Archive of Our Own

The December sky was grey yet bright, and the temperature was freezing. Nicky let out a breath and observed the misty cloud that appeared and soon faded into the vibrant red of the Christmas lights strung around the exterior of Kian’s house.

And then there was his bandmate, struggling to get the key into the lock of the back door, while Nicky stood behind Mark’s hunched figure with Shane shivering at his side.

Kian wasn’t even home. The lad had gone out for grocery shopping and errands. And Bryan, well, he opted out of this thing that Mark had planned. A plan that Mark didn’t even bother to elaborate on, other than “breaking into Kian’s place to do something important”. So, that left a trio of lads standing outside in the cold, though Nicky and Shane were there on reluctant agreement.

“It’s fucking freezing,” Mark muttered. “I’m so cold.”

He was still fiddling with the keys in his numb hands, looking for the right one. Kian had given a spare set of house keys to Mark when the two of them had started dating in high school. The locks hadn’t been changed for a while, according to Mark, though the last time he had used these was two years ago.

Nicky palmed his forehead.

“Dumbass.”

Mark paused and stared up at him with narrowed eyes.

“What? It was your idea.”

“It’s for a good cause.”

“How so?”

The keys jangled in Mark’s hand as he explained. “Kian’s guitar stand broke, so I need to take a measurement of his guitar to get a new one customly made for him.”

“You could literally just do that the next time you visit him at home,” Shane grumbled, snuggling into Nicky’s side to get some warmth in the freezing cold.

Mark scoffed. “It’s supposed to be a surprise.”

“Then do it when he’s in the bathroom or having a shower,” Nicky rolled his eyes. “You’re not seriously glued to his side every second are you?”

There was a small moment of silence.

“...no.”

“And Bryan thinks we’re the crazy rabbits going at it every two seconds,” Shane snorted, clinging to Nicky.

The keys jangled again. “Shut up, I’m trying to concentrate.”

Nicky looked around them. It was still bright out, considering it was only 2:30 in the afternoon. It probably looked suspicious— the three of them dressed in dark colours and huddling at the back door at someone’s house, especially with Mark still messing around with his keys. For fuck’s sake, there had to be no more than ten keys on that damn ring. Who takes that long to find the right one?

Now it really looked suspicious, and stupid.

This was really fucking stupid.

There were so many other ways that Mark could surprise Kian for Christmas, though Nicky had to give the lad some credit for trying to give his all when it came to gifts. Mark somehow knew how to keep things extremely secretive until the big reveal, and frankly, it was quite impressive.

But speaking of being secretive…

“Mark, what happens if Kian comes home early?”

Mark smirked as he continued testing each house key on the back door lock. “I asked Bryan to conveniently bump into Kian at the supermarket.”

“Wouldn’t Kian get suspicious?” Shane asked. “Cos…you know, Bryan isn’t from here? Sligo?”

“Ehh, he’ll make a decent excuse,” Mark replied.

“Like?”

“Visiting one of you?” Nicky suggested.

Mark nodded. “Exactly.”

“What reason would he even have—”

“Shane, please— shut up and stop asking questions.” Mark rolled his eyes. “And stop panicking, it’ll be fine.”

“Last time you tried to pull off something like this, Kian beat the shit out of—”

Mark cut Shane off. “We do not discuss that time.”

But now Nicky’s curiosity had peaked. “What time?” He pried, with an amused smirk.

“Nothing,” Mark groaned, letting out a huff as he tested another key on the lock. To his surprise, there was a click, the key successfully twisting all the way. He stood up excitedly and punched the air. “YES! I GOT THE LOCK OPEN!”

Nicky looked at the taller lad warily before bringing his gaze back to his boyfriend. “Are we…supposed to celebrate?”

Shane leaned in and half-mumbled into Nicky’s ear, “I think? I’m kind of more concerned about how loud he’s being. The neighbours probably think we’re burglars at this point.”

“It’s fine,” Mark insisted. He pointed at the fences. “We’re totally covered.”

And then…

“Shit,” Nicky mumbled after a single pop rung through the air.

He looked down at a blue stain that was splattered on his chest. His fingers touched the splotch and ran through the paint on his jacket. Nicky raised his hand to show the others, then he fell to the ground.

There was a panicked yell from Shane, and Mark only realized the magnitude of the situation once another paintball struck the wall next to his face, spilling blue paint drops everywhere in its vicinity. On instinct, he crouched down and quickly scanned the yard, taking note of a hole in one of the fence boards and just somehow dodging a third shot only moments after he registered the presence of that hole. This paintball hit the wall too, narrowly missing Shane this time.

“We’re under attack!” Mark exclaimed.

Shane looked exasperated. “No shit, Sherlock!”

Nicky raised his head up. “Don’t just stand there, get the hell inside!”

Mark did not need to be told twice, scrabbling at the back door’s handle for a couple seconds before stumbling inside Kian’s house. He looked back, seeing Shane coddle his boyfriend on the ground, and Nicky protesting despite his current state. The taller lad crawled out of the house and snagged Shane’s leg to drag his bandmate inside.

“Let go of my leg!”

“No!” Mark tightened his grip. “Get inside before you get shot as well!”

“But Nix—”

Mark tugged Shane harder, with the older of the two flailing and kicking to get out of the grip holding him.

He raised his voice this time, something that he barely did. “He’s a dead man, Shane. He’s gone. It’s just you and I now, got it?. You wanna end up like him? Going down without a fight?”

“…I,” Shane trailed off. “…Nicky.” He looked at the blonde lying on the ground and let out a sigh after Nicky nodded at him. Then he finally gave in and began to crawl inside Kian’s house reluctantly.

Shane often took on a dramatic role like this whenever he got the chance to, because it was fun to pretend that he was in an action movie. And in a situation like this, Nicky and Mark decided to play along for the hell of it, because why not? All three of them knew that there was no actual danger, but the adrenaline of acting like spies or…whatever this was— it was exciting, especially since they didn’t actually know who the assailant was. Though, they had a good feeling who was behind this attack.

Nicky lifted his head from the ground, still keeping his position as a claimed paintball victim. He exchanged glances with Mark and winked at his younger bandmate.

“Sorry mate,” Mark shrugged.

“It’s fine, just protect my man,” Nicky said, giggling from the absurdity of the whole situation. He put his head back down, just as another paintball hit him in the thigh.

Shane was waiting in the house when he heard Nicky let out an exaggerated yell of pain, shooting up and cautiously peeking out of the still-open door. His boyfriend raised his head one last time to glance at the brunette.

Nicky put on his typical dramatic squint, and spoke in a raspy voice. “Go, just save yourself.”

“Nooooo,” Shane whined, dramatically reaching out his arm as if it would do anything.

Mark quickly stumbled to the back door yet again while another round of paintballs began to fire, pushing Shane inside before he frantically locked the door behind them. He peeked out of the small window in the door and rolled his eyes at the sight of Nicky discreetly texting on his phone while laying in an awkward position. Likely texting a mate out of boredom.

He turned back to Shane. “We need to barricade the door.”

“The fuck do we need to do that for?”

“In case the killer gets inside,” Mark said, then breaking into a giggling smile after failing to hold it in.

Shane couldn’t hold in his own laughter after a prolonged drama performance that he had participated in for no reason. “This is so fucking stupid.”

Mark laughed. “I know. It’s probably Kian. He actually does keep a set of paintball guns in the garage.”

“Bryan must have told him about us breaking in.”

The taller lad shrugged. “Probably.”

“Well, let’s get even with him. For Nicky,” Shane declared.

“For Nicky,” Mark nodded, trying not to laugh again. “But lemme go and find Kian’s guitar first.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t take too long to measure it or whatever.”

“I won’t. I know where Kian keeps his stuff,” Mark rolled his eyes, making his way towards the stairs near the other end of Kian’s house.

“Ugh. So romantic that it disgusts me,” Shane muttered with a smirk, watching Mark awkwardly run off and disappearing around a corner.

~~~

Nicky was glad that he had remembered to bring his phone with him. He was splayed out on the back lawn, hopping between text conversations between different mates to pass the time. Hopefully Mark and Shane wouldn’t take too long to complete this mission, though Nicky wondered if they would even make it out of the house in one piece or end up…like him.

Who shot him anyway?

He cautiously sat up, scanning his environment. Nicky was probably supposed to be playing dead for the theatrics of the whole situation, but curiosity beat out that aspect. So here he was, sitting on Kian’s backyard lawn with a lovely blue splotch of paint dripping down his black puffer jacket, looking for his own assailant.

“Kian, you fucker, come out,” he mumbled.

He scoffed. Of course Brian ended up exposing them. The lad sounded completely opposed to the idea of breaking into Kian’s house in the first place. Oh well.

Nicky caught sight of a blonde head standing on the other side of the fence, their face turned away from view. Initially he thought it was Kian, but then he became confused, partly because this individual had somewhat spiked hair, but mostly because…well, shit. This person was tall, considering that Nicky could see the head sticking out at the top of the fence.

He let out a surprised squeak when the figure turned and peered at him. Surprised blue eyes stared at Nicky. He stared back in partial shock. Then they started walking towards the fence gate, eyes still locked on Nicky as they entered Kian’s backyard. The lad on the lawn began to protest as he was approached, frantically shuffling backwards and eyeing the massive paintball gun clenched in his assailant’s hand.

Nicky gulped when he looked up at the attacker, eyes wide as a shadow was cast by the figure looming over him with a crazed smile.

~~~

Mark carefully placed Kian’s guitar back where he found it, leaning against a makeshift stand that he was going to replace with his Christmas gift to Kian. He left his boyfriend’s room and wandered back to the living room, where he had left Shane waiting. Mark spotted his bandmate staring at one of Kian’s family pictures on the wall, and called out to get Shane’s attention.

“All done?” The shorter lad asked.

“Yep,” Mark nodded. “Let’s get Nicky from the…”

“GUYS!” Nicky cried out.

Shane hurried to the window that gave a full view of the backyard. Mark followed, worried about what was going on now.

“It’s not Kian! It’s Bry—” Nicky fell onto his back, cut off by a paintball shot to the chest, again. A tall figure stood over Nicky, gun still pointed down at him. Definitely not Kian, as suspected. Mark glanced at Shane. The older lad’s eyes started to pool with tears.

“Shane, don’t…” he warned.

“NICKYYYYY! NOOOOOOOOO!” Shane bawled, falling to his knees. God, Nicky being dramatic was one thing, but seeing Shane play along was even more amusing. Mark could swear that he saw Nicky’s chest rapidly rising and falling in time with a laughing fit, and some hysterical laughing between cries from Shane. Yeah, there was no way these two could keep a serious act on for more than thirty seconds without bursting into laughter.

Nicky’s assailant suddenly looked at them, likely able to hear Shane’s loud cries for his boyfriend. Mark stared back. It was indeed Bryan, there was no mistaking it thanks to his height and spiked blonde hair. He was starting to make his way over to the back door while somehow maintaining a deadly expression, and holy shit— Mark and Shane needed to get a move on if they wanted to escape this mission in one piece.

“Move! Now!” Mark whispered harshly, pushing Shane away from the window.

“Mark,” Shane sniffed, wiping away the remainder of his tears before pointing at the back door.

“Already locked it.”

The knob rattled and alarmed the two lads standing inside. They looked at the door and spotted Bryan’s large figure. Mark and Shane exchanged glances before they bolted deeper into Kian’s house, the taller of the two quickly looking back and hearing the telltale sign of a key being inserted into a lock before he frantically fled out of sight.

~~~

“Man, what type of fucking lock does Kian have?” Bryan muttered under his breath. He thought he would be able to successfully open the backdoor on his first attempt, then make a triumphant entry into his bandmate’s home. Now being on his fourth try and struggling to turn the key, Bryan gave up on a dramatic entrance and was just trying to at least gain entry into the house. He let out a loud huff and cursed again. “Easy to use, my arse.”

“Maybe turn the key in the other direction,” Nicky suggested, grabbing at Bryan’s leg.

“HOLY JAYSUS—” Bryan yelled, kicking his free foot at the hand grasped around the ankle of his other leg.

“Ow!”

“Nicky! Stop squeezing my leg, you’re supposed to be dead!” Bryan growled at the deadweight at his feet.

“Never!”

Bryan aimed his gun at Nicky’s back and took a couple shots in an attempt to loosen the clamping of his ankle.

“Ha! You think you can stop me with mere paintballs?” Nicky raised a brow at the taller blonde.

The end of the weapon was aimed at Nicky’s arse this time, and Bryan made a clear shot, eliciting a pained groan from the smaller lad. The hand around his ankle released it, and he let out a pleased sigh, then playfully poked Nicky’s head with the toe of his shoe.

“...ow.”

“Now stay quiet, you fucking eejit,” Bryan said, rolling his eyes as he finally got the door unlocked.

“Ugh, fine.”

Bryan turned the knob and smirked as he began to open the door.

“Prepare for your downf— WHY THE HELL IS THERE A DEADBOLT HERE?!” He cried.

Nicky’s hand tapped his leg, and Bryan looked down to see his bandmate making an awkward gesture with his hand.

“You gotta do this,” Nicky explained, bending his wrist.

“How and why do you know how to get past the deadbolt?”

“I figured it out that time we threw a surprise party for Kian’s birthday.” Nicky shrugged. “Took me a couple tries to get it right, but hey, it worked.”

“Uh, okay. Thanks?” Bryan copied the gesture, his eyebrows raising in surprise when it actually worked to undo the deadbolt from the outside. Huh. The door was gently, but dramatically, kicked in, and Bryan entered Kian’s house.

~~~

Shane had just stumbled into a bedroom, which wasn’t Kian’s judging by the absence of rock band posters, but likely one of his older siblings. He scanned the room for a hiding spot, eyeing the space under the bed that was luckily hidden by an oversized duvet. Perfect. Shane laid on his stomach and slid into hiding, shuffling a bit to get comfortable in the small space.

“THERE IS NO ESCAPE! I WILL FIND YOU, AND I WILL KILL YOU!” Bryan yelled from downstairs.

Shane swallowed shakily.

“NICKY! FOR GOD’S SAKE! STOP RESURRECTING YOURSELF!”

“I REFUSE!”

A few more shots were fired, picked up as faint popping noises by Shane. He giggled under his breath at his boyfriend’s stubbornness, still listening to the sounds of more bickering between the two Dubliners. Bless Nicky, he was probably trying to distract Bryan to buy time for Shane and Mark to hide. A minute or so later, the yelling stopped, which led Shane to assume that Nicky had finally given in and muttered a reluctant “fine” in surrendering to Bryan.

The soft thuds indicated to Shane that Bryan was going to search downstairs first. It would probably take around five to ten minutes to thoroughly get it done. Well, hopefully. At least Shane had some minutes to spare for thinking of an escape plan. He watched too many scary movies and was painfully aware of how bad his current hiding spot actually was, because Bryan would likely check under the bed eventually, after checking the closet and behind the…door.

‘Wait a minute…’ he thought. ‘No one checks behind the door. People always look under the bed or in the closet first.’

Shane quietly maneuvered his way out from under the bed. He steadily tiptoed to the door and pushed it slightly shut so that he wouldn’t be easily seen through the crack between the door and its frame. This was probably more foolproof than being a sitting duck under the bed. Shane could also fight back or get a running start if he was somehow caught in hiding, since a standing position would be easier to escape with.

He heard more shuffling noises downstairs, wondering where in the house Mark was hiding.

~~~

“This is so uncomfortable,” Mark whispered to himself. He was currently in a very awkward squat, in the laundry bin that was sitting in the corner of Kian’s bedroom. At first, he thought hiding under the bed was the only way to fit his tall and large figure, after seeing the inside of the closet had been far too small to fit. Sometimes he was thankful for Kian’s ability to play instruments, but in times like this, he was a bit annoyed. Instruments had taken up a majority of space in the bottom part of the closet space.

So, after debating with himself for two minutes, Mark settled on the laundry bin, which he still didn’t know why it was there even. Kian always threw his shit everywhere but the bin itself, which probably drove his parents mad, but at least Mark was there as an extra scolder now. Anyways, scattering some extra clothes on the floor, so that Mark could fit into the space, wouldn’t look suspicious at all. Bryan did room with Kian a few times on the occasion that Mark got sick and wanted to avoid infecting his boyfriend, so he was well aware of Kian’s habit.

Suddenly, Mark heard Bryan and Nicky yelling. Something about Nicky resurrecting himself, apparently. Mark couldn’t hold back his laughter and had to cover his mouth to muffle the noise. Nicky was stupidly stubborn and despite it being an annoyance most of the time, he was a bit thankful for it. He needed a bit of time to calm himself down and regain his composure so that he wouldn’t be detected by Bryan if it came to that point of the hunt, entering Kian’s bedroom.

Some faint popping noises had gone off just now, and Mark assumed it was just Bryan having to silence Nicky for at least a second time, after the situation on Kian’s back lawn. There was just silence now, with the occasional noise coming from downstairs, where Mark guessed Bryan was searching. It must have felt like an eternity before Mark heard something, though he felt the colour drain from his face after realizing it was the sound of Kian’s car locking with its telling beep.

Shit.

‘If Bryan told on us…oh fuck.’ Mark felt his heart begin to race.

Things probably just got a whole lot more complicated.

~~~

Kian pulled into his driveway. What he thought would be a boring day of running errands turned out to be more exciting than ever. He was boredly strolling the aisles of the supermarket, ticking off his checklist of grocery items, when he had spotted Bryan lurking in the frozen food section. Definitely an odd sight considering Westlife just got on break for this year’s Christmas season. Sligo was the last place Bryan should be, on logical terms.

He was curious and suspicious.

It didn’t take long until he managed to break through Bryan’s wall and forced the taller lad to start spilling the truth. He had started rambling about Shnicky this and that, how they wanted to pull a stupid prank on Kian and that it required them to break into his house to do it. Kian had scoffed, knowing just how ridiculous those two eejits could be. And then Bryan casually relayed that Mark was apparently forced into the plan because he had a set of keys to Kian’s house.

Okay, yeah. Maybe Kian felt pissed off at the idea of his boyfriend being taken hostage. He had quickly dragged his bandmate to the checkout after racing around the store to get everything, paying, and then rushing to the parking lot to load his car. That was when this entire ambush plan was created, completely spontaneously, because he loved Mark and wanted to protect his boyfriend like the aggressive mother bear he was.

The plot was to get Bryan over to Kian’s neighbourhood, park about a block or so away, and sneak into the garage to retrieve the paintball guns that had been sitting idly in there for so long. Bryan had a vague idea of how this break-and-enter would work, so Kian wasn’t too concerned about the two of them being caught in the middle of their planned attack. The other three were apparently going to break in from the back— surprisingly smart and discreet for someone like Nicky or Shane to think of— and they wouldn’t be expecting anyone to see them lurking at the back of the house.

Bryan was to ambush them in the backyard, with his goal being to shoot either Shane or Nicky, whoever was easier to hit. The idea was to send everyone into a state of panic so that they would scramble into the house and start the game of cat and mouse. Kian would then arrive shortly after, to catch everyone off guard and make them panic even more, because oh boy, people tend to not think properly when they’re panicking. Especially Shnicky.

So that was the plan, though Kian hoped Mark wasn’t going to get too distressed at the concept of being chased around by people wielding paintball guns. ‘Nah, Mark should be fine,’ Kian had thought to himself.

He was driving back home when his phone rang. Kian pulled over and took the call, noticing Bryan’s caller ID.

“Bryan?”

“Erm.” Bryan’s voice sounded low, which told Kian that he was trying to not draw attention to himself.

“Please tell me you didn’t stray from the plan,” Kian asked, exasperated from this entire thing despite it barely starting.

“No?” Bryan sounded…confused, which made Kian confused.

“You don’t sound so sure.”

“Technically, I didn’t deviate. Shnicky did,” he explained to Kian.

Kian narrowed his eyes. “Uh…how so?”

“The two of them are acting like they’re in a thriller movie with a dash of romance.” Kian could already see Bryan rolling his eyes at the lovebirds. “I shot Nicky and he’s playing dead. Shane is pissing tears and Mark looks like he’s taken on the role of being Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible.”

“Of course they would do that,” Kian snorted. “Just try and work with it, I’m on my way back home already.”

“I left one of your guns on the doorstep.”

“Thanks.” Kian smirked.

The paintball gun was indeed where Bryan had said he left it. Kian planted the grocery bags on the ground as he fumbled for his front door’s key with one hand, the other now firmly gripped on a gun that was fully loaded with blue paintballs. After getting the door unlocked and open, he went inside and took off his jacket, then walking further into his house before being greeted by the sight of Bryan doing a thorough search in the kitchen, opening cabinets on the floor and circling the kitchen island to make sure that he wasn’t being played by any of the hiders.

“Bry,” He hissed loudly.

“Jaysus!” Bryan jumped. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“Sorry.” Kian gave an apologetic shrug. “Did you find the other two?”

“No, I was just clearing the kitchen before heading upstairs.”

Kian nodded, taking note of that. “You can get up there and start looking while I put the groceries away,” he suggested, putting down his gun and putting the bags on the kitchen island to retrieve items.

“Cool,” Bryan said, disappearing from the kitchen.

Kian started to unpack the groceries, quickly shoving things into their rightful places and wasting no time. Once everything was done, he picked up his weapon from the countertop and made a strong and confident grip, his index finger placed on the trigger, ready to fire. He walked through the living room to do a quick scan in case Bryan missed something, spotting a small body lying in a half-fetal position.

“Oi,” he said, stretching his leg to poke his bandmate in the back, where the paint didn’t touch, obviously.

There was no answer.

“Nicky, you shite, answer me,” Kian cursed. “I’m gonna shoot your arse if you don’t hurry the fuck up and answer.”

“NO! Okay, okay,” Nicky suddenly turned over and stared up at Kian while still lying on the floor.

Kian pointed the end of his gun at Nicky. “So whose idea was this, eh? Yours or Shane’s?”

“Mark’s.”

“Liar.”

Nicky sat up and raised his hands in protest. “I’m not lying! It was Mark’s idea because he wanted to take measurements of—” His eyes widened and he quickly shut his mouth.

“Take measurements of what?”

“Nothing!” Nicky chuckled nervously. “Forget what I said.”

“Oh no, I want to know now,” Kian demanded.

“Never.” Nicky narrowed his eyes, staring straight at Kian with no intent of exposing Mark’s plan. He had his standards, and being loyal for the sake of a surprise was part of it.

~~~

Shane was anxiously waiting behind the door when he was alerted by Nicky’s shrieking, followed by Kian’s yelling and the sound of a paintball gun being shot.

“I should have never agreed to this bullshit,” he whispered angrily, feeling his heart race even faster than before.

His breath hitched when he felt subtle vibrations in the floor and heard the sound of someone approaching the room that he was hiding in. Shane quickly pressed his back against the wall behind the door as much as he could, just in the nick of time. The bedroom door creaked open slowly, and he felt his eyes nearly fall out of their sockets when the end of Bryan’s gun came into view from his angle.

Shane had to hold a hand against his mouth to muffle his breathing, which was borderline frantic at this point, but he felt his heartbeat slow down when Bryan did what he had expected him to do. The blonde was checking under the bed, crouching on the floor to get a thorough view. Shane watched Bryan intensely and let out a quiet sigh of relief when his bandmate walked to the closet that was right across from Shane’s hiding spot.

He took his chance right there and then. When Bryan stuck his head into the closet space, Shane quickly (and quietly, obviously) fled from his hiding spot and out of the bedroom before he could be seen. Then he heard the sound of shuffling in the room across from this one, unsure of whether it was Kian or Mark. So he speedwalked down to the very last room, which turned out to be a bathroom, and hurried inside. Shane closed the door behind him, but then cursed silently at his mistake.

Fuck! Now Kian and Bryan would know that he was hiding in here, especially Kian, since Shane couldn’t imagine his bandmate leaving the bathroom door closed in his own house. Shane looked around the bathroom, taking sight of the only possible hiding spot that would also count as his resting place if he was actually found. The bathtub. He reluctantly climbed in, hoping that Kian or Bryan would be stupid enough to not check inside the tub, and simultaneously praying that the tub’s edges were high enough to conceal his body from view if someone were to walk in.

Shane heard muffled voices right outside the door. Yep, he was very much fucked. Really fucked. All he heard next was the sound of footsteps leaving the area, and the doorknob being twisted. Shane closed his eyes and sighed, accepting his fate but also silently cursing Mark to hell and back.

~~~

Mark’s legs were starting to get pins and needles, and his back was getting sore from squatting in a weird hunched position. He was starting to wonder if he should just surrender himself for the sake of his body not aching the next day…

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—”

He froze. Shane.

Multiple shots were fired, presumably from the bathroom that was right across from Kian’s bedroom.

“KIAN, HAVE MERCY—”

A final shot occurred, and everything fell silent once more.

‘Shit,’ Mark cursed to himself. A minute or so later, he felt a presence in the room with him, which was confirmed when the other occupant of the room sneezed. He had to clamp his mouth shut to avoid accidentally saying ‘bless you’ to whoever it was. No one was going to let him live it down, getting caught because of being polite or something completely ridiculous.

“God, Kian. Your shit is everywhere,” Bryan mumbled.

Oh good. The laundry bin was the least likely thing for him to check. Especially since it was Kian’s bin for obviously dirty clothes, which Mark was sure Bryan was smart enough to not sift through for the sake of hygiene. Regardless, Mark carefully sat inside, trying to keep his breathing calm and slow so that Bryan wouldn’t end up seeing a pile of dirty clothes rising and falling as if it was alive.

It was a wait that probably felt longer than it actually was. Mark had listened to the creak of the floor next to Kian’s bed, knowing that Bryan was likely crouching down to look under it. The closet door had been slid open, and the sound of rifling was quite prominent, followed by the sound of Bryan cursing himself out for apparently messing up the arrangement of Kian’s other instruments in that closet. It seemed like Bryan was desperate enough to rifle through the curtains, based on Mark hearing the scraping noises that came from the curtains being moved back and forth.

The laundry bin had been skipped entirely, even though it was sitting in plain view in the corner. If Mark was being honest, he wouldn’t even have ended up searching inside this thing either. Perhaps he would live to see another day, but he did need to find a way to get out of here and slip out of Kian’s house completely undetected…and also come up with a wild, unbelievable story that would have to convince Kian that he was never actually in the house in the first place.

Yeah…Mark was royally fucked.

But that was a future Mark issue. Right now, he just wanted to make sure that he wouldn’t be found at this moment, because for some reason it seemed like a better thing to deal with this thing a little later. Mark was starting to realize the deep shit that he got himself (and two other poor lads) into, all because of an idea for a fucking Christmas present for his boyfriend. It definitely sounded ridiculous…which it was.

‘Fuck me. I’m so fucking weird,’ Mark admitted to himself.

“He’s not in there?” Kian asked, his voice slightly faint as a result of being in the hallway. Mark felt his heart skip a beat.

“Nope. I searched the entire room,” Bryan confessed. “Bed, closet, curtains.”

“Laundry bin?” Kian asked.

“Who the hell is going to hide in that?! I’m pretty sure Mark has standards.”

Mark could hear his boyfriend giggle. “Okay, maybe you’re right. I admit it’s stupid of me to think that he would actually hide under my dirty clothes.”

‘Except I actually am, Kian.’ Mark smirked.

The sound of footsteps moving away from the room brought massive relief to him. All he needed to do was just wait for a minute or two to make sure that it was actually safe to emerge, and then he would need to time the escape without being shot at and ending up in the same state as Nicky and Shane. That blue paint did not look easy to wash out.

Mark was about to stand up, when he heard footsteps come back towards Kian’s bedroom. Well, shit. That plan was out the window.

“It’s a fucking mess in here,” Kian muttered to himself, with disgust and awe mixed together.

Mark listened to his boyfriend walk around the room, likely picking up his clothes. He felt the weight of some shirts and pants being thrown onto the top of the pile. It was time to be stiller than a Renaissance statue, for the sake of Mark’s life. He also didn’t want to scare the shit out of his boyfriend.

“KIAN!” A voice called from downstairs.

“WHAT, BRYAN?”

“WHAT ARE WE DOING WITH NICKY AND SHANE?”

There was a small pause.

“SEND THEM AROUND THE HOUSE TO LOOK FOR MARK!”

“OKAY!” Bryan called back.

Kian let out a sigh, speaking to himself again. “He probably fell asleep in some weird spot while hiding.”

He was technically correct with the assumption about weird hiding place. Falling asleep in this bin, however…that was a bit of a stretch. Mark already had trouble falling asleep without a TV being on, so it was hard to think that he could somehow succeed while squatting in a pile of his boyfriend’s dirty clothes. He honestly didn’t even know how to comprehend his decision to drag this…game…out. Mark could've just surrendered himself and ended everything, but no, he was strangely determined to continue playing until he was found.

The pressure of Kian’s hand pressing down had him letting out a surprised squawk.

“SHIT!” Kian yelped.

The bin was accidentally tipped, and Mark fell out onto the floor amongst the clothes that had spilled from the bin. He looked up at his boyfriend, who was stunned and staring back in pure shock. Mark saw Kian’s eyes drift to the side ever so slightly, and registered the presence of the paintball gun that was currently resting on the bed.

He sat up and quickly pulled Kian’s leg, bringing the smaller lad to the floor with a loud thud before he could grab for the gun.

“Mark?!”

“Uh, hiya.” He smiled awkwardly.

“You wanna explain why Shane and Nicky are in my house, and covered in blue paint?”

“Uhhhhh….” Mark felt himself turn redder than a tomato.

“Or how you orchestrated this stupid thing? Why were you sneaking into my house in the first place?”

“Ijustwantedtogetyouanewguitarstandbecausetheoldoneisbroken,” he said quickly, diverting his gaze away from his boyfriend.

“Huh?”

Mark gestured at the prized guitar that was leaning against a mountain of old textbooks. “I figured…well, your old stand broke, and…”

“…you wanted to get me a new one,” Kian finished for him.

He nodded.

“You’re actually such an eejit,” Kian laughed, pulling Mark into a hug and planting a firm kiss on his forehead. “You could’ve just gotten the measurements of my guitar when I was using the washroom or in the shower.”

“That’s exactly what Nicky said when we were outside.” Mark snorted.

A voice butted in. “I told you so!”

Mark looked at the doorway. The others were standing there…and Nicky had a paintball gun. Aimed right at him. Shane and Bryan stood behind the blonde, giggling like mad.

“Aw, fuck,” Mark groaned. Who knew that his downfall would be a result of Nicky exacting revenge on behalf of everyone else who got dragged into this shit by him?

Kian giggled, hugging Mark tightly. “Just accept your fate, babe.”

Mark rolled his eyes and scoffed with a defeated smile. “Fine.”

Nicky smirked, pulling the trigger.