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“Isn't this, like, illegal?”
“Most probably,” Sarawat nods with the conviction of a man about to do anything but something 'most probably illegal', still holding Tine by his wrist behind him as he looks everywhere to make sure that the coast is clear.
“Wat!” Tine hisses, which only causes Sarawat to pull him further. “We don't have to do this right now!”
Abruptly, Sarawat comes to a stop, causing Tine to collide with him, headfirst.
Sarawat lets out a small ‘oof’ before steadying them both with his hands.
“Tine.” Under the pale light emanating from their phone torches, Sarawat looks a little too ethereal, too beautiful, his bright eyes reflecting the night sky.
Tine, bewitched as always, is unable to do anything but smile at him in response. He can't help it, he loves Sarawat so much that he feels unable to contain it, those words making themselves home right underneath his tongue, ready to escape every time he sees Sarawat. But he can’t say it here, especially not now, even when those words are eager to slip away.
Tine leans forward and kisses his cheek, once.
Sarawat's features soften immeasurably before he trails his hands down Tine's arms and intertwines their fingers together.
"Tine," he says again, his voice soft.
"Wat," Tine replies, pressing their fingers together.
For a moment, Tine even forgets why they are here, meters away from the rooftop, where Sarawat wants to break in because apparently, “the view at night is simply exquisite,” and he simply can’t wait for the morning. It strikes him then, what they’re about to do, but Sarawat simply steps in closer and presses their foreheads together.
“Do you trust me?” Sarawat whispers, as though he doesn’t know just how gone Tine is, for him. As though he doesn’t know that Tine would do just about anything for him.
“Obviously,” Tine scoffs.
“Okay,” Sarawat nods, pressing a kiss to his forehead.
“If your fifth-month anniversary gift for me is getting us both arrested,” Tine says, as they move towards the door that leads them to the rooftop swimming pool, “then I will never forgive you.”
Sarawat huffs a laugh, bumping their shoulders together. “Your brother will kill me if that happens,” he says. “I wouldn’t have asked you to accompany me had I not known the stakes, Tine.”
Sarawat pulls them to the door, and with sheer efficiency, he breaks into the rooftop, without tripping any alarms, or alerting any authorities.
(Fuck, Tine realises, this isn’t the first time that Sarawat is doing this.)
Sarawat looks nothing but smug as the door opens to the rooftop, extending his arm, and saying ever so softly, “After you.”
Tine is a little… shocked, that Sarawat is able to efficiently break in, somehow more impressed than he’d ever thought he’d be.
Dim lights flood all over the rooftop. Tine is able to locate the pool and is able to look at the stars above.
Tine stands there, awe-struck, looking up at the stars with poorly concealed delight.
The stars are barely visible from their home, deep in the city, but here, here there seems to be an abundance of them. The night sky is clear, moonless; Tine is going to be able to swim under the starry sky with his boyfriend. Worries of being caught (and subsequently arrested for trespassing) are soon forgotten.
Sarawat plops his chin on Tine's shoulder, holding him from behind. “Do you like this?” he whispers, causing the hair on Tine's nape to rise up.
Tine presses into Sarawat, putting his arms over Sarawat's. “I love it,” Tine says. “It is so beautiful here.”
Sarawat presses a kiss on Tine's cheek. “Yeah,” he says, “Yeah, it is.”
The water is cool enough to contrast the blistering heat of the day. Neither of them knows how to swim, making them wade towards the shallow waters, clinging onto each other despite knowing that they won't drown here.
“This is my second-favourite place ever,” Sarawat says, his head sagged against the fold of his hands at the edge of the pool. “Coming second to being in your arms. Obviously.”
“Obviously,” Tine echoes, reaching out to him. He rests his face on Sarawat's shoulder, pulling him in his arms.
“Thank you,” Tine says after a while.
Sarawat hums, inquisitive and low, prompting Tine to say, “Thank you for taking me to your second-favourite place ever.”
From this angle, it is awfully convenient to press his lips near Sarawat's ear.
Sarawat turns around then, the smile on his face radiant, dazzling, entirely fond, even under the faded lights of the rooftop. “Thank you for being my favourite person ever,” he says in a soft voice that is reserved for Tine.
And here Tine feels it again, this bubbling ferocious need, right behind his ribs. The need to scream just how much he loves Sarawat from this rooftop, the need to drown those words in his water — pulling them both with it, the need to whisper those words in his ears, knowing that they'd remain in the liminal space between them, private, certain, words that he'll always come back to.
Instead, Tine presses their foreheads together and traces those words with the tip of his thumbs on Sarawat's cheeks. I love you, he writes. I love you. I love you. I love you.
Sarawat plants a kiss on both his thumbs, as though he understands the depth of those words falling freely out of him.
I love you. I love you. I love you.
One day, he thinks, one day he'll feel brave enough to say it.
For now, he presses their lips together, hoping that it tells Sarawat just that.