"Yeah, I mean, drag names don't have to be special. Nikki, you named yourself after Madonna's character in Who's That Girl, right-"

Nikki's face descended into horror. "Oh my god, Miyuki! I told you never to tell anybody that!"

Miyuki gave him a slow, sneaky cat-eyed smile as she stuck her red icing laden finger into her mouth for the billionth time. She smacked her equally red lips in the pleasure of it. "Well, you do like Madonna. Who doesn't?"

Hanako pointed at me from across the room and Chidori gave me a surprised look as she took out another tray of support ribbon shaped cookies from the oven. 

"Excuse me, what?" Nikki gasped at me as his horrified face descended even worse.

I wiped my forehead with my wrist. It was getting hot in here, even without his third degree. "That's beside the point." Next to me sitting on a stool, Gyeong-Wan was smiling, amused by this conversation. No doubt he'd never seen Who's That Girl, either. I wasn't the only one. "We were talking about Gyeong-Wan's drag name. Let's get back to that."

"Fine, fine. Ugh, you're coming over after this to watch Who's That Girl. You don't even know the origin of me. I can't believe it. We've known each other how many years-"

"Nikki." I giggled as I carefully iced another cookie in red, really paying attention. 

These cookies were incredibly important to me. Ever since French Cup opened, our mentor Lady Elizabeth had implemented one day per December to fundraise specifically for HIV/AIDS charities as part of her month long devotion to World AIDS Day, which is December 1st. Nikki and I had chosen today to do it, since a lot of people would be coming for the last drag bingo before New Year's. Today, people could buy these cookies for however much they wanted to donate to the charity of our choice. On a normal day, they could still donate in the form of putting money in a jar and they also knew that a certain percentage of our profits went to these charities as well, but today was a targeted effort.

 These cookies shaped like AIDS support ribbons were extremely dear to my heart. Lady Elizabeth had designed them herself years ago, and it was still the same recipe and cookie cut-out from back then. I kept these two things as if they were religious objects. And they were, as far as French Cup was concerned. In support as well, most people coming today would be dressed in red. We were, too.

Every one of us in this room had been mentored by Lady Elizabeth except for Gyeong-Wan. She was more like a mother figure to us. Especially to Miyuki, she'd become a stand in mother, teaching her everything there was to know about being transgender. For Chidori, she'd helped her figure out her drag king persona by causing her to look within herself. And for the rest of us, she taught us what being a drag queen and being queer was all about. Most of all, she'd taught us about kindness and perseverance, dignity and strength. About facing the world with a smile and standing up for more, running at it with a challenge and a giant yell, big stick in hand to attack back. 

It hurt me that Gyeong-Wan couldn't know her. But, if I thought about it more, by knowing all of us he was getting to know her. There was a part of her still in every one of us in the lessons that she'd taught. 

Nikki went on talking to Miyuki and I didn't pay attention, because Gyeong-Wan was staring at the newly iced cookie in front of him. The icing was still wet. Before I could count to two, he had his wallet out and placed a five hundred yen coin on the metal table with a rattling noise. He picked it up gingerly by the sides. 

This noise brought the attention of everyone else. He didn't even notice them as he bit into the cookie and closed his eyes. It wasn't only a sugar cookie this time. It had some light cinnamon inside as well, making it resemble a snickerdoodle. He made a slumping motion as he tasted it, way too good to sit up straight. It made me giggle, which caused him to smile.

"First donation of the night!" Nikki announced loudly. He stopped icing a cookie and went over to the big clear jar. It had a big AIDS support ribbon taped to it. He brought it over from the top of the stove and placed it carefully as a holy object in front of Gyeong-Wan. "Put it inside."

Gyeong-Wan looked up, surprised. He put the cookie back on the wax paper from where it had came and instead picked up his coin. With everyone giving him supportive looks, he shyly dropped the coin into the glass jar, creating an even bigger clatter. He blushed about as red as his cookie as everyone clapped for him. 

Nikki clinked and clanked the coin around in the jar, shaking it rapidly as he brought it back to the stove. His excitement was filling me up with joy, giving me energy. My hand slipped under the table as Gyeong-Wan picked his cookie up again. He was mid-bite as my hand squeezed his. This caused him to smile, dimples and all, as he bit into the cookie like a happy little kid. It made my heart feel so full. 

"So, Gyeong-Wan." Hanako swooped onto a seat in front of us and made him jump. There was no way he'd eat that cookie in peace. It made my smile so wide as I released his hand and went back to filling a cookie with icing. 

"Hm?" He chewed so cutely. Every time he made a movement, his dimples would show a little.

"Have you thought more about drag? I brought extra tonight in case you want to join us. Everyone's going to be on stage, not just Nikki and Kazuya. It's a special night. There's going to be dramatic readings. You can be assigned one if you want. I know it's only your second time in drag, but it's quite an honor to do it tonight. I bet Kazuya will do a dramatic reading with you in case you're nervous."

I nodded extra hard as I concentrated on icing my cookie. 

"Dr- dramatic readings? What kinds of dramatic readings?" 

He was stuttering. It made my heart squeeze for him. There was no reason to be nervous. 

Hanako was no nonsense. "Each one tells a personal story in short form of someone from Japan who has passed away from AIDS or AIDS complications. Then we ring a bell and give our silence for them for a minute."

I looked up at this, and saw Gyeong-Wan had gone pale. He was quieted, holding his cookie. Suddenly, he seemed much younger than he was. I put my icing bag down and placed my hand on his middle back, rubbing there soothingly. 

Nikki had stopped what he was doing, too. "Hanako, that's too hard. I mean he's not... I appreciate the donation for the cookie, but he isn't part of our community. So he doesn't need to-" Miyuki smacked Nikki on the back of the neck and he let out an irritated noise. "Ow, you scratched me with your nails!" 

Miyuki shrugged. "It doesn't matter if he's part of the community. There's names in there of people who aren't from our community."

"I want to...community..." 

My hand stopped rubbing Gyeong-Wan's back. He'd said something so quietly that even if Miyuki and Nikki weren't bickering loudly not ten feet away, I doubt I would have heard him even though we were sitting almost thigh to thigh. "What? I'm sorry, I didn't hear that." I leaned in to him. 

He lifted his head, looking at Hanako directly. It was obvious that Hanako was caught off guard with this boldness, as was I. Gyeong-Wan's hands went on his knees, and he bowed formally. My hand was hovering in the air, going to his back again, when he said...

"I want to read one. I am part of your community. I'm gay."

The room became so silent it was as if everyone disappeared. My mouth was open and I didn't even know when that happened. Hanako was wearing an expression that I'd never seen on him before. His eyebrows were raised, but such a softness to his face. So pleased, like a mother seeing her son after far too long apart. 

He smiled so gently to him. "It would be an honor to-"

The door banged open and crashed against the wall and all of us jumped about a mile to the right. My hand went over my heart. 

"OH SHIT!" Nikki yelled, saying it all for us. 

"Good evening to you, too!" Prin laughed. Somchai, Prin's partner, was wheeling in something massive with effort. The wheels of the metal dolly squealed as a big blue drum full of something mysterious seemed to float into the room. He set it down and breathed out in relief after all that exercise. 

"What the hell is that?" Miyuki jumped off her stool and was quickly followed by Nikki. I didn't want to leave my cookies, but this was too interesting to ignore. We gathered around it, and Gyeong-Wan pressed to me. It seemed like it was intentional. My hand went on his back, staying here like I'd wanted to. Despite this interruption, what he'd said was hitting me. He'd just told four people. I wanted to hug him and congratulate him. I wanted more than to congratulate-

"Loo...beh..." Miyuki tried to read the English, pronouncing the word stamped in white in bold letters on the top of the drum. 

Hanako put his hands on his hips. "It says 'lube'."

"Is this a...what is it?" Chidori started, but Prin was already nodding knowingly. Somchai had wandered over to the cookies that were in neat rows on my work table and picked a finished one up. Nikki snapped his fingers at him and pointed at the jar. Somchai was already digging into his pockets, having been to about ten of these events.

"It's a fifty-five gallon barrel of lube," Prin said proudly, grinning at all of us with his big yellow teeth. 

"Um, it's a what?" My eyes had gone wide. 

"It's for your drag bingo tonight. It's from America-"

"Of course it is," Nikki sighed. He walked around it, inspecting it with crossed arms. "Let me guess, nobody wanted it?"

Miyuki let out a quick puff of air. "Well of course nobody wanted it. It's fifty-five gallons. It isn't practical. You'd have to have an orgy more than twice per week to get through all that," she said, not missing a beat. My cheeks were getting pink. Beside me, I noticed Gyeong-Wan was actually turning red at this talk. We were one and the same.

"Uh, Miyuki, that's not-" I began, but Somchai was too quick. He laughed at her kind-heartedly. 

"Prin and I were thinking that it could be good for wrestling. How slippery, right? You'd barely be able to touch each other. Pretty interesting fights. It can have other practical uses."

"Who'd be using it to fight-" I started, realizing what was truly and actually in the barrel.

"I read a review online that it'd be good for a giant slip and slide party. Imagine it. That's why I bought it, so long ago," Prin interjected, not deterred by me at all. I was uncertain what to do at this point. 

"A slip and slide party! Wow, that'd be so fun!" Chidori gasped, her hands going together. "We could tape trash bags together and do it!"

"I bet there's enough here for the whole neighborhood," Nikki added on, pulling up a stool and sitting there while admiring the drum. "A neighborhood slip and slide party."

"Yeah! We can make fun foods and play music, and everyone can be in bathing suits and-"

Hanako chuckled. "Don't plan this. We can't keep it. It isn't ours. I don't know who's going to win it, but I don't think they'll want a slip and slide party."

"A shame," Prin grinned, patting the drum lovingly. "They don't know what they're missing."

"Sounds like a great opportunity to break your neck," Somchai chimed in with a mouthful of cookie. "Didn't I tell you that when you bought it?"

"Yup. Still a great novelty to have, though. A great conversation piece." He gazed at it with a silent sigh, obviously sad to see it go.

Everyone stared at it, probably thinking of the possibilities. Just what did one do with that amount of lube? Who would ever need it? It sounded like Prin had learned that lesson himself. Somchai took the last bite of his cookie and smacked his hands together at the floor to get the crumbs off.

"Still wish I could have seen that lube fight, though," he muttered, barely audible with his mouth full of delicious, delicious cookie. 

I chanced a glance at Gyeong-Wan, and he looked so lost that I couldn't help but laugh. This only caused everyone else to laugh at the ridiculousness of the object in front of us. They started throwing more jokes, and I just stood there with my hand still on Gyeong-Wan's back, silently acknowledging his bravery from earlier and loving him in the moment as he finally started to laugh with everyone.