Work Text:
Pete rebels against the whole exercise by kicking his feet up on Kao’s lap and raising his eyebrows at Kitty. He’s prepared for Kao to shove his legs, so when it happens he firms up the muscles in his thighs and calves, keeping them stubbornly planted where they are.
Kitty stares back at him.
Sandee, pinching her nose, says, “Just pick one, or I’ll pick it for you.”
Kitty’s office is a thing of splendor: wedding trappings wherever there’s space, framed photos of couples she’s designed for, fake flowers wrapped in sample bouquets, books on nuptial rituals from cultures around the world. They’ve spent an hour and thirty minutes in this office—Pete’s “I can’t focus on flowers this long” alarm on his phone just went off—and they’re still debating the ideal type of wedding venue.
And because Sandee is a giant prick, she points directly and shamelessly at Pete’s face and says, “You haven’t even decided on Bangkok, have you?”
Kao says, “Yes, we have,” and shakes his knees, but Pete just allows his whole body to be jostled, smirking as he folds his arms. “I’m not asking our friends and family to pay for a destination wedding, Pete.”
Pete lets his head flop back, groaning. “I said I’ll pay for it!”
“And I said you won’t! There are seventy people on the guest list, Pete, and we haven’t even finalized it yet!” Switching tactics, Kao yanks on Pete’s legs until his ass slips off the seat of his chair. As Pete squawks to the floor, Kao primly dusts off his lap. “Your money’s gonna be mine soon, and you’re not gonna spend our money like that. Hear me? Oi.”
Pete, prepared to deliver an apocalyptic rant, finds himself abruptly lost for words. Kao—smarter than him, kinder than him, better than him—is smirking down at him just as insouciantly as Pete was looking at him a moment before. Kao, whose students have multiplied from a handful of juniors into full classes of teenagers who adore him. Kao, who had alternatives, but didn’t want any of them.
How often do people get to fall in love with stubborn jerks who challenge them and go on to become their most stringent allies?
How often does a boyfriend become a best friend? The best kind of friend? The most loyal? The loveliest?
There are times when Pete wonders if one day he and Kao will mature beyond wrestling in the morning and fondly chucking each other upside the head when they pass each other in the hallway and joyfully trading insults whenever they’re in earshot. They’re newly thirty, but very little has changed. He supposes neither of them is really trying.
At work, Pete is a consummate professional. He knows how he’s supposed to behave there, and office life doesn’t offer the fun of school, so it isn’t hard to toe the line for himself. He sleepwalks through most days, if he’s honest, and when he gets home he craves the light in Kao’s eyes as he recounts stories about his students and the shenanigans they pull that remind Pete of their own schooldays.
Sandee and the guys have all grown up, but Kao still holds Pete’s youth in his heart.
Kao punched him in the face fifteen years ago, and just now, Kao dumped him on the floor in the middle of their wedding planning.
“Stop making that creepy face at me,” Kao says, pulling a worse face back as he squirms in his chair. “Ew, Pete, c’mon. What?”
“I love you, Kao,” Pete says, beaming. “And soon you have to put up with me by law.” As a bruise forms on his left butt cheek, Pete hooks his arms around Kao’s left leg and clings on merrily while Kao and Sandee loudly complain about how weird he is, their voices overlapping.
Kitty, wisely silent up to this point, holds up her tablet until all three of them notice and quiet down. Pete even climbs back up into his chair and folds his hands demurely on his lap for good measure.
“I’m going to send you both my catalogue,” Kitty says. “And you’re going to pick a place and a venue before you come back to my office.”
Pete and Kao exchange glances out of the corners of their eyes. It’s reminiscent of being back in class together, and Kao seems to recognize it as immediately as Pete does.
“Am I clear, gentlemen?”
Sandee steps between their chairs and smacks both of them upside the head. “Answer the beautiful professional whose time you’re wasting.”
“Ow,” Kao says.
Pete’s used to it.
“Yes, ma’am,” he says.
As he and Kao say goodbye from the door, there’s a moment when Pete hesitates, waiting on Sandee. But she wasn’t only here for them, and Pete remembers that as she takes a casual seat on Kitty’s desk with her back to her (favorite) idiots.
So it’s just and him and Kao who leave Kitty’s building and begin the long walk to the train station.
The shock of air conditioning to balmy heat lifts goosebumps on Pete’s arms, and just to be annoying, he says, “Let’s call a cab to the station.”
“Good idea,” Kao says, “it’ll give me five minutes alone to remember why I’m marrying you.”
“Ha,” Pete says, crisp and curt.
Kao grins askance at him and tucks his arm through Pete’s. “Dish, dish, dish,” he sings. “Still can’t take it.”
Pete tries to take his arm back, but Kao keeps mocking him in falsetto voices, hugging his arm the way Pete was just hugging his leg from the floor. Pretending to have dignity, Pete tips his chin up and nobly ignores his fiancé.
On the train, Kao yawns and Pete examines the quiet train car. Familiar neon landmarks and advertisements on billboards flash by, and every occupant on the train is either consumed by a smartphone or nodding off with their eyes shut. Pete stretches his legs out, pops his spine, and slumps on Kao’s shoulder.
“Pete,” Kao warns, stiffening.
“Hey look, some random hot guy fell asleep on another hot guy,” Pete whispers. “Call the press.”
“Hey look, both guys are wearing matching engagement rings.”
“I take my proposal back.”
“I proposed to you.”
“Shh, the random hot guy is trying to sleep.”
“I put you on the floor once today and I can do it ag—”
“Mmmmm.”
Kao splutters a, “Shh!” through undeniable laughter, and Pete smiles with his eyes still closed.
They may end up getting married in Kitty’s office.
They may not mature at all afterward.
But at the very least, Pete will have upgraded from Kao’s annoying boyfriend to his annoying husband, the only mark of adulthood he cares about.