Work Text:
Pat and Pran sat with their friends on one Saturday night as they drank. They were all very much tired, but finally happy that their crucial assignments were over. Pat and Pran barely spent the week together, after being forced to focus on their respective projects for the whole week.
They won’t admit it, but they missed each other dearly. And just as Pat and Pran planned to spend their night together, Korn comes dragging them away to celebrate by getting blackout drunk. Either way, both Korn and Pat really had different definitions of celebration.
Still, to enlighten their friends, Pat and Pran decide to get ready for the night and join them at the bar. Which was a fucking loss for Pran because here Pat is, dressing up like an absolute whore, knowing that Pran could not be able to touch him. Every time their eyes meet, Pat would smirk knowingly and all Pran could do was flip his boyfriend off.
It didn’t help that every fucking person who enters the bar couldn’t seem to keep their eyes off Pat or his very much exposed chest. Korn is grinning at the two of them, wiggling his eyebrows. “He’s such a tease,” Korn says to Pran. “How do you even put up with that?”
There is a way Pran uses to tame the brat that Pat is. But he figures that telling Korn would only make things worse. So all Pran does is shrug and gulp down his beer. The conversation starts about Pat again. Korn tells Pran stories of how many girls Pat would pull because of the alpha aura he has going on.
Pat agrees, arms and legs spread out like a frat boy while he swallows his beer in two gulps. “This guy,” Korn points. “Always so cocky, going around picking fights with everyone and showing off the man he is,”
Pran is sipping his beer, looking at Pat from his cup and all he could do is hold in his laughter. Pran knew how much Pat loved his macho man aura. Korn tells Pran about Pat who would get hurt and still fight during rugby matches just to win. Or how he loves to show off his body. Like Pran didn’t know.
Just as they were speaking, two ladies approach Pat with shy smiles. Pat returns them back with his hideous ‘manly’ smirk which of course, sets the ladies’ on fire. Pran watches quietly, sitting right next to Pat. He wonders how the ladies don’t notice his arm at the back of Pran’s chair, absentmindedly tracing patterns against Pran’s arm.
“Hi, Pat,” they giggle. Pran gets annoyed. “Can we have your number?”
Pat’s smile becomes less alpha Pat and more like Pran’s Pat. He turns to Pran and pulls him closer into the crook of his arm. “Sorry ladies,” Pat smiles. “I’m already owned by someone else,”
The ladies sigh and walk away disappointedly. Pran blushes behind his cup but Korn and Pat’s gang are whistling and teasing him yet again. Unable to digest the way they tease Pat for being a cruel heartbreaker, a real macho, Pran leans closer to his boyfriend and whispers;
“You always act so tough around your friends, but back home, all you do is whine like a baby,”
Pat laughs quietly at that and turns around to whisper back in Pran’s ears. “Of course, I only show my weakness to my boyfriend,”
Korn has known Pat for ages; he knows that his best friend is a huge flirt, but kind at heart. He knows that his best friend loves boasting about himself, being confident about his body and even fighting everyone that dares to mess with his friends. Korn has been right by his side that it’s not something new now. This was Pat, his best friend. The one with fierce eyes and a punch that could kill.
But what he didn’t know was, how much of a baby Pat really is. Especially around Pran.
It all started on the night they all had a little too much to drink. Especially Pat. Korn needed a place to sleep because of his crusty motorbike that broke down in front of the bar. Pran had offered him to stay with them and come back to take his bike tomorrow. Its not new for Korn to sleep over in Pat’s place. What’s new is Pran sharing the place with them too.
ONE:
When Korn found out about their relationship, he had very much supportive of his best friend getting the happiness he needs. And by support, he means not being a third wheel for Pat and Pran. Today just so happens to be his bad luck. Because here he is, third wheeling. Horribly.
Pat is completely drunk, to the point that he couldn’t walk in a straight line. Hell, he couldn’t even walk. Korn offers to help carry Pat on one side while Pran held his other. That was when it happened. Korn’s worst nightmare.
“Praaaaan,” Pat whines, slinging his arms around Pran’s neck and kissing his cheeks repeatedly with his wet lips. Korn grimaces. He knew how much of a clean freak Pran is, and how much a dirtbag Pat is. Only God knows how they managed to fall in love.
“Carry me,” Pat whines. Pran hums a no, which, of course, Korn knew that. Pran would never embarrass himself in public for his lover. That’s common sense.
But then Pat whines again; Korn really wishes he never saw this side of Pat. “Baby, please,” he nuzzles into Pran’s neck and pushes Korn away forcefully when he tries to pull the leech off Pran.
Pran sighs. Then turns to Korn. If he asks me to carry Pat, I will-
“Could you unlock his car for me, Korn?”
Oh.
Pran reaches into Pat’s back pocket and pulls out the keys to his car, most definitely ignoring the way Pat giggles and goes, “Omg Pran, not now,”
If Korn’s blood is nowhere to be found, then that’s his problem. Either way, Korn doesn’t hide the surprise in his face when Pran easily swings Pat into his arms as if he weighs nothing. Korn wasn’t an asshole, but anyone seeing Pat and Pran would know that Pat’s the stronger one in the relationship. Korn thinks that he is very wrong.
Pat automatically curls into Pran’s arms and presses his nose to his jaw with a small smile. “My hero,” Pat whispers.
Pran smiles too, but immediately coughs it away when he notices the absolutely repulsive look on Korn’s face. “Sorry,” Pran winces. “He tends to get very clingy when he’s drunk,”
Okay, clingy ONLY when drunk. Korn could deal with that. After all, it’s really hard to believe if this was actually Pat’s personality. A giant man baby.
He helps Pran open the door to carefully place Pat inside and fasten the seatbelt on him. Korn immediately goes into the backseat and prays that Pat doesn’t pull other disgusting stunts in front of his eyes.
Throughout the journey, Korn tries his best to ignore the absolutely disgusting flirtations that Pran has to endure from Pat.
“Hey, handsome,”
“Go to sleep Pat,”
“Kiss me,”
“Later, when you’ve brushed your teeth,”
“You don’t love me anymore, Pran,”
“I do, baby. I’m just driving. If you don’t disturb me, we can reach home fast and I’ll kiss you as much as you want,”
Its been 20 minutes. Korn really thinks death would be less painful than whatever shameless thing Pat and Pran have going on. Apparently, Korn has learned that both idiots never seem to realise the situation they’re in when they’re so dumb in love.
Pat again, forces Pran to carry him all the way up to his room while Korn gets the keys to open the door. He stands in the middle of the living room, again, ignoring Pat’s shameless advances at Pran who sets him down on his bed.
He doesn’t bother to hear whatever the hell Pran says to Pat to make him go to sleep. The second Korn finds the couch, he slumps face forward and prays that he will never have to ask for Pat or Pran’s help again.
When Korn wakes up, he wishes he could go back to sleep again. Forever.
Pran greets him first, a small nod and a good morning. “Go fresh up, I made breakfast,”
They were both sitting at the opposite couch, Pat’s head slumped on Pran’s shoulder as he groaned every minute. And Pran, Pran is feeding his giant boyfriend the breakfast he made.
Korn, unable to handle the pain anymore, stands up to frown at Pat. “Is he always like this?” he asks.
Pat looks up at Korn and frowns back. All Pran does is smile and coax Pat back into taking another spoonful of porridge. “He’s just having a hangover,” Pran tells Korn. “I told you he gets extra clingy when he’s drunk,”
“You feed me every day,” Pat tells Pran. “How is that-
“Korn was asking about yesterday. When you kept kissing and clinging onto me like a baby,” Korn actually meant about now, but okay, he technically did get his answer. Pat was always like this. And Pran seems to love it.
He has a soft smile on his face despite feeding Pat clumsily and wiping the food stains off his lips. Pat has an evident frown on his face, slotted in the crook of Pran’s arm. “Pran, my head hurts,”
Pran coos, kissing the crown of Pat’s head; “Oho, poor baby; Never think about this when you drink, huh?”
Korn sighs, rubbing his face. “It’s too fucking early for this,” he groans.
“What?”
Korn shakes his head, plastering a smile. “Nothing; I’ll go get my bike. Thanks,” for ruining my eyes.
Pat slowly gets up from his seat despite Pran clicking his tongue and trying to pull him down to finish his food. Korn sighs in relief; there he notices small glimpses of his macho best friend.
“I’ll drop you off,” Pat presses a kiss to Pran’s head and grabs his keys.
“No, I’ll-
“It’s fine I know your head-
Pat swiftly whacks Korn on the back of his head. Korn almost curses at his best friend but Pat gives him that secret look; one that Korn knows as their bro code for unspoken secrets. “There’s a mechanic I know, he gives good discounts,”
In the car, they drive in silence and Pat helps Korn with his motorbike at the workshop for hours. Until late in the afternoon when Pat decides to take his leave, he whacks Korn on the back of his head again;
“You better not speak about this ever again,”
“I don’t even want to think about this, asshole,”
TWO:
When Korn and Pat finish classes, he slings an arm around his shoulders and pulls his best friend to his side. “Let’s go watch a movie,”
Pat gives his friend a stare. “The only movies going on at the cinema is that one horror movie with bad reviews,”
Korn nods. “Exactly why we should go! I want to see how scary it is,”
They meet Pran from the other lecture hall just as Korn speaks. He waves to Pran with a wide grin; “Pran!”
Pran waves back to Korn and then shoots Pat a wink. Korn ignores the way Pat sighs dreamily. He doesn’t understand how one guy can have two different personalities in the span of one minute.
Pran presses Pat’s bicep as a greeting. “What’s up?”
“Let’s go for a movie tonight,” Korn tells him. “The three of us,”
Pran nods. “Sounds good to me. What are we-
Pat shakes his head a little too quickly and moves to stand next to Pran. “We actually have plans. Pran and I haven’t gone out in a while,”
Pran scoffs at that. “We just went out last week,” he tells Pat. Then turns to Korn, “What movie is it?”
“It’s that horror movie with the bad reviews,”
“Oh,” Pran gives a grin especially at Pat who frowns excessively. “No wonder,” Pran mumbles to himself.
“What?” Korn asks, eyes darting between the two of them.
“Nothing; Tickets are on me,”
“Asshole,” Pat mutters.
Korn finally, finally understands why Pat had been so reluctant to go to the movies with him. And oh boy did he regret it so much.
They enter the dark hall just as the trailers of other movies start playing. Korn offers to go buy them some popcorn. As he walks to where his friends sat, Korn hears;
“Praaaaan, you know why we don’t watch horror movies,” he tells Pran. “I can’t sleep at night,”
Pran sighs and places his arm behind Pat to pull him close to kiss his temple. Pran rubs his boyfriend comfortingly. “I’m here, nothing is going to scare you,”
Pat looks up at Pran's wide doe eyes; Korn almost falls and drops the popcorn on his face. He has never seen that look in Pat’s eyes ever. He has never seen Pat’s eyes look like giant saucers.
Pran coos and strokes Pat’s hair like a baby. “You always sleep well when I cuddle you, right?” Pat nods. “Then there’s nothing to worry about. Besides, it’s a shitty horror movie I’ve heard,”
Korn pretends he doesn’t hear anything when he takes his seat next to Pat. The movie begins with a jump scare scene and Pat unfortunately holds the popcorn at that time. Half of it drops right on Korn.
Some fall on Pran too, but all that lovesick bastard does is hold Pat tight and push him into the crook of his arm to hide his face. Pat clings onto Pran throughout the movie, cursing and burrowing into his arms.
Korn feels sick.
When the movie is over, Pran holds a shaken Pat right in his arms, pale as ever. Korn doesn’t bother and simply walks ahead. They sit at a restaurant for dinner and Pran excuses himself to go to the restroom. Pat and Korn are left alone again. Korn couldn’t even look him in the eye.
Pat’s eyes become fierce again and he puffs up his chest like nothing happened. “You better not speak abou-
“Asshole, shut the fuck up,”
THREE:
Korn and Wai were just about to close up their bar when Pran walks in looking exhausted as ever. Korn throws his rag over his shoulder and fills up a glass of beer for Pran without asking.
“Long day?”
Pran sighs and slumps into the empty seat by the counter. “Don’t even ask. Pat told me he’s making dinner and asked me to call you guys home,” he mumbles.
“You could’ve called,” Wai tells as he sits next to Pran, offering him a comforting back slap.
Pran gulps his huge glass of beer in one go, slamming the glass down and releasing a satisfied groan. “That’s much better,” he groans. Then Pran turns to Wai and shakes his head, “I needed this,”
“Well unfortunately,” Wai looks at his phone. “I made plans with a friend of mine here. So you’re going to have to take Korn with you,”
Korn pales at that. He doesn’t have time to talk some sense into Wai when Pran raises his eyebrows at him. “You both carpooled?”
Korn nods. “We take the cab to save cost. I was going to take a cab back home,”
Pran flails his hands and gets up. “You can come with me. Crash with us,”
NO NO NO NO.
“Another time with you then,” Pran jerks his chin at Wai who nods and waves back. Pran tells them that he would go wait in the car while Korn grabbed his things.
He waits until Pran leaves before gripping Wai by the shoulders. “You have to come with me,” Korn begs.
“Why?” he frowns.
“You don’t understand,” Korn shakes his head. “I can’t be a third wheel again, it physically hurts. You need to come with me. I can’t handle them on their own,”
“Korn we’ve been friends with them for years. Why are you-
“You don’t understand,” Korn whines. “I try my best to never third wheel Pat and Pran. HOW HAVE YOU NOT THIRD WHEELED THEM BEFORE?”
“Well, I-
“Forget it, please cancel your plans. Come with me, I’ll pay for your drinks for a month,”
Wai’s eyes go wide at that. “Damn, how scarred are you?”
“Oh, you’ll see,”
Wai understands only five minutes after he gets into Pran’s car. When Pat calls and Pran uses the hands-free mode to put him on speaker as he drove. “Hi, honey,” Pran greets.
Wai turns to Korn to give him a horrified look. Korn is used to it, so he only shrugs. Even under the occasional orange streetlights that Pran drives through, he could clearly see Wai already cringing.
“Babe, where are you?” Pat voice is rough and he’s breathing heavily into the phone.
Pran furrows his eyebrows just as he turns into the junction. “I’m almost home, sweetheart,”
Wai raises his fingers and mouths a three? And Korn rubs his face tiredly. “It gets worse,”
There’s heavy breathing again, but nothing else. Pran sighs; “Pat, where are you right now?”
“.. On the counter,”
Pran sighs, long and hard. “Is it back?”
“You told me you chased it out!” Pat screams loud enough for his voice to crack.
“I.. may have lost the rat somewhere in the storage room,” Pran winces when another shriek sounds through the car.
“PRAN!”
“I’m almost there, baby. Just wait,”
“Okay but hurry it's running around the floor and it’s gotten fatter than last time,”
Pran coaxes Pat that he will be there soon enough for Pat to end the call. Wai and Korn are stiffer than usual. Korn is used to it, but he probably knew that Wai had never heard this side of Pat ever. Pat who he had literally fist-fought, Pat who he had visibly hated for months. Pat who took a fucking bullet for him.
Was he afraid of a rat?
Either way, they both feel it when Pran presses the accelerator harder and speeds his way through the already short route to their apartment. He storms out of the car the second the engine dies down. “You guys take your time. I must go catch that rat,”
No, because Wai needed to see this with his own eyes. He needed to revel in the fact the so-called macho man Head of the Engineering faculty was afraid of a rat and had to call his boyfriend for help. He pushes a reluctant Korn fast enough to match up with Pran’s fast pace.
When Pran pushes the door open, the first thing they see is Pat, standing on their marble counter, gripping his curry-stained wooden spoon in his strong, bicep taunt arms. Wai snorts right there.
Pran gives a tired smile to Pat who sighs in relief and opens his arms for Pran. “Please, save me,” Pat whines. Pran doesn’t waste time in walking to where Pat stands on the counter and pulls Pat into his arms. Pat’s legs immediately link around Pran’s waist and he brings his lover to the bedroom and keeps his hidden there.
“Where’s the broom, babe?” Pran calls out. He pushes his shirtsleeves up his arms as he examines the mess Pat had made.
Pat’s voice is muffled from the door when he speaks. And Wai looks like he has tears in his eyes from trying so hard to hold his laughter. Korn just wants to eat and go home.
“It’s near the fridge, babe,” Pat speaks.
Pran successfully chases the rat out and invites them in. Then he spends five minutes in the room coaxing Pat to come out until he believes that Pran has already chased the rat out. Korn is tired. Wai is waiting for the moment.
They eat, as usual, joking around and talking about their day. Pran feeds Pat as usual; Wai had no fucking clue. Again, he looks at Korn with wide eyes. Korn only gulps down his can of beer.
Pran excuses himself to go clean the dishes (after giving Pat a long kiss on his head and thanking him for dinner like the simp he is) leaving the three of them alone.
Pat eyes Wai as he crosses his arms. There’s silence between them. Until Pat opens his mouth again, pointing to Wai;
“You better not speak about this to-
“You’ll have to kill me for that,” Wai guffaws in laughter. “I already got a video of Pran carrying you like a fucking child you big baby,”
When Pran enters, he gives Wai a smack on his head and bullies him into deleting the video. And then he proceeds to baby Pat until Wai gives up and leaves.