CHINGUX 2014: operation phoenix (2/3) for fashcndy
← PART 1
Chanyeol doesn't remember how they got back to Baekhyun's room but he eventually finds himself pressed against the back of the door by a very eager Baekhyun hovering close to him.
It's an understatement to say that Chanyeol hasn't dreamt of doing this ever since he's seen Baekhyun, but the moment they close the gap between them, Chanyeol feels like his heart's bursting all over again. His head's starting to hurt, eyesight blurring, but Baekhyun is doing that wonderful thing as he traces his tongue and sucks at Chanyeol's bottom lip and fuck.
Baekhyun's fingers slowly work their way to unbutton Chanyeol's shirt, his other hand roaming all over the other's chest, but Chanyeol's impatient and aggressive enough to get him out of his own clothing and accidentally pops the remaining buttons off with one swift tug.
"Shit," Chanyeol mumbles. That was one of his favorite shirts, damn it. But when he looks up, Baekhyun's mouth is slick with spit and his eyes are clouded with lust as he bites on his bottom lip. "You're so beautiful," Chanyeol says hazily, pushing him backwards until they've switched positions. His jeans have become uncomfortably tight now as he grinds against Baekhyun's hips, already feeling Baekhyun's dick against his own.
Baekhyun's grip in his hair tightens as they continue to rut against each other, his labored breathing echoing against Chanyeol's ears. Chanyeol starts nibbling at the side of his jaw, his body slacking a little, holding Baekhyun down with the support of the wall.
They don't say much anymore like it's a mutual agreement as Baekhyun pushes him forward.
"Bed," he hisses and Chanyeol only stumbles woozily, pulling him for a few sloppy kisses as they fall back to the mattress. Once his head hits the pillow, Chanyeol's head becomes even heavier, his eyelids drooping. Baekhyun doesn't notice it as he makes his way down to Chanyeol's chest, trailing his mouth over the exposed skin until his dainty fingers reach the buckle of Chanyeol's pants.
It isn't until he looks up that he finally finds Chanyeol completely knocked out on the pillow, his breathing finally slowing down.
"What the fuck," Baekhyun exclaims, sounding extremely pissed. He huffs and puts his hand on his waist, still stuck in a very compromising position with his legs on either side of Chanyeol and his hips a few centimeters away from Chanyeol's crotch. “You’re kidding me, right?” he says unbelievingly.
But Chanyeol looks peaceful, his chest heaving up and down in perfect rhythm and his eyelashes looking dangerously beautiful against his lids. It's such a pity that his mouth looks thoroughly kissed at the moment. Baekhyun sighs defeatedly.
"Chanyeol?" he calls out. Chanyeol doesn't budge, completely unresponsive. "You know I was really saving the knocking out thing for last, but alright." He pats Chanyeol's cheeks lightly and that's when he feels it-Chanyeol's burning up with a goddamn fever and he didn't even notice it at all while he's caught up in their own heated moment.
“You idiot. Why didn't you tell me you weren't feeling well?" Baekhyun groans but he’s looking at Chanyeol fondly, his heart stammering out of his chest. This is so unprofessional, Baekhyun thinks as he brushes his hand against Chanyeol’s sweaty forehead. It would have been really nice if they hadn’t met this way.
After finally tucking Chanyeol into bed and putting a cold towel in his forehead, Baekhyun brushes his lips against Chanyeol’s cheek. “Good night,” he whispers.
It takes him three hours of contemplating before coming into his senses. Don’t let your emotions cloud your judgement. This is a very dangerous criminal lying in your bed. Baekhyun hesitantly takes Andromeda off of Chanyeol, placing it back in his own vault. He reaches out for the handcuffs in his pocket, carefully grabs Chanyeol’s arm before cuffing it on the bed frame.
In a different type of situation, this would’ve been extremely promising.
Except Baekhyun is really just doing his job and arresting a seemingly innocent and lovely guy asleep underneath his sheets. He calls Minseok back and tells him, “I got the target.”
"Is he awake?"
Baekhyun looks at the giant sleeping like a baby next to him. “No,” Baekhyun says, pausing. “Don’t worry, I have him cuffed. He won’t be able to escape.”
Minseok’s voice is monotonous when he compliments Baekhyun back. “Great work, Agent Byun. I'll send the team to assist you back to Langley."
“Great job,” Baekhyun congratulates himself sarcastically. A good shower and a drink really won’t hurt right now to calm his nerves down, but as he walks toward the bathroom, he sees Chanyeol’s phone lying on the floor.
Right. Kyungsoo and Jongdae. Baekhyun unlocks it to see a portrait of the three grinning widely at a camera, probably taken from their early college days. Chanyeol has a peace sign with his other arm stretched over to Jongdae caught in mid laughter with a cute Kyungsoo squished between them. It’s really a wonder how these three ended up being professional robbers.
He looks over Chanyeol on the bed and does something extremely out of his character. Got sick. Baekhyun’s taking care of me. Don’t worry, he types, and then sends it to Kyungsoo.
Chanyeol wakes up only to find himself sitting inside a plane with his hands cuffed on either sides of the armrests. His eyes widen, mind whirling to think of how exactly did he get here-but all he can recall is Baekhyun’s lips all over his and his hotel room and-oh.
This can’t be it. No, no-Baekhyun isn’t… he shouldn’t be…
Chanyeol stays completely frozen, shutting his eyes tightly as he hears loud footsteps coming toward him.
The voices seem a little muffled together with the sound of engine whirring, and Chanyeol tilts his head a little to the side to hear more. It feels like he can hear everything at once: his own heartbeat pulsating, the ragged breaths of people sleeping somewhere in the plane, the sound of someone maneuvering the aircraft and a very familiar voice inching closer and closer.
An unfamiliar voice says questioningly, “Did you drug him? It’s been hours and he’s still dead asleep.”
The conversation isn’t exactly a very decent one, but it perks Chanyeol’s interest. "God, no. We only had a few drinks. I didn't think he was a lightweight, but halfway through... a situation happened and he passed out."
The other person cuts him off with a chuckle like he knows exactly what it means. “So you did plan to fuck him in the end.”
“Shut up, we didn’t even get that far,” Baekhyun snaps and if Chanyeol’s not mistaken, there’s a glint of regret in his voice. “Don’t ever mention what you found in my hotel room to anyone else, Jongin.”
“Alright, I’ll pretend I didn’t just watch you nurse a very dangerous criminal before letting me take him away.”
Chanyeol tries not to react to that. What does that even mean? He tries to remember the night before (and tries not to go back to that familiar voice moaning against his ear) and groans accidentally after realizing that he passed out in the middle of a very good time.
“Shhhh,” Baekhyun shushes Jongin, another agent in his team and stalks forward. He nudges Chanyeol’s arm. Chanyeol tries very hard not to let his eyes slip open. “Come on, I know you’re awake,” Baekhyun says.
“I’m not,” Chanyeol snaps back. “I honestly would rather not to.”
“Go busy yourself for a moment, Jongin,” Baekhyun says, pushing the taller boy away from him.
Jongin only laughs, his voice twinkling with amusement before saying, “Roger, agent.”
“Okay.” Baekhyun proceeds to sit across him. “I’m sure you know why you’re here.”
Chanyeol slowly opens his eyes, seeing a very fidgety Baekhyun in a suit and tie avoiding his stare. He really wasn’t prepared for this and his chest feels heavy when he speaks. “I don’t, actually. I just know that you lied to me. Artist, huh?” he mumbles bitterly.
Baekhyun sits up defensively. “It wasn’t just me who lied.” Baekhyun scowls, crossing his arms like a child throwing a fit. “You were caught in the act, Chanyeol. I got the Andromeda from you myself. You can’t get out of this even if you want to.”
“How long have you known?” is just what he really wants to ask.
Baekhyun doesn’t reply for a moment, just plays with his fingers. His voice come out dejected when he admits, “When we were dancing in Beijing.”
“You knew all this time?”
“Yes,” Baekhyun says hesitantly. "You made one mistake, Chanyeol. You told me your real name when you weren't supposed to.”
“So that’s how you found me?”
"Yeah, I guess." Baekhyun nods solemnly.
“I see,” Chanyeol says, slouching back into his seat. “I honestly didn’t expect that date to be a very well planned trap.”
“It wasn’t! Well, it was but-“ Baekhyun feels the need to explain himself, as if he really needs to. It was a job, he keeps telling himself, but ends up saying, “I’m sorry. Capturing you and Andromeda was my mission.”
Chanyeol thinks about Jongdae and Kyungsoo back in Seoul, probably worried sick over him. This is his entire fault-if he wasn’t stupid enough and just listened to Kyungsoo, maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t find himself here and put his friends in danger. “What about my friends?”
“About that…” Baekhyun pauses, looking around to see who else is close to them. “I sort of left their information out.”
That piques Chanyeol’s interest. “What?”
“They don’t know that much yet at the moment. At least for now,” Baekhyun says rapidly, not meeting his eyes. Before Chanyeol can even ask why he’s doing that, Baekhyun’s already up. He purses his lips and says, “Make yourself comfortable.”
Chanyeol looks at his wrists and sighs. He doesn’t seem hurt in any way, just detained in this seat until they land in god knows where. It’s just… the fact that it was Baekhyun who put him in this exact spot is not very enlightening. He supposes he’ll get caught anyway one of these days, but damn it he really thought Baekhyun was the one.
Suck it up, Park Chanyeol, he tells himself before hitting the back of his head against his seat with a groan.
The thing about being in a team like Chanyeol’s is that most of the time, they do try to not leave anyone behind.
That is why Jongin is met with two incredibly short flight attendants on his way to the other half of the plane. The first one’s wearing big circle shaped glasses that compliment his own pair of big eyes, and the other one with a strong jaw and very long eyelashes is sporting a very weird looking mustache. If Jongin was being honest, he hadn’t seen them board the plane with them, but sometimes the private planes the CIA hires can be quite as sneaky as them anyway.
“Hey,” he greets them casually.
Surprised, Kyungsoo only fakes a very creepy accommodating smile that has Jongdae trying to hold in his laughter. He sounds constipated with the way he’s forcing his voice. “Yes?” he says politely.
Jongin purses his lips. He looks so suspicious that behind him, Jongdae’s slowly taking out his gun from his backside. Jongin leans closer while Kyungsoo catches the silver glimmering on Jongin’s side and tenses his shoulders. The question that comes afterward is totally what he didn’t expect. “Do you know where they stack up the food in here? I’m really hungry.”
“Oh,” Kyungsoo says and Jongdae immediately tucks his gun back. He signals Jongdae to leave before holding Jongin by the arm, making the younger boy flustered as he leads him toward the staff area. “This way, sir. We have lots of options on board.”
“Great,” Jongin agrees immediately, caught off guard by Kyungsoo’s very adorable face and follows him shortly.
“Idiots,” Jongdae mumbles quietly, laughing. He adjusts the fake mustache and strides forward. They’ve sneaked into the plane and eventually knocked the original flight attendants out-all thanks to Kyungsoo’s death grip, of course; they passed out shortly before Kyungsoo could muster his worst headlock. There are only a few agents on board counting the one Kyungsoo just led away and that long and flat faced guy with the not so proportionate body dead asleep in the cargo area because of their tranquilizer guns.
The plane is not exactly that big so Jongdae finds Chanyeol long enough after that. From the corner of his eyes, he sees Baekhyun curled and asleep a few seats from his friend. He slows down, making sure that no one else’s around before moving past Chanyeol and tossing a pin straight to his hand. Chanyeol looks up at him, puzzled before sighing a breath of relief as soon as he sees Jongdae wriggling his forehead with a crinkling smile.
His task is to make sure that no one in the pilot’s cabin is capable to fight them. After sliding the curtains open, he takes his gun out and immediately shoots the person sitting on the maneuver. “Sorry,” Jongdae says, catching him before he falls to the floor. A very handsome face conked out in his arms meets him. He slowly puts him down on the side, propping him so he won’t fall before coming face to face with the cockpit instruments.
Jongdae’s knowledge of airplanes only go so far as playing flight games in his PS4 back home. It was supposed to be Kyungsoo in here, not him. Sure, he can play around the mechanical components of the aircraft but flying? No way. But his friends are out there, relying on him to do something. Jongdae sighs and thinks here goes nothing and pulls on one of the sticks. The plane only slides to the left and rumbles like it’s on a very dangerous turbulence.
Jongdae pales a little. “This is so not fun.”
Baekhyun immediately jolts up as soon as he feels the shaking of the plane, almost going off balance. His eyes directly go to Chanyeol, who might not have noticed and continued to try and get himself out of the handcuffs with a pin with his tongue between his lips.
“We’re currently going through a turbulence,” he hears the speakers go off and that is definitely not Joonmyun’s voice. Baekhyun grabs his gun and runs toward Chanyeol, cocking it dangerously in front of him and accusingly gasps, “Are you trying to escape?” which was, at the moment, very obvious.
Chanyeol is going to have a heart attack. “Well, yes I am,” Chanyeol says in panic, “I mean-no, of course not?”
“I’m not going to hesitate and shoot you if you move,” Baekhyun warns, not even half meaning it unless if Chanyeol really attempts to hurt him which is honestly not something he thinks Chanyeol would attempt to do.
Chanyeol gulps, staring at the hypnotic hole of Baekhyun’s gun as he holds his still entrapped hands up. He really doesn’t like guns. “Whatever happened to settling things with words?” he says weakly.
"Shut up, you’re the one who said that.”
Chanyeol freaks out. Honestly, he doesn’t even know if he trusts Baekhyun that much. Or if he should. For all he knows, Baekhyun might be a very well trained assassin. Chanyeol’s head gets filled with images of his body thrown into the Pacific Ocean or something. That's fucking scary. “What about never liking guns?" he tries hopefully.
"I'm an agent,” Baekhyun tells him cynically, furrowing his eyebrows. “Of course I love guns.”
"I'm such an idiot. Here I thought you actually liked me,” Chanyeol mutters under his breath and then asks again in disbelief, “Are you really going to shoot me?”
“Well, maybe?” Baekhyun starts, thinking of anything just to scare Chanyeol off. He really isn’t going to act on it-but before he can say anything else, Chanyeol yanks his hands up and brings both the armrest he’s cuffed in, running toward the other side of the plane.
“What the fuck,” Baekhyun exclaims, eyes wide and still not sure whether what he saw just happened. Did Chanyeol really just ruin that with the strength of his arms?
“I didn’t think I was that strong,” Chanyeol yells back, sounding very guilty and not exactly like a very dangerous criminal. “Shit. I’m not paying to fix that, either! It was your fault for scaring me!”
“What are you,” is what Baekhyun only hisses next, following after him with his gun still ready. Chanyeol ducks again, the armrests still heavy in his hands. He only touches the metal with his fingers, attempting to loosen it up around his aching wrists, and obviously doesn’t expect it to melt in his fingertips. He frees his hands with a hard pinch on the chains connecting them.
Chanyeol’s in shock because what the fuck did I just do. “What did you do to me?” he squeaks back and throws the two heavy weights on the opposite side of Baekhyun. “Did you attempt to turn me into a monster while I was asleep?”
“I did when you were awake, you fucking idiot,” Baekhyun answers back hotly, both of them flushing. Chanyeol tries to break out into a run after that with Baekhyun coming after him until of course, he fucking trips over the things he threw on his own.
“Ow,” he groans, holding his knee as he writhes on the floor and if Baekhyun didn’t know better, he’d really wonder how this became one of the most wanted robbers in the world. He’s really just a clumsy idiot that Baekhyun refuse to admit liking so much. God, he's so charmed it's not even funny anymore.
He crouches next to Chanyeol, putting his gun away. His voice is gentle when he says, “Are you okay?”
“Noooo,” Chanyeol whines like a child and honestly, it isn’t the time to laugh, but Baekhyun finds himself chuckling at Chanyeol’s misery. This is all so ironic. Instead of immediately turning Chanyeol around and bringing him back to his seat, this time even more securely, he’s here helping him out to stand up as he winces in pain. Baekhyun’s completely fucked.
“Just sit down, alright? Cooperate with me here you idiot,” Baekhyun fusses, still holding on to his waist. For a second, he meets Chanyeol’s gaze, and a flashback of last night’s event cloud their minds. Baekhyun’s cheeks turn pink as he steps away. “Can we talk about last night?” he says breathlessly, but Chanyeol’s eyes suddenly flicker behind him, his face mortified.
“What are you-“
“You two lovebirds talk too much,” Kyungsoo says, appearing behind Baekhyun with a syringe before plunging it in his neck. Baekhyun turns around and looks at him in horror, eyes fluttering wildly, and Chanyeol strides close just in time to catch an unconscious Baekhyun in his arms. "That'll be a complete trip back to Seoul, Agent Byun."
Chanyeol looks at him with his jaw dropped. "That was evil."
An excited Jongdae clasps both palms over his friends' shoulders. He quirks his eyebrows at Kyungsoo. “But it was awesome."
Kyungsoo ignores the both of them and turns on his heel. “Everyone in the pilot’s cabin now.”
Chanyeol hauls Baekhyun on one of the chairs, carefully strapping him down with the seatbelt. The other two look at him with puzzled stares, but Chanyeol only holds a hand up and says, "Don't."
Jongdae only shrugs. "I wasn't going to say anything."
Once they get in the cabin, Kyungsoo pats the pilot's chair and says, “Sit down, dumbass.”
Chanyeol gulps and fakes a short lived laugh. “How’d you guys find me?”
“Tracker on your watch. It’s not that hard to figure out when you’re suddenly going to the airport at four in the morning,” Kyungsoo answers coldly and takes out his phone to show Chanyeol a message. “And this.”
“Everyone knows you don’t type like that,” Jongdae snickers. As much as it gets on their nerves, Chanyeol has this thing with emojis and emoticons that definitely doesn’t sound as stoic as that. In fact, his last message might as well have been SICK BUT MIGHT GET LAID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! added with a handful of crazy emojis and maybe a dancing lady in red.
“Oh,” Chanyeol says sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. Kyungsoo’s face definitely doesn’t look too pleased. He sighs and finally says, “I’m sorry I made you two worry.”
Kyungsoo shakes his head and punches his arm hardly, but his shoulders are finally relaxed. Chanyeol grins up at him despite the throbbing pain he has in his arm and leg. “Will you just please listen to me next time? My guts are usually right.”
“I’m really sorry,” Chanyeol says again guiltily.
“It’s alright,” Jongdae quips. “It’s not like we didn’t just knock out a bunch of government agents.”
“CIA, actually,” Kyungsoo informs them.
“How’d you know?” Chanyeol gasps, a little baffled. Baekhyun being a CIA agent is just… actually very intimidating. Hot. Kyungsoo lifts his hand and flashes them Jongin’s badge.
“We’re in a lot of trouble, aren’t we?” Jongdae asks, nibbling on his lower lip.
“Yeah, we are,” Kyungsoo says, sighing. “But first we should figure out how to actually fly this thing before we crash and die.”
Chanyeol glances at his side and sees the dead reckoning saying they’re only 900 miles away from Seoul. The aeronautical charts flashes numbers and unfamiliar English words and if it isn’t strange enough, Chanyeol confidently thinks he understands and knows how to fly a plane. “I can do it,” he says.
“But you’ve never piloted a plane before,” Kyungsoo says, looking at him weirdly.
“I might have read a couple books about it back in freshman year,” Chanyeol says as if that’s enough to be able to navigate a plane. He pauses a little and adds thoughtfully, “And I played a lot PS4 with Jongdae.”
Kyungsoo grumbles at him. “That doesn’t qualify.”
Chanyeol frowns at him. “Would you prefer to not try at all?” And Kyungsoo keeps quiet.
“Alright. I’ll trust you on this one,” Jongdae says, putting a hand in his shoulder. “Just make sure we get back home safely.”
Chanyeol grins back at them. There’s this nagging suspicion formulating in his head on why he’s suddenly acting this way but for now, he tucks it safely at the corner of his mind. “Please put on your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy ride back home."
So maybe they’re really terrible at being tactical and doing last minute decisions.
Technically the plan was to land safely, ditch the aircraft and somehow make their way out of the airport while the rest of the people stay unconscious. However, it’s not always that simple and things don’t always go as planned as the three face an army of armed men once they get down the plane.
“Guns,” Jongdae murmurs, laughing weakly. They can try and break into a run, but with the number of guns aimed at them, Jongdae doesn’t think that’s a very wise decision. So instead, he holds his hands up. “I’d really prefer it if you didn’t use those.”
Kyungsoo’s glaring at everyone, murmuring a string of profanities under his breath while the men cuff their hands behind their backs. “Not this again,” Chanyeol groans disappointedly. The men move forward and point their gun at them. Chanyeol thinks it’s silly. “That’s actually very unnecessary. One of you could just accidentally shoot, you know. “
A man who’s wearing a sleek black suit steps up to them and takes off his sunglasses suavely. Somehow they feel a little underdressed with the matching black sweats and shirts they changed into from Jongdae’s backpack. The runway is busy with another plane landing but Chanyeol still hears Kyungsoo hissing, “Stupid CIAs and their obsession with fashion.”
“I think we have a lot to talk about, Mr. Park,” the man says, smiling at them. He’s so baby faced, his cheeks looking so soft and cute but his mouth is curling ruthlessly at them. Oddly enough, he does resemble a very handsomely dressed rodent ready to bite. “Kim Minseok. I handle Operation Andromeda.”
“I’d shake your hand but I can’t exactly do that at the moment,” Chanyeol replies with a short laugh, wriggling his wrists in his back. He remembers what happened with the metal earlier, burning in his fingertips and melting in just a fraction of seconds. It’s weird, really, and theoretically impossible to do since you don’t normally just go Oh, it’s alright. I’ll just melt off the metals in my hand but Chanyeol doesn’t care at the moment. There’s only one priority right now: save his friends and flee.
Chanyeol closes his eyes, concentrating, and presses his fingers tight against the chains. Please work, he pleads to god knows who and smiles contentedly when he feels it coming. His hands are finally warming up again, but this time, it isn’t a painful burn-instead it’s like simply heating up his hands on a cold winter night. He holds the cuffs in his fingers carefully just before they make a soft clink.
Everyone else doesn’t notice immediately except for Kyungsoo and Jongdae, who really have a knack of figuring out when something’s off with Chanyeol. Chanyeol laughs very loudly, shifting to get closer to his friends.
Minseok squints at him. “What did you do to Andromeda, Mr. Park?”
“Nothing,” Chanyeol says, shifting his eyes away. Kyungsoo and Jongdae stare at him like he really does have a secret to keep. “What? It’s safely kept by Agent Byun inside your plane.”
Minseok raises an eyebrow. “I think you know what I’m referring to.”
“You really shouldn’t be so uptight,” Chanyeol says defensively, changing the topic. “Loosen up a little, will you?” He sighs, taps his foot three times. It’s code for Escape Now which literally means fighting with their chained hands and diving to death. Jongdae knits his eyebrows together and Kyungsoo narrows his eyes at him and says a firm, “No.”
Chanyeol makes a very weird face with his lips pursed, his eyes widening and his eyebrows wriggling together, tapping his foot continuously. “Trust me,” he mouths.
Jongdae only laughs at him, sounding a little hopeless. “You’re kidding us, right?”
Minseok watches them with amusement all over his face because Chanyeol’s weakness is definitely subtlety. It’s obvious what they’re trying to do, but Minseok lets them anyway with a small chuckle. Chanyeol looks so stupid that it's fascinating to watch.
It’s Chanyeol who starts the attack, kicking the nearest guard unconscious before moving to the next one. A punch comes flying toward him but Chanyeol quickly dodges, grabbing his opponent’s gun and accidentally breaking it in his head. Another man comes from his behind, putting him on chokehold and in sheer panic Chanyeol grabs his arm. Electricity sparkles in his fingertips and the man yells in pain, feeling the current transfer to his body until he’s completely knocked out on the ground.
“Shit,” he mumbles, staring at the unconscious man. Everyone’s gazes turn toward him. “I absolutely didn’t mean to do that.”
For a moment, his friends just stare, looking at the broken gun and the slight burn in the man’s arm before coming to their senses and helping him. Maybe they have a chance after all. The thing is that Jongdae and Kyungsoo have always been better at him at fighting, mostly because they’re short and agile and don’t have uncooperative limbs that sometimes cause more trouble than they should so it’s easier to overpower the guards.
Chanyeol hoists Kyungsoo up on the waist just in time for him to kick two guns aimed at them while Jongdae finishes the job and knocks them out with his chained fists. Chanyeol musters all his strength and breaks off the handcuffs from their wrists and Jongdae only mumbles a whiny, “You just starting lifting last week. How’d you do that?”
A gun clicks behind them and Chanyeol finds himself staring at Jongdae with a red dot on his forehead. He looks at Kyungsoo on his side who has one too.
“Don’t worry,” Kyungsoo says, gritting his teeth. “You’re not missing out.” He sees the light flicker and move past his eyesight and Chanyeol feels his lungs get emptied with air. Yeah, definitely not missing out.
“Just as expected,” Minseok says, his jaw tensing. He looks at the burn in one of his men’s arm. “You really managed to infuse the powers in your body.”
Kyungsoo stares at Chanyeol doubtfully. “What does that mean?”
“Andromeda stores the greatest powers our scientists created and your friend here managed to take them out,” Minseok explains and points at Chanyeol. “Technically, he is the super weapon.”
“Greatest powers?” Jongdae says, doing an air quote with his fingers. “Like superhero stuff?”
“Like the ones you see in movies,” Minseok says.
“Oh, that explains the super strength,” Jongdae replies, pale faced, looking at Chanyeol who’s grinning at him nervously. He really wants to say that’s so fucking amazing but the mood is such a downer and there are snipers somewhere ready to kill.
It takes Chanyeol a few moments to process all the information in his head. So it is true-this finally confirms all the suspicions he has but if he’s going to be really honest with himself, it doesn’t sound as exciting as figuring out you’ve become a superhero overnight. It obviously comes with a cost. “What do you want?”
“I want you to work for me,” Minseok states simply. “We need to figure out Andromeda’s potential.”
“What’s in it for me?”
“Well, you can choose to escape now but I have my men at your sister’s,” Minseok warns. He did not just do that. Chanyeol would really want to punch his cute little face. “And I’m sure you wouldn’t like your head blown off bloody tonight.”
Chanyeol takes a deep breath and shuts his eyes. He thinks of Yoora and remembers how devastating it had been when they’d lost their parents and how he pledged that he wouldn’t let her cry anymore, or Jongdae’s family with his perky parents that adore him and Jongdeuk who treats him like he’s his own brother, and Kyungsoo’s nice mother just waiting for them to come and visit. Three deaths are not worthy of rebelling against something this big. His friends are looking at him expectantly when he opens his eyes. “Okay,” he says, and sees his friends breathe out in relief. "I have three conditions though.”
“Let me hear them,” Minseok says accommodatingly, putting his gun away as he takes out a file from his messenger bag.
“You’re gonna clear us of all charges,” Chanyeol says. “All of our crimes-none of them will trace back to us and you’ll make sure that everyone close to us is safe.” He pauses, pointing a thumb toward his friends. “And oh, I can’t work without them.”
“Alright,” Minseok replies easily and holds out his other hand like a signal before the red dots disappear.
“That fast?” Chanyeol prods, grinning now. “No catch at all?”
“We did steal a lot, you know,” Jongdae reminds him. “And maybe committed a lot of felony against your CIA team.”
“Shut up you two,” Kyungsoo snaps. “You better not take your word back.”
Minseok laughs at them. “It’s such a wonder how you three even got this far,” he comments, which is probably the usual consensus for them. He holds out a black folder with a symbol similar to a phoenix indented on it, its color reminding Chanyeol of the smoke Andromeda used to have before he accidentally acquired its power. Chanyeol takes it, his chest thumping crazily. “It has all the information you need about Andromeda and your mission.”
“Operation Phoenix,” Chanyeol reads. He’s not going to admit it in front of Minseok, but it definitely sounds cool. He can’t help the grin spreading on his face.
“I like the ring of that,” Jongdae quips, cackling as he reaches for a high five with Chanyeol. “It makes us sound like some badass team.”
“We are a badass team,” Chanyeol corrects him, laughing.
“Your first mission is in Los Angeles. Be there on the 24th,” Minseok says as he glances at his watch. “Wake Joonmyun up, will you? I don’t trust your landing skills that much yet.”
“Okay,” Chanyeol says, feeling all pumped already. He opens his arms and squeezes Jongdae and Kyungsoo tightly, who don’t squirm but only welcome him in return. “We’re in.”
“New adventure it is then,” Kyungsoo says and looks at them so fondly, his cheeks hurting from smiling too much.
Los Angeles: September 24, 2014
Naturally after Joonmyun’s short briefing of the mission and a whole lot of apologizing, Chanyeol ends up spending the rest of the ride testing out his superpowers (he never knew he could be that bendy) and even accidentally triggers one of the alarms on board after creating a small fire in his palm. “Shit, that was amazing,” he says breathlessly.
It also doesn’t come as a surprise when he ends up suggesting sky diving and maybe landing cooly down the gigantic Hollywood sign. “Maybe I can fly too,” Chanyeol says.
“You’re not Superman, you idiot. It’s not on the superpowers list,” Kyungsoo says, smacking him at the back of his head as Jongdae scribbles an F- on common sense on the indentions of the paper.
However, they do end up parachuting their way down a few hours later at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel’s rooftop located in the heart of Los Angeles. They skip the airport in hopes of going unnoticed by the other agencies who are not involved with Andromeda with an unusually quiet Baekhyun in tow.
“We should do this often,” Jongdae howls as soon as his feet touch the ground, feeling exhilarated. “That was sick.”
“I am going to be sick,” Chanyeol says, looking white as sheet despite him wanting to do it earlier. It appears that extra courage doesn’t come with Andromeda.
“We’ve got no time,” Baekhyun says, looking at his watch. Darkness is already creeping in and the fashion show they’re supposed to invade is starting in an hour. Tonight, they’ve got to capture one of the suspected members of EXO, a dangerous group that’s after Andromeda. “Huang Zitao is already in the premise.” He averts his gaze to Chanyeol, who’s surprised that Baekhyun’s even addressing him. They haven’t exactly talked yet. “What’s the plan?”
“What plan?”
“The plan Joonmyun told you to create while we were on our way here,” Baekhyun says, eyes narrow with confusion. “You did think of one, right?”
“About that…” Chanyeol laughs nervously. “We spent most of our time practicing my skills.”
Baekhyun growls at him. “We can’t just barge in and arrest him.”
“We’ll make something up along the way,” Chanyeol says defensively.
"Well, bad news, lover boy. We’re going to end up dead and screwed up if you don’t think of anything soon,” Baekhyun hisses.
“I’m sorry I don’t plan everything down to every detail unlike you,” Chanyeol snaps back.
“Oooh, shots fired,” Jongdae whistles and gives an amused Kyungsoo a low five.
Baekhyun only huffs in reply. In his defense, he already asked for Joonmyun to take him out of the mission but since he wasn’t able to come up with a detailed report on how he really got Chanyeol, his punishment now is to make up for the ambushing in the plane. Besides, he’s the best field agent in his team anyway. He tries not to let Chanyeol affect his work and urges them to follow him instead.
Out of all the events a dangerous criminal can be in, a high-class fashion show is definitely not what they expected.
“I am not going to wear that thing,” is Kyungsoo’s reply the moment they stumble inside the dressing rooms. Apparently, Chanyeol’s bright idea includes blending in with the crowd backstage to get better access to Zitao and stealing dresses from the rack of clothes. For the nth time, Kyungsoo considers maybe kneeing Chanyeol in the dick to remind him that he does have one too. He glares at the provocative dress hanging on Chanyeol’s arm and shudders horrifiedly.
“It’s the easiest way,” Chanyeol says, trying to hold his laughter. “If it makes you feel better, I have one too.”
“And me too. We're all in this together,” Jongdae adds, coming from his behind wearing a very tight and red qipao. He flashes them a playful peace sign. “I look great, don’t I?”
“Smoking hot,” Chanyeol says, winking at him. “Try not to walk too wide, though. It’s better without your leg hairs.”
Jongdae pretends to get flustered, fans himself shyly and hits his arm intentionally. Jongdae’s knuckles are too bony and it still hurts. They look at Kyungsoo with mirrored grins.
“We’ll never talk about this ever again,” Kyungsoo finally gives up and stomps away with the dress in hand.
It turns out that Kyungsoo does rock the outfit. He comes out wearing the black dress with puffy sleeves, making him look like a very tiny evil witch with the dip of his lips accentuated with a pout. All he needs is a wand and a cast to curse on everyone and he’ll be set. Chanyeol and Jongdae who are good friends obviously don’t tell him that. Instead they both chorus: “You look pretty.”
“Not helpful,” Kyungsoo says dejectedly, adjusting the ribbon on his waist. He looks up with flushed cheeks to see Chanyeol sporting a leotard print dress and instantly cracks up. He looks like a gangly Yoora with his short hair swept to the side. “What is that horrendous thing?”
Baekhyun slides into the booth they’re hiding onto with a striped shirt, khaki shorts and an innocent Staff I.D. hanging on his neck. “I just saw Zitao fretting outside-“ he pauses, taking their outfits in and-“I think those are the dresses he’s looking for. Why are you wearing those?”
“Why are you in that outfit?” Kyungsoo snaps. “Shouldn’t you be squeezing yourself in one of these, too?”
“I knocked out one of the staff,” Baekhyun replies confusedly, as if that’s really the ideal way to do things in here. “It’s the usual protocol.”
Chanyeol feels a little dumb for not even considering it, but then he hears a very whiny voice freaking out over the missing dresses.
“He’s yelling at everyone,” Chanyeol tells them. Jongdae doesn’t stare at his face but his ears and grins. Jongdae bites his tongue and stops himself from teasing his gigantic ears and Chanyeol just rolls his eyes.
“I want to change,” Kyungsoo says gravely. “Get out of your outfit, Agent Byun.”
“No,” Baekhyun replies firmly, eyeing his outfit. As much as Baekhyun wants to get in Kyungsoo’s good side, this is definitely not the way to do it. Besides, they’re running out of time. “We have to hurry up,” Baekhyun replies urgently, sliding the curtain of their cramped dressing room.
Chanyeol braces himself and starts cat walking, hips swaying exaggeratedly. He almost trips when he strides too widely. “Come on, Charlie’s Angels,” Chanyeol says jokingly which is not very helpful at the moment. “We have a mission to do.”
Kyungsoo’s face might be turning purple now. “Say that again and I will punch you in the dick.”
Huang Zitao, like them, does not exactly look like a dangerous criminal. Sure, the Chinese designer’s got pretty scary eyes and a macho built with a perfect tan but when he speaks, it’s soft and whiny and very childlike as he tells Chanyeol, “I’ve been looking for those dresses! Get to the runway right now.”
Chanyeol finds himself being pushed into the runway for the grand finale, and as hilarious as it may seem, ends up walking down with hoots after him. Chanyeol flicks his nonexistent hair and struts exaggeratedly. Behind him, he can already hear a faint Oh, I didn’t think you two would be the perfect heights for my dresses and Jongdae and Kyungsoo follow suit after him. Chanyeol flashes a smile, scans the room and remembers the crowd’s faces. The Phoenix file had a bunch of photos of the suspected criminals and with his currently enhanced memory (which really just makes him remember everything he’s seen, even if it’s years ago), he can easily tell apart the criminals among the audience.
Eleven guards and two suspected murderers later (he’s read about them before after hacking an American database for fun), Chanyeol spins around to make his way back only to get a hand around his ankle. A very beefy guy whom he suspects is a staff widens his eyes at him and says, “You’re not models!” He looks at Chanyeol’s tiny friends and adds, “We have a specific height requirement!”
The crowd gasps along with Jongdae. “Oh my god,” Jongdae exclaims dramatically, flicking his handheld fan as he puts a hand on his waist. Thank god his English’s not that rusty because of those years they spent in Cambridge. “You did not just call me short.”
Right on cue for the ending, Zitao walks into the scene with a gigantic smile and his lips immediately curl into a frown. “What-what are you doing?”
“We’ve been trespassed, sir,” the guy replies sternly.
Zitao’s eyes widen comically, stares at them three for ten long seconds before backing away slowly like he knows exactly what’s up. He breaks into a run just when Jongdae throws the fan to the staff’s face and Chanyeol kicks his chin, making him tumble backwards. Kyungsoo, on the other hand, manages to throw his shoes toward the men coming their way. He slides down to one knee, grabs a gun strapped to his leg and shoots another coming their way.
“Is that-is that a real gun?” Chanyeol screeches, heaving. It’s not only him who freaks out but the rest of the audience lose their shit, trying to run as fast as possible out of the area. The small stampede becomes a hindrance to the other men coming to their directions.
Kyungsoo stares at the gun in his hand and the blood oozing out of the man’s arm. “Shit,” he says, paling a little. “They must have switched ours to real ones.”
“That is so not cool,” Jongdae mumbles. Even in a dress, he’s unrestricted as he aims a high kick on an approaching guy. He dodges when the guy aims a punch at him, swings down and gives him an uppercut. He finishes off with an angry statement. “Who do they think we are? We’re robbers, for goodness sake. Not killers.”
“Shoot the alarm,” Chanyeol yells but a very tall and scary man kicks Kyungsoo’s gun. He’s got a body of a bouncer, towering over Kyungsoo. Yikes. While ducking to avoid the guy’s punch, Kyungsoo slides the gun toward Chanyeol onstage. It misses, falls on the ground and Chanyeol finds himself jumping for it before staring at a rifle pointed toward him.
Chanyeol tries to calm himself with Lamaze breathing, which honestly confuses the guy since Chanyeol looks like he’s giving birth underneath his dress.
“What are you doing?”
“Focusing.” Chanyeol deeply inhales one more time and fucking blows the armed guy away. His face looks like he’s sitting on top of a speeding car, his cheeks violently jiggling. He stumbles and hits a table before finally passing out. “Not bad,” he compliments himself, then ducks as soon as more gunfires ensue, hiding behind the bar.
Like what they usually say, backups are for amateurs. Which is why Chanyeol is terribly freaking out as soon as a rain of bullets graze everything because fuck yes they are a bunch of amateurs whom Minseok thought didn’t need backups. Apparently it was because they already have Chanyeol, the most powerful man alive, who honestly doesn’t have an idea on what to do at the moment. This isn’t like the rest of their deals-this is diving head first into the sea of death and Chanyeol hopes that his friends have managed to not get hit.
Baekhyun slides next to him and Chanyeol holds his chest, scared out of his wits. The glasses of alcohol above them continue to get blasted off.
“Thank god,” Chanyeol says gladly. “Did you get Zitao?”
“Yes,” Baekhyun says. “I got him down at the back. The others are picking him up.”
A few moments later, Kyungsoo and Jongdae finally join them. “We’ll stay here,” Chanyeol says seriously. “Never leave, alright?”
Baekhyun hits him in the arm. “Have you forgotten you have superpowers?”
“No, but I don’t have complete control over them,” Chanyeol says defensively. “And I’d really prefer to stay here, thank you.”
Kyungsoo shakes his head at him. He turns to Jongdae and orders, “Give me your gun.” He inspects it carefully and starts cackling, his eyes narrowed. “They forgot to switch out this one.”
The other three stare at him as he continues to laugh diabolically. Kyungsoo is a really a weird fellow.
“What are you planning to do?” Jongdae inquires nervously.
“I am going to shoot everyone, obviously,” Kyungsoo says plainly. He closes one eye, focuses on the other as he holds up his gun. “Less casualties, the better. Oh, and one more thing,” he says, grabbing Baekhyun’s gun out of his hand and shoots the fire alarm. “Thanks,” he mumbles and starts shooting.
Baekhyun’s eyebrows rise up to his hairline as the alarm blares off. The water starts sprouting everywhere. “Is he always this trigger-happy?” Baekhyun whispers, grabbing his gun. He joins Kyungsoo and manages to hit two men.
“Well,” Chanyeol says, peers at the targets and watches as Kyungsoo shoot down another man. He gulps and ducks next to Baekhyun. Jongdae does the same. “Yeah. Scary, isn’t it?”
“Thank god we only use tranquilizers,” Jongdae quips.
“It’s alright, I’ve seen worse,” Baekhyun says understandingly. “He’d make a really good agent though.”
Countless of bullets later, they were finally able to leave the holy bar that saved their lives. Zitao is awake, tied in a chair with Sehun and Jongin next to him when they arrive. He’s glaring at Baekhyun, who only gives him a big smile with eyes disappearing. He looks so adorable and harmless, except he has a gun in his hand. Chanyeol sighs longingly.
“Good job, agents,” Joonmyun congratulates. Joonmyun is warm and nice, reminds Chanyeol of nice teachers and getting compliments in preschool. He humorously expects a stamp in his hand to commemorate the successful mission.
“Did he give any leads?” Jongdae asks, slinging his hand over Joonmyun’s shoulders. Joonmyun looks at him, confused, and Jongdae flashes him a cute grin. Kyungsoo and Chanyeol only stifle their cackles.
“Yes,” Joonmyun says, puts his arm away and smiles professionally. Jongdae only pouts at him. “Several, actually.”
Sehun pokes an irritable Zitao. “They recruited me because I travel a lot as a designer,” he explains. “EXO likes to take unexpected people in. They pay a lot so it’s hard not to reject their offers. I only indirectly deal with them, but the last person I negotiated with was apparently the head’s favorite.”
“And who might that be?” Chanyeol prods.
“I’ve never seen him,” Zitao admits gruffly. “I only know his codename’s Bambi.”
“Bambi?”
“Like the animal deer in Disney films.”
“Obviously,” Chanyeol replies back in a mocking voice.
“The last time they’ve communicated was in Amsterdam,” Jongin supplies helpfully. “You might want to start from there.”
“We’re going to Amsterdam?” Kyungsoo says in awe, sounding excited for once as he stares at Jongin.
“Technically not us, us, but your team-“ Jongin stutters, enunciating with a nervous laugh. He can’t get his eyes off of Kyungsoo in a dress. But then again, nobody can. He looks pretty good in it.
“I know what you mean,” Kyungsoo says sharply, trying not to let his flushed ears do all the telling as he realizes he’s still in the dress. “Can I get my clothes back?”
Meanwhile, Baekhyun scoots forward and slides next to Chanyeol. Everyone’s occupied at the moment and Baekhyun’s voice is barely a whisper. Chanyeol can still hear it though-super hearing does come with a few benefits. “This is becoming really weird, isn’t it?” Baekhyun says inaudibly, making sure it’s only Chanyeol who can hear it.
“Talk to me about it,” Chanyeol whispers back. “There’s a weird invisible tension forming between everyone else.”
“Yeah,” Baekhyun says, glancing at him. He kind of wishes there’s one for them, too. “Can we talk?”
They leave the crowd quietly and end up sitting on the platform, their feet swaying as they look at the mess the event has turned to. They’re not looking at each other, trying their best to come up with something-anything to talk about under the stage lights shining upon them. A few seconds later, Baekhyun starts with an “I’m sorry-“ just in time for Chanyeol to say-“I really shouldn’t have gotten mad.”
“It’s okay,” they both chorus together in a hurry.
“You start first,” Chanyeol relents, gesturing toward Baekhyun with a nimble hand.
Baekhyun inhales, tries to muster up the courage to tell Chanyeol the truth. A guy like him deserves it. “The Beijing encounter? That was randomly planned. I thought you were just some regular guest and you were quite handsome so,” Baekhyun quickly says the last few words. “I didn’t expect you to go after Andromeda even though all the signs already pointed to it. The bathroom, the vent, the weird grabbing pose. It was honestly a dumb mistake,” Baekhyun admits, pursing his lips. “Then I planned to meet you again, mostly because I thought you knew I was CIA before you left. I wanted to get even.”
Chanyeol knits his eyebrows and pouts. “I was so convinced you were harmless,” he says. “You were so tiny and cute.”
“What can I say?” Baekhyun laughs shortly. “It helps a lot at being a good field agent.”
Chanyeol’s most dreaded question comes next. “What about the date?”
“I know I asked a lot about you to maximize the opportunity to make a profile for you.” Baekhyun’s is touching his mouth with his fingers, like it’s a nervous habit or some sort. “But everything I said was real.”
Chanyeol’s heart soars in his ribcage, the butterflies invading his stomach. “So the…” he pauses, licking his lips. “You know.”
“A cherry topping,” Baekhyun replies, grinning slightly. “Although I wouldn’t really know what could have happened if you didn’t pass out.”
“Apparently my body went through a hibernating phase while Andromeda’s powers sink in,” he replies, a little disheartened. He claps his hands on his lap and says, “Wrong timing. So what now?”
“I think it’s better if we stay friends,” Baekhyun suggests casually, although really, he does like the feeling of Chanyeol’s lips against his and he would very much prefer to hold his hand as they run around in the future. It sounds romantic, but in his line of work, emotions are dangerous liabilities. “National security is always priority.”
Chanyeol nods understandingly. Being with someone on the team just makes missions more dangerous, riskier. Although Chanyeol doesn’t object the idea of potentially taking care of Baekhyun, he doesn’t trust his emotions too well to involve it with work. Not yet at the moment, anyway.
“Friends, then,” Chanyeol says quietly.
They just sit in silence, basking in the aftermath of the conversation before Jongdae pops behind them and says, “We’re leaving soon.”
“Coming,” Chanyeol calls back. He stands up, offers Baekhyun a hand before pulling him up. His hand is starting to warm up again, like Baekhyun’s the cause of electricity surging into his body. Chanyeol takes his hand back and lets it stay behind him.
“By the way…” Baekhyun starts, looking away and starts fiddling with his fake I.D. strap. He takes a few steps forward, leaving Chanyeol anticipating for the rest of his words. “You look really cute in that dress.”
“Oh.” Chanyeol looks up and scratches the back of his neck, trying to slow the blood rushing through to his cheeks. “Thank you, I guess,” Chanyeol replies, a little flattered, but he’s laughing now with the corners of his mouth pulled up into an impossibly bright smile.
Chanyeol thinks that maybe, this whole mission won’t be that bad after all.
He just hopes the fleeting ideas of Byun Baekhyun in his mind will go away before it’s too late.
Amsterdam ends up as a gigantic ploy, but they did manage to extract information from the set up.
With Chanyeol’s super brain, it’s become easier to patch things up together. Amsterdam is just the starting point. It isn’t a trap, Chanyeol makes sure, just careless mistakes that slipped their enemy’s minds. The clues eventually point them to a lot of locations: there’s one in Madrid, where Chanyeol decodes a message scribbled in invisible ink at Philip IV’s Monument, or the patch of blood on top of the Blue Domed Church in Santorini which might indicate foul play in one of EXO’s meetings. There’s also the sound waves embedded in stolen couple rings from a royal family in Agra, even a similar case with earrings found with an uprising J-pop star named Mimi who eventually ends up smitten with Baekhyun’s charms.
The three months they’ve spent together have been fruitful at best, their relationships slowly building into a tight ring of friendship that’s hard to break. Even Kyungsoo’s complete disregard for Baekhyun has waned, resulting into violent streaks that have become affectionate gestures of some sort. It really just started with a mission that had them wondering if it's the end until Baekhyun volunteered to fight the rest of their opponents and pleaded for them to run.
“What do you mean leave you behind?” Kyungsoo had said then, looking at him as if he’s the stupidest person around. Kyungsoo could be cold, but he wasn't heartless.
“What?” Baekhyun managed to croak out, a bullet missing an inch to hit his arm.
“You’re in my team,” Kyungsoo clarified firmly and Baekhyun thought he was going to burst for a moment. “We don’t leave anyone behind.”
That was rich coming from Do Kyungsoo, who managed to alienate him for the past three weeks, and so Baekhyun did end up alive and well with Kyungsoo's determination in mind.
On the other hand, Jongdae latches onto Baekhyun fast: he sleeps on Baekhyun during trips, laughs at Baekhyun’s stupid jokes and they bond over making Chanyeol’s life a good kind of hell. They act like separated twins at birth, which frankly, is quite amusing and annoying at the same time.
Meanwhile, Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s relationship slowly develops into genuine friendship, although the unintentional skinships and longing glances still linger from time to time. The more time they spend together, the lesser their differences become, and they find themselves falling a little deeper every time. Most times, they catch each other staring, and only tries to make a joke out of it.
But it’s always easier to fall back into the routine of keeping each other’s emotions tightly jarred instead of confusing themselves, so they take that path.
It doesn't quite work as easily as they think it would.
Paris: December 24, 2014
Seven continents and countless plane rides and train tickets later, the Phoenix team finds themselves sitting in a cafe in Paris.
Jongdae rips the small note posted on the cafe’s bulletin of memories and raises an eyebrow at Chanyeol. It’s already winter and he’s all wrapped up in a puffy dark blue parka. “Coordinates?”
Chanyeol squints at it, his mind automatically shifting the letters and numbers together. “Yeah, it seems like an address,” he replies, a grin spreading in his face as they come back to their table.
They’re still eating breakfast meals at noontime, but it doesn’t really seem all that different with the rate they’re traveling for the past few months. “Finish up, this is our Christmas meal,” Kyungsoo tells them.
“It’s Christmas?” Chanyeol exclaims, eyes widening. “Oh shit. I forgot about Yoora noona.”
“I already sent her a gift,” Baekhyun quips. Although he’s never really met her, Chanyeol’s enthusiastic stories already make him feel so familiar with her. “I sent her a necklace with her birth stone courtesy of the CIA,” he explains, chewing on his waffle. Chanyeol looks at him gratefully. “I’m not sure if they’re deducting it from your salary, though.”
“Thank you,” is all Chanyeol can say, mostly because Baekhyun always gets him off guard. He digs into his chicken waffles with a very pleased satisfaction weighing in his heart.
Finding the right apartment written in the post-it and breaking into the building’s security system have been seriously draining tasks. However, the vault they find inside the place was another story. It only takes Chanyeol about a minute to decode it.
“You’re really getting good at this,” Jongdae compliments, squeezing his shoulder.
Chanyeol only does his signature wink and peace sign. Inside the vault is another post-it note. Chanyeol stares at the scrambled letters written in jet blue ink, trying to decipher the latest clue they have on the enemy.
LIWQ2FH1
IBHACYUW
ZEHERTFA
OSSHAJRW
WJGNWDB
"Hurry up, Chanyeol," Kyungsoo hisses as soon as the security breach alarm goes off. “We don't have all the time in the world."
"I think I've got it," Chanyeol finally says, blinking up at all of them. "Does LUHAN ring a bell?"
"Lu Han?" Jongdae cuts in, eyebrows knitted together. He sets his palms on his waist and scoffs, not believing Chanyeol's confused expression and his constantly fluttering eyelashes. "This isn't really the time to joke around," he finally says when Chanyeol still doesn't budge.
"So?" Kyungsoo prods impatiently.
"I can't believe this." Jongdae licks his lower lip. "Are you really telling me that the only clue we got after all those gunfight is the Chinese pop star Lu Han?"
Baekhyun perks up. “Didn’t Zitao say they recruit those who travel a lot?”
“Worldwide concerts and foreign schedules,” Chanyeol adds in, his mouth turning into an ‘O’.
"I think I'm gonna have to pick up my limited edition CD back home,” Jongdae says faintly. "You know, just in case he isn't actually the bad guy."
“Finally. This night just got more interesting," Kyungsoo says, circling his finger around the trigger guard and making a shooting gesture at the wall. “It’s been a while that we got some exciting action.”
"You really should stop doing that," Chanyeol says sagely, clutching his chest.
Kyungsoo's face only breaks into a grin. "Come on, guys. We have a pop star to chase down."
→ PART 3
Chanyeol doesn't remember how they got back to Baekhyun's room but he eventually finds himself pressed against the back of the door by a very eager Baekhyun hovering close to him.
It's an understatement to say that Chanyeol hasn't dreamt of doing this ever since he's seen Baekhyun, but the moment they close the gap between them, Chanyeol feels like his heart's bursting all over again. His head's starting to hurt, eyesight blurring, but Baekhyun is doing that wonderful thing as he traces his tongue and sucks at Chanyeol's bottom lip and fuck.
Baekhyun's fingers slowly work their way to unbutton Chanyeol's shirt, his other hand roaming all over the other's chest, but Chanyeol's impatient and aggressive enough to get him out of his own clothing and accidentally pops the remaining buttons off with one swift tug.
"Shit," Chanyeol mumbles. That was one of his favorite shirts, damn it. But when he looks up, Baekhyun's mouth is slick with spit and his eyes are clouded with lust as he bites on his bottom lip. "You're so beautiful," Chanyeol says hazily, pushing him backwards until they've switched positions. His jeans have become uncomfortably tight now as he grinds against Baekhyun's hips, already feeling Baekhyun's dick against his own.
Baekhyun's grip in his hair tightens as they continue to rut against each other, his labored breathing echoing against Chanyeol's ears. Chanyeol starts nibbling at the side of his jaw, his body slacking a little, holding Baekhyun down with the support of the wall.
They don't say much anymore like it's a mutual agreement as Baekhyun pushes him forward.
"Bed," he hisses and Chanyeol only stumbles woozily, pulling him for a few sloppy kisses as they fall back to the mattress. Once his head hits the pillow, Chanyeol's head becomes even heavier, his eyelids drooping. Baekhyun doesn't notice it as he makes his way down to Chanyeol's chest, trailing his mouth over the exposed skin until his dainty fingers reach the buckle of Chanyeol's pants.
It isn't until he looks up that he finally finds Chanyeol completely knocked out on the pillow, his breathing finally slowing down.
"What the fuck," Baekhyun exclaims, sounding extremely pissed. He huffs and puts his hand on his waist, still stuck in a very compromising position with his legs on either side of Chanyeol and his hips a few centimeters away from Chanyeol's crotch. “You’re kidding me, right?” he says unbelievingly.
But Chanyeol looks peaceful, his chest heaving up and down in perfect rhythm and his eyelashes looking dangerously beautiful against his lids. It's such a pity that his mouth looks thoroughly kissed at the moment. Baekhyun sighs defeatedly.
"Chanyeol?" he calls out. Chanyeol doesn't budge, completely unresponsive. "You know I was really saving the knocking out thing for last, but alright." He pats Chanyeol's cheeks lightly and that's when he feels it-Chanyeol's burning up with a goddamn fever and he didn't even notice it at all while he's caught up in their own heated moment.
“You idiot. Why didn't you tell me you weren't feeling well?" Baekhyun groans but he’s looking at Chanyeol fondly, his heart stammering out of his chest. This is so unprofessional, Baekhyun thinks as he brushes his hand against Chanyeol’s sweaty forehead. It would have been really nice if they hadn’t met this way.
After finally tucking Chanyeol into bed and putting a cold towel in his forehead, Baekhyun brushes his lips against Chanyeol’s cheek. “Good night,” he whispers.
It takes him three hours of contemplating before coming into his senses. Don’t let your emotions cloud your judgement. This is a very dangerous criminal lying in your bed. Baekhyun hesitantly takes Andromeda off of Chanyeol, placing it back in his own vault. He reaches out for the handcuffs in his pocket, carefully grabs Chanyeol’s arm before cuffing it on the bed frame.
In a different type of situation, this would’ve been extremely promising.
Except Baekhyun is really just doing his job and arresting a seemingly innocent and lovely guy asleep underneath his sheets. He calls Minseok back and tells him, “I got the target.”
"Is he awake?"
Baekhyun looks at the giant sleeping like a baby next to him. “No,” Baekhyun says, pausing. “Don’t worry, I have him cuffed. He won’t be able to escape.”
Minseok’s voice is monotonous when he compliments Baekhyun back. “Great work, Agent Byun. I'll send the team to assist you back to Langley."
“Great job,” Baekhyun congratulates himself sarcastically. A good shower and a drink really won’t hurt right now to calm his nerves down, but as he walks toward the bathroom, he sees Chanyeol’s phone lying on the floor.
Right. Kyungsoo and Jongdae. Baekhyun unlocks it to see a portrait of the three grinning widely at a camera, probably taken from their early college days. Chanyeol has a peace sign with his other arm stretched over to Jongdae caught in mid laughter with a cute Kyungsoo squished between them. It’s really a wonder how these three ended up being professional robbers.
He looks over Chanyeol on the bed and does something extremely out of his character. Got sick. Baekhyun’s taking care of me. Don’t worry, he types, and then sends it to Kyungsoo.
Chanyeol wakes up only to find himself sitting inside a plane with his hands cuffed on either sides of the armrests. His eyes widen, mind whirling to think of how exactly did he get here-but all he can recall is Baekhyun’s lips all over his and his hotel room and-oh.
This can’t be it. No, no-Baekhyun isn’t… he shouldn’t be…
Chanyeol stays completely frozen, shutting his eyes tightly as he hears loud footsteps coming toward him.
The voices seem a little muffled together with the sound of engine whirring, and Chanyeol tilts his head a little to the side to hear more. It feels like he can hear everything at once: his own heartbeat pulsating, the ragged breaths of people sleeping somewhere in the plane, the sound of someone maneuvering the aircraft and a very familiar voice inching closer and closer.
An unfamiliar voice says questioningly, “Did you drug him? It’s been hours and he’s still dead asleep.”
The conversation isn’t exactly a very decent one, but it perks Chanyeol’s interest. "God, no. We only had a few drinks. I didn't think he was a lightweight, but halfway through... a situation happened and he passed out."
The other person cuts him off with a chuckle like he knows exactly what it means. “So you did plan to fuck him in the end.”
“Shut up, we didn’t even get that far,” Baekhyun snaps and if Chanyeol’s not mistaken, there’s a glint of regret in his voice. “Don’t ever mention what you found in my hotel room to anyone else, Jongin.”
“Alright, I’ll pretend I didn’t just watch you nurse a very dangerous criminal before letting me take him away.”
Chanyeol tries not to react to that. What does that even mean? He tries to remember the night before (and tries not to go back to that familiar voice moaning against his ear) and groans accidentally after realizing that he passed out in the middle of a very good time.
“Shhhh,” Baekhyun shushes Jongin, another agent in his team and stalks forward. He nudges Chanyeol’s arm. Chanyeol tries very hard not to let his eyes slip open. “Come on, I know you’re awake,” Baekhyun says.
“I’m not,” Chanyeol snaps back. “I honestly would rather not to.”
“Go busy yourself for a moment, Jongin,” Baekhyun says, pushing the taller boy away from him.
Jongin only laughs, his voice twinkling with amusement before saying, “Roger, agent.”
“Okay.” Baekhyun proceeds to sit across him. “I’m sure you know why you’re here.”
Chanyeol slowly opens his eyes, seeing a very fidgety Baekhyun in a suit and tie avoiding his stare. He really wasn’t prepared for this and his chest feels heavy when he speaks. “I don’t, actually. I just know that you lied to me. Artist, huh?” he mumbles bitterly.
Baekhyun sits up defensively. “It wasn’t just me who lied.” Baekhyun scowls, crossing his arms like a child throwing a fit. “You were caught in the act, Chanyeol. I got the Andromeda from you myself. You can’t get out of this even if you want to.”
“How long have you known?” is just what he really wants to ask.
Baekhyun doesn’t reply for a moment, just plays with his fingers. His voice come out dejected when he admits, “When we were dancing in Beijing.”
“You knew all this time?”
“Yes,” Baekhyun says hesitantly. "You made one mistake, Chanyeol. You told me your real name when you weren't supposed to.”
“So that’s how you found me?”
"Yeah, I guess." Baekhyun nods solemnly.
“I see,” Chanyeol says, slouching back into his seat. “I honestly didn’t expect that date to be a very well planned trap.”
“It wasn’t! Well, it was but-“ Baekhyun feels the need to explain himself, as if he really needs to. It was a job, he keeps telling himself, but ends up saying, “I’m sorry. Capturing you and Andromeda was my mission.”
Chanyeol thinks about Jongdae and Kyungsoo back in Seoul, probably worried sick over him. This is his entire fault-if he wasn’t stupid enough and just listened to Kyungsoo, maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t find himself here and put his friends in danger. “What about my friends?”
“About that…” Baekhyun pauses, looking around to see who else is close to them. “I sort of left their information out.”
That piques Chanyeol’s interest. “What?”
“They don’t know that much yet at the moment. At least for now,” Baekhyun says rapidly, not meeting his eyes. Before Chanyeol can even ask why he’s doing that, Baekhyun’s already up. He purses his lips and says, “Make yourself comfortable.”
Chanyeol looks at his wrists and sighs. He doesn’t seem hurt in any way, just detained in this seat until they land in god knows where. It’s just… the fact that it was Baekhyun who put him in this exact spot is not very enlightening. He supposes he’ll get caught anyway one of these days, but damn it he really thought Baekhyun was the one.
Suck it up, Park Chanyeol, he tells himself before hitting the back of his head against his seat with a groan.
The thing about being in a team like Chanyeol’s is that most of the time, they do try to not leave anyone behind.
That is why Jongin is met with two incredibly short flight attendants on his way to the other half of the plane. The first one’s wearing big circle shaped glasses that compliment his own pair of big eyes, and the other one with a strong jaw and very long eyelashes is sporting a very weird looking mustache. If Jongin was being honest, he hadn’t seen them board the plane with them, but sometimes the private planes the CIA hires can be quite as sneaky as them anyway.
“Hey,” he greets them casually.
Surprised, Kyungsoo only fakes a very creepy accommodating smile that has Jongdae trying to hold in his laughter. He sounds constipated with the way he’s forcing his voice. “Yes?” he says politely.
Jongin purses his lips. He looks so suspicious that behind him, Jongdae’s slowly taking out his gun from his backside. Jongin leans closer while Kyungsoo catches the silver glimmering on Jongin’s side and tenses his shoulders. The question that comes afterward is totally what he didn’t expect. “Do you know where they stack up the food in here? I’m really hungry.”
“Oh,” Kyungsoo says and Jongdae immediately tucks his gun back. He signals Jongdae to leave before holding Jongin by the arm, making the younger boy flustered as he leads him toward the staff area. “This way, sir. We have lots of options on board.”
“Great,” Jongin agrees immediately, caught off guard by Kyungsoo’s very adorable face and follows him shortly.
“Idiots,” Jongdae mumbles quietly, laughing. He adjusts the fake mustache and strides forward. They’ve sneaked into the plane and eventually knocked the original flight attendants out-all thanks to Kyungsoo’s death grip, of course; they passed out shortly before Kyungsoo could muster his worst headlock. There are only a few agents on board counting the one Kyungsoo just led away and that long and flat faced guy with the not so proportionate body dead asleep in the cargo area because of their tranquilizer guns.
The plane is not exactly that big so Jongdae finds Chanyeol long enough after that. From the corner of his eyes, he sees Baekhyun curled and asleep a few seats from his friend. He slows down, making sure that no one else’s around before moving past Chanyeol and tossing a pin straight to his hand. Chanyeol looks up at him, puzzled before sighing a breath of relief as soon as he sees Jongdae wriggling his forehead with a crinkling smile.
His task is to make sure that no one in the pilot’s cabin is capable to fight them. After sliding the curtains open, he takes his gun out and immediately shoots the person sitting on the maneuver. “Sorry,” Jongdae says, catching him before he falls to the floor. A very handsome face conked out in his arms meets him. He slowly puts him down on the side, propping him so he won’t fall before coming face to face with the cockpit instruments.
Jongdae’s knowledge of airplanes only go so far as playing flight games in his PS4 back home. It was supposed to be Kyungsoo in here, not him. Sure, he can play around the mechanical components of the aircraft but flying? No way. But his friends are out there, relying on him to do something. Jongdae sighs and thinks here goes nothing and pulls on one of the sticks. The plane only slides to the left and rumbles like it’s on a very dangerous turbulence.
Jongdae pales a little. “This is so not fun.”
Baekhyun immediately jolts up as soon as he feels the shaking of the plane, almost going off balance. His eyes directly go to Chanyeol, who might not have noticed and continued to try and get himself out of the handcuffs with a pin with his tongue between his lips.
“We’re currently going through a turbulence,” he hears the speakers go off and that is definitely not Joonmyun’s voice. Baekhyun grabs his gun and runs toward Chanyeol, cocking it dangerously in front of him and accusingly gasps, “Are you trying to escape?” which was, at the moment, very obvious.
Chanyeol is going to have a heart attack. “Well, yes I am,” Chanyeol says in panic, “I mean-no, of course not?”
“I’m not going to hesitate and shoot you if you move,” Baekhyun warns, not even half meaning it unless if Chanyeol really attempts to hurt him which is honestly not something he thinks Chanyeol would attempt to do.
Chanyeol gulps, staring at the hypnotic hole of Baekhyun’s gun as he holds his still entrapped hands up. He really doesn’t like guns. “Whatever happened to settling things with words?” he says weakly.
"Shut up, you’re the one who said that.”
Chanyeol freaks out. Honestly, he doesn’t even know if he trusts Baekhyun that much. Or if he should. For all he knows, Baekhyun might be a very well trained assassin. Chanyeol’s head gets filled with images of his body thrown into the Pacific Ocean or something. That's fucking scary. “What about never liking guns?" he tries hopefully.
"I'm an agent,” Baekhyun tells him cynically, furrowing his eyebrows. “Of course I love guns.”
"I'm such an idiot. Here I thought you actually liked me,” Chanyeol mutters under his breath and then asks again in disbelief, “Are you really going to shoot me?”
“Well, maybe?” Baekhyun starts, thinking of anything just to scare Chanyeol off. He really isn’t going to act on it-but before he can say anything else, Chanyeol yanks his hands up and brings both the armrest he’s cuffed in, running toward the other side of the plane.
“What the fuck,” Baekhyun exclaims, eyes wide and still not sure whether what he saw just happened. Did Chanyeol really just ruin that with the strength of his arms?
“I didn’t think I was that strong,” Chanyeol yells back, sounding very guilty and not exactly like a very dangerous criminal. “Shit. I’m not paying to fix that, either! It was your fault for scaring me!”
“What are you,” is what Baekhyun only hisses next, following after him with his gun still ready. Chanyeol ducks again, the armrests still heavy in his hands. He only touches the metal with his fingers, attempting to loosen it up around his aching wrists, and obviously doesn’t expect it to melt in his fingertips. He frees his hands with a hard pinch on the chains connecting them.
Chanyeol’s in shock because what the fuck did I just do. “What did you do to me?” he squeaks back and throws the two heavy weights on the opposite side of Baekhyun. “Did you attempt to turn me into a monster while I was asleep?”
“I did when you were awake, you fucking idiot,” Baekhyun answers back hotly, both of them flushing. Chanyeol tries to break out into a run after that with Baekhyun coming after him until of course, he fucking trips over the things he threw on his own.
“Ow,” he groans, holding his knee as he writhes on the floor and if Baekhyun didn’t know better, he’d really wonder how this became one of the most wanted robbers in the world. He’s really just a clumsy idiot that Baekhyun refuse to admit liking so much. God, he's so charmed it's not even funny anymore.
He crouches next to Chanyeol, putting his gun away. His voice is gentle when he says, “Are you okay?”
“Noooo,” Chanyeol whines like a child and honestly, it isn’t the time to laugh, but Baekhyun finds himself chuckling at Chanyeol’s misery. This is all so ironic. Instead of immediately turning Chanyeol around and bringing him back to his seat, this time even more securely, he’s here helping him out to stand up as he winces in pain. Baekhyun’s completely fucked.
“Just sit down, alright? Cooperate with me here you idiot,” Baekhyun fusses, still holding on to his waist. For a second, he meets Chanyeol’s gaze, and a flashback of last night’s event cloud their minds. Baekhyun’s cheeks turn pink as he steps away. “Can we talk about last night?” he says breathlessly, but Chanyeol’s eyes suddenly flicker behind him, his face mortified.
“What are you-“
“You two lovebirds talk too much,” Kyungsoo says, appearing behind Baekhyun with a syringe before plunging it in his neck. Baekhyun turns around and looks at him in horror, eyes fluttering wildly, and Chanyeol strides close just in time to catch an unconscious Baekhyun in his arms. "That'll be a complete trip back to Seoul, Agent Byun."
Chanyeol looks at him with his jaw dropped. "That was evil."
An excited Jongdae clasps both palms over his friends' shoulders. He quirks his eyebrows at Kyungsoo. “But it was awesome."
Kyungsoo ignores the both of them and turns on his heel. “Everyone in the pilot’s cabin now.”
Chanyeol hauls Baekhyun on one of the chairs, carefully strapping him down with the seatbelt. The other two look at him with puzzled stares, but Chanyeol only holds a hand up and says, "Don't."
Jongdae only shrugs. "I wasn't going to say anything."
Once they get in the cabin, Kyungsoo pats the pilot's chair and says, “Sit down, dumbass.”
Chanyeol gulps and fakes a short lived laugh. “How’d you guys find me?”
“Tracker on your watch. It’s not that hard to figure out when you’re suddenly going to the airport at four in the morning,” Kyungsoo answers coldly and takes out his phone to show Chanyeol a message. “And this.”
“Everyone knows you don’t type like that,” Jongdae snickers. As much as it gets on their nerves, Chanyeol has this thing with emojis and emoticons that definitely doesn’t sound as stoic as that. In fact, his last message might as well have been SICK BUT MIGHT GET LAID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! added with a handful of crazy emojis and maybe a dancing lady in red.
“Oh,” Chanyeol says sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. Kyungsoo’s face definitely doesn’t look too pleased. He sighs and finally says, “I’m sorry I made you two worry.”
Kyungsoo shakes his head and punches his arm hardly, but his shoulders are finally relaxed. Chanyeol grins up at him despite the throbbing pain he has in his arm and leg. “Will you just please listen to me next time? My guts are usually right.”
“I’m really sorry,” Chanyeol says again guiltily.
“It’s alright,” Jongdae quips. “It’s not like we didn’t just knock out a bunch of government agents.”
“CIA, actually,” Kyungsoo informs them.
“How’d you know?” Chanyeol gasps, a little baffled. Baekhyun being a CIA agent is just… actually very intimidating. Hot. Kyungsoo lifts his hand and flashes them Jongin’s badge.
“We’re in a lot of trouble, aren’t we?” Jongdae asks, nibbling on his lower lip.
“Yeah, we are,” Kyungsoo says, sighing. “But first we should figure out how to actually fly this thing before we crash and die.”
Chanyeol glances at his side and sees the dead reckoning saying they’re only 900 miles away from Seoul. The aeronautical charts flashes numbers and unfamiliar English words and if it isn’t strange enough, Chanyeol confidently thinks he understands and knows how to fly a plane. “I can do it,” he says.
“But you’ve never piloted a plane before,” Kyungsoo says, looking at him weirdly.
“I might have read a couple books about it back in freshman year,” Chanyeol says as if that’s enough to be able to navigate a plane. He pauses a little and adds thoughtfully, “And I played a lot PS4 with Jongdae.”
Kyungsoo grumbles at him. “That doesn’t qualify.”
Chanyeol frowns at him. “Would you prefer to not try at all?” And Kyungsoo keeps quiet.
“Alright. I’ll trust you on this one,” Jongdae says, putting a hand in his shoulder. “Just make sure we get back home safely.”
Chanyeol grins back at them. There’s this nagging suspicion formulating in his head on why he’s suddenly acting this way but for now, he tucks it safely at the corner of his mind. “Please put on your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy ride back home."
So maybe they’re really terrible at being tactical and doing last minute decisions.
Technically the plan was to land safely, ditch the aircraft and somehow make their way out of the airport while the rest of the people stay unconscious. However, it’s not always that simple and things don’t always go as planned as the three face an army of armed men once they get down the plane.
“Guns,” Jongdae murmurs, laughing weakly. They can try and break into a run, but with the number of guns aimed at them, Jongdae doesn’t think that’s a very wise decision. So instead, he holds his hands up. “I’d really prefer it if you didn’t use those.”
Kyungsoo’s glaring at everyone, murmuring a string of profanities under his breath while the men cuff their hands behind their backs. “Not this again,” Chanyeol groans disappointedly. The men move forward and point their gun at them. Chanyeol thinks it’s silly. “That’s actually very unnecessary. One of you could just accidentally shoot, you know. “
A man who’s wearing a sleek black suit steps up to them and takes off his sunglasses suavely. Somehow they feel a little underdressed with the matching black sweats and shirts they changed into from Jongdae’s backpack. The runway is busy with another plane landing but Chanyeol still hears Kyungsoo hissing, “Stupid CIAs and their obsession with fashion.”
“I think we have a lot to talk about, Mr. Park,” the man says, smiling at them. He’s so baby faced, his cheeks looking so soft and cute but his mouth is curling ruthlessly at them. Oddly enough, he does resemble a very handsomely dressed rodent ready to bite. “Kim Minseok. I handle Operation Andromeda.”
“I’d shake your hand but I can’t exactly do that at the moment,” Chanyeol replies with a short laugh, wriggling his wrists in his back. He remembers what happened with the metal earlier, burning in his fingertips and melting in just a fraction of seconds. It’s weird, really, and theoretically impossible to do since you don’t normally just go Oh, it’s alright. I’ll just melt off the metals in my hand but Chanyeol doesn’t care at the moment. There’s only one priority right now: save his friends and flee.
Chanyeol closes his eyes, concentrating, and presses his fingers tight against the chains. Please work, he pleads to god knows who and smiles contentedly when he feels it coming. His hands are finally warming up again, but this time, it isn’t a painful burn-instead it’s like simply heating up his hands on a cold winter night. He holds the cuffs in his fingers carefully just before they make a soft clink.
Everyone else doesn’t notice immediately except for Kyungsoo and Jongdae, who really have a knack of figuring out when something’s off with Chanyeol. Chanyeol laughs very loudly, shifting to get closer to his friends.
Minseok squints at him. “What did you do to Andromeda, Mr. Park?”
“Nothing,” Chanyeol says, shifting his eyes away. Kyungsoo and Jongdae stare at him like he really does have a secret to keep. “What? It’s safely kept by Agent Byun inside your plane.”
Minseok raises an eyebrow. “I think you know what I’m referring to.”
“You really shouldn’t be so uptight,” Chanyeol says defensively, changing the topic. “Loosen up a little, will you?” He sighs, taps his foot three times. It’s code for Escape Now which literally means fighting with their chained hands and diving to death. Jongdae knits his eyebrows together and Kyungsoo narrows his eyes at him and says a firm, “No.”
Chanyeol makes a very weird face with his lips pursed, his eyes widening and his eyebrows wriggling together, tapping his foot continuously. “Trust me,” he mouths.
Jongdae only laughs at him, sounding a little hopeless. “You’re kidding us, right?”
Minseok watches them with amusement all over his face because Chanyeol’s weakness is definitely subtlety. It’s obvious what they’re trying to do, but Minseok lets them anyway with a small chuckle. Chanyeol looks so stupid that it's fascinating to watch.
It’s Chanyeol who starts the attack, kicking the nearest guard unconscious before moving to the next one. A punch comes flying toward him but Chanyeol quickly dodges, grabbing his opponent’s gun and accidentally breaking it in his head. Another man comes from his behind, putting him on chokehold and in sheer panic Chanyeol grabs his arm. Electricity sparkles in his fingertips and the man yells in pain, feeling the current transfer to his body until he’s completely knocked out on the ground.
“Shit,” he mumbles, staring at the unconscious man. Everyone’s gazes turn toward him. “I absolutely didn’t mean to do that.”
For a moment, his friends just stare, looking at the broken gun and the slight burn in the man’s arm before coming to their senses and helping him. Maybe they have a chance after all. The thing is that Jongdae and Kyungsoo have always been better at him at fighting, mostly because they’re short and agile and don’t have uncooperative limbs that sometimes cause more trouble than they should so it’s easier to overpower the guards.
Chanyeol hoists Kyungsoo up on the waist just in time for him to kick two guns aimed at them while Jongdae finishes the job and knocks them out with his chained fists. Chanyeol musters all his strength and breaks off the handcuffs from their wrists and Jongdae only mumbles a whiny, “You just starting lifting last week. How’d you do that?”
A gun clicks behind them and Chanyeol finds himself staring at Jongdae with a red dot on his forehead. He looks at Kyungsoo on his side who has one too.
“Don’t worry,” Kyungsoo says, gritting his teeth. “You’re not missing out.” He sees the light flicker and move past his eyesight and Chanyeol feels his lungs get emptied with air. Yeah, definitely not missing out.
“Just as expected,” Minseok says, his jaw tensing. He looks at the burn in one of his men’s arm. “You really managed to infuse the powers in your body.”
Kyungsoo stares at Chanyeol doubtfully. “What does that mean?”
“Andromeda stores the greatest powers our scientists created and your friend here managed to take them out,” Minseok explains and points at Chanyeol. “Technically, he is the super weapon.”
“Greatest powers?” Jongdae says, doing an air quote with his fingers. “Like superhero stuff?”
“Like the ones you see in movies,” Minseok says.
“Oh, that explains the super strength,” Jongdae replies, pale faced, looking at Chanyeol who’s grinning at him nervously. He really wants to say that’s so fucking amazing but the mood is such a downer and there are snipers somewhere ready to kill.
It takes Chanyeol a few moments to process all the information in his head. So it is true-this finally confirms all the suspicions he has but if he’s going to be really honest with himself, it doesn’t sound as exciting as figuring out you’ve become a superhero overnight. It obviously comes with a cost. “What do you want?”
“I want you to work for me,” Minseok states simply. “We need to figure out Andromeda’s potential.”
“What’s in it for me?”
“Well, you can choose to escape now but I have my men at your sister’s,” Minseok warns. He did not just do that. Chanyeol would really want to punch his cute little face. “And I’m sure you wouldn’t like your head blown off bloody tonight.”
Chanyeol takes a deep breath and shuts his eyes. He thinks of Yoora and remembers how devastating it had been when they’d lost their parents and how he pledged that he wouldn’t let her cry anymore, or Jongdae’s family with his perky parents that adore him and Jongdeuk who treats him like he’s his own brother, and Kyungsoo’s nice mother just waiting for them to come and visit. Three deaths are not worthy of rebelling against something this big. His friends are looking at him expectantly when he opens his eyes. “Okay,” he says, and sees his friends breathe out in relief. "I have three conditions though.”
“Let me hear them,” Minseok says accommodatingly, putting his gun away as he takes out a file from his messenger bag.
“You’re gonna clear us of all charges,” Chanyeol says. “All of our crimes-none of them will trace back to us and you’ll make sure that everyone close to us is safe.” He pauses, pointing a thumb toward his friends. “And oh, I can’t work without them.”
“Alright,” Minseok replies easily and holds out his other hand like a signal before the red dots disappear.
“That fast?” Chanyeol prods, grinning now. “No catch at all?”
“We did steal a lot, you know,” Jongdae reminds him. “And maybe committed a lot of felony against your CIA team.”
“Shut up you two,” Kyungsoo snaps. “You better not take your word back.”
Minseok laughs at them. “It’s such a wonder how you three even got this far,” he comments, which is probably the usual consensus for them. He holds out a black folder with a symbol similar to a phoenix indented on it, its color reminding Chanyeol of the smoke Andromeda used to have before he accidentally acquired its power. Chanyeol takes it, his chest thumping crazily. “It has all the information you need about Andromeda and your mission.”
“Operation Phoenix,” Chanyeol reads. He’s not going to admit it in front of Minseok, but it definitely sounds cool. He can’t help the grin spreading on his face.
“I like the ring of that,” Jongdae quips, cackling as he reaches for a high five with Chanyeol. “It makes us sound like some badass team.”
“We are a badass team,” Chanyeol corrects him, laughing.
“Your first mission is in Los Angeles. Be there on the 24th,” Minseok says as he glances at his watch. “Wake Joonmyun up, will you? I don’t trust your landing skills that much yet.”
“Okay,” Chanyeol says, feeling all pumped already. He opens his arms and squeezes Jongdae and Kyungsoo tightly, who don’t squirm but only welcome him in return. “We’re in.”
“New adventure it is then,” Kyungsoo says and looks at them so fondly, his cheeks hurting from smiling too much.
Los Angeles: September 24, 2014
Naturally after Joonmyun’s short briefing of the mission and a whole lot of apologizing, Chanyeol ends up spending the rest of the ride testing out his superpowers (he never knew he could be that bendy) and even accidentally triggers one of the alarms on board after creating a small fire in his palm. “Shit, that was amazing,” he says breathlessly.
It also doesn’t come as a surprise when he ends up suggesting sky diving and maybe landing cooly down the gigantic Hollywood sign. “Maybe I can fly too,” Chanyeol says.
“You’re not Superman, you idiot. It’s not on the superpowers list,” Kyungsoo says, smacking him at the back of his head as Jongdae scribbles an F- on common sense on the indentions of the paper.
However, they do end up parachuting their way down a few hours later at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel’s rooftop located in the heart of Los Angeles. They skip the airport in hopes of going unnoticed by the other agencies who are not involved with Andromeda with an unusually quiet Baekhyun in tow.
“We should do this often,” Jongdae howls as soon as his feet touch the ground, feeling exhilarated. “That was sick.”
“I am going to be sick,” Chanyeol says, looking white as sheet despite him wanting to do it earlier. It appears that extra courage doesn’t come with Andromeda.
“We’ve got no time,” Baekhyun says, looking at his watch. Darkness is already creeping in and the fashion show they’re supposed to invade is starting in an hour. Tonight, they’ve got to capture one of the suspected members of EXO, a dangerous group that’s after Andromeda. “Huang Zitao is already in the premise.” He averts his gaze to Chanyeol, who’s surprised that Baekhyun’s even addressing him. They haven’t exactly talked yet. “What’s the plan?”
“What plan?”
“The plan Joonmyun told you to create while we were on our way here,” Baekhyun says, eyes narrow with confusion. “You did think of one, right?”
“About that…” Chanyeol laughs nervously. “We spent most of our time practicing my skills.”
Baekhyun growls at him. “We can’t just barge in and arrest him.”
“We’ll make something up along the way,” Chanyeol says defensively.
"Well, bad news, lover boy. We’re going to end up dead and screwed up if you don’t think of anything soon,” Baekhyun hisses.
“I’m sorry I don’t plan everything down to every detail unlike you,” Chanyeol snaps back.
“Oooh, shots fired,” Jongdae whistles and gives an amused Kyungsoo a low five.
Baekhyun only huffs in reply. In his defense, he already asked for Joonmyun to take him out of the mission but since he wasn’t able to come up with a detailed report on how he really got Chanyeol, his punishment now is to make up for the ambushing in the plane. Besides, he’s the best field agent in his team anyway. He tries not to let Chanyeol affect his work and urges them to follow him instead.
Out of all the events a dangerous criminal can be in, a high-class fashion show is definitely not what they expected.
“I am not going to wear that thing,” is Kyungsoo’s reply the moment they stumble inside the dressing rooms. Apparently, Chanyeol’s bright idea includes blending in with the crowd backstage to get better access to Zitao and stealing dresses from the rack of clothes. For the nth time, Kyungsoo considers maybe kneeing Chanyeol in the dick to remind him that he does have one too. He glares at the provocative dress hanging on Chanyeol’s arm and shudders horrifiedly.
“It’s the easiest way,” Chanyeol says, trying to hold his laughter. “If it makes you feel better, I have one too.”
“And me too. We're all in this together,” Jongdae adds, coming from his behind wearing a very tight and red qipao. He flashes them a playful peace sign. “I look great, don’t I?”
“Smoking hot,” Chanyeol says, winking at him. “Try not to walk too wide, though. It’s better without your leg hairs.”
Jongdae pretends to get flustered, fans himself shyly and hits his arm intentionally. Jongdae’s knuckles are too bony and it still hurts. They look at Kyungsoo with mirrored grins.
“We’ll never talk about this ever again,” Kyungsoo finally gives up and stomps away with the dress in hand.
It turns out that Kyungsoo does rock the outfit. He comes out wearing the black dress with puffy sleeves, making him look like a very tiny evil witch with the dip of his lips accentuated with a pout. All he needs is a wand and a cast to curse on everyone and he’ll be set. Chanyeol and Jongdae who are good friends obviously don’t tell him that. Instead they both chorus: “You look pretty.”
“Not helpful,” Kyungsoo says dejectedly, adjusting the ribbon on his waist. He looks up with flushed cheeks to see Chanyeol sporting a leotard print dress and instantly cracks up. He looks like a gangly Yoora with his short hair swept to the side. “What is that horrendous thing?”
Baekhyun slides into the booth they’re hiding onto with a striped shirt, khaki shorts and an innocent Staff I.D. hanging on his neck. “I just saw Zitao fretting outside-“ he pauses, taking their outfits in and-“I think those are the dresses he’s looking for. Why are you wearing those?”
“Why are you in that outfit?” Kyungsoo snaps. “Shouldn’t you be squeezing yourself in one of these, too?”
“I knocked out one of the staff,” Baekhyun replies confusedly, as if that’s really the ideal way to do things in here. “It’s the usual protocol.”
Chanyeol feels a little dumb for not even considering it, but then he hears a very whiny voice freaking out over the missing dresses.
“He’s yelling at everyone,” Chanyeol tells them. Jongdae doesn’t stare at his face but his ears and grins. Jongdae bites his tongue and stops himself from teasing his gigantic ears and Chanyeol just rolls his eyes.
“I want to change,” Kyungsoo says gravely. “Get out of your outfit, Agent Byun.”
“No,” Baekhyun replies firmly, eyeing his outfit. As much as Baekhyun wants to get in Kyungsoo’s good side, this is definitely not the way to do it. Besides, they’re running out of time. “We have to hurry up,” Baekhyun replies urgently, sliding the curtain of their cramped dressing room.
Chanyeol braces himself and starts cat walking, hips swaying exaggeratedly. He almost trips when he strides too widely. “Come on, Charlie’s Angels,” Chanyeol says jokingly which is not very helpful at the moment. “We have a mission to do.”
Kyungsoo’s face might be turning purple now. “Say that again and I will punch you in the dick.”
Huang Zitao, like them, does not exactly look like a dangerous criminal. Sure, the Chinese designer’s got pretty scary eyes and a macho built with a perfect tan but when he speaks, it’s soft and whiny and very childlike as he tells Chanyeol, “I’ve been looking for those dresses! Get to the runway right now.”
Chanyeol finds himself being pushed into the runway for the grand finale, and as hilarious as it may seem, ends up walking down with hoots after him. Chanyeol flicks his nonexistent hair and struts exaggeratedly. Behind him, he can already hear a faint Oh, I didn’t think you two would be the perfect heights for my dresses and Jongdae and Kyungsoo follow suit after him. Chanyeol flashes a smile, scans the room and remembers the crowd’s faces. The Phoenix file had a bunch of photos of the suspected criminals and with his currently enhanced memory (which really just makes him remember everything he’s seen, even if it’s years ago), he can easily tell apart the criminals among the audience.
Eleven guards and two suspected murderers later (he’s read about them before after hacking an American database for fun), Chanyeol spins around to make his way back only to get a hand around his ankle. A very beefy guy whom he suspects is a staff widens his eyes at him and says, “You’re not models!” He looks at Chanyeol’s tiny friends and adds, “We have a specific height requirement!”
The crowd gasps along with Jongdae. “Oh my god,” Jongdae exclaims dramatically, flicking his handheld fan as he puts a hand on his waist. Thank god his English’s not that rusty because of those years they spent in Cambridge. “You did not just call me short.”
Right on cue for the ending, Zitao walks into the scene with a gigantic smile and his lips immediately curl into a frown. “What-what are you doing?”
“We’ve been trespassed, sir,” the guy replies sternly.
Zitao’s eyes widen comically, stares at them three for ten long seconds before backing away slowly like he knows exactly what’s up. He breaks into a run just when Jongdae throws the fan to the staff’s face and Chanyeol kicks his chin, making him tumble backwards. Kyungsoo, on the other hand, manages to throw his shoes toward the men coming their way. He slides down to one knee, grabs a gun strapped to his leg and shoots another coming their way.
“Is that-is that a real gun?” Chanyeol screeches, heaving. It’s not only him who freaks out but the rest of the audience lose their shit, trying to run as fast as possible out of the area. The small stampede becomes a hindrance to the other men coming to their directions.
Kyungsoo stares at the gun in his hand and the blood oozing out of the man’s arm. “Shit,” he says, paling a little. “They must have switched ours to real ones.”
“That is so not cool,” Jongdae mumbles. Even in a dress, he’s unrestricted as he aims a high kick on an approaching guy. He dodges when the guy aims a punch at him, swings down and gives him an uppercut. He finishes off with an angry statement. “Who do they think we are? We’re robbers, for goodness sake. Not killers.”
“Shoot the alarm,” Chanyeol yells but a very tall and scary man kicks Kyungsoo’s gun. He’s got a body of a bouncer, towering over Kyungsoo. Yikes. While ducking to avoid the guy’s punch, Kyungsoo slides the gun toward Chanyeol onstage. It misses, falls on the ground and Chanyeol finds himself jumping for it before staring at a rifle pointed toward him.
Chanyeol tries to calm himself with Lamaze breathing, which honestly confuses the guy since Chanyeol looks like he’s giving birth underneath his dress.
“What are you doing?”
“Focusing.” Chanyeol deeply inhales one more time and fucking blows the armed guy away. His face looks like he’s sitting on top of a speeding car, his cheeks violently jiggling. He stumbles and hits a table before finally passing out. “Not bad,” he compliments himself, then ducks as soon as more gunfires ensue, hiding behind the bar.
Like what they usually say, backups are for amateurs. Which is why Chanyeol is terribly freaking out as soon as a rain of bullets graze everything because fuck yes they are a bunch of amateurs whom Minseok thought didn’t need backups. Apparently it was because they already have Chanyeol, the most powerful man alive, who honestly doesn’t have an idea on what to do at the moment. This isn’t like the rest of their deals-this is diving head first into the sea of death and Chanyeol hopes that his friends have managed to not get hit.
Baekhyun slides next to him and Chanyeol holds his chest, scared out of his wits. The glasses of alcohol above them continue to get blasted off.
“Thank god,” Chanyeol says gladly. “Did you get Zitao?”
“Yes,” Baekhyun says. “I got him down at the back. The others are picking him up.”
A few moments later, Kyungsoo and Jongdae finally join them. “We’ll stay here,” Chanyeol says seriously. “Never leave, alright?”
Baekhyun hits him in the arm. “Have you forgotten you have superpowers?”
“No, but I don’t have complete control over them,” Chanyeol says defensively. “And I’d really prefer to stay here, thank you.”
Kyungsoo shakes his head at him. He turns to Jongdae and orders, “Give me your gun.” He inspects it carefully and starts cackling, his eyes narrowed. “They forgot to switch out this one.”
The other three stare at him as he continues to laugh diabolically. Kyungsoo is a really a weird fellow.
“What are you planning to do?” Jongdae inquires nervously.
“I am going to shoot everyone, obviously,” Kyungsoo says plainly. He closes one eye, focuses on the other as he holds up his gun. “Less casualties, the better. Oh, and one more thing,” he says, grabbing Baekhyun’s gun out of his hand and shoots the fire alarm. “Thanks,” he mumbles and starts shooting.
Baekhyun’s eyebrows rise up to his hairline as the alarm blares off. The water starts sprouting everywhere. “Is he always this trigger-happy?” Baekhyun whispers, grabbing his gun. He joins Kyungsoo and manages to hit two men.
“Well,” Chanyeol says, peers at the targets and watches as Kyungsoo shoot down another man. He gulps and ducks next to Baekhyun. Jongdae does the same. “Yeah. Scary, isn’t it?”
“Thank god we only use tranquilizers,” Jongdae quips.
“It’s alright, I’ve seen worse,” Baekhyun says understandingly. “He’d make a really good agent though.”
Countless of bullets later, they were finally able to leave the holy bar that saved their lives. Zitao is awake, tied in a chair with Sehun and Jongin next to him when they arrive. He’s glaring at Baekhyun, who only gives him a big smile with eyes disappearing. He looks so adorable and harmless, except he has a gun in his hand. Chanyeol sighs longingly.
“Good job, agents,” Joonmyun congratulates. Joonmyun is warm and nice, reminds Chanyeol of nice teachers and getting compliments in preschool. He humorously expects a stamp in his hand to commemorate the successful mission.
“Did he give any leads?” Jongdae asks, slinging his hand over Joonmyun’s shoulders. Joonmyun looks at him, confused, and Jongdae flashes him a cute grin. Kyungsoo and Chanyeol only stifle their cackles.
“Yes,” Joonmyun says, puts his arm away and smiles professionally. Jongdae only pouts at him. “Several, actually.”
Sehun pokes an irritable Zitao. “They recruited me because I travel a lot as a designer,” he explains. “EXO likes to take unexpected people in. They pay a lot so it’s hard not to reject their offers. I only indirectly deal with them, but the last person I negotiated with was apparently the head’s favorite.”
“And who might that be?” Chanyeol prods.
“I’ve never seen him,” Zitao admits gruffly. “I only know his codename’s Bambi.”
“Bambi?”
“Like the animal deer in Disney films.”
“Obviously,” Chanyeol replies back in a mocking voice.
“The last time they’ve communicated was in Amsterdam,” Jongin supplies helpfully. “You might want to start from there.”
“We’re going to Amsterdam?” Kyungsoo says in awe, sounding excited for once as he stares at Jongin.
“Technically not us, us, but your team-“ Jongin stutters, enunciating with a nervous laugh. He can’t get his eyes off of Kyungsoo in a dress. But then again, nobody can. He looks pretty good in it.
“I know what you mean,” Kyungsoo says sharply, trying not to let his flushed ears do all the telling as he realizes he’s still in the dress. “Can I get my clothes back?”
Meanwhile, Baekhyun scoots forward and slides next to Chanyeol. Everyone’s occupied at the moment and Baekhyun’s voice is barely a whisper. Chanyeol can still hear it though-super hearing does come with a few benefits. “This is becoming really weird, isn’t it?” Baekhyun says inaudibly, making sure it’s only Chanyeol who can hear it.
“Talk to me about it,” Chanyeol whispers back. “There’s a weird invisible tension forming between everyone else.”
“Yeah,” Baekhyun says, glancing at him. He kind of wishes there’s one for them, too. “Can we talk?”
They leave the crowd quietly and end up sitting on the platform, their feet swaying as they look at the mess the event has turned to. They’re not looking at each other, trying their best to come up with something-anything to talk about under the stage lights shining upon them. A few seconds later, Baekhyun starts with an “I’m sorry-“ just in time for Chanyeol to say-“I really shouldn’t have gotten mad.”
“It’s okay,” they both chorus together in a hurry.
“You start first,” Chanyeol relents, gesturing toward Baekhyun with a nimble hand.
Baekhyun inhales, tries to muster up the courage to tell Chanyeol the truth. A guy like him deserves it. “The Beijing encounter? That was randomly planned. I thought you were just some regular guest and you were quite handsome so,” Baekhyun quickly says the last few words. “I didn’t expect you to go after Andromeda even though all the signs already pointed to it. The bathroom, the vent, the weird grabbing pose. It was honestly a dumb mistake,” Baekhyun admits, pursing his lips. “Then I planned to meet you again, mostly because I thought you knew I was CIA before you left. I wanted to get even.”
Chanyeol knits his eyebrows and pouts. “I was so convinced you were harmless,” he says. “You were so tiny and cute.”
“What can I say?” Baekhyun laughs shortly. “It helps a lot at being a good field agent.”
Chanyeol’s most dreaded question comes next. “What about the date?”
“I know I asked a lot about you to maximize the opportunity to make a profile for you.” Baekhyun’s is touching his mouth with his fingers, like it’s a nervous habit or some sort. “But everything I said was real.”
Chanyeol’s heart soars in his ribcage, the butterflies invading his stomach. “So the…” he pauses, licking his lips. “You know.”
“A cherry topping,” Baekhyun replies, grinning slightly. “Although I wouldn’t really know what could have happened if you didn’t pass out.”
“Apparently my body went through a hibernating phase while Andromeda’s powers sink in,” he replies, a little disheartened. He claps his hands on his lap and says, “Wrong timing. So what now?”
“I think it’s better if we stay friends,” Baekhyun suggests casually, although really, he does like the feeling of Chanyeol’s lips against his and he would very much prefer to hold his hand as they run around in the future. It sounds romantic, but in his line of work, emotions are dangerous liabilities. “National security is always priority.”
Chanyeol nods understandingly. Being with someone on the team just makes missions more dangerous, riskier. Although Chanyeol doesn’t object the idea of potentially taking care of Baekhyun, he doesn’t trust his emotions too well to involve it with work. Not yet at the moment, anyway.
“Friends, then,” Chanyeol says quietly.
They just sit in silence, basking in the aftermath of the conversation before Jongdae pops behind them and says, “We’re leaving soon.”
“Coming,” Chanyeol calls back. He stands up, offers Baekhyun a hand before pulling him up. His hand is starting to warm up again, like Baekhyun’s the cause of electricity surging into his body. Chanyeol takes his hand back and lets it stay behind him.
“By the way…” Baekhyun starts, looking away and starts fiddling with his fake I.D. strap. He takes a few steps forward, leaving Chanyeol anticipating for the rest of his words. “You look really cute in that dress.”
“Oh.” Chanyeol looks up and scratches the back of his neck, trying to slow the blood rushing through to his cheeks. “Thank you, I guess,” Chanyeol replies, a little flattered, but he’s laughing now with the corners of his mouth pulled up into an impossibly bright smile.
Chanyeol thinks that maybe, this whole mission won’t be that bad after all.
He just hopes the fleeting ideas of Byun Baekhyun in his mind will go away before it’s too late.
Amsterdam ends up as a gigantic ploy, but they did manage to extract information from the set up.
With Chanyeol’s super brain, it’s become easier to patch things up together. Amsterdam is just the starting point. It isn’t a trap, Chanyeol makes sure, just careless mistakes that slipped their enemy’s minds. The clues eventually point them to a lot of locations: there’s one in Madrid, where Chanyeol decodes a message scribbled in invisible ink at Philip IV’s Monument, or the patch of blood on top of the Blue Domed Church in Santorini which might indicate foul play in one of EXO’s meetings. There’s also the sound waves embedded in stolen couple rings from a royal family in Agra, even a similar case with earrings found with an uprising J-pop star named Mimi who eventually ends up smitten with Baekhyun’s charms.
The three months they’ve spent together have been fruitful at best, their relationships slowly building into a tight ring of friendship that’s hard to break. Even Kyungsoo’s complete disregard for Baekhyun has waned, resulting into violent streaks that have become affectionate gestures of some sort. It really just started with a mission that had them wondering if it's the end until Baekhyun volunteered to fight the rest of their opponents and pleaded for them to run.
“What do you mean leave you behind?” Kyungsoo had said then, looking at him as if he’s the stupidest person around. Kyungsoo could be cold, but he wasn't heartless.
“What?” Baekhyun managed to croak out, a bullet missing an inch to hit his arm.
“You’re in my team,” Kyungsoo clarified firmly and Baekhyun thought he was going to burst for a moment. “We don’t leave anyone behind.”
That was rich coming from Do Kyungsoo, who managed to alienate him for the past three weeks, and so Baekhyun did end up alive and well with Kyungsoo's determination in mind.
On the other hand, Jongdae latches onto Baekhyun fast: he sleeps on Baekhyun during trips, laughs at Baekhyun’s stupid jokes and they bond over making Chanyeol’s life a good kind of hell. They act like separated twins at birth, which frankly, is quite amusing and annoying at the same time.
Meanwhile, Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s relationship slowly develops into genuine friendship, although the unintentional skinships and longing glances still linger from time to time. The more time they spend together, the lesser their differences become, and they find themselves falling a little deeper every time. Most times, they catch each other staring, and only tries to make a joke out of it.
But it’s always easier to fall back into the routine of keeping each other’s emotions tightly jarred instead of confusing themselves, so they take that path.
It doesn't quite work as easily as they think it would.
Paris: December 24, 2014
Seven continents and countless plane rides and train tickets later, the Phoenix team finds themselves sitting in a cafe in Paris.
Jongdae rips the small note posted on the cafe’s bulletin of memories and raises an eyebrow at Chanyeol. It’s already winter and he’s all wrapped up in a puffy dark blue parka. “Coordinates?”
Chanyeol squints at it, his mind automatically shifting the letters and numbers together. “Yeah, it seems like an address,” he replies, a grin spreading in his face as they come back to their table.
They’re still eating breakfast meals at noontime, but it doesn’t really seem all that different with the rate they’re traveling for the past few months. “Finish up, this is our Christmas meal,” Kyungsoo tells them.
“It’s Christmas?” Chanyeol exclaims, eyes widening. “Oh shit. I forgot about Yoora noona.”
“I already sent her a gift,” Baekhyun quips. Although he’s never really met her, Chanyeol’s enthusiastic stories already make him feel so familiar with her. “I sent her a necklace with her birth stone courtesy of the CIA,” he explains, chewing on his waffle. Chanyeol looks at him gratefully. “I’m not sure if they’re deducting it from your salary, though.”
“Thank you,” is all Chanyeol can say, mostly because Baekhyun always gets him off guard. He digs into his chicken waffles with a very pleased satisfaction weighing in his heart.
Finding the right apartment written in the post-it and breaking into the building’s security system have been seriously draining tasks. However, the vault they find inside the place was another story. It only takes Chanyeol about a minute to decode it.
“You’re really getting good at this,” Jongdae compliments, squeezing his shoulder.
Chanyeol only does his signature wink and peace sign. Inside the vault is another post-it note. Chanyeol stares at the scrambled letters written in jet blue ink, trying to decipher the latest clue they have on the enemy.
LIWQ2FH1
IBHACYUW
ZEHERTFA
OSSHAJRW
WJGNWDB
"Hurry up, Chanyeol," Kyungsoo hisses as soon as the security breach alarm goes off. “We don't have all the time in the world."
"I think I've got it," Chanyeol finally says, blinking up at all of them. "Does LUHAN ring a bell?"
"Lu Han?" Jongdae cuts in, eyebrows knitted together. He sets his palms on his waist and scoffs, not believing Chanyeol's confused expression and his constantly fluttering eyelashes. "This isn't really the time to joke around," he finally says when Chanyeol still doesn't budge.
"So?" Kyungsoo prods impatiently.
"I can't believe this." Jongdae licks his lower lip. "Are you really telling me that the only clue we got after all those gunfight is the Chinese pop star Lu Han?"
Baekhyun perks up. “Didn’t Zitao say they recruit those who travel a lot?”
“Worldwide concerts and foreign schedules,” Chanyeol adds in, his mouth turning into an ‘O’.
"I think I'm gonna have to pick up my limited edition CD back home,” Jongdae says faintly. "You know, just in case he isn't actually the bad guy."
“Finally. This night just got more interesting," Kyungsoo says, circling his finger around the trigger guard and making a shooting gesture at the wall. “It’s been a while that we got some exciting action.”
"You really should stop doing that," Chanyeol says sagely, clutching his chest.
Kyungsoo's face only breaks into a grin. "Come on, guys. We have a pop star to chase down."
→ PART 3