Words (TaoXChanyeolXreader fanfic)

Chapter 26: I love you

Chanyeol didn't have an answer for that but Tao wasn't looking for one. Not yet. He was still talking.

"That's the beauty of the whole match thing. You find your person and you know that they are yours for life. I am a selfish bastard and I like that. My match. My Victoria. And I like having you too. My Chanyeol," Tao lifted his head and they were nose to nose. Tao was intense. Not sad, not angry, just vibrantly intense.

"You're afraid that we'll run off together and leave you behind?" Chanyeol asked.

Tao looked up at the ceiling and then back at him as though he'd lost all his words. The apartment was half lit, a light somewhere in the living room was all the illumination they had here and Tao's face was cast in shadows. Chanyeol reached up and cupped his neck then slid his hands up to his cheeks while Tao stared at him in the dark.

"I love you," Chanyeol said. "You're the one who keeps saying it can work. Would you run away with me? If I asked, would you?"

Tao stared at him, pulling back so his face was caught in the light and Chanyeol could see the force of the expression on his face. He started to say something and Chanyeol gently put a hand over his mouth and shook his head.

"I'm not asking. I already know the answer. You wouldn't leave her behind for anything. And neither would I. You were my childhood crush, my great what-if and even for you I wouldn't give her up. Tao?" Chanyeol asked and waited until Will's attention was back on him before continuing, "I would not give you up either. Do you honestly think that she would?"

"No," Tao said and his voice was soft, barely there.

Chanyeol leaned his forehead against Tao's and Vic found them there a few minutes later. She leaned her shoulder against the wall beside Chanyeol and reached out to play with Tao's hair. Tao pulled back and grabbed hold of her. He pulled her in and Chanyeol untangled himself from Tao so he could wrap an arm around her shoulder and resettle with his head leaned into both of them.

"I didn't hear you come in," Victoria said.

"I hear ambassadors were accosting you tonight, it sounds tiring," Tao said with a small smile.

"It was," she said. Tao kissed her. And Chanyeol could see the emotion in it and though Vic hadn't heard the conversation, she pulled back and looked at him like she understood it.

"I love you," she said before she kissed him back.

When they broke apart, Victoria leaned up and kissed Chanyeol's jaw. Chanyeol darted his attention up to Tao but Tao was watching her that intensity but it didn't have any of that fear in it. This look sent Chanyeol's heart rate back into overdrive but it wasn't for the same reasons. He tightened his hold where his arm was looped around Tao's waist. Once they were all pressed together he tilted Vic's face up and kissed her.