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Prompt 9. Tossing and turning
Moving in with Vegas and Macau is a big thing for Pete. It cements around him the reality that he is no longer working as a bodyguard for the mafia and that his schedule no longer revolves around the whims and agendas of very fickle people.
The house Vegas chose for them is fitting - big, but not ostentatious, in need of some repairs and of some modifications for security purposes, but definitely something Pete can easily see becoming their home.
Macau is delighted when he gets the top floor, right under the attic. He has his own bathroom and a guest room, for when his friends are crashing over.
Even though their floor is just as big and spacious, Pete notices that Vegas planned a bedroom for the two of them and he doesn’t protest. After all, they are a couple and that’s what couples do, Pete tells himself, although he knows he sometimes snores like a wild animal and likes to hog the blankets. He is sure Vegas will find ways around his obvious flaws if he insists on sharing a bedroom. If not, they can always sleep separately, it’s not like they don’t have the rooms for it. In fact, there are two more rooms that are meant for sleeping on their floor, and Vegas tells Pete they can each have one to fill with whatever stuff they like to not clutter their shared sleeping space.
Vegas puts a big screen tv in his room, mood lighting, colour-changing lamps and stained glass decals on the windows, along with black furniture and other design choices that are 100% him. Pete feels small and on edge whenever he is in that room, and not always in a good way, but he accepts it. He was never scared of Vegas, but that doesn’t mean he understands all his preferences.
In his room? He only puts a large bed with a hard, unyielding mattress, ergonomic pillows and all sorts of blankets. He hangs a suncatcher in the window and calls it a day. He doesn’t need more for now, but he has a feeling he will be using the room a lot.
He is, unfortunately, proven right fairly soon. Everything is fine between them, or at least, as fine as it can be for two people who have to rebuild themselves from scratch. Vegas can fall asleep just fine and he can pack twelve hours in if he’s left to his own devices, but his sleep is often fitful and plagued by nightmares.
Pete, however, finds himself unable to catch a wink when it matters. The more he tells himself it’s before midnight and he has to get some restful sleep, the hotter he feels in his skin and the more the sheets make his whole body itch. He rolls from one side to the other in despair, trying to find a position where he’s not painfully aware of every square inch of himself, of every patch of fabric touching his skin and of the sheets around and under him getting progressively hotter and impossible to sleep on.
He tries every solution he can think of - taking ancient Chinese remedies, adaptogen pills, even alcohol before bed. But all he manages is to postpone his agony and make himself impossibly tired on top of not being able to fall asleep.
He tries not to let Vegas in on his issues, but eventually he gives up and starts spending the awake part of his nights in bed with Vegas, then tiptoeing down the hall to his Spartan room, where he can toss and turn as he needs before falling asleep late, once he can hear birdsong from outside.
Vegas doesn’t act impatiently or without understanding towards Pete, although Pete would not blame him if he did. He is at the end of his rope, for one.
But one day, Vegas comes home around noon, looking like he’s planning something.
“Pete, get dressed, we are going out. I am taking you to a place that can help you!”
And Pete does dress, curious to see where they are going and what is Vegas’ idea of a solution.
He guesses a lot of things - massage parlour, doctor’s office, even some sort of private kinky dungeon, in case Vegas got it in his head that what’s needed here is the Molotov solution - when you have big problems, throw a Molotov cocktail at them and they’ll disappear in flames. You’ll have bigger problems, but the initial ones will either be gone or too small-scale to still affect you.
Pete is shocked to see Vegas taking him to the mall, to a place that’s typically for the kind of people who do not have problems in their lives yet.
Build-a-Bear.
He’s always wanted to go inside a store and get a personalised toy, but he never had the money and later, he was in the mafia and didn’t have the time.
Now, together with Vegas, he picks a cat he can stuff, and Vegas records a custom message to put in the little animal’s sound box. Pete also chooses some clothes for his new furry friend and soon they leave the store with two large boxes, one for the cat, the other for the accessories.
“I’d love to sleep with you in my arms through the night,” Vegas tells him at home. “But not if it torments you. I know you’ve been losing sleep since we moved. So I got you the cat and recorded a message so when you go to your room to get some rest, you’re not alone.”
Pete cries, and Vegas ends up crying too, from seeing his boyfriend cry. This is how it’s going to be - they don’t always get things right between them and they don’t know how to make everything smooth and right from the start, but damn it, they are trying.
It’s also nice that the stuffed toy is not as large as a person, and it won’t wake if Pete fidgets for hours next to it.
The next night, Pete sneaks into his own room, cat under his arm, and settles under his blanket. He expects to again not sleep all night and pass out from exhaustion in the morning, so he presses on the cat to hear what Vegas recorded on the sound chip for him.
The familiar, beloved voice fills the air around Pete, sounding soft and calming now.
“Hey, Pete. I wanted to tell you everything is fine, we’re doing great, Macau and I love you like crazy and you make our lives so much brighter just by choosing us. No matter what comes, I’ll be there and hold your hand through it, like now. Well, you’re holding a paw, but please picture me instead. I love you so much! I hope you do fall asleep and rest.”
But Pete doesn’t get to hear the last two sentences, the gentle voice and the soothing tones effectively having knocked him out after months of him sleeping too little or badly.
What he also misses because he is sound asleep, is Vegas later coming to check on him and tucking him and the cat in properly, giving them each a light kiss and sighing in relief while very carefully sneaking back out of the room.