Chapter Text
Vegas knows how Tay gets whenever competitions are coming towards them so he takes time off to bring his friend coffee.
The rest of the club happily welcome him in, often urging him to stay. Pete rewards him with hugs and bright smiles whenever he brings him coffee.
Things fall apart when Tay snaps one too many times.
A girl who Vegas always sees Pete stay behind to help begins to cry.
He watches as the girl stops where she is after Tay yells at her and the boy sends the both of them tumbling down, taking Pete down with them. Vegas is on his feet before he knows it.
He watches Pete’s wince smooth away quickly as he begins murmuring to the younger girl as
tears pour from her eyes. They get to the hospital in a blink of an eye and everyone else gets
dismissed.
The boy is bowing apologetically but Pete just gives him a reassuring smile.
Jay, at least that’s what Vegas thinks his name is, hurries towards Pete’s side in a flash.
“You were the one who was supposed to be watching them.” Tay stands in front of Pete, annoyance radiating from his body. “Why can’t you even do that right?”
Vegas wants to step between them. He knows Tay is stressed out but even so, it’s not right for him to say those words.
“Tay-ah.” He speaks up to hopefully stop Tay from saying anything more he’d probably be regretting the next morning.
It doesn’t work.
Tay’s is completely out of it, saying things aimed to hurt. “He can’t even watch the freshmen, Vegas. Why do I keep him here?”
Pete looks as if he’s about to cry. He shrinks back visibly as if that could protect him from Tay’s words. Vegas wants to deck Tay at that point but instead he stands there dumbly with a hand on Tay’s arm to restrain him.
Jay jumps to his feet, blocking Pete from view, looking so angry he could hit through a punching bag. “Tay, watch your words. You know it’s not Pete’s fault at all. It’s my fault if you want to blame anyone. I’m the one who's supposed to be helping with the freshmen.”
Tay looks ready to fight back. “If he was more observant, he would have noticed that Mina was always a step behind.”
Jay doesn’t look the least bit happy about Tay’s words. Vegas knew if things ever came to a physical fight, they’d lose. “You were the one who made her cry. If you weren’t like a prickly porcupine the entire time, she wouldn’t have been so terrified and-”
Vegas is happy that Pete has someone on his side who’d protect him from assholes like him, but he can’t have someone insult his friend without doing anything. “Are you trying to put all the blame on Tay?”
“Let’s not fight.” He hears the tremble in Pete’s voice clearly and suddenly it feels as if there’s something uncomfortable lodged in Vegas’s throat, as if someone forced him to swallow an entire bag of sand. “We still need to figure things out.”
Tay trembles beside him and it reminds him that Tay is still beside him. “Are you alright? You know it’s not your fault.”
He knows Tay is blaming himself over Mina’s accident, he doesn’t need Tay to be drowning in guilt.
“Let’s all calm down first.” Pete’s soft voice cuts through the tension, his tiny hand placed over Jay’s. “Let’s go get something to drink before we figure out how to fill Mina’s spot.”
Vegas sees how hard Pete is trying to stay strong for the sake of the club but he sees his other hand wrapped around the ends of his shirt, tightly.
“I can’t stand to be here anymore.” Jay smiles down at Pete all lovingly and smug. Vegas wants to pick a fight with the taller boy then and there so badly. “Let’s go.”
He sees Pete nod at the other boy before he turns towards them. “I’m sorry for the things that happened today. I hope there won’t be hard feelings between us after this.”
When their eyes meet, he can only see the discomfort from them. They’re bright with unshed tears and at that point he wants to apologize so badly. He wants to tuck him into a protective bubble so no one ever hurts him again.
Pete rips his gaze away from him so quickly, he feels another stab in his chest.
He opens his mouth to tell him—what? He was sorry? He should have defended Pete? But Pete turns away before he gets the chance. The only thing he can do is watch as Pete takes step, after step away from him.
Tay is crying on his doorstep the very next day, regret clear on his face.
“Pete won’t answer my phone calls.” Tay sobs into his shoulder. “I called him last night but no one answered. When I called this morning, Porsche answered and told me Pete was asleep but I heard him talking in the background!” He stays quiet and sets Tay onto the couch. “What do I do, Vegas?”
He pushes away the thoughts of Pete and focuses on the boy crying on his couch. “Go apologize to him.”
“You know I didn’t mean those words, right?” Tay sniffs. “What if Pete quits? I would feel so guilty, I could die. Pete is one of the most talented ones in the group, I don’t even know how I could say that about him. We need him!”
He lets Tay cry a little more before he shoos him off, leaving Vegas with his thoughts occupied by Park Pete the rest of the morning.
Tay comes back two hours later, with a tentative smile on his face.
“Fixed things?” Vegas asks, but he knows the answer for sure. Pete was an angel, he couldn’t even hurt a fly.
Tay nods. “I was so horrible to him and he just smiled and forgave me.”
“Then why do you still look so sad?” He long realized, Tay’s emotions were just as easy to read as Pete’s.
“He hurt his foot yesterday.” Tay’s head slumps forward. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice and yelled at him for something that wasn’t even his fault.”
Vegas frowns. Pete hurt his foot? He’s halfway off the couch before he realizes what he’s doing. Tay shoots him a confused look and he quickly settles back down.
“Is... Is he okay?”
Tay nods again. “He twisted it but Arm wrapped it for him.”
Arm. His name always seemed to pop out whenever Pete’s was mentioned and it irritated him to no end.
“You know how Arm is with Pete, Top told me he skipped out on practice and raced over to make sure Pete’s foot was wrapped properly.” Tay continues not noticing Vegas’s face getting darker and darker with every word.
The first hang out, Porsche tells them Pete was staying home because of his foot.
Vegas doesn’t even notice that he’s not there. He doesn’t.
Until Porsche speaks up.
“He wants to quit dance club.” Porsche’s hands are clenched into fists and he sees Tay freeze.
“What?” Tankhun’s brows are furrowed in a frown. “He loves the club though. I can’t even count the amount of things he’s sacrificed for that club.”
“Some idiots made Pete think that he wasn’t good enough for the club and was a damn burden. He wouldn’t tell me who it was and just fell apart in my arms. And I just let him. I didn’t know how to make him feel better.” Porsche’s eyes are bright with tears.
Tankhun lays a soft, comforting hand on Porsche’s shoulder. “I’m sure you did your best, Porsche.”
“I was wondering if you guys knew who it was.” Porsche turns to them. “I want to know who it was.”
Vegas has his fists clenched under the table. He’s mad at Tay for saying those words in the first place, but most of all he’s mad at himself.
How could he let things get so out of hand. He thought everything would be okay because Pete forgave Tay. He conveniently forgets about the morning texts he’d always gotten from Pete suddenly becoming absent, he pretends not to miss having Pete barge into his studio bearing coffee and bright morning greetings.
“It was me.” Tay says, eyes downcast.
It goes deathly quiet before Porsche shoots to his feet so quickly his chair clatters uselessly behind him. Top leaps into action and wraps his arms around Porsche.
“How could you?” Porsche roars, fighting against Top’s hold. “You of all people should know what he’s done for the club and how hard he works. I thought the two of you were friends!”
“We are!” Tay cries out between sobs.
“Are you really? Friends don’t fucking bring one another down and make them feel like shit.”
Porsche struggles against Top’s hold again. “I don't know what you said to make him feel like he's not wanted but just for the club, he went on a fucking diet because one of those idiots you call a good teacher said he was fat. He ate nothing but fucking salads for half a year. He still doesn’t eat properly now because he’s scared he’ll get ‘fat’ again.”
Tay begins to cry. “I thought things were okay between us. He accepted my apology and I thought he knew I didn’t mean those words.”
“No, you don’t get to cry.” Porsche swipes blindly at his own eyes. “You’re the last one who gets to cry. You weren’t the one who had to see him stick his fingers down his throat. You weren’t the one who had to sit there helplessly and watch him cry himself to sleep. You weren’t the one who woke up to him trying to muffle his cries in the middle of the night.”
Vegas can’t bear Tay’s gutted cries or hearing about all the things Pete suffered through anymore, so he steps between them. “Porsche, you need to stop. Pete didn’t tell you because he didn’t want this to happen.”
“Don’t you, of all people, dare butt in and pretend to know him so well.” Porsche turns his glare towards Vegas. “You’ve hurt him more than any of us here. You just conveniently begin to care about Pete when it suits you but when it doesn’t, you hurt him. You’re blind to everyone else but Tay.”
He doesn’t need Porsche to tell him how much he hates him right now because he hates himself too. A lot more than Porsche can.
“Porsche…” Tankhun steps in and calls him, hoping that could calm him down a little. “Calm down, let’s hear Tay’s explanation first.”
“No.” Porsche bites out. “I don’t want to hear any fucking excuse he can come up with right now.”
“Porsche, please.” Tankhun tries to keep his voice calm.
Porsche shakes Top off easily. “I’m done here, I don’t think I can sit here any longer without wanting to beat someone up.”
“Porsche,” Arm, who has been quiet the entire time, calls out. “I’ll come with you.”
Porsche stares at Arm for a while before he gives him a brief nod and storms out of the cafe, Arm following suit.
The rest of them just stand around awkwardly while Tay continues to sob.
Top is the first one to blink out of his daze. “Maybe we should move to somewhere more private.”
Vegas feels the curious stares prickling his back and he nods.
“My cafe” Tankhun pulls Tay to his feet. “It’s the closest.”
Top nods and all three of them quickly bundle Tay up and out of the restaurant.
When they get there, Tankhun dries Tay’s tears and they each nurse a cup of coffee as Tay tells them what had happened that day.
Vegas can tell, neither Tankhun nor Top are particularly fond of them at that moment but they keep their composure.
It takes Top a while to speak. “If you know you’ve wronged Pete, then the next logical step is to apologize and make him see that your words were not from the heart.”
“Pete has a kind heart,” Tankhun says simply. “Porsche on the other hand, will fight anyone who dares hurt his Pete.”
Top chuckles despite the somber mood. “He actually tried to fight me because he thought I was bullying Pete.”
“Was it when you dropped Pete’s I-touch and cracked it?” Tankhun asks with a small smile on his lips.
Top mirrors Tankhun’s smile as he reminisces. “Porsche came up to me and demanded that ‘I fix the I-touch or suffer his wrath’.”
“Porsche spent an entire week ranting over it when you just laughed.”
As much as Vegas likes hearing about Pete’s past, which consisted more of Porsche, which he could care less about at the moment, he’d rather they figure out how to fix things.
Top and Tankhun nod when he voices that out, keeping the former part to himself.
“I think the best way to go about this for now is to have a talk with Porsche.” Tankhun pushes away his cup. “He’s the one closest to Pete and knowing Porsche, he won’t let any of us close to Pete without his approval.”
Vegas trusts Tankhun because out of all of them, Tankhun is probably the one closest to the pair. If that wasn’t true before, it was definitely true now.
The second time doesn’t go any better. Tankhun invites Porsche over without telling him that both
Vegas and Tay would be there.
Porsche is ready to storm out but Tankhun and Top both plead for him to stay and listen.
The air is tense and Vegas can tell which side Arm is on. It’s not his for sure.
Tay explains and he can see Porsche’s nails digging into the palm of his hand, in an effort not to lose his temper.
Porsche’s look is cold and he can see Tankhun watching all of them carefully. Both he and Top are ready to spring into action if any of them look as if they were ready to fight.
Porsche isn’t happy with it but he begrudgingly nods and tells them he’ll try to convince Pete not to quit. He makes it clear that it’s not for their sake but for Pete’s.
He also makes sure to tell Tay and Vegas that neither are to get anywhere close to Pete without him.
Tay cries and Vegas just holds everything in because he knows they deserve it.
The third time they get together is just plain awkward.
Porsche spouts out a lame excuse of Pete needing to finish a paper without much conviction. No one even bothers to say anything else.
Vegas doesn’t miss him. At all.
Porsche and Arm skip out early and Vegas knows they’re off to find Pete.
Apparently, the third time is not the charm either.
On the fourth time, it’s because Pete was ‘sick’.
Tankhun and Top are exchanging glances across the table and Arm looks visibly sad. Tay looks just as bad, the guilt flowing off him in waves.
Porsche gives in and takes Tay back to his dorm so he can see Pete with a clear warning that if he even thought about hurting Pete again, he wouldn’t hesitate to throw him out.
By the fifth time, Vegas is ready to storm towards the dorms and yank the boy out but he comes, flanked by Tankhun and Porsche on both sides.
The innocent look on Pete’s face tells him that he doesn’t know anything that’s been happening.
Pete smiles at everyone but him. He goes around to hug Tay, probably because he is an angel and knows Tay would be feeling guilty, before he hurries back to the seat furthest away from him. He pretends not to notice that usually, Pete would be in the seat next to his, chattering his ear off.
The first time he sees a genuine smile come from Pete is when a tall, lanky boy comes running towards Pete.
Pol clings onto Pete like glue and they spend the rest of the night stuck together, the younger boy singing unending praises to Pete whenever he can.
Porsche attempts to talk to them like usual but he can hear the stiffness in the other boy’s voice whenever he talks to either him or Tay directly. Pete doesn’t notice or maybe he pretends not to notice for the sake of the group dynamic.
When they actually leave the place, it’s nearing 1 am and all Vegas wants to do is sleep. He hadn’t been able to sleep well for the last few weeks and he feels like he can finally do that tonight.
Everyone drank more than they did, probably because it’s been awhile since they’ve hung out with Pete.
Tay is leaning on him, attempting to rap and dance at the same time.
Top and Tankhun are right beside him, whispering disgustingly gross shit to each other as if they were the only ones in the world.
“Woah, be careful.” Arm’s voice rings across the quiet street and Vegas turns just in time to see him wrap an arm around Pete, with Pol hanging off his back.
“Y’know Pete was so nice and everyone loved him.” Pol slurs. Part of Vegas wants to tell him to shut up because all of them know that. They knew him a lot better now and now was all that mattered, not the past. “I thought I would be safe because I didn’t like boys but now I like boys.”
He has to fight a laugh at that because Pete could turn straight guys gayer than gay with a smile.
Tay trips and he hurriedly rights him before he ends up with a scraped face.
Pete giggles float towards him again. “You should find a boyfriend soon Arm or else I might fall for you.”
This time Pete had his arms wrapped around Arm’s neck, arms tangled with Pol’s.
“I volunteer!” Pol cries out loud.
From the corner of his eyes, he can see Porsche and Tankhun both turned towards the trio.
“I volunteer too!” Pete throws his hand up as well, head tilted back giggling happily. “But I can’t! I have someone I like but he doesn’t like me! What should I do?”
Vegas wants to ask which idiot wouldn’t fall in love with the ball of sunshine but instead, he drags Tay towards Tankhun. “Do you think Arm needs some help?”
“Arm, need help?” Top calls out towards the trio.
“Sure, they both move too much.” Is Arm’s reply as the younger boy stares helplessly at the two at his feet.
“Vegas can you go get one of them?” Top asks. “Porsche can take Tay since he’s not as out of it.”
He nods.
Porsche isn’t as agreeable but he takes over in keeping Tay from running wild.
Vegas doesn’t hurry towards the three of them. He doesn’t.
He focuses on pulling Pete up from his position by Arm’s feet.
“It’s Wegath!” Pete turns to Pol with a bright smile on his face. It’s the first time all night
Pete’s face lights up when he sees him. “Look it’s Wegath!”
“I’ll beat him too.” Pol climbs to his feet by pulling on Arm’s jeans.
He wants to laugh, like that drunk beanpole could fight him when he couldn’t even stand on his two feet.
“You can’t!” Pete pouts and smacks Pol on the shoulder when he’s finally on his feet. “Even though Wegath was mean to me, you can’t hurt him or else...” Pete trails off in thought. He spends those few seconds feeling his heart soar at the nickname before it tightens uncomfortably and drops the bottom of his stomach at the rest of the sentence. The feeling isn’t anything new and it feels vaguely familiar. “You can’t. He’s my friend and you’ll smush him!”
“Come on. Let’s go home.” He admits that his tone softens because yelling at Pete is like yelling at a child and probably will end up the same way, in tears.
Pete twists out of his grip. “I don’t wanna.”
“I’ll take you home!” Pol yells.
“Guys.” Top is right beside them this time, sounding more exasperated. “What’s taking so long?”
“It’s Tankhun!” Pete stumbles towards the couple and trips over his own feet. He sees Arm step forward to right him but Vegas already has a hand around his shoulders. Pete’s shoulders are narrow and they feel so fragile under his hands.
“I don’t want Vegas.” That yanks Vegas cruelly out of his musings and he lets go of Pete easily enough. This time he recognizes the clenching in his heart for what it is. As if that wasn’t enough,
Pete lifts his hands towards Arm, as if asking the other boy to carry him. “Arm can take me home because he’s nice to me or Porsche.. Porsche because I love him so, so much. Vegas needs to take care of Tay.”
“Alright.” Top says. “Arm, you take Pete then.”
“No, I got him.” He’s screaming in protest on the inside but he tries to be as calm as he can on the outside. “It makes more sense. Pol is Arm’s height. I can’t support him properly.”
Top’s gaze is on him, eyes understanding. “The four of you deal with it yourself. I’m going to go ahead with Porsche and Tay.”
Arm is also staring at him with a hint of challenge. He returns the gaze evenly before
Arm breaks first and hefts Pol over his shoulder. “Pol, where do you live?”
“Come on, Pete-ah. Let’s go before Arm and Pol leave us behind.” He tugs Pete towards him.
“Okay, but I can walk by myself!” Pete says brightly,
All Vegas can do is watch as Pete stumbles forward and trips on the third step. He slips an arm around Pete’s waist again, feeling Pete all too closely against him. “Let me take you home, okay?”
Pete blinks at him. “What about Tay?”
“He left with Porsche already.” Vegas is slowly forcing them forward, so they can be home before the sun begins to rise.
“Oh, that’s why you’re with me.” Pete’s voice is a mix of disappointment and acceptance, even the alcohol can’t hide.
Vegas’s heart breaks a little when he hears Pete say that and he hates himself for letting Pete think that he’s always been a second choice to Tay.
Because he’s not.
He’s not.