Cody Balfour, a young archeologist currently living and studying abroad in Thailand, sat clenching an empty coke bottle tightly between his two hands, barely keeping to the edge of his seat. Just an hour prior, Cody had zero interest in the fighting sport of Muay Thai. After much badgering from his superior, he unenthusiastically relented and attended his first match. But now, his eyes were glued to the ring. Cody never expected what he had previously considered a violent and uncouth sport to be as graceful, fierce, fluid, and raw all at once.

Even when he didn't have a clue as to who he should root for, he was drawn in with every strike, kick, and knee. However, this time he knew exactly who to support. It was the final match of the night, and Cody was wide-eyed, drinking in every movement the short, stocky, and severely handsome Thai Fighter known as Nicolas Brown.

Through the first three rounds, even a novice such as Cody could tell that the "incredible" Buakaw (As Dr. Chad kept referring to him as), and Nicolas, were both getting a feel for the fighting style of the other- occasionally landing devastating blows, but for the most part keeping a heavy sparring pace. Both Cody and even Buakaw, it seemed, were confused at the unexpected gentleness that an ex-street fighter such as Nicolas would have. After 10 years of illegal fights, one would expect Nicolas to be rougher and more brutal in his attacks.

Though Cody had been excited (In more ways than one) to watch Nicolas fight, actually witnessing it was more than he could have ever bargained. Even from the distant seating Cody and Chad had procured, he found himself visually tracing every muscle, his heart beating fast. When Nicolas struck with his fists, Cody watched his shoulder and arm muscles contract, and then relax with lustful awe. When Nicolas elbowed, Cody let his eyes wander down the graceful curve of Nicolas' tricep, to his chest, and then down to his abs (...and maybe a bit lower). And when Nicolas kicked, Oh God, when he kicked, Cody couldn't help but steal glances at the power seeping from Nicolas' abs, sweeping to his toes, and back up again - his sinful eyes resting at the obscenely high hem the bottom of thai shorts allowed him to see.

The night was thick with foreign spices and humidity. It was already a sweltering night, but Cody had found one more reason to break a sweat.

Cody sat, dazed, as the two competitors broke for a minute of rest between the 3rd and 4th round. Though Nicolas and Buakaw had both been putting up a good, albeit steady fight, Buakaw was a touch ahead in terms of points. Cody did not know Nicolas personally (Though he had "accidentally" met him earlier that evening, Cody tried to forget the embarrassment of knocking the thai fighter over), but despite their lack of acquaintance, Cody desperately wanted Nicolas to win. Not only was this because of the irrational crush he was harboring for him, but because of the brief backstory Cody had heard from Dr. Chad before their match had begun. Cody did not know why Nicolas returned to professional, honest fighting after a decade of illegal fighting, but he supposed he probably had a good reason. And Cody wanted him to win, especially if it meant getting an honest life back on track.

"God." Cody muttered under his breath to himself. "When did you get so goddam gay, Balfour." He blushed. He didn't know Nic at all, but here he was, wishing for him to have a good life simply because he developed a crush on him in the span of 90 minutes.

His thoughts were interrupted, as the bell rang for round 4.

Right away, Cody could tell something had shifted from the previous match to this one. Buakaw instantly chased after Nicolas ("Don't chase after him like an idiot!", Chad yelled), pummeling with jabs and hooks, the occasional unexpected knee flying into Nicolas' gut. Nicolas was flung into the ropes of the far corner, seemingly just leaning against them without fighting back. Cody jumped at the impacts aimed at Nicolas, and couldn't hold back gasps of vicarious pain.

"Fight- Fight!" Cody yelled, aimlessly.

Though Buakaw didn't seem to be letting up, suddenly Nicolas switched. It was as wordless, and ubiquitous a switch as any. One minute Nicolas was taking all of Buakaw's blows, and then suddenly he wasn't. Without warning, he seamlessly grabbed Buakaw in an impenetrable clinch. He kneed constantly, first the left, then the right - angling in with his blows, so each one knocked the wind out of Buakaw. Suddenly, the unconquerable Buakaw seemed like a ragdoll, each impact rolling his body back.

After about 10 seconds of unrelenting knees, Nicolas kept his hold on Buakaw's neck with his left hand, and freed his right hand. With his hand released, he elbowed Buakaw square in the temple, 3, 4, 5 times. The referee broke the clinch as Nicolas slowed down for a moment, and Buakaw stumbled back, only for a second, before charging back in like a warrior ("That's right- don't take that crap from street scum like him!" Chad yelled). Only, before Buakaw could land a single punch, Nicolas was kicking him, so fast that it seemed impossible. First the right, then the left, his kicks were so fast that despite Buakaw's sagging body, he was kept upright by the sheer back-and-forth force. Then, to finish it off, Nicolas landed a single devastating cross, hitting Buakaw square in the jaw. The impact made Buakaw stumble backwards, but before either one could strike again, the bell rang.

"Holy shit." Cody said, equal parts in awe, and in horror.

"No freakin' kidding." Chad said, a foul look on his face. Because of all the clinch work in round 4, Nicolas had not only caught up to Buakaw, but surpassed him in points. Though it was still anyone's game, after such an overwhelming takedown, both Cody and Chad seemed unsure about the next round.

"That sonuvabitch is one scrapper, but he hasn't done a single thing wrong." Chad said with admiration and disgust. "I think Buakaw doesn't know what to do. After all, in these types of fights, both the winner and the loser get paid. He's probably used to more sedentary fights where people don't go 100% like that. It's probably a lot different on the streets."

The bell rang for the final round, and Cody could see fire in Buakaws eyes. This time, they both gently approached each other, staring each other down, until finally Buakaw let out a jab. Without hesitation, they were both flying shots at one another, blocking and striking with fury. Buakaw increased the speed of his fists and Nicolas kept up, the ease slipping until all he could do was keep up with the blocks and throw out a hurried jab every few seconds.

Buakaw turned up the heat, and kneed Nicolas, left then right, pushing Nicolas back towards the ropes again. Buakaw slammed Nicolas with a rear kick, and Cody could see the wind knocked out of him. As Buakaw began punching again, Cody was bouncing up and down in his seat at this point, struggling to keep from shouting out.

Suddenly, with Buakaw's guard down from his string of successes, Nicolas planted a foot jab into Buakaw's chest, sending him flying halfway across the ring ("What an idiot!" Chad cried, Cody couldn't tell if he meant at Buakaw or Nicolas). The two were now too far from one another for either of them to strike, so they both had to head towards one another again- but this time Nicolas had a slight advantage. Without having to collect himself after having the wind knocked out of him from such a foot jab, he met Buakaw in the middle of the ring.

Without stopping to allow Buakaw a single move, Nicolas elbowed him across the forehead, the blow glancing sharply off of Buakaw's brow. Where the elbow landed, a gash formed, and Nicolas elbowed him again, in the same place, only this time with his left elbow. Buakaw haphazardly swung a few punches, but Nicolas brought him in a clinch before Buakaw could react properly. Nicolas kneed him several times, hard, in the gut. He released the clinch before the ref could break them apart, and then elbowed him again and again- hitting Buakaw in the temples, across the forehead, at his cheekbones, and across his chin. At this point, blood was flowing freely from Buakaw's head, but Buakaw continued to struggle, until he fought his way out of Nicolas' deathly elbow range, and began kicking Nicolas fiercely. Nicolas blocked the onslaught of kicks repeatedly, until he jumped with a flying knee, somehow, making contact with the underside of Buakaw's jaw. Buakaw went flying backwards, and he picked himself up, bloodied and scowling. Before he had a chance to retaliate, however, the bell rang- signaling the end of the final round.

It had been a close match, point wise, but everyone in the audience- even the begrudging Chad- knew who won. The ref walked over to Nicolas and raised his hand into the air. Cody bounced in his seat and clapped enthusiastically, admiring the glistening sweat roll down Nicolas' built body. Cody stood and cheered, and many members of the crowd followed suit.

Despite the stunning and deserved win, Nicolas wasn't smiling. He allowed his arm to be raised in the air for a moment, then jerked his hand back down. He looked around the room, and Cody could have sworn the fighters hard, brown eyes bumped against his own.

Time seemed to slow down as they held eye contact, and the deafening applause was silenced. Cody blushed and smiled at Nicolas, self-consciously putting a hand up to his hair. Nicolas looked away as soon as he first looked, (Was that a slight blush Cody saw? He shook his head. 'Obviously not.') and exited the ring. Cody watched the fighters strong back grow smaller as he shuffled through the crowds, and time caught back up. Cody was swallowed once again in the loud applause of many. He felt small.

After a time the crowd thinned, but Cody couldn't bring himself to leave, not yet. Chad rolled his eyes at Cody's unmoving eyes, and excused himself.

Before leaving Cody completely, Chad left with some parting advice. "Knowing the mountain of paperwork you have waiting for you, I would keep the flirting minimal." Chad flipped Cody off for the second time that evening, as was his habit, and made his way through the sea of empty chairs. Cody blushed. Was he really that transparent? Or was Chad just teasing him? Cody couldn't decide which, but when his eyes wandered to see a now toweled off Thai fighter, sitting and nodding at his trainer at the opposite side of the stadium, Cody decided to not worry about the grouchy old archaeologist's advice.

Cody's legs were moving before his mind was. Suddenly, Cody was halfway across the

stadium, nearing Nicolas Brown. In the time it had taken Cody to walk that far, he hadn't thought of a single thing to say. This realization hit him, and picking up speed, he made an instinctive u turn - speed walking in the opposite direction.

"Idiot!" Cody swore at himself, his long legs sweeping him further from his goal. "Don't just walk in there without a freaking plan!" Cody punched himself in the forehead, attracting the side-long glances of the milling crowd. "Idiot! Moron!"

In between berating himself, he looked up to see the final vendors of the evening selling a coca-cola to a young Thai boy. An idea spawned in his head. Though it was haphazard and unplanned, he felt like an idea -no matter how half-assed - was better than no idea at all.

He ran up to the vendor. "Two, please." He said in Thai. The vendor rummaged in his ice box, and Cody felt a shiver down his spine when he grasped the dewey glass in his hands. After the purchase, he set his sights once more on Nicolas, this time steeling himself for contact.

"Alright. Alright!" Cody said, quickening his pace. "Be cool Balfour, be cool. Don't make it weird."

Cody looked at the ground as he rehearsed one line in Thai over and over "That was a great fight. I'm glad I got to watch you. You were amazing." He wasn't sure if this was too forward, or awkward to say, but he hoped that his obviously farang nature would bring some endearment to the otherwise unplanned encounter. He looked up, and realized he was a lot closer to Nicolas than he expected to be.

Sitting just 5 feet to Cody's right, was the handsome fighter. Cody observed nervously. Nicolas' trainer was old, a previous Thai fighter much past his prime- probably in his 60s or perhaps even 70s. Despite his age, he still seemed strong and sure of his movements. He spoke with big movements in his arms, and though he was speaking slower than most Thai conversations seemed to go, Cody struggled to understand all of what he was saying.

"-next time I need less of this-" The coach emulated some offensive punches with a nasty look on his face, "and more of this." He started shifting his weight side to side, apparently dodging attacks. His expression was sharp but calm. "Wait for the opponent to slip, and then pounce. Don't go on the offensive. You will both tire too quickly." Nicolas grunted and looked away.

The trainer gave Nicolas a slap up the back of his head, forcing Nicolas to look back at his trainer. "Tonight was sloppy." The trainer said that with a good natured smile on his face.

Nicolas gestured something with one of his hands sharply, and the trainer laughed.

"You're right, you're right as always. I'm proud though. But enough out of me, it looks like you have an admirer waiting to talk to you." The trainer nodded at Cody with a smile.

Cody jerked his head back with embarrassment when he realized the trainer was talking about him. He had been so focused on translating the Thai that he had forgotten his purpose.

"Ah-ah…" Cody tightened his arms, bracing himself. "I love your… your uh" (what was the word for fight?) "your battle- no, your fight! It was good and, uh, I watched and, uh," Cody stumbled over his words a little too much. The two men were staring at him, and Cody's fluster increased. The trainer was smiling at him good naturedly, prompting him to continue - Nicolas was staring at Cody's mouth, neither showing approval or disapproval. Cody blushed. "And uh, well, I'm glad I got to fight! I mean, watch you fight!"

"Damn it!" Cody added in english under his breath.

Cody forced a smile through the blush that had now spread to the tips of his ears. He remembered the two sodas in his hands and awkwardly presented them to both Nicolas and his trainer.

"For you." He said. What a freaking moron!' Cody thought to himself. 'So much for trying to leave a good impression on Nicolas, idiot.'

After a millisecond of silence, Cody haphazardly offered a wai (respectful bow) to the two of them, and started to turn to leave.

"Well now! Thank you very much, young man." The trainer said in heavily accented, but perfectly clear English. "That was some impressive Thai as well. How long have you been in our beautiful country?"

Despite every bone in Cody's body screaming at him to leave, to escape, before he caused more damage, there was a twinkle in the trainer's eye that stopped Cody from retreating.

"Um, six months, Mr…."

"My students call me Master K," Master K looked down at the now standing Nicolas, who had opened the Coke and was taking a long draught. "...though this one calls me 'Old man'", Master K elbowed Nicolas stiffly in the Cody's surprise, Nicolas let out a real, hoarse laughter, sputtering in his drink. He looked to Master K with a grin, wiping off a few splatters of soda from his cheek.

Cody's breath was taken away, for what seemed the 30th time of the evening. Despite how unbelievably gorgeous Nicolas already was at all other times of the day, when the unsuspected smile crossed his lips, Nicolas became at least a hundred times more gorgeous. Nicolas met Cody's eyes again, and Cody wasn't imagining this time, when he saw a blush on his face. The smile was gone, but the corners of his eyes were pointed up with a twinge of happiness.

"Ah, well, uh, My name is Cody Balfour." Cody offered a hand out to shake (Though it was a farang thing to do, he felt more comfortable with the western sensibility of shaking hands upon meeting). "It is an absolute pleasure to meet you, and…" Cody gingerly extended his hand to the now standing fighter.

Nicolas took the extended hand, and smiled warmly, keeping his still wrapped hands on Cody's damp skin for what seemed an eternity. Cody thought he must be dreaming, if such a handsome man would willingly be touching Cody's hand for more than a half a second.

"This is Nicolas Brown." Master K said in Nicolas' place. Nicolas released Cody's hand and gave a short wai. Cody "Wai'd" back, as was the custom. Master K continued, "He's been ruining my life for, pheeew, must be 20 years now?"

Here was when Master K did something strange. Using his right hand that wasn't clutching Cody's gift, he covered the right side of mouth, shielding it from Nicolas' view. "Just between you and me, I'm glad he's been ruining my life. After ignoring me a little too much for a little too long, he gave me a real scare about a year ago. So I'm glad he's back." Master K removed his hand and winked at Cody. "Don't tell him I said so, though, he might think I'm going soft."

Cody was taken aback in utter confusion. "...But Nicolas is right here..?" Nicolas was scowling at Master K, and whipped his hands around with a little more force than was necessary.

"I know you hate when I do that." Master K said with a laugh. "Won't keep me from doing it. It's what you get for calling me old man all the time."

Realization struck Cody like a lightning bolt. Nicolas was deaf.

Nicolas was deaf. Nicolas is deaf!

Before Cody could think of something to say, Master K raised his coke to the side of his face.

"Thank you very much for the gift. I'm glad you enjoyed the fight, Cody - and I hope to see you again! This old man has got to go to bed, however." Before Master K could leave, Nicolas signed what seemed to be a question to him, tilting his head to the side in inquiry. Master K nodded. "Yeah, same time tomorrow. Good night, Nico."

Master K turned once more to leave, this time winking at Cody subtly. Before Cody could wonder what it was for, Master K subtly jerked his head towards Nicolas and mouthed "Have fun."

Cody's mouth suddenly went dry, his heart beating rapidly. Have fun? Have fun doing what? What did Master K want him to do?

A silence stretched for a moment, and sensing the end of the conversation, Nicolas reached to grab some of his gear. Cody interrupted him before he could get far.

"So!" Cody blurted out, uncomfortably loud (It's okay, Cody thought to himself, he can't hear how loud it was anyway…) Then Cody grimaced inwardly at the perhaps inappropriate thought. "So… well, I don't know any sign language or anything, but…" Nicolas' searched his gaze over Cody's lips and neck, tearing Cody apart in all directions. A blush grew all over him, places he hadn't thought possible. Cody finished his sentence before he could chicken out. "Would you like to go grab a drink?"

Nicolas lifted the coke Cody had offered not 10 minutes earlier, a satirical expression on his face, which obviously said "I've already got one".

Cody berated himself inwardly. (You idiot! Why would he get a drink if you already bought him one you… you stupid ho!) "I meant a different, um, alcoholic, one?"

Nicolas shrugged with a grin on his face. Looking in a different direction, he gestured nondescriptly to the gaping entrance. Cody knew, even without knowing a lick of sign language, that he meant yes.