"Come on, Carlos!" Cecil called as he waited anxiously by the door. "We're gonna be late!"
"Cecil," Carlos said calmly as he walked into the kitchen. "It's not even dark outside yet."
Without a rebuttal, Cecil crossed his arms with a huff. Carlos smiled and walked up to his boyfriend, kissing him on the nose gently.
"Sorry, Ceec. You'll just have to be patient." At this, Cecil's face softened.
"How long until we leave?" he asked. Carlos looked at his watch.
"About an hour," he told him. "Would you like to watch some T.V. while we wait?"
Cecil agreed and followed Carlos to the sofa, leaning against his shoulder when they sat down and chose a show. Even though Cecil was still anxious to go see the fireworks, he sat calmly until Carlos announced that it would be completely dark very soon. But as soon as he said it, Cecil jumped off of the couch, pulled Carlos to his feet, and dragged him to the door.
"Okay, Ceec!" Carlos chuckled. "Let's go see some fireworks!" he said as he followed his excitable boyfriend out the door, locking it behind him.
By the time that they got to the City Hall, it was already pretty dark, but it still looked like they would have to wait a little while longer. They walked partway up the steps and sat down together, just talking until it was time for the fireworks to start.
When they finally did begin, Cecil was not-so-pleasantly surprised. At the sound of the first Boom! Cecil jumped.
"Cecil?" Carlos asked as he watched his boyfriend close his eyes. "They're just testing a few before they actually begin. What's wrong?"
Cecil opened his eyes and looked at Carlos. "They're very loud," he said softly. Right after he said this, another firework shot into the air and exploded, making much the same noise. Cecil yelped and clung to Carlos's lab coat.
Carlos took a moment to figure out what to do. Neither he nor Cecil wanted to miss the fireworks and it would take too long to walk somewhere farther away.
"Here," Carlos said, coming up with an idea. He pushed himself up one more step and repositioned himself right behind Cecil, letting his legs fall to either side of him. Then, he covered Cecil's ears with his hands. And not a moment too soon.
As Cecil looked up, confused, and tried to turn around to see Carlos, the latter saw another firework burst overhead. But this time, Cecil didn't jump or cry out or anything. In fact, he didn't even notice it.
Carlos quickly uncovered one ear and said, "There. Now you can't hear them, but you can still see them."
Cecil smiled and leaned back against Carlos's chest, turning back to watch the display happily.
Person A hates how loud fireworks are. Person B covers Person A's ears while they watch.
