but Red is mine [vegaspete]

A temple in town

"I have a job for you."

***

Honestly, the first few failed tries should have been the easiest excuse to avoid future failure. There was no way to spy on a man who had eyes at the back of his head. And he wasn't even gracious enough to let Pete live, for once. It was almost as if he took pleasure in catching Pete and letting Pete know that he knew that Pete was watching.

Because that was awesome for Pete's self-confidence as a bodyguard.

It was only a matter of time. If he'd spotted Pete, on a dark street, in the middle of the night, there was no reason why Pete should have believed that things wouldn't end with him being dragged into the temple by the devil spawn and the devil spawn's younger brother.

As they waited for Macau to return, Pete tried to stand on the opposite side of the narrow passageway, because, for some reason Vegas didn't seem to want to let go. He'd clamped his hands down on Pete's shoulders to the point that it was almost painful and, frankly, Pete just needed a break.

"So you're a virgin, huh?"

Pete was not sure he'd heard that right.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

Vegas pointed at Pete's neck.

"I can see why you're so jumpy. You've got a mate mark on your neck."

Self Conscious, Pete's hand rose to cover the mark on the left side of his neck. Usually, his hair kept it out of sight. But of course, Vegas would be the only person to catch it.

"People with soulmates tend to avoid relationships," Vegas leaned back on the wall. "Best not to be committed to someone only to have your soulmate show up, right?"

Well, he was right. But this wasn't something Pete wanted to discuss with anyone, much less his morally dubious semi-boss, who he was supposed to be spying on. The goal was to get information on Vegas, not the other way around.

"Don't freak out," Vegas said. "I have one, too."

That caught Pete's attention. Because that would be something that Kinn would like to know. Pete wondered if Kinn did know. They were cousins, after all, but they weren't that close and most people tended to keep those things secret. A soulmate mark was a weakness for so many reasons. Especially to people like Vegas who couldn't afford to be weak.

"Yes," Vegas said, still basically talking to himself. "On my back. Haven't seen it in years. Barely remember it's there."

"What does it look like?"

"Don't remember," he shrugged.

"How do you not remember that?"

"My father had it sealed when I was a kid."

That was probably the saddest thing Pete had ever heard. He could only imagine the pain, the trauma of having your mark sealed. He could imagine the screams of a child, begging them to stop, but knowing they wouldn't listen because Khun Gun was ruthless with his children.

"Do you pity me, Pete?"

"No," he said, quickly. "It's not like that, Khun Vegas."

"Don't worry. I don't regret it. My soulmate used to be a clutz. I'd get broken fingers, bruised lips, broken ribs. One day, I got my fingers smashed like someone had banged them in the door. And I was just sitting there. My father thought it was embarrassing to have me at a meeting and then suddenly start crying. So he had it sealed. Right now," Vegas stood, turning to the crowd of other temple-goers. "My soulmate could march right by me and I wouldn't even know it was him."

"You're sure it's a "him"?"

"The fates wouldn't be so cruel as to mate me to a woman."

He smiled at Pete. Unnerved, Pete looked away, just in time to see Macau motioning for them to approach the temple.

***

"We make merits together."

***

There was a hand on Pete's back. Normally, it wouldn't be much of a problem because this was what Vegas liked to do. He liked to get in Pete's space and assert his dominance. He seemed to enjoy watching Pete squirm. Pete knew this. The hand on his back wasn't the problem.

The fact that the hand kept going lower and lower?

What the fuck was this? Even as he shifted away, he could still feel Vegas' hands grabbing him in the butt, moving freely like Pete's body belonged to him. And on some level, Pete kind of did. There was only so much he could do to deter Vegas from pushing further, considering that he was beholden to Vegas' family.

Accepting the chance for some fresh air, Pete rushed from the temple. He needed to breathe. Since when did the bosses decide that they wanted to start touching their bodyguards like this? Because, there was Kinn who was weirdly possessive of Porsche. And now, here was Vegas who seemed to think he could touch Pete whenever.

A shiver ran through his body that ended with a cringe.

There was also the possibility that, like everything else he did, Vegas was just trying to fuck with Pete. He had, after all, just found out that Pete was a mated virgin with no experience. It would be very much on brand for Vegas to exploit that. Because, of course, Pete's job wasn't already hard enough.

When he returned to find a note, Pete wanted to kick something. He'd been distracted. He'd been sent away so that Vegas could take Macau and disappear. And the note. The fucking note.

Don't forget to do this again...

Don't forget to do this again, together...

As if Pete needed the reminder that he'd never been able to spy on Vegas. As if he needed a reminder, that as long as he was looking at Vegas, Vegas would also be looking right at him.

A/N:

This is the second part of the series, "Blue is not your color, but Red is mine" that follows the show canon, episode by episode. If you'd like to read the accompanying kinnporsche-hanahaki fic, please check out "Blue is not your color."

:)