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The beach is loud when Henry pulls up, sunglasses low on his nose as he climbs out of the car. Learning to drive on the opposite side of the road has been a challenge, but not as much as navigating HEB without Alex by his side.
He grabs the bags and walks down to the beach, using the path that’s half covered. His flip flops kick up sand in a small spray as he looks for the umbrella that he knows Alex bought just for this. Henry laughs at June and Alex struggling to attach streamers to the umbrella; they’re bright blue, shining in the wind.
There’s another umbrella nearby, this one covered in pink and so many streamers that it looks like a muppet. Bea’s standing back, hands on her hips, admiring her handiwork in her wetsuit. A few surfboards are stuck in the sand near her and she grins when she sees Henry.
He tromps through the sand, listening to June and Alex argue in rapid-fire Spanish that he doesn’t even attempt to understand. He understands pendejo just fine and he turns his attention to Nora who’s unfolding some tables with Pez.
“Hey, you survived HEB!” Nora calls out, grinning. Her curls are piled on top of her head, a visor shading her eyes as he makes his way, kissing her cheek.
“Barely,” Henry says, handing the bags over.
“Oh, come on, you love it,” Nora says. She shakes out the table cloth that immediately gets blown by the wind like a kite and Henry and Nora make quick work of taping it down. “Besides, who else is gonna go in, buy what we need, and come back without waffling over the coupons of the week?”
“That’s ‘cause Hen is a bougie bitch,” Pez calls out, smacking a kiss to Henry’s cheek. Henry laughs, swatting at him as Alex finally pulls himself away.
“Are we talking ‘bout Henry going into HEB without a plan?” Alex asks, kissing Henry soundly. Everything about Alex makes Henry’s breath stutter, but never so much as Alex in the summer. He smells and tastes like sunscreen and it’d be off-putting but all Henry wants to do is spread him out on the table and chase all the places the sun missed.
“I went in with a plan,” Henry says, pulling him into another kiss, grinning. “The plan was to get in and get what we needed that you said you’d handle. And here I am.”
“If you two make out on this beach, I’m leaving,” June carols as she starts setting out snacks and filling coolers.
“Well, better turn around,” Henry says, “‘cause I’m going to kiss your brother.”
Henry pulls him into a soft slow kiss, grinning when there’s a chorus of pretend retching behind them. Alex laughs into his mouth and the roar of the waves all make his heart feel full.
===
There’s eyes on Henry.
Normally, that’d make Alex a little jealous, but the eyes on Henry are ones from the kids who live at the shelter and given the stars in their eyes, well.
Alex gets it.
Henry’s laughing and gesturing, bare chest on display. His shoulders are pinked in the sun and Alex reminds himself to put more sunscreen on them. Alex watches familiar muscles and tendons stretch and move, Henry’s head tossing back as he and Pez joke around at the speaker.
It’s the surgery scars that get people, Alex knows.
They’re thinner now than when Alex first saw them; they almost blend in with the planes of Henry’s chest unless you know what you’re looking for. Alex glances at the kid to his left, a blue badge pinned to a bucket hat and a button-up shirt over some low swim trunks. He looks nervous and happy, glancing around.
“Hey,” Alex says, smiling. The kid looks around and points at himself as Alex holds back a laugh. Alex nods, tossing him a bottle of water.
“Clark, right?” Alex asks, walking over. The kid nods, something like fear on his face and Alex thinks about it as he looks back over to Henry. “I’m Alex.”
“I. Yeah, I know,” Clark says, clearing his throat. Alex glances back and takes in the other pins on Clark’s bucket hat; a pan flag in the shape of a heart and pin declaring their pronouns as He/They.
“I just moved and, uh. Henry helped me get some stuff changed. He invited me,” Clark says, siping at the water. “It’s my first. Event. Like, out.”
“Oh,” Alex says, nodding as the meaning drops on him. “Oh.”
“I saw the flags in the office but it’s different,” Clark says as Alex smiles to himself. He looks down at his own shirt, one that still looks like he broke into his Dad’s place just to steal. He remembers wearing a similar one, recovering from top surgery, just before he and Henry got together.
“It’s cool, right?” Alex says, tugging his own shirt off. His scars are different from Henry’s; a little more visible still, hidden under muscles that Alex vainly enjoys more than almost anybody else except for Henry.
“It’s different to see, like. Other trans people. And, like. Other trans people who are older than me,” Clark says as Alex slowly starts walking to Henry. He counts on Clark not realizing that they’re making their way to Henry until they’re there as Alex hums softly.
“I met Henry because I was having top surgery in college. My sister, the one manning the grill,” Alex says, pointing to June who’s beaming and handing out food to everyone who approaches, “she didn’t want me to be alone. So, she gave me Henry’s email.”
“And you’ve been together ever since?” Clark asks, eyes wide as Alex nods, grinning. He slides his arm around Henry’s bare waist, pressing his lips to a pink shoulder and sighing at the taste of his skin.
“Pretty much,” Alex says, tilting his head up for a kiss. Henry turns from Pez and kisses him softly, smiling broadly. It’s the smile that Henry used to hide - the one that shows off his gums and his teeth, the one that nobody used to see. Now, Alex thinks, it’s the one people know best.
“Clark,” Henry says, face brightening in recognition. “I’m so glad you could make it. Love, they’re the one I was telling you about, the quilter.”
“Oh, the Pride quilt, yeah?” Alex asks, gently nudging Clark’s arm. Clark’s cheeks are pink and it reminds Alex to grab the sunscreen as Clark and Henry fall into conversation. Alex applies sunscreen to both himself and Henry in quick, efficient motions, not wanting to start something (okay, wanting to start a little something) while Henry’s doing shelter things.
Alex listens to Clark, talking about his family and how they’d turned him out when he came out. Alex leans his cheek on Henry’s arm, thinking of Henry and Liam, and everyone in between. It’s been ten years since he met Henry; ten years since his top surgery and since Henry and Pez started to talk about shelters.
Here, on a beach, Alex wonders at what his life is.
He hums softly, happy with the wind tumbling across the beach and the crashing of the waves. He watches some of the braver kids diving in and out of the waves, shrieking and laughing.
Alex lets himself be pulled into conversation after conversation. Some of the more supportive parents and their kids who volunteer all hug him and Alex wants to tell them that he had nothing to do with this. He’s just been Henry’s support.
He looks around and takes in the groups of kids all talking and laughing. The small bundles of people, talking seriously and holding hands; talking about anything from their experiences or even just their new favorite movie. He glances over to the umbrellas set up; a staple from the last five or six years as the shelter and this celebration has grown. The blue and pink umbrellas, declaring IT’S A BOY! and IT’S A GIRL! and a third one, now manned by Pez, proudly showing off IT’S A HUMAN!.
“Sugar!”
Ellen calls out, waving happily. Her and Leo fight through the sand and his Dad isn’t far behind as Alex laughs, grinning.
“Better late than never, huh?” Alex calls out, watching Ellen wave him off. She’s softer sometimes and Alex thinks that he can let her be soft and sweet the way he wanted when he was younger.
He lets his parents wrap him in hugs and kisses and watches as they start their way through the crowd, shirts emblazoned with a promise of free hugs. Leo’s got his arms wrapped around a young girl, her arms tight around him and Alex watches his Mom talk to one of the non-binary volunteers. Their eyes are shiny and his Mom is holding their face.
“Man, her and Dad are really trying to one-up each other this year,” June says, grinning. He laughs, kissing her cheek. They watch Oscar pull a group of kids into hugs, one right after the other, the sound of familiar Spanish drifting through the air.
“Hey, as long as they’re doing it like this and not a screaming match over the grill, I’ll call it a win,” Alex says dryly. June laughs and throws her arms around Alex.
“Oh, little bit,” June says, soft and happy, “all of this is a win.”
“I know,” Alex says softly, the weight of the day settling on his shoulders comfortingly.
“I’m glad you’re all here,” Alex says softly, smiling.
===
Henry hears soft acoustic guitar and Oscar’s distinctive laugh as he makes his way through the crowd. He’s full and content, wanting nothing more than to pull Alex into his arms and hold him on a beach full of the people that he’s committed his life to helping.
He catches sight of his mother and Philip, standing with Bea, smiling politely. Bea’s changed her wetsuit for a pair of shorts and a tank top and she looks so happy and healthy that Henry can’t help but stride over and pick her up into a hug. Bea shrieks, cackling as Henry swings her around, grinning.
Catherine laughs, her face scrunching up the way that Henry knows his own does. She’s dressed in a soft floral dress and drinking a shitty American beer with her hair piled under a hat and big sunglasses on her face. Her beam is like the one he remembers from childhood; from before his Dad passed.
“Put me down, you beast,” Bea shouts, laughing as Henry kisses her cheek. He lets his mother pull him into a hug and kisses her cheek as well.
“Henry,” Philip says. He holds himself stiff and he looks unsure. It’s only been in the last five years that Philip has slowly reached out and Henry knows what it took to get Philip here. He thinks about being upset that Philip looks uncomfortable. That Martha happily hugs him while his own brother looks torn on what to do.
“Philip,” Henry says softly, watching him. Philip clears his throat and his face slowly thaws as he relaxes. He reaches out, pulling Henry into a hesitant hug and Henry lets himself enjoy it.
“I’m glad you could make it,” Henry says to Philip as they pull away. The sun is slowly starting to sink and Henry watches the bonfires pop up under the supervision of Oscar and Leo.
“Me too,” Philip says, smiling awkwardly.
It doesn’t make up for any of it but Henry squeezes his shoulder, letting it be enough for now.
===
“And, by the power vested in me by God, the state, and everyone here, bless them,” Pez declares, beaming. His eyes are stinging and he watches Henry and Alex’s grins grow impossibly wider. “I now pronounce you husband and husband. Please, for the love of God, put him out of his misery and kiss him, Haz!”
It gets a laugh, the way that Pez wanted and he hopes that somebody gets a photo of the way that Henry and Alex’s smiles crash together, like the waves on the beach. They kiss slowly and tenderly, tears shining in the firelight and Pez lets his own flow.
Pez watches them slip into the crowd, the kids from the shelter surrounding Henry, excited and eager to be noticed. He thinks about the way it feels to let these kids find themselves. He thinks about finding something for himself as he walks to the nearest bonfire, flopping down on the log that Oscar had dragged over.
“That,” comes a drawl to his left, “was a hell of a speech.”
The man to his left is smiling at him, lazy, sweet, bedroom eyes light and pleased. His hair is spun gold, turned darker than ever in the firelight and Pez leans closer, smirking.
“Thank you,” Pez says, airily, “I’ve been practicing for the last ten years.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” the man says, eyes tracing the lines of Pez’s face, settling back to meet his eyes and Pez takes the hand that’s offered. “I’m Liam.”
“Hello, Liam. I’m Pez. Like the sweets,” he says, watching Liam’s grin soften. Pez takes in his face and the soft lines at the corner of his eyes and he laughs softly, realizing that he’s still holding Liam’s hand.
“So, Pez like the sweets,” Liam says, shifting closer, “I’ve been on the other side of the States since college so tell me all the things you’ve practiced in the last ten years.”
===
They leave the others to pack up, Henry and Alex making their way to a now ancient Jeep, Henry’s laugh falling from his lips giddily.
“I thought our Moms were gonna kill us,” Alex says, grinning as Henry leans against the back of the Jeep, beaming. Alex creeps closer, feeling the light heat from his probably sunburned skin and thinks he can feel the glow from Henry’s grin.
“They’ll get over it,” Henry says, pulling him into a hot kiss. They rest there against the Jeep, making out lazily under the moon. Alex pulls away, unable to stop the grin from stretching across his face.
“Hey,” Alex says softly, watching Henry’s eyes go soft and pleased.
“Hello,” Henry says, demurely.
“You’re my husband,” Alex says.
“Mm, and you’re mine.”
“Do you think your husband could take you home?” Alex asks, pulling Henry into a kiss. Henry kisses him softly, holding him close before he pulls away, tilting his head back, laughing wetly.
“Please,” Henry says and Alex?
Alex is so in love, he could die.