Joonmyun came to pick Tao up the Friday before their dinner date at Yixing's home. He rang the doorbell ominously, and because Tao was running late - he really didn't like the way his new pants fit around the tail - Kyungsoo opened the door. 

"Hi," Joonmyun said when greeted with Kyungsoo's glowering. "I'm here for Tao."

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes and allowed the man to come in. "," he muttered under his breath.

Joonmyun laughed uneasily. "I'm... just driving him over to Yixing's," he tried to explain.

Kyungsoo laughed. "Oh, I know. I remember the obligatory 'Hi, welcome to cat hell, and I hope you're fitting in nicely' dinner date." Joonmyun remained silent, awkwardly surveying the smallest cat with a half open grimace. "I guess I can leave you here now. Geez, why do you even ring the doorbell anymore? Don't you have a key? Making people get up to come and greet you like you're some prized guest." He turned lazily on his heels and disappeared through the living room. Joonmyun watched him round the corner into the hallway leading to the den, to Kyungsoo's computer, and he sighed. 

Tao came finally, bounding down the stairs so fast he nearly tripped on the first step after the landing. "I'm coming! Sorry!"

Joonmyun smiled up at him. "Ready to go? You're not late. It's fine."

Together they walked the four houses back to Joonmyun's driveway to pick up his car. It was like Yixing's, a ratty old thing but it ran nicely and the inside was clean and smelled like a little like jasmine. Tao located the source of the scent hanging around the rearview mirror, a flower-shaped air freshener that swayed to and fro at every turn of the vehicle.

Yixing lived only four blocks away. Tao remembered that Sehun had walked to their place with his dogs that day, and asked Joonmyun why they hadn't done the same thing. The man chuckled and responded with the lame excuse, "Because I'm old!"

"You're not old for a human." 

"I'm thirty seven. Old enough that I don't want to walk. Or rather, I don't want to walk home when we're done." He winked. 

Yixing's home wasn't a grand affair. It sat squashed between two larger homes on either side, and was even smaller than the cats' home. The yard was a little overrun with weeds, and something that may once have resembled a rose garden still flourished, but without rhyme or reason. One rose bush touched the eaves the of the overhanging roof, another looked like it had been cut back so severely that it refused to grow back. The rest were a mixture of bushy or sparse. They seriously lacked the kind of attention he knew Baekhyun would give them, Tao thought. But then Joonmyun rang the doorbell, and a stern-looking woman with slightly graying hair opened the door for them.

"Evening, Jessica," Joonmyun said pleasantly.

"Evening," the woman returned, and her attempt at a smile slightly disarmed the otherwise cold expression as she beckoned Joonmyun and Tao into the house. "The men are out back. I just put the food on the dining table, so you can tell them it's ready to eat, okay?"

"Thank you very much, Jessica," Joonmyun said to her retreating form. He winced when Tao looked his way, and explained. "Yixing's sometimes housekeeper. He's useless taking care of himself, and he can't cook. Usually he and Sehun just fend for themselves, but on nice occasions he has her prepare the meal and... well, let's go find them and let them know dinner awaits. Shall we?"

Tao followed Joonmyun through the small, dark maze of a house. They found Yixing and his son sitting in the screened-off section of their backyard porch with barely a small strip of grass and one tree for scenery before the neighboring fence of the yard beyond hemmed them in. Sehun looked like he'd dressed up for the occasion with nice slacks and a striped blue and white button-up, wrinkled. His father had probably forced him to put something decent on. He slouched on a bench with his hands clasped behind his neck, his head resting against the outer sill of a window that was probably the bathroom. Yixing himself was a little more put together, and he stood up immediately to greet the two when they stepped down into the patio.

"Joonmyun! Tao! Welcome welcome. Sehun, get up and greet Tao."

"We've already met," Sehun reminded his father.

Yixing smiled and frowned at the same time. "Did you? Oh right. Right. Well come on in. I think dinner should be ready pretty soon. I had Jessica come by this afternoon to help put a meal together." He chuckled. "You know how I am in the kitchen, Joon. Jessica cooks much nicer than me." 

Behind his back Sehun rolled his eyes and grimaced. Only Joonmyun and Tao caught it, and Joonmyun was too busy being polite not to mention it. 

"I'm sure it'll be lovely, Yixing. Uhh, we met Jessica coming in. She said dinner was ready and to usher you guys in to eat."

"Did she? Perfect."

The meal was a roast that might have fed a dozen people. "At least we'll have leftovers," Sehun commented when they gathered round the table. Tao expected Yixing to take the seat at the foot of the table like his master did at every meal when they had people over, but Yixing sat on the side next to his son, and Tao and Joonmyun sat opposite. No one spoke for a moment, nor did they start dishing out the meal. Tao looked around confused until he saw Yixing looking at everyone in turn, and once he'd decided they were comfortably seated he bowed his head and thanked God for their meal. It was a long, half-minute grace, during which Tao kept his head bowed like everyone else and once or twice he peaked through his eyes to see everyone else with their eyes closed. Towards the end he stretched out his legs and accidentally met with Sehun's. He peaked again and saw Sehun looking back, expressionless. And then Yixing ended the prayer and they lifted their heads and everyone started to eat.

A few minutes into the meal during which Yixing and Joonmyun exchanged a series of small talk is when Yixing finally turned to Tao again. He smiled encouragingly. "So, Tao, are you fitting in nicely?"

Joonmyun smirked, but since Tao didn't know what that was supposed to mean, he answered as truthfully as he could. "Yes, sir. I think so."

"Good. I figured the cats would take care of you nicely. Tell me, who's the nicest? Or most helpful? I'm only curious."

Tao considered it for a moment. "Jongdae, I guess."

Yixing nodded knowingly. "I figured that would be the case. He's a good cat. Could do some great things with his life. In fact, Joon," Yixing suddenly addressed the other man. "I'm thinking of asking his help with one of my projects. He'd probably be pretty good around my kittens, wouldn't you agree?"

Joonmyun looked slightly taken aback as he considered whatever prospect only he and Yixing understood. But then he nodded. "Actually, you may be right."

"Yes, I think so," Yixing agreed with himself. He looked at Tao then and another spark of interest caught fire in his eyes. "Ahh, and maybe Tao too?" 

Joonmyun considered him for a moment, and Tao looked between them both, baffled. Sehun didn't even bother paying attention to the flow of the conversation.

"Perhaps, he might," Joonmyun said. "Poor Tao, you don't even know what we're volunteering you for."

Yixing laughed. "Oh, it's not obligatory, Tao. Just something if you were interested."

Joonmyun continued the explanation himself. "Well you know how Yixing and I work for the feline relations branch of the government. Most of it is social work, rescuing or placing adult cats like yourselves in places they'll be well looked after. Well, for a while now Yixing has been working on another project for underage cats. Adoption, basically. Only it would treat hybrid kittens not like pets, but like real children in the system. Hybrids as children with real parents who want to adopt and raise them."  

Joonmyun paused to take a drink, and Tao's eyes grew wide. Having grown up in a system unlike any of the other cats Tao knew, most of this was new information. Jongdae had only given him a partial explanation for how cats were raised in places like this, and much of it sounded not unlike shoddy orphanages, except that hybrid kittens were purposefully taken from their parents right after birth, and forced to live in the agencies until they were sold. It was unpleasant even to think about, and he'd never even set foot in a place like that. 

Yixing took over. "We've finally got approval to begin procedures with one of the agencies that's otherwise due to shut down within the year. The private business failed, and the State had to take over. Now they want to clean it out. It's kind of like the place Luhan and Kyungsoo came from before we brought them to the shelter, but this particular agency is swamped with younger kittens. And all of them need homes or they run the risk of being dumped on the street, or worse." 

Tao noticed that even Sehun was beginning to pay attention to the discussion, however slyly, like he pretended it wasn't of interest to him. Then Tao realized that Joonmyun and Yixing were still looking at him, waiting for perhaps an answer, a comment, anything.

"Uhm, well I don't really know much about anything..." he said hesitatingly.

Yixing smiled. "Oh you don't have to know much about the project itself. Just, the kittens. We kind of wanted some adult cats to be around them, encourage them or just kind of hang out while they learn to adjust. We wouldn't ask you to do anything big or incredibly involving, except of course for the kittens. They won't know much about life either, I'd say. And they won't have had much opportunity to see how older cats can be. That's what I was thinking of, especially for Jongdae. And you, if you are interested."

"It's okay, Tao," Joonmyun assured him. "Just think about it, and if you want I can explain more of it to you. We're planning to visit together next week and start the process. Already have some really great humans who want to adopt. It's really heartwarming to see." 

Tao nodded. He hadn't eaten much of his dinner so far. The roast was overly salty, and the potatoes bland. Sehun also picked at his food, and Joonmyun chewed each bite with obliging necessity. He let the conversation turn to other things, and by the end of the meal Yixing grilled him again about how much he liked living in the house with the other cats, and he gave only the most basic of answers because really, there wasn't much to complain about. Also, anything funny or interesting he might have mentioned, like having to learn how to fit his new clothes for tails, or how Kai had taught him how to wear a beanie so that his ears didn't show; that he'd learned how not to act catlike when Jongdae sent him to the grocery store... How crazy Baekhyun was some days when he thoughts birds were attacking, or how Kyungsoo spent so much time on the computer he forgot how to verbally talk to real people; how weird it was that Minseok and Luhan had two beds in their room and one was consistently unused - all of those things made him slightly embarrassed, especially when he thought about Sehun. 

The boy hadn't said more than a few words all throughout the meal, and none of them were directed specifically to Tao. He could feel his eyes though, every now and then on his, burning, judgmental. Why, he didn't know. Half the time he looked back to catch Sehun, he would immediately look away, and not even guiltily. It was as if Sehun really was curious about him, but not enough to hide or conceal it, or dare to look intimidated when Tao stared back. Tao was certain, however, that Sehun laughed at him when he accidentally flung a carrot across the table with his fork, or when his tail accidentally brushed Joonmyun on the back and frightened the poor man before he realized what was tickling him. Sometimes Tao really hated how his tail seemed to have a life of its own.

When they finished the meal, Jessica returned to carry off the plates and Joonmyun stood up like a gentleman to help remove the roast platter from the table. Sehun slurped ice from his empty tea glass and Yixing drummed his hands on the edge of the table. 

"Well, Tao. I'm glad you seem to be pretty happy. I know the house isn't as big as the ranch. It's a shame that property had to be sold. I hear it's being parceled up and sub-leased to all kinds of people now. That other line of Wu descendants sure know how to carve up land. Pity." He shook his head and sighed. 

Something about his nostalgic tone struck a chord in Tao's mind though. "Did you... know the place well?" As far as Tao knew, he'd never seen Yixing before the day of the funeral.

Yixing nodded and smiled fondly. "Oh yes. Back in the day I spent lots of time there. We were best friends when we were young, your owner and I. Did you know that?" Tao did not. "Went to college together actually. Life kind of got in the way after that, but we kept in touch. I was the one who recommended your parents move there, Tao. They were already together, and... ahh, nasty times, but they were sure to be split up if they didn't find a home together. I called him up and he suggested he had plenty of space, and he didn't mind cats, so they moved out there. Pretty soon they had you." 

It might have been a beautiful story, had Tao ever heard of it before. But this was the first time he'd ever heard that his parents' relationship had ever been threatened by... something. And his master had never elaborated much on why they had come to live with him. And when they died, his dad when Tao was 11 and his mom just a year later, his master treated him the same as ever, like an uncle who doted on his charge and raised him well. 

"I was real unhappy when he called to tell me he was sick... but his first thoughts were for you, and what would happen to you. Did you know I actually have a baby picture of you, Tao?"

Tao shook his head, throat suddenly parched. 

"I do!" Yixing continued. "Your parents sent it to me. Well, they sent it to me and my wife." He addressed his son now. "We were all great friends back in the day, did you know that, Sehun?"

Sehun stared at his lap, glumly. "Yes, I think I've heard that..." 

"I was sorry I couldn't come out when they passed. But I was kept up-to-date about you. And then... I miss that old guy. Yifan was a pretty great man..." 

Joonmyun returned at that point from the kitchen, bearing a large glass dish. "Jessica made dessert!" He said cheerfully, a smile plastered to his face. "Tiramisu!"

"Oh, wonderful!" Yixing exclaimed, genuinely excited. Sehun stared at it suspiciously, clueing Tao in as well, while Joonmyun made one more return trip to the kitchen and came back bearing dessert plates and forks. They each served tiny, experimental portions and slurped down the treat. Sehun muttered something about it tasting like pudding, and when his father served himself a second large helping, muttered something else about lost tastebuds. Tao was starting to agree. His stomach churned, though part of that was surely do to his nerves and hearing about his parents. The dessert only heightened that feeling. He was glad when they could finally stand up and begin their departures. 

Yixing and Joonmyun lingered, as men with a long personal history do, chatting about one thing or another. Tao beat them to the front door without realizing they hadn't followed. Sehun dragged along sloppily on his feet and leaned against a low dresser cabinet against the wall. He stifled a yawn when Tao noticed him, and then smiled when he saw the older men still yapping on the other wise of the room.

"You get used to this," he said suddenly.

"Used to what?" Tao asked. He stood awkwardly 

"Them. Being chatty, long-winded, all around nosey." 

Tao made a face. Chatty he could see, nosey he didn't quite understand, but long-winded was a young man's term for for people with more skills at conversation than themselves, and in any case he didn't think it a fit way to describe Joonmyun or Yixing. Sehun must have realized that Tao wouldn't sympathize with his sentiments. He changed tactics appropriately.

"So, gonna go work with the kittens then?"

"Why, aren't you?"

The suggestion seemed to stress Sehun out. He shifted uncomfortably, rubbing along the cabinet, and he nearly elbowed a picture frame of him and his dad that couldn't have been taken more than ten years ago. Sehun had longish black hair that nearly engulfed his whole head and most of his eyes, and a ten years younger Yixing still looked rugged but handsome with slightly less gray hair. There was a picture next to that one of Yixing as a young man with blond hair that shocked Tao. There were actually a whole dozen pictures in various shaped frames along the top of the dresser. Tao suddenly became curious if in of those frames he would find a young picture of his master, or maybe even... his parents. 

With slow, casual footsteps he stalked up to the cabinet. Sehun blocked his way though, and by the suddenly shocked expression on his face, Tao realized Sehun must be thinking it was him who was the prey, and not the pictures behind him. Tao smirked, and instead of veering off course to the side of Sehun where most of the pictures stood he walked straight up to Sehun himself. He closed in a few feet at a time until he stood at arm's length and Sehun's eyes had turned wide. 

"Wh-what are you doing?" he asked, looking for all the world like he was about to be attacked by the strange hybrid in his home. 

"I'm just looking..." Tao said. A sudden thrill coursed through his body when he realized how enjoyable it was to be purposefully misleading. 

"A-at what?" Sehun continued to stutter.

"At, you- your family albums." Tao looked down and fetched up the nearest frame. It just so happened to be a solo shot of Sehun when he graduated from middle school. The hair and the boring beige uniform and Sehun's bland expression in it made Tao laugh, until Sehun tore the frame from his hands and set it upside down on the table. Tao didn't move, but he'd just spotted another frame of Yixing and a much younger Sehun, and the blue-ish sleeve of a dress that might have belonged to Sehun's mother. The present replica Sehun, however, obscured the photo menacingly with his body and Tao didn't actually dare to push him farther. He backed up a few steps with a slight chuckle, and finally heard Joonmyun saying a definitive goodbye to Yixing in the background.

"Goodnight, Sehun," Tao said pleasantly. 

Joonmyun insisted on walking Tao into the house when they got back, even though Tao insisted he could manage. It was late by Joonmyun's standards, past ten and he yawned when Tao pushed the door open. He stepped inside anyways, mumbled something about needing to ask somebody something, and Tao shrugged and skipped away up the stairs. 

The rest of the house was silent and dark, except for the hint of a light coming down the hallway from the den. Just as he figured, Kyungsoo was still awake. He made short steps of the path down the hallway, taking care to make some noise so his appearance wouldn't be quite a surprise. At the doorway Kyungsoo paused with whatever he was typing and asked, "Back already, Tao?"

"Tao's home, but no, it's just me."

Kyungsoo whipped his head around. "Joonmyun... What's... up?" he asked tersely. His tone suggested he really didn't care, but now that he was interrupted, Joonmyun figured that Kyungsoo would be vaguely curious about why he was in their house at this hour of the night. And that was the problem. Because he didn't really have a reason, or at least not one that Kyungsoo would care to acknowledge. 

"Just seeing how you were doing..." Joonmyun said smoothly. "How is your... what is it, a blog?" 

"My adoption blog? I don't even know if you can call it that these days," Kyungsoo sighed. "I just get hits from a lot of y people. Geez, how hard is it to find a home where guys don't just want to bang you the instant you move in? I'm starting to see the problem Kai always talks about..." 

Joonmyun made himself comfortable on the two-seater sofa. He smiled, and not pleasantly, but at least Kyungsoo would never know the difference between his fake smile and the genuine one he had for whenever Kyungsoo wasn't looking. At least he talked to him this way, Joonmyun consoled himself. Since the time Joonmyun accidentally discovered Kyungsoo was still making steady inquiries to find himself another place to live, it had become a secret he allowed Kyungsoo to keep from the other cats. Actually he was pretty sure Jongdae knew, or had found out, or maybe only suspected, but he never said anything about it, and probably Kyungsoo was lucky enough not to be interrogated. Only Joonmyun could ask because only he was supposed to know. 

Kyungsoo was in the second batch of cats he and Yixing rescued, along with Luhan. And 'rescue' was a pretty dramatic word for the occasion, because they'd basically just come and picked them up the day their agency was forced to shut down due to sanitation violations. Kyungsoo and Luhan had sat side by side with their matching regulation suitcases, hands in each other's and Yixing calmly lead Luhan away, while Joonmyun was responsible for leading Kyungsoo.

"Where are we going?" Luhan had asked Yixing.

"To a nice place. Much nicer than this. Think of it as a shelter home. You won't have to do anything, or see anybody you don't like. It'll just be cats, and nobody is going to take you back or threaten to take you to any bad place."

"Are you going to be there?"

"Am I going to live there?" Yixing chuckled. "No. It's just for cats like you. In fact, we already have one cat living there and he can't wait for some company. His name is Minseok and I'm sure he'll be happy to meet you."

Luhan consented to be moved, and Yixing took his suitcase. 

Kyungsoo, however, stared up at Joonmyun with big, challenging eyes. "Are you going to adopt me?"

Joonmyun instantly recoiled. "Adopt you? No..."

"I was told we are supposed to get adopted and then someone will take care of us. Where are we going if you're not going to adopt us?"

Joonmyun had tried, patiently, to explain to the tiny cat that it wasn't like that, that cats didn't need to be 'adopted' anymore, but Kyungsoo flat out refused to leave his bench until Joonmyun could persuade him to move to the shelter home. The promise of other cats for company, even Luhan going with them, nothing consoled Kyungsoo until Joonmyun tried another tactic. "Why don't you come with us, and if you still don't like living in the home, after a while you can still try to find someone to adopt you." 

"But why aren't you going to adopt me?" Kyungsoo had insisted, and there was a yearning sort of desperation in his eyes now.

Joonmyun had wrung his hair and pulled on his chin, and finally, exasperated, he said, "I don't adopt cats. It's not what I do. I just... help rescue them."

Kyungsoo's eyes had watered a little. "B-but, what's the difference?"

He was older now, a tiny bit wiser, and he no longer equated adoption with straight out rescue, but Kyungsoo was still looking for a change of address and a human to take him in. He ignored Joonmyun now, and returned to his computer, chatting with some semi-free cat on another side of the world about the hardships of meeting decent humans who would take them in and love them. 

The twinge of sleepiness pulled at Joonmyun's eyes, and he was in danger of passing out on the couch for the night. But then the side profile of Kyungsoo's face wasn't a bad thing to fall asleep to, and it wouldn't be the first time he slept to the sound of scattered taps on a keyboard, knowing he'd wake up with a crick in his neck and a backache and a cold, twirling computer chair.

"I screwed up," he mumbled to himself one last time, before his eyes shut for good.

4,260 words

Uhm... woah. Feels. I don't even know what to say right now, except... I'm not done yet. With any of them. Expect more feels to come. So this chapter we learn more about Tao's backstory, who his master was, the first time Joonmyun meets Kyungsoo and why they've become this way pretty much completely hinted at. By the way, there are quite a few more clues to upcoming drama in this chapter - can you spot any of them?

So that aside, I realize there wasn't too much Taohun in this chapter, but how were the scenes where there was some?!? I just love it when Tao gets cheeky with Sehun. Little brat deserves it. Hehehe. Kidding! I love Sehun! He's just got.. issues. 

Sorry this update is so late. Lots and lots of life stuff happened, but I'm finally on track with my writing schedule! Hooray!

<3 Rosie