Kris woke up early that morning. Lay was still fast asleep. Kris tried to fall asleep again, but to no avail. He attributed the insomnia to his anxiety about the first day of school (even though he was pretty sure he wasn’t anxious at all). He groggily ambled out into the kitchen in hopes that Luhan had already prepared breakfast.

            Luhan wasn’t even in the kitchen.

            But Tao was.

            “Oh, hey,” Kris greeted. Tao looked up from the book he was reading, surprised to see someone in the kitchen as well. “Did you sleep well?”

            “Yes,” Tao replied shyly.

            “That’s good. Uh, do you know if Lay and Kai bought any food for breakfast?”

            “No, they didn’t. I checked,” Tao explained.

            “Goddamn it. I’m starving,” Kris complained, looking through the empty cabinets, hoping that perhaps Tao had missed the one with food in it. He hadn’t. “Well,” he continued, “the store is close. Wanna go get some breakfast?”

            “You…you and me?” Tao ventured.

            “Yeah, aren’t you hungry?”

            “Yeah…”

            “Okay then, let’s go!” Kris cried.

            “But you’re still in your pajamas,” Tao pointed out quietly.

            “Oh…right,” Kris said. “Let me put on some real pants and then we can go, okay? Write a note to the guys saying we went to get food.” He sped back into his room and pulled a pair of jeans on as quickly as possible. He raced back into the kitchen only to find Tao staring at a blank piece of paper.

            “You didn’t write the note yet?” Kris asked.

            “But what do I write?” Tao wondered aloud. “I can’t write a good note.”

            “Just write something; it doesn’t matter what. I’m hungry!” Kris said. Tao looked back down at the paper and began to scribble some words.

            “Is this okay?” Tao asked hesitantly, showing Kris the note.

            Hello, this is Tao. We went out to find food. Thank you for your patience.

            Kris couldn’t help but chuckle at the extremely cute yet extremely awkward note in his hand.

            “It’s fine,” he smiled. “Let’s go.” Tao followed him out of their dorm and down the small street. He didn’t say anything the entire way to the convenience store.

            When they got there, Kris was at a loss. What kinds of foods could you eat for breakfast that you could also find at a convenience store? Not to mention that school started in an hour. They wouldn’t have time to cook anything.

            “Uh,” Kris hesitated. He turned around to ask Tao what he thought, but Tao wasn’t there.

            “Tao?” Kris called out. Tao peeked out his head from behind a shelf. Kris walked over to him and saw that Tao was picking out several boxes of cereal.

            “Corn flakes or rice puffs?” Tao asked.

            “Corn…flakes…” Kris decided, looking at Tao all the while. “Also, uh, did you bring any money? Because I left my wallet at the dorm…”

            “I took some from the allowance,” Tao explained, deciding between the generic brand of corn flakes and the name brand. “I think we should take this one. It’s cheaper.”

            “Tao, you’re really good at this. You’re so prepared.”

            “Well, if I wasn’t, we’d have wasted time.”

            “That’s true,” Kris said. It was suddenly a completely different side of Tao that Kris wasn’t used to.

            “But…can you buy it? I don’t like having to talk to people,” Tao said, eyeing the cashier warily. Kris sighed in relief. The cute Tao he knew wasn’t completely gone.

            Relief? Cute? Kris wondered to himself. Wait, no. I didn’t mean cute. I meant…

            His thoughts trailed off when he found himself unable to think of a better word. He smiled at Tao instead, taking the boxes of cereal and the money Tao had brought. Tao followed him to the register where Kris handed the boxes to the cashier.

            “It’s five thousand won, please,” she said, eyeing Kris. “Hey, are you new around here?”

            “Uh, yeah, we moved here yesterday,” Kris replied. The cashier was pretty. She smiled at him flirtatiously and Kris grinned back in reflex.

            “I’m Saemi, by the way,” she said.

            “Kris,” Kris replied.

            “Tao,” Tao coughed, and suddenly Kris remembered he was there. He had expected Tao to stay completely silent while at the register.

            “Well, I guess I’d better go. Thanks,” Kris said, and Saemi looked disappointed. He led Tao out of the store and back towards the dorms. “She was pretty, huh?” he asked.

            “I guess,” Tao muttered. “She seemed pushy.”

            “She only said like three sentences; how could you tell she was pushy?”

            “There should be a wall between customers and employees. She shouldn’t mix personal life and business.”

            “That’s a strong statement,” Kris remarked. Maybe Tao was a really conservative person like that.

            “It’s not. It’s only common sense.”

            “Tao, you’re an interesting person,” Kris said, looking at Tao all the while. Tao stared at him silently.

            “Interesting?” he said hoarsely. He looked dejected somehow.

            “Interesting in a good way,” Kris hurried to clarify. “I promise.”

            “They used to call me interesting at my old school. But…I think it was just a replacement word for something worse.”

            Kris suddenly felt a pang of pity. Tao’s eyes seemed to become duller when he was sad.

            “Then I don’t mean interesting. I mean…” Kris struggled to find a better word.  “You make me curious,” he finally decided.

            “Why?” Tao asked.

            “I still haven’t quite figured out your personality,” he laughed. “Don’t take it the wrong way. I mean that in the best way possible.”

            “I’m just Tao,” Tao tried to explain.

            “That’s pretty complicated though,” Kris replied. “You can’t define yourself as ‘just Tao,’ because ‘just Tao’ is…you know, all of you. And all of you is a lot to define.”

            “Then what are you?” Tao asked.

            “Just Kris,” Kris laughed as they entered the dorm.

            “Oh,” Chen said as they walked in. He was watching TV with Suho. Suho looked surprised to see them together.

            “Where were you?” Suho asked.

            “Oh, they left a note,” Chen explained. “Baekhyun showed it to me when he woke up.”

            “Luhan didn’t make anything while we were gone, did he?” Kris asked.

            “Luhan’s still asleep,” Chen said. “But the others are in the kitchen and I think Xiumin is in the shower. Nobody’s made any food yet, since you guys said you’d get something.”

            “We got cereal,” Kris said. “Come on, Tao, let’s go put this stuff in the kitchen.” Tao followed Kris silently into the kitchen, where Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Sehun were sitting on the counter.

            “YES you got food!” Chanyeol cried. “I’m so hungry!”

            “Where’s everyone else?” Kris asked. Tao stepped closer to Kris as Kai came into the kitchen.

            “Ah,” he said as he saw Tao. He moved away slowly to go sit next to Sehun. Kris noticed.

            “Let’s sit and eat,” Kris said. “Tao, you can sit next to me.”

            “I’ll go wake up Luhan,” Sehun volunteered, scurrying off to his and Luhan’s shared room. Kris took six bowls and handed six more to Tao to bring into the dining room, where they found Lay and Kyungsoo sitting at the table.

            “Is it food time yet?” Kyungsoo asked.

            “Yup,” Kris replied as he set bowls out for everyone. Xiumin, Chen, and Suho ambled into the kitchen. “Here. Cereal.”

            “Awesome,” Lay said. Suddenly they heard a yell.

            “No!” Luhan cried. “No! Stop!”

            “Is Sehun still in there?” Chanyeol asked. They all looked at each other and simultaneously jumped up to see what was the matter. All ten of them raced into Luhan’s room only to find that Luhan was tangled up in his blankets, Sehun attempting futilely to get him out of bed.

            “He won’t get up!” Sehun cried in exasperation.

            “You can’t make me!” Luhan yelled again. “I’m going to stay here!”

            “Luhan!” Suho scolded, “get up. We have school in half an hour and you still need to get dressed and eat. Otherwise we’re not going to let you sleep in this room anymore. You’ll sleep on the couch in the living room and Sehun will have the room all to himself. You don’t want that, do you?”

            “No…” Luhan mumbled. Kris wasn’t convinced that Luhan was only referring to the fact that he didn’t want to sleep on the couch.

            “Then get up and get dressed. We’re eating now.”

            “Umma,” Chen laughed, and Suho punched him playfully as the boys all returned to the dining room.

            “Man, I thought for sure Sehun was—” Chanyeol began, but Baekhyun gave him a death glare and he silenced himself immediately. Kyungsoo coughed awkwardly.

            “Uh,” he said. “Can you pass me the cereal please?” Lay passed the box over. By the time they all had poured out their cereal, Luhan and Sehun trudged into the room, Luhan looking extremely irritated.

            “Why does school have to start so early?” he complained.

            “Come on,” Sehun said, “you’ll feel better when you’ve eaten.”

            “Am I the only one who’s nervous for the first day?” Kyungsoo asked.

            “I am a little,” Baekhyun replied. Chanyeol looked at him and then announced that he too was nervous.

            “Honestly, I just hope there are cute girls at the school,” Kai shrugged.

            “I don’t really care about that,” Luhan said, and Kris could have sworn that Sehun glanced at him.

            “That guy from yesterday…what was his name?” Xiumin asked.

            “Jungsu?” Lay offered.

            “Yeah. He’s our teacher, right?”

            “He’s our homeroom teacher,” Chen explained. “But we’ll have different teachers for different subjects.”

            The boys kept talking, but Kris couldn’t help notice that Tao was eating in silence.

            “What about you, Tao?” Kris asked quietly. “Are you nervous at all?”

            “Yes,” he replied softly, so that only Kris could hear.

            “Don’t be. Everyone will warm up to you, and you seem smart, so I’m sure nothing will be a problem.”

            “I’m less nervous today than I was yesterday before we moved in,” he replied. “Thank you,” he added so quietly that if Kris hadn’t seen his lips move he would have thought it was just a breeze.

            Cute, Kris thought, before realizing (again) that it wasn’t the word he had really meant.

            For some reason, he couldn’t think of what he had meant.

Taoris: The ship that sails itself.

A/N: You don't know how much fun I'm having with this fic. I love writing it, and I love the responses I'm getting. You guys are seriously the best readers a girl could ask for. Also, which pairings (besides Hunhan, Baekyeol, and Taoris of course, because those are set) do you want to see?

I will now faithfully try to reply to all comments! 

@UndergroundMemories: Aw yay~

@JangDaeByul: GOOD that's what I was going for :)

@Writtendlessly: Hopefully by the end of this you do ship them ;P

@AlwaysMe-: Because not only is he a wushu master, he's also an aegyo master!

@Galdy42: Ohhhh my gosh your comment is lovely~ I'm so happy you like it and I'm extremely flattered that you think it's well written. Thank you so much!

@karinav915: Kekekeke thank you!

@BlueStarLover: Yeah, all the fics I've read so far haven't characterized Tao like I want, so I figured I'd write it. Kyungsoo = D.O! I used all their stage names except for his because...like, his name is D.O. So. Yeah.

@KyuMinLover123: Aw I'm happy!

@PurplePluto: I'm glad you think he's well-characterized!!

@Kelsii: Tadah~

@clarene: Surprising, huh? Kekekeke.

@vanndee13: TAO IS MY BIAS TOO <3

@chigire: GOOD I'm so happy thank you! I'm excited for it too, honestly~

@mellissa: Thanks for commenting <3

@aznmusiklife: I think he's adorable :D

@Renzei27: Wahhhhh I'm so happy that everyone likes my characterizations~

@deerkey: Thank you <3

@kawaiikimbap: Kekekekeke I'm so so so happy you like it :) WE SHOULD BE FRIENDS :D

@deathangeL_se7en: I know right? It's soooo hard to choose an exo bias...I mean, Tao is mine but everyone else is 2nd place for me ^^;;

@asongforvicki: Favorite Taoris fic? You flatter meeeee <3 Thank you!

@kitty_kat: New favorite :D THANK YOU <3

@Cha-Nana: I'm getting so much love; this means a lot. Thank you <3 <3

@fyrefox233: KIDNAP? OMO D: But I'm happy you like the storyyy~

@Staceyftw: Yup will do!

@thesahara: Thank you so much <3

@Claire: That's just what I was getting at :)

@thehunhan: I personally find him unbearably adorable.

@FeliciaT: You'll see~

@Nakonoshi: Trust me, I told her (with lots of tears) "WAE U MEAN TO MAI BIAS?" and she apologized kekeke.

@LingView: ME TOO :D

@cminutebyminute: Yay thanks!

@tokichan: Eheheheheh thank you!

@Lefantasy: Yup yup! Voila!

@13aholic: Yeah I'm trying to work in the other pairings subtlely...maybe not that much subtlety though kekeke~

@s7herry: Me too~

@sujushinee888: This is as far as I've written as of now~ But I'm working hard! I will try not to disappoint!

@maknaesara: Yaysies, thank you!!

@SadisticRainbows: WAE U MEAN TO MAI BIAS?? Nah, just kidding. I'm glad you're reading this anyway :)

@demonic_angel0711: I love how Tao calls himself a kungfu panda.

@sliverphoenix: YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY I'M HAPPY IT MADE YOUR DAY :D

@AsianDrama: YUS! Thanks for that :)

♥ Exie (and sorry for these ridiculously long ANs, but...I want you all to know that I read and love every single comment!)