Of Ice Cream and Head Pats (SarawatTine)

Of Ice Cream and Head Pats

Sarawat happened to be looking at the double doors of the movie theatre when the girl walked in, hand in hand with Tine. They were both holding ice creams and the girl was chatting away, her rapid conversation interspersed with bouts of giggling. They were too far away for Sarawat to be able to hear what she was saying, but whatever it was it evidently made Tine happy as he flashed his patented Sunshine SmileTM at her. Sarawat's heart skipped a beat at the expression, just as it had every time for sixteen years, ever since he first saw it at that fateful Scrubb concert that changed his life.

As they walked along in front of the seats towards the bottom of the stairs the girl extended her ice cream to Tine, clearly offering him some. Tine said something to her – Sarawat presumed he was checking the sincerity of her offer – before leaning down for a taste. Just as he opened his mouth, about to take a bite, she pulled it away and dabbed it on the tip of his nose instead, mischief dancing in her eyes. Tine jerked back, gasping in obvious mock offense, causing the girl to laugh delightedly. Sarawat, as yet unnoticed in the stalls, couldn't help but smile at Tine's over the top antics, even if they were aimed at the pretty girl beside him and not at Wat. Careful not to get his hair in the ice cream he was holding, Tine awkwardly wiped his nose clean with the heel of his hand, refusing to release the girl's hand as he did so. Quick as a flash Tine leant in and placed a swift sniff kiss on the girl's cheek, pulling back to his full height before she could threaten his face with further dairy-based adornments. Unable to get her revenge the girl pouted at Tine, and Sarawat could objectively admit that her expression could have been considered cute, if she had been stood next to anyone other than the King of Cute Pouts and Adorable ExpressionsTM. Tine gave a small laugh before he passed her the ice cream to hold as he dug their tickets out of his back pocket and checked their seat numbers. Sarawat turned his head away quickly, not want to be caught watching them, and focused instead on his own companion who was becoming increasingly demanding of Sarwat's attention.

Tine returned the tickets to his pocket and retrieved the ice cream from his companion, absently noting that it was beginning to melt as he scanned the stands for their allocated seats. The turn of someone's head in his peripheral vision caught his attention, and he recognised Sarawat as well as the two empty seats next to him. Still holding hands, Tine and the girl began to climb the stairs towards the boy who had stolen his heart back in university, all those years ago.

Sarawat did not acknowledge their ascent, his attention was totally focused on the boy sitting next to him. The boy who was feeding Sarawat M&Ms by hand, or at least was trying to. The majority of the chocolates missed Sarawat's mouth and ended up rolling down his chest into his lap or on to the floor. The boy trying to feed Sarawat seemed to find this incredibly funny, and kept laughing hilariously, which only made it harder for him to successfully feed the older man. Sarawat himself did not seem to be irked by this behaviour but, instead, reached out and ruffled the boy's hair, smiling at him, fondness writ large across his face. Tine's stomach clenched at the sight of that smile, Sarawat's special smile, laden with all of Sarawat's love and affection, that Tine had first seen fifteen years ago. For years that smile had been his smile, Tine the only recipient of that soft, ethereal smile, but no longer. Now someone other than Tine saw that smile, someone other than Tine had their hair ruffled by Sarawat in that unique, soothing, reassuring manner. Ruffled by a hand that bore a simple silver band on the third finger that glinted between the strands of hair as it caught and reflected the cinema lights.

Directing his companion ahead of him, Tine began to shuffle his way along the aisle, the melting ice cream held high to prevent it dripping as he wove his way precariously through an obstacle course of bags, legs and seat backs, apologising as he went, his gaze locked the entire time on the boy who was making Sarawat laugh. The boy who spontaneously threw his arms around Sarawat's waist and hugged him tight. The boy who Sarawat instantly wrapped his arms around, one across his shoulders and back, the other cradling his head against Sarawat's chest. The embrace was brief, the boy drew back quickly, distracted by the arrival of the girl Tine had entered with.

The boy curled his lip at her, her appearance was clearly unwelcome, while Sarawat turned to look up at Tine, his expression unabashed and unchanged, laughter on his lips and joy in his eyes.

"I got chocolate!" the girl announced decisively. "They had strawberry and mango too, but I was only allowed one scoop," she continued, pouting sullenly.

"If you eat three scoops of ice cream, you'll be sick" Tine said, with the countenance of someone who had repeated this statement several times before, rolling his eyes at Sarawat as he did so.

"Plus." he continued, as he passed the rapidly melting ice cream to the boy sat next to Sarawat, "it isn't fair on your brother when he isn't there to choose which flavour's he wants."

"I could have chosen for him."

Sarawat and Tine both snorted with laughter at that pronouncement.

"Yes, and chosen flavours he didn't like so you could have more," Tine replied affectionately, catching and ignoring the heat that briefly flashed in Sarawat's eyes as he watched Tine lick his hand and fingers clean of several drops of ice cream that had escaped on to his skin. "You forget how well we know you, little one."

"Daaaadddddd" she whinged sullenly.

"Besides," Sarawat chimed in, "if you ate three scoops of ice cream, you wouldn't have any space left for pizza after the movie."

"Oooh," both children gasped in unison, "pizza!"

"Of course. We always have pizza after going to the cinema, don't we, Tua Woon Wai?"

"We do" Tine confirmed, absently reaching into his jacket pocket to pull out a new packet of M&Ms and pass them to Sarawat. He took them without speaking and shot Tine a grateful, but quizzical, look. "I think the floor got more of the last packet than you did" Tine explained, answering the unspoken question as he sank into the vacant seat next to Sarawat and tugged their daughter towards the remaining empty space.

She refused, electing instead to sit on Tine's knee and, as the theatre lights dimmed, he wrapped one arm around her body while his free hand, the third finger also clad in a simple silver band, rested on Sarawat's knee. It didn't take long for their son to emulate his older sister and, before the trailers had finished, he crawled into Sarawat's lap, giggling in a way that was so reminiscent of Tine and with so much ice cream smeared across his face that Sarawat was grateful for the foresight that had made him restock the pack of wet wipes in the bag under his seat.

Once the boy was clean and settled against him Sarawat looped his free arm around Tine's shoulder. He felt his husband relax and lean into his embrace, his head coming to rest against his shoulder. Sarawat placed a sniff kiss in Tine's hair, inhaling the scent of their shared shampoo mixed with the reassuring aroma that was uniquely Tine, and let out a contented sigh as the familiar sight of a white light arcing over a pink castle filled the big screen.

Right here, and right now, all was right in his world.

And he probably had about half an hour to enjoy it before one of their little terrors disrupted it with a sudden need to go to the bathroom.