Chapter Text
Kim stretches out on the sofa and closes his eyes. It’s early in the evening, but he’s frequently tired after shapeshifting, the change in sensory perception too immediate and overwhelming. He’s been a part-time cat all his life, but only on the three nights and two days of each full moon. There’s an adjustment period.
Khun chatters about the drama he’s re-watching, creating background noise so Kim can rest without twitching at every new sound in the silence. He offers his fingers for Kim to sniff, reassuring him with the scent of his brother, close by and safe. The second time he does, Kim rubs his cheeks and chin over Khun’s fingers to properly establish that Khun is his, so no one else gets any ideas.
The third time Khun reaches out, Kim ignores him, satisfied that they’ve exchanged scents for the moment. Khun scratches behind his ears and Kim flicks one, to let him know this will be tolerated until the precise second Kim decides he’s tired of it.
Their peaceful evening is interrupted by the distant sound of voices and footfalls outside in the hallway. Kim hears it long before Khun does and lifts his head to stare fixedly at the door. His tail twitches, then thumps against the cushion, drawing Khun’s attention.
“Ah, he’s finally here, is he?” Keys jingle against the door lock, and then Khun says, “Why are you so late tonight, did you…?”
He cuts off, registering the intruder at nearly the same time Kim does. Khun is off the sofa at once, striding across in a futile attempt to block the open doorway. Kinn’s familiar scent is in the air now, soothing even with the artificial bite of faded aftershave overlaying it, but it’s not the only one.
Big slinks in after Kinn, already looking guilty. Kim knows Big. They have a fragile truce that consists of Kim not biting Big anytime they encounter each other, and Big knowing better than to touch him, even when he really wants Kim to move.
That’s not what has Khun hovering in the doorway, however, drawn up to his full height in an eye-watering floral print robe and electric blue loungewear. Kim gathers himself, ready to leap at a moment’s notice, and keeps his gaze fixed on the stranger at Kinn’s side.
“Kinn! Who is this? It’s brothers-only night.” Khun is trying to keep himself in between the stranger and Kim. His success on this front is mixed, because Kim isn’t letting the intruder out of his sight. He crouches and creeps forward on the sofa cushion.
“I know.” Kinn’s voice is calm and unapologetic. “I wanted to introduce my boyfriend, Porsche. I thought it was time he met the family.”
“That’s me,” the intruder says cheerfully. “Sorry there wasn’t any warning. We were just out for dinner and I mentioned that I’d like to meet Kinn’s family sometime. He told me about your movie nights every month. It’s cool that you make time for each other like that.”
Khun is nearly vibrating now. Repressing feelings he would prefer to be expressing at top volume is not his strongest suit. “Kinn, can I speak with you?”
It’s more of a demand than a question. Khun’s already caught Kinn’s elbow to haul him off into a corner.
Porsche ignores the awkwardness and ambles a few more steps into Kim’s territory. Behind him, Big looks torn between corralling Porsche and offering his support to Kinn, who’s currently getting an earful in a hissed whisper.
“How could you bring him here tonight? Why couldn’t we go out for an uncomfortable boat ride and be damp and miserable and have cocktails?”
“How else was he going to meet Kim?” Kinn asks, his voice low but firm. “I want him to meet both of you.”
“That’s why the boat,” Khun insists, his voice rising in pitch. Kim’s ear twitches. “So Kim can’t jump overboard once we get him there. How is he going to meet Kim now?”
“Oh, who’s this?” Porsche asks, either oblivious to the argument happening nearby or - more likely - pretending so he can ignore it.
Kim’s attention is split, and Porsche has very long strides. He sees the danger coming, but not in time to come to a decision on whether to fight or run.
“Wait, don’t–” Big starts in alarm, but Porsche has already scooped Kim up and flipped him upside down, cradling him securely in the crook of one arm. Kim is so stunned that he doesn’t react at all, just stares in shock at the face that’s now very close to his.
There’s a moment of silence, and then Porsche half-twists toward Kinn, presumably looking for an answer to his question.
“That’s…” Khun begins, voice rising.
“Wik,” Kinn says quickly, cutting him off and putting his hand on Khun’s arm to silence him. “His name is Wik.”
“Oh, like the movies? Or like the singer?” Porsche scritches his fingers through the fur on Kim’s chest. Kim traitorously goes limp. He has the horrifying thought that he might start purring.
“Yes, exactly,” Kinn says, relieved. “After the singer.”
“My brother’s a huge fan of his.” Porsche rubs Kim’s chin until his eyes close to slits, and hums the opening bars to ‘See You Again’. Kim’s ears perk up, recognizing it. He meows.
Porsche laughs and sings the start of the first verse, pausing obligingly for Kim to meow in response at the end of each phrase. They pass the song back and forth in a duet all the way to the chorus.
“This is the weirdest fucking thing I’ve ever seen,” Big says.
Kim squirms around in Porsche’s arms until he’s the right way up again. He meows a request.
“Ah, that means he wants down,” Khun translates.
Kim pushes off without waiting for Porsche, leaping for the floor and walking off with dignity to settle near the sofa, where he can bathe himself until he doesn’t have intruder-scent all over his fur.
“You can tell what he’s asking for?” Porsche doesn’t seem like he doubts it in the slightest.
“We’ve known him for a long time,” Kinn says slowly. He sounds careful.
“Really? He looks like a kitten.”
“No, he just hasn’t grown much. We think he’s just not going to get any bigger than that,” Khun answers, crossing his arms.
Porsche recognizes that gesture for the final statement it is and smiles at Kim’s brothers. “I should let you get on with movie night. It was nice to meet you. I guess your other brother isn’t coming tonight?”
“He’ll be here later,” Kinn says awkwardly. He walks Porsche out, Big trailing behind them.
When Kinn comes back inside, Khun is waiting for him, foot tapping angrily in its pointed house slipper.
“I’m sorry,” Kinn says. “I really wanted him to meet you.”
“Why did you tell him our cat was named Wik?” Khun demands, rolling his eyes. “Did he need to have that connection?”
“I couldn’t say we’d named him Kim, after our brother,” Kinn insists. “What would I tell him when they really meet?”
“You did name him after our brother, who is Wik,” Khun says tartly. “That’s something you should have thought of first, isn’t it?”
Kim finishes bathing and goes over to sniff Kinn’s shoes. He’d been angry with Kinn not long ago, he thinks, but he’s already forgotten why, and now he’s just glad Kinn is home. He smells interesting, like himself and other people and seafood. Kim is mostly interested in that last part.
“I brought shrimp from the restaurant,” Kinn says, producing a small white takeaway box. Kim sits on his haunches and looks up at him, expectant.
Khun sighs dramatically. “You’re explaining this when he changes back. He’s going to remember some of it, and you won’t be able to win him over this easily.”
Kim puts his paw on Kinn’s leg to speed up the transfer of seafood from Kinn’s hand to Kim’s belly. Kinn sighs as well and crouches down to open the container so Kim can poke his head into it.
“I know,” Kinn says quietly. He sounds tired and resigned. “I never can.”
~
“Hia,” Chay protests when familiar arms wrap around him from behind, and a half-dozen kisses rain down all over his head. He’s been experimenting with a new style and hair product, but no amount of gel or cream is safe from Porsche’s affection. He pats his hair down again anyway and turns around to meet Porsche’s beaming smile.
He can’t feign grumpiness for long in the face of Porsche’s obvious happiness. Chay might have reservations about Porsche’s rich businessman boyfriend, but he can’t deny the change in his brother since he’d moved into the tower complex with Kinn. Porsche has always been a cheerful and optimistic person, but they’d grown up in a bad situation for a long time. The strain he’d frequently been hiding under his smiles has melted away now that Chay is at university and they don’t need to worry as much about money.
“Thanks for coming to dinner. Can you stay for the weekend?” Porsche slings his arm around Chay’s shoulders. “Don’t go home tonight. Stay another day. We can have breakfast together tomorrow before you go back.”
“We can have breakfast together tomorrow anyway,” Chay points out. His music faculty is in Bangkok, not across the ocean. He can literally see his dormitory from the tower. “Don’t you want to spend more time with P’Kinn?”
“I want to spend more time with you.” Porsche flops onto the couch and hugs a pillow across his lap. “Anyway, they’re doing a family thing tonight. Monthly movie night.”
Chay frowns. He’s only known Kinn and Khun for a few weeks, but he thinks they could reschedule their movie night this once, or at least include Porsche. Porsche might not officially be family, but he’s living here with Kinn now.
Porsche shakes his head at Chay’s expression. “They have a really strained relationship with their younger brother. I think it’s the only time they see him. I’ve never even met him. Kinn says to give it more time, and then we’ll see.”
Chay chews on his lip and goes to sit next to Porsche. He loves hanging out with his brother, but he hadn’t planned on staying overnight. He could make excuses about school assignments, and he knows Porsche would accept them, but he doesn’t have anything due.
The truth is, he’d planned on writing tonight.
Chay is one of the most prolific writers in the T-pop fandom, and he’s currently approaching 100k on his current project. It’s the longest and most popular thing he’s ever written by far, and he’s worried that once school gets busier, he won’t be able to keep up his regular chapter updates.
Porsche knows about Chay’s devoted celebrity crush on singer-songwriter Wik. He’d bought the issue of GQ with Wik on the cover for Chay’s idol wall, and even scraped together enough for a concert ticket for Chay’s last birthday.
Porsche doesn’t know that Chay has his own online following dedicated to reading Chay’s fantasy porn.
Chay knows that as happy as Porsche is, for himself and for Chay at university, he still misses when it was just the two of them. He decides writing can wait until tomorrow. He’ll still have plenty of time to finish his next chapter.
“Okay,” he says. “I didn’t pack a bag or anything, though.”
Porsche springs up from the couch. “I’ll get some things for you to sleep in. Do you want to stay in a guest room, or here with me?”
“Here’s fine,” Chay answers. If they’re going to stay up late watching movies, he’s probably going to fall asleep wherever they are anyway. “Unless you think P’Kinn will want to come back.”
“We’ll get another room,” Porsche decides. “Do you want anything else? I’ll get some snacks from the kitchen. You choose the first movie.”
Chay scrolls through his phone for a while, checking his notifications and replying to messages from his friends. He looks up when movement catches his eye, expecting it to be Porsche or one of the tower staff, and is surprised to see a small black cat studying him through the open doorway.
“Hi,” Chay says. He’s never seen a cat in the tower before, but this one looks like it belongs here. Chay doesn’t think a stray is likely to have wandered all the way up here on its own, and it looks well-fed and healthy.
The cat continues to watch him. It takes one deliberate step into the room, then pauses, as if testing how Chay will react to this development.
Chay slides down off the couch to crouch on the floor. He thinks you’re supposed to meet cats at eye-level so they aren’t afraid of you, and maybe that you’re supposed to blink or something? Or lower your eyes? He can’t remember, but he doesn’t want to look it up on his phone, in case the cat decides to run away.
He tries blinking. The cat stares at him for a while, then blinks back. Chay thinks that’s a good sign.
“Do you live here?” Chay holds out his hand for the cat to sniff. It pads farther into the room, stopping short of his hand. He makes a few encouraging noises and tries to hold still, even though his thighs are starting to hurt a little from crouching in this position.
The cat touches its nose to his fingers, and Chay holds his breath. It bumps three of his fingertips in turn, then sits back, apparently satisfied. Chay reaches out carefully to pet its head, which is permitted for exactly two strokes, and then it seems to have had enough and walks past him to jump onto the couch.
Chay stays on the floor so he doesn’t scare it, although he does give his legs a break and sits down facing the couch. He tries petting the cat again, which isn’t as well-received this time. Its furry black head pulls back to avoid his hand.
“Okay, sorry.” Chay folds his hands in his lap. “I know, we’ve just met. Do you belong to P’Kinn?”
The cat’s ear twitches at Kinn’s name, but then it turns away and starts bathing its front paw, so Chay isn’t sure that’s really an answer. He can’t really picture Khun having the patience for a cat, but Porsche hadn’t mentioned Kinn having one, and he talks about Kinn all the time, so Chay thinks it probably would have come up. Maybe it belongs to someone else in the tower.
Porsche takes a long time to come back. Chay and the cat eventually come to an agreement on seating arrangements on separate sides of the couch, and Chay’s hand is bumped again when he offers his fingers.
He’s just gone back to his phone when he hears a knock and looks up to see Kinn standing in the open doorway. His eyebrows are pinched together in a worried-looking way.
“Sorry to bother you,” Kinn says. “Have you seen a black cat?”
“Oh, yeah, it’s…” Chay turns to indicate the cat, but the couch beside him is empty. He hadn’t noticed it leaving, so it must have been fast. “Uh. The bedroom, maybe? It was just here.”
Kinn’s shoulders lower in obvious relief. “That’s fine, then. I’ll just take him back with me. I’m sorry if he was bothering you.”
“He’s not,” Chay assures him quickly. He’s been kind of hoping the cat would stick around for movie night, but it makes sense that Kinn wants him back. “Did Hia tell you I’m staying over? We can look after him if you want.”
“He’s kind of a handful,” Kinn says, in a very dry tone Chay hasn’t heard him use before. “I wouldn’t want to put you in that position. Did Porsche arrange a guest room for you?”
“He went to look for one.” Chay joins Kinn in his hunt for the missing cat, following him to the bedroom. “Is it any trouble?”
“No, not at all.” Kinn sounds genuine, if distracted, probably because the cat doesn’t seem to be in the bedroom. Or the bathroom. Or, as far as they can tell, in the closet. “You’re sure he didn’t go out?”
Chay’s pretty sure he would have seen him run to the open door. “I’m sorry. I don’t know where he went. He was just here before you showed up.”
“I’m sure he was.” Kinn doesn’t seem worried anymore, just amused. Chay is going to hazard a guess that this isn’t the first time he’s had to track down his cat.
He crouches down to look under the bed. It’s too dark to see much, but eventually he catches the glint of green-gold eyes far back in the corner.
“Found him,” Chay says triumphantly. “Will he come out for you if I’m not here? Should we get a treat or something?”
Kinn seems to consider this for a while, because he’s looking at Chay when Chay eventually pulls his head back out from under the bed.
“No,” he says finally. “It’s fine if he wants to stay here. You and Porsche should stay here tonight. I can stay in another room.”
“Oh,” Chay says, surprised. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” Kinn gives the bed another assessing look. “If he wants to be in here tonight, you can keep each other company. Just call me if he runs off. He’s good at disappearing.”
Five minutes after Kinn leaves, the black cat saunters out of the bedroom and jumps up onto the couch like he’d never left. “I see how it is,” Chay tells him gravely. “Just act like you did nothing wrong, so you won’t get into trouble.”
The cat blinks at him, then yawns dramatically. Chay feels like that’s just making his point.