Profit Margin (Criminal AU) (WayV x Reader)

Night Light

Chapter warnings: mild language and intense themes

Word count: 1123

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"What happened?" Kun had asked calmly. She couldn't assume it was often that the boys invaded his privacy and entered his personal space, but obviously this was urgent. Still, he was handling it with surprising ease.

"Lucas." "Hendery." They had spoken at the same time. They looked to each other, trying to silently figure out who was meant to speak first, how to deal with this as quickly as possible. Standing, Kun gestured to Y/N.

"You go with Xiaojun and handle whatever is happening with Lucas. I'll proceed with YangYang to Hendery. I assume we'll be able to work this out accordingly." He looked her in the eyes again. He was trusting her with this situation. He knew there would be enough confusion that she may have a chance to slip away. Although she was with Xiaojun, she was fairly confident in her ability to evade him. Would she take it?

In an instant, Kun and YangYang were gone as the remaining boy attempted to get her attention. Looking up, jarred, she followed as he led her out of the room towards the medical bay.

"Can you fill me in on what's happening?" She asked, having to sprint every few steps to keep up with him.

"Hendery is missing. We have security footage suggesting he's left the building, but we have no idea where he may be headed." Xiaojun started. "Something's upset him, but we have no means of contacting him- he's not answering his phone, and we can't track it. He's either removed the tracking and ignored our calls, or he's simply powered it off."

"What about Lucas?" She asked.

"Critical condition. We're not sure what happened, as... he can't wake up to tell us right now. That being said, I have some suspicions." He said somberly. Her gaze was wide and gut wrenching as she heard this. What could have been so bad that he was unable to wake up? She wouldn't have to wait long to find out as they reached the medical bay.

Walking towards the back of the room, Lucas was on the bed closest to the door of the back room. He had an IV drip in one arm, and bandages on his legs. Mostly undressed, she could see that he was covered in cuts. They weren't just any cuts, though, they were deep, life-threatening gashes.

"They brought him here while we came to get you. The wounds aren't all bandaged yet." Looking at him, she started having flashbacks to the woman in the basement. This path she was on was covered in blood. First her own, then that woman's, now Lucas. Who was next? It would end with hers, of that she was sure.

"Y/N!" Xiaojun shouted, clearly not the first time he was truing to get her attention.

"O-oh, I-"

"Look, I get it." He started, breathing in. "But I'm gonna need your help with this. I can't get to everything in time." She nodded her head shakily. "Alright, hand me the hydrogen peroxide."

They spent almost an hour trying to repair Lucas's body. For the smaller cuts, bandages were sufficient, but the bigger ones requires sticking. They quite literally covered his whole body. At first glance, it looks as though he had gone through a boat propeller. They were too methodical, though. His hands, his feet, and his neck up were all untouched. They all followed a similar direction, as well.

Every time she looked at his face throughout the process, her nausea was renewed. His eyes were shut and his lips slightly parted, and yet there was an air of pain surrounding him. Even in his forced sleep, she sensed that he could feel the gashes, as well as potentially the emotional pain of whatever he'd been through. Once they finally finished, Xiaojun brought her back into the office, laying down on one bed as she lay on the other. It had been surprisingly tiring work, but Lucas was stable.

"Hendery had to have done this." She muttered, visuals of the cuts still fresh in her mind.

"I just don't understand why he would ever do something like that." Xiaojun commented, suffering evident in his voice. "We've always been a team. He and Lucas have never had any problems." Sighing, he continued. "That being said, the security footage is missing from the left stairwell near the bottom floor. Both the physical and digital copies have seemingly vanished. That's..." His voice hitched. "That's where we found him."

"When we find him, we can figure it out." She finally said, eyelids heavy. Xiaojun seemed to be just as tired.

"Yeah, I.." He yawned, trying to keep talking. "I guess." As they both lay in silence, looking for things to say, they eventually both fell asleep. Of course, her momentary rest couldn't last for long. She found herself caught in nightmares, even her subconscious mind riddled by guilt and terror. She found it difficult to escape, stuck in a barrier within sleepless rest. At some point, though, she found herself sitting straight up, sweating and breathing heavily.

Looking around the office, she saw that the lights were out and it was dark. She could just barely see the area around her, and Xiaojun's frame lying on his back across from her. It wasn't real... None of it was real. She tried to calm herself down, breath hitching as she pushed the dreams from her mind.

"You can't sleep either?" He whispered from across, surprising her a bit.

"Yeah. Maybe we should just leave."

"No, it's night time now. There's no point. Kun is handling the situation, we should just try and rest while we still can."

"Oh..." She thought for a moment, before offering, "Well, I don't wanna bother you, I can just go back to my room and-"

"No!" He shouted quickly, half sitting up as well. Even in the dim light, she could see that his eyes were wider than usual, face slightly distraught. Was he worried about her escaping, or... was it something else? "I, uh..." He cleared his throat, lying back down and facing the wall. "I don't like sleeping in the dark by myself." Oh. She hadn't been expecting that.

"I, uh- Sorry I asked, I didn't mean-" She coughed awkwardly. "I'll stay here, it's fine." There was a long awkward silence as she sat. Now that she was willing to go back to sleep, she was scared to reenter the nightmares. Lucas's body was still haunting her, and it was all the more real as it sat in the next room over. She wasn't sure if he had noticed the tension, or was experiencing himself, but he asked,

"Do you wanna come sleep over here?"

"...Yeah."