Chapter Text
Rain knows the man is going to be a problem the moment he storms into the office. This is his hubby’s shop though, so he would make sure to keep it in good standing with excellent customer service.
“Please sign here,” he says to the customer that he’s helping. He feels the man glaring at him throughout the interaction, but he expresses no outward concern over it, and takes a moment to thank Chai for being so scary that others paled in comparison.
Rain takes the keys and hands her a receipt. “Your vehicle is in good hands. You can wait here if you like.”
The woman shakes her head. “My friend drove over with me. I’ll be back later today.”
Rain nods. “You will receive a courtesy call when your car is ready,” he assures her.
“Thank you.”
He smiles and waves goodbye as she leaves the shop before turning his attention to the next person in line.
“Khun Lin, how are you?” He greeted the man with a smile.
“I see Nong Phayu has you working the desk for him,” the older gentleman laughs as he hands over his credit card.
“I offered, he’s so good to me I have to repay him any way I can.”
“Well, isn't he a lucky kid?”
“I’m luckier,” Rain grins as he grabs a set of keys from under the counter, and passes them over along with the credit card and receipt. You’re in spot number three. P’Phayu said Aria is running better than new now!”
“She always does after he takes care of her,” Lin says as he signs the office copy of the receipt.
Rain smiles brightly at the compliment to his Phayu. “See you next month.”
The man nods and waves as he heads for the exit.
Then it was his turn. The man is a bottle… something, likely having aimed for a honey brown, but had messed up during the process, and was left with a muddy mess. He was decently tall and athletically built with a face that would probably be handsome if it wasn’t screwed up like he’d just bitten into an unripened lemon.
“Good afternoon,” Rain says politely, “how can I help you?”
The politeness seems to set the volatile man off, and Rain prepares for the oncoming tirade.
“Don’t ‘ good afternoon’ me, you little pansy,” the man hisses with a glare. “I’ve been waiting for twenty minutes, while you idled around like there was nothing more important for you to focus on.”
Rain keeps his smile in place, summoning all his patience, and when that fails to be enough he reminds himself that he can’t sully the name of Phayu’s shop just because of some idiot who was too impatient to wait his turn. “I apologize for your wait,” he says. “How can I help you?”
The man gets even more irate.
At this point, the lady beside him, his girlfriend maybe?, even seems a bit uneasy.
“Do you know who I am?”
‘No and I don’t really want to either,’ Rain thinks, but he knows better than to say it.
The glare tells him that maybe he needs to work on his poker face. His friends alway said he was an open book.
“Vance, baby, let's just sign to get the keys and go,” his girlfriend implores.
Rain hopes he listens to her.
“Fine,” he sneers. “I’m here to pick up my bike, hurry up and hand over the keys.”
“Will you be paying with cash or card?”
The man sneers at him as he tosses over a worn credit card.
Rain swipes it, and nearly groans when the thing declines. “Is this perhaps an old card?” he asks carefully.
The man snatches it back, and tosses another card, and fistful of bills on the desk.
“One moment,” Rain says, trying to keep his smile from turning into scowl. Thankfully between the card and cash there was enough to pay for the repair. The man scribbles his name on the office copy of the payment, and Rain passes over the keys and the mantiniece receipt, grateful that the interaction had finally come to an end. “Your bike is in spot number twelve. Have a good day.”
Then the man looks at the paper, and Rain knows something bad is going to happen.
“Who the ‘ell is Saifah?! My bike was specifically supposed to be worked on by that Phayu kid!”
“Vance please-”
“Get that bastard in here right now!”
This was getting out of hand. Maybe it was time to call in one of the others?
Rain reaches for his phone only to remember that he had left it in Phayu’s loft along with his backpack, and jacket, and had been too busy to go grab it. Searching for anything or anyone that could help, he spots Saifah, pulling a client’s car into a parking spot.
Perfect! “One moment, I’ll get a manager.”
Leaving the desk was not something he really wanted to do, but the man and his girlfriend were the only ones here, and so if something was missing there would be no question as to the culprits.
He’s only managed to take a few steps before a hand reaches out, closing around his wrist with a bruising grip and halting his movement.
His heart rate soars as he struggles to dislodge the offending appendage. When that doesn’t work he flails even harder and manages to jerk his arm free.
Unfortunately, the action unbalances him, sending him to the floor, and Vance tumbles after him, caging his body and pressing just enough weight on him to make breathing a challenge for the few moments it takes the man to pull himself up as if doing an impromptu push-up..
“You enjoyed that didn’t you, you cocksucker, so desperate for a real man you’d-”
He doesn’t hear the rest of the vile slurs because the room is shifting before his eyes, and he freezes in place as the floor softens and phantom hands caress his body. Winces as sharp pain blossoms where teeth bite harshly.
Despair wars with the pain, because there is no way that someone as amazing as Phayu would ever want him again after what is about to unfold.
Tears pool in his eyes, unshed as he wrestles down the pain and despair, for the silver lining of the situation, Sky’s safety.
As long as he can take the attention upon himself, Sky would be spared. So he steels himself, ready to endure for as long as he needs to.
For so long he had been ignorant to Sky’s pain, he had known something had happened in his past, had known it was bad, but Sky was his friend, his best friend, and he wanted him to tell him when he was ready. He didn’t want it forced out into the open this way, and didn’t want Sky to suffer more just because his love had been taken advantage of. So if protecting him from a live reenactment of his trauma by taking on the starring role in his stead, was all that he could do, well then he would do it no matter what.