Running from Reality

[Samson Callahan Koster]

Samson bit his tongue on the almost instinctual comment that threatened about someone being bi should probably have their own room. Maybe his family wasn't all that great, but he wanted to be better than what he'd grown up around. "How do you know?" he asked instead. "Is that why you've got pink in your hair?" As far as he knew, he was straight, not that he spent lots of time thinking about that kind of thing. Except when it was in a book, and he sneaked off to read the scene over and over again with an almost guilty fascination.

[Andy Moreau]

Andy's dark brows drew tightly together and he shot Samson a defensive glare. "No," he said, cheeks pinkening. "I have pink in my hair because I like it. And I don't know because it's confusing. I kind of like guys, but I kind of like girls too and if you don't like it you can suck my d~." His shoulders hunched slightly and he picked up the pace again, bringing it nearly to a power-walk.

[Samson Callahan Koster]

Samson blinked slowly at the sudden defensiveness and it took him a second to speed his feet to keep up with his companion. "I don't care who you like, I just never met anyone that's not straight," he said. At least, he didn't think so, anyway. "I think the hair's kinda neat, but I just..." He swallowed another never. He'd never a lot of things, and suddenly felt very self-conscious of that fact. "Sorry," he mumbled, lowering his eyes to the cover of his book.

[Andy Moreau]

Andy gave Samson another suspicious glare, but slowed his feet so that he was no longer half-running. "That's how I learned to fight," he said, still ruffled but willing to give the guy another chance. "When you look like me, you get sh~ on and you learn to defend yourself or you give up and die." Which was why Samson's lack of any real action earlier had confused him. And why he'd known there was about to be a two-on-one fight if he didn't do something.

[Samson Callahan Koster]

"People just leave me alone, or say stuff, but I'm not important enough for anything else," Samson said, thankful Andy hadn't left. He wasn't good enough at anything, but he wasn't bad enough, either. They thought it was weird he read muggle books and pathetic who his daddy was, but all in all he just settled in underneath everyone's notice. "If people go after you because of things like your hair, why do you do it?"

[Andy Moreau]

"Because f~ them," Andy said. "I'm not gonna be someone else just because people get weirded out when someone's different. I grew up in Las Vegas. Everyone was weird there and everyone loved it. That's how it's supposed to be." Whatever his foster dads might think, they let him be whoever he wanted. If he went to get breakfast in a skirt or a nightgown, if he had his hair up in a ponytail to keep it out of his face, if he wanted to stay in his room playing with his makeup for an hour, no one said a word.

[Samson Callahan Koster]

It wasn't really all that different from his books, Samson supposed. He went silent again, thinking. For someone who really wasn't much of an academic, it was something he did often. "I guess my dad's one of those who'd be mean to someone like you." It hadn't exactly been a good look that crossed Andy's face when Maverick was mentioned.

[Andy Moreau]

Andy's gaze dropped to his feet again. "Yeah," he said. "I'm not even allowed to go into the Leaky Cauldron. The guy... your dad I guess, he got in trouble with the law or something for fighting with a gay couple. Like, fighting." In truth, all Andy knew was hearsay, but coupled with the admonition to avoid the place, it seemed pretty likely.

[Samson Callahan Koster]

Samson shivered slightly and put up a hand to run a finger along Porthios' smooth head. "His brother's qu-gay," he said, managing to catch himself in time. "People back home talked bad about him, too. Said his name was Ariel." To be honest, he'd been somewhat curious about his uncle. One of his friends had siblings who'd gone to school with him.

[Andy Moreau]

Now that was too much to be a coincidence. An Australian guy in England was one thing, but a gay Australian named Ariel was a lot more specific. "I think I might have met Ariel," Andy said. "He's like totally one of those guys who'd kick arse in rugby and drink beer and have girls all over him. His boyfriend or husband or whatever is super-pretty, though. Um, the pretty one is friends with a friend of my foster dads'. I dunno, it's all confusing."

[Samson Callahan Koster]

That pretty much lined up with what he'd heard about his uncle, although all he'd heard had been tempered with a lot of pointing out the guy's weirdness, too. "Guess I'm lucky you're the one who helped me out," Samson said. "Since you just so happen to know about them. Oh and I probably would have gotten hexed into oblivion, of course, if you hadn't shown up."

[Andy Moreau]

Andy shrugged, the careless motion belied by slightly pinkened cheeks. "Everyone knows about the Leaky Cauldron," he said, "and like most people know about Ariel's pretty boyfriend. Partner. I don't know. That guy owns a bunch of fancy robe shops. Any time I ask people are like, Go read the Daily Prophet or something." Andy realized he was rambling, but he was uncomfortable with praise of any sort.

[Samson Callahan Koster]

Too bad Ariel was gay, maybe if he wasn't, then that guy could've been his dad. But now suddenly he had an uncle, maybe two uncles, who were kind of cool, and well-known and not in a bad way. It would be kind of nice to live somewhere where only one of his paternal relatives was complained about regularly. "Maybe I should read old Daily Prophets, then," he said thoughtfully. "Are there a lot of gay people around here, then?"

[Andy Moreau]

"Like ten percent of people are gay," Andy said knowledgeably. "It's just like, okay to be gay here so people don't hide so much." And cue that song he'd seen online, which would probably be stuck in his head for hours. Well, at least it was funny, if a little shocking in places. "Some of the best professors are gay. Or like, bi. I don't know, people talk about them a lot, though. Like, the Transfiguration professor and the Defense professor are married guys. And badarses."

[Samson Callahan Koster]

Suddenly, Samson couldn't help but laugh. "Oh my god, I can't imagine my mum's face if she knew I was going to have queer teachers," he said, trying to think of her face. He somehow didn't think she would be as openly jerkish to them as some of the others, but she still grunted in annoyance and wrinkled her nose when people talked about it in the paper or on the radio. "She must've been too focused on my dad to look it up."