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daswarschonkaputt · 2 years

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on the rocks sneak peak ii: wip weds edition

on the rocks | kinn/porsche/tay | wip, snippet ~950 words

Tay’s trying to drow his sorrows when he meets an attractive apparently-straight bartender who fills him with want -- and then things get complicated.

Chay enters the kitchen a few minutes after Porsche has started cooking, eyes wide and curious as he watches Tay. Tay smiles at him.

Chay doesn’t smile back. He keeps watching Tay, quietly taking the seat furthest from him. It places him between Tay and his brother, his back to Porsche.

Porsche glances over his shoulder from where he’s stirring a pot on the stove. “Did you get your assignment printed?” he asks.

Chay’s eyes flick off Tay momentarily. “It’s in my bag.”

“Are you okay to walk to school today? I have to drop Tay at Yok’s.”

“P’Tay?”

“My guest.”

“Oh. Okay. Yeah, I can walk.”

“Text me when you get there safely.”

“Okay.”

“I’m not trying to be a nag, Chay, it’s just with Uncle Thee out—”

“I said okay, hia.”

This is—this is the worst thing to happen to Tay in a long time. It’s—domestic, and sweet, and comfortable, and doing absolutely nothing to help Tay move past his building attraction to Porsche.

Because, what—Porsche worked a shift at a bar until closing time, wrestled a drunk man onto his couch, caught a few hours sleep, and then hauled his body out of bed to help his little brother print his homework and make him breakfast before school?

Tay never thought the barefoot-in-the-kitchen thing would do it for him until this very moment, when he’s realising it’s doing everything for him.

Something is placed on the table in front of him, jolting Tay out of his thoughts. It’s a steaming bowl of congee, with two poached eggs and a heaping of scallions sprinkled over the top. It smells delicious.

Tay looks up at Porsche, who’s already dropping into the chair next to his brother, bowls of congee in front of them.

Tay dips his spoon in, and mechanically raises it to his mouth. It scalds his tongue, but he swallows it nonetheless.

“Good?”

Tay makes himself smile. “Good.”

He’s not doing this. He can’t. He is not getting his feelings bent out of shape by a straight boy. It doesn’t matter if he’s a good brother. It doesn’t matter if he cooks. Tay is not going to pine after the bartender he spilled his most humiliating secrets to. He is not doing this when he knows damn well he’s going to have to turn around and go right back to Time.

It’s—already far too messy, to be sat here with Porsche, eating breakfast. Porsche was meant to be a contained fantasy – a momentary wondering, geographically confined to a bar Tay was never going to go back to. Something he could attribute to his own drunken stupidity.

Tay doesn’t want to have to live with Porsche in his head, a potentiality lost, and spend the next decade of his life trying to make Time come out on top.

It makes the congee turn to sludge in his mouth. Tay lowers his spoon, and tries not to let his feelings show on his face.

“—to my parent-teacher evening?” Chay’s asking. Tay’s missed the beginning of the conversation.

Porsche frowns. “I thought we agreed Uncle Thee would go to that.”

“Teacher Ot isn’t going to be there, this time. His wife just had a baby.”

“I don’t want to cause trouble for you at school,” Porsche says. “Your teachers prefer to deal with Uncle. A lot of them still remember teaching me. They get weird about it.”

Chay looks down at his bowl, spoon hovering above it. “It’s—it’s okay if you can’t come,” he says. “Or if you don’t want to. It’s just—do we even know if Uncle Thee’s going to show up?”

“I’ll talk to him. He’s just—busy, with work, and things.”

“Sure.”

“Chay.”

Chay looks up from his bowl, and meets eyes with Tay. He looks away. “Sorry,” he says. “Let’s talk about this later.”

Porsche’s eyes flick over to Tay as well. “Okay,” he agrees easily. “Later.”

Conversation stalls.

Tay looks down at his congee and forces himself to concentrate on eating.

Eventually, Chay pushes his chair back. “I’m going to go brush my teeth.”

Tay watches him leave. “I’m sorry,” he says to Porsche, once Chay is gone. “I didn’t want to disrupt your morning.”

Porsche starts gathering up the crockery from breakfast. “It’s fine,” he says. “Chay’s just a bit shy. I don’t usually bring people home he doesn’t know.” He carries the saucepan, and their bowls to the sink. “He was meant to be sleeping over at a friend’s last night, but he came back early to work on an essay. No offence, but I probably wouldn’t have brought you home if I’d known he was here.”

“None taken.”

“Once he’s left, we can head off to Yok’s,” Porsche says. “You’re fine if we take my motorcycle, right?”

Tay very carefully does not think about Porsche on a motorcycle, and even more carefully does not consider himself behind him, curled around him. “Sure.”

Porsche pauses, hesitating. “Tay,” he says. “About last night—”

But the ending of that sentence is cut off by a loud buzzing sound.

Tay frowns. “Is that—”

“Doorbell,” Porsche says. He shifts around Tay’s frame to peer out the kitchen window. Whatever he sees on the driveway outside the house makes him frown. “Shit.”

Tay turns to look, but Porsche catches his wrist.

“Do me a favour?” Porsche asks, with a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “Could you go upstairs to Chay’s room, and tell him Uncle Thee’s friends have come by for a visit? He’ll know what to do.”

Something’s wrong. Tay goes to turn once more, but Porsche tugs him back.

“Please?” Porsche presses.

Tay takes one look at his face and then crumbles. He goes.

#fic: on the rocks #kaputt wip weds #kaputt writes stuff #kinnporsche fic #kinnportay #kinnporsche #included in this fic is my thesis statement on why uncle thee was a piece of shit #peer-reviewed by tay #also i thought after finishing between the sheets my search history would recover #instead i spent a lot of time researching loan sharks in thailand how they operate what their interest rates are etc etc etc #there were other things!#thai honourifics!#flowering trees of thailand and what months they flower in #the availability of fresh cherries #(i just think it'd be neat if tay could tie a knot in a cherry stem... you know. for plot reasons.)#international courses at thailand's top universities and their tuition #oh and i read a whole bunch of bartending blogs about cocktails and flavour profiles #i do not drink and nothing makes me realise the gaps in my education more than having to write abt a bartender #i think i am incapable of writing a fic without research

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