[Fic] Halloween Prompts Part One
Title: Halloween Prompts Suju Part One
Pairings: QMi, Henhae, Blohyuk
Rating: R to be safe
Warnings for: sexual situations
Prompts inside:
Prompt: Qmi going on a date to a haunted house!
Prompt: Kyuhyun finally working up the courage to show Zhou Mi that he is a warlock of some sort.
Prompt: steampunk Donghae/Henry inspired by bals masqués, Henry's violin playing, and this song
Prompt: Tablo/Eunhyuk Qmi Error code/Bolt and Strike verse. Tablo and Kyu catch Hyuk and Mimi watching porn for pointers.
***
Prompt: Qmi going on a date to a haunted house!
***
Zhou Mi loved Halloween, which was one of those cute things that Kyuhyun wasn’t really sure what to do with when it came to his boyfriend. Not because he disliked it, but because Zhou Mi really got into it. Seeing that when a bug flew at Zhou Mi, Zhou Mi flew to Kyuhyun, he was expecting Zhou Mi to be scared of just about anything. But what happened was that Zhou Mi loved the most wicked roller coasters. And maybe he shrieked sometimes, but he loved horror movies too. Basically he thought that Zhou Mi’s adrenaline glands were shot to hell.
But that didn’t make him less cute.
Zhou Mi threatened to make Kyuhyun dress up for Halloween. “Couple costumes” was something that came out of Zhou Mi’s mouth, and made Kyuhyun’s blood run a little cold. The sad thing was, he was pretty sure he’d have agreed if that was what Zhou Mi had ended up wanting. He was drawing the line at having whiskers drawn on his face like some kind of kitten, at least if he was going to be seen in public. Zhou Mi could paint his face in his bedroom as much as he wanted, but he was pretty sure Zhou Mi knew that.
But Zhou Mi, on a spur of the moment dinner date, turned to Kyuhyun with a smile.
“They’re having a haunted house soon,” Zhou Mi said. It was enthusiasm, the kind Kyuhyun mustered for heaping plates of meat waiting to be cooked. “Will you go with me?”
The worst that could happen, he supposed, was that he’d have to carry Zhou Mi through it if he got scared. He liked having Zhou Mi squeezing him during horror movies, so he hid the smirk as he agreed. Plus he paid for dinner.
It was Zhou Mi who bought them tickets into the haunted house. He could feel Zhou Mi’s lower back trembling under his hand as they listened to the creepy music drifting out and waited their turn.
“Are you going to scream?” he murmured, taking in the way Zhou Mi was chewing on his bottom lip. Something he hoped to be doing himself before too long. Nothing was better after a scare than a good roll in bed.
Zhou Mi huffed at him, and reached for Kyuhyun’s hand, lacing their fingers together tightly. “Will you?”
It meant he was laughing when they were let in, the curtain falling behind them and leaving them in almost total darkness with just little glowing strips to light their way.
Sudden laughter had them jerking, wary of things that might jump out at them, but nothing did. They passed scenes of horror, jumped at a ghostly figure that hovered in front of them - just light shining on smoke. Banging sounds, a guy rushing at them with an ax, and more jumps and laughs.
The music quieted as they took a turn, and the glowing exit sign shown up ahead.
Kyuhyun swung Zhou Mi’s hand a bit. “We got out without much proble-eeeeeee.”
A man dressed all in black with a huge bloody chainsaw leaped out in front of them, shouting, “You!”
And Kyuhyun nearly pulled Zhou Mi over backwards he jumped back so far, and the man disappeared with a rusty chuckle as Zhou Mi engulfed him.
“Holy shit.”
“It’s okay,” Zhou Mi crooned. “It was just one of the characters. What was that sound you made?”
His heart was still beating. That was good. And Zhou Mi was laughing at him in the process of comforting him.
“Let’s go,” Zhou Mi said.
He felt like he was one of the walking dead, kind of shellshocked as they got out into the lighter hallway, and then out onto the street.
“Holy shit,” he repeated, balancing his forehead on Zhou Mi’s shoulder as he got his back rubbed. “I was expecting you to freak out.”
“I was ready,” Zhou Mi told him. “I’m a master. You let your guard down!”
“Thanks for reminding me.”
“But it was so cute! You almost dragged me into the next city trying to get away. And that sound you made!”
“Okay, okay! I get it.”
He was pouting, and he knew it, but at least he didn’t feel ready to jump out of his skin any more.
“Were you trying to protect me in dragging me too, or was I just holding on too tight?”
“You were on your own,” Kyuhyun said, laughing and tugging Zhou Mi with him toward the subway.
“I see how it is.”
“Give me more than half a second next time! Though I probably would’ve used you as a shield if I’d had time to think about it.”
“You think I could’ve fought off a chainsaw? Long enough for you to run away huh?”
“Mmm. Food, or home?”
“Quick food, then home,” Zhou Mi suggested. “I’ll show you how a real man protects his boyfriend.”
“By boning him?” Pardon his skepticism.
Zhou Mi lifted his chin, all regal bearing and almost fluffily indignant. “Boning him excellently.”
And Kyuhyun guessed he couldn’t argue with that.
***
***
Prompt: Kyuhyun finally working up the courage to show Zhou Mi that he is a warlock of some sort.
***
The longer Kyuhyun waited, the harder it was.
Sometimes he wondered if he should’ve told Zhou Mi right from the beginning. Maybe on their second date, or on the way home from the noraebang, or after a horror movie.
The problem was, for all that Zhou Mi looked like he stepped out some fantasy world, he didn’t actually believe in magic. He didn’t believe in ghosts. He didn’t even really have many superstitions. “Expect the worst, hope for the best,” was Zhou Mi’s enduring motto. Sometimes shit happened, but you picked up and moved on. And he appreciated that, he really did. Zhou Mi poked him out of his pessimism sometimes and they sort of became each other’s crutch.
He definitely should’ve told Zhou Mi before he fell in love. Or perhaps that was when he absolutely should’ve. The moment he trusted the man grinning at him to deal with all of Kyuhyun’s complicated emotions, should’ve been time to trust him with everything.
The longer Kyuhyun waited, the more the lies built up. When Kyuhyun kept a glass from falling and explained it must’ve been luck. Or when he’d wiped away a ding on Zhou Mi’s precious cell phone saying it must’ve just been a paint mark.
Sometimes it happened in bed, when he was too lazy to reach for the blankets. A soft sigh, and the cloth curled into his fingers so he could cover both of them. Magic was not a means for power, didn’t make him some strange or amazing person. But magic, he could use to protect them. When he smoothed back Zhou Mi’s hair and pressed the tips of their noses together on the pillow and just felt Zhou Mi breathe, felt the life in him glowing. He couldn’t see auras or anything like that, but Zhou Mi had always felt warm and bright. Even when Zhou Mi cuddled against him after a hard day, he felt that. He’d fallen in love with Zhou Mi, smiles, and tears, and frustrating logic. Hard head, and adorable butt. All of him.
Zhou Mi had fallen in love with him, too. He saw it when Zhou Mi looked at him, a spark in his eye that hadn’t been there when they’d met. A certain kind of brightness that was joy in Kyuhyun’s presence. There was also attraction, affection, a love for cuddling. Zhou Mi loved him, no matter how many scars he had, or acne spots, or weird stretch marks from growing too fast, or how hairy his legs were.
Some of those things Zhou Mi even seemed to like, which was weird. But Zhou Mi was weird. And Zhou Mi had fallen in love with a man that wasn’t telling him everything about himself.
They’d been living together for months, when Kyuhyun finally decided he was going to try to tell Zhou Mi. He could not wait his whole life, confess on his deathbed, hide something from Zhou Mi that was so integral to himself forever.
But Zhou Mi, in the two years they’d known each other, the eighteen months they’d been dating, was the longest relationship he’d had. The most important, closest, stable, most healthy relationship in his whole life. The problem was, he’d never told anyone. His parents knew, of course, but there had been no one else he’d let close enough.
“Please believe me. Please don’t be mad,” he whispered to Zhou Mi’s sleeping face.
***
“I need to tell you something,” Kyuhyun said, sitting Zhou Mi down and then sitting in front of him. He needed to see Zhou Mi’s face. “Something really important.”
Zhou Mi’s face was grave, an instantaneous reaction to his words. “Is something wrong?”
“No. No, nothing’s wrong. No one’s sick or dead, and I’m not cheating on you. It’s nothing bad.”
Zhou Mi’s laugh spun out, gripping Kyuhyun’s hands. “Oh, thank goodness. The way you started out, it was like you were going to tell me you’d fallen in love with someone else.”
Maybe in a way. But the “someone else” was magic.
“No. But it’s really important, okay. It’s not something I’ve been keeping from you because I don’t trust you. It’s just that I’ve never told anyone. Ever. And I love you. I need you to know this.”
Zhou Mi’s mouth had turned down again, wondering, and Kyuhyun took in a breath.
“Do you know what a warlock is?”
Zhou Mi’s eyebrows lifted. “Umm. A male witch?”
“Close enough. But someone who practices magic. I’m a warlock. I have magic.” Zhou Mi looked alarmed. “I don’t have skulls stashed somewhere or vials of blood, okay. I’m not in some kind of cult. Just…look.”
He held out his hand so Zhou Mi could see, and called fire to jump in his palm. It flashed and roiled for several seconds, before dissipating.
“Wow! Kuixian, how did you do that?” Zhou Mi asked, taking his hand and turning it over.
“Magic,” Kyuhyun said steadily, and held his hand out to draw the blanket on the other side of Zhou Mi to him. It did, curving over Zhou Mi’s shoulder and into Kyuhyun’s hand. “See?”
“Is there string attached to it? How did you- Kuixian, if you wanted to put on a magic show, you didn’t have to worry me so much. Have you been taking lessons?”
“No,” Kyuhyun said. He tried not to let frustration in. Once Zhou Mi realized, it might be horror and not confusion. He just couldn’t wait. He couldn’t turn back then. “Come with me.”
It was one of the hardest things he knew to do, but it was also the most visual. He took a glass from their cupboard, and handed it to Zhou Mi.
“The glass is fine, right? No cracks, nothing like that. Perfect.”
“Right,” Zhou Mi said, frowning down at it and wondering what reason Kyuhyun was asking for.
“Good. I love you, you know that right? I love you, and this doesn’t change that.” Zhou Mi nodded at him, concerned. Smiling at him as though he were concerned for Kyuhyun’s mental state. Kyuhyun backed away a little bit, and pointed to the sink. “Throw it in there. Break it. As many pieces as you can, please.”
Zhou Mi, still concerned, dropped the glass into the sink. It cracked and shattered into half a dozen pieces and tiny shards. “Okay? Now what?”
Zhou Mi was expecting some trick. He wrapped his arm around Zhou Mi’s waist, pulling him close. And he asked for a kiss, hoping it wouldn’t be the last.
“I love you,” he said. “Now watch.”
He gathered power to his fingertips, and lowered his hand into the sink. The glass pieces rattled without Kyuhyun touching them, and Zhou Mi breathed in sharply. It was almost a glow, not quite, but one by one the pieces fused. Tiny shards melding, big pieces joining again. Until, laying in the sink, was one of the glasses they’d bought together as a couple, whole again. And when Kyuhyun pulled his hand back, it was shaking.
“How did you do that?” Zhou Mi whispered.
“Magic. I told you. Magic. Feel it. It’s not broke any more.”
Zhou Mi did, picking it up, and turning it over. Nothing moved, as it was as whole as the day they’d bought it.
“You never looked away,” Kyuhyun said. “There was no trick. It’s not a joke and I’m not lying to you. It’s magic.”
“That’s not possible.”
“It is. I don’t know how it is. But my parents can do things like this, too. Mend glasses, pull things toward them, light fires. I’m great on a camping trip.”
“Kuixian.”
“I didn’t tell you before because… Because I didn’t want you to freak out, or leave, or think I was crazy. I’m not. I’m just a regular guy who doesn’t have to stoop over to pick up a pen. I- I shouldn’t have waited this long to tell you, but I-“
He’d needed Zhou Mi too much.
“Kuixian, you’re not lying to me. This isn’t a joke. You’re not going to start laughing.”
“I wouldn’t lie about this to you,” Kyuhyun said, his eyes never wavering from Zhou Mi’s. “I would rather cut off my fingers one by one than joke about this.”
“But…”
Zhou Mi wasn’t running, screaming. That was good.
“Come sit with me,” Kyuhyun suggested gently. “Let me tell you.”
If he could just keep Zhou Mi close, keep in contact, maybe Zhou Mi wouldn’t forget who Kyuhyun was in the face of what he could do. And maybe that meant clutching Zhou Mi a little harder than usual and making Zhou Mi squirm.
“You’re really freaked out,” Zhou Mi said, rubbing Kyuhyun’s ribs in a way that he knew calmed Kyuhyun.
“Yeah. I just. I meant it. I’ve never shown anyone. I’ve never told anyone. Not any of my friends, no one. I’ve wanted to tell you for so long, I just…”
“It’s a little different than hiding a disease,” Zhou Mi said carefully. “I’m just still trying to wrap my head around…”
“I don’t think unicorns are real or anything,” Kyuhyun said. “Besides you, I mean.”
One of his nicknames for Zhou Mi, and Zhou Mi laughed before inhaling.
“Could you.. Could you do the fire thing again? I just want to see.”
“Yeah. Here, cup the back of my hand.”
It held him steady from shaking, and with their hands joined, the little lick of fire wavered over Kyuhyun’s palm.
“I almost burned down my closet when I was five, thinking I could get cocky and make a campfire for my toys,” Kyuhyun said, as the fire flickered out. “I couldn’t sit for a week.”
Zhou Mi ran his fingers over Kyuhyun’s palm. “It’s not even hot. But I could feel the heat of the fire.”
“Yeah.”
“Is…Am I dreaming?”
Kyuhyun bit Zhou Mi’s shoulder and had him yelping. No, it wasn’t a dream.
***
Kyuhyun had Zhou Mi reciting back who he was to him a few times over the next days.
“You’re Cho Kyuhyun. You are in love with your laptop. You’re in love with me. You’re my boyfriend. You can make fire and we’ll never have to buy new glasses ever.”
Kyuhyun had nearly had given himself a hernia when Zhou Mi had added the last part.
“You waited a long time to tell me,” Zhou Mi said.
“At first, it was because I didn’t know how long we’d last. And then, I loved you and didn’t want to lose you. I didn’t keep it from you to hurt you.”
“Kuixian.”
“I wanted you to stay with me because you know everything. Not because I was holding back.”
Zhou Mi rested his head on top of Kyuhyun’s, a cuddle posture they’d quite perfected. “I do love you. All of you.”
And Kyuhyun waited for the next part of the confession that Zhou Mi always added.
“I love your laptop, too,” Zhou Mi teased, kissing the side of Kyuhyun’s head.
It made hm smile as he rubbed Zhou Mi’s stomach. “So we’re okay?”
“We’re okay,” Zhou Mi confirmed.
Even if Zhou Mi hadn’t believed in magic, he believed in Kyuhyun. And because Kyuhyun had believed in Zhou Mi? That was enough.
***
***
Prompt: steampunk Donghae/Henry inspired by bals masqués, Henry's violin playing, and this song
***
In two hours the ball would start. In three hours a man would be dead.
All Henry had to do was wait. He’d been there for weeks, posing as a footman as a stable boy. They hadn’t wanted him too near Donghae, for obvious reasons, but with his smile at least he could charm his way through what he didn’t know about a position.
Though he knew he liked shoveling horse manure a lot more than he liked dealing with the demands of humans.
The clock on the facing wall of the ballroom struck the hour, the chorus of bells far louder than the spin of the exposed gears that took up the entire top half of its enclosure. The floor was tile, polished to a shine, and the wall sconces fed oil for light that wouldn’t go out.
Shouldn’t go out.
He dressed carefully. He would not be one of the elaborately dressed guests on the floor in their silk and lace. But he would have a mask, covering half his face. He wouldn’t be recognized, and that was the important thing. But even if he wouldn’t be among the guests, others would. Working as servers, as cleaners. The problem he had was not that they had too few to help, men and women, it was that he didn’t know from where the danger was coming. Was it another server? One of the guests?
It could be a pistol, a knife, or poison. The problem was, even with as many ears as there were, they didn’t know. He watched the lamps being lit, heard the faint ticking of the clock’s minute hand. They’d wait for the cover of dark.
***
The music never stopped. As a performer, Henry was under no scrutiny. He merely bided his time, waiting for his turn to play tunes for the revelers before them. Above them, the hands of the great clock were slow, steady metronome, and the gas lamps had been turned up high so the room was ablaze in light. There were people eating at the long tables heavy with food, some taking a little and wandering to talk, others taking a seat as though it was their private banquet. There were couples and individuals and groups, dancing and reeling on the great center floor. There was alcohol flowing in abundance.
The main feature of this ball, were the masks. Some were small, delicate, and did as little to conceal the identity of the wearer as a pane of glass would. Others were large, feathered or draped in cloth or sparkle. Some covered the whole head, or parts of the face in varying ways. He saw one that looked more of a beak than a mask. But all of them, barring the servers with their plain and simple cloth strips, were elaborate - for the wearers were rich indeed.
And somewhere in the midst, there was a murderer.
The familiar notes of the piano began, and Henry walked up to take his spot. The dancers took their places, and the familiar waltz began. Step, step, slide. The notes from his violin leaping out to dance with revelers. When the piano took over for just a moment, he took his time to sweep the room, before joining in again. He tried not let his apprehension bleed into the tight notes and runs.
He hit the part of the song that was the cue, and focused on the notes flowing out like silk under his bow. The dance slowed, couples gazing at each other, and the sound beneath his bow began to die, drawing the song to a close.
Henry stepped back, let another violinist take his place, and with regret he abandoned the violin in a corner where he’d hidden his second mask - a server’s mask. And in it, he slipped down into the crowd, and toward his goal, the man he’d been tracking for the last half hour.
Donghae.
He moved through the crowd, catching glimpses, avoiding toes and backs and plates of food. The music that followed him lacked emotion, and he didn’t mind that. He had one thing to do, right then, and he had only minutes to accomplish it.
He skirted bodies, and angled himself in. So accidental, so deliberate as he tripped and almost went down, steadying himself with Donghae’s arm.
“Oh. Oh, I’m so sorry,” he said, taking back his hand with the proper amount of deference.
“It’s okay. Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m all right. Are you…”
He saw Donghae’s brows rise behind the mask, scrollwork and birds in pretty wire perching around Donghae’s eyes.
“Oh, it is you,” he said, and pulled the edge of his mask up so that Donghae could see his face unencumbered.
Henry saw the spark of recognition, and pulled Donghae after him. One step completed.
He kept his hand on Donghae’s skin, a connection, like a charm. He needed that. Needed Donghae to trust him even as they pushed through to service hallway, where Henry faced him, breathless and unfeigned.
“I’m sorry.”
“You. You were serving for us for a while.”
“I did,” Henry admitted.
“What’s your name?”
“Henry,” he said, and regretted that he’d used that name the second it left his mouth. If Donghae knew the name he’d used before, it could be ugly. Though he could lie his way out of it.
“Henry,” Donghae repeated. “That’s nice.”
Though his voice sounded distracted, something that made Henry smile as he circled his thumb on the inside of Donghae’s wrist.
“I didn’t think you’d remember me,” Henry said. Hoped. Hoped Donghae would remember him in all the right ways. Like the one night he’d caught Donghae’s eyes and looked down pretending to blush. Only the once, though. More would be cause for wondering.
“I…Yeah. I was sad when you stopped serving. I wondered where you’d gone.”
“The stables, actually. My family had horses, and they needed help, so.”
His breath trembled in as Donghae gripped his hip. “So you were still close.”
“Yeah. I hoped you’d come down. To the stables. Or that I’d get to come back up.”
“You’re here now.”
Donghae’s breath against his lips had his back tensing. He held himself back, had to, until Donghae pressed forward himself.
They needed that distraction, as Donghae kissed him. Pressing up against his mouth, and holding Henry to the wall. He’d expected that, and still his hands balled on Donghae’s shoulders. He was kissing Donghae too, his interest never wavering, never giving reason to pause. But all he was doing was waiting. He wasn’t supposed to have to make Donghae believe for more than a few moments, not stand there and breathe him in.
But he did. Feeling the warmth of Donghae’s neck under his hand and the press of his body. He swallowed a sound as Donghae pressed closer. Any time now, he thought, as Donghae’s tongue slid between his lips. If it had been any other moment, if Donghae had caught him after service in a dark corner and rubbed their hips together - just like that. He gasped, nails digging into his palms to try and keep focused. It would’ve been so much easier if he didn’t want-
Donghae’s lips left his with a loud snap as he was jerked backward. His eyes were full of panic, reaching up to grab at the hands that pulled him. But it was only an instant before a cloth covered his mouth and nose as Henry stepped forward, staying out of the range of Donghae’s struggling feet. After a few breaths, they stopped, and Donghae’s eyelids fluttered closed.
“Sorry,” he said to Donghae, picking Donghae’s mask up off the floor and handing it over. And to the others, “You took long enough. Take him.”
***
With his mask back in place and his focus bolted down, Henry pressed back into the crowd. Not too fast, not causing panic, but taking direction as he went from servers who knew where he was going. He took a tray, making people exclaim when he passed them without letting them sample the food. But he didn’t stop.
The man holding court, his goal. He was surrounded by goblets, trays of food. Any of which could have powder sprinkled on - but could kill so many more. The servers were all dressed alike. If a murderer wanted to blend in…
The servers were silver, but so was the revolver.
The awkward posture drew Henry’s eye as the server’s arm lifted up, the tray tilting.
No one else saw a thing. No one would. It was a professional - he would take down his target in one shot and disappear.
And the gun did go off - as Henry’s knife sank into the man’s soft gut.
And then lights went out.
He abandoned his knife, pulling up his target from the chair and shoving him through the pandemonium. They had thirty seconds to get to an alcove before the gas lamps would come back on..
“My son?” Henry was asked.
“Safe.”
But his father almost hadn’t been.
When the lights came back on, five men were dead. One that Henry killed, and two others killed reaching distance of the chair they’d just abandoned. All three had revolvers. The other two had been targeting the man they’d sent in dressed as Donghae.
Only one had gotten off a shot.
But it would be a masquerade ball no one would ever forget.
***
Henry took his share of the money. It wasn’t as though the danger had gone away, but he wasn’t being paid to keep the family safe for all eternity. They’d had information that an assassination on the family would take place, they’d avoided it. He’d left suggestions on who to hire, how to be safe, and he’d left. He’d spoken to Donghae’s parents, and that was all. It wasn’t as though he’d been sneaking, or attempting to avoid seeing Donghae after Donghae had woken up.
It had been for his own good. The kiss had only been distraction. The words had all been lies.
The dreams of Donghae pressing him into clean straw were only that.
Until he woke, pinned to the bed of a run-down inn. His blanket hand bound him, legs painfully pinning his and arms keeping him from moving. He bleated his alarm against the hand over his mouth, hoping either someone would hear, or he could knock his attacker off guard.
Sometimes drunk men made their way into rooms of unsuspecting travelers, or robbers, or worse. He’d encountered them all.
“Stop fighting. Stop fighting!”
Henry breathed hard through his teeth, startling as he realized he knew that voice.
“What- What are you doing?!”
“I couldn’t risk you shouting when you woke up.”
The pain, the pressure, eased, and Henry reached to rub his arm where it would surely be bruising.
A match crackled to life, lighting the bedside lamp, and illuminating Donghae’s face as the glass globe slipped over it. The inn was too cheap to pay for the gas lamps in almost every home. It was a different kind of light, and it cast the room in shadows as Donghae turned to him.
“I’ve been looking for you.”
Henry sat up, feeling less unstable when he was ready to defend himself. Though he was still at Donghae’s mercy. A quick feel under his pillow revealed the knife he slept with was gone. And Donghae moving revealed it was in his hand.
“You’ve found me,” Henry said. “Why?”
“Henry, is it? If that’s your name?”
“It is.”
“So that wasn’t a lie.”
Perhaps Donghae’s pride had been hurt. Coming to kill someone for hurting his pride was going a bit far, Henry thought, especially given the fact that he’d protected his family.
“I did what I had to do to make sure your family was safe,” Henry said cautiously.
“You could have asked. Told me what was happening.”
“We needed you safe, out of the way so we could focus on protecting your family. They were assassins and two were there only to kill you. Would you have walked away to safety knowing your father was in danger? No.”
“You killed one of them?”
Henry huffed out a breath. “At your father’s back.”
“He didn’t tell me anything.”
And that, Henry could imagine, was a sore point. Far more so than Henry’s lack of telling him.
“It was our suggestion. You’re a grown man. I wanted to see that you made it through the night alive. And you did. Let it go.”
He slid forward, hoping to get his feet on the floor at least. It put him closer to the knife, but more agile. He could more than just roll away.
But as soon as he moved, Donghae did too, the knife clattering to the ground as he grabbed Henry’s shirt with both hands. At least it wasn’t to strangle him, but he wasn’t placing any bets on that not being next.
“I think what you should be saying is thank you,” Henry said, grasping Donghae’s forearms.
“Was taking me out like that just a joke to you, then? Some disgusting kiss just to distract me? How did you even know I-“
“The way you looked at me,” Henry interrupted. “I needed you to remember me, and you kept looking.”
Donghae blew out a breath, letting Henry’s shirt go.
“That’s all?”
That’s all it should’ve been. If he’d said so, maybe Donghae would’ve left. But he’d lied enough in the course of his life, and the revulsion at himself that was curling up Donghae’s lip was too much for him. Of course he didn’t anticipate squashing himself, which was almost what happened when he dragged Donghae onto the bed with him. Only a fortuitous catch by Donghae’s elbow kept Henry’s ribs from being flattened, and even still he wheezed as Donghae panted at him.
“Since you’re here,” Henry said, his voice light. Deceptively so, as he hooked a hand behind Donghae’s neck. “We left something unfinished last time.”
Donghae moved over him, steadying himself as he frowned, searched Henry’s face. If Donghae hadn’t come for that, then he’d made an ass out of himself. But there’d been that moment, in the dark with Donghae’s mouth against him, when he’d wished it wouldn’t have to end. When he’d been dreaming of it in another place, when he could’ve learned every contour of Donghae’s mouth. It’d been too long since he’d taken a lover, and there was something in Donghae’s eyes that had caught him, from the first moment he had caught sight of him across the room. The smile in them, the handsome face, and the lines of his body in his dinner finery.
If he’d been admitting everything, he’d have admitted that there was no way he could have misidentified Donghae at the ball, not in any mask.
But he let his lips part, invitation as he stared up at Donghae. He would let Donghae take, let Donghae know he wanted with his squeezing hand and parting thighs. And the way his body buzzed as Donghae lowered his head, kissed him, caught him by surprise. The moans as Donghae pressed him down. Not in anger then, but want, exploration. The way their bodies fit together, and the hunger in Donghae’s possession.
“I wasn’t disgusted,” Henry said between kisses. “How else do you think I knew?”
But Donghae tilted his pelvis and the strangled sound was caught in Donghae’s mouth.
“This is what you’d have let me do?” Donghae asked, before pressing kisses to Henry’s neck.
“Or I would’ve done it. Pinned you to the wall, or-“
He gasped, and those were the last words he had breath for as Donghae rocked into him, quicker, faster. He wanted to hiss that they should wait, strip off constricting pants. He wanted Donghae’s skin on his, or for Donghae to turn and let him use his mouth so the could moan together. He hadn’t gotten off in his pants since-
Right then. Right then as Donghae’s hips circling, surging, and the mouth sucking at his neck. He came to the scent of kerosene smoke and Donghae’s sweat, every pulse of his body punctuated by Donghae’s moans. All he could do was hold on, as Donghae shuddered into him.
They rested together, almost frozen in the same position. Pants wet, sticky, cooling. Sweat sliding down his neck, across his chest as he breathed.
And Donghae’s plaintive words had him smiling against all odds.
“You don’t kiss someone like that and leave without a word.”
“I wasn’t expecting it to go that far,” Henry said, his hand plopping on the back of Donghae’s head. “I didn’t know if you’d remember. And I’m not from your world. You know that. When I served you, you were surrounded by silver and sparkling crystal, and I take jobs for money. I don’t own anything that’s gilt. I travel in the cheapest cars on the steam trains.”
Donghae pushed back, eyes keen and cheeks flushed.
“Let me travel with you for a while. Teach me what you know, and I can help you. I have some money, so I can pay my way.’
“Why-“
“I don’t kiss someone like that and-“
“Leave without a word,” Henry finished. “Right. Understood.”
“So can I?”
Donghae’s fingers were plucking at the top button of Henry’s shirt, and Henry wondered if he knew how distracting that was, how suggestive that was.
“I usually work alone, but…” Henry watched as Donghae ran his tongue along his bottom lip, and felt his face go hot. There was that, and there was the fact that alone got pretty…lonely sometimes. And Donghae had shown some tenacity that he could respect. “Next time we do this without clothes.”
“How long did you rent this room?”
“Three days.”
He got only the briefest glimpse of Donghae’s smile before he was being kissed again. Before the three days were up, there would be no more masks and nothing to hide from each other.
***
***
Prompt: Tablo/Eunhyuk Qmi Error code/Bolt and Strike verse. Tablo and Kyu catch Hyuk and Mimi watching porn for pointers.
***
Tablo spotted Kyuhyun in a strange position, paused by a door as though he were listening. And it didn’t take much to make Tablo curious too, since the house was relatively quiet. Kyuhyun raised a finger, pressing it to his lips when he spotted Tablo, and Tablo’s curiosity rose even further. He padded up silently, stopping beside Kyuhyun.
And caught a series of moans from inside the room.
His first thought was that they’d caught someone having some alone time, until he noted the tinny quality of the voice - and the fact that it was an unfamiliar sound.
And then, he heard what Kyuhyun had really been listening to.
“Does he know where that’s been?” Hyukjae asked, sounding insulted.
“I don’t know. This is worse than a horror movie- Oh. I hope they live with a doctor like we do.”
Zhou Mi’s voice. Kyuhyun’s lips were trembling before his whole hand came to cover his face. He could only imagine what they were seeing, and Hyukjae’s voice really told him everything.
An almost wailing moan had them startling, and Zhou Mi’s laughter rang out. “Is that even possible?”
“It looks painful. I’m flexible but I don’t think I can do that.”
“I wonder if Kyuhyun would like that?”
“Did you try tying him up like that last video we saw? Tablo let me-“
Tablo met Kyuhyun’s eyes, horror in both their faces, and they backed away from the door. Sure, he’d been working up to feeling bad about eavesdropping, right up until he was discovering sex practices of Zhou Mi and Kyuhyun, and realizing his and Hyukjae’s weren’t being spared.
“Okay,” Kyuhyun said when they were a decent distance away. “I didn’t hear anything.”
“Me either,” Tablo agreed.
And still they stood there for a moment, minds working.
“Would it be more or less weird if they jerked off together to porn, rather than using it like a playbook?”
Tablo opened his mouth to answer, and realized he didn’t actually know. But noises in the house caused them to part. Tablo had some gathering of himself to do.
***
But he thought all day, until he could pin Hyukjae to their bed. Hyukjae was wiggling, happy at the contact and anticipating an attack when what Tablo wanted was to talk.
“I heard you and Zhou Mi today, talking. During the porn. Just for a minute,” Tablo said, confessing. That wasn’t a secret he was willing to keep.
Hyukjae looked only the slightest bit embarrassed. “Oh?”
“Do you… You don’t have to answer. Do you and Zhou Mi tell each other a lot about the things that you do in bed?”
Hyukjae’s eyebrows rose. “Some. Positions, I guess. New things. Zhou Mi knows Kyuhyun wouldn’t like everything you do, but we share ideas.”
“And Zhou Mi doesn’t tell Kyuhyun-“
“Just us, we swore.”
“And you use porn to get ideas.”
“They do weird stuff,” Hyukjae said, judgement in his voice again. “Sometimes it looks fun. But it’s always better with you.”
Tablo laughed. “Flatterer.”
But at least he knew Zhou Mi wasn’t spreading their sex life to the rest of the safe house. It was enough that Zhou Mi knew, but he also knew that Hyukjae having someone to confide it, share his experiences with - and Zhou Mi too - was a big part of growth.
And Hyukjae at least seemed to know it was weird to share their intimate details with anyone else.
“There are parts of you I don’t want to share with anyone,” Hyukjae murmured, cupping Tablo’s face with one hand, and stroking Tablo’s side.
Tablo grinned. “Tell me more.”
***
Pairings: QMi, Henhae, Blohyuk
Rating: R to be safe
Warnings for: sexual situations
Prompts inside:
Prompt: Qmi going on a date to a haunted house!
Prompt: Kyuhyun finally working up the courage to show Zhou Mi that he is a warlock of some sort.
Prompt: steampunk Donghae/Henry inspired by bals masqués, Henry's violin playing, and this song
Prompt: Tablo/Eunhyuk Qmi Error code/Bolt and Strike verse. Tablo and Kyu catch Hyuk and Mimi watching porn for pointers.
***
Prompt: Qmi going on a date to a haunted house!
***
Zhou Mi loved Halloween, which was one of those cute things that Kyuhyun wasn’t really sure what to do with when it came to his boyfriend. Not because he disliked it, but because Zhou Mi really got into it. Seeing that when a bug flew at Zhou Mi, Zhou Mi flew to Kyuhyun, he was expecting Zhou Mi to be scared of just about anything. But what happened was that Zhou Mi loved the most wicked roller coasters. And maybe he shrieked sometimes, but he loved horror movies too. Basically he thought that Zhou Mi’s adrenaline glands were shot to hell.
But that didn’t make him less cute.
Zhou Mi threatened to make Kyuhyun dress up for Halloween. “Couple costumes” was something that came out of Zhou Mi’s mouth, and made Kyuhyun’s blood run a little cold. The sad thing was, he was pretty sure he’d have agreed if that was what Zhou Mi had ended up wanting. He was drawing the line at having whiskers drawn on his face like some kind of kitten, at least if he was going to be seen in public. Zhou Mi could paint his face in his bedroom as much as he wanted, but he was pretty sure Zhou Mi knew that.
But Zhou Mi, on a spur of the moment dinner date, turned to Kyuhyun with a smile.
“They’re having a haunted house soon,” Zhou Mi said. It was enthusiasm, the kind Kyuhyun mustered for heaping plates of meat waiting to be cooked. “Will you go with me?”
The worst that could happen, he supposed, was that he’d have to carry Zhou Mi through it if he got scared. He liked having Zhou Mi squeezing him during horror movies, so he hid the smirk as he agreed. Plus he paid for dinner.
It was Zhou Mi who bought them tickets into the haunted house. He could feel Zhou Mi’s lower back trembling under his hand as they listened to the creepy music drifting out and waited their turn.
“Are you going to scream?” he murmured, taking in the way Zhou Mi was chewing on his bottom lip. Something he hoped to be doing himself before too long. Nothing was better after a scare than a good roll in bed.
Zhou Mi huffed at him, and reached for Kyuhyun’s hand, lacing their fingers together tightly. “Will you?”
It meant he was laughing when they were let in, the curtain falling behind them and leaving them in almost total darkness with just little glowing strips to light their way.
Sudden laughter had them jerking, wary of things that might jump out at them, but nothing did. They passed scenes of horror, jumped at a ghostly figure that hovered in front of them - just light shining on smoke. Banging sounds, a guy rushing at them with an ax, and more jumps and laughs.
The music quieted as they took a turn, and the glowing exit sign shown up ahead.
Kyuhyun swung Zhou Mi’s hand a bit. “We got out without much proble-eeeeeee.”
A man dressed all in black with a huge bloody chainsaw leaped out in front of them, shouting, “You!”
And Kyuhyun nearly pulled Zhou Mi over backwards he jumped back so far, and the man disappeared with a rusty chuckle as Zhou Mi engulfed him.
“Holy shit.”
“It’s okay,” Zhou Mi crooned. “It was just one of the characters. What was that sound you made?”
His heart was still beating. That was good. And Zhou Mi was laughing at him in the process of comforting him.
“Let’s go,” Zhou Mi said.
He felt like he was one of the walking dead, kind of shellshocked as they got out into the lighter hallway, and then out onto the street.
“Holy shit,” he repeated, balancing his forehead on Zhou Mi’s shoulder as he got his back rubbed. “I was expecting you to freak out.”
“I was ready,” Zhou Mi told him. “I’m a master. You let your guard down!”
“Thanks for reminding me.”
“But it was so cute! You almost dragged me into the next city trying to get away. And that sound you made!”
“Okay, okay! I get it.”
He was pouting, and he knew it, but at least he didn’t feel ready to jump out of his skin any more.
“Were you trying to protect me in dragging me too, or was I just holding on too tight?”
“You were on your own,” Kyuhyun said, laughing and tugging Zhou Mi with him toward the subway.
“I see how it is.”
“Give me more than half a second next time! Though I probably would’ve used you as a shield if I’d had time to think about it.”
“You think I could’ve fought off a chainsaw? Long enough for you to run away huh?”
“Mmm. Food, or home?”
“Quick food, then home,” Zhou Mi suggested. “I’ll show you how a real man protects his boyfriend.”
“By boning him?” Pardon his skepticism.
Zhou Mi lifted his chin, all regal bearing and almost fluffily indignant. “Boning him excellently.”
And Kyuhyun guessed he couldn’t argue with that.
***
***
Prompt: Kyuhyun finally working up the courage to show Zhou Mi that he is a warlock of some sort.
***
The longer Kyuhyun waited, the harder it was.
Sometimes he wondered if he should’ve told Zhou Mi right from the beginning. Maybe on their second date, or on the way home from the noraebang, or after a horror movie.
The problem was, for all that Zhou Mi looked like he stepped out some fantasy world, he didn’t actually believe in magic. He didn’t believe in ghosts. He didn’t even really have many superstitions. “Expect the worst, hope for the best,” was Zhou Mi’s enduring motto. Sometimes shit happened, but you picked up and moved on. And he appreciated that, he really did. Zhou Mi poked him out of his pessimism sometimes and they sort of became each other’s crutch.
He definitely should’ve told Zhou Mi before he fell in love. Or perhaps that was when he absolutely should’ve. The moment he trusted the man grinning at him to deal with all of Kyuhyun’s complicated emotions, should’ve been time to trust him with everything.
The longer Kyuhyun waited, the more the lies built up. When Kyuhyun kept a glass from falling and explained it must’ve been luck. Or when he’d wiped away a ding on Zhou Mi’s precious cell phone saying it must’ve just been a paint mark.
Sometimes it happened in bed, when he was too lazy to reach for the blankets. A soft sigh, and the cloth curled into his fingers so he could cover both of them. Magic was not a means for power, didn’t make him some strange or amazing person. But magic, he could use to protect them. When he smoothed back Zhou Mi’s hair and pressed the tips of their noses together on the pillow and just felt Zhou Mi breathe, felt the life in him glowing. He couldn’t see auras or anything like that, but Zhou Mi had always felt warm and bright. Even when Zhou Mi cuddled against him after a hard day, he felt that. He’d fallen in love with Zhou Mi, smiles, and tears, and frustrating logic. Hard head, and adorable butt. All of him.
Zhou Mi had fallen in love with him, too. He saw it when Zhou Mi looked at him, a spark in his eye that hadn’t been there when they’d met. A certain kind of brightness that was joy in Kyuhyun’s presence. There was also attraction, affection, a love for cuddling. Zhou Mi loved him, no matter how many scars he had, or acne spots, or weird stretch marks from growing too fast, or how hairy his legs were.
Some of those things Zhou Mi even seemed to like, which was weird. But Zhou Mi was weird. And Zhou Mi had fallen in love with a man that wasn’t telling him everything about himself.
They’d been living together for months, when Kyuhyun finally decided he was going to try to tell Zhou Mi. He could not wait his whole life, confess on his deathbed, hide something from Zhou Mi that was so integral to himself forever.
But Zhou Mi, in the two years they’d known each other, the eighteen months they’d been dating, was the longest relationship he’d had. The most important, closest, stable, most healthy relationship in his whole life. The problem was, he’d never told anyone. His parents knew, of course, but there had been no one else he’d let close enough.
“Please believe me. Please don’t be mad,” he whispered to Zhou Mi’s sleeping face.
***
“I need to tell you something,” Kyuhyun said, sitting Zhou Mi down and then sitting in front of him. He needed to see Zhou Mi’s face. “Something really important.”
Zhou Mi’s face was grave, an instantaneous reaction to his words. “Is something wrong?”
“No. No, nothing’s wrong. No one’s sick or dead, and I’m not cheating on you. It’s nothing bad.”
Zhou Mi’s laugh spun out, gripping Kyuhyun’s hands. “Oh, thank goodness. The way you started out, it was like you were going to tell me you’d fallen in love with someone else.”
Maybe in a way. But the “someone else” was magic.
“No. But it’s really important, okay. It’s not something I’ve been keeping from you because I don’t trust you. It’s just that I’ve never told anyone. Ever. And I love you. I need you to know this.”
Zhou Mi’s mouth had turned down again, wondering, and Kyuhyun took in a breath.
“Do you know what a warlock is?”
Zhou Mi’s eyebrows lifted. “Umm. A male witch?”
“Close enough. But someone who practices magic. I’m a warlock. I have magic.” Zhou Mi looked alarmed. “I don’t have skulls stashed somewhere or vials of blood, okay. I’m not in some kind of cult. Just…look.”
He held out his hand so Zhou Mi could see, and called fire to jump in his palm. It flashed and roiled for several seconds, before dissipating.
“Wow! Kuixian, how did you do that?” Zhou Mi asked, taking his hand and turning it over.
“Magic,” Kyuhyun said steadily, and held his hand out to draw the blanket on the other side of Zhou Mi to him. It did, curving over Zhou Mi’s shoulder and into Kyuhyun’s hand. “See?”
“Is there string attached to it? How did you- Kuixian, if you wanted to put on a magic show, you didn’t have to worry me so much. Have you been taking lessons?”
“No,” Kyuhyun said. He tried not to let frustration in. Once Zhou Mi realized, it might be horror and not confusion. He just couldn’t wait. He couldn’t turn back then. “Come with me.”
It was one of the hardest things he knew to do, but it was also the most visual. He took a glass from their cupboard, and handed it to Zhou Mi.
“The glass is fine, right? No cracks, nothing like that. Perfect.”
“Right,” Zhou Mi said, frowning down at it and wondering what reason Kyuhyun was asking for.
“Good. I love you, you know that right? I love you, and this doesn’t change that.” Zhou Mi nodded at him, concerned. Smiling at him as though he were concerned for Kyuhyun’s mental state. Kyuhyun backed away a little bit, and pointed to the sink. “Throw it in there. Break it. As many pieces as you can, please.”
Zhou Mi, still concerned, dropped the glass into the sink. It cracked and shattered into half a dozen pieces and tiny shards. “Okay? Now what?”
Zhou Mi was expecting some trick. He wrapped his arm around Zhou Mi’s waist, pulling him close. And he asked for a kiss, hoping it wouldn’t be the last.
“I love you,” he said. “Now watch.”
He gathered power to his fingertips, and lowered his hand into the sink. The glass pieces rattled without Kyuhyun touching them, and Zhou Mi breathed in sharply. It was almost a glow, not quite, but one by one the pieces fused. Tiny shards melding, big pieces joining again. Until, laying in the sink, was one of the glasses they’d bought together as a couple, whole again. And when Kyuhyun pulled his hand back, it was shaking.
“How did you do that?” Zhou Mi whispered.
“Magic. I told you. Magic. Feel it. It’s not broke any more.”
Zhou Mi did, picking it up, and turning it over. Nothing moved, as it was as whole as the day they’d bought it.
“You never looked away,” Kyuhyun said. “There was no trick. It’s not a joke and I’m not lying to you. It’s magic.”
“That’s not possible.”
“It is. I don’t know how it is. But my parents can do things like this, too. Mend glasses, pull things toward them, light fires. I’m great on a camping trip.”
“Kuixian.”
“I didn’t tell you before because… Because I didn’t want you to freak out, or leave, or think I was crazy. I’m not. I’m just a regular guy who doesn’t have to stoop over to pick up a pen. I- I shouldn’t have waited this long to tell you, but I-“
He’d needed Zhou Mi too much.
“Kuixian, you’re not lying to me. This isn’t a joke. You’re not going to start laughing.”
“I wouldn’t lie about this to you,” Kyuhyun said, his eyes never wavering from Zhou Mi’s. “I would rather cut off my fingers one by one than joke about this.”
“But…”
Zhou Mi wasn’t running, screaming. That was good.
“Come sit with me,” Kyuhyun suggested gently. “Let me tell you.”
If he could just keep Zhou Mi close, keep in contact, maybe Zhou Mi wouldn’t forget who Kyuhyun was in the face of what he could do. And maybe that meant clutching Zhou Mi a little harder than usual and making Zhou Mi squirm.
“You’re really freaked out,” Zhou Mi said, rubbing Kyuhyun’s ribs in a way that he knew calmed Kyuhyun.
“Yeah. I just. I meant it. I’ve never shown anyone. I’ve never told anyone. Not any of my friends, no one. I’ve wanted to tell you for so long, I just…”
“It’s a little different than hiding a disease,” Zhou Mi said carefully. “I’m just still trying to wrap my head around…”
“I don’t think unicorns are real or anything,” Kyuhyun said. “Besides you, I mean.”
One of his nicknames for Zhou Mi, and Zhou Mi laughed before inhaling.
“Could you.. Could you do the fire thing again? I just want to see.”
“Yeah. Here, cup the back of my hand.”
It held him steady from shaking, and with their hands joined, the little lick of fire wavered over Kyuhyun’s palm.
“I almost burned down my closet when I was five, thinking I could get cocky and make a campfire for my toys,” Kyuhyun said, as the fire flickered out. “I couldn’t sit for a week.”
Zhou Mi ran his fingers over Kyuhyun’s palm. “It’s not even hot. But I could feel the heat of the fire.”
“Yeah.”
“Is…Am I dreaming?”
Kyuhyun bit Zhou Mi’s shoulder and had him yelping. No, it wasn’t a dream.
***
Kyuhyun had Zhou Mi reciting back who he was to him a few times over the next days.
“You’re Cho Kyuhyun. You are in love with your laptop. You’re in love with me. You’re my boyfriend. You can make fire and we’ll never have to buy new glasses ever.”
Kyuhyun had nearly had given himself a hernia when Zhou Mi had added the last part.
“You waited a long time to tell me,” Zhou Mi said.
“At first, it was because I didn’t know how long we’d last. And then, I loved you and didn’t want to lose you. I didn’t keep it from you to hurt you.”
“Kuixian.”
“I wanted you to stay with me because you know everything. Not because I was holding back.”
Zhou Mi rested his head on top of Kyuhyun’s, a cuddle posture they’d quite perfected. “I do love you. All of you.”
And Kyuhyun waited for the next part of the confession that Zhou Mi always added.
“I love your laptop, too,” Zhou Mi teased, kissing the side of Kyuhyun’s head.
It made hm smile as he rubbed Zhou Mi’s stomach. “So we’re okay?”
“We’re okay,” Zhou Mi confirmed.
Even if Zhou Mi hadn’t believed in magic, he believed in Kyuhyun. And because Kyuhyun had believed in Zhou Mi? That was enough.
***
***
Prompt: steampunk Donghae/Henry inspired by bals masqués, Henry's violin playing, and this song
***
In two hours the ball would start. In three hours a man would be dead.
All Henry had to do was wait. He’d been there for weeks, posing as a footman as a stable boy. They hadn’t wanted him too near Donghae, for obvious reasons, but with his smile at least he could charm his way through what he didn’t know about a position.
Though he knew he liked shoveling horse manure a lot more than he liked dealing with the demands of humans.
The clock on the facing wall of the ballroom struck the hour, the chorus of bells far louder than the spin of the exposed gears that took up the entire top half of its enclosure. The floor was tile, polished to a shine, and the wall sconces fed oil for light that wouldn’t go out.
Shouldn’t go out.
He dressed carefully. He would not be one of the elaborately dressed guests on the floor in their silk and lace. But he would have a mask, covering half his face. He wouldn’t be recognized, and that was the important thing. But even if he wouldn’t be among the guests, others would. Working as servers, as cleaners. The problem he had was not that they had too few to help, men and women, it was that he didn’t know from where the danger was coming. Was it another server? One of the guests?
It could be a pistol, a knife, or poison. The problem was, even with as many ears as there were, they didn’t know. He watched the lamps being lit, heard the faint ticking of the clock’s minute hand. They’d wait for the cover of dark.
***
The music never stopped. As a performer, Henry was under no scrutiny. He merely bided his time, waiting for his turn to play tunes for the revelers before them. Above them, the hands of the great clock were slow, steady metronome, and the gas lamps had been turned up high so the room was ablaze in light. There were people eating at the long tables heavy with food, some taking a little and wandering to talk, others taking a seat as though it was their private banquet. There were couples and individuals and groups, dancing and reeling on the great center floor. There was alcohol flowing in abundance.
The main feature of this ball, were the masks. Some were small, delicate, and did as little to conceal the identity of the wearer as a pane of glass would. Others were large, feathered or draped in cloth or sparkle. Some covered the whole head, or parts of the face in varying ways. He saw one that looked more of a beak than a mask. But all of them, barring the servers with their plain and simple cloth strips, were elaborate - for the wearers were rich indeed.
And somewhere in the midst, there was a murderer.
The familiar notes of the piano began, and Henry walked up to take his spot. The dancers took their places, and the familiar waltz began. Step, step, slide. The notes from his violin leaping out to dance with revelers. When the piano took over for just a moment, he took his time to sweep the room, before joining in again. He tried not let his apprehension bleed into the tight notes and runs.
He hit the part of the song that was the cue, and focused on the notes flowing out like silk under his bow. The dance slowed, couples gazing at each other, and the sound beneath his bow began to die, drawing the song to a close.
Henry stepped back, let another violinist take his place, and with regret he abandoned the violin in a corner where he’d hidden his second mask - a server’s mask. And in it, he slipped down into the crowd, and toward his goal, the man he’d been tracking for the last half hour.
Donghae.
He moved through the crowd, catching glimpses, avoiding toes and backs and plates of food. The music that followed him lacked emotion, and he didn’t mind that. He had one thing to do, right then, and he had only minutes to accomplish it.
He skirted bodies, and angled himself in. So accidental, so deliberate as he tripped and almost went down, steadying himself with Donghae’s arm.
“Oh. Oh, I’m so sorry,” he said, taking back his hand with the proper amount of deference.
“It’s okay. Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m all right. Are you…”
He saw Donghae’s brows rise behind the mask, scrollwork and birds in pretty wire perching around Donghae’s eyes.
“Oh, it is you,” he said, and pulled the edge of his mask up so that Donghae could see his face unencumbered.
Henry saw the spark of recognition, and pulled Donghae after him. One step completed.
He kept his hand on Donghae’s skin, a connection, like a charm. He needed that. Needed Donghae to trust him even as they pushed through to service hallway, where Henry faced him, breathless and unfeigned.
“I’m sorry.”
“You. You were serving for us for a while.”
“I did,” Henry admitted.
“What’s your name?”
“Henry,” he said, and regretted that he’d used that name the second it left his mouth. If Donghae knew the name he’d used before, it could be ugly. Though he could lie his way out of it.
“Henry,” Donghae repeated. “That’s nice.”
Though his voice sounded distracted, something that made Henry smile as he circled his thumb on the inside of Donghae’s wrist.
“I didn’t think you’d remember me,” Henry said. Hoped. Hoped Donghae would remember him in all the right ways. Like the one night he’d caught Donghae’s eyes and looked down pretending to blush. Only the once, though. More would be cause for wondering.
“I…Yeah. I was sad when you stopped serving. I wondered where you’d gone.”
“The stables, actually. My family had horses, and they needed help, so.”
His breath trembled in as Donghae gripped his hip. “So you were still close.”
“Yeah. I hoped you’d come down. To the stables. Or that I’d get to come back up.”
“You’re here now.”
Donghae’s breath against his lips had his back tensing. He held himself back, had to, until Donghae pressed forward himself.
They needed that distraction, as Donghae kissed him. Pressing up against his mouth, and holding Henry to the wall. He’d expected that, and still his hands balled on Donghae’s shoulders. He was kissing Donghae too, his interest never wavering, never giving reason to pause. But all he was doing was waiting. He wasn’t supposed to have to make Donghae believe for more than a few moments, not stand there and breathe him in.
But he did. Feeling the warmth of Donghae’s neck under his hand and the press of his body. He swallowed a sound as Donghae pressed closer. Any time now, he thought, as Donghae’s tongue slid between his lips. If it had been any other moment, if Donghae had caught him after service in a dark corner and rubbed their hips together - just like that. He gasped, nails digging into his palms to try and keep focused. It would’ve been so much easier if he didn’t want-
Donghae’s lips left his with a loud snap as he was jerked backward. His eyes were full of panic, reaching up to grab at the hands that pulled him. But it was only an instant before a cloth covered his mouth and nose as Henry stepped forward, staying out of the range of Donghae’s struggling feet. After a few breaths, they stopped, and Donghae’s eyelids fluttered closed.
“Sorry,” he said to Donghae, picking Donghae’s mask up off the floor and handing it over. And to the others, “You took long enough. Take him.”
***
With his mask back in place and his focus bolted down, Henry pressed back into the crowd. Not too fast, not causing panic, but taking direction as he went from servers who knew where he was going. He took a tray, making people exclaim when he passed them without letting them sample the food. But he didn’t stop.
The man holding court, his goal. He was surrounded by goblets, trays of food. Any of which could have powder sprinkled on - but could kill so many more. The servers were all dressed alike. If a murderer wanted to blend in…
The servers were silver, but so was the revolver.
The awkward posture drew Henry’s eye as the server’s arm lifted up, the tray tilting.
No one else saw a thing. No one would. It was a professional - he would take down his target in one shot and disappear.
And the gun did go off - as Henry’s knife sank into the man’s soft gut.
And then lights went out.
He abandoned his knife, pulling up his target from the chair and shoving him through the pandemonium. They had thirty seconds to get to an alcove before the gas lamps would come back on..
“My son?” Henry was asked.
“Safe.”
But his father almost hadn’t been.
When the lights came back on, five men were dead. One that Henry killed, and two others killed reaching distance of the chair they’d just abandoned. All three had revolvers. The other two had been targeting the man they’d sent in dressed as Donghae.
Only one had gotten off a shot.
But it would be a masquerade ball no one would ever forget.
***
Henry took his share of the money. It wasn’t as though the danger had gone away, but he wasn’t being paid to keep the family safe for all eternity. They’d had information that an assassination on the family would take place, they’d avoided it. He’d left suggestions on who to hire, how to be safe, and he’d left. He’d spoken to Donghae’s parents, and that was all. It wasn’t as though he’d been sneaking, or attempting to avoid seeing Donghae after Donghae had woken up.
It had been for his own good. The kiss had only been distraction. The words had all been lies.
The dreams of Donghae pressing him into clean straw were only that.
Until he woke, pinned to the bed of a run-down inn. His blanket hand bound him, legs painfully pinning his and arms keeping him from moving. He bleated his alarm against the hand over his mouth, hoping either someone would hear, or he could knock his attacker off guard.
Sometimes drunk men made their way into rooms of unsuspecting travelers, or robbers, or worse. He’d encountered them all.
“Stop fighting. Stop fighting!”
Henry breathed hard through his teeth, startling as he realized he knew that voice.
“What- What are you doing?!”
“I couldn’t risk you shouting when you woke up.”
The pain, the pressure, eased, and Henry reached to rub his arm where it would surely be bruising.
A match crackled to life, lighting the bedside lamp, and illuminating Donghae’s face as the glass globe slipped over it. The inn was too cheap to pay for the gas lamps in almost every home. It was a different kind of light, and it cast the room in shadows as Donghae turned to him.
“I’ve been looking for you.”
Henry sat up, feeling less unstable when he was ready to defend himself. Though he was still at Donghae’s mercy. A quick feel under his pillow revealed the knife he slept with was gone. And Donghae moving revealed it was in his hand.
“You’ve found me,” Henry said. “Why?”
“Henry, is it? If that’s your name?”
“It is.”
“So that wasn’t a lie.”
Perhaps Donghae’s pride had been hurt. Coming to kill someone for hurting his pride was going a bit far, Henry thought, especially given the fact that he’d protected his family.
“I did what I had to do to make sure your family was safe,” Henry said cautiously.
“You could have asked. Told me what was happening.”
“We needed you safe, out of the way so we could focus on protecting your family. They were assassins and two were there only to kill you. Would you have walked away to safety knowing your father was in danger? No.”
“You killed one of them?”
Henry huffed out a breath. “At your father’s back.”
“He didn’t tell me anything.”
And that, Henry could imagine, was a sore point. Far more so than Henry’s lack of telling him.
“It was our suggestion. You’re a grown man. I wanted to see that you made it through the night alive. And you did. Let it go.”
He slid forward, hoping to get his feet on the floor at least. It put him closer to the knife, but more agile. He could more than just roll away.
But as soon as he moved, Donghae did too, the knife clattering to the ground as he grabbed Henry’s shirt with both hands. At least it wasn’t to strangle him, but he wasn’t placing any bets on that not being next.
“I think what you should be saying is thank you,” Henry said, grasping Donghae’s forearms.
“Was taking me out like that just a joke to you, then? Some disgusting kiss just to distract me? How did you even know I-“
“The way you looked at me,” Henry interrupted. “I needed you to remember me, and you kept looking.”
Donghae blew out a breath, letting Henry’s shirt go.
“That’s all?”
That’s all it should’ve been. If he’d said so, maybe Donghae would’ve left. But he’d lied enough in the course of his life, and the revulsion at himself that was curling up Donghae’s lip was too much for him. Of course he didn’t anticipate squashing himself, which was almost what happened when he dragged Donghae onto the bed with him. Only a fortuitous catch by Donghae’s elbow kept Henry’s ribs from being flattened, and even still he wheezed as Donghae panted at him.
“Since you’re here,” Henry said, his voice light. Deceptively so, as he hooked a hand behind Donghae’s neck. “We left something unfinished last time.”
Donghae moved over him, steadying himself as he frowned, searched Henry’s face. If Donghae hadn’t come for that, then he’d made an ass out of himself. But there’d been that moment, in the dark with Donghae’s mouth against him, when he’d wished it wouldn’t have to end. When he’d been dreaming of it in another place, when he could’ve learned every contour of Donghae’s mouth. It’d been too long since he’d taken a lover, and there was something in Donghae’s eyes that had caught him, from the first moment he had caught sight of him across the room. The smile in them, the handsome face, and the lines of his body in his dinner finery.
If he’d been admitting everything, he’d have admitted that there was no way he could have misidentified Donghae at the ball, not in any mask.
But he let his lips part, invitation as he stared up at Donghae. He would let Donghae take, let Donghae know he wanted with his squeezing hand and parting thighs. And the way his body buzzed as Donghae lowered his head, kissed him, caught him by surprise. The moans as Donghae pressed him down. Not in anger then, but want, exploration. The way their bodies fit together, and the hunger in Donghae’s possession.
“I wasn’t disgusted,” Henry said between kisses. “How else do you think I knew?”
But Donghae tilted his pelvis and the strangled sound was caught in Donghae’s mouth.
“This is what you’d have let me do?” Donghae asked, before pressing kisses to Henry’s neck.
“Or I would’ve done it. Pinned you to the wall, or-“
He gasped, and those were the last words he had breath for as Donghae rocked into him, quicker, faster. He wanted to hiss that they should wait, strip off constricting pants. He wanted Donghae’s skin on his, or for Donghae to turn and let him use his mouth so the could moan together. He hadn’t gotten off in his pants since-
Right then. Right then as Donghae’s hips circling, surging, and the mouth sucking at his neck. He came to the scent of kerosene smoke and Donghae’s sweat, every pulse of his body punctuated by Donghae’s moans. All he could do was hold on, as Donghae shuddered into him.
They rested together, almost frozen in the same position. Pants wet, sticky, cooling. Sweat sliding down his neck, across his chest as he breathed.
And Donghae’s plaintive words had him smiling against all odds.
“You don’t kiss someone like that and leave without a word.”
“I wasn’t expecting it to go that far,” Henry said, his hand plopping on the back of Donghae’s head. “I didn’t know if you’d remember. And I’m not from your world. You know that. When I served you, you were surrounded by silver and sparkling crystal, and I take jobs for money. I don’t own anything that’s gilt. I travel in the cheapest cars on the steam trains.”
Donghae pushed back, eyes keen and cheeks flushed.
“Let me travel with you for a while. Teach me what you know, and I can help you. I have some money, so I can pay my way.’
“Why-“
“I don’t kiss someone like that and-“
“Leave without a word,” Henry finished. “Right. Understood.”
“So can I?”
Donghae’s fingers were plucking at the top button of Henry’s shirt, and Henry wondered if he knew how distracting that was, how suggestive that was.
“I usually work alone, but…” Henry watched as Donghae ran his tongue along his bottom lip, and felt his face go hot. There was that, and there was the fact that alone got pretty…lonely sometimes. And Donghae had shown some tenacity that he could respect. “Next time we do this without clothes.”
“How long did you rent this room?”
“Three days.”
He got only the briefest glimpse of Donghae’s smile before he was being kissed again. Before the three days were up, there would be no more masks and nothing to hide from each other.
***
***
Prompt: Tablo/Eunhyuk Qmi Error code/Bolt and Strike verse. Tablo and Kyu catch Hyuk and Mimi watching porn for pointers.
***
Tablo spotted Kyuhyun in a strange position, paused by a door as though he were listening. And it didn’t take much to make Tablo curious too, since the house was relatively quiet. Kyuhyun raised a finger, pressing it to his lips when he spotted Tablo, and Tablo’s curiosity rose even further. He padded up silently, stopping beside Kyuhyun.
And caught a series of moans from inside the room.
His first thought was that they’d caught someone having some alone time, until he noted the tinny quality of the voice - and the fact that it was an unfamiliar sound.
And then, he heard what Kyuhyun had really been listening to.
“Does he know where that’s been?” Hyukjae asked, sounding insulted.
“I don’t know. This is worse than a horror movie- Oh. I hope they live with a doctor like we do.”
Zhou Mi’s voice. Kyuhyun’s lips were trembling before his whole hand came to cover his face. He could only imagine what they were seeing, and Hyukjae’s voice really told him everything.
An almost wailing moan had them startling, and Zhou Mi’s laughter rang out. “Is that even possible?”
“It looks painful. I’m flexible but I don’t think I can do that.”
“I wonder if Kyuhyun would like that?”
“Did you try tying him up like that last video we saw? Tablo let me-“
Tablo met Kyuhyun’s eyes, horror in both their faces, and they backed away from the door. Sure, he’d been working up to feeling bad about eavesdropping, right up until he was discovering sex practices of Zhou Mi and Kyuhyun, and realizing his and Hyukjae’s weren’t being spared.
“Okay,” Kyuhyun said when they were a decent distance away. “I didn’t hear anything.”
“Me either,” Tablo agreed.
And still they stood there for a moment, minds working.
“Would it be more or less weird if they jerked off together to porn, rather than using it like a playbook?”
Tablo opened his mouth to answer, and realized he didn’t actually know. But noises in the house caused them to part. Tablo had some gathering of himself to do.
***
But he thought all day, until he could pin Hyukjae to their bed. Hyukjae was wiggling, happy at the contact and anticipating an attack when what Tablo wanted was to talk.
“I heard you and Zhou Mi today, talking. During the porn. Just for a minute,” Tablo said, confessing. That wasn’t a secret he was willing to keep.
Hyukjae looked only the slightest bit embarrassed. “Oh?”
“Do you… You don’t have to answer. Do you and Zhou Mi tell each other a lot about the things that you do in bed?”
Hyukjae’s eyebrows rose. “Some. Positions, I guess. New things. Zhou Mi knows Kyuhyun wouldn’t like everything you do, but we share ideas.”
“And Zhou Mi doesn’t tell Kyuhyun-“
“Just us, we swore.”
“And you use porn to get ideas.”
“They do weird stuff,” Hyukjae said, judgement in his voice again. “Sometimes it looks fun. But it’s always better with you.”
Tablo laughed. “Flatterer.”
But at least he knew Zhou Mi wasn’t spreading their sex life to the rest of the safe house. It was enough that Zhou Mi knew, but he also knew that Hyukjae having someone to confide it, share his experiences with - and Zhou Mi too - was a big part of growth.
And Hyukjae at least seemed to know it was weird to share their intimate details with anyone else.
“There are parts of you I don’t want to share with anyone,” Hyukjae murmured, cupping Tablo’s face with one hand, and stroking Tablo’s side.
Tablo grinned. “Tell me more.”
***