myownface | The Causeway, Sunday Evening

They are devilishly difficult to keep alive in captivity. That is why even aquariums rarely have them on display.

Hernando was staring all wide eyed. Transfixed by the slow water dance of the dragons. "That would be something, no? They look like flowers."

Weeds, Hernando. They looked like weeds.

Flowery, flowery weeds.

"Aww, they don't really breed in captivity," Sparkle sulked. "Okay, nah, I don't want one. But seeing them here like this is so fucking cool."

Even ignoring the prohibitive price of both the fish and the tank it would need, Sparkle wasn't going to ever keep any wild-caught animals as pets, no.

... Because there were plenty of captive-bred pet hammerhead sharks, sure.

"They are as you say, very fucking cool," Hernando agreed wholeheartedly.

Sparkle's tenderheartedness was endearing even when expressed as a sulk. It made Hernando's smile just that much wider.

"We're gonna have to come back again sometime," Sparkle decided. "For the dragons."

And because it was kind of fantastic, seeing Hernando so engrossed in something. His smile was so good. Sparkle wanted more of it.

"Are you inviting me on another date before we have concluded this one?" Hernando asked, turning attention from the sea dragons to Sparkle, "I suppose this is evidence you are not having too terrible a time."

"And we've only been here like ten minutes, too," Sparkle laughed. "That seems like a pretty good sign, huh?"

He leaned in to kiss Hernando's nose, because it was now pointed at him and he could, and then he grinned.

"Unless you didn't want another one? I'll give you the rest of this date to decide if I'm actually a disaster or not, how's that sound?"

Hernando nuzzled his kissed-upon nose against Sparkle's before leaning further for the briefest brush of a kiss across his lips.

"I have already accepted," Hernando smiled, "because yes I do want another one."

"Yesssss," Sparkle replied, grinning into that nuzzle. "Good. Good. I'm looking forward to it."

Very much.

Hernando was as well. Spending time with Sparkle was energizing.

Recalling an earlier conversation with Kaidan produced a short, quiet chuckle. "I tried to make a joke about third dates to Kaidan and wound up having to explain the entire trope. Sometimes I forget what an adorable innocent he is." Which did not in the slightest stop him from taking ruthless advantage of that same fact to cause Kaidan to blush.

"I, for one, am looking forward to jellyfishes."

Sparkle blinked, picturing that conversation.

And then broke into a fit of giggles.

"Oh man, I'm sorry I wasn't a fly on the wall for that," he cackled. "How much did he sputter? Was it bad?"

"It was," Hernando confirmed, "a complete travesty. I scandalized him, Sparkle."

On purpose, absolutely.

"He blushed quite badly," and there was the grin at that recall, yes, "and then he glowered at me and made me promise on my honor that it was only meant as a joke to tease him and not a societal convention that I intended to follow nor an expectation I intended to lean on you."

Hernando was even more amused by that.

"You did see his face at the date night, yes?"

He hoped so. At least half of that teasing had been in the hope Sparkle was watching.

Sparkle laughed, breaking into a shameless grin.

"I mean, I was his last date of the night. Poor guy." He leaned in a little bit more, a smug look on his face. "So, tell me more about your feelings on societal conventions..."

"Oh? Did you make him blush also?" Hernando smiled.

He considered what he would have to say about societal conventions. Used Sparkle's hand to gently tug him in just that much more.

Then promptly kissed the hell out of his date right there in front of the sea dragons.

The sea dragons did not seem to mind.

Neither did Sparkle.

Actually, Sparkle seemed to be enjoying this kiss very much, reaching a hand behind Hernando's head to thread his fingers through his hair and pressing himself up tight against him. That did a very good job of answering that question, Sparkle thought. He really rather approved of the fervent reply.

Hernando hummed a low approving note and let his free hand travel to Sparkle's waist to hold him close.

He let the kiss deepen and linger for a long few minutes before allowing Sparkle to surface for air.

Then he smiled and murmured, "Hi there."

"Hiiiiii," Sparkle said, smiling and leaning to press his forehead against Hernando's. "So, I have to say, I'm liking your take on the whole..."

The hand that wasn't still in Hernando's hair waved around vaguely.

"Conventions. Thing."

Hernando nuzzled him and laughed softly. "There are some I enjoy breaking very much," he answered, "The one in question is no up to me alone so I cannot speak to it. I very much enjoy kissing you."

Somewhere nearby, there was the mechanical sound of someone's phone camera going off.

Sparkle blinked up. And then glanced in the direction of the phone camera, to make damn sure they were taking photos of the fishes, thank you.

He might have looked ready to throw down, shoulders tense and brow creased while he assessed the situation.

The photographer was a teenage boy who was blushing and looked a little awestruck until he saw Sparkle's face. Then he became interested in fiddling with his phone.

Hernando turned his head to see why Sparkle had tensed. Something flashed through his eyes for a moment because anyone taking pictures of him was a tiny bit triggery still, but it was only a flicker and then gone again.

The hand at Sparkle's waist traveled up to run extremely possessively over his shoulders. Letting his palm play over the muscles gone bunched and protective.

Nuzzling in toward his ear, he murmured, "Sparkle? What is it?"

Sparkle swallowed, immediate knee-jerk tempered slightly by the fact that the kid with the phone had been kind of...

... Kind of a teenage kid, for a start. Sparkle breathed out a little sigh, leaned in for a moment, and then gave Hernando an apologetic little smile before nodding toward the kid.

"Mind if I take a few seconds?"

Hernando glanced at the boy again and nodded. He released Sparkle and took a half step back.

Curious to see what Sparkle meant to do about this. Hernando had written it off the moment he had witnessed the age of the boy with the camera. There were truly only two reasons a boy of that age would take pictures of two men kissing and from the boy's blush, Hernando had written off the more aggressive of the two reasons.

Sparkle took a breath, and then stuck his hands into his jacket pocket, put on a vaguely awkward smile, and started to make his way over toward the kid.

"Hey... got a moment? I'm not going to give you shit, swear to god."

The boy nodded warily while looking up at Sparkle through his bangs. He looked a little as if he'd like to run but he held his ground.

Hernando walked over to an unoccupied bench and sat down. One ankle lazily crossed over a knee as he waited. For all the boy looked wary, Hernando was not worried. Sparkle was not the sort to harm a child. Even one with the bad taste to get caught.

Sparkle offered the kid a wry smile, and then leaned forward a little and said, easily, "There's an option to turn the sound off when you take a picture, you know. Means you won't get busted when you catch two guys making out to a backdrop of kickass fish on your camera reel."

He suspected this was not what the kid was expecting, yes.

"Want me to show you how to find it?"

The boy blinked quite a bit. That clearly had not been what he had expected to hear, no.

Hernando laughed quietly. This was almost worth being interrupted for.

Almost.

The boy mumbled something that might've been 'Sorry, yeah, thanks' but it came out in the garbled unintelligible tone of a teenager caught doing something they shouldn't. Almost shyly was the picture called up and the camera offered to Sparkle so he could see it.

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