TaoSoo space!AU
taosoo ; space!au where tao is looking for a new co-pilot after his last one decided to hop ship 珍
Zitao had only been gone for two days when he’d returned to his ship only to find his co-pilot missing. Nothing had been taken, and nothing on the ship was broken or amiss, but there was absolutely no sign of his second in command like he’d just never been there at all.
Zitao had cursed at the air, and sworn never to hire an agency temp again.
If he’d had a choice, Zitao would never have gone through an agency anyway. They were notoriously corrupt; always jumping ship as soon as the job was done and the money was through as if leaving wouldn’t strand the pilot. Regulations and all that; and Zitao wasn’t going to risk trying to fly without a second for fear of the fine. That, and they’d have tried to take his ship – and Zitao had been with her for a long time. She was his home, and Zitao was very protective.
The agency had been his only choice after he’d broken up with his previous co-pilot, a beautiful boy named Oh Sehun. Sehun apparently hadn’t got the message that his and Zitao’s relationship was purely sexual, and romance wasn’t meant to be involved. So when Sehun had asked him on a date, and Zitao had declined, things had gone south. Zitao had been forced to ask Sehun to transfer to a different ship after he’d found Sehun transmitting aggressive messages to nearby cargo ports in an attempt to ruin Zitao’s representation, and he had no time for that. He had to make a living.
And, yet again, he had to find a new co-pilot.
Zitao didn’t have a lot of choices left; he wasn’t going through another agency, and Sehun had managed to turn half his engineering syndicate against any notion of Huang Zitao and his pretty ship, so the only way he was going to find another co-pilot was if he magically found an out-of-work pilot itching for something to do.
There was a bar Zitao knew, in the delta quadrant, and that was his best bet.
Stressed, tired, and feeling like his hair was going to fall out of his head, Zitao set himself up in a booth at the bar, nursing a whiskey and trying to plan out a strategy. It was a cargo bar, full of people who did exactly the same work as he did. There were even a few people he recognised, and Zitao had waved hello before ducking away, too burnt out to manage conversation. Of course, he hadn’t managed to think of an insurance plan for anybody specifically coming over to talk to him. Of all the people to seek him out, it had to have been the most chatty of them all. Jongdae.
“Huang,” Jongdae trilled, and Zitao stamped down on his initial instinct to roll his eyes. Jongdae was a nice guy, and a good lay, and he was dependable and good at his work. He was just a bit of a handful was all, and people who were a handful were exactly what Zitao didn’t want to deal with.
“Jongdae,” Zitao replied. Out of politeness, Zitao motioned to the seat opposite him, but Jongdae shook his head.
“Nah, I’m good. I’m just here with Baekhyun. Listen, I heard Oh Sehun left you out in the cold. I don’t want to intrude, but-“
“Jongdae, you and I both know that you love to intrude.”
Jongdae rolled his eyes, but he was still smiling. Jongdae was, at least, capable of taking a joke. Zitao just had always preferred him when he wasn’t talking.
“I know a guy, his name is Do Kyungsoo? If you need a co-pilot for your next trek, he could help you out.”
Zitao almost dropped his beer. All his fretting, and a co-pilot had just walked right up to him, almost.
“Wow, Jongdae, that really-that’s really nice of you. I need to go ASAP, could you give him a message for me?”
“Sure.”
Jongdae waited patiently as Zitao rattled off his details, and his co-ordinates for his next cargo trek. It was so easy, and Zitao felt like he’d maybe just fallen asleep in his whiskey and made the whole thing up.
Zitao downed his drink, thanked Jongdae, and left the bar to check over his ship.
--
Come morning, Zitao was up bright and early, loading up the ship and tying everything down, and working out how much fuel he’d need for the ship to get to the delta quadrant to the lower bays. He’d turned around suddenly, only to be met with a very short, very stern looking man.
“Hi?”
“Hi,” the man spoke, and his voice shocked Zitao, “I’m Kyungsoo.”
Zitao beamed in relief.
“Oh, hi!”
Kyungsoo waved hello, and indicated to the cargo still waiting to be loaded into the hold.
“Sure, go ahead.”
Zitao watched Kyungsoo go, and smiled to himself.
He liked Kyungsoo already.