myownface | The Causeway, Sunday Evening

"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.

Sparkle smiled a little, leaned in for a good look, and then couldn't help but grin a bit.

"Oh, hey, that actually looks really nice, with, like, the backdrop and everything. I don't suppose I could get you to like e-mail me a copy of that?" He smiled crookedly. "But, if it's all the same, you know I have to ask you to not put that up on the internet anywhere, right?"

Since he had no idea how Hernando felt about that sort of thing, but he was kind of trying to avoid having anything online that would, say, tip people off about his own actual whereabouts.

"I wasn't gonna," the boy blurted and blushed harder, "I can email it to you, sure. Where do I send it?"

Hernando would be against having the photo online only because he was still edgy about the photos on Dani's phone. Which was still in Joaquin's possession.

He watched Sparkle handle the budding photographer situation with a fond little smile though.

Sparkle was still smiling as he rattled off the e-mail address for Demon Marcus, and then added reassuringly, "And thanks. I mean, for not taking this with, like, Tumblr in mind or whatever. Like I said... I'm not gonna give you shit for this. We were the two grown-ass adults who were all over one another in a public place."

He glanced back at Hernando with a fond, but kind of wry, smile. Hey, it was true.

"You just have to work on being more sneaky."

If the kid had been a bit older, Sparkle might have suggested a flipside; waiting for a break in the kissing, stepping over, saying the whole scene had been captivating, and asking permission to take the photo. But... kid. There were always going to be creeps out there who would take that one entirely the wrong way, and someone who was maybe fourteen wouldn't necessarily have the life experience to safely navigate a situation like that if it came to it.

Hernando would have had a large problem if it had been an adult. Even if asked. A boy? No problem. Not when he had that look on his face when he took the picture.

Hernando smiled back at Sparkle shamelessly. He didn't mind people watching. Only pictures.

"No. That wouldn't have been cool," the teen said about Tumblr with his eyes sliding away a little since taking the picture at all hadn't been exactly on the cool side of things. He mumbled something more that might have been a comment or a compliment about the two of them looking good together.

Sparkle smiled, a small, reassuring look on his face that came, mostly, from a place of understanding.

"Thanks," he said, honestly. And then, after a pause and a little more quietly, he added, "I hope someday you find somebody who you can be just as comfortable with."

No judgement, no assumptions. There were certain things he wasn't ever going to put a kid on the spot about. Not unless they volunteered it first. But it was sitting right there for the boy to take if he needed it.

I see you, kid.

The boy peeked up at Sparkle through his bangs again and mumbled his own thanks. When he was sure the talk was through, he turned and headed away.

His fingers moved on the screen to email the picture to Sparkle.

Hernando watched with a fond smile. "You are very good with them," he mentioned.

"Used to be one," Sparkle replied, glancing back at Hernando, smiling crookedly. "Sometimes I wonder how the hell everyone else is so far removed from them that they can't begin to relate."

Hernando looked in the direction the boy was escaping. "I think for most, we convince ourselves we could never have been as young as this. At this moment I am convinced I would never have been as bold as that."

A breath and a small shake of his head while he looked up at Sparkle, "Though perhaps it is simply lack of opportunity. There would be little even now. In Mexico."

"There's little... most places," Sparkle noted. "We're a hell of a lot braver here than I've been... like..."

He spread his hands.

"Anywhere? I never actually came out, back home."

He'd been outed. By his legal fucking guardian. Thanks, Lew.

"I was not out but it was not my choice," Hernando said. He unfolded from the bench and walked over to stand near Sparkle. "It would have destroyed Lito's career to be known as what we are. I do not know if it is bravery or simply that I am tired of living a life in silence."

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