Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“YOU LOSE!” Leo’s game taunts him after he gets defeated, again…

“Pfffffuuuu… yeh, yeh you win, happy…?” the boy in his pyjamas asks his game before sighing in sadness. He usually gets mad after losing eleven times in a row, but not today. He just feels down to be euphemistic. On a normal day he would probably not struggle this much on this boss but these days everything is different… 

Then the front door opens

“Oh ehy mom you are back!” Leo welcomes his mom in from the couch

“Julio you are still awake?!” she asks surprised

“Yeh… yeh…” Leo looks at the ground before murmuring “I… couldn’t sleep…”

“That’s no excuse to be playing videogames this late at night young man! You have school tomorrow!”

“Yeh, yeh… you are right…” Leo turns off the console “I’ll go to bed…” he tells his mom while trying to not look in to her baggy eyes

“Ah! That’s new!” Leo’s mom quirks a brow “You usually always ask me for five more minutes, don’t you?”

“Yeh…” Leo brushes it off but as he starts to head to his room, he suddenly remembers why he even stayed awake till now in a first place “Oh, mom how was the welcome party for the new neighbours!?”

“Those two ladies were nice hosts! Admittedly their décor could use some adjustments but…” Leo’s mom seems I realize something and she subsequently gives her son a disappointed look “…and to think that I fell for it, I should have known that you asked only to stay awake longer. C’mon to bed!”

“Y-yes mom…”

Leo obeys without further protesting but as he makes his way through the corridor to reach his room, he stops to look at the schedule chart his family keep on the wall.

It’s full of sticky notes on every day of the week, all of his many siblings’ names plastered all over it. However between dance recitals, parties, soccer practices, parent-teacher meetings only one name was always present

‘MOM’ ‘MOM’ ‘MOM’ ‘MOM’ ‘MOM’ ‘MOM’ ‘MOM’ ‘MOM’ ‘MOM’ ‘MOM’

Sometimes he wishes mom wasn’t as busy a she is. Maybe then they would have more time to talk, maybe he would have been able to better gage how and when it would be best to come out to her… or at least know what she understands about being gay and stuff like that… maybe the fact that she never talked about it means she doesn’t see it in a positive light? But even then, WHEN exactly she should have talked about it!? Between a neighborhood council meeting and a trip to the pediatrician!? She usually needs to fit at least three household tasks in between those…

Leo was hoping that since she went to that party for the new lesbian couple that just moved in he’d be able to gage something from it, but luck mustn’t have been on his side tonight…

His mom’s opinion on the décor could mean everything and could mean nothing regarding what she thinks about LGBTQ+ people, maybe she was disgusted by a pride flag they have in their home, or maybe they genuinely have terrible taste in terms of furniture.

Knowing that those two ladies are ‘nice hosts’ it’s not of help either, his mom says that about everyone that hosts a party, unless they legitimately spat in her plate or something, as long as it is a party it’s fun for her no matter who hosts it and that’s enough in her book to consider anyone a ‘nice host’.

Maybe the fact that she didn’t seem excited when she came back means she secretly loathed the fact that they were two women in a relationship? Or maybe not? Maybe she was just tired? Or maybe the fact that she didn’t highlight the fact that they were two women at all meant that she was fine with it? But even then, maybe it would be different when it came to one of her children being gay…

“Ugh… whatever…” Leo mumbles as he stops staring at the schedule board like an idiot and actually heads to bed. He’ll try to bring it up tomorrow maybe… she’ll have time for Leo to ask about it… maybe… maybe… a big maybe…

Leo is tired and sad, but mostly sad to be honest as he quietly enters the room he shares with his siblings. He plops on the bed trying to not wake anyone up and he buries his face in his pillow! At least when he sleeps, he won’t need to think about it, but soon enough he starts to faintly hear his mom voice coming from the living room

“Yes? Sis mind me a favour?! Can you keep the little ones tomorrow because…”

Despite it being very faint it still manages to keep Leo awake, the constant murmur of her phone call just reminds Leo the secret he’s keeping for her, so he tries to stifle her voice by covering his ears with the pillow

“Yes hon? You are still at Lenora’s party? Are your brothers with you? Ok watch over them until I arrive ok? Ah… Ah… ok so you are sleeping over at Francisco’s place ok, so I don’t need to pick you up… but what about…”

No use… he can still hear her… so Leo reaches for his phone and headphones on his night stand. He’ll just watch something very quick until his mom goes to bed, something fun like a meme compilation!

As soon as he opens GuyTube however the first video in Leo’s for you page is ‘How I came out to my parents!’. Leo is not surprised his feed has been inundated with those recently, and he watched basically every single one that he could click on… but not this one… it must be new… but maybe watching it now it’s not a good idea… not only it’s already 23:00 on the clock on a Monday night but he also doesn’t want to go to sleep thinking about all of THIS! He won’t watching it, he’ll watch something else… something else… something else for sure… certainly not a coming out video…

“And so at that point my dad look at me in the eyes and… I’ll never forget it… he told me… “I’m not gona have a fa-”

Leo stops the video, he has had enough for tonight… he checks his GuyTube chronology on his phone and as he scrolls down he starts to count the coming out videos he watched since he has gotten in bed

1

2

3

…

They soon become more than he can even count this late at night, he watched fucking two hours’ worth of those! Guess he really needs to stop at this point…

Leo tries once more

He removes his headphones; he turns off his phone and lays his face on the pillow

But once more sleep doesn’t come to him despite the silence now reining around him… his brain is just too busy running through all the possible scenarios that him coming out may mean for him…

Get insulted!

Kicked Out!

Beaten…

Those were all possibilities, weren’t they?

But would his family do those things? Would even his MOM really be like that? Why would she tho? Mom seemed to have had a good time tonight at the welcome party for that lesbian couple, and she said they were nice ladies! But what if it’s different when it comes to her son!? What if she doesn’t want to have a gay son!? What if she regrets having spent the last fourteen years of her life raising a son that is gay!? What if-

“CREEEEEEEEK”

The bedroom door opens and Leo recognizes his mom’s footsteps

“Julio…?” she whispers… before getting closer to Leo’s bed. She takes a good look at him before she states annoyed “You are still awake…”

Leo raises from his bed and gives his mom fleeting eye contact in the darkness, there is no point in pretending, his mom knows him to well he’d just get in more trouble

“Have you been playing on your phone this whole time?!” she enquires with a stern whisper getting closer to his bed

“Sorry… mom I won’t do it again…” Leo subconsciously reaches out to wipe one of his eyes which he keeps glued to the sheets in his lap

“Julio… is something wrong dear?”

Leo blinks his surprise as his mom’s tone softens all of a sudden and she sits on the bed besides him

“You can’t sleep?” Leo’s mom quietly wonders as she puts her hand on top of her son’s

“No… not really…”

“Julio… is something troubling you? Something at school maybe? You don’t seem yourself recently you know…? When you get scolded you usually never giving without a fight…”

“Ehm…  no… I’m ok mom thanks…”

“Julio are you really sure everything is alright? You know it’s not the first time I see one of my children like this, and a mom can always feel when something’s wrong with her child. So, at the cost of sounding oppressive, can you please tell me what is bothering you?”

Leo bites his lips… he can hear his heart beat at a million miles at second… maybe… maybe… he should just get it over with! Once and for all!

Leo sighs

“Mom… can we get to the living room… so we don’t have to whisper?”

“Sure!”

Leo gets up from the bed, feeling the chilly winter air on his skin, and then heads to the living room, with his mom by his side

When his mom turns on the light to illuminate the room, Leo’s eyes accustomed to the darkness squeeze themselves shut and take their time to open back up. When they do, he sees his mom in the kitchen taking out a mug from the drawer

“Julio, sit on the couch and wait for me, ok?”

Leo nods and obeys… slumping on the couch, eyes looking at the ground

He feels a knot in his stomach, he asked his mom to come here so that he could tell the whole truth but can he really!? He’s not sure at this point… what if she doesn’t accept him like that girl, or what if she like… kicks him out like that other person!? What if-!?

“Here…” Leo’s mom hands him a mug full of piping hot chocolate, the warmth of the mug instantly heats up Leo’s cold hand, almost prompting him to never drink it and just keep it close to his heart… it could be the last warm gesture he’ll ever get from his mom…

“Take your time honey…” Leo’s mom sits on the couch besides her son

“Thanks mom…”

Leo moves the cup around in a circular motion and watches the hot chocolate spin around with it, then he brings it to his lips but stops himself short.

He can’t drink this now…

He wouldn’t enjoy the hot chocolate like this… the knot in his stomach is killing him!

Setting the cup on the coffee table in front of him Leo turns to his mom

“Mom…?” Leo can already feel his voice starting to tremble

“Yes honey…?”

“You’ll always love me right?!” Leo’s tone becomes more unsteady

“Always.”

“Always always ALWAYS!?!?”

Leo’s mom puts a hand on his shoulder and looks at him in the eyes

“Always, Always, Always, ALWAYS! And forever…”

“M-mom… I’M GAY! Ahg…” as soon as he says it Leo’s eyes are overrun with tears but not even a second later he feels his mom’s arms warping tightly around him and keeping him close in a tender and comforting hug

Like magic, the knot in Leo’s stomach disappears and his hearts becomes light again. The warm embrace of his mom made him feel instantly better, with her by his side he’s sure he can do anything. How could he even think he wouldn’t love him anymore!?

“Wahhaaaaaaahaha mom…” Leo sobs strongly “...I love you!!”

“I love you too Leo…”

“AGaahhahaaaahhhh” in between his tears Leo manages to let out a laugh “You called me Leo!” he points out raising his head

“Yeh maybe” she winks

“Ahaaa, mom…” Leo pulls out from the hug and wipes his eyes “…I’m… sorry… guh…” he admits with a slight startle “…I’m sorry if I made you worry like this for no reason…” he sniffles some more

“No Leo I’m sorry… I’m sorry if I ever did anything that made you think I wouldn’t love you anymore if you liked boys instead of girls…”

“NO NO! You didn’t nothing like that! I just… to be honest… when I first realized it I didn’t fear you not loving me anymore but I just wanted to give myself some more time to be sure… but then I started to watch all these videos about people getting kicked out of their home and stuff after their parents found out they were gay and… I don’t know I guess I just became paranoid and feared it may happen to me too! Even, even IF I REALLY HAD NO REASON TO! But like really it’s my fault for doubting your love! I was really stupid mom!”

“Julio… I’m sorry that you even thought of that in the slightest… is there anything that I could have done differently… so that I could… I could have made things easier for you?”

Leo reflects on it for a moment. When he truly thinks about it maybe had they a chance to talk like this more often he would have felt more comfortable telling her or at least not bottling everything up! But his mom… the bags under her eyes… are already so deep… she can’t waste time on him like that and it would be unfair for the rest of his siblings too if he were to get that special attention…

“No mom, you have no fault in this I swear… it was just me getting paranoid about it…”

“I’m glad… and in all honesty Julio…”

“Yes mom?”

“…I always kinda knew you were, a… bit more special… let’s put it that way… so I already had this suspicion you know?!”

“Wait what!?”

“You know, you’ve always been a bit different compared to your older brothers… I can’t quite put my finger on it, but you just always had something different compared to all the boys of your age…”

“Like?” Leo can’t think of anything that would made him ‘different’ like that, he didn’t exactly like dolls, make up and dresses like other gay men he heard about always have had, and he never had any qualms about playing rough or getting dirty either… so he isn’t really sure about what his mom is referring to

“I told you… I just… I just don’t know really… it’s one of those things moms feel, you know? And you know when you were little I didn’t pay much mind to it, but as you grow older and I saw you not really paying much mind to girls compared to how much your brothers did and I… and I sorta just looked a bit more in to what I was feeling and realized that you might have no interest in girls at all! So just so you know it didn’t come as a total surprise to me!”

“OOHHH MOM!” Leo hugs his mom again as he starts to sob some more “You’ll always be by my side right?!”

“Always… and forever” she reciprocates the hug while gently rubbing her son’s back

“Mama, Porque Ulio esta llorando?”

Leo looks up to see the baby of the family standing on the living room doorway, teddy bear in hand, thumb in her mouth.

“Niña…” Leo’s mom sighs as he looks at her toddler age daughter enquiring on why her big bro was crying “Come here…”

The baby waddles her way to the couch and sits on mom’s lap “Why are you crying Ulio?!”

“Oh don’t worry about me… I’m fine… I was just a little sad that’s all!”

“Why…?”

“It’s… complicat-”

“Niña… look… Leo just had a boo-boo in his heart”

“In his haat?”

“Yes in his heart… do you know where the heart is?”

The baby stretches her little hand out and puts it on Leo’s chest “Boo-boo, Boo-boo GO AWAY!”

“AAAWWWH…” Leo sniffles a bit “…thanks little one!”

“Bewter!?”

“Yes! Thank to you now it’s all better” Leo picks up his little sister and hugs her tightly

Leo’s mom smiles, her heart full of warmth in front of this sight, but she still knows it’s very late for everyone “Ok ok niña but now go back to your bed please, mama is gona come to tuck you in in just a sec”

“KAY!” the toddler girl hopes off Leo’s lap and does as her mama ordered

“As for you little sir, you need to go to bed too! You have school tomorrow”

“Can I skip school tomorrow!? I’m kinda tired…”

“Don’t you have a math test tomorrow?”

“Yeh, but like mom you know I’m good at math I can just do it another day!”

“Yes but what if your friends do something very cool right on that ONE day you decide to skip school!? It would suck, wouldn’t it?”

“Yeh… ok fair… lemme just drink my-!” Leo turns around to pick up his hot chocolate but finds a teddy bear instead of the mug

Leo and his mom share one look and they let out a giggle after they realized the baby had pulled that trick right under their noses

“Guess no hot chocolate for me tonight then…”

“Not so fast, I’ll just make you another mug!”

“Really?”

“Yep! Now let me just make sure your sister doesn’t make a mess and I’ll come with the hot chocolate to tuck you in!”

Leo’s eyes feel watery again, he’s so fortunate to have a mom like her! Maybe she might not always have time for him but she for sure loved him more than anyone else in this world!

“Thanks mom!”

“I Love you my little sunshine!”

“I Love you too!!”

YEARS LATER

“Uhmm… paillettes o leather?!” Leo wonders and yawns before deciding “Whatever! paillettes! Everyone will be already drunk by now nobody will notice the difference” Leo swings his jacket on and picks up his phone where he sees that Ace has sent him a message

Ace

“Leo are you still awake?”

Leo types ‘Yes’ but then changes his mind and types a new message as he rubs his eyes

Leo

“Yes but I’m already in bed”

Ace

“Ah! Ok then I won’t bother you! Tmw pass by my dorm on your way to class, you forgot your socks in the locker room!”

Leo

“K Ace love U”

Ace

“Love U too sleep well”

Leo yawns and rubs his eyes again, the begs under them is pretty visible, as he looks himself in the camera of his phone he understands that he looks pretty shitty all around. His hair is a mess and his outfit not exactly runway worthy. Whatever it’ll do! It’s gona be dark inside the party anyway.

Light on his feet the soccer player gets out of his dorm and heads in to the elevator, he presses the button for the ground floor and can already feel in his bones the night of fun ahead of him!

“BIP BOP”

“LEO!?” the door opens to reveal Ace’s surprised face

“Oh hi…” Leo tries to look away but since he’s in an elevator he literally has his back to the wall

“Wait a second, what are you doing dressed like that!?! Didn’t you text me saying you were going to bed!?”

“Uh I remembered that I need to ask something to the receptionist!”

“In a paillettes jacked!?”

“It’s the first thing I found!”

“And it was easier to put on that a pair of sweet pants?!”

“Ehm…”

“Leo are you going to a party!?”

“I mean I was invited!!!! And it’s the birthday party of a dude in the soccer club, I can’t not go! He’d be disappointed”

“Leo who’s even is the birthday boy!?”

“Uh… Fran… Fran… klin?”

“See you don’t even remember his name!”

“But we talk sometimes…”

“Leo… please stop it already, you can’t go to a party like this! You already played soccer and went to the role-play club today! And don’t’ you have a programming exam in two days!?”

“Yeh… yeh I do… but I can just recover the sleep I won’t get today tomorrow!”

“Leo… I thought we went over this a million times already!”

“Yeh you are right… but can’t you try to not be so oppressing all the time!? You sound like my mom!”

“Well maybe I’m not your mom, but as your boyfriend I care about you just as much!”

“Ok… ok… I get it! See you tomorrow!” Leo presses the button to go back to his floor

“Leo wait-GAHA!” Ace shoves his arm inside the elevator to stop the door from closing

“Ace what the fuck!?” Leo screams out worried as the door open back up reviling the pain on Ace’s face

“Ouch… ouch…” the blue hair boy rubs his arm to try an alleviate the pain

“Ace why did you do that!!?”

“Because I’m coming with you!” Ace sets aside his pain and gently pushes Leo back in the elevator, but his tone ends up sounding pretty harsh

“Crap…” Leo mumbles to himself as Ace presses the button to go back to his boyfriend’s dorm

The elevator ride is spent in silence, with the exception of Ace still rubbing his injured arm

As soon as the door opens however, Leo sees another familiar person heading for his dorm door

“UH!? Mom!?” Leo asks in disbelief

“OH!” Leo’s mom turns around with the beg she is carrying “Hi Honey!” she exclaims happy waking toward the two men

As soon as Ace sees her however, he sides eye Leo with a look of disappointment

“Did you know she was supposed to come now?” he whispers

“Yes…” Leo mumbles “I forgot…”

Ace sighs but without another word the young men walk up to Mrs. Mendez and great her as warmly as they can

“Hey mom…!”

“Hi honey! Come here!” Leo’s mom puts her hands around her son’s face and quickly stamps a kiss on his forehead. Leo would have preferred she hadn’t done, at least not in front of Ace this but it’s too late now. “Did you just come up with the elevator as well hun?” she asks naively

“Yes?”

“Then how could have we not met on the ground floor?!”

“There are a lot of elevators here… we must have not crossed path…” which, now that Leo thinks about it, actually kinda makes the fact that he runed in to Ace of all people sting a lot more

“Hi Mrs. Mendez!” Ace intrudes after having let mom and son have their moment

“Oh! Ace! I’m so happy you are also here! C’mon let’s get inside I brought you something to eat!” Leo’s mom announces as he lifts from the ground the ‘something’ in question: a huge shopping bag barely holding all the food that will probably last Leo at least a month

Even if reluctant Leo guides his mom and boyfriend to his dorm and once inside, he immediately asks “Mom do you want help to unpack all that stuff?”

“Yes I-”

“I’ll do it for you Leo, don’t worry!”

“Aceee!!”

“Leo…” Ace bites his lips “ehm… No butts! You are tired and need to go to sleep as soon as possible! So got the bathroom and get yourself ready for bed!”

“Ihhih…” Leo’s mom lets out a small giggle

“MOM!?”

“Sorry Julio… it’s just that… Ace!”

“Yes!?”

“Do you know how many times I said those exact words to Julio!?”

“No…?”

“Probably more than a million!”

“See Leo! Even your mom says you clearly need sleep!”

“Yeh you really do hon! I’m sorry I came here now, had I known you were this tired I would have waited until tomorrow! But Ace is right c’mon get ready for bed! You look exhausted”

“Fine…” Leo sliders in to the bathroom without another word, now really outmatched, just as his mom and Ace start to unpack the food

“Thank you, Ace…”

“For what Mrs. Mendez?”

“For taking care of my son!”

“Oh… no really… it’s nothing big he’s my boyfriend after all!”

“That’s why I’m grateful! I’m honestly… when Leo went off to collage… I was worried… I was worried because… I think he knows he has a lot of siblings and he always wanted to do a lot of things… but I couldn’t always give him the time he needed, so I was worried, I was worried that now that he’s autonomous he’d just burn himself out… I think he has taken it from me… but I’m glad you are here to keep him in check…”

Ace bits his lips and rubs his hurt arm… “Thanks Mrs Mendez… it’s just that sometimes I feel a bit overwhelming! He’s so full of energy even at his lowest, and I’m always there trying to stifle him!”

“I know it’s hard but that’s exactly why I’m glad you are his boyfriend… because if you are willing to do that for him it means you really love him!”

“Yeh I guess it’s true!” Ace smiles at Mrs Mendez who, after giving a side eye to the bathroom door, whispers a request in Ace’s ear

“Do you mind going to the bathroom after Leo gets out? I need to talk to him in private”

“Sure!” Ace says out loud

“Sure what?” Leo raises and eyebrow as he comes out the bathroom in his pajamas

“I need to use the bathroom! Can I Leo?”

“Yeh… ok” the dorm owner agrees and his guest quickly walks in

“Mo-”

“Honey what’s wrong?” Leo’s mom anticipates him

“Oh, no it’s not like that, you and Ace are right! I’m just tired that’s all…”

“Honey I know something is wrong… usually you are always exited to see me on this day… but today you just seem kinda down…”

“Wait? Is it a special day today?”

“Yes honey it’s your coming out anniversary! Remember? We decided together that this would be a day I came by to visit you here at Olympus!”

“Oh yeh… that’s right… that’s right… I completely forgot to be honest this was the reason you came…”

“It’s ok honey… but now can you tell me what’s really wrong?”

“Do I have to?!”

“Well you don’t haaave to, but I think you remember what’s it like to keep something inside? Do you?”

“Yeh… I do…” Leo sighs and sits on his bed, his mom follows soon after

“it’s just that, right now I think I made Ace mad” he whispers to make sure Ace doesn’t hear from the bathroom

“Really? Why?”

“He caught me trying to go at a party right as I came out of the elevator and you know… long story short I ended up accidently squishing his arm in the elevator doors”

“And did you talk about it?”

“No it literally just happened…”

“Then you know what do to…”

“What?” Leo shakes his head slightly; he really can’t think of anything he should do right now

“Just talk it out, it’s not the first time you have fight about something, or is it?”

“No you are right mom… I’ll talk to him…”

“Good!” Leo’s mom stamps kiss on Leo’s cheek “Sleep tight my little Sunshine!”

“You are already going?!”

“Yes you have a guest over don’t you?” she winks as he heads for the exit

“Thanks mom!” Leo beams back with his usual big smile

“Oh! Are you leaving Mrs. Mendez!?” Ace comes out of the bathroom just as Leo’s mom is about to head out

“Yes I need to run Ace! Have a good night!!”

“Ok! Goodnight…”

The door closes

Silence falls

Leo already hates silence, so he breaks it as directly as he can

“I’M SORRY ACE!”

“Sorry for what?” Ace asks, demanding specifics as he looks at Leo from in front the bathroom door

“I’m sorry… for your arm… does it still hurt?”

“A little… but it’s fine really…”

“Are you mad at me for that!?”

“Ehm… yes I am mad at you Leo but it’s not because of that” Ace steps closer to Leo’s bed

“Wait really!?”

“Yeh, I was still the one who shoved his arm in the closing doors so I can’t really blame you for that…” Ace admits

“Uh… well… then what are you mad about?”

Ace walks up directly to Leo and looks at the sitting boy right in the eyes “You lied to me…”

“Ohw… yeh I did… I-I’m sorry I have no excuse… it’s just these days… you know the crunch with homework and stuff has been pretty terrible… I really wanted to take my mind off of things with all the free time I have but I knew that if I said I wanted to go to that party, you would have stopped me…”

“And…?”

“AndYAWWAAWAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWNNNN” Leo rubs his eyes and clicks his tongue, then he looks back up at Ace “…you have been completely right to do so! Sorry for lying to you…”

Ace’s frown turns in to a smile as he sits down on the bed besides Leo and then tenderly stamps a kiss on his cheek in the same exact place where his mom kissed him earlier, then he looks in Leo’s eyes which makes his boyfriend smile back at him

“You are stopping at that!? Where’s the passion dude!?” Leo squeals

“Argh! Lemme give you all the passion in the world!” Ace pushes down Leo on the bed and fills him up with kisses in every angle of his body

“AhA! Hey not there aaha it tickles!!”

“You asked for passion and this is what I’m giving you!”

“Ok! Ok! But ahahaha stop it! I’m dying!” the smaller boy gently pushes his boyfriend away

“Yeh you are right that’s enough for today… you need to sleep…”

“Wait Ace! You know… usually when we do it right before bed I tend to sleep better you know?!”

“Leo… if you want me to stay for the night you can just say it!” Ace teases his boyfriend

“No, I mean yes! But I also want to… you know… that…”

“I mean… it’s getting kinda late but…” Ace adjusts his pants in the crotch area then he grins…

…and slides down Leo’s shorts 

Chapter Text

“No… no… no… no… no… NO! No…”

Zayne scrolls thorough the all the prerecorded films on the cinema sized TV screen in his room but only boars himself to death

“Have you found something of your taste, young master…?” Zayne’s nanny says as she enters the room carrying a box of full of hairstyling supplies.

“No… it’s always the same old same old movies here! This stuff is for kids and I’m not a kid anymore!”

“But young master you are ten! You are still a kid!” the nanny points out putting the box of hair styling supplies near Zayne’s chair

“I’m almost eleven already, and even if I’m still a kid it doesn’t change the fact these movies are still boring!”

“Well then… why don’t we try and see what’s on air right now!? You know at this time of the evening there are usually some cool movies on the Dicsney channel!”

“Uhm if you say so…” Zayne reluctantly agrees removing long strands of his wet hair from his face

As Zayne zaps through he channels the nanny gets out the hairdryer to dry her little master’s hair, just as she is done however Zayne tunes in to the Dicsney channel to catch the credits of some show he really doesn’t care that much about…

“There is nothing here!”

“Be patient… maybe the show that will come next will be fun!”

“Patient Patient Patient! I don’t like to be pat-”

“Next up High Musical School! On the Dicsnay Channel”

Zayne looks in awe at the actors shown in the preview, right in front of the group of people a guy and a girl stand hugging each other, and they are both so… pretty?! Yes they are both super pretty and Zayne started to feel a strange sensation stir up inside his tummy

“Oh I know this film! I was talking to a friend the other day and he said his daughter really loved this movie!”

“I wana watch it!” Zayne confirms without hesitation

“Good! Then as we wait for it to start let’s also get started with these braids shall we!?”

“Yes yes! I can’t wait I’ve been growing my hair out just for this!”

“I know I know! Now just stand still so I start braiding!”

The nanny’s nimble fingers soon start to skilfully braid the strands of Zayne’s long hair, who on his part was captivated by a TV ad for one of those rare toys he doesn’t already own, once that is over however, only boring old toys are shown on the screen so Zayne turns to his nanny for some entertainment

“Nanny?”

“Yes?”

“Did you ever have… A BOYFRIEND!?”

“Oh well yes of course! I did!”

“Really!?”

“Yep!”

“And what was his name?”

“Well… honestly, I had many boyfriends over the years!”

“Really how many!?”

“Oh maybe… four or five… but none of them were really meant to last in the end…”

“And do you have a boyfriend now!?”

“No… I don’t really…”

“But why!?”

“Well, I’m just too busy these days to have a boyfriend…”

“Why?”

“Well, I’ve been with you from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed ever since you were little! How am I supposed to find time for a boyfriend?”

“Oh… but if you stopped being with me all day would you get a boyfriend?”

“Ehm… I guess so… but I don’t really want to you know…?”

“Why?”

“Well because... I’m perfectly happy to stay by your side…”

“So, am I your boyfriend?!”

“No no… c’mon don’t be silly now Zay- young master…”

“So you don’t love me?”

“No of course I love you, young master, it’s just that… Zayne… there are different kinds of love!”

“Like what?”

“Well… there is romantic love between two people that love each other like a husband and a wife, then there is the familiar love between siblings and then there is the love between friends which is called platonic and…”

Zayne doesn’t understand a single thing about what Nanny is saying “Yes but how do you love me?!”

“It’s-”

“OH OH OH the movie is starting!!!” Zayne interrupts nanny as soon as footage starts rolling as he immediately feels captured by the movie! The two leads leave a lasting impression on him! The girl, Gabree, is so graceful and pretty her voice is like a crystal carrion; while the boy, Tony, is so dashing and handsome his voice is more like an inspiring chant! He’d listen to their singing forever! They are just so nice and seeing them talk to each other like that… it was… strange? He would love to be Gabree and have Tony talk to him like that! But he’d also love to be Tony and have Gabree talk to him like that. Well... but like… that’s kinda strange… not like in weird way… but more like in a different way? Like he felt the same thing when he thought about one or the other protagonist, but it was also kinda different, but at the same time… not?

“OUCH!”

“Oh no sorry Zayne did I hurt you?” the nanny asks full of guilty over her mistake

“Yeh a bit but it’s fine don’t worry…”

“Ok thank goodness…”

“Nah nah na! Naha nnna wo!” Zayne sings along swinging in his chair

“Zayne please stand still a bit I can’t work if you keep on moving!”

“Sorry nanny it’s just that these songs are so fire!”

“Yes but you need to stand still or I’ll never be done here!”

“Ok you are right…”

“It’s just that I don’t know what to do mommy what if something happens while on stage?!” Gabree confesses to her mother

Mommy? Mommy… Zayne never gets to say that word, his mother is always away with his father, who knows what they are doing while they are away, but it must be important since Nanny always needs to stay with him instead…

“Hey Nanny?”

“Yes?”

“What are mother and father doing now?”

“Well… I’m not sure but they are for sure busy!”

“Busy with what?”

“Oh you know stuff for adults, boring stuff…”

“But if it’s so booooooooring why do they do it?”

“Well… adults often need to do boring stuff, just like you need to do the homework your tutor gives you, but even us adults can still make time to have fun!”

“Do mom and dad also make time to have fun?”

“I mean… I guess so…”

“So… am I not funny?” the disappointment in Zayne’s voice is palpable…

“Eh? Why?”

“Well mom a dad never spend time with me… so it must be boring for them to stay with me, right?”

The nanny sighs and her eyes become dull… Zayne, still looking at the TV screen, can’t see her face but can sense the change in her demeanor

“Nanny?”

“No Zayne you are not boring you are the most wonderful kid I ever met in my life, it’s just that your parents can’t always be with you but they do love you I-I’m sure… and I’m also s-sure they’d love to spend more time with you if they could!”

“Really?”

“…”

“Nanny…??”

“Zayne are you happy to stay with me?” she abruptly changes topic

“Of course Nanny! You are the best nanny in the universe!”

“Ok that’s all that matters to me, to know you are happy… and as for your parents… I’ll talk to them and try to get them to come and visit more often…”

“O-ok Nanny…!” Zayne bits his lips he’s not sure what exactly is going on… that’s probably adult stuff… but maybe Nanny is right! As long as he’ll be by his Nanny side everything will go well!”

“Oh shoot I runned out of elastics, Zayne mind holding this braid close for me while I fetch some more…?”

“Yes of course Nanny!”

“Great I’ll be back in a minute”

As Nanny leaves the room Zayne goes back to focus on the movie

“There you go! Now I want to go on that stage ad tell that boy how you feel!!” Gabree’s encourages her daughter as she finishes styling the girl’s hair in to a braid

“Thanks mommy you are the best!”

Zayne suddenly feels the need to reflect on what he’s feeling… to reflect on that mother-daughter moment… but with Nanny re-entering the room and the climax of the movie fast approaching it slips his mind

Zayne looks in awe at what he sees… Gabree and Tony unite their lips at the end of the musical number and he feels strange… hot… light… it’s is so confusing!!

“Well that was a nice film wasn’t it?” the Nanny asks as she puts in place the last of Zayne’s braids

“Nanny… what does love feels like?” Zayne asks getting up from his chair and looking at her in the eyes for the first time in over an hour and a half

“Well… that’s a bit… hard…”

“Hard!?”

“Uh… no! I mean hard to explain… so… let’s get on the bed and I’ll try to explain it to you…”

“Ok…”

Nanny sits on the bed and Zayne climb on to her lap

“What’s exactly that you want to understand about love?”

“Well… when you are in love with a person what do you feel!? Like you feel the way characters feel in the movie?”

“I can’t really give you a definitive answer to that… but you know when I liked a boy I always felt… kinda hot in the sense that I felt my heart swell up but I also felt like it was really light and-”

“Yes I feel like that too, so is that love?!?”

“I mean yes but it’s not really everythi-”

“But like wait nanny! You feel like that for boys right!?”

“Yes…”

“Only for boys!?”

“Yes…?”

“And you know… but like I felt like that for both the girl in that movie and the boy in the movie! Am I not supposed to feel like that only for girls?”

“N-no… you can feel like that for however you like! Nobody can tell you who you should love!”

“Really!? So I can like both girls AND boys?!”

“Yes!” nanny smiles

“But then why don’t you like both!?”

“Well… Zayne people are like… are like food!”

“Food!?”

“Yeh! Some people like only broccoli and some people only like fish! But some people like them both and some people don’t like either of them!”

“Oh… I… I think I understa-YAAAAAAWN”

“Are you tired Zayne?”

“No! No I’m not tired…” he says while rubbing his eyes

“Ok look now it’s already getting late we’ll continue this conversation tomorrow ok?!”

Zayne hesitates for a second, he doesn’t want to go to sleep now but on the other hand he looks in the eyes of his dear Nanny, sweetly asking him to please be a good kid and obey… he can’t disappoint her!

“Ok mommy!” Zayne jumps at his nanny’s neck to wrap his arms around her but leaving her stunned and almost horrified

“Zay-young master you can’t call me like that!” She says gently pushing away from the hug

“WHY NOT!? I never get to say ‘mom’ or ‘mommy’ and besides you are like my mommy anyway!”

“No, no really I’m not supposed to be!!”

“But like you have seen what Gabree’s mom did with her! Like that’s the same things we do!”

“Well yeh… but young masters your parents don’t want that you call me mommy, it’s… it’s a rule you know… it’s a rule they said I need to follow…”

“BUT they are not here, are they!? How can they know how I call you!?!” Nanny hesitates and looks around the room, specifically in the ceiling corners “Please let me call you mommy! I really want to! Everyone in TV and in the books always does it!! But why I can’t!? Why can’t I call someone mommy just because my real mom is somewhere far away!?”

Zayne’s nanny sighs… her heart melting in front of a child’s desperation

“Ok…” she smiles “…you can call me mommy! But it has to be our little secret and you can’t say it in front of anyone else! Especially your parents, they’ll be very mad if they find out!”

“Yey! Mommy I love you!”

“I love you too but now you need to go to sleep, ok?”

“Ok!!” Zayne hops under his silk sheets and his mommy tucks him in, she then turns off the light and gives him a kiss on the forehead

“Night Night Zayne…”

“Night mommy”

“Uhmmm… Good morning, Nanny…” Zayne says as a gentile, but not so gentile, hand wakes him up from his slumber and rubs his eyes “…you know I had a dream about the film we watched last night, basically Gabree-”

Zayne stops in his tracks when he looks up and doesn’t see his nanny, instead a tall and broad-shouldered man in a black suite, white gloves and a rich moustache of hair in his face, is standing on the side of Zayne’s bed

Without a word he pulls out from his pants pocket a letter and hands it to a very confused Zayne.

He picks it up and before even opening it Zayne can read the words

‘Nanny’

YEARS LATER

“Nah scrap it!” Zayne gets rid of another draft; nothing comes out convincing enough! He has been trying to make a ‘I have come out to my parents post’ ever since Pride Month started! He already skipped out on it last year he can’t do it again this year! Those kind of post gets crazy engagement and likes these days, he already has the photo ready, but he can’t write a half convincing account of his coming out to his parents! He’s sure that if he were to use one of the ones he already wrote people would feel they are completely made up… maybe he should just actually come out to his parents… so he’ll have something to work of at least… but it’s not like he’s gona see is parents anytime soon anyway… so-

“THURUMP”

Zayne gets startled by the lighting outside, the incessant rain coming down as if his summer mansion was in the middle of a hurricane doesn’t help his mood…

“Master…” Zayne’s butler enters the room

“Ugh… WHAT NOW, MOUSTACHE MAN?!” Zayne asks annoyed as he gets up from his desk

“I have news for you…” he states in his usual monotone voice

“No way… I would have never guessed it!” Zayne sarcastically spats back walking closer to his butler

“Your-” the butler interrupts himself when Zayne starts to wave his hand in front of the older man’s eyes, but the butler doesn’t stray from his resting bitch face

Then Zayne starts to pull on his bushy moustache but once again no reaction

“How do you keep your moustache so perfectly trimmed!? I don’t think I ever seen it in any other shape in the six-ish years I’ve known you…”

“Master… you are almost seventeen years-old, may you please stop engaging with such immature behaviour?” Zayne rolls his eyes and stops but only so he won’t have to hear that stupid monotonal voice more than he needs to

“WHATEVER! What you want to tell me?”

“Your parents are here”

“My COUGH COGUH-!?” Zayne chokes on his own saliva “-PARENTS?!”

“Yes, your parents…” the butler assumes a, ever so slightly, less funeral-like tone “…the storm caught them by surprise and this is the nearest residence they could go to. So, I’ve informed them about your repeated and consistent requests to see them and they agreed they can receive you for five minutes when they enter the house.”

“REALLY WHEN ARE THEY COMING!?”

The butler looks at his watch “In about two minutes.”

Before he knows it, Zayne has fling himself out of his room in to the nearby elevator, trying to adjust his man bun to look as neat as possible

After having runed past several servants he arrives to the front door and from there he patiently waits… and waits… and waits… for what feels like forever

Then two servants open the door and Zayne’s mother and father enter escorted by bodyguards who hold their umbrellas for them

They look… different… his father seems to have grown a few more grey hairs and Zayne could swear his mom didn’t have as many wrinkles last time he saw her…

“Mother… father…”

“Be quick son we don’t have much time!” his father starts

“I hope this is important!” his mother demands

“Oh… eh… yeh… I just wanted to… to… sorry if this is sudden… but like I just wanted to inform you that I’m bisexual that’s… that’s it really!” Zayne pushes himself to give his parents a, somewhat, genuine smile despite the rashness of the confession

Yet, silence falls as Zayne’s parents look at him with disconcerted eyes and the smile wipes off his face. For a moment Zayne’s feels his stomach drop, come to think of it he kinda just assumed his parents would be ok with it, but like… maybe not… maybe they do take issue with it… or do they not!? Zayne feels awfully ignorant right now! How could he know so little about his parents!? But on the other hand, how could he have known more when it’s probably easier for him to talk to the Queen of Kinkland than have an appointment with them!!?!?

“That’s all?” his mother asks…

“Uhm… well… I guess so… I could say more but like I know you are busy right now and-”

“ZAMIUS!” his father roars, making Zayne squint his eyes and flitch backwards

“It’s Zayne…” their personal assistant whispers in Mr. Alexader’s ear

“Whatever his name is!” he scolds his employee before turning back to his son “You think it’s funny to make us waste time like this!?”

“N-no…”

“If you really NEED to bother us at least bother us for something important! Not for such UTTER frivolity!!”

“Yes, you are right!” Zayne’s mom agrees “Zamius, why did you waste our time on something like this?! We don’t give a shit about whose pants you like to get in to! Don’t you have anything better to do!? Like play baseball or something!?”

“It’s basketball…” Zayne whispers at himself in defiance

“WHAT!?!!!!!!!” his parents demand to know what that mumble was

“I-I’m sorry! Sorry that I wasted your time…” Zayne depressingly relents keeping his head down

“At least you recognize it…” His mother shows her disappointment once more as her husband and her pass by their son followed by their entourage. Many among them share pitiful looks as the see Zayne stand still and alone in the center of the room, but none in Mr and Mrs Alexander’s entourage dare to voice a thought about it…

Soon enough the sounds of steps get further and further away and the entry hall grows quiet but Zayne doesn’t move a muscle, many servants pass by and none fail to notice their young master looking at the ground. Soon, some stop to keep on looking at the scene and many start to murmur among each other but Zayne doesn’t take notice… he doesn’t see the thunder striking outside the windows and he doesn’t hear the heavy rainfall hammering against the glass, until…

“Ehy… are you ok lad?” an old lady asks the young man

Zayne perks his head up immediately to see the sweet eyes of a grandma holding a duster staring back at him. Her eyes even if surrounded by wrinkles they are so sweet and warm… they feel almost familiar…

“Uh… why do you…why you? Ugh…” Zayne stumbles in his words but manages to get his point across

“Young Master… I have four kids and ten grandchildren I know an upset child when I see one…” she states in a comforting and warm tone which makes Zayne smile “Do you need to get something off your chest?” she adds

“I-”

“Madam, you are not allowed to talk to the young master” Zayne’s butler’s monotone voice speaks out, making the old lady side eye him in annoyance but Zayne has had enough at this point!

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!!!?” Zayne snaps at his butler to the gasps of everyone watching

“Master I’m just remaining this employee to not overstep the boundaries!” the butler takes on his slightly more funeral-like tone

“LIKE WHAT THE FUCK WOULD YOU LEAVE ME ALONE ALREADY!? YOU ARE ALWAYS STARING AT ME LIKE A CREEP!! I BET YOU JUST STOOD THERE AND STARED AT ME EVEN NOW AS ALL THAT SHIT WENT DOWN!!!”

“Of course I did sir. I’m your personal butler, it’s my job to be at your side at all times”

“STOP FUCKING LYING!!! YOU DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT ME! YOU ARE JUST HERE FOR THE FUCKING CASH ARE YOU!?!”

“Sir I fear you are being very immature right-”

“BUMP!!!!!”

Zayne charges at the butler and pushes him to the ground “FUCK OFF ALREADY!!!” and from there Zayne stops back in to his quarters, breaking every single ornament in his way

Once back in his room he throws around a few more things and then sits down in his chair and starts writing, deciding to keep it short and simple!

Today I came out to my parents as bisexual and they literally said they don’t give a shit about who I date #LGBTQ+ #PrideMonth #ComingOut #Family #OutAndProud #Acceptance #Bi #Bisexual #LoveIsLove #Queer

Zayne opens all of his social media accounts copy pastes what it wrote on all of them and then uploads it alongside the ‘Bi-Pride’ selfie he took months ago at this point. Once he’s done he violently closes his laptop and heads in to his private bathroom.

He’s quick to strip and he starts to fill up his hot tub in which he jumps in with a big splash as soon as it’s full. At this point he tries to relax a bit, and thankfully the warm water and the massage of the bubbles soon alleviate his nerves, his anger withers away leaving a feeling that it’s, somehow, even worst…

Annoyed but calmed down, Zayne gets out of the hot tub, not even bothering to drain it, and dries himself off before putting on his golden night gown and slumping in to his king-sized bed. With nothing else to do, and in the hope of getting rid of that stifling sensation he’s feeling in his stomach, he starts to scroll through his Istaglam comments on his coming out post

Wow so inspiring!

I wish I was you man!

Love is love nobody should be able to say otherwise!!

That’s the same thing my parents said when I came out to them!

I’ve decided I’ll come out to my parents tomorrow! Thanks for inspiring me!

#Bipride

I wish I could date you! You are so hot!

If I ever told my parents they’d disown me! I’d so love to be you

Wow this selfie is so beautiful!

Date meeeee date meee please!!!!!!

Can you tell me what’s the difference between being with a boy and being with a girl!?

You get both pussy and dicks what else could you ask from life XD!?

UQEFDPBANX Didn’t know you were bi!!!!!!! I need to write a fan fiction about you like now I have so many OCs I can ship you with

The more Zayne reads however the more… he keeps on feeling worst and worst… soon a sob comes out of his mouth… but he refuses to believe he’s really that upset about what happened like that lady said… she doesn’t know him at ALL! He’s is not upset about what happened, that has always been part of the course with his parents!

Zayne sobs again.

He’s should really be used to it by now… there is no reason really to, Zayne wipes is his eyes, to… to cry…

But despite this Zayne soon finds himself in a river of tears that seem to match the stormy weather outside… he falls back among his silk pillows and continues to pathetically sob like a child. How could still be at this stage!?! He knows his parents are like that but why is he still upset about it!? He feels so alone but he should be used to it by now… but… HE’S NOT and that’s so fucking horrible!!!

Zayne can’t stand this anymore so reaches out in his drawer besides his bed and pulls out a yellowed-out letter and, shakingly holding his phone, he struggles to dial the number written in the corner of the paper but once the call finally goes through…

“Zayne!?”

“M—mommyyyhhh!”

YEARS LATER

Zayne stirs in his bed as he hears Ace whisper besides him… as the basketball player comes out from the dream world what Ace is saying becomes more and more clear and Zayne start to quietly, but evidently, listen

“Yes I’m good thanks”

“…” Ace silently sits on the bed as he listens to who’s at the other side of the phone

“Yes, yes the exams are going well! I really like this film major!”

“…”

“Yes things are going well at the club too! At both clubs actually! The guys at the film club say that I’m an inestimable director for them and at the basket ball club coach says I’m getting better at it, he thinks that by the end of the year he may let me play in a game!!”

“…”

“Really!? No way what did he do?!”

“…”

“No way our neighbour is really doing that!? That old man is crazy I tell you!!”

“…”

“Oh yeh how is he doing…?”

“…”

“Nah! No way he’s dating HER of all people!!”

“…”

“M-me!? Well… to be honest mom…” Ace looks at Zayne lovingly staring at him with his face still on the pillow… “…I’m with a boy right now”

“OH MY GOODNESS ACE WHY DID YOU TELL ME RIGHT AWAY!!!? I WOUDLNT’T HAVE BOTHER YOU!!!” Ace’s mom screams from the other side of the phone

“No mom it’s fine really!!”

“Don’t worry I’ll leave you two alone!!! But once you come back home you need to tell me EVERYTHING!!!”

“A-alright mom love you…”

“Love you too!”

“Was that your mom?” Zayne doesn’t waste a second in asking

“Uhm… yes…”

“She seems nice!”

“Nice!? She isn’t just nice she is the best!!”

“Really!?” Zayne sits up

“Yep! I mean… I guess we fight sometimes but still I know just how much she loves me!!”

“That must be… nice…”

“Uh… yes, it is…”

“You know… I wish I could hear from my mommy more often too! But she went to work overseas when I was eleven and she is always busy all day with the children she takes care of… so at some point… I guess trying to ring her just slips my mind…”

“Oh… eh… I’m sorry…” says Ace a little confused. Weren’t Zayne’s parents quadrillioners or something!? Why would his mom be working oversee with children!? “Not to pry… Zayne but what’s your mom’s job…?”

“It’s…it’s… ugh…” Ace can feel the hesitation in Zayne’s voice

“Ehy Zayne it’s ok if you don’t wana talk about it right now, you don’t have to…”

“Uhm eh… no it’s fine is just that it brings back lots of memories that are both good and bad at the same time…” Zayne wipes his eyes trying to control his emotions

“So bittersweet?”

“Yeh… in hindsight yes…”

“Ok then, you don’t have to tell me right now I don’t want you to start the morning off on a bad foot, whenever you’ll feel ready I’ll be there to listen!”

“Thank you, Ace!” Zayne’s gratitude is pretty palpable

“No problem… so… what do you wana do now? Since it’s Saturday and we have aaaaaaall the time in the world for our-self!” Ace winks to close off the sentence

“Why don’t you tell me what your mom is like!!!?? Uh!? I want to know everything!!”

“Well… uh…” Ace pauses “…I got nothing…”

“Whacha’mean you got nothing!? Haven’t you lived with your mom for eighteen years!?

“Yeh but like, she is a pretty normal mom I don’t really know what I can say about her!!”

“Look I’m asking BECAUSE I want to know what a normal mom is like!!”

“Oh… so… in that case… uh… I’M SORRY ZAYNE my mind just went black!” Ace cries out ashamed before letting out a nervous giggle

“Just one thing then! ANY fact about your mom!”

“Uh… I mean… right now she has become the first person in my family that knows about me having something with a guy?!” Ace tries

“Really!?!”

“Yeh! I didn’t have much of a chance to talk to my other relatives since we became a thing…”

“Oh and by chance is she also the first person you ever came out to!?”

“Well… I never exactly came out to her but that’s a whole other story for another time!”

“Ah I see, sorry I just asked because my mommy is the first person I came out to as bi so I thought it’d be the same for you too…”

“I mean it is pretty common for people to come out to their mom first, especially since…”

“Yeh yeh I get it! I have been bi for longer than you have been gay sweety!” Zayne jokingly states

“Dude, like, there are only three years between us! You know?!”

“Yes yes, but now tell me more about your mom come on! I’m curious!!”

“I mean why so eager Zayne!?” Ace laughs “She is just my mom, she doesn’t hold any government secrets or whatnot and you’ll get to know her eventually”

“Well…” Zayne grins “If she’s gona become my mom too I need to make a good first impression!” the older man winks making Ace’s face turn red

“ZAAAAYNE!!” Ace cries out “Don’t you think it’s a bit early for THAT!?”

“What? It’s true, isn’t it!?” Zayne smirks “I already got the ring picked out!”

“FOR REAL!!?!?!?!?”

“Yes I just need…” Zayne puts himself on top of Ace and looks at his boyfriend dead in the eyes “…~to take it out from where I left it last night~…” he mumbles in Ace’s ear as he opens his romper to show Ace the tree hiding underneath

Ace’s hand fly to his face “Zayne YOU!!! Huuhhhh…”

“What? You don’t want to~…?”

“Aahaaaha…” Ace gently moves his hand in between Zayne’s hair before begging “…bust me Zaddy!!!!!!”

Chapter Text

“Ok kinds come here!!” Ms.Nicely announces and the children quickly gather around her, leaving their toddler size furniture to sit on the floor in semicircle “Ok children do you know what day is tomorrow!?”

“No?!” Matt is the first child to respond

“Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day!!!”

“Valentine’s day!!??” all the children ask in unison

“Yes! Valentine’s day is a special day! Where we show everyone we love just how much they mean for us! Now children can you tell me, one at the time by raising your hand, someone you love?”

Many are eager to replay so the teacher picks a child at random to start

“I love my mommy because she always give me kisses!”

“I love my daddy because he brings me to school every day and he’s super-fast when he drives!”

“I love… I love… my dog and my parrot and my bunnies and all the animals in the world because I love animals”

“I love YOU Ms.Nicely because you are cute…”

“Owww thanks Jonny…” the teacher thanks the child before another girl, on the older side budges in!

“I LOOOVE my husband!” Francis admits while pulling the child besides her closer “And we are gona get a house and have ten kinds! We already have one!” she confesses showing off the doll she has in her lap

“Well well kids these were all good answers, and I’m happy to see that you all seem to love a lot of people in your lives! So, since Valentine’s Day is all about showing the people around how much we love them today we’ll make a special card you can give to however you like tomorrow!”

“YEEEEEHEHEHEHEHEE!!!” all the children yell out and scramble back to the tables except one

Ace keeps still on the floor, looking around at the children but mostly being transfixed by the girl with the doll cuddling up with her, seemingly not so willing, husband Cody…

“Ace… Ace… Ace?!”

“Yes!?” Ace finally responds to the teacher calling his name

“Why are you not sitting with the others?”

“Ehm… Ms.Nicely can I ask you a question?”

“Yes of course Ace! What is it!?”

“What if we want to give my card to more than one person!?”

“Well… you can’t really give one card to more than one person because it needs to be something special for each one! But once you get home you can make as many as you want for all the people you love!”

“Really!?”

“Yes!”

“Yeh!”

“Now go sit with the others! C’mon!”

“Ace come here!! I kept a sit here for you!” Matt shouts and Ace quickly sprints to sit down next to him, comfortably popping on the chair to Matt’s right

Once he sits down however much to his distain he realizes that on his left there is Sabrina… a girl… so Ace moves his chair towards the right edge of the table to be closer to Matt and as far as possible from Sabrina.

Soon after the teacher starts to hand out pieces of printer paper and once she is done she starts to teach the children how to fold the paper to make a card. After all the papers were folded Ms.Nicely started to hand out art supplies for the kids to go wild with… but… Ace wasn’t quite as enthusiastic as the others… he seems more focused on looking at all the other kids in class

“N-nine… ten… ten… mh…”

“Ace something wrong?” Matt asks

“Matt what comes after ten!?”

“Uhm… I think it’s…”

“Eleven” Sabrina intrudes “My big bro told me!”

“Nobody ask you!” Ace rebuttals

“AH! You meanie!” Sabrina pouts “I wanted to give my card to you but I don’t give cards to meanies like you!”

“And I don’t want a card from a ugly girl!”

“AHHA! Ms.Nicely!!!” Sabria squeals

“Yes Sabrina!?” the teachers asks raising her head from another table

“Ace is mean to meehehe!!! He says I’m ugly!!”

“Ace! Is it true that you called Sabrina ugly!?” the teacher asks walking closer to the offending child

“Yes!”

“But why did you do that!”

“Because she is!!!!” Ace affirms slamming his three-year-old’s hand on the table!

“Ace! Don’t act like this otherwise you are gona end up on the naughty bench for ten minutes. Do you want to end up on the naughty bench?”

“Uhmm…” Ace hesitates… “Nouu…”

“Then you need to say sorry to Sabrina because you should never call anyone ugly” the teacher affirms in a steady tone

“Why…?” Ace asks putting one of his finger in his mouth

“Because nobody is ugly! Everyone is beautiful in their own way”

“Uh…” Ace lets out as a small sign of disagreement, girls are certainly not beautiful, they are not even cute! They are just gross! Or at least not nearly as pretty as the boys!!

“Ace I’m gona count to three and if you’ll not say sorry by then I’ll put you on the naughty bench…”

“Fiwne… sorry… Sabrina…” Ace relents making Sabrina smirk in satisfaction

“Good Ace! Now just don’t say that again ok?”

“Ok…”

“Teacher!” another kid calls

“Coming!”

“Mrs.Nicely wait!” Ace blocks her

“What is it Ace!?”

“How many boys are in our class?!”

“Well, there are four-teen! So one…” she signs one on her fingers “…and four…”

“Ok! Thank!” Ace admits satisfied as the teacher walks to the next child

Just as she does so Ace picks up the nearest pens and draws a ‘1’ next to a ‘4’ on the palm of his left hand, before going back to his card

“There you go” Ace’s dad says after feeding his child the last spoonful of his lunch, relived that this time the meal didn’t end up mostly on the floor

“Out! Out!” Ace immediately asks slamming his hands on the highchair

“Ok Ok Ok I’ll let you out!” his father obeys his child whims

Once Ace is back on the floor, he reaches his hand upwards towards the Sippy Cup up on the table making his dad give it to him without any more words needed

“So Ace what you wana do as we wait for mom to come home?!”

“Draw!”

“Ok I’ll get the supplies out!” Ace’s dad quickly fulfills his child request by setting up the toddler sized table in Ace’s room with all the art supplies at their disposal

“OK so what do you wana draw!?”

Ace looks at his hand “One four”

“Uh?”

“Dad give me one four papers”

“Oh so you want fourteen papers right!?”

“Yeh four…fourten!”

“No Ace it’s four-teen” his dad sweetly corrects his child

“Fourten!”

“Ok… gota teach you to count past ten one of these days…” Ace’s dad mumbles to himself as he starts to count the papers “There you go! Four-teen papers for you!!”

“Away!”

“What?”

“Away go away!” Ace orders his dad as he picks up a crayon

“So you wana draw alone?”

Ace nods

“Ok then I’ll be in the living room watching TV call me if you need anything…”

“Yeh…” Ace responds out of reflex but he’s now more focused on the paper in front of him

Once his dad is out of the room, Ace remembers he needs to fold the papers like Ms.Nicely toughed them that morning, and then he starts to draw…

“Ace I’m hoooome…” Ace’s mom enters her son’s room

“Away! Away!!” Ace shoos his mom away

“Oh ok have fun with your drawings! But remember it’s gona be bed time soon and tomorrow you have school!”

“Yeh yeh mommy…”

“NO SABRINA GET BACK HERE!!” Mrs.Nicely runs out of the of the classroom to chase after the escaping child, giving Ace a perfect opening, he doesn’t want grownups to mind in his business

He opens his backpacks and pulls out the stack of cards he made yesterday

“Here Matt for you!”

“What’s this Ace?”

“It’s a valentine card! For you!”

“Me?”

“Yeh you! Because I want you to be my husband!!”

“Uh eh ok…?!” Matt says confused as he looks at the scribbles Ace made on the card

“AH! Philippe! Here’s a card for you too! So you can be my husband too” Ace spats out without skipping a breath

“Oh… but I don’t want to be your husband!”

“Yes! You have to!” Ace imposes himself as he turns around towards the next closest boy who just so happens to be Cody with Francis snuggles up to him as usual

“Cody! Here be my husband too!!” Ace hands the other boy a card with a heart on it, making Cody’s face turn red in surprise but making Francis’ turn red out of anger

“NO YOU CAN’T” Francis picks up the card and throws it on the floor “Ace you can’t have Cody as your husband because he’s MY husband already!”

“NO SHUT UP YOU UGLY!! GIRLS SHOULD NOT HAVE HUSBANDS!!”

“UGH SHUT UP YOU STOOPID HEAD!! CODY IS MINE AND NOT YOURS!!!”

“MMMHEHEHE” Ace sticks his tongue out “I DON’T CARE YOU ARE A GIRL SO YOU ARE GROSS AND UGLY AND NOBDOY WANTS YOU!!! SO GO AWAY BECAUSE CODY WANTS ME AS HIS HUSBAND!!”

“AHAHAHAHA!” now livid Francis claws at Ace’s clothes which prompts Ace to grab one of her curly pig tails and pull on it as hard as he physically can, making her cry out in pain “GAHAHAGAGAHHAHAHAH”

“UGLY UGLY UGLY!” Ace repeats like a parrot

“WHAT IS GOING ONE HERE??! OH FUCK!!” the teacher screams out once she walks back in to the classroom and she immediately jumps in to separate the two kids!!”

“WEEEHEHEHEHEEE!!” Francis cries as she puts her head on Ms.Nicely’s leg

“ACE WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?” asks the teacher sincerely angry

“BECAUSE SHE IS GROSS!!!” Ace screams out with strands of Francis’ hair tangled within his fingers

“WHY!?!” the teacher asks again confused

“SHE IS A GIRL!! GIRLS ARE GROSS AND SHE WAS NEXT TO MY HUSBAND!”

“H-HUSBAND!?”

“YEH CODY IS MY HUSBAND!!”

“But I thought I was your husband ACE!!!” Matt intervenes

“YOU TOO!!! AND PHILP TO AND ZACH TOO AND MICHEL TOO!!!! AND EVERY-BOY TOOOOOO!!!!”

“Ehm… oh… ok… ACE YOU ARE GOING ON THE NAUGHTY BENCH!! AND I’LL TALK TO YOUR PARENTS ABOUT THIS!!!” Ms.Nicely quickly picks up Ace and lifts him in the air

YEARS LATER

“Ahaha… ahaaa… And then you… you ahaha!” Matt struggles to speak “You were all like ‘NANANANAHAHAHA NOT THE NAUGHTY BENCH!!!’ AHHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA”

Ace is really regretting his life choices right now… like a LOT! Why in the world did he thought it was a good idea to bring back up that time Matt peed his pants in 1^st grade that one time he invited him to a Jock Studio movie night?! Of course, Matt would get back at him somehow, and now the rest of his friends are all dying of laughter

Yuuto is on the ground kicking his feet in the air

While Leo and Bryce are bent over backwards and holding their stomachs

And even the normally composed Avan, Zayne and Derek are struggling to hold back their hilarity to the point that tear come to their eyes

“And THEN AND THEN! What happened!?!?!” Zayne asks eager to know more!

“Well… I… I don’t remember to be honest…” Matt admits “Ace!?”

“Ehhhe…!?”

“C’mon Ace tell us!!” Leo prompts him

“Sigh… fine… after this one I don’t think I have any dignity left…”

“I don’t think you had any to begin with dude!” Bryce points out

“Ehhh…. well… my parents were called and that girls’ parents were called… and I had to apologize to the girl and then my parents scolded me and grounded me because I clearly needed to learn how to respect boundaries and how to not be an asshole to girls just because I think they are gross…”

“You don’t know what you are missing out on!” Zayne jokingly says out loud, getting a raise out of Bryce and Yuuto

“ZAYNE!” Derek immediately scolds him

“Sorry sorry Ace…. I had too…”

“Nah don’t worry… it’s fine…” the gay man in question shrugs it off

“And then?!” Leo starts “And then!? What was your parents reaction’s when they discovered you wanted to make all the boys in your class your husbands!?!”

“Nothing…”

“NOTHING!?” Avan questions Ace “Were they not surprised their child was gay!?! And that he knew at what basically is world record age!?”

“Not even one bit…”

“Really!?” Yuuto asks from the ground

“Yep it kinda runs in the family…”

“What do you mean?” Derek raised an eyebrow

“For starters:

• My maternal grandfather married my grandmother on a whim but after the third child he changed his mind got with a man and he was never seen again
• Then out of my two maternal uncles one spends more time inside gay bars than he does at home
• And my other maternal uncle married the eldest among my three paternal uncles”

“WAIT REALLY!?” Avan asks incredulous

“Yep I can confirm that!” Matt backs Ace

“Yes, in fact when my father, who’s the youngest of four, told my grandparents he had a girlfriend they were shocked since after my dad came out as bisexual and dated only men for most of his teenage years, his parents thought they’d never get a daughter in law!”

“NO WAY! THAT’S A LOT OF GAYBIES!” Yuuto points out

“I mean… kinda…. because my second oldest paternal uncle is at his third husband at this point… but my last uncle…”

“WAIT LET ME GUESS!” screams Leo “GAY PORN STAR!?”

“No… he’s actually straight he just has a weird obsession with watching gay porn which lead him to believe for years that he was gay until he fell in love with my current aunt and realized that he just likes to look at gay sex not actually doing it…”

“Man… that’s fucking mental!” Bryce admits “No wonder you turned out like this!!!”

“Yeh… I guess… too bad nobody in my fucking family has passed me any genes that help with dating! Instead, the closest I’ve ever gotten to sex in nineteen years is just sitting down and watching you guys have blast on the studio couch!”

“Oh Ace don’t say that… I’m sure the right guy-”

“Save it Derek! I don’t really wana hear that after I spent the last few months playing Cupid between the six of you!!” Ace affirms playing up his saltiness as the other Jocks share a ‘He’s right…’ look with their respective boyfriend

“You know what Ace!?” Matt gets Ace’s attention “Maybe you should hold true to that card you made me and consider me as a suitable boyfriend!”

“Arey you for real Matt!? You don’t even like guys!!”                                                   

“Well… I mean… as you know since you told me about this club I’ve been buying all of the videos you put out to support you guys and well… gay sex is not as gross as I thought I’d be… I’d be willing to give it a shot one of these days…”

“Too bad for you!” Ace grins jokingly “I may be desperate but I do have standards you buffoon! I wouldn’t date a guy who embarrasses me in front of my friends!”

“Uff… so bossy, but you stated it…” Matt rolls his eyes “Maybe I’ll just date Mr. Cucci over there!”

“What?” Jacques asks pulling away from his PC on the other side of the room,

“Ah, ah, ah, very funny…” Ace comments “…but you know our rules to be really even we need to be twice even, so I WILL get my counter revenge on you one of these days! I swear it on my gay honor!”

“OH Nooooo I’m SOOOO scared!!” Matt sarcastically jokes back “I’m fine if you wana do the ‘really even only when twice even’ thing we had as a kids but I doubt you’ll manage to embarrass me like that again!”

Just at that moment however

“BZZZZZ BZZZZZ BZBZBZZ” Matt’s phone starts ringing on the nearby coffee table but once Ace recognizes the name on it, he knows his time has come!

With one swift motion Ace snatches the phone and runs on to the nearby bathroom

“ACE!!!” Matt gives chase, but Ace had too much of a head start and he manages to close the bathroom door behind him

Before he has even a chance to open the call however, Ace can already feel Matt pushing on the door to open it, so he pushes back to try and keep it close for as long as possible as he answers the call with the loud speaker on so everyone can hear

“Hello?”

“Hello! Are you the girl Matt is seeing these days!?”

“Uhm… yes…? Who are you?!”

“I’m Ace! Matt’s best friend! And I’m here to tell you about that time Matt pissed his pan-AAHAGA”

“Give me that!” The bathroom door swings open and Matt snatches back his phone from Ace “Sorry sorry! My friend likes to pull these kinds of pranks!” Matt tries to defuse the situation pretty ashamed

“BUT IT’S TRUE YOU PEED YOUR-!!!”

“AAgaahaa Ace!!!” Matt’s blushing reaches level of redness so far unknown to men-kind

“Ahahaha! You two seem like great friends!!” the girl on the other side of the phone admits “I wish I could have a friend to joke around like that!”

“Oh really!?”

“Yep and about what thing your friend was telling me about-”

“One second. ACE GET OUT OF HERE!!” Matt pushes Ace out of the bathroom and slams the door close to get some privacy

Once he’s back in to the lobby he looks at the rest of his friends standing nearby “Did you guys hear everything!?”

“Yep pretty much Avan confirms!”

“SO SO SO! HOW DID IT END!? WHAT DID THIS CHICK SAID?! Does she like dudes that pee their pants!?”

“Yuuto!” Bryce stops him “That’s gross! I don’t want to know!”

“But we do!” intervenes Zayne

“Ok ok… like guys…” Ace pauses for a second “… I think that’ enough for now, no need to pour salts on the wounds”

“Owwwie…” Yuuto admits disappointed as Matts comes out of the bathroom

“So what did she say to you dude?!” Leo asks ignoring what Ace just said 

“Well I explained that it happened a long time ago and she said that it’s a funny story now and not to worry about it…”

“And?” Bryce prompts him

Matt, clearly ashamed, takes a big breath before explaining “Well… she said that… if I was ok with it, on our next date… she’d… she’d… be more than willing to do a… ‘reenactment’…”

“Ehwwww gross!” Bryce spats out immediately

“Yeh I agree…”

“Me three…” Derek and Leo chime in                               

“Nahhh that’s hot!” Zayne disagrees

“Mega HOT! RIGHT AVAN!?” Yuuto asks but Avan’s red face and visible bulge spoke for him

“S-s-s-o?! Do you have a serious thing now?!” Ace, seemingly also the edge of a mental breakdown, asks Matt

“Well… she seemed very interested to have something more serious with me, since well… that and she also likes the fact that I have a friend the likes of yours, Ace. She said that I seem to know what good company is and that I clearly know how to take a joke, so in her eyes I must also be someone worth committing to…”

“Uhhhhh…” Ace falls to his knees and lays flat on the ground “I give up then… maybe this is just my destiny being the one that eternally makes people fuck while I stay a virgin forever…”

“I mean… Jacques is still single dude!” Bryce points out, only to turn around and see him smooch a stack of cash… “Uh…”

“Thanks Bryce but I’ll pass on the hemorrhoids for now” Ace says while getting up from the floor “But maybe maybe… you know the dating game Camp Buddy? Maybe I should just find a way to teleport myself in to the game so maybe I’ll finally have a shot-”

“NO THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!!” Avan nervously interrupts Ace  

“YEH WHY WOULD YOU EVEN THINK THAT!? THAT’S TOTALLY ABSURD!!!” Yuuto chimes in

“O…kay…?” Ace admits as he gets back up, weirded out but his friends’ nervous smiles in front of such a clear joke

“You know maybe at this point we should just collect the money to buy you a sex doll as a birthday gift” Leo suggests yelling a bit so Jacques can hear him too

“Yeh let’ do it!!!”

“Fuck yes”

“Yeh… I think it’d be good for Ace…”                                                                                                

“I can put 50% if you want!”                         

“Why not?”

“It’s doable”

“I suppose I can contribute a little…”                        

“Awwww… thanks guys I appreciate it!”

“Don’t mention it Ace!” Zayne insists “Our director deserves the best! And if you guys allow me I’d like to be the one collecting the money and choosing the sex doll! I think I know someone that can give us a great deal!”

“I think it’s fine for everyone! Right?” Derek surveys receiving only nods of approval

“Ok ok that’s all nice and good but do I need to remind you fuckers that this was supposed to be a MOVIE night!?”

“Bryce!” Leo quips “If you want to watch Brick Back Mountain that badly you just needed to tell us!”

“YES I DO! And that’s why I did!”

“Ok then let’s get going then shall we?!” Derek states prompting everyone to go back to the couches but as they sit down Ace notices Matt whispering something in Zayne’s ear which makes the basketball player laugh

“What are you two orchestrating?” The director enquirers

“Nothing nothing!” Zayne waves him off “Matt was just asking me for suggestions on water sports…”

“Yeh right totally! I need to impress that girl you know!?”

“Right… I’ll keep an eye on you both tho… just to be safe!”

A FEW WEEKS LATER

“AH! AH! AH!!! VERY FUNNY MATT!!” Ace sarcastically says while smashing closed the sex doll's box to not look at the lady tits that stared back at him. As he walks over to his desk to rip out the month of March from the desktop calendar he can only hope that June, his birthday month, will come as soon as possible, along with his real sex doll, because this month certainly didn’t start off with the right boobs

Chapter Text

“Father, mother, good morning.”

“Good morning son.” Avan’s dad welcomes him in the dining room

“You may take a seat.” Avan’s mom lets him take a seat

“I’m most grateful for your greetings.” Avan sits down as the butler brings to him his usual breakfast in the form of a Viennese cream croissant served on a squared plate

“Thank you for the meal.” Avan digs in to the pastry with knife and fork and after he takes the first bite he looks at the TV in the dinning room that shows the stock market updated in real time

“So I was thinking…” Avan’s dad invokes the attention of the rest of his family “June is not that far off and what is the biggest commercial event of the month?” Avan parents look at their son

“The whole month it’s pride month! Dedicated to celebrating the pride of the people who identify as members of the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community. Standing for:

• Lesbian
• Gay
• Bisexual
• Transgender
• Queer or alternatively Questioning
• Intersex
• Asexual
• + which includes all the identities not listed in the first 7 letters

“Excellent Avan…” the father picks up the pen he always keeps in his pocket and signs something on the small notebook he always keeps at hand “…now on that note I think it would be best if preventively start to invest in this market, it seems quite lucrative all things considered but we need to gather more experience on how to best navigate it”

Avan suddenly feels an itch his throat as he presses his finger on the fork

“Indeed, I agree doctor Geiserford” his wife concords “I especially find urgent our need understand this cause as best as possible so we can most effectively support our marketable audience.”

“Mother, Father!”

“What’s so sudden son?” the mother asks

“May I be excused from the table for a brief minute!? I need to fetch some items that are relevant to the conversation at hand.”

“You may.” Avan’s parents say in unison

“I’m the most thankful in your regards for this concession.”

Avan gets up and goes back to his room where he picks up a small notebook from his bookshelf, several papers he stored in a drawer and his laptop. As he does so however he freezes up for a second, he has waited for this opportunity for so long! It’s been months! Maybe he’s encroaching on a year at this point. But if there ever was a moment when he can come out with his parents is this one! Hopefully they won’t get mad at him for going off topic, and hopefully they won’t think that listening to him is a waste of time!

“Come on Avan! This is 100% in your skill set!” after gulping down he goes back in the dining room.

“Son what’s the need for you to bring a laptop in here?” Avan’s mom asks as soon as he sees her son with the device

“I have prepared a PopperPoint presentation I need to show you dear parents.”

“Have you prepared ad PopperPoint about how to best enter the Pride market?” his father asks

“No… no… but it’s on a related topic!” the attention of Avan’s parents dips a little bit but they still give him a chance, so Avan connects his laptop via Bluetooth to the TV screen and opens the presentation

‘Avan Gaiseford identifies as gay’

The title reads.

“Dearest parents, I waned to take this opportunity to inform you that after carefully reviewing all of the life experience I have accumulated in the past eighteen years of my life I’ve come to the conclusion that I seem to be genetically considered a homosexual. Right here I have printed out several reports and scientific papers you may find useful to read during this presentation.” Avan hands his parents the stack of paper he picked up from the drawer “With that said let me start by providing the first piece of evidence to prove my homosexuality. As you can see in this slide, I’ve collected all the results I have obtained after taking all of the most accredited homosexuality tests found online, and although their accuracy cannot be fully verified, they clearly show consistent results that point to my same sex interest. Moving on to more accredited evidence, I have collected inside this diary a record of all the interactions I’ve had with non-family members along with my thoughts and feelings about it, and-”

“Give me that diary.” Avan’s dad orders

“Most certainly, you anticipated me father. I was just about to do so.” Avan hands his father the diary and he goes back near the TV to continue the presentation

“As I was saying-”

“You may sit down and finish your breakfast son, there is on need for such elaborated presentation for the topic at hand.”

“Oh, yes… father…”

“Most esteemed wife of mine, may you give me a helping hand to analyse this account?”

“Most certainly doctor.”

Avan sits backdown and tries to finish his croissant, however as he does so he soon starts to hear the sound of his father pen crossing out stuff on his diary. Page after page, it only seemed to increase as his parents discussed in hush tones what they were reading, by the time Avan is done with his breakfast his parents have closed the diary and handed back to him

Avan opens it up only to find entire pages entirely crossed out! The text was still readable, but the shear amount to ‘X’ and crossed out words was incredible

“Son.”

“Yes mother dearest!?” Avan perks back up

“Although this revelation changes very little in the grand scheme of things after reading through this written report we have two recommendations you need to follow.”

“Most certainly dear mother.”

“Well… for starters…” she begins as adjusts a lose strand of her hair “…We are well aware of how making use of alcoholic substances along with a wide variety of drugs is often an integral part of queer culture. However, as our son it’s imperative that neither you or your future husband never engage and in this kind of depravity, which not only hurt the body but also the mind and the wallet. Is it clear!?”

“Absolutely! I have no intention of ever engaging with such retched substances nor to never associate with people that show such a lack of self-control. I can additionally also assure you that I’ll hold my future husband to the upmost standards when it comes to moral character, your future son in law will not be just as worthy of your presence as your biological one!”

“I expected nothing less from you Avan” his father states “However I must ask you to read the entry I marketed with an ‘R’ on page 632”

“Yes father…” Avan opens his diary as per instructions, from the dates he sees that it was just a few months ago, and reads the phrase “Today at 12:55 after the Physical Education Class terminated, I had a chance to see my male classmates strip out of their gym uniform. It invoked in me significant curiosity as I stared at their semi naked bodies and specifically at the outline of their crotches through their underwear. Unsurprisingly, and as it often happens in the school locker rooms, I soon felt a blood rush going in my private areas and I had on and off erections for the rest of the day. Once I came back home at 16:30 I went in to my bathroom and before taking my usual 16:40 shower I dedicated ten minutes of my time to a self-pleasuring session during which I thought about what would be like to have sex with any number of my classmates and-”

“That’s enough.” Avan’s mom stops him

“So son of ours…” his dad begins “… can you see the problem here…?”

“Ehm I…”

“Don’t stutter.” Avan’s mom reprimands calmly

“No I don’t! Please illuminate me on my wrong doings.”

“Avan…” his dad assumes an ominous tone “…what use there is having this kind of thoughts towards your male classmates or anyone else for that matter!? Let me just anticipate it for you and tell you that there is NO pint in thinking this kind of things! Giving in to these kinds of thoughts and more importantly enacting on them during your private moments will be of no use to you in life! It’s just a distraction and a waste of time, and considering the fact that diary of yours is full of such accounts I deduce this has already become a habit for you?!”

“Yeh… yeh… it kinda is…”

Avan’s mom “Son don’t you realize your hypocrisy!? You denounce the use of substances yet you engage in behaviour that is just as wasteful of your time and energies! Do you really think me and your father got where we are now by having this kind of thoughts in our heads!? Do you even know how many times we had sex since we first met?”

“N-no why would I… I mean… I don’t think I have the right amount of information at my disposal to give a definitive answer.”

“Once!” Avan’s mom unmistakably states

“A-ah…”

“So Avan as your parents we demand you cease with this behaviour immediately, it brings no kind of benefits to your curriculum, to your skills or your abilities and I shouldn’t even have to say this but any man that may want to assume the Geiserford name through marriage with you shall also need to not waste his time on this kind of activities. Is everything clear Sir Avan Geiserford!?”

“Yes father!”

“Glad to hear you are receptive son…” his mom states “…but I just want to inform you that if you struggle to quit this bad habit of yours you are most encouraged to tell us and we’ll be sure to help you with further intervention”

“Such as…?” Avan wonders not sure what she means with ‘intervention’

“Well…” his father starts “… there are such a thing as penis cages” Avan’s dick stiffens slightly at the thought “…and in case it shouldn’t be sufficient would you be willing to undergo chemical castration?”

“Uhm! Ah… chemical castration seems… exaggerated…” Avan’s voice trembles slightly

“Of course, we wouldn’t force you to do such a thing…” his mother reassures him “…but success must come at a cost for everybody, so in case these ‘urges’ of you should get in the way of your day-to-day productivity you should consider all the possible avenues to get rid of the problem. Chemical castration included.”

“Ah… I… understand… but I’m sure it won’t be necessary!” Avan tires to sound resolute

“Great then now please make haste to conclude your morning routine, this Saturday you have-”

Avan cuts off his mom “Swimming practice from 8:00 to 11:00, cooking lessons from 11:00 to 13:00, lunch from 13:00 to 13:30, from 13:30 to 14:00 I’ll need to commute via car to the investor meeting you want me to addend to which will last until 19:00, at from 19:00 to 19:30 we need to commute to have dinner with company associates which will last until 20:30, after a further quarter hour commute I’ll be back home and by 21:00 on the clock I’ll be in bed sleeping”

“I see you’ve recovered your discipline” Avan’s dad distantly states

“Yes indeed! Now if you excuse me I need to go and cleanse myself with a shower!”

“You may go!”

Avan quickly leaves the dinning room and goes to the bathroom just as he closes the door behind him however, he also turns his phone on for the first time that morning and he’s immediately flashed with the unfinished business of last night, in the form of porn star The King brutally impaling the lucky bottom with his humongous meat stick!

Avan’s whole body perks up along with his penis that reaches maximum length in five seconds flat. A rush of hormones overwhelms Avan’s body and before he knows it, he has slipped his hands in his pants.

YEARS LATER

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” Avan cums tiered and exhausted. His hands are handcuffed to his bed, the toy gagging him is full of saliva and from his enlarged hole cum comes out as if it was a waterfall!

“UHfff… that was pretty steamy Avan” Ace puffs out exhausted

“Ruauwhwawnn thehewwwe”

“What!? Wait let me free you” Ace gently removes Avan’s gag

“Round three!” Avan repeats

“OH!” Ace’s head falls backwards “And I thought I was the one… the one… that could never get enough of sex…”

“So? Are you up for it Ace!?” Avan asks wiggling his legs to add emphasis

“Sure but… can your boyfriend get a little break first, Mr President?”

“Yes but just enough for you to get out of your refectory period ok!?”

“Ok…”

“I’ll be counting the seconds Ace… don’t be late!”

“FINEEE…” Ace agrees a bit annoyed but mostly playing it up for laughs, he then leans forward to give Avan a kiss before getting up to head to the bathroom

“Ehm… can you two keep it down for the next round?!” Yuuto asks from the top bunk “I’m trying to watch a movie here and I can hear you even with the earbuds on!”

“You know Yuuto you could just go somewhere else!” Ace points out in a neutral tone

“No way! If either one of you bust a vein or breaks his back, or you get stuck inside one another assholes who is gona call the ambulance if I’m not around?!” Yuuto snickers only half joking

“Ahaaaha ok Yuuto fair point” Avan giggles a bit incredulous, he would have never gusseted that under this most inappropriate of circumstances he would have ever seen such display of friendship! He should sign it in his ‘Advantages of sexual activities notebook’

“If someone is willing to stick by your side even when you are having sex with someone else then you know they are a real friend…” Avan murmurs to himself

“Did you say something!? asks Ace on the bathroom doorway

“Nothing! Nothing! I was talking to myself” Avan smirks happily thinking about all the proof he’ll be able to show to his parents on why sex is actually great

Chapter Text

“EHY YUUTO!” one of his classmates calls out

“YEEEEEEEEEES!!!!?!” Yuuto asks from across the school gym

“COME HERE!!” the young boy says as the rest of the middle schoolers around him giggle

Yuuto fleshes across the gym, with his spiky brow hair flying in the wind of his sprint

“So wassup guys!!!?”

“Yuuto what if ehehe… you climb the Swedish Square?!”

“What? But Mr.Buttox said we can’t do that!”

“Mr.Buttox gave us the permission early!”

“Really?! Then why didn’t he tell me!? I always ask if we can climb it…”

“Oh, pff… he must have forgotten!” says another girl in the group “But oh well… how about a bet!?”

“Bet!?”

“If you make it to the top, we’ll pay you a bag of chips at the vending machines for you!”

“Sweat! Behold Swish Cheese I’m about to conquer you!” without wasting a single second Yuuto starts climbing up the massive wood frame, quickly making his way up but as he does so he can’t help but notice how the pieces of wood seemed to become more and more shaky as he climbed up. It must be intentional! It’s meant to make it even tougher to get that bag of chips! So he ain’t giving up now! 

However just as he almost reached the top “YUUUUUUTOOOOOO GET DOWN THIS INSTANT!!!” Mr.Buttox screams as the rest of Yuuto’s classmates giggle

“Mr.Buttox!?” Yuuto turns his head around “But you said it was fine!” he screams now closer to the sealing than to the ground

“I NEVER SAID ANY-”

“SNAP”

“SAHIM-!”

“CRUNCH!!!”

“OUUHCHCHC!!!” Yuuto laments after landing on his right arm. The rest of his classmates, now somewhat horrified, keep their distance as the PE teacher runs in to help

“YUUTO ARE YOU OK!?!”

“YES! I think…”

“Does it hurt?!”

“I mean not that muc… GHAHHAAHA! YES IT DOES HURT FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKK!!!!”

“SOMEONE QUICK CALL 691!!”

“Doing it!” someone in the crowd of student screams out!

“It’s the arm, right Yuuto!?”

“Yehhhh!!! FUCK SASHIM SIDEWAYS!!!! GAHAA… can you take it out from under me!?!?!”

“No… I don’t think I can…”

“WHY!?”

“You probably broke a bone, Yuuto!”

“So!?”

“If I move it, it might get worst!”

“BUT IT HIUUUURUURURURURTTTS!!!! Ahaahhahahaaashisiissh!!”

“I know but-”

“Ehy! Gah… do you think it hurts more or less than giving birth!?” Yuuto asks while squinting an eye due to the pain

“Uh…?”

“Yeh I mean they say giving birth hurts like a freakish ton and a fuck! But does this hurt more or less?! But like how can I know since I cannot give birth, should we ask a woman who has broken an arm and… AHgh… and has already given birth?!”

The teacher blinks in utter confusion “Uh I guess!?”

“Oh oh oh! AH! But what if it’s different for dudes!? Maybe it’s less painful for a dude to give birth and nobody knows about it because no dude has ever given birth before… NO wait that’s wrong there are some guys who did because they were boron with ovaries so they are like SEAHORSES! Yeh like did you know male sea horses can give birth because the female poops the eggs in the dude’s belly!?  So they are like kinda Kangaroos aren’t they!? Because they also have like a sac on their stomach! But then only female have those so like-”

Just at that moment a medical equip enters the room quickly making their way to Yuuto, so the teacher starts to, gladly, ignore Yuuto and starts to answer the paramedic’s questions

“Hi I’m Yuuto- HAAJHAH” Yuuto tries to move to great he paramedics but the pain forces him to stay still “…ok so… like… I’m Yuuto Nakajima nice to meet you!”

“Ok he’s awake and responsive…” one of the paramedics around him says

“What’re your names!?” Yuuto asks, but the paramedic ignore him as they assess the situation “Waz’up cat got your tongue!? Oh by the way do you know that Cat in Japanese is actually ‘Neko’ and that Japanese cat say ‘Nyyaayyaa’ instead of ‘Meeeeeow’!? Do you think that’s like cat dialect or something like that!?”

“A bit too responsive…” one of the paramedics mumbles under their breath as the rest of the colleagues discusses what to do

“Ok so, Yuuto right?” another says talking directly to the injured boy

“Yes Nakajima Yuuto, Yuuto Nakajima either way is fine!”

“Ok now we need you to move the arm pinned under you ok!? It’s gona hurt but you are a strong boy I know you can do that!”

“OK JUST BE QUICK!!!!” Yuuto says with a smile that hides the pain, off putting the paramedic somewhat

“Ready!? One two three!”

“GAHAHAAHAHAHAhahaAHHA SHIT SHIT SHAHIMIMIMMI SASHIT!!”

For the next several minutes Yuuto is in too much pain to speak in proper sentences as the paramedics bandage his broken arm to keep him from moving and subsequently load him in the ambulance on its way to the hospital.

Then a sting, and the pain seems to be gone all of a sudden

“Agh… crap…”

“Better now?” a nurse in the ambulance asks holding an empty syringe

“Yeh better! So did you like fix my arm!?”

“Not yet, my colleagues steadied the arm so it doesn’t move and I gave you a painkiller so you’ll be feeling better until we arrive…”

“Ok so can I get up now!?”

“No you need to stay still please or it’s gona make your injury worst” she begs with genuine concern

“Oh sashimi!” Yuuto falls back on the pillow of the ambulance bed

“Eh?!”

“Sashimi! Have you never eaten it?!

“I’ve heard of it but… never really eaten it…”

“Oh well too bad you are missing out like a lot! I love it so much that it’s my favourite curse word!”

“Huh?”

“Yeh when I was little my parents-” Yuuto tries to turn on his side on the

“No please stay put!” The nurse stops him

“Ok ok! But I was saying that when I was little my parents would not lemme use cursed words, so I was kinda annoyed at it and I decided that I’d make up a NEW one that I could use without my parents knowing!”

“Oh really…? How interesting…” the lady sounds actually kinda sarcastic

“And you know how I decided it would be sashimi?!?!”

“Uhm… you were eating sashimi?” she guesses without much effort

“No I was eating spaghetti!”

“Spaghetti!?”

“Yeh because I was like thinking that if you throw spaghetti on a tree they’ll stay there, so if you want to have them up there it’s gona be easy but if you do the same with sashimi it’s not gona be as easy! So you’d probably get mad and you’ll want to say like ‘fuck, shit’ and stuff like that but since I couldn’t say that at the time I decided I’d say ‘sashimi’ instead!”

“Mhmh… very interesting…” the nurse turns around and starts to fidget with the medical equipment trying to look busy…

“Oh! And like! Speaking of Sashimi! Did you know that once at the restaurant I saw a waitress that looked JUST like you!!?”

“Oh really…?”

“Yeh you two are totally hot the same!”

“H-hot!?” the nurse turns around shocked

“Yeh aren’t you hot! Is she your twin or something?! Like because you are so alike…”

The nurse thinks for a moment and then lets out words without thinking “Yeh Ally had a summer job at a sushi restaurant…”

“Ally!? Who’s ally!?”

“My twin…” she automatically says as if it’s a reflex

“REALLY!? Cool it’s so cool to have a twin! Do you two have a secret for how you manage to be so hot!?!”

“Gosh…” the nurse the nurse rolls her eyes and curses herself for letting her mouth run, now forced to hear this random 9^th grader opinions on why he thinks her twin sister and her are hot… then her eyes light up with an idea…

“I’m flattered… but I’m a lesbian…” she states without even turning around

“Oh really so you like girls! So would you like me if I were a girl!? I’d be Yuuta, o Yuuna maybe Yuui? Or maybe-”

“Look… regardless of if you are a dude or a woman… you are still several times too young for me so can we please… please! Change subject?”

“Oh ok I mean I guess… when I think about it you do look kinda old, but so… like speaking of subjects did you know that at my school-”

Just then the ambulance stops and the nurse takes a sigh of relief, subsequently Yuuto is taken out of the ambulance and starts heading to the emergency room. On his way there a doctor asks Yuuto…

“Ehy are your parents on their way here?”

“Uoh… uhm not sure…”

“You got hurt at school right?”

“Yeh!”

“Ok so did the school called them?”

“I think so? But they are out of town for the day. Don’t know when they’ll arrive…”

“Ok then is there someone else that we can call?”

“Yes!”

“Great! Can you give us their number?”

“Nope!”

“Why!?”

“Don’t remember it!”

“Don’t you have your phone with you?”

“Nope left it at school! If you want I can run back and pick it up! I’m the fastest in my class you know!”

“Uhm… no…? Ok guess we’ll have to wait for your parents then!”

“Oh! Alright! So what are we gona do in the meantime?”

“AHAHAHAHahh! IS THERE REALLY NOTHING TO DO HERE!?!?” Yuuto laments as he gets up from his bed in the paediatric unit of the hospital

Under the eyes of other patients in the room he gets out and starts to look around the hallway. His arm still hurts to move so he tries to keep it as still as he can as he looks in to all rooms he comes across. Most are just full of patients, the stuff room is empty and boring… nobody is even using the vending machines, but luckily, he soon finds something interesting

“OH WOW!” Yuuto jumps in to the playroom as soon as he sees it, frighting the younger kids already there, and immediately heads to the full-size blackboard in the corner

“Whacha’ doing!?” he asks to the little girl drawing flowers with green chock

“Flowers!” she replies!

“OH YEH THIESE FLOWERS ARE MEGA PRETTY!” Yuuto shouts making some other kids squirm away but the girl besides him seems unfazed

“Thanks!”

“Lemme add some more AGH!” Yuuto tries to reach for another piece of chock but realizes that he can’t move his right arm

“What happened?” the girl asks

“Oh, nothing… just my arm, it hurts if I move it…” Yuuto explains

“That’s why you are here in the hospital!?”

“Yeh… that’ exactly why! But I came here like forever ago already, and the doctors shoved my arm in strange ass machines ever since I arrived. They said they needed the X rays or something so I had to stand still for like ages and whenever I moved the docs said they needed to start over! You have to believe me when I say it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo boring!”

“Oh… ok! I came here because a bee stung me!”

“You did!?”

“Yeh! I was in a field searching for pretty flowers to give to my mommy when the bee hurt me and then my face became all, like big and puffy because the doctors said I have a… alle…alle…”

“Allergy?” Yuuto tries and help

“Yes! So now I’m sad because I like flowers and there are no flowers here… so… uhm… I wanted to fill the board with flowers but I’m too short and I can’t reach up there!”

Yuuto looks at the girl and then back at the board, there is no way she’ll really manage to reach the upper corners, he wishes he could help her but… he can’t with his right arm in that state… but… he has is left arm too, doesn’t he!?

With a quick motion Yuuto swipes a chock with his left hand, it feels unsure in between his fingers at first but he quickly steadies it, and then starts to draw flowers in the upper part of the board!

“C’mon I’ll help you!”

“YEYE! Thanks sir!!”

“No problem!”

Yuuto’s flowers are at first all kinds of wanky but he can feel himself getting better and better with each one, his left hand starts to feel increasingly steadier and his flower start to look better and better. They need to look better!! He can’t let down this little one! She was already unlucky with the bee sting and now she is too short to fulfil her flowery wish! He needs to do his best! And so he does! Drawing as many flowers as he can until, as he finishes the upper part…

“Mr.Nakajima!” the playroom door opens up

“Uh?” Yuuto turns around to see a short doctor and two nurses calling his name

“Oh there you are!” the doctor walks in

“Hi sexy!” Yuuto exclaims with a grin, leaving the doctor startled for a second as he has to shake his head slightly to boot his speech back up

“Ok… like… why are you not in your bed!?”

“Got boarded…” Yuuto shrugs

“Ok… fine but stay in your bed from now on if nobody else is around…”

“If a cutie like you asks so gently then I guess I’ll try…” Yuuto winks

“Ehm…” the doctor looks at the nurses besides him while scratching the back of his head, brows twisted in embarrassment, but one nurse only shrugs in cringe while the other bends down slightly and whispers in his ear “You do have a bit of a baby face…”

“Baby!? I’m not a baby!” exclaims Yuuto having not cached the full sentence

 “No, no! That’s not…” the doctor tapers off but gives the stink eye to the nurse who said it “… let’s just…ehm… we need to put a cast on your arm, ok!? The X ray show a pretty significant fracture and we need to put the cast on as soon as possible…”

“Is that gona be boring!?” Yuuto tilts his head annoyed

“Ehm…” the doctor reflects for a moment “You can pic the colour of the cast!”

“DOPE! LET’S GO THEN! Bye bye little one!” Yuuto waves off the girl he was drawing with

“Bye bye Mr! Thanks for the help!!” the girl waves as Yuuto tries to run out of the room, only for the doctor to body block him on the doorway

“Ok! Nice to see you are excited Yuuto but you need to WALK please! If you run around, someone is bound to get hurt!” the doctor insists

“Oh… alright…” Yuuto nods angry at himself for giving a bad first impression on this cute guy but he knows that there isn’t much that he can do about it at this point

Yuuto is escorted back to his bed and the rest of the people occupying the room give him a passing glance as he enters. Then the nurses show him all the possible cast colours he can pic form, among the ones they have on the medical cart

“Ok, so we have: red, blue, yel-”

“PINK!” Yuuto screams and grabs the pink one from under the pile, resulting in several rolls falling out of the cart but luckily the nurses are quick to catch them before they hit the ground

“Whoops! Sorry…” Yuuto looks down at his feet

“No don’t worry it’s ok…” the doctor reassures him “…lets just put this cast on, ok?”

“Fine…” Yuuto blushes in shame…

The doctor and the nurses get to work and Yuuto immediately finds himself growing restless, until the doctor asks him a question

“So how’s your school Yuuto?”

“Well I guess my school is pretty nice, I just wish my classmates could be AS nice as the school…”

“So you don’t get along with your classmates?”

“I mean… it’s ok… but… like between me and you doc, all the girls in my school are kinda bitchy!”

“Are they!?” the doctor asks interested

“Yeh like a lot! I can’t go near them and they immediately start to talk about annoying stuff, you know make-up, purses stuff like that! Especially the hot ones! The hot ones always do that!”

“Do you get along with the guys at least?!”

“OH yeh I do! The dudes at my school are more fun they always play pranks on me and we laugh about it for days but for some reason they always find weird that I laugh about it too!”

“Really!?” the doctor sounds a bit confused and kinda concerned but Yuuto just keeps on talking

 “Too bad no guy is interested in me either… like I’d date many of them you know? But like you know, whenever I try to ask one out it never works out!”

“So you are in to guys and girls right?”

“I mean… why wouldn’t I? Guys and girls are not that different after all! Yes I mean I guess for girls it’s easier to have boobs compared to guys, but there are some girls that are as flat as a valley anyway! While I mean like guys also tend not to have short hair, but there are like girls with alopecia I think it was, that don’t have hair and then you have guys that instead have like SOOOO much hair that makes them look like Fapunzel. But like still guys and girls are both people so if there are hot people there are also hot guys and hot girls! And for me like as long as I find someone hot, I’d date them even if they were from the Moon! But still the Moon is like so far away, so that’d be a difficult relationship since it’s gona be like… long distance and stuff, or not?

“Yeh, I’d say that makes sense and… DONE!” the doctor puts the finishing touch on the cast

“Wow that was quick!” Yuuto shouts out in surprise

“Well I’m sure it felt quick because you are a great conversation partner!

“Oh really?!” Yuuto blushes and starches the back of his head, so… about that… would you…

“Yuutooo!!!” a panicked Mrs.Nakajima enters the room followed by her husband “Are you ok baby!? What happened!?”

“Oh mom dad! Hi! Ehm, can you do me a favour I was just about to ask doc here if he wanted to go on a date with me! Can you walk out of the room just for a minute or two!?”

“You what!?” Yuuto’s dad asks shocked

“I WHAT!? WHAT!?” Yuuto repeats not understanding what he means

“Ask out who!?” his mom exclaims

“Him…” Yuuto points at the doctor without noticing he’s clearly sweating bullets right now

“Wha… what? How when!?” Yuuto’s mom struggles to enunciate anything clearly, while her husband, by contrast, isn’t having the same problem

“I’m sorry but what exactly did you say to my son!?” he asks in as menacing of a tone as he walks closer to the doctor

“Well… uhm… I…” the doctor looks at the boy he just medicated “…Yuuto, maybe you didn’t realize it but I’m actually thirty-four years-ol-”

“WHAT!? THRITY FOUR!?!’ SHEESH IF YOU ARE SO FUCKING OLD! And I thought you were cute eighteen-year-old at first! But yuck if you are an old man no way I’ll be dating YOU!”

“Yuu…to…!!!” his mom rubs her teeth together

“OH! Ehm…” Yuuto’s eyes light up in fear as he realizes what he just said

“People… are watching…!” his mom points out and Yuuto looks around to see indeed that everyone else in the room heard what he just said, and they were now staring with eyes equally as amused and confused

“Please excuse my son doctor…” Yuuto’s dad starts

“Oh no it’s fin-”

“No really we humbly apologize on his behalf, since I assume you were able to see for yourself that on top of being an idiot he can also be a real moron sometimes!”

“D-dad I’m sorry…”

“You shut up now you idiot!!” Yuuto’s mom cuts him off, making her son quietly bring his legs to his chest and look away

“Ehm… my apologies…” the doctor starts trying to calm down the situation “…but would you mind coming with me you two, I need o discuss some details about the fracture…”

“Sure! Let’s go!” Yuuto’s dad takes the initiative not even trying to sound calm

“Yes indeed and we’ll deal with you idiot later!” Ms. Nakajima zaps her son with her gaze

“Great…! This… way please…” the doctor tries to remain professional “Oh and ehm… Martha!”

“Yes?” one of the nurses turns around

“Keep an eye on him…” the doctor mouths as he exits the room and she nods without hesitation

However, she soon finds out that this task is much easier that she initially thought, Yuuto basically doesn’t even move to the point that she starts to worry he might have turned in to a statue or something

Yuuto doesn’t react even when an emergency siren went off in the room next door so the nurse does not hesitate to leave her place by Yuuto’s side and run to help whatever child was in distress

Soon after the alarm stops and, seemingly by pure coincidence, at that same moment Yuuto falls back on the bed and shoves his head in the pillow. He moves around a bit, trying to find a more comfortable position until “I’ll buy them something! There are the vending machines here!”

He jumps off the bed seemingly having found his enthusiasm once again.

Maybe mom and dad will still be mad at him for what he said, but hopefully! HOPFULLY! Having something to eat will defuse them a bit!

As he makes his way down the hallway headed for the staff room however, Yuuto soon hears his mom voice coming from one of the rooms!

“It’s just ugh! It wasn’t supposed to go like this!”

What!? What wasn’t supposed to go like this? Yuuto can’t help but wonder so he encroaches on the door to better listen in

“Mrs. Nakajima don’t you think that it’s better that your son didn’t live his sexuality as something stressful?” Yuuto recognizes the short doctor’s voice

“Yes! But not like this! We had no idea he liked boys until today but like wasn’t he supposed to ‘come out’ to us properly!?”

“Mrs. what do you mean with ‘properly’ exactly?”

“You know, sit us down have an emotional conversation! I have a family friend whose daughter came out to her as a lesbian and she always tells me how important that moment was! How is a moment like this supposed to be important!? Or meaningful!? What am I gona tell her when he asks about our son coming out!!?!”

“Honey please let’s be real for a second, doing something like that would require introspection and that’s not something Yuuto is capable of!! He’s the biggest idiot on this Earth so stop pretending he’s capable of doing stuff normal people do!!”

“Sir, I think you are being a little excessive with your son, he’s not a bad kid-”

“OH WHAT DO YOU KNOW THEN!? You’ve known him for an hour at best, you have no idea of how many basic human actions he’s IN-capable of!!!”

“Ok… yeh sorry we are getting off topic back to the fracture…”

Yuuto stops listening and lifts up his only good arm to gives himself a little punch in the head! Not even a gourmet meal could make his parents less angry at him… why did he thought a vending machine snack could!? He doesn’t even have money with him so why did he bother getting up!? And the vending machines are in the stuff room too so he’ll probably get in more trouble if he goes in there anyway!!!

Actually, why did he even bother to listen in!?!? Now he just feels even worst! And on top of that he’ll still gona get scolded once they’ll go back home! He’s gona get scolded so much he’ll win the Guinnass World record for the most scolded person ever! He’s just pathetic isn’t he…?

“HI!” the voice of a young girl reaches Yuuto. He looks up and sees the young girl who likes flower pass by him, hand in hand with her mom, as she waves at him

Yuuto forces a smile and waves back but then…something starts to buzz, like a little nasty dot and it gets closer and closer to that little girl

“WATCH OUT!” Yuuto screams out and runs towards the girl, he almost tramples her as he swipes at the nasty little bug but with just one hand he misses by a mile!

“GET BACK HERE! GAHA” Yuuto swipes again and spins around trying to catch the intruding bug, but he misses

“STAND STILL YOU LITTLE SHIT!! AGAHH” Once more the tries to catch the bug but he only ends up loudly slamming his hand on the wall, sending sound waves echoing through all the nearby rooms

“STUPID SASHMI ENCRUSTED SHIT!” wildly swinging his arm around some more the bug keeps on dogging and soon it starts to fly out of Yuuto’s range

In a last ditched effort to catch it, Yuuto leaps towards it, throwing himself to the ground but managing to clench the insect in his hand.

As soon as Yuuto lands however his palm open back up and the bug flies out but Yuuto is quicker and violently smacks it against the ground “TAKE THAT YOU BUMBLING BEE!!!” he screams out but only now that it’s dead he has a chance to take a good look at it… with its long legs and pointy mouth

“Whoops… false alarm it was just a mosqui………to…” when as he turns around to address the girl the only thing he sees are his parents’ burning stare that might as well just melt off the floor Yuuto is on, and as if it wasn’t enough… he soon starts to hear whispers…

“Mom… what was that kid doing?”

“Don’t look at him honey, he’s sick in the head”

“Pfff look at that idiot!”

“Ahhah funny funny funny”

“Don’t laugh and don’t look at that boy…”

“What kind of problem does that boy have?”

“Don’t know but he should be in the psychiatric unit not here!”

“He’s a danger to society… who allowed him in here?”

“TELL ME!” Yuuto’s dad suddenly explodes and looks at the short doctor standing beside him “LOOK AT ME IN THE EYES AND TELL ME THAT SO CALLED SON ON MINE IS NOT THE BIGGEST FUCKING IDIOT ON THIS PLANET!!!!” but the doctor remains silent… only giving Yuuto a pitiful look…

And that’s enough… that’s really enough for today… Yuuto wants to cry… or maybe to lash out to do something to justify himself in that moment but he knows there is no use… nothing will less his parents’ anger right now… and once they’ll be back home it’ll be the same old song again… all the same words, all the same insults all the same shouts and maybe… at this point he really does deserves every last one of them…

YEARS LATER

Scroll…

“Top Ten rarest Cockemon cards-”

Scroll…

“This sushi restaurant-”

Scroll

“Looooook at our new puppy!!”

Cute but scroll…

“FAP AND FURIOS 69 NOW IN THEATHERS!!!”

“Wow this movie looks so cool” Yuuto looks intently at the trailer but in just 60 seconds it’s over and he’s back to all those boring videos… TwinkTok can really be boredom fest sometimes…

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… Avan…” Yuuto calls his roommate dangling from the top bunk

“What?” Avan replies annoyed and submerged in papers

“I’m booooooooooooooooooooooooooored…”

“Study…”

“I’m done with exams for now…”

“Work out a little…”

“I just came back from volley practice…”

“Don’t know what to tell you…”

“Can’t we do something together?”

“Well, I’m busy right now! I have several students complains to go through and I need to hire a disinfestation agency because some dam wasps decided to make their nest outside the dorm building! So, I really have no time to give you, if you want company call your boyfriend or something!”

“Alrighty!” Yuuto reaches out for his phone and rings Ace

“Hello?”

“Hi Ace how are you!?”

“Good! I’m just a little busy right now…”

“Not you too!” laments Yuuto as he gets out of his bed and starts walking

“Uh?”

“No, it’s just that I’m bored as fuck right now you know? Can I come at your place and stay with you!?”

“Oh ehm… well…” Ace hesitates but he can’t find the courage to say no to his boyfriend’s begging “I guess you could come over and stay at my dorm for a bit…”

“GREAT SEE YA!” Yuuto closes the call to knock on the door

“NOCK NOCK NOCK!”

“Ace I’m here!” he tells Ace from outside his dorm

“What?! Already!?” Ace gets off his desk and opens the door to let Yuuto in

“Hi baby!” Yuuto stamps a rapid kiss on Ace’s lips

“Hi, but did you teleport here or something!?”

“No… I just started coming here as soon as you picked up the phone!”

Ace rolls his eyes and smiles “Why am I even surprised at this point!?”

“So whacha doing babe!?”  Yuuto asks looking at what’s on Ace’s laptop sitting right under the open window 

“Just watching a movie for my script writing class!”

“Man, it must be super to be a film major you can just watch movies all day!”

“Well… we don’t just watch movies we also need to take notes on a lot of aspects and for this assignment specifically my script writing prof said we need to analyse a movie that has strong script writing and confront it with another analysis of a movie that is instead, in his words ‘As much of a cash grab as it gets’”

“What’s a cash grab?!”

“It’s when a movie is made just for the money!”

“Aren’t ALL movies made just for the cash?”

“Well yeh but some more than oth-”

“Anyway what’s the movie you are watching!?”

“Intersexlar…”

“And what is it about!?”

“It’s-”

“Wait no! Don’t tell me! I’ll watch it with you!!” Yuuto plops on Ace’s bed and pats the matrass besides him

“Yuuto… I’m not sure you’ll like this movie…”

“Why wouldn’t I like it!?”

“Well… it’s very complicated and there are a lot of nuances, it’s very introspective and I also need to stop from time to time to take notes… so I think you’ll get boarded pretty quickly…”

“So do you think that I’m… too stupid, to watch this movie…?”

“No don’t even think about it Yuuto! It’s that I don’t want you to get MORE bored! You know…?”

“No no! I swear I’ll have fun ok!?”

“If… if you say so…” Ace picks up his laptop from the desk and puts in on the bed. He then sits back down besides Yuuto and restarts the movie, pen and paper at hand

“Ouuu look at that hottie! Yuuto says as a dude appears on screen “Is he a nice catch!?”

“Well yeh I guess he’s pretty handsome as an actor!”

“Oh! And look at that lady! Isn’t that ass nice!?”

“Uh Yuuto…”

“Oh right sorry sorry, I know you don’t like girls but like do they actually gross you out or you just don’t care about-”

“No Yuuto, it’s not that”

“What?”

“The movie! I need to focus!”

“Oh right right sorry… I’ll shut up…”

Yuuto keeps his word and tries to stay as quiet but he soon realizes that in this movie, people really like to chit chat. They just talk and talk and talk to no end, but he really wanted to see some action but it seemed to never come! But maybe it’s just around the corner, he’ll just need to patient a little more…

‘If fish could talk, would they call when they get out of the water wet and when they are in the water dry or vice versa?’ Yuuto thinks as the movie plays in the background. It feels as if one million hours have passed, which probably means that at best it had actually been just a half-hour if he’s lucky. This movie it’s just TOOOOOO boring, he feels sorry for Ace that needs to write down all of those notes…

Maybe at this point he’s better of just snuggling up to him and sleeping a little… yeh maybe he’ll

“Bbzbzzaaazzzzzzzzaaaa…”

“AH CRAP!” Ace yelp as he sees a giant wasp fly in front of him!

“SHIT SASHIMI!!!” Yuuto perks up and grabs the closest swingable object he could get his hands on “STAY. AWAY. FROM. MY. BOYFRIEND!!!” he swings around all over the room trying to catch that dam wasp before it could hurt Ace

“YUUTO CAREFUL!!!!” Ace yells but just at that moment the wasp flies over the desk allowing Yuuto to swing down on it with a loud

“SMASH!!!”

“AH! TAKE THIS! Wasp zero! Nakjima onemillio-”

“YUUUUUTOOO!!”

“What!???”

“MY LAPTOP!!!” Ace screams in shock

Yuuto looks at his hands and realizes that what he just smashed on to the desk at full force was indeed Ace’s laptop

“Crap!” Yuuto exclaims as Ace snatches the PC from his hands

Although on the outside it seems fine, Ace can’t help but worry that the hit might have had crushed some internal circuits so he puts it on the desk an opens it.

The screen is black

Not a good sign…

“C’mon c’mon!!!” Ace frantically presses the power button but it’s soon clear that it’s of no use…

“Ace… I…”

“Yuuto, not now!!”

“But…”

“Just shut up for a minute will you!?!!”

Yuuto bites his tongue and he can feel his eyes starting to burn

Crap crap crap crap! What did he do!? Did he really used Ace’s laptop, his boyfriend’s laptop, to squash a bug!? Why did he have to be so stupid!?!?! Now Ace will hate him! He’ll hate him for sure for sure for sure for suuuuuuuure!!! Unless… unless… he can fix it! But he doesn’t know how to fix a laptop but he does know someone who can!

“I give up…” Ace states defeated “It’s gone…”

“Wait!” Yuuto puts his hand on the laptop “Please Ace I promise! Like really! Maybe I can find a way to fix it just-”

Ace sighs “Fine…” he swallows as he looks away

“OK I PROMISE I’LL FIX IT!!” Yuuto takes the laptop and runs out of Ace dorm. He then walks up the stairs, then down again, then up again, and so on for a while until he manages to find Leo’s dorm

“NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK NOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Y-yuuto!?” Leo asks worried “What hap-”

“Please fix this!!!” Yuuto bows as he hands Leo the laptop

“What!?”

“It’s Ace’s! Ace’s laptop! I smashed by mistake against the desk and now it won’t turn on anymore! Can you try and fix it PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” he begs almost on the verge of tears

“I-I mean sure… but it might take me a while!” Leo, feeling overwhelmed can only process Yuuto’s direct question

“Doesn’t matter just fix it please!!”

“O-ok then…?!”

“Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!! I owe you one Leo!!!”

Yuuto leaves Leo on the doorway as he runs back to Ace’s dorm busting in with a happy announcement

“OK ACE I FIXED IT! I MEAN I GAVE IT TO LEO THAT WILL TRY AND FIX IT BUT I SWEAR IF HE CAN’T FIX IT I’LL FIND A WAY I’LL REPAY IT I’LL I’LL I’LL-!”

“Yuuto I’m sorry…”

“You… you… are sorry!?”

“Yeh… I’m-”

“But it’s my fault I smashed the laptop and and and!”

“Ehy Yuuto it’s ok really you were trying to protect me, and I shouldn’t have shouted at you like that it was wrong of me…”

“But but but I broke it!”

“I know I’m not saying that it’s not your fault, just that I know you meant well… and besides I have my faults too. I knew I was busy and yet I still invited you here and I let you watch a movie I know that would have been boring for you…”

“What does that last one have to do with anything?”

“Well, maybe if we had been watching a different movie you would have been more present and not be so taken aback by the wasp coming in…”

“Yeh but like I still smashed the laptop!”

“Ehy Yuuto there is really no point in playing the blame game at this point! It’s just a laptop and nobody got hurt… and you already did all you can to make up for your mistake… so just let it go… there is no point in holding it against yourself any further…”

“Snifff…” Yuuto blink eyes start to shimmer

“Want a hug?” Ace gently asks

Yuuto nods… so Ace walks up to him and embraces him

“Ahg…” Yuuto sobs some more “…I’m sorry Ace…” he sniffles again “I’m sorry if I can be like this…”

“Ehy it’s ok, it’s ok Yuuto! C’mon let’s sit down for a moment…”

Ace brings Yuuto to his bed but as soon as he makes him sit the stronger man drags him down in to a hug that is about as tight as a the one between a baby monkey and its mom

The two stay like this for a while, with Yuuto keeping Ace tight to his chest and Ace gently stroking Yuuto’s head

“Thanks Ace…” Yuuto finally breaks the silence with raspy voice

“Thanks for what?”

“Thanks for loving me no matter what! Even when you don’t have to do this…”

“Why wouldn’t I love you no matter what?”

“Lots of reason…” Yuuto mumbles

“I don’t see any to be honest…” Ace wipes the last tear off of Yuuto’s cheek making his boyfriend smile “…and c’mon now dry your face because we have a movie to watch!”

“Uh what?” Yuuto is confused as he frees Ace from the hug

“Fap and Furious 69! Ever heard of it!?”

“HECK YEH! You wana watch that new movie that just came out right!?”

“Yeh, the reviews online say it’s terrible! So it’s perfect for the other part of my assignment!”

“Terrible?!! But I saw the trailer it looked awesome! It was full of explosion and bing bang buummm stuff like that you know!?!”

“Yeh Yuuto that’s why I choose that one!”

“But wait your notes? How are you gona take notes if it’s dark?”

Ace just opens the drawer in his nightstand and pulls out from it a small reading light

“Dope, c’mon let’s go!!” Yuuto runs towards the exit door

“Right behind you babe!”

“EHY! We said next time it was MY turn to top!” Yuuto laughs out loud getting a rise out of Ace too!

“Well… I changed my mind!”

“Ok then last one to arrive the movie theater bottoms next time! What do you say!?”

“I give up then!” Ace giggles just before Yuuto drags him close and gives him a kiss on the cheek

“Love you a sixtillion and a half Ace!”

“Love you a sixtillion and a half more Yuuto!”

Chapter Text

“And… done!! Ugh…” Derek puts in the truck the last of the boxes he has to load for today and takes the occasion to stretch out his limbs a little

Thankfully his back is still serving him well, yet he’s not sure how long that’ll last… he remembers very well how back in high school his anatomy teacher had an entire lesson on back injuries and every condition he listed sounded like a real torture! If he continues at this rate, he’ll soon start to experience it for himself, but that doesn’t matter as long as he gets to have food on the table.

“C’mon Derek let’s close this truck!”

“Sure…”  Derek replies to his colleague with very little enthusiasm and starts to help with closing the truck’s doors

Soon after the trucks drives off headed to who knows where, and Derek’s colleague is also quick to make himself scares without even wishing Derek ‘goodnight’ or anything of the sort

Not that Derek really minds to be honest, right now the only thing he wants to do is clock out for the day and try to get some rest and…

“Agh…”  Derek suddenly feels a sharp pain in his belly which makes him clench his stomach as he feels it rumble in protest… he should probably also eat something on top of getting some rest… shouldn’t he? But maybe not… maybe I’ll just eat tomorrow he can wait another day… for now he should just head home

At this time of night, the warehouse it’s almost empty, most of the workers have already clocked out and the only one still left are also about to finish their overtime. Some of them share a passing glance with Derek as they see him heading out. They don’t really need words to understand each other on how they are feeling, that incredible tiredness that lays heavy on one’s shoulders is universal at this time of night, yet today it feels especially heavy for Derek since he’s clocking out alone… he’s not really used to it… but either way there is little he can do about it…

Once he’s out of the ware house Derek looks up at the starless sky and takes a big breath, filling his lungs with the chilly autumn air, then just as he readies himself to walk back home he hears a familiar voice

“Derek!!!” the red head turns around and sees Daniel, a coworker of his, wave at him with a happy smile

“Uh? What are you doing here!?” Derek asks surprised but with a smile on his face “I thought you didn’t have overtime today!”

“Oh… ehm well… I did have! Overtime!!”

“You did!?!”

“Oh yeh yeh I was… only assigned to another sector that’s it…” he affirms rubbing his fingers together

“Then why didn’t you tell me!? We could have clocked out together like we usually do!”

“Oh well… doesn’t matter I guess… wana walk back together anyway?”

“Gladly…” Derek replies with a big smile, making Daniel smile back at him with his hunky and handsome face as they start to walk

“How was your day Derek?”

“Uhm… nothing much to be honest… oh! But something kinda strange happened to me today…”

“Really what was it?”

“Basically, you know the bathroom in the west wing?”

“Y-yeh…” Daniels bite his lips

“So I went there and I could have sworn I was alone but as I was… you know at the urinal… I couldn’t help but feel as if something was watching me…”

“R-really?!” Daniel’s eyes widen

“Yes so I look around and I see-”

“WHO!?” Daniel exclaims worried

Derek pauses for a moment and then smirks “A GIANT MUTANT RAT THAT JUMPS ON MY FACE!!” he says while stiffening his fingers to make them look like claws

Daniel laughs nervously at the joke while Derek giggles with gusto

“Ok no but for real do you ACTUALLY suspect someone was spying on you?!!”

“Oh no, please why would someone spy one me while I go to the bathroom?!”

“Ah… ah… yeh… why would someone do that…” Daniel cracks his knuckles

“Either way long story short I think it’s called a geko”

“…is it one of those lizards that like sticks to the walls?”

“Yeh it’s one of those and I look up and I see it looking at me from the selling as I you know… do my thing! What a pervert am I right!?” Derek says in a laughing tone

“Ah aha yeh… I-I guess so… but like aren’t they kinda gross? Like they eat bugs and shit…”

“I mean bugs aren’t that gross! They are a very good source of protein actually!”

“Ew gross how do you even know that…?!”

“I took nutrition classes in high school!”

“And you remember what you learned!?”

“Yeh why wouldn’t I? It was very interesting, and actually kinda fun to learn about those things… I…was actually kinda sad when I gave the final exam for that class you know?”

“Would you… like to continue learning about that sort of stuff?”

“Yeh… yeh… I would… but you can’t always get everything you want… and I’m fine with that…”

“T-that’s really… mature of you… I… I… think I’m in the same situation, you know…”

Raising an eyebrow the red head asks “Reall-?”

Just at that moment Derek’s stomach rumbles again, with a deep but loud noise that takes the both out of the conversation at hand

“Sorry sorry… I didn’t meant to…”

“Derek don’t tell me you ate nothing all day again!!?”

“I mean… I did have a cup of coffee for lunch-!”

“Here have some crackers on me! All yours!” Daniel quickly hands Derek sealed but small pack, with a level of eagerness that felt somewhat off putting. Derek doesn’t pay much mind to it however he’s probably just tired just like he is…

“Thanks Daniel… but…”

“No buts! JUST EAT! You know I won’t take no as an answer!”

“Thanks… Daniel…” Derek gives up quickly… he knows Daniel won’t back down… so he just cracks open the pack and digs in to it with gratitude

“Soooo… Derek… speaking of what we want… plans for tomorrow?!”

“No…” Derek states munching away “… just get home and sleep as much as I can…”

“Right right...”

“And you? Any plans for the weekend Daniel?”

“Eh… eh… I have a wedding actually… on Sunday”

“Uhm! Really!?” Derek asks finishing the cracker “Whose wedding, is it?!”

“It’s mi… MY sister’s!”

“Oh wow! Didn’t know you had a sister!? What’s her name?”

“O-Olga…”

“Why did you never tell me about her!?”

“Oh I mean… she has been out of town for a while… she has come back for the occasion let’s say…”

“Uhm… I see… I guess it must be a happy day for you two!”

“Yeh… yeh… it should… be…”

“Is everything alright Daniel?” Derek now starts to feel suspicious “You have been kinda weird today”

“I’m… just tired…”

“Well I’ve seen you been tired before and you never acted this weird…”

“No… I mean… yes… but… Derek can I ask you something?” Daniel’s cheeks turn slightly red but Derek doesn’t notice in artificial light of the lampposts

“Sure?” Derek suddenly feels taken aback by his heart skipping a bit

“Are we… friends?”

“I mean… of course we are friends!”

“Well… in that case… TOMORROW… would you…”

“DANIEL!!” a speeding car pulls over by the side of the road and an angry woman come out of “WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN!!!?”

“Oh… oh… Olga… hi…”

“I’VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR YOU ALL DAY!! DID YOU LOSE YOUR PHONE OR SOMETHING!?!!”

“No-no…”

“THEN WHY DID YOU DISAPPEAR!?!?! WE WERE SUPPOSED TO HELP ME WITH VENUE TODAY!!!”

“I had overtime today…”

“YOU TOLD ME YOU DIDN’T HAD OVERTIME TODAY!!!!!!!!”

“Ehm…” Daniel looks over at Derek with a sad gaze “Olga… I swear I’ll explain everything… let’s just go for now ok… sorry Derek see you tomorrow…”

“Daniel tomorrow is Saturday…” Derek states raising a cheek bone

“Oh yeh right…” he bites his lip “…so see ya!”

“See ya!”

Daniel and Olga enter the car before driving off followed by the sound of shouting. Derek feels a bit flabbergasted in front of what just went on… was that really Daniel’s sister? In all honesty they didn’t look much alike and why did she want her brother to help with the venue!? Whatever, none of his business anyway… but at least Daniel will have something interesting to talk about on Monday.

Yet… Derek can’t help but wonder what Daniel was about to ask him… could he…? No… no no… it’s just impossible there is no way Daniel is in to guys… Derek shouldn’t get his hopes up! He shouldn’t delude himself there could be something more between them… he doesn’t have time for heartbreak, actually he should just do something useful and hurry to the super market! He has some money saved up maybe he’ll manage to buy something for tomorrows’ dinner

“Uff… finally…” Derek exiles at the end of the 12^th flight of stairs, after a long day at work it never gets easier to climb them up, especially since today had already been a pretty strange evening.

As takes out his house key to open the door his stomach starts to grumble again… guess crackers can keep it at bay for only so long… hopefully his brother doesn’t notice…

“I’m home!” Derek enters his apparent, happy to partially escape the chilly air outside, but finds nobody. He scans the room but his brother is neither seated on the dinner table at one end of the room, nor laying on the blanket-less mattress on the other end.

“I’m in the bathroom give me a sec!” his brother shouts

“Sure…” Derek lets out as his nose smells a pungent odor… “Hope it’s not another dead rat…” following his nose however Derek is lead to the box where his brother puts his dirty clothes. It’s usually only full after he has PE class at school… but this smell… this isn’t just sweat!

Just as Derek starts to understand what could have happened his brother comes out of the bathroom

“Welcome back big bro!” he warmly greats his brother momentarily distracting him from the smelly clothes “How was work today!?”

“Well… it was a bit of a weird day… and as for you? How was school? Did anything out of the ordinary happened???” he asks with a hint of suspicion

“The usual, nothing to write home about…”

“Yeh… right… oh! I have a surprise for you!” shoving his hand in the plastic bag he’s holding, Derek takes out a tray of carrots

“Dope! How did you get these!?”

“Discount shelf, pretty sure they are past the expiration date for about a week now but they should still be good to eat!” Derek hands the tray to his brother “Anything in particular you wana eat them with?” the older man asks raising an eyebrow

“Yes actually yes let me show you!!” the brother makes haste to the fridge in the corner of the room and takes out two portions of beef still in their package “Cook them with the carrots and tomorrow we’ll eat like Kings-fields!”

Derek ignores the pun and scowls at his brother “How did you get those?” he asks in a serious tone

“Ah… eh… doesn’t matter…” the brother says sheepishly as he puts the beef and the carrots in the fridge

Derek sides eyes the box with the dirty clothes “You went dumpster diving again!? Didn’t you!?!?” he inquires altered

“Listen Derek, I’m in high school so I’m more than old enough to help out too ok!?”

“Yes but you are not supposed to do that!! I’m the one that should be providing for you!!”

“Oh but who said that you literally need to break your back to feed me?!!!”

“Listen please…” Derek walks up to his brother, gently holding him by the shoulders and looking at him in the eyes “… you are my little brother… you are the most precious thing I have… and I’ve sworn to you and to myself that I’d protect you at all costs. Dumpster diving is dangerous! There is all sort of nasty stuff in there! You could hurt yourself get an infection or someone could attack you for doing it-!”

“But you did it in the past too didn’t you!?”

“Yes but that’s my duty as an older brother to care for you… you don’t need to worry about these things… if something bad happened to you I would never be able to forgive myself for it… so please… let me handle this sort of things alright?”

“Uh… Derek I’m sorry but I just don’t like this! I never liked that you have always taken beatings for me on everything… and it’s not like I’m not glad for it but I want to give back!”

“As long as giving back comports putting yourself in danger then I’m sorry but I can’t allow it…”

“…” Derek’s brother looks away

“Listen… from tomorrow onwards I’m gona check the super market dumpsters on my way back to work, so if there is something good in there I’ll bring it back myself… ok?”

“Fine…” he relents

Derek has a feeling it won’t be the last time they’ll have this conversation… it’s never the last time… but for now he’ll take what he can get… so he pulls his little brother closer in a tight hug which instantly gets reciprocated

“Love you…”

“Love you too Derek… but now…” Derek’s brother pulls back from the hug “… let’s have diner c’mon!” he says as he takes out from the almost deserted fridge a cup of instant noodles “Wash your hands and don’t keep me waiting I’m starving!” he incentivizes Derek after taking two steps forward to sit at their all-purposes table

“No need to, have my half too! I’ll go and take a shower”

“HERE YOU FUCKING GO AGAIN! Dude please! At least on food give yourself a break!! When was the last time you ate!?”

“Today…. after work… I shared a… sandwich! A sandwich with a colleague!”

“I hope you are not lying!” Derek’s brother opens the noodles defeated

“Aren’t you gona heat it up?”

“No, saves on gas…” his brother states apathetically

“Fair point… oh and cover the box of dirty clothes otherwise it’s gona stink up the whole house! I’ll take care of them tomorrow.” Derek recommends his brother as he enters the bathroom. Toilet on his left, sink on his right and a lone shower-head not even a meter past the door

He strips out of his, one and only set of, clothes and puts them outside the bathroom door so they won’t get wet, he then unties the worn-out ribbon that uses to keep his dick tied to his leg during the day and he just puts it on the sink. Every time he does this he wonders if there is a kind of underwear out there in the world that would fit him and his abundant size? Probably yes but it’s most likely waaay out for budget for him. But more importantly even if there is, would he even be able to keep it on? In the sense that after having basically spent all of teenage years going commando would underwear even feel good to have on?

Who knows…. but there is no point in wondering that since even if he had the money for that he’d be better off buying something for his brother, like maybe a new pyjama!

“He’d like that for sure” Derek mumbles as he stretches an arm out to get the body wash they keep on the toilet lid. He’s very careful when dosing it and once he’s happy with the amount he spreads it on his entire body, literally from head to toe. Then he opens the shower for a very quick renice off and once he’s done he bends down to pick up the towel from the sink cabinet. It’s slightly wet since the cabinet is far from waterproof but it does its job.

As soon as he’s dry, he slips back in his clothes but forgoes the, now wet, ribbon. At least in his own home it doesn’t have to worry about his dick to causing problems

Once he gets out of the bathroom, he sees that his brother, having already finished dinner, has slumped on the bare matrass and is now scrolling on his phone. Derek wastes no time slumping beside him and he also taking out his broken phone. He connects to the neighbours’ Wi-Fi, and starts to look through Guytube to relax a bit after his long day at work.

Crossing his legs out of boredom Derek scrolls a bit, but finds nothing that peeks his interest, but just as he’s about to turn his phone off to sleep he receives a message from Daniel

Daniel

Hi Derek! Sorry for what happened earlier. I just wanted to wish you a good night sleep

It’s not the first goodnight message Daniel has sent him, and in recent weeks it has become a bit of a habit, but Derek doesn’t mind. Daniel is always so sweet! And besides his body is quite nice too… it would… it would really be nice if maybe… they could be more than friends…? But no! He can’t think about it like that-

“Ehm ehm…”

“What?” Derek asks his brother

“Your…” he points in the direction of Derek’s crotch

Derek looks down only to see that an entire camp ground had been set up in his pants

“GAHA!” Derek bolts out of bed and in to the bathroom as his brother giggles behind him

Ten minutes later Derek comes out of the bathroom still ashamed about what happened…

“C’mon bro don’t be like that it’s natural! Especially for you!”

“What do you mean? What’s so natural ‘for me’!?”

“I mean… I’m just saying that if you don’t have anyone to share ‘quality time’ with your body is gona start rebelling at some point…”

“A) that’s none of your business! B) It doesn’t work like that…” Derek scolds his brother as he lays back on the bed

“I’m just saying that either way maybe you should start to look around some more, like you are one hunk of a guy I’m sure that there is bound to be some girl that wants to be something more with you!”

Some girl? Did Derek never tell him about it? I mean it’s been some years since Derek understood where his attractions lay but did he really never tell his brother about it? Come to think about it, he can’t recall ever having that conversation with him, on the matter so… no better time than the present!

“Hey, what if it wasn’t just a girl?”

“Uh!? You mean you’d like to have more than one girlfriend!?”

“No like… what if it was a guy or like someone that not even a guy or a girl! You get what I mean right!?”

The younger Kingsfield’s eyes widen and he stars back and blinks in to the void

Derek starts to fear the worst, maybe he was overconfident with this? Maybe he should have tried to introduce the topic more gradually!? It’s not like they talked about this sort of thing often if at all! There are just always greater priorities! So what-

“Sorry… Derek I…” Derek’s brother suddenly reanimates “…I’m just surprised that’s all! It was just kinda sudden!” he admits with a smirk

Derek takes a sigh of relief, of course he had nothing to worry about

“But like! When did you realized you don’t like just girls!?”

“Some years ago…”

“YEARS!? And you tell me only NOW!?”

“Well apparently yes, but like… I really felt no pressure to tell you, I knew that wouldn’t change anything between us…”

“Heck yeh it wouldn’t! You are my brother! If I’m still here……” Derek’s brother pauses and his voices trembles slightly “…still here at all…” he swallows and try to get some more enthusiasm out “…it’s because of you! There is nothing in this world that could ever make me turn my back to you!”

“Thanks bro! I appreciate it!”

The two brothers sit in comfortable silence for a couple of seconds until Derek poses a question

“What… what do you think our-”

“Stop!”

“You didn’t even let me finish!”

“I know what you were about to ask and I we agreed they are not deserving of a single thought coming from neither of us!”

“But like-!”

“C’mon Derek, you’d know how they’d react! It would just have been another excuse to make you suffer! They’d probably not even care about you being queer they would have just been mad that you talked to them! Probably…”

“Yeh… you are right… sorry for having brought that up…” Derek gazes away as he hears distant echoes of his childhood reverberate in his head. No matter how distant they are they never seemed to get any quieter…

“Now… back to something more fun!” Derek’s brother announces “Since you basically have at your disposal all the fishes in the sea! Is there anyone in particular you’d like to spend a night with!? Like you know maybe a celebrity or something!?”

“Certainly not a celebrity!”

“Why?!”

“Oh well… I just don’t get… you know I’m not the kind of person that would do ‘it’ with just anybody, I want to know them first before I get to that step. I think it’s like part of my sexuality actually, de… deti… demi something sexual like that I don’t remember now…”

“Ah ok then! Soooooo…. Is there someone that you know that you actually like that way then?!”

“Well… there is this one coworker of mine… he’s kinda cute and he’s always nice to me and-”

“What’s his name!?”

“He actually just sent me a goodnight message right now! Let me show you!” Derek turns on his phone and shows his brother the text

“Oww cute! He seems nice! Let me find his Istaglam so we can know more about him!”

“What!? No! That’s creepy!”

“C’mon Derek everybody dose it these days, get out of your cave from time-to-time you caveman! Just think about thanking him for the goodnight message!”

“Alright then…”

Derek

“Thanks Daniel! I appreciate it a lot! Have a goodnight too”

It takes Daniel only a couple of seconds to type out a response

Daniel

“Wait! Derek about what I wanted to ask you before… I wanted to ask you if you wana go on a date with me tomorrow!!!!?”

“SHIT!” Derek exclaims in blissful surprise!

“WHAT!?”

Derek smiles “He asked me out!”

“LETS GO BRO! YOU SCORED!”

“So what’s his Istaglam like!? What does he like!? I mean I already kinda know what he likes but you know, knowing more it’s certainly better!”

“Give me a sec and I’ll tell you! Had to reboot my phone since it wasn’t working right!”

“Ok ok!”

Derek starts to cheerfully type out a response

Derek

I’d love to go out with you! Any specific place in mind!?! I was thinking maybe the park!?

Daniel

At a motel! I’ll bring all my sex toys

“WHATA!?!” Derek screams out in shock

“What!?” His brother asks worried! He can tell something’s off this time

“He… he asked me to… go to a motel and do… you know ‘that’ already with his collection of…. ‘toys’… I just… think it’s too soon you know!?”

Derek’s brother stares back at him without saying a thing…

“Agh… yeh sorry maybe I’m overreacting… I guess that’s an acceptable first date for most people, guess I’m the weird one…”

“No it’s not it Derek, I mean that’s admittedly pretty intense for a first date already but… I don’t think that’s the main problem here…”

Derek’s brother shows him what he found in Daniel’s Istaglam account in a form of a photo of Daniel with a woman Derek recognizes as Olga, as they kiss in a garden of roses with a sign behind them that read the date and the place their wedding.

It’s this Sunday…

Out of words Derek just passes his hand through his hair in disbelieve

“SISTER MY ASS!!!” he exclaims

“What!?”

“Today we met her on our way back to work and he told me she was his SISTER!!”

“For real!!?” Derek’s brother can’t believe his ears “Like how did that even… even… OH you know what? DOESN’T MATTER! I’m sorry Derek, that’s… you just got unlucky it seems… I’m sure next time you’ll find a guy or girl or whoever that will be much better than this… creep ass liar cheater!”

“No but maybe…” Derek kinda starts having second thoughts “…maybe I should accept…”

“Why would you!?”

“I mean if… if… he’s that deep in the closet… he might just want to do that with a man for real! I can’t take that away form him, can I?”

“Are you fucking crazy!? He lied to you!!! He could have just been transparent about it from the start couldn’t he!?!”

“Yeh maybe but… still… maybe I should…”

“I mean… you still have your V card? Right?”

“My what?”

Derek’s brother rolls his eyes “I mean your virginity!”

“Oh…” Derek nods

“And you wana give it to someone like that!?! Don’t you want it to be special?”

“It’s gona be special for him…”

“I mean special for YOU!”

“But it’s gona make him happy!”

“Well you are not responsible for HIS happiness!!!”

“…”

“Dude…” Derek’s brother starts in a serious tone “… please… just… don’t… it’s not worth it… you can find someone better! You deserve someone better!”

Derek sighs as he looks at what Daniel is rapidly typing

Daniel

I can’t wait to do those things with you!

There are like so many positions I need to try!

And you!

You are so huge!

Daniel sends a picture

“WHATAAAA FUCK!!!?!!!?!?!” Derek throws his phone against the wall after seeing what Daniel just sent him….

“WHAT WHAT NOW!!!!???”

It takes Derek a second to muster the words to speak “He… h-he sent a picture of me…”

“Of you?!! That’s so funking creepy man… I told you that you shouldn’t…”

“No! I mean… it’s not a photo of ME! I mean it is! But… my face is not… is not in it… it’s the big part you know!?”

“What!? Why would he take photo without your… face……….. GH!” Derek’s brother covers his mouth with his hand as his eyes widen “NO NO NO FUCKIGNG NO! THAT’S CREAPY AS FUCK! BLOCK HIM AND DON’T TALK TO HIM EVER AGAIN!!!”

“Yeh I definitely will! No question asked!!” Derek affirms with no hint of regret!

“Good! But my goodness what a fucking creep… I’m sorry it turned out like this… I swear from tomorrow on I’ll start working to find you a date! A real date this time ok!?”

“No don’t bother, like maybe it’s better this way… I don’t think I’ll have the time to dedicate to a relationship anyway…”

“Ugh if you say so… but I’d say that’s enough excitement for today isn’t it!?”

“Yeh… I agree… let me turn off the light…” Derek gets up and picks up his phone “Oh and it’s getting kinda chilly as of lately do you want the coat?”

“Nah I’m fine you can have it if you want to…”

“C’mon if you want it, it’s not a problem”

“No Derek you can have it really!”

“Do you want it or not?!”

“Maybe we should just save up for a blanket at this point…”

“Easier said than done…” laments Derek…  “So do you want the coat or not!?”

“Ok fine…” Derek’s brother relents, so on his way back from turning off the light he picks up the coat they keep on a chair year-round and covers his brother with it

“Night! Night!”

“Night Derek and block that creep…”

“Was just about to do so…” he announces laying on the bed and turning on his phone

“Good…” Derek’s brother closes his eyes as he snuggles in to the coat

Just as he opens the chat back up Derek is immediate hit with a wall of text of what he could soon enough tell was a total melt down

Daniel

DEREK!?

DEREK!?!?!?!?

WHY ARE YOU IGNORING ME!?

PLEASE THAT’S ALL I ASK OF YOU PLEASE

DEREK I LOVE YOU!!!

YOU ARE EVERYTHING I WANT!!!

I KENW THAT I ALWAYS KNEW THAT!!!!

BUT THEN ONE DAY I FOLLOWED YOU TO THE BATHROOM AND SAW YOUR DICK!!!

AND DEREK I’M IN LOVE I’M REALLY IN LOVE!!

BUT I COULDN’T TELL YOU!!! BUT I WATNED YOU!!

SO I STARTED TO TAKE PHOTOS!!! I TOOK THEM BECAUSE I WANTED YOU!!! BECAUSE I LOVE YOU

AND I MASTURBATE

TO THOSE PHOTOS I MASTURBATE A LOT!!!

BUT I WANT THE REAL THING!!!! PLEASE!!!

JUST THIS ONCE!

IT’LL BE ONLY ONCE!!!

IT CAN BE ONLY ONCE!!!

PLEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAASEE!!

IT’S MY LAST CHANCE TO DO IT WITH A DUDE!

PLEASE I NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED YOUR DICK PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!

I NEEEEEEEEEEED YOU!!!!!

DEREK PLEASE I KEPT QUITE FOR SO LONG

BUT EVER SINCE I SAW YOU I KNEEW I WANTED TO DO IT WITH YOU!

PLASE JUST THIS ONCE!

THEN NEVER AGAIN!

WHY ARE YOU INGOOGOOOORING ME!!!!?!!?

HELLO!?

DEREK PLEASE IF I CAN’T HAVE YOU I THINK I COULD KILL MYSELF!!!

DEREK PLEASE!!!

I’LL DO ANTHING!!!!!

WHAT DO YOU WANT!?!?!!!!!!!!!

I’LL DO ANYTHING FOR YOU!!!!

LIKE

WHAT ABOUT!?

ALL OF MY OWN SAVINGS!? I HAVE SOME SAVINGS!!!

IT’S

5000$!”

Derek

You pay for the motel

“AH! AH! AH! AH! AAAAAAAAHHHHHH! Derek your dick, your dick! It’s the best one ever!!!!! AAAH! Stay inside me forever! GHAHHHHHHAHHHHHAAAAAAA!!!!”

The room is quiet….

The shutters are closed…

The air is still

And it was gross… so gross… Derek can’t believe he just did that…

He turns around in the motel bed surrounded by the sex toys and he sees Daniel peacefully sleeping and murmuring his name. Just a day ago this sight would have been a dream come true for Derek, yet… now this is everything but…

Daniel is gross… so gross… he’s a cheater and a liar and a creep and a stalker… yet Derek just did all of those things with him… and every last one of them made Derek feel more and more gross. But it doesn’t matter in the end…

Derek sits up and reaches for his wallet on the nightstand. He looks inside it and for once… it’s full… full to the top… full to the top with a month worth of food… a month where his brother will not have to worry about coming back home to find an empty plate or having to look through other people’s trash just for a decent meal…

He’d do it all over again if it meant his brother will always have enough to eat, and if what Daniel said about his dick is true, Derek WILL find a way to do it all over again!

YEARS LATER

“No, I’m not gona do it…” Derek’s words echo in to the empty studio

“Why tho!?” Ace cries out upset

“It’s cringe…”

“No it’s not! It’s a cute idea! It’ll kinda be a Pride Month special for the studio! It’s just one photo-shoot inspired by our respective flags!”

“That’s the cringe part” the football player smirks adjusting the strap of his workout beg

“OH C’MON! All the others said that it’s a cute idea!”

“And I think it’s a cringe idea, am I allowed to have my own opinion?”

“Uff yes but…” Ace reaches inside the bag he brought to the studio “Would it kill you to just do a photoshoot holding this?” he begs while waving around a mini flag

“What’s that flag?!”

“You know? YOUR flag! The DEMISEXUAL flag!”

“Oh yeh right I haven’t seen that thing in ages… but besides how do you even know that I’m demisexual? I never told any of you guys that!”

“I’ve seen it in an old interview in which they asked The King about it!”

“Really!? Well… yeh now that I think about it… yeh I did… but like how did you even dig that one up!? It’s a basically a fossil by now!”

“You know before we… became a thing… I…” Ace nervously twirls his fingers around “…might have searched up every single possible piece of info about you floating around online…”

Derek facepalms “You never change Ace…” he reprimands his boyfriend while trying to stifle a giggle

“So you are gona do it?” Ace waves the flag around

“No.” the football player disappoints his boyfriend once more as he walks up to the studio couch where he drops his bag

Just as he bends down to open it, he feels Ace’s arms sliding around his waist with his fingers naughtily touching the muscles under Derek’s shirt

“So what if we trade? You do the photo-shoot and I’ll give you a very good tim-”

“DON’T!!!” Derek turns around like a fury startling Ace who stumbles backwards a couple of steps

 “Oh ehm… no never mind sorry Derek… I’m sorry… I-”

“No! no… I’m sorry! I… I… didn’t mean to scare you…”

“No really Derek is fine sorry for being pushy…”

“No it’s not that… it’s just” Derek hesitates “…Ace…”

“Yes Derek…?” the younger man looks at his boyfriend in the eyes and lets his smaller hands be surrounded by the football player’s massive ones

“Just… promise me ok? Promise me! That you’ll never… NEVER, EVER have sex in exchange for something else like that… with me… or with anyone else…”

“Derek why would I ever have sex with someone else? You know you are my one and only…” Ace gently frees one of his hands to stroke Derek’s face with it

“Then just promise me that we will never use sex as ‘currency’ or something like that!! It’s just… I don’t want it for us… because… it brings back-”

“Ehy ehy ehy ehy, Derek… you don’t need to justify yourself. I promise, I won’t do it anymore ok?”

“Thanks… Ace… sometimes… sometimes I really think I don’t deserve you…”

“Derek…” Ace wraps his arms around his boyfriend neck “You deserve the world and then some…””

“Yes but why me? Why out of everyone else in the world you choose mhh-!?”

Ace stands up on his toes and presses his lips against Derek, who soon reciprocates and walks backwards so he can comfortably sit on the couch as he keeps Ace on his lap

They stay like this for as long as they have breath, embracing each other and sharing body heat which made them feel warm both in the outside and on the inside

After having thoroughly explored each other’s mouths they part their lips and look at each other’s in the eyes, creating the silence of love between them

It last until Derek has finally made up his mind about it “I’ll do it…”

“What?”

“The photo-shoot! I’ll do it!”

“No, I don’t wana force you!”

“It’s fine really…” Derek puts on a silly voice “I don’t wana be that grumpy old man that always says ‘No’ to everything! Who cares if it’s kinda cringe!?”

“Well, if that’s what you want ok YOU OLD MAN!”

“Ehy! I was joking! I’m not THAT OLD YET!!!”

“Uh really? What’s more fun a bingo night or a roller coaster ride!?”

“Bingo of course!”

“See?” Ace grins

“Ehy bingo nights are much more fun that you’d think!”

“Sure, next time teach me how to hunt a mammoth!”

“You prick!” Derek messes up Ace’s hair out of spite making them both giggle and share another quick kiss

“Are you two done being all lovie dovie over there!?” Jacques interrupts the moment as soon as he enters the studio “Time is money guys!! C’mon get up and help me set up the equipment for day before the others arrive!”

“Yes sir!”

“On it!”

Chapter Text

“Well that was a fail…” Bryce says to nobody in particular as he stands outside a burning house while firefighters are all around them, at least everyone got out safely… even if all things considered the party didn’t even get a chance to start

“How did the fire start again?” One of Bryce’s bros asks

“Dunno…” says another guy “But if we are betting, I say somebody shoved tinfoil in the microwave!”

“While I bet 20 bucks somebody wanted to smoke a bit too much weed tonight!” the other dude says

“Doesn’t matter at this point guess we’ll need to find something else to do tonight!” Bryce points out “It’s barely even seven!”

“Yeh I ain’t staying with ‘Miss. My Sweet Sixteen Went Up In Flames’ here” one of the other dudes says as he points at their classmate in question, crying her eyes out surrounded by her friends as she looks at her house basically burring down right in front of her

“Lol you are right such a drama queen! I can’t stand chicks like her! Right Bryce?!”

“Uhm…” Bryce gives one more look at the girl, she looks so pitiful this was supposed to be one of the best days in her life and yet it literally became one of the worsts… he can’t even imagen what her parents will say to her once they come back, even if it wasn’t her fault… if that happened to him dad would probably have no remorse in removing him from the face of this Earth, just thinking about it makes a chill travel Bryce’s spine

“Bryce!?” one of Bryce’s friends tries to revitalize him

“Oh yeh yeh! Sorry, but yeh she should just shut up already!”

“Ehy, look guys what if we go to Trevis’? Just sent him a text and said he’ll call the rest of the crew over so we can hang out at his place!”

“Sounds good I’m-!”  

“Ehm sorry…” a feminine and vaguely familiar voice interrupts Bryce. The three men turn around to see a plain but pretty girl stare back at them “Sorry if I interrupt but could I talk to Bryce for a second?”

“Me?” Bryce points at himself as he looks at the girl standing in front of him.

“Yes you… if it’s not a problem that is…?”

“Uh… ok…?” Bryce agrees not sure of the intentions behind such request

“Great… well you remember who am I right…?”

“Uh… vaguely… we me at the gym before right!?”

“Yes, I do karate in the same gym where you have wrestling practice and sometimes we met at the cafeteria and talked a bit there remember?”

“Oh yeh… now I remember… Terra right?”

“Yes! And sorry if it’s inappropriate right now but I really need to get it off my chest already… it’s just that well when I saw you at the party, tonight, before everything went up in flames, I decided to… ehm… that tonight I would stop procrastinating and ask you out on a date! Since admittedly I’ve kinda been smitten by you ever since we met…” the girl shyly confesses as she looks at a friend supporting her from the sidelines

To his surprise Bryce can feel his cheeks turning red… nobody had ever confessed to him before… but like… this girl… she is cute, and she is also kinda pretty to be honest, but she isn’t sexy in the slightest! He’d very much want to say yes to her but what would his friend think of him if he accepts a date from someone that’s soooo… not hot…?”

Feeling his window for a timely response closing down, Bryce tries to say something to not look too flustered “Well… I mean… you mean now?! Like tonight!?” it’s the best he can come up with

“Oh… eh…” the Terra glances at the fire inside the house, that by now has almost being tamed by fire fighters, “… I didn’t mean it exactly now now, considering you know… what just happened… still it would be fine by me to be honest! But I understand if you don’t really want to considering what happened…”

“Ehm… then…” Bryce can’t stall for much longer “…don’t you have a friend to console…?” he tries to state that with arrogance but it comes out more concerned than anything else. Much to his horror!

Was cute girl all he needed to lose his nerves compliantly!? What kind of man is so fucking spineless?!

“Oh… her… I mean… yeh it sucks what happened tonight but I don’t even know the birthday girl to be honest, I came here as the plus one for one of my friends so I think I’m probably better off staying out of it…”

“Oh I mean… yeh… but like…”

“One second!” Bryce’s friends interrupt and quickly drag out Bryce out of Terra’s ear shot

“Dude what are you doing!?”

“What!?”

“No for real what came over you why are you not saying yes!?”

“I mean look at her guys, she is not exactly the hottest woman alive you know…?”

“Oh, so what you only fuck super models or something Bryce!?”

“N-no!”

“Then you must be a dam faggot or something to say no to that!!”

F-faggot? Bryce a faggot?! How dare he even say that!? Among the Callahans there is no such thing as a dick sucking faggots!!! Dad would have already strangled him for just insinuating that!

“Bro shut your mouth and chillax I’m gona say yes don’t worry… I was just trying to create some tension!”

“Now I like it!!” Bryce’s friend slaps him lightly on the back

“Just go to her and make her spread those legs! Tomorrow, we want the details bro!” his other friend says with seemingly no joking intention

“Absolutely!!” Bryce walks back towards Terra with as confident of a stride as he could muster “Ok I’m in let’s do this date thing!” he announces

“Oh wow! Like now!?” she replies back incredulous

“Yep! C’mon baby the night is still young!”

“Oh I mean I just didn’t thought you’d say yes to the now, you know… but ok! Let’s do it!”

“Awesome! So, we are going to…” Bryce realizes he did not think of a place to bring her to

“I was thinking the shopping district! We can go with my car I have it parked close to here!”

“Oh I mean…” Bryce can feel his friends staring at him, letting the girl choose the place AND have her drive you there is such a fag thing isn’t it!? And she probably thinks so too… but it’s not like Bryce can bring her anywhere else with his, as of now, none existent driver license and he can’t think of another place to go to! Their town is not THAT big after all! “…yes I guess that will be alright…”

“Good! Shall we go then!?”

“Of course! See you guys” Bryce waves his friends off

“See ya dude!”

“Break a leg! (The third one)” Bryce can hear one of them whisper with malicious intent

Before he knows it, Bryce is sitting in the car with this Terra girl that just asked him out on a date! Everything was happening way too fast! He has never been in such a private setting with a girl before! Especially not one that is this cute! GAHAH what a FAG word! Stupid ‘cute’! She isn’t ‘cute’ she is…Bryce can’t think of another word right now… BUT CUTE IS NOT IT!

“Ah and by the way sorry if I won’t be chatty during the car ride, but since it’s dark outside and I’m not that experienced with driving I’d rather not talk until we get there…”

“Ok… ok… no problem…” Bryce doesn’t really know how to answer…

“So… uhm… sorry it’s just… my first time doing something like this… you know… like I know already all of my girlfriends will call me crazy for getting in to a car with a dude I don’t even know that well! But you know... that’ what I have Peppy for!”

“Peppy?”

“Yeh!” the girl digs in to her beg and pulls out a small bottle “My pepper spray! And besides I think my 6^th sense would not make me fall for someone that would hurt me in any kind of way…”

“You gave your pepper spray a name?”

“Well yes… is it…”

“That’s sooo cu-SILLY! I mean silly! Silly…”

“Uh… you think that’s silly?” Terra says pretty disappointed

“NO! I mean in a good way you know!?”

“Oh… I guess… my brother has always told me it’s cute the way I name things…”

“I see…”

Awkward silene falls

“Let me just start the car already…”

“Oh yeh… and let me send my mom a text telling her I’m alright and I’ll still be out for the night…”

“Ok so where are we gona eat?” Terra asks as the two make their way down the shopping district, a lively street in their town filled with shops and restaurants where seemingly everyone in town gathers in the evenings

“Uhm…” Bryce is not really sure what he wants to eat but right before the fire started at that house party he had eyed some delicious looking olive pizzas, too bad they are probably reduced to charcoal right now… he still kinda craves olive pizza tho…

“I was thinking Pizza. How does that sound?!” Terra anticipates him, making Bryce curse at himself! He can’t just go along with it! He’ll look like a sissy faggot that lets himself get thrown around by his date! But he also really wants Pizza right now…

“I was just about to say that!! And let me bring you to the best Pizza restaurant in town”

“Awesome! Let’s go then!”

“This place is certainly… peculiar…” Terra says while looking around at the restaurant. It’s seemed to have come out straight from a western film! Cow skulls, beer barrels and wood furniture as far as the eye could see…

“You like it?” Bryce asks

“Well… it’s very typical… that’s for sure just not very-”

“CHUG CHUGH CHUG CHUGH CHUG CHUGH CHUG CHUGH CHUG CHUGH CHUG CHUGH CHUG CHUGH CHUG CHUGH!!!! YEEEEHEHEHHEHEEEEEEEE!!!!!”

Terra resumes talking after the men at the bar stop screaming “… just not very romantic that’s all…”

“So… you don’t… like it?”

“No no! I do! I’d totally come to a party here! It must be a blast! Just not on a date… I would have rather gone to like… ‘Nonna Pina’s’ you know…?”

“Oh…” Bryce feels defeated slumps back in his wooden chair… he would have love going to ‘Nonna Pina’s’! He was a kid last time he went there, but with all of those flowery table cloths and the sculped silverware… if he had proposed to go there he would have sounded like a fag… but if he let her choose he would have also ended up looking like a fag! He just couldn’t win could he? Whatever… he’ll just have to make up for it now…

“Hello, what can I order for you?” A surprisingly polite waiter shows up in front of the couple’s round wooden table

“Uhm…” Terra looks at the menu “I’d have a pizza with extra cheese and onion” Terra asks

“Anything else?”

“Yes… water of course and… a can of Funta, and fires! With hot sauce!”

Hot sauce! She likes hot sauce!? She doesn’t like the kind of girl that likes something like that… but apparently she does… but like… what would she think of Bryce if also didn’t eat spicy tonight!? She’ll probably label him as a literal week sauce then… he can’t let that happen! He needs to out-spice her!

“For you sir?”

“Uhm… Pizza with hot chilli pepper on it!”

“Ok sounds good and as drink?”

“Golden beer, in the biggest possible mug you have!” that’ll surly impress her

The waiter raises an eyebrow… “Sure… ID please…”

“Here you go” Bryce quickly takes it out of his wallet as Terra looks at him half way between stunned and disappointed

“Uhm… ok…” the waiter gives the card back as the ginger man struggles not to grin at the effectiveness of his fake ID

As soon as the waiter his out of ear hot however Terra whispers to him in an alternated tone “What are you doing…!? You are too young to drink…!”

Why does she sound disappointed?! “What? Are you gona preach to me that I should wait till fucking drinking age or something!?”

“No, no… like… I won’t deny that I had a few bears when I shouldn’t have had… but like not in public and certainly not more than a glass or a least a bottle! A whole mug seems excessive!!”

“That’s just how thing are done in my family! My dad alone would chug on beer mugs all day if he could!”

“I-is your dad… an alcoholic?!”

Bryce eye’s wides “N-no… why would you think that!?” he tries to avoid eye contact “…he just gets a little carried away sometimes…”

“I... see… ehm… ok… just think of your liver ok…?”

“Yeh fine…” Bryce waves her off

“So… what do you do?”

“Like what?”

“You know in life…”

“Wr-”

“Besides wrestling I mean…”

“Oh well… whenever I have free time I usually just hang out with my friends…”

“And what do you do?!”

“What!?”

“When you hang out with your friends?”

“Oh like we joke around, we pull some pranks on each other and… oh and we play games…”

“Like which ones?”

“The usual… Call of Booty, Grand Theft Ass, Sixninte…”

“Oh those ones… so tell me what are they about, like the story and the objective?”

“Ah… eh…” what does he do now!? He can’t start talking about the lore… even if those games are a bit deeper than what most people think. He spent his fair share of time going through the wikis to learn the details, but if he starts talking about the lore he’ll sound like a fucking nerd “Ah to be honest I don’t really know! I just shoot whatever it’s moving and win, you know I think my record of kills in one of them was like… 69 or something like that!”

“Ah… ok… and…” Terra bites her lips “Changing subject… nothing planned for uni?”

“Well… I’m eyeing Olympus University as of now…”

“Wow that’s an impressive school! And which major do you want to take?!”

“Business probably… makes good money…”

“And…?”

“And what?”

“Nothing else? I mean… business is not your passion?!”

“N-no not exactly I’d say…” Bryce gets interrupted by the waiter

“Sorry for the wait here you go!” the waiter brings Bryce his beer mug

“FUCKING FINALLY!!” Bryce snatches the almost overflowing glass container, then without hesitation he brings it to his lips and makes his head fall backwards as he starts to guzzle the bear at an almost alarming speed

“Bryce, slow down!” Terra tries to stop him but Bryce is too caught up in his drink to hear her and he stops only where there is not even a single drop in the mug

“Fill it up again will ya!?” Bryce says to the waiter who had started at the whole scene in wide eyed disbelief. He had never seen someone so young drink so much beer so quickly!

“Sur-”

“NO THANKS! I think that’s enough!” Terra confidently states cutting off the waiter

“WHY!?” Bryce asks annoyed and surprised

“Look I’m here to talk to my date! Not to drag him drunk out of his mind back to my car and probably having to clean his barf off my car seats…” she plainly states in no uncertain terms

“Ugh… fine… I guess…” Bryce agrees reluctantly, knowing Terra is his only ticket home, since dad will probably be in no state to drive and he’ll never allow mom to come pick him up this late at night “…take the mug away…” he tells the waiter, bending the knee to Terra’s will because he really doesn’t want to walk back home in the dark

Yet now he can’t help but feel like a failure, he was supposed to impress Terra with his drinking skills but they seem to not be enough! He has been drinking for years at this point, but Terra doesn’t consider him good enough to handle more than a mug and not barf all over himself… if she met dad she’d surely…

Bryce stops his train of thought

Better if she doesn’t meet dad…

“Bryce!?”

“Eh!?”

“Were you listening?!”

“No-no sorry I was distracted…” Bryce blurbs out more apologetic that he wanted to sound…

“Well I was saying, yesterday I went to see the Power Bottom Ranger movie with my little brother-”

“REALLY!? How was it!? Was it good!?!??!?!”

“Oh so you like Power Bottom Rangers Too uh!?”

“Ahg…” Bryce realizes he let his excitement get the better of him “…no I mean not that much, I used to watch it as a kid but even back then I wasn’t the biggest fan…”

“Oh… I see… uhm…” Terra’s expression makes Bryce worry she might have a feeling something is wrong but she seems to brush it off without much effort “…then you should try to watch it again! It’s really good! I always watch it with my younger brother and it’s super fun! They even hired real martial artists as consultant to make the actors use real martial arts moves and there is even character that fights using wrestling moves you know!?”

“Seems… enjoyable…” Bryce attempts to sound disinterested but his legs vibrating under the table reminds him of just how much he enjoys that show. When he was a kid, he even received a full set of Ranger toys for his birthday! He loved that thing until his dad… well doesn’t matter… right now… he’d rather listen to what Terra is saying than recall stuff like that

So, for the next quarter of an hour or so Bryce listens intently to all of Terra’s recounting but trying to look uninterest is becoming harder and harder. Still... he has to… if she tells her he likes Power Bottom Ranger too she might start telling others and that would be the end of him! Especially when she starts to talk about the movie it’s so hard to not ask questions!!! There is nothing he wouldn’t give to watch that, but he has to wait it comes to streaming so he can watch it under the sheets of his bed…

“…you know… I even bought myself an action figure and…” Terra mood suddenly sours “Why do I bother?!”

“What?” Bryce asks confused

“You are not even trying to look interested, are you!?”

Bryce keeps his lips sealed and glances away stuck between a rock and a hard place, eyeing the increasingly drunk men at the bar. They sure are living the good life… unlike him they certainly have nothing to hide from anyone…

“Sorry for the wait here’s your order…” the polite waiter approaches with the food, dropping the moment of tension between the two

“Thanks!!!”

“Thanks dude…”

Terra immediately pours her hot sauce on her fries and dives in without any restraint

“UHMMM!!! So good!” She struggles to enunciate as she fans her own mouth

“Yeh… I’m sure they are good…” Bryce lips trembles as he looks at his own pizza. Did they have to put THAT MUCH chili pepper on it!?!?! They might as well replace the dough with it at this point!!

“So you are not digging in?” Terra asks confused munching on a mouthful of Pizza

“Of course I wasn’t stalling!!” Bryce stops hesitating starts eating as well, as soon as the spice touches his tongue he can feel his whole mouth being scorched and his eyes starting to tear up. This is way past his spice tolerance limit!!! but he tries to pull through! He can’t look like a fag sissy in front of Terra “…uhmmmm. Good…”

“So I was thinking…” Terra starts to talk again but Bryce is too busy trying to not die to listen to her “Bryce…? Are you ok?”

Bryce nods but the redness in his face betrays him

“Bryce drink something!” Terra stands up to worryingly hands Bryce the entire water bottle, but he pushes it away

“BRYCE DRINK ALREADY!!!”

Bryce shakes it head, so Terra just opens the bottle and basically shoves it in her date’s mouth. The mere smell of water is enough for Bryce to put is pride aside as he basically floods his mouth with the life-saving liquid

“Ha… ha….. ha……..” Bryce struggles to regain his breath

“Go… ugh…. go take a walk outside Bryce… please…” Terra states coldly

 “Terra?!”

“Go take a walk you’ll feel better…”

“Ter-”

“BZZZZBZZBZBZBZZ” Bryce phones starts to ring, he pulls it out to see that it’s his friends

“See, go answer the phone…”  Terra mumbles as she sits back down with her Pizza, and Bryce relents more out of need for some fresh air than anything else…

Once out of the restaurant Bryce can’t bring himself to open the call and he stalls to the point that the phone stops ringing… so he just texts them

“Sorry guys I’m busy…”

“Ok dude have fuuuuuuuun ;)”

“Ah…ah…ah…” Bryce laughs nervously… but he just puts his phone in his pocket and breathes in the night air for a few minutes dreading the moment when he’ll have to go back inside…

Bryce ends up dreading that moment so much that at the end it never comes

“I paid for everything…” Terra sneaks up on Bryce

“AH! Wait no! What about my Pizza!?”

“Were you really gona eat it!?”

“…”

“As I thought…”

“So what’s next for this date?” Bryce tries to sound hopeful

“Nothing… it ends now… this was a mistake… sorry if I wasted your time but in all honesty, you are just not the kind of dude I’m in to”

Bryce bites his lips as he feels a dagger being stabbed in to his heart. He tried, he really tried… to impress her but in the end, he ended up just looking like a fucking fagot didn’t he!? A part of him would want to just… explode and tell her that the date is gona continue whether she likes it or not but just looking her at her pretty yet disappointed face Bryce knows that he can’t do that… sometimes… sometimes he really wishes he was more like his father…

“Let’s just start heading to the car I’ll drive you home… just I need to stop at a bar or something… I need to use the bathroom…”

“Couldn’t you just go here?”

“I tried…”

“And!?”

“This is what found” Terra shows Bryce a photo of the toilet bowl which instantly makes Bryce gag for how disgusting it is

“Fuck… that’s… not… THAT bad after all! I’d use it!”

“What exactly are you trying to prove!?” Terra can’t help but voice her frustration at this point

“Uhm…eh… what do you mean!? I’ve got nothing to prove here!! I’m already awesome and everybody knows it!” Bryce’s forced smile betrays whatever cockiness he was trying to show off

“Forget it already… let’s just go…”

“How long is she gona take!?” Bryce wonders out of boredom as he stands outside the bar Terra has entered. With nothing else to do he starts to look around he’s not very familiar with the section of the shopping district so many of the shops are new to him however one in particular catches it’s attention

It’s semi hidden, squashed between a shoe shoes shop and a clothing store, lots of ladies come in and out of both but the tiny shop in the middle always seems to be ignored…

Curios Bryce gets closer and closer until he manages to read the sign

‘Comic-a-land’

“What a cute pun…” Bryce mumbles in as low of a tone as possible, then he gets even closer and reads ‘30% off’ on a sticker slapped on to the door… “What a nice deal…” he mumbles wishing he could actually buy something right now… then he looks back at the bar and with no Terra in sight it’s as if his legs move on its own

Bryce dashes towards the comic shop but starts walking again just before he enters the door

“HELLO!!” an exited and evidently muscular young man at the cash register greets him

“H-hi…”

“Looking for something, in particular!?” the handsome man asks

“Ehm… no… just here to take a look…” Bryce finds himself struggling to speak… what is wrong with him!?

“Well can I give you a tour then?” the man asks jumping over the counter with a big and charming smile “I know it’s not a very big shop but we have everything I can assure you!”

This dude… why is he so eager!? That’s kinda of annoying but he also sounds so… nice?! He looks older than Bryce of about a couple of years, but those big muscles might just make him look more mature than he actually is. With those arms he could crush a coconut! Wonder what sports he plays… or maybe he just works out? Regardless, would he get upset if Bryce were to ask to touch those meaty muscles of his-OH FUCK what is he thinking!?!? TOUCHING ANOTHER’S DUDE LIKE THAT!? WHY IS HE THINKING THIS WEIRD STUFF!!? And now he’s feeling FLUSTERED! It’s like… it’s like… having this guy in front of him it’s like… having Terra speaking to him but if she was hot. Like actually hot! Not just pretty. But at the same time it’s kinda not the same because this dude is a dude and-

“Are you ok? You are all red and-”

“THE BATHROOM! THE BATHROOM! I just need the bathroom real quick…”

“Oh… well… I’m not really supposed to let people use the bathroom without them buying anything but I guess… it’s that way…”

“Thanks!” Bryce dashes to the bathroom which, luckily, has a sink installed even if it’s pretty small, so he quickly opens the water and splashes it on his face to calm down

“What the fuck was that!?” Bryce cries out with his hands in his hair “You know what! Doesn’t matter I’m just tired I’ll need to get out of here…” and so Bryce does, or at least tries to…

As soon as he gets out of the bathroom Bryce looks over at the cash register and sees

“FIRST EDITION SPINNERMAN COMIC!?” He screams out as he points at the framed pages

“Oh yeh, it’s out prised possession!” the cashier replies

“NO WAY DUDE! HOW DID YOU GET YOUR HANDS ON THAT!!? I would love to have it!”

“Oh, long story but guess you like Spinnerman huh?”

“A TON! He’s like one of the best Masturvle superheroes! Have you seen the last movie!?”

“One Way Hole?! Heck yeh! And the new actor was kinda hunky not gona lie!”

Hunky? What does he mean? He’s talking about a dude! But like he’s also a dude… unless he is a “Ugh whatever” Bryce barely opens his mouth

“Sorry!?”

“I mean…” Bryce says the first thing that comes to mind “…for how much would you sell me that original comic?”

“Sorry not on sale… it’s special family possession!” of course it was but Bryce just really needed a quick get out of jail free card

“Special?”

“Yeh but I have reprint on sale right now if you want?”

“Really where?”

The cashier jumps over the counter again and guides Bryce to a stand with all the Masturvle comics

“There it is” he gently hands Bryce a copy and the wrestler proceeds to glide his eyes across the pages with true childlike wonder

“This is dope man! Oh and you also have Block Widow?!” Bryce eagerly yanks from the shelf the comic in question

“Yep latest edition, oh! Wana see the DeeSi section too!?”

“You bet I do!” Bryce exclaims

“Behind you” the cashier points

“Ah! No way you have the Hyperman and Patman body swap one!? I never read this one!”

“Yeh it’s one of my favs!” the cashier admits

“Really what’s the best part about it?”

The cashier pauses for a second as if he was making an important decision, but one more look at Bryce’s confused expression it’s enough for him to decide “Gaydar don’t let me down…” he mumbles at himself unintelligibly. Then he picks up the comic and shows Bryce the body swap page, where to two superheroes have only their birthday suit on and nothing else, save for a flash of light between their legs

“W-what does… that mean!?” Bryce can feel himself turning red again

“Like… I’m not sure if this is of your taste but I very much enjoy barely clothed men…” the cashier spells it out with a certain degree of mischief but Bryce could feel also some kind of hope in his voice

“So… so… does that mean that you are… you are…” what’s the nice word for faggot again?

“Gay!?” the cashier fills in

“Yeh that!!”

“Almost… Bisexual!”

“Oh? And that means…??” No for real what does that mean!? He’s he like the discount faggot!? A half faggot?!

“Well…” the cashier now sounds disappointed almost defeated… “…it just means I like both women AND men”

“That’s all?”

“Kinda…”

“Isn’t it kinda… weird? Like how can you like both?”

“I mean… I just kinda do, I can fall for a woman and I can fall for a man. I can find them both cute, I can find them both hot, I can find them both sexy. You follow me, right?!”

“Uhm…” NO WAY NO WAY THAT THIS IS HAPPENING!!!! IF WHAT THIS GUY IS SAYING IT’S TRUE, THEN BRYCE CALLAHAN TOO IS… NO LIKE ON WAY THAT CAN BE REAL!!! HOW CAN IT BE REAL? HE KNOWS HOW AWSOME IT IS TO STAY WITH A HOT GIRL! HE HAS SPENT TIME WITH PLEANTY OF THOSE DURING PARTIES!! AND TERRA! LIKE TERRA IS SO CUTE! SHE EVEN LIKES POWER BOTTOM RANGER TOO!! HE’D TOALLY DATE HER!! But… if BISEXUAL means… he likes BOTH then… this guy, he’s strong and muscular… he’s handsome and kind and he likes comics too… and OH SHIT! THE STOMACH!

BRYCE CAN FEEL THE BUTTERFLIES GOING CRAZY!!!

“Are you… ok…?”

“YES, NO! I MEAN NOT YES KIDA JUST UHM…”

The cashier gives Bryce a sympathetic grin “Do you want me to get you some water?”

“No I’m fine!!” Bryce yelps as red as Hyperman’s cape… “Just… I… don’t get it…?” he murmurs without thinking as he scratches the floor with his shoe

“What being Bisexual is like?”

“Yes…!?” Bryce doesn’t even know what he’s saying at this point

“So… here let me just…hold this for me a sec” the cashier hands Bryce the comic he was holding and walks up to a shelf with ‘PRIDE’ written on it with a rainbow font, he picks up a comic and hands it back to Bryce “Here it’s on the house, it’s a story that explains it very well”

“Agh!” WHAT!? Why is this dude just gifting him a comic with a muscular dude who is reviving a cheek kiss from BOTH a woman AND a man at the same time!? AND WHY IS EVERYONE SO HOT!?

“NO!!”

“Uh?”

“I mean NO! I can’t accept this…”

“Oh don’t worry my dad runs this place! He’ll understand once I’ll explain it to him…”

“Y-your d-d-dad?”

“Yes my dad!?”

“Your DAD!? Runs this place?!”

“I already told you yes…”

“Why?!” Bryce asks genuinely bewildered

“Well maybe because he likes comics?” the cashier starts as he makes his eyes wonder around the shop “It was always his dream to have a shop like this and eventually as I grew up SURROUNDED by comics it became mine too. It was always our special thing, it’s what made us as close as we are now. One day we just decided that we would do this! We saved up and opened this place as a side-gig, we take turn on the register and tonight it’s my turn and… you know this place it’s extra special for me because it’s the reason I came out to him… my dad wanted to have a year-round Pride section but he didn’t know from where to start… so… then I told him I could help because I was bi… and he… agh… I can’t remember exactly what he said but it was something so corny it made me laugh… ah but sorry I went off on a tange-” the young’s man looks back at Bryce and bites his togue to stop his own loud mouth  

“Y-y-you… do… a-a-ALL of… that… with y-your… DAD!?” Bryce’s eyes are filling up with tears

“Oh, no sorry look… it’s my fault really! I should have imagined that you… you can’t bring this manga home… look I-”

“There you are! My six sense is never wrong!” a jolly woman enters the shop at that exact moment, making Bryce freeze in terror as he recognizes the voice “You like comic books Bryce!?” she happily asks somewhat rhetorically

“IT’S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE TERRA!!!!!” Bryce turns around towards her and screams out loud as if yelling would make it truer

“WHAT!? But… Bryce! Are you crying!?”

“NO!” Bryce tries to bring his hands to his face to dry his tears but in doing so he drops the comics he was holding right in front of Terra “GHAA!”

Terra looks at the fallen comic for only a split second but then ignores them to focus on Bryce again “Bryce…?” she asks sounding deadly worried for him “… are you o”

“I’M NOT A FAGGOT!!!!”

“What!?” Terra’s left utterly dumfounded

“Ok dude calm down please… I’ll go get you some wat-”

“HE’S THE FAGGOT!!!” Bryce declares pointing at the cahier with a shaky hand

“Bryce please take a big bre-”

“HE’S THE FUCKING FAGGOT NOT ME I SWEAR I’M NOT FAGOT!!! I SWEAR TERRA I SWEAR!!”

“Ok dude you are crossing a line now.” the cashier states firmly as he can as he advances towards Bryce to grab him by the wrist

“DON’T TOUCH ME YOU SICKO!!!”

 Bryce slaps away the cahier’s hand and makes a bee line for the exit

“Bry-”

“CRASHSHS!!” before Terra has a chance to say anything Bryce has gotten her out of his way by shoving her in to the nearest comic display

Once outside Bryce just RUNS! He runs… not sure where but he just runs! Away from Terra! Away from the cashier! Away from that dam comic store! Away from the shopping district! Away even from the city lights… until he collapses in yard of a suburban house. His legs served him well…. But they were so sore… so tiered… he doesn’t know how many kilometres he has runed… and so he now lays, in the grass, as tear stream out of his eyes… and only one thought swarming in his head…

He’s really a fagot isn’t he?

“Your’ home…” Bryce’s dad blurbs out from the couch as he sees his son enter the front door among the darkness

“Yeh… I’m home…” Bryce, red eyed and tired, meekly replies as he counts the empty bottles of beer around his dad… he stops at twelve…

“WHwaht!? You seem kinds dowwn?! Wasn’t the party good!?”

“It was… fire…” Bryce mumbles…

“Gowod than come here and drink some morew, I have the finals of ywesterday’s wrest-l-ing matchhh recorded here on the TV…”

“Yes…” Bryce agrees to the obligation, just glad that his dad is too drunk to understand what he’s really feeling right now otherwise…

After an exhausting walk back home, Bryce sits down besides his dad and drinks, one, two, three bears but not enough… he wants to forget… to forget everything!

“YOU DAM FAGGOT!!” every fibre of Bryce’s body tenses up as his dad screams and throws a bottle at the TV.

“SMASH” Even after the bottle joins the pile of broken glass behind the TV stand Bryce finds himself unable to relax his body

“GAHA LOOK AT HIM! He got hurt and now he’s crying like a fucking sissy ass… dam faggot I tell you! He’s gona either go cry to mommy or get his asshole fucked by the first fag he comes across! You are on TV!!! Be a man you fag!”

“…” Bryce’s beer starts to shake in his hand

“Ah! You know what he reminds off! He has the same face you had when I burned all of those dolls of yours!” Bryce’s dad effeminates his voice “You were like ‘Nooohhh daddy! They are not dolls! They are rangers! They are action figures not dolls!  I swear I won’t play with the pink one anymore! Noooo daddy nooo!’ AHAHAHAAHA! It was funny as fuck… ah that dam bitch of your mother she got that crap for your birthday and didn’t tell me for two months… I gave her everything I spared you that day… agh… but I hope I… I raised you better since then…” Bryce dad stretches an arm out to pick up another bear bottle and hands it to his son with a grin…

Bryce would want to take a big breath right now but he knows that if he will, he might just start to sob, so he keeps his lungs still as he takes the bottle form his father’s hand. His body still feeling as if it suddenly turned in to stone

Once his father goes back to watching the TV Bryce, having held his breath as long as he physically could, allows himself a shallow breath from the mouth. It’s taking everything he has inside of him and then some to not bolt out of the living room and lock himself in his room, he feels like he is about to explode but he can’t! If he values his life he can’t! He can’t! HE CAN’T! He-

“Buuahhah…” Bryce can’t hold back anymore and he bends over backwards with tears. Dropping the beers he tucks his heads between his knees and puts his hands over it waiting for what’s to come! He can’t hear anything that isn’t his own tears at this point… but he can feel IT he can feel his whole body aching already… but as tears continue to stream out of his eyes he feels… nothing… no pain of any kind…

Slowly Bryce finds the courage to glance at his dad through his fingers. Worried that the first thing he’ll end up seeing is a fist right in his face he instead finds his dad immobile, only his belly lightly moving up and down, carefully Bryce straightens his back while always keeping an eye on his father for any potential surprise reaction but only once he hears him snore the young man takes a sigh of relief knowing he’s out cold.

He got lucky tonight… he got really really lucky! But…  he might not get to be this lucky again… but for now… he just wants to forget… forget about everything, forget even his name if he needs to! Forgetting EVEN the fact that he’s alive if he has to!!

Bending down to grab the, now half empty beer bottles, he chugs them both. One he’s done he reaches out in the darkness to find more and no matter in which direction he seems to extend his hands he always manages to pick up another, and then another and then another and then another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another

“BURPHAAAABALWWHWWHAAAAAAAA!!!” Bryce stomach can’t take it anymore and sends everything back up, making Bryce cover himself as well as all the couch in barf… but he doesn’t mind… because now he feels sick… and that sickness is strong enough to overpower everything else and that’s all that matters. As he slumps on the couch and closes his eyes, Bryce feels a sense of relief… his whole being is now fighting against the alcohol leaving no space for flusteredness, fear or sadness… if that’s as good as he’ll ever get to feel then he’d want it to last forever…

YEARS LATER

 “Yes… I’m taking these tw-” Bryce’s cuts himself short once he recognizes the man at the convention stand. There is no way it’s him is it?! And even the other man seems quite surprised at the chance encounter especially now in the middle of a comic book convention

“Honey what’s wro… Oh…” Terra also recognizes Bryce instantly but also ‘HONEY?!’ are these two a thing now!?

Even if the convention going on all around them makes things hardly quiet, for a brief moment everything feels so silent… so still… as if time itself had stopped…

“Ehm I…” Bryce stutters looking behind himself, hoping someone would be waiting in line behind him so he’d have an excuse not to address the situation, but at lass no luck…

“What a coincidence!!!” The other man starts trying to lighten the mood “So how have you been Bryce?”

“Well… now I’m… a senior at Olympus U and… AGH… sorry who am I kidding!? Guys, I’m sorry! I’m REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY sorry for what happened back then, I was just dealing with a lot at the time and that day everything went in the worst way possible, but I know I have no excuse I hope you can forgive me but you don’t have to if you don’t feel like it. Also on this note, thanks for keeping your moth shut about what happened that day… for moths after I was paranoid that I’d hear some rumour about it but I never did… so like… is there anything I can do-”

“Ehy dude! It’s the past now don’t worry…” the man gently cuts him off with a smile

“Yeh” Terra chimes in “And besides, we kinda need to thank you already, because hadn’t it been for you, Nathan would not be my fiancé now!” she states smiling warmly at her partner, the rings on both of their fingers sparkling with dim reflections

“Wow… at least something good came out of it…” Bryce admits genuinely happy for them

“And you? How have you been doing?”

“Well… honestly… I’ve been doing great… at least since last year! Because you know last year my boyfriend came in to my life…” Nathan and Terra both beam at Bryce once he makes this mention “…he… help me with SOO much… he… I don’t know where I would be without him now… sometimes I feel guilty for what I had to put him through… but I know he loves me and I love him so that’s all that matters!”

“I’m happy for you dude… and sorry if it’s a bit… too much to ask but… your father…?”

“Oh ehm… long story… I don’t really wana get in to it right now… but I’m good don’t worry… I’d tell you really but… I don’t think neither of us have the time now…”

“OH BRYCE THERE YOU ARE!” Ace screams as he runs towards his boyfriend “Finally I found you! Ehm… oh…” Ace notices the stand owners looking at him with a smile that appears slightly too big… it’s kinda the same expression Zayne had when he first told him he was dating Bryce “Bryce… do you know… these people?”

“Well…”

“Double date!” Terra quips

“Eh?”

“What?”

“Double date at a bar close by this evening so we’ll have all the time in the world to talk!” she explains

“Well… we were planning to go out for some drinks anyway so… Ace what do you say?”

“I mean if they are your friends fine by me!”

“Great!” Nathan exclaims “We have a lot of Spinnerman movies to catch up on! Eh Bryce?” he asks with a grin

“Yeh I suppose we do!”

“Excuse me! Can I ask a question?”

“I’ll be buying this one if you may!”

Two other costumers approach the boot so Nathan quickly serves Bryce as Terra takes care of them

“You can contact me on this phone number!” Nathan quips handing Bryce a business card

“Gotcha! See you tonight!” Bryce replies before Ace and him walk away from the stand

“What was that all about?” Ace asks his boyfriend visibly confused

“I’ll tell you later! Now let’s just have fun shall we!?”

“Ok then!” Ace beams back at Bryce filling the wrestler’s heart with love!

If there is one thing in his life that could last forever, he’d want it to be Ace!