Giant Dancing Hedgehogs are Nightmare Fuel

Chapter 1

The beeps from the machines now barely register in Pete’s mind anymore. They have become commonplace in his everyday routine of caring for Vegas and his basic needs while he tries to outdo Sleeping Beauty, keeping watch for anyone who may have a bone to pick with Vegas and are cowardly enough to attack someone in a coma, and tending to Macau by making sure he has food in his belly and is keeping up with his schoolwork. Vegas wouldn’t like it if Macau fell behind. 

One of their most civilized conversations that had happened over two bowls of noodles was about Macau’s struggles with math and how Gun had pulled a gun on Vegas when he hired a tutor for him, since it was an unnecessary expense and a potential danger to let someone from the outside in so easily. Pete immediately called bullshit on Gun’s reasoning, since he still remembers Tankhun (of all people) hiring a French tutor for Kim while he was still in upper secondary school. Despite Tankhun no longer being the heir, everyone had accepted his decision. But since he doubts Tankhun is going to extend an offer to hire a math tutor for his youngest cousin, Pete tries to help him the best that he can, which is not very much at all. He does a better job with comforting Macau when his circumstances catch up with him and he breaks down into tears. At first, Macau wouldn’t let him, completely untrusting of Pete and likely for good reasons. But after that first week, Macau weirdly warms up to him on his own accord, taking to calling Pete ‘Phi’ and chewing out a nurse who asks Pete to leave the room since he isn’t family.

“Why the fuck is she trying to kick you out when I told her that you are the only other person allowed in here without supervision?” Macau asks, pulling at his hair as Pete rubs his back.

“She’s just trying to go by protocol,” Pete soothes, even though they have reminded the same nurse of Macau’s decision to have Pete here several times. 

“Like, what other family members could we even have here?” Macau continues, a dark look in his eyes.

Pete doesn’t have an answer for him. Possibly Porsche, since he’s weirdly now Vegas’s cousin and potential boss, but it’s a baffling fact to just think about - let alone say out loud - and that has to do with Porsche and Kinn, more than anything. He pushes away the pseudo-incestuous thoughts and decides to just put his arm around Macau to comfort him instead. 

While winning Macau over helps with his own mood, Pete still finds that the three weeks Vegas spends in a coma are the worst three weeks of his life. That is truly what he believes as he waits by Vegas’s bedside, praying to whatever might be listening that Vegas will wake up and they can have something in this life and somehow fix and move on from what had happened before. He promises to himself that he’ll be on his guard once they are able to have a conversation, but still be open to a relationship and present for the physical and emotional healing process Vegas will inevitably go through. 

He also promises to himself that he will heal and forgive Vegas for what happened before. It’s hard at times, mainly during the night when he’s just sitting there in the dark doing nothing but watching Vegas’s chest rise and fall. Pete knows that moving past their history will not happen overnight. But he also logically knows that he infiltrated the Minor Family Compound. He went into the situation as an enemy, knowing the likelihood of torture and death. He had witnessed similar situations occur when the Major Family had been compromised. Pete knows that Vegas wouldn’t have done what he did if it weren’t for his father. He also knows that if he had gone into the compound and had already been Vegas’s person of affection, rather than the enemy, things would have gone down a lot differently.

Or, Vegas would feel betrayed and punish him regardless, possibly worse than what Pete had received in reality. But Pete will never know for sure. Vegas continues to be a conundrum, even while he is just lying there. That fact becomes all the more clear when Macau admits that he put the pieces together about Vegas and Pete’s relationship.