A/N: If anyone's still reading this, I'm impressed. 

“How’d you do?” Baekhyun asked, turning towards Kyungsoo.

“Pretty good,” he answered, slipping the math quiz into his binder. “You?”

Baekhyun shrugged. “Decent,” he replied, going on about the last question as Kyungsoo felt his eyes wander, taking in the rest of class’s reactions.

Junmyeon and Minseok were each doing their best to keep neutral expressions, though they had probably both gotten a hundred. Tao hadn’t even picked up his test from his desk, staring straight ahead. Jongdae had his head down, possibly asleep. Kris, as usual, looked stone faced- perhaps he was angry, but Kyungsoo really couldn’t tell.

But Jongin didn’t look happy. His face was crumpled, eyes skimming over the quiz in frenetic despair. At once Kyungsoo wanted to reach for him, but he was on the other side of the room.

 Kyungsoo wasn’t exactly surprised that this was the result- with the extra training the Guarders had been subjected to lately, studies had been thrown to the back burner. He’d done some review with Jongin last night, but just from that Kyungsoo had known that Jongin’s chances of performing well hadn’t been great.

Jongin put the quiz down. He raised his hand, asking to be excused for the bathroom, and then stood to leave, sweeping past Kyungsoo. The others hadn’t noticed, but Kyungsoo had caught Jongin’s expression, had seen the tightness in his shoulders.

He raised his hand too, and then rushed out of the room to catch up with his Guarder.

He called out Jongin’s name when they were safely in the hallways, and his Guarder slowed.

“I’ll be fine,” he murmured, not even bothering with a greeting. “I just need a second.”

“Jongin...” Kyungsoo started again, not wanting to leave, and Jongin turned to him, the picture of disappointment.

“Kyungsoo, really...” he started, but then met his gaze. They stared at one another for a moment, silent, and then at once Jongin grabbed him, pressing Kyungsoo into the wall for a kiss.

Kyungsoo responded without thinking, his hands immediately in his hair, letting Jongin take out his frustration with his tongue.

“Ahem.”

They both turned, Jongin practically jumping off of him.

Tao stood a few feet away, both hands in his pocket. He said nothing, only looking at them with an absolutely unreadable expression. A beat of silence. Then he turned, walking down the hallway the other way.

For a second they both just stood, hands outstretched.

Kyungsoo couldn’t breathe.

“Jongin, he can’t-” he choked out, grabbing for him in hysteria, but the Teleporter was already moving.

“I’ll deal with it,” Jongin answered him, squeezing his arm, and then he was off, running down the hallway. “Tao!” he called, and disappeared around the corner.

Kyungsoo was shaking. He pressed his fingers to his lips, closing his eyes. He didn’t know what else to do. So much for secrets.

-

Tao had slipped into a back hallway when he heard Jongin calling for him, because he didn’t really feel like speaking to anyone. He wasn’t sure why the Teleporter was going after him in the first place- it looked like he had business to finish up with Kyungsoo. It was rather rude to leave someone while you were kissing them.

The hall, which cut through the building directly into the training center, was supposed to be used only by staff. Tao didn’t care. He found he had gotten more bold in the past few weeks, his decisions much more cut and dry. Perhaps a result of his new training. It was nice to feel powerful again.

Tao was eager to get to the next session. No harm in cutting out a few minutes of walking.

He was just amusing himself with the image of Jongin realizing Tao had all but disappeared when there was a sound from the end of the hall. Instinctively Tao paused, slipping himself behind a stack of chairs.

The door connected to the training wing opened. There was the sound of laughter, of deep voices exchanging “yes, see you soon’s,” and then the clear, sharp ring of “Excellent, Mr. Lee. Truly excellent.”

Tao felt his chest tighten. He recognized that voice. But no, it couldn’t be- KAE students weren’t allowed in the training wing, it was a strict rule, and they had no business being there anyway.

He heard the footsteps taking the owner of the voice closer to him, and he shrunk back into the shadows, peering just barely around the stack of chairs.

It couldn’t be. But it was.

Kris’s stately frame strode past him, coming directly from the training wing, down the hallway that was only cleared for staff, with the principal Lee just behind him.

Tao swallowed, the pit of his stomach roiling. He felt the the metal joints of his hand squeal in protest when his grip tightened, the rush of visceral molten power in his veins stopped by the mechanical fingers.

Now this was something worth investigating.

-

Minseok had stayed after class to talk to the professor, concerned that the method he had used on one of the quiz questions had been marked wrong. He had still gotten the correct answer- which he had confirmed with Junmyeon- so it seemed hardly appropriate to take three marks off.

In the end it was a worthless conversation. A specific method had been asked for in the question, and Minseok had missed it. Stupid.

He’d been busy lately. He’d never had a problem juggling several responsibilities at once, but Mr. Lee had been asking a lot of him, asking for time that Minseok was slowly realizing he didn’t have. Perhaps he should have studied more for that quiz. A thought that he had never needed to think before.

When he was finished with the professor Minseok turned, expecting to see Luhan waiting for him at the door, but he was gone. Only Baekhyun, Jongdae, and Chanyeol remained, still talking about something or another that had nothing to do with Maths, clearly uninterested in anything but each other.

With no warning Minseok felt his chest tighten. It shouldn’t matter, really, that Luhan had left- but there was twenty minutes until the next class was to start and he had thought they would be spending it together. They had hardly had any free time with each other in the past few weeks.

Minseok wandered out into the hallway by himself, fingers still leafing through the quiz, when he heard Luhan’s voice way down the corridor.

He felt a wash of relief, and turned to call out to him, but then felt himself freeze.

Luhan was sitting with Sehun on the high-backed chairs, a seat that was just unusually large enough that perhaps it could be called a love seat. Sehun had his long limbs sprawled out, his arms spreading across the back of the chair, reaching for the armrest on the other side, and his knees were splayed wide. His head was tilted upward to the Telepathic’s face. Luhan, as always, was sitting with perfect posture, his shoulder blades just barely leaning into Sehun’s outstretched arm. Neither of them had seen him.

Before he could form a thought Minseok had already turned and was walking the other way. The tightening in his chest had come back, squeezing out heavy breaths, forcing his feet to quicken into almost a run.

-

“Tao!”

Tao sighed. His head ached. He turned to Jongin without speaking, hands tightening to fists in his pockets.  The Teleporter stood a few feet from him, flushed from exertion, breathing out in light pants.

“What?” he asked, genuinely confused at Jongin’s distraught expression.

“Tao, please,” Jongin started, his words a tumbled rush. “You can’t tell anyone what you saw, please-”

For a moment Tao was alarmed, remembering Kris exiting from the training center, the secrecy of his movements, and he was confused as to how Jongin had known he had seen that-but that he saw the Teleporter’s swollen lips. Right. Kyungsoo. He had been so distracted by the Kris situation he had already forgotten.

At least ten minutes had already passed. Was Jongin really so worked up that he had bothered to chase down Tao all the way to the training wing?

One glance at the Teleporter answered that question. Tao eyed him, taking in the sweat on his brow, the delirium in his expression.

Interesting.

“What do you mean?” he asked, tone neutral.

“Tao,” Jongin exhaled. “You know what I mean.”

Tao raised an eyebrow. He almost pressed it-almost asked why he cared so damned much- and then stopped himself.

It didn’t matter why. What mattered was that Jongin was in front of him now, a mess, scared out of his wits, practically begging, and-

And Tao had leverage.

At once his mind was racing. He thought again of Kris, of the confidence in his retreating form from the one place he wasn’t supposed to be. He thought of his hand, of the damned Cuff- and of the Key. He straightened, feeling the buzz of heat beginning from his metal-encased fingers. “Alright,” he said.

“Alright?” Jongin asked, his whole face rising.

“Alright,” Tao repeated.

“Oh, thank you Tao, really, it means a bunch-”

“-as long as you can do me a small favour,” Tao cut him off, keeping his tone cool.

Jongin stopped. His eyebrows knit together, rising. “I’m sorry?”

“I need your help with something,” he said, swallowing back his excitement.

The Teleporter had glanced away, his chest heaving as he considered. “Okay,” he said, after another deep breath. “With what?”

“There’s a white box on the table of training tools in the battle simulation room. About this big,” Tao said smoothly, motioning the size with his hands. “I need you to get it for me.”

“...What?”

“That’s all I need,” Tao shrugged.

Jongin was shaking his head, white locks going wild with his frenzy. “You’re crazy. That’s in high security. There’s no way I’m going in there, absolutely no-”

“I guess Mr. Lee would be thrilled to hear about your new boyfriend, then,” Tao cut in once more, folding his arms around his chest.

Jongin went silent.

Tao almost felt bad, but it didn’t matter. There was something else going on more important that Kyungsoo and Jongin banging, and he had the Teleporter at his mercy. He wasn’t going to waste that advantage.

“Tao, is there anything else I could do-”

“No.”

Jongin was visibly shaking. But Tao knew he would agree. He had chased him into the training wing.

“I’m going to get detention for this,” Jongin said softly, meeting Tao’s eyes. “You are too. For weeks. Maybe more.”

“I know,” Tao said. “I don’t care.”

Jongin was staring at him now, anxiety crawling across his expression. “What’s in the box, Tao?”

Tao almost grinned. “It doesn’t matter. If they ask you can tell them you didn’t know.”

The Teleporter shut his eyes. “You would really tell the principal-”

“Yes.”

Silence.

Tao could see Jongin’s fists squeezing. “When do you need it by?” he finally asked, barely restrained anger lilting his voice.

A true smile broke out across Tao’s face. “As soon as possible,” he said smoothly. “Tomorrow. Before Maths.”

Another moment of consideration.“You meet me in the west halls, ten minutes before class,” Jongin said quietly, forcing it all out with one breath.

Tao nodded.

“You can’t be late. I’ll give it to you and then I’m getting out of there.”

Tao nodded once more. “Sounds like a deal,” he said, sticking out his hand. His good one. For a moment Jongin hesitated, but then reached out, and they shook once, firmly.

“You won’t say a word,” Jongin hissed fiercely.

“Of course not,” Tao grinned. Jongin stepped away, his posture defeated. “Pleasure doing business with you,” Tao said. His metal joints flexed in his pocket.