“Ayo, ayo, I’m falling for you again. Ayo, ayo, I think you are fascinating.” -EXO, "Run"

(part two)

"Zitao, I'm not your brother."

The room went silent with just those words and for a moment it was only the sounds of Tao's heartbeat picking up its pace that kept him from hearing absolutely nothing.

"W-well, I know that, we're not related at all... But still, you're-"

"Zitao, you don't understand." He looked up, surprised at the coldness in Luhan's voice. He set his jaw sternly when he saw that the younger was glaring at him.

"Then explain."

He sighed and let their voices fade from the room again before he spoke at all.

"Then I'll start from the beginning." He crossed his head and leaned his head all the way back until it was resting completely on the sofa and he was staring at the ceiling in loose interest. "I've always been an orphan.

"I get that you think that you know everything about me- that you've even experienced some of it yourself- but you don't know anything." Tao shivered at the words, wondering if he really wanted to hear this. He didn't want his "little brother" to be anything but that, he didn't want to lose him because if he did, Tao would have no one left anymore. "Firstly, my age. I hate to break it to you kid, but I'm three years older than you, so if after this you still intend to call me your brother, call me hyung. The only reason I didn't tell you sooner is because you had already made up a story about my entire life and if I told you the truth it would have made things here a whole lot more difficult. You aren't even supposed to be here now, and if it was for Kris, that clueless bastard, I would've left you in the Halo with Minseok and Sehun. You should thank him for having such a big heart when we're done here."

A piece of Tao's heart broke off upon hearing that. He didn't want to know that this person sitting in front of him, the only family he had ever really had, would've left him behind and not had a second thought about it. He supposed he should've figured it out by now though, he should've learned by now that no one really cared enough about him to save him and protect him. But Yifan...

"And I'm not as weak as you seem to think I am Tao, I was trained at a very young age to-"

"Trained by who?" Zitao interjected, not caring if it annoyed the stranger in front of him- and that's what he was: a stranger. Tao didn't know anything about him, and even if he did, Luhan had just told him that he could care less what happened to him, so Tao didn't feel the need to pretend that Luhan actually did care. 

"We just call ourselves rebels. There's no special name we have, but we know who we are and what our goal is. We stand against the Dancers and the Folk. We won't fall for shame like all of you, who do nothing but oblige to their rules and their arduous tasks just because some head told us to. My parents were killed right after I was born. I was from the Thirteenth Encampment- you're in the Fifty-Seventh-, so we had different rules, one of them being that the lowest ranks weren't allowed to bear children. My parents didn't oblige so I was thrown out and my parents were executed as an example as what would happen if you didn't follow their rules. Luckily some of the rebels in that site knew what was going on and made sure to take me to their base.

"After that I was raised like any normal kid would have been. I was taught to read and write and my fifth year here they began to teach me to fight. By the time I was six I could defend myself, but I kept training. I kept being taught the ways of the rebels, how to truly live and not be controlled by simple-minded people like the Dancers. It was an easily life, incredibly scheduled but not a single day of it was boring.

"Even though I loved what I was doing there, I wanted to do more, and then my day finally came. I was sent here on my first mission, I was supposed to learn more about the Dancers and the ways of the Fifty-Seventh Encampment in order for the rebels to finally gain the upper hand. And I was doing that for a while. New people came into my life. The worst one of them all being you," Luhan scowled at him. He talked more about the encampment and his work, how if Tao hadn't made up Luhan's story for him he wouldn't be in the situation at all.

At some point Luhan left the room, he ran out of words of tales to tell and all Zitao could do was sit there.

His heart ached.

All he could remember was the words that chilled him to the core. The worst of them being you. All this time Zitao had thought that the two were family and here Luhan went, his little-brother-turned-hyung telling him that he was only a burden, a hindrance to everything that Luhan had worked toward.

He found himself wishing he was back at the encampment, wrapped in the lifeless yet warm blankets of his bed, surrounded by evil but not completely alone. The minute that door slid closed behind Luhan Tao had felt all the warmth drained out of him. He had been his last hope, the last person that loved him and cared about him and needed him.

But now there was no one left.

"Zitao?"

Yifan was crouched in front of him, looking at him with concern clear in his eyes but Tao could barely hold his gaze for more than a few seconds before he looked away and stared at his hands instead. He hadn't noticed until now but they were shaking so violently that he clinched his fists and held them to his legs. He couldn't see himself but Yifan could and the older could see how broken Zitao was. His eyes were red and shimmering with still tears but he tried to keep himself in control. Zitao said his name again and attempted to catch his gaze again. He could hear the younger ask a question but he was too distracted, too lost in the others dark, shining eyes that he didn't hear him the first time.

"Yifan, what do we do now?" he asked in his trembling little voice.

Kris did nothing but shake his head, he didn't want the latter to worry about what was happening next when he still obviously didn't know what was going on right now. They weren't supposed to be in this situation at all but here they were, not knowing what steps to take next or what to do now that the three of them had left the encampment when they were supposed to be prisoners. Junmyeon and Yixing would hardly be noticed missing as they were always being switched between posts, trading out with other rebels, or simply hiding away in the woods. Sehun would definitely notice that Zitao was gone however and the same thing went for Luhan and his Dancer.

"I don't know, I'll have to talk to Luhan and the others about it."

Tao nodded. "Okay."

Yifan stood up and headed for the door. "I'm going to find Luhan, you can..."

Zitao heard nothing else, but let his mind wander. There was no telling what they were going to do next but he couldn't handle staying in this room for very long and eventually left to wander the area.

Most anywhere he went no one paid him any attention. It was still noisy but Zitao didn’t mind because it drowned out any thought that tried to break through into his mind. He didn’t want to think about anything, everything just led back to what Luhan had told them.

He found it crazy- that there could be an entire team of people out there that worked against the lives everyone lived for as long as he had known. He didn’t even know what it was like before the encampments and the Dancers. He didn’t even know if there was anything before them. He had never bothered to think about it. But now that he wasn’t thinking of anything else, now that he had no responsibilities to uphold to other people he couldn’t help but wonder.

Zitao reminisced what Yifan had liked to talk about when he first came into the encampment. He had thought of the man as a fool then, and then jealously had overtaken him and he hadn’t bothered to see any truth in the man, but now that he had heard their stories, he wondered. Maybe there was truth to those tales he had told all of the workers. Maybe there really was a place out there somewhere, where the grass that grew was green and stars lit the earth with a dim silver aura. He could think about it, after having watched those movies in Minseok’s room, but it was still strange to imagine anything but dirt, darkness, and despair. Anything different than what he had before him seemed unreal. It seemed like some crazy fantasy that-

The floor came into Zitao vision and he groaned as his body met the cold sparkling, glass floor that had been beneath his feet. He pushed himself up, looking around to see where he had wandered to while lost in his thoughts. He realized he had tripped over some wires that ran across the otherwise empty hallway. In front of him was a metal door, shut, which probably shouldn’t have made Zitao want to go and open it, but it did. So he stood, dusting off his pants as he did so.

The door was unlocked which prompted the panda to peek inside. Dim lights flickered over what looked like a never-ending staircase. Without even a second thought he started up the stairs. At first he was hesitant but before long he found himself out of the dim stairwell and on top of a balcony.

All breath was out of him as he stared out over thousands of trees that seemed to glow under the dull moonlight. The balcony stood out of the side of a tall mountain like a cliff and Zitao wondered how just those stairs could have taken him all the way up here; it seemed like an entirely new universe. Never in his life had he seen a view as stunning as this. Although it was dark and the only light came from the moon as there were no stars, everything could be seen clearly in the shadows of the night. Far of in the distance he saw smoke rising from the middle an empty clearing: the encampment. The Halo looked miniscule from here. Tao put his hand up and squinted one eye, squishing the shining building between his fingers with a smile. Oh, how he wished he could squish it that easily.

Suddenly a shiver wracked through his body and the fear of someone watching him made him wish he hadn’t come up here. In his naïve thoughts he felt as if Sehun was watching him from the window of his room, looking right at him with his cold piercing eyes. He looked at his feet as he shuffled backwards towards the stairwell, but jumped when a hand reached out to touch his shoulder.

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?”

Tao just nodded at Yifan’s words. He wanted to go back downstairs as he was still filled with dread, but something held him in his spot. They stood in silence, Kris taking in the view and Tao still staring at his feet. After a few moments Tao spoke up.

“What am I supposed to do now, Yifan?”

He felt the elder look at him, but couldn’t move to meet his gaze. He seemed to be prompting the younger with his silence so Tao explained.

“I really don’t have anyone left,” he quivered, his lip trembling. He had made it up until this moment without crying but tears melted onto his cheeks, leaving a freezing path in their wake. “Luhan was the only one I ever had, and now not even he wants me.” Tao’s voice cracked and he felt himself beginning to shake. He wished he could say it was from the cold breeze. “He didn’t ever think of me as a brother, Yifan, and do you know what that means? It means I never had anyone. I’ve been alone all my life.” The only sound between them was the sound of Tao’s sobs. His throat was sore from crying so much recently.

“You’re not alone, Tao.” Anger sparked in Tao at that moment, his emotions causing a ruckus within him. “You still have-”

“No, Yifan. Without Luhan, I have no one. Everyone I thought I had abandoned me as soon as things went wrong! I am alone!” he cried. Tears streaked down his face and he close his eyes in a useless attempt to stop them. “First it was my parents, and then it was Mimi and Rin! And now not even Luhan wants me! I’m completely alone and-”

Suddenly, Zitao was embraced, the warmth of Yifan’s body against his was calming and he took a deep breath, hiccupping on unheard sobs. “No matter how many times you say it, doesn’t make it true. So long as I’m with you, you’ll never be alone,” the rebel whispered.

They stood there, Yifan clinging to Tao, and Tao’s hands grasping at the latter. The wind whipped around them and the moon shone, but nothing seemed to matter to either of them.

All of Tao’s sudden anger vanished, replaced with the slightest bit of hope, that broke through the dark shroud inside of him. As he whispered a quiet thank you- unsure of whether or not the older actually heard it- he could hear his heart beating in side of him and could feel Yifan’s racing inside his chest. The moment didn’t last any longer than a few minutes however, and Tao pulled back. Placing his hand on the man’s chest, he pushed himself away and wiped his eyes.

Yifan looked at Tao who had an unintended pout on his lips and before he could say anything interrupted the younger.

“We should go meet the others, they’re discussing what we’re going to do next.”

a/n: Late chapter update and it's short sorry ;-; Please forgive me for being a horrible author. I hope you all are doing fabulous, and I would like to thank everyone for being loyal and staying even though I never update nowadays^^ Love youuu~ ❤️

(I got a 75 on my AP Euro semester final T_T please shoot me, I'm so done with that class)