Talking Through Walls
They're good. They're both good, the best, but even the best can't defend against treachery. Someone sold them out, someone high up. Someone confident that neither of them would survive - or else someone so certain of their own power and position that they don't fear retribution.
They should, though. He can read the same thought in his partner's eyes, even across the distance of the cameras and screens. When they get out of this, they're going to find the person who sold them out and make sure they can never betray anyone else.
And they will get out.
There will be time to fall apart after. To bury his face in his partner's shoulder and cling, to wake up screaming in the night and feel strong arms pull him close.
Now, there's no room for that. Nothing but cold fury, wrapping around his heart and keeping it safe, keeping it from beating too hard as he watches the screens.
His partner, his lover, quirks the smallest of smiles, and he finds himself smiling back.
They'll make it through.
They'll make it through, because there is no other option.
Either they both make it, or neither of them does.
Either they both make it, or one of them tracks down Every Single Person involved, no matter how long it takes, and does whatever they have to to bring them all down.
He shouldn't worry. They've been in situations like this before, and they will be again. Still, something clenches in Bai Yu’s chest as he watches Zhu Yilong being roughly dragged from his cell.
They don't care whether they hurt him or not. Zhu Yilong is merely an asset to them. Something to be taken apart until they have what they need from him. Then whatever is left will just be discarded.
Or that's what they think, at least.
One of them sucker punches Zhu Yilong in the stomach, and Bai Yu can tell right away that he's letting them think they've hurt him more than they actually have.
That doesn't stop the rage from settling over him as he watches Zhu Yilong groan and go limp in their arms, his feet dragging along the floor as they haul him down the corridor to the interrogation room.
He's going to enjoy killing them.
*
It would have been better to be captured alone - they're good, but Zhu Yilong can't help but see the slimming of odds and narrowing of chances now that they have both been taken. It would have been better to be captured alone, and yet - he's going to apologize later for the relief he feels at having Bai Yu nearby. Alive, watching. Waiting to seize one of the few opportunities left to them. Bai Yu always says he apologizes too much, but Bai Yu is going to be angry enough at whoever is behind this to let a bit of guilt slide
Because Zhu Yilong - he knows he's got the easy end of the deal today, and he's glad. If they had dragged Bai Yu out in front of him, if they'd set the camera up to show him his partner in pain instead of inflicting that pain on him? Zhu Yilong knows that would hurt more and tries to reassure Bai Yu that he's still fine with every quirk of his mouth and every look he allows himself at the camera.
The men aren't even trying hard yet - it feels like they have orders from someone who isn't in any particular hurry, but is willing to be very, very thorough. He files that away for later, and rolls with another punch, lessening the damage it makes even as his captors jeer at his cry. Zhu Yilong bites his tongue - a sharp, defiant pain - so he can spit the blood the captors think he's coughing up from some deeper damage and tells himself Bai Yu will see it for what it is. Then he looks up at the camera through sweaty bangs, letting a flash of teeth show. These men don't see - don't understand. They are letting their advantage diminish with every second they allow Zhu Yilong to keep communicating with Bai Yu - through walls, through wires, through the way they know each other enough that a single glance can share a plan.
It is time.
*
Four to one, those aren’t the worst odds they have faced together as rogue agents, but they aren’t good, either.
Bai Yu continues to watch, catching clues Zhu Yilong keeps dropping. A word here, a number here... “Come on, one more,” he mutters to the screens, chewing his lip.
This is meant as another form of torture, of making them talk - separate them, hurt one, make the other watch. An unfortunate effect of gaining a reputation for working well together. But they know the drill now, this is simply a decoy, Zhu Yilong guilelessly playing them back.
They'll get out because they're the best. They'll get out because people always, *always* underestimate them. But most of all, they'll get out because they have something the enemy can't plan for.
Intimacy. Connection. Understanding.
None of those words quite describes it.
The simple fact is, they *know* each other. Each of them can guess what the other will do, and act accordingly.
When Zhu Yilong is taken, Bai Yu knows how he'll get free. Zhu Yilong knows that Bai Yu will come for him, and can make a decent guess as to where he'll show up, and how, and even when.
Which is why Bai Yu isn't afraid.
He's PISSED. But he's not afraid.
Just as Bai Yu plays as trapped, helpless for the camera, Zhu Yilong is playing overconfident, needing to be humbled. This is part of the game, since Zhu Yilong is deceptively great at acting both cocky and hurt, while Bai Yu is deceptively strong at close combat. However -
The hits they both took were real, the raw skin of Zhu Yilong’s bound hands is real. Bai Yu watches the screens intently while his (single, why do they *always* look at his legs and assume) guard jeers at his squirming around. Bai Yu lets him, since it means he hasn’t noticed he’s worn the ties and gotten loose. Just one more -
The hired men on the screen step closer to Zhu Yilong while their boss talks, and he must have said what Zhu Yilong has been searching for, because Zhu Yilong’s eyes sparkle and he mouths the last keyword to Bai Yu, mouth a bare trusting small smile.
Bai Yu grins. Mission cleared. Now they can get out of this dump.
Bai Yu slumps, and just as his guard steps forward to kick him, Bai Yu snaps up, driving his elbow in the guard’s jaw, and is opening the door with his pass before the guard has slid to the floor. He sprints out.
Bai Yu sprints out of the room, then pauses; they had both had bags over their heads when they'd been brought in, but hadn't tried to obscure their paths further. Though every bone in his body aches to run to his partner, a wrong turn could cost him precious seconds, and could needlessly alert passing guards. He ducks back in for his guard's jacket - his pants are dark enough to pass at a glance, and a glance is all he needs - and then strides purposefully towards where Zhu Yilong waits for him. Turn right, up a flight of stairs, then right again, past the door that undoubtedly leads to the toilets - this sort of criminal ring rarely runs to janitors, and their present hosts are clearly not an exception - another 10 steps, then left, and then two steps and a door that had clanged as they marched him away from his partner too many hours ago.
He opens the door, and as four heads swivel to see which new member of the gang has joined them, the fifth, disheveled and a bit bloody but so familiar and beloved, uses the moment of distraction to lean forward and bite the hand of the man in front of him, provoking a yell. His captors turn to look back at him, annoyed but not yet alarmed, and Bai Yu strikes. The man nearest the door is dead before he hits the floor, the next-nearest almost as quickly. The man Zhu Yilong had bitten tries to twist himself behind Zhu Yilong to use him as a shield, but Zhu Yilong uses his still-bound hands - tied in front of him, they really are incompetent - to prevent the move and hold him for Bai Yu's knife. The last man takes longer, without the surprise of Bai Yu's entry and Zhu Yilong's help, but doesn't genuinely stand a chance against them, even after they’re roughed up and with Zhu Yilong still partially tied to a chair: they are ‘the best’ for a reason
There isn't time, just yet, to let sentiment overwhelm professionalism and common sense - they’re too good for that, and haven't survived this long by letting hands and eyes linger when they themselves are out of time. But in the way Bai Yu gentles his knife when it slices away Zhu Yilong's bindings, and the tight grip of Zhu Yilong's fingers on Bai Yu's, they let each other know they are loved.
By the time they got to their nearest safehouse - a brisk 30 minute walk under normal circumstances, an agonizing hour with both of them hurt - Bai Yu is having to work hard to conceal a bad limp, and Zhu Yilong is holding tightly to his own side to brace what they both hope are only bruised ribs. When Bai Yu finally shoots the bolt and sets the alarms, locking them in as safely as they can manage, Zhu Yilong is already sitting on a chair beside the narrow cot, carefully swallowing two painkiller tablets dry. He motions Bai Yu to sit on the bed, then carefully begins to look at his leg.
It’s agonizing work to tend each other's injuries, each more pained by the other's hurts than their own. Zhu Yilong frowns at the ugly bruises across Bai Yu's legs, and Bai Yu winces at the small sounds Zhu Yilong makes while his ribs are being bandaged. Both of them are covered in sweat and dirt and blood, where injuries haven't necessitated cleaning, but when they’re finally together on the narrow cot, they can't help but exchange gentle kisses, slow and careful of each other, and so, so thankful. They had known the risks, when they started this together, and had both been eager to take them on, confident in their skills like the cocksure young idiots they had been. Today could have been far worse than it was, and maybe next time, it will be just as bad as they both feared. Maybe it’s time for a change.
Maybe acting? It would certainly play to both their skill sets, and they both think they would enjoy it. They already have new identities ready to go, same names, different backgrounds, just familiar enough to make the lying easier. They might have to start apart, as they’re too well known as a pair to start together, but perhaps after they have established themselves they can, as if by accident, drift together. They plan long into the night, twined around each other, loath to let go, desperate for skin and touch and taste. In the morning they make love, gentle and so, so loving. Then they leave, and go their separate ways.
*
"Ok, so the first scene we're going to do is after Zhao Yunlan gets hurt and Shen Wei brings him back to his apartment to take care of him. Ready to try it out?"
Zhu Yilong looks at his costar, who is laughing quietly to himself, a sound Zhu Yilong has missed just as much as he had known he would.
"I know you boys only met yesterday, so the first few takes might be a little awkward, but don't worry, we'll get there!"
Bai Yu drapes himself aggressively over Zhu Yilong, grinning like a demon. “Oh, I'm sure we'll make it work."
Zhu Yilong is too self-controlled to let his face show anything, but his ears start to turn ever so slightly red. "Yes, I am confident that we will manage."