Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“You’ll let me go? Really?” Sky asked excitedly. He never thought his dad would allow him to go to Bangkok.“Yes, I’m letting you go. But promise me you won’t slack off when you’re on your own. And remember that you can always call me if there’s a problem, Sky.” His dad answered seriously.

Sky smiled happily and quickly hugged his dad. With an “of course”, he ran to his room and began to pack up his stuff. While doing so, he thought about what it’d be like in Bangkok and drifted away into daydreams.

***

It has been a year since Sky went to Bangkok and he already found a few friends with whom he hung out time and time again. Sometimes they hung around school, sometimes they were drinking in a bar and sometimes they smoked together. It hasn’t been long since one of Sky’s friends told him that smoking releases Stress and convinced him that he should try it out.

Even though Sky didn’t really want to, he also wanted to fit in, so in the end he tried it. Since then he’s had one or two cigarettes more but it luckily hasn’t become an addiction yet.

***

On one of those days, where they were drinking in their favourite bar again, a guy came in and quickly catched Sky’s attention. He sat down on a stool at the bar counter behind them and glanced over to the boy group a few times. After a while he came over.

“Do you mind if I sit with you guys?” he asked.

“Nah, go ahead.”, Sky’s friends said and they began to talk about all kinds of stuff. His name was Gun and it didn’t take long until he secretely touched Sky’s leg under the table. Sky got goosebumps from the light touch but he wasn’t against it. Instead, he even kind of liked it and it was that exact night they slept together for the first time.

“I love you, P’Gun.”, Sky said afterwards and hugged Gun from behind. He smiled brightly and closed his eyes, not seeing the disinterested expression on Gun’s face upon hearing those words.

***

But the feeling didn’t last long. The first few weeks, Sky was the happiest he’s ever been, but after a while, Gun changed his friendly way bit by bit. He started to hit Sky when he didn’t do what Gun wanted, choked and hurt him in other ways while having Sex and even went as far as to burn Sky’s arm with his cigarettes.

Sky tried to cover up the bruises and burn marks as best as possible but when he was drinking with his friends they still noticed some of them.

“What is that mark you have on your arm, Sky?” one of them, Mack, asked, a slight concern in his voice.

Sky quickly pulled up his sleeve, “Nothing, don’t worry.”

However, his friends may not be the smartest, but they were definitely not blind. Mack took Sky’s arm and pulled the sleeve upwards again. He stopped in his movement when he saw the burn marks and knew those were from cigarettes. He’d smoked enough to differenciate between cigarette burns and other burn marks, that’s for sure.

“What is this? Sky, why do you have cigarette burns on your arm? Did P’Gun do this to you?” Mack asked

“I knew that guy was bad!” another one of his friends said.

“No, it wasn’t P’Gun. I… did it to myself…” Sky said and pulled his arm away again, “don’t bother thinking about it.”

***

P’Gun didn’t stop though, even after Sky asked him if he could not burn him or leave bruises. Sky’s friends told him time and time again, that he should end it with P’Gun and leave but Sky always told them the same thing: It was his own fault and it had nothing to do with Gun. And that wasn’t even a complete lie. Sky really thought that it was his fault, that Gun did all of these things. He deserved to be treated that way. Nevertheless it still hurt.

“P’Gun, could we not to this, please? Can we have normal sex for once?” Sky pleaded but quickly regretted his request. Gun pulled him by his hair, so Sky had to look into his eyes. He was delighted by the terrified look in Sky’s eyes.

“This is normal for me.”, Gun said and threw Sky onto the bed “I thought you loved me?”, he stripped Sky naked and held him by his throat. “I thought you said ‘I love you, P’Gun’?”, Sky watched as Gun lit another cigarette and held it dangerously close to his face. He tried to turn his face away but Gun held him thightly by the throat. Terrified, he could do nothing but watch, and especially feel, as the cigarette burned another mark onto his chest.

Sky sobbed and the next thing he knew was the pain from his lower body, as Gun entered without preperation nor lube.

***

“P’Gun, what is happening?” Sky asked, confused as he watched Gun’s friends enter the room. “Why are your friends here?” He barely finished his sentence when Gun’s friends pushed him onto the bed and held his arms and feet.

“No! Let me go!” Sky screamed and struggled with all his might.

He heard Gun’s voice from the side: “This is a present for you, do you like it?”, and as he turned to look at Gun he saw a wicked smile on his face. Chills ran down Sky’s spine and he struggled even more.

“P’Gun, why are you doing this? Don’t you love me?” Sky could feel his eyes tearing up. “You love me, right?”, he was more pleading than asking, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain searing through his cheek. His sight went blank for a moment and he realised Petch had slapped him.

“We’re gonna have some fun tonight, Sky~.” He said and began to pull off Sky’s shirt.

“No, no, no! Let me go! Please! It hurts! P’Gun, please help me… please.” Sky’s voice broke and he could feel the burning sensation in his throat, while he was trying to hold back sobs. “You still love me, right? You wouldn’t want them to-“

“Boring”, Gun interrupted him. “I’m bored”, he bended forward to look straight into Sky’s eyes. “You’re boring.”, he said and Sky stopped struggling for a moment out of shock. Petch laughed and used the moment to fully undress Sky and tie him to the bed.

A tear fell silently from Sky’s eye and rolled down his cheek as his mind decided it would be for the best to just disconnect with reality. It was as if Sky was standing next to his body, watching, while Petch and his friends used his body to their own enjoyment. They left bruises, hickeys and bitemarks everywhere and Sky felt extremely dirty, worthless and broken. Petch entered carelessy and Sky could only scream and sob, pulling on the ropes that held his arms tightly in place. Slowly, his sight went blurry and he shut himself into his mind, fully hiding from the reality.
Everything around him was dark and he lost all strength in his legs. He broke down, crying and curled up into a ball. Sky could still hear the voices outside of his mind.

“What an obedient boy”

“Gun trained him well”

“He’s still so tight, fuck”

“You’re secretly enjoying this, aren’t you Sky~?”

“He definitely is, look at him not even struggling anymore, haha”

They echoed through his mind and he wanted to see nothing anymore, feel nothing anymore and especially hear nothing anymore. Sky hid his face behind his arms and legs as he cried and sobbed loudly. That was until someone touched him carefully and lightly, as to not surprise Sky too much. Sky still jumped at the touch because he thought inside of his mind he could be alone at least.

The one who touched him was kneeling down next to Sky. It was as if he’d brought some light into Sky’s mind because the darkness slowly crept away. He had similar facial features as Sky but still looked completely different from him somehow. He looked into Sky’s red eyes. They were already puffy from all the crying and tears were all over his face. The person tried to lay his hand on Sky’s shoulder again but Sky flinched hard at the movement. He quickly took his hand back again.

“It’s okay, Sky. You’ll be safe in here.” He said and really, the voices began to become silent. “No need to be so tense anymore. I will protect you.” Somehow, Sky wanted to trust this person. His mind told him he was reliable and that he won’t hurt him. Maybe it were his kind and soft eyes, that looked at Sky as though he’d do anything to protect Sky. Or it was his smile that looked like sunrays on freshly fallen snow. Sunrays, that will break the thickest darkness just like he did with the darkness in Sky’s mind. Sky felt safe and relaxed a bit. With his body relaxing a little, he couldn’t help a sob coming deep from within him.

The eyes of the person looked sad upon hearing that sob and slowly opened his arms to signalise a hug. Sky’s eyes widened a bit but he still accepted the gesture and leaned forward into these arms, that looked so safe. The hug felt strong, strong enough to be able to keep everything bad away from Sky and he cried again, this time into the arms of that person.

“You’ll be safe. I’ll make sure of it. You won’t have to experience any kind of harm again. That’s what I’ll be here for. I will experience all the bad things for you and keep you away from them, so you can live your life happily.”, He said, firmly securing Sky in his arms. “Just like the Clouds cry for the Sky and keep it hidden from bad people’s gazes, I will protect you. You can call me Cloud.” Cloud said and Sky just nodded. His expression changed into a gaze of anger, as he said “Let me take the lead for now and I’ll get you out of there.”

Cloud released Sky from the hug and before Sky could say anything, he was alone again.

By the time Cloud took over Petch and his friends were already done and Sky’s body felt heavy on Cloud. Everything was sticky and he was hurting all over. They were as nice as to release his tied-up hands before they’ve left. Cloud took his hands down and felt the sharp pain in his shoulders from being in an overstretched position for such a long time. He felt his wrists and hissed at the pain. They were torn open from the rope, that has been rubbing over his skin for such a long time, and bleeding slightly.

After a while he was able to get up from the bed and dragged his bruised and pained body into the bathroom. Cloud looked into the mirror and his eyes widened at the sight. It was far worse than he thought. Besides from his body being a sticky mess, his hair didn’t look better at all. There was a handprint on his throat, which would surely become a bruise in no time, and his throat hurt in general.

‘Probably from his screams’ Cloud thought.

Cloud also saw the hickeys and bitemarks all over his body and wanted to beat those bastards to a pulp. He quickly washed up, wanting to leave as quickly as possibly. Cloud tried to cover up all the bruises and marks and quickly went home.

***

When he arrived home, Sky’s father was shocked to see his son like this. Even though Cloud covered up all the bruises, his eyes still looked empty and his hair was still a bit of a mess. And after all, Cloud still half-dragged Sky’s body home, rather than being able to walk normally.

“Sky, what- happened?” his father asked, clearly worried about the state his son was in.

“I’m fine”, Cloud said hoarsly and quickly made his way into Sky’s room, ignoring Sky’s father, who tried to talk to him.

He wanted to get Sky away from everyone as soon as possible before he could let him take over again. In his room, he sat onto the bed and began to try and get Sky to come back up again. When he got back into their mind, he saw Sky, still sitting there crying and curled up. He slowly took him into his arms again.

“It’s fine now. They’re gone and you’re in a safe place. I brought you home. Unfortunately your father saw you. You should get out of here now, this is not the place for you to be in permanently. Will you try?”

Sky slowly calmed down. It was nice to have someone take care of you again after being alone for a while. Even if that someone is just part of your mind, he wouldn’t have known what to do if Cloud didn’t appear.

“Are- are they really gone? I don’t want to ever see them again.” Sky sobbed one last time before letting go of the embrace.

“Yes, Sky, they’re gone. And if they ever come back, I won’t let them come near you, I promise. Don’t let one incident destroy your whole life. Try to love yourself and be able to live your life again.”

Sky slowly nodded after hearing Cloud’s words and decided that he’s right. He should try to, even if it may be hard.

When Sky came back to Reality he felt the pain all over his body. He tried to stand up, but his legs gave out and he crashed onto the floor.

“Sky? Are you really okay?” he heard his father call from outside his room.

“Yes, I just tripped over my feet. Don’t worry dad, I’m really fine.” Sky said and was a bit shocked by his hoarse voice. He stood up and slowly made his way into the bathroom to get some ointment for his bruises. He knew it would take a while to be back to his old self or be as near to it as possible. However he knew that Cloud would be by his side and he still also had his dad. And even though his dad may never find out the truth about this day, Sky knew that he will be by side too, no matter what, even if he didn’t know what happened.

Chapter Text

It has been a few years since that incident and Sky was able to live relatively normal again. He sometimes talked to Cloud, but since then, Cloud hasn’t been needed again yet. Especially after Rain came into Sky’s life. Cloud was very suspicious about him at first but with his bubbly, optimistic and sometimes also funnily oblivious and dumb side, he started to tolerate him, though he still doesn’t trust him fully. But knowing Cloud, Sky knows that he probably never really will.

Rain has also brought back the smile on Sky’s face and the two of them became best friends. Rain knew a lot about Sky, also that Sky had an Ex, but Sky neither told Rain about that incident that brought him to break up with Gun for good, nor about Cloud. How could he ever explain Rain how he got a split personality, when he had no intention of ever telling Rain about the incident?

Sky would do anything for Rain. Even if Cloud doesn’t fully trust him, Sky trusts him with his life. That’s also why he reached out to Gun again after Rain asked him to find out where some secret race takes place. Sky knew that Gun knows about all kinds of races so he should know. And against all odds, Gun even told him the things he wanted to know, so on the day of the secret race, Sky and Rain sneaked in.

“There you go, you’ve seen it, so now can we please leave? It wouldn’t be good if we were to be seen, Rain”, said Sky, who anxiously looked around for any guards.

“Just a second. I need to see if he’s here!” Rain sneaked behind a container and peaked around the corner. “I can’t see anything from here. Sky, I’m going to take a look around inside for a minute, okay?”

“Rain, wait, you can’t just go inside!” but Rain has already left Sky alone and went inside. Going through all kinds of scenarios inside his head, Sky was torn apart about what to do. Of course he didn’t want anything to happen to Rain, but he couldn’t just sneak inside too.

“These people aren’t assholes like him, right? Ahhh, what should I do?” Sky was at a loss when he heard a voice.

“Just leave him be, he brought this on himself. You can’t go into the tigers lair just for him.” It was Cloud.

“But Rain is my friend, how could I let him down?”

“Doesn’t matter, just save yourself first. What if you get caught?”

Sky thought about it a while longer and made a decision.

“What the fuck are you doing, Sky?! You’re gonna get caught!” Cloud was angry at his decision to follow Rain inside. How could he even think about letting his best friend down, just to safe himself?

***

When he found Rain it was already too late. Sky could only watch as Rain got taken away by Phayu. However at the side there was another person, smiling directly at him. Sky saw him with Phayu and knew this was a bad sign.

“See, I told you this was a bad idea.”, came the comment from Cloud and Sky noticed that two guards were staring in his direction, giving orders to each other.

“Sky, get away there now.” Said Cloud and just like that, Sky tried to move away from the guards as inconspicuously as possible. As if he were just another person allowed to be there. But, of course, the guards were not dumb. They made their way through the mass of people and Sky tried to speed up. Suddenly he got grabbed by someone and he quickly tried to pull his arm away from the grip. But when he turned around his eyes met with the same person, who was smiling at him earlier.

That person pulled Sky to him and laid his arms around his shoulder.

“He’s my boy.”, were the only words needed, to make the guards leave Sky alone again. But just as Sky was about to calm down again, he got taken away by that person. Cloud was getting nervous but Sky tried to keep him calm whilst saying that it’ll be okay and that this person probably just wanted to help him. There was no way Cloud believed him but he layed low for now, however still ready to jump into action at any time.

Sky got dragged behind another container and he couldn’t quite read the expression of the other person.

“Do you realise what you did there? It’s bad to sneak in, you know?”, was the first thing he said as he cornered Sky. “Are you a friend of that boy?”, he waited for a moment but Sky had no intentions to tell him anything. “It’s okay if you don’t want to answer. But mind that outsiders aren’t allowed to enter the venue. So you’re not allowed to leave, now that you’ve sneaked in.”

“What do you even want?” Sky was getting rather annoyed by that person and he gave an apology to Cloud in his mind.

“Well, that would depend on what you can offer me, but if I had to choose…” The person closed the distance between them and tried to touch Sky’s cheek, but he got stopped by an annoyed Sky.

Sky looked into his smug eyes and rolled his own.

“Do you know now what to do to get out?” He said with a grin on his lips and looked back to the race venue. “If I were you, I wouldn’t wait too long to answer. The next race is about to start and then I’d have to hand you over to the guards for trespassing. I wouldn’t really want that, to say so myself, but you won’t leave me another option, do you?” The pressure made Sky and Cloud’s patience snap and Cloud finally took over.

“Just take what you want!”

With that the person closed their distance and started to kiss Sky, with Cloud in control. Cloud hit the container with his back and let the other person do what he wanted. When he sensed his tongue, licking over his lips, he opened his mouth to give him access. The other person deepened the rough kiss. He explored Cloud’s mouth thoroughly before pulling away and taking him with him.

***

When they arrived at the condo, the person instantly pinned Cloud against the wall and closed the distance again. He pried open his mouth and let their tongues explore each other. “Prapai”, the other person said, while they were breaking the kiss to catch some of their breath. Cloud looked at him in confusion. “My name, if you need something to call out.”, Pai smirked and pulled Cloud into another heated kiss.

At the same time he begann to undress Cloud and threw his clothes onto the floor. Without breaking the kiss he guided Cloud to the sofa. Finally breaking the kiss, Pai made Cloud kneel and took off his clothes too.

“You know what to do, right?” he asked and Cloud nodded.

He kissed downwards, starting from the other’s abs, but still avoiding the sensitive zone. This teasing movement made the other pant and Cloud felt satisfied. If he has to do this, he can at least make it enjoyable for him too.

Deciding that it was enough teasing, Cloud lightly touched the Pai’s dick, making his breath hitch. He started to slowly kiss down from the tip to the bottom and licked upwards again. Pai moaned when he put it fully into his mouth. He slowly started to bop his head making the other pant even harder.

After a while Prapai couldn’t hold it any longer and began to thrust inside too, making Cloud choke a little. He quickly pulled out and dragged Cloud into another room with a large king-sized bed, throwing him onto it. The collision with the matress made Cloud elicit a small moan. The other person began to kiss him roughly again, which made Cloud hard.

“You like it rough?” he asked, laughing a little at Cloud’s reaction.

“Just shut up and get it over with.” Was the last thing Cloud said breathlessly, before being turned around. He felt a finger being pushed inside and sighed as the other person started to loosen him up. He quickly added a second finger and it didn’t take long for him to find Cloud’s sweet spot. Cloud moaned as he began to message that exact spot time and time again.

After a while he pulled out and bend over to the small bedside table, quickly pulling out a condom and lube, before entering slowly. Cloud moaned again and felt the tension building up in his lower abdomen. However he was too proud to come just from being entered, so he tried to hold it back as best as possible. Prapai didn’t stop pounding into his sweet spot over and over again though, so Cloud couldn’t hold it in much longer and with a long sigh, his vision went blank and he came.

Soon after he also felt Prapai come. He pulled out and both of them collapsed onto the bed. Cloud was grateful that it was finally over, when the other person lay on his side, peaking over to look Cloud in the eyes.

“The night has just begun.” He said, grinning.

Cloud was annoyed, but still he said: “bring it on.”

He got turned on his back, being pinned down onto the bed and kissed roughly again.

***

Sky has taken over again. He was putting on his clothes when he heard a voice from behind.

“Leaving already?”

“I don’t have to stay”

“So cold. What about your number, will you give it to me?” He asked but Sky just ignored him, took his stuff, though he didn’t have much with him, and went to the door.

“Guess not, will you at least tell me your name then?”

But Sky had already left the room.

Outside of the building, Sky finally stopped for a moment and turned around.

“They’re all assholes. You’re also an asshole.”

“I’m sorry.” Cloud suddenly said.

“Why would you be?”, Sky asked confused, “It wasn’t your fault anyways. If someone has to apologize it would be me because I didn’t listen to you.”

“You just wanted to help your friend. I should’ve gotten you away from there completely, that’s what I’m here for after all. But all I did was lead you right into the room of that asshole.”

Sky couldn’t even be angry at Cloud, he brought it on himself.

“Just don’t think too much about it. Did he say anything to you?”, Sky asked, as he shut himself away from reality as soon as Cloud took the lead. He didn’t want to know anything about what happened, but he still was a little curious.

“Nothing important.” Cloud answered, not even wanting to tell Sky his name. He didn’t need to think about this ever again, so what use would it have to know the others name?

“Alright.”, Sky said and with that, he went to his dorm.

Chapter Text

It has been a while since Sky met that person at the secret race venue. He thought about it once in a while but everytime he did, it just annoyed him. In his summer break he has gone home to help his dad a little, however he also hoped that he’d be able to clear his head a little. Sky’s father was really happy that he could see his son smile again. He was really worried that day but Sky was able to go back to his old self again. They sat down together to have some breakfast when an unknown number called Sky.

Sky looked at his phone for a moment and decided it would be for the best not to answer as he didn’t recognize the number. He just continued to eat.

“Aren’t you going to answer that?” his dad asked him.

“Nah, I don’t recognize the number. It’s probably some scam call.” Sky said unbothered.

“By the way, when are you going back to your dorm, Sky?”

“The day after tomorrow.” Sky has been at home for a week but his summer break was almost over, so he had to go back again. But he didn’t mind much, though. In college he could see his friends again. He missed Rain somwhat even if he didn’t miss his complains about Phayu. The two of them were a couple now, which was predictable if you would’ve watched them. Even an outsider would’ve seen that.

“That’s good. Pay good attention to class but don’t push yourself too hard, alright?” Sky’s father said and before Sky could answer his phone rang a second time. It was the same number again. Sky just smiled and turned his phone over.

Once they were done eating, Sky went up to his room and laid down on his bed. His thoughts trailed back to the night after he sneaked into the venue.

“Shitty things always happen to me.” He thought to himself and took his phone to listen to his favourite podcast ‘Chitchat of the day’. Coincidentally the topic of the day was ‘how to forget someone’. It was so bizarre that Sky had to laugh.

***

Sky was back in his dorm and wanted to get something to eat when his phone rang. He thought it would be Rain who wanted to complain about Phayu again. But as he took out his phone Sky saw an unknown number again.

He recognized it as the number that called two times before already so he answered this time. Maybe it was something important.

“Hello?” he said but there was no answer. Sky tried again, “Hello?”, but there was still no answer.

“The fuck? Why would someone call and just be silent?!” Cloud complained. Sky agreed. He had enough to deal with, he won’t be needing  Scam-callers.

“Look, I don’t know who you are but if you’re just trying to annoy me, I’m hanging up again.” He said after the caller still didn’t answer.

“Still as hot-headed as before, aren’t we? Need some help to cool down?” the caller finally answered. Sky could just roll his eyes at that and said: “No need to cool me down, as I’m a warm-blooded human. And I’d die if I’d get too cold.”

He hung up with an ‘asshole’ and grabbed some instant-noodles. Sky didn’t come far though, as his phone rang again.

“I just wanted to say that you should prepare yourself. Because I’m going to pursue you.”

Sky was confused, “just who the fuck are you?” he asked.

“A wind-god. Brace yourself, because I’m serious.”, and with that the caller hung up. Sky looked at his phone even more confused.

“Wind-god?” He asked himself.

“Who the fuck answers a question of who they are with ‘wind-god’?” Cloud asked angrily.

Sky thought about it some more but he couldn’t connect ‘wind-god’ to anyone. Even Cloud couldn’t think of anyone at the moment. Sky decided not to waste his time and turned his focus to his food again when his phone rang a third time.

“And just so you know, I don’t mind being called an asshole. I’m used to it actually.” The caller said and hung up shortly after.

This was the point where Sky and Cloud both got really angry. Can’t he just leave them alone? Cloud’s patience finally broke when Sky’s phone rang a fourth time and he took over, filled with anger.

“Can you just leave me alone, for god’s sake?!” Cloud said.

“Sorry, are you angry at me?” he heard Rain’s voice from the speaker and quickly calmed down again. He knew why Rain may think that Sky was angry. When Sky went to their club activities Rain promised to come and help too but in the end he was held back because of Phayu and couldn’t make it.

“It won’t happen again, Sky, I promise. Next time I’ll definitely be there to help you, no, I even help you twice as hard as an apology!” Rain quickly said.

“I’m not angry with you, I thought you were someone else. Sorry Rain.” Cloud said and let Sky take over again.

“Someone else? Is there someone who gets on your nerves, Sky? Should I have a talk with them?” Rain asked seriously.

“No need for that, it’s okay Rain. So what’s up, why were you calling me in the first place?” Sky asked. He didn’t have time if Rain just wanted to complain.

“To be honest I just wanted to apologize, nothing else. But since that’s done I’m hanging up again, bye.”, Rain said and Sky hung up too with an “Okay, bye.”

He looked at his instant noodles and put them away again. Sky lost his appetite.

***

Over the day, Sky had gotten a lot of messages from the same unknown number, that has already annoyed him in the morning. He didn’t have any peace from that number, even when he went to the freshmen-welcoming party at the evening. Sky tried to ignore the messages as best as he could and after a while they did become less and less.

When Sky closed up after the party he didn’t expect to see that person again, though. The guy, who saved him from the guards at first but then pressured Sky into sleeping with him afterwards. Sky could only roll his eyes as soon as he saw him and got a big grin in return.

“Oh, P’Pai, what are you doing here?” Rain said from behind. He just joined the two of them.

“Nong Rain, hello. I was near the area and thought I’d take the opportunity to give you the thing Phayu asked me for.” Pai answered.

“Oh, Sky do you still remember him? He was the one to help you get out of the venue. I’ll introduce you again. This is P’Prapai, a good friend of P’Phayu.” Rain smiled brightly.

How could Sky even forget? He tried to but it just wasn’t possible, even if he wasn’t directly part of it due to Cloud’s interference. But that’s when Sky realized and it seemed like Cloud was with him too.

“Wind-god. Prapai…” Cloud said. So it wasn’t enough for him to meddle with Sky once he even had the audacity to annoy him time and time again. He glanced over to Rain, which made the boy clearly uncomfortable as he quickly tried to change the topic.

“Oh right, what do you have for P’Phayu?” he asked Pai.

“It’s really important, so make sure to definitely give it to him.” Pai looked seriously into Rain’s eyes and laid something into his hand.

“Alright, you can count on me P’Pai! Sky, do you want me to drop you off at your dorm on my way back?” Rain asked while eyeing the stack of boxes and posters Sky held in his hands.

“No need Rain, I’m fine. It would just be a detour for you.” Sky answered but before he could leave, Pai quickly said, “I can drive you. It won’t be a detour for me, I have to drive into that direction anyways.”

“How does he even know, where our dorm his?” Cloud said, eyeing Pai suspiciously. But before Sky could ask Pai about it, he got closer to Sky. Cloud got alarmed, however Sky quickly told him to lay low, otherwise Rain and Pai would find out. He can handle this much. Pai got closer to Sky’s ear and whispers,

“Rain doesn’t know about us yet, does he?”

Sky turned to Pai and looked at him in disbelief. Not wanting Rain to know about that too, he agreed reluctantly. Rain was confused at first but after hearing that Sky was fine with it, he smiled brightly and left Sky in Prapai’s care.

***

Both of them entered the dorm when Sky turned around.
“If you just want to play with me you should find someone else for that. I’m not interested in being played with.”

“If I wanted anyone else, I wouldn’t have brought you back.”, Pai stepped closer to Sky, “and if you never try how could you know that you don’t want me?”

Sky rolled his eyes, “It’s precisely because I’ve already tried that I know I don’t want it!”, even if it wasn’t really me who tried it, Sky added in his mind. But he knew, he didn’t have to experience it directly to come to this conclusion.

“And I couldn’t get you hooked at all? Not even a bit?”

“No! And you never will. So if you could just drop that matter and leave me alone now.” Sky tried to push through Pai, who was standing in his way to the staircase. However Pai stopped him.

“Alright I’ll drop it.” Sky was a bit relieved at that and tried to leave again, “that was then, this is now. So, I’ll try again. I’m Prapai, the hot wind-god.” Pai smirked.

Sky was getting really annoyed again. What was with this guy? Everytime he saw him he was already getting mad. Just the thought of this guy made Sky’s blood boil. “Are you done now?”

“Not yet. You haven’t told me anything about you yet. Like your full name or your blood-type or what kinds of movies and food you like?” Pai smiled.

He was getting his hopes up when Sky bend forward to talk into his ear, “I’m telling you in your next life!” and with a last sarcastic grin, he was finally able to push through Prapai and went straight to the staircase. Pai could just shake his head at that and smiled.

“Be prepared. I’m still going to pursue you.”

While Sky was on his way to his dorm-room, Cloud couldn’t keep quiet. He kept complaining about Prapai and if Sky didn’t go away, he almost thought that Cloud would attack Prapai at some point. Sky tried to blend it out as best as possible but after getting into his room he also had enough of Cloud’s complains.

“He’s gone already, could you just shut up for now?” Sky said. He was already annoyed enough as it was, he wouldn’t need someone to complain for hours. Sky already had Rain for that.

And talking about Rain, Sky would have a good talk with him at their college. How else would Prapai manage to get his number if he didn’t go to his best friend’s boyfriend for it? And that boyfriend just happened to be best friends with the boy he wanted to pursue.

“Oh Rain, in what mess did you get me again?” Sky shook his head. His friend just had the talent to get him into trouble but he still couldn’t be mad at him.

“If that boy didn’t help me somewhat with bringing you back, I would’ve already given him a piece of my mind!” Cloud said angrily. Even though Sky could never really be mad at Rain, Cloud definitely could.

“Just lay low, I will handle this. It’s nothing serious if we’re honest. P’Pai is just extremely annoying but he hasn’t really done anything yet.” Sky said before his friend could get into serious trouble with Cloud.

***

“I’m really sorry, Sky! I know I made a mistake!” Rain pleaded while kneeling infront of Sky.

“You know why I’m angry?” Sky said, turning to Rain

“I gave P’Pai your number. But he said he knew you! That’s why I thought it would be okay…” Rain said, half whispering the last sentence.

“Next time ask me before you just give away my phone number.”, Sky said and looked Rain directly in the eyes. Rain was clearly uncomfortable and Sky knew that he sincerely meant his apology, “but I’ll forgive you for now.” He said and turned away. Rain was really happy about it but before he could say anything, Cloud took over and handed him a box.

“However you have to help me with this.” Cloud said, smiling innocently at Rain.

Rain was confused, “What are these?”

“Documents. You have to fill them in and let the Seniors take a look. Afterwards the teachers have to sign them before you can bring them to the student council, got it?”

“But I still have a lot of other assignments to do!”

Cloud smiled in satisfaction, “You think I don’t? Or you don’t want my forgiveness after all, is that it?” he said and let his gaze drift away from Rain.

“No, no! I’ll do it. I’m really sorry. And from now on I’ll never give your number to anyone again. I’ll guard it with my life! Promised!”, Rain said quickly and Cloud turned to his desk again to keep on working on his assignment.

“That’s good.”

“Can I get up now?”, Rain asked.

“No.”

“Just pity your friend a bit, won’t you?”

“No.”

Rain pouted at that but he couldn’t say anything against it. He wanted Sky to forgive him after all.

“Weren’t you a bit harsh with Rain just now?” Sky asked Cloud in their mind after Cloud withdrew again.

“Why? Now you have less to do and he can think about what he has done while helping you. I think it’s a win-win situation. And I tried to act like you would, don’t worry. He didn’t realise a thing.” Cloud assured Sky.

“I even told you to just lay low…” Sky mumbled to himself but tried to forget about it. Nothing happened and Rain didn’t find out, so it should be fine.

Chapter Text

When Sky looked around his room the next morning he realized that there was nearly no food left for him to eat.

“I should go grocery shopping.” He thought to himself and quickly got dressed.

As he left his room and went downwards to the dorm entrance, he saw a familiar figure standing there. Just seeing him was reason enough for Sky to be annoyed. Could he just not live one day without having to encounter P’Pai?

“What do you want?” Sky just stood there and looked him straight in the eyes.

“I’m just here to learn more about you Sky”, Pai leaned a bit closer, “I’ve already met you a few times but I haven’t learned a bit.”

“Do we look like we care?” Cloud said angrily. Everytime he saw P’Pai, he could feel his blood boil. However Sky just stayed silent and looked at Pai.

“For example, the colour of your eyes? I wonder what it is?”, Pai took a step forward to get even closer to Sky.

“Are you blind?”, Sky crossed his arms infront of him, not caring to move even a bit.

“Maybe love makes me blind?”, Pai chuckled, not realizing that Sky got stiff and slowly lowered his arms again.

“Oh no, no, no! Sky, listen to me. Don’t try to think about it!” Cloud got stressed and tried to distract Sky. He knew that words, such as ‘love’, could easily trigger Sky’s trauma, which is why he always tried his best to keep Sky away from them. This time, though, he got caught unprepared.

Cloud could feel how Sky got lost inside his mind, reliving his worst memory.

“I love you Sky.”, Cloud could hear P’Guns voice inside Sky’s mind and struggled to snap Sky out of it.

“Sky listen to my voice. Listen to my voice alone, alright? You’re safe now, there’s no one here to harm you. Let me in, okay?”

Cloud gave it his best to get through to Sky and after a while he succeeded and was able to get into Sky’s mind. There he saw Sky sitting and shaking in fear. Cloud quickly ran to Sky and cursed Pai for being the reason his precious Sky had to relive these things. He took Sky into his arms and calmed him slowly with his words. Sky gradually came back and after a while he was able to lift his arms too, to hug Cloud back. Bot of them sat there for a while in silence before Sky said something again.

“I’m sorry. I snapped out of it again, didn’t I? I’m so sorry for being such a mess, Cloud.”

“Don’t say that! You’re traumatized. It’s natural for you to loose yourself sometimes, but that’s why I’m here, Sky. You can take your time with your healing process, I’ll be here for you the whole time.”

Sky was able to come back into reality after a while, where Pai already called out to him in worry.

“Sky? Sky, are you okay?”

For Prapai, it looked like as if Sky quickly snapped out of it again and he looked at Prapai.

“I would be okay, if someone wouldn’t hinder me to buy my breakfast!” Sky said angrily and tried to push trough Prapai. However Prapai took his arm to hold him back.

“Why not eat with me? I’ll invite you to something delicious.”

Sky didn’t really want to but he knew that Prapai wouldn’t stop bother him until he said yes, so he gave in.

***

After they spent the morning together, Sky wanted to head back to his dorm to get ready for his classes. Prapai followed him for a while, which made Cloud really angry. Halfway to their dorm, Cloud switched with Sky and turned around to face Prapai.

“Look, I’m not looking for a sex buddy, FWB or whatever you want from me. I’m just trying to live my life. Back then I slept with you out of necessity and I won’t do it a second time, so don’t think anything about it! Just leave me alone!”, Cloud stared directly into Prapai’s eyes as if he wanted to challenge him.

“How cold. So you’ll just pounce and bounce?” Prapai stepped closer, wanting to accept the challenge Cloud’s eyes gave him. Cloud could just laugh at that.

“No matter what you’ll do, the answer will remain the same: Leave. Me. Alone!”

“What if I don’t just want a FWB? Or a sex buddy? What would you do if I’m serious about you?” Prapai raised his hands to put them onto Sky’s shoulder but quickly got slapped away.

“A guy like you? Serious about someone? How could that ever happen, don’t fool yourself!” Cloud said angrily. That guy really annoyed the shit out of him.

“So don’t waste your time with me. The answer’s still no.” Cloud didn’t break the eye contact the whole time. Prapai could just smile, watching Sky as he left him behind. He then grabbed his phone to call Phayu.

“Is Rain with you? There’s something I want to know.”

***

Sky was sitting at his desk in school, working on a project when Rain came up to him and took out his earphone.

“Why didn’t you tell me Prapai’s been pursuing you?”, Sky took out his other earphone and turned to Rain.

“Would it make any difference if I told you?”, he said, abandoning his work for a moment.

“Not really. But you don’t like him at all?” Rain asked and Sky could just roll his eyes at that. No he doesn’t like him even one bit and he never will. Prapai has been annoying him since he got Sky’s number, how could he ever like him?

“Or…” Rain started, shifting his weight, “is it that you still can’t get over your ex?”

Sky was speechless. What did Rain connect in his mind to come to such a conclusion? Cloud was getting angry too.

“I mean, you said that you knew from the race because of your ex, so he must know P’Phayu, am I wrong?” Rain smiled, as if he was Sherlock himself with that assumption. Cloud could no longer just listen and angrily took over.

“If you’re still my friend, then never mention that son of a bitch again, you hear me?”, he yelled. Rain looked rather confused. Was he that wrong? He quickly shut his mouth with his hand and nodded. After seeing his reaction, Cloud calmed down a bit and went back into Sky’s mind again.

Sky said nothing and just put his earphones back on. He turned to his work again and continued where he left off, ignoring Rain.

***

When Sky got back to his dorm, he could already see from afar that something hung on his door knob. He got closer and realized it was a plastic bag. Sky opened it and found some food. On top of the food was a note with the words “Don’t skip your meal. Take care -Prapai” on it.

Sky looked at the note and could just close his eyes. Will he ever stop annoying him?

“Sorry, Rain but I’ll never like your boyfriend’s friend. It doesn’t even have to be him. I won’t like anyone ever again.”, Sky opened his eyes again and after taking another look at the note he just shook his head before throwing the bag with its contents into the trash can next to his room.

Afterwards, Sky went inside his dorm room and that night, he started having nightmares of that time again. It started slowly, where Sky could hear the clicking sounds of Gun’s lighter but everything was still dark. Sky’s heart rate went up upon hearing that sound. It was one of the last things he heard before his mind decided to detach itself from reality after all. It has been burnt into his mind along with the feeling of hands roaming around his body.

When the lighter sounds stopped, Sky could start to feel hands all over his body again. He called out for Cloud but there was no answer. Panic started to crep into his body and he started to sob again, as the hands touched the sensitive parts of his body again and again. Sky called out again for someone to help him, anyone, but it was as if his pleads fell onto deaf ears.

With a loud scream, Sky startled awake from his dream.

“Sky! You’re finally awake. Are you okay?” Sky panted audibly and didn’t react to Cloud’s questions at first.

“Sky?” Cloud tried to reach Sky again to calm him down, but Sky didn’t react at all. He just sat on the bed, panting loudly with tears in his eyes.

The wind rattled loudly at the windows and Sky jumped at the sound. It was after that, that Cloud was able to get through to Sky.

“Sky, can you hear me? It’s okay, it was just a dream. Try calming down and just listen to my voice. No one can hurt you anymore, you’re safe with me, okay?” In this moment, Cloud truly wished to not just be a protective personality inside of Sky’s mind, but to be able to hug Sky. He wanted Sky to feel safe, even in the reality. On the other hand, this was the only way Cloud could always be near Sky to protect him from harm.

Sky was somewhat able to calm down. He put his hands to his heart, which was pounding loudly and fast, and took a few deep breaths to fully calm down again.

“You’re safe, Sky. It’s going to be okay.” Cloud said and before Sky could say anything, he heard his phone buzz next to him. When Sky took it to look who texted him, he saw a familiar number.

Prapai.

While Cloud was getting angry again, that Prapai couldn’t even leave him alone at night, Sky was a bit happy to see the message from him. He unconsciously smiled to himself but quickly stopped after realizing, what he was doing. Even though he got happy to see the message, Sky still decided to block his number. He doesn’t need anyone anymore. He had Cloud by his side and that was enough for him. He doesn’t want to fall in love again, as it only brought him pain to love someone.

Cloud, of course, was happy with Sky’s decision to finally block Prapai and said: “that’s the only way to make him leave. Don’t feel guilty about it Sky, you have to care about yourself first.”

Sky didn’t say anything and stood up from the bed. He went to his desk and started to work on one of his assignments. After that dream he knew that he won’t be able to sleep again, so why not use the time to be productive?

***

When Sky left his dorm to go to school the next day, he saw Prapai leaning against his car in front of his dorm. He had some food in his hands and smiled when he saw Sky.

“Sky! Did you eat already? I brought you some food.” He said but his smile faded quickly after Sky stepped out on the street. “Are you okay? You look kind of sick? Do you need to go to the hospital?” he asked, worried about Sky’s condition.

“You just blocked him, didn’t he get the message you tried to convey with that?!” Cloud complained again. Nevertheless, deep inside Sky, he was kind of happy that Prapai didn’t give up directly. But Sky decided to ignore that feeling.

“No need, I just didn’t get enough sleep.” Sky waved it off and left Prapai behind. Prapai watched Sky while he was leaving but didn’t go after him. Instead, he got into his car and went to work as well.

When Sky got into class, Rain and two of his friends were already sitting inside. Sky went inside, feeling a little dizzy but when Rain asked him if he was okay, Sky also waved it off as ‘just not getting enough sleep.’

Rain looked really worried and when Sky took another step, he could feel his body getting heavy. His legs gave out while his vision became blurry and before Sky could realize it, everything went dark.

In his unconscious state, he could still hear some dull voices in the distant.

“Sky!”

“He’s burning! We should get him to a hospital!”

In the darkness, Sky could see a faint light, which always symbolized him that Cloud was near him, protecting him. Sky felt safe and closed his eyes fully.

Chapter Text

Soon after Sky lost consciousness, Cloud took over to try and protect the weakened Sky. However, due to the fever affecting the body and not the personality itself, Cloud was also weakened. His vision was a bit blurry, so he couldn’t quite recognize the person, approaching Sky.

“Stay away!” he screamed, slapping away the hand that wanted to touch him, “Don’t you dare touch him!”

Even though Cloud didn’t know who the person was, there was one thing that he knew: He had to protect Sky, no matter what!

The sudden movement made Cloud dizzy and as fast as he sat up, he fell back down onto the bed. The other person said something that Cloud couldn’t grasp and extended his hand again. Cloud quickly collected himself once more when he saw that and jumped up, away from the hand. Despite being the stronger personality, the fever still affected him and Cloud had to hold onto the headboard so his legs wouldn’t give in.

“I said: Don’t. Touch. Him! If you dare get closer again, I won’t just back away again!” he threatened and slowly, his vision became clearer. He could finally see the other person and recognized him as Sky’s best friend, Rain.

Rain looked extremely confused.

“Sky, why are you talking like that? As if you’re not yourself…” but still, he stepped back in order to not alert Sky even more, “and do you not recognize me? You’ve never been so cautious around me.”

Cloud knew he couldn’t get out of this one with excuses, so he decided to not care about keeping it a secret any longer. He quickly apologized to Sky and focused on Rain again.

“Sky is weakend. I’m here to protect him. Maybe Sky isn’t cautious around you but if he’s in this state, I can’t be cautious enough; even if it’s you, okay?” Cloud said and kept his eyes on every movement from the other person. Rain was even more confused.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Are you saying that you’re not Sky? But then, where is he? And who are you then?”

“I’m Cloud and my only purpose is protecting Sky. He’s resting right now because he’s weakend due to the fever. So don’t you dare do anything to him!” Cloud glared at Rain.

Rain slowly understood what was going on. He read about it once, that people can develop a second personality if they experienced something traumatic. But he never heard of Sky going through anything. Did Sky keep it hidden from him?

Nevertheless, Rain knew that he first needed Cloud to trust him. Otherwise he couldn’t help his friend. Everything else was not important right know and could wait until Sky felt better again.

“Okay, okay. Trust me, I would never harm Sky. I’m his best friend, you know? I only want to help Sky. And I see that the fever affects you too, so if you could please calm down and let me help Sky? Then you can rest too.” Rain said cautiously in order to not anger Cloud even more.

Cloud thought about it for a moment. It’s true that Rain never harmed Sky. The only incident Cloud could think of, was that Rain gave away his number, but Cloud saw in his apology that Rain really didn’t mean it in a bad way. And if Cloud was honest, Rain was also a really big help in getting Sky’s smile back. If it weren’t for him, Cloud didn’t know how long it would’ve taken him to help Sky the same way. Alone for that, he could trust Rain a little.

“Alright, I’ll let you help. But if you ever dare to hurt Sky, don’t say that I didn’t warn you. I still don’t trust you fully! And I hate to admit that I really have to rest, too. I’ll leave Sky in your care then. Protect him at all cost, because I probably have enough to do from the inside. Don’t betray my trust! And one more thing: Sky didn’t want anyone to know about me, so keep it to yourself!” Cloud finally laid down again and withdrew, leaving Rain to care for Sky.

***

After a while, Rain realized that he still had some work to do but he couldn’t just leave Sky like that. Alone the way back to his dorm to get his work was too long. He pondered for a while until Prapai came into his mind.

Rain saw the way Prapai cared for Sky before, so it wouldn’t betray Cloud’s trust if he called him to look after Sky, right? He thought about it some more and decided that it would do no harm. He didn’t have another choice at the moment, so he quickly took out his phone to call Prapai.

It didn’t took long for Prapai to answer his call.

“P’Pai, you have to come over quickly, Sky has a fever.” Rain said as soon as he heard the familiar ‘hello’ from the other side of the line.

“What? Where are you right now?” Prapai jumped out of his chair and ran to his bike.

“I brought him to his dorm room.” Rain hung up to prepare everything Prapai might need before he arrived. It didn’t take long for Prapai to get to Sky’s dorm and he ran up to his room.

When Prapai got there, Rain was already waiting outside the door.

“I forgot that I still have some work to do, so I’m unable to stay with Sky. I trust you enough that you won’t do anything to Sky, okay? So don’t let me regret my choices.” Rain said and wanted to hand over the keys, ‘or else I’ll get some problems with Cloud’ he added in his mind.

Thinking of Cloud, Rain hesitated to let go of the keys and clutched them again in his hand before Prapai could take them.

“I promise, I won’t do anything to Sky. Trust me.” Prapai looked seriously into Rain’s eyes and Rain finally gave him the keys.

“I’ll leave it to you then. Keep him safe, okay? And call me as soon as he wakes up!”, and with that, Rain ran down the hallway and disappeared behind the next corner.

Prapai looked at the keys in his hand and sighed. Just how much does he like Sky to go this far for him? He opened the door and stepped inside Sky’s room.

He went directly to Sky and sat down next to him on the bed. Prapai checked his temperature, which made Sky frown in his sleep. He then began to caress his cheek softly to calm Sky down again.

“If I just wanted sex from you, then why would I be so worried? I’m even surprised myself.” Prapai murmured and slid a bit closer. He noticed that Sky was uncomfortable and wanted to get up to get a bowl with water and a cloth.

However, as soon as Prapai moved his arm away, his movement got stopped by the tight grip from Sky, which held Prapai’s arm back.

“Please don’t leave.” Sky said and opened his eyes a bit. Yet, he closed them again just as quickly.

“I won’t leave. I’m right here. Just let me go first, so I can wipe your body.”, but Sky just held tighter onto his arm. He sometimes winced a bit in his sleep, making it look as though he was dreaming of something.

“No. Don’t go. Don’t leave me.” Sky said in his sleep and Prapai could just smile. He put his arm around Sky and said, “I won’t leave, don’t worry. I’ll stay with you.”, while gently putting his forehead onto Sky’s and beginning to stroke his hair. The hug made Sky calm down again.

“Want me to hug you tighter?” Prapai asked and when there was no rejection, Prapai carried out his question. After a while Sky also slid closer into Prapai’s arms which made Prapai smile even more.

“Just why are you so cute? Even when you’re sick?” Prapai said and took Sky’s hand, “and why are your eyes always crying for help? How can I help you?” he wondered and hugged Sky tightly.

Eventually, Sky loosened his grip and Prapai was able to get up and wipe Sky’s body. He also changed his clothes, that were soaked with sweat and changed the cooling pad on Sky’s forehead. Afterwards Prapai went to shower himself.

When he got out of the shower, he stepped to the bed once more.

“I’ve never taken such good care of someone before. I even changed your clothes and cooling pad and wiped your body.” He said softly and bent down.

“You may think I only want sex from you, but believe me, if that were the case I wouldn’t have done all of this for you.” Prapai looked at Sky and his gaze wandered to his lips. He bent down even more until there were only inches between them. But that’s when he paused and thought about his promise to Rain.

“It’s really hard to resist you, but I made a promise to Rain.”, Prapai stood up again and began to tidy up Sky’s room in order to get other thoughts.

He didn’t get far though, when Sky began to shout in his sleep.

“No… Let me go, please! I don’t want this! Please help me, don’t do this, please!” he tossed around and Prapai quickly ran to him.

“Sky! Sky, it’s okay. It’s just a dream. I’m here and I won’t let anyone hurt you.” He stroked Sky’s hair and Sky woke up, sweating and panting. He looked at Prapai and tears welled in his eyes.

“P’Pai, is that you?” he asked, completely out of it.

“Yes, it’s me.” Prapai could barely finish his sentence, when Sky shot up and hugged him tightly.

“Please, don’t let me go. I’m begging you!” Sky sobbed into Prapai’s arms, while Prapai caressed his back. “I don’t want to have that kind of dream anymore. Please don’t let me go.”

“Don’t worry, I’m here with you. I won’t let you go.”

It took some time for Sky to calm down and go back to sleep again. Prapai hugged him the whole time and even when Sky fell asleep, he didn’t let him go, just as promised.

***

When Sky woke up the next morning, his fever was already better. He heard someone talking and looked around to see Prapai on his phone, back turned to Sky. He was calling someone and asked for leave from work. When Prapai turned around a little and saw, that Sky has woken up, he quickly ended the call and came to the bed.

“How are you feeling?” he asked and wanted to check Sky’s fever again but Sky just pushed his hand away. “So cold. Completely different from last night, where you were clinging to me all night…”, he said, his thoughts drifting back to the night before.

“I didn’t-“ Sky began but just as he wanted to brush it off, he started to remember. Indeed, he had a nightmare again and the only thing he wanted was someone to hold him gently and take away all the bad memories of that time. And Prapai just happened to be there and give him exactly what Sky needed in the moment.

“Remembered what happened?” Prapai teased him.

Sky couldn’t look into his eyes. How could he have done that?! But of course Prapai didn’t stop there and continued to tease him.

“Do you know how hard it was for me to hold back? You were all over my body. So naughty…”

With every word, Sky just wished further to turn back time and stop his past-self from falling asleep. However  his thoughts wandered back to his assignments and he quickly forgot the embarassment.

“I need to hand in my work!” Sky said and wanted to get up but Prapai held him back.

“No need to rush. Rain took care of everything. You just need to rest now and recover, alright?” he said and lay Sky back down, “Time to sleep. I’ll wake you up later, but now you need to use the time and get some rest.”, and with that, Prapai got up. He stroked Sky’s hair one last time before taking the bowl with water, that was standing on the bedside table, to get some fresh water.

When Prapai left the room, Sky followed him with his eyes and was a bit confused. How come he wasn’t as annoyed as before, whenever he saw P’Pai? When he thought about the way, Prapai was looking after him his heart even skipped a bit. Was anyone ever so nice to him? Back then he never experienced this kind of gentle and caring treatments, but only pain and fear.

After thinking about it for a while, Sky could feel himself blush and he quickly took the blanket, to cover up his face.

“What is wrong with you?! How could you’ve done that! You know there comes nothing good out of this asshole, Sky!” he heard a voice, after being alone for a moment. As soon as his fever got better, Cloud was also a lot stronger again. And he took his role as Sky’s protector very serious, so of course he would complain after finding out what Sky was up to, while Cloud couldn’t be there with him. “He used you to get what he wanted and now you think he could just change like that? How can you know that he’s not doing all of this just to get you to sleep with him again?” Cloud complained again.

However instead of agreeing with Cloud, this time Sky felt that these were just wrong accusations. Why would anyone do all of this just to sleep with someone? That can’t be possible. And P’Pai promised him that he’s not just doing this for sex, didn’t he? Why does Sky feel like he can believe those words?

“He’s not that kind of guy, Cloud. I can’t know for sure but I just have a feeling. When you weren’t there for me last night, I had a nightmare again and Prapai looked after me. He didn’t even ask what it was about, he just cared for me as if it was the most normal thing for him to do. I know our meeting wasn’t as healthy as you would’ve wished it for me to be but why can’t a person change?” Sky said, not really understanding it himself, why he was defending Prapai so thoroughly. But something inside of him told him that he can trust Prapai and that Cloud is being overprotective of him.

Cloud was clearly not convinced, but luckily he didn’t start an argument with Sky.

“If you say so, but don’t say I didn’t warn you! If you would’ve been healthy I would’ve given you a piece of my mind, but now you should rest. Nevertheless, if he does anything even just slightly suspicious, I won’t just let it slide, you got it?” Cloud said and Sky just hummed inapproval. He was feeling rather sleepy, so he closed it eyes and drove off into sleep, hoping that he could sleep peacefully.

While Sky was falling asleep, Cloud thought about the promise he got from Rain. If he sees him again, Cloud will definitely punish him for breaking his promise. But thinking about it a second time, did Rain really break his promise? He promised not to hurt Sky and to look after him and if Cloud was being honest, Sky really wasn’t hurt and even though he hated Prapai, Prapai didn’t do anything to Sky yet, too. So he should rather thank Rain for looking after Sky and caring for him.

Thinking about it like that, Cloud decided to just not say anything. He wasn’t the type to openly admit that he was wrong and also not the type to thank someone directly. That’s not what he was here for after all.

***

In the following week, Sky has been sleeping a lot and everytime he woke up, Prapai was still somewhere near him. He looked after Sky the whole time and Sky didn’t hear much complains from Cloud.

On one evening, Prapai was working next to Sky on the bed, while Sky was secretly watching him. When he looked closely, Prapai didn’t even look half-bad. He had defined features and his side profile was even handsome, if Sky was honest with himself. While looking at Prapai, Sky’s mind wandered off to the times Prapai smiled and his heart skipped a beat just thinking about it. He had a very beautiful smile and thinking back, everytime Sky received one of those smiles, deep inside he was feeling warm, even if it was covered by annoyance at that time.

While watching Prapai, Sky noticed that he moved and quickly closed his eyes. He could feel the light and cool touch of Prapai’s hand on his forehead and felt comfortable. Before he knew it, Sky fell asleep again.

On another day, Sky awoke on his couch. He must’ve fallen asleep, while waiting for Prapai to come back. He still felt tired and he could feel a sore ache in his back, from the uncomfortable position, in which he was sleeping in. Sky got up and tried to go to bed, when Prapai came in. He saw that Sky was still rather unsteady while walking, so he quickly came up to him to support Sky.

Sky wanted to push him away again but he didn’t even had the energy to walk properly, so of course his weak push didn’t do much. With the help of Prapai he went to bed and was able to fall asleep swiftly.

Not long after he fell asleep though, he could feel hands roaming around his body again. They were undressing him and played with his body as if Sky was just a toy for them. He couldn’t scream, couldn’t move and it was getting harder and harder to breath. It was as if the air around him was getting thicker, trapping him in place, being unable to do anything against his situation. He was being touched in places, he never wanted them to touch again and when they were starting to slip their hands under his underwear, Sky awoke with a startle.

He was sweating and the cool towel slipped from his forehead. However he felt a secure grip from his left hand. When Sky turned to look, he saw Prapai sleeping next to him, holding his hand tightly. But unlike the feeling those hands gave him, this time he didn’t feel disgusted, didn’t feel trapped but he rather felt safe. As if no one could harm him when he’s being held by his hand.

Sky reached out to brush away a strand of hair, when Prapai began to wake up. When he saw the movement going through Prapai’s body, Sky hastily closed his eyes and just like the last time, he felt the other’s cool hand checking his temperature. But when Prapai wanted to get up, Sky quickly catched hold of him. He was still scared from his nightmare and din’t want this safe feeling to leave yet. He didn’t want to be alone.

Though, Sky knew that he’d never truly be alone. He still had Cloud but it was just…different. Cloud could always be by his side, he never doubted that fact, but unlike Prapai, Sky couldn’t feel the warmth and proximity of him. Inside his mind, everything felt the same and Cloud’s hugs were comforting at times but it was a completely different feeling from the proximity Prapai gave him.

“I won’t leave.”, Sky heard Prapai saying and those words were enough for Sky to slightly calm down again. He tightly held onto Prapai’s arm. “I’m here, it’s okay. Don’t worry I will stay with you.” Prapai said and lay his forehead onto Sky’s. He stayed like this for a moment and kept Sky close until he could feel the other’s grip loosing up. With that, Prapai was able to get into a more comfortable position again and supported Sky’s head with his arm. They both fell asleep.

***

“I’m feeling better now, so you can go home already.” Sky said after his fever had finally gone down.

“What, now that I’m no longer useless, you’re kicking me out? That’s really cold, Nong’Sky.” Prapai said with a forced sad look on his face. “I nursed you all night. I even cleaned you up, tidied your room and made you food. That’s even worse than pouncing an bouncing, you know?” Prapai stepped a little closer to Sky.

“Not that we have ever asked you to do all of that.” Cloud comlained. After Sky recovered, he fully took on his role as Sky’s protector again and restarted to push Prapai away; never giving him a single chance.

“What do you want?” Sky asked.

“You know what I want, don’t you?” came the answer from the other.

“What a shameless guy!”, Cloud couldn’t believe it, “There you have it Sky, he did all of that just to get you into bed! I told you so, but you didn’t want to believe me!”

“I won’t have sex with you.” Sky promptly said. He wanted to trust Prapai but with this all progress Prapai made in pursuing him went for nothing. But against all assumptions, Prapai just said, “So you don’t know it.”

Sky was confused. What else would he possibly want?

“Okay, to be honest that was my first goal, when I asked Rain for your number. But that was then. Leave it in the past. Now, I just want you to not block my number. Maybe answer my calls once in a while, that is enough for me.” Sky could see no hints of a lie in Prapai’s eyes. They were filled with a seriousness, Sky didn’t think Prapai could have.

“Stop running away from me and let me pursue you. That is all I want from you.” Prapai reached out and ruffled Sky’s hair, “Now get some rest. Even though your fever may have gone down, you still need to recover fully.”

Sky followed Prapai with his eyes as he left the room and the place, where he ruffled his hair felt really empty. Sky touched it absent-minded and began to smile. Even Cloud was silent after hearing Prapai’s answer. He couldn’t fully believe what Prapai said but decided it would be the best to not say anything.

But at that moment, Prapai looked into the room one last time, which startled Sky and he stopped smiling.

“Oh, and there’s some food in the fridge. Eat it later and get some rest.”, Prapai said. Sky was happy that Prapai cared for him that much and went up to him. Prapai looked at him with a questioned expression, not expecting the small peck on the cheek he received from Sky.

“I don’t like to owe anyone. And thank you for the food.”, still befuddled by the gesture, Sky could easily push Prapai outside and closed the door.

“You won’t escape from me next time.”, he heard the voice from the other side of the door and began to smile again.

‘You can’t catch me’, Sky thought and plucked at his shirt. After thinking back at what he’s just done, he got flustered and hid his face in his hands. His thoughts were disrupted by a call from Rain.

“I heard you’re better again?”, Sky heard his best friend as soon as he picked up the call.

“Yeah. Someone told me you took care of everything for me?” Sky asked

“Oh, yeah, I did. You don’t have to worry about anything!”. Sky was really thankful to have someone like Rain by his side. Even if Rain could be really annoying at times, he never meant it in a bad way. That was just the way he was.

“Thank you, Rain. Really.”

“No problem! That’s what friends are for, aren’t they?”

“But anyways, why did you call me?” There was no reason for Rain to call Sky, at least Sky couldn’t think of anything. Did something happen while he was out of it due to the fever?

“Oh, right. Sky, would it be possible to talk face-to-face about that? Do you have time later?” Sky was confused. Was it something serious? Or else, why would Rain have to talk to him face-to-face? He was never the person to have serious conversations.

“Sure, I have nothing to do. Just come whenever you like.” Sky was really curious what this was about. Did Rain have a fight with Phayu? But he didn’t sound depressed or angry. There was more a tone of concern in his voice.

It didn’t take long for Rain to arrive at Sky’s dorm. Sky opened the door for him and they sat down on the couch.

“So, what’s wrong? Why did you suddenly want to talk to me?” Sky asked and Rain looked at him, seriously.

“Remember when you lost consciousness in the classroom?” Sky nodded, not getting where Rain wanted to go with this.

“I brought you to you dorm immediately but when I tried to take care of your fever something, no more like someone, kept pushing me away, even though they couldn’t even stand steadily themselves.” Sky slowly started to understand what this was all about and he absolutely didn’t like the thought. It wasn’t like that, right? Cloud didn’t reveal himself to Rain, right?

Rain took Sky’s hands and looked him directly in the eyes.

“Sky, please be honest with me. I’m worried about you. Who exactly is Cloud? What happened for you to have a split personality?”

Chapter Text

Sky knew it. While he was unconscious from the fever, Rain found out about Cloud. He didn’t know what to say, didn’t know how to act. There was no way he could talk himself out of this, not after Rain saw with his own eyes how differently Sky behaved. Cloud was a second personality after all. Anyone who knew Sky could tell the differences between their behaviour if Cloud was seriously trying to protect Sky.

The silence in the room was deafening and Sky couldn’t form any words. He didn’t want anyone to know. Sky knew what would’ve happened if someone found out about Cloud. He would have to explain what happened to him, have to explain what traumatized him so much as to develop a second personality and the worst of it all: he would have to remember again. His dreams were already enough for Sky to bear, he didn’t want to talk about it. It would only leave him vulnerable.

With every thought, Sky panicked a little more. Rain shouldn’t have found out. Sky wanted to take his past into his grave. Eventually his nightmares would’ve stopped, right? If Rain knew what led to the appearance of Cloud he would surely be disgusted.

Disgusted with what happened to Sky.

Disgusted how he can live on after that.

Disgusted with Sky.

“Sky?”, it took Rain’s worried question for Sky to realize that his breath got faster, more shallow. He tried to calm down again, not wanting to worry Rain even more and especially not wanting to alert Cloud.

“It’s okay, if you don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to force you, I’m just really worried. A split personality doesn’t just come out of nothing.” Rain shifted in his seat, feeling guilty that he even brought it up.

But Sky knew that he couldn’t hide it any longer. At least not from Rain. Back then he was a crucial part in Sky’s healing process. He deserved to know about Cloud at least. And Sky didn’t have to tell him everything, just a little bit, so Rain can understand.

“No… you deserve to know…”, Sky turned to fully look at Rain. He thought for a moment about how he could tell Rain enough to make him understand but not having to tell him everything in detail.

“Do you remember when you brought up my ex? And I - or rather Cloud - crashed out on you?” Rain thought for a moment and furrowed his eyebrows before he slowly nodded.

“That’s because he’s kind of the reason for Cloud’s existence. Everytime he gets brought up, Cloud just crashes out and wants to get me away from the situation as fast as possible, even if it sometimes doesn’t even bother me that much. I met him when I first came to Bangkok. And everything was great at first but then he started to…” , Sky’s eyes shifted away from Rain and he tried to find the words to not give away too much. He still didn’t want Rain to know about that. While thinking, Rain took his hands to give Sky the security he might need. Sky took a deep breath.

“…he started to not treat me very well anymore. And I couldn’t really do anything against it, so when Cloud appeared he protected me and helped to get back to my own life again. Afterwards I met you and Cloud couldn’t really trust anyone, but you somehow managed to get his trust over and over again. You’re really amazing and I’m so grateful to have you as a friend, Rain.”, Sky smiled lightly.

And even though Rain wanted to know in what way Sky’s ex ‘didn’t treat him well’, he bit back his curiosity. Rain could tell that Sky was rather uncomfortable talking about his past and he also didn’t want to experience Cloud’s anger if he triggered anything bad.

“I’m sorry that you had to go through that. Just know that Cloud won’t be the only one protecting you. Now you have a lot of people around you that care for you, truly care for you. You don’t have to suffer alone anymore, so if you ever need someone to talk to or if you just want some company, you know that you can always come to me, okay?”, Rain moved closer to Sky and hugged his friend.

Sky was surprised at first. He never imagined such a genuine hug from Rain. Rain was always his silly friend, not thinking about what he said or did and Sky learned to love that about him. He was the one who brought lightness into Sky’s life, the one who subconsciously blew away any dark thoughts Sky may have, the one who made Sky smile again after such a long time.

The one that was just so precious to Sky, without realizing it himself.

Sky slowly lifted his arms, hugging Rain back and the two of them just sat there for as long as Sky needed it.

After a while Sky pulled back, eyes glassy but not from the pain he always felt when remembering his past but rather from the comfort he received from Rain.

Rain left later that day, leaving Sky alone again.

“He’s really a good friend. I can see that now.”, Cloud said and Sky was surprised to hear such words from Cloud. He never thought Cloud could ever trust someone but it made Sky really happy.

“Yeah he is.”

***

Sky was sitting in the back of the freshmen-welcoming-party, watching everyone run around to prepare and organize everything.

“We need more water!”

“Can someone help with the snacks?”

“Yeah I’ll help.”

“Where’s the first aid kit?”

Sky was sitting silently for a while but he was feeling really bad for not helping.

“Does anyone need my help?”, he asked, raising his arm to get the other’s attention.

In a second everyone stopped at the same time, turning to Sky, “You just sit there and rest!”, Sky could even hear Cloud’s voice scold him in his head.

“Don’t even move an inch, or else!” One of his classmates said and Sky just sank back onto his seat, “Okay, I’ll just be quiet then.”

One of his other classmates came over and sat beside Sky.

“You alright, mr. patient?” he said jokingly.

“I just don’t want to be a hindrance.”

“What, hindrance? Can’t you see that everything is going smoothly because of your preperations? If you didn’t organize everything systematically beforehand this wouldn’t have gone this well! If you take Sig for example, what does he do? He just monkeys around in front of the freshmen, but you deserve all the behind-the-scenes-credit. So don’t think about it too much, okay?” he said smiling brightly.

“I just want it to come out well.”

“It will, because we’re doing our best for the freshmen, right? Just trust me on this.”, he put his arm around Sky, patting his shoulder. “Don’t worry.”

“Alright.”

When the ‘Last Cheer’ started, Sky was sitting alone in the back, supporting his head with his hand and dozing off. He still hasn’t fully recovered from the fever and now it seemed to get worse again.

“Sky? Are you okay?”, he heard a familiar voice.

“Cloud, what’s wrong? You know I’m resting…” Sky mumbled into himself.

“I didn’t say anything. You should open your eyes, Sky. There’s some annoying guy that wants to talk to you apparently.” Sky heard Cloud say. And he was right. The familiar voice Sky heard wasn’t from Cloud but rather from someone outside.

“What are you saying? I couldn’t quite get that?” Sky could hear the other shuffle closer.

When he was opening his eyes, Sky could see the person calling out for him.

“P’Pai? What are you doing here?”, he asked sleepily.

“He just can’t leave you alone. He really gets on my nerves.”  Even though Rain managed to gain Cloud’s trust, Prapai was completely on his black list. However Sky was kind of happy to see him. He just ignored Cloud’s complains and focused on Prapai.

“I heard from Phayu that the ‘Last Cheer’ would go until morning so I knew that a certain someone would probably overexert himself again.” Prapai smiled knowingly and checked Sky’s temperature. Just as he thought it was a little warmer than normal.

Prapai stood up, “I’ll get you some medicine.”, but he didn’t get far before Sky grabbed his arm.

“Don’t tell my friends. I don’t want to worry them.” Sky said with a concerned look in his eyes. Prapai just smiled at him, “I’ll be back in a jiffy.”

Sky watched him leave and slowly laid down onto the table. He closed his eyes until Prapai came back with the medicine.

“Here you go.” Prapai gave Sky the medicine and Sky quickly took them. “You should rest some more, you’ll probably be staying here for a few hours still. Put your head on my shoulder.” Prapai said afterwards. When he saw the uncertain look on Sky’s face he could just smile again.”Or should I bring you back to your dorm?”

He knew that Sky wouldn’t want to leave no matter what. So with these two choices, Sky would definitely choose the first one. And he was right. Sky leaned onto his shoulder, closing his eyes, much to Cloud’s discontent.

***

After the welcoming party for the freshmen was over, Sky saw them all off at the door. It didn’t take long for Prapai to approach him again.

“You haven’t left yet?” Sky said, ignoring the warm feeling he got in his stomach just from seeing Prapai.

“I’m still unappreciated? Oh Prapai, your efforts to ride here in the rain and becoming a pillow and blanket the whole night are just tossed aside like that. What a shame…” Prapai pouted playfully as Sky turned to look at him.

“That’s not what I said.”

“Then I should be rewarded, right?” Prapai smiled.

“This guy just can’t do anything without expecting something in return, can he?!” Cloud almost screamed in Sky’s mind.

“So? What do you want?” Sky said, eye’s rolling at both remarks. His eyes began to drift to the door again, wanting to continue with sending off the freshmen.

“I just want to see your beautiful smile.”

With just one sentence Cloud fell completely silent and Sky, too, was flabbergasted. In the blink of an eye he looked at Prapai again. He didn’t expect this kind of answer at all.

Prapai just smiled at him with the most genuine smile Sky has seen on his face. Normally, he’s used to smirks or grins from Prapai but never really genuine smiles.

“Smile!”, Prapai said again but before Sky could do or even say anything, the two of them got interrupted by a trio of girls.

“P’Sky!”, they smiled when Sky looked in their direction, “we just wanted to thank you. We heard you got sick from all the preperations, so we wanted to give you our upmost gratitude. Thank you for caring so much for us, we promise to do the same for our juniors next year!” they bowed in respect and Sky returned the respect.

“Thank you again. We should take our leaves then. Bye bye!”, the girl smiled one last time and then took off with her friends.

To receive such a ‘thank you’ made Sky really happy and even Prapai seemed to notice.

“Are you happy? Then you should show it, no?”

Sky turned around and felt like he was floating. It felt really good to be appreciated and the happiness formed a ball inside his stomach, which floated all the way up. Sky smiled brightly and Prapai’s heart skipped a beat after seeing Sky’s smile.

‘Your no-strings-attached-life seems to come to an end’ he thought and sighed a little.

“Everything okay?” Sky asked, a little worried as to why Prapai sighed.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s just go home, okay?” Prapai said, smiling his usual smile and guiding Sky to his bike to bring him home.

At the dorm, Sky was so tired that it didn’t take long for him to fall asleep on the bed. Prapai sat beside him and just watching him sleep gave him a warm feeling in his chest.

He never felt this for anyone before. His ‘relationships’ have always been only practical, never romantic. And Prapai normally dropped them after sleeping with them a few times because he either found a new one already or got bored. But this time it was different.

Sky just casually came into his life and from then on he never left Prapai’s mind. He didn’t know if it’s been his eyes, always crying for help somehow or his hard-to-get behaviour that made him interesting enough but Prapai knew that there was more to it. He would’ve done anything to get the people he’s interested in into bed but for Sky he just wanted to be by his side, wanted to be appreciated and welcomed and wanted to care for him.

The more Prapai thought about it, the warmer the feeling in his chest got. Prapai looked closely at Sky and bend down a little to take in all of his features. Sleeping soundly like this, Prapai had the opportunity to look at him thoroughly. His long lashes casted a shadow below his eyes and his skin was rather smooth. Prapai’s gaze landed on Sky’s lips and without thinking he bent further down, being only inches apart from Sky, while his hand supported his weight.

However, Cloud wouldn’t let him take advantage of his sleeping Sky like that.

“Sky, wake up! Or else I’m taking it upon myself to give this bastard a piece of my mind. I can’t believe he would do this!” Cloud said in Sky’s mind and with that, Sky opened his eyes, wanting to know what Cloud was talking about.

He looked directly into Prapai’s eyes and both were shocked for a moment, before Prapai quickly stood up and went into the bathroom. Sky still laid there for a few more seconds, before he shot up into a sitting position. His hand went towards his lips and he absent-mindedly touched them.

But why? Why was it, that Sky didn’t have a problem with Prapai’s action just now? If he thought about it some more, he was actually rather sad, that Prapai didn’t go through with the…

…kiss.

Sky realized what was going through his mind.

He wanted Prapai to kiss him.

With the realization, his whole face began to burn and Sky quickly laid down again, pulling the blanket over his face.

Of course, Cloud was anything but happy with Sky’s reaction.

“Sky! Did you realize that he wanted to take advantage of you while you were sleeping?! Don’t behave recklessly now. These are exactly the types of people who’ll hurt you again and I won’t let that happen! Don’t get involved with Prapai if you don’t want to get hurt in the end. I just don’t want to see you broken again, please understand.”

But Sky only listened half. He was distracted with his own emotions overwhelming him slowly.

A while later, Sky brought Prapai to the door to see him off.

“Thank you for helping me.” Sky said a bit shy after his rollercoster of emotions not long before.

“No problem. But I have a small favour to ask.” Prapai smiled and Sky looked at him with curiosity, “Can you clear one of your days next week? I want to take you out.”

Sky thought about it for a moment, when Cloud spoke up again.

“Don’t, Sky. I just told you that it’s a bad idea to get involved with this guy. He’s up to no good, trust me.”

But Sky wanted to prove it to Cloud. He wasn’t born yesterday and he learned from his past mistakes, too. And Prapai didn’t seem like an asshole. He was different from him.

“Okay.” Sky finally said, ignoring the shocked complains and small curses from Cloud.

***

The next week, Prapai brought Sky to a Restaurant. Sky has been there once with Phayu and Rain but it was a different feeling being there with Prapai. On that day Prapai also told Sky, that he has stopped fooling around since he met Sky and that he’s really serious about him. When Sky didn’t believe him, Prapai confessed that it only had been three times but he hasn’t seen anyone for the past two months.

Sky didn’t really want to know in the first place, but somehow it made him happy to know, that Prapai showed him through his actions how serious he was. Cloud was silent the whole time and Sky guessed that he was probably angry with Sky for not listening to him. However it was a nice change for once to not have someone constantly talking in your mind and Sky didn’t mind much. When he first met Rain, Cloud was also sulking a little, so Sky thought Cloud would get used to Prapai too if he just waited long enough.

When the day was already coming to an end, Prapai accompanied Sky back to his dorm. Sky still had a class project to do, so as soon as they entered his dorm, he went straight to work. While Sky was sitting at his desk, Prapai was watching him from behind, slowly coming closer with a small grin on his lips.

“So after this day, you’re just going to work on your project and won’t pay me any attention at all?” Prapai gently laid his hands on Sky’s arms, moving up and down in small movements. Sky kept on ignoring him, so Prapai tried a different take to get his attention.

He slid even closer to Sky, beginning to slowly kiss from his biceps upwards towards Sky’s shoulders. Sky could feel Prapai’s warm breath on the side of his neck and he got goosebumps from it. His concentration moved from his project to the soft touches he received from Prapai. There was a warm feeling in his chest and Sky subconsciously lent further into the touch, not noticing that he was being pushed away from his body and into his mind.

“What are you trying to do?” Cloud asked Prapai, taking the box cutter that still laid on top of Sky’s desk. He slowly extanded the blade and Prapai seemed to get the warning. He quickly let go of Sky’s body.

“Well, then I guess I’m gonna change now, excuse me. I’ll use your bathroom.” And with that, Prapai swiftly left the room.

“Sky, what the hell were you doing? You can’t just loose focus like this! What would you have done if I wasn’t there and he took advantage of your carelessness?!” Cloud asked retreating back into Sky’s mind again.

Sky just rolled his eyes, “He wouldn’t do that. Why are you being so suspicious, can’t you just give him a chance for once?”

“A chance? That guy just wants to get you into bed, don’t fall for his tricks. Did you forget that these people are always acting nice in the beginning? Think about why I’m here in the first place!” Cloud went silent afterwards and Sky didn’t care enough to call after him. He trusted Prapai somehow. He couldn’t even explain it himself but there was something…

…different,

About Prapai. Different from the people back then.

Lost in thoughts again, Sky reached for his notebook and started noting down the things Prapai told him. He didn’t want to forget them. He wanted to keep it close in his memory.

After a while Prapai came back, seeing Sky still sitting at his desk. He approached him again.

“Nong’Sky, can you give me your hand?” he asked and Sky was a bit reluctant. “Don’t worry, I won’t do anything you don’t want.”

Sky thought about it for a moment but then agreed and laid his hand into Prapai’s. Prapai took the pen from Sky’s desk and began to draw three lines into Sky’s palm. Afterwards, he proudly looked at his drawing.

Sky was extremely confused. What are these lines supposed to mean?

His confusement was probably visible on his face, because Prapai looked at him, his proud look slowly disappearing.

“Don’t you know what this is supposed to be?” he asked with a little pout on his lips.

“Not really… I can’t connect three lines with anything.” Sky admitted

“What, lines? These aren’t just lines. It’s supposed to be the sign for ‘wind’. I’m claiming ownership. Is it that badly drawn?” Prapai looked at his drawing again, tilting his head from one side to the other, as if he was trying to see where the problem laid.

His movement made Sky smile slightly and he grabbed Prapai’s hand.

Picking up the same pen Prapai also used, he too, drew a wind-sign. But his sign was curled up at the end, resembling wind a lot more than whatever Prapai tried to draw. Prapai looked at Sky’s drawing with awe.

“Really an architecture student, no?” he teased and Sky just shook his head, “It’s nothing hard.”

“Oh, come on. I couldn’t make you shy at all?”

“No.”

Prapai huffed a laugh and looked at Sky’s drawing on his hand again, while Sky continued to work on his project.

It’s already been getting quite late when Sky finally took a break from his project. Prapai was laying on the sofa behind him, reading in a magazine but his attention instantly moved to Sky when he turned around.

“All done?” he asked.

“Yeah, for today.”

“Then, do you wanna have dinner? I brought some.” When Sky nodded, Prapai quickly went to grab the two boxes with noodles and put them on the table.

“Won’t you go home?” Prapai has been with him the whole day, so Sky felt kind of bad.

“You’re chasing me out again. My sister will mock me again if she finds out that I’m constantly being chased out by you.” Prapai pouted playfully.

“You seem close to your siblings.”

“We are. I’m the oldest with a younger sister and a younger brother. They have so much in common. Both of them are so shameless and would do anything to achieve their goal. It can be a pain in the neck sometimes, really.” Prapai admitted, laughing a little. He seemed really happy talking about his siblings.

“That should be my line. You’re just like them.” Sky mumbled into himself but smiled seeing Prapai so carefree.

“What about you? Do you have any siblings, Nong’Sky?” Prapai suddenly asked.

Sky just shook his head, “I’m an only child. Don’t know what it’s like to have siblings. My parents are divorced, so I’m living with my dad most of the time. But since I came to Bangkok we also haven’t seen each other in quite a bit.”

“I’ll introduce you to my siblings one day, then you won’t be lonely anymore.” Prapai said determinated. “They’ll instantly take you into their hearts too, and once they’ve come out of their shells around others, it can get really fun. It would be just like having real siblings, believe me. Just with the advantage of not having them around to constantly annoy you, as soon as you get home. You’ll have a great time with them, surely Nong’Sky” Prapai snickered and Sky had to smile too.

“I’m not lonely at all! I still…” Sky didn’t finish the sentence. Still what? Still have Cloud? He doesn’t want others to know but he was feeling really comfortable around Prapai, so it almost slipped. If Prapai were to know about Cloud would he find it weird? Sky didn’t want to take the risk. If Prapai found it weird, the relationship, the two of them built between them, would surely crumble into pieces or get a few cracks. And Sky didn’t want that.

“Still what? Nong’Sky you didn’t finish your sentence? What did you want to say?” Prapai looked at Sky, eyes filled with curiosity.

“Ehmmm…I still have Rain. He’s just as annoying as a normal sibling would be.” Sky laughed nervously, quickly trying to change the topic. “Oh and by the way, P’Pai just drop the ‘Nong’ already. It sounds fake when you’re saying it. Just ‘Sky’ is enough, alright?”

Prapai shifted in his seat, pushing his noodle box away from him, to support his weight on the table, while he moved a bit closer to Sky. “Sky”, he said seriously and Sky felt the same warm feeling in his chest from before. He got a bit flustered and wanted to look away, but Prapai’s hand stopped him from doing so. He cupped one side of Sky’s cheek, turning his head to him again.

“Sky krub.” Prapai said again, moving even closer. Sky’s cheek began to burn from the touch and his heart started to pound faster with every inch Prapai moved closer to him. His focus was fully on Prapai and he could already feel his warm breath on his skin, when their lips were only a few inches apart. Sky slowly closed his eyes, awaiting the kiss.

His heart beat even faster and the hairs on his nape where standing just from the imagination of their lips finally colliding. But the awaited kiss didn’t come. When Sky opened his eyes again, Prapai just pulled back.

“I’ll wait until you’re ready.”, he said putting his noodle box in front of him again, “let’s finish dinner.”

Sky was fuddled, not knowing what to say or do. He looked back and forth between his own food, throwing some glances into Prapai’s direction. But deep down he was happy, that Prapai was willing to wait. Just the thought made Sky smile. Maybe someday Cloud, too, could see, that Prapai wasn’t that asshole he saw in him. Maybe someday he could see Prapai’s good sides too.

Maybe someday, Cloud could accept Prapai, the way Sky wanted to accept him.

After dinner, Sky went to get a blanket and a pillow for Prapai, because he wanted to stay overnight. Sky threw them onto a mattress besides his bed, making Prapai pout.

“I have to sleep on the floor?” he asked.

“We have no relationship for you to be able to sleep on the bed, do we?” Sky said directly.

“I took such a good care of you but I still have to sleep on the floor. Prapai just what have you come to? But I’ll let you win this time.” Prapai pushed himself off the wall and took a few steps towards the mattress.

“Whether now or later, I’ll always win.” Sky said laying down onto the bed.

“What choice do I have? I’ve already lost to you.”, was the last thing Prapai said, before laying down too. Their backs were turned to each other, so they couldn’t see how both of them were still awake for a few minutes to look at the drawings on their hands. Sky traced the lines on his hands before his eyes got heavy and he fell asleep.

Prapai noticed how Sky’s breath was getting more even and he looked over his shoulder, to watch the regular rises and falls of Sky’s body while he was sleeping. Prapai’s heart was getting warm and he felt the warmth spreading through his whole body just from looking at Sky.

“I’ve completely lost to you. And there will be the time, where you’ll also loose to me. I’m certain about it.” Prapai whispered and smiled fondly, turning around and falling asleep too.

Chapter Text

A few days later, Sky was sitting outside of his college, looking at the faded drawing on his palm. He traced the faint lines, being completely lost in thoughts. That’s why he didn’t notice Rain, who arrived on campus too, looking around as if he were a lost puppy. When he saw Sky he couldn’t help but sneak up on him.

“What’cha looking at?”, Rain suddenly said into Sky’s ear. Sky jumped, quickly closing his hands, so Rain wouldn’t see the wind symbol.

“Rain!”, Sky kept his voice down, so only Rain could hear him, “Don’t surprise me like that! What would you do if Cloud accidently sees you as a threat? He already has his problems with trusting people, don’t break your hard earned trust that easily!”, Rain instantly understood what Sky meant. It would get really uncomfortable if Cloud suddenly went against him just because he was careless.

“You can be grateful that he trusts you, or else this would’ve probably ended differently.”, Sky stood up, “but now that you’re here, we should get to class or else we’ll be late.” Rain just nodded and followed Sky.

***

When Sky was at his dorm and started doing an assignment it was already evening. He needed that assignment the next day so he had to finish it as fast as possible. When he checked the time it was already 3 in the morning, however Sky was not done yet.

It still took some time to completely finish  but when Sky drew the last line he could finally breathe. Sky stretched and looked at the clock again.

“Shit, this late already?”, Sky had to go otherwise he would be late to class. There was no time to sleep. He could take some naps in between classes.

Before Sky went back to his dorm, he checked his phone. Prapai messaged him, saying that he’ll come by with some food. Sky smiled at the message, tucking his phone back into his pocket and making his way home quickly.

Although Sky was really happy that Prapai would come by, he was still very tired. As soon as he opened the door and sat down, fatigue washed over him and it was really hard to keep his eyes open. The knock on the door was a release for Sky, because he didn’t have to wait any longer and struggle to stay awake in order to let Prapai in.

He wobbled to the door, opening it up for Prapai.

“You’re finally here.”, Sky greeted Prapai.

“Didn’t you get any sleep? You look really tired. And your eyes are all red.” Prapai stretched his hand out to caress Sky’s cheek. “Do you want to eat first or do you want to get some sleep?”

“No it’s okay, I’ll eat something. You came all the way here after all.” Sky said sleepily, his eyes already half closed again.

When he sat down at the table and tried to open the food-package it was a real struggle to even lift his arms. Prapai noticed it too and took the food from Sky to help him open it.

Afterwards he washed the dishes for Sky and when he came back from the sink, Sky was already half asleep, laying down on the table and using his arms as a pillow.

“You should sleep in bed. Let me help you.”, Prapai put one of Sky’s arms around his shoulders and supported him as he stood up. They went to the bed and Sky instantly laid down.

“I’ll get you some clothes, change first.”, when Prapai came back with the clothes, he helped Sky to change into them. “Why didn’t you just go to sleep earlier?”, he asked.

“I was waiting for you. You shouldn’t have to stay in front of a closed door just because I fell asleep.”, Sky answered him. He snuggled a bit closer to Prapai without realizing it and Prapai put an arm under his head to support him. Sky then lifted his own hand to look at the drawing on his palm again.

“It’s already fading. What should I do?” he said. Sky’s voice was already soft from the lack of sleep. The comment made Prapai’s heart skip a beat. It was just a quick drawing in the heat of a moment but the comment made it look like Sky truly liked it. Prapai first looked at the drawing but then his focus shifted to Sky.

Sky’s eyes were half closed but when Prapai cupped his cheek in his own hands, he looked up at him. Prapai inched closer while his sight moved down to Sky’s lips. He caressed Sky’s cheek with his thumb while leaning closer ever-so-slightly until their lips met.

Sky instantly closed his eyes and leaned into the kiss seemingly savouring every second of it. Prapai’s lips were softer than he thought but it didn’t take long until his kiss became more fierce, hungry for more. Sky felt Prapai’s tongue lick against his lips and he began to open them a little to let him in. Their breaths mingled and Sky let out a soft sigh. Prapai’s hand moved behind Sky’s head, pulling him closer and hardening the kiss even more. Sky’s heart beat faster and his breath came out in short huffs while he reached out his own hand to hold onto Prapai’s shirt.

The familiar warmth began to spread through his body and he could feel butterflys in his stomach as Prapai pulled away to let him breathe for a short moment, only to pull him into a second kiss. He softly weaved his fingers into Sky’s hair, tugging it gently to gain more acces. Sky exhaled shakily with a small moan, letting Prapai explore every inch of him.

When Prapai let loose of his hair and gently slid under his shirt, Sky gasped into the kiss. Prapai used the moment to deepen the kiss again, softly caressing Sky’s skin. It was hot and Prapai felt how he was gradually getting hard.

He pulled away from the kiss, leaning on Sky’s forehead with his own. With his hand, which was still behind Sky’s head, Prapai held him in place while their breaths were connected.

“I can’t hold back anymore.”, he said, gasping for air, too. Sky opened his eyes a little and pulled Prapai into another kiss. A low grunt vibrated through Prapai’s chest as he moved the hand under Sky’s shirt upwarts.

“What should I do?” Sky asked, seemingly normal. Prapai quickly snapped out of his daydream, looking away from the faded drawing on Sky’s hand. When he looked at Sky, his eyes were already closed and his breath was evening out. Prapai could just smile at the sight.

“And what should I do if you make me like this?”, he softly planted a peck on Sky’s palm and then also one on his cheek.

“I’ll let you sleep. It would be dangerous for you if I stayed here.”, he looked at Sky’s sleeping face one more time and covered him with the blanket. With a last peck on his cheek, Prapai left the room, turning off the lights while doing so.

While Sky was asleep, Cloud approached him in his dreams. They were in their typical dreamscape, where Sky could always talk to Cloud. Since Cloud came into Sky’s life, this dreamscape was also established inside his mind. It was full of colour and light, representing the light Cloud brought into Sky’s life, even if they fought from time to time.

“How could you be so careless? You can’t just fall asleep that easily next to that guy! You don’t know what’s going on in his head!”, Cloud scolded him. He still couldn’t trust Prapai and Sky knew Cloud well enough to know that it would probably never be the case. Not after the circumstances that led the two of them to meet.

“I trust him enough. Maybe you don’t, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t do what I think would be the best. I know you’re here to protect me but don’t you think your behaviour is a bit over the top? Yes, maybe the way we met wasn’t the best but since then has he really done anything? P’Pai is holding back as good as he can, maybe it would be appropriate for you to give him a little of your trust!” Sky was getting really annoyed with Cloud. He can be glad that Cloud was only complaining about Prapai most of the time and didn’t really do anything else, however even the complaining could get extremely annoying. What role would Rain take in Sky’s life, if Cloud took over the complaining-part?

“You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into again, Sky. Maybe he’s nice for now but can you really say for sure that he doesn’t just want to get you into bed again? Everything began with it so why should he want anything else?” Cloud crossed his arms in front of him and Sky could just roll his eyes.

‘Just wait and see. I will definitely prove you wrong, Cloud!’, Sky thought to himself, leaving Cloud behind and drifting off into the real world of dreams.

***

Prapai was sitting at home when he received a phone call from Sky.

“P’Pai you have to come now!”, Sky sounded really distressed. It made Prapai worry.

“Sky? What’s wrong?”, but Sky had already hung up.

Prapai had a really bad feeling. Did Sky get into any problems? He quickly took his jacket and sped to his bike.

At Sky’s dorm, Prapai swiftly knocked on the door and Sky opened up, hair completely dishevelled and his face covered in glue. When Sky saw Prapai his eyes lit up and he hastily pulled him inside on his wrist.

“Sky! Are you okay? Were you crying?”, Prapai asked, dying from worry.

“Why should I’ve been crying? And keep your voice down, it’s already late.”, he looked confused for a second but quickly went on with his explaining, “I need your help with this, I’m sorry I didn’t know what to do and you were the first to come into my mind. This needs to be done by tomorrow and I’m barely halfway through.”, Sky said without breathing.

When Prapai looked at the table there were crafting items all over it. Some pieces of thick paper and wooden sticks were cluttered on the floor surrounding it and in between this mess there was some kind of plate cut out of cupboard with the beginning of what looked like a small house. At the sight of it Prapai got a little mad.

He was worried sick because Sky sounded so distressed over the phone and on the way to Sky’s dorm, Prapai was imagining all kinds of things he would encounter as soon as he arrived. But in the end it was just the lack of time to finish a school-project alone.

“I’ll show you what you need to do, you have to glue this according to the plan right here and – are you listening? Why are you only looking at me? Look at my hands.”, Sky waved around with his whole body, grabbing all kinds of things from the table and moving them around while talking, “The roof still needs to be glued on and – oh it fell down – then I also need to lay the turf…”

“You called me here to work?”, Prapai asked in between.

“This needs to be done by tomorrow and the teacher also assigned another work due tomorrow. I can’t do this alone, please help me. I’m running out of time – what time is it now?”, Sky wanted to stand up to look at the clock but was being held back by Prapai, who was grabbing his wrist in an attempt to calm him down a little.

“Sky.”

“P’Pai, what should I…”

“Sky!”, Sky finally looked at Prapai and stopped moving around hecticly, “I don’t mind you calling me here to help, but did you ever think about how I felt?”, Sky slowly let his hands sink to the table, realizing that he never really gave it a thought.

“When you called me sounding so stressed I thought you were crying. On the way here I imagined all kinds of things, I was really worried! I will come to you no matter where I am if you need help but could you at least tell me what’s going on? I might be a psychotic stalker in your eyes but please understand that I was dying from worry. And I always will if you call me like that, hanging up afterwards with no explanation whatsoever.”, Prapai looked Sky straight in the eyes, which made Sky lower his gaze.

He felt really bad.

He was so stressed about the assignments that he never thought about giving a proper explanation over the phone, so Prapai could prepare beforehand.

“I’m sorry.”, Sky said with a small voice.

“Forget it, I can’t really blame you.”, Prapai’s gaze wandered around the table.

“I’m really sorry.”

“Aren’t you in a rush?”, Prapai snapped a little, “So what do you want me to do?”, he rolled up his sleeves, looking at the design-plan again.

Sky was sitting silently next to him, feeling the guilt in his stomach building up. Prapai was always smiling when he saw him, he never experienced him being mad like this. It made him realize that he really overstepped a line behaving like that.

“How dare he talk to you like this? Was he never so stressed that he lost all skill to think clear? Who does he think he is?!”, Cloud, though, was really angry at the reaction from Prapai.

But Sky knew that it wasn’t Prapai’s fault. He couldn’t be blamed at all, he was only worried about Sky, not knowing what was going on.

In the blink of an eye, Sky cupped Prapai’s face, turning him to look at Sky. He slowly bent over the table, pressing his lips on Prapai’s. When he pulled back again, Sky took Prapai’s hand close to his chest and squeezed it a little, while Prapai looked at him in surprise. He never expected Sky to do such a thing, especially not out of the blue.

“I’m sorry, please don’t be mad at me.”, Sky said, fumbling on Prapai’s fingers, “but please help me.”, he looked at Prapai with doe-eyes, having a light apologetic smile on his lips.

Prapai sighed at the look of that. He completely lost to Sky. He closed his eyes for a moment, gathering his thoughts again and then looked back to Sky.

“I’m not mad. So, what should I do?”

Sky smiled brightly, letting go of his hand and taking a few things from the table.

“Alright, I’ll show you!”

~

It was 3 a.m. when Sky placed the last tree and began to clean everything up. Prapai already went to sleep not long ago. Sky laid down next to Prapai, looking at him from the side.

‘Please don’t be mad at me. I’m trying my best, but it’s hard to open up again.’, Sky thought, taking his pillow to move closer to Prapai.

“And Cloud, please don’t be mad at him either. He was just really worried about me, isn’t that a good thing actually? No need to curse him like that!”, Sky whispered, not wanting to wake up Prapai.

“Yeah, yeah I get it. But that’s still no reason for him to snap at you like that. I don’t trust him, but I have to admit that he really helped you today…”, Sky smiled at that. Maybe someday Prapai can get Cloud’s trust too, just like Rain. Then he wouldn’t have to fight with Cloud about the things regarding Prapai anymore.

“But!”, Cloud began and Sky’s smile faded again, “why on earth did you just kiss him like that? That really wasn’t necessary, don’t you think?”

At least Sky didn’t get scolded like last time. Maybe Cloud could already accept smaller matters like a peck.

“I didn’t want him to be mad at me anymore. And that was the best way I thought of.”, Sky said silently. His eyelids were heavy and it didn’t take long for him to fall asleep. Even if Cloud answered him, he didn’t hear it anymore.

***

On the next day, Prapai drove Sky to his faculty.

“I’m really sorry again for making you worry like that yesterday.” Sky said, holding his project tightly in his hands.

“Then…let me punish you?”, Prapai grinned.

“Punish?”

“Yeah. With a kiss.” Sky rolled his eyes. He was glad, Prapai was back to his normal self again, but that, unfortunately, included his teasing.

“You’re crazy!”, Sky said and Prapai smiled.

“Hah! Keep it up Sky, that’s the mindset!”, Cloud laughed, jokingly supporting Sky.

“What? Did I say something wrong?”, Prapai asked, acting as if he was genuinely confused, “It’s a punishment.”

“You think it’s funny?”, Sky sulked a little.

“Wanna hear me laugh?”, Prapai smiled brightly, “but believe me I’m not angry anymore. Okay, if I’m honest I was angry yesterday, but not anymore.”, his gaze swayed off a little.

“And you’re never mad when I visit you out of the blue, so how could I be mad now? I’m rather happy that you thought of me when you’re in trouble. That means you trust me to some extend, no?” Prapai shifted on his bike, “besides, the reward’s worth it!” he smiled teasingly again, bringing his focus back to Sky.

Sky raised an eybrow, “working the whole night for just one kiss? What a cheap reward.” He chuckled.

“Everyone places different values on different things. And you’re priceless to me.”, Sky was speechless at that. Even Cloud became silent and couldn’t say anything against it.

“I should rather leave now before I can’t hold back anymore.”, Prapai said, wanting to put on his helmet again, but he stopped mid-air remembering something, “Just know, that I’ll always help you. But please explain your problem to me properly next time. Don’t make worry like that again, okay?”, he looked at Sky once again and Sky could see that he was not playing around with that. Rather, he was really serious. And Sky could totally understand that. He quickly nodded.

When Prapai made a second attempt at putting on his helmet, Sky stopped him.

“Wait!”

He shifted from one foot to the other, thinking it through one more time, but when he felt Prapai’s gaze linger on him, he quickly bent forward and placed a kiss on Prapai’s lips, much to Cloud’s dissatisfaction.

Prapai was really surprised. He didn’t expect Sky to actually kiss him, it was more a joke than anything because he thought that Sky would rather get shy and curse him again.

But just when Prapai got over his initial surprise, Sky pulled away.

“I received my punishment. Be safe on your way home.”, and just like that, Sky turned around and quickly left Prapai behind.

“Can’t I get another one? I wasn’t prepared…”, but Sky was already halfway into his faculty, ignoring the last sentence from Prapai.

When Sky was back at his dorm that evening, he copied the almost completely faded drawing from his hand onto a paper and hung it on his notice board.

‘It won’t fade like this.’, he thought and got lost in his thoughts while looking at the drawing.

***

The next day, Sky’s mind was still resting, while Cloud was cleaning his room. However, he wasn’t just calmly cleaning, he was rather displeased while doing so because Prapai was sitting at the small table, watching him.

“Do you need any help today too? Cutting, gluing, whatever it is, I can do it for you.”, he said and Cloud rolled his eyes.

“How about shutting your mouth?”, he suggested putting some rulers and pencils back into the quadratic holder on his desk.

Prapai stood up, making a few steps forward, “Why don’t you try shutting it with yours?”, he asked, grinning teasingly.

Cloud stopped in his track, turning towards Prapai. An idea came to his mind and he smiled at Prapai.

“So you’ll do anything?”, he asked closing the distance between them a little.

“Sure. For you, nothing would be a problem.”, Prapai assured him.

“Then…”, Cloud began, stepping forward again. He could see Prapai’s eyes light up with the hints of proximity. Cloud smiled innocently, “…go clean the bathroom for me.”

The light in Prapai’s eyes went away just as quickly as it came and his smile faltered slowly.

“Clean the bathroom?”, he asked, looking over his shoulder to said bathroom.

“Yeah. Or are you going back on your words? You said-“

“No, I can do it.”, Prapai interrupted him. “No problem at all!”

After Cloud was done with the main room, he made his way to the bathroom to watch Prapai for a while. He was cleaning the toilet but still noticed that Cloud was watching him.

“Wouldn’t it be easier for you to just go home? Why do you make all these efforts for just a one-night-stand?”, Cloud asked, seemingly not understanding Prapai’s actions.

“I told you it won’t be easy to get rid of me.”, he smiled, not bothering to stop cleaning.

“Then make it spotless.”, Cloud said, getting annoyed again. He just couldn’t grasp why Prapai would do all of this. There were easier targets to get into bed, it didn’t have to be Sky.

At least Prapai made a good cleaner and Cloud didn’t have to do much anymore. He laid down onto the bed and began to read a manga, letting Prapai clean the bedroom.

“Don’t forget to dust off the top of the shelfs.”, he said nonchalant, not bothering to look up from his manga.

Prapai could just smile, “Yes sir.”

“If you don’t want to do it anymore just go home. I won’t stop you.”, Cloud said, finally looking away from his manga.

“It’s no big deal.”, Prapai stood up and supported his weight on the little bedside table.

“Then sort the books.”, Cloud just shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t really care anymore as long as Prapai didn’t do anything bad. Even better, he had a free cleaning service.

However when Prapai started to sort the books, Cloud couldn’t watch it. Has he never done such a thing? He swiftly stood up, taking a few books out of Prapai’s hand.

“What are you even doing? The books need to be sorted by volume and series. Like this, okay?”, Cloud put the books he took from Prapai into the correct order. Prapai watched him attentively.

“Oh okay. Thank you.”, he said, smiling at Cloud.

“I won’t help you any more than this. Get it done yourself, you wanted to help.”, Cloud said and laid back down on the bed.

After a while, Cloud noticed that Sky was awake and he pulled away to let Sky take over again. He quickly told him what was going on until now and Sky was a little surprised that Prapai was willing to do so much, even though he knew that Cloud propably didn’t treat him very nicely.

In the evening, the whole room was cleaned and Prapai admired his work. Sky was still sitting on the bed, feeling kind of bad that Cloud made him do all of those things.

However there was another thing that had been gnawing on his mind lately. It became more and more every time Prapai did something for Sky.

“P’Pai.”, Sky began, getting all of Prapai’s attention in an instant.

“When will you get bored of me?”, the question slightly surprised Prapai.

“Do you want sweet words or an honest answer?”, he grinned but it promptly faltered when he saw the seriousness in Sky’s expression. He even looked a little hurt after asking that question.

“Did I ever ask for sweet words from you?”, Sky sulked, looking down at the bed.

Prapai’s grin became a soothing smile, while he was climbing onto the bed as well and sat down in front of Sky. The movement made Sky look at him again.

“I don’t know, Sky. I won’t know until that day comes.”, Prapai said sincerely. Sky’s eyes looked really hurt upon hearing such an answer.

“But you’ll get bored someday.”, he said and Prapai was getting a bit confused.

“Sky, what are you so afraid of?”, he asked, worry glazing over his own expression. The returned question made Sky’s gaze wander away from Prapai and he looked at a point next to him. The hurtful look in his eyes intensified and Prapai’s heart ached from seeing Sky like this.

He pulled him into a hug.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be right here. I won’t leave you.”, Prapai said confidently, holding Sky tight in his embrace.

Sky could feel the warmth of Prapai’s hug and in an instant his worry flew away. He could only focus on the safe feeling Prapai gave him and it made his heart skip a beat. After a while he pulled away again, not daring to look at Prapai.

“Okay, I give in.”, Sky finally said and before Prapai could even ask what he meant, Sky grabbed his shoulders and flipped him over. He now sat on top of Prapai, slipping out of his shirt in one quick movement.

“Wait, wait, wait, what do you mean?”, Prapai stopped Sky in his tracks, “please stop joking around.”

He had a feeling at what Sky meant, his intentions were anything but hidden, however his brain couldn’t really comprehend what was going on. Or rather it didn’t want to.

“Yeah Sky, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?!” Cloud was anything but happy with Sky’s actions. However, Sky didn’t just let him take over. He wanted someone to get near him again. He wanted to try to open up to other people. Even if Cloud didn’t trust Prapai, Sky did.

He saw all the things Prapai did for him and Sky could tell from Prapai’s reaction just now, that he was not just trying to get Sky into bed with him.

“I don’t see any problem here. It’s what I want to do and I’m certain, that he doesn’t just seek sex from me!”, Sky said to Cloud in his mind. He has had enough of Cloud’s incapability to trust anyone and he wants to live his life without constantly being scolded by Cloud just because he seeks proximity with another person again.

Sky could sense the raging anger inside of his mind that was coming from Cloud.

“Alright! Do what you want!”, he said, almost screaming inside of Sky’s mind, “if you think that you don’t need my advice or protection anymore, then go for it! You’ll see what I meant when the time comes!”

In an instant, Sky’s mind became silent again. But Sky didn’t want to think about that now. He could talk with Cloud later on and then he’ll probably calm down again. His focus went back to Prapai, who was still looking at him in complete confusion.

“I meant exactly what I said.”, Prapai could see the seriousness in his eyes, “I won’t stop you anymore.”

But before Sky could do anything more, Prapai held him into place on his waist.

“Please Sky, wait. I didn’t do all of this just to sleep with you. Fine I want to do it…”, Prapai threw his head back down on the pillow but he quickly snapped up again to look at Sky, who was silently observing every movement. “But that’s not the whole reason, okay?”

“I came here because I wanted to see you. I’m satisfied with just making out.”, Sky saw that he was really serious about everything he said, which made him even more confident that this would be the right choice.

Prapai added with a small voice, “but it would be nice to taste your whole body.”, but quickly realized what he mumbled. He closed his eyes, angry at himself and sighing “I sound like a total dick. Forget it!”, in an instant Prapai’s focus was on Sky again, “I’m not just looking for sex from you, okay?! I don’t-“

But Sky couldn’t listen to his ramble any longer. He quickly bent down and shut Prapai’s mouth with his own, just like he wanted earlier. Sky could feel Prapai’s breath hitch at his action.

He nibbled on Prapai’s lower lip, lifting his head just a few inches to have a better look at Prapai’s eyes. They were filled with the hunger for more but there was still a hint of doubt and worry. Sky tried to convey his feelings of wanting into his own gaze and it seemed like Prapai was getting the hint.

He promptly placed his hands on the sides of Sky’s neck, thumbs tracing his jawline, before Prapai pulled him down into another heated kiss. Their breaths mingled while Sky grabbed Prapai’s left hand to hold onto it.

However, he broke the kiss one more time, “please just shut up and take me.”

Prapai already missed the feeling of Sky’s lips on his. “Are you sure?”

“Don’t you want me?”, Sky breathed, still holding onto Prapai’s hand. However, he didn’t really await an answer and went directly for another kiss.

“I do.”, Prapai mumbled into the kiss and Sky could just smile at that.

‘And this time, it will be the real me.’, he thought while slowly closing his eyes to enjoy the moment.

Other than the first two heated kisses, this kiss started softly. Their lips brushed against each other’s and the pressure was just enough for it to be a small peck. After a few seconds though, Prapai’s hand slipped to Sky’s nape and he pulled him closer to deepen the kiss once more. He licked against Sky’s closed lips and Sky open them a little for Prapai to be able to slid his tongue inside. Prapai tasted his inner mouth and he felt Sky’s hot breath on his skin. Wet sounds echoed through the room, while the two of them could only hear their fastening breaths and heartbeats.

In an instant, Prapai sat up with Sky on top of him and they continued to kiss eagerly. Sky held onto Prapai’s neck and Prapai’s hand went down to his own shirt as he swiftly took it off too, before taking in Sky’s lips again. He then slid up and down Sky’s bare upper body, teasingly avoiding the sensitive areas, which made Sky gasp into his mouth. After teasing him for a while, Prapai finally brushed over Sky’s nipple and moved from his lips down to his neck to gently suck on it.

The sensation made Sky moan breathily and he tilted his head backwards to give Prapai more access. Prapai began to kiss downwards – from Sky’s jawline, down to his collar bone, his sternum and finally his chest. The feeling made Sky tightly clutch at Prapai’s hair and when Prapai licked over his nipple he cursed under his breath.

The sounds made Prapai grin and he began to suck and nibble on it even more. At the same time, Prapai also rubbed and pinched his other nipple and Sky’s breath came out in short huffs. He felt overwhelmed by the feeling as he never knew that sex could feel this good. It had always been a pain for him and Sky was never left with good memories from it. But this was entirely different than before. Everytime Prapai touched him, kissed him, licked over his skin or even softly bit into it, Sky’s whole body was on fire.

With one last lick, Prapai kissed upwarts again, claiming Sky’s lips once more. Sky melted into the kiss and he felt Prapais hand rest on his thigh. He inched closer to his crotch, bit by bit, and Sky felt his whole body tingle. When Prapai cupped the growing bulge in his pants and rubbed against it, Sky moaned loudly. He could just come from the touch alone.

“P’Pai, please…”, Sky begged, not breaking the kiss.

“Tell me what you want.”, Prapai grinned, increasing the pressure on Sky’s bulge.

Sky whimpered and tightly tugged on Prapai’s hair, which made the other look at him. Sky could see the want and desire in his eyes.

“Please do something about this…”, he whined, wanting to kiss Prapai again.

But in that moment, Prapai flipped them both, slamming Sky onto the bed. In a swift movement, he unzipped Sky’s pants and took them off. Prapai kissed the inside of Sky’s thigh, working his way to his sensitive zone. Sky gripped the bedsheets and closed his eyes while heavy breaths echoed through the room.

“Hurry up, P’Pai. Please…”, Sky panted and looked at Prapai.

Prapai pulled Sky’s underwear down with his teeth, reavealing Sky’s hard and leaking dick. He savoured the sight for a moment: Sky lying under him, coated with a thin sheen of sweat and panting heavily. His eyes half-closed with a glassy look in them. His own dick twitched at the sight but he didn’t want to go too fast. He wanted Sky to feel good, maybe even loose his mind over it. The last thing he’d want would be that he only chased his own orgasm or, even worse, hurt Sky in the process.

However, Prapai couldn’t help but groan at the look of desire in Sky’s eyes. He slowly bent down again and teased with kisses on Sky’s inner thigh or lower belly, avoiding the sensitive area once again. Sky whined with every kiss and when Prapai did an experimental lick over his shaft, he cried out. Prapai placed another kiss on Sky’s body, this time on the head of his dick and licked over the slit. He slowly took him in fully and began to bop his head, steadily setting a rhythm.

Sky’s whole body twitched at the new sensation, as he was only ever forced to give before. He never received anything like this. With every bop, Sky moaned loudly and he arched his back. His head was getting fuzzy when he felt Prapai increase both, pressure and speed. Slowly there was pressure building in Sky’s abdomen. His breath began to hitch.

“P’Pai, stop…”, he swallowed a moan, “I’m close.”

But instead of stopping, Prapai began to massage his thighs, working towards his crotch. Heat spreaded through Sky’s whole body and with a long moan, Sky came. Prapai swallowed every last drop and wiped off his mouth.

“Felt good?”, he asked and Sky could just nod breathlessly, still coming down from his high.

But he couldn’t rest for long, when he felt something cold being poured over him. Sky shuddered and realized that Prapai took out some lube to use.

“What, you thought we’re done already? This was only part of the foreplay, Sky.”, Prapai said with a grin on his lips.

He bent forward to kiss Sky, while slowly sinking one of his fingers inside Sky. With Prapai’s finger being inserted into him, Sky couldn’t help but cling onto Prapai’s back, nails digging into his skin. Slowly, Prapai began to massage Sky’s inner walls eliciting breathy moans from him. Each thrust of his finger made Sky tighten around it.

Prapai moved around Sky’s head to whisper into his ear, “Relax, or you’ll get hurt.”

His lips brushed Sky’s ear and Sky shuddered at the touch, sighing when Prapai’s breath tickled his ear. He tried his best to relax and soon enough, Prapai pushed a second finger inside. He began to spread Sky open, pushing his fingers even further inside. After some searching, Sky suddenly cried out, which made Prapai smile.

“There it is.”, he said, sucking on Sky’s throat until it turned red. Sky couldn’t think clearly anymore. He turned into a moaning mess, everytime Prapai thrusted into his sweet spot. After a while, Prapai thougt it was spreaded wide enough and he pulled his fingers out.

Sky whined at the empty feeling and missed Prapai’s fingers inside of him already. He watched as Prapai took a condom out of the bedside table. When he ripped it open with his teeth and ran his fingers through his hairs, Sky felt a burning hot sensation in his cheeks.

The sweat glissened on Prapai’s chest while he took out his own dick to put on the condom. As soon as Prapai zipped his pants open, Sky could see, that he was already rock hard as well. Prapai took his pants off and lined himself up on Sky’s entrance.

“You okay?”, he asked and Sky let out a breathy ‘mhm’.

With the given consent, Prapai slowly pushed inside, groaning at the hot feeling of Sky’s insides. Sky clenched around him and moaned with each push.

“Relax, it’ll feel really good in a minute.”, Prapai ensured.

When he fully buried himself inside Sky, both of them catched their breaths for a second. Prapai kissed Sky again and twirled his tongue around his. Wet sounds came from the both of them before Prapai sucked on Sky’s lower lip while gently pulling his dick out just until the head was still inside. He then snapped it back and established a steady rhythm in which he thrust inside.

“Fuck, you feel so good.”, Prapai groaned and Sky whimpered at the comment.

The sound of flesh hitting flesh filled the air and Sky’s moans soon became a mixture of him moaning Prapai’s name and cursing under his breath. In between Prapai could sometimes make out the breathy words “so good” or “don’t stop”.

Prapai steadily fucked into Sky’s sweet spot and Sky could once again feel the pleasure coiling in his stomach. He clenched around Prapai’s dick, breath hitching and heat spreading through his entire body. A loud moan errupted from deep inside of him when he came and Sky clung onto Prapai, before his body went limp. His insides were pulsing which pushed Prapai over the edge too. His rhythm became erratic and he pushed deep inside one last time before he, too, came.

Prapai collapsed onto Sky, both of them in need of breath while they came down from their highs. After their breaths became more steady again, Prapai tenderly pushed out and got up to clean both of them. Sky was already half-asleep when he was done with the cleaning, but when Prapai laid down beside him, he subconsciously moved closer.

Prapai laid his arm around Sky’s head and began to gently stroke his hair. He felt Sky’s body relax completely and heard his breath evening out.

***

The next morning, both of them lay in bed, cuddled tightly against each other. Sky felt Prapai’s warmth on his back and he felt safe in his arms.

“Sky~”, Prapai whispered into his ear after a while.

But Sky didn’t answer. He looked outside of the window and just enjoyed the company.

“My Sky~”, Prapai tried again and this time Sky blushed a little.

Feeling the emotions inside overwhelm him a little, he quickly turned to Prapai, “Could you stop that? I only slept with you so you would shut up about it!”

“Okay, I’ll stop darling.”, Prapai grinned and Sky’s heart skipped a beat.

“I’m not your darling.” Sky said and slightly looked away from Prapai. The heat in his cheeks made him smile but he tried to surpress it.

“Yeah you’re not…”, Prapai began while slightly shifting closer to Sky’s ear, “’cause you’re my honey!”

The warm breath made Sky tingle a little and he could no longer hide his smile.

“By the way you still didn’t answer what your favourite food is.” Prapai said while shifting onto his side. Sky also turned to him again, laying completely on his back while Prapais arm was still under his head, functioning as a pillow for Sky.

“Why do you even need to know?”, he said, “you bring me any food almost everyday.”

“But if I know what you like, then I could bring you the food you actually enjoy.”

Sky made a sound of acknowledgement, “I’ll eat anything, as long as it’s with rice. Any side dish will do I just don’t like noodles.”

“Favourite colour?” Prapai quickly asked. If Sky is in the mood to answer a few questions now, he wants to use the moment.

“Emerald green.”

“Sea or mountains?”

“Mountains.”

“Action movie or romance movie?”, Prapai shifted a little closer

“Action movies.”

Prapai smiled. That was already a lot of new information he got to know about Sky.

Sky also slightly smiled and he could feel the blush intensifying.

“Right.”, Prapai began after a moment of silence, “doesn’t your dad mind that you’re not going back to him in Lopbury?”

Sky’s smile faded and got replaced with a small look of playful annoyance in his eyes, “Did Rain tell you where my home is?”

Prapai’s smile just turned into a grin and Sky made a mental note to tell Rain not to say everything about him even when Prapai asks. Rain really just couldn’t keep any secrets or personal information. It was the same when he had a crush on Phayu, Sky got to know every little thing, if he wanted or not.

He took a deep breath, “he doesn’t mind. I’ve been in Bangkok since high school. My uncle has a few houses, so he gave one to me.”

Prapai’s eyes softened and he began to stroke Sky’s hair after pulling his arm out from under Sky’s head.

“Did you have a hard time?”

“Come on. I can’t call it a hard time. I was living alone at 15 and my parents sent me money every month. It was like I gained more freedom than the other children around me, some were even envious of me. I just could do anything I wanted.”

Sky’s gaze wandered around for a moment, reminiscing a little.

“Besides, I may not look like it but I was a troublemaker back then.”

Prapai looked Sky up and down for moment, “So, you got pierced in highschool?”

In a swift movement, Sky covered his chest. The light in his eyes while talking about old times quickly faded, “stop looking there.”

Prapai grinned a little “Come on, put on the rings for me. I want to see it.”

“No!”, Sky’s gaze was serious

“Please?”

“No! I don’t wear them anymore.”

“Pretty please?”

Sky rolled his eyes, “My ex pierced me.”

With those words, Prapai became silent and the grin instantly vanished.

“Nevermind then.”, he thought for a moment, “do you still love him?”

Sky furrowed his brows and his gaze was tinted with a hint of disgust, “would I sleep with you if I still did?”

Prapai began to stroke his hair again and smiled.

“I want to leave behind everything about him.”, Sky said and dropped his arms down again, “I always come across assholes.”

“That’s not true! You won’t find a good guy like me in any other life.”

Sky glanced over to Prapai again for a moment before he moved away from him. However for Prapai it was a sign to shift closer again as he laid his head in the crook of Sky’s neck.

“You’re so full of yourself.”, he mumbeled but still, there was a hint of a smile on his face again.

“I’m happy”, Prapai said into Sky’s neck and Sky could feel the vibration that went through his chest while he was talking.

“Anyways, you should wash up. Your sweat smells.”, Sky said and theatrical held his hand in front of his nose.

“That’s mean! I don’t smell like sweat, I also smell like…”, Prapai began and realized that, in fact, he did smell. It didn’t matter what it was.

“I have shampoo in my bathroom, just use that.” Sky said and Prapai quickly got up and went into the bathroom.

Sky’s gaze followed him before he vanished behind the corner and it didn’t take long for Sky to grab Prapai’s shirt. He deeply inhaled his scent and kept it close to his body when the memories of the night before came flooding in. Sky blushed and his heart rate picked up once more when it dawned on him.

Cloud hasn’t said anything since they fought right before that.

“Cloud? Are you still mad at me?”, Sky tried to call for him softly but there was no answer.

“Cloud?”, he tried again. They had a few disagreements in the past but Cloud had never ignored him before.

“Could you please talk to me? I don’t think that I’ve done anything wrong for you to ignore me now! Maybe we’re not of the same opinion but that’s no reason.”, Sky began to get angry.

Is he seriously ignoring him just because they don’t share an opinion?

Sky tried to talk to Cloud again and again that day, whenever he was alone for a moment but there was no answer at all. Even Rain didn’t know what to do when Sky told him that Cloud was ignoring him.

“I’m not familiar with a split personality, so I can’t really help you. Sorry Sky.”, he said.

Sky only had one last opportunity he hadn’t tried yet. His dream-talks with Cloud were always successful when he and Cloud had a disagreement in the past. But that was at times where Cloud would still begrudgingly answer him with half-hearted and short answers. Nevertheless they were still some kind of answers. Unlike this time, where Cloud ignored Sky completely.

When Sky laid down and closed his eyes, he wandered around the once familiar dreamscape, where he and Cloud always talked.

But this time there was nothing familiar about it.

No light.

No colours.

No Cloud.

“Cloud?”, Sky called into the darkness, “Cloud where are you?”

He remembered their fight last night and what Cloud had said before his mind went completely silent.

“Alright! Do what you want! If you think that you don’t need my advice or protection anymore, then go for it! You’ll see what I meant when the time comes!”

Sky felt his heart ache and his throat began to burn.

“Cloud? I’m sorry, could you please come back?”, his voice broke and he could feel hot tears in his eyes. They silently ran down his cheek when there was still no answer.

“Cloud…?”, his voice was nothing more than a mere whisper at this point. But normally Cloud could even hear that.

Not this time though.

There was no answer whatsoever.

Sky’s dreamscape stayed wrapped in darkness and Cloud stayed gone.

Sky’s knees gave away. If he directly talked with Cloud when he was angry, could he have managed to change his mind? Would Cloud then still be here, even if they didn’t share an opinion?

But now it was too late.

Cloud wasn’t here anymore and no matter what Sky tried he didn’t answer him.

Thick tears streamed over Sky’s face while it became hard to breath and his throat burned.

However, this time there was no hand to wipe away his tears or draw soothing circles over his back. This time there were no arms to hold him close and steady until Sky could catch his breath again. This time there was no calming voice, whispering comforting words into his ear.

This time, Sky was alone. And he didn’t know what to do now.

Chapter Text

It has been a week since Cloud disappeared. Sky’s attempts to call out for him became lesser with each passing day. It was unfamiliar to live his life without Cloud. He grew accustomed to his constant blabbering and scolding just because he deemed everything dangerous that came near Sky. But he just wanted to protect Sky, after all Cloud appeared due to Sky not being safe and he didn’t know anything before that.

His purpose was to protect Sky but now he was gone and it became awfully quiet inside of Sky’s mind.

The only light in these times was Prapai. Even though he was still quite annoying sometimes, Sky enjoyed his company, because Prapai could distract him from his thoughts. That was also the case on this day, where Prapai went along with Sky on a shopping tour.

They were walking through the mall, searching for crafting items that Sky needed for his school projects.

“Everyone’s looking at you.”, Prapai said suddenly, which made Sky look around.

“They’re rather looking at you. Why should they look at me?”, he said, continuing his search for a glue stick.

“Well, maybe because you’re cute. Next time we should wear couple T-shirts so they know that you’re taken.”, Prapai grinned. Sky began to smile and he felt himself blushing.

“What should we write on them though? I know! On mine there has to be ‘the boy next to me is taken’, and yours should be ‘the one next to me is my hubby’!”, Prapai explained and slightly bent in front of Sky to look at his face.

The movement made Sky stop smiling instantly.

“Your head is full of nonsense!”, he quickly said to cover his inner happiness.

“But it made you smile, no?”, Prapai’s grinned widened.

“It didn’t!”, Sky turned away from Prapai and finally found the glue sticks.

“Should I get you a mirror?”, Prapai asked following Sky, “by the way, why are we even buying these things in a mall? Aren’t they also sold at the university?”

Sky paused for a moment, “well…they’re much cheaper here!”, he quickly said and took some glue sticks.

“So it’s not because you wanted to take me out on a date?”

“Don’t get your hopes up!”, Sky turned away from Prapai and straight up went to the checkout.

When they were walking through the mall once more, Sky’s stomach began to growl and he decided to eat at a barbecue place.

“Why this place?”, Prapai asked after they sat down.

“I just wanted to eat grilled meat.”

“And here I thought it was because I once told you that I like barbecue.”, Prapai pouted playfully.

Sky began to put some meat on Prapai’s plate and just ignored the last comment from him. After a while Prapai also took some meat and held it in front of Sky, the latter looking at him in confusion.

“Don’t just put food on my plate, you should eat something too. You’ve gotten more skinny since you got sick.”, Prapai said, smiling at Sky.

“Everyone is looking at us!”, Sky tried to keep his voice down, even though his inner feelings exploded at the small gesture from Prapai.

“Let them look. I don’t care. If I want to take care of you, then I won’t stop just because someone is looking at me.”, Prapai said, stretching his arm out some more to signal Sky that he’s still waiting.

Sky begrudgingly ate the piece of meat Prapai held out for him, avoiding eye contact with him while doing so.

“People will misunderstand me as your boyfriend…”, Sky mumbled, but Prapai still heard him.

“You’re right!”, Prapai’s eyes suddenly turned serious, as if he really never thought that far, “They shouldn’t misunderstand, you’re my wife after all!”, his seriousness faded quickly and got replaced by a teasing grin.

Sky’s eyes widened and he looked at Prapai again, “don’t say that! Especially not so loud!”

“You’re blushing. Does that mean you like this idea?”

“I’m not blushing! The smoke is just hot.”, Sky’s gaze wandered off but he still saw Prapai smile from the corner of his eyes.

The rest of the meal went relatively normal, with a few teasings here and there from Prapai and afterwards, they went home. It was already getting later, when they were driving home.

“I totally forgot something!”, Prapai suddenly said.

“What’s wrong?”, Sky asked.

“Today is the birthday of a friend and he invited me to his birthday party. But I don’t really want to go…”, when they stopped at a red traffic light, Prapai looked over to Sky, “would it be okay, if we quickly went to my apartement to get the present? Then I can drop it off at least.”

“Okay.”, Sky nodded and they made their way to Prapai’s apartement. When they went up into his room, there was something familiar about it but Sky couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“Do you still remember this room?”, Prapai asked him, when he saw the conflicted expression on Sky’s face.

“Kind of? It’s somehow familiar…”, but then he remembered. It’s where he and Prapai first slept together! The thought of it made Sky blush and Prapai chuckled at the sight.

“Remembered? Looks like it at least.”, Sky just nodded with an embarassed laugh.

He remembered the aftermatch, due to Cloud taking over for the night, but when he left the next day he saw the room for a moment. The thought of Cloud made him sad again, so Sky tried to think about other stuff.

He looked around the room. There was a big window on one side which gave a panorama view over parts of the city. Sky stepped closer to the window to look at the view and Prapai followed him shortly after. He laid his chin on Sky’s shoulder.

“Do you like it?”, Prapai asked and Sky nodded.

“Then I’ll give it to you.”, Sky’s head snapped to Prapai and he turned around.

“What are you saying?”, Sky asked but there was no hint of teasing in Prapai’s eyes.

“I’m serious. This room is filled with memories of you, there’s no reason for me to come here without you.”, Sky was flabbergasted and he couldn’t do anything than just look at Prapai wordlessly.

Prapai took Sky’s hand and led him into the bedroom.

“You ripped my shirt off here, remember?”, but Sky could not. It wasn’t him that did all of these things after all.

“But I’m not the only one.”, Sky replied, “you surely also take others here to do these kinds of things.”

“Come on! You know I’ve stopped doing that months ago!”, Prapai turned Sky to the wall and pinned him against it.

“I only want to do these things with you.”, his tone dropped lower, his gaze serious.

“Everytime you snarl at me, I want you to do it again. Everytime you wonder when I’ll get bored of you, I want to assure you that I won’t. You’re the only one on my mind all day long.”

Sky’s heart skipped a beat and he felt butterflys in his stomach. His feelings overwhelmed him, so Sky could just close his eyes and turn his head away from Prapai in order to try and calm down. He felt Prapai shifting closer and his breath ghosted over Sky’s skin.

Prapai lightly cupped Sky’s cheek with his right hand and Sky got goosebumbs just from the touch.

“Just tell me what to do, because I like you so much.”, Prapai said softly, “Please open your eyes.”

“Why?”, Sky asked.

“I want to kiss you.”, Prapai answered truthfully and Sky slowly opened his eyes.

He turned his head to Prapai and they slowly inched closer until their lips touched softly.  Prapai’s thump traced Sky’s jawline as they deepened the kiss. He pressed Sky onto the wall and both of their heartrates picked up. Prapai sucked on Sky’s bottom lip before pulling away.

“I want you to kiss me too.”, Sky admitted, “and I want you to like me.”

Prapai just smiled before he kissed Sky again, the latter holding onto Prapai’s back and grabbing his shirt. They deepend the kiss once more and their tongues intertwined while Prapai pushed Sky through the door right next to them, which led into the bathroom.

In between kisses, Sky asked, “What about the party?”, but Prapai just said “it can wait”, continuing to kiss Sky with heated desire.

He picked Sky up and pressed him into the wall once again, while Sky locked his legs around Prapai’s hips. Their groins grinded together and both of them let out a breathy moan. Sky clung to Prapai, fingers buried in his hair and pulling slighty. At the same time, Prapai began to unzip Sky’s pants, taking out his dick.

It was already half-hard when Prapai began to stroke it. Sky sighed into his mouth and thrust into the touch. Prapai’s focus was fully on Sky and it didn’t take long for him to establish a steady rhythm in which he jerked Sky off.

Sky’s heavy-lided eyes became glassy and his pupils dilated. His huffs intensified with each stroke and they soon turned into high-pitched whimpers. Pleasure began to coil in his stomach and Sky’s head became fuzzy.

“P’Pai”, he moaned, “don’t stop, ah, I’m close…”

They kept on kissing, even when Sky’s breath hitched and he came with a long moan. Prapai stroked him through his orgasm and swallowed every moan from Sky. Listening to them alone brought Prapai to the edge, but it wasn’t quite enough.

While Sky was still coming down from his high, Prapai began to thrust upwarts and grinded against Sky. He groaned and his mouth traveled downwards to Sky’s throat. Sky lifted his head to give Prapai more access and Prapai sucked red marks into his skin. With a few more thrusts, Prapai also tipped over the edge and came in his pants.

Both of them were breathing heavily. Sky’s head rested against the wall, while Prapai still leaned into the crook of his neck. He deeply inhaled Sky’s scent before letting Sky down. His legs were still shaky, so he had to lean against the wall for a few more moments, catching his breath.

Prapai helped him clean himself up and changed his own clothes afterwards, before they made their way to the party.

***

“Come back quickly.”

“I will.”

That was the last thing Sky heard of Prapai and it’s been 35 minutes already. What took him so long? Didn’t he just want to hand over the present and leave again?

And Sky had to go to the toilet. There wouldn’t be a problem if he just quickly used the one inside, would there? He made up his mind and slipped out of the car, not noticing that someone was watching him.

Inside the house, he quickly looked around for a moment when Sky overheard two girls talk.

“Just look at them. They’re so cute together.”, one of them said.

“Totally! Is it perhaps P’Pai’s boyfriend?”

Sky froze when he heard the name and looked into the same direction as the two girls.

There he was: sitting on the couch, his back turned to Sky, with another guy Sky hasn’t seen before. The other guy had his arms slung around Prapai’s shoulders and they looked really close. Sky felt tears welling up and he quickly fled the scene.

When he arrived at the car and sat inside, hot tears came streaming down his face. He didn’t even try to surpress the sob that made his way up his throat and memories of the past flooded his mind.

“No one would want someone like you!”

“You’re just a toy. Did you really think anyone would truly love you?”

“You’re so pathetic, Sky! Haha, just look at him.”

Sky felt his throat burn from the sobs but the tears just wouldn’t stop flooding.

‘It’s happening again. I was fooled again…’, Sky thought, while trying to stop the tears. He tried to wipe them away but just achieved to look even more teary than before. After a while, he managed to wipe away most of the tears, just in time for Prapai to step out of the house again.

When Sky noticed him, he quickly closed his eyes and turned his face away from the driver’s seat to hide his tear-stained face and swollen eyes.

“Sky, are you asleep?”, Prapai asked when he got inside the car, “sorry that it took so long.”

He started the engine and drove off, not noticing that Sky opened his eyes slightly and was now looking outside of the window.

Behind them, a guy slipped out of the darkness and followed the car with his gaze. He took out his phone from one of his pockets and called someone.

“Hey Gun. Your little Sky seems to have a new guy. It looked like Prapai.”, he said with a wicked grin.

***

When Prapai arrived at the gateway of Sky’s dorm, Sky’s tears dried up completely, so when he got out of the car and said goodbye to Prapai, the older didn’t notice that anything was off.

Sky numbly went up the stairs and opened his room. He instantly sat down on his desk and subconsciously grabbed a notebook. Past Memories he made with Prapai flooded his mind and the numbness inside of Sky got replaced with another wave of sadness. Hot tears came crashing down and Sky began to write the memories and details of Prapai into the notebook.

When Prapai drew the wind symbol on his hand.

The time Prapai invited him to a Restaurant.

The days where Sky was sick and Prapai took care of him.

Every annoyingly sweet thing he said to Sky, promised him, and then went and broke them after getting what he wanted.

The shopping tour they had together.

Some tears landed on the pages and wetted them, but Sky didn’t have the mental strength to mind them. After writing everything down in order to forget all the memories, forget Prapai, Sky also wrote down every thought he had. He wanted to clear his mind of all the sad things, so he could manage to continue with his life.

A sob ripped through the air, “Cloud…I’m so sorry…”

Sky let the pen fall onto his desk and covered his tear-stained face with his hands. He weeped into them and muffled the sobs through it.

“You were right with everything. I should’ve listened to you…”, Sky’s voice broke, ”Please come back…”, it was nothing but a whisper at this point.

But there was still no sign of Cloud. Sky was completely alone and the only distraction from that fact was now gone too.

***

It had been two weeks since Sky cut Prapai out of his life and everytime Prapai wanted to see him, he came up with another excuse as to why he can’t meet him. Sometimes, Sky just ignored the phone calls from Prapai and he even moved to his friend’s house for the time being in order to not accidentally meet Prapai on his way to his dorm. Or even worse: at his dorm.

He wouldn’t have an excuse to avoid him.

Sky sat with his friend at his house and they both worked on an assignment when his phone rang.

Sky looked at it only to see Prapai’s name on the screen. He just wanted to turn it around again when Por began to speak.

“You shouldn’t leave him hanging like that. I can see that you’re hurting but try not to avoid the problem any longer.”

Sky halted for a moment and looked at the screen again. With an aching heart he answered the call.

“Sky! You finally picked up. Where are you? I haven’t been able to reach you for two weeks! I’m  really worried.” Prapai said as soon as he heard the answering ‘click’.

“Where I am and what I’m doing is none of your business.”, Sky said coldly.

There was a pause.

“Do you know what you’ve just said?”

“I do. And if you haven’t understood it already, I’m done with you.”

“What are you-“, Prapai began but Sky interrupted him.

“I can get bored too. I’m tired of you being head over heals for me and I don’t want to pretend to be a pitiful boy anymore.”

After a short pause, Sky added, “And don’t call me anymore. It’s annoying!”

Prapai felt a burning ache in his chest. The feeling was totally new to him, as he had never truly been in love with someone and hurted like this.

“I thought we made it official in the room.”

“Then we’re over. Though I never thought we’ve started anything.”, came the prompt answer from Sky. And with this, he finally hung up, leaving Prapai to himself. A few tears fell from his eyes when he heard the ending tone of the phone call.

Sky just felt numb.

He felt his heart ache, but there were no tears left to cry.

Por looked at Sky with a worried expression.

“Are you okay?”, he asked

“What do you think?”, Sky asked back and Por could see the hurtful look and the faded light in Sky’s eyes.

“Well, I thought you were gonna cry at first, but you didn’t.”, he said, which made Sky look in his direction. There was a moment of silence, in which Por nervously spun the pen in his hands, before Sky said something again.

“Anyways, thanks for letting me stay here.”, he tried to change the topic. But Por didn’t want to change it this suddenly.

“I just don’t get it. I could see how much P’Pai loved you, so why did you suddenly run away, move out of your dorm and break up with him?”

“He doesn’t love me.”, Sky answered, the hurtful look in his eyes intensifying, “he just finds me… unusual, I guess.”

Sky looked down at the table, lost in thoughts and Por gave him the time to think.

“Just let me stay for one more night. Tomorrow I’ll move out of my old dorm and move into the new one.”, Sky said after a while and Por just nodded. He slowly stood up and went to Sky, laying one of his hands on Sky’s shoulder.

“You know, it’s okay to cry. Sometimes it can help. It’s painful to see someone with such a hurtful expression, who is unable to cry.”, and with that, Por left the room, leaving Sky to himself.

That evening, Sky went to his old dorm to start and pack a few things.

When he walked up the stairs and turned around the corner to his room, he froze on the spot. In front of the door to his room stood Prapai, turning to him with a bright smile on his face. Sky couldn’t move and just kept his eyes on Prapai. But with each step, the smile on Prapai’s face faded, or rather Prapai faded. When Sky blinked a few times, he was alone again. There was no sign of Prapai.

Sky shook his head to get himself together. He quickly slipped into his room and to his desk, turning on the small lamp that hung above it. However, just as Sky overlooked his desk, he noticed that something was missing.

He began to search through the remaining stuff on his desk, the panic inside of him growing with each passing second.

“Where is it?!”, he mumbled.

“Are you searching for this?”, a familiar voice asked from behind him.

Sky’s heartrate fastened as he slowly turned around. He wished for it to be just another hallucination, when he saw Prapai sitting on his couch, the notebook Sky was searching for in his hands.

“Is this another one of your jokes?”, Prapai asked as he glanced at said notebook.

“Big brother, two siblings.”, he began to read.

Sky’s panic exploded inside of him, but he was frozen in place and couldn’t move a single muscle.

“No…”, he began but Prapai continued to read from the notebook.

“Annoying, smiles often, has too much time on his hands.”

“Stop, please.”, Sky whispered, still frozen in place.

“Pervert, Narcisstic, you think you’re so hot?”

“No, no, stop!”, all of a sudden, Sky snapped forward, trying to take the notebook away from Prapai but the latter moved it out of Sky’s way and stood up. Sky fell to his knees. Tears started to form and he was sweating. Prapai walked a few steps away from Sky and continued to read.

“Always comes to me, even when he’s exhausted. Brings me to nice Restaurants and cares about me.”

Sky shot up from the floor and launched at Prapai again, a few tears finally sliding down his cheek.

“Please stop!” he cried and his legs gave away halfway, making him tumble to the floor again. He supported his weight on his hands, trying to hold back a sob, when Prapai squatted down in front of him.

“Narcissist, but deserves to be one. Always makes me smile.”, Sky’s eyes widened and another tear escaped his eyes.

“Please stop.”, his voice was strained.

“Please don’t leave me. Please don’t like anyone else. I know I’m boring, unpretty, uncute.”, Prapai didn’t stop. He looked directly at Sky, while Sky was trying to avoid his gaze. He leaned backwarts to sit on his legs, still supporting his weight with his arms.

Sky’s throat burned and his whole body was shaking from the supressed sobs.

“What should I do to make you stay?”, Prapai read aloud. Sky tried to cover his ears, but Prapai grabbed his wrist to stop him.

“What excuse should I use to ask P’Pai to go out with me?” Prapai suddenly grabbed Sky’s chin to make him look at him “Were you acting when you wrote all of this too, Sky?”, he asked.

Sky’s eyes drifted away, not being able to look at Prapai.

“Look at me, Sky.”, Prapai said softly. When Sky was not moving, he added “please, Sky. Please look into my eyes.”

Finally, Sky looked at him and the tears started to flow silently again. Prapai laid the notebook aside and cupped Sky’s face.

“It’s unfair for you to say it first, right? Alright, then I’ll say it.”, he began, looking directly at Sky. “I don’t like you anymore.”

The sob Sky tried to surpresse the whole time broke free after hearing those words. Thick tears flooded over his cheek and he gasped for air. He never felt his heart ache this much and his whole throat felt like it was on fire.

“I don’t like you anymore,” Prapai began again and wiped a tear from Sky’s face with his thumb, “that’s because I love you.”

Sky’s eyes widened and he weeped even more.

“I love you so damn much, I don’t know what to do.” Prapai confessed, “What about you?”

Sky couldn’t hold back anymore. He crumbled into Prapai’s arms, wraping his own around him and holding tightly onto the fabric of Prapai’s shirt.

“I love you!”, he cried, wetting Prapai’s shoulder with his tears.

“I love you…”, Sky repeated, “please don’t leave me. Please love me. Don’t get tired of me.” Sky whimpered in between sobs.

“Love…Love me….please.”

“I love you. And I won’t ever leave you, Sky.”, Prapai assured and held Sky tightly in his embrace, giving him all the time he needed to calm down again.

It took a while for Sky to stop crying and they moved to the couch, still cuddled against each other and talked everything out.

“So you misunderstood because you saw me hugging someone at that party?”, Prapai asked dumbfounded.

Sky glanced up at him and nodded with a pout. Prapai chuckled.

“I remember talking perfunctorily with him that night. I was trying to leave, but he just wouldn’t let me go. However, all I could think about was you waiting in the car.”, he clarified.

“I even told him I have a boyfriend but he didn’t care.” Sky just nodded again and slowly sat into a straight position, turning his body so he could properly look at Prapai.

“P’Pai”, he began, hesitating for a moment, “so what should I do that you love me and won’t get bored of me?”

A loving gaze lingered in Prapai’s eyes and he smiled softly.

“Just be yourself and I won’t be able to get away.”, he pulled Sky back into his embrace.

“I am so in love with you, there won’t be a time where I’ll ever get bored of you, remember this. I wonder where you even got the idea.”

“From my ex”, Sky admitted.

Prapai looked down to Sky, while the latter’s gaze was focused on something far away, looking almost lost in thoughts.

“We broke up on bad terms. He tried to brainwash me, saying I need to be obedient. When I was resisting he got bored and kind of tossed me away.”, Sky shifted slightly, sitting up once more.

“And…”, his voice broke and Prapai could see the hurt in Sky’s eyes. He cupped his face, pressing a soft kiss onto his forehead.

“It’s okay. You can tell me when you’re ready.”

Sky nodded.

“But do you see me as that kind of man?”, Prapai asked and Sky looked at him, his focus back again.

“I can see nothing.”, he blushed a little, “because love makes me blind.”

Prapai remembered the words he once said to Sky and grinned lovingly.

“Then I guess we’re both blind.”, he added, caressing Sky’s face.

~

“You’re in a relationship?!”, Rain was in complete disbelief.

“I told you I can do it. Don’t you know how capable I am?” Prapai grinned, grabbing Sky’s hand.

“Is it true, Sky?”, Rain asked. He still couldn’t believe it.

“Yeah. We’re going out.”, Sky answered a little shy, “I said that I’ll tell you when I’m dating someone.”

“He just wanted to tell you how much he loves me. That’s why I brought him here”, Prapai added, “though you didn’t do much, you’re the reason we met after all.”

“Really?”, Rain looked at Sky.

“Yeah.” Prapai answered instead. “Why would he lie to you?”

“I’m talking to my friend, not you!” Rain quickly replied.

“Well, Sky gave me his heart, so I know that he really loves me.”, Prapai began to stroke Sky’s hair, smiling brightly at him.

In that moment, Phayu also came inside, sitting next to Rain and wraping his arm around Rain’s shoulders, “Are you sure it’s not just all in your head?”, he mocked.

“That’s true, Sky. Are you drugged perhaps?” Rain added. “You can tell me if P’Pai is forcing you.”

“I’m not! And don’t speak ill of my boyfriend!”, Sky answered and Prapai smiled. Phayu chuckled at his answer.

“Well then make yourself at home, Sky.”, he said and stood up. “Come on Rain, we’ll prepare dinner. You two can stay too.”

But Rain didn’t want to leave yet, “Just a moment. P’Pai can I quickly speak to Sky in private? It won’t take long.”, his expression was rather serious for the light atmosphere, so Prapai accepted and went with Phayu to help with dinner.

Rain bent closer to Sky, his voice low, “Does Cloud accept this? He was already so distrustful with me, did he learn to trust P’Pai now?”

The smile on Sky’s face faded a little.

“About Cloud, I couldn’t talk to him for a while now. We had a big fight regarding P’Pai and he suddenly went completely silent, not answering me anymore.”

Rain hummed in understanding, while the worry he had was clearly on his face.

“Don’t worry about it, Rain. I slowly come to terms with not being able to talk to him anymore and maybe this is a sign that I should start to care for myself. And now I have Prapai, so it won’t trouble me as much.” Sky assured and Rain’s worried expression turned neutral again.

“Okay, as long as you’re fine.”, he said and both of them stood up to go outside, where their boyfriends already waited for them.

***

“We have so much assignments to do!”, Sig complained.

“Yeah it will take a while.”, Rain agreed, “but I can still visit P’Phayu at his garage to do them there. Won’t you be with P’Pai too Sky?”

“Probably. He often comes to my room, so I don’t really have a saying with this.”, he chuckled.

Sig groaned behind them, “yeah just have fun with your boyfriends while the single ones are stuck with the assignments.

“We still have to do them.”, Sky corrected him.

“Oh, by the way Sky.”, Rain leaned over to whisper in Sky’s ear, so no one else would be able to hear him.

“There will be another race soon, do you want to come too? P’Pai will be there to race as well and you could surprise him. While he races you can stay with me and P’Phayu.”, Rain explained.

“Sure.”, Sky answered. It would surely be nice to surpise Prapai and he wanted to see him race since he found out about his love for these races.

“Alright, I’ll text you the time and date later!”, Rain smiled brightly and Sky hummed in agreement.

Chapter Text

It was night and Sky was tossing and turning in his bed. He could feel everything from that time again. It had been a while since he had this nightmare and he was happy about it, but something triggered the memory once more. Maybe the talk about his past with Prapai.

He could feel dirty hands on his skin and disgustingly wet breaths against his ear. The sound of a lighter being opened and closed echoed inside his mind.

Sky mumbled silent pleads into the darkness and a layer of sweat formed on his forehead. With a shout he shot up into a sitting position, breathing heavily with tears in his eyes.

The clicking of the lighter was still faintly in his ears and he jolted at the sound of wind blowing against his curtains. His heart was pounding in his chest and it felt as if it would break out of him any moment.

With trembling hands, Sky clutched his blanket and he missed the reassuring voice inside of his head everytime Sky woke up from such a nightmare.

“Cloud…?”, Sky called but just as expected, there was no answer. His voice was tinged with fear and his breath came out in short huffs.

His eyes darted around the room to secure that he was safe, but it didn’t help him to calm down at all. Sky quickly searched for his phone to enlighten the room a little. The light casted shadows which made Sky jump once more and his tears started to flow.

He turned on his phone and searched for Prapai’s number, quickly pressing the call button once he found it. With his hands still trembling, he held his phone to his ear and waited for the call to be answered.

“Sky?”, he heard his lover’s voice and it instantly gave his body a sense of security.

“What’s wrong? Answer me, please?”, Prapai inquired further when Sky didn’t answer.

Sky took a deep breath, “P’Pai…”, his voice was unsteady and Prapai noticed that something was wrong.

“Are you okay? Are you crying?”, Prapai’s voice was filled with worry.

“Can you come over?”, Sky asked weakly, “I had a nightmare.”, Prapai agreed immediately.

On his side of the line, he quickly went to Phayu. They were in the middle of another race but Sky was his number one priority.

“I have to go. Sky just called and he didn’t sound good.”, Prapai informed him.

“Okay, I’ll cover for you.”, Phayu said full of understanding. Prapai would cover for him too when there was something wrong with Rain, so of course he would support his friend.

Prapai left the race and made his way to his bike, when he was stopped by two people.

“’Sup, nice race today.”, one of them said.

“Thanks, Petch. Finally brought your friend along with you again? Long time no see Gun.”, Prapai answered, wanting to leave quickly.

“Yeah. We saw your IG, your boyfriend’s cute.”, Gun said smiling. Prapai didn’t notice the hidden grin behind it.

“Not just cute, but super cute.”, Prapai smiled too, “But I have to go now, see you around.”

“Bring him along with you next time.”, Petch called after him.

“Okay.”, Prapai said and with that, he quickly walked away, not seeing the exchanged glances between Gun and Petch and the following grin from Gun.

Prapai practically ran up the stairs to Sky’s room as soon as he arrived, fumbling the spare key out of his pocket.

“Sky?”, he called into the empty room and went to the bedroom. Sky was nowhere to be seen and Prapai wondered where he could’ve gone to when arms were wraped around his waist from behind.

Prapai turned around to see Sky just in a towel, with his hair still wet. He could see the fear in Sky’s eyes and pulled him into a tight hug.

“Are you okay?”, Prapai asked and felt the small nod against his chest.

Sky rested his head against Prapai and listened to his heartbeat, which gradually calmed him down.

“Can you promise me something?”, Sky asked, his voice muffled against Prapai’s clothes.

Prapai looked down at Sky, the latter looking up at him. “What is it?”

Sky tightly held onto Prapai, “Can you never let go of my hand?”

Prapai’s heart fluttered and he couldn’t help but smile.

“Of course. I will never let go of you no matter what.”, he planted a soft kiss on Sky’s forehead.

Sky softly returned the smile and Prapai bent down to kiss him. The kiss quickly turned into hunger for each other. They turned and Sky took a few steps backwarts, before he fell onto the bed with Prapai on top of him. They didn’t break the kiss, even when Prapai began to undo the knot on Sky’s towel.

***

The day finally came, where Rain brought Sky to the race. When Prapai saw him, his surprised expression quickly turned into a smile and he strode to Sky.

“What a surprise! I didn’t think that you would come today.”, he said.

“Yeah, Rain invited me and I wanted to see you race.”, Sky answered shyly, blushing under the loving gaze of Prapai.

“I’ll leave you two alone then.”, Rain chuckled, “If you’re done you can just come to me and P’Phayu, we’ll wait for you over there.”, he pointed at a pavillion, where Phayu was already standing, checking on some bikes.

“So you came to watch me”, Prapai pulled Sky closer by his waist, “then I’ll have to perform extra well today.”, he inched closer. Sky suddenly drew back slightly, avoiding Prapai’s gaze.

“What are you doing in public?”, he blushed even more.

“Why, can’t everyone see that you’re my boyfriend?”, Prapai grinned.

Sky got embarrassed and hid his blush behind his hands.

“Sadly, I have to prepare for the next race already. I’ll show what an amazing boyfriend you have, just watch me.”, Prapai ruffled Sky’s hair and quickly stole a kiss from him, before he went to the racing field.

Sky just stood there for a moment, completely flustered, watching Prapai leave. After a few seconds, he made his way to Rain and they both stood at the side of the race to watch.

“Rain, can you quickly give me your car keys?”, Sky asked suddenly and Rain looked at him with confusement.

“Why?”

“I want to get my phone to film the race.”, Rain understood and searched his pockets for the keys. When he found them, he handed them over to Sky and he hurried to the car with a short “thanks.”

When Sky found his phone, he locked the car again and wanted to leave. However, he suddenly heard the clicking of a lighter and froze in place. Memories came crashing in when he slowly turned around.

His hands became sweaty and his heartrate picked up. After seeing who was standing behind him, Sky began to tremble.

Gun.

Sky pressed himself against the car, tightly clutching his phone. Gun slowly stepped closer, still clicking his lighter and grinned widely. When he was only a few steps away from Sky, he stopped in his tracks and put the lighter away.

“Hi, Sky. It’s been a while.”, he said, his voice playful, as if he were talking to a child.

Sky was still frozen in place, unable to answer him. His eyes were glued to Gun, focusing on every little movement he made. His body was filled with tension.

“How have you been?”, Gun asked, acting completely innocent. “Look at you. You’re looking really well. As good as new.”, he took another step forward and brushed a strand of hair out of Sky’s face, which brought Sky’s body to finally move. The tension inside of him exploded and he tried to flee the scene, back to Rain and Phayu, back to safety.

But he didn’t get to flee anywhere, as Gun grabbed his arm, pulling Sky back to him and pinning him against the car. Sky’s breathing sped up and the adrenaline rushed through his body.

“It’s rude to just leave and ignore me, you know.”, Gun said with a wicked smile, harshly seizing Sky by the throat and jaw, “Did you want to run to your beloved P’Pai? Huh, Sky~?”

He huffed a laugh, which sent shivers down Sky’s spine.

“Stay away from me!”, Sky managed to spit out and Gun chuckled again.

“You’ve gotten bolder after becoming Prapai’s boy. Did you really think he would be serious about you?”, Gun bent forward to whisper into Sky’s ears, the younger inhaling sharply, “Don’t be naive”

When he pulled back again, Sky gained controll over his body again and slapped his hand away.

“He’s not a scum like you!”, Sky tried to hide the panic in his voice behind his hate and was finally able to flee. From behind, he heard Gun call his name once more, which made his body go stiff again.

He carefully looked over his shoulder.

“Just remember what I taught you. Earnestness is boring! And who could ever be serious about you? You’re just a broken toy, Sky~.”, Gun grinned. Sky forced himself to move, Gun’s laughter echoing through his mind.

At the same time, Prapai was waiting for Phayu to finish the last checkups on his bike. He stood beside Phayu, watching him when Petch approached him.

“Hey Prapai, let me ask you something real quick.”, Petch began and took Prapai to the side. He wrapped an arm around Prapai and pointed at a girl, who was leaning against a bike.

“I want to hook her up.”, he said.

“And what does that have to do with me?”, Prapai asked, seemingly confused.

“She said if I took her to your room, she’ll let me do her. Come on, help me out here, you always bring your hookups there and they keep bragging about it.”, Petch tried to convince him.

Prapai thought for a moment. It seemed weird that Petch suddenly asked him for such a favour, they were never really close.

“Come on man! Help out your buddy!”, Petch urged, “I’ll send people to clean the room, so it’ll look even better than before! And I’ll bring you the keycard personally tomorrow.”

Prapai just sighed.

“Alright, I left the key with Saifah. Go ask him to give it to you. But if you do anything illegal, I’ll kill you.”

Petch smiled, “thanks man”, and made his way to Saifah.

Prapai stood at the side for some more time when Phayu came up to him.

“I don’t know about this, it seems fishy to me.”, he said instantly, “they’ve come more often lately, neither taking part in a race nor placing any bets. It’s as if they’ve specifically targeted you.”

Prapai crossed his arms, “I know. I also don’t really like him but if he blows clouds, I’ll put him into jail myself.”

Phayu nodded, “Just keep your guards up.”, he said and patted Prapai on the shoulder. “Your bike’s done by the way, so you can go race now.”

Prapai hummed in acknowledgment and went to the racing field.

While he was racing, Sky came back from the car. His heart was still pounding and he walked around disorientated. He leaned against the nearest pole and focused on his breathing.

“P’Pai’s not that kind of man. He won’t leave me. He promised.”, Sky mumbled to himself. “He won’t hurt me. He takes good care of me. Very good care.”, Sky almost chanted in his head. He was so lost in thoughts, that he didn’t notice Rain approaching him.

“Sky! What took you so long?”, he asked and Sky flinched at the sudden interaction. He looked at his friend and Rain noticed that Sky was trembling.

“Are you okay? You look pale…”, Rain’s voice was filled with worry and he wanted to help, but Sky just shook his head.

“It’s okay. I’ll just  go first. I don’t feel very good.” Rain nodded in understanding.

“Should I take you to the hospital?”, he asked

“No I’m really fine.”, Sky turned and wanted to leave but Rain grabbed his arm.

“Wait!”, Sky tensed for a second and turned to Rain again. “You should really get examined. I’ll take you to the hospital.”, Rain said.

“No need, I’m ok-“, but Rain interrupted him.

“Just wait here, I’ll tell P’Phayu real quick.”, and before Sky could reply anything, Rain ran away.

Sky tried his best to hold back the tears. The meeting with Gun still triggered him, even after such a long time.

‘I should tell P’Pai. Then I’ll no longer have to live in fear. He should understand.’, Sky thought.

He stroked his arm and thought about it some more when Rain appeared again.

“A guard said that P’Pai wants you to wait in his room. I’ll take you there.”, he said and they both walked to Rain’s car. On the way Sky looked around anxiously, which worried Rain even more.

When they arrived at the gateway, Rain opened his window just as Sky wanted to go inside.

“Are you really okay? I can stay with you until P’Pai comes over.”, Rain offered but Sky shook his head.

“I’m fine, don’t worry. You can go back to P’Phayu and watch the race.”, Sky said.

Rain looked at him one last time, his gaze full of worry, but he trusted his friend to know what’s best for him. So he closed the window and drove off.

Sky was still standing in front of the entrance for a few more moments, clenching his hands into fists.

“It’s okay. I’ll tell him tonight. Everything. P’Pai will surely understand.”, he mumbled to himself, looking at his clenched fist. His body was trembling slightly and he felt his heart race with nervousness. P’Pai is a good person. He won’t toss him away just because Sky is dirty and used.

Right?

Sky inhaled deeply a few times, before he made his way to Prapai’s room. He rested his hand on the doorknob, a weird feeling lingering in the back of his head. Sky took another deep breath.

‘P’Pai’s not that kind of person. No need to be nervous.’, he thought to himself and opened the door.

The atmosphere was somewhat eerie. The light was off, obviously, but it seemed wrong to Sky. It was too…

…silent.

Sky slowly stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. Neither his heart rate nor his nervousness went down at all when Sky turned on the light.

His breathing stopped instantly and his body froze.

Inside the room sat Gun with his friends, waiting like tigers for their prey. Gun clicked the lighter open and close once.

“Hey, Sky~. We’ve met sooner than expected.”, he said with a wicked grin on his lips.

Petch sat right next to Gun and looked directly at Sky, another grin on display, “Let’s have some fun again tonight.”

From one moment to the other, Sky’s body switched to survival mode and adrenaline started to shoot through it. He turned around but just when he was about to open the door and flee, someone held him around the waist and dragged him into the room.

Sky writhed in the hold of the person behind him until a second person began to help.

“Let me go!”, Sky screamed and thrashed around, in hopes of freeing himself, “No! Let- Let me go!”, panic began to rise in his stomach as they dragged him into the bedroom.

Gun just watched with a satisfied expression, following behind them. When Sky was not behaving, Tul, one of Gun’s friends, punched him in the stomach. Sky doubled over and his vision was filled with black dots. A second hit punched all air out of his lungs and it became harder to breathe properly.

Sky fell to his knees and they loosened their grip. As soon as Sky felt the release from the hands that held him before, he tried to get up and ran to the door. The adrenaline in his blood stream let him ignore the lack of oxygen for a moment, however, Gun was already standing in his way.

He grabbed Sky by the hair and threw him onto the bed. Tears shot into Sky’s eyes but he tried to hold them back as best as possible.

He wouldn’t let them see his tears! No matter what, Sky didn’t want them to have this satisfaction.

Every fiber of Sky’s body was tense and his focus was completely on the man above him. He looked at Gun full of hatred, trying his best to hide the sobs that threatened to escape his throat.

In a moment’s decision, Sky shot up and tried to run again. However, Gun was quicker and slammed him back onto the bed once more. He forcefully grabbed Sky’s face and pinned his wrists above Sky’s head, “You’ve become so feisty.”, he said with a smirk.

“You’re so cruel. I thought you’d be nicer to your ex.”, Sky heard from behind Gun. The smirk on Gun’s face faltered and he glanced at Petch behind him. His grab on Sky’s face loosened.

“My ex? The fuck he is. He’s just a toy!”, his voice became louder and Sky began to tremble. Gun turned around to Sky and came awfully near to his face.

“A toy I broke and tossed away.”, he almost whispered into Sky’s ear.

“I’m just really curious why Prapai readily gave him to you.” Petch laughed and Sky’s façade crumbled. The hatred expression he tried to uphold crashed down and his breath hitched for a second.

“What? You’re shocked, Sky~?”, Gun grinned. He beat his chest, saying “I gave you such a valuable lesson, but it seems like you’ve forgotten it.”

“I don’t believe you.” Sky trusted Prapai. He would never give Sky away that easily. He promised him after all, didn’t he?

“Oh? Then how do you think we got into this room?”, Gun acted surprised and looked around for a bit, before his focus went back to Sky.

“It’s a lie! You’re fucking lying!”, Sky tried to scream, but his voice broke and a tear escaped his eye. Sky turned his head away from Gun and closed his eyes so he wouldn’t have to look at Gun anymore.

Sky knew Prapai. He wasn’t this kind of person. He was always nice to Sky and he tried his best to show Sky his love every day.

“You don’t have to believe me. But I’ll enlighten you.”, Gun began, “I just told him I’m your ex and showed him a few pictures of your happy times with me and them…”

Sky’s eyes widened and he wanted to disappear.

So Prapai apparently already saw everything?

“Do you know what he told me?”, Gun painfully grabbed Sky’s chin to make him look at him again, “He said…’Take back your filthy shit!’”, he shouted and more tears rolled down Sky’s face. He didn’t want to believe them. He wanted to believe in Prapai.

Gun began to laugh and took off his jacket. His friends understood the message and they all left the room, closing the door behind them.

Sky looked after them, his hopes of getting out vanishing when the door closed completely. Gun turned Sky’s face to him once more.

“You should focus on me, not them, Sky~.”, he said and a sob forced its way out of Sky. He trembled even more and couldn’t stop the tears from flowing, slowly drifting away.

Gun hushed him, putting a finger on Sky’s lips.

“Shhh,” he grinned and backhandedly tapped on Sky’s cheek, “no need to cry.”

Afterwards, Gun began to undress them, pulling off Sky’s shirt first and then taking off his own shirt.

When Gun began to trace Sky’s upper body, Sky shot back into reality.

“No!”, he began to scream and wanted to push Gun off him.

“Let me go! Please!”, Sky begged, his throat burning.

Gun rolled his eyes. “You’re way too feisty for your own good!”, he said and slapped Sky across the face.

“Shut! Up! Already!”, with every word came a slap, “You’re really testing my patience!”

Gun forcefully rolled Sky over on his stomach and bent down, pinning Sky’s wrists against the mattress.  He then licked over Sky’s spine, which made the younger shiver fearfully.

“You actually like this, don’t you?”, Gun whispered into Sky’s ear and bit down harshly.

Sky screamed again and struggled against Gun’s grip, but he couldn’t move at all.

“I don’t! Let me go, please!”, Sky sobbed.

But, of course, Gun ignored his pleads. He turned Sky around again, still keeping him in place with one hand. The other was used to brush over Sky’s jawline, down his neck, over his collar bone to one of his nipples.

Sky threw his head from one side to the other and sobbed again when he felt pain shooting through his body. Gun had pinched his nipple and began to painfully twist.

“Behave if you want this to hurt less!”, he threatened and bit into Sky’s neck, leaving a bleeding mark there.

“No one wants you anymore. I’m doing you a favour with still using someone dirty and broken like you.”, Gun laughed again.

Sky began to subconsciously call out for Cloud in pure agony, which made the man above him laugh even harder.

“What are you doing now? Calling out for someone, who’s not here. Who even is Cloud? Are you fucking crazy?”, but Sky didn’t know anything else.

The last time, Cloud was there for him too and everytime Sky had a nightmare, he calmed him down. Cloud was the only hope left in a situation like this and he called out for him even when Cloud was gone.

Gun decided to punch Sky in the stomach again to make him shut up and he kept going, until Sky didn’t have any strength and oxygen left in his body to scream or fight. He painfully gasped for air, his body didn’t allow to enter.

With a satisfied hum, Gun continued where he left off. He zipped Sky’s pants open, taking them off in a swift movement. Sky closed his eyes, trying to imagine that it was Prapai who did this to him, not Gun.

But Gun’s movements where too rough for Prapai, only chasing his own pleasure, not caring for Sky’s wellbeing at all. His touch wasn’t gentle and full of love like Prapai’s but it rather felt disgusting, like needles on Sky’s skin.

Suddenly, Sky got flipped over again and Gun began to grope his hips, leaving dark bruises. He pulled Sky’s hip upwarts, while Sky desperately clawed into the blanket. When Gun kneaded the flesh on Sky’s ass, the latter sobbed again but the adrenaline from before got punched out of his body, so Sky could no longer put up a fight.

“No longer fighting back? You actually look forward to me fucking you, don’t you Sky?”, Gun laughed again. “Don’t worry, I’ll fill your hole to the brim, before my friends get their turns.”

Sky’s breath hitched when he felt something hard against his ass. As soon as it entered him, he cried out.

“It hurts! Take it out!”, Sky tried to plead.

“You like it when it hurts.”, Gun answered but Sky shook his head.

“I don’t! P’Gun I beg you!”

All the memories Sky tried to forget came crashing down with every thrust and Gun’s laugh echoed through Sky’s mind. A sharp pain shot through his shoulder as Gun bit into it and he forced himself further inside at the same time.

Sky felt something running down his leg and realized that it must be blood, as Gun entered him with neither preperation nor lube, just as he’s always done. And Sky bled everytime.

When Sky tried to crawl away from Gun’s merciless thrusts, the older male wrapped his fingers around Sky’s throat, holding him in place and choking him. Sky’s vision got filled with black dots, while he heard Gun groan from behind him.

He sobbed and his mind went to his lover. Sky wondered if Prapai noticed that something was wrong. He prayed for him to safe him but he also didn’t want to be seen like this.

The black dots intensified when Gun had no intention of letting go. They began to dance around Sky’s vision and a few more thrusts from behind beat the last remaining air out of Sky’s lungs.

Sky couldn’t breathe anymore, couldn’t scream nor sob, there were just silent tears falling from his eyes. In his mind, he cried for Cloud one last time, begged him to answer him at least this time and come save him before Sky lost his consciousness.

Since Cloud was gone, Sky’s mind was colourless and dark again just like it was back when he got raped for the first time. And just like back then, Sky was sitting inside of his mind again, curled up into a ball and crying desperately. In between sobs he still tried to call for Cloud, although his hopes to get safed vanished with every passing second. His cries became less and less and the ones that still echoed through his mind became more quiet.

Chapter Text

Sky noticed how his body was filled with a bit of oxygen again and with desperate coughs, he fell back into the cruel reality.

When his eyes were able to focus on something again, he saw the ceiling. Apparently Gun had turned him to his back and Sky could feel a pulsing pain in his cheeks. When he felt another slap across it, he realized, that Gun must’ve slapped him while he was unconscious.

“You little bitch. Don’t die yet! My friends still want their turns!”, Gun’s voice was filled with annoyance rather than worry, but Sky didn’t expect anything else. His gaze was emptily staring in one direction, when he decided to just let it happen.

He couldn’t fight, couldn’t run, couldn’t do anything against this, so his last remaining option was to just detach from reality. Sky lay empty and broken in his mind. He had no tears left to cry anymore and he felt nothing. He was completely numb. That’s when he noticed a faint light in the distance. It was almost transparent, barely noticeable but it was definitely there.

The light became stronger until it reached Sky and surrounded him completely, as if it was holding him softly. A familiar sense of safety filled Sky’s body and another sob ripped through it. His vision became blurry from a new wave of tears, but this time they were filled with relief rather than sadness.

In the distance a familiar figure stepped into Sky’s sight, quickly running to him. They fell to their knees, their face covered in tears as well, wrapping their arms tightly around Sky.

“I’m sorry, Sky. I’m so sorry that it took me so long. I don’t know what was wrong with me, I should’ve never left you! I don’t know how I could be this angry when you just wanted to be loved again.”, the person said and Sky realized that it was Cloud. He finally came back and Sky broke down in his arms from the relief. He wraped his arms around Cloud, burying his face into the crook of his neck and cried tremulously. Cloud began to draw soothing circles across Sky’s back.

“I’m really sorry, Sky. You deserve every love in this world, I was just so worried about you. I wanted to keep you safe from everyone and didn’t realize how I locked you away from living your own life. No amount of apologies will correct my wrongdoings, I’m so sorry! I’ll understand if you’re angry with me. Because of me you had to go through this again. I should’ve stayed with, kept you safe from the real threats and trusted your decisions. But don’t worry I’m here now. You won’t have to be hurt anymore, I’ll protect you and I promise you: from now on I’ll trust your decisions. I won’t intervene with your life anymore, I’ll just stay here for the times you need me or you’re really in danger.”, he kept on apologizing, holding Sky tightly in his arms all the while.

It was the first time that Cloud ever broke down in front of Sky. He was always the strong and protecting personality, never showing weakness in order to make Sky feel completely safe.

But this made him feel more human.

As if he wasn’t just another personality from Sky but another human being inside of Sky’s mind.

Both of them stayed in each others arms for another moment, before Sky pulled back from the embrace to look at Cloud. Their faces were covered in tears, which made Cloud stretch out his hand to wipe some of Sky’s tears away.

“I was never angry with you. I was always calling for you, hoping you would answer me again. I’m so relieved that you’re back again.”, Sky assured with a shaking voice and he could see the relief on Cloud’s face.

“I’m really sorry.”, Cloud said with one last sniff, before his mood changed completely.

“But don’t worry. I’ll get you out of there, I promise.”, he said determined. There were no signs of his previous break-down anymore and he wiped the remaining tears away.

Cloud helped Sky sit up into a proper position and stroked his hair, before he stood up and walked away. Sky looked after him and slowly, his mind became colourful again.

~

When Cloud took over, he already felt the disgusting and merciless thrusts from Gun. He tried to wait for a good oportunity to flee and kept staring at the ceiling like Sky was before, so Gun wouldn’t notice a difference.

Cloud realized that his wrists were pinned against the bed above his head. In his head, he began to weigh up his options he had to protect Sky. As soon as he felt Gun’s thrusts stutter, he knew that his oportunity had come.

When Gun came inside of him with a groan and pulled out, Cloud suddenly shot up and kicked Gun away from him. The man was surprised by the sudden fight, so Cloud was able to free himself. He was stronger than Sky after all. Without a second thought, Cloud jumped out of the bed, every limp screaming at him from the unnatural position they were in for such a long time.

Nevertheless, the adrenaline kept him going. He grabbed the nearest piece of clothing, to cover himself up at least a little, before reaching the first door. Cloud pulled it open to see that there were three more people sitting in the other room. They were all startled from the sudden commotion.

“Hold him down!”, Gun screamed from behind, running after the person he believed was still Sky, before Cloud slammed the door into his face. He heard a dull thud and a satisfied grin formed on his face.

He turned around to Gun’s friends, who were on their feet as soon as they heard Gun’s command.

Cloud still didn’t trust Prapai completely but this time he was placing his hopes in him that he soon realized something was wrong and came to Sky’s rescue. In the meantime, Cloud tried to defend Sky with all he got.

Petch, Tul and Som began to circle Cloud like prey. The tension in the room was palpable, the atmosphere so thick that it was almost cuttable.

In an instant the tension exploded and the first fist came crashing towards Cloud’s face. He managed to dodge and, with a quick sweep of his leg, knocked Som’s feet out from under him. His opponent crashed to the floor and Cloud retreated a few steps backwarts towards the table behind him.

In the meantime Gun had opened the door again, blood running down his face from his nose. He had to prop up on the doorframe while he looked at Cloud with raging fury. Petch shot him a short glance before focusing on Cloud again.

Before he could react though, Cloud had taken a chair and threw it at him, before launching at Tul, who was still standing on the side. He managed to tackle Tul to the floor and furiously punched into his face, until Cloud’s knuckles turned red from Tul’s blood. Cloud looked like an aggressive animal, that attacked everyone who even dared to just look into his direction.

The one below him groaned in pain but Cloud didn’t stop, blinded by animalistic rage. That’s why he didn’t realize that Petch could dodge the thrown chair by a few inches and jumped Cloud from behind, pulling him away from his friend.

Cloud was thrashing wildly in his grip, before Petch threw him to the ground right in front of Gun. The latter began to brutaly kick Cloud in the stomach.

“You little bitch! Now you think you can fight against us? Huh?!”, he screamed, landing one last kick. He breathed heavily and Cloud groaned on the floor.

His vision blurred a little, but the adrenaline didn’t go down at all. Thus, when Petch wanted to strike him with another punch, Cloud could easily block it this time.

With a swift movement, Cloud’s hands shot up to grab Petch’s collar and he turned them both, wanting to punch him just like Tul, who was lying on the floor even now, face covered in blood. However, Cloud forgot that Gun was still standing right next to them and before Cloud could land any hit, he got pulled off once more. But instead of the floor, this time he was slammed against the wall, Gun’s arm holding him in place by his throat.

Cloud scratched at Gun’s arm, trying anything to break free but the only thing it earned him was a hook against his jaw. Cloud could taste blood and for a short moment, he stopped fighting back, trying to gain his focus again.

Gun yanked Cloud’s head backwarts to make him look at him.

“Listen here you little shit. I was doing you a favour because no one else would want you. I was trying to be nice and give you a valuable lesson but it seems like you don’t want to listen. So I can’t be nice anymore.”, he said, his eyes filled with hatred while looking at Cloud.

Cloud just spitted into Gun’s face, huffing a smile, “Nice? When were you ever nice? You were always just a huge piece of shit!”

And while Gun was still distracted by the arised anger from Cloud’s action and words, Cloud used the opportunity to kick him into his sensitive area with his knee. Gun made a pained noise and doubled over, letting loose of Cloud’s throat.

Cloud kicked him in the stomach, making him topple over. He wanted to flee but noticed that not just Petch, but Som too, was no longer lying on the floor. When Cloud turned to the entrance door, both of them stood there, blocking his way out.

Cloud mentally prepared himself for the second round, as both of them were still in a pretty good shape to fight, while Cloud was already worn out. But he promised Sky.

He will definitely protect him. And if it’s the last thing he does. He just hoped someone would come soon.

***

At the same, Prapai went to Phayu after he finished his race.

“Phayu, where’s Sky?”, he asked, looking around in search of his boyfriend.

“Rain took him home. He wasn’t feeling well.”, Phayu answered and Prapai nodded in acknowledgement.

“Then I better get going and check on my dear Sky.”, he smiled and Phayu huffed a laugh. Prapai didn’t get far, before he came across Rain, who was back at the race again. He greeted Prapai on the way to his boyfriend and Prapai smiled at him when he passed Rain.

In that moment Prapai halted and turned around again, a confused look on his face.

“Wait a second. Rain, how come you’re back already?”, he wondered. Didn’t he want to bring Sky home as he wasn’t feeling well?

“Where did you drop Sky off for you to be back this fast?”, he asked.

“Didn’t you say to bring him to your condo?”, Rain turned to Prapai again, “It’s not very far from here, why are you so confused that I’m back already?”

“I did? When did I say that?”, Prapai already had a weird feeling in his stomach.

“Well a guard told me you said that I should bring Sky to your condo, so I did.”, Rain answered.

“I was racing this whole time, how could I have told anyone anything?!”, Prapai began to panic. He remembered that he gave Petch the key card to his condo and Phayu already warned him that they behaved weirdly. This wasn’t just a coincidence.

Phayu also sensed that something was wrong, “we should check, just to be sure.”

Prapai nodded, already running off to his bike, when Phayu held him back.

“We’re coming with you. Get to the car!”, he demanded and before Prapai could protest, Phayu shot him a serious look, which made Prapai sigh in defeat.

“Alright, thank you. Just hurry up, I’m really worried.”

The three of them ran to the car and quickly sped to Prapai’s condo. As soon as they parked the car, they jumped out of it and ran up the stairs. Prapai took out his spare key that he luckily left in Phayu’s car before the race and kicked the door open.

His breathing stopped and he widened his eyes at the scene in front of him.

Sky was being held by Som, looking completely battered. There were several red marks on his cheeks and stomach from what looked like slaps and kicks. Blood was running down from his mouth and alongside his neck. On top of that, Prapai could see dark bruises forming on Sky’s neck in the shape of fingers. Petch was standing in front of him, landing a punch into his stomach, which made him huff out a pained groan.

Tul was laying on the floor, not moving and covered in blood, while Gun himself was sitting against the wall, a satisfied grin on his lips. There was also blood running down his nose and he held his stomach.

When they heard the sudden opening of the door, all of them turned their gazes to said door. Prapai felt pure anger bubbling up in his body and without hesitation, he ran to Petch and punched him across the face. Petch keeled over, not expected the sudden attack from a new person.

When Phayu and Rain saw the scene, they bothed gasped and Phayu instantly joined in to help Sky. He pulled Som away from Sky, the former already noticing his disadvantage, now that Phayu and Prapai found them.

With a strategic punch to his face, Phayu knocked him out and turned around to overview the situation.

Cloud’s knees gave away, now that the hold from behind him was gone and Rain immediately ran to Sky to catch his friend.

Meanwhile, Prapai didn’t stop to batter Petch with relentless strikes until Rain called out for him.

“P’Pai! There is something wrong with Sky, apart from the obvious injuries I mean.”, he cried, his eyes already wetted with tears.

Prapai stopped right away and ran to Sky.

“Sky! Dear, what’s wrong?”, he asked and examined Sky’s body. He found that the blood on his neck came from a bite mark and there was another one on his ear and shoulder blade. The red marks were not just from slaps, some even looked like hickeys and Prapai noticed a dark bruise on Sky’s hips, also in the shape of fingers. Prapai already had a bad premonition and he checked Sky’s body further.

When he got to Sky’s legs there was an unusual amount of blood, some of it already dried, and something stickier. Prapai looked at his hands and it finally dawned on him.

“This is…”, he started.

“cum”, Phayu confirmed the gut feeling.

At this point Prapai lost it completely, if he hadn’t already before. He knew who the one in charge here was, so he directed his full anger to Gun. The satisfied smirk he wore when they came into the room was gone already and panic began to grow in his gaze.

“Wait, wait! It’s not what it looks like!”, he tried to talk Prapai out of it, but of course his arguments were completely useless. There was no way this was anything other than ‘what it looked like’.

Prapai immediately launched at Gun, brutally unleashing a furry of punches. After a few punches, the sounds became wetter and something cracked before Phayu pulled his friend off Gun.

“Stop! You’ll kill him!”

“Then so be it! He deserves to die! He fucking… He… my darling…”, Prapai couldn’t bring himself to say the obvious. Tears formed in his eyes as well.

Gun raped his beloved.

“I know! But Sky needs you now more than ever! You can’t bear the consequences if you kill someone and leave Sky behind!”, Phayu tried to convince his friend. Prapai understood and quickly went back to Sky and Rain, the latter still holding Sky in his arms.

“Can Sky hear me? Can you let me talk to him, Cloud? Please, I need to know if he’s okay.”, Rain asked Cloud and he nodded slowly, which made Prapai furrow his brows in confusement.

“What do you mean Rain? Who’s Cloud?”, he asked and looked at Sky, “Why are you talking to him like that?”, he wondered. As if it’s not Sky he’s seeing right now.

‘Sky’ sighed and talked to Prapai first with a trembling and hoarse voice.

“Listen well, there are bigger problems now! I took all the blows for him, so I’m in a weakened state. I hate having to withdraw now too, but I can’t keep this up any longer. As soon as I’m gone to rest you have to take good care of Sky or I won’t forgive you!”, Cloud wanted to threaten Prapai, but even a small movement made him groan in pain.

“Why are you talking so weirdly Sky? What’s wrong?”, Prapai was getting worried and helplessy looked at Rain who seemed to know something.

“That’s a worry you should move aside for now.”, Rain answered truthfully, “You can ask Sky later on but you should probably prepare for what’s coming next, I don’t think this will be easy.”

“It’s okay now. You can leave Sky to us.”, Rain assured Cloud and he nodded once more, slowly closing his eyes.

“Sky! No, stay awake!”, Prapai cried out but Rain stopped him.

“It’s okay P’Pai, give him a moment.”, he said seriously and Prapai was completely lost.

What the hell was going on?! When he glanced over his shoulder to Phayu, even his friend looked confused.

When Sky groaned again, Prapai’s focus was back on his boyfriend immediately.

His eyes were still closed but, different than before, his whole body began to tremble and tears began to ran down his cheeks. Suddenly his eyes snapped open and Sky cried out, writhing in Rain’s arms.

“Let- Let me go! No!”, he screamed and looked around the room frantically. Sky’s breathing became uneven, alternating between short huffs and gasps. The frantic writhing made him cry out in pain even more and his body froze at once when he laid eyes on Gun’s moveless body.

Sky was still gasping breathlessly when his eyes shot from one person to the next, lastly landing on Prapai.

“Sky! What’s wrong now?”, he asked completely worried, “you were fine a moment ago…”

He wanted to grab Sky’s hand to give him security, but Sky’s whole body flinched at the touch anxiously. Prapai pulled his hand back as if he got burned and looked at Rain like a lost puppy.

“You know something, right? What should I do?”, he asked but Rain wasn’t sure himself.

True, he knew of Sky’s split personality but he had no clue how to handle this.

“I- I don’t know… maybe try to calm him down with words first before you make any physical contact. He doesn’t seem to be completely present yet.”, Rain suggested and Prapai nodded.

“Rain, maybe let Sky go first. He’s completely anxious, he needs his personal space.”, Phayu said and Rain nodded.

He slowly shifted to the side, letting go of his friend. When Sky noticed the loosened grip, he scrambled away until his back hit the wall.

“Sky, you’re safe now. No one will harm you anymore, okay?”, Prapai tried to snap his boyfriend out of his anxious state. He looked at the bleeding injuries again and realized that they should bring Sky to a hospital as soon as possible.

“Sky, please come back to me.”, Sky’s eyes were glued to Prapai, but it seemed as if he was looking through him. His breathing hadn’t stabilized and his body was still trembling.

“Maybe try to breath properly first with me, okay?”, Prapai tried softly. His voice was free from any force or volume in order to not scare Sky even further.

He slowly but steadily breathed in and out loudly, so Sky could hear and see the even rhythm. Prapai noticed that it somehow worked, as Sky really began to breath with him. After a while Sky blinked a few times and Prapai knew that he slowly came back to him.

“That’s good, darling. Take your time. You’re safe, there’s no one to harm you anymore.”, Prapai said.

Slowly the light crept back into Sky’s eyes and with a loud sob, Sky looked at Prapai, this time directly, not through him.

“P’Pai…?”, Tears came crashing down again and Prapai decided that it would be okay to decrease the distance between them now.

He slowly stepped closer and opened his arms to signalize Sky that he could close the last gap between them as soon as he felt ready for it.

Phayu tapped on Rain’s shoulder and Rain understood without words. They went into the bedroom to give both of them some space.

With wide eyes, Sky fell into Prapai’s arms, screaming through tears and Prapai held him carefully as to not hurt him more but still tightly enough to give Sky a sense of security.

“P’Pai! Don’t give me to anyone else! I know I’m dirty, I know I’m used, but please love me! Don’t hate me now…”, Sky cried into his arms, wetting Prapai’s clothing.

“I don’t hate you! I love you Sky. Deeply. You’re not dirty. You’re not used. I love you so damn much that if you’re in pain, I’m in pain too!”, Prapai assured Sky. He let Sky cry for a while, the younger wincing everytime a sob shot through his body.

“But we need to get you to the hospital as quickly as possible. Is it okay for me to pick you up?”, Prapai tried softly. When he felt Sky nodding, he picked him up bridal style and called for Phayu and Rain.

“We can leave now, quickly!”, he said while Sky clung to Prapai, his head pressed tightly against Prapai’s chest. They covered Sky’s upper body with a jacket and helped as good as they could until they’ve reached the hospital.

***

Prapai was talking to one of the nurses to give more information on what happened, while Sky was still undergoing a few medical examinations. The nurse assured him that Sky was not in danger and Prapai sighed in relief.

She thanked them and went inside the examination room to pass the collected information to the doctor.

Prapai sat back down on the chair in front of the examination room, covering his face in his shaking hands. He felt a reassuring pat on his back and looked to his friend.

“It’s going to be okay now. No need to stress. Sky’s in good hands and P’Pakin took care of these fucking scums. He will never see them again.”, Phayu tried to calm Prapai down.

“I know. I’m still worried.”, Prapai said and Phayu could fully understand him.

When another nurse came out of the room after an hour, Prapai shot up and quickly went to her.

“Can I see Sky now? How is he?”, he asked and the nurse smiled softly.

“Yes, we moved him to a private room. I will accompany you to the room, so you can see him.”, she said and gestured the three of them to follow her.

They were going to the second floor, to the end of the hall before the nurse turned to the three friends again.

“We’re here. He’s lying in this room.”, she gestured to the room beside her, “But he’s still asleep at the moment, it will probably take a while until he wakes up again.”, she bowed and left them alone.

Prapai inhaled deeply before he opened the door. The room was really bright and Sky was lying in the middle of it. His body was covered in bandages but he didn’t look like he was in great pain anymore.

Prapai sat on the chair next to the bed and carefully took Sky’s hand into his own.

“I’m so sorry that you had to go through this. I should’ve been with you to protect you.”, Prapai whispered.

“It’s not your fault. I left him alone too.”, Prapai heard from the side and he looked at Sky, his eyes widening. Didn’t the nurse say that Sky would still take a while to wake up?

Rain understood the situation and pulled on Phayu’s sleeve to symbolize that they should leave the room. Phayu didn’t know why they should leave this fast, nevertheless he left the room with Rain, leaving the other two alone.

Prapai was confused, “What do you mean?”

Sky sighed and tried to sit up. He winced a little and Prapai was instantly by his side to help him sit comfortably.

“In that room, you asked who I was.”, ‘Sky’ began and Prapai was even more confused.

“What- I don’t understand. You’re Sky. Why should I-“, but then he remembered. Sky was indeed acting weirdly when he found him. Putting aside the fact that he wasn’t the type to fight for himself and would rather just let everything happen, Sky was also talking strangely with Rain and him. As if he wasn’t himself.

‘Sky’ turned his head to directly talk to Prapai.

“Sky is still asleep. I’m not Sky. I’m Cloud.”, Cloud said and Prapai was even more lost.

“I talked to Sky, he said it was fine to tell you, as he wanted to talk to you about this for a while now. I’m here to tell you instead because it is still a very sensitive topic for him. So listen well.”, Cloud began and Prapai just nodded, not fully comprehending what was happening.

“You know Gun, right? He’s Sky’s ex. Back when Sky moved to Bangkok they’ve met and everything was nice at first. But suddenly Gun started to abuse him and Sky never understood what he did wrong. Even when his friends told him to break up with Gun he didn’t listen. You know Sky, he has a good heart and he believed that deep inside, Gun still loved him. But that belief was shattered into thousand pieces one day.”, Cloud explained and Prapai couldn’t believe his ears.

He never thought that Sky went through such a thing. That was probably why his eyes always screamed for help whenever Prapai saw him.

“He was at Gun’s place again when his friends suddenly came inside. Sky was really confused what was happening when they pinned him to the bed. They tied him to the headboard. Sky screamed for help but Gun just said that he has grown bored of him. That Sky was annoying. They held his arms and head and treated him as if he wasn’t human. He screamed until his voice was horse but no one pitied him at all.”, Cloud continued and Prapai’s eyes filled with tears.

“What a bunch of assholes.”, Prapai said and Cloud nodded.

“Totally.”, Cloud agreed “They didn’t care that the light in Sky’s eyes vanished and he didn’t move anymore. That was when Sky’s mind detached from reality. He fled into his own world and that was the moment I was born. I promised him that I would protect him from that moment on, which was why I was so distrustful to anyone who dared to come too near to Sky. He was like a broken doll when he returned home and even his dad got worried. I tried my best to help him out of that dark place and was so relieved when I finally managed to bring the light back into his life. But even after that he always thought it was his fault and that he’s ‘damaged goods’.”

He averted his gaze, “And then I was really angry when he began to trust you, even though I’ve warned him countless times that you would only want one thing from him. I just wanted to protect him from people like Gun and your first meeting wasn’t really under the best circumstances, so I just couldn’t bring myself to trust you. Leaving him that day out of anger is my biggest regret. If I had just buried my anger and stayed with him, he wouldn’t have to go through this again.”, a silent tear fell from Cloud’s eye and he mumbled “I’m the worst.”, before looking at Prapai again.

“But I won’t intervene in his life anymore. I will just silently stay back and protect him if he needs me, so you don’t have to worry about it. I will leave you two alone. You proved that you can protect Sky too and that you would do anything for him. I’ll trust you, but just remember: if you dare to hurt Sky, I won’t let it slip!”, Cloud was completely serious, Prapai could see that.

He inhaled deeply and looked down. He never expected Sky to have such a traumatic past, it was a lot to process. After collecting himself, Prapai looked at Cloud again.

“Don’t worry. I will never hurt Sky. Thank you for sharing this with me. I just wished I would’ve met him sooner, then he wouldn’t have to go through all of that. I’ll show him what a wonderful person he is. He deserves the world and I will ensure that he won’t have to suffer again. I will make him the happiest person alive. He will be so happy that everyone around him will get jealous!”, Prapai promised but he didn’t expect Cloud to shed tears after finishing.

“Did I say something wrong?”, Prapai asked cautiously but Cloud shook his head.

Prapai extended his hand to wipe some tears away and as soon as he laid his hands on Cloud’s cheek, a sob rippled through his body. He laid his own hand on top of Prapai’s and snuggled against it.

“P’Pai…”, he said.

“Cloud?”, Prapai was a little worried. Wasn’t Cloud supposed to be the strong, protecting personality? He didn’t expect to see him cry that easily. But Cloud shook his head again.

That was when Prapai realized. It wasn’t Cloud anymore that sat across him. Prapai’s worry vanished instantly and a deep love for the other took the place in his heart instead.

“Sky are you okay?”, Prapai asked, “since when were you awake?”

“Since Cloud shed a tear. Cloud withdrew when you looked away but he still heard everything and he wants to thank you.”, Sky answered, shifting closer to Prapai and looking and him with a vulnerable look in his eyes. “But did you mean what you said? Can- Can I really love you?”, he asked in between sobs.

Prapai careful pulled him into a hug, “Of course you can. Don’t think that you’re not worthy of love. Like I said you deserve all the good things in life and I will be here to make you so happy that you can’t think straight anymore. I promise to stay by your side.”

Sky smiled through the tears, tightly hugging Prapai and clinging onto his shirt.

“And you won’t have to worry anymore. P’Pakin took care of Gun and his friends. You will never see them again.”, Prapai told Sky and he felt the younger nod.

They sat like that for a long time. For the first time in his life, Sky didn’t have to worry about his past anymore. Maybe even the nightmares would fade someday.

But right now he was completely calm. Despite his injuries his whole body was filled with love and Sky didn’t feel any pain. He was finally at peace with himself.

Truly at peace.