Baekhyun stifles a huge yawn, cup of steaming black coffee in hand. It’s the following morning and they’re in the kitchen. What’s left of it, at least. The previous owners hadn’t gotten this far with their renovations, so the kitchen looks the same as it did forty years ago when the place was damaged by a terrible fire. Baekhyun doesn’t have to look in a history book to know about the fire; the charred remains of the walls, counters, and cooking appliances are proof enough.

“Is this boring you?” Chanyeol asks archly, bending down to examine the state of an enormous oven.

Baekhyun blushes. “No, of course not.” He doesn’t mention that it’s too ing early for anyone sane to be awake. Even the birds don’t really seem awake, and he should know because there’s a big gaping hole in the wall leading out to the courtyard, where the pool of putrid, festering swamp water lies. He figures that he’s probably going to be waking up early for the next couple of years. He may as well get used to it. This whole thing was his idea in the first place, after all. He takes a sip of the scalding coffee. “How’s it look?” he asks instead of commenting on the hour. “Anything worth salvaging?”

“Doesn’t look like it,” Chanyeol says with a sigh, marking something on his clipboard and standing up. He wipes ash from his hand onto his jeans, leaving a smeared black handprint on the denim. “We’re going to have to order all new appliances.”

“Well, it’s what we expected,” Baekhyun sighs, thinking of how much money it’s going to take to entirely refurbish this kitchen. It’s a good thing they got a good deal on the hotel. “Anyway, I suppose we should worry about actually rebuilding the kitchen before we think about refurbishing it.”

“Good point,” Chanyeol says, scratching at his cheek. “We need to start gutting this place immediately. It’s got the most fire damage so I would say that it’s posing the most threat to the foundation, although it’s been like this for forty years so I’m not too worried-” He stops suddenly when Baekhyun giggles. “What?” he demands.

Baekhyun sets his ceramic coffee cup down on one of the blackened countertops and takes a step closer. “You’ve got a bit of ash on you,” he says, reaching up. “Right here…” He tenderly wipes the black smudge off Chanyeol’s pale cheek. Then he leans up on his tiptoes and plants a kiss on the elder’s lips.

Chanyeol’s arms wrap around the smaller male’s frame, holding him close, deepening the kiss.

Baekhyun squawks mildly in protest. “You’re going to get ash on me!” he wails.

“You’re already covered in ash, idiot,” Chanyeol teases. “And you’d better get used to it. The kitchen, the laundry room, and the main ballroom are all pretty much charred beyond recognition. We’re going to be dealing with a lot of ash in the next couple of weeks.” Chanyeol lowers his voice as he nips playfully at Baekhyun’s lower lip. “But don’t worry, love,” he breathes in that deep voice that sends shivers of anticipation down Baekhyun’s spine. “I can think of a couple ways to get you nice and clean…”

“Hello?” a voice calls from the lobby, the sound echoing up to the vaulted ceiling.

Baekhyun jumps back, startled, then blushes sheepishly.

Chanyeol chuckles. “Coming!” he calls back.

They find a man in his early thirties standing in the lobby, looking up at one of the chandeliers with his hands on his hips, lips pursed thoughtfully as he takes in the vintage fixture, probably one of the originals.

Baekhyun has never seen the man before, but Chanyeol obviously knows him if the way his face splits into a grin is anything to go by. “Dongwoo!” he exclaims, hurrying to embrace the man. “Long time no see, man! How you been?”

“Pretty good,” the man replies, dutifully hugging Chanyeol. “Keeping busy. Looks like you have, too.”

“That’s the damn truth,” Chanyeol chuckles. He turns to Baekhyun. “Baek, this is an old friend of mine, Dongwoo Shin. He’s the one I hired to help me head the construction team. Hyung, this is my partner, Baekhyun Byun.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Baekhyun says, trying not to wrinkle his nose at the use of the word partner. It’s true that he and Chanyeol are partners – partners on every level, really – but it seems so impersonal when he says it like that. He wishes Chanyeol would just introduce him as his boyfriend.

Dongwoo shakes his outstretched hand, grip firm. “The pleasure’s all mine,” he replies solemnly.

He’s handsome, Baekhyun notes with a certain amount of jealousy. Slender but broad-shouldered, well-toned from the physical demands of his job. He wears his dark hair longer, tied back in a little ponytail at the nape of his neck. He’s also got glasses, but that does nothing to detract from the reality that he could probably snap Baekhyun in half with one hand.

Chanyeol rubs his hands together eagerly. “We’ve got most of the plans laid out in the library. It hasn’t been renovated yet, but the fire didn’t get to it so it’s pretty clean. Floors two through six have been completely done, so we don’t need to worry about them for now. What we want to focus on now is the first floor. As you can see, the lobby needs a lot of work, but we want to start on the kitchen. It’s been completely gutted by fire and so-”

He stops as something shatters somewhere in the vicinity of the kitchen, where he and Baekhyun have just come from. It’s loud enough that Baekhyun jumps.

“What was that?” he demands, automatically taking a step closer to Chanyeol.

Chanyeol’s brows pull together. “No clue. Let’s go see. I want to show Dongwoo the kitchen anyway.”

They discover the source of the crash almost immediately. Baekhyun’s coffee cup, the one he’d left on the counter, is now in several shards on the soot-stained floor, the spilled coffee leaking across the tiles.

“Well here’s the problem,” Chanyeol says, bending down to pick up the shards of ceramic and tossing them into a blackened wooden box. “I’m sure something just knocked it over. Be careful not to cut yourself.”

“What knocked it over?” Baekhyun demands, rubbing his arms. He doesn’t like the kitchen, with its blackened walls and hollow feel.

Chanyeol shrugs, checking to make sure he’s gotten all the broken pieces of the coffee mug. “Dunno. Squirrel, chipmunk. Anything could’ve done it. It’s not like there’s anything keeping the outside out.” He gestures to the hole burned in the wall as if to reiterate his point.

Baekhyun frowns but doesn’t push the matter. Chanyeol’s got a point. Anything could’ve come in and knocked the cup off the counter. Besides, he doesn’t want to let Chanyeol know just how much this place creeps him out. Renovating the hotel had been his idea in the first place, after all.

“Come on,” Chanyeol says to Dongwoo. “Let’s go take a look at those renovation plans.”

Dongwoo nods and follows Chanyeol from the fire-gutted kitchen, leaving Baekhyun to bring up the rear. It’s just as he’s passing back by the counter he’d set his cup on that he notices the clear mark his cup had left in the soot on top of the counter. A perfect circle, left by the base of the cup. But the rest of the counter is black. No paw prints, no marks at all to mar the perfect blackness of the soot.

Baekhyun shivers again and scurries after the other two.

He catches up with them as they’re entering the library. Now this is a room Baekhyun likes. It needs a lot of work, obviously, but he loves it. The parquetted wooden floors are stunning, a little weather-damaged but he’s determined to fix them up and use the same flooring. There are several windows looking out over what was once a beautiful garden, though now it’s overgrown, more weeds than flowers. Still, the windows are beautiful, some still with the original stained glass clinging to the frames. It’s enough that Baekhyun can re-create the designs, in any case. And they let in so much light that the room is bright and warm. And the books. Oh the books! Many have been looted over the years and even more damaged by inclement weather, but hundreds remain. Baekhyun hasn’t had the chance to go through more than a few of them, but he finds them absolutely fascinating. He’s fairly certain that some of them are originals from when the hotel first opened back in the mid-1800s. They’re thick with dust but his fingers are itching to get a hold of them.

Chanyeol has chosen the wall furthest from the windows – and furthest from any weather – as his base of operations. He’s tacked up the designs he and Baekhyun had painstakingly created for the renovation. It had taken them ages, trying to get every detail right. Their goal was to make guests feel like they were stepping back in time to the 1850s without sacrificing any comfort or amenities. But they are both pleased with the results.

Eager as ever, Chanyeol launches into a detailed plan of how he wants to go about working on the kitchen. Dongwoo nods thoughtfully at regular intervals, eyes glued to the plans tacked to the wall. Baekhyun perches himself in a wobbly chair and tunes his boyfriend out. He’s heard these plans a billion times already; he could recite them by heart.

He doesn’t even know why Chanyeol insisted on bringing in another construction team leader. Chanyeol is so particular about the way things are done that nothing will go without his express approval. Another manager is just extra baggage, Baekhyun thinks. But still, the hotel is enormous. He supposes Chanyeol can’t be in two places at once, so maybe Dongwoo’s presence is necessary.

Though he’s tuned out the conversation, Baekhyun’s eyes narrow on the way Dongwoo lightly rests his hand on Chanyeol’s arm, the way Chanyeol laughs in that way that makes his eyes crinkle up into nothingness.

Nope, Baekhyun thinks. Dongwoo is definitely not necessary to their cause.

Unfortunately, Chanyeol has already hired him. He makes this very clear when Baekhyun brings up the subject of not needing a second manager after they’ve said their goodbyes and arranged to meet in the morning with the crews.

Chanyeol gives Baekhyun a confused look from under his floppy curls. “What do you mean, don’t need a second manager? Of course we do. Have you seen the size of this place? There’s no way I could do it on my own.”

Baekhyun is silent. He feels sort of selfish for even bringing it up. He knows that Chanyeol has to do three times more work on this place than Baekhyun does. Baekhyun is the designer, but Chanyeol is the builder. And if Chanyeol says he needs the help, then he definitely needs the help.

“What’s up?” Chanyeol asks, glancing over his shoulder as he bodily pulls the remains of a charred oven from the wall in the kitchen. “You seem a little out of it.”

“Nothing,” Baekhyun assures him, not wanting to admit that he’s jealous. They’ve been together for five years already. He knows there’s nothing to be jealous of. If Chanyeol was going to cheat on him, he’d have done it already. But it doesn’t stop Baekhyun from disliking Dongwoo. He groans, struggling to yank a blackened wooden board free from its loose screws. Even with the thick gloves he’s wearing, the wood cuts into his skin. “I don’t see why we have to start on this now,” he complains. “I don’t see why we can’t just wait until the morning when the crews show up.”

“Because I want to get this done as soon as possible and what else are we going to do for the rest of the day?” Chanyeol grunts, shoving the oven over towards the loading dock where the temporary dumpsters have been placed. He won’t be able to get the oven into the dumpster himself, but he can at least leave it closer for tomorrow.

Baekhyun groans and gives up on the board, peeling off his gloves and checking on the blister forming on his right thumb. He catches sight of the ring on the sooty counter left by his coffee mug that morning. “There are no prints,” he says suddenly.

Chanyeol looks up, confused as he wipes sweat from his brow. “Prints?” he repeats.

“On the counter,” Baekhyun says, pointing. “You said something knocked it over, but there are no prints. There was nothing on the counter to knock it over.”

“So it was a bird or something,” Chanyeol says dismissively. He suddenly grins. “What do you think did it?”

“I don’t know,” the elder grumbles, wishing he’d never brought it up at all. “This place just gives me the creeps.”

Chanyeol wraps his arms around his boyfriend comfortingly. “It’s just because it’s all burned out like this,” he assures Baekhyun. “It’ll be better once we’ve gotten it all fixed up.”

“Promise?” Baekhyun sniffs.

Chanyeol responds with a quick peck to the end of his nose. “Promise.” He steps back, brushing back his sweaty curls. “I think it’s time for a break. Let’s go watch a movie and cuddle.”

Baekhyun can’t help but laugh. Of course Chanyeol knows just how to cheer him up. 

Thanks to everyone for subscribing and commenting on this story! It makes me really happy >.<

I really like this story! I'm excited to be doing something a bit different than what I normally do lol