It might get a snort from Nick, but it just gets a smirk and a nod from Cameron. But as soon as Damian stutters through asking about a “Talk,” Cameron’s noticeably uncomfortable.
A talk. A Talk. The Talk? He’s trying to think of times when he was sloppy and left a clue, but comes up empty. This honestly isn’t the worst thing that could happen, but it still sucks, because he respects Damian a lot and wanted to say something on his terms. But if it’s gonna come up anyway, he figures it’s best to come clean all at once.
“Uh, yeah, totally,” Cam says, but his voice is weirdly strained and he’s fidgeting with his fingers. He clears his throat. “I hope you’re not mad, ‘cause I was gonna tell you - there’s no reason to hide being gay from you, right, that’s silly, you probably could figure it out, but I was nervous anyway-” he catches his breath, pauses for a second. “But anyway, if you wanted to give me the Talk, that’s totally cool. Super cool. I’ll definitely listen. Will you just, um, tell me how you figured out about my boyfriend?”
Damian’s mouth gapes open. Then he closes it, because that’s impolite, and he rewinds, goes over his words, tries to pinpoint the miscommunication - ah, there it is - and then all of this short circuits and Damian says, “Oh, Cameron, of course not. Of course - well, I’m - Cameron, I’m honored that you would tell me this about yourself. I’m very glad you feel comfortable enough to share this, and I’m very, very proud of you.”
Is this the right time for a hug? Damian would hug his own child here, but Cam isn’t his child, the Big Brothers Training Program has a section on appropriate expression of affection and responding only to the youth’s needs, not your own, and on top of that, Damian wasn’t hugged enough as a child, so he refrains.
“The Talk to which I was referring…” began Damian, “was…more angled towards what Emery said about you making Tick-Tocks about petty theft. For the record, I think perhaps it would be more appropriate to ask your grandfather about the, ah… other Talk, though I am perfectly happy to jump in in the event he defers to me - in fairness to him, well, it is my area of expertise - but that’s beside the point. I didn’t know about any boyfriend,” says Damian, honestly. “How wonderful. I’d be honored to meet him, if you were alright with that.”
He blinks once, twice. “Ohhh. Oh, that makes more sense. Yeah.” He smiles, genuinely, and then hesitates before playfully punching Damian in the arm since he also doesn’t really know what’s appropriate, and that’s pretty safely a big-bro-little-bro move, right?
“Of course I’d tell ya. And uh, thanks.” He said he was proud of him. Hell yeah. He could cry (but he won’t). “I’m real glad I don’t gotta worry about it now. But ok, the Emery thing. First, I can tell by the way you enunciated that you’re spelling it “T-I-C-K, and it’s T-I-K-space-T-O-K. Second, that’s just for fun, and to see if I can sneak it from under Em’s nose, stuff like that.”
He sits on that for a second, and then waves his hands and elaborates on his story. “I don’t actually smoke the weed.” Under his breath he says, “I actually prefer edibles,” and then coughs and continues, “And I don’t steal from businesses or anything like, serious. I don’t even really steal... I always give it back... well... 90% of the time.”
