Chapter Text
“...And make sure not to draw any unneeded attention to yourself. We only get one shot at this, do you understand?”
Caelus groans against the phone’s mouthpiece, already regretting his agreement. All for something—well, someone—he didn’t even know would be there. After all, these were only rumors.
Sure, Kafka and the others had their own agenda. Take down the Oak Family from the inside, okay, whatever. He’s allowed to have his own plans.
“I need a verbal acknowledgement, Caelus. Or do I need to send Firefly in instead?”
“No, no, I got it. Don’t make a mess that I can’t clean up. But come on, when have you ever known me to do a job wrong? I’ve got a clean track record, and I’m not about to break that now.”
The silence draws out for too long, and Caelus lets out a resigned sigh. She knows him too well. That’s for certain, after mentoring him for years.
“Okay, Kafka. I promise I won’t do anything to draw attention to myself, not on purpose. Will that do?”
A melodic laugh chimes from the other side, and he can’t help but smile fondly in response.
“Take care of yourself. You’re an irreplaceable asset, and even more so as a family member. I’ll touch base in a week. Try not to get into trouble before then.” Then the line went dead.
Caelus stretches, taking in the building before him. It’s tall, imposing, and…boring. He feels doubt claw within his chest, and it’s an uncomfortable feeling. It might be due to being completely alone in the field, might be due to possibly finding his long-lost sibling, might be due to being out of his element…how anyone, especially her, could work here is beyond him.
Not that he knows who or what she is anymore.
No matter. He squares his shoulders and marches up ahead, pushing through the revolving door. He’ll deal with the issues as they come; he always has.
First step: scout out the location.
He’s wearing glasses, brown contacts, and a hasty but passable job of dying his hair black. A silver head of hair is conspicuous, after all–not exactly laying low. Donning a hand-me-down suit from Blade, tailored by Kakfa to fit him just right, he knows he’s indistinguishable from these pencil pushers. He doesn’t plan to stay in this disguise for long, but for the sake of this part, he’s gone all in.
“Qiong Xing, data security intern.” He flashes the card Silver Wolf had given him with an inspiring note of “Don't mess this up, dummy.” alongside it. It's a plastic identification card with a simple photo and a barcode designating his role at Halovian Enterprises. His role is supremely ironic, considering what he’s here to do. The security barely spares a glance before waving him in. Caelus has to hold back a snicker.
This is their security? I just snuck past in broad daylight!
Second step: find your target.
Now past the gates, Caelus scans the room for an elevator that would take him up to the top floor, where all the important information lies. He just needs to plug in one USB, and then they'll be good. He’d work here undercover as an intern for however long it would take to process the information they needed, but only on the first floor. The lowest level.
He has one shot at this. It’s not where he’s supposed to be, after all.
He marches into the elevator the moment it opens, squeezing his way into the business suit-clad people already there. The button to his goal is pressed and lights up, and he can't help a smirk from creeping onto his face as he straightens his back.
Too. Easy. Walking out of the elevator at the top floor, he flexes his fingers and feels for the USB in his pocket. He could probably finish this before his designated lunch break, whenever that was. Thank goodness he didn’t need to go through any training. Silver Wolf had registered him as an intern, with a pre-existing email address, information, everything—as far as anyone here is concerned, he’s been working with data files here for a month. As for how he would continue that work in practice in the next few weeks? That’s for future him to worry about.
The data bank he would need to access is on this floor, he remembers, as he wanders down the halls. Murmured voices, typing on keyboards, sounds of papers flipping. No one spares him a second glance, but he does overhear some conversations.
“She’s really messing up everything. I can’t believe she hasn’t been fired yet.”
“Seriously. I heard she just got called up to Oak’s office, so maybe it’s happening now. Good riddance.”
“At least she hasn’t done irreparable damage. I heard she only got hired because of a good word.”
Caelus winces, wishing luck to the worker getting trash-talked. It’s hard for him to imagine not trusting the people you work with, even if it’s a soul-dead corporation. It goes to show that he would never survive in this type of normal environment, perish the thought. Without his stimulants, he would definitely have screwed up his past infiltration roles. At least with his NPC disguise, he can get away with a lot more. Lower level hires don’t get taken as seriously, after all, which is perfect for him.
Third step: plug and chug.
He goes past a couple more doors before stopping at a metal door at the end of the hallway locked with a keypad. 9 numbers, 4 digits—could take ages.
If the intruder wasn’t as cool as him, that is.
It takes him less than 2 minutes to disable the lock, and even less time to find the correct terminal to plug the USB in. Now, the Hunters have remote access to every digital device and information in this building and can do their thing. His main mission was accomplished.
Though, he didn’t spot a sign of the woman he was looking for. Not a name or face. He hadn’t known what to expect, didn't even count on really seeing her.
He’s still disappointed. It seems like his heart will never find its missing piece, then. It means he’ll never get the chance to apologize for choosing to stay behind all those years ago. That he’ll never get to reach closure with her.
It’s fine. He’s over it.
It’s simple enough to sneak back down to the second floor where he is and get back to “his station”. It used to be some poor soul named Skott’s, but he had mysteriously gotten fired 3 days ago.
What a shame, really.
The company assigned desk, chair, and cubicle are gray, drab, and definitely not ergonomic for sitting there a whole day. Unfortunately, there’s no other choice, and he flops down onto the squeaky roller chair, feeling the urge to loosen his tie and the tight collar around his neck. Caelus thinks back to his comfortable and colorful room he put work into back at the Hunter’s suite and lets out a loud sigh, turning the heads of some other workers.
There’s no time to be homesick, he berates himself. Just focus on your role. What’s the first thing to do today?
Opening up his email to a very helpful list of tasks that he is meant to do—thanks to Blade’s observation of worker schedules and activities, even though he doesn’t know how he did it—he opens a spreadsheet and begins to enter the numbers, one by one. Now, he’s not terrible at computers. He’s actually quite skilled, on par with Silver Wolf, though she would tell him otherwise. They’ve gone into the field as a hacker duo before.
But this tedious office work where he has to sit in front of a computer and stare at uniform statements and digits?
It’s absolute torture.
His mind feels like it’s being blended and drained, right out his eyes and ears. Not even getting stabbed has put him through this much pain. Caelus lasts for 5 hours and 26 minutes before calling it a day and walking straight out of the building. He’s done with his leftover onboarding and menial tasks for the day anyway, so it’s not like anyone would miss him there.
There’s no way to contact the Hunters; only they can contact him, and only to pass on information. He’s essentially solo. He has total freedom to do what he wants for the first time in ages, and he allows himself to smile for a second on the bike “home” from work as he recalls joking with Firefly about this being a vacation. It’s only 5:40pm, around 8 hours since his last correspondence with Kafka, and he already aches at the thought of his family. It’s been a long while since he’s been truly alone, he thinks, as he locks his bike up and treks up to his apartment.
A gust of wind ruffles his hair as he struggles to unlock his studio’s door. It’s a simple space with a bed in the middle, a small kitchen, and a bathroom. He was sent here with the bare minimum a week ago, having to move in on his own. It’s got a TV, his PC, and a gaming console. It’s a decent place: quiet and inconspicuous, which is exactly what he needs. No noisy or nosy neighbors to bother him. The space is big enough to put everything he wanted to bring around in his attempt to make this place homier than it feels. It works, for the most part.
It’s just emptier than he’s been used to for the past 12 years.
And there he goes again, thinking about that void in his heart that’s been growing ever since he last saw the Hunters in person a week ago. Though he’s never lived away from their headquarters, even for college, he can imagine this is what a normal adult life would be like post-move out. It’s a taste of the life he would have had if he grew up and went into the labor force as a communications major.
He finds he can really, truly do without it. He already wants to go home. Letting out a loud groan, he tosses his work bag to the ground before finally tearing off his tie and unbuttoning his shirt, finally being able to relax without the feeling of something around his neck. Heading into his bathroom, he catches sight of himself in the mirror.
“Qiong” stares back with dark circles under his eyes, gold rimmed glasses unable to hide the exhaustion. His sil– black hair is all mussed from the ride home in the wind, and he has to tear his eyes from his reflection before he gets nauseous at the way he no longer really looks like himself. Usually, he has someone with him that can keep him grounded, but this time he has no one but himself.
God, with these thoughts, he needs to immediately wash off this horrible day and to climb into his bed, playing games on his phone until he needs to sleep. Yeah, that sounds like a great plan, he muses, and reaches to turn on the shower.
Except, nothing comes out.
He stares at the faucet, unblinking, and turns the handle again. Nothing. He tries the sink only to find only a trickle coming out.
“What the hell,” he says aloud, peeved. It sets in that currently, he has no working water. “What the actual hell.” He’s pissed now.
Throwing on his button-up work shirt and not even bothering to close it, he’s ready to march to the office and demand the reasoning as to why his water is shut off. He’s already out the door when he realizes two things: one, that the office is already closed because it’s after five.
Two, he left his keys behind. Inside his studio with the automatically locking door. The one that shut behind him the moment he stepped out.
He curses, hard, praying that it’s a mistake, that surely he didn’t lock himself out. His shoulder aches from hitting the door as he tries in vain to open it, fists bruising as he even punches it a few times.
This can’t be happening to him.
“There’s seriously no way. You have to be joking with me. Because today couldn’t get any worse.” Caelus knows he’s loud right now, but he can’t help it. He’s tired, sweaty, sad, and lonely. “Shit, are you kidding me?” He kicks the door once, twice, five times, cursing all the way.
Nothing was going his way, at all. As free as he felt, he was still entangled in fate's cruel strings.
“To the universe, look at this. You hate me, huh? Well, I have something for you. Right here!” He turns around on his heel, flipping two birds at the moon.
And right to his neighbor who’s staring straight at him with an unimpressed face from behind his own door.
A really, really, attractive face.
Caelus gasps and stumbles back as a reflex, spooked from the stranger’s sudden appearance, embarrassed at his state of being, and still reeling from the explosion of emotions within him. What a first impression to make to the person sharing the complex with him.
He opens his mouth to greet his neighbor in Apartment 10, hopefully able to save a potential bond, but the other beats him to it.
“Can you keep it down? You’re extremely loud. It’s 6pm.” His voice reeks of irritation.
Okay, wow. Couldn’t this guy tell he was going through something?
He still can’t help but admire the other guy’s appearance. Apartment 10 guy is wearing black glasses, with messy black hair and blue-gray eyes. He’s clearly a university student from the notebook hanging from his grasp and the air around him. Overall, he’s unfairly hot and exactly Caelus’ type—the man of his dreams.
And apparently, also a dick.
“I just got locked out of my apartment and that’s what you have to say? You’re not a very good neighbor, are you?” This may be his only proper interaction for days, but hell if he was going to let this disrespect stand. Especially at this time.
“Ah, you’re the new one. Apartment 9, is it?” The guy shifts his footing, raising an eyebrow. Compared to Caelus’ disheveled state, he’s extremely put together. Probably has a pretentious personality too. It’s annoying.
“Yes. A week ago,” he responds with a clipped tone. There’s truly not much he can do here, being half naked and locked out of his own house. Though humiliating, he really has nothing to lose in this fake life of his.
“Locked out, you say?” The man hums, narrowing his eyes slightly, like he’s picking apart Caelus’ words to see if he should believe them or not. Caelus feels his right eye twitch. He doesn’t have time for this. He needs to find something to lockpick this damn door with so he can get into bed and hide from this horrible day. He can do without a shower, surely. Turning back to the door, he levels a stare at the offending handle, as if he can get it to unlock with telepathic rage and death threats.
“As I said, yes. So if you’ll excuse me, I need to find a way to get back in. I only came out here to go to the office because of the water supply being shot, but it's closed. It’s over for me tonight if I can’t get back in,” he huffs, feeling all the energy drain out of him with that breath. It’s not worth it. It’s not this guy’s fault. “Sorry for the noise. I’ll keep it down.”
There’s a bout of silence, and Caelus assumes he’s alone again before he hears footsteps approaching him. He turns around again, and finds that they aren’t too different in height as he’s once again greeted by stormy eyes.
“My apologies. I didn’t mean to snap at you just now. Truthfully, you weren’t that bothersome. It’s my,” the guy gestures at his notebook, trailing off, filled with a variety of what looks like numbers and letters. Definitely calculus.
Letters in math? Who thought of that terrible combination?
“As for the water line, it’s only been shut off for a few hours. Maintenance reasons. It actually should be working in a few minutes. Your door, though,” Flashing a glance at the entrance of Apartment 9, he returns his gaze to Caelus, who’s honestly only listening to half of what the man is saying. Up close, he’s even more breathtaking.
“Yeah. I’ll probably have to wait it out somewhere. Maybe the laundry room will take me,” Caelus offhandedly remarks. Hah, fat chance. The moment this guy leaves, he’s breaking into this damn studio. And that’s still his plan, at least, until…
“You can come into my unit and stay till the office is open.”
Caelus freezes. What?
“What?” He’s so shocked he has to voice it. “You know I’m a stranger, right?” Maybe this guy isn’t a jerk, but he’s weird.
The guy scoffs softly. “I’m well aware that I don’t know you. But seeing your state out here, I think it's the right thing to do. I’m trying to be a good neighbor, after all.”
He must’ve taken too long to answer, because Apartment 10 guy starts turning away. “Or if you have another place to go, then feel free. Just thought I would offer.”
“No!” The words fly out of Caelus’ mouth before he has a chance to think it through. He’s desperate for interaction, honestly, and he craves company. Any company at this point. “I’ll come. Thank you. I really appreciate it.”
Of course, regular people wouldn’t break and enter their own house. Most probably don’t even know how. This is just to keep his cover.
That’s what he tells himself as he follows this guy into his studio apartment. It’s the same exact build, but a lot sparser in decor in comparison to his, especially for someone that has definitely been here longer than he has. There’s a white twin bed with teal pillows pushed in the corner of the room, packaged ramen on the counter, a coffee table surrounded by pillows with 3 mugs and packets of papers spread on it, and a red couch that looks extremely appealing to him.
As for the walls, there's not even a picture or portrait hanging anywhere. No TV either. Just a laptop tossed haphazardly on the bed and books piled high in the other corner of the room as if someone tried to organize it and gave up halfway.
Yup, classic university student.
“I don’t even know your name,” Caelus realizes, suddenly self-aware that he’s walking into someone else's life. He’s in this stranger’s apartment after a 10-minute exchange, freshly out of a spiral. This is probably a new rock bottom for him. “I’m Qiong. Qiong Xing. I’m an intern at Halovian Enterprises.”
“Dan Heng Yue. Graduate student majoring in marine biology at Charmony University.” Straightforward, practiced, mechanic. Even such a simple line almost makes Caelus want to poke at him more, like tapping on the glass of an aquarium. “Nice to meet you, Qiong.”
“You too.” Another silence stretches out, and Caelus feels more and more awkward the longer he stands there. “Um…do you have any water that I can drink?”
“Oh yes, of course.” After handing over a glass filled with filtered water to Caelus, Dan Heng heads over to the storage closet and pulls out a blanket, tossing it on the couch.
“I have to get back to studying for my midterms, as you can clearly see from the mess here, so I’ll leave you to it. You can check if the shower is working in 30 minutes, if you still want to shower. I have a spare towel, so just let me know.” And with that, Dan Heng walks off and sits back down on the floor in front of the coffee table. There’s no doors separating any of the spaces in the house, so Caelus can still see the top of his head as he puts headphones on. Caelus just stands there, taking in his situation.
He’s no longer alone, but something about this guy was just…odd. He didn’t even know him, and he was offering to let him crash at his place, and to even use his bathroom if needed.
There’s no way he didn’t have something up his sleeve. No regular person would be this kind, surely. Caelus should get out this moment; he was always weak to his impulsive wants. This time, it was his desire for company that made him agree.
But that couch looked so warm and inviting. And the idea of taking a shower after his long day…
“Okay,” he whispers to himself. He’ll take it. It doesn’t mean he trusts Dan Heng, as attractive as he is. He just really isn't in a position to reject help.
Let the record state, though, that he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself. This was only for his cover as a normal member of society. Otherwise, he’d be back in his apartment by now.
He finds out the shower works, to his pleasure. Caelus can’t help but let out a sigh as the first drops of warm water hit his skin, and he just stands there for a bit before actually washing. Right now, he doesn’t want to think. He goes through the usual motions of his routine as best as he can. (Really, Dan Heng? 5-in-1?) When he’s done, he feels normal and clean again. It’s true—a good shower will cure your ailments for the day.
Dan Heng and him don’t talk much after that, aside from Dan Heng offering him some cup ramen for dinner. He collapses on the couch, finally exhausted after his long day and emotional outburst.
With no phone, Caelus falls asleep to the sound of a pencil scratching on paper and the monotonous clack-clacking of fingers dancing across a keyboard. It's a relatively peaceful sleep, surprisingly.
In the morning, he would rise to the smell of coffee, and would leave Dan Heng’s apartment after thanking him for his hospitality. He would go to the office, asking for help to unlock his door (the normal way), and change into new clothes before heading to work. His second day of this boring life.
But for now, even though it’s a stranger—his weird, mysterious, cryptic neighbor, Dan Heng—he’s not alone for the night.
And that’s enough for him.