Chapter Text
Sunday dinner was mandatory.
It didn’t matter if someone was busy, injured, angry, or halfway across the
country They showed up.
The rule had been created by Pete and Porsche after discovering that threatening grown men was apparently the only reliable way to get the family together once a week.
Years later, nobody dared challenge
which was why the entire Therapanyakul family was crammed around a table large enough to seat a small country while Porsche held the food hostage until Peem arrived.
"Oh come on." Pai leaned back in his chair with the particular suffering of a man who felt everything very deeply and wanted everyone to know it. "Pa, I'm starving"
"You're always starving" Fadel said without looking up. "Because I have a fast metabolism unlike some people-." "Nobody said anything about your metabolism p’Pai." "I heard the implication." "There was no implication."
"Boys" Porsche didn't even look up from his phone. The table settled, briefly.
"You know the rules." Porsche continued, typing. "We don't start until everyone is here."
"Funny" Babe leaned forward with the confidence of a man who had never once in his life correctly read a room. "Because last week I came and found half the table empty and nobody seemed too concerned about the rules then." Porsche finally looked up. He looked at Babe for a long moment with the expression of someone deciding whether this conversation was worth having.
"Did you notify anyone you were going to be late ?" Porsche asked "Did Peem ?"
" That’s irrelevant “ Porsche went back to his phone.
Babe looked around the table for support. He found none. Phayu was very focused on his water glass . Saifah was examining the ceiling and trying not to laugh .Even Joke, who would normally back anyone up on principle, suddenly needed to fix something on his sleeve. "Unbelievable." Babe muttered .
"Just admit Peem is your favorite and we can all move on with our lives" Pai said.
"Your father and I don't have favorites." Kinn said.
"Dad ?" Pai looked at Kinn.
"He's right." Porsche said. "We don't have favorites."
Pai visibly relaxed.
"We have Peem." Porsche added.
The table erupted.
"PAPA."
"I'm joking." Porsche said, in a tone that convinced absolutely nobody.
"He’s not joking" kinn said, flatly. "Kinn.” “What?! ” Kinn said like it was obvious.
"Can we please just eat." Win said calmly from somewhere in the middle of the chaos, already the most reasonable person in the room by a significant margin.
"We eat when Peem gets here." Porsche said.
Win accepted this with the patience of someone who had grown up in this family and had made a full peace with it long ago. Beside him Joke was already planning his next comment, you could see it happening on his face.
"You know what I find interesting? ” Joke said.
"Don't." Win said.
"Is that Peem is eighteen-"
"Joke.
"A legal adult-"
"Joke."
"And we are all still sitting here waiting for him like he's the second coming-"
"Joke." This time it was Chay, pleasant and warm and completely immovable. Joke closed his mouth with a smile like that had been the plan all along.
Chay had a gift for that. Porsche could work a room and make it love him. Chay simply made the room feel like everything was going to be fine, which was somehow more powerful.
Across the table Vegas was watching the whole thing with the expression he always wore at these dinners. Still. Observant. The kind of calm that didn't come from peace but from a man who had simply decided at some point that he was done being disturbed by things.
His eyes moved around the table slowly, landing briefly on each face, counting.
Pete's hand found his under the table without looking.
Vegas didn't move. But something in his jaw released slightly, and he turned his hand over so their fingers could properly lock together, quiet and unhurried, like breathing.
"P'cau." Saifah suddenly pointed across the table. "Are you eating off Babe's plate right now.” "I'm taking one piece." "That's my piece." Babe said. "It was your piece." Macau corrected, eating it. "I-" Babe turned to Vegas. "Pa. Pa are you seeing this!"
Vegas looked at Macau then looked at Babe. "No." He said. "WHAT-"
“ N’Babe." Phayu said from beside him, steady and unbothered the way Phayu always was, the kind of older brother who had seen everything and decided long ago that most things weren't worth the energy. "Let it go." "He took my food P'Phayu-"
"He takes everyone's food. It's been twenty years. Adjust already ."
Macau pointed at Phayu. "I like him." "You like anyone who agrees with you." Kim said, not looking up. "That's not true." Macau said. " I like you and you never agree with me."
Kim said nothing. But the very corner of his mouth did something that on anyone else would have been a smile. Porchay, who was sitting beside him and knew every version of Kim's face the way you learn a language you've been studying for years, caught it and looked away quickly before Kim noticed he'd noticed.
Macau noticed anyway. He said nothing, which was the correct move, and also the funniest one.
At that moment the door opened and Peem came in, dropping his bag by the entrance with a sigh that suggested the day had been long and unreasonable. He looked around the table, taking in the full scale of the chaos he'd walked into with the calm side eye of someone completely unsurprised.
"Sorry I'm late." He said. "I was finishing my assignment with Q."
“ Sit down." Porsche was already moving dishes. "Did you eat anything today?" "Yes pa." "What did you eat." "Food." "Peem." "Real food. Actual food. Can we please-"
"Sit." Porsche patted the seat beside him. Peem sat, accepting his fate with the dignity of the youngest child who had long understood that resistance was both futile and unnecessary because the outcome was always the same. Food appeared in front of him. Porsche went back to being the person he was the rest of the time, funny and loud but the shift had happened and everyone had seen it and nobody said anything because saying anything would mean Porsche would deny it and then threaten to throw someone out of a window and dinner would get cold.
The dinner moved the way it always did after that. Tankhun told a story that had already contradicted itself twice and showed no signs of stopping. Saifah laughed at everything Phayu said and Phayu pretended not to love it. Joke and Fadel had started some argument that neither of them would remember the origin of by the end of the night. Win finished his second serving and started his third without commentary.
Chay and Pete were talking in that easy way they sometimes did, the two people at the table who had perhaps chosen the most complicated men in the world to love and had somehow made it look like the most natural thing.
Kim was listening to Chay laugh at something Pete said. He wasn't contributing. He didn't need to. He just sat there watching his husband be happy and that appeared to be enough for him, more than enough, like it was the thing he came for every week.
Vegas's eyes moved around the table one more time. Slow. Deliberate.
The same count he did every Sunday without meaning to, the same habit that had never gone away no matter how many years had passed.
When he got to the last chair .
He stopped.
His hand tightened slightly around Pete's and Pete, without pausing his conversation, squeezed back.
The table kept going. Loud and impossible and completely theirs.