Author: Kat
Title: Shades and Flavors
Story: In the Heart
Colors: Rainbow saturation
Supplies and Materials: Graffiti, chalk (happy gay people), glitter (heat), novelty beads (Be proud of who you are. Be proud of the electrical charges in your empty atomic space that keep you from breaking apart into near nothing. - @NightValeRadio), miniature collection, seed beads (If you know offhand who everyone in this story is, congratulations, you are a bigger fan of my story than me).
Word Count: 1500
Rating: R
Summary: Synonyms for gay that deserve more use: cheerful, happy, gleeful, glad.
Warnings: internalized and external homophobia, fairly explicit sexuality (Joy), (acknowledged) male privilege, drug use.
Notes: Because happy queer people, dammit. Again, as always, please please tell me if I've fucked anything up.
ETA: Soooo I had this ready to post at about 12:15 and... didn't hit post? IDK. I hope this still counts, despite being late.


1. gay

And yeah, okay, sometimes being gay sucks. But Hector has Theo, and Theo's enormous, tumbling, bizarre family, and Theo's ridiculous friends and Hector's own friends, who are not ridiculous like Theo's, certainly not.

And the thing is, now he goes to parties and introduces Theo as "my husband" and nobody blinks. He and Theo walk in the city at dusk and watch kids, young gay kids just like they were but happy, kissing and touching, because it's okay.

The young gay kid he was would never have managed that. Hector can't help but smile, when he thinks about those kids.



2. lesbian

Gina had an epiphany, sometime in college. She'd spent years hating herself and just then, sitting on a bench in the snow, it felt so stupid, all those wasted years trying to change herself, because look at those girls over there, holding hands and pink-cheeked smiling, like nothing was wrong with them, and nothing was.

Not all lesbians are good people. Neither are all straight people. Not all lesbians are happy but neither are all straight people. And she—she's just like them, those pretty pink-cheeked girls in the snow.

She's a good person, and she's happy, and that's enough.



3. bisexual

So... he's attracted to men and women. Okay. He's also attracted to genderqueer people, and non-cisgendered people, and people who haven't got a gender but are just, you know, people. Felipe likes people, that's all it is.

Bisexual is something of a misnomer because it assumes two genders, but whatever, it works. And sure, it is annoying that his family apparently knew before he did, but he'll take immediate acceptance over confused waffling anyday.

So he'll kiss boys and he'll kiss girls, and he'll kiss anyone, really, who feels like kissing him, because kissing's fun. The hell's wrong with that?



4. bent

Zack's not gay. He doesn't think he's bisexual either, because he's never looked at a man and thought "hey, yeah, nice." Up until now he's been strictly 100% all about the ladies. Except...

Except. There's Felipe.

There's Summer too, and he definitely looks at Summer and wants her. The thing is that he also looks at Felipe—no other man, just Felipe—and wants him too. So what if Felipe's got a dick? So does Zack. He can live with it. He likes it.

So, not straight either. He's got no idea what he is. He just knows it works.



5. pride

Viktorie is proud of herself. Why shouldn't she be?

She's very intelligent—she's just completed her master's degree in chemical engineering, and is contemplating moving on to a PhD in chemistry before entering the workforce. She's an excellent conversationalist, especially when you consider she's an introvert who started life with a stutter. She's a wonderful girlfriend, sweet and attentive and good in bed. And oh, yes, she's a lesbian, and she marches in glitter with the best of them, because she's here, she's queer and deal with it.

Of course she's proud. Just look at her, and everything she is.



6. off the straight and narrow

Aaron mostly considers himself asexual, and is a little surprised to find that Ivy mostly considers him biromantic. It's a weird emphasis, he thinks, and he tells her so, but she waves him off, probably because she's in the middle of homework.

It's just... gender isn't really... very important, is it? Yeah, okay, that's probably a very privileged assumption that he can afford to make because he's a man, but it doesn't interest him much. Sure, he likes people's bodies, but it's equal opportunity admiration; he doesn't have a preference for one sex or the other.

People just are. Right?



7. drag

Some of Amanda's friends consider her boring, and they aren't really shy about telling her, but whatever. She's gay, not a party girl. The two aren't synonymous. In fact, if Amanda's honest, she wants nothing more than to meet a nice girl, settle down in the Connecticut suburbs in a white house with a picket fence and a dog, take the train into the city for work, and come home every day to a gorgeous happy wife, happily screaming kids, and a martini just for her.

Sure, the martini might be a little fifties, but she doesn't give a fuck.



8. bathhouse

"It's okay," the man says, and Joseph turns, wide-eyed.

He's naked beautiful, all lean muscle and shining skin and—Joseph swallows—thick, gorgeous cock. He's also smiling gently at Joseph, who flushes.

"First time?" he asks. Joseph nods, and he smiles again. "It's okay. You can relax, you're safe here."

"I'm not afraid," Joseph lies, and the man laughs.

"Sorry. You just look tense. C'mere, I'll give you a massage."

Joseph follows, and the fucking is amazing, but when he thinks about that night, it's the smile he remembers.

It's the first night he really understands that he isn't broken.



9. I just love ‘em all

Joy finds women beautiful; their hips and soft breasts and the way they squirm when she works a clit with her tongue. She finds men beautiful too, broad chests and treasure trails and the deep moans they make when she strokes a cock just so.

She thinks trans women are gorgeous, kissing their nipples and playing with whatever they want her to touch. She thinks trans men are gorgeous, rubbing against them, letting them pound her until she screams. Everyone who wants her, she finds beautiful.

It's sex. It's love. It's whatever.

She always loves her partners, just a little.



10. chaps

Theo bought the chaps on a whim, and now he tries them on, looking at himself in the mirror. He isn't sure why this is a gay thing precisely, but they do make his legs look nice, and the inside is buttery soft against his skin. He smoothes his hands down his thighs, and is suddenly really glad he isn't wearing pants, because that feeling is making him get hard.

Something shatters and he spins, to find Hector standing in the doorway with his jaw hanging open. "What—"

"Bed," Hector says, "now," and Theo gets the chaps thing now.



11. show tunes

Ivy's whistling while she fixes the coffeemaker, which she learned how to do when she was sixteen because some things are just important, okay, when Gina walks in the front door, takes one look at her, and bursts out laughing.

"What?" Ivy asks.

"You!" Gina says. "Oh my god, you're wearing a rainbow handkerchief and a Pride T-shirt, you're screwing around with machinery, and you're whistling showtunes. You are the biggest lesbian stereotype I have ever seen in my life."

"I could be making out with a hot girl," Ivy suggests, and laughs when Gina promptly lands in her lap.



12. Judy Garland

Omar is not actually a drag queen. He just likes dressing up like Judy Garland.

Not that he dislikes drag queens, oh no. The reason Omar doesn't call himself one is that he doesn't have half their skill. If drag queens are ballet masters, dedicated to their craft, then Omar is a Chippendale's dancer—hot, but anyone can do it.

Okay. Not anyone. But plenty of people could, if they put their minds to it.

Anyway, he has it on good authority that he can at least pull off the gingham. And his boyfriend likes skirts.

It's an access thing.



13. Cher

Evan's mom likes to try and be like Cher, from the hair to the outfits. Evan thinks it's cute. And also pretty heartwarming.

It's like this. She's been into dressing like Cher since long before he was born, but after he came out to her she kicked into overdrive. She joined PFLAG right away, and set up a local chapter. She started picketing businesses and churches that said or espoused homophobic things. She organized and ran letter-writing campaigns, protests, and fundraisers for safehouses.

And she stayed the hell out of his dating life.

Evan loves his mother so fucking much.



14. poppers

It was Marco who first introduced Russell to poppers, but he's been into them ever since.

It's kind of weird, but girls don't seem to find them sexy. He's learned through long experience to keep the poppers for the freaky girls and for the guys who even hint that they might be interested in such a thing. And they make it amazing, the rush, at a rave or in the bedroom, skin on skin under colored lights or in pitch black, hot and sweet and giddy and fuck.

He tries to save them, when he gets them, for special occasions.



15. pretty and witty and gay

Leah's first time at a gay bar is freaking awesome.

Her brother takes her. Leah doesn't know why Andy knows a gay bar for women, but she's not complaining, because he heads for the alcohol as soon they walk in and leaves her to the women. And she feels—

She feels pretty, because the women look at her with frank admiration. She feels witty, because the women laugh at her jokes, and look fascinated when she talks. And she feels, yeah, okay, gay, because there's these women, and they want her, and she wants them.

It's awesome.

Definitely going again.