A/N #1 : I use italics towards the end of this chapter. That whole thing will be a flashback.

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Kris can feel someone slowly combing their fingers through his hair as he starts waking up. He can remember Tao gently moving his head from his shoulder to his lap as he cried after his confession. He can remember falling asleep with the scent of Tao’s soap wafting around him. He can remember the feeling of Tao softly using his thumbs to wipe away each tear that managed to escape. He can remember Tao quietly humming to him, telling him to get some sleep. He can remember the slight hiccups that seemed to plague him as his crying turned into silent weeping. He just lays there with his eyes closed, wanting to memorize every single thing about Tao before he had to get up and return to reality. The way he flexes his legs, trying in vain to wake it up as it falls asleep beneath Kris’s head; the way his fingers move through Kris’s hair, stopping for a few seconds each time to brush aside a few loose strands that keep managing to fall over his eyes; the way that Tao will randomly sigh for no apparent reason. He wishes he could just make time stop at this very moment so that he can take as long as he wants to memorize Tao.

“How much longer are you going to pretend to be asleep, Yi Fan?”

The sudden interruption startles him, and he slightly opens one eye, glancing up at Tao. “How long have you known?”

“Since you woke up. Your breathing changed.”

Sighing, Kris complains, “You and your damn observational skills. I’ve always liked and hated that about you.”

“You’re not the first, and I’m sure you won’t be the last.” Lifting Kris’s head from his leg, he uses his hands to get the blood once again flowing to his leg. “I didn’t think you’d ever wake up. I’ve wanted to do this for almost an hour.”

“Almost an hour? How long was I asleep?”

“Almost three hours,” is Tao’s reply as he quickly glances at his watch.

“You could’ve woken me up, Zi Tao.”

Shaking his head, Tao disagrees. “You needed to sleep, duizhang. And I needed time to think about what to say to you.” He can see Kris’s body turn rigid as he says that, obviously worried about how Tao’s gonna react to the confession from earlier. Remember how the situation went down earlier, Tao reaches over this time, putting his hands on top of Kris’s. “Relax, Yi Fan.” He tries, unsuccessfully, to calm himself down. He’s never confessed to anybody before – hell, he’s never even liked anybody before – and all of the possible negative replies that can come from Tao are running rampant in his mind. He can feel Tao running his hands up towards his elbows and then back down to his fingertips. It has a surprisingly calming effect on the older man, his body starting to go slack again. “There. That’s better.” He shoots an incredibly grateful look in Tao’s direction.

Kris nearly jumps out of his skin as his phone rings, the loud ringtone surprising even Tao. Looking at it and groaning, he pushes the button with the glowing green phone on it, a slight frown on his face from having to lose contact with Tao. “What do you want, Lu Han?”

“Are you with Zi Tao right now? Are you gonna be taking him out to eat again or something? All of us here are starving, and we’re getting tired of waiting on you two.”

“Just go ahead and make dinner. Panda and I can warm it up when we get home.” Hanging up, he holds the power button, delighted to hear the tone that lets him know it’s off. He apologizes as he looks back up at Tao. “I’m sorry. Lu Han always manages to call at the worst times.”

Tao slowly stands up, stretching as he does so. When he lifts his head above his head, Kris finds himself eyeing his stomach. No matter how many times he’s seen them, Tao’s abs always seem to amaze him. It’s just not the kind of body you’d expect to see on someone as sweet and childlike as Tao. After wiping the grass stuck to his hands off on the legs of his pants, he holds his hands out to Kris. Another thing that’s always surprised Kris about Tao is his strength. You wouldn’t expect someone so tall and skinny to be so strong, but as he grabs Kris’s hands, he doesn’t even struggle as he pulls him up off of the ground. Reaching down and interlacing his and Kris’s fingers, he pulls him in the direction of the dorm. “I want dinner while it’s still fresh. We can continue this tonight, okay? And please relax a little. You’re squeezing my hand so hard it feels like my fingers are about to pop off.”

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“You didn’t have to do this, Yi Fan.”

“I did. I don’t have the patience to wait for tonight to finish our talk. So we’re just gonna eat now instead.”

Not wanting to wait to finish their talk later, Kris pulled Tao into the first restaurant they saw on the way home. A sushi restaurant. Kris would’ve preferred something hot and meaty, but whatever. All that mattered was that right now, Tao was sitting across from him, the room only dimly lit. By the time the food finally came, Kris didn’t even care that it wasn’t what he was in the mood for. The look of joy on Tao’s face as he saw the food being brought out was enough for him. Being only slightly hungry – the butterflies returning to his stomach – he eats slowly, focusing more on watching Tao. The way his nose scrunched up when he smiled, happy that there’s enough food there to have him stuffed for a week. The way he apologized to each piece before he eats it, sorry that the fish’s life had to have an ending like this. The way Tao seemed to chew more on the left side than the right. He wonders why he’d never noticed things like that before. The feeling of something being pushed onto his lips interrupts his reverie. He’d been so into watching Tao’s face that he hadn’t noticed the younger one offering a piece of sushi to him.

“Don’t just stare at me, duizhang. Makes me self-conscious. You eat too.” Opening his mouth, Tao drops the piece of fish into his mouth, smiling. “Good duizhang.”

Kris takes his own pair of chopsticks and picks up a piece, offering it to Tao in return, who gladly accepts it. Picking up another piece right away, he holds it up to Tao’s mouth. “Here Panda. Have another.” Not wanting to disappoint, Tao takes that into his mouth as well, only to be presented with another one right after. “You’re a growing boy. You should eat this too. Eat eat eat.” Tao quickly glowers, already feeling sorry for the jaw he knows is gonna be sore because of this, and lets Kris put the fish into his mouth. Before Tao can swallow any of it, Kris quickly holds his phone up and takes a picture of him. “My little Panda with puffed out cheeks. Who knew you could be so cute? Even with that scowl on your face.” Taking the last piece of sushi on the plate, he plops it into his mouth before getting up and walking off. “You finish that mouthful. I’ll go pay. Meet me out front.”

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Chen, busy watching TV with Lay, smiles when he sees Kris walk through the front door carrying Tao on his back. As Tao hops off of his back, he runs off, screaming for Lu Han, demanding that a cake be made this instant because he’s starving. “Wow, we just ate. How can you eat so much all the time and still have a body like that?” The younger boy just shrugs, claiming metabolism is the reason. Walking over to Tao, he leans in close and whispers something that Chen can’t hear from where he is. He assumes it must be good though because they both have smiles as Kris drags Chen to his room.

Shutting the door behind them, Chen turns around to see a still smiling Kris. “Have a nice talk?” Kris nods. “I told you telling him was the best thing you could do. You really should listen to me more often. I’m clearly a genius when it comes to this stuff.”

He has Chen sit on the bed beside him as he fills him in on every detail about what’s happened since he left the park earlier.

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“Thanks for dinner, duizhang. It was delicious.”

Throwing his arm over Tao’s shoulders, Kris pulls him over for a quick hug before they set off for home. “Have to take care of Mr. Wushu, don’t I?”

Tao quickly nods as he slips an arm around Kris’s waist, both of them enjoying the body heat that the other one provides. “It’s really pretty out right now.” Kris agrees. They even stop at a bench to just sit down and enjoy the view. It’s that time of day where the sun is just setting and the moon is just rising. The sky looks like the type of thing you’d see in a painting. Dark purple at the top where the sun is no longer shining; a bright orange underneath that, followed by the remaining bright yellow color that the sun’s light is still making possible.

Turning towards Tao, Kris leans over, turning Tao’s face towards his as he lets his lips graze over Tao’s. Pulling away slightly, he watches Tao’s face to see if it was okay; to see if he can continue. Tao nods, knowing what Kris is thinking. Kris leans back in, pressing his lips against Tao’s more firmly this time, happy that they’re finally sharing a kiss that he doesn’t want to pull away from. He can feel as Tao’s tongue tries to slide between his lips, but Kris won’t let it, enjoying the kiss as it is right at this moment. A couple of minutes later he can feel it again, and this time he lets it in, quietly . Pulling away again, he looks at Tao.

“Does this mean it isn’t just me?”

Not fully understanding the question at first, Tao quickly realizes what he’s talking about. He takes Kris’s arm and lays it over his shoulder as he snuggles up against his side. Reaching around Kris with one arm, he pushes the side of Kris’s shirt up, resting his hand on Kris’s hip as the shirt falls back down. With his other hand, he reaches towards his shoulder and rests it on Kris’s forearm. He only nods, making Kris let out a sigh of contentment.

“Obviously, I love food, but do you think I’d really kiss you just because someone offers it to me for free? I did it because I’ve always wanted to kiss you. The day that I hit Min Seok ge and you came into the room, I was awake when you were rubbing my stomach. It was all I could to not cry out when you finally stopped. Then when you took a nap that day and told me to just wait there for 30 minutes, you couldn’t tell, but I was ecstatic. You were right there. The nap was actually an accident. I spent so long watching you sleep that I fell asleep too. Do you know how  peaceful you look when you’re asleep? You have a little smile on your face the whole time. Remind me to show you a picture of that later. I took one.”

“What!?”

“I couldn’t help it. That was the day I realized I need you to be more than just duizhang. I needed you to be Yi Fan. I needed you to be my Yi Fan. And then you went to the beach with Jong Dae that day, and you were gone for so long, and then he slept with you that night, and I hated it. I hated Jong Dae at that moment. I’d never wanted to Wushu someone’s so badly.”

“You know, he’s the reason I didn’t go insane this week. He’s been the one telling me to tell you all week. Remember that.”

“I know. He texted me when you guys left the gym and told me to come to the park. He told me last week about how confused you were. Do you know how hard it was for me to not just run to you and hold you and tell you that I wanted this to happen? It was ing hard. So ing hard. You know it was ing hard because I never swear.” He clears his throat. “Anyway, I’ve gotten way off track. The whole point of my rambling is that, no, it isn’t just you. I like you too. I want us to be an us. I want us to be what everybody thinks we are already. I want you to be mine, and I want to be yours. So will you –“ He’s cut off as all of the air rushes out of his lungs, the result of Kris hugging him as close as he physically can.

“Yes.”

“You don’t even know what I was gonna ask.”

“Doesn’t matter. The answer is yes.”

Tao just chuckles and wraps both of his arms around Kris’s neck as he climbs onto his back, ready to go home.

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“Finally. Like I said, you really should listen to me more often. I’m a genius.”

Leaning towards Chen, Kris wraps him up in a bone crushing hug. “Thank you. I know I’ve been a pain in the this past week, but you were always there. I’m really grateful, Jong Dae.”

Chen wraps his arms around Kris in an equally powerful hug. “Ever since you took me to the beach, you’ve been my best friend, Yi Fan. I’ll always be here when you need me, okay?”

Kris nods, standing up and recomposing himself. “Shall we head back out there?”

Chen agrees, standing up as well. “But first. What did you say to Zi Tao before we came in here?”

As a toothy grin makes its way to his face, he walks to his door and opens it. “We’re gonna move Panda’s bed in here tomorrow.”

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A/N #2 : I write so much more when I start early! Almost double the amount of words I usually end up with. Awesome, right?

Hm...I don't really have much to say today. I usually just use this space to complain about how tired I am after finishing, but it's only midnight right now, so I'm wide awake. Lol.
You guys should leave me random questions after you comment so I have something to talk about in my next A/N. xD

As always, if you have a Tumblr, feel free to add me here. ^_^  ( I bet you didn't see that coming. ;D )

Time to reply to comments!
@adrina - I'll keep that in mind. Lol. I don't wanna be hunted down! D;
@VitaminBuns - No suicide for you! There's lots and lots of lovely Taoris in here today.
@white_snowy - I'm glad you love my Chen! I love when I'm writing him into these.

I could take the time to read this over for typos and grammar errors since I'm fully awake today, but I forgot all about Inkigayo being on, and I wanna get this out so I can see what you all think!. :]  Hope you like it.