compounded disasters pt.3
ft. arm and ep 14 spoilers
arm catalogues all the cctv after the shootout. he's creating the list of casualties so they know how many flowers and reimbursement packages they need to send out to the families of the fallen bodyguards. he's also looking at the employment records of the minor family (which are very poorly managed and highly inaccurate, it's driving him insane) to track down any loose ends and finish them off or buy their loyalty. one of the cameras by the pool catches something that night. it's vegas and pete. arm puts down the clipboard he has of the hospitalised bodyguards and leans forward in his seat. he pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose so he can see more clearly.
vegas holds his gun under his throat and for a second arm ceases to breathe. he's never had much inclination towards the whole politics of the theerapanyakuls. he very much enjoys the isolation of his armoury and the mind-numbing antics of khun tankhun. all he knows if that he never wants to meet khun kan or be on the receiving end of khun vegas' torture kit.
but before vegas pulls the trigger, pete runs in. arm doesn't even know what to think when he sees pete hug vegas, when he sees pete fall to his knees, when he sees vegas turn around and there's a smile on his face before he's shot by another bodyguard, when he sees the unbridled rage that overcomes his colleague and pete fires several fatal shots in the bodyguard and when he sees pete holding vegas' body, head tucked in against the heir of the fallen minor family and wail like a dog grieving their dead owner.
arm knows everyone in the mansion. he is the one that reviews all applications and does the background checks, he knows everything there is to know about these people. arm likes to think he's friend with all of them, they just don't know it. until pete.
pete came with his own background check. he hands two copies of the file over to chan and arm. chan skims through it, shows it to khun korn to which the boss nods and then chan nods, before resuming his stoic guarded position. arm on the other hand realises exactly how devoid of anything personal it is and it sounds like cookie-cutter perfection. but he sees his superiors and says nothing. what was in that file becomes fact in the official archives and arm never conducted his own background check on pete.
there are times when arm wishes he didn't know absolutely everything. he's seen a lot of things as head of security. whether others come to know of these things are entirely up to him.
tee was the bodyguard found by the pool. he had a small family in the north. he came from a family of rice farmers but made his way to bangkok when he showed a proclivity for hand to hand combat. he used to do mostly recon missions but lately he took an interest in learning medicine from the doctors so he could go back and open a clinic in his village. tee wanted to retire soon from this life and korn was ready to let him. his only daughter just started high school. he was a good bodyguard.
arm deletes the cctv footage and the official reports say that tee was likely caught in the cross fire during the shootout. he closes his laptop and makes his way back to his room. he walks into the bedroom to be greeted by pol, a bandage wrapped around the bodyguard's left arm. they greet each other as pol opens his arms and the head of security immediately joins pol on the bed and rests his head against the other's chest. pol eases arm's glasses off his face, puts them on the bedside table and massages his temples. arm relaxes and remembers the feeling of seeing pol on the hospitalised personnel list and then being overwhelmingly relieved when he sees the notes say that he only had a graze wound on his arm. he lets that relief and peace wash over him as the two bodyguards fall asleep in the other's embrace.
for the rest of the night, arm lets himself know nothing.
a/n: this drabble was inspired by arm in ep 2 when khun was accusing porsche of killing his carps. arm interrupts and brings to khun's attention that the pagaent is starting soon. pol also looks at arm, nodding and winking. and when khun calls for pol to come, pol complies but also waves goodbye to porsche (pol is just the sweetest little man with the smoothest brain and arm is very into that). i like to think that arm takes care of his fellow bodyguards in discrete and subtle ways. his loyalty is towards his fellow brothers more so than the major family. this is further shown in the way he always gives out random devices to porsche and pete without asking questions. especially since he bugged one of kinn's buttons lmao. so i think arm would definitely know pete shot another bodyguard that night and yet he chose to protect pete.