A/N: Redilio is a cruel mistress. I'm serious, you guys. Anyway, Michael Grant owns GONE, not me. Okay? Okay.
There was a time in Edilio's life when he thought being a Honduran immigrant was the hardest thing he'd have to go through. This was, of course, before he found himself having to deal with being a gay illegal Honduran immigrant who was trapped in an electrified dome full of superpowered murderers.
The illegal part came first.
When his family moved to California, he was kept pretty much in the dark about it. He barely even knew where they were going, how was he supposed to know they were getting there illegally? It wasn't until about 4 months after the move he realised something was up.
Then came the whole electrified dome full of super powered murderers part.
When the days of the FAYZ started, no one knew how serious it was. Not at first, , kids started getting hungry, and they found out there were coyotes. Then, kids started dying. Edilio was one of the luckier ones. He found safe shelter fairly quickly, and made sure to put himself in a position where people needed him, so they wouldn't kill him. He made important friends, tried not to go around making important enemies. He dug a grave for every dead kid in that place.
Life in the FAYZ wasn't all so terrible, though.
First of all, there was the obvious "No Adults" thing, which was pretty great for all of about 4 days. Then there was the McClub. It wasn't actually much as far as Clubs go, but to the kids in the FAYZ it was better than Disneyworld. And, of course, there was Roger.
(Here's where that gay part comes in.)
The first time Edilio saw Roger was probably a little something like the first time Amelia Earheart saw an airplane. It was like destiny walked right up and slapped him in the face. It's like when you walk into a theme park, and you see the biggest, fastest rollercoaster, and you just think to yourself, "Yeah, this is going to be good".
The first thing Edilio noticed about him was that he was tall. Like, really tall. Taller than he was. And thin, too. Not sickly, like a lot of the other kids were, but lanky. His arms and legs were too tong for the rest of his body and his face was sunburnt and his curly strawberry blonde hair was too long and full of dirt and grease. And Edilio thought he was probably in love with how crooked his mouth was when he smiled.
Later, when he was out on Tramonto with Dekka, he asked her about it.
"How do you know when you're... You know... Like, in love?" Dekka looked up at the sky. She hesitated for a moment.
"I guess... I guess it's like... When you see someone, and realise that they're sort of, like, everything you never knew you wanted. You know?"
"Yeah..." Edilio also looked up. The sun was almost setting now.
"Dekka?"
"Yeah, 'Dilio?"
"... I think I'm in love."
"That's good, I guess."
"And I'm gay."
"I guess that's good too."
He guessed it was.