Young Wings (SKZ OT8)

|I Want To Live My Age, Naturally|

Minho kept on humming under his breath for a bit as he gently rocked the boy's body, aware that he was completely under, but the opportunity too good to pass up. After a few more seconds, he looked away from the blood-soaked boy to glance at his three boyfriends with a smug grin.

"He's gonna be Sungie's new playmate."

"And you couldn't ask beforehand?" huffed Changbin, crossing his arms over his chest.

"No need. I know you guys like him too," snorted Minho, carelessly tossing the now empty needle aside so he could properly cradle the boy's body. With a smooth move, he rose back to his feet without even a stumble. "Wow, he's even lighter than Sungie – we'll probably need to work out a special diet to get him used to eating full meals again."

"He's cute," mused Hyunjin, sauntering over to the pair to peer more closely at the unconscious boy. "But so much for not picking a broken one, uh?"

"There's a distinct difference between recruiting someone and taking them in," shrugged Minho, unbothered. "It's not like we're ever gonna have him on the frontlines, hm? Sweet baby deserves some peace and quiet, now."

"You're the one taking the blame if Sungie's upset by the new addition," warned simply Chan, picking up the discarded needle and carefully tucking it away in his jacket.

"He won't be," assured Minho, growing a little more serious. "He's tired of being left alone whenever we have to go on a mission – we're lucky this one happened past his bedtime, else he'd have thrown a tantrum."

"Mmm. It's true that he's been a little lonely lately," hummed Hyunjin, cringing a bit as he tried to push away some of the strands that were sticking to the boy's forehead, only to fail because of all of the blood drying on them. "We've got a messy baby on our hands, huh? I'm giving him a bath when we get home."

"Well, it shouldn't be too hard to break that one, at least," sighed Changbin, giving in. "If he's given up on living so easily, it ought to make it easier to create his headspace."

At that, a small smirk tugged at Chan's lips. "It won't. He wasn't giving up – he simply picked freedom over chains. The moment he wakes up and realizes he's no longer in a 'kill or be killed' environment, he's going to put up an even bigger fight than Jisung did."

"Who's gonna put up a fight?"

All four men turned around to see their youngest boyfriends now casually walking up to them, Jeongin once again typing away on his phone – probably giving instructions to the cleaning crew, since they were done making a mess.

"Found anyone interesting?" asked Changbin, curious.

"All of the cells were empty. We figured Park used the event to clean out the place so he could get some fresh meat behind the bars," shrugged Seungmin.

"I figured as much, but I preferred we be thorough," nodded Chan, unsurprised.

"Are we keeping that one?" asked Jeongin, finally looking up at his phone to look at the bloodied and battered boy Minho was holding.

"Yup," grinned Minho, obviously satisfied with his pick.

Jeongin simply nodded with a small smile. "Sungie will be happy. He kept on complaining about how he wanted a friend his age to play with."

"Speaking of which, we should probably get going before the pills start wearing off," remarked Seungmin, checking the time on his phone. "Remember the last time he woke up alone in the house?"

They all grimaced at the rather unpleasant memory. It had been a rough night with everyone, to the point where they completely forgot about Jisung – and when they had finally returned home, it was only to find him unconscious in the kitchen with his eyes puffed out and his face swollen from too much crying, and broken glass scattered all over the floor around him.