Unlock for taedaebae (1/2)

[forvixxmods]

Title: Unlock
Recipient: taedaebae
Pairing: N/Leo(-ish)
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 15,515
Warnings: Mentions of a city exploding
Summary: Hakyeon is so close to his goal, so close to his constant ache being cured, but his travelling companions are making reaching his destination a little more complicated than he would like.
Notes: Dear recipient, thank you very much for the excellent N/Leo prompt. I immediately wanted to write it, and though it was a struggle at first and I gave some serious thought to just writing one of the others, I still came back to this one because I liked it so much. ^^ I’m not sure the fic fully matches the feeling of that prompt in the end, but I hope you like it regardless.



Hakyeon’s breath catches in his throat the instant he sees the speck of Ardoran on the horizon.

“I’m not trying to criticize the boss” Wonshik tells Jaehwan as they pass Hakyeon by. “It’s just that scavenging’s never been very profitable. We haven’t done it in years, and I don’t know why he’s so keen to start doing it again.”

Hakyeon hardly hears him, so caught up in looking at the far thing that was once his home. The constant ache in his chest gets worse the instant he thinks about it, and intensifies to the point of tears as Hakyeon realizes how close he is. Never mind his aching feet, never mind his heavy limbs, never mind the relentless sun and the shifting sands, Hakyeon wants to run and run until he gets there, not looking back for a second until he’s finally-

“Servant, you okay back here?”

That’s Jaehwan, poking his nose near Hakyeon’s face and drawing Hakyeon out of his trance. The ache lessens to its usual bearable level, and once Hakyeon’s re-oriented himself he gives Jaehwan a frown.

“I’m fine,” he insists, hoisting the packs he’s carrying further up his back. He graciously ignores Jaehwan’s nickname and Jaehwan shrugs, turning back to his conversation with Wonshik, who’s still going on about how he doesn’t see how scavenging will help them make money.

Hakyeon’s about to zone out again, sometimes it’s the best thing he can do to cope with the desert, especially when the others are discussing bandit business, but before he can immerse himself in thought, Taekwoon walks up silently beside him.

“Are you sure there’s nothing you need?”

Hakyeon looks at him steadily.

Of all of the bandits, he understands Taekwoon the least. He seems to be an aloof leader, always standing guard at the back in silence rather than leading them from the front. Yet despite the distance he keeps, he’s attentive. He even pays attention to Hakyeon despite his official position having been “human packhorse” for the past two days.

In this case, Hakyeon doesn’t want Taekwoon paying too much attention, so he shakes his head, giving Taekwoon his best imitation of a smile.

“Don’t worry about me, just tired as usual.”

Taekwoon’s brow furrows slightly. His “proper frown” as opposed to his “usual frown”, as Sanghyuk puts it.

“You should be getting used to it by now,” he says, muttering even more than usual. “Aren’t you Ardoran by birth? Shouldn’t you be adapted to the desert?”

Hakyeon huffs, “You do realize I haven’t been near this area since I was seven. Only Ardoran was liveable here, and once mages blew it up we crossed this desert in a hurry and never came back.”

“That makes sense,” Taekwoon says. His voice makes him sound uninterested as he strays to his usual spot at the back, but his gaze is steady and focused on Hakyeon. “Tell me if you need anything.”

Hakyeon says he will, but he also knows there isn’t enough spare food to help him, isn’t enough spare water to quench him, and there certainly isn’t anything that will get rid of his ache until they get to Ardoran proper, and those are the only things he needs at the moment.

~ o ~ o ~

Over the course of the day, the bandits and Hakyeon approach Ardoran enough for it to become a shape instead of a speck. Even from this distance, Hakyeon can see it’s not the bright, colourful city he once knew. It’s a dark interruption of the horizon during the day, and it doesn’t light up at night.

The ache in Hakyeon’s chest worsens, but he doesn’t know if it’s the usual longing or a deep sadness.

It’s still a bearable ache however, nothing like the sharp spike from earlier, so Hakyeon works through it, complaining about his more mundane pains to Sanghyuk as they set up the bandits’ camp for the night.

Sanghyuk has been Hakyeon’s most valuable ally among the bandits. If Hakyeon were to disregard Sanghyuk being a teenager, he would even venture to call Sanghyuk his friend. Sanghyuk is technically the one who got Hakyeon into this mess of travelling with them, but he’s also the one who saved Hakyeon from the even bigger mess of being stranded in the desert after being robbed.

All in all, Hakyeon likes him, and judging by the way Sanghyuk made negotiations with the bandits possible and also lets Hakyeon sleep in his tent, Hakyeon guesses the sentiment is returned.

“Just how close are we to Ardoran, anyways?” Hakyeon asks, looking out at the horizon again. It’s almost getting too dark to see the city but he keeps checking. It doesn’t seem real to be here after so long, Hakyeon feels like he’s going to wake up from a dream any minute.

“With you slowing us down, who knows?” Sanghyuk says, but when that gets him an eye roll he actually answers the question. “I’ve never been, but Hongbin says we should be there by the end of tomorrow night.”

“We’re that close?” Hakyeon almost drops the tent pole he’s carrying.

Sanghyuk looks even less sure now, “I said I could be wrong, but-“

“I can’t believe it,” Hakyeon looks out at the city again, a dark mass against the orange-pink sky. “Even if we’re not there tomorrow, we’ll be there the next day, right?”

“Oh yeah, definitely,” Sanghyuk watches Hakyeon stare. “That must be exciting for you.”

Hakyeon looks down at the tent pole in his hand, twirling it around as he frowns.

“Exciting is one way of putting it.”

Sanghyuk hums in response. He never seems to know quite how to respond to Hakyeon talking about Ardoran that way. He moves onto his tent pitching duties, conversation forgotten.

After one more look at Ardoran, Hakyeon focuses on the tent too.

~ o ~ o ~

Unfortunately, even once the tents are pitched and Hakyeon has dragged himself inside, flopping onto the bedding he’s claimed as his, he’s not allowed to sleep as much as he would like.

“We’re having a meeting,” Hongbin informs him as he hastily shakes Hakyeon awake.

Hakyeon groans, loudly, but he sits up anyways. He’s not in a position to actually protest what he’s told to do.

It’s properly dark out now. The sky is clear, displaying an amount of stars that’s amazing to Hakyeon after living on the rainy coast most of his life, and the moon shines clearly across the sands. The bandits have set up a campfire, they set one up every night, and they’re seated solemnly around it. Taekwoon has his eyes closed, but everyone’s looking at him anyways, even as Hakyeon and Hongbin take their seats.

There’s another beat of silence where Taekwoon has his eyes closed, breathing deeply in and out as he faces the fire. The glow of it flickers around his face, moving almost in time with his breaths.

The longer Taekwoon stays silent, the more tense the other bandits get, sitting up straight and watching Taekwoon with deeper intensity, but Hakyeon doesn’t feel it. He thinks Taekwoon looks nice and peaceful like this, not intimidating. Taekwoon seems comfortable, like he’s enjoying his time to think in silence, and Hakyeon thinks it’s not bad to see him like this.

Then again, Hakyeon hasn’t known Taekwoon for that long, so he may be reading him completely wrong.

In the meantime, Taekwoon’s eyes open, and the other bandits relax a bit. They’re ready for the discussion to begin.

“Despite Wonshik’s protests,” Taekwoon starts, making Jaehwan snort, “we’re headed into Ardoran to scavenge. Although past ventures have been unsuccessful, Hakyeon claims he has a lead towards real riches.”

Hakyeon swallows as all the bandits’ eyes flash towards him.

“That’s why we’re keeping him?” Hongbin asks as he turns back to Taekwoon, more curious than anything else.

“Yeah,” Sanghyuk’s the one to explain this time, giving Hakyeon a cautious look. “He kept talking about looking for things in Ardoran when I was undercover with the tourist group, so when we conducted our raid I brought him to the boss.”

Wonshik frowns, turning to Taekwoon again, “I thought he was just a new recruit.”

“He could be,” Taekwoon fixes a very significant glance at Hakyeon. “Or he could be our temporary guide. Either way, he’ll be helpful.”

“He could be lying, too,” Wonshik points out, which makes Hakyeon clear his throat very loudly.

“I’m right here,” Hakyeon reminds him. “I’m part of this discussion too.”

Wonshik largely ignores Hakyeon’s input, “Leader, why didn’t you tell us this earlier?”

“Yeah,” Jaehwan chimes in, though he gives an apologetic glance to Hakyeon. “He’s been with us for two days already, you can’t just keep a secret like that.”

“I didn’t really keep a secret. I just didn’t explain the situation to most of you.”

Wonshik sighs in frustration, “Of course. Shouldn’t have doubted you.”

“If it helps at all,” Sanghyuk starts again, “I think Hakyeon’s trustworthy. I wouldn’t have brought him here if I thought otherwise.”

“No offence, Sanghyuk,” Wonshik does look at Hakyeon this time, “but if you found him with those noble tourists, I really don’t think so.”

“Fair point, but do you really think I’m a noble?” Hakyeon defends himself properly, gesturing to his clothes. His lack of noble blood is one of the truths he tells the bandits. “I’m a scholar,” that one’s a lie, though he’s been telling it since he left home, “and I lived in Ardoran before it was blown up.” Another truth. “Some of the books my parents took with them give very good layouts of the city, and I know them by heart. If you want to effectively look for artifacts, I’m the person you want with you.” A partial lie. Hakyeon knows about the layout of Ardoran’s districts from his parents’ books, but not more than that. It’s possible the bandits know as much as him if they’ve been to Ardoran’s ruins before and paid attention.

Still, Hakyeon’s argument has as much truth in it as he’s willing to divulge, and he thinks it’s not a half-bad one. Wonshik seems to think so too, but he isn’t fully sold.

“We scavenged a lot in the past, you know,” Wonshik finally talks to Hakyeon directly. “It’s very likely that everything you think is there has been taken already, by us or by others.”

“I’m an Ardoran native,” he points out again with a grin. He doesn’t like to use his father’s advice but he’s counting on it now: when it comes to a tough sale, make sure to stress your selling point many times. “How often do you get the chance to meet someone who has access to original Ardoran books? How often do you think other bandits get the chance to meet someone like me? I have very rare knowledge resources, and I think I have a good chance at discovering things you can’t on your own.”

Wonshik doesn’t respond. Hakyeon knows he’s considering, and that’s promising enough.

The rest of the bandits watch Wonshik with interest, but Taekwoon nods, considering it a done deal already, and starts addressing the group again.

“With this in mind, we’ll be going to different areas than we have before. There may still be people within the Ardoran ruins, so we’ll have to be on our guard.”

Taekwoon stands up.

“That’s all I have to say.”

Then he turns around and walks towards his personal tent.

The rest of the bandits slump back, except for Wonshik, who slumps forward.

“I had more to say,” he says, a bit petulantly, and Hongbin pats his back.

“Come on, you knew he wasn’t gonna listen,” Jaehwan yawns largely before he stands up too, walking by Hakyeon with a pat on the back. “Don’t know how you did it but you’ve got the boss totally convinced, servant, good work.”

Hakyeon feels a surge of pride, like he’s acquired a new client, “I try my best.”

Wonshik looks at him, raising an eyebrow, but not unfriendly this time, “I guess all those scholarly debate skills paid off for you.”

Hakyeon hopes his sudden flush looks like pride and not shame. Lying is only a recently acquired skill for him. He can get it down verbally, but unless it’s a lie he’s told many times, his physical ticks can give him away. He flushed so often in the lead-up to leaving home that his mother sent him to an herbalist.

“Well,” Hakyeon lets out a small laugh, and doing that relaxes him, “this is a bit different from a proper academic debate, but I guess some of the same skills apply.”

“Either that,” Hongbin says, “or the boss just really likes you.”

“Taekwoon? Liking people?” Jaehwan calls disbelievingly from near his and Wonshik’s tent.

“He can hear you, you know,” Sanghyuk turns around to call to Jaehwan, and as if on cue, a large scuff of sand kicks up near his feet from the direction of Taekwoon’s tent. Wonshik and Hongbin laugh at Jaehwan as he whimpers about the extra sand in his boots.

Hakyeon’s vaguely amused by this, but he decides to get up and get back to sleep before he gets drawn in.

The ache isn’t bad at night, so he has to sleep while it’s not, and besides that, he doesn’t want to think about Taekwoon’s possible motivations.

The simpler he keeps this, the more focused he is on his own goals, the better.

~ o ~ o ~

Hakyeon can’t stop staring at Ardoran the next day as it becomes a more defined shape, a cluster of buildings as opposed to a blot on the horizon. His chest aches even more now, but it’s easier to ignore with fatigue dragging him down everywhere else on his body.

“You’re dragging your feet even more than usual,” Sanghyuk comments, prompting a glare, but he doesn’t tease more than that. Presumably, he remembers what it was like when he first started doing this. From what Hakyeon’s gathered, he’s a relatively new addition.

Sanghyuk and Hakyeon talking attracts the attention of Jaehwan a few paces ahead of them.

“Shouldn’t you be happy?” Jaehwan hangs back upon hearing conversation. “I mean, you’re kinda headed home, aren’t you?”

“I’m a bit conflicted, honestly,” Hakyeon looks ahead of them again, eyes fixed on Ardoran, and the ache starts to mount in intensity. “It was my home, but it’s ruins now.”

“That,” Jaehwan pauses for a moment, grasping for the right thing to say, “will certainly be a downer.”

“You’re really great at comforting,” Sanghyuk mutters at Jaehwan, but Hakyeon waves both of them off.

“It’s fine, I won’t think about it for now.”

“Jaehwan, Sanghyuk.”

The two practically jump as Taekwoon appears behind them and Hakyeon. Hakyeon turns around to look at his blank face more calmly.

“I need you two further in front so we can see more ground. I’ve got Hakyeon covered, I need more eyes up there.”

“Right away,” Jaehwan and Sanghyuk answer in sync, and quickly move forward. Hakyeon envies their speed as he feels his own legs struggling to go faster than a pace resembling a limp.

Taekwoon lingers for a moment, almost brushing against Hakyeon’s shoulder but keeping his distance.

“Do you need to rest?”

Hakyeon’s eyes stray to Ardoran again. He’s starting to see crumbled walls, lines against the buildings. The ache, the longing, outright pulses through him, and bring his feet to a stop.

He’s so close to the city, to his goal, to the power that should be his and-

Hakyeon grits his teeth, bringing himself back to his body and his heavy limbs. He stopped walking with that last pulse, and Taekwoon has stopped behind him, hovering with slight concern.

“I’m fine,” Hakyeon insists, hiking up the tents on his back. “I won’t rest well until we’re there.”

~ o ~ o ~

Like Sanghyuk predicted, they don’t reach Ardoran that night, but the ruins of the city are starting to loom over them rather than look like a distant goal.

Hakyeon’s chest aches so much he’s finding it hard to sleep.

It hasn’t been difficult for him to fall asleep because of the ache for months now. Back home, even that vague nagging that something was missing could make his comfortable, homey bed irrelevant. It was difficult when he began travelling too, when the ache properly presented itself for the first time. But even then, Hakyeon’s other worries would distract him and his aching body would drag him to sleep eventually.

Tonight, with the ache so intense, the stuffy warm air around him, Sanghyuk snoring softly and the fatigue not as bone-deep as earlier nights in the desert, Hakyeon finds himself staring at the vague texture of tent canvas for what feels like far too long.

Hakyeon’s so tired he feels delirious, but his heart is beating fast, believing itself truly constricted instead of affected by magic, and he tosses and turns from side to side. He’s remembering hotels now. Sanghyuk’s snoring reminds him of the times he didn’t have enough money to get a room for himself, and the vague chatter outside is reminding him of hotels with thin floors and thin walls where he heard people talking all night, both comforted that he wasn’t not alone and annoyed with the noise.

He hears rustling near the front of the tent, and tries his best not to sit up because that will get rid of whatever progress he’s made so far, but he sees a silhouette of Taekwoon’s compact head and sits up, figuring it’s important.

“Sanghyuk, are you awake?” He doesn’t try to whisper, but since his voice is wispy anyways it feels like he is.

“Now I am,” Sanghyuk grunts, despite not moving.

“Are you awake enough to run out and scout with me?”

That makes Hakyeon very alert and Sanghyuk awake enough to sit up.

“Why me?”

Even in the darkness, Hakyeon can recognize Taekwoon’s eyes looking at Sanghyuk specifically, “You’re the best at sneaking around, and I reckon we’ll have to be cautious around this party.”

Sanghyuk’s pushing his blankets aside now, “Why?”

“You’ll see once we get closer,” Taekwoon watches as Sanghyuk starts to struggle out of his sleeping place, then spares a glance for Hakyeon.

“Go back to sleep. You’ll know of the results in the morning.”

Hakyeon wasn’t asleep but that would be a useless correction, so he lies back down, listening to Sanghyuk pull on his boots.

Knowing there’s another party out there, he feels even less able to sleep.

Danger other than desert survival was not exactly part of the plan.

~ o ~ o ~

They bandits normally wake up early so they can get a few hours walking in before the sun’s fully in the sky, but today they wake up Hakyeon before the sun’s even risen.

“I need my sleep,” he grumbles, but seeing a longer face than Taekwoon’s silhouetted in the tent’s opening and remembering last night’s conversation, Hakyeon feels a spark of alarm and sits up. “What is it?”

“They’re not back yet,” that’s Wonshik’s deep voice, and his words make Hakyeon blink the sleep out of his eyes quicker than he has in months. “Taekwoon and Sanghyuk, they haven’t come back, so Jaehwan and I are the next ones going out. You and Hongbin have to stay here and sit by the fire. Keep watch, but keep quiet about it.”

Hakyeon’s struggling out of his bedding now, gravely listening to Wonshik’s words as his heart starts to race.

Taekwoon and Sanghyuk are the most convinced of Hakyeon’s plan. If they don’t come back and the other bandits get put in charge, Hakyeon might be doomed to travel with them without seeing Ardoran up close for months.

The ache might make his heart actually collapse by then.

“What do I do if I see anything then?” Hakyeon asks seriously as he exits the tent, tugging his boots on. He sticks his feet right in without emptying the piles of sand out, and decides that’s good enough for now. “Shouldn’t I yell for you guys?”

“No, just make it obvious to Hongbin that you saw something and he’ll know what to do.”

That’s not comforting. Hakyeon doesn’t like being in the dark about the bandits’ plans. It makes it hard to adjust his personal plans ahead of time.

Still, he sits down near the fire, across from where Hongbin is seated, and watches Wonshik and Jaehwan dash over the nearest dune.

Hongbin says nothing. He always seems fairly tense, Hakyeon suspects he’s shy with strangers, but he’s sitting almost completely still now, watching the other side of the camp with wide eyes, steadily rotating his head from side to side like an especially slow metronome.

Hakyeon knows Hongbin’s looking past him, but it’s still unnerving to be caught in that gaze even slightly.

“Can I go to sleep?” Hakyeon asks. He doesn’t know if he’s seriously asking or trying to lighten the mood.

Hongbin makes eye contact for the first time since Hakyeon sat down.

“I wouldn’t advise it unless you can sleep sitting up. You might get sand your mouth or nose and that would wake you up.”

“That’s no different from inside the tent,” Hakyeon mutters, but Hongbin’s already back to scanning the horizon, and Hakyeon decides against sleeping after all.

Trapped between Hongbin’s intense gaze and his fear of wandering the desert alone, the time before the other bandits’ return passes unbearably slow to Hakyeon. It feels like hours before he sees head shapes appear over a nearby dune, lit slightly by the tip of the sun on the horizon.

Hakyeon leaps to his feet once he sees them, but he freezes once he gets the full picture. Hongbin runs over, his worry even more clear on his face, but Hakyeon can’t move as inch as he makes out Wonshik flanked by Taekwoon and Jaehwan, holding Sanghyuk in his arms.

“What happened?” he hears Hongbin demand.

“The other camp was tough,” is all Taekwoon says. His teeth are ground together, and his voice is harsh.

Hakyeon runs over to join them, eyes fixed on Sanghyuk. He’s clearly unconscious, but not bleeding or bruised at all, and he’s breathing steadily. For all intents and purposes, he looks like he should be asleep, but the grim expressions of the others seem to say that’s not the case.

“That doesn’t explain his condition,” Hakyeon insists, and Wonshik fixes him with a glare.

“They were mages, Hakyeon,” the contempt in his voice is obvious through his gritted teeth. “The bastards put him to sleep, and he won’t wake up no matter how much we move him or talk to him.”

Hakyeon feels himself freezing again and Taekwoon steps forward to put his hand on Hakyeon’s shoulder. Perhaps he thinks Hakyeon is afraid of mages. That would be a reasonable assumption, and Hakyeon’s not going to correct it. It might even have been true, before he found out what the ache meant.

“Go with Wonshik to your tent and look after Sanghyuk there. The rest of us have some decisions to make.”

~ o ~ o ~

“I don’t hate mages,” Jaehwan says, though he sounds uncertain, “but I certainly don’t want to mess with them. Like, ever. Played a drinking game with one once and he almost charmed my nose off.”

“This is a serious discussion, Jaehwan,” Wonshik butts in. Jaehwan starts apologizing, Taekwoon starts reminding Wonshik to stop being so bossy when they need everyone’s input, and Hakyeon tunes out, once again focusing on Sanghyuk’s sleeping face and the sound of his breathing. It will turn into snoring soon, if he’s asleep much longer.

The group outside have agreed on one thing: there’s no going anywhere until they know what they’re going to do with Sanghyuk. They’re playing a waiting game for now; Hongbin’s optimistic that the sleeping spell won’t last forever though Wonshik and Taekwoon don’t seem to be, and if Sanghyuk sleeps for a whole twenty-four hours they’ll be headed back to civilization to find a mage there.

Hakyeon wants Sanghyuk to be okay, but he doesn’t want to turn back when Ardoran’s a day away either.

The other decision, the one they have yet to make, is whether they’re going to move forward at all if Sanghyuk wakes up soon. Regardless of mages’ attitudes in general, this group of mages is dangerous. It might not be worth it to go scavenging if they’re headed in the same direction, which Taekwoon said definitely that they were.

Hakyeon wants to weigh in on that decision, but he's been told to stay here, and he knows they won't appreciate it if he stops watching Sanghyuk to try and convince them to go ahead. He'd be a bit peeved at himself if he did that with a young man's safety on the line, and Sanghyuk looks very young while asleep. His face is slack, and he’s drooling a bit. His snores are light, less deep than his speaking voice. Hakyeon doesn’t notice it under all the head coverings they wear during the day, but now that he’s looking, he sees some fat on Sanghyuk’s cheeks.

Hakyeon looks down at his hands in trepidation.

There's one thing Hakyeon can do to wake Sanghyuk up, he just has to make sure no one else sees it.

Hakyeon leans forward, peering out the slight crack in the tent's opening, and sees no one looking directly at it.

That's good enough for him. It's not like this magic will flash anyways.

Kneeling beside Sanghyuk's shoulders, Hakyeon places his hands on Sanghyuk's chest and focuses on the contact between them.

Slowly but surely, Hakyeon feels the ache in his chest move.

Hakyeon winces as it does. It splits into two places and makes his shoulders feel like he's been hauling crates, then it creeps down his arms like his veins are tightening, his wrists are being squeezed, then the ache oozes into his hands, and with one last push of the mind, Hakyeon's ache pulses slightly into Sanghyuk.

After coming into contact with another human, the pain rushes back to its original place. Hakyeon winces, biting back a yell, and looks at Sanghyuk desperately.

He knows the ache’s magic still works, he himself repels magic as much as ever, but it’s been a while since he’s tried moving the effect to anything else.

Hakyeon stops biting his tongue as Sanghyuk draws a sharp breath.

Sanghyuk's eyes spring open afterwards, and Hakyeon slumps onto himself in relief.

"Do you feel alright?" Hakyeon asks. There's no side effects to the ache being used on other people, but the mages' spell might not be fully out of Sanghyuk's system yet.

"I'm just sleepy," Sanghyuk sits up. "Are we back at camp?" He frowns. "I thought I was scouting some other party with Taekwoon." He looks at Hakyeon. "Did I dream that?"

Hakyeon shakes his head, "Sadly, no. You ran into some mages, and they put you to sleep."

Sanghyuk doesn't respond for a good few seconds.

"Mages? All the way out here?"

Hakyeon shrugs, "They have legs, they can be anywhere.”

"That's not especially comforting," Sanghyuk says, probably about to go on with more sarcastic complaints when he stops.

"Where are the others?"

"Can't you hear them?" Hakyeon asks, as his ears tune into Hongbin saying he can't imagine there's anything out there worth dealing with mages. He says mages like he's half-hissing it, and Hakyeon tries to not let that be discouraging.

"Shit," Sanghyuk says, now struggling to stand up. Hakyeon, newly aware of Sanghyuk's age, is about to scold him for language but Sanghyuk pushes outside the tent before Hakyeon gets the chance.

"You're awake," Taekwoon says from outside, and a hush falls over the group.

Hakyeon hurries to his feet, stumbling his way outside the tent as Sanghyuk stands up, facing the group.

"Oh my god, you're awake!" Jaehwan repeats, standing to his feet.

"How did that happen?" Wonshik asks, wide-eyed.

Sanghyuk shrugs, "I dunno. Felt a weird pain then woke up."

Taekwoon frowns at Hakyeon, "Did you hit him?"

The bandits all look at Hakyeon suspiciously. He glares in return.

"What kind of person do you think I am?"

"It didn't feel like someone hitting me," Sanghyuk elaborates, and the bandits look to him instead. "It felt like..." He pauses, grasping for words with his still sleep-addled mind. "I don't know, it felt weird. It was like something pushed down on me but it pushed in a way that felt... Whatever, nothing actually pushed me, I'm sure of that."

"Do you feel alright now?" Taekwoon speaks again, and Sanghyuk nods.

"A bit sleepy, but fine."

"Sit down," he says, patting the sand beside him, and looks up at Hakyeon hovering behind Hongbin. "You too, Hakyeon."

Wonshik frowns, "Boss, we all know what Hakyeon will want us to do."

"I'm not convinced of either side yet. I'll hear from everyone before I make my decision."

"What are we even deciding?" Sanghyuk asks.

"Whether we go to Ardoran or not," Taekwoon supplies.

"Didn't we already decide that?"

Jaehwan laughs, "Boss, explain better than that."

"The mages are headed to Ardoran as well. We aren't sure whether we should go that way with danger on our heels."

Sanghyuk furrows his eyebrows, "But we already made our decision."

"Doesn't mean we can't change our minds," Hongbin says.

Hakyeon says nothing. As much as Taekwoon invited him to speak, this feels more like a bandits-only meeting than any he's sat at before. They’re talking about the possibility of danger, not just the possibility of wasting time, and even Hakyeon almost feels that if going ahead means Sanghyuk getting hurt again, he might not protest going back too vocally. He knows it must be even more personal for the other bandits.

"Taekwoon doesn't normally change his mind," Sanghyuk looks at their leader seriously. "You always stick with your decisions, right?"

Taekwoon's eyebrows furrow, "Not if we'll be in danger."

"We're always in danger," Sanghyuk argues. "We spend most of our time in a desert."

"Sanghyuk, we're trying to have a reasonable discussion like adults-"

Sanghyuk cuts Wonshik right off.

"I want to go to Ardoran. You've never taken me before and I think it will be exciting."

“There are mages around," Hongbin insists, squirming in his seat with discomfort.

"Nothing we can't avoid," Sanghyuk insists. "We're thieves. We’re sneaky for a living."

Jaehwan has been sitting around looking thoughtful for a while, but at that he joins the conversation again, "I agree, they really aren't that much of a problem. We were just exaggerating the danger since Sanghyuk was still asleep and we didn’t know he would wake up so quickly."

"They can probably cast other spells, ones that do more than put someone to sleep,” Hongbin points out.

"Who knows if someone else will wake up as fast as Sanghyuk did this time?" Wonshik makes that appeal while looking at Taekwoon.

Hakyeon bites his tongue so he doesn't say anything about how he woke Sanghyuk up. That would definitely sound weird, and he's positive he doesn't want to explain the ache to any of them.

In the meantime, Taekwoon looks at Sanghyuk only.

"You're sure about this?"

Sanghyuk nods resolutely.

That surprises Hakyeon. He hadn't known he'd had such an effect on Sanghyuk's thoughts.

Taekwoon nods in return.

"We'll continue on to Ardoran then."

Wonshik groans, "You're spoiling him."

Sanghyuk stands up eagerly, "I don't mind!"

Taekwoon, to Hakyeon's shock, has the smallest smile appear on his face.

"If he doesn't mind then that's all that matters," Taekwoon looks to Hakyeon after that. His smile doesn't grow at all, but it doesn't get any smaller. "I'd feel bad going back on something I promised our guest anyways."

"I go from servant to guest?" Hakyeon's eyebrows shoot up.

"Still a guest that has to carry the tents," Taekwoon tells him, then his smile disappears and his default frown is back in place. "Everyone, pack everything up."

They're relatively silent as they start to do so. Wonshik and Hongbin seemed resigned now, Jaehwan keeps shooting Taekwoon weird looks, and Hakyeon and Sanghyuk somehow seem equally confused.

"I've never seen him smile before," Hakyeon says, still in awe. He can't stop thinking about it. Taekwoon looked almost cute like that. A bandit leader shouldn't be able to be cute.

"I've seen it once, he was smiling at someone's dog," Sanghyuk stares at the tent canvas in his hands for a few moments longer than necessary. "I just can't believe he listened to me that well."

Jaehwan comes up behind them, done with his task of packing up the fire, and slings his arms around the both of them.

"As someone who's been in Taekwoon's vicinity for longer than either of you, trust me, he's just happy Sanghyuk is fine. He'll go back to doing whatever he wants once he's recovered."

"I hope the recovery is slow," Sanghyuk says, still staring at the bundle of fabric in his arms.

All three of them, a bit rushed and dumbfounded from all the events of the morning, start to laugh.

~ o ~ o ~

At least on Hakyeon's part, that camaraderie disappears as the morning wears on, the sun rises farther in the sky, and he has to drag his feet through the sand with Taekwoon silently on his tail and the others ahead of them, free of burden on their backs.

"I hate the desert," Hakyeon states, feeling another gust of sand blow by his face.

"I can't count the number of times you've said that," Taekwoon says, and Hakyeon looks back at him with a glare.

"Well it's true."

"I can't believe you were born here."

Hakyeon pouts, turning away, "I wasn't born in a desert, I was born in a city that was in the middle of a desert, and it had lots of water and shelter and we had enchanted lamps to cool our house during the day."

Taekwoon hurries a few paces forward at those words, "I thought the people of Ardoran hated magic. Why would you use enchanted lamps?"

Hakyeon focuses on his feet for a moment, trying to think about that one.

"There were lots of people in Ardoran who thought like that, but cities have too many people in them for everyone to think alike. The city as a whole had a complicated relationship with magic but yes, many people thought like that."

Hakyeon hates to think of it, to admit his hometown was so deeply flawed, but there were enough people that hated mages for mage suicides to be a common occurrence, mage lynchings even more common than that.

Eventually, there was a mage suicide big enough to explode the whole city. A city's biggest flaw, turned fatal.

"But your family sympathized with mages," Taekwoon urges him to continue, and Hakyeon shakes himself of thinking about

"To an extent," he says, frowning. “My family was just practical. They were polite to mages and sympathized with their issues, but they still made business with people who hated mages. It was a superficial kind of support.”

“So they used enchanted items because it was practical, not because of any feelings towards mages.”

“That’s it exactly,” Hakyeon sighs after he says it. He was so proud of his family’s stance on mages as a child. As an adult with hindsight, he hates that position almost as much as outright magic hatred.

“Do you feel the same way?”

Taekwoon eyes Hakyeon carefully. Hakyeon looks down at the ground. He’s not sure whether this is dangerous conversation territory or no.

“I’d like to support mages more,” he says. “I try to put in a good word for them and buy their services when I can. I just don’t… Know what to do beyond that. It’s hard to avoid people who hate mages. There’s too many of them.”

“How do you know your family didn’t think the same way?”

Hakyeon grits his teeth.

“Their actions proved it.”

Taekwoon, wisely, doesn’t press the subject anymore and slows his pace, leaving Hakyeon alone.

Hakyeon’s been feeling less cautious towards the bandits, but he definitely regrets sharing that story with Taekwoon. He’s thinking about his family’s actions now, and the ache’s bad enough without anger in the mix.

~ o ~ o ~

Hakyeon almost thinks the ache's gone away the instant Ardoran looms above them properly, casting shade as the sun goes down.

Sanghyuk was leading the group up to that point, gaping at the abandoned buildings, but once Hakyeon sees his former home in walking distance, he leaves his fatigue behind to sprint in front of everyone.

"It's here!" he says urgently, feeling the ache in his chest get more focused, smaller, seeming to point in a specific direction. "It's still here!"

"Of course it is," Hongbin raises an eyebrow, thinking Hakyeon's talking about the city. "You've been seeing it for days."

Hakyeon shakes his head, reminding himself not to mention anything that could reveal his goal.

"It's different seeing it up close!" He insists to Hongbin, looking at the buildings again.

Sanghyuk is looking at the buildings with what looks close to fear.

"This is what it looks like up close?"

"Eerie, isn't it," Wonshik comments while slinging his arm around Sanghyuk, clearly trying to be comforting. Sanghyuk waves him away, at first, but a large piece of brick tumbles down and he jumps. After that, he lets Wonshik pat his back.

Hakyeon doesn't disagree that the former city is eerie now. He lived here little more than two decades ago. He knows how it became a ruin, he knows the explosion was almost instantaneous, but two decades still seems too fast for a bustling, thriving city to become a crumbling, dusty bunch of bricks, much less the mere minutes that it was.

"Eeriest part is that there's no skeletons," Jaehwan says, grinning mischievously as he leans into Wonshik and Sanghyuk's space. "All the dead bodies disappeared into thin air," he snaps his fingers. "Just like magic."

"It was magic," Taekwoon says, matter-of-factly, and Jaehwan jumps to attention sheepishly. Taekwoon looks over the whole group carefully. "That's part of why we find it so strange here, all the residual magic."

Hakyeon doesn't feel that, the ache makes it impossible for him to do so, but the silence of the others seems like a quiet agreement that the residual magic is very creepy.

Hakyeon's almost envious. He wishes he could remember what magic felt like.

"Regardless," Taekwoon says, "we need to move further into the city. If the mages are around, we need a well-covered area to set up camp before the sun goes down."

At their leader's orders, the group moves in, grave and determined.

Hakyeon starts to trail behind them again, looking up at the darkening spires of his old hometown.

The ache points now, but it doesn't point precisely. Hakyeon's goal is clearly inside Ardoran's borders, all he has to do is go further in and lead the bandits to his ache's destination.

Hakyeon clenches his fist, holding it over his chest, and crosses the threshold of the dead city.

>> part 2