A Rainbow Obsession

A Rainbow Onsession

"Aengus." Fafnir, the faerie Prince, sighed. His eyes made the short trip down the length of the leprechaun before him. Standard for a leprechaun, redheaded, a sickly taste for the color green. Angry looking. (Then again, he might have been legitimately angry. Fafnir couldn't bother himself with the details.) "The humans are not after your gold or anyone else's. It's Pride Month."
    "Sire, with all due respect," Aengus insisted, "they're unnaturally obsessed with rainbows recently! You can't tell me that's a coincidence!" Ugh. He'd have to sit up, wouldn't he? Grudgingly, he propped himself up on one elbow, and, still on his stomach, turned to address his agitated subject. "It's Pride Month." Fafnir spoke slowly as to be more easily understood. "It's a celebration."
    "Of what?"
    Fafnir rolled his eyes. "I don't know. Affection? Bright colors? Marching and carrying signs? Simple creatures, humans."
"I'd bet they're celebrating," mumbled Aengus. "Celebrating all that gold they've illegally obtained..."
    Fafnir turned over to lie on his back. "How did you obtain it?"
Aengus ignored him. "Won't you just investigate this? You know, they already have stories about the gold at the ends of rainbows, and they're disturbingly correct."
"And?"
"And," Aengus huffed, irritated by the Prince's half lidded eyes and silky nonchalant tone. It was almost like he didn't care! "If they find out that their little stories are true, they might discover us! They'll want wishes!"
"That's always hilarious," Fafnir laughed to himself. "Especially when they say vague things like, 'I want to live forever.'" he said louder. "Eventually they'll be a pile of dust with a very angry conscience. Or a very ugly old man. Not to mention the many downfalls of immortali—"
"Fafnir!"
"What?"
"I will not grant any more wishes! It was always terrible!"
"Yes, for you." Fafnir shrugged. "If it bothers you so much, you investigate it." at that, Fafnir turned to face the opposite wall, signifying the end of this conversation.
"Fine! I will!"

Aengus wasted no time reaching the surface world. After all, he had an unguarded rainbow...somewhere in Indiana. He liked it there, all of its farms and fields, and large population of less than open minded people, who were, happily, not looking for anything at the ends of rainbows. 
He manifested in a soybean field, and cast a look around. The sky overhead was cloudy, but the air was warm and uncomfortable all the same. Looking then at their odd little poles and brightly colored signs, he decided he felt rather...short. Or did humans have to crane their necks to see? They must not, or else they'd have made them shorter. He willed himself to grow taller, and at about 5'6, he decided he could see, and so it must be an acceptable height. Now then. Do human men have facial hair? Not that he could remember from his last visit.
Better not.
Hats? Never inside. Not that he cared for them much. The other leprechauns insisted he try them, but he had to refuse hat hair. Anyway, it wasn't raining yet.
Arranging for himself an outfit of a pressed white shirt, suit jacket, dress pants and nice shoes, he felt he was ready to go. Or, rather, he thought Bonnie (a sweet little girl he'd met on his last visit) would think he was.

Not discouraged by dirt and dust, Aengus walked on the side of the road, determined to find his rainbow and beat anyone sniffing around it. He'd conjured himself an umbrella on his walk just for such an occasion.
Unfortunately, the clouds were blocking the light that would have exposed his rainbow. This might still be a problem if he knew where he'd put it...right?
Of course it would be, this wasn't his fault at all.  
He walked for a few more miles, and yelped as a strange looking machine that may have been an automobile thundered past, adding to his collection of filth. But where there were automobiles, (no matter how strange, ugly or frightening) there would certainly be humans. Hoping it was coming toward and not going away from civilization, he decided to follow it.

It seemed that perhaps the luck of his past captors had rubbed off on him, as he was able to follow the automobile a small town. Ought to make myself presentable, he thought, and willed the dirt from his clothes and hair. Afterward, he approached the driver he'd followed. "Excuse me, miss." she said nothing. "Miss?" after a minute or two, she turned and jumped with a sort of yelp. With her right hand, she removed a sort of plug on a string from her ear.
"Sorry," she apologized, "I didn't see you."
"That's alright." she seemed uncomfortable, as if she were waiting for him to attack her here in the parking lot. "By any chance, have you seen a rainbow in this area?" Her eyebrows, strangely dark in comparison to her bright red hair, knitted together.
"A rainbow?" she echoed. "What do you mean, r—oh, are you gay?" she seemed comforted by this idea.
"More confused, really," he said. Were humans always so concerned as to whether others were happy or not?
"We don't have many Pride events around here." she continued as if he hadn't spoken. "State's so red and all."
"Red?" on his walk, he hadn't seen any spot of land that was particularly red. Green, grey, and brown more like.
"Yeah," she replied, apparently confused again. "Republican, as opposed to Democrat? You are talking about Pride Month, June? You know, with the rainbow flag?" he stared at her as blankly as possible, and then asked slowly, "Do any of these things enjoy gold?"
"Um. What? No. Pride Month isn't about...no. It...it celebrates the LGBTQ community?"
"Why are only these letters included?"
"Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning?"
"What?"
"Um..." the poor thing seemed to be in distress at his misunderstanding. "Like...girls dating girls, and guys dating guys...that sorta thing?" Did humans always celebrate such common occurrences?
"So...." he paused. "You're not after my gold?"