[drabble: exo] you don't have to take your time
laytao;
g;
400w;
soulmates au
“don’t you ever get tired?”
yixing hums questionably without looking up, flipping another page on his tablet.
tao frowns, eyebrows furrowing, and he shifts his body so he can press his shoulder against yixing’s ribs.
yixing unconsciously lifts his arm so tao can burrow into his side, but otherwise doesn’t react, and tao frowns harder.
“yixing.”
something in tao’s voice must sound off, because yixing pauses and turns off the tablet, setting it aside.
“no,” he says simply, not resisting as tao curls almost in his lap, his hand following tao’s head to run fingers through his thick hair.
“no?” tao asks, and yixing shakes his head.
“it’s my job,” and tao bites the inside of his lip.
“it’s not your job,” he begins to argue, and yixing smiles, slightly crooked and slightly more sad. tao feels a brush of something against him before it pulls back, quicker than it came, and when tao tries to chase it, he finds a gaping hole where most of yixing’s soul should be.
a sense of fear washes over him, and he grabs at yixing’s fingers where they’re still combing through his hair.
“yixing,” he says again, his breath stuttering on the exhale, and he wraps his free arm tightly around yixing’s waist.
“where did you go?”
tao was born with a full soul, with all of himself intact. he had no emptiness where a soulmate should be, and he’s lived his life freely, no sense of burden or need weighing him down.
but he’s touched the souls of people without mates, and while there’s a piece missing, it’s nothing like yixing’s. yixing is more emptiness than not, and that scares him.
(yixing had told him once before, when they were still trainees, on a warm night where they had sat on the balcony and passed a bottle of cheap wine back and forth, that he didn’t have a soulmate.
and tao had been so excited, so happy to finally meet someone like him, but yixing’s smile had been sad like it was now as he ran his hand up and down tao’s back.
“i’m everyone’s soulmate,” as his fingers tapped along tao’s vertebrae, “but no one is mine.”)
“i’m right here.”
yixing is quiet, and he won’t look tao in the eye.
tao reaches out again, and just like before, yixing lets him. yixing is so giving, always giving, giving and giving and giving and how much longer can he do that? how much more does he have to give?
tao doesn’t know, and he bets yixing doesn’t know either.
g;
400w;
soulmates au
“don’t you ever get tired?”
yixing hums questionably without looking up, flipping another page on his tablet.
tao frowns, eyebrows furrowing, and he shifts his body so he can press his shoulder against yixing’s ribs.
yixing unconsciously lifts his arm so tao can burrow into his side, but otherwise doesn’t react, and tao frowns harder.
“yixing.”
something in tao’s voice must sound off, because yixing pauses and turns off the tablet, setting it aside.
“no,” he says simply, not resisting as tao curls almost in his lap, his hand following tao’s head to run fingers through his thick hair.
“no?” tao asks, and yixing shakes his head.
“it’s my job,” and tao bites the inside of his lip.
“it’s not your job,” he begins to argue, and yixing smiles, slightly crooked and slightly more sad. tao feels a brush of something against him before it pulls back, quicker than it came, and when tao tries to chase it, he finds a gaping hole where most of yixing’s soul should be.
a sense of fear washes over him, and he grabs at yixing’s fingers where they’re still combing through his hair.
“yixing,” he says again, his breath stuttering on the exhale, and he wraps his free arm tightly around yixing’s waist.
“where did you go?”
tao was born with a full soul, with all of himself intact. he had no emptiness where a soulmate should be, and he’s lived his life freely, no sense of burden or need weighing him down.
but he’s touched the souls of people without mates, and while there’s a piece missing, it’s nothing like yixing’s. yixing is more emptiness than not, and that scares him.
(yixing had told him once before, when they were still trainees, on a warm night where they had sat on the balcony and passed a bottle of cheap wine back and forth, that he didn’t have a soulmate.
and tao had been so excited, so happy to finally meet someone like him, but yixing’s smile had been sad like it was now as he ran his hand up and down tao’s back.
“i’m everyone’s soulmate,” as his fingers tapped along tao’s vertebrae, “but no one is mine.”)
“i’m right here.”
yixing is quiet, and he won’t look tao in the eye.
tao reaches out again, and just like before, yixing lets him. yixing is so giving, always giving, giving and giving and giving and how much longer can he do that? how much more does he have to give?
tao doesn’t know, and he bets yixing doesn’t know either.