Chapter Text
20 minutes after the events of the border
Sean was exhausted, but he had to keep driving. Did they actually do it? Did they finally escape? No more running? There were hundreds of things going on in his mind. He turns his head slightly to see his brother, who was blankly staring out the window, eerily quiet.
They did what they had to survive, he tells himself. Daniel did what he did to save them. The silence almost hurt, all you could hear was the humming of the car engine while the two boys sat there, both in contemplative thought.
“How much longer?” Daniel breaks the silence like a knife would a plastic wrapper. Sean clears his throat before speaking, his mouth dry from either the dehydration, or the anxiety. Probably both.
He clears his throat. “I don’t know, maybe another hour or so.” He says, scratching his head a bit before putting his hand back on the wheel. Daniel sighs.
“How are we gonna know which house it is? There could be a lot. Are you sure we’ll find it?” He says, with concern in his voice, a bit of shakiness to it.
“Don’t worry Enano. I have a picture of it in my mind.”
“Are you sure they won’t follow us anymore?” He keeps worrying. Sean lightly rubs Daniel’s shoulder.
“I’m sure. We’re out of their hands at this point. Understand?” He says quite firmly, in an attempt to relieve his brother's stress.
“Yeah. “. He looks back out the window. “If they do follow us, I won’t let them.” He growls, eye browns scrunched to expose the rage behind his face. This kind of tone always scared Sean a bit, what his brother was capable of doing. “Cause I’m superwolf. Nothing will get in the way of the wolf brothers.” Daniel emphasizes, firm and confident.
Sean lets himself smile at this.
“Yeah, no one.”
—
4 hours after the events of the border
“Sean! Is that it?” Daniel says in awe. His older brother chuckles.
“Si enano, this is gonna be our new home.”
They go closer, looking through the broken windows, noticing how trashed it was in there.
“Uhh, it’s really trashed in there Sean. How are we supposed to live here?” His older brother only smiles and ruffles his hair up, Daniel looking up back at him in confusion.
“We’ll clean it and fix it bro. It’ll take some time but, theres nothing we can’t do together. Right?” Daniel contemplates for a moment before nodding his head and smiling.
“Right.”
Sean observes the door in front of them, then looks back at Daniel.
“Alright Superwolf, use your mad skills and open this door for us. Without blowing it up.”
“Easy peasy.” He says with delight, focusing on the door until they both hear a ‘click’. He's always still shocked how his brother can do these things.
“Awesome dude. Let’s be careful going inside. Too much broken shit.”
They enter the repair shop once upon a time, proceeding with caution. There was debris everywhere, tad bits of glass on the floor from some of the broken windows. They observe what the home once was, from what he gathered from his dads stories. The times he had with his parents before they passed away, the fiestas they had, and the sweet nights they would have. Hard to believe it all looked like this now. Though, he can only imagine what their home looked like in Seattle by now. Guess every place has a story behind it. As they further step inside, something causes Sean to throw his arm across his brothers stomach, shielding him.
“Sean.?”
“Shh! I hear something.” Sean whispers, Daniel instantly tensing up. He looks to his brother.
“Do you think someone is here..?”
“I think so. Stay here dude. I’ll go look-“
“No way! I’m the one with the power. “ he says in a yell-whisper.
“I know but-“
“I can protect us!” Daniel insists. To further avoid making more noise Sean gives in. “Fine fine, but stay behind me, if anything happens-“
THUD.
Is someone really squatting here?
They jolt at the noise. They both look to each other, and the younger one nods, his older brother giving them the ok to step closer to where the noise is, Daniel’s hand in the air ready for what was coming.
They find themselves walking past a few objects and a room, until they finally reach a door from where the noise was coming from. It was coming from the back of the house.
Daniel looks to Sean with eyes of questioning. Can I?
Sean nods.
Daniel forces the door open, only to reveal a small black cat at the back of the home, startled instantly from the sudden blast of the door, quickly running inside and hiding under a piece of furniture.
“Meow!” Outside was revealed the beach side, with a wonderful patio all for themselves. Seans eye brows raise, surprised by the beautiful view. The meowing brings him back to the moment.
Daniel is in awe of the kitten. “Sean it’s a kitty! Oh my god!” Sean only sighs and shakes his head.
“Daniel-“
“Oh here kitty kitty kitty…” Daniel says in a high pitch tone, trying to lure the cat out but it wasn’t working. He turns back to his big brother.
“Sean? Do you have any food to give her?”
Sean, still recovering from the jumpscare, sighs loudly and replies anyways, with a hand rubbing his temples, the smell of the inside of the house nearly triggering a mild headache. He was still unsure how his brother was handling the situation as well as he was. “Sean?” He calls out again, snapping him back to reality. He huffs for a second before responding.
“Daniel, we have to save our food for now until we go buy some in town. And we need to set up for the night since we clearly won’t be done cleaning this place up today-“
“Please! Only a little? She’s probably starving Sean, please…” Sean sighs, rolling his eyes a bit.
“Fine fine, you win this time. But don’t complain later when your belly is rumbling.” Daniel snickers, rejoicing yet still keeping his eyes on the kitten.
Sean kneels and reaches into his bag, searching for the last of their rations stuffed deep into his bag. He pulls out some sort of canned food. Tuna?
“Oh that’s perfect!” Daniel says, instantly reaching for it before Sean snatches it away.
“Dude, I haven’t even opened it yet. Chill out.”
“Sorry.” Daniel said apologetically, now patiently waiting for him to open it. Sean opens the can, the can opening with a loud pop sound, enough to peak the cats interest. “Here. Just a little for now. Take it with your finger.”
Daniel takes a bit on his finger, then slowly lowers his body to the level to the kitten once’s he’s turned around facing the kitty, who was hiding under some old what used to be furniture.
“Ps ps ps…. I have something for you..” the kitten peers out, looking at daniels finger, hissing at first. Daniel insists. “C’mon! I know you’re hungry!” The kitten gives in and begins licking daniels finger, the texture of its tongue causing him to giggle a bit.
Sean watches the whole thing, a smile tugging at his face. He hadn’t heard daniel laugh like this since they left their moms place. He felt his chest warming up, with a slight ache. What is this feeling? Joy? Sorrow? Who knows. What he did know was that he had to protect him at all costs, for as long as he’s around. He tightens his fists, thinking about the events at the border earlier today. What Daniel had to do for them to stay together. The aching in his chest begins pounding. He shouldn’t have had to do that. He shouldn’t have.
“Sean! I think she likes me!” He hears his brothers giggles again. How is he really feeling?
“She? You don’t even know if it’s a girl or not.” He teases. Daniel crosses his arms and thinks for a moment.
“Hmm. That’s true. But I feel like she is one.”
“I’ll remind you that you have telekinesis powers, not…gender-telling powers.” He jokes, which earns a chuckle out of Daniel.
“Whatever, she’s a girl for now. What should we name her?” Sean rolls his eye, accepting their fate of adopting another animal involuntarily. But it makes him smile for a bit. Dejavú.
“I don’t know man, your cat, your choice.” he passes him the rest of the tuna can, Daniel pleased to feed the cat some more. Sean gets up from the rusty floor from when he was dumpster diving in his bag, clapping his hands together.
“Alright, it’s getting late, the sun is gonna start going down soon. Let’s start cleaning up so we actually have a place to sleep. Yeah?” Expecting Daniel to protest, he doesn’t. He gets up from where the kitten was sitting, patting down his pants from all the dust and rubble.
“Alright.” He says. Sean was pleasantly surprised, and they begin to work.
The sunset was now setting, and with the help of Daniels’s powers, they were able to work 20x faster. The whole entire first floor was cleared out. Most of it was a lot of random shit from cars and old tools they were still able to reuse and put away. The rest of it was all junk. They set up their sleeping bags, and sean managed to use a hammer and nail to board up the broken windows for now. Along the way they found a picture of their father, slightly younger, which was now sitting by their sleeping bags near the edge of the spacious what used to be a garage. They stand in the middle of the room, looking around at their hard work.
“We did it, Daniel.The whole first floor is clear.” He says, proud of their hard work.
“Couldnt have done it without me right?” Daniel says very smug, and Sean smiles.
“Nope.” He pats him in the back. Now that they’ve settled, things started occurring to sean. He looks to his brother, chuckling a bit.
“We need to get you a new shirt enano.” He says, glancing at his brothers worn out shirt, and noticing the bandages they haven’t changed.
Shit. “Hey, let me see your arm.”
Daniel looks up. “Huh? It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not fine. We need to change those soon. We don’t want it to get infected. You could get sick.” Sean was already thinking about the things that could go wrong. “I think I have some stuff back in the car. From Mom. Be right back.”
Sean returns with some bandages which thank god their mother packed. Little did she know they would actually need it.
Daniel was sitting at his sleeping bags, looking like he was stuck in a haze, eyes distant and foggy. The kitten was near him, sleeping soundly while he sat there, a dull look in his eyes.
“Daniel? I’m back.” He calls, walking back inside. No response. “Daniel?” His little brother shakes his head and returns to reality.
“Yeah?”
“I have the stuff. You ready?” Sean asks, eye brows slightly furrowed.
“Uhh, yeah.”
“C’mere then.” Sean says, sitting on the floor in the middle of the old garage. Daniel rises from the ground, careful not to disturb the sleeping kitten.
“Doctor Diaz in the house, what is your concern today, young one?” Sean jokes as Daniel sits down next to him, seemingly..unamused. Sean clears his throat, reaching for his brothers worn out bandages. He takes them off slowly, earning a slight wince from Daniel.
“Shh, it’s fine. I’m going slowly.” He removes the bandages completely, revealing the wound. Daniel got lucky twice. A bullet only grazing him in the exact same place. It was only a few moments when Sean was finally done freshening up his wound and wrapping the new bandage around it.
“Good as new! Thank you for coming to Doctor Diaz’s office. Don’t come again soon!” Sean jokes, earning a little smile and eye roll out of his baby brother.
“Thanks Sean.” He says, getting up and heading towards the sleeping bag, still in his ragged shirt and pants. That’s a problem for tomorrow.
They cuddled up in their sleeping bags, the little cat resting between them.
Daniel faced the wall, as Sean faces his back. “Hey. Daniel.”
“Yeah?”
“Are you…do you..wanna talk about it? About today?”
“I’m really tired Sean.”
“Oh, alright. Just wanted to check on you.”
“I’m fine. Just tired.” Daniel says, his back still facing Sean.
“Okay. Good night, little cub.”
“Night sean.” And just when sean was about to drift away, Daniel calls his name.
“Sean?” His ears perk up.
“Yeah?”
”We should frame my shirt when we get the house together. You know, to remember.” To remember this awfully traumatic day?
”Um, why would you wanna do that? To remember what?”
”To remember we survived.”
—-
1 month after the events at the border
“Hey, which shirt do you want enano?”
It was hot much to the boys dismay, but not shocking. They were on their way to brand new clothes, food, and supplies for their new home. The streets were quiet at first, but when they reached the downtown area, it became more lively, small businesses selling things at a seemingly huge outdoor market. Food, clothes, etc. Just what they needed.
“Uhhh…” his little brothers eye drift around, searching for a shirt he likes. Sean was able to pick up odd jobs here and there, they weren’t rich but they were able to get by just barely. A brand new set of clothes was the way to go, all of the clothes they already had were worn out.
“Alright.” Sean says, “Permisos señora, a cuanto sale esta camiseta?” Sean asks the older woman how much the shirt was, who was passing change to a customer before Sean had her attention. She smiles and says, “8 pesos por favor.”
“Ok, gracias.” They pay, and make their way through the market, buying all sorts of things. Daniel begs him for one of the strange trinket toys they had, it looked like a vehicle that could transform, and of course Sean gave in and bought it. They make their way back into the main town when they come across a bakery.
”Oooo Sean, could we eat here? They have churros! We haven’t had churros in forever! Lets go?” Daniel insists, and sean agrees.
”Fuck it, lets go in.”
The smell of the bakery was refreshing and nostalgic. It reminded him of his father when they would visit that one bakery down in Seattle, one of the only few mexican bakery’s they had closest to them. The smell of coffee and bread filling the air, as well as the cool AC on top of all that. He could hear some Spanish rock in the background, probably Eres by Cafe Tacvba. Heaven, it was. The shop wasn’t too large, it almost looked like a bit of a diner, with booth tables and a long isle with the register at the end. There were some paintings of landscapes on the walls, and some family photos. Family owned business, Sean says in his mind.
The bakery was empty this time of day it seemed, they probably only had some customers every now and then depending on the certain time of the day. It was empty except for one employee sitting at the corner, cornrowed braids in his hair and tan skin, scrolling on his phone while humming to the tune playing in the store. Despite the ring of the bell at the door, the employee didn’t seem to acknowledge their existence until Sean approached the counter and cleared his throat.
He looks up from his phone, eye brows raised, like if he forgot he worked here. He quickly gets up from the surface he was sitting on—seemingly a storage box facing upside down— and approaches the counter. The boy looked about his age. “Perdonas. ¿Qué deseas amiguito?” He asks, going in customer service mode. The way he spoke Spanish was a little different, a slightly different accent than a Mexican one.
”Dos Churros, por favor.”
”Ok. Y para el enanito aquí?” He shoots Daniel a squinty smile. Daniel stays quiet, still struggling to understand the entire sentence, other than the word enanito.
“Eh, lo mismo.” Sean says to get him the same thing. And the boy at the register smiles. “¿Ni un bebida?”
“No, gracias.” Sean says.
”Por supesto.” And he passes them the churros. They make their way over to the booth chairs, about to engulf in the journey that was those tasty churros, until they heard a slam at the door.
”Los manos arribas! Todo el mundo!” A voice ordered to have their hands up.
There was a man at the door with a gun pointed at them all, 2 younger men standing behind them with weapons in hand. Sean freezes. What the fuck?
”No te voy a decir otra vez, ojo derecho.” He points the gun directly at Sean, who still hadn’t put his hands up. His little brother had his hands up, a doe eyes look in his face.
But that wasn’t until the gun was sent flying across the air by his little brother without lifting a hand, the men left in confusion until they heard a gun clicking. Except it wasn’t the one lying on the ground right now.
“SE LARGAN EN TRES. Ya llame a la policía, así que vamos!” The boy stood there, a pistol in his hand, the other gun lying on the ground. Where the fuck did he get that from?
The men leave in a hurry, one nearly tripping over themselves before the door of the little bakery shuts close. He lets out a shaky breath, before turning to his only two customers.
“Jesús Christo. Están bien ustedes?” The boy asks if they’re okay, casually putting his pistol down. Sean's heart was still racing, the world around him feeling extremely too loud. The motorbikes out in the streets, the shouting, the dogs, the sound of the music in the bakery. Was he even breathing? Everything sounded distorted.
“Sean? Are you okay?” He hears his little brother say, instantly bringing him back, him trying to catch his breath, but struggling.
”Oje.” The boy is suddenly in front of him, grasping his shoulder. “Breath in and out. 4 in, hold, and 4 out. Repeat. Can you do that?” Sean was caught off guard by his English, it being surprisingly good, having a bit of a Spanish twang to it, some words pronounced in a thicker accent than others. Sean nods reluctantly, and begins breathing in and out as instructed. Daniel sits there with worry, holding his brothers shoulder with one hand, and holding his hand with the other. He slowly calmed down.
”That’s it, just breathe. Respira profundo.” His voice hummed, relaxing sean more than it should. Daniel holds his brothers hand even tighter, until sean finally was able to speak.
”Thank you.. I.. I’m sorry.” He apologizes. The boy shakes his head.
“No pasa nada. My sister gets like that too.” He says, before walking back to the counter and picking the robbers gun off the floor, joining it with his own pistol. “Got an extra in the collection. ¡Es mi día afortunado!” He exclaims, placing them somewhere where sean hears a click noise. Probably a lock. He watches his every move, noticing how he was acting like it was just another Tuesday. Then again, shit like this wasn’t new for them either. So why did he panick so much?
”Do you have any idea who those people were? And did you actually call the police?” Sean bombards him with questions. The worker chuckles.
”No, I did not honey, sorry. They don’t do shit around here.” He says, wiping tables off. “You should eat your churros. They’ll get stale and gross.”
”You speak English!” Daniel exclaims, finallly getting a word out. He smiles at the 10 year old before responding.
”Yes, I can. It’s not that rare. I can tell you guys aren’t from around here. Son gringos verdad?” He says, insinuating they are American. Daniel replies before Sean could.
”Yeah, were not. How could you tell? Also, what’s your name?”
He smiles at Daniel's quickness and curiosity. “Angel. Y tu?”
”Ermm, Daniel?” He replies, unsure if he understood him right. Even after one month of puerto lobos, Daniel still struggled to speak and understand Spanish confidently. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen over night.
”Nice to meet you.” Angels eye glide towards sean. “What about you?” Eye contact with him felt intimidating. He towered over their table, his hazel eyes meeting Sean’s dark ones with curiosity.
“Sean.”
—-
6 years after the events at the border (present day) 2022
“Hey Sean?”
“Yeah, what’s up?” he looks up from his phone, as it seemed he was texting someone. Their cat, which Daniel DID end up guess correctly—she was in fact a girl— brushes up on Daniel’s leg. He smiles and pets her for a few moments. “Cosita de papa. You’re so cute Daisy. Aren’t you?” He continues to pet her, until she eventually walks away to go about her day. He brings his attention back to Sean, who was still texting on his phone.
“Anyways, I was wondering..if I could read your journal. From when, you know…” Daniel says quite shyly, not sure if his brother would say yes. Sean had a taken back expression, but then his face crinkled into a relaxed smile.
“Yeah. I have to find it first. Can you give me a second?”
“Yeah.” Sean gets up from where he sat, moving over the books on the book shelf in the corner of their small little living room that sat next door of their large garage, where Sean did his mechanic work. Seeing him do this job always made him think of their father, which put a smile to his face. But that smile seems to strain a bit, wondering is sean had any other dreams.
“Alright. I found it bro. Just put it back when you’re done.” He says, handing it over to Daniel. “Por qué quieres leerlo otra vez? Not that I have a problem with that.” He says. Sean looked sweaty, a bit tired from working on the car for so long, even though he was taking a break just now.
“Por qué, I don’t know. Estaba pensando mucho, about our dad and everything that happened. So many years have passed and, I just can’t believe it sometimes. When I read this, it just reminds me of something important.”
Sean pats his shoulder, shaking him a bit.
“That’s alright. It’s ok to think about him, and everything that happened. Just remember to keep moving forward.” Sean reminds him. “By the way, what do you mean by something important..?” He wonders, tilting his head a bit. Daniel smiles.
“That I have to protect you too.”
It wasn’t until later on, Daniel notices his brother backing up slowly, putting his hands in the air. This alarms him, dropping everything he was doing. He walks over, revealing a group of armed men, planning to do god knows what.
Daniel disarms them, twisting his arm until he cries out in pain, slowly lifting him in the air enough to scare him so that they all run away crying. Sean shakes his head, muttering “Hijo de puta ellos son.” He makes his way over to the gun, putting in the safe of their savings and locking it away as Daniel leans on the door way, watching him. He makes his way over to the back of the home, sitting down at the patio watching the sun set. He hears his brother from behind him, bringing cans of beers for them to drink. They do cheers, taking a sip, and watch the sun dip.
Sean pulls out a cigarette, Daniel watches as he does this, his face crinkling into a a bit of sadness. He always hated when Sean smoked.
“Shit. What a long day huh? How was school?”
“Meh, it was fine. Ariel says hi by the way.”
“Hm. How is she. Or..they?” Sean asks.
“Erm, theyre ok.”
“¿Cuándo se van a juntar? It’s been like 2 years. I see the connection.” He asks, pulling out a cigarette.
“I don’t know, life’s a bitch Sean.” He shrugs.
“I hear that.” He says, taking a puff. Daniel moves the conversation towards him.
“I could say the same to you. What with you and Angel? Huh? Still on and off?” Sean lets out a constipated sigh.
“I don’t wanna talk about it. We’re fine, just..”
”Just?”
“He doesn’t want a relationship right now. Not anymore at least.”
Oh.
Sean takes another puff of his cigarette, slowly letting the smoke leave his body as the burn and tickle at the back of his throat keep him grounded. Daniel frowns a bit. Sean continues talking, despite not wanting to talk about it.
”I respect it. He’s just dealing with his own shit. It’s fine. We’re still friends.”
”Friends who kiss? That makes nooo sense.” Daniel exclaims, earning a glare from sean.
“Drop it dude.” Daniel raises his hands in defeat.
“Ok bro.” His phone starts ringing. “It’s Chris! I gotta take this I haven’t spoke with him in weeks. I’ll be inside!”
Sean continue smoking his cigarette til he drops it in the ash tray nearby, and thats when he hears his phone notification.
angel
hey, u wanna come over?
————-
3 years after the events of the border
it was a late evening, when angel was straddled on top of Sean’s waist on a Friday night. They were currently making out with no shirts on, wet kisses audible.
“My sisters… away… for …the night. “ he says between kisses.
“Yeah?”
“That means we have the place to ourselves.”
Light rock music could be heard, the name of a band Sean didn’t know but angel did know in the background in angels room, which wasn’t the most spacious but not too small either. He had posters everywhere of horror movies and shows like Stranger things, as well as rock bands and hello kitty posters. There was a Dominican flag hanging by his window, along with a Mexican one by its side.
“Mmm, you know Daniel hates when I’m away.” He says, a light moan escaping his mouth when Angel kisses his neck.
“He’s a big boy right? He just turned 13. He can take care of himself.”
“Mm, that’s not it. he just..worries about me a lot when I’m not there.” Sean says, angel giving him more pecks on the cheek.
“He’ll be alright, trust me. You’re safe with me.” He winks, before kissing Sean again. Sean melts into the kisses, closing his eyes and feeling the softness of his lips rubbing against his own. Sean pulls back to speak.
“Hmmm, ok. Deja me tirar lo un mensaje para get no se preocupe—hey!” He exclaims, about to reach for his phone when Angel pushes him onto his back, getting close to his face, caressing his thumb near Sean’s glass eye.
“You’re so pretty, Sean Diaz.” He whispers, “Especially with this new glass eye.” Sean is looking away now, grumbling, and kind of blushing. “It’s so undeniably true, it hurts my heart!” He holds his chest quite dramatically with one hand, the other hand on Sean’s chest with an exaggerated expression, making Sean roll his eyes.
“Eres dramático..” Sean says, pulling Angel back by the neck to kiss again. The kisses were intense and passionate, Sean’s tongue gliding across Angel's lips before proceeding to enter his cave, earning a moan at the back of Angel's throat. However Angel had the upper hand, pulling away to leave small pecks all over Sean’s face, and eventually biting Sean’s neck.
“Mierda! No hagas eso!” Sean exclaims, putting his hands on angels shoulders to push him away, who completely pulled back.
“Fuck, sorry Sean. Discúlpame.” He says, a worried and vulnerable look in his eyes, looking like a scared kid. “I got carried away. Forgive me?”
Sean rolls his eyes. “It’s ok. Relajate. It wasn’t bad. You just caught me off guard!” He says. “It was..ok.”
“Really? Should I do it again?” He says eagerly, ready to pummel in and give Sean a hickey. Sean shakes his head.
“No. Anyways, I gotta go. Can’t leave the 13 year old all by himself.” He says, patting Angels chest before gesturing for him to get off. Angel sighs and get off, sitting down while he watches Sean seated on his bed, putting on his shirt. Once his shirt is on, Angel pulls his waist back from behind, two hands holding Sean before he turns his head and they kiss again, slowly and softly.
Sean gets up from the bed, angels hand slowly slumping back when Sean pulls away to reach for his phone.
enano
sean
It’s like 10 pm already
Sean??
I’m hungry
I’m gonnna eat your food
Hurry up! Where are you?
Sean chuckles at the last text message, replying back:
Dont worry dude, I’m on my way home. And don’t eat all the food! I’m hungry too!
Sean turns back to angel. “Alright, I’m gonna go. This..this was fun.”
“I know it was.” Angel says, quite smug. “Eres hermoso, sean. Siempre lo paso bien contigo.” He says quite romantically and genuinely. This makes Sean’s face redden. He turns away before putting on his eye patch again, and opening the door to Angel's room. Angel smiles.
“Hasta luego, corazón.” Sean is about to leave when Angel says, “And lose the eye patch. The new eye looks good on you.”