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~ A few days before Christmas ~
"Sky, I need your help. Please, you are my only hope." Rain was desperate. He stood in front of Prapai's and Sky's door, clutching the straps of his backpack, looking dejected.
"What happened to you?" Sky rushed out the door. If the way he scrunched his forehead was anything to go by, Rain looked even worse than he had thought.
But no matter. This was an emergency. "I tried to make the book, as I told you, but it doesn't work," Rain said miserably. "You are good with these things, aren't you? Please help me, or I am doomed."
"Oh, for the love of-" Sky huffed. "Come inside before anyone sees you."
Rain breathed a sigh of relief. Sky was going to fix everything. How did he even deserve such an amazing best friend?
On his way into the flat, Rain passed the hallway mirror and stopped in shock.
He had bags under his eyes and looked a little hunted. Also, was that paper stuck in his hair?
"Darling? Who was at the door?" Rain was startled out of his thoughts when he heard Prapai's voice from somewhere inside the house. The man sounded worried. "If it was the postman and he gave you a package, DO NOT OPEN IT!" he shouted.
Then, there was a strange bumping sound, "Ouch! Motherf-! Stupid table… DON'T OPEN-"
The door to Rain's right was ripped open, and Prapai stumbled through the frame, rubbing his hip.
"Rain!" he called out in delight as soon as he saw him. His face split into a wide, toothy smile.
Sky cleared his throat and stared at Prapai with raised eyebrows. "What did you order, P'Pai?" he said evenly.
'Oh, oh,' Rain thought. Prapai had better have a good excuse, or he would be in trouble, but the man didn't even flinch. Instead, he strolled over to Sky as if nothing had happened and planted a big wet kiss on his boyfriend's cheek.
"You'll see soon enough," Prapai purred, making Sky's cheeks go pink.
"Hey!" Rain pouted. "Could you do that when there isn't an emergency? Preferably when I am not here."
Prapai turned to him with sparkling eyes. "My Sky is just too cute. It's not like you and Yu are any better."
Rain huffed. "True, but it's not my fault my hubby is always so amazing."
"You two are the worst." Sky rolled his eyes. "It's too early for this. P'Pai, don't get Rain started on P'Phayu. You know how he's getting when he starts pining."
"I can hear you, you know?" Rain mumbled.
"I think it's cute," Prapai cooed before he went to Rain so he could drag him into the living room. "We understand each other, don't we, Raindrop? Ignore Sky," he stage-whispered. "He didn't have his coffee yet."
"And unless you have a cup magically hidden somewhere, you are going to sleep on the sofa tonight," Sky called after Prapai before they could entirely disappear into the living room.
"It's in the kitchen, love." The man turned around to blow a kiss in Sky's direction. "It's waiting for you in your favorite mug.
Rain had to smile. These two bickered even more than he and Phayu did.
Over the years, Rain and Prapai had forged a special bond. Sky would always be his best number one after Phayu, of course, but seeing his best friend so happy also sparked something unique between Rain and Prapai.
In the living room, Prapai motioned Rain to make himself comfortable. He didn't have to be told twice. His friend's flat felt like a second home anyway. So he just slid his backpack off his shoulders and sat down.
When he looked back up, Prapai was looking at him expectantly. "Now, tell me everything," the man said with a smile.
Rain sighed. "It's about the christmas present I am making P'Phayu. I want it to be extra special. You know, because Phayu is amazing and deserves something extra special. So, I decided to make it myself… But it's just not working. P'Pai, am I a failure?" Rain felt like crying. And that annoyed him even more. He was NOT GOING TO CRY OVER SOMETHING LIKE THIS! He closed his eyes angrily to stop any tears from sneaking past them.
He could hear Prapai getting up from his seat and felt the man coming closer. He let out a long breath when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"You are not a failure, Nong," Prapai said softly. "Yu is an impeccable judge of character. You wouldn't want to question his taste, would you?"
Rain couldn't help a laugh bubbling up in his chest. He opened his eyes and looked at Prapai sideways. "You are only saying that because you are his best friend."
"Exactly!" Prapai exclaimed in delight. "You are making my point. Yu knows how to pick the people in his life. You are not a failure. Why would you even think that?"
"Because I can't even make P'Phayu a present?" Rain opened the zipper of his backpack and pulled out a large book.
Prapai took it curiously, but when he opened the cover, only random bits of paper were stuck to the first page. The rest of the book was empty.
Rain leaned back over his bag. With some struggle, he managed to pull a large shoe box out of it.
"What's that?" Prapai asked curiously.
"This and the book are supposed to be my Christmas present for Phayu," Rain said defeatedly. He set down the box next to the book and opened its lid. It was filled with photos, receipts, papers, and some small knick-knacks.
"Why is there an empty condom wrapper in there?" Prapai - like the excellent observer he was - had zeroed in on the one thing Rain didn't want him to see. He quickly removed it from the box and shoved it into his jeans pocket.
"Phi! I hid that underneath the photos. How did you even see it?" Rain complained with flaming cheeks.
"A word of advice:" Prapai beamed. "If there is something you don't want me to see, don't put it inside the box. Sky always tells me that I have the talent to sniff out anything embarrassing."
As if on cue, Sky came into the room with his coffee in hand. "What talent do you have?" he asked skeptically.
"My Sky!" Prapai got up and pulled his boyfriend with him. Sky had no choice but to follow. After some arranging, he gave up with a theatrical roll of his eyes and made himself comfortable in Prapai's lap.
Rain was sure he saw his friend hide a smile in his cup of coffee as he took a sip.
Then Sky looked at the open box in front of Rain and groaned. "Didn't I tell you to sift through those pictures?"
Rain winced.
"Why are there more pictures now?" Sky didn't look impressed at all.
"Saifah gave me some of his photos?" It came out as more of a question. "It's impossible to decide which photos are more important than others. P'Phayu is the best hubby ever, and every moment with him is special."
"Ugh!" Sky groaned. "Do something P'Pai! The boy is out of control."
Prapai held his hands up. "Before I say anything, can you explain what I am looking at? Is it supposed to be a photo album?"
"Oh, right!" Rain blushed, "You don't know. I am making a scrapbook for Phayu with photos and other things. I want to put our favourite memories in there."
Sky snorted, "You mean you want to put ALL your moments in there. Rain, you need to edit, or you will never get done in time."
"That's adorable," Prapai ignored the huffing Sky in his lap.
"Try saying that after you listened to a lovesick Rain saying things like: 'Doesn't P'Phayu look handsome with his glasses?', 'My hubby is such a beautiful singer'."
"Wait! Is that why you have been looking through all our photos the other day?" Prapai mused.
Unfortunately, Sky had just taken a big swig of his coffee. It didn't take much, and he would have snorted it out.
"Lies," he wheezed. But neither Rain nor Prapai believed him.
"Fine! I agree. It's a cute idea, and I wish I had come up with it. It still doesn't change the fact that you need to decide what to put into the scrapbook, Rain."
"But, how am I supposed to choose which moments are more important than others?" Rain leaned back in his chair. He looked at the plaster on his index finger with a glum expression. "Maybe those stupid people in Uni are right, and I am just dumb. I can't even make a scrapbook."
Sky got up from Prapai's lap to hug his best friend.
"We are all a little dumb sometimes," Prapai said, who joined Sky by Rain's side.
Sky looked at him pointedly, "You are not helping."
"But I mean it. I do dumb things all the time," Prapai defended himself.
Rain had to laugh. It was true. Prapai had done a lot of stupid things over the years. He remembered their stealing Phayu's and Sky's clothes that one time. Their faces, when they realized they had been seared into Rain's mind.
And then there was the thing with the photobook Prapai had made for Phayu. It was a huge album showing the detailed process of how Rain's hubby had systematically destroyed his favourite toys behind Rain's back. Just because Phayu had decided they were annoying. Thinking about how his hubby had stared at the photobook in panic made Rain chuckle. He really needed to put that memory into the scrapbook.
Actually, thinking about that particular recollection made Rain stop. "P'Pai? Do you remember that photobook you made for Phayu? Could you teach me how you did it?"
Prapai looked at him with a gleam in his eyes. "That was one of my masterpieces, even if I say so myself. Phayu's face was the best when he saw the book. Nong! You came to the right person! I will be your guide. With mine and Sky's help, you will knock Yu's socks off."
~ Christmas Day ~
When the bell rang, Phayu was looking at Rain and Saifah singing something that was probably supposed to be a Christmas song. Earlier that night, his twin and boyfriend had told him to sit down and relax before disappearing behind the kitchen counter with a bottle of wine.
"Don't look like that, Phi," Rain had told him with innocent eyes. "It's for cooking."
Phayu wasn't sure how much of the alcohol had actually ended up in the food. If the merry singing was anything to go by, not much.
"I'll get it," he told the two, shaking his head at their antics.
Outside the door were Prapai and Sky. The latter wore a headband with shiny antlers, while Prapai looked a little hot in his woolly Santa hat.
Phayu looked at him in horror, "Pai, it's 28°C. Don't you want to take that off?"
"NO! I am fine," he smiled, a little watery.
Sky smirked, "he did try to find something lighter, but his stupid beer antler hat must have gone missing when we moved. This is my hat from when we went skiing. I tried to stop him, but you know how P'Pai can be."
Phayu nodded in understanding. Most likely, Prapai had been taking their flat apart in his search.
Just as he was about to say something, an especially merry bout of singing reached them from the kitchen.
"Did they start with the wine already?" Sky didn't look happy. "Rain promised me that he would wait. I'll… get you some water, P'Pai."
With that, he pushed a bag into Prapai's hands and ran off.
"You might as well come inside." Phayu waved his friend through the door. "We will not get them away from the wine until that bottle is empty."
When they came into the living room, Prapai whistled. "Yu, this looks incredible. Did you decorate this?"
"No, this is all Rain's doing." Phayu looked at the room with pride. His sweet boy had really outdone himself.
There was a wonderfully decorated christmas with presents underneath it by the sofa. It was decorated with hundreds of little lights and numerous colourful baubles. Instead of tinsel, Rain had fashioned a garland out of flowers that he had wrapped around the tree. It made it look tropical, which was rather fitting with the temperature. On the table, his cute boy had arranged three ananas. Each of them had baubles dangling from their leaves. But there are also some traditional-looking decorations around. Bits of cotton wool hang from the windows, looking like the snow they had seen on their trip to Germany. Countless lights and candles were strewn around the room, immersing it in a warm glow.
All in all, the place was truly spectacular! A real, even if tropical, Christmas wonderland.
"You are gloating." Prapai slapped Phayu's shoulder.
"Yes." Phayu agreed. "I am."
When they were told to "stay out of the kitchen, brother. We got this.", Prapai and Phayu went over to the sofa, where Phayu put Sky's bag underneath the tree. It started dark outside already. Which made the tree sparkle even more.
They made themselves comfortable and looked at their boys laughing with Saifah in the kitchen.
"Sky is so cute!" Prapai declared.
Phayu laughed. "You are such a sap."
"So are you," Prapai winked.
"We are such saps," he agreed, grinning.
"Why are the two of you smiling like that?" Saifah asked when he passed the sofa to bring the first food bowls to the table. "Come on, get up and make yourself useful. The dinner is ready."
Phayu looked at Prapai as he jumped up immediately to rush to the kitchen counter. But before his friend could even do anything, Sky cleared his throat. "P'Pai, take that hat off, please. We haven't been working our hands raw only for you to drop your sweat everywhere."
"Hey!" Rain shouted. "Who's been 'working their hands raw'? All you have done is to drink our wine and stir the salad."
"Is it well mixed?" Sky looked at Rain with raised eyebrows.
"Well… yes," Rain agreed.
Sky looked at him smugly. "Then I have done my job rather well, wouldn't you think?"
Phayu tried to keep laughing when he saw Rain sticking his tongue out to Sky before carrying the chicken to the table.
The dinner was exceptionally merry. It didn't even matter that Rain's and Saifah's roast chicken was way too dry. They just decided to douse the meat with Sky's well-mixed salad and called it a success.
Once the pudding was eaten, the group retired to the sofa. The fairy lights gleamed beautifully in the background, and Phayu turned the TV on to show a crackling fire. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine that the heat around them came from a hearth.
Rain was snuggled into his side.
And the situation would almost be relaxing if his boy would stop being so excited. His fingers were tapping Phayu's arm in a rat-tat-tat.
Eventually, he broke the silence. "Can we move on to the presents now? Please, I can't take this anymore."
Ah, Phayu thought. That was why his boy was so nervous.
"You are such a child," Sky lifted his head from Prapai's shoulder sleepily.
"Am not," Rain pouted. "I just want to give my present to Phayu."
Heat erupted in Phayu's belly. He had to keep from purring at the realization that his boy was in this state because of him. If the others weren't there, he would unpack/dress him right on this sofa, presents be damned.
"It's settled then." Sky got up instead. "You are the last one giving your gift to P'Phayu."
"What? Why? You're so mean," Phayu could hear Rain mutter. But soon, his long face was forgotten when Sky started handing out the packages from under the tree.
Saifah had gotten a pair of funny socks for everyone.
Prapai and Sky kept staring at their gifts and then nodded to each other without saying a word. It was rather unnerving.
"We will open them at home," Sky said when he saw the others staring.
Phayu saw a grin spread over Prapai's face. It made him suspect what kind of gifts these two had bought for each other.
Phayu got Saifah a T-shirt that said, 'I am the proud brother of a wonderful, sweet and awesome Twin."
"Really?" Saifah looked at him in amusement.
"What?" Phayu countered with a grin, "It goes perfectly with the socks you gave me."
"Don't say anything about those socks, Phi." Rain bounced up and down beside him. "They are so cute. Look, mine have bunnies on them."
"Yes," Phayu growled playfully, "And mine have hungry wolves on them. Maybe they could nibble on your feet."
Rain squeaked. He slapped Phayu's wrist playfully until he realized that there was a little package in his hands which had 'Rain' written on the top. His eyes lit up in excitement.
"Is that for me?" he asked in delight.
Phayu was very tempted to nibble on him for real. "Yes, sweet boy. Merry Christmas."
Rain took the package reverently, but his curiosity won. Soon, he tore the paper off his gift to see what was inside.
It was a little jewelery box.
Rain opened the lid and gasped. Inside was a set of two connecting lockets. One half was for Rain, and the other for himself.
Phayu had put matching pictures of each other inside that united when the two halves were joined. "Wow! Phi, that's incredible!"
"This way, we can carry each other close to our hearts all day, every day." Phayu saw Saifah over Rain's shoulder before his boyfriend threw himself into his arms.
"Thank you," Rain muttered and kissed him. The kiss was deep but far too short for Phayu's taste. It felt like it lasted only a second before Rain bounced back and started to rummage underneath the tree.
"Aha!" he shouted. It seemed that he had found what he was looking for.
When he got back up, a large package was in his hands. "I have been so patient, Phi," Rain beamed. "But now I can't wait any longer. Please don't make me. Everyone has received their present already. You are the only one that's left. This is for you, Phi. For the best hubby ever."
Phayu's heart melted a little when he saw so much joy in his boyfriend's face.
The package was wrapped in shiny green paper with a red bow. 'For my hubby!' was written on a little card. A flurry of little hearts around the letters melted Phayu's heart even more.
To his surprise, he saw that Saifah, Prapai, and Sky had stopped what they were doing and looked at him expectantly. Phayu wondered why the others were suddenly so interested.
What surprise had his little Raindrop prepared for him?
Phayu slid the ribbon off the paper and took great care to unwrap the present slowly. He could tell that Rain was almost imploding. It was adorable.
Underneath the wrapping paper was a book with a card on top. The handwriting was clearly Rain's:
'For the bestest hubby in the world,' Phayu read. 'I wanted to make you something special. This book contains all our important memories. There is still space in the end, so that we can add some together. And once it's full, don't worry. This is only the first volume of our story.
I love you with all my heart,
Your Rain'
On the bottom of the card was a red kiss mouth. Rain must have put lipstick before he had kissed the paper.
Phayu felt like crying.
This was such a thoughtful gift. And to think that his sweet boy had made this book himself was making it even more special.
Phayu put the card aside. The book was rather heavy.
Of course, it was. It was filled with Rains' and his memories, after all.
Their names were the first thing Phayu saw. 'PHAYU & RAIN' it said in large letters. Underneath was a photo from the last year, where Rain was lying on Phayu's lap, caressing his cheek. On the bottom was a quote: 'MEMORIES are special moments that tell our STORY.'
"Did you really make this for me?" Phayu asked. He felt overwhelmed with happiness.
"I did!" Rain said with a big smile. "But, I didn't do it alone. Saifah, Prapai, and Sky helped me."
"Don't listen to him," Sky said from behind. "All we did was guide him here or there. Rain did all the work."
The praise made his cute boy's cheeks go rosy. "Enough of that. Open it!"
Phayu nodded. He couldn't wait to see what Rain had made for him. With reverent hands, he opened the first page.