Lee Garcia • Grumpy x sunshine!reader?
Sour but Sweet ✶ Lee Garcia
warning: none, english isn’t my first language. childhood friends, opposites attract, sunshine x grumpy, pure fluff
Living near the Walter ranch meant that, by extension, you also had to deal with the Garcias. And dealing with Lee Garcia was, in your own words, "a charity project for the soul."
You were the definition of light. You always had a joke ready, your backpack was covered in colorful stickers, and you could talk to a rock if it waved back. Lee, on the other hand, seemed to have been born with a permanent scowl and a sarcastic comment on the tip of his tongue.
At fourteen, Lee had decided that being a "serious guy" was his official personality. But you had other plans.
You were both sitting on his porch. Lee was trying to read a book for school with his headphones on (though you knew there was no music playing), and you were sitting on the step below him, trying to make friendship bracelets with neon thread.
"Lee, do you prefer the sun-yellow thread or the electric blue one?" you asked, turning around to shove the colors right in front of his face.
Lee sighed, lowering his book with dramatic slowness. "yn, I’m trying to study. Can’t you go bother Isaac or one of the Walters?"
"Isaac is at the corral and Cole is being... well, Cole," you replied with a giant smile, completely unfazed by his tone. "Besides, the yellow matches your vibe today."
"My vibe?" Lee arched an eyebrow. "My vibe is grey, like a storm. Yellow gives me a headache."
"Liar," you laughed, moving closer to his feet. "Grey is boring. You’re more like a... like a lemon. Sour on the outside, but necessary to make things taste good."
Lee rolled his eyes, but you noticed the corner of his lips twitch, struggling not to smile. That was your specialty: breaking through his tough-guy armor.
"You’re unbearable," he muttered, turning back to his book. But he didn't put his headphones back on.
Ten minutes of relative silence passed, only interrupted by the sound of your threads moving. Suddenly, you felt Lee watching you. When you looked up, you caught him staring at you with an expression that wasn't grumpy at all. It was soft, almost... admiring.
Finding himself caught, Lee tensed up and put his "mean face" back on.
"You have a thread tangled in your hair," he said quickly, pointing at your head.
"Where?" You started running your hands through your hair clumsily, making the knot worse. "Oh, no. My mom is going to kill me if I have to cut a chunk out."
Lee let out a sigh, a genuine one this time. "Come here, clumsy. Let me do it."
You sat between his legs on the top step, and Lee, with a delicacy he showed no one else, began to untangle the pink thread that had snagged in your curls. His hands were a bit big for his age, but his movements were precise.
"Thanks, Lee," you whispered. Being this close meant you could smell his laundry detergent and that scent of fresh-cut grass that always followed him. "I knew you were a ray of sunshine deep down."
"Don't get used to it," he replied, though he didn't move away when he finished. His fingers lingered for a second longer than necessary, brushing through your hair. "Someone has to keep you from going bald before you're fifteen."
"Hey," you gave his knee a playful nudge. "Just admit you like hanging out with me."
Lee stayed quiet for a moment. The afternoon sun was starting to dip, tinting the porch a warm orange. He closed his book completely and shrugged, looking toward the horizon so you couldn't see the blush creeping up his neck.
"I guess the yellow isn't so bad," he said softly. "It makes things less grey."
You smiled to yourself, picking up the yellow thread and weaving with more energy. You knew Lee Garcia would never tell you he liked you, at least not with words. But the way he sat there, letting you invade his personal space while the rest of the world disappeared, was his own version of a confession.
For Lee, love wasn't poems; it was letting the loudest girl in the world interrupt his studying just because she made him a bracelet he would probably never take off.
a/n: please ignore the messy layout of the last images. I'm currently without my laptop, and formatting on mobile is a nightmare, I'll fix everything eventually!