Tao brushed his eyes. The sleepiness was still getting on him, but he forced himself to walk down the kitchen. His grumbling stomach needs to be filled - the aftermath of practicing wushu late at night. He glanced the clock in his room, and sighed when it showed 4.11 in the morning. This is way too early for Tao to get up, but he can't stand the hunger anymore.

Going out his room, he headed straight towards the kitchen downstairs. Opening the fridge, he took out a few fruits, and started to chop them to thin pieces. Bananas, strawberries, raspberries, guava, pineapple, apple and watermelons. All were chopped down to small pieces, before Tao put them in a bowl, and pour some milk into it. He sat down on the couch, before sighing. 

He took a book that lie on the coffee table, finding it Luhan's. The dragon was the title. He just took a peek on the middle of the book, and put it down seconds later, finding it not his type of reading. He continue to savour his own made dish, before he heard a loud clanking sound coming from downstairs. Surprised, he looked around and tried to listen more carefully.

He can hear a faint metal banging sound coming from the same direction of before. He frowns, wondering who was still up at 4 in the morning. He stood up, putting his half eaten food down on the dining table before he proceeded downstairs. He tiptoed slowly, looking down. The room was lit dimly. It was an underground room - where Kris had put all of his inventions to work. This room used to be the professor's laboratories, but now  it had been divided into three compartments; inventing, processing and working.

Tao peeked inside the room, only to see the a silhouette of somebody banging something to a weird thing. Of course Tao knew who the guy is; none other than Kris. Tao sighed, looking at the silhouette again before slowly descended the stairs.

"Kris hyung?" Tao shouted, making sure his tiny voice to be heard in between the deafening banging. It took Tao a few calls before the banging finally stopped and Kris' head jolted out from behind the machine. 

"Yes Tao? Did I wake you up?" Kris asked, smiling gently. He was sweating a lot; the bang on his head was sticking to his forehead, and he was shirtless, revealing his broad shoulder and milky white skin.

Tao gulped at the scene, and blushed a little. "No you don't." He said, before making his way closer to Kris. Kris get up, took the towel that hang on the chair before wiping his body and face.

"What are you doing? It's 4 in the morning." Tao asked, looking and pondering over the thing in front of him. The thing looked like a big metal box, with a model of the mansion right on top of the box. "The model is nice though." Tao complimented, before regretting in doing so.

Kris just chuckled, and looked at his new invention, proud and happy. Kris always find it amusing how his mind works to enable him to come out with great invention such as this one, but what amused him more is the way Tao managed to look at his new inventions with sincere feelings and actually listened to his long and winded blabbering about the mechanisms of the invention even though he didn't understand any of it.

"It's a shield maker. Inspired my Chen." He said, still keeping his smile.

"Shield? Wait, you are going to shield our mansion?" He said, looking at Kris questioningly.

Kris quickly nodded, before leaning down towards Tao and pulled up a chair behind him. Tao was dumbstruck. His stomach was doing a somersault, and his heart was beating like a maniac. Suddenly he forget how to breathe. Nothing came to his mind - or maybe his mind wasn't working properly - except for a strong musky smell of Kris' sweaty body that put him in trance. It happened so fast though.

"Sit." Kris said, which automatically obeyed by Tao. Tao finally released his breath that he held, and took his time to calm down, before he started to look at Kris again, waiting for explanation.

"We've discussed that we are most probably under threats right? So seeing Chen had developed new power, I thought of doing something similar to help us shield the mansion. At least keep us safe. What do you think?" Kris spoke gently, looking at his machine.

Tao nodded, but then frown. "So how does this going to work?" He said, looking over the model of the house.

Kris looked at Tao, before pulling a chair and sit down. "Since Chen's power is lightning, his body is able to control static and also charges - as in electrical charges. By manipulating these charges, Chen had created the shield that we saw, with the help of the lightning. So, I'll have Chen to inject a little of his power into the machine, and then I'll harness the power of the natural lightning. These will then be process to create new electric charges, so that we will have sustainable shield. The charges will be projected by the machine, which uses the charges to creates a shield, and hopefully to shield us from the threat we are facing now." Kris explained, his hands showed a few parts in the machine while explaining, earning a clap from Tao.

"You are super genius. Amazing as always." Tao said, smiling and continue to inspect the machine in details.

"Hyung, up until when I can use my power? I think I'm strong enough." Tao said, smiling.

"Until I know you can." Kris said, looking at Tao.

"But I know I can." Tao whined.

"I said no. I don't want anything to happen to you. It will be a mess." Kris said, stern expression was building on his face.

Tao shriveled, but he took courage. "Hyung, I can do it. You just have to give me the chance." Tao begged, looking at Kris earnestly.

"No. I don't want my little brother to be in danger." Kris replied, regretted immediately when Tao's expression turned dark.

"Li- Little brother? Is that who I am to you?" Tao looked at Kris, his eyes started to gleam.

Kris was shocked. He did not know what to say. Tao can feel something constricting his chest, making him hard to breath. He stood up, looking at Kris, alomst bursting into tears.

"Then I guess I know where I'll stand." Tao mumbled, before he turned around and ran out towards his room, tears silently streaked down his cheeks.

Kris was dumbfounded. He slapped his face many times, regretting his words. He was too worried about Tao's safety. About Tao cannot hold on and Tao being in danger. About him breaking down when Tao is not with him anymore.

A/N: Some TaoRis moment for you guys~ Anyway, thanks for subscribing, voting and commenting <3

Special shoutout to:

Subs: khaeraa, xuan947 and Thekpoplover4ever.

You guys are loved forever~~~~