Water On Fire [MileApo | mxm]

1

There's destiny, and then there's machination.

Mile is no mastermind, but let it never be said that he does not go for what he wants. He is his own cupid, has engineered the whole thing. Mile has wanted the man before him for eight years. Now, here the man is in a white buttoned shirt rolled up at the sleeves, the first few buttons undone to reveal his sternum, sensual neck and delicate collarbone adorned in an array of ornamental chains, beads and jewels. His hair is coiffed up off of his forehead in a way that reveals the sinusoidal curve of his whiskey brown eyes. It's the final day of the two-week-long casting process; both actors are on the Fast-Track.

Mile has been starving for eight long years. Even though it's written in the script, he doesn't have to kiss Apo for the purposes of the final casting audition, and he certainly doesn't have to use tongue - but it's been eight long years.

The story was written based on Mile. When Mile found out they were turning it into a series, he decided to audition as himself. He hand-picked who he was going to be making out with, making sure the most attractive man he'd ever laid eyes on auditioned for the role of Porsche. Accordingly, the producers contacted Apo's manager who notified Apo, who agreed to cast. Nobody expected the most famous Romsaithong to waltz into the audition room and audition for the part that was written for him. But his crush is here and Mile's ready to risk it all. So, glancing up from his script, he gives Apo a brief look as if to say oh, we are doing this, cradles the back of the man's head with his free hand, and kisses him.

Apo's lips are smooth, unfairly soft and supple. They're the fullest lips Mile has ever kissed; it's unjust that they would belong to a man. It's cruel how they've tormented him on so many sleepless nights, when other warm bodies in Mile's bed were too small, too pale in comparison to the man whose name he didn't even know.

He crushes their lips together and presses into Apo with bruising force, for the way he bewitched Mile at those fashion shows - on February 21, 2013 and then July 24, 2013 and then August 10, 2013 - tattooing himself onto Mile's brain so Mile couldn't scrub his handsome visage from his memory no matter what he did. He snags Apo's lower lip between his teeth and pulls, for the innocent way Apo approached him later at the gym, with two gentle taps on his shoulder and a 'hello,' like he didn't know what he'd been doing to Mile. He clenches his jaw and seals their lips together until his cheeks are painfully hollowed out because it turns out that they went to the same university and didn't even know it. He slows the kiss, tilting his head to deepen it, because Apo is here again and Mile's entire body thrums with anticipation at the prospect of whatever's in store for them now. 

Apo's mouth is clean and minty fresh. Mile doesn't detect any perfume or cologne, but he smells intoxicatingly good. Consumed by longing, Mile extends his tongue and traces it over Apo's teeth. Apo's mouth drops open, whether from shock or abandon Mile does not know.

Mile believes in fate. So he kisses Apo like Apo is a hand-wrapped gift directly from heaven, kisses him so ardently a hush descends over the entire room.

Fisting his hand in the man's silky, tousled hair, Mile tongues Apo's mouth like Apo is water in the desert. His name means water in Pali. Mile knows this courtesy of Sprite, who interviewed Apo about it outside the audition room on the first day of casting. She then asked him what the word was for fire. Mile chuckled in his seat beside Apo, watching the exchange. Fire. Mile felt the flames, when he first laid eyes on Apo across the room of prospective actors and casting directors. What an ironic name.

At the casting call, Mile and Apo were too shy to go near each other. Apo later confessed he was afraid that Mile wouldn't remember him - more irony. But they made the kind of eye contact one only reads about in books, and then they were off in their own world, so caught up in meeting each other properly for the first time that no other actors dared approach them. They should've been rehearsing. It wasn't in their best interest to waste that precious time not rehearsing; they had different scripts so they couldn't even rehearse together. But there was no other option for Mile; he had waited too long to get to know Apo.