Zitao had bothered you for months about learning your native language, but you, in return, had pointed out that he found it difficult to learn Korean, and your language wasn't something so nice as to be even remotely similiar to Mandarin. He hadn't backed down, though, so you caved to his whining and attempted to teach him how to speak your native tongue. 

Three hours later, he was pouting and frustrated while you sat across the table from him, a smug eyebrow raised. 

He hadn't asked you about it again and you figured that if he really wanted to know more - when he actually gathered some patience to learn - then he would come backt o you, more thoroughly prepared. How that your Taozi ever actually prepared for anything other than dances. 

That didn't mean that when he heard you having a conversation with someone over the phone, the unfamiliarity of your native tongue ringing over the line, that he didn't immediately want to know what was happening. He did the same thing when you called any of the other EXO members and spoke with them in Korean, hardly a skip in your words or a mispronunciation to be found - though, during those times, it was either Suho or Kris calling to make sure EXO's Princess was properly taken care of. 

Regardless, he wouldn't leave you alone about the call, bothering you perpetually to know who you were talking to and what you were talking about. Finally, you snapped. 

"It was my father, okay? One of my siblings let it slip that EXO's touring in my home country and that I planned to follow you on this one. So, he knows I'm coming home and that I'll be close to my home town. He called wanting to know dates and times and everything."

"So, what did you tell him?"

"I told him the dates and times and that I can't see him. Or any of the family. Ever. Especially not with you around."

He reared back, offended. "Are you trying to tell me something?"

You rolled your eyes. "Enough with the 'You're embarrassed to be with me, aren't you?' thing. I love you, stupid. No, my family isn't particularly . . . wonderful for people without my own skin colour to be around."

He took your hand, head cocked at them. "We're not far off."

"No- You're from China. You're Chinese. My family wouldn't approve."

HIs brows furrowed. "What about your siblings? They liked me."

"Two are EXO fans and the other could care less who I'm dating." You replied. "It's not them I'm worried about anyway. It's the elder generation."

"If we're in town, or close enough, we should go there anyway." He stepped into your space. "We've been together for almost two years and I know you haven't gone home in that time. Don't you think they deserve to know who you're dating?"

"Honestly, no. It's none of their business."

"Well, I want to meet the family of the person I love. What about that?"

You sighed heavily. "Taozi, baby, there's a reason I don't want you to meet them. Anyone worth meeting, you'll see at whatever possibly future wedding we have. I don't want it any sooner."

"You shouldn't talk about your family with such venom."

"Yes, well, I'm sure you remember the look your brother gave me when we went to your parents' place in China. Right?"

He winced. "He's just a ."

"Yes, well, imagine that, but with, like, twelve other people who are also ."

He gave you a stern look, gripping your arms. "I want to. Isn't that enough?"

"Not this time."

"Look, I'll let you wear that Gucci jacket of mine that you really like."

"Okay. Wow. You're really desperate to do this, aren't you?"

"They're your family. There's no too terrible thing they could do if you came from them." He pulled you tightly into a hug.

Arms wrapping meekly around him too, you muttered into his shoulder muscle. "You say that now."

---

Tao certainly made himself look good for the day that you were set to meet your parents. You had warned your father ahead of tiem thaqt you would be coming with a man you met in Korea. You neglected to mention how you'd followed him to China, how you knew from Kris that he'd asked the older man when it was the right time to ask you to marry him. 

Your father had immediately gotten indignant, ranting about how his house wasn't a hostel and that if he wanted to invite himself over, Tao could off. YOu had been very patient through the rant, rolling your eyes steady and forever thankful that your father didn't know about facetime or Skype. You had then casually emtnioned that you would be bringing your boyfriend and not so casually told him that said man happened to be Tao. You had also purposefully left out his name, not wanting to give your father any time to gather slurs and indignities together. 

Tao had insisted on driving, but you had firmly taken the wheel, telling him that things were different here and you knew your way around better than any GPS. Plus, that would give him time to look around and appreciate the place you'd been born in. You pulled up to the driveway, but parked on the street - faster getaway when things inevitably went -up and you had to drag Tao away from the trainwreck. 

You lead him around to the side door and let yourself in, walking up the stairs into the kitchen, where all your older relatives were gathered around the table and talking. You even spotted that aunt and that cousin and restrained the urge to grab Tao by his lovely biceps and pull him right back outside before anyone could notice you. If you did, Tao would kick up a fuss and you didn't want to be caught fleeing, lest you never be able to go to another family function without hearing about it.

It felt like a rusted lever clicked in your brain as you made the conversion back to your native language. "Hi guys. Long time no see."

Your dad, standing at the counter, spun around and gave a booming laugh, coming over to grab you and crush you in a hug. "Hi! Long time no see, indeed, kiddo. How've you been?"

Your elder relatives called out their own greetings and you waved back. 

"I've been good, Dad. I'm just back because I'm here with my boyfriend. His group is on tour right now but there was a bit of a break in the schedule so I thought we could drop by."

"Boyfriend? Where did you meet this man? I didn't know you would find people like us in China." Your grandmother called out. You tried to balance the simultaneous instincts to shut up and slink away as well as the ones to be blatant and completely rude. You settled on curt and polite, but far from warm. 

"I didn't. Zitao is Chinese."

From the corner of your eye, you saw him finish taking off his shoes and standing up properly, looking at you and trying to see if he could catch a familiar word.

Your father's gaze was boring into you. "You brought home a Chinaman? Aren't you a little tall for one of them?"

It was getting harder and harder to contain your cringes. You broke out of your father's embrace and turned to look down the stairs. "C'mon up, Taozi. Let them see you."

"What did you say to them?" He asked. 

"Just greetings. Don't worry, I'll tell them you don't speak our language so they don't think we're being rude."

"Okay." He stood behind you, taller than you and nervously waved, his crooked, nervous smile twisting his lips. He also gave a little wave, the leather of his jacket creaking. "Ni hao. Ni hao ma?"

Your aunt rolled her eyes. "How are we supposed to understand your chink-speak? Get him to speak normally."

You grit your teeth and smiled. "Tao's a Chinese naturalist. He can only speak Mandarin. He greeted you and asked how you're doing."

"Oh. I see. Well, couldn't you have taught him?"

You smile got tighter. "He doesn't take very well to new languages. He's been trying to get fluent in Korean for nearly three years."

She huffed. "Maybe he should get better, then."

"What's she saying?"

"She says she's doing well and that it's nice to meet you."

His hand was resting on yoru lower back and you knew he could feel your tension through the Gucci leather.

"Oh, is that Gucci?" Your cousin piped up and any thoughts you had of taking your jacket off vanished. 

"Yeah. It's Tao's, actually. He loves the brand."

"Cool. My new boyfriend loves stuff like that."

"I'm sure he does." You replied, gaze leaving her and firmly telling her the conversation was over. 

"Baobei, you know I don't know what they're saying. Translate, please?"

"She likes your style. Complimented our jackets."

He smiled and you almost felt bad for blurring the truth. "Tell her I say 'thank you'."

"I already did. Wouldn't leave my tianxin out in the cold, rude like that."

He hugged you from behind, nuzzling his face into your shoulder and pulling you back against him. It took you a few seconds too long to remember that you're not in China or Korea, surrounded by the other members giving you knowing or doting smiles, but your family, who were mistaking his actions as ual ones instead of the skinship that it actually was.

"Wow. Right here?" Your uncle commented.

"Control your child!" Your grandmother shrieked and your father didn't know whether to or go blind, caught halfway between 'you're old enough' and 'that's my baby, how dare you'.

"Taozi, not now. Let go." You murmured and he followed your orders obediently, only noticing something was wrong by the way people were staring at him. 

"Did I do something wrong?" He asked.

"No, no. We're not a very touchy family. Keep skinship down until we're alone again, okay?"

He nodded, not quite shying away from the looks tossed his way, but bending to their judgement. 

"Nothing's happening." You were quick to interject, standing in front of Tao protectively. "Romance is different in China and Korea. It's my fault. I forgot that we don't show affection as physically as they do and didn't warn him."

"Maybe you shouldn't be spending all that time with those dog-eaters and you wouldn't have this problem."

Your mouth fell open, shocked. "Excuse me?!"

"What? You said he's Chinese. Can't you take a joke?"

"Dad, he's right there."

"What's he saying?" Tao whispered, starting to feel pinned.

"It was a joke! God, don't you ever get sick of being so politically correct all the time?"

"It's- I'm not-" You took a deep breath. "Whatever."

"You just ing got here and you're already in a sour mood." He got flippant with you. "The least you could do is pretend like you want to be here."

You looked him dead in the eye. "Tao wanted to come to meet my family. It's a really good first impression to call him a dog-eater."

"Baobei?" Tao was closer to a whimper now. "What's going on?"

Your father softened somewhat. "What are you going to tell him?"

"Tianxin, my dad says that he's happy you wanted to come for dinner and meet the family. He hopes you have a good time."

"Are you sure?"

. You thought. Tao was always more sensitive to moods than anyone gave him credit for, but you really didn't want to spoil this for him, especially not so early on. "Absolutely. I just . . . don't get along with my dad all the time and he doesn't like that it's taken me so long not only to come home, or to introduce you to him. That's all. It's all good."

He relaxed some. "Okay."

"When's dinner gonna be ready?"

"Another hour or so."

"Do you know where Mom is?"

Light feet fluttered down the stairs and your mother rounded the corner, jolting as she noticed you. 

"Oh! Hello, my baby!" She was swift to hug you, reaching past you to hug Tao and reach up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. "You must be the boyfriend."

"Yeah. Mom, this is Tao. Tao, this is my mom. He only speaks Chinese, so . . ."

"Oh, I see." She smiled up and him and he down at her. "It's lovely to see you in person, Tao. I hear such good things about you."

You spit out the sentence in Mandarin. He beamed. 

"It's nice to meet you too. My baobei raves about you a lot and how much you're missed."

"He says it's nice to meet you too and that I talk about you alot." You blushed faintly and both your mom and your boyfriend cooed over you. 

"I'm going out for a smoke, want to come and catch up?"

"Mom's gonna have a smoke. Want to come out and talk with her some more?"

"Sure! She's so nice."

You chuckled. "Yeah, she is. He can't speak for himself, so he's gonna come out with us."

"That's fine. C'mon."

---

It was mostly fine after that, until the alcohol got flowing. 

"He looks so much like a cat." Your male cousin piped up. "How do you sleep with someone like that?"

You took a look at his face and Tao noticed, turning to look at you for a long moment before you turned back to your cousin. "I've always liked cats."

Your cousin snorted. "Enough to one?"

You looked at Tao again. "I don't know what you're looking at, but I see a human sitting here."

"That's fine, I guess. Since you like cats, I'm sure you don't mind it when he eats dogs."

Your elder relatives weren't looking, too absorbed in their own conversations, so you plastered on a bright smile. "How about you shut the up before all that bigotted entitlement makes your any smaller and your chances of employment any slimmer."

Your third cousin, another man, muscled the other one off the couch with a kind of friendly arrogance that you knew was a masterful facade. "Hey pipsqueak! Why you gotta pick on them? Didn't you know this is the first time Tao's been in this country? How about we make the welcome a warm one, eh?"

Your younger cousin slunk off, muttering under his breath curses and nasty names. Your elder male cousin gave you a more genuine smile. You two had always been friends and you had helped him deal when he introduced the woman that became his wife, despite her, too, being a different ethnicity. She wasn't here, hadn't come after the first disasterous event, and she wasn't missed by anyone but the two of you until you'd moved to Korea for your final year of school and had met Zitao, following him to China (there was also a job that got offered to you there which was the actual incentive, but you let Tao have his romantic fantasies). 

"Didn't mean to scare him off, but it looked like you were having too much fun."

"Thank you're here. I thought for a while that you'd finally given up and stopped coming."

"Me? Never. Especially when I knew you were going to be here."

"That's really sweet of you."

Tao nudged you, eyes flickering appraisingly over the newcomer. "Who's this? An ex?"

You elbowed him back. "Gross. He's a cousin. Not from the same aunt with the daughter and son.'"

"Ni hao." Tao greeted, dipping his head politely.

"Ni hao." Your cousin replied, smiling slightly. Tao snapped upright, eyes narrowing.

"He doesn't actually know Mandarin. He's just trying to be polite." You explained. 

"Oh. That was thoughtful." 

"He's the only other person here who's not racist."

"What do you mean by that? What's a racist?"

"It's like colourism, but broader. They use slurs on anyone not the same race as us. Like you."

He blinked at you. "So, they've been saying bad things this whole time?"

You realized your mistake. "Yeah. I've been . . . filtering them. I didn't want this to be a bad event for you, already hampered as it is by not being able to speak my language."

Your cousin's eyes flickered back and forth as you were speaking, trying to see if he could understand the subject matter of the conversation by your body language.

"You shouldn't have done that, baobei. We don't deserve their abuse and you should have let me stand up for us!"

"Taozi, it wouldn't mean anything. Yelling looses something when someone else has to tell the person you're yelling at what you even mean. Look, it's really nothing. Dinner's finished, the alcohol's been out for at least two hours and in a few minutes we can leave."

"You should have told me.It's my duty as your boyfriend to defend you - us."

"I'm used to it by now and it's not me that they're weird about."

"So you're saying that I'm the problem?!"

"Don't pull this spoilt maknae on me here, Zitao." There was authority in your tone and the people milling about were starting to look at you. "We could have avoided the whole thing if we just didn't come. I told you that I didn't want to. Can you blame me for trying to make this a little better for you?"

He was on his feet, not quite angry, but more hurt. "You don't get to decide that. I deserve to know that they're saying about me."

You stood too, your cousin leaning back and protectively cupping his drink. The room had stopped to stare. "That dickwad that was sitting on the couch before he came over?" You gestured to your good lame cousin. "He asked me what it was like to a cat because you have feline features. My aunt called you a chink. My dad called you a dog-eater. At dinner, my uncle made a joke about you fixing his computer because you're asian. My of a female cousin asked if you knew any one who sold knock-off purses. Another aunt asked if you grew up working in a sweatshop."

He was just staring at you, mouth slightly parted and you could tell he was going to start crying soon. You sighed and took one of his hands, thankful now mor ethan ever that you're the only one who spoke Mandarin. 

"Don't cry, tianxun. They're not worth either of our time and they don't mean anything. I handled them."

"You shouldn't have to." He growled back, voice made thick by the impending tears, hands gripping yours tighter. "It's not fair that you had to deal with it at all."

"You dealt with your brother for me. It's the least I can do to protect you too."

He nodded silently. "I should kick their asses for making you feel bad."

"I think that's my role, tianxun."

He shook his head more violently, voice raising. "I should find that dip cousin of yours and show him the kind of cat he's making fun of."

"C'mon, you and I both know he's a scrawny dickweed and not worth even the air he breathes, let alone getting to touch that beautiful thing you call a body."

He made a face at you and you made a disgusted one back, like Sehun would have. He barred his teeth at you, playfully snarling.

Suddenly, your aunt was pulling you back and your uncle pushed Tao's chest, making the gangly twenty-something stumble backwards. "You don't get to threaten!"

"Why did you bring that heathen home?" Your aunt fussed. 

"Waht?" She pinched at your face and you pushed her off, ignoring her hurt look. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"He was snarling at you! Did you honestly expect us to let him possibly assault you? In your own home?"

"Assau- You thought he was going to assault me? Are you stupid?"

"Hey! Stop pushing me!"

"How dare you act like that?! That's not any way to treat someone you're in a relationship with. I don't know how they do things in China, Wong, but that's not how this is going to go down!"

You ducked under your uncle's arm, standing between him and your boyfriend and would up taking the punch as well. Tao caught you, tenderly cupping your face and checking you over. Your uncle was dumbstruck by his actions and tried to step closer but Tao snarled, for real this time, face and eyes dangerous and fierce. 

"You stay the away! You've done enough damage!"

"What's he saying?" Your uncle asked weakly. 

"He's saying you've already punched me so back the up." You spit back, rubbing your cheek. "We're going to leave now, before any of you make this any worse." You looked at them all, staring at you in teh most uncomfortable way. "Thanks for dinner and for treating Tao like . You guys really make me appreciate China." 

Tao's attention was on you, too, but that felt much better than being stared at by everyone else. "Back to the car?"

"Yeah. We're done here."

Your cousin and mother lead you out of the house and were the ones standing on the street that waved goodbye at you as Tao roared the car off into the evening. 

---

"Wow, what happened to you?" Luhan asked as soon as he'd opened the door. 

"I got punched."

"At a family function?"

"They're spirited people."

"s, you mean." Tao seethed. 

"Let it go." You sighed. "You'll never have to see them again anyway."

"Were you hit anywhere else?" Luhan asked. 

"Nah Just the one punch to the face."

He looked you overmore thoroughly. "It's going to be a pretty nasty bruise. Even that pancake that Beakhyun wears won't cover this."

"I don't care. I'll wear a hoodie."

He chuckled. "With the hood up all the time?"

"Why the hell not? I'm sure Kris has something I can borrow to disappear inside."

Tao pouted. "I'm almost Kris' size! Why don't you take something of mine?"

"Half of your clothes actually do belong to Kris."

Luhan laughed as he walked over to the door. "I'll be back in a minute. Our unicorn has cream that might help that dent in your face."

"You're a dickhead." Tao groused playfully as the second eldest disappeared to where Yixing was rooming with Minseok and Jongdae.

"You love me." He sing-songed back from down the hallway.

Tao curled up around you, snuggling close. "Nah. I love you."

"You're such a sap." You murmured back, down his pretty face. "I'm glad you're mine."

He smiled at you, eyes alit with happiness. "I'm glad to be yours."