Tao turned around and noticed Baekhyun had come back. However unlike his usual habit of greeting Tao whenever he returned to their cell, he simply went off to his corner without a word. Tao wanted to ask if he was okay, he didn’t look injured any more than what could usually be expected on a bad day, but his hair fell downcasted over his eyes and he figured he probably wanted some time alone and decided not to bother him.

Once dinner was delivered to them, Tao became concerned. Baekhyun hadn’t said much of anything since he got back, which was pretty unusual for him. He’d taken a short nap, but woke up to the sound of the cell bars opening for the meal delivery. Despite that, he still remained in his corner. He didn’t even move when the guard left. Tao realized something had to be wrong.

“Don’t you want to eat anything, hyung?” Tao asked.

“I’m not hungry.” Baekhyun stated, rather unconvincingly. Tao knew he was hiding something. He also knew he had to be hungry since they hadn’t eaten since breakfast.

“Are you sure?” Tao asked again.

“Yeah.” Baekhyun still didn’t sound convincing.

“But it’s your favorite. It’s not very often Master gives us this to eat.” It wasn’t a lie; Minseok had sent them a bulgogi meal, a rare treat for anyone. Baekhyun suddenly shot up.

“Really?” He asked, turning slightly to the side. Tao nodded and held his own bowl out to Baekhyun.

“Yeah, if you’re tired, I can feed you if you want.” Tao said as Baekhyun crawled over to where Tao was and stared down at his meal.

Tao waited for a few moments for some sort of response from Baekhyun, but he never got one. Though, since he didn’t say no, he decided to feed him like he usually would on these types of days. Tao picked up a piece of the food with the chopsticks they’d been given and lowered it to Baekhyun’s mouth.

Baekhyun chewed it slowly and rather unenthusiastically for his favorite meal. Tao took up a piece and brought it to his own lips. He too chewed slowly, but more because he was closely observing Baekhyun and waiting for some sort of emotional response. Even on days like these, Baekhyun’s favorite foods always managed to cheer him up, and it worried Tao that it didn’t.

They continued like this for a few minutes, with Tao rotating between feeding Baekhyun and then himself. Tao soon began to think that he wasn’t going to get anything out of his hyung, but that was immediately put aside when he noticed Baekhyun’s demeanor change to the last piece of meat he’d eaten. It must have been a really good piece for Baekhyun hummed softly and quickly his lips after it entered his mouth. He’d tried to be as discrete as possible, but Tao still noticed. He chuckled quietly in slight relief.

“Beef, you’re so cute.” Tao said as he reached up and gently caressed Baekhyun’s left cheek.

In a split second, Baekhyun looked up at Tao. Tao’s eyes instantly widened and it seemed like everything was happening in slow motion to Baekhyun. He’d probably end up later blaming the nap and then the food for him suddenly forgetting why he hadn’t faced Tao since he came back in the room.

Tao didn’t say anything. He stared at first for a few seconds as if he was frozen before slowly bringing a hand up to Baekhyun’s left eye and caressed the darkly colored skin surrounding it.

“What happened?” he asked softly, still running his fingers around the swollen black eye.

Baekhyun had planned for this. As he walked back to the cell he thought about what he’d say when Tao eventually asked about the black eye. He’d make some sort of a joke and laugh it off. Or perhaps stretch the truth just enough to prevent Tao from worrying like he always did. But at that moment, he’d forgotten about all of that. All he could do was stare back at Tao. In his own humiliation, he could just stare back as he felt the tears coming into his eyes. But he knew Tao saw them, because they didn’t even get a chance to begin falling before he was pulled into Tao’s embrace as he his hair while cradling him in his arms.

“Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” Tao whispered. Baekhyun didn’t answer as he pressed closer into Tao’s chest, sniffing slightly.

“It’s okay, I’m here.” Tao said, wiping the tears from Baekhyun’s eyes.

“Taozi…” Baekhyun could only whimper, though the tears. Tao his hair.

“You don’t have to say anything right now if you don’t want to.” Tao reassured. Baekhyun nodded, pressing his cheek into Tao’s chest. They remained that way for about a minute before Tao spoke again.

“I’m sorry.” He simply said. “I should have gone instead.”

Baekhyun pulled away from Tao and looked at him for the first time, shaking his head. “No! This isn’t your fault!”

“It was supposed to be me.” Tao said quietly, turning is head slightly. “You know they meant for me to be next.”

“But they chose me!” Baekhyun said, cupping Tao’s face between his hands. “It doesn’t matter what was supposed to happen.”

“This would have never happened if…” Tao trailed off, touching Baekhyun’s eye again with a pained expression.

“Stop it!” Baekhyun said. “I don’t care about my eye! I’d feel much worse if I’d let them do this to you, you know?!” Tao started to protest, but Baekhyun kept talking.

“I’m your hyung! I’m supposed to take care of you!” he said. “So stop feeling bad about this, okay?”

Tao was silent for a while before eventually nodding, knowing it would be pointless to argue about it. Baekhyun tried to avert his eyes before he was pulled back into Tao’s chest again.

“Just let me take care of you for now, then.” Tao whispered. Baekhyun felt his face warm as he nodded and pressed back into Tao’s lap again. They were silent for a few minutes again until Tao broke the silence.

“Hyung?”

“Yeah.” Baekhyun leaned his head up slightly.

“I…love you…okay?” he pressed Baekhyun’s head closer to his chest to prevent him from looking up at his reddening face.

He didn’t really need to, though, as Baekhyun wrapped his arms around Tao’s waist. He didn’t respond for a few seconds and could feel Tao becoming antsy as he turned his head into Tao’s chest to muffle his voice.

“Yah! What are you waiting for? Of course I love you, too! You should already know!” he said, pouting, his own face flushing slightly. He squirmed a bit in Tao’s lap, trying to regain his composure. He heard Tao chuckle slightly and was about to say something before something stopped him.

Baekhyun felt Tao’s lips against his forehead.

~~~

~Slightly edited from the original version~

A/N: This came as a result of me suddenly just being hit with the BaekTao feels~ I should be working on my finals~ Enjoy~

ALSO NO THEY ARE NOT IN JAIL! This was inspired by several things, and yet not really anything in particular at the same time. There's no real backstory behind it. Just needed to get the feels out~