Saving Exom, BTS Fantasy! AU

Three: Invitations

Yoongi droned, "The little guy's here."

Jungkook leaned out the window to find no sign of arrival to streak the gloomy sky. "I don't see him," he squeaked.

"Oops," Yoongi smirked at his journal, "He's on his way."

"Oh." Jungkook ducked.

A spotted white bird soared down from the ceiling and silently gripped the boy's shoulder.

"Ah!" he startled, "There you are!" Jungkook cheesed bunny teeth at the bird, scratching his chest through his feathers, allowing the animal to tread carefully down his sleeve as he folded his sharp wings. "What's the little cousin got for me today?" Jungkook fed the owl a chunk of the fish he'd been eating for breakfast and untied the scroll from his foot. "Jungkook," he read aloud. "You are my agent of secrecy. I summon you to my observatory-"

"So much for the secrecy..." Yoongi commented. His piles of journals and volumes surrounded him.

Jungkook giggled and continued, "...my observatory to assign you a very special mission this afternoon. When you arrive, watch for falling objects. Sincerely, Soobin the Magnificent who Hears the Stars."

"A mission, eh?" Yoongi snickered, drowsily closing his eyes, for he was awake from the night before.

"An adventure, perhaps," Jungkook giggled, thrusting his forearm out Yoongi's high window to set the owl free. Norbert's wings caught the air and soared away to the docks. "Wonder what strange thing he wants from me now?" Jungkook set his forearms against the windowsill and watched smiling until Norbert disappeared.

The observatory was remote to the Bosque compared to the Plaza del Sol. Further southwest in the bay, the brick-and-stucco tower clung to a rocky outcrop covered in moss where the sea had once tried to take over. Thick, swaying grass covered the hill where his cousin did his desk work. Jungkook greeted Norbert, who was perched on a rotted wooden sign that read 'OBSERVATORY,' in fancy, weathered letters. He scratched the bird's chest, scaled the cobblestone path, and knocked three times.

"Soobin! It's Jungkook!"

He only heard indistinct shouting that sounded like, "Come in!"

Jungkook had to ram the door open to unearth the blackness beyond. Would it kill his little cousin to light a candle?

"Soobin!" he stopped to make out a sign that he could have trampled. "'Watch your step,' huh?" Jungkook stepped around the sign and tiptoed around broken tools and knickknacks strewn along the floorboards. "'Watch for falling items'?" he read another sign that dangled from the ceiling. "Soobin, where are you?"

"Up here!"

Jungkook looked into the blackened canopy–a mess of splintered and new wood planks that had been nailed above and below, supported by trunks and beams in some places.

A sliver of light leaked through the ceiling. It erupted into bright white column with a crack, and a weighty bundle plummeted through it with a yell, pluming with dust as it hit the floor.

Jungkook's eyes widened with worry, and he bent to the fallen object. He looked up to the second floor to find a view straight into the sky. "Suh, Soobin? Ah!"

The bundle sprang up from dusty piles of fabric and scrambled to his feet. "Hey!" he dusted himself off and removed his leather goggles, which left a print of dust around his eyes. "Mornin' cuz!"

"You okay?" Jungkook patted some dust from Soobin, revealing him to be wearing green linen, not black, with a vest and gauntlets made of boiled leather.