For mysteriesabound1 - because you inspired it

'Still Into You' by Paramour

Can't count the years on one hand,

That we've been together,

I need the other one to hold you,

Make you feel, make you feel better,

It's not a walk in the park to love each other,

But when our fingers interlock,

Can't deny, can't deny you're worth it,

'Cause after all this time I'm still into you,

Vince paused before rounding the corner, debating whether or not it might not simply be safer to turn round an leave, Sunday barbeque or not. Of course the problem with just backing away was literally right behind him. There were in fact two of them, they were the lily livered cowards known as Jesse and Leon. And even as Vince tried to take a step back one or other of them was pushing him forward. He leaned back a little more only to be shoved so hard that he stumbled round the corner. Though he did manage to drag the other two with him.

Into the jaws of death rode the five hundred, Vince thought and realised that he had his eyes half closed and was leaning back despite the fact he just moved suddenly forward. He even had his head turned to the side as if bracing for a blow. Vince would have felt worse about this show of fear if it weren't for the fact that Leon and Jesse where trying to hide behind him like a couple of kids hiding behind their mother's skirts.

As it turned out the whole thing was pointless as the back yard was void of the violent emotional storm they had been dreading. All it contained was the usual assortment of mismatched chairs, the picnic table, the grill and a very perplex Mia who had apparently just come out through the back door. She was holding a can of coke, wet with perspiration, in one hand and looking at the three of them as if she thought they might be insane. Considering that between them they made up about 500lb of muscle and were yet huddling together like puppies about to get a rolled up newspaper she had good reason.

Before Mia could recover sufficiently to ask them what the hell they were doing she had to get out of the way of the door or get run over by Dom and Letty. Between them the pair looked to be carrying half a slaughterhouse and enough BBQ sauce to fill a decent sized pool. They paused halfway down the back steps to stare at the strange tableau the trio made, exchanged a baffled look, shrugged and then continued carrying their meaty burden to the grill.

The trio relaxed, clearly the war that had broken out between their two fearless leaders the night before had gone through peace talks and the impending air strike had been cancelled. Almost light headed with relief, and trying not to show it, they set about getting drinks, helping with the food and generally getting in the way until Mia threatened to take a wooden spoon to them. Jesse was by this point helping with the grill and though Leon was happy to continue to plagued the youngest Toretto Vince retreated to one of the lawn chairs with his beer. He'd intended to just sit back and relax but, with the panic now over, his mind insisted to replaying the events of the night before.

Vince knew from personal, and at times painful, experience that girls blew boiling hot and freezing cold, jumping from mood to mood quicker than a guy could blink. He also knew that Latinas were more insane than the rest, probably due to all that hot Latin blood, and that Letty was the most psycho of the lot. She was emotional above all else, dancing from anger to sullenness to sunshine with scarcely a breath between. A point which the night before had brought home almost brutally.

Letty had been tied up all day with some family thing and they hadn't even been sure if she would make it to the after party never mind the race its self. But half an hour after they rest of them had shown up the distinctive magenta Nissan had rolled into view, and had almost taken one slow footed skank off of her feet. It was clear the moment that Letty climbed out of the car, in jeans and a plain white T that she was tired, stressed and emotionally drained.

She'd only nodded in response to the greetings that were called out to her as she made her way over to their group. Dom hadn't even said hi to her, just opened his arms and pulled her into a hug right there for all to see. Public displays of affection were common enough between the two of them, but they leaned towards ass slapping, sexual innuendo and make out sessions that came dangerously close to the NC17 rating.

Hugging just for the sake of being held, to feel the comfort that came with having another persons arms wrapped around you was not something that Dom and Letty did. At least not in public. But there they were, Dom's arms locked tightly around her, holding her to him while Letty rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes as if trying to block out the world. It was a sweet and touching picture, up until one of Dom's many admires seeing the slight show of softness in Letty thought it the perfect moment to start in with catty comments.

So naturally Dom growled and tired to turn Letty away to shield her which prompted her to say something snide to which, predictably, he reacted badly. The chaser, now with two companions, continued with their bitchy observations only find themselves smacked down by a smack talking Mia. There was no telling what would have happened next, though Vince had been betting on an all out brawl, if Leon hadn't interrupted everyone with the news that police had been called to an emergency and that they could now race.

It was a wonder that the lanky mechanic hadn't self combusted on the stop, he was on the receiving end of so many heated and harsh glares. Then his actual words sank in and everyone turned away. Hostilities had clearly not been halted, but merely postponed. Things had gotten marginally better by the time everyone was ready. The short drive had given both Dom and Letty enough time to cool down that when she gave him his customary good luck kiss he was more than a little reluctant to let her go.

Unfortunately when Dom was first over the line he was mobbed by a gaggle of his adoring groupies. Something that was not unusual in its self, but he wasn't as quick to brush them off as normal and one managed to get her hand part way into his pants just in time for Letty to see. Normally Letty would have spat a few venom laced words at the ho in question, threatened a little violence and them shown everyone there just who Dom belonged to and why.

But Letty had been tired and stressed, and as a result had simply flipped out. Letty Ortiz with no breaks was something Vince had seen more than once and each time he found himself wishing to never have to see again. It was brutal and ugly and more than a little frightening. She had screamed and raged, and Vince was thankful that he couldn't actually remember much of it, just a lot of disjointed and unpleasant flashes. But he did remember thinking that it probably would have been a lot easier on all of them in Dom hadn't also lost control of his temper.

Though he had grown up with both of them it wasn't until then that Vince realised just how volatile the pair truly were. Probably because it was the first time both of them had lost it simultaneously. Normally one or other of them stayed in control, that way Dom could talk Letty down or she could talk him down. A balance of power existed between them as a couple, and balance was the thing. Somehow they managed to hold one another in check without smoothening what they shared.

But with both of them ranting and raving it brought home just how screwed a couple they could become if things ever turned really bad between them. It was like mixing nitro and glycerine, put them together, shake them up and then hit the deck as they explode. There had been no after party, as there was most race nights, no one was stupid enough to want to be around in case thing escalated. There was too much risk of becoming collateral damage.

For lack of anything better to do, Vince had taken Mia to McDonalds where they, Leon and Jesse spent the next three hours drinking milkshakes. It was not the way he had intended to spend his Saturday night, not even close. But it had probably been the safest option considering that when he finally dropped Mia home in the early hours of the morning he could still hear Letty and Dom screaming at one another from inside the house.

That was why he and his two cohorts had been so nervous about what would await them in the back yard of 1327. The fact that there had at least been no police cruisers or CSI teams waiting out front had only been a slight comfort. But the Toretto Sunday barbeque had been a tradition for longer than Vince could remember and since Mia had called to say it was cancelled due to murder suicide he and the boys had shown up as normal.

Shown up as normal to find that everything else was just as normal too. Mia was mixing up bowels of salad because they were healthy even though she knew no one but her would eat more than the odd lettuce leaf. Letty was keeping an endless supply of cold corona on hand as if by magic while Dom was barking orders at whoever was manning the grill. Currently he was reclining on one of the mismatched chairs, Letty seated contentedly in his lap.

Each of them was holding a frosted half empty bottle of their favourite beverage and they looked as happy and content as any pair of petrol heads could. There was no sign of the storm that had raged between them the night before, in fact as he studied them Vince realised that they were even holding hands. Their fingers were all curled and entwined together, and the simple act seemed more intimate then just about anything else he could recall. And he'd walked in on them in more than one compromising situation.

It was shocking to think that, young as they all were, Dom and Letty had already been together for almost a decade. More than that it was a little bit scary, Vince had never thought his best friend was the type who'd settle down so young with one girl. Though perhaps settle was the wrong word for what the pair had, after all the only way to describe the night before was extremely unsettled. But somehow they always seemed to pull through, the storms came and went and the two of them always seemed stronger for it.

If Vince was honest with himself he was maybe just a little jealous. Not that he wanted Letty, he'd feel safer crawling into bed with a pissed off pit viper, but he wanted what Dom had with her. Almost ten years in and it was clear that they were both still totally into one another and while he might not have been able to picture Dom settling down he had no problem picturing where his friend would be in ten years time. Still in the same seat, with a corona in one hand and Letty on his lap.

And they'd probably still be in the same place ten years after that and on and on and on. The pair of them would in all likelihood still be completely bat shit crazy and still totally hot for each other. He just hoped he'd be there to see it.

(A/N) Yup, this is so not how I thought this was going to turn out but I hope you all like it, especially you Mysterie. Also this is set just before FF1 and I decided to make Letty the same age as Dom and Vince to get the timing to work. Keep spreading the Dotty love people and I'll try and update again soon.

Lamanth xx