The language we're not allowed to speak

When the celebrations marking thirty years of unity of the Great Unified America bring a British journalist to Washington D.C., neither he nor the barista at his hotel expect a glance across a bar to undo everything they thought they knew about staying safe.

Elliot Marsh has built a career out of observing, writing, and leaving. For a week, he's supposed to cover the government's biggest anniversary celebration, from speeches, parades, and a story that's already been written for him before he landed.

Matías Santiago has spent seven years perfecting the art of being unremarkable. No one looks twice at the guy behind the hotel bar, which is exactly how he likes it, exactly how he's stayed alive. He doesn't do reckless. He doesn't do hope. And he definitely doesn't fall for foreign correspondents with kind eyes.

But even with the nation's strict rules, Elliot and Matías are about to discover that some things are worth being loud about. Even when the cost of being heard might be everything.

The language we're not allowed to speak is a story about the parts of ourselves we hide to survive, the people who make hiding feel impossible, and what it costs, and what it's worth, to finally be seen.

This novelette was written as part of the #PrideWards2026.