#I'M SORRY THIS GOT VERY RULIE INTENSIVE AND VERY LONG

[daintyduck99]

"You're family." + Ray and Reggie (You know I gotta!)

Julie answers the door with a radiant grin that makes Reggie’s cheeks burn.

“Reggie!” 

She throws her arms around him and reels him into the house, kicking the door shut behind them. She holds him tight, and he has no qualms about hugging her back just as fiercely. She’d be offended if he didn’t, and she fits in his arms perfectly. He rests his chin on her head. 

The Molinas give the best hugs, warm and undeniably welcoming, infused with a sort of stubborn affection that instantly relaxes Reggie. Luke and Alex like to rib him for being so eager to ditch the studio to see them, but sometimes he just needs the pick-me-up. 

Julie’s still beaming as they unravel from the hug, and his stomach flutters as she takes his hand, guiding him deeper into the house. 

Okay, so maybe he also has a tiny crush on their lead singer. It’s fine, he’s handling it. 

“What brings you here on a Sunday? Did Luke drag you out here to workshop the intro of that new song some more?” 

“Oh,” he stammers, highly aware that his cheeks are still on fire and that it’s worsening by the second under her bemused gaze, helpless to her gap-toothed grin. “No, I’m not he’s—me’s not here—I mean, it’s just me but—” 

She giggles, and he chews his lip to keep any more nonsense from falling out of his mouth. 

Great job, Reginald. You’re really handling it, Alex snarks in the back of Reggie’s head.

Julie squeezes his hand. “You’re just in time for brunch! We’re making pancakes.” 

“Oh, I just wanted to say hi since I was—I couldn’t impose—” 

He’s interrupted by Carlos, who tackles him around the middle as soon as they set foot in the kitchen. Julie’s hand slips out of Reggie’s, but not before Ray spots them, and he ducks his head to hide his flush at least a little as he goes to return Carlos’ hug.

“You have to help me make a spaceship out of pancakes!” Carlos insists excitedly, slightly muffled by Reggie’s shirt since he’s got his face mashed into his stomach. Reggie smiles. 

“Sure thing, little dude. So long as it’s cool with Ray.” 

Ray points his spatula at them. “How many times do I have to tell you? You’re always welcome here, Reggie. That goes for all of you boys. After all that you’ve done for Julie? You’re family.” 

“I didn’t—” Reggie starts automatically, only to swallow as Julie and Ray both frown at him and Carlos clings to him tighter, shaking his head. 

“You help me with my math homework and play games with me! You’re a really cool brother!” 

Julie plops a bowl of blueberries by Ray’s elbow and flies across the kitchen, ignoring Carlos’ disgruntled sound when he gets sandwiched in her bear hug. She rests her head on Reggie’s chest and whispers to his heart.

“You helped me find my voice again, Reggie. Not just my music. Myself. You really are the coolest. I’ll never be able to thank you enough. We love you.” 

She didn’t call him a brother, some delusional part of him notes, but he shoves that away.

“I love you guys too, of course I do, but that was Luke—” 

She thumps her forehead against his chest. “No, it was all of you! And you’re the one who chooses to spend time with my family. They’ve already claimed you. The best thing you can do is give in before Tia tries to make us get married, or something.” 

“Okay, this is getting way too mushy now,” Carlos complains, wriggling out of the embrace.

Ray clears his throat. “Julie, why don’t you help Carlos find the whisk? It’s buried in the pantry.”

Reggie shoots her a panicked look, but she just rolls her eyes, though her ears are tipped red. 

“Sure thing, dad.” Julie ushers Carlos into the walk-in pantry. She throws one last look over her shoulder and mouths, “It’ll be fine.” 

His nerves are still telling him that it’s anything but fine. He appreciates the effort, though. 

Reggie sidles over to Ray, heart bobbing in his throat, and accepts the spatula from him. He keeps his eyes glued to the pancake that’s already sizzling cheerfully in the skillet, blissfully unaware of his inner turmoil. Ray clasps his shoulder. 

“Reggie, you aren’t in trouble. You can stop staring at that pancake like this is its funeral.” 

A nervous laugh crawls out of his throat. “Right, right. You’re sure it’s not mine?” 

Ray coughs. Reggie’s 99% sure that it’s to cover a laugh. He releases Reggie’s shoulder. 

“Positive. I meant what I said, mijo. I’d adopt you if you weren’t in love with my daughter.” 

Reggie drops the spatula. This poor pancake is going to be as fried as his brain. 

“What?” he squeaks, scrambling to retrieve the spatula from the floor and hide his flaming face. “No, I mean, Julie’s wonderful and beautiful and a guy could get lost in her eyes forever but—” 

“Reggie.” Ray calmly flips the pancake with another spatula that he produced from who knows where. His mouth ticks up. “Breathe. I don’t need to give you a shovel talk. It’s clear that you give yourself enough of those. It’s okay.” 

He huffs. It technically counts as breathing. The pancake bubbles back at him. 

“It’s not! Isn’t it weird? I mean, I’ve sort of already wormed my way into her family and I don’t want her to feel like she owes me her love or anything—” 

“She thinks more highly of you than you realize. Than you do. You talk about yourself like you’re a vampire, mijo, and you aren’t. We love you. We like having you around. You’re the only kid in this house who actually listens to me when I ramble about photography. You carry things to the car for Victoria and never miss Carlos’ baseball games and I know you’re the reason that both of my kids are passing math. How is up to you and Julie, but you’re a part of this family.”

Reggie swallows. His eyes are burning, now, and he lets Ray fold him into a hug. He kisses the crown of Reggie’s head, something he’s seen him do to Julie and Carlos a million times, and Reggie’s powerless to prevent the tears from falling as Ray continues in a soft voice. 

“You’re so busy looking at Julie like she hung the moon that you never see the way she looks at you. Believe me, I was that boy once. You’d better tell her how you feel before she gets jealous and dumps a milkshake on the next girl who makes the mistake of flirting with you.” 

The anecdote startles a laugh out of him. Reggie sniffs. “Did Rose really do that?” 

“Oh, absolutely. Ask Victoria if you don’t believe me.” 

They do scorch that first pancake a little bit, but Reggie can’t bring himself to care, not when he feels so at home in all of these hugs. Julie stumbles out of the pantry with stars in her eyes, clutching the whisk and then Reggie to her chest. Carlos squints at them, but all Reggie can do is laugh and swing her around.

The Molinas really do give the very best hugs. 

They still need to have that talk, but the way Julie holds his hand under the table is pretty great, too. 

[merihn]

Another kiss prompt: throwing your lover over your shoulder, carrying them towards the bed for Rulie please!

@floating-in-the-blue also asked for this with Lalex, so I decided to combine them 😘

*

"—and that’s why stir fry is way better than stew!" Reggie finishes triumphantly as he unlocks the door to their apartment. Alex snorts and shoves at his shoulder, knocking him into the doorframe. Reggie winces and rubs at it, giving Alex a wounded look. Alex rolls his eyes, but leans down and presses a kiss to the throbbing pain, and Reggie grins.

"It is not—" Alex cuts off as shouting from further inside the apartment reaches them.

"I can't believe you'd say that! You're a complete idiot, you know that, Patterson?"

Reggie exchanges a worried look with Alex, and they both hurry down the narrow hall to the source of the voices.

Luke and Julie are standing in the middle of the living room, both red faced with their hands balled into fists.

"I am not! You're too far up your own ass to consider anyone else's opinion! Sorry, I'm not going to bow down to you, princess," Luke spits, crossing his arms over his chest.

Julie sucks in a breath. "Princess? If anyone's a princess here, it's you! A ridiculous airheaded, bullheaded princess!"

"Airheaded?!" Luke screeches. "I'll show you airheaded—!"

"Okay, woah." Alex moves between Luke and Julie and raises his hands. "That's enough now. What the hell are you two even arguing about?"

Reggie's glad Alex has the presence of mind to put a stop to the arguing. He feels a little guilty about not doing it, but he can't deny that Julie looks amazing when she's riled up; all pink cheeks and blazing eyes, her hair coming alive with the intensity of her feelings, wild and curling around her face.

He bites his lip to hold back from grabbing her right then, to turn her tumultuous feelings onto him, into biting kisses and nails scratching down his back. 

"Oh, just Luke being a complete fucking idiot as usual," Julie snarks, and Luke pokes his tongue out at her. "Very mature, as usual," she repeats, rolling her eyes.

Luke opens his mouth to retort, but Alex just waves his hand and Luke subsides. Reggie can't help but grin, it's been good for Luke, having Alex to temper him, to keep him from going too far. He's always needed someone to talk him down, to rationalize his feelings, to help him see both sides. His emotions still rule him even now, and Alex keeps him from blowing up every relationship in his life.

Of course, Luke helps Alex equally, getting him out of his head and often out of his comfort zone. Anyone can see how good they’ve been for each other, tempering their worst traits and emphasizing their best. 

The same can not be said for Luke and Julie.

Oh, they’re friends, of course, but they’re both too hot blooded, too quick tempered. If Alex and Reggie weren’t around, they’d tear each other to pieces within a week. Of course, this helps with the music, which is when they get along best, but even that can turn sour in a single moment. They’re both just too sure they’re right and completely unwilling to bow to the other. 

But, as he thought before, it works for him, because Julie is an animal when she’s enraged. And he loves it.

"That—that—imbecile thinks that Civil War is a good movie!" Julie shouts.

Reggie blinks and stares for a moment, then turns to Alex, who looks equally lost.

"The. The Marvel movie?" Alex eyes Julie for a long moment.

"Yes! And it is good, you snob!" She throws at Luke, over Alex’s shoulder. She’s got her hands on her hips now, like she’s unconsciously drawn into a hero pose, and Reggie’s clutching at his fraying control, the need to touch her.

"That's it," Alex says, "I actually cannot deal with how ridiculous you two are tonight, so no more talking." With that, he turns to Luke again and strides over to him, bending down and catching him around the waist, throwing him over his shoulder as he stands.

Luke splutters and flails. "What—! Alex, put me down!"

"Nope. Time for bed."

"It's four in the afternoon!"

"And toddlers get naps when they're cranky," Alex says firmly, turning slightly to wink at Reggie before heading for his and Luke's bedroom. 

"Hmmph," Julie huffs. "Good for Alex. Luke was being completely unreasonable. You get it though, right?"

Reggie raises his eyebrows at her, grinning as he slowly advances on her. She frowns and starts lifting her hands to stop him, but he's already there, bending to set his shoulder to her hips, his hands coming up to circle her waist and hold her close.

"Reggie, no! Stop it!"

Reggie laughs and heaves her up so she's balanced better, hanging over his shoulder, and starts toward their bedroom. Julie pounds at his back with her fists, but he can tell she's not trying too hard, even though her whole body is still strung too tight with fury at Luke.

He grunts as her flailing foot catches him in the gut, and winds his arm around her thighs, holding them close to himself. 

"Let me go! I can walk!"

Reggie hums, sliding his hand up the back of her thigh to pat her bottom. In retaliation, she pinches his back sharply. 

“Of all the neanderthalic—” Julie cuts off as Reggie squeezes her ass, kneading the bountiful soft flesh as he steps into their room and kicks their door shut. Before she can do more than suck in a breath to start again, he tips forward and drops her onto their bed, letting her bounce a little from the low height. She giggles even as she frowns up at him, still flushed and taut, hands clawed in the bedding.

Reggie crawls over her, hovering on hands and knees as he dips his head to kiss her, hissing when she nips sharply at his lip, drawing out the tang of blood, smeared across their lips. She licks it away, bites him again. Clutches at his shoulders until her nails cut into his skin through his shirt.

He slides his leg between hers, presses until she arches under him and gasps, her nails hooking deeper, and smiles.

*

"'m not a child," Luke says sullenly, dangling limp over Alex's shoulder. 

"Stop acting like one, then," Alex replies blithely, kneeling on the bed to deposit Luke onto his back. Luke lets himself sprawl, loose-limbed in the nest of sheets, and Alex follows him down, lining up their bodies as he presses Luke into the mattress.

"I just—"

Alex kisses him, trapping the words between their mouths, pushes his tongue in through the muffled words, stoppering.

Luke sighs into it, slides his hands up into Alex's hair and holds on tight as Alex kisses him, disperses the words between their teeth and tongues. 

"No more. No more," Alex murmurs, slipping his lips across Luke's cheek in a slick slide, baring his teeth in tiny nips over the sharp bone.

Another sigh, releasing all the tension, and he's soft under Alex, spread open.

"Okay, Alex."