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Of all fucking days, it’s today. Today, Mako’s fucking birthday, the day Gabe said he’d be there one-hundred percent sure, that his sister has to break her goddamn leg. He’s not sure who he feels worse for - his sister, for making him miss such a big event, or his boyfriend, for having to go without Gabe for the whole day, if not longer. At the very least, as Gabe lifts Isabella up, cautious of touching her broken limb, he has to text Mako to tell him he probably won’t be at school or able to come over until the day after.
As usual, it’s a one-word reply: ‘ok’.
Gabe almost wishes his boyfriend would get verbally mad at him sometimes. But he can’t think on it long. Isabella is wailing - which is fair, she’s six - and Gabe needs to get her to the hospital before the bone gets pushed further out of place. Without any real materials to make a temporary splint out of, Gabriel pulls his hoodie over his head and wraps it tightly around Isabella’s leg, despite her continued crying. “Hey, hey, calm down, it’s fine. I know it hurts, but just calm down. I’m gonna take you to the doctor, get your leg fixed. Here, drink this and then we should be there,” Gabe quickly reassures, handing over a water bottle while he nearly launches himself into the front seat of the old beater he has been driving for a year now.
He’s still careful in his haste, but his anxiety is building. It doesn’t help that Isabella makes little whines every now and again between sips of water. Not to mention that the traffic town at this time of day was surprisingly thick. Morning rush hour was usually right before the high school morning bell. Just his luck that today, everyone was running late.
It probably only took twenty minutes to get to the hospital downtown, but the seconds dragged on like days. Gabriel grabbed his little sister, who had since stopped crying quite so hard, and pushed into the front door. Thankfully Angela was working an internship today, so the minute he walked in, she was waiting. “Gabriel! Over here!” She called, waving a hand to get his attention. There was a bed against the wall and Angela waved for him to put Isabella on it. The young woman called down one of the doctors while rewrapping Isabella’s leg as best she could. When the presiding doctor wheeled the bed off, Angela huffed. “You’re lucky he’s so intent on getting into my pants, Gabriel,” She muttered under her breath, “He might’ve stayed to flirt if he wasn’t.” Gabe snorted.
“What happened to being taken?”
“It doesn’t matter if I tell them Fareeha’s more than capable of knocking them on their asses, they just push harder. I’ve given up. Speaking of which, what have you told your parents?” Gabe sighed heavily and rolled his eyes. His mother would have a whole cow when she heard, and his father would probably be stuck trying to direct her to do something else while he took care of it. As of yet, he hadn’t given them any information, just that Isabella had gotten herself hurt.
“You aren’t making your case any-” Gabe waved her off. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m calling them. Do I have to wait here until…?” Angela nodded, hesitant. She knew exactly what day it was too, how much it meant to her friend. Even if she never really liked Mako or his friend Jamison, she appreciated how committed Gabriel was to spending time with them. Gabriel stepped away to make the somewhat-unpleasant call, and Angela took the opportunity to step away and check on his sister.
As expected, his mother nearly fainted on the phone. His father was a little less dramatic, just telling his son that he could stay home since he was already going to be so late to school, and that he’d be there in about an hour and a half to properly sign in and do the paperwork. Gabe slumped into the first chair he saw in the waiting room, empty as the abandoned buildings on the east side of town.
For a moment, he sat quietly, contemplating whether he should stay in the hospital or if his dad basically just gave him the go ahead to go back home. Before he could make an executive decision, his phone buzzed. A message, from Jamie.
Jam-Jam: hell happend? hoggy said you bailed
Gabe frowned at the words on the screen. He didn’t bail. His sister just didn’t mind the dozens of warnings not to play on the stupid rope swing until someone got around to fixing it.
Gabe: i didnt bail. sis had an accident, had to take her to the hospital. parents are probably gonna put me on house arrest for letting her get hurt
Jam-Jam: awwwwwwww
Jam-Jam: that sucks m8
Jam-Jam: ill tell mako
Jam-Jam: tell bell i said hi
Gabe: no problem. also don’t spam text, you numnutz
Jam-Jam: fuk off mate
Gabe snickered as the dope on the other end sent a picture of a doodle on some test or homework of a rodent flipping him off. Even if he couldn’t see it, Gabe happily returned the gesture. Unfortunately - and also expectedly - nobody actually got to the hospital until noon, far past the hour and a half he was promised. But Gabe was used to waiting around. He entertained himself, flirting with the nurses that came by or teasing Angela or, on the rare occasion, making small talk with a patient or two. Mako had a habit of getting sick frequently, so Gabe knew some of the other frequent hospital visitors. He didn’t know half their names, but most of them knew him enough to talk comfortably.
When lunchtime rolled around, Gabe was almost ready to really bail out when his own father walked in the door. First Sergeant Gabriel Ignacio Reyes, Sr., six-foot-two, built like the Marines crafted him by hand (which they may as well have, in all honesty), all muscle from top to bottom despite the fact that he was reaching his forties. Sometimes Gabriel felt incredibly uncomfortable around his father; when he was young, all the neighbors would coo and swoon about how little Gabi looked so much like his papí, but now that he was older, the resemblance to his father was horrifyingly uncanny. In fact, other than perhaps the softer edges from his mother’s influence and the lack of facial hair, it was hard to tell the two apart.
“Gabriel, where’s your sister?” His father quickly demanded, keeping a soft voice while still holding an air of authority in his native tongue. “In a room. I’ll get Angela to show you which one,” Gabriel replied, leaving his seat to wave down the blonde. As soon as she spoke with his father, Gabe braced himself internally for the expected ‘I’ll deal with you when I get home’. Instead, the two walked with Angela down to the room, where she left them a small stack of paperwork, then left. “How are you, mija?” The girl sniffled a bit, and Gabriel fought not to snort at her obvious theatrics. From the barest turn of his lips, Gabe could tell his father knew exactly what she was doing too. “T-the doctor said I broke my l-leg,” Isabella whined, wiping at her wet, red eyes. “How did you break it?” The man asks gently. Suddenly his daughter is much more conservative with her crying, down to sniffling and occasionally wiping her eyes. “Isabella.” The sharp tone stuns the little girl out of her refusal. “I… I was playing on the rope.”
“The one me and your mamí told you not to play on?”
“Yes…”
“And did Gabriel know what you were doing?”
“No…” Thank God he was going to be out of the house before his sister could learn how to throw him under the bus. Isabella was still in the childhood phase of ‘honesty is the best policy’. It wasn’t a bad thing, just unrealistic, in Gabriel’s eyes. Long term, anyway. “Well,” Gabriel said, looking to his son behind him, “I’m going to have to punish you in some way when you get home.” Isabella whined, but her father stopped her with a look. “You ignored your mother and I when we told you not to play on that rope, and Gabriel didn’t know where you were. You know I don’t like to punish you two, but when I must, I must.” That made the teen wince, just a bit. He couldn’t remember if he did anything terribly wrong in the past week. Hopefully it was just his dad being fair while Isabella was upset and nothing else.
The doctor walked in, trying to comb his hair over his balding head with a free hand. He seemed to jolt when he walked in, but quickly resumed the expression of someone on the job. Albeit more forced. “Are you...Mr. Reyes?” Gabriel nodded, starting to follow as the doctor gestured, but stopped before he could leave the room. He turned, grabbed the papers Angela had delivered, turned to his son, and lightly knocked his shoulder. With a decidedly fatherly smile, Gabriel nodded his head towards the door. “Go on, mijo. I’m sure you’re ready to get out. Tell Morrison his old man still owes me a night out, too, if you see him tonight.” Gabe tilts his head. “Tonight?”
“Isn’t it your boyfriend’s birthday?” Gabe seems to be trying to sink into his hoodie. He really tries to keep his relationship away from the rest of his family, more out of respect than anything else. “Mijo, you’d better not stay home from this if you expect to get anywhere with him. Your sister is fine. Go out, have fun. While you can,” his father added jokingly as he left the room. Not but a moment later, his mother came in, halfway to tears. She seemed to be trying to hold it together, and not doing as well as she might’ve thought. “Go on, mijo. I’ll stay here,” she assured, voice shaky and decidedly not assuring at all. Gabe sighed, quickly making his way down to the entrance. If both his parents were telling him to leave, he’d need a padlock and heavy-duty chains to be allowed to stay.
Not that he was itching to. Hospitals were not his favorite place. They were sterile and cold and uncaring. Gabriel preferred places that were like his own house - warm and inviting, just begging to get dirty and used so they could get fixed and then dirtied again. It was an odd feeling, but maybe that was just what home felt like.
Probably why he liked Mako and Jamie so damn much. They weren’t afraid to get down and dirty, to play in the mud like kids, then clean up and relax in a big dog pile afterwards.
It was midday, so the parking lot was more or less empty other than the employees’ cars. Gabe opened up his beaten little sedan, pausing for a cursory sniff before he got in. The thing had a habit of picking up smells on a whim, as old cars do, despite the fact that Gabriel has washed the whole thing, inside and out, no less than four times. For a moment, he sits, waiting for something stupid. It’s only because he’s gotten worked up from his sister getting hurt, but Gabe is sure that any moment, some punk-ass white kids are going to break open the window and either pummel him to death or just shoot him. He sits for five whole minutes, minimum, before he gets a text from his mother asking why he’s still in the parking lot. Gabe blew out a sigh and smiled to himself - his parents were fucking saps.
Another text cheerily bleeped on his phone. Jack now.
Blondie #3: Gabe are you ok? Jamie said your sister got hurt. <:(
Gabe: fine. bell was just playing on the rope mom and dad always tell her not to fuck with
Blondie #3: That’s great!
Blondie #3: Well not GREAT, but… I’m happy you’re not hurt.
Gabe: wow, you care so much you dumbass
Blondie #3: I’m SORRY
Gabe: yeah yeah whatev. you have fifth with mako right
Blondie #3: Yeah. Why?
Gabe: want you to tell him ill be there tonight. thought my parents would ground me or something for letting isabella get hurt but dad’s chill with it
Jack sent back a happy face, which meant he was probably looking like an idiot in the middle of fourth period with his giant goddamn grin that he always got when he was excited. Really Jack, you couldn’t be any more subtle? Gabe shook his head and started the car up. It took a few tries, but once it did start, it was ready to go. He rolled out of the parking lot and into the quiet street, only occasionally passing another vehicle despite it being downtown. School was going to be out in about three-and-a-half hours, so there was time to get ready. Amélie and Olivia had taken the day off to get some little things organized for Mako’s birthday, so Gabe shot them both a text that he’d join them. Mel sent back a spider and Olivia sent back a skull. For some reason, those were just their signs for ‘ok’, even though it probably took more time to hit the fucking emojis than it did to just type it out.
“Oh, you’ll have fun big guy! Had spidey ‘n glitchy set the whole thing up. Promise ya, it’ll be just what ya like!” Jamie couldn’t stop talking, which was perfectly fine. That was just how he was. Rather than replying outright, Mako just nodded and huffed and occasionally snorted in laughter. He knew that the little gang of friends he’d managed to gather were absolutely crazy about this party, for whatever reason. If it’d been up to him, the whole event would have been condensed down into a weekend movie marathon, since it was Friday, but everyone - including the down-to-earth and blunt Akande - had insisted he let them do this.
The only bummer was that Gabriel wouldn’t be there. It wouldn’t have been the first time his boyfriend was forced to miss out on something like this because of something that happened that got him into trouble, but it stung more because they were technically official. Hell, even Jack, Gabe’s best friend since elementary, wasn’t sure they were dating until they came right out and said it a few months ago. But, such is life and all that. Mako supposed he could deal with the late night cutesie texting for a while.
His house didn’t look much different when they walked up to it from the street. But that didn’t always mean much - when they got into party planning, Amélie and Olivia got into it. Jamie peered in the window, then suddenly cackled with laughter. Mako only rolled his eyes, motioning for Jamie to get up to the door as he opened it. There was no immediate heart attack, so everyone had learned to go easy on the ‘surprise’ part of the surprise party. What Mako didn’t expect was for a tongue to just crawl right up the shell of his ear.
It wasn’t the worst thing to ever be done to him, but it was unexpected, so he turned with the intent of either elbowing or shoving the offender out of the way, except Gabe was grinning like an asshole. “Surprise,” he whispered, winking before he threw his arms around Mako’s neck. “Piggy pile!” Jamie yelled, immediately jumping right onto the other two boys. From out of absolutely nowhere, Amélie and Olivia joined in on the hug, everyone squeezing their older friend like he was about to go to war.
“You’re all mental,” Mako grunted, still revelling in the soft embrace he found himself in the middle of. “Don’t worry, hermoso, there’s plenty more coming,” Olivia assured with a quick kiss on the young man’s cheek. While the other three ran off to do whatever, Mako was left with Gabriel, who was perfectly happy to use his boyfriend like a personal body pillow. “Thought you weren’t gonna be here,” Mako mumbled, nuzzling into Gabe’s neck. Gabriel looked just a bit sheepish, enough for the larger boy to feel sorry for him. In return, Gabe squeezed just a little around Mako’s neck. “Didn’t think my dad would let me off easy when he came by,” Gabe confessed. He sighed against Mako’s shoulder, easing into the hand that settled on his back. Suddenly, he jolted up, looking frantically around the room until he spotted what he wanted, grabbed it, and held the box out to his boyfriend.
“Had this made a while ago. Figured this would be a good time to give it to you.” Mako took the box. It was light, barely any heavier than the cardboard that gave frame to the wrapping paper. Whatever it was, he trusted Gabe to not give him anything kitschy or cheap. Even if Mako was perfectly fine with kitschy and cheap. “If you wanna open it now…” Gabe trailed off, hands shoved into his hoodie the way he did when he felt nervous. It didn’t show on his face, but anyone who knew him well could tell when the young man was nervous. And if he was nervous, he probably spent some time making or thinking out this gift.
Mako decided to spare his boyfriend any more theatrics, tearing open the bright green wrapping paper to reveal a standard brown cardboard box. There were holes cut out in the sides, like an animal’s carrying case, and Mako is strongly reminded of the bright blue snake Jamie brought him once as a ‘gift’. He pushes through regardless, and opens up the box. Inside is a stuffed pig. It’s limbs aren’t quite symmetrical and the little tiara it had on was crooked, but it was obviously made with meticulous care and love. It also has a tiny collar on, with a card hanging off of it. Mako flips the card over. It reads ‘My name is Duchess. I am a miniature pot-bellied pig. I hope we can be best friends!’ in a very familiar script. The stuffed animal is black on its head and legs, with little pink ears and a pink splotch over its belly and one eye. Its eyes are matte black buttons, sewn on almost perfectly. The whole thing is also pretty big for a normal stuffed toy, big enough that Mako would have to hold it against his chest or belly if he only had one hand.
It was absolutely beautiful. Mako lifted the stuffed pig out of the box. The last time he remembered using or owning a stuffed animal like this was right before his family moved, when he was three. “Do you like it?” Mako glanced up to the young man nervously flicking his eyes from the stuffed toy to his boyfriend. “It was my first time trying something like that. I had help, but-” Gabe is cut off by thick arms pulling him close. Instantly, he relaxes against the warm body. “Love it,” Mako mutters, pressing a kiss into Gabe’s hair. Gabriel sighed, content, remaining as he was until the front door popped open. “That’s cute,” Moira commented dryly, brushing past the two into the back of the house. Gabe was about to tell her to fuck off but Mako’s grip on him made the young man relax again.
“Ooh! He gave it to you!” Olivia squealed. She practically bounced off the walls to get around the two in an attempt to see the stuffed animal. “Gabe said he’d worked on it for weeks! Didn’t ever say what it was, show it off, hombre!” Mako lifted the (now) favorite toy up for the girl to inspect. She looked over it with a critical eye, having a near-mountain of such toys at home. “Seams are a little crooked on its head and these arms aren’t lined up quite right,” Olivia mumbled in an analytic tone. “But it’s good for a first-time job. Atta-boy, Gabi,” she added with a punch on Gabriel’s shoulder. The young man groaned a little, both at losing his boyfriend’s great hug and at being hit.
Amélie poked her head in from the kitchen. “Are you bringing them or not?” She growled. Olivia gave a sprightly wave that belonged on a fairy instead of this heathen. “Just a moment, mi amor, uno momento,” Olivia called after the other girl, followed quickly by a wistful sigh. She waved the two boys into the kitchen. Apparently some other people had arrived or been here that Mako didn’t notice. Olivia, Amélie, Jamie, and Moira were all in there, as expected, but Jack and Angela stood at the door, and Akande was off to the side, pretending like he was disinterested in the whole proceeding when he looked just as disgustingly gleeful as everyone else. They all surrounded the center island, covered in what was basically a giant collection of toothaches.
Rather than a cake, there were cookies and brownies and cupcakes strewn all over the place, all in various colors and stages of done-ness. The mess wasn’t something to sneeze at either. Rather than the sandy granite, the counters around the perimeter of the kitchen were all covered in white powder and flecks of icing. A few rags were tossed here and there, so cleaning had at least started. “Everyone kept arguing about what to make,” Jack sheepishly admitted to Gabe’s reddening face, “We just figured we’d cut out the arguing and do whatever we wanted. Don’t worry, Gabe, I’ve got a half-decent mini thing on the way for you guys. Emily made it.” The reassurance was all fine and well, but Gabe had told them all exactly how it was supposed to look - clean and untouched, other than the center island. Whatever. Gabriel huffed. “I’ll clean it up, don’t worry about it,” Angela timidly chimed in, “I don’t mind.” Right.
Mako sighed heavily and chuckled. “You went way too big, Gabe.” Everyone was straining to contain themselves as it was, so Mako just waved at them to go right ahead. A bystander might’ve thought the gathered teenagers were disguised piranhas with the intensity that they devoured the sweets with. There were a few gags that made Mako more than happy to eat whatever was left over. If anything. Actually, he’d just play it safe and send whatever was left home with Jack. His sister ate sweet things like a maniac; it didn’t matter how good or bad, if there was sugar in Jack’s house, it was gone within the week.
By the time everyone was finished, there might’ve been half a dozen cookies left. Olivia’s, which she insisted on giving to Amélie. Gabe and Mako were perfectly content to retreat to the livingroom after everybody helped themselves, cuddling under the warm blankets that always seemed to be baby-soft while Angela and the others - after some chastising and eyelash-batting - cleaned the kitchen up. Jamie walked in long before everyone else, snorting flour out of his nose. “Kicked me out,” he mumbled sullenly at Mako’s questioning look. The blond flopped onto the other end of the couch, pulling himself up on the larger man’s side opposite Gabriel. Jamie had a much better full-body embrace than Gabe did, Mako thought. It wasn’t bad, just a little indicative of the types of people they were. Jamie was loud, annoying at times, always ready to pop a joke or laugh at the first thing that excited him. Gabe was quiet, a little more seclusive and definitely more of a home-body than Mako’s sure he’d like to admit.
He never says these things, of course. Either people will find out who they are or they’ll delude themselves for the rest of their lives.
Nearly twenty minutes after Jamie came in, the rest of the group walks into the massive room, all covered in different amounts of flour and sugar and icing. Olivia and Amélie both have little pictures on their cheeks drawn in purple icing, a spider on Olivia and a sugar skull on Amélie. They’re so not-subtly gay for each other that it’s disgusting. Everyone takes their usual seats on the wide U-shaped couch, leaning back or on each other, depending on how friendly they were. Expectedly, Jack and Akande took completely opposite sides of the couch, Amélie and Olivia were cuddling close enough that Gabe was tempted to tell them that girls needed to use condoms too until Jamie beat him to it, Moira was, as usual, on the floor, doing some kind of homework like the weirdo she was, and Angela was somewhere in the middle to act as somewhat of a peacekeeper if things got out of hand. Specifically between Akande and Jack, but it wasn’t uncommon for random bouts of violence to spontaneously occur either.
After about ten minutes of silence, Olivia groans out loud and throws her hands up. “Is this really what we’re down to?! Just sitting around like a bunch of dead cats? Dios mio, Gabe, fuck your four boyfriends or something.” Gabe kicked at his cousin, scowling in her direction. It wasn’t mean, just annoyed. Olivia was insufferable when she was bored and the ‘four boyfriends’ comment was always the first thing out of her mouth when she got bored. Just because he was close and had - perhaps - experimented with some more risque ideas with Akande and Jack and Jamie before trying them with Mako was no reason to say they were all together. Gabe actually wasn’t sure that polyamory would be allowed - Mako could be surprisingly possessive at times.
Well… He’d be fine if it was just Jamie. Those two may as well have been dating anyway with how much Jamie would come along on Gabe and Mako’s days out.
“Go get a movie or something then,” Gabe grouses, burrowing into his actual boyfriend’s neck. Almost in sync, Akande and Jack move to try and comfort him, but Jack is on the wrong side of the couch, and so has to suffer with the smug glare sent his way by Akande. “You two are impossible,” Amélie groans as Olivia rises to search through the high shelves for some kind of decent movie to watch. It’s hard to tell which “two” she was referring to, Olivia and Gabriel, or Akande and Jack. Both pairs were equally annoying to deal with even on a good day.
With Olivia and Gabe, it was a simple matter of family. Olivia and Gabriel were cousins, and so had the right to beat the shit out of each other on physical and verbal levels until they felt like stopping. Akande and Jack, however, had a whole different set of problems. Gabe had met Jack on his first day of kindergarten, and they’d bonded almost immediately. They did absolutely everything imaginable together, whether it was playing at recess or doing their grammar homework. Then high school rolled around, and with it, Akande Ogundimu. New to the states, Jack didn’t mind him at first. Was very nice and comely like the white boy he was. Then Akande started showing interest in Gabe. Still, Jack was able to give him the benefit of the doubt. But after a while, Jack got jealous of the young man. He was suave, flirty, confident, all without coming off as bull-headed or stupid. Basically everything that everyone else expected Jack to be that he tried to pull off and just never came close to whatever Akande did. Gabe still loved both of them, but the way they fought for his attention was uncomforting, at best.
Mako cleared his throat. “I’m goin’ to bed. Anyone else?” He didn’t wait for anyone to reply, just got up and strolled right on over to the flight of stairs leading to the next floor of the house. The young man glanced behind him halfway up to see Gabriel and Jamison following like dutiful puppies.
The first floor of the house was wide and open, but the second floor was taken up mostly by a single hallway, three bedrooms and two bathrooms branching off on either side. Which Mako found strange. The only time he could think when more than one bedroom was used at a time was when he invited friends to stay the night. Even on holidays, his mother and father were off doing work. It was convenient, though. Mako basically had free reign over the house so long as he kept it clean. And he did make his friends clean it if they made their own mess.
Since his parents were hardly ever home, Mako had taken over the master bedroom, gradually moving his things into it until it was his, whether his parents liked it or not. It still had the bed frame from when they’d moved in about sixteen years ago, but the mattress had been replaced several times. At the moment, it was a king size mattress, covered with fairly new sheets in a monochromatic geometric pattern, along with as many pachimaris and other such plushies that could fit until they spilled off the bed into their own pile facing the window. A comfort place.
The three boys pile onto the bed all at once, not unlike the way they had on the couch. Gabe and Jamie each laid against Mako on either side, all three bundling themselves in a collection of blankets and plushies until they’d settled. Between Mako’s warm body, Jamie’s energy-fueled twitching, the hoodie Gabe has on, and the blankets on top of the three of them, it more than makes up for the aggressive A/C that everyone else insists on. Gabe burrows into the blanket den, almost purring in the little mound he was part of. Through some miracle of faith, Gabriel doesn’t notice as he’s moved between Mako and Jamie.
With another near-miracle, Jamie is able to wiggle himself beneath Gabriel without waking him. Now that both of them were in a more compact spot, Mako could comfortably put an arm around both boys.
Everyone downstairs were perfectly oblivious to the cuddling upstairs.