Detoxified

Chapter 15: Episode 10 - Part 1

~Last Night~

Why... Why didn't it--

"Why didn't it affect him?!" Lhong roared out into the skeevy alleyway, his foot kicking a rusty old bucket behind a dumpster down the way and his hand pounding in a white-knuckled fist against the concrete wall.

His breaths were heavy, labored, lungs burning with the acrid Bangkok air as he fought to recollect himself. Anger swelled deep within him--anger, abandonment, betrayal, feelings long unrequited singeing the nerves beneath his skin. Something dark, twisted, ghoulish boiling his blood as it had so often been doing recently.

He'd watched, just seconds ago, his best friend and object of his obsessive desires come waltzing out of the bar, dragging along with him the plastered-drunk companion of Type Thiwat--the lumbering, drunken sap's name was none of Lhong's concern--followed by Type himself...

Conversely, the object of Lhong's obsessive haughty contempt.

Type had appeared utterly unaffected. Which hardly made sense, because Lhong was not crazy; he'd seen the man run off to cower in the bathroom after hearing the expertly crafted story he'd told. He'd seen Type begin to lose himself, grow wary, restless--spotted the start of a thousand-mile-stare in Type's eyes that signaled a retreat away from reality.

And so, why, given all of those circumstances, was Type just okay again?

And why had Tharn been so ready and willing to come to the rescue? Actually... Lhong knew the answer to that, and that was precisely why Type Thiwat absolutely had to go.

Tharn was naive and caring to a fault. He would give every part of himself and somehow more to a person he cared about, simply because he thought it was the right thing to do.

But Type was a leech, you see. Anyone with a past like his was a life-draining parasite to those around them. All people like Type ever knew how to do was depend on others to supply happiness for them and force those that loved them to bend over backwards trying to make life unattainably comfortable and perfect for them. People like Type used a good person's pity against them. People like Type knew precisely how to manipulate the good nature of people like Tharn.

Yes, Type was a leech, and Tharn needed to be protected. And the only way to rid someone of a leech was to pour salt on it and watch it shrivel and detach itself from its host.

But Lhong had brought the salt and showered Type in it, and it had yielded no workable effect, from the looks of it.

There was, of course, a much more fool-proof way to get rid of a leech...

Perhaps, then, Lhong should consider a more... Permanent approach.

~Today~

"Really? Kumquat? " Type scoffed. " That's what you want our safeword to be?"

"I mean, it's jarring, isn't it?" Tharn replied thoughtfully, his hands lathering soap in leisure circles over Type's back and shoulders. "You can't really mistake it for anything; it's practically guaranteed to take you out of the moment. That, and it's memorable."

Type sighed and briefly dipped his head under the water to rinse the residual shampoo out of his hair. "Why do I feel like you stayed up all night thinking about this? You sound way too knowledgeable about the supposed benefits of using 'kumquat' as a safeword."

"Well... Not all night," Tharn chuckled, pulling Type in by the waist and pressing a soft kiss against the back of his neck. "The rest of the night I spent dreaming the sweetest of dreams about my wonderful boyfriend."