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You lounged beside each other on the couch. Both of you were exhausted beyond belief from the week behind you, but now it was the weekend, and you finally got to spend some quality video game time with your best friend, despite that he was beating the shit out of you. “Fuck,” you grumbled quietly as you were shot again in the online multiplayer Call of Duty game. A small grin came over Ray’s face without even looking at you, in your loose tank top and flannel pajama pants. “Shut up, asshole,” you sneered teasingly, shoving him with your elbow, hoping it might mess him up a little. Of course, it didn’t.
“I didn’t say anything,” he responded with a nudge to your side. The round ended and you set down your controller for a minute in order to relax your hands and crack your knuckles. You looked down when you heard your ringtone and saw your phone light up, your sister’s gorgeous face appearing on the iPhone screen. You quickly answered, wondering if she was just being too lazy to text you, which happened on a regular basis.
“Hello?” you said in a polite and neutral tone, as if you didn’t know who was calling.
“[Y/n]?” your sister cried your name, and you immediately knew something was wrong.
“Hey, what’s wrong, Carrie?” you asked, straightening up in posture. Ray sat up as well, leaning in to find out what was going on.
“Landon… he… was just in… a… a car wreck…” she stuttered through the phone. Landon was your brother-in-law. He was a nice enough guy, although very busy. You didn’t know him very well or see him very much, but you knew for a fact that Carrie loved him a lot.
“Oh, my God, Carrie, is he okay?” you stood and your voice was laced with concern.
“I… I don’t know. I… uh… I have Sammy with me. I’m five minutes from your house. I’m gonna drop him off, okay? So I can see Landon.” she responded.
You glanced over at Ray. “Shit, Carrie, I have company over. I hope you don’t mind…”
“Were you doing the deed?” You knew she said it like that because Sam was with her.
“What?! No!”
“Then were you planning on it?”
“No!”
“Then you’re fine. I just need you to keep him while I’m with Landon. Please, [Y/n],” she begged.
“Of course, Carrie, bring him over,” you responded, exchanging looks with Ray.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you so much, [Y/n]. I love you,” she said, her voice breaking.
“It’s not a problem. I love you, too. Be safe and be careful,” you replied before saying goodbye and hanging up.
“What happened?” Ray asked quietly as he turned off the Xbox.
“My brother-in-law was in a car wreck and my sister is going to the hospital to see him, but she is going to drop her little boy off here first. Is that okay?” You retorted. It’s not really like Ray had a choice, but he could lock himself in your bedroom and play games all night if he really didn’t want to interact with the kid.
“Oh,” he looked nervous, “y-yeah, that should be fine.”
You gave a kind and understanding smile, “You know, if you don’t want to hang out with my little nephew, then you can feel free to hide in my room all night and stock up on snacks and video games. I honestly don’t mind. I don’t know when I’ll be able to take you home, though.”
A flash of guilt swept over his face before looking into your eyes. “No, it’s fine. I’ll stay out here. I came over to spend time with my best friend, and Goddamnit, I’m going to!” He was grinning by the time he finished his sentence.
“Oh, yeah, just a side note: don’t swear or anything while he’s over here. Carrie hates for him to even hear the word ‘sex’, if that tells you anything. They’re very particular about what goes into his little ears, vocabulary-wise. So, basically, no more CoD for the night,” you informed him as you stood to your feet.
“I can deal with that. How old is he?” Ray stretched his arms above his head and you saw his shirt rise above the top of his pants to reveal his stomach. He stood to his feet next to you and adjusted his glasses on his face.
“He’s just turned four,” you answered, walking over to the DVD cabinet and pulling out all the movies your sister had left over at your house for your nephew to watch. “Could you go to the closet and get out the dinosaur blanket and stuffed animals? If there are any toys in there, grab those as well.” He nodded and strolled towards the thin closet door and got out the items that you had requested.
Moments later you heard a knock on your door. You scurried to open it to find Carrie standing there with Sam in her arms in his rocket ship pajamas. She passed him off to you and gave you a bag full of various things, such as clothes, toys, and other necessities, before saying a quick goodbye and pecking her son on the cheek. “Don’t be in too much of a rush to get to the hospital!” you yelled into the dark street as she got into her car. You watched her drive off before closing the door and setting Sam down onto the floor.
“Hey, there, Sammy!” you said, poking his tummy, warranting a giggle.
“Hi, Tati!” the little boy attached himself to your leg.
“Tati?” Ray peeked around the corner, somewhat awkwardly.
“He couldn’t say ‘Auntie’ correctly when he was younger, so he just said ‘Tati’ instead and it just kind of stuck,” you explained.
“Who is dat?” the small brown haired child peeked out from behind your leg and pointed to the dark haired man leaning against the wall.
You leaned down, putting an arm around Sam. “This is my best friend, Ray. He’s really nice and he likes to play video games. He’s gonna hang out with us tonight.”
Sam’s face lit up with excitement. You brought him and his stuff over to the couch and showed him all the movies that you had. He picked out one of The Land before Time movies and you popped it into the VCR that you still had from God knows when and sat down on the couch between Ray and the child.
“I haven’t watched this in years,” Ray admitted with a chuckle, “I’m glad that some kids still know what they are, at least.” You were considerably closer to Ray than you had been all night. You’d wanted Sam to have enough room on the couch to sprawl out and be able to play with his toys while he watched the movie. You shared a blanket with Ray and were able to hear his steady breath as he began to doze off after the first thirty minutes or so of the film.
He was soon awakened, though, by the feeling of little hands and knees crawling on top of him. He opened his eyes to see Sam staring up at him from his lap. Ray looked over at you, but you were watching to see how the two of them would interact. “Hey, buddy, you alright?” Ray stretched his arms and rested his left one on the couch behind you.
“Way?” the small child looked up at the olive-skinned man questioningly. Ray looked over at you, and you gave a soft smile.
“He can’t pronounce his R’s,” you whispered, and a look of understanding came over his face when the four-year-old repeated his query.
“Yeah, Sam?” was Ray’s answer this time, and your heart melted. You’d had a thing for Ray forever, but you’d wanted to keep it platonic because you didn’t want to lose something great, especially if he didn’t feel the same way. But this interaction, this was making you crave him. The way he was looking at this small human being and wanting to answer the question he had just made you fall more in love with him. You could live in a moment like this forever. You dreamed that one day, this would be you, sitting on the couch underneath a blanket with a child that you and Ray had made together.
And you didn’t get your hopes up, because he had used the words ‘best friend’ to describe you earlier, and you had done the same. But one thing you did have: knowledge that he had been lying. He’d been lying way back when during a playthrough that you had helped edit; either lying or mistaken. There was no fucking way he didn’t like kids. His eyes said something completely different when he looked at Sam. It was a caring sparkle, and there was nothing hateful, unloving, or even ‘un-liking’ about it.
You were snapped suddenly back into reality when you heard Sam’s question. “Awe you gonna mawwy Tati?” Silence filled the room and your face turned beet red. You looked in every direction but at Ray.
After a moment, Ray inquired, “Why do you ask that?” You felt Ray’s hand move from the back of the couch to your shoulder, touching it lightly. You shivered at the contact initially, but as he set his entire palm against your bare shoulder, you began to sink down, trying to cover yourself with the blanket.
“Because you shawed a blankey wif Tati, and if you shawe wif someone, dat means you wuv dem, and when you wuv someone, you mawwy dem,” Sam explained in his little four year old voice as the movie continued in the background. Your face continued to burn red and you briefly glanced sideways at the man sitting next to you, but he stared at the child, perplexed, but not confused.
“Do you want me to marry Tati?” Ray asked, placing his right hand on Sam’s brown hair and ruffling it a little bit.
“Yes,” the little boy crawled to Ray’s shoulders and placed a hand on each, before touching his glasses and trying them on for himself, “Because if you mawwy Tati den you can have a baby and den I can have a new fwiend.”
The silence again covered the room, and after what seemed like forever you worked up the courage to look at Ray. He was wearing gentle smirk on his face. “Maybe,” he said, his eyes on you. Then, his gaze moved towards Sammy, “But maybe Tati will marry someone else. What do you think about that?” He pulled his glasses off the child’s head and replaced them on his own.
Sam frowned, “But I wike you, Way.” His voice was sad and his green eyes grew large. He scurried over your lap to the other side of the couch, grabbed one of the stuffed dinosaurs and a blanket laying in his previous seat, then scuttled back onto Ray’s legs before curling up between the two of you. He snuggled up with his blankey and dinosaur and continued to watch the movie, almost as if the conversation they’d just had never even happened.
Every once in a while, Ray would ask him little questions, like “Which dinosaur is your favorite?” or “Do you think this part is scary?” and things like that. Soon, Sam stopped answering, talking, and wiggling around as much. You were focused on the movie when Ray whispered, “Hey, [Y/n].” You looked at him and he motioned towards Sam with his head. The little brunet boy was sound asleep between the two of you, his dinosaur toy tight in his arms.
“Where do you want him to sleep?” Ray asked quietly, before carefully picking up the child from the couch, cradling him in his arms. Just the image of Ray standing there with a child in his arms was enough to make you tear up a little. You wiped your eyes and pretended it was from being so tired.
“Um, let’s leave him on the couch for right now. We don’t have to go to bed yet. And I’m not sure if Carrie is gonna come back tonight anyways,” you responded. Ray laid him down carefully on the couch and tucked his blanket securely around him. You gently laid the blanket you and Ray had been using on top of him and gave Sammy a soft kiss on the temple before flicking off the lights and walking with Ray back towards your room.
“So…” you grinned as you sat down on your bed.
“So? So what?” Ray lifted an eyebrow with a half grin as he plopped himself onto the bed next to you.
“You don’t hate kids,” you nudged him with your elbow. You don’t hate kids and that’s super fucking hot, you bastard, you thought.
“Sam… he’s cool. He likes dinosaurs. Dinosaurs rock. Yeah, he’s not corrupted like the rest of today’s youth,” the dark-haired man joked as he adjusted the spectacles on his face. He leaned back on the pillows and folded his hands behind his head. “So, you wanna have kids some day?” he inquired as he crossed his legs at his ankles.
The question took you by surprise. “Wh-what?” you asked. Was he asking if I… wanted to have a child with him some day? You thought to yourself. That’s how it had sounded, anyways.
“Do you wanna have a kid of your own one day? Y’know, he was asking if we were gonna get married. You ever planning on doing that? Getting married and stuff?” Ray rephrased the question, and you let out an inner sigh of relief, thankful you didn’t have to answer an awkward question.
“Sure, someday, I’d love to have children and settle my life down with someone. What about you?” Ray simply shrugged in response.
“Maybe,” he repeated his answer from earlier in the night, “If the right person comes along, and… well… y’know. Maybe.”
“It’s weird that we’ve never talked about this before,” you admitted, rubbing the back of your neck nervously.
“What do you mean?” he questioned. You sat back next to him, leaning on the pillows that were your absolute favorite color.
“We’ve never had a serious conversation about our future, y’know. Like, I don’t think you and I have ever sat down and talked about what each of us want in life or anything,” you confess, a blush creeping across your face. “I had no idea that you were actually incredible with kids, Ray.” You turned your head towards him to see that he was looking up at you.
“You say that like it’s a superpower,” a chuckle came from his lips.
“It kind of is. You’re… I dunno. I just didn’t expect you to get along with him so well. Not every guy has the ability to get Sam to tell them that he likes them. Sammy still doesn’t like my brother, Bryan. I was honestly shocked when he got in your lap,” you murmured.
“So X-Ray is a family friendly super hero, then?” he sat up and crossed his legs Indian-style.
“I guess so,” you remarked. You sat there in silence for a moment before breaking the pregnant pause, “Thanks for helping me out with him. I think he would’ve been a bit more wild if you hadn’t been here.”
“Pshh, I didn’t really do anything, [Y/n],” he waved off your thanks.
“You cared. And that means more to me than anything. Also, you didn’t ditch me and hide in here all night, so that’s also a thing,” you returned. You sat up as well and leaned lightly on his shoulder, wishing to stay in this moment forever, but simultaneously wishing for it to end. Yes, you were with the guy you had fallen hard for, but he did not return that same affection. You sighed audibly, not realizing you had done so until Ray asked about it. “I’m… just a little worn out and worried about Carrie and Landon, that’s all.”
“I’m sorry,” Ray muttered into your ear. Another bow of silence, but this time, you thought you heard something. Ray heard it too, and it was getting louder. Slowly, the doorknob turned and the door opened to show Sam crying in the doorway.
“Sweetheart, what’s the matter?” you swung your legs off the bed and went to pick him up.
“I had… a… scawey dweam,” he sniffled and cried.
“Oh, Sammy, I’m sorry,” you said, holding him tight against your chest.
“Can I sweep wif you and Way, Tati?” the little brunet begged, tears flowing from his green eyes, still grasping onto you.
You looked at Ray and he gave an affirmative nod. “Sure, sweetie,” you answered, placing him on the bed. Ray settled him under the covers and you ran into the living room to grab his dino and his blanket. You returned to see that Ray already had Sam in his arms and the little boy was curled up against his chest. You flipped off the light and shut the door before making your way to the bed, slipping under the covers yourself.
“You okay, Sammy?” Ray whispered.
“Mhmm,” the child whimpered in response. You moved closer to Ray and Sam in the pitch black, wanting your nephew to feel as safe as possible. You nestled his stuffed animal next to him and laid the blanket on top of all of you. You leaned on the pillow and suddenly realized how close you actually were to Ray.
“What about you, [Y/n]? I mean, Tati. Are you comfy?” he asked.
“I’ve been better. You?” you murmured.
“I wanna adjust. Can you sit up for, like, ten seconds?”
“Sure,” you were obedient. You felt him shift on the bed, even very carefully moving Sam around.
“Okay, you can lean back now.” You lay back down and were pillowed by his shoulder; now his arm was around you. Sam was positioned comfortably on Ray’s chest with his dinosaur tight in his arms. Ray had an arm over Sam, almost to ensure the boy that he’d be safe during the night. You cuddled up against Ray’s side, thankful for his warmth despite the coolness of the room.
After ten minutes, you could already hear the rhythmic [and somewhat snotty sounding] breathing of Sammy as he slept. You had never felt safer in your entire life than you did in this moment. This was the moment you wanted to freeze. This was the first time in years that you actually felt even remotely like a family with someone.
As if reading your mind, Ray breathed almost inaudibly, “We look like a little family, don’t we?”
You nodded, feeling his cheek against the side of your head. This was the point at which you needed to take a chance. Slowly, so as not to wake the sleeping being on his chest, you moved your left hand to Ray’s right hand, which was resting on top of Sam. You intertwined your fingers without saying anything and hoped with every ounce of strength that you had that he would get the point.
You felt his lips against your hair as you began to doze off. You drifted off into a sleep that you don’t particularly remember. You just know that Ray was with you when you fell asleep, his fingers tangled with yours. That’s all that mattered.
~~~~~
You woke up around 4:00am to Carrie calling you. “Hello?” you answered quietly, so as not to wake the two who were slumbering next to you.
“Hey,” she whispered, “I’m sorry to call so early, I know you were probably asleep, but I just thought I’d call and catch you up on everything. Landon’s doing well. He came out of surgery fine and just has a broken leg and a couple broken ribs. With the rate at which things are going right now, the doctor said that we should probably be able to leave and pick up Sam around 7:00 this morning. Is that okay?”
“Yeah, that sounds great, Carrie. Does he need to take a bath or anything?”
“No, he took one yesterday afternoon. Thank you so much, though, [Y/n]. I appreciate it more than words could ever express.” You both said your goodbyes and hung up.
“Is everything okay?” Ray’s sleepy and raspy voice floated quietly into your ear.
“Yeah, Landon’s doing well; nothing serious. She’s gonna pick Sam up in three hours or so,” you answered after you set your alarm for 6:30, snuggling back into his side, returning your hand to his. You nuzzled your face into his neck and fell asleep once again.
~~~~~
The light tinkling sound of your alarm woke you, but did not wake Sam or Ray. You carefully disconnected yourself from Ray’s grasp (which had seemingly gotten stronger during the night) and trudged to the living room. You cleaned up all the toys that remained at your house and stuffed the rest into Sammy’s bag, making sure to place it by the door so it wouldn’t be forgotten. You decided to begin making some pancakes for breakfast, so you got out all the utensils as well as some batter that you had ready-made in the fridge. As soon as they started to sizzle and the scent began to float in to the air, you began to really wake up. You started the coffee as well between pancakes.
“Awe we having pancakes, Tati?” you heard your nephew’s sweet, tired voice come from behind you, so you turned to see Ray carrying Sam on his hip.
“Yep!” you exclaimed, “Do you want one, Sammy?” The little boy nodded with enthusiasm. You got a plate out and set a medium-sized pancake on it, pouring a reasonable amount of syrup over it. “Ray, can you cut it please?” The dark haired man nodded and took the fork and knife you provided him with to cut the pancake into small, bite-size pieces.
“Do you want milk to drink?” Another nod from Sam caused you to open a cabinet. His kiddie cups were on a shelf that was a little high for you to reach. Before you could reach for a chair from the dining table that Sam was sitting at, Ray was at your side, one hand on the small of your back, the other reaching and grabbing a cup.
“Here you go,” he smiled, his hand lingering for a moment.
“Thanks,” you smiled back as you poured the milk. “Do you want milk or pancakes, Ray?”
“That’d be really nice, actually,” he responded.
You fixed him a plate of two pancakes, giving it more syrup than Sam’s and giving him a taller glass of milk and a fork and knife. You did the same for yourself, except you just took the knife that had been used to cut Sam’s pancake. As you all finished eating, there was a knock at the door. You stood up and went to answer it, glancing at the clock. 7:00 on the dot.
Carrie stood at the door, a weary smile on her face. She embraced you and thanked you for keeping Sam and promised that if you ever needed anything, she would do it for you. “Is he still sleeping?” she asked quietly. You shook your head.
“He’s in the kitchen eating breakfast with Ray.”
She walked in and greeted Ray with a polite wave. Sam dropped his fork onto his plate and jumped out of his chair to hug his mom. “Mommy!” he yelled, attaching himself to her leg much like he had done to you the night before.
“Hey, baby,” she said, “It’s time to go home. Say goodbye to Mister Ray and Tati.”
The child ran up to Ray and embraced him; Ray picked him up and hugged him for a good few seconds. “Bye-bye, Way!” Then he ran to you and hugged you as well. “Bye-bye, Tati. I wuv you!”
“I love you, too, Sammy,” you smiled. You sent them off with a wave and closed the door to return to the kitchen to clean.
Before you could even fully turn around, though, Ray was behind you, his arms were around you, and you were just as close as you had been the night before, if not closer.
“H-hi, Ray,” you stuttered softly, your hands resting against his chest.
He whispered your name. His eyes were closed and he rested his forehead against yours and yet again it was another moment that you wanted to freeze in time. And instantly, that moment was gone, because his lips were against yours and every emotion you ever felt for this man came out in this very moment.
Your arms snaked up around his neck and your fingers made their way into his soft hair. His arms tightened around your waist. Your lips moved in perfect synchronization with his, and the only reason you broke away was a need for oxygen. You gasped for breath as he leaned his forehead on yours again. “You don’t even fucking know how long I’ve been waiting to do that,” he whispered.
You looked at him, shocked. “What?”
“I didn’t think you had any feelings for me until you held my hand last night, and you didn’t object to my arm around you or me kissing your head or anything. I just thought I’d fucking go for it,” he admitted, only a murmur between the two of you.
“Are you shitting me?” you asked, “I didn’t think you had any affection towards me until, like, last night when you kissed my head. And that was a maybe. Jesus Christ. We’re bad at communication.” You kissed him again.
And you two stood there in each other’s arms for several more minutes, kissing and hugging and laughing at how dumb you both were for not realizing that you both loved each other. After a final kiss and an agreement that it was probably time to go clean up the kitchen, Ray muttered something that he didn’t think you’d heard until you giggled.
“When that kid gets older, I’m gonna tell him he hooked us up.”