video | un: sincity

[safesex]

(( Oh, look who isn't trapped in the positively medieval place that masquerades as a hospital anymore! He's obviously still laid up if the bandages under the open robe he's wearing are any indication. ))

No offense intended... Is there anyone here who practices 21^st century medicine? I'd like to be treated by someone who actually knows what a bullet wound is.

Comments

[50000baht]

"IT'S NOT THE BAR I MISS!" Kinn's fist slammed down on the table, scattering some of the supplies and he gripped the edge of the table with both hands. It was a 'normal' conversation, wasn't it? They needed to talk shop in order to keep everyone here safe. But Vegas couldn't have an issue with it, could he? Of course not. He had Pete, his rock. And Kinn needed to keep it together.

"Sorry." He didn't bother turning to look at Vegas. "Go ahead with the bar. Do whatever you want with it. It's yours."

He couldn't handle it. Mentally, he was done.

[safesex]

Yeah, he kind of expected Kinn to explode at some point, but that was pretty tame.

He remembers very clearly how he felt when Pete left him, when he learned Pete went back to the main family, when he met Pete again in the alley behind Yok's. He was 100% willing to let Pete put a bullet into him and end all his suffering right then and there. He gets it: the soul-rending loneliness, the too-still nights, the weight of the morning after losing the one who truly sees you.

Was that a pang of sympathy Vegas felt? Was that even possible?

"Let it out," he said, almost insistent. "Go mope, be sad. You're not the only one here to do all the work." He has Vegas, who given an iota of power will stretch it to the max. He has Pete, probably one of the most competent bodyguards the Theerapanyakul family produced. He has Tay, who's also suffering a loss, but like Kinn, still trying to be useful. "I'm not gonna try to usurp you if you take some time to be a fucking human being."

[50000baht]

Two seconds later, and he did lose it. The supplies that stayed on the table were swept away as Kinn raged against the unfairness of it all. Did the fates think he deserved this? Did they think that Porsche deserved peace?

When he came to, he was sitting on the floor, feeling a little damp. The interior of the bathhouse was... okay, it wasn't immaculate, but it wasn't irreparable. He had made a mess of the place and here he was, crying. And his fucking cousin was still in the fucking bath.

[safesex]

If needed, Vegas prepared himself mentally to get up and restrain his cousin. But his tantrum didn't last long. At least not as long as Vegas would have expected. He gets it. He's volatile, too. Probably more than Kinn, but still... Now's not the time to compare who's more unhinged. Vegas merely stays in the tub, alert in case anything came flying his way or his cousin seemed to be on the verge of hurting himself.

No one's going to hear about this. Vegas might be a snoop, but this was something he wasn't even going to try to leverage to his benefit. Kinn's always been more human than him, anyway. But Kinn's also been hurt before and built stronger walls against it. How can he not feel empty after letting someone through those walls only to lose them?

Awkwardly, Vegas reached out a hand to his cousin.

[50000baht]

The bathhouse... Fuck. He's going to have to make some repairs. And a moment later, he felt something in his hair. There's a half-hearted reflex to bat the thing away and then he realizes those are fingers. Vegas' fingers.

His fingers curl around them and he chokes again, holding on for dear life. He hated this. Hated being weak, hated knowing that he was weak, that he needed Porsche and he wasn't here and it felt like his life was falling apart and yet, he couldn't because there were people were counting on him.

And he still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that his cousin was here, helping him through with it.

"I'm supposed to be the one holding your hand."

[safesex]

"I know how you feel," he replied softly, still pointedly not looking at Kinn. It was in part to give his cousin an iota of privacy, but also because he himself was opening up and that was just fucking weird.

"When Pete left me, I was ready to die." He's sure Pete hasn't told anyone what happened. Porsche made it a point of telling him so behind Yok's. So Kinn probably didn't know the details. Or that Vegas made a deal with Porsche to get Pete there to see him again. Hahah woops.

"I met up with him outside Yok's and when he pulled his gun on me, I would've let him shoot me. I was ready for it."

[50000baht]

This was new information he hadn't heard before, not even in that six month limbo time. He doesn't say anything about it, made no demands why he hadn't heard about it before. "There were a few times Porsche looked ready to shoot me." He had stared down the barrel of the man's gun. "If he had, I knew that I deserved it. When he finally said he didn't side with the main family or the minor family, but he sided with me, I knew then."

Kinn let the thought fade, though. "I knew then I had a partner for life." It was just hell that he wasn't here.

[safesex]

"He could still show up." Which is as close as Vegas will say to 'don't give up hope.' It was just weird and uncomfortable seeing Kinn like this, with all his carefully crafted walls crumbling. Better here, in front of him, than in the seedier parts of town in front of someone who might take dangerous advantage of it.

Vegas meant it when he said he was done with their rivalry. Here, they were equals. There was nothing Kinn had that Vegas could want. Here they could actually build something together. It was actually kind of a nice thought.

[50000baht]

Kinn would never have a breakdown outside the walls he considered safe. Never. "I don't know if I want him to. I'd be subjecting him to this special level of hell."

It was weird sitting there, his fingers threaded with Vegas, using it as a tether to sanity. And it was a little hysterical, relying on Vegas of all people, for sanity. This world was fucking backwards.

[safesex]

That's true. Vegas really isn't the sort of person anyone should rely on for stability. But in short, measured bursts, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing. At least Kinn isn't all alone.

Vegas squeezed his hand. Kinn's definitely a less selfish person he.

"You think he's not already in hell without you? Dumbass. Even I know he'd rather be with you than without you, no matter where."

[50000baht]

"Do you think they even know?" That was probably the biggest worry he had. Did the others know they were missing? Did they even care? Of course, Father would be worried. And Kim, which meant he was next in line, whether he liked it or not. But the rest of his friends? Porsche? Would it be less stressful if they didn't know?

"This place is ten ways of fucked up," he sighed, finally giving up on trying to puzzle it all out. There was no use pondering the what-ifs. What mattered was the present and what they had to deal with in the now.

[safesex]

"I dunno," he answered. He didn't have the answers. This place was weird and fucked up and who knows if time even moved the same. He'd read stories about that experience of time slowing down and lives flashing before eyes in dangerous situations. Maybe he was actually dying and this was some fevered dream before the end. Maybe they'd been here days, weeks, months and only seconds passed at home. Who knows?

It had to be something. If Kinn's from some point in Vegas' future, wouldn't he have noticed that Vegas was gone all that time? He doesn't have the answers and he really doesn't have the energy to think too deeply about it.

"I dunno," he repeated, rubbing his thumb along Kinn's hand.

[50000baht]

He couldn't delve into it too deeply. Kinn was already on the edge and while this was... comforting, in a sense, his mind was all too aware that it was still Vegas and Khun would be having kittens at this point.

"Are you a prune, yet?" As much as he would rather have Vegas soak for as long as he needed to, it was probably a good idea to start moving past the depression. Kinn's depression, that is. He doubted Vegas had much of that, currently.

[safesex]

It's weird for him too, rest assured. But he also needs Kinn to be sharp and focused. Vegas himself is in no position to take on leadership while he's injured. And he doesn't want any conflicts with Kinn over it, even if he could.

He lifts his free hand from the water to inspect his fingertips and nods silently. "Yeah, I think it's time to get out." There, offer Kinn something useful to do to help keep his mind off his woes for a couple of minutes.

[50000baht]

That he can do! Releasing Vegas' hand, he gets up for the towel, extra pants, and a robe, setting those to the side and within easy reach as he offers an arm for leverage so Vegas can get up. As he waits, he looks out the window.

"Well, at least when you're better, I have something to do out here." The damage wasn't terrible, but it was enough that Kinn needed to make reparations.

[safesex]

Vegas takes the proffered arm to help keep his balance as he gets up. He's not sure if it's the actual injuries or the lack of using his abdominal muscles that makes is difficult to do with ease. Once he's up though, he's quick to wrap the towel around his waist so Kinn doesn't have to stand there with his back to him.

"Don't wait til I'm better," he advised. Vegas understood Kinn's outburst. He also understood his need to do something to keep his mind off things. When Pete left him, he'd oscillated wildly between being useless and cleaning the mess that was left behind. He needed to exact some control over his space if he couldn't have it over his emotions. Maybe Kinn was volatile like that, too.

"Pete'll look after me. You should fix this before anyone else tries to use it."

[50000baht]

Kinn knew that, too. He ... he just wanted...

He wanted Porsche. End of story.

"I'll take care of it," he grumped, leading Kinn to a stool so that the wounds could be dressed if they needed. "Do you want to get patched up again or leave them to the air and have Pete do it?" Either way was fine by him. He didn't like doctoring people if he didn't have to.

[safesex]

Vegas pauses to give that question some thought. "Pretty sure Pete won't be happy with either of us if we leave 'em."

[50000baht]

To which Kinn nods and proceeds to bring about the salves and bandages. "That's what I figured. Let's get you patched up and ready to hike back, then."

[safesex]

Vegas is silent for a long moment, then quietly mutters, "Thanks, Kinn."

[50000baht]

That mean streak is in him, wanting to push it. He didn't hear properly, he didn't understand, blah blah blah. Kinn curbs as he opens the jar of salve, a small smile playing on his face. "Family sticks around for one another. That doesn't need to change."

[safesex]

Some bitter part of Vegas wants to ask where that sense of family loyalty was before... but he bites his tongue. They have to stick together here or they've got nothing. It's hard for him not to be unhappy about it, but he also has enough clarity to see how much of the rivalry was their fathers' doing (thanks, near-death experience!).

"Don't think this means I'm gonna be nice to you."

[50000baht]

Maybe he should have pushed for a louder thanks.

"You already thanked me. Too fucking late."

They played their own parts in it. It wasn't going to be a miracle turn around that old habits magically fixed themselves.

[safesex]

"Shut up about it already," he groaned.

[50000baht]

"Should have had a recorder on," he continues, helping roll bandages around Vegas's back to keep them in place. "Just so I could relish in the tone whenever I want."