xIi. soft moments 

  "You haven't slept at all," Jaebin noted. 

  It was morning. Or at least, the clock said it was morning. Despite the sunlight filtering in through the large windows, it was hard to tell, since they were enchanted anyways. It could be midnight, and the view outside would show the sunrise in Paris. Currently, it was a picture of Shanghai in morning. Looking at it, Jaebin could feel his throat catch slightly. Home. 

  Of course, it was only home in the sense of the word. He hadn't been back since...forever, and most of his time was spent living in America. Or Korea. Or...wherever the heck Gemini's HQ was linked to. 

  "Of course not," Sungjong replied briskly. His hair was mussed up, and the gray sweater he had on seemed to blend against the background, which Jaebin thought of making another pun at, before dismissing it. His hands were rested upon the dining table they were sitting around, and a  tap of his fingers on the wood summoned a cup of coffee. Convenient. "You couldn't just ignore a summons from the Seelie. That would be suicide." 

   "Hmm," Jaebin leaned back into his chair. "Some suicide would be nice. You know, to accompany the graveness of our situation." He paused. "Which also coincidentally goes along with the gray of your walls." 

  Sungjong ignored him, which was usual. Taking a sip from his cup, he made a mild grimace, before setting it down. Taking the top sheet of papers from the pile next to him, he picked up his pencil again. "Remind me again why you're here?"

  "I wanted breakfast," He replied bluntly, and tapped his fingers on the table like Sungjong did, before frowning when there was no response. "Hello?" 

  "The spirits usually obey the Fey better," The other said, and Jaebin looked up to see him having a strained grin on his face, as if holding back a smile. "What do you want to order?" 

  "Tea, congee, youtiao and a scallion pancake. Do you think they make tea-soaked eggs?" 

  In a few moments, Jaebin's breakfast arrived (yes, apparently they do make tea-soaked eggs). Inhaling the scallion pancake, he proceeded to tear the deep-fried dough of the youtiao apart, before dipping it into his congee and taking a bite. Instantly, the warmth spread through him, and in his mind a scene of him and his baby sister having breakfast at their ancestral home flashes by, immediately sending a pang of guilt across him. 

  "How is it?" Jaebin looked up in the middle of chewing, and realised that against the sunlight, Sungjong's ears were slowly becoming rounder. His eyes also lost that greyish-blue glint that made him so unnerving during meetings; his expression, though still carefully composed, was losing its sharpness. Dawn. 

   "Surprisingly, not too bad. It does taste like something you'll find in a Chinatown, though." 

  Sungjong frowned at that, looking slightly confused. He's guessing the Dark Side of the man hadn't stepped foot into one, even though there was one in Incheon. White Side Sungjong must've heard of Chinatown....or had he? "I've never had something like that in Chinatown." 

  Jaebin shook his head in mock disappointment; he could feel himself starting to be more careless and loose around the other. "Lee Sungjong, King of Gemini, He Who Never Tasted a Youtiao in Chinatown. I'll need to bring you there sometime." 

   At that, there was an immediate dangerous flash across Sungjong's eyes. "We may be nearing dawn, but don't forget I'm still your superior, Lee Jaebin." 

  "You are also younger than me, so keep that in mind," He tossed back sarcastically. Knocking back a drink of tea as he had seen Minwoo so often do (and subsequently choking himself in the  process), Jaebin stood, yawned, and stretched, before striding out of the room. 

  "You're wasting your food," Sungjong noted, with a hint of irritation. "I'm just grabbing some papers from my room to accompany you and my breakfast, my King." Jaebin tossed a careless wave behind his shoulder, sticking a hand into his pocket. "Don't ever go to work, do you?" 

   The vampire looked back. Sungjong's eyes were definitely brown now, and were dancing with mischief, as he rested his cheek on the back of his left hand. At that, Jaebin raised an eyebrow. "Says you?" before walking out. 

   The chuckle at the end was worth the risk of getting his head sliced off, he thought as he closed the door behind him. 

  The first thing Jineul noticed when he woke up was the coldness and emptiness next to him on the bed. Well, not exactly empty. Purrincess was there, curled up on her plllow right in between theirs, but otherwise there was a considerable lack of Sungjong. 

   He found the lack of Sungjong mildly disappointing, but he could cope with it. The Gemini HQ wasn't even that big, contrary to popular belief. Jineul could easily resolve the lack of Sungjong with no problem. 

  Swinging out of bed, Jineul padded barefoot to the shower, dressed in nothing but one of Sungjong's dress shirts that brushed against his bare thighs. This he discarded with ease, before stepping into the shower and turning on a spray of warm water. Today was Wednesday, he reflected, somewhat absent-mindedly as he rubbed strawberry scented shampoo into his hair. Which meant he was due at the studio at eight, the office at one, and three at the coffee shop, except...

   Jineul vaguely remembered Celeste approaching him for something, but what, he forgot, which was strange. He rarely forgot things. No matter though, the woman would call him if it was urgent and he had a slip of mind. 

   A yawn escaped from his mouth and he nearly had a drink of strawberry-scented chemical-infused shower water. Spitting it out, he reflected on yesterday's - or rather, early today - events. Jineul remembered he was sitting one of the armchairs further away from the circle, and was busy not much attention to the discussion going on - in fact, he was busy polishing his battleaxe, making sure it caught the light every so often - until Sungjong spoke.  

   Sungjong speaking in itself wasn't a rarity, especially not to Jineul; he was the subject of many of his words, so his voice breaking through the indistinctive murmur of the room was just another burst of sunshine, at least to him. No, it was his tone; ever since Jineul had met him, he had never sounded so unnerved. Certainly not in front of him, and he would like to think that he knew everything about Sungjong.

   He was, the 'King' to his 'Queen', after all. (Thinking about it made him cringe for just a split second, but it quickly worn off) And anyways, he had been by Sungjong's side the longest. Thinking otherwise would be ridiculous. 

   Jineul didn't understand why Sungjong was so unnerved. He was, after all, the leader of this cursed organisation. He held the reins; he was in charge of everything, and Jineul was also pretty sure that Gemini wasn't a subject to the Seelie Court, or any Underworlder monarchy in general. What was he so nervous about, then? 

    Grabbing the red towel hanging next to the shower, Jineul dried himself and was prepared to dress himself when he caught sight of himself in the mirror. His face was losing its sharp edges, and his expression was softening. His eyes - Jineul closed his eyes, and took several deep breaths, trying to control his composure. A few moments later, he opened them, and they were mismatched again; one magenta, the other crimson - better than the boring default brown. 

  "Ji-Ji?" Even in his Dark form, and even though he had been with him for such a long time, Jineul found his heart still leaps a little whenever Sungjong calls him. It was mildly ridiculous, but also somewhat endearing. Knowing that his boyfriend would come into the bathroom when he saw he wasn't in bed, Jineul paid him no heed, and continued to dry his hair. 

 "You're up early," Jineul noted, before flinging it to some corner to be picked up for washing. Ignoring Sungjong's stare, he started picking at his pile of clothes, shrugging on a shirt and loosening its first few buttons, before yanking a pair of black pants up his legs. "Well?" He prompted. 

  "It's 6am now, Ji-Ji." Ji-Ji. Coupled with his softer voice, Jineul guessed Sungjong was in his White form, since he didn't call him Monarch. "Granted, it's early for normal people like me, so in a sense, yes, I'm up early." The teasing edge dissolved from his voice. "I couldn't sleep last night." 

  "You didn't wake me up." A note of accusation in his tone brought an apologetic smile to Sungjong's lips. "Nightmares?" 

  "No, just the normal whispers. You know why, Ji, don't pretend." Sungjong met his eyes and there was an underlying flash of blue beneath the brown. "The Seelie Court...isn't that happy with us wanting to 'borrow' the Glyph. It's no wonder, since it was one of their more prized possessions, but that's not the point." He paused. "It was stolen." 

  There was a brief silence in which Jineul was thinking, and was only broken by Purrincess' purring, and rubbing against Sungjong's pyajama bottoms. Almost absent-mindedly, the King picked her up and pet her in his arms. "What do you mean, stolen?" 

    "Apparently someone from within took it while Court was in session, so no one realised it was stolen until much later. When the Seelie agents made chase - " Sungjong leaned against the doorway to allow Jineul pass back into their bedroom, where he made for the low table with make-up products strewn all over. " - the thief was already halfway through the globe. The agents eventually caught him, but then there were suddenly reinforcements." Jineul picked up a brush, lightly dusting some colour back under his sleep-deprived eyes. "While the Seelie agents did manage to fight off the forces and retrieved the Glyph, most of them were massacred, and currently only one Seelie agent is guarding the Glyph. This is the agent who would be handing it over to us." 

  "And why did the Court decide to tell you?" Setting down his brush, Jineul took his eyeliner pencil and began to apply it with great precision, making sure he kept his mismatched eyes in sight. 

  "Good question." A quick flick of his wrest completed the cat tail, and he capped it again. "Probably to warn us how important the mission is?" 

   Jineul shrugged. With his look finished, he grabbed a leather jacket from the wardrobe, and followed Sungjong out of the room. "At any rate, I'm guessing the reason they decided to make the summit meeting our destination is so that the Wonderland people wouldn't be able to overpower us easily. Surely the human-infested organisation would think twice to let their precious secret out to those they're protecting."

   That was a good theory, except - 

  "How did Wonderland know where we're getting the Glyph?" He asked, so casually that Sungjong nearly missed it, and almost missed the corner. "You're sounding like it's almost certain that we would engage in battle with them." To ensure they were going the right way, Jineul sidestepped Sungjong, and walked ahead of him. 

   "Ji - " 

   "It's fine, you don't have to answer." Jineul wasn't looking for an answer anyways, as long as he was getting a good fight out of it, he's fine with it. They were almost near, and he was fighting hard to keep his white side in check; the excitement running through his blood wasn't as much as it would be. "You really don't." 

   He stopped in front of the door, and turned around to look at Sungjong. There was a sense of endearing confusion on his face, though Jineul wasn't quite sure what it stood for, and what he was thinking. His senses told him the sun was almost up, though with the lack of windows near the door he couldn't be sure. At any rate, he could feel his control slipping, and he couldn't think things through properly.

  Apparently Sungjong understood that without anything being said, and the confusion melted off his face. "Let's go, then."  

Okay hi uh...have some soft Gemini moments?? Mostly Jaebin and Jineul and Sungjong but just some soft Gemini moments??? Don't forget they're also people guys, just because they're the bad guys *subtle not subtle wink* 

Anyways I just wanted to write something so here is this domestic-leaned chapter after the fiasco that erupted within them since the first chapter. And the absence of Minwoo is so relaxing, don't you think? 

At any rate, if characterisation and the plot is all over the place I do apologize because I was doing some analysis yesterday and my big brain energy made me realise the potential^TM for this story and in other words there's gonna be some subtle twists and turnings to shape it into what I want :) As always

Also it's like...3:30pm here and I'm sleepy as send help