Sugar Cubes

Date/Timing: 10 June 2010
Setting: Edan's family home; Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Some inspiration from a prompt.
.
Hermann is awake.
""~crystal palaces for floral kings~"" sings a quiet voice.
He opens his eyes.
"~a well-known waving span of wings~"
Edan, in only his pajama bottoms, sings that Wire number whose title Hermann can never remember—
"~witness the sinking of the sun~" 
—with morning light bleeding through the room's net curtains, giving him a silvery aura.
Hermann swallows.
"~a deep breath of submission has begun~" Edan combs his hair at the mirror, artfully ruffling it.
Hermann buries a smile in his pillow.
""~interrupting my train of thought~""
Rustling as hands paw through a suitcase.
Hermann peeks out.
"~lines of longitude and latitude~"
Edan straightens from a crouch, shirt and trousers in hand. "~define, refine my altitudes~"
"You know," drawls Hermann, "most people dress, /then fix their hair."
Edan sparkles around. "Well, I'm not 'most people' now, am I?"
Hermann's heart and wings flutter. "Why you don't like to sing in public, I'll never understand. Your voice is lovely."
Edan grins, scoffs, "You've got your boyfriend goggles on, mate. I squeak like a cartoon character."
"These goggles are why I find you obscenely handsome, then?"
"Yea, definitely," says Edan, blushing fiercely from his hairline down across his chest.
"I beg to disagree and I would like to admire you at closer range."
"You're farsighted. Won't getting closer make me blurry?"
"Just get over here," huffs Hermann, shuffling to make more room, lifting a wing out of the way.
Edan laughs, eases himself to the mattress, and wiggles into place tight against Hermann's side.
Hermann kisses Edan's temple, drapes a wing across his back.
"Easy with the dusters," he giggles. "Ye know how ticklish I am."
"Yes. Yes, I do." And Hermann draaaaaags his primaries along Edan's side.
Edan squeak-squawk-squirms.
So Hermann does it again.
"E-/nough! Please!" Edan squeals.
Hermann relents, stretches the wing so his feathers are no longer a torment.
"Thanks," wheezes Edan. "You are a lovely fuckin' bastard."
Hermann only nuzzles his hair.
"Is this what I should expect for the rest of my life?"
"Mmhmm."
"Good." Edan kisses just below Hermann's ear. "I'm looking forward to it."
Hermann hums.
Edan snuggles closer. "Is there anything you'd like to do today?"
"We need to go shopping."
"Why's that?"
"I believe you need a ring."
"Really?"
"Mhm. I was thinking of something with a diamond the size of a sugar cube."
Edan makes a face.
"Too ostentatious?"
"Diamonds are for /girls," he sniffs.
Hermann rolls his eyes.
"Now, a hunk of /moldavite the size of a sugar cube and you're onto something."
"Glass? You want to wear glass?"
"Glass full of /stardust, Hermann."
"/Everything on Earth is technically made of stardust, Edan."
"Oh no, you don't get to Carl Sagan your way out of this." Huffs. "You give me gaudy jewelry, it'd better be gaudy jewelry I love."
Hermann huffs, exasperated. "Where, pray tell, am I going to find a ring like that?"
"Two words: the internet."
With a sigh, "Here I was looking forward to peering into display cases in dusty little shops full of curiosities."
"Why do that when you could spend a day cuddling in bed with your new, decidedly /un-dusty fiancé?" Edan bats his eyelashes.
"You have a very good point ...."
Edan sighs contently.
"Can you hand me my mobile?"
"Work work work ...." Edan stretches ... leans ... scrabbles ...  nabs it with his fingertips and passes it to Hermann. "You're asking Paige for help, yea?"
"You're convinced she's my daughter, so why /shouldn't she have a say in this?"
Edan glows, coos, "I love you both." Lunges—
Hermann yelps, wings beating frantically.
—for his suitcase, digs about.
"What're you—"
Edan makes a triumphant noise, returns to snuggling with Lupe tucked under his chin.
"You brought the wolf."
"My little girl needs to meet her family," pouts Edan, "and she deserves a say on her dad's ring."
Hermann rolls his eyes. 
/PAIGE: Good morning, Hermann.
/PAIGE: How may I help you?
/hermann_g: Good morning, Paige.
/hermann_g: Please locate a selection of 
"Silver or gold?"
"Either."
/hermann_g: Please locate a selection of men's rings set with moldavite stones
"Unfaceted, please," interjects Edan. "I like the natural look."
/hermann_g: Please locate a selection of men's rings set with unfaceted moldavite stones available for purchase.
/PAIGE: This will take a moment. Please be patient.
"She's /ridiculously well-mannered for a five-month-old."
"She's /software."
"She's my soon-to-be stepdaughter."
"Bonkers," mutters Hermann.
The mobile /pings.
/PAIGE: Initial research indicates rings are sold in a variety of sizes.
/PAIGE: For what size do you wish me to search?
"Followup questions?!"
"She's just narrowing search parameters according to a set algorithm."
"It's a bloody followup question!" Bumps Hermann's shoulder. "She'll be asking 'why?' before you know it."
Hermann rolls his eyes. 
"They grow up so fast."
"What ring size do you need?"
"Dunno."
"You don't—" Hermann suppresses the urge to brain him with the mobile, does whack him in the back of the head with a wing. "How am I supposed to order one if you don't know the size?!"
"We can have it re-fitted at a jeweler's, right?
Hermann growls.
/hermann_g: Please return rings with sizes in the middle 50% of the sizes available.
/PAIGE: As you wish.
"Aww ... she loves you."
"She taught herself that."
"/Really? That's so—"
"I programmed her to say it to mess with your head."
"Lovely. Fuckin'. /Bastard." Nuzzles Lupe. "Isn't he something, sweet-sweet?" 
A chime from Hermann's mobile.
/PAIGE: I have located 182 rings meeting your requirements.
/PAIGE: In what order shall I display them?
/hermann_g: Please sort the results by price, beginning with the most expensive.
/PAIGE: Yes, sir.
PAIGE's window is replaced with one displaying a long column of thumbnail images.
Hermann passes the mobile to Edan.
"Thanks." He attends the screen, scrolling slowly through the options.
Hermann watches, warm glow settling in the center of his chest, smile playing around his mouth, and his fingers idly caressing his ring.
"What're you thinking?"
"I'm thinking about how much I love you, about how beautiful you are, about how other people see you, with real colours."
Edan looks over, gaze low. "I'm over the moon about the first, still think you're mistaken on the second, and am pretty sure you're not missing much on the last."
"Why do you /insist on deflecting praise?"
Edan turns back to the mobile and his swiping. "Because you lay it on too thick. I'm not as special as you think." A crooked smile. "I'm just lucky I got to you before anyone else."
Hermann prods the side of Edan's head. "You're forgetting the fact /you're the one I desperately /wanted to approach me from the first time I set eyes on you. Out of all the people in Manchester and I wanted you and /only you." Leans closer, whispers in his ear. "Why else would I agree to marry you, /leannan?"
Edan bows his head, wipes away the start of a tear.
Hermann wraps an arm around his shoulders, a wing across his middle. 
"Thank you," Edan croaks, eyes firmly on the mobile screen.
Hermann sighs, "Someday this will get through your thick Scottish skull."
"Maybe someday."
"Hopeless."
"Yea." Edan passes back the mobile. "That's the one I like."
"It's lovely." Hermann pokes through the order, while Edan buries his face in Lupe's fur. "I'm having it sent to you—"
"Send it to yourself and you can present it properly when you visit."
"That's a much better plan." Hermann makes the corrections—"Done."—closes the window, and recalls PAIGE.
/hermann_g: Thank you, Paige.
/PAIGE: You're welcome, Hermann.
/PAIGE: What shall I do next, sir?
/hermann_g: Please put yourself in research mode until battery life falls to 50%.
/PAIGE: Yes, sir.
/hermann_g: Thank you, Paige.
/PAIGE: Entering research mode.
The screen powers down.
"So ... that's sorted." Hermann tosses the mobile in the direction of the dresser.
It clatters to the floor.
"What do you want to do now?"
"I have a few ideas."
"Such as?"
"Cuddling, for a start."
"Only for a start?" Edan teases.
Hermann thumps him again with a wing.
Category:Ficlet
Category:Glasgow (setting)
Category:Hermann
Category:Hermann's POV
Category:Hermann (ficlet)
Category:Hermann has wings
Category:Edan
Category:Edan (ficlet)
Category:PAIGE
Category:PAIGE (ficlet)
Category:Ficlets with images
Category:Conversations via SMS
Category:CM: Meeting the Reids