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One
Pete immediately walked out the back door to take the call when his phone rang. The other three who are having their breakfast all turn their heads and follow Pete with their eyes. Noticing that he's currently the center of attention, Pete closes the door behind him and that somehow deepens the silence of the kitchen. Macau glances at Vegas, whose gaze is still fixed at the closed door.
Walking back in a couple of minutes later, Pete has a serious expression on his face. "Is everything okay, Pete?" Vegas enquires, worries laced his voice.
That jolts Pete up because he immediately flashes one of his bright, killer smiles, "yea yea, everything's fine. I, uhh.. told Yaa about the family last night, and uhh.."
"She disapproved because which sane grandmother would want her beloved grandson to be with THIS man," Macau lifts both his arms and points at Vegas with jazz hands before continuing with, "..and want you to leave here immediately???" That earns him a glare from Vegas.
Pete chuckles and shoves a spoonful of rice in his mouth, he chews enthusiastically, like he always does and with his mouth still kinda full, he answers, "well, no.. it's worse than that.."
Vegas gulps visibly as he waits for Pete to finish his sentence.
"... she's coming here, with Bpuu."
And as if on cue, seemingly a warning of ill omen, Venice starts to loudly stab his empty plate with his tightly gripped fork.
Two
When Pete said his grandparents coming over would be a worse thing than being told to leave Vegas in the gutter, Macau was skeptical. These are the people that raised his beloved P'Pete, how could these people be anything worse than the pain of heartbreak and lost love?
Also because Pete totally laughed his ass off when he noticed the horror in their faces when he said what he said, waving his hand as tears filled his eyes, "I'm joking, they're going to love you."
That was a story of the past however, as he currently witnesses his brother, the fearless, scary, downright psychopathic big brother, in his best clothes, pacing in the family room, occasionally messing up his perfectly gelled hair with his hand, and combing it back up with sighs.
The baby seems to feel the tension in the air and he is also starting to get restless. He keeps on throwing his toys around as Vegas tries hard to keep them in one place because the house has to be in perfect condition when they arrive, he voiced out exasperatedly earlier to both the baby, and the slightly bigger baby.
"Can you stop it, Hia? You're making us nervous," he knows it's a futile attempt, but Vegas' anxiousness is making him agitated and now it seems like both of them are in a flight to destination: self despair, with a layover at everything-i-love-leave-me airport.
Vegas takes a deep breath and flops next to him, both of them now staring at the floor in front of them. Silence engulfs the room except for the occasional babbles from Venice and the sound of toys being thrown around.
The sound of the car engine is a welcomed change and they both jolt from their sitting positions. Vegas quickly grabs the baby in one hand and hastily picks up the strewn toys. Without being told to, Macau mirrors him and once they're done, both of them stand facing each other, fixing the clothes of the one in front of them. They give each other an encouraging nod before heading to the main door.
The brothers stop in their track as Pete opens the door and ushers in the two guests. Noticing the owners of the house have come to greet them, the elderly couple lifts their hands in wai. "Hello Khun Vegas, Hello Khun Macau, thank you for always taking care of our son. We are always very grateful for your family," Pete's grandpa smiles as he talks to them and Vegas thinks to himself that Pete will probably look like that too when he gets older.
"Oh, and this must be Khun Venice!" Grandma stares at the baby and extends her hand to him. Venice dodges her stare and extends his hands to Pete instead, calling out to him, "Piiitt."
Pete chuckles awkwardly and takes Venice from Vegas and starts to usher his grandparents in, "let's head to the kitchen, you said you're hungry. Khun Vegas said we can use his kitchen for when you're here. Just go through here, it's on your left." The couple again put their hands in wai as they make their way to the kitchen.
Once the bunch are sure the couple can no longer hear them, Vegas turns to Pete, "KHUN Vegas???"
Macau follows, "KHUN MACAU???"
Vegas groans, "what did you tell them, Pete?"
Avoiding their eyes, Pete looks at the baby in his arms, he shrugs, "...that now I work for you? Right, Khun Venice?"
As Venice dives in to give Pete his sloppy open mouth kisses, his older brothers exhale frustratedly.
Three
Vegas had dealt with a lot of people, bad people. And he dealt with them with tenacity and confidence, when he walked into a room, most fear him, others wanna be him.
But this morning, he can't even leave his own room. After a long while - he can't even remember when the last time was - Pete did not sleep in the same bed with him last night. After he put Venice to bed, he had come around to tell Vegas that he's going to stay with his grandparents and they need to talk things out.
Vegas knows that the moment he walks out of this room, he would have to deal with whatever consequences of the conversation Pete had last night with his family. And Vegas is scared, no, terrified. He desperately needs them to know that Pete is his family now, that without Pete there is no family, there is no him. But, he acknowledges that it is not his story to tell, it's Pete's, and there's no one he trusts more in the whole world to get it straight.
And so he takes deep breaths, trying to calm down his frantic heart and shaking hands, and he heads to the kitchen, where he knows they'll be.
He walks in to find grandpa, Venice and Macau sitting next to each other in one line at the table, all three munching on some papaya. He puts his hands in wai as he catches grandpa's sight, in his head, he is berating himself for coming down late, "fuck, gramps will think I'm a no good person for being here last."
"Oh Mae, our son in law is here," grandpa announces and Vegas freezes in his steps. Grandma and Pete who were facing the stove turn around, "good morning, son! Pete said you can't eat spicy, but you have to try my specialty curry! No excuses! We have water for a reason!" Grandma hits the pot full of simmering curry with the ladle she's holding.
Pete walks over to Vegas, brushing their hands together, before holding him by his shoulders and pushing him down to sit opposite grandpa at the table. Grandpa stares at him, "I hope you don't mind us calling you son, it's still a bit awkward to call you by your name, so, in the future maybe."
Vegas chokes and he manages to croak out a quiet, "not at all, sir. Thank you," his voice trailing off as he tries to control his bubbles of emotions.
"And I mean it still, thank you for taking care of Pete. Please continue to take care of him. He said you were worried about how we will take it, but don't worry, son. I'd like to think that we raised him good enough to know that the decision he made is whatever best for himself. If our Pete is happy, we are happy. What do you say, Mae?" Grandpa glances over his shoulder to look at his wife.
Walking over with two plates with a pile of rice smothered in curry gravy in them, Grandma puts one in front of Macau before sitting next to Vegas, setting the other one in front of him. "Yes, if Pete is happy, we are happy. I have something to complain though.."
Vegas waits with bated breath and grandma continues, "your names are very hard to pronounce!! You," she smacks Vegas on his shoulder, "you," she points to Venice in front of her, "and you," her index finger waving in front of Macau.
"Mine is very simple, Yaa. It's maaaaacauuuu," Macau retorts. Vegas glares at him, nerves long forgotten as he growls at Macau, "don't be rude, Macau!"
That earns him another smack on the shoulder, "don't be so serious, I thought we're family?" Grandma scrunches her nose at him. Vegas softens and he thinks to himself, Pete might look like Yaa too when he gets older.
Pete sets some more plates on the table before taking a seat next to his grandma, "Yaa, for now, you can just call them Son 1, Son 2 and Son 3. We'll practice saying their names later."
Grandma turns to look at Vegas, "yes Son 1, now eat, and tell me how much you love the food I made." Pete giggles before pushing a huge glass of water to Vegas.
Bonus
The family room's air-conditioner is on full blast and both Macau and Vegas are sitting in daze, flushed, chests heaving with occasional tongue sticking. Vegas' shirt is unbutton almost all the way and Macau is topless.
Panting, Macau voices out, "if I didn't know any better, I would think that Yaa is trying to kill us."
The brothers look at each other, and Vegas whispers, quiet enough for only the two of them to hear, "maybe we are already dead and this is our hell."
Macau doubles up in laughter before exclaiming, "oh man, the Saengthams are scary!" Vegas falls to his side and can't help but laugh along.