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Pez drags Henry to a flower power concert.

The only reason Henry agreed was because the alternative was staying home writing and he'd been doing that for hours, hell days.

He deserved a break and it sounded like the perfect opportunity to get some inspiration for the queer romance novel he was currently writing.

After all, he still needed a face to imagine as the hot main character, so as creepy as that probably sounds, he kind of hoped he'd run into a beautiful man whose face he could imagine as the main character. 

Pez drags Henry to a flower power concert.<br />
This turns out to be easier than he assumed when his eye catches on the most beautiful man to have ever walked the planet. Henry is prepared to just admire the man from afar all night, but the universe (or more accurately Pez and the two girls he fell in love with on the spot) has other plans in store for him.<br />

..... ...

Pez practically has to physically drag him out of his apartment, but the second they get into the car together, Henry knows he's not going to regret letting Pez talk him into this.

Pez makes Henry listen to bloody awful music, and yet Henry is grinning like an idiot.

Because Pez is the best person he knows and he thanks the gods every single day that he gets to call this amazing human his best mate.

Family-wise wise Henry didn't get very lucky.

His grandmother might seriously be the worse human being on the whole fricking planet, his older brother has turned into an obtuse asshole ever since their father died and Henry is only half convinced said brother is not secretly homophobic after all. His mother is an amazing woman, but unfortunately has completely isolated herself since the day they lost his father, and his sister and father are the best people he's ever met.

But his sister lives all the way in England and his father is unfortunately no longer with them.

Henry's chosen family however is right here with him.

The man in question is currently excitedly yelling for Henry to stop the car in front of the nearest Starbucks.

Henry of course does, because he's never been able to deny Pez anything when he gives him those bloody puppy eyes (except for wearing flower-printed crop tops, letting Pez set him up with blokes on Tinder, and getting matching butterfly tattoos on places where people certainly should not have butterfly tattoos, especially not platonic best friend themed butterfly tattoos).

Pez comes back with a ridiculously expensive iced caramel latte for himself and a fancy to-go with Earl Grey tea latte for Henry.

Then he makes him take a road trip selfie of them, which Henry has to admit turns out to be a lovely picture, and just like that they're off again.

Henry sips his tea while Pez talks his head off and has to bite back a laugh when his best mate ends up spilling his entire coffee over his t-shirt. 

Pez doesn't even freak out, he just makes a show of taking off his shirt and putting on the other one he brought.

Which he apparently brought with the hopes of tricking Henry into wearing the crop top. Henry loves his best friend and would take a bullet straight through his brain for him, but they both know there is no way in hell that Henry would have ever put on the colorful crop top.

No matter how many times Pez tells him he'd look lovely in it.

Henry is just going to have to take his word for it.

..... .....

When they arrive Henry enthusiastically takes pictures at the flowery sculpture with Pez and then they practically fight each other because they both want to pay for the other's ticket.

Pez ends up paying because he flirts with the cashier until Henry is so uncomfortable that he lets him pay just so they'll be able to walk away.

..... ...

The music is too loud for him to be able to write and too trashy for him to be able to enjoy it.

To an outsider, it probably does look like he's enjoying himself because growing up with Mary Mountchristen-Windsor as your grandmother gives you enough practice of pretending you're enjoying yourself in a room filled with (privileged, bigot white) people when you're doing quite the opposite.

And for good measure, Pez made him look more festive,  by throwing, a rainbow flower necklace around his neck.

Which he only really did because he called Henry's outfit "unacceptable."

And here Henry thought he'd gone completely crazy with the ripped jeans that Pez got him for his birthday ("Your arse will look amazing in this mate, just trust me on this"), his black sneakers with pink logo's that he only ever uses for running, and to top it all off, he even wore a T-shirt (that he'd stolen out of Pez's obscene closet) with roses and two white tigers that are facing each other on it too! Henry really did think he'd done a good job.

But Pez ended up being beyond annoyed he wore a  black t-shirt ("that I literally got out of your designer closet, you arse!") and nothing that screamed pride.

 Henry argued this was by far the most reckless outfit he'd ever worn and Pez finally agreed with an obnoxious eye roll and a whispered; "Fine, fine, I'll stop bitching before you have a mental breakdown about not looking like an heir of the British throne for once in your bloody life'. 

Henry had thought this was quite a rude remark, but he let it slide because it's Pez and there is very little Percey Ojonko could say to him that would actually offend him because he knows that man wouldn't even hesitate to murder or cover up murder for Henry if it ever came to that.

Pez himself is wearing a Hawaiian flowery top, flared hippie pants with peace signs, a huge necklace with a pink peace sign on it that matches his bright pink hair, and multiple flowery gadgets.

Henry has to admit he looks charming, even though he himself wouldn't be caught dead in an outfit like that.

..... ....

Henry promised he'd drive them back home, which means he can't drink any of the disgusting cheap-looking beer people kept offering him.

So instead he walks around the little markets not less than 15 times, looking for a souvenir for Bea while Pez eventually joins in and buys as many flower-themed hair bands and necklaces as he can carry.

Henry laughs while taking selfies with Pez and he even lets Pez talk him into getting matching henna tattoos.

So all by all, he's having a good time. But then the bands start playing and the music is way too loud.

He loses Pez about 5 seconds later who wrings himself through the crowd of old drunk people.

Henry just stares at the crowd bewildered for a little while; he quite literally can not believe some people are blessed enough to have grandparents who drink beer while dancing together to heavy metal music in faded rock and roll shirts and flower skirts.

Henry's grandmother would have an aneurysm just by the thought of it.

..... ...

Henry ends up catching Pez's eye again a few minutes later after he's bought himself an extremely overpriced plastic cup of room-temperature water and a plastic cup of the cheap-looking (but actually as it turns out ridiculously overpriced) beer for Pez.

Pez dramatically waves at Henry while continuing to grind between two objectively beautiful girls, who both have gorgeous curled hair decorated with flowers and who are both wearing matching flowery-themed dresses and neon-colored high boots.

The girls introduce themselves as June Claremont-Diaz and Nora Holleran and after chatting with them for a bit,  Henry hands Pez the beer he bought him, which he ends up sharing with the two girls.

While Henry awkwardly sips his water, while trying to get away from a slightly above middle-aged man who keeps standing too close to him while sipping beer and screaming at another drunk old man.

Henry eventually excuses himself to secretly eat one of the protein bars he snuck with him (which is certainly not allowed since you're supposed to eat the food they sell there) because the festival only sells overpriced fries drowned in mayonnaise and Henry is just not in the mood for those.

He ends up with a sticky hand while using the other hand to add some random dialogue ideas for his novel to the note app on his phone before he decides to take a walk.

After having walked around the whole festival terrain a couple more times,  (It's a shame he wasn't allowed to bring David, but then again that dog has more social anxiety than him so it may have been for the best),  taking pictures of the retro cars decorated with an obscene amount of flowers, and having cleaned his hands with the hand gel he also snuck with him, he gives up on whatever the fuck he was doing on his lonesome self and goes back to pretending to be as loose and outgoing as Pez.

When he finds his best mate again, he offers him one of the protein bars, which Pez shares the bar with his new friends, while he tries to convince Henry to dance with them.

Henry continues telling him he's far too sober to start dancing at an outside heavy metal concert, or anywhere else for that matter.

So he ends up taking place on one of the benches on the right side while taking some pictures of Pez going absolutely wild, throwing out the weirdest dance moves, and taking beer after beer from the two pretty girls. 

He laughs and just lets himself enjoy the view of his hilarious best friend for a while.

Then when he realizes he's been here for almost two hours he allows himself to finally start writing again. (Because 2 hours is quite a lot of socializing right??)

He writes a short piece of dialogue that he couldn't stop thinking about, and then possibly makes the mistake of his life, when he looks to his right instead of at the dancing people on the left, and ends up almost shattering his phone when he takes notice of the guy sitting behind him.

He's so beautiful Henry has to force himself to stop staring.

The guy next to Henry's new crush takes notice of Henry's staring and grins at him.

But, respectfully, Henry couldn't care less about that guy.

As a writer, Henry would probably describe the guy as the standard rich white boy with too much confidence you come across in every trashy high school romance.

He is wearing an Apple watch, has carefully brushed hair gel-soaked brown hair, and is wearing a black sweater, and dark blue jeans.

Henry knows the guy is objectively good-looking, and the guy seems interested in him, but Henry can't tear his gaze away from the guy's friend. A man with gorgeous brown skin, black neatly tamed curls, a sharp jawline, obscene eyelashes, and soulful brown eyes, sitting next to him.

Then when Henry does regrettably take his eyes off the beautiful guy and his friend (only for literally 5 seconds, just to check if Pez is still doing okay), the guys are gone. Henry doesn't pout, but it's a near thing.

He only saw the beautiful mystery man for maybe two minutes, yet it was honestly the highlight of his day.

Eventually, he shakes himself out of it and decides to finally join Pez and the girls on the dance floor.

He goes to awkwardly stands behind them while taking pictures of them and eventually genuinely enjoys the music, for once.

Pez when noticing him, immediately tries to include him in the conversation and they laugh together for a bit, while they watch the girls drunkenly dance.

Pez as always keeps joking around with Henry just to make him smile. And it works.

Which isn't surprising, he always knows how to tear off Henry's mask and turn his carefully measured expression into a satisfied grin.

They're best mates for a reason after all.

Henry laughs and shakes his head when Pez yet again offers to pay for an Uber so Henry can drink some of the trashy beer they sell and can "get out of your brain and into your sexy body hazza", and then leaves to buy him a cola before Henry can try to buy yet another plastic cup of expensive room temperature water.

Because "Live a little Hazza".

So Henry turns back to the crowd and after he steps aside to give a lady in a wheelchair some space, he spots the beautiful stranger and his friend again.

For some reason Henry can't begin to understand, Mr. Perfect's friend almost immediately catches Henry staring, yet again.

He doesn't smile at Henry, doesn't grin, wink or even nod either, but he does acknowledge him, nothing flirty or even friendly but he also doesn't look bothered by Henry. 

He just simply turns back around and turns his attention back on his friend, who had been paying too much attention to the stage to glance behind him, just like he hadn't looked up in Henry's direction when they were sitting down.

Now that they're no longer sitting Henry can finally see the beautiful's guy's entire outfit.

He could probably stare at the guy for the rest of the evening without getting bored, but Henry tells himself he can't continue staring without looking like a creep, especially now that the heartthrob's friend has caught him staring yet again.

So he tries to stop staring at those curls even though every single black curl looks so bouncy and is so perfectly tamed, that just his short curly hair itself is worth staring at.

However, there is more to the pretty guy than just a beautiful set of curls.

There are worn dark blue all-stars, (a detail Henry would use in his book to create character; just a subtle hint that this guy is adventurous), black skinny jeans (that fit perfectly over his arse, not that Henry is looking obviously), and a dark blue t-shirt (which does nothing to hide the outline of the guy's muscular shoulders), plus a grey Nike tech jacket loosely tied around his hips. 

And finally, he catches the side profile of the guy which is all beautiful smooth smooth-looking brown skin, long eyelashes, a sharp jawline, shiny brown eyes, and obscene eyelashes.

 Henry is pretty sure he's already halfway in love with the mystery man at this point.

He's ruthlessly interrupted from his daydreaming when the mystery man's slightly taller friend catches Henry's eye yet again.

He pretends to look away but knows it's useless.

The guy keeps catching Henry staring, so he probably looks at least slightly creepy at this point.

Yet no matter what he does, he can't tear his eyes away from the guy's dramatically pretty friend, who he hopes is just his mate and not his boyfriend by the way.

He could stare at the guy's friend's bouncy curls; jawline and gorgeous brown skin for ages.

So it's not a surprise that when the slightly taller guy leans into the pretty guy's space and whispers something that makes him laugh, Henry knows he's gone for.

The guy's wide grin, the sound of his laughter, and the happy shiny glance in his lovely brown eyes are so cute Henry kind of wants to die. 

Then the other guy points at something to Henry's right which has the pretty guy turn and even though he still doesn't meet Henry's eyes (and the other guy does, again) Henry could die a happy man now that he's seen the guy's entire face and absolutely stunning smile.

When the stage throws some big balloons into the crowd that the mystery man's friend takes a video of, Henry contemplates taking a video as well, just so he'll be able to capture footage of the prettiest man he's ever seen, without looking creepy doing so. 

But he ultimately decides against it, because it just feels too creepy and Henry is honestly just too shy and socially awkward to pull it off

If Pez were here right now, he'd tell Henry to stop staring and make a move already.

 Henry is seriously debating it when the huge balloons come dangerously close to the guys. But when the beauty's mate smacks the huge balloon away, the curly-haired guy laughs and they share a cute moment where they just grin at each other.

This doesn't have to mean anything obviously, Henry is always grinning when he's around Pez.

But it could mean something and if that's the case Henry would rather not embarrass himself by asking the curly-haired guy out in front of his boyfriend. (Who probably already hates Henry's guts at this point).

So Henry stares at their hands.

The friend has one of his hands curled around his phone and in the other one he's holding a map of the festival. 

The beautiful man has both his hands casually tucked into his jeans pockets.

Even though there is almost no space between the friend's right hand and the pretty guy's left hand, they're not holding hands.

But Henry is not going to assume they're straight or single just because they're not currently holding hands and haven't kissed.

Not everyone likes PDA after all and not everyone's love language is physical touch. Plus assuming someone's sexuality is rude.

He's so caught up staring at the guys that he doesn't even realize that Pez has come back, until someone throws an arm around him, and he almost tackles him to the grass out of self-defense.

"Wow Hazza chill out, I wasn't going to attack you", Pez jokes while handing Henry his coke and then turning to the girls to hand both of them their drinks as well.

While taking a sip of coke Henry notices both guys turned around and are now fully facing Henry.

He almost chokes on his coke but is prevented from doing so when a middle-aged man bumps into him (the same one that hadn't respected his personal space earlier), and almost sends him crashing into the ground, awesome.

Pez immediately sends the man a dead glare, oh if only looks could kill...

When Henry turns back after what can't be more than 5 seconds the guys have turned back and are facing the stage again.

The friend catches Henry staring one more time, and it really is getting ridiculous at this point but Henry's new crush continues being oblivious to the staring or maybe he's just ignoring it.

Maybe the friend is really his boyfriend who continues trying to let Henry know the pretty boy is taken and maybe the pretty boy is ignoring Henry out of respect for his slightly jealous boyfriend.

Suddenly there is a girl's hand on Henry's shoulder that breaks him out of his train of thought.

"Henry, which one of those guys do you keep staring at?" June asks curiously.

Henry rolls his eyes at Pez's new friend. "Neither", he lies.

The other girl, Nora laughs hard. "Right. Comm'on dude just tell us. Is it the curly-haired one? Or the other one?"

Henry flushes and tries to change the conversation but then Pez smirks and helpfully says, " If I know my Hazza, I'd say he's been staring at the pretty boy with the curls all day."

Henry glares at his best friend who makes a heart sign with his hands in response.

Just when he decided it really wasn't that big of a deal that the girls, that Pez is most likely both taking home tonight, found out about his silly crush, one of the girls, June, does something Henry genuinely didn't see coming. 

"Alex! Get your ass over here for a second!" She yells. 

Henry turns around to see who this Alex person is and his heart almost stops beating when he realizes it's the mystery man and he's closing the distance between them.

Henry immediately wants to abort the mission but Alex and the other guy have already seen him. 

In other words, there is no going back now.

The pretty guy (who Henry now knows is named Alex), throws his arms around both of the girls. "Bug, Nora, who are your friends?"

Pez introduces himself and Henry does not freak out when Pez introduces him too and Alex's friend snorts. He does not okay.

June grins. "Henry meet my baby bro Alex and his high school friend Liam."

Christ.

This whole time Henry has been staring at the brother of the girl he occasionally talked with (mostly about their shared love for Jane Austen) while Pez was busy flirting with Nora?

Talk about a coincidence (or faith, his hopeless romantic brain immediately adds)

Alex's friend offers him a hand. "Hey man, I'm Liam. I couldn't help but notice you were staring at me, like a lot,  and I'm flattered, I really am, but I'm taken. Sorry."

Before Henry can say anything Alex shoves the guy away from Henry.

"Omg, Liam just because you have a boyfriend now doesn't mean every guy automatically wants you. Plus it's rude as hell to assume someone's sexuality", he hisses.

Then he turns to Henry, flashes him a smile, and holds out his hand.

"Sorry about him, you can just ignore him, getting a boyfriend has done wonders for his self-esteem and ego. So anyway I'm Alex. June's brother and Nora's ex and bestfriend. Nice to meet you."

Before Henry can say anything, he's interrupted, again. 

"Liam, babes, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but Henry was clearly staring at Alex, the whole time, June and I already assumed but Henry's bestie here confirmed it."

Henry has never before wished he could disappear into thin air.

But there is a first time for everything, right?

He has absolutely no idea what to do.

Nor what to expect. 

It sounds like Liam's boyfriend isn't Alex, but that doesn't mean Alex is queer or single or interested in Henry.

Seriously what are the odds of someone that bright and vibrant being into-

Henry is broken out of his train of negative thoughts by Alex quirking his eyebrows at him seductively. "The whole time huh? I'm flattered sweetheart."

Henry feels his face warm up, he knows he's blushing and he knows they all think they embarrassed him, and they did, but he's not giving in that easily okay?

Just because he's faced with the most beautiful man he's ever seen (in real life at the very least), and because both their friends are currently teasing him for spending the whole evening creepily staring at Alex, does not mean he can't crack a joke to keep things interesting.

He doesn't have to flirt per se, Alex (and everyone else within 10 feet) already knows Henry is crushing on him, he can just have some fun, maybe make himself look a little more appealing, mysterious, or interesting.

So he smirks at Alex and says, 'Well don't flatter yourself too much, I'm not exactly known for my good taste. I mean look at what I'm wearing, are we sure we can trust my judgment?" 

Alex looks at him surprised like he expected Henry to stutter out a shy half-gibberish response (which is fair) and not a witty joke. And then he lets out a full-body laugh, making Henry feel weirdly proud and accomplished.

"Wait are you making fun of me or yourself right now?" Alex asks through his laughter.

Henry grins. "Whatever answer you prefer."

Alex grins back. "Well if you were making fun of me then how are you supposed to woo me?"

Henry steps closer and gives him what he hopes isn't a creepy smile when he jokes, "Darling I thought I'd aced the wooing part already with my longing gazes."

Alex laughs yet again and Henry has the delusional thought he'd like to make this man laugh for the rest of his life.

Christ. He's thinking this kind of bloody borderline creepy bullocks while he's stone-cold sober.

There really is no more saving him is there?

Beautiful Alex has officially ruined him.

He's mostly just been staring at the back of the guy's hair and a small part of his face for a few hours and he's already further gone than he was in his last relationship.

(Not to be dramatic or anything).

Alex raises a brow at him. "You mean your creepy serial killer behavior stares? Sweetheart if that is how you flirt I'm a little worried."

Henry bites his lip and smiles nervously. "While I guess now we know why I'm still single."

Alex nods furiously while trying and failing to keep his expression serious. "It ought to be that because it can't possibly have anything to do with the way you look."

Henry gives him a shy little smile and when he turns around he realizes Pez, Alex's sister, his best friend and Liam have all left.

He turns back around to find Alex still smiling at him.

"Looking for your next victim?" He teases.

Henry chuckles. "No, I think I've done enough creepy staring for today. We wouldn't want anyone to get suspicious of my intentions."

Alex sighs dramatically.

"Oh fuck you really are a serial killer, aren't you? I mean not to be rude but that's kind of a red flag. I'm just being real with you."

Henry snorts, which he's sure didn't look attractive but he finds himself not caring when Alex looks back equally amused.

"That seems judgemental", Henry jokes back.

Alex grins, shaking his head and then he slips his Hand in Henry's and says, "Shall we?"

Henry finds himself nodding without actually knowing what he is agreeing to.

He follows Alex through the crowd of people, their hands interlaced.

Henry smirks at him. "Just so we're clear you're not sending me out on a murder mission, right? Because if so I'll have to disappoint you. My job is actually a lot less adventurous than that."

Alex frowns dramatically.

"Hm, not a serial killer? Actually, I've changed my mind,  that is kind of a deal breaker for me."

Henry laughs yet again.

This whole ongoing joke is bloody ridiculous but he's having a great time bantering, with a gorgeous lad and that is all he really cares about.

"Maybe I should just tell you my real job? Just in case you happen to like that one as well? Or do you exclusively date serial killers?" Henry jokes.

Alex shrugs while grinning.

"I mean I'm bi actually, so I'm not just into scary women with eyeliner drawn so sharp it could kill a man, you know?  Men can be attractive as well. But they do happen to have less exciting jobs. Most of them just work in accounting or something. At least most women I come across do something meaningful with their life; like making rich, white men question everything they thought they knew when they take their promotions away from them because they earned it. Never underestimate a hard-working boss babe, I've learned that the hard way. Elder sister trauma and all that." 

Henry wants to laugh at the joke but it seems inappropriate after Alex just came out to him, so instead he says.

"Oh tell me about it, I've only ever gone out with  men, because I'm gay, and they always have boring jobs."

Alex smiles. 'So speaking of men and their boring jobs. What do you  then sweetheart?"

Henry smiles back nervously.

"I'm a writer. I actually spent a few hours during this festival working on my debut queer romance novel. It's frankly the only reason I'm here in the first place because Pez physically dragged me away from my computer. But jokes on him because my phone has a note app as well."

Alex gives him a smile that looks so tender Henry quite literally feels the butterflies form in his stomach.

"That sounds pretty cool actually. I bet you're good at that, writing I mean and hey, if the romance thing doesn't work out, you could always write a book about a pretty, tall blonde serial killer."

Henry snorts again.

"And does the pretty blonde have a partner?" He asks softly.

Alex smirks.

"Yes, a beautiful, brown, tall, sarcastic FBI agent who'se been on the hunt for said serial killer for years. But he doesn't know he's already dating him."

Henry grins. "I'd read that book."

Alex pokes him in the chest. "No, you should write it."

Henry smiles. "I'll need to go on a date with a beautiful, sarcastic, brown, short man first though. You know for inspiration."

Alex grins. "Lead the way, sweetheart."

A few seconds later he gasps, "Wait you called me short!"

Henry laughs so hard he almost spills his coke over the phone he's also holding in his left hand since his right hand is busy holding Alex's left hand.

Alex rolls his eyes at him, but he's clearly not that annoyed, because he keeps looking back to make sure Henry is still right behind him.

When they've gotten through the crowd of beer-drunk old people in tye dye, too-short clothes, and rolling stones shirts, Alex stops in front of one of the markets.

It's not the one with all the hard rock CDs and plates in huge retro covers and it's also not the one with the fancy fake leather bracelets or the ones with the stones and the henna tattoos.

No, It's the one with the two elderly women selling loose clips on flowers and other flower power gadgets because, of course, it is.

Alex lets Henry pick out the color of his clip-on and chooses a blue one for Henry, "because it will match perfectly with those gorgeous ocean blue eyes."

Henry gives Alex what he hopes isn't too much of a love-sick smile while he clips the white/yellow flower into the curls above his left ear.

He has the ridiculous thought to place a soft kiss next to the flower, on Alex's forehead but he assumes that is too vulnerable and tender of a kiss for a first kiss.

Alex was probably looking forward to a dirty kiss while lazily swapping the taste of the overpriced shitty beer.

Not that they can't still do that, Henry is normally all for hot make-out sessions with even hotter guys, but there is something about Alex that makes him incredibly nervous.

It kind of feels like he is something precious and deserves to be treated as such.

Henry also can't remember the last time he felt so nervous around a cute guy.

Alex's beautiful voice shakes him out of his trance.

"I lost you there for a second. Fantasizing about how you're going to murder me, sweetheart?"

Henry rolls his eyes at him and lets Alex slide the blue flower into his blonde hair.

"Not quite", he whispers while dragging Alex closer by his biceps (which have no right looking as attractive as they do, yet here they are, muscles flexing and unflexing, accompanied by veins that Henry finds very hot for some reason).

"May I?" He asks softly while dropping his head a bit so he is about the same height as Alex.

Alex gives him a devastatingly beautiful grin, which is all white teeth and thick lips and Henry thinks he might actually be in heaven.

"Fuck yes, comm'ere", Alex whispers while throwing his arms around Henry and then they're kissing and it's even better than Henry expected. It isn't dirty, it's sweet and passionate, it's exactly what Henry wanted.

They stand there sharing sweet kisses for a little bit until Alex playfully bites Henry's lip and Henry realizes he does actually like that very much as well.

So the kiss turns a bit dirtier, but not desperate, they've got all the time in the world.

They only break apart when they hear their friends (who have apparently shown up again) make dumb comments.

It seems like Pez won some sort of bet against June and Nora. Because Liam has completely disappeared, Henry vaguely remembers someone explaining that Liam was going to pick up his boyfriend.

"Really? You bet against us?" Henry asks Pez trying to sound annoyed, but the truth is after the moments he just shared with Alex it would be very hard to try and darken his mood.

Pez grins.

"Of course we did Hazza, you spent three whole hours doing nothing but standing awkwardly behind us and staring creepily at June's brother. What else were we supposed to do?"

Henry hides his face in his hands in embarrassment, but then soft hands are removing his hands from his face.

Henry looks up to find  Alex giving him a look that is entirely too fond and then he places a soft kiss on Henry's cheek. 

"It's okay sweetheart, I understand, if I saw someone as hot as me I wouldn't be able to keep my eyes off him either", Alex teases and Henry laughs.

Who would have thought the devastatingly beautiful stranger came with a sense of humor, fun friends, and a soft romantic side as well?

Nora makes a face of disgust. "Yikes, the last thing Alex needed was an ego boost. Did you have to bring Mr. Disney Prince with you Pez? Alex is never going to shut up about all those compliments again", she complains sarcastically.

Pez gasps in fake offense and comes to stand at Henry's other side.

"Of course, I had to bring him. First of all, Hazza is my best mate, my partner in crime, and the perfect road trip company a man could possibly ask for. And second of all if I hadn't brought him; the only interaction he'd have with people who aren't the fictional characters in the book he is writing, would have been the occasional old lady he'd run into on the daily runs with his dog. And I simply think it's a shame to hide such a pretty face behind computer screens and bushes in dog parks."

Alex nods in agreement. "It's a shame indeed. Self-isolation when you're that hot should be frowned upon if you ask me. When you think about what the rest of the world is missing out on, it's selfish really."

Henry laughs. He doesn't think he'll ever get sick of Alex's sense of humor or getting complimented by the hottest man to ever walk the earth (in Henry's opinion anyway).

He's about to argue that he wasn't self-isolating when June interrupts them. "You're a writer? Seriously? How did that not come up when we talked earlier? Tell me everything!"

Henry blushes. "I'm currently working on my debut queer romance novel, I'm sure it's not that great but-"

Both Alex and Pez cut him off and give him looks as if he personally offended them.

Yet only one of them has read Henry's first draft.

As if on cue Alex speaks up.

"I haven't even read your story yet, but I already know it's incredible. Please remember me when you're famous."

Pez laughs. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about that Alexander babes, I'm 99% sure Henry has already come up with a new book idea at this point and is currently coming up with a way to dedicate a book to you, as we speak."

Alex grins. "Fantastic. I'll give you my number so you can send me the first draft when you're done."

Then he manhandles Henry to steal his phone out of his hand and pouts until Henry unlocks it for him, he types something in and then pushes Henry's phone back into his hands.

Nora, June, and Pez are all laughing and Henry is sure this won't help his case, but he finds that he really doesn't care.

So he grabs his phone again, laughs way too loud when he sees the contact name Alex chose for himself, and then calls Alex, just to make sure he didn't accidentally mess up his phone number.

Because if a stupid mistake caused him to miss out on whatever this with Alex might become....well Henry just simply doesn't want to find out what that would feel like.

Alex's phone does in fact go off and he gives Henry a satisfied smile while adding him to his own contacts.

"Hen, everyone already knows you're obsessed with me at this point. No need to make it so damn obvious", he teases.

Henry rolls his eyes, leans into his space, smirks, and says, "I don't think the people behind us know yet."

And just like that they're kissing again.

.... .... ...

One year later: (takes place after the sequel)

Henry nervously hands Alex the first copy of the queer novel he just published.

Alex is practically vibrating with excitement. He grabs the book and excitedly starts reading. His heart almost skips a beat when he realizes Henry dedicated the book to him.

For Alex.

This is a book about love at first sight, so who better to dedicate it to than the force of nature that unknowingly stole my heart and claimed it as his the moment we met.

perhaps  Christy Ann Martine said it best:

soulmates

I spent my days waiting for you,

Searching the crowds for your face.

I stopped breathing the moment you recognized me, as you captured my soul with your gaze.

"Baby", he breathes softly, with tears in his eyes. 

"I couldn't decide between that quote from Christy Ann Martine or the one from William Shakespeare that says; "When I saw you, I fell in love and you smiled because you knew." Or the one that goes "You are my true love at first sight and forever".

Alex kisses him on his forehead, "It's perfect H. And to think all of this started with a shitty flower power concert."

Henry smiles, "I'd like to think I would have still found you if we didn't meet there, afterall flowers don't hold that kind of power but the universe does."