"Hey, where'd you put the case for Bourne Supremacy?" Kai yelled to Lay, pulling the cushions off the couch and tossing them haphazardly across the room. The living room looked like a war zone; pillows and blankets lay strewn across the floor, along with a good majority of the DVDs and video games that had formerly occupied the shelves along the wall. There were also chip bags, empty soda cans, and crumbs, crumbs, and more crumbs. It had been a long night of movies and gaming for the two boys, and despite the fact that the sun had come up two hours before, they had no intention of quitting anytime soon.

     It was Kai's pick next, and Lay had wandered out onto the balcony with a freshly opened can of Mountain Dew while they took a five minute break between movies. "No idea," Lay mumbled, not nearly loud enough for the other boy to hear him from inside. His gaze was trained on something far more interesting at the moment.

    "Dammit, Lay! Come help me look for it!"

    "I can't right now," Lay replied, raising his voice just enough to carry to the other.

    "And why is that?"

    "Something's going down in one of our neighbors' apartments."

    "Is someone getting murdered?"

    "What? No."

    "Well, if you don't get your in here and find the case that you seem to have lost, there's going to be a murder! I bet the neighbors will love to see that, you creepy peeper."

    "Oh shut up. I'm sure it's there somewhere."

    Kai sighed, giving up for the moment, and walked out onto the balcony to stand beside Lay. He followed the other's gaze to one of the nearby apartments, where the curtains to the balcony were wide open. Inside, he could see two guys in what appeared to be a very heated argument. A third guy in sunglasses was sitting off to the side, looking downright sullen. "Dude, they're just having an argument. I thought someone was getting the lights knocked out of them or something."

    Before Lay could even open his mouth to reply, one of the arguing guys decked the other, sending him to the floor. He slammed his head against a table on the way down and didn't appear to be moving. Kai and Lay couldn't help but stare, wide-eyed and speechless, at what happened next. The gloomy guy with the sunglasses looked up suddenly as the other just sort of stood there with a shocked expression on his face. Sunglasses got up and walked over to him, and they exchanged a few words before they knelt down by the injured guy. He still wasn't moving. Suddenly, Sunglasses looked up and out the window, straight at Kai and Lay whose hearts were pounding violently in their chests. They didn't waste a moment before dashing inside, shutting the sliding door and curtains behind them. "Holy !" Lay exclaimed when they were safely hidden inside.

    "Oh my god, dude! Was that guy dead? He saw us, man! That guy saw us! Isn't this the part in the movies where there's a knock at the door and we get axe-murdered?!"

    "Holy , we're going to die! We saw too much! We have to hide! Quick, where's our panic room?!"

    "What the are you talking about?! We don't have one of those!"

    "Well, why not?! We have to hide!"

    Kai thought for a moment before sprinting down the hall and into his room.

    Lay bounded after him, yelling, "Wait up! You can't just leave me here!" He burst into the room just in time to see Kai's feet disappear under the bed, and wasted no time in following suit.

    "Hey," Kai gasped softly, trying to quiet his breathing. His eyes were wide, and his gaze darted to the various openings surrounding them. "If we make it out of here alive, will you join the dance crew I'm thinking of starting?"

    "I'd love to, man," Lay whispered.

    "Cool. So, uh... Do you think we could get Kris to come save us?"

    "Depends. Do you think he has anything else he might be doing right now? Because if he does... we might be here a while."

    "It's worth a shot, right? I mean, if anyone could rescue us from being put on ice... it'd be him, right?"

    "I... left my phone on the couch."

    Kai rolled onto his back and crept toward the opening on the side of the bed. His phone lay on the nightstand, the cord to his charger dangling beside the bed. A quick yank of the cord brought his phone falling to the floor, and Kai snatched it up before scurrying back under cover. "I just hope he answers..."

    It took three tries before Kris finally picked up. "What?"

    "Hyung! You have to save us!" Kai exclaimed, his tone panicked. Lay put a finger to his lips, reminding Kai of the importance of their oh-so-stealthy hiding.

    "What the hell did you do now? It's not even ten in the morning yet, Kai. If you and Lay went and started another stupid bar brawl or got yourselves stuck in a sewer thinking to become some kind of mutant superheroes, you can just get out of this one yourselves."

    "Hyung! It isn't like that this time! You have to help us!"

    "I can't. I'm very busy."

    Another voice in the background on Kris's end, "Gege, hurry up. The movie starts in thirty minutes. We have to go."

    "Why not?" Kai whined.

    "I have to... wash my cat. It's very important."

    "Can't it wait, Hyung? Wait, I didn't know you had a cat. Lay, did you  know he had a cat? Wait, that's beside the point! Hyung, we witnessed someone getting murdered! You have to save us! They saw us, so they know we saw!"

    Kris sighed. "Fine. I'll be over... in a while. I have to do some stuff, so just wait."

    "Did he say he'd come?" Lay asked when Kai hung up. "What was that about him having a cat?"

    "He said he had to wash his cat, but I think he'll be over soon."

    "Oh. Okay. Well, that sounds fair."

    "Yeah. You know, I'm... really tired."

    "Me too... But you know, that party last... no, the night before last... was awesome."

    "Totally worth skipping sleep for."

    "Yeah."

    "Last night, too."

    "Yeah."

    "I'm gonna sleep now."

    "Yeah."

_____________________________________________________________


    "Kai. Kai! Wake up!"

    The younger boy snuffled in his sleep with an irritated expression on his face, and kicked his legs out in a violent assault.

    "Ah! Mother—! Wake up, Kai!" Lay hissed, punching the younger boy in the ribs.

    "What the !" Kai exclaimed, snapping awake. He quickly took in his surroundings, finally settling his angry gaze on the boy who was whimpering and rubbing his leg. "Did you just hit me?"

    "You kicked me!"

    "Well you—Hey..." Kai fell silent for a moment, glancing around skeptically. "We're not dead."

    "No, we're not," Lay replied. "Do you think it's safe to go out?"

    Kai shrugged, but slowly began dragging himself out on his elbows, peering around the room anxiously. Lay soon followed, and the two crept down the hallway.

    "How long were we asleep? Has Kris not come yet? Kai, I really don't want to die. That dance crew idea you had sounds fun, and there's that new game coming out next month that I really want to play."

    Kai ignored the older boy as they came into the empty living room. He peeked into the kitchen, checking for intruders, but still found none. On the counter, however, he saw a sheet of paper weighted down by a glass.

    "What's that?"

    Kai shrugged again, walking over to pick it up.

"Leave me out of your creepy slumber party games."

    "What the hell does that mean?" Lay asked, reading over Kai's shoulder.

    "Think it's from Kris?"

    "It's his handwriting."

    "That bastard just came and left without saving us!"

    "I can't believe he's making his unfunny jokes when our lives are on the line. I hope he gets herpes. Wait, no I don't. I hope he gets his kicked by that creepy roommate of his!"

    "I think," Kai began slowly, turning to face the other boy, "that we should probably go into hiding."

    "Huh?"

    "Well, it's obvious that they know where we are now. We need to hide."

    "I thought we did that already," Lay pouted.

    "But what if they're just gathering their forces? Or calling up some hulking hired killer minion to come after us? We have to leave!"

    Lay's eyes widened. "Where do we go?"

    "Maybe we can stay with friends. Anywhere's gotta have more survival supplies than we have here. Our zombie survival stockpile has really been hit hard by our marathon nights."

    The other nodded in agreement. "Who do you think we should stay with?"

    "Hmmm.. I think maybe we should split up. Our chances will be better, I think."

    "Good idea. Let's go pack!"
 

A/N

sleep deprivation does not agree with Kai

tell me what you thought of this :) I'll have the timeline up for the next chapter, 'cause the TaoRis story line starts after that ^_^