#alerudy

When Rudy decides he wants a dog, he realizes that maybe he’s a little in love with Alejandro.

🧵 (1/25)

Moving in together after the military wasn’t even a decision to make. Alejandro had sent him estate listings in a smaller area outside of Las Almas and Rudy didn’t even bat an eye. It felt natural to move in with his life long best friend. They grew up together, went to school

together, enlisted in the military and fought at each other’s sides, and even led the Los Vaqueros side by side.

The house they got wasn’t big, a quaint adobe house with a decent sized yard. They each had their own bedrooms, an office, and a magnificent kitchen.

They took up

their own roles in the house very quickly.

Alejandro handled bills and Rudy handled the yard work. Ale liked to clean and Rudy liked to cook. They fit like puzzle pieces, working around each other with ease in a deep sense of comfort that’s always found them.

Flipping through

handwritten pages of his mother’s old cookbook, Rudy discovered a thick solace in the kitchen. He’d make old dishes he had growing up and tried to recreate many times the dishes that Alejandro’s family had made too. He remembers how Ale’s grandmother made sopes, the man’s comfort

food from his childhood.

Rudy remembers when he first tried to make it with a recipe he had found online and a mix of what he could recall. Alejandro had come into the kitchen with a curious look in his face.

“Smells good,” he complimented and then upon seeing Rudy’s mess,

eyes widened. “Are those sopes?”

“They’re supposed to be, but I think I messed up the masa.”

Alejandro stepped to his side and reached for a finished masa cake, but as he lifts it up, it begins to crumble. Rudy sighed and Ale chuckled.

“Should I start over?” Rudy asked as

Alejandro tossed an arm over his shoulder. “Let me see the recipe. I can try to help.”

Rudy had looked up at his friend and felt his chest tighten. It was brief, quick, and Rudy never thought about it again.

-

He’s chopping his way through a bell pepper one day when Rudy thinks of it.

“We should get a dog,” he comments to Alejandro, who sits at the dining table with a calculator, mail, and a check book. He looks up at him over the top of the glasses he recently had to start wearing.

“A dog?”

Rudy shrugs, looking over at a window that reveals to him their backyard. It’s a good size, but too much for just the two of them to enjoy. He had thought about it because it had been too quiet. He had gotten used to the quiet after a few months of living there, a stark

contrast to their life in the service. But as he chopped veggies and the occasional click of the calculator or sniff from Ale, he realized how quiet it truly was. There are a few houses nearby, cars that drive down the road, and some children that play in the streets, but quiet

nonetheless.

“Are you opposed?” Rudy asks as he lifts the cutting board and slides the peppers into a pan on the stove.

Alejandro licks across his lips. “Um. Not necessarily. Just have not considered it, I guess.”

“Just a thought,” Rudy says, not wanting to push the idea on

Alejandro if he wasn’t actually into it. He grabs a piece of garlic, pulling apart the cloves and taking what he needs.

It’s quiet again and now that Rudy is aware of it, his mind wanders more. He thinks about the types of dogs he grew up around. The neighbors terrier and his

friend’s xolo. He thinks he’d like to consider a pitbull or even a schnauzer too. He glances up at Alejandro, a hand on his chin as he studies over a piece of mail, assumingely a bill.

Rudy knows the man loves animals, always stopping people on the street with pets to baby talk

them. He thinks about taking a dog for a walk with Alejandro, one of them holding the leash and then fighting over who picks up the shit.

The thought makes him huff a laugh and Alejandro is looking up again above his glasses. The way he looks makes Rudy’s stomach twist.

“What so funny, Rodolfo?” Ale asks with a smile and Rudy just shakes his head, scraping the garlic cloves into the pan to avoid looking at his face for a moment. “Why a dog? You lonely?” Alejandro asks as Rudy begins dicing a tomato.

Rudy blinks and glances up again, eyebrows

crinkling together.

He had never considered himself to be lonely. How could he be with Alejandro? There’s not much else he’s ever wanted in life besides him.

The thought makes his heart drop into his toes.

Alejandro doesn’t seem bothered at the fact that Rudy doesn’t answer as

he picks up another bill and then looks to his checkbook.

“Hey, did you pay last month’s phone bill?”

“Hm?”

Alejandro gets up, holding both items in his hand as he walks towards Rudy. He finds his spot as Rudy’s side and holds them both out.

Rudy doesn’t even look at them,

rather Alejandro. The man’s glasses are perched on his nose and there’s a worry line between his eyebrows from in confusion. Alejandro is objectively attractive. Rudy has always known that, but he’s never thought much about it.

And suddenly he realizes.

They’re married.

Not legally, of course. But they are. He thinks it may be obvious to everyone but them. Two men buying a house together in a town filled with nuclear families. Splitting bills. He can’t even count how many times he’s cooked them both dinner. He still considers what it would mean

if they were just roommates. The possibility of a romantic partner, of moving out. It’s just not them. Neither of them have ever wanted that. Rudy has /never/ wanted anything but Alejandro.

“Rudy?” Ale asks, pulling Rudy from his haze. Rudy feels his entire heart stop at the

notion of his world changing before him. And also not changing. Rudy was happy with his life. He didn’t think he could have been happier with his life. The realization happens so quickly that all he can do is run with his instincts—the adrenaline—so he places the knife

down gently and lifts a hand to Alejandro’s shoulder. Ale looks at him and something about it tells Rudy that this feeling is simultaneous. Alejandro hadn’t known either. Not until the moment before Rudy leans in and presses his lips to Ale’s as softly as he can. He doesn’t push.

The kiss is over quick, but when Rudy pulls away, he think there’s a touch more color in the room. Maybe a softer look in Alejandro’s eyes than before, and then Ale is smiling. It’s small but it’s there and then he lets out a small laugh.

“Um. So, did you pay last months bill?”

Rudy laughs and finally looks at the bill, the date landing on when Ale had been gone to see his family. He nods.

“Mhm. Forgot to mention it.”

Alejandro nods and then he presses a quick kiss to Rudy’s head before going to sit again.

Everything changes. But maybe nothing does.