Chapter Text
“I’ll be the dad, and you'll be the mom.”
Rain squawked at the other boy. His bestest friend in the whole world, Phayu, just grinned at him mischievously. Phayu had dragged him under a metal structure at the school playground, leaving Saifah, his other best friend and Phayu's twin, trailing behind them. Phayu convinced both of them to play “House” with him, despite Rain wanting to go on the swings. He had only agreed in exchange for some of Phayu's snacks later.
Rain desperately looked to Saifah, waiting for him to argue with Phayu's demand. The younger twin simply blinked at him, not finding anything wrong in the statement.
“But I'm a boy!” Rain argued after a beat.
“Yes, and?” Phayu shot back, “You can still be my wifey.”
Rain opened his mouth to protest again, but Saifah piped up, “Our mom is a boy!”
Rain scrunched his eyebrows, trying to picture his mom as a boy. That only led him to imagine having two of his dad. He shuddered at the thought of his mom being replaced by a clone of his dad.
Confused, Rain blurted out the only word he could conjure: “Why?”
Phayu answered with a shrug, “Papa said he's our mom, and Dad is our dad.”
“Yeah,” Saifah spoke up again, “Papa said that people don't understand yet if we say we have two dads. So we have a mom and a dad! Papa and Dad!”
Rain looked between the two boys grinning at him.
“Why can't Saifah be the mom?” Rain was pouting now.
Phayu and Saifah responded with shrieks of “Ew!” and “Gross, that's my brother.”
The explanation mollified the five-year-old boy enough, giggling at how twisted their faces were in disgust.
“I'm the mom,” Rain nodded resolutely. But then he thought aloud, “What will Saifah be?”
Saifah said, “The son!” at the same time that Phayu said, “The dog!”
The two glared at each other. They then turned to Rain.
“I’ve always wanted a puppy,” he told them.
Saifah hung his head, unable to say no to Rain.
With a sigh, he said, “Okayyy. I'm the dog.”
“PUPPY!!” Rain squealed as he tackled Saifah.
--
Rain was carefully stirring his pot of porridge, adjusting the knobs on the stove occasionally. He loved the smell of the eggs and pork wafting through their kitchen. But when he turned to grab salt, he bumped into the pot and spilled its contents on the floor.
“Oh no!” Rain exclaimed.
It was only seconds before Big Puppy bounded into the kitchen and began lapping up the porridge. It tried to eat a slice of pork off the ground.
“Bad Puppy!” Rain shrilled, “No eating off the floor! You'll get sick!”
Rain tried pulling the undercooked meat out of its jaws but to no avail. During that debacle, Rain failed to hear the door opening.
“Wifey, I’m home!” Phayu called from behind him.
Rain half-registered the greeting, still trying to get Big Puppy to drop the cut of meat. Big Puppy growled at him though. With a yelp, Rain let go, leaving Big Puppy to scarf up the pork loudly.
“Hubby!” Rain jumped into Phayu’s arms with a pout. “Puppy eated our dinner!”
Big Puppy looked up from where he was chowing down and let out what sounded like a questioning whine. Phayu rubbed circles gently down Rain’s back.
“Don’t worry, wifey,” his hubby smiled brightly, “I just buyed groceries!”
Rain clapped happily at the sight of all the food Phayu got them. All the essentials, like ice cream and chocolate and chips. Rain watched his hubby flit around the kitchen as he prepared dinner. When Phayu announced dinner was ready, Big Puppy began to whimper.
“Aw, Puppy wants dinner too,” Rain cooed.
Rain found the dog kibble and poured some out for Big Puppy. His puppy gobbled it up with a happy yip. Contented, Rain settled at the dinner table.
--
“Wait!” Saifah shouted, breaking character and standing up excitedly.
“Did you think of something, Fah?” Phayu asked.
“Saifahhhh,” Rain whined, “you knocked over our dinner!”
Rain frowned at the once-neat-pile of twigs, leaves, and a jump rope strewn across the ground.
“Oh,” Saifah paused, “I’m sorry.”
“I forgive you!” Rain responded, quick to remember his mother’s chidings about holding grudges and quick to forget his lamenting.
Saifah returned to what he was planning to say, “What if I got sick and you both had to take me to the vet because I’m dying?”
Phayu grinned mischievously at that while Rain furrowed his brows in thought.
“That sounds fun, Fah,” Phayu said.
“But I don’t want Puppy to die!” Rain wailed.
“That’s why you take me to the vet!” Saifah chirped.
With that, Phayu rubbed his hands together maniacally with a cartoonish evil laugh. He exchanged eye contact with Rain, who stared back confused. Phayu leaned over to whisper his idea into Rain’s ear. He finally picked up on the glint in Phayu’s eyes and started giggling, much to Saifah’s chagrin.
“Oh no.”
--
Rain and his hubby were chatting at the dinner table when they heard hacking and coughing. Rain turned to see Big Puppy sprawled on the ground.
“Hubby, something is wrong with Puppy!” Rain yelled.
Phayu leaned down to listen to Big Puppy’s chest. Rain watched, nervous, as Phayu straightened back up and nodded solemnly.
Phayu told Rain, “He’s very sick and dying, and he can’t even walk. We’ll have to take him to the vet.”
Rain gasped in abject horror, placing the back of one hand on his forehead and the palm of his other across his chest.
“I guess we have to carry him to the hospital,” Rain sighed wearily and reached down to Big Puppy.
While Rain worked to lift his puppy, he ignored the barks that sounded oddly like a human person saying “Wait, what are you doing?” and “Phayu, let go of my legs!”
“C’mon, wifey, we have to hurry! He's dying!” Phayu said.
Rain gave a resolute nod. He and Phayu trudged with Big Puppy in their arms to the nearest vet hospital. They nearly made it to the doors, but a looming shadow stopped them in their tracks.
--
“Boys,” the grown-up on supervising duty reprimanded, “Put him down. That's unsafe behavior.”
Rain and Phayu obliged quickly, not wanting to get in trouble. Once Saifah's feet were planted firmly on the ground, the teacher let them off with a warning and left to attend to other kids. Saifah turned to the two perpetrators, cheeks puffed out in anger. Before he could say anything though, Phayu grabbed Rain's hand and started running from Saifah. Rain laughed gleefully while Saifah yelled after them.
--
Rain was absorbed in playing with the model cars that Phayu brought in. Before entering primary school, prathom, Rain had heard rumors that there would be no more recess. He didn't know what he'd do if he didn't get to play with his hubby and his puppy anymore! He was relieved to know that that wasn't the case. Even indoor recess was better than no recess (stupid monsoon season).
Rain vaguely registered three of his classmates talking about something boring like crushes. He didn't care. Who needed lovey-dovey stuff when he had his best friend and hubby? He was at peace violently crashing his car into Phayu’s, until he thought he heard his name come up. Only then did Rain tune in.
“Yeah,” giggled one boy, Sib, to Khat, one of Rain's other friends from Kindergarten, “I heard Ping likes him.”
The third one, Laew, nodded, “I heard her and Tea fighting over him.”
Phayu cut in, “You mean my wifey?”
Sib and Laew stared at him incredulously. Then they looked to Khat, who just shrugged.
“Yup, that’s them,” Khat told the other two.
After a pause, Sib asked, “So are you guys, like…?”
“We’re best friends for life!” Rain interjected, wrapping his arms around his hubby.
Phayu nodded in confirmation, grinning wide at Rain.
“And you’re just friends?” Laew questioned.
That confused Rain.
“What else would we be?” he responded.
Sib looked ready to argue but was interrupted by the teacher announcing that everyone needed to clean up. Rain's mind swam as it sorted through all the possible reasons that Sib and Laew were acting so weird.
He soon after dropped that thought the moment Phayu called, “Wifey, help me with this bucket!”
“Okay, hubby!”