The Indelible Curse - Kris x Tao
Title: The Indelible Curse
Pairing: Kris x Tao
Rating: G
Warning: Horribly edited...
WC: 849
Summary: Kris has the best luck when it comes to old ladies who happen to be gypsies with bad tempers... Now he's stuck with an indelible curse which is worse than water turning into blood and swarms of locusts. It involves his bank account and a certain boy with eyes set on Gucci bags.
A/N: This was kind of written as crack and for fun. Credits to Howl's Moving Castle OST for the title.
--- --- --- ---
Maybe it would have been better if Kris had held the door open for the older woman. However, he was too busy talking on his cellphone and on his way to do more important things (which involved buying new limited edition sneakers - which he stressed, was very important). So when he pushed his way through the glass doors and the mechanics swung them back too far, Kris didn't notice when he sent them careening into a more than feeble, little old woman's face. He turned around to see her sitting on the ground, holding her nose in her hand, obviously in pain. A few bystanders knelt down beside her, helping the woman up to a staggering upright position.
Hand falling away from her face, a trickle of blood dribbled down to cut across her lower lip. Her eyes, passed all the wrinkles, fixed on Kris in a tight glare. The chill that ran from the nape of Kris' neck to the base of his spine would have shook him. She muttered something, waved her hands and wiggled her gaudy ring covered fingers in the young man's direction, and spat at the ground punctuated by an affirmed nod.
She stocked off (more like hobbled).
Kris stood confused on the other side of the doors where he’d been watching. Lu Han's voice crackled on the other end of his phone and it brought him to attention. "Yeah, yeah..." he said half-heartedly to Lu Han, not really focusing on what he was talking about (something about Sehun). Turning on his heel and fixing his sunglasses on the ridge of his nose, Kris made way into the department store.
Kris continued on his day without a worry, completely oblivious to the change in his spiritual stature.
It wasn’t until a week later, when he was lounging in the living room, flipping through a magazine on the couch, that he might have (most definitely) noticed he was cursed. He was comfortable until Tao walked in, huffing and making a fuss. Kris didn't break eye contact with the magazine to acknowledge Tao's presence hovering over him.
"Wu Fan ge." Tao said.
"What?" Kris thumbed to the next page.
"I really want a Gucci bag." The boy sighed, running his fingers through his short hair.
Kris had seen the boy in passing gazing longingly at the Gucci website, yearning for and looking at all the branded and expensively priced backpacks.
"Then go and buy one." Kris said like it was a no brainer (it really was).
"I don't have enough money, ge."
"That's not my problem, now is it?"
It was in that moment, when Tao dropped down on his knees by the side of the couch and balled his fists up near his cheeks and cutely said, "Ge ge... Buy me Gucci, please" that everything shifted and Kris finally knew something was wrong. The feeling that overcame him felt like someone cracked an egg over his head. Reaching back into his pocket, Kris took out his wallet and held it out for Tao to take. He couldn't believe the words that came out of his mouth next...
"You can pay the rest of the price off on my credit card, Zi Tao."
Tao gave Kris a dumb look and kind of laughed, unsure whether the other man was joking and he should find it funny. Obviously, he wasn't expecting Kris to say that and definitely not offer him his credit card. Kris was thinking the same thing, but here he was doing just what we would never do in a million years.
Kris was screaming in the back of his mind. No matter how much he internally wished to shove the wallet back into his pocket and pass it off as some mean joke, his body wouldn't move and he was still offering his savings for Tao to recklessly spend.
The boy looked from Kris' wallet to his face, then realizing he was being serious, practically snatched the leather fold out of the man's hand and scurried off.
"Thank you so much, ge ge! I love you!" Tao called from his room, probably launching himself at his computer to log onto the Gucci website.
--- --- --- ---
A week later and five hundred dollars down, watching Tao sport his new Gucci backpack in the middle of the living room for the rest of the members to admire, Kris really regretted not holding that door open for the old woman...
"I hate my life." Kris quietly sobbed.
Tao must have heard him because he immediately spun around and said, "Cheer up, ge ge!" And when he did aegyo, the same feeling washed down the back of Kris' neck and the cosmos pulled some strings and he flashed the biggest smile against his will.
No really. He hated his life.