“What are you doing?” Kris quietly asks, voice so low it’s almost a whisper. He was drifting in and out of sleep when he felt the bed shifting a little as Tao got up. Opening his eyes a tiny bit, he can see the beginning of a new day outside their window. “It’s early.”

“Get on your back, gege,” Tao said, voice just as quiet as when Kris spoke. “It makes it easier for me.”

Kris, always looking for an excuse to sleep, isn’t too pleased with having to actually move, but does it anyway simply because it was Tao. “Makes what ea –“ he stops mid-sentence when he feels Tao’s hands on one of his left foot. “What are you doing, Panda Bear?”

“Wondering if Lu Han ge had my cookies,” Tao answers, shifting his attention from the leader’s foot to his eyes. “What does it look like I’m doing, Yi Fan? I’m rubbing your foot.”

“Yes, I gathered,” Kris scoots himself up on the bed so he can sit up with his back against the wall. “But why are you rubbing my foot?” He lets out a quiet groan when Tao’s thumbs hit just the right spot. “Never mind, I don’t care why you’re doing, just don’t stop,” Tao’s thumbs pass over the same spot again as he says that last bit, eliciting another groan – which really sounds more like a moan – from Kris.

Tao lets his eyes drop from Kris’s face back down to his feet, watching as his fingers pass back and forth over the latter’s skin. “I’ve been doing this since you hurt your foot,” Tao says in a low voice, answering Kris’s question.

“Since I… hurt my foot?” Tao nods. “Baby, that was so long ago.”

“I know,” Tao nods.

“That tickles!” Kris squeals when Tao drags his fingernails up his foot. He rushes to put his feet back under the blankets when Tao smirks and wiggles his fingers as if he was some evil witch in a movie. “Don’t do it!”

“Don’t do what, duizhang?” Tao asks, voice full of feigned innocence.  “I was only giving you a foot rub.”

“I’ve seen that face before,” Kris replies, unaffected. “That’s the one you use on other people when you want them to do something for you.”

------------

“Tell me again how I ended up like this?” Kris asks thirty minutes later as he stands in front of the oven, cake starting to rise inside of it. Tao just grins at him from the counter he’s sitting on. “Right, it was the only way to get you away from my feet. I remember now. God, I hate your face.”

“You love my face,” Tao says matter-of-factly. “Everybody loves my face.”

“You’re right, I do love your face,” Kris agrees, going over to stand between Tao’s dangling legs.

“Is that all you love about me?” Tao asks, wrapping his legs around Kris’s waist.

Kris shakes his head in response, his hands latched onto Tao’s hips. “I love the way your mouth waters whenever food is even mentioned,” he says, scooping up a tiny bit of cake batter from the bowl in the sink and wiping it on Tao’s nose. “I love it when you smile,” he pushes the corners of Tao’s mouth up. “Everything is perfect when you’re smiling, Panda Bear.”

“What else?”

“Hmm…,” Kris brings a hand up to his chin, tapping his fingers on it as he pretends to think. “I love the way you stand by me, no matter what. I love the way you go back and forth between nervousness and excitement whenever we’re about to perform. I love how you’re the first person to play a joke on someone, only to turn around and be the first person to comfort them because you think your joke was too mean. I love the way I feel whenever I’m around you,” he says, leaning forward a little bit to kiss Tao’s neck.

“Is that –“

“No, that’s not all,” Kris interrupts before Tao can finish. “I love the way your breath hitches when I kiss your neck like that. Just. Like. This,” he whispers, pressing his lips against Tao’s neck between each word.

“Yi F –“

“I’m not done,” Kris puts a finger over Tao’s lips. “I love the way you stop every few seconds to rub my head when you run your fingers through my hair. I love the way your fingers feel between mine when I’m holding your hand.” He takes his free hand and slips his fingers between Tao’s as if he’s trying to prove a point, the latter squeezing gently. “I love the way your grip tightens a little like that as if you’re afraid one of us might accidentally let go. I love the way you fall asleep on one side of the bed and end up pressed up against me in the middle of the night. I love how when I go somewhere without you, I can hear you running down the hall the second I open the door.”

“Like a puppy?”

“Like a panda.”

“Do panda bears do that!?”

Kris shrugs. “My Panda does. He runs up to me and hops right into my arms, and I love it because it shows me how much he missed me. I love that, when that happens, I can count on you to be next to me for at least an hour after that no matter what.”

“I have to make up for lost time,” Tao tells him.

Kris nods before continuing on with his list. “I think the thing I love the most is the way your bottom lip trembles whenever we kiss,” he says, leaning up to capture Tao’s lips in his own. There’s a triumphant grin on his face when he slowly pulls away, dragging Tao’s bottom lip along with his teeth. “Just like that.”

“If this was an anime, there would be blood flying out of your nose right now,” Chen says, fake gagging noises accompanying him. “Can’t you two do that in your own room?”

Kris doesn’t even bother to turn around and face him as he tells him, “No.” He is kind enough to at least turn around when he tells Chen to get lost though before turning right back and pressing his lips to Tao’s again, smiling at the shocked expression on his face.

Instead of shying away from the kiss, Tao deepens it, gliding his tongue against Kris’s when the leader manages to worry his tongue between Tao’s lips. He knows what he’s doing. Kris knows what he’s doing too. Tao’s showing Chen that Kris is his and only his. “Gege,” Tao whimpers when Kris slips his hands beneath the hem of his shirt, raking his fingernails up the sides of Tao’s torso. “Yi Fan, what are you doing?” he breathily asks when he pulls away from the kiss, his breath erratic.

“I’m helping you show Jong Dae who I belong to,” he whispers into Tao’s ear, loud enough that Tao can hear him, but quiet enough that Chen can’t if he’s still in the kitchen. He nips at Tao’s ear after he says it, grazing it with his teeth, and Tao shivers.

“Was I that obvious?” Tao blushes as he looks down.

Kris’s answer is a shake of his head. “Only to me, baby.”

“Zi Tao!” Chen yells from behind them, making both of them jump. “Joon Myun wants to say hi,” he tells him, waving his phone out in front of him.

Tao wastes absolutely no time in hopping off of the counter and running to snatch the phone from Chen, running to his and Kris’s bedroom to talk to him while close to Joomy. “You are an evil person,” Kris glares at him as he jumps up onto the spot Tao was just at. “The absolute worst kind of evil.”

“Don’t commandeer the kitchen next time then,” is Chen’s reply as he sits down at the table, watching the timer that says the cake only has a few minutes left.

“Why did you come here in the first place?”

“I was hungry.”

“Then why aren’t –“

“Because my appetite was ruined,” Chen interrupts him, answering his question before he can even finish asking it.

If possible, Kris’s glare somehow looks even more fatal after hearing that. “So you decided that, even though you weren’t going to use the kitchen, you’d make sure we didn’t either?”

“You’re using it right now, hyung.”

“You know what I mean.”

Chen only shrugs, smug. “It’s not just your kitchen. You have a bedroom for like that so that none of us have to fight the urge to claw our eyes out.”

Kris makes a claw with his hand, mentally clawing Chen’s eyes out for him, but the timer starts to beep before he has a chance to say anything else. He’s about to call for Tao when he hears running feet in the hallway. “Gegegegegegegegege, that cake’s done!” he squeals. “Here,” he tosses Chen’s phone back at him before wrapping his arms around Kris’s waist and hugging him from behind, once again showing Chen that Kris is his. He even goes as far as to slide a hand up the front of Kris’s shirt to give his tummy a quick rub before sitting across from Chen. “So how’s life?”

“Aside from a brief moment where I was stuck wondering whether a fork or my own hand would be more detrimental to my eyes, I can’t complain. You?”

“Joon Myun hyung sent me a stuffed panda bear and now duizhang is baking a cake. I can’t complain either.”

“Something smells good,” Lu Han singsongs and peeks around the corner, already lightening the mood a little bit.

“Jesus, what is with you people and food? You’d probably wake up from being dead if somebody was cooking close by,” Kris complains. “Note to self: only cook for myself when there’s nobody else home.”

“And Panda,” Tao adds.

“And Panda,” Kris agrees, slicing the cake into twelve pieces, almost cutting himself when Lay somehow manages to get next to him without making a sound. “Stealing Kai’s powers, are we?”

“Since you’re done cutting the cake, can I use that?” he asks, ignoring Kris and pointing at the knife in his hand.

“Why?”

“Dude, what do you mean why? The tension between your boyfriend and your booty call is thicker than thick,” Lay tells him, smile turning into a frown when he sees the way Kris is looking at him. “Okay, too soon for jokes. But seriously, the tension is suffocating, Yi Fan.”

“I know,” Kris nods, nudging Lay with his elbow. “Will you hand me some plates?” he asks him, changing his mind when Lay is already at the cupboard. “Scratch that. We’re all going to eat off of this plate. Hopefully doing that together will make everybody feel closer. Lord knows we need that right now.”

“Yah!” Min Seok shouts as he sits down at the table with the other four members. “Stop talking over there and give us some cake!”

Rolling his eyes, Kris grabs the plate that the cake is on and carries it over to the table, Lay close behind. He pulls two forks from his pocket and hands one to Tao before looking at the others who are looking back at him expectantly. “You have your own hands and feet. Get up and get your own utensils.”

By the time they’ve all got their forks and have sat down, Kris and Tao are already halfway through their first piece. Scooting his chair closer to Tao, and laying his left foot over Tao’s right, he whispers to Tao that he can have his second piece. You’d think Tao had just won an award with the way his eyes grew, asking Kris if he meant it. “Of course,” he grins pressing his frosting-coated lips against Tao’s cheek.

As the rest of the members watch Tao try in vain to get the frosting off of his cheek with his tongue, amused expressions giving way to loud laughter, Kris knows everything is going to be okay.

__________________________________________

A/N: Hi~ everybody~. I bet you're shocked to see this update this early. I usually don't update until much later. Lol. After finishing the newest Himchamnesia chapter, I made sure to get started on this right away. As I was writing it, I felt like an ending could be near. :]

@animeotakupooh - I'm glad it was worth it! :]
@kristmaticlove - I can always count on you to comment. Hehe. Glad you enjoyed it!
@takashimio - Aw, I hope your heart feels better when you hit the fluffy parts of the story. :D
@meant4theflies - Thank you~. I'm glad you're back too! Lol.
@VitaminBuns - Definitely not years! Just a month! :]  That was far too long though.
@legna_angel - -Glomps-  Yeah, I could tell from the stories I'm subscribed to that I definitely wasn't the only person. That definitely killed some of the guilt. xD
@wowphantasticbaby - Wow, that was a new reaction for me. Hehe. I'm glad you enjoyed it so much!

Hope you all enjoyed this update.