“Hey,” Hakyeon smiled, taking the empty seat across from Sanghyuk.

“Hey,” Sanghyuk smiled back, looking up from his lunch, “what’s up?”

“Not much,” Hakyeon shrugged, silently trying to work up the courage to ask Sanghyuk what he’d been wanting to ask him for weeks now.

He figured he was going to get turned down, but he had to ask anyway. If not for the closure of it, then so Taekwoon would get off his back. And he knew he was getting turned down because why would Sanghyuk ever look at him the way he looked at Sanghyuk. Sanghyuk was amazing and talented and special and gorgeous. Hakyeon was just Hakyeon.

“Seems like there’s something big up,” Sanghyuk remarked, looking Hakyeon over carefully, “are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Hakyeon tried to smile, “I just…..how do you always know what I’m thinking?”

“It’s a gift,” Sanghyuk laughed, “but seriously? You’re pretty easy for me to read. So tell me what’s up.”

“I was wondering,” Hakyeon started to ask, but before he could finish his question Taekwoon entered the room saying that the team needed to go. There was something happening in Russia and Overwatch was needed.

“We’ll talk about this later,” Sanghyuk promised before rushing off to get his armor and weapons.

“Yeah,” Hakyeon sighed sadly, “later.”

--

Later turned out to be two days later when Hakyeon woke up from a pretty bad blow to the head. He wasn’t exactly sure how it happened. He’d been standing one moment, giving orders via his ear piece, and a split second later he heard a nearby building blowing up and felt something smashing into his head. He hadn’t been aware of any explosives near him, Wonsik’s scans sure hadn’t detected anything, and there wasn’t any enemies close to him with a weapon that could do damage like that.

“Hey,” Sanghyuk’s smiling face suddenly filled his vision, “you’re awake.”

“I kind of wish I was still sleeping,” Hakyeon sighed, closing his eyes in the hope that it would make his headache hurt less, “my head is killing me.”

“That’s kind of a side effect of getting hit by pieces of building,” Sanghyuk chuckled, “just be happy that’s the only side effect you’re going to feel.”

“I am,” Hakyeon hummed, “it could have been way worse, right?”

“Yeah,” Sanghyuk nodded, smile dropping, “way worse. You’re lucky Hongbin was nearby, he fixed you up as best he could.”

“I’ll have to thank him when I next see him,” Hakyeon glanced around, “where is he by the way?”

“Off trying to talk Wonsik into building him some kind of flight device,” Sanghyuk explained, “something that will get him around the battle field faster. He’s wondering if it should also have some kind of rocket firing ability, too.”

“Why rockets?” Hakyeon questioned, not feeling all that comfortable with the idea of Hongbin flying around with a rocket launcher.

“He needs some kind of defense,” Sanghyuk laughed, “so why not rockets? They do some pretty good damage. Should be enough to buy him time to fix up someone on the front lines before dropping back.”

“Fine,” Hakyeon sighed, “but the image of Hongbin firing rockets?”

“I’ve always said that he’s an angelic demon,” Sanghyuk smirked, “now everyone will see why.”

“Why is my team full of crazy people?” Hakyeon muttered under his breath. Sanghyuk still heard him, but decided to ignore it for now.

“Oh!” Sanghyuk suddenly remembered his conversation with Hakyeon from before the mission, “You were going to ask me something.”

“Huh?”

“Before the mission,” Sanghyuk rolled his eyes, “you said you were wondering about something, but then Taekwoon came in to tell us about the missions before you could finish. So….what did you want to ask?”

“I was wondering if you’d go out to dinner with me,” Hakyeon said, only realizing what he had said after he’d spoken. It was far too late to take it back and he couldn’t play it off as a joke, so now he had to subject himself to Sanghyuk’s probable rejection. Maybe he’d been ready for it a couple days before, but he sure wasn’t ready anymore.

“I’d like that,” was Sanghyuk’s unexpected reply complete with blush and nervous babbling, “you mean like a date thought, right? Because I think that’s how you meant it. Not that I’d change my answer either way, it’s just that I’d really like to go out on a date with you and…….and now I’m just rambling, aren’t I?”

“Little bit,” Hakyeon smiled softly, reaching over to take Sanghyuk’s hand, “but it’s cute. I like that I turned you into a nervous mess by asking you out. Normally you’re making me the nervous one.”

“Trust me,” Sanghyuk returned the smile, “I’m like this a lot when it comes to you. I just hide it under a mask of cool.”

“Don’t hide it,” Hakyeon said, “I don’t want you to hide anything from me.”

“Then I ask the same from you,” Sanghyuk replied, “not that you can. Like I’ve told you before, you’re kind of an open book to me.”

A/N: this was a fun one to write. OH! And there’s a list in the foreword of all of these themes in order according to time line now.