Tao closes his eyes and conjures up an image in his head of the members outside, sitting around the dining table.

There’s a sound of a chair being dragged (that’ll be Yixing sitting down) and the clinks of utensils as everyone starts eating.

The grumbles of his tummy cancel out his former contentment and Tao frowns. He’s hungry. So hungry. Time to go pester the others.

Tao gathers himself up on all fours shakily. The bed keeps on dipping under his weight and he’s not used to walking on all fours yet, plus it seems like a long drop down to the ground from his place on the bed. Also, he’s tiny. Panicked meows escape his mouth every time the fluffy mattress moves under his tiny body. He’s confused. Why can’t he jump off? He’s a cat, so he’s bound to land on all fours safely.

Tao lunges from his unstable launching pad and squeaks again when his small jump ends in him stumbling forward to land face first into the mattress. His ears flop onto his face sadly.

Pathetic meows fill the room as Tao musters up the courage to jump time and time again, high in the air, short tail waving frantically for balance, the edge of the bed giving way every now and then. Paws press little dips into the mattress, but they just inflate right back and throw him off balance.

With a final meow, the loudest yet, he plops on his furry bottom and collapses back on his side. This is it. He’s going to die like this. He’s never gonna eat again. He’s gonna die lost and forgotten and no one will ever find his body. He’s doomed. He’s-

Warm hands- large hands suddenly scoop up his tiny body that fits entirely into them. Tao doesn’t resist, too sad to, so he just lays there, even when the fingers poke his tummy and start playing with his tail. It’s getting very annoying.

Looking up, he sees a nearby thumb, so he grabs it with both his paws –claws sheathed– and bites the pad with his stumpy baby teeth. He chews on it for several seconds as the surroundings change from his room to the corridor to the living room to the table where they eat at. In those few seconds, Tao glances up the person’s arm through eyes crescented by the way he’s chewing on the thumb. An undistinguishable mass of black sits below the shoulder and the elbow- a tattoo.

Tao nearly scoffs. Of course it would be Kris. It could only be Kris. How would it not be Kris.

The fingers move to the top of his head, between his ears, and under his chin. Tao has no choice but to purr and melt into the gentle touches. Damn Kris and his five other cats back in Canada. Damn his deep knowledge of cats and pets. Tao rolls over in Kris’s hand and glares up at his leader, who only gently smiles down at his furry form.

Tao meows rustily when they reach the table and immediately hops off onto the table. and tail stuck high up into the air pointed to the general direction of Kris, he stalks off haughtily, until he trips over an oily spoon and careens nose first into someone’s cup of water. He falls with a squeak that turns into tiny bubbles in the water as he just lays there sopping wet and feeling very sorry for himself.

Kris’s hearty laughter reaches his drooping ears and Tao decides the next time Kris touches him he leaves with scratch marks covering his palms.

“It’s so cute!” Chanyeol props his head up on the table with his hands and pouts. Tao knows exactly what he’s thinking. He wants to pet Tao, but he can’t, because of his slight allergy.

Tao rolls over and looks cutely at Chanyeol for compensation. Tao thinks he’s gonna make that his signature pose. Upside down with his mouth curled into a coy smile, his pink tongue sticking out just a little.

Then someone gently grabs his hind legs and pulls them up, uncomfortably exposing his privates.

Tao’s eyes widen and he hisses as he wrenches himself out of the hold and behind the bottle of soy sauce nearby.

Kris laughs again.

“He’s a boy.” Kris briefly wipes his hands on his three-quarter cargo pants before cracking a half-boiled egg into his bowl. “I saw his balls, hah.”

Blunted claws slowly unsheathe themselves from Tao’s paws and he hisses louder in volume. How he wants to just go over to that face –that annoyingly perfect face- and scratch it to hell and beyond.

But he can’t, so he just scrapes at the plastic bottle of light soy sauce, barely leaving any marks at all.

“Pass the sauce, thanks.” Kris reaches out for the bottle.

A little too enveloped in his murderous thoughts, Tao suddenly feels himself being lifted up and he yelps, digging his claws deeper and using his whole body to hug the plastic. His heart rises in his throat as he panics and squeaks.

“Oh, .” Chen dangles little Tao over the table around ten centimetres up in the air. “, get him off.” He shakes the bottle back and forth, making Tao’s whole world spin. He meows loudly and desperately, even reaching in vain for Chen’s fingers so he can chew them to stop the jiggling.

“Aw man, he’s not coming off. Kris help!” Chen panics as Tao’s paw brushes his wrist. The world swings around him; one moment his head’s facing the ceiling, the next, he’s pointed to the tabletop. Something rises in Tao’s stomach and his world starts going splotchy black.

A dull bonk ends the spinning and the bottle transfers into steadier hands. Large hands.

Tao groans.

The bonk sound had been the result of one of Kris’s hands forcefully hitting Chen’s (empty) head. Chen sits there, cringing painfully as he over exaggerates nursing his wounds.

Tao scoffs. Serves him right. He squirms in Kris’s hand and bites his fingers, making his headache worsen as his head swings around again all over the place.

Kris’s fingers deftly find that loose patch of skin at the back of Tao’s neck and he pinches it so that Tao instinctively collapses into a limp bundle in his hands. Once again, Tao curses Kris with everything he has.

“Tao didn’t train his cat at all.” Kris tsks and stands. “He’s such a bad owner.” Tao dangles limply from Kris’s hold, the intense anger frothing and churning in his tiny body like a kettle boiling over. Once he returns to normal, he swears, he’s gonna decapitate the duizhang.

For now he settles with feeding his mind a looped vision of Kris crying during and that’s enough to satisfy his murderous urges.

“Tao didn’t say what food to give...” Kris moves away from the table to the kitchen and opens a cupboard filled with pet food Tao didn’t even know they had. Kris pulls out a food bowl and a half-emptied bag of dry cat food before closing the door with his foot, Tao still securely pinched between his fingers. He pours out some food into the bowl, dampens it with some tap water, then sets both it and Tao on the kitchen tabletop.

Tao whisks his tail in Kris’s face when he leans in too close with an expectant expression on his face. He’s going to claw the perfect features soon if he can’t even eat in peace.  When Kris just stays there dumbly, Tao reaches out to bat at his cheek, annoyed beyond measure.

Kris just laughs.

“Hey guys!” He shouts to the chattering tableful of people not too far away. “Tao’s just like his cat, did you notice?”

Tao blinks, taken aback for a second. Kris noticed? He doesn’t know whether to be worried for his secret or proud that Kris was able to see the similarities.

“Spoilt, childish, and badly behaved.”  Kris chuckles to himself.

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

whooyea the concept for this turned out better than I expected I hope you liked it!

Thanks to AnnaLucyy and battleroyal for upvoting and thanks to everyone who subscribed and commented!