A Balance of Harmonies: Emil's Day
Mar. 31st, 2012 09:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
frogs_of_warA lady came in right before I was scheduled to leave today and asked if I could make a boutonniere. She said that she didn’t care what it looked like because it was a bit of a joke. She was nervous and bouncy and as I made it, I got the story out of her. She was on her way to her first date with a guy she’d known ten years. She liked him and he liked her, but the timing was never right. Until now.
She found herself uncharacteristically jumpy, so she texted him that she was as nervous as a sixteen year old getting ready for the prom. He replied that he’d just told his friend the same thing. And while driving to the date, she had the idea of buying him the boutonniere. So I spruced it up for her and made it perfect and she was very happy. I hope she had a good time.
Title: Emil’s Day
Series: A Balance of Harmonies (Three)
Status: Chapter sixty-four of quite a few
Genre: m/m romance, drama, city life, businessmen
Rating: R
Content: waking, eating out, breakfast, the lion’s den, a request, rules, a presentation, questions, a child’s tears, a picture, airplanes, a rescue
Length: about 2,300 words
Summary: Emil entertains a crowd. Kurt teaches a lesson. Peregrine dries tiny tears.
Master list
Emil woke up in the easy chair. Both John and Peregrine were asleep. He stood up slowly and put his blanket on top of Peregrine then went into the hall to find the public bathroom. He really needed a shower. He brushed out his hair and washed his face. That would have to do.
He glanced back in the room. They were still sleeping, so he left Peregrine a note and drove to the restaurant where Peregrine had taken him yesterday. The waitress greeted him with a big smile. “I so wish I could make it to your speech today.”
So it was a speech now, not Show and Tell?
“I wanted to be there, but my kids will make it.”
Emil sat down and took the menu. “So, it’s a big deal?”
“It’s the biggest deal in forever.”
“So you wouldn’t mind if I sit here and finished it after I eat?”
If anything the waitress smiled wider. “Be my guest.”
Emil ordered the same food as he’d had yesterday and set to work. If people were going to watch, he’d have to make sure they weren’t watching an epic failure.
--
Peregrine woke and sat up. Mom was on the easy chair with a magazine and Dad was asleep. Where was Emil?
Mom passed Peregrine a note, but before he looked at it, the door opened and Emil walked in, a box in his hands. “I brought breakfast. The nurses say John can have some too.”
Dad opened his eyes. “You’re an angel. I must be in heaven.”
Emil smiled. “You’re welcome.”
He set the box on a chair and lifted out a big clamshell container. “Here, John. Butter and maple syrup?”
“Yes.” Dad held his hands out.
Peregrine moved the bed tray over the bed and helped Dad get the bed more vertical. Dad took a bite of plain pancake as if he were starved for them. “The next best thing to homemade.”
“Thanks.” Emil handed Dad his condiments then Mom her clamshell.
She shook her head. “Peregrine can have it.”
He pressed it into her hands. “I also got him one.”
“What about you?”
Emil grinned. “I ate meat.”
Mom raised her eyebrows and turned to Peregrine. “Do you?”
Peregrine opened his pancake box and shook his head. “Not in almost a decade.”
“Why?”
Peregrine opened the fake butter and spread it onto his pancakes. “It seemed an adult thing to do.”
Mom opened her mouth. Peregrine pointed at her untouched food. “Eat.”
“You better obey him, dear,” Dad brandished a sticky plastic butter knife, “he has quite the sting.”
Peregrine smiled. “Thank you. It will be an insult to Emil if you don’t eat it, and what did you have this morning? A piece of toast?”
Mom looked down.
Peregrine pointed at her food. “Eat. We can talk when we’re done.”
Emil sat beside him on the couch. He looked in need of a cuddle. Peregrine tugged him over until he was leaning on Peregrine’s side. Emil shot him a hot smile. Dad watched them, but didn’t comment. Maybe the lesson was sinking in.
--
Kurt squared his shoulders. He’d taught a class before, he could do it again. He looked in the open classroom door. Kit was still teaching math. Kurt stopped by Andre’s office. The door was open. He knocked anyway. Andre looked up. “Come in, come in. Are you ready to brave the lion’s den a second time?”
Kurt smiled. “I can see why Peregrine works here. The kids get inside your heart.”
Andre nodded then pressed his lips together. “Hunter has agreed to go to the therapist, but he wants you with him.”
Kurt nodded. “I worked it out with Peregrine.”
“But you instead of Keith.” He sighed. “Sometime kids can see what adults can’t or won’t, but sometimes they see what isn’t there. Can you check this out for me? I’d really like to know what he’s scared of.”
Kurt looked out into the courtyard. “I don’t want to break any promises…”
“I know. But if he’s willing to talk in front of you, then he wants you, or at least someone, to hear what he has to say.”
Kurt nodded. “I’m taking him to a friend’s for dinner afterwards.”
They discussed Zan and Autumn in relation to Hunter and to the shelter’s arts program until JJ stuck his head out of the classroom door. “It looks like my students await.”
Andre waved bye and Kurt stride across the courtyard.
JJ glared. “What were you talking about?”
“Boring, grown up stuff.”
“No,” JJ crossed his arms. “You were talking about taking Hunter away from me.”
“You could go too if you liked. Keith has a big house and a bigger heart.”
JJ shrugged and sat at a table. Kit came up and shook Kurt’s hand.
Nick raised his hand. “What are we doing today?”
“Today we are going to learn the rules so we can know when and how to break them.”
“Why do we need to know them if we are just going to break them?”
“Ok, how many here have cross the street against the light or in the middle of a block or anytime you didn’t have a walk signal?”
Most of the hands went up.
“Don’t lie.” Kurt held up his own. “I think everyone has done this. No cars, why not cross?”
The other hands went up.
“Thank you.” He put his hand down. “Do you know why crosswalks exist?”
The blonde Daniel leaned forward. “To keep people safe.”
“Yes, but you are all alive and sitting here, so my guess is that you crossed safely despite crossing against the light and you did that by learning the rhythm and the rules of traffic. Anyone can break a rule in ignorance, but ignorance might get you swashed flat like a bug. Let’s break rules eruditely.”
He had their attention, now he just had to keep it.
--
Emil stood in the gymnasium in front of what might be half the town. He was so glad that Harrison had warned him of the crowd and that Lisa had found a projector and that he’s spent the morning polishing up his presentation and that Peregrine and John had let him practice on them several times.
Mothers, fathers, and grandparents stood in the back, holding babies and toddlers and the front several rows were grade schoolers. These kids were the age his books were aimed at. He took a deep breath and smiled. The children smiled back. And then he showed them how he turned an idea, in this case monkeys, into a draft about the Squirrel Monkey. “I can’t show you what the book looks like because I haven’t written it yet.”
Everyone laughed.
“But this book on Caracals,” he held up one of Lisa’s copies, “looked like this as a draft.”
He showed off a slide of a page with no pictures on it. He was lucky that he’d saved all his drafts. More slides showed how he added pictures and moved things around and then his final version. After that he gave them tips about how to make sure what they found on the internet wasn’t just made up. A lot of people were listening; he didn’t want it to be too short.
“Now,” Peregrine walked up to Emil, “he’ll take question, but only from the kids.”
The adults groaned.
“But we are always open to being invited to dinner.”
The adults laughed. Emil really hoped none of them were going to take Peregrine up on that.
The first two kids asked questions that sounded like they might have been written in class: why he became a writer and how he started. Those were really tender subjects. He tried to tiptoe around the horrors of his youth as gently as possible. He emphasized how young he was when he started and Keith’s encouragement.
But the next kid asked a much simpler question: his favorite animal. “A peregrine.”
The adults laughed loud enough that that had to be explained.
A boy pouted, “I was going to asked, if you could be an animal, what would you be?”
Emil smiled at him. “Well that answer is different. I’d be a monkey. A little one that could hang from its tail like I showed you.”
The boy smiled back. “Me too.”
“Anyone else?”
One of the teachers stepped forward. “We have time for one more.”
The kids groaned. Emil couldn’t believe he was half this interesting.
--
Peregrine spotted a weeping child among the crowd. He got down on his knees. “I think I know you.”
She wiped her eyes, but because she used canes to hold up her braced legs, she leaned down almost double to reach her hands. “I had a question.”
A young man carrying a small boy pulled a tissue from his bag. “Sorry. She was looking forward to asking her question. We told her she might not get to…”
“Let me.” Peregrine took the tissue and wiped the girl’s eyes and her nose and then the wet backs of her hands. “You could wait a moment and ask him here.”
He had to stand up to see Emil in the crowd.
“But,” she sniffed. “I have to go to class.”
“But if your daddy’s name is Tank, we are going to have dinner with you next week.”
She glared up at him. “My daddy isn’t called Tank, my Papa is.”
Peregrine put his hand on his heart and sank to his knees. “I am so sorry for offending you. Your Papa invited us over.”
He grinned up at the young man. “I assume there is still only one Tank in town?”
The young man nodded. “Kali, it’s time for class.”
She held her breath.
Peregrine held up his hand. “Give me a second.”
He got his notebook and came right back. “Would you like a picture?”
Kali, raised her eyebrows. “Of Emil?”
“If you want.”
Kali grinned. “Yes!”
He didn’t have time to draw her one. A teacher was already staring daggers at him. Kali’s daddy turned around. “Go on ahead; we’ll follow in a moment.”
The teacher nodded. Peregrine opened his notebook to a sketch of Emil at the beginning of his presentation. Kali reached out her hand. “Can I?”
Peregrine ripped it out and handed it over.
Kali shivered with joy. “Daddy, Daddy, keep it safe for me.”
Her daddy took it. Peregrine hopped up. “Would you like to be an airplane?”
“Yes! Yes! I love being an airplane.”
Peregrine picked her up carefully and tucked her canes under his arm. “You better steer. I don’t know where I’m going.”
He zoomed her down the hall and got her to her classroom and desk at the same time as the others. Then he went back to Tank’s husband and put out his hand. “Sorry I didn’t introduce myself. I’m weak to children’s tears. Peregrine Jones.”
The man passed the sketch to the hand holding the toddler and then had to hold it away from him to keep it out of the baby’s reach. “Safron Blume and this is Knox.”
“Hello, Knox. You look like you’re getting heavy.” He took the child from Safron’s arms. “And how are you today?”
The baby smiled at him. He grinned back.
Safron glanced at the sketch of Emil one last time before sliding it carefully into his bag. “You could have gotten some attention with these.”
“I have all the attention I need and today is Emil’s day. Has Tank talked to you about us coming over?”
Knox reached towards Peregrine’s decked out ears. He applied evasive maneuvers. Knox giggled.
“Next week?”
“Late week might be best. The papers Emil is going home to sign should be ready by Monday.”
Saffron smiled. “I’ve heard that before. Thursday?”
“That’s works for me. Come with me as I rescue my lover. He looks like he needs my help.” Peregrine flew Knox, complete with airplane noises to Emil. “This is Tank’s little boy. Come meet Daddy.”
He yanked Emil from the center of the group. Safron laughed. “I can see why Tank likes you so much.”
Peregrine passed Safron back the baby. “He was a lot of fun too. Emil, this is Safron.”
Safron shook Emil’s hand. “Almost everyone calls me Saf, but I thought I better get the Safron Blume out of the way as soon as possible.”
Emil smiled. “My books say Emilio Rainwater, but I go by Emil Bonsa-Faie.”
Safron frowned and looked at Peregrine. “But that’s not your name.”
Peregrine shook his head. “We aren’t married or even Domestic Partnered. He started writing as a teenager before he was adopted.”
Now Saf looked more interested. “You’re adopted?”
“At eighteen to give me someplace to complain about going to on holidays, Dad says.”
Saf nodded. “Peregrine gave Kali one of his pictures.”
“Aren’t they beautiful? I’m so lucky to be with a guy like him.”
Saf’s smile widened. “It was a picture of you.”
Emil blushed.
“And I could tell by looking at it that he really loved you.”
“Thank you.” Peregrine wrapped his arms around Emil. Emil buried his face against the side of Peregrine’s neck. Peregrine’s beautiful lover was so cute when he was shy.
She found herself uncharacteristically jumpy, so she texted him that she was as nervous as a sixteen year old getting ready for the prom. He replied that he’d just told his friend the same thing. And while driving to the date, she had the idea of buying him the boutonniere. So I spruced it up for her and made it perfect and she was very happy. I hope she had a good time.
Title: Emil’s Day
Series: A Balance of Harmonies (Three)
Status: Chapter sixty-four of quite a few
Genre: m/m romance, drama, city life, businessmen
Rating: R
Content: waking, eating out, breakfast, the lion’s den, a request, rules, a presentation, questions, a child’s tears, a picture, airplanes, a rescue
Length: about 2,300 words
Summary: Emil entertains a crowd. Kurt teaches a lesson. Peregrine dries tiny tears.
Master list
Emil woke up in the easy chair. Both John and Peregrine were asleep. He stood up slowly and put his blanket on top of Peregrine then went into the hall to find the public bathroom. He really needed a shower. He brushed out his hair and washed his face. That would have to do.
He glanced back in the room. They were still sleeping, so he left Peregrine a note and drove to the restaurant where Peregrine had taken him yesterday. The waitress greeted him with a big smile. “I so wish I could make it to your speech today.”
So it was a speech now, not Show and Tell?
“I wanted to be there, but my kids will make it.”
Emil sat down and took the menu. “So, it’s a big deal?”
“It’s the biggest deal in forever.”
“So you wouldn’t mind if I sit here and finished it after I eat?”
If anything the waitress smiled wider. “Be my guest.”
Emil ordered the same food as he’d had yesterday and set to work. If people were going to watch, he’d have to make sure they weren’t watching an epic failure.
--
Peregrine woke and sat up. Mom was on the easy chair with a magazine and Dad was asleep. Where was Emil?
Mom passed Peregrine a note, but before he looked at it, the door opened and Emil walked in, a box in his hands. “I brought breakfast. The nurses say John can have some too.”
Dad opened his eyes. “You’re an angel. I must be in heaven.”
Emil smiled. “You’re welcome.”
He set the box on a chair and lifted out a big clamshell container. “Here, John. Butter and maple syrup?”
“Yes.” Dad held his hands out.
Peregrine moved the bed tray over the bed and helped Dad get the bed more vertical. Dad took a bite of plain pancake as if he were starved for them. “The next best thing to homemade.”
“Thanks.” Emil handed Dad his condiments then Mom her clamshell.
She shook her head. “Peregrine can have it.”
He pressed it into her hands. “I also got him one.”
“What about you?”
Emil grinned. “I ate meat.”
Mom raised her eyebrows and turned to Peregrine. “Do you?”
Peregrine opened his pancake box and shook his head. “Not in almost a decade.”
“Why?”
Peregrine opened the fake butter and spread it onto his pancakes. “It seemed an adult thing to do.”
Mom opened her mouth. Peregrine pointed at her untouched food. “Eat.”
“You better obey him, dear,” Dad brandished a sticky plastic butter knife, “he has quite the sting.”
Peregrine smiled. “Thank you. It will be an insult to Emil if you don’t eat it, and what did you have this morning? A piece of toast?”
Mom looked down.
Peregrine pointed at her food. “Eat. We can talk when we’re done.”
Emil sat beside him on the couch. He looked in need of a cuddle. Peregrine tugged him over until he was leaning on Peregrine’s side. Emil shot him a hot smile. Dad watched them, but didn’t comment. Maybe the lesson was sinking in.
--
Kurt squared his shoulders. He’d taught a class before, he could do it again. He looked in the open classroom door. Kit was still teaching math. Kurt stopped by Andre’s office. The door was open. He knocked anyway. Andre looked up. “Come in, come in. Are you ready to brave the lion’s den a second time?”
Kurt smiled. “I can see why Peregrine works here. The kids get inside your heart.”
Andre nodded then pressed his lips together. “Hunter has agreed to go to the therapist, but he wants you with him.”
Kurt nodded. “I worked it out with Peregrine.”
“But you instead of Keith.” He sighed. “Sometime kids can see what adults can’t or won’t, but sometimes they see what isn’t there. Can you check this out for me? I’d really like to know what he’s scared of.”
Kurt looked out into the courtyard. “I don’t want to break any promises…”
“I know. But if he’s willing to talk in front of you, then he wants you, or at least someone, to hear what he has to say.”
Kurt nodded. “I’m taking him to a friend’s for dinner afterwards.”
They discussed Zan and Autumn in relation to Hunter and to the shelter’s arts program until JJ stuck his head out of the classroom door. “It looks like my students await.”
Andre waved bye and Kurt stride across the courtyard.
JJ glared. “What were you talking about?”
“Boring, grown up stuff.”
“No,” JJ crossed his arms. “You were talking about taking Hunter away from me.”
“You could go too if you liked. Keith has a big house and a bigger heart.”
JJ shrugged and sat at a table. Kit came up and shook Kurt’s hand.
Nick raised his hand. “What are we doing today?”
“Today we are going to learn the rules so we can know when and how to break them.”
“Why do we need to know them if we are just going to break them?”
“Ok, how many here have cross the street against the light or in the middle of a block or anytime you didn’t have a walk signal?”
Most of the hands went up.
“Don’t lie.” Kurt held up his own. “I think everyone has done this. No cars, why not cross?”
The other hands went up.
“Thank you.” He put his hand down. “Do you know why crosswalks exist?”
The blonde Daniel leaned forward. “To keep people safe.”
“Yes, but you are all alive and sitting here, so my guess is that you crossed safely despite crossing against the light and you did that by learning the rhythm and the rules of traffic. Anyone can break a rule in ignorance, but ignorance might get you swashed flat like a bug. Let’s break rules eruditely.”
He had their attention, now he just had to keep it.
--
Emil stood in the gymnasium in front of what might be half the town. He was so glad that Harrison had warned him of the crowd and that Lisa had found a projector and that he’s spent the morning polishing up his presentation and that Peregrine and John had let him practice on them several times.
Mothers, fathers, and grandparents stood in the back, holding babies and toddlers and the front several rows were grade schoolers. These kids were the age his books were aimed at. He took a deep breath and smiled. The children smiled back. And then he showed them how he turned an idea, in this case monkeys, into a draft about the Squirrel Monkey. “I can’t show you what the book looks like because I haven’t written it yet.”
Everyone laughed.
“But this book on Caracals,” he held up one of Lisa’s copies, “looked like this as a draft.”
He showed off a slide of a page with no pictures on it. He was lucky that he’d saved all his drafts. More slides showed how he added pictures and moved things around and then his final version. After that he gave them tips about how to make sure what they found on the internet wasn’t just made up. A lot of people were listening; he didn’t want it to be too short.
“Now,” Peregrine walked up to Emil, “he’ll take question, but only from the kids.”
The adults groaned.
“But we are always open to being invited to dinner.”
The adults laughed. Emil really hoped none of them were going to take Peregrine up on that.
The first two kids asked questions that sounded like they might have been written in class: why he became a writer and how he started. Those were really tender subjects. He tried to tiptoe around the horrors of his youth as gently as possible. He emphasized how young he was when he started and Keith’s encouragement.
But the next kid asked a much simpler question: his favorite animal. “A peregrine.”
The adults laughed loud enough that that had to be explained.
A boy pouted, “I was going to asked, if you could be an animal, what would you be?”
Emil smiled at him. “Well that answer is different. I’d be a monkey. A little one that could hang from its tail like I showed you.”
The boy smiled back. “Me too.”
“Anyone else?”
One of the teachers stepped forward. “We have time for one more.”
The kids groaned. Emil couldn’t believe he was half this interesting.
--
Peregrine spotted a weeping child among the crowd. He got down on his knees. “I think I know you.”
She wiped her eyes, but because she used canes to hold up her braced legs, she leaned down almost double to reach her hands. “I had a question.”
A young man carrying a small boy pulled a tissue from his bag. “Sorry. She was looking forward to asking her question. We told her she might not get to…”
“Let me.” Peregrine took the tissue and wiped the girl’s eyes and her nose and then the wet backs of her hands. “You could wait a moment and ask him here.”
He had to stand up to see Emil in the crowd.
“But,” she sniffed. “I have to go to class.”
“But if your daddy’s name is Tank, we are going to have dinner with you next week.”
She glared up at him. “My daddy isn’t called Tank, my Papa is.”
Peregrine put his hand on his heart and sank to his knees. “I am so sorry for offending you. Your Papa invited us over.”
He grinned up at the young man. “I assume there is still only one Tank in town?”
The young man nodded. “Kali, it’s time for class.”
She held her breath.
Peregrine held up his hand. “Give me a second.”
He got his notebook and came right back. “Would you like a picture?”
Kali, raised her eyebrows. “Of Emil?”
“If you want.”
Kali grinned. “Yes!”
He didn’t have time to draw her one. A teacher was already staring daggers at him. Kali’s daddy turned around. “Go on ahead; we’ll follow in a moment.”
The teacher nodded. Peregrine opened his notebook to a sketch of Emil at the beginning of his presentation. Kali reached out her hand. “Can I?”
Peregrine ripped it out and handed it over.
Kali shivered with joy. “Daddy, Daddy, keep it safe for me.”
Her daddy took it. Peregrine hopped up. “Would you like to be an airplane?”
“Yes! Yes! I love being an airplane.”
Peregrine picked her up carefully and tucked her canes under his arm. “You better steer. I don’t know where I’m going.”
He zoomed her down the hall and got her to her classroom and desk at the same time as the others. Then he went back to Tank’s husband and put out his hand. “Sorry I didn’t introduce myself. I’m weak to children’s tears. Peregrine Jones.”
The man passed the sketch to the hand holding the toddler and then had to hold it away from him to keep it out of the baby’s reach. “Safron Blume and this is Knox.”
“Hello, Knox. You look like you’re getting heavy.” He took the child from Safron’s arms. “And how are you today?”
The baby smiled at him. He grinned back.
Safron glanced at the sketch of Emil one last time before sliding it carefully into his bag. “You could have gotten some attention with these.”
“I have all the attention I need and today is Emil’s day. Has Tank talked to you about us coming over?”
Knox reached towards Peregrine’s decked out ears. He applied evasive maneuvers. Knox giggled.
“Next week?”
“Late week might be best. The papers Emil is going home to sign should be ready by Monday.”
Saffron smiled. “I’ve heard that before. Thursday?”
“That’s works for me. Come with me as I rescue my lover. He looks like he needs my help.” Peregrine flew Knox, complete with airplane noises to Emil. “This is Tank’s little boy. Come meet Daddy.”
He yanked Emil from the center of the group. Safron laughed. “I can see why Tank likes you so much.”
Peregrine passed Safron back the baby. “He was a lot of fun too. Emil, this is Safron.”
Safron shook Emil’s hand. “Almost everyone calls me Saf, but I thought I better get the Safron Blume out of the way as soon as possible.”
Emil smiled. “My books say Emilio Rainwater, but I go by Emil Bonsa-Faie.”
Safron frowned and looked at Peregrine. “But that’s not your name.”
Peregrine shook his head. “We aren’t married or even Domestic Partnered. He started writing as a teenager before he was adopted.”
Now Saf looked more interested. “You’re adopted?”
“At eighteen to give me someplace to complain about going to on holidays, Dad says.”
Saf nodded. “Peregrine gave Kali one of his pictures.”
“Aren’t they beautiful? I’m so lucky to be with a guy like him.”
Saf’s smile widened. “It was a picture of you.”
Emil blushed.
“And I could tell by looking at it that he really loved you.”
“Thank you.” Peregrine wrapped his arms around Emil. Emil buried his face against the side of Peregrine’s neck. Peregrine’s beautiful lover was so cute when he was shy.
