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The only reason he had agreed to this party had to be the way Porchay gracefully walks among the guests, greeting them and announcing his presence. A warm smile always present on his face, even as Kim's insides tightened in desperation and jealousy to get his Porchay out of the sight of all those sinful and dirty humans who didn't deserve to look even for a second at the grace that was his angel.
White looked very good on him, and suited his social aspect. He couldn't help but mentally pat himself on the back for buying what his husband was wearing. A white suit that made him look amazing, and accentuated his curves perfectly, making Kim imagine all the ways he could remove piece by piece that night when finally, finally, they could be alone.
That makes him remember why he doesn't like attending the complex's parties. They are very noisy, a safety risk, and, above all, very full of families. Kim easily lost his place next to Chay when Tankhun or Porsche were around. And when we’re talking about the bloodsucking monsters that were his nephews, then? Yes, Kim had a long day without Chay’s company. Just today, he got three chances to talk to his love. Three fucking chances. This was an extremely low and unfair amount. How could Kim breathe properly if he didn't have Chay's lips pressed against his every five minutes? How could he live if he couldn't observe life in physical form in front of him? Exactly for this reason, it was a punishment to spend entire days at his family's house, and he would avoid it as much as he could.
"Good evening, Khun Kim." The mafia prince turns to face the voice calling him. Blonde, tall and extremely arrogant, one of the export partners stared at him. Maybe it had something to do with American exports, but Kim wasn't in the right mood to remember someone so insignificant.
"Good evening." He didn't force a smile to return the man's fake and forced one.
"Thank you for having us tonight." Kim drags his eyes down, finding the source of the plural in his speech. The man was accompanied by a little girl with red cheeks and a frilly pink dress. "What should we say, Aurora?"
The little girl takes a step forward, even though she seems to want to hide herself behind somebody's legs. "Thank you for the invitation, Khun Kim." Then she makes a perfect way for her age. A feeling almost like pity squeezes between Kim’s guts, his mind vaguely traveling back to years.
Kim swallows hard. "Welcome." He doesn't look at the man again, just steps to the side and waits for him to understand the dismissal message. So when they leave, the little girl fighting to keep up with his quick steps, the air seems less thin, he can breathe better, and he heads to the drinks counter.
"Hard night?"
Kim sighs. "Hard week."
Porsche stops stirring his drinks, looking at his brother-in-law with suspicious eyes. "Have you been fighting with my little brother?"
Kim rolls his eyes and slumps down on the bar stool. "Like we have time for that. If I talked to Porchay for more than three seconds, it was a small victory."
"Well, you should make Khun hog him less then."
The youngest points a finger towards his brother-in-law. "You should also hog him less! Don't talk about my brother when you can be worse."
"Hey, he's my brother!" The arched eyebrows hardly have any effect on Kim.
"He’s my husband!"
"If you feel so uncomfortable about it, then you should take mine." And now he thinks Kim is stupid. What a big asshole.
"I'm not going to let you spend so much time with Chay and still have the relief of not having kinn on your back, Porsche. I'd rather be tortured by Vegas."
Porsche shrugs, a smirk growing on his face. "Well, at least I tried. But I don't judge you. I also prefer to be tortured by Vegas sometimes."
"You're a big asshole."
"And you are a big simp." Kim takes a sip of his drink, enjoying the second flavor that he loved so much.
He decides to ignore his brother-in-law. "How are my nephews?"
Porsche leans against the counter, looking tired. "Perfect spoiled brats. You and Chay could pick them up more often, I need a weekend without screaming and crying in my ear."
"Nop, I need some alone time with your brother." Kim smiled mischievously.
Porsche raises his fists in his direction. "Shut up your mouth you bastard, I can still beat you up."
"You wouldn't be able to do it in a million years."
“I might as well kick your ass, you know.”
“Porchay would be so disappointed.” Kim pouts.
Porsche pushes him off the bench. “Go bother someone else, you bastard.”
“I’m going to look for my husband.”
“I hope I don’t see you for the rest of the night!”
“I would be so fucking lucky!” The oldest gives him the middle finger, and Kim leaves laughing towards the heart of the party. It was already crowded, and too many guests meant too many security threats. Chan, Big and Arm would have a big night ahead of them for sure. He walks among the people, his face so closed again that no one has the courage to get in his way. In the distance, he can see Kinn surrounded by many men in suits and his father by his side. He almost felt sorry for his older brother, but he knew that Kinn had the situation under control, he was no longer that silly and manipulable boy. So he continued straight, looking around to see if he could find his precious angel.
In the end, Porchay was nowhere to be found in the room. His heart was starting to beat faster in his chest, but Kim forced himself to stay calm and reason. Chay wouldn't get out of there, they were in their territory, there was no way a soul thought they could kidnap the Theerapanyakun treasure and get away with it easily. So he started looking for less obvious places. He started in the bathroom, but had no results. He looked at the resting sofas, and he wasn’t there either. He searched the party room again, but none of them were as dazzling and full of presence as his husband. Then, he headed towards the kitchen.
It was stuffy, and there was definitely a smell of different foods in the air. The staff turned to him in shock, many pans in their hands, interrupted in the movement of turning and stirring the food.
“Did Khun Chay stop by?” He asked, ready to turn around before the smell had impregnated on his clothes. One of the cooks, still dazed, points to the back of the kitchen. Kim heads there at a fast pace, eager to have Chay in his arms and his mouth covering all of his boy's sweet expanses.
However, the image he finds makes him stop a few steps away.
Chay was actually there, sitting at the kitchen table, where Kim guesses many of the staff were having their meal. He had a plate of food in front of him, smoke still coming out from it, but he wasn't the one eating it. No, Chay had the plate in front of him because he was feeding a little girl with blonde curls sitting next to him.
“Well, what do you say to me now? Is it good?" The sweet voice pokes his ears, leaving the usual warm feeling in his chest. Kim leans against the wall that divided the environments, not wanting to disturb their moment.
The girl smiles, a bottom tooth missing from her mouth. "It's delicious! Much better than that food.”
“Didn’t I tell you?! I also prefer good old-fashioned food that only P’Aon can make when I’m visiting the complex.”
The girl opens her mouth to receive another spoonful of food, and Chay is carrying out the action with one of his fond smiles that were only directed at Kinn and Vegas' brats. “I could eat forever!”
Chay laughs, even though the action of talking with his mouth full makes Kim's stomach queasy. “I share the same feeling.”
When silence falls upon them, Kim decides it's time to be noticed, so he clears his throat, causing a shudder from the little girl, who turns around dazed in his direction, and a smile from his husband. “P’Kim! Come meet the cutest human being on this planet!” He almost opened his mouth to respond that he already knew his husband very well, but Kim is sure that Chay would look at him with angry eyes and hit him on the arm, so he decided not to comment.
“I’m afraid we’ve already met.” He pauses, trying to remember. “Aurora, right?”
“Like the princess.” She comments softly.
“It certainly couldn’t be any different for a princess like you.” The toothless smile is directed at him, and Kim swears his heart hasn't missed a beat.
However, the smile on her face leaves as quickly as it appeared, his little body withering in the chair. “Sorry, I shouldn’t be talking to Khun Kim.”
“And why not, darling?” Chay asks.
“My father said it’s wrong. I shouldn’t talk to anyone.”
“Well, then he shouldn't have left you alone at an adult party. You were right to come to me for help, dear. And you can definitely talk to P’Kim.” Then, approaching the girl's ear, Chay pretended to whisper to her, but turned his face towards his husband and smiled. “Don’t tell anyone this, but he really is a soft, sweet little thing inside.”
“Chay!” Kim scolds, even though there's no heat in his voice.
The girl lets out a giggle, her hands covering her mouth. “I won’t tell, it’s a promise. Could I eat more?”
"Certainly!" So when Chay goes back to feeding her, Kim sits in the chair across from them, watching as the two go on about princesses and dinosaurs and some kind of Earth ponies and unicorns and pegasus, whatever that all means.
After the entire plate of ramen has been emptied, Chay asks the blonde girl if she would like to play, and honestly, Kim would prefer to shoot himself at that moment. A single moment, just a single moment, was all he wanted with his Chay. Instead, it seems like everyone was against him, and his boy's attention was more in demand than the fucking Pope's attention. Of course the girl said yes. However, Kim realized that it was not the same “yes” as Prapai, Fourth, Venice and Paris used to shout out to Chay when they got the same question. Even though it was a strange environment, every child would get excited when mentioning toys, right?
Okay, maybe it was nothing, Kim wasn't an expert on children to know and say anything about them.
So he just followed Chay and the girl upstairs, towards the boys' playroom. When passing through the salon, Kim possessively hovered, stood next to Chay and circled his waist, guiding them through the small circles of guests. The mafia prince still looked around, looking for any change in the environment or even any desperate movement. But no, the girl's father was too busy drooling over a woman’s breasts to care about his six-year-old daughter alone in a house full of mobsters. They had to pass a bodyguard to go up the stairs, and Kim let Chay and the girl go ahead so as not to let them hear the conversation.
“Absolutely do not let anyone go over these stairs, only the family is allowed. And if an old blond American starts freaking out about a lost child, radio Big and ask him to come get me.”
“Yes, Khun Kim.” The man nods, and Kim wastes no more time in following the two who are waiting in the middle of the stairs. The girl looked at him, and then she reached out her little hand to grab Kim's hand too.
The mobster stares at the two hands together, lost in the simplicity and innocence of the touch. During 6 years of their romantic relationship, Chay was the only one capable of holding his hand, and now that little girl, so pure and innocent, reached out her immaculate, small hand to touch his, so dirty and full of blood.
Kim looked at Chay, perplexed, and found him with a small smile turning his lips.
“Can we go, Mr. Security?” His husband jokes.
“Hm… yes, yes, we can continue.”
"Good." And then they went up the stairs to the colorful room, their hands being vacated by the little hands as soon as the door to the children's paradise was opened. Aurora ran among the thousands of scattered toys, climbed on the trampoline, hid in the ball pit while Chay pretended to be a monster, played with the wooden horses that were kept in the corner of the room, telling a story about a girl cowboy in the middle of the countryside who lived great adventures with his horse. She also asked for songs and cartoons on television, all about unicorns and friendships, torturing Kim's ears for hours with the irritating relationship. They even played on the slide and had a pillow fight, dragging Kim into the middle when one of Chay's pillows hit his face, a laugh escaping his lips when he saw the look of indignation on his husband's face. Then, Chay told Aurora to run and picked her up in his arms, the laughter never leaving his lips, as the little girl let out a little scream and clung to the man, watching over his shoulder as Kim ran after them, and just like that, the war began. The pillow fight turned into a tickle fight, with Kim being the cause of the best tickling sounds he had ever heard in his short but experienced life.
“I’m thirsty, and I wanna sleep.” The girl complains when they are already lying on the comfortable rug.
“We can rest, princess. I’ll get you some water.”
Kim puts his arm in front of Chay, stopping him from getting up. "No, angel, I’ll go."
"Are you sure?"
“Of course, why don’t you try giving her a bath? She’s all sweaty.” Chay looks at the girl lying in the middle of them, running his hand through the hair stuck to her forehead. She gives a small smile, too defeated by exhaustion to even do anything more than that.
"You are right."
"I'll be right back." Kim leaves a long kiss on his boy, and, with one last look at the child's condition, leaves the room, still not without hearing his husband's calm voice spreading throughout the room:
“Would you like to take a shower, princess? I can call one of the aunts to help you, so you can sleep clean and comfortable.”
Okay, he now has two things to do. First, he goes downstairs and searches the hall. A number of guests have already left, but there was still a considerable number of people to say that the crowd had reduced. Kim looked around the room, meeting the dark gaze of his cousin, who smiled roguishly and raised the glass towards him. Kim rolls his eyes, continuing to scan the trails of people. The man he was looking for was still standing around two women, this time in a larger group that included other businessmen. Kim hurriedly walked there, keeping the coldness on his face and the bad mood present there, so that anyone would just get out of his way and not have the idea of talking to him. The mobster walked in a straight line, straight in front of the girl's supposed father. His hands reached up and grabbed the collar of his collar, leaving the man suspended in the air.
"Pay close attention to what I'm going to tell you."
"Khun Kim? W-what happened?!"
"My husband is about to come down with your daughter, and you, you dickhead, are going to pretend to be the most caring father on the face of this earth, you are going to show concern about her disappearance and then you are going to thank Khun Porchay for his kindness for taking such good care of your girl." He pressed his fingers into his collar, letting little air pass through his lungs, a dark feeling coming over him as he delights with pleasure at seeing the man writhing for air. "Do we have a deal?"
The man makes an effort to respond. “Ye-yes, Khun Kim!”
Then he lets him go, pushing his body back. The man almost falls to the ground, but manages to steady himself on his legs again. What a pity. Kim takes one last look at him, and then leaves that circle of horrible people.
"Simp."
Kim lightly pushes his cousin's shoulder. "Go fuck yourself, Vegas." And heads to the kitchen to get a glass of water. To tell the truth, he even does more and asks one of the aunts for a bottle, knowing that one of his nephews has not yet been used. Minutes later, Kim was free to climb the stairs towards the bathroom.
Porchay is kneeling on the bathtub, hand holding the back of the child, who is falling asleep in his arms. The other hand lightly soaps her small body and blonde curls. Chay hums a small song that Kim didn't know, but it must be nothing more than a children's lullaby. Kim really wouldn't know, he doesn't even remember anyone washing him with such care. Therefore, watching Chay in that situation made his heart skip a beat.
"Are you guys ready?" He asks softly, trying not to scare the girl.
Chay responds in the same tone. "Hi love, we're almost ready. Can you get the towel for me?" Kim would do anything for his boy. And that's how he puts the children's cups in the sink, and ends up carrying the child to their room in the mansion, where one of Fourth's dinosaur pajamas was laid out on the bed, along with one of his underwear. Kim looks at his husband, one eyebrow raised.
“We had to work with what we had.” He shrugs. The older man laughs and moves away from the girl, letting his husband take his place to change her. He sits next to the bed, watching the way the doe eyes look with love and admiration for the girl, how Chay's hands, already delicate, reached an even greater level of delicacy as he moved the small body so that he could place her little feet inside the clothes. He watched the soft voice humming as he combed her hair and ran his hands through it to form the curls. Then, his heart accelerated in a different way than when he had Chay in his arms, when he saw his husband pick up Aurora and rock her from side to side, a small smile on his face.
God, Kim thinks he could have a baby with this man.
And maybe that was the shit of it all.
Because as soon as they fed the kid and went downstairs, the disgusting parent showed exasperation beyond normal, shouting in the middle of the room and drawing the attention of all the guests. Eventually, with the commotion and rapid touching, the child woke up startled and began to cry, stretching her arms out to Chay, and his husband looked at him with sadness snaking across his face, helpless at his actions as he watched the man take the girl away.
And it was right there that Kim knew that their lives would no longer be the same.
From that day on, Kim couldn't get the innocent, sparkling eyes out of his mind. Those little eyes, so much like Chay's, who created their own galaxy of shining stars.
So, he asked Vegas to investigate the man directly. His cousin's expression made him regret it at the time, wishing he hadn't accepted his producer's short deadline to record the new music video for his song, so that he could be the only one to think about and go after it.
"Who knew you'd have a special thing for cuties, huh." His cousin's English was clearly ironic.
"As far as I’m concerned, you have three of them."
"Well, it's never too late to start your family, cousin." He placed a hand on Kim's shoulder. Assuming a serious eye. "I'll take care of this personally, and if you're right about the abuse, we'll bring her home."
"Thank you, Vegas. I count on your discretion, you know how our family can be… intense."
"Sure." And then his cousin took him out of the second family's house, promising quick updates. Kim didn't doubt his efficiency, and yet he managed to be surprised when on Friday, six days after their talk, when he was finally heading home after finishing the final adjustments, Vegas texted him a location.
Kim didn't even need to ask, he just warned Chay that he would be late and then followed the route on the GPS.
The scenario in front of him was ambiguous at best. To the inattentive eye, it would be a normal rich family house, with lots of light and trees. However, for trained eyes like Kim's, it was possible to see some men roaming the place, security guards ready to protect their boss. Still, he could see shadows in the upper window, peering down at the less-than-crowded street. He wasn't stupid enough to park his car in front of everyone's eyes, but he trusted the little intelligence of those security guards to recognize him as one of the underworld bosses when he was meters away from the house, hidden by some bushes. He texted his cousin, finally asking what the plan was.
Vegas responded a minute later:
To enter. It doesn't matter how.
And that's okay, he accepts that. Therefore, he draws his gun and walks towards the back of the house, trusting that his cousin would do a good job ahead. He knew he was ready to go when he heard gunshots coming from ahead. Two of the four men in the back looked at each other and ran towards the inside of the house. Amateurs. Kim shot the first in the head and then in the arm and heart of the second. It was an easy entry. It was shameful.
He passed through an impeccably tidy hallway, then through a kitchen, and could hear running footsteps, heavy and uneven breathing. Apparently, it was the employees. He ignored it, his trained eyes searching for the untrained and useless security guards by mafia standards. This businessman really had to be the lowest and most idiotic person in the world.
Kim passed through another hallway, finding access to the stairs to the upper floor. His cousin met him halfway, giving a nod. He understood, and went up first, knowing Vegas would have his back. If they still had someone to fight against. His plan was to find the cursed man and take his girl and take her to his husband's arms. Only that.
With slow steps and weapons raised, he passed through the entire corridor. Several rooms posted, but none really with the people he is interested in. He found employees hiding in the bathroom, saw their kitchen and cleaning aprons, and allowed them to leave, saying that they were not there to harm innocent people. Well, at least not all. They looked at him like he was crazy, but Kim went in another direction, letting these stupid adults do whatever they wanted. The third floor of the house was even emptier, and it was there that Kim found the girl's room. Without her. He walked around, looked at the pink unicorn sheets, the few toys neatly arranged, as if she hadn't even played today. He saw two small first-place medals in preschool Olympics and one in artistic gymnastics, letting a proud smile spread across his face. Chay would love to attend this type of event. He took some time with the stuffed animal placed on the bed, and even though he was struggling internally, he decided to hand it over to one of the bodyguards that appeared in his vision.
“Boss, you will be pleased to see this.” He said as he picked up the object. Kim followed him to the door at the end of the hall, finding the man's office ransacked. Vegas had a stack of documents in his hand and a sadistic smile on his face. Kim figured this was all proof that Thomas was stealing from them and providing information to rival mafias.
"You know what to do with this. I want this motherfucker trapped in our basement, begging for the sweet taste of death."
"Yes, boss. I was informed that there is an underground, the b team is already checking it out."
"Don't hurt the girl!" Kim reinforces the order already implanted in the minds of their men. He leaves the office with quick steps, postponing his journey to that basement. He wanted to get out of this damn house and return to his precious boy.
"You only go through this door over my dead body." Kim stops, watching two of his men with guns pointed at a woman in front of a small door at the end of that huge, smelly, damp hallway. She held a large piece of wood and two of his bodyguards laid down on the floor a few steps away from the woman. Ew, newbies. He wondered why they didn't shoot, but his brain, the one that had Chay's voice, told him that she was one of the innocent people, and that they had said it without too much fuss, because it was a rich people's neighborhood and it would bring dread, fear and lots and lots of bureaucracy.
So he decides to use his mediation skills, hoping to appease the young woman. "What's going on here?"
"That woman refuses to open the door, Khun Kim."
She holds the piece of wood tighter, Kim can see her fingers turn red. She seemed to be unable to bear the weight in her hands any longer. "Go away! You can go after that worm in peace, but I tell you he's not here." Kim squinted his eyes, still watching her movements. She seemed brave and determined to protect the door behind her, even though she had no fighting skills whatsoever. Or chance against weapons.
"She's there, isn't she?" Her hands shake, and her shoulders tense up. Yes, she would need a lot of training to not be obvious. Kim slowly approaches his destination.
"You must kill me first."
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” The mobster dismisses with his hand. “We don't want all that trouble. Open the door, I want to see Aurora." The woman imposes herself even more under the door and his security guards make way for him, as Kim pushes them aside to pass.
"She's just a child! She won't have any information for you, you heartless monsters!"
"I'm not here to kidnap her, I'm here to take her home."
"She already has a house." Yes. House. No home. He wanted to take her to the care and affection that he and his husband would offer, he wanted to stroke those curls until she found herself asleep, and then he wanted to hold her and comfort her from any nightmares, banish all the monsters from under her bed. He wanted to offer much more than what they offered him.
"Open the door." But he was running out of patience.
"I don't have the key." The woman's voice was a whisper.
"What?"
"He locked her there three days ago. I don't have the key." He knows it's physically impossible, but Kim's heart just stopped. It was as if the air had gone out of his lungs, his ears were so pressed and covered that he couldn't hear a single word. His vision, the one so attentive, focused only on the door. And he kicked, kicked as hard as he could, making it snap and break on the third try. And then he ran, went down the stairs while jumping a few steps. His throat was dry as he called his sweet little girl's name.
His brain panicked even more when there were no answers. He wondered if his ears were still blocked by the blood pressure he could literally hear, wondered why the fuck no one turned on the lights in that horrible place, and, with shaking hands, searched for his cell phone. He heard protests from the stairs above, but he didn't even care. The flashlight was focusing on a small patch, a patch that was near a pool of dirty water and stank worse than the hallway he had previously found himself in. He moved his arm, seeing another dried pool of vomit. Then he moved again, finding a small bathroom. Still looking around, his world came across something that he would never, in his entire life, be able to forget. The little pink bundle, once so full of life, who smiled crooked white pacifier teeth so brightly at him, was now lying in a heap of a ragged blanket, curled up with her hands on her belly, dried tears on her face, and completely still. Almost lifeless.
Kim ran once more. He knelt down, looked for injuries, found some bruises across her milky skin, but no blood. He put his hands on pressure on the artery, checked her heart, her pulses, he didn't even know if it made sense, but he knew her breathing was too weak to be normal. Then he took her in his arms, slowly and carefully, and returned to move up the stairs.
"Bring her. Alive." He knew the security guards would do as asked, he didn't even care if it sounded understandable, but he didn't even need to look back to make sure they were dragging that woman along with them. Kim followed out of that hell, and swore that he would make the owner pay for every harm done to the angel in his arms. He promised that Thomas would know personally hell on earth, and that when he finally thought there was a salvation, that death would be his warmth, Kim would make him beg for it more and more, wearing down the skin on his body even more.
The complex was in chaos. Kim, to be honest, was a mess. He drove through the streets like a madman, running so many lights that he didn't even want to think about the fines he would get. He didn't care. His little girl was lying in the backseat, almost dying.
He called Kinn, demanding that his family's best doctor be on hand when he arrived. Then, he ran through the door, the security guards hurriedly opening the way as he passed.
"Kim!" Chay caught up with him at the door of the residential hospital. Kim's pure desperation reflected in his boy's doe eyes.
He couldn't comfort him at the moment. "I need to get her inside." and then headed towards the doctor, laying the girl carefully on the bed.
That's it. He had done this process four hours ago, and so far none of the doctors have been able to show up and provide information to calm his heartbeat. Chay kept crying softly, his head resting on Kim's shoulder, trying not to be obvious in his own sadness and despair. The oldest couldn't muster coherent words to comfort him, to tell him that she was going to be okay, because not even he knew. If he had arrived sooner, if he had discovered the necessary information sooner, none of this would have happened.
“Kim.” Chay's broken, hoarse voice guided him out of the falling darkness.
Kim turned to his husband, staring into his dull doe eyes. "Yes, angel?"
“Do you think we’ll be able to take care of her?”
"What? Of course we’ll, Chay! What makes you think that?"
The boy sighs. “She will need therapy, and then a lot of care, affection and attention so that she can overcome this part of her life. Kim, she needs a safe environment, something that lets her know she is protected and will never go through that again.”
“We're going to do this, Chay. Let's take care of our little girl, okay? We will offer her full support, and then our family will also be there to help us.” Kim leaves a light, chaste kiss on his forehead. Chay closes his eyes, snuggling into his husband's warmth.
"Thanks."
“No, thank you, Chay.”
And Kim hopes that the love they have to offer is enough to shower this child with everything she needs, because Kim isn't willing to let anyone else in this world hurt her again.