#rayningroses

Valentines Day was the day of love, life, and happiness. Every couple was out, spending the day together, and most single people were treating themselves to as much alcohol and chocolate as they could before passing out.

Ray had never really understood Valentines Day. Then again, he had never been in a relationship on the holiday either. He just treated it like any other day. That is, until Ryan asked him to come over for drinks.

“I don’t even drink.”

“Neither do I, but I have sparkling cider and junk food.”

It had always made Ray laugh that the way to his heart was through his stomach.

“Alright, fine.”

When Ryan’s doorbell rung the next day, it was opened to reveal Ray with a single rose. The smirk on his face made it evident that he thought his joke was hilarious, and Ryan laughed as he placed the flower in a glass of water in the center of the table.

They passed the time with bad movies and pizza, candy and soda. During one bad action movie they got worked up, throwing popcorn at each other until Ryan’s couch was peppered with kernels. When Ray threw his feet up onto Ryan’s lap, the taller man tickled the bottom of his foot until he curled into a ball on the other side of the couch.

It was nearing nine when Ray got tired, not even realizing that he was falling asleep. Ryan was made aware by the soft snoring, and he reached out, gently shaking Ray’s shoulder. The man woke, sitting up and focusing on the movie again.

It didn’t even take ten minutes for Ray to fall asleep again, this time sagging onto Ryan. The force of it caused Ryan to shift, and he laid down, head pillowed on the arm of the couch, Ray’s head falling onto his chest. The smaller man shifted, getting comfortable before passing out again.

            Michael practically stormed through the front doors of the grocery store, grabbing a basket with a force that almost knocked the stack over. He’d been on his way to work when the ‘incident’ happened. By incident, I mean he got a flat tire. Which, if it wasn’t bad enough in itself, his boss had yelled at him for being late and sent him home for a ‘day off.’ Perfect.

            Instead of moping around the house like he wanted to, he quickly put himself into housework mode, cleaning his whole apartment before heading out to do the shopping he needed to get done. First stop: grocery store.

            The white knuckled grip on the basket handles stayed firmly in place through the vegetable section, only beginning to relax when he reached the frozen foods. Something about the mundane act of shopping could calm him down when he was in the worst of moods.

            The medicine aisles went uneventfully, and the holiday section was easily avoided. He almost had a fight with an old woman over a box of chocolates, but she stormed off quickly and let him have it.

            The cereal aisle was up next, and he moved towards it quickly, happy to have his list almost finished. Setting his basket down next to him, he ignored the man to his right and began pulling black and grey boxes off the shelves, looking them over and trying to figure out what he was in the mood for. It wasn’t long before he was holding a total of six boxes, half of them practically falling out of his arms.

            He groaned as one of them managed to escape his grasp, bouncing to the floor. Dropping the other boxes into his basket, he turned to grab the lonely one. Only to find that it had already been picked up and was being held out to his by the other man. Who was smiling at him.

            Michael tried to avoid eye contact as he reached out, taking the box gingerly and muttering a thank you. His pinkie brushed against the other’s fingers as they pulled away, and Michael didn’t think anything of it until his world exploded.

            He shut his eyes, crying out and reaching blindly forward to balance himself on the store shelf. The world outside of his eyelids was pulsing, and he could feel himself shaking after a little bit. The explosions didn’t let up for a good couple of minutes, and by the time they did, he was scared to open his eyes.

            The color behind his eyelids had changed, going from the regular black to something different. Slowly he inched his eyes open, feeling them instantly going wide as he looked around. The normally white light was now an odd, warm color. The black and grey boxes around him were a shower of color, and the only way he could describe them was with the word “Rainbow”, something he’d heard many times, but never had anything to put to it.

            He finally looked down, noticing that the strange man was staring at him from his seat on the floor. Wait, why was he on the floor? Michael held out a hand, helping the stranger to his feet. Just as they let go, he felt a spark rush from the blonds’ hand to his own. He jumped, looking up into the man’s smiling face.