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The fact that Lucien had a Transgender father wasn’t something Lucien boosted about. In fact, it was more of a secret, or rather, Lucien felt it wasn’t his job to tell people. And it wasn’t. Sure, when he was little, and Damien barely passed, he’d piped up a correction in the way of just calling him ‘dad’ loudly, with Damien often hushing him for it.
When he was about seven years old, Damien had sat him down, to calmly explain why people often called him ‘Mrs’ instead of the masculine term, that it was hard for people to accept things such as that. Of course there were the few that politely apologized and corrected themselves, but there had been instances, sadly, where Lucien had heard snide comments after they both had turned around to leave.
There was a couple times his dad seemed more insecure, however, rather than smiling and striding through things. The days he got dysphoric, and the times during june, aka pride month. In their old town, before they moved with Mary to maple bay, pride parades weren’t very popular, but they did happen. Lucien had gone once with his old school, when they mentioned it, and he’d asked his dad to join, but he’d just gotten a smile and a “I’ll go some other time, Lucien”.
He never had gone to one, as far as Lucien knew. He’d asked him again when they moved, and immediately a month later, a pride parade came to town, in which Lucien had basically begged him to go, but again, the man had refused, again with a smile and a “maybe next year, Love.”
This year, Lucien made it his mission to make him go.
“Hey dad..?” he spoke, right after coming home from his last class, shoving the door open, and already seeing his dad in the living room, making flower bouquets. For who, he wasn’t sure.
Damien didn’t even look up, tying a bright red ribbon around a bunch of roses. “Yes love?”
The teen raised a pierced brow at the flowers, and heard his dad sigh. “You should know this one, Lucien. Twelve red roses is the easiest one yet.” he spoke, putting the bouquet in a vase so it wouldn’t die before he could give it to the intended. Lucien just rolled his eyes.’”eternal love?”
“Well, yes, but often given for proposals as well.”
“Whatever. Hey dad, I wanted to ask you something.” he finally asked, getting Damien’s attention.
“Well, go ahead, my dear.”
Lucien sighed, before opening his mouth again. “There’s a marching band coming to town tomorrow. Mary’s gonna take Joseph and the kids there. Chris told me she wanted me to ask you to come too.” he spoke, smirking as he saw Damien’s expression change from neutral to shocked, to excited. Couldn’t resist, of course.
“I’d love to, darling. I’ll tell her when i head to the shelter later this evening.” he smiled, moving closer to give his son a hug, Lucien giving a one-armed hug back. “Alright, cool. Can we have pizza today for dinner?” he asked, getting a chuckle out of his father, and a hand ruffling his hair.
Mary met the two of them by the street, holding Chris’ hand while Joseph tried his best to keep the twins in check while also balancing the baby in his arms, She’d ditched her sweater over a black tank top due to the hot weather. She greeted them by giving Damien a hug while giving the teenager a grin, Lucien reciprocating it with a faked salute.
“Finally, there’s my special boy!” she grinned, Joseph giving them a polite smile. “Glad you could make it, Damien.”
“Pleasure is all mine.” he smiled, putting a hand on Lucien’s shoulder to keep him close. There were a lot of people here, and Lucien often had a habit of just disappearing in crowds, either from just walking away because he got bored, or saw someone and didn’t bother saying where he was going.
“It’s starting!” Christie and Christian called in unison, pointing to the street, where they were standing behind street fences. The music was already audible, and Damien was immediately smiling, visibly excited. He didn’t notice Lucien and Mary sharing a glance.
The parade got closer and closer, rainbow flags flying, being waved, confetti felt like it was being thrown out of the sky itself, and there were over a hundred dancers, all wearing rainbow-themed clothes.
Damien’s smile was gone when he saw a woman waving a blue, pink and white flag. He turned and saw two women holding hands, rapidly waving a flag with different pink lines, a teenager walking behind, seeingly normal if he hadn’t seen a four-lined black,grey, white and purple flag on their cheek.
“.. Lucien.” he spoke, the hand on Lucien’s shoulder stiff and clutching him. “Is this a… Pride parade?”
Lucien gave him a small smile. “You kept saying no. I asked Mary about it, and she said this year’s one was gonna have a marching band, so i felt like i had to make you come to at least this one.”
Mary came up, hugging Damien tightly. Chris and the twins were eagerly standing by the fence, the twins excitedly climbing with Joseph trying to keep them from actually crossing the barrier. Mary was holding a very small trangender flag on a stick, that she handed to Lucien.
Damien was crying. Lucien stared at him, worried for a second he was angry, but He didn’t have time to ask before Damien wrapped him up in a tight hug.
“I love you, so much. Thank you, my Darling.” he spoke, sobbing in between words. Lucien grinned, and hugged back, then turned to look again. The marching and was also rainbow-themed, some of them having their very own flags. Damien could see another trans flag, and with all the teens he saw, he felt like crying again. So many young people, brave enough to walk here, and be open about who they were.
He looked a bit to the side, and spotted Hugo and Ernest, smiling. Ernest was trying to not show it, but his little rainbow flag was tucked under his arm, while Hugo was watching in awe, just like Damien had. He wondered for a second of Ernst had also tricked him to come.
A bit further he saw Craig, wearing a white shirt with a Star of David, painted in the Bisexual flag’s colors. The girls also wore the same shirt, the two of them holding a “Jewish, Bi, and proud!” banner they must have made themselves. Even little River was clutching a flag, although she kept dropping it.
“Hey Lucien?” he asked, feeling Lucien lean on his side a bit, taking the flag Lucien was handing to him.
“Yeah?” the teen smiled, his eyes focused on the parade.
“Thank you, my dearest. I love you so much.” he whispered, planting a kiss to the boy’s forehead, laughing as he pulled away and rubbed at the spot.
“Love you too, Dad.”