Happy birthday to PolaroidsofKpop (telekinetic? Or was it telepathic?) and to Alana_snow for tomorrow! (I only have one other person with an April birthday on my list, so sorry if I've missed you off.)

Semi woke up alone and comfortably warm in a cocoon of duvet and pillows.  Yawning, she stretched and set about disentangling herself, only to see a line of neat handwriting on her outer forearm.  Some things about Xiumin really hadn’t changed.

You hog the covers when you’re sleeping badly, he’d written.  Semi raised an eyebrow at the sentence, but was distracted from any further reaction when her phone, which she’d used as a torch to get into the room during the night, buzzed with a new text message.  Rolling over, Semi plucked her phone off the bedside table and saw that the message was from Jongin.

Lay’s laughing his head off, it read.  Apparently the stuff Xiumin was saying in Chinese last night translates roughly to ‘I’m going to need a super cold shower in the morning’.  He’s been in there for the past twenty minutes freezing his off and whacking his head against the wall and Lay thinks it’s the funniest thing ever.

Semi couldn’t help a little chuckle.  She could just imagine Lay sitting there cackling to himself as he watched the CCTV for the apartment.

Her phone buzzed again with a quick update from Jongin of the yeti has left the shower! and about thirty seconds later, Xiumin emerged from the en suite wearing a pair of stonewashed jeans and towelling his hair dry.  Water that he hadn’t managed to wipe off his chest threw his wolf tattoo into sharp clarity, but as he came closer, Semi saw that his skin was covered in goosebumps from the chill.

“You know,” she said, “it’s much more comfortable to take a warm shower.”

He jumped, apparently unaware that she was awake, and swiftly covered his torso with the towel.

“Morning,” she added.  “And just what are you trying to hide behind that towel?  I’ve already seen it all.”

Throwing her a funny look, Xiumin continued over to the chest of drawers near the bed and fished out a t-shirt.

“And also,” Semi went on for the sake of it, “you have a massive bruise on your forehead.”

She snickered when he paused, t-shirt clutched in one hand, and gingerly felt his forehead.  An inscrutable expression crossed his face before he turned back to her.

“Okay, now I know you’re teasing me,” he said.  “What do you want for breakfast?  Do you feel up to going to university?”

Semi considered, trying to remember what her schedule was for the day.  Her brain immediately went blank.  University meant bodyguards and interacting with people and… well, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to handle Tao’s exuberance or Wendy’s probing questions just yet.  Seulgi wouldn’t be too bad, but… people.  She huddled up in the duvet again, realising she was too shaken to really focus on something like that.

“I want to go to Sehun’s,” she admitted in a small voice.

“It’s Friday.  He’ll be at work,” Xiumin pointed out as he got rid of the towel and pulled the top on.  “And Chanyeol said he was giving a workshop on mental health at a school today, so he’s not going to be around either.”

Semi allowed the words to sink in, and then sank further into the covers.  She heard drawers opening and closing, presumably as Xiumin rooted around for a jumper.

“I’ll ask what Jongin’s doing today,” he said after a moment or two.  “I’d rather not leave you by yourself—”

Semi raised her head.  “I’m hardly a danger to myself or anything like that—”

He held up his hands.  “I know, I know.  But distraction is always good after something unpleasant and so is having somebody around who’s sensitive to the fact you may need to take things at your own pace for a little while, and on the off chance that Mighty Mouth know where you are, they’re likely to target you if they think you’re alone.  They were in Luhan’s territory, after all.”

Semi’s phone buzzed with a new text and she glanced down at it.

“Jongin says he’s supposed to be co-leading the team investigating the people chasing us yesterday,” she said.  “And he’s supposed to be picking out new people to station at the university.”

A couple of seconds’ silence followed.  Semi looked up to see Xiumin frowning at the floor and biting his lip.

“How about coming into the police station with me, then?”

Semi remained silent, looking blankly at him.

“I need to go anyway,” he said.  “I need to give them details on what happened yesterday.  I ought really to have done it last night, but it was much more important that I looked after you at the time.”

Semi thought of the bustling police station, of all the noise and business, and cringed.  “Don’t wanna be around people,” she mumbled.

“I’m sure there’ll be somewhere quiet there.”

“Yeah.  The holding cells.”

In the end, Semi did agree on going to the police station because she didn’t want to feel cooped up or like she was being babysat, but Lay sent through a request that neither of them showed up until after lunch because they were busy trying to process various vehicles from the car chase and one or two people that they’d actually managed to apprehend, and he didn’t want more people than absolutely necessary under his feet.  Semi requested breakfast in bed and spent the next half hour curled up in both her own and Xiumin’s duvets texting her big brother.

Round about mid-morning, Xiumin knocked on the door and stuck his head around it.

“Are you going to get up?” he asked.  “I want to teach you something.”

Semi eyed him speculatively and then set her phone aside.  The writing on her forearm caught her eye again as she did so.

“Can I ask you a question first?” she demanded.

He shrugged.  “Sure.”

Semi brandished her arm at him.  “Why do you always write on me?”

Xiumin blinked at her.  “I’m not sure,” he admitted.  “Habit?”

Semi scoffed.  “Come over here.”

For a moment, he hesitated, but then he slipped inside the room and came to stand beside the bed.

“Give me your arm,” Semi told him, reaching for the sharpie on his bedside table.

“What are you going to do?” he asked her curiously as he did as he was bid.  Semi whacked his wrist lightly.

“Shush.  And close your eyes.”

Evidently deciding it was worth humouring her, Xiumin held still and closed his eyes.  A faint smile curled around his lips as Semi shoved his sleeve back so that she could write on his left forearm, though when she reached his elbow, he did try to pull away a little, presumably because it tickled.

“There,” said Semi, capping the sharpie again and putting it back where she had found it.  “You can look.”

Amused, Xiumin raised his arm and took a good look at it.  “Skin is not paper on me or anybody else,” he read, and then let out a little laugh.  “Memo received.”

“Get it tattooed on you,” Semi told him.  “Now get out.  I want to change.”

As she threw on some clothes in her own room, Semi found herself thinking about what Xiumin had said to her the day before down near the river.  She’d been reluctant to listen to him in the first place, even though she had told herself it was probably for the best if she had to be around him at all, and she was very wary of believing a word he’d said, but his actions and words did tally up, no matter how much she wanted to believe that they didn’t.  The question was whether or not it was genuine or another act.

“Ugh.  Do I need to talk to him again?” she grumbled to herself.  She hovered with her thumb over her phone, contemplating calling Jongin or her brother, but she knew exactly what both of them would say to her.

He’s not worth a second of your time, would be Sehun’s response.

Jongin’s was much more likely to be if he’s genuine, a little kindness and a small tug over to you might have him on our side, otherwise he’ll give up and nothing will come of it.  On the off chance that Xiumin wasn’t genuine, it would be can I punch him?  Semi hated it.  And she hated it more that she still found Minseok insanely attractive, and that his good qualities, which were becoming more and more prominent, were about everything that she would look for in another half.  It was just beyond tragic that his bad qualities had to be quite so bad.

When she emerged from the room, it was to find that Xiumin actually did have a bruise on his forehead that he was probing at in a manner that made him wince.

“Have you been back in the shower?” Semi demanded.  He started and looked up at her.

“Huh?”

“You seemed pretty intent on losing brain cells in the shower this morning.  Jongin said.”

Xiumin muttered something that might just have been it’s difficult sleeping next to you.  Semi gawped at him, wondering if she’d heard correctly, or then if she’d heard anything at all when he continued as though it had been nothing.  Or… had it been in Chinese again?  Nevertheless, she followed him through to the living room, hesitating in the doorway as she tried to shake memories of Byun Baekhyun.

“What was it you wanted to teach me?” she asked as he started pulling cushions off the sofa and laying them out on the floor.

“Self-defence,” he replied.  “I think I mentioned back when we were sorting out our fake love story that I’d teach you a few things if you wanted, but you said at the time that you didn’t think it would be a good idea because of your injuries.  Which was fair enough.”

“Why now?” Semi asked, making no move to help.

Xiumin just looked up at her.  “I should have done it sooner,” was all he said, setting down the last cushion and peeling off his jumper.  The dark blue ink on his left arm jumped out immediately, but so did several vicious-looking scratches on his right that Semi didn’t remember seeing before.

“Xiumin.”

He winced.

“I’m small, still recovering from some nasty injuries, and consequently unfit and pretty weak.  I’d need months of training to be able to beat somebody in a fight, if not years.  There’s no point.”

“This is self-defence, not winning,” he replied.  “You don’t need to be able to beat somebody to a blood pulp.  I just want to give you enough of an edge to be able to disentangle yourself if you need to and get away.  And yes, you’re small, but that shouldn’t stop you from throwing somebody over your shoulder and stunning them if I teach you how.”

“And what about if they have a weapon?”

“I can teach you how to disarm somebody with a knife, too.”

“What about a gun?”

Xiumin met her eyes, his expression completely serious.  “Then you pray.  And run.”

Seeing he wasn’t going to back down and evidently thought it was necessary, Semi sighed and closed her eyes.  Were there advantages to knowing a little self-defence?  Yes.  And he was willing to teach her.  From what little she’d seen of him in action, he was more than capable.  “Fine.  Go ahead.”

“This is going to require some contact.  Are you all right with that?”

Taking a couple of hasty steps back, Semi opened her eyes again.  “Depends exactly where the contact is.”

“Nowhere inappropriate,” he assured her.  “Largely wrists, arms… I want to teach you how to get out of headlocks and chokeholds, as well.”

Shuddering, Semi wrapped her arms around herself.  “I-I’m not sure if…”

“Is it the scars?”

Semi nodded.  Xiumin pursed his lips for a moment.

“Can I know where they are?” he asked.  “I’ll do my best to avoid them.  You just need to be awar