There's No Place Like Home 1/2
Also available on AFF. Same AU as Count Electric Sheep 'til You Dream of Me, but there's no need to read that first since this actually happens before that in canon.
Basically EXO are a team of interspecies, intergalactic spies/crime fighters/detectives, and this is how Kai got introduced to the team. Though the AU is OT12, as of this story Tao and Sehun are not part of the team yet. All stories within this universe will be tagged as Intergalactic!AU
In case you're wondering this is kind of what Kai looks like with spots like you would find on a harbor seal
The agency had a habit of not calling before they showed up randomly at 8 AM on Saturdays.
The doorbell jars Suho from a nightmare and he spends a few seconds trying to shake off the last images of his dreams. He’s the only one who goes downstairs, and when he opens the door and sees the men in suits he has a brief thought that this is about the report they filed a few days ago, but why would they show up for that now?
“We need one of the rooms with an adjoining bathroom to be vacated,” says a burly man in sunglasses. Suho blinks up at him tiredly.
“Um…why?”
“I’m not at liberty to say.”
Suho heaves a sigh and steps back. “Hold on a second,” he mumbles, rubbing his eyes. He somehow makes his way to the second floor, stumbling around before he comes to the room at the very end of the hall, where Baekhyun is sleeping. Suho lifts him up and staggers across the hall to Jongdae’s room, dumping Baekhyun in his bed. He then clears Baekhyun’s laptop and some clothes from the room before turning it over to their visitors. After that Suho goes back down stairs and starts to make coffee.
The men go in and out of the house a few times before the coffee is finished, carrying in large cardboard boxes. When Suho sits down with his coffee the house is silent for a few minutes. Then the drilling starts. Baekhyun and Jongdae are the first to come down stairs after that.
“I’m sorry about the room,” Suho says to Baekhyun before he can even open his mouth. “They said they needed a room with a bathroom, I figured…well it was between you and Jongdae, I picked you.”
Baekhyun shrugs. “It’s okay.”
“What are they even doing?” Jongdae asks.
Suho slumps down in his seat. “I have no idea,” he mumbles. “I don’t ask questions anymore.”
Kris comes down stairs next. He takes one look at Suho and offers to make breakfast.
It’s not been an easy week for anyone. Their team is still new and not everyone is best friends yet. When lack of sleep and an Agency that insists on keeping secrets is added to that mess, tensions tend to run really high. It’s taking its toll on Suho, anyone can see it. As the other residents come down stairs they all see the look on Suho’s face and don’t complain about the noise upstairs. Yixing is the only one who doesn’t come down.
“How is he?” Lu Han asks Minseok timidly.
Minseok looks even worse than Suho does. His eyes are dead and his body sags with exhaustion. “He’s sleeping,” is all he says.
It takes about a half hour for the drilling to stop, but the men don’t reemerge. Everyone eats breakfast in silence, and they linger at the table. They’ve been visited like this only a few times before, and each time nobody has told them what was going on, they figured it out on their own after the Agency employees had left. Last time this happened Chanyeol was added to the team, and the Agency dropped by to install a cooling chamber for him. There’s something about this that makes everyone think a new member is being added again, but nobody wants to bring it up.
The men leave around 3 PM, the largest one tell them to leave the room vacant until further notice before he exits. As soon as the door closes behind them Suho puts his head down on the table and cries.
Kris goes to him first, asking if there’s anything they can do for him.
“I hate when they just…invade like this,” Suho sobs through chattering teeth. “They don’t ask, they don’t explain, they just come in and make changes…I hate when…they do this…I’m so tired…”
Suho was the first one to join in the group to join with the Agency, back when he was only thirteen, so that makes him the leader by rules of seniority. He doesn’t talk about those early times much, but his relationship with the Agency is rocky and everyone kind of feels like he didn’t have a happy time in the beginning. Kris was the second one in the group to join the Agency, so when Suho is incapacitated or needs a hand, he becomes a leader. Kris also doesn’t have the best relationship with the Agency, mostly because he can’t stand secrecy.
Kris tries his best to calm Suho down, and it sort of works, but it’s obvious that Suho is still not in the best of moods.
“Maybe you should go back to bed,” Kris suggests gently. “You’re tired, I don’t even need empathy to know that.” He looks around the room. “Maybe we should all go back to bed for a little while.”
“I can get behind that,” Jongdae says, “Baekhyun can share with me, since the other rooms only have twin beds.”
Chanyeol stands up. “I can help you get Suho upstairs, Kris-hyung.”
Kris smiles at him. “I should be okay, I just need you to open his door for me, if you don’t mind.”
Suho tries to protest, but he’s so tired that if he tried to walk he would probably collapse. Everyone trails after Chanyeol, Suho, and Kris, going to their own rooms and trying to get a little more sleep. All except Kyungsoo, who has been dying of curiosity for the last seven hours.
Once everyone is in their own room, Kyungsoo goes down the hall and peeks inside the last room. The bedroom itself is unchanged, but Kyungsoo somehow expected that. He scurries inside and opens the bathroom door, and his jaw drops. It was a large bathroom to begin with, and it used to have a large bathtub and a glass-encased shower stall. Now the bathtub and the shower have been removed and replaced with what looks like small swimming pool.
Kyungsoo steps inside, staring at the new addition. It’s not a bathtub, that much is clear-it’s got a faucet like the one a bathtub would have, but the whole thing is lined with freshly laid tile and looks like something one would find in a spa. But as big as it is, Kyungsoo realizes it’s too small to be a pool.
It’s deeper than a tub as well, so deep that it’s half sunken into the floor. Curiosity overcomes him once more and Kyungsoo cautiously steps into the thing. The tiles are cool under his bare feet and they don’t slip, which means that whatever is holding them in place has dried. As Kyungsoo sits down he realizes that the tiles and grout have been laid so smoothly, he can’t feel a seam between them. When he’s fully seated, the walls of the enclosure go up to his eyes, and he can actually lay flat and still have a good two feet of space blow his feet. He lays with his back against one side of the pool-thing and stretches his arms out in front of himself. His fingers just brush the other side.
Curiosity satisfied for the time being, Kyungsoo stands up and goes back to his own room. He’s not exactly sure what this thing is for, but he’s got an idea and doesn’t want to think about it too much while he’s this tired. Right now the only thing he really finds himself wondering is how, even if they changed clothes, did the men in suits manage to keep themselves so clean during this renovation?
By the time Kyungsoo drags himself back downstairs after his nap, it seems like everyone else has already had a peek at the renovation, and they’re all discussing it.
“They’re giving us a pet stingray,” Chanyeol says firmly. “Or a penguin.”
“You’re an idiot,” Baekhyun tells him, patting his head.
“Come on,” Chanyeol insists, “Look, they can’t send us a new member who needs to be in water all the time, what would be the good in that?”
Lu Han pipes up, “Maybe it’s like, he doesn’t need to leave the water to be useful. Maybe he can see the future, or he practices transfiguration.”
Kyungsoo speaks then, “Yeah but if he needed to be in water all the time, he’d need something bigger.”
“Maybe he’s just freakishly huge,” Jongdae says. “Or bloats.”
“Oh, and I’m an idiot?” Chanyeol scoffs. “Come on, nobody’s that huge.”
“Kris is,” Jongdae says, eying Kris.
“I’m not that tall,” Kris says lightly. “You’re just short.”
Jongdae’s eye twitches, as does Kyungsoo’s.
“Nothing against you, Kyungsoo,” Kris continues. “Just that other person.”
Kyungsoo almost asks what the two of them argued about this time, but thinks better of it. He looks around and notices that Suho is missing. Lu Han follows his line of thinking.
“We sent Suho to the spa, figured he needed a break.”
“You look like you need one too,” Chanyeol says to Lu Han. “How are you feeling?”
It’s like everyone stops breathing. They usually try to refrain from bringing these incidents up again after the fact.
Lu Han smiles. “Thanks for worrying about me Chanyeol, but I’m okay, I promise.”
Nobody believes him, but nobody wants to call him out on the lie. Everyone sits in silence for a few minutes, then Yixing comes into the room.
“Good morning,” He says with a smile. “Oh, I mean afternoon.”
“Hi, Yixing,” Everyone mumbles, in some form or another.
“Where’s Minseok?” Kris asks.
“Asleep,” Yixing says. “I think he’s having nightmares.”
Everyone tries not to flinch. Lu Han quietly gets up and exits the room.
“Is Lu Han okay?” Yixing asks after a minute.
“He’s just tired,” Jongdae says gently. He takes Yixing by the elbow. “Why don’t you go keep Minseok company? I’m sure he’ll sleep better if you’re with him.”
“Okay,” Yixing says. “Yes, I’ll do that.”
Jongdae walks him back. When Yixing’s out of earshot, Kris growls something under his breath. Kyungsoo doesn’t catch it but Baekhyun does.
“Look nobody likes it, okay?” He snaps, “Do you have any better ideas?”
“Yeah,” Kris says, “Tell him the truth.”
Kris, Baekhyun and Chanyeol dissolve into bickering. Kyungsoo grabs a cup of coffee and goes back to his room. He peeks into Lu Han’s room on the way, but Lu Han isn’t there.
The next afternoon everyone is lounging around the living room watching reruns of Running Man when the doorbell rings. Everyone looks at each other, Suho makes a face and pulls his wings around himself, ducking his head down.
“Not it!” He says.
Kris gets up and opens the door, and then he swears in his mother language.
Everyone peeks at the door and their jaws drop. The men in suits are back, and they’ve got a tall black box with them, it almost looks like it could be a refrigerator but everyone knows what that box is really for.
“We’ll need a space to be cleared,” the man at the front of the group says.
The apartment is technically a safe house, which means that moving a new resident into the apartment is a tricky thing. Each time it happens, the new resident has to be disguised. A lot of people have eyes on the Agency, but that’s okay because the Agency knows how to transport a person of interest and lose any tailing spies in the process. But even the initial move into the house has to be secret, and the new agent is usually put into a box like the one in the hallway for the move. The men in suits disguise themselves as handymen or delivery men, and usually more of them wait in the building. Nobody knows how many people it takes to transport one agent, just like nobody knows what it is the men in suits really do.
Everyone clears a path for the box. The men in suits wheel it in, and then carry it up the stairs to the second floor. Nobody needs to ask where it’s going. After a few minutes the men come back and one breaks off from the group to walk over to Suho, who is peeking out at everyone from over the tops of his wings.
The man holds out a file. “His name is Kai. Be careful, he’s a little bit of a handful.” Then he leaves and the men in suits all exit the house. They’re gone before Suho’s feathers have even fully stood on end.
“A little bit of a handful,” Suho echoes. With his feathers all up, he looks a little like an angry porcupine, though no one will ever say it to him because he’s much scarier than a porcupine. “Oh sure, dump the handful on us and leave.” He drops the file to the floor. “Well I’m going to go make sure the poor thing isn’t traumatized. Let’s hope I come back in one piece.”
“Want me to come with you?” Kris asks, even though he knows the answer.
“No, everybody stay here.”
Suho stalks up the stairs and everyone holds their breath, straining to hear. After a moment Kris whispers, “I hear splashing.”
Then a door slams and Suho comes back down, looking slightly damp.
“Well,” He says. His eyes are wide and he looks like he just woke up from a weird dream, “Guys, guess what? Mermaids are real.” He pauses. “Well, merfolk I guess, because that was not a maid…”
“THERE’S A MERMAN IN OUR HOUSE?” Chanyeol shrieks. “Oh my god! First aliens, then Jesus’ younger brother and a unicorn, now a merman?! What’s next??”
“That Jesus thing is getting really old,” Minseok says.
“Can we meet him?” Chanyeol asks excitedly.
Suho holds up a hand. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, maybe give him a few minutes and like, take it slow. He’s really…well, not in a good mood.”
“Would you be?” Kyungsoo asks, but nobody answers.
“Oh,” Suho says, “And um, he’s got tentacles so, beware of that.”
There’s a shocked silence.
“Oh god,” Jongdae whispers, “He’s half giant squid.”
“That’s not funny!” Suho explodes as Chanyeol bursts into panicked giggles.
Kyungsoo picks up the file from the floor and scans it. The first page has only the most basic information. Apparently Kai is seventeen years old, was found injured on some obscure island, has been reluctant to form bonds or communicate, and…
“Guys,” Kyungsoo says loudly, “He can teleport.”
“Oh, really?” Suho asks, reading the file over Kyungsoo’s shoulder. “Wow, that’s convenient. I wonder if he can take people with him?”
“That would be awesome,” Baekhyun says excitedly. “Wow, I hope he settles in quickly so we can actually talk to him.”
But it becomes apparent that Kai is not going to be settling in any time soon. After about an hour Chanyeol goes to say hello to him and comes back wet and looking a little scared.
“He hissed at me,” Chanyeol says. “At least, I think that’s what it was.”
“Maybe we should all just go say hello and get it over with,” Yixing suggests. “If we drag it out, it might serve to just stress him out even more.”
Suho sighs. “I get that, but if he keeps splashing at whoever walks in, the floor’s going to start to leak. Maybe we should wait until tomorrow, keep contact at a bare minimum.” He turns to Kris. “What are you sensing from him?”
Kris is quiet for a moment, frowning in concentration. “I don’t know. His emotions are very complex and they’re constantly changing. He’s…agitated and angry, like he’s itching for a fight, but he’s also very timid and has a desire to be alone.”
Jongdae looks towards the stairs nervously. “Maybe Suho’s right, maybe we should leave him be.”
Kyungsoo clears his throat and waits for everyone to look at him. “If it’s okay with everyone, I would like to try to communicate with him.”
“Um, okay,” Suho says after a brief hesitation. “I suppose if anyone can do it, it’s you.”
Kyungsoo grew up in an orphanage and he used to help out with the younger kids and the new arrivals. Along the way he learned how to connect with the kids who didn’t want to be there, who were angry with the world and just wanted to go home.
Kyungsoo nods. “Okay, I need to go shopping first, I’ll be right back.”
“Shopping?” Minseok echoes, “What for?”
“Well,” Kyungsoo explains to his friends, “I just spent the last hour reading his file. According to this, he’s spent most of his life in the ocean. What do you think he eats?”
“Fish?” Baekhyun guesses. “We have fish.”
“We have canned, old, prepackaged fish,” Kyungsoo says patiently. “I’m pretty sure that’s not what Kai is used to eating.”
There’s a collective “Ooooh.” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, he can’t believe he needs to explain this.
“His file also says that he doesn’t talk, but not whether it’s because he can’t or just doesn’t feel like it, but it does say that he can write, so while I’m gone somebody needs to get a dry erase board and some markers so he can talk to us.” Kyungsoo tried not to read too much into personal information, just enough that he could get a sense for Kai’s personality.
“I’ll do that,” Jongdae says, “I think I have extra in my office.”
“Good,” Kyungsoo says. “Chanyeol, come with me, I need someone to help me carry all this stuff.”
While in the orphanage Kyungsoo learned that truly the best way to make a connection was through food-by offering food, he could show that he cared about the other person’s wellbeing.
There’s a market not too far from the apartment that has some pretty good fish vendors. Kyungsoo uses the credit card the Agency gave them and buys some of the freshest fish he can find, some of it’s not even dead yet. Chanyeol reminds Kyungsoo that it’s been a while since the lot of them had nice food, so they make sure to buy extra to share. Chanyeol pouts until Kyungsoo caves and gets half a dozen lobsters.
“These things aren’t cheap,” he grumbles under his breath.
“Not like we’re paying for it,” Chanyeol reminds him. “Come on, after the week we’ve had we deserve nice things. You know what, get four more! One for each of us!”
Kyungsoo sputters. “Nobody is going to eat a whole thing!”
Chanyeol glares until he relents and Kyungsoo vows to make Chanyeol carry the bag home. In the end it seems like they’ve bought their weight in food.
Once they get back, Kyungsoo lays out the haul and carefully goes through it, picking out what he thinks are the best fish. On a serving platter he lays out a fresh salmon, pieces of octopus and squid, and several whole shrimp. Then at Chanyeol’s insistence he prepares a few more salmon for cooking as well clams, more shrimp and a few whole baby octopus.
“You guys are insatiable,” he grumbles under his breath. “Hold off on cooking until I get back, okay?”
He carries the plate upstairs, taking care not to spill it. The bedroom door is open, but the bathroom door is firmly shut. Kyungsoo kneels down, putting the plate next to him, and stays down as he opens the door. He keeps his eyes lowered and listens carefully. He can hear the water lapping at the sides of the tub and a low growl rumbling from the newest resident. Kyungsoo slides the plate in ahead of himself and inches inside on his knees, keeping the bathroom door open so that Kai doesn’t feel like he’s trapped.
“Are you hungry?” Kyungsoo asks quietly. He picks up the plate and slowly raises his eyes.
There was no picture in Kai’s folder, so Kyungsoo wasn’t sure what to expect. Kyungsoo can only see his head and a bit of his hands from his position, but his breath catches in his throat at how beautiful he is. Kai’s skin looks smooth and slick, like that of a dolphin, and it’s a light brown color with rich, dark brown spots. His fingers have a thin, translucent webbing between them, and Kyungsoo’s not sure if he has nails or just hardened skin on the ends of his fingers, he’s too far away to tell. Kai has hair on his head, which Kyungsoo finds slightly surprising, but no eyebrows or lashes. He stares at Kyungsoo through narrowed eyes, the picture of distrust.
Kyungsoo has only looked at him for a few seconds and he lowers his eyes again so Kai doesn’t get uncomfortable. He holds out the plate of fish.
“I wasn’t sure what you would like,” He says, “There’s more downstairs, and a much bigger variety too. I’ll leave this here, and when I come back for the plate I’ll leave something for you to write on so you can list what you like to eat, okay?”
He inches forward on his knees until Kai growls threateningly, then he stops, sets the plate down, and backs out. He doesn’t stand until he closes the door.
When he goes back downstairs, everyone looks at him like he’s just performed a magic trick.
“You’re not wet,” Suho says. “How are you not wet?”
Kyungsoo explains it to them as he prepares dinner.
“In nature, creatures often feel threatened by what’s bigger than them. Kai’s in a pretty defenseless position right now, so the first thing to do is not be bigger than him. I pretty much crawled the entire time. Then when I got too close he growled at me, so I backed off. I just went in to give him food, after that I got out of his personal space.”
Noticing Chanyeol’s pout, Kyungsoo reaches over and pat him on the head. “You and Suho kind of buttered him up for me, I think. You startled him but didn’t hurt him, so I think he was a little more receptive. I’m going to back after dinner, and I’m going to spend a lot of time with him over the next few days. Since I’m not a giant and I have experience with this kind of thing, I’m hoping he won’t find me too threatening and I’ll be able to get a good sense for how to act around him, then I can introduce him to you all. Sound like a good plan?”
“It’s a good plan,” Suho says. “As long as you feel like you can handle it.”
“I can,” Kyungsoo says confidently.
After dinner Kyungsoo takes the dry erase board and goes back upstairs. He enters the same way he did last time, and when he looks up he doesn’t see Kai at all and figures he must be under water. The plate has been cleared, only the head of the salmon and a few fish bones remain. Kyungsoo clears his throat and after a few seconds Kai’s head pops up.
Kyungsoo holds up the board. “This is for you to write what you like to eat, and anything else you want to tell us.”
He hesitates a moment. He wants to say more, but Kai is shrinking away from him, so he leaves the board and the marker and exits the room.
Next part