Toxic [2gether]

Part 33

Tine stared at his pitiful boyfriend from across the room, a tissue stuffed in one nostril and some kind of glistening gel smeared over his slightly puffy nose bridge as he sat sprawled in a rickety chair. His arms were petulantly crossed over the blood stained shirt while he was staring somewhere over Tine's shoulder, purposefully avoiding his inquisitive, round eyes. They were at the busy police station, sitting in a separate room, away from prying eyes since it had risen quite a commotion when people in the common waiting room started recognizing Sarawat.

Shit, Tine so did not look forward to that particular backlash once speculative photos started circulating. He rubbed at his neck a little agitatedly, catching Sarawat's concerned gaze on him fleetingly before the other man schooled his features, once again staring stoically into the air. Why the fuck was he so stiff? A thought struck Tine and he snickered silently, eyes dancing with mirth. Was Sarawat actually feeling embarrassed about the ruckus they had caused? Cute.

They had already given their statement to the police about the disturbance at the hospital and were now waiting to speak with an officer about Tine's stalker report. Now that the connections and the evidence had rounded up into a full-fledged circle, they would press charges against Plern and just to be on the safe side, see if they could ordinate a restraining order too. Tine fiddled with the memory stick that Boss had handed him when he had rushed into the station, ready to bail Sarawat out of any possible and impossible charges.

After listening to what everyone had to say Tine could kind of understand that Mil had unintentionally revealed certain sensitive details to Plern about Tine and Sarawat, namely that they had been fake dating during university. Except then she had gone a little wild with her own demons. Her ex-boyfriend had apparently cheated on her with another guy so while she might have been genuinely interested in Tine initially, Tine's budding relationship with Sarawat had somehow triggered her to act a little, uh, crazily. She probably did not even realize what kind of trouble she was in right now, feeling justified by her traumatic breakup to act the way that she did. What a fucking mess. How had Tine managed to get in the middle of it all?

"So," Tine said, trying to break the awkward silence. "That went well, huh?"

Sarawat snorted and then instantly winced, one corner of his mouth jerking sharply as his whole face throbbed with pain. A trickle of blood slipped past the tissue and down his puffy lips.

"Fuck," he bemoaned, impulsively throwing his head back in a misguided attempt to stop the blood flow, pinching the bridge of his nose slightly. He wiped the blood off his face sloppily with the other hand and then swiped it against his shirt. Ugh, that was not really sanitary but at least he made an effort to get it clean.

A wry smile pulled at Tine's lips as his eyes traced over the exposed, strong neck of his boyfriend. The soiled, once white shirt was unbuttoned at the top, brandishing Sarawat's sharp collarbones. He looked like a snack, even injured and messy. Tine's gaze landed on Sarawat's tanned hand still on his face and he noticed that the knuckles were slightly bruised, the skin looked red and raw atop the knobs. How much power had he packed in that punch when hitting Mil?

"That poor dude Mil, he got in the middle of everything," Tine said tactlessly, thoughts still stuck on the fight and Sarawat glared at him sharply, chin jutting.

"Can you fucking stop being nice to everyone?" But me, he added in his mind.

Tine jerked around, gaping at Sarawat, shocked at the sudden outburst. He felt the chair give out under him a little, cracking slightly as he shifted in his seat.

"What are you talking about?"

"Tine, I'm trying my best here but you still don't get it." Sarawat leaned forward submissively and cradled his head in his strong hands, staring at the ugly floor between his feet. Should he just set Tine free from all of this? "Shit. I-" He looked up pleadingly, startling Tine with the sorrowful, heavy gaze that roved over his pale face. "Do you want to end this? Am I hurting you?"