Summary: Javier graduated from high school in 74’, it’s 1989. On a sort of whim he decides to go to his class reunion.
Word Count: 1500ish
Warnings: handful of swears, mentions of smoking, fluffy feelings, kissing like teenagers
A/N: my first dance with Javier Peña, Javi P folx be gentle and really hope you enjoy it!
Javier stubs out his cigarette and immediately pops a piece of nicotine-laced gum with a sigh. He decides to sit in his car a couple of minutes more, wondering why he’s doing this at all.
“Fuck, let’s go, Pena, get this clown show over with”, he mutters to himself and opens the car door and hauls himself out.
Heading in, he wonders if he is dressed too casually, looking down at his plaid shirt and dark jeans as he seeing suits and dresses. He lets go another sigh as he reaches the balloon-adorned school entrance, a large welcome banner in black and gold over the double doors reading-
“Welcome back Class of 1974! Home of the Mighty Longhorns! Once a Longhorn, Always a Longhorn!”
Bowie blares from the gym as soon as he pulls the door open, he gives a half-smile as Rebel Rebel brings him back to senior year with Raf and Dante. Alright… maybe it won’t be complete torture he thinks. He ambles in, the gym is covered in streamers and balloons. Black &white photos from the yearbook have been blown up into jumbo-sized posters. And the closest one puts him face to face with you. His high school sweetheart, until you weren’t.
It’s not that Javier hadn’t thought about you being at the reunion… he had. A lot. Then he put it out of his mind. Decided not to go. Then changed his mind at the last minute, and here he is looking at your larger than life-size photo- from the senior play. And this shot captured you perfectly. Expressive, powerful, captivating.
“She said she was coming,” comes a voice behind him.
Javier turns.
“Javi! Welcome back,” Goria’s smile widens, and she opens her arms for a hug. Gloria, everyone’s little sister. All 4 feet 11 inches of her. He wild curls, now piled high giving her 3 inches at least, thanks to aqua net. Javier obliges.
“Hey, Gloria.” He says then nods to the poster, “Did you talk to her?”
“Yeah, when I was hunting everyone down. She’s flying in from Vermont.”
“Vermont? What took her there?”
“Ask her yourself,” and it’s Gloria’s turn to nod over his shoulder, but not the shoulder where the picture of you in Our Town, but his other shoulder indicating the gymnasium doors.
Javier turns and you are looking around as you place your “Hello my name is…” sticker on your top, those sweet eyes scanned the gym, with a smile like everything in their path could bring pleasure. And then they landed on him and he was awash with the warmth of them. They crinkle like they always did, he doesn’t remember a time when your smile didn’t reach your eyes. So open and genuine.
Gloria pulls him out of his revelry with a pointed pat on his chest.
“Go get her, tiger.”
He looks down, she’d slapped a name tag on him. He huffs a laugh and she smiles up at him.
But he doesn’t have to go get you, you walk over and envelope Gloria in a hug, with a squeal of her name. Then you look over her head at Javier-
“Javi, hi.”
Gloria, that sweetheart, mumbles something about letting you catch two up and seems to melt into the background. Javier hand goes out and then he puts it on his hip.
“Hey,” he tries for casual.
You just smile, like you are drinking him in. He wants it to never stop, but it goes one better, you close the distance and hug him. He stands corrected, he never wants this to stop.
“Can we move away from Emily/me towering over us?” You say, pointing at the poster.
“Sure,” Javier chuckles.
“Drink?”
“Yeah.”
You take his hand so naturally and pull him toward the refreshments table.
You both grab a plastic cup and ladle some kind of sherbert punch into them.
You do the cursory catchup. You have a small but working farm in Vermont, you still act locally. He’s DEA. (“I know, Javi, ive seen the news!”) You are divorced, one kid. He’s been in Columbia (“Javi, I know! Everyone does! What about your personal life….”)
Suddenly, Abba’s Waterloo causing a rush to the dances floor. Gloria waving you both in.
Javier gives her a stern look that she laughs at it and turns to dance with two girlfriends. The three look back one more time at the pair of you, giggling- like 15 years hadn’t passed at all. You feel your cheeks heat, so you angle your face away in case it shows and miss his regretful mutter.
“Still don’t dance?” You find your voice.
“I dance… just not- we danced.”
“If you could call that dancing,” you say with a laugh, giving his shoulder a bump.
Then comes the look. The Javier Peña Smolder™️. You can’t not fluster under it. You decide he’s just continuing the gentle teasing.
“Stop,” you laugh but you can’t help the linger of your hand on his arm, it was supposed to be a light-hearted push but…
Javier is relieved you don’t seem to notice his Adam’s apple bob as he swallows or his ears reddening at your touch.
He takes another sip wishing it was spiked.
“Hey, um I need some air-”
“Oh, okay” your face falls.
“Wanna go sit on the bleachers?”
“Oh,” you smile, “sure.”
It’s Javier’s turn to pull you by the hand to the side door that takes you to the athletic field and the bleachers; they are no longer wooded, replaced with aluminum. Javier’s face falls a little, then he sees them. The smaller bleachers, they hadn’t replaced them. Not yet, anyway. He pulls you along, his strides are purposeful, long and swift, you jog to catch up. You smile and can’t help the soft wetness of your eyes realizing what he’s doing.
Javier stops and looks at the underside of the fifth tier, there it is he runs a finger over it. Feels it’s permanence. A heart with your initials coupled with his.
“Hey babydoll,” he whispers, pulling you close, “I still can call you that?”
“Yeah,” you lean into him. His mouth is millimeters away, his breath fanning your face.
“I’ve missed you.”
“Me too.”
You look up to meet his eyes and they are right one you, soft, black in the low light, those puppy eyebrows, and his pillowy lips parted waiting, a deadly combination to you always has been. His eyes dart down momentarily to your soft lips as you wet them with your tongue.
And that’s it, you are 17 again and kissing under the bleachers, his wide hands making sure you are completely pressed against him, when he is sure, one goes up to your hair. He holds you there, as he feasts on your lips, chin and neck, your deep v neck is pulled to the side so he can have your shoulder and clavicle.
“Shit, Javi,” you breath, barely audible. You in turn, make a meal of his neck, Adam’s apple, chin. He groans at your returned assault.
Soon both breathless, you slow and stop- foreheads resting on each other.
The door opens, your eyes meet, again it’s like your 17, are you about to be caught by Mr. Henley, Drill Sargent turned gym teacher?
But no, someone’s merely propped open the door.
“Must be getting warm in there,” you say.
“Warm out here.”
Javier presses your pelvis to his, and you can feel him. A half smile playing roguishly.
“Javi, what am I gonna do with you?”
“I can think of a few things?”
You laugh, and your eyebrows quirk, “me too. But um, one dance before?”
Javier smiles and rests his chin on the top of your head, “how can I say no to you, babydoll?”
Fully embracing the nights sorcery that has turned time, if only for the night, your hands tuck into each others pockets, just as you did roaming the halls of the home of the Mighty Longhorns, you return to the gymnasium, as The Hollies start playing-
