“Kris, come on!” Lay said, laughing as he got lost in a mix of bodies on the floor. Kris glanced up before refocusing on his book, not interested in squeezing in for a cuddle fest with the rest of them.

“Kris, you don’t need to be shy.” Xiumin said softly. “Come on, baby. We don’t bite.”

“Much.” Kai snickered, and Kris focused hard on one of the words in the book. In his defense, he didn’t actually know the word he was looking at.

“He’s not going to come.” Baekhyun muttered boredly.

“Lay, what is this word?” He asked, pointing to the page. Lay barely glanced at the word before laughing.

“Kiss.” Lay said in Mandarin, and Kris glared harder at the book before closing it.

“I’m going to bed.” Kris announced.

“No, stay here!” Lay whined, and Kris gripped the book so tightly his hands shook. Umma walked in a second later, glancing around before making her way over to Kris, bending to whisper in his ear.

“Are you sure you can handle this?” She asked, and Kris closed his eyes, nodding and slumping back into his seat, opening the book again. “I just...I don’t want you to spend the whole weekend stressed out, love. If you need some space, you can come find me. I won’t make them leave if you don’t want me to, but no one’s allowed in Umma’s room. You can always come and sit with me if you need to.”

Kris blinked at the book a few times, feeling himself tremble just slightly as he nodded. He was terrified by how much he wanted to take her up on that offer. She smiled, cautiously reaching out to pet his hair again, and he leaned into the touch, just slightly, so she knew it was okay. A moment later, she was gone, and Kris was engaged in his book again, trying to keep himself calm. After a few minutes, though, Tao was tugging on his sleeve. Kris looked up, seeing that everyone else was still engaged in their little snuggle fest, and he looked at Tao with a raised brow.

“Can I sit with you?” Tao asked softly. Kris hesitated.

“I don’t have any work for us to do.” Kris said, and Tao smiled.

“This time...I was thinking we could just be comfortable with each other. As friends?” Tao said softly, and Kris glanced up at the doorway where Umma was watching, considering making a run for it, but one look at Tao’s face and Kris found himself nodding, scooting over a little bit.

“Sure.” He said, making sure there was enough room for Tao in the chair with him. Tao tucked himself in so close Kris had to wonder if it even mattered that the chair was so small, or if Tao would have squished in anyway.

“What are you reading?” Tao asked, and Kris shrugged, handing the book over.

Tao read the back cover and smiled, dropping his head on Kris’ shoulder so naturally it was like he belonged there. Kris had to take a deep breath and remind himself that this was okay. They were just friends, and this was okay. This wasn’t nearly the amount of people he dealt with at school anyway. It was only ten people. But this time, they were in his home.

Kris unconsciously pulled Tao closer.

“Will you read it to me?” Tao asked suddenly, and Kris gave him an odd look before nodding slowly, flipping back to the first page and slowly starting to read to the other.

Kris kept his voice soft the whole time, and he was glad that none of the other’s seemed terribly interested in what he was doing, because once again he found himself in an unexplainable situation. Why was he reading to Tao? Why was he even bothering?

It was about twenty minutes later that Tao had fallen asleep on his shoulder, and Kris stared at him for a long moment before flipping back to where he’d been reading from and continuing to read from there. He stayed quiet, half listening to the others and almost expecting someone to say something about Tao sleeping on him, but they never did.

Kris could feel himself starting to doze as well, but he fought it hard, not wanting to embarrass himself. Eventually, though, his eyes couldn’t hold themselves open any longer, and his head hit the back of the chair as his book lay open in his lap.

Lay looked up at them and hummed, then turned back to the conversation at hand. He was really glad to have his friends over again, and they were retelling old stories of sleepovers from before Kris’ time there.

“And there was the one time Tao was too afraid to go into the bathroom alone and he kept trying to bring people with him. And then your Umma came in and he tried to bring her.” Baekhyun said, laughing helplessly. “And she actually went with him!”

“Umma loves you guys just like you’re her own.” Lay said, smiling at him. “I bet she’d adopt every single one of you if she had the room.”

“Do you think she’ll adopt Kris?” Luhan asked suddenly, and Lay chewed his lip, then shrugged one shoulder.

“I don’t know.” Lay said honestly. “I don’t know if he wants to be adopted.”

“Do you think she would adopt him? If he asked?” Minseok asked, and Lay shrugged again.

“I don’t know. Kris is...He’s very distant with us still. He doesn’t reach out for anyone. He’s not pushing us away anymore, but..” Lay sighed. “He’s been with us for months now. We thought...you know, he’d be more open to us by now.”

“Well, doesn’t he have a history of moving around?” Suho asked suddenly, his fingers idly carding through Kyungsoo’s hair as the wide eyed boy rested his head in the other’s lap. “Maybe he’s scared. Or something.”

“Maybe...” Lay sighed, looking up at Kris again and finally pushing himself to his feet. He went to the chair, waking Tao first, and then gently shaking Kris awake. “Hey, maybe you two should head to bed. The chair can’t be comfortable.”

Kris blinked tiredly and nodded, getting up with a yawn. He didn’t even react to Tao following him to his room, just offered him some pajama’s and made sure there was room for them both in his bed. He even let Tao take the space by the wall, laying in bed beside him and draping an arm over him.

Within minutes, he was back to sleep.

Lay plopped down in the chair and looked at Xiumin and Luhan.

“So...what do you think?” Lay asked, tilting his head in the direction Kris and Tao had left.

“I think...I don’t want them getting involved if this is temporary.” Xiumin said softly. “Tao can’t handle the heart break. And I don’t know what would happen to Kris, but he seems like a time bomb. I’m not sure either of them would handle it very well.”

“I’m with Xiumin on this one.” Luhan said softly, nodding. “But I also think it’s inevitable. Unless we start keeping them apart now...someone’s going to get hurt.”

“Why do we have to keep them apart?” Umma asked from the doorway, holding a mug of tea in her hand. Lay looked up and sighed.

“Because if Kris leaves and they’re attached then..” Lay shrugged, and Umma nodded slowly.

“I’ve already told Kris he’s welcome to stay here until he ages out.” Umma said softly. Lay chewed his lip.

“But what happens then? When he has to find another place to go?” Lay said. “It’ll hurt them both. It can’t end well.”

Umma sighed softly and took a sip of her tea.

“Everything happens for a reason, Yixing. We’ll have to let things happen as they naturally will.” Umma said softly, petting Lay’s hair as she walked by.

I finally have a laptop again. Which means I can update again. ;;