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30 Days of Prompts, Day 19:
An Extinct Flower Blooms for the First Time in 200 Years
“Leon?”
“Babe.”
“What are you doing here?” Chris asked with a laugh as he approached his husband.
Leon, who was stood in front of Chris’ Jeep in the BSAA headquarters’ parking lot, took a step forward to meet him. He rested one hand on his husband’s shoulder and kissed him gently.
“I’m taking you to dinner,” Leon replied. “And these are for you,” he smiled, blushing just a little, as he stepped back and held up the bouquet of flowers.
“Thank you,” Chris smiled, accepting the flowers. “They’re beautiful.”
Leon felt his blush intensify. How long had they been together now?
He’d only got the idea for the flowers the night before. He’d been idly flicking through TV channels, trying to fill the too quiet house, in Chris’ absence, when he’d happened across a documentary about a flower that had bloomed for the first time in 200 years. He’d watched for a few moments, before continuing his channel surfing. But in the end unable to find anything, he’d switched to a streaming service and had ended up falling asleep on the sofa.
And then whilst eating breakfast this morning, he couldn’t stop thinking about how nice it might be to surprise Chris with a bouquet of flowers, as well as taking him to dinner. So, he had googled florists he could stop at on his way to the BSAA Headquarters and placed an order for pick up. And, well, the mild embarrassment had been worth it, just to see the smile on Chris’ face.
“Shall we?” Leon asked, regaining his composure, “I’ve got a taxi waiting.” Leon figured they could come back for Chris’ jeep tomorrow. He wanted both of them to be able to enjoy themselves tonight.
“Sure, sounds good.” Chris agreed, taking his husband’s hand.
“So, is this why Jill suggested I wear a suit to my meetings today?”
“I couldn’t possibly comment,” Leon responded, with a shrug, as he led Chris towards their waiting ride.
“A toast,” Leon smiled as he held up the glass of champagne. He waited until Chris held his up too, “To retirement.”
“To retirement,” Chris agreed, lightly knocking his glass against Leon’s.
“So how does it feel?”
“Odd,” Chris admitted. “I don’t think it has really sunk in yet. Besides, they can still call me in as a consultant if they need me.”
“No rest for the weary,” Leon quipped, knowing that he too would probably have to commit to that particular agreement as part of his own retirement package.
“I suppose not,” Chris shrugged.
“But if not you, who?” Leon smiled, knowingly.
“You know me too well,” Chris sighed fondly, shaking his head.
Leon just smiled in response, taking another sip of champagne. He supposed Chris was right. It was the same for him. It was a hard fight to walk away from completely and they’d both been in it from the start.
Whilst he still considered Chris as one of the strongest people he knew and as someone who despite everything they had seen still kept going, something had changed since the Village Incident.
He’d come back tired. More tired than Leon had ever seen. Leon still remembered the phone call he’d received from Chris. He never heard his husband sound so close to breaking. It had scared him and he’d made sure to be there to meet the Osprey when it had got back to base.
But all of that was in the past. Leon put it to the back of his mind and decided to focus on the future and on celebrating the milestone Chris had reached.
“So, what’s the first thing you want to do now you’re retired?” Leon asked.
“I’m not sure, I haven’t given it that much thought. But, I do know what I would like to do once you’ve retired too.”
“Oh?”
“Well, I was thinking we could finally go on that honeymoon you surprised me with.”
Leon smiled. He couldn’t deny that he didn’t think about how they’d missed out on going every now and then. They’d meant to leave a few days after the wedding, but Chris had got called to Louisiana.
“Sounds perfect.”