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“You look so handsome, Sparrow!” His father was bright-eyed and sweet, adjusting the tie that Sparrow wore. For reasons Sparrow couldn’t explain, even to himself, he shuddered. “Oh, man. Lark, are you almost done? Come out here so I can see my beautiful boys matching!”
Maybe it was the suit. Sparrow hardly wore any masculine-cut clothes anymore. Boys' clothes were always fine, but something about the cut of men’s clothes made his skin crawl. The seams were just too there, and the material was usually scratchy, and the sleeves were too long-
Sparrow generally wore women’s clothes, needless to say, and it wasn’t like his parents were the type to care. Sparrow was short and slim, he fit women’s clothes better than most men’s styles anyways, and he knew how to sew longer pockets into his pants. He didn’t usually mind suits though, he thought they looked spiffy and the texture of them fascinated him, and he had liked how he looked until just moments ago. He wasn’t sure what happened and he tugged on one sleeve awkwardly, staring at himself in the mirror.
“I’ll be out in a second, Father,” Lark’s voice responded, floating over from the changing stalls.
They were at Macy’s - far from their father’s first choice, but Sparrow wanted something normal and Lark threatened to pitch a fit on his behalf - two and a half suits deep into shopping for the upcoming prom. Sparrow had been pretty hopeful that this would be the one, a light gray suit with a dark blue button-up and matching tie underneath. It looked nice - not particularly LarkAndSparrow, but no formalwear really was. Sparrow tugged at the sleeve again. Maybe he just wanted a different tie.
Lark finally slipped out of the changing stall to join his brother and Sparrow’s shoulders loosened. He didn’t even notice how tense he had been getting. Lark didn’t look any more comfortable than Sparrow felt, though that wasn’t surprising. Lark didn’t look comfortable in anything that hugged his shoulders tightly. Sparrow bumped their elbows together and Lark leaned into him, staring into the mirror.
They looked nice. Sparrow knew they did, he wasn’t oblivious to the fact that the twins were, as Grant would stumblingly say, pretty attractive. He just felt queasy.
Prom was a big deal. Maybe it was that.
“So handsome,” Father repeated, fondness clear in his voice. Sparrow swallowed hard and Lark turned his head to look at him, cautious curiosity clear in the way he narrowed his eyes. “Okay, let me take a picture.”
“Can’t that wait for the night of?” Lark asked. “I don’t think Sparrow even likes these.”
“What? Sparrow was just talking about how much he liked them!”
“Yeah, I, uh, I like them,” Sparrow answered lamely. He could see how both his father and brother responded to that, tilting their head the same way. “I do! They look… handsome.”
The sentiment felt weird as it left his mouth, sounding oddly like an insult. Maybe that word was the issue, because when he came out to his father cooing something about my beautiful boy! earlier, everything had been fine.
Lark seemed to catch on and he straightened. “I think you look very pretty, Sparrow.”
“I agree!” his father added, jumping right in. He brushed Sparrow’s hair back, holding it together in a mock ponytail. “Just imagine how it’s gonna look with a braid, maybe some flower clips? You’re gonna look absolutely beautiful, Sparrow.”
The compliments were nice, but it felt more like a bandaid on the issue than anything. Sparrow sighed, kicking his feet, and something lit up in Lark’s eye.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, nodding to them both. “I want this suit, Father.”
“Be careful not to rip it,” their father responded and Lark rolled his eyes as he scurried back out onto the floor. It was a quiet day in the store and Sparrow only felt a little embarrassed as Father kept playing with his hair. “You doing alright, mijo?”
“I was. I am! I’m great, I’m the one who asked to come to Macy’s, why wouldn’t I be alright?” Sparrow stared at himself for another moment, then closed his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Hey, no, don’t apologize! It’s okay, Sparrow.” Father abandoned his hair in favor of hugging him from behind and Sparrow sighed. “What’s on your mind?”
“I don’t really like the thought of being handsome,” Sparrow admitted and Father hummed. “I’m not- I’m not trans. I know that!”
“It’d be okay if you were.”
“I know, but I like being a man.” Sparrow shifted out of his father’s grasp, waving his hands as he tried to explain. “I’m comfortable being a guy, I just don’t want to be handsome, that feels weird. But that doesn’t make sense, does it?”
His father’s mouth opened, then closed, and Sparrow kept gesturing with his hands as he tried to think of how to explain himself. Father talked enough to fill any silence most of the time, Sparrow was used to figuring out his response over the sound of familiar reassurances and repetitive babble. He didn’t like that he could hear himself think. It was easier to throw his own familiar reassurances back at his dad rather than put up a fuss, but with the space to actually form a thought, he wasn’t sure where to go.
He missed Lark.
“Where did Larkie go?” Sparrow broke, a whine creeping into his voice, and like magic-
“Right here, dear brother.” Lark appeared, holding an armful of blue clothing. He shoved them at Sparrow with no explanation and just as little expression. “I am not as talented at color matching as you. Are these any good?”
Sparrow took them, looking down, and of course, Lark had brought him dresses. He sighed, offering them back to his twin. “I don’t… Lark, I can’t wear a dress to prom. People will laugh at me again.”
Sparrow ignored the way that their father deflated at that, something tired and concerned settling across his face. Lark just seemed pissed, putting both of his hands onto the dresses and pushing them back into Sparrow’s chest.
“I wouldn’t let them,” Lark replied, a promise clear in his voice. Their father looked both reassured and more stressed. “You like looking beautiful. Can we not match with a suit and dress? It’s not as if you have a girlfriend to match with instead. You would look prettier than her anyways.”
“At least try them on, little bird,” Father added and at the childhood pet name, Sparrow crumbled. “If you don’t like them, we’ll go with the suit.”
“Alright.”
Predictably, Sparrow liked the dresses better. He did like the suit, he did, it looked so nice hung up by the changing stall’s mirror. Lark would look incredible on prom night. Sparrow might still push him to get a patterned tie instead of the dark blue one that went with the suit, but still, it was a great look.
Sparrow turned back and forth, smiling at the flowy dress that Lark had picked out for him. Dark blue almost the same as the suit - a few shades too light, but he had always had a softer touch than his brother - with a lighter blue floral pattern that covered the entire fabric. It had a heart-cut bodice with a silky inner layer that followed the form of his legs down to his shins, while the outer floral layer of organza twirled around whenever he moved. It was modest enough to not mortify him but still showy. It didn’t even have sleeves. Sparrow hated sleeves.
The other two dresses that Lark had grabbed were nearly identical to each other and clearly were thoughtless backup plans. Lark knew his brother’s tastes. Sparrow had barely spared them a glance as soon as he noticed the flower pattern.
“Are you done in there, sweetheart?” his father’s voice asked through the door and Sparrow snapped back to attention, patting down the dress to make sure it was in place. “Need help zipping you up?”
“Uh. Maybe, actually. Haven’t tried yet.”
“Dibs,” Lark said immediately and Sparrow giggled, unlocking the door so his twin brother could duck in. “You look really pretty, Sparrow.”
The compliment felt more genuine this time and he ducked his head. “Thank you, Lark.”
He turned back to the mirror so that his brother could mess with the zipper, tugging on either side and pinching the fabric together. Sparrow wasn’t sure for a moment that he could trust Lark to be careful enough with this, but his twin’s concentrated expression was too sweet to argue with. The threads gave a wary click as he started pulling up the zipper and Sparrow held his breath, closing his eyes. Lark let out a low hiss, moving slower as he continued. The dress grew tauter around Sparrow’s chest but after his waist, no threads seemed to complain. Lark fumbled with the hook right above the zipper for a second, then patted him on the shoulder.
“All set.”
“Thank you, my dear brother.”
Lark hooked his chin over Sparrow’s shoulder, squinting at their shared reflection in the mirror. His rough stubble scratched against Sparrow’s bare skin and he wrinkled his nose. Knowingly, Lark started scraping his chin back and forth and Sparrow let out a spluttering laugh, shoving him off.
“Stop it, that itches! Get off of me!”
“You don’t love me,” Lark deadpanned, biting down an obvious smirk, and Sparrow huffed.
“Of course I love you, you’re just a nuisance!”
“You hate me. You want me dead, Sparrow, after everything I’ve done for you.”
“Lark!”
“Hey, do I get to see Sparrow at any point, or are you two gonna keep fighting in there?” Father interrupted, rapping his knuckles against the stall door, and Lark’s happy expression dropped. Sparrow shook his head with a smile to make up for it, stepping around Lark to unlock the stall and step out into the store. “There he is!”
“Here I am.” Sparrow let their father take his hands, pulling him further out from the stall and guiding him in a little spin. The dress flew out with the motion, just enough to flutter against Sparrow’s leg, and he giggled. Father’s face brightened at the sound. “Didn’t Lark choose such a nice dress, Father?”
“He did, you look absolutely beautiful. Lark, come over here for a photo, alright?” Their father took a few steps back, pulling out his phone, and Lark moved closer so he could wrap an arm around Sparrow’s back. Sparrow leaned into his brother’s side, giving as bright of a grin as he could while their father snapped a few photos. It wasn’t like Lark was going to, after all.
Sparrow did like the dress a lot better than the suit. The inner slip fit his figure well and the way everything else flowed out around him was just so cute. The bodice was a bit tight, but he didn’t mind the texture too much so he could live with that. He crumpled some of the fabric up in his hand as their father lowered his phone to flick through some settings, shaking the organza back and forth so that it would flow as if in the breeze. Lark tilted his head onto Sparrow’s shoulder with a weary sigh and their father’s phone snapped back up to take another round of photos. Candids, he supposed, and he kept shaking his dress as if he didn’t notice.
“Alright, you can stop frowning at me now, that’s all I wanted. Get back into your clothes so we can get these things home, huh?”
“I can change first,” Lark replied, starting to pull away. Sparrow clung to his arm and Lark rolled his eyes. “I suppose we are changing together. Come along, brother, the changing stall awaits us.”
Sparrow pouted at the thought of taking off his dress but let Lark drag him along into the changing stall. Lark undid his zipper for him and they faced opposite directions as they stripped, listening to their father chuckle as he presumably texted somebody. He never turned off the keyboard sound on his phone, the loud clacks filling the quiet corner of the store.
“Showing us off to Mr. Wilson,” Lark guessed under his breath and Sparrow bit down a laugh. “Or hitting on Glenn again.”
“Perhaps he is telling our wonderful mother how nice we look and we are not giving him enough credit,” Sparrow whispered back and Lark scoffed. “Or maybe he is flirting with one of his friends.”
Sparrow hung his dress back on the hanger, adjusting the fabric so that it hung nicely, and wasn’t wholly startled when Lark bumped his forehead into the back of Sparrow’s shoulder. He glanced up at him as he crouched to pull on his jeans and Lark met his eyes readily, raising an eyebrow.
“What?”
“You looked nice in your dress,” Lark reaffirmed, his voice still soft, and Sparrow smiled as he stood up straight. He hopped on one foot as he tugged his jeans into place, Lark catching him when he started to stumble and steadying him. “If anyone is rude to you, I will break their nose.”
“I know, I know.” Sparrow turned back to Lark, pushing him back with a gentle hand. “Go put your shirt on.”
“Put your own shirt on,” Lark grumbled. “I’m being serious.”
“I know you are, and it’s very sweet, I just wish you wouldn’t!” Sparrow chirped and Lark sighed, turning away to grab his t-shirt. “You already got in enough trouble that time someone stole my wolf’s tail.”
“She shouldn’t have done it in front of me if she didn’t want me to take it back.”
“Mhm.” Sparrow shook his head, exasperated, but he couldn’t help the grin that tugged at his lips. “You have an eye for dresses, you know, you should try them out yourself sometime.”
“I don’t want to fight over our wardrobes. We have enough issues arguing over Terry Junior.” Lark pulled his shirt on over his head, smoothing it into place, and Sparrow let out a low rumble that would have sounded better when he was a wolf. “He would choose me.”
“No, he would choose me. Teej loves me. He thinks I’m funny.”
“He thinks I’m funnier.”
“That just can’t be right, you’ve never told a good joke in your life.”
“Boys, are you arguing or changing in there?” Father cut in, knocking on the stall door again. “C’mon, the vegan yogurt place nearby closes soon and I wanna get your mom a treat.”
“Changing,” Lark answered.
“Arguing!”
Lark turned back to Sparrow, giving him a glare, and he snickered as he scrambled to pull on his shirt. As Lark ducked out of the changing stall, Sparrow gave himself another moment to look at his dress, gathering the rejected clothing into his arms. He already wanted to put it back on. Lark really did choose well. The thought of wearing a dress to the school dance was a little unnerving, but at the moment, he was a little too excited to care.
He was going to look so pretty, and Lark was going to look awesome in his matching suit, and they were gonna dance and embarrass Grant like they did at every school function they could. It was going to be fun. Sparrow was going to have so much fun at prom.
With a little giddy bounce on his heels, Sparrow scooped the dress off the wall and hurried out after Lark and their father.