contest entry #5 - ashes, ashes, we all fall down
Title: Ashes, ashes, we all fall down
Rating: NC-17
Word count: 5,807
Summary: Based off of everyone’s favorite serial killer, the elusive Jack the Ripper and inspired partly by two episodes of Kuroshitsuji. Also, be warned that there’s some graphic descriptions of the killings so if you’re squeamish...grab a bucket.
Yunho comes home on Wednesday night to find his boss sitting in the middle of his living room. Jaejoong’s got his arms crossed with a frown on his face and Changmin’s gripping onto his mug of what is probably tea, tapping against the handle in a tell-tale sign of his nervousness. That itself gives Yunho enough of a reason to worry, hesitantly smiling at the both of them as he pauses in the hallway to try and gauge the situation.
“Hey, what’s going on? Having a party without me?”
“Nah, just talking about some things.” Jaejoong shrugs faintly and shoves his hands into his pockets, looking briefly at Changmin before he gives Yunho a smile, “We’re done now.” Jaejoong claps him on the shoulder but it’s obviously forced, a little too hard to be friendly and Yunho really starts to worry now, moving to stand behind Changmin’s chair as Jaejoong bids them good night.
It’s not until the door closes and the lock clicks that Yunho turns to look at Changmin, staring the younger man in the eye, “You told him?” It’s not as if he’s accusing Changmin of anything and it’s not even a question really. He’s been expecting this to happen for a while now, someone had to have figured it out sooner or later.
“He knows it’s me,” Changmin says slowly, confirming Yunho’s worries, “he told me as much. He just doesn’t have any proof right now.”
Yunho panics for a brief minute before the tension drains out of him and despite of the fact that he should be more anxious, he chooses to curl up in Changmin’s chair with him, an arm wrapping tightly around the younger man’s waist as they lean against each other. “Because you were careful, right?”
Changmin nods and tilts his head to the side, hiding his face into the curve of Yunho’s neck, “Always careful,” he whispers back.
But maybe not careful enough.
- - -
It starts like any other murder case, with a dead body and a small puddle of blood on the side. This particular corpse belongs to a female prostitute, probably in her 30s with red hair and a pair of what used to be vivid green eyes. Now they’re dull and glassy in a way only the dead’s eyes can be but Yunho can see that she probably used to be fairly pretty looking, something that’s common these days with the street whores.
“I want this entire area combed for witnesses, someone had to have seen or at least heard something,” Jaejoong says from the side, eyebrows furrowed and jaw clenched in a way that tells of how tired and annoyed he was.
It’s four in the morning and by the look that had been on Jaejoong’s face when Yunho went to pick him up, the older man was obviously otherwise occupied with things far more entertaining to him than the bloodied and mutilated body of a whore.
Yunho nods when Jaejoong gestures for him to escort the coroner over, looking away out of equal amounts of politeness and horror when the medical examiner lifts the prostitute’s skirt up to peer at the damage. There’s a pile of what seems to be human entrails on the stone sidewalk and after carefully examining them in the dimly lit alley, the coroner murmurs under his breath and places it inside of a bag, labeling the contents with a thick black marker.
Uterus.
Yunho cringes as he’s handed the bag, holding onto it unwilling with a thumb and index finger, wishing that he was less awake and sober for this than he is right now, closing his eyes and thanking God that he’s not puking on the side like another colleague.
A few days later when another body is discovered, her intestines draped over her chest and arms as if for decoration, Yunho’s the one bent over the sewer opening throwing back up his lunch and breakfast.
- - -
“Why do they call him Jack?” Changmin asks over breakfast, biting into his blueberry muffin, cheeks full of food.
Yunho shrugs a little as he slumps over the kitchen table, the entire surface of it covered with notes and papers from the various murder cases, graphic photos of the deaths and detailed notes about the autopsy laid out for him to read over. “He calls himself Jack,” Yunho mumbles, “it’s not like we gave him that name.”
“I wonder if his real name is Jack then, it’s such a plain name. Although Jack the Ripper certainly sounds better than Simon or even worse, Chuck. Can you imagine that, Chuck the Ripper? Can’t be too scary of a fellow if your name is Chuck.”
Yunho barely grunts in reply and Changmin has to prod at his boyfriend of nearly ten years to get him to lift his head up and show signs of life. He sighs and pulls the file right out of Yunho’s hand to give him a plate of food instead, glaring pointedly when Yunho opens his mouth to argue.
“Eat.” There’s a no nonsense tone to Changmin’s voice that Yunho’s heard before and even though it’s not at all fitting to pout right now, he does so anyway, lower lip protruding as he looks at Changmin like a puppy that’s been kicked.
“I can’t rest! Scotland Yard has been getting all up in our faces and Jaejoong’s been working hard to-,”
“You mean he’s been working you hard but continue,” Changmin says, correcting Yunho as he pours the older man a glass of juice.
Jaejoong’s a nice boss and everything but his skills as a detective are just about level with a child’s and the only reason he’s the lead investigator is because he’s related to a higher up. Jaejoong’s the type of guy that’d rather spend his nights drinking a round at the local bar than sitting at home reading files like Yunho is right now. He cares but only to an extent. A rather short extent.
“Anyway,” Yunho says, shooting Changmin a miserable look, “we’re meeting later and he wants us to give him something presentable.”
Changmin makes a face and crosses his legs underneath him, reading the file marked “Annie Chapman” that he had just stolen from Yunho’s hands. He’s been with the older man long enough to know how cases like this work and normally speaking, prostitutes aren’t highest on the list of priorities for the police but with the cases making national headlines and with everyone’s attention drawn to this serial murderer, there’s been massive amounts of pressure on the task force as a whole. Everyone’s eyes are on London and more specially, Whitechapel right now. People are out for blood and instead of hearing that the police are working on the case, they want to see evidence and they want there to be suspects.
“Do you guys have any leads?”
Yunho shakes his head and mopes even more after that question. “No! We have no leads, no witnesses and the only evidence we have are the bodies that the killer has left behind. Basically, the one thing we’ve settled on is that this Jack guy has to be a doctor of some kind.”
“Always a slash across the neck, right?” Changmin asks, standing up to go to his black bag on the side, digging into it for his case of surgical blades, “the coroner said that it’s most likely a no. 9 blade?” Changmin opens his box to find the right one, holding it in his hand as he stands behind Yunho before suddenly reaching out to wrap his arm around Yunho’s neck, tightening his grip to suffocate him.
Yunho willingly stays pliant in his arms, a smile on his face even as Changmin makes a pretend slash across Yunho’s throat, the blade near enough that it almost breaks his skin. He feels the coldness of the steel blade pressed against his pulse, acting the part of a corpse by staying still, arms hanging limply by his side.
“You guys seriously need to find where he’s doing all this,” Changmin says, pulling away thoughtfully, “because it’s not like he’s doing this out in public. There’d be too much blood and you said that there’s never more than a pint or so, right? It can’t be, especially if he cuts the femoral artery, that’s a gusher.”
Yunho turns around and smiles at Changmin, tugging the older man in by the hand, pressing his chest against the younger man’s with a grin, “I like it when you talk medicine to me.”
Changmin rolls his eyes and laughs, dropping the blade onto the kitchen table, “And I like it when you’re home for dinner,” he says softly, leaning in to kiss Yunho on the lips, tongue sliding across the lower lip before he delves into the warmth of Yunho’s mouth. “I miss you.”
Just in case Yunho’s not sure what Changmin means when he says that, he slides a leg between Yunho’s and grinds gently against Yunho’s crotch, biting gently on the older man’s neck as he whispers the words again. With all the work Yunho’s been doing, they barely have time to eat and sleep together, much less have sex.
They stumble into the bedroom together, Changmin losing his clothes on the way there and Yunho naked by the time they’re kissing on top of the bed. The older man reaches down to curl a hand around his cock, stroking until Changmin’s completely erect before he drops his hand down to cup Changmin’s balls.
“Think you’re okay for this?” He asks the younger man, the words barely out of his mouth before he suddenly finds himself on his back, Changmin straddling his hips with a smirk on his face.
“You’re getting old,” Changmin sings, “either that or you’re getting rusty, officer.” He bats his lashes and laughs, bending to bite into Yunho’s shoulder, licking across the older man’s collarbone and up Yunho’s neck, sucking on the older man’s pulse while he grinds down on Yunho’s cock.
Whether on purpose or not, Changmin nibbles across Yunho’s neck, hands laced with the older man’s on top of the bed as his tongue glides across the older man’s throat where the slash marks had been on the victims’ necks. He does it again and again until Yunho’s arching up, moans growing fainter and breathier, the older man’s face flushed in a way that Changmin’s always turned on by.
“So pretty,” he murmurs, admiring his boyfriend’s sharp jaw and handsome face for a moment later before he finally lets go to find the bottle of lubricant that they keep on the nightstand, reaching behind to slick Yunho’s cock over.
It takes a little shifting after that, Yunho leaning against the headboard with a pillow to cushion his back before he takes some of the oil to prep Changmin, fingers effortlessly sliding into Changmin’s tight passage two at a time as he patiently scissors his boyfriend open.
“Good?” he asks, voice low and appropriately husky, nudging at Changmin’s cheek with his nose, waiting for the go ahead nod before he pulls his fingers out and goes to grip at Changmin’s hips instead.
To say that it goes like clockwork sounds mundane and routine but it’s anything but boring. After ten years together, of course the sex is predictable and a bit habitual but that doesn’t mean it’s any less explosive than it had been the very first time Yunho had taken Changmin in this same bed.
Whimpering quietly, Changmin arches a little as Yunho guides the tip of his cock to his hole, pressing the thickness of his head against the already clenching muscle, gasping weakly when the older man kisses his forehead just once before pushing into him. Yunho never pauses in what he’s doing, fighting against the tightness that’s always there to slide in, exhaling only when he’s finally settled, cock nestled deep in Changmin’s passage.
It’s cliche to say it but Yunho does anyway, moaning about how tight it is as he digs his nails into Changmin’s hips, waiting for the younger man to settle down so that the clenching around his cock won’t be so unbearable. It doesn’t take long before Changmin’s bouncing in his lap, cock thwacking gently against his stomach with each hard bounce.
Yunho loves to watch the way Changmin will start to blush from exertion, cheeks a soft shade of pink that travels through the rest of his body as he rides him, swallowing his cock in its entirety every time he sits down on his lap.
“So good, Changmin-ah, you’re so tight,” he whispers reverently, not at all afraid to let his boyfriend know that he pretty much thinks of him as a sex god, waiting just another couple of minutes before he can’t anymore, curling Changmin into his body as he thrusts up, planting his feet on the bed for more leverage.
Sex with Changmin riding him is amazing to watch and to have such soft and warm skin brushing against his with every arch of Changmin’s body is definitely pleasurable but he needs more, tugging hard on the younger man’s hair to arch his head back as he sucks on his birthmark, growling softly before scraping his teeth against the reddening spot.
Yunho starts to jerk his hips, pounding his cock into Changmin’s hole with ease and experience that can only come from having been together for so long, a hand trailing down to reach between Changmin’s butt cheeks to brush against the overly sensitive muscle, grinning when he immediately feels Changmin shaking and trembling in his arms.
It only takes a quiet plea from his younger lover before Yunho lets up with the teasing, hand kneading at Changmin’s ass instead now as he thrusts in and out, fucking him so hard that despite the whimpers and soft cries Changmin’s letting out, all that can really be heard is the sharp slapping of Yunho’s balls against Changmin’s ass and the wet sounds from the lube and precome.
Changmin comes with a low moan of Yunho’s name, tensing as he digs his nails into Yunho’s biceps as he orgasms, back arched like a rainbow, cock twitching as he releases come all over Yunho’s chest and his own body.
“Mm,” he moans, slumping sideways a bit as Yunho laughs at him, tucking him into his neck as he comes with little fanfare, holding Changmin’s hips still as he releases inside of the younger man like he always does, limbs quivering and somewhat heavy from the exercise he’s just had. Maybe he is getting old.
“Baby?” Yunho whispers softly, stroking Changmin’s hair. He can’t see the younger man’s face right now but after a few minutes passe without a reply, it’s safe to say that Changmin’s probably asleep.
Changmin may complain a lot about his schedule as a police officer but it’s not as if the younger man has it any better as a surgical resident in one of the Whitechapel’s best hospitals, always on call even if he’s off of his rotation for the night. They barely get much time alone and it’s really a wonder that they’ve managed to stay together for so long but maybe the time apart does them well. Out of a week, Yunho sees his boyfriend maybe for breakfast a few mornings and they always share a bed at night but beyond that, they only get the weekends to be together.
Yunho spends a few minutes lying in bed with Changmin and while he wants to stay, he’s just got too much work to do. There’s a killer running loose in London that calls himself Jack the Ripper, he doesn’t really have time to cuddle in bed no matter how much he wants to.
Sliding out of the younger man, Yunho tucks Changmin back into bed, shushing any whimpers with a few soft kisses, tugging a pillow into Changmin’s arms to take his place for the time being as he grabs his clothes off the floor and goes back out into the kitchen.
By the time Changmin wakes again, Yunho’s left for work already, a note taped to the door telling him not to wait up because he’s probably got another late night at the station. Changmin rips it off the door, walking gingerly over to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of water before he wets a towel to wipe away the dried come all over his stomach and down his thighs.
It’s not like he snaps or anything and while his eyes grow a bit wider and get some glassy, there’s no tell tale sign that he’s gone into a trance of any kind. Changmin just stands there, a leg propped up on a chair as he slowly wipes away the come, walking into the bedroom to change their stiffened bedsheets before calmly walking back to get his scalpel case and black doctor’s bag.
- - -
Killing isn’t nearly as hard as many would like to think it to be. People are just naturally squeamish and the sight of blood or a dead rat may be cause enough for them to faint but Changmin’s been around bodies, dead or alive, for about five years now. To say that he’s used to the corpses and the human organs would be an understatement. He knows them so well that he can locate a liver in less than a minute and can cut off a five-inch section of the intestine in less than eight.
Changmin stands over the body of his fourth victim, knife gleaming as he stabs into her dead but still warm body, dragging the weapon down and across her abdomen jaggedly before reaching in with a gloved hand to find her kidney. He removes it with ease, snipping at the edges with a pair of scissors before he places it into the bucket on the side of the bed.
Everyone seems to think that because he cuts them up, mutilates their body and runs his knife through their stomachs, that he’s a butcher or that he’s inexperienced with a knife but they’ve never even considered that it might be a ploy.
Running the blunt edge of his blade down her cheek, Changmin gazes at her bright red lips and obviously sickly pallor, lifting her skirt up once more to stare at the sac that once contained the fetus of an unborn child. This woman doesn’t deserve the right to carry children. She doesn’t deserve the blessings of being a parent.
Changmin can still remember the frightened look in her eyes and the softness of her voice when she’d first approached him at the hospital, asking quietly how much an abortion would cost and how long the operation would take including recovery time.
He was the one that had handed her the take-home concoction of brewer’s yeast and pennyroyal tea, and he was also the one that had taken the stillborn fetus out of her just a few days after their first meeting.
“You don’t understand,” he whispers now, patting down her skirt, “just how special it is to be a mother and to be able to carry a child. You don’t know how many people yearn for a child of their own. You’re so silly but that’s why you killed your own baby isn’t it? Because you’re so silly?”
Changmin doesn’t get a response. Dead bodies don’t talk back.
“It’s not fair,” he murmurs, sliding his blade straight down her nose, cutting her face in half. “Not fair at all.”
- - -
He deposits the body at the corner of Mitre Square just ten minutes before the nightly patrolman will pass, watching from across the street with his eyes on his watch so that he can make a getaway if needed. It’s not necessary and everything goes as smoothly as he had planned. The whistle is blown and in minutes, the Metro police arrive, sirens wailing and patrol cars blocking all the street entrances to the crime scene.
If Changmin squints, he can see Yunho in the distance, smiling a little to himself as he walks away, head ducked and hat pulled down low over his forehead so that not even his eyes can be seen.
- - -
Yunho returns home to an empty apartment, Changmin already at the hospital for his early shift and he walks himself to the kitchen, eating whatever the younger man’s cooked for him. It’s nothing fancy, just some scrambled eggs and bacon but the fact that Changmin cooked it makes it taste that much better to him.
He’d worked the entire night on the newest victim and still, he’s got nothing to write up in his report but the basics. Every one of the prostitutes have been killed in the same manner, slashed across the throat and gutted in their abdomen often with their entrails all over them and on the floor but that’s just what the Ripper wants them to see, where’s what he’s left being but isn’t telling them about? There’s got to be something.
Admittedly, Yunho’s not the best detective on the squad. He’s not that sharp but he is more intuitive than people normally give him credit for. Changmin’s always told him that he has this way of disarming people’s defenses to gather information and being so naturally charming that everyone would tell him anything he asked. None of that charm is useful though when there aren’t any witnesses to interview or people to speak to.
Yunho trips over something on his way to the bedroom and cuts himself on it, dropping to the floor in pain as he grabs his foot, staring at it and reaching out to touch the thin line of blood that’s dripping from his foot.
“Fuck,” he curses under his breath, definitely not needing a cut on top of all things that’s happened today. Yunho turns to search for the culprit in this situation and finds a blade, Changmin’s no. 9 scalpel to be exact and recalls the morning’s events clearly.
Blade washed and foot bandaged, Yunho goes to bed and forgets about the incident until a week later when he’s reading over his notes again and comes across a highlighted line in his notes:
Re: inconsistencies with usage of blade. Instead of the no.9 scalpel used in murders 1-3, a no. 7 blade was used instead.
His mind suddenly goes back to the no.9 scalpel he’d found on the floor of their kitchen that had coincidentally also been the night the fourth victim was killed and discovered. It can’t be, can it?
- - -
Changmin’s on the bed when Yunho gets home early from work, the younger man lying on his stomach and reading a book. He’s surprised to see Yunho home and gets up, glasses almost sliding off his nose as he goes to greet the older man.
“Changmin-ah,” Yunho asks as he’s changing out of his uniform, fiddling with the shirt buttons, “I wanted to ask you some stuff.”
He’s nervous. Yunho’s thought this over a few times already and he’s made every excuse he possibly could for Changmin in his mind but it still nags at him. Even if he wasn’t a detective currently investigating one of the hottest cases in town, he’d still have reason to be suspicious with what he knows.
“Yeah?” Changmin replies, putting away his book on the nightstand and looking up at Yunho curiously.
“W- well it’s nothing really,” Yunho says with a smile, petting Changmin on the head, “it’s just because you’re a doctor and you’ve always been smarter than me with stuff like this so I wanted to ask.”
Changmin makes a soft noise and nods again, taking his glasses off as well while he waits for Yunho’s question.
“You see, the um- it seems like Jack, well you know we discovered a new dead body right? It seems like it might not be Jack. It might be a copycat.” Yunho watches Changmin carefully for a reaction that he doesn’t get, continuing on with what he wants to say, “Yeah, the medical examiner says that this body was cut up with a different number scalpel. Anyway though, what I wanted to ask was, let’s say you’re a doctor cutting someone up in the surgery room, what blade would you use if you didn’t have the no.9?”
Changmin doesn’t think anything of Yunho’s questions, scrunching up his face as he thinks it over, “Probably no.7, it’s just as sharp and about the same length too.”
“Ah.”
Changmin looks at Yunho, head tilted to the side at Yunho’s odd answer, “Ah?””
“I’m just relieved you’re not giving me another lecture about which blade is more technologically sound and all that,” Yunho jokes.
“Hey! You said you liked it when I talked medicine to you, you liar!”
Yunho laughs and Changmin misses the forced tone in it, both of them tumbling into bed a moment later to do other things besides talk.
- - -
Not that Yunho doesn’t trust Changmin because after ten years of being together and twelve of knowing each other, there’s really no one else that he’d trust his life with besides Shim Changmin. It’s just that he’s got a gut feeling about this one, the kind that starts out as a slight discomfort that might be attributed to a bad sandwich but really isn’t, the kind of feeling that never goes away even after a week.
He’s had these gut feelings before, it’s what brought him to the bar where he first met Changmin anyway and it was this same feeling that had given him the courage to ask the younger man out and now it’s the same feeling that’s telling him to follow Changmin out of the hospital late Friday night.
Yunho doesn’t know what he expects but he knows what he’s hoping won’t happen. He’s hoping he doesn’t see Changmin walk into that pub in the dredges of Whitechapel and he’s certainly hoping not to see his boyfriend walk back out only moments later with a pretty blond prostitute on his arm. She’s tipsy enough so that she’s stumbling every few steps but not so drunk that she can’t recognize the man she’s with when he suddenly throws her against the wall and pulls out the knife.
“Doctor Shim-” is as far as she gets before Changmin slits her throat, an immediate spray of faint red fluid coating his jacket.
Yunho turns his head as Changmin drags her through an opened door and wonders why he didn’t stop this from happening.
- - -
Ten days later when Scotland Yard officially takes over the case from the local police, Changmin finds Yunho’s resignation letter in the underwear drawer, wondering why the older man would hide it here of all places if he didn’t want it to be seen. Changmin’s the one that does the chores, laundry included so this wouldn’t be a good hiding spot at all.
He’s even more puzzled to be holding a resignation letter, knowing that Yunho would never give up his post unless it was something serious. As in ethically serious.
Yunho’s always been a righteous sort of guy, loyal to his friends and family, the kind of person that Changmin would compare to a dog if only to really convey just how steadfast the older man is to others. Yunho’s completely dedicated to his job and he’s got a great sense of right or wrong, never the kind to think that things are always black and white or fit into a perfect square box but he has his own beliefs and he stands by them. So for Yunho to actually type a letter out with obvious plans to resign, something must have gone wrong.
Changmin doesn’t bring it up for two days, keeping the letter in his own drawer until he walks in one afternoon to find Yunho searching through his underwear drawer for something, probably the letter.
“Why are you resigning?” Changmin asks, leaning against the door to watch Yunho search.
“No reason in particular,” Yunho says, shoulders stiffening once he realizes Changmin’s standing there.
He’s thought it over, he really has and even though he knows that he should leave Changmin and that he should hand the older man over to the authorities, the thought of his Changmin sitting in jail or being prosecuted just doesn’t sit well with him. He can’t do it. As many times as he’s tried to tell Jaejoong, he couldn’t, always clamming up before he gets to the actual part of telling. He can’t hand Changmin over and even if he knows it’s wrong, he loves Changmin too much to do anything remotely harmful to him.
“I just don’t think I’m interested in being a police officer anymore, no big deal.”
Changmin narrows his eyes, catching the lie easily and walks forward, grabbing Yunho by the wrist, “Don’t lie to me, this is your dream job, Yunho. You used to tell me all the time how one day you were going to catch all the bad guys and save the world!”
Yunho yanks his wrist away, avoiding Changmin’s eyes as he keeps to himself, trying to shut the younger man’s voice out of his head. He hasn’t been able to sleep lately, not when every time he closes his eyes, all he sees is that girl’s face when they found her later that night, dismembered and broken in a way that’s too sick for him to imagine Changmin being able to do.
“Shut up!” He yells back, “j- just shut up, Changmin. I don’t want to do this. I don’t.”
Changmin stills, eyes narrowing a little before he sighs heavily, “What don’t you want to do? Yunho, what’s wrong?”
The older man closes his eyes, rubbing at his temples and then pinching the bridge of his nose, trying to hold back his temper when Changmin touches his arm, the gentle touch undoing him more than words every could.
“You’re wrong. You’re all wrong,” he whispers, “I don’t know what happened, I don’t know what I did but it’s all wrong now. Why-”
Changmin suddenly understands, nodding a little to cut Yunho’s rambling speech off, “Is this why you’re resigning?”
“How could you do that?”
“Does it matter? I’ve done it already.”
“Yes! Yes, it matters, Changmin-ah! It matters to me, I need to know that you- you’re not crazy and that I’m not just letting a mass murderer loose by not arresting you. It matters.”
Changmin stays silent for a while and all they do is breathe, Yunho’s heavy pants filling the room as Changmin stands rooted to the spot, wishing suddenly that the older man could understand him too. He doesn’t want forgiveness and he doesn’t need it, he just needs Yunho to not leave.
“They didn’t deserve to have them.”
“Have what?” Yunho asks in return, tone clipped and words short.
“Have children! They don’t deserve them! They’re prostitutes, they fuck for a living and- and instead of making sure they’re protected, they go at it like dogs in heat and for what? So that when they get fucking knocked up, they can come to me asking for a cup of tea that’ll help them kill the baby? Because that’s what it does! They’re drinking it like it’s nothing, having it with their lunch and it’s okay?!”
Changmin’s hysterical now, his face burning as he waves his hands in the air, voice wavering as his eyes start to fill with tears.
“You’re father material, Yunho. You’re perfect in every way. Kids love you and every neighbor we have wants you to babysit their children. The one thing that you were literally born to be was a father,” Changmin whispers, “and that’s the one thing I can’t give you. Ten years together and I cannot give you a child.”
Yunho stares at Changmin in shock, wondering how it was that he missed all of this in the first place, reaching out after a while to hold the younger man’s wrist, wishing that he had caught this before it became so out of control. He’s suddenly filled with guilt, knowing that there were many times he’d cooed over a baby despite knowing how bad Changmin felt about not being able to give him one of his own. He never realized it would build up and spawn into something like this, realizing that he’s partially responsible for all of this, that the only reason Changmin killed was because of his love for him.
Now that he knows, he’s not sure what to do with the truth. So he does nothing instead.
- - -
Yunho may not see the world in black and white but even he knows that what Changmin did was wrong. It’s his job as a police officer to arrest the perpetrator and then the rest is up to the law. By killing those four women, Changmin had created his own code of justice and that’s not something Yunho approves of or can defend.
In the end though, there’s really only one thing that Yunho can do and it’s not just to protect Changmin but to preserve what they have together because despite all that’s happened, his love for the younger man hasn’t lessened.
He’s thought about this and he’s made so many lists, debated with himself over and over again because if Changmin murdering those prostitutes was wrong, then what he wants to do and knows he has to do, would be even worse. But he’s really left with no choice. It’s basic human instinct, fight or flight and with Jaejoong on their backs like this, Yunho is forced to make a decision. Fight.
So he corners Jaejoong one night after work, eyes wide with fright as he tells his boss and close friend that Changmin threatened him with a knife last week in bed, voice trembling as he cries in Jaejoong’s arms. Jaejoong buys it, immediately offering to go home with him to pack up so that he can take him away, asking only a few seconds later if Changmin really is Jack like he’s suspected all along.
Yunho tells him everything down to the last detail about the scalpels, walking along the cobbled streets with Jaejoong by his side, eyes downcast so that he doesn’t have to look his boss in the eyes. That’d be too much.
Just a block away from his apartment, Yunho knocks Jaejoong out with the blunt end of a kitchen knife, dragging the much bigger man into an alley, ready to kill him when someone else makes the cut for him. With a no.9 scalpel, Changmin slashes Jaejoong’s neck, lacing his hand with Yunho’s as they watch the only other man who knows of Jack’s real identity die.
Hand in hand they walk home, Changmin hunched over just enough so that he can lean against Yunho’s warm body, fingers laced tightly between them.
“I love you,” Changmin whispers into Yunho’s ear as they wait for the light to change.
“I love you too,” Yunho says back with no hesitation, squeezing Changmin’s hand as he takes the first step off the sidewalk, leading them home.
- - -
Yunho goes back to the station the day after Jaejoong’s body is discovered and plays the part of a grieving friend and colleague convincingly enough to earn himself a promotion from detective to lead investigator, officially taking over Jaejoong’s spot in the team.
The first thing he does is burn every file Jaejoong has on his boyfriend, shredding everything in the office that pertains to Jack the Ripper. As far as he’s concerned, Jack is no longer his business to oversee but Scotland Yard’s.
And that night, after he watches Changmin kill the fifth and final victim Jack will ever be credited for, Yunho goes over every step the younger man made, carefully making sure that there will be no loose ends this time.
“Patrol man,” he calls out to the guard two blocks away on duty, “call Scotland Yard, there’s been another body.”
Rating: NC-17
Word count: 5,807
Summary: Based off of everyone’s favorite serial killer, the elusive Jack the Ripper and inspired partly by two episodes of Kuroshitsuji. Also, be warned that there’s some graphic descriptions of the killings so if you’re squeamish...grab a bucket.
Yunho comes home on Wednesday night to find his boss sitting in the middle of his living room. Jaejoong’s got his arms crossed with a frown on his face and Changmin’s gripping onto his mug of what is probably tea, tapping against the handle in a tell-tale sign of his nervousness. That itself gives Yunho enough of a reason to worry, hesitantly smiling at the both of them as he pauses in the hallway to try and gauge the situation.
“Hey, what’s going on? Having a party without me?”
“Nah, just talking about some things.” Jaejoong shrugs faintly and shoves his hands into his pockets, looking briefly at Changmin before he gives Yunho a smile, “We’re done now.” Jaejoong claps him on the shoulder but it’s obviously forced, a little too hard to be friendly and Yunho really starts to worry now, moving to stand behind Changmin’s chair as Jaejoong bids them good night.
It’s not until the door closes and the lock clicks that Yunho turns to look at Changmin, staring the younger man in the eye, “You told him?” It’s not as if he’s accusing Changmin of anything and it’s not even a question really. He’s been expecting this to happen for a while now, someone had to have figured it out sooner or later.
“He knows it’s me,” Changmin says slowly, confirming Yunho’s worries, “he told me as much. He just doesn’t have any proof right now.”
Yunho panics for a brief minute before the tension drains out of him and despite of the fact that he should be more anxious, he chooses to curl up in Changmin’s chair with him, an arm wrapping tightly around the younger man’s waist as they lean against each other. “Because you were careful, right?”
Changmin nods and tilts his head to the side, hiding his face into the curve of Yunho’s neck, “Always careful,” he whispers back.
But maybe not careful enough.
- - -
It starts like any other murder case, with a dead body and a small puddle of blood on the side. This particular corpse belongs to a female prostitute, probably in her 30s with red hair and a pair of what used to be vivid green eyes. Now they’re dull and glassy in a way only the dead’s eyes can be but Yunho can see that she probably used to be fairly pretty looking, something that’s common these days with the street whores.
“I want this entire area combed for witnesses, someone had to have seen or at least heard something,” Jaejoong says from the side, eyebrows furrowed and jaw clenched in a way that tells of how tired and annoyed he was.
It’s four in the morning and by the look that had been on Jaejoong’s face when Yunho went to pick him up, the older man was obviously otherwise occupied with things far more entertaining to him than the bloodied and mutilated body of a whore.
Yunho nods when Jaejoong gestures for him to escort the coroner over, looking away out of equal amounts of politeness and horror when the medical examiner lifts the prostitute’s skirt up to peer at the damage. There’s a pile of what seems to be human entrails on the stone sidewalk and after carefully examining them in the dimly lit alley, the coroner murmurs under his breath and places it inside of a bag, labeling the contents with a thick black marker.
Uterus.
Yunho cringes as he’s handed the bag, holding onto it unwilling with a thumb and index finger, wishing that he was less awake and sober for this than he is right now, closing his eyes and thanking God that he’s not puking on the side like another colleague.
A few days later when another body is discovered, her intestines draped over her chest and arms as if for decoration, Yunho’s the one bent over the sewer opening throwing back up his lunch and breakfast.
- - -
“Why do they call him Jack?” Changmin asks over breakfast, biting into his blueberry muffin, cheeks full of food.
Yunho shrugs a little as he slumps over the kitchen table, the entire surface of it covered with notes and papers from the various murder cases, graphic photos of the deaths and detailed notes about the autopsy laid out for him to read over. “He calls himself Jack,” Yunho mumbles, “it’s not like we gave him that name.”
“I wonder if his real name is Jack then, it’s such a plain name. Although Jack the Ripper certainly sounds better than Simon or even worse, Chuck. Can you imagine that, Chuck the Ripper? Can’t be too scary of a fellow if your name is Chuck.”
Yunho barely grunts in reply and Changmin has to prod at his boyfriend of nearly ten years to get him to lift his head up and show signs of life. He sighs and pulls the file right out of Yunho’s hand to give him a plate of food instead, glaring pointedly when Yunho opens his mouth to argue.
“Eat.” There’s a no nonsense tone to Changmin’s voice that Yunho’s heard before and even though it’s not at all fitting to pout right now, he does so anyway, lower lip protruding as he looks at Changmin like a puppy that’s been kicked.
“I can’t rest! Scotland Yard has been getting all up in our faces and Jaejoong’s been working hard to-,”
“You mean he’s been working you hard but continue,” Changmin says, correcting Yunho as he pours the older man a glass of juice.
Jaejoong’s a nice boss and everything but his skills as a detective are just about level with a child’s and the only reason he’s the lead investigator is because he’s related to a higher up. Jaejoong’s the type of guy that’d rather spend his nights drinking a round at the local bar than sitting at home reading files like Yunho is right now. He cares but only to an extent. A rather short extent.
“Anyway,” Yunho says, shooting Changmin a miserable look, “we’re meeting later and he wants us to give him something presentable.”
Changmin makes a face and crosses his legs underneath him, reading the file marked “Annie Chapman” that he had just stolen from Yunho’s hands. He’s been with the older man long enough to know how cases like this work and normally speaking, prostitutes aren’t highest on the list of priorities for the police but with the cases making national headlines and with everyone’s attention drawn to this serial murderer, there’s been massive amounts of pressure on the task force as a whole. Everyone’s eyes are on London and more specially, Whitechapel right now. People are out for blood and instead of hearing that the police are working on the case, they want to see evidence and they want there to be suspects.
“Do you guys have any leads?”
Yunho shakes his head and mopes even more after that question. “No! We have no leads, no witnesses and the only evidence we have are the bodies that the killer has left behind. Basically, the one thing we’ve settled on is that this Jack guy has to be a doctor of some kind.”
“Always a slash across the neck, right?” Changmin asks, standing up to go to his black bag on the side, digging into it for his case of surgical blades, “the coroner said that it’s most likely a no. 9 blade?” Changmin opens his box to find the right one, holding it in his hand as he stands behind Yunho before suddenly reaching out to wrap his arm around Yunho’s neck, tightening his grip to suffocate him.
Yunho willingly stays pliant in his arms, a smile on his face even as Changmin makes a pretend slash across Yunho’s throat, the blade near enough that it almost breaks his skin. He feels the coldness of the steel blade pressed against his pulse, acting the part of a corpse by staying still, arms hanging limply by his side.
“You guys seriously need to find where he’s doing all this,” Changmin says, pulling away thoughtfully, “because it’s not like he’s doing this out in public. There’d be too much blood and you said that there’s never more than a pint or so, right? It can’t be, especially if he cuts the femoral artery, that’s a gusher.”
Yunho turns around and smiles at Changmin, tugging the older man in by the hand, pressing his chest against the younger man’s with a grin, “I like it when you talk medicine to me.”
Changmin rolls his eyes and laughs, dropping the blade onto the kitchen table, “And I like it when you’re home for dinner,” he says softly, leaning in to kiss Yunho on the lips, tongue sliding across the lower lip before he delves into the warmth of Yunho’s mouth. “I miss you.”
Just in case Yunho’s not sure what Changmin means when he says that, he slides a leg between Yunho’s and grinds gently against Yunho’s crotch, biting gently on the older man’s neck as he whispers the words again. With all the work Yunho’s been doing, they barely have time to eat and sleep together, much less have sex.
They stumble into the bedroom together, Changmin losing his clothes on the way there and Yunho naked by the time they’re kissing on top of the bed. The older man reaches down to curl a hand around his cock, stroking until Changmin’s completely erect before he drops his hand down to cup Changmin’s balls.
“Think you’re okay for this?” He asks the younger man, the words barely out of his mouth before he suddenly finds himself on his back, Changmin straddling his hips with a smirk on his face.
“You’re getting old,” Changmin sings, “either that or you’re getting rusty, officer.” He bats his lashes and laughs, bending to bite into Yunho’s shoulder, licking across the older man’s collarbone and up Yunho’s neck, sucking on the older man’s pulse while he grinds down on Yunho’s cock.
Whether on purpose or not, Changmin nibbles across Yunho’s neck, hands laced with the older man’s on top of the bed as his tongue glides across the older man’s throat where the slash marks had been on the victims’ necks. He does it again and again until Yunho’s arching up, moans growing fainter and breathier, the older man’s face flushed in a way that Changmin’s always turned on by.
“So pretty,” he murmurs, admiring his boyfriend’s sharp jaw and handsome face for a moment later before he finally lets go to find the bottle of lubricant that they keep on the nightstand, reaching behind to slick Yunho’s cock over.
It takes a little shifting after that, Yunho leaning against the headboard with a pillow to cushion his back before he takes some of the oil to prep Changmin, fingers effortlessly sliding into Changmin’s tight passage two at a time as he patiently scissors his boyfriend open.
“Good?” he asks, voice low and appropriately husky, nudging at Changmin’s cheek with his nose, waiting for the go ahead nod before he pulls his fingers out and goes to grip at Changmin’s hips instead.
To say that it goes like clockwork sounds mundane and routine but it’s anything but boring. After ten years together, of course the sex is predictable and a bit habitual but that doesn’t mean it’s any less explosive than it had been the very first time Yunho had taken Changmin in this same bed.
Whimpering quietly, Changmin arches a little as Yunho guides the tip of his cock to his hole, pressing the thickness of his head against the already clenching muscle, gasping weakly when the older man kisses his forehead just once before pushing into him. Yunho never pauses in what he’s doing, fighting against the tightness that’s always there to slide in, exhaling only when he’s finally settled, cock nestled deep in Changmin’s passage.
It’s cliche to say it but Yunho does anyway, moaning about how tight it is as he digs his nails into Changmin’s hips, waiting for the younger man to settle down so that the clenching around his cock won’t be so unbearable. It doesn’t take long before Changmin’s bouncing in his lap, cock thwacking gently against his stomach with each hard bounce.
Yunho loves to watch the way Changmin will start to blush from exertion, cheeks a soft shade of pink that travels through the rest of his body as he rides him, swallowing his cock in its entirety every time he sits down on his lap.
“So good, Changmin-ah, you’re so tight,” he whispers reverently, not at all afraid to let his boyfriend know that he pretty much thinks of him as a sex god, waiting just another couple of minutes before he can’t anymore, curling Changmin into his body as he thrusts up, planting his feet on the bed for more leverage.
Sex with Changmin riding him is amazing to watch and to have such soft and warm skin brushing against his with every arch of Changmin’s body is definitely pleasurable but he needs more, tugging hard on the younger man’s hair to arch his head back as he sucks on his birthmark, growling softly before scraping his teeth against the reddening spot.
Yunho starts to jerk his hips, pounding his cock into Changmin’s hole with ease and experience that can only come from having been together for so long, a hand trailing down to reach between Changmin’s butt cheeks to brush against the overly sensitive muscle, grinning when he immediately feels Changmin shaking and trembling in his arms.
It only takes a quiet plea from his younger lover before Yunho lets up with the teasing, hand kneading at Changmin’s ass instead now as he thrusts in and out, fucking him so hard that despite the whimpers and soft cries Changmin’s letting out, all that can really be heard is the sharp slapping of Yunho’s balls against Changmin’s ass and the wet sounds from the lube and precome.
Changmin comes with a low moan of Yunho’s name, tensing as he digs his nails into Yunho’s biceps as he orgasms, back arched like a rainbow, cock twitching as he releases come all over Yunho’s chest and his own body.
“Mm,” he moans, slumping sideways a bit as Yunho laughs at him, tucking him into his neck as he comes with little fanfare, holding Changmin’s hips still as he releases inside of the younger man like he always does, limbs quivering and somewhat heavy from the exercise he’s just had. Maybe he is getting old.
“Baby?” Yunho whispers softly, stroking Changmin’s hair. He can’t see the younger man’s face right now but after a few minutes passe without a reply, it’s safe to say that Changmin’s probably asleep.
Changmin may complain a lot about his schedule as a police officer but it’s not as if the younger man has it any better as a surgical resident in one of the Whitechapel’s best hospitals, always on call even if he’s off of his rotation for the night. They barely get much time alone and it’s really a wonder that they’ve managed to stay together for so long but maybe the time apart does them well. Out of a week, Yunho sees his boyfriend maybe for breakfast a few mornings and they always share a bed at night but beyond that, they only get the weekends to be together.
Yunho spends a few minutes lying in bed with Changmin and while he wants to stay, he’s just got too much work to do. There’s a killer running loose in London that calls himself Jack the Ripper, he doesn’t really have time to cuddle in bed no matter how much he wants to.
Sliding out of the younger man, Yunho tucks Changmin back into bed, shushing any whimpers with a few soft kisses, tugging a pillow into Changmin’s arms to take his place for the time being as he grabs his clothes off the floor and goes back out into the kitchen.
By the time Changmin wakes again, Yunho’s left for work already, a note taped to the door telling him not to wait up because he’s probably got another late night at the station. Changmin rips it off the door, walking gingerly over to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of water before he wets a towel to wipe away the dried come all over his stomach and down his thighs.
It’s not like he snaps or anything and while his eyes grow a bit wider and get some glassy, there’s no tell tale sign that he’s gone into a trance of any kind. Changmin just stands there, a leg propped up on a chair as he slowly wipes away the come, walking into the bedroom to change their stiffened bedsheets before calmly walking back to get his scalpel case and black doctor’s bag.
- - -
Killing isn’t nearly as hard as many would like to think it to be. People are just naturally squeamish and the sight of blood or a dead rat may be cause enough for them to faint but Changmin’s been around bodies, dead or alive, for about five years now. To say that he’s used to the corpses and the human organs would be an understatement. He knows them so well that he can locate a liver in less than a minute and can cut off a five-inch section of the intestine in less than eight.
Changmin stands over the body of his fourth victim, knife gleaming as he stabs into her dead but still warm body, dragging the weapon down and across her abdomen jaggedly before reaching in with a gloved hand to find her kidney. He removes it with ease, snipping at the edges with a pair of scissors before he places it into the bucket on the side of the bed.
Everyone seems to think that because he cuts them up, mutilates their body and runs his knife through their stomachs, that he’s a butcher or that he’s inexperienced with a knife but they’ve never even considered that it might be a ploy.
Running the blunt edge of his blade down her cheek, Changmin gazes at her bright red lips and obviously sickly pallor, lifting her skirt up once more to stare at the sac that once contained the fetus of an unborn child. This woman doesn’t deserve the right to carry children. She doesn’t deserve the blessings of being a parent.
Changmin can still remember the frightened look in her eyes and the softness of her voice when she’d first approached him at the hospital, asking quietly how much an abortion would cost and how long the operation would take including recovery time.
He was the one that had handed her the take-home concoction of brewer’s yeast and pennyroyal tea, and he was also the one that had taken the stillborn fetus out of her just a few days after their first meeting.
“You don’t understand,” he whispers now, patting down her skirt, “just how special it is to be a mother and to be able to carry a child. You don’t know how many people yearn for a child of their own. You’re so silly but that’s why you killed your own baby isn’t it? Because you’re so silly?”
Changmin doesn’t get a response. Dead bodies don’t talk back.
“It’s not fair,” he murmurs, sliding his blade straight down her nose, cutting her face in half. “Not fair at all.”
- - -
He deposits the body at the corner of Mitre Square just ten minutes before the nightly patrolman will pass, watching from across the street with his eyes on his watch so that he can make a getaway if needed. It’s not necessary and everything goes as smoothly as he had planned. The whistle is blown and in minutes, the Metro police arrive, sirens wailing and patrol cars blocking all the street entrances to the crime scene.
If Changmin squints, he can see Yunho in the distance, smiling a little to himself as he walks away, head ducked and hat pulled down low over his forehead so that not even his eyes can be seen.
- - -
Yunho returns home to an empty apartment, Changmin already at the hospital for his early shift and he walks himself to the kitchen, eating whatever the younger man’s cooked for him. It’s nothing fancy, just some scrambled eggs and bacon but the fact that Changmin cooked it makes it taste that much better to him.
He’d worked the entire night on the newest victim and still, he’s got nothing to write up in his report but the basics. Every one of the prostitutes have been killed in the same manner, slashed across the throat and gutted in their abdomen often with their entrails all over them and on the floor but that’s just what the Ripper wants them to see, where’s what he’s left being but isn’t telling them about? There’s got to be something.
Admittedly, Yunho’s not the best detective on the squad. He’s not that sharp but he is more intuitive than people normally give him credit for. Changmin’s always told him that he has this way of disarming people’s defenses to gather information and being so naturally charming that everyone would tell him anything he asked. None of that charm is useful though when there aren’t any witnesses to interview or people to speak to.
Yunho trips over something on his way to the bedroom and cuts himself on it, dropping to the floor in pain as he grabs his foot, staring at it and reaching out to touch the thin line of blood that’s dripping from his foot.
“Fuck,” he curses under his breath, definitely not needing a cut on top of all things that’s happened today. Yunho turns to search for the culprit in this situation and finds a blade, Changmin’s no. 9 scalpel to be exact and recalls the morning’s events clearly.
Blade washed and foot bandaged, Yunho goes to bed and forgets about the incident until a week later when he’s reading over his notes again and comes across a highlighted line in his notes:
Re: inconsistencies with usage of blade. Instead of the no.9 scalpel used in murders 1-3, a no. 7 blade was used instead.
His mind suddenly goes back to the no.9 scalpel he’d found on the floor of their kitchen that had coincidentally also been the night the fourth victim was killed and discovered. It can’t be, can it?
- - -
Changmin’s on the bed when Yunho gets home early from work, the younger man lying on his stomach and reading a book. He’s surprised to see Yunho home and gets up, glasses almost sliding off his nose as he goes to greet the older man.
“Changmin-ah,” Yunho asks as he’s changing out of his uniform, fiddling with the shirt buttons, “I wanted to ask you some stuff.”
He’s nervous. Yunho’s thought this over a few times already and he’s made every excuse he possibly could for Changmin in his mind but it still nags at him. Even if he wasn’t a detective currently investigating one of the hottest cases in town, he’d still have reason to be suspicious with what he knows.
“Yeah?” Changmin replies, putting away his book on the nightstand and looking up at Yunho curiously.
“W- well it’s nothing really,” Yunho says with a smile, petting Changmin on the head, “it’s just because you’re a doctor and you’ve always been smarter than me with stuff like this so I wanted to ask.”
Changmin makes a soft noise and nods again, taking his glasses off as well while he waits for Yunho’s question.
“You see, the um- it seems like Jack, well you know we discovered a new dead body right? It seems like it might not be Jack. It might be a copycat.” Yunho watches Changmin carefully for a reaction that he doesn’t get, continuing on with what he wants to say, “Yeah, the medical examiner says that this body was cut up with a different number scalpel. Anyway though, what I wanted to ask was, let’s say you’re a doctor cutting someone up in the surgery room, what blade would you use if you didn’t have the no.9?”
Changmin doesn’t think anything of Yunho’s questions, scrunching up his face as he thinks it over, “Probably no.7, it’s just as sharp and about the same length too.”
“Ah.”
Changmin looks at Yunho, head tilted to the side at Yunho’s odd answer, “Ah?””
“I’m just relieved you’re not giving me another lecture about which blade is more technologically sound and all that,” Yunho jokes.
“Hey! You said you liked it when I talked medicine to you, you liar!”
Yunho laughs and Changmin misses the forced tone in it, both of them tumbling into bed a moment later to do other things besides talk.
- - -
Not that Yunho doesn’t trust Changmin because after ten years of being together and twelve of knowing each other, there’s really no one else that he’d trust his life with besides Shim Changmin. It’s just that he’s got a gut feeling about this one, the kind that starts out as a slight discomfort that might be attributed to a bad sandwich but really isn’t, the kind of feeling that never goes away even after a week.
He’s had these gut feelings before, it’s what brought him to the bar where he first met Changmin anyway and it was this same feeling that had given him the courage to ask the younger man out and now it’s the same feeling that’s telling him to follow Changmin out of the hospital late Friday night.
Yunho doesn’t know what he expects but he knows what he’s hoping won’t happen. He’s hoping he doesn’t see Changmin walk into that pub in the dredges of Whitechapel and he’s certainly hoping not to see his boyfriend walk back out only moments later with a pretty blond prostitute on his arm. She’s tipsy enough so that she’s stumbling every few steps but not so drunk that she can’t recognize the man she’s with when he suddenly throws her against the wall and pulls out the knife.
“Doctor Shim-” is as far as she gets before Changmin slits her throat, an immediate spray of faint red fluid coating his jacket.
Yunho turns his head as Changmin drags her through an opened door and wonders why he didn’t stop this from happening.
- - -
Ten days later when Scotland Yard officially takes over the case from the local police, Changmin finds Yunho’s resignation letter in the underwear drawer, wondering why the older man would hide it here of all places if he didn’t want it to be seen. Changmin’s the one that does the chores, laundry included so this wouldn’t be a good hiding spot at all.
He’s even more puzzled to be holding a resignation letter, knowing that Yunho would never give up his post unless it was something serious. As in ethically serious.
Yunho’s always been a righteous sort of guy, loyal to his friends and family, the kind of person that Changmin would compare to a dog if only to really convey just how steadfast the older man is to others. Yunho’s completely dedicated to his job and he’s got a great sense of right or wrong, never the kind to think that things are always black and white or fit into a perfect square box but he has his own beliefs and he stands by them. So for Yunho to actually type a letter out with obvious plans to resign, something must have gone wrong.
Changmin doesn’t bring it up for two days, keeping the letter in his own drawer until he walks in one afternoon to find Yunho searching through his underwear drawer for something, probably the letter.
“Why are you resigning?” Changmin asks, leaning against the door to watch Yunho search.
“No reason in particular,” Yunho says, shoulders stiffening once he realizes Changmin’s standing there.
He’s thought it over, he really has and even though he knows that he should leave Changmin and that he should hand the older man over to the authorities, the thought of his Changmin sitting in jail or being prosecuted just doesn’t sit well with him. He can’t do it. As many times as he’s tried to tell Jaejoong, he couldn’t, always clamming up before he gets to the actual part of telling. He can’t hand Changmin over and even if he knows it’s wrong, he loves Changmin too much to do anything remotely harmful to him.
“I just don’t think I’m interested in being a police officer anymore, no big deal.”
Changmin narrows his eyes, catching the lie easily and walks forward, grabbing Yunho by the wrist, “Don’t lie to me, this is your dream job, Yunho. You used to tell me all the time how one day you were going to catch all the bad guys and save the world!”
Yunho yanks his wrist away, avoiding Changmin’s eyes as he keeps to himself, trying to shut the younger man’s voice out of his head. He hasn’t been able to sleep lately, not when every time he closes his eyes, all he sees is that girl’s face when they found her later that night, dismembered and broken in a way that’s too sick for him to imagine Changmin being able to do.
“Shut up!” He yells back, “j- just shut up, Changmin. I don’t want to do this. I don’t.”
Changmin stills, eyes narrowing a little before he sighs heavily, “What don’t you want to do? Yunho, what’s wrong?”
The older man closes his eyes, rubbing at his temples and then pinching the bridge of his nose, trying to hold back his temper when Changmin touches his arm, the gentle touch undoing him more than words every could.
“You’re wrong. You’re all wrong,” he whispers, “I don’t know what happened, I don’t know what I did but it’s all wrong now. Why-”
Changmin suddenly understands, nodding a little to cut Yunho’s rambling speech off, “Is this why you’re resigning?”
“How could you do that?”
“Does it matter? I’ve done it already.”
“Yes! Yes, it matters, Changmin-ah! It matters to me, I need to know that you- you’re not crazy and that I’m not just letting a mass murderer loose by not arresting you. It matters.”
Changmin stays silent for a while and all they do is breathe, Yunho’s heavy pants filling the room as Changmin stands rooted to the spot, wishing suddenly that the older man could understand him too. He doesn’t want forgiveness and he doesn’t need it, he just needs Yunho to not leave.
“They didn’t deserve to have them.”
“Have what?” Yunho asks in return, tone clipped and words short.
“Have children! They don’t deserve them! They’re prostitutes, they fuck for a living and- and instead of making sure they’re protected, they go at it like dogs in heat and for what? So that when they get fucking knocked up, they can come to me asking for a cup of tea that’ll help them kill the baby? Because that’s what it does! They’re drinking it like it’s nothing, having it with their lunch and it’s okay?!”
Changmin’s hysterical now, his face burning as he waves his hands in the air, voice wavering as his eyes start to fill with tears.
“You’re father material, Yunho. You’re perfect in every way. Kids love you and every neighbor we have wants you to babysit their children. The one thing that you were literally born to be was a father,” Changmin whispers, “and that’s the one thing I can’t give you. Ten years together and I cannot give you a child.”
Yunho stares at Changmin in shock, wondering how it was that he missed all of this in the first place, reaching out after a while to hold the younger man’s wrist, wishing that he had caught this before it became so out of control. He’s suddenly filled with guilt, knowing that there were many times he’d cooed over a baby despite knowing how bad Changmin felt about not being able to give him one of his own. He never realized it would build up and spawn into something like this, realizing that he’s partially responsible for all of this, that the only reason Changmin killed was because of his love for him.
Now that he knows, he’s not sure what to do with the truth. So he does nothing instead.
- - -
Yunho may not see the world in black and white but even he knows that what Changmin did was wrong. It’s his job as a police officer to arrest the perpetrator and then the rest is up to the law. By killing those four women, Changmin had created his own code of justice and that’s not something Yunho approves of or can defend.
In the end though, there’s really only one thing that Yunho can do and it’s not just to protect Changmin but to preserve what they have together because despite all that’s happened, his love for the younger man hasn’t lessened.
He’s thought about this and he’s made so many lists, debated with himself over and over again because if Changmin murdering those prostitutes was wrong, then what he wants to do and knows he has to do, would be even worse. But he’s really left with no choice. It’s basic human instinct, fight or flight and with Jaejoong on their backs like this, Yunho is forced to make a decision. Fight.
So he corners Jaejoong one night after work, eyes wide with fright as he tells his boss and close friend that Changmin threatened him with a knife last week in bed, voice trembling as he cries in Jaejoong’s arms. Jaejoong buys it, immediately offering to go home with him to pack up so that he can take him away, asking only a few seconds later if Changmin really is Jack like he’s suspected all along.
Yunho tells him everything down to the last detail about the scalpels, walking along the cobbled streets with Jaejoong by his side, eyes downcast so that he doesn’t have to look his boss in the eyes. That’d be too much.
Just a block away from his apartment, Yunho knocks Jaejoong out with the blunt end of a kitchen knife, dragging the much bigger man into an alley, ready to kill him when someone else makes the cut for him. With a no.9 scalpel, Changmin slashes Jaejoong’s neck, lacing his hand with Yunho’s as they watch the only other man who knows of Jack’s real identity die.
Hand in hand they walk home, Changmin hunched over just enough so that he can lean against Yunho’s warm body, fingers laced tightly between them.
“I love you,” Changmin whispers into Yunho’s ear as they wait for the light to change.
“I love you too,” Yunho says back with no hesitation, squeezing Changmin’s hand as he takes the first step off the sidewalk, leading them home.
- - -
Yunho goes back to the station the day after Jaejoong’s body is discovered and plays the part of a grieving friend and colleague convincingly enough to earn himself a promotion from detective to lead investigator, officially taking over Jaejoong’s spot in the team.
The first thing he does is burn every file Jaejoong has on his boyfriend, shredding everything in the office that pertains to Jack the Ripper. As far as he’s concerned, Jack is no longer his business to oversee but Scotland Yard’s.
And that night, after he watches Changmin kill the fifth and final victim Jack will ever be credited for, Yunho goes over every step the younger man made, carefully making sure that there will be no loose ends this time.
“Patrol man,” he calls out to the guard two blocks away on duty, “call Scotland Yard, there’s been another body.”