December 06, 2013

Their first game was musical chairs.

Technically it was musical socks. They didn't have enough chairs to go around so rather than fight each other over furniture, they were going to improvise and fight over socks instead. He who grabbed the sock stayed in, and whoever was without one at the end of each round was excluded from the game. Rather than use music, the first person out would sing and dance, to be joined by the next person, and the person after that.

Chanyeol had come up with the idea, and he was the first to volunteer to control the music.

The boys lined up in a circle around ten socks spread across the floor in a circle. Chanyeol began to sing, and they began to dance around the ring.

When he stopped, all hell broke loose.

A dogpile of groping hands, kicking feet and bodies crashed and writhed in a battle for the socks. Chanyeol's lungs purged themselves of air even though he tried hard not to scoff, and he clapped his hands decisively when ten young dancers stood up – and Suho was left empty handed.

Suho joined Chanyeol at the side, taking a sock.

Round two started immediately. Chanyeol began to sing Peter Pan while Suho went for Wolf. They sang for ten seconds before they both stopped (Chanyeol gave a visual signal, cutting through the air with a downwards motion).

“I can't breathe!”

“Who's-?!”

“I like this game,” Suho commented idly.

“Sehun, get off my neck!”

Chanyeol snorted.

A few seconds longer of wriggling revealed Chen as the loser.

He grabbed a sock and scampered over to join them at the side.

“Baek stepped on my neck,” he complained. “Bastard.”

Chanyeol patted his head. “Pick a song, stop singing when I give the signal.”

They watched the others dance around, this time for fifteen seconds. Suho struggled, becoming confused with Chen's lyrics. Chanyeol signalled. Lay lost. But Kris and Sehun wound up wrestling, both clutching the ends of their prize.

Luhan pried the two apart and fell over Kyungsoo's ankle in the process.

Kai helped him up.

“This isn't right. We should be complaining about getting socks for Christmas, not beating each other up over them.”

“Would you prefer it if we used pants?” Chanyeol said dryly.

Baekhyun stuck out his bottom lip and looked up at him through a lowered head.

“That's what I thought. So shut up and-” he waved towards the crudely drawn circle “-go.”

Kyungsoo went out next, followed quickly by Tao, then Kai.

Minseok, Kris, Luhan, Baekhyun and Sehun stood glaring at each other. Four socks stood between them.

Chanyeol started to sing.

They started to dance.

They hadn't even stopped when Luhan launched himself at Baekhyun, who yowled as he scrambled towards Kris. Minseok lunged for a sock and side-swiped Sehun, who crashed onto his side. Kris found himself pinned beneath Luhan, who him when he failed to catch the eldest EXO-M member.

Luhan quickly scooped up a sock.

“You're out, Lu.”

Luhan scowled. “But I got a sock!”

“You stopped dancing before we stopped singing.”

Baekhyun went down next.

Minseok versus Sehun.

Sehun gulped. “Now Minseok, there's no need to get hast-.”

“You made me carry your stuff through town,” Xiumin growled. “I will drop you and take that sock. It's mine.”

“Do that and you're out, Xiu-Xiu-hyung.” Chanyeol wagged his finger disapprovingly. “Play fair, no breaking rules.”

They didn't bother. Sehun went straight for the sock and they ended up in a kicking, growling heap of testosterone and vendetta. Considering Xiumin was the strongest, when the fighting showed no signs of abating and Sehun started yelling and weakening, Chanyeol saw fit to end the game.

“We have a winner!”

Xiumin and Sehun froze.

Mew.

Tao applauded happily. “Oh baby, I'm so proud of you!”

In the middle of the room sat a very pleased looking black kitten.

Clamped in her jaws was a suspicious-looking red and green object.

Cookie had the goddamn sock.