Wing of a Butterfly

Chapter 28

Vegas glanced at the side, only half listening as his cousins talked, the younger ones updating Tankhun about everything that happened in the last few hours. His eyes were on Pete, watching as the man slowly walked around with Venice in his arms, gently petting the baby's back while swaying from side to side, trying to make him fall asleep. Vegas watched as Pete moved the towel around his shoulders so it covered his upper body. The man changed his shirt and washed his chest and arms before taking the baby from Chay, but he still made sure that Venice only touched the clean fabric of the towel so he wouldn't get dirty.

Vegas turned his head for a moment to look at Porsche as the man crossed the room and stopped next to Kinn before sitting on the man's lap with a smile on his face while caressing the older one's face, careful to not touch the bruise around his jawline. Vegas glanced back at Pete who was still standing a little to the side, his torso turned away with his back to Vegas. As Vegas watched his dusty hair, his hunched shoulders, the back of his strong arms slightly reddened and irritated in lines, he wondered if the kidnapping was harder on Pete than the man tried to show. Vegas noticed that from the first moment they met after the explosion at the warehouse that the other was acting a little strange. Normally he would have leaned against him, trying to reassure Vegas with little covert touches, mindful of their surroundings. He would have looked at him, his eyes warm and gentle as their gaze met. He would have sat next to him with his head on Vegas' shoulder, their sides flush against each other, the heat of their bodies a constant reminder of the other's support.

But now he felt the distance between them like a cold, deep ocean that he didn't know how to cross. When they were hurrying back to the mansion after receiving the notification about the attack, he reached out and grasped Pete's left hand, linking their fingers together, feeling better when the man readily accepted his touch but Pete still lowered his head and slightly turned his face away when Vegas hugged him after they learned that the defence of the mansion was successful. Vegas wondered what could have happened that made the man act like this. Was he simply too tired or did the betrayal of his former colleague make him retreat into himself, hesitant to accept affection from others? As Kim walked towards them and gently touched Venice's back making Pete look up at him with a smile, Vegas knew it couldn't have been the latter. Pete was behaving the same as always with everyone else, it was just Vegas that he distanced himself from and it was killing him.

Vegas turned his head away as he thought about what he could have done, his eyes following Kim as the younger sat next to Chay, sliding his palm down the man's thigh and then up as Chay looked at him, temporarily lifting his head from Macau's shoulder. The movement wasn't lost on Tankhun either, who was watching them with shining eyes that just got even wider as Kim leaned forward and pressed his lips to Chay's forehead, making the eldest Theerapanyakun let out a truly unholy sound so high that Vegas had to wince when it reached his ears that were still painful from the explosion at the pier.

"The two of them?! Both of them?!" asked Tankhun. He jumped up clapping like he received the best gift of his life. "Do you have any idea what you have done?"

He pointed at Chay but the younger one just blinked up at him like he was trying to decide if Tankhun was asking a real question or only making a dramatic pause before continuing.

"You bypassed like two-thirds of the plots for the romance dramas!" yelled Tankhun. He leaned forward and grabbed Chay's hand, shaking it with such force that the younger man yelped as he tried to stay sitting on the couch. "I wished so many times that the female lead would just be with both the main and second lead, especially when they had a bromance going on instead of spending ten episodes walking around like it was the end of the world because she couldn't choose between them!" Tankhun suddenly turned around, making Vegas lean back in his seat as the man almost hit him with his arm as he pointed at Pol with a serious expression on his face. "Do you see this? I told you that it could be done!"