Tao pushes open the door to his and Sehun’s shared room.  Sehun’s awake, reclined on his pillow and and reading a book, and he looks over at Tao as he flings himself onto the bed miserably.

Tao’s chest aches so badly he doesn’t hear Sehun at first, and doesn’t really come to until Sehun’s hand settles on his shoulder.  “Hey,” Sehun says, and Tao looks over his shoulder to see Sehun rubbing his perpetually sleepy eyes with the heel of his hand.  “What happened?”

Tao shakes his head, unable to speak, and Sehun pulls him up into a sitting position to pull off his blazer.  Tears rest heavy on Tao’s lower lids, sparkling in the light of Sehun’s overhead lamp, and Sehun tuts under his breath.

“Did something happen with you and Kris?” Sehun cups Tao’s face in his hands, smoothing the single tear gliding down his cheekbone away.

“No,” Tao murmurs, his voice rough and mangled by the way his lips warp in a sob.  He hiccups slightly and closes his eyes.  “Nothing happened.” He continues softly, calmer now by sheer force of will.  “I just realized something about Chanyeol-hyung tonight, and I decided it’d be better if gege…” His throat closes around the words.

Sehun blinks in that lazy way he has, but Tao knows Sehun’s surprised expression—well, most of his expressions—are misleading.  “Chanyeol hyung is in love with duizhang?”

Tao nods, covering his face with his hands as the tears finally spill over for real, and Sehun wraps long, skinny arms around him.  The rest of the group takes good care of baby Sehun, but Sehun knows how to take care of his hyungs too; so he lets Tao cry into the shoulder of his thin tank top, his hair.  He makes little sounds of comfort when Tao mumbles something unintelligible, his face pressed into the fabric and his throat constricted with tears.

Tao clings to him even as he cries himself nearly to sleep, and Sehun doesn’t have the heart to pry him off.  He slips beneath the blankets with Tao still in his dress shirt and pants, pulling the knot of Tao’s necktie out and tossing it toward the chair, and Tao nestles against Sehun’s chest like he belongs there.

“Sorry…” Tao mumbles softly against Sehun’s collarbone, and goosebumps rise over the backs of Sehun’s arms.

Sehun presses his lips to the curve of Tao’s eyebrow, startled by the way his heart suddenly bounds against his bone like a startled bird.  “Go to sleep, Taozi.”

They fall asleep like this, and when Tao wakes up, the pain is almost gone.

*fin*

AN: I don't even know what just happened help??  Ok please don't hate me I don't fluff. This wasn't even betaed nooo