An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Summary:
Missing scene from episode 15. Where Dongsik gets Juwon out of the rain and inside his home with the intention to talk.
The rain drowned everything out, even his shaking, uneven breaths. It was so cold on Juwon's cheeks, so warm where it dripped from his eyes. Fire over ice, Dongsik holding his gaze, then pulling him up with a sigh that sounded like surrender. Sympathy Juwon did not know how to handle written all over his face, in the curl of his lips. Smiling, even now.
Or - Juwon has his first full breakdown after hearing his father's confession and Dongsik, an experienced breakdown-haver is right there and tries to guide him through it only to get caught up when the tension between them reaches a breaking point too. Angst and smut ensue.
Spoiler: they kiss.
FINALLY.
As promised, my ‘hot’ Beyond Evil kissing fic. This got away from me entirely because it turns out that when I’m manic I forget pacing exists so then when I edit stuff in a calmer state of mind things end up 3 times the original length... oh well. I’m pretty pleased with this, it’s the most I’ve written in one sitting for years. This ship has my whole entire heart~ Hope you enjoy! Please let me know if you do :)
The crowd of students grew antsy, casting glances around the room and waiting for someone to make a move. Randy leaned over to Howard and whispered, “I can’t do anything with this many people around, not without revealing myself, and that’s not happening.” Howard bit his lip and struggled to find a solution. This was one of the most elaborate plans McFist had come up with. It was uncharted territory, and Randy was at a loss, but he knew he needed to get these people out of danger as soon as possible. They were all his responsibility— if anyone got hurt, it would be on him. Revealing himself would be the fastest way to get them to safety…
But that was out of the question. He couldn’t. Exposing his real identity would mean game over for sure. Not only would McFist know, but the entire school as well. No doubt the news would spread until all of Norrisville knew. This wasn’t some fantasy world where pulling an Iron Man would work out for him. He didn’t have millions of dollars and his own skyscraper to hide inside. He was stuck. If he tried sneaking under the table now to put on his mask, people would notice. He would be the only one moving a muscle and they were packed like sardines. All he could hear was the thumping of his heart and the screeching of the wind outside. McFist’s words echoed in his head, taunting him. Tick tock tick tock tick tock what do I do damn it what do I do tick tock tick tock…
Then Howard discreetly nudged his side and pulled him down to whisper in his ear, “I got it! What if a bunch of people stood up all saying they were the Ninja? It would be loud and distracting enough, right?” He suggested. Randy shivered as Howard’s words ghosted over his ear and let out a breath, feeling idiotic. It was times like these when he was really glad he didn’t listen to the Nomicon about keeping his secret from Howard.
“Yeah, that’s perfect, let’s get on that.”
Howard turned to whisper into a kid’s ear who then turned and passed the plan on to another kid. Randy and Howard watched as it spread through the room. There was a low hum as the students murmured worriedly to each other. The storm raged on outside.
All of a sudden, Howard sprung up onto the table screaming, “Hey, you giant shoobs! You want me, here I am! I’m the Ninja!”
Silence. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on Howard and nobody dared even blink. Several long seconds passed and Randy felt like he forgot that his lungs required air to function. Everyone chickened out, oh god the plan failed and now Howard is in trouble and I’m trapped, I can’t DO anything! But then time sputtered and moved again; seemingly all at once a hundred other kids leapt up, all shouting. Randy grasped Howard's arm and nodded his thanks, his face still burning and his heart still beating a hundred beats a minute. He glanced around at all the attention not focused on him. The robo-apes were busy handling the mass of yelling kids and the kids themselves were too engrossed in their rebellion to notice as he disappeared under the table and emerged as the Ninja. He flung his scarf towards a light fixture and in a move that any traditional ‘keep to the shadows’ ninja would facepalm at, pulled himself above the mass of students with a somewhat graceful flip. They cheered and clapped at his arrival, and he somehow found a way to bow upside down in midair.
“I’m pretty sure you’re looking for me, actually!”
Randy launched himself at the nearest robo-ape. He kicked it to the ground in one fell swoop and slipped out of the crowded cafeteria with ease. He almost pulled out his sword and sliced it in two, but decided against it. If he destroyed it, everyone trapped inside would take the chance to escape and flood the halls. It would be easier for him if they stayed in the room and out of his way until he fixed this. Howard, the second Randy jumped above the crowd, had shoved his way to the door with surprising speed, making it out just as the ape pulled itself back onto its feet. They rounded the corner and ducked into a dark classroom.
“Since when can McFist control the damn weather?” Howard threw his arms up in the air incredulously. “This is so wonk. I was going to go home and beat Grave Puncher VI on expert! I’m on the last level! Do you know how long it takes to get to the last level? FOR. EVER.”
“Howard, focus. Your GPVI skills are epic, but we have to figure out how to stop the storm. The sooner we do, the sooner we can get out of here.”
“This better be fast, Cunningham, my time is valuable.” Howard grumped.
“Sure, buddy.” They made their way down the hall, checking all the rooms for anything suspicious. “Okay, the question is, how is he doing it? How do you control the weather?”
“Viceroy probably built some kind of super-bruce invention. It’s always Viceroy, Cunningham.”
“True. It is almost a given at this point,” Randy crossed his arms as they emerged from another room that turned up empty. Randy wished he had paid more attention in Science.
“Ugh, we’re getting nowhere with this,” Howard griped, “We’re just wandering around the school being useless!” His voice echoed through the halls. Just as Randy turned to shush him, the girls bathroom door creaked open and he immediately jumped between it and Howard, sword drawn and ready to defend.
“Heidi?” Howard pushed Randy out of the way as his sister emerged from behind the door.
“Howard? Ninja!”
“Oh.” Randy lowered his sword in confusion.
“What are you doing here?” Howard asked.
“I hid in here when I heard the principal’s announcement. I wanted to get some good footage of the storm,” she indicated to the camera hanging from a strap over her shoulder, “Ralph was too scared to come with me, so I thought I’d just film it myself. Then that other voice came on and now these robot apes are walking around, like, patrolling the halls.” She turned the camera on and pointed it at Randy, not missing a beat, news persona automatically taking control.
“So, Ninja! You have a plan don’t you? How are you going to save Norrisville High this time? How can you fight a hurricane?”
“Uh…” Randy squirmed uncomfortably at the questions, not having an answer.
“Heidi, come on. Stop interrogating him.”
“Okay then, how about you tell me the plan, Howard. What are you doing out here with the Ninja? Do you guys work together, like as hero and sidekick? You sounded familiar with each other.” Heidi had a thought and gasped, “Do you know who the Ninja is?”
A small clunk drew Randy’s attention to the corner down the hall. He squinted his eyes and listened hard.
“Heidi! This is so wonk, put the camera down.”
“Absolutely not. Come on, give me something I can—” she was cut off by Randy shoving them both back into the bathroom without warning. Heidi and Howard squeaked out noises of protest, but Randy shushed them, a hand over their mouths.
“Robo-apes. Stay here!” he hissed. They froze. Howard’s face heated in what he assumed was adrenaline or annoyance as he swatted the hand away. Heavy footsteps echoed through the halls, eerily silent with no students in them. Howard and Heidi- along with her camera- stuck their heads through the door. With narrowed eyes, Randy drew his sword and took a stance, completely still as he waited for the ape to round the corner. After several long and drawn out seconds, the thing finally emerged.
“Let’s go, monkey bu— okay, you are not a robo-ape,” Randy balked.
A large robotic samurai warrior stood at the opposite end of the hall with thick arms and legs and a sword that probably weighed as much as Randy himself clasped in its giant hand. Its design was all sharp edges and angles; hard, metal and mean. It zeroed in on Randy, raised its sword, and dashed forward with such speed that should have been impossible for a thing of its size. Randy barely raised his sword in time to block the swing, and when the swords collided, Randy was pushed back several feet.
“Oh, now this is more like it!” He laughed, deflecting its blade.
Legs planted firmly, the steel behemoth’s top half whirled around to swing at Randy’s other side, but he nimbly ducked out of the way and countered with a slash at its knees. The sword clanged right off the kneecaps and Randy was momentarily taken aback. Not much was strong enough to deflect his blade. The samurai kicked out at Randy and flung him several feet down the hall through the air and he landed hard on his back.
******** ADD MORE FIGHT HERE
“Howard?” Randy called out, “what weakens steel?”
“Uhhh, extreme heat? And rust!”
Randy thought fast. Rust would probably work better, but it would be impossible to get the steel to rust that fast. His only option was to use heat. So what did he have that could achieve that? An idea came into his head and he pulled out a couple of Ninja balls, tossing them at the samurai with a shout of “Ninja Oil Balls!”
They popped open like water balloons, dumping deep black oil all over the samurai and spilling onto the floor around it. It tried to take a step towards him but slipped and fell, and Randy took the chance to fling more Ninja balls at it. “Ninja Fire Balls!”
The oil ignited all at once, in a flash of light. It burned hot, Randy could feel it even though he was several feet away. The samurai rose to its feet shakily, whirring and creaking. It stepped toward Randy one more time, but Randy leapt forwards and swung his trusty sword in a large swooping arc. A long, vertical cut tore the metal samurai right in half. It shuddered and groaned a few times, then both halves limply fell to the ground back into the flames. Panting and sore, the Ninja pulled out one more Ninja ball and tiredly tossed it over the burning oil. Sand erupted out of it and smothered the fire.
God only knows why Howard decided one in the morning on a Tuesday night was a good time to call Randy, waking him out of a half-sleep. Randy didn’t even get annoyed anymore, he’d long since gotten used to Howard’s antics- it took a lot to surprise him when it came to his best friend. He lifted the phone sluggishly to his ear, coughing to clear the grogginess from his throat.
“Yeah?”
“Cunningham, how is it that you think Grave Puncher IV is better than Grave Puncher II? Because I’m playing IV right now and I just can’t see it.” Randy let loose a huge yawn, staring blankly into the darkness of his room. They’d been having this discussion while pointedly not listening in Science class that day. Howard was very opinionated about GPII.
“We went over this already. It’s more fun.”
“Umm, how exactly?”
“Harder levels, better mechanics—”
“These levels are not hard.”
“That’s because you cheat.”
“Pff, whatever, Cunningham. I’m starting to think you wouldn’t know a good game if it came up and bit you in your bony ass.”
“Howard!” Randy gasped in tired, mock horror, “My ass is not bony, how dare you.”
An hour passed like this, them arguing back and forth about video games, and Randy was hopelessly awake again with no chance of falling back asleep any time soon.
“You know what I noticed? Besides the first Ninja, I’m the only one that has had to work this hard.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, usually, the Ninja only has to deal with the Sorcerer and his stank, but I have to hold off McFist, too.”
“Pff, like that’s even a lot of work. McFist's plans are always complete donk.”
“And how would you know? Do you have to deal with all of this crap, too?”
“I live vicariously through you, Cunningham. Duh.”
“Sure, buddy. But seriously, it’s tiring.”
Howard snorted.
“It is! I mean, yeah, it’s mostly just robo-apes and your standard stanked students thanks to the Sorcerer- and I can barely take those things seriously anymore- but it all adds up to major exhaustion. Man, McFist really needs to stop sending those apes, they’re so useless.”
“Yeah, but at least you don’t suck as much as you did freshman year.”
“Come on, I was new!”
Randy listened as Howard scoffed and then yawned obnoxiously, and fought back one of his own. Sufficiently tired, Howard sighed a goodbye to Randy.
“Ok. ‘Night.” Randy chuckled, and tossed his phone onto the nightstand, a sleepy grin plastered on his face. Even though he would pretty much be a zombie at school, he wasn’t really mad at Howard. They’d been best friends for longer than he dared to calculate, and friends like that come with exceptions. Randy sighed and figured he should set up a game of Grave Puncher IV to occupy himself before it was time to get ready for school.
***
“Holy crap, you look dead.”
“Gee, I wonder whose fault that is,” Randy raised his eyebrows at Howard, “I couldn’t fall back asleep after you called me. I got maybe three hours last night.”
“Oh come on, don’t be such a shoob. You’ve gotten less before.”
“Yeah, but seeing as I’ve been the school’s local hero for two and a half years, I need my beauty sleep. I mean, don’t get me wrong, being the Ninja is the absolute cheese, but I just want a day off. Hopefully, I won’t have to deal with anything toda—”
Randy was cut off by a sudden blow knocking him into the lockers. A robo-ape looked down at him and let out a metallic grunt before it leapt down the halls smashing against lockers, flinging students left and right, and just wreaking utter havoc. “Well, there goes my peaceful day off,” Randy sighed in defeat. Howard watched with disinterest as the robo-ape ripped a classroom door off the hinges and flung it down the hall. He gave Randy a nonchalant shrug and a farewell pat on the back, jumping over the rubble littering the floor and whistling as he made his way to class. Randy rolled his eyes in irritation. At least it was only one ape, he could deal with this pretty quickly. He turned in the opposite direction to duck into a stall in the boy’s bathroom, donning his ninja mask. Red tendrils wrapped around him, lifting him into the air in a flash of light as the rest of his suit materialized over the rest of his body to fit him perfectly. He stepped into a shadowy corner, closing his eyes to concentrate. This was a new skill; the Nomicon had only taught it to him a week before. “Now’s as good a time as any to practice,” he mumbled.
Slowly, he let himself become one with the shadows. They lapped at his heels, grasping, softly pulling him into the darkness. They whispered to him, telling him all they knew. He listened intently and reached out with his mind to find his target. Any shadows that existed in the school were his to utilize; they bent to his will and allowed him to hear and see what they heard and saw. By brushing his conscious against someone else’s shadow, he could even get a sense of who they were and what they were feeling. Most of the kids in the classrooms next to the bathroom felt only the numbness of boredom or the tingling of pent up sexual frustration. No fear here, the ape hadn't terrorized this part of the school. Randy moved on, reaching out further. There. The fear. It sent little tendrils of shockwaves up his spine. The poor kid, a freshman, had just transferred to Norrisvlle High and got lost on his way to Spanish class but ended up confused, running and screaming away from a robo-ape, convinced he was going to die. Randy raised an eyebrow and followed the feeling down the halls, jumping from person to person, when suddenly he felt the cold, odd sensation he was looking for. The robo-ape’s shadow was foreign, belonging to an artificial intelligence that had no emotion but couldn’t be classified as completely dead either. The best way Randy could think to describe it was ‘unnatural’. Or maybe 'fake' was a better word.
“Gotcha,” he uttered triumphantly under his breath, “but now for the hard part.” Randy locked onto the robo-ape’s shadow and, with a huge burst of energy and exertion, pulled his physical self through the darkness. At the last second, he drew his blade and burst out of the robo-ape’s shadow behind it, slicing it in half in an instant. He bellowed a quick “NINJA SHADOW SLICE” for good measure. “Ahaha, yes! That was so bruce!” The Ninja fist pumped, but the complicated new technique had left him out of breath. “Whoo, I really can’t use that too often though, can I? It takes up way too much energy,” he remarked. His body had been completely fatigued and was aching for some rest. “On second thought, I was tired enough already, why the heck did I do that?” He groaned. The few kids that were still in the hall to witness his awesomeness cheered, and Randy took a moment to wave and bow. He smokebombed back to the bathroom while contemplating his tendency to make bad choices, making it to History class just in time to sleep through a pop quiz.
***
The shrill shriek of the bell brought Randy back to the land of the living. Mr. Walker’s gloomy eyes followed him out of the classroom like one of those creepy paintings that hang in haunted houses. Randy shivered. Maybe sleeping through Walker's class wasn't such a good idea. He had a feeling he'd regret it later. But at least his next class, Science, was one he shared with Howard. He blinked the tired away from his eyes and sat down.
“Hey, Howard,” Randy greeted. Howard slung his backpack onto the desk carelessly and there was a small thunk as a beaker was knocked over the edge.
“Ah shi-” Howard began, but sighed with relief when Randy’s hand shot out to catch it, “Bless you and your ninja reflexes, dude.”
“Trying to keep that on the down-low there, buddy,” Randy joked, mock-whispering in the almost-empty room. The three other students ignored them, as per usual. “Ugh, but seriously, when is McFist going to start taking me seriously? It’s like he’s throwing kittens at me with these robo-apes he keeps sending. And he’s not even sending that many! This time it was just one.”
“So, what you’re saying is you want to get the crap kicked out of you?”
“No, that’s not what I mean. It’s just… What’s the point of being… the ninja,” he whispered, keeping an eye on the flow of students arriving to class, “if I just feel like..." he floundered for a second in thought, "a bug exterminator?”
It really was amazing how much Randy improved since his freshman year, he mused. Screw being humble, his ninja powers are a force to be reckoned with. Slowly gaining experience with every fight, building a few actual skills instead of relying completely on luck— he felt much more like a capable Ninja. Not that luck still wasn’t a huge factor in his successes, but he was bound to learn something from experience. It was starting to grate on him, though, how mundane his secret life was becoming. He found himself longing for the old days, when every fight was a hard battle to be won, not some pesky extermination job. It really did feel like he was swatting at flies. But like, lots of flies, all the time. So he always ended up being tired from just the sheer amount of enemies instead of an actual challenge. That was what frustrated him most. "This is so not how I imagined it.” Randy muttered to himself.
Thankfully, no other enemies showed up to bother Randy for the rest of the day, and after Science the hours passed in one big blur. Before he knew it, he was stumbling through his bedroom door and collapsing on his bed for some much needed, deep sleep.
***
“Aw, man! My grade dropped down to a D in History,” Randy groaned to Howard through his face-palm. Snoozing through Walker's class yesterday was definitely a bad move.
“Did you do the pop quiz?”
“… I was too busy sleeping through it to do it. My mom is gonna kill me. This is wonk.”
“Yeah, too bad you can’t tell her the reason you’re failing Junior year is because you have to be a hero every time you have a test.”
“No kidding. I have to let her think I’m lazy and irresponsible.”
“…You are lazy and irresponsible.”
“Look who’s talking.”
“Fair point.”
The late bell rang and Randy reached down to pull out his notebook when he noticed the faint glow of the Nomicon emanating from his backpack. He immediately shot up and out of the classroom, shouting a quick “Gotta pee!” as the teacher made a strangled noise of protest.
The poor lone kid relieving himself in the bathroom almost sprayed the wall as Randy slammed open the door like a bat out of hell and locked himself in a stall. He heard the kid fumble with his belt before flushing the urinal and scuttering out of the door. 'Gross, he didn't wash his hands.'
"Okay, Nomicon, let’s g- arwh,” the book pulled his mind into the pages. Randy fell through white, fluffy, illustrated clouds and landed clumsily on solid ground. He was surrounded by meticulous depictions of trees and rocks, flowing streams and soaring birds. After a couple years, it would probably be expected that Randy would’ve gotten used to it. But there was something about the atmosphere of the Nomi-world that never ceased to impress, and the feeling he got from walking around in the pages wasn’t unlike a dream. He immediately and gratefully noticed the lack of heavy fatigue that had been weighing him down all day. ‘Can I just live in here?’ He sighed, breaking tranquil silence.
“So, Nomicon, what cryptic message do you have for me today? Long time no see, by the way. How’ve you been?” Randy hopped up onto a large boulder. Directly in front of him, swirling text appeared.
Trouble often seeks out those foolish enough to ask for it.
“Ah I see... Nope, I’ve got no idea what you could possibly mean.” The text flashed angrily. Randy raised an eyebrow. “Been a while, I’ve missed these talks,” his voice dripped with sarcasm. Arrows and underlines appeared on the words for more emphasis. Randy shrugged, still clueless. A pebble hit the back of his head, hard. “Okay, okay. I’ll keep it in mind.” He studied the words above him as his eyes squinted in thought. Had he gone looking for trouble recently? Nothing came to mind. He took care of whatever the Sorcerer and McFist had thrown at him, but he hadn’t tried to rile them up. Maybe it was advice for future reference.
“Is this all you wanted to see me for? Nothing to say about how awesome those moves were earlier? I’ve totally mastered that shadow technique.” There were a few moments of silence, and then Randy got his answer when the light tug of reality pulled him out of the pages and back into consciousness. He huffed and glared down at the ancient Ninja guide in his hands. “Geez, you can be so difficult sometimes. Okay no, most of the time.”
When Randy slipped back into his seat in English class, Howard gave him a questioning look. Randy just waved his hand dismissively. There was no need to ask Howard about the message, and the Nomicon didn’t like it when Randy did that anyway. The messages were ‘his and his alone’ to figure out, so Howard getting involved was like cheating. Randy had to figure this out on his own. He was still pondering when the intercom buzzed and the principal’s shaky voice filled the halls.
“U-uh… students and teachers, it seems we h-have an emergency situation,” he sounded flustered. Randy perked up. Emergencies happened to be his forte. “There’s a hurricane forming over the school, uhh, all students and teachers are to head to th c-cafeteria immediately.”
“What the juice? How is a hurricane forming and we didn’t hear about it before now like, on the news or something? And why the cafeteria? That’s like, the worst place to go,” Howard’s eyebrows drew together in confusion, which seemed to be the collective emotion of the rest of the school as well. But they all followed the principal's instructions, shuffling through the packed halls and into the large open room. With the entire student body and faculty crammed into the barely-big-enough cafeteria, there was an overwhelmingly loud and buzz of chatter. Then, gasps and silence as the power flickered out.
In the lapse of noise, the sound of wind and rumbling thunder filled the room. The hurricane was getting ugly. The lights blinked back on, joined by feedback from the speakers. Then a voice that distinctively did not belong to the principal spoke.
“Hello there, Norrisville High, home of the ever noble Carps. I regretfully announce that you’re trapped here due to a particularly vicious storm... of my making.” It was disguised, but Randy had heard it before. McFist’s voice.
“Rest assured, however, that you will all be completely safe… as soon as the Ninja steps forward. Without the mask.” Howard pressed a hand against Randy’s forearm as they listened, mouths drawn in tight frowns.
“In the meantime, my darling robo-apes will keep you company. But the longer he makes me wait, the worse the storm becomes. Hurricanes are powerful things.” Almost like a demonstration, the storm's thrashing winds hammered against the windows, it almost felt as if the whole building rattled.
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