Work Text:
Streetlight
Meaning: a light usually mounted on a pole and constituting one of a series spaced at intervals along a public street or highway
Example: As the day darkened the streetlights came on
“Did you know that we have a ghost lady on this drive?”
Alfred almost slammed on the brakes, nervously laughing at what Felipe had just said. “Vinny- can you tell your boyfriend not to scare me please? I’m driving.” He swallows the sudden fear in his throat, taking a few short inhales of air before squeezing the steering wheel enough to make indents on the foam on it. “Please?”
He glances up at the mirror to see Savino leaning on Felipe on the backseat. Both of his partners there, leaning against each other alongside with their stuff and the pillows, Felipe keeps on insisting on bringing on every road trip and vacation they would be on. He would have squealed seeing both of them bundled up in his jackets due to the cold rainy weather but seeing the familiar teasing smiles on his boyfriends- he rather not at all. He rather not at all let them be amused by his fear.
“Hey.” His boyfriend reaches to their other partner to snap his fingers at his face. “No scaring the driver. I would rather not be in a car accident.” He says that but he was hiding the smirk underneath the collar of his shirt. “I rather be on the tv for something cool and fun and not being part of a car accident.”
“I’m not scaring your boyfriend!” Felipe argues, pouting and stopping from scrolling on his phone. Probably editing their photos and waiting for them to upload to instagram as he would usually do at the end of the day. “I was only stating a fact! There are a lot of ghost-”
“No no no!” Alfred interrupts him, shaking his head and leaning forward. Trying to see through the fog and rain. “We are not talking about this! No thank you- it’s bad enough that I thought your older sister was a ghost when we visited her!”
Savino snorted, opening his eyes to peer at him. “Lmao- I remember that. Didn’t she end up screaming too because she thought that you were the ghost in the scenario?”
The memory itself was somewhat embarrassing. Especially since it was the first time he met Felipe’s family aside from his older brother who was the main reason they even met. Alfred tries to calm down, trying to focus more or less in driving to their next vacation place, their itinerary already half-finished in their small trip to Felipe’s homeland.
“Please. Ate thought her ex came back to life and was coming to haunt her after moving on.” Felipe laughs, trying to stretch his back without dislodging the somewhat dozing Savino off his chest. “Which is funny because her ex isn’t even American you know?”
At least they weren’t talking about the ghost now. Alfred wouldn’t really call himself fearful you know? Except that… There are just stories and movies that make him want to scream and hide underneath someone’s shirt. The amount of times he ended up hiding behind his partners during their movie nights where they want to watch whatever was popular on Netflix or Hulu and he doesn’t understand what Felipe just loves about horror. The amount of times they watched horror during the time it was Felipe’s turn to choose a movie.
“Isn’t he dead?” Savino asks, turning to lay on his side so he can look at the front of the car. “Like I remember you saying about love in your family being extremely unlucky.”
“Yup!”
Alfred couldn’t help himself from joining the conversation. “Except for you right? Since you have us?” He wiggles his eyebrows at his partner who gave him a certain eye roll. Though his chest lightened up, no longer afraid of the dark and… potential ghosts that would jump out from the middle of the street, out of nowhere.
“Cheesy but alas- absolutely correct. Maybe that’s because I kept on losing every time we would play cards back when we were in high school.” Felipe shrugs, slowly stroking Savino’s hair to the side, playing with it. “Lucky in cards, unlucky in love! I was incredibly unlucky in cards aha- all of my allowance usually went to Kuya at the end of every time we would play.”
“Remember kids!” Alfred teases, putting on his morning weather announcer voice that he had honed over the years of college and being part of the broadcasting media team he had as his first course. “Don’t gamble or else you might lose your allowance to your older brother who seems to be more skilled-”
“Or possibly scamming you out of your own money.” Savino joins in, snickering while he squints against the light of his phone.
“And with that said money! He might be buying himself a popsicle at the end of the day~”
“He would not!” Felipe protests, lightly kicking the back of the driver’s seat with the ball of his foot. “Jaime would actually buy me a lot of food with my allowance and we would split it! He felt sorry every time I would lose so… sorry to you all who don't have sweet loving older siblings but my older siblings love me and I’m incredibly spoiled by them aha!” He snaps his fingers together, acting as if he had won something by showing his siblings off.
“You’re not the older sibling there.” Savino points out.
“You try and grow up with two younger brothers who keep on bringing me weird things when they were growing up. I swear I thought Feliciano was planning on getting an orphanage or something when he keeps on bringing home kids and asking our Nonno if said kids could stay with us and let’s not talk about Romeo- god that kid kept on eating things he shouldn’t be eating and landing more in the emergency room more times than me and Feliciano did when we were younger.”
He huffs, crossing his arms together while throwing his phone on his stomach. “God. How the two of them managed to live past 18 is beyond me.”
“Maybe that’s because they have such a good older brother.” Alfred smiles, looking down to stare at his phone screen which was currently displaying the map of this particular area. It basically telling him to turn left in a few hundred meters so he needs to pay attention now. “I was the middle child really sorta? Since I grew up with my cousins-”
“Eyebrows!” Felipe sneaks in.
“Blond bastard” was the unhelpful addition of Savino who joined in the fun of making fun of his cousin who was the only cousin that they have met so far.
“You do realize he’s not the only cousin I have right?” Alfred looks up, pushing his glasses up so that he would be able to see the street better. “He has older siblings too- I think he’s the youngest from that side of the family?”
His partners raised an eyebrow each, not really trusting whatever he was saying. “Really? He gives off such a… hmm.. What can I call it?” Felipe hums out loud, trying to get his thoughts in order and he looks rather cute with that thinking face on. His hand rubbing the end of his chin as if it would help him think thoughts easier.
“Big sibling vibes?” He ended up shrugging.
Alfred tilts his head, thinking about it. “Yea he does but that’s probably because he was always stuck with me and Mattie growing up and after we were born, our other aunt got pregnant and then we had James and Michele and so many more cousins after that.”
They all came from such huge families. Each growing up with cousins or the like to act as their playmates. Alfred with his older cousin who acted as his somewhat authority figure growing up with how much his parents were far too busy in their jobs. Felipe with his bunch of older siblings that once again, the other two weren’t really sure how many siblings he really has since he keeps on adding more and more sometimes. Then we have Savino who, apart from his two younger siblings, had a lot of older cousins who were there more often than their actual parents living in their old (maybe even ancient) house that they all have been to more than once when they both wanted to date Savino.
“Sometimes I wonder why you have so many cousins.”
Alfred raised an eyebrow at Felipe’s words. “You-” He can’t help but shake his head. “Is telling me that I have too many cousins?”
“Well well,” Savino can’t help but laugh. “Looks like the two are about to fight.”
“Fair.” Felipe sighs, settling down. “My titas and titos might have gotten carried away in bed-”
Savino throws a pillow on Felipe’s face, the thing hitting the window instead. “I don’t need to know how your cousins are created! Thank you! No no! Thank you!”
It was a comfortable noise, laughter echoing through the road and Alfred loves this- listening to his partners talk and laugh, seeing them from the corner of his eyes and seeing them just… letting themselves be. Trusting him enough to know that he will get them to places that they need to be-
“But did you really know that on days like these, you might encounter a ghost who might ask you to stop!”
“VINO YOUR BOYFRIEND!”
“He’s your boyfriend too Fredo. You ask him to stop yourself.”
“She’s a pretty bloody white lady who has dark hair and-”
“FELIPE AUGUSTIN D.C. GOMEZ!” Alfred shrieks- anything to make him just stop oh my god!
“Kuya Piri! Bili ka daw sa tindahan!” One of Felipe’s cousins called out for his partner, going as far as leaving the kitchen to investigate where he was. But knowing his partner, he’s probably hiding somewhere outside, getting to reconnect with the much older cousins he had seen around.
Savino didn’t know what she just said so he turned to look at Felipe’s… older cousin or older sister who smiled up at him. The way she smiles is almost the same way Felipe would look at them before grinning, so bright and so happy as if there was nothing in the world would make her mood turn sour. “She’s calling Piri to buy something in the sari-sari store. We actually just ran out of sugar and the grocery is too far away and it’s probably closed so the next thing is the sari-sari store.” She carefully explains while chopping up the onions without crying.
“The sari-sari store?” He can’t help but ask, not really familiar with it.
“Ah-” she pauses, thinking. “You’ll see! You should go with Piri! So you and his other boyfriend can get a break- who knows that poor Alfred might need it. He might not even be able to stand the kids all that long.”
Savino chuckles. “No. Alfred absolutely adores kids. He’ll do just fine.” He wasn’t lying just to earn some points to Felipe’s family but rather, if not for Alfred’s wish to be a scientist or an astronaut, he would have been someone working alongside with kids since he just adores them so much.
“Still. Nakakahiya- oh sorry.” She paused, realizing she spoke in the wrong language. Something that Savino smiled at her encouragingly to speak in while he was here. “It’s embarrassing since our family’s kids tend to be rather… silly?”
“Well…” Savino leans back to see Felipe being pushed back inside the house, Alfred followed alongside them. “You’ll find that he’s almost as silly as Felipe.”
Meeting Felipe’s family members is always a big event. Though Savino is not that fond of people, he would try to get out of his comfort zone just to get to know the families he knows his partners hold closest to their hearts. However he never thought he would help out making dinner for the whole family, while Alfred was left with taking care of the younger kids and now, he’s out in the street with Alfred, walking in the middle of Felipe who was excitedly showing them all of the places he used to play in and all the moments he got in trouble with the neighbors.
“And this is the place where I accidentally broke a nose while playing!” He watches Felipe jump on the sidewalk, carrying their bags of goodies from the small… corner store? While he twists around the pole like a striper. “You could have seen it! The blood gushed out and I thought I was going to die and I was crying so bad!”
Without even needing to see it, Savino can already imagine and it looks like it’s not only him who can see it happening. Considering how many times they have managed to stop the man from accidentally bumping into things and falling into places, Alfred and Savino laughed, shaking their heads fondly on the way he gushed about the times he got injured and so on and so forth.
“What a child you were.” Savino notes, holding out his free hand that wasn’t holding a bunch of bottled sodas for his partner to take and gladly Felipe takes it, jumping down to bump their hips together.
“Gosh! I wonder if your ate-”
“A-teh.” Felipe corrects it. “Not ate as in ‘I just ate’ but rather a-teh.”
Alfred rolled his eyes and sighed exasperatedly. “I hope your a-teh has baby photos of you.” He laughs, throwing his arm over Savino’s shoulder before wiggling his eyebrows at him. “I know Feliciano has some of Vinny.”
“Hands off my photos.” He scowls but he lets the arm over his shoulder stay.
“Awww! Are you as grumpy as you are today when you were young hmm?” Felipe leans in, putting most of his weight on Savino who tries his best to remain upright so that they wouldn’t all tumble down to the ground and end up spilling all the items they just brought.
“I was a quiet kid.” Savino defends himself, squinting as he sees the familiar row of houses of the street Felipe’s family lives. “Kinda quiet I think? How could I know! I was just a kid at that time.”
Fun fact. He was absolutely not quiet as a kid but no one really needs to know that part actually.
After the whole cleaning up of the dining table and the games that Felipe’s family prepared for them, the trio finally settles in their bedroom- Felipe’s old bedroom that was used by someone else before they arrived. Alfred, as soon as he finished showering, immediately leaped onto the bed and was surprised by how soft it was before nuzzling deep into it.
“Gosh. I love your family so much. Their cooking is so good!” He praised, clapping his hands together in excitement when he felt the bed dips at the side as Savino sits down to air dry his hair with the open window.
“Thanks! They learned from the best-” Felipe huffs, puffing out his bare chest. “From me!”
“Yea right.” Savino laughs, rubbing his hair down with a towel to make it dry quicker.
“What does that mean?”
Alfred can’t help but laugh at Felipe’s pout, feeling a bit floaty and happy from the good food and hot bath he just took. “Been wondering about this for some time now but why do they call you Piri?” He noticed that all of them, from the neighborhood people that recognized his partner to his older siblings and even the younger ones called him that.
“Been thinking the same too.” Savino puts down his towel, leaving it over his shoulders. His hands reaching out for his phone left at the bedside table and with a loud click, it opens to his fingerprint. “Jaime also calls you Piri.”
Their partner hums, dancing in nothing but his briefs to the beat of the karaoke a few streets over. “Family nickname! Like how Vino is called Romano by Feli and so on and so forth. Don’t know where I got it from.” He shrugs, before jumping onto bed, wiggling upwards so he can be in the middle of his partners. “Piri-piri, sounds cute though?”
“Like food.” Alfred nods in agreement, fluffing up his pillow and draping one arm around Felipe’s waist. “Piri-piri the mochi.” He laughs, imagining the same of Felipe in the form of a mochi. “I think you would taste good.”
“Vinooo your boyfriend is thinking about eating me!”
“Tell your boyfriend that he already ate you before.” Savino snickers, tossing his phone back to the table and settles in bed. The gasps shared between the other two was something quite hilarious especially with Alfred’s cheeks immediately burned.
“Savino.” He hisses, suddenly feeling shy and looks away. “Not in front of Felipe’s family!”
Excuse them? Felipe looks up at him. “Babe, you do realize we’re all alone right? Like we have the whole room to ourselves and I’m pretty sure the walls aren't that thin.” He teases, sitting up and suddenly curling himself on top of Alfred. “Come on- maybe before we end up going out aye?”
“Aren’t we going to church tomorrow?” Savino adds in, watching in amusement and deciding to join in the fun. “Well not us us but more like Felipe’s family so that means we have the whole morning to ourselves too.”
Both of them leans in to cage Alfred between them. Each of them wearing mischievous grins while Alfred gulps in nervousness. “You sure? I mean- we’re all pretty tired and all that. Since we have been on the road since yesterday and I think we all deserves a break!”
Savino rolls his eyes. “Yes or no Alfred?” He says that with that tone he knows Alfred likes a little too much and he watches in absolute glee at the red blush Alfred takes on.
“Yes or no babe~” Felipe repeats, already moving forward with their impromptu plan.
“... yes…”
“Good boy.”