Sometimes, when he needs to feel connected to his films, he'll stay after filming and watch a movie.
Helps him remember his love for cinema and storytelling.
Most nights, it's obscure movies he's never seen or films he's been meaning to watch but never has. The good day on set meant he watched a Nicolas Cage movie.
This led to him holed up in the producer's office, feet propped up on the desk and his laptop playing City of Angels.
(It's not his favorite movie—he likes the movies where it feels like he's the character.)
He'd gone into the zone, watching the screen with rapt attention.
The story drew him in until he sank into it and latched onto the characters.
It made him feel warm, safe, dragging him into a world where Nicolas Cage is the hero and he, Javi, gets to admire him.
He'll blame that exact reason for why he didn't hear anyone approaching.
"Are you okay?" The voice startled him—a screaming yelp jerking him backwards. He tilts too far back and tips over his chair. His hand flies out to catch the desk, but another hand grabs his instead. It keeps him from hitting the ground, but now he's stuck in a half-sitting position.
Embarrassment flooded his cheeks and all he could do was mumble beneath his breath.
"I'm too old for sudden surprises." He stuttered with a shake of his head.
"Javi, idiota." He repeated it again and again until the stranger touched his shoulder.
"Now are you okay?" Javi looked up.
He recognized the person, but he wasn't sure from where. The dark purple hair looked familiar, at least.
"You're one of the new writers." He squinted his eyes.
They nodded. "I needed to finish up the edits. You know—" A finger pointed right at him. "Why did you let them tear apart your script? I've read your work. You're incredible."
Javi's cheeks flushed. "I was told it didn't have enough flair. They did rewrites without me—you like my work?"
"Oh, my God, yes. Your movie Gabriela was devastatingly beautiful. I wanted to reach in and wrap Hector and Gabriela together." They knocked their head sideways. "Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself."
Javi waved his hand. "No, no, it's okay. That's why I made the movie—to process that grief."
"Oh. Oh! When you collaborated with Ari Aster? I never expected a thriller out of you, but it was—the dynamic!" They waved their hands.
A smile curled at the edge of his lips. "Thank you."
"When I got asked to help do rewrites for Javier Gutierrez? I had What's It About read before I even reached the airport." The next grin aimed at him lit up the blue of their eyes and Javi went swimming.
And that's how Javi met Reece.
Many things in his life felt like mistakes. His homes, his cars, anything that was considered his—none of it truly his.
Everything he'd ever owned. All of it paid for by blood money.
Everything except his writing, Nicolas Cage, and Reece Gamaro.
It didn't surprise him when he started seeking them out. Writers' meetings, craft services, sitting on the sidelines during filming. Anywhere they were, Javi wanted to be there as well, listening to them talk and laughing at half-thought stories.
Javi knew he loved Reece late one June night with tequila shots and Reece crawling into his lap. Falling deeper between kissing, touching, wrapping his arms around them and falling asleep.
The two of them felt like a plot coming together—a storyline making a journey.
Their love for storytelling matched his own. Ideas swirling around their head and rolling past their lips with brimming smiles and excited ramblings. The two of them didn't match on everything. Reece had opinions on some of his collection, and Javi had his own on their choice of reading.
The shared love of movies drew them even closer. They could sit together on the couch with blankets and lights turned down low. They'd trade commentaries and facts they had buried inside their minds. Javi told them everything he knew about 1970s art-house films, and Reece could tell him more about books that became movies than anyone he knew.
Movies are also where they stumbled upon the first discord of their relationship.
"I'm sorry—did you say Lost Boys is thinly plotted? That it's only good enough as a summer movie?"
"You're going to look at me and tell me you've never watched Pulp Fiction?"
Javi wanted to watch movies with Reece for the rest of his life.
The first kiss was soft, sleepy, pressed into each other's lips over warm cookies and Starbursts.
When they came out to him, nervous, fingers curling into their shirt, voice shaky as they talked—
"Uh, yeah, I'm nonbinary, uh, trans," Reece had whispered.
Javi felt his stomach twist with worry. "I'm sorry—I didn't even think to ask—"
"It's okay. I wanted to feel comfortable at first, then... well, we kissed and—" Reece half-smiled. "I was worried about coming out. I didn't know what I'd do if you, uh, changed your mind."
"Pronouns?" They cried into the hug and asked him to watch a movie.
He felt like a teenager holding their hand as they rested against his shoulder.
Javi knew he was in love the first night they met up after filming. The first time he saw them around friends, laugh tossing their head back and hips swinging to music.
Javi felt light burn beneath their skin. He wanted to touch that light, feel that light, watch it burn brighter and brighter. He needed more of them.
His excuse to see them more was to offer a collaboration.
"You want to make a movie with me?" Reece touched his chest.
Javi nodded. "I believe we have common ground for creativity?"
Reece's fingers traced his jaw. "You want to make a movie?" They moved closer to him. Their nose brushing his cheek. "With me?"
Kissing Reece felt like his skin had caught fire and brought him to life. He'd watched the movie magic kiss experience his entire existence and craved that passion.
He wanted to keep kissing them until he ran out of breath. He couldn't stop kissing them as his fingers slid their shirt off their shoulders and felt the smooth skin beneath his lips.
Javi wanted to taste them for the rest of his life.
Feeling them around him for the first time? Knowing how it was to have them in his arms, in his heart, in his life? It was all he'd ever wanted and more—he'd do anything to keep it.
They moved in together when they started working on their movie.
Reece was over every day, anyway.
It made the most sense to Javi, who hated it when they left at night. Knowing he'd have to watch them climb into their car and drive away?
The move went by in a blink. One moment Javi was asking Reece if they had a desk, and the next, said desk was sitting in the guest room.
His heart burned with happiness.
Reece had the flu the first time they said I love you. His thigh burning beneath their cheek, fingers running through their hair. They shivered with every breath and groaned anytime they moved.
He almost missed it at first.
"I love you." There had been tears in Reece's eyes, and Javi cleaned them with his thumbs. He'd smiled at their wobbling lip before saying it back.
He did. Javi loved Reece. They were his everything.
One year turned to two, then three, and suddenly Reece was sitting on a hospital bed with a bag held to their lips. A nurse stood in front of them with a pink testing strip, and Javi's heart had exited the building.
His life with Reece changed with a shoulder shrug and a flat, "Told you—you're pregnant."
Reece threw up a lot, dropping the bag with panic, and didn't seem to stop panicking for eight and a half months.
Their first ultrasound, Reece's face went white as they hissed at him, "I can't find the baby?"
He'd pointed it out before the technician came back, but Reece kept shaking their head. "I can't find the baby."
The first time the baby moved, Reece woke up in a panic and almost pushed him out of the bed.
"I'm going to be a horrible parent." They wrinkled their nose at the Mommy and Me video.
"I think you'll be amazing." He'd kissed their temple.
Reece had sighed. "At least we can make it funny."
They threatened to burn Javi alive when he tried to take away their deviled eggs once.
"You get heartburn and stomach aches."
"They'll never find your body, Gutierrez."
September twenty-first at three in the afternoon, a nurse handed Javi his heart and soul. A baby girl weighing six pounds and three ounces at nineteen inches long.
Her hair was a shocking dark mess on her head, and she was beautiful.
Javi experienced raw, unfiltered happiness that night.
Javi also experienced genuine fear that night.
Everything was fine at first. Reece was smiling at the squirming pink baby, eyes unfocused and hand trying to touch her hair. He'd leaned down to kiss his partner when a nurse started pushing him away. The baby was taken from his arms with a rushed apology as Javi asked what was happening.
They'd ushered him out of the room and left him waiting in the hall, watching his life slip away from his eyes.
Someone found him later that night and directed him to the nursery. He spent hours staring at his daughter, Javi barely hearing the doctor explain to him about the mass they found and the prognosis they feared would come from it.
At four in the morning, he was sitting in the hospital room, Reece fast asleep in the bed as he held their daughter to his chest and hummed down at her.
"That's your Noma," he whispered as Reece slept. "They're super smart, talented, and kind, but don't let them bake any sweets." Their baby squinted up at him.
He kissed her nose. "No matter what Noma says—M. Night Shyamalan movies have twists at the end."
Ariana Valeria Zona Gutierrez went home a month later in her Noma's arms.
Ariana Valeria Zona took her first shit in her Noma's arms and was immediately placed in her father's arms.
Nicolas Cage became her godfather with the promise to always protect her.
She said her first word in Spanish and frowned when Reece didn't respond.
"My skills range as far as understanding it, kid." They'd joked.
Her first day of daycare ended with tears (Javi) and promises everything would be okay (Reece to Javi).
At two years old, their little girl loved turtles and was waddling around with a pet rock in one hand and a plastic spider in the other. At two years old, Ariana was the happiest little girl in the world.
Javi knew what happiness was.
It was the family he built with the love of his life. It was the movies he made, the times he spent with his best friend Nicolas Cage, and the smile on his daughter's face.
When he and Reece got asked to help with the new Powerpuff Girls movie, he thought Reece was going to pass out from excitement. They'd wasted not a second to pick up their daughter and swing her with cheering laughter.
(He wasn't sure if Ari knew what was happening or sensed her Noma's happiness. He imagined both.)
Reece talked him into setting up an on-set daycare for the kids, to keep Ari close as they both worked. It helped to know who was watching her during the busiest time of their lives.
When he met the assembling cast and crew, he felt good about what came next. He loved sinking his teeth into a movie and forming a family with those around him.
Javi knew everything was going to go exactly the way he'd always wished.
Then he met Dieter Bravo.
Alright, y'all, so this is a story from my OG account, which is a part of a collaboration with a good friend so I'm dropping it here to promote her work!
Give her some love Pedro fans 🥰🥰🥰
