Road To Happiness ✔

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."