“Do you like fireworks, Lubomir?”
Bursts of blue and yellow lit up the sky as the city below celebrated. A strange feeling of nostalgia overtook him as Luka leaned onto the guard railing, his hefty coat restricting the movement for a short pause. Perhaps they should’ve gotten a larger size; the slight lifting of the coat had exposed his thermal. A shiver crept along his skin; the cold of the winter night was starting to pass through his layers, and it felt like his back was the one being exposed to the frigid air.
Lubomir slid himself next to Luka. “I guess,” he murmured, “it’s beautiful, but just not worth the hours of standing out in below 0 degree weather.”
“Complaining about 0-degree weather? Sometimes in my home in Eastern Siberia, it would be -40 on New Year’s! Despite that, my mother would still make us bundle up and trek down to the village center to watch the Dugzhuub.” Smiling to himself, Luka gestured at the fireworks. “Bonfires are great, but they don’t compare to the spectacle of fireworks! When I was small, I’d always beg my mother to go to Moscow to see their fireworks.”
“You’d never told me that you’d never seen fireworks. Was this a long-awaited dream of yours? You’ve seemed too adamant about seeing them the past few weeks.” Lukas’ face flashed with a bright purple, then blue, before going back to purple; he could see the quirks of his lips from beneath his scarf.
“Ehhh,” Luka tilted his head in thought, “This is more like checking off a box on my bucket list than fulfilling a dream of mine.” He perked up, a full grin emerging on his face, as he turned to Lubomir. “Speaking of dreams, what’s yours for the year? I think that I want to go to Greece in the summer! I’ve never gotten to swim in the ocean before; perhaps while I’m there I’ll swim with sharks!”
He shifted his eyes from his friends’ back to the fireworks show before them. Fiddled with pocket fuzz with his hands, could feel Lukas’ eyes boring into the side of his head. He licked his lips before answering, “I think I’d like to fall in love.” Fuzz began to slip from his grasp; he blinked harshly a few times. “Date someone new, cuddle with someone at night, go out on dates, you know?”
Luka stayed silent, and Lubomir bit at his lip. He could feel him leaning in closer and could practically feed off of the warmth of his body.
Luka looked up at him. “Yeah, I think I would too,”
