Geeks - 1. Green Haired Boy

Chapter One: Green Haired Boy

Mikeal was in trouble. With a capital T. And trouble was staring at him in the form of a waify blond female with a pout on her very red lips.

"I'm not hitting on you," the girl repeated, as if to make sure Mikeal knew that.

"I know. But I'm just trying to tell you that I don't know how to put that on you," Mikeal explained. "I'm just watching this booth for a few minutes."

"Well, I want one, but I need to make sure it's going to fit me and I can't do that if I don't even know how to put it on," the girl said. She had a slick red corset in her hands and was studying it. "I'm sure I can figure it out if you can just give me a hand."

Inwardly, Mikeal groaned but took the corset and helped pull it around the girl's midsection. This was not what he had wanted to spend his weekend doing. His best chick friend had drug him away from his favorite, comfortable haunts on campus to a place called Dragon Con in Atlanta that was too loud and too crowded for his liking. And while Julie had promised enough Star Wars to fulfill every geeky fantasy he had ever known, he had been given little time to explore that because she always needed something for him to help her with.

Which left him in charge of a booth full of chick garments that he knew nothing about. Wonderful. She had promised to be back 15 minutes ago so he could leave to help with the Lego Death Star sculpture and she still wasn't back. Bitch.

"Okay…so...I guess…" God, he was so out of his element. This was such a chick thing. Where the hell was Julie? "Um. I'm going to hold it back here for you, and you can fasten up the front."

"What are these called?" the blond asked, hooking up the busks on the front.

"Um…" Christ I don't know…. "Hooks, I guess."

She looked over her shoulder, flashing him a flirtatious grin. "Girls must be amazed at your extensive vocabulary, huh?"

Mikeal blushed, but didn't respond.

"It's kinda cute, actually," she continued. She let her hands slip down the corset again, until they brushed against his. He pulled them away quickly and set himself to tugging the laces together in the back. He wasn't sure where to start, but since she was a thin girl he figured she might want some bigger boobs, so he started at the bottom and started pulling the laces.

"Pull them tight," the girl demanded. "I want to have a tiny waist. Like Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind."

Mikeal shrugged and pulled the lower laces with a tight yank. The girl huffed out her breath. "Tighter," she demanded.

"Stop that," a warm male voice interrupted. Mikeal jumped and turned around to look at a fairly attractive girl. The fact that the pretty girl had a masculine voice didn't catch up until a few seconds later. "You're going to damage it if you keep lacing like that."

The blonde looked up. "But I want it tight."

Mikeal was busy staring at the creature in front of him. Looked like a girl…dressed like a girl…but spoke like a boy. He was tall for a female and he definitely didn't have that flowery, powdery smell that Mikeal associated with females. His build was definitely masculine, even when wearing what looked like a sailor outfit with an indecently short skirt, long green hair and high black boots.

"If you tie it too tight like that, you'll only end up hurting yourself and perhaps damaging the garment," the man who looked like a woman continued. Julie had told him about these people, she called them cosplayers. But this was the first time he had ever been close to one.

"How do you know?" the girl asked. The boy smiled and gestured at his outfit. "Honey, you think I get this shape naturally? I've got a corset on too, to narrow my waist. These here, though, are not made to change your shape that much, just to define it. If you tie it too tight, you risk not only hurting yourself and the corset, but you'll give yourself a muffin top. Now…" the boy unlaced the laces and readjusted the corset slightly. "Before I tighten it, make sure you adjust the girls on top however you want them. Then, you start tightening here in the middle, instead of the top or bottom. Then, from the bottom up to the waist, then the top down to the waist," he continued, pulling on the laces.

"It doesn't feel very tight," the blonde said.

"It's not supposed to at first," the boy said. "Just a little snug. Like getting a nice bear hug." The girl giggled. "I'm going to tie it off here in the back," the boy continued. "And that's it. Ta-da!"

The blond turned and checked her reflection out in the mirror. "Oh wow!" she exclaimed. "I look fantastic."

"That's all there is to it. Fluff a little at the top if you want, then you're good to go."

The girl turned around, examining her reflection from every angle in the mirror. "I look great. How much?"

"This one here is seventy," Mikeal said. This at least he was familiar with, he thought as the blond wrote out a check. He had worked in a clothing shop every summer and during the holidays in high school. He copied down her license number, just in case, and tossed the check in the lockbox before writing her a receipt. She chirped a happy "thank you cutie" and flounced off. Mikeal glanced back up to see the guy who looked like a girl staring at him. Now that he had time to really look, he saw that the guy even had on makeup and was carrying around what looked like a gigantic silver key.

"Can I help you?" Mikeal asked warily.

"Can you?" the guy asked. "If you are going to sell a product, you should at least know the basics of how to fit it."

"Yeah, thanks for that," Mikeal said, wishing the stranger would go away so he could sit down and read until another customer came by.

"So, are you going to tell me why you are standing around here, selling something you know nothing about?" the guy continued.

Mikeal didn't care for his tone of voice, or the way he was standing, with a hip cocked out. It was arrogant and condescending. "Maybe you want to tell me why a grown man is running around dressed like a slut with some kind of weird sailor fetish."

The man smirked. "I have a couple of friends who wanted to do Sailor Scouts for the costume contest. I was the only one tall enough to pull off Pluto's look. Do you insult everyone who tries to give you a hand?"

Mikeal was saved from answering by a cheerful "Hello!" as Julie came bounding back.

"Where were you?" Mikeal asked, exasperation spilling out in every syllable. "You said you would only be gone about five minutes, not half an hour!"

"I'm sorry, but I got distracted by some of the other booths around here. It's not like you had anyone stop by right?"

"I had a girl come by that had no idea of how to wear a corset. If this guy hadn't been here-"

"What guy?" Julie asked, frowning. Thinking that she probably thought he was a woman, like he had at first, he moved to point at him, only to find out that he had disappeared into the crowd.

"Well, he's gone now. But he was such an ass. Gave me crap about not knowing how corsets worked. So next time you feel like taking off for half an hour, please make sure you tell me how these things work first."

"Why don't you sit down and I'll give you a quick tutorial then?"

Mikeal sighed and shrugged. He was already late; he didn't see how several more minutes could matter.

A couple hours later, he was walking around the hotel, feeling uncomfortably exposed. Julie had talked him into trying on one of the corsets made for men for a couple of hours to see how it felt and had insisted that he take his shirt off to get a proper fit. It wasn't like he was the only bare chested guy he had seen here and he wasn't completely uncovered...he had seen an entire group of slave Leia's running around earlier exposing a hell of a lot more than he was right now, but he still felt nervous. He wasn't used to displaying this much of his body. He was much more comfortable in loose jeans and T-shirts that hid his thin limbs and pale skin. He had stopped by the costume contest earlier out of curiosity and had seen the guy who had helped him earlier...he didn't even know the dude's name...hanging out with a bunch of other girls that were dressed in identical outfits, except that the colors and the shoes were different. And the hair. But the guy had been hamming it up, dancing with the rest of the girls. At one point, the guy had run his tongue seductively over the stem of the large key he was carrying and the crowd had erupted into an exciting, screaming frenzy.

But by now, the crowd had thinned out a little bit, and left him feeling uncomfortably overexposed again. He found himself wishing he had a Star Wars costume with him. If he had known everybody else was going to be running around in costumes, he would have made one of those cool Storm Trooper costumes, or even thrown on some of his old Karate whites and a brown bathrobe with a toy lightsaber to be a Jedi Knight.

Mikeal decided to head outside, where it was cooler, darker and probably less crowded. It would be a good break before he went back to Julie and demand she take this damnable thing off of him. Mikeal turned and pushed open the hotel door, stepping outside. He sighed a little, feeling better being away from all those eyes and loud voices. He walked around to the pool, where there were already a couple of people in the water. He was about to turn and go back inside, when he stopped. He recognized that long green hair. Mikeal hesitated then slipped inside the pool enclosure. He didn't see why the guy still had the wig on, as he had abandoned the rest of the costume, lying on a lounge chair bare-chested with only a pair of jeans and the boots on. He remembered the way that the guy had licked the key he was carrying around earlier, how it had stirred something exciting and disturbing inside Mikeal; brought forth a slow realization that had been kindling inside him ever since high school. The excitement won out, drew him towards the other man, making him feel bold and dizzy.

It didn't do much for Mikeal's tact, however, as he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. "I see you ditched the slutty sailor outfit."

The boy hadn't been looking at him until he spoke, had been watching the other people frolicking in the pool, but at his words, the boy’s eyes slid slowly towards him. Mikeal realized that he had never seen what color they were and was suddenly desperate to find out, to see if they were green like his hair was. The boy didn't say anything, just stared for a few moments and Mikeal was beginning to feel stupid, wondering if the man even remembered him or had heard him at all, when the other boy finally spoke.

"You're wearing a corset," he said.

"Oh." Mikeal glanced down. "I am. But you’re not."

"No." The man gestured to a mound of white and black on the ground next to him. "I took the costume off as soon as the contest was over. It's damned uncomfortable." He pulled a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket. "C'mere."

Mikeal approached cautiously, already wondering if he had made a mistake. This guy, while not as rude or condescending as he had been earlier, was slurring his words slightly and moving slowly and strangely, hallmarks that he might be a little drunk. But still...he hadn't said or done anything remotely threatening and there were still plenty of people nearby and excitement was still licking hot in his chest and stomach as Mikeal stepped forward, in-between the man's spread knees. The man ran his hands over the sides of the corset, feeling the material and the stays, before placing his hand on his hips and turning Mikeal around, examining the lacings on the back.

"Nice," the man said, finally releasing him. Mikeal missed the warm touch and felt goosebumps crawl over his skin as the cool evening air made contact. The man pulled out a black cigarette and lit it, exhaling a stream of sweet smelling smoke. He glanced up at Mikeal, held the pack out in offering. Mikeal was on the verge of refusing, he had only tried smoking a few times after his roommate had encouraged him to give it a shot, and rather disliked it. But before he knew it he was reaching forward to take one, sliding it in his mouth as the man leaned forward to light it for him. It threw the light over the planes of the other man's face and Mikeal saw that aside from the green hair, he was more handsome than pretty. Of course he looked much different in jeans and skin than he did in tight white cotton with bows and ribbons and short skirts.

Mikeal pulled in the smoke and exhaled it carefully. His roommate, a Korean art student named Min-ho, had taught him how to smoke without coughing and embarrassing himself. These weren't like Min-ho's preferred Camels, these were sweet tasting and smooth flowing through his lungs and out of his mouth. He sat down next to the other man and smoked contemplatively. "So who laced that for you?" the man finally asked.

"My friend Julie," Mikeal answered.

The other man nodded. "Yeah, it's hard to tie yourself. You have to be quite..." He waved his hand around aimlessly, smoking coiling into the air as he searched for the right word.

"Dexterous?" Mikeal suggested.

The man grinned and pointed his cigarette towards him. "That's it." The man fell silent again and continued smoking, stretched out on the lounge chair. Mikeal waited for a while after he had finished his cigarette, then checked to make sure the other's eyes were shut, before taking in the view of the man's lightly muscled chest and belly.

The man appeared drowsy and sleepy. Cautiously, on the verge of being terrified, Mikeal reached over and gently ran his thumb along the other man's chin, tracing the slight curve underneath his lip. The eyelids fluttered slightly, but didn't open. Holding his breath, his mind screaming at him that it was a bad idea, Mikeal leaned forward and gently let his lips brush against the other boy's, light as a butterfly. The man didn't move a muscle and emboldened, Mikeal moved in, with a little more pressure and almost jumped out of his skin when the man's warm hand came up and touched the back of his head. He relaxed when all the other man did was caress his hair, then slid his hand down to cup the back of his neck, drawing Mikeal deeper into the kiss. Once the hand slipped away, sliding briefly down his back, Mikeal pulled back. The other man's face was slack and relaxed, obviously on the edge of sleep if not already there. Mikeal quickly got up as he saw one of the slutty sailors wandering in their direction, and hurried back into the hotel with flaming cheeks. He almost ran across the lobby and back to the booth where Julie was packing up for the night.

"Hey, I was about to go looking for you," she said, unlacing his corset. "How did it feel?"

Mikeal shrugged a little. "Fine." His mind was still on that light gentle kiss, the few brief, fleeting touches of the other man's hands on him and the somehow melancholic realization that he still didn't know the color of the other man's eyes.

* * *

Mikeal had a restless night. He and Julie were sharing a small room at the hotel, both of them friends for far too long to be concerned about privacy or modesty. Julie was a bear when she didn't get much sleep and Mikeal, who had been tossing and turning most of the night, finally got up early, as the sun was rising, to give her a few hours peace. He went downstairs and got an overpriced coffee at the hotel cafe. He propped his chin in his hand and stared out the window at the sky lightening by shy degrees outside.

He had done something that was completely out of his character last night. Maybe it was the wild and carefree atmosphere created by the reveling con goers. Maybe it was because he knew he would probably never see the other boy's face again. Or maybe it was the corset cutting off the flow of oxygen into his brain, who knew? But something about that guy drew him. It wasn't just that he was physically attractive, but there was something about him, some magnetism that had caught Mikeal's attention and reeled it in.

Mikeal took a sip of coffee, the hot liquid warming him through as he swallowed it. He sighed. He had known for a while that he wasn't really attracted to girls...he had dated them occasionally through high school and while he didn't mind them, he didn't really get that excited about kissing them or touching them...not the way he felt last night when the approached the green haired man. He remembered the intoxication of the stranger's body, how it drew Mikeal's eyes to the dips and curves of muscle. He remembered the warm tangles in his stomach when the other man touched him, felt the corset around his waist and touched his head and neck during their brief kiss.

That kiss! Mikeal blushed. That was what he had been up half the night thinking about. It wasn't the best kiss he ever had, it was sloppy and sleepy and tinged with alcohol, but it had affected him the most, had settled something with perfect certainty down where his secret heart resided.

He liked it.

He liked getting kissed by another guy, even a half asleep drunk guy.

So he might be gay. Fabulous. Oh God, now he was even starting to sound like them.

He stayed down there, sipping his coffee until it got cold, then went back upstairs to their room. Julie was already up and he heard the shower running. He banged against the door to let her know that he was up here, so she wouldn't come out naked or anything. When she did come out, in a flurry of steam and various female toiletries, she was half dressed, in panties and a bra. "So what do you want to do?" she asked, pulling on some jeans. "I'm going to set up the booth to see if I can catch any last minute con goers then we'll probably leave around 4 or 5ish, if that's okay? We'll have to go ahead and pack up the car though...."

"That's fine."

Julie glanced at him. "What's wrong?"

Mikeal shook his head. "Nothing. Just tired."

Julie snorted and rolled her eyes as she pulled on a top. "No kidding. You kept me awake half the night too with all of your tossing and rolling around. What was bothering you?"

"Nothing. Just not used to sleeping in a strange place I guess," he said. Julie's innocent questions were coming close to striking a nerve. Until he figured out how he felt about his new suspected preference, he would prefer to keep his troubled thoughts private if possible. He quickly packed up and took his bag down the car, stowing it in the trunk. He gave the keys back to Julie as he passed her on his way back in. They were showing a MST3K type screening of the original Star Wars in one of the ballrooms and he joined that, letting off a few one liners of his own that earned a few chuckles from the crowd. When he met up with Julie to leave late that afternoon, he stubbornly denied acknowledging the twinge of disappointment that he didn't see his green haired boy.