Blood. His nightmares were always tinged in that godforsaken color of metallic red with the smell of copper filling the air, and there was nothing he could do about it except suffer through them. The nightmares varied between the different people in his life dying in front of him as he watched helplessly. The stupid part was that he was a cop — he’d seen death regularly, and he had killed people when it was called for, but Jaehyun’s death had triggered something in him.

He woke up seeing the blood on his sheets in the darkness. Sitting up with a strangled sob, he looked down at his hands only to find them drenched in his aunt’s blood. He let out a shout of alarm, not understanding what was happening. He was surrounded by blood. Why was he surrounded by blood? There was so much sound in his head. It was so loud. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. Too much blood, too much—

“Baekhyun?” a voice broke through his pounding head.

Haeun broke him out of his stupor, and Baekhyun had a fleeting moment of embarrassment over the fact that she had seen him like this, but the panic and the absolute crushing fear had overtaken every other emotion. He covered his face with his hands, and he felt so alone, so lost, until Haeun sat down next to him. Without realizing, she had given him so much without anything expected in return, and he couldn’t be more grateful. Half an hour later, he used the hand that was wrapped up in his own as an anchor to the living world to help stave off the nightmares where everyone was dying. He had someone there that he knew would be alive when he opened his eyes.

When he woke up the next morning, blinking in surprise at the fact that Haeun was sleeping at the other end of his bed, he vaguely remembered that he had asked her to stay. Groaning softly, he wished he hadn’t been so weak. He wished that he had been stronger to deal with his trauma on his own so that he didn’t have to get her involved, and if he remembered correctly, she wanted him to talk about it. 

He could only hope that she forgot. He didn’t think he could talk about it without breaking down.

Getting out of bed carefully, he let her sleep in considering that he had interrupted her sleep. Standing at the foot of his bed, he watched her for a moment, relishing in the fact that he could take her in as much as he wanted while she was unaware. Her hair was tied up in a messy ponytail that was doing a poor job of keeping her hair tied as half of her hair framed her face, and was slightly open, as she breathed in and out. She looked smaller than she already was as she curled up in a ball under the bedsheets. Their hands had separated overnight, but he was surprised to find that her hand was still right next to his pillow, as though even while sleeping she knew he might need her.

It hadn’t hit him quite as hard until right then.

She was his soulmate.

His soulmate was sleeping in his bed, and she looked peaceful as her slow, deep breaths caused her chest to rise and fall in rhythm. 

He wanted this to be a normal occurrence. He wanted it to be normal that she would be sleeping in his bed. He wanted it to be normal that she would steal his clothes for the night because she liked them more. He wanted it to be normal that they would curl up together, basking in each other’s warmth.

But it wasn’t something that could happen. Not yet, anyways.

With the hope that now they were friends, and that maybe, they could be something more, he padded out to the kitchen to brew some coffee. 

He dug out some of the hazelnut flavored coffee pods and set up the machine while he went to brush his teeth. By the time he got back to the kitchen, Haeun was sitting at the kitchen counter with two cups of coffee — one sitting in front of her and the other in front of the seat next to hers. Her hair was open and looked like less of a bird’s nest than it did before, and she was typing something out on her phone. He opened his mouth to say something before he would end up staring at her. 

“There’s a toothbrush in the medicine cabinet if you want to brush your teeth,” Baekhyun pointed out in lieu of a good morning.  She looked up at him in a sleepy haze and nodded before walking away to the bathroom, also forgoing the morning greeting. It was like they had an unspoken agreement that after the night they had, it wasn’t exactly a good morning.

He sat down and started sipping at his coffee slowly, wondering if this was another thing that could become normal. 

When Haeun came back from the bathroom, they drank their coffee in silence until Haeun spoke up, and honestly, he should’ve expected that she wouldn’t drop it.

“So, do you want to talk about what happened last night? I promise it’ll help. If not me, then Chanyeol?” she asked, turning in her chair to look at him. While she was pushing him, there was no hint of expectation in her voice. If he said he wasn’t comfortable speaking, she really wouldn’t push it.

“You’re not going to let it go, are you?”

Haeun sent him a sickly sweet smile. “It comes with being my friend. Take it or leave it.”

“You’re a menace.”

“Thank you.” She looked at him, expecting a response.

Sighing through his nose, he spoke up. “I had a nightmare about Jaehyun.” Although it was probably very obvious to her that his nightmares were about his murder, he felt the need to start with that and say it out loud. Haeun simply nodded and motioned for him to continue with a wave of her hand.

He started off by telling her that all his nightmares started the same way — he watched Jaehyun get shot, and he couldn’t do anything about it. There was something blocking him from moving, from reaching Jaehyun. He would scream his voice hoarse, but by the time he was able to move, he would crawl over, only for it to be someone different. Last night it was his aunt, choking on her own blood, and as he tried to help her, he realized he was sitting in someone else’s blood. Looking over, he realized that Chanyeol was also dead just a few feet away, his blood seeping out and covering the floor. He tried to keep his voice steady, but slowly his voice was becoming strained, and he knew he was seconds from breaking down, but Haeun listened to him so intently without any judgment in her eyes which made him feel a bit more comfortable. 

Haeun didn’t say anything while he spoke, instead choosing to cover his free hand with her own as a motion of support, and Baekhyun realized it was another thing he wished were a normal occurrence. He wasn’t sure where this was coming from. They were now friends, but there wasn’t anything between them that would be romantic, and he certainly didn’t want to use the soulmate reason as a basis for it. He was mulling it over when Haeun cleared .

“Um,” Haeun started after settling both of her hands on her cup of coffee again, “you know how I told you about my nightmares after the stalking incident with Taehyung?”

Baekhyun nodded, sipping at his coffee.

“I would dream that I was trapped in a small, dark, extremely cramped space after we had hid behind that dumpster in the alley. I couldn’t move, and I would just be sitting there quietly sobbing, alone. It felt like I was being suffocated,” she smiled bitterly at the memory. “I would startle awake when someone would grab me in my nightmare, and the first few times, I guess Kai heard me crying in my sleep because I would find him curled up next to me staring at me. His bright yellow eyes stood out in the dark, and I would get even more scared. I kept feeling as though there was someone there, just watching me. Even though the nightmares got easier after I talked with Jeonghan and Taehyung, I still couldn’t sleep without the hallway light on for weeks. Now it’s easier, but sometimes I still need light, so I leave my curtains open at night because I get claustrophobic.”

Baekhyun didn’t know what to say to that, and it didn’t look like she wanted a response per se, but he felt like he owed her something. He was thankful that she felt safe and comfortable enough with him to share that with him. He also felt awful that she was in that situation and dealt with it alone for awhile because despite his fleeting thought about her needing a therapist from that day, he didn’t actually check up on her. 

He decided to just say exactly that, and once he had vocalized his thoughts, she rolled her eyes and glared at him.

“We’ve been over this. We were both jerks, and besides, that’s not why I told you. I told you to show you that things may seem dark and bleak right now, but they do slowly get better. You’ll obviously have a different process to get through it since you aren’t me and you had to...deal with some really difficult things, but well,” she paused suddenly, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink, and Baekhyun had to hide his smile over the cup of coffee. “God, I sound like a Disney movie.”

He couldn’t hide his smile anymore as he laughed brightly. “You’d make a good princess, though.”

“Oh please, I’d rather save myself from a locked tower than deal with a bumbling prince.”

“But what if that prince wasn’t bumbling?”

“I’d still do a better job at saving myself than he would.”

“You remind me of Mulan. Which would make Jeonghan, Mushu,” he mused with a sly smile. Haeun laughed, throwing her head back and cackling. 

“Oh my god, that’s the funniest thing anyone has ever compared Jeonghan to. What does that make you, then?” she asked with a mischievous glint in her eyes. 

“Hm,” he contemplated, “I don’t know. I guess a random country folk getting saved by the brave Mulan?”

“Oh, you flatter me,” she said in a fake, high voice as she swatted him. Baekhyun just grinned. 

“It’s true.”

Once their coffee cups were drained and Haeun had texted her boss, she turned to him with a grin and a wicked glint in her eyes, and Baekhyun immediately laughed. It was strange how he could feel so at ease with her, and it was amazing how much of an effect she had on his mood.

Her grin faded a bit as she asked, “What?”

“Nothing. You just look like a 10 year old that was given free reign in a toy store. Actually,” he paused, “that’s the look you had on your face last night while you were drunk.”

“I was tipsy!” she retorted with a slight pink tint to her cheeks. 

“Sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“Baekhyun,” she whined.

“Okay, okay,” he laughed. “What was your plan for the day?” he asked, giving her a respite from the teasing. He had enough blackmail from last night to last a while, anyways.

“Do you have Mario Kart? You have to, considering how rich you are.” Baekhyun rolled