Love is a game (Love in the air collection)

Candy Striped

"I'm sorry P'Phayu, I can't go to the race this Friday night, I have somewhere I have to be early Saturday morning. In fact it's probably better if I stay at my parents house Friday since you will be coming in so late from the race." Rain tells him over the phone.

Phayu's brows knit together. Rain never misses a race when he doesn't have school work and right now Rain is on the break between semesters. For that matter, Rain has been disappearing every Saturday for weeks. Phayu has no idea where he is going. He has been leaving early Saturday morning, sometimes before Phayu is even out of bed, and when he meets Phayu at the garage for dinner on Saturday night he often looks absolutely exhausted.

Phayu figured Sky might know so he had gotten Pai to ask him. To his surprise Sky didn't know either and had said he was getting ready to ask Phayu the same thing. Normally there is nothing Rain doesn't tell Sky, usually several times.

Phayu completely trusts Rain, but curiosity and a slight worry is starting to get the better of him. He needs to find out what is going on, but he has to deal with the race first. He is very busy at the moment getting bikes ready to go.

At the race Friday night Phayu forces himself to concentrate on his work. He has to do a good job, lives depend on it. That doesn't stop Rain from being very much on his mind though. His boy is usually on his mind but now it is worse than ever. He barely notices the pit bunnies passing by his tent until one of them, Dara, stops to talk to him.

"P'Phayu, is Rain not with you tonight?" She asks with a disappointed edge to her voice. Over the few years Rain has become an honorary pit bunny and all the bunnies adore him.

"No he has something to do in the morning," Phayu says.

"Oh," She says, "I wanted to ask him if everything is okay? I've seen Rain around the hospital several times in the past few weekends. He's not sick or anything is he?"

Phayu's blood runs cold at these words. Dara is an emergency room doctor at one of the largest hospitals in Bangkok when she isn't being a pit bunny. Phayu can't help but wonder why Rain would be there. Is that where he has been going on Saturdays? Most importantly, why wouldn't he say anything about it to Phayu?

Phayu decides he has had enough of secrets, if Rain isn't going to tell him what is going on Phayu is going to find out for himself. If there is something wrong with Rain they should be facing it together, he needs his boy to know he is there for him.

After the race he sleeps for a few hours then dresses and grabs a bite to eat. Once he is ready he heads to the hospital Dara works at. He decides It's his best place to start. He spots Rain almost immediately by the nurse's station on the ground floor. He goes up behind him and lays a hand on Rain's shoulder, causing Rain to jump slightly. Rain turns his eyes widening when he sees who it is.

"P'Phayu what are you doing here?" Rain asks. He doesn't seem at all guilty or embarrassed to see Phayu there, just slightly confused. "Is something wrong? You're not sick or injured are you?"

"I should be asking you that, Rain. I came here looking for you. Is something wrong? Dara said that you've been coming here a lot at the race last night. Are you sick? Whatever it is, we'll face it together." Phayu says.

To his surprise Rain smiles at this, but stops at Phayu's thunderous expression. "I'm sorry, P'Phayu I didn't mean to worry you. I should have told you but it didn't seem like that big of a deal. To start out with it was supposed to be one weekend, and you were out of town on a jobsite that Saturday. It just grew and I didn't think to tell you after that."

"What grew? Rain, what is going on?" Phayu demands. He remembers the Saturday Rain is talking about and that had been weeks ago. Rain had been coming to the hospital for weeks for some reason.