The Butterfly Effect // (Ralbert)
A/N: okayyyy,,,, so i was thinking very hard about ralbert meet cutes when i found someone singing an original on tiktok (find here) now also streaming on spotify (find here) and i’ve been unable to stop thinking about it,,, so. here is the first Actual Fic i’m posting on here and i’m Very Nervous so be kind pls <3
read on ao3 here
Race was idly walking the streets of Manhattan, beanie slung on his head as he danced through the people crowding the sidewalks, even at 6:30 in the morning. His movements were a carefully calculated combination of lithe ducks and swerves around desperate office workers clearly running late and his keen ability to hold his coffee cup just out of reach of the overzealous hand of a woman talking on the phone.
He took a sip, letting the warmth sink into his chilled bones. It was the middle of March and the weather was just starting to heat up, but mornings were still brutal this time of year.
It was early enough the streets weren’t totally jammed with taxis yet, so he considered chancing the five-step sprint across to the other side without the half-assed assurance that was the walking man light in a busy city. His foot was hovering off the curb when a beautiful, orange monarch butterfly swooped past his face, startling him back onto the curb and bumping him directly into someone.
The impact of his own body into something solid knocked his hold on his coffee loose, and it tumbled out of his hand into the street.
“Hey, man, I’m really sorry-“ the person started, and Race spun around to face them, face apologetic. He froze momentarily at the face in front of him, the first thing he saw a freckle-dusted nose before his eyes made the correction upward to the hazel eyes half hidden by a messy pile of red curls.
“No- No, it was my fault. Bug or something startled me, I got in your way.” His voice was all over the place, the handsome stranger catching him off guard. He trailed his eyes down their form subtly, taking them in. He had to suppress a smile when he glimpsed the bi pride pin on their denim jacket next to a he/they pronoun pin.
They were trying to do the same, trying to gauge the situation. Race’s smile got significantly harder to hide when he half smirked at his own pride merchandise, he/him and rainbow bracelets stacked neatly next to each other on his right wrist.
“I- Uh- I still feel pretty bad,” it was clear he was getting at something by the way they brought their hand up to rub the back of their neck. “How about this; You give me your name and number, and I’ll buy you a brand new coffee. Deal?”
Race’s smile broadened, lighting up his entire face. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I can live with that.”
At that, he was rewarded with a crooked troublemaker smile that made his heart stutter in his chest before he held his hand out.
“Antonio Higgins, at your service. Or just Race, everyone calls me that anyway.” The handsome stranger took his hand in theirs, shaking slightly with an echo of that same crooked smile lingering on his lips.
“Nice to meet you, just Race. I’m Albert DaSilva. I believe I owe you a coffee.”
“And I believe I owe you a number. So let’s find a café with coffee and pens and napkins, yeah?” With that, Race tugged on handsome Albert’s hand, and set off down the street toward Jacobi’s.
~
After nearly an hour of sitting and chatting in the homey café, handsome and funny and charming Albert had to go in order to avoid being late to his 9:30 lecture. But they made sure to promise Race he would text him as soon as they got a chance before walking off down the street, ducking his head to hide the cheesy smile they were sporting.
They made good on their promise four hours later, when he got a notification from an unknown number that quickly identified themself as Albert. The conversation flowed just as smoothly over text as it had in person over the course of the hour the two of them spent talking, and Race felt a sort of buzzy, warm excitement rattling around in his chest, like the butterfly from earlier was battering his ribcage rather than his stomach.
Three days later, the feeling still hadn’t gone away. He was pacing back and forth in his bedroom as they talked, biting his thumb and randomly jumping around to try and get rid of the excess energy. Eventually he couldn’t hold the urge back anymore and bit the bullet, asking Albert if they wanted to hang out soon, see a movie or something.
He had to physically set his phone down and go get a glass of water from the kitchen of his and Jack’s apartment to calm down enough to coherently respond to them after the message confirming that, yes, Albert did want to ‘hang out’ came through. After they had complained about Race ‘stealing their thunder’, of course.
They also waived the movie idea for a later date, considering the serious lack of marvel movies in theaters. He offered up mini golf, which Race excitedly jumped at, but he was also fairly certain he would’ve jumped at any idea they offered up if it meant he got to see Albert again.
~
Mini golf had turned into getting ice cream, - Race’s idea, he couldn’t get enough of Albert’s laugh - which turned into the redhead walking him home.
He’d spent the entire evening finding less than subtle ways to flirt, brushing hands and cheesy pick up lines and offhand sarcastic that Albert could quip back at with sharp ease. They seemed to get tired of dancing around it by the walk home, though, and caught Race’s hand to interlace their fingers without even pausing conversation. He just smiled and squeezed their hand, retort to their comment coming quickly, and they simply beamed in response.
It was nearly midnight by the time the pair reached Race’s apartment. His brow pinched tightly in concern, finally releasing Albert’s hand as he turned back to look at him.
“You sure you’ll make it home ok?” They were stood quite close, enough Race had to tilt his head back slightly to look at them. He reached out a hand to smooth Albert’s collar lightly, if just for the sake of looking away from his face.
“I’ll be fine, Racer. It’s barely three blocks, and I’ve made further walks much later than this just fine.” Their smile was slight, a crooked turn to the corners of his mouth. “I had fun, y’know.”
Race’s eyes flicked back up to his face, seeing the earnest eyes that had little flecks of green and gold before drifting down to Albert’s mouth. His eyes jumped back up to theirs a few seconds later, taking in a shaky breath to respond.
“Yeah, I- I did, too.” He breathed, trying not to rupture the bubble around the moment the two were having.
Neither of them know who leaned in first, but Race now knows his lips are slightly chapped and currently taste of the strawberry ice cream they’d let him steal bites off of. One of Albert’s hands came up to cup his cheek lightly while Race rumpled the previously smoothed collar.
They pulled back after a moment, both of their eyes opening to look at the other, slow, matching smiles blooming on their faces. Albert’s thumb ran lightly over Race’s cheekbone before he chuckled slightly and stepped back.
Race caught his hand easily, pulling him back to kiss his cheek before he went. He smiled before letting Albert step away, calling after him easily. “Text me when you get home!”
Once Race had gotten inside he leaned back against the front door, closing his eyes and grinning wildly. Despite the late hour, his reveling was interrupted by Jack Kelly’s loud voice as he leaned against the wall next to his bedroom.
“So? How’d it go with Red?” Jack asked, unable to see his expression in the dark little hallway by their door. Race walked forward, excited eyes, flushed face and blinding grin telling him nearly the whole story with one glance.
“Oh boy. He’s got you whipped, doesn’t he?” All of Race’s brain power was being used to catalog the events from tonight, so rather than the acid dripped retort about David that Jack would usually get, all he got was an enthusiastic nod.
“So, so whipped. He’s so funny, and so cute, and we got ice cream, and they walked me home and kissed me goodnight. Or I kissed him. We kissed. And I think it killed me. No longer alive. Here lies Toni Higgins, rest in peace.” All of the words came tumbling out too quickly, stumbling over each other, but it didn’t really matter because Race simply sighed happily and went to his room, leaving Jack to chuckle and shake his head at empty air.
~
Goodnight kisses and silly texts turned into second, and forth, and tenth dates. Turned into actual titles, where Race got to introduce him to Jack properly as his boyfriend and go redder than Albert’s hair at Jack’s expression in response.
Sometimes they weren’t even really dates anymore, one of them would just text the other and they would spend the evening in one apartment or the other eating dinner and watching movies.
One of those not-date-dates turned into a full marathon of BBC Sherlock - which Race spent the whole time mouthing along to the dialogue and Albert spent the whole time pretending to watch the show when he was really just watching Race.
By the time they had finished it was well past 3am, and the walk back to his own apartment was sounding less and less appealing to Albert by the second, especially with how Race had clung on to cuddle.
“You can just stay here, if you want.” Race’s sleepy voice cracked the comfortable silence, tilting to look up at Albert from where he was laying his head on their chest. “It’s late, and Jack’s not even here to bully us in the morning. He spent the night at Davey’s.”
“Ok, sugar.” Albert’s returning smile was soft. Race twisted and craned his neck slightly, and the redhead complied, pressing their lips together sweetly before relaxing back. “Goodnight.”
“G’night, baby.” Race said, voice laced with sleep, barely above dropping off. A few minutes later, both of them were dead to the world, curled into each other.
~
The next morning, Race woke slowly, turning to hide from the light by burying his face against Albert’s chest. He blinked up at the redhead after a few minutes, eyes still heavy with sleep, melting at the relaxed expression and way his curls fell in his eyes. He pressed a kiss to the corner of Albert’s mouth before extricating himself from their embrace.
Race padded into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes and flicking on the coffee pot and trying to shake the tired fog from his brain long enough to think of something to make. He couldn’t cook, not really, but there were three or four foods he’d gotten good enough at that he wasn’t a threat to anyone’s life when he made them. One of those was pancakes.
He got the ingredients out quietly, measurements memorized, and in no time he was singing under his breath - something from one of the high school musicals that he couldn’t remember the name of but unexplainably knew all the words to - as he flipped pancakes. Albert had managed to sneak up on him, leaning against the wall just out of his eyeline and smirking at the soft singing.
Albert walked forward, looping his arms around Race’s waist and pressed a kiss to the side of his neck, causing the blond to jump slightly before relaxing back against his boyfriend.
“I smelled food. Was that ‘Breaking Free’?” Albert’s voice was muffled against his skin, and Race chuckled slightly, going a bit pink. He leaned his head against Albert’s, not looking away from task.
“Maybe? I don’t know, it just got stuck.” Race said, giggling quietly Albert’s lips trailed up the side of his neck and jaw to his cheek. He turned his head, pressing their lips together and kissing Albert soundly.
“G’morning to you, too.” Albert said, smirking, face so close to his that their noses were nearly touching. Race smiled and pecked their lips again before turning back to the breakfast, feeling the arms around his middle contract slightly.
It was well past 11am by the time they’d finished eating, Race sitting on the counter across from where Albert was leaning while they talked. His singing had sparked a very serious, very intense debate about which High School Musical was the best, and Race’s absolutely genius way of settling it had been holding his hand out and dragging Albert into a kiss when he’d taken it.
Jack and David chose about 10 seconds after that to walk into the apartment, their conversation coming to an abrupt end when Jack looked towards the kitchen.
“Yo! We cook there, y’know!” His would-be-annoyed expression was marred by his shit-eating grin at the way Race and Albert jumped apart like teenagers that got caught. Race’s face flamed, but Albert just chuckled and stuck his tongue out at Jack.
“Oh, shut it, Kelly. This isn’t even my apartment and I’ve seen you and Dave do way worse.” Jack and Albert had only known each for a few months at this point, but they get along like a house on fire - literally, they bicker like they’ve known each other since kindergarten.
“Hey, hey, leave me out of it. I’m innocent, it’s not my fault you two let my heathen-of-a-boyfriend walk in on you.” David’s smile was easy, and his laugh at his boyfriend’s offended expression made Jack’s eyes soften.
Race held his arms out, inviting Albert back towards him and wrapping his arms loosely around his broad shoulders when the redhead complied easily.
“There’s still pancakes and batter and stuff if you want, I didn’t end up using it all.” He said over his shoulder before turning back to Albert with his eyebrows slightly raised. “And I am absolutely refusing to fold. High School Musical 2 is the best ‘cause of the gay ass baseball scene alone and you know it.”
Albert gasped in offense and retorted in mock answer, Jack immediately jumping in to defend Race’s opinion, considering he was right. David jumped in soon after, and Race basked in the loud banter and laughter in his tiny kitchen, thanking the universe for sending that out of place butterfly down the cold city streets of New York on a cold morning in March.
~
A/N: that’s a wrap on them everyone. they’re my beloveds. i would die for them. let me know what y’all think !! mwah i love u all xx
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"■ - Bedroom/house/living quarters headcanon" and "♥ - family headcanon" for al or race (or both)!!!!
jac, my love, you know me so well (extra proof of that is you put both because,,,, y e a h)
this post is probably going to be horrifyingly long so lmk if the read more thingy doesn’t work
tw: i mention death under both of their family hcs, and drinking/alcoholism and abuse under albert’s. it’s nothing graphic, but it’s there. oh and race’s bio dad gets arrested but i don’t describe it or mention what he did lol
- race
◻️.
his room either looks like a bomb went off or it’s perfectly clean and there’s ABSOLUTELY no in between
cause he’s either been too lazy to clean it for the past month or he’s got randomly motivated for no reason and cleaned everything in one afternoon
he has a bad habit of just putting dishes in the sink and never actually washing them
he also just leaves all the stuff he used to cook out constantly cause he’s too excited for the food
he’s somehow both the best AND the worst roommate
like yeah it kinda leaves messes everywhere BUT he also keeps your stuff how you like it and won’t eat your food
overall a bit of a mess but he means well and nothing gets burned or broken (very often)
❤️.
his birth mom died when he was,,,, 6? and his dad was arrested a couple months later (could’ve been related, could’ve not been, fuck if he knows), so he ended up in the foster system
because of this, he’s always seen his friends as his family cause they’ve been more stable than his home life
when he was 14 or 15 he was taken in and later adopted by the lovely miss medda larkin (along with 16 year old jack kelly and 13 year old charlie ‘crutchie’ morris, not the point)
his idea of family changes a lot after he’s adopted, cause he’s in a healthy, happy, stable home for pretty much the first time in his entire life
he still sees his friend group as his family, too, cause they’re his people and they understand him and they’re all trauma bonded for life
so when him and albert (yes this is ralbert we all know what you expected when you saw my username nobody be surprised) finally get together and are out in the real world living together and graduating college and getting married it’s really nothing new to him cause he’s been forging his own little family for as long as he can remember
whenever he DOES have kids, he makes sure that they get what he never got from the very beginning, cause as much as he loves his family, all of them have been through far too much and he wants to break the cycle
- albert
◻️.
everything in his room has a place but it only makes sense to him
like sure, to most people it just looks like he’s got random shit thrown all over his desk, but to HIM everything’s in its place and he can find everything easily enough
he’s generally tidier than race, but he cleans MUCH less often so if there’s a mess it’s staying there for months
he doesn’t mind doing the dishes but he has never once even LOOKED at a vacuum or duster (he didn’t even know they had any in the apartment til race was cleaning the sitting area when he got back from class one day)
he’s the type of roommate that prefers going shopping together so that there’s not really any “off limit” foods cause you bought it all at the same time but he’ll respect the ‘this is mine’ notes if they’re there
shouldn’t be allowed to cook cause he burns shit CONSTANTLY. they have a stool against the wall under the fire alarm cause albert sets it off like once a week and it’s not worth the effort of dragging a chair over
❤️.
i feel the need to state that albert (just like pretty much all the newsies, it’s just a thing babe) also has a very found family vibe but it’s different to how race’s found family works so ✨here we go✨
his mom died when he was 11, and his dad, who had always been a bit of a drunk, started drinking even more heavily after her passing
al has 2 significantly older brothers - the oldest moved out when he was 10, and both were out of the house by the time he was 12
the abuse started when he was 14. his dad lost his job and the drinking escalated even more, and he started taking his anger out on albert - especially now that there was nobody around to protect him
albert didn’t talk about it for over a year, but eventually it got so bad he was visibly busted up one day at school and his friends noticed. he was dismissive about it at first, then angry and defensive when they kept pushing out of worry
a couple days later it got even worse, and he snuck out his bedroom window and ran away. he showed up on medda’s doorstep at,,,, 3am? 4am? crying and bloody and asking for help. from there, medda got in contact with his maternal aunt that lived in the city and he lived with her until he went off to college
the abuse, coupled with the fact that his brothers had both seen what was happening but did NOTHING to help him out of fear, changed the fundamentals of how he viewed family
his main support was race, as well as medda considering she was the one that helped him get out of the situation, and he was close with his aunt for the rest of his life. she was young and ill-equipped to deal with a teenage boy, let alone a traumatized one, but they learned together and figured it out as they went.
his childhood was normal, for the most part (other than random bouts of shouting matches between his parents and drunken rages from his dad, but those were inconsistent at their worst), until the death of his mother, but he still wants to ensure he never makes his kids feel as helpless as he did
aka ralbert working together to make sure they break the cycle and create a healthy, happy environment for their kids, AND that they support eachother whenever life gets rough :))))))
i- I LOVE THEM SO MUCH FJEHHDHDVD
apparently i had a lot of Thoughts™️ cause this is such a long winded post
✨anyway✨ thank you jac ilysm !!!
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