Xiumin still had a toothbrush sticking out of his mouth when he walked into the kitchen. Tao was sitting at the table eating leftovers for dinner. He had returned late from practice that evening and was incredibly tired; his stomach growled so much that it sounded like he was hiding a hungry panda under his shirt. He was thankful that the duizhang had made him up a plate before everyone could finish off the food.

Tao looked up when he noticed the elder Korean male and smiled, "Hi hyung."

"Tao," he lazily greeted back, leaning over the kitchen sink and spitting the toothpaste foam into it. Tao cringed at the sight and started stacking his plates up.

Xiumin walked over to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, his fingers fumbled around with the cap as he tried to open it. Tao had just set his dishes down in the sink, turning on the water to wash away hyung's spit glob before doing so, when he heard a frustrated sigh come from the other side of the room.

Xiumin's eyebrows were pushed together as he shook out his hand that was an angry red color and had lines imprinted on it from the bottle cap.

"Yah, Tao can you open this?" he asked, turning to the maknae.

Tao nodded and held his hands up. Xiumin tossed him the bottle and he caught it in one swift movement. He cracked his fingers before taking a firm grip on the cap and opening it. Tao smiled and approached the elder man, holding it out to him.

"Than- Oh my god!" Xiumin jerked his hand away, causing the water to drop on the floor and spill everywhere. Tao jumped at the sudden scream and looked at his hyung confused. He returned the gaze with one filled with horror and held his toothbrush out like a sword.

"Hyung what-"

"Don’t... Move..."

Tao froze in place, "What is It?"

"Giant spider... On your arm..." His eyes widened in fear as he felt a tickling sensation run up his arm, "It moved, it moved, holy crap it moved."

"Hyung-"

"Don’t talk!" Xiumin snapped in a harsh whisper, "Your voice is making it move..."

Tao watched him as he slowly inched his way around the kitchen. When he disappeared out of his sight, the younger kept track of him with the sound of him footsteps, "W-where are you going?"

"I'm gonna get Lay to kill it. Stay here."

Tao wanted to nod, but feared that any movement would cause the creature to crawl closer to his head. He gulped dryly and looked around the kitchen for anything to grab incase it did. He was distracted and didn’t notice the second oldest of the group walk in. Luhan walked around Tao with a confused expression.

“Tao? What are you doing just frozen there?”

“Can’t.. talk…” he managed to get out without moving his lips too much.

“Why?”

“S…pi…”

“Spy?”

“Spider.”

Luhan’s eyes widened and he took cautious steps back, “Where?”

“…”

“Where is it Tao?”

“Shoulder.”

He scanned the maknae and took another step back, “Oh god I see it.”

“How big?”

Luhan visibly shuttered before he made a small circle with his fingers, “About the size of a ‘Hello Panda’ cracker.”

Tao’s eyes widened and he began to shake, “D-don’t joke.”

“It’s pretty big.”

“I’m back!” Xiumin cried, shoving Lay into the kitchen.

“Yah what is this!?”

“Spider! Spider,  spider,  spider!” Lay furrowed his eyebrows and walked closer to where he was pointing.

“C-Can you get it?” Tao asked, his eyes watering, “Please get it off.”

“I don’t see- HOLY !” Lay jumped back, running into Xiumin as he tried to create as much space as he could from him.

“What are you doing?! Kill it!” Luhan yelled.

“There is no way I’m touching that thing!”

“We can’t just leave it on Tao!”

“Guys!” Chen yelled, walking in, “Why are you freaking- WHAT THE HELL?!”

“Shut up! You’re scaring the maknae!” the second elder snapped.

“Can somebody please help me?!” Tao yelled, his voice cracking as a couple of tears rolled down his cheek.

“Don’t cry King Fu Panda! Everything will be alright!”

Then, someone walked up behind Tao and covered his eyes with his hands. Tao flinched at the touch, but relaxed a little when a deep comforting voice spoke, “Don’t cry. You’ll be fine.”

“Kris!” Lay yelled, surprised to see their leader out of bed, “Did we wake you up?” Kris ignored him and spotted the spider crawling in circles on Tao’s slightly tanned shoulder.

“G-ge,” the maknae stuttered, “I’m scared. I don’t want it to bite me.”

“It won’t, I promise,” he snapped his fingers at Xiumin, “Cup,” Xiumin nodded and ran around the kitchen looking for a clean cup to give him, “How long have you been standing here?”

“A-about 10 minutes…”

“… Ok. I’m not gonna move my hand until the spider is gone okay?”

“O-ok… can I move a little?”

“Just don’t move your right shoulder.”

Tao nodded and switched to a more comfortable one. He brought his left hand up and placed it over the one Kris had on his eyes, “Th-thanks Ge.”

Kris didn’t say anything and took the glass cup from Xiumin. He hovered over it for a few seconds before gently placing it down, as to not hurt the maknae in the process, “I need a piece of pap-”

“Here,” Luhan snatched one of the member’s schedules off the counter and walked towards the leader.

“I need you to-”

“I know, I know,” he sighed as he slid the paper under the cup and help lift the spider off. Kris let him take it away and used his now free hand to back hug Tao, since the maknae still has his hands over his eyes.

“It’s gone, you did good,” He cooed, waiting for him to relax.

“I-it is?”

“Yeah,” Tao let the duizhang go and turned in his arms, giving him a tight hug as the waterworks started. He sobbed into his chest while talking, but his words were  muffled and no one could understand him, “Tao, relax, breathe…”

The maknae pulled back and sniffed. He looked up at him, eyes starting to swell from the tears, and cried again, “I was so scared! Xiumin told me not to move and I didn’t but I didn’t want it crawling on my face and then Chen came and yelled and then it was too big for Lay to kill and-”

“It’s okay, I understand,” Kris rubbed his back reassuringly and gave Xiumin and Chen a ‘I’ll-deal-with-you two-later’ look.

“You know…” Lay commented, staring at the spider through the glass, “… it’s actually pretty cool looking. Wanna see it Tao?”

Tao really didn’t want to look. It was a ing spider, but his curiosity got the best of him and he slowly turned his head. Lay was standing right next to him, holding the cup up and revealing a giant harry creature with eight legs and clearly visible eyes.

“That was on me?!” Tao shouted, gawking at the thing.

“Yup, damn you’re brave.”

Instead of having one of those prideful moments, Tao yelled again and buried his head deeper into Kris’s chest. Kris groaned inwardly; he had just, after all, calmed the boy down, but Lay had gone and worked him up again.

“Do you want to sleep in my room again?” he asked absentmindedly. Tao nodded his head furiously and Kris turned to the other members, “Lay, dump the thing outside. Xiumin, clean up the water on the floor. Luhan and Chen, clean up the mess Xiumin made while looking for a cup.”

The four nodded and got to work on doing their assigned tasks. Kris pulled Tao back a little and wrapped his arm around his shoulder, holding him close as he started to walk back to his room. The two were stopped, however, when Luhan called back to him.

“Hyung, you handled that spider so well. Is there anything you’re even afraid of?”