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Henry woke up this morning and went to the kitchen to eat his breakfast. But what he did not expect was to see Chad already there trying to cook them some breakfast.
"Good morning, Chad" Henry said entering the kitchen.
"Good morning, love." he said setting two bowls of soup, two plates of toast, and two cups of coffee on the counter. "Mind if you place this on the table for me?"
"Mind if you tell me why you're up so early?" Henry said bringing the food to the table.
"It's your birthday, darling." he said taking off a little apron that seemed to do nothing but make Chad look like an attractive rectangle. "I had to do something."
"You know that you don't have to." he said before eating his toast and soup separately, much to Chad's dismay.
"I know I don't have to." he replied sitting across Henry. "That's why I planned a date for the two of us today."
"I swear if this is anything like your other dates." Henry paused eating.
"What are you talking about? Those were the days."
The lights were glowing neon in the arcade today. The year is 1987 and Henry and Chad clearly showed it.
They have just arrived on Henry's motorcycle. Henry gave his helmet to Chad as 'He doesn't care if he dies anyway.'
They went inside and were greeted by a bunch of children running wildly among the arcade machines. Henry went to a change machine and changed a bunch of his money to little quarters.
"Is this where you wanted us to go?" Henry asked Chad who looked scared. He does not go here often. But he thought this would be a pleasing change of scene for a date since this time, they would be doing something Henry likes.
"I don't know." he said looking around. It had only occurred to him now truly how large the arcade was. "Where do you normally go?"
"Here." Henry said walking to a machine briskly with an arm grabbing Chad's hand. Chad could not help but blush as this was not something they did normally. But no one else cared.
'That must have been why Henry's here so often' thought Chad 'To hide and such. God, he's such a man!' he said hiding a giggle.
"We're here." Henry said pointing to a Street Fighter machine. "Straight from Japan, baby." he said.
"Oh, wow." Chad for the first time in his life was speechless. He has never seen Henry so excited about something. To him, Henry seemed to hide behind his motorcycle to hide his love for anything not deemed 'masculine' in society. But this was the first time he had seen Henry in pure excitement for something finally seen as masculine by the general public.
"What are you lookin' at?" Henry asked before putting two quarters in. "Wanna play me?"
"Alright." Chad said before playing the game. Well, if you call mashing the buttons randomly playing.
Henry was good. Anyone can tell. Since this was in the days before strategy guides and walkthroughs were more common, Henry was like what little boys wanted to be. A couple of other people came on to challenge him after Chad was defeated. Again and again, he beat them all. Boys started putting their quarters on the side of the machine to challenge him. That only encouraged Henry to play better so that all of the children would get their turn.
An hour or two later, Henry left the machine. He wiped his forehead with his leather jacket that he took off in the heat of the game.
"Oh, Henry, that was wonderful!" Chad said before kissing him in the heat of the moment.
Everyone stopped what they were doing.
"Eww!" a little boy screeched.
"They're kissing!" another said covering his eyes.
"Is that allowed?" a child nearby said.
Henry blushed and ran out of the arcade. Chad could not help but follow him.
"What the fuck?" Henry asked Chad who was only now realizing his mistake.
"I- I-" he stammered. "I didn't think-"
"You didn't think what?" Henry asked. "You know, they're the only people in this goddamn world that think I'm a man. I'm a man goddamnit!"
"I'm sorry." Chad said. He then flinched. Henry turned around to see what he flinched at.
It was two men. They were both flexing at them as if to show they were masculine. 'And I thought I was insecure' Henry thought to himself.
"My son saw what you two were doing in the arcade." The taller of them said.
"Yeah?" Henry said forgetting all of his anger for Chad and threw it at this new guy.
"I won't have the two of you turning him into whatever you are." he said scowling as he gestured to them.
"You can't change people like that." Chad said standing up a little taller.
"But what do we know?" The man said walking closer to Henry. Chad was trying to pull him back. "We're not the ones going to hell."
Henry punched him in the face as hard as he could. The other man approached Henry and tried to punch him back. He did land a hit square on his jaw which caused him to tumble back.
"Henry!" Chad yelled at him to get back up.
Henry did get back up and kicked the taller one in the balls and he went down fast. The other one got intimidated and ran away.
"You better run!" Chad said.
He went to check on Henry who was sitting on the floor. Chad wanted to make sure he did not get seriously injured. He was just resting. This would have been fine if he were not next to the man that tried to beat him up but Chad understood. He then tried to pick Henry up and leaned him up against his motorcycle. Henry opened his eyes and saw Chad breathe a large sigh of relief.
"Are you okay?" Henry asked Chad quickly entering his defensive mode. He checked Chad for injuries despite being perfectly fine.
"I'm okay." Chad said laughing.
"This isn't funny, Chad."
"I know." he said. "It's just that you don't seem to have gotten hurt."
"Because I can go to the hospital and get better."
"And I'm weak?"
"No, I think the hospitals in this area are ill-equipped," Henry said. "I'm sorry." he let out a breath. "I got weird."
"Yeah, you did." Chad said lightly grabbing his face in his hands.
"I simply forgot that this was a date and not just a trip to the arcade. I hope I may receive your forgiveness." Henry said almost as if he just had a complete reboot.
"Forgiveness given." Chad said as he started up the motorcycle's engine without Henry knowing to make it start which made the two of them startled. He hugged the back of Henry. "You don't really need to be a man, you know?"
"I don't need to but I have to." Henry said before driving off with Chad in tow.
"I think our trip to the arcade as teenagers was magnificent." Chad said.
"I agree." Henry said. "But I did get punched in the face in the homophobe although I appreciate the sentiment." he resumed eating his breakfast.
"We just didn't understand anything then, love."
"But now you do."
"Amazing." Chad said. "Catching on now, are we?"
Henry paused his breakfast. "But how about that time you broke your leg?"
The skatepark in the middle of the night is empty here in Hatchetfield. It was late enough that the teenagers found it too late to have fun. But it was too early for the grown-ups to come in hopes of not getting ridiculed.
Henry and Chad found a spot next to where the is a little bowl in the ground.
"So," Chad started. "What do you normally do when you're here?".
Henry could not help but melt at the sight of Chad. He looked like a little kid who was trying out a skateboard for the first time. He had kneepads and elbow pads that were both ill-fitting as they both used to belong to Henry so they were a little big.
"Normally, I just do this." he said before skating down the little bowl in the skatepark and proceeded to do a bunch of tricks that were easy in practice but did look interesting to an uneducated viewer or Chad. He did a couple of tricks and made them a little bit flashier just for this night for Chad.
"How do you do that?"
"Practice."
"Can you teach me?" as soon as the sentence left Chad's mouth it flicked a switch in Henry's mind that turned him into 'Teacher Mode'. He did teach some kids how to skate but only if they asked him politely and their parents knew what they were doing. But with Chad, he at least tried to turn it down a little.
"Of course. But does your mom know what you will be doing?"
"I think so."
"Then I can." he then taught Chad the basics on how to skate. They started with Henry pushing on the skateboard but after a few more attempts, Chad was able to start and stop the board when he wanted to. He could not change direction so he was able to go on some pretty straight lines.
"Try jumping!" Henry said while Chad was picking up speed. Chad looked back at Henry who was showing how it was supposed to be done. He was supposed to move his feet to the end of the board and push down and jump so that the board will follow him. He did jump. But he landed inside the little bowl in the skatepark.
Henry ran down to see Chad with his leg in an angle he has never seen them reach before. "Do you need help?"
"Yes!" Chad said before letting out a scream of pain.
"It's okay." Henry tried to shush and calm him down as he had done to beginner children before. "I'm here." he pulled out his flip phone. "Hi, yes. My friend here is hurt. I am at the skatepark. You will find us we are the only people here. Thank you very much." he said before hanging up and looking back at Chad whose head was not in his lap.
"Are they coming?" Chad asked.
"Of course." he said. "Why do you think I frequent this skatepark?"
"Why?"
"Because the hospital is two blocks away." he said with pride.
"Do you know what I wanted to go to the skatepark?"
"Because you are so eager to please me?" Henry asked.
"No, silly. I just wanted to see you do something you love again. Other than science because I can't quite understand anything that you're doing."
"It's simple, really. You see the-" Henry got cut off by Chad who placed a finger on his mouth to shush him.
"I didn't want it explained. I just wanted to see you do something you love that you don't need to explain to me to understand."
"Why?"
"Because I don't like looking stupid."
"You're not stupid."
"I can be." he said pointing to his leg which was still in the same position as it was before.
The ambulance came soon after and the paramedics placed Chad on a stretcher. Henry got in as well.
"You are?" the paramedic asked.
"His friend." Henry said accompanying him to the hospital.
"Why don't we go to the skatepark anymore?"
"You're the one that told me to stop going there." Henry said. "Also, I didn't want to run into any of my students."
"But at least the dates I planned were romantic." Chad said.
"I agree with your point."
"I mean, do you even remember the day we got engaged?"
"You mean the day I proposed to you?'
"No," he paused. "The day I proposed to you."
The carnival was the place the be on a cool evening. There were tons of people eager to ride the Ferris wheel to have a romantic moment at sunset. Chad aimed to do the same. Being extra as ever, he brought another surprize to Henry on the Ferris wheel. But he wanted to do other things first to butter him up so that he would be the first person in this whole wide world that could make Henry Hidgens cry tears of joy.
He went to one of those machines that test your strength with a hammer and a bell. There was a small line of men waiting to prove their masculinity to their girlfriends who were watching nearby.
Chad lined up before Henry could say anything about his choices. Henry could do nothing but watch as Chad reached the front of the line and prepare to take his swing.
"You need help, sir?" The man in line behind him asked.
"No thank you. I can do it myself." he said channeling Henry's try way of speaking. He pulled back and hit the button with as much strength he can muster.
The little ball made it up all the way to the halfway mark. He shrugged and left. The man behind him tutted before going for his turn. When he hit the button, the ball only went about a tenth of the way to the top. Chad could not help but laugh and went to Henry to keep his composure.
"You want to go somewhere else, strong guy?" Henry asked.
"Yeah, I do!" he said pulling Henry with him to one of those games with the pyramid of cans that you have to knock down with a bean bag. The grand prize of hitting all of the cans down was giant stuffed corn. He paid for two bean bags and took aim. "Do you wanna throw one?"
"No thank you." Henry said taking a step back. He was enjoying the show that Chad was giving.
Chad took aim and threw the bean bag straight at the pyramid. He hit it straight with such power that all of the cans came tumbling down.
Henry could only watch in shock. He could not really believe he saw what just happened until Chad plopped the giant corn in his arms. He was proud of Chad.
"Great job! I'm really proud of you." Henry said hugging Chad and the stuffed corn at the same time.
"Do you want to go to the Ferris wheel?" Chad lightly stroked Henry's arm. "It's almost sunset."
"Alright." Henry replied and they walked to the Ferris wheel. The line was long and filled with lovers like the two of them. When they reached the front of the line Chad let Henry go first like the gentleman that he was and the attendant closed the side door next to them. The Ferris wheel was one of those where two people sit side by side and this one, in particular, is one of the tallest in America, therefore, made it one of the longest rides in the park.
They went on and enjoyed the view. Chad made sure to point at the little strength game that they were at earlier and made jokes about the men that were still there from when they were there.
Then it rained.
It just absolutely poured on the two of them. They were both went and Chad could not find it in his heart to propose at this moment so he stuffed it lower in his pockets. Henry just started covering the corn so that it would not get any wetter.
The rest of the ride was romantic, to say the least. Chad was even able to sneak in a kiss halfway through. But in the end, they were quite glad for the ride to be over.
Later on in the car, Chad tapped Henry on the shoulder.
"This was definitely not what I planned. But..." he searched in his pockets and found the thing. He put it in his hands and presented it to Henry.
It was a little navy blue box and revealed a thick ring on the inside.
"...Will you marry me?" Chad asked as the rain continued pouring. Henry may have accidentally stepped on the accelerator in pure shock.
"Of course!" Henry said as Chad put the ring on his finger. Henry looked at it in total awe. Chad then interrupted his wonder with a kiss of pure passion. He melted right on into it and it seemed as though every moment in their lives has led up to this moment.
"Well, I guess you did propose." Henry said. "It must have slipped my memory."
"I guess I did." Chad said. "But today is your birthday. I wanted to do something great for once."
"Oh, Chad." Henry sighed. "Everything you've ever done for was great. Luck just has not been on your side sometimes."
"But I know that today is going to be great." he said surely. "I'm sure"
He dragged Henry into their car and started to drive. He turned on the radio so that Henry could not hear the GPS that he had on his phone even if it was on an earphone. The drive would be long and at some places twisted, Chad was making sure that this surprise would work and that he was not hopeless at planning dates.
They arrived an hour later. Henry was asleep and Chad could not be more thankful. He went into the parking lot and found many spots as it was not field trip season. He gently woke Henry up.
"Rise and shine, love." Chad said which did wake Henry up.
"Good morning." he said, looking around at the parking lot. "Where are we?"
"The Aquarium."
The aquarium was the ideal place to go for a date in Chad's mind. Henry was a biology professor so he must know a thing or two about fish, right? But they went to be greeted by the cashier. Chad had already paid for the tickets online which meant they could go to a shorter line to get inside. Henry, on the other hand, could barely hide his excitement.
"Did you know I paid for some experiences today?" Chad asked.
"Really? No way!" Henry said. He was clearly excited. He using informal language in his speech.
"We're going to the experiences first so that we get there before the families arrive." Chad said clearly having planned this in his mind.
"Which one are we going to first?" Henry asked reading a map.
"We're going to all of them." Henry looked up in disbelief. "You can pick which one you want."
"That must have cost a fortune, love." Henry said scanning through the list of experiences. "I think we can go to the Penguin one first."
"I think that is our only option right now." Chad said. "I mean, the other exhibits don't open until later." Then they set off.
The first experience that they went to was a penguin exhibit. There were many penguins but they were mostly little guys behind the glass. Across from the glass was a chart that shows the names of the penguins, how you can tell them apart (they had leg bands), and their personalities. Chad and Henry were looking at the chart and comparing themselves to the penguins.
"I think you're more of a Tyler." Chad said. "All he does is watch other penguins and is known to tell other penguins off."
"That makes sense." Henry looked closer at the chart. "And you seem to be more of Katarina the penguin." he pointed to be able to read better. "She is a firey being and is such a drama queen." he said barely hiding in his laughter. 'How could a penguin be a drama queen?' he thought as he looked at the penguins.
"You know we're going to feed them, right?" Chad asked. "That's why we're here, you know." they both walked on over to the line to feed the penguins. There was no one else that wanted to feed the penguins at this time of day so they were able to go inside fairly quickly.
The penguin handler briefed them before letting them enter the tank. There were the common disclaimers like 'don't try to go inside the actual tank' and 'don't touch the penguins. They might not like that.' Then they entered a little circular hole that people can enter by climbing some stairs and feeding the penguins from below.
Chad carefully threw the fish to make sure that he did not hit a penguin.
But Henry, on the other hand, made sure that he was able to feed the penguins that were far away. He saw one that was on the corner of the tank just watching the other penguins. "Tyler?" he said to the penguin as if it could respond and tossed the fish over to the little guy. He looked thankful and gobbled it up.
After the experience, they left and sat down at a bench near the penguin tank. After their turn, more people came over and wanted to feed the penguins as well.
"So how was it?" Chad said as he was a slut for Henry's validation.
"I could not ask for anything more." Henry said looking over at the aquarium. There was a little child trying to feed the penguins but could only feed the same one every time as their arms were too short.
"But I planned so much more!" Chad said opening up the map.
"Well, I guess we're going home." Henry joked.
'He's really excited, I think.' Chad thought to himself. 'He's even cracking jokes.' "Who told you my plan?" he said.
"Where are we going next, though?" Henry said.
"We're going to the..." he gulped. "Crocodile exhibit." Henry nodded in approval. Chad was deathly afraid of crocodiles as he found no reason for them to be so large and scary and mean. The teeth were only half the scary bit for him. The scary bit was the crocodile's backs as they also appeared to be sharp.
It was feeding time for the Crocodiles in the aquarium and since Chad paid in advance, he and Henry were the only people feeding the crocodiles. They went to a high platform about five meters from the ground to drop some meat on a crocodile below.
"Hi." Henry asked the handler. "What's this crocodile's name?"
"Her name is Ivory. Her mate is actually in the next tank."
"Which one are we feeding?"
"Whichever one you want to, sir."
Henry turned to Chad to ask what he wanted. But he could not ask him anything if he wanted because CHad was backed up against a wall and grabbing to the railings for dear life. He had fear in his eyes and he was doing nothing to hide it.
"Can we feed the bigger one, Chad?" he asked to make sure that he was fine.
"Yes. It's perfectly fine." he replied his voice shaking on every syllable. "You can feed him. I can just stand here."
"Alright!" he said. The handler gave him a stick with a large piece of meat on it.
"Drop it carefully." the handler said to Henry who was nothing short of eager to feed the crocodile.
When he dropped the meat, the crocodile could be seen jumping towards the meat and eating it up in record time compared to Henry. Chad closed his eyes and clamped his hands down on the railings when he heard the meat touch the water.
But he heard something that he never really heard a lot.
Henry Hidgens was laughing.
Chad could not help but swoon for the man at that moment. When both of the crocodiles were fully fed and they both left the feeding room, Chad hugged Henry as tightly as he could.
"I haven't seen you that happy in a long time." he said
"Are you sure?" Henry said shaking his head in disbelief.
"Yeah, I am." Chad said. "You wouldn't believe what we're gonna do next."
"I have no idea what could be better at this point."
"At this point, I don't know either."
They arrived at a platform that looks at the aquarium from above. They were getting ready to go scuba diving with the fishes. Henry was already suited up but Chad was still getting in his wetsuit.
When Chad finished, the instructor taught them how to make a dive inside the tank. It was quite easy, actually like most of what they had to do was swim anyways and within fifteen minutes, they were swimming about already.
Henry and Chad had a blast. They were swimming with some stingrays and they even entered some tornado-like formations that some of the fish were doing. Chad even pretended to high five a stingray and he could not help but point out all of the fishes that he saw in the movie 'Nemo'. They were not able to take any photos as they do not own a waterproof camera.
They were able to see the people outside of the tank and most of the people watching them were little kids who could not believe that people are allowed to swim with the fishes.
Most of the time spent underwater was a huge blur so it was a surprise to the two of them when their time was up.
They resurfaced and took off their oxygen tanks and took a second to catch their breaths. They have gotten tired of swimming for about half an hour straight.
"How was it?" Chad asked.
"How many more times are you going to ask me that?" Henry asked. "It was wonderful, by the way." he said running to the changing room to take off his wetsuit. Chad followed suit and they changed back to their street clothes.
They ate dinner at a restaurant at the aquarium. They were eating next to the tank that they just swam in. They were eating some fried fish with vegetables on the side.
"This was absolutely wonderful." Henry said. "This day, everything you planned. It was amazing! The penguins, the crocodiles, you know, I did not expect you to do any of those but you delivered. I really admired your effort today."
"Thank you." he replied. "I was actually scared you would not like it."
"Why wouldn't I?"
"I don't know." Chad said. "It's just that you're quite smart and I did now really know what a smart guy would want."
"Do you even know what this smart guy wants?"
"What?"
"This 'smart guy'" he said making air quotes. "only needs you."
"You're being cheesy." Chad shook his head. "You're that excited aren't you."
"I thought you wanted me to be?"
"I do." he said. "But it's great that a date I've planned finally went well."
"I agree." Henry said. "This was significantly better than all of the dates you have planned thus far."
"That's all I needed to hear." he smiled. "Happy birthday, Henry."
"Thank you."