Chapter Text
Felix, as it turned out, was not making out with Jeongin in the alley behind the casino.
Hyunjin didn’t know why he was relieved.
Felix was, however, waiting for them all there, smirking at them when they realised he had beat them to the location. Chan could only pray that was the only thing he’d beat them at during the night.
They all carefully approached him, falling into step with one another and stopping when they were a few feet away. Felix was, exactly like when they’d all met, slunk into the shadows, leaning up against the back wall with a foot propped up behind him and just the glow of his eyes visible as he watched them all.
Chan tried to reason with himself that Felix must have been at least a little bit scared. He was cornered into an alley by Stray Kids, after all.
But if Felix was scared, he didn’t show it, not if the way the darkness sloped perfectly over his face could say anything.
“Felix,” Chan said after a few seconds of silence, “I’m surprised you showed up.”
Felix grinned back at him, his boots stepping into the light with the rest of him following behind as he came into the early morning glow of the Sun that hadn’t quite reached the edge of the alley yet. He looked majestic.
“I told you,” Felix said, not even an ounce of doubt on his face, “I was ready for this.”
“You were ready to try and out-gamble seven people at once?” Minho cut in, his voice ruthless and face challenging as he narrowed his eyes at Felix, “You’re seriously nothing more than a pretty face if you thought you could actually beat those odds.”
Felix just smirked, his eyes knowing as he looked at Minho, “I thought the seven of you would know better than anyone that a pretty face can hide a spectacular mind.”
Chan was admittedly taken aback by those words, trying not to let the surprise show on his face at the brief look Felix gave them under his masked exterior. Felix was pretty, that much was obvious, but Chan was once more getting the sense that his intelligence ran much deeper than that.
The same could apparently not always be said for his group.
“Awww Felix thinks we’re pretty,” Hyunjin practically gushed, his face breaking out into a bright red blush when Felix smirked at him.
“And he’s kinda got a point,” Seungmin mumbled from next to him, referring to what Felix had said about his mind. But the rest of the group ignored that, too focused on the way Hyunjin and Felix were now staring at each other.
“Of course I think you’re pretty, lover boy,” Felix said, his voice drawling in a way that could only be described as sickly sweet, “The kiss wasn’t just about distracting you.”
Hyunjin made a noise that somewhat resembled a squeak, Chan mentally face-palming when Felix just giggled at the sight of a rare panicked gay Hyunjin.
If this was Felix’s way of deceiving people when he gambled, Chan supposed he couldn’t fault him on that. Not when it very clearly seemed to work.
Speaking of…
“Felix,” Chan brought everyone’s attention back to him with a snap, his voice echoing firmly down the alley and practically smacking Felix in the face, “I know you didn’t come here just to flirt, so let’s get down to business, yes?”
Felix nodded quickly, his posture straightening and face changing to an expression of determination as he spoke, “How do you want to do this?”
“We’ll show you how much we’ve got, you realise how stupid you are and apologise,” Chan said, Felix barely even flinching at the mocking in his tone, “You lose.”
With his last words, Chan flicked his lips up into what he knew was a venomous smile. He had teasing in his eyes, malice on his face, an almost sadistic sense of glee shining from him.
But Felix just smiled right back, “Alright,” he said, “If you’re so sure, then show me what you got.”
Chan didn’t need to hear anymore, the words challenging enough as he stepped forward and threw his metal case onto the ground between him and Felix.
It landed with a harsh jolt, its hinges creaking and coins rattling around inside. Felix stared at it for a couple of seconds, looking to Chan for permission before he knelt down in front of it and clasped onto the openers.
The case popped open with a click, money and notes pouring out like they’d been trying to burst out forever. Chan couldn’t help but feel smug, not missing the impressed gleam in Felix’s eye as he stared down at the pile of cash in front of him.
“You can count it if you want,” Chan couldn’t help but let his arrogance leak into his voice, “But it might take you a while.”
Felix looked back up at him, something unreadable on his face that Chan almost found himself frowning at. There was something in Felix’s expression, something that suggested he knew something that Chan didn’t. Chan didn’t like it…
But before Chan could ask, his group members were all suddenly next to him, reaching simultaneously into their pockets.
“If you’re going to count all that money,” Jeongin said, nodding to the case in front of Felix, “Don’t forget all this too.”
With that, all the boys brought their hands out their pockets, raining a whole avalanche of cash all over Felix and the case. Felix flinched back, narrowly avoiding a coin smacking between his eyes and glaring at them all with his hair now fallen in his face.
Chan wanted to feel victorious, but there was something about Felix’s glare. It wasn’t a glare of defeat, a glare of anger that someone wore when they knew all hope was lost. Felix looked like he still had something to hope for, like he still had a card he could play. Chan once against felt the vein of suspicion twitch in the back of his mind.
“You might need some help counting all that,” Jisung’s voice broke through Chan’s thoughts, everyone’s eyes still on the money scattered in front of where Felix was knelt on the floor.
Felix raked his gaze back over all the winnings, his face contemplating. He hummed to himself, leaving the group in suspense for a bit longer before he looked up.
“I really don’t think we need to count this,” he said, picking up a coin from next to his shoe and flicking it at Chan.
“Oh yeah, and why’s that?” Changbin folded his arms, a look that could only be described as devious painted all over his face, “Are you ashamed of your tiny pile of money now? There’s no point in counting because you’ve lost so badly?”
Changbin imitated a baby crying as he spoke, bringing his fists up to his eyes and squishing his lips in a fat pout. Felix had the audacity to look amused, his face almost infuriatingly casual as he answered.
“Quite the opposite actually,” he said, standing up in one fluid movement and turning towards the back of the alley, “I wouldn’t cash all in yet if I were you.”
Chan couldn’t help but be curious as Felix walked back into the shadows, picking up a big black shoulder bag that none of them had spotted yet. Felix struggled to pick it up, dragging it back into the light with him and clearly using all his strength to lift the bag up and throw it on top of the pile.
It landed with an almighty clink.
Chan felt his heart jump into his throat, suddenly having an extremely overwhelming sense that he knew exactly what was in the bag. He tried to tell himself that Felix just had a lot of coins, that the bag was full of a hefty amount of cash that still wouldn’t be enough to beat Stray Kids.
But then Chan realised Felix wouldn’t have been bragging if coins were the only thing he’d won. It had to be something more.
Chan was silent as he knelt down in front of the bag, Felix taking a step back to give him room. The rest of his group were all deadly silent behind him, none of them moving a single muscle as they waited to see what Felix had.
The sound of the zip echoed all over the alley, the bag practically exploding open as Chan rocked back. He gasped, watching as something fell out and land on the pile of coins, shining brighter than the sunset.
Chan felt his heart stop.
There was absolutely no denying it now. The thing that had fallen out the bag was, without a single doubt in Chan’s mind, a giant bar of solid gold.
Time froze.
Chan felt surprise course through his veins, questions whizzing through his mind as he tried to process the fact that Felix (Felix the kid???) had somehow managed to outsmart them all. He’d enacted the plan they wanted. He’d taken the gold from right under their noses. He’d beaten the giant money pile they’d thrown in front of him.
Chan wanted to be angry, wanted to grab the gold bar and smash it into Felix’s face. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t be angry when he was so freakin’ impressed.
“Wow,” was all he could say, reaching out a hand to pull the rest of the bag open and revealing the ginormous stash of gold hidden inside.
The whole group was silent.
That was until Seungmin spoke up, his voice loud and demanding and attention-seeking as he whipped round to face the group so hard he almost got whiplash.
“See!” he screamed, gesturing wildly all around him, “I told you there was gold! Suck it, Changbin!”
“That’s Changbin-hyung to you!” Changbin bit back, a finger pointed at Seungmin, but there was a smile on his face, a smile made of pride and admiration and possibly a little bit of leftover disbelief.
Seungmin smiled back at him, giggling as he turned to face Felix, “I hate the fact that you managed to beat me at this, but thank you so much for helping to prove me right.”
Felix laughed, all the worry draining from his face. Chan could only guess that he’d gotten scared that the group would get angry at him for managing to beat them.
“No problem,” Felix said to Seungmin, his voice tingling with relief, “I’d be happy to steal gold for you anytime.”
“Well, we might just take you up on that,” Jisung responded, his eyes as wide as saucers as he continued to stare at the gold, “You’re going to have to tell us how you did that.”
“Sorry,” Felix said, tilting his head at him, “That privilege is reserved for people who let me on their team only.”
“Oh my god, Felix!” Chan shot to his feet, looking to Felix with as much excitement as he could muster, “Hell yeah, you’re on the team! We’d be stupid to turn you away after this.”
Felix’s smile somehow seemed even more genuine that time, his mask appearing to fall away slightly as he spoke in what could only be described as his softest tone yet, “Thank you.”
“It should be us thanking you,” Chan spoke softly too, letting the words hang in the air before his tone got mischievous again, “You managed to steal a whole vault of gold for us and give Hyunjin a kiss. What would we do without you?”
Felix laughed as Hyunjin let out a loud hey! Chan not even having to turn around to know exactly what kind of offended, over-dramatic expression would be on his face.
“You would have stolen the gold if I didn’t,” Felix eventually waved Chan off, once Hyunjin had calmed down, “But I will take credit for the kiss, though. I would have kept coming back for that even if I didn’t win tonight.”
Chan felt his eyes widen, his eyebrows raising as he turned to where Hyunjin looked like he was about to pass out from shock.
Minho waved a hand in front of his face, shrugging when Hyunjin made no indication that he’d seen him,
“Well, looks like you’re stick with us now, Felix,” Minho said, “Or we might never get Hyunjin back.”
“Sounds good,” Felix said, his face practically shining, “Thank you for having me on the team.”
“It’s not a problem,” Chan took a step forward, legs taking him over the pile of gold and to where Felix stood as he held out a hand, “Felix, I would like to welcome you to Stray Kids.”
Felix shook the hand, an adorable grin on his face, “It’s a pleasure to be here.”
With that, Chan grabbed him by the shoulder, turning him around to face the rest of the group as he cheered. The group cheered back, all shouting their congratulations to Felix and diving forward to grab a bar of gold each.
Chan watched them with a smile on his face, waiting for them to be distracted before he turned to pull Felix into a hug. Felix jumped against him at first, but didn’t take long to melt into his arms, his head falling onto Chan’s shoulder.
Chan savoured the hug, already looking forward to taking another kid under his wing.
But then the rest of the group got jealous, all demanding their own Felix hug. Felix could only giggle, going round and introducing himself individually to each and every one of them, being pulled none-too-gently into all their arms.
The only one Felix didn’t really talk to was Hyunjin, because the two of them were kissing before they could get a single word out.