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wolveswithblackpearls · 10 months

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When the nights get cold

genre: angst, hurt/comfort, dog hybrid!baekhyun x reader (if romantic or not is up for interpretation)

cw: nightmares, feelings of panic and anxiety, laboratory/hospital setting in the first half, violence mention, abuse mention (non-sexual), medical experiments mention

word count: ~1.6k

a/n: hey there @vampwrrr - 'tis me, your secret santa (find me @starchild--27, I am Admin S on here ^-^) and i come bearing gifts, hehe :D i did a little mix of all the things we talked about the last few months with what you promted for your gift, so i hope you have fun reading this little one-shot i came up with! i, for one, had lots of fun with it xD gave me a chance to dive into unknown waters here - i never wrote anything in this setting before!

finally, a big thank you @exols-silver-christmas for hosting yet another year of exo-l secret santa. it takes a lot to organize all this so i am, as always, very thankful that we can enjoy this event again this year. i can't wait to see all the creative things everyone came up with! <3

~ Admin S

Baekhyun woke up feeling uncomfortable. It was the rough fabric of the hospital gown against his skin. It was the cold metal chain that ran tightly over his face. It was the darkness and the penetrating smell of disinfectant. He hated it all. So much he just wanted to fall asleep again. But the bed had no pillow and no blanket, and he was freezing too much to fall asleep again.

I am back.

The thought slowly settled in his mind, exhaustion and resignation putting a dull feeling in his chest. He had been here before, in “The Clinic” as the people here liked to call it. But he knew that clinics are to help people that are hurt. And this place did the exact opposite. This place was a lab. And he had been created here. From some scraps of DNA the doctors had collected and altered.

Baekhyun didn’t know the specifics of how the lab worked, how they got the resources they needed, what the purpose of it all was. And he wasn’t sure if he even wanted to know. And while the question of “why” was a huge mystery to Baekhyun, the goal of The Clinic was quite clear. They wanted to create a new species. They were breeding hybrids. And Baekhyun was one of those.

Raised under constant probing and testing for the first couple years of his life, then put in a shelter with other hybrids to be socialized and later to be sold. And even then, there was no escaping The Clinic. There were regular checkups and tests the hybrids had to undergo, even after being bought.

Baekhyun crouched on the cold bed, thoughts racing. Why was he here again? Why didn’t he remember how he got here? Why didn’t he remember what had happened before he fell asleep? Anxiously, his tail wrapped around his legs while he rested his chin on his right knee and he realized how helpless he was. He didn’t know what to do, how to get out. Damn, he didn’t even know what year it was.

Goosebumps spread over his skin. This was the most scared he had felt in a long while. It reminded him of when he was still a puppy that hadn’t known anything but the lab. Even back then, when he was entirely disoriented, he knew this was not a good place. He might not have understood it back then but he had felt distinctly that this place was harming him.

The utter silence made Baekhyun nervous. Or was it just the lack of any hints that would indicate other alive beings close by? He didn’t know and his ears twitched restlessly, eager to pick up a sound. Any sound. Just… anything besides the sound of his own beating heart.

Baekhyun put his head between his knees and buried his hands in the hair at the back of his head, tightly shutting his eyes and praying for it all to go away. Praying that, when he released all the tension in his body, he would be at a better place, a safer place.

But Baekhyun was scared. He didn’t dare to let go, to loosen his grip on himself. Any moment without your guard up would be exploited. That’s what his years in The Clinic had taught him so painfully. He couldn’t let go. They would come and immobilize him in ways that hurt and give him medicine that made him feel sick and run tests until he passed out from exhaustion. He couldn’t let go. He couldn’t let go. He couldn't-

A blaring noise ripped through the quiet, so sudden that Baekhyun let out a bark. That never happened. But, gosh, this was an alert of some sort and Baekhyun could practically feel this horrible, booming sound vibrating in his bones.

He had to get out.

Faster than he thought his body would be ready, he scrambled off the bed. The floor was unbelievably cold against his bare feet, but he started running towards the exit anyway. He pulled harshly and opened the door just far enough so he could slip through and out in the long, white hallway that was rhythmically illuminated in deep red from the flaring warning light. Baekhyun didn’t have time to look around more, he just bolted into a random direction. All he wanted was to get away from this room, but as soon as he had started running down the hallway, he started to hear steps behind him. Fast. Running.

He peaked. It was the nurses. Their skin-tight, white uniforms had them look like they were clones themselves. They might as well have been. There was no way of knowing what else was going on in The Clinic - and if there was a way, Baekhyun didn’t want to know it, wanted to be as far away as possible from that way.

When he heard the nurses’ steps accelerating, Baekhyun ran even faster. He had not expected to have enough strength for that. His sight got blurry and his cheeks were getting wet. He could tell by the cold feeling that bloomed where the tears were running down his face. But he couldn’t stop running. Not when there were these nurses following him. They would catch him and do God-knows-what to him and-

-- -- --

Baekhyun opened his eyes so abruptly that it startled you a little, despite having tried to wake him up for the past few minutes.

He had been shaking in his sleep for a while now. You were laying next to him, waiting for this painful scene to come to a halt again but it only got worse the further the nightmare progressed. He started whimpering and yipping, making the most puppy-like noises you have ever heard from him.

You had tried to soothe him without waking him at first, started with rubbing his back and stroking his exposed arm. That usually calmed him a lot – but not this time. So you adjusted his blanket that he had kicked away from his body, letting his own warmth comfort him and, as a last resort, softly petted the wild strands of his hair. But nothing helped. When tears started running down his face, you decided it was best to wake him up and free him from whatever was going on in his head.

You had a pretty good idea what he must have been dreaming about. That was not the first time Baekhyun had suffered from these nightmares and when it got as bad as tonight, they were most likely about The Clinic. Just the thought of that place started a fire of scorching fury in your belly. They gave him pain his entire life and not even now that he got out of their grasp, he had no peace. You didn’t want to imagine the things that happened to the hybrids and other “experiments” there. Actual living beings, scientifically created there, only to-

You closed your eyes and forcefully stopped your train of thought. Your anger wouldn’t help anyone. Not right now, in the middle of the night with a scared dog hybrid sitting next to you, his messy black-and-white hair sticking out in every direction, puppy ears pressed flat against his head, whimpering quietly in the darkness as he wiped the tears from his face with shaking hands.

You took a few deep breaths and slowly so that Baekhyun wouldn’t get even more scared, wrapped your arms around his warm body from behind. And as soon as Baekhyun felt your presence, he let himself melt in your hug and shifted to rest even more comfortably in your arms, turning around to rest his head against your chest and your arms to wrap around his shoulders. Softly, you started to stroke his back again and tried to breath very calmly so Baekhyun’s irregular gasping for air would calm eventually as well.

You knew better than to confront him with questions in this situation. He needed to calm down first, realize that he is not in a dangerous situation anymore, that he is at a safe place, and he needed to take his time for that. The last thing both of you needed at this moment was another panic attack caused by Baekhyun being overwhelmed.

You lifted your eyes from the top of Baekhyun’s head and gazed towards the window. Tonight, the temperatures had dropped deep, and it had started to snow. It was always the first icy cold nights that gave Baekhyun the worst nightmares. It had something to do with the whiteness, quiet and cold that reminded him of The Clinic. It made you even more determined to create good and happy memories in the winter months with him.

You loved the winter, the crisp cold and how the first snow makes the world look like it has been put under a spell that makes everything really still and silent. It had always felt magical to you and even if Baekhyun would always feel a much greater relief when spring would finally come around, you didn’t want the nightmares to be the only thing Baekhyun remembered from winter nights. But it would take work to get there. He had been through too much. You had heard a lot about it from Baekhyun already but you weren’t sure if you knew everything yet. And if tonight’s nightmare brought up new memories that caused the dream to be especially bad this time around.

But you were certain, Baekhyun would immediately talk to you tonight. When he felt he was ready and not in shock anymore. You two would figure it all out from there. Or maybe you would just fall asleep again and figure it out tomorrow. And with Baekhyun’s breath becoming more and more even and your eyelids feeling heavier and heavier… tomorrow didn’t seem like such a bad plan.

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