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“So, Karen wants you to come over for dinner tomorrow night,” Hen says without preamble the second that Buck reaches the top of the loft stairs.
“Is this a new way of asking for me to babysit?” Buck questions, wondering why Karen would randomly to invite him for dinner as he joins Bobby in the kitchen to cook.
“Suspicious, much?” Hen retorts with a laugh. “Has it really been so long since I invited you over that you’d assume that I just want you to babysit?”
Buck shrugs. “We spend plenty of time together on shift and it’s not like I come over for dinner all that much. Guess it just … makes sense that it’s to babysit? Not a lot of people spend a lot of off-shift time together.”
Hen frowns. “You spend plenty of time with Bobby off-shift.”
“He likes spending time with me off shift,” Buck says, and it takes about two seconds for Hen to assume he means that she doesn’t enjoy spending time with him off-shift. “Not that you – it’s just that … you know, you got kids that aren’t adults and – and uh, you’re busy with play dates –”
“Buck, Buck, stop,” she says, sternly. “You’re coming over for dinner and it’s not to babysit, got it?”
Buck huffs. “It doesn’t sound like I have a choice.”
“That’s because you don’t.”
“Then, I guess… I’ll be there.”
“Good.”
***
Buck is maybe more than a little nervous as he makes his way up the walk at Hen and Karen’s house. It’s not that he doesn’t hang out with them on his own, it’s just been a while and Hen’s slight offense that he thought it was only for babysitting didn’t exactly fill him with certainty that it was a good thing.
But he’s here and it’s not to babysit and it might be nice to talk to someone else that’s queer since he’s still new to everything – he could talk to Josh, but he’s Maddie’s friend, first, and he kinda wants to talk it through with someone who is his friend first.
In addition to all of the research he’s been doing that is. And he’s been doing a lot of research since his failed date and he’s pretty sure that his interest in men shouldn’t have been as much of a surprise as it was – to him, anyway. He’d read through a lot of forums and made a couple of posts in which most people questioned how he didn’t know sooner and kinda made him feel dumb about it.
Was it really so hard to imagine that it sometimes just takes people a little longer?
He’s hoping that talking to Hen and Karen that they’ll be a little bit gentler than the people on the internet.
“Buck!” Karen says, happily as she hugs him. “You’re just in time. We just sent the kids off to play with their friends, and we were just about to decorate the cake.”
“You made a cake without me?” Buck questions, slightly offended. “Is it because I thought I was here to babysit?”
Hen laughs. “Who invites someone over expecting them to bake for them?”
“Uh, Chim and Eddie,” Buck offers as Hen gives him a hug, too. “Pretty sure half the time Eddie wants me to hang out with him just so he doesn’t have to cook,” he jokes.
Hen grins. “Well, he is really bad at it.”
“Anyway, no – uh, we didn’t want you to have to do anything since you’re our guest, except for decorating the cake,” Karen offers as they lead him offer to the cake that appears to have some decoration already.
There’s three flags drawn on it. Though none of them have colors just yet.
“I’m not exactly an artist,” he says slowly looking between them a bit uncertainly. “Not sure why…”
Karen’s smiling particularly softly at him. “This is something we do on the first of June every year. We bake a cake to celebrate pride – you know about that, right?”
Buck nods. “Of course. Hen’s talked about it a lot over the years and I’ve gone to the parade as an ally.”
Hen smiles. “Glad you’ve been listening, and this will be your first pride since you’ve realized. Thus, why we wanted to invite you over to be a part of this tradition.”
“Oh,” Buck says, softly. More than a bit touched by their offer. “That’s, uh, really… nice, are you sure?”
“Of course, we’re sure,” Karen offers, a hand on his arm. “You may be new to this, but we want to celebrate with you.”
“Unless you’re uncomfortable,” Hen offers. “I suppose that you might not know yet what you identify as –”
“Bi,” he says, quickly.
That’s one thing that he knows for sure. He’s done a lot of thinking, and he’s recalled several men that if he’d realized sooner that he could’ve been into if he’d thought about the interest in their bodies as more than a normal thing men do.
“Good, so … do you know what the bi flag looks like?” Karen prompts. “It’s different to our flags since we’re both lesbians.”
He tries to remember from what he’d seen of the flags as he explored and researched. “Uh, pink and blue and… there’s another one…”
“Purple,” Hen supplies as she hands him the three colors. “The top part and bottom parts are thicker with the purple being a thinner stripe across in the middle.”
“Pink’s on top and blue’s on bottom,” Karen offers when he hesitates over which one to start with.
Buck nods and gives her a grateful smile. “Just choose a flag at random?”
“You could go in the middle if you want? So, it’ll be symmetrical.”
It’ll be better for a picture anyway because he absolutely wants to post this online. The important people in his life already know and he’s never been one to shy away from being exactly who he is.
It doesn’t take long for all three flags to take shape, flooded with color as they finish.
He stands back and smiles as he finishes writing Happy Pride underneath.
“Looks amazing, Buck,” Karen offers as she and Hen both put an arm around him.
“We’re proud of you, you know,” Hen offers. “Sometimes it can be a bit jarring, but you took your discovery in stride and that’s pretty amazing.”
“Thanks, Hen,” he says, sincerely. “Thank you, both. This – including me in your tradition means a lot to me.”
“And now, we can include you for years to come.”
“Like the sound of that.”
“Good.”