Nuer looked around, smiling at the lively kids running around, playing and filling the air with their happy, carefree giggles. Then looking down, he sighed. Did they all know they didn't have parents to love and care for them? Did they worry about the unknown future?
He looked around the path that led from the temple, all the way back to the old, rusty house that was surrounded by greenery and grounds and a few old swings. One could tell how old the place was, yet it gave a homey feeling, with the well kept wedges and the grass and the home grown vegetables on the side and the painted plant pots setting around the house and hanging from the porch ceilings, as if it was taken care of, not with money, but love and attention.
"This is my home"
Nuer turned to Syn who smiled brightly at him and let go of the two kids who hurried away to join others who all shouted Syn's name and waved at them.
"Its nothing like an orphanage" Nuer commented as he looked around again. "Its more like home indeed"
Syn smiled at that as he walked closer and took a few things from Nuer. "Thankyou. And yes, Mae Achara has place in her home and her heart for every kid that comes here, and she's always spending more on us than she's earning from social services, she makes sure we live like a family and no one is left out or bullied, if someone is getting adopted, she does everything in her power to check the family out, she does detective work" he chuckled. "And... she's always sad to let anyone go... that's why sometimes, we come back... like I do..." he smiled up at Nuer who for some reason, couldn't hold his own smile in. "Come on in, you must be tired"
"Ah, what do you take me for? Huh?" Nuer playfully bumped their shoulders together. "I got a lot of stamina"
"Yeah, yeah, sure you do. And you're not sweating at all either" Syn chuckled. "Now, I would say that but I don't lie" he stuck his tongue out and walked ahead of Nuer who followed behind, chuckling softly.
"Yeah, how nice of you!"
"Come, I don't think if you called anyone to get you, they'd be able to find the route. I'd ask mae Achara to call uncle Tor to give you a ride till the bus stop but I don't think you'd be able to complete the ride without getting traumatized and its far and would be dark by the time you get there, you won't even find a bus to the city" Syn explained as they walked past the dining area to settle the things down in the small kitchen. He turned to look at Nuer. "You're pretty much stuck here. Please stay for the night, I'm returning tomorrow, we'd go together"
Nuer made a confused face. "I stayed back, didn't I? And... why would I be traumatized?" he asked and Syn tilted his head, giving his signature look that Nuer was starting to find more and more cute by the time.
"He has a tuk tuk"
"A what?"
"Exactly"
.
.
Turned out, mae Achara was a sweet and kind, elderly woman in her early fifties who lived and raised the kids with her son and daughter in law. He was welcomed quite warmly and the old lady went rushing to get him some refreshment and urging Syn to find him comfortable clothes to change into.
So, here he was, after freshening up in a small bathroom, for the first time in his life, bathing without a shower or a bathtub.
How did anyone even moved around in such confined space?
KNOCK KNOCK
"Are you alive?"
"Shut up!"
He scoffed, unable to help the smile when he heard Syn chuckling outside and went and opened the door for Syn who gasped out and hastily turned away from him.
