Wednesday Briefs - Cyan Ch 1

I've had a break, but I'm back, with a brand new story, about a very sweet and special boy, Cyan. It's a story of prejudice and ignorance, but also of love and acceptance.

The prompt I chose was 'that's my favourite part'

Hope you enjoy

The first time Robin saw the boy, was in the produce section at the local supermarket. He noticed him for two reasons.

First, he was picking peaches with an intensity Robin had never seen before. He’d pick up a peach and examine it closely, turning it over and over in his long, slender fingers. Sometimes he stroked the furred skin gently, other times he examined the dimple. Once the fruit had been tested to his satisfaction, he would either place it carefully in the bag, or replace it, equally carefully back on the display. There was just something about the intensity that caught Robin’s attention and made it difficult to look away.

Of course it didn’t hurt that he was easy on the eye, which was the second reason Robin noticed him. Tall and slender with long blonde hair, caught in a band at the nape of his neck, he could easily have been a model. Robin was disappointed that he didn’t get to see the colour of his eyes because he never looked up from his task before Gillian, Robin’s girlfriend, pulled him away.

“I’m gasping for a coffee. Let’s go to the café and you can buy me one.”

“What about all this ‘women’s rights’ thing, where you’re supposed to pay for yourself?”

“Stuff and nonsense. I like being taken care of.”

Robin mumbled general comments about her being high maintenance, and followed her meekly up the elevator.

The second time Robin saw the boy was about half an hour after later He and Gillian had been joined by two other friends and they were all sitting on padded chairs, drinking coffee and talking about the projects they were working on for school.

Robin happened to glance up and there he was, waiting in the queue. Trying to look as if he wasn’t watching, he followed the boy through checkout and to a table nearby. He continued to watch with fascination as the boy carefully separated out the different elements of his meal – lasagne, chips and peas – and added different condiments to each section. Once the sachets were empty he lined them up on his tray in neat lines according to size.  When he finished, he collected them all up, put them into the paper cup that had held his drink and lined it up with the empty plate and cutlery.

“Are you paying attention?”

“Sorry? What?”

“You’re away with the fairies again,” Gillian grumbled.

“I was thinking of something.”

“I bet it wasn’t about history.”

“Um…no.”

“Try to concentrate for five minutes or we’re never going to finish this assignment.”

“We haven’t really started yet, Gilly,” one for their friends, an elfin creature called Aivah, piped up. She had a crush on Robin, and Gilly hated her for it. She only tolerated her because she had a crush on Aivah’s best friend Alex. Robin didn’t like to tell her, he was pretty sure Alex was gay.

“And we’re never going to unless we keep to the subject.”

“What is the subject?”

“Honestly , Aivah, I don’t know how you got through the AS exams.”

Aivah grinned. “Good luck and great friends.” She winked at Alex who hugged her.

“My pleasure darling. You’re a very cute study partner.”

“It’s the treats I get afterwards that’s my favourite part,” she purred

“Alright, alright. Can we please get down to work?”

“What’s the subject?” Aivah repeated.

“It’s American history – the founding of America. I know for a fact that two groups are doing something with the pilgrims, and the other is doing the declaration of independence. I thought we’d do Columbus.”

“Columbus?”

“Christopher Columbus, idiot. He was the person who discovered America.”

“No he wasn’t. That’s wrong.”

They all looked up at the strange voice that cut into their conversation with absolute certainty.

“Sorry?” Gillian said, sounding affronted at the interruption.

Robin was rendered speechless. It was him. The boy. The one. For the first time, Robin could see he had bright green eyes, shot through with amber. They seemed to glow with an inner fire in the bright, artificial light.

“Christopher Columbus didn’t discover America. I’m assuming you mean what is now called the United States of America.”

“Oh right, Mr know-it-all, who did then?”

“That’s not my name. My name is Cyan.”

Gillian rolled her eyes. “Alright Cyan please do tell us who discovered America.”

“That’s not entirely clear cut. Originally, it’s thought it was immigrants from Asia, and that seems likely. There’s some controversy about the first European who landed there. Some people think it was Leif Eriksson, who was from Denmark, but he didn’t get any further than Newfoundland off the coast of Canada.

“Personally, I think the most likely candidate is the Spanish nobleman Juan Ponce de Leon, who landed on the East Coast in a place he named La Florida. He claimed the land for Spain.

“Actually it’s wasn’t even really him, because one of his seamen, Juan Valdez  who jumped out first to pull the boat up onto the sand to Ponce de Leon didn’t get his feet wet.”

Cyan paused and smiled at them, looking satisfied. “I could tell you more if you wanted. The Spanish involvement in North and South America is very interesting, although I find South America more so because I have a personal fascination with South American civilizations such as the Mayas, Incas and Aztecs.”

“No thank you,” Gillian said quickly. “I think you’ve said quite enough seeing as you broke into a private conversation.

Cyan shrugged. “That’s okay. I just don’t like people getting things wrong.”

He turned to walk away and something inside Robin, that really didn’t want him to do that, prompted him to say. “Wait.” Cyan turned and looked at him, expectantly. “Why don’t you join us? You obviously know more about this than we do, and we can’t afford to pass by any help we can get.”

Gillian’s glare could have cut glass, but Robin ignored her having eyes only for Cyan.

And now it's time to go read the rest of our wonderful flashers at

Wednesday Briefs