Krisho + Tao, 1644 words.

Saturday mornings are beautiful. They’re an untainted, sacred portion of the divine sanctity that is the calmness between the rush of Friday and Sunday; too short to feel like they’re of any use, yet are the only things keeping some people from insanity. Time seems to still, and everything halts for that one half of a day, preserving the rare perfect moment, little insignificant details like getting up late or having the leisure time to cook a full-course breakfast. It’s a comfortable kind of stifling, like being wrapped in thick blankets on a freezing winter’s day.

So, of course, it’s the one morning Suho decides to do an entire month’s worth of procrastinated projects, and then some. Not a very intellectual decision by anyone’s standards, but he’s on the teetering edge of losing his job, so why not complete the projects owed, and then do a whole month’s work in advance? Genius.

Needless to say, the stress levels in his home office aren’t exactly rock bottom, and in addition, it’s pretty hard to concentrate when you’ve dragged yourself out of bed at 6 in the morning from a loving pillow of warmth (Kris) and several other little scattered bundles of joy (the kids). His attention levels are dropping drastically, and soon, instead of calculating the percentage of income gained by the company for the month, he finds himself staring at the kitten calendar on his desk still flipped to two months ago, because this month’s picture has a jar of pickles in it and Suho hates pickles with a burning passion. Besides, the breed on the calendar two months ago are little tiny munchkin kittens. Suho loves munchkin kittens.

In contrary, he can’t even bear to spare a glance at the seemingly towering pile of paperwork somewhat haphazardly stacked as far as he can put it while still leaving in his line of sight so the feeling of guilt can be forced upon his pathetic, overworked self in order to force himself to work. The strategy’s working well so far, just not in the roundabout way he would have liked.

Kris pops his head through the open door just as Suho slowly lowers his head to grind it against the smooth surface of the table.

“Hey gramps.” Kris slides into the room, silent as the night. “I got food.” He neatly brushes a heavy file, several extremely important sheets of paper, and Suho’s calculator into a neat pile, clearing a space to set down a full-course breakfast meal, complete with three cups of coffee in Suho’s favourite colour-changing kitten and puppy mugs. Suho smiles weakly, half of his face still plastered onto the desk’s surface. Kris knows him so well.

“The kids asked what you were doing so I just told them you were doing work, they shouldn’t come in here and disturb you.” Kris absently takes a sip out of Suho’s ultimate favourite cup, one of Scottish-fold and munchkin kittens together with corgi pups happily rambling around on a plaid piece of cloth for a supposed picnic.

“Thanks.” Suho grunts, his tense muscles only relaxing when Kris leans down to peck his temple.

“Don’t get too stressed, ok?” Kris pats Suho’s head, getting a grunt in reply that strangely sounds a lot like ‘Leave me alone to die you carefree lil don't you have to change some diapers or get peed on go aWAY’.

Kris just playfully punches Suho on the shoulder before strolling off, whistling a familiar tune.

Suho lays there with his cheek squashed against the glass and his eyes squeezed shut for a few more moments; as long a delay as he can offer, groaning and whining under his breath while kicking violently, scuffing the floor with his loose socks. The first thing to come into sight is an enormous pile of paper when he musters enough courage to crank open one eye.

All his energy nearly drains again at the sight of the huge stack of worksheets, but he pushes that to the back of his head to cry about later, or internally. Or now. Same difference. He sniffles pathetically. No, he's too old to cry. There's just a voice in his head which strangely sounds like a very old man crankily telling him it's no use crying and that he's better off 'accidentally' lighting his paperwork on fire. Suho sighs and turns his head to the other side of the desk.

Immediately, he notices something small and white, like a piece of torn paper sitting on the very edge of the table. Strange. Suho keeps his office room immaculate and inorganic, and would certainly never accidentally rip a corner off a precious sheet of paperwork. He reaches out a hand and brings the little thing close to inspect it through squinted eyes.

It's a flower. A tiny little sweet-smelling flower that still carries an even tinier ant in the middle of its petals. A flower from the garden, along the little stones surrounding the mini-pond. A flower that belongs anywhere but in Suho's office.

He squishes the ant and returns the flower to where he found it. He'll throw it out later, along with the usual rubbish. He doesn't bother thinking about where it's from; it's not important. Besides, he has larger matters to deal with.

But as he sets the small flower down, he feels something soft and velvety brush against his fingers. Alarmed, he whips his head around, only to see four roses arranged in a neat row along the edge. Roses from the garden, the other end of the house.

I'm hallucinating. Suho thinks. The stress is finally getting to me oh my god this is the end I'm sorry I've been such a lil please make it stop oh god. He lets out a strangulated groan and scoots his chair as far away from the desk as he can, flailing wildly. A pattering of little feet drums from the corridor outside and Suho brandishes his calculator for safety, wildly directing it from the doorway to the desk, back and forth. Who the hell's leaving flora and fauna on his work desk? 

The muscles in his back tense as the scuttling gets louder and closer and a dark shadow starts to form in the murky inkiness of the unlighted corridor. Any second now...

Suho's head spins and he nearly throws up from the pure relief gushing through his strained body. Tao appears in the doorway, pressed flat against the wall to maximise his stealth, though his presence is made very obvious from the huffs and puffs he makes from running all the way across the house. Flowers and unique-looking twigs are stuck in his wild mess of hair and his chubby little fingers clutch many other plant snippets, all from the garden.

He starts to unload his cargo onto the table as soon as he reaches it, head barely reaching the table top. He pulls the flowers and sticks from his hair, orderly lining the table so that, when finished, it'll look like it's wearing a flower crown. He frantically whispers to himself about the placement as he works, creating a sound like dry leaves rustling in the wind.

All this while, he never once looks at Suho, who just sits there in a kind of stunned silence. He doesn't know what to think, so his brain automatically reverts to 'Questioning Dad' mode.

"Tao." He blurts.

Tao shrieks in pure terror, leaping about two feet into the air, shedding a few leaves along the way. His forehead crashes into the bottom of the table in the blur of the moment, creating a sickening 'thud' sound that painfully reverberates around the room. Suho gasps and immediately jumps up, slightly panicking, making a straight beeline for one of the many jars of ointment strategically placed around the house.

When he returns, he finds Tao huddled up in a little ball, sniffling and dozing off. Suho glances at the clock. It's not yet afternoon. He sighs. No wonder he's tired; the kids have rarely gotten up before lunch on weekends. So what on earth possessed Tao to get up as early as this?

As Suho gently shakes Tao awake and fixes him with that look, everything starts tumbling out.

It's all a bit of a haze, as Tao trips over his own words in the rush to tell different parts of the same story, but Suho manages to catch little snippets of valuable information, eventually linking the dots and reaching a final conclusion.

The kids had been sneaking one by one into his home office to leave pretty little things from the garden, since Suho liked to sit there while he was stressed and just admire the greenery, and all they wanted to do was to make him feel better, because Suho had been looking so tired and angry and just in general extremely agitated with the world, and beautiful things generally made people happier, didn't they?

Suho's speechless once he pieces together the parts of the puzzle. He never thought the kids would go to so much trouble just to make him feel better. Meanwhile, Tao's teared up again at this unbearably suspenseful silence, lower lip quivering, creating a sight that only works on Kris. Suho's been immune for the longest of times.

"Daddy are you mad? I'm sorry we messed up your table please don't scold us we won't do it again." Tao sobs, pawing at Suho's hand.

Suho halts, overworked brain flickering through his entire vocabulary to find the perfect words. "I- No- Why would I be angry with you guys?" Suho feels his stress melting away as Tao's expression brighten. "Thank you for the flowers, baby, they're beautiful." Suho leans down and kisses Tao's soft forehead.

Smiling down at his teary-eyed kid, Suho feels like the happiest person in the world.

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

ahAY EHAEY HAY I'M BACK WOOT WOOT CHEESY ENDING RIGHT THERE ((whats new lol)) I CRINGED SO MUCH WRITING THIS

also this is a little late but yeHA this lil thing got featured some time back so tHAnk you guys so much!!!

I'm also gonna do some more shameless advertising !but it's a little different this time! I'm holding a graphic contest here and the first prize is 2000 karma points and lots of stuff so yeah! pls participate if you can I will love u 6ever

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