All the Dots

Tao had wanted to talk to his sister but he figured even if Kris knew he was a mermaid there was no harm in not telling that he in fact a mermaid prince. It was strange but since coming to the human world, he’d began to forget that, maybe because no one treated him like a prince, as obviously they had no clue. He smiled to himself as he lay on the mattress, it was somewhat refreshing. 

“What are you smirking at?” Kris’s quiet voice asked from the bed and Tao jumped.

“How did you know?” He asked in awe, he couldn’t even see in front of his face, how could Kris possibly see him all the way down here?

“I could feel you smirking.”

“I wasn’t smirking, I was just thinking.”

“About what?”

“About how nosey you are.”

“At least you were thinking about me.” Said Kris smoothly and Tao could almost see the wink that he was sure accompanied that statement. 

Silence fell on them again and Tao shifted around on the mattress. There had been an argument over who took the bed and who took the mattress on the floor. Kris had wanted the mattress but Tao wasn’t about to let a guest sleep on the floor and he was extremely stubborn; once he made up his mind, it was just about impossible to sway him. He didn’t regret choosing to sleep on the mattress instead of his bed, but it wasn’t particularly comfortable and despite how easy he usually found it to fall asleep, he just couldn’t get comfortable and kept moving around. 

“Kris?” He asked softly. 

No reply. 

Quietly Tao got up from the mattress and crawled into the bed. He accidentally hit Kris’s leg and froze, but he didn’t wake so Tao stretched out and lay down next to him, smiling happily at being back in the warmth and comfort of his own bed, and it wasn’t long before his eyes closed and he fell asleep.

For once Kris didn’t have nightmares, and he thought it’d be too cheesy to say, but he was pretty sure a cute little panda might have something to do with it. He woke up to feeling something heavy on his legs and chest. Frowning he opened his eyes and blinked. Tao had somehow found his way to the bed, and had wrapped his legs around Kris’s legs and his arms around Kris’s chest. His face was buried in the crook of his neck and his hair was tickling the boy’s chin. 

Tao was mumbling to himself but Kris couldn’t catch any of what he was saying. After a few seconds thought Kris decided that he was actually perfectly comfortable like this and was just going to wait for Tao to wake up. Whenever that was going to be. He felt Tao untangle his legs and the boy suddenly rolled away from him, and the sudden cold air where the boy’s body used to be gave Kris a small shock and he shivered but quickly got up and glanced around the room, before getting up and walking to the bathroom. He had a  quick shower and got changed. He’d borrowed some of Tao’s clothes to wear as pajamas, which were a bit small for him, so it felt good to wear his own clothing. When he was finished he looked over at the bed, but the lump hadn’t moved; Tao was still resolutely asleep. Kris sat on the edge of the bed, the side that Tao had rolled over to, and looked at his face. He was pretty handsome, undoubtedly a lot more attractive than your average human, or even the average supernatural. Kris let out a sigh and ran his hand through his hair in a practiced movement. How frustrating. That this was what his life had been reduced to. Following a stupid mermaid boy around so that he himself could finally go home. Tao shifted slightly, as if he could sense the shift in Kris’s thoughts and the latter looked closer, but he still didn’t wake. 

“Tao.” Kris said, and then repeated himself a bit louder. 

“What?” Tao mumbled, his eyes slightly opening but his voice heavy with sleep. 

“Wake up.” Kris said and poked the boy’s side which elicited a surprised yelp. 

Tao wasn’t expecting a jab to his ribs so the unexpected action woke him right up and he yawned and stretched before smiling at Kris cheerfully. 

“Morning.” He said and Kris raised an eyebrow at him. 

“If you slept for much longer it wouldn’t have been.”

“Shut up.” Tao pouted and looked out of the window. “It’s not that late.”

“It’s late enough. Get up, let’s go.”

“Go where?” Tao said with a frown, he’d only just woken up, and in fact in the face of having to go somewhere that was probably neither the café or the beach was tempted to go back to sleep. 

However he got up and got dressed nonetheless and plodded down the stairs, surprised to find the kitchen empty. 

“Wonder where they are...” He said to himself and then turned to Kris, who’d followed him into the kitchen. “Want anything for breakfast?”

“No.” Kris said simply and Tao turned back around peevishly. 

“Alrighty then.” He opened the freezer and pulled out a pot of ice cream and grabbed a spoon and quickly ate it before throwing it in the bin and the spoon in the sink. 

Kris looked like he wanted to say something, but held back and Tao smiled cheerfully at him feeling better, despite being up about five hours earlier than usual on a Saturday, after an intake of sugar. 

“Shall we go?” He asked and Kris spun on his heel and made his way to the door. 

“Let’s go.” He said and Tao jogged to catch up, grabbing a spare key of the table and locking the door behind him, and running up the street, catching up with Kris’s long strides and elongating his own as to keep up with him. 

“Where are we going?” He asked. 

No reply. 

He tried again. Still nothing. Briefly the young mermaid considered asking again, and then concluded third time lucky. So he repeated himself. However still no reply and Kris’s face was impassive. Tao pouted and sulked for a while. Was it really so hard to answer that simple question? He could’ve just answered with secret. But no, he hadn’t even got a glance in response. 

Now Tao wouldn’t know this, but the reason for his friend’s absences from the house was actually due to a surprisingly similar to his own circumstance. Early in the morning, at least for the household of Baekhyun, Sehun, Tao and now Kyungsoo, his mother having once again moved and seemingly forgotten she had a son. It was almost too convenient he had thought. She’d disappeared without so much as a goodbye, in fact, he hadn’t even known she was gone until he’d visited the house to tell her he was planning to stay with his friend from now on. He felt like it would be an exaggeration to said he had been sad, but an understatement to say it hadn’t hurt. Because even though she’d never cared for him, she was still his mother, and the knowledge that she thought so little of him had stung. But what happened, happened and if she wanted him out of her life, he would stay out. 

Regardless early on Saturday morning Chanyeol had come knocking on the door, and much to Kyungsoo’s shock, had dragged Baekhyun with him to have breakfast in some small beach café. Never mind the fact that Chanyeol all of a sudden knew his address, Baekhyun had been more pre-occupied by the fact that the tall human was wearing a sleeveless tank top, and the sight of his bare arms, a lot more muscular than Baekhyun would’ve thought from looking at the lanky male, was pretty distracting. 

Now that wasn’t all the drama, because after Kyungsoo retired back to the house, still reeling from having two kings visit in less than two days, that Sehun announced his departure, stating he a meeting with his fiancé (Kyungsoo hadn’t even known he had a fiancé) and that he’d be back next week and to tell Tao to not do anything stupid and Baekhyun to use protection and with that he walked right out of the house and disappeared down the road. 

Finally an hour before Tao would be awoken, Kyungsoo was sitting on the sofa, sipping on a hot chocolate and reflecting on his choices and thinking about how strangely normal it was to have such abnormal friends when there was an abrupt knock on the door. Kyungsoo looked at it, a slight crease in between his eyebrows and he unfolded his legs, stood up and opened the door. His jaw just about unhinged when he saw who it was standing in front of him. 

The tall handsome boy in standing on the porch of the house looked as shocked as Kyungsoo felt when he saw who it was that opened the door. The two stared at each for a few moments before Kyungsoo opened his mouth. 

“Hello.” He said uncertainly and that seemed to jerk Kai out of his shock. 

“Uhm, is Chanyeol here?” Kai asked, his voice quiet and shy. 

Kyungsoo blinked, what was with all these ‘kings’ coming round all of a sudden? He pondered what to answer; well Kai was Chanyeol’s friend, there was no harm in telling with that he’d gone out with Baekhyun. So he told him just that and Kai frowned slightly. 

“Baekhyun?” He questioned quietly, more to himself than to Kyungsoo who chose not to answer. 

Kai didn’t really know what to think. He’d been forced by Xiumin to go out and look for Chanyeol were the younger had ran out of the door before having breakfast and everyone had been convinced he was up to no good. So he’d followed the smell of human to a random house he’d never been to before, a house that was such a mix of smells he couldn’t distinguish anything and decided he’d just have to give up and ask if the human he was looking for was there. He’d doggedly walked up the stairs and then knocked on the door and prepared himself to have to speak to someone. He hated speaking to strangers, just like he hated crowds spaces or just crowds of people in general. 

But when the door had been opened by none other by his human mate Kai had been unable to hide his shock. And when it turned out Chanyeol had in fact come here, to ask some guy out nonetheless, Kai had been rendered speechless. What the actual hell? The guy that Chanyeol liked was living with his mate? He saw Kyungsoo shifting awkwardly in the door frame, the boy obviously not knowing where to from here. Kai didn’t really know what to do either. He didn’t want to leave, but he really should leave, Kyungsoo was human. Kai swallowed, he’d have to reject him. Kai suddenly felt a surge of anger towards the small boy in front of him, why did he have to be his mate? There were so many other options, werewolves were rare yes, but they weren’t so rare that they had to resort to mating with humans to continue their race. 

And he was beggining to lose his senses. He knew why; when a werewolf found their mate, but didn’t mate with them, they would begin to lose themselves. First they’d lost their lycan abilities and in such suffer terrible pain from it, slowly they would lose their mind. Unless they rejected them. Kai hadn’t been able to sleep from being in so much pain, he hadn’t expected it to happen so fast, but in two months, he’d already lost the ability to transform and he could feel the power that made him an alpha slipping away. He hadn’t been able to sleep properly for weeks, and he would get random migraines throughout the day. 

Kai bit his lip and repressed his anger, it was all this human’s fault. If he hadn’t come here, then Kai would fine. He wouldn’t be losing his abilities, he wouldn’t be in pain. And rejecting him would probably cause more pain, but it’d be worth it. However, it wouldn’t cause Kyungsoo any pain. He was human so he couldn’t feel the bond. How was that fair? Kai looked up at the innocent boy in front of him, no, this human would have to suffer too, before he rejected him and he would be out of his life forever. An idea began to form in Kai’s head, and small uncharacteristically sadistic smirk spread across his face. He looked up at Kyungsoo, who was staring down at the floor and shuffling his feet. 

“Would you like to go out?” 

“What?” Kyungsoo squeaked looking up in shock and red spread across his cheeks and he began to stutter. “L-l-l-like on a d-d-d-d-d-date? Y-y-you want to go on a d-d-d-date?”

Kai smirked slightly. Too easy. 

But he shrugged in an easy manner and smiled lightly at him. “I wouldn’t say no to someone as cute as you if you asked me.”

Kyungsoo opened and closed his mouths, his blush completely covering his face and he couldn’t speak. What was happening? Did one of the most popular boys just ask him out? Briefly it occured to Kyungsoo that somehow he seemed to find this more shocking then the fact that vampires, fairies and mermaids were real. Was there something wrong with him? But this was Kai, and honestly Kyungsoo would be lying if he said he didn’t have a small crush on the boy. Basically everyone at their school did, and he was no exception. But he’d accepted that the boy was way out of his league, and he was too shy to do anything about his feelings anyways. And it was just a crush. But now, he couldn’t believe this was happening. Firstly he’d coincidently showed up at the house looking for his friend, and now he was asking him out. Well sort of. Wasn’t he?

“Is that a yes?” Said Kai with a small smile, but when Kyungsoo looked in his eyes, they kind of scared him, they looked angry, terrifyingly angry, as if he was daring the human to say no. 

“O-okay.” Kyungsoo quickly agreed and looked away, he was being silly, and when he looked again Kai’s eyes were back to being their soft comforting brown. 

Kai was relieved when the human said yes, he’d never really asked someone out before, and he wasn’t sure how he’d deal with being rejected by a human. By his mate. Not that it mattered, he would be the one rejecting him after all. All he had to do was make Kyungsoo fall in love with him, and didn’t everyone at school have a crush on him? It shouldn’t too hard. And then he’d break his heart, make him hurt like he was hurting now. A small part of Kai was aware that he wasn’t making sense; it wasn’t the human’s fault things were like this, but Kai wanted someone to blame. And the cute, shy little human was a very very easy target.