Warning: Language

O.o o.O

It was supposed to be a friendly pickup game between M and K.

Chanyeol and Kris did this every now and then as a friendly bet, where the losing captain had to buy everyone dessert after. Kris had always taken it easy with these casual games, trying out (and failing at) fancy footwork and ball tricks, none of his usual laser-sharp focus to be found when he wasn’t expected to be leading a team. It made it fun to play with him, especially since no one outside the basketball team could actually hope to beat Kris if he was playing for real. 

So when Kris suggested a fun, relaxing game, Chanyeol hadn’t needed any persuading, bringing along Sehun and Jongin whereas Kris roped in Tao and Minseok.

And it was fun, and it was relaxing - for everyone other than Kris, that is, and somehow, for Chanyeol also.

Thirty minutes in and it was plain as day that K was never going to catch up to M on baskets, never mind points. Everyone knew it too, and the game was slowly falling to pieces as they began to fool around instead of actually play.

Chanyeol was panting hard, dripping with sweat, even though he worked out frequently and played often enough with Kris, who was very obviously showing off and taking this friendly game a little too seriously. 

He eyed Sehun and Jongin, who shared a laugh as Minseok stole the ball effortlessly and made another basket, purposely catching his fingertips in the netting of the hoop on his way down - he may have had a height disadvantage compared to the rest of them, but his reflexes were lightning-fast and his muscles were certainly nothing to scoff at. 

“Nice shot!” Jongin cheered as Sehun clapped his hands excitedly, the traitors they were. 

“Go Minnie-hyung!”

Chanyeol absolutely regretted bribing Sehun and Jongin with tubs of their favourite ice cream to play (although, yes, Kris had promised to reimburse him for the bribe. But then again, he had also promised that this would be a fun, relaxing game, and look what happened when Yixing dropped out and Tao decided to join instead). 

To the side, Tao had his head lowered, hovering around the edge of the court as he readjusted the straps on his wrist brace (nunchuck practice had gotten a little out of control for him yesterday, so he was on strict defence only), and he totally missed Kris scoring a long shot. Chanyeol could only roll his eyes at the way Kris glanced over at Tao after, deflating all too obviously when he realised Tao had missed the whole thing. 

Chanyeol sighed. “Nice shot, Kris-hyung,” he called, and watched as Tao spun around, eyes wide. 

“Gege!” He bounced closer. “Wahhh, you scored again?”

“Yeah,” Kris said, face turned away and hand running through his hair.

Chanyeol rolled his eyes again. ing trying to play cool. Who was he trying to fool anyway? 

Well, Tao, apparently.

But then Tao went over to Sehun, who didn’t even try to defend when Tao just stuck an arm out and swiped the ball from him. Tao bounced it clumsily with his non-dominant left hand, darting after the ball a couple times to keep it from bouncing away. 

“Tao, be careful,” Kris said automatically when Tao went to stand at the free-throw line, shifting himself into position before heaving the ball at the basket.

Despite his best efforts, Tao’s shot went totally off course, though it wasn’t surprising seeing as the brace prevented him from positioning his hands properly, and the throw was more a catapult than anything. 

Tao pouted, but Kris immediately went to inspect Tao’s injured wrist, pressing lightly and turning it over in his hands. “Gege,” Chanyeol could hear Tao say, “I’m fine.”

“Need to check to make sure,” Kris said, his voice so tender it embarrassed Chanyeol to hear it, now rewrapping Tao’s wrist in the brace more securely than Tao could have done himself, and Chanyeol was the only one that saw Tao blush and bite down on his lower lip.

Jesus ing Christ, they were actually painful to watch.

Chanyeol sighed, and somehow managed to catch Minseok’s eye, who raised an eyebrow at him, completely deadpan, before it melted into a knowing smirk.

“Okay guys, time for food,” Minseok called, clapping his hands. “K lost, so Chanyeol’s buying.”

“Thank you, hyung!” the three maknaes chorused gleefully. 

Chanyeol glared at Kris when they went to gather their things, tossed on the ground by courtside. “You owe me so big,” he hissed.

“Shut up,” Kris grumbled. “I’ll pay you back.”

“This is more than the ice cream.” Chanyeol shook his head. “You’re just lucky I’m the best wingman in the history of ever.”

O.o o.O

Sehun was vaguely sickened by the display at dinner. Only vaguely, because he could have been supremely sickened, but by now he had developed some sort of immunity to it. 

…Sort of. 

…Not really.

…Okay, fine, definitely not, not when it escalated to Kris tilting up Tao’s chin delicately with his index finger, thumb swiping at a smudge on the corner of Tao’s lips. “Such a messy eater,” he chided gently as Tao’s lashes fluttered up at him.

Ew.

He realised he had wrinkled his face into an ugly grimace when Luhan jabbed at him with an elbow. “Yah,” he said. “What’s wrong with your face?”

Sehun didn’t let up on the grimace as he turned to look at Luhan. “Nothing,” he said. “What’s wrong with yours?”

“Brat,” Luhan said affectionately, ruffling Sehun’s hair, who only leaned further into Luhan’s hand.  “No, seriously, does your food taste weird or something?”

Sehun didn’t reply, turning back to look at Tao and Kris across from them. Luhan followed his gaze, choking slightly on his noodles as he snorted a laugh.

“I see,” he said, and Sehun recoiled slightly when Luhan just kept chewing messily as he spoke. “Y’gotta get used to it, Sehunnie. They’re just getting worse by day. At least you don’t share a suite with them. I keep hoping this is, like, their honeymoon period -”

“They’re not even dating!” Sehun crossed his arms across his chest. “Hyung can’t keep leading him on like this!”

Luhan just gave him the side-eye as he leaned over for another giant bite of noodles. “Are you jealous, Sehunnie?”

“What?” Sehun squawked. “Of course not!”

“You sure?”

“Of course I am!” Sehun gave an irritated huff. “Lu-hyung is stupid!”

Luhan leaned in with a leer. “Am I?”

“Yes!”

“Hmm.” Luhan reached up to tickle Sehun lightly under his chin, laughing as Sehun squirmed away with a giggle. “I’ll fight you on that. But after dinner. And after dessert.”

“I want waffles,” Sehun demanded, already eager. “With lots of ice cream and sprinkles.”

Luhan shrugged. “Whatever you want.”

He turned back to his noodles as Sehun tossed another repulsed look at the disgusting couple across from him. But then a sly smile began to spread across his face as he called out, “Taotao, come sleep with me tonight.”

Tao finally - finally - tore himself from Kris, paying attention to someone else for the first time through the entirety of dinner. “Sleepover?”

“Yes,” Sehun nodded. 

“Oh!” Tao wiggled in his seat. “Sehunnie, I bought some new…” He glanced over towards Kris at his side, ducking his head bashfully. “Some new…you know.”

Next to him, Kris’ shoulders tensed as he straightened in his seat, face carefully blank. 

Sehun gave an excited gasp, both hands going to cup his own cheeks. “Taotao, is it…that?” If they were going to have a fashion show for Mr Panda and Muffin, no one had to know except for the two of them.

“Yes!”

“Come over later and we’ll try…the stuff,” Sehun said, firmly ignoring the way Kris glared at him. “I’m gonna have dessert with Lu-hyung first. And then we can…you know. Do the thing.”

“Alright!” Tao said happily, completely oblivious. “Sehunnie, I’m so excited!”

Sehun didn’t even bother to hide his smirk as he finally directed his gaze right into Kris’ own. “Me too.” 

O.o o.O

“There’s no point in overthinking things.” Yixing’s calm voice had zero effect on Kris’ nerves as he scowled down into his mug of tea, completely lost in his thoughts.

“Chanyeol said they like to experiment,” Kris muttered sullenly, every part of him stiff even as he feigned a casual pose. “With each other. Do you even know what that means?”

“That means you’re being a ,” Yixing retorted, putting a little more force into his words.

“Tao wouldn’t…right?” Kris stared at Yixing, brows drawn together in a deep frown. “He wouldn’t, right?”

Were they talking about anything - or anyone - else, Yixing would have laughed at the wild look in Kris’ eyes, but as it was, he had never seen Kris so rattled before and he had to admit that it was kind of freaking him out too. Yixing’s lips pulled into a tight line. “You’re just working yourself up over nothing.”

“It’s not nothing,” Kris insisted. 

Yixing held up a hand. “No. You need to stop it. Whatever Tao’s doing with Sehun, it has nothing to with you. You have no right, you hear me? You rejected him, so now all you can do is accept that he’s trying to move on.”

“I’m just worried about him,” Kris muttered. “Can’t I be?”

Yixing just sighed. He really needed to stop being such a softie. “Look. I already talked to him about Sehun. There’s nothing going on between them, alright?”

“Maybe he just didn’t want to tell you,” Kris sulked.

“You’re being really stupid right now.” 

Kris’ glare had absolutely no effect on Yixing, who just rolled his eyes. 

“It’s fine if you don’t want to hear what I’m saying.” Yixing knew Kris had a stubborn tendency to think himself into a corner until he would be deaf and blind to anything other than his own convictions, but this was starting to grate on his nerves. “But I’m your best friend, and I’m supposed to stop you from doing dumb like this.”

“You didn’t stop me from climbing the outdoor hoop stand back in middle school,” Kris said grumpily. “I almost died when the whole thing fell over.”

“First of all, you were only in the hospital for a couple days, and secondly, I don’t mean dumb like that, I mean dumb like this,” Yixing clarified. Really, Kris was just so dumb.

“Like what.”

Yixing’s lips thinned further. “You’re being deliberately obtuse.”

“Am not.”

“Are too, and don’t you dare deny it.” 

“Am not,” Kris muttered under his breath, but Yixing graciously ignored it.

“You need a plan of action.” Yixing pulled over a crumpled sheet of paper; he had been studying with Suho earlier and hadn’t cleaned up yet.

“Do not.”

Yixing ignored Kris some more, intent on choosing a crayon from the box. “You will stop this childish behaviour right now. Besides which, you can’t pull it off.”

“Can too.” But then Kris looked down at the paper with a frown. “What are you doing? I told you, we don’t need a plan.”

“Yes, we do, because you’re being stupid.”

Kris sighed. “There isn’t even any point in talking to you.”

“Now you know how I feel,” Yixing said, smoothing the paper out over his desk. “Zhang Yixing’s Marvellous Plan of Ultimate Seduction…Part…Two,” Yixing dictated slowly as he wrote. 

“Wait.” Kris frowned. “Part Two? What was Part One? When was Part One?”

“Hush, child, let the grownups think.” Yixing flapped a wrist at him.

“We’re the only ones here. And I’m older.”

Yixing still didn’t even bother to look up, smiling down at the paper with a maniacal gleam in his eyes.

O.o o.O

One would really have to be deaf and blind to not realise how much Tao liked Kris (and yeah, Kyungsoo meant Kris himself). 

Kyungsoo never really spent that much time with them, to be honest, not compared to the others. But no one would need more than a couple minutes to take in the way Tao would follow Kris with sparkling eyes, or the way his face would light up when Kris spoke to him, or the way a shy blush would bloom on his cheeks whenever Kris was being particularly gentle towards him.

Since the beginning, it had been obvious to Kyungsoo that all of it was just one-sided on Tao’s part, no matter what the others claimed or however much they pointed to ‘evidence’. 

(Because honestly, so what if Luhan liked to spam their group chats with things like, “Kris cupped baby Tao’s face in his ginormous hands and super gently ran his thumbs over bbT’s cheeks like in a shoujo manga and now he’s leaning in are they gONNA KISS okay wait nope they’re just hugging and oMG Kris is bbT’s hair holy is Kris smELLING HIM ugh they’re so disgusting I could dIE” - to which Kyungsoo had promptly replied ‘go die’. And then a few seconds later, added ‘hyung’, just to be polite.) 

After all, Kyungsoo liked to think of himself as a realist. Whereas Tao was entirely too obvious, one could never really be sure with Kris. Over their years of friendship, Kyungsoo had seen Kris in a lot of relationships, but he had never managed to figure out a pattern to it. When asked out, Kris would usually accept, even if only to give the first date a try. When Kris was the one doing the asking, Kyungsoo would always be surprised, because Kris wouldn’t have given any indication of feelings towards them. 

And let’s be honest - everyone and their mother knew about the Big Blow Up (Kyungsoo had literally walked in on Jongin talking with his mom over the phone about it), and that had finally erased any doubts Kyungsoo had about Kris and Tao’s odd relationship. Tao liked Kris, but Kris only saw him as a younger brother to dote on. 

It was just an offhanded remark, but it made Kyungsoo wonder if maybe things weren’t quite as straightforward as they seemed. He was just chatting with his friend Minah, who was the manager of the basketball team.

“So yeah, team party on Friday. You should come,” Minah said. “And maybe you can convince Kris-oppa to bring his boyfriend this time.”

“Boyfriend?” Kyungsoo frowned, confused.

“Yeah,” Minah said easily. “Oppa refuses all the time, like he thinks the team will bully Tao-ssi or something. Why would they risk his anger when he can literally make their lives hell and torture them at practice? But really, we all know oppa just thinks his boyfriend is too precious to be exposed to us.”

“Right,” Kyungsoo said slowly.

“I mean, honestly, we do have some sleazeball regulars, and Tao-ssi does seem kinda defenceless.” Minah gave a forlorn sigh. “Tao-ssi is so lucky. What I wouldn’t give to be in his shoes, to be so precious to Kris-oppa.”

Kyungsoo nodded. “Right,” he repeated faintly. “Right.”

That night at dinner, Kyungsoo found himself watching Tao and Kris. Now that Kyungsoo was actually paying attention, it was no wonder that everyone thought they were lovers. Just their body language spoke volumes, the way Tao turned into Kris and leaned into him, the way Kris shifted until he was almost shielding Tao, oddly protective like he had never been before. Kyungsoo couldn’t hear what they were murmuring to each other, but he could see Tao’s shy glances, and more importantly, he could see the way Kris’ eyes were always drawn back to Tao, and the way Kris watched him closely with the tenderest of gazes.

Kyungsoo sighed into a drumstick.

“What’s got you so down, hyung?” Jongin looked a little worried, the tiniest frown furrowing his brow. “Are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry about it.” Kyungsoo pushed his basket of chicken closer to Jongin. “Have some more. You had practice earlier, right?”

“Uh huh. Thanks, hyung!” Jongin took a giant bite. “Oh my god, I love fried chicken nights.”

Kyungsoo watched him eat, lips tugging up in an inadvertent smile. “Yeah.”

Turning back, Kyungsoo saw how Tao’s face was almost tucked into the curve of Kris’ neck as he laid against Kris’ chest, the two of them so intertwined they might as well have been sitting in the same chair. Kris’ arm came around Tao’s shoulder, turning his face in also to whisper something to Tao, who responded with a tiny giggle and a teasing punch, his wrist instantly caught by Kris’ hand and their fingers sliding together naturally, thoughtlessly.

It didn’t make much sense as to why Kris hadn’t made a move yet, not if he really did have romantic feelings towards Tao. Kris had never been a particularly shy person, even when it came to things like dating and relationships. 

Still, as Kyungsoo watched Kris brush his fingertips over the pink of Tao’s cheeks, the lightest of touches to turn Tao’s face up to his, it seemed it would just be a matter of time before it happened.

O.o o.O

They were in Tao’s room again, watching another episode of the Chinese drama that had Tao’s xuezhang, and Tao had long ago made himself comfortable against Kris, panda tucked snugly under his chin. But Kris was acting strange, fidgeting and clearly distracted, sighing often and running a hand through his hair constantly. Eventually Tao sat up, moving away, though Kris pulled him back in with a frown.

“Are you not comfortable?”

“No, I’m comfy,” Tao said, eyeing Kris warily even as he leaned back into him, shifting to look up at Kris instead of the screen. “Is something bothering you?”

“W-What?” Kris stared back with huge eyes. “There’s, uh. What? I mean, uh, why would you think that?”

Tao squinted at him. “Gege, you’re acting really weird.”

“No I’m not,” Kris said much too quickly.

“Here,” Tao said, pushing Mr Panda against Kris’ chest. “You can hold Mr Panda until you feel better.”

“I’m fine.” Kris’ voice cracked, but he still clutched at Mr Panda tightly. “I’m totally fine.”

Tao patted him on the thigh. “You’re not, but it’s okay, gege. Do you want to talk about it?”

Kris stayed quiet, and Tao tried to smile through the sinking feeling of his heart. 

“Um, it’s okay if you don’t want to. Sometimes…it’s hard to say what you want, right?” 

Kris looked down at Mr Panda, one giant hand rubbing over Mr Panda’s head. “Yeah.”

“But, gege, you know, um. I’m here for you. If you want to complain, you can complain to me. If there’s something bothering you, you can tell me. Or if you don’t want to, you don’t have to tell me anything. You can borrow Mr Panda too.”

That managed to bring a lopsided smile to Kris’ face. “Are you sure?” he teased. “You’ll let me borrow him?”

Tao looked hesitant but gave a decisive nod. “Of course, gege.”

“Well then,” Kris said. “It’s pretty late already. I’ll borrow Mr Panda for tonight.”

Tao could actually feel his face pale at the thought of going to bed and being in the dark all by himself, but he swallowed hard and braced himself. “…Okay,” he said in a tiny voice. 

“You’ll be fine, won’t you?” 

Unfortunately, Tao failed to realise that Kris was just joking, biting down hard on his lower lip as his gaze dropped to Mr Panda, still tucked securely in Kris’ hold. He nodded again. “I’ll be fine,” he murmured. 

“You won’t be scared by yourself?”

Tao shook his head. “I’ll be fine,” he repeated firmly, looking up at Kris determinedly. “You…you need him more than I do.”

Kris would never admit it, but he completely melted at that, and he held up Mr Panda to Tao’s face, bopping it lightly against him. “Tao, gege is just kidding.”

Tao grabbed at Mr Panda excitedly, rubbing his cheek against it. “Really?”

“Yes.” Kris’ smile was gentle as he ruffled Tao’s hair. “Although I do appreciate the offer.”

“But…” Tao dipped his head again. “Um, gege. If you do need something…you’ll tell me, right?”

“Hm…Well. There is something.” Okay, Kris, this is it. You can do it, come on. Breathe. Focus. Kris took in a deep breath, calming himself down like he would before a match or before a penalty shot. “Let me take you out.”

Tao just smiled, completely clueless. “Okay!”

“On a date,” Kris clarified, watching Tao’s face carefully. 

Tao froze. His heart skipped several beats, a traitorous blush flooding across his cheeks. His lips parted, but nothing came out, and his mind was like a jumbled mess, unable to hold a coherent thought. 

Kris knew Tao was shocked, but the utter lack of reaction from him was worrying. He had thought Tao would be happy - so why did he look so troubled instead? “Do you…not want to?”

“I…” Tao swallowed hard, blinking rapidly. “Gege…do you really mean it?”

“What?” Kris sat up properly, frowning. “I - of course I mean it.” He reached out to hold one of Tao’s hands in his own, running his thumb over Tao’s knuckles soothingly.

“I don’t know what to think,” Tao mumbled, watching Kris over his hand. “You said…you said there would never be anything between us.”

“It’s just a date,” Kris said. “We’ll just go have some fun. Nothing serious, okay?”

Tao took a second too long to answer, but when he did, Kris could feel the tension drain from him immediately. “Okay,” Tao said with a tremulous smile. “We’ll go have fun.”

O.o o.O

/Part 19

A/N: Thank you SO MUCH to everyone that's still reading this! I'm sorry I'm the worst updater in the world, but thank you for not giving up on this story!