By the Light

                                                By Jeff Baker

“What time is it?” Danny yawned, stretching his stocking feet out of the tent into the warm, afternoon air.

            “About an hour before sunset,” Leonid said, rubbing his stocking foot against Danny’s. The socks he’d gotten him last Christmas. “Two hours before the moons rise.”

            “Four-hundred light years just to watch two moons fool around,” Danny said.

            “’Occult themselves’ is the technical term,” Leonid said.

            “A fancy term for an eclipse,” Danny said. “Makes it sound like we should be drawing a pentagram.” They both laughed. Danny pulled his feet under the covers.

            “Heck of a way to spend our anniversary,” Leonid said, “dragging you out here.”

            “I don’t mind,” Danny said. “Hey, I don’t know if I ever asked you; you dated a girl once, right?”

            “I dated several girls once,” Leonid said. “Several guys, too. But you knew that?”

            “And this wasn’t, you know, ‘before you knew for sure,’” Danny asked in a fakey voice.

            Leonid laughed. “No, I always knew. And you knew I was bi from the time we first met. And I didn’t date those girls and guys all at once, you know!”

            “I know, I know!” Danny said laughing. “But last year, after that row we had with my ex-boyfriend you said we should lay all our exes on the table.”

            “Sure, I said that,” Leonid said. “I meant it, too. But what brought this up now?”

            Danny grinned. “You were talking about a couple of them in your sleep.”

            Leonid’s jaw dropped. He sat up on his elbows.

            “Oh. My. God.” Leonid said. “What did I say?”

            “Let’s see…” Danny said. “You were talking to someone names Sylvia about someone named Javier.”

            “Oh, my God!” Leonid said. “Javier and Sylvia! I dated both of them about twenty-five years ago!”

            “Sounds serious!” Danny said, propping himself up on one elbow.

            “Not that serious,” Leonid said. “We were all in college. I told Javier I was Bi, not Gay and he stopped seeing me. Sylvia was okay with it. We parted friends.”

            “Lucky for me,” Danny said.

            “Oh, but then there was Andrew, Andrea, Brandi, Carl, Reuben, Rose, Rodney…” Leonid was ticking them off on his fingers.

            “You’re making them up!” Danny laughed.

            “Yeah!” Leonid said laughing too. The two of them laughed and looked into each other’s eyes and kissed.

            “The thing is,” Leonid said. “The only one I ever clicked with was you.”

            “Awwww!” Danny said. “You too, sweetie!”

            Outside the tent, in the dusk the two men sat there as the two moons rose above the horizon. When the one passed behind the other, looking like a giant, lopsided moon, the two men began to sing the lines to the ancient song they both knew.

                        Your silvery beams, will bring love dreams

                        We’ll be cuddling soon

                        By the silvery moon.

                                    —end—

Note: Story written in honor of Bisexual Awareness Week, with openly Bi characters. Sometimes I can be too subtle about that!