Many thanks to one of my archive readers for making me this Joong fanart! Please enjoy it with me ^^

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Seonghwa found the first traces of Hongjoong on his way down another freezing corridor. There were new bodies strewn over the ground, and when Seonghwa knelt down next to one, he found the 9-millimetre bullets Hongjoong preferredly used in his body.

He dropped the body with a scowl and went further down the corridor towards wherever Hongjoong was. He sidestepped a multitude of loose cables that were still creating blue sparks that came dangerously close to some puddles of water. Hongjoong must have reactivated the power in the old lab somewhere, and now the ice was steadily melting and creating even more death traps than before.

"Hey, uh... What are you going to tell him?"

San sudden question alerted Seonghwa of Hongjoong's presence. The other alpha was bad at masking his evident liking towards some of the man's pack members.

Seonghwa sighed.

"I'm going to be honest with him. I won't play nice."

"So will you let him take your knot this time, or...?"

Yunho whacked San over the head with what sounded like a folder, cursing his loose tongue.

Seonghwa just shook his head at them and then set out to cross the last bit of distance. In front, there was an open door leading into a brightly lit room as if it wanted him to go there. So he did.

He stepped into a large round room opening up behind the corridor and pushed the door shut behind him. Hongjoong was here indeed, in his stupid catsuit - but this time, he wore a white one for a change - and his red hair shaggily fell into his face where he was crouching on the ground.

After a quick scan of the room, Seonghwa found nothing else but the man's coat that was lying somewhere in the dirt. It was a long black fur coat that would keep the tiny man deliciously warm, but instead, he was shivering in his catsuit for no apparent reason.

Stupid.

"Don't move. The room is spiked with traps." Hongjoong carefully felt over the floor in front of him and then lifted his left leg, moving a tiny step forward. He only let the tip of his boot touch the ground there, and his whole body was poised like a string ready to snap. His muscles were bulging under his skin, and the tight latex showed it all. Seonghwa swallowed, using the moment to stare while the man had turned his back to him.

"I'd rather have a talk with you than play twister on the floor right now."

"You can try from the other side; there are two entrances. Let's talk and see who gets it first."

Seonghwa rolled his eyes but stayed rooted on his spot.

"You might be lying again; I won't trust you. I'll stay right here and get it from you later."

At that, Hongjoong laughed breathlessly before carefully pushing himself up on his hands. He stepped over with dangerously little control over his speed, nearly slipping. Seonghwa felt his breath get stuck in his throat as he saw the man tumble, then he regained his footing, exhaling harshly. Seonghwa did too if trying to be smooth and quiet about it.

"If I tell you I didn't do it to lie to you, would you believe me?"

Seonghwa crossed his arms while he leant back against the wall next to the door. Tirelessly, he watched Hongjoong crawl around on his hands and knees to somehow get to the mechanism that deactivated the obviously blue glimmering trap around the artefact piece on the table in the centre of the room, and then back to said table.

"I don't know. It might depend on your reason. So far, you've been good at lying anyway." Seonghwa's voice was hard and unforgiving. He didn't know why he was this angry about such a trivial fact. Hongjoong was his rival; of course, he would make trouble. Who was Seonghwa to assume that they had some moral codex going on in which they didn't lie to each other?  It was nonsense, and rather than in Hongjoong, he was more disappointed in himself for falling for that trap.

Hongjoong sucking him off did not make them to colleagues.

"I told you, didn't I? I never lied to you. You made your assumptions based on nothing at all. Isn't it far ruder to think gender-biased?" Hongjoong bit his lower lip as he carefully shifted his weigh, his fingers still searching over the floor. They looked tiny in those half-finger gloves, barely the tips peeking out.

"You hid your scent," Seonghwa pointed out stubbornly. He saw no use in taking the blame. At least not without hearing the reason first. And even then, he didn't owe Hongjoong anything. It was not as if he had to suddenly befriend his rivals just because they had entered some weird sexual relationship.

"I didn't hide it from you, I hid it from everybody. And if you think again, I showed it only to you even though I took so much care of hiding it. Don't you think I wanted you to know? It's not nice to get pushed into such a role by a man one trusts in."

This stunned Seonghwa. Trust? Why would Hongjoong ever trust him?

"Don't lie to me. You have no reason to trust me."

Hongjoong dropped his weight, sitting in a squat as he pulled open some hidden compartment in the floor. He used a little knife from his weapons belt to cut some tires with quick and expert snaps.

"I've known you for so many years, Seonghwa. There was only one constant thing in my life to hold onto and look forward to, and it was our little competition. There's only so much watching and stalking one can do before you start getting used to a person. You can't tell me that in all those years you haven't noticed even one good thing about me. The infatuation we got with each other doesn't work only in a bad sense. We are bound to get soft on each other."

Seonghwa could hear his heart racing away in his chest at being called out like that. Yes, he only ever wanted to know what Hongjoong was doing and where he was. And if he was completely honest with himself, he had often looked forward to their encounters. Wondering what ridiculously attractive and impractical outfit the man had chosen again and if their ways would cross during their raids.

Seonghwa hated that the man was right. It would have been far easier to not get any feelings involved and just play their game in peace.

"Yet, you're so dense light bends around you. You didn't even get it when I started being openly gay towards you and showing off."

Wait, what-

With a laugh, Hongjoong stood up and put the knife away before normally walking over to his coat and pulling it on. He snuggled into the fur contently even as it dwarfed him utterly.

He then went to work on that table while Seonghwa still stood there with wide eyes and shock written all over his face.

"I even sucked you off, told you like with my own fucking words that I'm interested and you- You really just thought of me as a nuisance all this time, didn't you? I guess you only let me play because you assumed I was an omega. But I didn't want that. I wanted you to know that I wasn't just a thirsty omega who lusted after your scent. That's why I showed you. I knew you would get mad." Roughly, he yanked a loose cover from one side of the table and dug his fingers in the mess of the cables again.

Seeing him work distracted Seonghwa at his confused thoughts, but he tried to collect himself.

Hongjoong yearned for his attention in an attraction kind of way. Hongjoong had literally submitted himself to a fellow alpha to get said attention. And then he had noticed that wasn't what he wanted, he wanted Seonghwa to get to know him, and that's why he came out as an alpha after hiding that for whatever reasons and then-

"Damn, that boy is in love with you. San, you owe me twenty."

Of all people, it just had to be Yunho who had known. Stupid beta and his keen senses for the world around him.

But no, impossible. Hongjoong wouldn't... or would he?

"Why did you hide your scent in the first place?" Seonghwa asked weirdly throaty, coughing right after. Somehow, he had forgotten how speaking worked.

"Because of the gender stereotype you pushed right onto me just like any other person would. I keep telling you that I wasn't an omega! And just like that, I didn't want whatever oh so great role comes with being an alpha. Oh, you got a knot, oh, you can fuck people dumb? What a great man you are! This is your world, not mine. People only want you because you're an alpha, and you smell nice, Seonghwa. I want people to want me no matter who I am," he spat bitterly and then rose to snatch the now unsecured amulet piece.

When he turned, his eyebrows were furrowed in an angry line. Seonghwa felt as if struck by lightning as he met the man's fierce eyes. He failed at breathing for a second before his chest continued rising and sinking at irregular intervals.

"So all those weird questions... About alphas and alphas, you- You actually would do that because-"

"Because as you may have noticed, I don't care for such things. I know your conservative mind tells you that it has no use because what the hell, why mate with a male alpha when it means literally just trouble and the number one goal - reproducing - can't even be reached?" Hongjoong put the stone in his pocket before briskly walking over to Seonghwa.

Seonghwa couldn't move, just staring like a deer in the headlights as all thought had left him. Hongjoong looked dangerous and not as if he planned on stopping anytime soon.

Seonghwa yelped when their bodies collided, and Hongjoong roughly grabbed his waist with his left hand. His unmasked scent nearly choked Seonghwa, making him breathe it in desperately.

Despite being so much smaller, Hongjoong was broad. Broad and made of muscle in places that were just slender on Seonghwa.

Being manhandled felt all wrong for Seonghwa, yet he couldn't deny how heat shot through his body when Hongjoong wrapped his fingers around the wrist of the hand Seonghwa weakly lifted in protest. Hongjoong pressed that hand warningly against the wall behind them, pinning Seonghwa with his whole body.

Hongjoong was close, so far more intimate to Seonghwa's face than he usually was, and his body was hot through the multiple layers separating them. Seonghwa could feel the man's breath on his chin and swallowed harshly around the tension that seemed to suffocate him. This had escalated so quickly. They had been rivals with no questions asked a month ago. And now, they were here pressed together with electricity making Seonghwa's hair stand on edge.

"So it's true... You do like me," Seonghwa managed to murmur distractedly as if trying to lift the mood.

Hongjoong laughed in his face.

"I do. And I also didn't lie about how good you would look fucked out underneath me. So if you change your mind..." Hongjoong's fingers slipped from Seonghwa's waist to his backpack, swiftly retrieving his PDA. He quickly put in some coordinates while Seonghwa stared dumbly at the dark lashes fluttering over Hongjoong's cheeks as he lowered his eyes.

When he was done, Hongjoong showed the screen to Seonghwa. It was some location in France, labled as 'Your Doom.'

"Visit me at this address. I'll make sure to fuck some sense into you, but I need your consent first. I will view it as such once you show up there. Don't worry, I'll make sure to take good care of you."

Suddenly, Seonghwa's body stopped working as it was supposed to.

He had noticed his legs gradually getting weaker as the other man had crowded into him, and his delicious smell was clouding Seonghwa's senses, but he didn't expect them to just give out underneath his body. With a surprised sound, he reached for Hongjoong, digging his free hand into his shoulder as the man reflexively pushed him back against the wall once more.

He slipped a knee between Seonghwa's thighs in the process and boldly ground it into his arousal as he pressed their chests together.

He didn't comment any further. He just pressed a lingering kiss against Seonghwa's chin and then stepped back after making sure Seonghwa could somehow stay upright.

With a last smirk, he left then and jogged out of the room hurriedly.

Seonghwa stayed rooted on the spot until he could trust his legs again, and even then, he had to support his body on the wall as he moved a shaky step forward.

"San... Get everything ready. We'll go right to that address."

San choked via headset.

"What?! You're getting yourself some alpha knot?! So fast?!"

Seonghwa rolled his eyes as he straightened and tried to subtly brush off the lingering heat Hongjoong's touch had left on his skin.

"No, you idiot. He just gave me his personal address. I'm going to steal those amulet pieces back."

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Chapter 26 will be the last one!