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Team is going to commit a crime. He’s going to commit a crime and it’s going to be a bad one that gets him thrown away forever and ever but who the hell cares because the minute he walks into the school he’s going to be immediately shamed to death anyway.
“Hia, it’s fucking huge,” Team snaps. He points at the smudge of red and purple directly underneath his ear. The thing looks angry. As if it somehow holds any rank in this situation.
“It didn’t look that bad last night,” Win says from his perch on the toilet lid. He almost looks sheepish. “But it was also very dark so…I wasn’t really able to see it? I didn’t think it was going to be that dark.”
They’re in Win’s bathroom. By the grace of some higher power Team actually woke up when his alarm went off for the first time today, only to roll out of bed and stumble into the bathroom to see a very dark hickey. Since he got up on time, he actually had the spare minutes to throw a pillow at his annoying boyfriend to wake him up and chew him out.
Team bites his lip and pokes at the skin around it. It looks even worse in the harsh fluorescent lighting.
Team whines. “I can’t go to school like this,” he says. “You promised you were gonna be careful.”
“Maybe if you didn’t hold my head right there every time I kissed that spot it wouldn’t be so dark.”
“I do not ‘hold your head’. I just put my hands in your hair.”
“Yeah, and whine my name and tell me to keep kissing right there, Hia, oh-“
Team whips around with his face in a scowl. “You don’t get to be a smug asshole right now, you’re in trouble.”
Win closes his mouth. He furrows his brow and stands up, loosely wrapping his arms around Team’s middle. He looks at the two of them in the bathroom mirror, his eyes landing on the massive spot on Team’s neck. Team should be pushing him off. Team should be telling Win that he’s a bully who’s basically made it so that he has to wear his high neck windbreaker zipped up for the rest of the week like a weirdo. Instead, he’s letting Win lean up against him and press his front against Team’s back. Like a damn weakling.
“I'm sorry, baby,” Win says. “You just bruise like a peach.” He raises his hand to poke it.
“Ow.”
Win tries to hide his laugh in a cough. “Sorry, sorry.” Team rolls his eyes and finally reminds himself to elbow Win in the stomach. “Maybe you could wear a scarf?” Team doesn’t even answer him, he just crosses his arms. “Or maybe not. Bad idea. Maybe you could ask Manow for makeup to cover it up. You guys are similar colors, right?”
Win is looking at him hopefully and Team knows it’s because Win knows this is technically his fault. He has half a heart to shoot that idea down, too, but it’s not a bad one. Manow does carry that makeup bag around religiously. She wouldn’t mind sparing some to dab on his neck. He looks at it again, winces at how deep a shade of plum it is. Or maybe sparing a lot to dab on his neck.
“Okay, I’ll ask her,” he says. “But I want a smoothie when we get to school. A mango strawberry one. With coconut shavings on top. And some bread.”
Win smiles and pulls him in for a kiss on the forehead. “I knew you couldn’t stay mad at me.”
Team glares. “Don’t push it, Hia.”
When Team gets to school the first thing he does is pull Manow and Pharm into the handicap bathroom with one stall. He doesn’t want to tell anyone about the spot on his neck but he needs Manow’s makeup and he figures Pharm doesn’t have the room to judge. Dean may have looked at him like he was crazy, but he's sure Win is outside bragging about the reason why Team is so upset as they speak.
“You have to promise you won’t yell when I show you, Manow,” Team says from his position in the corner of the room. His arms are crossed and he’s sure he looks every part a skittish animal.
Pharm raises a brow. “Did you get a tattoo?” he asks. “‘P’Dean and I were talking about how long it would take until Win convinced you to get one.”
Manow makes a loud sound. “A tattoo! Team, let me see!” She moves to take a step towards him and Team quickly moves back, throwing up his hands.
“I don’t have a tattoo,” he says quickly. “And what do you mean convinced? He wants me to get one?”
Pharm shrugs. “He mentioned that you would look cute with one,” he says with a smile. “I figured he mentioned it to you.”
Team very resolutely ignores the tingly feeling he gets whenever someone tells him Win talks about him when he’s not there. He’s angry at him, damn it. “No, I didn’t get a tattoo,” he says. “I have. A problem.” Manow raises her eyebrows. “And I need help with it. With um… covering it.” Pharm blinks. Team sighs. Maybe he can keep the windbreaker on. Even just thinking it he can feel sweat break out along his hairline. If he goes that route he’ll be passed out by lunchtime. “Manow, can I….borrow some makeup?”
“Huh,” Manow steps closer again, pulling his hair up from his forehead. “You have a zit or something? It’s about time those chips caught up to you. It’s unfair to see you shoveling all that junk food in your mouth and keeping this clear skin.”
“Stop praying for my downfall. And no, I don’t have a zit.”
“Then what am I covering? Why do you need makeup?”
They’re going to make him spell it out. Team is really going to have to tell them. He opens his mouth to speak but cuts off when Pharm sputters out a laugh and speaks first. “Team has a hickey.”
Manow turns her head quickly. Team covers his eyes with his hand. The screech that Manow lets out echoes ridiculously loud off the small bathroom’s walls. “Eh?!” She exclaims. She puts herself back in Team’s personal space and tugs down the zipper of the windbreaker. Team throws up his hands to try and push her away, but Manow is strong when she’s focused on something. She shoves his hands out of the way and tugs down the collar, revealing his neck and she screams again. This may have been a bad idea.
“Oh,” he hears Pharm say.
“I can’t believe this!” Manow says. “P’Win did that? It’s so….wow.” She reaches up to poke it and Team swats her hand down.
He pulls the windbreaker back around his neck. “Who else would have done it?” he snaps. “As you can see it’s very bad and I need your makeup to cover it so no one else sees it.”
He should’ve just made Win stop and pick up some face cream stuff from the convenience store. Except that possibly would’ve been even more embarrassing since he’s sure the checkout counter girl would’ve known why he was buying it.
“Can I…take a picture to show Del?” Manow pulls out her cellphone and waves it for good measure.
And have his neck end up in some group chat with half his year’s girls in it thinking about what he and Win get up to at night?
“Absolutely not. You wouldn’t just show it to Del and you know that.”
Manow doesn’t try to defend herself against the accusation. “Please, Team? I’ll buy you chips.”
“No.” Pharm laughs again. “Pharm, it’s not funny.”
Pharm tries to calm down and covers his mouth with his hand. “I’m sorry, Team,” he says through giggles. “It’s kind of like when we went on that swim team trip together to the waterfall. Except much, much worse.”
If his face gets any redder Team is going to explode. He expected Manow, but Pharm? He’s wounded. If only P’Dean could see his precious little sugar plum now, bullying a dear friend.
“Can you just please cover it, Manow?” he says. He’s not quiet whining yet, but he’s close. “I’ll buy you lunch for two days.” Manow makes a face. “And tell Pruk to take you out this Saturday to that place you’ve been talking about. You know he’s a bit dense.”
Manow purses her lips. With a sigh, she swings her backpack around her body, and unzips it, rummaging through until she pulls out a small pink pouch. “Sit on the toilet,” she says tiredly. Team produces his most grateful smile and plops down. “You know if you two were being good boys and saving yourselves for marriage you wouldn’t have problems like this.”
“We can’t even get married, Manow,” Team points out. As Manow steps forward to pull his shirt even further down, Team tells his brain to not conjure up anything resembling Win walking down the aisle to meet him. He’s mad at him, his brain is not allowed to have mushy gushy thoughts until further notice after Win has begged his forgiveness.
“Now that I’m up close and see how awful this is, I have half a mind to make you walk around with this since you want to get snippy with me.”
“I love you, Manow, have I told you how beautiful you look today? And are you doing something different with your hair?”
Manow grins. “That’s more like it! Now hold still so I can cover this up.” She starts blotting at his neck and Team winces.
“That’s tender.”
“I bet it is. P’Win is like a vacuum.”
Team sucks his teeth.
Pharm peers around Manow’s shoulder. “Team I’m trying not to laugh at you because I know you’re upset but…it really is massive. What were you two even doing?”
Team bites his bottom lip. The two of them hadn’t been doing anything, Win had been doing basically all the work. The minute Team walked into his room, Win had him against the comforters with his mouth against his neck. Granted, at the time Team hadn’t been very vehement about getting him off, but….semantics.
“Okay, that’s as good as it’s going to get. It looks less vacuum tube and more….slightly pinkish irritation.”
Team stands up to look in the mirror, craning his neck to see the mark. Manow is right in the fact that she didn’t actually cover it completely, but the pale pink blotch is leaps and bounds better than the deep purple it was this morning.
“Thank you, Manow,” he says.
Manow smiles at him. “I know I’m a great friend, you don’t have to say anything. I will take my payment in smoothies.”
She wiggles her eyebrows and skips out of the bathroom, leaving Pharm standing next to him.
“Team,” he says. Team turns from the mirror to look at him. “Can I ask you something?” He still has some amusement in his eyes, but Team will give him points for trying his best not to laugh anymore.
“Sure.”
Pharm bites his lip and laughs again. “How do you get Win to…do it like that? I wanna convince P’Dean.”
Team’s answering squeak isn’t quite as loud as Manow was, but it’s close.