"I really don't see the point in this," Taeyong muttered.

"Maybe you should get your eyesight checked."

He whipped around to glare at the person who had just quipped back. Shao was sitting as comfortably as possible in the shotgun seat of the Corolla, feet kicked up on the dashboard and the stick of a lollipop hanging from her mouth. The lollipop itself had been sucked to nothingness a long time ago, but the stick remained. Taeyong wondered if she was trying to taste the plastic now.

"Maybe you should shut up," he said as menacingly as he could, rolling his eyes and looking back out of the window. "Let me concentrate."

"We've been here for almost an hour," she said, obviously exhausted, though her words sounded warbled because of the lollipop stick in her mouth. "How much longer do you need to concentrate?"

"You aren't allowed to ask questions," he said.

"Why?"

"Strike two."

"Okay, jeez," she muttered, closing her eyes and sighing. "If I stay quiet for a few minutes, will you be nicer to me?"

"Strike three. And you're out."

"You're so boring."

"Doesn't matter." He gave her another glare. "And take your feet off the dash."

"It's not your car."

"It's bad manners," Taeyong said without thinking, then sighed slowly as he realized what he had just said. Years of looking after Jaemin had made sentences like this a habit, but he was usually able to control himself. He guessed it was one of the many side-effects of having to babysit near-grown-ups.

"Oh, is it?" Shao grinned, sitting up and pulling her feet back to the floor. "Is this better, mom?"

"Shut up."

She laughed. The tiny stick fell out of her mouth into her lap, and Taeyong grimaced. "You're funny," she said. "Not because of what you say, but because of the way you say it. Like winding up a wind-up toy."

He stayed silent, staring out of the window at the bar across the road. She sighed, and fell into an unwilling silence.

Lucas and Kai had been in The Mayfly for at least an hour, and it pained Taeyong that he had no idea what was happening in there. They were wearing comms, but all that had come from them for a solid hour was nothing but static that droned on and on like an old teacher. Except for the bits of 'yes' and 'no' answers in between, they hadn't said anything, and Taemin hadn't asked.

This wasn't the first time he was sitting in a car, waiting for something to happen, but it was the first time he was doing it with Shao. And he was immensely regretful that he had agreed—there was no one else in the car, which meant he had to deal with her all alone.

He had made a promise to Baekhyun, yes, but promises were made to be broken.

"Did they say anything yet?" she asked suddenly, breaking him out of his brooding.

"Why would you do that?" he asked, genuinely irritated. "I was just beginning to pretend you weren't there."

She rolled her eyes. "Any word?"

"No," he said grudgingly, and leaned back into his seat, closing his eyes.

With a small huff, she crossed her arms over her nonexistent chest and stared out the windshield. Taeyong knew she had been here many times before, and even though he didn't want to, he couldn't help but be curious about what she was thinking. No one could be that carefree after having a near-death experience with supervillains.

"Why did Baekhyun assign you to look after me, though?" she mused. "Full offense, but you look pretty weak in comparison to the others."

"You don't know what my powers are."

She laughed. "Either way, there's just one of you."

"Well," he said slowly, potting his arms behind his head, eyes now open. "Maybe there can be more of me."

Shao stopped laughing, turning to stare at him. "What?" She frowned, eyes narrowing so the scar under her eye crinkled. "You can clone yourself? Is that what you mean?"

Taeyong nodded. Her mouth made an 'o', and she leaned forward in interest, the bright yellow shirt she'd borrowed from the Nova Tower souvenir shop contrasting painfully with the dark interior of the car. "Kinky."

Taeyong turned his head to look at her so fast that he heard something crack in his neck. He slid his head down to hold the back of his neck and looked at her worriedly. "How—"

"Because you can have sex with one person as two, you know?" She raised her eyebrows and settled back into the seat. "I mean, if you ever got together with someone, you wouldn't even need another person for a threesome."

He turned away slowly, feeling his throat and face grow hot. All of a sudden, looking her in the eye seemed like an impossible task. "Jesus Christ."

"Or a foursome. Or whatever your cloning limit is," she said, and scoffed when she saw him glaring holes into the windshield. "Come on, don't tell me you've never even thought about it."

"I actually haven't," he snapped. "But it seems like that's the only thing you'd see."

"It's an actual advantage!"

"Not for me!"

"Why? Are you not into sex?"

"No, I am," he said, then paused. "Wait, I mean, that's not it, but I just—" He stopped himself, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to calm down. "God. Just...forget it."

"You really expect me to forget about it so quick?"

"Try."

"No."

Taeyong shook his head, putting his head between his knees so he didn't have to deal with her. This is an actual mission that requires you to be constantly vigilant, he thought fiercely, reinforcing the idea into his brain. Stop thinking about it.

After a few minutes of awkward silence and about sixteen different breathing exercises, he resurfaced, almost as calm and composed as before. He pushed his hair back from his eyes, noticing that it had become seriously messed-up, and sat for some time in complete silence, trying to pretend that he was in an empty room.

"Honestly, though," Shao mumbled, picking at her fingernails. "You're what, twenty-two? Twenty-three?"

"Twenty-three."

"And you still act like a middle-schooler child of god when it comes to talking about sex," she said, blowing a loose strand of hair out of her eyes. "It's just sex."

"I realize that, but you don't have to keep talking about it," he muttered.

"I've never met a virgin who behaves more like a virgin," she continued, paying no heed to the pleading in his voice. "Even Mark might get laid before you."

"Oh, yeah?" Taeyong asked, annoyance levels spiking once again. "You don't even know if I'm a virgin."

"So...you're not?"

He blinked. "Well—I am," he confessed. "But that's not the point."

"Oh, yeah?" she asked, mocking his earlier tone. "Then what is?"

"Nothing," he snapped, scowling. "This is even worse than trying to give Jaemin the 'talk'."

"Ooh, speaking of your brother." Shao grinned, shifting her attention from picking at a loose thread in her jeans to him. "How are things going with him and Mark?"

Taeyong passed a hand over his face, glancing at the radio desperately, hoping that someone would interrupt with a report and save him. "Don't make fun of me."

"I actually wasn't," she said, frowning. "It was a genuine question. Don't you like Mark?"

"It's not that," he said, shrugging helplessly. "He's a good kid, and all that, but—it's a little hard to deal with one kid at the peak of his adolescence, let alone two. You wouldn't know." His voice turned bitter. "It's all a joke to you."

Shao pursed her lips, watching him in silence for a few seconds for a moment. He was turning a device over in his hand, looking serious and not angry for a rare moment. Still upset, though. It was hard not to wonder about why he was so upset all the time.

"That's not true," she said, so gently that he looked at her in surprise. "I've had to deal with kids too. Well, maybe not on my own, but I know what it's like to be in charge. When everyone else depends on you and you have no one to fall back on."

Taeyong unconsciously licked his lips, still wary, but a little more sympathetic. Her voice had grown somber as she was speaking, and he got the feeling that she wasn't play-acting.

"It's hard, huh?" he muttered, not wanting to appear too vulnerable, but desperately needing to let out his frustrations at the same time. He didn't often get to talk about his problems, since he needed to appear in-control in front of Jaemin, and he didn't know a lot of people who related to his situation. "Having all that responsibility."

Shao nodded, looking lost in her thoughts. "Especially when they look up to you," she said lowly, absent-mindedly twirling the lollipop stick around her fingers. Constantly moving. "I hate that. Hated."

"It's not always bad," he said. "I mean, yeah, it's hard trying to be a good role model when you know you've done all kinds of things, but it's worth it, at the end of the day. Knowing that you've influenced someone in a good way."

She looked at him, an odd look in her eyes. Taeyong bit the inside of his lip, wanting to speak further—but just before he made up his mind, his earpiece crackled.

"Taeyong, Shao." It was Lucas's voice, sogrim that it made Taeyong sit up in alarm. "Come to the bar. Something's happened."

|

i was supposed to update earlier but my teachers dumped three different projects on me, my exam schedule dropped, and i had to work on three different wips for sol's birthday (including the 8.2k words long spiderman!vernon au) so

hopefully i'll be able to write more in the future, but it's exam season and the future seems bleak lol. still, it was a refreshing break being able to write this chapter !! the relationship DEVELOPS

thoughts on this chapter?

love, 
Manx.