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It had been a moment of total triumph, total agency, when Kevin was up on that stage singing his heart out. Mr. Honey might object, but the entire student body was on his side, cheering for him as he performed with his glamorously made-up face and feathered wig.
“You want me baby, I dare you-- try and tear me down,” he sang, and then he was off the stage again, grabbing Reggie from the applauding crowd just long enough to sweep him into an emphatic kiss. Reggie jerked a little in surprise as the crowd continued cheering, and when Kevin let him go again he could only smile dopily, dabbing at his now lipstick-smeared mouth with a finger and his tongue.
That was how it started.
“Hold still, Reggie,” Kevin said, laughing a little as he helped the other boy do his makeup in front of one of the locker room mirrors. He had tried telling Reggie that while he appreciated the support, there was no need to go all out like this if Reggie didn’t want to, just the wig would be more than fine, but Reggie had insisted, and Kevin knew better than to try arguing with him.
There was no wig yet, just some lipstick and painfully elaborate eyeshadow that Kevin was surprised Reggie also wanted, considering even the girls were doing slightly more understated looks with their cosmetics.
But Reggie had said: “No, give me the works.”
So Kevin did.
Reggie looked at himself in the mirror when they were finished, clearly struggling to not run his tongue over his deeply red and glittering lips.
“Wow,” he said. “You’re good at this.”
“Thanks. I think,” Kevin replied, grinning back. Admittedly, he didn’t mind the sight of Reggie on any given day (after all, who did?), but seeing him there in a mesh top with his long legs bare under a denim miniskirt was something Kevin especially had a hard time not enjoying the view of. Reggie’s attractive, and it did mean something to Kevin that he cared enough to go out on limbs like this to support him.
Reggie looked up and Kevin looked away, trying not to seem like he’d been staring. He could feel Reggie’s eyes still on him, looking at him in the reflection, but it was a few more seconds before he let his own shift back forward to make some semblance of eye contact.
He wasn’t expecting Reggie to be grinning.
“Hey,” Reggie said, turning around to face him. “You were just thinking about kissing me again, weren’t you?”
“No I wasn’t,” Kevin said quickly. He may have been admiring Reggie’s objective prettiness for a moment (and again, who doesn’t?), but looking at someone and wanting to kiss them aren’t the same.
“No?” Reggie almost sounded disappointed. “Really?”
“Reggie, what happened before wasn’t--” But Kevin paused. “Why?”
Reggie shrugged.
“It’s what I was thinkin’ about,” he muttered after another moment, nearly under his breath. Not so much that Kevin didn’t hear him, though.
“Sorry, if that was… um, confusing for you,” Kevin said after another pause, carefully. It had just been theatrics -- albeit especially fun theatrics -- and they’d all known that, but admittedly also impulsive. In the moment. It had seemed brilliant at the time, but maybe he'd accidentally gone a little overboard.
“No,” Reggie said, shaking his head. “It wasn’t confusing.”
Reggie continued to stare, staying where he was by the mirror, and Kevin finally got the hint and moved closer.
“It’ll ruin your make-up,” Kevin pointed out, experimentally pressing his body close to Reggie’s, fully prepared to leap away if someone else walked in or if this turned out to be a trap of some kind.
(He doubted it, but just in case.)
“So what?” Reggie smirked a little, putting his hand on Kevin’s side equally experimentally. They were both a little hesitant, a little nervous, but not enough to back down now that they’ve found themselves here.
There had always been a spark of chemistry between them, but just a spark, small enough Kevin could always write it off as wishful thinking. Reggie was friendly, that was all, but Reggie was friendly with a lot of people; as long as he didn’t hate you he was cool with you, that was generally the rule. But here, now--
Something exciting seemed to be happening. Something about it felt right, like their lives had been converging toward this point for a long time now.
“We can just redo i--”
Kevin kissed him before Reggie could finish, but Reggie didn’t seem to mind. He leaned back against the mirror and cupped Kevin’s face with one hand, pulling him closer and kissing him harder. The lipstick made this all so much messier, but neither of them were complaining.
From somewhere, perhaps miles away, the bell rang. They pulled apart slowly, makeup ruined and hair mussed, though at least for Reggie that latter wouldn’t be obvious once he put his wig on.
He wiped the rest of his very smudged lipstick off, picking up the tube to try reapplying it.
“Showtime in about five minutes,” Kevin said, looking anxiously toward the door and trying to pretend his heart wasn’t racing. He didn’t know if their peaceful protest would actually be effective, but somehow it wasn’t what he felt most nervous about anymore.
Reggie looked over and grinned, tossing Kevin over the lipstick once he’d finished with it. Amazingly, he didn’t do a bad job.
“Let’s knock ‘em dead.”