Their Second Olympics

Chapter 1

The doorbell rings, and Henry takes a steadying breath before opening the door to his and Alex's brownstone. He pushes away his nerves and turns the handle: four smiling faces greet him and he feels himself relax. He was worried that he wouldn't be met with much enthusiasm regarding his exuberant Olympics watch party, but when he discovered the diving finals were tonight he knew he needed to properly commemorate the occasion. He felt like he needed to eclipse the old memories with new ones, have a redo.

Pez is the first one through the door and he immediately clamors into Henry's arms and plants a wet kiss on his cheek.

"Pezza!" Henry grumbles affectionately, pushing Pez further into the house so he can hug and greet Bea, Nora, then June. He's thankful that the Super Six were able to get together in the same city, that they still jump at any opportunity to hang out with each other.

"Hey, save that for the after party!" Alex appears just as Henry shuts the door.

Pez grabs both sides of Alex's head and gives him a kiss on the cheek, too. Henry almost feels a spark of jealousy before chiding himself for being ridiculous. It's just his nerves surrounding tonight. "You wish, my dear Alexander! But alas, I reserve most of this uninhibited feral energy for another Claremont-Diaz," he says with a significant wink in June's direction.

"Gross!" They all yell at Pez. "There are just some things that you don't need to know about your siblings' dating life," Alex says as he greets the rest of the group.

"Tell me about it," Bea and June say in unison, both cringing and sharing withered looks. Alex and Henry also share their own looks, and subsequently have to bite back peals of laughter.

Once they take off their shoes and coats, they all go into the living room where the Olympics are already playing on the TV. Alex made salsa and guacamole and set it on their coffee table, which is already being shoveled into Nora's mouth at record speed. The gymnastics are just finishing up with the camera panning to Simone Biles cheering her team from the sidelines.

"God I love her. Do you think she'd be open to a play-date?" Nora says while wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

June laughs and shoves her shoulder. "I think she's straight. Oh my god, wait, have you guys seen that skateboarder? The person who's nonbinary and has they/them written on their skateboard? So iconic."

"Yes! They're a biscuit, and I'd let them sop me up." Nora deadpans as the group laughs at her Drag Race reference. Alex wrinkles his nose, and Henry doesn't know that he's thinking of the time she used that saying to get it through his thick skull that he was bisexual. A disaster bi, but still bi. Ah, memories.

"So when do the diving finals start?" Bea asks from her perch on the couch next to Henry. Henry used to find it barbaric that not only Pez, but Alex, June and Nora prefer to sit on the floor, but now he finds it endearing.

"Should be any minute now. It looks like the gymnastics competition is just about done," Henry replies.

Alex looks up and catches his eye and god, he's so gone on him. He's so gone on his luscious curls, his honey brown eyes, his sultry smile. Henry knows he's staring, and he doesn't care.

Henry starts to think about how lucky he is to have such a caring, thoughtful, strong person who he loves, who loves him back. He thinks about their easy mornings and easier nights, their secret smiles and whispered reassurances. But then, just as the announcer says the diving final is about to begin, he begins to think about how five years ago he almost threw this all away. How Henry's slip-up could've cost him a lifetime of happiness, how this almost wasn't a reality. How he completely botched his meet-cute.