Kish: Laying the Groundwork

Kyle & Fish both had scenes on today's One Life to Live, their first together this week. Kyle, of course, has been busy on his own, getting the blackmail charges against him dropped.

The guys ran into each other on today's show outside of the nightclub Capricorn. Fish was there to meet Layla for a date, but was lingering outside the door, looking rather reluctant to go inside. When he ran into Kyle the subject of his impending trial came up and Lewis reveled that all the charges against him had been dropped and that he was innocent.

Fish noted that there was a big difference between charges being dropped and innocence and reminded Kyle of the evidence they had against him. Kyle said that not everything was as it appeared to be and that Oliver should know that better than anyone.

Fish headed inside for his date and the conversation with Layla quickly turned to her application to work as an administrative assistant at the police station. The two joked about Layla eventually going to the police academy and becoming Fish's partner, and that's when Oliver mentioned his father for the very first time.

Fish revealed that his father is an extremely conservative person, so much so that he has an issue with women being police officers. Fish had never even told him that his late partner, Talia, was a woman. At that point in the conversation, Fish spotted Kyle across the room, watching him and Layla. When Kyle raised his glass in a silent toast, Fish quickly grabbed Layla and planted a kiss on her in mid sentence.

Much to my own amusement, Kyle responded to the sudden kiss by rolling his eyes in that timeless "Who's this guy trying to fool?" manner. Cristian, who works at Capricorn and was observing Fish and Layla's date with his own feelings of bemusement, delivered a drink to Kyle from a blonde at the bar and Kyle accepted it but muttered to himself that he already had his eye on someone else.

Said eye, of course, was locked on Fish and Layla, and I suppose that some in the audience who haven't heard what's coming might actually think Kyle is interested in Layla. He has mentioned more than once how attractive she is, after all, though really that seems to be more of an ironic jab at Fish than anything else.

Fish apologized for kissing Layla so suddenly, explaining that he wasn't good at reading signals. Layla said it was fine and that she'd only been wondering why he hadn't made such a move already.

The episode ended with the two listening to music while Fish took Layla's hand and Kyle watched them from across the room.

I love that they're really starting to lay the groundwork with this story now. We see that Kyle is definitely still interested in Fish and thinks that his former lover is obviously in denial. We also see that Fish is unsettled enough by Kyle's presence to try and force himself into something with Layla that he doesn't seem to truly want.

When these two finally do get it together, it's going to be off the charts hot. They've already got such chemistry, just in those glances across the room!

Best of all, we were finally given a hint about just why Fish is living in such denial about his own feelings: a deeply conservative father. That's sure to be a big part of this story, and yet I'm fairly confident that Fish's father, no matter how right wing and irate over Fish's sexuality, will never turn into a psycho trying to murder his son's lover. That in itself will be refreshing, to see a more realistic look at the tension of coming out to a conservative parent.