#oatcake

Gonna miss them 🥲

coolness factor: zero | [AO3]

The logical part of M’s brain knew that Dr Bunn was in a relationship with Tan and most likely quite happy with him. For reasons unknown and incomprehensible. The logical part of his brain knew that Dr Bunn was too professional and strict to ever consider a relationship with a subordinate let alone someone who was his immediate junior.

The emotional part of his brain however was a feral beast that looked at all the information he had and scoffed.

M had parked under several trees across the side entrance of the hospital. The cup of coffee he held was more decoration than a beverage he intended to drink. He needed something to occupy his hands.

The night staff was already trickling out of the building and not more than two minutes later Dr Oat biked around the corner. M felt some of his tension leave his body.

Oat and his bike had become a familiar sight since he had come to Viangpha Mork. The young doctor rode it everywhere, to work, to the market, and sometimes even to go out. M hadn’t thought too much about his choice of transportation despite secretly checking that Oat’s bicycle was roadworthy. He had once retightened the brakes, but with Oat’s approval and they had had a rather amusing almost fight about wearing a helmet. Which Oat refused to, much to M’s displeasure.

“’Morning.”

“Oh,” Oat looked up from where he was kneeling to secure his bike. The smile he threw him made the anxiety and the embarrassment M felt a bit better. “Good morning, Inspector.” Oat looked down at his watch and then frowned. “It’s a bit early, huh?”

M sighed internally. Having a crush really grated on his coolness factor.

“I just finished my night shift.” An hour ago to be exact, but no one needed to know that.

“I hope it wasn’t stressful,” Oat said and stood up.

And then M had no idea how to proceed. He thought he had a plan, which wasn’t a good one because he now realized that it had to appear weird that he knew that Oat couldn’t drive. Maybe not weird. But it was weird that he wanted to ask him about it in the early morning hours when the fog was still hanging in the streets and the sun hadn’t gone up yet.

Why couldn’t he have waited until later?

“Did something happen? I thought we decided to meet this evening?”

They weren’t dating per se. M wanted to, badly, but they were still stuck in the little dance of spending every minute together when they weren’t at work, brushing their shoulders together whenever they walked next to each other, having freaking inside jokes, but not actually asking each other out for an official date. M was scared shitless because even though he knew that the way Oat looked at him and smiled at him meant something, he was still afraid that he misinterpreted the signals.

Oat’s smile made his heart skip a beat and that scared him a little bit.

“No… it’s just.” He tried to find a reason why he would ask out of nowhere, but it had been a long nightshift if he was honest, and his brain was filled with jealous thoughts only. He wanted to scratch his nose but still held the coffee cup in his hand and bumped it accidentally against his face. Great.

“I heard that you don’t have your driver's licence, and before I forget about it, I wanted to tell you that we have a learning parkour behind the school. If you want to learn. It’s your decision if you...”

He babbled. M squinted against the sky that got brighter by the second. His ears burned.

“It’s not really a learning parkour if I’m being honest, they put some warning triangles on the ground and one of the teachers got inspired and made a figure which apparently should symbolise a pedestrian, but the vote is still out on that...”

Could someone shoot him now, please?

When he found the courage to look at Oat, he wasn’t in the least surprised that Oat smiled widely at him. Mischief and delight bright in his eyes. M knew that his ears were on fire right now.

“You heard that Dr Bunn offered to teach me how to drive!”

M opened his mouth to deny it, but it was true. Then he frowned because Oat didn’t sound mad, he sounded like he had just opened a present he really, really liked.

“I can’t believe I am also part of the weird territorial thing you two have going on.”

M scoffed. “That’s not what this is about.”

“Really?”

Maybe. Maybe it was part of it. Maybe M wanted to take a crayon and mark everything with an X he considered his. Mark it so Bunn wouldn’t touch it. Bunn made him uncharacteristically possessive and when he had heard from a colleague that Oat didn’t have a driver’s license and that Dr Bunn had offered to teach him… he had wanted to do something to Oat that was the equivalent of licking his sandwich so that Bunn wouldn’t dare to take a bite out of it.

“If Tan had offered to teach me, you would have reacted similarly?”

M tried to keep his stern Inspector face to say “Yes”, but couldn’t because the thought that Tan would keep his attention on another person that wasn’t Bunn for longer than ten seconds was laughable.

“But Tan didn’t offer,” he said instead and then winced. Oat made a gotcha sound.

“Where did you even have the information that Bunn offered to teach me?”

“Viangpha Mork is small, words go around quickly,” he said and this time he knew that his Inspector-face gave nothing away. Oat didn’t need to know how invested everyone was in their maybe-relationship. They even ran to him when Oat bought two mangoes instead of one.

Oat made a tststs sound at him as if he was a cat and Oat had caught him scratching up the couch.

“You two need to work on this rivalry thing because I will not be dragged further into it. Also, no. Dr Bunn isn’t going to teach me how to drive. Because I don’t want to learn how to drive.”

“Oh.”

“I have my bike and that is enough,” he patted the saddle affectionally.

M didn’t know why he felt disappointed.

“And,” Oat continued, “if I ever feel the need to learn I will ask you. Until then I have you to drive me around, right?”

He patted M’s cheek affectionately like he had done to his bike before he said goodbye and turned and walked away.

M might have stood frozen on the spot for longer than he wanted to admit. At least until someone shouted a “Good Morning Inspector” at him.

He touched his cheek then his ears and yes, they were burning up alright.

Manner of Death: So, Tan is always flirting with Dr. Bun.

Manner of Death: Look at the adorable danger teens!

Manner of Death: Soulmates that met in college!

Manner of Death: The Inspector is a beefcake with a too tight uniform AND a good guy.

Manner of Death: The mafia is full of much better people the government or the police.

Manner of Death: These two guys made eye contact once while one was doing surgery on the other and now they're in love.

Manner of Death: We're ending with the most dramatic marriage proposal ever.

Oatcake

NOT SOMETHING WITH INSPECTOR M'S NAME BUT THE FACT THAT MAN IS AN ABSOLUTE BEEFCAKE - THAT IS USED AS A SHIP NAME I'M SCREAMING