Disclaimer: Honeydew Syndrome belongs to Nuu and Schumie. Not me.
Dedication: This is for coolchan over on LJ for a fanfiction/fanart exchange thing.
Metis is kinda secretive. Not in the 'I-used-to-sell-babies-for-a-living-but-now-I'm-just-a-bit-shifty way', more of a 'not offering information' way. Sure, he's confrontational and willing to get information from other people, but he never volunteers it.
Josh is really tempted to ask him about baby selling.
It makes buying birthday presents a bit hard, especially when Josh has never bought Metis a present before. Well, unless you count pissy little wristbands emblazoned with 'I Have Issues' - half joking, half not. In fact, Josh is worrying a teeny bit. There are only so many wristbands a guy can get for his maybe-boyfriend-person without feeling a general sense that it may not be enough. Plus, a jock can only be caught in Hot Topic a few times before people start to ask probing questions.
See, Josh is normally quite good at buying presents. Girlfriends used to be easy (in more ways than one) as it was normally just buying some pretty bracelet, or a fuzzy teddy bear in a dress and tiara. Parents are simple too. For Dad, sports memorabilia and for Mom, a cutesy apron or cooking utensil. It's not that Josh is sexist, just his parents seem to fit into the mould of perfect masculinity and femininity and all of the things that go with it.
Josh very rarely has to buy presents for his friends. It's usually a matter of bringing beer to a party, or signing a card that a girlfriend thinks has to be passed around. A quick 'Happy Birthday, man. Josh' normally works, even if the guy is a douche who is cheating on the card-passing girlfriend anyway.
Actually, it was kinda funny once. There was some wannabe cheerleader who was dating Chet, one of the football players, and was so completely starstruck. When his birthday rolled round, of course the girl had to make a massive fuss. She got all of her guytoy's friends to pose for pictures holding a 'Happy Birthday Chet' banner. Also of course, he had been cheating on her for months and months and her extravagant present went to waste. But Josh did think that it was a nice idea┘ In a completely manly way.
Hmm. Idea forming. Maybe, just maybe, he could get Metis's friends to do the same kind of thing, posing for pictures. It wouldn't make Josh less of a man to make such a girly present. He could assert his manliness by nailing the pictures to a bit of wood, use power tools and stuff.
Holding his sisters' shopping bags in the mall, Josh cracks his knuckles in anticipation of his power tooling and then says that no, the sundress is cute and doesn't make her look fat.
Pushing the glasses back up his nose, Josh taps his pencil against the desk and tries to figure out the logistics of photographing his special friend's friends and getting birthday messages. He tries to think about Charles in a pointy party hat, but then decides that he's procrastinating and goes back to annotating Shakespeare for English class.
Josh wishes Metis were here.
Josh figures that it would be easiest to get photos at school. At least that means that he doesn't have to hold some messed up meeting out of school with a bunch of people who, quite frankly, scare him. He forgot to factor in the idea of taking pictures of people who are supposedly below his social status, and the weird questions from his stupid football-playing friends who wonder why he wants to wish Metis a happy birthday.
Of course, it's also pretty hard to get Charles and Jay to stand close enough to each other to hold a piece of eye stinging yellow bunting with pink bubble letters and green stars. Josh had tried really hard to find something tasteful, or at least not retina scarring, but nothing, apparently, says 'Happy Birthday' like impaired eye function.
Charles holds the plastic with a forefinger pressed to his thumb, the rest of his fingers obviously recoiling from the tacky plastic. Josh is too scared to tell him to smile, so the picture has a beaming Jay, happy to do something nice for his friend, and a disdainful grimace from Charles.
When Josh looks down at the screen on his camera, he puts on his best angsty face, and whispers pitifully, 'But it's for Metis!' Assuming that Charles has a heart seems dangerous, but it works when he gets a flash of sharp teeth from the blond boy and an open-mouthed look of surprise from Jay.
For a week, Josh works on getting pictures of people and 'Happy Birthday' messages all around the school and a few of the special places he and Metis have found around town. He also makes sure to get a picture from the top of that roof.
Before he knows it, seven days have gone by, and Josh realises that he's been semi-ignoring Metis. He wanted to make it a surprise, but that had meant short phone calls and not meeting up during the week. Metis sounds relieved (but under a veneer of snark, of course) when Josh phones and suggests meeting at the park on the Sunday before Metis' birthday.
On Saturday, Josh works on tacking the pictures to a notice board. He scrapped the idea of nailing the pictures to bits of wood when he realised how tempting it was to put a nail straight through Charles' face. He arranges the pictures in a regular pattern with little green post-its underneath with birthday messages and a couple of pieces of 'art' - courtesy of the scene kids. Josh leaves a photo sized gap in the bottom right of the notice board. He's going to get the last picture on Sunday.
With his hands in his jacket pockets, fist closed around his camera, Josh waits by a large oak tree in the park. He looks up when he hears the tinny sound of emo music being played through headphones set too loud. Metis gives him a wide, open smile when he sees him, and Josh is glad that he endeavoured to make such a time consuming present.
Josh waits until Metis is nice and close, one of his hands reached up to pull the headphones out, before checking around (no-one is at the park on a drizzly November day) and kissing Metis hard. He pulls the camera out and takes a picture from the high angle of his extended arm. Thankfully, Metis is too into the kiss to hear the beep of the camera.
They kiss for a little while behind the tree and Josh wraps both arms around Metis and pulls him extra close. Then he pulls away with a sigh and a dopey grin and gives Metis' shoulder a pat before sprinting back to his car. He pretends he can't hear the shout of 'bastard!' coming from behind him.
Josh sits in the driver's seat and inspects the picture. It's blurry, but it brings a flush to his face. His phone vibrates, and Josh laughs at the text saying 'I feel so used!' He sends back a quick 'gd' and then drives home; ready to tack the last picture to the board.