After having gone out alone the night before, Farang wasn't sure if Fraser would be in the apartment when he brought Terrana home. There was a strange kind of fear. As much as he knew that he couldn't hope to keep an angel caged in his rundown, three-bedroom walk-up, he wasn't ready to let him go.

His heart started beating again as soon as Fraser entered the room.

"Mr Fraser, look what I made today!" said Terrana, pulling a mass of glitter and bright pink clay from her bag and displaying it for his approval.

"Wow!" he said, attempting to get a closer view and determine what it was supposed to be.

"No touching!" Terrana informed him, "Only look."

"Er... for cigarette" explained Farang, unsure himself if that was really the case.

When Terrana was fed, bathed, and asleep in her bed with the unsightly creation perched on her bedside, Fraser prepared himself for battle with the knight.

He'd recited the revised version of his speech ten times over since Caleb had reluctantly agreed to help him fix it. There were things he needed to make clear, even if his Modeshi wasn't the ideal medium to do so - and even if his little brother hadn't wanted to hear the extent of what he had to say.

Running through the words on his phone, he sat cross-legged on the mattress; steadying his breathing as he waited for Farang to finish washing up. As he walked into the room, his hair still wet and his shirt balled up in his hand, Fraser needed all his resolve to stick to the plan.

"I have to talk to you" he told him in Modeshi.

The phrase was unexpected, and no less jarring coming from a non-native speaker. His nerves were set on edge the second he heard them.

"Okay" said Farang, grabbing his phone to help him translate whatever it was that the angel needed to say.

Seated beside him, he looked into the angel's serious eyes and feared the worst. His fingers were gripping the phone in his hand, but it offered little comfort to ease the restless beating of his heart.

"You seem to be mistaken about me" Fraser began in Modeshi, his robotic delivery failing to capture the emotion he'd wanted to convey.

Farang held his breath.

"I am not an angel. I'm simply a man. And I am far from perfect; all I have is my money, and it's only because of my brother that I became this successful."

Fraser had wanted to tell him it was only chance that made him so rich, but Caleb thought his version sounded better.

"I have never had a decent relationship. I lost my virginity when I was seventeen to a man I'd just met. He was a seasonal worker at my local mall, and I only realized when I left his house that he'd stolen all the stuff out of my bag."

When Caleb had heard that part he was curious if Fraser still remembered the guy's name or address so he could pay him a visit one day. When Farang heard it, he wanted to cry for him.

"No one's ever thought to treat me like an angel. I've been a pushover, a trophy, a dirty little secret. You're the only one that's ever made me feel like I'm worthy of more than that; but it doesn't mean I'm anything special to the people around me. 

You think I was soaring? I was choking on the altitude. Farang... you cherish me more than I had ever thought to cherish myself. You bring me a happiness that I never could have bought. I don't want to part from you; you are my knight, my strength. The best man I have ever known."

Farang was waiting for the turn... 'I don't want to part from you but I have no choice...' The turn didn't come.

"Let me love you" said Fraser, "Let me be a part of your life and learn what it means to find a partner that wants me to fly. Fly with me Farang... you are my wings."

The words at last spoken, they hung in the air unanswered.

The knight looked deep in thought, and Fraser worried he hadn't made himself understood. While Caleb assured him the analogies he'd thought up were easy enough to translate, there was no telling whether or not Farang would interpret them as intended. As he panicked that he may have accidentally asked him to take a trip on an airplane, Farang finally made his reply.

Unfortunately, Fraser's Modeshi didn't stretch to being able to understand his answer.

"Wait!" said Fraser in English, "Let me get my phone, I only learned my bit and it was a lot to say. I need to translate-"

The knight took his hand.

"I am father" he said, "And no money."

Fraser stroked his cheek.

"You're a wonderful father" he told him, "I see how hard you work every day. And money doesn't matter, I have my own you know?"

To further his point, Fraser pulled a wad of Modeshi dollars from his wallet.

Farang typed into his phone.

'I don't want your money.'

Fraser shook his head.

'My money is my own' he typed, 'But it's not enough. I want you.'

Farang stared at the message, and then helplessly at the handsome little foreigner. He had nothing to give him, it was still hard for him to comprehend why he'd been chosen to receive the angel's favor.

Fraser's frustration was beginning to grow beneath the shadow of Farang's doubt.

"Look" he said, determined to get through to him, "I want this. Family, I want. Your love, I want. Your body, I want."

Farang motioned to their cramped and shabby bedroom.

"This, you want?" he asked him frankly.

Fraser returned to the help of his phone.

'Be my knight, but let me find you a castle. A place for all of us. Your job. Your rules. But let me make us a home.'

"Farang" he said, placing a hand on his chest, "I want you."

He kissed him softly, trying to imbue his lips with the sincerity of his words, and hoping to transcend the limits of his pride. Just because he wanted to be with Farang, it didn't mean he was happy to sleep every night on a mattress. If nothing else, he was at an age where his body could barely take the frequent poundings without adequate support. The Warik family was one thing, his knees were another.

Farang dialed a number on his phone, the voice at the other end answering in Modeshi. Fraser began to worry he'd called him a taxi. After a brief exchange, it was put on speakerphone.

"Hello..?" the voice asked in English.

"Hello..." Fraser replied at Farang's urging.

"Farang asked me to translate, there are some things he wanted to tell you."

Now it was Fraser's turn to fear the worst.

"Okay..." he said, "I'm ready."

"He said: He never expected a miracle to come into his life. He calls you an angel because it's easier to believe than if this was all real. He worries he's not good enough... But speaking as his friend, I know he is."

Farang gave him the next line, but the translator seemed hesitant.

"He says you'd be better off without him..."

Fraser's blue eyes were shimmering with welling tears. He shook his head as he locked eyes with the knight. Not true.

Farang spoke quickly and at length.

"But don't get him wrong" said the translator, "Even if a life without him may be better, it's not the one he wants you to have. He wants to be selfish. He wants to keep you by his side. If you're willing."

"I'm willing!" said Fraser, smiling through the tears.

"He wants you to know there is always a way out for you. Even if it's something you might not want to hear, he wants you to know that. Yes I know, in a minute..!"

There seemed to be a little commotion at the other end of the line. 

"Michael, I already told you, you can go to bed without me! Sorry, where were we?"

"Go if you need to" said Fraser, "I've heard everything I wanted to hear. Except..."

"Yes?" asked the voice on the phone.

"Does this mean Farang is my boyfriend now..?" 

He recognized the word as Tibur translated it, but the rest of the sentences exchanged with Farang were a blur. No matter how hard he listened, he couldn't discern any kind of answer.

"I um... please understand, in Modesh there isn't much use of the word 'boyfriend' between men, at least not in the way it's used in the west. The term is kind of a foreign concept to most Modeshi men, especially those that are a little older..."

"Ah" said Fraser, unable to conceal his disappointment.

 "I'm worried this might make you uncomfortable. It's not something I'd ever use to refer to my own partner... Yes Michael, soon! Go back inside and get under the covers. Sorry, and sorry for my friend and his old-fashioned way of thinking... he wants me to tell you, that he considers you his wife." 

Fraser had never been anyone's wife before. He felt sure he'd been someone's 'mistress', but never a wife.

"Oh" he said. Sure that he should be offended, and yet oddly comforted by having any title at all.

"Wife" said Farang, taking hold of Fraser's hand.

The translator scolded him in Modeshi, attempting to explain that it wasn't appropriate in English. Farang relented, in least in terms of how to address him directly.

"Angel..."

"My Knight..." said Fraser.

The translator wished them a good night and returned to his pouting, restless boyfriend. Farang hadn't the time to thank him, the angel was already straddling his body, his hands snaking around his shoulders as he ran his fingers through his hair.

At times Farang would just stare at him, his attractive features were in perfect harmony with one another, and seeing them up close was fascinating. His hands on Fraser's ass, his senses were alight with his beauty. The scent of his aftershave, the softness of his body beneath the roughness of his hands, the taste of honey stolen from his lips. The angel in his lap was his own private paradise.

Fraser was perfectly satisfied. Content in the arms of his lover, his brave and beautiful knight... the battle had been won and the spoils of war were muscled and fiercely strong.

Farang spoke to him in Modeshi. Fraser couldn't understand a word, and yet it made him smile. There was something in the tenderness of his voice that needed no translation.

"You precious man, you are more than I could dream of. When I drove Terrana home today she asked me when you were going to leave to be with your boyfriend. I couldn't make sense of it at first, until I realized she'd been mistaken. She'd thought you had a rich boyfriend you were going to marry... that I'd given you my blessing.

I had to explain it again, that a rich man asked if you had a boyfriend... but I told him we were going to be happy together. That you don't have a 'boyfriend', you're married... and your husband may not be worthy, but he's not prepared to let you go to anyone less than a saint.

But it scared me that you may have misunderstood. It scares me that I'll fail to make you happy, that I'll never meet your expectations, but I'm in too deep not to try. And my faith in you is such, that even if I keep you by my side in the mire, your brilliance is too bright to lose its shine. I want to be selfish... to bathe alone in the rays of its splendor.

When you spoke in my native tongue I was terrified you'd realized the awful truth, that I will never be good enough for you... when faced with the prospect of your departure, I feared never holding you like this again. That even the memories would not suffice to sustain me... I need your corporeal flesh.

So forgive me tonight if my appetite exceeds what your stamina can withstand... The devil in me hungers for you."

Fraser looked down into the knight's dark and seductive eyes, his thick hair held between his fingers. The words had eluded him, but the intent was clear.

"Do it?" asked Farang in English.

Fraser kissed him.

One day. One day he'd understand his words, but until then, his knight's actions were all he had to convey the extent of his love and devotion. That night the angel saw heaven. On no less than four occasions.