Sometimes Kai really hates the messes he gets himself into.

Like now, for instance.

Kai’s not sure what kind of cupcakes D.O. had been making, or how many of them Lay had managed to eat, but they must have been pretty damn potent.

Lay had taken one look at the portrait of the unicorn in the hall leading back to the Hufflepuff common room and had burst into shoulder-shaking sobs, wailing incoherently, but loud enough to wake the poor thing, which had been sleeping moments before, but which is now racing circles around its frame, neighing in panic.

“Lay,” Kai hisses, moving to slap a hand over his mouth, but D.O. gives him the “I dare you to do it” look and Kai falters.

“I-I-I’ve never petted a u-u-unicorn before,” Lay sobs into D.O.’s shoulder, who’s simultaneously patting his back and trying to move him down the hallway.

“It’s okay, we’ll go find a unicorn tomorrow, okay?” D.O. says soothingly, but that only serves to upset Lay more, his cries growing loud enough to wake more portraits, and Kai is certain Mr. Filch is going to come running around the corner at any moment, wheezing and ready to dole out detentions for a year.

“But I’m innocent,” Kai murmurs hopelessly to himself.

“What?” D.O. asks, shooting Kai a sharp look.

“Nothing,” Kai pouts.

“Stop being such a baby and help me here,” D.O. says in exasperation, Lay’s arms wrapped so tight around his waist that he’s beginning to feel a little out of breath.

“You’re su-su-such a good friend D.O.,” Lay cries, sniffling as tears pour down his face. “I don’t thi-think anyone e-e-else would let me p-p-pet a unicorn.”

The last word is broken by a stuttering breath as Lay inhales past his tears.

“Oh boy,” Kai says when he sees D.O.’s eyes get suspiciously shiny. “I knew you’d been crying earlier. Keep it together man! We have a mission to accomplish!”

Kai smirks to himself.

Maybe Agent Kai could make a reappearance.

D.O. whacks him upside the head with his free hand.

“Ow,” Kai says petulantly, Agent Kai disappearing. “What was that for?”

“Would you just help me here?” D.O. snaps, hauling Lay back up as the other suddenly goes limp in his arms, wanting to lie face-down on the floor and not move until he sees his unicorn.

Kai starts to roll his eyes but stops when he catches D.O.’s glare still on him.

“Fine, fine,” Kai mutters, moving to wrap an arm around Lay’s other side, hauling the still sniffling Hufflepuff up.

The next few minutes are agonizing, at least for Kai, because he just knows they’re going to be caught and he can not afford to have detention.

He’ll miss Quidditch practice, and then the games, and how will the Slytherin team ever survive without their star player?

But miraculously, no one seems to be roaming their current part of the school, and Lay has finally stopped crying, instead just letting Kai and D.O. drag him down the hall, eyes drooping with exhaustion.

But then the unthinkable happens.

Literally two steps from the Hufflepuff door, D.O. suddenly hiccups.

And normally that wouldn’t worry Kai because who doesn’t hiccup?

(Well, he doesn’t because that would be unforgivable behavior for a secret agent, but that’s besides the point.)

But the hiccup is followed by a soft sort of sniffle, like the kind Kai hears Sehun make every time they listen to “The Tale of the Three Brothers” when it’s broadcasted by the Wizarding Wireless Network on their “Young Witches and Wizards” program, the kind of sniffle that 

means that Sehun is crying but he that doesn’t want Kai to know.

Kai turns his head very, very slowly towards D.O., eyes wide with incredulity. 

And sure enough, one huge, fat tear is sliding down the side of D.O.’s face, his mouth screwed up in a sob he’s trying to keep back, eyebrows furrowed and large eyes glistening.

Kai drops Lay.

The Hufflepuff slumps halfway to the floor, only supported on his right side by D.O., but Kai isn’t paying attention.

Instead, he rushes over to D.O.’s side, immediately reaching up to smush the other’s face between his hands, concern flaring in his chest.

“What’s wrong, Cupcake?” Kai asks, and another tear escapes, D.O.’s lower lip quivering.

Gently, D.O. lets go of Lay, lowering the now sleeping Hufflepuff to the floor slowly, where Lay proceeds to murmur something unintelligible and curl into a ball of sparkly unicorn pajamas, his head pillowed on his hands.

And then D.O. starts really crying, the tears just suddenly streaming down his cheeks, Kai trying to wipe them away unsuccessfully.

“He’s nev-nev-,” D.O. stutters out, looking down at the sleeping Hufflepuff on the floor. “He’s never pe-pet… petted a unicorn,” he finishes, the last word a wail.

“None of us have,” Kai says without thinking, and D.O.’s eyes widen even more at the realization before his mouth drops open into an ear-splitting sob of anguish.

“Shhh,” Kai tries to soothe him, eyes darting around the hall for signs of his arch spy nemesis, Agent Filch.

But D.O. keeps crying, sniffling out sentences like, “Why? Why haven’t any of us petted a unicorn?” and “Every student at Hogwarts deserves to pet a unicorn. Even that stupid Hufflepuff.”

Eventually, Kai ends up smushing D.O. to his chest, muffling his tears in the front of Kai’s robes.

Of course, he leaves space for his Cupcake to breathe, petting through the smaller boy’s hair and trying to stand guard at the same time.

Lay shifts a little on the ground at their feet, but doesn’t wake up, thank Merlin, Kai thinks.

Finally, after countless agonizing minutes of D.O. hiccuping into the front of Kai’s shirt, the former stops tearing up, his eyes red and puffy when he pulls back, stepping out of Kai’s embrace.

“Feel better?” Kai asks with genuine concern. He hates seeing Cupcake cry.

D.O. nods, wiping at his eyes with his hands, and looking more than a little abashed.

“Sorry,” he mumbles, cheeks red with embarrassment.

“I thought it was cute,” Kai offers cheekily, and D.O. swats at him half-heartedly and misses.

Instead, Kai catches his hand and pulls him forward the few inches separating them, D.O. stumbling in surprise and blinking up at him with large eyes.

Kai has been waiting for a moment like this for forever, ever since he had figured out who Cupcake truly was, but with everything going on, he never seemed to be able to catch any alone time with the latter.

Now, even though they could be caught at any second by a professor walking the halls, Kai wants to stay right here, D.O. peering up at him shyly and pressed against him, warm and soft.

Kai begins to lean down, watching D.O.’s breathing quicken with the proximity and feeling his own heart pound against his chest.

“Cupcake,” Kai starts, voice gentle, and D.O.’s so close that Kai can count his eyelashes, can feel the puffs of his breath against his mouth.

Kai’s just gotten close enough to feel the warmth of the smaller’s mouth against his, D.O.’s eyes fluttering closed, when there’s a sudden noise, and then a light, at the end of the hall they’re in.

D.O. squeaks, jumping, and Kai lets go of him quickly, the two grabbing Lay and dragging him around the corner as fast as possible.

“Who is it?” D.O. asks in a hushed voice, Lay’s head lolling against his shoulder.

Kai peers around the wall, squinting through the gloom to see who’s holding the illuminated wand, but it’s too dark to make out a face.

“I don’t know,” he says, pressing back against the wall again, “but we need to get inside the Hufflepuff common room now.”

The door is just diagonal from them, but Kai isn’t sure how to open it, and Lay isn’t going to be much help at the moment.

“I know how to get in,” D.O. whispers, and Kai thanks Merlin for the second time in five minutes. “Xiumin showed me how.”

Kai watches D.O. dart forward quickly and tap out a quick rhythm on the barrels and then push open the door, and then he’s lifting Lay up with one arm under the Hufflepuff’s shoulders and the other under the bend of his knees, and rushing through the opening right after D.O..

The door swings shut behind them as the three collapse in a heap across the threshold.

“That-,” Kai starts to huff out, eyes squeezed shut, Lay sprawled across his legs and D.O. laying across his chest, but he doesn’t get to finish his sentence before soft lips are pressing against his, warm and insistent.

Kai’s eyes fly open in surprise just as D.O. pulls back, blushing furiously.

“Sorry,” D.O. starts to stammer out, looking anywhere but at Kai, and Kai feels warmth swell in his chest and a grin spread across his face. “I just- you helped a lot, I mean-”