Chapter title from "You Are Enough" by Sleeping At Last
Kiss Prompt: Sneaking away to a hidden corner to share a secretive kiss (though this ended up being a very loose interpretation of the prompt)
The bond between them jitters with nervous energy, but Julie doesn't need the bond to know how stressed Luke is. His leg bobs up and down like a jackrabbit, practically vibrating the Molinas' dining room table, and even her dad can tell what's going on, if the small, barely contained smile at the corner of his mouth is any indication. He raises an eyebrow at her from the kitchen and she shrugs back, before sliding a gentle, stilling hand over Luke's knee. She presses her palm firmly toward the floor, and her soulmate's leg stills for a moment.
Until his toes start swinging up and down, wiggling his leg without lifting his heel off the floor.
As Ray turns toward the table with the salad bowl, Luke pops up out of his seat. "Sir, let me—"
Carlos bursts into laughter. "'Sir?' What's next, usted?"
Julie kicks her brother's foot under the table, but can't keep back her own smile. Especially when Luke squeaks out a nervous giggle. "Ray, let me help—"
"Mijo, what is this 'Ray' nonsense?" her dad asks, exasperated. In the past, his offer for Luke to call him "Dad" had been gentle. A suggestion, not a request. Luke had always smiled softly to himself but stuck to "Ray," and her dad had let him. A dance she'd never understood, because Reggie, Alex, and Willie all got the same offer, and when the latter two hesitated, her father's voice had turned more insistent. A calm but firm undertone of "You are family now and I'd like you to address me as family."
He never took that tone with Luke, but now, after seven years, here it is.
Luke lets out another nervous giggle, but doesn't respond, just holding out a more insistent hand for the bowl.
Her dad shakes his head as he walks to the table with an exaggerated bounce in his step and sets the bowl down. "Five more minutes. I can cook by myself," he insists before returning to the kitchen.
As Luke eases back into his chair, a shit-eating grin spreads over Carlos's face. "So, Luke. What are your intentions with my sister?" He folds his arms and tries to casually flex his muscles, as if he's going to intimidate Luke with his non-existent biceps. It takes deep reservoirs of sisterly love for Julie to keep herself from laughing out loud at how much the gangly college freshman doesn't pull it off.
But Luke sits bolt upright, as if he's being graded on his posture.
… okay, apparently Carlos somehow pulls it off when he's facing down her boyfriend?
"Oh, you know, just…" Luke's eyes dart between her dad and Carlos. "Like, uh, spending the rest of our lives together?"
Carlos blinks. "Is that a question?"
Julie puts her hand over Luke's knee again. "We're getting a partnership. I told you this." She directs the sentence at her dad, who nods.
Carlos slumps back in his chair. "What's a domestic partnership anyways?"
Before Julie can answer, Ray steps in. "It's when two adults have chosen to share one another's lives in an intimate and committed relationship of mutual caring."
Julie's read the California Family Code enough times to know that he's reciting the legal description from memory, and her father's dedication to understanding her chosen path for her relationship tugs at her heart. She shoots him a knowing smile, and he tosses a kindly wink back.
But Carlos wrinkles up his nose. "Haven't you two already been in one of those for years?"
It's the exact kind of ribbing they've been getting from their friends for the past three weeks and normally Luke shares a sheepish smile with Julie, and sometimes tries to soothe her embarrassment by kissing her temple. But his gaze is entirely focused on his fingers, which drum a disjointed beat on the table.
Her dad watches Luke's fingers for a moment before he pulls his eyes to her and says, "Tía wants to know if she can throw a party to celebrate your partnership."
"Is that how she put it?"
Her dad raises his eyebrows with a conciliatory smile. "Tía is throwing a party to celebrate. You're both invited."
Julie giggles and buries her face in Luke's shoulder, but the arm muscle under her cheek stays stiff, and she can feel the vibrations of his other knee bouncing.
Swallowing a groan, she looks to her dad. "Can we go grab that spare amp for Reggie?"
Her father runs his eyes over her face before the corner of his mouth curls up. "Five minutes."
"We'll be back."
Seizing Luke's hand, she drags her boyfriend behind her through the kitchen, out the back door, and across the driveway. As soon as they reach the studio, she turns to him, drapes her arms around his neck, and catches his lips gently with hers.
For a second, he softens under her, but then his body stiffens and he pulls his head back to scan the studio. "Amp?"
She grins up through her eyelashes. "Reggie picked it up two days ago."
Luke jerks backward, almost tugging himself out of her arms. "So your dad knows we're out here under false pretenses?" His hand jumps to the back of his head, yanking on his hair.
"Luke—"
"We should go back. He's gonna think we're canoodling!"
If her boyfriend weren't in such a clear state of panic, she would make fun of his word choice, but she's focused on gripping her hands together more tightly to keep him in the circle of her arms. "Luke."
"What if he thinks we kiss each other's mouths?"
Biting back her laugh, she leans in closer. "We do kiss each other's mouths."
His gaze ducks to her lips before popping back up to her eyes. "But he doesn't know that."
"Luke, he's thought that for years. He's not some gross overprotective dad who thinks it's his business what I do. Why are you worried about this?"
Her boyfriend collapses his forehead onto her shoulder and exhales shakily into her skin. On instinct, her right hand cups the back of his head, her fingers worming their way into his hair so she can rub soothing circles into his scalp. After several long seconds that feel like minutes, he mumbles something against her.
"What's that?"
Luke turns his head, his breath brushing her neck as he murmurs, "He didn't like Nick."
She tries to slot that piece of information into Luke's fears, but it doesn't—
Oh.
"You think he's suddenly going to stop liking you now that we're together?"
There's a long pause, then she feels him nod.
She huffs out a sigh. "He didn't dislike Nick."
"But he wasn't… Ray." Luke waves his arms vaguely, which doesn't lend any more specificity to what he's saying, but she gets it.
"He didn't get why I was dating Nick. He…. he's a bit like you, I guess."
Luke lifts his head to look her in the eye. "What?"
"Doesn't do casual. He didn't understand why I was dating someone if I didn't think it was going to be serious, especially because Nick thought it was serious. Dad thought I was being unfair to Nick, and he didn't want to give him false hope." She tangles the fingers of her free hand with his. "That's not an issue here."
Luke's lips form an "oh," but his forehead wrinkles stay firmly in place. "I really need him to like me."
"He already does. He was literally just telling you to call him Dad. Is there a reason you don't want to?"
She hates that she feels insecure about this. They live together and they co-parent cats and they're soulmates and they're filing for a domestic partnership and he's said so many overwhelmingly romantic things over the past three weeks. Ever since they got together, Julie's felt like she's soaking in a bubble bath of his devotion and love and commitment, and it's filled every part of her with a persistent happy warmth.
… but their relationship is still new, and she's terrified of even the slightest hint of rejection.
He rests his forehead against hers. "I never wanted to call Ray 'Dad' before because..." His voice trails off and he shakes his head at himself, so she nudges his nose encouragingly with hers. He sighs, dropping his gaze to his feet. "It meant something different to me than it did to the guys, and I know it shouldn't of, because it's about my relationship with him and it's not about you but I guess calling him that felt… too close to a thing I wanted for the wrong reasons."
And suddenly the whole thing clicks into place. Not just Luke's rejection of "Dad," but her dad not pressing the matter. Because he understood. The way her dad always understands.
She cups Luke's cheek, gently tilting his face toward hers. "You get that he's pushing this now for a reason? You've always been family, but soon there's going to be paperwork proving that. We're going to spend the rest of our lives together."
His eyes linger on hers. "Always?"
She gathers his hand with her free hand, and presses it to her heart. "My heart is your heart. My soul is your soul. And my family is your family. That was true way before I got the sparks." A smile starts to spread across his face, hushed and awed. Like if he smiles too much, he'll break the moment. "So call him Dad and stop being so weird about this."
He drags his nose across hers, and the bond flutters in her heart. "What did I do to deserve you?" he asks.
"You existed."
The giggle that seeps through his lips this time is pure happiness. Not a single nerve in evidence. "It's that simple?"
"It's that simple."
"Okay then."
He slips his free hand around her neck and tugs her in to him, capturing her mouth. She caresses his lips gently with her own, like she can ease all the remaining tension from his body with just a soft kiss. And when he huffs out a happy sigh against her, she finally feels like she succeeded.
Which means she's now allowed to tease him for being ridiculous. Pulling back slightly, she giggles, "But Luke, what if my dad knows we're canoodling?"
Barking out a laugh, he glides his thumb over her lip and smiles to himself. "He really likes me?"
"He really does. Tía is the one you should be worried about."
Luke raises an eyebrow, like he's debating whether or not to panic, but then he shakes his head. "Nah, I've had that locked up for years."
Julie hates that he knows that. That when Tía first met Julie's USC friends, and saw Julie interacting with Nick and Luke, she'd immediately assumed that Luke must be the boyfriend she'd heard about. And when she'd been corrected, her face had wrinkled up very dramatically like she'd eaten something underseasoned.
(What Luke doesn't know and can never know is how impatient Tía had sounded later on when she'd complained, "If you're going to date a generic white boy, why not the one without sleeves and with a personality?"
Or how flustered Tía had gotten when Carlos had asked why the sleeves were relevant.
Or how flustered her dad had gotten over Tía getting flustered.)
"My dad, Tía, and Carlos all love you. So why are you stressing?"
Gnawing on his lip, he slides his eyes around the studio. Looking anywhere but at her.
"I dunno how to explain…" He trails off, and she weaves her fingers between his, squeezing them encouragingly. He squeezes back, his grip firm, but he still doesn't make eye contact. "Getting to be with you is kinda like this fairy tale," he shoots her a nervous glance, like he's waiting for her to laugh, then pulls his eyes away as he continues, "that I didn't think would ever come true. And I know happily ever after isn't a thing in real life, so I'm just… waiting for something bad to happen."
"Luke." She tugs his hand to rest on her cheek, drawing his gaze back to hers. "We're a unit. We always have been, but especially now. If something bad happens—"
"When," he correct quietly.
"When," she concedes. "We're facing it together." She slides her hands up his face. "And the bad stuff isn't going to come from my dad." This time around, she can't keep the laugh out of her voice.
He huffs a sheepish breath and braces his forehead against hers. She waits for him to say something else, confess some other bottled up worry, but he doesn't. Just stares into her eyes with a fond crinkle at the corner of his, before finally reaching up a thumb to rub the apple of her cheek.
"I swear I'm gonna chill out at some point."
"You've never been chill about anything in your life. If the only thing you manage to be chill about is our relationship, I'm going to be offended."
But her sass deflates when his soft eyes roam over her face, awe pouring from every inch of him as he whispers, "I love you."
"I love you more."
"STOP BEING GROSS AND COME GET DINNER." Carlos's yell explodes between them like a bomb, and Luke jumps, looking over his shoulder to make sure her brother is calling from the house and not the studio doorway.
Julie links her hand with his. "You good?"
"Happy as a clam, boss." He tosses her a light smile and a wink, as if the idea that he would ever be worried is absurd.
She rolls her eyes fondly and tugs him toward the house.
When they slip into the kitchen, they find her father struggling to lift a large, heavy plate off its shelf. Luke instantly skips forward. "Let me get that."
Her dad shoots him a grateful smile as he steps back and nods. "Thank you."
"Course… Dad." The pause is too long, and the use of the word too obvious and pointed. With practice, it'll flow better. But her dad's face lights up anyways, and something warm burns inside Julie's heart.
As Luke sets the plate on the table, Carlos shoots him a devilish grin. "I think you mean, 'you're welcome, sir."
Luke doesn't hesitate before he licks his finger and slips it into Carlos's ear. "Hush up," Luke shoots back as he drops himself into his chair.
As Carlos desperately tries to dry out his ear canal, he sucks his own finger and tries to go after Luke, but Luke catches his hand easily and turns it into Carlos's other ear. Carlos squeals and scoots out of range, leaving Luke grinning cheekily and spreading his arms wide in a victory pose. "I've been doing wet willies since before you were born. Ya can't beat me at my own game."
"Fuck you, hermano."
"Carlos. Be respectful," her father cautions.
"Sorry. Fuck you, sir."
Her dad sighs loudly, but Luke snorts and offers a fist bump to Carlos.
And when her dad turns back to Julie to raise a bemused eyebrow, she can't keep back the huge smile on her face. Her dad nudges her arm and the half of his face closest to her curls up into a grin.
"Took us long enough to adopt him, huh?" he murmurs.
She ducks under her dad's arm and hugs his side for a second as she watches Carlos and Luke fondly bicker, her boyfriend's shoulders finally relaxed and his feet still.
"We adopted him ages ago. Took me long enough to make it official."