Toxic [2gether]

Part 1

Tine was not into dudes. Seriously, he wasn't. But looking at Sarawat on that dimly stage, the yellow backlights softening his features while his long fingers plucked all the right notes from those strings, making his guitar vibrate with emotion made something inside him turn. His breath stuttered looking at the light bouncing off of Sarawat's carefully styled hair and glistening in the tiny beads of sweat at his temples and on the soft skin of his neck. The veins on the musician's hands strummed along with the guitar strings, as his dark lashes grazed his high cheeks when his eyes lowered to the instrument in his care. A curved smirk stretched across his lips. Tine's dark pupils dilated.

Green shrieked suddenly beside him, grabbing Tine's bicep to hang off on, making him stagger, and fanned himself with the merchandise that they had bought before the concert. And as an afterthought he waved the paper fan with Sarawat's name and picture in Tine's face as well, it was getting rather stuffy in the arena.

Tine was obviously aware that Sarawat had received quite the recognition for his musical talent but deep down he had still not fully realized how big of a following the other man had already mustered. Tine had been in shock when the other had stoically announced that he would pursue a career within the music industry. What happened with just enjoying the things that made him happy? If you love it, set it free and all that jam.

"Has he always been this handsome?" Green screamed in his ear over the fan chant that rolled in waves over the crowd. Yes. Yes, he has always been this handsome, Tine wants to say but swallows it down.

There was no use giving Green any ins, that guy would then never give him a break with his incessant flirting. Tine had realized over time that the pursing of him had mostly been for shits and giggles, but there had been a few memorable occasions when Green had gotten scarily serious and all bets had been suddenly off. Even Dim, Green's long term boyfriend, the poor sap, had been moping around for days and giving Tine the stink eye.

Tine exhaled and inhaled slowly to calm his worried heart, the warm night air expanding his lungs. That made him feel just all the more sticky than he already was and Green's grip on him suddenly felt clammy. He tried to shake off the iron clutch but the other would not budge. Tine panicked for a millisecond, afraid that he would have to live with a bruise in the form of a handprint for the next couple of days. How would he explain that to his friends? They would for sure draw the wrong conclusions and Dim would mope again, showering Tine with snide remarks.

"Hey, man," he said, lowering his head to speak into Green's ear to make sure the other heard him. "Let go of my arm, you're kind of hurting me." The shorter man just squinted at Tine, harrumphing at him.

"What, are you afraid that mister stoic over there will misunderstand?" Tine's round eyes got bigger as he gaped at Green, trying to form coherent word with his plump lips.

"Wha-" Tine spluttered and swung his head around, glancing hastily at the stage where Sarawat had now stood up from his perch on the high chair, as the acoustic song was concluding to an end and scanned the sea of people in front of him. Tine felt Green nudge him in the ribs.

"He's even trying to keep tabs on you in this wild crowd."

Tine pressed his lips harshly together, his fine brows scrunching funnily, trying not to let Green get a rise out of him but was not really able to contain himself in the end.

"Stop spewing nonsense," his voice reached a high note as he tried to speak over the screaming girls chanting Sarawat's name. His hands making fluttering motions that he had no control over. "He doesn't know that we are here." He must have forgotten that we exist at all, Tine added in his head.

They had not been in contact with Sarawat for months and then Green had presented the tickets to Sarawats's concert on Tine's birthday as some sort of ingenious pay back. Tine side eyed Green.