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Thomas awoke to the smell of burning breakfast and an empty space in bed beside him. “That daft romantic” he thought to himself as he smiled and stretched.
He made his way to the kitchen where a rather stressed looking Richard was disapprovingly starring at what Thomas assumed was a pancake - a very burnt, looked like it could power a steam train, rather lumpy, pancake.
“Ah my favourite breakfast, coal” Thomas teased.
“Oh shut up you cheeky sod!” Richard replied “You make it look so easy!”
“Well” Thomas said walking up behind Richard and wrapping his arms around him “that comes from years of watching Mrs Patmore cook instead of polishing the silver”
Thomas rested his head on Richard’s shoulder. Richard turned and gave him a small kiss on the cheek causing Thomas to scrunch up his nose and smile.
“Here let me help you”
Thomas directed Richard’s arms and together they remade the batter, stirred it well and poured it into the pan making some nice round, golden brown pancakes. They sat down at their little table admired their creation.
“Thanks love” Richard said with his plate nicely placed in front of him.
“Your very welcome” Thomas replied with a mouth full of pancake.
Richard laughed which made Thomas laugh spitting some pancake back onto his plate.
“Oh how very romantic of you Thomas, you make a man some pancakes then you spit all over them!”
Thomas continued to laugh his face going red. Eventually they both calmed down, wiped the tears from their eyes and ate their sort of cold and in Thomas’s case mildly wet pancakes.
They both got dressed, delayed by how cold it was and how warm each other’s arms were but in the end they were both ready. Since they had both managed to secure a few days off they thought they would make the most of their free time together and go for a walk despite the bitter cold outside. They wrapped up nice and warm - Richard made sure Thomas had some nice warm gloves because “I know how much that hand of yours will ache if you let it get too cold!” and was glad to see Thomas in the knitted scarf his mum had made for him last Christmas.
Thomas had almost cried when Richard had given him the parcel and told him that his mum had made it for him. Now it seemed to be the only scarf Thomas wore when he needed one and it did suit him well.
They headed out from Richard’s flat and down towards the park. The ground crunched under their feet from the recent snow that had covered the area. They could see their breath as they talked about “the poor little plants under all that snow” and “Was that a robin?” “I’m pretty sure that was a pigeon Rich.”
They watched as couples went by hand in hand and kissed each other whenever they felt like it. Thomas looked down disheartened. Richard could tell he felt a bit annoyed by all of it and Richard felt the same, it was unfair but one day they would be able to kiss and hold hands in public just like everyone else, he had hope in that. His hand reached over the small gap between him and Thomas and gave his had a little squeeze. Thomas looked up and gave him a small smile.
Just then a few white flakes began to drift down around them and slowly they got heavy and more of them. They both looked up at the sky as it began to snow. Thomas held out his hand caught a big fluffy snowflake and showed it to Richard.
“Look it’s snowing!”
“Really I hadn’t noticed!” Richard laughed and Thomas gave him a quick elbow in the side.
“Ow”
“You deserved that”
Richard playful kicked some snow at Thomas with the side of his boot getting him up the side of his leg. Thomas took this as a challenge and kicked some back.
This continued for quite a while and by the time they got back to the flat their boots were soaked and there legs and feet were freezing.
Richard lit the fire and put their boots by the fireplace to dry as Thomas made them some tea and brought in some sweet, heart shaped shortbread.
Richard sat on the sofa in front of the fire to warm up and once he had placed down the tea and biscuits Thomas curled up by his side and rested his head on Richard’s shoulder. Richard put his arm around Thomas snuggling up closer.
“Happy Valentine’s Day dear”
“Happy Valentine’s Day love”