Welcomed

Chapter 1
Welcomed

For his second year of college, Mike moved out of the dorms and found a room. He didn’t have a ton of money to spend on it, but he found a family willing to rent out a spare room in their house for a price he could afford.

The room was just big enough for a bed and a desk, so Mike figured it would be tight but livable, but it made it impossible to avoid the family living there. Fortunately, the Garcia family was warm and welcoming. Ignacio, the patriarch of the family who Mike had rented the room from, was a big, boisterous guy with a warm smile and a loud laugh.

It was Ignacio’s wife, Gabriela, who really made Mike feel welcomed, though. She was usually home when he got back from his classes, and while Mike’s instinct was to make a beeline for his bedroom to get out of her way, she always said hello and asked how his day was and encouraged him to feel welcome in the rest of the house.

She also insisted that Mike eat dinner with them when he was there. Given the choice between eating ramen or heating some frozen thing at his desk or eating Gabriela’s home cooking at an actual table, it was an easy choice, and Mike often decided to join them.

He met their children, ten year old Elena and seven year old Rafael. Both children were polite and energetic, and before and after dinner they were often running around the house playing.

His second week, Gabriela approached Mike and asked if he’d do her a favor. After how kind they’d been, Mike was eager to say yes, and the favor turned out to be simple enough: she wanted him to start doing his homework out at the kitchen table. She explained that it was often a chore to round up Elena and Rafael and get them to focus on homework, and seeing someone they looked up to doing it too might help them. Mike was surprised - and a little flattered - to hear that the kids looked up to him, and happily agreed.

That led to him spending a lot more time with the family, and learning more about them. Growing up, he mostly knew how his own family did things, and living inside another family’s house was an insight into how different families could be. The Garcias always ate dinner together, and the kids ate whatever Gabriela cooked, the same thing the adults ate. That was very different from Mike’s childhood, where he often got a “kids meal” early in the evening, and his parents ate separately or together, but without him. The Garcias could be strict about it, too - when Rafael balked at eating some green, he always got a strict talking to from his parents, and didn’t leave the table until he’d had some. But even when Ignacio or Gabriela was talking sternly to one of the kids, there was always an unmistakable undercurrent of warmth to it.

There were other differences, some bigger and some smaller. They were a ‘shoes off’ sort of house, and Mike, too, was expected to leave his shoes by the door when he came in. Ignacio often played with the kids in the evening, roughhousing and chasing and tickling them, something Mike’s father would never have done. Rafael, Mike quickly learned, stripped to his white briefs and sleeveless undershirt essentially the minute he got home from school, and stayed that way until he got dressed in the morning, and near the end of the evening, even Ignacio would sometimes do the same. Mike couldn’t remember ever seeing his own father less than fully dressed, and his parents would never have let him run around undressed like Rafael did even if there hadn’t been someone else in the house. But Ignacio and Rafael seemed completely comfortable doing things the way their family did, and Mike got over his own initial discomfort and accepted that different families did things differently.

Rafael was happy to have someone else in the house to try to play with. Second grade didn’t give much homework, so he was always off playing while Mike and Elena were still working, and would often try to lure them away to play with him. Mike would sometimes take a break to entertain Rafael for a bit, telling himself he was doing it so the boy would stop bugging his sister, but also, of course, because Mike preferred playing videos games to doing homework, even if he was playing them with a little kid.

Once Mike was really done with his homework, he often ended up staying out of his room and playing with the kids a bit. Gabriela clearly appreciated the help, since it meant Rafael and Elena weren’t demanding her attention, and the kids loved it. Elena preferred crafts, while Rafael liked games where he ran around and climbed on things, and Mike’s presence helped them agree to take turns - one evening they made friendship bracelets together for the first half of the evening, then ran around and chased Rafael for the second.

The siblings got along as siblings often do - they were fundamentally close and loved each other, but also argued plenty, and when they did argue, the arguments often got loud and angry. One evening, close to the kids’ bedtime, when Rafael was being particularly rambunctious, Mike saw another way the Garcia family was different. Rafael lost his temper and grabbed Elena’s dress, ripping it a bit. Elena started sobbing.

Ignacio strode over and picked Rafael up. Rafael started yelling and squirming, but Ignacio ignored him and carried him to the nearest chair without difficulty. There, Ignacio sat down, plopped Rafael down on his lap, and proceeded to spank him. Holding Rafael firmly, he landed several firm slaps on Rafael’s underwear-clad butt. Rafael started crying, but also seemed to be calming down. After the spanking, Ignacio sat the boy on his lap and held him tenderly.

Mike was surprised. His parents hadn’t believed in spanking, and he generally thought of it as something violent and cruel, but watching Ignacio comforting Rafael, helping the boy calm down and regain control of himself, he began to feel like maybe, in this family, at least, it was part of a loving approach to teaching their children discipline.

One day, in his third week of classes, Mike overslept his alarm and missed his first class. He tried to sneak out of the house, but Gabriela heard him leaving. She knew his schedule well enough to know that he was usually out by now, and she asked if something had happened. Mike admitted that he’d overslept, and she shook her head, clearly disappointed. Mike was surprised to realize that he actually felt bad; he’d come to like Gabriela, and he appreciated how welcoming she’d been, and it hurt to know he’d disappointed her.

The next morning, he was surprised when, right after his alarm went off, there was a knock on his door. Without waiting for him to say anything, Gabriela then opened it. “Good morning, Mike, you should get ready for college,” she said, laughing gently, and closed the door. Mike started getting ready, slowly, still feeling draggy from a lack of sleep. A few minutes later there was another knock. Mike pulled his pants up quickly in case she came in again, but she didn’t. Instead, from the other side of the door, she said, “Hurry up, Mike. Breakfast’s ready.”

Gabriela was already in the process of escorting Elena and Rafael through their own morning routine, and she seamlessly incorporated nudging Mike along into that. He joined them for breakfast, eating the eggs Gabriela had made with for her family, a big improvement over the bowl of cereal or, when he was running late, nothing that he usually ate for breakfast. As they finished, Gabriela hurried the kids along to finish getting ready for school, then turned to Mike with a smile. “And you too,” she said.

It meant all three were finishing up and leaving the house together. As Elena stood impatiently by the door and Rafael fumbled with his backpack, Mike was stepping out of his room about to leave for college. Gabriela strode through. “Did you brush your teeth, Elena?” she asked.

“Yes, mama,” replied Elena.

“And did you brush your teeth, Rafael?” she asked her son.

“Yes, mama,” answered Rafael.

“And,” she said, turning to Mike with a smile. “Did you brush your teeth, Miguel?” She laughed gently.

“Yes, Mrs. Garcia,” said Mike, sharing in the joke of including him with the kids. She’d used the Spanish version of his name, in a tone that made the affection clear, and Mike found it comforting. It crystallized a realization that had been building for a while - that he wasn’t just a boarder taking up space in their house; the Garcia’s liked him and, in a way, were treating him like part of the family while he stayed here, and he appreciated that.

Gabriela’s maternal nature started coming out in other ways. As the semester went on and the school pressure built up, Mike started doing laundry less, leading to a day when he had to go through his laundry, smelling his shirts, to find one suitable to wear. Gabriela had clearly noticed, because that afternoon when Mike returned, he discovered that she had done his laundry while he was out. As he looked through the dresser in the room he rented from them, he found all his clothing neatly folded in the way he was always too lazy to bother with. She’d even, he noticed with a blush, washed his underwear, folding each pair of his boxer shorts into a neat little square.

He thanked her profusely, but she seemed to think nothing of it. “I do laundry all the time,” she said with a shrug.

A couple days later, in the evening after the kids had gone to bed, Mike was in his room, messing around on the internet, when Gabriela knocked on his door. “Miguel,” she started. She always called him Miguel, now, always in that same affectionate tone, and Mike had gotten used to it. “I think you’ve been having trouble getting up in the morning. Perhaps you should get ready for bed.”

“Um, yeah, you’re right. Thanks Gabriela,” he said. As soon as she left, though, he got sucked back into his computer.

A few minutes later, she returned. “Let me try this the way that works with the kids. Miguel, it’s bedtime.” She stood there, waiting for him to get up. At first, Mike thought she was joking, but she wasn’t. Embarrassed, Mike finally did get up and go to the bathroom to start getting ready for bed. Gabriela hovered nearby, giving him privacy, making sure he was still making his way towards bed. He got in bed and promptly pulled out his phone. Twenty minutes later, there was a knock on his door, and then she opened it. “Okay, lights out.”

Reluctantly, Mike put his phone down and went to bed. She was right - he’d been tired, and a lack of discipline around getting off the internet was a big part of that, and having someone else holding him accountable really helped. In the morning, he felt more refreshed than he had in a while, which helped soothe the embarrassment of having her watching over him.

After that, it became part of their routine. Each night, a while after the kids had gone to bed, Gabriela would tell him it was bedtime, supervise his routine from a distance, and then give him some time in bed before instructing him to turn the lights out.

A week later, after the kids were done with homework and Mike was most of the way though his own, Gabriela brought a couple bags into the living room. “Rafael,” she called. “I bought some new clothes for you. Come try them on.” Rafael obediently hurried over and started pulling a brightly colored button down shirt she handed him over his undershirt.

“Mike,” she said, turning to him. “When I was doing your laundry, I noticed some of your clothes were getting a little ragged, so I got you a few things, too.”

“What? Oh, you don’t have do that. I can…”

She shushed him with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I was at the store anyways. It’s no trouble. Come, try them on.” She handed him a shirt. He was embarrassed, as much by the generosity as by being unsure what he was supposed to do, but she seemed so calm and certain that it was fine that he went along with it. He took the shirt from her, got up, and started to walk towards his room to change. She didn’t seem to understand why he was walking away. “Well?” she asked.

Apparently she expected him to change shirts right here in the living room. Insisting on privacy felt prudish, and maybe even a little rude, so Mike went along. His own family had been modest, but lots of guys, he assured himself, went around shirtless, so this really wasn’t a big deal. He took off his own t-shirt and pulled on the one Gabriela had handed him, a peach button down shirt with a collar. “Oh, you look very handsome,” she told him. “Turn around.” He spun around, and she tugged on it once to check the fit. “Excellent,” she said. “Now this one.”

The fashion show went on for a while as he and Rafael took turns modeling shirts. They wren’t really his style; he favored t-shirts, usually with a band name or a stupid joke written across the middle. These mostly had collars, and many were button downs, and they were mostly in simple bold colors. Indeed, they weren’t that different from the ones that she’d picked out for Rafael, except in size. But as he tried them on, he had to agree that they did look good on them.

After the shirts, Gabriela had pants and shorts for both of them to try on. She still seemed to expect Mike to try them on here in the living room, and it felt even more awkward to suddenly insist on privacy now. He reminded himself that he’d seen Ignacio in his underwear plenty of times, and the only think that would make this weird was if he made it weird. So, as casually as he could manage, he pulled off his jeans, standing briefly in his boxers until he pulled on the khaki pants she’d handed him. She had him turn around again, pulling at the hem to check the fit, then nodded in approval. “Excellent.” Then there were more pants, a mix of khaki’s, some jeans, and more shorts than he normally wore.

By the time they were done, Mike had a substantial wardrobe of new clothes. He thanked Gabriela profusely, and she really seemed to think it was no big deal, and was just happy to have helped him out.

He started trying out the new clothes, sometimes mixing them with his old ones, sometimes wearing entirely new outfits. The new style took some getting used to, but he came to like it. He felt a little more disciplined and organized in them, and it fit well into the way his life had gotten a little more structured since he’d started slipping into some of the Garcia family’s routines.

A few days later, in the evening, Mike was entertaining Rafael. The two of them were sneaking around on the floor, pretending to be exploring a cave, when Gabriela came over. “Miguel, no wonder your clothes wear out so fast. Look what you’re doing to them.” She knelt down and pointed to his knees, where he was stretching the fabric. “If you’re going to play around the house like that, take them off.”

Mike stood up and swelled. “I don’t…”

She waved another dismissive hand. “It’s fine. Playing is good, and you’re keeping Rafael busy. I just don’t want you destroying your clothes. Here,” she said, holding out a hand. “Hand them to me, and I’ll put them in your room so you and Rafael can go back to you came.”

Rafael stamped his foot impatiently. “Come oooooon, Mike.”

Pressured by both of them, Mike reluctantly complied. It wasn’t, he reminded himself, and different from Ignacio. He unbuttoned his shirt and handed it to Gabriela, then unbuttoned his pants and handed those to her, too. She took them with a smile and walked off and Mike, wearing just his boxer shorts and socks, returned to playing with Rafael. It was awkward at first, but he quickly got used to it, and by the end of the week, he’d adopted Rafael’s habit, taking off his shirt and pants as soon as he got home and staying in his underwear as he did his homework, ate dinner with the family, and then played with the kids.

The next week, Gabriela and Ignacio were talking about how much Rafael had grown. Gabriela sighed. “I just got him more clothes, but I’ll go get him some more tomorrow. He won’t have any underwear that fits at all at this rate.” She looked over at Mike, playing with the kids nearby. “Miguel, do you need any clothes?”

“Um, no thank you. But thank you, Gabriela.”

She looked him over skeptically, her eyes eventually fixing on his faded boxer shorts. “I’m shopping anyway. I’ll get you some more underwear, too.”

Mike blushed. “Sure, thank you.” By now he’d learned that there wasn’t much point in arguing with her anyways.

It was two mornings later, the day after she’d gone shopping, that Mike looked in his drawer and realized that he hadn’t been clear enough. She’d cleared out some of his more worn boxer shorts, and replaced them with plain white briefs. He realized he should have expected it - that was what Ignacio and Rafael wore, so of course that was what she’d bought. She’d even bought him some of the sleeveless athletic undershirts they always wore, too.

There were some of his old boxer shorts left, so for the first few days he stuck to those, but of course Gabriela saw what he’d picked each evening, and he didn’t want her to feel like her generosity wasn’t appreciated. As so often happened, once he actually started wearing the briefs, there was an initial awkwardness, but then it just became familiar. No one else in the house thought anything was odd about him wearing them - indeed, about him spending most of the afternoon wearing the briefs and nothing else - and it seemed increasingly silly to make a big deal out of it. Besides, he came to kind of like dressing like Ignacio and Rafael. He started wearing the undershirts, too, and he sometimes enjoyed noticing that he, Ignacio, and Rafael were all dressed the same. It made him feel included, like he wasn’t just renting a room, but had really become a part of their family.

He noticed, too, that they’d all picked up Gabriela’s habit of calling him Miguel, another way they increasingly treated him like he belonged there.

One night, Rafael was particularly scared, having trouble sleeping because of some movie he’d seen with a friend. His parents tried all sorts of ways to placate him, but he was still too scared to sleep. Finally, Rafael begged for Mike to come sleep in his bed that night to keep him safe.

Gabriela and Ignacio were apologetic, and assured Mike he didn’t have to do it, but they were clearly exhausted and desperate for Rafael to sleep, and they’d been so kind to him that Mike was glad for a chance to have a way to help. Besides, he was touched that Rafael liked him enough to find Mike that comforting.

It was a little tight in Rafael’s twin bed, but the seven year old didn’t take up a lot of space, so they were able to fit. Mike held the boy, and he fell asleep quickly. Mike considered leaving, but was tired enough that he ended up falling asleep there. The next day, Rafael begged for Mike to ‘sleep over’ again, and again Mike agreed, and the day after that as well, and soon enough Rafael didn’t even have to ask for it because it had become a habit.

Now that he was going to bed at the same time as the kids, he got included into Gabriela’s careful coordination of bedtime, ensuring that the three of them could take turns using the toilet without arguing, then all brush their teeth together, then gather on Rafael’s bed for a bedtime story. Rafael and Elena would cuddle up with Gabriela, and Mike would sit next to them on the bed. Then Elena would go to her room and Rafael and Mike would curl up together in bed, allowed to talk or read for a little bed before Gabriela came in to turn the lights out. At one point, while they were lying next to each other, each reading a book, Rafael had the idea that he wanted to read his book out loud, and Mike figured he was being supportive by encouraging Rafael to read, so it became part of their routine that, after Gabriela had read a book to the three of them, Rafael would then read a book to Mike.

After two weeks of this, Gabriela proposed moving Mike’s stuff into Rafael’s room, since they were sharing it now, and that only seemed practical. So she cleared some space in one of Rafael’s dressers and moved the clothes she’d bought Mike in there; she didn’t bother moving the ones he’d moved in with, since he didn’t wear those any more anyway.

As the semester went on, Mike felt increasingly comfortable and settled into his routines in the Garcia house. One day, though, after dinner, when Ignacio asked him about school, he made the mistake of making a nasty comment about a girl in his class who’d turned him down for a date the year before. Ignacio looked appalled. “Miguel,” he said, “we don’t talk about people like that in this house. Come here.”

Mike walked over to the couch where Ignacio was sitting, unsure what was about to happen. Ignacio gestured to his knee. “Lean over.”

Mike blinked. “You can’t spank me,” he said, realizing what Ignacio was getting at.

Ignacio looked firm. “The rule in our house is that misbehavior is punished. We have treated you like part of our family, and I expect you to respect our rules. I will not have you setting a bad example for Elena and Rafael.” A spanking sounded awful, but betraying the love and acceptance he’d gotten from Ignacio and his family felt even worse, so Mike bent over. He cried out as Ignacio swatted him, angrily at first, but then sadly, as began to feel ashamed for having disappointed Ignacio so much. When Ignacio was done, he directed Mike to sit next to him and wrapped an arm around him, talking gently about the importance of kindness and respect. He assured Mike that he was angry at what Mike had done, but that he still cared for Mike and knew the action didn’t reflect who Mike really was. Mike found himself feeling, not angry, but grateful to Ignacio for believing that he could do better, and for helping him be a more respectful person.

After that, Mike felt a greater respect for Ignacio and Gabriela. They’d always been kind to him, of course, but he increasingly saw that they were helping look out for his growth as a person, and he was glad to have people in his life to do that. Gabriela found other ways to watch out for him, too. She started inspecting him each morning, making sure he’d tucked his shirt in neatly and, after one embarrassing day, that he’d put on his pants the right way round; it just became part of the family morning routine, Mike standing there for a minute, arms at his size, while Gabriela looked him over to make sure he was ready for his day.

Usually Gabriela was home in the afternoons, but one day later that week, she was taking Elena to an appointment, and asked Mike to babysit Rafael, which of course he was happy to do. It had rained that morning, and Rafael desperately wanted to go outside and explore what it had done to the backyard, and Mike couldn’t see any reason to say no.

The backyard had become muddy from the rain, so the two of them played in it, enjoying the feel on their bare feet, trying to build things that promptly slid back into nothing, and sometimes even throwing it at each other.

When Gabriela returned home and went saw them, she gasped. Mike looked down and realized that, without thinking about it, he and and Rafael had gotten covered in mud, including stains all over their white underwear. Gabriela sighed, and for a moment Mike worried he might get spanked again, but instead she told them to come inside.

“You two are a mess,” she said as they walked towards the back door. She stopped them when they got clothes. “Take those things off outside. I will take care of washing them.”

Rafael promptly stripped naked. Mike hesitated. Even if no one else was watching, being naked around Gabriela and Rafael by itself felt odd. Gabriela was stern. “I am absolutely not allowing you to track those clothes around this house,” she told him firmly. So Mike took them off, and he and Rafael wiped their feet on the towel she provided, and then went to the bathroom.

“The two of you are taking a bath now,” she told them.

“I can just shower once Rafael’s done,” Mike assured her.

Gabriela shook her head. “I’m not wasting water on cleaning the two of you separately.”

Too embarrassed to argue, Mike got in the bath with Rafael. Rafael splashed and played, and Mike fell back into the habit of entertaining Rafael, helping him pretend the soap was a boat and sinking it. After they’d played for a bit, Gabriela came in and washed them, first taking a small pitcher and pouring water over their heads. Mike tried to argue that he could clean himself, but Gabriela was clearly in a bad mood because of all the extra work they’d made, and not willing to argue. “If you’re going to get messy like Rafael, I’m going to clean you like Rafael, and there is to be no argument.”

So he watched her take a washcloth and scrub Rafael from top to bottom, then sat quietly while she took a second washcloth and scrubbed him. It was odd to have someone, even someone he’d come to know, washing him off. She started with his face, then his arms and chest. He was nervous when she got down to his crotch and carefully wiped that down, too. He was embarrassed, but she seemed to think it was no big deal, an ordinary, almost clinical act, and he tried to believe that.

Then they got out of the bath and Mike was at least allowed to try himself while Gabriela helped Rafael dried off.

That night in bed, after Gabriela had turned the lights out, Mike thought about the bath. At first when he thought about it, it seemed strange. Should he really have allowed her to wash him off like that? But the more he remembered it, the more it seemed normal. He was, more and more, part of this family, and Gabriela was just treating him like part of the family.

He looked over at Rafael, already asleep, illuminated by the nightlight. He fell asleep fantasizing about really being part of the family. He imagined what it would be like to be Rafael’s twin brother, Miguel. After the day he’d had, it wasn’t even that hard. Miguel would look different of course; he’d have Rafael’s skin, not Mike’s, and he’d be smaller. But Miguel would have had the same afternoon, playing outside and getting bathed by Gabriela and going to bed here.

After that day, Mike found himself starting to pretend to be Miguel some of the time. Not out loud, of course. But as he got ready for school with Elena and Rafael, he could imagine that he was really Miguel getting ready with his siblings. As he played around the house with Rafael, he imagined that he was really a seven year old playing with him.

He wouldn’t have dreamed of telling any of the Garcia’s about this, of course, but perhaps they sensed it, or perhaps they just reacted to the way he was acting. Gabriela and Ignacio stopped including him in adult conversations. They still talked to him and asked about his day, but when they talked about politics or work, they acted like Mike wasn’t even there. And that just made it easier for Mike to enjoy his fantasy, so he let it happen.

Elena seemed to pick up on it, too.  It struck Mike a few days later. He and Rafael were sitting cross-legged on the floor, in their underwear as usual, and Elena was sitting on a chair nearby, fully dressed, directing the two of them in how they were supposed to be drawing. Before, Mike had been the babysitter, the one ultimately in charge when he was with Elena and Rafael. But, increasingly, Elena was acting like she was in charge, and - Mike thought as he colored in his horse according to her directions - he was letting her. She even reprimanded him once, when he jumped onto a couch as part of a game, and he’d gotten off and hung his head, shuffling her feet as he apologized.

He’d been playing that game for about a week when Gabriela confronted him about something. She held up a pair of his white briefs from the laundry and showed him the inside. “Do you see this,” she said, gesturing to the brown stain on the inside.

“Yeah…” Mike said, once again embarrassed.

“You’re not cleaning well enough, and it’s making a mess in your laundry. From now on, come get me when you go to the bathroom. We’re going to make sure you wipe properly.”

Mike wasn’t sure what she was getting at, and at first he planned to ignore her. But the next time he went towards the bathroom, she saw him going. “Miguel! What did I say?”

“Sorry, Gabriela.”

She walked over and proceeded to escort him to the bathroom. Shocked and confused, Mike let her. Once they were in, she closed the door and pulled down his underwear brusquely. “Go on,” she said, gesturing to the toilet. Still taken aback, Mike sat down and used it. When he got up, she grabbed his shoulder and pushed, indicating for him to turn, and once he had, she proceeded to start wiping him. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” she told him in a gentler tone. “You just weren’t taught properly, and we’re going to have to teach you how to wipe yourself properly.” She leaned over and pulled his briefs up, pulling the elastic out to get it over his hips and then letting it back, pulling them snug over his body. “Go on, wash your hands.” And she supervised him washing his hands.

Afterwords, Mike felt stunned. Even after all the ways his life had changed, being accompanied to the toilet felt like a violation or a humiliation, and he couldn’t understand why he’d just let it happen.

Ignacio noticed that he seemed withdrawn, and took him aside. “Is something wrong, Miguel?”

“I…” Mike pulled together his courage to tell Ignacio that something was, in fact, wrong. “I think I’m acting weird. You and Gabriela and Elena and Rafael have been so nice, and you’ve been treating me so much like part of the family, but…I think I’ve started acting weird, and something’s not right.”

“Oh, Miguel,” said Ignacio, putting his hand around Mike’s head to cradle it. “You see what’s happening now. We’ve been treating you like part of the family because you’re becoming part of the family.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“It’s all okay,” Ignacio reassured him. “Here, come with me and let me show you what I see.” Mike followed Ignacio to Ignacio and Gabriela’s bedroom, and stood with Ignacio in front of a full length mirror. “Take of your underwear,” he said, and Mike, beyond modesty at this point, complied.

“Look in the mirror with me, and see what I see,” Ignacio said. He cradled Mike’s head with both his hands. “I see a boy in the mirror. I see his head, small and round and cute. Your hair, black and cut short, just like Rafael’s.” Mike looked in the mirror and found it easy to imagine his messy sandy brown hair replaced with hair much like Rafael’s.

“I see big, bright eyes that sparkle with innocence.” That was harder to imagine, but staring at the mirror, listening to Ignacio while being held by his strong, loving grasp, Mike tried to imagine it.

“He has a small, delicate nose, the perfect size for a little boy.” Mike wasn’t sure what was happening any more, but the more Ignacio talked, the more he seemed to see two different images in the mirror, overlaid - the familiar one he was used to, and a small boy who looked a little like Rafael.

“I see narrow shoulders, perfect for squeezing into small places to play,” Ignacio’s hands gently moved down to hold Mike’s shoulders.

“I see arms, small and slender and a little clumsy,” Ignacio continued, running his hands along Mike’s arms.

“I see a flat, bare chest, skin that’s a beautiful caramel color just like Rafael and Elena’s.” The image of the boy in the mirror was getting clearer, the familiar one fading. Mike was afraid to look away from the mirror, to look at his actual body, for fear of stopping what was happening.

Kneeling down, Ignacio ran his hands down the front of Mike’s chest, then around to the back for a moment. “I see a cute little butt,” and Mike giggled at that. “And I see a tiny little penis, just like he should have.” At that, and at the feel of Ignacio’s hands momentarily brushing his penis, Mike couldn’t help but look down. There it was, just as Ignacio had described, hanging between his legs.

Ignacio ran his hands down Mike’s legs. “And I see cute legs, thin and made for running and jumping and playing, and little feet that like to run around on the grass and the mud.”

Now sitting, he pulled Mike into his lap. The little boy in his arms squealed in delight. “Will you be part of our family, Miguel?”

“Yes, papa,” Miguel whispered.  Miguel looked in the mirror and saw exactly the boy Ignacio had described, no trace of the college student he’d been remaining. “Am I…am I really Rafael’s twin?” he asked, struggling to believe that fantasy might have become real.

Ignacio laughed warmly at some joke Miguel didn’t get. “Well, let’s see, Miguel.” He stood up, took Miguel’s hand, and led him, still naked, back to the rest of the family. Gabriela, Elena, and Rafael ran over to him, and Miguel enjoyed the welcoming embrace he got from them.

He was so distracted by that that it took him a minute to look at Rafael and realize why Ignacio had laughed. Rafael, who he’d gotten so used to thinking of as a little boy, towered over him, and suddenly had an aura of authority and wisdom. Just looking at him, Miguel felt safer, knowing that Rafael was around to protect him and help him figure out what to do.

“C’mon Miguel,” Rafael said, taking his little brother’s hand. “Let’s go play.” Miguel didn’t have to be asked twice. The four year old boy ran after his big brother, trying, with mixed success, to imitating what the older boy was doing.

That night, Gabriela herded the three children into the bath room to brush their teeth and Miguel stepped onto his step stool so he could see the mirror. As he brushed his teeth, his father stepped into the room to check on them and a flicker of a memory crossed Miguel's mind, a flash that he might once have seen something else in the mirror. He looked at the reflections: his loving, caring sister Elena, who always knew what to do; his sweet, funny brother Rafael, full of great ideas; then his own face, little Miguel, cute and adoring; behind them, his mother, always making things happen and always taking the time to make sure they were okay; and his father, strong and loving, making sure he felt safe. What he saw in the mirror was exactly what he wanted: his family.