After dropping Shae off at the main storage facility, Yoongi and Ava walked alone, weaving between tents in tense silence.

Ava felt as if a hundred words were on the tip of her tongue, but every one rested frozen there, just beyond form. Instead, her quiet fury churned and her arms remained tightly folded across her chest as she grudgingly followed after Yoongi's lead, her eyes bearing into the black shaggy hairs on the back of his head.

Boi needs a haircut.

Ava didn't realize until it was happening: Yoongi began leading Ava out of a final row of tents and into the far treeline beyond it. Into the jungle once more, with tropical moisture and trees becoming equally thick around them as they unsteadily hiked and trudged their way through the thick undergrowth.

If this is where he plans to murder me, then this bitch has another thing coming.

Yoongi stopped walking. Ava stopped a few yards behind him. The rustling and chirping of unfamiliar plants and animals rose like an organic, earthy chorus around them as they stood in frustrated silence.

Ava's glare at the back of Yoongi's beautiful head was certainly persistent.

And we're taking this physically and emotionally taxing scenic route beCAUSE...? Honestly, if it ain't the Discovery Channel, I really couldn't care less about smelling some tropical flowers. Knowing this universe's track record, the flowers would probably try to eat me. HELL to the no.

Yoongi stood frozen, like a wild animal with its senses taught, taking in the world around him. He closed his eyes and said his quiet wish to himself: I hope this works.

Finally, she asked, "So is this the part where you decide to apologize? Or is it where I get to properly kick your ass?"

Yoongi kept his back to Ava. His pale hands hung limply at his sides until she spoke. Then they curled into tight fists, and Ava could see the tension in Yoongi's arms through his tight black t-shirt.

She went on, "Well fine then. Be a prick about it. But I'd like to point out that--"

Yoongi pivoted. When he looked at Ava, his coal black eyes were both angry... and sad.

Her words got caught on the tip of her tongue all over again.

"For once in your life... just shut the hell up."

Ava was about to lash out with a choice insult, but Yoongi was quicker.

He rushed forward and his veiny hands clawed around Ava's shoulders as his lips found hers--forceful and fierce, angry and hungry. He pushed and she gave, until her back was pressed up against the smooth bark of a tropical nut tree.

This third kiss was like forgetting the first and second had ever even happened; every ounce of sensation was electric, alive, and savory to the taste and touch.

Yoongi could hear and feel Ava's own hunger push and pull him in kind, and it only egged him on even more.

One of Yoongi's hands clawed its way around Ava's neck, his thumb pinching into the front of her throat, making her cry out in pain.

Just as suddenly as he'd come to her, his hands slipped from her skin and he pulled his lips from hers mid-gasp. Yoongi took a step back.

Ava's own fingertips dusted across her neck. Her lips.

Her wide green eyes took in the sight of Yoongi's pale, sweaty brow. His black hair was slicked around his pale face slightly from the moisture. One hooked earring dangling from his left earlobe. His slitted eyes like angry black coals. Panting was his only sound.

Until--

"You ok?" Yoongi stepped towards Ava more gingerly this time, and the nearness of him once more felt like a swarm of physical force was still pressing up against Ava from all sides. She swallowed.

Yoongi reached out his hands and gently cupped them around her wrists, pulling them aside while eyeing the lightly freckled skin of her neck. "Looks ok. But let me know if it isn't. I'll fix it."

Then, with a kind of soft tenderness that felt so good it ached, Yoongi continued holding Ava's wrists. He leaned in, and he kissed the side of her neck with the feathery softness of rose petals brushing between fingertips.

Ava sighed without thinking. Then she stepped forward, nuzzled her face into the chest of Yoongi's black t-shirt, nevermind his sticky body or the heat of the day, and...found herself in his strong arms. Yoongi and Ava stood there in their own silence, in the chorus of rainforest sounds, and it was perfect peace.

Then Ava's angry voice tickled at Yoongi's chest as she grumbled, "You're the worst."

He flashed a sugary smile next to her ear, quietly pleased.

She grumbled on into his chest, "Is this your idea of an apology? Because if it is, you'll have to try a little harder."

He made a shrugging gesture that she could feel. She frowned up at his face and gave him a playful smack to his chest, only making him laugh.

"You're such an ass, Min Yoongi."

"Can't change what I am," he answered matter of factly. "But I don't think I've been the only ass, here."

Ava pushed off from Yoongi's chest and motioned to roundhouse kick him with all the fury and force she had. He ducked to one side, and she missed, her foot landing on solid ground as she pivoted in a 360-degree motion with her hands raised into protective fists. She bounced on her toes, ready to try another strike, while Yoongi stood lazily within reach, his small black eyes scrunched tight from the spread of his smile.

Ava muttered, "I've been so freaking stressed. It would have been nice if you hadn't just been making it worse! What, with literally everything imaginable going on with Shae... and then Petra's still alive, and that's, you know, casually terrifying... and we're in some strange place all over again, and it's frizzing my hair like I DON'T use proper conditioner or something and... God, I've been so worried about the deal. And here you've just been the ultimate ASS and not giving me the time of DAY and--"

Yoongi frowned. He interrupted her rambling rant to say in a harsher than usual tone, "Well someone was being annoying as fuck and treating me like shit for giving a shit, so. My bad. My fucking bad."

"GhhhAH! You are absolutely inFURiating!" Ava was ready to try her hand again at dropkicking that tech specialist down into the jungle undergrowth, her fury was so full.

"Hey, I treated you to the best wakeup kiss of your life our first morning on the shuttle. Don't deny it, because it's true. And then you what? Treat me like SHIT, that's what."

"What are you even talking about?"

Yoongi was the one to let out a frustrated growl this time. "After the Twist Up tournament?! Do you really NOT remember?"

"I remember you wouldn't let me into your workshop. That was a BITCH move if I ever saw one." Ava's peripherals were honed into the shift in Yoongi's lazy stance. Just a little further...

"I remember that day a little differently."

SNAP.

Ava didn't know when her feet left solid ground. The next thing she knew, she had landed back-first into soft underbrush, and Min Yoongi was straddling her with a coy grin. Both of them were panting.

"Damn." Ava squirmed and pushed against Yoongi's thighs, but he just cackled down at her failed attempt to knock him on his ass and didn't bother to budge.

"You asked for it," he said darkly, his eyes taking their slow and precious time taking in the whole sight of her rumpled grey shirt and the way it fell too far to one side of her shoulders, exposing freckled collarbone that was just tempting him to taste.

"Get off," she growled.

"You really want me to?" His voice was still taunting. "Because I can think of a few things--"

As Yoongi leaned in over her with a seductive gleam in his eyes... Ava gave the side of his head a solid WHAP with her hand. His eyes widened in shock.

"You! You just..!"

Then, in a flash, Ava planted a kiss on Yoongi's cheek--and in a strategic jerk-and-pivot motion, she rolled the two of their bodies through the underbrush until she was the one now straddling him.

At the genuine, pleased awe in his eyes, Ava felt a deep glow of satisfaction. The glow rushed into her cheeks in a slight blush.

"God, you're so damn beautiful." Min Yoongi didn't even bother to struggle. He was enjoying himself far too much.

Feeling the flush creeping from her cheeks down her neck, Ava cleared her throat and pushed hard against Yoongi's chest as she pushed herself to her feet. Yoongi watched her movements with shameless fascination, even as he rose himself.

His voice was biting and laughing all at the same time now. "Hey. I'm sorry, Ava."

A strand of her long reddish hair became the most fascinating thing since sliced bread to her as she muttered back, "Yeah. Me too."

He bridged the distance between them, eyes still smiling at the way her hair was crumpling into her face more than usual, and at the shy gleam of her green eyes when she finally looked at him again.

He reached out one hand and gently let his palm cup around the side of her face, pushing back the bushy hairs there behind her ear and then leaning in to plant a quiet kiss on that same cheek. His whisper tickled her ear. "Perhaps it's better that the others still think that we're at odds."

Ava nuzzled herself closer to Yoongi and into his chest once again, enjoying the quake of a chuckle in his chest against hers as she did so. She asked quietly, "Why's that?"

He answered, "In case they find out about the deal, I don't want them to think it was your idea."

"But it WAS my idea."

Yoongi glowered down at Ava.

Ava grinned back, all mischief.

Yoongi's hands slid in a snug loop around Ava's back, pulling her into him by her core. "I'm the one who made the deal with Petra. That's all that matters. She doesn't need to know it was your idea. No one needs to know."

"Are you... WORRIED about me, Min Yoongi?" Ava's voice oozed taunting.

But Yoongi didn't bother taking the bait this time. He was cold seriousness as he pressed his pale forehead into hers and closed his eyes. "I am."

Ava thought her heart might stop.

Yoongi opened his eyes again, this time so close to hers. "Just...don't fucking tell anyone about the deal. Got it? Especially not Shae."

Breathe, woman. Dammit, who knew knowing Yoongi was gonna be like an Olympic sport in not forgetting to breathe? "Why not tell Shae?"

Yoongi cleared his throat. "Let's just say, Chimin and Joon aren't the only ones around here who knows how to play The Game. And I have a few cards up my sleeve left before I give into the hand we've been dealt. But I need you to trust me, Ava."

Ava felt unsure. She didn't like the idea of hiding anything from her best friend.

But then Yoongi tucked his lips feather-soft into Ava's, and held her against his chest with tender hands.

He pulled away, and Ava saw a very different kind of fire in his small, dark eyes.

"Promise me, Ava. Just you and me. No one else."

Dear God, take me now. "You're gonna kill me with that look of yours, Min Yoongi."

"You can...call me Suga when no one else is around." Yoongi's pale skin flushed just around his ears.

Oh God, I can't take it. I can't take it. I can't....

Ava sighed. "Fine. ...Suga."

Yoongi flashed a shy, boyish grin at the pet name.

Lord, is that you? Are these the pearly gates? ...No, they're just Min Yoongi's pearly whites. Take me now, oh-em-geeeee.

"But you'd better do some explaining soon, Min Suga, or else no deal."

Ava felt a pinch into her side. She squealed and squirmed and jerked out of Yoongi's arms.

He just smiled after her as she practically ran away from him, glowering back in his direction. A gravelly, low chuckle escaping his chest. "Deal."

Then, Yoongi led them back out of the jungle and Ava walked a fair distance behind him, as he led the way back into camp. Among the tent poles and scrambling strangers they walked, until Yoongi led them up to a particular tent with a small pink flag waving just outside.

Yoongi barked, "Lisa? You in there?"

"OH MY EFF-ING GOD MIN YOON-GI IS THAT YOU?!"

In a rush of pink and skin, a young, slender woman burst from the tent flap. She wrapped her arms around Yoongi's neck and gave him a dramatic kiss on the cheek. Meanwhile, Yoongi made a face like an adorably upset puppy as he tried to push her away.

"Dammit woman, this isn't a mixer."

"But you have been gone for an AGE. You act like it's just been a few days!"

Ava took in the sight of Lisa: the girl's cheerleader-pep tone of voice, bubblegum pink mini shorts, banana cream half-shirt, and the high-top ponytail holding back Lisa's long strawberry blonde hair... and nothing, up until that point in Ava's short young life, had ever made her want to commit murder so much as she did in that very moment.

Who. The hell. Is this.

As if in answer to her question, Yoongi piped up with a growl, "Ava, this is Lisa. She's going to be your new unit commander."

Recognition struck Lisa, and she jumped up and down with girlish delight, clapping her hands together over and over again in rapid fire. "OH YAY! A new one!"

Meanwhile, Ava sent a look Yoongi's way that said, I am going to make you suffer a thousand deaths for this treachery.

Lisa didn't seem to notice. She latched onto Ava's left arm and started to drag the fierce young woman away. Lisa's peppy voice zinged along like the disclaimer portion of a prescription drug commercial.

"Oh my gosh, we have to get you outfitted with the PERfect gear. Do you duel? What kind of Geji blades are your style? We need to find out your Mysterium specialties, in case we ever get any back in the combat line. Oh GOD, how exciting! Our team hasn't gotten any new members in, like, forEVer...."

Yoongi stood and watched the two young women walk on their way. He smiled sweetly to himself.

She'll be in good hands with Lisa. At least that's one thing I won't have to worry about. But Chimin and his plans for Joon... that's another damn story entirely.