exomeme | part seventy two

part seventy two

EUREUREONG EUREUREONG EUREUREONG（●＾o＾●）

kis seu

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

"Is this going to be what it's like every time I catch you by surprise?" Baekhyun bites out. Kai blinks blearily down at him, a hand still braced hard against Baekhyun's neck. Baekhyun squirms. One of his knives slips against the jumping pulse at Kai's wrist; the other traces his spine. This is, of course, what Baekhyun gets for trying to wake a trigger-happy assassin whilst preoccupied by a potential target's movement in Moscow.

"Sorry," Kai says. He doesn't sound it. He pulls back, stifling a yawn. "Force of habit."

Baekhyun sits up and clears his throat. He casts a sideways glance at Kai, who's picking sheets of paper off the floor.

"What is it?"

"You have a meeting with command in ten minutes."

"Oh," Kai says, rubbing sleep from his eyes. It's disarmingly endearing in light of his usual killing intent. Baekhyun's breath catches weirdly in his chest. "Thank you."

"That's what I’m here for," he manages to reply, retreating behind his desk.

Kai gets up, opens his mouth to say something—

And this is when Yixing and Zitao burst in through the office door and set off every damn alarm in the general vicinity. Baekhyun stands, taking the situation in through the shrill call of bells—Yixing's right leg is hanging listlessly from the knee down, blood pooling into the carpet.

"What the fuck happened?" Baekhyun snaps, helping Zitao maneuver Yixing onto the couch.

Yixing clenches his teeth, face white. Zitao shakes his head. "We weren't even doing anything, hyung—"

"What happened?"

Yixing swallows with effort. "I think someone's put a hit on me." Baekhyun's mouth drops open. "We were—we were a block away from HQ and Taozi pushed me down when he saw the sniper laser—"

Baekhyun strides to his desk, pulls an emergency kit out of the second drawer and comes back with a pair of scissors. He starts cutting away at Yixing's pant leg. "Why the fuck didn't you take him to the clinic?"

Zitao scrambles up and waves his cell phone. "We tried! No one was there, and Doc's line is busy—"

"Keep calling," Baekhyun says over him. He reaches back into the kit for the gauze but someone's already holding it—Kai. He unravels it with practiced ease and starts wrapping it around the hole in Yixing's leg.

Yixing's eyes flutter dangerously. Baekhyun grabs his face, fingers slippery with blood, stomach lurching. "Come on, Yixing, you gotta stay awake, alright?"

"Yeah," he says, voice faint. "Yeah, I know—"

"Fuck!" Tao says. When Baekhyun glances over, he's running a shaky hand through his hair, mashing the screen of his phone. "Where the fuck is our medic?"

"Kai," Baekhyun commands, "keep his leg elevated. Zitao, stop messing around with the phone and keep Yixing conscious. I'll get Kyungsoo."

The last thing he expects to find when he storms into the clinic is Amber, hair matted with blood, head cradled in the crook of Kyungsoo's elbow as he presses bandages against the grazes on her skull—or Minseok lying on his stomach in one of the gurneys, a grimace of pain stretched across his face as he struggles to catch his breath.

"Another one?" Kyungsoo asks, a steely look in his eyes, and all Baekhyun can do is nod.

When conditions have stabilized, Kyungsoo tells them the bullet barely missed Yixing's femoral artery.

"You're lucky to be alive," he says, forcing Yixing down onto another gurney when he tries to get up.

Baekhyun scrolls through his phone and calls everyone he can think of to make sure they're okay. "The replacements haven't even arrived yet," Joonmyun remarks later, outside the clinic's double doors, watching Lu Han and Amber converse quietly from the other side of the glass. "Jesus."

"Do we know who did this?" Baekhyun asks.

"We have some idea," Joonmyun says heavily. "Nothing concrete." He shakes his head. "Director Lee's giving everyone the rest of the week and next week off to lie low. That means you, too."

Baekhyun opens his mouth to protest. Joonmyun sends him a look he probably thinks is menacing. "Alright," Baekhyun mutters, humoring him, but his mind's already running through a million and one ways to do something about this: the people he could call, the favors he has on hand to cash in, where to push for information.

When he tunes back in, Joonmyun's speaking again. "We resume regular operations two Mondays from now. Back to business as usual. The new guys will be here to pick up some of the slack." He taps a finger against the glass and drags it down. "In addition to the usual hits, I want you and Kai on this."

Baekhyun's spine snaps straight, head cocked to the side. "What?"

Joonmyun's pale face turns toward him. "K's obviously being targeted by someone familiar with multiple hitmen in the company, and K's under your jurisdiction now."

"Right," Baekhyun says, hands numb.

"Find out what's going on and neutralize the threat. It's a long-term job, open-ended, so take your time with it. We want solid intel. Don't take any risks. Kris and I will assist you in any way we can."

Baekhyun nods, heart thumping hard against his ribcage. "Understood."

It's not as if the thought of dying has never occurred to him before. Baekhyun deals with death on a daily basis. With people who dole it out to the ones who are deemed deserving. His own is almost inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, just one more casualty among the others when it comes.

Disregard for his own safety has nothing to do with any sort of calculated indifference, as it seems to with Kai, given the stories; nor misplaced bravery or sheer recklessness, like it is with so many of the others. It's compartmentalization, really—if the emotion won't help him function, then the only answer is to detach himself from it, as temporary as the reprieve might be.

This is what he tells the others when they call demanding answers. Baekhyun works from his laptop through the first day of their extended break and tries fruitlessly to find anything of worth to follow up on for a full investigation. Kris sends him ballistics reports and Kyungsoo's medical reports on the three injuries and Baekhyun puts a couple of preliminary feelers out to his contacts. There's only so much he can do from home.

Kai is an inexplicable presence on his front porch in the morning.

"What are you doing here?" Baekhyun asks jerkily, nerves fried from staying up all night.

"No place to live, remember? Joonmyun sent me here." Kai hunches over, slouching. Like he's trying instinctively to make himself smaller. "He said he'd told you."

Baekhyun pulls his phone out and sees a text message pinging in his inbox. Sending Kai to yours if convenient. If inconvenient, sending him anyway. "I—Jesus. Okay. Come in."

Kai's mouth turns up as he steps in through the open door.

"Coffee?" Baekhyun asks, nudging the lukewarm pot on the end table next to the couch.

"I'm fine," Kai says.

Baekhyun folds himself into the sofa and tugs his laptop onto his knees. "Sorry, I'm—" He shrugs helplessly. "Can't play host. We have a lot of shit to do."

"Joonmyun told me."

Baekhyun bites his thumbnail, distracted. "Yeah." He reaches over the coffee table and tosses a folder into Kai's lap.

"What's this?"

"Commission from some people in Busan. They still want the Scorpion dead."

Kai flips through the intel and makes an appreciative noise. "This is very thorough."

"Just doing my job," Baekhyun echoes.

omfg i'm on the edge of my seat rn

omg i love this baek

anon omfg please go on forever

hahaha i need continuation like burning omg

♥♥♥

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

part seventy two

here!

Re: here!

Re: here!

Re: here!

Re: here!

^^^