"You're at my mirror," DeLisha heard a sassy voice behind him in the cramped dressing area at Roscoe's.

"Child, this has been my mirror for years," DeLisha said, not dignifying the accuser with a look back at her direction.

"It weren't yours last week when I WON," said Sassy Voice, daring to enter DeLisha's personal bubble.

"Audiences are known for their lapses in judgment."

"You keep telling yourself that, you dried up old queen," Sassy Ebony Goddess said.

"Who the fuck does that little queen think she is," DeLisha asked the quirky queen beside her.

"Jai Owe? You don't want to cross that bitch," quoth Alexis Bevilles. "She's on fire."

"Fires were made to be extinguished," DeLisha declared, her eyes narrowing to slits.

And then the Race was on.

*

"That was amazing," Hunter said, as the Drag Race crowd gave way to dance floor desperation.

"It was adequate," DeLisha said, ripping off her wig and wiping off the pound of makeup from her face.

"Darryl, I haven't seen you perform like that since... well, ever."

"Really?"

"You were robbed. You should've won tonight."

"I'm tired of should'ves. I'm sick of dwelling in the past. Maybe it's time to hang up my sequins forever. You know you've hit rock bottom when drag is a drag."

"That's from something isn't it?"

"Don't trump my Kushner quoting with an Elizabeth Taylor reference."

"And now you've lost me completely. What's up?"

"Hunter, I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate you coming tonight despite all the... untowardness between us. But you may have just witnessed my last performance."

"Daryl, seriously, what's up?"

DeLisha looked at that fucking sassy bitchy, Jai Owe, who'd reigned supreme again, ruling the dance floor with his over-the-hill twink entourage.

"They just keep... getting younger. And hungrier. I can't compete with that."

"Stop it. You are DeLisha Fucking DeVille. And you're a Storm. We never say die."

Daryl looked at him, his face half gone, his thinning hair matted down with sweat. "But we will some day. And you and me, little brother, a lot sooner than others."

Hunter looked away, speechless. Darryl kissed him on the cheek.

"Be well," he said, as he slipped out the patio door, never once looking back at Hunter.

###