We Move Lightly
Title: We Move Lightly
Author: jemakku @ ao3
Fandom/Characters/Pairing: EXO and NCT; Suho-centric; Suho/Chen/Lay
Rating/Warnings: PG-13; fem!Suho; polyamory
Challenge # & Prompt: #021 (circles)
Word Count: 719w
Project Cronus was conducted in Lab SB48 and in the lab was a dream pod dubbed the Cronus. Like the planet Saturn, it was a magnificently large sphere and was surrounded by a ring hundreds of smaller pods. However, there was a deeper and more sinister meaning to the name. Within the pod slept seven different dream eaters, blissfully unaware that they were caught and imprisoned to be fused together to form a single artificial being, dubbed Subject #0419. Professor Kim Junhee was one of the leading scientists supervising this effort.
"Am I late?" Junhee asked Nakamoto, one of her colleagues and friend who had waved her over to one of the smaller pods.
"Don't worry, Subject #0419 has calmed down so everyone's taking it easy too," Nakamoto said reassuringly. Then as an aside, "When you can't see the sun, the days just blur into one."
Junhee chuckled as she took the tablet handed to her. "Nursery rhymes must have rubbed off on you. How's Yuu-kun doing without his mom?" she said as she skimmed through the data reports.
Nakamoto snorted. "I'm sure you know that more than I do, Professor." She squeezed Junhee's arm before walking away, smiling slightly at Junhee's grimace.
Knowledge and scientific discovery had a price. Before she was assigned to this project, Nakamoto was part of another research team, one that Junhee was also part of. Their aim was to see if they could produce a human and dream eater hybrid and train them to be Dreamscapers.
While Nakamoto had been there since the team's conception and had even volunteered herself and her then unborn child to be tested on, she was reassigned to a different project after giving birth. It was after Junhee's promotion that she met Nakamoto again through Project Cronos.
Nakamoto left Junhee to wallow in her thoughts, the reports in hand all but forgotten. If it weren't for the fact that her mind was preoccupied, Junhee would never have picked up the incoming call.
"Shit," she mouthed.
"I heard that," Jongdae, Junhee's longtime boyfriend, said in a teasing tone. He sounded relaxed and happy and Junhee was getting a headache from gritting her teeth too hard from jealousy.
"Are you calling to gloat?" Junhee said, keeping one eye on the dream pod in front of her and another on the tablet. The report still needed to be processed and Junhee never took private calls during work, but she had just stepped on an emotional landmine, had been in the labs for the fifth consecutive day, and was miles away from home.
And Jongdae was home. Well, Jongdae and one more person.
"Is she on? Junhee? Hello?"
"I'm not done yet," Jongdae groused in the background. Junhee cracked a smile. She closed her eyes and let Yixing's musical voice envelop her in his warmth and love.
"Junhee?" he said again. She hummed in reply, not willing to let her emotions get the best of her. "I miss you," Yixing added.
"I miss you too," Junhee whispered. She figured that since not much time had passed since she entered the lab, she could step out for a bit and pretend that she was running late when she came back. Junhee let Yixing's and Jongdae's chattering wash over her as she hurried to the upstairs lounge, wishing more than anything that she could physically be with them. "Sorry, I'm okay to talk now," she said breathlessly.
"Things still messy there?" Junhee groaned theatrically at Yixing's understatement. He cooed at her and that made her drop her defenses enough to whine at him. Like Junhee, Yixing was also a scientist at Do Inc. but worked under the Chinese branch.
They were meant to go on a holiday after Jongdae had pulled some strings. But even Do Kyungsoo's favorite cousin was unable to get Junhee out of Japan and ship her off to some tropical island.
Junhee was about to say, "Get me out of here," when a loud explosion threw her off balance and knocked her unconscious.
No one inside Lab SB48 had survived. Project Cronus was scrapped with zero results to show for all the effort and resources put into it. A few years later, Kim Junhee and her husband Kim Jongdae adopted a boy named Yuta who retained his family name, Nakamoto.
Author: jemakku @ ao3
Fandom/Characters/Pairing: EXO and NCT; Suho-centric; Suho/Chen/Lay
Rating/Warnings: PG-13; fem!Suho; polyamory
Challenge # & Prompt: #021 (circles)
Word Count: 719w
Project Cronus was conducted in Lab SB48 and in the lab was a dream pod dubbed the Cronus. Like the planet Saturn, it was a magnificently large sphere and was surrounded by a ring hundreds of smaller pods. However, there was a deeper and more sinister meaning to the name. Within the pod slept seven different dream eaters, blissfully unaware that they were caught and imprisoned to be fused together to form a single artificial being, dubbed Subject #0419. Professor Kim Junhee was one of the leading scientists supervising this effort.
"Am I late?" Junhee asked Nakamoto, one of her colleagues and friend who had waved her over to one of the smaller pods.
"Don't worry, Subject #0419 has calmed down so everyone's taking it easy too," Nakamoto said reassuringly. Then as an aside, "When you can't see the sun, the days just blur into one."
Junhee chuckled as she took the tablet handed to her. "Nursery rhymes must have rubbed off on you. How's Yuu-kun doing without his mom?" she said as she skimmed through the data reports.
Nakamoto snorted. "I'm sure you know that more than I do, Professor." She squeezed Junhee's arm before walking away, smiling slightly at Junhee's grimace.
Knowledge and scientific discovery had a price. Before she was assigned to this project, Nakamoto was part of another research team, one that Junhee was also part of. Their aim was to see if they could produce a human and dream eater hybrid and train them to be Dreamscapers.
While Nakamoto had been there since the team's conception and had even volunteered herself and her then unborn child to be tested on, she was reassigned to a different project after giving birth. It was after Junhee's promotion that she met Nakamoto again through Project Cronos.
Nakamoto left Junhee to wallow in her thoughts, the reports in hand all but forgotten. If it weren't for the fact that her mind was preoccupied, Junhee would never have picked up the incoming call.
"Shit," she mouthed.
"I heard that," Jongdae, Junhee's longtime boyfriend, said in a teasing tone. He sounded relaxed and happy and Junhee was getting a headache from gritting her teeth too hard from jealousy.
"Are you calling to gloat?" Junhee said, keeping one eye on the dream pod in front of her and another on the tablet. The report still needed to be processed and Junhee never took private calls during work, but she had just stepped on an emotional landmine, had been in the labs for the fifth consecutive day, and was miles away from home.
And Jongdae was home. Well, Jongdae and one more person.
"Is she on? Junhee? Hello?"
"I'm not done yet," Jongdae groused in the background. Junhee cracked a smile. She closed her eyes and let Yixing's musical voice envelop her in his warmth and love.
"Junhee?" he said again. She hummed in reply, not willing to let her emotions get the best of her. "I miss you," Yixing added.
"I miss you too," Junhee whispered. She figured that since not much time had passed since she entered the lab, she could step out for a bit and pretend that she was running late when she came back. Junhee let Yixing's and Jongdae's chattering wash over her as she hurried to the upstairs lounge, wishing more than anything that she could physically be with them. "Sorry, I'm okay to talk now," she said breathlessly.
"Things still messy there?" Junhee groaned theatrically at Yixing's understatement. He cooed at her and that made her drop her defenses enough to whine at him. Like Junhee, Yixing was also a scientist at Do Inc. but worked under the Chinese branch.
They were meant to go on a holiday after Jongdae had pulled some strings. But even Do Kyungsoo's favorite cousin was unable to get Junhee out of Japan and ship her off to some tropical island.
Junhee was about to say, "Get me out of here," when a loud explosion threw her off balance and knocked her unconscious.
No one inside Lab SB48 had survived. Project Cronus was scrapped with zero results to show for all the effort and resources put into it. A few years later, Kim Junhee and her husband Kim Jongdae adopted a boy named Yuta who retained his family name, Nakamoto.