"mark." donghyuck's honey voice could be heard inside the earpiece he was wearing.

"what is it?"

"i love you."

"i love you too, baby."

donghyuck and him had been together for a couple of months now. the son of lee sooman lived with nct full-time, and some members had even asked for him to join the gang.

but mark wouldn't let that happen.

his little baby would get hurt, and that was unthinkable.

"maaaaaark?" donghyuck asked again.

"yes?"

"i love you!!"

"baby... i'm on a mission right now." mark replied, keeping his eyes focused on the door he was guarding, one hand over his gun.

"you don't love me anymore...?" donghyuck asked, and mark could hear him pout on the other side of the line.

"what? of course i love you, baby. i love you more than anything else, you know that."

"mark, lower your damn voice, they're going to hear you." ten yelled in his earpiece, making mark groan.

"jesus, you're loud."

"yeah, be quick to tell your boyfriend to leave the basement, you need to concentrate, and him talking to you is more distracting than anything else."

"can't i stay here?!" donghyuck's voice squeaked.

"not if you're disturbing mark."

"come on, ten. he's not disturbing me." mark rolled his eyes, checking that his gun was loaded.

"but is he able to do that?" ten asked, rather harshly.

"i'm sure he is." mark replied, imagining his boyfriend's pretty face.

"alright. but no disturbing." ten said sternly before a small cheer was heard, meaning donghyuck was happy to stay.

nobody talked for a few long seconds.

mark almost believed that time had stopped considering that there was absolutely no noise.

"something moved over there." lucas' voice spoke in mark's earpiece.

"great. everyone, stay in place. and remember, just shooting, no killing. we need him alive." ten spoke, the sound of his hands typing on his keyboard echoing in the background.

"i reached my spot." sicheng told after a few seconds.

"perfect. you shoot only if mark and jungwoo miss their shots."

mark swallowed his saliva, breathing out slowly as he was getting ready to jump on the man that would surely come out in a few seconds.

he tensed immediately when he heard a voice behind the door he was guarding, the grip on his gun tightening immediately.

"he's coming." he said low, keeping his eyes on the handle that moved to signal someone was opening the door.

a man appeared, not really paying attention to his surroundings, offering mark the best opportunity to attack.

he pounced on the man, gripping his collar tight to strangle him while his fist hit the man's stomach multiple times until the man blacked out in his arms.

"done. he's out. yuta, come pick him up." mark said, signalling everybody that their work was done.

"on my way." yuta replied quickly.

mark looked around for the next minute, staying alarmed of any unusual sound.

"yuta, where are you?" mark asked impatiently.

"i picked jungwoo up, and a police car blocked us." yuta replied.

"move back yuta, take the parallel street." ten said immediately in their earpiece.

"but isn't- "

"donghyuck, not now!"

"ten, we're blocked." jungwoo spoke, worrying mark even more. "another police car."

"guys, please hurry up."

"ten- "

"donghyuck!" ten yelled in the earpiece.

"what is happening?" mark asked out loud, his heart beating fast in his chest.

"your boyfriend- "

"THIS IS A TRAP!" donghyuck yelled, startling mark.

"baby, how- "

before mark could ask his question, the sound of bullets echoed around him, making him crouch and hide behind a wall.

"winwin! cover me!"

"i'm trying to, but there are lots of them!" winwin replied immediately while shooting.

"how come no one saw them arriving?" mark asked, lying the knocked-out man on the floor as he stood up to go to the battlefield.

he looked at the way the bullets were coming through to find four men pointing guns at him.

after taking a deep breath, mark jumped forward, rolling on the flood before shooting one of the men that were aiming at him and hiding behind another structure.

before he could jump again, he heard the sound of tires screeching and hitting something hard. mark looked quickly at what happened to find out a blue van had hit two of the men, the last one being shot by winwin.

mark furrowed his brows at the view of the car before the passenger window opened, revealing jungwoo.

"come on mark!" he yelled.

mark didn't waste a second to run to the object of their mission and pull him towards the stolen van, putting him in with the help of lucas that had joined them.

"winwin, go down in an hour and join us at home." yuta told, earning a positive response from sicheng.

with his response, yuta pressed the pedal and made the car start at an incredible speed.

he zigzagged through the crowd of cars that were going back to their houses after a long tuesday, and reached the nct headquarters after a dozen of minutes.

he dropped the guys before going god knows where with the car he had just stolen.

jungwoo opened the door, allowing mark and lucas to drop the knocked-out man in a room and lock him in.

"well, mission accomplished i guess." lucas told passing a hand through his hair.

"can someone tell me what in the world happened!" ten arrived yelling.

"well, if someone has to explain something, it's you." lucas retorted, hands on his hips.

"i did my job." ten said quickly.

"yeah, very poorly in my- "

"guys." taeyong interrupted their conversation. "another gang is after him. we need to be quick. is he still knocked-out?"

"another gang?" ten asked with brows furrowed.

"surely the ones who played the trap." a high-pitched voice spoke behind taeyong.

the leader stepped aside, revealing donghyuck who was fidgeting with his fingers.

"baby." mark said, rushing to his side to take him in a hug as he pampered his face with kisses, making him giggle.

"trap?" taeyong asked. "you didn't tell me it was a trap. and how does donghyuck know that? i thought he hadn't access to the basement." taeyong said sternly.

"well..." ten rubbed his nape.

"he's my boyfriend. he has the right to know where i am." mark said proudly.

"yeah, but i thought you had said this world wasn't his." taeyong retorted.

"he became a murderer as any of us the second he pulled the trigger over his father. he has the right to know what happens in this gang." mark replied, tightening his hold around his boyfriend.

the boys included in the conversation gasped at mark's words.

"mark. i don't think this is a proper way to- "

"without him we would have been all dead today." mark said.

taeyong furrowed his brows, looking at ten. "what?"

"he's the one who told us it was a trap. he's the one who saved us."

taeyong asked ten for confirmation, and the thai male nodded slowly, making teayong blow out some air loudly.

"i'm having a conversation with you when i'm done with the prisoner." taeyong warned ten.

"yeah..."

"tell jaehyun i'm with him." the leader said with a head motion towards the room where the prisoner was locked. "and you three, go have a shower, you're all dirty." he added, pointing to mark, jungwoo and lucas.

XXXXXXXXXX

"what a day..." mark mumbled, lying on his bed. "it had been long since i didn't stress this much for a mission... but to be honest, this all thing was stressing me out since the beginning. taeyong couldn't shut up about this prisoner. i don't even know his name..." mark ranted, his eyes on the ceiling. "you're listening to me, baby?"

"i am." donghyuck replied, standing in front of the length mirror of mark's – well, more like their – room.

"come in the bed with me..." mark whined, making grabby hands at his boyfriend.

"you surely aren't the same as the bad boy i met that night..." donghyuck scoffed, walking towards the bed.

mark's lips curved in a smile when donghyuck got next to the bed, and he passed an arm between the boy's honey thighs – they were visible because of the short pajamas he was wearing – and pulled his boyfriend towards him, gripping onto donghyuck's thigh.

donghyuck hit his sneaky hand as he crawled on the bed aswell, passing over mark's body before lying on his other side, the older pulling him in a hug immediately.

"you're so soft for me, blondie." donghyuck chuckled.

"hey! we had agreed that you would stop calling me that." mark said, biting the younger's flawless neck.

"ouch!" donghyuck let out a cry. "and we had agreed that you'll stop making marks everywhere on my body."

"but you just broke the deal..." mark smirked. "so maybe, i can break it once as well...?"

donghyuck sighed, leaving his boyfriend mark his neck for once. the older smiled in victory and glued his mouth to his boyfriend's neck, caressing it with his lips and tongue.

"you know... i was really scared when you were on the mission." donghyuck told while mark was working on his neck.

"what if you got hurt? what if you got killed? i can't live without you..." he continued.

mark detached his lips from donghyuck. "i can't either, baby. and that's what motivates me to stay alive. you are my reason to live, sunshine."

donghyuck smiled, cuddling into mark's chest.

"you may think that because you are on the battle field, everything is stressing, but let me tell you, behind the screens, everything is even worse. i couldn't see anything. i could only hear you, the gunshots and the screams. it's horrible..."

"but you were there. and that was a good thing, because today, you are the one who saved us." mark replied, caressing donghyuck's nape.

"speaking of which, how did you know it was a trap?" mark asked when he realised that he hadn't even asked this question before.

"you know that taeil has a virtual plan of the city?" donghyuck asked.

"yeah, that's how he tells us whether the police are around. we have all their cars logged in our system." mark explained.

"exactly. and you remember how yuta said he was blocked by two police cars?" donghyuck continued.

"yeah. that's normal. police and nct don't have the best relationships..." mark told.

"but there's one thing that ten missed." donghyuck spoke. "the police cars yuta was talking about didn't appear on the virtual plan of the city."

mark's eyes shot open, and he stared at the ceiling for long seconds, without speaking.

"and you did..."

donghyuck giggled. "i did... and i'm pretty happy i did."

"i'm pretty happy too." mark tightened his embrace around donghyuck. "without you noticing that, we would have been killed..."

"but you're still here." donghyuck said, rising his head up to look at mark in his eyes.

"i am." mark told, rising his head as well before closing the gap between his and donghyuck's lips to show him how much he loved him, and how much he was thankful for him to have noticed this simple, almost unnoticeable, detail.