Rare are the times when Uno feels more than just delighted with a gesture such as a kiss on the forehead. Too rare, he didn't know why he did what he did.

"Dos," he whispered, pulling Dos by her arm just when she pulled herself away from him after kissing him on the forehead.

"Hmm?" Her mouth was half-full with popcorn and eyes on the theater's screen.

Uno guided his forefingers to her chin, and gently, he tilted her head to face him.

"What the heck, Uno? We just made amends. Now you're annoying me again." The scowling face she lent him for being pissed that he had to take her attention off the screen wasn't within the bounds of gorgeousness, but Uno felt more than enticed that he pressed his lips on hers.

For seconds, his lips remained pressed and unmoving on her lips, trying to sense any rise of unwelcoming reactions more from him than her.

None went present.

And so he went on kissing her, this time with their lips parted, tongue touching, and hands roaming under each other's shirt.

The movie no longer existed. The dialogues of Kenji and Athena were inaudible by the throaty sounds they let out. The shotgun seat went empty; the unbuckled seat belt lying on it was in a half-assed placing. The kernels of popcorn scattered on the floorboard; they stepped on a few, while several were somewhere safe from getting crashed, some on each of their laps, and the rest were slowly falling from Dos' grasp as Uno started to suck on her cheese-dirted fingers one by one.

"Ghad...I think cheese tastes...better...in your fingers than in....popcorns...." Uno mumbled, his breathing destabilized.

Dos laughed in an arousal-driving way as she pulled her shirt over her head and pulled Uno through his shirt neckline for another intensive contact of their lips and tongue. Her hands traveled down his cock, with her fingers slowly undoing the button and zipper of his pants. Uno wasn't far from having his fly unzipped, not far for his fire to be litten when something so abstract hit the hell out of his arousing self. Quickly, he withdrew his lips from hers, guided her back to the shotgun seat, and let out a heavy sigh of disappointment he brought to himself.

"S-sorry. I--I shouldn't have--ghad...I'm sorry..." He disheveled his hair and buried his face to his palms.

Not so long ago, he almost deprived her of the virginity she indeed had been keeping for a great man. Not an hour ago, a reenactment of his previous doing took place. And not more than half an hour ago, something knocked to his senses--am I supposed to touch her?

"Sorry for what?" she asked, sounding devoid of information she couldn't even guess.

"Me. Doing you. Sorry. I--shit--that shouldn't have happened. Not again. But, fuck! This is ridiculous! I am ridiculous!" He angrily slammed his fists on the steering wheel.

"We've almost done this before, didn't we?"

"Exactly! And though I only did that to make you stop, I am still dumb enough to not realize till now that I was an asshole for doing that, Dos."

"Is it because I'm a woman and you're...gay?"

"Yes, I'm gay, and you're a woman, but that's not it."

"Then I ain't getting where you're coming from. 'Cause you see, Uno, I don't mind you doing me. Had I did, you wouldn't even succeed in taking the first base on me."

Uno gasped in surprise at the liberated response he received from her. "Are you for real?" There were traces of disbelief on his face, but the way he shot his question was as good as being repelled with her unconventional approach to sex.

"Why are you people so surprised to come across someone who's up to meet their sexual needs without inhibitions?" she asked after taking her shirt on. She was probably able to sense him disgusting on her. "Aren't you guys aware that there are some who choose to be on the far side of something? And that, that 'some' aren't to be shunned and undervalued just cause they don't fit into what you people know is normal and accepted?"

"Are you telling me that you're--"

"Again, no one had touched me until you, neither fingered nor had I been penetrated if that's what you want to clarify with me suddenly talking about sexual liberation here. It's just that, it's my body. To let you do me is my choice. And the same goes with other people on that track, so stop shaming on them."

Damn.

If there was one thing Uno thought was Dos' innate qualities, that was her lack of maturity. But then, he guessed, sometimes the rates people see in some shouldn't drive them straight to a conclusion of saying, they are what we thought they are because they aren't.

And if there is one thing Uno has believed for years, that is to keep a tight hold of your beliefs. Not till he realized now that sometimes, the view some people keep doesn't go in harmony with the others, and people should at least be considerate if for them it isn't acceptable, regardless of how different it is.

"I'm sorry," he said, much to his mortification.

"Hey," Dos quipped.

He turned to face her with a surprised look on his face when Dos held his hand and caressed it softly. "I should've thought of my words better, I didn't mean to offend you nor anyone," he tried explaining his inability to understand eccentric beliefs.

She laughed.

"People talaga." She laughingly shook her head. "Anyhow, let's call that quits since I once or twice did rain you with speeches so close to shaming your sexual orientation and gender identity, 'di ba? Let's learn from each other na lang. You know," she shrugged her shoulders. "It rarely takes one to know what he or she should know about life, right?"

"Well, the self-absorbed me doesn't want to say yes, but I was proven wrong earlier just now, so I guess it's a yes?" He chuckled. "But don't get me wrong, okay? I may have understood where you're coming from and may have accepted that people have different spins on things, but me not wanting to deprive you of your virginity still stands. My apologies for the lack of control--"

"We're cool, Uno. There's nothing much to flesh out anymore. Just like you, I understand where you're coming from. I may appear to you as a nineteen-year-old-acting-and-thinking-five piece of shit, but believe me, my mind's old enough to understand such differences, much as I don't have to be this old to appreciate you for respecting me."

"So..." He drummed his pointing fingers on the steering wheel while lending Dos a smile so vast.

"So...?" she mimicked. "Sudden change of mind?"

They both laughed.

"Hard no," he said, hands up in surrender.

"That was a joke." She laughed again. "So, what do you mean by so?"

He traveled his gaze from her to the theater screen then back to her again. "We missed a lot of happenings in the movie. Mind going somewhere else?"

"Like where?"

"Like somewhere by the MOA baywalk. Enjoy the fresh air. The sunset. The everything. And hey, have you tried balut? We can also enjoy eating that there."

"Yes! I would love to! But balut? I've had that once before, and come on, Uno. That's an aphrodisiac, you asshole! Want to get another round of halted sex? because me, ayaw ko. I might not be able to control myself from forcing you to do me if that happens again, especially now that I'm kind of liking you. I mean, you're attractive, smart and all."

He paused for a moment together with the burning of his cheeks, feeling a little stunned by her remark for the second time. Maybe it wasn't in Dos' knowing to filter her words. And it wasn't Uno's knowing to get used to plain-spoken individuals.

"Y-you what?"

"I think I like you, Uno."