Somewhere in a lazy neighborhood on a particularly fresh and tasty night, hamburgers on a grill sizzled to the heat of the charcoals underneath wafting in the summer night air. Their smoke rose up to the cloudy sky, which spread like a blanket over Bluey's house. From afar, anyone in the area could see the smoke and could smell the meaty savor of the burgers. From close-up, a pair of metal tongs would frequently appear and clasp around each patty with practiced ease to flip it and sear each side to a more darkened texture. Below them, grease constantly fell between the cracks and crackled on the hot coals.
From the side of the barbecue pit, a pair of big bright orange eyes blinked wide open to watch the scene through the eager viewpoint of a little Lurido, who'd been standing high up on a booster stool to watch his mother cook. He would constantly lick his lips with each sniff he took; the aroma of the delicious beef patties struck his hunger just right. His saliva increased to the point he basically slavered it and had to swallow it back down in large gulps. He wanted a burger SOOO bad right now, but his mother had repeated to him over and over: “Just a few more minutes.”
Well those minutes felt like HOURS to the poor youngling. The four year old was hungry there and now!
“They ready yet?” he asked again with a petulant frown.
The older Lurido only chuckled as he looked at his young child, “Egan, you can keep on asking, dear, but it does not speed things up. I have to cook some for everyone before you can get one, okay?”
“But I want one nooooooooow,” Egan moaned as he leaned in further toward the grill, bouncing his seat up and down a bit.
“Now now,” simply stated the older Lurido as he gently reached over and picked him up easily to seat him in one arm, his other arm checking the burgers on their new side while he spoke, “Patience is a virtue dear, things are better if you can wait for them.”
Egan could only sulk out of reach of the burgers, his fire tail wagging hastily due to his want for one. Lucius paid this no mind, relaxing as the burgers kept on sizzling and keeping his attention well focused.
“Mama Lucius?” asked Egan after several seconds, looking at him with a pouty face, “Could I at least have a nibble?”
Lucius sighed as he glanced at Egan, but then something else caught his eye. He looked off into the distance at their nearby tree. Egan turned to look as well but Lucius suddenly walked to the slide door at the back of the house.
Lucius slid the door open and called in, “Hey B. D.? Come watch the burgers real quick please.”
Without even waiting for a response to his plea, Lucius slid the door shut and walked out into the backyard towards the big tree with Egan kept close in hand.
“Mama, where we going?” inquired the curious little creature, his formerly irksome face now staring back with a higher degree of curiosity as Lucius, now smiling broadly, continued toward the tree.
“I think I see something that will take your mind off your hunger just for a bit.”
Egan tilted his head in confusion as Lucius finally arrived at the base of the tree and set his son down. “Now, wait here for just a sec, sweetie.”
With those words, he bent down and jumped high into the air, his skilled fingers easily clasping around the first branch to pull himself up. Blinking at this display of the Lurido's natural climbing skills, Egan nearly missed the sight of his mother vanishing into the abyss of the tree, whose branches slowly started to bob around as Lucius moved about within.
“Mama?” Egan cried out with a quaver, now worried his Mama had gone crazy...
Suddenly the entire tree top shook wildly, brushing leaves heavily against one another as they rustled and spilled down from the intense quaking. Egan jumped up and nearly scampered back, more than a little spooked...but the immediate result of this action left him even more awestruck! Swooping around him now were nearly a hundred fireflies, their bulbous bottoms lit up and blinking as they hovered rapidly around the tree from which their rest had been disturbed. Some would even land on Egan and continue their little light show!
Being the happy little inquisitive Lurido he was, Egan could not help but try to catch one! However, he soon found this activity to be a little harder than it seemed; these fireflies were fast, and no matter how much he swiveled around with his hands flailing in the air, he could not get a grasp on one.
“Slooow down little buggies!” he commanded in his squeaky voice to no avail, doggedly continued his failed attempts...until a loud thump from behind caused him to shriek with an even higher jump than before and fall down on his bottom! He looked up now to see Lucius in front of him.
“Oh sorry dear,” chuckled the Lurido, bending down and picking up his boy again, “Remember, don’t be so frisky. If they see your quick movements, they will react in turn. Be patient with them. Think like a rock. Steady. Unmoving. Let them come to you. Can you do that hun?”
Egan looked for a second as if he were going to pout again, but Lucius just kept his smile bright and reassuring as soon enough, his little son appeared to be pondering his Mama's words more thoughtfully this time while resting his head on his Mama's shoulder. From this vantage point, he continued to stare at all the fireflies until eventually one landed on his nose! Grinning broadly, he crossed his eyes inwards to pinpoint their target...but he hesitated as he remembered what his Mama said: Like a rock. Therefore he kept perfectly still, hardly daring to breathe as the bug blinked its behind over and over and started to creep along his headplate. Resisting the urge to squirm, the little guy became more cross-eyed from watching the firefly continue its approach toward Egan’s orange spherical gem.
As soon as it rested upon the area, Egan couldn't help but giggle and stare off in another direction, his attention diverted as another one landed next to that one! And another! And then three more!! Before he knew it, he had quite the collection, laughing openly and scattering only a few before he could go back to rock mode.
Unbeknownst to the four-year-old, Lucius beamed as he observed how his son's gem was glowing a bright orange from all this. It wasn't until Lucius smiled and gently lifted Egan above his head and onto his shoulders did Egan remember he was not alone, protesting with a hurt look as the fireflies dispersed in a flickering plume from the sudden shift.
“Mama, why did you…” started Egan, stopping short as he looked down, his eyes sparkling with a green hue as they brightly reflected his Mama’s green hexagonal gem, “…Mama! Your thingy is glowing!”
“Mhmm, it sure is,” chuckled the more chill Mama Lurido, his smile speaking enough volumes, “it means we are going to be dreaming happily tonight hun.”
The child could only cock his head in confusion like a little puppy, causing his mother to sigh a bit though it did not remove his smile, “I’ll explain it when you are older baby.”
“Mmm…okay Mama,” chirped the wee Lurido, giving his mother a kiss to the cheek before going back to his rock mode. This time he tried holding his hand up in a Statue of Liberty pose to let the buggies land on his outstretched hand. “Look Mama! Now I have glowing fingers!”
A chuckle or two escaped from Lucius as he could only nod and say, “Yes you do son, yes you do,” continuing to play with Egan for nearly ten minutes with the buggies. The bond between the two had grown a little more this happy night, and Lucius felt quite proud of himself for passing such a wonderful lesson on in this most unique of ways.
...at least until they started back home, upon which time the Luridos started to smell something burning! A quick dash to their home revealed the source of this: a very miffed Bluey standing there wearing a singed shower cap and a scowl as he tossed to the ground a used-looking fire extinguisher and pointed at the smoldering heap before him that had once housed a promising batch of burgers, which were now the consistency of the charcoal below them...how ironic. It seemed that in the mother’s haste to teach his son the value of patience, Lucius had neglected to take the time to find out that Bluey had been in the shower at the time of Lucius’ call and was therefore unable to come out. Thus the lesson was now learned twice over.
Not that the night was ruined, of course, no matter how loud and upset the poor little hungry youngling may have been about the loss of delicious hamburger (Nothing an impromptu McDonald's trip wouldn’t fix~) More important was their time at the tree they would visit frequently, and Lucius would fondly treasure their moment together every time he felt a firefly alight upon him, and he knew that his son would look back on this night later in life and treasure it just as much for as long as they and their future kin would remember and pay forward. <3
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D'awwr. <3 This was something both :fa!imperfectflame and malley111689/Lucius worked on, starring my Lurido character Egan and his Mommy Lucius. *^..^* All in all it's a really lovely and touching scene, and my thanks go to all those involved in putting this together. <3