All the players are in place. The last protocol has been initiated. Project Alpha has begun. All the players are in place. The last protocol has been initiated. Project Alpha has begun. Players are in place. Last protocol initiated. Project Alpha has begun. Project Alpha. Project Alpha.

Baekhyun awoke from his sleep with a jostle. “Project Alpha,” He whispered in shock. Before his brain could race back into the unconscious, Baekhyun took a deep breath to get his bearings back together. His fingers trembling uncharastically of him. The dark enhanced his senses even more, forcing him to be aware of his surrounding. His eyes took the longest to adjust, and when it did, he looked over to the empty bed that was Tao’s.

With a heavy breath, he shifted his position to lean against the wall. Hands still trembling, he brought it up to his face, the palm of his hand cradling the dip of his eye sockets. “Calm down, Baekhyun.”

It had been three days since the cypher had been cracked. Two days since they had told their whole family about the new development. Two whole sleepless nights, worrying and panicking. Baekhyun is rarely unnerved. Baekhyun doesn’t do scared, no, he doesn’t. He’s unnerved.

And Tao just had to be gone at this hour--he looked to the bedside clock he had--11.30pm. Which is not that late in the night, but odd because Tao always tells him where he’s going. Baekhyun would argue that it was a brother complex, but Tao would deny it to his grave. That brought a brief laugh to his night.

The joy was gone as soon as it arrived, drowning the room with silence once more. Baekhyun ruffled his hair in frustration, failing to calm himself down. Might as well try and think it over, again.

Project Alpha. What the hell is it. Baekhyun had tried to get any intel on it, he had searched the internet and came up empty, no reference of it whatsoever. He even hacked into Korean Government database and found nothing. Same with the FBI, ISI, CIA and MI6 database and still came up empty.

It’s uncanny, that there was zero reference of this project in any international database. Either it didn’t exist and someone was toying with them, or it’s something that’s concealed so heavily not even the biggest intelligence agency knows about it. Baekhyun hoped it was the former but he knew it’s always the latter.

This train of thought was going to derail Baekhyun and he knew it, thus why he decided to it and stop thinking. He threw his comforter aside and slid down to the floor, wiping his eyes from their exhaustion. Well-rested is never a word to use when describing him, and he was fine with that.

Walking out of his room and into the living area, he heard a door click behind him. On alert, he grabbed the knife from the holder and hid it to his side.

The lights flicked on and Baekhyun was about to turn and stab the intruder, but a voice stopped him.

“Baek?”

Knife lowering behind his back, he turned to face his ‘attacker’, sporting a weary smile. “Hey, Yeol.”

The warm cheeky smile he got in return was worth the effort of faking his own, “Can’t sleep?”

Baekhyun sighed again, watching Chanyeol go to the counter, leaning against it. Baekhyun stepped closer behind the counter, propping his hands on each side. “Yeah, which is weird ‘cause with the amount of training we had to do today, I’d have thought I’d needed the rest.”

Chanyeol chuckled, his mind free of worry and future brighter now that he’s determined to debut. “Tell me about it, I still trip over the dance routine in the reff. But I really do love the song.”

Right, Lee Soo Man was really trying his hardest to throw a fit into their plans. Giving them tight schedules and insane dance routines. Baekhyun wasn’t sure if Lee Soo Man was doing this knowing who they were or just doing this out of spite. Either way, it’s still a pain in the for the both of them.

Baekhyun spaced out, whirling his way through the black hole that has become his life. Chanyeol leaned on forward even more, waving his hand infront of his face. When he didn’t get a response, Chanyeol crossed the counter to shake his shoulders. “Hey, Baek!”

Snapping into reality, he accidentally bit his tongue. “Ouch.” He let out in surprise, causing Chanyeol to retract his hands as if he’s been burned. Baekhyun realized the constricted expression on his face, quickly handling the situation. “No, no, I just bit my tongue. Sorry.”

Chanyeol smiled in small relief, outstretching his hands on his back. “Well, are you going back to sleep soon?”

What I wouldn’t give to have a goodnight’s sleep. “I don’t know, Tao’s not back yet and I can’t sleep without him.” Baekhyun replied without any mind to his answer.

The expression changed again in Chanyeol’s face, and that was the one Baekhyun has not seen yet. He looked uncomfortable, almost jealous if he had a context to go on, and sad. The Khun brother tried to backtrack his words to see if he said anything and nothing seemed to--ohmygodno.

“NO.” Baekhyun bursts out. “God no. No, I mean, it’s not like that--we’re not like, that. That, uh.” He scrambled to think of an excuse because Chanyeol didn’t look like he believed it yet. “I’m uh--I. I’m afraid.” The statement left of as a question to both Baekhyun and Chanyeol. The former took a deep breath, putting on a performance. “I’m scared, okay? I’m scared of the dark.”

Then he was sold. Chanyeol’s face lit up with new joy and Baekhyun would’ve found it offensive if he was actually afraid of the dark. The taller seemed to realize his expression and neutralized it to a small smile, eyes sparkling with unknown merit. “Well, Yifan is also not back yet.”

Baekhyun hummed, mind still stuck on his problem, absently drinking water from the tap.

“If you want me, I’ll sleep with you.”

Instincts took over and Baekhyun turned into a human sprinkler--his water spit solution sprouting out his mouth and dripping in excess from his nose. “Excu-me-Wa”-- He coughed --“What?”

To be fair, the jolly jumper wasn’t doing much better either, judging by his furiously blushing skin on every inch of his face.

The blushing bride let out a scream, for what reason he didn’t know.

Baekhyun burst out in sudden and instinctive loud laughter, clipping it the very second he noticed he was laughing.

To say that it was awkward, well…

Both eventually broke out in giggles and guffaws, but Baekhyun said yes.

~~~

Yifan was the last one to come home that night. He had a late practice and above that was called in to a meeting with Lee Soo Man himself. The man had proposed the idea of making him the leader of the Chinese Team. The poor guy had to squirm for half an hour straight, watching him ramble on and on about standard procedure.

He walked into an empty living room but felt a breeze at his side. Looking over the place, he found the balcony doors slightly open, billowing the pulled curtains. Yifan stopped in the middle of shrugging his jacket, heading for the balcony sliding doors.

“Feeling lonely?” Yifan called, sliding the doors behind him.

The man was leaning against the wall windows, legs outstretched, completely ignoring the cushioned bench and beanbag construed on the other side of the balcony. “A little, company me?”

“It’ll be my honour, princess.” Yifan chuckled when the man smacked his thigh as he sat down next to him. They sat in silence, the wind blowing their hair and attire. That brought Yifan to notice the younger’s clothing, light and way too thin to be out on a late september night. He shrugged off his jacket completely this time and leaned over.

Tao looked up from his head bent position, frozen. Yifan was towering his body with his tall height, even when sitting down, his arms bracketing his body, chest almost pressed directly against his face. “What are you--”

Then a warm clothing fell over his shoulder, casting a shadow over his features as Yifan threw it around his back. Tao looked up at the elder from under his lashes, eyes trailing the cold sweat sliding down his sharp jawline. Tao always knew Yifan was strikingly handsome, but looking at him like this, it still takes his breath away.

When Tao was about to complain about it, Yifan beat him to the punch. “You look like you might start shivering.” The elder purposely avoided the younger’s awed look. “Just take it.”

Tao snuggled closer to the newfound warmth, although he wasn’t feeling the least bit cold--at least not on the surface. The coldness in his heart, that locked off place, however, that coldness still remains. He didn’t realize it then, that the ice inside of him, it was slowly changing. For better or worse, he’d just have to find out.

~~~

Baekhyun tossed and turned in the span of trying to sleep. He figured it was the trouble of falling asleep in a foreign bed; they decided to go sleep in Chanyeol’s room, because Baekhyun was too anxious to let anyone in their room. But that theory didn’t pan out because he did fell asleep, but--

“Baekhyun!” A harsh whisper sounded behind him that woke him up. Jolted from his position, he realized he couldn’t move. Blinded by the darkness and the restriction, he struggled. “Shhh. Baek, it’s me.” Baekhyun calmed down slightly at the voice. “It’s me. Hey, it’s me.” The shorter man was confused, why was the younger acting this way. And that’s when he noticed.

“It’s okay. You’re okay.” He was wrapped up in Chanyeol’s arms. Slightly shaking and sweating, Baekhyun realized he wasn’t sleeping. He was having a nightmare.

“Chanyeol, what--” He was afraid to ask but didn’t know why. Baekhyun wanted to know if he acted weak and vulnerable, but he didn’t want to lose the warmth he was in.

“Sorry.” Chanyeol didn’t sound apologetic at all. “I’m scared of the dark too.”

Technically Baekhyun knew he was lying for his sake. But it felt nice. It was weird, that feeling, the same feeling he felt in the night market. Weird, but not unwelcomed. “What?” Baekhyun chuckled and playfully huffed a breath, voice still slightly shaking. “Oh, come here you scaredy-cat, I’ll lend you my comfort for tonight.”

Chanyeol tightened his hold on the older man’s waist, who was cuddled up as the little spoon. Baekhyun could almost hear Chanyeol’s heartbeat from where his chest was pressed against his back.

That night, he felt a bit warmer. He felt a bit safer. Baekhyun didn’t know if that was supposed to scare him or calm him. But he decided not to think about it, after all, he had enough on his plate as is.

~~~

That night, it didn’t end with Baekhyun soundly sleeping in Chanyeol’s arms in a turn of events. It didn’t end when Tao and Yifan went back to their respective rooms only to find Yifan’s room occupied with none other Baekhyun and Chanyeol. It also didn’t end when Tao’s eyes were rolling on the ground when he found the dopey eared man spooning his elder brother, while Yifan muttered something along the lines of ‘finally, god, it’s been killing me’. It even didn’t end when Tao invited Yifan to sleep in their room instead; Yifan agreed and fell asleep almost immediately, unknowingly because he was surrounded by Tao’s scent in his bed; Tao wouldn’t lend Baekhyun’s bed without his permission.

It did end, however, in a quite drastic note. Tao got a ping on his phone at 3:40 in the morning, a location GPS from some tech somewhere. Tao was always a curious creature crawling, he wouldn’t ignore whatever this is. So he went and followed the tracks, leading him to an empty garage underneath a mall.

In hindsight, he probably knew it was a bad idea. In no scenario known to mankind where anything with an anonymous tip of an unknown stranger’s, or something’s, location ever ended in rainbows and walks in the sunsets. Alone, no one knows he’s gone anywhere, and terribly unprepared--he didn’t take any weapons because he didn’t want to wake Yifan up and he thought he could handle it.

In hind sight, though, he really should’ve seen the attack behind him coming.

He really, really, should’ve.

And served~ So, I'm going to hash out the fluffs because It's going to be downhill from here guys. Get ready, Plot is developing, hard. Please comment and subscribe~ Let me know what you think~