When Ben had asked, “Why Bowser? Why Peach with Bowser?” and gotten a response of, “Well, think about it,” (Ben thought about it, for a second, but Henry wasn’t done) “if she didn’t want him to take her, she probably would have stopped him by now,” he could only stare blankly at his partner
His friend
His more than that.
“Henry. That perpetuates rape culture.”
Henry didn’t get it. He never did. “What- what the hell does that even mean!”
“It means it sounds like you’re saying she was responsible because she let it happen, that she wanted it to happen.”
“Yeah. And?”
“And that’s kind of a form of victim blaming. People say that a lot when they want to take the blame off the guy.”
“Oh. No, wait, that’s not what I’m saying, I’m saying with them, in their case, see, Peach is strong enough. Like she’s not some damn damsel in distress. I’m saying like, it takes two, y’know? Sayin’ they probably fuck like rabbits.”
Ben’s nose wrinkled at that word. Fuck. It felt so incorrect for an act that was supposed to be of love. It wasn’t like he himself never used it, but in this context it was both funny and jarring.
Henry liked it. The way his nose wrinkled. It made him smile, unabashed.
And it made Ben’s shoulders rise with the heat in his cheeks, because Henry had told him as such many times.
“I think I’ll just go as Mario. Wearing a dress sounds…”
He didn’t like to admit this, that he was uncomfortable wearing dresses. He was perfectly fine seeing other men in them, but as for himself… It was like being called Tits for however long he wore the dress. And then some.
“Cold.” he half lied. An omission, really, not a lie.
But Henry could tell when Ben lied. Henry could tell when anyone lied. Everyone had some tic. Ben’s was a swallow.
“Cold?”
“Sorry, I- I shouldn’t have lied. I just…”
“Embarrassing?”
Ben said something like “Yeah, exactly,” and so on and so forth.
On the night of Halloween, they did not walk hand in hand like they’d so wanted to, but they got a shitload of candy, and did sneak kisses to one another's cheeks when no one was looking.
