Words (TaoXChanyeolXreader fanfic)

Chapter 14: Barely

There were closed doors. He had agreed to let them fold him into their little world but there wasn't some neat little a line between friends and whatever was on the other side. There was a wall. There were little holes in it where Chanyeol could see just enough of an impossible future to feed his imagination but it was solid. He had accepted that. Now Tao had cracked open the door and Chanyeol was aware for the first time of how desperately he had been waiting for it.

"The theory here," Tao said swallowing and then looking away at the door Victoria had gone through and then back at Chanyeol before continuing, "Is that if this is going to work, it needs to work in pieces as well as all together. I don't know what the road map is and the internet was useless so I thought we could start with coffee. You like cats right?"

"Yes?" Chanyeol said frowning at the non sequitur. What did cats have to do with anything?

"They've got this new cafe where they let you pet shelter cats and have coffee and I thought you might like that and it's downtown but not too far. We could go one evening or on a Sunday afternoon?" Tao rambled at little bit and Jem smiled more broadly at him. The still formless 'this' from the other side of the wall suddenly seemed more tangible.

"Did he get the words out?" Victoria asked sticking her head back into the room.

"Barely," Chanyeol said.

"Are you... do you," she stopped and crossed her arms to lean against the door frame. He almost always saw her with Tao and that made it easy to forget that she was tall in her own right. She was back lit by the light from the kitchen and it made her look just a little bit ethereal.

"Are you asking if I said yes?" Chanyeol asked.

"Yes, no," she sighed and came to perch on the edge of the couch beside him. He reached out a hand and she took it. Chanyeol smiled involuntarily. Tao was still there against his shoulder and he wasn't sure he would ever get over the giddiness of having both of them close enough to touch. It felt like he was getting away with something. Like they were cheating the system just a little bit.

"Do you want to be dated? I don't want you to feel like we're dragging you into things you don't want. If you want it to stay like this, we don't need to cross any lines," Victoria said.

Chanyeol lifted her fingers and kissed them. Her expression was unreadable. She was trying so hard to be serious and he glanced at Tao who was watching them with a smile. Chanyeol flipped her hand over and pressed a kiss to her palm and then her wrist. They touched so much less than he and Tao did and this sent shocks up and down Chanyeol's spine.

"I want to cross them," he said. He might have crossed any line and every line while she looked at him like that with her mouth partly open but instead he released her hand and gave her a smile.

They didn't cross anythingat the dead run that Chanyeol's jumpy heart wanted. They inched across it. Thecoffee date went well. Chanyeol didn't have a lot of experience with dating butthe cafe was full of cats which helped to distract them when they hit awkwardmoments. They took bets on whether or not the baristas were talking about themand laughed more than anyone else in the place.U