The Letter

Captured

—Three years prior; 13 days after Tao's departure—

Outside was hell. There was a tree near Tao's window that had a branch constantly hitting and tapping at the glass. Personally, Tao didn't mind. He thought that the sound of the rain pelting the roof and the sound of the tree whacking its branch on the glass was all soothing.

There was nothing in his room, but the sound of the weather and his own breathing. It was a soothing environment, especially with the scent of rain lingering in the air. Lying on his bed, the entire world seemed to have faded in the background as it was drowned out by the raging hell storm outside.

Taking his ipod from the bedside table, Tao stuck the earphones in his ears and clicked play to the current song on pause. He balanced the sound so he heard a perfect harmony of music and rain, then hummed along as he closed his eyes.

The storm outside didn't lighten up as the time went by. In fact, it got even worse. Tao had drifted off into sleep, but was abruptly woken up by grandmother, who shook him awake.

Tao groaned after being woken up, but nonetheless, he got up without being pushed by his elderly grandma.

"Tao, there was a stranger at the door..." she calmly said.

Rubbing his eyes, Tao glanced to his window where the rain was beating against the glass. "At the door... You mean outside? Out there?" he asked wearily.

His grandma nodded. "He didn't say exactly what he was here for, because he was wet from head to toe... He was freezing—teeth chattering—so I just let him inside the house," she explained. "He's about your height and size so I'm going to have to ask you to spare some of your clothing, alright?"

Tao blinked, but then he nodded. "Okay..."

"Bring them to the kitchen. I made him drink some hot tea to warm up."

"Alright," Tao said slowly scooting off his bed and putting his ipod on top of it. "I'll be there in a minute."

After that, his grandma smiled at him before leaving his room. Tao's eyes glanced over to his closet before scuffling over to it. He didn't know exactly what to get so he got the loosest shirt that he could find and a pair of basketball shorts.

With clothes in hand, Tao exited his room and went off to the kitchen. Walking down the hallway, Tao was thinking about what kind of jarred idiot would be outside in the weather that was relentlessly pounding down. It didn't take so much as a glance to who was sitting in his grandparents' kitchen that Tao saw that it was Kris who was the idiot out in the fucking rain.

Tao froze, not believing his eyes. When he saw his grandmother giving him a questioning look, he mechanically moved over to the table, fully aware that Kris was watching his every move. Tao placed the clothes on the table quickly and brashly, not bothering to cover up the fact that he was not happy by any means by Kris' presence.

Once the clothes were off his hands—which Tao made a mental note to burn once Kris was done using them—Tao turned on his heels.

Kris opened his mouth to say something, but Tao's grandma beat him to it. "Tao, properly greet him."

With his back turned to them, Tao put up an annoyed face, but got rid of it before he turned and nodded his head at Kris. "Hello," he said tonelessly.

"Hi..." Kris mumbled back.

There was a stand still before Tao glanced off. "Well, I guess I'll go back to my room..." With no further interruption, Tao left the kitchen, heading back to his room to try and pretend like he didn't see Wu in the same house as him.