#have a little bit of imaginary Alex snark as a treat

[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.