Being the second-in-command to the most powerful man in two countries was a heady feeling.  Baekhyun enjoyed the power that was reflected off Kris onto him, and even didn’t mind handling everything.  Although Kris was the mastermind behind every move their organisation made, he had no patience with any part of the actual process. 

“Baekhyunnie,” Kris said, beckoning him over.  “Suho’s payment just came through.  Could you log this for me?”

With a sigh, Baekhyun went over to the computer, and brought his ledger to make the accurate notations while Kris sat off to one side and watched. 

“I’ve been thinking about that vase they said was available,” Kris commented, almost off-handedly. 

“You want it?”

“It may have information on the Agency,” he said.  “It’s full of government information.  We still need to know who we’re up against, but since they don’t even admit that there is an Agency, we can’t exactly just stroll up and ask for what we need to know.”  He toyed idly with a pen, balancing it on the tip of one finger. 

“Do you think it’s worth it?”

Kris frowned.  “They want the status of having traded with me,” he said, matter-of-factly.  “I want the vase.  In the end, we could contract with D.O. to have them taken care of later.”

Baekhyun finished noting the payment, and turned to face Kris fully.  “I’ll have to organise with Chen, and possibly Xiumin,” he said.  “I don’t trust either of those boneheads to pull it off by themselves.”

“Chen is worth his little eccentricities,” Kris said, and drew Baekhyun into his lap.  “Xiumin is just necessary.”  Baekhyun leaned against Kris’s broad shoulder.  Their Arrangement worked well.  Kris provided the name, Baekhyun the work.  They were each available to one another physically whenever they wanted, and still free to pursue the other people who might have interested them.  Kris’s fingers danced up the column of Baekhyun’s throat.  “Come to bed with me tonight,” he said.  “It’s going to be a while.  I have to go back to Vancouver tomorrow.”

Baekhyun followed him willingly. 

*

The next morning, Baekhyun was up with the sun and walked down to a nearby coffee shop.  Kris was already on a plane out of the country, and Baekhyun missed him as soon as he’d gone through the terminal.  Maybe I’ll find something to occupy my time while he’s gone, he mused.  As a regular in the coffee shop – it served the best of everything within a ten mile radius, and the proximity to the apartment he shared with Kris was an added bonus – the barista didn’t even have to wait for him to give his order.  He caught a glimpse of himself reflected in the window, and was startled by his own appearance.  Kris had decided that since they were about to step up their game, he needed to go out in ‘disguise’, which, according to Kris, meant taking the time to straighten the wavy curls out of his hair and wear brown contacts.  It did make a difference in his appearance, especially when he smiled. 

He accepted his coffee and was stepping away from the counter when his foot caught the bottom half of a nearby display, sending him crashing into the person in front of him.  He heard coffee hit the ground, and tried to think of what ‘normal’ people would do in this kind of situation. 

“Sorry, sorry,” he said, hurriedly.  “I tripped.”  There was something missing – Kris was always telling him to think of other people, too – and then he realised what it was.  “Are you alright?”

The guy he’d bumped into pouted down at the spilled coffee, before turning around.  Baekhyun’s breath caught – for looks, this guy was almost the equal of Kris himself.  Wow, he thought. 

“I’m fine,” the guy said, with a cute lilting accent Baekhyun couldn’t immediately place, and glanced quickly down at his spilled coffee.  The barista was already coming around the corner with a mop. 

Think of other people, Baekhyun reminded himself.  What would the appropriate excuse be?  The earliness of the morning might be acceptable.  “I’ve never been so clumsy in my life,” he said, trying to look earnest and apologetic.  “But I’m not usually a morning person.  Let me buy you another one to make up for it.”  Name, he reminded himself.  “I’m Byun Baekhyun, by the way.”

“Zhang Yixing,” the other man said, and Baekhyun realised where the accent came from.  He must be Chinese, Baekhyun thought, and decided that if he ever got an opportunity to go to China, he had to take it if all of their men looked like Kris and this Yixing.  “I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but you killed my coffee.  I’m not a morning person either, and I got woken up with a phone call about an urgent meeting in the office,” he added. 

Baekhyun was completely out of his element.  He tried smiling supportively, but the way he’d talked of the coffee… “Killed it,” he echoed, utterly befuddled.  He hadn’t shot it, or stabbed it, or poisoned it… The barista had finished mopping up the remnants of the man’s drink, and had already prepared him another one.  Think of other people! Baekhyun reminded himself.  He wanted to get to know this man who talked intimately of coffee, and looked like a foreign god brought to earth, especially with his cute little accent, and remembered a movie Kris had made him sit through.  “If it really meant that much to you, I’ll need to take you out sometime to really apologise,” he said, and smiled again awkwardly. 

The man was silent for so long, Baekhyun thought his chances were gone.  “Maybe not,” he said, waiting for some kind of reaction. 

“Yes!” Yixing said, a little wildly.  “I mean, okay.” 

The smile became more natural on his face at Yixing’s obvious excitement.  Then he thought of all the things he had to do while Kris was gone, and realised he had no way of specifying a date for their outing.  “I have a busy schedule,” he hedged. “Do you have a phone?”

“Who doesn’t?” Yixing asked, and dug his phone out.  Baekhyun gave his number, and Yixing called it.  Baekhyun proved that the number was legitimate, and they paused where they were for a few moments to save the new contact.

“Call me sometime, or text,” Baekhyun offered.  “I’m actually late, though, so I’ve got to go.” 

“It was nice to meet you,” Yixing said, glancing at his phone for the time.  Baekhyun couldn’t help himself.  His eyes dipped down to take in Yixing as a whole, and he found himself extremely pleased with what he saw.

“Mm,” he said, and then remembered that Yixing didn’t speak noise.  “It was nice to meet you too.”  His phone rang, the ringtone telling him it was Kris.  Excited by the day’s events, despite the fact that it wasn’t yet seven, he rushed for the door to answer it without being overheard.  “Baekhyun here,” he said, answering it once he was free of the store.

“We’re stuck for ‘emergency repairs,’” Kris said, his tone expressing his disgust with public transport. 

“I’m sorry,” Baekhyun said.  “Want me to have them killed?”

“No, I don’t think that would work.  Also, that’s an inappropriate response.”

Baekhyun sighed.  “You’d have been proud of me just now, though.”

“For threatening violence?”

“No!  I made a date, all on my own.”  He felt like a little kid reporting good grades to his parents – or how he imagined a little kid reporting grades would feel.  He wanted Kris to be proud of him that he’d managed to not alienate someone normal.  And dating would help with his cover, and practice in being like everyone else.  His unusual childhood meant that he’d never had any of the things most of the people passing him on their daily commute took for granted.  It was only since Kris had taken him in that he’d even realised that there was something wrong with him. 

“Already?  How did you manage that?”

Baekhyun looked both ways for traffic before crossing the street that would take him back to his shared apartment.  “Bumped into someone in the coffee shop,” he said.  “He was cute, so I asked him out.  It was easy, he said yes.”

“I told you that you could do it,” Kris said, and Baekhyun could hear the smile in his voice even through the phone.  “Oh, they’re telling us to turn our phones off.  I’ll call you again when I land.  Try not to kill anyone while I’m gone.”

“You got it, Boss,” Baekhyun said and hung up his phone.  Back in his apartment, he sat at the counter and inhaled the scent of his coffee.   He was going to need the caffeine jolt if he was going to be working with Dumb and Dumber.  He called Chen when he was through with it, and feeling energetic enough not to want to reach through the phone and put a knife through the other man’s eye. 

“Chen here,” he answered.

“It’s Number One,” Baekhyun said, using the ridiculous nickname they’d given him.  It had something to do with proximity to Kris, he knew, and he was vaguely aware that D.O. was referred to as Number Two, Chen was Three, Suho Four, and Xiumin Five, and that together they were collectively known as Kris’s Hand, despite the fact that D.O. was only peripherally associated with Kris and his operation.  Still, it helped in the seedy underworld to be perceived as so powerful, and Baekhyun didn’t argue with it.  Chen’s indrawn breath told Baekhyun volumes about how excited Chen was to be hearing from him. 

“One,” he said reverently.  “Why are you – I mean, hi.  What can I do for you?”

Trying to ignore the voice in the back of his head chanting idiot, idiot, idiot, Baekhyun took a deep breath and seized his limited patience with both hands.  “I need you to get Xiumin, and run backup for me on a job for Kris.”

Chen was silent for a moment, and Baekhyun wondered if he was going to have to repeat himself.  Then, in a surprising move that proved he wasn’t always as stupid as he looked, Chen said, “For the vase?”

“Yes.”

“We heard rumours he was going after it.  We’ll be ready.  Just say the word.”

“I’ll call you later,” Baekhyun said, and hung up.  He checked his email, and found a letter from Kris. 

Baekhyunnie, it read.  I’ve made a few phone calls, and I’m about to call you as well.  I’ve arranged for the vase to be transferred at a warehouse down by the pier.  Suspect Agency involvement, because Jongin was handling it and he’s been undercover for me on another job for a while.  He gives us good information, but don’t trust him with too much.   He also passes stuff for the other side.  Take whoever you need, and remember: TRY NOT TO KILL ANYONE WHILE I’M GONE. ~k

Baekhyun sighed.  Kris was such a killjoy.  He would have really enjoyed taking Jongin out, if only to stop the two-way flow of information, but he knew that Kris found the man useful.  The details of the warehouse and how much they were asking for the trade-off were included beneath the body of the message, and Baekhyun debated on whether or not to call Chen back right away.  Deciding he couldn’t handle that much idiocy this early in the morning, he turned the television on for background noise and began his morning work-out routine. 

*

Not trusting Chen or Xiumin to remember to wipe their asses after using the bathroom, Baekhyun went down and scoped out the warehouse sometime after noon.  It was clear that no one had been in for a very long time, and the dust was three inches thick in places.  He wrinkled his nose at the filth, and swept it from the floors after he noticed he was leaving clear tracks in it.  There was nothing he could do about everything else, but he did notice that there was a nice clear space in the middle of the collected junk where they would be able to meet secretly without attracting too much attention.  When he was satisfied that the warehouse would be secure, he left and called Chen up to pass on further instructions. 

Then he went out to eat and thought about Yixing until it was time to prepare for the job run.  Chen and Xiumin met him there, and Baekhyun’s fingers twitched, aching for a knife or a gun or even a taser.  All he had was the chloroform in his pocket – Kris had reiterated his orders not to kill anyone several times, and Baekhyun knew that if he did it anyway, Kris would be very unhappy, and maybe wouldn’t let him keep seeing Yixing.  He’d taken a shower to let his hair curl naturally, and taken out the contacts so that they would see him as “Number One” and not Byun Baekhyun. 

When his face fell into its usual stony expression, Chen blanched and pushed open the door. 

“I can’t see a thing in here,” he said, complaining already.  It was dim in the cluttered warehouse, but Baekhyun had remembered to close his eyes before stepping inside and didn’t have as much problems with letting his eyes adjust to the light.  “Sure we can’t use flashlights?” Chen added, and Baekhyun chanted don’t kill him, don’t kill him, in the back of his mind. 

“Sure, Chen,” Xiumin said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.  “If you want to announce to everyone that we’re here.” 

“Don’t be an , Xiumin,” Chen snapped.  “It’s ing cold in here, too.” 

Baekhyun took a deep breath, and tried to remember why he couldn’t kill them.  “Boys, boys,” he said smoothly, his voice betraying none of his inner turmoil.  “No need to fight.”  He grit his teeth.  “And Chen, watch your language.” 

“Yeah, Chen, watch your ing language,” Xiumin muttered.  Baekhyun lost his grip on his thinly tethered control and spun around to sink his fist into Xiumin’s stomach.  Xiumin grunted and doubled over, but Baekhyun was already moving on.  He’d been warned to watch out for Agency interference, and he wanted to scope out the warehouse before the others came to make the exchange.  He did find one person hidden carefully behind a stack of – something, and withdrew the chloroform-soaked rag silently before slipping up behind him.  In the distance, he could see the criminals who’d stolen the vase and implanted the secrets on it enter and converse with Chen and Xiumin.  He hated leaving those two bumbling fools to do it themselves, but he had to get the watching man out of the way first.   With both arms, he immobilized the probable agent and knocked him out before letting him down gently.  He didn’t think Kris would like it if one of the others killed anyone, either, and he knew that Xiumin, at least, was armed.  That meant he couldn’t let them know they were being spied on.  

He stepped over the limp body and didn’t give it another thought, rejoining the others.

“Where did you go?” Xiumin asked.  

“Just making sure there were no witnesses,” Baekhyun replied. 

“Find anything?” 

“Just a rat,” Baekhyun lied. 

Chen shivered. “Eeugh, rodents,” he muttered.  Chen tried to be high-class, but often failed and became more humorous than anything else.  He turned to the other men and tried to pretend like he hadn’t just freaked out.  “Well, we’re all agreed then, gentlemen?”

Baekhyun stayed back and watched them, trying to memorise their faces while Chen and Xiumin made the exchange.  One of them nodded.

“Not a word,” he agreed.  “The vase is yours, the money is ours, and none of us was ever here.”  He held out the vase while Xiumin held out the money.  Chen took the vase as one of the others took the briefcase, and then they all turned and tromped out. 

“Have a good night, boys!” Baekhyun called, pleased that everything had gone so smoothly.  Then, once they were gone, he turned to Xiumin.  “Get D.O. on the phone,” he ordered.  “Chen, is it the real vase?  Kris won’t stand for counterfeits.”

Chen withdrew a magnifying glass from his pocket and Xiumin used the light from his cell phone to illuminate it while Chen studied the paint.  “There are definitely words in there, and microchips embedded in the glaze.  I doubt they’d have gone through that much trouble to forge it.”

Baekhyun smiled coldly.  “Good,” he said.  “Now let’s get out of this rat-infested hole and go home.”  They trooped towards the door.  Baekhyun gave the downed agent one last look, and mourned the missed opportunity to do damage to Kris’s largest enemy.  He had explicit orders, however, and he let it go before stepping out of the warehouse and taking the vase from Chen.  “Good work, boys,” he said. 

“D.O. says he’s on it,” Xiumin offered.  “Now I’m going home to bed.  It’s late.”  He and Chen left, and Baekhyun examined the vase under the light of the moon.  It was, frankly, hideous.  Apparently it was old, however, and worth a lot of money even before they decided to use it to smuggle state secrets.

He took it back to the apartment and shattered it with a hammer before going over every inch and removing the microchips.  The words, he knew, were a red herring to keep people from looking too closely at it.  Once he was satisfied that he’d removed everything important, he swept up the shards and set about arranging the chips so that they could be read by a computer.  Then he went to bed.

When he woke up a little after eleven, he fixed himself breakfast and debated calling Kris.  Then he reminded himself that Kris had promised to call him, and decided to call Yixing instead.  It went to voicemail, and Baekhyun injected a smile into his voice. 

“Hey, sleepyhead,” he began brightly.  “I hope you’re sleeping, and not deliberately ignoring my call.  It’s Baekhyun, remember me?  I wanted to know if you’d like to go out tonight.”  He hung up and did a quick search for good restaurants and nearby theatres.  There were several, and he made a decision at random.   Then, with nothing else to do, he watched TV and waited for Kris to call.

When his phone rang, it startled him out of a light doze.  “Baekhyun here,” he said.

“Jet lag,” Kris said mournfully.

“What?”

“I’m jet-lagged to hell,” Kris repeated.  “The time difference, I hate it.”  He sighed.  “Anyway, I wanted to make sure you got everything.”

Baekhyun nodded, forgetting for a moment that Kris couldn’t see him.  “It went smoothly.  There was an agent there, or someone – I assume it was an agent, who else would be hanging around an empty warehouse in the middle of the night? – but I took him down without killing him, just like you told me to.”

Kris’s voice glowed.  “Good job,” he said.  Baekhyun smiled.  “And you’ve got the information?”

“It’s still downloading from the chips,” Baekhyun said, and got up to check his computer just in case.  “What are you expecting on here?”

“Probably nothing,” Kris said.  “But if there’s anything, I want it whatever it is.”

“Okay.  How’s Canada?”

“Cold.  And lonely.  You still going out with that guy?”

“Mhm, Yixing.  Cute little businessman.  You’d probably like him.”

“Just don’t get too attached,” Kris warned.  Baekhyun scoffed. 

“I’m not capable of becoming attached,” he said.  Kris made a disbelieving noise.  “Okay, I’m attached to you, but that’s different.”

“You’d be surprised.  You’re already changing; your voice sounds different when you talk about him.”

Baekhyun blinked.  He’d never been attached to anyone in his life.  He wasn’t capable of feeling emotions the way other people did, and had no idea what Kris was talking about.  But he did like Yixing, as far as he was able.  “If you say so,” he said, dismissively. 

“I do.  I’ll be here for about two weeks, so try to stay out of trouble.”

“Got it.” They hung up, and Baekhyun redirected his attention to the television.  It only held so much interest for him, and when his phone rang again, he answered it eagerly.

“Hello?”

A nervous, lilting voice came through.  “Ah, hi.  Baekhyun?”  The caller grunted quietly, and then continued.  “It’s Yixing.  You called earlier?”

Baekhyun felt his entire mood lighten.  “Oh, hi!” he said.  “So you weren’t ignoring me.”

“Absolutely not,” Yixing said firmly.  “Just sleeping.  I work nights unless they call me in early.”

“For meetings?” Baekhyun asked, wondering what it was like to have a normal life like that, and do normal things like go to meetings.  Then, to prove he remembered the reason he’d asked Yixing out, he said, “I’m very sorry about the coffee.  I saw a few movies I’d like to see –” which was a bald-faced lie, he didn’t have any interest in staring at a screen for two hours, but he’d looked up ‘dates’ and discovered that dinner and a movie was a very popular option.  “And I wanted to know if you would do me the honour of accompanying me to one of them tonight?”

That was the truth.  He was looking forward to learning more about Yixing, and it surprised even himself. 

“For meetings,” Yixing agreed sourly.  Baekhyun found himself smiling at the tone of the other man’s voice.  “And I would love to see a movie with you tonight.  I don’t even care what it is,” Yixing continued, almost too fast.  Baekhyun remembered that awkward eagerness from the coffee shop, too, and realised that he might come to really like Yixing. 

He chuckled at himself and his bizarre musings.  “That’s good to know,” he said, and tucked it away for future reference.   Then he realised something was missing, and cast around for it.  Right, dinner.  “Do you want to get something to eat before or after?”

“Dinner, too?” Yixing asked, sounding surprised.  Baekhyun wondered if he’d made a mistake, but before he could take it back, Yixing was continuing.  “You really know how to treat a guy right.”  Baekhyun laughed again, pleased with himself.  Kris would be happy, too. 

“Dinner too,” he confirmed. 

“Before,” Yixing said decisively.  “I haven’t eaten yet today, and I don’t think I’ll make it through a whole movie.”

“Mm,” Baekhyun said.  “I’ll keep that in mind.  Meet you in front of the coffee shop?  Or do you prefer to drive?”

“On a first date, I definitely drive myself,” Yixing said.  Baekhyun decided this was good sense.  After all, there was no way to tell what type of person you were going out with.  You might be dating a sociopathic, emotionless killer after all.  He snickered at his own joke, and mentally reassured Yixing that he would be safe. 

“Just in case,” Baekhyun offered.  “Well, I’m not offended.  Do you know Luccesca’s?”

“It’s like you read my mind,” Yixing said brightly.  Baekhyun felt fluttery in his stomach, and wondered if that was normal.  “Six?”

“Six it is,” Baekhyun said.  “I’ll find you.”  His voice deepened on its own as he added, “Goodbye.”  He hung up without waiting for a response, and then called Kris back.

“Whazzit?” Kris mumbled.

“Did I wake you?”

Kris’s voice sharpened.  “Are you asking out of concern?”

Baekhyun waved it away.  “I’m practicing.  That’s a normal reaction, right?”  When Kris confirmed that it was the proper thing to say, he continued.  “I’m going out tonight with Yixing.  What should I do?”

“Are you nervous?”

Baekhyun considered.  He didn’t know what nervous was, besides a word.  How was he supposed to tell?  “I don’t know.” 

“Are you apprehensive?  Are you feeling butterflies in your stomach?  Are you wondering if it’s going to go alright, and if he’ll like you?”

Butterflies was an apt description of the feeling in his gut.  And now that Kris had asked, he realised he was wondering those things now.  “Yes,” he said.  “What should I do?”

“Dress nicely,” Kris commanded.  “Wear tight clothes that show off the shape of your body, and fix your hair so that it’s flat.  Put on a little bit of makeup, but not so much that it’s obvious.  Just a little bit around your eyes.  Pay attention to him, and find something to talk about that’s not too personal.”

Baekhyun committed the instructions to memory, but ran into a snag.  “Talk about what?”

“Politics,” Kris suggested.  “Ask him what he does for a living, how he likes living here.  Let the conversation flow, and don’t dominate it.”

“Okay. Uh, thank you, Kris.”

Kris snickered.  “It is weird to hear you thanking me,” he said.

“Is it wrong?”

“No, absolutely not.  But it’s weird, coming from you.  I’m just not used to it.  You’re doing good; Yixing will like you.”

Baekhyun felt a smile well up from deep inside before it burst across his face.  “I hope so,” he said, and was absolutely surprised at himself to find that he meant it. 

*

Luccesca’s was everything the online reviews promised.  A beautiful, spacious restaurant with friendly, knowledgeable staff and excellent food.  With Yixing there, Baekhyun barely noticed any of it.  He captured one of Yixing’s hands with his own, and gently ran his fingers over the sensitive skin, amused to see Yixing’s pupil’s dilate as he tried to keep his reaction under control.  As Kris suggested, he kept the topic of conversation light, and allowed Yixing to do the most talking.  When dinner was over, Baekhyun lead the way to the theatre and he and Yixing had a minor debate over which movie to see, but once they were seated, Baekhyun took Yixing’s hand back and continued petting it, just to feel the other man’s pulse leap. 

He kept his eyes on the screen, despite the fact that he had no idea what was going on and wouldn’t even have been able to say what the title of the film was.  About halfway through, though, he flicked his gaze to Yixing and saw the other man gazing at him with a glassy-eyed look.  The urge came upon him suddenly, and he knew he was going to act on it.  He had no impulse control, Kris said, but he was getting better…

This was not one of his better moments, though.  “I’m going to kiss you,” he breathed, and was rewarded with Yixing inhaling sharply with anticipation.  Baekhyun was less than pleased when he frowned and sniffed again. 

“Do you smell that?”

Wondering if there was something important he’d forgotten, Baekhyun sniffed the air.  The smell of smoke was redolent, and then a fire burst out of the screen, consuming it in seconds.  The smoke filled the theatre as people began screaming and panicking, rushing for the exits.  With a brief rush of admiration for the way Yixing didn’t lose his mind, Baekhyun ushered him into the aisle, tearing off his jacket to cover Yixing’s head.  He kept a tight grip on him, to make sure he didn’t stumble, and guided him through the smoke to the exit.  They were soaked from the fire control system by the time they made it to the safety of the parking lot. 

Inexplicably, Baekhyun was disappointed by the outcome of their date.  “That was a ty end,” he said, and noticed the approaching emergency vehicles.  He didn’t want to get caught there by the police – he officially didn’t exist, except for a brief background Kris had put together in case anyone decided to search for him, and it wouldn’t hold up to an in-depth look.  “Do you want to stay and talk to them?”  Kris was constantly reminding him to think of other people, and he knew that if Yixing felt the need to stick around and give a statement, he would be honour-bound to stay with him.  It wouldn’t do to flee the scene like a criminal, even if he hadn’t had anything to do with the fire.

Which, in this case, he actually hadn’t, and he was going to end whoever started it, or allowed it to start and interrupt his date. 

His estimation of Yixing went up several notches when the other man shook his head.  “I’m good,” he said.  “I have nothing to say anyway; we were there, the fire started, we got out.”  He coughed slightly, and Baekhyun couldn’t – and didn’t want to – resist the temptation any longer.  He seized Yixing by the shoulders, felt the other man tense slightly, and kissed him soundly on the mouth.  Yixing’s lips parted, and he took ruthless advantage of it, slipping his tongue in quickly.  He liked the taste, and the sensation and made a mental note to kiss him again sometime when they weren’t pressed for time.  When he pulled back, Yixing was glassy-eyed and breathing hard. 

“I’ve got to go,” Baekhyun said, and felt his own voice rumble in his chest.  “I’ll see you later?”

Yixing nodded vacantly.  “Wild dogs couldn’t keep me away,” he breathed.  The helpless, airy tone of his voice sent shivers up Baekhyun’s spine, but they were anything but unpleasant.  He found his car and before he drove away, saw Yixing standing where he’d left him, staring mistily, and waved.  A quick glance in the mirror told him that there was a silly smile on his face, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get it to go away. 

*

Sometime around midnight, his phone rang and startled him out of a sound sleep. 

“Baekhyun,” he mumbled.

“Bee, wake up.  I need you to go and get D.O. out of prison.”

Adrenaline surged through him, wiping away the lingering grogginess.  “What?”  It was Kris’s number and Kris’s voice, but why the hell would he need to get D.O. out of jail?

“He was arrested on the scene of a crime earlier.  Go now before they get a lock on him.” 

Baekhyun was up and moving before his brain finished processing the words.  Kris relayed a few more details about where he was, and how to best go about getting him out, and then hung up.  Baekhyun found himself uncharacteristically cussing out Kris during the short drive to the local jail.  He found it in an uproar.  It was a matter of extreme simplicity – he merely walked in, located D.O., and walked back out with him before anyone noticed that one of them was still wearing handcuffs.  If the place hadn’t been in chaos, he doubted he would have gotten away with it, but no one even stopped to look at them. 

“Thanks,” D.O. said, once they were safely away.  “Kris does good work.”

“So do you,” Baekhyun said.  “What did they catch you on, anyway?”

“Arson,” D.O. replied smoothly.  “You contracted me out on those guys, one of them was at the movies tonight. Probably celebrating.”

Baekhyun felt himself violently torn in two.  It wasn’t a situation he was familiar with.  On one hand, he had contracted the assassin to take care of the minor lordlings who’d traded the vase over.  On the other, D.O.’s actions had endangered Yixing.  Although Kris was always telling him to think of other people, this was the first time, the first situation in which he didn’t need to remind himself of that.  He was already thinking of Yixing. 

With nothing else to add, Baekhyun lapsed into silence and dropped D.O. off at a safe house he made regular use of. 

Kris was smuggling drugs into the country via small statues masquerading as art, and paintings with the drugs concealed in the frames.  Baekhyun was run ragged for days picking up the contaminated pieces, removing the drugs, and getting it to people like Chen and Suho who then disseminated it further, selling the drugs to the highest bidders and shuffling money back up the chain.  When he finally caught a break, the first person he wanted to see was Yixing, which surprised him.  Kris was due to fly back in sometime soon, but Baekhyun weighed the possibility of him coming in immediately versus the chance to spend some more time with Yixing. 

He realised he hadn’t eaten, looked up nearby restaurants, and discovered a cute little outdoor café that he wouldn’t have looked twice at two months ago.  Now he found himself thinking that Yixing might like it, and he went to check it out in person before he texted the other man with an invitation to lunch. 

The reply was instantaneous.  When and where?

Baekhyun snapped a picture of the café, framing it so that some of the lake was captured in the background, and replied, Here and now.

He was waiting by the fence when Yixing arrived.  “It’s good to see you again,” he said, and meant it.  His eyes trailed down Yixing’s lean body, taking him in like a starving man takes in a feast.  There was something soothing about Yixing, he realised.  Just standing next to him made Baekhyun feel calmer, less murderous. 

They sat down, placed their orders, and chatted about whatever came up, something Baekhyun felt wildly out of his depth doing.  Yixing didn’t seem to notice, or if he did, care.  Somehow the conversation turned to people were walking by, and Yixing pointed out a blonde foreign woman pushing a baby stroller in front of her as she jogged.

“Single mom,” he said.  “Probably divorced after the husband cheated on her.”

Baekhyun was amazed and guarded.  “How can you tell?”

“I don’t know.  I’m just making things up.  What do you think about that old man over there on the bench?”

He turned, looked at the old man.  Make up a story about him, he thought, curious.  “I think he’s lonely.  His wife is dying of cancer and he comes here to get away from the hospital.”

Yixing looked serious.  “That’s so depressing,” he said.

“And your single mom wasn’t?”

“Okay, something cheerful.  Those two kids, they’re going to grow up and find their soul-mates,” Yixing said, gesturing with his chin at two children playing nearby. 

“Do you believe in soul-mates?” Baekhyun found himself asking.  Yixing’s gaze came around slowly and settled on him.  Baekhyun felt a tingle in his gut when Yixing’s eyes met his. 

“I do,” he said quietly.  The waitress spoiled the moment by appearing then with their orders.  Halfway through the meal, Baekhyun saw Suho lurking just outside the fenced in dining area.  He discreetly checked his phone, and saw a text from Kris saying his plane had landed and he needed to be picked up.  Baekhyun sighed softly, and was trying to think of an excuse to leave Yixing despite having called him out when the other man excused himself to the restroom. 

As if Kris was watching, Baekhyun’s phone rang.  “Where are you?”

“Having lunch with Yixing,” Baekhyun replied, feeling uncharacteristically grumpy.

Kris was surprised.  “You’re still seeing him?”

“I was,” Baekhyun stressed.

“Make an excuse.  I need you to come get me off this damn plane.”

Baekhyun sighed again.  Kris had his ultimate loyalty, though, no matter how much he liked Yixing.  He flagged down the waitress and paid for the meal.  “Could you tell my companion that I had to leave?  It’s urgent, I’m sorry.  I’ll call him when I have a chance.” 

She agreed, and he over-tipped her.  The sunny smile she gave reinforced Kris’s lessons about thinking of other people first.  He’d just won himself an unlikely ally in the waitress, and he knew he would be able to call on her again if he needed something.  It was something to keep in mind.  The walk back to his apartment was lonely, though.

He couldn’t stop thinking of Yixing and how he must have felt coming back to see Baekhyun had left him.  He wondered how he would feel if Yixing left him, and the sensation made him want to shoot something.  Or someone.  I’m sorry, Yixing, he thought, and for the first time in his life, he meant it. 

He picked up Kris without any trouble, and ferried him back to the apartment.  “I’m calling Yixing to apologise,” he declared. 

Kris looked up from his ramyun noodles with a comically wide-eyed expression on his face.  “Do you –” he swallowed the noodles in his mouth and started again.  “Do you even know what that means?”

Baekhyun wrinkled his nose at Kris and withdrew his phone from his pocket.  Yixing answered after the first ring.  “I am so, so sorry, Yixing,” Baekhyun said before he could even say anything.  In the background, Kris choked and Baekhyun moved into another room to have his conversation privately.  “I didn’t want to leave you behind like that after I asked you out, but I didn’t have a choice, my boss called.” 

Yixing was silent for only a few seconds.  “I’ll forgive you on one condition,” he said.

Baekhyun didn’t even have to think about it.  “Name it.”

“Come over for a while.”

Baekhyun’s mind raced.  There was only one reason someone invited someone they were dating back to their apartment.  His pulse leapt into his throat as his voice dropped to a throaty murmur.  “I’d love to,” he said.  “But I don’t know where you live.”

Yixing gave the details of his apartment – they were surprisingly close to one another, Baekhyun realised, and then wanted to slap himself in the forehead.  They both walked to the coffee shop, albeit from different directions.  As soon as he hung up the phone, Baekhyun bolted for the kitchen.

“Yixing asked me over,” he said, and adrenaline set off a fight-or-flight response in him.  Since the situation warranted neither reaction, he was becoming overwhelmed.  “What do I do?”

Kris blinked at him for a few moments, and then the words apparently sank in because he sprayed the water he was drinking all over the counter.  “Yixing what?”

“Invited me to his apartment,” Baekhyun repeated, wondering what about it set off that reaction in Kris. 

“For ?”

“Why else would he invite me over?”

“Good point.”  Kris paced back and forth after mopping up the water with a paper napkin.  “First of all, don’t let him too close.  Stay in control, and don’t say too much.  Secondly, calm down.  You want to be y, not panicked.”

“In control and calm,” Baekhyun repeated.  “Okay.”  He folded his arms over his chest, realised the motion looked defensive, and lowered them to his side.  “Anything else?”

“Have a good time, but don’t get too comfortable.  I’m going to need your help later with Suho.  He’s being promoted, and we’re going to set him up as ringleader of the Circus tonight.”

The prospect of killing the current ringleader was a pleasant one, and Baekhyun practically skipped over to Yixing’s.  The other man opened the door slowly, showing sense, but the welcoming smile on his face when he saw Baekhyun standing on the other side ignited a warm glow in his chest that had nothing to do with the prospect of getting from someone new.  He invited Baekhyun inside, and Baekhyun looked around, curious.

“You live here?” It was so unlike the man he was coming to know, he wondered for a moment if he’d somehow been set up.

“I sleep here,” Yixing said offhandedly.  “I’m not in it, much.”

Which explained the unlived-in feel to the place.  Still, it wasn’t bad.  “It’s nice,” Baekhyun said, congratulating himself on making the compliment without having to deliberately remind himself to do it. 

“Would you like a drink?” Yixing asked, and looked nervous.  Hoping to placate him, Baekhyun agreed and followed him to the kitchen.  When Yixing bent over to dig two bottles out of the bottom of the fridge, Baekhyun found his eyes drawn to the way the material of his pants stretched across his . It was temptation too great to be ignored.  When Yixing straightened, holding two bottles of whatever-it-was, Baekhyun kept Kris’s advice in the back of his mind – stay calm and in control.  In control.

He backed Yixing up against the counter and kissed him.  It was just as thrilling the second time around as it had been in front of the burning theatre. 

When he finally pulled away, Yixing was panting slightly, a flushed look on his face.  He offered the drink silently, and Baekhyun took it and tipped his head back to take a long swallow, aware of Yixing’s eyes on him as he drank. 

“I like your kitchen,” Baekhyun said.  “But it’s not particularly comfortable.”

Yixing jumped and looked around the kitchen like he’d forgotten where they were.  Baekhyun felt smug.  “My room is completely off-limits,” he said.  “It is, to my utter shame, more like the aftermath of a natural disaster in there, and I’m not letting you see it until I’ve had a chance to pick everything up.”

Vaguely curious and wondering what the aftermath of a natural disaster would look like in a contained space such as a bedroom, Baekhyun nevertheless put it aside and looked over his shoulder to the living room.  “Your couch looks nice enough,” he said, and followed Yixing into the sitting room before pushing him down onto the cushions and crawling over him to kiss him again.  The position was advantageous, and Baekhyun felt his breath catch when Yixing pushed his hips up into Baekhyun’s body, displaying unmistakable evidence of arousal. 

Stay in control, Baekhyun thought.  “A word of caution,” he said.  “I am always on top.”  Which was a blatant lie, but Kris had told him that when dealing with Yixing to stay in control.  If he let Yixing dominate him, he would lose all control.  And, he found, he liked the idea of Yixing beneath him. 

Yixing, the little minx, rolled them.  Baekhyun hadn’t expected him to be so strong; he looked scrawny.  “Always?”

“Nothing comes near my ,” Baekhyun assured him, and maneuvered them so that he was on top again.  Yixing’s hands came up to cradle the swells of his , and Baekhyun was shocked at both the audacity and the sensation. 

“Not even like this?” Yixing teased.  Baekhyun was tempted to relent.

“That’s as close as you get,” he said finally, ing the shirt Yixing was wearing and kissing his way down Yixing’s throat.  The other man wasn’t idle, and Baekhyun was only distantly aware that he was getting into Baekhyun’s clothes at the same time.  The first touch of fingers against skin jolted Baekhyun like a lightning strike. 

It wasn’t until Yixing’s fingers found his piercings that things got really interesting, however.  Yixing touched them and actually pulled away, his eyes wide and his mouth a small round ‘o’ of surprise. 

Baekhyun couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up.  Yixing made him feel so many different things.  It was weird, but not altogether bad.  “Like it?”            

Yixing made no reply, opting instead to lift Baekhyun’s shirt entirely so he could see them.  “Holy hell,” he whispered hoarsely, reaching up with one finger to touch one of the rings.  “Didn’t that hurt?”

Baekhyun couldn’t remember if it hurt, not with Yixing touching them like that.  “Only a little at first,” he said.  “It’s so worth it now.  Especially when you pull on them like that.”  Like Kris, Yixing immediately tugged experimentally, sending a little shock of pure pleasure right to Baekhyun’s .  He down, and was pleased when Yixing slid slightly to make the angle more accommodating.  He was almost ready to just rub against him until they both came like that, when his phone started singing.

“Goddammit,” Baekhyun snarled.  Yixing’s face fell.  Determined to ignore the phone, Baekhyun tried to keep his attention on Yixing, but eventually the song became too annoying.  With a frustrated grunt, he threw himself off the couch and retrieved his phone.  “Yes?”

“I told you not to take too long.  Where the hell are you?”  Kris sounded frustrated.

Baekhyun looked at Yixing, and felt his lips curl into a smile.  “Out,” he said. 

“Jesus Christ,” Kris swore.  “Wrap it up and get back here; you can your boytoy later.”

Disappointed, Baekhyun shifted his attention to the wall.  “Yes, sir,” he said, mostly for Yixing’s benefit. 

“What?  Is he in the room with you?”

“Yes.”

“Be here as quickly as you can; we have a prime opportunity and I don’t want to miss the chance.”

Baekhyun nodded.  “I understand,” he said, and hung up the phone before slipping it into his pocket and straightening his shirt. 

Yixing let out a gusty sigh.  Baekhyun saw his expression close off, and wondered what was wrong.  “You’ve got to go, don’t you?”

“Sometimes I really, really hate my job,” Baekhyun said, and meant it.  He’d have given anything to get that expression off Yixing’s face.  Yixing escorted him to the door, and waited while Baekhyun put his coat back on.  When Baekhyun turned back around to face him, all he could see was Yixing’s wide eyes, mussed up hair from Baekhyun’s fingers raking through it, and his shirt still half-off.  With two steps, Baekhyun was back on him, one hand in his hair as he kissed Yixing one last time.  “If it were anyone but my boss,” he murmured.  “Dream about me tonight,” he demanded. 

Yixing melted against him, pliant in his arms.  The heady feeling of power and pleasure and domination curled in his stomach.  When Baekhyun released him, he took a long pull of his drink and nodded.  “You too,” he replied. 

“Dammit,” Baekhyun said.  “Dammit.”  He whirled around before Yixing tempted him to go back into that apartment and baptize the couch, and whipped his phone back out of his pocket, redialing Kris as he stepped into the elevator.  “I am so mad at you right now,” he burst out when Kris answered.  “Couldn’t you have waited ten more minutes?”

“Give yourself some credit, Baekhyunnie,” Kris said.  “To do it right you would have needed at least thirty.  But no,” he added.  “Chen is in position now and we’re never going to have a better chance at getting Suho up to ringleader.”

“Not with the way things were going,” Baekhyun muttered.  “Fine.  I’m on my way.” 

Baekhyun selected a thirteen-inch hunting knife, deciding that the hands-on approach to blood, gore, and guts suited his mood.  He could have shot them just as easily, but the endorphins were still running high in him and his body buzzed with unreleased tension.  Once they arrived at the Circus, it was disgustingly easy to take out the prior ringleader and install Suho on the top rung.  Kris did let him take the body apart to work off his excess energy, and Baekhyun was feeling sleepy and sated by the time he was done. 

*

A week and a half later word came back from Kris that the mysterious Agency had snuck into the Circus and arrested Suho right out from under everyone’s noses.  Baekhyun was running around like a chicken without a head trying to get the Circus under control without tipping off the police who were also rounding up known criminals. 

His phone buzzed with an incoming text message, and he checked it with a sense of relief.  It was Yixing, not anyone else wanting him to do anything more. 

Yixing here, it said.  I’m having some kind of day.  Want to go out for a drink?

Baekhyun felt his heart leap into his throat, and then sink down into his stomach.  Oh, I’d love to but can’t, he replied, with real remorse.  My day is .  It started bad and has just gotten worse.  I don’t have time.  I don’t think I’m going to have time for at least a week.  Raincheck?

A week was a generous estimate.  More than likely it would take longer than that; Suho had started distributing drugs out of the Circus for them, and the police had found his stash and were likely to trace it.  He needed to use everything he had to keep one step ahead of them. 

Next week, then, and I’m holding you to it.

Baekhyun felt an honest smile curve his lips.  Yixing had taught him so much.  Chen caught sight of the smile and shuddered.  Thank you, Baekhyun replied.  Now I have a reason to make it past this week.  Looking forward to it.  Immediately, he tapped out another message as an impish impulse overtook him.  Make it something to really look forward to. Wear something y for me.

The silence went on for so long from Yixing that Baekhyun began to fear that he’d done something wrong.  Finally, his phone buzzed again.  Just so we’re clear, what constitutes y?  A maid’s uniform or something more subtle, like just showing up ?

Baekhyun spit out the coffee he’d been sipping and burst into helpless laughter.  Xiumin, dripping with coffee and spit, edged away from him with a look that was half-disgust and half-wariness.

“What’s so funny?” Chen asked.  “Why are you laughing?”

Baekhyun ignored them both and dialed Yixing’s number.  He answered immediately.

“Ah, hello?”

Between fits of laughter, Baekhyun forced the words out.  “I think,” he said, and snickered.  “I think that was the best thing I’ve heard all day.”

Yixing’s smile came through in his tone.  Baekhyun felt warm.  “Glad I could help,” he said. 

It set Baekhyun off again as he pictured Yixing in a saucy little skirt with an apron, or even better, just appearing .  But where would he appear?  Kris might be at the apartment, and they couldn’t go out in public like that.  “Oh,” he said.  “Oh, you have no idea how helpful that was. Though my assistant is now wearing the coffee I was drinking when I read that, and one of my associates is demanding to know what’s so funny.”  

Yixing gasped dramatically.  “Oh, god, don’t share that!”

“No worries, dear one.”  The endearment slipped out unnoticed.  “That is for our eyes only.  Which makes option two entirely out of the question.”  He frowned, and realised that this was a good time to bring up the point that Yixing appeared to have not considered.  “Actually, both options are out, not if we’re going to be meeting somewhere public for drinks.”  He glanced quickly around at Chen and Xiumin, who were bickering quietly in the corner and not paying him any attention.  He still covered his mouth with his hand, both to muffle his words and keep them from reading his lips.  .  “Unless you want to meet somewhere a little more private?”

As he watched, Chen was making fluttery motions with his hands.  He pulled the phone away from his ear to listen to their conversation, and overheard Chen apologising to Xiumin.  Apparently he’d lost another statuette.  Baekhyun’s good mood evaporated.  “Goddammit, Jong!” he snapped, remembering at the last second to use Chen’s real name – Chen was too well known as an associate of Kris’s, and Baekhyun wasn’t ready for Yixing to find out what he actually did.  “That’s the third one you’ve lost this week!”  Both men blanched as they realised Baekhyun’s attention was on them. 

Needing to make some excuse for Yixing, Baekhyun said, “Yixing, I’m sorry. I’ve got to go before these fools blow the place up.”  He hung up without waiting for an answer and advanced on  the two fumbling idiots he worked with, murder in his mind.  Then with an effort of supreme self-control, he stopped and turned around before pulling his phone back out and leaving the room. 

When he was calm enough to see again, he re-opened the text to Yixing.  I work with morons, he said, and cast around for something that would make him feel better.  What do you say to a private get-together at my place next week?

He felt thrilled, daring, and excited.  His mood turned back around as soon as Yixing’s reply came in.  I’d say that sounds pretty good.  Until next week.

Baekhyun smiled, fondly, though he didn’t know it.  Anon, dear one, he typed, and looked at the pet-name for a long time before he hit send.  It fit.  Yixing was dear to him. 

Over dinner that night, Kris finished his meal and deliberately set his knife and fork down across his plate.  “So, tell me about Yixing.”

Baekhyun choked on the swallow of chicken he was ingesting, and d for his water to wash it down.  “Excuse me?”

Kris’s dark eyes pierced him.  “Are you in love with him?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Baekhyun said, laughing softly.  “I don’t know how to love.”

Kris’s phone rang, and he excused himself from the awkward conversation to answer it.  Baekhyun took a sip of his wine – recommended by Chen, but delivered unopened; the man’s predilection for poisoning people was too great for them to trust him.  Still, in his role as executioner, he performed admirably.  He wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, and he wasn’t above experimenting on people to perfect the chemicals they sold to desperate people who lived for the next high.  

“That was Chen,” Kris said, coming back to the table.  “He’s lost another recruit – apparently they all find out he likes to poison people and run.  D.O.’s going to have his hands full catching up with them all before they talk.”

“That’s why we pay him what we do,” Baekhyun said.

Kris smiled; it was not a pleasant expression.  “I like that ‘we’, Bee,” he said.  “You’ve been spending so much time mooning after Yixing, I was beginning to wonder if I’d lost you.”

Yixing again.  The man was between them as surely as if he’d been sitting there at the table with them.  “Are you jealous?”  

Kris looked thoughtful.  “You know, I think I am.”

Baekhyun, who couldn’t understand jealousy, was baffled.  He’d meant it as a rhetorical question and hadn’t actually been expecting an answer.  Kris waved it off with a smile.

“The Agency is catching up with us,” he said after a brief pause.  Baekhyun watched him evenly, wondering if that was a bad thing.  “I’ve got a back-up plan in place, but before I tell everyone else, I want you to know about it.”

Baekhyun nodded.  “What would we do if they caught up?”

“Be in a lot of trouble,” Kris said, nonchalantly.  “But I’ve contracted a man named Rocky.  He’s not exactly… stable, and will suit for our purposes.  The idea is to have him draw the agents to him in order to get them off our back.”

Baekhyun didn’t press for details, unaccountably uncomfortable with the idea of setting a man like Rocky on the unknown unfortunates of the Agency.  He wondered what Yixing would think of their plans and the things they did, and caught Kris’s eye again.  It felt like the older man knew what he was thinking and didn’t approve. 

*

Baekhyun was in charge of overseeing the adaptation of an old, unused mansion for Rocky’s purposes.  It was in the western style, and an old ballroom retained some of the glorious grandeur of former years before they repainted the walls black, installed a one-way mirror and various lengths of piping and nozzles.  Baekhyun didn’t ask what it was for; he simply made sure everything was arranged according to Kris’s plans.  Kris, meanwhile, was always deep in conversation with Rocky.  Baekhyun didn’t like the amount of attention Kris was paying the man, but kept his reservations to himself. 

He remembered that he’d promised Yixing he would be done in a week, and the construction promised to take at least another.  Conflicted and unhappy, he pulled out his phone and opened a new text message.  Yixing, he wrote.  I know I said I’d be done in a couple of days, but it’s starting to look like we’re going to have to postpone a little longer.  Things are taking too long to get set up.

That was as much as he could say without giving the whole game away.  He was startled when Yixing replied almost immediately. 

That’s alright.  I’ve had a business trip come up suddenly, and I’m going to be out of the country for a couple of weeks. This is what happens when you’re the only competent person in your company.

Baekhyun felt like his entire body drooped and became heavier.  So there was no chance of seeing Yixing any time soon.  He purposely injected a happier-sounding note to his reply.  Lol.  Competency is an issue for you as well, hm?  Be safe, dear one. His chest throbbed as he typed out ‘dear’ and realised that somehow, Yixing had become more than dear to him.  He had no idea how it happened, or why, or even how to classify the roiling emotions that surged through him.  He wanted to talk to Kris about it, but Kris was busy with Rocky.  It felt like the entire world was resting on his shoulders.

The final addition to the glass wall was a chute with a small conveyer belt at the bottom.  When Baekhyun stepped back and looked at it, as a whole, he realised it looked like a bedroom.  There was a large bed, nicely made up, and even a separate toilet area.  It was clear someone would be spending some time in it.  They turned the keys over to Rocky, who smiled at Kris and promised to do good work.  He would be contacting Chen, who would then call Baekhyun to relay updates; most of their work was keeping Kris as far away from possible interference by law enforcement as possible. 

Some time later, Chen called to inform him that Rocky had abducted some young man off the street in an effort to draw out the Agency and gain their attention.  Baekhyun considered calling Yixing to warn him about getting into cars with strangers, but knew that Rocky had just taken the guy off the streets.  He probably hadn’t even been reported missing yet, and if Baekhyun called with inside information about abductions before even the police knew about it, it could level suspicion on him.  One of Kris’s earliest lessons was deflecting suspicion no matter what the costs. 

It was nearly two weeks after that that Chen called again.  Kris picked up the phone, and put it on speaker.  Baekhyun felt his lips twitch into a smile when Chen didn’t even realise who he was speaking to, and announced imperiously, “Put me through to Number One.”

Kris muted the phone for a moment and laughed.  “He’s so funny,” he said, unnecessarily to Baekhyun’s mind.  “Keep him on speaker, I’d like to hear what else he has to say this time.”

Baekhyun took the phone and unmuted it.  “One, here,” he said.

“One, you’ll never guess who just called me,” Chen blurted out.  It didn’t even sound like Chen, and for a moment he wondered if they’d been set up.

“Who is this?”

“It’s Chen, silly.  I got a call from Rocky~” he chanted.  “He made the dump and grabbed a second one, said he was going to start working on it tomorrow or the day after to give it time to really sink in.” 

“Good,” Baekhyun said.  “Hold on for a moment,” he added, and muted the phone again.  Kris was practically doubled over with laughter in the background, and he didn’t want to give it away.  “Are you done?”

“Almost,” Kris said, and took a deep breath.  “Okay, I’m done.” 

Baekhyun resumed normal sound on the phone, only to have Kris burst into a fresh wave of laughter.  “Will you shut up?” he hissed. 

“You need to get laid,” Chen said.  Baekhyun nearly dropped the phone in surprise. 

Kris exited the room, leaving Baekhyun glaring after him.  “Yixing is on a business trip,” he said, and wanted to track him down and resume their aborted exploration on the couch. 

“I’m sorry your boyfriend’s too busy,” Chen replied easily.  “He probably realised what a you are and booked it.” 

“Leave my love life out of your erted machinations,” Baekhyun commanded.  “Just tell me anything else you have that’s relevant.”

“Things are going like usual on this side,” Chen announced.  “I’ve got a very pretty young thing here I was about to promote to lieutenant.” 

“You mean you’re going to stuff him full of unknown substances and leave him to die,” Baekhyun clarified.  And people called him sociopathic and insane.  He didn’t have anything on Chen. 

“Yes, the usual.  Don’t be surprised if you come by, just a warning.”

Which meant that he was going to do it sometime soon, and that if Baekhyun needed to go to his hotel for any reason, he shouldn’t be alarmed by any bizarre noises.  “You need help,” Baekhyun said.  “I’ll be over there to check on you both in a few days.”

True to his word, he gave Chen a couple of days to get his together, and then dropped by his apartment on the top floor of an old hotel.  It reminded him eerily of the mansion they’d remodeled for Rocky, and he couldn’t disguise a shiver of disgust.  Xiumin met him in the lobby, and they went up in companionable silence. 

Chen opened the door before they were forced to knock.  “Welcome back, Number One,” he said pleasantly, and then in a less-than-thrilled tone acknowledged, “Xiumin.”

“We came to see your new guy,” Xiumin said.  “Do you think he’ll make it through your round of whatever-it-was?”

“I think he’ll do just fine,” Chen declared.  “He’s really quite pretty,” he added, and then with a mischievous glance at Baekhyun said, “You can’t have him!”

They made their way to a back room, and found a young kid drenched in sweat, his eyes half-open and unfocused.  Baekhyun stepped in to get a better look at him.

“See, One?” Chen said, eager as a puppy.  “I wasn’t lying.” 

Baekhyun thought he was too scrawny to be of much use, and his aesthetic sense needed work.  “I hate his hair,” he said. “Are you sure he’s going to be useful?”  The kid was turned away, which only highlighted the god-awful dye job and bleached-blond of his hair. 

Chen was nodding when Baekhyun looked at him.  “Oh, absolutely.  He’s done a lot of good work so far.”

Xiumin shot him an unimpressed look.  Kris found Xiumin and Chen’s half-rivalry/half-friendship amusing, but Baekhyun lost patience faster with the both of them together than he did with any other ten people combined.  “Then why’d you poison him?” Xiumin dug at Chen unsubtly.  “Is it something you can’t control?  Because you really need to get that looked at.”

“ you,” Chen said frostily.  Baekhyun resisted the urge to throttle them both with his bare hands.  Chen turned back to him and masked his obvious irritation with a cheerful smile.  How anyone could be cheerful in a room that stank of sweat and fear and death, Baekhyun didn’t know, but it was only aggravating him further.  “One, I’ve been hearing some rumours about the agents.  Even though we have Jongie doing our spy-work for us, there are those rumours that he’s gone native.  Has he told you the name yet?”

Kris had hinted that he’d gotten a name of an agent from the microchips smuggled on the vase.  Baekhyun sighed.  “No,” he said, mournfully.  “Kris says he knows what it is, but he won’t tell me.”

The young man on the bed turned to look at them – probably drawn by the name ‘Kris’ which inspired awe in even the youngest and rawest of recruits.  Baekhyun looked at him curiously, wondering what he thought of the life he’d chosen.  He looked a little like Yixing, except for the eyes and the horrible hair, and Baekhyun felt a wash of – something – sweep over him.  He wanted to protect the kid, simply because he reminded him of Yixing.  Even his name was similar.  “Oh,” he said, not surprised at all.  “You’re awake.  Good morning, Chang Li Shin,” he said.  “Welcome to Hell.”

Xiumin tut-tutted.  “Don’t scare him,” he admonished, although Baekhyun had been completely serious.  “Li Shinah, I think we need to apologise for Chen’s behaviour.  He can’t help himself.”

Baekhyun bit back on a snicker, and Chen bit out a “Man, you.” He brightened, looking earnest.  “I’ve been telling you, if we can have a spy on their side, they can plant a spy in ours.  I needed to make sure he wasn’t a cop.”

That was his excuse for everything he did.  Baekhyun raised one eyebrow.  “And are you satisfied?”

Chen shrugged.  “He checks out,” he said. 

*

“Hwang Minhyun,” Kris said, dropping into the chair beside Baekhyun.  Baekhyun put down the book he’d been reading and looked up at him, wondering if Kris had lost his mind, or maybe gotten into some of Chen’s choicer drugs. 

“Excuse me?”

“The name of the agent tailing Rocky,” Kris said, as though this explained everything. 

“I still don’t get it,” Baekhyun said, trying to put the pieces together.  “What agent is tailing Rocky?  How did you find this out?”  He thought about adding, and where have you been for the last week?  But even in his head it sounded like the words of a nagging housewife, and he refrained. 

“Easy,” Kris said.  “I followed him.  Finding out his name wasn’t quite as simple, but I got it.  And I learned something really interesting.  You can tell the agents by the little buttons they wear on their clothes.”

“Buttons,” Baekhyun repeated, utterly lost.  “Like your broach?”  He gestured to the decorative pin Kris was wearing on the lapel of his jacket. 

“Similar, I think,” Kris said.  “The one Hwang was wearing was white, though.  And round.”  He curled his fingers together to estimate the size.  “I think it may have acted like a two-way radio.  Someone named Aron talked to him through it.” 

Baekhyun was interested, and wanted to spend some more time thinking about the buttons.  He’d noticed that Yixing was always wearing buttons, but they weren’t white, they looked like band paraphernalia.  Baekhyun had just assumed he liked their music.  He’d taken a peek into Yixing’s car once, and seen a couple of CDs on the front seat by the same band, which seemed to back up the theory.  He wondered again what Yixing’s bedroom looked like, and couldn’t hide the secretive smile that turned up his mouth at the thought. 

“I found the Agency itself, too,” Kris said, dropping his momentous news right in Baekhyun’s lap so nonchalantly that it took Baekhyun a moment to consider how important what he’d just said actually was.

“What?” 

Kris looked pleased with himself.  “It’s just down the street, oddly enough.  That advertising company, it’s not for advertising at all.  It’s the Agency.” 

“How do you know?  Did you get in?”

“I couldn’t, there’s always a girl at the front desk.  But I saw Hwang going in and out, as well as another kid I think is called Taemin.  I didn’t get a last name off him, and nothing turns up in the background search.”  Kris frowned.  “Nothing turns up in Yixing’s background check, either.”

“Nothing turns up in mine,” Baekhyun said, torn between amusement that Kris had felt the need to check, and irritation that Kris was checking up on him. 

“Because I made it that way,” Kris countered.  “I doubt he’s lived such a clean life that he’s got nothing, because if he hasn’t, who made his background check?  Or rather, erased it.  There should be something, employment history at least, but there’s just nothing.”

“It’s,” Baekhyun began, but he didn’t understand enough about background checks or history or anything to make a concrete defense of Yixing.  “Maybe you just didn’t look hard enough.”

“Maybe,” Kris said, noncommittally.  His eyes turned as hard as stone as he met Baekhyun’s gaze directly.  “But everything I turned up tells me one thing: Officially, Zhang Yixing doesn’t exist.”

Baekhyun let the words sink in, and felt the first flush of something like fear.  If Yixing wasn’t who he said he was, then who was he?

*

“It’s too soon.  We need to get Hwang off Rocky’s tail,” Kris said, a few days later.  “There’s only one way I can think of to do this,” he added.

Baekhyun had a feeling he wasn’t going to like where this conversation was going, and he was proven right as soon as Kris continued.

“You need to take a couple of the others and get into the Agency to take care of him.  Jongin’s going to call me as soon as they’re all back in the building.  Take out everyone who has a button, no matter what.”

He wanted to argue, or decline, but could think of no logical reason to do so.  He just had a bad feeling about the idea of infiltrating the Agency.  “Okay,” he said finally.  Kris pulled out his phone and called D.O.

When he was done, he looked at Baekhyun.  “Call Chen,” he commanded.  Baekhyun quashed his reservations, wondering where they’d come from in the first place, and placed the call to Chen.

“We’re going to take down the Agency,” he said.  “We want your help.”

Chen was only too happy to assist.  “I’ve been wanting a piece of them since they arrested Suho,” he said.  “Should I call Xiumin?”

“Bring whoever you want,” Baekhyun said.  The more men they had on this, the better.  He hung up and looked at Kris seriously.  “Are you sure?”

“Rocky’s not ready,” he said.  “We know where the Agency is.  We’ll be getting out as soon as they’re down anyway.  It’s the same plan as always, it’s just moving a little faster, that’s all.”

  With nothing else to add, Baekhyun nodded silently and went down to check out the Agency’s front.  The girl Kris had mentioned was sitting there at the front desk, just as he’d said.  What he hadn’t mentioned was the little button on her dress.  Everyone who has a button must die, Baekhyun thought.  The familiar surge of bloodlust rose up in him, and he almost went in and took her out then and there.  But Kris had told him they would move when all of the agents were back in from the field. 

He would be ready, though. 

*

It was less than a day later when Kris got the call from their inside man about the Agency being full.  Baekhyun immediately started a chain reaction phone call, starting with Chen, who called Xiumin, who called D.O., who called in reinforcements from his contacts and fellow hitmen as well as general thugs from gangs who owed him their loyalty.  Kris promised to be nearby in case anything went wrong, but for obvious reasons, he couldn’t go in himself.  Baekhyun was beyond caring.  He wanted to kill something, and it might as well have been the Agency puppets who would kill him, or have him killed if they got to him first. 

It was really a matter of survival of the fittest, Baekhyun rationalised.  Jongin met them at the door, surprising the girl behind the desk when she recognised some of them.  Before she had a chance to radio for help, though, Baekhyun shot her through the heart with unerring aim.  As soon as she’d slumped out of sight, he immediately forgot her.

They then spread out and moved through the overly-large building, using whatever they had to hand and taking out or killing the people they found.  The lights all over the building dimmed suddenly, and a siren began to wail.  Over the cacophony, a pleasant contralto voice spoke over the loudspeakers.

“Attention all Agency Personnel, attention all Agency personnel: level four operating conditions underway.  Repeat, level four operating conditions underway.”  Red alarm lights began to flash, and people began hurrying out of rooms.  Some were armed, while others were carrying whatever they’d happened to pick up.  One tiny woman was wielding a tall standing lamp with the shade half torn off to good effect.  Baekhyun scanned each of them for the tell-tale button that marked them as agents.  He didn’t know who he was looking for specifically, but he’d been told to take out the ones with buttons. 

He heard the unmistakable sound of automatic gunfire, and followed it to its source.  A man he’d seen on the periphery of Kris’s operations and knew vaguely as Chan was laughing and spraying bullets.   Baekhyun saw D.O. take several rounds in the chest and fall.  He wondered if he ought to feel something about that, but instead of wasting time trying to figure it out, he merely turned to continue his search for the agents. 

He entered another room, and saw Chen chained to a pipe.  A woman stood over him with a fierce expression, but Baekhyun didn’t see a button on her chest.  There was nothing he could do for Chen; it was his own fault he’d gotten captured.  The sound of grunts and shouts were coming from another room, through a nearby door.  Baekhyun shot Chen a cool glance, one that conveyed a sense of ‘ to be you’ and moved on. 

Taking in the scene with an expert, clinically dispassionate eye, he saw one agent down on the ground and another man standing above him. 

“Lay,” the downed agent said.  “Behind –”

The standing man whirled around and Baekhyun came face to face with –

Yixing.

Time slowed until he could count every individual dust mote drifting through the air.  Yixing’s breath sounded loud in his ears.  There was nothing else in the world.  It had become Yixing, himself, and the scant metre that separated them. 

Betrayal curled hot and heavy through his stomach.  Acid gurgled up into his throat, leaving a sour taste in his mouth.  The words wouldn’t come from his brain to his mouth, even though he knew he had to say something. 

The little white button was practically a lighthouse beacon on Yixing’s chest.  His hair had the remnants of the dye it had recently contained, blonde with red streaks.  Li Shin, Baekhyun thought.  He’d been undercover.  Not out of the country on a business trip. 

A dozen unfamiliar feelings crashed through him and he had no idea how to handle any of them.  He was totally overwhelmed. 

Yixing looked similarly shocked, but Baekhyun wasn’t capable of really taking in what that meant.  “You’re… Number One,” he said, stumbling over the words.  The gun in his hands dipped slightly, and Baekhyun’s automatic defenses kicked in. 

“And you appear to be an agency dog,” he said.  A voice in the back of his mind was screaming frantically it’s not true! I don’t mean it, you can’t be with the agency. Tell me this is some kind of elabourate joke!  “Fancy meeting you here,” he added, and saw Yixing flinch.  I hope it hurts, you bastard, Baekhyun thought.  How dare you be an agent?  How could you?

Yixing seemed to shake his head slightly, and get a grip on himself.  The gun came back up.  “Better an agency dog than a criminal piece of ,” he growled. 

Baekhyun was utterly offended at hearing those words out of Yixing’s beautiful mouth.  “Watch your language,” he said, low and dangerous.  Yixing would never have said something like that. 

Yixing’s eyes narrowed.  “.  You.”

He squeezed the trigger once.  Twice.  Three times.  Yixing fell back with an anguished cry of pain, curled slightly and gasped.  Practically blind, Baekhyun stepped forward.  In his mind, the only thought was If I kill this agency dog, Yixing will come back to me.  He leveled the gun at the stranger with Yixing’s face, and took aim on his forehead. 

With a pained, obvious effort, Yixing – or the monster who masqueraded as Yixing – focused his eyes on Baekhyun’s and met his gaze.  The hurt look was so similar to Yixing.  It was Yixing. 

“I am sorry about this,” Baekhyun said.  Yixing had unleashed this torment of emotions within him, and now Yixing would pay.  He squeezed the trigger once more. 

The gun clicked.

Yixing still breathed. 

Baekhyun pulled the trigger again.  It failed to do anything but click, the clip empty.  “Huh,” Baekhyun murmured.  Three bullets in the chest would do for him, however.  There was no way Yixing would be getting up again.  It wasn’t necessary to finish the kill. 

Another door burst open, slamming into the wall so hard it crashed through the drywall and stuck.  A gun roared, and pain lanced through Baekhyun’s hip.  He staggered back, touched the wound, and was surprised to see his hand come away red.  Without consciously making a decision to do so, Baekhyun turned and fled.  He heard someone shout behind him, but he had the head start. 

He dropped the gun that had killed Yixing somewhere in the hallway as he bolted for the front door.  It felt like an eternity before he reached the exit.  Kris was, as promised, just outside.  He took one look at the blood dripping from the gaping wound in Baekhyun’s side, and didn’t ask questions.  He simply put one arm around Baekhyun, nearly lifted him off the ground, and helped him to a parking garage nearby.  They took the stairs, though by the time they reached the top Baekhyun’s vision was fading in and out.  He still didn’t register any real pain.  It felt as though he’d been shot in the heart, not the abdomen.  That’s where all the hurt was.  The ache in his side was more of a twinge when compared with the agony of knowing Yixing had been the enemy the whole time.

It should have been pleasing.  The enemy was dead.

Yixing was dead.

Yixing was dead.

*

Baekhyun came to in the small back room of a private hospital.  His mind was fuzzy, but the fierce pain in his chest was unabated.  He remembered being shot, and d unsteadily for his side, to check the damage.  It was bandaged up, and apparently non-life-threatening.  Baekhyun lay back and stared at the ceiling.  Memories flashed through his mind.  The first time Yixing had turned around in the coffee shop, pouting over his ‘killed’ coffee.

The kiss outside the burning theatre.  The magical time at Yixing’s apartment, the look on his face when he discovered Baekhyun’s piercings.  The way he made Baekhyun want to smile.

The way he made Baekhyun want to laugh. 

Kris pushed the door open and entered quietly.  “Hey,” he said after a while.  “How are you feeling?”

Baekhyun considered the question honestly.  “Numb,” he said.  His breath hitched oddly in his chest.  Kris crossed the room in two strides and gathered Baekhyun into his arms.  Baekhyun, who usually detested being touched for any reason unless he initiated it himself, found it soothing.  His breath hitched again.  He struggled to draw in a deep breath. 

“What’s the matter?  Are you hurt?”

“What’s the matter…?” Baekhyun repeated.  “Yixing’s dead.”

Kris stiffened against him.  “How do you know?”

“I,” Baekhyun said.  “I shot him.” His voice was strangled.  His throat felt like it was closing up. 

“Are you… are you crying?”

“Don’t be – don’t be ridiculous,” Baekhyun said.  He could feel his nose running, and sniffed to keep it from dripping.  “I can’t cry.  I don’t know how.”

With infinite compassion in his eyes, Kris reached up with two fingers and drew them across Baekhyun’s cheek.  When he pulled them back, they glistened in the white, sterile light of the hospital room.  Baekhyun put his hands to his own face and felt moisture sliding down his skin.  With an agonised look at Kris, who looked just as helpless as Baekhyun felt, he let the walls of his emotions down inside and let them tear over him like a tsunami.  When Kris gathered him close, Baekhyun let loose and sobbed for the first time since he could remember.

Possibly, for the first time in his entire life.