Word Count: 1274
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
I think it's getting to the point that is the hardest part...
Spring passed seamlessly into summer and Cruz spent his days at work, one Sonny Corinthos headache after another. He spent his nights making out with Lulu Spencer like he was in high school.
He felt like a teenager, trying to sneak around his curfew with his mother. Except now, his mother was a big brother built like a barge, and he wasn't worried about getting grounded, he was worried about getting broken in two. And Cruz knew that with each passing day, he deserved the beating coming to him more and more. Because with each passing day, Cruz grew more and more addicted to Lulu.
His days were working like clockwork. Things at the station had slowed down considerably since Boudreauz's bust- it seemed that even Port Charles' criminal element was relaxing in the summer heat. Many afternoons, Cruz ended up playing gin-rummy with Martinez and Fraser. He spent a lot of time working out- at least the gym was air conditioned and if he spent the hours waiting for Lulu to get out of work at home, he would end up thinking about her and driving himself crazy. Every night, he picked her up at the end of her shift from Carmen's. He came to realize, some time in mid June that the Santinis were the only people who ever really saw him and Lulu together.
And Cruz had to admit- for two sweet little old people, they were a lot of fun. He enjoyed Mrs. Santini's motherly clucking and Mr. Santini's dirty jokes in broken English. But as the night wound down, as Cruz watched Lulu smile and move around the room, looking back at him and winking every so often, it was like he had a stop watch inside him counting down. She was always shy in the car, and he was the perfect gentleman.
But once they got inside his house, once the door clicked shut, Cruz wasted no time scooping her up into his arms. She kissed him senseless- almost. He was always so very careful, no matter how swept away she got, he kept himself in check. Nothing beyond kissing, nothing beyond holding her tight. No matter how hard it was to drag himself away from her, he never let them go any further. He felt like he was making excuses- as long as he didn't cross that line, he could stomach seeing Lucky every day. Barely.
They worked on Laura's case, each night unraveling more secrets and discovering new twists in the mystery. They were getting somewhere, though he wasn't exactly sure where. One night they fell asleep on his couch together, her nestled into the crook of his shoulder. Cruz gently wrapped his arms around her, and tilted his head to just watch her sleep. She held onto him so tight, and god, she looked so innocent. Her eyelashes curled against her cheekbones and her lips parted in a slight pout. He thought back to that New Year's Eve, seeing her up on stage at the Oasis, curvy and luscious and absolutely terrified. How far they had come, getting from there to here. Back then, he hadn't been able to breathe or move when he saw her there. Now, in a heartbeat, he would kill (or die) to protect her
It was past three am, and god it would be so easy to just lay there, all night with her snuggled into his chest- or carry her into his bedroom, for that matter. But with a sigh, he nudged her awake. When she whimpered and mewed against him, he sucked in a deep breath, and almost caved and just let himself fall back asleep, but that was a slope just a tad too slippery. "Come on, baby, time to go home," he whispered.
And every morning, when Cruz got up to go to work (usually after far too little sleep), his heart twisted just a little bit more when he saw Lucky.
Lulu had never found much comfort in routines, particularly since nothing in her life ever really stayed the same, when it was going good, but there was a warmth in her heart near the end of every shift at Carmen's because after a time, she grew to realize that Cruz was going to be there, was always going to be there. Lulu knew he was a creature of habit ("Everyone is in their old age," he had joked), and he liked to keep himself on a tight schedule. She knew that usually he left work at about seven, and then would play basketball or work out until nine-thirty, and then shower at the gym, and go to Carmen's. He got an iced cappuccino and waited for her shift to end.
She was still getting butterflies when she saw him. God, if he kept working out so often, she was going to have to start beating off other girls with a stick. As it was, she could barely contain herself from the time she took off her apron and told the Santinis good night until they would finally get inside his house. They would work on her mother's case, always with a heavy dose of making out, and Lulu would fall asleep at night (after he dropped her off, always with a long kiss good night), her lips still burning from his kisses.
He never went any further, he never put his big warm hands on her bare skin the way he had up in Montauk. It was frustrating, but Lulu also wondered...if he knew. When she was kissing him, she just wanted the entire world to go away and melt into him. She didn't know where she ended and he began, and god, that was terrifying. As much as she wanted to kiss him forever and see how far their sweet, hot passion could carry them, a tiny part of her was just a tiny bit afraid of being that close to someone again.
Her one night with Dillon had been sweet, but brief and almost unemotional on his part. And on the hard wooden floor of a dusty boathouse. Not exactly the way she had imagined it when she was sneaking grocery store romance novels from her grandma in middle school. And when it was over, she had felt different, but not in the monumental way she had thought she would. She didn't feel like a 'woman'. She felt like a stupid little girl who had thrown herself at a boy who didn't really want her.
But she knew that Cruz wanted her. It was clear in the way he held her, so tight, like he was trying to pull her right inside of him. It was clear in the low growl in the back of his throat when he would break away from her, and lean his forehead against hers. His eyes, god, his eyes were such a deep, fathomless black. And for whatever reason, for her sake, or for his, or maybe for the both of them, he didn't ever do anything more than kiss her. And the power, the intensity of that barely restrained passion she could feel humming just below his fingertips, in the electricity of his kiss, in the flash in his eyes...was perhaps what thrilled her the most.
Lulu didn't know how it happened, but somehow, Cruz was becoming more than just her friend (or her make-out partner for that matter). He was becoming the most solid thing in her life, the most solid thing she had had in a long time. And that...was the most terrifying thing of all.
music used in this section: This Go On Forever (Snow Patrol), I Bruise Easily (Natasha Bedingfield) & Call And Answer (Barenaked Ladies)