exomeme | part seventy three

part seventy three

EUREUREONG（●＾o＾●）

e-x-o

Please do not post pictures using table codes!
Please put urls in comment for phone anons!
(and label links!)
• ip logging is off
• anon is on
• do not spam

fic recs
glossary/wiki
mod alert post
delicious archive
meme fics archive
exopromptsmeme
unfilled prompts archive

etc
travel au

survey results

ranking results

66 tops/fics

*hunger games au week 1 | 2

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i'm sry this is going so slow... i'll get to the porn i promise!!

1263w

Kai returns a dawn, M16A1 slung over his back as he hops in through the second-story window in Baekhyun's bedroom. "I heard something happened yesterday," he remarks, hair sticking up in every direction. "Fill me in."

"My house has a door," Baekhyun says conversationally. "You know where the spare key is, too. You should maybe think about using it."

"You should maybe think about not leaving spare keys lying around," he replies, unperturbed. "What kind of contract killer are you? That's just asking for trouble."

Baekhyun snorts. "Thanks, guru." He rubs the back of his neck and swings his legs out of bed, low-grade headache throbbing at his temples as the previous afternoon comes back to him. "Sehun and Zitao nearly blew themselves to bits on the Triad job. Lu Han tossed the bomb into the Han River before that could happen. People at the lab are looking into it now."

Kai's eyes go narrow as he turns it over. "Joonmyun thinks this is some complex conspiracy to kill us all, doesn't he?"

Baekhyun balances his face on the palms of his hands. "I don't know what he thinks."

"Okay," Kai says. "What do you think?"

"I don't think anything," he says without missing a beat. He stands, walks out the door and down the stairs. The floorboards creak as Kai pads after him. "There's nothing to think. I'm just happy no one's gotten killed yet." Baekhyun drops onto the couch. "Fucking ecstatic about it, really."

Kai unhooks his gun and sets it down on the coffee table. "Are you alright?"

And that's the million-dollar question, isn't it? The idea of being paid to kill, in theory, doesn't bring him much by way of individual security on the best of days.

Then again, he's long made his peace with that. He's never been worried about himself.

"For the past two months," Baekhyun says, voice hollow, "we've been sending assassins out on assignment knowing full well that they might be specifically targeted while trying to do their jobs. Sure, these things go bad all the time. It's an occupational hazard. But we still have no idea who's trying to get us killed, and without any information, how are we supposed to secure our assets? Am I supposed to just watch everyone get picked off one by one? What the fuck are we doing?" He pinches the bridge of his nose and exhales slowly. Wisps of his dream from last night come back to him in snatches, and he digs his toes into the floor. "You aren't helping much, either."

Kai almost looks nervous, which is new. "What do you mean?"

"You're K's S3. If they see you breaking protocol every other mission, then they're going to think it's fine for them to follow suit."

He frowns. "I'm sorry if I do things differently—"

"On your last mission," Baekhyun says flatly, "you detonated a car less than five feet away from where you were standing. You were supposed to get out of the radius of the explosion before you activated the remote sensors."

"The target was about to exit the vehicle," Kai points out. "I had to move fast."

"The only reason you didn't get caught by the shrapnel was that an 18-wheeler slid in between you and the bomb."

"I took a calculated risk and it paid off."

"You were lucky," Baekhyun counters, drumming his fingers against his knee in vague agitation. Kai's expression shifts minutely. Baekhyun gazes at the jumping in his jaw for a moment before moving on. "Two weeks ago, you nearly fell off the roof of a thirty-story building with no safety net to speak of."

Kai's face closes off, like clockwork. "How did you find out about that one? I didn't mention it in the report."

"Jongdae and Minseok-hyung were in on the job." He smiles humorlessly. "Come on, Kai. I find out about everything that goes on around here. You don't live in a vacuum; you of all people should know that word gets out."

Kai goes positively stony-faced. "I of all people."

Baekhyun closes his eyes. "Listen. You are very good at what you do. Nobody's fucking saying you aren't. But it doesn't matter how many scalps you claim when your blatant disregard for standard procedure doesn't really provide a very strong sense of security—and with the current situation the way it is—"

"We're trained killers, hyung," Kai says, voice rising, but not so much that Baekhyun doesn't notice the word choice. He stiffens. Kai's never called him that before. "Nothing about our job is safe."

"You're right, of course," Baekhyun agrees, and it comes out more stilted than he'd like. "But there are ways to minimize possible casualties in the line of fire, so I suggest you take your focus on physical fitness and extend that to making sure they stay alive, even if that isn't your top priority, or whatever—"

There's a squeezing hand on his shoulder. Baekhyun's eyes fly open. Kai looks furious, completely unguarded, and his face is very close. Baekhyun tries very hard not to breathe. "What are you implying?" Kai asks roughly.

Baekhyun stares at the smooth slope of Kai's nose, the faint smudges of exhaustion underneath his eyelids, the dry patchiness on the skin underneath his chin. Stubble's growing in along his jaw again. He still looks—stupidly attractive. Baekhyun grinds his back teeth. "I'm saying that as a proper leader of the K brigade, you should be working your ass off to protect these guys instead of throwing it on the line for your own hit count. If you won't look out for them, who else is going to?

Kai retreats a little, face pinching. The hand on Baekhyun's shoulder's still tight as ever. "You know," he says at last, "you know there's no—no shitshow anyone else is sent out for that I wouldn't go into myself."

"Of course," Baekhyun snaps impatiently, "that's part of the problem—"

"Shut up," Kai says, and Baekhyun rears back, retort shriveling in the back of his mouth. "It's my turn. You—you know I'd never purposely do anything to endanger the company, right? If you think dialing it back is the best course of action, then—fine. Fine. I'll do it." His throat works. "I trust your judgment."

Something in Baekhyun's chest seizes. "Do you."

"I'm not an idiot, hyung," Kai says, and his voice is smoothing out, face relaxing, the tension in the hand still on Baekhyun's shoulder melting away until it's just warm and heavy and distracting. "Most of the time you know what you're talking about."

Baekhyun pulls himself up haughtily. "Only most of the time?" he says, feigning anger, but mostly he's relieved—that Kai understood what he meant and would listen.

"You're wrong, by the way," Kai comments later, and if Baekhyun tilts his head and squints he thinks he can see a sort of exasperated fondness in Kai's eyes and that's just. No, that's not it. He just hasn't learned to read Kai well enough yet. Another piece of the puzzle to slot into the mystery of Kim Kai.

"I'm never wrong," Baekhyun says, waving a dismissive hand, and Kai shakes his head.

"About taking care of the brigade," Kai continues, like he hadn't heard him. He studies Baekhyun from the other side of the couch. Baekhyun flushes underneath the weight of his gaze. "They've got you, hyung." He turns back to his papers, and leaves Baekhyun floundering for an answer for the first time in a long time.

hi i am actually in love with you

:****

anon i love you too marry me

have my firstborn

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

part seventy three

HG: hitman au pt. 6 (team baek)

collapse

here!

Re: here!

Re: here!

Re: here!

Re: here!