Chapter Text
Kihyun sighed in contentment as Hyunwoo snaked his left arm around Kihyun’s waist, bringing them close together on the sidewalk. It was late November and bitterly cold—icy air bit at Kihyun’s cheeks and ears and nose, and a light sheen of sparkly white snow coated the ground like a frozen blanket. He shivered a little even though he was bundled head to toe in one of his thickest jackets, and Hyunwoo pulled him impossibly tighter.
He felt Hyunwoo’s free hand—the one that wasn’t wrapped around his waist—drift to hover over his slightly swollen stomach. Kihyun and Hyunwoo shared a shy grin. Two days ago they’d gone for Kihyun’s monthly checkup to determine the sex of their baby, and both were excited to learn Kihyun was carrying a girl. Minhyuk had been so smug about it (“I told you it’s a girl!”) but honestly, Kihyun was too elated to be mad. He’d secretly been hoping for a girl—his little princess. He kissed Hyunwoo’s hand.
They made a right turn down Hannam-dong. Hyunwoo shifted slightly and Kihyun felt the familiar plastic-metal handle of Hyunwoo’s handgun poke his right hip. He swallowed his frustration with a sigh, silently cursing Hyunwoo for bringing the gun in the first place and making him carry his tracker.
He knew Hyunwoo just wanted to protect him. With their occupations, they were both feared and respected and as a result, often hunted. There had been multiple bounties placed on Kihyun’s head in the past, but now that he’d given himself a decent enough reputation, he was mostly left alone, and so were Hyunwoo and their friends, for the same reason. Hyunwoo wasn’t normally so protective, but ever since Kihyun revealed his pregnancy to him, his need to make sure Kihyun was safe at all times grew to a nearly overbearing point.
Kihyun knew it wasn’t his fault, not really. Part of it was biological—Hyunwoo was a mated alpha and his omega was carrying his pup. It was perfectly normal for him to be a bit more on guard. But Kihyun also knew Hyunwoo was the slightest bit paranoid. After all, that was how he’d been trained. He’d been raised and taught to always look over his shoulder, to be careful with whom he trusted, to protect those who he loved the most. Kihyun understood. He’d been trained the same way. It didn’t make it any less annoying, but Kihyun knew the mindset, and he knew better than to try to change Hyunwoo's mind. He just let Hyunwoo do what he felt he needed to do to keep his mate and unborn pup safe.
“Have you thought of any more names?” Hyunwoo asked casually, breaking the comfortable silence as the couple continued to walk leisurely down the road. Kihyun smiled and pulled down his scarf a little so he could talk.
“Well, your sister likes Yookyung, and Changkyun recommended Siyeon, which Minhyuk and Hyungwon both really like,” Kihyun said, his breath billowing from his lips in a puff of steam. “But I’m still mostly partial to Chaemin. I think it would suit her perfectly.”
Hyunwoo glanced sideways at him, smiling his eye smile. “What makes you say that? She’s only 18 weeks along.”
Kihyun smirked. “Mother’s intuition, I guess. After all, I was right about her gender, wasn’t I?”
Hyunwoo’s eye smile turned into a genuine grin and he rolled his eyes playfully. “That you were, my dear.”
“Changing the topic slightly, have you decided where the crib should go in her room?” Kihyun asked, curious.
He’d mostly left Hyunwoo in charge of designing the nursery (which Hyungwon had strongly argued against) under the condition that Kihyun be allowed to make changes as he saw fit. Hyunwoo eagerly agreed, and set upon the decoration of the baby room with the help of Hoseok and Minhyuk. Kihyun wasn’t worried about leaving the three of them in charge of the nursery. Hyungwon and Changkyun were, but Kihyun wasn’t. He trusted them. They’d put an equal amount of fun and practicality into the room, and that was all Kihyun wanted.
Hyunwoo hummed thoughtfully. “I was thinking of putting the crib by the window, and the rocking chair across from the crib,” He explained. “That way the changing table and dresser can kind of go near the closet, so we have all of her clothes and other necessities in one area.”
Kihyun nodded. That sounded good to him.
“Promise me you’ll take off at least two weeks after she’s born,” Kihyun said suddenly.
This was something he’d been meaning to get off his chest for a while. No matter how dedicated Hyunwoo was to Kihyun and their daughter, he also was tightly knit to his job. He was a special agent—a protective agent, hired for very particular scenarios—and it was what he’d been doing for the past fifteen years. When Kihyun met him, four years ago, it was because they'd been paired together to track down and kill the head of the biggest underground American crime syndicate in South Korea. They’d been paired together because Kihyun was an impeccable shot, a genius with any weapon, and because Hyunwoo knew how to get information out of anyone, able to manipulate even the most secretive of people. Putting them together on this kind of mission was a no-brainer, and, as it turned out, they were an incredible team, in more ways than one. Sometimes Kihyun thanked his lucky stars they’d been placed together for that mission, because Hyunwoo had changed his life permanently for the better. Hyunwoo meant more to Kihyun than anything he was able to put into words.
He often admired Hyunwoo’s dedication to his job but sometimes found himself cursing it, when missions dragged on forever and Kihyun lost track of the days waiting for him to come back safe and sound. He always came back. He always did. Kihyun was just terrified of the day that he wouldn’t.
Hyunwoo sighed through his nose. “Kihyun-ah, we’ve talked about this… We can't take time off our jobs, Kihyun, they call us when they need us. It's beyond our control.”
“I don’t understand why you’re trying to convince me of that,” Kihyun stopped walking and gripped both of Hyunwoo’s arms, staring deeply into the taller man’s eyes. “If we ask Jiyong to excuse us both from missions for, like, three years after she's born, then he'll let us. You know he will. Hyunwoo, I need you to be in her life. I need it and she needs it and you need it too.”
“I will be in her life,” Hyunwoo said gravelly. “I promise.”
“How can you promise me that? With your job? With my job?” Kihyun demanded, knowing he was starting to sound a little desperate.
“Kihyun…”
“I don’t know if we should keep doing this anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
Kihyun took a deep breath.
“I mean... Our jobs. They’re dangerous. They’re life threatening. Every time you or I leave, there’s no guarantee we’ll come back. We're called at random times to go kill someone or break up a drug ring and every time we go, we're playing with chance. We’re always playing with our own lives. I know you’re strong and amazing at what you do, but what if one day your skill isn’t enough?” Kihyun let everything go, words falling from his lips as fast as they came to his brain. “What if it takes you from me? From your daughter?”
“Kihyun, yeobo, listen to me,” Hyunwoo cupped Kihyun’s face in his warm, large hands. Kihyun nuzzled into them. “You’re right. There is no guarantee for anything. We are always playing with our lives. But, Kihyun, isn’t that what we’re used to?”
“Hyung, our jobs are not something we can ever get our baby involved in. That wouldn’t be fair to her. She doesn’t deserve to be born into this life, like we were. Don’t you think she deserves more than that? She deserves a pair of fathers who will always be there.” Kihyun swallowed thickly against the lump in his throat. Hyunwoo sighed again, his eyes soft but still slightly pained.
“I know, Kihyun.” He said, his voice low. “We’ll figure it out, I promise. We aren’t alone in this. We have the rest of our team behind us. I know we’ll work something out. Our daughter will have as normal a life as she can have with two parents like us.”
Kihyun nuzzled himself into Hyunwoo’s arms, wrapping his arms around Hyunwoo as tightly as the small baby bump would allow him.
“Promise?” Kihyun asked, his voice a little muffled by the fabric of Hyunwoo’s puffy coat.
“Promise.” Hyunwoo replied, his voice strong and sure.
Kihyun believed him.
They had just turned down a shortcut, past the staircase to the Metropolitan Subway, and were about twenty feet away from their car before Kihyun noticed it.
Footsteps. Fast footsteps. Behind them.
He was alert immediately. He kept his head as still as possible, kept his body as relaxed as it was before he heard the footsteps, and gently tapped his index finger three times against Hyunwoo’s arm—their code for ‘I think we’re being followed.’ Kihyun felt Hyunwoo tense slightly.
Now that Kihyun was fully aware of the footsteps and his senses were on high alert, he noticed several darkened figures cloaked by the corners of buildings, hiding in the shadows of alleys, crouched in the shade cast on the asphalt by cars and streetlights.
He’d been in this situation way too many times before. He knew they weren’t going to make it to their car without being confronted. Slowly, very slowly, Kihyun reached down to his left hip, where the stupid tracker was clamped to his belt. He pressed on the red button. And felt the tracker vibrate a little. The blood started to rush in his ears and he willed himself to relax.
“Stop walking. Both of you.”
Kihyun and Hyunwoo both stopped and pulled away from each other, but didn’t turn around to face whoever was following them. Instead they watched as people drenched in black slipped out from the shadowy crevices of the street, surrounding them in a semi circle so they were pressed with their backs against the wall of the abandoned warehouse behind them. All of the men—there were about twelve of them—had the bottom halves of their faces covered by a black mask, and they all wore various black outfits—beanies, leather jackets, black jeans. Every once in a while one of them would shift slightly and a weapon clinging to their waist or their leg would catch the yellow glow of the streetlight, glinting threateningly.
“We don’t want trouble,” Hyunwoo spoke slowly and deliberately. One of the men—the leader, Kihyun assumed—scoffed.
“Don’t want trouble, huh?” He sneered. “I’m afraid it’s a bit too late for that.”
“Why don’t you just tell us what you want, and let us go?” Hyunwoo sighed, getting irritated. The leader smirked.
“Why? Getting agitated, big guy?” He mocked. “If you’d just played nice, and followed the rules of the game.. things would be much easier.”
Kihyun struggled to keep his cool. Hyunwoo tensed even more. This was the kind of thing they heard a lot. It was an empty threat and it didn't mean anything to either of them. Kihyun didn't know why it was bothering him so much this time, but he needed to do something. But what? He wasn't armed, and his teammates still hadn't responded to his call for help; the tracker was still vibrating gently against his hip. His fingers twitched the way they do when he gets agitated.
“What do you want?” asked Hyunwoo, his voice stern and monotone.
“Well, technically we’ve been sent to kill him,” The leader gestured to Kihyun.
“By who?”
“You already know who.”
And Kihyun did know.
He barely stopped himself from sighing in relief when the tracker stopped vibrating against his hip. His team would be there shortly.
“And if you’ve failed all the other times to kill him, what makes you think you can kill him now?” Hyunwoo cocked his head to the side. The leader pulled down his mask and grinned, a vicious, menacing grin. The soft glow of the streetlights and neon illumination from the buildings around them reflected off his yellow teeth and something insane glinted in his eyes.
“Because,” sang the man, his voice high and taunting and quiet. “A little birdie told us that he’s got a baby on the way.”
Kihyun felt his face go white.
One of the men took one step towards him. Kihyun didn’t even think.
Moving faster than any of the henchmen could register, he ripped Hyunwoo’s gun from his belt, cocked it, and shot two of them dead. Hyunwoo reacted first, reaching for the one closest to him and grabbing his arm, spinning him around and snapping the bone. The man screamed in pain and his own glock clattered to the asphalt. Hyunwoo snatched it from the sidewalk, cocked it, shot the guy in the head, then stood upright and aimed the gun at the leader of the group.
The nine remaining men brought out their own weapons in a heartbeat, and then the whole scene was like a standoff from a movie. Kihyun wished this was just a movie. He’d been in this scenario too many times to count. He really just wanted to go home.
"Cha.." one of the other men in black muttered. His tone betrays his concern.
“Shut up, Lee. Okay, okay,” The leader, apparently named Cha, raised his arms with a smile, feigning surrender. “I don’t want—”
He didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence. A gunshot sounded from somewhere way above them, something whizzed by Kihyun, and the henchman closest to Kihyun fell to the ground, bleeding from a hole right between his eyes. And then came another gunshot from above, followed by a sharp whoosh. The man to the leader’s left collapsed.
Excellent shot, Changkyun, Kihyun thought.
The leader and the remaining six men looked wildly around themselves, desperately trying to find the sniper. Kihyun smirked. These men were nothing more than amateurs. He honestly thought better of Diablo—he must have known he’d sent these henchmen to their deaths.
But why? What does he want? Kihyun thought. Diablo does everything for a reason. What's the reason for this?
He locked eyes with a shadow creeping up behind one of the henchmen. Minhyuk grinned at him, then winked.
He stood up, prepared to snap the henchman’s neck from behind, but he wasn’t fast enough.
With something that resembled a battle cry, Cha threw himself at Kihyun, armed with a switchblade he'd pulled out of his jacket. The rest of the henchmen seemed to take this as initiative to attack, because suddenly Hyunwoo and Minhyuk were both dealing with a henchman. Hoseok and Jooheon appeared out of the shadows to take down the other spies. Kihyun wasn’t too worried about them.
He fought hand-to-hand with the leader of the group, who was actually a lot stronger and had more stamina than Kihyun had initially given him credit for. Or maybe it was the fact that Kihyun was four months pregnant and therefore not really in the best shape for such violence. Either way, Kihyun was horrified to realize he was struggling a little to hold his own against whoever this was.
Eventually he managed to disarm the man, snapping both bones in his left forearm and tossing his switchblade into the nearest gutter as he screamed in agony. Kihyun looked over the leader’s shoulder for a split second to see Changkyun snipe one of the henchmen from the top of the building. It took him a moment to register that the leader of the group had started pushing Kihyun away from where Hoseok, Hyunwoo, Minhyuk and Jooheon were dealing with the rest of the group. Now Kihyun stood with his back to the steps down to the Seoul Metropolitan Subway. He shucked off his padded jacket as the leader stood back up, clutching his broken arm. He looked rabid—his black eyes were wild with pain and anger and his yellowed mouth was foaming. He yelled again and jumped at Kihyun like a wild animal.
Kihyun fought him off as best he could, but this man had either really lost it or was finally unleashing whatever combat monster was bubbling just below the surface. His movements were fast, but not sharp and deliberate. He was untamed, everywhere all at once, and Kihyun struggled to keep up with him, only half aware of how close he was getting to the stairway to the subway until his heel slipped off the edge of the first step. He wobbled a little, trying to regain his balance, and the leader of the henchman took his split second of vulnerability to kick him in his swollen stomach.
Kihyun screamed in shock and pain just as he instinctively reached for his stomach, tipped over—and tumbled backwards down the stone steps.
He landed in a heap at the base of the stairs in the subway, his back to the stone steps. The world around him spun and stars jumped across his vision. Over the violent ringing in his ears he could hear loud yelling, but couldn’t pinpoint who or where it was coming from. A low whine escaped him, and he barely registered heavy footsteps thunking slowly down the stairs towards him. The part of his brain that was aware of what was going on, knew the leader of Diablo’s group was coming to finish him off—but Kihyun couldn’t move. He was stuck.
Something in his stomach moved and Kihyun thought he might be sick. Every movement, however small, sent searing pain through his stomach. His arms unconsciously found their way to wrap around his abdomen and he felt tears rise and slip down his face.
Not my baby, he cried.
“Aww, are you crying?” Cha's loud, taunting voice sent a shock of pain through Kihyun’s aching head. “Did that hurt?”
Kihyun couldn’t react in anyway. His entire abdomen and torso was a mess of blinding, white hot pain, and his head spun and screamed in agony—his mind was whirling with horrible thoughts, all about his baby, not his baby, please not my baby—
The leader was right behind him now. He could feel him, he could hear him, his voice and presence crawling over Kihyun’s skin—he was laughing, a sick, maniacal laughter—
And then someone tackled him from behind like an American football player. He shrieked as he went down, falling down the remainder of the steps, then landing heavily on his front with a huge, muscular man sitting on his back and limbs.
Hyunwoo was shouting. He was sweating, shaking, his jaws were wide and snapping—His face was red and his eyes—God, his eyes—
There was a sickening crack, it split the air like a gunshot—and then there was silence. Kihyun wasn’t awake anymore, not really. Someone above him spoke, probably to him, but Kihyun was underwater. His lungs were heavy, collapsing, and he could barely breathe; he couldn't see; nothing made sense..
“Kihyun— Please stay awake—”
And then nothing.