The whole family was out at the mall. Don't ask. Emmalyn wanted to go. I'm not shoppy person. Emmalyn knew this, but our daughter liked to torture us sometimes. I saw her eyes light up. "Oh! It's Haruka," she said waving at the girl.

"Is she your friend?" I asked her. Emmalyn shot me a look.

"They are," she said. I mentally slapped myself.

"Sorry!" I shouted at Emmalyn's friend. Haruka waved their hand in a sort of 'its fine.' Emmalyn walked over to them.

"Haruka, you know my presentation a few days ago?" Emmalyn asked. They nodded. "Those are my fathers." Emmalyn pointed at us.

"Wow," Haruka spoke for the first time, their eyes darting in between us. "Is it any different than having a mother and father?"

"Not really, and it's a thing that should be normalized. Why do people look down on gay parents just because they're the same darn gender?"

"Don't know Em," Haruka replied. "I guess people just look at the most common thing and accept it better." They shrugged. "Anyway, I was heading toward the ice rink," they said.

"Ooh! Can I come with you?" Emmalyn shot us an expectant look, silently asking our permission.

"Of course you can," replied Emmalyn's friend. "Bet Tim'll be happy as well." Emmalyn turned slightly red at these words.

"Timothy's here?" Emmalyn sent us another expectant look.

"Course you can, Papillon," Alder granted her permission. I walked over to the two. I took out my wallet and dug around in it. I pulled out some money.

"Here you go Emma," I said, passing the money to her. She took it and looked up at me. "You have your phone on you, right?" I asked. Emmalyn looked in her bag and pulled out her phone. "Good," I said. "Text us when you're done." Emmalyn put her phone back into her bag. She joined Haruka and then they walked off.

Alder was glaring at his phone and I turned to him. "Al? You alright?"

"Rodney posted something on his Instagram," he muttered. "He saw Hamilton and said he hated it and the picture is him pulling a f**king middle finger." I blinked at my husband.

"Why are you even following him?" I asked him, dumbfounded. "He is your former bully."

"I actually don't know? Unless the b*st*rd, stole my phone and made me follow him. I wouldn't put it past him to do that." I ignored Alder's swearing even though I hated swearing.

"Ah. Well y'know how you can fix it? Unfollow him."

"Unfollowed and blocked. F**k you Rodney," Alder said, smiling. Yeah, screw him. "Anyway, let's take a walk, shall we?" He offered.

"You kinda reminded me of myself then," I mused as we walked through the mall.

"Oh right. Yourself in eighth grade. After that, I admired you more." Alder was laughing and I felt myself smile.

"Yeah. The fact I was crushing on you may have played into that," I agreed. Alder elbowed me and smiled. I smiled back, the silence filling in what you all know very well. Alder grabbed my shirt and pulled me into a kiss.

"It must have because you completely lost it almost. I surprised at first, and shocked. You'd stood up for me. Me! Of all people you could've. Then my crush became aware to it and I admired you more than you knew."

"Yup. Say, um, how did you become aware of your crush on me?"

"It started back in sixth grade, I can tell you that. I always found you cute, but after a while, I just couldn't seem to get you out of my mind. When my father was-" he paused, looking around at the surrounding people "-...not there, I could think of you and actually feel happy despite my situation. I started having dreams, you don't need to know about those, normal crush stuff, anyway. The real clicker was when you started showing interest in a girl and I felt... mad... I felt irritated. And then I thought 'Why can't you look at me the same way?' And I think that was the point I knew."

"So jealousy was your realization? I remember you basically slapped it in my face that I was bi."

"I was so tired of you being completely oblivious. So I'm like, 'Sully. Listen to me dude, I can't take your obliviousness anymore so, I'm gonna tell something that's gonna blow your f**king mind.'"

"And me being an idiot said, 'What?'" I added on.

"I remember you blushing, it was almost as if subconsciously you knew what I was about to say. I continued, 'Sully, I hate to break it to ya, but you're a bisexual disaster.'" I closed my eyes, remembering the moment.

"'WhAT?' I had choked." I answered.

"'Sully, even a blind person could see it, you. Are. Bi. Sex. Ual.' I didn't reveal my feelings then, because just because you were bi didn't mean you liked me back." Alder giggled. "See where that got us now."

"I know we kissed. But who-"

"You kissed me (if I remember correctly). After I'd said that you were silent for a while, looking troubled. But then, your face relaxed, and it looked almost relieved. It was almost as if you were relieved I'd just told you were bi."

"I was relieved that everything suddenly had a cause as I've said."

"After a few seconds, you turned to face me, I couldn't read your expression. Then, you pressed your lips to mine. Shock fizzed through me and I felt my face burn. Oh my god, he's kissing me. OHMYGODSULLIVANSENSEISKISSINGME! SULLIVANSENSEMYBESTFRIENDMYCRUSHISF**KINGKISSINGME! ADSASASDASDDDADZDSDZSTFJGJHJKJ! Were the only thoughts that entered my mind. I immediately kissed back. I'd dreamt of that moment for two years. And then I heard the words I'd been secretly dying to hear." Alder imitated my voice for the next line.

"'I think I like you, Alder.'"