Chapter Text
Phayu didn’t like his brother’s partner, he’d never say it to his twin’s face but the boy was quiet, meek, and seemed to have as much personality as a cup of water. After Saifah finished university and gave up the condo he’d been renting he moved the younger man in, while he was looking for somewhere new. Rak was very calm and collected always cleaning up after himself and never getting in the way they had been living together for a few months before Payu found himself alone in the same room with the boy. It was a simple breakfast where Saifah had to run off to the garage while Rak and Payu were still eating. The whole time the twin tried to initiate some kind of communication between them, but Rak would just smile pleasantly in the way he always did and avoid eye contact.
So Payu didn’t like him, they went to the same university, but Phayu was doing his masters so he never saw the boy whose facility was on the other side of campus, he wasn’t uncomfortable around him, he just felt like the boy was flavourless and couldn’t understand what his brother saw in him. Perhaps as a casual fuck, Rak was without a doubt a pretty boy who let his brother manhandle him around more often than not, but not as a lifetime partner.
When they moved out to their condo after Phayu had walked in on Rak pressed against whatever surface he’d his brother had pressed him up against on any given day, tongue halfway down his throat, Payu couldn’t imagine seeing the boy again in a hurry. Especially when he graduated with his master's and found himself a full-time job, Rak was mostly off his mind. Someone to keep his brother happy and warm on cold nights, a voice in the background of phone calls, and someone to send a casual birthday text to when he was reminded.
When he started with Rain he did let his brother get his payback, walking in on Rain in all kinds of undressed, kissing him in the kitchen and pressing him into walls up the stairs of their still technically shared house. He could feel for Saifah a little with the overwhelming obsession he held for his own boy but still couldn’t exactly place them in the same boat. Rain was bratty, rude, and seductive, his personality shone through with every action, whereas Rak still seemed to be mild, unchanged, with the same polite smile every time he met him. He imagined putting the two together in a room and could just imagine what would happen, his baby talking in circles around the politely interested mannequin that was his brother’s Faen.
Rak was the farthest person from his mind when he came home from the hospital, covered in bandages and his sweet boy beside him, entirely shaken up from what might have been the worst day of his life. He didn’t know what to say, he was exhausted and the time in the hospital did nothing to help with that, Saifah had moved back in for the moment to care for both of them. Rain had a few cuts and bruises, but physically he was fine, it was the hours spent in his head as he was smacked around that would do the worst damage. Payu knew this and hated that he wouldn’t be able to kiss this one better. He could barely move himself.
Saifah carefully separated them so he could tend to Phayu’s wounds and bathe him, and Rak who seemed to have come out of nowhere took Rain’s elbow and let him out of the room. Payu was grateful, Rain didn’t respond well to his scars, or bruises, freaking out to the point of hyperventilating more than once when he tried to do what was now his brother’s job.
When the job was done he expected Rain to burst through the door, taking his place by his side again, but he didn’t not for a while.
“Can you check to make sure N’Rain didn’t go anywhere?” He asked his twin, who twisted his eyebrows at him.
“Rak has him, I think he’s wanted to talk with him for a while.”
Phayu brustled at that, at his traumatised partner being forced into small talk when he would be panicking.
“What’s your problem? I think Rak could do some good here.”
“Good? Saifah I doubt there is any good here.”
Saifah shook his head, “I know you don’t think much of my boy, but he’s good at one thing in particular, he doesn’t hold onto anything, he can forgive and forget, he’s a polished stone that water runs right off.”
Phayu glared at his twin, knowing he wasn’t able to get up himself.
“I think it would be good for N’Rain to hear from his perspective, Rak was able to move on from his own trauma, and I think he’ll know what to say more than us, as much as we pretend not to be, we are as emotionally stunted as our parents.”
The older twin stewed for a few hours as he drifted in and out of consciousness, missing his boy and wondering what he was being told, hating the fact he couldn’t just stand up and find out.
Rain slipped back into bed as the sun went down, carrying a tray of something that smelt heavenly, he spoon-fed Phayu pressing kisses to his mouth every once in a while.
“Phi Rak and I made this together, he’s very good at cooking, and he promised to teach me all my favourites.” Rain chatted, seeming more like himself than he had been for the last few days.
“What was it that my wifey spent so long talking about with him,” Phayu asked propped up against the head of his bed.
“Oh! Everything, and nothing, he let me talk for ages before we began cooking, did you know he used to be friends with Seekhram from one of my favourite dramas? He’s so cool he’s travelled across all of Thailand, and Vietnam.”
No Payu hadn’t known about any of that, it seemed as though Rak had done the impossible and kept Rain’s mind occupied for hours making a complicated dish and telling him things about himself. The twin had never been more grateful to his brother and his partner before.
“He told me that it’s okay to be a little scared about what happened, but don’t let it bleed into everything else, to just tell you Phi, or P’Saifah, or him if I get scared and we can banish it away.”
“That sounds like a good plan my naughty boy, now tell me what it is that you two made together.”
Things changed a little after that Phayu won’t lie and say he now considers Rak a friend, or that he even likes him more, but he did respect the younger man. Now that the floodgates were open he learnt more and more about him from Rain, he learnt about his father, burnt eggs, lemon tea, and paper stars, he also learnt about ex-boyfriends and stalkers.
It turns out Rak had more than one person who’d follow him around, and Safiah keeping him close had more to do with keeping dangerous people away. Suddenly polite smiles made more sense as he heard tales of obsession, Rak had hidden every part of himself away so as not to attract anyone else. His old friend still sent him flowers to his father's house periodically, showing up as well to get information. An ex-boyfriend always seems to get his new number or social accounts and spams explicit messages and threats. And Rak showed none of that in his day-to-day life. He seemed happy to sit back and let his hotheaded partner do most of the talking. He’d sit with Rain and nod at appropriate intervals as though he wasn’t listening but then come up with appropriate questions or compliments which had the young boy squirming with happiness.
So Phayu might not like his brother-in-law, but he sees how much he is worth, and understands what his younger brother might see in him.