It is two years later, and the twins are little handfuls that grab anything their manitos can carry and shove into their mouths. Insects, rocks, lipstick, and dog food are devoured with equal abandon.
Little Teresa Maria is already a lady, swishing her skirts and babying her dollies and learning el baile arabe. Tochtli is a terror. He hides wherever he can, only to pounce on 'unsuspecting' visitors and gnaw on their ankles. Marcus coddles and hugs and kisses the squirming beasts, and watches them when his parents go out. They want to grow up to be smart and strong, like their big brother.
Maria Teresa and Gregorio have gone out this day, to see the movie El Diario de Noa. This evening it is Marcus alone with his little brother and sister. After running them down, Marcus drags them giggling to their beds, tucking them in and telling them stories of the gato solapado. When, finally, they lie still in their beds, chests rising and falling evenly, Marcus leaves their room and pads down the hall.
Two months ago they moved into this new house. It is stucco, whitewashed, and open, much cooler in the summer than the cramped 2 bedroom apartment they'd been stuffed in before. The floors are wooden and creak softly with age, and the ceilings are high with exposed wooden beams and recesses. Their are enough rooms so that Marcus can have his own, and the twins when they are older. For now, Gregorio uses the room that will be Tochtli's as an office. Through the windows are glimpses of the sea, and palm trees clutch the square corners of the house with a lover's delicate touch. They have grass now, a real yard. Pink shingles round the flat roof, where a patio complete with chairs and small tables has been set up. Over the patio a brown grass awning rustles softly with the breeze. It is un paradiso, worlds better than the streets of Oaxaca.
The wall of the hummingbird is further away now, and visited only twice a year, on Roberto's birthday and El Dia de Los Muertos. Marcus and his friends have moved on to other "beautification projects" throughout the city. Once or twice a shopkeeper even offered to pay them, but the only payment they accept is in paints. It is better that way.
Marcus has taken to talking to shopkeepers and tenants, asking tacit permission before they start the next project. Diego would make fun of him for it, but Marcus feels better knowing they won't have the policia, and Gregorio, called on them.
Silvia moved away, and then Miguel stopped coming, but Marcus, Diego, and Luisa have gained a reputation. They hear the people discuss the murallas of Colibrí, and they smile.
Marcus is working on the design of another mural when he hears someone at the door. He checks the window first, and then smiles and opens the gate for Diego.
"Put on a shirt, Marcus," Diego says, grinning. "Siempre eres loco de ser desnudo."
"Y bueno," Marcus concedes. "Give me a second then. Why don't you sit down?" Marcus rushes to his room and is coming back into the living room even before his shirt is all the way over his head. "Is Luisa coming?"
"No," Diego answered, watching Marcus with haunted eyes. "She said she had some homework or something lame like that."
"Then why do I have to wear clothes, if it's just you and me?" Marcus asks. Diego gives him and look, and Marcus wonders for the hundredth time if he's revealed himself. If his best friend knows that he's a maricon.
"Let's play Grand Theft Auto," Diego suggests, and they settle down into companionable silence.
Something is bothering Diego tonight. Something's been bothering him for the past couple weeks, maybe months. He used to laugh so easily, but Marcus has noticed his eyes get an aching look. The brightness has been replaced by shadow. Diego is hiding something big. Marcus thinks it's probably something to do with his family, but Diego has always been extremely tight-lipped about them. With the exception of tia Regina, Marcus has not met anyone else.
So they play video games, and when Diego gets upset and throws the controller across the room, Marcus yells, "Oye, cabron! watch out with things that are not yours!" and picks it up, but doesn't get too upset. When he turns back around, Diego is crying.
"What's up?" Marcus stands awkwardly in the middle of the room. He's hadn't seen Diego cry in years, even when unos chulos beat him up last spring. Roberto's funeral was the last time. Diego is curled up into a ball, and no sound comes out of him, but he shakes with quiet sobs, and tears stream his cheeks. His breath shudders.
Marcus slowly approaches the couch and sits on the far side, holding his own legs close to his chest. "Mira, you're making me nervous. What's wrong Diego? We're best friends. Maybe I can help."
"You ca-, you can't." Diego hiccups. "I just, I-" he stops. He sucks in a shuddering breath. "You would hate me if you only knew..." He stops.
"If I only knew... what?" Marcus kept his voice soft, watched with soft eyes. Slowly he stretched out a hand, fingers wrapping around fingers. Sitting like these he was stretched out, clenched inside, and listening to every soft sound; every silent shake, every soft snore of the twins, every dark rustle of the night wind.
"Diego, I'll always be their for you. I promise."
Diego wipes his eyes with his free hand and sniffs. Marcus notices a yellowish bruise on his cheek that wasn't their the day before, bruises along one arm. Slowly David unwinds his body, pulling his hand away. He sits woodenly, his voice wooden, his eyes straight ahead at the loading screen of Grand Theft Auto.
"Marcus, soy un homosexual." Diego's eyes flicker quickly to his friend's face, but touch back to the ground before he can see the hope leaping in Marcus's eyes. "Nobody knew except tia Regina. Not even Luisa, until last week. Not you." His voice runs, like he has a million things to say and is afraid to be interrupted. "But I've wanted to tell you, I didn't like hiding and then when something ... happened... I knew I couldn't tell anyone. I'm sorry. I know you'll probably hate me now. I told Luisa you would. She said I should tell you anyway. I'm sorry. I hope it doesn't change things. I don't want to ruin our friendship, I know everything is all mixed up. But my dad found out a couple months ago, and it's been... pretty bad at home. I'm sorry. I just needed to tell someone. I hope we can still work on Colibrí stuff. I'm sorry."
Marcus inched closer with each whispered 'I'm sorry'. His own voice is raspy. "Diego, it's okay." He takes a shoulder, and then the other. Diego melts in his arms, shuddering, crying. "Diego, te quiero. Está bien." Marcus whispered the words into the curly black hair again. "Te amo. It's alright."
Slowly, after a few minutes, Diego sat up. His smile was like the sun breaking through a summer storm. "Luisa said you'd take it well, but I didn't believe her. I've just gotten used to... well, I didn't think you'd want to be my friend after this."
Marcus grinned. He couldn't stop staring, his heart was thudding. "I'm, um. Well, I like boys too." Marcus said quietly.
"What?" Diego growled. "Why didn't you tell me! Everything would have been so much easier if only you'd... if you'd said something!" His voice started to crack again.
"I couldn't tell you," Marcus said quietly. "I was scared." Marcus watched expressions flicker in Diego's eyes: surprise, anger, disbelief, sadness, terror; and behind them all, hope. "I couldn't tell you because I wanted to so badly." There noses were almost touching. Their breath mingled. "I've kind of liked you for the past two years, almost since I met you, Diego."
Marcus touched his lips gently to Diego's. Diego jerked slightly, then leaned into it, fierce and hungry. His arms came up around Marco's shoulders. A second later he'd backed away.
"I- I can't." Diego lets his hands drop and stares at his fingers.
"Can't what?" Marcus breathes.
"Es un pecado." Diego whispers.
"It doesn't feel like sin," Marcus whispers back. Still, he pulls away too. "Wow." He reaches out a hand alive with nerves, fingers trembling, and Diego grabs his hand before it can fall. They sit like that for uncountable minutes, holding hands, cheek to cheek.
Finally Diego checks his watch. "Marcus, I gotta go. I'm super late getting home."
"Stay."
"No seriously, my dad will kill me if he finds out I've been out this late. I have to go." Diego surges to his feet. Marcus stands as well.
"I'll walk out with you." He doesn't let go of Diego's fingers until they are standing outside next to the bikes. Diego fumbles with his lock for a long time. He stands up, looking with shining eyes at Marcus, and after long seconds leans over the bike and deliberately kisses Marcus. His hand comes up behind Marcus's head.
Vaguely, Marcus is surprised to notice that Diego is now taller, by a couple centimeters.
After the kiss, Diego mounts his bike easily and pedals hard. Marcus watches him ride away, swift wheels flying through the darkness. His heart flutters wildly in his chest and he can barely breath.
That's when he turns back to the house and notices the jaguar on the roof.
The eyes of the creature shine with a strange green light in the darkness. It watches Marcus, and he can hear silent, grim laughter echoing in his mind. The jaguar slowly stands up and limps to the edge of the roof, leaping to the ground. A moment later it pads silently past him, out the gate, and disappears in darkness.
