It was night, right after dinner time when the gloomy sky with thunderous noises shrouded the castle perfectly. It had been raining for so long that maybe, the weather really affected the student’s mood. It was comfortable, silent yet noisy, not like those noises from the chirping birds near the black lake, or the dancing trees, but the gentle raindrops like the humming songs from the school’s choir.

Noisy, yet beautiful.

With weather like this, the great hall was left abandoned, when usually students would spend their time chatting or doing homeworks, mainly the Ravenclaws because apparently it was good to share thoughts with the other houses. Tonight, everyone chose on staying  in their respective common rooms.

---

Zitao was nervous. It was 9 pm, and he couldn’t help but pacing nervously at his room. An hour left before this “secret mission”  with his fellow 4th year prefect, Oh Sehun. He knew he was on a suicide mission if his housmates found out he’d be hanging around with a Gryffindor. What if I they find out? What would they do?

Zitao agreed to the young prefect Gryffindor because he was glad someone his age actually talked to him. It had been a long time since he held a long, nice conversation other than Kris, so he couldn’t help but felt excited and anxious at the same time.

“What up, Huang?”

Zitao flinched. Right. He actually forgot that his roomates were here.

The troublemakers.

“Um...waiting for my shift?”

“Oh! I’ve always wanted to do night patrolls, how was it like?”

The boy asked Zitao curiously. He was a 4th year, same as Zitao. He had darker skin, probably as dark as Zitao himself, only with  perfectly styled brown hair. Zitao thought how could a guy, the troublemaker Jongin, looked good while Zitao looked as lame as professor Snape’s mopped hair. Aside from that, Zitao was thankful the boy didn’t hate him like the other housemates. 

“Duh, Kim Jongin, of course night patrolls are always fun. That means more time by yourself, or, your partner, which means, more time to do y stuffs.”

The other boy exclaimed, laughing histerically at his own explanation. He was Kim Jongdae, a 5th year, famous for accidently conjured the bombarda maxima charm in his 3rd year and blew the class up. The master of Jinxes. A guy with mischivious grin that looked like a cat. Dangerous one.

“Shut up Jongdae, it’s not like that panda over there have someone to spent his night shift with, right Huang?”

When Zitao was about to answer, Jongdae cutted him

“You prick, Zitao here, is dating that almighty dragon, Kris Wu, you uncultured swine.”

Zitao widened his eyes. What?!

“Ouch really?! Man, I didn’t know that! You’re so lucky you got to that hot piece, or is it the other way around? I mean, from what I heard Kris has big-“

“Wai- I- you’re wrong, I’m not dating Kris!” Zitao panicked, he didn’t know where this stupid rumour came from but he wasn’t going to listen to the nonsense the Kims were going to tell. They weren’t even twins to begin with, nor share the same mother, but really, how could they be so cohesively evil?

“You’re not dating Kris? Not yet?” Jongdae Smiled, more like smirked.

This guy is dangerous.

“Hyung!” Zitao whined, his face was burning red. He was nervous enough with this secret mission thingy, and now he had to face the evil troublemakers, like really?

“Gosh Zitao, you’re so easy to read! We practically knew you have a big fat crush with that face dragon.” Jongdae and Jongin now laughing and high fiving themselves, and Zitao mentally kicked them in the faces.

“So, when are you going to confess?”

What is wrong with this conversation?!

“I- I’m not dating Kris! I don’t have a big fat crush- And no confessions, not now, not tomorrow, not- just no!” Zitao huffed and he stomped out from his room, leaving the two still laughing, and Zitao hoped they choked on their own saliva.

If Gryffindor had the twin Weasleys as troublemakers, Slytherin had the Kims.

Which probably worse.

---

Zitao was pissed, he was now stomping to the Slytherin’s common room rather hardly, how could the Kims said those nasty jokes? It wasn’t like Zitao had a crush with Slytherin’s headboy, it was only a mere of adoration to the older boy.

Right.

He was so deep in his personal cursing to the Kims that he didn’t know he bumped into someone’s back and fell on his .

Great.

It was none other than his object of frustation himself, Kris Wu. The older stared down deep into his eyes, those beautiful dark orbs but fierce and Zitao really wanted to find a charm that could possibly freed him from those intense stares.

“You’re still here? The other left 15 minutes ago, you’re not joining them?” Kris asked, his deep voice really gave Zitao shivers down his spine.

“I was planning to catch up now though..” Zitao lied, he knew the other prefects intentionally left him to patrolled alone. He dusted his imaginary dirt on his pants and nervously staring at the carpet, not daring to stare into those dark eyes anymore.

“So you’re planning to go patrolling in the dungeon alone?” Kris raised his brows, looking at the boy with confusion.

Not alone. With a Gryffindor prefect Oh Sehun, isn’t that great?

 But Zitao wouldn’t say that out loud because who knew what the headboy would do to him.

“Alright, tonight I’ll go with you and-“

“NO!!”

Both Kris and Zitao were surprised by the harsh rejection.

“I- I mean, you’re busy and probably tired right? I- um- It’s my duty as a Slytherin prefect to do my responsibilities. t-that’s right! b-because I’m a part of Slytherin! So, if you kindly excuse me, I’ve got works to do. Good night Kris.”

Zitao shamelessly walked past the headboy like he didn’t just stutter, opened the door with heads up and he was really proud of himself for saying those mature sentences. Kris only looked to the boy with mouth slightly opened, confused for what was happening just now.

Not two minutes after Zitao left, Kris was ready to head back to his room when the door opened again and Zitao walked in, this time, face pale and whimpering, voice shaking and Kris knew Zitao was holding back his cries.

“Can you go with me to second floor, Kris gege?”

All confidences were long gone. It was a bad idea the moment Zitao stepped outside Slytherin common room. The stairs and the halls were pitch black, the sound of the thunders just made it worse and he didn’t have his wand so he didn’t  want to risked his savety, not when he still believed pixie cornishes existed in the castle. He was willing to do anything to keep himself from any pixies, even if that embarassing himself infront of Kris.

How lame.

Kris could only sighed, he couldn’t say no, not when Zitao just called him “gege” which was a rare experience these days. So he walked to the boy, answered a soft ‘alright’, and closing the door behind them.

---

“So, why second floor? The dungeon is in the basement though?”

They were now walking in the dark hall, Kris leading the way while Zitao silently and nervously  walking behind the headboy, clutching the older’s robe tightly like a lost puppy and his master. Zitao would be thrilled if he were to walk with Kris, just the two of them only when he wasn’t nervous enough because Kris was now leading Zitao to second floor, what kind of excuses would he tell the older so he won’t ruined his plan to Gryffindor’s stalls?

“Zitao?”

“O-ohh? Yes?”

“I said, why second floor? I thought I asked you to go check the dungeon?”

Incoming interogation!

“Oh! Right! That- um..I’m planning to check on second floor first before going down to the dungeon. I heard a complaint that there were some paintings who always cried at midnight. Maybe I could talk to the thing?”

Zitao wasn’t entirely lying though. He heard from Sehun yesterday after they chatted some more in professor Slughorn’s class that when he patrolled, the second floor paintings were noisy. They always snored and some of the paintings had babies and cried at midnight so Sehun said it was kinda disturbing patrolling even with partners.

And Kris actually believed it. Who wouldn’t? Kris had seen the boy being friendly and sometimes talked to the school paintings, so if Zitao talking to the paintings could solve the problem why not?

“I see..so why asked me to go with you? Just now you said I was probably tired, and something about responsibilities? What happenned to those?” Zitao knew, even without looking, Kris was smirking.

“It was too dark..” Zitao mumbled quitely, but enough to be heard by Kris.

“You’re so hopeless”, Kris chuckled.

They continued walking in comfortable silence and when they reached the second floor just after climbing the stairs, Zitao stopped Kris and asked the headboy to left him just there so he could continue his “duty”. Or like sneaking to Gryffindor’s boy stalls.

“Why? I’m here already, might just go check with you.”

Zitao insisted that Kris should really just go back and rest, because he wasn’t going to risked for getting caught meeting with the Gryffindor prefect, not with the headboy himself. Finally after so much whining from the younger with ‘please gege, I can do this!’ and a bit of puppy eyes, Kris gave up and agreed to leave the boy, walking down the stairs, until he realised something.

“By the way Zitao, Where’s your wand?”

But Zitao was no longer in sight, gone in the pitch black halls.

---

Bad decision.

Zitao was now creeping like a starfish on the wall, walking very slowly. After Kris had left, the halls seemed to be darker and more dangerous. It was pitch black, and the only time he could see was when the lightning constantly , the bright light illuminating him, bless the gigantic glass windows throughtout the halls. Sehun was right, the second floor paintings snored like pigs and the sound really was disturbing. The thunders didn’t really help to ease the situation either. Only worse.

Zitao was cursing internally, he didn’t even know which way to Gryffindor’s boy stalls and worse, he couldn’t see anything. Sehun had said something about ‘near the lady with crown flower and blue dress, carrying her baby’. Zitao had heard about the infamous painting of the lady in blue before, but with a condition like this he wasn’t sure anymore. So with no plan, he decided to just marched forward, quickening his pace when the lightning so he could see clearly.

---

“You’re sooo late, dude.”

Sehun had waited Zitao for god how long, altough the boy was only late for 20 minutes. It wasn’t that Zitao purposedly late, the boy then explained what happenned for the past hours from his troublemaker roomates and their nasty jokes, or that he practically begged Kris to accompany him.  

“Woah, so your roommates knew you have a big fat crush with your headboy?”

“What?! It was Jongdae- I don’t have a- gosh, what is wrong with you, you’re supposed to be on my side?!” Zitao frowned and it only made Sehun wanted to laugh harder but he held it back because, night time.

“Right right. Let’s go now shall we? It’s getting late already.”

---

They were now walking in the dungeon, the halls seemed to be darker because dungeons didn’t require gigantic glass windows like the ones in the halls. Sehun steadily held his wand while Zitao gripped the Gryffindor’s left arm with both of his hands in case Sehun tried to flee altough Zitao knew, never in a history, Gryffindors abandoned their comrades.

Right?

“So, this is probably the weirdest thing I’ve ever done. I mean, patrolling with a Slytherin prefect who is now sticking too closely for his dear life, and we’re actually looking for his lost wand.” Sehun exclaimed, he wasn’t annoyed judging by the tone he used, only interested in the Slytherin’s explanation.

“Don’t you have any spells, like anything that might help our search instead of sticking my problems to my face?” Zitao groaned, it had been 45 minutes since they started searching and he was ready giving up anytime soon.

Sehun only rolled his eyes.

“Fine. Accio!”

It was a summoning charm for nearest small objects, and instead of his wand, a big frame suddenly hit Zitao square on the face.

“Sehun, what the heck?!” Zitao hissed, rubbing his now reddened nose and forehead. If Zitao had his wand, he would throw Sehun in the air no doubt.

“I- I’m sorry god I didn’t know! Hahaha” Zitao knew Sehun didn’t intentionally summonned the big frame but the Gryffindor prefect didn’t seem guilty.

“You’re lucky I don’t have my wand right now. By the way, what is this?” Zitao picked the big frame that just hit him, Sehun brought his wand close to the frame so they could examine more.

A big, dusty, empty frame with no photos. It was half Zitao’s body, what was a frame doing in the dungeon?

“Weird. I didn’t see this yesterday when I patroled.”

“That’s because you chickened out and ran to your common room.”

Zitao slapped Sehun’s arm to shushed the boy, and it worked. He felt a little uneasy. This event was too weird, he thought to himself.

“Hey Sehun, don’t you think this is weird?”

“Of course it’s weird. I’ve told you, this is the weirdest thing I’ve ever-“

“No! I mean the frame. Why is it here? It has no photos or pictures. Why?”

Sehun furrowed his brows. Come to think of it, he was summoning a wand earlier, Sehun was sure he had Zitao’s wand in his mind. Not a big, dusty photo frame, so he was sure it wasn’t him who summonned the frame. Zitao was right. This was just too weird.

“So, what to do now?”

“I don’t know..” Both prefects just stood still, exchanging stares in case the other had something in their mind.

“Zitao? Sehun?”

They were startled, but then relaxed when a Ravenclaw boy appeared with his wand pointing at them. Zitao was awed, the boy looked really handsome with a dimple and brunette hair. He was a Ravenclaw prefect, of course, judging by the “prefect”  badge and his blue robe. Zitao once saw him walking on the same class with Jongdae, so he must be a 5th year.

“Oh hi Yixing, patrolling alone?” Sehun greeted the other, and Zitao was surprised they knew each other.

“Yeah. I just came from the west wing. You and Zitao patrolling together?”

“You know my name?” Zitao gasped, how could he didn’t know this handsome prefect yet the other party knew his name? He felt guilty now.

The Ravenclaw boy chuckled, showing his deep dimple.

“Of course. You’re Kris’ little sidekick. So, what do you guys have here?” Zitao ignored the ‘little sidekick’ words and gave Yixing the big frame they just discovered.

“We just found this photo frame. Do you know who this belongs to?”

Yixing took the thing, it was surprisingly light for such a big frame, examining it seriously. The 4th year prefects stayed silent, didn’t want to disturb the older in his thoughts. It took 5 minutes for Yixing to get few answers, better than Sehun and Zitao.

“This is no photo frame. This is a painting. See? The material in the middle surface is a canvas.”

Sehun and Zitao nodded, encouraging the older to continue.

“If this is a painting, that means this belongs to the castle. Now, dungeons don’t have exclusive decorations, so someone must’ve brought it here.”

Both 4th year stared in awe. The stereotypes were true, Ravenclaws really are a bunch of geniuses.

“But it’s empty. no potraits, no nature paintings, nothing.” Zitao asked.

“I still couldn’t figure that out, but the canvas surface is not dry and there were bits of oil paintings left.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know. Yet. We should tell the professors. For now, let’s just go back. It’s getting late.”

Yixing bid goodnight to both young prefects, the frame was savely in Yixing’s arms. The oldest of the three determined to examine it further, saying ‘I’ll try looking for more answers before sleep’ and Zitao also Sehun trusted the older more than themselves.

“So..what now? you still want to go look for your wand?” Thanks to the frame incident, they almost forgotten the real mission they were doing.

“Let’s just go back..it’s getting late, and I don’t want to get scolded by Kris anymore.” Zitao sighed, he gave up looking for his wand, Kris’ wrath is now his priority.

“Alright, we can start looking tomorrow again.” Sehun patted Zitao’s back, the Slytherin boy looked up with wide eyes.

“You’re willing to go with me? again?”

“Of course, it’s fun being with you. I’m curious on what objects might hit you in the face tomorrow” Sehun mocked, but he really did enjoy being with Zitao. He usually patrolled with Joonmyun, a 6th year Griffindor’s headboy but the older was such a gramps, he was boring and too serious for his own good.

Zitao scowled, but smiled anyway because he did too, enjoy being with Sehun.

“come on, I’ll take you to your common room. You just hit your face, you wouldn’t want to tripped over something because of the darkness”

Zitao slapped Sehun’s arm for the last time.

---

Zitao opened the common room’s door, the green fire still burning so someone must be in the lounge. What he didn’t expect, was when he saw Kris sleeping on the couch comfortably with books scattered on the floor. Was he waiting for me? Should I wake him up?  but everyone knew waking a sleeping Kris was a suicide mission so Zitao debated weather he should do that or not. But he didn’t want the older to sleep on the couch, So he chose the first one.

He tiptoed to where Kris was sleeping, but before waking the dragon up, he took a brief moment to admire the older’s sleeping face. His silver hair wasn’t styled anymore, but that only made him look ier. His lips parted and even in his sleeping state, his brows furrowed like he was angry. Suddenly Jongdae’s words echoed in his head.

“we practically knew you have a big fat crush with that face dragon!”

Zitao shook the thoughts, trying to ignore his increasing heartbeat and gently woke Kris up.

“Kris? wake up.”

The headboy furrowed his brows even more, and shifted his sleeping position so now Zitao was facing Kris’ back.

“Kris, wake up!” Zitao now shaking Kris’ body violently, and when there was a groan coming from the older’s mouth, he instantly stopped and backed away, in case the dragon spat fire, like that even possible.

“Zitao? You’re back?” Kris lazily asked, eyes still droopy from the harsh waking up method.

“Yes, you shouldn’t sleep here gege, you might get sick.” Zitao pinched the older’s cheeks, hoping to wake him up even more. The older took both Zitao’s hands and narrowed his eyes, but a small smile plastered on his face. “I was waiting for you, peach.”

Zitao’s heart raced even faster. It had been a long time Kris called him "peach" since the younger decided to distance himself from Kris. Kris had told him several times when they were still close, that Zitao smelled like sweet peaches, smelling the younger’s scent time to time and boy, that made Zitao acted all squeling and awkward. Zitao must be staring blankly when this time, it was Kris’ turn to pinched his cheeks.

“Zitao? Hey?”

Zitao blinked several times and Kris was looking at him weirdly with raised brow.

“You should’ve gone to sleep though, it’s not like I’m late this time.” Zitao mumbled, helping the older to stand, and walking back to their respective rooms. They were silent until Kris broke the cold air.

“Good night peach” Kris smirked, and Zitao really wanted to punch the headboy’s face.

So he hurriedly went inside his room, closing the door and he thanked god that his roomates were fast asleep, because now his face was as red as Sehun’s robe and he was sure if the Kims saw that they would non stop. It was also not the only thing that worried him.

The increasing heartbeat seemed to be teasing him too.

Hello! Author here! Thank you for the warming supports, I didn’t expect you guys would actually read my writings huhuhu thank you!! ;_;

And yay for new characters appearance! Jongdae, Jongin, and Yixing huehue. I’m planning to not rush with the plot, but here you can see some of Taoris interactions tehee<3

For the messy Taoris drawings as cover(I’m sorry);;;, I drew them by myself, just so you guys could picture how they looked like in the story. (Basically Tao is MAMA era though). And once again, I’m very sorry for my messy english, it’s not my native language, but I hope it won’t affect the story much :’)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter and please keep supporting Taoris! woohoo!

Love, Author