Twinkle Twinkle Little Star | BTS FF. JM.JKFF |

Chapter 2

"Right here's the chapter on apple trees, and then over here... there are these fruits call 'cherries' before The First Wave. Y'know."

"They look yummy."

"Sure do," Jungkook says as he flips to another page, the pair of them settling down on the dust-covered basement floor, a pocket fuse between the two of them, huddled over the pages of a book that holds the stories of people from thousands of years ago.

They miss the entire football game and Jackson's party but neither of them can remember to care anymore.

Like a diamond in the sky.

Nighttime is the only time it's really safe to go outside without a thick layer of processed fabric clothing on. Nighttime usually finds Jungkook and Jimin splayed out across the roof, staring up at the stars, and tonight, it is no different.

"Which one do you think we'll go to?" Jimin asks.

"That one," Jungkook says, pointing.

"Hm... that one doesn't look so great, what about that one?" Jimin points to another one.

"What's wrong with the one I picked?" Jungkook lets his hand fall.

Jimin shrugs, "Nothing, I just like that one better." His hand falls too and their palms find each other, pressing, fingers lacing.

"What if I wanted to go to the one I picked?"

"Then I'd come with you."

"Even if you liked the other one better?"

"Of course."

Silence.

Jungkook gives Jimin's fingers a squeeze, turning round to face him.

"We can go to your star."

"I thought you liked the other one better," Jimin grins, turning his head to catch Jungkook's eye.

"Nah, changed my mind."

Jimin squeezes back. They close their eyes and doze to the sound of the wind through the air, thicker than it was before, more solid as it slides against their cheeks and their skin, pulling at their hair with its long, thin fingers, tugging right on the edges of their dreams. They fall asleep to the sound of each other's breathing--the last song the world will ever sing.

Morning comes with the rare chirrup of bird-song, because humans aren't the only creatures who are resilient and Darwinism still stands, gamma radiation or not. Things learn and die and adapt, things grow and shift and become. Things seek out ever more ways to survive, to live.

"Wake up, c'mon, the sun's gonna be up soon and we'll burn out here if we don't get inside." Jungkook is tugging on Jimin's arms. Jimin stirs with a huge yawn and blinks up at Jungkook, a soft smile on his face.

"Morning." His voice is thick and sticky.

"Morning," Jungkook says, blandly as he gives Jimin's arm another tug, eyeing the horizon. It's brightening by the second and they needed to get inside quick if neither of them wanted second degree burns. The atmosphere has deteriorated so much over the past twenty thousand years that the only reason oxygen is still plentiful enough is for the thin lattice of nanofibers braided and set over the entire world to keep oxygen atoms in, but they're not designed to keep the sun's harmful rays out. That's what the clothes and the tarps are for and staying in the sun too long, even far as it is now, could be deadly.

"Alright, alright, I'm up. I'm up." Jimin climbs to his feet, gathering their quilt from beneath him, almost stumbling as Jungkook pulls him to the edge of the roof, hopping down the ladder towards the ground, jumping the last two rungs and landing with a drop and a roll. Jimin follows after, still yawning, at a decidedly slower pace, and Jungkook is tapping his feet a mile a minute, holding the back door open for Jimin when he comes through.