When they arrived at the studio the next morning, they found Baekhyun leaning against the wall outside Mr. Peterson’s office.

“Morning,” he said, as Mr. Peterson pulled his keys from his pocket.

“Good morning,” Mr. Peterson replied. “How did you sleep?”

“Not.” The bruise around Baekhyun’s eye had mottled into purple and black with a sickening green tinge at the edge, and the white of his eye was shot red.

“Hm.” Mr. Peterson nodded understandingly and pushed the door open to let Baekhyun and Yixing into the office. Once it was safely closed behind the three of them, he shrugged out of his coat and turned to Baekhyun. “So.”

“Broken arm,” Baekhyun said. “Fingers too. Three, or it might have been four. Either way.”

“God,” Mr. Peterson groaned. “So he’s in a cast for the next six-to-eight weeks, is that right?”

“Something like that.” Baekhyun sighed. “Plus physical therapy and all, Sehun said something about his shoulder…”

“Lord Almighty.” Mr. Peterson pressed a hand to his forehead as if holding his brain in place would help him think. “Well he’s certainly not performing tomorrow night, so now the only question is - are you?”

“What, cut the merchants?”

“If we have to.”

Baekhyun shook his head. “We’d have to cut the pas de quatre as well, and probably the girls’ pas de deux.”

“Well, what are we supposed to do?” Mr. Peterson spread his hands. “I can’t pull anyone up from the corps, none of them will be able to learn it in thirty-six hours, and all my other soloists are already performing!”

Baekhyun glanced at Yixing and had his mouth halfway open to say something when there was a tap on the door.

“Come in!”

The door squeaked ajar, and Minseok peeked around it.

“Min!” Baekhyun bounded over to wrench the door open. “What-!”

Minseok’s right arm was in a sling across his chest, three of his fingers were bound in splints, and his left cheek was badly scraped, but he gave a puffy smile as Baekhyun welcomed him into the room.

“Hey, good morning.”

“He insisted,” Lu said from the doorway.

“Oh, hello-” Mr. Peterson held his hand out to Lu. “You are-?”

“Han Lu.” Lu shook the offered hand and jerked his head towards Minseok. “I’m Minnie’s roommate.”

“Right, right. Come on in. Minseok, you didn’t need to come all the way over here! You should be resting.”

“Yes, well, I want to know who’s replacing me.”

Mr. Peterson pulled a face and opened his mouth, but didn’t get a chance to speak.

“Yixing is.”

All eyes turned to Baekhyun.

“What?” Yixing whispered.

“Excuse me?” Mr. Peterson said.

“Oh, fab.” Minseok nodded. “Groovy.”

“No, hang on,” Mr. Peterson waved his hands, “wait, wait, wait. Zhang can’t take Minseok’s place, we open tomorrow night!”

“And he’ll have it mastered by noon today,” Baekhyun shrugged. “He’s been watching me practise for weeks anyway, I’m pretty sure he already knows the whole dance. I just gotta teach him the pas de quatre.”

“But-” Mr. Peterson turned to Yixing. “It’s not that I don’t want you to do it, Zhang, but it’s such a lot to learn in a very short amount of time, and I know this isn’t what you signed up for as a summer student.”

“No, I can do it.” Yixing nodded. “Baekhyun teach me. I’ll work hard.”

“I…” Mr. Peterson paused, then shrugged and spread his hands as if to say well, so be it. “I suppose that’s what we’ll do, then.”

“Do you want a hand teaching, Baek?”

“Nah,” Baekhyun waved Minseok away. “I’ll be alright. You rest up, ice your shoulder.”

“Okey dokey.” Minseok grinned. “You need me to get you some for that eye?”

Baekhyun groaned. “Stop, I’m so ugly right now. What I really need is some extra-strength concealer.”

“Not ugly,” Yixing objected. He wanted so desperately to pull Baekhyun’s head to his chest, kiss that poor bruised eyelid, hold him close and tell him that his strength and courage were more handsome than the smoothest of skin, but he had neither the words nor the privacy to do so.

“You’re right,” Baekhyun said, pretending to toss his hair. “Nothing could make me ugly.” He walked to the door, slapping Lu on the back and gently ruffling Minseok’s hair as he passed. “C’mon, Yixing, we’ve got work to do!”

-

By the time the sun had migrated far enough across the sky to stream in through the West-facing windows, Yixing had learned the pas de deuxwith Baekhyun, the pas de quatre they would do with the two girls at whom they were “making eyes”, and most of the intervening background movements for the dances during which they were simply part of the crowd milling around the edges of the stage.

“I’m calling it there,” Baekhyun panted, slumping against the mirror. “You’ve got it, you know it. We can go over it some more later, maybe with the girls tomorrow morning. Right now it’s past lunch time, and I’m so hungry I might actually eat my own feet.”

“Please don’t eat your feet,” Yixing said. “Then I have to teach someone else these dance.”

Baekhyun gave a weak attempt at a laugh. “Eating’s about all they’re good for, cause I sure can’t do much else with ’em right now.”

“You’re tired,” Yixing observed. The shadows underneath Baekhyun’s eyes were so pronounced it looked like he had two black eyes.

“No ,” Baekhyun said. “Six hours of straight dancing on maybe thirty minutes of sleep, and that’s after the adrenaline crash from last night. I need some pizza and a goddamn nap.”

He shrugged on his hoodie, shoved his feet into his sneakers, and stood by the door to wait while Yixing did the same. As Yixing reached for the handle, though, Baekhyun suddenly grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him aside so that they were out of sight of the tiny window in the door.

“Just realised I forgot to say it - thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Why?”

“For dropping everything to learn this. We would’ve had to cut three whole dances if it weren’t for you.”

“Then you wouldn’t get to perform at all.”

“Yeah.” Baekhyun smiled. “So I’m real grateful.”

He swayed forward and kissed Yixing, soft and fleeting as he rocked onto the balls of his feet and back.

“You’ve worked really hard,” he whispered.

“You too.” Yixing caught Baekhyun’s face between his hands to keep him from swaying back against the wall and kissed him again, just as soft but lingering this time, resting there until Baekhyun reached up and patted his hands.

“Let’s go.”

They drove back to Baekhyun’s place, where they made sandwiches and ate in soporific silence leaning against the kitchen counter.

“Ugh,” Baekhyun muttered, as he stacked the plates by the sink, “I’m sore all over.”

“Muscle-?” Yixing mimed the yank of a pulled muscle.

“Pfft, no. How come I can dance for ten hours without even noticing it, but the minute I gotta throw a punch it’s like I just got run over by a steamroller?” He sighed. “This body was made for eating , not beating .”

Yixing patted his back sympathetically. “You want to sleep?”

“Yeah. Actually, no.” Baekhyun turned and brushed a hand across Yixing’s forehead, pushing his hair back and running one soft thumb along his eyebrow. “You know what I want? I want a bath.”

“Mm.” Yixing nodded. “Hot water relax your body.”

“Exactly.” Baekhyun leaned up to peck a kiss to Yixing’s forehead. “Soak it all out and then sleep for the whole afternoon. You wanna have a bath with me, ’Xing?”

That sounded nice. “Yes.”

Baekhyun drew a bath, and they sat at opposite ends of the tub - Baekhyun against the smooth end and Yixing with his back to the taps. With their legs bent between them so that their knees broke the surface, there was just enough room for both of them.

“Yep,” Baekhyun sighed, closing his eyes and sinking a little deeper, “this is exactly what I need.”

“Nice,” Yixing agreed. He nudged his toe into Baekhyun’s thigh, aiming for gentle and instead making Baekhyun jump and wriggle away from him.

“Oi.” He reached down and pulled Yixing’s foot out of the water. “Oh, look at your poor toes. Too many jetés.” He prodded one of the calluses on Yixing’s foot and rubbed his thumb underneath the ball of his big toe.

“Mmm.” Yixing leaned back against the taps. He barely noticed the blisters and abrasions on his feet anymore - they’d been a part of him for half his life at this point, and there was no use complaining about them when they were such a standard component of the art - but having Baekhyun rub his foot like that was so nice, so relaxing. No-one had ever done this for him before.

He fished around in the water between them and hooked Baekhyun up by the ankle to return the favour. Baekhyun moaned as Yixing’s thumbs pressed into the sole of his foot and began to rub in little circles.

“Will you be mad if I say this is better than right now?”

Yixing shook his head. “My foot is having .”

“Saaame.”

They spent a long few minutes in warm, comfortable silence, just the drip of water and the occasional contented sigh lingering among the steam. When every blister had been soothed and every toe tweaked, Baekhyun leaned forward to tap Yixing’s knees.

“Turn around.”

Yixing obediently shuffled around to face the taps. Baekhyun grabbed him by the hips and slid him closer until they were pressed chest-to-back and Baekhyun could wrap his arms around Yixing’s waist and snuggle a kiss into his hair.

“Comfy?”

“Hm?”

“Are you comfy?”

Yixing craned his neck to look over his shoulder at Baekhyun. “What’s comfy?”

“Oh- comfortable.” Baekhyun kissed his nose.

“Oh. Yes.” Yixing settled back against Baekhyun’s chest. “Very comfy.”

“Mmm.” Baekhyun pressed his smile into Yixing’s temple. “Good.”

His arms were as warm as the water, solid and safe around Yixing’s body, and the gentle pressure of his chest against Yixing’s back as it rose and fell with the rhythm of his breath was a soothing lullaby.

Baekhyun began to hum, tracing his nose through Yixing’s hair and fingers over his wrists beneath the water. For a minute or two his voice was just a soft buzz against the back of Yixing’s head, fading into silence every few notes and regrowing with each new breath.

At about the point that Yixing realised this was an actual song and not just a made-up tune, Baekhyun began to sing.

“Cause we’re living in a world of fools,
Breaking us down,
When they all should let us be.”

He kissed the shell of Yixing’s ear, his lips soft and voice softer.

“We belong to you and me.”

-

The late afternoon sun was warm on Yixing’s skin. Baekhyun was snuggled into his arms, his hair just tickling the end of Yixing’s nose on each breath, the bed was deliciously soft beneath them, and someone was pounding on the front door.

-- Mm- who is it?

He lifted his head, squinting at the bead curtain as if it would tell him who had decided to interrupt their nap with all that banging.

“Mmf-” Baekhyun pressed his face more firmly into Yixing’s chest.

“You have visitor,” Yixing said.

“Tell ’em to off,” Baekhyun muttered.

“I think he really want to see you.”

The hammering grew louder, accompanied by a shout of Baekhyun’s name.

“Oh, for ’s- it’s J.D.,” Baekhyun said. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell him to off myself.”

He rolled off the bed and stumbled out to the living room, the bead curtain swishing behind him. Yixing sat up on the bed and waited for the sound of the door opening.

“J.D. Kim,” Baekhyun said. “To what do I owe th-”

“I can’t let you go anywhere on your own!”

“Nice to see you too.”

“Oh look at your eye you idiot, you had to go and get yourself beaten up-”

“Excuse me-” the door snapped shut, “I didn’t go and get myself anything. They were a bunch of racist -”

“Yes, but it wasn’t just racist, was it? Was it, Baekhyun?”

“… No.”

“Baek,” J.D. groaned. “You’ve got to keep it under wraps when you’re out in public! Otherwise-”

“Hey, hey, it wasn’t just me! Minseok and Seh-”

“You’re the one with the loud voice!” J.D. cried. “Minseok has volume control, and god knows no-one can understand Sehun when he’s trying to speak up, but you have this foghorn voice and one day it’s gonna get you kil-”

“Shhh!”

“What, why?” A pause. “Baekhyun. Who else is here?”

As Baekhyun sighed, Yixing decided this was probably the best time to make his presence known. He crept to the doorway and peeked between the strings of beads.

“Oh, it- it’s just Zhang.” J.D. turned and gave Baekhyun a smack on the arm. “I thought you were going to say your mother was in the kitchen or something!”

“God, no. You think I’d be out here discussing my flaming homouality if my mother were anywhere within a five-mile radius?”

“Honestly? I wouldn’t put it past you.”

J.D. seemed relieved, but as his eyes flickered to Yixing again it was with a new shade of apprehension.

“Don’t worry,” Baekhyun told him, beckoning Yixing across the room. “I just didn’t want you to get too dramatic and scare him.” He took Yixing’s hand and laced their fingers together, squeezing tight and looking J.D. right in the eyes.

“Jeez,” J.D. muttered. “I hope you know what you’re getting into.”

“Of course I do.”

“Yeah, of course you do.” J.D. sighed and patted Baekhyun on the shoulder. “I just- please be safe, okay? Both of you.”

“Yes, Mama Bear.”