Zitao ends up spending the night after Wufan gallantly offered to let him sleep there since his own room was occupied and Zitao had, of course, accepted. Though he would've probably said yes even if his two best friends weren't busy getting it on. Wufan and Zitao don't do anything other than what they have already done. They just strip out of most of their clothes and fall asleep in each other's arms after a few languid kisses. It's been a while since Zitao slept so well.

In the morning Zitao wakes up first. He spends some time watching the light dance on Wufan's face that is calm and relaxed in sleep. He looks so incredibly handsome and there's a part of Zitao that never wants to leave. He has a lot of thinking to do, though, and he figures it's easier for him to think without the distraction that is Wufan's presence. So he decides to leave while Wufan is still asleep. He presses a kiss to Wufan's forehead, slips out of bed, takes a quick shower, gets dressed and goes back to his own room (how he manages to do all of these things without waking Wufan up is beyond him, but maybe Wufan is just a really heavy sleeper).

When he knocks on the door it's, not surprisingly, Baekhyun who opens it. He's looking all sleepy and rumpled, wearing Jongin's hoodie that was oversized even on Jongin, which means that Baekhyun's lithe form is practically swimming in the vast amount of fabric. From the looks of things he's not wearing much else. Once Baekhyun's muddled mind recognizes Zitao he beams a smile at him. "Have fun last night?" he asks with a knowing glint in his eyes.

"Loads," Zitao replies evenly. "Did you?" He takes Baekhyun's low chuckle to be an affirmative response. Zitao enters the room to find that Jongin and Sehun are, also not surprisingly, still in bed, curled up together like big, lazy cats. "How are you feeling?" The question is directed mostly at Sehun, who drank the most the previous night, and whose hangover usually hits the hardest. Sehun merely groans in response. He looks like he's attempting to suffocate himself with the pillow that is strategically placed over his face.

"I'm just gonna go use your shower real quick," Baekhyun says while jerking a thumb over his shoulder. With no sense of shame he strips out of the hoodie right then and there and Zitao can now confirm firsthand that he wasn't wearing anything other than that (unless the scratchmarks and fingertip-shaped bruises littering his skin count for something). He drops the piece of clothing on the floor and walks towards the bathroom with a sway in his hips.

As soon as Zitao is close enough, Jongin grabs him and yanks him onto the bed with them and presses his face into his neck. "Mhm, you're warm," he mumbles.

"You smell nice," Sehun adds, occupying his other side.

Zitao wrinkles his nose. "Ew, I don't even know what kind of filthy things are on this bed."

"Right now the filthiest thing is probably Jongin," Sehun says.

"I'd hit you for that, but I'm too tired to move," Jongin mutters. Zitao just laughs.

For a while the whole room is silent save for the vague sound of the water splashing against tiles and their even breathing. Zitao is staring up at the ceiling. His mind is in a state of complete chaos. He already felt lost before they went on this vacation and adding Wufan to the mix definitely hasn't done anything for him other than make him more confused. His whole life feels like a mess. He doesn't know what to do.

A loud, shrill sound cuts through the quiet atmosphere, some annoying, poppy girl group song playing from somewhere in the room. Sehun lets out a wounded groan and buries his head under his pillow again. It becomes obvious that it's Baekhyun's ringtone when he exits the bathroom with a towel on his head, rubbing his hair dry. He searches through the pile of clothes on the floor to find his phone. Zitao thinks it's a wonder it's even still ringing with how long it's taking him to get to it. "God, make it stop," Sehun whimpers.

Baekhyun lets out a triumphant noise when he finally manages to find his own pants and by extension his phone, which he pulls out from one of the pockets. "Hello?" He waits a few seconds for whoever's on the other end to answer and then he huffs. "Well, good morning to you too, Wufan." Zitao perks up involuntarily. He doesn't intend to eavesdrop, but it's kind of difficult not to. Besides, his interest seems to be drawn like a magnet to the mere mention of Wufan's name. It's a bit embarrassing. Suddenly Baekhyun looks directly at him. "Yeah, he's here. Uh-huh. Sure, I'll tell him. See you later." He hangs up. Zitao tries not to seem too interested. Judging by the way Baekhyun is smirking he's not doing a very good job. "That was Wufan," Baekhyun says as if they didn't already know. "He asked me to tell you to go back to our room."

"Okay." Zitao squirms out of his friends' hold and gets off the bed. "Did he say what it was about?"

Baekhyun shrugs. "He just said that he has something for you. Something you forgot, supposedly. That's all." Zitao frowns. He's pretty sure he brought all his things when he left so he can't really think of anything he could have possibly forgotten.

Nonetheless he goes to Wufan's room as requested. His heart is already pounding as he raises his hand to knock and he holds his breath anticipation. Fortunately it doesn't take too long before a disheveled Wufan comes into view in the crack of the door. He looks like he just rolled out of bed with his hair sticking up in random directions. He's also shirtless. Zitao's mouth waters a little. He gulps. "Hi," he manages.

Wufan smiles warmly. "Hi."

"Uhm, Baekhyun mentioned that you have something for me." Nodding, Wufan steps aside to let Zitao in. He makes his way further into the room, turning to face Wufan when he hears the door closing, but the question he has ready on the tip of his tongue never gets the chance to escape because Wufan is standing right before him, cradling his face and brushing their lips together.

"You forgot to let me give you your good morning kiss," Wufan mutters when he has pulled away.

Zitao wrinkles his nose. "That's probably the cheesiest thing anyone has ever said to me." No matter how hard he tries he can't make himself pretend that he doesn't like it, though. He likes it. A lot. He kisses Wufan again then arches a brow. "Is that all?"

Their lips press together again. "Hmm." And again. "No, actually." And again. A skitter trickles down Zitao's spine followed by Wufan's fingers dancing along his vertebrae. "I'm not done with you yet." Zitao gasps when his back unexpectedly collides with the mattress and then Wufan is hovering above him. He reaches out to gently push Zitao's hair away from his face and he smiles down at him with so much affection in his gaze that it makes Zitao feel all choked up. He cranes his neck to catch Wufan's lips with his own before any more words can be uttered to cause his heart to make good on its threat to combust.

Afterwards they're in dire need of a shower so they take one together, which is a lot more fun than showering alone in Zitao's opinion (even though they have to clean up twice after their hands get a little too adventurous the first time around). They crawl under the sheets of Wufan's bed and cuddle close despite the fact that morning has already started slipping into noon.

They lay there, clean and sated and curled up together. Zitao has his head resting on Wufan's shoulder, dozing off with Wufan's fingers running through his damp hair. It's as cliché as it can get and Zitao loves every single minute of it. He's sleepy and warm and his chest feels heavy with emotion, bubbling in his lungs, clogging up is throat and threatening to spill out in a bout of word vomit and when Wufan presses a kiss to the crown of his head Zitao can't hold back any longer. "I really like you," he lets slip and immediately feels dread creeping through his veins.

The scariest thing isn't that he actually accidentally confessed. It wasn't really completely an accident anyway. He was curious and he wanted to know before his hopes had the chance to inflate too far. No, what's even scarier than the confession itself is the fact that Wufan doesn't react in any way. He doesn't say or do anything, he doesn't stop running his fingers through Zitao's hair, and Zitao regrets not telling him this face to face because if he had done that, at least then he'd be able to see what kind of expression Wufan is wearing. But Wufan does nothing and it's nerve-wracking. It's painful. Zitao gulps.

And then, finally, after what feels like hours, Wufan sighs. "Zitao," he says. He sounds apologetic.

"It's okay, you know," Zitao interjects, feigned cheerfulness coloring his tone. He just doesn't want to hear it, the inevitable rejection. As long as he doesn't hear it spoken out loud it's all going to be fine, just fine. "I'm sorry if it's inappropriate or if you don't feel the same way or something. I just wanted to tell you. That's all." He moves away from Wufan, rolls over so his back is turned and he lets out a shaky breath. He hopes it's not too obvious how disappointed he is. He feels so stupid.

His breathing nearly stills altogether when he feels an arm curling around him from behind and Wufan presses close to his back. "Please hear me out, Zitao," he says calmly. "I think it's too soon. We just met. We barely even know each other. It's too soon for like."

Zitao lets out another shaky breath, this one followed by a short, mirthless chuckle. "Why do you have to be all reasonable and mature? Can't we just have this for now? Can't we pretend?"

For a while Wufan's thumb slow circles on Zitao's stomach. Then his grip tightens slightly and he leans in and presses a kiss to the back of his neck. "I think you're really cute," he whispers. And Zitao's heart skips a beat. Maybe a couple.

Zitao isn't surprised when it happens because he knew it was coming. It's not even a little bit shocking. After all this is just a brief getaway, they all have regular lives to go back to. Zitao knows this. That doesn't make him less upset when Wufan tells him that he's leaving, though. They're still in bed together when the bomb drops and Zitao's smile fades quickly. "I'm sorry," Wufan whispers at the sight of Zitao's suddenly dejected expression. "I'm really sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about," Zitao says. He doesn't even want to bother trying to force the smile back onto his face. Wufan would probably be able to see right through him anyway. "I mean, I already knew it was going to happen. This couldn't possibly last forever, right?" He deliberately omits mentioning that he did want it to last. If not forever, then at least for a long time. Longer than this. Wufan sighs, pulls Zitao close and presses a kiss to his forehead and again Zitao easily melts into his embrace. "When do you...?"

"Tonight."

"Oh." That was sooner than he had expected. Sooner than he had hoped for. He bites his lip, blinks until his eyes stop burning and then pulls back to look at Wufan. "Well, then let's make the most out of today, yeah?"

~*~

A/N: /spits/. ew. gross. everything is gross. please take this abomination away from me. oh god.
but yeah. baekhyun and wufan are leaving, they're going home. and baekhyun totally had with sehun and jongin, in case it wasn't obvious. but man, I feel like I made wufan seem like an in this story. please don't misunderstand. I, too, think it's too early for zitao to confess so it's not wufan being a huge doucheer who s on other people's feelings or anything like that. he's just being reasonable. zitao isn't used to affection so he may be confused as well. wufan doesn't want to hurt him. he really wants all the best for zitao. please believe me. :c
this is the second to last chapter, by the way, and then there's the epilogue. it's going to be over soon.

thank you for following my story this far. ♥