Kyungtao/taosoo(??), 783 words.

A single tear streaks dramatically down Tao’s face, his two small, trembling hands clutching the broken remains of Kyungsoo’s precious musical box with that really pretty mermaid ballerina and gorgeous music and beautiful sparkly seashells around the corners.

He didn’t even do anything, he was just looking at it as always, and then he touched it and it fell apart in his hands (just like his mental stability).

Tao sniffs pathetically and tries to fit the pieces together, jabbing the broken lower half of the mermaid figurine with the top, choking on his sobs even more as the figure begins to crumble and the wooden sides of the box start to split.

Kyungsoo’s gonna kill him. He’s gonna pummel him to death and mush him into a paste with his bare fists and feed him to the neighbour’s dogs and laugh all the time. Kyungsoo loves this musical box so much he once punched Chanyeol on the thigh for making fun of its ‘girliness’ and gave him a bruise that  lasted two weeks.

Tao sobs and hugs his body, sinking to the floor as his short legs give way.

He stays there wallowing in self pity for a few more minutes and rocks back and forth as he does so, with the destroyed musical box cradled to his chest. What excuses could he tell Kyungsoo? Everything seems too much of a made up lie to be believable, and Kyungsoo‘s not one to easily accept excuses when angered.

Looking up, finally, he rubs his nose with the back of his finger and sniffs. He knows what to do. He’s going to do the right thing, no matter the consequences.

Gritting his teeth, he stuffs the damaged box under his shirt and sprints out of the room on wobbly legs as fast as he can go, which isn’t very fast at all by any means.

So, without looking where he’s going, he collides straight into Kyungsoo and they both fall backwards, Tao with a high-pitched shriek and Kyungsoo with a slightly manlier yell. The box jerks itself out of Tao’s shirt and tosses itself on its owner, spilling the mutilated ballerina figurine into Kyungsoo’s lap.

Tao freezes in shock for about two seconds, just enough time for Kyungsoo to pick up the remains with a disbelieving aura around him, look up with a dismayed expression on his face, and open his mouth to say something.

But Tao’s already long gone, running around the corner, mind set to ignore Kyungsoo any way he can.

***

Kyungsoo’s chasing after Tao for the umpteenth time, always so close to stopping him with a tug to the back of his shirt, but as always, he manages to slip out of his hands. Tears of frustration well up in his eyes as he watches Tao waddle quickly around the corner yet again. He’s just so annoyed. He just wants to talk to Tao and tell him that it’s ok, that he was the one who broke the darn thing in the first place. Why won’t Tao listen? Does he really only see him as a mindless punishment-giving machine, incapable of properly assessing situations?

Kyungsoo breaks out into tiny sobs. He doesn’t want his brothers to be terrified of him. He doesn’t want to be the one they all avoid just because he uses more violence than the others. He doesn’t want this. With a sinking feeling in his heart, he recognizes all the patterns now, a common route all his quarrels with his brothers take.

Kyungsoo collapses against the wall and sinks down to his knees with little whimpers that sound through the house against his will.

Kyungsoo cries into his knees, trying and failing to contain his heart-wrenching whimpers. He just regrets everything so much.

There’s a faint scuffle that breaks his lonely silence, and then warm arms wrap themselves around his body and legs around his own, until he’s so entangled with the other that neither can move. Tao looks into Kyungsoo’s eyes, both of them red and swollen from crying, and when he speaks, his voice is shaky and insecure, but there’s no trace of fear.

“Kyungie I’m sorry.” Tao chokes through the lump in his throat. “I don’t know how come it broke- but it’s ok hyung you can hit me please just don’t cry.”

Kyungsoo sobs even harder, the tears a never-ending river of anguish and regret and relief that’s been bottled up unknowingly over a period of time. Tao holds him through it all while assuring Kyungsoo that it’s ok, everything’s going to be fine.

But in the end, he still gets a flick on the forehead from Kyungsoo, for being so annoyingly perfect. 

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

cRIEs what is this this is a mess  I'm so sorry this was crap I'm going to come back and edit this later it's like 1am r/n I should really be sleeping eheh ((but they're so squishy eheehehehh it's worth it)) also plz ignore all errors heh gonn come back and edit this later

heehee

Thanks to ilikemyself, girlsofsorrow, DoRKii_ELF, ariamonb, PerryDavis, fanfic, Cutebaozi, ValeriaS, EXO-IST, and ravepirates for upvoting!

Also thanks for over 100 upvotes that's just so awesome i dont even D: you guys are the best, seriously.

And lastly thank you for subscribing and commenting! Keep dem childhood stories coming in yo, they're all really fun to read and they're really helpful in helping me think of new plots :D

peace