Kittens At Rainbow Dive

20250614

Prompt from PrideOnThePage

Joel had been running a queer bar for half a century, and he knew trouble when it swaggered in the door. Dumbass kids. Scared shitless and thinking that flashing glares out of hoodies and fingering knives made them look tough. As if every adult around them hadn’t faced down riot police.
So. Jumpy babbies looking for community? Curious “normies” “slumming” it for thrills? Or were they here to kick something off?
Across the room Hellen had her best bouncer stare going. Cold appraisal with a hint of warning. Few were fool enough to tangle with a six-foot dyke whose build came from equal amounts backbreaking construction work and playing contact sports for keeps. Even before they saw the tempered steel in her gaze.
Then that gaze flicked to meet Joel’s, and Hellen tilted her head. She didn’t think the kids were here to fight. Didn’t mean they wouldn’t cause one, of course, but it was still a relief.
The front kid jutted their chin forward. “Hey old man, you got an anonymous menu?”
“A what now?”
The kid scowled in a way that, if someone did suddenly punch them, meant they’d lose half their lip. Definitely not scrappers. “We ain’t sharing our ID!”
“Oh. Sure, that’s called ‘all the menus except the booze one’.” Joel plucked one sheet from each “anonymous” stack and pushed them across.
The kids huddled together and mumbled back and forth. Casting frequent glances around.
Seeming confused, even deflated, by the fact they weren’t getting attention. The regulars weren’t even bothering to deploy “Damn, you don’t even know standard bar etiquette” looks for loitering in the “quick order” spot. No point.
Instead Antoinette slid her stool sideways in a performer-grade sashay, and everyone else followed suit, shuffling along until a new quick order spot was freed up.
Seeing the kids shoot confused, uneasy glares at the moving crowd, Joel nonchalantly winked at them. “Word of advice - don’t get between a queen and their cocktail. And never get in the way of their cheese fries.”
“Amen!” Several people whooped, Antoinette foremost among them.
“Speaking of which…” Joel nodded to the menus in front of the kids. “Ready to order?”
“Um…”
Their bravado was fast draining under the aloof scrutiny of people who’d taken more self-defence classes than these tykes had drunk beers. It was like watching a kitten trying to intimidate a grizzled alley-cat and realising this just wasn’t gonna fly. No amount of puffing up and spitting would intimidate anyone.
After a few more mutters the spokeskid ventured “Uh, well, cheese fries are good…”
“Medium to split?”
“…Sure.”
“You want a drink with that? The Citrus Garden goes down a treat with cheese fries.”
“Umm…” Three heads swooped to peer at the drinks menu. “Yeah. Sounds good.”
“Coming right up.”
Joel set to mixing juices while Aggie dished out the food. Leaving the three huddled, casting helpless, curious glances around the room as the usual atmosphere resumed.
Bless ‘em. We were all kittens once.

Prompt was “Fierce”.