Enemies with Benefits

Part Six

-Three Weeks Later-

Life was excellent, Pat and Pran were in their honeymoon period and the public love declaration on the steps of the Architecture faculty's building had gone viral. Wai and Korn continued to fly under the radar for no other reason than the fact that they liked the anonymity and privacy that Pat and Pran's public relationship provided for them. Everyone at school was so focused on the Shakespearean quality of Pat and Pran's romance no-one seemed to notice that Wai and Korn couldn't keep their eyes or their hands off each other.

As Pat, Pran, Wai, and Korn settled into Pran's bedroom to watch a movie, life felt so domestic—so perfect. Pran to Wai's ever increasing surprise had become more and more tactile with his boyfriend and lay sprawled across Pat making as much physical contact as possible. Pat, for his part, seemed to relish in Pran's new found clinginess never missing an opportunity to run his fingers through his lover's hair or press sniff kisses to his cheeks. Really, who could fault him for sneak attacking such fantastic dimples. 

On the floor snuggled together in an oversized bean bag, Korn and Wai curled against each other whispering flirtatiously back and forth. A few minutes later when the previews ended the intro to one of Korn's favorite Marvel movies rang out in the dimly lit room prompting Pat reached over and switched off Pran's marquee light off plunging the room into darkness with only the flatscreen of Pran's room for light.

"Hey, Pat," Pran murmured from his position nestled against his lover's neck, "did you ever picture us like this?"

Pat tightened his arms around the other boy and sighed contentedly, "I dreamed about this with you when we were teenagers actually." He replied. "Not snuggled up with my lover exactly, but just us laying on your bed watching movies and just being friends. I wanted that so much, Pran."

Feeling his eyes tinge, Pran righted his grip on Pat and turned his head to press a soft kiss to Pat's neck. "I wanted it too. So--much--Pat," he said in a tight voice. "I wanted it so much."

Pat turned them so that they were looking at one another and his back was to Korn and Wai. Not caring for a second that their best friends were also in the room, knowing that the noise of the action movie playing on the screen would be distraction enough, Pat pressed his lips to Pran's without a moment's hesitation.

On the floor, Korn snickered quietly against Wai's ear where he was busy pressing little nips and wet biting kisses.

"Oi," Wai squirmed in his boyfriend's arms, "What's so funny?"

"Those two are busy getting to second base and forgot we're here," Korn told him.

Wai's eyes widened minutely, surprised at his friend's new found boldness before pulling back from Korn's grip to lean forward and ghost his lips against the other boy's, "I thought you were busy trying to do the same thing?" He whispered. "Why did you stop?"

Korn shivered in excitement, "Seriously," he panted with renewed excitement, "You'll let me, here—now?"

Wai turned completely until he was straddling Korn's waist and pressed their erections together enticingly, "If you think you can do it without getting caught, I'm all yours," he whispered in low sexy tones that made Korn's blood boil with pent up desire before the boy clasped both hands to Wai's face and pulled him down into a filthy kiss. Their tongues dueled for dominance and Korn was reminded of how much he adored this wild boy who used to make him insane with frustration and now made him crazy with lust.

Pulling back from their kiss to pant against Korn's ear, Wai murmured, "Just remember, if you get us caught, this time I'm going to punish you."

Korn had to choke back a moan at just the thought of Wai punishing him. His mind--just this side of hazy with passion--began whirling in a hundred different directions thinking about all the naughty ways Wai's threat could go in their future. Yep, I am definitely going to test that threat out later, Korn thought before sliding both his hands enticingly up the back of Wai's thigh sand under his loose ball shorts to run brave fingers tantalizingly over the sexy curves of his boyfriend's magnificent ass. It was Wai's turn to choke back a moan as Korn's warm palms squeezed his cheeks and made him shiver. Sliding forward, Wai ground their erections together and continued to press wet open mouthed kisses against Korn's throat. In the darkness of Pran's bedroom, with Tony Stark's arrogant voice pouring out of the television both couples lost themselves in one another, the movie completely forgotten.

Existing in their small, perfect little world, neither Pat and Pran nor Wai and Korn heard the key turn in the lock on Pran's door. Reveling in their love for one another, neither couple heard the foot steps cross the short distance to the bedroom and stop at the open door. Neither couple heard the startled gasp over the sounds of the television or their panting breaths. One moment Pat was lying on his back with Pran straddling him lips locked and fingers intertwined, and the next moment the room light was flicked on as Pran's mother let out a blood curdling scream.

"Pran!"

The boys scrambled apart both on the bed and on the floor, turning horrified and frightened gazes at the woman in the doorway clenching her cell phone in one hand and her handbag in the other.

"Oh my god!" Wai shrieked, "What the hell?"

Pat and Pran sat in terror on the bed clinging to one another. From his position on the floor, Korn could see the tears welling up in his friend's eyes as he imagined every possible horrifying consequence of being caught in what both boys thought of as their safe space. He knew that neither boy felt the sense of security they should have in their own homes, but had always found reasons to come back to their dorms early each break. His heart hurt thinking about the fact that this space would be forever tainted with the fallout of these stolen moments together.

"Pran, what is going on? Why are you with that boy?" His mother shouted.

The shouts roused Pa and Ink from Pat's room across the hall who ran into the Pran's room fearing the worst only to cascade to a stop against Mrs. Parakul who for such a slender woman managed to somehow fill the doorway with her presence.

"Pat, what's happening, are you okay?" Pa shouted as she slid into Pran's mother.

Dissaya Parakul turned around in stunned surprise, "what's happening?"

Pa's eyes widened like saucers and she backed up in fear immediately.

It was in the that moment, that Dissaya Parakul felt completely off balance. While she didn't like the family next door, there was something so fundamentally troubling about the fact that her child and both of the children next door regarded her with abject terror. She may have been stern with those children and sometimes even her own son, but never had she thought that just her presence could, if she had seen it correctly inspire such fear and even despair in their eyes. Letting her eyes flicked over to check the expressions of Pat and Pran's faces, tears streamed down both boys' faces as they clutched one another tightly--why such fear? Why such dread?

Something inside of her hurt. The feeling traveled from the middle of her chest radiating out across her shoulders, down her arms, and to the tips of her fingers. What kind of person must they think she is if this is the reaction she gets for catching them fooling around. She may not approve of Pran's choice in partner, but she didn't care if Pran chose another boy. So, what could it be?

Pran finally found his voice and wiping the tears from his face he looked at his mother fearfully while still clutching at Pat like a life line, "Mae, please don't hate me."

Dissaya Parakul's heart broke.

"I tried not to love him, Mae," Pran sobbed, "I tried--" he hiccuped between sobs, "I tried--for so long, Mae-- but I can't." He slipped into such a despairing wail, that Dissaya dropped her purse and nearly lost her ability to stand upright. 

Dissaya Parakul was speechless.

Pat extricated himself from Pran's grasp and fell on his knees in front of her clutching her slacks in trembling hands, "Please Mrs. Parakul--" the boy's voice shook, tears coursed down the smooth cheeks of his handsome face, "We never meant for this to happen. Don't punish Pran. Punish me. Don't send him away this time, please don't make him go away again."

Pat was sobbing against her now his shoulders slumped in defeat and shaking with the force of his emotions.

Dissaya Parakul, for the first time in twenty-one years felt the full weight of her hatred's consequences on her shoulders and it almost staggered her. Without another thought, her mother's heart wracked with the need to comfort this child, knelt down and wrapped her arms around the child of her greatest rival--her most bitter enemy--and held him as he wept over the mere prospect of losing her son. Running her hands down Pat's back and gentling him as she would Pran after a nightmare, Dissaya Parakul looked up into the eyes of her own son, looking every bit like the little boy whose bruises she would bandage and who nightmares she would hug away and wondered how many of those bruises and how many of those nightmares were her fault. How much of their suffering must have come at the hands of her and Ming over a past their children didn't even understand. What have we done?