Pairing: ? & Felix
Genre: Detective AU
!!TW!! : suspense, murders, major character deaths, blood, a bit gore-ish I guess?
(requested by @Maddy05)
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"I can't believe I got a false lead again!"
Felix angrily threw the case file on his desk. Not only had he wasted the last two weeks following a fake trail, but his migraines were beginning to get worse, too – he knew he was partly to blame for it, since he always pushed his limits when he became obsessed with a case, but it didn't make things any better. His head was killing him, and the serial killer he'd been trying to track down for the past two months wasn't anywhere close to being put behind bars – so yeah, Felix was in a pretty foul mood right now.
"I warned you, Lix," sighed Chan, his partner. "This is the third time you've been played for a fool by that guy – I think you need a break."
"Yeah, a break in this damned case," he huffed.
"No, a break period. Look, you're one of the best detectives in the precinct for a reason, but even you can hit a slump from time to time—"
"It's not a slump!"
"—and when was the last time you slept, hm?"
Felix quietened a bit at that, and Chan sighed again. "That's what I thought. Go home, Felix. Take a few days off to get some rest, and then you'll be able to look at the whole case with a fresher eye. It ought to help a lot more than you just throwing those poor files around."
Before Felix could protest, a knock at the door grabbed their attention, and none other than Changbin entered, carrying a tray with two cups of coffee from the nearby café.
"On coffee duty this evening, Changbin?" mused Chan, eagerly accepting a cup.
"Yup. I got your usuals." He then quirked a brow at Felix. "You look like crap."
"Thanks," drawled Felix, also grabbing his labeled cup. "Love you too, Binnie."
"Still on that serial murder case?"
Felix snorted bitterly, though his expression softened the slightest bit when he took a first sip of the coffee he was given. There was just something about that coffee that always managed to make him feel better, though he couldn't say what—
"It's your cute barista boy who's on shift tonight," suddenly added Changbin as he headed out, winking at Felix. "You should go and ask him out before heading home."
Felix instantly flushed a deep red. "It- it's not like that!"
Changbin simply laughed as he left, and Felix glared at Chan when his partner failed to muffle his snickering. The two of them and pretty much everyone they worked with knew of the crush Felix had on the "cute barista boy" who worked at the nearby café, and they always teased him about it. But the last thing Felix wanted was a boyfriend. He already had a hard enough time taking care of himself, there was no way he'd be able to handle a lover on the side, no matter how cute said lover could be.
As he tried grabbing the file he'd previously thrown, however, Chan stopped him.
"Go home," he ordered, a tad sternly. "I'll drive you there myself and tie you to your bed if that's what it takes, got it?"
"Kinky."
Chan snorted, getting up. "Come on. We won't get anything more done tonight, and I swear I'll call you if anything important happens – but I don't want to see your face here again for at least two full days."
"Can it be, like, two half-days?"
"Forty-eight hours straight, Felix – I mean it. And if you decide against it, then I'll go to Captain Jung and snitch on your health issues."
Felix glared at that, but nodded in agreement. Captain Jung was a stern woman with a strict sense of duty, but she cared deeply for the detectives and officers under her command and wouldn't hesitate to suspend him for a few days if she deemed that he wasn't taking care of himself properly.
The two of them left the precinct with their coffees in hands and their jackets thrown over their shoulders. As they settled in Chan's car, however, the hair at the back of Felix's neck rose and, without thinking, he glanced behind him. There, on the sidewalk, stood of person wearing a dark hoodie with a stain on it, their lower face hidden by a dark mask.
The person turned on their heels and walked away in the opposite, and Felix shook off the weird feeling in his guts when Chan asked him to put on some music.
Chan's right after all – I really need to get out of my own head for a bit.
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Felix was only halfway through his first day of forced break when his phone started ringing. Upon realizing it was Chan, he figured there was a lead in their case after all but, when he eagerly answered, only static echoed on the other end of the line.
"Chan?" he called out, confused.
"You're on your own now."
This was not Chan's voice – it was deep and gravely and most importantly modulated, and Felix's heart dropped in his stomach as he realized a random person was calling him directly from Chan's phone. Before he could ask anything, the call was cut, and panic settled in when he tried calling again, only for a robotic voice to say that the number he was calling had been disconnected.
Rushing outside, he almost stepped onto a small package that had been left directly in front of his door. He froze, not daring to move for a brief moment. Then, he carefully picked it up, scrunching up his nose as a weird smell wafted over. Easily opening it, he almost instantly gagged at what he found inside.
An eye.
There was an eye in the box, bloody with nerves still attached.
Dropping the box, Felix turned around and threw up in the bushes next to the door.
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One day later
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"I'm sorry, Felix. I really am."
Felix didn't say anything, staring down at Chan's body. He looked like he was sleeping, but the paleness and coldness of his skin told otherwise. There were bruises blooming around his neck and cuts on his face and there was an eye missing—
He was dead. Chan was dead, and Felix didn't know what to do with himself anymore.
"Come on," urged quietly Changbin, carefully nudging him away.
Felix didn't resist, unable to think straight. He didn't understand how things could have gone so wrong so quickly. Everything felt... distant. He was the one who'd found the body – or was he? Or were the officers there first? He couldn't remember much from that terrible afternoon, other than the fact that Chan was dead.
And he knew exactly who did it.
"It was him," he choked out as Changbin made him sit down. "The killer."
"The one you've been chasing?"
Felix nodded mutely, accepting the cup of coffee the other handed him. The sheer agony ripping his soul apart was slowly growing numb, muted by the absolute need to find the culprit and bring him to justice. Felix knew it was the serial killer they were after, it couldn't have been anyone else – now it was just a matter of catching him.
It was him, he thought blankly as he replayed the events of the last time he saw Chan alive. The man in the hoodie. The one who was staring at us.
"Changbin? I need some video footage."
Changbin looked like he was about to protest, but something in Felix's expression stopped him. He, too, was grieving, and he could only understand Felix's need to bury himself into work so as to shelter himself from the pain for a little longer. So, he simply nodded in agreement.
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Felix's head was killing him again, but he paid it no mind as he sipped on his third cup of coffee while staring intently at the screen before him. Incapable of staying in the office when Chan's stuff was still all over the place, he'd moved to the café, knowing they had private booths where he'd be able to work in private.
So far, nothing on the footage Changbin had given him stood out. It was pretty bad quality, and the angles weren't exactly favorable and, no matter how much he looked, he couldn't seem to find the person he was looking for – which was ridiculous, since he knew at least one camera was supposed to have seen him, but he wasn't going to give up this easily.
A knock at the door made him pause the footage and, a moment later, the door of the private booth opened slightly, and none other than "the cute barista boy" peered inside, offering Felix a smile that made his eyes crinkle a bit.
"Need a refill, Felix-ssi?"
Felix weakly smiled back. "No, thank you. I'm about done for tonight. I'll take the bill—"
Seungmin quickly shook his head. "On the house."
"I can't—"
"Please. It's the least I can do for... what happened. I'm terribly sorry for your loss."
Not having the strength to argue, and genuinely appreciating the favor, Felix simply nodded tiredly in agreement and acknowledgement. Had those been different circumstances, he'd have tried holding Seungmin back to talk to him for a little longer but, as it was, he didn't have the energy for it. No matter how he might have liked Seungmin, he just felt numb, now. He doubted he'd be able to feel anything again until Chan's killer was caught and brought to justice.
Thanking Seungmin for his hard work and for the free coffee and snacks, Felix gathered all of his stuff and headed out. Just as he stepped outside of the café, however, he almost ran straight into Lee Minho, one of the medical examiners who worked for the police – and also the coroner who'd been in charge of examining Chan's body.
"Hey, Felix." He looked... weary. Felix figured seeing one of his coworkers in his morgue hadn't done anything good for his mood. "Were you heading home?"
"Yeah. Did you need me for something?"
"I just wanted to say..." He paused, then sighed. "I'm sorry. I don't even know what I can say. The last few days have been... hectic."
Felix snorted – hectic was an understatement. His partner and best friend was dead, his killer was still on the loose and readying himself to strike again, and Felix was nowhere close to even identifying him, let alone catching him.
"Hey, I was just wondering... Are you free this weekend?" Felix quirked a brow, and Minho ran a hand through his slightly greasy hair. "I get that this might not be the best time, but... would you like to go out with me this Saturday?"
"Are you... asking me out on a date...?"
"It doesn't have to be," shrugged Minho, averting his eyes. "It can... be whatever you want. A date, or just an outing between friends – whatever gets you out of the house and makes you feel a little better, you know?"
Felix was admittedly unsure of what to make of the sudden proposition. He'd always thought that Minho had a crush on Chan, but could it be that he'd actually had his eye on Felix this whole time? After all, he and Chan were rarely separated... Still, he doubted he had the strength to build a new relationship while still suffering from his loss.
"Minho, I'm sorry, but—"
"It's okay, forget I said anything," cut Minho, now definitely embarrassed. He offered him an awkward smile, suddenly in a hurry to leave. "I'll see you back at work."
Felix wanted to say something else, but Minho was already walking away. Heaving out a sigh, the detective was about to head for his car when, turning around, he saw a familiar hooded figure standing a few meters away, at the end of the sidewalk.
Felix froze, his eyes going wide – and then the figure walked beyond the corner. Cursing under his breath, Felix instantly took off after the man but, when he turned the corner, all he found was an empty street. He cursed again, probably a tad too loudly if the two older women walking by suddenly glaring at him were anything to go by. But then, he felt a presence behind him—
"Felix! Are you alright?" Changbin. Changbin was right behind him. Why was Changbin there? "Why did you take off so quickly? You looked as if you've seen a ghost."
"Ah, it's... it's nothing." A tad shaken by the strange encounter, Felix forced himself to offer a blank smile to his coworker. "A- anyway, I should go—"
"What did Minho want with you? I saw him leaving in a hurry just as I left the station. Did you reject the poor guy or something?" his friend asked, wiggling his eyebrows a bit.
Felix's slight wince made it obvious that, though Changbin was clearly joking, he'd hit the nail on the head. Changbin's eyes widened a bit in realization.
"Wait, seriously?"
"Please don't harass him about it. He's embarrassed enough as is."
"Right, right, of course. Mum's the word, and all that. Anyway, while you be alright going home on your own?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine. See you tomorrow, Bin."
They waved each other goodbye and split up, Felix heading back to his car. As he settled down behind the wheel, he grimaced, the pounding in his head starting to become more intense – he really needed to refill his pills.
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In the end, Felix couldn't find anything on the footage Changbin had given him, and he was forced to admit defeat and move on to another potential lead. Captain Lee wasn't happy to see him tackling this case, she said he was too emotionally involved in it, but she already knew he'd keep on looking for the killer even if she pulled him off the case, so she didn't do anything to actively stop him.
Two days after his slightly awkward encounter with Minho, Felix was taking a short coffee break in his office when he heard someone knock at his door. Having grown fairly paranoid, and not expecting anyone, he grabbed his gun and hid it behind his back before going to check his entryway through the adjacent window.
There wasn't anyone, but there was a package.
Wary, Felix opened the door and brought the package inside. He checked it for any sort of trigger that might prove this package was a trap, but he didn't find anything. Grabbing some scissors, he promptly cut through the tape – and he instantly gagged as an awful, rotting stench wafted over him.
There was a tongue in the box, with a familiar piercing still attached to it.
"Fuck!"
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Minho's body was found missing its tongue in the precinct's morgue within the hour – he was apparently killed while working – and Felix was once again forced to endure the news of the death of yet another of his coworkers. He'd been thoroughly questioned, as per according to procedure, because it was now two people who had not only died to the hands of the murderer Felix was chasing, but Felix was also directly targeted.
The killer was playing with him, and it made him sick. If he knew Felix's address, then why couldn't he just go after him directly instead of hurting innocent people?
"Here, Lix."
He didn't say a word as he accepted the coffee Changbin was handing him, drinking a quarter of it without hesitation. It burned, but the pain was the only thing Felix could feel at the moment, and he'd take physical pain over the emotional backlash of this entire situation any day.
"Lix... Captain Jung wants you off the case," then announced Changbin.
Felix's head snapped up, anger surging through him. "She can't! Chan was my best fucking friend, and Minho was—"
"It's not about your personal involvement, Felix," cut his friend, heaving out a sigh. "It's just... you are now officially on the suspects' list."
"What—are you fucking serious!?"
"You know how this works, Lix. Everyone here knows you didn't have anything to do with it, but the board wants us to follow procedure. So, until they've officially cleared your name, you'll have to sit this one out. I'm sorry."
"Damn it! Damn—cough, cough, cough!"
His head was pounding and his throat burned almost as much as his lungs. Felix kept on coughing harshly for a bit until the fit eventually calmed down but, when he pulled his hand away, he found it covered in blood, the metallic taste now omnipresent in his mouth. He looked up to fin Changbin's wide eyes staring at his bloodied hand.
"Felix, what—"
"It's nothing."
"That's not—"
"Look, it's just the stress, okay?" he snapped, grabbing the coffee to try and wash the awful taste of blood out of his mouth. "Not the first time it happened, not the last. It's just stress, got it?"
He couldn't afford to be put into the hospital – not until he'd caught the killer.
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And here's one piping-hot angsty crime AU à la Quill, just how you like 'em!
Please, tell me: who do you think the killer is? (Note that all members do appear in the story at some point, but since the AU was so long I cut it into two parts - so it could really be anyone xD)