Black and White
Title: Black and White
Pairing: Ken/Leo (with a smidgen of N/Ken)
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 4851 words
Warnings: Suggestive violent themes
Summary: There’s been a series of animal attacks off the coast and Ken is assigned as Leo’s partner on the case.
A/N: this was originally written for a vixx valentine fic exchange for hakkais_shadow but i decided to post it here too as my first real fic ever. it was supposed to be a serious action/thriller, but i accidentally spilled fluff all over it sry not sry
“I’m Lee Jaehwan,” he extended his hand.
Only a few seconds passed and Leo already formed three conclusions in his head.
One: the man’s carefully chosen attire and strained over-excitement branded him as a typical try-hard striving to be the agency’s underdog of the year. Leo pressed down the sneer that was attacking his lips and with a curt smile, shook the other’s hand.
“Leo is what I’m called here. You must be the scouted recruit.”
“Yes, that’s right. I’m pleased to meet you.”
Two: he was a newly arrived foreigner who had spent no more than a year in Korea by the way he spoke in a fast but rehearsed tone. But it’s possible he was born that way since there was no sign of an American accent. Of course these observations hadn’t always come naturally to Leo; he was trained to make quick judgments by a single glance. The Jellyfish Intelligence & Security recruiters make no mistakes when hiring new agents-everyone has to be the best and those who weren’t got filtered out and shipped to a fake study abroad program in France.
However, despite a good three years of training, Leo remembered being cuffed behind a desk and a screen as an analyst. That is, before Director N finally set him free on his first project “in the wild” as he put it.
Leo wondered if he was given his name as a joke to go along with the rest of N’s speech.
“I’m looking forward to working with you. You must be from the States?”
“Yes, I am En-I know English very well,” while his thick Korean accent said otherwise. Either he had spent his entire life in a Korean-American community and never cared to fully learn English, or he’s an incredibly slow learner.
“I consider myself a very hard worker. I also enjoy long walks on the beach.”
Leo didn’t ask for a 30-second interview spiel and muzzling the resistance to cringe was getting difficult. “Ah… w--”
“It’s my... favorite.” Jaehwan gestured to his chest speaking as if nothing else in the world was more invigorating than his most cherished hobby.
Three: Lee Jaehwan will quickly be responsible for Leo’s early retirement.
_
It didn’t take another minute for Leo to come crashing through N’s door and demanding an explanation for Jaehwan’s presence.
“Come on, give him a chance, Leo!” N pleaded for the third time since Leo entered his office.
“I am not accepting him as my partner. This is my first assignment and I said I could do it alone.”
“It took a long time for me to find him. I know he might seem a little strange but after seeing his skills…” N nodded towards the office’s window where Jaehwan was standing at a distance. “…Jaehwan could be the best thing that’s happened to this agency.”
Leo followed N’s nod and saw Jaehwan holding his phone in the air, snapping pictures of himself with a v-sign only to get immediately scolded by an employee hissing something about “photography” and “forbidden.” Leo turned back to face an amused N who quickly hid his bias back under his skin.
After glowering at N curiously and another minute of consideration, Leo delivered a response that he’ll regret for the rest of his life, “Fine.”
The grossly cheerful squeals that followed traveled into a defeated Leo’s one ear and out the other. He didn’t even push away as N threw his arms around his shoulder and gave him a tight squeeze. Maybe N could see right through Leo’s tough shell and maybe he knew exactly what was best for Leo. N had known him for years and he must have certainly had enough reasons to put him on a case that would be most disturbing to Leo. Maybe it was to test his strength, and Leo would never turn down such a challenge, not after so long. Adding a partner would do nothing more than help, but with this Lee Jaehwan he was starting to second-guess himself.
“Don’t worry, Leo, you’ll still get to take the lead,” N patted Leo’s shoulder reassuringly. “You’ve had more experience after all. Matter of fact that’s your first task this week, run him through the basics, make sure he’s fit to be on the field.”
“Wasn’t that your job?” Leo wanted to say, but kept it to himself.
N turned around to pick up something off his desk. “Oh and give him his new identity card next time you meet him. It’ll give you an excuse to get closer to him,” N’s pressed smile did little to soften Leo’s annoyance but he compliantly accepted both the card and his crumpling fate.
Day one and Leo was ready to hop aboard the next land missile and propel to the ends of space.
_
“From now on your name is Ken.”
Jaehwan-now Ken-gratefully received the identity card and the giant stack of files Leo apathetically threw onto Ken’s arms. “I’m excited to work with you, Leo.”
Leo shot him a glare which only widened Ken’s grin. Leo huffed, “Look, if you’re going to treat this like it’s a game--”
“Are you mad at me?” Ken pouted his lips.
Leo swallowed a retort and ignored everything about Ken at the moment (including the soft ‘sorry’ Ken barely managed to add), “There’s been six murders in the past month and they’re all coming from around the same area,” he motioned to the projected map on the screen in the meeting room they had borrowed for the time being. “But there are no tracks or prints near the murder sites nor were there recognizable wound marks on the victims, but autopsy reports are guessing some kind of animal.”
“Oh my, scary stuff,” Ken’s eyes were wide with his lips pursed in the strangest way.
Leo sent him a brief sideways glance, and continued, “But we think it’s something different, so we’re going to go check out the site. We’ve gotten word that it’s in a dense wooded area and we have to be prepared for anything. The plan is to leave in two months.”
“The woods? Are we going hunting?”
Leo nodded. “In a sense, yes. I’ll be helping you get prepared. Training you with the weapons we use, and giving you all the advice on how not to die,” Leo paused. “But seeing that you were scouted, you should have no problem with any of that.”
“As long as I have Leo by my side I don’t have a problem at all!” Ken chirped.
Leo looked up at the ceiling hoping some higher power would extract his soul and leave him to rest in peace.
_
“You just have to aim, and shoot.”
Ken’s hesitation was pulling at Leo’s temper. He had made sure to demonstrate to avoid any extra conversation and bad jokes. It had already been a long day and so far Ken was barely passable in every subject he’s been tested on. In fact he was starting to notice a strange sense of discomfort in Ken at the moment. He had the right grip on the Glock but kept unwrapping and rewrapping his fingers around the trigger.
“It’s just cardboard.”
“I know.”
“Then shoot.”
“I’m trying.”
“It doesn’t look like it.”
“I said I’m trying,” Ken’s voice had deepened, but rose louder. It was as if another being had suddenly taken over him. His eyes grew dark and for a moment Leo thought he saw them flicker red, but then again he thought he saw Ken and N in an alcove rubbing noses and cooing nonsensical nicknames to each other only an hour ago. In any case, this was the first time Leo had seen him being this serious about anything. Maybe N was right and Leo should give him a chance.
A minute passed and Leo reached to massage the back of his own neck, when five consecutive shots fired. Leo looked up.
All five shots missed the target.
_
“Leo, over here!” N waved his arm, mouth full of food, signaling Leo to join him at his table. Leo took one quick sweep across the two occupants of the other seats and it took everything in him to walk in the other direction. One was an analyst he used to work who had a great sense of fashion but was a bit eccentric. Much to Leo’s disinterest, he’d ramble on about a certain trainer who possessed “the most powerful, angelic voice that he could listen to for the rest of his life if he could” and he’d use almost every break to skip off to the training rooms to hear him berate the trainees. To this day Leo had never seen or heard this man and wondered if it was just the analyst’s way of coping with stress.
He had his arm wrapped around Ken, who was sitting next to him and also gave him a short wave. Leo couldn’t pinpoint exactly what he hated about Ken anymore. Either there were too many things to count or he was getting used to him. Getting used to him. That sounded more unlikely put into words.
“Lee Hongbin, that’s enough with the pictures,” Leo sighed, covering the lens with his hand and gave the camera a light push as he took his seat next to N. “Isn’t it not allowed here anyway?”
“Since when has that ever stopped me?”
“He takes good pictures,” N approvingly wagged a finger at the camera. “And I like the idea of keeping a record of all our memories here.”
Leo ignored N. “I’m telling you to stop now. Please.”
Hongbin frowned as his eyes drooped. “Hmph, well you’re no fun.” Hongbin raised his camera again but this time leaned back and pointed it at Ken, who proceeded to make an electrocuted frog impression.
The whole table fell apart as an explosion of laughter ensued, particularly from Hongbin who almost fell off his seat and surprisingly also from Leo who almost sprayed his food all over the table. He quickly pressed a hand over his mouth and buried his head in his arm on the table.
Even after a good minute of wheezing and near-death choking, Hongbin and N finally simmered down to giggles. But Leo was still clutching his stomach and barely caught N’s comment about how this was the first he had seen Leo this amused. And maybe it was the first time Leo felt this way for several lunatic impressions later, he found his emotions dancing and weaving together like strokes of paint on a dull canvas.
_
Over the next couple of days Leo noticed a change in Ken’s behavior, not only while Ken was doing drills but also in the way he spoke and acted around Leo. There was a growing sense of confidence that governed his every move and word. While it may have been because of the daily lunches with Hongbin and N that sometimes left Leo close to tears from laughter, Ken seemed to judge himself on Leo’s reactions and Leo welcomed this with open arms. Sometimes literally. Leo would take advantage of Hongbin’s absences during lunch to sit next to Ken and rest a hand on Ken’s shoulder while he acted out fictional stories filled with slapstick comedy because those are what Leo liked the most. N would always sit on the other side, applauding and approving whenever Ken said anything clever and would often add in on Ken’s stories.
Ken was no longer a nerdy, failure of a secret service agent to Leo. Ken was hilarious, albeit still painfully embarrassing at times. But no matter how ridiculous he got with his jokes, he would never fail to lighten the mood.
During the firearm drills, Ken’s posture was becoming close to perfect, but Leo would always find himself slightly adjusting his outstretched arms, claiming “it’d be better like this,” and “you’ll have more control this way.” But it was really all just an excuse to feel those few seconds of rare physical contact. And Ken would never argue or shrug Leo off, but would let himself be guided. Whenever the shot went right through the ‘X’ on the target board, he would grin and turn his head to Leo who would respond with short but sincere approval.
There was a time when Leo and Ken had switched places with Ken as the observer, and it was a new but comforting feeling that someone was watching him. “Looks good!” Ken commented as he studied Leo’s stance, following his aim to the target board, then back to Leo.
“You know, I’ve been wondering…” Ken began as Leo fired a shot, hitting straight on the target. “Why did you take up this case?”
Leo paused, and then reloaded his gun. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Ken shrugged. “I don’t know, you just don’t seem to have an interest in it. You’ve never talked about it after that first day. And by the way you’re avoiding my eyes, you still don’t seem to want to.”
Leo set his gun down as it made it a clank against the metal projection below him. “So, let’s talk about it, then.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Leo threw a cautious glance to his right at the other trainees in the practice room. He didn’t quite understand why Ken was being curious; Leo didn’t take him to be the type to ask personal questions. “This is my first time I’ll be in the field, so you can say that I’m a little nervous.”
“Aww, that can’t be it,” Ken cocked his head unsatisfied.
Leo’s sharp glare lingered on Ken for a moment, then softened as his head fell. “When I was in high school I used to be a boxer,” he waited for Ken to interject with a snarky comment but he remained silent, listening patiently. “My coach kept pushing hard for me to do well and wanted me to win every competition. But then I got hurt.” He took the gun between his forefingers and began twirling it on the table. “I couldn’t box anymore, and I didn’t have anything to fall back on. Before I joined, I was jobless, my parents refused to take me back in, so I wandering like a stray, picking up odd jobs.”
“From a boxer to the box.”
Leo nodded. “I worked in a pet shop for a few months...” he continued, but felt his voice begin to tremor as stinging memories flooded his mind. Whether it was the overwhelming amount of affection that swept over him or simply his weakness to anything small and button-nosed, to this day he blames himself.
“There were so many animals there, but the puppies were probably my favorite, they were always excited and running around. One of them was so small you could carry it in your hands,” Leo cupped both hands together. “But he was the most excited out of them all. I was responsible for feeding them everyday and I’d always play with the smallest one for a little bit longer. One day, this couple came by and decided to adopt it. I was upset but I eventually had to leave for another job too.”
“A year later, I picked up a job in a sports store and I was going back to my motel from work, when I saw a familiar face behind a cage.”
“Oh, could it be…?” Ken raised his eyebrows.
“The pet shop’s tag on his collar was still there, but...” Leo shook his head. “he wasn’t the same anymore. He was missing splotches of fur and he kept snarling and throwing himself against the cage like he was having continuous seizures. I don’t know if those owners weren’t feeding him well or gave up on him...” Leo’s face contorted into loathing as he bit the inside of his lip, “...but I couldn’t stand it, so I took him home. It took weeks, almost months to get him back to normal and it wasn’t easy,” Leo pulled back a sleeve to fondly look down on the wide but fading scars on his forearm.
“I started working two jobs at once and at one point he went back to the bouncy little puppy I saw at the pet shop. And we lived together like that for a while,” Leo’s voice drifted off, his eyes downcast. “But it turned out he never fully recovered from what he had. When I took him to the vet they said he wouldn’t last much longer and it would be better to rid him of his suffering.” Leo felt the hollowness behind his ribcage start to open just as it did all those years ago. “A few weeks after that was when I met N at a coffee shop.” he looked up.
Leo didn’t realize how long was absorbed in his own past until he saw a glossy-eyed Ken, his mouth slightly ajar. Once he noticed Leo staring at him, he immediately blinked back any tears in danger of spilling and turned away back to the target board. The air was filled with silence. For the first time Leo found it loud and annoying.
He felt his fingertips move on their own accord, when he realized there was something touching it, or rather someone. Ken’s hand had made its way to Leo’s and his face was suddenly inches away from Leo’s cheek. Leo did everything he could to prevent his face from burning crimson, although the presence of the other trainees was of no concern to either of them.
It began as a tingle, then a touch of moist skin on the side of his lips and suddenly everything around Leo was like a blurred vacuum and the thudding in his chest made the rest of his body quiver. Ken pulled away and scanned Leo’s face. The smallest smile curled the corners of the latter’s lips.
“You know, you remind me of them.”
Ken frowned. “Of the couple?”
Leo shook his head. “Of the puppies.”
His pout was replaced by a smile so wide it puffed his cheeks and creased his eyes into two crescents. This was followed by a ‘small dog’ impression as he pawed at Leo’s arm.
One thing was for sure-Ken may not be the best thing that’s happened to the agency, but he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to Leo.
_
Of course there were times when Leo would get impatient with Ken having never improved in his coordination, which was especially horrendous during hand-to-hand combat. About a month passed and Leo was able to flip Ken onto his back just as easy as his first day in training.
Ken groaned has he lied on the mat of the gym floor, “Would it kill you to go a little easier on me?”
“I have been going easier on you. Maybe if you at least tried...”
Ken groaned even louder. “The more times you tell me that, the less it helps. I think I’ll go lift some weights, maybe they’ll listen to me.”
Leo sighed heavily and watched as Ken picked himself back up and started making his way towards the wall lined with shelves of weights. Ken yelped as one of the weights from the shelf rolled off and hit the floor with a clang--rather it sounded like it did. Leo’s eyes widened and his heart almost leapt out of his chest as he saw the weight resting right on Ken’s foot. Without a second of hesitation, Leo sped over to Ken but slowed down as Ken raised both of his hands, “I’m okay--I’m okay.”
“What…” Leo was in complete disbelief as Ken heaved the 75-pound weight up and set it back into place with a grunt.
“Missed it by that much, huh?”
Leo crouched down and grabbed Ken’s ankle. “Hey, what are you-” Leo hastily pulled off his sock.
Ken’s foot was completely unharmed, and was not even the lightest shade of pink. When he glanced up at Ken, he was only returned wide, doe-like eyes. Perhaps Leo was mistaken, after all.
“Oh. I guess it did miss.”
“I told you…” Ken stepped back. “Now can I have my sock back or do you need it to sleep tonight, Mr. Paranoid?”
Leo scowled and threw the sock at his face.
The sock rebounded on his nose and fell in his hand making him gasp in wonderment. “Master has given Ken a sock. Ken is free!”
Ken raced to the door before Leo could break his leg.
_
The day before the retreat on the hunt came sooner than Leo expected. Ken had taken up so much of his time in too many ways that Leo was unsure if he himself was prepared. He spent the entire morning and most of the afternoon away from the walking mess, restudying the maps and running himself through quick drills. In a way, he was thankful he had Ken as his partner. Having to depend on someone was not the biggest fish food to his pride, but there wasn’t anyone else who he could trust as much as Ken even if it had only been two months.
“How are you feeling? Excited? Confident?”
N had pulled both Leo and Ken into his office for a therapy session that N called tactfully called a last-minute check-up.
“I’m very excited, Chief N!” Ken’s overly eager tone made Leo want to gag, but he held his composure.
“I’m confident.” So long as Ken kept his senseless animal impressions off the field.
N beamed. “That’s good to hear!” he rested a hand on Leo’s back and held Ken’s arm with the other. “I hope you two have had enough time to find ways to complement each other and--” Leo tuned him out, not because it was a useless speech, but that even though N was talking to both of them, he kept most of his attention on Ken’s face. And eventually, so did Leo.
_
“Why are we dressed in camouflage?” Ken adjusted his collar and pulled at the straps of his backpack on his shoulders.
Leo furrowed his brows with a look of disgust. “You took the survival guide test eight times.”
“That’s because most of those questions were dumb and there’s no way people will survive-” he added air-quotes, “-by taking their advice. What’s the percentage chance that we’re going to actually be concealed by this?” Ken didn’t wait for an answer. “Zero. Not all animals are colorblind you know, they have this thing called a keen sense of smell too.”
“That’s why I told you to put the mud all over you.”
“I will never, that’s dirty.”
“Quit complaining, then.” Leo took Ken by the back of his neck and pulled him forward. “Come on, we haven’t even reached the yellow zone yet.”
Ken tried to shrug him off but ended up tripping over a loose twig, and tumbling to a future involving two cuts on Ken’s arm and a Leo throwing his head back not bothering to resist a long, hearty laugh. What was even more charming was that Ken took almost three attempts to stand up without slipping on the wet ground. The last two were probably staged but Leo was amused, nonetheless.
After Ken’s final fruitful effort to stand up, Leo threw an arm around his neck as they walked uphill, and this time Ken didn’t push him away.
_
An hour passed and the sun rose higher in the sky.
Something rustled in the bushes which resulted in a squeak and Ken falling backwards onto Leo’s chest. Leo felt his arm impulsively reach over to wrap around Ken’s shoulder blades but caught himself a half second in time. Instead he gripped Ken’s upper arm and roughly straightened him up.
“Hey, watch it…” Leo’s voice trailed off before he could begin the slightest threat once he caught that toothy embarrassed smile on Ken’s face. He was not always a playful attention-seeking puppy that Leo had seen every minute back at headquarters. He had humility, but it was a kind of humility that was so purely endearing Leo almost wanted to grab his hand and run back home, abandoning the mission, abandoning what he worked years for. And this wasn’t the first time he wanted to in the last hour.
He gaped as Ken rushed to tousle his hair to hide the flush on his ears. “Sorry.” The toothy smile was forced down and it was back to the Ken from five minutes ago.
Leo observed a small black bird poke its beak out from the bush and jerk its head to the side so that an eye was facing the two of them. After taking a second to process its situation, it suddenly squawked and flapped its wings, escaping the premises.
Ken whistled after it, but it only flew faster.
__
It was hours since they started their trek into the woods and their brows and the backs of their necks were damp but Leo was restless. Not only had they failed to find as much as one animal track and the air was only getting thinner, Ken did everything he could to avoid Leo’s eyes--in fact he maintained a good three feet between them at all times, straggling along behind Leo. It couldn’t have been what had happened earlier because Ken never gets embarrassed about anything for more than five minutes. And they had taken a break only half an hour ago which should have been more than enough for Ken to regain his stamina.
It was then Leo recognized a familiar sound.
Silence.
Leo whipped around to find Ken on his knees, bent over and sputtering blood.
"KEN!" Leo twisted out of his backpack, stumbling over himself as he ran towards Ken and knelt down next to him. Ken immediately grasped his arm in support.
"I'm... hungry," his lip curled and his eyes clenched.
For a second Leo thought this was another one of Ken’s overreactions before he gripped Leo's arm harder, his knuckles turning white. Leo winced from both the pain and the shock that Ken's strength was more powerful than he'd ever felt. "Lee Jaehwan..."
Ken pushed Leo away so forcefully, he was thrown against a tree and could almost hear the bones in his back rattle. He cried out, as watched the hard exterior he worked years to built crumble around him in one single blow. He held onto the cracking bark as he lifted himself up. “What are you doing?”
“What, your combat skills suddenly disappeared?” Ken remained in position, hunched over.
“What…”
Ken looked up and the menacing look in his eyes pierced right through Leo as he felt himself back away--felt himself cornered.
“You still don’t get it?” Ken stood easily as if all signs of fatigue had disappeared, but his eyes softened. “Did you ever stop to think why there wasn’t a single report of an animal attack once I joined your agency? Or why I was able to lift seventy-five pounds with one hand or why I would always joined your lunches to only talk and tell tales, but never eat anything?”
Leo’s eyes widened in horror as he spoke.
“Or why N picked me out of all the people in the world who would be more qualified to be your partner?”
The thing was, Leo never really noticed and never questioned it. No matter how much he complained and argued, Leo would always end up trusting N’s decisions, as if they were already signed and stamped. Maybe this was the one time that he should have went against what was written. N was a leader. But he was also a human being. He prioritized sympathy above all emotions and took in anything that looks like an affection-starved child into his home. But Leo could say the same about himself. And then it clicked.
Ken was no different than the pup from the pet shop and Leo had been trained long enough to fight something even stronger. Whether N was aware of the savage inside Ken or not, Leo decided he was given this case to prove himself one more time.
Leo’s throat grew dry and a stinging sensation stabbed his eyes. Maybe his judgment was clouded by Ken’s need to act unbearably adorable when Leo could even begin to suspect him. Or maybe it was Ken’s beautifully crafted cheekbones or that every time he would crack a joke a part of him wanted to laugh with all his heart and never stop. He felt happy with Ken. And he had convinced himself that nothing would steal that from him, making him ignore everything that was wrong about someone so incompetent being in a hard-driven intelligence agency. Ken was too human but too perfect to be one all at the same time.
No. Ken was a monster. He was the monster. But Leo realized this a thousand skipped heartbeats too late.
“So, now what?” Leo spoke barely above a whisper.
"Now…” Ken’s eyes blinked red, but this time it stayed that way. “I have to catch you.”
Leo smiled. "Only if I run."