"Hyung!  Are you and Tao coming over tonight for Chinese?" Kai shouted across the dance room as he wrapped a towel around his neck. Dance practice had just ended and the rest of the members had agreed that it was about time they all spent some time together.

Tao's eyes darted to Kris waiting for him to answer. He had spent the whole day enduring his schedule despite the ache in his body anticipating that night. He knew it was wrong to get excited over such an innocent thing such as a massage from a 'friend', but he just couldn't help but anticipate it. There was no way that Kris had spent the whole day thinking about the massage like Tao had been, so it wouldn't surprise him if he answered the Korean member with a confirmative.

"Uh," the blonde Chinese man muttered, eyes darting to the dark skinned Tao. "Tao isn't feeling too great today so I was thinking I'd make him some dinner and we'd have an early night."

Kai's eyebrow rose up into his hairline but didn't say anything more. It was a well known fact amongst the members that Kris and Tao were joined at the hips, but this was the first time either of them had rejected a paid for meal and time spent with the members.

Kyungsoo on the other hand had no problem making jokes at the two members from his position besides Kai.

"Let's go Kai," he chuckled, slinging his arm over the younger man's shoulder, "Let's leave the married couple to their night in together." Tugging on Kai's body, he began to pull the boy out the door after him as the other laughing members followed along behind them.

"We could have gone..." Tao muttered from his position against the wall. He quietly bent to pack his duffel bag, wincing when his shoulder began to throb from the motion of picking up the still full 3L water bottle.

Kris watched on with a straight face as Tao struggled to lift the duffle bag before talking a few steps and snatching it out of the boys’ hand.

"This is why we're not going," he grunted, swinging the bag up and over his shoulder to join his already resting exercise bag. "You obviously hurt yourself yesterday during practice. You need to do your martial arts more, Tao! If you keep being lazy then each time you do it you'll just hurt yourself." His hand gripped Tao's wrist, yanking him towards the door.

"We're going to go home, you're going to have a steaming hot bath and then I'm going to massage your shoulder. Then you're going to eat dinner and have a nice early night."

Tao's face reddened from the contact between their hands, letting himself be dragged from the now dark practice room. All he could do was blink dumbly up at Kris as he followed silently down the corridor.

☻☺

The sound of the bath filling with hot water could be heard from the kitchen. Kris reached into the cupboard and pulled two coffee mugs out before filling them with the hot chicken soup he had heated up from the night before.

He didn't regret telling the others that they couldn't come, as he had made it his duty to become like a parent to Tao. He had promised both Tao's parents and their managers that he'd take care of the EXO-M maknae. While he was sad that he couldn't spend time with his fellow members, he had no problems spending the night taking care of the younger boy.

He had noticed throughout the day that Tao's face was often scrunched up in discomfort and sometimes even outright pain. When asked whether was okay, he had shrugged off each member’s hand of concern and forced a smile onto his face, simply stating that he had overdone it during wushu practice. At first he had assumed as much to be true, but it was during lunch when Tao had struggled with the chair he was moving that Kris began to become worried. Surely it wasn’t normal for a simple session of martial arts to bring somebody so much discomfort?

It was with this thought in his mind that the leader had easily rejected Kai’s offer. If Tao was hurting he would be damned if he let him carry on as if nothing was amiss.

The sound of the bath emptying met Kris’ ears, alerting him to the fact that the maknae had most likely finished his soak. His feet took him to his bedroom where he picked the plastic bag up off the desk. Inside was the heat patches as well as the heating massage gel that he had picked up from the nearby chemist.

“Come into the lounge!” he called, emptying the plastic bag onto the coffee table that sat beside the black leather couch. His fingers stopped half way to the bottle of gel when his eyes caught sight of the maknae walking slowly into the lounge. Tao was wearing only a bath towel slung low on his toned hips. His body had always been a topic of envy between the members, whether it was his healthy glowing tan or the firmness of his thighs. The sight of Tao in a towel only further reminded him that he was just a bit too skinny.

Tao’s cough brought his eyes away from the toned body and brought his focus back. The younger man before him had flushed a shade of red that Tao would later swear was from the heat of the bath water. With a distracted blink, Kris patted the couch beside him, moving so that he sat cross legged next to the spacious seat.

He watched as Tao tentatively lay down on the cushions, rotating his shoulders so that his arms lay out over the armrest directly above his head. His face sunk into the leather while he tried to relax his aching body.

Squirting some of the clear gel into his hands, Kris leaned over and began to knead the liquid into the tanned skin before him. Tao’s skin was warm to the touch and as small as a new born baby, making the leader wonder what kind of skin care products the younger boy used.

The two sat in those positions for a further ten minutes: Tao letting out little groans of both pleasure and pain when the leader kneaded a particularly tender spot, and Kris trying his hard to concentrate on the skin before him despite the sounds emitting from the others mouth.

“Kris?” he heard, barely audible as Tao’s face was pressed into the couch. “... you don’t have to go so low. The pain is only in my shoulders.”

Kris’ hands froze in their position, not even realizing that they had managed to find their own way down the toned back. His slender fingers were now resting on Tao’s lower back, just centimeters away from the loosely draped towel that hid the fleshy behind of the younger boy.

“I-“ he stuttered quickly, snatching his hands away and placing them hastily into his lap. “Sorry... I didn’t even notice!” An awkward laugh escaped his lips before he hurriedly stood from his place on the floor and walked quickly towards the kitchen. “Soup?” He called out, reaching for the forgotten mugs on the kitchen counter. “Or maybe coffee?”

“Kris...” he heard quietly, before a hand came down on top of his own. “Forget the soup.”

Kris’ eyes crossed in confusion because not only did he not notice the other boy getting up off the couch and following him, but he was so damn close. Tao stood not even inches from him, the heat from his body almost burning through his shirt and reaching his back.

“There’s... something I’ve always wanted to do,” Tao muttered, grasping Kris’ shoulder and turning the taller boy around until his face was a breath away from his neck.

The breath that wanted to leave Kris’ throat froze in its position, and his eyes zoomed in on the boy before him. He was so close. So ing close. Almost close enough to-

He could not finish his though for a pair of lips had suddenly came crashing down on top of his own and a set of hands had attached themselves firmly to his hips. What surprised Kris more was not the fact that Tao was kissing him, but the fact that he was kissing back... and enjoying it.

It was when he felt the prod of a tongue against his lips that he snapped back to his sense – harshly pushing away the younger boys before glaring at him with angry eyes.

“What the , Zitao!” he cursed, before turning around and practically running towards his bedroom. It was only after he had slammed the door that he slid down the wall and wondered what the hell had just possessed the younger boy to suddenly kiss him.

A/N: Okay, so I decided to post this because I felt confident enough because the comments left were lovely. ♥ If you're not a writer then you might not understand how encouraging those comments are, but if you are then you know how I felt! All warm and fuzzy. ^^ Thank you to whoever subscribed and left positive feedback - it really brightened my day.

Okay, I know some of you may be all 'why is Tao calling Kris... well, Kris.' I'm aware of the whole Chinese honorifics like 'ge' and stuff but since I'm not familar with it, it makes me uncomfortable to use them in case I use them wrong. It's bad enough that Kris is called Kris. Do you know how awkward it is to write 'Kris's or Kris''? Very awkward. I also don't have a beta. Erg. So I just have to hope that I don't miss too many mistakes! I tried my best though. T_T

Also, how many variations of somebody is there. xD 'Tao, the younger boy, the younger man, the maknae, the dark skinned boy' etc etc etc oh my god. It's getting tiring. xD But saying 'Tao' over and over again gets so repetitive. :(

Leave your feedback if you'd like. ^^ It really encourages me to write faster, because I get distracted easy and will start watching a drama half way through a chapter, and then think 'No wait! There are people waiting!' And if you read this whole A/N... here is a virtual cookie.

Also... for 'taesteful'. Yes, you're right. ^^ They're my three ships within EXO so I thought I'd give a little something something to the rest of their shippers. ;) The three couples live in couple houses and the rest of the members - EXO K and M alike - share the dorm.