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“Oh no, honey! Are you okay?”
The dutiful husband leads his pregnant wife to one of the jewelry store’s comfortable cushioned chairs. Since it’s the middle of the afternoon on a weekday, there aren’t many people around. There is one clerk attending to the couple looking eager to find something to commemorate their wedding anniversary; there is another one to the side, casting glances at the couple, and the man in a pilot uniform who had been looking at rings with tourmaline stones tells the clerk, “Maybe she needs some water.”
The woman is taking deep breaths while holding her big, round belly. “It’s still not time, honey!” says her husband, holding her shoulders from behind. “Do you need us to call an ambulance?” asks the clerk, while the other one comes back with a glass of cold water.
The pregnant woman takes the glass, and holds the clerk’s hand. “Thank you, sweetheart,” she tells them both. “I think I… I just need a moment.”
A third clerk is supposed to be working today, but she had run out just a few minutes before the pilot arrived. She had gotten a call from her neighbor saying she saw her cat vomiting nonstop, and she had to excuse herself. Her colleagues had promised to cover for her. The store’s manager didn’t come in at least one Tuesday every month, busy at the main branch. And although her phone had very clearly identified the call as coming from her neighbor, the clerk never noticed the girl on the other side didn’t sound like her neighbor at all.
“We’ve still got a few weeks to go, Mali,” the woman says. “Don’t give us a scare now.”
“That’s a beautiful name,” says one of the clerks.
“She’s going to be as beautiful as a button,” says the husband, looking down at his wife. “Just like my love when she was a baby.”
The woman’s cheeks turn as red as a tulip. The clerks coo. One of them looks back at where the pilot had been, but he’s nowhere to be seen. It was not the first time he had come over, looking for a present for his fiancée, and she thinks, with a warm heart, that maybe he will come back after his next flight. So she turns back to the couple, since there is nothing better to do, and listens to their ramblings. She’s a romantic at heart, and the woman looks at her husband with such stars in her eyes, that it makes the clerk sigh. She, too, wants to fall in love.
“Excuse me,” comes a deep voice. All four of them look to the side, surprised to see that the pilot had come back. In his hand, he holds a silk handkerchief. “I believe this is yours, ma’am.”
“Oh!” says the pregnant woman, taking a look at her side ponytail. “Oh, thank you, sir. That’s very precious to me indeed.”
The pilot smiles sweetly. To the clerks, it’s like seeing one of the beautiful gemstones they organized every day. Even the pregnant woman looks a little taken by him, her hand lingering a bit too long in his as she reaches out to take her scarf back. With a polite bow, the pilot thanks the clerks for their attention, and leaves with his briefcase and his cap, four pair of eyes trailing after his straight back and broad shoulders.
“I think we should go home for today,” says the husband, breaking the spell the others were under. And his pregnant wife nods, tying the scarf back around her long, black hair. He places an arm around her back and takes her hand in his free hand, and just like this, they walk out of the store.
The store isn’t internationally famous, but it holds local prestige. There are cameras around, and they sell modestly every month, especially since it’s a store so close to the airport. Although the store had been broken into a couple of times, there had never been any robbery to shake the clerks off. There had never been any occurrence to raise their suspicions or make them paranoid.
That’s why it takes them a few days to notice the stock had been broken into. And when they check the camera footage later, there are so many gaps, it’s impossible to tell exactly when it had taken place. When the police question them, they can’t tell anyone who stood out. Young men looking for presents for their lovers, women looking for presents for themselves, a pilot, a pregnant woman. All kinds of people show up at the store. What were they supposed to think?
But the pilot never goes back.
And neither does the couple.
“Wait a minute now,” Aungpao says, holding a palm up. “Prim wasn’t even there, why is her share as big as the boss’s?”
“Because I do crucial work,” Prim says, checking diamond encrusted earrings against the light. “Do you think your and Fourth’s disguises would have held up if I didn’t tamper with the CCTV footage?”
She raises a perfectly shaped eyebrow to counter Aungpao’s crossed arms.
“Also Prim is a more fixed part of the crew,” says Fourth from the bed, one leg dangling off the edge, moving back and forth as he checks the rings on his hand and the bracelets on his wrist. Mark would soon come over to take the spoils and turn them into money through contacts none of them knew about. In fact, the less they knew about each other, the better. That’s why there was no real ‘fixed crew.’ Or at least, none Aungpao needed to know about. “Sorry, nong.”
Aungpao doesn’t like it when Fourth treats him like an inexperienced boy, which is why Fourth does it every time they worked together. Aungpao is good at acting like a doting lover, so he had paired with Fourth on more than one occasion. If Fourth doesn’t tease him and treat him like a baby, Fourth is afraid of having a repeated Joong incident. And he does not want a repeated Joong incident.
From where he lays on the bed, fake pregnant belly gone but dress still on, he looks up at Gemini. Even upside down, Fourth can see the fake pilot is displeased. Prim could probably see it too, since she keeps bickering with Aungpao over their shares. Fourth just keeps on moving his dangling, socked foot, blinking slowly at Gem as Gem stares at his phone, and they all wait on Mark.
Mark comes not an hour later, dressed as one of the hotel’s bellboys and carrying a food service tray. “Chardonnay?” he asks, and Gemini, with a roll of his eyes, trades his briefcase for the wine. “Happy to do business with you,” Mark says, and an appreciative smile blossoms on Gem’s face.
“We’ll be in touch,” is all Gemini tells Aungpao and Prim before walking away from them.
Aungpao always looks like a kicked puppy after every job they worked on together, and it almost looks like he’s wagging his tail when he says, “Bye, phi Fourth!”
Prim just winks at Gem and blows a kiss at Fourth, and Fourth mimics picking the kiss, hitting his heart with it, and falling back on the bed. Prim’s giggles are like a crystal wind chime and Fourth feels giddy with it. The tiny hacker is a pleasure to work with, and he knows Gem agrees, since they work together so often.
Aungpao, however, is someone Fourth doesn’t expect to see in the near future.
“If you hate it so much when I pair up with someone else,” Fourth asks, sitting up on the bed and looking at Gemini, “then why do you suggest it every job?”
“Because the plan requires it,” Gem says, pouring one glass of the chardonnay. Although Fourth is still in his dress, Gem had been the first to change. Of all of them, Gem is the one who wears disguises the most. Even though Fourth wasn’t there when Gem started, he knows his reputation. Everyone does. As a chameleon, a shadow. But at the end of every job, Gem would change into a simple white shirt and gray sweatpants. Expensive brands, of course, but comfortable and cozy.
Gem throws his head back and takes a long sip of his wine. He exhales slowly, while Fourth’s eyes trail over his silhouette: the tip of Gem’s nose, the fine lines of his jaw, his long neck and exposed collarbones. Bit by bit, Gem slips back into his own skin. Fourth licks his lips.
“Does it really?” Fourth asks.
Gem lowers his eyes and takes Fourth in. The leg he keeps propped up on the bed, the other still dangling. His arms holding his weight as he leans back, looking at Gem with half-lidded eyes. Gem doesn’t smile, he doesn’t say anything. Fourth grins, and raises his leg further, causing the dress to reveal more of his pale, soft skin.
One job. They had one job where they were paired together, and that’s how Fourth became the only fixed member of Gemini’s team. It was Mark who told him that Gem didn’t call anyone else as often as he called Fourth. Not even Prim. And maybe it was due to how versatile Fourth was, being both a capable actor and an agile muscle when needed, but maybe it was really the kiss he exchanged with Gem in the back of an alley outside a casino in Hong Kong.
Fourth can still taste the promise of that kiss in his tongue. In his belly.
Gem takes his wine and circles the bed. He refills the glass and sets it on the nightstand. The bottle and his glass shall leave a perspiration mark on the furniture, and in the morning, it’ll be the only proof that Gemini was ever there. Or anywhere at all.
When he finally sits down on the bed, Fourth is swiftly at his side. A little eager, a little playful.
“Don’t you want to call me darling, and sweetheart, and baby, hmm?”
Fourth’s fingers hop across Gem’s chest like a happy schoolgirl frolicking on the street, and because Fourth is bold, and Gem rarely stops him, he raises his leg over Gem’s and climbs on his lap.
Gem’s still holding his glass of wine, and he looks at Fourth with fake disinterest. It’s funny, how he thinks he can fool Fourth. As if Fourth doesn’t know his eyes are on him the whole time they are on any job.
Fourth takes Gem’s free hand and places it on his belly.
“Don’t you want to be the father of my child?” he says and giggles, causing Gem to raise both eyebrows. Fourth keeps one hand on Gem’s shoulder and with the other, he taps Gem’s nose. “She would have your nose and your lips,” he says, tapping Gem’s bottom lip next. Then he taps his own lips, just because he can. “But mostly, she’d take after me.”
“And how are you so certain it’d be a girl?” Gem asks, tilting his head to the side.
Fourth grins, both hands now on Gem’s shoulders, and he scoots closer, tantalizing on Gem’s lap.
“I’ve seen the way you look at Prim. You need to be a girl dad, Gem, just so you can spoil her rotten.”
“Is that why you’re still wearing this dress?”
Gem’s free hand moves to Fourth’s thigh, and the touch, more than his position, makes Fourth shiver.
Fourth shrugs.
“Maybe I just like it.”
And he does. It makes him want to twirl and hold it up as he walks, like a noble woman in one of the movies Prim likes to watch.
The hand that Gem kept on Fourth’s thigh moves to Fourth’s chest and pushes him slightly away. Fourth pouts but complies, giving Gem space to place his wine glass next to the bottle on the nightstand. When he settles back against the bed’s headboard, he pulls a thin, silver chain from inside his shirt, and it makes Fourth blink. He doesn’t think he had ever seen Gem keep anything from their jobs before.
Sitting on the chain is a ring. Rose gold and thin, with a single gem at its heart — the charming tourmaline, round, with two half-moons framing it on either side, filled with small diamonds.
Gem unclasps the chain and places the ring on his palm. And then, inexplicably, he takes Fourth’s right hand and slips the ring into his ring finger.
“Hmm,” Gem says. “Looks like I got the right size after all.”
And Fourth, eyes wide and alarmed, heart hammering against his ribcage and face as pink as the tourmaline, is an easy prey to Gem as he flips Fourth over and starts tickling him.
“Wait— Stop— Gemini!”
The hotel room is filled with his and Gem’s laughter, and finally, the ritual is complete. Every thief that worked with Gemini could only ever describe him as razor-sharp, focused and quiet, but that’s only when he’s working. When Fourth met him, all those years ago, they were both drunk, fleeing from the local police, and kept covering each other’s mouth with their hands to try and stifle their giggles as the police ran into glass windows and yelled at them from a distance to just fucking stop.
Now, Fourth shrieks, “Stop! Stop, please!”, and attempts to stop Gemini’s hands from drumming against his sides, and when Gem starts kissing his neck, he both giggles and groans and tries to kneel Gemini, but it’s difficult when he’s settled himself so nicely between Fourth’s legs.
“Now I don’t have to worry when you’re paired with someone else again,” Gem says, and Fourth rolls his eyes.
“Awfully bold move from someone who’s only ever called himself my boss,” Fourth says.
Gem’s hands, tired of mischief, take hold of Fourth’s wrists, pinning them over his head, against the mattress.
Fourth’s mouth hangs open, his pupils dilating as Gem hovers above him.
“Would you rather call me husband?”
The words are enough to sober Fourth up, cause him to smirk and struggle faintly against the cage of Gem’s hands.
“Aren’t you skipping a few steps here, phi?” He tilts his head, offering Gem his lips, and watches as the movement has the desire effect of drawing Gem’s attention. “Shouldn’t you buy me dinner first?”
“We’ve eaten together many times,” Gem retorts. His voice, always so deep and serious around other, gains an amused lilt when it’s just the two of them. It makes Fourth warm all over. “We can’t afford dating in this industry, Ai’Fot. We can either die for each other, or never see each other again.”
The idea is like a knife through Fourth’s gut. With a frown, he struggles against Gem’s hands, but Gem is resolute, and doesn’t let go. There’s a light in his eyes, and it could be humor, or it could be happiness. Fourth can’t really decipher it, so he just makes a show of giving up.
“Go on then,” he says. “Shall we make this our honeymoon bed?”
With one final lopsided smile, Gem lets go of his wrists and leans in. Fourth closes his eyes, and holds his breath.
Gem bites his neck at the same time as he starts tickling him again, and Fourth howls out another laughter.
“Gem!”
He’s breathless by the time Gem kisses him, one hand moving to take the wig away from Fourth’s head and the other on Fourth’s thigh, encouraging Fourth to wrap his legs around him. He tastes of expensive chardonnay and laughter and he kisses Fourth the way he likes being kissed, open-mouthed and needy and a little messy.
“What should we name the child we make tonight?” he whispers in Gem’s ear, only to see Gem close his eyes in exasperation before he takes off his shirt. Fourth feels a little drunk from the wine in Gem’s tongue, happiness bubbling out of him with every kiss.
He has spent months trying to make love to Gem, and it is better than he ever imagined, but making Gem smile is probably still his favorite thing.
(The morning after, Fourth pretends he doesn’t see Gem take a picture of his hand with the ring and send it to Joong. He thinks that he’ll see Joong in their next job, and he’ll be paraded like one of their very expensive spoils. It’s whatever, really, if it makes Gem’s masculinity happy. Maybe he’ll borrow Prim’s makeup and make himself look really pretty to match and cause Gem to be really grumpy the whole time. Or maybe they’ll need him to fit into a different kind of role for the job, and he can make Gem look really pretty, hair to the side, a charming mole next to his eye.
Either way, he’ll be winning at the end of the day, with the world’s greatest fortune in his arms, snoring against his neck.)