing somewhat when he sees his brother shielded from the beam. Moros on the other hand is far less relieved by the situation.
“Wait, no, if it collides with matter affected by magic—!”
Even if the psyker could have heard Moros’ words, he wouldn’t have had the time to react as the concentrated beam of magic passed through the sand barrier.
Really, Uchan never could be trusted to sit silently while there was a villain who needed punching. It wasn’t in his nature to stand idly by when there was work to be done, and the only reason he refrained from rushing out of the school the moment Cassian left was because… well, he was having a minor mental breakdown over being classmates with the villain Cassian.
He was able to get over that little existential crisis relatively quickly, quickly enough that he was able to leave the school in time to join the fray.
…Or, at least, that’s what he thought. He’d expected to find a battle still in progress for him to join. What he finds instead is the aftermath of a relatively short fight, along with a familiar villain, on his knees, with his hands on the shoulders of a child… who also looks familiar…
“JEFF YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE SMARTER THAN THIS!” the villain shouts, dispelling any and all doubts Uchan may have had about the identity of the child staring back at Cassian, confused and concerned. Although the blonde sideburns should have been enough of an indication—wait, hold on, how does a child have sideburns?
That isn’t important right now. What is important is sneaking away quietly before Cassian realizes he’s here. It looks like Millennium’s already been taken care of, being carted off by a pair of psykers, and while usually he’d like to stay to help out where he could, Uchan can see that he’s not really needed. He wasn’t even a part of the fight, he’s sure that between Cassian and the psykers already here, they have everything covered, so he can just back up and go—
As he’s backing up, his heel hits a particularly large chunk of asphalt and he loses balance, arms flaring outward in an attempt to rebalance and catch himself.
He doesn’t fall, but the noise does cause Cassian’s head to snap to the side, the villain glaring into his very soul.
“You.”
As the villain gets up, grabbing child Jeff’s hand as he does, Uchan laments his fate. He was so close. So close. A few more meters and he would have been home free, able to duck behind a building, safely out of sight. But it couldn’t have gone that smoothly for him, no.
Cassian stops in front of him, absolutely fuming. “You. I thought I told you to stay the fu—” he glances down at the newly turned child who still looks greatly concerned about the general situation, “Wait, hold on, he wouldn’t know Korean at this point in time. I can swear as much as I want!” Cassian clears his throat. “As I was saying, I told you to stay the fuck away from here. So, you wanna tell me why you’re here instead of in the fucking school where I left you?”
Uchan wonders if Cassian is going to make good on his threat to punt him into the sun. He doubts that’s something he’s physically capable of, but that doesn’t mean that the villain isn’t able to try.
“As a psyker, it is my obligation to—”
“I’ve decided I don’t give a shit. Here,” Cassian places a hand on Jeff’s back, causing him to jump—and seriously how does he still have his sideburns, he can’t be older than like 12— pushing the newly child-ified psyker towards him. “You can take care of him. I’m not dealing with this bullshit anymore.”
“Wait, hold on, I can’t watch him!”
“Tough luck. Hand him off to the homeless banana man or Jiseon if you have to. I don’t really care as long as they make sure he doesn’t get hurt.”
“You were close with him before, right? Shouldn’t you be the one to take him? To watch him?”
Cassian raises his arm, placing his hand on Uchan’s shoulder, squeezing. The villain looks him dead in the eyes, a dangerous smile on his face.
“No.”
Before Uchan can argue more, Cassian releases his shoulder and his form melts into the nearest shadow, leaving an empty space where he previously stood.
“Uh, who are you? Where is this? What’s going on?” the child asks, notably in English.
Well, shit. Time to bust out his less than fluent English.
“Did you really just dump child Jeff onto Uchan?” Moros asks, just radiating disapproval. Not even 2 seconds after he gets home and already he’s getting lectured.
“Yes, I did. You got a problem with that?” Cassian answers, leveling an equally unimpressed and disapproving look at the spirit as he kicks off his shoes.
“What if he gets hurt? You can’t seriously think that a kid like Uchan is a good fit to watch him, can you?”
“Hey, I had to watch kids less than half my age by the time I was twelve back at the orphanage, I’m sure he can manage. And if babysitting is too much for him, he’s got the entirety of Lampas to get help from! I doubt they’d let a top class psyker get hurt just because they couldn’t find a good babysitter.”
Cassian pushes his bedroom door open. He’s grateful to finally be home and thankful that everyone had simply been sent home early from school, don’t get him wrong, but he wishes that he could enjoy some peace and quiet.
“I still don’t see why you couldn’t have done it. Since you have so much experience keeping kids in line, and Jeff is your brother, I’d just assumed that you’d take it upon yourself to watch him. Instead of, you know, being irresponsible and pushing the responsibility onto someone else the first chance you got. And besides, Jeff wouldn’t be nearly as… destructive, as the other ones were.”
“Oh, believe me, I’m sure that Jeff was a well-behaved angel of a child, but that doesn’t mean I want to spend any more of my time babysitting, okay? If you’re that worried about him, I can go check on him later, but I never want to babysit ever again.”
“Come on—”
“Nope, you’re not going to win this.” Cassian flops against his bed dramatically, staring up at the ceiling. “Unlike Driver, Crow and Redeye, I technically don’t have any obligation to watch Jeff. And unlike Uchan, Jeff is sane enough to not insist on being babysat by a villain. I don’t need to do it, I don’t want to do it, therefore, I’m not going to do it. I will check on him to make sure he’s still alive, and I will go get him when he turns back— and also yell at him for being a dumbass, because if that were anything other than an age changing beam, he could have gotten himself majorly hurt—but I am not dealing with him as a kid.”
“You can’t just—”
Cassian sits up. “I can and I will, because I am done babysitting. End of discussion. Now just shut up and let me take a fucking nap.” He falls back against the mattress, rolling over to face away from Moros.
Millennium better stay in their fucking cell this time. That son of a bitch has caused more than enough grief.