Dreams of white walls, shattered glass, and the wordless arrays of mixtures scattered on table tops. The lab was crowded with multiple tools, papers tossed aimlessly around and boxes stacked to the ceilings. Taeyang was tilted back on his wooden stool, round trimmed glasses perched on his nose, unsharpened pencil tucked behind his ear, and a white turtle neck hidden behind a lousy lab coat. His hair stood out like a sore thumb amongst the scenery, white strands of hair contrasting colored cabinets and sloppy shelves toppled by loose screws.

He had stood back and watched as the men coursed through the hallways, greeting him once or twice through enclosed glass – never daring to slip through the doors, knowing what would come if they ever glimpsed at the test results, which were leafed through daily on the account of multiple lab experiments gone wrong.

But this day was not like the others – no, it was completely different. The men had been called from their slumber long before the morning bells, labs remained empty, the red lights flickered on and off to mock their vulnerability. It was safe to say that the whole building was tense with anticipation, experiments surpassing security and managing to get past the thick steel doors to B wing. The doors were air-sealed long ago, preventing Taeyang from leaving the premises. But he didn't mind, something about the enclosed walls and the way the red lights lit up his face like fireworks had soothed him. So he sat in the dark, the blinking light the only thing keeping him from drifting off to sleep.

There was radio silence on his walky-talky, crackles here and there before complete silence. It was easy to assume that the gun-shots firing in the dark were of his own company, the men dressed in all black from head-to-toe and gas masks covering their heads like fish bowls. It was then that Taeyang was distracted, his head snapping to the sound of metal scraping metal. And it took him no longer than a few seconds to reach the conclusion of the faltered vents. But he watched, mindlessly as a small figure crawled out and pushed his back against the counter, shoving his head on his knees and tucking behind his arms. His breathing was irregular, a cough here and there and a slight whimper followed. Taeyang carefully slipped from his stool to hover over the younger, taking curious glimpses of what use to be the vent shutter.

When he bent down to touch the boy he earned a muffled yelp before it was suppressed by Taeyang's hand. The boy was younger than him, maybe only one or two years given that Taeyang was still a teenager himself. His appearance contrasted tremendously from Taeyang's; black, messy hair, round eyes and plump lips and not to mention the height difference was very noticeable even given his position on the ground. He released his hand from the boy's mouth before tilting his neck to the side to reveal a clean neck.

His eyes widened as he realized the scenario that had unfolded before him. An innocent; out of all of the people that could've wandered into such a place – it had to be a helpless boy.

"How did you find this place?" Taeyang murmured.

"I-I saw a man walking in with a gun ... I was going to call someone, but there wasn't any service outside of the building."

Taeyang knitted his brows together and peered into the vent. Darkness overwhelmed the shimmering metal, not even a rattle could be heard throughout the gaping tunnel. This only encouraged Taeyang to question the boy further.

"Was there anyone following you?"

"No, it was the only loose vent I found."

He let a sigh escape his lips before standing up and shuffling across the room, rummaging through drawers and pulling bottle after bottle out on the counter, displaying a varying amount of colors that reflected the red light's tint. He finally came to one drawer, his favorite – filled with pin balls of all different sizes. They were not used for what Taeyang was planning, but every lab room had one drawer that was filled to the top with the instruments, surprisingly heavy little things given their size. He shoved a handful or two into his coat pocket, and started placing bottles into open slots of his utility belt. The younger watched him skeptically, pushing himself from the ground, still keeping a safe distance away.

"What's your name?" Taeyang asked, pivoting in the boy's direction with an extra belt in his hand. Before the boy could respond he was taken by surprise as Taeyang wrapped the belt around his waist, strapping it together in the front and placing a few unfamiliar items into the slots.

"C-Chanhee ... Kang Chanhee."

Taeyang smiled sincerely while peering up at the boy, his crouched position straining his neck. "Nice to meet you Kang Chanhee, I'm Yoo Taeyang."

Chanhee nodded tremulously, his hands reaching out to rest on Taeyang's shoulders. The older didn't mind, if this would be how the younger found comfort – by all means he would let him. He knew what it felt like, swept into the white rooms ... an unknown place with unfamiliar people and bright red lights. He knew all too much about being petrified and imprisoned within the confines of the building, and he would be damned if this boy was to be another lab report that sat on an empty shelf.

"Alright, do not touch any of these bottles unless I tell you – and if you use the wrong one you could blow us up, so be careful."

Chanhee's eyes widened slightly, but he nodded in understanding. Taeyang crouched down to a crawl as he placed a hand on the steel plates of the vent shaft. Chanhee grabbed his shoulder in protest, Taeyang's neck flicking back to look him in the eyes.

"What are you doing? We can't go out there ... men are everywhere,"

Taeyang shrugged and continued forward, Chanhee groaning before latching a hold of him again, this time yanking on his lab coat.

"Are you crazy?"

"... Sometimes. Sometimes I'm even insane."

The boy's shoulders slumped, giving into the absurd plan he was about to commit to. Once Taeyang had positioned himself far enough in the duct, Chanhee began to follow. It was odd, hearing nothing but the firing of high-powered rifles, shells hitting the floor, and the occasional faint holler in the distance. It was easy to say that the rooms were not that sound proof, and that left no exception to the vents in which they crawled through. It was no more than two minutes when Taeyang halted dead in his tracks, maneuvering himself to grip the shutter and push it out and forward, knocking it out like a window.

The metal rattled on the ceramic tile, sending echoes throughout the halls. Once Taeyang was back on his feet he stretched out a hand to pull Chanhee along with him, sending the boy stumbling into his chest. A shot-gun had gone off somewhere in the distance making Chanhee flinch. Taeyang only responded by pulling him closer, shielding his head with his hand.

It was moments before the next array of bullets sounded throughout corridors, but this time there had been a repeated firing, and they didn't sound anything like the weapons the company had owned. This encouraged Taeyang to carry out with his plan, he placed his palms on Chanhee's shoulders, rubbing them soothingly.

"We'll make it out if we stick together, okay?"

Chanhee nodded.

"Okay ..." Taeyang murmured, confirming the agreement of the younger. They began to make easy time, slipping from one hallway to the next, mostly going in the directions Chanhee had pointed out from where he came. Taeyang was straggling every few halls to slip the tiny pin-balls across the floor and the occasional detonation of one could be heard as they approached the next. It was only then that they had come face to face with the rivaled team, but was too late to react to the two boys as Taeyang flung one of the chemical bottles onto the man, his skin soon becoming the equivalent of molten jewels.

Chanhee couldn't bear to watch, but Taeyang had took precautions and swept his hand over his eyes, guiding him down the next hall. Once they had reached a second hallway, an exit was clear ahead, casting its red tinted letters across the floor. Glass shards were scattered, the only light to keep them from being casted into darkness were the red lights ... still emanating back and forth.

Taeyang slipped from his coat, tossing it onto the ground. His body was moving aside of his mind, his movements taking more initiative of how he would plan this out. He unstrapped his belt and threw it across the long hallway, bottles splintered against walls and painting them with pretty pictures of red and blue. He did the same for Chanhee, unraveling the belt and casting it off somewhere in the distance. The glass shards were strewn about, and Taeyang took the liberty of taking a shard and carefully dragging it across his skin, the red liquid pouring from his freshly made wound. He winced in pain as he dropped the shard.

Chanhee grabbed his shoulder and pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket but Taeyang made haste and pushed his hand away, pressing the open wound to the wall, sliding his hand down until a fine imprint was left, crimson red droplets trickling down the plaster. When he lifted off of his knee's to stand, Chanhee took his hand quickly, wrapping his hand carefully and tying it.

Mocking their arrival, the door wouldn't budge to open as they slammed their bodies against metal railing. But the final push, and they had escaped with the fortune of being unharmed and untraceable (all besides Taeyang's hand).

Once outside, the pavement was damp, the pitter-patter of rain crashing down in sheets. Taeyang stared in awe, feeling the sensation of droplets streaming down his cheeks and into his hair. It had been long since he last seen rain, let alone felt the dew on his skin. Chanhee stood off to the side, observing him. The elder hadn't seen the daylight in some time ... he hadn't at all in his years there, and every day he was regretful of not soaking in the sun long enough, and not jumping from puddle to puddle as every young teen should do.

"When was the last time you left that building?"

"Too long ... way too long," he whispered. The younger had looked at him wish remorse, sorrowful for what the older must've endured through his time there. But there was no time to bask in their achievement, Chanhee took a hold of his hand again, tugging him forward gently.

"Come on, there's a hotel a few miles away ... we'll make it by dark if we walk,"

Taeyang nodded, following Chanhee out of the heavily forested woods and onto the roads. Very few cars passed by, and the more they walked the damper the cloth became, and the more their legs began to brittle. Their hair was mopped over their fore-heads, wet cloth clinging to numb skin and nimble fingers pulling each other together to walk side by side, shoulder to shoulder. The rain was long away from coming to a halt, the grey clouds thickening above in gentle lumps spotted from the ground. It could be noted they had been walking for over an hour or two as they approached many signs directing them to gas stations, corner stores, and a few fast-food places as well. However, the boys never stopped walking for those things. They pushed forward for hours, right until they reached the doors of the main office of a hotel hidden in the grove of the forest. It wasn't exactly the cleanest sight to see, two boys drenched in rain, dripping, and one with a bloodied hand.

The woman at the desk ran to their aid, leading them to find somewhere to sit while she rang someone on her telephone. She had disappeared for a few minutes to return with towels and a young girl behind her had bandages in her hand and a med kit in the other. The woman ushered her off into another room before tending to Taeyang's bloodied bandages.

Chanhee had looked away, not being able to stomach the image of the wound that looked to be infected. She began to pour water on his hand to rinse the cut, followed by peroxide which made Taeyang wince in pain, locking his eye-lids tightly together. It had stopped bleeding long ago, so the woman applied pressure and gummed Neosporin across the cut before wrapping his hand in dressings. It relieved Taeyang to know that his hand didn't demand to be stitched, the shard managed to slice an accurate and decent width into his hand enough to get the blood flow, but avoid damaging anything important.

And after a heated argument between the front desk woman and the manager, who was not very happy with the surprise he walked into – the woman managed to scrape up a few extra days of work to get the boys a room with hot food awaiting them, and comforters to help them sleep their worries away for the night.

They walked in silence, not a single word was uttered from their lips, and it remained this way; through eating, taking turns showering, to right before they decided to call it a night. The room had two beds, conveniently placed on opposite sides of the room. But when Taeyang had finally rested his head on his pillow, Chanhee appeared in front of him, a nervous look upon his face.

"Taeyang, can I ... can I sleep with you?"

His hesitance was not unnoticed by Taeyang, who responded by lifting his blanket up from the sheets, an open invitation for the younger to crawl in, which he did. The boys stared at one another, hitched breaths and tension building between them. Chanhee was the first to make a move, scooting forward, concern reflecting his facial expression.

"How long were you there?"

"... 4 years."

"Y-You were,"

"Fourteen ... "

The silence ate Taeyang alive, Chanhee hadn't spoken a word after he responded. His stare was intensifying, undressing his façade, tearing the mask he wore so well on his skin. Chanhee struggled to inch closer to Taeyang until he wrapped his arm around the elder's ribs, pushing his head underneath his chin.

Taeyang had not known what the comfort of another felt like, and as he ran his fingers through the strands of Chanhee's hair, he took note of this moment: white washed walls, nowhere to be found, crooked men gone from his sight, and the labyrinth lost in the eyes of a young boy. This had been the moment Taeyang had dreamt of in his slumber. And Kang Chanhee was the answer to all of which he had hoped for ...

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I wanted to do something different, so I decided on working with a pair from sf9, and honestly I thought these two characters complimented each other quite well, so eh? Any who, thanks to a friend for the lovely boost of inspiration! Hope my first one-shot didn't turn out too bad, enjoy!