“Gege.”

“Gege?”

“Gege, are you deaf?”

“Ge~ge...!!”

“Gege!”

Tao’s whine had morphed into a near banshee shriek as Kris, his ever favourite elder – or probably his favourite person in the world at this given moment --, tried his very, very, *very* best to ignore the youngest in the group.

“Gege, are you ignoring me?”

That was it. Tao had activated his cutesy tone. There was going to be *something* that the youngster wanted that would undoubtedly burn a *very* deep hole in his wallet.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Lay hide a smirk behind the mug of coffee he had against his lips. Damn that sarcastic . Kris was pretty sure Lay was perfectly aware of Tao’s intentions.

Like that one time half a year ago, he had actually helped Tao with his antics. The idiotic elder had actually *encouraged* the youngster to put on his puppy-dog eyes to convince Kris to bring them out.

In the midst of a snow storm.

For a freaking Apple product sale.

IT WAS ONLY A SALE.

But Tao’s puppy-dog eyes be damned, because Kris had actually agreed to bring the two out in the midst of the snow storm for the half hour drive to their desired mall, only to have to pay for Tao’s MacBook Air and iPad Mini. He’d been almost thankful that Lay at least had the face to pay for his own, because the frustration building up in Kris had been near volcanic.

Of course, the said frustration had disappeared the moment Tao had turned to him with the most twinkling of eye smiles and hugged his leader around the waist. Of course, he’d replied with an equally sincere smile as he kissed the top of Tao’s head in the busy mall. Of course, he’d sent Lay a murderous glare when the younger had smirked at him, daring him to say a word.

And of course, Tao, bless his young soul, fell victim to a slight bout of pneumonia when he’d chosen to play in the snow storm instead of follow Kris and Lay in their mad dash to the car.

The fault was of course, fully placed on Kris when the young one had been rushed to the hospital with a fever that was hitting 40 degrees Celsius, and the leader had henceforth received an earful from Suho, Lu Han and the two EXO managers as well as a frightful warning from Soo Man though really, he wasn’t at fault.

Of course, no one believed that. Hell, Kris didn’t even believe that, and the leader had spent two full days moping in his room feeling bad for Tao and mentally scolding himself. It took an empathetic Chanyeol and a slightly regretful Lay to drag the leader out the bedroom to meet an oblivious Tao who’d just been discharged and was running on energizer bunny level hyperacticity.

Kris was confident that the health scare would be enough to teach him to not kowtow to Tao’s every want and need.

It wasn’t, obviously.

It’d only been two weeks after Tao’s discharge. The youngster had yet to even fully recover – hell, he still had a bad cough – when he’d hopped atop a sleeping Kris to wake him up for some ice cream. He’d asked very politely, in the midst of his coughing fits, for the elder to bring him out for orange sherbet at the cafe several blocks away. Kris had said no as sweetly and nicely as a person who’d just been rudely awakened would, which was of course, not at all.

Tao had ran out the room in all his broken-hearted glory, whining to his favourite dumpling of how ‘mean’ and ‘selfish’ the leader was being and the technique worked most regrettably well on Xiumin, who’d thrown Kris his warning glances.

Kris, of course, had thrown his arms up in the air, grumbling to himself how he never had any support from his own team mates as a now very happy and chipper Tao grabbed his coat and boots from his room.

It had barely stopped snowing and the younger was asking for ice cream? After barely getting over his pneumonia?

Kris could only growl his disapproval as he stalked ahead of the younger down the street. Tao was happily skipping a few meters behind him, a distance that kept increasing as the youngster kept checking himself out on near every reflective surface he came across.

It was seven minutes later when Kris had finally turned around to tell Tao to hurry up, when he’d been greeted with an empty stretch of road. It was another fifteen minutes later that Kris got himself in a full blown panic attack as he called his manager near screaming about how he’d lost Tao and couldn’t get him on his phone. And it was another three minutes later, when the manager was about done with his lecture, did Tao reveal himself to Kris.

Apparently, Tao had been playing hide-and-seek.

“Gege!”

Tao’s insistent voice eventually snapped Kris out of his reverie, as he glanced at the youngest, who was staring back at him from the couch he was sprawled against.

“Yes, Tao?” Kris answered with a sigh, putting away the newspaper he’d been trying to read as he faced the youngster from the breakfast table.

He heard a soft laugh from Chen, who was sitting on the other couch, now steadfastly staring at the tv as he attempted to avoid Kris’ glare. He was trying to hide his grin, Kris knew, from the battle the leader was about to lose with Tao.

After the fifth earful from their manager, which had occurred only a month after the first, Chen had placed a friendly bet with Kris. Kris owed Chen ten U.S dollars for each and every time he gave in to one of Tao’s unimportant and irrational needs. It had been a good idea at that time, for Chen only wanted to help.

Kris’ weakness for Tao’s whining was getting near unhealthy, both financially and emotionally, and Chen had come up with the idea after growing a heart for the tired elder.

It had never really occurred to them the amount money Chen would rake in.

The two thousand U.S dollars was unexpected, to say the least.

Kris’ glare dug a hole into Chen’s skull as the younger fought to concentrate his gaze on the tv. The bet had been stupid, to say the least, and Chen was about to be a millionaire by the time a year was over.

“Gege, why you staring at Chen gege’s head?” Tao’s innocent question broke the silence, as did Lay’s sudden choke on his coffee. “Is there something on it?”

Kris’ eyes swivelled to Tao, seeing the wide eyed curiosity immediately making his own gaze soften.

“Nothing,” Kris sighed, forcing a smile on his lips as a burst of laughter escaped Chen, who’d about turned red in his attempt to hold it in.

“Laugh again and I will turn that chiselled jaw into a v-line,” Kris muttered under his breath, just enough for Chen to hear. The younger was silenced with a forced cough, though the smug look on his face still peeved Kris. That was another ten bucks about to be lost; he was near sure of it.

“Gege, come here,” Tao suddenly called, sitting up as he tapped the space beside him.

“What is it, Tao?” Kris asked, near dejection as he rested his head against the table.

“Come!” Tao whined, “Sit, sit!”

With a very audible sigh, Kris got up to sit on the couch, with Tao immediately latching up to him.

“Alright,” Kris started, as Tao practically curled himself against his side. “What do you want now?”

Tao looked up at the question, a blank look of surprise on his face.

“You want more candy? Or is there a new sale nearby? You need a new gadget? New bag? Come on, now. Tell Gege what it is.”

The youngest blinked several times in confusion, an unconscious pout shaping his luscious lips.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Did Kris just hear him wrong? It was never nothing. Never ever ever nothing. There was always something this little imp would want.

“Nothing!” Tao answered, sounding defensive.

“Are you sure?” Kris was of course, incredibly sceptical of Tao’s definition of nothing, but for the sake of the youngster, he played along.

“Yeah,” Tao replied, “I just want to snuggle with my Gege. It’s cold, don’t you think?”

Kris was silenced for a while, not believing his own ears. Tao just wanted a snuggle? Did he pick up the art of pick-pocketing already? Kris’ mind was in a frenzy for a moment before he remembered his wallet was in his room.

“For real?” Kris asked, turning to look at him, only to see Tao’s puppy-dog eyes displaying full on innocence. “No food, no phone, no bag, no nothing?”

“Gege!” Tao pouted, evidently hurt by Kris’ words.

“Right,” Kris apologised, “Sorry, sorry. Just assuming.”

“You think I call only when I need you?” Tao mused, with a slightly Cheshire like smile, “Oh wait! I do.” Tao giggled at his realisation, before he pecked a kiss against Kris’ jaw.

“The hell was that for?” Kris’ asked, flinching at the sudden kiss as he rested a hand against his jaw.

“Aish, Europeans and their ‘no homo’ policies,” Tao grumbled, before he broke out into another smile. “That’s for always being there for me. I just realised that.”

“You just realised that?” Kris asked, an eyebrow up in annoyed amazement.

“Yeah!” Tao argued, his innocence unfeigned, “And I was saying thanks!”

“No, you weren’t.”

“Yes, I was!”

“You didn’t say it.”

“Say what?!”

“’Thanks’.”

“Well, thanks!” Tao yelled, his annoyance at his leader growing by the minute.

“You’re welcome,” Kris replied, voice as calm and as smug as it always was, using his arm to pull Tao into a one-armed hug.

Tao shrieked in glee as Kris hit a tickle spot, squirming out of the hug and somehow finding his head resting against the duizhang’s lap. A soft, affectionate smile was on Kris’ face as Tao looked up at him, and the youngster felt his heart brim with happiness, completely at ease with the elder.

“Gege.”

“Yes, Tao.”

“Gucci’s having a sale.”

“DAMN IT!”

=============================

EXO has been *freaking everywhere* lately and I present this story to you as a tribute to their undeniable domination of the Kpop scene.

We cannot deny that EXO is truly........ a piece of something *shudders*

One shots are always horrendous don't you know. There's always the need to add on something, or continue.

Anyway, this was a random drabble I didn't even proofread, so do forgive the mistakes for I do not bother with them haha!