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Just as per schedule, Rome and Mok landed in Hongkong and went to the meeting right away, the meeting where Rome would finally be bound on his new duty as the leader of ARSENI.
Before they stepped into the hall, Mok carefully held Rome’s elbow.
Rome looked at him in surprise.
“Can we talk for a bit?” Mok asked quietly, eyes scanning the bodyguards around them, “Only us?”
Rome’s eyes softened, “Of course.” He then looked around, “Restroom.”
The guard didn’t follow him and Mok into the restroom, only guarding outside.
“What’s wrong?” Rome asked softly, hand raised to cup Mok’s cheek, caressing the soft spot under Mok’s glasses with his thumb.
Instead of answering, Mok stepped into Rome’s arms, embracing him.
It was still a surprise for Rome to finally see this side of Mok, who was loud with his love, who was unrestricted with his feelings. Finally, ten years of mutual pining that had put them in separated places paid off.
Rome’s own arms came to Mok’s back, hugging him back.
“Hey, love,” Rome whispered, “tell me, what’s wrong?”
Mok shook his head, “Nothing, I just wanna hug you. Can’t I?”
Rome peeled himself away so he could capture those heart-shaped lips in a kiss.
“Of course you can, anytime,” Rome said.
Mok sighed, resting his forehead on Rome’s forehead, “I know you said you didn’t accept me as anything other than your partner when I told you I wanted to come with you here. But, Rome, you can’t expect me to stay at home when you’re out, meeting dangerous people I don’t know, putting yourself as a vanguard of this family, and hope me to be okay with it.”
“Mok,” Rome frowned, “are we really doing this now?”
“I just,” Mok halted and held Rome’s face with his hands, “I just wanna make sure you’re always on my sight, I’m okay anywhere, as long as I can protect you.” Then for an additional argument, he added, “And you can also protect me.”
Rome smiled in defeat, “You really know how to hit my soft spot.”
Mok smiled, “I’ve loved you for a decade, of course I know you, I learned about you even in silence.”
At that, Rome captured Mok’s lips in another kiss, deeper this time. He pushed Mok to lean on the sink, his arms caging Mok.
This was what Rome loved from their new dynamic. He knew Mok could easily push him away, hell, even flip him down on the ground, but Mok didn’t. He let Rome to press him, to cage him, to manhandle him, because Mok knew he was safe in Rome’s arms.
Finally, the logical part of Mok’s brain switched on to work once again and he pushed Rome, who was now mouthing his neck, away.
“Mok,” Rome whined.
“Ssh,” Mok left another kiss on Rome’s lips and said, “we’ll have so much time for us after this, Rome.” He then fixed Rome’s necktie and suits, “Let’s go. Face them. Show them your worth as the new leader of ARSENI.”
Rome closed his eyes for a few seconds. And when he opened them again, Mok could see his boyfriend had gone back from Rome, the love of Mok’s life, to Rome, the crown prince of the ARSENI family.
Rome raised Mok’s hand and kissed his knuckles, “Let’s go.”
Mok followed him behind.
The doors opened for Rome to enter the hall, but the guards stopped Mok at the entrance.
“Apology, Khun Mok,” one of the guards said, “but only family members can enter.”
Rome’s expression turned enraged, “You—!”
“Rome,” Mok cut before Rome could unleash his wrath to the guard, “he’s right. I’m not an ARSENI family member,” then his eyes shifted to the guard, chin lifted, “yet.”
The guard looked away uncomfortably for being stared sharply by the well-known most-capable ex-head bodyguard of Theerakit Kian Lee turned to well-known still-most-capable but now the boyfriend of Kritdanai Rome Lee.
Rome blinked and then smirked, “Yet.”
“Go ahead, Rome, I’ll be waiting outside,” Mok said.
Rome nodded and turned to continue his way inside.
The guards closed the doors back and the guard who had stopped Mok said, “Khun Mok—”
“No, don’t be sorry,” Mok raised his hand, “I know your position. Keep up the good work.”
The guard straightened his head and nodded quickly, “Thank you, Khun Mok.”
Mok sent him an approving smile and turned to Rome’s personal bodyguards.
“Stay here, don’t go anywhere until Rome comes out,” Mok ordered.
“Khun Mok,” the head bodyguard called him, “where are you going?”
Mok raised his eyebrows, “The cafe. Why?”
“Khun Rome wouldn’t let you go alone,” he said, “let one of us come with you.”
Mok rolled his eyes. He snatched a gun from the nearest bodyguard and wiggled it in front of him, “I’ve probably resigned from being a bodyguard, but remember that I still can do better than any of you. Keep your eyes on him. I can handle myself.”
The head bodyguard swallowed, “Yes, Khun Mok.”
Mok tucked the gun on his lower back, under his shirt, and went to the cafe.
Choosing a corner table, Mok checked his phone. There was a message from Peach, asking him to call him when Mok was free.
It took only a few minutes for Peach to call him after Mok had sent him a message.
“Hey, Mok,” Peach greeted from the other side.
“Khun Peach,” Mok said.
“What I told you about calling me by my name only?”
“Ah,” Mok chuckled, “I’m sorry. Hello, Peach.”
“That’s more like it,” Peach said approvingly, “I thought you were at the meeting? P’Kian is still online.”
“I wasn’t allowed to enter,” Mok said, “I’m not an ARSENI family member.”
“Yet,” Peach said.
Mok nodded at that, “Yet.”
“How are you faring so far?” Peach asked, now serious, “How are you feeling?”
“I don’t know,” Mok admitted, “this meeting will be our turning point. Rome’s position will be different once he officially ascends to take over ARSENI. I don’t know what I’ll face, but I just know whatever it is, I’ll stay next to him.”
Peach hummed, “If you need someone to talk to, someone who’s not from their main family, someone who you can discuss something other than family politics, you can come to me, okay, Mok? We, ARSENI in-law, need to stick together.”
Mok laughed, “Thank you, Peach.”
They talked about Mork and Marn for a bit, then finally ended the call.
Mok just locked his phone when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
Instinct kicked in and he grabbed the hand, pulling it forward, while his other hand reached for the gun.
Then he realized who it was when he heard the chuckles.
“Rome!” Mok said disapprovingly, “You know better than to surprise me from behind!”
Rome rubbed his wrist that Mok had pulled before with a grin, “I just wanted to test my boyfriend’s skill.”
Mok shook his head, “Is the meeting done?”
At that, Rome’s face turned serious, “It is.”
Mok nodded, “Let’s go home, hm? You must be tired from the flight and the meeting.”
The tension on Rome’s shoulder bled off, “Yes, let’s go.”
After a quick shower for both of them, Rome pulled Mok into the bed and hugged him.
“How are you feeling?” Mok asked quietly.
Rome chuckled, “I don’t know.”
“Rome…”
“But I’m okay, I swear!” Rome said, “When the meeting started, I was expecting resistance, argument, anything that would put me in a bad position. I was expecting I had to show them cruelty, show them blood, to make them realize I’m more than enough for Dad’s position, but apparently not.
“They had expected it from the beginning, that P’Kian was too soft, too much of Mom than me of Dad. So they had actually predicted I would be the one stepping up, even far before P’Kian had moved to Thailand.”
Mok nodded. Nothing they hadn’t known about, like what he had told Peach also.
“I have no problem stepping up, if only they didn’t see P’Kian as someone defective for not being able to lead as the firstborn,” Rome continued, “I hate that everyone sees him as a broken child. There’s nothing wrong with my brother, he’s still more ARSENI than those people at the meeting.”
“I know,” Mok answered quietly, “but we can’t control what people think. So as long as they don’t harm Thee, I don’t think we need to take the matter to our hands. Beside, Thee is happy with Peach back in Thailand, let’s do our part so those people can’t touch their family.”
“Or I can just annihilate everyone at that meeting except Dad and Mom.”
Mok chuckled, “No, Rome.”
Rome huffed childishly and buried his face deeper in Mok’s chest.
They fell into silence once again.
Mok was at the verge of falling asleep, cocooned by Rome’s warmth, when suddenly he was awakened by Rome’s movement.
“Rome?” Mok asked sleepily when he saw Rome sitting up. He pushed himself up and sat next to the now new leader of ARSENI.
“I hated it,” Rome suddenly said.
“What’s it?” Mok asked.
Rome turned to him, “I hated it when that guard kept you from entering the hall.”
Mok sighed, “He was just doing his job. And he was right, I’m not a part of your family.”
“Yet,” Rome added.
“This sentence is overused for today,” Mok smiled, “but yes.”
“It means you’re not opposed to marrying me right?” Rome turned his body fully to face Mok, “You’re staying, right?”
“Yes, Rome. I’m staying, however long you want me to, whatever ways,” Mok said, “I’ve been in love with you for so long. Don’t expect I’ll fall out of love that easily. You’re my first love, and you’ll be my last too.”
Rome grinned, “That’s a very big vow.”
Mok shrugged, “I just want you not to doubt me.”
“Never!” Rome emphasized, “And also, I hope you don’t doubt my feelings too. Ten years is enough of us circling around each other, tiptoeing over a thin ice, being apart. I don’t want that anymore. I want us to stay close, let me stay close to you.”
“All of me is already yours, Rome, and you know it,” Mok answered.
Rome’s smile faded, “But…”
Mok frowned, “Rome?”
“I don’t think I’ve given you everything,” Rome muttered.
“How can you say that when you’re already here with me?”
Rome reached out to hold Mok’s hands, “I have yet to give my surname to you.”
Mok chuckled, “Well, you will, eventually, right?”
Rome kissed his smile and said, “Wait here.”
Mok watched as Rome climbed off the bed toward his wardrobe. He couldn’t see what Rome was doing, hidden behind his broad back. But it only took a while before Rome came back with a velvet box in his hand.
Mok’s heart beat faster at the sight.
“Rome—”
“Ssh,” Rome said, “let me talk first.”
Mok swallowed, but he nodded.
“Mok,” Rome started, “ten years isn’t a short time. I felt it even longer when we were apart. Every time I was on call with P’Kian, you were the only one I kept searching for. I kept telling him to tell me about you, about your days, about your health. It took so much strength for me not to come for you, but every time I yearned, I kept saying, one day when P’Kian ascended to lead our family, I’d get to keep you, finally.
“There’s a slight change in that plan, of course,” Rome chuckled, “but I don’t really care about the logistics, as long as I get to have you here, with me, next to me, standing as my equal, my partner, my counterpart.
“And Mok, please be assured, every each of mine is yours, including this family, this clan, this throne. I will never put you below me, I will never put you as a second choice, I will never let you walk behind me. You will have me as yours in the way no one will. You will have a place with me in the way nobody will. Your place next to me is absolute, unchallenged, unshaken. So one day, if you ever doubt my love and my heart for you, come to me, and I will remind you again, I will never be tired to.
“So, Mok,” Rome opened the velvet box, revealing two matched rings, platinum, beautiful, “will you marry me?”
A jolt of happiness burst out in Mok. He stared at the rings, and wondered why his vision got blurry.
Rome hurriedly scooted closer, hands hovering without touching, “Mok? Love? Why are you crying?”
Mok wiped his tears and laughed at himself. For long, he had never let himself cry, even when he had been shot, when he had almost died, when he had been yearning for Rome many kilometers apart.
He felt so stupid an honest confession from the man he had yearned to have for long could be the one breaking him.
“I don’t have any words to match yours,” Mok said, a little shaking with emotions, “but yes. Yes, Rome. I love you, there’s not a day I don’t love you. Yes, I will.”
Rome smiled so wide his eyes disappeared, his cheeks blushing in happiness. He took one ring from the box and carefully slipped it around Mok’s left ring finger. He stared at it for a beat longer, before kissing it.
“Beautiful,” Rome said, eyes lifted to face Mok again, “you’ve always been beautiful, but now you’re soon to be completely mine and that makes you more beautiful. You can’t get away from me, Mok, I swear.”
Mok chuckled. He took another ring and also put it on Rome’s finger. He brought Rome’s hand up and pressed his own cheek against his boyfriend’s—now fiancé—palm.
“You can’t get away from me either,” Mok whispered.
Rome leaned closed and captured Mok’s lips in a searing kiss.
Tomorrow, Rome would have his new duty settled, Mok would be standing next to him, not as a bodyguard, but as Rome’s counterpart. But tonight, Mok would let Rome push him back into the bed and let himself lost in Rome’s touches and kisses.