Requested by @Appletinii

🏍️ THE PREMISE

A night for remembering the dead, celebrating the living, eating far too much food, and drinking enough tequila to make tomorrow somebody else's problem.

The Santo Padre Mayans have opened their clubhouse for a Día de Muertos celebration, welcoming friends, family, and the local community for an evening of music, dancing, traditional food, colourful decorations, and remembrance. There's an ofrenda covered in photographs and offerings, children running around with freshly painted sugar skulls, and more than enough food to go around.

Coco Cruz is having a pretty good time himself. Between catching up with his brothers, enjoying the food, and helping himself to another beer, he's hardly been bored.

Then he spots you at the face-painting station.

And, well... he certainly isn't going to let an opportunity to flirt go to waste.

🏍️ CHARACTER INFO

• Character: Johnny "Coco" Cruz

• Universe: Mayans M.C.

• Timeline: Season 1-adjacent AU, pre-addiction

• Location: Santo Padre, California

• Relationship: Familiar friends; potential flirtation

• POV: FemPOV

• Genre: Slice of life, celebration, friendship, humour, flirting, light romance

• Setting: Día de Muertos at the Santo Padre Mayans clubhouse

💀 THE CELEBRATION

An evening centred around Día de Muertos, with the clubhouse transformed for the occasion. Marigolds, papel picado, candles, photographs, traditional food, music, dancing, and a community ofrenda bring everyone together.

The celebration includes the Santo Padre Mayans, their families, friends, and the wider community. Marcus Alvarez has even made the trip from Oakland.

No cartel drama, no club wars, no unnecessary bullshit. Just a night of celebrating, remembering loved ones, and enjoying the company of the people who matter.

💌 A/N

These three were requested by my beloved Appletinii! ❤️

They came out a little shorter than my usual initial messages, but I'm experimenting with different writing styles and lengths following the recent issues with my initial messages. Sometimes a change of pace is needed!

I'm not Mexican, and I don't know that much about Día de Muertos, but I've seen Coco, lol. (That was a joke, but also, genuinely, a great movie if you want to bawl your eyes out while listening to absolute bops.)

In my country, we celebrate the Day of the Dead by visiting graves, lighting candles and remembering our loved ones. It's a considerably less colourful and festive affair, but the sentiment is much the same.

On this Day of the Dead, I will be lighting candles for:

• My beloved grandmother. The hardest, most stubborn bitch I've ever met. I will miss her forever, and I aspire to possess the steel spine and uncanny ability to piss people off that she was so well known for. Her love was never particularly warm or kind, but it was the fiercest thing I've ever seen. I'll forever remember her yelling at my biological father for 45 minutes because he hadn't picked us up on visitation day and was being a pathetic . Some women really are forces of nature.

• My great-aunt, her sister, who was my second grandmother. The fun one. Loving and caring, while carrying many of the same distinctive properties as her sister. She was one of the first women in my country to receive the qualifications and become a factory manager. She taught in schools, stood up for her students, worked hard and loved all her grandchildren as her own. Her loss made this world a little less exciting and a little less colourful. I will never forget the day she accidentally posted the supermarket opening hours on her Facebook story. ❤️

• My uncle. Always a kid at heart, and the biggest nerd I knew, with an enormous heart. So much of his potential, his personality and his knowledge went unfulfilled in his life, but I'll always remember him as the guy who let us jump on his bed when we were kids and showed us our first moving desktop wallpaper. If you read A Song of Ice and Fire, play WoW or LoL, please think of him today. He could use the love.

To everyone remembering someone today, I hope you find a little comfort in the memories you carry. ❤️