Work Text:
Donghyuck checks his watch. Only five minutes until his task for the day is over and he can turn in to sleep on the empty, comfortable enough, bed of his hotel room. He’s on the clock, working dutifully as he takes a long slurp from the iced coffee in his hand.
He is thankful for work days like this, where the duties are as simple as blending in and pretending to carry out a normal day while keeping eyes on the assigned target. Days like this one, slow and easy, are rare for Donghyuck. The agency always gives him the more hectic, complex missions. It’s flattering that the agency values his skills and ranks him highly for his work, but he needs a break from time to time.
Sip coffee. Pretend to casually scroll on the phone. Sip coffee. Pretend to casually scroll on the phone. Sip coffee— it goes on and on. A repeating cycle that doesn’t end until the target moves on to a new location. At that point, keeping eyes on the target will become the responsibility of the next agent tasked to take over when his shift ends.
He’s in the ‘pretend to scroll on phone’ phase when a voice cuts through the walkie-talkie system disguised as Bluetooth earbuds. “Task completed, agent. Return to Base.” Every agent’s favorite words to hear.
The target exits before him and Donghyuck catches a glimpse of a familiar face. To any other passerbys, it would be no one but a typical stranger going about their day. But Donghyuck knows that the ‘stranger’ is actually another agent now tasked with the remaining mission of tracking the target.
He doesn’t wave, even though he and the other agent make eye contact. They know each other because of work, obviously, but the whole point of their job is to stand out as little as possible. So, they don’t acknowledge each other. This is how most agent interactions go. There’s very little room for establishing connections unless two agents are assigned a paired mission.
Donghyuck usually gets sent on solo missions, but every other month or so, he’ll get sent on a mission with an assigned partner. His last mission was an easy one because he was paired with a new agent, tasked with training the newbie throughout the short assignment.
Considering how slow and easy things have been for his last few jobs, Donghyuck is sure his next assignment will be a handful. That’s usually how it works.
There’s a manila folder waiting on the bed for him when he gets to his hotel. It’s expected. The agency told him they were setting him up at this hotel with the intent of dispatching him out on his next mission. He just didn’t think it would be so soon and had hoped for at least a weekend off before having to see a new assignment folder.
He looks through the pages secured to the folder by a paper clip, raising his eyebrows in surprise when he sees a page mentioning that his next assignment will involve a partner. Before he can read the details of who he’ll be working with, a pair of hands clamp down on his shoulders from behind.
“Surpri— ouch, hyuck what the hell.”
Defend first. Ask questions later. It’s agent safety 101. That’s why Donghyuck’s reflexive reaction to being suddenly grabbed is to turn around and land a punch.
It’s not until the bold intruder lifts his head, covering his nose with two hands, that Donghyuck realizes it isn’t an intruder at all. It’s another agent, one he’s very familiar with.
“Mark!” Donghyuck surges forward to hug him, wincing when he sees red dripping from Mark’s nose. Nothing a little tissue won’t fix, but he still feels a little bad.
“You should know better than to sneak up on me like that! Has our job taught you nothing?”
Mark laughs, wiping the little bit of blood from his nose with the sleeve of his jacket before returning the hug. Their job calls for casual attire most times, so it’s difficult to tell if Mark just came in from an assignment or time off.
“Sorry, I forget the ‘no sudden surprises’ rule sometimes.” Mark gestures to his nose. “I’ll learn my lesson quickly.”
“What are you doing here?” Donghyuck pulls away from the hug to look at Mark. It’s been a few months since they were last sent on a mission together and it’s nice to see him again. Really nice.
Donghyuck hates that he doesn’t get to see Mark too often due to the two of them always being sent on solo missions in different areas. Mark is definitely his favorite fellow agent. There was an undeniable chemistry between them from the very first mission they were sent on together. They’ve been… whatever they are now since then.
“Didn’t you see the folder? I’m your partner for this mission.”
Donghyuck dives for a hug again. It’s more of a deathly squeeze than a hug, really, but Mark doesn't seem to mind, squeezing back.
“You’re not fucking with me are you?” Donghyuck narrows his eyes in suspicion. Mark jokes around a lot, he has to be sure.
“You think the agency would have let me know where you were staying if we weren’t being paired up?”
Fair point. The agency never compromises an agent’s location during missions, not even to other agents if they aren’t working in pairs. It’s a safety measure, preventing leaks from within the workplace. It has proved effective so far.
Just to be certain, Donghyuck checks the folder again, reading over the ‘assignment partner’ pages. Right there in bold, black text: Agent, M. Mark Lee.
“I was starting to think we would never cross paths again,” Donghyuck leans back to get a good look at Mark.
He looks the same as the last time Donghyuck saw him. The only visible differences are additional muscles where Mark was more lean before and vibrant red hair. His hair was blond on their last mission. The red looks good, Donghyuck thinks, reaching up to ruffle a hand through Mark’s hair.
“Me too. It’s been so long. Months, right?”
Mark leans into the hand playing in his hair, more than welcoming to the fingers massaging at his scalp. There’s a telling grin on Mark’s face that lets Donghyuck know he feels just as happy about their upcoming paired mission as he does. They work really well together.
“Yeah, too many months,” Donghyuck pouts, dropping his hand from Mark’s hair to cup his face instead, thumb caressing his cheek. The faintest hint of stubble pricks at the pad of his finger as he thumbs over Mark’s cheek and jawline. “It’s good to see you again.”
Mark leans into his hand, always following touch so easily. It’s cute. When Mark looks at him, all big-eyed and fond, it’s devastating.
“It’s good to see you too,” Mark turns his head, pressing a kiss to the center of his palm. “I missed you.”
They don’t need to elaborate on their words. Donghyuck knows Mark means it when he says he missed him. And he knows Mark is aware that he was missed just as much. Missing each other between missions is normal — has been normal for a little over two years.
The agency has a policy against agents being in relationships with other agents. In case of messy break-ups, the agency doesn’t want to deal with the risk of private information getting out or missions being jeopardized. Besides, there isn’t much time for relationships in this field of work. Still, Donghyuck finds himself wishing that there wasn’t a signed contract preventing him and Mark from being together officially. Neither of them want to risk losing their job by committing a fireable offense, so they remain as… whatever this is.
This — as in Mark holding up a bottle of his favorite champagne and pouring two glasses while he looks at Mark like he holds the world in his hands. This — as in Donghyuck tasting that same champagne on Mark’s lips when they ditch their emptied wine glasses to embrace each other. This — as in making sure their walkie-talkie devices are muted before diving back in to capture each other’s lips.
They aren’t boyfriends. They aren’t dating. But they’re more than friends — more than work colleagues. Being something is enough for them.
A part of Donghyuck thinks that the agency is aware of the chemistry between him and Mark. It’s well-known that they are two of the best ranked agents, and yet, they aren’t assigned to work together nearly as often as they should be. It’s like the agency is trying to keep them apart, afraid of the possibility of losing two of their best agents.
Mark understands. More-so than Donghyuck. It’s not so bad, though. The missions they do get to work on together are always long, allowing them to make up for lost time.
“What kind of roles do we have for this mission?” Donghyuck asks when they finally separate from kissing. His wine glass has found its way back to his hand, filled with champagne again, courtesy of Mark.
“Not sure, I didn’t look at the details. All I heard was your name and I got here as fast as I could.”
“You’re so cheesy,” Donghyuck says with a smile, picking up the manila folder from earlier so that he can read the details of their mission.
There’s usually some kind of character they have to portray in these missions, even having backstories and details to memorize for some cases. In his last solo mission, Donghyuck worked undercover at an office managed by one of the agency’s targets. It was boring, to say the least.
“Couple next door,” Mark reads from over his shoulder. “Looks like we’re playing house while living next door to the target.”
“Playing house?” Donghyuck snorts.
“Mhmm, looks like we’re going to be pretending to be a domestic couple that has been together for years.”
“I don’t think we’ll have to pretend that hard,” Donghyuck finishes off his glass of wine before crawling his way back into Mark’s arms.
Mark tips his head back to finish the remaining champagne in his glass before responding with a content hum.
“This will probably be our easiest mission yet. I mean, pretending to be in love with you? That will be easy since I don’t need to pretend.”
Donghyuck’s breath hitches because Mark just indirectly stated that he’s in L word with him. They have never used that word with each other. It catches Donghyuck off guard.
“You don’t?”
Mark doesn’t seem phased in the slightest. He looks certain, like he meant every word he said.
“I don’t.”
When their lips meet again, the kiss turns passionate and deep very quickly. They don’t put their feelings into words. They don’t put a label on anything between them. But they seize every opportunity to fill those gaps with actions. The way their lips slot together and move in sync speaks in volumes louder than any words could.
They spend the entirety of their mission wrapped up in each other. It’s following the assignment guidelines. It’s just staying in character. That’s how they will portray it for the sake of their job. But the truth is, they don’t have to fake anything.
The mission only required them to pass as a normal couple during the daytime hours where they would interact with their ‘neighbor’ target. Exchanging kisses that last longer than three seconds isn’t in the list of requirements and neither is showering together, curling up together on the couch to watch movies, or giggling under the covers as clothes are shed.
Donghyuck almost forgets they are on an assignment. The mission feels more like a dream, one that he and Mark are able to live out for three consecutive weeks. Three weeks of waking up face-to-face. Three weeks of running their hands over each other’s bare skin after showering. Three weeks of seeing what things could be like if they were able to be anything more than this.
This — as in shaking hands to see each other off when back at the agency instead of hugging because they know they won’t be able to let go of each other. This — as in exchanging, “It was a pleasure doing this mission with you''s instead of voicing the deeper feelings between them. This — as in being back in separate hotel rooms with new folders assigning them to new missions. Missions that don’t involve each other.