Work Text:
The upper floor of the café was unusually quiet.
North was curled up, fast asleep, his head resting comfortably on Johan's lap while Johan typed away, finishing some office work. Across from them, Ter sat reading, with Hill beside him scribbling in his notes. Fah, always the multitasker, was tutoring two of his juniors. A few steps away, Dao and Phoon were engrossed in a surprisingly intense match of Snakes and Ladders.
Dao was growing visibly irritated.
"No matter how much you dance, Meow, you're still gonna end up in a snake's belly. Sit down and play properly."
Phoon, having lost the last two matches, was currently under a bet with Fah—he wasn't allowed to speak for the duration of the next game. If he did, he'd lose and have to cook dinner for everyone. The pressure was unbearable. He was fidgeting, practically spinning in place.
"P'Fah, seriously. Let him talk. He's making me dizzy," Dao complained.
"Nope," Fah replied, not even glancing up. "If he screams, he distracts my students."
"Fah, he's your boyfriend," Hill muttered while erasing a mistake in his worksheet. "You're being cruel."
"This isn't even close to cruel," Fah said with an unsettling calm.
Jo smirked. Sitting closest to him, he caught the remark, even if Fah hadn't meant for anyone else to hear. That particular smirk of Jo's, the one he wore when he knew something nobody else did, spread slowly across his face.
It was, by all accounts, a regular evening. From here, they'd likely end up in one of the doctors' apartments, order dinner, maybe watch something mindless, and eventually head home. They were just waiting on the final piece of their very chaotic jigsaw—Arthit.
He should have been there by now.
But then again, Arthit had always operated on his own clock. The others were used to it by now. They could afford to wait another hour.
Eventually, the students Fah had been mentoring went hom, and a rare peace settled over the upper floor.
Until the door to the café burst open with a slam, and a furious voice shattered the quiet.
"North! You bastard! I am not letting this go!"
North jolted awake, startled, and promptly fell off the couch.
"Shit," he muttered, the panic in his voice betraying the fact that he absolutely knew what this was about.
Johan raised a single eyebrow. "North?"
North offered a sheepish grin. "I might've messed up."
Thundering footsteps echoed up the stairs as Arthit stormed in, eyes blazing. But instead of going straight for North, he marched over to Dao, cupped his face in his hands, and kissed him—gentle, tender, completely at odds with the fury he'd displayed moments earlier.
Then, with the same intensity, he turned.
"You changed the password, didn't you?" he growled, striding toward North.
"P'Thit, wait! Can't we talk about this?"
North instinctively backed up, trying to hide behind Johan, but Jo stood and casually stepped aside.
"Traitor!" North cried.
"I want to see how this ends," Jo said, settling into another chair.
Arthit advanced.
"Okay, okay, yes—I changed it!" North admitted. "But only because you poached my player!"
"You've got the top players from the whole university on your team. I just needed one!" Arthit snapped.
"That one was mine!" North retorted.
"You had no right to lock me out of my PC!" Arthit shouted, grabbing North by the collar and lifting him nearly off his feet.
"Let go of me or I'll punch you," North warned—without much conviction.
"Oh? Try me."
And North did. Reflex took over. A trained MMA fighter, his body reacted before his brain did. He hooked Arthit's leg, sending him crashing to the ground, and dove on top of him.
Dao and Jo didn't even blink. This wasn't the first time these two got into a scuffle. They had long ago stopped trying to break them up.
From his seat, Dao asked dryly, "Who do you think gets hurt first?"
"Hard to say," Jo replied. "They're equally knuckleheaded."
Arthit groaned, pushing himself up as North hovered guiltily.
"P'Thit, sorry. Instinct. Really."
Arthit brushed himself off, glaring. "Give me the password."
"Can't. I have to win this tournament."
"You can win the next one!"
"C'mon, Phi. Let's be on the same team next time. It'll be fun!"
"Password. Now."
"Nope. You'll have to beat it out of me."
But then Arthit paused and smiled—dangerously.
"No. This time, I'm not going to beat you. I have another arrow in my quiver."
North froze. "What... arrow?"
Arthit turned to the room. "Should I tell Jo and Hill what really happened the day you two moved in?"
"P'Thit!" Ter cried, suddenly alarmed.
"Tell us what?" Hill asked, watching Ter's reaction with interest. Jo leaned forward, narrowing his eyes at North.
"Nothing! Absolutely nothing!" North replied, flustered.
Jo rose from his chair and walked over. "What is he talking about?"
"P'Jo, please... it's not..."
Arthit cut in. "Let me tell it, Jo. Sit down. Keep your boyfriend close so he doesn't bolt."
Jo pulled North down onto the couch and onto his lap.
"You remember when North got sick? Took those heavy antibiotics that knocked him out? And Jo, being the sweet, devoted boyfriend, packed his things and moved him in?"
"Yes..." Jo said slowly, squeezing North tighter.
"Well," Arthit continued, "it was all part of a little plan. These two chipmunks decided that rather than asking directly, they'd stress you both out until you insisted they move in. They didn't think you both were wise enough to understand that these guys wanted to stay with you. Especially Ter. May be Ter thought Hill lacked the emotional intelligence."
"Hey! That's not fair!" Ter exclaimed. "We never said they lacked emotional intelligence."
"Then why didn't you just ask?" Hill asked, his voice wounded.
"You were supposed to ask us," Ter whispered, barely audible.
Hill moved in front of him, crouching to look Ter in the eyes. "You didn't trust me enough to tell me?"
Ter blinked rapidly, trying to hold back tears.
Dao let out a groan. "Arthit, you absolute idiot."
North, seeing Arthit's smirk falter, realized this leg-pulling joke had taken a turn. He turned to Jo, who was trying and failing badly to hide a smile.
"I love it when you pull stunts just to get my attention," Jo whispered. "But maybe next time, skip the antibiotics."
"Phi, how did you know?" North threw out desperately, trying to shift the mood.
Ter perked up. "Yeah! How did you know?"
Arthit shrugged, catching on. "You think only Fah noticed? I saw the bottle. I knew the second North took those pills."
"Wait, Fah knew?" Hill and Jo asked in unison, spinning to look at him.
Fah smirked over his book. "Of course I did."
"He's a cunning wolf," Arthit said, finally flopping into a chair and grinning.
"No, he's not," Phoon said, sliding onto the couch beside Fah and slipping his arm through his boyfriend's. "He's sweet and caring."
"Really?" Thit raised a brow. "You sure about that? Why don't you ask North why he suggested you write those letters to Fah? Or ask him who arranged the 'cupids' to deliver them. And while you're at it, ask Ter how Fah knew it was you from the very beginning."
Phoon turned slowly to look at Fah, whose face had gone pale.
"No, Phoon, wait," Fah said quickly, eyes wide. "Please, let me explain. I wasn't trying to fool you or anything. I just... I didn't know how to reach you. You kept everyone at arm's length, and I needed help getting in. That's all it was."
But Phoon had already stood up, eyes shining with unshed tears, lips trembling into a very deliberate pout.
"I hate you, P'Fah," he said slowly, dramatically. "No kisses for you."
And with that, he picked up his bag and made his way toward the stairs, sniffling exaggeratedly.
"You rascal," Fah growled at Thit, grabbing his books and hurrying after his boyfriend.
Thit just smirked.
Meanwhile, Hill stood up calmly, picked up both his and Ter's bags, and turned to his now-silent boyfriend.
"Well then," he said smoothly, "why don't we have a chat about your little lack of trust in me and figure out what we can do about it?"
Ter didn't even protest as Hill took his hand and led him out of the café, his ears red and his mouth firmly shut.
North, who had been comfortably lounging on Jo's lap, suddenly felt a sharp pinch to his waist.
"You," Jo murmured lowly, "are in so much trouble."
Before North could argue, Jo stood, pulling him up by the wrist.
"We'll be going. See you later, Thit," Jo said casually.
As they walked out, North threw a wink over his shoulder and mouthed, "Thank you."
Thit gave a lazy salute in return.
Once they were gone, Dao turned to his boyfriend with a long sigh. Then, with a practiced ease, he moved into Thit's lap and looped his arms around his neck.
"Okay, now tell me what the hell just happened?" Dao asked, nuzzling into the crook of Thit's neck.
Thit chuckled softly, pressing small kisses across Dao's cheek and jaw.
"North told me the story last week," he admitted. "Jo had been working nonstop lately, and North just wanted to steal some time with him. He figured a little chaos might shake things up."
Dao pulled back just enough to look him in the eye. "So naturally, you decided to throw Fah and Ter under the bus?"
"Ter will be fine," Thit said easily. "Hill's obsessed with that boy. He'd flip the entire universe upside down before he let anything truly hurt him. And Fah? Honestly, he deserved it. I'm not even sure why, but it was very satisfying watching him squirm in front of his tiny, furious boyfriend."
Dao rolled his eyes with a smile he couldn't quite suppress. "You, Arthit, are a menace."
Thit grinned. "Yeah, but you love me, so it's well worth it."
He leaned in, voice dropping into something low and wicked. "Why don't I take you home and show you exactly what this menace can do to you?"
Dao's smile widened, eyes gleaming with mischief.
"Lead the way."