Chapter Text
“Oh shit. It’s really coming down.”
Madi followed Kelo’s gaze, looking hopelessly out of the glass doors of the hotel lobby. If he squinted, the barrels of thunderous rain almost looked like a single, cloudy sheen over the streets of Taipei.
Geo sighed, zipping his camera into its black carrying case. “I ain’t recording the stream if it’s raining. I got enough hate from Ray’s chat already.”
Kelo and Madi glanced at each other before looking at Geo sympathetically.
“I get you. They really be on your dick every damn stream” Kelo mused.
Madi knocked his head against the wall behind him, looking up to the ceiling in thought. If there’s one thing they’d gathered from this whole Taiwan trip, it’s that Ray’s fans were very protective of him. Get security for Ray, show more Ray on the ingest, rub Ray’s nipples and feed him grapes off the vine— it was a lot.
But, honestly, after hanging around Ray for quite some time, Madi kind of understood it. Ray was… accident-prone, to say the least. He always tended to say yes to too many things, getting himself (and, oftentimes, everyone else) into compromising situations. If it was up to Madi, he would keep Ray in a bubble-wrap suit and strap him into a Ray-shaped bag; but, of course, you can’t have it all.
It also didn’t help that Ray was really cute, and really impressionable, and had the same overall build as a stick of incense or a blade of grass, just waiting to be toppled over by a hoard of fans or a too-strong gust of wind.
So, when Ray finally joined the rest of them in the lobby after waking from his hibernation, his polo pressed and his perm freshly done, Madi couldn’t help the pang of sadness that ran through him upon seeing Ray’s disappointment.
“Are we fucking serious!? I had so much shit planned for today,” Ray sighed, exasperated. “Fries Taiwan, bro.”
“Sorry ‘bout it. Rains supposed to stop in a few hours, but I know you gotta pick up some shit from Joey.” Geo said, moving next to him.
Ray huffed a laugh through his nose. “Yeah. Fucking dumbass, took my streaming phone with him. I’m supposed to meet him at the mall in an hour.”
“When you heading out?” Madi questioned, antsy.
“Uh,” Ray glanced worriedly at the downpour outside. “I guess now. Not getting any drier.”
Look; Madi allegedly didn’t care about what Ray did when he was out of his sight or how he was feeling or if he needed first aid or not. In fact, Madi would tell you he hardly thought about Ray at all. Actually, Madi would double down, telling you that him and Ray were just friends who were in forced proximity and had to get a little close to one another. That’s just how he is.
However, today, Madi knows just how much thought Ray had put into this trip. It took a shit ton of convincing to get him, Kelo, and Geo to even consider coming, and even when he had crossed that hurdle he had to pay for all of their shit. Madi wasn’t complaining— he didn’t mind having some extra money— but, he felt he owed it to Ray to enjoy Taiwan like how he did.
A part of him might’ve also wanted to soak up all the time he could with Ray, but he would never tell you that. That’s just how he is.
“We’ll go with.” He chirped, standing up from the bench.
Ray faltered, surprised. “Really?”
Geo blinked before sighing, standing up in succession. “‘Uh, okay. I guess I can put the cam-“
“Geo and I will stay here.”
Geo paused, looking back at Kelo. Ray and Madi followed suit. “What?”
Kelo didn’t falter, keeping his eyes locked on Geo’s and raising an eyebrow as he talked.
“We have shit to do. Here. Together.”
Madi looked at Kelo, confused. Kelo didn’t look back.
Geo pursed his lips before sitting back on the bench and sighing.
“He right. Go ahead without us. I’ll deal with this camera shit.”
Ray, leaning his weight to one side, nodded before turning and making his way to the door. “‘Kay. Just me and you then, Madi. You cool with that?”
Madi shot Kelo one last look before following suit behind, falling into step with Ray as they emerged into the downpour. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m cool with it.”
*****
“What the hell was that for?”
“They need time alone to figure this shit out. Lord knows they need a little push.”
“Uh, you know they’re not actually gay, right?”
“I don’t think they fucking know that!”
“What?”
“You haven’t seen the things I’ve seen.”
*****
Ray and Madi stepped into an underpass on the side of the street, wincing as the rain fell down harder and harder.
“Okay, I’m not fucking doing this.” Ray chirped, aggravated, bending his arms up and over to shield his head.
“Doing what?” Madi wiped the droplets of rain that had condensated on his face with the sleeve of his hoodie.
“This!” Ray brought his hands down to his side and shook his head like a dog. “I just got this damn perm. I’m not fucking it up on the first day again.”
Madi raised an eyebrow. “Yo, why do you even need all this perm shit? The fuck your hair usually look like?”
Ray narrowed his eyes. “You know full well what my shit usually looks like. Pin straight across my damn forehead. What’s the name of that movie? Matilda?”
Madi chuckled, looking at Ray’s damp face and imagining him with his blunt bangs. “You right. Might be time to go bald.”
Ray scoffed. “Oh, please. Easy for you to say.”
Madi blinked. “The fuck does that mean?”
Ray looked up at Madi, skeptical. “Well, you know. You’re the only person I know that could go bald. And you did.”
“Uh, you know you can also go bald any time you like.”
Ray narrowed his eyes even further. They were almost closed at this point. “You know what I mean.”
Madi laughed, confused. “Yo, what are you on?”
“Okay, now you’re fishing for compliments.” Ray jabbed an accusatory finger into Madi’s chest.
Madi swiftly caught the offending hand with his own, holding Ray in place with a teasing stare. “What? Use your words, Ray.”
Ray squirmed his hand under Madi’s iron grasp until he sighed, defeated, raising his head to meet his friend’s questioning gaze. “You know. You’re just, like, the only person I know who’s handsome enough for that.”
A beat of silence passed.
Madi blinked, Ray’s wrist still in his hand.
Ray cleared his throat, feeling the weight of the silence. “Uh, like, you have a nice jawline and a good face. A great face, actually. Very charming. And your build is nice as well.”
Madi opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He was feeling warm, all of a sudden.
Ray, impatient, swiftly raised his free hand and started gently slapping Madi’s left cheek.
“Helloo? Anyone in there? I’m telling you your dick big and your shits wavy—“
Madi instantly grabbed the newly offending hand, unable to control his laughter as he began pushing Ray’s arms down with a forceful weight. “Oh my god, shut the fuck up. You the corniest bitch I know.”
Ray started giggling too, his eyes crinkling as he pushed back, his arms straining to compete against his friend’s. “You were the one who got greedy and started overfishing. Climate change is real, Madi!”
Madi laughed again, his cheeks beginning to grow sore. “Yo, I’m so fucking sick of you.”
“Oh yeah?!” Ray smiled too hard, struggling against Madi’s weight. “Watch this, bitch.”
Suddenly, he forced his whole body’s weight forward with one fluid motion, making Madi stumble backwards into the downpour, his arms instinctively letting go of Ray’s.
Madi regained his footing, his clothes instantly turning damp and then soaked as he looked forward to see Ray’s image clouded by thousands of tiny, rapid droplets.
He paused for a second, letting the water rush over him. Letting his breath catch itself.
Letting himself admire that face Ray was making for just one more achingly short moment.
He heavily laughed out a breath before lunging forward, wrapping his arms around Ray’s upper thighs and dragging him up under the wet, open sky.
“Madi!! Madi what the fuck!? Madi put me down!!”
Madi kept laughing loudly, his cheek pressing against Ray’s side as he began spinning him around, the rushing water pooling onto them and flicking outward with the motion like a fountain.
“Who’s a bitch now, Ray! Who’s a bitch now!!”
Ray laughed, laughed until his sides hurt, banging his fists swiftly against Madi’s slick back.
“Madi! My fucking perm!!”
Madi gradually slowed them to a stop, catching his breath once more through raggedy giggles as Ray did the same, his arms around Madi’s shoulders, his head craning down into the crook of Madi’s neck to shield his face from the water.
Madi felt high, his face holding the same stupid smile as he hoisted Ray’s ass up against him, adjusting his grip. Unconsciously, as if to stop himself from falling, Ray wrapped his legs around Madi, his black sweatshorts growing damp from the contact with Madi’s soaking wet hoodie.
Madi could feel the stares of people walking by boring into his frame, but for some reason, he couldn’t care less.
“Still handsome now, Ray? My dick still big? My shit still wavy?”
Ray huffed out another breathy laugh before gently lifting his head, his eyes meeting Madi’s as he puffed warm breaths of air from above him.
“I don’t know about your dick,” he started, losing the energy to keep his head up as he bumped his forehead against Madi’s, resting it there. “But our shit definitely isn’t wavy after this.” He ran his fingers over Madi’s hair for emphasis.
Madi could only breathe heavily, his eyes staunchly trained on Ray’s as he tried to piece together what he could possibly say.
Water condensated at the tip of Ray’s pale nose, forming a droplet as it threatened to fall onto the earth below them.
If that droplet falls, Madi thought to himself, absentmindedly, I’ll kiss him.
All those things Madi tried not to tell himself— all the looks he stole from Ray, all the times he joked with him, played with him, dreamt about him— bubbled violently to the surface, making waves that even Madi couldn’t ignore.
Madi’s eyes moved rapidly between Ray’s and the droplet, almost as if he was trying to force it down through sheer will.
I swear I’ll do it, Madi thought to himself.
Just drop already.
Just drop.
Just—
The droplet unforgivingly fell to the floor as Ray swiftly tilted and moved his head forward, his eyes closing shut as his wet lips slid into place right where they belonged, in between Madi’s own.
Madi took a sharp breath of surprise before his eyes shut with joy, his grip under Ray's hips tightening as he tried impossibly to move them more together, to touch more of Ray than he already was.
Ray, feeling greedy himself, tightened his arms back around Madi’s shoulders.
Madi was nothing less than intoxicated on the delightfully foreign feeling of Ray’s lips, forgetting to breathe as he desperately pressed into Ray’s skin for a wonderful, short moment.
They broke apart for air, Madi’s eyes slowly opening as he huffed out air hastily.
When they met gazes again, Ray was already awake, looking dead at Madi with an expression Madi had never seen on him before.
Ray smiled that cocky, beautiful smile of his before unwrapping his arms from around Madi.
A moment passed of them staring into each other, content with whatever feeling they had just discovered.
“Come on,” he said quietly, more shy and thoughtful than Madi had ever known him to be. “We’re gonna catch a cold.”
Madi nodded and squeezed his thigh, unable to make any more words form on his tongue.
*****
They walked in silence to the convenience store, side by side and soaking wet.
As they stepped into the comforting warmth of the shop, the unforgiving drumming of rain fell away, the automatic doors closing behind them.
They stood stupidly on the welcome rug for a moment, dripping water onto the floor, before Ray made his way to the counter, pulling three sweet potatoes from a heated station and placing them in front of the employee.
Madi stood pensively behind them as they exchanged words foreign to him.
Without the sound of rain or the weight of words drowning his head, Madi was left alone with himself.
Of course, the first thing he thought about was Ray. He hadn’t stopped thinking about him, after all.
Then, like he always did with him, he got ahead of himself, and started thinking further.
About how he had kissed a man.
About how he had kissed Ray.
About how he would do anything for it to happen again.
Almost as if he could hear Madi getting lost within the excess noise of his thoughts, Ray turned his head to the side and glanced at Madi. The cashier was gesturing to him, asking something in Mandarin. Ray laughed gently, his eyes still locked on Madi’s as he responded, presumably saying something about him.
He shot Madi a smile before turning back around, putting his wallet in his back pocket and thanking the cashier.
He sauntered back over to Madi, holding up the bagged potatoes in his hands.
“For me, you, and Joey” Ray said, handing the biggest one to Madi.
“Thanks,” Madi breathed out.
They ate shoulder to shoulder on the bench, the warmth of the sweet potato burning hot against the cold wetness of their forms.
When they got up to leave, Ray’s hair still dripping wet, Madi shivered at the thought of going back into the downpour.
“It’s fucking freezing,” he muttered before he thought about it.
Ray glanced toward him, reaching back into the plastic bag and pulling out the last potato, still warm and wrapped in paper. “Here.”
Madi blinked up at Ray before taking it and nestling it in his hoodie pocket, his hand resting over it like a heat pad. As Ray began making his way forward, back into the rain, Madi swiftly stepped forward and caught his wrist with his hand once again.
Ray, startled, whipped his head toward Madi, the surprise palpable on his expression.
Before Madi could second-guess himself as he knew he would, he looked down at their hands, lazily lacing his dark fingers into Ray's soft ones before stuffing them both in his pocket with the makeshift heater.
Madi moved before Ray could even blink, walking forward with his jaw clenched and his ears hot,
Ray didn’t say anything, and Madi couldn’t bear to look, but he knew he was smiling up at him.
*****
“Uh, why are you guys so wet?” Joey asked, his voice a tinge of concern and a tinge of amusement.
“Ask Ray.”
“Madi was jealous of how handsome I looked with my perm, and decided to ruin it.”
“Ray was complicit, your honor.”
“Ray,” Joey giggled. “Is this true?”
“Yes, sir. Madi’s idea was much better, sir.”
Madi laughed at Ray’s side, breaking his character. “Yo, you’re a fucking cornball.”
Ray laughed back, winking. “My shits still wavy, though.”
Joey cleared his throat. “I feel like there’s a joke I'm missing out on.”
“And why is my potato wet?!”
*****
When Ray and Madi stepped back into the hotel room, wet, sneezing, and pushing each other around like it was the funniest thing in the world, Geo and Kelo instantly found each other’s eyes.
Madi didn’t try to intercept them this time. They were right, after all.