the journal of r. cooper

“No. Nope. Nao,” Chico hissed into the phone, desperate enough to use one of the twenty Portuguese words he knew. Raf, of course, only sighed dramatically in his ear.

“But they’ll match the tree. It’s for charity, Chico, and you have such pretty legs.”

“I DO NOT HAVE PRETTY LEGS!” Chico snapped back immediately, in order to avoid all the warm, happy feelings in his middle at the compliment. He glanced down at his legs, though, currently encased in jeans, and then up, into the faces of his sister and mother. Camille had wide eyes.

Chico turned around toward the corner and held his phone closer to his face.

“Chico…” Raf whined. Which was dangerous, because he never actually meant it when he whined. It was more like a funny voice he did to make Chico smile, and it was not working, dammit. It would not work.

“No. I don’t mind dressing as an elf. And I don’t mind the burlesque look–” he stopped at the scoffing sound Raf made, because Chico had spent days lovingly adding details to the corsets and bustiers of the drag queens of the Boozy Cherries for their charity Christmas review, and yes, Raf knew that. He also knew Chico had made himself a pretty holly green and crimson elf jacket for the occasion.

And a jaunty hat. But that didn’t mean anything.

“But I draw the line at burlesque elf!”“ He finished his thought in a furious whisper.

“They’re short ticket takers. Come on, Chico. It’s for a good cause and you know it.” Raf was using his coaxing voice now. It wasn’t fair. “I’ll do it if you do it.”

“Ha!”Chico tried to laugh, but his throat was suddenly dry at the thought of Raf’s dancer’s body in black silk stockings with a back seam. “Oh God,” he said aloud. “Thats not the same. You were in ballet. You’re used to tights. Your ass is–”

His sister coughed–loudly–behind him.

Chico made a strangled sound and was not amused when Raf laughed, warm and pleased. “My ass is yours, if you do this”

“It’s mine anyway,” Chico grumbled at him, okay yes, a little warm and pleased himself. But he was standing firm on this. “The stockings are pretty, okay, but I have twig legs and do you know how hard it is to keep a back seam straight?”

“If you’re asking me to keep an eye on your backside for you, I’ll happily obey,” Raf offered softly, setting Chico’s face on fire. He tried to squeeze more of his body into the corner. “And I don’t think your legs are twigs at all. I mean, just last night you had them wrapped around my waist and I thought–”

“YES OKAY. JUST SHUT UP NOW!” Chico shouted at him, wanting to hear more and absolutely mortified at the same time.