A/N: Sorry this took so long.

When Tao didn’t come back in time for curfew it only added to Sehun’s itching anxiety. Already he had spent the last hour making zero headway on any of his Maths. He was exuberantly frustrated.

Of course, Sehun was irritated for another reason too.

He had told himself that by now he would know more about the Telepath, but he had barely seen Jongin the past few days, not to mention Luhan himself. The week had been painfully slow without the distraction of a pretty face, and his homework was multiplying by the hour. And then on top of it all Tao failed to show. Sehun sighed, and then got up and went downstairs.

He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, and he knew he wasn’t allowed to be out of his dorm, but it was a Friday, so he sure that even if he got caught the supervisors would let him off easy. Besides, he couldn’t sit in his room alone and do nothing for a second more. So he padded down the stairs as silent as he could, imagining that he was meeting Luhan in some sort of midnight rendez-vous.

Baekhyun had always told him that he had a “pretty boy” problem. Sehun always laughed at this, because out of all people Baekhyun was surely not the one to judge him, but he also knew that there was a bit of truth in his words. Sehun liked having a conquest. The more unattainable they were, the more desirable. It was an ongoing cycle with him- as soon as he managed to catch one boy it was on to the next.

It seemed nothing had changed, even at the Academy.

But it infuriated Sehun because he had made zero progress with Luhan. To be fair, the first month he hadn’t actually been trying, but now over a week had passed since Sehun had set his sights on him, and absolutely nothing had happened. Instead he was wandering around the school late at night by himself, painfully aware of how alone he was despite his imaginings.

He made his way into the cafeteria, intending to see if there was any hot water left for tea. He didn’t dare turn on the lights, instead feeling his way across the wall to the machine, when he crashed right into someone’s shoulder.

“Sehun?” Jongin’s voice asked through the dark.

“Jongin?” Sehun asked back automatically.

“What are you doing down here?”

“What are you doing down here?”

He heard Jongin grappling the wall and the lights burst to life.

“Ow!” Sehun hissed, covering his eyes, and Jongin flipped the switch again, dimming them ever so slightly. He didn’t answer Sehun’s question, instead leaning back against the cafeteria wall with a sigh.

Sehun peeked at him from between his fingers, struck by his apparent exhaustion, and frowned. Jongin’s white hair created a ghoulish halo about his pale face, his eyes red. His face was blank.

“Are you okay?” Sehun asked after a moment. Jongin’s eyes shifted to meet his, silent. Sehun bit his lip, a strong feeling overcoming him that he was witnessing something very personal. He hadn’t seen Jongin so raw before, tie askew and misery written up and down his expression. “Want to sit?” he asked the Teleporter, motioning to the dimly illuminated cafeteria chairs.

Jongin shook his head. “I should go to bed,” he said in a faint voice. His eyes darted this way and that. “I told him to go to bed.”

“Who?” Sehun asked.

“Luhan,” Jongin answered, still not meeting his gaze, and Sehun felt his breath catch in his throat. “They kept him late for training again...and we told him he should go to bed.”

“What do you mean?” Sehun asked, swallowing dry. His senses came alive with a buzzing excitement. “Is he alright?”

“I don’t know,” Jongin answered, and a troubled look passed over his face. “I don’t know. I hope he is. But I don’t know.” His eyes slid to meet Sehun’s. “I shouldn’t be talking to you,” he said after a moment. “We should go to bed. Goodnight, Sehun.” He moved to turn the last of the lights off, but Sehun caught his hand.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” he demanded. “Where is he? Where’s Luhan?”

Jongin shook his head. “I have to go. We’re not supposed to be up right now.”

“No one’s caught us yet,” Sehun said, suddenly desperate for more information. All he could think about was Luhan, how his lovely face might be in trouble. “Come on Jongin, just tell me what’s going on. It’s a Friday night. We’re not going to get in trouble for being downstairs a little past nine. It’s a dumb rule anyway.”

“It’s not a good idea to break the rules around here,” Jongin snapped, and he tugged his arm from Sehun’s grasp. Without warning his eyes grew clear, anger flooding his face. “One look at Tao should tell you that.”

Sehun stepped away, momentarily shocked into silence. “What?”

“Why do you think he has that Cuff? It’s not just a precaution, it’s a punishment. The Academy doesn’t just do things like that to you, no matter how powerful you are. You earn it.”

When he saw Sehun’s expression his eyes softened. “I’m going to bed, Sehun. Goodnight.”

He flipped the lights off and in a moment was gone, footsteps fading down the hallway. Sehun stood in the dark, confused and excited and angry all at once.

-

A shout of his name awakened Tao. He blinked his eyes slowly open, the white ceiling coming into soft focus above his head.

“Tao,” Sehun said again, his voice impatient. “Are you awake?”

“I am now,” Tao answered him dryly, and unfolded his hands from his stomach. He had been so exhausted from training that he had fallen asleep in his full uniform, and the stiff fabric protested as he sat up. “What’s going on? Are we all going out for dinner again?”

“No,” Sehun said, fidgeting by the door. “It’s only four thirty.”

“Then why did you wake me up?” Tao grumbled, setting his head back on the pillow. The Saturday was almost gone anyway, it couldn’t hurt to sleep through the rest of it.

“Because,” Sehun snapped, his impatience giving way to excitement. “I need to talk to you. About last night.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone you left after curfew,” Tao said, rolling his eyes. He had arrived last night expecting to find Sehun fast asleep, but his bed had been in fact empty. While this was irritating, Tao had been too tired from the day’s events to care. He had reached his limits of worrying, and after hearing Luhan’s screams, concerns over an empty bed paled in comparison.

“Thanks,” Sehun said, although to Tao he didn’t sound thankful at all. “But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. I want to know what’s going on with Luhan.”

Tao paused, his head hovering above his covers. How did he even know? The Guarder had sludged through the day attempting to forget last night’s ordeal, and the last thing he wanted to do was discuss it with Sehun. For a moment he considered pretending he had already fallen asleep, but then turned, resolute. “What?”

“Luhan,” Sehun repeated, his eyes going tense. “Jongin said that he’s been struggling lately. That...that all of you have. I just want you to tell me what’s going on.”

Tao couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. Jongin. “And why exactly is that my responsibility?”

Sehun’s face scrunched. “Because you’re my Guarder? And you should tell me what’s going on with you? We are supposed to have a lifelong bond, you know.”

Tao swept his eyes over Sehun’s lank frame, feeling himself become equal parts amused and irritated. He hated people giving him sass, but there was something endearing about Sehun’s quivering lips. “Believe it or not, I am aware.” With that, he began to turn away, pulling his covers up over his body.

There was a moment of silence during which Tao briefly thought that Sehun had walked away. But then-

“Godammnit, Tao!” Sehun lunged forward, yanking the bedsheets down again. “This is not how this goes! We’re partners here, okay? I’m so sick of you pretending I’m too stupid to know the answers to anything! I’m not a child, you’re not my ing babysitter!”

Tao twisted upright, standing up in one surprised solid movement. “Except I am! My job is to protect you, Sehun. You can’t even begin to understand the danger that we go through in order keep you safe.”

“Then tell me!” Sehun hurled back, his voice cracking in anger. Tao stared at him, his fingers twitching. “Just ing tell me,” Sehun said again. “That’s all it’ll take for me to understand, Tao.”

Tao still said nothing, his metal joints squeezing and unsqueezing.

“Can’t you trust me?” Sehun asked, sounding exhausted. “At all?”

“I do trust you,” Tao answered. “It’s you who doesn’t trust me.”

“I would if you just talked honestly to me,” Sehun replied, but the snark was gone. “You never share anything meaningful with me. How am I supposed to trust someone that I barely know?”

“Tough talk from a guy who can’t even tell me that he’s in love,” Tao said dryly. At this Sehun looked up, his eyebrows furrowing.

“What?”

“I’m not stupid either, Sehun,” Tao shrugged. “I can see what’s going on with you and Lu.”

This was met with silence. Sehun took a few steps back, seemingly struggling to speak. “That- I-we-”

Tao put up a hand. “You already care about him more than me,” he said, feeling the truth of the words as he said them.

“That’s not true,” Sehun said immediately, but he was avoiding Tao’s eyes. “I don’t love him. I barely know him either.”

“You asked about him first,” Tao shrugged. “Look, maybe you don’t think it’s any of my business, but my job is to keep you safe. And for the record, I don’t think it’s a safe idea to go after him.”

“Why not?” Sehun demanded.

Tao shrugged. “Everything is considered an offense around here. And you don’t want to get punished.”

Sehun’s eyes turned angry. “Like you?” he shot back.

Tao paused. There was silence for a few moments, and he felt his fists tighten, the metal groaning softly as he brought his fingers inwards.

“I didn’t mean that,” Sehun said, his eyes darting down. “I just- I heard-”

“You heard what?” Tao demanded, watching him shuffle his feet.

“I just heard that that’s why you have the Cuff,” he mumbled. “That’s all.”

Again Tao was silent. He knew if he said anything right then his words would be too tinted with anger.

“I’m going to go get some tea,” Sehun said after a second, and turned away.

-

“I don’t understand,” Jongdae said for the fifteenth time, pushing his sliding glasses back up his nose. He knelt back against the bed. “A log isn’t even a number. I thought exponents were hard and now they’re just throwing in tree parts.”

Yixing couldn’t help but laugh, setting the textbook down. “Okay. We’ll take a break.”

“No,” Jongdae said with a sigh. “I need to finish this. Explain it again.” He bent back over his books, brows furrowing, gnawing on his lip in concentration.

Yixing smiled. It was these moments that he found himself genuinely liking his Guarder; the rare seconds where he was calm and focused and attentive. Yixing found that these times were far and few between, and occurred only when they were alone. In the presence of Baekhyun or Chanyeol or Tao or anyone really, Jongdae became energetic to the point of unbearable. At least for Yixing’s taste.

“Okay,” he said. “Here. A log is just another form of an exponent, look.” He explained and watched as Jongdae scratched the numbers onto his paper, the utmost concentration in his eyes, his shoulderblades taut with tension. Yixing pulled his laptop from the his beside table. “Let me show you something,” he murmured, flipping it open. “Maybe it’ll help.”

Jongdae glanced up, his glasses sliding down his nose again. “Okay-”

Without warning, his hands burst to life, an electric bolt of blue coming loose with a bang. Yixing yelped, folding inwards as heat struck the side of his jacket. His laptop went crashing to the ground. Their Math books flew across the room, smacking against the wall before they landed on the floor with heavy thuds.

“Yixing?” Jongdae shouted, in a panic. His fingers sparked again, once, then twice, then went out. “Yixing, are you okay?” He knelt over him, hands waving in the air, afraid to touch him. “Yixing?”

“I’m fine,” Yixing managed, his fingers going to the singed edge of his jacket. His head was spinning, but he forced himself to meet Jongdae’s gaze. “I’m fine. What just happened?”

“I’m so sorry,” Jongdae fumbled, squeezing his fists together. “That-that was an accident. I lost control for a second, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“It’s fine,” Yixing silenced him gently. He reached for where his laptop had fallen, fingers shaking, forcing himself to take a breath. “It’s not broken,” he said after a minute, at once relieved. But when he looked back up with a smile, Jongdae was crying.

Yixing froze. He had never seen Jongdae in such a state- his Guarder was always trying to hard to look like he didn’t care about anything, like he was wild and unpredictable and not affected by what anyone else thought. Tears didn’t make sense on him.

“Hey,” Yixing finally managed to say. “Jongdae, it’s fine, really.”

“It’s really not,” Jongdae answered, removing his glasses to haphazardly swipe a hand across his cheek. “I could have hurt you.”

“But you didn’t,” Yixing said.

Jongdae made no reply.

Unable to think of anything else to say, Yixing wrapped an arm around his shoulders, the Guarder’s body trembling against his. They stayed like that for a moment, Yixing’s thoughts darting this way and that. Jongdae was right, of course. He could have been killed. He had thought that Jongdae was dangerous before, but he had never seen him lose control like that. There hadn’t even seemed to be a trigger for his outburst- the laptop, maybe? He had no idea how these things worked. The rare times Yixing had ever seen Jongdae use his powers he had been in perfect poised control, the electric shocks flowing in pretty patterns from his fingers.

“I’m sorry,” Jongdae broke the silence after a moment. He had stopped crying, his hands pressed together underneath his chin.

“Are you alright?” Yixing asked, with slight hesitation. “Is there...something going on?”

“What do you mean?” Jongdae replied stonily.

“You came back late last night,” Yixing pointed out. “And like...that just happened. Is something bothering you? Training?”

Jongdae’s eyes flitted away. “Well...yeah.”

Yixing felt his eyebrows raise. He hadn’t expected Jongdae to admit to that so easily. “Do you...want to talk about it?” he asked.

Jongdae was quiet for a moment. When he spoke again his voice was steely. “All I’ll say is this. I knew the Academy was ty before, but after last night...” he shook his head, and Yixing could see the beginning of anger in his eyes. “I don’t know what they’re doing, but it’s not anything good.” He turned to look at Yixing. “I’m sorry you got dragged into all of this, honestly,” he said.

Yixing raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“It would have been better if you never came,” Jongdae said, his jaw set. Yixing recoiled, hurt, but Jongdae shook his head. “I say that because I care about you, Yixing. This place can break people. It’s just that none of you have realized it yet.” He looked down, bitter. “You’re too good for this place.”

There was silence. Yixing couldn’t even fathom the beginning of an answer.

“Again, I’m sorry,” Jongdae said, standing up to retrieve the fallen textbooks. He kept his face turned away, wouldn’t meet Yixing’s eyes. “This won’t happen again.”