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Where the fuck is his husband?
Eddie has been looking everywhere and can’t fucking find Steve.
And this is a big deal.
He was asked this year to be the MC for the Indy Pride Parade. When word got out not only that he got married, but that he’s permanently residing in Indianapolis, the committee reached out and asked if he would basically be their gay ambassador this year.
He nearly cried.
Ok, maybe he did actually cry, but so did Steve, because it’s a really big fucking deal.
The parade is about to start and Steve said he would be there. Front and center, there’s no way you’ll miss me. Eddie’s hoping he’s in the crowd or something, because the parade is about to start and Eddie doesn't see him anywhere near the staging area.
Someone is calling his name and he has to get up on the float so they can get this show on the road. It’s colorful as fuck and he stands out like a sore thumb, probably in a good way, with his black leather pants and matching harness that he can’t look at anymore without thinking about how Steve rode him like a slut in heat when they packed up his apartment in LA.
Ok he needs to not think about that right now unless he wants to go down this parade route with a boner. And he really doesn’t want to do that.
He looks around one last time for Steve, doesn’t see him anywhere, and climbs up onto the float. It’s kind of packed with 6 drag queens already up there waiting for him, but they make it work. And these ladies look phenomenal, he’s not about to complain. They’re each dressed head to toe as the different pride colors and stand in a row making basically a human pride flag.
He gets manhandled in the middle between Yellow and Green, handed his microphone, does a quick mic check, and they're off. He wasn’t sure why he thought it would be difficult to do this. He figured trying to stay standing on a moving platform while pumping up a crowd would be a challenge, but this thing is moving at about 5 miles per hour so…it’s actually a little anticlimactic if he’s honest.
But fun. They slowly roll through the beginning of the crowd and it’s fucking packed. Of course his eyes dart around looking for his husband, and he has to tamp down his disappointment when there’s no Steve in sight. So he launches into his duties as MC and screams into the mic “Welcome to Pride, Indy!”
The crowd goes mental, music starts up, and the joy is fucking palpable.
Eddie moves to the head of the float while the Queens grab their color coded buckets and start waving and tossing candy to the kids in attendance. He can’t help the laugh that bubbles out of him seeing these kids scramble on the ground and fight each other off to get their hands on Jolly Ranchers and packs of Skittles.
“Thank you so much for coming out today to celebrate! The world can be a dark place, and we as a community have been fighting an uphill battle for a long time. But this right here is what we do it for. To be able to live loud and proud. To be our true selves and not have to hide in the shadows. To love who we want without shame or fear. To be free!”
The music has been building, and just like he rehearsed, Eddie waits for the cue and starts to sing.
I want to break free, I want to break free
I want to break free from your lies
You’re so self-satisfied I don’t need you
I’ve got to break free
God knows, God knows I want to break free
He was admittedly pretty apprehensive to sing a Queen song. That’s like the one big unspoken rule with karaoke…you never sing Queen. Nobody can do Freddy Mercury like Freddy Mercury. It would maybe be different if his band was up here with him. Or Steve. Where the fuck is he?! Eddie still hasn’t seen him and he's trying not to freak out and just give this performance his all.
He really wishes his husband was here for this next part.
I’ve fallen in love
I’ve fallen in love for the first time
This time I know it’s for real
I’ve fallen in love, yeah
God knows, God knows I’ve fallen in love
As he sings, the Queens take turns joining him at the front of the float, dancing and waving to the crowd, and Eddie has the biggest grin on his face as they ham it up. Red rubs her padded ass on his hip. Purple throws her boa over his shoulders and shimmies against his side. Orange grabs his free hand and lifts it up, making Eddie twirl her around as she dances.
It’s strange but it’s true, hey
I can’t get over the way you love me like you do
But I have to be sure when I walk out that door
Oh I want to be free baby
Oh how I want to be free
Oh I want to break free
This is fucking fun. Blue comes up behind him and rubs her hands all over his chest and stomach and he has to bite back his laughter. Green pours a couple packets of Skittles down his chest like a candy waterfall and Eddie mimes rubbing it all into his skin.
Everyone in the crowd looks so happy, flags are waving, people are cheering. This feels amazing.
Where the fuck is Steve?!
But life still goes on
I can’t get used to living without, living without
Living without you by my side
I don’t want to live alone, hey
God knows, got to make it on my own
So baby can’t you see I’ve got to break free
I’ve got to break free
I want to break free yeah
I want, I want, I want
I want to break free
The second he finishes singing, Yellow grips his shoulder and turns him around, grabs his face, and plants a firm kiss against his lips.
Eddie freezes.
He grabs Yellow by the waist and pushes her back. She’s wearing a long 70’s style dress with these big clacky plastic circles all over it from neck to ankle. A huge yellow boa. Her wig is the biggest blonde bob he’s ever seen. Her makeup is super exaggerated, as it should be. Her lips are made to look twice as big, and her eyes are done up mostly in black with a little white underneath. almost making them look like butterfly wings.
But all that makeup…it can’t hide what his eyes zero in on.
Two little moles by the apple of her left cheek.
Another one just an inch away from the right corner of her mouth.
One very kissable one above the left side of her jaw.
Those lips, despite their augmentation, are burned into his fucking soul.
“Sweetheart, I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
Steve throws his head back, miraculously not dislodging his wig at all, and laughs brightly over the cheer of the crowd. “I told you I’d be front and center!”
Eddie snakes his hand around the back of Steve’s neck and hauls him in for a bruising kiss. The crowd roars and Eddie smiles against Steve’s lips.
This fucking man. God damnit, he loves his husband so much.
“How the fuck did you pull this off?!”
“I have my ways,” Steve laughs. “We thought it would be fun if we all surprised you.”
Eddie furrows his brow and looks around. “What do you mean we ?”
Red comes up to him and slaps him in the shoulder. “Don’t say I never did anything for you, asshole!”
“Gareth?!”
He steps back laughing and throws more candy to the kids lining the streets, and Blue takes his place. “You fucking killed that song, man!”
“Jeffrey, what the fuck!”
He looks over Jeff’s shoulder and realizes that Will is all decked out as Orange, purple is absolutely Lucas’s color, and there’s no way in hell he ever would have expected Mike fucking Wheeler to dress in drag, but the shades of green weirdly suit him.
He’s had family up here this whole time.
Really, family has been all around him. This beautiful community coming together to celebrate who they are and how far they’ve all come.
Eddie looks back at his husband and his heart is fit to burst. Family is on this float. It’s lining the streets and cheering as he wraps his arms around Steve’s waist and brings their lips together again.
The most important part of his family. His entire fucking world . His ray of sunshine that breaks through the storms.
His rainbow in the dark.