So, it was of course Park’s fault too that he didn’t hear the intruder’s approach until the pillow landed on his legs.

Chapter Three

Cooper sat up, grabbing the poker as he went, wielding it over his head like he’d brought a goddamn broadsword to a pillow fight. The bedroom lights were back on, and all the way across the room, lingering in the open doorway, stood Eli.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Cooper gasped. He felt disoriented with sleep; caught between emergency mode and a dream state. His grip on the poker loosened slightly, but he didn’t put it down.

Eli—dressed this time, thank god—leaned against the wall casually, not even seeming to notice the makeshift weapon, much less care. “I did say I’d be seeing you.”

“And yet I didn’t take that to mean you would be breaking into my bedroom in the middle of the night,” Cooper hissed.

“Darling, it’s not even eleven p.m. You’re embarrassing us both.”

“That doesn’t make it okay,” Cooper said as he rubbed his eyes roughly, forcing himself into a more alert state. “This is extremely not okay. I could have been...busy.”

Eli pointedly eyed the poker and the bottle of wine abandoned on the nightstand. “Yes, I’ve obviously interrupted a thrilling evening.” He held up his hands defensively when Cooper started to sputter. “I did knock, you know. Quite loudly and for a very long time. I could clearly hear you were in here. What if you were incapacitated by some villain? Tied to a running table saw or in a glass box slowly filling with water? All while I stood outside twiddling my thumbs because of some outdated, human, capitalist construct of personal property? Think of the guilt I would have suffered. It would have killed me outright. How would you feel then?”

“Pretty bad since I’m apparently also dead à la’80s spy thriller,” Cooper said, but he put the poker down and didn’t ask Eli to leave, irritation losing ground fast to curiosity.

“I know the hour is unconventional, but I’m in a rather time-sensitive situation. One might even say, an emergency,” Eli said, moving closer. He made as if to sit on the bench at the end of the bed before sniffing the air delicately, and briefly twitched a small moue of distaste.

Cooper flushed in awareness of what the bench probably smelled like to a sensitive nose. “That’s what you get when you barge into someone’s bedroom uninvited,” he said, refusing to feel ashamed.