For three days, Kris tried to get his moral up enough to try to even approach Tao. But the knowledge of what he was about to do, coupled with the anxiety Tao already gave him, was too much. His knees buckled and he froze up. 

But on the fourth day, he made it to Tao's locker.

"Hey… Tao? Um… C-could I talk to you…?" His voice was hoarse and cracked and just goddamn embarrassing. He looked down at his knees. Don't fail me now, he prayed.

"Sure?" Tao looked a little confused.

"In p-private?" What was wrong with him?

"Um… okay." Tao smiled in a way that Kris supposed was supposed to be reassuring. Kris looked around to find a place that was semi-private, but in a wide, large hallway filled to the brim with chattering students, a private place was hard to come by. He decided to duck into one of the deserted classrooms and talk there.

He stood there, facing Tao, looking down at his feet.

"Were you going to talk to me?" Tao asked. There was a little tremble in his voice too.

"I… well…"

A pause.

An awkward pause.

"What do you want?" Tao asked. Kris could tell he was trying to put kindness into his voice.

"Y-" Kris had to stop himself from being a smartass and replying, coyly, 'you'. "I… I mean… well… I just w-wanted… to… to t-tell you that I think I… I mean, well, I…" Man up, goddamnit, "I like you." He blurted out. “Like… like-like you.”

Tao's eyes widened.

Kris was worried Tao would make him repeat himself. His voice had gone high and his throat dry as he had said that last little phrase. He wondered if, perhaps, Tao had not heard him properly.

"Well…"

Kris winced and braced himself for a rejection.

"I… I don't know about dating… and… I don't know you very well… but… I guess, under the circumstances… I mean, you're interesting and smart and good-looking and I'm pretty open minded so…"

Kris his breath in.

"I wouldn't mind going out with you."

His eyes widened.

"Are you… are you serious?"

He hadn't imagined anything like this before. In his head, he had prepared for the worst-case scenario. Being the worrywart he was, he hadn't even considered the possibility that he might, might just pull this off.

"Perfectly." Tao's composure was breaking down too. Kris saw the tight grip Tao had on his book bag. His knuckles were turning white. He was blushing too now, and he was tapping his toe.

It was at that moment that Kris burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole thing. Tao gave him a befuddled look, then began to laugh too. He's got a great laugh, Kris thought. 

He spontaneously pulled Tao into a brohug. Things would be okay.

Except they weren't. 'Going out', at first, didn't seem to mean much. It meant that Kris changed his status on facebook to 'in a relationship' and didn't know what to say. 

Tao didn't have a facebook. He didn't have a myspace or a twitter or an instagram or anything. He did, however, have a computer and Kris managed to convince him to set up an IM account so they could, at the very least, have some conversation. Mostly, they talked about mundane things. Things that had happened at school or at home, things that they thought about, though never too personal of things. They talked of politics for a little while. Tao had strong feelings about the president and the way he ran the country. Kris really couldn't bring himself to care all that much.

To any outsider, they would have seemed like friends. Not even very good or close friends. They didn't go out of their way to see each other, and they hadn't even ever been to each other's houses. Sure, they sat together when they ate lunch now, and they sometimes brohugged each other, but it was never anything more than platonic. Perhaps even less than platonic.

Kris worried. Maybe Tao just wasn't up to having a relationship? He couldn't help but think of himself as the man, he was taller and bigger and decidedly more masculine. Also, he had manned up to the task of doing the asking out. And being the man, the leader, he wondered if he wasn't doing something wrong. Was he supposed to set up a date? Was he supposed to steal Tao away and give him secret kisses in dark corners? Was he supposed to look at Tao, dark eyed, every day until Tao kissed him and hugged him and told him how badly he wanted ? Or was he just supposed to sit back and wait?

Both had decided it was better to keep their relationship low profile. Tao had a set of rather conservative parents as well, and neither of them thought it was worth the trouble of being labeled as 'gays'. They both appeared straight (Kris had even gotten a love confession from a girl just the other day) and well… normal. Being gay was abnormal. Neither of them wanted that. So they just appeared to be good friends.

Until the first day they tried kissing in public. It was Tao's idea.

"I don't care if people see. It's rude that they don't want us kissing and… well, I see a lot of other people kissing other people all the time." Tao creased his brows in a pout.

Kris sighed. "Tao…"

"Bbuing bbuing?" Tao looked up hopefully, giggling, his lips pressed together in a secret smile that couldn't stay secret for long, eyes wide.

Kris's mouth fell open and he gasped like a fish before shutting up.

"I… well… alright. We'll do it. But on a whim, okay? When you feel like it?" 

Tao nodded and pecked him on the cheek.

Kris flushed, as he always did when Tao kissed him like that.

They walked down the hallway together, each doing his best to balance his books when Tao threw his on the floor, knocked Kris's out of the way, and kissed him, square on the mouth.

Kris had supposed that Tao might want to kiss him near a locker, or in a slightly more private space but no- Tao had to make a ruckus about it and turn in into a show. The books falling had been loud enough, and now that he was face with Tao… well, it felt lovely, as kissing Tao always did, but…

He pulled away. He expected a collective gasp, but instead found himself face to face with an expectant and bamboozled crowd of gongoozlers. They sort of stared. Tao looked like a deer in the headlights. Kris shook his head.

"I'm sorry…" He murmured.

Tao said nothing. His breath quickened and his eyes dilated but he was still and said nothing.

Kris took him by the elbow and patted his shoulder. 

Tao shook his head. The people began to walk away. 

(A/N: OMG I can't believe anybody even likes this at all.... >.< thank you so much, readers, subscribers xD)