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It takes some number of careful breaths and then another one, and then Than licks his lips and hesitantly begins, “You’re-”
Pheem looks down at Than’s mouth and back up into his eyes. He’d love to know the rest of that sentence. “I’m?”
Than blinks twice. “Heavy,” he finishes, which is not what Pheem was hoping to hear from a towel-clad man sandwiched between him and his couch, but it’s amusing enough that it makes him huff an actual laugh. Than twitches a little under him, and whether it’s the movement that’s uncomfortable or he’s reacting to Pheem’s breath hitting his skin, it does prove the point he raised.
Pheem pushes off of both Than and the couch, standing up. For the briefest moment he’s about to offer Than a hand to follow him, but Than is still looking a little dazed, sitting up slowly, so Pheem busies himself with refastening his bathrobe instead. It didn’t slip loose, he just cares about his appearance.
It’s worth it when he looks up and catches Than looking.
“Lost in thought again?” he wonders, innocently. He’s got a few guesses – or wishes – for what kind of thoughts those might be.
Than averts his eyes and clears his throat. He stands up to his full height, finally vacating the couch, and tugs on the towel around his waist like he’s adjusting a belt. “I should go,” he says. It comes out entirely calm and composed. Pheem is almost disappointed, until Than looks over at him again, opens his mouth, closes it, and blurts, “I mean. Home.”
He’s perhaps not entirely as bad of an actor as Pheem initially judged him to be, but still adorably easy to throw off his game. Pheem lets him drown in an embarrassed silence for a few seconds. “Right now?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Could be a little chilly.”
“I don’t know-” That’s as far as Than gets before Pheem’s eyes have travelled far enough south for him to notice, and subsequently notice something else. The moment he looks down at himself, shirtless and barefoot, his ears start to turn red.
Pheem has the fleeting thought that Than would probably go broke over poker if he had anything to lose in the first place. A man who won’t take a hundred thousand baht cash offered to him in the form of a signed check with no strings attached – all but on a silver platter – can’t have much to his name to wager with. He currently doesn’t even have the clothes on his back, because he willingly handed those over already.
Strip poker, now that could be a thought worth entertaining. The shorter the game, the more willing Pheem would be to go through the effort of shuffling the cards.
“Hey,” Than says, a touch alarmed, so Pheem stops pondering the towel he’s wearing, and how this particular game could be wickedly quick.
“You can’t go,” he says, instead.
Than does not seem like a man who likes to be told things he can’t do. Even while confused and now aware that he’s mostly naked, he gets a little bristly about it. “What do you mean, I can’t go?”
“If you go out now you’ll just get wet again.” It’s nothing but the wonderfully convenient truth. The rain is still hammering on the window at the other end of the room.
Than shifts in place. “That’s fine. I’ll be okay.”
“You should stay the night.”
A beat. “I can’t-”
Pheem pretends like he doesn’t know what’s going through Than’s head. He doesn’t think he can get away with it, but it’s fun to leave him floundering. “You don’t have to sleep on the couch. I have a guest room.” The least of Than’s concerns abated, Pheem adds a little more fuel to the fire. “Though of course the couch is plenty comfortable, too.”
“I know,” Than says, perfectly dry. It’s moments like these that make him so interesting, because it takes a whole second before he seems to regret saying it. “Won’t anyone- notice?”
Pheem almost laughs again. He’s fun, too. “What are you asking? If I’m single?” He leaves a gap there, but Than doesn’t rush to confirm or deny. “If it will shock the doorman if there are strange men coming and going to my apartment at odd hours?”
Than’s body doesn’t do much talking, but his mouth and eyebrows do. “You don’t seem like the kind of person who’d let that stop him.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It’s not an insult,” Than allows.
In return, Pheem allows a smile. “And it’s true, either way.” He ambles a step forward, getting entirely too close for two strangers in an otherwise deserted room, but still nowhere near as close as they were a moment ago. “Besides,” he says, observing the way Than adopts the barest of frowns but no longer makes even a token move at wanting to back off or lean away, “a lot happened tonight.”
Than makes a noise of vague assent.
“And I live all alone.” Pheem puts on his biggest, most imploring eyes. “I’d feel safer with you here.”
Emotions, that’s the play with Than. He looks simultaneously like he doesn’t fully believe Pheem – he’s not stupid, which is another point in his favor – and like he can’t help but be drawn in by the act anyway. “I guess even the machine will take a while to dry my clothes,” he says, after another moment in which they don’t do much but size each other up, hovering on the edge of something deep, seductive and above all very unwise.
It’s an open capitulation, so Pheem nods. “Good. I’ll set up the bedroom for you.” He holds Than’s eyes for another moment, and then turns to leave.
It’s been a while since he’s had this much fun just trading looks with someone.
In the door opening he pauses and turns around. Than has the appearance of a man catching his breath, but that drops away the moment he realizes he’s still being watched.
Pheem leans into the doorpost, inviting him to watch back. “Would you like to borrow pyjamas, or do you sleep in the nude?”
So often, it takes just a fraction too long for Than to gather his words to pass as entirely casual. “Clothes would be good, thanks.”
“Alright,” Pheem agrees, lightly, with a deliberate air like he wouldn’t mind either way. It seems to arrive for Than as intended, because the last thing Pheem sees of him before stepping into the hall is amused but almost frustrated, like Than is stuck somewhere between rolling his eyes and ducking his head like a blushing schoolboy.
Pheem can’t help a pang of wistfulness as he makes his way to the linen closet in the second bedroom. Than could be something ripped out of the pages of a tawdry romance novel, if only he were a little less decent. If Pheem were any less decent, they would be well past the purview of pulp novels by now.
Still, it’s probably for the best if they don’t sleep together. He’s already made up his mind to offer Than a job over breakfast in the morning, and that would get much more complicated if he allowed himself to figure out what’s under that towel tonight.
Then again, on the other hand- He’s been known to enjoy a challenge.