"Duizhang! Min Seok isn't in his bed! Did he die when I was asleep!? Is that why he's gone!? Did you have his funeral without me!? I DIDN'T GET TO APOLOGIZE AGAIN FOR HITTING HIM!"

 

Pushing Tao off of his stomach and onto the floor, Kris groans and pulls the blanket over his head. After all of the activity that happened during the night, he just wants to sleep, not be woken up by Tao running into his room at full speed and jumping onto his stomach, screaming about Xiu Min. He yells out from beneath the blanket, "He's with Yi Xing and Lu Han right now, Tao. Now let me sleep."

 

Tao climbs back onto Kris's stomach. "How do I know you're not lying? Maybe you're just telling me this so I don't feel bad. Or maybe you want me to feel bad for not apologizing enough!" Yanking Kris's blanket down so he can see his face, he begs, "Duizhaaang. Make Min Seok come back. I have to apologize again before he goes."

 

"Damnit, Zi Tao. It's eight in the morning" Kris grabs his phone from beside his bed and tosses it onto Tao's lap. "Call Min Seok and hear for yourself that he's fine, and let me get back to ing sleep." Pulling the blanket over his head again, he lets out a sigh as he hears Tao scampering out of his room. He's almost back to sleep when Tao runs in and jumps on his stomach again.

 

"Yi Fan ge! Min Seok's phone is in our room. What now?!"

 

"Wow, you have got to be ing kidding me. Can't a man get some sleep in this place?" Kris grumbles as he throws the blanket back. "Then call Lu Han or Yi Xing."

 

"Right!" Punching Lu Han's number into the phone, Kris can only hope that at least he has his phone right now. "Lu Han ge! Is...Lu Han? Hello?" Tao hangs up. "Duizhang, he hung up. Maybe he's still mad at me for hitting him again." If Tao didn't start pouting as he said that, Kris probably would have yelled at him for just giving up right away and not letting him sleep, even though he knew Tao was probably somewhat right. Lu Han was probably just avoiding possible reinjury.

 

"Try again."

 

He watches as Tao dials Lu Han's number again and puts the phone to his ear, only to hang up within seconds, shaking his head. "He turned his phone off. He must be really mad at me. I can't even call Yi Xing ge because he hasn't been able to find his phone since last week."

 

Sighing, Kris pulls Tao down next to him. "Listen. If you can just lay here for the next half hour, without making any noise, and let me sleep, I'll go with you to look for Min Seok when I wake up."

 

"Why do I have to lay here and wait? I wanna watch TV."

 

"Because you woke me up, and now I'm cold. You're gonna make up for it by letting me use your body heat." Pulling the blanket over both of them and scooting closer to Tao's body, already feeling warmer, he adds, "Remember. Half hour. If I wake up because you're being noisy, you'll just have to wait for Min Seok to get home." Kris is pleased with himself when instead of responding vocally, Tao just nods, already accepting the task Kris has assigned to him.

 

---

 

Kris slowly opens his eyes as he feels someone shaking his foot to wake him up. The voice whispering to him is so quiet he isn't even sure it's real at first. "Yi Fan. Wake up. Yi Fan."

 

Rubbing his eyes and running the back of his hand across his mouth, wiping away the drool he can feel on his cheek, he kicks the hand away. "Let me sleep, Zi Tao. It hasn't been thirty minutes yet."

 

"Yi Fan. It's Lu Han."

 

"Good. Go tell Tao that you're home and that Min Seok was with you. He wouldn't stop bugging me earlier."

 

"Ugh. Yi Fan, damnit, wake up."

 

"First Zi Tao, and now you. Do I have to start paying you people to let me sleep when I'm tired?" Kris reaches up to rub his eyes again, trying to wake himself up. He's about to sit up and tell Lu Han he'll be out soon, only to be stopped by something wrapped around his chest. Looking to his left, he sees Tao's face, eyes closed as he sleeps. "Lu Han. What the hell is going on?"

 

"I'm not the one asleep in your bed with Zi Tao at one in the afternoon. Shouldn't I be asking you what the hell is going on? Yi Fan? Are you even listening to me?"

 

No, Kris isn't listening. He's busy feeling his face. "Please tell me both of my eyes are fine."

 

"Your eyes are fine, you . Now why is Zi Tao asleep in your bed?"

 

Kris just shrugs, unsure himeslf. He figured the second he fell asleep, Tao would run off to watch TV. Turning to his left, he places his hands on Tao's shoulders and gently shakes, knowing it doesn't take much movement to wake Tao up. "Panda. Wake up."

 

Snuggling into Kris's side, Tao can only quietly mumble an almost incoherent sentence before starting to quietly snore. Kris could barely hear it, so Lu Han definitely wasn't able to catch what he said. "What did he say, Yi Fan?"

 

"He said it's too cold." Kris almost decides to just stay there to keep him warm, but decides against it, thinking to himself how weird that would be. "Lu Han, help me up."

 

"No, that's okay. I've had enough black eyes this week."

 

"He won't hit you. I promise. If he does, I'll hold him down so you can give him a black eye too."

 

Lu Han, slightly excited at the possibility of getting revenge for his 2 black eyes, makes his way to the side of Kris's bed. "What do you need me to do?"

 

"Just grab onto his arm and pull it away from my chest so I can get up, and then you can let go."

 

"Of course you want me to grab one of Zi Tao's most lethal weapons." Shaking his head in disbelief, he uses both of his hands to grab onto Tao's arm, slowly pulling it away from Kris's chest. "You know, you could've at least worn a shirt. This is just awkward."

 

"Shut up. It's not like I expected to wake up with him latching onto my side like that." Slipping away from Tao's arm, he takes it from Lu Han and sets it down on his bed. After what feels like hours of hard work, Kris is finally standing on the floor. "I'll see you out there in a second." Remembering Tao's words, he pulls his blanket up over Tao's chest, tucking it in under his legs and back.

 

---

 

Pulling a shirt over his head as he walks into the main room, Kris asks, "Lu Han, did Min Seok come...home...with.....you?" Kris sees 4 sets of eyes staring at him as he finishes putting his shirt on. "Is there something on my face?"

 

"You mean aside from Zi Tao's drool? No. And by no, I mean no ing black eye. How come when you sleep with Tao, he doesn't turn you into a human punching bag?"

 

Xiu Min answers for Kris, "Unfortunately, that's just how it is, Lu Han. Zi Tao's always calm when he's with Yi Fan. That's how it's always been around here. Have you seriously not noticed that?"

 

"Let's just stop talking about Panda and me. Min Seok, you should go tell Tao you're home. He thinks you're already dead and buried because someone," Kris makes sure to shoot a glare in Lu Han's direction, "didn't wanna talk to him."

 

"I figured he'd wanna come with us. I refuse to go shopping with Zi Tao. My wallet can't handle that kind of torture."

 

"And I'm not about to go wake him up. It hasn't even been twelve hours since I last tried that. Make Yi Xing or Jong Dae go do it. They haven't had Tao induced black eyes yet."

 

Kris, seeing Lay and Chen shake their heads and pretend they're busy, just rolls his eyes, labeling them all wimps. "I'll do it then."

 

Making his way back to his bedroom, he sees Tao sitting up, mimicking the actions Kris did earlier almost exactly as he rubs the sleep out of his eyes and uses the back of his hand to wipe the drool from his cheeks. "Panda. Min Seok's home."

 

You'd never guess Tao was just sleeping; he perks up almost instantly. "Really? Min Seok ge is home!?"

 

Kris just nods, amused by Tao's childlike excitement. The last thing Kris hears as he closes his door to change clothes is Xiu Min falling over as Tao runs into him at full speed, hugging him close. "Min Seok ge~!"

 

______________________________________________________________________________

 

A/N : Whew. That's done. I almost decided to just skip this today because I couldn't figure out what in the world I wanted to do with this chapter. Then it just sort of hit me as I was eating. Lol.

 

To all of the people who have subscribed since my last update, hello. Glad you're here and hope you're enjoying the story thus far. Although I guess you wouldn't subscribe if you weren't, right? Haha. (Wow, that was lame. Forgive me for that.)

 

Hmm. Guess that's all I have to say about this chapter.

Oh! I notice that with each chapter, my word count is growing. I'm so proud of me. -Claps quietly-

 

Now then! Hopefully you enjoy this newest chapter.

 

And again, if you have a Tumblr, feel free to follow me here. ^_^