Episode 4

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.

"So chivalrous," Jimin says, grinning, voice still sleepy and soft.

"I try," Jungkook says, rolling his eyes.

Jimin sets the quilt on the sofa and curls up again, outside the sun is rising, the windows darkening over to keep the most harmful rays out. Jungkook shakes Jimin by the shoulders.

"Get uppp, I thought we were gonna go read today."

Jimin mumbles something and swats at Jungkook's hand, who sighs and leans closer.

"One more time in a language I understand?"

"You can... read... I'm gonna... sleep."

"Ugh," Jungkook lets out an exasperated groan and pushes away from the sofa. Jimin barely registers thethumpthumpthump of his footsteps down the stairs to the basement, or the decidedly slower thumps as he comes back up. But he does feel the weight the dip of the sofa under a decidedly heavier weight than he knows Jungkook is. Jimin peers down at Jungkook through one half-opened eyelid. Jungkook has a stack of books on his lap, the Gardening for Dummies propped up against the top, nose buried in it.

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