"Ay! Yo! Everett! C'mere! Check this out!"

A smile tugged at Everett's lips. "Yes, Steel?" they asked pleasantly. Exactly as expected, barely a second later, Steel rounded the corner at breakneck speed, covered from head to toe in Pride merch. From buttons to pins to stickers to suspenders to sunglasses, to fake mustaches, to hats. Of course, all of it was rainbow.

"Don we now our gay apparel, amirite?!" Steel grinned.

Everett only quirked an eyebrow. "Maybe this is why it's called being closeted. Every queer person I know comes out with either the best or worst fashion sense I've ever seen."

"And it's fairly obvious which side of that line I'M on!" Steel poked their chest with their thumb, grinning even wider.

"Yeah," Everett kept their light, airy tone, voice and face betraying nothing.

"Wh—"yeah"? That's all you've got to say?" Steel's wide grin instantly became a pout.

"Would you prefer I disagree?" Everett teased.

"Wha—no! I don't want that either! C'mon, Everett!" Steel shot their older companion a pleading stare, but Everett kept up their act.

"Then what do you want? I agreed with your statement, and yet you seem displeased."

"Well, yeah, you agreed, but I can see it in your eyes that you're secretly laughing at me!"

"That's only because you're making such a scene right now." Everett smirked and jerked a thumb over their shoulder. It wasn't as if the entire store was staring, but a few of the closer shoppers were giving Steel quite the curious look.

Steel suddenly felt their skin flush with embarrassment. Curse you, Everett!

Of course, in truth, they were hoping that Everett would've jokingly said their fashion sense was trash so that they could en-gay-ge in a little verbal battle full of gay jokes and puns. That couldn't happen if Everett kept playing dumb! But while Steel only stared at the older shopper in exasperation, shaking their head and crossing their arms, Everett turned their golden gaze back to the rows and rows of Pride clothes, still smiling serenely.

"Back in my day, all we had were green carnations and handkerchief codes!" they remarked as they stared up at the rows of nonbinary, genderqueer, and genderfluid flags and other regalia.

"Catch up, boomer!" Steel teased. "Gen Z is the gayest generation and OP does not take constructive criticism!"

Everett laughed despite themself. Steel was an endless fount of memey, gay humor such as this. A true Gen Z representative! And it did their heart good that Steel had such an easy time coming out compared to them.

Back in my day, Everett thought with a dry smile, We really only knew "Gay". Maybe "bi", probably not "ace", definitely not "pan", and when it came to gender? Forget it. "Transexual" was the more common term back then, but there was no "genderfluid" or "genderqueer" or "nonbinary". That was why it took Everett so long to come out. It wasn't just living in a world that didn't understand, it was living in a world that didn't fully have the language or culture to express itself the way it wanted. That was not to say Gen Z invented people who lived outside the traditional gender binary, but as Everett observed before, it was far easier to talk about today than, say, a couple decades ago. When I was Steel's age.

The older shopper watched their younger counterpart, dry smile turning fond and gentle. Neither of them would ever forget their first encounter, Steel brushing by like a whirlwind because they were late for a new job they picked up, little realizing that Everett was to be their closest coworker, and in time, friend. Even from that very first day, Steel was open, bordering on oversharing, completely comfortable in telling Everett everything about themself, including being nonbinary. It was the first push Everett needed to examine their own gender a bit more closely.

Now here they stood, shopping for Pride clothing. As Everett told Steel, even though it wasn't as if Gen Z invented Pride clothing, it certainly was more ubiquitous now than ever before, at least in Everett's memory.

Although, some of this stuff is a little… garish and tacky for me… As they said about queers, closets, and clothes, there were the types that loved to dress as flamboyantly as possible (coughSteelcough). Then there was Everett, who preferred plain and simple, as truly gender neutral as possible.

"Oh, c'mon, Gran-gran!" Steel teased when they caught Everett holding a golden-brown pinstripe suit up to their body in the mirror. The brown was their favorite shade, and the golden highlights perfectly matched their eyes, hair, and beard.

Steel, meanwhile, had arms overflowing with even more little, wearable knickknacks and trinkets. All rainbow and glitter, of course.

"That stuff will be stuck in my beard until next year's Pride," they smirked.

"You say that like it's a bad thing!" Steel giggled back gleefully. They didn't know about Everett, but they loved the idea of being glittery all year! Sure, it was a mess, but it was so fun and magical! Speaking of…

Suddenly, Steel was gone again, racing through the aisles. If there was one downside to stores during Pride Month, there was just too much gay stuff to buy! (And bi!) Steel wanted it all! But even if they had the money for it, they simply did not have the size or available body space.

I could probably wear… three to four shirts at once, but… ohhh mannn, there's like eight here that I really like in this one store alone!

It was Steel's most and least favorite thing about Pride. On the one hand, it was hella fun to dress up, accessorize, and try something new and daring that they couldn't really wear anywhere (or "anywhen") else. On the other… Decisions, decisions, decisions! Too much fashion, not enough days in the month! Currently, Steel was torn between a memey look and a badass one.

Oh, if only I could do both! Both is good! Their head swung this way and that as they eyed a black tuxedo with a rainbow flag stitched to the back like a badass cape, and a sparkly and sheer fairy dress that even came with matching wings and a wand.

Everett was finally out of the subdued section, this time looking for a Pride flag. A lot could be said about Pride merch being sold in corporate stores as if it was just a trend or holiday decoration that would go away once the month was out (ha ha, out), but it still did Steel's heart good to see the flags on such blatant display at all. After finding a nice nonbinary one, they set off to search for Steel.

As soon as Steel saw Everett, they grinned and gave them a giant thumbs-up (literally, as it was a rainbow foam glove).

"Well, are we ready to check out?" Everett laughed. Contrast to their relatively empty shopping cart, Steel's arms were overflowing

"Yeah!" they nodded excitedly. "Race you to the cash register?" They didn't even wait for a reply before taking off, Everett following after at a much slower pace, chuckling when some of the Pride merch started falling from Steel's arms. They were careful to pick it up without Steel noticing, slipping it into their cart for them. If nothing else, it was just fun getting to spend time with the other, overly excited shopper!