Before the Fall

Chapter Twenty-Three - Snapped

Narrative

Namjoon was standing at the glass wall of the cell where Aster was being held. He couldn't help but think that it must feel like being an zoo animal on display.

He looked at her back as she laid on the cot, facing the wall.

Jimin said that she had been rendered exhausted by the second dose of the hybridization serum. She had eaten a little and drank water, but she had been in bed practically all of the last two days.

Even from where he stood, Namjoon could see the cat ears pushing upwards off her head and the tail, that was still short, pushing against the back of her pants. It would almost be comical if you didn't actually know what was going on.

"She's progressing quicker than I thought," hummed Jimin, walking up softly beside him.

Namjoon merely hummed his agreement, arms folded across his chest, eyebrows furrowed as he watched her faint breathing pattern.

"She seems to enjoy the roses. You chose well." Jimin nudged him and giggled softly.

Namjoon felt his cheeks heat up and he cleared his throat. "She's a means to an end, Jimin. Not a plaything."

"I know that, hyung," said Jimin soberly. "I'm more aware of that than anyone."

"Hoseok needs you at the north camp tonight. There's some issues." Namjoon slowly pushed his gaze over to the doctor.

"I hate when my sleep gets interrupted. How much longer does this need to go on?"

Jimin's lips pursed as he pondered his statement that was more of just that than it was a question.

Namjoon sighed and shook his head. His eyes locked on to Aster's sleeping form. "Depends on her."

* * *

Yoongi

I was not thrilled to be on babysitting duty tonight. However, Hoseok and Jimin had to take care of some things at the north camp and someone had to stay with our guest.

Taehyung was doing his normal rounds and Jungkook was busy with encrypting some outgoing messages. Namjoon had a meeting with the General scheduled and Jin was to accompany him.

That left me.

I had protested so much but it had gotten me nowhere.

I sat at the small table on the other side of the glass wall, lazily shuffling a deck of cards I had brought with me. I didn't really care to play anything, I just liked shuffling the deck. Usually it unnerved people and I liked that.

After about an hour of sitting, staring at a sleeping woman, and shuffling my card deck for the thousandth time, I finally saw some movement.

I watched as the two ears on her head twitched. It reminded me of some of the cats that used to play with us when we were kids.

I'm not sure if H-Corp just wanted to make us suffer to toughen us up, or they wanted us to be familiar with our hybrid mutations, but every kitten that was brought into H-Corp for the purpose of experiments, came through our area first.

We played with them, gave them names, loved them, and raised them.

One particular cat was pure white with bright blue eyes. I fell in love with her.

I named her Sugar. I was probably around four years old when she came to us.

I hadn't been at H-Corp for very long, probably a couple of years. I was still skittish and quiet, keeping mostly to myself.