Archive of Our Own ^beta

Anong’s eyes widened when she saw Pichai moving his leg. Pichai’s leg was still broken from the recent accident and he was feeling sorry for himself. The universe truly did punish him for going behind everyone’s back like this. He felt stupid for going to that race because it wasn’t really worth it. And he didn’t even win because of the accident! He was probably going to be the laughing stock among the others, but right now he didn’t care. At least he tried not to care about that because the only thing that mattered was that the injury wasn’t really serious.

However, Pichai missed racing and he was getting restless because he couldn’t wait to go back to racing. And because he didn’t have to hide it anymore from others, it felt different. It was almost freeing and he truly felt stupid for not telling his parents earlier. It was so stupid now that he was looking back at everything. 

It was kind of funny. Before, Kinn and Porsche were against it. But, now Kinn at least changed his demeanour because he was completely on Pichai’s side. He made sure to let Pichai know that he was going to be there for every race and Pichai didn’t know if that was a good thing because he knew how Kinn was. But, at least he was supportive, so that was a good thing! 

Pichai was currently back at his parents’ home and he was surprised to see that Kim and the kids were visiting as well. It’s been a little while since Pichai saw Kay and the girls, so he was more than happy to spend some time with them. He had really changed from the first time that he was babysitting the kids. Now, he was a lot more comfortable around them and he knew how to handle babysitting just right.

So, while Porchay and Kim were talking with other adults at the compound, Pichai decided to entertain the kids – as much as he could given that his leg was broken. However, the kids were completely silent and Pichai didn’t know what was going on as he was trying to cheer them up, but nothing was working and he frowned.

Why were they in a bad mood? 

“Achara, come over here,” said Pichai and signed Achara to come closer, but she slowly stepped back and went to Kay, grabbing his hand and she pointed over to Pichai’s leg, her lower lip shaking because she was old enough that Pichai was hurt. And she didn’t like knowing that Pichai was hurt, it made her sad, so she looked up at Kay.

“Owwie,” she whined and Kay slowly nodded.

“Yes, uncle Pichai’s leg is hurt,” said Kay and slowly stepped closer, but as he did that, Achara whined and pulled Kay closer because she was afraid. She didn’t know why she was afraid to go closer to Pichai, but the distress was clearly written all over her face and she hiccuped because she didn’t know what to do.

Anong, on the other hand, slowly approached Pichai when he signed her to come closer and he shook his head when he was slowly starting to realise why the kids were so serious. It was because of his leg and he found it kind of sweet that they cared about him to this degree. She studied the cast on Pichai’s leg and she slowly reached out with her hand, touching the cast.

In that right moment, Pichai happened to move his broken leg ever so slightly, but it was enough to startle Anong and she quickly took a step back, looking nervous and she didn’t know what to do. She was old enough to know that there was something wrong with uncle’s leg, but she wasn’t old enough to properly explain herself, so she whined and hiccuped.

“Leg… leg owwie!” said Anong and didn’t dare to touch Pichai again as she didn’t want to hurt him again. Pichai knitted his eyebrows together and realised what was going on; because he happened to move his hand, perhaps the girl completely misunderstood that and thought that she hurt him?

“No, no, leg doesn’t hurt, see?” asked Pichai and gently tapped onto the cast and Achara slowly calmed down. “It’s okay, it’s okay. This white thing here is like a shield,” said Pichai and Achara looked at Kay, who slowly stepped closer to Pichai and nodded.

“Uncle is right. My friend broke his arm once and he had this kind of shield too. It doesn’t hurt at all, right, uncle?” asked Kay. He was also trying to make sure that Pichai wasn’t in pain and Pichai just nodded.

“Not in the least,” said Pichai.

“Owwie?” asked Anong and Kay shook his head.

“No,” said Kay and Anong slowly nodded and stepped closer to Pichai, but only when Kay took her hand and guided her closer. She was completely silent, her eyes on the cast and she pressed her lips together, going over to her sister, who was now petting the cast.

Maybe petting would make uncle feel better?

Pichai chuckled and then he shook his head; the girls were truly precious and he hummed along. Anong seemed to be hesitant and she looked at Pichai and touched the white cast.

“Okay?” asked Anong and Pichai nodded.

“Mn, it’s okay,” said Pichai.

“We need to cheer uncle up,” said Kay and Pichai knitted his eyebrows together. “You must be sad because you can’t race now,” commented Kay, but he knew that because he heard Pichai talking to Ren about it just before Ren left for work when he dropped Pichai over at the main family’s mansion and Pichai snorted.

“I’ll be back racing in no time,” said Pichai and waved it off. 

“When my friend had his arm broken we would cheer him up by sticking stickers on his arm and by drawing on the shield,” said Kay and Pichai narrowed his eyes because he knew where this was going and honestly, he didn’t mind it too much. 

“M-hmm?”

“Maybe we can cheer you up like this!” suggested Kay. “I have markers with me, I can draw you a pretty flower and a motorbike,” said Kay, his eyes lighting up. “I can draw you, uncle, on the bike and you won’t be sad anymore,” said Kay.

“Well, why not?” asked Pichai because that wasn’t only to put him in a good mood, but he knew that it would put the kids in a good mood as well. “Do you have any stickers? Anong and Achara could help you out by placing many stickers on my leg shield,” said Pichai, now calling his cast and shield as well because he liked the sound of it. 

Kay made it sound cool.

“I have stickers!” said Kay happily and ran over to get his backpack. “I have many stickers, some of them belong to Anong and Achara!” pointed out Kay and Pichai’s smile was growing as she slowly smiled and nodded yet again. 

“Awesome news!” said Pichai and Kay giggled. “Be sure to make me look very cool!” said Pichai and Kay didn’t have to be told twice. He was already sitting on the floor, now his sisters were also curiously watching him and Achara happily clapped when she saw her stickers, quickly picking them up. 

“Kay! Kay!” said Achara happily and Kay smiled.

“Look, we will put stickers here!” said Kay and pointed onto the cast. “Stick them here,” said Kay and stuck a sticker on which was a sun onto the cast and Anong’s eyes widened because that looked like fun. 

Anong didn’t waste any time – she quickly picked up her stickers as well and literally ran over to Pichai and the rest was history. Once she started with the stickers, it was difficult to stop her, Pichai laughing because Anong was motivated to cover up as much of the cast as it was possible. 

Achara smiled and as she was slowly putting stickers on the other side of the cast. Kay decided to make his masterpiece right in the middle of the cast, making sure to only use his best and prettiest markers – it was now up to them to put uncle in a good mood and Kay was happy when he found out that it was working. Pichai was smiling!

“Pichai, we’re terribly sorry,” said Porchay, bowing his head apologetically because when he and Kim returned back into the living room, they walked in on what looked like Pichai being terrorised by the kids, but in reality, he was having fun, laughing along and he shook his head. “Anong, enough with the stickers!” said Porchay when he saw her sticking them all over Pichai’s face now as well.

“More, more!” was cheering the girl instead and he huffed under his breath.

“I let them, it’s okay,” said Pichai, who was now completely covered in stickers. It wasn’t just his cast that was now looking cool, but the kids decided to take it upon them to make Pichai happy, so the more stickers and drawings that he had on him, the happier he was. That was the logic that they chose to stick with and… Pichai had to agree that he was pretty damn happy.

“Achara, put the marker down,” said Kim and took the marker away from her because now she was trying to colour the couch.

“It’s okay, let her,” said Pichai. “Never liked this couch, it’s so boring. I mean it’s beige – it needs  something to liven it up,” said Pichai and Kim narrowed his eyes.

“Papa, we can draw more!” said Kay.

“Pichai, don’t encourage them,” whined Porchay. “Kinn will kill us if they get these marks upon his precious couch. According to Porsche, it was fucking expensive, so don’t dare!” said Porchay and Kim narrowed his eyes because that awful thing was expensive?

Ah, as expected – Kinn’s taste really did suck. 

Upon hearing that, Kim didn’t feel so bad anymore, so he gave the marker back to Achara, who happily clapped.

“Kim!” roared Porchay.

“What?” asked Kim. “That thing’s an eyesore, the kids will make it bearable to the eye,” said Kim and Porchay felt so very tired. It was just… Porchay needed Kim to stay on his side! Or else Kinn was really going to-

“Why can’t anyone be on my side?” asked Porchay.

“You’re right,” said Kim in the end and took the marker again. Even if he was having fun, it was important that he was on Porchay’s side. As much fun as it would be watching his brother seeing his precious and ugly couch ruined by the markers, he was still a parent. He was supposed to be with Porchay, so Kim sighed along.

“Papa, more!” whined Achara, trying to get the marker back.

“No more,” said Kim and Chay sighed in relief. Finally. 

“The same goes for you, Kay,” said Porchay and took the markers away from him as well. Kay was pouting, but then he took a deep breath and decided to be a good role model for his sisters, so he decided to listen to Porchay and he looked at Anong and Achara.

“We have to put them away,” said Kay and Achara frowned. 

“More!”

“We can draw more when we are at home, but now not,” said Kay, explaining it calmly and after a few moments, Achara just handed him the rest of the markers, not making a fuss about it. Pichai was impressed that there was no temper tantrum, no nothing.

Anong, on the other hand, was a different story. When Kay took stickers from her, she took them back from him and shook her head in protest. 

“My, my, my!” said Anong angrily.

“It’s just stickers, she can continue dolling me up,” said Pichai and shrugged. “Really, it’s fine,” said Pichai when he saw the look on Kim’s face and the other one just nodded, allowing the girls to carry on their sticker craze, but they decided to stick the stickers into their sticker book instead, so Pichai was ‘’saved’’.

It didn’t take too long for the others to join them in the living room. Pichai knew that Pete and Vegas were over to discuss some business and finances – all of the boring stuff, but Sarai and Paris were there to follow up with the meeting as well. Since the girls were very serious about taking over the family business one day, they were getting more and more involved, by their own accord, of course. 

Pichai, on the other hand, couldn’t be bothered because this just wasn’t for him. But, he had a lot of respect for both of them. Pichai sighed under his breath and he knitted his eyebrows as he happened to overhear conversation between Kinn and Vegas and he snorted because the main topic of their conversation was Venice and the engagement that was soon to take place. 

Venice finally told Pichai and Ren about his plans, both of them having to promise that they weren’t going to tell that to Kit and they were going to keep their promise because this was going to be a surprise! Kit was going to be over the moon and Pichai was happy for his two friends. But, this also made him think about his future with Ren and the more that he thought about it, the more he was inspired as well.

Getting married to Ren didn’t sound bad at all! 

However, not quite yet, because it was perhaps still too soon. Besides, he wondered how Kinn would take the news. Pichai had to admit that Vegas was taking the news rather well, but Venice also told them that Vegas needed quite a little while to recover . However, he was always supportive about it and that was all that really mattered in the long run, didn’t it?

“I mean it still feels so surreal,” commented Kinn, who also couldn’t seem to wrap his head around the fact that their kids were now old enough to be getting married and he shook his head. “I mean, wasn’t it like yesterday that he was still just a toddler? Remember when you and Pete left him with Porsche and me to watch him over for a few days,” he said and Vegas nodded because he could remember that, yes.

“Ah, that time,” said Vegas and hummed along. 

“That was the very first time that I was jealous of you,” said Kinn and crossed his arms on top of his chest. That was the first time that he admitted that out loud, especially in front of Vegas, whose eyes doubled in size and he tipped his head to the side.

“You were jealous of me? ” asked Vegas, quite shocked to hear that Kinn was so openly admitting it and Kinn slowly nodded.

“Mn,” said Kinn. “You had a wonderful family, a kid and for the very first time I always wanted that as well,” said Kinn. “And now so many years later – look at us,” said Kinn, sighing happily.

Pete nudged Porsche, who slowly nodded as well; there was no bickering, no nothing. Both of them expected Kinn to start poking fun at Vegas because Venice was thinking about getting engaged, but there was none of that because Kinn was also lost in his thoughts, reminiscing about the old days and he just felt… nostalgic. Sometimes, he would miss the times that the kids were younger, but he was also very happy to see them growing up so happily. 

It was truly a bittersweet moment, after all.

“He still didn’t ask him, did he?” asked Kinn and Vegas shook his head.

“Not yet,” said Vegas and hummed along. “But, he’s thinking about it and I’m pretty sure he will let us know when he’ll be completely ready,” said Vegas and Kinn nodded.

Pichai perked up and a little grin spread across his face. He sighed along and Kinn slowly looked at him, knitting his eyebrows together when he saw the state that Pichai was in and he snorted.

“What happened to you?” asked Kinn and Kay raised his hand.

“Us,”  said Kay and Kinn blinked a few times and then he shook his head. “Uncle Pichai was sad so me and my sisters cheered him up with stickers and pretty drawings. He looks really cool. Right, uncle?” asked Kay and Pichai nodded in agreement.

“The coolest – if my friends could see me now, they would be so jealous,” said Pichai and Kay happily smiled because he was glad to see that his uncle was happy and smiling. 

“Yes,” said Porchay and huffed under his breath.

“Dad, all of the recent events have got me thinking,” said Pichai and looked at Kinn, who arched his eyebrows and slowly nodded. What was Pichai up to now? Pichai was ready to cause chaos and havoc, much like Porsche, so he was wary of the little grin on his face. Still, he was listening to whatever he had to say. 

“About?”

“I mean,” said Pichai and then he made a little pause. “Just look how happy Venice and Kit are going to be!” said Pichai and Kinn already knew where this was going, but he still dared to ask.

“And?”

“ And, ” said Pichai and looked at Porchay and Kim. “Chay, didn’t you and Kim have a double wedding with Macau and Leo?” asked Pichai and Porchay slowly nodded, Kim laughing under his breath because he knew all too well where this was going. If Pichai meant it or not, was another thing, but he also knew that Pichai liked poking fun at his brother way too much, so there was a little amused grin upon Kim’s face.

“Yes,” said Kim instead and Pichai grinned.

“Maybe we should have another one. I mean think about it – it would save us money. Besides, Venice and I are very close, so I think he wouldn’t mind sharing such a big day with Ren and me. In fact, I think he would love it,” he said and the corners of Kinn’s lips dangerously twitched. “Don’t you all agree?” asked Pichai and Porsche huffed under his breath.

“I agree,” said Kim quickly.

If he couldn’t wreck that awful couch, then he could at least… 

“It’s too soon,” said Kinn quickly and Pichai arched his eyebrow.

“How so? I’m older than Venice so-”

“A double wedding sounds lovely,” said Porsche quickly and Pete laughed softly. “Right?”

“Yes, but that should be up to the boys to decide, not us,” said Pete quickly and Kinn nodded. Vegas sighed under his breath and he shrugged. He didn’t dislike the idea, but Pete was right about that. Then again, he knew that Pichai was now just poking fun at his old man and Vegas shook his head with a little smile.

“Don’t bully your father!” said Vegas and Pete’s eyes widened when he heard Vegas standing up to Kinn. Kinn also looked surprised and Porsche gasped, way too over dramatic, but-

“Vegas siding with Kinn?” asked Porsche with a small voice.

“Don’t get used to it,” said Vegas quickly, feeling out of his comfort zone, which caused everyone in the room to crack up. Kinn clicked with his tongue, but then he still smiled and pressed his lips together. 

Another double wedding, huh?
Kinn needed a little bit more time to process everything.