Sehun fell asleep, curled up, on the couch after he finished eating. Jongin contemplated moving him back to his bed, but decided that he looked too peaceful to be disturbed. He covered the younger with a blanket and gently slid a pillow under his head. Jongin himself went back to sleep in his own room.

            He tried to be quiet, to not wake Kyungsoo, but Kyungsoo woke up anyway.

            “Jongin?”

            Jongin froze. “Sorry, hyung. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

            Kyungsoo squinted at the clock. “It’s past three in the morning, Jongin-ah. Why aren’t you asleep?”

            “I um…I couldn’t sleep.”

            Kyungsoo murmured something that Jongin couldn’t make out. When Jongin walked over to the other’s bed, he saw that Kyungsoo had fallen back asleep. Smiling, he slid into his own bed and closed his eyes.

            Less than two hours later, Joonmyun was gently shaking him awake.
            “Wake up, Jongin-ah. You have filming to do today.”

            Jongin groaned and rubbed his eyes. Joonmyun’s hair was still wet from his shower, and Jongin felt a couple drops of water fall on his face. The elder looked tired, but he still smiled at him.

            “Where’s Kyungsoo hyung?”

            “Already awake. He’s in the kitchen.”

            Jongin rolled over and swung his legs off of the bed. “Kyungsoo’s always in the kitchen.”

            Joonmyun laughed and pulled him up. “Well lucky for us he is. Could you imagine what we would do without him?”

            “Starve.”

            “Yeah, probably. Now go take a shower.”

            Jongin walked out of the shower, toweling his hair dry, when Kyungsoo yelled at him to hurry up because he was late and hadn’t even eaten breakfast yet. Jongin rolled his eyes, but inside he knew that Kyungsoo yelled at him because he cared about him.

            Sehun was curled up on the couch, nibbling on a piece of bread when Jongin came in the living room. Kyungsoo had on an apron, and Jongin had to bite his lip to keep himself from laughing. Thankfully, Kyungsoo didn’t notice.

            “What do you want to eat?”

            “Just…just bread.”

            “Just bread?! But you have to dance today.”

            “But I have to wear that ridiculous jacket and I don’t want to look fat.”

            Kyungsoo rolled his eyes and laughed. “Okay, fine. That actually makes sense.”

            Sehun fell asleep in the car, his head resting on Jongin’s shoulder. Jongin turned his head to look at the younger, his hair falling into his eyes, which were slightly rimmed with dark circles, evidence of his lack of sleep.

            Jongin closed his eyes as their makeup artist began applying the thick foundation he needed to wear for his skin to look nice under all the lights. He didn’t particularly enjoy the feeling of makeup covering his face, but it was bearable.

            Sehun was sitting next to him, still dozing off a little. Jongin elbowed him.

            “I thought you were nervous.”

            Sehun started awake. “Well I’m sleepier now.” He sounded so petulant that Jongin had to laugh.

            Sehun was awake by the time they were on the set. He didn’t look as nervous as Jongin thought he would be; he looked actually quite relaxed. Jongin bit his lip and waited for the director to give them their cue, willing himself to become Kai again. He tried to tug down his jacket, but it was a fruitless attempt. The jacket had been designed to be revealing, and half of the time Kai felt like he might as well just take it off, because it wasn’t really covering anything anyway.

            When the music started, Kai looked over at Sehun, and their eyes met for just a second. Reflexively, Kai felt his body dance the dance that he and Sehun had worked so hard on for weeks. He saw, out of the corner of his eye, Sehun dancing, and that they were perfectly in sync. Like always. He smiled to himself.

            The director made them go through a couple takes, because they wanted to ‘experiment with shadows’ or something. Kai didn’t complain, because when he danced with Sehun, it was different. When he danced alone, he felt powerful, and in control. When he danced with Sehun, he still felt powerful, but he also felt complete.

            He wasn’t alone anymore.

            The director let them watch the raw video they had gotten from the takes, and Jongin and Sehun laughed at their ‘y’ faces onscreen.

            “I look like a offender,” Sehun deadpanned, watching the video. Jongin laughed, because, well, he kind of did.

            Sehun huffed. “Well you look like a with that jacket of yours, so I wouldn’t be laughing.” Jongin rolled his eyes and slung his arm over Sehun’s shoulders. “We should have switched outfits. Then I could make fun of you for looking like a offender and a .”

            Sehun laughed, sarcastically. “I disapprove of that idea.”

            “I don’t,” Jongin said, ruffling the younger’s hair. Sehun batted his hand away, but he was smiling.

            Sehun had the next day off, because his next teaser didn’t require any dancing. Jongin grumbled and got up early in the morning and went to the practice room to practice yet another dance. Yixing joined him not long after he arrived to practice their next dance.

            Working with Yixing was easy, because they were very similar in dance styles.

           Jongin thought that out of all the guys, Yixing was the one that understood his passion for dancing. Like him, Yixing had been dancing since he had been young, but the difference was that Jongin had taken lessons and Yixing hadn’t.

            But Yixing had something that the rest of them lacked: experience. He had been a child star in China, and he was used to the cameras on him. He was the calm one, never perturbed by a camera here and there.

            Jongin thought that he had been quite the dominant alpha male when they had first met. Yixing was quiet, but powerful.

            Then he saw the videos of him when he had been a child star.

            Yixing had been just ing adorable back then.

            Not that Jongin ever, ever mentioned that to Yixing.

            After a couple runthroughs, Yixing stripped down to his tank top, and Jongin did too, because it’s hot in the practice room and they’re sweating like crazy. Yixing took a deep breath and said, “Another?”

            Jongin grimaced but nodded.

            Sometimes, Jongin wondered why they push themselves like this. There was no one really that forced them to do so. They just did it to themselves.

            Yixing collapsed next to the wall after a couple of hours, and Jongin was starting to feel the painfully familiar tingles in his back. He turned the music off and sat against the wall, willing the pounding in his head to go away.

            “I think that’s enough for today,” Yixing said, and Jongin agreed.

            “Hyung?”

            Yixing lifted his head. “Yeah?”

            “What’s it like?”

            “What’s what like?”

            Jongin hesitated. “Being in front of cameras.”

            Yixing laughed, bitterness coating the sound. “Cameras. They’re not really what they’re cracked up to be. Overrated. Not,” he added, seeing Jongin’s disappointed face, “that they’re boring. It’s a lot of fun to be on camera. To have an audience. You’ll love it. You’re a natural, anyway.”

            Jongin coughed. “I am not a natural.”

            Yixing’s eyes flickered toward him. “From what I’ve heard, you are.”

            Yixing ended up treating Jongin to dinner at the neighborhood noodle house. At first, he demanded that Jongin do something cute, but Jongin just stared at him like he was crazy.

            “Something cute?!”

            Yixing nodded. “You’re the second to youngest. You have to have something that’s cute!”

            Jongin thought about it. Then, “No. Nothing.”

            Yixing rolled his eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. All of the younger members are cute.”

            Jongin made a face. “Not me.”

            After about twenty minutes of this, Yixing finally gave up and agreed to pay.

            “You owe me for this,” he grumbled while paying the bill. Jongin just smiled into his noodles.

            When they got back to the dorm, most everyone was there. Except Sehun and Luhan.

            “Oh, they’re out shopping or eating or something,” Joonmyun said when Jongin asked.

            “Oh.”

            “They’ll be back soon.”

            Jongin nodded distractedly and went to his room. Kyungsoo was already in there, poring over a thick book. He looked up and smiled when Jongin came in.

            “Hey, how was practice?”

            Jongin threw himself on his bed. “Fine.”

            “Just fine?”

            Jongin shrugged. “Nothing special, really. What are you reading?”

            “Huh? Oh this? It’s a cookbook.”

            Jongin snorted. “Only you would read a cookbook.”

            Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. “I read cookbooks in order to feed all of you children. What would you do without me? I’m the only one that cooks around here.”

            “I can cook.”

            “Don’t be ridicu–wait you can cook?”

            Jongin laughed. “My definition of ‘cook’ and your definition of ‘cook’ are different.”

            Kyungsoo looked slightly disappointed. “Oh.”

            Just then, Joonmyun stuck his head inside their door. “Sehun’s back, if you were interested, Jongin.”

            Jongin jumped up. “Thanks.”

            Joonmyun nodded and left.

            Right before Jongin left the room, Kyungsoo said, “You really care about him a lot, don’t you.”

            Jongin stopped for a moment, confused. “What do you mean?”

            Kyungsoo fidgeted with one of the pages of the cookbook. “You always run to him.”

            Jongin was silent.

            Kyungsoo fidgeted some more with the page. “It’s just, you seem really attached to him. More attached to him than he is to you.”

            Jongin drew back, slightly offended. “Are you saying I’m clingy?”

            “I’m saying, be careful.”

A/N: /is also in the middle of writing Assassin!EXO because Bourne movies omfg.

if you have a pairing request (anything except krisyeol, taoris, chantao...just not taorisyeol omg I just can't write taorisyeol T.T) (and not layhan or sukai because I wrote oneshots for them already aslkfjas;ld I'll post them soon :3), message me on tumblr, and I might be able to write it for you in the assassins au(: