“This hole is gonna go up in flames in minutes, Chanyeol, so I suggest you get a move on.”

“Just a second,” Chanyeol muttered, hastily shoving papers aside on the table in front of them in search of information pertaining to Baekhyun’s whereabouts. 

This was their fifth hit on the Red Force in as many months, desperation guiding their decisions and, if one were inclined to listen to Junmyeon, clouding their judgement. Junmyeon’s warnings were starting to ring hollow, however, as the dead ends continued to pile up.

Kyungsoo had been gone for half a year; Chanyeol had been on the phone with Baekhyun when the Red Force had ambushed and captured him, the memory of his screams haunting him; and Zitao was still lost to them, trapped in a comatose state after the Red Force had gotten their filthy hands on him for just a couple of days. 

What could they have subjected Baekhyun to during the five months he had been missing? What could they be doing to him in the hours, minutes, seconds that passed by with no leads?

Frustration was a potentially dangerous ingredient to add to a cocktail that already contained a significant portion of despair, guilt, and despondency. Chanyeol hadn’t tasted any other cocktail in what felt like ages.

In a spark of anger, flames erupted to at the edges of several pages of notes now scattered haphazardly on the table after Chanyeol had gone through them. A chill breeze brushed Chanyeol’s hands and killed the fires before they could do lasting damage. A hand replaced the breeze, squeezing gently.

“It’s no use,” Minseok murmured. “If there ever were any notes, they made sure to take all of it with them.”

“I don’t – want to return with nothing,” Chanyeol said. “Not again. I can’t.”

“I know.”

“We can’t lose anyone else, Minseok.”

“I know.”

“I can’t bear it. I can’t –” He cut himself off, eyes darting across the table to find the paper that had mentioned Baekhyun’s name. He was certain he had just seen – there. He snatched the notebook, the bottom left corner burned to a crisp but still perfectly readable, and gave it a swift skim. 

Baekhyun had been here. He was alive. There might even be more information, but there was precious little time left before the place went up in flames. 

“Time to run,” he breathed, making sure to tuck the notebook away safely. They couldn't afford to lose their first lead on the way out.

“Agreed,” Minseok said, and then they hightailed it out of there.

Outside, with enough distance between them and the building to avoid becoming a casualty, Chanyeol slowed down to a trek, and then to a walk, and then to a standstill, breath held behind his teeth as he regarded the building. The peaceful quiet that surrounded it was a hoax; a lie to cover up their crimes – crimes that kept stacking up as they went ignored by the government.

Minseok scoffed somewhere behind him, the sound of his footfalls growing fainter as he began the trek back to where Junmyeon was waiting for them. “Cool guys don’t look at explosions.”

“Perhaps not.” Chanyeol felt the corners of his mouth pull into a grin and raised his hand into the air. “But hot guys do.” 

With a perfectly timed snap of his fingers, the building before them burst into flames with a thunderous boom, the explosives Yixing and Han had planted inside fuelled by Chanyeol’s fire. The flames rose high into the air, the smoke higher yet, the building and everything of importance inside it reduced to ashes.

A heavy sigh at his side told Chanyeol that Minseok had returned. His grin widened, knowing Minseok would see it and knowing it would cause further exasperation. 

“I swear,” Minseok huffed, “you are the most maddening pyromaniac I have ever met.”

Chanyeol turned a disgruntled frown at Minseok. “I am the only maddening pyromaniac you’ve ever met.”

“Hmm.” 

Minseok laid his hand on Chanyeol’s collarbone, blunt nails dancing innocently across his chest before sliding back up to twist his collar into a tight grasp and pulling him down. Cold lips caught Chanyeol’s and replaced the fiery images underneath his eyelids with the familiar shimmer of frosted white. 

Kissing Minseok always felt like setting foot on a patch of fresh snow, sometimes with the added thrill of leaping from a ledge and trusting the snow at the bottom to cushion the collision with the ground. He always felt lighter around him, able to forget the world for just a little bit; a chance he seized at every opportunity these days.

Minseok’s hand at the back of his neck was an icy touch, threatening to freeze his blood in his veins if it weren’t liquid fire. The grip taunted the line between tight and possessive, a nail caressing the side of his neck. Chanyeol revelled in it. 

“You’ll give me frostbite,” Chanyeol murmured against Minseok’s mouth. He chased another kiss, but Minseok drew back with a chuckle. 

“Frostbite,” he said, wonderingly. “Will I, now.” He finally allowed Chanyeol another kiss, only to then catch his bottom lip with his teeth. A sting of pain, but not enough to draw blood. “There.”

“Some bark, slight bite,” Chanyeol teased, tongue darting out to at the spot Minseok bit. 

“Later,” Minseok said, promised, eyes closing on another sigh. “What did you find in there?”

Chanyeol immediately sobered up. He procured the notebook and handed it to Minseok, who skimmed it quietly. 

“Good,” he murmured, turning a page. “It mentions his vitals here: ‘Stable’. The state of his powers, here: ‘Weakened, further tests required’. What are they doing?”

“I don’t think I want to know,” said Chanyeol grimly, but knew he needed to. Eventually. “Does it say more?”

“No,” Minseok said, leafing through the notebook. “I do not think so. It looks new, so perhaps they forgot it in their haste to get away.”

“Perhaps,” Chanyeol said. 

“Well,” Minseok said, squaring his shoulders and looking at Chanyeol with an arched brow. “Let’s get outta here.”

Chanyeol ducked down to steal another kiss, Minseok’s lips pulling into a smirk at the move, and grabbed his hand. 

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

This round's challenge was Rare Gems, aka rare pairings. I went with Chanyeol and Minseok because their powers are fun and because I was running out of time. This may be mostly nonsense, but oh well. It was fun!