Tine exhaled and sprung up from his seat, diving for his phone between the pillows on the grey couch. He would not sit there and sulk like some lovesick loser without even trying to sort this shit out. Sarawat should fess up. He unlocked the phone and opened the Line chat with Sarawat.
Tine:
Where are u I'm coming over
***
As soon as the door opened Tine was hauled into the apartment by the collar of his red and black-checkered shirt and into a heated kiss with his boyfriend. Their lips mushed together forcefully and Sarawat slipped a hot, roaming tongue inside Tine's stunned mouth. Tine instinctively braced his hands on Sarawat's lean hips, his long fingers clutching at the other man. Spit was making the corner of Tine's mouth wet as their tongues interwove passionately. Sarawat sucked on his tongue, making Tine's blood strum inside his veins.
Feeling the first licks of arousal tingle down his nape, Tine moaned against Sarawat's mouth and his boyfriend dropped one hand from his shirt, placing it instead around his lower back and pulling Tine closer. Their bodies collided forcefully, Sarawat's sturdy thigh slotting between Tine's long legs and their chests bumped flush against one another. Sarawat rubbed his thigh against Tine's crotch agonizingly.
The oxygen was however running out quickly and Tine tore his mouth away but Sarawat kept leaning forward, petulantly chasing after Tine's puffy lips. He smooched Tine noisy on the moist lips and then draped himself over the other man in a hug, breathing humidly against the side of Tine's face. All happy, very much like a cat that got the cream.
"I make a public confession and you come instantly running into my arms," Sarawat rumbled against Tine's temple, his breath scorching Tine's skin. "Maybe I should've done that sooner. Hm?"
Tine exhaled, his chest heaving as he tried to regain his composure, his dark eyelashes fluttering. He had to regain his straight train of thought before he was lost to the desire burning within him.
Tine softly pushed his boyfriend away, keeping a pale hand at the collar of his sweatshirt to at least maintain some sort of connection between them. Sarawat stared at him through the parted, dark fringe that was framing his face, eyes bottomless and lips parted. A pink tongue darted out to swipe at his bow shaped upper lip. Tine's eyes tracked the tiny movement.
"Sooner? What, like during high school?" Tine whispered harshly, his gaze still on those lips. Sarawat's eyes instantly widened and he jerked slightly, Tine's grip on his clothes choking him a little bit. He opened his wide mouth but had no clever retort to Tine's smug question. He clamped his lips shut then, raising his chin up defiantly all the while glowering at his boyfriend. Tine steadily met his gaze. "Can you elaborate on that?" He bossed, trying to keep up a front even though he was starting to feel a little anxious.
Sarawat raised a hand, clasping it around Tine's loose grip and pulled it from his sweatshirt to bring it to his lips instead, mouthing at Tine's smooth, warm palm. Feeling a little overwhelmed, Tine ripped his hand out of the musician's grasp and stomped over to the fancy kitchen. He needed something to cool him down right now. Sarawat was testing his patience, both in the good and the bad way. Many important things had been left unsaid this way before, left in the dust because of the insane pull that they felt for each other.
"Tine," Sarawat beckoned as he sauntered after his boyfriend, a hand in the pocket of his jeans. Observing his childish antics.
"No," Tine said as he harshly set a glass of water on the marble kitchen counter, the clunk resonating through the big room. He gave Sarawat a patronizing look. "You need to tell me the truth. I'm tired of this," he raised his voice a notch and waved a hand, motioning to the space between them. "You have always been keeping stupid secrets. First Green being boyfriends with Dim, making a fool out of me at uni, and now this thing with having a high school crush or whatever."
Sarawat combed a hand through his hair, swiping it backwards and then letting it slowly fall back into how it was previously styled on a middle part. He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing. Tine was impossible.
"Fuck. Is this what you choose to focus on?" He murmured a little taken aback. He did not know that their charade at university had made such an impact on Tine. Why bring this all up today? It made no difference, really, as long as they were together now. "Through all these years you have been fucking blind to my flirting," Sarawat said and raised a tanned hand to tick off the list with his fingers, making Tine's round eyes grow big. "You don't listen to my songs dedicated to you and don't even watch my public confession for you. Am I really the one with secrets?"
How the hell would Tine understand anything if he refused to see all the obvious signs? Tine would not have all these foolish questions if he had actually sat his ass down and watched that fucking embarrassing press release. It was not like Sarawat was totally fine doing that kind of thing. Deep inside and out of the limelight he was still a shy human being. It had taken him this long to finally ask his crush to be his boyfriend, of course Sarawat would be reluctant to share his feelings with Tine the instant their worlds accidentally collided back in high school.
Tine stilled on the other side of the kitchen. Sarawat was actually making sense. A burning sensation prickled along his neck and cheeks, his fingers jerking on the water glass in his grasp.
Oh shit. He had fucked this one up, huh. Had he been far too self absorbed going into this?
"I should ask you instead," Sarawat finally retorted, sounding vexed and making Tine hunch in on himself, his proud shoulders rounded. "Why do you like me? Why now?" What has changed for Tine to finally view Sarawat as a possible love interest when that has never been an option before?
Tine gaped at Sarawat, his round mouth trying to form words. He dropped his hand from the glass, letting it thump against his thigh.
"I- I don't know," he whispered and lowered his gaze to stare at the swirls in the gray marble of the kitchen counter, feeling shellshocked. Indeed, why was he throwing himself headfirst into this so rapidly? Maybe he should cool down a little bit and just try to enjoy the moment. Sarawat just stared at his confused, fair skinned boyfriend across the room. What the fuck was there to be so confused about? He either liked, loved, whatever, Sarawat or not. Period.
"Fuck," Sarawat whispered and blinked rapidly, his long eyelashes flickered while he adverted his gaze and inhaled deeply. He had been soaring through bliss mere minutes ago from the claim he made on Tine but the tables had turned quickly, the man was suddenly slipping through his fingers. Again. Why did he love this annoying man so much?
Sarawat sauntered around the counter, stopping in front of his boyfriend. He cupped Tine's sharp jaw, tilting his head to face him. His dark eyes roamed over the pale features. Tine looked miserable, his lower lip wobbling and mouth a little bit square on the hiccup that he was trying to swallow down.
"What should I do with you?" Sarawat asked the air between them. He could not stand seeing Tine looking miserable and would probably do anything to make him cheerful again. "I saw you at a Scrubb concert in high school and haven't been able to get you off my mind since. There, happy?" He asked, eyebrows arched. His hands were still cradling the other man's small face.
"How did you find me at uni?" Tine mumbled, trying to avoid Sarawat' stare. He needed to get his panicky thoughts sorted. There was chaos inside his head, all emotions were running amok inside the Headquarters.
So Sarawat had liked him since then? What the hell have they been doing during all these years?
"I didn't," Sarawat replied simply, bring Tine back to the present. "You found me, demanding to be my boyfriend." A lush smirk pulled at Sarawat's lips as he saw Tine flush, two pink spots blossoming on his chiseled cheeks. Right. Tine was the one to pester Sarawat with his silly preposition, an idea put inside his head by his stupid friends.
Sarawat tilted Tine's head to the side to get better access to his sweet lips when squeaky, sneaker clad, footsteps interrupted their tranquility. The couple reluctantly turned their heads around in the direction of the front hall visible from the kitchen. Tine was more startled than Sarawat, who was just annoyed, as always.
"Um, guys," Phukong said, while tugging a jacket over his shoulders by the front door. "If you're gonna fuck let me at least get out of here first." He threw a condescending, sharp look their way, pausing there for dramatic effect to let the awkwardness sink in and then hurried out the door, slamming it shut. Sarawat just blinked at his disappearing back.
Not wasting any time, Tine gripped Sarawat's collar, stretching it mercilessly and dragged him back into a kiss. He was certainly running hot and cold, liking Sarawat but not knowing why, keeping him at bay and then reeling him in.
Well, at least some of the drama had been resolved and they could focus on other, um, more stimulating activities.
***
The days following the announcement were crazy. Sarawat could no longer go anywhere without a shrieking crowd surrounding him, hands trying to touch him one way or the other, sometimes even ripping his clothes in their eagerness to obtain his attention. The agency, satisfied with the spike in musician's popularity, had even assigned extra staff to shield and walk Sarawat through the masses when getting in and out of the touring van, venturing for scheduled activities on variety shows and radios. It was strange that he was gaining a more widespread popularity for just being himself, simply by loving Tine.
Sneaking out had also become harder. The fans seemed to be everywhere. Sarawat was amazed at their meticulousness but also very uneasy about the amounts of attention they were receiving. Honestly Sarawat could hardly care about himself in this situation, it was not unfamiliar even if it was over exaggerated. He was however worried that Tine would get too much exposure, with this still being a brand new, shaky relationship. And a gay one to boot. Shit. Would Tine get cold feet and call it quits?
Sarawat sighed and leaned backwards in the squeaky desk chair, his long legs sprawled and swirling slowly from side to side in the dimly lit recording studio in front of a workstation table, packed with multiple screens and a big audio interface. The red and white dots of light were blinking on the buttons of the interface. He had been locked up in the recording room for the last couple of days. Boss had especially pushed Sarawat to work on the new album, instead of moping around the apartment, waiting for the worst of the storm to blow over.
Unfortunately it seemed that going public did not make it easier for the newly formed couple to see each other, on the contrary his time spent with Tine had been severely cut short. Sarawat wanted to shield Tine as much as possible from all the craziness going on around him right now, so keeping distance felt not completely unreasonable even if it was a downer. However it had been a little too quiet on Tine's end. He hoped that Tine was just busy and not actually avoiding him. It was far too easy to ruffle his feathers.
Shit, Sarawat missed Tine. It must have been at least one week since he had last seen him in person and as long since he had kissed those plush lips, maybe even longer since he had a chance to pawn at that well defined chest. A jolt of want shot through his body, his legs jerking.
Sarawat picked up his phone from the table swiftly, checking the time. It was pretty late into the night. He licked his upper lip, considering his options. Not wasting much time he pushed up to his boot clad feet, grabbing his leather jacket and haphazardly tugging on a beanie, before he rushed out of the room and out into the night.
***
What the fuck.
Tine stared at his front door, his grip slacking on the white plastic bag from the convenience store down the block.
The door had been sprayed with the word "LiAr" in bold, red letters. Tine so did not need this when coming exhausted late from work. His manager had managed to rope him into helping with an IPO on the side of his main projects, which had been absorbing tremendous amount of time. He barely talked to any of his friends, just coming home and crashing before a new day was already on his ass.
Tine's hands trembled from repressed anger, looking at the mocking letters. Why could people not mind their own business? It was already more than enough that the group of people in front of his office had stuck around, some days there was no one and some days he had to sneak inside like some kind of criminal just to get to work.
Tine rubbed at his eyes with one pale hand, while placing the other one on his lean hip, the plastic bag rustling, staring forlornly at the disaster in front of him. Well it seemed that he would not get much sleep tonight.
***
There was incessant knocking on his door, making Tine freeze instantly in his tracks, a sore hand raised to towel at his damp hair, fresh out of a shower. It was way after midnight and he had been depressingly scrubbing his door clean of the spray paint for the last couple of hours. His heart thumped in his chest, large eyes evenly focused on the door.
Who could it be? The stalker?
"Shit," he heard a familiar voice splutter on the other side out in the hall and then his phone lit up with an incoming call. Tine's shoulders slumped with relief. Shit. That had been unnerving. Smiling wryly he picked up the device, simply looking at the name presented on the screen and then letting the call go to voice mail. He heard his boyfriend swear again. Cute.
He moved over to the door, ripping it open and scaring Sarawat, who jerked ungracefully.
"Shit, Tine," Sarawat exclaimed, bracing a hand against his chest. "What the hell, pick up your phone."
"Are you gonna lecture me or come inside instead?" Tine rebutted and shuffled to the side, wearing a pair of yellow house slippers, to the let the other one in. "Isn't it a little late for a visit?"
"It's never late when it's you," Sarawat said as his hooded eyes traced hotly over Tine's body, making his boyfriend squirm. His eyes locked then in on Tine's flickering fingers. "Why're your hands red?"
Note:
I guess it has become a thing to add outfits into the story, here goes Tine's shirt inspo at the begging of the chapter:
Bonus, Sarawat's hair parted in the middle: