***Yeah, I was basically back almost immediately. Here's chapter one of XMTS, set six or so months after Cutlass!

oo1

Thunderstorm

Hei hated thunderstorms.

They weren’t all bad, really, and rain was almost always fine because most of the time the pitter patter of the raindrops was normally enough to soothe her to sleep. However, the storm raging practically overtop of the house made her uneasy, and the lightning paired with near-deafening claps of thunder was downright terrifying because she was alone.

Sitting in the living room, with nothing but the flickering lamp, Hei really hated the timing and location of the storm. Each sound of thunder seemed to shake the house, and she curled up under the blankets, staring at the lamp. It was dark outside—had been for a while, and she really wouldn’t have been surprised it if it passed midnight—sleep didn’t come easy.

It wasn’t really the best thing to be so reliant on, but sleep had always been lighter and left her more tired than rested every time Baekhyun was gone. It didn’t really help that he was supposed to be back three days ago. Three days more and she probably would be completely unable to sleep, she thought halfheartedly.

Luhan had warned her beforehand that he might’ve been delayed getting back, but the latest he’d been was a day later, and that was two months ago. Sitting alone on the couch, trying not to flinch every time thunder roared—she couldn’t exactly stop the slew of bad thoughts, worries, worst-case-scenarios that all flooded in.

Six months hadn’t exactly stopped the nightmares. Reduced them, perhaps, until they came less frequently and she didn’t have to bolt awake from a dream every couple hours or so of attempting to sleep until she was too scared to, but they were still there, sometimes forged stronger with doubt again, laced with paranoia if time dragged out and Baekhyun still wasn’t there.

It couldn’t be helped, and Hei knew. Not with that line of work. Less dangerous, and it didn’t normally require him to leave, but when it did…

The outsides flashed white for a second from the lightning. Hei pulled the blanket up higher. She’d checked all the windows at least two times to make sure they were all closed so that no rain got inside, but outside, the wind was tearing viciously at the trees, pelting the windows as too-loud drops. She shuddered. Sleep wasn’t possible even if she made up her mind to try.

Five minutes later, Hei gave in. The wave of exhaustion, surprisingly, had passed, but she still lay down, watching the ceiling from the couch as it flickered from the shadows cast from the lanterns. Another hour, she told herself. If Baekhyun wasn’t back by then, she’d go back to their bedroom and at last attempt to rest. But until then, waiting for a little while longer wasn’t going to do much harm.

Except it was. Too much worry made her anxious, tired from the lack of sleep the next day, and staying alone with nothing much to do increased the antsy feeling. She could visit Luhan, who always stayed temporarily at the safehouse a little bit away from where the house itself was whenever Baekhyun wasn’t home, but there wasn’t much to do either. He was probably busy.

She hadn’t seen the rest of the crew for at least a month. The last time was Jongin and Kyungsoo, who both came by the visit, but they’d only stayed for four days before leaving. The rest had been longer; she hadn’t even heard from Jongdae for two and a half months, and that worried her too. He’d visited frequently in the beginning, written letters when he couldn’t (all addressed to Cha Hyseun), but for the last two months, he’d completely disappeared. There was nothing she could do about it—he’d told Baekhyun when he last left, but there was virtually no way of finding out where he was or if something bad had happened to him.

She lay flat on the couch for a moment longer and contemplated sleeping. It was possible there would be more nightmares, but if there wasn’t, it meant some time off free from the constant plague of worry. The storm, however, showed no sign of ceasing.

Hei was still weighing out her options when the front door clicked. She sat up straight, glancing from where she was sitting, everything washing away to anticipation. There was still a whisper of worry, a thousand possibilities of what else it could be if it weren’t him, all relatively bad. Standing up, she padded towards the direction of the door, carrying her lantern with her. It cast a small bubble of light around her, not nearly enough to see much, but she could make out the blurry shape behind the curtains, next to the door.

The lock turned. A streak of lightning ripped across the sky, then a second later, the door was pushed open, just in time for the thunder, closely following, rumbling as Baekhyun stepped inside, soaked from head to toe.

Hei straightened in shock, then disbelief, then delight. He’d barely managed to make eye contact with her when she had tackled him in a hug.

Baekhyun stumbled back a couple of paces, surprised, before he gave a breathless laugh, closing the door with one hand and wrapping both arms around her too. “You’re going to get wet too,” he said, but he didn’t let go. “You could’ve let me change first.”

Hei shook her head. He smelled of just… rain, something fresh, and she closed her eyes. “Don’t care.”

“I told you not to stay up waiting for me,” he continued, ignoring her, “since you don’t even know when I’ll get back. You need to sleep properly.”

Hei shook her head at Baekhyun. He was right, really—her nightgown had soaked through too because his clothes were completely dripping (controlling water obviously didn’t change the fact that the storm had affected him like anyone else), but she hadn’t been lying when she’d said she didn’t care. The fact that he was back overrode everything else, and she glanced at his face, then reached up to mop the wet hair from his face. It was hopeless. “It’s storming really badly outside. Why didn’t you stay somewhere indoors until it cleared?”

“I’m already three days late,” he replied, gently untangling her from around him. “And besides, the storm doesn’t bother me.”

He must’ve seen the expression on her face because he sighed. “Sorry, Hei,” Baekhyun murmured. “I didn’t mean to, I just…” He seemed to want to say something, thought better about it, then straightened. “I shouldn’t make excuses. But if it’s anything reassurance, Yoona’s told me that hopefully there’s nothing to do for at least another month.”

He was dripping water all over the ground, and she wasn’t about to lead him towards the carpets in such a state. Hei took a step back, scrutinizing him. “How’d it go this time?” she asked.

Baekhyun frowned. He shook his head as if to shake the water from his hair, to no avail expect splattering it over her and the ground around him. “Not too bad,” he started. “The thing is, we were supposed to take Minseok with us, but I have absolutely no idea where he went, so Yoona sent one of her people, and then he turned out to be working for the families. This was why I wanted to take Minseok and not some random under Yoona because it always turns out like this.”

Hei nearly choked. “You call that not too bad?” she demanded.

He shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s not the first time we got a traitor, so we’re lucky we weeded him out. He tried to take out Jongin, nearly cut his his arm before we killed him, so we couldn’t get anything out of him. Completed the whole task without any other help, but that’s why it took so long.”

Continuing to gawk at him, it took Hei a couple of seconds to shake her head. “I can’t believe you,” she muttered as she glanced down. “A traitor. That’s dangerous.”

He hesitated. “I know, sweetheart. But we’re fine. And I’m careful.”

“I know you are.”

“So no worries, okay?” he tilted his head at her. “Besides, a complete month’s break. There’s nowhere to go in that time. And nothing to do here either.” He grinned. “I’m all yours.”

“You don’t know how terribly cheesy that sounds.”

“Oh, trust me, I was aiming for that—”

Hei shut him up with a kiss.

She was pretty sure she had to change too, even if it weren’t nearly as bad as Baekhyun. He ran his fingers through wet hair again, grinning at her, eyes bright as they flickered over her. She tried to ignore the fact that her heart still skipped a beat at that expression and instead, reached behind them to double-check that the front door was locked properly. Hei glanced up at Baekhyun again, frowning at his wet clothing as she tried to draw a path for him back to the bathroom or even the bedroom without getting any of the carpet wet, but it was virtually useless.

“I still don’t get why you can control water but can’t avoid getting wet if it’s raining,” Hei muttered. Baekhyun shrugged, clearly unworried. She tugged at the hem of his shirt. Water dropped down onto the doormat as she did so, and Hei let go, shaking her head at him. “You’re going to get a cold if you don’t change soon. And apparently I am too.”

His lips curved into a grin at that as he leaned in until he’d dipped to her height. “I think we can both agree on a better solution for that.”

***

Hei didn’t know how tired she was until she woke up again, weary but jolted awake from the thunder.

She had no idea how long the storm could even rage on for so long, because the thunder felt like it was directly above them for hours. It was well past midnight at that point, possibly nearing morning, but she couldn’t make anything out outside because the storm kept everything dark. Shaking off the feeling