Chanyeol sits at the back of the van, feeling every bump and jolt as he tries to settle his body into a more comfortable position.

His eyes hurt.

That seems to be the single, most prominent thought in his head right now, as he squeezes them shut behind the dark sunglasses he has on. There are blinding lights behind his eyelids, aftereffects of the LASIK treatment he had gone through a few days back. The doctor said they should’ve been gone by now.

Should have.

Chanyeol slumps against his seat, uncomfortable and restless as the cramped space gets to him.

Stupid long legs, he seethes, folding them this way and that, trying to reposition them to at least get some decent form of comfort.

He hears a chuckle beside him, but doesn’t really bother to turn his head, knowing whose voice it belongs to anyway.

“You okay?” LuHan asks him, as he moves a bit to make space for the increasingly fidgety youngster.

“No,” Chanyeol answers in a whine. With the kind of baritone voice Chanyeol had, the sound escaped as an almost guttural growl of an agitated lion, ready to pounce and attack on any unsuspecting prey lurking nearby. His eyes are still closed behind his shades, as he unsuspectingly bangs his elbow into the elder’s ribcage.

LuHan lets out a squeak, tickled by the what-should-have-been painful sensation, before letting out a laugh.

“Ay Yeol,” he scolds lightly, using a Mandarin term of endearment for the younger, “What’s gotten into you?”

“Sorry, Ge,” he mumbles, still fidgety despite.

He feels a movement beside him, and then LuHan’s arm is upon his shoulders, pulling him closer.

“Come here,” the elder croons, making Chanyeol lean against his chest, “This should create more space for you.”

Chanyeol leans into the other’s invitingly warm embrace, as he moves into a more ideal position, before he is finally comfortable.

“What’s bothering you, Xiao Xiao? *Little One* ” Chanyeol recognizes Lay’s soft voice, as he feels a poke on his cheeks. He knows that Lay is peering from behind his seat to look at him. Undoubtedly the finger belongs to him. “Why so unhappy?”

“My eyes, Ge,” Chanyeol explains curtly, bringing his hands up to rub at them, “They hurt.”

He feels a hand take hold of his wrists gently; pulling them down before they can do any further damage to his already sensitive eyes.

“Don’t do that, Ah Yeol,” LuHan scolds gently, “Didn’t the doctor say to not touch them?”

“I know,” Chanyeol grumbles, shifting slightly so he can rest his cheek against LuHan’s chest, draping his arm to wrap them around the elder’s waist loosely. “It’s just… Bothersome.”

He feels someone swiftly slide the shades off his face, and Chanyeol is surprised by the sudden invasion of light despite his already closed eyes, burying his head deeper into LuHan’s chest.

He whines again, feeling without the protection of the sunglasses.

“Yah!” he growls, voice muffled by LuHan’s shirt.

LuHan giggles in return, feeling tickled by the younger’s action.

“Ah Yeol,” he squeaks, “That tickles!”

Chanyeol can hear Lay laughing and immediately knows that he is the culprit behind this unacceptable crime.

“Yi Xing Ge!” Chanyeol swings his arm wildly in what he assumes is the direction of Lay, before a hand catches his arm mid-swing.

“Chanyeol,” a voice, gentle yet commanding, soft yet strict, calls him to attention, and Chanyeol knows, despite his closed eyes, that the leader of EXO-M is talking to him, “Don’t swing your arm like that. You might hit someone.”

“Well that was exactly my original intention, Ge.”

He hears a giggle once again, this time made by two voices. One he knew belonged to Lay, and the other; Kai. Oh, they were having fun, were they?

“Yi Xing, stop bullying Chanyeol. He’s just undergone a procedure and I doubt that he’s in the mood to play around.”

Chanyeol can hear Lay laugh once again, before he answers.

“Alright, Ge. I was just playing around. No need to get so mad, Chanyeol.”

He feels the shades slide back on his face once more, but says nothing.

“Aiyya ~ Our happy virus is hyper no more? Doesn’t sound like much fun… C’mon, Chanyeol, smile ~ !”

And Chanyeol cannot help but to just crack a smile at the idiocy of Lay, holding up his hand to hit the other’s head, but hitting the back of the headrest in front of him instead.

Laughter sounds once again, before it dies down, with Lay already being bored with his prank.

“LuHan, switch places with me,” he hears the Duizhang order.

He feels LuHan look up and nod. As always, the members of EXO-M heeded to their leader’s every request without question. He sometimes felt like they were part of the military, at how extremely well disciplined they were with their leader.

Chanyeol feels the elder shift in preparation for the move.

“Alright, Kris. Just let me…”

Chanyeol interrupts with a growl, his arms constricting around the elder protectively.

“Anii…” he threatens, “Don’t move, Ge Ge…”

LuHan chuckles lightly, before he pats Chanyeol’s head affectionately.

“Sorry, Ah Yeol. Duizhang’s orders.”

And Chanyeol can feel him move once more. This time he reluctantly lets his arm fall off LuHan’s waist, as LuHan gently slides out of his embrace and moves to the front, with Kris moving to slide in after him.

Chanyeol has a frown on, his arms crossed over his chest, as he leans against the window. He has yet to open his eyes, and somehow, he’d rather it stay that way.

“Chanyeol,” He hears the Canadian leader call him. Stubbornly, the younger ignores him, hoping that the elder would give up and just let him be with his silent tantrum.

“Chanyeol,” the leader calls once again. This time, Chanyeol can feel a soft hand grazing his cheek, before it lands on his forehead and pushes his bangs back. He can feel Kris’ hand slowly move to his shades, where for a moment, Chanyeol thinks that he would take the shades off him, but no, Kris merely slides them higher up his nose.

“Your eyes feeling any better?”

“No,” Chanyeol grumbles in answer, suddenly starting to feel fidgety once again, and slides lower into his seat.

“Come here. I’ll teach you something my grandmother taught me.”

And before Chanyeol can stop him, he feels the elder holding his chin and tilting it in his direction, before he takes the shades off the younger’s face. Once again, Chanyeol’s face is scrunched up, as the light hits in between the eyelids, making the difference in light intensity uncomfortably obvious.

“Yah!” Chanyeol yells, his hands moving to cover his eyes. Kris stops them in time, having both his hands in a firm hold.

“Trust me.”

“Why should I?” Chanyeol grumbles.

A chuckle, before he hears the Chinese leader answer.

“Because I’m the Duizhang.”

And then he feels Kris’ fingers on his temples, rubbing in slow, circular motions, massaging the pain away.

“My grandmother used to say that there were pressure points on certain parts of the body, mainly the feet, palms and face. She regularly used these pressure points on me after I finished a basketball game to take away lethargy and muscle cramps. It worked well for me, so it might work on you, too.”

Chanyeol can feel himself relaxing, as the soothing massage relaxed his tense muscles, his throbbing headache, as well as the insistent pain in his eyes. He lets Kris’ hands drop lower from his temples to massage his cheekbones, and then his jawline. He was pretty sure Kris had moved on to massage other places as well, if not for the sleep that calmly but surely took him into their embrace.

**************

He feels someone nudging him lightly and Chanyeol awakens, to find that he is resting against Kris’ chest, in the same position he was in when with LuHan.

“Wake up, Chanyeol,” he hears Kris calling him, shaking his shoulder lightly. “Wake up.”

Chanyeol groans, and buries his head deeper into Kris’ chest.

“No,” he answers, before he feels a smack on the back of his head.

“Dickhead, we’re here, so wake up already.”

He straightens up despite his body practically screaming at him to lie down again, and stretches, unconsciously rubbing at his eyes. Immediately, he feels someone roughly pulling his hands down again.

“Don’t rub your eyes,” Kris scolds.

Chanyeol slowly and cautiously blinks his eyes open, wary of the light invading him from all sides.

“We’re here?” he asks.

“We’re here,” the leader answers, before he slides out of the van.

Chanyeol follows suit, successfully hitting his head on the car door on his way out hard enough for a loud smack to be heard, loud enough for the other eleven members and two managers of EXO to turn around and look at him.

“Ow,” Chanyeol answers, blinking at the pain on his forehead.

He feels a hand on his forehead, rubbing soothingly at the bump.

“Yah hyung. You okay?” Kai asks with a frown, his attention focused on the bump. “I mean, I know you’re known for being a klutz and all that but seriously…? To hit your head on the car door?”

Kai shook his head in mock disapproval as more of the members gather around him.

“Chanyeol Ge?” Tao tilts his head as he looks at the elder in concern. “You are… Okay?” he asks, in his barely passable Korean.

“At this rate, the cordi noonas are gonna have to put on bangs to cover the size of this lump!” Sehun interjects as he comes to join Kai in soothing Chanyeol’s bump on his forehead.

Chanyeol begins to feel stuffy at all the attention and is about to squirm out of their hold when he sees someone squeezing in between Kai and Sehun, pushing the younger ones away.

“Yah, yah, yah…” Suho, the leader interrupts as he gently pushes the clingy youngsters away, “Enough already. Can’t you see he’s stuffy as it is? Get on to the dressing room.”

A few mumbles as the youngsters grudgingly heed to Suho’s command, leaving Chanyeol free from their insistent touches. Not that he disliked the skinship, just that he was feeling restless and agitative today. Not really in the mood.

“Thanks, hyung,” Chanyeol mumbles, voice still laced with sleep despite.

Suho smiles in response.

“Well, we better get a move on, lest we’ll be late.”

Chanyeol nods as he follows from behind. A few steps later, he feels someone bump into him from the side, and turns to see Baekhyun smiling up at him.

“You okay, Chanyeol?”

Chanyeol finds himself smiling as he shrugs.

“I’m okay. It’s just the eyes, I guess.”

Baekhyun frowns, as he lifts one of his hands to gently graze the side of Chanyeol’s face with his fingertips.

“The LASIK?” he clarifies.

Chanyeol nods in answer, unconsciously rubbing at the bump on his forehead.

“But it’s fine though. The doctor said it should go away soon.”

Baekhyun only nods, as they make their way to the green room.

***********

Chanyeol sits still in his chair as the stylist does his hair and make-up. He can hear her tut in disapproval at his bump and, just as Sehun had predicted, styles his bangs to cover it. He is the first to be done, because unlike the others, he has the most ease in sitting still and rarely ever complains at the amount of makeup or hair spray layered on him.

Chanyeol sits restlessly by himself at the corner of the room. His eyes are beginning to hurt again, and he has half a mind to go to Kris ask for another massage. But he knows better than to disturb him, so despite the discomfort he feels, he stays still.

He feels someone slide up and lean against him. Chanyeol easily drapes his arm over the smaller frame, leaning his head against the other’s.

“Hey, you seriously okay?” Once again, he feels fingertips graze his face.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just the bright lights in the room. They’re starting to hurt my eyes.”

Baekhyun sits up straight and pats Chanyeol down, before he finds what he has been searching for and pulls it out of Chanyeol’s front pocket.

“Here,” he says, as he slides the shades back on Chanyeol’s face. “This should make it better.”

Chanyeol blinks for a while to get used to the light change, but smiles regardless.

“Thank you, Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun doesn’t answer, but takes to leaning contentedly against Chanyeol once again, as they awaited for the other ten members to get ready. Particularly Tao, who was known to cause havoc in the dressing room due to his own style clashing with the coordi noona’s, and the fact that Tao just detested wearing makeup with a vengeance.

Baekhyun stares amusedly at Tao running around the dressing room, who has a wild grin on his face, as he easily outruns the coordi noona and Suho, who is trying to keep the youngster in control. It was evident to everyone how Tao enjoyed creating a scene and getting all the attention focused on him.

“Tao, stop running!” he hears Chen bellowing, evidently tired of all the ruckus he was creating. “Just get dressed, will you?!”

“Buuuu yao! *don’t wanna* ” Tao answers cheekily, sticking his tongue out at the elder Korean as he jumps over a couch with the grace of a gazelle. One cannot help but just wonder at the contradictions of Tao, who has the face of an assassin, yet the heart of a child.

“Tao,” the commanding voice stops Tao dead in his tracks, almost as if someone has hit a pause button on his remote. Kris is looking up from his chair to look at Tao with all the authority his -face can produce. “Listen to Chen. Get dressed, we’re gonna have to go on stage in a few minutes.”

“Hao la… *alright then* ” Tao answers almost dejectedly, his grin morphing into a pout, as he heeds to the Duizhang’s command. It is almost comical how Tao automatically listens to Kris without question.

It is a few eventful minutes later (with yells of complaints from Diva-Tao and Diva-Kai at how their outfits contrasted against their skin tone) that everyone (including the ever-fussy Lay) is ready with their outfits. Chanyeol is just about to follow Kris out the curtain when a hand on his shoulder pulls him back.

“Chanyeol, you’re not allowed to wear the shades onstage. You will have to take them off.”

Chanyeol blinks at the director’s instructions, and is about to say something, when Baekhyun, who is behind him, suddenly cuts him off.

“But, sir. Chanyeol’s only just undergone LASIK surgery. His eyes are gonna be hypersensitive to all the lights and flashes. Can’t you at least make an exception this once?”

As he expects, the directos shakes his head.

“Sorry. Rules are rules. Eyes are windows to your souls. When you cover them up, it’s bound to have some suspicion. Best we keep it safe, Chanyeol.”

Chanyeol nods, and like he always does, heeds to the command and takes off his shades. He walks a distance before he feels a whisper into his ear.

“Why’d you do that? You know you need those things!” Baekhyun scolds.

Chanyeol smiles in return.

“It’s alright. Besides, I knew I was going to have to take it off sooner or later.”

“You know the danger behind that, don’t you?”

The two of them turn to see that Kris peering over his shoulder, talking to them.

Chanyeol gulped at the intensity of the stare, but kept his mouth sealed.

The twelve of them went upstage, much to the deafening roar of the crowd and the immediate clicks of the camera. Chanyeol cannot help but gasp at the amount of cameras pointing at his face, and the amount of flashes going around everywhere. He winces everytime a flash bursts into his vision, and is shocked by the darkness the flash seems to leave behind in his vision.

Almost like a primitive instinct, Chanyeol’s hand moves to locate Kris, and grabs the hem of the elder’s jacket, clutching onto it tightly.

“What’s up?” Kris whispered, eyes not really leaving the crowd, plastic smile not really falling from his face, but attention all fully focused on Chanyeol. He does not fail to notice the slight trembling of Chanyeol’s hand as he clutches on the the jacket, and Kris moves his other free hand that was not waving to the crowd to clasp his hand atop Chanyeol’s, squeezing it in comfort.

“I… I can’t… see,” the youngster mutters, his face pale as he faces the crowd. “I can’t see.”

This time, Kris turns to look at him.

“What?”

“I can’t see, Ge. I can’t see.” Chanyeol’s eyes are wide as he turns to look at Kris.

And Kris believes him. Because at that moment, he can see that Chanyeol is not really looking at him, but rather, his eyes are focused on… nothing. They were focused on nothing.

“Chanyeol,” Kris breathes through his teeth, wanting to appear calm, “Can you see anything? Anything at all?”

Chanyeol shook his head, as his eyes wandered around, before they moved towards Kris again.

“Nothing.”

Chanyeol appeared calm, but Kris could see that he was on the verge of a meltdown. Behind his back, Kris gives Chanyeol another squeeze of his hand as he attempts to calm him down.

“Chanyeol, it’s okay. Don’t panic. This should just be an aftereffect of the flashes. They should die down soon, so don’t worry. This blindness won’t last long.”

Chanyeol nods, though his face was still a mask of frozen fear.

“Try to appear normal, Chanyeol ah. Look at the crowd, smile, wave. I’ve got your back.”

The younger did as told, almost mechanically waving and nodding, smiling at people he could not see. Kris kept a tight grip on Chanyeol’s hand that was still behind his back, making sure to give comforting squeezes every once in a while, as he answered the questions shot at him, and easily dodges any questions aimed at Chanyeol.

Throughout the interview, both Baekhyun and Kris consistently fluttered nearby Chanyeol, with Kris using his voice to guide Chanyeol here and there and instruct him on what actions to make or where to look, and Baekhyun merely letting his presence be known and felt, with a comforting hand every now and then, and a constant stream of words of encouragement.

Somehow, Chanyeol makes it through the interview and performance without much of a hitch. He had practiced MAMA enough times for it to be danced blindfolded, and because of the crossover performance between EXO-M and K, there were luckily no lines for him to sing this time. For once, he was thankful for that. And with Kris and Baekhyun’s guidance, he was able to avoid much suspicion from the media and had successfully averted any disasters.

Chanyeol stood in the middle of the dressing room, staring blankly ahead as all eleven members fluttered around. They had evidently sensed something was wrong when Chanyeol had avoided to say almost anything at all, and coming from someone who was as talkative as Chanyeol, that was enough for alarm bells to go off in the members’ heads.

A hand was placed atop of Chanyeol’s head as it gently moved to massage him, and Chanyeol knew at once that Kris and Baekhyun were by his side once again.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Baekhyun asked, as he ran smooth circles up and down his back.

“I still…” began Chanyeol, his voice catching in his throat quite suddenly. “I still can’t… see. I still can’t see.”

Immediately, the full force of the eleven members was upon him, as concerned questions were shot in his direction. Chanyeol looked towards the floor, his hands shaking slightly as the fear overtook him.

He still couldn’t see.

He was past the camera flashes and the stage lights and he still couldn’t see. What if it stayed like this forever?

Going beyond his control, Chanyeol’s shaking started getting more obvious, as his breathing became to get more ragged, almost close to hyperventilating.

“I can’t see,” Chanyeol murmured, “I can’t see. I CAN’T SEE!!”

The final sentence is a yell, loud enough and deep enough for the eleven members to shut up in shock, looking at him in fear.

“I can’t see,” repeats Chanyeol, and this time, there is an obvious catch in his voice as a few tears rolled down his face, “I can’t… I can’t see.”

Tao is the first to react, as he practically flies towards Chanyeol and wraps him in a hug.

“Ge ge…” Tao mumbles into the elder’s shoulder, his arms wrapped securely around Chanyeol’s neck. “Bu yao… Bu yao ku…” It is evident that Tao is about to start crying too, knowing how sensitive the child was to everything around him.

And then, just like a chain reaction, the other ten members surrounded him once more, all of them attempting to catch his tears, and pat his back, and run hands through his hair, all to comfort him.

Chanyeol feels Tao’s tears on his neck rather than hears them and he finds himself wrapping his arms around Tao’s chest. It touches him, how Tao, who can barely understand any Korean, is the first to come and hug him, despite not even knowing what is going on.

He hears Kris say something in Mandarin and feels Tao nod, before the younger unwraps himself from him. For a moment, Chanyeol feels vulnerable, almost as if he is standing alone in the world, when suddenly, he feels the presence of all eleven members all around him, showering him with such intense love and care that it makes him wince.

How strong their love was for each other, Chanyeol thought, that he could not even fathom it.

He was not in fact, ever alone in this world.

********************

Chanyeol is in the van once again, sitting at the very back, but this time comfortably wedged in between Baekhyun and Kris. He is tired from his sudden outbursts and leans against Kris once again. Across Kris sits Tao, who demanded to be with Chanyeol despite the elder constantly repeating that he was fine.

And he was right, Chanyeol felt fine now. A bit sleepy from the sudden outburst, but otherwise he felt fine. Kris the Duizhang had been right, as always. The blindness had worn off about twenty minutes after their stage performance and Chanyeol could see again, albeit his vision being a bit fuzzy.

Baekhyun constantly plays with Chanyeol’s hand, writing squiggly lines onto his open palm and sometimes gently squezzing his wrist in a massage of sorts. Chanyeol finds it comforting and relaxes into Kris, who is in turn massaging the nape of his neck.

Chanyeol has his eyes closed once again, feeling to be on the verge of sleep.

“Chanyeol ge ge…?” Chanyeol smiles slightly at the hesitancy in Tao’s voice.

“Yes, Tao?”

“Ge ge… Are you feeling better now?”

Chanyeol nods in answer.

“Does Ge ge’s eyes still hurt?”

“A bit, but it’s bearable.”

“Enough, Tao,” Chanyeol hears Kris say in Mandarin. “Chanyeol is tired. Let him rest.”

“Wait. Can I just say one more thing?”

There is a pause where Chanyeol assumes Kris has nodded his head, before Tao whispers to him in Korean.

“Ge ge… Even if Ge ge goes blind forever, Huang ZiTao will always be there for you, alright? EXO will always be there for you. Because EXO is family. And family is...” Tao pauses for a while to rack his brain for the right Korean word, before he seems to give up, and say in Mandarin, “永远 *yong yeh*”

Chanyeol opens his eyes in Tao’s direction to see the younger smiling with twinkling eyes at him. At the confusion in Chanyeol’s eyes, Kris whispers the meaning into his ear.

“Forever,” Chanyeol breathes.

“Forever,” Tao repeats, as he holds up his pinky, “Promise.”

Chanyeol breaks out into a smile as he wraps his pinky around Tao’s, sealing the promise.  He leans into Kris, who is still massaging his head, turns to look at s, all doing their own thing, but each one stopping to smile at him when his eyes graze past them, feels Baekhyun’s warmth in his hand. Baekhyun smiles as he starts swirling patterns into Chanyeol’s open palm. It doesn’t take long before Chanyeol figures out what Baekhyun is doing.

Writing ‘saranghae’ into his palm.

Chanyeol smiles as he traces a clumsy ‘nado’ into the other’s palm.

For once, he is content. Chanyeol is content just sitting there, amongst s, being happy, being there, and being EXO. It is in small moments like these, Chanyeol decides, that make the painful moments in his life; the tears, the fears and all the failures, all worth it.

Because of his team mates, his brothers, his EXO, that were always there for him.

Just like family.

And just like family, they were forever.

==============================

It's kinda messy because I only proof-read it through twice and yeah...

My first EXO fic :)

How do you like it?