Work Text:
Kenta felt the skin on his wrist slowly being torn from the chains.
They had laid him on an old mattress during the night, after beating him up for escaping.
Winner had let out his anger at failing once again on his ribs, that were now throbbing with pain.
He was once again tied up as if he were a prize ready to be sacrificed.
He should have thought of a way to escape again, or to at least inform the others about Alan' s involvement with Tony.
Yet he couldn't help but close his mind around the last and probably the only time in his life, that he actually felt cared for.
He wasn't looking for any kind of feelings when he had accepted Kim's shelter offer.
He wasn't even looking for friendship or simply for comfort.
Those weren't things he thought he could affort to receive, especially not from the young racer.
Yet, in the lab basement, chained and left to starve and probably to be used as some kind of experiment, the only thing that brought him comfort were his roommate' desperate words.
He had liked Kim from the beginning, despite his nosy attitude.
He liked his strong yet gentle aura, and how he didn't let anyone stomp on him.
He was dangerous without being scary or cruel, something Kenta could never been.
Worst of all, Kim had managed to see right through his emotionless facade as the two developed some kind of unconventional friendship made of shared silences, mispronunced Korean food words and late nights sparring sessions.
Kim knew how to read emotions that Kenta himself chose not to address, all without a trace of judgment or mockery.
He wasn't even bothered by his playful remarks, if anything that contributes to make Kenta see him for what he was: an attentive, kind, fierce man.
A few man walked far from him, probably scared he would pull the same moves he had pulled the last time on their colleague.
The truth was that he was way too weakened by the lack of food and the beating to do anything but stare at them.
Kenta wasn't really paying attention though.
He didn't know how much time had passed since he was held captive, but he was sure that much of his waking time was spent thinking about Kim rather then a way to escape.
There was no point anyway and Kenta couldn't help but reply over and over in his head the fight he last had with the racer.
He had yelled first, because he was desperate to end Tony for real, and also because he now knew that he could scream in Kim's face without facing any horrible punishment he was used to at the mansion.
His pushes caused Kim to fight right back, but Kenta knew what he was capable of and he knew that his roommate wasn't using enough strength to hurt him.
Just like he didn't have any intention of hurting the shorter boy who stood in his way.
The boy who saved his life one too many times, and that was now telling him again that he had his back.
Kenta couldn't contain his frustration because, he really couldn't deal with the way Kim's words made him feel.
"A friend, someone you know, a close one" was how he had started.
His whole body heat up as the man in front of him kept pushing and pulling Kenta to him.
Kenta didn't know something like that was possible.
One second he was being thrown around and the next he was being kissed in a way that made his limbs tremble beneath Kim.
The boy kissed him with such an urgency and desperation that Kenta thought he would keep him there, hidden in his apartament and under him on that table, forever away from harm.
He welcomed the idea with far too much desperation then he cared to admit.
And when he had pulled away and practically begged Kenta to take into consideration his feelings, well, he averted his eyes before Kim could see the blush that has spread from his cheeks to the rest of his body.
Kim was asking him to acknowledge his feelings yet all Kenta could think about in that moment were how those feelings had changed everything Kenta had known of the world prior to that second.
Staring blankly in front of him, Kenta couldn't help but let out a sad sight, the memory of what was and the thoughts of what could have been had he been less stubborn hunting his mind.
He was fighting with two main streams of thoughts:
The first one, the only one that brought him any kind of comfort, was that he knew for sure that Kim was back at his condo, safe and away from the lab.
The second one was the imagine of the young man packing his few belongings and returning to his country now that he was done babysitting him.
It was a cicle that kept repeating in his head and every time he came to the part where Kim flew back to Korea, forgetting about him, made his heart ache for the few days of actual happiness he had in his presence.
The realization had hit him all at once, when he had turned back one last time to distract the guards coming after them: he loved Kim.
Nothing and no one had ever come close to what he felt towards his roommate.
"A close one" had said Kim.
He was being truthful speaking for himself, Kenta was sure of it.
But he was wrong if he referred to himself as such.
Because he was the closest person to Kenta, the one he vowed to protect and cherish in every way he could.
He was support, and care and comfort.
He was a fresh breath of air, he was candy wraps around the apartament and the taste of spicy noodles and meat that he fed him at dinner.
He was lazy nights watching movies and early mornings with coffee.
As he stared to drift into a quiet slumber a last thought made room in his head.
Kim was his treasure and if he got any opportunity to leave this place, he would make sure to treat him at such.