Chapter Text
Mix doesn’t get a chance to return to Brewbells even nearly a month after that night, not while there are daily confrontations with the Ruangroj and their allied families. He does, however, text Earth nearly every day, reassurances that he’s okay.
It’s been a long month of patrolling, trying to keep conflicts to a minimum and tightening holds on their property, until Gun finally tells them that they will meet the Ruangroj for official negotiations to end the fighting.
The night has been quiet – Boom Tharatorn and his men have proved to be surprisingly trustworthy and are holding their ground well – and Mix lies down, exhausted, tucked under his blankets with his phone propped up on the bolster next to him, fingers finding Earth’s contact to videocall him.
Earth’s profile photo on his phone is one of the pictures Mix took of him that evening on the beach, soaked and laughing, glowing in the moonlight, and Mix’s heart aches with longing.
He wonders if it’s possible to love someone this much when you’ve only known them for so short a time. Mix would never have been able to predict how completely Earth has taken over his heart – fitting, he thinks, for a florist who knows well how something so beautiful can grow from the tiniest seed.
Earth had done it himself, planted affection and gentleness, unspoken care even in the way he brought Mix flowers and listened to him complain about his family or talk about his thesis. There has rarely been room for flowers in Mix’s world, not since the night Ter had shut him out and broken his heart and his trust.
That day, when he woke up to Luke’s voice the morning after the bar fight, telling Earth to take the out he was being offered, Mix was so sure, so sure that Earth wouldn’t, that Earth wouldn’t bail on him, that Earth felt about Mix the same way Mix felt about him… But it wasn’t enough to be sure, it wasn’t until Earth said it himself that Mix fully believed it. Mix lied to Earth too, kept the truth of the family from him and once again, like an idiot, dragged an innocent civilian into it, but Earth… chose to stay.
Earth is Mix’s treasure, and he won’t ever let him forget that.
When the call request is answered, Earth is also in bed, the room lit with the bedside lamp, one bare arm tucked behind a head of messy hair, smiling softly.
“I miss you,” Mix says, in lieu of a greeting.
“I miss you too.” Earth narrows his eyes up at him. “Have you eaten yet? You look tired.”
“It’s been a long day… No, a long week.”
“Has there been progress?”
Mix nods. “A lot. There’s a meeting of the two family heads tomorrow. The Boss thinks we might be able to resolve this soon.”
“Ohh that’s great! Are you going too?”
“I’m the heir, I have to go.”
“Be careful. It could be a trap.”
Mix chuckles. “We’re not in a movie,” he says. “They can’t just blow us all up, it would be chaos.”
“My perfect history grad boyfriend is a mafia heir. It may as well be a movie, you know… Mix… I mean it. I told you before, I saw what N did to you that night, I never want to see you that way again, especially not when I can’t be there with you. Just… come back safe, that’s all I’m saying.”
Mix feels his eyes already starting to tear up, and he nods, changing the subject to gather himself. “What’s been happening at the café?”
“Podd and Khaotung are starting to get on my nerves,” Earth says, exasperatedly fond. “I swear they spend more time canoodling than making coffee… I’m not complaining too much, they make really good coffee but having to watch them canoodles just makes me…”
Mix manages a tired smirk at the expression on Earth’s face. “You want to canoodle too?”
“Oh I want to do a lot more than just canoodle.” Earth gives him a meaningful look that manages to be sexy even on a semi-dark phone screen, and Mix misses him for a whole different reason.
“Earth,” Mix says before this call takes a turn he isn’t sure he has the energy for. “When tomorrow is over, if it ends well…” He shakes his head. “Let’s not jinx it. I’ll talk to you soon.” He makes blows a kiss at the phone screen, and Earth smiles, amused and a little shy, before returning a ‘muah’.
Mix hangs up and lies back in bed, smiling at the ceiling. Soon.
The next evening, Earth is closing up the café when he receives a text message from Mix. A ‘celebration’ emoji that probably means the negotiation with the Ruangroj went well. Earth sends back a heart emoji, just because. Mix replies almost instantly.
Do you want to visit the house?
?
My house.
Am I allowed to?
want you to.
[location] 5 PM. Dress nice.
Unsurprisingly, Tul, Podd and Joss all want to go see the Phunsawat house, but Earth takes Joss because Joss has experience with at least one member of the family (beyond the fact that he probably saved Mix’s life). As much as he loves the other two he cancels them out immediately: Tul will probably charm everyone and no one will pay attention to Earth, and despite a month having passed he still hasn’t forgiven Podd for opening the café the morning after the bar fight, despite Earth’s strict instruction not to.
“It’s a mafia house, you gotta wear a suit,” Tul tells him.
“I don’t own any suits,” Earth retorts, and he receives entirely unnecessary gasps in response.
He ends up putting on his best jacket over some jeans and a dark coloured shirt which will have to do.
The location that Mix sent him leads to a set of wrought iron gates beyond which is a tree-lined drive way that disappears around a bend in the road. Joss lets out a low whistle. “I knew mafia meant money but damn, bro, this is even more than I thought.”
Earth’s hands are clammy against the steering wheel. “This is way out of my league.”
Joss rolls his eyes expansively. “Should’ve thought of that before dating the gorgeous man with a chauffeur driven Bentley.”
When Earth pulls up to the gate, a young man hops out of the security guard’s cabin and approaches the car, flashing a dimpled smile on his way over to the driver’s side window.
“Earth, right?” the man asks, ignoring Joss’s presence completely. “I’m Nanon, Boss Mix’s first lieutenant. I’ve been asked to escort you up.”
Without waiting for a response, Nanon climbs into the back seat. He presses a button on his phone and the gates swing open. “You can park in front of the house, there’s plenty of room.”
Earth wasn’t sure what to expect from the Phunsawat Mansion, though watching a lot of Japanese and Italian mob films made him expect something with armed men in suits marching about. What he finds is an old but luxurious looking house that he is sure probably once functioned as a palace.
“Wait a second, I know this house!” Joss says suddenly. “Tul did that report on luxury houses in Bangkok, remember?”
Earth does not remember because Tul’s reports are not really something he is often thinking about, and he is definitely not thinking about them now that he is going to see Mix for the first time in over a month and he can’t focus on anything else besides that and the fact that he is at a mafia hq of sorts.
Joss makes an impatient noise. “C’mon, he made a whole song-and-dance about how great these houses are. This one was valued at over a billion dollars and belongs to… some overseas rich guy?”
Nanon laughs. “That’s the story,” he says. “It’s been our base of ops ever since Boss ATP took over…” He looks between Earth and Joss. “Sorry, Little Boss only told me to send Earth into the parlour… If your friend can wait in the rec room until we’re done…”
“Rec room sounds good to me,” Joss nods. Nanon waves over another young man – not in a suit either – and tells him to escort Joss to said room, before turning to Earth and grinning at him.
“I’ve been waiting for a chance to meet you,” he says. “Little Boss doesn’t really hide anything when it comes to you.”
It’s only now that Earth realises that ‘Little Boss’ is Mix.
“Ah,” he says, because he isn’t sure how to answer that, but Nanon’s smile only widens as they walk through the front door into a sprawling foyer decorated with antique art befitting the house’s former royal residents. Earth supposes that the Phunsawat are no different from royalty now, controlling a section of the city and its people, able to make decisions about them independently.
“It’s all probably new to you,” Nanon says, coming to a stop by a door. Earth can hear faint voices from beyond. “But I’ve been with him from the start, four years ago… You’re the first guy he’s ever brought home… Good luck.”
The room beyond is something of a monstrosity, all antique furniture and tapestries, and a very angry looking wooden tiger greeting him at the door. There are a few men and women already seated on the elaborate sofas, but Earth only notices two things - one, that Mix isn’t here, and two, the petite man in the giant armchair on the other end of the room.
“So this is him?”
“This is him, Boss,” Nanon confirms. He places a chair near where Earth is standing, urging him to sit, so that he is uncomfortably sitting in the middle of the room, being watched by everyone as though interviewing for a position.
And where is Mix?
“I’m sure you know why you’ve been called here,” the man in the armchair – the Boss – says, leaning forward and fixing Earth with a glare.
Earth thought he did. Now he’s not so sure, so he shakes his head slightly.
“At first, we ignored it, but the evidence is compelling…”
The Boss turns to one of the men, who stands up to speak. “Yes, my informants have been able to compile enough facts to confirm that this man acted in a way to endanger members of our family and is possibly also connected to the violence on our young master inflicted by the assassin hired by the Ruangroj.”
Wait, what?
Earth opens his mouth to protest. “I think you –”
“Mond,” the Boss looks at the well-built man in the chair closest to his. “Let Mr Watthanasetsiri know what happens when people cross the family.”
Earth looks around to find Nanon, the one who brought him into what is increasingly looking like a prelude to getting beaten up, but there’s no sign of him anywhere.
Mond steps up beside Earth, standing just a little taller but definitely broader, with a twist to his lips that promises violence. “Permission to get the information out of him?”
Earth shakes his head. “Wait,” he says, holding up a hand. “I have no idea what’s going on here. Mix told me to –”
Mond laughs, and the sound is echoed by some of the men around the room. “Well of course he did, he can’t deny an instruction from his Boss, can he?”
Earth takes an involuntary step back. Something about this is not right. Mix wouldn’t have called him to his house to be questioned by his family, that doesn’t sound like Mix at all. He frowns at Mond. “Where is Mix?”
“Out on an assignment, he didn’t want to be here for this.”
“For… this…?” Earth needs his brain to catch up with the rest of him because he is having difficulty figuring out what he is supposed to do right now. He places a hand on Mond’s chest, pushing his vaguely threatening smirk out of his immediate proximity. “I think your informants are mistaken. I am a florist, I – somehow – ended up meeting that assassin of yours but I didn’t know that till Mix literally told me about it last week. I would never put him in harm’s way willingly and I know that he knows that, so maybe you should stop… this.” Not his best ending but he’s proud of himself for managing to stay coherent through that whole speech.
The Boss’s gaze is fixed on Earth, inscrutable. “I don’t think you’re in any –”
“Oh my god what the hell is going on here?”
Earth spins on his heel to see Mix slam the living room door shut behind him as he marches down to where he’s standing, slipping past Earth to cross his arms down at the head of the Phunsawat family.
“You’re not seriously trying to scare my boyfriend away!”
There is a long pause in which Mix and the Boss glare at each other, and in the next moment, the latter falls into the back of his armchair, laughing. It him look more childlike than before, but Mix is still frowning at him, though Earth can see the beginnings of a pout on his lips.
“And all you guys were in on this?” Mix shifts his glare in Mond’s direction. “Were you going to beat him up? Where’s Luke?”
Mond is laughing too, so are many of the others, and Earth realises this has been what passes for humour in mafia families.
“Luke was against it, surprisingly. He’s doing leftover paperwork instead of joining in the fun!” Mond pats Earth on the shoulder. “Sorry about that, it was his idea.” He points to the Boss, who is still flushed with laughter when he gets up and holds out a hand to Earth.
“Attaphan Phunsawat, but usually people prefer to call me ATP or Gun...” He stands nearly a foot shorter than Earth, but somehow his presence fills the room.
“Pirapat Watthanasetsiri, but you already know that, don’t you?”
Gun grins at him. “I do indeed, Earth.”
Mix makes a noise in his throat, something between a choke and a wheeze, and Gun ignores him in favour of making a gesture with his hand, bidding everyone to sit down again.
Earth is finally given a spot on one of the uncomfortable sofas with the rest of the Phunsawat family’s men. Directly across from him, Mix sits down next to Mond, who immediately flings an arm around his shoulders and squeezes with a smile, whispering something in Mix’s ear – an action that Earth… notices.
“Big brother dearest, respected Boss ATP,” Mix has put on the fakest, sweetest expression Earth has ever seen on him and his most polite tone, “Maybe you can explain to Earth why you just threatened to have him beaten up, if you please?”
Gun, the frightening mafia boss that he is, giggles, waving him away. “Oii, stop making such a big fuss, Mix, it was just a joke. You handled it really well, by the way, Earth.”
“You did,” Mond confirms. “I was just telling our Mix that. I was expecting you to at least throw a punch or something.”
Earth has never thrown a punch in his life, but he isn’t about to tell anyone in this room that.
“I hope you can excuse our little… prank, but… I care about my family, Earth, and if you want to be a part of it, you have to be ready for anything.” He holds up a hand to stop Mix before he protests again. “I’m not saying we’re going to swear him in… I just want to have a little chat.”
This is why Mix sometimes hates his family. They mean well, but they can be fucking insane about some things.
The ‘chat’ goes on for nearly an hour, and by the end of it Mix is sure Earth is regretting ever saying yes to anything, because about three quarters of the time is spent with Gun explaining to Earth the history of the Phunsawat family, the extent of their properties, and their family hierarchy. It is, as far as Mix is aware, the spiel that is given before forming an alliance with another family, which is why he is confused as to why Earth needs to hear it.
When the meeting ends and the rest of the family executives leave the room, leaving only Gun, Mix, Nanon and Mond with Earth, it is the Boss who lets out the biggest sigh.
“Sorry,” he says, to Earth. “We have rules about involving civilians in our business, and since Mix refuses to not involve you, I had to convince the rest of the top brass that you’re worth it… The only way to do that is through a formal procedure like this.”
“Before you arrived, I presented an analysis on how your property is prime real estate and having you in our ranks would add to our value,” Mond shrugs. “And I know you’re not joining us, per se, but so long as you’re tied to our young master, you’re one of us.”
Mix catches his eye, mouths a ‘sorry’, but Earth shakes his head with that little smile – it’s a smile that Mix is so familiar with, it’s the one that Earth gives him whenever he makes what should be an unreasonable request – that means he’s happy to do it for Mix.
It’s pretty much all it takes for Mix to decide he’s had enough of propriety, there’s no one else in the room anyway. He gets up and crosses to sit beside Earth, taking his hand in his, interlacing their fingers. “Sorry,” Mix leans into Earth’s ear, lowering his voice and not caring that Mond and Gun are giving each other wry looks. “If this is too much…”
“I’m just worried that Joss thinks you guys kidnapped me,” Earth chuckles into Mix’s ear. “I’ve been gone for over an hour.”
Mix moves back, surprised. “You brought Joss?”
“Nanon didn’t tell you?”
“Nanon,” Mix takes the moment to glare at his subordinate, “Ignored my instruction to bring you up to my office and took you here instead, and then decided to come call me after this little charade had already begun.”
Nanon holds up his hand, eyes wide and innocent. “Sorry, Little Boss, but I got orders from higher up!”
“I wouldn’t worry about your friend, Earth.” Mix thinks Mond has become ten times ruder ever since he found out about Earth. “He’s making a killing beating our guys at pool in the rec room. Luke just texted me that he’s lost his Rolex to him.”
“O…kay… then…” Earth says slowly. “Tell me straight, what exactly does this mean for me now?”
Gun leans back in his giant armchair, crossing his legs. “It means you’re effectively one of ours… Not that you yourself have to answer to me –” He flashes Earth a cheeky grin, “ – unless you want to, but your café will be listed among those under our protection, but you don’t have to pay us the money… Just take care of our kid.”
Earth squeezes Mix’s hand. “I think I’ve got that covered.”
Mix ducks his head, already feeling his ears burning. Nanon makes a gagging noise in the background, and Mix can’t entirely find it in himself to blame him.
Nothing really changes, as far as Earth is concerned, now that he is officially dating a mafia prince.
But that doesn’t mean everything stays the same, either.
He opens up the shop with Podd and Khaotung on a rainy Saturday morning in July. He’s been up for a few hours already, arranging the new shipment of seasonal orchids that came in the morning, chatting with Khaotung over the plans for the day while Podd stocks the bakery counter, complaining loudly about having to do it himself.
“You see the updates on the group chat?” Podd asks, straightening up and giving Khao an entirely unnecessary Eskimo-kiss of greeting.
“Joss again?” Earth swipes through his phone and finds the latest pictures that Joss has sent of his trip to Chiang Mai with Luke, who apparently invited him along to do some ‘family business’, although it mostly looks like they're trekking through forests, and Earth is fairly sure the Phunsawat don't have properties in the mountains. “Should we be worried they get along so well? Have we lost him to the criminal underworld?”
“You should be happy he’s keeping Luke occupied or you wouldn’t have it this easy getting Mix to stay over,” Khaotung points out, which is a good point.
Their morning regulars drop by around nine. Earth can’t believe they have ‘regulars’ now, especially not of the sort that wear loud (and tacky) shirts and have scarred faces and look somewhat creepy while ordering café frappes with whipped cream in the morning, like the man named Boom is doing now.
Khaotung rings up his order and Earth waves a greeting to him that Boom returns, although half-heartedly. Earth still hasn’t figured out what he’s done to insult the man so much, but he’s a good customer and somehow manages not to scare anyone away, so he lets it go.
It’s nearly ten when Earth hears the door from upstairs open and Mix pads down the stairs, wearing track pants and one of Earth’s shirts with so many buttons undone he needn’t have bothered at all. He has on that just barely awake expression as he pads his way straight to Khaotung, evidently drawn by the smell of coffee.
Earth watches the two out of the corner of his eye as he finishes preparing his first (and only) order for the day. He waits for Mix to come over with his coffee mug, vaguely rubbing at a spot on his neck with a rueful expression. Earth can’t keep from smiling at his handiwork, a dark spot right at the juncture of neck and shoulder.
“Do you remember the first night you were here?” he asks, taking a sip of the coffee Mix has offered to him. “You left in the morning with a mark just like that in exactly the same spot.”
Mix rolls his eyes. “I thought you were some kind of creep back then.”
“But you came back anyway.”
“You made good coffee.”
“You know, that morning, I thought I was the luckiest guy in the world because the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen was in my apartment.”
“And now?” Mix leans forward on the worktable, a teasing smile on his lips as if already in anticipation of the answer.
“Now, I know I’m the luckiest guy in the world because I get to do this,” Earth says, closing the distance over the table, pushing Mix’s bangs back so he can kiss his forehead. “Wait, I have something for you.”
Earth ducks under the worktable and brings out the bouquet he was working on that morning – a dozen burgundy roses in an elegant bouquet. “Uh, Nanon texted me only yesterday so I didn’t know – not fair, Mix – but happy birthday.”
Now that he’s holding it out to Mix, it feels a little foolish. What a trite present from a florist, he thinks. He’s been giving Mix flowers nearly every day since they met, he’s not going to –
Mix pulls him back over the table with a hand on the back of Earth’s neck, kissing him hard. He tastes like coffee and his raspberry lip-balm, and Earth savours the taste with his tongue before pulling back.
Somewhere in the café he hears the sound of cutlery clanging to the ground – one of the customers dropped something – but Earth can’t look away from the look in Mix’s eyes, his pupils already wide with want, and he just stops himself from kissing him again.
“Get a room,” Podd complains loudly, as he passes them to replace the croissant that Boom has somehow accidentally flung across the café.
“Oh, we’re about to,” Earth promises, giving Mix a playful little smile. “Do you want to go for a drive?”
It doesn’t stop raining when even when they arrive at the beach, which means it is deserted, and they walk down to their resort, hands still intertwined, getting soaked to the bone but enjoying every minute of it. The sea water is warmer than the rain when they step in it, a fact that makes them laugh as they share kisses, drunk on the rain and each other.
Earth will probably never forget the way Mix looks amidst the scattered petals of the bouquet he made, red against the pale of his skin, the inky black of his hair as he cards his fingers through it to get the tangled petals out. They come together, again and again, as rain patters against the windows and balcony door, drowning out the quiet roar of the sea beyond.
Mix plays with a petal, tracing it along Earth’s cheek, leaving feather-light kisses along the path he makes with it, down his neck and to his chest, where he lays, listening to Earth’s heartbeat.
“Will your family be mad that I whisked you away on your birthday?”
“Mm, probably. But since Nanon told you I guess the party will be later.”
“Party, mm?”
Mix nods, his hair tickling the bare skin of Earth’s chest as he does. “It’s usually very fancy, all the allied families will be there… Not as big as the Boss’s birthday, but… I’m pretty important, you know.”
“Oh, I know. Can I come? I even bought a suit.”
Mix tilts head up. “Do you want to?”
Earth plays with Mix’s hair thoughtfully, the gentle massage on his scalp sending tingles down Mix’s spine. “Liking you means I like knowing more about this part of you, just like every other part of you.”
“And what if you find something about this part of that me you don’t like?”
Earth makes a humming noise that rumbles in his chest, the vibrations tickling Mix’s ear. “It’s still you, isn’t it? Nothing else matters.”
Mix smiles into Earth’s chest, reaching down to pinch the flesh of his side. “You big sap,” he teases, as though he wasn’t fighting the urge to tear up again.
“Your big sap,” Earth reminds him, arms wrapping around Mix’s bare waist, pulling them flush against one another. “I love you, you know.”
Mine. Mix puts a rose petal over Earth’s lip as though to silence him, and he kisses it, lush and red against Earth’s golden skin. “I love you,” he says, simply, honestly, and because he wants to. The words are natural on his tongue, like he’s said it to Earth a hundred times before.
Like he will, a hundred, thousand times from now.
Mine.