glimpses of the past prompts:
critical or blushed
Meme is here
“Did you ever date?”
Daichi faltered as he cracked open his drink. “You mean, like… before I came to Veilstone?”
“Yes,” Cyrus said, though he clearly didn't see a need to make it so limited.
“I did a little,” he said as he reshuffled his food and drink in his hands. “But I wasn't all that old when I left home so it was never more than kid stuff.”
Cyrus nodded absently as he worked the paper to properly cup his pirozhki. Daichi waited for the continuation that he felt should logically come next. When none came, he did it himself.
“Did you date?” Daichi asked, and at the look he added. “Back in Sunyshore.”
“I did,” Cyrus answered a touch stiffly. “Not by my choice. My parents were very insistent that I was to be paired up with someone… advantageous.”
“So they had money, then?”
“Everyone in my parent’s social circle did,” Cyrus told him, with a dull emphasis on its unimportance. “The woman I was sent with were chosen for their ties to useful businesses or politics. So of course I needed to create a proper impression, which I had thought would have involved proper knowledge and achievements. It's evidently all about social rituals and eye contact.” He said the last bit with particular disdain. “It was all utter nonsense.”
“Sounds like,” he said with a sympathetic nod. “Was the food at least good?”
“You wouldn’t believe how much technical skill it can take to make something completely insubstantial,” he scoffed. “I suppose it's fitting to match the inane conversations. I don't know why they chose women who couldn't understand anything substantive.”
Daichi took his time swallowing. “Did you at least offer definitions?”
“Of course,” he huffed insistently. “But I can only define so much before there isn't a point.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Daichi agreed, even though he was sure he could see the scene now.
Some teenage girl, dressed to the nines and bound by equivalent amounts of familial pressure, picked at her dinner to distract herself. Cyrus’s eye contact would have been blisteringly intense, and his info dumping (because he would absolutely be info dumping) would have been filled with unrecognizable terms. All of it would have seemed as practiced as it was in an earnest attempt to do what his parents insisted was important. And, he was sure, there would rarely if ever be a second date.
Daichi certainly empathized with the plight of these girls, but just as sincerely said, “It sounds like it was awful for you” to Cyrus.
“It was,” he agreed. “I’m very thankful to be here doing things like this rather than dating.”
Daichi nearly choked on his food.
They'd been sharing a bed for about six months at that point. And, over that time, it’d become increasingly clear how many gaps Cyrus’s upbringing had left in his knowledge. Whether by a lack of necessity due to his wealth, or increased mandate because of it, he'd had to learn so much of what most adults already knew.
Daichi had long gotten used to the endless discovery process. But, it seemed, he could still be blindsided.
“Cyrus?”
“What?”
“This is a date.”
Cyrus looked at Daichi as if he’d grown a second head. “We’re eating street food.”
“Mhm.”
“In casual clothing.”
“Yeah. And we’re walking to a movie instead of getting a limo or whatever.” He shrugged. “None of that stuff is necessary for something to be a date.”
Cyrus seemed ready to debate, but then took a thoughtful bite of his pirozhki instead.
“So a date,” he said finally, “Is simply going to a location with purpose.”
“And that purpose is to spend time with your partner, yeah,” he agreed. “You don't need anything else specific.”
“Hm…” he thought on it a bit more. “It still seems like a waste to create so many rituals and labels for something that has so few particulars attached to it.” He peeled down the paper to have more room to eat. “Especially if it is basically the same process as going someplace with any other relation.”
“I suppose it is,” Daichi agreed. “But I enjoy doing this with you, whatever you want to call it. So how do you feel about doing things like this more often?”
“I…” Cyrus wasn't the sort to blush, but he did sink into himself a bit when flustered. “I suppose I’m not opposed to it if this is really what you're expecting.”
“I'm glad,” Daichi agreed.
He smiled in his particularly small way. “Good. Then it's settled.”
“It is. And, for the record.” Daichi nudged his arm affectionately. “I love hearing how you explain things.”
Cyrus paused a bit over being told something he knew but very much liked hearing. “Well… Perhaps you'd like me to explain the new philosophy I'm working on.”
“Always.”
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So I work at a zoo, this zoo's animals are all rehabilitation animals/breeding program animals or like, animals that can't be released into the wild for something like injuries or being attached to humans. One of the back rooms in the main building holds some birds that are waiting to be moved to other areas in the zoo/a different zoo, and they're not in there for more than a few days at a time before they leave and another bird takes it's place. There is also a box TV in there and a couple VHS tapes that people put on for the birds to watch (not that they don't have stuff to do otherwise)
Anyways, I was told to go into the room and watch the birds for like the end hour of my shift, usually they're really loud but when i walked in there it was dead silent. They had the owls of ga'hoole playing on the tv, and every. single. bird. was watching that movie.
eventually I started watching it with them bc there was nothing else to do and it ended up just looking like this
11/10 movie would watch with a room full of birds again
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