Forgive any mistakes, I have not yet beta-ed this but i really have to be somewhere RN I'll do so when i return

“… Alright, I’ll tell him. Thanks,” Luhan smiled as he hung up the phone, turning around to see that Tao hadn’t touched his tea at all. He sighed and walked into the kitchen, taking a seat besides the shaking boy and rubbing his back comfortingly, “That was Kyu Hyun. He said the audio has been deleted and the people who put it there will be held accountable for their actions.”

Tao nodded, sniffing slightly as he reached for the cup. He winced in pain when he applied pressure on his hand to pick up the mug, dropping it immediately and spilling its hot contents all over the table. Luhan jumped up and went to retrieve a towel, telling the maknae to get back before it burned him.

“I-I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he repeated over and over, tears that he was once holding back now streaming down his face. Luhan carelessly threw the rag on the table and pulled the younger male into a hug, reassuring him it wasn’t his fault and everything was alright.

Jongdae watched from the kitchen door way, but ultimately had to look away. He felt guilty for putting Tao in such a state; it was his fault after all.

Earlier that morning, He and Tao had been checking their fan site, smiling at all the compliments and laughing at how some of the fans were so determined to become their wives… or husbands. Yeah, things were going great… until that one post happened.

--

“’Tao singing in the shower’?” Jongdae laughed as he read the article title. They were reading a thread about how ‘cute’ Tao was on stage and someone had posted in the comments a link to a different website with that as the subject.

Tao frowned, “What is it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well click it.”

“Impatient, are we?” the Korean male chuckled, clicking the hyper link and being redirected to a sound bite. They turned the volume up and waited for whatever it was to play. Then, 12 seconds later, the muffled voice of the EXOM maknae was heard singing a tune accompanied by the tapping of shower water.

Jongdae laughed, “Maybe you should stick to rapping…”

He trailed off when he turned around and saw a mixture of emotions on his face. Before he knew it, Tao had thrown the laptop.

--

Tao was hurt. He was angry, embarrassed, humiliated, surprised, sad, and scared. Scared of these spontaneous emotions that flooded him, scared of what the obsessed fans will do next. In his moment of blind rage, he had destroyed the computer and punched a rather large hole in the wall. Jongdae, frightened by the sudden turn of events, yelled for Luhan, the only other member in the house.

With an aching hand and a shaken demeanor, he sobbed into the shoulder of the elder, squeezing him tightly but not enough to cause either of them pain.

“I-I’m scared,” he confessed, “I-If they’re that close that they can record t-that, what else can they do?!”

“Shh… it’s okay Tao, Security got them to leave and are making sure they never come back,” Luhan shushed, trying to calm him down again.

“A-are all of our fans like that?” Luhan froze, then pulled back from the hug and flicked the maknae’s forehead, “Ow! Lulu?”

“Are you high off Chanyeol’s crack? Of course they’re not! Don’t group them up with the other exotics.”

Tao hung his head low and nodded; now he felt back for insulting all their other kind, supportive fans. This really wasn’t helping his mood or his self esteem at the moment.

Jongdae snapped his head towards the dorm door, hearing it open rather loudly and flinching when it was slammed shut. Kris walked into the room, carrying two plastic bags straining at the handles looking like they’d snap at any moment.

“Kris? What are you doing back here so early?”

“My morning schedule’s over, my afternoon’s got canceled,” he panted slightly.

“Wait… did you run up 5 flights of stairs-”

“where’s Tao?”

Jongdae frowned and gestured behind him, “Kitchen with Luhan.”

Kris thanked him and walked past, entering the room rather loudly and startling the two members when he dropped the bags on the table with a loud ‘thud.’ He wiped his hands on his coat and looked up at them smiling slightly, “Everything okay.”

Tao turned his head quickly, trying to wipe away the tears that had dried on his face. To his dismay, the leader already saw it. Luhan was the first to speak, returning his half smile with an awkward one, “Hey Kris… Everything’s fine-”

“Liar,” he cut him off, “Hyun Kyun’s waiting in the van for you and Jongdae. He’s a little pissed since a fan girl managed to knock him in the jaw, so I don’t think it’s a god idea making him wait.”

As if on cue, an impatient honk echoed on the almost empty streets outside. Luhan frowned and turned to Tao, giving him a reassuring smile before walking out of the room. He grabbed Jongdae by the wrist, ignoring his whining as he dragged him out the door.

Tao avoided Kris probing gaze and looked at the bags, “… What did you buy?”

“Some things,” Kris opened up one of the bags and took out a DVD, an apple, and some chocolate. He grabbed Tao’s hand and pulled him into the living room, pushing him back on the couch and grabbing a blanket to throw over the younger’s body.

Tao, completely surprised with Kris’s irregular actions, sat back and watched him turn on the DVD player and stick the movie in.

“… Is that Kung Fu Panda?” he asked.

“Kung Fu Panda 2,” He threw the case over his shoulder and left the room. Tao grabbed it from the table it landed on and read the back, his eyes widening with anticipation. He had been waiting forever to see this movie.

Ever since Tao’s little joke about being the Kung Fu panda became popular among exotics, he had decided that the first movie was his favorite. When he heard there was a sequel he begged the manager to let him go see it, but their schedule was too busy to fit in a trip to the movie theatres.

Kris reentered the room carrying a bunch of pillow’s and Woo under his arm. He tossed the pillows to Tao, letting him get comfy with it and grabbed the TV remote. The leader plopped down beside the boy, handing him Woo, the apple, and the small bar of chocolate before pressing play on the title menu.

“I have subs on since the dub kinda ,” he explained, stealing some of the blanket from the maknae. Tao frowned and moved closer to him so he wouldn’t get cold and took a bite from the apple.

--

Half way through the movie, once the apple was eaten and the chocolate was shared, Tao found himself lying on the leader’s lap with a pillow under his head. He laughed occasionally whenever something happened on the TV but none the less remained quiet, thinking about that morning.

“Hey Ge,” he spoke up, tilting his head slightly to look at the leader. He was surprised to see Kris looking back at him, expecting him to have fallen asleep along time ago.

“What’s up?” he asked back, poking his forehead.

“Why did you do this?”

“Do what?”

“This,” he gestured around him.

“Because I was in the mood for watching a movie.”                                         

“Liar.”

“It’s the truth.”

“No it isn’t. You’d rather spend your free time reading self help books or checking up on EXO K.”

Kris frowned, “I do not,” Tao gave him a ‘Really?’ Look and the elder sighed, “I heard what happened with the saengsang fan.”

Tao’s eyes widened, he had nearly forgotten about that, “Oh…”

“Hyun Kyun told me you were upset, so I wanted to make you feel better,” Kris waited for the younger to respond. He looked down and only saw the top of his head, figuring Tao had looked away because he was still upset, “Yah, me trying to make you feel better will be pointless if you complain later about missing the movie- Hey!”

Tao wrapped his arms around the leader’s waist, catching him of guard, and hugged him tightly. Kris jumped with the sudden contact and attempted to push him away, but stopped when he felt his shirt start to get wet. The maknae was crying, and Kris was worried that he had done something to upset him even more.

“Tao… Zitao… are you okay?” he asked, rubbing his shaking shoulder lightly. Tao said something, but it was muffled by the elder’s clothes, “Was it something I said? I’m sorry Zitao, please don’t cry.”

“Y-You’re too nice Ge,” Tao sniffed, pulling away and sitting up. He rubbed his eyes furiously, trying to stop his tears, and grabbed Woo, hugging the panda even harder, “I-I don’t even know why I’m crying, b-but-”

“It’s okay,” Kris cut him off, hugging him from behind, “It’s fine. You don’t have to justify crying. It’s alright Zitao.”

He nodded, sniffing a little and leaning back into the elder’s touch, “I-I need to stop crying so much.”

“It’s not a bad thing to cry.”

“B-But you never cry Ge,” he turned his head to the side, “I’ve only seen you cry twice. Once when we learned we were going to debut and then when we won that award.”

Kris shrugged, “I can’t help that.”

Tao looked like he wanted to say something, but closed his mouth and nodded, “Thanks for cheering me up Ge.”

“You’re welcome,” he smiled back, “Now finish the movie.”

“Aish, so bossy- OH MY GOD WHAT HAPPENED?!”