Episode 3

"Three points! We're ahead by three points!" Jungkook is shaking Jimin by the shoulders. They're both jumping up and down on the sofa. It creaks and squeaks under their weight but it holds.

"Five more minutes and we'll end first quarter with a three point lead!" Jimin shouts back, and sure enough, five minutes later, the pair of them are tumbling off the sofa, laughing and shouting. It's the first time in two whole centuries that anyone other than Russia's gotten the World Championship.

"There's a party going on at Jackson's tonight," Jimin says as the game breaks for commercials. They're playing old reruns of ads for outdated things--teleporters, hovercrafts, etc.

"There's always a party at Jackson's." Jungkook is rummaging around the kitchen for more snacks and comes up empty. "We need to do some shopping."

Jimin snorts. "With what cash?"

Jungkook rolls his eyes. "Who needs that when you've got the five finger discount?"

Jimin heaves a sigh. Jungkook pauses in his last sweep of the kitchen and eyes Jimin.

"Oh, c'mon, it's not like we haven't been doing this for years. Thought you would have gotten used to it by now."

Jimin makes a noncommittal noise and slumps back into the sofa, "Call me old-fashioned but, I dunno, stealing just doesn't sit right with me."

"Do we have any other choice?" Jungkook makes his way back over to the sofa and leans his arms on the back, peering down at Jimin. His eyes are alight with something a little bit dangerous, a little bit devilish.

"Suppose not..." Jimin glances at him and right then, Jungkook drops an apple on his face.

"Ow! Shit--! That really--hey, where'd you get an apple from?" Jimin scrambles up, rubbing at his nose, the apple in his hand, hard and smooth and shiny.

"Guy down the street used to own an orchard--I've been taking care of a few things in there at night, you know the trees that are close enough to pull that gamma tarp over? And you said you missed fruits and stuff, so... yeah." He trails off at the end, scrunching his nose and scuffing his feet against the floor.

"How'd you learn how to garden?" Jimin asks, eyebrows in danger of disappearing into his hairline, even as he takes a large bite of the apple and almost groans out in satisfaction. It's sweet, and crunchy, and right now, it's just about the last good thing left on this whole damn Earth, except for Jungkook of course.

Jungkook waves a hand and jerks his head, motioning for Jimin to follow. They make their way through the long hallway of the abandoned house, down to the door leading to the basement. For the most part, they haven't been in there yet--it's only been a couple of weeks since they've moved in and stretching tarp over literally every inch of the roof is a tedious task, but completely necessary for ancient houses like these.

The basement is damp and dark. Jungkook clicks on his pocket fuse and the room lights up with a soft, blue glow.

"Whoa..." Jimin's eyes go wide.

"Right?" Jungkook says, grinning as he lifts the fuse higher to cast the light about. The basement is chalk full of books. Encased in Plexiglas and sealed tight into boxes of transparent alloy. Books, like the ones they've only seen in museums and in holographic projectors (back when they still snuck around into public schools for lessons). Hundreds upon hundreds of books, their titles in stacked letters, some of them recognizable, others in languages long lost to the ravages of time and the ruthless pace of change.

"This one here, is on gardening. I found it the other night when you woke me up from snoring too loudly," Jungkook says, bending down to push open the lid of a Plexiglas’s case, pulling out a tattered volume with a bright yellow and black striped cover--Gardening for Dummies.

"Dummies?" Jimin reads, smirking, but Jungkook makes to jab him in the side and he lowers his eyes back to the book. The pages smell like history, proper history, and stories. So, so many stories.

"Right here's the chapter on apple trees, and then over here... there are these fruits call 'cherries' before The First Wave. Y'know."

"They look yummy."

"Sure do," Jungkook says as he flips to another page, the pair of them settling down on the dust-covered basement floor, a pocket fuse between the two of them, huddled over the pages of a book that holds the stories of people from thousands of years ago.

They miss the entire football game and Jackson's party but neither of them can remember to care anymore.

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