Spring 2008:

Lucas looked over Damien’s jacket as it lay on the table in front of him. Damien had told him that he’d gotten it around a year ago at a thrift shop. The seams were pronounced, and it was very plain – the only decoration which Damien had added to it, was a lavender coloured pin which had ‘07’ printed upon it.

Damien had remarked that he’d wanted to add some patches to it; he’d purchased a few just days after acquiring the jacket. He’d given up trying to apply them, after pricking himself with a sewing needle a few too many times; accepting that he wasn’t very gifted in a tactile sense.

Lucas giggled at thinking about Damien being clumsy with a needle. Sewing was a skill which Lucas had picked up when he was very young, motivated entirely by getting a giant rip in his favourite shirt when he’d been playing outside.

The patches Damien bought weren’t anything spectacular: with one being an Australian flag, and the other being the flag for Great Britain. Damien had been adamant that Lucas decide where they go, trusting in his decision wholeheartedly.

Would Lucas go for the slightly boring route of placing them across from one another on the front pockets? Or would he choose somewhere a little more random?

Deciding to meet in the middle, he began sewing the Aussie flag above the right breast pocket. He stuck a few pins into the other patch - securing it onto the left pocket, above Damien’s 07 badge. Lucas had never liked using machines; sewing by hand was much more enjoyable for him; even considering the occasional accident with a needle, resulting from a lapse in his attention. He used gold thread to match the border of the patch, and neatly stitched it onto the jacket; he wanted to have his stiches be as discreet as possible.

The entire job took him around twenty minutes, and he took it to the coffee shop where they’d agreed to meet later that day. When he beheld how his boyfriend emitted pure joy at such a simple job; Lucas was overcome with happiness.

Damien had become more comfortable initiating physical contact with him, and that was put on clear display when he’d held him so tightly that Lucas was sure he would burst. Damien swiftly let go of him and apologised profusely. Lucas reassured Damien that he didn’t mind any of it, and thanked him for being so appreciative.

Damien tied his jacket around his waist; the two of them held hands, and they walked through a flower patch to reach the hill. The sun was just beginning to set, and they settled down on the grass – watching the glowing ball retreat into the horizon. They kissed one another, feeling so much gratitude at being able to simply exist with one another.

Summer 2008:

The end of summer was fast approaching; Damien and Lucas had been taking a break from their university work. They had spent the summer months deepening their relationship.

Angel’s Light was rather strange back then. Although June had been established as pride month for almost a decade at that point, it was only in August that the city held an event for it.

Damien had a feeling it was because his mother failed to keep up with such issues - only really allowing a parade to appease people who, in her words: “Whinged on and on about political correctness.”

Lucas hadn’t been sure if Damien wanted to come with him; especially knowing what he did of Lori from his boyfriend’s perspective.

It was a beautiful day, and the streets were busy. An assortment of people from all different creeds filled the streets. The atmosphere was cheerful and joyous.

Damien had gotten a rainbow beanie for this event. Lucas was wearing an absolutely lurid get up; a rainbow t-shirt, with rainbow shorts and to top it all off, a gay pride flag as a cape. Damien had not been able to believe that Lucas would wear such an outfit, and he hated to admit it... but despite Lucas’ dreadful choice of attire, his boyfriend’s beauty was in no way diminished.

Damien also wore an old tank top, a pair of sunglasses, and had clipped his fringe so that it didn’t cover his eyes.

Lucas had forced him to wear some sunscreen, all but slathering it onto him before they had left that morning. He’d seen how badly Damien and the sun mixed on a particularly hot day, and he wanted to prevent another tragedy like that from happening again. Damien’s skin had been peeling, red, and sore for two weeks after that incident – and yet, he had still been reluctant to let Lucas slap some SPF 50 onto him.

Whenever they engaged in any kind of debate, Lucas usually won in the end. Both of them could be very stubborn when the situation called for it, but Damien couldn’t win against all of the statistics about skin cancer which Lucas threw at him. He’d yielded, accepting that yes, he considered sunscreen to be slightly gross on his skin, but the burning sensation he’d endured last month had been multitudes worse.

Lucas once more, asked Damien if he was okay with how crowded the street was – Damien assured Lucas that if there were any problems, he’d have no issues with asserting that. Lucas had faith that Damien was to be believed, and they waited for the parade to begin, with the other attendees.

Lucas watched as Damien cringed at the overly-campy music which blared from the speakers on the floats. Damien recoiled at how stereotypically... gay all of it was.

Lucas chuckled. In all honesty, he wasn’t a big fan of this kind of stuff either, but he did like that for once a year – people like them were free to just... be themselves.

Damien flushed when he spied Lucas watching him, realising how obvious his discomfort must have been. “What’s a bank doing promoting themselves at a pride event, anyway?” He deflected, pointing to the float currently going by.

“It is a bit corporate.” Lucas avowed.

The people around them began singing along to the music, dancing, and taking as much care as one reasonably could to not get in anyone’s way.

Damien watched Lucas join in, swaying with everyone else; eventually - Damien too, partook in the festivities. He held Lucas’ hand solidly and sang his lungs out, crooning along with the cacophony of voices.

For a short while, Damien didn’t feel like as much of an outsider.

As things winded down, Lucas motioned for Damien to follow him. The local park was filled with vendors, selling an assortment of items. Some related to pride, and others... not so much.

One stall caught Damien’s eye. They were selling badges and patches for very cheap, and Damien flicked through them. He ended up picking out an assortment of items: a badge with two overlapping male symbols on it, another badge of an upside-down pink triangle, and a patch of the original eight striped pride flag.

The duo sat in a more secluded area of the park afterwards. They chatted idly, and Damien fiddled with the male symbol badge he had bought. He clipped and unclipped the pin repeatedly.

“Hey, Lucas?” He began. Lucas said nothing, and awaited the rest of what Damien had to say.

Damien rubbed his fingers across the pride flag patch, admiring all of the colours. Embarrassment caused him to pause, before asking what he was about to.

“Could you teach me to sew?”

Autumn 2008:

Both of them having heaps of coursework, meant that Lucas hadn’t begun to teach Damien about the fundamentals of sewing, until the leaves had long since turned brown.

At first, the man had been absolutely terrible at anything so much as related to sewing. If it wasn’t his shoddy stitching, it was making himself bleed from not watching where the needle was. He’d berated himself constantly throughout his learning process, calling himself stupid – and a various amount of other derogatory words and phrases.

Lucas took care to praise him for what he had been doing right – and, instruct him regarding areas which needed improvement. When Lucas had, at last, insisted that Damien sew a patch onto his own jacket – Damien had gone pale. He was much better than he had been a week ago, but he still didn’t have the confidence to even consider moving on from scrap fabric.

Lucas had been persistent; he was always there to watch him as he worked – correcting any horribly erroneous mistakes that were a result of his inexperience. Damien gave in, and chose his ‘RVLTN’ patch to sew on, deciding to place it just underneath the left breast pocket.

As of late, he’d been getting into Lucas’ music more. RVLTN were a popular band; although, their fans were often torn between their newer ‘poppy’ music, and their ‘proggy’ music from days gone by. Damien happened to like both, whereas Lucas tended to lean toward the older music in their catalogue.

The patch itself was rectangular, not too large, and it consisted of the band’s logo in white text on a black background; it would be a decent contender for his first piece of actual applique.

He pinned the patch in, and carefully weaved the black piece of thread in and out of the fabric; Damien wore a thimble still, not sure in his ability to protect himself from the pointy end of the needle; along with the very real possibility of bleeding all over his work.

Slowly, Lucas watched Damien neatly finish each side of the patch, awaiting needing to go in and correct a mistake. However, Damien had managed to tie everything off without a hitch, and the satisfaction on his boyfriend’s face made Lucas feel very fuzzy. They high fived one another, and Damien was gleeful – a stark contrast to the bundle of nerves he had been at the start.

Damien decided to be cocky that evening; he sewed on all of the patches he’d been wanting to add. These included: the pride flag, a patch which had part of the sun emitting light, a blue pentagram, a shooting star, and a grey alien head below the RVLTN patch.

The front of his jacket and the sleeves (for the most part), were now completely covered in either pins, or larger patches. Damien held up his jacket blithely, and Lucas could not have been prouder of him.

Later, both of them snuggled up on Damien’s bed, and fell asleep with wide smiles on their faces, and a love which filled their entire beings.

Winter 2008:

Damien had gotten the call from his psychiatrist that afternoon.

Back in the ancient year of 2008 - it was rare that anyone who was an adult would receive a diagnosis of autism, but Damien had ‘passed’ his assessment. How one could ‘pass’ such a thing was beyond him, but in a weird way, it was as though a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.

Sure, he have to deal with sensory issues, and difficulty understanding others for the rest of his life, but now, he at least knew that there wasn’t something intrinsically wrong with him.

He’d done a lot more research into the condition, since he and Lucas had discussed the topic originally. Damien found out about stimming and stim toys, and had opted for a more discreet option to see if that would help him. He had bought himself a metal die after liking how the weight had felt. He’d seen a few other items that were more traditionally used for sensory relief, but he’d always liked to play with dice as a kid – and it was something he’d be able to carry around with him without receiving looks.

Damien had found the heavy die helpful somewhat, although shops and crowded places were still a challenge.

The evening of his diagnosis, he and Lucas agreed to meet and talk about everything; mostly, about how Damien was feeling.

Having just turned twenty-one a week before receiving such a diagnosis, Damien was feeling very strange. He had begun paying more attention to what triggered him so much in the past few months, and he realised just how unaware he’d been of his discomfort. It was odd, how when one began to realise something, just how quickly all of the walls and barriers their brain had been working so hard to upkeep could just... fall down. As if they had been paper-thin, and not towering fortresses which blocked off parts of one’s psyche.

Although Damien finally did have a diagnosis, research (and Lucas’ encouragement) had been truly what made him realise how much of himself had been locked inside of that fortress. It was too early to believe that all of those walls had been destroyed; in spite of that, Damien was fully aware that any that remained would soon crumple to dust.

When that did happen, he was sure that Lucas would help him through it.

Upon seeing one another again, Damien spotted that Lucas was holding a paper bag. Lucas leaned over to kiss him, and shoved it into his hands. A giddy, but somewhat overwhelmed Damien thanked him and peeked inside.

Underneath all of the thin wrapping paper, there was the perfect patch to sew onto his sleeve. It was a rainbow infinity symbol; a very recent ideogram which was used as a symbol for his condition. He grinned, and he couldn’t wait to sew it on to his sleeve.

Damien had noted, that there were only really two more places for larger patches to go on his jacket: the back, and the bottom of his left sleeve. He didn’t want to overcrowd the thing, but those two areas were specifically barren.

The two of them spent the rest of the night drinking spiked hot cocoa, and discussing how it was that they could proceed forwards.

The very next day, they headed to Lucas’ dorm, and Damien had a look through Lucas’ collection of patches. He’d drunkenly said that he wanted to finally finish the jacket; needing now, just one more patch to crown it, something large enough to completely cover the back.

He flicked through the larger patches which Lucas kept in a clear plastic box, until settling upon something which he deemed to be perfect. The patch was of two snakes, spiralling around a staff. Lucas explained to him that it was the ‘medical symbol’ and Damien was surprised that it had any deeper meaning, other than simply looking very cool.

With the final two patches applied, in spite of everything else going on in his life – Damien thought that things could only go up from there.