“Or you,” Raiden said, tapping him playfully on the ass as he headed back to the kitchen. “They sound like they were great parents, Cash.”
“They were,” Cash said. “Horrible dancers, but great parents. We always figured out a way together.” He laughed, then shook his head softly. “How about you, Raiden?”
“My story isn’t quite as fun,” he said, then paused in front of the fridge. “Do you all want chicken or black beans for dinner?”
“Both,” Cash and Lawrence said at once.
Raiden chuckled. “Got it. Like I was saying, my dad was great, but my mom always had a problem with me being gay, right from when I was a little kid.”
“That sucks,” Lawrence said.
“It did,” Raiden said. “But my dad always found a way to let me know I was okay. So the thing was, when I was a kid, I had this big crush on Batman and Robin.”
“The comic book characters?”
“No, from that movie.”
“George Clooney and Chris O’Donnell?” Lawrence laughed, remembering the flick. “That’s the worst Batman!”
“I was a kid!” Raiden objected, laughing along as he held his hands in the air. “My mom figured out there was something funny going on with my obsession, so she took away the movie poster I had hanging up in my room, this one I found at a garage sale down the road.”
“Dad to the rescue?” Cash asked.
“For about three years, they went back and forth. My mom would take something away, and my dad would find a way to get it back to me. Eventually, he built me a private fort in the woods where I could keep all my Batman and Robin crap.”
“How could your mom object to that?” Lawrence asked. “Aren’t superheroes and forts the most totally normal straight boy things you could be into?”
Raiden flipped on the stove, which whooshed with fire. “Trust me. My shrine to hot Batman and Robin? There was nothing straight about that.”
They all laughed together, and Lawrence relaxed as he turned his attention back to tidying the space. “Thanks for the stories,” he said.
“Anytime,” Raiden answered, then gestured with a nod of his head. “Now come on. I wasn’t kidding about chopping the onions.”
