This ship's had my friend @roxynmae and I in a chokehold for months, long before the pairing became a mainstay in our fics we're writing hehehe.
Decided to share some of my favourite headcanons that I have for Japez based on how I write them in my longfic “Left For Dead” on AO3.
If you’d like to see another awesome take on Ja x Lopez, go check out @roxynmae's fic “Live And Let Die” (we've collaborated on a couple of these headcanons together).
Very excited to talk about the boys. Let’s get into it!
Ja’s parents weren’t present during his childhood. He was raised by his paternal grandparents, a retired veteran and a nurse. He was a quiet kid who liked books, and only came out of shell after someone picked a fight with him.
Lopez was raised by a single father, but belonged to a big family surrounded by lots of people. His family indulged and enabled him, especially when he got into trouble (which happened a lot).
Ja joined up with the army to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. He also wanted to provide for them, the way they had for him. Lopez joined the marines out of necessity, and because he was out of options. But by then he’d developed an issue with authority.
Both signed up for employment with the RDA after different but similar experiences with grief. Ja’s grandparents passed away. Because they were all he had, he saw no reason to stick around on Earth. Lopez’s father was ill, and he took the contract to send back money to support him. Sadly, his father passed away during the six years he was in transit to Pandora.
They rose through the SecOps ranks to be among the first candidates that Colonel Miles Quaritch selected for Project Phoenix. Before that, they were good friends, viewed as a dynamic duo when it came to giving assignments.
Ja and Lopez were decanted as recombinant assets at the same time. Ja’s awakening was disorienting, but he was more level-headed. It was Lopez who became violent, thrashing on the table, damaging medical equipment. He only calmed once Ja pinned him down and spoke to him.
They’d been dorm mates since their earlier days as humans. They become dorm mates again to maintain a sense of familiarity to their old lives. They also just prefer each other’s company, even if they have different ideas of house rules and cleanliness.
Their feelings, unspoken in their former life, and only recently revealed in their present life, are built on a strong foundation of friendship. There’s a lot of trust between them and they balance each other very well with the other’s rationality or chaos.
On the surface, a sort of “Lopez, No” “Lopez, yes” dynamic; one’s quiet, the other’s loud; one thinks things through, the other only has 1 brain cell and it’s barely functioning.
Below the surface, there’s a lot of grief and rage there. For both of them the other is a strong grounding force. In their new lives, they’re the most familiar thing.
Lopez, more than Ja, is known for resource guarding and becoming very protective over his squad; namely Ja and the Colonel’s son, Spider. But like him, Ja can switch in an instant from the quiet-natured medic to a cutthroat soldier when it’s needed.
Both are equally in denial about the feelings they have for each other. Inevitably, and only through a serious set of circumstances, will Ja be the one to express those feelings and act on them (very vague spoiler, I guess, sorry).
Though Lopez can be loud-mouthed and unhinged whenever Ja is around, he’s actually very private about his love life, and has to be persuaded into talking about it.
It’s impossible to mention them without mentioning Spider Socorro. Kid’s gonna throw a b*tch fit when he finds out they’ve been secretly dating all along.
Special mention: those who know me personally here also know that my theme song for Ja and Lopez (that I wrote chapter 12 to lmao) is “Bom Bidi Bom” by Nick Jonas.
