Work Text:
“You need to be careful doing that.”
Alex glanced at Willie who was watching him cut an onion into small pieces. There was a slight frown marring his perfect features. Alex grinned at him before refocussing on his cutting. “You worried about me?”
“Always.” Willie gently took the onion and knife out of Alex’s hands. He made a claw-shape against the round edge of the onion. “Dig your nails in. Like this.”
“You know I can do it,” Alex said. “I already finished cutting the garlic, and it’s way smaller.”
Willie didn’t give the onion back. “Fingers don’t slip on garlic the way they can on onions.”
“It was only that one time.”
“One time needing stitches is enough,” Willie said. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I don’t want to get hurt, either. Which is why I was being careful,” Alex said with fond exasperation.
Willie nodded. When he met Alex’s gaze again, his eyes were soft with affection. “Let me do this?”
“Only because of how nice you’re asking,” Alex said with a small laugh. He poured some oil into the saucepan already on the stove and turned on the flame. “Can you put the pieces in here when you’re done?”
Willie scraped the onion and garlic into the pan. It started sizzling, filling the kitchen with the sharp aroma. “What else do you need?”
“Just the ground beef.” Alex pointed toward the meat sitting in its Styrofoam container on the counter.
Willie opened the container and then put it into the pan. Alex started mixing it around with his wooden spoon. “Ginger beef or spaghetti?” Willie asked.
“I was feeling for spaghetti,” Alex said, “but either.”
“Spaghetti,” Willie said decisively. “I could really go for some comfort food.”
The sigh that accompanied his words had Alex searching his boyfriend’s face. “What happened?”
Willie gave a half-shouldered shrug. He moved to the sink to wash his hands. “Just Caleb being a dick again.”
Alex’s mouth thinned. “What’d he do now?”
“The usual.” Willie shrugged again. He got a pot and filled it up with water, added some salt and then put it on a burner, making sure to turn it on. “He’s just snappy and irritable to the staff, and sweet as anything to the customers. Dragged me to the back to yell at me for getting a customer’s coffee wrong, when I gave them exactly what they ordered. You know.”
Alex stirred the ground beef in the pan with more force than was strictly necessary. “I wish you’d quit.”
“He pays really well, and never stints on our tips,” Willie said. “And he’s really flexible with time off. Got to take the good with the bad, I guess.”
“I think you take enough of the bad. I just hate to see you upset all the time.”
Willie gave Alex a soft smile. “I’m not upset all the time. I get to come home to you.”
Alex put down his spoon, took Willie into his arms and kissed him. Willie sighed with contentment and slid his fingers into Alex’s hair. Alex licked gently into Willie’s mouth. He’d never been able to mentally describe the taste, but he was sure it was like drinking sunshine. His heart swooped, light with happiness.
Willie made an approving noise and deepened their kiss. Alex gripped him tightly, fusing them from chest to hip. He glided his hands up under Wille’s crop-top, feeling the warm skin beneath his fingertips; the lean muscle. Willie shivered as Alex traced the knobs of Willie’s spine and made a low noise of pleasure in the back of his throat. Alex smiled. “I love you,” he whispered against his lips.
Willie pressed their foreheads together. “Love you.” Then he pulled back. “Is that burning?”
“Shit!” Alex sprang away from him, scooping his spoon from the counter. The meat hadn’t quite burned, but it was close. He stirred it and moved it to a cold burner. “I think we saved it.”
Willie laughed. “Lucky.”
“It’d would’ve been your fault for being so distracting,” Alex said. “Can you open the can of tomatoes?” Willie opened the can and passed it to Alex, who poured it into the saucepan. He studied it. “Do you think that’s too much?”
Willie looked consideringly at the sauce. “I wouldn’t worry about it. Any leftovers will get eaten.”
“True that.” Alex grinned at him. “Want to help me spice it?”
Wille went to their cupboard and held up a package of chili flakes and another of black pepper. “White people spice, or real spice?”
“Real spice. Luke isn’t coming over,” Alex joked.
“I meant for you, white boy,” Willie said with a grin.
“That’s unfair! No one warned me your mom’s asopao was so spicy,” Alex protested.
“It’s literally rice in soup with meat. It’s not even spicy!” Willie laughed. “Children eat it.”
“Shut up,” Alex said without heat.
Willie stroked his cheek. “it’s okay my beautiful German boy. I’ll go easy on the spice.”
Alex leaned into the touch. “You can make it hot. Just not… Puerto Rican hot, okay?”
“Puerto Rican food isn’t hot.” Willie chuckled, “but I’ll go easy.” He added the chili flakes to the pan, along with oregano, basil, salt, pepper and a bit of sugar. The savoury smell of the sauce permeated the room. He mixed it with the spoon and then offered Alex a taste. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know how you make it taste so good, but it’s delicious,” Alex said admiringly.
“I spice it with love.” Willie winked.
“Hey! I cook with love!” Alex said, pretending to be offended. “Are you saying there’s no love in my cooking?”
“There’s love in your cooking,” Willie said, and kissed Alex again. Alex lost himself in the kiss, his eyes closing.
There was the sound of water boiling and then the unmistakable hiss of it hitting the stove. Willie and Alex sprang apart. “Fuck!” Alex cried and grabbed the overflowing pot to move it off the burner. Several drops of hot water splashed over the edge and onto the side of his hand. Alex cried out, just managing not to drop the pot as he put it down on the stove. His hand was burning where the water touched it; Three bright spots of pain.
Willie turned off the burners. He ran the tap, making it as cold as it would go and put Alex’s hand under it, holding it at an angle where the water hit all the burned areas. When he looked at Alex his eyes were dark with concern. “Better?”
Alex nodded. The cold water had driven away the pain and was now causing its own kind of discomfort. He winced. “Its so cold.”
Willie’s hand was still holding his under the stream of water. He shuddered. “Yeah.”
“You can move your hand,” Alex said. “I’ll keep mine under the water.”
“Its okay,” Willie said.
“But the cold water hurts! Willie, move your hand. We both don’t have to be in pain.”
The look Willie gave him was so full of love it made Alex’s heart ache. “I don’t want you to suffer alone.”
“Stop,” Alex said softly, throat thick. “Willie, you’re going to make me cry.”
Willie’s eyes crinkled. “Tears of joy I hope.”
“Always,” Alex whispered. He leaned forward, slanting his mouth against Willie’s. Willie kissed him back, sending warmth all the way through him. He smiled, mouth brushing Willie’s. “The cold water doesn’t feel so bad when you kiss me.”
“Then I’d better keep doing it,” Willie said, and kissed him again.
Willie had insisted Alex keep a bag of ice on his injured hand, and then had cut his pasta into small pieces so he could eat it with a spoon. Alex eyed the bowl. “I’m not a toddler.”
“I’d love to see you try to eat spaghetti with your left hand.” Willie winked at him.
“Fine,” Alex huffed, but then he laughed. “Thank you for cutting it for me.”
“Thank you for actually listening to me when I said to put ice on your burns,” Willie said.
“Hey, I’m not Luke,” Alex pretended to be offended. Luke was notoriously bad at taking care of himself.
Willie reached over and intertwined his fingers with the fingertips of Alex’s wounded hand. “But you still let me take care of you.”
Alex bit his lip. “I like you taking care of me. Sometimes. Makes me feel loved.” His face heated at the confession.
Willie’s eyes sparkled. “That’s kind of the point, hotdog.”
“I know.” Alex grinned at him. “Its just… my parents didn’t really do that. Don’t get me wrong! They took care of me when I hurt myself. Gave me bandages and ice. But they didn’t care for me. You know?”
“What I do is different?” Willie asked.
Alex nodded. “You care for me because you love me. You want me to be happy and healthy for me. And that means a lot.”
“You do the same for me,” Willie said. “And I’m so sorry your parents didn’t.”
“They took care of me because that’s what parents are meant to do,” Alex explained. “It was part of their job. Like buying me nice clothes and stuff. But it was all to make them look good. Like, ‘look how well he’s dressed’, or ‘look how great he is in soccer’, or ‘look how well he plays the drums’. If I got hurt, they made sure I was taken care of so they looked like good parents. Does that make sense?”
Willie winced. “Yeah. It does.”
“It’s why they didn’t want me after they found out I was gay,” Alex said. “Because I didn’t make them look good anymore.” The tears stinging his eyes were as sudden as they were unexpected. He wiped at them with the side of his good hand. “God, it’s been six years since they kicked me out. You’d think I’d be over it by now.”
Willie’s grip tightened on his fingertips. “I don’t think having your parents reject you because of who you are is something you ‘get over’. I think that’s the kind of thing that just hurts.”
“But I want to be over it!” Alex protested. “I have such a good life now. I have the band, and the guys, and Julie and Flynn and Carrie and you. I have the accepting, loving family I’ve always wanted. Why does it still hurt?”
“Because it does?” Willie said with a small smile. “Your parents rejected you, Alex. For sure it feels better than when it first happened, but I can’t imagine it ever feeling okay.”
“You’re right,” Alex said finally. “It does feel better than when it first happened, but it’s never going to feel okay.” He let out a long exhale. “I just hate them both so much. And yet… “
“All you want is for them to apologize so you could be a family again?”
“Yeah,” Alex said miserably. “That’s it exactly. God. Just fuck them both to hell.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Willie lifted his glass of water in a toast and then took a sip.
Alex smirked, but then he grew serious. “Do you think they ever feel bad about what they did?”
“I hope so,” Willie said. “I hope the guilt eats at them every day, keeps them up at night. I hope they can’t eat because of how guilty they feel. I hope they waste away to nothing, torn up inside from what they did.”
Alex had to laugh the bloodthirsty gleam in Willie’s eye. “Don’t hold back now.”
“Oh, you should hear what I’ve been rehearsing in my head in case I ever meet them in person!” Willie said gleefully. “It’s going to be epic!”
Alex took a sip of water and eyed Willie over the rim of the glass. “I think you hate them more than I do.”
“They hurt you,” Willie said. “Not much there to like.”
“I like the fact them kicking me out meant I met you,” Alex said.
Willie chuckled. “There is that. If Luke hadn’t hidden you in the studio, mom wouldn’t’ve found you and brought you in to live with us, and you and I wouldn’t’ve met.”
“I was so desperate, I didn’t question him, but in retrospect, I have no idea what Luke was thinking,” Alex said with a laugh. “He’d literally known Julie for less than a month at that point!”
“But he knew she’d keep you safe,” Willie said. “My sister’s good like that.”
“She’s the best,” Alex agreed. “And so are your mom and dad. And Carlos, too.”
“Carlos is a pain in the ass,” Willie laughed. “But he’s calmed down a lot now that he’s finally in college.”
“I miss him.” Alex sighed. “And Ray and Rose. Can we go visit?”
Willie brightened. “Of course! Mom loves cooking for you. I know they’d all love to see you. Oh! We should text Julie, make it a whole family thing.”
“If Julie’s coming, you know Luke will come too. Which means we should invite Reggie and Flynn.”
“Mom is going to be so excited!” Willie enthused. “She loves you guys so much.”
“Your family is the best,” Alex said.
Willie took his hand again. “Our family is the best, mi corazón.”
Alex smiled into Willie’s eyes. Family. He’d lost his parents, but gained so much more. “I love you,” he said, wishing the words were big enough to encompass all he was feeing.
Willie’s smile told Alex he understood. “I love you, too,” he said.
Alex picked up his spoon. “Thank you. For caring for me.”
Willie’s smile widened. “Anytime, hotdog, anytime.”
END