Chapter Text
Loud, techno music had vibrated Vivian’s entire body before he and his co-workers had even fully stepped through the club's doors. Bright, neon flashes of light blinded his wide eyes as Vivian tried to intake everything around him. He didn’t know what to focus on first; the swaying bodies around him, the towering walls of just glass bottles of varying colored-liquids or the thumping music that almost deafened his ears.
He had seen depictions of clubs and bars in his dramas but the real-deal was significantly more overwhelming.
The group slowly winded their way through the crowds toward a seated area.
“First time in a club, right?” P’Ake asked, seeing the astounded look on Vivian’s face. Even leaning close, the older colleague had to almost yell to get his question heard.
Vivian silently nodded back, eyes still wide.
His coworkers grinned back, endeared. They were getting increasingly less surprised at what Vivian had and had not experienced in life, despite being a supposedly fully functioning, working member of society.
From what they’ve slowly gathered and inferred, Vivian Fatherant grew up incredibly sheltered under a widely eccentric (and possibly pagan (?)) single mother that was loving but who had unfortunately—and unknowingly—became absent from his life. That left him largely responsible for his two younger brothers, Deris and Aphere, prompting him to move to Bangkok in search of a higher paying job.
(Unbeknownst to Vivian’s coworkers, while this painted a lovingly martyred picture of Vivian, it was also largely and factually incorrect and likely to produce many misunderstandings later on. But that’s a different story.)
Suffice to say that most of the workers at Likhit Co. had grown quite fond of Vivian. Many found themselves taking the younger man under their tutelage; teaching him the wonders of the outside world. Thus, a few of them were quite excited upon hearing that this work outing would also be Vivian’s night club debut.
Others were less so―albeit for unrelated reasons.
“I still can’t believe that CEO wanted to have a congratulatory dinner here of all places to celebrate a merger,” P’Tee sniffed disdainfully as everyone sat. “They don’t even serve real food here!”
“It’s because the CEO is a huge lush,” another voice down the couch piped up. It sounded like P’Prae, who always knew the latest news and was always the first to share it.
Vivian tried to crane his neck to confirm but accidentally hit the back of his head against someone from the dancing crowd. He hurriedly wai’d apologetically as the gossip continued around him.
“At least we don’t actually have to sit with him and the rest of the higher ups,” P’Ake gestured a thumb upwards towards the second level of the club where the VIP rooms were located. “That’s all Khun Lee now.”
“Hmph,” P’Tee grumbled, pushing her glasses up, “Well, that does suck for him, but I was still hoping for a free meal not booze. I skipped lunch for this, you guys!”
The group laughed at the accountant's antics but Vivian just looked at the woman next to him with newfound curiosity, “P’Tee, can you not get full with alcohol?”
Everyone turned towards Vivian as one, startling the secretary.
He let out a nervous chuckle, “Was that a dumb question?”
Lee blew out a heavy sigh as he pulled his tie loose and simultaneously pulled the door shut behind him. The echoes of drunk businessmen abruptly stopped, he found with relief. He could only pray his correlating headache would too.
Having mastered the art of fake social drinking years ago, Lee was, mercifully, practically sober himself. He began taking the stairs down the lower level of the club at a brisk pace, messaging each board members’ own personal assistant about their bosses inebriation before promptly abandoning them to their fates.
Tucking his phone into his pants’ pocket, he began scanning the open club floor for his team (and maybe one specific head of fluffy hair that belonged to someone entirely too innocent to be in heady clubs). Seeing at least one vaguely familiar face, Lee quickly locked in and weaved his way towards the cluster of couches.
He stopped in front of the closest table, immediately noting the lack of sparkling, wide eyes. Instead, Lee saw multiple phones being quickly shoved into various pockets and purses as soon as he was noticed.
“Khun Lee!” Tee yelped. “What are you doing here?”
He scanned the rest of the team and paused at the growing sense of panic within the group.
“I need Vivian for something,” Lee raised one eyebrow. “Where is he?”
“Vivian?” Ake’s voice was almost at a falsetto, it was so pitchy. “What could you possibly need N’Vivian for, boss? Anything we could do for you? There’s no need to bother our dear nong—this is his night off isn’t it?”
Lee didn’t say anything for a moment.
Instead, he let the tension rise. He settled his stance back, his posture deceptively loose, and slipped his hands into his pockets. Tilting his head ever so slightly back, the president looked down at his subordinates from his towering height.
With a low but precise tone, Lee bit out, “Where is my secretary?”
As a unit, multiple heads looked out towards the club's dance floor.
Lee turned as well, only to have his entire body freeze.
Like a scene from a movie, the dancing crowd split right in the middle of Lee’s view and parted, creating a space to reveal him.
There, a few feet away, spotted through the mass of moving bodies was Vivian.
As if lost in a dream, eyes gently closed, Vivian danced. His slender, pale neck tilted up to the flashing spotlights like a sacrificial offering, Vivian glowed incandescent. The beauty laid his head against his raised arms that swayed to their own tempo. And as he swayed, his body followed, the lines of his tapered waist curving against his now unbuttoned, flowing blouse. A silver necklace glinted against his porcelain chest, now bared to the world like a secret that was never meant to be shared but was now too tempting to take back.
Perhaps worst of all, the vee of his unbuttoned shirt led down to undulating hips. Hips that tilted back and forth, back and forth—like the waves against a southern beach, slow, syrupy and undeniably warm. Each sway a tease, an invitation and a challenge all in one.
Lee couldn’t breathe. He was utterly spellbound by the creature in front of him.
He had never seen this man like that before. Granted he had not known the man long enough—not even a few weeks. But within that short time, Lee had come to know the young man known as Vivian Fatherant as a soft one; an innocent person who thought too kindly of the world and had unrealistic expectations when it came to love and people. Someone who believed in true love at first touch and playing Cupid. Someone who believed that drama cliches were realistic.
But the scene in front of him now―a vision of temptation and desire—did not match any part of the Vivian Fatherant Lee had come to experience. Not even close.
Before he could question it further, the aforementioned vixen opened his eyes and met Lee’s gaze.
If Lee had any breath left in his lungs, he’d choke at the amount of happiness that bloomed in Vivian’s crescent-shaped eyes.
“Khun Lee!” Vivian waved happily. The secretary started to make his way back towards the group.
Lee had to quickly gulp in air before he made a fool of himself and lost consciousness before the younger man even reached them. However, it was as Vivian got closer that the CEO’s attention sharpened.
He began to notice the other man’s stumbling gait and reddened cheeks. Vivian’s usually well-styled hair was in disarray, his glasses and jacket missing from his usual ensemble, and his blouse collar sticking up and stretched wide open—all indicating signs of flushed and fumbling movements.
“Khun Lee!” Vivian tripped as soon as he reached the boss, his previous grace now gone. His grin, however, remained stuck on his face as Lee hurriedly grabbed onto Vivian’s shoulders and set him straight. “You’re here!”
“Vivian…” Lee furrowed his eyes, scanning intently at the other’s blown out pupils. “Are you alright?”
Vivian gasped with delight, eyes bright and hazy. “Khun Lee! You have to try it! They have this magic potion! It tastes sooo good and it makes everyone sooooo nice and friendly~”
Lee ticked an eyebrow up. Magic potion?
Keeping his hands tight on Vivian’s shoulders, Lee looked back at the couched area. Scanning past avoidant and guilty gazes, he landed on a glittery, pink drink that was sitting on the table, next to a heap of clothing with Vivian’s missing pair of glasses laying haphazardly atop it.
Taking one hand off Vivian, Lee picked the tall glass up and sniffed the half drunk concoction.
Immediately grimacing at the sharp, potent smell that invaded his nose, Lee glowered at his employees in front of him.
He set the cocktail down with a foreboding thud.
Everyone desperately turned their heads every which way to avoid eye contact.
Vivian, unbothered and unaware, kept digging his co-workers' graves.
“P’Tee said it had vodka?” Vivian scrunched his nose up in slurred confusion, before shaking his head, “But I think there has to be some sort of magic in it because—Look!”
Wobbly, but secure in Lee’s hold, Vivian reached into both pants pockets and pulled out a pile of mismatched slips of paper and cards.
“As soon as I drank it, everyone became so nice and I became popular and—Khun Lee, look!”
Like a puppy proud to show off a brand new toy, Vivian pushed his fists up under Lee’s nose and beamed, “I made soooo many new friends! Some of them even wanted to come home with me and have a sleepover!”
Lee could feel his eye twitch. A brittle smile creaked up onto his jaw somehow as he gritted out, “That’s really nice, Vivian. May I have those?”
Poor, sweet Vivian merely agreed with a bright, “Mm!” and cheerfully handed them to his boss.
This boss, on the other hand, methodically organized the haphazardly stacked slips of phone numbers given to the drunken Vivian into one neat pile. Lee, then, promptly—and without mercy—stuffed that pile into Vivian’s abandoned pink cocktail. He relished the sight of paper drowning in neon alcohol before he turned back to a now distracted Vivian, whose gaze was directed somewhat past Lee’s shoulder.
Based by squinting and adorable scrunched up nose, it was obvious whatever message Lee’s employees were trying to covertly convey to the young Vivian was utterly lost. Therefore, Lee ignored the frantic motions and hisses in his peripheral. Instead, he turned his attention towards his secretary’s disheveled attire.
Swaying slightly in place, Vivian also turned his glazed eyes towards Lee as the latter began to carefully button his blouse back up.
Jaw ticked and eyebrows furrowed, the older man tried not to let his dark eyes linger on the smooth expanse of paleness in front of him. He had to resist the urge to ever so slightly trail the back of his fingers against creamy white skin as he buttoned Vivian’s shirt up. He was painfully aware of the eyes around him—both familiar and unfamiliar.
The anger that first simmered within him when he smelled alcohol in Vivian’s cup began to boil as he jealously began to imagine just how many people saw Vivian in his half-undressed state.
Then, he thought back to how Vivian moved and how he looked, writhing under the club’s technicolor lights.
Lee started to button faster.
Once Vivian’s dress shirt was fastened to the very top, he picked up Vivian’s suit jacket—pocketing the glasses in his own shirt pocket carefully—and draped it over the owner's dainty shoulders.
Letting out a heavy sigh, Lee rubbed Vivian's shoulders, in an almost soothing manner.
Lee spoke clearly towards the other to make sure the inebriated party understood, “I’m going to take you home now, is that okay?”
Although oddly pliant up to that point, at the mention of leaving Vivian quickly started to whine, “Nooo~ I don’t wanna go! I’m having so much fun!”
Lee opened his mouth, not entirely sure what his plan was, but very sure he wanted to get Vivian out of the damned club as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t get one word out before Vivian gasped with drunken delight.
“Khun Lee!” Rosy cheeks bunched up and twinkling eyes barely peeked out from how big Vivian’s smile was. “I got it!”
Any semblance of words Lee may have had a moment ago were gone. His mouth now hung slightly open, useless and captivated.
“Dance with me!” Vivian threw his hands up at his brilliant declaration. His jacket would have slid clean off his shoulders had Lee not still had been resting his hands there.
“Vivian, I don’t think—“ Lee’s protestations were cut clean off once again as Vivian began to dance.
Right in front of him. While in his arms.
Lee’s brain officially short-circuited.
That damned sinful waist, accentuated by tight and tailored suit pants start to roll to the club's fast-paced pop music, hitting each beat of the song that pulsated around them. Vivian’s head bobbed happily from side to side, eyes closed, and smile infectious.
Vivian’s body heat would just brush against Lee’s stomach before it teased away with each sway. Lee could smell a sweet perfume waft his way with every music note. And, if Lee leaned just a little closer, he swore he could see the specks of glitter in Vivian’s pink lip gloss—
Lee wrenched his head back so hard something in his neck cracked.
Eyes wide, breathing hard, the older man put an agonizing distance between himself and the still dancing Vivian. His hands spasmed on Vivian’s shoulders, Lee just barely avoiding gripping too tight.
Not only was the other man intoxicated beyond what was morally acceptable, but Vivian was one of the most innocent people Lee had ever met.
Lee wanted his secretary. Lee knew that the moment he saw him. He wanted the young man in his bed, he wanted him in his life. And he was becoming more and more confident he wanted him in his future too.
But not like this.
Lee wouldn’t take advantage of his trust and naïveté like that.
Not now. Not ever.
Looking around his surroundings, Lee tried to focus on regaining his control only to be distracted by the amount of leering glances being directed at the oblivious Vivian. He stopped short as he saw one particular man on the edge of the crowd lick his lips, salaciously. His beady eyes were trained low on Vivian’s back, his filthy hands adjusting the waist of his pants.
Swiveling his gaze left and right, Lee spied multiple men and women with the same predatory intent stinking off them. Each and every one of their gazes targeted at the still swaying Vivian under Lee’s protective hands—waiting and wanting.
Fury zipped Lee’s back straight and he stepped back into Vivian’s space. He tightened his grip on Vivian’s shoulders, gaining the other man’s attention again.
“Vivian,” Lee bit out, jaw clenched dangerously tight. “I’m sorry. I know you want to keep dancing. But we have to go now.”
With a big pout, Vivian finally stopped dancing. Bringing his arms down into a crossed position, he began to sulk instead.
“But whyyyy?”
“Because—,” Lee stopped short. He looked around him, as if an excuse would appear on a cue card somewhere. “Because…”
He looked behind and around Vivian, but all he saw were the vultures surrounding them. He wasn’t about to admit his jealousy as a reason to leave—not when he hadn’t even confessed to Vivian his feelings for the man in the first place. Besides, Lee somehow doubted Vivian would even understand that as an excuse to leave in his current drunken state.
Finally, Lee cast one look behind his own shoulder and happened to snag the eyes of a wide-eyed Ake.
Lee made a swift turn back to Vivian, whose bottom lip was stuck out.
“We have to go now because everyone else is tired, Vivian,” Lee turned back, sharply, towards the rest of the group, with a pointed glare. “Right, everyone?”
Startled, a few jumped in their seats while others were quicker to immediately fake-yawn and murmur out a vague, “Yes, oh, so tired, aren’t you tired, N’Vivian, I’m exhausted…”
And with that, the oh-so-sweet Vivian already started to loosen his stance out of concern for his colleagues. His arms lowered, his eyebrows pushed up in worry and his eyes became big in question. The pout remained, but started to soften into disappointment instead of sheer stubbornness.
“Really?” Vivian mumbled, almost to himself.
“Really, Vivian,” Lee hurriedly agreed, “After all, they had such a hard day's work, didn’t they? Why do you think they’re all sitting and not dancing with you, sweetheart?”
That soft lower lip started to retreat just a tad.
Lee, seeing this, went in for the kill. “And, you might not know this, Vivian, since you just joined us, but it’s company policy that, during company outings, we all have to leave at the same time.”
The pout completely disappeared as Vivian’s face slackened in a soft surprise, “Ohhh, I didn’t know that.”
Of course Vivian wouldn’t know it. Likhit Co. didn’t have any such policy. No company had such a policy―it would be the stupidest policy any company could come up with.
“Yes, yes,” Lee lied, straight into Vivian’s glazed eyes, “For safety reasons, you see.”
Vivian nodded, eyes squinting and lips pressed hard together, like he was trying to prove how hard he was concentrating on the conversation at hand. This was, of course, hard to believe given how his head lolled to the side with every tilt and the flush on his puffy cheeks was spreading to his ears.
Behind Lee, he could hear the whispers of his employees:
“What is he talking about, that makes no sense―”
SMACK!
“OW!”
“Would you shut the fuck up?! We’re already so screwed!”
“So, Vivian,” the CEO spoke over their frantic hissing, praying Vivian was too drunk to catch on, “Can I take you home, now? For the sake of your co-workers, I mean.”
After another wobbly nod, this time in acceptance, Lee finally breathed out a sigh of relief. Unable to help himself, he brought a hand up and pinched a soft cheek, chuckling at the replying whine.
“Good boy,” Lee murmured, eyes crinkled as he watched Vivian palm at his cheek mulishly.
Finally ready to leave this nightmare of a day behind, Lee checked to see he had everything on hand; Vivian’s glasses, Vivian’s phone, Vivian’s jacket, etc. It was only after that was sorted, did he turn to address his subordinates, who he was very much less-than-happy with.
He slanted a glare towards the couches. An entire group of adults shrinked like children caught sneaking candies after curfew.
The bass of the house music thumped throughout the club and yet the next words murmured from Lee Likhit somehow boomed louder; “We’ll discuss this Monday. Good night.”
Without waiting for a response, Lee put a gentle, but steady, arm around Vivian’s shoulders, gently herding the unsteady man towards the exit. They barely made a few steps before Lee abruptly stopped as a thought occurred to him.
Vivian stumbled back a few steps at the push and pull.
“Aow?” Vivian murmured, a confused pout adorned plush lips. He started to look backwards but, like a small kitten, was easily soothed when kind fingers carded through his messy hair a quiet, “Shush, you’re okay,” floated through his ears.
Vivian’s co-workers, on the other hand, wilted as the severe glare found them for the nth time that night.
“Delete all the photos and videos you’ve taken tonight. Am I understood?” Lee notched a severe eyebrow up.
An unanimous, “Yes, sir,” was heard before Lee turned back around and proceeded to parcel Vivian out of the busy nightclub. He didn’t look back a second time.
For a moment, no one on the couches moved. The masses of the club danced around a dozen frozen office workers without a care. Loud techno dub thumped almost mockingly above them.
Then, lowly, shakingly, Ake croaked out: “We are so dead come Monday.”
Tee lunged for an untouched drink on the table, not even looking at what it was. She wrenched it open and started pouring for everyone.
“Fuck it, give me the booze.”
Epilogue
Lee blew out a heavy breath as he finally wrangled Vivian into a cab.
Thankfully, Vivian was lucid enough to ramble off his address off to the driver. Lee didn’t even want to think about the possibility of bringing this version of Vivian into his own home. Being in the backseat of the cab with him was enough of a hardship considering how much of a limpet Vivian was when drunk.
Clenching his fists upon his thighs, Lee struggled hard to ignore the heavy heat that was being pressed against his side.
Vivian’s head was currently resting on his shoulder, his cheek practically nuzzled into his neck. The younger man’s body, although almost as tall as Lee’s, had managed to shrink and curl around Lee’s right arm, essentially abusing the CEO as a pillow.
Did Lee do anything about this? Absolutely not, no.
Should he? Probably.
But then again, Vivian was so comfortable where he was, wasn’t he? It’d be unnecessary to move him—rude even.
Right? Right.
“Mm…so pretty.”
Soft murmuring interrupted Lee’s panicked internal dialogue.
He looked down.
Eyes drooping and long eyelashes fluttering with exhaustion, Vivian gazed at his own hands still resting on Lee's forearm.
Lee watched as Vivian slowly twirled just his fingertips in the tiniest of circles, his arms circled loose in a hug around Lee’s arm.
Vivian didn’t move his head one inch. His body sagged, his weight so heavy against Lee’s; like the totality of his energy was spent into those small movements and it was taking all of his might to continue. His blinks dragged, as if moments away from sleep, but the sight of his dancing hands was too captivating to stop watching.
Lee didn’t understand one bit of it. But his heart grew impossibly warm at the sight. The amount of affection Lee felt for the man leaning against him continued to know no bounds. It made his own body loosen, as if he were the one drunk and not Vivan, and gave him the courage to lay his own head gently on top of Vivian’s.
“Mm?” Lee hummed, softly, in question.
“‘S pink, Khun Lee,” Vivian whispered, softly back, as if that was the answer to everything. “‘S pink and ‘s pretty and ‘s mine.”
Utterly helpless, all Lee could do was smile into soft hair.
“Of course it is, Vivian. All yours.”