Kris + Tao ((Taoris, Suho)) 956 words.

Kris folds his arms and sinks a little lower in his cushioned seat as yet another abnormally gigantic shark brushes centimetres past the host of yet another one of his abnormally long documentaries. He stifles a yawn as the man on the screen overenthusiastically gesticulates about mermaid’s purses and cancers and conveyor belts or something. With half-lidded eyes, he gazes blankly at the screen as the camera shakily pans over to the front-facing image of a Great White rearing up out of the ocean.

He’s seen it all too many times, (this being the sixth time he’s watching the 2006 BBC documentary), so he only feels a dull twinge of sympathy  as the shark snaps up  a lone penguin, dragging it up flapping and squawking frantically into the air by the leg as it twists, then splashes back into the water.

Suddenly, behind him, someone screams, shocking him enough to jump up into the air the same time as that someone falls down with a painful thud.

He somehow expects the whining cries that come after the fall. He peeks over the top of the couch to the floor behind and is hardly surprised to see little Tao sitting flat on his bottom, sniffling and whining and looking very sorry for himself.

“Tao are you ok?” Kris shoves down the bubble of laughter threatening to burst out from him and laces his tone with just the right amount of sympathy.

Tao whimpers pathetically and looks up at Kris with wide, tear-brimmed eyes.

“No.”

A chuckle manages to escape and Kris ignores the documentary now, circling the couch to pick up his pouting son.

“Where does it hurt?” He coddles Tao as the toddler stretches his arms out to be carried.

“Everywhere.” He exaggerates. Arms flung around Kris’s neck, he starts to mumble useless strings of words into the collar of his dad’s shirt.

Kris sighs. On screen, the host pops up again, this time in front of a backdrop of ice and snow.

“Antarctica.” Kris whispers in tune with the host. “They’re gonna find a shark.” He adds to Tao, who steals a look from the fistfuls of Kris’s cotton shirt. Kris goes back to his still-warm spot on the couch and they watch the documentary for a couple more minutes.

Then, without warning, a shark swims right up to the boxed camera, a crazed flash of grey and white and black and pointed teeth in an ocean of dark blue. Kris merely blinks, surprised at how much more menacing the shark looks since the last time he’d seen the video.

Tao full out screams into Kris’s ear.

 His ears ringing, Kris blankly looks down as Tao yelps and tries to burrow into his shirt to ‘get away from the shark’.

Then, his instincts kick in and he hurriedly turns the television off with a click of the button, one hand going to Tao’s small back to secure him. Sobs saturate the living room, drawing the attention of Suho and some of the other kids.

“Kris? What happened?” Suho comes out of the corridor that branches out into all the other rooms. He narrows his eyes. “Were you watching that documentary again?”

Kris simultaneously bobs Tao up and down and shakes his head, panicked. “No! It was the one about sharks! I didn’t think Tao would be scared.”

Suho’s jaw clenches and he very much looks like he wants to strangle Kris on the spot. “You-“ He looks down to see Sehun looking up at him curiously.

Sehun’s ears are smothered with both of Suho’s hands instantly.

“You idiot!” Suho seethes. “He’s five! Hell, I was terrified of phones at five!”

Chen pops his head out of a doorway and his lips form a tiny ‘o’. “Appa and Daddy are fighting.” He tsks. “Appa said a bad word.” Chen retreats back into his room, shaking his head.

There’s a long, pregnant pause broken only by Tao’s sniffles where Suho awkwardly stands there, all previous anger suddenly gone after shouting at Kris. Sehun, finding himself released, scuttles away back to his room, cleverly sensing danger in the atmosphere.

 Kris sighs, breaking the uncomfortable tension and hastily apologises the same time as Suho guiltily does.

“Right.” Suho coughs, and that buries the ‘fight’ deep where no one goes. “I think it’s Tao’s bath time.”

But Tao still clings on to Kris with no sign of letting go.

“Tao?” Kris tries to dislodge Tao’s fists from his shirt. “Tao, come on, you have to bathe.”

“Don’t want.” Tao half-shouts into the bunched up fabric of the shirt. If possible, he buries his face even deeper.

A pause, where Kris looks to Suho for what to do and the other just shrugs.

“I’m scared.” Tao hesitantly adds softly afterwards. “Can I bathe with someone?” His voice grows softer with each syllable and in the end he just hides his face in Kris’s clothes again.

Kris opens his mouth to speak, but before he can say anything he’s interrupted by a high-pitched, too-loud voice. “I WANT.” Chen bursts out of the room with his arm highly raised into the air. “I WANNA BATHE WITH TAO.”

“Chen, I don’t-“ Suho stretches out a hand to Chen but someone dashes past and breaks the would-be link.

Chanyeol darts over to Kris and tugs at Tao’s dangling legs gently.

“Taozi don’t be scared we’ll all bathe with you.” Chanyeol grins, proudly showing 19 of his baby teeth. “Right Daddy?” Chanyeol looks up at Kris with a degree of cuteness that could possibly rival Tao’s.

Kris resigns to his near, wet fate of many, many awkward questions with lots of his kids running around and a huge mess in the bathroom.

He sighs. “Ok.”

************

I'm gonna end it here bc I can feel my writing spiralling into hell oh god I'm sorry for the crappy ending. But yes this shall be a mini-series where they bathe together hehe I have a lot planned for this hehe

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