It was a rare day when Jongin couldn't handle being in the same room as Kyungsoo. Especially a Saturday evening when they'd both finished most of their school assignments and had nothing to do but hang around. For Kyungsoo this meant writing, and for Jongin this meant hanging about doing... something... watching, or rather listening to Kyungsoo writing.

"How come you're out here then? Don't you like, get by his fingers... clicking away at a keyboard?" Baekhyun dared to joke.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny," Jongin replied, unamused. 

He'd uncharacteristically accepted an invite to go hang out with his friends at a very wild, swinging type of place: a 24/hour coffee shop. Alright so his friends were rather dull, but then they had their natural highs and could always be entertaining. When Jongin was in the mood to be entertained by someone whose name wasn't Kyungsoo. Sehun had come with him. Chanyeol and Baekhyun were both here. Chanyeol kept checking his phone, apparently waiting on somebody else, but the person hadn't showed yet. They sat in a corner booth while Baekhyun worked on acquiring a sugar rush with his almost overflowing mug of hot chocolate, two servings of whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles. Chanyeol ordered something similar but with less cream, Sehun had something cold and fruity, and Jongin had... a glass of water. He was indecisive this night. He'd get something later. Or at least that was his master plan. 

"Weren't you going to invite him? Kyungsoo, I mean?" Chanyeol asked.

"I did..."

Sehun snorted.

"No take, huh?" Baekhyun inquired.

"Nope." Jongin's response was short and clipped. "He's busy. Writing. As usual."

"Sorry about that, mate," said Chanyeol.

"Yeah, well it's nothing I'm not used to," said Jongin.

Chanyeol patted his shoulder comfortingly. It was a little heavy-handed and it hurt, but Jongin tried not to make a face. "Cheer up. Exo-M hasn't had a comeback in two months. Fans need something in the meantime to survive the lack of new content. And Kyungsoo's a provider!"

"Huh," Jongin uttered, not a question, not a statement. Just a flat, bored expression of discontent. 

Chanyeol's phone buzzed and he quickly checked the message. "Oh. He's here. Good."

"Who's here?" asked Sehun.

"Joonmyun."

"You invited Joonmyun? Why?" asked Baekhyun incredulously. 

Chanyeol shrugged. "I don't know. I just did. He like... needs more friends and I ran into him earlier and so, he said he might drop by. Anyways, he should be here in a sec."

Jongin tried not to stare when the guy in question finally did enter the shop. Joonmyun, who always claimed not to be a fan of idol groups, and yet Jongin had caught him reading ty fanfiction written by Jongin's very own roommate. And Kyungsoo didn't even know Suho_ridesTheBigUnicorn was the same Joonmyun they occasionally saw around campus. Jongin felt a tiny bit guilty about not sharing that fact with his roommate, especially when Kyungsoo was starting to write 'Suho' into his stories in such a condescending manner. Was Joonmyun reading the Layhan circus!au? Jongin wondered nervously. He was too afraid to ask, but then Joonmyun just looked as concerned when he saw the guys sitting in the booth and his eyes caught Jongin's and immediately flashed away.

So, they weren't going to talk about it, huh? Jongin thought. That was fine anyway. 

"Joonie! Glad you could make it," cried Chanyeol. "Hey come and sit."

Joonmyun took a seat opposite from Jongin and neither one of them looked at each other very much. If anyone took a wild guess, and they didn't know that Jongin was already head over heels in love with Kyungsoo, they might mistake the situation for mutually attractive shyness. However, nobody noticed.

"Jongin, could you please order something real to drink?" Baekhyun complained a few minutes later. "You're making me uncomfortable, slurping on your glass of ice water. Ugh. Have something with sugar please, and lighten up! You're finally free of your roommate for the night! You're allowed to live a little!" 

Jongin balked. "Okay..."

He finally picked out a decaf coffee drink which Baekhyun rolled his eyes at, but at least it appeased him a little.

"What's Kyungsoo working on these days, anyways?" Baekhyun asked. "Last I checked he was writing . Or, don't you read that kind of stuff?" he teased.

Jongin decided to ignore that, especially since Joonmyun was doing the same. His cheeks were a little redder now though than they were a minute ago.

"Uhm, well tonight he's having something of a mental breakdown?" Jongin started to explain. Upon seeing everyone else listening to him with interest, he continued. "I guess he's been trying to write some sort of hired killer or sniper!au..."

"OH!" Baekhyun interrupted. "You mean 'A Head to Kill'? The Krishan he's been promising us for ages! Finally!"

"But... now he's revising it for Xiuhan..."

"Oh." Baekhyun's elation fell.

"And there was this really complicated scene he'd written where Luhan was setting up for the kill and he had Kris' head in perfect range, and I don't know exactly how it works but now that he's writing the target as Xiumin, well... Xiumin is a whole lot shorter and... apparently now the angle doesn't work because he's... shorter, and Kyungsoo was throwing a fit about it when I left."

Actually Kyungsoo was hang-banging on the desk when Jongin left, but he saw no reason to elaborate that much.

Baekhyun actually scoffed. "Pfft. Should've left it the original way. How can you change ships mid-write-up anyway?"

"Since when were you even a Krishan shipper?" Chanyeol interrogated him.

"I'm... not... really...?" Baekhyun stuttered. "But... I'm all about the free love. Any ship goes. That's my motto!"

"You're weird," said the taller one.

"No, I'm not. I'm just open-minded. Whatever. So Joonmyun, who do you ship?"

All eyes fell on the silent intruder and Joonmyun actually gulped. "I... I'm not..."

"Oh, I know you like them at least a little bit." Baekhyun wasn't going to take any of this nonsense. "Which means you have to at least halfway ship somebody in the group! Please don't tell me Xiulay though, because those crazy shippers are just weird! Out of control! Also, Taochen shippers are just delusional. Haven't run into a sane Taochen shipper yet."

"I thought you just said any ship goes?" Sehun asked him with a laugh.

"Did I? I meant any ship can sink if I want it to. Anyways, out with it Joonmyun. Just give me a name or two. Come on, come on."

Jongin watched as Joonmyun's face turned redder and redder.

"I don't know? Maybe... maybe, Chen? And... Lay? Perhaps?"

"Ah hah! So you are a fan. I knew it! Hey, do you read fanfiction? Do you know Kyungsoo writes fanfiction? You should check it out!" And Baekhyun was full into SooTheMan-promoter mode. Poor Joonmyun, was Jongin's last thought.

Bonus Scene "A Head to Kill"

SooTheMan writes:

It was a hard life, a hard night, a hard rooftop. The smell of death, the stench of the city wafting upwards. Luhan didn't notice any of that though. Not when he had a job to do. Not when he had a body to kill. 

His stake out was a lonely place, three in the morning, and no moonlight to speak of. The city was always covered in clouds. Smog was the friend of the sniper assassin at night. It blocked out the moon's rays, kept him shrouded in darkness. Luhan reveled in it, his dark black leather pants and jacket the perfect outfit for blending in. He set his tripod, checked the scope of his rifle, silencer in place, and then he lay in wait. 

They hadn't given him any information about his target. That was how he worked: no questions asked. All he knew, as he peered through binoculars at the building across the way, was that somebody would be entering the lit-up room. Somebody would walk right into his anonymous employer's trap, try to uncover a secret mystery file, and then Luhan will kill him. One, quick bullet to the head. Pow. And then his job would be done. No pick-up, no clean-up. He'd stash his weapon and disappear into the night, and no one would be any the wiser. Tomorrow he'd wake up in his nice pent-house purchased in another name and casually make himself a perfect cup of hand-poured coffee as he'd learned from his lover long long ago, and wait for the next assignment. The only regret he had in life was that he never poured coffee for two. Those days were gone. His lover was gone. Dead perhaps, killed, or disappeared. He never figured out which it had been. Not that Luhan had any time this evening to dwell on that. 

He ran through the facts of the job in his head. The target would be enter through the far right door, and make his way to the desk on the left. He should be about 6' 2'' or 1.87 meters tall and dark-haired. He set his rifle for the perfect angle, exactly where he estimated the target would stand before he bent over the desk, right above the window bar. It would be the perfect shot, and if he was off by even a millimeter the whole job might be scratched.

He waited. His watch read the hour as 2:58 am. Getting closer. Luhan stretched his muscles, relaxing his body so that he would be ready.

2:59 am. Luhan circled his head around his shoulders, clearing the cricks out of his neck.

3:01 am. Any time now. He inhaled slowly and deeply, and then exhaled, once, twice, ten times. 

3:03 am. And still nobody had shown. Perhaps they were late. Perhaps his information was wrong. Perhaps he should allow for human error. Not every person about to be murdered followed an exact timeline after all.

3:06 am. The door was opening. Luhan held his breath, watched as the door knob turned and then opened and in walked the figure. The room was dark. He couldn't see him very well except for a shadowy profile. 

Something was off though, and Luhan frowned trying to figure out what. The figure walked just as he should towards the desk, and Luhan put his finger to the trigger, waiting for the target's head to align perfectly so he could blast his brains out. 

But the head didn't align. And then the target was turning on a light by the desk and before Luhan had time to adjust his measurements, he suddenly recognized that face. No person with a towering six foot plus height, that was for sure.  No dark hair. The target was six inches shorter! With blond hair! This was all wrong. All completely wrong! And while Luhan cried out in his head, brain confused, his heart stubbornly insisted that it knew the target. It knew that face, and those eyes, and those cheeks and that body.

"Minseok..." Luhan whispered to himself, heart pounding in his chest. "Minseok... Where were you..."

Then, "Who are you...?" 

His lover, his lover he'd thought dead for years was in that room, rifling through that desk, bent over looking for the bait he should have been assassinated for. And yet... Luhan couldn't pull the trigger. The angle was wrong. He kept telling himself that over and over again. The bar is in the way. He'll miss the shot. The target will be startled and he'll duck and run away, and then never appear again. Minseok will disappear again...

Before he even realized it, Minseok, the target, had realized there was no secret file in that desk. It was a bust, just like it was set up to be. Except Minseok wasn't supposed to walk out of that room alive. That was the plan. But Luhan let him live...

To be continued...

"Hey, look. It's Kyungsoo!"

Chanyeol's announcement dragged Jongin out of his self-indulgent daydreaming in a hurry. "Huh?"

Chanyeol was paying him no attention, however. "Hey, Kyungsoo! Kyungsoo, we're over here!" He waved him over to their booth. "Wow, you said you'd invited him, Jongin, but I didn't think he'd actually come."

Jongin sat up very straight, eyes roving the coffee shop until they met with Kyungsoo's, who had entered in hesitantly as if he rarely went outside, or as if he wasn't sure he was really invited. 

"You came," said Jongin, trying not to sound like he was too incredibly over-joyous. 

"Uhh, yeah," said the writer. He stood by the side of the table and stared around, as if wondering where he should sit. Chanyeol and Baekhyun sat on the inside, then came Sehun and Joonmyun on one side. There was actually more room next to the Joonmyun, but Kyungsoo deliberated and then took the half-space next to Jongin. Jongin immediately elbowed Chanyeol so that he would move and the entire circle scooted over to their left until Kyungsoo had the proper amount of space. Jongin's heart rejoiced. 

"You want something to drink?" he asked him in a hushed tone. Everyone else at the table except Joonmyun was staring between them with suspiciously knowing looks. 

"Uhhm, nah. Not really. I had instant coffee earlier and I'm kind of already hyped up. I just came to... hang out."

Kyungsoo rarely 'hung out' with people. And everyone knew that. He either went to his classes or stayed in his room except for the occasions when he nagged Jongin to go out and run errands together. Kyungsoo hated the grocery store and always wanted someone - his roommate - to go with him. 

"Well, cool you made it!" said Baekhyun. "Jongin was telling us earlier that you were writing something that was giving you difficulty."

Kyungsoo blushed and side-eyed Jongin, silently asking something along the lines of, How much do you tell them? Fanfiction in some circles was still kind of a taboo subject. Kyungsoo had gotten plenty of rolling eyes and incredulous disdain. Jongin knew, because he had started acting that way too when they first met and he discovered Kyungsoo's secret. He'd spent way too much time since then trying to reassure Kyungsoo he didn't think he was a monster for writing fiction... about boys... who were based on boys... in real life. 

Fortunately Baekhyun read that look well. "Oh, don't worry. We're all mostly fans here. Except for Joonmyun, but we're working on him now!" 

"I see..." Kyungsoo stared at everyone in turn, and when he was faced with only smiles he seemed to relax. 

"So did you fix the sniper-target height problem?" Baekhyun's question seemed to make Kyungsoo revert back into his shell. He glanced once more at Jongin almost reproachfully before answering.

"I... I think I did. Sorta. Had to... change up the plot a bit, but it'll do. At least I hope so."

"Oh good! Because I've been looking forward to this one for a long time!" Baekhyun exclaimed.

"You... read my fics?" 

"Yeah. For a long while. I'm your number one fan! Well, after that other guy who's always beating me to the comments section. Suho-whatever."

Joonmyun met nobody's eyes, least of all Jongin's, but at least Kyungsoo looked more and more relieved.

"Oh. I'm glad to hear that. I hope you don't mind I changed the pairing. From Krishan to Xiuhan."

Baekhyun hesitated, but one well-placed elbow to his rib from Sehun and he answered, "Oh no problem! I love Xiuhan! OTP and all that... good stuff. Love them. To the death! Hashtag xiuhan four life." He smiled, and it was so fake, but Kyungsoo wasn't looking at him anymore, Jongin was glad to see.

He spent the rest of the night still in a daze, happy that Kyungsoo had come out of his little man cave of a writer's world, and that he had apparently only done it for Jongin. Or he only felt comfortable here because of Jongin. He watched him converse and chat with his friends, none of whom were really strangers to Kyungsoo, but since he didn't socialize that much Jongin never knew he could actually hold a verbal conversation over something that wasn't fanfiction related. It was amazing to see. 

The downside to watching Kyungsoo talk was that Jongin spent so much time being amazed at how his lips moved, he sometimes forgot to talk himself. He would zone out until he realized someone was asking him something, and the few times Kyungsoo looked at him curiously, Jongin's eyes seemed to glaze over completely. 

It was past three o'clock when they finally broke up the party. The rest went their separate ways, Baekhyun and Chanyoel back to their residence building, Sehun and Suho theirs, and that just left Jongin and Kyungsoo to walk alone back to their room. Jongin yawned all the way there, and Kyungsoo was no less tired. Their arms kept bumping, their feet zig-zagging all over the sidewalk, and once when Jongin almost dramatically walked into a bush Kyungsoo reached out and held his arm. Thus he avoided a collision, and got Kyungsoo's fingers around his bare skin, and it didn't matter that it didn't last very long. They played around more and more as they walked, hands and arms and shoulders bumping along, and it seemed both turned into very giggly tired people at three in the morning. They might have been drunk, but really they needed no extra help. 

"Nooo, my bed's a disaster zone!" Jongin cried when they finally managed to get their door unlocked. He'd left books and notebooks all over it, and he whined as soon as he saw it.

Kyungsoo was laughing at him. "Don't you know the rule... Never go out at night until you've made your bed ready for when you return."

"I thought that rule only applied to people who are going out to get drunk," Jongin whined.

"Well, looks like the same applies to people like you," said Kyungsoo with a taunting smile.

"People like me??" Jongin moaned.

"Yeah. Mr. I can't even walk straight when I'm sleepy."

"Hmmmph. I don't want to clear it," he cried, standing in the middle of the room staring at his bed with a defeated look in his sleepy eyes.

"That lazy huh?" Kyungsoo said. "Need me to help or do you just need to crash in my bed?"

Ohhh, that offer. Something in Jongin's head roared, and yet he couldn't actually bring himself to respond. Was Kyungsoo being really genuine, or was that just him speaking one of his fic dialogue lines out loud? Jongin decided he didn't dare to find out and disappoint himself. It took him approximately ten seconds to clear his bed of all his junk and then he climbed in, alone.

Luhan awoke early, early in the morning. His bedside clock read 4:59 am. Somebody had entered his apartment. Lawfully, legally. He heard the security code beep from the outside, someone entering his pin number, and the door opening. Nobody knew that pass code other than Luhan. Correction, no one anymore knew that code. There had been someone in the past, but that person was dead. Luhan had thought he was dead, until tonight when he let him live.

He sat himself up in bed, hand almost reaching over for the pistol he kept concealed beneath his bedside table. Then he decided he didn't need it, didn't want it. Footsteps came slowly, softly down the hallway, right to the cusp of his open bedroom door, and Luhan held his breath when a figure appeared in the doorway. He held still, nearly invisible in the dark, but he should have known it was pointless.

"You're awake," said the figure. He sounded just the same. Luhan wanted to cry.

"Minseok..."

"Yes." It wasn't a question, not really a response. The man confirmed he was alive and there with all the gravity of a feather in the wind, and yet it was so much more.

"I thought you were dead," said Luhan, evenly controlling his voice because that's all he had left.

"I almost became so tonight."

Both were silent, letting Minseok's words sink in. His face was starting to be familiar now. Light from the hallway starting to seep into the room, and Luhan could see how tired and exhausted he was, how much older. It had been almost four years since he last saw him. Four years since they both woke up and Luhan had kissed his cheeks in good morning, and they'd showered and eaten breakfast and got dressed and went their separate ways to work. Minseok was a kindergarten teacher. He was supposed to be a kindergarten teacher. 

Luhan couldn't respond, and so Minseok spoke again.

"You think I didn't know that was a trap? That you were probably stationed somewhere with a scope, ready to kill whoever entered that room?"

Luhan's throat went dry. "How did..." He stopped and then changed tactics. "If you knew that, then why did you enter?"

Minseok never came home after that day. Vanished and disappeared. He hadn't shown up to his job. When Luhan, frantic, went to inquire, the school hadn't even heard of Minseok. They looked at him like he had gone mad, and perhaps Luhan had. Minseok had never been a teacher. He'd never worked in a school. Everything was a lie, and now he was gone.

Minseok smiled. "I wanted to see what you would do. If you would pull the trigger. Or... if you would forgive me."

Luhan's whole being turned to rage. "I thought you were dead! You disappeared, you were gone out of nowhere one day! I found out I didn't even know who you were! You lied to me! Minseok, tell me which one of those things am I supposed to forgive you for?!" 

His hands balled in the sheets, and despite his shouting, his eyes were weeping. 

Minseok didn't say anything for a minute. He stood in the doorway, motionless. And then he slowly began walking forward, closer to the bed where Luhan waited, where he hadn't moved. 

"Any of those things... all of those things... Luhan, I'm sorry," he spoke so softly. 

"For what?"

"Everything. Luhan, I love you. That part wasn't a lie, then or now."

He couldn't be serious. Not now after everything he had put Luhan through; it just wasn't fair. Luhan loved him with every fiber in his being and yet Minseok had betrayed him and ripped that heart from body. And then he showed up trying to offer it back. 

"I don't know if I can forgive you."

"I know that," said Minseok, if his name even was Minseok. Luhan didn't trust anything anymore. "I know... but I still had to try."

It hurt, everything hurt, and Luhan didn't know what to do. He was so tired, and his body ached. His heart ached, and yet here was Minseok standing before him, pleading everything but offering him no explanation.

"Okay..." he said after a moment. Minseok didn't speak, but he did look at him with something close to begging. "Okay," Luhan repeated. "Come to bed first? Tomorrow I will tell you if I can forgive you or not."

Minseok smiled so sweetly, so earnestly. Luhan didn't know if he'd made the correct decision or if he'd just set himself up all over again. Maybe this time it wouldn't be Minseok who disappeared, but himself. He couldn't bring himself to care though, not after Minseok was tossing his belt and shoes on the floor and climbing into the bed. Not when Luhan's arms were finally sinking around Minseok's waist. And definitely not when he was kissing Minseok's tear-stricken face, nose to nose finally, again, at last.

A/N

Xiuhan ♥♥. I'm so happy to be writing them like this, finally, again, at last. :) Any ship goes, but you know what? Xiuhan goes forever. 

Comments, please! Comments are a writer's best friend.

-SooTheMan

3,980 words

What Kyungsoo said ^^

The sniper!au story is at the request of aLiaLovella. I may or may not have had too much fun with it. Am I writing Kaisoo or Xiuhan?? Does it matter??! FYI, expect to see that ABO Xiuhan with a side of Tao in the form of a oneshot, sometime soon-ish. I've been brainstorming about the concept and instead of doing it off-handedly throughout the fic, I really want to just write it for real. :D

See you next time. Sorry updates on all my fics have been so slow, but then I've actually been working on some exchange fics, and also I'm drafting a very long, epic Xiuhan-centered fantasy!au and I'm stockpiling chapters before I actually post it. It's been fun. I'll try not to neglect everything else too much in the meantime. 

<3 Rosie