“Hey, Tao.”

“Yeah, Kris?” Tao responded, looking up at the older boy. The two of them had been sitting in the living room watching TV, and until then their attention had been solely focused on the screen in front of them.

“Have you ever wanted to learn to dance?” asked Kris, his eyes still focused on the television set.

Tao furrowed his eyebrows. “Uh…don’t we do that already?” He scratched his head and shot Kris a confused expression. “I mean, onstage?”

“I don’t mean that kind of dancing,” Kris said, a light smirk playing over his lips. “I was thinking of something more…one-on-one.”

Tao gulped. Uh oh, he thought, I can see where this is going. When the two of them had been watching TV together a few weeks earlier, a commercial advertising a salsa dancing instruction tape had repeatedly showed up. Kris had watched said commercial with a rather unsettling level of intensity, and now Tao knew why. He wanted to try it. “One-on-one?” he practically squeaked. If there was one thing Tao was uncomfortable with, it was partner dancing.

Kris responded with a suggestive raise of his eyebrows. Which in Kris speak meant, “You’re doing this whether you like it or not.” Tao just sighed.

Half an hour and a (very reluctant) trip to the video store later, they returned to their dorm, a DVD titled “¡Viva Salsa!” in the hands of an uncharacteristically excited Kris. As Kris was taking the disk out from its case, Tao started turning in anxious circles.

“I can’t believe you’re making me do this,” he moaned, running his fingers through his hair. “It’s so embarrassing.”

“Just be glad the other members aren’t here,” Kris responded with a laugh, “or I’d let them watch us.”

“Oh my God.” Tao sat down and buried his face in his hands.

Finally, the intro of the DVD began to play. An obnoxiously chipper instructor popped up on the screen and immediately began giving instructions.

“Quick, Tao, it’s starting!” Kris said urgently, grabbing Tao’s arm to pull him to his feet. Tao resisted at first, resulting in Kris dragging him around in circles like a rag doll. Eventually, though, he gave in and stood up.  Before he could change his mind and run away, Kris grabbed his hand, pressed “play” on the remote, and s an arm around Tao’s waist.

It didn’t take long for Tao to erupt into a fit of giggles. Kris had seen this coming, of course; Tao was always resistant to do anything even mildly embarrassing with him, but when he did, it didn’t take long for him to morph into “giddy schoolgirl” mode. Five minutes into the first lesson on the disk, his head was pressed into Kris’s shoulder and his own shoulders were shaking as he tried to control his laughter.

“Is her voice really that funny?” Kris asked, trying to remain serious. Tao’s giggles were catching, but he hated the way his own giggles sounded. They made him sound like a girl. That was cute when Tao did it, but the same couldn’t be said for him.

“S-She…sounds…like a parrot,” Tao said, gasping for breath. Then he raised his head and dramatically pursed his lips in an attempt to stop laughing. “Okay, being serious now.” He focused his attention to the TV screen. “Teach us your ways, Parrot Lady.”

As it turned out, Kris was a pretty terrible dancer. Despite his initial boost of confidence (he was able to execute a simple spin without too much trouble), it wasn’t long until he was stepping on Tao’s toes. Not only that, but he kept getting his directions mixed up. Tao’s constant muffled giggling was throwing him off and making him forget the difference between right and left.

“You’re bad at this,” Tao pointed out, raising an amused eyebrow.

“Shut up,” Kris mumbled. “It’s your fault.”

“How is it my fault?”

“You’re being too cute.”

Tao froze. Then, slowly, a mischievous grin spread across his face. “Then…” he began, “would you like me to be something else?”

“Huh?” Kris gulped and his entire face turned a light shade of pink. He knew where this was going. “S-Something else?”

“Yeah.” Tao smirked. “Let me lead this time.”

Kris was too flustered to argue with Tao, and they quickly swapped positions. He only got more flustered as time went on, and he realized that Tao was actually really good. Now that he wasn’t giggling like a girl, he had a look of pure concentration in his eyes, along with…something else. Something that Kris wasn’t sure he liked the look of. Before he knew it, Tao was leading him, twirling him around, and dipping him. All without stepping on his toes.

“You’re really good at this,” Kris said. At this point, the color of his face resembled a tomato. “And you’re right, I . Can we, uh. Can we be done now?” His initial feeling of excitement regarding the DVD had worn off. Now that his low level of partner dancing skill had been established, he wanted to stop embarrassing himself.

“Nope,” Tao shot back almost immediately. Instead of letting Kris go, he pulled the two of them closer.

Kris gulped. They were a little too close for comfort, and his pants were starting to feel a tad, well, tight. “Tao. I-I. I uhm. Uh. Can we? Um. Ahh!” His incoherent stuttering was cut off by Tao suddenly dipping him again. This time, his head almost reached the floor, and he let out a sound vaguely resembling a squeak.

That was all it took for Tao to collapse to the ground in another fit of giggles. “Nope, can’t do it,” he laughed, rolling around on the floor. “Now I know what you were talking about. It’s impossible to focus when you’re being cute.”

Kris grimaced as he sat up from where Tao had dropped him. “I am not cute.”

“Yes you are.”

“Am not.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Tao rolled his eyes. “If I can be y, you can be cute.”

“Who says you were y?” Kris replied defiantly.

Tao raised an eyebrow and motioned towards Kris’s crotch. “Your pants say so.”

“Gah!” Kris immediately rolled over onto his stomach. “Uh…you didn’t see that.”

“Is that so?” Tao’s eyes had a playful sparkle in them. “Then…” he said, picking himself off the floor, “you don’t mind me doing this?” Before Kris could ask what “this” is, Tao began mimicking the woman on the screen, who happened to be teaching a rather suggestive hip-rolling move. He executed it with as much extra energy as possible, causing Kris’s face to turn an even darker shade of red.

“N-no…”

“Or…this?” Tao continued to dance, his moves becoming more and more suggestive. Eventually, he stopped following the instructor’s example entirely and started making up his own dances. Meanwhile, Kris watched from the floor, his mouth hanging wide open.

“I, uh. Wow. Oh my God, just. Just come here.” Kris stood up and practically tripped over to Tao. It took all of his self-control not to fling himself onto the younger boy, but he still managed to push him down onto the couch behind him.

Tao laughed quietly between their kisses. Kris seemed almost frantic, every bit of his “cool” attitude from earlier in the evening having vanished completely. Tao absolutely loved getting him like this; it meant that he got to be in control, without Kris even realizing it.

After a good couple of minutes, Tao lightly pushed Kris away. “We should relocate before everyone else gets home,” he said with a wink. “Don’t you think so?”

Kris blinked a few times. “Yeah, sure.”

“Great.” Tao grabbed Kris’s hand and laced their fingers together. As they walked down the hall to Tao’s room, Tao leaned over and whispered in Kris’s ear.

“Next time, I’ll let you lead.”