The skies were bright and clear. It was a light purple today with only a few clouds, none of which were the Glow Cloud (all hail). Cecil Palmer woke up cheerful and gearing for a wonderful day in his beloved town. But first, he wanted to see his beloved scientist. Cecil turned on the bed, but instead of seeing his beautiful, imperfect Carlos, he spotted a note lying on the pillow.
"Cecil, had to leave for the lab early today. Sorry I didn't wake you, but I thought you could use the sleep. I'll catch your show later and see you for our date tonight. Have a good day. Carlos"
The radio broadcaster smiled softly, setting the note on the bedside table. While he had been looking forward to seeing his boyfriend this morning, he understood his Science was important, and sometimes the other scientists couldn't handle things without Carlos. Plus, it was very thoughtful of Carlos to let him sleep in today. He got up and headed for the kitchen, needing his coffee before anything else. Once there, Cecil headed for the cupboard, opening it up and searching for the coffee. An eyebrow rose curiously upon seeing the empty shelf. Cecil searched the entire kitchen, but no coffee was found.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flicker of movement near the fridge. He looked and found another note. It was written on the fridge door in tomato jelly, which was weird since neither he nor Carlos had ever obtained any tomato jelly.
"You're out of coffee. Also, there will be more Pay-Per-View bills this month than usual."
Cecil sighed then thanked the Faceless Old Woman for the note. He had to admit: the Faceless Old Woman running up the bills was majorly deterring him from voting for her. Maybe he could grab some coffee on his way to work. He headed back for the bedroom and opened the door. Or at least, he tried to. The door wouldn't budge.
"What in the world?" He tried jiggling the knob, pushing against the door, tugging with all his might. That just landed him on his back when his hands slipped. Another message appeared on the wall, still in tomato jelly.
"The spiders decided to take over your room for the day."
"But I need to get in there," Cecil tried to tell the spiders. "I need to shower and change out of my pajamas." He tried for another half hour to get into his room before giving up. He could go without a shower for now, and maybe there were some clean clothes in the laundry. The only clean clothes he could find were Carlos's, which he didn't mind so much if they actually fit him. Carlos was taller and had broader shoulders, so his clothes tended to hang slightly off Cecil's frame. But, it was either this or his pajamas. So Cecil tucked the green flannel shirt into the pants, shoved the pants legs into his shoes, and dawned a lab coat. The lab coat wasn't exactly necessary, but it didn't seem right without it. He was sure Carlos wouldn't mind.
Cecil was a little frustrated when he left the house, but he was still determined to have a nice day. He headed for the station with the thought to grab some Starbucks and a few more non-glowing clouds drifting into town.
Cecil's day was anything but nice. The Starbucks had been taken over by hooded figures, so no coffee in the morning. Then, when he got to the station, management piled loads of work on top of him, since no new interns had arrived yet. The radio personality had to make the daily sacrifices, clean his studio from yesterday's freak indoor-mud storm, cue the pre-recorded segments for the day's show, relocate the snakes from the closet to the cupboard, pick out the weather, replenish the bloodstone circle, and do the fieldwork for the remaining news segments.
The mud soaked into his (Carlos's) pants. He had to give the snakes his (his) right shoe before they agreed to moving into the cupboard (why they wanted his shoe was a question for another day). Station Management kept interrupting him with corrections to the exact same announcement. When he visited Khoshehk, he hadn't realized the cat was in a grumpy mood today. His left hand paid the price for that. Then he went out for the fieldwork.
The skies were considerably cloudier as he went around gathering stories. His mobile equipment refused to follow him willingly, trying to run after squirrels or armed birds. That mocking jay's rail-gun nearly took him and the equipment out! When he finally did get to the elementary school for the story on the Glow Cloud's (all hail) new soybean policy, the Glow Cloud (all hail) started raining down bloody camel carcasses. By the time he was done with the story, Cecil's ankle was twisted and the camel blood ruined the lab coat! Carlos was going to be so upset, maybe even mad.
Clouds now completely covering the sky, Cecil returned to the station disgusting, sore, and so put off, that if he were an actual scientist, he would be a mad scientist. As it were, he was just a mad sort-of scientist. When it was time to do the show, Cecil's heart just wasn't in it. He spoke each story half-heartedly. He couldn't find it in himself to even give more than a grumble when Steve emailed him with another theory about the clock tower. During the weather, when Old Woman Josie called to ask if he was okay, he just mumbled a 'bad day' before hanging up. The moment his show ended, the radio host packed it in and headed home for his date with Carlos.
Remembering the date, Cecil perked up a little bit. He still had his date tonight, and there was no way he was going to let a bad day spoil it for him or his Carlos. He stopped by the Ralph's to get some things for dinner. His steps were more determined when he walked inside their home. Cecil went into the kitchen and deposited the ingredients where he needed them. He didn't cook much, having a habit of botching things up in the kitchen. But the few things he could cook, he cooked wonderfully, and he was set on making dinner for his boyfriend.
He set the tomato sauce to warm while breaded chicken breasts coated in cheese baked in the oven. He pulled out a loaf of gluten-free potato bread and covered the slices in garlic butter and cheese, before placing them on a tray beside the chicken. Chicken Parmesan was the meal he was best at making, and Carlos loved it when he made it. This was just the sort of meal needed for tonight.
A steady rain began a pitter-patter on the house. Carlos would be home anytime, and dinner was just about ready. The blonde opened the oven and reached for the cheesy chicken. Suddenly, a deafening explosion shook the house. Cecil screamed, flinging the baking sheet in his shock. The chicken fell to the floor, the sheet landed on the pot's handle, sending tomato sauce everywhere.
"Cecil! Ceece, I'm home!" Carlos called from the front door. The scientist walked into the kitchen. "Ceece?" He stopped in the doorway, his mouth falling open, and his eyes growing wide. The kitchen was a mess, but that wasn't his immediate concern. His boyfriend stood in front of the oven. His pants (Carlos's?) were muddy, his shirt (Carlos's?) was covered in a red sauce, his lab coat (definitely Carlos's) was stained with blood, and his beautiful purple eyes were flooding with tears. "Cecil? What happened?" Cecil lost it.
"C-Carlos..." he sobbed. His love was across the room and holding him tight in a second. The radio broadcaster held onto him and cried. "Carlos... I-I had such an aw-awful daaaay!" he wailed. "We ran out of coffee! The spiders took over our bedroom! I had to borrow your clothes! A-a-and hooded figures overran Starbucks! And... and-" Cecil continued to cry and tell the scientist of his horrible day, occasionally stuttering out an apology for the ruined clothing. Carlos just listened, cooing softly and rubbing his back. "Then the thunder scared me, and everything went to hell! I just... I just wanted the date to-to go so well, and... It's raining and it's all so w-wrong, and-and..."
When Cecil mentioned the rain, Carlos looked out the window. It was grey and pouring, and suddenly, something clicked in the scientist's mind. Cecil was still sobbing when he suddenly couldn't feel the floor beneath his feet. He gasped and wrapped his arms securely around Carlos's neck, wondering what else was possibly going wrong. It was then he realized that his boyfriend had picked him up and was carrying him bridal style towards the door.
"Carlos?" The scientist said nothing as he carefully opened the door and stepped out into the rain. "Carlos! What are you doing? We're going to get soaked!" He was paid no mind as he was carried out to the front lawn then gently set back on his feet. "Why in the world are we- mm!" Cecil was cut off as Carlos cupped his face in his hands and brought him in for a searing kiss. The blonde was utterly shocked, staring wide-eyed at his love as the rain pelted them. Carlos didn't let up, holding him tenderly as he poured every ounce of passion into the kiss. Soon, Cecil found himself melting (metaphorically, thank goodness). He brought his hands up to his scientist's perfect hair, closed his eyes, and returned the kiss in full force.
There they stayed for a long while, glasses fogged, clothes drenched, and kissing each other breathless. Minutes went by before they pulled away, panting slightly to catch their breath. They smiled, resting their foreheads against each other. After a moment of silence, Carlos pressed a light kiss to the tip of Cecil's nose.
"You love romances. You love to read them, watch them. I've even seen you start to write one. I know you absolutely love to experience them. And one scene you see time and again without ever getting tired of it, is a couple kissing in the rain." Cecil's smile brightened when he made the connection, when he realized what Carlos had done for him. "I know you had a bad day. Particularly awful, actually. But I want you to know that no matter how bad your day gets, I will always do whatever I can to make it better. Because I love to see you happy. ... Because I love you."
"Oh Carlos." Tears streamed down the radio host's face, mixing with the raindrops. But these were tears of joy, happiness, and love. "I love you too." Cecil leaned forward and kissed his boyfriend. Carlos smiled as he kissed him back.
They spent the next fifteen minutes kissing in the rain before they decided it was time to head back inside. They found the kitchen near spotless with another tomato jelly note from the Faceless Old Woman saying she had cleaned up as a thanks for the Pay-Per-View. After reasoning with the spiders, a warm shower with fluffy towels, and a change into pajamas, Carlos scraped together some remaining sauce with the intact garlic bread to make mini pizzas. He and Cecil sat on the couch with their pizzas, a fuzzy blanket, and a Firefly marathon on Netflix. Cecil rested his head on Carlos's shoulder, and Carlos rested his head on Cecil's. After a few hours, they fell asleep cuddling on the couch, the clouds long gone, and the stars shining against the void. The day had been incredibly awful, but it ended absolutely perfect.