Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tine instantly started sweating as he entered the club.

The music was loud, it was packed, and he could barely see past five feet. But none of it mattered, he had a job to do.

He made his way over to the bar and casually took a seat as the bartender made his way over. “What’ll it be?” Ohm shouted over the music, not the best disguise for him but it was enough, he had been undercover at the bar for weeks.

“Vodka.” Tine shouted back and Ohm smiled and turned to make the drink. Tine rubbed his hands over his pants and looked around as nonchalantly as possible. There were vampires standing watch near the VIP area, but he didn’t let his eyes linger too long, in fear of being suspicious. Ohm gave him his drink and Tine paid him.

He turned around in his seat to look over the dance area while taking a sip of his drink, rolling his eyes when he realized Ohm had given him water instead of alcohol, maybe it would’ve calmed his nerves.

The organization usually didn’t do operations near large bodies of innocent people, because anything could happen and they would have chaos, but Chat, the vampire that was supposedly hanging in the VIP area was their target, and he had only been seen in this club on Friday nights, then vanished without a trace. It angered Tine to no end, so they decided to infiltrate directly.

Fong and Phuak were currently dancing with people of their choice on the dance floor, mimicking drunk club goers, Pear was sitting at a booth chatting away with Earn, Phukong was..DJing? Okay, that’s odd, Tine shook his head.

Tine scanned the rest of the dance floor until he finally met his gaze. Tine left his empty drink at the bar and made his way through the crowd. Sweaty bodies bumped into him but he continued to make his way over, as did the other male.

Sarawat Guntithanon, Tine’s partner and friend of sorts easily made his way over. Sarawat had joined a few years ago, after GMM had found him, newly turned and terrified. He was one of the few vampires that worked with them, as the official job of ‘Vampire Hunter’ wasn’t very appealing. After that Sarawat had accepted a job with them and had been with them ever since. There hasn’t been a day where Tine has seen him smile even slightly, and he knew very little of his life outside of work. But they still worked well together and that’s what mattered.

When they finally met in the middle, Tine swung his arms around his neck and Sarawat’s hands rested on his waist, and they started to dance to the music.

Tine leaned into his ear, “Did you hear anything?”

The other man shook his head. “Just a lot of flirting, nothing to warrant us going in guns blazing. But it seems there’s a certain type of person that gets let in.” Sarawat cleared his throat, Tine had never seen him visibly uncomfortable. Maybe the closeness was too much.

“And that is?”

“Male, tall, dark hair, fair skin, alluring.” Sarawat looked anywhere but him as it clicked in Tine’s head.

“I’m his type.” Tine sighed, Sarawat nodded.

“He’s been watching you since you came in.”

Tine internally groaned. “Okay here's the plan, we go to the bar and you spill a drink on me, I’ll pretend to be outraged and go to the bathroom upset, if he sees it then he should be waiting for me outside, if not I’ll make myself more.. Open.” Tine cringed. Sarawat nodded.

“Do you have your mic on? You know what to say when it gets intense.”

Tine nodded and took Sarawat’s hand, leading him toward the bar. Luckily it wasn’t too busy and they easily got Ohm’s attention again.

“Whisky sour.” Sarawat said without waiting for Ohm to greet them, no time for formalities. Ohm nodded and made the drink immediately. As he was handing it to Sarawat, he made a show of dropping it all over Tine’s white shirt.

“Fuck!” Tine yelled, causing a few people to look over at them. “You ruined my shirt!”

“I’m sorry!” Sarawat said and tried wiping at it with a napkin. Tine scoffed, “Don’t bother, I’m going to clean up and I better not see you again.” Tine walked away toward the bathroom, leaving Sarawat there with a few people throwing him sympathy glances.

Tine enters the bathroom and walks to the sink. The stain isn’t that bad so he doesn’t even bother with it. The makeup on his face is covering up his eyebags from the lack of sleep he got over this case. Chat was a vampire who leads innocent humans into the VIP area to woo them then when they get dizzy enough, he goes in for the kill.

One of his former security was human, and couldn’t stand to see him do it every Friday, and decided to give GMM intel. Unfortunately, he also turned up dead about a week later, Chat not taking too well to snitches.

Tine shook his head and unbuttoned the first three buttons on his shirt for good measure, it’s game time.

He exited the bathroom and bumped into Chat himself, Tine had to hold back his smirk, it was almost too easy.

“Hello darling.” Chat smiled at him, his eyes immediately raking his chest, making Tine shiver, and not in the good way.

“Hi, can I help you with something?” Tine asked innocently, a small smile on his face.

“I’m sure you can, I’m Chat, you are..?”

“Win.” Tine lied.

“Win.” Chat said, trying it out in his mouth, deciding that he liked it. “Would you like to join me in the VIP lounge? I must say I’ve had my eye on you all night. I saw you with that man earlier, shame he spilled a drink on you, but lucky for me I suppose.”

Tine smiled at him. “I would love to join you.” He said, taking Chat’s outstretched hand.

“Good answer.” He replied, and led Tine over to his area. It was slightly hidden with curtains but if you were at the right angle you could see everything. Security easily let them through, not evening sparing a second glance at Tine; as far as they were concerned he was just another pawn to Chat.

Tine sat down and Chat was all over him, with a hand on his thigh, Chat whispered in his ear. “You know, there’s just something about you Win, that makes me want you.” Tine suddenly started to feel a little lightheaded.

Chat was releasing his special aroma that all vampires had. They use it to attract mates and in this case, lure people in. Focus, Tine said in his head.

“Oh yeah, what is that exactly?” He asked, leaning toward Chat-- a bit dangerous but he had to sell it.

“Everything about you, your body, your smile, your smell.” Chat sniffed Tine’s neck. Okay, very dangerous. “You’re going to be my best snack.”

Tine’s eyes flicked over to the entrance as the curtains fell closed. He had to act fast. “Well that’s a shame.” He said, which caused Chat to smirk.

“And why is that?”
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to be a nuisance.” Chat didn’t even have a chance to respond as grunts were heard outside the curtains. The split second he turned his head, Tine used kick Chat to the ground. Chat rolled over expertly as Tine got up and pulled out his taser.

“You’re surrounded, there's no point in fighting.” Tine said easily, just as Sarawat came in, the rest of the team following behind.

“Hunters.” Chat sneered, bearing his fangs. Unexpectedly, he lunged at Tine, causing his taser to fall out of his hands as they wrestled on the ground. Sarawat was on them in a second kicking Chat in the side, climbing on top of him and punching him.

“You’re like me.” Chat managed to spit out. “You’re working against your own kind for some humans?”

Sarawat scoffed. “I’m nothing like you.” He said before throwing the final punch and shooting his taser at Chat and knocking him out.

__

Chat and his team were apprehended and taken to Cell Block D as soon as Tine and co got back to headquarters, but before he could turn the corner Chat yelled back to them.

“You all may work to lock us up, but don’t forget you’re still working with a filthy vampire like me. Good luck when your pet decides he’s tired of listening to humans.”

Sarawat stiffened but walked away, choosing not to meet his team’s eye and brushing past Dim who had come to welcome them back.

“You could at least acknowledge me.” Dim yelled after him, but Sarawat just continued to leave and disappeared around the corner.

Sarawat had always been like that, Tine pondered. He saved little room to have actual conversations with people and when he did it was always about work. Then he would leave at the end of the night and not even say goodbye. It always threw the new people off, but the team was used to it. Sarawat was Sarawat.

Dim sighed and faced the rest of them.

“Good work tonight everyone, thanks for taking one for the team Tine. Everyone needs to finish up their paperwork on Monday but for now go home and get some rest. We have a new case, and it’s…” Dim paused. “A big one, but we’ll discuss it Monday. Go home, and shower, you all smell.” And with that he bowed and went to his office.

“Gosh, we finally finish this case and immediately get a new one, does anyone have a heart around here?” Phuak complained and Fong hit his shoulder.

“Be grateful you get missions after the screw up from last time.” Fong scolded. Phuak winced.

“Come on, it was an accident! We caught him still didn’t we?” He reasoned.

Earn rolled her eyes, “You shouldn’t have taken your eyes off of him in the first place.” The group had started to walk out of the building.

“We all have those moments.” Ohm defended Phuak.

“You were with him! It was as much your fault as it was his!” Fong said.

“All semantics.” Ohm threw his hands in the air and the group laughed. It was nice to be able to joke around after a grueling case. Tine let out a deep breath as the night air hit them. They all said their goodbyes and went their separate ways.

Tine lingered for a moment until everyone had driven away and said, “How long are you going to just stand there?”

On cue, Sarawat walked out of the shadows and stood a few feet from Tine. Silence followed until Tine broke it, trying to remain nonchalant, “Nobody believes what Chat said at the end there, just by the way.” Sarawat scoffed.

“Then why did no one say anything?” He muttered and Tine winced.

“Oh wow, you’re actually replying for once.” Tine said pettily and Sarawat rolled his eyes. “But you got me there, really, no one thinks you’re going to turn on us. We’re a team, we trust each other, right?”

Sarawat stood silent. The night air blew again and Tine shivered. Sarawat shrugged off his coat and threw it at him, hitting Tine in the face.

“You need it more than I do.” Was all he said. Right, cause vampires don’t get cold, Tine thought. He shrugged on the jacket and by the time he looked back up, Sarawat was gone.

Tine made his way into his car and the smell on Sarawat’s coat finally reached his nose, it smelled like vanilla. Tine started his car and began the twenty minute drive home, trying not to let his mind think about their dance in the club, the way Sarawat’s hands felt on his waist, his breath on his ear and now, the jacket on his shoulders and the way Sarawat’s lips would feel on his.

Tine needed sleep.

Chapter Text

Phukong set an americano in front of Tine, “Here, looks like you need it.” He said and smiled happily at him. Tine silently thanked him with a nod of his head.

After Friday's operation, he took a shower and managed to sleep the weekend away, only waking up for meals. The last case stole so much sleep from him he was just happy to have two days to himself.

Tine was really just ready to get back into work, find a new case, and continue on. Only thing he had to deal with was the mountains of paperwork and the issue of returning Sarawat’s jacket.

In theory it really shouldn’t be that big of a deal, it’s just a jacket. But Tine hadn’t seen the other all morning and the jacket was burning a hole tucked away in his bag.

At about ten is when Tine finally saw the other stroll into the shared desk area. No one else was around so it was the perfect time to return it. “Hey Sarawat,” He started, which caused the older to look at him, but before he could finish, Earn poked her head in.

“Guys, P’Dim wants us in the meeting room right now.” She said and they both nodded. Tine moved to go with her but Sarawat grabbed his arm.

“Did you need something?” He asked but Tine shrugged his hand off.

“I’ll tell you later.” He answered. Earn was still there and he didn’t want to give back the jacket in front of anyone and for them to get the wrong idea. What idea would that be? Well Tine wasn’t quite sure. He turned away from Sarawat just missing the frown that graced his features.

Everyone was already in the meeting room when they arrived, which explained why the desk area was empty earlier. Tine flushed at his tardiness and apologized to Dim.

“It’s alright Tine, at least you apologized.” Dim said bitterly, shooting a pointed look at Sarawat who as always, chose to stand instead of sit. No matter how long the meeting, Sarawat would insist on standing against the wall, arms crossed. Sarawat ignored Dim’s stare, already looking bored before it even started.

Dim sighed and began, “I just want to say, you guys did nice work on the Chat case. Everything was done perfectly and don’t think it’s gone unnoticed. The higher ups recognize that your team work is great, and because of that they want to give you a more.. Intense case.” He then proceeded to hand out eight thick manila folders.

Inside was a picture of a man in his early twenties with dark black hair swept up. He grinned at the camera taking his mugshot and looked as if he knew the police wouldn’t be holding him for long. “As you guys know, Chat was only the beginning to this vampire “surge” in the city. Over the weekend we finally got out of him that he’s part of a much larger group of people dedicated to this plan. He hasn’t given up who he works for but he has given up some names that can get us there.” Dim rubbed his face and pointed to the man in the folder.

“This is Mil, we aren’t sure of his real name or where he’s from, but he operates mostly in the Bangkok area. We have arrested him a few times, but obviously we haven’t been able to keep him due to lack of anything really. Chat told us that he recently joined ranks with the group to bring forth a new era. What era exactly, Chat refused to explain, but we have a feeling Mil might be our ticket to new information. There’s a lot to be uncovered here guys, and it needs to be stopped.”

Tine flipped through the folder and scrunched his eyebrows together, “What are we thinking the turn around for this will be?”

Dim sighed, “HQ wants this solved immediately, as in like everyone is working overtime for this. We have a month to do this guys, we don't have time to waste.” He answered truthfully and the whole group gasped.

“That fast? How big is this case that we don't even have a normal time frame?” Pear questioned.

“This hasn’t been something that just recently happened guys. These surges of vampire newborns have been growing for almost five years now,” Tine saw how Sarawat visibly stiffened where he stood. “It’s huge guys and the company is putting all their faith that you can put a stop to it. I know it seems like a lot but you guys will be gratefully rewarded at the end of it, I can promise you that.”

“For now, we need to do recon. I need Ohm and Phuak to stay here and search through old reports about Mil and get any info out of them, who he was with, why he was taken in etc. Pear and Fong, I need you two to go figure out where Mil’s last whereabouts was, go to the Red Light District, some CCTV caught him there two nights ago, go see if he’s still around. Tine and Phukong, go to Mil’s house and just stake it out for now, no need to tip him off that we’re looking for him if he’s there. Earn and Sarawat go to some of our informants and ask around who Mil has been with the past few weeks.”

“But-” Tine started but the protest died in his throat as everyone looked at him. Earn and Sarawat? He and Tine had always been together for a case like this. Why was he suddenly going with Earn? Plus, Tine still had to return his jacket! How was he supposed to do that if he was stuck across town with Phukong.

Dim raised an eyebrow at Tine, “Is there a problem?”

Tine cleared his throat and tried to compose himself. If he protested it would look kinda weird, the jacket could wait. “I was just wondering where Mil was last seen.” He said lamely.

“Are you not listening, Teepakorn?” Dim said impatiently. “I just said the Red Light District. Pay better attention next time.” He huffed out and Tine nodded.
“Well if that’s it, you're dismissed. Let’s get this done team.” Dim saluted all of them and they all packed up to leave.

In the hallway, Tine didn’t even try to get Sarawat’s attention as he briskly walked out with Earn in tow, but Fong pulled his sleeve.

“You okay? You seemed kinda lost?” He asked and Tine nodded.

“Just tired.” He answered and Fong eyed him wearily before leaving with Pear. Tine sighed, rubbed his face and turned around to face Phukong. But his greeting died in his throat as he saw Phukong looking as white as a sheet.

“Whoa, are you okay?” Tine asked him, laying a hand on his shoulder.

Phukong shook his head, “I’m fucked.”

-

Tine bit into his sandwich as he listened to Phukong tell his story. They were sitting outside Mil’s house, just down the street, waiting to see if he or anyone else, would show up.

“Our friends introduced us, I wasn’t really sure if I liked him at first but I decided to give him a chance. After the fifth date we decided to make it official and we dated for half a year.” Phukong said miserably into his salad. Tine looked at him with remorse.

“Was this recent?”

“Yeah, we just broke up like two months ago. I wanted to get more serious, have him meet my parents and such, but he didn’t want to. Kept putting it off and saying my parents would never approve, because he was well, a vampire. I didn’t care of course, and I’m sure my parents wouldn’t either. And it’s not like he chose to be one, he was born one, he can’t change that.” Phukong muttered bitterly. “But we broke it off and I haven't seen him since.”

Tine took the story in stride, “Did you know-”

“No!” Phukong yelled and Tine put his hands up. “Sorry for yelling.” He flushed and looked down at his hands. “If I knew, then I would’ve broken up with him sooner. I don’t know if he actually liked me if he just wanted info out of me because he knew what my profession was, I don’t know.”

He looked out the window and sighed, “I really loved him. Maybe I still do. It was hard to let him go but now seeing him like this, just brings a lot out of me.”

Tine nodded but said nothing. He wasn’t really sure what to say but he really did have sympathy for the younger boy. Having to investigate and possibly arrest someone you loved must be extremely hard.

Tine had never really loved anyone. He had a long list of girlfriends and boyfriends but he was never with them long enough to ever really think he loved them. All of his relationships lasted two months at most.

Hell, the longest relationship he has had is this partnership with Sarawat for the past year. Wait, why did I compare Sarawat to the people I’ve dated? Tine shook those thoughts away and turned back to Phukong.

“I feel for you, I do. It must be pretty hard to do this. If it ever feels like too much just let me know and I’ll handle it.” He patted his shoulder and Phukong smiled gratefully at him.

Suddenly, Phukong gasped and lowered in his seat. “Get down, Mil is walking out of his house.” He hissed and Tine immediately ducked down.

Mil sauntered out of his house and turned, headed down the sidewalk toward their car. “Oh it’s over.” Phukong groaned out and shut his eyes tight. Tine held his breath as Mil stopped outside their tinted car window just for a brief second, before continuing down the sidewalk.

They both let out a sigh of relief and Tine turned on the car. “Let’s follow him from a safe distance for now and try not to alert him.” He pulled off into the busy street and quickly tried to catch up with Mil who had turned the corner.

Unfortunately for them, Mil was already gone and Tine gripped the steering wheel in frustration. “He’s gone, let’s just go back to HQ for now, the days almost over.” He said and sped off back.

Mil definitely knew they were there, and quickly went out of sight before they would follow him. It angered Tine because they could’ve had a lead, anything more than the little info they had now. This case wasn’t going to be easy. Mil was smart and wouldn’t easily let anything slip, the team truly had their work cut out for them.

Phukong studied Tine who seemed to have an internal struggle and opted to look out the window. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he fished it out. When he read the name displayed on it, his eyes got wide.

Nice to see you again. Come inside next time x
-Mil

-

Tine and Phukong made it back to HQ with no incidents, so that was good. The only worrying part was Phukong refused to make eye contact with Tine and walked ahead of him.

He shook it off and got back to his main task at hand. Returning Sarawat’s jacket. Sure he should report back to Dim but that could wait.

He walked into the desk area and saw that mostly everyone was there, aside from Sarawat and Earn. Great.

“Everyone’s not here yet?” Tine asked casually, as he slid into his seat.

“Nope.” Ohm tapped away at his phone. “Sarawat and Earn should be back soon though,” Then a smile slid onto his lips. “Why, missing your boyfriend already?” He teased.

Tine rolled his eyes and cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Not my boyfriend, asshat. Just wondering cause as soon as they get back we can leave.” And Tine can give his jacket back. Ohm hummed in response and went back to playing his mobile phone game.

Tine looked around and studied everyone. Pear and Fong were filling out papers, Ohm and Phuak were on their phones, Phukong was still in the bathroom, maybe Tine could just put Sarawat’s jacket on his chair with no one noticing. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.

Tine carefully pulled Sarawat’s folded jacket out of his bag and quietly pulled out his chair. No one was paying attention, he was going to get away with no teasing and no awkward talking to Sarawat about it.

Just as he was setting it down he heard, “What are you doing?” from none other than Sarawat.

In his startled state, he almost fell out of his chair, causing it to screech loudly and everyone to look over at them.

“Just um, pushing in your chair.” Tine said, eyes begging Sarawat not to say anything. But clearly the message was not sent properly because he went on to say,

“If you’re returning the jacket I lent you, don’t bother, I said you could keep it so keep it.” Sarawat picked up the jacket and threw it back into Tine’s hands and sat down at his seat. Tine flushed and avoided eye contact with everyone in the room.

“Like I said, his boyfriend.” Ohm whispered to Phuak and they both giggled. Tine put his head in his hands and took some deep breaths.

Thankfully, Phukong walked in and saved Tine from further embarrassment. “Dim said we could go now that everyone is back.” He reported and everyone except Tine and Sarawat jumped up and left.

As soon as they were all gone, Tine looked at Sarawat with a sour face. “You couldn’t throw me a bone?” He questioned, packing up his stuff.

Sarawat shrugged, “A jacket is a jacket.”

“Still,” Tine continued. “People around here like to talk. It would be nice to not give them something to talk about.”

Sarawat’s fingers paused where he was typing over his keyboard. “And what would they talk about exactly?”

Tine sighed, “Just, don’t give them any reasons.” He rubbed his temples and stood up from his seat. He needed a long shower and a good night’s sleep.

He walked toward the door and paused with his hand on the door handle. Sarawat’s typing had resumed, but it sounded more like he was jabbing the keys instead of lightly tapping.

“Don’t go home too late.” Tine whispered and didn’t wait for a reply before closing the door shut behind him.

Chapter Text

After the initial meeting with Dim, Sarawat just needed to get out of the room.

The implication that this new vampire upbringing happened within the last five years, around the time Sarawat was turned, made him feel extremely sick. If the big boss they were looking for turned out to be the person that turned Sarawat, then it made him even more motivated to get this guy. 

The thing was though, the guy in the folder, Mil, seemed so familiar to Sarawat. He couldn’t place him though, but his grin made Sarawat feel like he knew him from somewhere. 

If you asked Sarawat what he knew about his past life, he would tell you three things.

1. He lived in Chiang Mai, before they brought him down to Bangkok.
2. He went to school to be a political science major.
3. He was just a normal guy.

He would tell you these all in not so great detail. Being detailed enough so that you will understand, but also vague so that you wouldn’t ask anymore questions. He would be fine with that, if it wasn’t all a lie.

Truthfully, Sarawat doesn’t remember anything from before he was turned. He doesn’t remember his family, his life, his friends, or even where he went to school. He gets rare flashbacks of blurry images and friends laughing while he plays guitar, but that was it. 

HQ had given him those three facts to give people so that Sarawat would have something to say, instead of blankly staring at the person as they waited for a response. It was so ingrained in his mind, that Sarawat liked to believe it was real, just for a moment, just to feel normal.

But he hadn’t felt normal in a long time.

Sarawat was shaken from his inner thoughts as Earn called out to him, “Hey can you slow down a bit, you’re way taller than me and I don’t feel like running after you.” She grumbled. 

Sarawat slowed down but said nothing. Earn gave him a side glance, “So, it’s our first time working as partners.” She said, clearly just trying to make conversation as they entered the parking garage. Again Sarawat ignored her. 

She didn’t give up though. “You’re always with Tine, so the lot of us really haven’t gotten any time with you.” 

Ignored.

“What do you like to do outside of work?”

Ignored. 

“Do you like music?” She thumbed through the stations on the radio.

Ignored. 

Earn sighed and looked out the window, opting to sit in silence until they got to where they needed to go.

Sarawat felt bad for a moment, he didn’t want to ignore her, he just didn’t see a point. At the end of the day they were coworkers not friends, and they never would be friends. 

This was the problem with most of Sarawat’s coworkers (Tine). They would constantly pry (Tine). Act like they knew him (Tine). And even when they were ignored, they would still try the next day (Tine). 

Tine was really the root of all of Sarawat’s reservations about coworkers. 

Realistically, in Sarawat’s eyes, it’s hard for vampires and humans to be friends. They had different lives and experiences. His team didn’t get it, no matter how much Sarawat would give them the cold shoulder, that they would never truly be friends because they couldn't understand each other. They were just different in every sense of the word so how would they even find any common ground? Humans were normal and vampires weren’t. 

But still, Sarawat craved and wanted so desperately to be normal, to remember what it was like to be human. 

Shaking his thoughts off, he parked the car a bit away from where they were going to find most of the vampires that would help them in exchange for money.

Sarawat never really agreed with giving them money for info, but if the company said it was okay, he couldn’t really complain.

Nana Plaza wasn’t too busy this time a day, but Sarawat and Earn still dawned black caps, sunglasses and masks while pretending to shop around. 

Earn picked up a shirt and held it up to Sarawat, “Blue’s a nice color on you.” She mused and Sarawat shrugged. 

“I agree, it really makes his eyes pop.” Someone said to the side of them, trying to look as casual as possible, not even making eye contact with them.

Sarawat spared the person a quick glance and realized who it was. Air picked up a sunhat and tried it on in the mirror that was hanging down from the stall they were at. The owner looked bored, not even looking up from his magazine. 

“We need some information.” Sarawat mumbled, trying not to draw attention.

Air suppressed a laugh, “Obviously, or else you wouldn’t have summoned me, Lord Sarawat.” 

Sarawat tried not to glare at her. “I already told you not to call me that.”

Air brushed him off, “Sorry, forgot with that fancy job, you can’t joke with your own kind.” 

Earn jumped in before Sarawat could retort, “Listen, we need to know about this guy named Mil, do you know him or not?” She snapped. 

Sarawat and Earn watched Air go completely rigid before answering, “We don’t talk about Mil here.” 

“Can’t or won’t?” Sarawat asked her. 

“We can’t, not here anyway, there’s people everywhere.” She mumbled, nervously looking around. “In ten minutes meet me down the block, behind the abandoned building, in the alleyway.” She said and took off immediately. Sarawat and Earn looked at each other and continued their pretend shopping.

Ten minutes later they made their way over, looking as casual as possible. When they arrived Air was pacing and when she saw them she ushered them over. 

“Okay listen, it’s not that we can’t talk about Mil, but the people he’s associated with.” She held herself to stop from shaking. “All I can tell you is that they’re planning something huge and it’s happening in the next few months. Really that’s all I know. As for Mil...” She trailed off as if trying to find the right words. 

“Mil usually hangs around at Green’s place, otherwise he’s at home. He’s been quiet lately but everyone knows he’s working with them.” 

Sarawat nodded, “You don’t know any names right?” Air shook her head. 

“Well if that’s all you know then thank you, it will help a lot.” Earn patted her on the shoulder gratefully. 

“Actually I do know one more thing.” Air said, her eyes pooling with tears. “Last week, Fang got picked up by Mil, and he said they had business to take care of so she went with him, but she never came back. I’m afraid he killed her, or they did.”

Sarawat’s eyes widened with the new news. Fang was also one of their informant’s along with Air, and they were actually going to go find her next. “What if they come for me next? Because I have been telling you guys everything. I’m not safe!” She cried hysterically but Sarawat shushed her. 

“We will send protection to your house and make sure you will be safe. In the meantime stay home as much as you can, and avoid talking to others.” Sarawat checked his watch and mentally cursed, it was already late afternoon. “We have to go. Take care of yourself.” 

Sarawat and Earn exited the alley, making sure there was no one there and made their way back to their car. 

Air breathed out a sigh and turned to go the other direction, but before she could, her vision went black.

__

As Sarawat and Earn were reaching the car, Sarawat’s vision got blurry and he gripped the wall next to the building he was standing next to. He groaned as he doubled over and Earn grabbed him to keep him upright. 

“Are you okay?” Earn asked. Sarawat groaned in reply and she used all her strength to tug him the rest of the way toward the car.

She dropped him into the passenger seat and knelt in front of him. “What’s going on, Sarawat?” She asked.  

Meanwhile, Sarawat’s brain swirled with pieces of memory he couldn’t see clearly. There’s a crowd of people but he can’t really make out any of their faces. But then there’s a pain in his foot and when he looks at the person who stepped on it, they disappear.

A smack to his cheek abruptly takes him out of the memory, and he glares up at Earn. 

“What did you do that for?” He asks, angrily.  Earn scoffs and rolls her eyes. 

“I thought you passed out and I didn’t know how to wake you up!” She throws her hands in the air. “Sorry for helping!” 

“I didn’t ask you to help me.” He says as he slams the car door on her. 

Earn groans and walks around the car getting in the passenger seat, “Was I just supposed to leave you there? Let you fall over and just keep walking while you have something happen to you. Sarawat, you can act however you want with people, but not with me. I have treated you with nothing but kindness but you always, always, shut people out and-”

Sarawat tunes her out as he tries to get his headache under control. Remembering his past life always hurt this much, and as much as he wished he knew who he was before he turned, sometimes he wanted it to stop.

It was hard remembering a life that wasn’t yours anymore, it pained and burned Sarawat to remember himself happy, with people, and now to live in a world where it was all taken away from him in a second, was hell itself. 

Sarawat’s internal monologue ended just as Earn was saying, “You know what, it wouldn’t kill you to like us, it wouldn’t kill you to accept help, it wouldn’t kill you to be normal.”  

“You think I don’t want to be normal?” He asked her in a small voice, which caused Earn to pause and look at him. 

“You think I don't want to be friends with you all, go out to dinner, get drinks, accept help, have meaningless convos that make us laugh until Dim tells us to shut up, because I can’t anymore. To all walk out of work together and greet each other the next morning. You think I don’t to be human, to be normal? Cause I do, it’s the only thing I could ever want. But I’m not and I can’t do anything about it. I’m stuck like this forever with no going back. I will never remember what it’s like to be human, because I can’t be anymore. Do you understand me, my life ended when I was turned and I will never get that back.” Sarawat didn’t even realize he was crying until his speech was over, silent tears rolling down his cheeks as Earn stared at him silently. 

“Sarawat, I’m sorry. I didn’t know how you were feeling and I attacked you like that. I’m sorry.” She placed her hand on his shoulder and he shrugged her off. 

“It’s fine.” He rubbed his eyes, effectively getting all the tears to go away, and started the car. They drove silently for a bit until Earn spoke again.

“You know, just because you’re a vampire doesn’t mean you can’t act like you’re human. You can still come out with us and do everything you said you wanted to. You make it seem like it’s one way or another, but it's not.”

Sarawat sighed and glanced over to her, “I wouldn’t even know where to start.” He admitted, Earn smiled widely at him, clearly pleased that he responded to her. 

She clapped her hands excitedly, “I’ll help you, we’ll come up with a list!” She pulled a small notepad out of her bag and grabbed a pen. “What should the title be…” She thought out loud then scribbled something down. 

Sarawat parked the car in the parking garage outside their work and fully turned to Earn. “Alright, let’s do this.” Earn said. 

They talked about what should be on the list, how Sarawat can act and change so he can more or less fit in. Thirty minutes later, Earn put down the pen and held the list out proudly.

“This is art.” She kissed the paper and held it out so Sarawat could read over it again.

Ten ways for Sarawat to be more normal: by Earn and Sarawat

1. Smile more

2. Sit with everyone at meetings

3. Talk more

4. Don’t glare at others

5. Go out with everyone after work

6. Express your emotions

7. Laugh with the others

8. Come in and go home at the right time

9. Help/comfort others when needed

10. Know that not everyone is out to get you

Sarawat scoffed, “You really think this is going to work? 

Earn shrugged, “If you put in the time and effort, it will.” Sarawat nodded and read over it a few more times.

“I’ll try,” He paused. “But just don’t tell anyone about this okay?” 

Earn saluted him. “Scouts honor.” For the first time in a long time, Sarawat smiled,

“Thank you.” 

Earn beamed at him.

__

Walking into HQ, Earn bids him goodbye and heads to the bathroom. Sarawat nods at her and continues to make his way up to the office. Just as the elevator doors are about to close on him, Dim inserts his hand and makes them open again.

“Sarawat, good to see you.” He says. 

Sarawat nods at him but then remembers rules one and three, smile more, talk more. “Good to see you too.” He says and gives Dim a crooked smile. 

Dim stares at him for a beat too long and Sarawat feels his face burn. “Okay...” Dim says and they stand in silence. “Did you find out anything from the informants?” 

“Yes, Mil is working for some guys that everyone is afraid of. They may have gotten to Fang as well. Something big is happening soon, but we aren’t sure what. We need to find Mil and get any answers we can out of him.” Sarawat replies.

Dim takes a minute to take all of it in. “Alright, go fill out your report of the day with anything else you remember and we’ll talk tomorrow.” The door opens to their floor and they go to part ways, but Sarawat grabs his arm before Dim can leave. 

“I had a question actually,” He says and Dim raises an eyebrow. “Why did you split up the teams like this today?” He blurts out. “Like why wasn’t I with Tine?” It’s been bothering him all day. 

Dim laughs a bit at the desperate look on his face and shrugs. “Needed a change of pace. Sarawat, I will be honest with you. You work great with Tine, amazing actually, but the higher ups and I need you to be like that with everyone. You can get that, right?” 

Sarawat looks at the ground and Dim thinks he resembles a kicked puppy. “Yeah I get it, thanks.” Sarawat walks into the office to write up his report for the day.

As soon as he walks in, he sees Tine trying to nonchalantly give him his jacket back. Didn’t he tell him to keep it? He furrows his eyebrows, if he wanted to give it back, why didn’t Tine just hand it to him. 

“What are you doing?” He asks and Tine freezes and gives him an excuse. His eyes are telling Sarawat to shut up, but his mind thinks back to rule three.

“If you’re returning the jacket I leant you, don’t bother, I said you could keep it so keep it.” He says confidently, not even noticing the pairs of eyes on him. He tosses the jacket back to Tine and sits down.

“Like I said, his boyfriend.” Ohm tries to say quietly but fails, and Sarawat's hands get a little sweaty at the implication. Were they talking about him before he walked in?

“...We can go.” He hears the tail end of what Phukong says and everyone gathers up their stuff. He ignores it and types away at his computer, he will write up what happened today so Earn can go home early, a silent thank you for helping him. 

“You couldn’t throw me a bone?” He hears Tine ask, Sarawat is confused. What even is the big deal?

He shrugs, “A jacket is a jacket.” Because it really was, he had no use for it so he wants Tine, someone who can actually feel the cold, to be okay.

“Still,” Tine continued. “People around here like to talk. It would be nice to not give them something to talk about.” 

Sarawat’s fingers paused where he was typing over his keyboard. “And what would they talk about exactly?” Is this referring to the boyfriend comment? He wants to ask but the question dies on his tongue when he hears Tine sigh tiredly.

“Just, don’t give them any reasons.” He replies and that's the end of that.  Sarawat really doesn’t get it, really Tine should be throwing him the bone here. Sarawat for years has dealt with people whispering behind his back about his attitude and who he is, a jacket is the least of his worries.

He jabs at the keyboard, frustrated that Tine is making it a big deal. “Don’t go home too late.” Tine says and Sarawat turns to look at him but he’s gone.

Sarawat sighs and buries his head in his hands. 

Chapter Text

Tine has always had a strict ‘no fraternizing’ rule with coworkers. 

Work is work and that’s how it should be. It should always be about getting the bad guys locked up. Also it almost always makes work awkward afterward, and nobody wants that. So he doesn’t really get how he and Sarawat are in this predicament, kissing like there’s no tomorrow. 

But he should probably start from the beginning. 

“Since Phukong is out sick today, I’m just going to stick everyone with their normal partners. Phuak, you will stay here and help get some stuff organized. Sarawat and Tine, I need you guys to pull some overtime. Go to Mil’s regular haunts and see if he’s around, and if he is, bring him in for some questioning.” Dim says to the group and they all nod. The rest of the group get their assignments and head out. 

Tine is gathering up all his stuff when he speaks to Sarawat, “So for tonight, should we take my car or-” He looks up and stops himself mid sentence. 

Sarawat is standing there listening, with the widest, awkwardest grin on his face.

Tine reels back and takes a moment to take in the sight. He has thought it was a bit odd when Sarawat actually walked into work on time, sat down next to Tine at the meeting and is now standing in front of him smiling. “Are you okay?” Tine asks cautiously. 

Sarawat tilts his head, “Yes of course, Tine.” He still has a smile on his face. 

Tine throws his bag over his shoulder, “Are you sure? You’re acting kinda weird.”

“What do you mean?” Sarawat asks. 

“Well for starters, you're smiling a bit too much, the fact that you’re smiling at all is a bit daunting.” Tine points out. Sarawat’s smile drops and turns into his signature scowl.

“Sorry, for trying to be friendly!” Sarawat says, leaving the meeting room. Tine sighs and trails after him.

“It’s not bad, I was just caught off guard. You don’t really try the’ being friendly’ thing that often.” 

“Yeah, well someone told me to try.” Sarawat mutters.

“What was that?” 

“Nothing.” Tine rolls his eyes and he and Sarawat make themselves at home at their desks. They’re going to be doing some paperwork until they have to go out later, trying to pass the time until the real job starts. 

Tine checks his watch, 10:06 am, ten hours until we go out, great. Tine thinks. He doesn’t know if he will be able to do meaningless work for that long. 

He pulls out his phone and types out a quick message to Phukong, might as well check up on him. 

Hey, heard you were sick today, how are you feeling? 

Read: 10:09 am 

Hi, I’m okay, I’m just going to rest and hopefully be back in by tomorrow. 

Read: 10:10 am 

Ok, let me know if you need anything

Read: 10:10 am 

Thanks

Read: 10:11 am

Tine frowns at his phone. He feels bad that Phukong isn’t feeling well, maybe he should go visit him at his apartment to kill some time before tonight. 

Tine spares glance over at Sarawat sitting to his left, he's very focused on what he is typing on the computer, so Tine lets himself study Sarawat’s side profile. 

Tine has known for a long time that Sarawat is a very handsome man, this is a very obvious fact,  and in moments like these where he's very focused on what he is doing Tine thinks that he looks the best. 

Sarawat’s brows are furrowed as he stares and confusion at what he's just typed, the long slope of his perfect nose leads right into his very plump lips, and goes to his very sharp jawline that really completes his side profile. Sarawat is truly perfect, Tine thinks. Maybe in another time, a different place, he would see Sarawat and ask him out. Tine shakes his head to get the thought out of his mind. The sudden movement causes Sarawat to look over at him and raise an eyebrow.

Tine flushes red, and turns his attention back to his computer. Not letting himself stare at Sarawat too long has always been a rule of his for this specific reason, so now he feels like an idiot for letting his eyes linger too long.

Tine rubs his hands over his face and gets to typing on his computer, the paperwork won't file itself.

At least that's what Tine thought was going to happen; instead he ends up falling asleep at his own desk, his head on the keyboard smashing random letters into the document he was working on. 

Sarawat looks over at him and rolls his eyes. Standing up, he retrieves Tine’s jacket off the back of his chair and carefully wraps it around him. He sits down at his desk again and continues working.

Three hours later, Tine wakes up with a start, Sarawat nowhere to be found, along with the rest of his squad. He stretches and checks the time, almost six thirty. Tine gasps, they let him sleep though almost the entire day! 

Tine gets up to go find Sarawat, but as he does, he strolls into the office with a bag of takeout in his hand. 

 "Oh you're awake," Sarawat says. "Here I brought you some food ‘cause I figured you would be hungry, I'm sure sleeping all day works up a real appetite.” Tine glares at him for the sarcasm.

"I didn't think I would sleep the whole day, I figured someone would have woken me up after 15 minutes.”  He reaches out his hand to grab the bags from Sarawat who complies. "I assume you're not going to eat?" Sarawat shakes his head.

"Well thanks for the food.” Tine smiles and drops back into his seat to begin eating, he hadn’t realized how hungry he was. 

Tine thinks they’re gonna sit in silence, like they usually do, until Sarawat speaks up. “So, are you nervous for tonight?” Mouth full of food, Tine gives Sarawat a weird look. 

“Not really,” He says, as food flies out of his mouth and Sarawat gives him an exasperated look. “Sorry,” He says after swallowing. “But no, it’s like a normal thing we have always done so there’s not much to be nervous about. Why are you?” He asks and Sarawat scoffs.

“I never get nervous,” Sarawat starts but then he winces, as if he’s remembered something. “Actually, I kind of am.” He reluctantly reveals. 

“Why?” 

“Oh you know, anything could happen out there, then it’s over.” He waves his hands in the air as if he’s dismissing the thought. “I always get like that.” He admits. 

Tine tilts his head, “Really? I never knew that. We’ve been on so many missions together, you always seemed like you really didn’t care what happened, so why are you telling me this now?” 

Sarawat grows quiet and Tine thinks he’s stepped on a subject that Sarawat has no interest talking about.

“Someone told me I should be a bit more... open with my feelings.” He says, avoiding all eye contact with Tine. Tine nods but says nothing. Sarawat has always been this stoic person, but now one person is enough to convince him to talk about his ‘feelings’? Tine isn’t sure why but it makes him a little upset. 

“I’m done, we should go now.” Appetite ruined, Tine throws the rest of the food in the trash as Sarawat looks at him in confusion. “I don’t really feel like driving, so maybe it’s best if you do.” It doesn’t really sound like a question, more a statement.

Sarawat nods and they head out in silence. He doesn't get why Tine’s mood soured, but it’s not his place to ask so he let’s it go. 

__

Tine stares out the window the entire ride, with a pit in his stomach and his mood in the gutter. This new information that Sarawat may have a significant other really shouldn’t bother him, they aren’t dating, hell they don’t even like each other. Tine sighs and rests his head against the cool glass. Damn you, Sarawat.

They arrive at Green’s bar and park a bit down the street, Tine checks his pockets to make sure he has everything and curses. “Do you have any gum in here?” He asks, opening up the overhead mirror. 

A lone piece of paper floats down and Tine grabs it, How to be is all Tine manages to read before the paper is snatched out of his hand. “That’s nothing.” Sarawat’s ears are red as he shoves the paper into his pocket, then he retrieves a piece of gum from the middle compartment.

Tine narrows his eyes at him, “Thanks.” Is all he says before he’s exiting the car and making his way into the bar. 

Tine hasn’t even gotten a chance to fully survey the room before Green latches on to his arm. “Tiiiiine,” He half yells in his ear, but Tine is used to it by now.

“Hi Green, how have you been?” He pulls the vampire into a hug and the other practically melts.

“I’m great, haven’t seen you in a while, you weren’t avoiding me were you?” Green bats his eyes at him and Tine laughs. He has known Green for a while. At first he was annoying and clingy, always trying to get into Tine’s pants. But over the years he has helped them on more than one occasion, so Tine likes to consider him a good friend. 

“Of course not, I’ll always make time to come see my favorite bar owner.” He says, but then he hears a loud cough from behind them and Green finally looks over to even acknowledge Sarawat’s existence. 

Green narrows his eyes, “Oh hi, Sarawat, sorry didn’t see you there.” He says mockingly. 

“Oh I’m sure, with you fawning over my partner the whole time, I’m not very recognizable.” Sarawat barks out and Tine gives him a look. He knows Sarawat and Green don’t really like each other, but they’re in his establishment on business so there should be a certain degree of respect. 

“Um, anyway,” Tine directs the conversation back to himself, “We had some stuff we wanted to ask you, if that’s alright.” He asks. Instead of the usual “of course! Anything for you, Tine” he usually gets, Green looks at him with confusion. 

“But one of you already came earlier, did you not get enough info?” He asks and Sarawat and Tine share a look. 

“Who-” Sarawat starts, but he’s cut off by one of the bartenders calling Green’s name.

“Green, we’re out of five dollar bills.” He says and Green waves him off. 

“I need to handle that, but you guys can go into my office and I’ll be there in a few.” They both nod and Green walks away. 

Heading into Green’s office, Tine pulls the door shut. “Dim didn’t send anyone but us right?” He asks and Sarawat nods. 

“Everyone else went home early or went somewhere else. Whoever Green talked to, wasn’t one of us.” Sarawat says slowly. 

“Do you think they know we’re onto them?” Sarawat shrugs and sits down in one of the plush leather chairs. 

“We have only been investigating for three days, I would be pretty impressed if they knew we were looking into them. But you never know.” Green walks in then, shaking his head. 

“Sorry that took so long.” Green sits at his desk and leans back in his chair. “Where were we? Oh right, like I said was what I gave you earlier not enough? Your guy seemed pretty happy with what I gave him.” 

“Green, we’re the only ones who were supposed to come out here to talk to you tonight, who you talked to wasn’t one of us.’ Tine tries to explain. 

Green gasps, “But I swear he was one of you, I’ve even seen him with you guys a few times, he showed me his badge and everything!” He exclaims. 

“What was his name?” Sarawat asks.

“Umm,” Green tries to think, “Phil? No that’s not right, Pharm? No..” Green struggles to remember. Tine feels the pit in his stomach drop lower. 

“Did it happen to be Phukong by chance?” Tine asks quietly and Green snaps his fingers. 

“Yup! Phukong! Had his badge and everything. Cute little guy, he seemed really nervous. You know him though, right? So it’s all okay?” Green looks at them both nervously. 

Sarawat sighs, “Phukong was supposed to be out sick today, not coming to you. What did you even say to him anyway?” 

Green taps his chin, “He asked me if I knew anything about Mil.” Green scrunches up his face at the sound of his name. “He’s only trouble and always makes a mess here, but pays well so we let him in every time. He’s attracted the attention of some guys that no one should be involved with.” Greens eyes widen. “They call themselves ‘The New Wave’ whatever the fuck that means. They’re recruiting a ton of vampires to join them, I refused, it’s not my scene.”

Tine and Sarawat write down all the information into their notebooks, “So you met these guys?” Green nods. “And did they give you any information on where to find them if you change your mind?” 

“No, they just said they would be around. But that’s the last time I have seen them here. Mil was here about an hour ago though.” Tine’s eyes bug out of his head.

“And you’re just telling us this now?!?” He groans and Green frowns.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t think about it until now. But yes he was here, had a few drinks and left. Seemed like he was going to go meet someone, cause he got a phone call and dipped. But that’s all I know.” Green finishes. 

“Are you sure.” Sarawat narrows his eyes.

Green huffs, “Yes I’m sure. If I hear anything else, I’ll give you a call.” Tine and Sarawat get up from their seats and move to leave. 

“Green,” Tine’s tone of voice causes him to stop in his tracks. “Don’t talk to anyone who isn’t us, okay?” 

Green salutes him, “Scout’s honor.”

__

Outside of Green’s bar, Tine sighs sadly. He didn’t think Phukong would potentially betray them, even after everything. Why did he lie about being sick? Why did he ask about Mil? Tine had so many questions. 

Sarawat lightly hits him on the head, “I know you have a lot of questions, I’m surprised this happened too, but we can’t dwell on it and should just report back to Dim, if Phukong turned on us, HQ should know.” Tine says nothing. “We’ll figure it out, okay?” Sarawat gives his shoulder a squeeze.

“Thanks.” Tine says. They stay staring at each other for a minute. Sarawat looks deathly handsome in the fluorescent lighting of street lights. It feels intimate, like it’s only them and no one else around. 

The spell is broken however, as a drunk man throws open the bar door and stumbles out. 

Sarawat retracts his hand and scowls, “Lets go.”  He pulls his keys out of his pocket and heads back to the car, not realizing he accidently let the piece of paper from earlier fall out. 

Tine picks it up and is about to give it back when his eyes catch what the paper says. 

Ten ways for Sarawat to be more normal: by Earn and Sarawat

1. Smile more

2. Sit with everyone at meetings

3. Talk more

4. Don’t glare at others

5. Go out with everyone after work

6. Express your emotions

7. Laugh with the others

8. Come in and go home at the right time

9. Help/comfort others when needed

10. Know that not everyone is out to get you

Tine reads over the list, thoroughly confused. Was Sarawat getting lessons on how to be “normal”? And from Earn. The pieces click in his head as he trails after the other. So Earn was the one who was telling him to talk more. So Sarawat was seeing Earn?!?

Tine stops next to the car, and that’s when Sarawat finally looks back at him. His eyes zero in on the paper in his hand and grabs it back. 

“You weren’t supposed to see that!” He groans and shoves it back in his pocket. He fully expects Tine to laugh at him, to poke fun at him trying to be normal, but instead Tine is.. angry? 

“Are you seriously trying to become more, ‘normal’?” Tine uses his hands to make air quotes when he says it.

Sarawat rubs his hands over his face. “Yes? Earn said she would help me fit in with humans, because I apparently can’t. So yesterday we made this list together and I have been trying it out. That’s why I’ve been kinda weird today. I just wanted to try and be normal so I wasn’t such an asshole all the time, as Earn has told me.” Sarawat sags against his car. 

Tine absorbs all the information Sarawat just gave him. He wanted to be normal? Just to fit in? “How long have you felt like this?” Tine asks, softly. 

Sarawat shrugs, “Since I started here, I guess.” He looks up at the sky. “It’s hard you know. I was human before now I’m not. Things are different, and I wish they weren’t.” He admits. Tine is at a loss for words. They stand in silence for a bit before Sarawat pushes himself off the car. 

“It doesn’t matter, let’s just go.” He turns to get but stops as Tine speaks up.

“I don’t think you need to be more normal,” He starts, “Normal is a relative term. Everyone is different and there’s no set way you should make your personality. I think you should consider just being less weird.” Tine tries to lighten the mood, and he considers it a win when Sarawat cracks the smallest of smiles. 

“Less weird huh? I can work on that.” He says, turning back to Tine. He pulls out a pen and the piece of paper and crosses out the title, replacing How to be more normal, to, How to be less weird. And adds Tine’s name to the list of contributors.  

Tine beams at him and walks over to his side of the car. “For the record, even if you can improve on some things, the Sarawat you are now, is pretty great to me.” 

He doesn’t even get to see Sarawat’s reaction, before he’s being pulled into an embrace by Sarawat. “What-” He starts but Sarawat shushes him, and pulls both their hoods up.

“Mil and Phukong are coming towards us.” He hisses into Tine’s ear and Tine briefly panics. “What should we do?”

“I have an idea, but,” Sarawat pauses, “Don’t hate me okay?” Tine is confused but nods anyway. Then, Sarawat’s lips are on his. 

He gasps into the kiss and freezes. Sarawat is kissing him and his brain is going into overload at the sensation. Sarawat squeezes his hip, to remind them of why they’re doing this and Tine grounds himself. 

He relaxes into the kiss, and pulls Sarawat toward them so they’re leaning against the car. Sarawat lets out a noise of surprise but deepens the kiss, making it seem like they’re just two random lovers on the street. 

Tine has always had a strict ‘no fraternizing’ rule with coworkers, but he’ll make an exception this time. (It’s for work after all.) 

Sarawat’s lips feel full and warm. Just like he always secretly thought they would. He has to admit, he’s an amazing kisser, and the languid way he’s being kissed is making his body warm up against the cool night air. He wraps his arms around Sarawat’s neck, allowing himself to lose himself, just a bit.

He almost forgets that Phukong and Mil are passing them, until he hears Phukong’s voice, “Green knows the group’s name. And he will probably tell my coworkers soon, we need to buy some time.” He urges Mil. Their car a few spaces down beeps, signaling it’s been unlocked.

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out and continue out the plan. I promise it will all be okay.” Mil says as he passes by them. Tine opens his eyes and for a split second makes eye contact with Mil. He thinks they have been made but Mil just looks away, continuing past. 

“Jeez, some people just can’t keep it in their pants.” Mil whispers to Phukong loudly enough that they can still hear him. Phukong barks out a laugh and Mil opens the car door for him. They both get in and peel off into the night. 

Sarawat and Tine finally break away from their long, heated kiss, panting and just staring at each other. 

“That was..” 

“Yeah.”

They both blush furiously and look away. Tine clears his throat and turns around to open the car door. “We should, um, probably go back to HQ.” He says, quickly getting in and slamming the door. 

Sarawat runs his hands through his hair and tries to calm down his traitorous heart. It’s beating a mile a minute and he swears he’s about to pass out. He counts to thirty, takes deep breaths and walks over to his side. 

Needless to say, the car ride back was even quieter than the previous one.

Chapter Text

Tine allowed Sarawat to push him up against the wall, his breath coasting over the pulse point on his neck. Sarawat's aroma filled his lungs and he let himself become drunk on it. "You would want this? To have me? Even with the cost of.." Sarawat trailed off.

There’s an unspoken catch. Tine is human and Sarawat isn’t. They don’t match, they don’t click. But Tine doesn’t care, he hasn’t for a while, he wants to wake up and see him, he wants to go home with him, he wants to have dinner he can’t eat, he wants weekends where they laze around and do nothing. He wants Sarawat.

Tine's eyes fluttered closed, "What’s the cost?" He whispered. Blood is rushing through his veins, he’s not scared, he’s excited, hopeful for what will happen. He trusts Sarawat, for better or for worse.

"Everything." Sarawat replied, before sinking his teeth into him.

Tine gasps and sits up from bed. Sweat clinging to his forehead, he managed to kick all the sheets off while he was sleeping. He groans and buries his head in his hands. Sarawat was not only kissing him in real life but now in his dreams too?! 

He looks over to the clock and sees that he still has half an hour before his alarm goes off. He flops back on his pillow and ponders what possibly any of this could mean. 

Sarawat is very handsome, as Tine has already stated multiple times. And he really cannot believe that they had shared a more .. intimate kiss. Tine’s face burns at the memory. He had never been kissed like that, by any of his exes, and it made everything even harder. 

Did he like Sarawat? He wasn’t sure. Did he want to kiss him more? Definitely yes, so what does that mean? Tine groans and throws his pillow across the room. Fuck feelings.

He gets up and into the shower and comes up with a game plan. He will go into work as usual, pretend nothing happened, talk to Sarawat and co, and move on with his life. Concrete. Soundproof. 

He’s still repeating the plan to himself as he heads up the elevators half an hour later.

Tine takes a deep breath and walks out of the elevator doors to his floor. Business as usual, he tells himself. Be cool with Sarawat and it will be okay. Definitely don’t think about how amazing he is at kissing, seriously who is that good?!

Before he can even spiral, he’s roughly dragged into a side hallway, and into a janitor’s closet. 

“What the-” Tine starts until he sees that it’s none other than Sarawat who dragged him in there. 

“We need to talk.” He whispers, then closes the door. Tine feels himself start sweating, talk about what? The kiss? Oh my god are they going to kiss right now? Tine licks his lips, they’re chapped, he left his chapstick at home, dammit. Wait, why was he entertaining the idea of kissing Sarawat at work?

“About what?” Tine says, nervously. He wipes his hands on his pants. 

Sarawat raises an eyebrow, “Phukong, remember we saw him last night with Mil? He’s at work today, should we tell Dim what we saw or go talk to Phukong first?” 

Tine breathes out a breath of relief. So no kissing, no discussion of said kiss. It makes Tine feel a little disappointed, but he pushes the feelings down deep, and focuses on what really matters. “Right, listen, I think we should talk to Phukong first. I genuinely think there’s something we don’t know. I just..think we should give him the benefit of the doubt, he’s a good kid.” Tine says softly. 

Sarawat is silent for a bit, before he says, “Okay, we will talk to him. But, if it’s not what you think, and he is working with Mil, I’m going straight to Dim, understand?” Tine nods. “Okay wait here.” Then Sarawat is gone and Tine is alone in a janitor’s closet that smells like citrus and bleach. 

Three minutes later, a frantic looking Phukong and an indifferent Sarawat come flying in. Phukong visibly relaxes at the sight of Tine, but still ends up backing away. “Hey guys, what’s going on?”

“We saw you last night,” Sarawat cuts to the chase, “With Mil.” 

Phukong pales. “It’s not what it looks like.” He starts. Tine can’t help but groan, that phrase is almost never followed by anything good. 

“How could you lie about where you were! If you were going to meet him you should’ve told us! What if you got hurt? What if you got taken? No one would’ve known!”

“I’m sorry!” Phukong exclaims, his eyes filled with tears. Tine almost feels bad for yelling, but it was all valid, Phukong could’ve gotten hurt, bad. “Please let me explain, Tine.” 

“That is why we brought you here.” Sarawat snorts. “Now talk.” 

“It happened after Tine and I went on the stakeout..” Phukong begins. 

Phukong stands outside Mil’s house, his phone illuminating the last message he got.

Nice to see you again. Come inside next time x

So now, Phukong is here, about to go inside Mil’s house that he hadn’t been in for months, to do what exactly? Get information out of him? Talk about them? It seemed so redundant now. If Mil was on the other side of the law, how could he even think he had a chance with Phukong?

Taking a deep breath, he pressed the doorbell. The door immediately clicks open, and he walks the remainder of the way to the house. Mil opens the door before he can even reach it.

“Phukong,” Mil smiles. Warmth spreads through Phukong, he hadn’t heard him say his name in a long time. “Please, come in.” 

Phukong nods and enters. They’re the only ones there, hell if anything happened to Phukong no one would know, but he knows -- or hopes really -- that Mil will never do anything to him.

“Do you want some wate-”

“What’s going on?” Phukong interrupts. His nerves and anxiety coming out, “What happened? You were never in this deep before.” 

Phukong feels bad, but he lied to Tine before. He did know what work Mil was up to, but it was never that bad. A few beatings and intimidation there, but Mil was a good man. How could he throw that away?

“Kong,” Mil reaches out to him but he recoils. Hurt flashes through his face as he lets his hand drop. “You don’t understand, I had to do this, for you, for us.” 

Phukong barks out a laugh, “What ‘us’?” We broke up, Mil. There is no us.”

“I know you don’t think that.” Mil mutters. 

Phukong sighs, walks towards Mil, and holds his face in his hands. “If you don’t think I will understand, then explain. I want to know, I want to understand you. I want to understand why you’re doing this. You need to explain, or they’re going to come after you.” He whispers. 

Mil reaches up and holds Phukong’s hands, “This guy, Tar, he runs this whole big thing. He’s turning humans to build an army so that we will be superior to humans, so there’s more of us than you. At first, I didn’t want to join, I didn’t care or agree. But then, a week before we broke up. He said he needed me, I refused, and he threatened you. He knew so much about you, Kong. He knew where you lived, your family, your work, even the place you get your coffee every morning. I was so scared. I couldn’t let anything happen to you. So I agreed, and I broke up with you to make sure you were safe.” 

Phukong drops his hands and steps back from Mil. “I’m not some weak little human Mil,” He says accusingly. “Why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve helped you!” 

“You don’t get it!” Mil yells, “He’s crazy and powerful and it’s worse than we think. I couldn't risk it. I love you, Phukong. How could I let anything happen to you?” 

Phukong feels tears build up in his eyes. He hates Mil. He hates that Mil didn’t trust him. He hates that Mil didn’t come to him. He hates that Mil thought the only option was to cut Phukong out of his life. He hates that Mil still looks as good as he always has. He hates how Mil looks at him with this extreme fondness that no one else does. He hates Mil because he can’t hate him, he loves him. He loves him so much that he can’t think of anything else, but him. 

“I still love you,” Phukong starts. “And I want to help you, I want you to be safe and I think we can do it. Let me talk to Dim, let me tell him what’s going on. Please.” He begs. 

Mil still looks doubtful. “What makes you think they will help? I’ve been doing all these illegal things, who’s to say I won’t get thrown in jail after?”

“I'll make sure of it, grant you immunity, just please, let me try.” Phukong walks back up to Mil and hugs him, his unshed tears finally falling. “I love you, and I want to be with you, please.” 

“Okay,” Mil says, bringing his arms around Phukong’s middle. “Okay.” Phukong smiles and faces Mil, wiping his tears. 

Mil then kisses him, two months of being apart and passion all mixed into one. He’s missed everything about Mil and he’s happy he doesn’t have to act like he doesn’t love him, because he does, he always will. 

They pull apart and rest their foreheads against each other. “Listen, the agency already has a ton on you, but we need to go get more, if we want to build a case that you’re really on the right side here. The next place they’re going to go is Green’s, let’s get there first tomorrow and figure stuff out. Then, we can go to Dim and tell him everything. Just trust me, okay?” 

Mil hesitates, but nods his head anyway. “I will always trust you.” 

Phukong somehow managed to say all of that in one breath, to Sarawat and Tine’s surprise. Sarawat is silently taking it all in, while Tine paces the small room they’re in. 

“Okay so,” Tine’s head is reeling. “Mil was forced to work with some guy named ‘Tar’, to protect you, and he doesn’t actually agree with them, and now wants to help us?” Phukong nods urgently and Sarawat groans.

“You realize how ridiculous that sounds right? People like Mil just don’t go with the good guys. There has to be a catch.” 

“You don’t know him!” Phukong exclaims. “I trust him, so trust me, and if it doesn’t work out then you can blame me, just, give him a chance.” Sarawat and Phukong go back and forth, arguing.

Tine contemplates everything. On one hand, Mil could be a good asset, on the other hand, Mil could betray them and give it all up. But Phukong had so earnestly argued on his behalf, he had to give him something. 

“Okay.” Tine says, which immediately halts all arguing. Sarawat stares at him with a bewildered look. “We will go talk to Dim, see what he says, but if he says no, that’s the end of it.” 

“Thank you,” Phukong throws Tine into a hug. “It’ll work out I promise.” Tine awkwardly pats his back. Sarawat just glares. 

Phukong pulls away, “But where did you guys see us? We were sure we were inconspicuous. The only time we were near actual people was when..” Phukong makes a face of realization, and his mouth falls open to an ‘o’ shape. Sarawat coughs awkwardly and looks everywhere but the other two in the room, unfortunately the only place he can look is at the ingredients on a bottle of drain cleaner. 

Tine pulls him back in and pets his head, “Shhh, you didn’t see anything, let’s go back to when you praised me for not turning your boyfriend in.” Tine catches Sarawat’s eye, who is surprisingly giving him a pointed look at his choice of words.

This could be so bad. He mouths at Tine. 

I know, he replies, but we have to try. 

__

Four hours later, they finally get out of a long meeting with Dim and the higher ups. They were scolded for not reporting everything originally, and Phukong was scolded for telling Mil what was going on. But in the end, they had all agreed that Mil would work, and told Phukong to bring him in the next day.

Tine stretched his arms above his head, and pretended he didn’t see Sarawat look at the flash of skin that showed. “Jeez, that was longer than it needed to be, Dim sure knows how to talk our ears off.” He tries to joke, but Sarawat gives him a blank stare.

“Look, I’m sorry I didn’t consult you, but you saw how desperate he was. We need all the help we can get, and if it fails, well you can blame me.” Tine smiles and rests a hand on Sarawat’s shoulder, feeling him visibly relax. 

“I would never blame you for anything.” Sarawat says, honestly. It makes Tine’s heart seize up, and make it a little bit hard to breathe.

“Let’s go get lunch.” He says weakly, dropping his hand from Sarawat’s shoulder. 

Sarawat quirks an eyebrow, “I don’t eat.” Tine rolls his eyes. 

“Then just come with me.” Tine huffs, and walks down the hall to the elevators, his cheeks aflame, with Sarawat silently laughing behind him.

Chapter Text

The next day, all eyes are on the pair of men walking through the office, one clearly nervous as hell, and the other looking like he had better things to do.

Sarawat glares at Mil’s retreating figure as he and Phukong disappear into the conference room, smug bastard.

His eyes flutter back to his computer, his paperwork is starting to blur together as his eyes strain against the blue light. Being a vampire may make him stronger and faster than regular people, but the eye strain from his computer is a never ending battle.

He sighs and pushes his chair away, getting up and walking out of the room. Tine briefly glances at him, but then back to his own screen he’s been typing at for hours. Maybe I’ll get him a coffee, Sarawat thinks, but then glances around the room at everyone’s tired faces, maybe I’ll get everyone something. Item #9 on ‘How to be less weird’ by Earn, Sarawat, and Tine flashes in his mind, help/comfort others when needed. Yeah, he will get everyone something.

He takes the stairs two at a time down to the cafeteria on the third floor, and pushes open the door. It’s huge, has a ton of restaurants that Sarawat hasn’t bothered to look through, because it would be pointless anyway, the first time he had been down here was the other day when Tine had beckoned Sarawat to follow him.

“I usually don’t go to any of the restaurants here, too rich for me,” Tine shudders, as Sarawat trails behind him. The food smell is overwhelming, he hadn’t had people food in over five years. “I usually just get whatever special there is from the ladies over there,” He points to some old ladies who have a dingy little stall in the corner, “They love me over there.” Sarawat scoffs.

“I’m sure you have woo’d them around here.” He teases, and Tine barks out a laugh.

“They can’t resist my charm.” He walks up to the stall and flashes the classic Tine Chic smile, as he has proudly named it. “Hi ladies,” Swoon. “I’ll have whatever special you have today, please.” He keeps the smile on his face and pulls out his wallet.

“Tine, how have you been today?” The lady taking his order asks. She looks like she’s in her sixties, her hair all gray, with wrinkles by her eyes.

Tine beams at her, “I’ve been good, just some tough work upstairs, but we’ll get through it. How is business down here?”

The lady waves him off, “Business is a bit slow lately, all these upscale restaurants stealing all our customers. I miss the days when people would want a real meal instead of something processed.” She wipes a fake tear and Tine laughs, eyes sparking. Sarawat wishes he could keep Tine’s smile locked in his mind forever.

“Once everyone realizes your food is the best in this place, people will come running!”
“Oh you flatter me Tine,” She hands him his food and gives Sarawat a curious glance. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around here, what’s your name?”

“Sarawat.” He replies, making an awkward smile. Despite that, she still smiles warmly at him.

“Nice to meet you, Sarawat, what would you like?”

Sarawat shifts awkwardly, “Nothing, thank you. I’m quite full from my meal earlier.” He lies, he hasn’t had anything since last night. “I will be sure to try your food next time.”

“I’ll hold you to that, now go, enjoy your lunch break.” Both boys nod at her and go to find a table. Tine and Sarawat sit across from each other at an empty table, away from most of the others eating.

“You sure you don’t want anything?” Tine asks, politely. “Maybe something to drink?”

Sarawat shakes his head, “No, it would be a waste anyway, human food doesn’t tend to do anything for me. Makes me sick most of the time.” He looks around the cafeteria again. There’s a table full of the assholes from the HR department, they don’t have the best relationship. Something about there being rules and Sarawat not caring. And then the other incident where they asked him to come in for multiple meetings and he didn’t go to any of them so he got suspended for a week. Again, assholes.

Tine taps his foot against the porcelain floor, “So, what do you eat?” He asks carefully.

Sarawat snorts, “I’m a vampire, what do you think?”

“I dunno,” Tine takes a bite of his food, causing sauce to get stuck on his cheek. Cute. “Some vampires can live off human food and other things, just wondering.”

“You can say blood. It won’t offend me. And yeah, people who have been vampires for a while can, but since I uh- um turned recently.” He cringes at his words. “I can really only have blood - animal blood. Human food is gross.” He says it as casually as possible, hoping that Tine doesn’t get nervous to be in his presence. He has never spoken to anyone candidly about his - eating habits.

Tine pushes his food around, “I see. Well you’re missing out, his food is the best.” And to demonstrate it he takes three huge bites, filling his mouth. Sarawat laughs at how ridiculous he looks. There’s more sauce on his cheeks, he looks like a kid enjoying a huge meal.

Without thinking, he reaches forward and wipes the sauce off with his thumb and tastes it. Tine freezes, but Sarawat tries to process the taste of it, it tastes sweet, but he can’t tell if he likes it or not. “It’s good.” he decides.
“You just got that from my face.” Tine says, dumbly. Sarawat finally realizes what he’s done and his pale cheeks flare up red.

He pushes Tine’s food closer to him. “Eat up.” He mumbles and Tine accepts the distraction.

Sarawat hits himself on the head, he needs to be more weary of his actions around Tine. But it’s hard, for whatever reason, Sarawat wants to make sure Tine is happy, smiling, and full of good food all the time. Sarawat guesses that’s what it’s like to have a friend, to care for a friend.

He hadn’t really had friends since - Pam. Sarawat halts in his tracks, his head starting to pound with a familiar headache. He takes deep breaths and counts to thirty, and it subsides to a dull throb. No need to think about her, about that day.

Sarawat continues on his journey to get his team drinks, and briefly greets the ladies he met the other day with Tine. Walking up to one of the portable drink carts, realization dawns on him: he has no idea what drinks his team likes.

“What can I get you?” The drink boy asks, and Sarawat is at a loss for words.

A tap on his shoulder, “Need some help?” He whips around to see Pear, smiling at him, but the tension in her shoulders shows that she’s nervous.

Sarawat smiles at her, he had always liked Pear. She was beautiful, kind and a hard worker. She kept the team together on bad days, after a case went wrong, lifting everyone’s spirits happily. “Yes please, I was going to get drinks for everyone, but I realized I don’t know anyone’s orders.” He scratches the back of his head, embarrassed.

“That’s nice of you, really. I can help you, I know pretty much what everyone likes.” She starts naming off random drinks to the cashier, who looks annoyed by how long the drink list is getting. “And for Tine, a-”

“Blue Hawaii.” Sarawat says automatically, Pear lifts an eyebrow at him but nods.

“That will be twenty five thirty two.” The boy says, and Sarawat pulls out the cash and pays, moving to the side with Pear to wait for the drinks.

“So you don’t know anyone’s drinks, but know Tine’s?” She asks, genuinely curious.

Sarawat pulls at his collar, “He’s my partner, I know things. Also I always see that obnoxious blue drink on his desk. Drinks shouldn’t be that blue. But he drinks it all the time, like so much it’s not possibly healthy for him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him drink water before. Just coffee, cola, and Blue Hawaii.” He huffs, Pear giggles at his rant. Sarawat’s ears turn red.

“You know, I have known Tine for a very long time.” Pear starts, Sarawat suddenly doesn’t like where this is going. “He has dated a lot of people- not to make him sound easy, he’s not. If you were wondering, anyway. I have met everyone he has dated and I don’t think I have met anyone who has noticed his typical drinks, or if he’s eating healthily. It’s nice to see someone outside of his close friends from college care for him.” She says thoughtfully, and gives Sarawat an eye smile. “Thanks for looking after him.”

“We aren’t dating.” He says, at a loss for words. Pear tilts her head at him.

“I never said you were, just that even the people he’s dated haven’t noticed.” She pauses for a moment, as if she’s processing something. “Do you want to date him?”

“No!” Sarawat blurts out, it attracts the attention of several people, including drink cart boy. He clears his throat, “I mean no, we’re friends, partners, colleagues. Platonic.” Sarawat isn't sure if he’s trying to convince himself or Pear.

Pear shrugs, “Okay.” Is all she says, and it makes Sarawat’s skin itch, as if she knows something he doesn’t. Sarawat’s name is called and they carry the drinks between them, and make the silent, but comfortable ride back up.

“Thank you.” Sarawat remembers to say, as they’re about to walk back in. Pear nods at him, and nudges his side softly.

“I’m here for you.” She says simply and walks in. “Guys look what Sarawat bought us!” She announces. Immediately everyone’s eyes go to the drinks in their hands and a chorus of thank you’s ring out through the room.

Tine walks up and points at the blue drink in the carrier, “Is this for me?” He smiles and Sarawat nods. “Thank you, I needed it.” He takes a sip and sighs happily. Sarawat’s lungs constrict at the unfiltered joy on Tine’s face, glad he was the one able to make Tine feel that way.

“Alright, if we’re done praising Sarawat for the pick me up, I would appreciate it if everyone could get in the meeting room.” Dim’s voice bellows over everyone else's, causing all conversations to cease. Reluctantly, they all follow him in.

Tine plops himself down in his normal seat, already looking at the file on the table in front of him, what he doesn’t really expect is Sarawat to sit down next to him, because he always stands, no matter what. Tine looks around and judging by everyone else's face, they didn’t expect it either.

“You aren’t going to stand?” Tine questions. Sarawat flips through the folder, then looks at Tine through his bangs.

“Do you want me to?”

Tine swallows thickly. “No.”

Sarawat hums, pleased with the answer. “Then no, I’m not going to stand.”

Dim brings everyone’s attention back to himself, as he stands at the front of the room with Phukong and Mil. “Well everyone, as you probably all know, this is Mil. If you don’t remember him you can look at your briefing packets from a few days ago that had him as a suspect.” He tries to joke, and it’s met with silence. “Anyway, he is going to fill us in on some stuff. So go ahead.”

Mil nods at him and smiles at the group. “Hi everyone, I’m Mil. I was brought on by your lovely colleague Phukong,” Cue Phukong blushing, Sarawat would think it’s cute if it wasn’t directly tied to Mil. “I will tell you guys everything I know, in return I get full immunity, which has already been granted, thank you Dim. But anyway, Tar is running this whole vampire situation,” He clicks on the projector behind him, showing the face of a man in his mid forties, he has jet black hair and a very obvious scar on his right cheek going down to his neck. “This is him, all anyone really knows is that he’s building an army to go against well, every human. No one knows why, and no one asks. It’s all very need to know.” Mil says, bitterly.

Tine furrows his brow, “Does he have anyone he trusts? A right hand man?”

“Oh, and here I was just thinking you were the visual of the group, aside from my Phukong of course.” Tine’s face goes red at the implication and Sarawat tenses in his seat. “But yes he does, his name is Dean, he is the one who carries out most of Tar’s orders.” He flicks to the next slide showing a man in his late twenties, piercing blue eyes and hair that cuts harshly into his face. He looks scary. Tine thinks.

Mil suddenly grows a dark look on his face, “Listen, I know this is sudden. But there’s a huge gathering happening in Chiang Mai this weekend. A party of sorts, but really it’s a front for them luring in humans to turn them later. Dean will be there, not sure about Tar but if we get Dean I’m sure he will tell us where he is. But we have to move fast, if we want this to work.”

“Who made you the leader?” Sarawat mumbles, barely audible. He forgets Mil is a vampire, and can easily hear it.

Mil scoffs, “No one made me leader,” He looks directly at Sarawat holding eye contact with him. “I just happen to know more than anyone here-” Suddenly Mil pauses, as if he’s having a realization, and his eyes widen, looking away from Sarawat’s gaze. He visibly stiffens.

“But anyway, the rest of the briefing is in the folders, see you Friday at six for us to depart to Chiang Mai.” He mutters, and exits the room quickly, with a baffled looking Phukong going after him.

The room is silent, confused at what just happened. “That was weird.” Ohm remarks, the room nods and they move to grab their things. Tine moves to speak to Sarawat, but he’s already gone.

He scrambles to grab his things and follow him, fearing that he would have a confrontation with Mil. His fears are proven true as he turns two corners and sees Sarawat holding Mil up against a wall, his fist two seconds away from making contact with Mil’s face, Phukong yelling at Sarawat to calm down.

“Wat!” Tine yells, and Sarawat freezes. He runs up to him and pulls Sarawat off of him.

“Oh, I see, are you two together then?” He asks smugly.

“Shut up,” Sarawat growls. Tine lays a hand gently on his back, rubbing gentle circles. “I don’t trust you.” He spits out and Mil just laughs.

“Ironic, if anything I should be the person you trust the most.” Everyone looks at Mil in confusion.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Sarawat asks. Mil shrugs and pulls Phukong away from the scene.

“Not important, see you Friday.” He throws a hand in the air and bids them goodbye. Tine, still with his hands on Sarawat, gets roughly shrugged off.

Tine gives him an annoyed look. “You’re really going to fight with the one person that can help us? At least try to act civil.”

“He’s bad news, he shouldn’t be here anyway.” Sarawat says, staring in the direction they just left. “There’s just something about him, that makes me not trust him. Tine rolls his eyes at his brooding partner.

“You say that about everyone, now come on, we got stuff to do.” He tries to grab Sarawat’s arm to bring him with him, but again he’s brushed off.

“I need air.” Sarawat says simply, and doesn’t see the flash of hurt in Tine’s eyes.

“Okay.” Tine says, and he lets Sarawat walk away. Sighing, he goes back to his office.

Chapter Text

That Friday, the team wakes up bright and early, and at six am sharp, all climb into two separate vans to drive to Chiang Mai. 

The ride is about nine hours, so they’ll arrive around three pm. Tine is dreading the car ride already, his already too long limbs won’t appreciate being cramped together. Not to mention he gets car sick too easily.

“Alright!” Dim says, right next to Tine’s ear, making him jump. “We got a long day today and an even longer day tomorrow, so let’s get a move on!” Everyone acknowledges him and gets in the vans.

Tine plops down in the back next to Sarawat, who has his headphones in and is pointedly ignoring Tine’s eyes. They haven’t spoken much since Sarawat told Tine to leave him alone in the hallway, or more Tine hasn’t spoken to Sarawat, out of pettiness. Sarawat has tried to speak to him about this and that, but the curt responses Tine had given him had been enough indication that he wanted nothing to do with him at the  moment.

Tine wasn’t necessarily mad at him per say, okay maybe a little, but he wanted to be someone Sarawat could confide in, they were partners after all, and he had really felt like he made some progress with the vampire, but still he was pushed away, back to square one. It made him frustrated beyond belief, but if Sarawat didn’t want to share what was making him so upset, well, he couldn’t really do anything about it. Except for being petty, which was his specialty. 

Tine huffs and stares out his own window, wishing he had opted to ride in the other van, Pear and Earn would’ve at least looked at him.

An hour into the car ride, Tine’s instagram timeline was starting to bore him after the ninth refresh, so he rests his head against the window and wills his brain to make him fall asleep. Unfortunately for him, his neck was at a weird angle and of course they were driving on a road with a pothole every two meters, so it was impossible to even think about falling asleep as his head bumped against the window. 

He was going to try his luck at twitter, when he feels a hand gently guide his head onto something soft and when Tine opened his eyes, he sees that it was Sarawat’s shoulder.

He looks up at Sarawat curiously but didn’t move away. “Hard to sleep on the window, so just lay your head here.” He says, and passes one of his ear phones to Tine. 

“Gay.” Ohm coughs from the front seat, earning him a punch from Fong next to him, and a laugh from Phuak. Sarawat flips him the bird. 

An acoustic version of Wish by Scrubb flows through the headphones, which surprises Tine, he didn’t know that Sarawat was a Scrubb fan. He would have to ask what his favorite song was later. He feels his eyes grow heavy and lets the feeling of Sarawat tapping the melody out on his knee lull him to sleep.

__

Halfway through the ride, they make a quick pit stop for the bathroom and to stretch their legs. Tine, still groggy from just waking up from a very good nap (Courtesy of Sarawat) bolts from the van on wobbly legs because his bladder is about to burst. He knew he shouldn’t have chugged a water bottle before they left.

After relieving himself, he walks back to the van and finds Sarawat sitting with the door open, his feet on the pavement. He throws a nutrition bar at Time’s chest, who just barely catches it, and nudges a drink into his hand.

“They sell your silly little blue drink here. And I know you didn’t eat breakfast so I got you that.” He says.

“It’s not silly, very good actually.” He looks at the bar, “How did you know I didn’t eat?”

Sarawat shrugs, “You’re always in a mood when you don’t eat.”

Tine frowns. Sarawat was the one who was in a mood before they left, Tine was just returning the favor! He opens his mouth to retort but when Sarawat gives him a I’m not wrong stare, Tine shuts his mouth and eats what was given to him.

He finishes his meal, and checks the time, about four hours left until they reach their destination. The realization of being stuck in a van with Sarawat, fully awake is dawning on him, and he really doesn’t feel like sitting in an awkward silence with him like they are now for four more hours.

He sighs, “Are we good?” 

“I didn’t know we were bad.” Sarawat says, sarcastically. Tine takes deep breaths to keep from yelling.

“You pushed me away the other day, when I was trying to help you.” Tine replies, getting down to the problem was the only way they were going to fix this. Sarawat purposely being dense was not helping.

“I didn’t push you away, I just needed time to myself.” 

“Well it didn’t feel that way.” Tine says, kicking a pebble with his shoe. “Listen, we’re partners, if you need help, I want to be there for you. If you think something is up with Mil, I will listen to you. So please don’t push me away.” He ends his sentence in a whisper.

Sarawat, in a sudden burst of confidence, moves his hand over and gently rests it on Tine’s. “Okay, I won’t.” He promises. Tine smiles at him, a weight lifted off his shoulders. They were good, and he didn’t have to be upset anymore.

__

They arrive in Chiang Mai. Tine hops out of the van and stretches his legs, while Sarawat works to help get all of the bags out of the back. They talked for some of the ride, but mostly listened to Sarawat’s playlist. It was full of bands Tine didn’t know. They were good, not as good as Scrubb though, which Tine took the liberty of telling Sarawat. 

“You only listen to one band.” He scoffs.

“That’s because they’re the best band.” Tine says, matter of factly. “Once your indie bands make a song as good as Deep, let me know.” 

Then Sarawat laughed, a deep honest laugh, that made Tine’s chest feel fuzzy, and his knees weak.

“Okay everyone, we’re free from now until tomorrow at five. Wat, Tine, Earn and Pear, you all have to be dressed and ready to put on your mics at five also, no funny business, this is one of our only shots at Dean, make it count. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” He hands out everyone’s key cards to their rooms, all the respective partners sharing.

Something about sharing a room with Sarawat made Tine’s hands sweaty. He wonders if Wat felt the same way, but from the deadpan expression he had on his face as they took the elevator up, it was clear it was just him.

Dumping his stuff on the floor next to his bed, he flips down on it and sighs contentedly. “Now this is a bed.” He moans, rolling around and messing up the covers. “My bed at home isn’t half as good as this.” 

Sarawat snorts, “I’m sure your bed is fine.” 

“Not as good as this!” Tine exclaims. “You’ll have to try it out sometime, then you’ll see.” The implication hangs in the air, and it takes Tine about thirty seconds of silence to realize. “Well what I mean is — like you will have to check it out. Like how hard it is. WAIT- I mean the bed. Like if you came over and took a nap, you would see how hard it is, like rocks. I don’t know a situation where you would come over to nap because you don’t sleep but if you did you would see my bed, in that scenario.” He babbles.

Sarawat throws a pillow at him to shut him up, which ends up working. “Okay I believe your ‘bed’ is what is hard as rocks.” He smirks a little, Tine kinda wants to kiss it off his face, weird. “Do you have anything you want to do tonight?” Tine is thankful for the subject change.

“Um — I’m not sure.” His phone beeps and when he checks it he sees a message from Pear, Dinner at seven with everyone, then drinks. Not getting hammered, just casual, you’re not allowed to drink more than one, you lightweight, also make sure Sarawat comes, we all want him to be there. 

“Looks like we’re having dinner at seven then drinks with the squad.” Tine says blankly, showing his phone to Sarawat. 

“That’s fine with me, although I won’t be able to eat anything. I ate before we left today, so I should be fine until we go back home on Sunday.” Wat starts taking his clothes out of his bag and putting them in the dresser, then pulls out his nicely pressed suit to hang in the closet. 

“Did you bring anything to eat?” Tine says, curiously.

Sarawat nods, not really sure where the conversation is going. “Yes but I’m not going to have any in front of you, if you’re worried about it. I usually don’t eat that much, but if I get hungry I’ll go to the bathroom or something-“

“No! You don’t have to do that really, I don’t care it’s who you are you don’t have to hide it. Really if you pulled a blood pack out right now and started drinking it with a straw I wouldn’t even blink. I don’t mind, really.” Tine reassures him. Sarawat studies him for a while but then nods.

“Thanks Tine. That means a lot to me.”

Tine beans at him and throws his phone somewhere behind him. “Now that that’s out of the way. Let’s go check out this hotel.” 

__

At seven pm, Sarawat and Tine find themselves walking to a restaurant three blocks over from the hotel with their coworkers. 

The night air blows a chill down Tine’s back, making him shiver. Sarawat, trying to be as casual as possible, tugs in into his side, “For warmth.” He clarifies. Tine nods but can’t help the flush in his face.

They get seated at the restaurant and immediately order, (they looked at the menu on the way over), and when the waitress gets to Sarawat who’s the last to order, he waves her off with a ‘I’m good, thanks’ and she walks away.

“So what’s it like drinking blood?” Ohm asks, as if that’s an okay thing to ask. Tine nearly spits out his water he was drinking, choking on it as Sarawat hits his back to help.

Phuak slaps him on the arm as the table gets quiet, perturbed by Ohm’s question, “You can’t just ask that!” He scolds, but then turns to Sarawat with an eager look on his face. “But really, what’s it like?”

The table groans at their antics, “Leave him alone!” Earn slaps both of them on the heads, “Don’t you two have any manners?” 

“It’s alright, Earn, they’re just curious.” Sarawat reassures her, “And it’s kinda like — drinking a protein everyday, for every meal.” He shrugs, the table nods, taking in Sarawat’s words. 

“So you need to have it everyday?” Fong asks, curiosity spiking.

Sarawat shakes his head, “No, I had it before we left so I should be good for a few days. I don’t feed that often.” 

While Sarawat is giving the 411 on his personal life, Tine can feel his head spinning. Why is everyone suddenly asking personal questions, and why is Sarawat suddenly very eager to give it out? Tine thinks back to rule #3 on Sarawat’s be less weird list. Talk more. He’s trying, atleast, even if his coworkers are being invasive. Sarawat taps twice on Tine’s knee under the table, It’s okay, he says. The tension in his shoulders deflates, and can only let his coworkers continue their assault of questions.

“Do you sleep?”

“No.”

“Do you shower?”

“Yes.” 

“Can you see yourself in a mirror?”

Sarawat laughs at that one, “If there’s one thing those vampire tv shows got right, it’s that.”

The three stooges Ohm, Fong, and Phuak rack their brains for more questions. Suddenly, Phuak gets an evil smile on his face. “Would you ever date a human?”

Tine freezes as he brings his fork up to his mouth, their food arrived ten minutes ago and they were still asking questions. What would Sarawat’s answer be? 

He’s silent for a moment, the only question that has made him actually think. “I think — I would. If they understood me, and I them. We would have to click. Obviously it would be hard, but if you can make it work, why not?” The table, delighted at Sarawat’s answer for some reason unbeknownst to Tine, all cheer and raise their glasses up to toast.

“To Sarawat finding the person who understands him - who may or may not be the person right next to him - cheers!” Fong says, the last part being rushed so no one could understand him. But Tine did, and he feels humiliated. 

He needs a drink.

__

When everyone’s done with their food, they make their way over to a little bar across the street, it’s not packed but also not empty. Tine acknowledges the homey feeling the bar has. The soft lights and karaoke stage add to the ambiance, and they try to find a table to fit them all.

“Alright guys, we have a job tomorrow so no going crazy tonight.” Pear warns. “Unless you want to face Dim’s wrath.” 

“Don’t even worry about it.” Tine slings an arm over Pear’s shoulder, “We’ll be fine, I promise.” 

Pear raises an eyebrow at him, “No more than one drink for you.” Tine salutes her.

An hour later, Tine has had two drinks, and he’s already bordering the line between tipsy and drunk. Sarawat watches him from the bar, as he performs a rendition of Rehab by Amy Winehouse, fitting, while Ohm, Phuak and Fong record and sing along in the audience. 

Sarawat laughs at their antics, while also keeping an eye on Tine so he doesn’t hurt himself in his drunkenness. Sometimes he wishes he could still get drunk like humans do, but seeing them be crazy like this makes him slightly happy he can’t.

“That was a nice speech at dinner.” Someone says to his left, it’s Mil, sliding up into the seat next to him. Sarawat stiffens, mood soured.

“What do you want?”

“I come in peace.” Mil puts his hands up in surrender. “I actually wanted to talk to you.” He looks nervous almost.

“About?” 

“We got off on the wrong foot. We both got under each other’s skin during the meeting, and if we’re going to work together I don’t want any bad feelings.” Mil says honestly. Sarawat is surprised actually, he didn’t think Mil would ever be the one to want to resolve anything.

“I don’t trust you.” Sarawat says, because he doesn’t. Mil worked for the bad side and now he wants to work for them? It didn’t make sense in his head. “Why do you suddenly want to work with us?” 

“Do you really have to ask?” Mil scoffs, as his gaze flickers to Phukong, who has now joined the four stooges in their singing antics. “I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t for him, I would do anything for him. That’s how I even got into this mess in the first place.” Mil sighs.

Sarawat takes in his words. Mil really would do anything for Phukong, someone who was human. And based on Phukong’s behavior, he would do the same for him. “How do you make it work?” He blurts out, his brain running a mile a minute.

“Why, you possibly want to test it out?” Mil teases, Sarawat sends him a glare. “Honestly — it’s not easy. We live very different lives. Phukong sleeps at night and I stay up staring at the ceiling. I can eat human food since I’ve been a vampire since I was born, but I don’t really get anything out of it. I met his parents before we came out here, they weren’t too thrilled that he was dating me, but they allowed it anyway, for his sake. Sometimes I wonder if we’re better apart.” Mil says, in a rare form of honesty. “But I know we aren’t, I love everything about him, from his moods to his jokes, and his ridiculous television shows he likes to watch so he can ‘forget about the world’ for thirty minutes. He gets me out of funks and knows how to cheer me up, and has never once made me feel bad for who I am, and is proud to be with me. He completes me. When I look over at night and see him safe, with me, that’s how we make it work.” 

Sarawat would be a liar if he said he didn’t get a little choked up at Mil’s words. It was clear Mil really did love Phukong, and even if it was hard to love a human, he was willing, for him. 

“I’m not saying after you figure it out it will be rainbows and sunshine, people will still judge no matter what but you can’t pay attention to it. And, I have a feeling that person you’re thinking of doesn’t mind either.” Mil suggests. Sarawat’s gaze is trained on Tine, who is now singing Eternal Love by Scrubb. He looks so happy with the dingy lights on him, even if his notes come out a bit jumbled from the alcohol.

“I worry that one day he will realize it’s not what he wants, that he wants someone human. Who can relate to him, I can’t be that person for him.” Sarawat admits. He can feel himself getting tense.

Mil lays a hand on his shoulder, and Sarawat feels instant relief wash over him, almost as if it was never there. He glances over at Mil, and feels transfixed as he looks into his eyes, what was going on? Finally he says, “You will always feel like that, but you have to trust him, it’s the only way.” 

Sarawat can feel himself nodding and turns his gaze back to Tine. Trust.. he thinks. Huh.

__

Sarawat lugs Tine outside of the bar, which should be easy, but Tine is reluctant to leave. 

“But all my friends are here.” He whines, pulling back against him.

“Tine, you’re drunk and we have a mission tomorrow. We’re going back and putting you to bed.” Sarawat rolls his eyes. 

Pear scoffs from behind them, she followed them out just to scold Tine. “I told you! Not more than one! But you never listen do you? Now Sarawat has to take care of your ass the rest of the night.” 

“I’m sorryyyy Pear, don’t be mad.” He actually starts crying right there, full on sobbing in front of the bar.

Sarawat rubs his back comfortingly. Pear pinches the bridge of her nose and ruffles Tine’s hair. “I’m not mad, you just need to watch yourself.”

“You’re not mad?” He sniffles, looking back up at her.

“No I’m not.” She reassures. His face brightens instantly. 

“Yay! Pear isn’t mad.” He cheers, then promptly passes out into Sarawat’s arms.

At his panicked look, Pear waves a hand on at him. “He’ll be fine. Just needs sleep and water. Take care of him for me, will you Wat?” He nods and scoops Tine up in his arms.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” He tips his head at her and starts walking toward the hotel.

Outside their door, Sarawat gently wakes Tine up. “Tine, where’s the room key?” 

“Pocket.” He slurs. Sarawat digs around for it, “What are you reaching for?” Tine blindly fumbles for Sarawat’s hand. “That was fun, do it again.” He giggles. Sarawat rolls his eyes and finds the key and pushes their door open.

He flops Tine down on the bed, and he immediately curls into a ball. “Tine, I’m going to change your clothes for you.” Sarawat tells him. He gets a grunt in response.

Through bleary eyes, he watches Sarawat change his clothes for him. His limbs feel heavy, he likes being taken care of. 

“Sarawat likes taking care of Tine.” He mumbles, Sarawat laughs at him.

“Why are you talking in third person?”

Tine ignores him. “Tine likes when Sarawat takes care of him. Tine wishes Sarawat could see how amazing he is.” Sarawat’s breath hitches as Tine reaches up and cups his face. “He wishes Sarawat knew how much he’s loved.” His hand drops then, and he falls asleep.

Sarawat can feel tears prickle in his eyes but he wills them away. He finishes dressing Tine and puts a glass of water and meds next to them. 

Despite not being able to sleep, he climbs into his bed anyway, and faces away from Tine. 

The weight of his words lay heavy in his heart, he’s not sure if he believes them.

__

Sarawat exits the bathroom hours later, the sun already streaming in from the windows. Tine groans and peaks his head up from under the covers.

“Why did I drink so much?” He complains, throwing an arm over his eyes to shield them from the harsh morning light.

“You had three beers. I have no idea how you’re such a lightweight.” Sarawat points out. “Take your medicine and let’s go get you something greasy to eat, you’ll need it.” 

Tine, freshly showered and looking considerably less like death, walks down the street with Sarawat to find a breakfast place.

“These videos are the worst.” Tine mutters. The work group chat is filled with videos of him singing. He sounds like a dying cat. “Did I say anything weird last night? All I’m seeing is me singing.” He’s still looking at his phone, so he misses the way Sarawat tenses up.

“Nope, nothing. Just your atrocious singing.” Tine smacks him on the arm. They arrive at a place to eat, but it looks pretty packed. “I’ll go see if we can get a table, wait here.” He goes in and asks, it’ll be about fifteen minutes they tell him. He thanks them and goes to tell Sarawat.

But on his way back, he sees a weird scene. Sarawat, paler than usual, talking to two men, who look very excited to see him.

As he gets closer, he catches bits of their conversation. 

“Dude! We thought something terrible happened to you. After what happened to Pam, we thought they got to you too. But here you are walking around the streets of Chiang Mai. Do you know how many people have been looking for you all this time? Your parents have been searching for years! You haven’t seen any of it? Well let’s go, we have to tell them!” One of the guys says, and reaches out to pull Sarawat with him.

“Hold it!” Tine yells, wrenching Sarawat’s arm out of his grasp. “Who are you? What do you want with Sarawat?” He fumes.

The two guys look at him curiously. “I’m Man and this is Boss. We’re Sarawat’s best friends.” The other guy, Boss, narrows his eyes at Tine.

“What are you doing with Sarawat.” He questions. “Are you the reason he’s been missing all the time?”

Tine’s eyebrows shoot up to his hairline, “Missing? What the hell are you talking about? He’s never been missing.” His head is starting to hurt from the arguing, who were these random men? 

Man pulls up his phone and shows Tine the screen, “See! This is our friend, Sarawat. He’s been missing for five years. Then suddenly he appears like nothing happened with you? What’s going on here?!” He pauses and studies Tine’s face, “Come to think of it, you look pretty familiar.” 

Tine ignores him and studies the Missing Persons report on Man’s phone screen. It has Sarawat’s name, face and information, offering a one million baht reward for information leading to his recovery.

Tine turns to Sarawat, eyes wide, who has been deathly quiet this whole time. “Wat, what is this?”

The ringing in Sarawat’s head that has been a steady murmur, shoots up in volume. He screams, and screams and screams. Memories of concerts, late nights studying for exams, the two men pop into his head, teasing him for something, it’s almost there, but he can’t reach it. The memory of a girl. She’s dead, it’s Sarawat’s fault.

“Sarawat!” Tine yells, he’s scared, so scared. He’s never seen this before. Man and Boss look equally frightened. Tine pulls Sarawat into his arms, “You’re okay, you’re okay I promise. You’re in Chiang Mai on a mission. You hunt vampires, I’m your partner Tine, we’re getting breakfast because I’m hung over. You’re safe.” He tries to ground Sarawat to reality. He rubs his back as Sarawat’s screams dissolve into sobs.

“It’s all my fault.” He cries into Tine’s shoulder. 

“No it’s not.” Tine hasn’t the faintest clue what he’s referring to. “It’s not your fault, don’t blame yourself.” Sarawat grows limp in Tine’s arms, fully passing out. 

Tine sighs and calls Earn, asking her to pick them up. She agrees and he hangs up, he’s in a heap on the ground outside the restaurant, everyone staring at them. He sends them the meanest glare he can muster until they look away, then he focuses his gaze on the two dumbfounded men that are still standing there.

“What did you do.”

Chapter Text

When they finally have a chance to get Sarawat settled in a local hospital, Tine doesn’t hesitate to turn to the two men who had followed them all the way here.

“Start talking,” he says lowly, he’s really losing patience for these two.

They share a look before Man says, “Sarawat, he’s our friend. We haven’t seen him in five years after he disappeared. His family looked for him for so long, but we thought some vampire got to him,” Man’s eyes narrow, and bitterly he chokes out, “I guess we were right.”

Tine’s head hurts. He knows Sarawat doesn’t have memories from before he turned, as most vampires don’t, (Something about too many chemicals in their brains and more room being needed for all the vampire stuff, Tine had never felt the need to research it, but maybe now he should.) But he never thought that seeing such an important figure from your past would trigger this reaction from Sarawat.

“We’ve— he’s been in Bangkok this entire time, working as a Vampire Hunter, the company found him and brought him here to work for us. He doesn’t remember anything, which is why he didn’t know who you were,” Tine brushes Sarawat’s bangs out of his hair, and he stirs but doesn’t wake up.

He turns to the two men next to the bed. “Are you scared of him?” He asks. Not accusingly, just curious. “Because he’s not the same Sarawat you guys knew, if that wasn’t glaringly clear. He needs people who love him unconditionally, can you do that?”

They shake their heads yes, “Wat is our friend, always has been. We support him, and love him. Despite what happened with Pam.” Boss says. Tine tilts his head, “Who’s Pam?”

Just then Sarawat groans and blinks his eyes open. He takes a second and smiles at Tine, but then his eyes drift over to the people who cause him to have a very public meltdown.

Tine is expecting anger, yelling maybe, but Sarawat doesn’t say a word. He’s not sure what’s worse.

“Hey,” Man starts. “Do you remember us?” Slowly, Sarawat nods. “What else do you remember?”

“Everything,” Sarawat croaks out, then coughs from his dry throat. “I need something to drink.” Boss turns to hand him a glass of water but Sarawat shakes his head.

The nurse behind them, who was failing to make it look like she wasn’t listening in, gets the hint and opens up a blood packet, pours it in a cup with a straw, and hands it to Sarawat. He nods at her and drinks the full cup in ten seconds, completely ignoring the straw and gulping it down.

Tine’s eyes widen before he laughs and wipes the corner of Sarawat’s mouth with his thumb where some of the drink accumulated, “You’re a slob.” Sarawat obviously has no room for humor right now as he grimaces and looks to the others who just stare at him in shock.

“I’m not the Sarawat you guys know,” He begins. “I may remember, but that person isn’t me anymore. I’m different, in every way possible. I may know who you are, but I don’t know you. I’m sorry, I’m sure you wanted a different outcome when you saw me.” The ending falls a little flat, as if Sarawat doesn’t know how to finish.

“But that’s okay, we know you and we want to support and help you, we don’t care who you are or what happened—“

“You should!” Sarawat yells, and it makes Tine jump. “You should because of what happened, you don’t know me, or what I have been through. Please leave.” He’s clutching the sheets of the bed with an iron grip.

Tine stands up and gently ushers the two guys out of the room. “He’s upset, he needs time,” is all he says. Before he can shut the door in their faces, he pushes a small piece of paper into Man’s hand, “His number,” He whispers, “Call in two weeks, he will have had time to process.” They wordlessly nod and leave.

Tine sighs and rests his head against the door for a few moments. They’re here on a job that just got extremely more confusing. Their lives were starting to look like a bad movie.

He carefully walks back over to Sarawat and lays a hand on his arm, “Hey, are you okay?”

Sarawat scoffs and throws an arm over his eyes. “Absolutely not, getting your memories back from basically your entire life isn’t exactly a walk in the park.” He pauses and slightly narrows his eyes at Tine. “I heard you by the way, whispering doesn’t work with me. You shouldn’t have given them my number, I want nothing to do with them.”

Tine sits himself down in his previous spot by the bed, “You’re angry, and confused. You may want answers from them in the future. If they call, then you don’t have to answer if you don’t want that. It’s just a chance.”

Sarawat grumbles something Tine can’t hear and studies the room. “Can we leave now? We have stuff to do.”

“No, we have to wait until you’re cleared.” Tine bites his lip. “Can I ask you something?”

For the first time since he woke up, Sarawat’s features soften just the slightest bit. “You can ask me anything.”

“Who’s Pam?”

At the mention of her name Sarawat tenses up and avoids all eye contact with Tine. “Who told you about that?”

“No one, they mentioned her name but not who she was. It’s okay though, you don’t have to talk if you’re not ready.” Tine starts to pull away but Sarawat grabs his hand and interlocks their fingers. Sarawat is naturally cold and Tine’s warm hand is a shocking contrast to it.

“Pam was my best friend.” He whispers, “I knew her since high school and we were extremely close. We did everything together. I was an introvert but she loved meeting new people and having new experiences. She would drag me to so many concerts, even—“ He pauses and looks at Tine, as if he’s realizing something.

“Even?” Tine urges.

“Um— nothing important.” Sarawat coughs. “But anyway, the night I turned, I was going to her apartment. God I can still remember how much it rained that day. But I was almost there when I thought I heard a cat meowing in an alleyway, so I went to check and well, that’s when it happened. I never even saw the guys face, but two guys held me down while one turned me and then they left. They left me there in the rain as I turned.” A few stray tears roll down Sarawat’s face and Tine gently wipes them away.

“After I turned I was scared, I still had a few of my short term memories so I remembered where Pam lived. I went to her apartment and god I was so hungry, so the second she opened her door it was over. I killed her and after I realized what I had done I ran. I ran so far away and hid for days. I guess news got out of what happened and then HQ tracked me down and brought me there.” Sarawat sighs, and looks at Tine desperately, “Do you hate me?”

“No!” Tine says, a little too loud because it makes Sarawat jump. “Of course not, you didn’t know what was going on and you were scared. It’s terrible what happened, but it’s not your fault. It’s the assholes who turned you and didn’t take care of you after. You aren’t to blame here, I promise.” Tine cups Sarawat’s face with both hands, “So don’t cry, we’ll figure this out together, okay?”

Sarawat nods, “We still have a mission to do today, right?”

Tine drops his face and scratches his neck awkwardly, “Yes but, are you sure you should go?”

Sarawat rolls his eyes, “Just because two people triggered a traumatic memory in my head that led to me being hospitalized doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to go on a very serious, high stakes mission.”

“Sarawat.” Tine warns.

“Sorry— I’m kidding, but I’m fine I swear. You said we would figure it out right? So let’s do it after this okay? Let’s focus.”

Tine hesitantly nods and Sarawat smiles at him, “Okay, so who do I have to talk to to get out of here?”

—

Later that day, Tine and Sarawat meet Earn, Pear and Dim in the lobby of the hotel. Dim eyes them wearily, “Are you sure you can do this?”

“Yes.” Sarawat answers. It seems to be enough for him because he moves onto the next topic quickly.

“You guys know the plan, you have body cams on and weapons if needed. Mil is already there so he will help you all get in, find Dean and bring him in, quietly, we don’t need any extra press on this. Good luck, I’ll see you when you get back.” Then he walks back towards the elevators.

“Shall we?” Pear asks them, and only then does Tine fully look at what she’s wearing. She had a long pale pink ball gown on with a slit in the leg, her makeup is done and she’s wearing heels, making her the slightest bit closer to Tine’s height. His best friend had always been so beautiful. He takes a second to look over at Earn who has a similar dress on, just in dark green with eye makeup that makes her eyes pop. “You girls look great.” He says and she smiles.

“Says you, mister white suit. And are you wearing eyeliner? Hot.” She loops her arm through his and walks slightly ahead of Sarawat and Earn. “Is he really okay?”

Tine shrugs but it feels like there’s a million bricks on his chest. “He will be.”

The ride to the event is quiet. There’s always risk when they do high stakes extractions like this, and it can go any number of ways. Chat’s had gotten messy when they did his, and that was only in a club. Now in a party with hundreds of people, something was bound to go wrong.

Tine wipes his hand over his pants nervously, and Sarawat quirks an eyebrow at him from across the limo.

Are you okay? Sarawat seems to ask him.

Just nervous. Tine shrugs.

Then, Sarawat leans over to the partition between them and the driver and says; “Can you play, Everything by Scrubb please? And turn up the volume as loud as it will go.” The driver nods and turns it on, much to Tine’s delight.

“I love this song.” Tine gushes, immediately feeling his nerves wash away.

“I know.” Sarawat smiles at him. They all sing along to the song and continue all the way until they reach the party.

It’s being held in a large hall that looks like a castle. Beautiful chandeliers hang from the ceiling, the whole room has a red and white theme going on, and through the doors at the center of the room is a huge dance floor already filled with people.

“Showtime.” Tine mutters.

“Who are you here with?” A bouncer asks, and before they can answer, Mil magically appears.

“They’re with me, come on everyone.” He doesn’t even give the bouncer a second glance.

He leads them into the hall and smiles at them, but what he says doesn’t match his face. “Dean is at the front on the stairs.” He’s still smiling. “They led some humans up there so I think that’s where they’re being turned. Find a way to lure him down here and I’ll go up there and see what’s going on.” He doesn’t give them a chance to even reply before he’s disappearing into the crowd.

“What does Phukong even see in him?” Pear scoffs. Tine shrugs and intends to drop it but surprisingly Sarawat speaks up.

“He’s cold to us but warm to him. We wouldn’t see or get it.” He replies and then walks off with Earn on his arm. Tine narrows his eyes at the sight before Pear smacks his arm.

“Focus, besides she doesn’t like him.” Her cheeks turn pink at the admission. “She asked me out actually.” She says.

Tine gapes at her, “Spill, now.” Pear laughs and drags him in the same direction as Earn and Sarawat.

—

An hour later, Dean is still at the top of the stairs, with no intention of moving. They have been checking out who comes in and out of the room and it seems to be the same person bringing in different people, humans presumably. Tine grits his teeth.

“We need to act before more people get turned.” He hisses at Sarawat and Earn, who are dancing near Pear and Tine.

“He hasn’t budged, what do you want to do? We have to lure him away but I’m afraid we will have to cause a commotion if we want him to come down.” Earn replies.

“Dim said nothing big.” Tine groans.

“Dim isn’t here.” Sarawat offers. “Should we do ‘I need a doctor’ or ‘There’s a bomb’?” He asks.

“We’re not telling people there's a bomb!” Tine sputters at him, which causes a few people to look at him weirdly.

“Well, he may be onto something.” Pear offers. Tine looks at her in betrayal. “Listen, if we do ‘I need a doctor’ everyone will crowd around and we won’t be able to grab him. If we do ‘There’s a bomb’ everyone will run away and we can get him.”

“And if we lose him in the crowd?”

“We won’t.” Earn finishes. Distantly, he can hear someone yell, Change partners! and suddenly he finds himself with a face full of Sarawat.

“They said change partners.” He says innocently, Tine rolls his eyes. Sarawat truly looks so beautiful up close. His hair is styled perfectly and his black suit hugs him perfectly. They’re softly swaying to the music and Tine wants to stay in this moment forever.

“You look amazing.” Sarawat whispers. Tine tries to hide the flush on his neck.

“I bet you say that to everyone.”

“No, just you. Only you.” Sarawat confesses. Tine momentarily forgets where they are, and really wants to kiss Sarawat right there, so he finds himself leaning in until Earn, headstrong as she is, breaks the moment.

“Cut it out! Look where we are.” Earn scolds. “You guys can flirt after this. Tine, you’re the leader, you decide.”

Tine closes his eyes and plants a fake smile on his lips, drawing a laugh out of Sarawat. “Bomb it is.”

Pear and Earn nod before dancing away to start the plan. Tine rests his head on Sarawat’s shoulder and likes the way Sarawat’s hand comes up to rub his back.

“Dim is going to be so mad.” Tine moans. Sarawat laughs again, Tine loves the sound.

“I’ll back you up when he gets mad. As long as we get Dean, it will be okay.”

Tine lifts his head up to look Sarawat in the eyes, he feels the way Sarawat relaxes when he does. Tine leans forward and presses a tiny kiss to the corner of his mouth. “For good luck.” He says, suddenly embarrassed and drops his head back on Sarawat’s shoulder, swaying to whatever song is playing overhead.

A few minutes later, they hear a deafening shriek from across the dance floor. “There’s a man! And he has a bomb!” Tine cringes at Pear’s terrible acting. But it’s enough to have the dance floor yelling and running, overturning tables and stomping on feet. Even if you hadn’t heard the news, you would’ve started running anyway.

In the commotion, Dean runs down the stairs to see what’s going on. Out of the corner of his eye, Tine can see Mil sprinting up the stairs.

“Grab him!” Tine yells to Earn, who is the closest to Dean.

Dean sees four people run at him, “What is this?” He yells. As soon as Earn is in reach he throws her against one of the distant walls.

“Bastard!” Pear yells, pulling out her taser and shocking him. Somehow, it does nothing.

Sarawat and Tine are still on the other end of the large room, when bullets start flying.

“Jesus, fuck!” Tine yells, as Sarawat pushes him out of the line of fire and behind a table, diving in next to him.

Tine taps the comm in his ear back to Sarawat, “We need backup, bullets are flying and we still—” The door at the top of the stairs bursts open, revealing a group of freshly turned vampires who start running down the stairs. “Vampires, freshly turned are here too, fuck where’s Mil?”

“We’re coming in,” is all Dim says as he clicks it off. Tine sighs and tries to peer over the table, only to be met with an onslaught of bullets.

“I didn’t want to use this today.” Tine mutters, and pulls out his gun from the holster on his leg.

“Tine.”

“God this is a shitshow, how did Mil let them all get out?”

“Tine.”

“Hope Earn is okay, Pear was next to him, ugh, where is Dim.”

“Tine.” It comes out a bit broken this time, Tine looks over at Sarawat to see him clutching his shoulder, body spasming on the floor.

“Wat!” Tine cries out, and leans over him. “What happened?”

“It’s—“ He gasps, “It’s a VP bullet, they shot me when I pushed you down.” He laughs weakly.

Tine curses. VP bullets, sadly named vampire poison bullets, effectively inject vampires with chemicals that render them helpless, and eventually kill them as it targets the parts in their brain that make them powerful. “What should I do?”

“Nothing, get Dean, get out, I’ll be fine.”

“Fuck that, you’ll die!” Tine screams, there must be another way. A lightbulb turns on in his brain. “Sorry Wat, forgive me when I do this.”

Tine reaches forward and digs his fingers into Sarawat’s bullet wound, searching for it. Sarawat yells out in pain and tries to writhe away from Tine. Bullets fly overhead and Tine can hear more footsteps, hopefully Dim and the team.

“Hold still!” Tine barks out, he can almost feel it, aha! Tine grips the metal and pulls it out of Sarawat’s body and throws it over his shoulder. But the poison is still inside of Sarawat. Tine takes a deep breath and yanks Sarawat’s black dress shirt stained with blood off of him, leans down, and sucks.

Sarawat gasps and tries to protest, “Tine, stop, it’s dangerous.” Tine shakes his head and continues. He saw this in a movie once, and while that wasn’t the best way to base your decisions off of, he still needed to try.

He spits out the poison to the side and goes back, but this time Sarawat pushes his head back and groans. “You got most of it, it’s fine now.” He says weakly. “Go get Dean.”

“I can’t leave you here like this.”

“You can and will. He’s our target. Go now, I’ll be fine.” Tine frowns at him but grabs his discarded gun on the floor.

“You owe me for that, by the way.” Tine adds, “So don’t die.” Sarawat’s smile is the last thing he sees before he takes off in Dean’s direction.

—

Dean has disappeared somewhere in the building, but has left an unfortunate line of bodies in his wake. Tine walks through the large hallways quietly, his gun at his side.

He turns a corner and see’s Pear, groaning and holding her side. “Pear!” Tine says, “What happened?”

“Some random vampire knifed me,” She lets out a laugh that seems a bit inappropriate, “He could’ve at least been a good fight.” She tilts her head over to a dead body on the ground a few feet away. “Took nothing to take him down.”

“We have to get you back to Dim and the guys!” Tine exclaims, already helping her up. Pear swats at his hands.

“Dean is still here, you need to get him.”

Tine shakes his head, “but,”

“No buts, go, I’ll be okay.” For the second time that night, Tine leaves someone very important to him behind.

Tine hears more shooting until he’s turned at least four corners. Then he comes face to face with Dean, at a dead end.

“You’re cornered, and outnumbered out there.” Tine raises an eyebrow. “You should just come now, save us the rest of the trouble.”

Dean scowls at him, “No way in hell.” He lunges at Tine and they both fall to the ground, wrestling each other for the gun in Tine’s hand.

“I knew you four were trouble when I watched you walk in. Mil works for the hunters now? I knew we shouldn’t have brought him in. But don’t worry, he’s being dealt with right now.” Dean groans as Tine swiftly knees him and rolls them over, putting him on top.

“This is just the beginning,” Dean says, choking a little as Tine gains the upper hand and buries the butt of the gun against his neck, cutting off air flow.

“Not if we have something to do with it. You’re done.” Tine spits out, struggling with him a bit more before Dean passes out from lack of oxygen. Tine quickly puts cuffs on him just in case he wakes back up.

Ohm, Fong and Phuak come racing around the corner, and their eyes light up at the sight.

“Got him.” Tine heaves out, “How’s Pear?”

“She’s fine, even managed to take down a few more vamps with a knife wound.” Tine smiles a little, Pear was always tough.

“What about—“

“He’s good.” Ohm cuts off. “He’s being looked at right now, but you seemed to get it all out of him.” He helps Tine off the ground.

Phuak looks at him slyly, “So, you sucked the life out of him, or back into him I should say.” Tine groans and smacks him on the head.

“Shut up, I saved him, that’s it.”

“Yeah by giving him the best suck of his life-“ Tine clamps a hand down on Ohm’s mouth. “Let’s just get him back before he wakes.” Almost on cue, Dean starts to stir.

They all grab him and pull him up off the ground and lead him back through the building, towards the squad.

—

From a balcony where no one has bothered to look, Tar looks over the scene with a smile on his face. “They think they have won,” He says to Air, who stands next to him in a trance. “They’ll see, soon.” He laughs and backs away into the night.