Work Text:
He sits quietly in the car, enjoying the silence for a while.
It’s been a long day at the store, serving customers - and putting on a fake smile when greeting rude such - and packing up items.
It’s a change from old routines, aka the cartel.
And running into an old associate didn’t make his day less stressful.
He enters the warm house - a contrast to the crispy autumn air. One of the cats walks up to greet him and Nacho leans down to scratch the black cat behind his ear. In response, he purrs and bunts his tiny head against Nacho’s leg.
His wife and daughter are in the living room.
This has been his life for the past three years, but it always brings a smile to his face. It warms his heart to come home to his family. The people he’d do anything for.
Laura is half-lying on the couch, her head propped up on some pillows. She is still wearing work clothes - a white button up, a black pen-skirt and dark leggings underneath. Her brown hair is out and hangs like a veil around her freckled face. She’s beautiful as always.
How he adores that woman. He’s loved her since they were teens.
As a friend, best friend, lover, and now - as a wife. They’ve been through so much together, but Nacho would do it all again.
Laura looks up at him, greeting him with a loving smile - before looking back down at their daughter.
Valentina is sitting next to her mother with her tiny head resting against the same pillow. She eagerly points at the tv - they’re watching an animal documentary - and shouts out the names of all animals she recognizes. Kangaroo, panda, dinosaur (although he’s pretty sure she means crocodile) and lion. She is only three years old, but already so bright. She has a big smile on her face as she continues pointing at animals, showing Laura how much she knows.
When the toddler sees her father in the doorway, she points at him.
“Donkey!” She calls out with enthusiasm.
Nacho raises an eyebrow while Laura bursts out laughing.
“Hi, mi preciosa.” He says to Valentina and can’t help but chuckle at her words. Donkey. Only three years old but already a little menace. “Mi amor.”
He says to Laura and greets her with a kiss.
“Hey, love.” She smiles at him and glances at Valentina. “If it makes you feel better, she referred to me as a spider earlier.”
Nacho laughs.
“That does make me feel better. Thank you, mi reina.”
He slumps down between his two favorite girls in the world and reaches down to ruffle Valentina's brown curls.
Laura always says she’s like a mini-Nacho, with her brown eyes, the curly hair - although he keeps his shaved off - and the determined yet grumpy expression she has on her face when something doesn’t go her way.
The attitude, however… Her mothers. That plus the creativity, stubbornness and that smile that brightens up every room she enters.
They sit there for a while, listening to Valentina's happy rambling about animals. Nacho feels the regular sense of calm. This is where he’s supposed to be - with his family.
He carefully closes the door behind him, not making a single sound. Valentina is a light sleeper and the last thing Nacho would want is for her to wake up, after finally putting her to sleep.
He sighs and walks back to the living room, where Laura is sitting.
She has changed into a black pajamas now and looks down at her computer screen. She grins up at Nacho.
“Devils finally asleep?”
He rolls his eyes and sits down next to her again.
“Yup.” Her eyes don't meet his. “Damn workaholic.”
He shuts the computer for her and puts it aside on the coffee table. Before she can protest, he pulls her into a kiss. It’s a needy, yet tender kiss.
He pants for air when pulling away. They both do.
“How was work?” He asks and pulls down her head to rest on his lap. His hand works through her messy hair, untangling it for her.
“Boring as fuck. This article I’m working on, man…” She moans in frustration and looks up at him. “You? Was Manny in a good mood today?”
He scoffs at her nickname for his father - but there’s no real annoyance behind the sound. His wife has nicknames for everyone. His nickname - Iggy. Domingo? Mingo. His father Manuel - Manny.
And the ones she can’t remember the name off - or the one she dislikes - gets more interesting nicknames. He needs to hush her often, as she tends to say them when Valentina is around. He finds it amusing, but doesn’t want their three year old to cuss people out at kindergarten.
“Don’t worry, my father was in a good mood today. Work was great.”
He doesn’t sound very convincing in the last sentence and Laura notices that. She lifts her head from his lap. She’s too damn observant, his wife.
“Ignacio Varga.” Nacho chuckles. He knows it’s best to tell the truth when she full-names him.
“Ran into a… Uhm, old associate.”
Laura's face gets a gloomy expression, as always when he mentions the cartel.
“What happened?”
“The usual.” Nacho sighs and rubs his forehead. “Asked when I’m coming back - not if - and said they needed me.”
Laura does her best to remain calm but he knows her too well. He knows that the distant look in her eyes and the way she clenches her jaw - or bites around her nails - means she’s worried. He puts his hand on her thigh and tilts her head, forcing her to look into his brown eyes.
“Hey… Look at me.” And she does. “I basically told him to piss off.”
“You’re not going back, are you?” Her voice cracks.
“No.” Nacho shakes his head firmly, needing her to see how serious he is about this.
“Never, mi amor.”
“Promise?” When she holds out her little finger to him, he smiles.
Whenever they tried reassuring each other about something as teens, they’d pinky promise one another.
And Nacho always keeps his promises. He interlocks his little finger with hers and stares into her gorgeous green eyes.
“I promise.”
There was a time when he had money put aside. A Plan B, for Laura and for his father - in case something happened to him.
Having the role he had, life was a gamble. Any day could be his last, if he didn’t play his cards right.
If something happened to him, he wanted Laura and Manuel to keep on living. To find peace somewhere else. All that money is still hidden away to this day - just in case.
“If you don’t leave the cartel, I’ll kill you before they get the chance to.” Laura used to say. She never meant it - of course. But it wasn’t a joke either. She loathed the cartel, and what it forced him to do.
But she was never mad at him - though she had every right to.
He remembers how she would clench her jaw every time he went to work. How she would watch him cautiously when he came home, with eyes searching for signs of injury. The slightest bruise or cut made her lose it.
“My hot nurse” - Nacho would often call her as she cleaned his wounds and patched him up. In return, she’d give him a cold glare - one that he can still see when he closes his eyes.
She looks like an angel, but sure knows how to act like a devil, that woman.
He tried to leave the cartel - multiple times. He really did.
But something always came up. Something always prevented him from leaving the dangers behind. Something, or someone.
The fucking Salamancas, threats from outside the cartel. Always conflicts, always stuck in the crossfire and bound to loyalty.
It was not until the day Laura held up the positive pregnancy test with trembling hands that he knew it was time to make a change.
To leave his old life - his old self - behind and start something new. With her, and far away from the fucked up shit he’d come to known as “life”.
He has no idea how he did it. How he left the violence and danger beside, but it was so worth it. So worth it to see Laura tear up and throw herself in his arms the day he told her he was out.
The look of pride in his father's eyes. The deep exhale that left him along with a trembling “Finally.”
Nacho looks at himself in the mirror as he brushes his teeths. He’s lost muscles the past years. His tan skin is covered in tiny scars - a reminder of the life that was.
Laura, who is plucking her eyebrows next to him, tilts her head and meets his gaze in the mirror.
“Why the frown, pretty boy?”
“Nothing.” He slurs out and tries to not spit toothpaste out.
“Have I told you lately, how fucking handsome you are?”
Nacho's face heatens up. Damnit. He hates how easy she can make him blush.
“You too, mi reina.” He lowers his voice to a murmur.
“You think so?” She teasingly bats her lashes at him and Nacho smirks.
They both have their insecurities. Laura is not good at hiding hers, and it is about the way she looks, acts and all of the “mental health shit she weightens him down with” - her words, not his. Because it is far from the truth, which he has told her a million times.
His insecurities are about the scars covering his body.
That, and the wrinkles he’s getting on his forehead. He heard somewhere that stress can make a person age faster. If that is true, that would be the case for him.
The scars are a reminder of the shit he’s been through, and the things he’s done.
For survival, Iggy. - Laura's words.
That woman understands him like no one else. What did he do to deserve her? And what would he do without her?
She stands behind him in the mirror, holding onto him as she traces her fingertips over every scar. The wedding ring on her finger shines like gold in the lighting of the room.
He smiles at her and at himself. He is 33 years old now. She is 30. And he can’t wait to spend the rest of his life with her.
“My gorgeous man.” She whispers and places a soft to the nape of his neck. He closes her eyes and shivers. She playfully pinches his stomach and he gasps.
“Oh, you shouldn’t have done that.” He grins and lifts her up, spinning her around in his arms. Laura lets out a scream and laughs.
“Jerk!”
“So?” He smirks and kisses her deeply, and carries her in bridal style to the bedroom.
It doesn’t take long before Laura falls asleep, with her arms wrapped securely around him. Nacho listens to her slow breathing and hopes it will lull him to sleep - as usual. Even her snoring is relaxing to him.
He’s a light sleeper. Laura used to be one too, back in the days. When she was scared he’d slip away.
That’s why she’s clinging onto him, even when asleep. She wants to be reassured he’ll be there when she wakes up.
Only three years ago, Nacho wouldn’t dare to dream about a future like this.
Three years later, he’s in bed with his wife, after a long day at the upholstery store.
Laura sleeps peacefully and so does Valentina, in the room next to theirs. And soon, it’s Nacho’s turn to sleep. His eyes grow heavy and to the sound of Laura's breaths - he falls asleep.