Agents Of The Framework ! Marvel's AOS fanfic !

prologue

"Late again, Khai?" A shoulder bump.

"what was it this time? No wait, let me guess," Rose touched her chin with her index dramatically, "too much workout? too little workout? leaving us sooner than we thought?"

The death jokes were pretty much expected at this point, and Khai never really minded them. No one did. They never said them in front of the kids they volunteered with, of course, but other than that, they all had come to peace with the idea of their inevitable death long ago.

"I slept through my fucking alarm, that's what," Khai grumbled, nudging her shoes off with her heels, "it just doesn't make sense, how my fucking alarm isn't strong enough to wake me up. It's fucking death metal," she mumbled, Rose chuckling at her struggles.

"I mean, to be fair, we are just getting off of our medication. we have no idea what effects those may have," Rose said, shoving a comb into Khai's hand, "Melanie wants blonde, Caden wants blue, Cassie wants white. no idea where you'll find those colors but have fun, I guess," she chuckled, placing her own shoes on the rack.

Khai sighed, closing her eyes, "fucking hell, gonna be a long day isn't it?" she asked. Rose only hummed in agreement. "Alright, count to three, big, happy smiles, no matter how fucking dead we feel inside," she whispered, adjusting her headband.

"Also no cursing for at least as long as children look up to you, Khaiba," Rose smirked, hands on the door handle, "one, two, and three," she said in one breath, not really giving Khai time to react.

The storm hit in approximately 2.5 seconds once they entered the children's play zone.

"Khai! Miss Perez!" Cassie ran over to them the minute she noticed their presence, wrapping her tiny arms around Rose's leg. The other kids perked up at the mention, running over with echoes of 'Khai' and 'Miss Perez.'

The kids were Khai's support system. Had been, ever since she started volunteering for the drive. Her own folks had left when they realized they'd have to pay for her treatment.

She had somehow managed to pay for a while, before calling it quits. The chemo was leading nowhere, and she was not going to spend her last days strapped to a table. She didn't have forever.

So she volunteered for children who did, in fact, have a forever. Who had a chance, something to go back to. And she was going to make damn sure that they got to see what the universe had stored for them. And if not that, she'd make sure that the moments they had left, or spent with her, would be moments well spent.

"For the record," came a voice across the room, "we were having fun. I was doing great. They just love you two too much," Tayler said from where he was sitting cross legged on the floor. Rose chuckled, picking up Cassie and walking in to sit down next to Tayler. "Hello, puppy," she smiled, booping her on the nose, "what have you done today?" she asked, examining Tayler's long blonde wig that was done into two pigtails, makeup completing the look.

"We gave Tay-Tay a makeover!" she bounced giddily in Rose's lap, who dramatically gasped, reaching out to touch Tayler's pigtails. "Oh, How beautiful!" she smiled, emphasizing the word, "why don't you let Khai give you a makeover now? Hm? She probably has that white bunch by now! Run run run!" Rose tickled Cassie, exciting the little kid even more. She watched as Cassie ran to Khai, nearly tackling her with the force of her pouncing. Khai didn't seem to mind, but feigned hurt, which led to their little chase game as Cassie ran around with the other kids and Khai tried catching them.

"She's good with kids," Tayler remarked, leaning back on his elbows, "It's weird, her showing love for something... alive," he smirked, looking up at Rose. She rolled her eyes and scoffed, leaning back as well. The kids were all too busy surrounding Khai to really look in their direction.

She was just about to answer back when the doors slammed open.

Everything in the room stilled at the loud noise.

There stood Isaac, face panicked, eyes wide yet tired, and beanie on his head nearly sliding off due to how askew it was.

"Isaac, what?" Rose immediately shot up, mum instincts kicking in. When he just lowly shook his head and gulped, she asked again, "God, what?!"

"I did it," he whispered, "we did it," disbelievingly.

"Did... what?" Khai asked from where she stood between the children, Cassie holding her finger in fear.

"The framework," he said, hands moving to his face, rubbing the rough skin, "We did it. It's functioning."

oh.

Well fuck.