Work Text:
“Plants or animals?”
Stede looked up from his book. “What?”
“Plants or animals? Pick one,” Ed repeated.
‘Umm, animals?”
Ed grinned. “Great! Be ready to go in an hour. Dress warm.”
Stede peppered Ed with questions during the entire drive to their date night destination. All Ed would do was smile and say, “You’ll see.”
Stede connected the dots when Ed turned down the street for the zoo. “Ed! Did you get us tickets for ‘Howl-iday Lights’?!” He was bouncing up and down excitedly in the passenger seat and beaming.
“Sure did, love. You may have mentioned it a few times. And you know I really don’t need an excuse to see the red pandas.”
“Ed, this is amazing! I love it!” Stede paused and looked at Ed quizzically, “Wait, you asked ‘plants or animals’ earlier. What was ‘plants?’”
“Garden Glow at the botanic gardens. The tickets are good all weekend; we can go tomorrow night.”
Ed handed their tickets to the docent at the entrance while Stede picked up a map. They strolled through the zoo, hand-in-hand, map forgotten, stopping periodically to take in the lights: there was a giraffe, an elephant that spouted “water” from its trunk, as well as palm trees and pineapples.
[image left: life-size giraffe made of white Christmas lights, surrounded by plants made of green and yellow lights
image right: pineapples made of orange and red Christmas lights]
At one point, Stede dragged Ed into the craft barn, where they both painted rocks to look like penguins. Ed, in turn, dragged Stede to the hot chocolate stand and then to a nearby fire pit, so they could cuddle and drink cocoa by the fire while Stede told him all the reasons why harbor seals were fascinating animals. And Stede really wanted a photo of them in the giant decorative ornament, so they stood in line for that.
[image: giant Christmas ornament made of yellow lights decorated with white lights in filigree pattern with archways in front and rear. People standing in a line]
When it was their turn, Ed handed his phone to the zoo employee to take their photo, and followed Stede to the center of the brightly lit space. They stood angled toward one another, smiling and gazing into each other’s eyes. At the very last second, Stede pulled Ed in close, and kissed him chastely on the lips. He rested his forehead against Ed’s, and sighed contentedly. After a moment, Ed pulled back just enough to look fondly at Stede. “You ready to let the next couple have a turn?”
“I think so.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
The employee smiled and handed Ed’s phone back to him. “I think you’ve got a good one there,” she said softly.
“I think so too.”