Chapter Text
The last entry on the section titled if they’re around something bad is going on was:
mx 12: not dangerous, just fragile. let them be, but be ready for clinginess when i get back. it wont hurt anything to talk to them, just dont force them to talk. they talk about themself in third person, but just talk to them like you would anyone else. we’ve got an album of ocean pictures on our phone for them to look at if they’re distressed, but you might have to remind them it exists.
Your first encounter with Mx. 12 is indirect; Yoongi comes out of his studio with rumpled hair and tired eyes, and stands awkwardly next to the couch for a moment before asking for a hug. You stand up to hug him. He crumples into your arms, and you fall heavily back onto the couch with him draped across you.
“Is everything alright?” you ask. “Are you someone different?”
Yoongi blinks at you and then makes a face, and you realise you just asked two questions at the same time.
“Um. Just, answer them in order, I guess?”
He nods, and then shakes his head.
“Alright. I love you.”
He snuggles closer into you in response, and you smile.
Later, he tells you that 12 was around for a while before that, and you reassure him that he doesn’t have to explain.
“I wanted to, though,” he says.
The first time you meet Mx. 12 in person, you’re on the couch again. They come in staring at their phone, and curl up in a ball on the opposite end of the couch from you.
“Hello,” you say. You don’t realise at first that it’s not Yoongi fronting, because Yoongi walks around zoned out all the time, but when whoever it is looks up at you, blinks, and looks away, you start to figure it out. “Are you someone different?”
The person frowns intensely, like they’re focusing, and you clarify,
“You don’t have to talk to me, if you don’t--”
“Um,” they say, and then shut their eyes. “Um,” they repeat, softer this time.
You wait for a long moment, and they sigh.
“Was-- uh. It’s lonely in the studio, and cold, and, and, it’s not good at talking but-- wanted to, um, be... not alone in a room. It’s not good at being by ourself. By itself.”
It takes you a few seconds to parse what they said, because when Yoongi said 12 talked in third person, you sort of expected that they’d still use human pronouns for themself. But you do figure it out after a moment, and you say,
“Alright. Let me know if you need anything.”
“It-- doesn’t. Um. Oh. Sorry about, being weird. But it’s, the ocean, so. Big.”
You barely understood most of that.
“It’s okay to be weird.”
12 nods, and their expression smooths out.
“Yeah. Lots of weird things in the ocean. Um, wanna see, picture?”
They hold the phone out to you to show you a photo of ocean waves, and you smile.
“That’s pretty.”
“That’s, um, it.”
“Yeah,” you say, a little confused. “That’s the ocean.”
“No-- well, yes,” 12 says, eyebrows furrowing together. They make a face like they really don’t like what they’re about to do, and say, “Me. That’s, it’s, me. Sort of, not, um, literally, but.” They flush, and pull away, curling back up in a ball. “Sorry.”
“No need to apologise,” you say. “You’re the ocean?”
They shrug, and then nod.
“It’s stupid...”
“It’s not stupid,” you tell them. “You’re not stupid. If that’s what you are, it’s what you are.”
They hug their knees up to their chest, and murmur,
“You-- um. Equinox says, says it’s, that 12 is um, not fake, but... but people will think it’s dumb. And, and stupid and silly.”
Oh.
“He’s not wrong,” you say, quietly. “Some people would think that. But I don’t. And I think those people are wrong.”
“Okay,” 12 says, sighing. “Okay.”
There’s silence for a few minutes. Then, 12 looks up, and says,
“You mean that?”
“Of course,” you say, and smile at them. 12 blinks, surprised, and then nods.
“Okay.”
When Yoongi gets back he hugs you almost immediately, and mutters,
“I’d guess from how there’s no tears in my eyes that went okay?”
You nod, and pat his back.
“I’m not gonna hate you. I promise.”
Yoongi pulls back, and smiles.
“I know.”