2gether AU: Be You, be Mine

Chapter 13: It's Okay, You Don't Have to Apologise

Tine waited till his shift ended patiently, clocked out like a responsible investigator would before he went to Sarawat's office. He had been thinking about why was Sarawat there during his interrogation with Mil. Frankly speaking, it wasn't his business if Sarawat was there, but it made him feel cheated, knowing Sarawat was there. He thought he could trust Sarawat enough to not interfere with his work ethic. He knocked on the familiar wooden door and waited for his cue to enter the room.

"Come in."

Tine peeked into the room as he opened a small gap just enough to slot himself into the senior investigator's office. It was still hard for Tine to believe how this room would be so different from the rest of the building. While the rest of the building was refurbished and redesigned with a sleek, modern touch, this room remained like an artefact from the 60s.

"So?"

"Yeah?"

"What do we have from Sergeant Mil?"

Sarawat was trying his best to focus on his laptop screen as he read through Pam's records. Not exactly a clean one, but he could find little information that would be helpful for their case. Tine pulled the chair across Sarawat's table quietly and took a seat, he knew it wasn't exactly a polite thing to do, but he was too distracted to care about whatever Sarawat would've thought of him.

"Hey, Tine?"

Tine was unusually silent, gone was the cheery personality and Sarawat's heart dropped to the pit of his stomach. He knew it, of course, he would know it. Sarawat exhaled sharply before he put his laptop into sleep mode, giving Tine his full attention. He wouldn't be able to concentrate on his work with Tine sitting tinnily across him anyway.

"I thought we agreed that P'Fong would be there, I thought you said that you trusted me enough."

Tine's icy voice echoed in the small office, he knew he shouldn't doubt Sarawat, yet he just couldn't help himself. Sarawat pushed his documents away and stretched his hands across the desk, his fingertips rubbed at the seam of Tine's shirt, as if it was a silent plea for Tine to look at him. Tine took a deep breath and looked up, meeting Sarawat's lost puppy eyes and that was all it took to melt Tine's façade.

"I trust you, more than I trust myself. But Tine, I have different instructions to follow and to follow them, sometimes, means burning all my bridges down. I'm sorry if I've breached the trust between us, but work is work and if that forces you to reconsider being friends with me, then I've completely nothing to defend."

Sarawat pushed the exact same encrypted message he had shown Fong earlier in front of Tine, hoping that Tine would understand that it wasn't up to him to decide a lot of things in this lab. The knot between Tine's brows loosened gradually. Knowing the fact that Sarawat was there wasn't something personal, Tine felt guilt spreading in his chest.

"I'm sorry, I should've..."

"No, it's okay, as long as you trust me, that is all that matters."

Tine wanted to apologise, but Sarawat was quick to dismiss his apology. Yet, for Tine, an apology is an apology, it didn't matter if Sarawat thought whether that was necessary, he needed to apologise to Sarawat.

"No, I'm sorry, I should've..."

"Tine, I said it's okay, you don't have to apologise."

Tine took a deep breath, he needed Sarawat to understand that he wanted to let this out, let this go, so that they could move on cleanly.

"Sarawat, I said I'm sorry, I should've..."

"I hear you clearly."

"No! For f'ck's sake! I'm sorry!"