Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Tigers are solitary hunters. It is not unusual for a tiger to take down prey like buffaloes that are often larger, heavier or stronger even in some sense. They dig their claws in, choke the poor beast with their teeth ripping through soft, vulnerable flesh. Despite their horns, despite their bulk, a hunt often ends with the buffalo's eyes, wide and watery, life's glow being put out by the fangs in its throat.

But the nature of the hunt is that of a gamble. Not every hunt is successful, not every gamble is profitable. Horangi knew this of course. His 'hunt', his gambles, marred his skin in scars that pre-dated his stint with KorTac. Nonetheless, the desire to 'hunt' never really left him.

In the wild, a tiger's success often depends on premediated conditions. The forest cover, the direction of wind, the lack of alarm calls and so on meant a tiger could be dealt a hand of stealth. Stealth is the bullet that could pierce into the thick hide of any unsuspecting prey.

Horangi did not like being dealt advantages. He liked creating his own advantage. Bluffs. Pokerfaced. His own skill used to latch onto his golden prey, teeth tearing into the sensation of the gambler's high.

When his gaze fell on that tall, imposing man with footfall as silent as a deer's, he knew he had already pushed forward his chips, betting on his success.

So the hunt begins.

When Horangi had joined KorTac, König was already a Lieutenant. It was insubordination, morally questionable and inappropriate to have such a predatory gaze for someone unaware of it, more so when directed towards a superior.

But it was thrilling, having odds stacked against his favour. High risk, high reward. All or nothing.

Their first real 'conversation' came when the Lietenant was put in-charge of hand-to-hand combat demonstrations for rookies. His eyes remained glued to him, his footwork and how he used his height and weight to his advantage. By the time Horangi was called into the ring, he had realised König was fast, fleet-footed like a deer. No wonder most of the rookies, albeit experienced due to their respective backgrounds, could not match him blow for blow. He did not speak much for a demonstration either, just little adjustments in stance here and there. Horangi could dance with that.

In the ring, he could see König's doe-like eyes, shaded by the hood he wore, hard to read where he was looking. His stance was loose, seemingly unburdened, flexible. "Horangi, yeah? Your file said you know taekwondo?" He nodded. "Use it" He nodded again. Horangi realised he was waiting for the first move, an honour someone like him wouldn't take for granted.

Taekwondo relies more on the assailant's legs, their stability and the ability to break another's balancing act. But against a taller opponent he needed to get closer which would put him in risk of getting his face punched in. He let the roulette wheel spin, the ball running across its numbers.

He side-stepped, bouncing on his feet as he switched to his left leg, moving it backwards in preparation to kick, and attempted to nail König on his abdomen. As expected, the taller man dodged by moving to the right. Jackpot! It was the move Horangi had bet on predicting. His right shin crashed against the back of König's knees, the stumble should have brought the big guy down but it seemed he was a step ahead. König instead grabbed Horangi down with him, grabbing onto his leg as his knees bent forward. He pulled and Horangi was suddenly looking at the sky, trying to roll away as he got tackled by the larger man. A card fell out of his deck. An advantage lost.

Elbow to Horangi's neck, knee to König's stomach and jab into his ribs and even a misplaced punch to the gut. In a mess of limbs, every contact left a bruise somewhere or the other until König put Horangi in a headlock he couldn't wriggle out of. An unsuccessful gamble, one might say.

König let go, announcing "Stand down".

He had technically lost but Horangi looked way too pleased for someone who was just one more second of chokehold away from an infirmary visit. He shook hands with the Lieutenant, pulling his mask down and gave him a winning smile, almost full of gratitude before pulling his mask up again.

If Horangi had realised one thing that day it would be that if König was a sort of deer he would be a fucking Moose.

Afterwards, when the battered rookies were leaving for the Mess Hall, König followed them. This was his chance. He was about to spin the wheel again but it seemed like his luck shimmered golden anyways, he didn't need to make the first move.

"You fight good" König pretty much called out to Horangi at that moment. It did not take a second for the man to fall behind slightly to have a conversation with their strange lieutenant. "The kick, is that what you mean?"
"I thought you wouldn't kick below the belt."
Horangi almost barked out the laughter that left his lips. "Why is that?"
"Force of habit, martials arts training."

That was a pretty good point. Horangi smirked underneath his mask, "You know a lot? About Taekwondo?"
"No" Horangi looked at König at just the perfect time to catch the tall man's gaze flicker away.

Now that he looked, outside of the eyes of an audience of subordinates, König seemed like he walked with a slight hunch to his shoulders. Footfall silent as always, but with a more subdued body language. His arms didn't swing much as he walked, his steps weren't too fast either as if he was trying not to walk faster than the rest.

It was subtle but it made Horangi smirk.

König must have felt Horangi's stare rake over him because he looked at him again. "You will eat food, yeah?"
Horangi smiled, eyes crinkling. "Yes, you?"
"Yeah. I will"
"Do lieutenants sit separate?"
"No rank-wise division here."

Horangi picked a card out of the hand he was dealt, inviting himself, hoping that an implication was enough.

In the line for food, he stood just ahead of König. Surprisingly the tall man just let himself be followed, when Horangi sat on the chair facing him. They sat on a table slightly out of ways of the main crowd in the hall, before Horangi opened the stage for small talk.
"Where are you from?"
"Austria"
"Korea", he volunteered.

König looked at his plate then eyes drifted back to Horangi. "Go sit with your teammates"
"Why?"
"Creates bonds."
Ofcourse, he shot back, "I want to create bonds with you"
"I eat alone"
Horangi didn't shoot back again like he wanted to, instead taking a moment to look at how König's fingers hovered around the edge of his hood, how he held the spoon in his other hand.

"Fine! But I want to eat with you one of these days" He got up grumbling and went back to the table where he could see the only Nikto and Kreuger.

Chapter Text

Their second 'True Contact' was under less fortunate circumstances.

Horangi liked being in close quarters with König so he was not complaining much, but his ribs sure did hurt like hell. He was on his back with his legs propped up on some sort of a box of supplies, gear taken off to relieve the pressure.

An anti-personnel landmine had gone off quite some distance to his left and should not have made him slip and fall like that but his balance had been precarious just like his luck. He could feel the weight of an incredibly unlucky stack of cards on his ribs as König tended to his wounds. His fall had sent him tumbling down a sloping hillside onto stones and splintered wood. His gear took much of the shearing damage that could have ripped him to shreds but dear old Aunt Blunt Force Trauma was undeterred in causing him misfortune.

"It was a stupid fall. Completely avoidable" König's voice snapped him out of the trance he was in. He tried to swat a fly away casually.

"Just bad luck- Hey!" Horangi all but barked out a complaint and tried to push away König's hand away from the blossoming bruise on his side but, he refused to budge.
"Without the compress it will get worse"
"A little warning next time genius?" Horangi's biting tone could very well mean insubordination, especially to a superior officer like König but the big guy just continued as usual, pressing the cold compress wrapped with a cloth and tying it to his chest to keep it steady. The fly was back again, Horangi swept at the distance it felt like it was hovering from his left ear.

König looked at him with what seemed to be a raised eyebrow, it was hard to tell. "What are you hitting?"
"Fly. It's not going away."
König looked around and beckoned to someone behind Horangi.
In no time a masked medic kneeled to his left and was checking his ear, pouring a few drops of medicine in.

By then Horangi had realised there had been no fly, just damage to his ear. Possibly permanent. Excellent. He could see a game of Russian roulette play out in his mind's eye. His eyebrows furrowed.

König must have noticed his grimace because he sat down to his right, and continued applying ointment to any open wound he saw. He gave Horangi some pills. "This will put you to sleep soon."

He did not say a thing after that but, the concentration in his steely blue eyes was almost comical. His gloves were off when he handled gauze. He sanitised his hand every single time before applying it or medicine on Horangi's skin.

That did not escape his gaze. The light, dancing pressure of his fingertips. Odd, strange for someone who looked like he could total a car if it crashed into him. Horangi couldn't help an inebriated amused exhale that turned into a whine of pain. König looked up to meet his eyes and through his lashes he looked... beautiful. His eyes atleast. His eyes were like a doe's, glassy, shiny, downturned and almost sad. How scandalous..

"Go to sleep Horangi"

And he did.

When he woke up in their main base infirmary, he was in a cot next to König's.

That's strange.

He had looked fine the last time Horangi had seen him tending to his wounds. Now he was there, besides the injured with his mask just barely lifted to his lips so that he could breathe.

"He had concealed an injury till the entire squad was checked out. Naturally, he is in this position because he put himself in it"

Horangi looked to his left, surprised at the lack of buzzing, to look up at the Doctor with her clipboard.

"And you, you are fucking lucky you know that?" She was talking to him. "Ace up your sleeve at all times, this one" Her stern expression cracked into a more easygoing one when she realised he could hear her. "Be a good lad and sit up for me will you?"

As the doc checked his hearing, he had his sights set on his Doe. His Lieutenant. He was not hooked up to any machines so he must just be resting. A corner of gauze bandage peeked from underneath the gap between his shirt and trousers. Ah. Horangi's heart almost dropped despite knowing it was safe. Injury to the stomach had to hurt.

The nurse must have noticed because she intervened in his incessant staring. "Somewhat a superficial wound but he lost a lot of blood. That and putting pressure on his knee after a tear to his ligament because he was doing god knows what." She scoffed. Oh- Callous!. She handed Horangi a report on his condition with a huge bedrest recommendation stamped across it and was that a small cat drawn on it? When she turned he saw König's report with a little octopus drawn on it along with the same bedrest recommendation in large red letters. Not callous at all! Thank you doc!.

Horangi laughed to himself and looked to his right again just to find König facing him, looking at him with barely open eyes. His half-lidded doe eyes. It made Horangi burn with an urge that he dared not name when König was in this state. It must be the medication.

"Wie geht es Ihnen, soldat?" König's voice was slow, drowsy. Horangi could only guess.
"Good enough to talk" Their cots were close, he need only whisper.
"Kopf... Schmerzen"
"You had lots of blood loss"
König nodded very slowly as if trying not to disturb the blood that remained in his body. He pointed to his ears.
"Deiner Ohr?"
"All good"
König seemed to visibly relax, Horangi's inebriated gaze traced the shape of his lips as he exhaled. A sweet curve of petal pale pink with little freckles decorating the cheeks above, he was sure of it. He was fast asleep with Horangi still staring at him.

Bedrest in the infirmary was two more days, then a supposed entire week of being confined to quarters. Not many people had gotten injured on that mission, but the ones that did had it bad. Horangi was up and running in almost no time but for König the recovery period was longer than expected. It seemed to keep getting extended everytime the doctor checked on him.

He wanted to visit König on his own accord but his decision was soon made for him went he was summoned to the infirmary.

"You are to assist Lieutenant König in his recovery for a period of a week. Try to keep him restricted to bedrest and make sure he complies to this mandate"

"Is that all?"

"Thats not 'all', it is really difficult to get him to comply because he is some sort of a crazed workaholic it seems, he keeps disobeying direct orders and walking around at night, refusing the wheelchair and causing more damage to his knee."

Horangi wanted to laugh the way he could see a vein pulse on the doctor's temple despite her composed expression.

"The name's Dr. Sharma by the way, just call for me if he doesn't listen to you I'll whack him into shape."
"Isn't that counterintuitive?"
The glare she gave him made him wish he hadn't spokem so he simply took her pager details and headed to König's quarters.

He knew where König resided. He already knew what areas the man frequented. But his information was outdated. He had not seen König in those places for weeks even before his injury. Deer tend to get spooked when they find an unexpected scent in their territory. He hadn't given it much thought afterwards.

Horangi knocked thrice, followed by his name and purpose of the visit.
"The door's open." What a light voice.

He was greeted by the rather absurd sight of König sitting on the edge of his cot, foot propped up on a chair with a cold compress on his knee. His mask looked like it was hastily put on. A bowl of half-eaten salad lay on the table next to him.

"So... You have been assigned to me for a week?" König read from a paper and then glanced at him.
"Yes"
"What do you intend on doing?"
"My job" Horangi almost smelt the odds stacked against him when he caught the curling acrid smell of disinfectant.
"No need to be curt now."
Was he nervous? Horangi found that mighty ridiculous. Maybe Lady Luck had not completely abandoned him.
"You have been making yourself worse."
"Or so you have heard."
"Or so, I know."
König's eyes looked guilty before hardening back into the stern look he usually wore. "I really ha- I do not see the necessity in being cooped up. I think spending more time in exercise will speed up the recovery process better.

That was when Horangi realised König was definitely on some really strong painkillers. The word count qouta of their conversations had been flipped around.

Horangi thought for a while before wagering on the blind horse. "Want to play ludo?"
"Sure"
Would you look at that? The horse placed.

It was strange. This thing. This amorphous blob of underdefined urges and feelings all mixed into Horangi's gaze that fell on König, swept over him as he stressed about where to move his blue token so that Horangi wouldn't send him back to the House square. Again.

He knew his gaze was lustful, predatory, and with König close enough to notice it, he almost felt ashamed. Almost.

They had decided to play for two houses each seeing how they lacked two more players. It was almost like managing a squad at times. He looked downright gleeful when Horangi decided to move his red token instead of the green one that would have sent back König's blue token.

Horangi wanted to see that gleeful glint im his eye again so this time, just this once, he let König win. He was sure König had realised it too because he did not gloat. In fact, he sounded rather sheepish when he talked. "Thank you, soldier. You don't need to be doing all this."

Horangi dragged his mask down to let König see his smile. "I find it enjoyable." Maybe he was imagining it but König's eyes had widened slightly before schooling his expression. Hong-jin knew he was good looking, he knew that he adhered to the constraints of traditional masculinity down to the very structure of his thoughts but with König, he simply did not have the insolence to assume he appealed to the other man in any way. He was sure that König was simply looking at the strangely arranged scars he had managed to accumulate.

So he ignored the way König's eyes lingered on his before looking down to the game board. "Can we have another round after I replace my cold compress?"
"Let me do that for you"
"What?"
"Replace your cold compress, or atleast get the other one for you so you don't need to get up"
"I am fine Horan-"
"Hong-jin. Call me Hong-jin." He bit his tongue in two but König did not look too irritated at being interrupted.
"Okay Hong-jin I am not helpless"
"I am tasked with making sure you don't put pressure on your knee, the compress is in the fridge down the hall right? I'll get it and put this one in"

Before he could protest, Horangi was already kneeling by his bad knee and taking off the now watery compress. The moment he peeled apart the Velcro straps holding it in place, he knew something was not right. König's pale skin had reddened unusually on his knee and just below it where the compress was in contact with his skin.

He gave the big guy a rather accusatory look only to be met with an incredulous expression. "It's just a cold burn"
Horangi shook his head while taking the compress off and left to get the next cold compress wordlessly.

When he came back without anything König was expecting, seeing that he had a towel and what looked like a bowl full of slightly steaming water.

He kneeled down at the same spot near his knee. "You are supposed to warm the area with mildly warm water to make sure your skin doesn't blister" When he fixed König with an accusatory glare it only made the Lieutenant more irritated, who almost yelled. "I am Austrian, I know."
"You obviously did not know enough to prevent it in the first place." Horangi bit back. He wasn't going to go easy on the big lug just because of a little crush.

When König threatened to get up and walk out, he held up his pager. "I will call Dr. Sharma. You will deal with her all alone and it will be good if you to remember that she has authority to dismiss soldiers from duty and send them home. It's already a small miracle you haven't been."

König tried to sit down equally as threateningly as he got up and failed. Horangi could not see his expression past his clouded gaze but when König propped up his leg on the chair again, he did not have a thing to say. Just soaked the towel in warm water and let it lay on his reddened skin.

Around twenty minutes of doing that seemed to be enough to get the redness reduced to some level.

When he next looked up at König he looked antsy at best.

"Let's put a cold compress on that a bit later okay? And next time we are putting a towel between your skin and the compress."

König just nodded. He turned to Horangi but then turned away again before bringing back that light voice he used to answer his door. "Ludo?"
Horangi couldn't help but smile.

That match, Horangi did not go easy and sent him back to House square atleast 4 different times before winning by a wide margin. "Is this revenge, soldier?"
Horangi had dropped his mask by then so he just flashed his teeth at him. "You could say that."

Despite his words he diligently put the cold compress on König's knee, this time with a towel to protect his skin.

For a while they simply sat in silence around the board game. It was just a tad awkward but it was not difficult to simply be lost. Horangi did a mental coinflip and before he even saw the result, his mouth opened. "I appreciate you taking care of us back then. I understand that's what caused your own injuries to go unnoticed."
"Don't accuse yourself, it was a choice."
A beat of silence later, the masked man continued. "Consider it even."
Horangi grinned, the scar at the corner of his mouth stretching a little.

"I heard you keep roaming about at night."
"No"
"Dr. Sharma told me"
"Yes"
Well that was quick. "I like the quiet but I don't want to get penalised for being outside at odd hours, I'm still new here. Is it  the same for you?"
"Your english is good."
"Huh..." Without the mask on his face, Horangi didn't think to school his defensive expression.
"I do not mean it like that, I struggle sometimes."
He thought back to the infirmary when he had to guess what König was saying. "I started learning because of American movies, long back."
König's gaze drifted to Horangi's hands, it wasn't hard to follow his gaze to the striped scar hidden below his tattoos. "Is that-" He gestured to Horangi's face and arms. "-how you got your call-sign?"
"You change topics really quickly and no. I got it because I kept telling people to use Tiger Balm for everything."
"Tiger balm?" König's voice pitched upwards with incredulity.
"It's a miracle medicine. I could cure cancer with it."
"I have no doubts about that."
"Are you serious?"
"No I am cracking a joke" Horangi would not have laughed as hard as he did if König had not spoken with such a serious tone.
When he looked at the hooded man again, it seemed like the laughter was the intended effect because his eyes had thinned into crescents, catching the light from the tubelight overhead to shine as bright as they possibly could in the ever-lengthening twilit shadow of the base.

Horangi looked back down at the boardgame, mirth lingering in his expression as he examined their boardgame. "This one is a 2-in-1. The other side has snakes and ladders and I want the green tkokeun."
König raised an eyebrow.
"I meant token."
"I think its der Spielstein for us."
"We usually just slap on a Korean accent onto it and call it a day. Although.. I think we call them mal too?"
König hummed in reply and picked up a yellow token and placed it on the board and waited for Horangi to do the same.

"Hong.. Jin?"
"That's correct."
"Will you go first?"
"Thank you Lieutenant."
"Alexander"
"Huh?"
"Call me König but I had to tell." You. Tell you. He did not say that.
Alexander.
"Understood."
Alexander.
He rolled the dice. It felt heavier than when he was playing Ludo.
Alexander.
Rolled a one. He couldn't move
Alexander.
Alexander rolled the dice. A perfect six.
I can't call him that.
It took some time for Horangi to make it out of the prison of the first tile. His head simply wasn't in the game.

Chapter Text

After bringing him dinner, once König said he was going to sleep, Horangi had returned to the barracks. It wasn't too far from König's quarters, close enough for him to be called with a phone call.

He could taste winter's first breathe in the air; Yellow blossoms scattered in the grass, the smell of cold and the distant hoots of a pair of owls he had become rather used to seeing.

His back was still cold when he closed the door of the barracks behind him and climbed into his bunk.

Tomorrow, he was supposed to aid a nurse from Dr. Sharma's team to redress König's stomach wound. He did not actually know what had caused it. He had maintenance duty in the practice range too but it seemed like such a lacklustre activity, boring compared to what he could be doing.

And what could he be doing? He thought of it again; The exposed sliver of skin, between bandages and cloth. The vulnerable skin tempted his gaze even in his mind's eye. He felt the taste of bile in his throat. The audacity. He is so badly injured yet...

Horangi squeezed his eyes shut, letting himself relish the hot burn of nails to the palm, of a less beautiful distraction. Alexander. The image of his nails, of his fingers unveiling that man. The ones that dug into his palm. The ones that split open his palm. He shied away from the fantasy that stirred a warmth in his cheeks.

Morning came with neither pomp nor glory, dressed in gray. But it did nothing to discourage him from deciding to make life difficult for Roze. She had joined around the same time he had, her intake happened few weeks earlier to his.

She tilted her chin at him as a greeting before smirking. "Getting to see the Lieutenant?"
"Oh yeah all up close and personal."
"Seen his face yet or, is that not on the plate?"
"Not on the plate. You getting on with Stiletto?"
She just sighed. "It can't be that obvious."
"What do you mean?"
"What do you mean?"
"I meant you both are the only girls I saw on base."
At first she looked at him with a strange look and then just laughed. "Oh no there's more they're just slinking around the shadows waiting to catch unsuspecting weirdos"
The pointed stare made it clear he was the weirdo. "Shut it Roze"
"Oh yeah? Dag chyo Horangi"
He pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's the worst possible pronounciation I have ever heard."
"But I guessed right!"
He had to give it to her. She did guess right.
"How did you manage it?"
"Oni's Japanese and his accent's a little different."
He had to give it to her, sharp as a tack.

They would have talked more if not for Stiletto calling over Roze in full gear, assumably for practice. Once she had left he grabbed König's food and essentially barged into his room.

"Soldat." Horangi dismissed the pleasantly high tone of his voice as his Austrian lilt.
"Lieutenant."
He set the plate down in front of him. "You eat this stuff right? Got you extra salad."
"Thank you, the local fall vegetables have been good lately."
Horangi removed his mask and felt König's gaze linger.
"I know, weird scar." He lightly touched the stripes of scar tissue, bumpy and uneven, across his jaw and cheek.
"No that's n-"
"I fell on a thorned shrub."
"Wi- Really?"
"Yeah-" He laughed with an awkward air to him, hand rubbing the back of his neck. "- It was an operation in a an arid area. There was this hill which I had to take cover behind but I misjudged my footing and fell face first into brambles. fell down with the barbs embedded into my face and arms."
König took his time to reply with the least offensive remark, "You lose your balance a lot."
Horangi bit his tongue. "Every day is a gamble."
"You could prepare."
"Misfortune does not warn."
König huffed in a manner that told Horangi he was amused and pulled the plate of food onto his lap to eat. Horangi, with averted eyes out of respect, sat in a chair with his back to him.

He took out the list of instructions Dr. Sharma had sent on his phone. "A nurse will come over at 1100 to clean and dress that stomach wound of yours, just a heads up."
"She sent that message to me too."
"Ah, you know what to expect then?"
A delicious sounding crunch later, "Naja."
"What does that mean?"
"Just so and so."
"Makes sense. She also sent me the list of medication I'm supposed to give you."
"Painkiller after breakfast, cold compress then ointments. I am done with breakfast."

Horangi turned around when he had his hood dropped back down. He spotted König's prescriptions on his table and handed them to him.

König grumbled when he was handed a water bottle. "I feel like I am being babysit."
"Yeah. Doctor mandated babysitting."
König groaned again. "If only Roze was assigned to me."
Horangi decided to be offended and decided to encash another cheque with Lady Luck. "Lieutenant you better not be a creep."
He almost choked on the pill he was about to swallow. "No! Not like that! She is taken Horangi, that is very offensive."
"Oh really? She married?"
"No.. Don't you know?" There was a bemused look in König's eye.
"Wait then Oni?"
"No... Horangi.. Not Oni." He shook his head.
"Then who? No way it's like Stiletto or something?"

König chose that moment to burst into a fit of raccous laughter. His breaths were sharp, eyes squinted with mirth. "You say it like you are genius! As if nobody knew." Horangi threw up his hands in a gesture of incredulity but König kept laughing, palms pressed to his stomach.

He suddenly turned serious, "Soldat, I should report you for low situational awareness." And then kept laughing again until he abruptly stopped.
Horangi spoke, embarassed as he was, "Well? Decided to stop bullying me?"
"Ah.. No.. I think one of my stitches opened."
"Sti- You had STITCHES?" Horangi all but shouted before grabbing his pager and immediately pinging Dr. Sharma on it. He sent her a message to send the nurse before schedule.

"It will be okay Hong-jin." He was obviously trying to placate Horangi.
"The assigned medical visit is still two hours away, I have requested to prepone it."
"Hong-jin... There is very little blood I am su-"
"It is protocol Lieutenant." He was firm. He would not let König neglect his injury. That was final.
"They do not need to send over anyone ahead of schedule I am su-" His tone was still erring on the side of persuasion.
"No-"
"Stop cutting me off." He did not sound happy. Lady Luck had been prodded and pushed too much.

The nurse who showed up opened the door only to catch wind of the tension between them. Not his problem. He turned to König, deciding the guy with the tense face and tiger-mark scars on his face would be harder to deal with than the behemoth of a patient.
"Dr. Sharma said you had an emergency?"
"It is no-" "His injury needs to be re-dressed and we have reason to think his stiches re-opened." He turned to see Horangi who had stepped a little bit closer.

The nurse asked König to take off his shirt and lay flat. That should not have made Horangi bristle the way he did. Without his mask, he was sure it did not go unnoticed. As expected the nurse raised an eyebrow at him but got to work immediately.

He was deft, removing the layers of gauze with angled scissors from his kit. When he got to the last few layers, Horangi saw a splotch of fresh blood, seeped through.

"You were correct-" The nurse said as he removed the last layers to reveal a horizontal cut across König's abdomen. "-One of the four stitches we put is torn. I'll redo it right now." He said which gesturing to his kit.

König's breathing, albeit calm, was shallow. He was sweating. Horangi saw his hands open and close several times as they lay by his side. Horangi had, ofcourse, tried to tear his eyes away from, allowing his gaze to linger only on the soiled gauze that had piled up around him.

"How many days has it been?" Horangi took the chance to look at the nurse, who had spoken.
"It has been fourteen days." König answered.
His face twisted into a pensive look. "It should not have taken so long... You may be at risk for infection if this continues. I'm increasing your antibiotic dosage just in case."
He only nodded in reply.

To Horangi, he seemed awfully subdued when told off like that. Avert your eyes. König's shoulders were hunched forward, bad knee slightly bent as he sat in his cot. His shoulders were freckled. There was an image in his mind, gone as quickly as it came. Avert. Your. Eyes.

Horangi turned away to sit in a chair as the nurse got to work, only getting up once König had his shirt back on. This time he turned to Horangi to talk, "I have applied antibiotic ointment to the wound but since he is at risk for infection, kindly use the pager to contact Dr. Sharma in case he shows signs of fever, drowsiness or chills. Immediately okay? It is of utmost importance. Also here-" He handed Horangi another strip of multicoloured pills. "-These are antibiotics, he will take them after meals twice a day, preferably breakfast and dinner alongside all of his other medication. Copy?"
"Copy. New medication, contact if signs of infection."
"Good." With a nod and a quick greeting, he was gone.

Surprising as it was, König initiated a conversation as soon as the door was closed.
"So you did not know about Stiletto and Roze?"
"What? No! But it does make sense. I asked Roze today, if she and Stilleto were getting along and she asked me if it was so obvious."
König had to suppress his chuckles. "It was so obvious. Stiletto had been eyeing her ever since her introductions."

Something about his tone took Horangi aback. Laid back, as if he hadn't described such an incredible thing. And yet, there was no malice for them. No sharply averted eyes, no hushed whispers. There was a certain rational acceptance in König's tone that made Horangi's stomach knot itself with jealousy. With anger. Anger at the fact that somewhere in the world, this almost off-handed allowance of happiness existed.

"Something on your mind?" Hearing König say that, Horangi just dismissed it with a wave. However König pressed further, "Do you not approve of them?"
"No! No it's not that just... is it safe for them?"
"Ah..-" König's eyes, albeit shadowed, took on a visibly softer quality. "-I would say here.. yes. KorTac only concerns itself with the soldiers as assets so long as qoutas are met. We are not governed formally therefore some unspoken rules do not apply here."
"But they will never be able to show off right? Like couples usually do."
König's eyes thinned with mirth. "You will find it strange what KorTac tolerates and does not tolerate."

Horangi felt that König had more to say but was barely holding it back. So he let the silence stretch, leaning towards König to allow him to fill the emptiness. König did speak up. "I myself, am not.. the usual. I have courted men and women in the past." He ended with a chuckle as Horangi's mouth hung open.

"It never struck me.." Horangi mumbled.
"Well I am also not being courted currently, so it was not as obvious as Roze and Stiletto."
In the moments between König's words and his rushed reply, Horangi saw a million different shades of glee, anxiety and, most of all, jealousy streak past his eyes.
"It's surprising." Horangi managed to choke out. IDIOT.
The light in König's eyes dimmed slightly. "Oh.-" He peered at Horangi's expression, tinged with what appeared to be discomfort. "-If you have any concerns, I'll try my best to listen to them."

He knew why König said that. Horangi could feel his patron Lady Luck grab him by the collar and yell at him. Luck can only get you so far.

He tried playing it cool, tried schooling his expressions, regretting removing his mask entirely. "Oh I don't mean it like that, I seriously have no issues. It is fine I really don't mind." He knew it would take more to convince König but, he did not wish to do what he should. Tell him that thing to put him at ease. This was not money he could set on the line, neither property nor his own life. It would haunt him beyond his deathbed. It would follow everywhere he went. He knew the anxiety showed up in the way his eyebrows tensed with defensiveness, his mouth twitched eager to disprove the one truth about him if König made the misfortune of guessing.

But he told you so easily. That was his misjudgement.

König held his gaze for a bit before asking. "If you are uncomfortable I could request a reassignment?"
He shook his head. "Man, I swear. It's a non-issue. You have any idea who else is.. you know?"
It was not quite visible but Horangi imagined König gave him a suspicious raised eyebrow. "You will know in due time. But right now, go have lunch." He jabbed his thumb at the clock.

Eager as he was, for a change in topic, Horangi practically dashed out after a few words of acknowledgement.

Seated on the plastic table, blanketed by the white noise of wind outside, he had too much time. The space between each spoon of food and the next stretched into a million different spiralling, branching thoughts with each leaf growing on them tinged with a different emotion. He thought of KorTac. He thought of Korea. He thought of Home. He thought of Work. He thought of it All.

He breathed out, stiff and rattling. The patronage of his shimmering fortune had dropped this Pandora's box into his lap. That is what it was after all. He knew he could not help but take the risk, no matter how much he feared his own recklessly confident swagger. He was Pandora, in that moment. She who was driven by curiosity and he who would be driven by that sick, twisting, impossible world serpent that threatened to take his heart, and his head.

He took another stab at his lunch, swallowing more than chewing and getting up. Pandora's fate had been determined at her creation, not his. He could take a walk and clear his head. He could clear his head of the images. The images of hope he dared not feel. But he felt for him, all the same.

Chapter Text

Later that day Horangi was called on for some last minute duties and had to essentially leave König early after some reassurances were made that he would be appropriately tended to.

The firing range had called him in to check for zeroing errors on their guns and it took up all his time because the last group to have used the firing range had damaged some units and had to be called in for investigation.

On the way back to the barracks, he saw the pair of owls again. He watched, and listened keenly, to keep track of how they moved in the nearby woods. A distant hoot would be followed by a closer one, the sound of wings flapping barely audible. He watched for a while, feet glued in place, as the distance between their calls decreased. He decided to take a detour and roam close to the woods behind the barracks. It was worth it because when the distant bird joined its partner, they plucked at each other's feathers and beak in what almost looked like a kiss. He drank in the sight of the two large creatures, roosting peacefully in the hollow of a tree, claws tucked back into their downy feathers. He wished he could see well enough to be able to identify which owl species they belonged to but alas, he lacked their nocturnal eyes.

In his bed his mind drifted to the owls and to König. He could not, for the sake of his own sanity, accept what König had told him. It was as if from within Pandora's box came the cry 'I have what you desire!'. But opening the box did not guarantee that he would find his wish buried deep within. No guarantee that even after digging through with misery, he would not find what he wished for. He wished he was one of the owls, blessed with a home of his own making, blessed with true freedom. He wondered if birds felt the same way he did sometimes. A frivolous thought! Ofcourse they did, he knew about gay penguins.

He sighed and turned over to his side, eager to just fall asleep.

When dawn broke he decided to just get out of bed, there was no point in remaining where he was, restless and impatient.

By 0600 he was out by the field tracks, hell bent on not falling behind in cardio training. He was only halfway through a kilometer when he heard a familiar voice with a thick Italian accent.

"Hey!" She smacked him on the head. "Idiota! Don't you hear?"
Horangi rubbed the sore spot, "A way to greet a subordinate Stiletto."
"Can you not terrorise him?" Roze was there too, what a dream. If Horangi knew he would get tormented today, he would not have jumped out of bed so quickly.

The ladies laughed as the three jogged together. He would have liked to think they were catching up with him but he knew he was probably slowing them down.

"You both are cardio training?"
Roze shook her head. "Not really, we only train in full gear."
Horangi shook his head. "Why would you do that to yourself?"
Stiletto smacked him again. "To be better than everyone else, what other reason do I need?"

Horangi's breathing became laboured just imagining the twenty odd kilograms of gear and then running on top of that. "You are monsters"
Stiletto grinned, warping the scar on her face. "You guessed it, kiddo"

He just shook his head in exasperation and continued, trying to keep pace with them but fell a few steps behind as his endurance was challenged. Roze looked calm, impassive as ever. She unnerved him sometimes but it was not as bad as the effect of the older woman had on others, no doubt a consequence of her experience. Even from the distance he remained from them, he could see the almost odd sheen over Stiletto's eyes. He had not known her for long but her face had an inherent quality that plastered itself over every expression she made, the quality of some deep anger as was customary for someone who had spent the best years of their life essentially in the trench of this occupation. The line of the scar that split her face was not nearly as foreboding as the minacious glaze that clouded her eyes, what incredible anger.

And yet in that sheen, the shine that was almost a shimmer, it danced in her eye as she exchanged a sarcastic grin with Roze. Their back-and-forth was nearly worldless. He wondered how they had established that rapport over such a short period of time. He took a guess first, a really obvious one, to himself, a secret wager. "How do you-" He was going to call them 'idiots', accustomed to the dry sarcastic banter Roze afforded him but decided against it for his own wellbeing. "-even know each other?"

This time Roze smacked him. One more strike and Horangi was going to claim they gave him a concussion. Before he could bring up a damages lawsuit Stiletto decided she would say it, "Well can you not see? You are not even wearing those idiot glasses today...." She turned her face to look at Roze who was keeping pace with her. "Does he not see, amore?"
Roze smacked her own head. "No he does not see, he did not see yesterday either when I nearly spelled it out for him."

It was a wonder to him how their voices were so stable as he knew if he kept trying to keep up with them he would not get a word out, yet masculine ego prevented him from calling a timeout. "No! I get- I get it I understood"
Roze rolled her eyes from him to her partner. "The Lieutenant must have told him, that one has exceptional eyes and ears."
The mention of his Lieutenant made Horangi's attention spike to the level of paranoia. "What do you mean?"
Stiletto laughed. "Oh he is so young. He is a child."
Horangi almost yelled over Roze laughing. "What do you mean now?"
The older woman sighed and shook her head, making a gesture with her hand in front of her face as if throwing an invisible packet of rubbish. "A big nothing. I know how it is at your age."
Roze nudged Stiletto with her shoulder as the woman laughed at her own humour, the gesture was subtle but he saw Roze gesture with her chin, an almost imperceptible motion towards him followed by her eyes motioning to the opposite direction. The rest of the silent communication seemed so encoded with their own unique language, Horangi dared not intrude but made sure to catch up and run besides them instead of behind as they approached the end of the third kilometer on the track.

He knew Roze had something to do with it when Stiletto volunteered information. "Your Lieutenant-" She drawled almost reluctantly. "-He was very small when he joi-"
"-Like short?"
"-Dont interrupt or I will never tell you about your precious Lieutenant."
Roze chortled at Horangi's wrinkled eyebrows and scrunched eyes, discomfort and disdain barely concealed. Stiletto let out a satisfied huff and quickened her pace, pulling ahead of Horangi and forcing him to keep up.
"He was young is what I meant. Not inexperienced but it is scary, to be that young, to see a child like that. He could not have been more than a couple and twenty, quiet and so timid." She moistened her lips, pensive as if weighed down. He knew anyone would be, if the rumours were correct König was no more different than he. Barely a man, put in men's shoes, put away with a gun in his hand.
"I was Lieutenant then, I was the age he is around now almost ten years ago- Why do you look like that?" Horangi wiped the expression off his face, he decided a little bit of fun would not hurt her despite the realisation of seniority. "I am sorry for insubordination ma'am"
He would have been flambéed for behaviour like that at home but here it earned him an approving smile, with none of her deep anger. It felt like an achievement, one that Roze approved of with a thumbs-up.

"The hierarchy has changed, ranks hold less meaning for KorTac now than they did those days. Right so, I was worried about the boy. Not in the sense of him being gone-" She glanced upwards into heavens "-but more that, they would eat him alive if he was not careful. But one thing happened and another and I realised he saw everything. He is quiet because he watches, his voice is quiet his footsteps quiet but he knows wherever there is noise. That is how he knows of me and my sweeter half." He did not miss her glance at Roze. He did not miss how the wrinkles around their eyes, the sunbaked and the scorched skin, it all seemed too similar, they were matching in sorrow.
"He is like a deer" He mumbled.
Horangi had not known then but he did later what the look Stiletto gave him was. It was as if she had glanced on a younger, stranger version of herself, perhaps writhing with the same struggle. "Yes. Like deer."

Horangi kept his head up, realising the fourth kilometer was almost to an end. He felt Roze's more polite but sharp tap on his shoulder. "What did you learn hmm?"
"You have a thing for older ladie-"
She smacked him, many such instances today. It was Stiletto's turn to burst into a fit of raucous unapologetic laughter. "You would be right, rookie. But there is something else too." He did not like how sly, how knowing, her eyes were. Roze lacked that probing quality but Stiletto burrowed deep like the knives she used. He only nodded and ducked his head in goodbye, knowing he would not be able to run more once conversation died down.

He went through the motions until it was the beginning of the third day in perhaps the most challenging assignment of his life. The walk to his quarters with a plate of food was weighed with Stiletto's words. He had the vacuum of fear open up in his gut from time to time, asking him, begging him, twisting within him to bare his teeth and be a man about it. A gambler like him, wishing to be sure, was a laughable joke. He could find a few reasons she chose that particular story of König's. She must have read his file, in the military since he had just ceased being a child. Then there was the conversation of gestures which had, almost intimidatingly so, softened Stiletto. He could only fear, his secret was theirs too. But he did not fear their knowledge no matter how much he wished he did. Something about the smile devoid of anger and something about the amount of times he was smacked made them seem almost, Horangi was afraid to even admit it, safe.

"Come in"
König was there, where he usually was but this time he was laying down completely flat, almost like a corpse. Previously Horangi had no idea how he fit in the standard issue beds but when he saw the short bedside shelf the big man propped his feet on, he could not help but chuckle.
"Laughing at my problems rookie?"
"Yes sir"
König rolled his eyes beneath the mask and did little else other than complain. "I would much rather have you assigned to me than some nurse I don't know."
He closed his eyes and flipped a coin. "Why Lieutenant, getting all close and personal now are we?"
What was most unexpected, and rewarding, was the spluttering, confused "Häh?" König managed to breathe out. "Oh.. I supposed we were acquaintances. So, I had got used to you. Besides, you had mentioned once right? That you would like to be.. friends?" He was still laying down, looking away at the ceiling fan.

Horangi did not understand where the stubborn, hardheaded König managed to gain access to such words. Those words after being at loggerheads every time Horangi had to truly do his duty, they felt almost confessional.

"That was months ago König." Horangi's voice was tinged with doubt as he set the plate down on the bed besides König, who extended a hand towards Horangi. He did not understand at first, what König wanted, until he clenched and unclenched his hand till Horangi took it and helped him up.

When he saw the big guy's eyes squeezed tight with pain, he moved closer to support his back, which in hindsight he should have done sooner. His palm was flat on König's broad back, in an endeavour to be as warm and as steady as he could be, an inner apology for the way he looked at the man's thighs as he swung his legs to sit on the edge of the bed.

König sighed in relief when he was upright
"I remember you pouting about it. I also wanted to apologise." Horangi would have choked if he was drinking water.
"I know, you haven't had the easiest time assigned to me, mostly because of me" He sighed and raised his hood without waiting for Horangi to turn and when he did, König just chuckled. "It's alright now.. You have seen me in worse conditions."

So that is what it was. It was simply so, that Horangi had seen König in situations he would not have liked to be seen in. He would not have liked to be so exposed yet he was, so he had accepted Horangi in a strange almost obligatory way. With that realisation, he turned to look at König shoving food into his mouth with his mask raised above his nose.

Horangi almost punched the air, relishing the satisfaction of winning a bet: He did have freckles. He wished he could pass a crisp note into his own hand at the little victory. König's nose was peppered with them and the little visible of his face seemed dotted with them too. He had bits of stubble shadowing his chin and the sides of his face. Horangi only noticed the lips when König was looking up at him, asking him to sit in the chair in front of him. His lips twisted and contorted into these beautiful shapes as he spoke, a little bit of food stuck to them that the man promptly wiped off. They distracted him pulling his attention away from the words he was speaking so thoroughly that Horangi blinked a few times before realising he was being asked to sit down. "You dont need to apologise, it doesn't matter. I was doing my job and you are in pain obviously you were annoyed."
König 's eyes squeezed in an expression he had not really seen from him in full effect, a smile almost exclusive to the eyes barring the little curve in his lips. "Dr. Sharma was here yesterday after you were gone and increased the painkiller dose"
"That's why you are acting so happy?"
"I am not acting, I am happy." He said rather gravely. "That is why I wanted to apologise to you, if you hadn't called in that nurse the day before the irritability would not have gotten reported... Safe to say I was reprimanded for acting like a child." He hung his head, looking too sad for someone usually so impassive.

A chuckle escaped Horangi and made König look up to see the man removing his sunglasses (finally) and his mask. Horangi realised then that he had never truly thought about how expressive König would be with even a little more of his face uncovered. He had not imagined the slight widening of König's eyes was accompanied by the little part in his lips as their gaze met and the moment was over, and König looked down to his plate again, chewing conspicuously. Horangi shook his head, "Are you feeling delirious because of the medication?"
"No, not really. Just sluggish."
"Anything else? Any excess pain? Fever symptoms?"
"Yeah I felt like that after taking a bath- No not like that! I am fine but after taking a bath I felt a little like my body was burning but some time after, it was okay."
Horangi seemed concerned for a while. "How long ago was this?"
"Today morning"
"Did you use hot water?"
"Naturlich, very hot."
Horangi raised a telling eyebrow and König backtracked a little. "I see, thats it then." And Horangi laughed. König just looked happy he would not be poked and prodded more.

Horangi slapped himself on the forehead, making König whip his head up to see what was wrong. "Shit- I didn't want to bring this up but aren't you at risk of injury while taking a bath?"
"Oh? Oh. I think so yes, but I make sure to just sit down on a stool I have in the bathroom."
"I guess that's fine? I don't understand, it is really strange I received no instructions regarding helping you with anything like that."
König shook his head, nose and cheeks reddening with embarrassment. "Grown ass man needing help going to the bathroom, I don't think you'd enjoy that."
Horangi waved his hands about in an exasperated gesture. "It's not about that! You could make your knee worse if you slipped and the wound, if the bandages stay wet-"
"That is alright, don't worry, I am fine. I can put weight on my leg but I'm recommended not to so that it heals correctly. Also, since yesterday the wound hadn't bled and it has scabbed over. I took the bandages off- Don't look so concerned! I have basic medical training."
Horangi pinched the bridge of his nose to ward off the wave of worry steering his tongue, "Okay so your wound is dry?"
"Ja."
"Your bandages are dry?"
"Ja."
"Fever, pain, chills?"
"No."
Horangi wished he didn't relent so easily. "Fine.. It should be fine but it does not feel right."
"Letting me bathe by myself?"
The sudden flood of warmth into his face made the man resolute in the idea that his patron Lady Luck had taken a well deserved vacation and left him to his fate, bereft of his fortune. He was sure his embarrassment would only grow if König's attention was not diverted so he decided, what better way to to distract than to aggravate him.
He made his voice low, accusatory. "Oh you would like that wouldn't you?" He had tried his best to shift the blame, to divert König away from himself, from seeing him, from hearing the telltale fluctuations in his voice. Is this what Stiletto meant? Did she mean König saw right through him?

But König's smile wasn't defensive. His smile. Oh his smile. He did not seem aggravated at all. If only Horangi could see how his face looked truly, he would have seen the sadness in the tilt of his eyebrows. "You make it sound like a bad thing." He chuckled. Chuckled? Of all things. Horangi knew he had pushed too far, trapped in a game of chess rather than the solitaire he was so skilled in. He had pushed the wrong pawn forward.
"I did not mean it like that."
"I know what you meant." König sighed.
"No I swear, I did not." He hated it. He hated it. He hated talking about it. But the strange resigned pursing of König's lips, albeit for a second, made him wish he had never opened his mouth. "I-"
König waved his and about, dismissive. No. "No need to explain yourself."
There was no escape this time, he had to justify his defensiveness. "I am the same."
König looked up, confused. "What?"
"I am, you know, the thing you are."
This time, König was not controlling his expression. From everything visible of his face, a slight prickle of anger sparked. "Thing?"
Horangi hung his head. "I like men." He did not wish to see König's expression. He did want to see his disgust. He knew the moment he confessed those feelings, all his actions would be painted in a light tinged with perversion. He cared about König. He cared but it would all be unseen beneath how perverted his gaze had been. He- There was a hand on his shoulder. Horangi looked up from the palms he had brought to his face out of shame.

It was König's hand on his shoulder. Horangi looked to his eyes first with morbid eagerness to be proven right but he was almost disappointed by the quiet softness around König's eyes. His mouth wasn't pressed shut, as if encountering an offensive smell. His hand was not digging into his shoulder. For a while, he just looked.

"I understand, Hong-jin."
Still he remained quiet, so König continued. "I got you all wrong. I thought I had figured you out but I could not have been more wrong-" He laughed, as if relieved. "-I thought you were disgusted because you are homophobic."

Horangi made an incredulous expression, ridiculing even the thought, albeit he knew how close he got to being that very thing. "No?"
"I must have pressurised you into.. sharing that."
"Not really, I did not want you to hate me or think I was disgusted by you. I did think you already knew though."
König raised an eyebrow, "Not really. And when I told you that I don't really have a preference, you seemed to be shocked. And then you said you did not expect it so naturally-" He sighed, longer and heavier than anything Horangi had heard from him. "-I have come to expect that reaction from disgust you know? Not recognition or surprise or whatever you had really felt."

Horangi looked at the hand on his shoulder right then, looked at how König was leaning forward just to keep that comforting warm palm on him. He shifted forward with the chair and König relaxed. "I... was surprised, genuinely. I had not thought about telling anyone till now and-"
"Nobody else knows?" König interjected, albeit politely.
"No.. Though I think Stiletto and Roze have gotten some idea. I don't know how." His tone twisted into irritated by the end of his sentence. "I haven't given anyone the slightest idea. How can they tell? I was so careful."
König looked at him with what looked like recognition then looked to the door, checking if it was locked but ti make sure he asked, "Hong-jin, you locked the door right?"
"Yeah"

Horangi watched as König grabbed the end of his hood, lifting it up rather quickly and removing it in its entirety. His eyes followed the fabric till it rested on the bed before his eyes even dared to accept this gift. This blessing. But he did, the Pandora's box was open now, he would take whatever misfortune and whatever blessing came his way.

The first thing he noticed was the hair, too long to be allowed and he could not help but comment. "Doesn't the hair bother you?"
"No, used to it. I keep it in a bun usually."
It was open now, shoulder length in auburn waves. He was sure his face looked pained, pained at just how beautiful it looked. He could barely dare to think, to perceive König's face but the eyes and the mind working in tandem did what they do best, breathe it in, drink it in. He saw what he never thought he could see. The bags underneath his eye, the grove a long scar drew across his eyebrow, his crooked nose, his almost round, oval face and most unexpectedly, his full cheeks. He seemed awfully young.

"You can say something you know? It is rude to stare. Are the scars really too bad?"
Horangi swallowed the dryness of his throat and stamped it down and blurted out elegently, "Mwo? What scar- Oh!" König swept the hair off the side of his face to reveal the twisting, melted, stretched skin. A chemical burn. It had taken most of his ear, which barely had the shape of one, and some from the side of his neck. That coupled with the long scar splitting König's face from forehead to chin, all in all, Horangi just shrugged. "Pretty tame."
"Was!?"
"We are in the military, man." He rolled his eyes. "You cover your face because of that?"
Horangi could see it in his expression that he wanted to get angry but thought against it. "Partly..."
"Doesn't make sense. You are-" He made a quick prayer to whatever god was listening, fortune would not save him. "-beautiful."
König all but pouted, "Well you are too, but you wear a mask and glasses."
"That is different!"
"No it is not!" König huffed.
"Yes! It- Wait a second what did you just say?"
"That it is not different, you are hiding the scars too yes?"
"No what did you say before and also no, it is not for the scars its for hiding my identity and the mask has lining so it is a buffer for air contaminants." Horangi crossed his arms proudly. "What did you mean by 'you are too'?"
König rolled his eyes and Horangi noticed how one of his eyebrows did not move too much. "I meant you are quite good looking- But that is not the point! My mask is to break my silhouette and make me look scary too you know!"
Horangi's mouth hung open but he would rather not address it and just glanced at König's mask. "That's a T-Shirt."
"Shut up."
"Knew it."
Horangi almost cackled at how expressive König looked, his inner eyebrows were tilted up and lower lip almost jutted out in a massive pout. "If it helps, you do look intimidating." He tried comforting König for a change, even throwing in a smile for good measure. "Why did you show me?"
König returned the smile, his scar turning wavy and curved over his cheek. "I'm making us equal. You told me what you had never told anyone before. I did not want to wait for a mission. I wanted to show you myself. What do you think?"

Horangi had not felt this in a while. The space between his ribs, overflowing with the urge to pour out his insides, trusting the gentleness of König's gesture. He struggled, to know König, to understand König but he knew what to say. He knew it wouldn't be a gamble, he would not call it that, would not cheapen the weight of the four words. "I see you Alexander."

He doubted he had ever seen anyone's ears perk up like that, more like an excited deer than anything else complete with his nose twitching in something Horangi placed between anticipation and excitement. "Dankeschön." He patted the space next to him, for Horangi to sit. And he did.

"So how did you know?"
"That I'm unbiased? Oh I just knew, since I was a child. I did not think much of it then I saw this boy being bullied at my school, they kept calling him horrible things and then when I went to comfort the boy since I had been bullied by that group too, he told me. And at that moment I realised, I had way too many things off with me." König laughed, the painful memory all but stripped clean of its charged quality. He gestured to Horangi in a silent 'What about you?'.

"Me? Oh I have not really figured out if I like only men or if I am just unbiased, as you said. But... I don't think I thought of it too much either. All I saw around me was how unfavourable it is. How much trouble I would get in. I don't know if you've read my file but I was quite the delinquent-" He laughed, dry and sad. "-I ended up in debt because I gambled away my money before I even got out of school. Can you imagine? Being that stupid. All to prove you weren't a- a... Well, you know." He grimaced, wishing he could have thrown that bastard of a child off a building. One student more in an ever-growing list beyond the grave.

König put a hand on his shoulder again, and he took it, let it rest as it brought him down from the height of anger. "Hey, we all make mistakes. I wanted to be a scientist you know? I could have gone to university but I was scared shitless of people so I joined the fucking military. The military! Of all places!"
Horangi barked out a laugh, "Seriously? This is the worst place for someone scared shitless of people."
"Isn't it? But it's here somehow that I got counselling. You know I have really bad anxiety?"
"Seriously? I honestly couldn't tell most of the time."
"Yeah, that's all counselling... And I met such characters. In Kortac especially... You know what got me to stop feeling like I was sinning for liking men?"
"No, what did?"
"The amount of women here who don't like them."
"Seriously?"
"No seriously, Stiletto especially. She mentored me and took care of me in her own way. Though she made sure I did not know then, but I know now. I know she only did it because I was useful but, it worked didn't it?"

Horangi chuckled at the thought, imagining Stiletto with a soft spot for anyone apart from Roze was nigh impossible. "That's good.." Horangi's voice trailed off, the thought of kindness here of all places vexed him suddenly. He thought of the things he had seen in places like this back home, what a world's difference. "I.. I don't know if you know but according to South Korean law men who are in the military they can't, you know, do all this." He gestured to himself. "They can be imprisoned if caught."

With the mask off, Horangi could see König's expression cave into that of a deep sadness, a sort of sorrow that finds its seed in childhood and sprouts every time someone strews familiar waters over them. "That's.. horrible."
Horangi looked away, huffing a sarcastic air. "Yeah whatever. Hey, why are you still a Lieutenant? Stiletto told me you have been in Kortac for ten years."
"Oh, I left for a while then came back." And Horangi did not push, another topic another day he supposed.
"Well, I think some lunch is due after all this heavy talk, no?"
"Ja, it is. Can you eat with me?"
Horangi never thought the day would come but here they were. He did not think for a moment the offer was of the nature he wished it would be, but he conceded. "Of course."