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Rudy peeked in through the door, spying Alejandro still sitting at his desk frowning at the mess of papers in front of him. He leaned a hip on the doorframe, slowly pushing the door open with his foot. Ale looked up as the creaking of the hinges announced Rudy’s presence. His face lit up immediately once his eyes found Rudy’s form.
“Rudy,” Ale murmured, leaning back in his chair. “Come to rescue me?”
Rudy chuckled and pushed off of the doorframe. “You know I would never tear you away from your important work.”
Ale pouted as he slouched back over his desk. It was endearingly adorable and Rudy had to bite his cheek to keep from grinning. He walked over to Ale’s desk to perch himself on the edge, looking over the forms on his desk. The mug the man had next to them caught his eye; it was the one Rudy had bought for him in some kitschy, tourist trap shop in town as a joke one day.
“What have you got?” he asked, nodding toward the mug.
“Just some coffee.”
Rudy raised an eyebrow. “Coffee?”
Ale nodded and brought the mug up to his mouth. “Yeah. Angel offered it to me to help me get through all of this.” He took a sip and immediately grimaced.
“You’re drinking coffee?”
Rudy widened his eyes in surprise, holding his own thermal mug with cherry tea. It was way too sweet for him, but it was cold and he had thought maybe Alejandro might want some later.
But instead, he came to school to find Alejandro with… coffee.
His friend was smiling, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Yeah. Vale showed me that new place, and if we sneak it into a thermal mug, the teachers won’t know it’s coffee.”
Rudy nodded quietly, watching Alejandro take a sip from his coffee and making a grimace. He offered him the mug. “I think it tastes awful, but all the others are trying the new place at the moment. Do you want to try it?”
Maybe he would have, if Ale had asked him to come along. If Ale had taken him, Rudy would have joined, because he would go anywhere where Ale went, but instead, he had taken Valeria to a new place. Again.
Rudy made a grimace and shrugged. “Nah, my Mum will get angry if I drink coffee.”
Ale chuckled. “Yeah, better not make her angry. She’s scary!”
The rest of the day, Rudy had a bad feeling which didn’t pass away, and the cherry tea never tasted more terrible than today.
“Are you sure you don’t want anything different? A tea?”
Alejandro waved him off. “No, it’s fine. This will keep me awake for longer. I need to finish all of this tonight.”
“If you’re sure,” Rudy murmured and stood from his perch on Ale’s desk. “You’ll let me know if you want something else?”
Ale nodded and turned back to his work. “I will, don’t worry.”
Rudy just hummed as he left Alejandro’s office. He had a feeling he was going to hear soon about a headache.
“The military?”
Not able to keep the shock out of his voice, Rudy stared at Alejandro. The taller boy shrugged, showing off his muscles involuntarily. “If we want things to change, we need to change them ourselves.”
Frowning, Rudy crossed the arms in front of his chest. “What does Valeria say about that?”
Alejandro leaned back on the chair, hiding a tired yawn. “She’s going to join as well.”
Something dropped in Rudy, something heavy, and broke into a million pieces. He stared at the desk in front of him, at their homework he was doing so that Ale could copy them later. Only a few more grades were missing until they knew what they could do with their future.
And Rudy did have plans.
But all of them included Ale.
“Hey. You know what they say, nothing can kill me.” Ale poked his nose, offering him that significant smile which was so damn captivating and enchanting. “And whenever I’m on leave, I’ll go to your café and I’ll have the best tea in the whole world.”
Rudy’s mouth tasted bitter and he didn’t drop another word about this topic for the rest of the day.
Rudy walked into the canteen, surprised to see Alejandro there glaring down at the coffee machine on the counter. He’d had a long day training the newest recruits and Rudy had thought he’d gone back to their apartment to rest. He sidled up to the other man with a smile.
“I thought you had finished for the day.”
Ale turned to face him, the scowl smoothing on his face, but not matching the smile on Rudy’s. “I thought I had, too, but Hernandez has just given me some more paperwork to do from the higher ups.” The scowl returned as he turned back to the coffee maker. “And now this damn thing won’t work.”
“Are you sure you want coffee this late?” Rudy asked. It was almost twenty hundred hours. “Surely you’d be better off just leaving it for the night. I’m sure they’d understand, you’ve had a long day.”
Ale’s scowl appeared to only deepen. “No, it’s apparently important stuff, needs to be done before tomorrow morning.” He paused his complaining to cough into his elbow.
Rudy became concerned at that. He had noticed Ale’s voice sounded tight, but thought it was just from the stress. “Did you strain your voice yelling at the recruits today?” He really shouldn’t have coffee, then.
Ale just waved him off. “I’ll be fine. You worry too much about me, Rudy.” The coffee maker finally dispensed his coffee into his mug, which he took, saluting to Rudy with it with a grim smile. “You go have a rest. I’ll meet you back home when I’m done, alright?”
Rudy just sighed and watched him return to his office. He turned to glare at the coffee maker, as if its existence was the reason for Ale’s sleepless nights of late--which it was, in Rudy’s opinion. Determined, he reached into a cabinet and pulled out the supplies he needed and set the kettle to boil.
“What are you making?”
At the sound of the voice, Rudy looked up, but he quickly turned around, hiding his embarrassment. Suddenly self-aware about his apron, he looked down. Maybe Alejandro would just vanish if he didn’t look at him.
“Are you making tea?”
He didn’t vanish.
Rudy looked up again, still shy, but also very happy. From all the other kids, Alejandro had decided to come to him, and it seemed as if he wanted to stay. Alejandro never played with him, and usually it was just Rudy and the girls in this area. But today, with the older girls being in pre-school-classes, Rudy was alone, and he had thought he’d make them a nice cup of tea for when they returned.
Alejandro sat down, dark chocolate brown eyes watching Rudy curiously. Still having the teapot in his hand, Rudy nodded and placed it on the small table, getting another cup from the board. He wasn’t sure what to say.
“Are you having cake, too?”
Rudy blushed, but beamed, sprinting to the oven to get the freshly made strawberry cake out of it.
“Alejo, come play soccer!”
Rudy looked up, unsure if Alejandro would leave right away. Now when the boy finally had come around to play with him, he didn’t want him to play with the other ‘cool’ kids again.
Valeria was already pouting, eyeing him annoyed and Rudy quickly sat down, looking down to escape the situation.
“Later, I’m having tea!”
Rather rough, Alejandro grabbed a piece of the wooden cake with his hands and placed it on his table, beaming up at him.
“What tea are we having?”
Rudy fidgeted with his fingers. “Peppermint.”
“Ah, nasty.” Alejandro made a grimace and Rudy quickly jolted up with the teapot in his hands.
“I can make another one!”
The older boy chuckled. “No. But can you make cherry tomorrow? It’s my favourite!”
Tomorrow?
Rudy’s eyes widened and he nodded happily. His smile stayed until the next day, when Alejandro had come to join him for a cup of tea again.
Ten minutes later, he appeared in the doorway to Alejandro’s office cradling a steaming mug in his hands. Ale looked up in confusion as he entered, important reports abandoned for the moment.
“What are you still doing here?” Ale asked.
Rudy gestured to the steaming mug he placed on Ale’s desk. “Made some tea for your throat. Lemon and ginger with some honey in it.”
Ale tried to glare at Rudy, but it was ruined as a smile broke out over his face. “You worry too much about me, you’re worse than my abuela .” He blew softly over the mug, steam wafting around his face, before he took a small sip and sighed.
“Better?” Rudy asked, carding a hand through Ale’s hair.
Alejandro nodded and took another sip. “You always take such good care of me, Rudy.”
Rudy chuckled and placed a kiss on Ale’s temple. “Someone has to.”
“What are you doing here?”
Ale stared at him surprised, while Valeria narrowed her eyes – behind his back of course, so that he couldn’t see it. Rudy ignored her and shrugged, holding up his papers. “I cannot leave you two hotheads alone. You’ll get killed.”
Ale’s eyes were wide, but his grin was wider. Before Rudy could help it, he was picked up from the ground easily and squeezed, and angrily Rudy kicked his legs.
“Let me down, you’re embarrassing me! We’re not in school anymore!”
Ale laughed, ruffling his hair and pulling an arm around his shoulders. “As if I let anyone make fun of you! And damn, we’re going to have the best coffee in the whole world, but with us every day!”
Valeria stayed quiet, and Rudy was rather silent as well. Alejandro’s laughter was bright, making enough noise for all of them, and it even tuned out the noise Rudy’s dreams made from crushing forever.
A knock sounded at the door to Rudy’s office. He looked up from his computer to find Ale standing in his doorway, looking a bit bashful.
“What is it, Ale?” he asked.
Ale gestured outside of his office, a blush spreading through his cheeks. “Could you make me a cup of tea? I can never make it as good as you can.”
Rudy grinned and stood, linking his hand with Ale’s when offered as they walked to the base kitchen. “Never thought you’d ask.”
When they made it to the kitchen, Ale took his usual position hugging Rudy from behind and resting his head on Rudy’s shoulder to watch as he made his tea. He did occasionally get in Rudy’s way and probably made the whole process much longer, but Rudy wouldn’t dare tell him to stop. Especially not with the contented sigh Ale always let out when Rudy added a copious amount of sugar to his tea, to suit his incurable sweet tooth. Soon, he had finished Ale’s perfect cup of tea and handed it over to him.
Ale took an eager sip, closing his eyes with another sigh as he savored his sip of tea. “Perfect as always.”
Rudy chuckled. “You flatter me far too much,” he teased, but even still, he could feel his cheeks blushing from the compliment.
“ Rudy, look!”
And Rudy looked. He shouldn’t have, but he looked. Intently.
Staring rather at his friend, who had ripped his shirt from his chest and grinned proudly at him, he couldn’t help but blush. Ale was pointing at his chest, stepping even nearer and Rudy was never as embarrassed as now, even though he didn’t know why.
He had seen Alejandro naked a hundred times before, in the locker room, on the beach, whenever they were swimming in the lake. But today…
“My first chest hair! My very first chest hair! Dad says I’ll grow a beard soon, too!”
Finally, Rudy was able to look up, away from the chest and the down which was slowly, but steadily growing there. Ale was so happy, and Rudy felt dizzy. Weird, somehow.
“I’m becoming a real man. Do you think Valeria will consider me as her boyfriend now?”
It stung.
Rudy wasn’t sure why it stung, but his heart suddenly clenched, it throbbed, it hurt, and he never felt something like this before. It was confusing, and scary, and he didn’t want Ale to know.
“Hey, don’t look so disappointed! I’m sure you’ll grow some soon as well!”
Ale’s joy was replaced with a calm worry and a warm smile, though his hand on Rudy’s shoulder felt hotter than usual.
Rudy couldn’t speak. He just nodded.
“You’re looking pale, are you alright?”
Ale had touched him a million times before, they had hugged and shared their beds almost every weekend. But right now, his hand was too heavy, his breath too warm, and his smell-
Rudy quickly shook his head. “I’m getting a headache.”
“Wait, I’ll bring you to the hospital wing and then I’ll get you some tea.”
Rudy walked with him, but went home soon after. He felt weirdly confused, his chest didn’t stop paining, and his heart rate was so out of the loop that even his mother got worried.
The doctor ordered rest, but his heart only ached for that one medicine he couldn’t get.
And Ale never was allowed to know.
“I speak nothing but the truth,” Alejandro said over the rim of his mug, eyes sparkling.
“Anything to get you to stop drinking that excuse of what Angel calls coffee.”
Ale made a face in agreement. “He should definitely take some tips from you.” Then he held his mug in one hand and held out his other for Rudy to take. “I know you’ve got some work to finish, I wouldn’t want to keep you from it for long.”
Internally, Rudy was loath to return to his office, but he accepted Ale’s hand and let himself be led back. Ale hung around for a bit longer while Rudy worked before finishing up his cup of tea and making excuses about bothering Rudy for long enough. Rudy just waved him off with a laugh and a grin.
He would always drop whatever he was doing to make a cup of tea for Alejandro.
And Ale never was allowed to know.