“You’re joking,” said Channing as he munched his way through a bag of chips.

As usual, when their shift rolled into the evening, the team congregated in the kitchen at the firehouse. It had been a quiet day, with just a couple of call-outs for minor traffic accidents and a kid who got their arm stuck in a section of railing in Moore Wood.

Channing was sitting in one of the chairs with his boots up on the table, no matter how many times Holby swatted them down. Alondra was reading one of her NASA books. It looked like this one was about Mars from the cover. Remi loved how much of a sci-fi nerd she was and had been out-geeked by her during several late-night conversations about Star Trek over the past few years.

Remi frowned and concentrated on getting the water he had in a pan up to boiling temperature.

“No,” he said sincerely in response to Channing. “I’m not joking. He’s my best buddy’s younger brother. When I realized he was homeless, I offered him my spare room.”

He left out the part where his mom had basically steamrolled him into it. That made it sound like Remi was still a kid who couldn’t make his own decisions. He was glad when Alondra looked up from her book and raised an eyebrow at him.

“How old is he?” he asked. “He looked like he was still in high school.”

“He’s twenty-one,” Remi said quickly, aware he sounded a little defensive. But he didn’t want anyone to think he was taking advantage of a victim or anything. “And he’s not paying rent. I’m just helping him out in the short term. Plus, it’ll be kind of nice to have a roommate.”

Having lived at home when he’d trained at the academy, Remi had missed out on that particular life experience. It was already nice knowing someone else was in the house when he’d left that morning and that they’d be there when Remi got home. Even if they had gotten off to an awkward-as-fuck start.

For a second, while they’d been getting along, it had almost felt like hanging with Leon again, in a similar-but-different way. The two brothers had matching mannerisms and turns of phrase that were spooky at times. The main difference was that when he let his guard down, Kris got louder and campier, coming back out of the shell the fire seemed to have put him in.

But that damn cat had almost killed Kris’s fish and the evening had never really recovered from that. Without the excuse of eating dinner, Remi didn’t really have any reason to knock on Kris’s door. So they’d both gone to bed without speaking again and Kris had still been asleep when Remi had left that morning.

Still, Remi hoped they could come back from this. He was starting to think he quite liked Kris when he wasn’t clamming up or censoring his fabulousness.

He glanced up from his almost-boiling pot to where Holby was looking over at him from his tablet. “What?” Remi said.

Holby shook his head and went back to his game. “Nothing.”

“So, y’all are like friends?” Alondra pressed, putting a ribbon between the pages and closing her book. “You said you knew who lived at the apartment when we got there, but I didn’t realize he was an actual buddy?”

“Well, he’s not,” Remi admitted. “Or he wasn’t. I dunno. Leon and I have been tight basically since kindergarten. But Kris was always this shy, tiny kid who stuck to his books. Then their asshole dad finally up and left and-” he made an explosion noise and fanned out his fingers “-it was like Kris just arrived in a shower of glitter.”

He shrugged and picked up his packet of ramen noodles to check the instructions. He made these things at least once a week, but he always read the back of the packet each time, just in case he forgot a step.

“Leon and I had left high school by then,” Remi continued as he carefully opened the top of the packet. “So I never really got the chance to know him when he quit being all closeted. I guess I will now – shit.”

His fat sausage fingers slipped, sending the brick of dried noodles skittering out of the packet and over the kitchen table. Holby automatically shot his hand out to catch the noodles while Alondra grabbed the packet of flavoring before it slid off the table and under one of the cabinets.

Channing guffawed and licked salt from the chips off his fingers. “So, having a gay guy in your space doesn’t freak you out?”

Remi frowned as Holby handed him back the mostly intact brick of noodles. “No,” he said carefully. “Why would it?”

Channing shrugged and fished out another handful of chips. “Dunno, dude. It’s just…different, you know?”

Remi considered that as he added the noodles to the water and checked the time on his phone. “I guess,” he said. “But my life isn’t exactly a riot, you know. Maybe different will be fun.”

A scoff drew their attention toward the sofa in front of the TV. Discovery channel was playing back-to-back shark documentaries and the watery scene on the screen was all bloody. Old Travis didn’t bother looking over his shoulder at them, just wagged the remote by his head.

“So long as you don’t wake up covered in lipstick and shit one morning – or worse.” He chuckled to himself.

Remi’s skin prickled. “Come on, dude,” he said, folding his arms. “The guy’s a friend and he’s been through a lot.”

Travis did look over at them at that. “Hey,” he said. He scratched his round belly, then held up his hands defensively. “I’m just kidding. But, you know, he is one of those kinda guys, you know?”

“No,” said Alondra, also crossing her arms and turning around in her chair. “We don’t know, Travis.” Remi was grateful for her support. He wasn’t sure he liked where this was going.

Travis sighed and finally made the effort to turn ninety degrees in the permanently sunken dent his ass had made in that end of the couch. “Okay, so, the gays can get married now, right? Nobody’s making a fuss over that.”

Holby frowned. “I’m pretty sure a lot of people are still making a fuss over that,” he said.

Travis scoffed again. “Not really. So, everyone can get married. That’s great. Knock yourself out. What I don’t get is all this goddamn parade shit and running around like fucking fairy boys.” He affected a limp wrist and fluttered his eyelashes like he was having a seizure. “Oh! Oh!” he squealed. “You want to marry another dude, fine. Just act like a fucking man, not a goddamned teenage girl.”

Channing snorted and shook his head. Alondra blinked and leaned back in her seat. Holby frowned even harder.

Remi clenched his fists. “Cut it out, Travis. That’s not cool.”

But Travis laughed at Remi, making his hackles rise. “Oh, come on!” he cried. He bounced on the sofa as he flung an arm out. “It’s just kinda gross, you know? Like, why do you gotta shove all that queer shit in my face, dude? Act like a real man.”

“What, so we’re all just supposed to be exactly the same?” Holby asked.

Alondra smirked and shook her head. “I think you and I have very different ideas of what makes a ‘real man,’ güey.”

“I don’t get what your point is?” Remi said. He was aware the pot was rattling behind him, but he didn’t turn around to look. He just kept his eyes on Travis. “You don’t like Kris because he’s ‘too gay’?”

Travis rolled his eyes and dropped back into the sofa to face the TV again. “Oh, come on, dude. Don’t twist my words. I’m just saying, it makes me uncomfortable, is all. I would get sick of that shit in my house real fast.”

“Well, it’s a good thing Kris doesn’t have to rely on a bigoted asshole like you then, isn’t it?” Remi snapped back.

It was only when he noticed all four people in the room had turned their faces toward him did he realize he’d shouted. He swallowed and gritted his teeth. But fuck it, he wasn’t backing down.

“No, seriously,” he pushed, looking directly at Travis. “Are you saying that Kris deserves to be left couch surfing? That because he falls outside your narrow view of male gender presentation, I shouldn’t help him out?”

Travis sneered and huffed. “Listen to yourself, man. ‘Male gender presentation’ – what the fuck does that even mean? Fucking millennials,” he grumbled as he crossed his arms and sunk back in the couch to watch the TV. “Why don’t you go rescue a puppy or something, Dr. Doolittle, instead of making up problems that don’t exist.”

“Yeah, you know what,” Remi yelled at the back of his head. If he wasn’t careful, Captain Bishop was going to come in here and read him the riot act. But in that moment, he didn’t honestly give a flying fuck. “I am a fucking millennial. And we let go of all that caveman bullshit about what the fuck a man is ‘supposed to be.’ Kris is my friend and he’s also now my houseguest. So it might be best you keep that homophobic crap to yourself in the future.”

“Whoa!” Travis shouted back. He jumped to his feet and advanced toward the kitchen area. “I ain’t no homophobe, kid. You take that back. I said they can get married, I can’t help how I feel about some of them being all la-de-da. What more do you want?”

Remi shook his head. The rattling lid of his pot alerted him to the fact his noodles were boiling over. He turned away from Travis and snatched the pot from the stove and threw it all into the sink. “Nothing,” he muttered, stalking out of the kitchen toward the corridor that led to the break room. “The great Travis Murphy graciously says the gays and lesbians can get married now. Halleloo!” He threw his hands in the air like his grandma did at church. Fuck, her thinking was more progressive than this hillbilly.

“Remi,” Channing called after him through a mouthful of chips. “Come on, man. He’s just kidding!”

“No, he’s not,” Remi said, stomping through the doors into the quiet of the corridor.

Remi knew he needed to cool off. He’d probably have to swallow his pride and apologize to Travis because he knew hell would freeze over before Travis made amends with him. There could be a call any minute and the two of them might have to rely on one another to save a life. Feuds were never a good idea in this job. But Remi was going to need a bit of time to calm down if he was going to make any apology sound genuine.

The trouble was, he thought as he dropped into one of the bunks in the break room and shoved his hands behind his head, he’d gotten so irrationally angry on Kris’s behalf. Sure, it pissed Remi off too, knowing what he did about his hidden sexuality. But Kris didn’t deserve to be talked about like that. He was spunky and sassy and full of fight. Jerks like Travis saw one aspect of him and just judged the hell out of him. It was bullshit.

“You okay, man?” Greg asked in the gloomy light. He poked his head above the partition of one of the bunks down the line. Damnit, Remi must have stormed in here making more noise than he thought.

“Yeah, sorry, dude. I’m fine.”

Alondra scoffed as she pushed her way through the door. Technically, she had her own private bunk area, but she often came into the guys’ area anyway. “This one’s on fire,” she said, nodding her head toward Remi and grinning. “Mad respect. Put it there, mi hermano.”

She held up her hand for a high five. Remi couldn’t help the slight smile on his lips as he slapped it. “Thanks, Lonny.”

“What I miss?” Greg said. “I always miss the good stuff.”

Alondra winked at Remi. “Washington here put Travis in his place for being a homophobic douche. It was sexy.”

Remi was fully aware Alondra had a boyfriend. But knowing she felt secure enough with him to flirt a little just reinforced the strength of their friendship. “Thanks,” he said again, quietly this time.

“Ah,” Greg said with an appreciative nod. “Nice. Good one, dude.”

He dropped back down on his bunk, presumably to sleep. Alondra gave Remi a wave. “I’ll let you know when Travis has cooled off. Channing said he’s got some pizza rolls you can have if you want, instead of your noodles?”

Trust Channing to prioritize the food. “Yeah, thanks,” Remi said gratefully.

When it was quiet again and he was by himself in the bunk, he took a moment to go over what had just happened.

That was the first time he’d tried to shut down any homophobic shit. And come to think of it, it always came from Travis. Sure, Channing had tried to brush the whole thing over, but the other guys kind of felt like they were on Remi’s side about Kris.

Did that mean they might be on his side about him?

The thought made something warm blossom in his chest. What if he did come out as bi? Maybe it wouldn’t be the total disaster he’d always envisioned.

He didn’t try and sleep. But in the quiet of the break room he smiled to himself for a while.

Maybe, just maybe, coming out might be a tiny bit awesome. Lucky for him, Remi had a new gay almost-friend he could potentially ask. What if he came out to Kris? Who better to understand what Remi was going through?

He grinned even broader in the dark. Yeah, that could be pretty damn fantastic.