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“Are we doing anything for Valentine’s Day?” Joseph said out of the blue.
Caesar paused halfway down onto the couch. “It’s barely February.”
“You’re kidding right? It’s tomorrow. Or, actually...” Joseph checked his watch. “Right now.”
Caesar blinked, finally settling in with a sigh. It was midnight, and he had just gotten home after a long day of sorting through addresses and files. “I...may have lost track of time,” he said.
“You’ve been working too hard,” Joseph chastised. “Luckily, I play hard enough for the both of us.”
“What did you do?” he said, immediately wary.
“Come on, where’s your holiday spirit?” Joseph spread his hands out. “I finally bought us that chocolate fountain we had our eye on.”
Caesar raised an eyebrow.
“Alright, I bought myself a chocolate fountain in our name, but you’re free to use it.”
“Thanks,” Caesar said. “How generous.”
He took a bow. “Of course, my sweet pie. Anything for you.”
He suppressed a smile as Joseph planted a conspicuous kiss on his forehead and took the opportunity to give his hair a ruffle. “You’re going to rot my teeth.”
“If you want to rot your teeth for real, we could give the thing a whirl,” Joseph said, jerking his head toward their pantry.
“Why not?” Caesar said, pushing himself off the couch and following Joseph into the kitchen. “This holiday is just an elaborate excuse for you to eat chocolate, anyway.”
“No, it’s an elaborate excuse for us to eat chocolate,” he emphasized, placing his hands on the lace covering one of their bowls. “Don’t think you’re getting out of this.” With a flourish, he unveiled the bowl, which was piled high with assorted kitchen implements- a wooden spoon, a corkscrew, several spatulas, and two wooden carvings: a yellow bird with a blue scarf and an egg with a green and yellow striped one.
“Looks delicious,” he deadpanned.
The bowl was ceramic, but patterned like a wicker basket to look like a bird’s nest (a gift from their mentors, Loggins and Messina, to go with their bird and egg carvings).
“No, wait,” he said hastily. “Wrong one.” He whipped the doily off a new heart-shaped bowl glazed white and red and filled to overflowing with strawberries. A single, long-stemmed red rose in full bloom lay gracefully on top of the display. Joseph took the rose and put it between his teeth, waggling his eyebrows.
“You’ve put thought into this,” he said, almost admiringly.
“Heh- ow,” Joseph took the rose stem out of his mouth, “you’re not the only one who can pull off sappy stuff,” he bragged, eyes gleaming with self-satisfaction. He handed Caesar the rose. “I picked out the strawberries myself. Well, I got my secretary to help a little. Did you know that strawberries have varieties?”
“Who doesn’t?”
“I didn’t,” Joseph said, sounding rather proud of himself. “Pretty useless information if you ask me. These are- uh... I forget which, but they’re big, red, shaped like hearts. Good enough.” He picked up a white fruit with red seeds. “Mm. Pineberries. Like strawberries, but scared out of their wits.”
Caesar reached for one of them, but Joseph swatted his hand away. “Not yet!”
Joseph hummed as he set up what looked like two stone bowls on top of a box. “I don’t know who invented this, but whoever they are, I’m shaking their hand if I ever meet them. Best kitchen device ever created,” he said dreamily once the fountains stood completed. “Now, stand back and watch the magic.”
Joseph poured a brown cocoa mix into the bowls and followed it up with a jugful of cream. Then he hit the side of the machine, and with a whir, the cocoa and cream began to swirl together in a thick, velvety mixture.
Joseph grinned smugly, sliding next to his partner and throwing an arm around his shoulders. “Showtime.”
“How long will it take to mix?”
“Not long,” he said. “Maybe a few more minutes.”
Caesar gazed at the machine. “Interesting. Is it supposed to do that?”
Joseph’s smile turned into a frown of concern.
The rich, ropy streams of newly mixed chocolate had become rather lumpy, and the fountain chugged slower and slower. Soon the surface of the chocolate smoothed out, and the machinery puttered to a halt.
“Huh, I wonder how granny got it to work...”
Caesar watched as Joseph scuttled over to the fountain, as if approaching it directly would startle it, and twist a few unseen knobs. The machine spit a stream of chocolate out of its spout, which splattered against the shelves, and then halted again.
Joseph banged on the side of it a few times and swore to himself. “The fountain’s clogged,” he said peevishly.
“We can add some liquid to make it smoother. Maybe more milk?”
His eyes lit up. “I just got some from Bess.”
“No,” Caesar said.
“Then I guess I’ll just have to feed you strawberries without chocolate,” he said, eyebrows drooping with theatrical sadness. Can you forgive me?
“There’s some chocolate still in here,” Caesar said, feeling unreasonably sorry for him despite knowing it was an act. “I’m the one who forgot the holiday in the first place.”
“Oh, no, you’re right, it’s just an excuse to eat chocolate,” Joseph hastened to say. “Don’t sweat it. You’ve just been doing all the romantic stuff lately, planning the wedding and all, and I wanted to pay you back.”
“There’s no need to do that,” he said.
“Yeah, but I wanted to.” He paused. “I know it’s February, and you... Uh, we both have a hard time with Februaries,” he said with a nervous laugh. “I don’t blame you for not wanting to think too much about anything that happens this month.”
He smiled to himself. True. It was hard to remember their meeting without thinking about the terrible circumstances that had brought them together. It was hard to look fondly back on their first Valentine’s together, considering it was spent with mortal dread looming over their heads. He could not bring himself to regret the forces that brought them together, even if he did regret that those forces were the ones to bring them together. He was sure they still hadn’t recovered. They might never fully recover.
But to have the chance to overcome these challenges together, to watch each other grow, to piece together a future out of the tatters of their pasts, to share these sweet simplicities... that was a joy he didn’t think he would ever attain. He was proud of them both, how far they had come. What could he say to express that?
“Thank you,” he said, and hoped that was enough.
Joseph only placed his hand on his and squeezed it in response.
He plucked a strawberry from the bowl and dipped it in the congealing mass. He bit into it, and the tart freshness of the strawberry mingled well with the milky, lightly sweetened flavor of the chocolate.
He gave an approving nod, and Joseph’s expression immediately brightened.
Caesar prepared a second strawberry. “Open up,” he said.
Joseph blinked at him. “Oh, so you want to treat me instead?” He plunked his elbows on the table, leaning forward. “Don’t mind if I do!”
He closed his eyes, lips slightly parted, and Caesar took the pointed end of the strawberry and, using the chocolate, drew a star in the middle of Joseph’s forehead.
Joseph’s eyes snapped open, and his hand flew to his forehead before Caesar could draw the second symbol. “What the-”
“Ah, you’ve ruined it,” he said in disappointment.
“Wait, you’re messing with me!”
Caesar waited until he opened his mouth to complain further, and when popped the strawberry in. “There you go,” he said.
Joseph looked comically torn between eating the delicious strawberry and spitting it out to continue to argue. After a few moments of silent wrestling with this dilemma, he chose to close his mouth and chew in disgruntled irritation.
Caesar leaned his cheek on one hand, smiling beatifically.
“I can’t believe you took this heartfelt gesture of mine and turned it into this- farce. Yes, farce, I say,” he mumbled around a mouthful of strawberry as soon as it became pulp. He swallowed it, and snatched the bowl up, spilling a few strawberries. “No more chocolate privileges for you.”
“You did tell me to loosen up.”
Joseph let his mouth hang open for a moment. “I did.” He considered it for a moment, and then his face lit up. “Aw, that’s right, I did! Haha, I knew it! You’re not as uptight as you act, after all,” he enthused, chocolate still smeared across his forehead. “What did you draw?”
“Only what I thought of you.”
“You’re on thin ice,” Joseph said, but he was still smiling. “Well, we still have a fountainful of chocolate and a bowlful of strawberries left to eat...”
Caesar nodded. Before he could reply, a yawn came over him.
Joseph’s expression softened. “Aw, look who’s all tuckered out from working so hard.”
“It’s fine, I don’t have work tomorrow,” he said. “I can stay up a while longer.”
“No no, you need your beauty sleep,” Joseph said, eyeing him closely. “I’ll put this in the icebox and we can get back to it tomorrow. I can even make some strawberry drinks, I got the recipes from Suzie.”
He nodded, feeling the tiredness settle in full force as he no longer had to fight it.
Joseph pushed him gently toward their room.
“Go on, I’ll catch up.”
As he got dressed for bed and slid gratefully underneath the covers, faint clinking and clanging sounded in the kitchen as Joseph cleaned up their mess.
The lights outside dimmed. Soon he felt the blankets pulled further over his shoulders, and the springs compressed as Joseph sat on their bed, smelling suspiciously of more strawberries. Warmth spread over him, and not just because of the covers.
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” he murmured, half-asleep.
“Happy elaborate excuse to eat chocolate,” Joseph echoed with a smile still in his voice. He began to absently trace a symbol onto Caesar’s back, starting with a circle, a curve, and another curve. “I think I know what you wanted to draw.”
But he was already asleep. Joseph smiled, turned off the bedside lamp with a click, and joined him in his slumber.