His world, it seems, will forever be plagued by nightmares.

It starts with the blind darkness that comes so often to Sehun in his sleep. He weakly claws his way through the black, his head aching with who? Who dies this time? His legs moved through the air, thick as jelly. At last, he reaches light, and with it comes a pounding sound from behind. Someone coming after him. He scrambles to get his feet moving again.

Him. It's him this time.

He can't help but be relieved it's not someone else.

The sound of a gunshot. Another.

Run, he tells his body. Why won't you run?

Another gunshot, closer this time. Behind him, he hears a whistling sound, getting louder and louder with every second. 

A sting in his back as the bullet strikes home. His last thought is, why am I always running?

He awakens to the sound of a hammer repeatedly slamming down. It's coming for me, he thinks, it's coming.

Tao jumps back from the counter, the chair crashing to the ground with a loud bang. He has half a second to think about this.

Yi Xing glances up. Tenth of a second.

As if stuck in slow motion, he comes to a stand. No seconds.

Tao throws his left leg into the air, aiming for the head and neck. Vitals. He has to hit the vitals. Yi Xing responds with instinct, forearm flying up to block, his face an unchanging mask of indifference. Their eyes meet in that moment, fire and ice trapped in the rings of their irises.

Fastest in his class.

Tao's leg swings back and out goes a fist, his teeth gritted in concentration. Yi Xing ducks his head.

Training is one thing. Experience is another. He's a little rusty on the latter.

Yi Xing's moves are sharp and precise. Block. Block. Duck. Tao hits anywhere but where he had aimed.

Fastest in his class but-

His third kick lands on Yi Xing's side, a solid blow to the waist. It leaves a satisfyingly heavy feeling against Tao's foot.

But not the strongest.

Yi Xing staggers, trying to regain his balance. He's quick on his feet, oh everyone had known that, but recovery takes time. Tao takes the opportunity to kick again, knocking Yi Xing to the ground. 

The tiniest drop of blood finds its way out of Yi Xing's lip. He wipes it off quickly, eyes narrowed as he stares at Tao standing over him.

"Sorry, Yi Xing," Tao says before grabbing the boy's head with one hand and shoving it down on the floor. There are no words to describe the sickening moan Yi Xing lets out before the lights dim for him.

Despite the doubtful fact that Yi Xing is now somewhere between this world and the beyond, Tao knows he might not have as much time as he'd like. If Yi Xing is still under Yi Fan, then who knows who else could be too?

He dashes to Sehun's room and knocks on his door, his knuckles hitting the wood again and again and again. It sounds like a woodpecker's pecking, almost a drone-like thrumming. "Sehun!" He can't call out desperately enough. "Sehun, open up!"

It's a thousand years, two thousand, three thousand, before Sehun finally opens the door, a blanket draped around his shoulders. He rubs his eyes before smiling at Tao, fatigue masking his face. "Tired?"

"Exhausted," Tao answers briskly. "You have no idea. Sehun, we--"

"What?" The fatigue is replaced with alarm.

"We have to leave. Now." 

"Tao, why?" Why are we always running? He wants to ask. The question sends shudders of deja vu down his spine.

"He's working with him, Sehun. We have to leave."

"Working with who?" The words are jerked out of his mouth as he is dragged away by the wrist. Tao's hold is, as ever, painfully tight. The blanket falls from his body. "Who's behind all this?"

Tao pauses, his eyes wild. "I thought... I thought you knew."

Sehun shakes his head. "No. No, I knew the...the...the goal."

Tao keeps running, Sehun falling behind before being pulled along. "Yi Fan," Tao tells him. "It was -- it is -- Yi Fan."

"It can't be..." But the words are thrown back by the wind against his face as Tao yanks the front door open and a blast of cold air slaps them. With every step out the door, Sehun feels more and more bare. The light jacket he has on is nothing against this temperature. He involuntarily shivers, the trembling reaching to his fingertips, making Tao glance back at him. He's suddenly wrenched forward until he's level with Tao, who wraps an arm around his shoulders. 

Running side by side is rather awkward, but they make do.

Tao navigates the both of them out of the eerily quiet neighborhood. He continuously glances back, expecting Yi Xing to be charging at them with a gun, madness painted across his face.

But no Yi Xing is there. And again, no Yi Xing is there. With every check and lack of appearance, his heart rate beats a notch slower. They're okay. They're okay.

Sehun takes peeks up at Tao, nervous shifts of his eye, at the sharp concentration the boy houses in that lip bite of his. He can't imagine the mental, emotional, and physical stress Tao must be withholding to seem strong to Sehun.

How much has Tao been holding back from him?

He is overflowing with questions today. Everything is why? Why can't things go right for once?

Tao's breath beside him quickens. The push of Tao's arm around him strengthens and he stumbles to keep up. Why the sudden rush?

He looks behind them, the air coming out of his mouth as puffs of mist, wafts of white frost.

A mess of dark hair swept to a side, pale skin, the look of surreal calm. His expensive shoes loud against the concrete. His suit jacket flying behind him in the breeze. 

Yi Xing. He's there. Behind them.

He's coming.

Meters behind, and yet Sehun can still hear the click of the gun being aimed.

Fear, terror, panic.

He grips Tao's shirt in his hand until his knuckles turn white. I'm going to die.

Tao feels Sehun's hand clutching at his clothing in an almost needy way, the firm hold earthing him to the ground. Tao rips his hand off from the cloth and takes Sehun's in his own; he needs something to hold on to himself.

A dozen years of training, and not once has he ever outrun Yi Xing in a race. He had thought there would be more time than this. More time! That's all he needs.

Oh God. Is this it?

"Sehun, can you make it?" Tao has his doubts about himself, but with another boy too? He loves Sehun, more than he knows, yet this isn't helping his situation one bit.

A feeble nod. It's not much, but it's present.

The deafening quiet of the winter air is maddening. All they can hear is their own feet colliding with the ground, and then--

Then there's a loud bang, and something whizzes past his ear, mere inches away. 

. He has a gun with him.

"Sehun, duck your head down," Tao orders him. It would be best if Yi Xing couldn't hit their heads at the very least.

"Huang Zi Tao, stop!" 

That voice used to be the one to wake him up on time for training so he wouldn't get beat.

"I swear to ing god, Zi Tao, stop or else--!"

The one that gave him consolation when he was covered in bruises from head to toe.

"--I'll ing kill you both!" 

The one who he called...a friend?

He hadn't wanted to touch it ever again, but he didn't have a choice. From the back pocket of Tao's jacket, he whips out his own shotgun and fires.

The gun's in the back. He remembers those words, that voice. But this gun is his now.

The bullet misses by a long shot. Distress. Relief.

Could he bear the guilt?

He fires again.

Yes, he could.

"Tao, look." Sehun sounds shaky. Tao spares the second to glance at where the younger is pointing his shaking index finger. There's a crowd of people far, far up ahead, some of them staring in their direction. Probably from the echoes of the gunshots. Behind the crowd, a stairway down. 

"Tao, is that...?" 

Tao knows Yi Xing can't afford using the gun here. Not when they're no longer in the dead silence of his neighborhood. No, they're much closer to civilization now. Scatters of people, so close to the city.

"Subway entrance," Tao finishes for him.

A last hope.

Hundreds of people all stuffed into the underground, where crime could go undetected. It's either a one-way ticket to freedom or a stairway down to hell.

He has to take their chances.

A woman stares at them as they run by in their thin rags of clothes. Sehun mutters an apology to the few people they manage to crash into as they make their escape, but his voice goes unheard. They dive further and further into the sea of people, praying that it's enough to block them from Yi Xing's line of sight.

Tao takes a tentative look back. Just to check, he tells himself. Not paranoia, no, just to check.

Yi Xing is just breaching the barrier of the crowd of people, shoving past grown men with suitcases and teenagers carrying backpacks. Tao's heart beat quickens, and he can feel Sehun's too.

Faster, faster, faster. They have to go faster.

Their feet stutter down the stairs, both of them in only half the mindset to not trip. If they fall down the staircase, they fall. At least then they would make it down.

They have to fight against the wall of citizens climbing their way out of the station. It seems ages before they finally make it to the underground level. Tao already has Sehun's wallet out, flipping through the plastic cards kept to one side.

"Third pocket, very back," Sehun tells him.

Tao finds the subway card and keys them both in, running together through the bars. As they make it across, the most frightening sight of all is seeing Yi Xing with his own card out, already reaching the gate. Never before has such a sight sent shivers down his spine as this man getting ever closer to them with the simplest of methods.

Is it cruel to use innocent, passing persons as a shield against someone who wants to kill both you and the person you love? Tao decides he'll have to reflect on it later. For now, he continues shoving people behind him, perhaps not as roughly as he'd like to.

Usually, it's heart versus mind. For him, it's heart versus heart. The innocent lives or the boy he loves?

It's no hard choice.

"Sehun, go in front of me." He demands, promptly pushing Sehun to running in front of his body instead of next to.

Sehun doesn't know how to object.

There are voices everywhere, shouting to be heard over the others. It's a thunderous noise, but the sound of Tao's own heart is louder. 

He feels a hand brush against his shoulder and he jumps. A man apologizes before walking away, waving to some relative, and Tao relaxes the slightest bit. Yi Xing is still meters away.

An announcement rings across the station. Hello everyone. The last train of the day is about to depart. I repeat, the last train of the night is about to depart. Subway lines will open again in five hours and thirty-two minutes. Once again, the last subway line is about to depart.

Tao presses onward through the buzz. He's already reached the platform. The doors, they're so close. He reaches out and his fingers just barely catch onto the edge of the sliding door, already beginning to close. Sehun catches on and boards as quickly as he can with Tao right behind him. As his foot touches the floor of the subway train, the door shuts behind him with a hiss. 

Tao turns to look, not letting relief hit him yet. The second he turns, there's a bang against the glass as Yi Xing's fist knocks against it. The man is yelling something, the cool lost from his demeanor, but he can't be heard over the threshold. 

The subway starts moving around them, slowly gaining speed. Yi Xing disappears in the distance, a dark silhouette against the pale fluorescent lighting of the dirty platform.

Safe. They're safe.

Sehun collapses against Tao, a dry sob wracking against his body. There are people staring (a kind grandmother even offers him a tissue, to which he politely refuses it), but he doesn't care.

Safe. The only word that comes to mind. Safe.

Tao holds Sehun tight, squeezing the life out of him but simultaneously trying to bring him back.

"We're okay," he sighs into Sehun's ear. "We're okay."

The sigh the man on the other line lets out is not what he wants to hear, not the reaction he'd wanted to get out of him.

"Yi Xing, I'm disappointed. You were truly one of the best I had."

Yi Xing grimaces, biting the inside of his cheek. He'd wanted praise. He'd wanted affection. He'd wanted acceptance. "I'm sorry, Yi Fan, I really am. Please, please, give me another chance," He begs. "I can accomplish this. Please."

"You really were magnificent. It's all too bad."

Yi Xing leans heavily against the walls of the platform, now empty after the last departure. He feels himself heave in a tortured breath, his chest desolate, vacant, hollow. "I'll chase them down. No matter what. Yi Fan, you know I will."

Another sigh. "I wish I did, Yi Xing. I wish I did."

"No, please! I can do it! You believed in me, I know you did," his voice lowers. "I can keep going. I can. I will end them." His promises aren't empty. Yi Fan has to believe him, he has to. 

"I have to go, Yi Xing. There are others to do this job. Perhaps more qualified than you were."

Before the man can hang up and leave him with the shattered remains of his fragile heart, Yi Xing yells into the cellphone, "But Yi Fan, wait! Please, give me another chance. I can- I can do you proud. I... I love you. I always have."

Is that a chuckle he hears? "It was a good run, Yi Xing."

The line goes dead.

Yi Xing crumples to the ground, trying to fold into his own body. Disappear to dust. Ashes. Blown away by the wind.

Can he die now? He'd like to die now.

It was a good run.

"But I love you."

More qualified than you were.

"But I always have."

The sound of that deep sigh.

He shouts out to the empty underworld, anger bleeding into his voice, "I loved you."

Tears don't come. They never have.

He's being melodramatic. He knows. It's always been a part of his persona. "I love you, I love you, I love you." He says to the floor. Time and time again he is thrown away and brought back. "Use me again, you bastard." Why does he even try? "Anything. Anything at all."

He is reduced to whimpers. "Use me up. Need me again, and use me, please." He hides his face in his hands. Shielding himself from any more reality. "Anything. I don't care; I never cared. Just need me again." He rubs his eyes raw.

Bitter. "It was always him."

Tao sees his chance when a high school couple gets off at the first stop. He guides Sehun over to the open seats, letting the other boy rest his head against his shoulder. There's a red ring around Sehun's eyes, but he hadn't spilled any tears during his quiet crying.

"Where are we going?" Sehun asks him, fingers prying at and clinging to Tao's upper arm. Tao feels like he'd been asked that so many times in the last twenty-four hours. The answer, he knows, is never easy to find.

"City. The inner city. We will find a place to stay." Tao tries to remain somewhat businesslike, all the while snaking his arm around Sehun's back to keep him close. Tao flips through Sehun's wallet with his other hand, mindlessly checking their balance. "You don't have enough cash. Do you mind if we use your card?"

"For what?"

"A hotel."

Despite the tense situation, Sehun finds himself blushing. "A...a hotel? For the night?" His imagination runs wild, only making him redden deeper.

Tao gives him a weird look. Does he have no sense of embarrassment or is his social processing skills still lacking? Sehun ponders on this. "Of course," Tao says in an obvious way. "It's a last resort scenario. We can't go to anyone we know, it's too easy to track. Going to the people closest to us is... a death wish. For you and them." 

Hello everyone, the muffled sound of the machine announcement startles them. A woman's voice tells them, This is the last stop of the night. Everyone must get off at the next stop. I repeat, this is the last stop of the night. Thank you. Have a safe night.

The subway train comes to a bumpy stop and Tao beckons Sehun to stand. 

"We'll blend in," he tells Sehun.

"Because we look like a young couple on a date night?" Sehun says softly, trying to lighten things up a little. Secretly, he can't believe he himself had said that.

Tao had wanted to say because there's a large crowd, but he likes Sehun's explanation a lot better. Much better. He wraps his arm around Sehun's shoulders casually, feeling both a little out of place and very comfortable with the position. He pecks Sehun's forehead, leaving a warm mark on cold skin.

"Yes. I rather think we do."

Strolling out into the city together is a beautiful sight. Building lights sparkling in the night air, the sounds of street stalls and people chatting on sidewalks and music blasting from the small shops. The smells of grilling meat and light alcohol. This is the inner city, a place that never sleeps.

"Is it okay to be out in the open like this now?" Sehun asks. He keeps his voice quiet, still afraid. Still worried.

"No," Tao answers honestly. "But we can spare it." Another kiss on the forehead.

"Tao?"

"Yes?"

"Are we going to be okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are we," Sehun gulps. "Are we going to make it?"

Tao nods. "Yes. Of course."

Sehun can feel it. Tao can feel it. The blank pages behind those cover words.

Sehun tilts his head up to kiss Tao's lips, who presses back in an almost starved way. Love? Had he been wrong? When will he ever get this again?

In the touch, Sehun remembers the wish he had. Back when they were happy. Back when they were simple. One day after their first shopping trip together, he'd hoped, he would hear Tao look down and say--

"I remember when you bought those shoes," Tao points down and smiles.

Sehun can feel tears coming. He pulls Tao in for another kiss. Just one more for today, he tells himself, though he knows it's not true. "Me too."

A/N Hi everyone! ;; Ah Kris, I didn't mean to make you the bad guy... I ... we'll miss you. 

Their concert was amazing! >w< all those videos ahhh... i was jealous... (but proud)

Thank you so much, everyone, for all the support and votes and comments and subscriptions wowowoowowowowow <3 I love you guys~ I can't believe it's almost over ;u; 

Ah~ is it time to promote Club EXOrcist? I'll be starting that fic after Metal ends! I've posted an introductory chapter and i'm looking forward to it :* chu~

HERE HAVE SOME TOPLESS SEHUN TO GO WITH THE FIRST GIF