A Star for Baby (boyxboy)

Delphinus

Hey everyone! I'm back from the grave! Just a disclaimer, there will be mature themes in this novel including smut. I will put warnings before each chapter that it happens, so be on the lookout. All the character drawings are done by me, so if for some reason you use them please do give credit. Lastly, this book has been a labor of love, and definitely one of my favorite things I've written since Twins. Thank you all so much for your continuous support throughout the years, and I hope you enjoy!

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Oliver Eze carries stars on his back.

It hasn't always been like that. He decided to get his first one when he was fourteen years old and his little sister was born. The moment that he held her little body against his own he just knew; she was going to be the one point of light in his dark family. So he asked around. Eventually, he found a sketchy upperclassman with a mechanical pencil, some India Ink, and a pawned tattoo needle. He got the stick-n-poke in the back of Jake Osman's pick up truck on a dark April night: a small black star at the top of his spine, just below where a t-shirt could hide it from his parents.

He got his second star tattooed when he was eighteen. It was the night he first kissed a boy -- Gavin Morris -- and the universe had exploded behind his closed eyelids. It was the night he realized he was gay. And just like the moment when he first held baby Hope in his arms, it was a moment that changed Oliver's life forever.

So he should've been able to recognize the moment when his life changed for the third time, but he didn't. He was too absolutely floored by Baby Parker playing guitar to take stock of anything else.

"Oliver!" a hand on his shoulder, a loud voice in his ear. "Oliver!"

Oliver tore his gaze away from the stage to where his best friend Emmett was tugging at his shirt to get his attention.

"What?"

"What do you mean what?" Emmett yelled over the noise in the bar. "You walked in here and totally zoned out. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I..." Oliver trailed off.

His gaze flicked back to the stage as if magnetized. A single raw guitar chord ripped through the bar, and Oliver stumbled back. He had to sit down, oh man. The boy in the band onstage was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

Sweating behind a mop of electric blue hair, brows furrowed in concentration, and fingers leaping along the neck of a guitar, the boy completely and totally captured Oliver's attention.

"Who is that?" he yelled over at Emmett, not taking his eyes off the guitar player.

"Who, blue hair?"

Oliver could only nod dumbly.

"No idea," Emmett shouted back.

"Do you think he goes here?" Oliver asked.

But before Emmett could answer, the bar erupted in applause. The band had finished their intro, and Oliver's heart swooped as the boy with blue hair stepped forward towards a microphone.

"Thank you!" the boy grinned out to the crowd. "We're The Bitch Blankets, and you're about to get your fucking socks rocked off!"

As soon as he'd shouted the words, the band behind him came to life. The crowd whooped and hollered.

"Well he seems a little forward," Emmett scoffed next to Oliver. "Blue hair. He's probably a pretentious art student."

Oliver resisted the urge to tell his friend to shut up, because Blue Haired Most Beautiful Man In The World had just stepped up to the microphone again. Then the boy opened his mouth to sing, and Oliver felt the universe slip out from under him.