Kris was drained. Today's schedule had him running ragged with different interviews, dance practices and traveling. They had landed in China only a couple of days ago, but the leader still wasn't quite accustomed to the time difference. Sure it was barely an hour, but that was an hour he could have used to rest. Still, he didn't want to let his exotics down and hid the weariness behind his poker face; maybe that was why people thought he had a face.

Needless to say as soon as the leader stepped through the door, the facade vanished and he acted like what he really was: a 22 year old trapped with the mental capacity of a 12 year old boy.

"I don't want to move," he whined and slumped against the wall. 

Luhan rolled his eyes and stepped over him, making his way to the kitchen while the other members poked the elder's side.

"Yah, get out of the way duizhang," Lay frowned, jabbing his stomach with his foot. Kris grabbed the offending limb before it could touch him again and laughed as the vocal fell forward. 

He ignored the brunette’s protest and grabbed his bag, ruffling Jongdae's perfectly styled hair and disappearing towards his bedroom. 

Kris opened the door, resisting the urge to run towards his bed and jump under the covers. The idea actually didn't sound so bad at the moment, but the human shaped lump on top of it told him otherwise. Tao's black hair peeked through the blankets and soon his sleep deprived five followed afterwards. He nodded in an acknowledgment and furrowed back under the mass of comfort.

"Huang ZiTao," the leader spoke, exhaustion evident in his voice, "What are you doing in my bed?"

"The AC is broken; my room is colder than the North Pole," his muffled reply made the elder shake his head.

"Tell the manager then."

"Later."

"No, now."

"That would require me leaving the bed Ge."

"Exactly," Kris kicked the door behind him and started stripping his winter wear off.

"Which requires movement."

"I know."

"Which is something I don't have enough energy for."

"Tao," He warned. The younger lifted his head up, staring at him blankly, "Get out of my bed."

"...No."

"I'm not asking."

"I'm not leaving," the maknae rolled around a bit, making enough room to fit another body on the bed and lifted the sheets, "You're welcome to join me."

Kris sighed in defeat. Normally he would have grabbed the boy's legs, regardless of his martial arts skills, and dragged him out of his room. However, he didn't have the energy for that and settled for dragging his body towards the welcoming bed and flopping down on it. His eyes closed the minute he made contact with the soft material; he felt a light weight on his back as Tao flung comforter over him and groaned as his muscles relaxed.

"How many times have we shared a bed?" Kris asked lazily, his words slurred together with lack of care for sounding intelligent.

"I lost count after the one night on the couch."

"A couch isn't a bed."

"I count anything that can be slept on as a bed."

"So a table?"

"If it's long enough," Kris rolled his eyes and shifted to his side, facing Tao and feeling his soft breaths hit his chin, "Ge, don't sleep for too long."

"Why?" he cracked an eye open and saw Tao furrow his brows together in confusion.

"Don't you know what today is?"

"November?" he yawned.

Tao stared at him wide eyed for a minute before sighing and pulling the covers closer to him, "I'll wake you up later."

"You can try."

--

It felt only a couple of minutes had passed before Kris’s shoulder started to shake. He frowned and reluctantly opened his eyes, seeing that the room was much darker and the maknae besides him was sitting straight up. He cursed and rolled away, all sense of danger lost as he fell off the bed.

“Ow!” he yelled, cradling his side and sitting up.

“Wow Ge, this isn’t like you at all,” Tao laughed, sliding down the bed next to him and rubbing the injured appendage.

Kris narrowed his eyes at him and looked around for a clock, “What time is it?”

“8:07.”

“Why did you wake me up?”

“We slept through dinner. Your stomach woke me out. it sounded like a starved monster seeing food for the first time in 3 years.”

“it probably would be dead then.”

Kris’s stomach the growled rather loudly and made the owner’s cheeks turn a rare shade of red. Tao smirked, “Sounds lively to me. Come on Ge, let’s go eat.”

He rolled his eyes and nodded, standing up on wobbly legs as the raven haired boy pulled him up. He scratched his stomach as he left the room and stumbled down the dark hallway.

“What happened to the lights?” he frowned, flicking the nearest switch on and off.

“I don’t know,” Tao replied, though his voice hinted at amusement more than confusion. Kris chose to ignore it and used a light glow from the kitchen to guide himself there.

“Where are the other members?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yeah you do-”

“Surprise!” four loud, harmonies voices flooded through the apartment, surprising the leader as the sudden light of the kitchen flashed on and blinded him. He covered his eyes quickly and blinked a few times, adjusting to the brightness before being taken aback by the sight.

Luhan, Lay, Jongdae, and Xiumin stood around the kitchen table, poorly filled balloons and the after math of confetti scattered all across the floor and counters. Resting on the table was a tall, white cake with blue and white frosting, spelling out the words “Happy Birthday Duizhang” in mandarin and English. Besides the cake was a laptop, showing all the grinning faces of EXO-K in their dorm back in Korea. The manager stood off to the side of the room, taking a picture of the startled leader while poorly covering gifts given to him from the fans.

Kris was speechless. He blinked once, then twice, then looked back at Tao and to the members again.

“W-what is all this?” he laughed, scratching his head nervously.

“Oh this? it’s nothing really, we just felt like buying cake and celebrating the addition of your pet alpaca to the EXO Family-“ Luhan slapped the back of Jongdae’s head, shutting up his explanation and smiled.

“It’s your birthday of course!” He laughed. Kris frowned and skimmed through his mental calendar.

“… Today’s November Sixth?”

“Aigoo, and I thought Suho was old,” Kai’s remark made the happy virus on the other end laugh loud enough to crackle the speakers. Suho ignored the dancer and angled the camera towards himself.

“We’re sorry we couldn’t be there, but we all wish you a happy birthday!”

“Thanks guys,” Kris bowed, immediately being stopped by the other members.

“Alright, well don’t get carried away with your ‘fun’. The boy’s and I are going to turn in, we got an early schedule tomorrow,” the five whined in protest, but was silenced with a stern look from the leader. Kris laughed and reassured them it was alright, bidding them a good night before closing the computer.

“Now that that’s taken care of…” the fact that Lay trailed off gave the leader an uneasy feeling. When he turned around, he was met with a face full of cake. The room erupted with laughter while Kris wiped the creamy treat from his eyes and gaped at the man.

“Oh Yixing,” he chuckled darkly, reaching for his cake, “You’re dead.”

“No!” the latter ran out of the room before Kris could do anything. He laughed and wiped a line of frosting on his finger, it afterwards.

“Mm, I taste delicious.”

“Lemme try!” Tao bounced up and swiped some frosting from the other cheek, it and grinning widely, “You do ge!”

“We’ll don’t eat him now,” Xiumin laughed, pushing the taller male towards what was left of the large pastry, “The candles are still lit, make a wish Wu Fan!”

 Kris sighed and sat down in the chair, staring intently at the almost disintegrated candle. He smiled when he looked at s (Lay had returned) watching him with grins plastered on their faces. The leader, who's now a 23 year old with the mental capacity of a 12 year old, closed his eyes and thought of a wish.

Then, he blew out the candles.

“…”

“…”

“Why aren’t the candles* going out?”

“I don’t know. We sent Jongdae to buy…. Jongdae!”

“.”

* in case you guys are confused, some joke shops sell candles that don't go out... it's like you have to dip them in water to extinguish them XD.  I was holding off on updating again, but it's the duizhang's birthday~! how could i not? Happy birthday baby ;D

Note: im going off korean age based in this, so technically he's 21 today, but i went with 20 in the chapter because he forgot that his birthday was today

Oh Baby, don't think i forgot. ^^