Prompt 13
Prompt 13 (Winter Rainbow): Winter weather is usually fairly predictable–clouds, rain, snow, and a sunny day if you’re lucky. It’s unwise to predict anything in Destiny City, though. Lately, there’s been an uptick in unnatural rainbows. The sky almost regularly seems to be covered with some sort of pastel shimmer. The clouds have a rainbow sheen to them during all weather, and more than once you can even make out a rainbow from just the moon’s beams. Scientists claim there are just many water crystals in the air–and that checks out. During the frequent snows, it’s common to observe soft rainbow snowflakes that catch the light like tiny suncatchers. Even fallen snow seems to have an iridescent sheen to it. It’s not a common occurrence, but it’s happening often enough that you're likely to see it at least once this season.
People should really start planning for Christmas around the middle of the year, and not, say, the middle of December. And by ‘people,’ Ellian meant himself. And exclusively himself. Everyone else could do whatever the ******** they wanted with their time, but every year he stupidly made the mistake of ‘plenty of time.’ That God forsaken excuse that kept many from doing things when they should do them.
Now he didn’t have ‘plenty of time.’ He had barely any, and he’d wanted to do something special this year…
Ellian sat on the carpeted floor in front of the sliding glass door that led out to the balcony of Gideon’s second-story apartment, staring at an overcast gray afternoon, with his phone in his hand, scrolling through websites with lists of “things to do on Christmas.” This was the first Christmas they’d spend together. While they had technically been dating at this time last year, it had still been a pretty fresh thing. They were better off spending the day how they traditionally would: with their respective families instead of each other. They’d had breakfast together, exchanged gifts, and that was it. That was the extent of their holiday as a ‘couple.’
It would be different this year, and he’d wanted it to be memorable.
It just wasn’t… easy. Everyone would do it if it was easy.
Ellian wasn’t very versed in knowing how to make something feel significant. He had to know- a lot, probably about Gideon! But when he tried to think about what his boyfriend liked, wanted, aspired to do, he was just coming up blank. Completely blank. ********. Genuinely, from the bottom of his heart, <******** did he like for breakfast, what did he put on the tv when he came home from work, what did he enjoy doing when he had time off, where was his favorite place to be? Ellian knew these things. He knew he knew these things, but for the life of him, he could not drag them to the forefront of his mind to save his own damn life. He might as well be living (it wasn’t his apartment)- staying indefinitely with a complete stranger. Couldn’t have that. Ellian had to be better than that.
His own love and devotion was a blessing, and Gideon damn well better believe it.
…Ellian just had to figure out how best to ensure it was well known.
Crêpes. Those were weird and good. And not something they usually had. ‘Special.’ Ellian typed it down as his first idea in the Notepad app. Cinnamon. That was, uh- a Christmas spice. Candles- no, pinecones. Those heavily scented pine cones that came in a mesh bag. That had to be something. Lights. They’d need to see the lights in the city.
He bit his lip, thumbed over the screen of his phone. Thinking about what Gideon liked wasn’t giving him much. If his boyfriend enjoyed it, he probably already had it.
…So what did he not like?
Climbing up the outside stairs to their apartment with his cane while they were completely frosted over. Was there something Ellian could do about that? …Probably not permanently. Or, uh, he complained about his back a lot, the ******** geezer. …But there wasn’t anything doctors could do about that, so probably nothing Ellian could do, either- at least not in the grand scheme of things. But there were things that made it act up worse than normal. The cold was at the forefront of that. Maybe Ellian hadn’t noticed it last year because Gideon was still tempering his complaints, and they hadn’t been together that long, but this year Ellian could see with striking clarity that this was certainly his boyfriend’s most difficult season.
For lack of knowing what he was looking for specifically, Ellian tapped ‘warming things’ into the search bar. Coats, mugs, mittens, hats- electric blanket. Oooooh. Add to cart. Giant fluffy robe. Add to cart. Remote car starter? Well, their only vehicle was Ellian’s Mustang, so it seemed a little selfish to get something for Gideon for Ellian’s car. …But it was quality of life for both of them. Add to cart.
There. That wasn’t so hard. Gifts taken care of. Now for activities.
Snow had started to fall out his window, drifting in lazy drafts too and fro.
Breakfast, obviously. Those crêpes had sounded good. With eggs, bacon, sausage, and maybe a fruit medley? Eggnog? Did people drink that for breakfast? It was kind of a lot… But it should be a lot, probably. Gideon could have whatever he wanted, so that Ellian could subsequently have whatever he wanted afterward.
After breakfast, they’d do something low-key. It’d still be early in the day, so… Maybe they’d go see Gideon’s grandparents. They’d have to fit that in somewhere Ellian was sure, or Gideon would regret missing the holiday with them. Ellian still had never met them. It could be a complete and total mess. He’d have to be on his best behavior. Dress appropriately. Be well-mannered. A chore. But probably only for a couple hours.
He huffed out a quiet sigh, and tapped “grandparents?????” into the notepad.
Ellian would need a palette-cleanser afterward. Something he’d enjoy about the holiday too. His family usually vacationed in the mountains, where he’d snowboard or ice skate, or hike and had even taken a brisk dip into frosted water before fleeing to the security of the hot tub a couple times. …He couldn’t imagine Gideon would enjoy any of that.
Ellian typed it down anyway. He would personally enjoy it. That mattered too.
Scattered light filtered through the clouds outside the window, catching the gentle snowfalls and refracting pretty pastelly colors that he wouldn’t really have expected to see on an otherwise dreary day. Ellian watched with a canted head.
Christmas lights through the nice neighborhoods. After their energy-intensive activity (whatever it ended up being), Ellian could drive Gideon through the prettiest-lit neighborhoods. Maybe he should scope them out beforehand. It certainly got dark early enough that they’d still have the whole evening ahead of them- so dinner after?
Ellian was hardly a connoisseur, but he could read, so presumably he could cook. Something nice. Maybe like a, uh, a stuffed lobster or something.
He leaned sidelong, dropping his head against the sliding glass door and peering out as the warmth of his skin and breath immediately started to fog up the glass. This was a good start. If it didn’t work out on the day, it was kind of whatever, but he at least had ideas and could work around preparing for that. He didn’t really have much more time to get it all situated, at this point. Even if he couldn’t hit every high note, it seemed likely that whatever hazardous abnormalities the city usually suffered were keeping their distance this year.
Leaving only those strange and showstopping occurrences.
This had to be why people still lived in Destiny City, despite all the craziness. When in ‘good times,’ it was uncommonly beautiful. Everything shimmery, glistening, and iridescent. Ellian didn’t move from where he sat on the floor, just continued to stare out into the delicately falling snow as it caught flashes of light and spilled pretty little rainbows out into the air.
WC: 1212
