Noel woke up on Saturday morning to find himself imprisoned by a heavy arm, he turned to look at the owner and Man's face was within inches of his own however he appeared to be fast asleep. Noel took a moment to study his face, he really was handsome and looked younger in his repose.
Why was he in this bed and why does he have his arm around me? Noel thought to himself as he tried unsuccessfully to slide from under Man's limb.
"Mmmmm what time is it?" Man asked, his eyes still closed.
"I don't know, I can't move to get my phone, why are you here?" Noel asked.
"you had a bad dream and when I came in to check you grabbed me and wouldn't let me go" Man replied honestly.
"really? I'm so sorry" Noel apologized.
"s'ok, it's kind of nice waking up to you" Man flirted again after opening his eyes to see Noel's pretty face.
Man lifted his arm and climbed out of bed,
"I'll go and wash up in the other bathroom, see you downstairs" Man said before leaving Noel in bed staring after him.
Noel dragged himself out of bed and went to complete his own ablutions before dressing in a short sleeved cotton top and a pair of old jeans then he went downstairs to see Man already in the kitchen.
He had some rice cooking and was stirring a pan of what looked like soup. Noel hadn't eaten a cooked breakfast in so long, he tended to just grab a piece of fruit or a chunk of bread with a little jam spread on it.
He walked over to his boss and offered to help.
"no, that's ok Noel, it's pretty much done now, tell you what, you could cook dinner tonight how does that sound?" Man bargained with him.
"ok" Noel said before sitting at the kitchen table to watch Man as he moved around his kitchen. Gunny used to describe his boss as grumpy and difficult to get close to but apart from when Man had been angry at him the other day, Noel had found him pleasant and easy going.
Perhaps it was different working with someone full time and dealing with crime? Noel wondered what kind of crimes he dealt with but didn't want to dwell for too long on such a depressing subject.
He wondered if things had been different back then, if he'd had someone like Man by his side, would his life have turned out any differently and the answer was no because his mum still wouldn't have been here, nothing could bring her back.
He thought of the beatings he had taken and the broken bones he had sustained trying to stop that person beating his mother, a person whom his mother had told him had offered to help them after his father died. How could it be help when that person was causing so much pain.
He remembered when they had tried to take him away from his mother blaming her for beating him and that person had threatened them both not to talk or they would get far worse. That person in authority who had all the power while they had none.
Noel looked down at the table and felt tears beginning to form, he had to stop thinking about it in front of Man or he would start asking questions and he wasn't prepared to divulge anything to him or anyone.
Yes he trusted him to a degree but he couldn't fully trust him, hadn't experience taught him that people could and very often would so easily betray that trust. That person had pretended to care too and he had morphed into a monster.
Noel took a deep breath and looked up to find Man studying him.
"you ok bud?" he asked.
"yes" Noel replied then Man shrugged and began dishing up the breakfast.
He knew Noel was not ok but he couldn't force him to talk, he had seen the emotions flitting across his face as he sat in a trance, sadness, fear, hopelessness and a little anger. He wanted so much to be able to help Noel, to stop those bad dreams but he couldn't do anything until he spoke up about what was troubling him.
They ate quickly and Man rinsed the dishes before placing them in the dishwasher then he went down to the cellar to get the paint brushes & scrapers and a strong stick to stir the sealer with then went back upstairs where Noel was waiting for his instructions.
"let's go and get the paint from the boot of my car and we'll get started" Man told Noel.
They went to the car and got the four 5Ltr cans of sealer before placing them in the shade then Man opened two can's before giving the contents a good stir. He used a brush to clean off the stick then balanced it on top of a rock to dry before handing one of the cans to Noel and picking up the other one for himself.
"there you go, do you know how to paint a fence?"
"I guess so" Noel replied.
"if there's bird poo or anything, just scrape it off and blast the sealer on, it doesn't need to look pretty, it's just to protect the wood" Man said.
"ok, where should I start?" he asked Man.
"you start over there and I'll start over here and we'll meet in the middle and then it should be about lunch time" Man replied before walking away to start on his on stretch of fence.
The fence was six foot high and it wasn't an easy job. Noel wasn't afraid of hard work but he was glad that Man had come to help him, there was no way he could have done all this by himself, well, he could but it would have taken a lot longer.
By the time they met in the middle, Noel was hot and sticky and his hands were covered in the paint. Luckily it was water based so it would wash off easily without the need for thinners so they decided to wash their hands with the hose pipe before going into the house.
Noel went to grab the hose but the tap was a few feet away and Man suddenly thought it would be highly amusing to turn it on while Noel was inspecting the nozzle causing a stream of water hit him full on in the face.
Man began laughing hard, he was creased over in hysterics and Noel looked at him in wonder. At first he was a bit angry but when he saw Man laughing like that something possessed him.
"so you think that was funny eh?" he said as he turned the hose onto Man and splurted him in his own face until his hair was flopping down over his eyes and he spat a stream of water from his mouth.
"you wanna' play huh?" Man said pushing his hair out of his eyes as he approached Noel with a predatorial look in his eyes.
"you started it" Noel laughed.
Man was struck by how beautiful Noel looked as he laughed out loud, happiness suited him and he decided he would make it his mission to make the boy even happier.
Man stalked towards Noel and Noel squealed like a little kid as he sprayed Man more with the hosepipe, as he got closer he grabbed Noel's hands and aimed the spray back onto Noel himself and Noel continued to squeal,
"it's cold, no" he laughed and Man laughed with him.
Suddenly they both stopped laughing and just looked at each other, the water forgotten as Man's gaze fell to Noels lips.
No, don't do it, it's too soon, you'll freak him out, were the thought's going around in Man's head as he took the hose and turned it off at the nozzle dropping it to the ground. He took Noel's slim fingers in his hands and spoke,
"come on, we better go inside and get you dry"
"yes, you too, I'm sorry boss, I don't know what came over me" Noel said feeling a bit scared of any repercussions.
"it's called having fun Noel, don't worry about it" Man said.
Man wondered why Noel had apologized, was he scared that he was going to be in trouble for spraying water on him? He wasn't a special agent for nothing, he knew Noel had been through something really bad and after he'd found out what that was fixed it he was going to spend the rest of his life protecting him and making him happy.
***
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Until Proven Innocent 🤍 Net/James
FanfictionA NetJames fan fiction ~ 32 year old Man Khunithikorn called boss or boss man by his subordinates is the well respected team leader of a small group of special agents who work for the DSI Department of Special Investigation. In his experience, peopl...
