Picture Me & You- The Perfect Two

73. Homely

Beam, Kao, and Rome walked into a mess when they entered the Rachatrakul residence. The living room resembled a battlefield with dishes, bowls, wrappers, and clothes dispersed everywhere, with a baby's wailing resonating through the room as Forth and Sibtis tried and panicked and failed to feed and make him shut up. Then there were shouts coming from upstairs with Pick and Pete shouting at each other and cursing the Gods that made them cousins.

The three boys stood looking around before meeting each other's eyes, Beam being the neat freak, perplexed by the situation at hand. Rome was visibly annoyed while Kao got scared and fisted onto Beam's shirt tightly, crumbling it.

"Oh, why does he keep crying? I'm giving him the bottle!" Forth was frustrated, his shirt thrown away in a messy bundle while he just paced around in his white muscle tee with the bottle in his hands. 

"Are you trying to choke him? Get the hell away!" Beam marched up and, as gently and hurriedly as he could, snatched the baby out of Sibtis' hands and then glared at Forth, taking the bottle. "Are you kidding me? Did you prepare this bottle on Hellfire? You burnt his mouth! You, dumbass!"

"Why? Is it hot?" Forth scratched his nape. 

"Oh, Is it hot? Why don't you try it!" Beam hissed and slapped the bottle back into Forth's hands, before cooing at the baby. "Ou, ou, I'm so sorry baby, so sorry, oh, you must be starving! There, there, we'll feed you" he cooed and held the baby gently against his chest, swaying around for the little wailing thing. "Oh, you idiots! Where's his mother?"

"Asleep... she's weak and she was tired" Sibtis stood clueless, giving his son an agitated look. 

Beam sighed. "Of course, she must rest. So, is it breast milk or formula?" he asked and both brothers had their eyes bulged out.

"B-br... brea- what?" Forth stuttered, blushing and Beam rolled his eyes. 

"The bottle, genius! What did you give him?"

"Formula of course!" Sibtis said and Beam sighed. 

"Oh, okay. Alright, let's go, baby, let's make you a new bottle, yeah, we'll do it ourselves! Ou, let's go!" he talked to the baby who was still sniffing and crying but batting his round eyes and staring at Beam in fascination. Beam pulled him up to his face and rested his cheek against the baby's. "Calm down, hmm? Oh, such a tiny thing shedding such big tears, hmm? Let's feed you" and with that, he nudged Forth ahead to get a bottle for the poor little thing. 

Once he was gone, Kao stood awkwardly, almost scared again. Rome had to hold his hand to steady him. 

"Hey... you have been here before. Almost every second of every day. This is your boyfriend's home. Your safe space..." Rome trailed off as he looked around. "Well, not so safe... looking. But the worst that could happen here is a roach problem"

Kao blinked. He bit his lower lip and chuckled, calming down. And then they were hearing the shouts from upstairs again.

"Great, I can't handle my newborn baby and he can't handle a giant-sized baby" Sibtis shook his head. Then he looked around and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry for the mess"

"P'Rome! P'Kao!" Sun came out of the kitchen, chirping and bouncing on his feet, and went to hold onto Rome's hands. "You're both here! We're having a blast! Everyone's here!"

"He's the only one having a blast here" Forth laughed as he stepped out of the kitchen with the freshly prepared bottle. "Is this normal enough?"

"Yes, you two watch and learn" he told Forth and Sibtis. "You have to check the temperature to see if it's normal. Turn it upside down on the back of your hand, yeah, like that" he nodded when Forth did as he instructed. "See? That's the temperature you need! Now hand the bottle to your brother!" he instructed. And once the two men were done, he took the bottle from them to smile and coo at the baby before holding the bottle to his mouth. The poor, starving baby hungrily suckled on the bottle.