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Henry Oak was chewing his nails again. Darryl Wilson was watching him in the rear view mirror. Well, no, not watching him really he was just… noticing him. Noticing him chew on his thumb while he leafed through a book.
Darryl noticed a lot of things about Henry these days, lots of things he would never have noticed back in California. Like the nail biting. Or the strange way his beard grew in a slightly different color than the hair on his head. Or the softness of his lips.
No.
No.
Not that. That was not part of the things he noticed.
Well it was.
But that was a thing to attempt to suppress later. Right now Darryl was attempting to suppress other things. Like the fact that yesterday he had noticed that Henry had pretty green nail polish on his fingers. Well mostly on. A few weeks of hard living had chipped them off until the green was all but gone. You had to be really looking to see the flecks of green left on Henry’s long fingers.
Not that Darryl was looking it was just that--
“Darryl!”
Darryl jumped in surprise and looked at Glenn who had just snapped in his ear.
“What? What?”
The other dad rolled his eyes.
"I said, ‘don’t crash into this town’ Henry said something about checking the market for supplies and I wanna see if they have any Unfortunate Foster Children fights…” Darryl raised his eyebrows at him and Glenn tried for an easy grin but probably beefed it on his performance because Darryl could see right through the look, “you know so I can pick up a new kid or something.” Darryl looked at him sternly for a moment before deciding that he had a better punishment than calling Glenn on his lie.
“Okay, take Ron with you.” Darryl replied as he started pulling The Beast into a covered hiding spot.
“Awe fucking hell.” Glenn groused.
“Garry, I understand that you are unhappy about having to go to UFC fights but I think you will enjoy a leisurely stroll with me through the establishment.”
Glenn replied in a grumble and ambled out of the car.
“You two have fun and be safe!” Henry called after then, finally looked up from his book.
Darryl spared a moment to peek, no, look, peeking implies something… more sneaky. This was not sneaky, this was a man looking at his man friend doing a manly stretch that showed off his manly tummy with his soft manly tummy hair.
“Did you want to go shopping with me?”
“What?”
Darryl blinked. No, he hadn’t been listening to Henry. He had been looking at him… in an extremely manly way.
“I asked if you wanted to go shopping for supplies with me.” Henry repeated with a slightly concerned look, “If you’re not feeling well I can just go on my own and bring you something back, maybe they have some good restorative tea or oatmeal, I can make you some very good overnight oats!”
Darryl blinked again and then shook his head. He heard it that time. He just only understood about half of it. “No, uh, I can go shopping with you.”
Henry smiled so brightly it nearly flustered Darryl to look at him. “Well I know what we need” He muttered gruffly.
“Of course!” Henry leaned down to check his Birkenstocks, his paint chipped nails fiddling with the leather straps, and winked at Darryl on his way up, “I couldn’t make the trip without you.”
Darryl wasn’t really able to respond because his brain seemed to have gone offline at the wink for some reason. The next thing he knew, he and Henry were on their way to the market while Henry gave him full liner notes of his next geology hip hop album.
What had Darryl been thinking about earlier? Oh. Yeah. Green.
Green like a Seattle Sounder’s jerseys.
Green like fresh cut grass.
Green like the chipped paint on the nails at the end of Henry’s long fingers.
That was the color the little pot of nail polish was.
Darryl was a man. A man’s man even. And like any good man he really liked painting his wife’s nails. Darryl had hoped for a girl before they found out the sex of their baby, imagining how fun it would be to paint her nails. He supposed he could paint Grant’s nails but his son hadn’t asked and he hadn’t offered and anyways the point is Darryl is good at painting nails and this nail polish was almost the same shade as what Henry was wearing.
Darryl stared at the pot. Henry was getting rope and seeing about getting food and some other stuff. Darryl had said something about looking at knives but he had been walking to the little makeup shop since he had arrived in the market.
“Are you interested in this color?” the woman behind the counter asked.
“Uh, oh, no, I don’t think--”
“Of course you are," she said. “This is a gorgeous green and it would look amazing on you.”
“Oh,” Darryl started, “It’s not--”
“On a lover then.”
“What? No! I mean, I don’t think…” He waffled for a second, then wondered why he was waffling, then spread his hands and shook his head.
"No, no, not lovers.”
The woman gave him the flattest look he had ever seen. Even Grant would be quelled. “Sure.” she reached for the pot and handed it to him, “Give them this and maybe they will keep not being your lover.”
Darryl opened his mouth but heard Henry faintly calling him. The green was the right shade. This was crazy. This was stupid. This was…
“How much do I owe you?”
The woman smiled.
"It is a gift,” she winked and Darryl swore she was fading before his eyes, “Use it in good health.”
“There you are!” Henry said happily, he was holding two bags that looked suspiciously like Whole Foods reusable shopping bags. “I have been looking for you everywhere, what are you doing in this empty stall?”
“What?” Darryl looked around. Absolutely nothing. Yeah, that was about his luck at this point. “Nothing.” He lied, “Just getting out of the sun.”
He must have really cleared his deception roll because Henry’s eyes and mouth went wide.
“Jeepers, Darryl, you’re right! We all should have been wearing sunscreen the whole time we were here, what on earth were we thinking?”
Darryl tried not to smile and stealthed the pot of polish into his pocket, walking back with Henry as the other man talked far too much about the harmful effects of the sun.
Gosh he was cute.
Wait.
No.
Hold on.
It has been three days since Darryl had gotten the nail polish, and he still hadn’t found a way to mention it to Henry. By now the other man had picked or chewed all the polish off his nails and Darryl found himself looking at the man’s hands more and more. Thinking about how much he would like to hold them while he painted. Or maybe Henry would rest them on Darryl’s knee. Or maybe even his thigh. Or--
“Darryl, is this nail polish?”
Darryl yelled and threw a partially skinned rabbit at Glenn who probably took three damage.
“I’ve heard of the tortoise and the hare but never the fly and the hare.” Ron said.
Darryl didn’t even think that joke was worth the two points of damage he took on his way to look at Glenn and what he had been referring to. As it turned out it was indeed nail polish and it wasn’t even the pot he had gotten the other day… in fact he had never seen this black polish before. Huh.
“Yeah, sorry buddy it looks like it is.”
“What the hell, Darryl?” Glenn demanded, sitting up and rubbing at his face before snatching up the polish and brandishing it at Darryl, “Make it up to me but painting my nails.”
“What?” Darryl barked, “What, no, no I’m-- I’m not even good at it why would you want me to?”
“Because no matter who bad you are you will be better than I am with my left hand.” Glenn replied, sitting down and holding out his hand, “Get to work, stay at home dad.”
Darryl wanted to protest but was too distracted by his relife that Glenn hadn’t found the green polish that he just sat down and started to work.
He had just gotten the first nail painted perfectly when Henry got back from looking for his vegan options. “Darryl what are you- Oh my good gracious, are you painting Glenn’s nails?”
“Hell yeah!” Glenn crowed, “And he's fucking awesome at it!” Glenn fist pumped and Darryl tried to not look proud of his work, “Stellar brush work, my man!”
“Thank you, hold still.” Darryl muttered, finishing up the third nail now and starting in on the fourth.
“You know,” Ron started “I myself am a man and I cannot tell you how many times Samantha has asked me to paint her nails and I gotta tell you fellas, I am far better than Darryl here.”
“Oh really?” Darryl asked, keeping his snide tone just below the surface.
“Well for one you are only getting the paint on the nail.”
Somewhere in the back of his head Darryl was laughing so hard he couldn’t sit up.
“Hey Henry!” Glenn said completely ignoring Ron, “You should have him do yours next!”
Darryl did a really good job of managing to keep painting despite the fact that his brain had exploded.
“Oh, I don’t know about that.” Henry said with a laugh that sounded just this side of nervous. Not that Darryl noticed.
Glenn, for his part, soldiered on, “No come on, I saw you chew off all the paint you had when we came through. You need a new coat, my man.”
“Oh, well, I just don’t know if black is my color is all.” Henry said, trying for something relaxed but sounding a little more frantic than he meant to. “Let me know if you find a green.”
Glenn shrugged. “Suit yourself, man.”
“Switch your hands, Glenn.” Darryl couldn’t be sure he said because his brain was still exploding in multicolored lights in his head.
Glenn was asleep in the front of the van, Ron was asleep in a cocoon of his pants. Darryl was sitting in the open trunk keeping watch and looking up at the stars.
“Aren’t they cool?” Henry asked.
Oh yeah.
Henry was laying on the grass, his head on a rolled up sleeping bag, looking at the stars.
“They are.” Darryl answered, shooting a look down at Henry’s hand that was stretched up to trace imaginary constellations.
His nails were still bitten and chipped. They really could use something.
“I wish I had a star map of this place.” Henry was continuing, “Maybe I’ll grab one before we go back.”
Darryl watched him.
“I found green.”
Henry looked up in total confusion. "What?"
Darryl was already grabbing the pot of polish and clambering down to sit next to Henry on the grass, “I found green nail polish in the empty store you found me in and I wanted to paint your nails because I’m really good at it and you deserve to have nice nail polish on but I was too nervous and now I just want to paint your nails, is that okay?”
They looked at each other in silence.
Darryl started mentally calculating how bad a joke he would have to tell to die right there, then Henry was offering him his hand and breathlessly saying, “Of course you can, Darryl.”
With what he would never call reverence Darryl took Henry's hand. He held it like a good steak. Like an old record. Like those sappy romance books Carroll didn’t know he read. With a deep breath, he started painting.
Henry watched him under the moonlight as he worked. They sat in a silence that seemed unusual for Henry, but he seemed too caught up in watching Darryl to interrupt him.
One hand done and one to go and suddenly Henry shifted closer and rested his unpainted hand on Darryl’s knee. Darryl stopped and felt all the blood in his body fill up his cheeks.
“I thought this might be easier.” Henry said from a very long way off.
“Uh-huh.” Darryl said from an equally long way off.
He started on the hand that was resting on his knee. He was acutely aware of how very close they were. How easy it would be to kiss. Again.
Three fingers to go.
Henry smelled like the woods.
Two.
How long had their foreheads been pressed together?
One.
“Darryl?”
Nearly done.
“I’m going to kiss you.”
Darryl looked up.
“Is that okay?”
Darryl nodded.
Henry was in his lap and Darryl was falling back into the bumper of the van, doing his best to protect Henry from bonking his head against it on the way down. In the past few weeks Darryl had kissed Henry three times. Each time was weird and wild and rushed. This time was still weird. And wild. And rushed. But in a way that was entirely different than any other times. For one, they weren’t bluffing for their lives. For a second thing Henry wasn’t high. And for a third- Oh Henry was putting his hands in Darryl’s hair and his tongue in Darryl’s mouth and oh.
“Is this okay?” Darryl asked as Henry pulled away just enough to let him talk and continued to kiss around his mouth and into his beard and his mustache which… well Carroll had never kissed his beard before.
“Mmh.” Henry replied into his beard, lightly tugging on his hair to get him back into prime kissing position before stopping and looking down at him, his eyes blown behind his glasses and his mouth red from beard burn. “Sorry, yes it is okay. Are you?”
“Yes, I…” He blushed and kept all the things he wanted to ask to himself and picked just one question instead, “Can we keep kissing like that?”
Henry was in his mouth again before Darryl could even breathe. Darryl laughed a little bit and then groaned when Henry was sucking on his tongue and biting his lip. There were long nail bitten fingers in his hair and Darryl was holding slim, manly, hips as he kissed back.
It could have been an hour later or a second, it didn’t matter because either would have been too short a time, they lay in the grass next to each other catching their breath and grinning. Darryl smiled and closed his eyes, reaching to tug Henry close to his chest, the other man rolled into him willingly and rested against him with a little chuckle. Darryl could fall asleep here, it would be easy and comfortable. Henry on his chest, the moon bright above, the car protected. It was perfect. Thank god he had…
“Oh no.” He groaned, drawing a confused huff from Henry, “Oh no, Henry your nail polish.” Darryl took his hand gently and looked at the mess on his nails. They were covered in ruts and nicks from grabbing onto his hair and they looked--
“I love them.” Henry said tiredly and happily, gazing at the ruined nails with pure delight.
Darryl looked down at Henry and the look of pure joy on his face. He reached for his sunglasses but after a second of fretting and then laughing when it was explained to the man on his chest, he decided he liked having his tears kissed off his cheeks better than hiding them behind his glasses.