THIRTY

Even though the pride parade was coming up, none of the stores seemed to be ready for it. Maybe it wasn't as big a deal as Hugo thought it was. It certainly wasn't as big a deal as Renee thought it was but he wasn't going to stop her.

She bounced between the clothing racks, pulling at things and frowning at them. "How can it be this hard to find stuff for pride?" she asked, more to herself than anyone else.

Stefan, who stood nearby with an amused smile, shrugged at her. "You're the one who wanted to wait until the last minute," he said.

"I'm not waiting until the last minute. Pride is next week," she replied.

"Sounds like the last minute to me," Hugo added when Renee looked at him. She glared at him jokingly and turned back to the clothing racks.

Stefan wandered over to him, arms full of clothes for him and Renee. "Found anything you like yet?" he asked, but Hugo shook his head. So far nothing had caught his attention except for the usual plain clothes he worse. But he couldn't exactly where those to a pride parade. Renee did have a collection of flags for them, but according to her, he needed more than that.

"I'm sure there'll be something in here for you, Hugo," Renee called, pulling out a brightly coloured tie-dye shirt and holding it in front of her. "We still have to hit up the party store. They've always got rainbow things."

Rose had texted him the details after the last meeting with the group. There would be another before the actual parade, but Rose had wanted to make sure everyone had a way there. He'd forced Renee to come along again so that she could get all the information, despite how much he knew she didn't want to be there. He knew she wouldn't go back after the parade, but it didn't matter.

They were allowing Michael, his translator at the GSA, to come along too, even though he would have both Renee and Stefan there to translate for him. Perhaps the man just wanted to be there with the rest of them. He seemed nice enough from the small conversations he'd had with him. It wasn't as though Hugo spoke much during the group, he was more content to sit and listen.

Stefan, who already had his outfit sorted, ran off to get a basket so that he wasn't carrying everyone's clothes. In the silence that followed, Hugo wandered through the men's section of the store, searching for something that he thought would suit.

He stopped in front of one rack with a frown. The short blue overalls that hung from them looked a little childish, but he couldn't help but think they were cute. He knew the day would be warm so it would probably be a better idea not to wear pants.

He heard a gasp nearby and looked over the racks to Renee. "I found suspenders!" she cried and held up a pair of rainbow suspenders. "I am so wearing these."

He gave her an amused smile and jumped when Stefan showed up next to him. "A little warning next time? Holy crap."

Stefan laughed at him. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," he said and looked over his shoulder at the overalls. "Were you thinking of buying those?"

"I don't know," Hugo replied with a shrug. "I don't know if they would suit me."

"Hmm. You should try them on at least. I think you'd look cute," he said.

"According to your parents, you already think I look cute."

Stefan laughed. "Piss off."

"Well, that's just rude." There was a blush on both their faces and with a small grin, Hugo leaned over and kissed him gently. He smiled into the kiss when Stefan placed his hands on his waist and pulled him closer.

A yell from Renee split them apart. "We're in public!"

"We're just kissing, you prude!" Stefan yelled back. Hugo shied away with a blush and pulled a pair of overalls off the rack. Maybe Stefan was right and they would look nice on him. It was worth a shot. His boyfriend caught him with the pair and handed him the tie-dye shirt Renee had grabbed earlier. "Try it with this."

Five minutes later, Hugo was standing in front of the mirror in a changing room, staring at himself in a kind of confused awe. Stefan had been right. Somehow, the overalls did suit him. As he had when he went clothes shopping, he felt good about how he looked. He didn't think he'd wear overalls all the time, but he had to admit it looked nice.

Stefan was waiting outside with Renee. They'd already tried on what they wanted for the parade and were waiting on him. Part of him was nervous about opening the door. He knew they'd be honest about what he looked like, but that wasn't what scared him. He didn't know what it was if he was being completely honest.

With a deep breath, he opened the door and stepped out into the thin hallway. "What do you think?" he asked.

Renee gave him a quick once over. "It's cute! You should definitely wear it," she said. Her eyes flicked over to Stefan and she scoffed. "Okay, he wants to be gay, so I'm going to take the basket and do... Something, I dunno."

She was gone before he could sign a single word. He met Stefan's gaze and smiled shyly. "What's up?" he asked.

"I- Uh- You-" Stefan gave up trying to speak and just gestured at him.

"What about me? Does it not look good?" he asked and wrapped his arms around his stomach. Renee did seem like the kind of person to lie about whether someone looked good, but only so that they wouldn't feel bad.

Stefan shook his head hurriedly. "No, that's not what I meant. You look really good. Like, really good," he said, his voice softening into a mutter. "You look really hot."

Hugo's lips made an 'o' and his face burned with embarrassment. "Thank you," he replied. "I don't know what I'm meant to say to that."

"Neither do I, honestly," Stefan said and stepped forward to wrap his arms around him. "At least you're not denying it. Even you know you're beautiful."

"I wouldn't go that far."

"Hey, what did I just say? Accept my love, dork. You're beautiful," Stefan said, kissing him lightly on the forehead.

Hugo let out a soft hum and pressed closer for a second. "I should get changed again so I can pay for these," he signed as he pulled away and ran into the changing room with a blush that stretched up to his ears. He smiled to himself when the door closed and looked at himself in the mirror. Maybe Stefan was right. Maybe he was beautiful.

Renee dragged them to the party store as soon as they were done paying, eyeing them and teasing them the entire time. Rainbow hats and ties were thrown their way, but they put most of them back. Renee went crazy with hairspray and wings and anything rainbow that she could find, dragging Stefan around with her.

All Hugo wanted was a couple of temporary rainbow tattoos that could go on his cheeks. He didn't agree to let Renee spray his hair, only because he'd done it once in high school and it stained his hair for weeks. He knew Robert was a little unprofessional with him, but he doubted his boss would be too impressed with him coming in with brightly coloured hair.

While he watched Stefan and Renee pay for everything, he thought back to the conversation he'd had with his boss the night he met Stefan's parents. They were boyfriends. Stefan had told his parents about him, brought him to meet them. He thought it serious, but Hugo hadn't even told his dad about it. He wasn't going to, but he wasn't sure if Stefan knew that. Stefan had to know that Hugo was serious too.

He tapped him on the shoulder as they walked back through the shopping centre to the car, arms laden with bags. "What's up, babe?" Stefan asked.

Hugo wrung his hands together for a minute. "I need to tell you something."

"Now?" Stefan asked, looking around them. They were in public, but Hugo had the idea now. If he didn't say it then, he wasn't going to at all.

He nodded and took a deep breath. "I'm not going to introduce you to my dad," he told him. Stefan frowned and Hugo bit down hard on his lip. "I know it sounds bad, but I know if I do, he's going to go off at me about talking again. He'll question you about it too. I don't want him in my life anymore and that includes you."

"Oh," Stefan said, pausing long enough for dread to sink like a stone in Hugo's stomach. "Hugo, I've met your dad once and he seemed like a complete dick. I don't mind if I don't meet him properly. I understand. You don't need to stress about that, alright?"

"Are you sure? I mean, I always thought that telling and meeting the parents was a big thing." He was going to ramble, he knew it. "I just want you to know that I'm serious about this, about us. I'm just sick of my dad questioning me about speaking and I don't want you to get caught up in it too."

Stefan's hands landed on his shoulders, his thumbs making soothing circles near his collarbone. The bags were on the floor at their feet. "I know you're serious. That's not something I'm worried about. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. That includes introducing me to your dad, okay?"

Hugo breathed out a relieved sigh. As per usual, he didn't know what he'd been so worried about. Stefan always seemed to understand him. There may be times where they might not get along and they might fight, but he hoped that they would stay together as long as possible. Stefan made him happy. Hopefully, he made Stefan happy too.

"Alright," he replied, smiling when Stefan kissed him on the cheek. He looked over his boyfriend's shoulder at Renee, who tapped her feet and watched them impatiently. "Renee is waiting for us. We better go." They were also standing in the middle of a busy shopping centre. As far as he could tell, no one was staring at them, but that didn't stop him from feeling a little embarrassed.

"Are you two alright?" Renee asked when they caught up with her. Stefan nodded and grabbed the keys off her to unlock the car. She tugged on Hugo's sleeve as Stefan filled the boot with their many bags and signed to him. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, I just decided to have some being emotional rant in the middle of the shopping centre," he replied, trying to keep the tone light. He felt good, for once, despite the guilt about not telling his father that sat like a dark cloud in the back of his mind.

Renee let out an amused huff. "As you do," she replied. "You know I'm here if you need to talk. If it's ever about Stefan I'm not going to go back and tell him everything, you know?"

"I know."

"And you were judging us for standing around," Stefan called, standing by the open door of the car. "Come on. We need to get home so I can cook you guys dinner again. Actually, no, wait there a second."

Stefan ducked into the car and pulled out his camera. It wasn't often that he actually took photos. Hugo knew he did it as a side job and at university. And he did take photos of his friends, which was obvious from the photo wall at the apartment, but he didn't carry his camera around everywhere like Hugo had expected him to.

He smiled and the flash went off. "I want that one on the wall," Stefan muttered to himself, putting the camera back in the car. Hugo suddenly wished there were more photos of him with Stefan. He had plenty on his phone, but none he could hold. He'd have to ask Stefan about it. Pride seemed like a good opportunity to get plenty of photos of the two of them. Maybe he would even start a photo wall of his own.