ship/member: jihan, one-sided jeongcheol
major tags: apocalypse/tlou au
additional tags: hyyh-centric (i just think svt in the hyyh verse would be *chef's kiss*), the world is ending but that won't stop me from finding you wherever you go
permission to remix: sure~
word count: 1.4k

hi op idk if this is what u asked for (i hope it is!!!!!) but i had a lot of fun writing this out and delving into jihancheol dynamics hehe. i hope u like it! q__q

***

"if you want to find shua, and shua wants to find you... why do you have to go through all this?" seungcheol waves his hands around exasperatedly, thick brows knitting together in confusion. jeonghan chews on the end of a toothpick, a distraction of sorts, while his gaze flutters to a tree in the distance. the lollipop dangling in between his fingers nearly slips and drops into the deep sinkhole beneath their hovering feet— it brings jeonghan back to his friend's words, has him tightening his hold on the lollipop. "why can't you just, i don't know, find each other?"

a laugh erupts from jeonghan's mouth, around the toothpick, and he waves the candy in the air flippantly. it's a poorly done mask to hide his true feelings and seungcheol knows it, but he goes through with it regardless. "how do you know shua-ya wants to be found? or if he even cares about me?" his gaze drops to the sinkhole below them, wonders how badly it would hurt if he slipped from the edge of the balcony and fell into the rubble. from the corner of his eye, he sees a tussle between people he can't bring himself to care much about and then he sees a flash. he sighs, nudges seungcheol, and covers his ears. it's muted, but the sound rings through the cracks of his fingers, and shakes his head up. briefly, his heart squeezes in traumatized fear—

("you can't be serious!" screams ring through the building they find themselves sheltered in, a fire is burning ferociously at the side, and seungcheol is grabbing jisoo by the collar of his tattered and bloodied shirt. "fuck you, hong jisoo!"

jeonghan is dissociating. he sees jisoo look at him over seungcheol's shoulder and watches as a sullen smile curves on those pretty features. reality settles in a bit too late, only when seungcheol yells and pushes jeonghan out of the way and out of the window. the last thing he sees before he inevitably blacks out is the building in flames, crumbling and crumbling and crumbling...

the sound rings deep in his ears, thrums within the canals, and it's so painful he can't help but pass out.)

it's not a destructive grenade, thankfully, but a smoke grenade and the two men glance over as the smoke curls up into the air and engulfs the group of people. "the world's gone to shit, cheollie." jeonghan gets up and seungcheol follows after naturally, a troubled expression painting itself on his face. a laugh, genuine and high-pitched now, jeonghan spits the toothpick out to press the lollipop into the inside of his cheek. "thought you didn't want anything to do with him anyway— after what he did."

"i don't." seungcheol picks up his backpack, the bat wrapped in wire twirling slowly in his gloved palm. he tosses jeonghan a sour stare, angry gaze rolling up to glue to the ceiling. "fuck him. he nearly killed us all. you think i want him near us? of course i don't."

jeonghan's silent, picking up his own backpack and a sniper rifle he had found through an earlier scavenge. he rubs his blistered fingers over the silencer he crafted, sucking on the lollipop a bit harder than usual. the jagged edges of the candy dig into his cheek— he doesn't mind the pain.

"i'm only asking because of you," he continues, tone softer now. jeonghan snorts, tucking a lock of his hair behind his ear. it's gotten longer now, he hasn't really had the motivation to cut it (a part of him knows it's because jisoo likes it long, likes tucking it behind his ear and calling him pretty). "i can deal with it if it's for you, jeonghan."

at this, he laughs louder and brighter. the sun's rays pour into his open mouth and warm him inside out, a healthy flush bursting onto his cheeks in splotches. "what... do you like me, choi seungcheol?"

he misses the way seungcheol turns his head, ears a bright pink and expression twisting into softened irritation (thinks he doesn't even want to look at it anyway).

☆

the sky is unusually clear and it's only a pity that he's unable to revel in the air without inhaling a mouthful of toxins. muffled and heavy breathing sounds out from his gas mask, a hand coming up to adjust it. the area here is heavily infected, closed off to the outside world, but there's much to scavenge here and jisoo is a man that's ejected himself from his group for the sake of their own benefit.

"i'm going to die here," he murmurs, kicking a rotting corpse to the side. he bends down and picks up a jagged shard of glass only to toss it behind him. a gasp, cut off, reaches his ears. jisoo smiles. "you still suck at following people, angel."

he turns around, gaze finding the shard stuck in the rotting walls then sliding to the body beside it, pretending to find an immense interest in the wall— picking at it, peeling the layers away, coughing into the gas mask when a cloud of toxins bursts. "maybe i always want to be found," comes the delayed response. jisoo's heart croons and he laughs softly, eyes curving prettily. he walks towards jeonghan with a shake of the head. "cheol asked about you in the morning. when are you coming back?" he doesn't bat away the hand that comes up to cradle the side of his face— it's hard to tilt his head into the palm of that hand with the gear he's adorned on his head but he tries his best anyway. jisoo can envision the smile that overtakes jeonghan's face.

it's honestly strange, jisoo finds himself thinking. the world is on the brink of ending as they know it but in between it all, jeonghan and jisoo find themselves cupping each other in their own hands. there's an odd sense of romance in that notion itself.

"he'd seriously kill me, jeonghan."

"and if you explain yourself?"

jisoo's heart stops beating. explain myself? he wouldn't even listen. "you and him are different people."

the sigh that leaves jeonghan's mouth has jisoo crumbling a bit, but he smiles anyway. it doesn't reach his eyes, naturally, and jeonghan doesn't say a word about it. there's really nothing to say. jisoo takes the hand cupping the side of his head in his own and presses it to the front of his mask— a hilarious attempt to press a "kiss" to the back of jeonghan's hand. "i'm extremely lucky you manage to find me everywhere... but i can't risk being near him. he has every reason to hate me."

when jisoo thinks back on the burning building collapsing around him, suffocating him with the smoke curling around him, slithering down his throat and squeezing around his heart, he feels strangely heartless about it. there's nothing to really reminisce about the situation. he did what he had to do— act as a sacrifice, even if it nearly costed their lives. the knowledge that seungcheol is a quick thinker is something jisoo wielded like a double-edged sword.

"anyway," he waves his free hand around, dropping jeonghan's. "you should go back to him. forget me. you're safer there than here."

jeonghan laughs now, the sound muted because of their gas masks. his eyes are curving and, if jisoo peers a bit closely, his cheeks are bunching up with a pink haze coating the apples of them. a punch is delivered swiftly to his bicep, causing jisoo to stumble backwards with a laugh of his own. stupid, it seems to say. why would i ever want to leave you? says the second punch.

"i finally found you, you dick. i'm not leaving you. one day, i'll drag you back to seungcheol whether you like it or not but for now... hm. stay alive."

"and if i don't stay alive?" jisoo's eyes are bright, golden dewdrops from the sun clinging to his lashes. even in the murky wasteland of their world, he shines bright with jeonghan.

"i'll revive you, then send you to seungcheol myself." jeonghan's smiling at him with his eyes sleazily and jisoo can't help but laugh at it. he shakes his head and shoves at his shoulder.

it's like this that they find each other— at the end of the word, on the edges, as flames of destruction lick at their heels but jisoo and jeonghan can't bring it in themselves to care; after all, they only see each other in the mist with their fates tied together with a red string.