Work Text:
Phupha’s gaze follows Tian as he flitters around the classroom, setting things up for the day. How much he’s changed, he thinks, since the first time he had brought him here.
He had stood in the center of the room, doe eyes blinking back and forth, unsure of which supplies was where and what lesson he was meant to teach that day. Now, he walks in with confidence, knows the chalk is in the second desk drawer on the right side, has pre-prepared diagrams and definitions written on the board before the children bustle in.
He’s found his place, and the thought has Phupha’s mouth lifting into a smile that he’s discovered only Tian can draw so wide. There’s a fondness that spills over him when he sees Tian interacting with the other villagers, the people he has considered family from the moment he was born. A city boy with an eagerness to prove him wrong has verified his place here, and it suddenly feels as though he cannot belong anywhere else.
Ask him to stay, he thinks, but brushes it aside as Tian turns around to lean back against the desk and face him. It’s not the time nor the place, and he has yet to work up the courage he needs to admit so much intimate emotion. Instead, he clears his throat, shifts his weight to the opposite foot, and asks something safer, “What do you plan on teaching them today?”
Tilting his head back to lull against his shoulder, his eyes roll to the ceiling in thought. “I’m not sure,” he admits with a considerate hum. “I was thinking of taking them for a walk to learn about different species of native plants. Educational but also useful.”
Phupha thinks back to the first walk Tian had taken the kids on at the start of his tenure, the one where Kalae nearly drowned. Memory then flickers to Tian collapsing in the field, kite string still clutched tight in his hand. The same ripple of fear he felt course down his spine that day sends a shiver over him now. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” he asks, out of worry rather than judgment. “You could get lost.”
“Hmm,” he agrees with a slow nod. “Then I guess we’ll need a guide to lead us in the right direction. Someone who knows the forest really well.” Bringing his eyes to him, he smirks. “Know anyone like that?”
Truly, Phupha has never met anyone more irritating, but it only brings him closer until he’s trapped Tian against the desk. He shifts his head further back to look at him, smirk widening. “I could ask Yod. Or Rang.”
“Oh, they’re busy,” he says with a wave of his hand. “I wouldn’t want to disrupt their work.”
Brows quirking upwards, he asks, “But you’ll gladly disrupt mine?”
“Oh? Are you offering yourself? How kind of you.” Leaning back onto his hands, palms flat against the wood tabletop, his eyes glint in victory. “Khama told me that I was allowed to bother you whenever I wanted. Besides, it’s for the kids; you’ll do it for them, won’t you?”
He’ll do it for him, just because he asked. Spending the day with Tian, out amongst the trees, sounds far superior to anything else his chief title demands of him. To admit that so openly, however, is something else entirely.
“I’ll do it,” he agrees. One of Tian’s eyebrows lifts in surprise, and he’s quick to amend, “For the kids.”
“Mhm, of course,” he says, as though he’s not completely convinced.
Only then does he realize how close Tian’s face is to his own. He remembers seeing it this close the first day he had met him, when he’d caught him after he fainted. While he looks the same, there’s something there that just…isn’t. It may be the depth to his eyes that now hold more stars than he’d ever been able to see from the city. Or it’s the upper curve to his lips that have only learned to move just so from the interactions he’s had with the villagers. This is still Tian, but it’s a Tian that Phupha has come to know, one that he wants to go to each morning and never wants to leave every night.
If he hadn’t been looking so closely, he would have missed the way Tian’s chin tilted up, their noses just a hair’s breadth away from each other. Though his heart picks up speed, he doesn’t pull away. He’s like a magnet, his north pole wanting so badly to draw itself to Tian’s south.
Can I kiss you? he thinks. If I asked you, would you say yes?
He can feel it edging on the tip of his tongue, and just as it dares to leave his mouth, the pitter patter of footsteps echoes through the room, multiple calls of “Khun Tian!” following.
He jumps back just in time for the children to approach the desk, bombarding Tian with questions of their plans for the day. Despite the flustered pink of his cheeks, he composes himself to answer them. He glances towards him, trying to catch his eye, but Phupha is quick to turn his back to him, as to not let him see his own flush.
Another day, he’ll ask him all of the questions he’s been burning to. For now, he’ll guide the kids and their troublesome teacher through the forest and pretend to be only slightly annoyed about it.