A startled yelp escaped Stephan at the initial shove but the sound quickly morphed into a pained cry as the scalding liquid soaked through the thin fabric of his once white T-shirt and burned his sensitive skin underneath, a horrible overwhelming sensation that the boy could only assess as hot for the briefest of moments before he could only register it as pain - That bitch absolutely did not add the four iced coffee cubes as Stephan had requested! The kid instinctively curled in on himself as soon as his body hit the floor, squeezing his eyes shut tight as a sharp gasp that ended in a pained whimper escaped him. Moving his burned midsection proved to be a poor decision but the brunette was too concerned with the likelihood of a following blow to be worried about that at the moment.
Instead what met the kid's waiting ears was the barely registerable sound of a door slamming open somewhere in the background, the noise melding in with the expected scooching of chairs and clamoring of customers as people reacted to the scene. Then came a hurried stream of "I'm sorry, dude! I didn't think he would- I didn't mean-" From directly above him, the voice vaguely recognizable as the dude that just shoved him.
"Shut the hell up!" An incredibly outraged snarl sounded, a snarl so familiar yet filled with such true malice Stephan almost didn't recognise it as the brunette's attacker immediately fell silent and the injured kid forced himself to open his eyes and take in the scene.
Stephan must've hit his head far harder than he'd originally thought. That was the only explanation the brunette could come up with. There, in all his incredibly attractive glory, stood Minh, face twisted into what could only be described as an absolutely vicious sneer of utter disgust and hatred, a look Stephan had actually never seen on the other boy in all their months of banter and antagonism. The guy's face was boiling red with rage and his brilliantly dark eyes blazed with such utter fierceness it was if the fires of hell had been drawn up from beneath and placed within those endless depths.
They were directed on the poor idiot that had so carelessly shoved Stephan aside like a ragdoll, who now visibly shivered under their intense stare as he tried to shrink away, cringing away from the look but not able to get very far as Minh apparently had a hand firmly twisted in the material of the back of the dude's shirt. The Asian said no more but began storming towards the front door of the shop, roughly pulling the troublemaker along with him by the iron grip kept firmly on the collar of the unfortunate shirt, leaving the guy tripping and stumbling in his wake as Minh relentlessly hauled the man along without pause.
"Stay the fuck out!" Minh spat viciously, his words dripping venomus acid as he pushed open the huge glass door with one hand and practically threw the bulky man out, a rather impressive feat considering the dude had been no small guy and that was the very reason Stephan found himself thrown to the ground so easily in the first place - But the brunette always had admired Minh's impressive arms.
As soon as that was taken care of, Mihn cleared the distance to where Stephan still lay frozen on the ground, not over everything that had just taken place enough to convince himself to move nor really sure he wanted to risk the potentially painful action anytime soon. Minh was apparently not on the same page. He clasped one of Stephan's hands tightly in his own before the boy could protest and placed his other hand firmly on the kid's shoulder, gently guiding him back upright.
Stephan wanted to protest, more for argument's sake then anything else, but when he opened his mouth to speak his stomach twisted disapprovingly, apparently too rattled from the attack and the residual pain to condone any such action. It wasn't like his mind was offering any cool snarky remarks or any real spiritedness at all at the moment anyway, just a traumatized chorus of fuckfuckfuck, so there was truly no point in even trying.
Instead, the kid tried to do as Minh insisted, biting his lips to muffle the absolutely pathetic whine that tried to escape as he moved his scalded stomach, the sound coming out as no more than a pained hiss. It really hurt. It really fucking-
A soft shushing sound from Minh quieted Stephan's internal monolog as the brunette finally made it to his feet, leaning heavily against the barista for support, his midsection burning as if someone had set it on fire then made him swallow gasoline. Stephan was really considering puking to be a valid option at this point. However, hurling all over one's hot crush usually isn't the considered the prefered method of wooing said hottie so, instead, the teen dumbly attempted to straighten himself, wanting to stand on his own as he truly hated the thought of the Asian thinking the boy was weak. It was a bad idea. The fire smoldering in the brunette's guts flared up angrily at the motion, forcing a mewl of agony from his lips despite his best attempt to bite it back.
"Stop trying to be a badass." Minh scolded urgently, practically pulling Stephan back into his previous position of leaning into the slightly taller boy's side, though the command lacked the usual spite and harshness the barista regarded him with, the words soft and almost gentle in a way as Stephan merely moaned in agreement and sagged heavily against the other boy.
Stephan couldn't be bothered to pay attention to what was going on around him - And didn't notice much until he found himself tugged into a break room.
"Sit right there. I think I've got an extra shirt in my bag." Minh instructed as soon as they were alone, guiding Stephan to the edge of a long table.
"You keep extra shirts in your bag in case someone decides to assault one of your customer's with scalding beverages?" Stephan inquired amusedly as he obediently hopped up on the table and stubbornly ignored the plastic chair sitting at the end of the table that Minh had probably been indicating, leaning back on the palms of his hands to let his infuriated stomach and chest touch as little other skin as possible.
"No, idiot." Minh scoffed dryly and fell silent for a few minutes as he walked to the opposite end of the room and began rummaging through a blue gym bag that sat there against the wall. Stephan thought the conversation was over but, after a long pause, the barista added, "I keep them there for running," sounding slightly tentative for some inexplicable reason. Only then did it hit Stephan that this was the first real conversation, made out of actual exchange of information and personable statements rather than just spat out insults, they ever had.
"You run?" Stephan questioned eagerly, perking up some at the new discovery as he turned slightly to look at the other boy, not able to twist himself more than a few centimeters and even that still eliciting a soft hiss of discomfort.
Minh glanced up from his search to give the brunette a bored look, face flat and eyebrows raised incredulously.
"Yes, obviously, or you wouldn't have just said so." Stephan realized with a start, feeling himself blush as he hurriedly looked away again, suddenly feeling awkward and stupid. "I just - I meant, that's cool, because- um, I run too, you know. Sometimes." Stephan rambled out hastily, audibly groaning at how jumbled his words sounded even to his own ears but when he risked a quick glance back in Minh's direction the guy was staring at him as if Stephan had just whispered the secrets of the universe to him, his dark eyes wide and his face twinged slightly pink.
Stephan opened his mouth to say something more, maybe to dare suggest they go running together sometime but closed it again a moment later, nervousness winning out as he unconsciously wrung his hands together and failed to say anything. Chicken shit, his brain hissed disapprovingly.
Minh wore a similar expression to what Stephan felt on his own flushed face and he too opened his mouth, stuttering out some unintelligible syllable before clamping his jaws firmly shut, glancing away and scowling at some random thread in the beige carpet. "I found one." Is what the guy eventually managed to say, holding up a black T-shirt that looked like it could fit Stephan as a dress and still pass school dress code. When the barista finally reached the boy though he simply turned away wordlessly, holding out the item in offering.
Taking the cue, Stephan pushed himself back into a straight up sitting position and grasped the hem of his shirt in both hands. The kid was unable to bite back a sharp hiss that ended in a particularly pathetic whimper he was just going to pretend he'd never let Minh hear as the teen had to bend over slightly to grab his shirt, leaning his destroyed chest against his tormented stomach in a combination that had to have come straight from hell. Still, Stephan persisted, gasping as he tried to focus on curling his fingers around the cotton material rather than on how much he would rather die than endure this excruciating agony a moment longer.
Finally, he managed that but when he tried to straighten his back to pull the thing up a strangled scream actually managed to force its way through his lips despite the fact that he was biting them almost the point of bleeding in an attempt to smother back the noise. It felt as if someone were peeling his skin away from him, layer by layer, all while pouring lemon juice over the raw wound, a tormenting mix of vivid, sharp pain and a dull constant ache that throbbed through his body and brought back that sudden desire to puke. The taste of copper finally met his tongue as Stephan forcibly bit back the agonized sound but it wasn't before the feeling of broad hands wrapped around his wrists stopped him from going any further.
"Stop." Minh demanded urgently, the word coming out almost as a plea rather than a command, as if the kid was actually upset by Stephan's pained sounds more so than tired of listening to the brunette. Stephan complied without hesitation, letting his hands go slack in the Asian's steely grip as there was a 100% chance he was going to start crying if he kept trying to do this himself and he was so not down for an ugly ball fest in front of his hot crush today, thank you very much.
"Can I?" Minh questioned hesitantly, tugging at the hem of Stephan's shirt in explanation and looking anywhere but at the kid, apparently suddenly very interested in the stylistic decisions made in the wall decorations and how they played off the carpet.
"Unless you want to listen to me sound like I'm giving birth to triplets for the next three hours." Stephan replied as casually as he could.
The Asian let out one of those half huffs of a laugh at the brunette's joke and didn't bother to hide it this time, letting the amused smile he usually turned away to conceal be left on full display in the privacy of the breakroom. Damn, and here Stephan thought he couldn't crush any harder, well, boy howdy, had he been fucking wrong.
Minh's smile was an earth shattering thing, like, really, Stephan would not be the least bit surprised if the entire planet just decided to crumble right then and there. The way it spread across the barista's face was mesmerizing, how it lit up everything in its path, crinkling the boy's dark eyes slightly as it reached them and left them glimmering gorgeously in a way that would truly turn the straightest of men gay in an instant - And Stephan never had been the straightest of men.
"Lift your arms." Minh instructed through a soft huff of residual laughter, still smiling lightly as his words broke Stephan out of his embarrassingly enraptured trance and the brunette complied without protest, lifting his arms high above his head while diligently trying to push away the screaming sirens in his head that couldn't wait to inform him how awkward this all was, as if he hadn't noticed.
However, it turned out surprisingly easy to ignore the awkwardity of his current predicament when the unignorable hotness of it became apparent. Minh's fingertips brushed lightly against the unburned skin of Stephan's waist as the barista curled his digits under the garment, making it a near impossible challenge not to shiver at the touch. The Asian soon began pulling the thing carefully upwards obviously cautiously trying to keep it as far away from Stephan's actual skin as possible and whispering hushed apologies whenever he failed in the task. All the while Stephan just did his best to try and ignore the fact that he'd seen this same scene in more than one guilty dream - Though usually there was a distinct absence of third degree burns across his chest and a lot less clothing involved.
"Fuck." Minh breathed once the task was finally complete, tossing Stephan's ruined shirt to the side to be worried about later as his voice picked up that familiar note of anger once more.
"I know, that was one of my favorite shirts." Stephan agreed unhappily rather than voicing the anytime he'd very much like to. "It will be dearly missed." The teen added softly, almost placing his hand over his heart before he realized what a stupid idea that would be and managed to stop himself - And by stop himself, he meant that Minh grabbed his wrist and prevented him from being the idiot he truly was.
"No, you clueless shit, your chest." Minh huffed with an exasperated roll of his eyes but Stephan was still getting the distinct feeling the simmering rage he picked up in the dude's voice wasn't directed at him.
"Yeah, I know. I've been working out." Stephan snorted humorlessly, trying to avoid the actual fact of the matter - His chest was fucked up and he knew it, his stomach was screwed too, and he should probably see a doctor. He didn't wanna dwell on any of that.
"You should probably see a doctor." Minh oh so helpfully voiced the brunette's own thoughts, wincing sympathetically as Stephan pushed himself up and tried to look down to inspect the damage, moaning involuntarily as he did so.
"Dude. I'm a college kid surviving on ramen noodles and caffeine." Stephan pointed out dryly, grimacing as his eyes trailed over the scene. The skin on his chest was burning red as if someone had attempted to brand him and his stomach blazed scarlet to match, the skin there inflamed with anger and already starting to blister in places, adding sickly yellow to the angry red - He looked like a fucking walking Happy Meal.
Minh didn't respond, frowning as he eyed the brunette, dark orbs swimming with dismay and unveiled concern. The display was too much.
"Okay! Okay! Just help me get this shirt on." Stephan sighed defeatedly, holding his hands up in a pacifying gesture as Minh practically beamed at the decision, grinning from ear to ear in a way that left Stephan weak in the knees and suddenly glad he was sitting down, unsure if he'd really be able to keep standing with such a gorgeous vision laid out before his eyes and not really liking the idea of falling directly on his new burn wounds.
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