DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except: Angel aka Diablo, Aunt Suki, Uncle Jah, Kei, Jose, Catherin, Jasmine, Lu Sung, Alex and the plot line.
Angel shifted into alertness as Alex tugged on her arm, "Yeah Alex?" she grumbled opening her eyes tiredly.
"Morning coffee," Alex grinned pushing a cold cup of black coffee into her sister's hand, "Oh and I have to head to school soon. Can you help me make lunch?"
Angel took a sip of the cold coffee and grimaced at the taste, "Sure thing kiddo," she nodded tossing her legs out of bed and flushed vaguely remembering Dominic in her room last night helping her half change for bed.
"You okay sissy? Your face is all red."
"Yeah I am fine Alex," Angel nodded drinking more coffee, still grimacing at the taste of it, "Next time two spoonfuls of sugar."
"So just like Mary Poppins? A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down?"
"Yeah something like that," Angel agreed standing and following Alex downstairs to where her sister had pulled out everything she wanted for lunch, "I don't think you can eat all this Alex."
"But I want to," the little girl pouted as Angel dumped some sugar into the cold coffee, "So can you help?"
"Sure," Angel set the cup down and made Alex a ham and cheese sandwich with ketchup and mayo before setting that into a sandwich box.
She also packed Alex an apple and a juice box, ignoring the bags of mini cookies and gummies her sister had tossed onto the counter. Closing the Green Ranger lunch bag, Angel handed it to Alex and shooed her to the door.
"You have a good day Alex; you got all your homework?"
"Yeppers! I packed that all up before I got you up. Have a good day too sissy," Alex beamed darting out of the door and across the lawn to her bus.
Angel watched as Alex leave for the day and sighed softly closing the front door and locking it. She moved to the fridge and stared at the inside trying to figure out what she wanted to eat as her stomach rumbled. Making a face she grabbed the milk out of the fridge before looking through the cabinets for some cereal.
There was a knock on the front door and Angel looked at it warily before glancing to the clock which was reading before 8 am. Grumbling under her breath she walked to the door and opened it to see Dom standing there sheepishly. Rolling her eyes Angel left the door open and headed back to the kitchen where her morning breakfast was sitting ready to be prepared.
Dom closed the door behind him and followed after her, "So about last night," he started before Angel fixed him with a glower, "Or it can wait until after you've woken up some more," he snorted holding his hands up defensively.
Angel crinkled her nose at Dom and pulled out two bowls before pouring cereal in both bowls followed by the milk. She placed a bowl in Dom's hands before putting the milk back into the fridge. Grabbing her own bowl and two spoons Angel sighed softly and dug in.
"So what about last night?" She asked between bites.
"What do you remember about last night?" Dom asked playing with his cereal.
"I remember a talk with you, beer, ice cream, stargazing and falling asleep in the hammock," Angel refused to look at him even as her cheeks colored.
Dom swallowed setting his bowl down before taking her bowl out of her hands setting it down beside her, "I know you remember more than that."
"I remember you helping me half change for bed. I shouldn't have done that, I'm not normally like that," Angel began to babble and Dom tipped her chin up and kissed her softly stopping the flood of words.
"I need to know what you want from me," Dom stated when he pulled back, "I know I can't ask you to stay as much as I want to, and I know you can't ask me to go home with you for the same reason. But I need you; I don't want to wait another twelve years to see you again. I just want to know what you want us to be, friends or something more."
Angel licked her lips studying his face for a moment, "I don't want to wait another twelve years either, but I'm no good at this stuff. The last time I tried to balance work and a relationship I broke his heart because I couldn't do it. Anytime I would think about him your memory was there, reminding me my heart was somewhere else."
"Well I am willing to try if you are," Dom swallowed biting his lip reflexively, "Letty and I have been on and off since she was 16. Everyone kept telling me that you would never be coming home, but Letty isn't what I need. Like you said last night, you and I are the same kind of people; I'll be your rock, if you can be mine."
Her fingers pulled Dom's head down into a kiss, cereal forgotten on the counter as Dom wrapped his arms around her, hands tangling in her hair cradling the back of her head. It didn't matter that she hadn't told him what she wanted because she had no idea what she wanted from Dominic. Not when the both of them were so tied up in their respective lives supporting their families. She couldn't have asked Dominic to leave his garage and his massive family any more than she could have closed her garage in Japan and moved her and her son to the states.
Dom pulled his head back first, their bodies pressed comfortably together as he kept Angel pinned to the counter, "So you never gave me an answer," he replied licking his lips trying to focus on not kissing her again.
Angel sighed softly leaning into Dom's solid chest as she let her hands drag down over his strong arms, "I don't have one to give you. Unless you want to give the long distance relationship a try there isn't much either one of us can do at the moment. We are here supporting our families the way we always have, we take a back seat to their needs. If down the road either one of us get into the position where we are free to move around, then we can pursue a normal kind of relationship."
"Well I am willing to try a long distance relationship of you are. I don't see why we can't at least try and see if it works for us," Dom agreed with a soft sigh as he bent his head and kissed her lips sweetly, "So you think you can handle a long distance relationship with, I hope, your best friend?"
"You will always be my best friend Dominic," Angel grinned against his lips, "You think you can handle being in a long distance relationship with me?"
Dom nodded, "Yeah I can handle that since you did go and buy me a new laptop and everything."
"Just so then you can talk to me over an ocean and I can help you with your business questions if you have any. Or just computer questions, even though I am sure Jesse can help you with those," she shrugged tucking her head under his chin, "You are so comfortable, why are you so comfortable?"
"Don't know what to tell you," Dom snorted running his fingers through her hair, "If I have issues with the computer I'll just ask Jesse."
After a few moments Dom pulled away and grabbed the bowl of cereal she had put down, "You want to come and help at the garage today or you just going to relax?"
Angel shrugged playing with the now soggy Cheerios, "I don't do that whole relaxing thing, so I'll follow you to the garage or something and help you do some tune ups. Me sitting in here by myself all day is a bad idea," she watched as Dom stepped further away and grabbed his bowl, "So is this us dating, or is this just seeing where it goes?"
"I think it's a little hard to call it dating when you're headed back home at the end of the week, so why don't we just see where this goes. That way if you need some tail while you're in Japan, you don't have to feel guilty about it."
"Well if we're in an open relationship, I guess I'll submit to the fact you're probably going to bang Letty," Angel sighed softly knowing Dom wasn't ever going to be just hers.
This relationship they needed, it was complicated and it would never be easy. There was an ocean between their homes, with families and businesses that they couldn't just leave no matter what they wanted. Their relationship came second to everything else.
Dom looked away from Angel, "I'm sorry about that. I love her in my own way, I can't just stop that, we've got so much history between us," he trailed off sticking a spoonful of cereal in his mouth.
She gave him a tired smile, "Yeah I know you do. It's the way you look at her, you care about her more than just a convenient bed partner, but she drives you crazy too. Just the same way I love my business partner like a brother but some days I'd like to string him up and beat him senseless."
A gentle knock on the door stopped the conversation. Setting the bowl down Angel headed to the front door and smiled seeing Mia standing there.
"Morning Mia is everything all right?"
Mia nodded, "Just seeing if Dom was over here, I was going to invite you over for breakfast. Then I went to go get him out of bed and he was already gone."
"Yeah your brother's here; he and I were talking about going to the garage and get some work done. Really he was asking if I wanted to help out again."
"Not to mention I wanted to make sure Alex made it to school," Dom snorted as he walked towards the front door, "You finish off that cup of coffee and come on over. Mia and I will feed you some breakfast before I put them idle hands of yours to work."
Angel nodded, "All right then, I'll be over in a few minutes," she agreed as the siblings walked across the street back to their own house.
Sighing Angel slipped her hands through her hair and tugged it with a whine of exhaustion. Quickly dumping the cereal remains into the sink with the bowls, Angel tidied up before running up the stairs and flipped the shower on. She needed to get cleaned up, needed to get her head cleared from the thoughts of longing she had. Angel pulled her clothes off and slipped under the cold spray. If she hadn't been awake enough before, she was sure as hell awake now. The freezing cold water cascading over her body wiping any thought, but getting out from under the spray away.
Once she was out of the shower and into dry clothes and shoes, Angel ran a hand through her hair and quickly put some eyeliner on before darting out the door and across the street. She stood on the porch for a moment and texted Han, 'You need to call me tonight. Fill me in on the happenings, stop me from doing a stupid.'
It took a single knock on Dom's front door to get a response back from her cousin, 'Let me take a guess and say your hormones are in overdrive. When I get up in the morning I'll call you. Give me a few hours to get some sleep. It's 2am.'
Dom pulled the door open as Angel read the text message with a smile, "You know you don't have to knock right? Good news from your kid?"
"If my son was texting me right now, he'd be getting a phone call about school in the morning. Apparently it's like 2 am there. I was texting my business partner about updates and such. Apparently I woke him up," Angel shrugged as she texted Han back, 'Sorry, get some sleep. Love you.'
Shaking his head Dom pulled her into the house, running a hand over her long wet hair, "Felt the need to get all cleaned up? You're just going to get dirty again at the garage."
"Well that's at the garage and not in the morning when I know my hair needed to be washed before I came over. So I showered, I don't care if my hair is wet, I mean seriously it's like 80 out already," Angel shrugged as they walked into the kitchen where Mia was cooking, "Smells good."
"Coffee is in the pot if you want any," She replied glancing over her shoulder with a smile, "Figures you'd hop in the shower once I got my brother out of the house."
"Yeah showering with your brother in the house seems like a bad idea," Angel grinned remembering that she had already done that once, "You're the best Mia," she kissed the other woman's cheek before pouring herself a hot cup of coffee and leaning on the counter.
"You could have, I wouldn't have cared. Wouldn't be the first time you and I talked while the other was showering," Dom shrugged grabbing plates.
"Yeah but we are no longer kids Dominic. We've grown up, physically speaking at least," Angel laughed as Vince walked into the kitchen with Letty.
Aside from the few days at the garage Letty had kept herself scarce, staying away from the family dinners after Angel had broken the woman's nose. The bruise had started to yellow but was pretty much covered up with makeup hiding the telltale raccoon stripe. Letty glowered at Angel for a moment before taking a seat at the table.
"What's she doing here this early?" Letty growled not taking her eyes off of Angel.
"Letz come on girl it is too early for this shit," Vince replied tiredly as he wrapped an arm around Angel in a hug as he claimed himself a cup of coffee, "At least let us get some coffee before you start going off."
"I invited her for breakfast," Mia replied calmly though there was an icy challenge in her voice, "That going to be a problem Letty?"
"No, no problem Mia," Letty bit out looking wounded, "Just didn't figure on her being here."
Angel pulled herself away from Vince nursing her cup, "Didn't figure on being here for breakfast, but I am not going to pass up a home cooked meal. Plus she invited me over so I figured it would be all kosher," she flopped down into a chair with a yawn, "Clearly need more caffeine today."
Vince patted Angel on the top of the head before sitting down, "You need more caffeine, sounds about right."
Leon and Jesse stumbled into the kitchen and paused seeing Angel sitting there, "Morning. Don't mind us, we may, potentially, still be drunk from last night," Leon grinned.
"I can see that," Angel nodded as she eyed them warily.
Jesse flushed, "Speak for yourself man," he mumbled carefully picking his way across the kitchen, "I'm a stone's throw from a serious hangover."
Dom laughed softly pressing a large hand between Jesse's shoulders to steady him, "Take a seat then Jess. No one told you two to get into a drinking contest."
Leon grinned swaying on his feet, "Yeah but who doesn't like to wake up drunk? Not a bad way to start the morning when your hot as hell friend is over for breakfast."
Angel shook her head and downed the rest of her coffee, "Let me get you some water Jesse. Dominic, you wrangle the drunk in before I do."
"Maybe I want you to wrangle me baby, take you-," Leon started until Dom's fingers wrapped themselves around the front of his shirt, "Shutting up now."
Snickering Angel grabbed a tumbler and filled it up of water before flipping open a cabinet where she remembered the pain killers had used to be. Nothing in this house had moved since she had left it over a decade ago. Dom and Mia had kept everything in the same spots they had always been in. Smiling softly Angel pulled the aspirin out and closed the cabinet ignoring the look Jesse was giving her as she set the stuff in front of him.
"How is it you know where everything is?" Jesse asked cautiously opening the bottle of aspirin as Angel got herself another cup of coffee.
"I was here a lot when I was a kid. Surprisingly enough everything is in the same place it's always been in," Angel shrugged as she glanced at Dom and Leon as the later let out an apologetic yelp.
Mia smiled as she served everyone a plate of bacon, eggs, and mini pancakes, "She and Dom were practically attached at the hip. You couldn't have one without the other, even to the point where I'd wake up in the morning and find her and my brother crashed out on the couch or on his bed. The older they got the more it happened."
"My old man and I didn't get along, so I came here, this was home, still is really," Angel smiled softly thinking of climbing out of her window and down the tree into Dom's arms before they tore across her lawn, across the street, and snuck into his house for the night.
Mai laughed, "Mom used to get so mad at Dom when you left, told him you just couldn't keep showing up without warning. Then one day Mom just started making an extra serving of breakfast every morning and setting an extra plate out at dinner. I guess Mom just figured it wouldn't matter how much she protested, Angel was always going to be appearing at the house."
"She was pretty sad when I told her your dad shipped you off," Dom commented as he sat down at the table, "She said if it would have brought you back home, she would have given him a piece of her mind."
Jesse grinned ducking his head, "Guess you were the daughter they never knew they needed."
"Yeah something like that," Angel nodded feeling a pang of regret of having never really said good bye to Dom and Mia's parents.
Mia sat at the table and smiled looking at the family before her, "Well dig in before it gets cold. Don't worry about the grace bit Angel, we reserve that for dinner time."
"Small mercies," Angel snickered into her coffee cup as she watched the family dig into their breakfast with gusto, "Man I missed home."
Dom sent a curious glance her way before bumping Angel's shoulder with his own, "Eat some food before I put you to work."
"No problem boss," Angel winked at Dom as he fixed her with a look neither one of them were willing admit to was pure attraction.