The armoured hearts

Building another trust

(Hi🥺 here is another chapter, I hope that you are feeling well, have the greatest time possible, love you💗)

The great thing about being a poorly shaped, but highly active robber, was that Porchay knew all the small passages to reach the fountain, he knew how to get there faster than those men would. And some streets after they spotted them, they couldn't hear their loud footsteps against the ground. Kim and Porchay were just running, not thinking, just running and it brought to them some different feelings. Porchay hated it. It reminded him of every time he had to run away. It reminded him how he mostly died or got so scared to never breathe again. The adrenaline in his body was really uncomfortable as well as his heartbeat growing up and up, as if his chest could move out of his chest. As if it was only a thin line between him and the underworld and he was the one to act. He would be the one to open the door of his fate. His brain was spiraling about where to go and how to not be caught in the process, insecurity overflowing from all of his skin.

Kim was feeling so good, so free, so lively. He was just running, running into the world, running outside like he couldn't for days, feeling the wind hit his face violently and not just by opening the window, feeling his legs touching something else than the wood of the room and the atmosphere being so different, the freshness of the day freezing his thoughts. He didn't have the time to think about anything, he was following, and trusting, following and just letting his body be led. He liked it. Kim kinda liked it. He didn't know if he really was because the concept was still far away from his existence but he felt so much better to the point to feel that he preferred to be here running than to wait inside of that room alone. He raised his head to the sky and it was still here, a little grey, the blue fading as if time couldn't protect that color for too long, as if the blue was meant to disappear but Porchay appeared again. He appeared again and Kim wanted to believe that if the blue wasn't present above them, it was because Porchay took it away to reach him, so he could see clearer into his own inside sky.

Porchay pushed them into a dark and dirty street, into a narrow and terrifying one, no human would want to walk in alone. He understood why Kinn asked them to go around, there were a lot of boxes, a surprising amount of garbage that could hide them. Porchay spotted a kennel, a big kennel for big dogs, and pushed Kim inside, letting his own back be seen by entering the last one, putting a bag on his back hoping to hide them enough. The place was small and not enough for even one human to be in a great position. Kim was cross-legged, taking the bottom of the kennel, his head a little bent because of the tilt of the wood. Porchay was kneeling at the front, his head in the same position. Their two bodies close, so close that their legs were touching, brushing over each other.

Star suddenly put his head out of the coat, looking stressed, looking around, wondering. Porchay just patted his head softly, he murmured really quietly that it was going to be okay and Kim's heart wanted the same, he needed the same. He wanted reassurance. If running here had not been a frightening experience, being stuck inside of a narrow place, with Porchay at the front line, the first one to be caught if they were, and not knowing if the men were still around them, were elements pushing his worries up. However, he had no idea how to say it, he couldn't verbalize anything as he didn't learn how to put words on a need, he just knew how to analyze clearly and to react with words which were adapted as he learnt it. The boy bit his lips, playing rapidly with the skin, feeling at the bottom of his throat the dry words and the violent pressure wanting to evacuate the heaviness of what he was emotionally drained by but couldn't soothe.

Porchay raised his eyes to Kim, he was out. He had an expression he never saw on him before, he looked like metaphorically suffocating. The boy was going to ask about this when loud voices made him stop. They should have been around.

"Mister Kinn, what are you doing here?"

"I heard from the brothel that they were here and followed. Did you find them?" The role in his voice was mostly perfect for the one not knowing that he was lying. Was he really lying?

"We thought that they took that street but as you can see they aren't here."

"And I didn't see them coming from the other side."

"Damn. Let's go!" He said, hurriedly, running, his run could be heard. It was that unlike Kinn, those workers needed to bring results to not be hurt, or fired, the other boy had the family card to protect him.

Some minutes of silence followed. No one said anything. Porchay didn't realize that he had reached for Kim's wrist again, trying to get some strength from his presence. They were voiceless, they had nothing to say more than hoping deep in their hearts for this to work out. They even felt like not breathing anymore.

"You can come out." They heard. And Porchay was not sure anymore. In fact, he had no possibility to run, either Kinn helped them or trapped them, he knew that they were here. They had no chance and his brain was reluctant to witness their luck. Porchay looked at Kim, smiled, and went out. He met Kinn's eyes, Kinn's ones which looked so much like Kim's. He only hurried them to go. No one was in the streets but them. Their hearts stopped a beat, a reassuring one.

Kim stood up, he stood up and naturally stepped in front of Porchay in a defensive attitude. Kinn's face got surprised, he stared at him for a moment before denying silently.

"Kim, I am Kinn and I am going to lead you to a safe place."

"How can I believe you?"

"Why would you not?"

"Don't ever believe someone who isn't at the head of the family...." Kim mechanically said, a cold shiver growing on Porchay's skin with the memory of how he was before. "It's your Theerapanyakul's words, bad words, I shouldn't follow them." He added, his voice being softer. "So what should I believe you, you're one of them aren't you?"

Kinn's face was startled. From the beginning of that talk to the moment he had some seconds to think about an answer, his expression was loading. In a way his brain was making links with what Porchay explained but it also was hard for him to understand what was happening. And the way Kim talked between the rock and the flower, between the thunder and the blue sky, was really interesting. He never talked with someone who didn't really look like having a stable personality, a stable way of talking. It was getting weird but amazingly weird. Kinn might be able to put down his father's business.

"I am. But I didn't know about you. I don't know anything about you, Porchay told me everything himself and I chose to believe him. Will you believe me in return?"

Kim's pupils were turning around, he needed to make a choice, he needed to answer, to suddenly take a side to just go for it. His eyes blinked a little, his mouth opened and closed, as if he had the impulse but not the voice for it. It was always like this, he had it all but not the road for it. He got snatched of the basics or in the end the basics were never ones and it was all built up, not like everyone was thinking about, forgetting the never natural way of humanity.

He finally turned his body towards Porchay who was silently waiting. His face was enough to understand that he was asking for an answer. The boy just nodded, he didn't have to say anything and it also bothered Kim, how sometimes words were needed and how sometimes just being silent was enough but him being silent was not a way to communicate.

Kim didn't react and turned back to Kinn, looking fiercer. "Where are we going?"

"At my brother...no one is ever going to think that he would be involved in any of our business." Kinn laughed a small amount, he wasn't eager to ask any favor from him.