Rivals 🌈 ✔

4 - Spark

Juice couldn't remember if there had ever been someone he could talk so easily to – other than Mouse. Once the ice was broken and the threat had faded, they talked about everything. Really everything: family, favorite shows, superheroes, bikes and fat cars, music, embarrassing moments. The only subject they avoided were club matters, and they made no attempt to get information from each other. It felt like they opted to believe that their MC's just existed of Harley lovers, with no illegal activities taking place.

Raine's voice was a bit deeper than his own and when he laughed, he lifted the right corner of his mouth slightly higher than the other. It was strange, the observations one made when they were alone with someone they didn't know. Sure – at first sight he had seen the diamond in his ear, the two shaved lines halfway down the right side of his head, his two-days beard, the hairs above his lip that were just a little longer. But he had also noticed how Raine slightly squeezed his eyes when he was thinking, how he twisted the silver skull ring around his left thumb when he talked about his sister, and how one canine left a dimple in his lip when he was listening with attention. Every now and then, a few Spanish words slipped past his lips; Juice discovered that chido meant something like cool, and he used no manches! to express his surprise or disbelief.

They had both grown up in the US; Juice's mom was Puerto Rican while Raine's was Mexican. Although his own mother had never bothered to teach her children Spanish, Raine was raised bilingual.

"You ever been to Puerto Rico?" Raine asked.

Juice shook his head. "No. My ma broke with her family. Never met my grandparents, not one of them." He pulled at a cracked cuticle. Damn – he sounded really pathetic.

"You never considered to just go there and find 'em?"

Juice shrugged. He had never really considered it. He couldn't even maintain a normal relationship with his mother and sister; he dreaded to imagine how he would mess up with family he hadn't even met. "I dunno," he muttered. "I don't think I'll find what I'm lookin' for. When I was a kid I had those... fantasies about my family. Think I rather remember 'em like that instead of being disappointed by the truth. It's like some sort of... imaginary family." He lifted the corner of his mouth. "It's less sad than it sounds. I found my family in Charming."

Raine nodded in understanding. Only a biker understood the importance of a family like that, and how it could really take the place of a family by blood.

"What about you? You often see your family from Mexico?"

"Until Mom died, we visited them a few times a year, and every now and then they came to us. My Dad... he finds it hard to face 'em. My aunt looks a lot like her sister. I saw 'em three years ago with Rosa and Sammy; it's the last time I saw them. They don't have a lot of money. They try to save some so they can visit Rosa, but it's difficult."

It was silent for a while. Juice could easily follow his train of thoughts; he wondered if they would manage to get the money before the girl died. Juice tried to come up with some comforting words, or a soothing gesture. If Raine had been a girl, he might have laid his hand upon hers; he barely needed to move his fingers for that anyway, but he didn't dare to do it thinking it was probably weird. If the guy had been a Son, he might have pulled him into a brotherly hug, but he wasn't; even though he felt like the Mayan knew more about him than most Sons.

It seemed like the elevator came to the same conclusion; deciding they had gotten close enough, it suddenly started to move again. With a shared cheer, they jumped up. Raine swung his arm around Juice's shoulder, flashing him a wide grin.

It felt like something pushed out all of the oxygen from Juice's lungs. The arm felt heavy around his shoulders. He almost wished the elevator would jolt and stop again, because he knew he would have to walk through the doors within a few seconds, and he would probably never speak to him again.