Words (TaoXChanyeolXreader fanfic)

Chapter 13: "Dating etiquette,"

"I was googling etiquette today," Tao said with his head on Chanyeol 's shoulder. The first time he had done that, had sunk over while they were watching some movie, Chanyeol had nearly forgotten how to breathe. Tao had leaned in and then stopped before touching him and turned his face up.

"I don't mind," Chanyeol had said though he wasn't entirely sure it was true. When Tao was that close, Chanyeol could smell him, could feel his hair against his throat, could not at all use his usual method of survival of pretending this wasn't actually happening. Once he'd started, Tao had made it a habit. He leaned in often enough that Chanyeol had started to find it a comforting sort of exhilarating instead of just terrifying.

"Why? Are you going to host a dinner party?" Chanyeol asked.

"Not that kind of etiquette," Tao said with a smile, "Though I think we're doing Christmas eve with my sisters, I might need to look that up too. Vic?"

"They aren't going to care if we put the dessert spoon in the wrong place so I wouldn't worry about it. Ella's going to be badgering Cecily all night about whether the new boyfriend is her match. It's going to be chaos," Victoria said. She was curled up on the other side of Tao. She was a little less comfortable with the indiscriminate touching than Tao was. She sat beside Chanyeol but didn't often cuddle though he suspected that she would return it if he started it. That thought plagued him every time she was close.

"What kind of etiquette were you looking up?" Chanyeol asked.

"Dating etiquette," Tao said.

"Oh?" Chanyeol was only half paying attention to the conversation. He had gotten distracted by the idea of Tao having sisters. Victoria had mentioned a brother at one point and the idea of trying to explain this to anyone's family tugged at his imagination. He didn't like the idea of it at all.

"I don't think I've ever asked anyone out on a date," Tao said.

"I guess Victoria did the asking?" Chanyeol asked.

"Of course she did, I was awkward as hell when I was fourteen," Tao said.

"You still are," Victoria said and she leaned over to ruffle his hair and kiss his forehead while he turned his face into Chanyeol's shoulder as though he could hide from her patronizing laugh. She left them alone, the screen still showing the recommendations screen of all the things they might want to watch next.

Tao sighed and lay his head back in place on Chanyeol's shoulder, "I am, once I get my nerve up a little, going to ask you out. I thought maybe the etiquette for asking out a man was different."

Chanyeol straightened and looked down at him but Tao was ignoring him. Staring at the screen and not looking up. Chanyeol looked down at the top of his head and his mind raced until he noticed that Tao was fiddling with his watch in his hand. He was flicking the clasp open and shut and running his finger around the edge of the clock face. That Tao truly was awkward as hell bled off the worst of his own anxiety. He leaned back in, slouching down so that Tao was just a little closer.

"What does the internet say?" Chanyeol asked.

"That if your match is someone of the same gender that you should not stray into a life of sin and there are other ways of exploring your connection that are good and wholesome," Tao said.

Chanyeol exploded with laughter. He curled up and leaned back into Tao. The world was full of people who dedicated their lives to higher callings than their words. The famous stories of prophets with the words of God not the words of another human on their skin. The great sacrifice of those who gave up their matches to join convents and serve a higher power were loaded into religions and myths around the world and they almost all included the reminder that the saint's match had done the very same thing and they were together in whatever life came after this one.

The very small but very loud group of Christians who had decided that same sex matches were a threat to their way of life had been campaigning for years. No one listened to them. The Catholic Church had responded to the sudden explosion in the popularity of their movement by issuing edicts reaffirming that the Bible said that matches were Holy no matter the genders involved. No that it had stopped anyone from being loud and angry.

Chanyeol laughed into Tao's hair for far longer than the joke warranted but there had been a tension in the room and once it broke, he was afraid to start building it again. He let himself touch Tao back. Knees together, Chanyeol 's hand on Tao's shirt and Tao's embarrassed laugh coming from somewhere buried against Chanyeol 's chest. He kept almost as much distance as Victoria did, rarely being the one to start anything but he ignored the voice whispering warnings in the back of his head in favour of this.

"Yes," he said.

"Yes? We need to beware the evils of sin, yes or some other sort of yes?" Tao asked.

"I think the world needs more sin," Chanyeol said with another laugh, "I would very much like to go on a date with you. Are we bringing your wife?"

"No," Tao said finally pulling himself together enough to look up. Chanyeol was used to being the nervous one. He had accepted that he would be more uncomfortable than either of them and yet here he was, looking at Tao with his defenses down. Tao looked unsettled and Chanyeol touched his cheek.