Super Junior AU; Various Pairings; Love/War
Title: Love/War (22/?)
Fandom: Super Junior AU (Mafia)
Pairings: Siwon/Hankyung/Heechul (Hankyung/Heechul), Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Kangin/Eeteuk, Tablo/Eunhyuk
Pairings in Chapter: Siwon/Hankyung/Heechul, Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi
Word Count: 4,016
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Kim family and the Choi family are the two oldest families in Seoul: where other families have been born, grown, and then fell apart, they remain strong. Unfortunately, they are mortal enemies, and where one lives alongside the law, the other is beyond any control. It's up to the new generation of members to destroy the violence between them - even if it means destroying one family in the process.
A/N: PLEASE DON'T HATE ME ;~; I JUST LIKE ANGST OKAY.
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 / Chapter 12 / Chapter 13 / Chapter 14 / Chapter 15 / Chapter 16 / Chapter 17 / Chapter 18 / Chapter 19 / Chapter 20 / Chapter 21 / Chapter 22
"Hyung?" repeated Siwon, still looking and sounding no less confused.
"What the fuck are you?" asked Heechul, walking into the room. "A broken record?"
"What are you doing here?" asked Siwon, and Heechul rolled his eyes.
"Confinement hasn't made you any more intelligent, has it?" he asked.
"We're here to rescue you," said Hankyung softly, and he missed the way the man, still with his gun to his head, looked at him carefully.
"Rescue me?" Siwon still hadn't moved from the bed. "But I don't understand, why would you-"
"You asked us to believe in you," said Heechul. "You asked us to trust you. So that's what we're doing."
"I thought you would never forgive me," said Siwon, his words tumbling out, as he scrambled to the edge of the bed. "I thought - after what I did - I couldn't forgive myself for the pain I had caused, how could you forgive me?"
He stood in front of Heechul, looking helpless, looking so completely lost, that when Heechul reached out to touch his chest, his hand was shaking slightly.
"I couldn't work out how else to escape," said Siwon, and his hand came up as if to take Heechul's before he dropped his arm back down to his side. "I couldn't work out how to get out of this family and then it all got too much, and I couldn't go back, and-"
"Stop," said Hankyung, and Heechul suddenly pulled Siwon forward and crushed their mouths together, hands fisted in the material of his t-shirt, Siwon hesitating for a second before he kissed back desperately, holding Heechul's arms so tight as to almost leave bruises. Hankyung smiled a little at the sight, and then interrupted.
"Heechul," he said. Heechul waved a hand at him, the other moving up to rest on Siwon's cheek. "Heechul," said Hankyung, louder now. "We have to move, we can have our - reunion later."
"Just so long as we do," said Heechul breathlessly after he had pulled away; Siwon's eyes were closed, and when he opened them, they were wet.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"Apologies later too," said Heechul, and pulled one of Siwon's wardrobes open. "Come on," he said. "You have to pack some essentials, as quickly as you can. Don't bother with clothes or bath things. Just anything that you couldn't live with."
"There is nothing in this house that I couldn't live without," said Siwon seriously, and then, as if on recollection, he spun around and pulled open a drawer, and from that pulled a photo frame; a woman with long dark hair and large eyes, smiling widely, young and carefree. "My mother," he said quietly, seeing Heechul's curious look. Heechul nodded in understanding, and then Siwon was pulling the photograph from the frame and folding into his pocket.
"Come on," said Hankyung. "We'll have to get you out as quickly as possible and into the van. We can't know how long Kibum and Donghae will be."
"Fine," said Siwon tensely.
"Hey," said the guard slowly, and Hankyung glanced back over to him. The man was staring at him. "I know who you are. You're that Chinese guy that we've been trying to get."
There was silence, and then Heechul was bent over with laughter. "Oh my god," he said. "It took him that long. Honestly, I'm beginning to think that taking over the Choi family wouldn't be as hard as we've always thought."
"Never mind that," said Hankyung, fighting back a smile of his own. "We've got to move."
"Hey, Idiot," said Heechul to the guy still being held at gunpoint. "Do you remember the way back to the front entrance?" The man nodded, not aware that he was being made fun of. "Good. Don’t take us that way, take around the back or something."
They ran into no one on the back stairs that they took, and were just about to go out of the side door onto the driveway when suddenly an alarm went off overhead, almost deafening.
"What the fuck did you do?" Heechul screamed at the guard.
"Nothing!" protested the man. "I didn't do anything."
"He's telling the truth," said Siwon, in a tone of experience.
Hankyung was the first to understand the meaning of the alarm ringing out. "Something has happened with Donghae and Kibum," he said.
***
Kibum frowned in confusion, and turned to Donghae. "What?" he asked. "Do you-" And then he broke off, as an idea, awful and horrible, came into his head.
"It was him," said Donghae quietly. "I never knew his name but - it was him."
"What was me, Donghae?" asked Sikyu, amused. "I was the one who took you in, wasn't I? I gave you somewhere to live when your old family no longer wanted you. I fed and clothed you."
"You-" began Donghae.
"Don't talk back," said Sikyu sharply, and Donghae fell silent, eyes going automatically to the floor, head bowed in a pose of submission. Sikyu's smile was both smug and joyous.
"I see my lessons still hold," he said. He moved off from where he was standing by the window and sat down at his desk. "You see, Donghae, I took you in. I gave you somewhere warm to stay. Why shouldn't I take my rewards?"
There was no noise from Donghae.
"It took me almost two years to get you to see how you should act around me," Sikyu continued. "Two years of constant trail, constantly trying to train you - and then just one year of rewards. How is that fair?"
Kibum spoke here, unable to take it any long. "Train? He is not an animal."
Sikyu looked amused at his indignation. "Yes, but he's not a Choi, and therefore there is no difference. He's the nephew of the old Lee family - yes-" he added, seeing Kibum's surprised look, "I'm not stupid, I know who he is - but that family no longer exists. He belongs to me."
"He's a Kim," said Kibum fiercely.
"Is the Kim family not just a home for runaways?" Sikyu evidently found everything Kibum said hilarious. "No, I bought him and I never let him go. Donghae," and here his voice took a sharp turn. "Come to me."
There was a tense moment; then Kibum reached out to take Donghae by the arm, but Donghae was already out of reach, taking mechanical steps towards Sikyu, fast paced, his head turned down still. The expression on his face was one that Kibum had seen too many times; the one that overtook Donghae whenever Kibum was around. Kibum looked at Sikyu's wolfish smile and felt like throwing up.
Sikyu stood up to meet Donghae, and although he was around the same size, he seemed to tower over him, as Donghae seemed to hunch down in expectation of something. "You still belong to me," purred Sikyu. "Don't you, Donghae?" The knuckles of the hand that he placed on Donghae's shoulder were white as he gripped, but his tone was soft, soothing. Donghae was silent. "Answer me," said Sikyu, a little more firmly. Donghae opened his mouth but seemed unable to speak, hands shaking though he seemed unable to move.
"Donghae," said Sikyu in a silky tone, a warning, and he lay his hand on Donghae's cheek. Donghae made a strange, helpless noise, and then, faster than Kibum could blink, the scene had changed. The chair had hit the floor with a bang, and Choi Sikyu lay on the floor, groaning in pain, before he glanced up and froze; Donghae stood over him, his gun held to his head.
"It was you who did this," said Donghae, eyes almost unseeing. "You ruined me. You broke me, in every way that you could think of. I hate you - I don't hate easily, but I hate you, in a way that I could never hate anyone else. You're right, I do still belong to you, because I have never been able to escape all the things that you did to me. But that ends now."
His finger tightened around the trigger, just as Kibum pulled him back - the bullet shot into the wall harmlessly, though Kibum knew that the distinctive noise of a gunshot would bring Choi members running. Donghae struggled to get away to get another shot out. "Donghae!" shouted Kibum, tightening his fingers around Donghae's wrist to cause him to drop the gun. "Donghae, let go, stop it!"
Donghae gave a yell of pain and dropped the gun; it clattered to the floor and Kibum kicked it away to the corner of the room before anyone, especially Choi Sikyu, could pick it up.
"Let me go!" yelled Donghae, struggling against Kibum's hold. "I have to - he - please-" And Kibum punched him.
"What the fuck?" he demanded, shaking a shocked looking Donghae who was holding his jaw. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"He-"
"I know what he did, but are you trying to start a war?” Kibum loosened his grip but didn’t trust Donghae enough to let go completely. “It was - I can’t even imagine - you can’t do this. It’s already bad enough, what we’re doing.”
“I know,” said Donghae, stilling. “I know what doing - that - would cause. It would - but he is there, all the time, always in my head. What he did to me, I didn’t think I can ever escape from it.”
“You can,” said Kibum. “You know that you can - now. Now, now that you know who, you can let it go.”
“I don’t know,” whispered Donghae.
“I do,” said Kibum firmly, and although he didn’t miss the look that Donghae gave him, he ignored it in favour of turning to Sikyu. “We’ll leave now,” he said, quiet now. “I am sorry for the trouble that we have caused you.”
“Leave that boy,” spat Sikyu. “I told you before - he belongs to me.”
“I don’t,” said Donghae, shoulders shaking with the effort of holding himself upright as Sikyu glared at him from the floor. “I don’t belong to you.”
“I have found out my answers,” said Kibum. “I’m sure my friends have found out their own answers. We will leave now. I hope you can overlook this.”
“I will never forget you,” said Sikyu, a sneer of pure hatred. “Your family will never be forgiven.”
Kibum’s expression changed; his glare was almost enough to Sikyu to flinch back, and Kibum saw that snake was nothing more than that. He hid under exclamations of powers and the men at his disposal. Kibum’s lip curled. “If we will never be forgiven,” he said, “then you will never be forgiven. For what you did to Donghae, we will never forgive you.” He smiled coldly. “You would be surprised what our ‘weak’ Kim family is capable of, Choi Sikyu.”
With that, Kibum turned to leave. He was almost at the door before he realised that Donghae wasn’t behind him. He turned around to see that Donghae was still standing over Sikyu, staring at him. “Donghae,” he said softly, but Donghae didn’t turn to face him.
“Why?” asked Donghae, voice just a whisper. Sikyu sneered at him.
“Because I could,” he said.
“Why me?” Donghae asked.
Sikyu seemed confused for a second, the question foreign to him. “Why you?” he asked. “Because you looked like you would be easier to break than your cousin.”
Donghae let out a shaky breath before he turned to Kibum, seemingly unable to speak. “Come on,” said Kibum. “Let’s go.”
They were running down the corridor to the front entrance when the alarms went off.
***
Kyuhyun sat sharply upright at the sudden blare from the main house; Zhou Mi jerked awake and hit his head off the side of the van. “What’s going on?” he asked, rubbing at his head.
“I don’t know,” said Kyuhyun cautiously from the front passenger seat. “That can’t be good though.”
“Do you think they’ve been found out?” Zhou Mi clambered over to hang over the back of Kyuhyun’s seat to look out of the window at the Choi members running towards the main house; no one was paying any attention to the van. Zhou Mi rested his cheek on the top of Kyuhyun’s head for a moment before he pulled back and went to the end doors of the van and opened them slowly.
“What are you doing?” asked Kyuhyun, twisting in his chair to look back at him. “You should keep the doors closed, it will draw attention to us.”
“What if they need to get in quickly?” asked Zhou Mi.
“Keep them closed for now,” decided Kyuhyun. “We’ll open them when we see anyone coming.”
“Well, that would be now,” said Zhou Mi, as at that second, Hankyung and Heechul came sprinting around the corner - and then Zhou Mi realised that the person running with them was Siwon. He hadn’t recognised him; he had grown thin, his hair longer than it had been, but as he got nearer, Zhou Mi noted the way that he hadn’t changed, not really, even with the fear on his face.
Siwon climbed into the back of the van, while Hankyung and Heechul ran to the front, Hankyung wrenching the door to the driver’s seat open and climbing in quickly, while Heechul hissed at Kyuhyun; “Get out, move.” Kyuhyun obeyed, choosing not to argue with Heechul when he was clearly stressed out. Heechul took his place, and then looked back and paused.
“Where’s Kibum and Donghae?” he asked.
“They aren’t back yet,” said Zhou Mi tensely as Kyuhyun joined him and Siwon in the back of the van.
“Fuck,” said Heechul, and lay his head on the steering wheel. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“Something has happened to them,” said Hankyung quietly.
“I didn’t realise - why were they here too?” asked Siwon, eyes wide.
“They wanted to come,” said Hankyung.
“But - if something’s happened to them, it will be my fault.”
“It’s got nothing to do with you,” said Heechul fiercely. “They knew the risks, they knew what could happen.”
“Ah!” said Zhou Mi, who had been watching from the open door what was happening up at the house. The grand entrance had just been thrown open, and Donghae and Kibum were running down the front stairs towards them - but then the doors were opened again, and Choi members were shooting down at them.
“Oh, fuck,” said Heechul, and Hankyung started the engine. “Get the door open!” he yelled at Zhou Mi. “It has to be open for them.”
Kibum was shouting something as he neared, but under the volley of gunshots, they couldn’t make it out. Zhou Mi threw open the doors, and Siwon went near to the door to help Kibum and Donghae in. For a moment, he looked up at the main entrance, and saw his father standing there, watching the proceedings with an angry expression. He moved his hand, and then the bullets were directly for Kibum, and Siwon snatched Kyuhyun’s own gun from him and began to fire on the men firing on Kibum.
He saw his father look towards the van then, watched as he realised that it was Siwon who was firing on his own family, and watched as his eyes narrowed and he directed the gunshots towards the van, into the van itself.
“Shit!” cried Kyuhyun, and tried to pull Zhou Mi back inside, but Zhou Mi fought back against him in order to stay where he could be of use. Siwon moved back inside, only going to the doors to do his best at holding back the onslaught, but one man couldn’t do very much against the Choi family - members of whom were running after Kibum and Donghae, and seemed to be gaining on them.
“Oh fuck.” Heechul was staring at them in the rear view mirror. “Oh fuck, oh fuck. We can’t - we’re all going to get caught at this rate.”
“We can’t leave them,” said Zhou Mi, voice high with fear.
“Of course we can’t,” snapped Heechul, but then it didn’t matter anyway because Donghae was at the doors without anyone realising it, and Siwon and Kyuhyun were pulling him in. There was something desperate in the way he climbed in, almost wanting to go fast than Siwon and Kyuhyun could help him in, and then Kibum was there, Zhou Mi pulling him in frantically as the men outside realised that they were going to get away. The bullets increased ten-fold, and Kyuhyun saw out of the corner of his eye that Zhou Mi stumbled slightly and then Kibum was in the van and pushing Zhou Mi back out of the doors and Siwon slammed them shut - and Hankyung took off for the front gates with a screech of tyres.
Donghae sat down in the corner of the van, shaking all over but going unnoticed. Kibum sat down quietly next to him. “Don’t worry,” he said. “He can’t have you now.” Donghae looked at him with wide eyes but didn’t speak.
Kyuhyun pulled a shocked looking Zhou Mi down onto the seat next to them as the van pulled through the gates that registered the number on the plate and opened for them; behind them the cars of the Choi family roared into life, and Heechul cursed loudly and Hankyung put his foot down. They pulled out into a busy road, but they could do nothing else; they didn’t know the Choi side of the city well enough to take any short cuts that might have been available to them. All they could do was take the main roads and hope for the best.
They hadn’t got very far when the Choi family behind them started to shoot at them.
“What the fuck are they doing!” yelled Hankyung, swerving slightly as a bullet thudded into the metal at the back of the van - metal that was, thankfully, bullet proof. “This is in the middle of a busy street, they could hit anyone!”
“You think the Choi family cares about that?” shot back Heechul, and began to wind the window down. Siwon stood up and stumbled over to the back of Heechul’s chair, holding onto it to keep himself upright.
“What are you doing?” Hankyung asked Heechul nervously.
“Hyung?” said Siwon. “Hyung, I just wanted to say, thank you for-”
“Not the right moment, Siwon!” said Hankyung in a sort of screech, as Heechul finally got the window open and stuck the top half of his body out to begin shooting at the cars behind them.
“What the fuck!” screamed Hankyung, taking one hand off the steering wheel to try to pull at Heechul before the car swerved and he gripped it again. “Heechul, get the fuck back in the car, I cannot drive with you hanging out the window like that!” Heechul ignored him. “HEECHUL GET THE FUCK IN THE CAR!”
“Eh, Ge?” Siwon looked a little lost. “Ge, you’re speak-”
Heechul twisted around to glare at Hankyung. “What?” he screamed back. “You stupid fucking idiot, speak Korean!”
“Siwon!” yelled Hankyung, trying desperately to keep his eyes on the road.
“He says get back in the car, hyung,” said Siwon to Heechul.
“Tell him he’s an idiot,” retorted Heechul, and fired a round of bullets off.
“Hyung!” said Siwon forcefully, and reached forward and hauled Heechul back into the car. Heechul hit out at him, but Siwon wrapped his arms around his shoulders and then used that to keep himself upright in the moving vehicle. Heechul struggled but was unable to move. Hankyung sighed.
“Thank, Siwon,” he said, and suddenly they gained a bit of speed, and he could recognise buildings that seemed to suggest that they were coming closer to the division of the two territories.
“Why did I rescue you again?” asked Heechul, tipping his head back to glare at Siwon. “God, I should fucking bite you, just to make you let go.”
“I hope my story will be what you want to hear,” said Siwon quietly, and Heechul was silent for a moment, so that the only sound was of the bullets still hammering on the back of the van, everyone glancing at the doors with some worry. “There are some - it’s not as clean cut or innocent as you might think it is.”
“Don’t worry,” said Heechul, and when he smirked there was something more of a smile in there. “We wouldn’t have come for you if we didn’t know that you had something to tell us.”
“Hey, Kui Xian,” said Zhou Mi quietly, and when Kyuhyun looked over at him, he was pale and clutching at his side with his hand. Kyuhyun smiled reassuringly at him.
“It’s going to be fine,” he said, motioning to Hankyung. Hankyung was admittedly one of the best drivers in the entire family, it was just that Heechul liked driving, so he never actually did it. Zhou Mi smiled softly.
“Kui Xian,” he said, voice so quiet that Kyuhyun almost couldn’t hear him. “Remember all those times when you said that I was a girl who couldn’t keep quiet when I was hurt?”
“Yeah?” Kyuhyun was just confused by the conversation topic.
Zhou Mi didn’t say anything else; his smile became slightly strained as he removed his hand from his side to reveal it being stained with the bright red blood that flowed from a wound there. With the black material of his suit pulled over, it had been impossible to see that he had been injured, and for a second Kyuhyun was frozen in shock.
He moved when Zhou Mi fell forwards as his eyes fluttered shut, reaching forward to pull him close to him as they collapsed onto the floor of the van together, Zhou Mi unconscious. “Mi?” said Kyuhyun, voice tight with fear. He shook him, just slightly. “Mimi, wake the fuck up!”
This attracted the attention of Kibum, who had been sitting quietly, not appearing to notice the sounds of the gunshots or the screeching of tyres as Hankyung tried desperately to lose the people who followed them - much like Donghae had been doing. “What’s wrong?” asked Kibum sharply.
Kyuhyun ignored him. “Mimi!” he shouted, shaking him harder; Zhou Mi’s head fell against his chest. “Mi!”
“We’re in the middle of a car chase!” yelled Heechul from the front. “Kyuhyun, stop yelling!”
“He’s been shot,” said Kyuhyun, voice hoarse, and there was a pause before Kibum was next to him, pushing him aside to look at Zhou Mi. Kyuhyun understood his urgency, but not enough to forgive him for it; he moved just a little so that Kibum could look but not enough to break the contact.
“He didn’t say anything,” he said. “Why didn’t he say anything? I wasn’t - god, all that arguing and I almost-”
“He’s going to be fine,” said Kibum forcefully, trying to pull Zhou Mi’s jacket off. “Stop talking, okay?”
Siwon still stood behind Heechul’s seat, holding on, while Heechul stared over the top, kneeling on his chair, their faces white as they took in what was happening. Then, with a sinking heart, Heechul realised that they were slowing down.
“Zhou Mi?” Hankyung called in terrified sounding Chinese. “Zhou Mi, what’s going on?”
Heechul was immediately pressed against his side, a hand on the back of his neck, murmuring into his ear. “Hey, baby, just keep driving, okay? Seasoning’s fine, he’s going to be fine, so just keep driving. Take a detour to the hospital, it’s neutral enough to be safe and we’ll get him checked out, okay, so just keep driving.”
Siwon was at his other side, muttering comfortingly in Chinese. Hankyung, although his knuckles were white where he gripped the steering wheel, sped the car up to a speed until they were going faster than they had been previously.
Kibum worked furiously at stopping the blood from Zhou Mi’s side; Kyuhyun sat bent over Zhou Mi’s head, biting his lip against all the things that threatened to spill out; Donghae sat curled up on one of the benches along the side of the van, eyes terrified.
Outside, the bullets hammered off the metal.
Fandom: Super Junior AU (Mafia)
Pairings: Siwon/Hankyung/Heechul (Hankyung/Heechul), Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Kangin/Eeteuk, Tablo/Eunhyuk
Pairings in Chapter: Siwon/Hankyung/Heechul, Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi
Word Count: 4,016
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Kim family and the Choi family are the two oldest families in Seoul: where other families have been born, grown, and then fell apart, they remain strong. Unfortunately, they are mortal enemies, and where one lives alongside the law, the other is beyond any control. It's up to the new generation of members to destroy the violence between them - even if it means destroying one family in the process.
A/N: PLEASE DON'T HATE ME ;~; I JUST LIKE ANGST OKAY.
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 / Chapter 12 / Chapter 13 / Chapter 14 / Chapter 15 / Chapter 16 / Chapter 17 / Chapter 18 / Chapter 19 / Chapter 20 / Chapter 21 / Chapter 22
"Hyung?" repeated Siwon, still looking and sounding no less confused.
"What the fuck are you?" asked Heechul, walking into the room. "A broken record?"
"What are you doing here?" asked Siwon, and Heechul rolled his eyes.
"Confinement hasn't made you any more intelligent, has it?" he asked.
"We're here to rescue you," said Hankyung softly, and he missed the way the man, still with his gun to his head, looked at him carefully.
"Rescue me?" Siwon still hadn't moved from the bed. "But I don't understand, why would you-"
"You asked us to believe in you," said Heechul. "You asked us to trust you. So that's what we're doing."
"I thought you would never forgive me," said Siwon, his words tumbling out, as he scrambled to the edge of the bed. "I thought - after what I did - I couldn't forgive myself for the pain I had caused, how could you forgive me?"
He stood in front of Heechul, looking helpless, looking so completely lost, that when Heechul reached out to touch his chest, his hand was shaking slightly.
"I couldn't work out how else to escape," said Siwon, and his hand came up as if to take Heechul's before he dropped his arm back down to his side. "I couldn't work out how to get out of this family and then it all got too much, and I couldn't go back, and-"
"Stop," said Hankyung, and Heechul suddenly pulled Siwon forward and crushed their mouths together, hands fisted in the material of his t-shirt, Siwon hesitating for a second before he kissed back desperately, holding Heechul's arms so tight as to almost leave bruises. Hankyung smiled a little at the sight, and then interrupted.
"Heechul," he said. Heechul waved a hand at him, the other moving up to rest on Siwon's cheek. "Heechul," said Hankyung, louder now. "We have to move, we can have our - reunion later."
"Just so long as we do," said Heechul breathlessly after he had pulled away; Siwon's eyes were closed, and when he opened them, they were wet.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"Apologies later too," said Heechul, and pulled one of Siwon's wardrobes open. "Come on," he said. "You have to pack some essentials, as quickly as you can. Don't bother with clothes or bath things. Just anything that you couldn't live with."
"There is nothing in this house that I couldn't live without," said Siwon seriously, and then, as if on recollection, he spun around and pulled open a drawer, and from that pulled a photo frame; a woman with long dark hair and large eyes, smiling widely, young and carefree. "My mother," he said quietly, seeing Heechul's curious look. Heechul nodded in understanding, and then Siwon was pulling the photograph from the frame and folding into his pocket.
"Come on," said Hankyung. "We'll have to get you out as quickly as possible and into the van. We can't know how long Kibum and Donghae will be."
"Fine," said Siwon tensely.
"Hey," said the guard slowly, and Hankyung glanced back over to him. The man was staring at him. "I know who you are. You're that Chinese guy that we've been trying to get."
There was silence, and then Heechul was bent over with laughter. "Oh my god," he said. "It took him that long. Honestly, I'm beginning to think that taking over the Choi family wouldn't be as hard as we've always thought."
"Never mind that," said Hankyung, fighting back a smile of his own. "We've got to move."
"Hey, Idiot," said Heechul to the guy still being held at gunpoint. "Do you remember the way back to the front entrance?" The man nodded, not aware that he was being made fun of. "Good. Don’t take us that way, take around the back or something."
They ran into no one on the back stairs that they took, and were just about to go out of the side door onto the driveway when suddenly an alarm went off overhead, almost deafening.
"What the fuck did you do?" Heechul screamed at the guard.
"Nothing!" protested the man. "I didn't do anything."
"He's telling the truth," said Siwon, in a tone of experience.
Hankyung was the first to understand the meaning of the alarm ringing out. "Something has happened with Donghae and Kibum," he said.
***
Kibum frowned in confusion, and turned to Donghae. "What?" he asked. "Do you-" And then he broke off, as an idea, awful and horrible, came into his head.
"It was him," said Donghae quietly. "I never knew his name but - it was him."
"What was me, Donghae?" asked Sikyu, amused. "I was the one who took you in, wasn't I? I gave you somewhere to live when your old family no longer wanted you. I fed and clothed you."
"You-" began Donghae.
"Don't talk back," said Sikyu sharply, and Donghae fell silent, eyes going automatically to the floor, head bowed in a pose of submission. Sikyu's smile was both smug and joyous.
"I see my lessons still hold," he said. He moved off from where he was standing by the window and sat down at his desk. "You see, Donghae, I took you in. I gave you somewhere warm to stay. Why shouldn't I take my rewards?"
There was no noise from Donghae.
"It took me almost two years to get you to see how you should act around me," Sikyu continued. "Two years of constant trail, constantly trying to train you - and then just one year of rewards. How is that fair?"
Kibum spoke here, unable to take it any long. "Train? He is not an animal."
Sikyu looked amused at his indignation. "Yes, but he's not a Choi, and therefore there is no difference. He's the nephew of the old Lee family - yes-" he added, seeing Kibum's surprised look, "I'm not stupid, I know who he is - but that family no longer exists. He belongs to me."
"He's a Kim," said Kibum fiercely.
"Is the Kim family not just a home for runaways?" Sikyu evidently found everything Kibum said hilarious. "No, I bought him and I never let him go. Donghae," and here his voice took a sharp turn. "Come to me."
There was a tense moment; then Kibum reached out to take Donghae by the arm, but Donghae was already out of reach, taking mechanical steps towards Sikyu, fast paced, his head turned down still. The expression on his face was one that Kibum had seen too many times; the one that overtook Donghae whenever Kibum was around. Kibum looked at Sikyu's wolfish smile and felt like throwing up.
Sikyu stood up to meet Donghae, and although he was around the same size, he seemed to tower over him, as Donghae seemed to hunch down in expectation of something. "You still belong to me," purred Sikyu. "Don't you, Donghae?" The knuckles of the hand that he placed on Donghae's shoulder were white as he gripped, but his tone was soft, soothing. Donghae was silent. "Answer me," said Sikyu, a little more firmly. Donghae opened his mouth but seemed unable to speak, hands shaking though he seemed unable to move.
"Donghae," said Sikyu in a silky tone, a warning, and he lay his hand on Donghae's cheek. Donghae made a strange, helpless noise, and then, faster than Kibum could blink, the scene had changed. The chair had hit the floor with a bang, and Choi Sikyu lay on the floor, groaning in pain, before he glanced up and froze; Donghae stood over him, his gun held to his head.
"It was you who did this," said Donghae, eyes almost unseeing. "You ruined me. You broke me, in every way that you could think of. I hate you - I don't hate easily, but I hate you, in a way that I could never hate anyone else. You're right, I do still belong to you, because I have never been able to escape all the things that you did to me. But that ends now."
His finger tightened around the trigger, just as Kibum pulled him back - the bullet shot into the wall harmlessly, though Kibum knew that the distinctive noise of a gunshot would bring Choi members running. Donghae struggled to get away to get another shot out. "Donghae!" shouted Kibum, tightening his fingers around Donghae's wrist to cause him to drop the gun. "Donghae, let go, stop it!"
Donghae gave a yell of pain and dropped the gun; it clattered to the floor and Kibum kicked it away to the corner of the room before anyone, especially Choi Sikyu, could pick it up.
"Let me go!" yelled Donghae, struggling against Kibum's hold. "I have to - he - please-" And Kibum punched him.
"What the fuck?" he demanded, shaking a shocked looking Donghae who was holding his jaw. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"He-"
"I know what he did, but are you trying to start a war?” Kibum loosened his grip but didn’t trust Donghae enough to let go completely. “It was - I can’t even imagine - you can’t do this. It’s already bad enough, what we’re doing.”
“I know,” said Donghae, stilling. “I know what doing - that - would cause. It would - but he is there, all the time, always in my head. What he did to me, I didn’t think I can ever escape from it.”
“You can,” said Kibum. “You know that you can - now. Now, now that you know who, you can let it go.”
“I don’t know,” whispered Donghae.
“I do,” said Kibum firmly, and although he didn’t miss the look that Donghae gave him, he ignored it in favour of turning to Sikyu. “We’ll leave now,” he said, quiet now. “I am sorry for the trouble that we have caused you.”
“Leave that boy,” spat Sikyu. “I told you before - he belongs to me.”
“I don’t,” said Donghae, shoulders shaking with the effort of holding himself upright as Sikyu glared at him from the floor. “I don’t belong to you.”
“I have found out my answers,” said Kibum. “I’m sure my friends have found out their own answers. We will leave now. I hope you can overlook this.”
“I will never forget you,” said Sikyu, a sneer of pure hatred. “Your family will never be forgiven.”
Kibum’s expression changed; his glare was almost enough to Sikyu to flinch back, and Kibum saw that snake was nothing more than that. He hid under exclamations of powers and the men at his disposal. Kibum’s lip curled. “If we will never be forgiven,” he said, “then you will never be forgiven. For what you did to Donghae, we will never forgive you.” He smiled coldly. “You would be surprised what our ‘weak’ Kim family is capable of, Choi Sikyu.”
With that, Kibum turned to leave. He was almost at the door before he realised that Donghae wasn’t behind him. He turned around to see that Donghae was still standing over Sikyu, staring at him. “Donghae,” he said softly, but Donghae didn’t turn to face him.
“Why?” asked Donghae, voice just a whisper. Sikyu sneered at him.
“Because I could,” he said.
“Why me?” Donghae asked.
Sikyu seemed confused for a second, the question foreign to him. “Why you?” he asked. “Because you looked like you would be easier to break than your cousin.”
Donghae let out a shaky breath before he turned to Kibum, seemingly unable to speak. “Come on,” said Kibum. “Let’s go.”
They were running down the corridor to the front entrance when the alarms went off.
***
Kyuhyun sat sharply upright at the sudden blare from the main house; Zhou Mi jerked awake and hit his head off the side of the van. “What’s going on?” he asked, rubbing at his head.
“I don’t know,” said Kyuhyun cautiously from the front passenger seat. “That can’t be good though.”
“Do you think they’ve been found out?” Zhou Mi clambered over to hang over the back of Kyuhyun’s seat to look out of the window at the Choi members running towards the main house; no one was paying any attention to the van. Zhou Mi rested his cheek on the top of Kyuhyun’s head for a moment before he pulled back and went to the end doors of the van and opened them slowly.
“What are you doing?” asked Kyuhyun, twisting in his chair to look back at him. “You should keep the doors closed, it will draw attention to us.”
“What if they need to get in quickly?” asked Zhou Mi.
“Keep them closed for now,” decided Kyuhyun. “We’ll open them when we see anyone coming.”
“Well, that would be now,” said Zhou Mi, as at that second, Hankyung and Heechul came sprinting around the corner - and then Zhou Mi realised that the person running with them was Siwon. He hadn’t recognised him; he had grown thin, his hair longer than it had been, but as he got nearer, Zhou Mi noted the way that he hadn’t changed, not really, even with the fear on his face.
Siwon climbed into the back of the van, while Hankyung and Heechul ran to the front, Hankyung wrenching the door to the driver’s seat open and climbing in quickly, while Heechul hissed at Kyuhyun; “Get out, move.” Kyuhyun obeyed, choosing not to argue with Heechul when he was clearly stressed out. Heechul took his place, and then looked back and paused.
“Where’s Kibum and Donghae?” he asked.
“They aren’t back yet,” said Zhou Mi tensely as Kyuhyun joined him and Siwon in the back of the van.
“Fuck,” said Heechul, and lay his head on the steering wheel. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“Something has happened to them,” said Hankyung quietly.
“I didn’t realise - why were they here too?” asked Siwon, eyes wide.
“They wanted to come,” said Hankyung.
“But - if something’s happened to them, it will be my fault.”
“It’s got nothing to do with you,” said Heechul fiercely. “They knew the risks, they knew what could happen.”
“Ah!” said Zhou Mi, who had been watching from the open door what was happening up at the house. The grand entrance had just been thrown open, and Donghae and Kibum were running down the front stairs towards them - but then the doors were opened again, and Choi members were shooting down at them.
“Oh, fuck,” said Heechul, and Hankyung started the engine. “Get the door open!” he yelled at Zhou Mi. “It has to be open for them.”
Kibum was shouting something as he neared, but under the volley of gunshots, they couldn’t make it out. Zhou Mi threw open the doors, and Siwon went near to the door to help Kibum and Donghae in. For a moment, he looked up at the main entrance, and saw his father standing there, watching the proceedings with an angry expression. He moved his hand, and then the bullets were directly for Kibum, and Siwon snatched Kyuhyun’s own gun from him and began to fire on the men firing on Kibum.
He saw his father look towards the van then, watched as he realised that it was Siwon who was firing on his own family, and watched as his eyes narrowed and he directed the gunshots towards the van, into the van itself.
“Shit!” cried Kyuhyun, and tried to pull Zhou Mi back inside, but Zhou Mi fought back against him in order to stay where he could be of use. Siwon moved back inside, only going to the doors to do his best at holding back the onslaught, but one man couldn’t do very much against the Choi family - members of whom were running after Kibum and Donghae, and seemed to be gaining on them.
“Oh fuck.” Heechul was staring at them in the rear view mirror. “Oh fuck, oh fuck. We can’t - we’re all going to get caught at this rate.”
“We can’t leave them,” said Zhou Mi, voice high with fear.
“Of course we can’t,” snapped Heechul, but then it didn’t matter anyway because Donghae was at the doors without anyone realising it, and Siwon and Kyuhyun were pulling him in. There was something desperate in the way he climbed in, almost wanting to go fast than Siwon and Kyuhyun could help him in, and then Kibum was there, Zhou Mi pulling him in frantically as the men outside realised that they were going to get away. The bullets increased ten-fold, and Kyuhyun saw out of the corner of his eye that Zhou Mi stumbled slightly and then Kibum was in the van and pushing Zhou Mi back out of the doors and Siwon slammed them shut - and Hankyung took off for the front gates with a screech of tyres.
Donghae sat down in the corner of the van, shaking all over but going unnoticed. Kibum sat down quietly next to him. “Don’t worry,” he said. “He can’t have you now.” Donghae looked at him with wide eyes but didn’t speak.
Kyuhyun pulled a shocked looking Zhou Mi down onto the seat next to them as the van pulled through the gates that registered the number on the plate and opened for them; behind them the cars of the Choi family roared into life, and Heechul cursed loudly and Hankyung put his foot down. They pulled out into a busy road, but they could do nothing else; they didn’t know the Choi side of the city well enough to take any short cuts that might have been available to them. All they could do was take the main roads and hope for the best.
They hadn’t got very far when the Choi family behind them started to shoot at them.
“What the fuck are they doing!” yelled Hankyung, swerving slightly as a bullet thudded into the metal at the back of the van - metal that was, thankfully, bullet proof. “This is in the middle of a busy street, they could hit anyone!”
“You think the Choi family cares about that?” shot back Heechul, and began to wind the window down. Siwon stood up and stumbled over to the back of Heechul’s chair, holding onto it to keep himself upright.
“What are you doing?” Hankyung asked Heechul nervously.
“Hyung?” said Siwon. “Hyung, I just wanted to say, thank you for-”
“Not the right moment, Siwon!” said Hankyung in a sort of screech, as Heechul finally got the window open and stuck the top half of his body out to begin shooting at the cars behind them.
“What the fuck!” screamed Hankyung, taking one hand off the steering wheel to try to pull at Heechul before the car swerved and he gripped it again. “Heechul, get the fuck back in the car, I cannot drive with you hanging out the window like that!” Heechul ignored him. “HEECHUL GET THE FUCK IN THE CAR!”
“Eh, Ge?” Siwon looked a little lost. “Ge, you’re speak-”
Heechul twisted around to glare at Hankyung. “What?” he screamed back. “You stupid fucking idiot, speak Korean!”
“Siwon!” yelled Hankyung, trying desperately to keep his eyes on the road.
“He says get back in the car, hyung,” said Siwon to Heechul.
“Tell him he’s an idiot,” retorted Heechul, and fired a round of bullets off.
“Hyung!” said Siwon forcefully, and reached forward and hauled Heechul back into the car. Heechul hit out at him, but Siwon wrapped his arms around his shoulders and then used that to keep himself upright in the moving vehicle. Heechul struggled but was unable to move. Hankyung sighed.
“Thank, Siwon,” he said, and suddenly they gained a bit of speed, and he could recognise buildings that seemed to suggest that they were coming closer to the division of the two territories.
“Why did I rescue you again?” asked Heechul, tipping his head back to glare at Siwon. “God, I should fucking bite you, just to make you let go.”
“I hope my story will be what you want to hear,” said Siwon quietly, and Heechul was silent for a moment, so that the only sound was of the bullets still hammering on the back of the van, everyone glancing at the doors with some worry. “There are some - it’s not as clean cut or innocent as you might think it is.”
“Don’t worry,” said Heechul, and when he smirked there was something more of a smile in there. “We wouldn’t have come for you if we didn’t know that you had something to tell us.”
“Hey, Kui Xian,” said Zhou Mi quietly, and when Kyuhyun looked over at him, he was pale and clutching at his side with his hand. Kyuhyun smiled reassuringly at him.
“It’s going to be fine,” he said, motioning to Hankyung. Hankyung was admittedly one of the best drivers in the entire family, it was just that Heechul liked driving, so he never actually did it. Zhou Mi smiled softly.
“Kui Xian,” he said, voice so quiet that Kyuhyun almost couldn’t hear him. “Remember all those times when you said that I was a girl who couldn’t keep quiet when I was hurt?”
“Yeah?” Kyuhyun was just confused by the conversation topic.
Zhou Mi didn’t say anything else; his smile became slightly strained as he removed his hand from his side to reveal it being stained with the bright red blood that flowed from a wound there. With the black material of his suit pulled over, it had been impossible to see that he had been injured, and for a second Kyuhyun was frozen in shock.
He moved when Zhou Mi fell forwards as his eyes fluttered shut, reaching forward to pull him close to him as they collapsed onto the floor of the van together, Zhou Mi unconscious. “Mi?” said Kyuhyun, voice tight with fear. He shook him, just slightly. “Mimi, wake the fuck up!”
This attracted the attention of Kibum, who had been sitting quietly, not appearing to notice the sounds of the gunshots or the screeching of tyres as Hankyung tried desperately to lose the people who followed them - much like Donghae had been doing. “What’s wrong?” asked Kibum sharply.
Kyuhyun ignored him. “Mimi!” he shouted, shaking him harder; Zhou Mi’s head fell against his chest. “Mi!”
“We’re in the middle of a car chase!” yelled Heechul from the front. “Kyuhyun, stop yelling!”
“He’s been shot,” said Kyuhyun, voice hoarse, and there was a pause before Kibum was next to him, pushing him aside to look at Zhou Mi. Kyuhyun understood his urgency, but not enough to forgive him for it; he moved just a little so that Kibum could look but not enough to break the contact.
“He didn’t say anything,” he said. “Why didn’t he say anything? I wasn’t - god, all that arguing and I almost-”
“He’s going to be fine,” said Kibum forcefully, trying to pull Zhou Mi’s jacket off. “Stop talking, okay?”
Siwon still stood behind Heechul’s seat, holding on, while Heechul stared over the top, kneeling on his chair, their faces white as they took in what was happening. Then, with a sinking heart, Heechul realised that they were slowing down.
“Zhou Mi?” Hankyung called in terrified sounding Chinese. “Zhou Mi, what’s going on?”
Heechul was immediately pressed against his side, a hand on the back of his neck, murmuring into his ear. “Hey, baby, just keep driving, okay? Seasoning’s fine, he’s going to be fine, so just keep driving. Take a detour to the hospital, it’s neutral enough to be safe and we’ll get him checked out, okay, so just keep driving.”
Siwon was at his other side, muttering comfortingly in Chinese. Hankyung, although his knuckles were white where he gripped the steering wheel, sped the car up to a speed until they were going faster than they had been previously.
Kibum worked furiously at stopping the blood from Zhou Mi’s side; Kyuhyun sat bent over Zhou Mi’s head, biting his lip against all the things that threatened to spill out; Donghae sat curled up on one of the benches along the side of the van, eyes terrified.
Outside, the bullets hammered off the metal.