Chapter Text
Phayu shut the front door to his family's home with a small shove as he tugged Rain further into the entry way.
"So, is this also a keep my shoes on house?" Asked Rain as he still looked around nervously.
Phayu hated that Rain looking so deeply uncomfortable but answered, "Yeah, we uh usually keep our shoes on for the first level cause of the tile."
He didn't want to explain it was because blood was hell to remove from carpet and socks. Better everyone keep their shoes on for the cleaning staff to easily mop away instead. He thought it also made a nice separation from the business and personal areas. Most of the time his family hung out together on the second floor living room, while the downstairs was for guests or business. Mostly business. What guests would the mafia be bringing over?
"Okay," was all Rain replied still gazing around.
There wasn't much to see admittedly. The entry way was fairly bland with neither of his parents having a deep level of care for this part of the home. All the paintings were ones they had collected at events and the furnishings had remained basically the same since his childhood. There was some darker wooden pieces around to anchor it all. The one thing of notes was the gaps of light coming from all of the shutters for the courtyard.
"My parents should be in the kitchen or somewhere," Phayu said. He began to pull Rain along with him further down the long hallways of the house he grew up in. " Pa? Dad? We're here."
His dad's voice floated back to him, "Come to the kitchen."
They walked deeper into the house. When Phayu was a child, it felt like the house was a maze sometimes. They wooden panels on the walls of the house with the same shutters looking in or more panels reflected back hadn't helped. He wondered what Rain thought about it. He had never had an outsiders perspective before. Maybe he should've told his family to open all the shutters to the courtyard so that it was less intimidating. A few were already open but more light would be better. That was partially why he had designed the house him and Safiyah lived in with so much glass. Nice and open with lots of light.
He heard Rain take in a breath as they arrived in the kitchen. The kitchen was very nice admitly. Sleek stainless steel, tall dark wood cabinets, and hanging lights. Phayu had kept some of these things into his home. The things he hadn't kept was the two huge stoves, double decker oven, and industrial fridge since he didn't need to worry about feeding a small army every day like the cook, Saran. His pops was standing by the fridge and his dad nearby though closer to the stove. He could smell the curry bubbling on the stove.
"Hey," Phayu said in greeting pulling them both further into the kitchen.
"Hello to you too. Traffic alright?" His pops asked. He stayed where he was but clearly gave Rain a once over. His dad had as well.
"Yeah, no worse than usual. People still don't know how to drive, but we made it," responded Phayu. They were standing across the kitchen island from his parents now almost mirroring each other.
"And what is that?" Vegas asked in a softer tone gesturing his hand at Rain's bottle of wine that he was holding onto.
Rain's eyes widen a touch as he seemed to realize he was still in fact holding the bottle, "A gift! For you. I mean both of you really. For inviting me to your home."
Rain dropped his hand from Phayu's to hold the bottle with both hands over the island to seemingly pass it to the two older men. Except that the island was quite large, so there was no way for his parents to reach the bottle without both them and Rain leaning across the counter top to each other. God help Phayu, it was so fucking cute.
His pop seemed to realize this problem amusedly as a small smile slid across his face, and he said, "Well, that is very sweet, Rain. We are happy to have you over."
Pop started to walk around the island to get said wine from Rain and Rain's eyes darted over to his dad. Dad stayed by the stove watching the whole thing with a fairly neutral expression.
"What kind of curry did you make?" Phayu asked. He loved his dad's curry even when he made it stupidly spicy.
"Oh, just some red curry. Nothing too wild," dad replied with a light smile.
"Ah, not southern….Is it from Saran?" Phayu asked on the edge of a flatter tone.
"Of course, who else cooks around here? Should be ready to eat if you want to go sit down in the dining room, " his dad responded turning to get a large bowl from one of the cabinets.
"Right…." Phayu said flatly. He thought about saying something but didn't want it to turn into a moment. He had Rain to think about. It wasn't the time or him to start arguing over some curry. "Let's go sit down, Rain."
"We'll be there in a minute boys. Let me help your dad bring the food over," Vegas said with a glance back at his husband. He held the wine bottle as Rain just nodded before turning back to Phayu expectantly. Phayu grabbed his hand pulling him into the dining room next door.
As they crossed into the dining room, the two boys could see the table laid out. Nice napkins folded well next to 4 plates resting on place mats with tall glasses set to one end of a long table. Two on one side, two on the other facing each other. It was as if they were trying to make the long table feel shorter than it was. Phayu was a little surprised they were eating here instead of in the courtyard as his pops preferred, but at least the shutters had been opened. Light poured into the space from the high windows making it brighter than it otherwise would appear with the mahogany panels. There was always a dark stain on everything wooden including the table and chairs.
Phayu let his thumb rub the back of Rain's hand as they walked to the place settings on the opposite side of the table from the door. He let go as he pulled out Rain's chair, so Rain was sitting to his left. This let Phayu sit at the corner of the table. Phayu generally made sure Rain sat on the 'inside' of whatever table they were at. Call him paranoid or whatever. He grabbed Rain's hand again, thumb back to small slight repepetive movement.
Rain was looking around a bit before saying, "There's a lot of dark wood in here."
Phayu hummed out an affirmative noise before continuing, "Yeah, on this level. Things are brighter upstairs. We can go up if you want after lunch."
"Is that where the cute Phayu baby pictures are hiding?"
"Ah, so that's why you came ? To get my embarrassing baby pictures?"
Rain laughed slightly at this relaxing, "It's only fair. You saw mine. My mom couldn't show you fast enough."
"That's because you're so cute," Phayu said fully smiling now. "It's too fun to tease you."
"Hey, those photos at Prapai's house were cute. Your pops promised me last time too," replied Rain his voice starting to whine a little. His blinked his big doe eyes at him and Phayu was gone. He took his hand up to Rain's cheek softly.
"Okay, after lunch, whatever you want sweet boy," Phayu said softly watching the smile bloom on Rain's face. God he was gone for this boy. He wanted to grab him and run upstairs right now. Truthfully Phayu would show Rain every single baby photo he had if it meant Rain would be comfortable here in his family's home. Because despite the winding halls, many shutters, and dark wood, it was still where he had grown up.
"Sweet boy?"
Fuck his life. Phayu let his hand drop as Rain straightened up again like they had been caught doing something scandalous. Phayu instead whipped his head up to his pops to narrow his eyes and level a look at him. The older man was holding a pitcher of some fruit tea drink and a large serving bowl of lemon grass salad. He was also smirking as he brought them over to the table.
"My son being cute. Never would have thought it was possible," he said setting the items down. "Rain, you have to let me know how you do it."
Rain was instead turning into a bright shade of pink from blushing at being caught doing in reality nothing, but what Phayu was sure Rain's brains as turning into something. Phayu resisted the urge to smack his head on the table a bit. Was he allowed nothing sacred?
"Pops, if you could not tease my boyfriend. Who is a guest," Phayu said with mildly exasperation.
"Aw but its funny to see you blush," said his pops pointing at Phayu's own cheeks in response. Phayu was NOT blushing. He would know if he was blushing. Which he wasn't, so it didn't matter. "Let me go help bring in the rest while you two keep being cute."
Phayu raised his eyes to the ceiling to ask for patience before reaching for the pitcher. He started pouring the darker red liquid with ice cubes floating in it into each of the glasses. Rain said thank you before bringing the glass up to sniff and take a small sip. His eyebrows rose in mild surprise at whatever he tasted there.
"It's pomegranate lemon tea," he said, though Phayu was distracted by the little red drop left on the center of his lips. "This is really good. Where did your family even find pomegranate tea? Most places don't have it around here. Unless you guys have secret pomegranate trees somewhere?"
Phayu shook his head no. He began to fill the other three glasses, "No secret orchard that I know of. Maybe it came from my Uncle Tankhun. He's always trying new flavors of stuff and sending them here for my dad to have."
"That's so nice," Rain said taking another small sip.
"Yeah, they're really close. Dad used to be Tankhun's bodyguard before he met pops. He was his favorite one so when dad left to move in here and get married and stuff, uncle took it a bit hard. He used share a lot of things with him, so he's always sending stuff over here for dad to have," Phayu said starting to reminsence.
It hadn't happened everyday, but sometimes, around two or three times a week, some bodyguard was sent over with a package of something for them all to try. Food, drinks, a dvd, clothes, a toy for the boys, and sometimes just a note cause Pete was not properly replying to Tankhun's texts. Phayu had thought all uncles did this until he got into school and quickly realized that everyone else did not have a family like his. Which was fine, but an adjustment to find out how much he shared with other people. He didn't worry about Rain seeing however the money and resources his family had. In fact, the more he saw the better. Maybe it would eventually help Phayu convince Rain all of the other stuff was worth it if he saw the good first.
"Like a fairy god mother.." Rain said quietly. Phayu nodded along with a smile. Cute.
Before he could respond, pops came back in with his dad beside him. Dad was carrying a large bowl of red curry and his pops had a bowl of fluffy rice and some serving utensils. Rain straightened back up again with his focus returning to the two people he desperately wanted to impress. Phayu fought a small sigh again.
"Ready to eat?" His pops said setting everything down again and then pulling out his dad's chair.
"Of course, it looks great. Thank you so much for cooking sirs," Rain said eagerly.
"You should be thanking Saran, our cook. It's her curry," Phayu said staring at the man opposite from him. "Dad makes southern style food. Sometimes I mean."
His dad leveled a flat look back at him as Rain quickly responded instead, "Well than thank you to her."
"We'll make sure to pass on the compliments Rain, but it's no problem. Shall we eat?" His pops replied quickly.
Phayu continued looking at his dad as he said, "Sure, let's eat."