Words (TaoXChanyeolXreader fanfic)

Chapter 10: "I don't want you to disappear again,"

Tao was silent and Chanyeol wasn't sure he could say the next part. He didn't turn around. He opened his eyes to look at the plain door with the fire safety card on it. He read the instructions about how to escape in case of emergency. The little diagram showing where the stairs were did not have the answers he needed. He shut his eyes again.

"I think it may be better if I just walk away. I want things that aren't possible and it's going to hurt more the closer I get. But thank you. For the invitation," Chanyeol said.

He turned around to pick up his bag and found Tao standing. His eyebrows drawn together and his mouth half open like he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words for it. Chanyeol reached out and put his hand on Tao's shoulder. It wasn't really an accident that his hand fell high enough to touch the skin right above Tao's collar. Tao was the one who had gotten closer, or maybe it was him, they were closer. The moment caught and held. A bubble in an updraft. Another instant and it would fall back to earth and spill them out onto the dirty ground again.

"Thank you," Chanyeol said again. He wasn't sure what he was offering thanks for. For the invitation to dinner or for trying to make it better or simply for existing.

"I don't want you to disappear again," Tao said.

"Go home and be happy,"Chanyeol said.

"Come with me and we will be," Tao said.

"That's not how the world works," Chanyeol said.

"Yes it is," Tao insisted stepping into Chanyeol 's personal space. His body reacted differently than it had in the cafe, the last time Tao had been close. That had been friendly and comforting but he had been able to breath through it. This time, his stomach twisted hard and the skin down his back prickled. Tao didn't touch him. Chanyeol 's palm was the only point of contact and even that was electric. He sucked in a breath because he had forgotten that his body needed air. Tao's pulse hammered under his hand.

"You are married, the two of you have already made that choice and I have seen enough already to know that it is the right choice. I am not a part of it and that's nothing you need to feel guilty about. You don't owe me some spot in your life because I'm the place where the perfect soulmate system failed. It has to fail sometimes, nature always does. I am the mistake and that's not your concern," Chanyeol said.

"It's nothing I owe you," Tao's voice was angry and Chanyeol risked looking up at his eyes instead of down at his shirt front. His expression matched the voice. Hostile and intense. Chanyeol might have recoiled but Tao reached up and grabbed his neck. His hand was in the same place Chanyeol's was but he gripped tight, holding him close.

"Tao," he started.

"I have missed you for ten years. You can't fall back into my life and then disappear again. Victoria is half in love with you and she's met you once. I understand it. That's all it took for me too," he trailed off and Chanyeol took another stuttering breath of air that smelled too much like Tao to calm him down.

"She's been worried and protective, like you're already hers to take care of. She does that sometimes to me too or her friends. She hasn't sent you a single message but she's written hundreds. Written them out and then edited and edited and edited before deleting them entirely and trying again. I don't want you to come home with me as some consolation prize for mucking up your words. I want you to come home with me because I want you to be there and so does she," Tao said.

Chanyeol was caught. Trapped. Not by the hand on his neck but by the look in Tao's eyes and how much he wanted what was being offered.

"If you don't want to that's different but I refuse to take some bullshit about how the world works as a valid excuse. There are only three people who get to care about this," Tao said.

"Ok," Chanyeol said. Any argument he might have had fallen apart. He wanted this. Tao pulled him into a hug and the tension shattered. It had been the start of something big but the wave broke. The hug was a relief. Like coming back down gently. Nothing resolved but nothing ruined.

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