Melting the Devil

Proposal

A/N: Hello, lovely people. How are you? How long did I've been MIA? Hmmm... almost 2 weeks?

I have been caught up with work and still caught up until now. I'm heading to work as of the moment.

Enjoy your weekends.

***

After his spectacular date with Cantaloupe, it feels like someone suddenly decides to hit the fast forward button on Tin's life.

The acquisition they had been working on for the past few months, a mom-and-pop restaurant from Texas that has become an extremely popular chain in the last two years, suddenly starts gaining momentum. He spends half his days in meetings, trying to hammer out the details and negotiating the contract terms, and the other half desperately trying to get Cantaloupe alone, in his own house, in Cantaloupe's apartment, in cafes and restaurants and supermarkets (when Cantaloupe runs out of butter). He works more than he has in months, but it's this kind of grind that really gets Tin going—he's absolutely in his element, and the fact that they're able to seal the deal by the end of the week is a testament to that.

His parents decide to drop in for a weekend, and Cantaloupe is invited to their family dinner. (Tin actively tries to ignore how the idea of Cantaloupe as family makes his chest feel tight in the best possible way.) Cantaloupe is a bundle of nerves the whole day, but he's as charismatic as ever and his parents adore him instantly. Tin gets embarrassed quite a number of times (including one moment when he came back from the bathroom to find his traitorous mother and his boyfriend cooing over his baby pictures), but it's more than worth it to see how Cantaloupe's eyes light up in amusement, even if it's at his expense.

After dinner, Tulcatches Tin staring at Cantaloupe and Alicia in the kitchen, where they're dishing out slices of Cantaloupe's famous peach pie. He roughly elbows him in the side, and Tin grunts at the sudden intrusion.

"Oh," he complains, elbowing back. "What was that for?"

Tul smiles in amusement, the crow's feet around his eyes deepening with mirth. "I never thought I'd see the day you'd prefer to watch something other than soccer," he chirps, gesturing to the TV. "I mean, granted, it's just reruns, but still."

It's such a simple, mundane observation, but Tin can't even argue with him. He tries to come up with a clever retort, but Tulbeats him to it.

"I know, I'm one to talk, eh?" he says, and Tin looks back to find his dad's loving gaze following his mom's every move. His dad looks back at him with a knowing grin, and Tin can't help but smile back—maybe there are ways he can be compared to his father that don't send his anxiety spiraling after all.

He spends the rest of that night with Cantaloupe comfortably nestled into his chest, pleasantly buzzed from the two glasses of wine and warm from their proximity, and he makes sure to take advantage of this by pressing gentle kisses to Cantaloupe's hair whenever he pleases. Tomorrow, his parents fly back to Montreal and he and Cantaloupe have to get back to work, but for now, he has this, and it's more than enough.

He's never been happier. He just wishes everything could slow down.

It's Monday, and with the pressure of the acquisition finally lifted, Tin finds his morning oddly vacant. He's already looked through the various documents Cantaloupe had put on his desk for review, and upon checking, there are no relevant emails in his inbox that need his response. It's not even ten o'clock.

He struggles to find something to do, until he realizes this is probably the first real break he's gotten since last week. It's not completely unusual for him to get lulls in his schedule like this, but it has been a while since it's happened, so Tin decides it should be okay to get up from his chair, stretch a bit, and enjoy the spectacular view from his 20th floor office.