fic: A Hundred and One little Complications, Chapter 6
Title: A Hundred and One Little Complications, Chapter 6
Length: chaptered
Author: M_K Yujji
Rating: R for subject matter
Genre: AU
Pairing/Characters: Doojoon, Gikwang, Yoseob, Dongwoon, ofc of the child type
Guest appearance by: Taecyeon of 2PM
Warnings: RPS, references to past sexual assault and violence
Disclaimer: Though real people are used as characters, this fic bears no resemblance to Real Life and these people are not owned by me.
Comments/Notes: Partially inspired by snb123's spy prompt and this picture.
The last month has been a bit of a roller coaster. Sorry for the wait for this chapter. I'd like to say things have settled down, but honestly, they're still pretty crazy and my writing will continue to be sporadic until after the holidays.
I'd like to thank everyone who has sent their well-wishes and prayers for me and mine. It's been greatly appreciated. Likewise, I hope each and every one of you is doing well and has an enjoyable holiday season.
Thanks to both my beta and my beloved dongsaeng~<3 You guys are the best. Seriously.
Previously: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5
Side Shots: Second Chances | Guardian
Summary: Doojoon is a gay reporter with too many enemies in too many places, the divorced father of a beautiful little girl. Gikwang is his deceased ex-wife’s last husband and the closest thing he has to family since his blood relatives disowned him. When an assassination attempt almost kills them all, Gikwang calls in a favor.
As if Doojoon's life isn't already complicated enough...
~*~*~
“Don’t touch that.”
Doojoon jerked his hands away from the odd looking device he’d been about to pick up and looked back guiltily at Dongwoon.
The younger man sighed and shook his head. “You’re worse than a five year old.”
Before Doojoon could apologize, Yoseob’s voice floated out of the speakers as clear as if he was right there in the room.
‘Doojoon, there are things in that room that can kill you if you set them off. And others that Dongwoon will kill you for breaking. It’s best to just… not to touch anything.’
He glanced up at the monitor, but the mercenary’s position hadn’t changed. He was still sitting at a table in a small cafe a mile away, sipping a coffee and reading a newspaper. The dark hair caught Doojoon’s attention again and he abandoned Dongwoon’s other toys to move forward and stare a little more.
After they’d dropped Gikwang and Cheon off that morning to spend the day with Yunja, they’d returned to the loft where Dongwoon had greeted them with assurances that he’d scoped out the meeting place and it was ready for them.
Then Yoseob had left Doojoon with Dongwoon and disappeared upstairs with muttered words about needing to get ready, but Doojoon hadn’t thought much of it. If he’d considered it at all, he’d maybe expected a return to the clothing that Yoseob had been wearing that very first day, something more official and military-esque than the bright colors and patterns he’d been sporting since he’d moved into the reporter’s house.
When the man had come back downstairs sporting black hair and looking like he’d just stepped off a GQ cover, Doojoon hadn’t been able to do anything but stare. He’d been more than half hard before Yoseob had gotten all the way to the bottom of the stairs and he’d had to wipe the corner of his mouth to make sure he wasn’t drooling, a reaction that had made Yoseob smirk and saunter over to press against him and whisper dirty promises in his ear. Doojoon had given into the urge to kiss him, deep and hard. He’d told himself it was just to shut the younger man up, but if he was being honest, Doojoon knew he’d been a hairsbreadth from tossing Yoseob over the back of the sofa and fucking him senseless.
And from the way Yoseob’s hands had tightened on his arms and he’d pressed even closer, Doojoon had a feeling Yoseob had been right there with him with that thought process.
Then there’d been a wolf whistle from the doorway and Yoseob had been all business again.
‘So how long til this broad shows up?’
Another, deeper voice took Doojoon’s attention away from Yoseob and he glanced over to the other monitor and the bored looking man it showed. The man Yoseob had introduced as ‘Taec’ was big and broad, all teeth and attitude. He’d been grinning at them almost wolfishly when they’d stepped apart from their kiss - the obvious source of the whistle and not ashamed of it at all.
He looked far more military than either Yoseob or Gikwang ever had - right up until Doojoon had said as much and he’d preened like a great big peacock at the compliment.
As it turned out, he was an aspiring actor who stood in Yoseob’s place during such meetings whenever he was available. Apparently that was the agreement they’d decided on when Yoseob had helped Taec out of a sticky situation some years before.
Taec was at a different table in the same cafe as Yoseob, drumming impatient fingers on the lacquered wood with one hand while the other was propped under his chin. Despite his decided lack of professionalism, Doojoon could see why it was easier for people to believe that he was the real mercenary. He just looked more dangerous than the much smaller Yoseob.
White teeth suddenly gleamed on one monitor while Yoseob looked long-suffering in the other, making Doojoon realize he must have said that out loud.
Beside him, Dongwoon coughed suspiciously before pulling his chair up closer to the desk. A third monitor sat to his right, it’s screen split into multiple views. “I’m not seeing anyone yet. There is a dark sedan with tinted windows making rounds. Her security, maybe. It hasn’t parked.”
‘And Kim’s guys?’ Yoseob sipped his coffee, doing a casual scan of the cafe.
Dongwoon smirked. “Still sitting in the noodle shop downstairs. They’ve managed to charm Anh into giving up some of her special dessert.”
‘Of course they have.’ There was a hint of a smile lurking on Yoseob’s face as he turned the page of his newspaper.
Bored, Doojoon leaned forward to try to see the third monitor better then jumped back sharply when his elbow caught ahold of Dongwoon’s keyboard and it went clattering to the floor, taking everything else on the desk with it. Both men in the monitor flinched as the noise echoed back through their earpieces.
“Sorry,” he mumbled easing backwards under the force of Dongwoon’s glare.
The younger man took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Guys, I’m going to give Mr. Grabby Hands here something to occupy himself in the other room. Try not to get into trouble for a few minutes, okay?”
Two murmured affirmatives echoed through the room as Dongwoon stood up and nudged Doojoon out of the small space. In the main living area, he snagged Doojoon’s arm and led him up the stairs. “This is Yoseob’s room.”
He pushed Doojoon towards the bed, waiting until he settled there somewhat awkwardly before turning around and jogging back down the steps.
Unsure of what he was supposed to be occupying himself with, Doojoon looked around the room, curious about where Yoseob slept when he wasn’t taking over Doojoon’s bed.
The full-sized bed wasn’t as soft as Doojoon’s own, but it had twice as many pillows. It was all plain black and white except for a few splashes of bright color in one or two of the pillows and a… Doojoon frowned and reached over to grab the bit of brown fluff he’d spotted sticking out from under the blanket.
His frown morphed into a grin as he realized it was, in fact, a teddy bear. It was one of the bigger ones, all soft brown fluff and big beady eyes with a purple velvet bow tied around it’s neck. The fur around the neck and one arm was flattened and worn as if it were being perpetually held down by strong hands and arms. Somehow it wasn’t hard at all to imagine Yoseob clutching it tightly in his sleep.
Setting the teddy aside, he went back to his perusal of the room. Despite the sparse and utilitarian feel of the place, there were still touches of personality.
There was an art print above the bed, a simple seascape piece of a beach and ocean in watercolors. A figure stood in the forefront, back to the viewer as he stared down the stretch of beach.
Somehow it struck Doojoon as a lonely scene and he had to look away from it.
A scattering of photographs caught his attention from the nightstand on the other side of the bed. Before he could take a closer look, Dongwoon returned, a laptop open in his hands.
“Okay, this is one of my older ones. There shouldn’t be anything on here that you can damage.”
Doojoon pouted a little at the implication that he was incompetent. He was no technical geek, but he knew his way around a computer just fine.
He accepted the laptop without complaint, though.
Dongwoon hesitated for a moment before holding something up to Doojoon. He reached out to take it, but Dongwoon held tight for a moment. “I was supposed to destroy this. I only have it at all because he wanted me to extract the end for … insurance purposes. If Yoseob finds out that I kept it… or that I let you see it…”
He trailed off with a serious expression and Doojoon grinned. “What, he’ll kill us?”
The humor fell flat as Dongwoon scowled. “Don’t ever say that where he can hear you.”
“He’d get pissed off over that?” He wouldn’t have thought so. Yoseob seemed to have a lot more control over his temper than pretty much anyone else Doojoon had ever known.
“No,” Dongwoon sighed, shaking his head. “He wouldn’t take it as a joke. He’d think that you were seriously worried about it and coming from you, it’d hurt him.”
“Oh.” He’d never really thought about Yoseob's feelings and whether or not they could be hurt, but after the revelation of Gikwang’s abandonment and how Yoseob had viewed it, Doojoon thought he understood how such a thing could happen.
Dongwoon opened his hand to reveal the small flash drive within. It was the kind of thing that came out of a video camera and Doojoon had a bad feeling about what might be on it. “He never wanted you to see this and I know he’d never tell you, but I think it’s something you need to know. Watch it. Stay up here and explore if you want, just… make sure everything is back where it goes when you’re done.”
He pointedly did not look at the teddy bear sitting beside Doojoon, very obviously out of its usual place. “Dongwoon…”
But the younger man just shook his head. “I have to be down there, but when they’re done and heading back you can ask me anything you want. I can’t swear I’ll be able to tell you the answers or even if I’ll know them or not, but I’ll try.”
Then Dongwoon left him to his own devices.
The laptop had a small slot for camera cards, so Doojoon popped it in and settled back against the headboard with the teddy bear pulled close. Surveillance videos and news clips, personal recordings and the lot were all part and parcel of his job.
He wasn’t sure what to expect, though.
The video opened up to an unfamiliar face, peering into the lens. Everything shook slightly before the man backed away. He reached in to adjust something and the camera angle changed slightly. Then the man disappeared and the angle panned around. Doojoon thought he must have put it on a tripod.
‘Is it set up?’
‘Yep. We’re good to go here.’
‘Good. I don’t think lover boy here can wait much longer.’
Two voices, neither of them familiar, but underneath them a sound he did recognize. His own voice pitched high and breathless, the way it only got when he was too aroused to think straight.
A heavy feeling settled in his stomach as the camera moved again, revealing himself being pushed onto a bed.
You should thank me, really. The first guy who drugged you had every intention of fucking you in the most degrading ways possible and filming it so he could blackmail and humiliate you.
He clutched the bear a little tighter and glanced away from the screen.
Doojoon hadn’t really thought much of Yoseob’s words or what they really meant. It stood to reason that for Yoseob to step in, there would have had to be something to stop.
A sharp whine drug his attention back to the video and he could only watch with sickly trepidation as things progressed. Given the way he was practically begging, Doojoon could only assume that whatever he’d been drugged with had effected him like an aphrodisiac. The reporter side of his brain immediately ran through the list of possibilities. The date rape drug, probably. Maybe something else. Maybe Dongwoon would know.
Thankfully, the degradation didn’t last for long.
A third voice interrupted and Doojoon closed his eyes for a moment, gratitude and relief rushing through him as he recognized Yoseob.
‘Is this a closed party or can anyone join in?’
The look of surprise on his would-be rapists face when Yoseob’s heel smashed into his throat, turning the irritated reply into a pained gurgle of sound, was especially satisfying.
The scene shook as the mercenary slammed the second man into the camera.
All Doojoon could see after that was feet as they moved in or out of the view of the camera. He could hear enough to tell that neither of the two men had been any match for Yoseob.
It didn’t take long before a body was being dragged across the floor and Doojoon squirmed a little, pushing down the bile that threatened at the back of his throat. Wide, unseeing eyes stared into the camera for a moment before the door opened and the body was dragged the rest of the way out.
While Yoseob was gone, bare feet had slipped to the floor and Doojoon stared uneasily for a moment.
He had to use his imagination to fill in the blanks when Yoseob’s boots returned since his view was limited and he was mostly relying on the sounds.
He could tell that Yoseob had staggered a bit when he’d been met by the full force of Doojoon’s weight. He could tell that he was doing his level best to crawl into Yoseob’s skin and that Yoseob was trying to talk him down from whatever drug he’d been given.
He wasn’t entirely sure how they ended up on the floor, he couldn’t really tell what happened before Yoseob’s head connected with the carpet, the loud thud sounding painful.
A short tussle ensued and even with his limited view, Doojoon could tell that Yoseob was doing his best not to hurt him even while he wasn’t being particularly cooperative. The mercenary did manage to get him pinned down, though, offering soft apologies and reassurances before fishing out his phone.
Doojoon could only barely hear the conversation, enough to know that Yoseob had called Dongwoon and was looking for some way to speed the drugs through Doojoon’s system.
When he’d done his reports on the clubs, he’d gotten a hard fast indoctrination into the drugs that predators used on unsuspecting victims. There were options, but each had their own consequences. He wondered if Dongwoon was running him down the same list that Doojoon knew, if Dongwoon knew other methods.
He didn’t know.
He knew the moment Yoseob didn’t get the answer he was looking for, though.
The younger man slumped down against Doojoon’s naked chest with a weary sounding sigh. Regret and resignation lined his face as he moved, his body shifting slightly so that he wasn’t holding the other down any longer. It was an abrupt enough change that Doojoon stopped trying to wiggle out of his grasp (or maybe just stopped trying to wiggle into his pants) and lay still. There was a moment of quiet, then Doojoon seemed to realize that his arms had been released.
There was a flurry of movement as their positions were reversed and Doojoon could only stand to watch Yoseob lay back and let a nearly crazed Doojoon do as he willed for a minute before he had to turn away.
Did we have sex?
He didn’t think what had happened could actually be considered sex.
Doojoon felt sick to his stomach. He’d been worried about his own ability to consent or not, but the question of Yoseob’s consent had never even entered his mind.
He didn’t turn back to the video again until the sounds of frenzied rutting had quieted down. When he looked back, he could see his own head resting against Yoseob’s chest while the mercenary stared directly at the camera with a considering look. He was running a hand through Doojoon’s hair almost absently, as if he wasn’t quite aware that he was doing it.
The intimate care and familiarity of the movement made Doojoon swallow hard.
The phone beside him beeped loudly in the quiet room and he stretched over to grab it without disturbing the man sleeping against him.
‘Yeah? Okay. There’s a body in my car, though.’ Through the entire one-sided conversation, Yoseob’s eyes never left the video camera. ‘No, I have an idea for that. Yeah. Can you deal with the-? Thanks. Yeah, thanks. Back door.’
He flipped the phone shut and lay there for another long moment before sighing and moving.
Then Doojoon was staring at the dirty underside of the bed across the room. There was a spat of noise, then a lot of nothing. Doojoon actually fast-forwarded through what had to be ten minutes or more of nothingness.
Eventually, Yoseob returned, taking up the camera and fiddling with it before returning it to its original place on the tripod. Once it was settled, Doojoon could see that he’d missed some noise in that fast-forwarding. The second man had been tied to a chair in the corner. He was alive, but obviously worse for the wear. He was slumped forward, more unconscious than not until Yoseob slapped him hard a few times.
The conversation after that went about like Yoseob had said it had. The mercenary didn’t even have to try very hard to make his captive babble out a full confession to every sin he’d ever committed and then some.
In the end, Yoseob made another phone call and retrieved the camera.
The last thing on the video was the weeping rapist writing out his confession behind Yoseob while bright red and blue flashes glowed brightly against he walls.
Doojoon shut the computer and curled up in Yoseob’s bed with the teddy bear clutched tightly to his chest. He was sure he could have lived happily for the rest of his life without ever knowing any of what Dongwoon had shown him.
He closed his eyes and buried his nose in Yoseob’s pillows, breathing deeply. They hadn’t been used in over a week but there was still a hint of the smell he’d come to associate with the blonde, something caught somewhere between flowers and musk.
Funny how much comfort he could find in the scent.
It wasn’t rape. Not really.
In an alternate reality somewhere, maybe he could over power Yoseob. He’d been pressed close to that body often enough that he hadn’t needed to see the brief display of the mercenary’s fighting prowess to know that it was all muscle and discipline, quick and taut and fluid grace.
Yoseob could have stopped him.
Sure, sex was one of the faster, easier ways to deal with it, but he hadn’t had to go that route.
He could have said to hell with Doojoon’s reputation and taken him to a hospital to get the drugs flushed out of his system, could have tied him down somewhere and let it work it’s way out of him slowly and painfully.
Instead he’d let Doojoon hurt him, had offered what comfort he could, and held him afterwards.
Contrary to recent evidence, Doojoon wasn’t usually slow or stupid. He’d always been good at pulling together the facts and making a clear, concise story from them. It was his job, after all.
As he lay there in Yoseob’s bed beneath Yoseob’s lonely painting, surrounded by Yoseob’s scent, his mind raced over the facts he’d been given.
He thought about Yoseob’s willingness to die to protect him, the willingness to suffer in order to alleviate Doojoon’s own suffering.
He thought about the kiss that he’d been trying so hard to put out of his mind, the kiss that Dongwoon had interrupted, the one that had been about comfort and reassurance and that lingering something else that Doojoon had been unwilling to identify.
Rolling over, his eyes caught on the photographs propped on the nightstand.
The two frames closest to the bed were the easiest to see the ones that meant enough that Yoseob wanted them to be the first ones he saw and Doojoon stared for a long moment as tumblers fell into place, one by one, into an undeniable truth.
One was obvious, an older picture of much younger Yoseob and Gikwang in shiny new military uniforms with Yunja in the middle, all three beaming at the camera, happy and oblivious to the turn their lives would be taking. The short buzz cuts didn’t sit very naturally on either of their heads, though the uniforms looked good.
Doojoon could see the youthful idealism shining on their faces, Yoseob’s unscarred and carefree in a way that Doojoon imagined it hadn’t been in years, Gikwang’s filled with a wide grin and his eyes practically closed. Doojoon had never seen that sort of grin anywhere outside of anime characters. Certainly he’d never seen it on Gikwang’s face before.
Even Yunja looked more at ease, her expression filled with love and pride.
A second wallet sized picture was tucked into the corner, worn and well loved. Doojoon reached out and pulled it from it’s corner so that he could see it more closely. It was a standard sort of picture, the kind of thing families got when they went to a portrait studio.
He stared at the man and woman for a moment, looking for traces of something to link them to Yoseob, but if they were related, they took after someone else. The little girl between them was smiling shyly.
Doojoon frowned a little. She looked familiar somehow, something beyond the hints of Yoseob that bespoke of the familial relationship her parents seemed to lack. He felt like he knew the little girl, though he wasn’t sure why.
He flipped it over to see if the back gave any hints, but there was nothing but initials and a date for a few years earlier.
His frown grew as he turned it back over and stared for another long moment before giving up. He was sure he’d seen the little girl somewhere before, but he just couldn’t remember who she was. He tucked it back into it’s corner and looked at the second frame.
Doojoon recognized the neon lights over the bar of the club he frequented, the one where he’d been drugged twice. It was of the two of them, Doojoon draped over the smaller Yoseob as they both grinned at the camera. Yoseob was flashing a peace sign, seeming content to be within the possessive embrace of Doojoon’s arms.
Yoseob’s insistence that the cover story wouldn’t be questioned made a little more sense. He couldn’t be sure when the photo had been taken, but he hadn’t been sporting that particular hairstyle in years. It had to be from his early days in the club, back before his marriage with Gina had completely disintegrated.
They fit together with an easy familiarity and intimacy. Anyone looking at them would have thought they’d been a couple for years.
Behind the first two frames were a handful of others. Dongwoon with his eyes down, completely focused on the smartphone in his hands. Yunja at the restaurant frowning at the camera with exasperation. Another of the unknown little girl wearing a bright pink snow suit while she made a snow angel. An old picture of Yoseob and Gikwang wearing school uniforms as they sprawled out on school bleachers, the couple from the other picture on either side of Yoseob while Gikwang leaned back against his knee and another boy leaned over his shoulder from above. One of Yoseob and Gikwang wearing camos standing with another half a dozen men and two women. Gikwang was the only one in the picture without a gun visible in his hands or on his person.
Yoseob’s hair was black in all of the older pictures and Doojoon wondered when, exactly, the mercenary had decided to go blonde.
Then he sighed and shook his head, curling back up around the teddy bear, knowing he was trying to avoid the more pointed issue with trivialities.
Doojoon wasn’t sure exactly when he drifted off to sleep, his mind full of everything Yoseob had said, all of the hints Dongwoon and Gikwang had dropped.
Strong hands shook him awake some time later and he peered up at Yoseob in the dim light of the bedroom. He yawned and stretched, snuggling back against the pillow as his mind woke up slowly.
Yoseob had a damp towel around his neck and was back in a regular pair of cargos and tank top, looking like a different kind of GQ model than he had that morning.
A quick glance showed that the laptop was gone but Yoseob didn’t look more than fondly exasperated so he doubted the mercenary had been the one to remove it. He wished he’d had a chance to actually get the promised answers from Dongwoon, but he supposed there’d be time later.
“How’d it go?” he asked quietly, his voice rough with sleep as he reached out to tug Yoseob down onto the bed with him.
Though he looked slightly confused and more than a little curious, Yoseob went easily enough, dropping his towel and letting Doojoon pull him close and curl up against him. He settled with his back against Doojoon's chest, tension seeping out as he relaxed. “It was informative… If a little annoying.”
Doojoon made a soft noise and sighed against Yoseob’s neck, made note of the shiver it sent across Yoseob’s skin. “That’s good, right?”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah. DW’s already working on tracking down the guy. Choi wasn’t stupid enough to come herself, but she’s less of an immediate threat than the-” He paused, his voice a little breathless when he continued. “What are you doing?”
Shrugging, Doojoon did it again, nuzzling the juncture between Yoseob’s neck and shoulder and pressing a soft kiss there.
“Doojoonie-”
“How long?”
“Umm.. I don’t know. Could be another week. Maybe more if he gets really lucky and we don’t.”
“No…” Doojoon didn’t want to talk about that. Not just then. His lips brushed the skin of Yoseob’s ear. “How long have you been in love with me?”
The body in his arms went completely still, even the steady in and out of his breathing pausing for a long moment.
Then Yoseob sighed and rolled over so that he was facing Doojoon. The younger man searched his face before tucking both hands under his head, his expression curious. “What gave it away?”
Doojoon shrugged, giving in to the urge to reach out and run a hand through the hair that was once again bright blonde despite the dampness. “Anything. Everything.” He shook his head. “I’d have realized sooner if this whole mess hadn’t knocked me so far off my game.”
Any reply that Yoseob might have made was lost against Doojoon’s lips as he leaned forward, initiating for the first time. He kept the kiss soft and sweet, as if that could erase away the violence he’d once visited upon Yoseob.
He wasn’t sure how long they lay there, kissing softly and only chastely exploring anything more, when Yoseob sighed and leaned his head back away from Doojoon’s. “We still have things to do today.”
“I know.” Doojoon replied quietly as he shifted forward to bury his face against Yoseob’s neck.
Yoseob sighed and settled back against the pillows. His fingers played with Doojoon’s hair and he tugged slightly, though he wasn’t being very forceful about it. “Gikwang and Cheon are probably wondering where we are.”
Hesitating, Doojoon nodded. He knew that. He’d promised Cheon that there’d be ice cream and maybe a movie in it if she behaved for Yunja until they returned. He just wasn’t sure he was in quite the right mind set to be around his daughter just yet. Everything had shifted and it hadn’t settled in yet. “I just… Can we lay here? Just for a few more minutes?”
The other man’s arms tightened slightly before relaxing. “Yeah. We can do that.”
~*~*~
go to Chapter 7
Length: chaptered
Author: M_K Yujji
Rating: R for subject matter
Genre: AU
Pairing/Characters: Doojoon, Gikwang, Yoseob, Dongwoon, ofc of the child type
Guest appearance by: Taecyeon of 2PM
Warnings: RPS, references to past sexual assault and violence
Disclaimer: Though real people are used as characters, this fic bears no resemblance to Real Life and these people are not owned by me.
Comments/Notes: Partially inspired by snb123's spy prompt and this picture.
The last month has been a bit of a roller coaster. Sorry for the wait for this chapter. I'd like to say things have settled down, but honestly, they're still pretty crazy and my writing will continue to be sporadic until after the holidays.
I'd like to thank everyone who has sent their well-wishes and prayers for me and mine. It's been greatly appreciated. Likewise, I hope each and every one of you is doing well and has an enjoyable holiday season.
Thanks to both my beta and my beloved dongsaeng~<3 You guys are the best. Seriously.
Previously: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5
Side Shots: Second Chances | Guardian
Summary: Doojoon is a gay reporter with too many enemies in too many places, the divorced father of a beautiful little girl. Gikwang is his deceased ex-wife’s last husband and the closest thing he has to family since his blood relatives disowned him. When an assassination attempt almost kills them all, Gikwang calls in a favor.
As if Doojoon's life isn't already complicated enough...
~*~*~
“Don’t touch that.”
Doojoon jerked his hands away from the odd looking device he’d been about to pick up and looked back guiltily at Dongwoon.
The younger man sighed and shook his head. “You’re worse than a five year old.”
Before Doojoon could apologize, Yoseob’s voice floated out of the speakers as clear as if he was right there in the room.
‘Doojoon, there are things in that room that can kill you if you set them off. And others that Dongwoon will kill you for breaking. It’s best to just… not to touch anything.’
He glanced up at the monitor, but the mercenary’s position hadn’t changed. He was still sitting at a table in a small cafe a mile away, sipping a coffee and reading a newspaper. The dark hair caught Doojoon’s attention again and he abandoned Dongwoon’s other toys to move forward and stare a little more.
After they’d dropped Gikwang and Cheon off that morning to spend the day with Yunja, they’d returned to the loft where Dongwoon had greeted them with assurances that he’d scoped out the meeting place and it was ready for them.
Then Yoseob had left Doojoon with Dongwoon and disappeared upstairs with muttered words about needing to get ready, but Doojoon hadn’t thought much of it. If he’d considered it at all, he’d maybe expected a return to the clothing that Yoseob had been wearing that very first day, something more official and military-esque than the bright colors and patterns he’d been sporting since he’d moved into the reporter’s house.
When the man had come back downstairs sporting black hair and looking like he’d just stepped off a GQ cover, Doojoon hadn’t been able to do anything but stare. He’d been more than half hard before Yoseob had gotten all the way to the bottom of the stairs and he’d had to wipe the corner of his mouth to make sure he wasn’t drooling, a reaction that had made Yoseob smirk and saunter over to press against him and whisper dirty promises in his ear. Doojoon had given into the urge to kiss him, deep and hard. He’d told himself it was just to shut the younger man up, but if he was being honest, Doojoon knew he’d been a hairsbreadth from tossing Yoseob over the back of the sofa and fucking him senseless.
And from the way Yoseob’s hands had tightened on his arms and he’d pressed even closer, Doojoon had a feeling Yoseob had been right there with him with that thought process.
Then there’d been a wolf whistle from the doorway and Yoseob had been all business again.
‘So how long til this broad shows up?’
Another, deeper voice took Doojoon’s attention away from Yoseob and he glanced over to the other monitor and the bored looking man it showed. The man Yoseob had introduced as ‘Taec’ was big and broad, all teeth and attitude. He’d been grinning at them almost wolfishly when they’d stepped apart from their kiss - the obvious source of the whistle and not ashamed of it at all.
He looked far more military than either Yoseob or Gikwang ever had - right up until Doojoon had said as much and he’d preened like a great big peacock at the compliment.
As it turned out, he was an aspiring actor who stood in Yoseob’s place during such meetings whenever he was available. Apparently that was the agreement they’d decided on when Yoseob had helped Taec out of a sticky situation some years before.
Taec was at a different table in the same cafe as Yoseob, drumming impatient fingers on the lacquered wood with one hand while the other was propped under his chin. Despite his decided lack of professionalism, Doojoon could see why it was easier for people to believe that he was the real mercenary. He just looked more dangerous than the much smaller Yoseob.
White teeth suddenly gleamed on one monitor while Yoseob looked long-suffering in the other, making Doojoon realize he must have said that out loud.
Beside him, Dongwoon coughed suspiciously before pulling his chair up closer to the desk. A third monitor sat to his right, it’s screen split into multiple views. “I’m not seeing anyone yet. There is a dark sedan with tinted windows making rounds. Her security, maybe. It hasn’t parked.”
‘And Kim’s guys?’ Yoseob sipped his coffee, doing a casual scan of the cafe.
Dongwoon smirked. “Still sitting in the noodle shop downstairs. They’ve managed to charm Anh into giving up some of her special dessert.”
‘Of course they have.’ There was a hint of a smile lurking on Yoseob’s face as he turned the page of his newspaper.
Bored, Doojoon leaned forward to try to see the third monitor better then jumped back sharply when his elbow caught ahold of Dongwoon’s keyboard and it went clattering to the floor, taking everything else on the desk with it. Both men in the monitor flinched as the noise echoed back through their earpieces.
“Sorry,” he mumbled easing backwards under the force of Dongwoon’s glare.
The younger man took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Guys, I’m going to give Mr. Grabby Hands here something to occupy himself in the other room. Try not to get into trouble for a few minutes, okay?”
Two murmured affirmatives echoed through the room as Dongwoon stood up and nudged Doojoon out of the small space. In the main living area, he snagged Doojoon’s arm and led him up the stairs. “This is Yoseob’s room.”
He pushed Doojoon towards the bed, waiting until he settled there somewhat awkwardly before turning around and jogging back down the steps.
Unsure of what he was supposed to be occupying himself with, Doojoon looked around the room, curious about where Yoseob slept when he wasn’t taking over Doojoon’s bed.
The full-sized bed wasn’t as soft as Doojoon’s own, but it had twice as many pillows. It was all plain black and white except for a few splashes of bright color in one or two of the pillows and a… Doojoon frowned and reached over to grab the bit of brown fluff he’d spotted sticking out from under the blanket.
His frown morphed into a grin as he realized it was, in fact, a teddy bear. It was one of the bigger ones, all soft brown fluff and big beady eyes with a purple velvet bow tied around it’s neck. The fur around the neck and one arm was flattened and worn as if it were being perpetually held down by strong hands and arms. Somehow it wasn’t hard at all to imagine Yoseob clutching it tightly in his sleep.
Setting the teddy aside, he went back to his perusal of the room. Despite the sparse and utilitarian feel of the place, there were still touches of personality.
There was an art print above the bed, a simple seascape piece of a beach and ocean in watercolors. A figure stood in the forefront, back to the viewer as he stared down the stretch of beach.
Somehow it struck Doojoon as a lonely scene and he had to look away from it.
A scattering of photographs caught his attention from the nightstand on the other side of the bed. Before he could take a closer look, Dongwoon returned, a laptop open in his hands.
“Okay, this is one of my older ones. There shouldn’t be anything on here that you can damage.”
Doojoon pouted a little at the implication that he was incompetent. He was no technical geek, but he knew his way around a computer just fine.
He accepted the laptop without complaint, though.
Dongwoon hesitated for a moment before holding something up to Doojoon. He reached out to take it, but Dongwoon held tight for a moment. “I was supposed to destroy this. I only have it at all because he wanted me to extract the end for … insurance purposes. If Yoseob finds out that I kept it… or that I let you see it…”
He trailed off with a serious expression and Doojoon grinned. “What, he’ll kill us?”
The humor fell flat as Dongwoon scowled. “Don’t ever say that where he can hear you.”
“He’d get pissed off over that?” He wouldn’t have thought so. Yoseob seemed to have a lot more control over his temper than pretty much anyone else Doojoon had ever known.
“No,” Dongwoon sighed, shaking his head. “He wouldn’t take it as a joke. He’d think that you were seriously worried about it and coming from you, it’d hurt him.”
“Oh.” He’d never really thought about Yoseob's feelings and whether or not they could be hurt, but after the revelation of Gikwang’s abandonment and how Yoseob had viewed it, Doojoon thought he understood how such a thing could happen.
Dongwoon opened his hand to reveal the small flash drive within. It was the kind of thing that came out of a video camera and Doojoon had a bad feeling about what might be on it. “He never wanted you to see this and I know he’d never tell you, but I think it’s something you need to know. Watch it. Stay up here and explore if you want, just… make sure everything is back where it goes when you’re done.”
He pointedly did not look at the teddy bear sitting beside Doojoon, very obviously out of its usual place. “Dongwoon…”
But the younger man just shook his head. “I have to be down there, but when they’re done and heading back you can ask me anything you want. I can’t swear I’ll be able to tell you the answers or even if I’ll know them or not, but I’ll try.”
Then Dongwoon left him to his own devices.
The laptop had a small slot for camera cards, so Doojoon popped it in and settled back against the headboard with the teddy bear pulled close. Surveillance videos and news clips, personal recordings and the lot were all part and parcel of his job.
He wasn’t sure what to expect, though.
The video opened up to an unfamiliar face, peering into the lens. Everything shook slightly before the man backed away. He reached in to adjust something and the camera angle changed slightly. Then the man disappeared and the angle panned around. Doojoon thought he must have put it on a tripod.
‘Is it set up?’
‘Yep. We’re good to go here.’
‘Good. I don’t think lover boy here can wait much longer.’
Two voices, neither of them familiar, but underneath them a sound he did recognize. His own voice pitched high and breathless, the way it only got when he was too aroused to think straight.
A heavy feeling settled in his stomach as the camera moved again, revealing himself being pushed onto a bed.
You should thank me, really. The first guy who drugged you had every intention of fucking you in the most degrading ways possible and filming it so he could blackmail and humiliate you.
He clutched the bear a little tighter and glanced away from the screen.
Doojoon hadn’t really thought much of Yoseob’s words or what they really meant. It stood to reason that for Yoseob to step in, there would have had to be something to stop.
A sharp whine drug his attention back to the video and he could only watch with sickly trepidation as things progressed. Given the way he was practically begging, Doojoon could only assume that whatever he’d been drugged with had effected him like an aphrodisiac. The reporter side of his brain immediately ran through the list of possibilities. The date rape drug, probably. Maybe something else. Maybe Dongwoon would know.
Thankfully, the degradation didn’t last for long.
A third voice interrupted and Doojoon closed his eyes for a moment, gratitude and relief rushing through him as he recognized Yoseob.
‘Is this a closed party or can anyone join in?’
The look of surprise on his would-be rapists face when Yoseob’s heel smashed into his throat, turning the irritated reply into a pained gurgle of sound, was especially satisfying.
The scene shook as the mercenary slammed the second man into the camera.
All Doojoon could see after that was feet as they moved in or out of the view of the camera. He could hear enough to tell that neither of the two men had been any match for Yoseob.
It didn’t take long before a body was being dragged across the floor and Doojoon squirmed a little, pushing down the bile that threatened at the back of his throat. Wide, unseeing eyes stared into the camera for a moment before the door opened and the body was dragged the rest of the way out.
While Yoseob was gone, bare feet had slipped to the floor and Doojoon stared uneasily for a moment.
He had to use his imagination to fill in the blanks when Yoseob’s boots returned since his view was limited and he was mostly relying on the sounds.
He could tell that Yoseob had staggered a bit when he’d been met by the full force of Doojoon’s weight. He could tell that he was doing his level best to crawl into Yoseob’s skin and that Yoseob was trying to talk him down from whatever drug he’d been given.
He wasn’t entirely sure how they ended up on the floor, he couldn’t really tell what happened before Yoseob’s head connected with the carpet, the loud thud sounding painful.
A short tussle ensued and even with his limited view, Doojoon could tell that Yoseob was doing his best not to hurt him even while he wasn’t being particularly cooperative. The mercenary did manage to get him pinned down, though, offering soft apologies and reassurances before fishing out his phone.
Doojoon could only barely hear the conversation, enough to know that Yoseob had called Dongwoon and was looking for some way to speed the drugs through Doojoon’s system.
When he’d done his reports on the clubs, he’d gotten a hard fast indoctrination into the drugs that predators used on unsuspecting victims. There were options, but each had their own consequences. He wondered if Dongwoon was running him down the same list that Doojoon knew, if Dongwoon knew other methods.
He didn’t know.
He knew the moment Yoseob didn’t get the answer he was looking for, though.
The younger man slumped down against Doojoon’s naked chest with a weary sounding sigh. Regret and resignation lined his face as he moved, his body shifting slightly so that he wasn’t holding the other down any longer. It was an abrupt enough change that Doojoon stopped trying to wiggle out of his grasp (or maybe just stopped trying to wiggle into his pants) and lay still. There was a moment of quiet, then Doojoon seemed to realize that his arms had been released.
There was a flurry of movement as their positions were reversed and Doojoon could only stand to watch Yoseob lay back and let a nearly crazed Doojoon do as he willed for a minute before he had to turn away.
Did we have sex?
He didn’t think what had happened could actually be considered sex.
Doojoon felt sick to his stomach. He’d been worried about his own ability to consent or not, but the question of Yoseob’s consent had never even entered his mind.
He didn’t turn back to the video again until the sounds of frenzied rutting had quieted down. When he looked back, he could see his own head resting against Yoseob’s chest while the mercenary stared directly at the camera with a considering look. He was running a hand through Doojoon’s hair almost absently, as if he wasn’t quite aware that he was doing it.
The intimate care and familiarity of the movement made Doojoon swallow hard.
The phone beside him beeped loudly in the quiet room and he stretched over to grab it without disturbing the man sleeping against him.
‘Yeah? Okay. There’s a body in my car, though.’ Through the entire one-sided conversation, Yoseob’s eyes never left the video camera. ‘No, I have an idea for that. Yeah. Can you deal with the-? Thanks. Yeah, thanks. Back door.’
He flipped the phone shut and lay there for another long moment before sighing and moving.
Then Doojoon was staring at the dirty underside of the bed across the room. There was a spat of noise, then a lot of nothing. Doojoon actually fast-forwarded through what had to be ten minutes or more of nothingness.
Eventually, Yoseob returned, taking up the camera and fiddling with it before returning it to its original place on the tripod. Once it was settled, Doojoon could see that he’d missed some noise in that fast-forwarding. The second man had been tied to a chair in the corner. He was alive, but obviously worse for the wear. He was slumped forward, more unconscious than not until Yoseob slapped him hard a few times.
The conversation after that went about like Yoseob had said it had. The mercenary didn’t even have to try very hard to make his captive babble out a full confession to every sin he’d ever committed and then some.
In the end, Yoseob made another phone call and retrieved the camera.
The last thing on the video was the weeping rapist writing out his confession behind Yoseob while bright red and blue flashes glowed brightly against he walls.
Doojoon shut the computer and curled up in Yoseob’s bed with the teddy bear clutched tightly to his chest. He was sure he could have lived happily for the rest of his life without ever knowing any of what Dongwoon had shown him.
He closed his eyes and buried his nose in Yoseob’s pillows, breathing deeply. They hadn’t been used in over a week but there was still a hint of the smell he’d come to associate with the blonde, something caught somewhere between flowers and musk.
Funny how much comfort he could find in the scent.
It wasn’t rape. Not really.
In an alternate reality somewhere, maybe he could over power Yoseob. He’d been pressed close to that body often enough that he hadn’t needed to see the brief display of the mercenary’s fighting prowess to know that it was all muscle and discipline, quick and taut and fluid grace.
Yoseob could have stopped him.
Sure, sex was one of the faster, easier ways to deal with it, but he hadn’t had to go that route.
He could have said to hell with Doojoon’s reputation and taken him to a hospital to get the drugs flushed out of his system, could have tied him down somewhere and let it work it’s way out of him slowly and painfully.
Instead he’d let Doojoon hurt him, had offered what comfort he could, and held him afterwards.
Contrary to recent evidence, Doojoon wasn’t usually slow or stupid. He’d always been good at pulling together the facts and making a clear, concise story from them. It was his job, after all.
As he lay there in Yoseob’s bed beneath Yoseob’s lonely painting, surrounded by Yoseob’s scent, his mind raced over the facts he’d been given.
He thought about Yoseob’s willingness to die to protect him, the willingness to suffer in order to alleviate Doojoon’s own suffering.
He thought about the kiss that he’d been trying so hard to put out of his mind, the kiss that Dongwoon had interrupted, the one that had been about comfort and reassurance and that lingering something else that Doojoon had been unwilling to identify.
Rolling over, his eyes caught on the photographs propped on the nightstand.
The two frames closest to the bed were the easiest to see the ones that meant enough that Yoseob wanted them to be the first ones he saw and Doojoon stared for a long moment as tumblers fell into place, one by one, into an undeniable truth.
One was obvious, an older picture of much younger Yoseob and Gikwang in shiny new military uniforms with Yunja in the middle, all three beaming at the camera, happy and oblivious to the turn their lives would be taking. The short buzz cuts didn’t sit very naturally on either of their heads, though the uniforms looked good.
Doojoon could see the youthful idealism shining on their faces, Yoseob’s unscarred and carefree in a way that Doojoon imagined it hadn’t been in years, Gikwang’s filled with a wide grin and his eyes practically closed. Doojoon had never seen that sort of grin anywhere outside of anime characters. Certainly he’d never seen it on Gikwang’s face before.
Even Yunja looked more at ease, her expression filled with love and pride.
A second wallet sized picture was tucked into the corner, worn and well loved. Doojoon reached out and pulled it from it’s corner so that he could see it more closely. It was a standard sort of picture, the kind of thing families got when they went to a portrait studio.
He stared at the man and woman for a moment, looking for traces of something to link them to Yoseob, but if they were related, they took after someone else. The little girl between them was smiling shyly.
Doojoon frowned a little. She looked familiar somehow, something beyond the hints of Yoseob that bespoke of the familial relationship her parents seemed to lack. He felt like he knew the little girl, though he wasn’t sure why.
He flipped it over to see if the back gave any hints, but there was nothing but initials and a date for a few years earlier.
His frown grew as he turned it back over and stared for another long moment before giving up. He was sure he’d seen the little girl somewhere before, but he just couldn’t remember who she was. He tucked it back into it’s corner and looked at the second frame.
Doojoon recognized the neon lights over the bar of the club he frequented, the one where he’d been drugged twice. It was of the two of them, Doojoon draped over the smaller Yoseob as they both grinned at the camera. Yoseob was flashing a peace sign, seeming content to be within the possessive embrace of Doojoon’s arms.
Yoseob’s insistence that the cover story wouldn’t be questioned made a little more sense. He couldn’t be sure when the photo had been taken, but he hadn’t been sporting that particular hairstyle in years. It had to be from his early days in the club, back before his marriage with Gina had completely disintegrated.
They fit together with an easy familiarity and intimacy. Anyone looking at them would have thought they’d been a couple for years.
Behind the first two frames were a handful of others. Dongwoon with his eyes down, completely focused on the smartphone in his hands. Yunja at the restaurant frowning at the camera with exasperation. Another of the unknown little girl wearing a bright pink snow suit while she made a snow angel. An old picture of Yoseob and Gikwang wearing school uniforms as they sprawled out on school bleachers, the couple from the other picture on either side of Yoseob while Gikwang leaned back against his knee and another boy leaned over his shoulder from above. One of Yoseob and Gikwang wearing camos standing with another half a dozen men and two women. Gikwang was the only one in the picture without a gun visible in his hands or on his person.
Yoseob’s hair was black in all of the older pictures and Doojoon wondered when, exactly, the mercenary had decided to go blonde.
Then he sighed and shook his head, curling back up around the teddy bear, knowing he was trying to avoid the more pointed issue with trivialities.
Doojoon wasn’t sure exactly when he drifted off to sleep, his mind full of everything Yoseob had said, all of the hints Dongwoon and Gikwang had dropped.
Strong hands shook him awake some time later and he peered up at Yoseob in the dim light of the bedroom. He yawned and stretched, snuggling back against the pillow as his mind woke up slowly.
Yoseob had a damp towel around his neck and was back in a regular pair of cargos and tank top, looking like a different kind of GQ model than he had that morning.
A quick glance showed that the laptop was gone but Yoseob didn’t look more than fondly exasperated so he doubted the mercenary had been the one to remove it. He wished he’d had a chance to actually get the promised answers from Dongwoon, but he supposed there’d be time later.
“How’d it go?” he asked quietly, his voice rough with sleep as he reached out to tug Yoseob down onto the bed with him.
Though he looked slightly confused and more than a little curious, Yoseob went easily enough, dropping his towel and letting Doojoon pull him close and curl up against him. He settled with his back against Doojoon's chest, tension seeping out as he relaxed. “It was informative… If a little annoying.”
Doojoon made a soft noise and sighed against Yoseob’s neck, made note of the shiver it sent across Yoseob’s skin. “That’s good, right?”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah. DW’s already working on tracking down the guy. Choi wasn’t stupid enough to come herself, but she’s less of an immediate threat than the-” He paused, his voice a little breathless when he continued. “What are you doing?”
Shrugging, Doojoon did it again, nuzzling the juncture between Yoseob’s neck and shoulder and pressing a soft kiss there.
“Doojoonie-”
“How long?”
“Umm.. I don’t know. Could be another week. Maybe more if he gets really lucky and we don’t.”
“No…” Doojoon didn’t want to talk about that. Not just then. His lips brushed the skin of Yoseob’s ear. “How long have you been in love with me?”
The body in his arms went completely still, even the steady in and out of his breathing pausing for a long moment.
Then Yoseob sighed and rolled over so that he was facing Doojoon. The younger man searched his face before tucking both hands under his head, his expression curious. “What gave it away?”
Doojoon shrugged, giving in to the urge to reach out and run a hand through the hair that was once again bright blonde despite the dampness. “Anything. Everything.” He shook his head. “I’d have realized sooner if this whole mess hadn’t knocked me so far off my game.”
Any reply that Yoseob might have made was lost against Doojoon’s lips as he leaned forward, initiating for the first time. He kept the kiss soft and sweet, as if that could erase away the violence he’d once visited upon Yoseob.
He wasn’t sure how long they lay there, kissing softly and only chastely exploring anything more, when Yoseob sighed and leaned his head back away from Doojoon’s. “We still have things to do today.”
“I know.” Doojoon replied quietly as he shifted forward to bury his face against Yoseob’s neck.
Yoseob sighed and settled back against the pillows. His fingers played with Doojoon’s hair and he tugged slightly, though he wasn’t being very forceful about it. “Gikwang and Cheon are probably wondering where we are.”
Hesitating, Doojoon nodded. He knew that. He’d promised Cheon that there’d be ice cream and maybe a movie in it if she behaved for Yunja until they returned. He just wasn’t sure he was in quite the right mind set to be around his daughter just yet. Everything had shifted and it hadn’t settled in yet. “I just… Can we lay here? Just for a few more minutes?”
The other man’s arms tightened slightly before relaxing. “Yeah. We can do that.”
~*~*~
go to Chapter 7