King of Stars Volume 1 (An interstellar ATEEZ Hongjoong fanfiction)

Part Twenty Two: In Which Monster Recounts His Broken Past

~Ten's POV~

That night after our conference everyone retired to their sleeping quarters and again I wandered the ship alone. The nightmares were a plague every time I shut my eyes and since the last one I hadn't seen anything I could make sense of. They were all pieces of a disturbing puzzle that I had no desire to put together. Every time one would appear it peeled back another laying of myself, exposing something horrifying beneath...

Looking up into the bright light of an operating room table while my vision was clouded over with anesthesia, a sleek metal pit that opened up to the sky with no door to escape from and, the most disturbing of all, standing over a dead body while staring at my hands that were soaked in blood...

Blood that I knew wasn't my own...

I shivered but felt no cold when I noticed the lights in the hangar were still on. As I drew closer I could hear sounds of crackling and someone walking around. The doors swished open and my eyes came to rest on Monster who sat hunched over the hole from our fight with the Matriarch with his helmet on and welding wand in hand. The hangar was still in a state of disrepair and my body reflected the damage done as I bled through my fresh bandages.

Sparks flew and bounced off his form as my lenses darkened to adjust to the bright light. I soundlessly stepped inside to walk over to him when he looked up and tilted his helmet back. His face quickly broke into a dimpled smile. "Oh, hey Ten you're still up."

"Yes I can't seem to sleep," I responded awkwardly shuffling on my feet. "Are you unable to sleep as well, Monster?"

Monster sighed and took off his gloves smacking them against his knee. He chewed on his lip and looked around the hangar. "I wanted to see what the extent of the damage was and it's a lot worse than I thought..." Then his eyes trailed to my wound before back up to my face. "Does it hurt a lot?"

I shrugged a shoulder absentmindedly running a hand over my chest. The pain was less pronounced and had instead settled into a constant dull ache. It was irritating, but bearable.

He sighed and ran an oil blackened hand over his face sizing me up. "Look Ten, I'll fix what I can fix this but there's a lot of materials I need. It's gonna take some time and a lot of gold—"

"Oh gold won't be an issue," I responded. He quirked an eyebrow at me before I walked over to Cerber's sleeping form. All three of her heads snored softly, leg twitching as she chased something inside of her dream. I dug through a leather bag and found a heavy cloth sack. I lifted it out with ease and brought it over to Monster who eyed it curiously before dropping it into his outstretched arms. "What is it?" He grunted.

"Yuyaga's gold," I responded. "I took it with me from the arena when I escaped. If there's no other use for it perhaps we could put it towards materials needed for the repairs?"

Monster dropped the sack and opened it. His eyes sparkled at the mound of gold coins inside. "U-uh yeah this'll be more than enough..." He looked up at me with his mouth agape. "Shit Ten you could honestly buy a second ship with this much gold..."

I nodded my head. "It's a substantial amount. Of course the Star King has final say on how the funds are used but I'm sure the crew will be happy to have a functioning hangar back."

Monster chuckled and shook his head. "It'll be nice but they'll probably be happier when you're able to fully heal yourself again." I blushed deeply and looked away trying not to let him see how those words affected me. My eyes came to rest on Jungkook's battered EXO suit.