Work Text:
It was way past midnight when Taeyong came home, the neighborhood quiet and empty, gray pavement tinted yellow and orange by the street lights. He was hungry, and tired, and a little nauseous from all the coffee he had drunk during the day, and wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and spend the next forty eight hours right there, buried under too many covers and one (or preferably both) of his lovely boyfriends.
The legal side of his work might have been less exciting, but at least it was over in reasonable time, and it certainly didn't require him spending his Friday evening in the outskirts of Seoul arguing over bribes and shipment schedules with gloomy, visibly armed people.
He entered the apartment quietly, expecting everyone to be long asleep, but there was a strip of light coming from under the kitchen door, a soft murmur of voices. Taeyong took his shoes off and fixed himself in front of the hallway mirror before coming in.
Jaehyun was sitting on the counter, an empty wine glass in his hand, and Doyoung was pacing around him with an equally empty tea cup, his face an image of poorly hidden distress.
"...and it certainly didn't fucking-..." he cut himself short when the door opened.
"Hi, guys," Taeyoung said, "What's going on? Why aren't you two in bed?"
"Hi, Yongi," Jaehyun said, and yawned, covering his mouth politely.
"Hi, Yongi," Doyoung echoed, "We, uh... We were waiting for you. Something happened."
Yeah, Taeyong had kind of figured that much out.
The kitchen smelled like lemongrass tea, Doyoung's comfort drink, and it was probably made more than once, judging by the intensity of it. Taeyong had only seen Doyoung making tea at night a couple of times, and these were some bad, bad instances.
Taeyong looked both Jaehyun and Doyoung up and down, but they seemed alright. Tired, stressed out, sleepy, and yet clearly fine, just the way he left them in the morning.
"It's not us," Doyoung said with an uneasy little laugh, "It's... Sit down. Do you want anything? You look exhausted."
You do too, Taeyong thought, but didn't say.
He sat down and asked for some tea. Doyoung poured him a cup and put the kettle on, to refill the teapot. He did it without thinking too, clearly the nth time already.
Oh, it was bad .
"So," Doyoung said, "You remember Jeno? The puppy hybrid I told you guys about?"
Taeyong nodded.
Jeno was in nurse training at Doyoung's hospital. Dog hybrids made great nurses, and Jeno seemed to be especially good, flying through his tests and practice runs, both well-educated and empathetic, the way humans rarely were.
Whether it was that, or something else, but Doyoung, who never really cared much about people outside his small inner circle, seemed to have an adorable crush on him for weeks now, bringing him snacks and books and talking about his achievements during dinner, as if Jeno was a family member already, and not just a guy from his work. Jaehyun and Taeyong tried hard to hide their smiles during these occasions.
They talked about it, just the two of them, and decided that on the first opportunity they'll sit Doyoung down and ask whether he'd like to just adopt Jeno in their family.
So now, when Doyoung brought him up, Taeyong couldn't help but think: oh, fuck, Jeno found himself an owner, my poor Dodo's heartbroken.
Turns out, it was much worse than that.
"It looks like he's been kidnapped, Yongi," Doyoung said with a slight crack in his voice, "He didn't come back home after his shift yesterday... I-... His family contacted the police, they looked through the camera feeds in his neighborhood, and..." his voice cracked again, he cleared his throat, "There isn't any footage of it, like, happening, but he went behind a store or something, and then the car without a license plate drove away from there, and he just never came out. They called the hospital to let us know-..."
It looked like he wanted to say something else, but couldn't, so he resigned to filling the teapot once again, breathing in sharp inhales and blinking way too often.
"We called Sehun," Jaehyun said softly, "To find out the details. The police seem to have no clues... The car just disappeared after it left the neighborhood. Whoever these guys are, they seem quite competent, which... Well, which is bad news."
"He also said that it's not the first kidnapping of this kind," Doyoung said, "There had been at least two of sort in the last two weeks. Young, unowned hybrids. Black car with no license plate. We thought..." he shot a nervous glance at Jaehyun.
"We thought you might... Be able to find something out," Jaehyun said.
Taeyong studied his face, but Jaehyun was very good at hiding his thoughts. Doyoung wasn't, but Doyoung was looking away carefully.
Fuck, he wished he could have this conversation some other time, when he was a little less tired.
"Do you think I had something to do with it?" he asked, voice gentle.
"I don't think so, no" Doyoung said quietly, still looking away, "But you work with... Various... People. Who may have."
Taeyong sighed. He ached to get Doyoung on his lap, to hug him tightly, to smother him with affection, but he couldn't, not right now.
He tried to think of a nicer way to phrase it all, but a moralistic speech wouldn't convince Doyoung, who knew Taeyong like the back of his own hand at this point.
Fuck it, Taeyong thought, I'll tell him how it is, and we'll figure it out from there.
"Our syndicate doesn't do hybrid trafficking," he said slowly, "Isn't worth it. Especially with kidnapping. The profit isn't big enough to cover the risks. Even if you have reliable clientele, it's still too difficult. And you also need to have a whole organization of absolute shitheads, who would willingly participate in such a thing, which is also pretty hard to achieve. Many people in our... Business, draw the line at trafficing, so whoever these guys are... There's very few of them. And they have to work in absolute secrecy. So, no, baby, I doubt that any of the people I work with know about it."
Doyoung's face was a mix of both relief and horror.
"Good," he breathed out, "But what do... We... Do then?"
"Yeah," Jaehyun said, "As nice as it is to know, that it’s not your guys doing that… We kind of hoped you would know something about these fucks."
"I don't, but I will try to find out," Taeyong said earnestly, "We're not leaving this one to the police, don't worry."
Doyoung finally broke down crying, and Taeyong finally got to get him in a tight hug, to rub his back, to whisper sweet nothings into his ear, to give him all the love and softness he couldn't let out during the day. Jaehyun, ever calm and efficient, started loading the dishwasher.
Doyoung let himself cry for about seven minutes total, then he climbed out of Taeyong's embrace and went to the bathroom to pull himself together.
"We need to get Dodo his puppy back, Yongi," Jaehyun said softly, when Doyoung was out of earshot.
"Of course we do," Taeyong replied, just as soft, "I'll tap into my channels tomorrow. You can try yours, but I doubt that hitmen had anything to do with that."
Jaehyun huffed out a laugh.
"Still worth a try. We hear many things… And we're only paid to keep quiet about some," he came closer to card fingers through Taeyong's hair, "You don't look so good, love. Let's leave it for tomorrow."
Taeyong hummed in approval and closed his eyes, feeling some of the tension finally leaving his body.
God, he was tired. And yet, in the back of his mind there was already a mental list of things to do, people to ask.
After all: what's the point in knowing half of shady Seoul, if you can't make your lovely boyfriend happy?
"You're falling asleep," Jaehyun said gently, "Come on, hyung, let's get you into bed."