Under My Protection

Chapter 3

Rain paced back and forth in the hallway, waiting for Sky's arrival. He'd been stuck in the house for three weeks and Phayu knew he was ready for someone else to talk to besides Bun Ma and himself. Slowly getting to know Rain had been an interesting process. Sometimes Rain was silly and laughed a lot. Sometimes he would lay in bed most of the day, lights off, refusing to talk to anyone. Other times he would complain about everything, with a low tolerance to even the slightest comment or suggestion. Phayu spent each day never knowing which version of Rain would appear.

Part of his job was to understand the nuances in situations so he could quickly assess threats. Rain had so many nuances that Phayu struggled to sift through them sometimes in his effort to better understand Rain. Phayu had slowly been learning how toxic the entire household was and that Rain's different versions always appeared in response to events in his environment.

Phayu had not seen Rain interact with either his mother or father since the day they had met. His father was often away on business or at the office, but his mother was harder to figure out. She spent her days shopping, at the spa, or having lunch with friends. He would see her walk past Rain and nod her head but otherwise show him no attention. She always seemed to want to stop, based on the sad look she always wore. But she always just walked on by without saying anything. Rain would nod back at her but continue walking until she had passed, sometimes stopping to turn and watch her walk away.

As Phayu got to know Rain more, his heart hurt for the way this complicated, silly, moody, adorable boy was treated by his family. The only person that appeared to hold any true affection for Rain was Bun Ma, the maid assigned to care for Rain. While she did not have long conversations with Rain, she did speak softly to him, share small encouragements on rough days, and pat his cheek sweetly when he grumbled quietly at her. Bun Ma was clearly Rain's favorite person in the house.

Phayu walked a line between developing a relationship based on trust with Rain and staying professional, detached. When he'd observed Channarong, the man never smiled and barely spoke to Rain's father, unless spoken to first. A part of him felt he should maintain the same kind of relationship with Rain. However, his charge was different from Channarong's. Channarong was responsible for a stoic individual who most likely never acted impulsively. Whereas, Rain was all indecision and impulse. If he was to protect Rain, he had to understand how he might react in certain situations. Understand his thinking and his emotions.

Phayu looked up from the floor, hearing Rain squeal loudly and rush down the hall. Quickly following, he saw Rain hurl himself onto an equally small boy who, instead of hugging Rain back, appeared to be shoving him off.

"I missed you so much Sky!" Rain cried out while refusing to release Sky.

Continuing to shove at Rain, Sky replied, "Seriously Rain, get off of me. Off."

"Awwww, didn't you miss me at all?"

"I'm not answering that until you get off me," Sky replied, finally freeing himself with one final push.

Phayu watched as Rain lowered his arms to his side, tilted his head, and emitted a rather high pitched whine. Moving so he could better see Rain's face, he saw Rain batting his eyes at the other boy. Wait, what? Were they dating? No one, including Rain, had hinted that the two were dating. But, Phayu was now considering this possibility.

"Well?" Rain asked.

"Fine, yes, I missed you," said Sky while rolling his eyes. Rain grabbed Sky's hand and began dragging him down the hallway past Phayu.

Sky, looking over at him, asked Rain quietly, "Is that P'Phayu?" Rain nodded and kept walking. Phayu followed them, clearly headed towards Rain's bedroom, however, they were stopped on the way by Bun Ma.