Rain's Rules for Collaboration

Chapter 1

"My boyfriend is so cool!" Sky said, leaning over to shout directly into Rain's ear. Rain rubbed his ear and shoved Sky away from him.

"Yeah, yeah, he's cool on the circuit but still annoying the rest of the time," Rain replied.

"Oh, just shut up. C'mon, let's go find P'Pai so I can congratulate him," Sky said, clearly annoyed.

"Fine but why even congratulate him? I mean, he wins every time. It's not very exciting to see him win anymore. Maybe he needs a losing streak and then when he wins again it'll be more exciting," Rain said as they started walking over to the pit.

Sky stopped walking and glared at Rain. Rain shrugged in response, "What? I'm just saying it like it is." Sky tugged Rain's shirt and pulled him forward to the pit.

Rain stumbled along with Sky knowing his friend loved being the first one to congratulate Prapai after his wins and he couldn't let Sky go alone or stay watching the race by himself. Ever since Rain's kidnapping and Sky's disappearance from the race a couple years ago, Prapai and Payu had made the friends promise to stay by each other's sides at the races if they were going to come.

As Rain and Sky made their way over to the pit, they nodded and smiled at the many people who greeted them. Most race participants and spectators knew who Rain and Sky were and also knew that while they could say hello to them they shouldn't touch them. They were able to walk through the audience in safety without even a pat on the shoulder. Rain didn't like that people seemed afraid to interact with him but Sky said he should look at it like people were in awe of how cool they were to be dating Prapai and Payu. So, Rain tried to view it that way and moved confidently towards where he knew he would find Payu.

Once they reached the pit, Sky made his way to Prapai, giving him a close hug and small congratulations meant for only Prapai's ears. Rain smiled at his friend who had grown quite confident in his relationship in the past year. Rain had seen so many changes in Sky since what Rain called "the incident." Prapai had convinced Sky to start therapy and Sky had confided to Rain that Prapai frequently joined him for couples therapy.

While watching Sky and Prapai, Rain did not notice that Payu had left the bike he was working on to move behind him. Rain felt arms curl around his waist and felt Payu's chin on his shoulder.

"Enjoying the race?"

Rain turned his neck to see Payu and nodded in response. He pointed at Sky and Prapai, "No surprise there though. A win followed by congratulations. Seriously, will P'Pai ever lose?"

"You want Prapai to lose?" Payu asked with surprise.

"Well, I mean, not really. Like, I don't want him to actually lose. But, it's a bit boring don't you think? Losing would make for more tension the next time. Will he win? Will he lose? How will it turn out? Now, it's just win, win, win. So boring," Rain explained.

Payu laughed and lifted a hand to ruffle Rain's hair. "You're ridiculous."

As Rain was about to argue, he froze when Payu placed a kiss behind his ear. He shivered and missed Payu's slow smile in response. "My sweet boy likes that, hmmm?" Rain moved his hands back to grip Payu's thighs and closed his eyes. Payu knew Rain's sweet spot was his neck and often took advantage of that fact. Payu responded by placing several wet, open mouthed kisses along Rain's neck. Just as Rain started to turn around, he felt a punch to his arm and opened his eyes to see Sky in his face.

"Stop it! We are in public. You guys are so gross, ugh, keep it in the bedroom. We don't want to see it," Sky said while smirking at them.

"You're one to talk, mister I have to go congratulate my man right now!"

"We hugged! You are making out in public!"

"So? Don't like, don't watch," Rain huffed, not noticing Prapai and Payu laughing behind the two friends.

"Alright, enough you two," Prapai said while Rain and Sky continued to glare at one another.

Payu gently turned Rain to face him, "Do you want to wait for me while I clean up or do you want to have Prapai take you home?"

"Hmmm, I'll wait if that's okay?"

"Of course, but don't go farther than I can see you," Payu asked. Rain responded with a nod and waved goodbye to Prapai and Sky.

Rain sat down on the ground at the edge of the pit to watch Payu work. Payu oversaw checking the bikes for damage, noting which would need repairs, and the loading of the bikes into trucks waiting nearby. Rain loved watching Payu care for the bikes and manage P'Pakin's other mechanics.

Rain was happy to be at the races again. After his and Payu's fallout about six months ago, Rain had stopped coming. This was his second race since they had reconciled and started mending their relationship. They had moved slowly, taking small steps, not rushing back into anything. Rain had only moved back in with Payu about a month ago and so far everything was going well. Upon moving in, they had slipped back into their previous routines without much effort.

Rain still had doubts that crept into his mind when Payu would work late, leave town for work, or have work-related dinners with clients. But, they had been working hard to communicate when that happened. Rain knew that Payu was working hard to be more transparent about his workload and stress levels which helped put Rain at ease most of the time. Payu often checked in with Rain about how he was feeling, maybe a bit too often if Rain was being honest. But he knew that Payu was also a bit damaged by what had happened and still had a lot of guilt about missing Rain's distress. But, Rain was proud of how far they had come and actually felt more confident in their relationship than he had before it had all happened. If they could survive that and be stronger for it, Rain knew they could handle anything together.

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Rain made his way over to Payu once the last bike was loaded into the trucks and smiled when Payu wiped the sweat from his face and turned to Rain.

"C'mon monkey, let's get you home," Payu said, placing a kiss on Rain's temple.

Just as they clasped hands to walk to Payu's car, their path was blocked. Rain looked up and was met with the faces of P'Chai and P'Pakin. Rain felt the usual dread whenever he saw them. Since P'Pakin's recommendation to P'Kittisak, Rain had not been a fan of the man. He constantly worried that P'Pakin would drag Payu into some new project that would keep Payu from him. Every time he saw P'Pakin, he would remember Payu ignoring him while he instead worked to not disappoint P'Pakin and P'Kittisak.

He closed his hand tighter into Payu's and moved his body so it was touching down the length of Payu's, trying to send a private signal to Payu. Payu let go of his hand, wrapped his arm around Rain's shoulders, and pulled him closer. He leaned into Rain's ear and whispered, "It's okay. I love you." Rain wanted to look at Payu and reciprocate, but his eyes were fixed on P'Pakin.

"Hello Payu. Great race tonight. Thank you for taking such good care of my bikes," Pakin said.

"Thank you P'Pakin. I always have fun working the races."

"And hello Rain. It's nice to see you at the races again. We missed you," Pakin said looking at Rain. Rain shivered, not wanting to talk to Pakin, but knew he had to respond.

"Thank you P'Pakin, it's good to be back."

"So, I have something I wanted to discuss with you both. Are you free tomorrow for lunch? My treat," P'Pakin said with a slow smile.

Notes:

Hopefully I won't be as sad when I write this one since Rain will be less sad and a bit more feisty/bratty in this one.