Chapter Text
Today was going to be fun.
Through complete happenstance, seventy-five percent of their interdependent quartet had ended up occupied leaving Rain as the odd one out.
Sky and Prapai had a date that had been several months in the making, an event which Rain refused to intrude on despite being invited once they found out that Phayu would be busy.
He'd practically had to shove them away, and they'd only left it be after learning where he'd be spending the day with the promise of returning with a souvenir for him.
‘I get to buy souvenirs!’ Prapai had exclaimed with a dangerous sparkle in his eyes.
Sky had glared at him. ‘ Souvenir ,’ he had enunciated, ‘singular. And if it's super expensive I won't let you kiss me at all.’
And thus they'd left with a playfully irate Sky dragging a pouty Prapai in his wake.
Phayu, on the other hand, was occupied with something auto shop related. He had tried to explain it, but stopped once Rain's glazed expression showed how fried his brain was getting with all the technical terms. In the end he simplified it to the fact that a patron sent by Pakin was coming, and needed his full attention.
After pretending to be mad, because the man very well could have started with that, and had chosen to tease him instead, Phayu had given him a wonderful apology and earned his forgiveness.
All that was to say that Rain would be free, and Zumi had been begging for a sleepover for a long time so they could coo over cute BL couples, and it worked out well for everyone involved.
It would be fun, and even as trouble prone as he was there was no danger of anything happening to him while he was with Zumi and Taz. There was just one problem now…
“And make sure you go to bed at a reasonable hour, understood?”
Rain pouts. This is the third time Phayu has laid out the rules for him, and Zumi and Taz were already laughing themselves sick at the repetition.
“You better hurry before P’Sai gets himself in trouble somehow,” Rain tells him.
“He’s not a trouble magnet like you,” Phayu says with a grin.
Rain pouts again despite the truth of the statement. “Phi is so mean to his wifey.”
Phayu kisses his forehead.
“Rain is still mad.”
“I love you, my sweet boy.” And right there was the exact reason that Rain couldn’t truly be upset at him for acting like a new parent sending their child to preschool for the first time.
Rain hugs him. “I love you too, P’Phayu.”
Phayu holds him tightly, and then with a sigh, he pulls away and turns his gaze to Zumi and Taz.
The two sober in a heartbeat when fixed with a look that clearly states how dire the consequences will be if anything happens to Rain while he is with them.
“P’Phayu, you’re being scary again,” Rain chided.
“Sorry, darling,” he really isn’t sorry, and Rain knows it, but he does finally exit the condo, leaving Rain with Zumi and Taz.
“That was sooo cute!” Zumi says. “10 out of 10 would watch again.”
Rain laughs. “Even with him being a horror villain level of scary?”
“It’s love,” Zumi sighs as though her life hadn’t been threatened.
Taz shakes his head. “You’re so dramatic.”
Zumi fixes him with a look.
“Phi you’re way more dramatic than she is,” Rain says.
“Falsehood!” Taz exclaims, tossing a hand over his heart, and thereby proving the point. “Zumi, my love, help me, for I am wounded by the sharp words which have speared me.”
“Come on Nong, let's get the marathon started. We can finish Color Rush , and then start Be Loved in House ,” Zumi says, ignoring Taz completely.
Taz fell to the ground woeful and dejected. “Love is but a curse that kills the heart more each day,” he laments.
Zumi rolls her eyes. “I’ll make hot chocolate for all of us,” she says.
“With marshmallows?!” Taz asks brightly as he hurried over to them.
Zumi exchanges a look with Rain, and they both break into laughter. “With marshmallows,” Zumi says, giving Taz a kiss on the cheek and paying no mind as he pretends to faint.
~
The afternoon fades into late evening as they watch the shows cuddled on the sofa. They even manage to make it several episodes in another drama with swoon worthy leads, and a few good ‘fever to get them closer’ scenes, before finally deciding to head off to bed at half past ten.
Taz teases Rain about heading to bed at such a ‘reasonable hour’ and Zumi promptly shuts him up by tossing a pillow at his head, and guiding Rain to the guest room so he can see to his bedtime routine.
Taz is already in bed when she enters their room, and he smiles at her.
“I really don’t know why I put up with you,” she says as she begins to undress.
“Because you love me,” he says without a shred of doubt as to the validity of the claim.
“I suppose that’s it,” she teases as she pulls on a pair of shorts, and a plain black tank top.
He fixes her with a pair of heartbreaking puppy dog eyes.
She climbs into bed, and gives him a quick kiss.
He smiles, and pulls her close. “Today was nice,” he says.
“It really was. I had a lot of fun watching him watch the shows.”
“I think N’Sky said that was his favorite part of watching shows with him too.”
“Maybe we can squeeze in a few more episodes before Phayu steals him back.”
“Steals?”
“Yes, steals,” Zumi reiterates, daring him to argue, and wisely he lets it go there.
An hour later finds them both instantly alert. Something had broken the stillness of the condo, and working as one they began to investigate.
After a thorough sweep of their room turns up nothing amiss, Taz grabs his phone as they move to search the common areas. Windows and the door are as secure as when they had retired for the night, showing no sign of infiltration inside.
They meet each other's eyes and nod.
With everything else secure, the only place they had yet to survey was the guest room.
They soften their expressions, not wanting to scare Rain, and proceed over to the door.
Zumi knocks softly on it not wanting to startle their guest. “Nong? Is everything okay?” The lack of response worries them, and after quickly weighing the situation, they decide to enter.
Zumi is in the lead, since her presence would most likely prove to be less terrifying than Taz just by gender imbalance alone. It was completely false in this case, but perhaps such ingrained socialization would allow them to minimize the chance of scaring their guest.
Rain is no longer on the bed, he’s tucked away in a corner. The young man was staring vacantly at a wall, not even seeming to notice that he wasn’t alone anymore.
Taz and Zumi quickly gaze about the room, assuring themselves that no outside danger is present, and with that assurance, all that’s left is to find whatever had caused Rain to be so upset.
They take tentative steps into the space, guided by the light beyond the door, and the streetlight outside that filtered in through the curtains.
And that’s when it falls apart.
Rain’s eyes snap to them in the wake of their movement, and he hisses.
The sound stops them short.
Rain uncurls himself, crawling on all fours with backward movement until he is pressed fully against the wall beneath the window, where he can keep them both in sight.
Recognizing the fear response for what it is, they stay within his line of sight as they sit on the floor. With that any movement can be minimized, and they would appear smaller, and less threatening.
The stalemate holds for several long minutes before a subtle shift in his posture sees Rain brush up against the curtains.
The suddenness of the contact seeing him emit a startled hiss, but he calms when he realizes that it was simply a panel of the curtain. Cocking his head he paws at the cloth, and becomes fully entranced with batting at it. With a burst of movement, he weaves in and out of the panels, uttering a proud meow when he finishes.
Taking a chance, Taz subtly retrieves his phone, cups his hand over the back and turns on the flashlight.
A lopsided square-adjacent area of light appears on the floor, and Rain’s eyes are instantly drawn to it.
Lowering himself in preparation, he pounces on it, only to have it move to the side at the last moment. Thoroughly surprised, he reorients himself, and tries again, scrambling to and fro as the light avoids him.
Finally he aims at the source, placing curled fingers over Taz’s and eliminating his nemesis.
Taz stays still, letting caution guide him.
Rain settles in Taz’s space, and purrs.
After passing Zumi his phone, keeping his hand on the light until Zumi takes it and switches it off, Taz tentatively pets Rain, breathing a sigh of relief when he gets an even stronger purr in response.
Knowing that Phayu would still be busy, Zumi goes through the contacts until she finds Sky’s, sure that he’d be able to give them an idea of what was going on with Rain.
“P’Taz?” Sky says, sounding half asleep.
“Sorry for calling so late,” Zumi says softly.
“Something happened to Rain, didn’t it? I knew I should have dragged him with us, is he okay?”
“He’s acting like a cat. Do you know why?”
There is a moment of silence and then Sky swears. “Put me on speaker.”
Zumi does as asked, and is downright startled when Sky speaks again because his voice has completely shifted from anxious worry, to soft and welcoming.
“Hey Usagi, can you hear me?”
Rain’s attention is instantly on the phone. “Mew!”
“Yes, yes we know you’re an adorable little kuppie.”
Rain whines.
“It’s okay buddy. We’ll be back really soon, okay?
“Mrow.”
“Can you be a good boy for P’Taz and P’Zumi?”
“Mew. Woof?”
“P’Pai? Hold on, let me get him.” There’s a scuffle and then an equally sleepy Prapai can be heard in the background.
Rain whines again.
“I miss you too,” Prapai says gently. “We’ll be home soon okay? You’ll be a brave boy for us won’t you?”
“Mew.”
“You’re always good. I know. Can whoever has the phone talk for a second?”
Zumi takes it off of the speaker. “Go ahead.”
“You’ve probably guessed it by now, but the four of us participate in non-sexual petplay. Rain is a kitten and puppy hybrid, named Usagi, so use that name when you talk to him. Do you know what brought him down like that?”
“I’m thinking it might have been a nightmare, but he was already in this headspace when we came into the room.”
“So probably a nightmare,” Prapai agrees. “We’ll be back in the morning, that said, you two had better treat him well, and if I ever find out that you used this to hurt him, nothing will stop me from returning that pain to you ten times over.”
Zumi bites back the words she wants to say, knowing that a loud response would upset Rain or rather Usagi. “We would never,” she says. That doesn’t even begin to cover it though. The thought of making Rain sad was enough to make her never want to, so hurting him on purpose? She’d rather be hung by her wrists for a week, since that would be a mercy compared to what she was willing to do to anyone that hurt people she cared about.
“Good.”
“Zumi,” Taz whispers, drawing her attention.
“I have to go, he’s falling asleep,” Zumi says.
The call ends there, and Taz asks, “What should we do? Tuck him in or take him with us?”
“Let’s take him with us, that way we’ll be close by if he has another nightmare, and we won’t stay up all night worrying about him.”
Taz flashes her a grin knowing that it was more for his benefit than her own. He hadn’t been in too many relationships given his occupation, but he had been in enough to know that he’d gotten extremely fortunate with Zumi. A core factor in previous breakups had been that he was clingy both romantically, and platonically, and while it was a valid observation, it was painful when weaponized against him.
“I’ll carry him then,” Taz says, standing with Usagi in his arms, being careful not to jostle him.
“You make a wonderful momma,” Zumi teases gently as she watches Usagi nuzzle up against Taz.
He levels a playful glare at her. “You mean dad.”
“I said what I meant. I know it’s a stereotype, and a stupid one at that, but dads are usually rough and tough with boys, and mothers are the more nurturing ones.”
“That’s fair,” he says with a soft smile, as he approaches the bed. “I’m more suited for nurturing anyway.”
“How shocking,”she gasps.
“Middle?” He asks.
“Middle,” she agrees, and with that the three occupants of the bed settle for the night, quickly drifting off to sleep.