It was never so much about lack of loyalty to one another, so much as they new the other could hold their own. At least that’s how Baekhyun interprets it. Its one thing to leave your man behind in the middle of war - its another thing completely to trust him to come back to you safe and sound.

Maybe that’s why he’s so secretly happy when he helps throw a resisting Kai into Yixing’s frantic arms. He’d seen the healer turn pale when the lab had exploded behind them in the distance. Yixing was a pro, as good as it got in the face of anarchy, but in that moment he’d looked like a piece of him died. On the off chance that Kai hadn’t been able to teleport out, there was no way of bringing him back. Not after an explosion like the one Chanyeol was capable of. Yixing had limits, and one of those was that you had to have remains in order for him to bring you back to life.

Baekhyun had wanted to say something comforting then, a hurried ‘I’m sure he’s fine hyung’ would have escaped had they not all been tackled by soldiers.

They’d been waiting for them. They’d known. Kyungsoo had calculated they might now about their coming back to the lab after their escape a week ago. He’d said they would count on them coming back to eradicate all future samples of what tortured them. There was literally only a 5% chance soldiers wouldn’t be on the scene. Less than 1% said they would keep them alive in detainment.

Kill or be killed.

After all those years of torture at the hands of tests, injections, and harsh experiments - they were still classified as less than human. After watching an exhausted Yixing hold onto a battered Kai as they slept peacefully for the first time away from that lab, it was hard to believe anyone would think they weren’t human. They were all different, sure. Normal humans didn’t cause 20ft waves of water and ice, but that didn’t make them hurt less. It didn’t justify making Kai stay awake for days on end waiting for those 'scientists’ to bring Yixing back to their room unharmed after their 'test’. It didn’t make it alright to make Kai watch as they the life out of his healer, only to study how he was able to bring himself back to life. They had no way of proving Yixing would always come back. And neither did Kai.

When they’d escaped, he was sure he’d herd someone shout 'the rats are escaping!’
Up till the end, they were just the lucky ones. Code name: EXODUS. subjects to study and poke how ever they pleased. Who was the real monster? Because it certainly wasn’t any of them. Not Chen, not Xiumin, not Chanyeol. None of them. Especially not the couple now safe in the back of the van. They’d been through so much together. To have that level of trust, to know that even if they were separated, that the other would be okay. That the other would always come back. Baekhyun didn’t know if he’d ever be able to say that about Chanyeol and himself. It wasn’t about love, or how much they loved, it was more about hurt. How much hurt they’d been through to not want to find a way to go back to the one thing that felt real. Themselves.

After their fight with the soldiers (one that kyungsoo had sort of ended with a wave of the hand and some dirt) they’d been split up and that was how they’d been caught and rounded up into the van. Baekhyun had managed to kill the soldier who’d grabbed him and switched their clothes. He posed as one of them, the van driver luckily, and was able to find Kai alive because of it. He’d watched Yixing hurriedly try to help lessen the impact of Kai being thrown into the van by catching him. He’d watched as Kai had quickly pecked Yixing on the cheek, too weak to voice out how thankful he was that he was okay.

But he’d herd what Yixing had whispered back.

It was always about trust. And a need. A need to believe that the other would always be okay. When Baekhyun drove them away to safety, opening the doors only after the cost was clear, the thing that stuck with him the most was watching their healer tell his soul mate, “you kept your promise. You came back.”

AN: HIIIIIII~ sorry I have been on hiatus. It's been an interesting couple months. Some of you know I'm a dancer, and guess what? I was scouted by a talent agency! I'm waiting on them to get back to me about a contract or job:) Hopefully I'll be writing more now!

Here's a little drabble for you.