: Prompting Needed_

Handwritten Holiday

Norman's voice barely filled the small space between his hunched head and the desk. "My dearest Elanor." He bit down on the end of the pen and squinted down at the three words that glared back up at him accusingly. The cursive was sloppy, like always. The letters sprawled across the lines on the page with the tell-tale sign of amateur artistry. He glared at the splotchy, inky lines then at the bulky, shiny fountain pen gripped between his fingers, all while flicking his gaze ever-so-often at the bronze cup of Bic pens. "Because, Norman," he said, an answer to a silent question, "fountain pens are fancy. Elanor is fancy. She deserves fancy." He nodded with renewed conviction.

He drew out another sheet of notepaper from his pack and smoothed it across the leather padding of the desk. Once again, he steadied the tip of the thick pen against the paper and began to write. Immediately the ink flowed from the tip of the pen and bled through onto the desk. "Shoot!" Norman jerked his hand up in an angry sweep. He watched as points of blackness splattered out towards the darkness of the office. He heard the ink hit the carpet in quick, neat thuds. "Ugh, fine," he relented, and he sat the pen back on its wooden holder then picked out a Bic. He started anew with another fresh sheet of paper.

"My dearest Elanor," he whispered.

~~~

Kevin backed away from the door to his office and smiled. Tomas, seeing the smile, tilted his head inquisitively. "What is he doing in there?"

Kevin started down the steps, placing his feet on the outside of the steps so they caused the least amount of creaking. He motioned for his husband to follow. "If I were to guess, I think he's got a crush and I think," he added with emphasis and a wink back over his shoulder, "that he aspires to be a wooer."

Tomas stopped him with a hand on Kevin's shoulder. "A wooer?" he chuckled. "Who is he wooing? How?"

Kevin shrugged and continued down the steps. At the bottom, he paused as if to let Tomas go ahead of him and then grabbed him around the waist and laid his chin on Thomas's shoulder. "Well, evidently to a girl named Elanor and with my expensive pen. He's losing a couple of week's allowance to clean what I just saw him do." He kissed his husband's neck. "But it's sweet, I think. Our little guy's got a crush for Christmas."

Tomas pulled Kevin's arms in closer and fell back into the hug. "Yeah, but at that age, you can easily get heartbreak for New Year's." They broke the embrace and ambled into the kitchen. "Do you want a cup of coffee?" Kevin broke his attention from the window over the sink. In the silence in between words, snow could be heard battering the glass with soft, kitten-like swipes.

"No, but maybe a tea?"

"Sure." Tomas busied himself in the process as Kevin stepped around the island to lean over the sink. He returned his gaze out into the black and orange night. The streetlamps were catching every flake on their way down. "What do you mean," he asked, his breath fogging up the pane of glass momentarily. "Heartbreak for New Years?"

Tomas's shape flashed across the window as he busied himself. He paused before he began to grind the beans for his drink and stared more through the back of Kevin's head than at it. "Well," he started as he returned to filling the grinder. He placed the cap on and let it whirr before he responded: "I used to collect sad stories when I was a kid. True ones. Like, the extra teenage drama that would happen all around me. I would hoard them, really. In my journal."

Kevin turned to watch him put the bean powder in the press and Kevin's bag of favorite English breakfast in his big Santa mug. He crossed his arms and leaned back closer to the window, savoring the coolness as it fell onto his neck and into his housecoat. "Oh yeah?" he said. "You never told me that. How long'd that last?"

"A couple of years," Thomas answered. His casual shrug unseated a strand of his dark hair, and it swung lightly like a feathery pendulum over the drinks. He absently pushed it back and glanced up at Kevin. "What?" he laughed.

"What do you mean?"

"Why are you smiling at me like that?"

Kevin let his face grow even wider. "Me? Smile at you? Whatever would I do that for?" Tomas shook his head, his own mouth turning up at the edges as his cheeks started to glow. "What, I can't just smile at my husband?"

One eye looked back up at him through hair that had fallen once more. "A grin like that caused us to decide to get married and have a kid, Mr. Vance."

"Oh, really?" Kevin rolled his hips off the counter and walked around the island to slip his hands around Tomas's waist. He playfully slapped Kevin's advancing limbs and indicated his amateur barista work on the countertop. "What," Kevin laughed. He heard his voice had lowered into a warm whisper. "I'm just admiring-"

"You are trouble," Tomas chided. His voice, in contrast, had gone up in a playful tone. He turned and placed a splayed hand on Kevin's terry-clothed chest and searched up at Kevin's eyes. "And you're not getting the chance to unwrap this present yet." He pointed to the press and Kevin's mug which was now steaming from the water Tomas had poured in. "Drinks first and Norman's got to go to bed."

"Fair enough. How long on the tea?"

"I don't know, ten minutes?"

Kevin nodded then stepped towards the stairs again. "Norm, buddy. You up there?"

There was a long pause and the faint rustling of hastily packed away items from the cracked open office door. Then, in a voice that was thick with the inflection of a preteen trying to sound nonchalant, Norman yelled back, "One minute!" Muted thumping broadcasted the kid's scampering to his own room and then turned into slapping footsteps as he clunked down the stairs. "Yeah, Dad?"

Kevin's eyes flickered over the ink stains on his son's fingers and face, then he shook his head as he smiled. "Bed in, what, fifteen?" He glanced back at Tomas and winked.

Thomas looked past Kevin at Norman and smiled. "Make sure to brush your teeth."

"Yes, sir," Norman said, and he bounded back up the stairs.

Tomas watched him go and then slid the Santa mug over to Kevin so that its warm edge just brushed his fingertips. "That boy's gonna have heartbreak, alright." He sighed and leaned onto Kevin's back as he squeezed his body just below the ribs. "Whether it's gonna be his or 'Elanor's', we'll see."