#flacel

Flavio could already feel the cold creeping in from outside before he had even gotten out of bed. Any attempts of trying to wrap himself tighter into his blanket were useless. It was freezing in here and probably even more so outside. He suspected that the heating of his trailer was broken. Or something like that. The only warmth seemed to radiate from Celio’s heated body and their skins were close enough to occasionally brush, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy Flavio’s needs of not dying from hypothermia this winter. He was already dreading to get out of bed at all, but he had to check on the heating to make sure it wasn’t actually broken. Not that he knew anything about heatings or how to fix them. He made sure to wrap himself into a spare blanket from his bed’s end before he dared to even leave the safe and relatively warm space his bed had provided during this harsh winter night and morning. Just as he had suspected, the heating was turned on to the highest degree, but there was no actual heat coming from it. Flavio was no expert, but he could still tell that this wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. He put on some clothes as fast as possible, relying on the method of layers in order to survive the snowstorm that was apparently going on outside – by now Flavio had checked the windows only to see nothing but snow. He could even hear the wind blow across the circus grounds. There should have been no reason for him to even leave his trailer at all today. But now there were two. The dumb heating and a bunch of hungry tigers that probably shouldn’t be left alone for too long. At least they were made to survive harsh Siberian winters. Celio was still turning in bed, but seemed to be about to wake up soon, Flavio noticed as he was already at the door. He had cast one more glance back while turning the door knob. He frowned and turned it again. It wouldn’t move. He tried to turn it the other way and put more pressure onto the door by leaning against it. He rattled the door, mumbling a few Italian curse words under his breath, but there was no way around the fact that they were somehow locked in. Maybe the door was frozen and therefor stuck. It was certainly cold enough outside and inside for this to happen. And with the storm raging outside…it shouldn’t have come as that much of a surprise. But that didn’t mean that Flavio had to like it. He was still cursing quietly as he resumed back to the side of the bed. Celio was only now opening his eyes and lifting his head. “Did you just come in?” He asked, his voice still sleepy. “Couldn’t even get outside” Flavio complained while getting rid of his boots and gloves. “It’s a nightmare outside. And in here too. The heating is broken and – oh yeah – we’re snowed in” There was some very obvious sarcasm going on in his voice. Suddenly, Celio sat up straight, reaching out to grab Flavio’s arm. He barely caught his sleeve, but once he did, he held on to it tightly. “Are you trying to tell me that we are snowed in?” There was no way of telling whether those were the best or the worst news that Celio had gotten this week, but knowing what Flavio knew about his best friend, there was really only one way this could go. He just nodded. “Do you know what that means?” Now he shook his head. There were a lot of possible answer to this question and he didn’t like a single one of them. “We have to repopulate the Earth” “What? No, it’s just the trailer, everyone else is still alive…I think” Celio was clenching the fabric of Flavio’s sleeve tighter. “The whole Earth. I am serious. This is serious” “It’s also biologically impossible, I hate to break that to you” Flavio weakly and unsuccessfully tried to pull himself away from Celio’s grip. “We won’t know unless we’ve tried” Celio nodded with a very serious expression on his face. “Can’t leave any stone unturned in hard times like these” Flavio decided that it was best to let him ramble on and was already half turning away as the pull at his sleeve got a little harder and he nearly fell back into bed, right on top of his best friend. “The very least we can do is keep each other warm” Celio mumbled. Seeing that both their lips were already turning an alarming shade of blue, Flavio knew that he was actually right about this one thing. Next thing he knew, Celio had pulled him underneath the covers where it was indeed much warmer and cosier than anywhere else in the trailer, possibly than anywhere else in this world right about now.

Flavio hadn’t been in Italy since he was six years old. Memories about the country he had been born in were blurry, practically non-existent. The language seemed to be the only relict from his heritage that he had ever kept. And he was barely even still using it, seeing that since his father had passed there had never been a lot of people he could talk to in his mother tongue. It was all the irritating now to set foot into a country where the language was everywhere, surrounding him. Sometimes when someone was talking to him, he had to actually ask them to repeat their sentence, because his brain wasn’t used to comprehending this much of the Italian language in one day. Celio was actually doing quite well using the snippets of Italian that he already knew and connecting new words and phrases with similar sounding Spanish sentences which enabled him to do basic communication. So far this had been all the communication they had needed anyway. However, as it was often the case, the worst was yet to come. He was well aware of that in this exact moment, standing right here in front of his grandmother’s house. It was still the same old house she used to live in when he had been here last. Or so he had been told. The only thing he actually remembered was that it was a rather tiny place. Too tiny to fit in all his cousins, uncles and aunts. He had supposedly 2 uncles and 3 aunts after all. And they had all come to celebrate Christmas and see their nephew after 12 years. This was, perhaps, why he hesitated, before he rang the old door bell. He took the little time that was left before the door was thrown open to take a deep breath. About a few seconds later he found himself almost suffocating in the arms of a tiny elderly woman who proceeded to shout at him in Italian after she had released him from her hug. She was saying things along the lines of how handsome he looked, how much he had grown, that he was to skinny and should eat more…until her gaze found Celio. Her expression went from brief surprise back to immediate warm happiness. She hushed them both inside. “You didn’t tell me you would bring your boyfriend!” She exclaimed in Italian before pulling Celio into a tight hug, welcoming him into the family and bombarding him with questions no one was fast enough to answer. “Thank God I always make plenty of food for dinner. I hope there will be enough. I don’t want you two starving” She made not one single pause that would have allowed Flavio to correct her and he wasn’t even sure if Celio had understood her mistake. His helpless glance was answered with a wide grin. “Guys!” She shouted back into the house. “Flavio is here and he brought his boyfriend” Flavio winced at the word again, already lifting a hand to correct her, but he was once again interrupted. This time by the rest of his family who was now gradually filling up the hallway. They took turns in hugging the two boys, exchanging kisses, loudly admiring Celio and congratulating Flavio on how handsome his boyfriend was. It was then that Celio began to understand what was going on and why exactly Flavio was so nervous. So he did what he had to do, thanked everybody for their kind words and welcome in broken Italian, placed a kiss on Flavio’s cheek and took his hand while following his family into the living room.  

With the cast securely around his leg and the hospital bed’s thin, worn down mattress, it was rather troubling to find a comfortable position to actually rest. Funny, since this was the sole reason he was here for. At least that’s what he liked to pretend. In reality the doctors had noticed a serious injury of his shin bone and were still discussing about fixing it with surgery. This, in turn, would mean that Flavio would have to spend Christmas in hospital. Even though he wasn’t that big on any kind of larger celebration, it was still a little sad. To help deal with any of the two possible outcomes of the situation Celio had gone off to get something to eat for them both. Something other than dry potatoes, cold tea and unsweetened jelly. As impossible as it was to lie down comfortably, it seemed even more impossible to keep awake and after a little while his head somehow just dropped to the side and after closing his eyes for what was supposed to be only five seconds, his body decided to take a full on nap instead.

Flavio woke to the smell of gingerbread, cinnamon and fir tree. There were green and red lights glowing through his still closed eyelids. Upon opening his eyes he found Celio standing at the other end of his bed, showing off his jazz hands as if he’d been waiting like this for Flavio to wake up for hours. The room was pretty much literally lit up like a Christmas tree with Christmas lights wrapped around every piece of furniture and fir branches with Christmas ornaments hanging from the walls. A rich plate of gingerbread and cookies was occupying his nightstand and Flavio caught himself actually wanting one of the cookies. He also caught himself smiling at Celio next. “Do the doctors know about this?” Celio shrugged, finally dropping his jazz hands but still with the biggest grin on his face. “They’ll find out soon enough” Probably true. And there was something else Flavio had on his mind anyway. “But were the doctors already here? Did they say anything?” Celio’s shoulders slumped just a little, but it was enough for Flavio to notice and definitely enough for him to be able to guess the answer. He sighed, then awkwardly moved over a little to make some more room on the bed, then patted the free space beside him. Celio understood came bouncing over, lying down right next to his best friend. Flavio’s head tipped over to rest on the magician’s shoulder. “I thought maybe we could invite the whole circus over and have a Christmas party right here at the hospital. Then everyone’s gonna sign your cast and all” Flavio smiled softly. He actually very much liked the idea, even though he wouldn’t say it out loud.