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It all started when Dimitri and Claude agreed to meet each other in one of the many hangout areas in the University for a study date.
Dimitri waited for his boyfriend of a few months to arrive at their designated spot. Sitting down idly, tapping the toes his foot on the ground occasionally, Dimitri was excited for this, even if the thing they were about to do was admittedly going to be a tiring endeavor.
A feather fell slowly from the sky, and with the yellow color and gradient shine present, the young Blaiddyd knew that his love had arrived. The rainbow bird swooped down in a curve from above, and descended directly towards Dimitri’s lap. While doing so, the rainbow bird glowed for a moment before transforming into its human form, Claude, landing gracefully on Dimitri’s lap.
“Hello there, sweetcheeks.” Claude pecked Dimitri’s cheek.
“Hey there yourself, my rainbow bird.” Dimitri nuzzled his face against Claude’s chest, eliciting a giggle out of the latter.
Claude had to put his hands up to stop himself from giggling. “Alright, alright! Let’s start with our study session now.” He still remained on Dimitri’s lap, fetching his booklet that held the review items in it.
Before they even got to proceed with their study date, two people walked by, speaking to each other in a conversation that the couple managed to overhear. A blonde and a redhead, Dimitri recognized them as fellow schoolmates Mercedes and Annette, best friends who coincidentally took up the same course in Far Eastern.
“You know, I’m glad that I got to be your classmate, Aning.” Mercedes spoke out.
Annette gave a grin of her own. “Same here, Chedeng; I’m pretty happy that we get to be partners for practically every assignment that has partnerships!”
Dimitri raised a brow as the two left the scene. “Chedeng? Aning? I thought they used Mercie and Annie.”
“Oh yeah, that.” Claude drawled, leaning further into Dimitri’s arm. “It was Petra; she called them Chedeng and Aning, then later on the two adopted those nicknames.”
Dimitri wasn’t sure on how to react, especially since it was the first time he has ever heard of such. At least it was a bit more mundane compared to the weird stuff he had witnessed firsthand starting a few months ago.
“I see...” He went back to reading the review notebook with Claude.
Little did he know that it wouldn’t be the end of such.
——————————-
Three days later, Dimitri went with his stepsister (yet his bona fide sister regardless) Edelgard for some sibling bonding in the stores of Divisoria. The items there were cheaper compared to what they saw in the malls, hence they formed a bet as to who can get a cheaper version of an item that was still good to use. In this case, the item they bet on was a pair of earphones.
Dimitri navigated through one lane full of stores on both of his sides, and in one of them, saw a familiar bulky guy.
“Oh, Raphael! I didn’t know you were working here.”
Raphael gave a laugh, taking a bite of his snack. “Yeah, I usually don’t tell people this, but my sister and I handle our parents’ shop.”
“I see-“ Dimitri turned his head left and right when he peeked further into the store. “Where are your parents? I’d love to meet them.”
“About that...they’ve passed away sometime back.”
Dimitri’s face went stiff. “Oh. So sorry about that.”
“Nah, it’s fine!” reassured Raphael, waving his hands a bit. “Besides, managing the store is probably the best tribute me and my sis can give to them.” A new figure, a younger female, stepped beside Raphael, holding some more snacks. “Speaking of, here’s my sis! Misay, this is Dimitri, a schoolmate of mine from college; Dimitri, this is Misay.”
“Hi there!” Misay gave a wave.
Cordially, Dimitri waved back. “Hey.” Then he remembered. “Oh! I almost forgot; do you sell earphones?”
“Luckily, we do!” Misay responded, turning to Raphael. “I’m sure Raf-Raf can do the honors, right Kuya?”
“I sure can! Be right back!” Raphael then went towards the back of the store to fetch them. Meanwhile, Dimitri appeared a bit surprised by the fact that Raphael went by the admittedly cute nickname of Raf-Raf. Despite it sounding like a dog’s bark notwithstanding. “Is Raf-Raf a nickname you call him?”
“Oh, not just me—all of our extended family in Pampanga calls him that too.” Misay explained. “It’s gotten to the point that they must have forgotten his birth name.” She laughed.
“So that means...” Dimitri placed a pointer finger on his cheek in thought. “Your real name is not actually Misay, right?”
“Correct again! My real name is Maya. Misay was a nickname I was given since I was a baby. No one actually calls me by my real name even now.” Misay gave a chuckle again.
Dimitri still appeared to be fascinated, giving a nod to this. “I see...”
On cue, Raphael came back with a small package, which were the earphones. “Here you go! These come with good sound too!”
After exchanging the item with the right amount of money and some farewells, Dimitri went back to rendezvous with Edelgard, who was waiting for him with her own earphone purchase.
“El, those Cherry earphones you’re holding are total knockoffs of the real deal. Look—-“ Dimitri pointed at the back of the product’s square earphone case. “They don’t even bother putting the actual logo of the Cherry brand.”
“I could say the same for yours as well.” Edelgard pointed her gaze to Dimitri’s earphone packaging. “The people who assembled this clearly forgot to spell ‘Dr. Wren’ right.”
Dimitri rolled his eyes in mock irritation. “Right...it’s probably a typo.”
“Okay, enough of that—-we need to get home before Mom and Dad get too worried.”
Hence, they went on their way back to their home in Taguig. Throughout the trip back, Dimitri couldn’t get the names Raf-Raf and Misay out of his head. He had no idea why, but he wondered if this was some local thing he missed.
——————————-
Turns out, it was indeed a local thing.
Just two days after the trip in Divisoria, Dimitri was seated with Edelgard for nothing but a simple session of watching videos on the net. As they were busy watching the latest clips of The Throne, both overheard a nearby conversation from another table. Said occupants were none other than Ferdinand and Hubert, drinking their tea and coffee respectively from Starbucks.
“Thanks for treating me with this blend of tea, Hubert.” Ferdinand sipped the fragrant tea from his tumbler.
Hubert took a sip of his own coffee, austere and bitter to the taste, smiling. “Anything to suit your tastes, Nanding. I don’t settle for anything less.”
Ferdinand chuckled under his breath. “You’ve been calling me that since we first started dating.”
“So? Can’t I treat you with something affectionate to call you?”
Dimitri only kept staring from hearing the brand new nickname for Ferdinand, while Edelgard only raised a brow.
“I didn’t know Ferdinand had a new nickname.” Edelgard commented, amused.
“Honestly, neither did I.” Dimitri agreed. “This is also the first time I’ve heard of this too.”
“From the sound of it, it’s most likely something the locals here use. And maybe studying in International School Manila got us locked out of the loop.”
“Again.” Dimitri added, and he realized that he only learned at this moment that Ferdinand and Hubert were dating. Not that he was prone to meddling, but there were definitely some things he had missed.
———————————-
It all escalated from there once Dimitri paid a visit to Claude’s condominium unit in Pasay.
Currently, it was Dimitri’s turn to have his head rest against Claude’s lap, with the latter combing the former’s blonde locks idly with his fingers, both watching Netflix on the flatscreen. The TV soon became background noise as soon as Judith came into the room.
“Oy, Pilandok! Please help me out with the laundry out at the balcony!”
Claude groaned from his spot. “But the latest episode of the The Throne is up now! I can’t miss it! Can’t I catch a break from chores today? It’s the weekend after all.” He pouted, the effects having little to no success to Judith, but a chuckle from Dimitri from how cute it was.
“Ay, Disio, just please don’t make this hard for me, alright?” Judith sighed. “Besides, your Tito Boy, Tita Girlie and their kid, Baby are coming to visit later and I don’t want clothes just becoming an eyesore.”
Dimitri’s eyes, which were drooping to sleepiness from how comfortable Claude’s lap was, abruptly opened for he wanted to make sure he heard Judith right. Apparently she had friends that went by Boy, Girlie and had a kid called Baby.
What.
However, Claude didn’t seem to catch his surprise as he groaned again, dipping his head backwards against the sofa. “Fine...but Baby is not going to stay in my room again after what had happened before. I can’t let that happen, Tita Mango.”
“I know that, Pilandok. Which is why I made sure to call Kuya Pepsi if ever Baby gets out of control.” Judith assured.
Then Judith left the room to prepare the meals for the visitors later. Meantime, Claude made the move to sit up, which made Dimitri raise his own head to get in an upright position. Dimitri felt his back creaking; how long did he stay lying down?
“Come on, Dimitri; we’ve got a chore to do.”
—————————————
Now the two were inside Claude’s room, Dimitri helping the latter in sorting out the clothes in proper groups.
“Goodness, there’s a lot of clothes from just the two of you.” Dimitri remarked, and turned to look at Claude as he folded one of the latter’s sweatshirts.
Claude only gave a little grin, knowing. “You don’t need to worry about that.” Noticing that Claude’s gaze was over his shoulder, Dimitri looked back to see that the pile of freshly dried clothes from earlier were now folded and sorted into different groups. Of course, Claude had the power to bring good fortune, and it was fortunate that he intervened to finish Dimitri’s task for him, with his magic.
The rainbow bird in human form gave a hearty laugh from Dimitri’s look of astonishment. “You’re welcome!”
Dimitri gave a kiss on his boyfriend’s cheek. “Thanks, Claude.” Then he dipped downward to lay on the bed on his back.
Within the silence of the room, Dimitri couldn’t help but think about that in the past few days, he’s heard of nicknames that he had never knew, or even heard of before. Starting from the study date, all the way to earlier, the kinds of nicknames, from tame to unconventional, were making themselves known. There were simple ones like Aning, but the weirder ones, like Mango and even Pepsi, well, Dimitri was taken by surprise.
It may seem that making a big deal out this was something probably not to be concerned about. However, when the concern is curious as to why it was that way, Dimitri wanted to know.
So he asked. “Hey, Claude...what’s up with the nicknames here?”
“Pardon?”
“Like, why are they just...weird? At least to me.”
Claude’s mouth formed a circle once he had an idea what Dimitri was talking about. “Ohh....that. Well, I don’t know how it evolved from simple diminutives, to well, Pepsi and the like. But they’ve been around, and have been more common since after my nap post-World War II.” Claude explained. “Believe me, I was also surprised at first when I learned that Tita Judith was more well known as Mango to her co-workers, friends and family. But, I grew to become more familiar with it, and so I call her Tita Mango occasionally.”
“In turn, she calls you Pilandok? Whatever that is?”
“Precisely, which is funny since I can turn into a pilandok as another form.”
“Oh...” Then, Dimitri took a double take. “Wait, a pilandok’s an animal?”
“You don’t know that it’s—oh wait, right, I didn’t tell you the translation of that.” Claude gave himself a facepalm. “Pilandok is a mouse deer.”
Dimitri poked at Claude’s cheek playfully. “I could see why, with your cute face and all.”
Claude gave a tiny blush from that. “Oh, you’re too sweet.” Then he placed down his finished folded clothes and inched closer to his boyfriend. “But in all seriousness, these local nicknames, probably the reason why the way they are is for pretty much why you’re called Dima by your sis—a term of endearment and one to remember too.”
“You did call me Dima too, you know.” Dimitri teased.
“But that was one time, and I was feeling sad from remembering, well...” Claude’s usual smile drooped for a moment, but he shook his head to resume his grinning. “Anyways, it’s okay to not be familiar with this kind of naming convetion—since I can help you get used to them anyways.” He gave a laugh, to which Dimitri chuckled along as well.
After a good minute of just smiling and chuckling, Dimitri paused to speak again. “Claude...if I got a Filipino nickname here, what would it be?”
Claude paused to think, then gave his answer. “If it were the usual Filipino phonemes, it would be Dimang, or Itring. But—if it were the ‘weirder’ kind, well...” The brunette smirked. “I would call you Sarsi. Like the softdrink, since you wear blue a lot.” From that thought alone, Claude dissolved into laughter again, Dimitri giving a pretend mocked expression.
“Oh? Then I should be calling you Sunshine then, since you wear yellow a lot!” Dimitri exclaimed, also laughing.
“Funny you say that, there’s an actress named Sunshine, and it’s her actual name.”
“Really?”
Claude gave a nod to that.
“My god, I’m really missing out.”