He plodded down the hallway. More like shuffled. Had his legs always felt this heavy? Had his toes always looked like this? He stopped to pick at the blue cotton of his pants. The thin material caught between his thumb and forefinger was not soft nor was it rough. It was just. Like his body. His brain. He was just. Just Chanyeol everyday. A prisoner in a body that didn't belong to him. And with nowhere in the world to go, a prisoner in the office building as well. 

 

Sometimes he would be more aware but at other times he would be thankful for the effects the drugs had on him. Because at those times, he could forget. 

 

*

 

"Can I see him today?" He pleaded with Arthur. His voice wasn't the way he wanted it to be. It always had a whiny tone when he was Chanyeol. 

 

"You seen him already. This morning." Arthur told him but he couldn't tell if he was lying. Just like anything else Arthur said could have been a lie. He had him trapped here after all. And his own son was in a constant comatose state. 

 

He'd told Yifan that his father had killed his real parents and that he had every reason to fear Kenneth as much as him. Why else would Kenneth have killed his parents if he wasn't going to be in danger himself? But Yifan suspected it was more than that. That there was a game the two of them were playing and all of the 12 were right in the middle of it. Or was it 6 and 6 now?

 

He thought of Tao and how he couldn't save him right now, but because he was so close to Kyungsoo, he might be able to at least help the one person he cared about most in this world. He tried to conjure up thoughts and plans of escape, but every time he began to feel more self-aware, he was injected with the chemicals they gave him. Sometimes he put up a fight and sometimes it was voluntary. He didn't want to live in this body, but he needed to be close to Kyungsoo. 

 

"Did I see him..?" He asked quietly. Brought back to the reality in front of him by the snapping of fingers in his face. 

 

"I don't see why you shouldn't be allowed to see him again, though." The man in front of him smiled. Arthur never smiled real smiles. They always felt frightening and superior. But he didn't care about Arthur's smile. He just wanted to see his boyfriend. 

 

*

 

A little drool slipped past Kyungsoo's lips but Yifan didn't care. He watched with fascination the thread of transparent saliva as it trailed down Kyungsoo's chin before reaching a thumb out to wipe it. He wanted to kiss him so bad that it hurt him. Hurt his heart deeply. He wanted to crawl into bed and do things to him that they used to do before they had been captured here in what had become their lives. But he couldn't do those kinds of activities with an invalid. His brain wasn't more than a jumbled pile of mush, but he knew that much at least. 

 

Kyungsoo couldn't speak now. He wasn't even lucid but his eyes were open once in a while, so Yifan liked to think he was listening. Even if he couldn't respond. 

 

"I need you to help me. You're strong and he's so weak." Yifan didn't even know which 'he' he meant. He just wanted to babble on today. "I can't live like this. I can't be here without you. Why did this have to happen to us?" He started to cry. His eyes prickled. The hot tears streaked down his cheeks. And yet, they weren't his cheeks. His eyes. He wasn't really here beside Kyungsoo. He was in his warm bed in the house his father had bought for him. The only father he'd ever known or cared about. The man who had protected him all these years. Protected but never loved. The man who wasn't his father. 

 

He settled his head on Kyungsoo's waist and forearm thinking he could almost feel Kyungsoo touching his face. His hair. And fell into a dream filled sleep.