They eventually got the job done together, and Tao's suitcase was finally full. Sehun's was in the car, in the back apparently, though he hadn't known that. His phone was in there and everything, Jason went back to get it. Sehun had no idea how he;d managed to carry it out of the lab unseen.

The night time arrangements caused issues, as there weren't enough beds to accomadate everyone. Jason slept in his car, which Tao was glad of- better that than his mum trying to convince him to sleep in her bed. Sehun tried to find a way to sleep with Tao in his bed but the world was against him, and his mum made him sleep on the sofa for the night. Xiao-Xing later caught him trying to sneak back up to his boyfriend's room, and made a huge scene about how he must be trying to have with her brother. Which was not (entirely) true.

Truthfully, he just wanted to hold him, and it wasn't like they hadn’t fallen asleep together before.

It took him longer to fall asleep than usual, lying on Tao's couch which was just a little too short for his long body to be comfortable. In the dim light, he stared around the room at some of the photos on the mantlepiece; he hadn’t looked around that closely before, to busy paying attention to Tao. He was a cute kid.

He woke up to Luhan’s face hovering just inches above his, breath warm on his mouth,

“Good morning, honey,” he snorted; he found those kind of pet-names ridiculous. I shake my head and roll my eyes teasingly.

He leant down to kiss him but ended up with his face pressed into the cushion beside his head with an undignified squawk, courtesy of his sister who'd just kicked him in the back.

“I would rather not see my little brother kiss anyone, ever, especially not so early in the morning,” she left the room in revulsion, shutting the door firmly behind her. Shrugging, Tao sat back. They shared another less cheesy, and less interrupted, moment before he had to get up. Over breakfast, Jason briefed them on what was going to happen during the next few days.

Today he was going to drive them up to the ‘safe-house’, they would acclimatise (since he didn't know how long they would have to be there), after that they would spend time writing up exactly what happened with this Isla person, to file a victim account for court. With this and the evidence he'd found on Mr Evans’ computer that time, hopefully they would have a full scale scandal on their hands, and with any luck both of theculprits would be arrested for child abuse, or breach of human rights and probably a slew of other things.

In Isla’s case it could be attempted murder.

“What did you actually get off Mr Evans’ computer?” Sehun asked, unconvinced that it would be enough to get them.

“A lot of incriminating emails to Isla. I’m surprised it wasn’t under better security, honestly.”

A thought occured to him,

“Isn’t it illegal to have those? Surely they would just accuse you of either lying or faking it, or trespassing and stealing it?” He gave Sehun a sharp look,

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll handle all of the court material, you two just work on your witness accounts, deal?”

He narrowed his eyes at him, but nodded. He didn’t really trust him, but there wasn't much he could do either way. Tao’s arm subtly slid around his waist, unnoticeable to the others present, and he let himself relax a little. He finished his cereal quietly.

In the car later on, Tao's mum sat where Sehun was yesterday, and Tao was in between Sehun and his sister. They didn’t talk much, as there's not really much any of them can say. During the car journey, it started to rain, and the clouds followed them all the way to their destination. It was tipping it down when they had to unload all their luggage, so he got Tao to carry his for him, holding an umbrella over both of them.

“The umbrella is a two-handed job, and someone needs to keep us both dry.”

He quirked an eyebrow at him, but otherwise let him continue. It took several trips to get all of the suitcases inside anyway. Once all of the suitcase were safe and dry, cluttering up the entranceway, they called dibs on rooms. The place appeared to have been, at one point, a small, cheap hotel which Jason’s boss bought a long time ago for the exact purpose it was being used for now. Lot's of rooms to choose from.

Tao and Sehun headed up the side stairs to find a room, hands tangled together, but naturally they weren’t allowed to share a room in case they did things.As if thry'd do that here. No thank you, not for their first time. Gross. But they acquiesced anyway, and dragged their luggage painstakingly up the stairs, to the last and second last rooms which they'd chosen; as far away from everyone else as possible. Maybe this way he could sneak into his room at night.

They only had a few minutes to themselves before they were called to reconvene in the hotel lobby. Sehun grumbled, still thinking this was just everyone trying to keep them from being alone together. Well, Jason was not going to stop him; he s his arms around Tao's waist from behind, and pressed their cheeks together, while maintaining direct eye contact with Jason. Mission successful: he looked uncomfortable. So did Xiao-Xing, but more in a ‘get a room' kind of way.

Maybe Jason didn't like the fact that he was attached to someone, which meant that he had to bring him along too for safety's sake. He hoped he wasn't just homophobic. Tao seemed slightly confused, but not adverse to the unexpected skinship. 

“Right, well. You two know not to use your phones, yes?” they nodded in unison, both of them staring at him like he was an idiot. Unperterbed, he continued to list things we could and couldn’t do, most of which were fairly obvious, and then handed each of them a notepad and pen,

“That’s to start writing up your stories; you need to write about every incident you’ve felt threatened by them, or uncomfortable etc.” he looked pointedly at Sehun and Tao, “I need this done by this time tomorrow, so get on it.” He then turned and left them all in a state of confusion. Tao's mum frowned, and after a second followed him upstairs. He really hoped there wasn’t something developing there.

Tao's sister wandered off into the next room- he thought it was maybe the dining room or something- leaving them in the lobby alone. Together.

But before Sehun could get any ideas, Tao pulled away and leant over the front desk and starts scribbling his account of everything. Sehun deflated, but begrudgingly admitted that that was prbably a ore productive use of their time that what he had in mind. He joined him, writing out everything he could think of that might possibly help their case. They could fix it up tomorrow.

It got late enough that they needed to switch the lights on to see what they were writing, except that was on the list of 'prohibited things to do' so they headed to their separate bedrooms. Separately.

Sehun sat on his bed for about half an hour, playing a game on his phone because it was the only thing he could see, due to Jason's ridiculous rule. What use was leaving the lights off anyway? Grumbling to himself, he waited until he was certain nobody would hear him leaving his room. He tried to avoid the creaky floorboard he'd noticed earlier, as he sneaked into his boyfriend’s room. He was nearly asleep; Sehun perched on the edge of his bed. The sleeping beauty looked up at him blearily, and rubbed his face,

“Hmm, what?”

“Can I..?” He gestured, hoping he understood what he was trying to say, but no such luck, “May I sleep here? With you.” His eyebrows rose, but shuffled over to give him space to crawl under the duvet with him. Sehun composed his body so that he was curled around him.

"Do you think the court case is going to work?" Tao asked, throat scratchy. Sehun shrugged,

"I don't know. But I think it's the best chance we've got at getting out of....whatever this is,"

"Hmm," he sighed, "do you forgive your parents?"  Sehun was silent for a long while, thinking hard. He hadn't really considered that what his parents did needed to be forgiven, they'd always raised him with the love and care that was similar to what he saw on TV. Life was normal. He just had to do tests for them every so often, to check how he was doing. But looking back at it from a new perspective, he could see why what they did to him would be viewed as so wrong by others.

But he still loved them. But... he couldn't just let them back into his life so easily. No, even if they did apologise, that wouldn't be enough. He wouldn't be able to go back home with them after all this was over, he realised, he'd have to find somewhere else to live. Maybe with Tao, but that was unlikely.

"I don't know," was all he said,

"Well, I hope you don't end up hating them all your life, that would get tiring, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I guess so." He whispered.

Sehun was sure he saw a smile on his face before he close his eyes, but Sehun had difficulty falling asleep, even with Tao in his arms.