Little bugs fly around
Lighting up the darkness
Serving as beacons of hope
To those who are lost

Fireflies may be rare
But when they flock together,
Their understated beauty
Becomes all the more pronounced

Who said you can’t be a guiding light
Even if the rest of the insects mock you
Just because your butt lights up
And it can only do that—provide light

Don’t let the others get you down
Stand proud, little firefly
Fly high, set yourself free
Be the light that guides those who fall

Be the firefly you’ve always wanted to be
Achieve the impossible, chase those dreams!

When the last bell rings
And chaos begins
Everyone runs for the door
Because it’s the final day of school

No more waking up early
Or stressing about homework
Rushing to complete assigments
To pass them on time

The summer air’s inviting
It’s time to go swimming
Or even go on a vacation
Because school’s over, school’s out

Children screaming in glee
Kids, teenagers, even the teachers themselves
Are relieved that it’s over
They can rest and sleep in now

Sun’s out
Summer begins when everyone runs out the front door!

It was pretty hard planning a stargazing trip, especially when your boyfriend happens to be one of the biggest nerds about outer space. And no, Ivan didn’t want to take Alfred to some dinky-ass planetarium. They were going to drive out to the country, with a blanket and supplies and telescopes, and look up at the clear skies!

…the problem was that the day that Ivan had picked for their trip, a sudden torrential downpour had swept in, and ruining most of the plans he’d ever so carefully plotted out for weeks. Now that the Russian was pretty much upset and didn’t want to be spoken to, Alfred was finding it rather hard to talk to him.

“H—hey? Ivy? Big…big guy?” he tried gently, approaching the sulking Russian very carefully, like how one would approach a wet cat. “Are… are you alright?” he asks the other softly.

“Nyet, Fedya. Not fine. Stupid… stupid thunderstorm ruin everything,” Ivan grumbled crossly, turning away from him. “Ruined plans I made for tonight.”

“Tonight?” Alfred cued in, tilting his head to one side, confused at what his boyfriend was talking about.

“Fedya—Alfret,” Ivan tries again, turning around with a defeated sigh, “…wanted to take you stargazing tonight. But—but stupid rain ruined everything…” he mumbled, crossing his arms as he trailed off into silence. It wasn’t until the sunny-blonde heard the last sentence did he understand just why his boyfriend was acting so damned-ass weird the past few weeks, always blowing him off for something or other…

“Wait—Vanya, Ivy—we were supposed to go… tonight?” he says a few moments later, blinking at him.

“Y—yes, tonight. Our night. But… but weather ruin it all…” Ivan mutters, unable to let a sigh out after that. “Wanted…to make tonight special. For you. Us.”

Red, orange
Blue, purple
The color of the skies
Looks prettiest at dawn and dusk

The sunrise marks the start of a new day
While the sunset brings the end of one
Sweeping through the sky,
The sun acts like a sentinel

The sky painted different hues of pastel
Stained with color,
Darkest before dawn
And brightest after dusk

As the Earth moves through outer space
The sunrise and sunsets continue
Never unchanging
As the seasons fly by

Would you watch the sun welcome a new day
Or gaze at its beauty as it sinks below the horizon?

“Fedya how do you not even burn up in this heat? I cannot stand it!”

A very grumpy Russian had decided to hide under the largest beach umbrella that they’d brought out on this fine day—and for good reason. While the sun-kissed Alfred had no problem staying out for extended periods in the sun, the pale-as-snow Ivan had to constantly reapply sunscreen every hour or so.

Was it his fault that his skin easily turned red and became inflamed due to sunburn?! Definitely not!

“Ivy—you’re just like my brother! Yeesh, and they say me and Mattie aren’t the same,” the blonde said, twirling around in the sand and letting the full rays of the sun bake him into a perfect shade of tan.

While he absolutely adored being out on the beach, he couldn’t help but feel pity for his boyfriend, who’d only known the cold, harsh winters of the far northern country he called home for most of his life.

“In Moscow, sun never like this. Sun not so hot. Not like here,” he continued, applying even more sunblock on his already-red nose and all over his arms. “Skin no like too much heat,” he grumbled a few moments later, making sure to stay at the very center of the sunflower-themed blanket that they’d set down when they first arrived at the beach.

“…you and Mattie should really stay inside an air-conditioned room, you two are nuts,” Alfred said with a slight shake of his head—although there was a hint of a grin on his face as he said this.

“Isn’t that just…sprinkles on top of chocolate spread? On a piece of bread?”

The skeptical question caught Lars’s attention, and the taller blonde looked up with a stare that was borderline scandalous.

“M—Mathijs. Please don’t tell me you haven’t heard of hagelslag?” Lars asked the other, who was watching him apply a liberal amount of chocolate spread on the slice of bread in his hand.

“It—Lars, it looks like fairy bread to me,” the wheaten blonde explained, making a gesture at what he was doing. “That’s exactly the same stuff that Jett loves to scarf down every single morning. Only instead of chocolate spread, he uses peanut butter and colored sprinkles,” Matthew replied, barely hiding the cringe of disgust that crossed his face.

“But that’s different. This is hagelslag, Mathijs. Don’t sweat it until you’ve tried it,” Lars offered, handing the Canadian the piece of bread he’d just finished preparing.

“Go on, try it. I swear by this. It’s a Dutch favorite for breakfast,” he adds a few moments later.

“Are you sure I’m not going to die of diabetes?” Matthew asked the other apprehensively.

“I’ve always had this for breakfast every single day, and I’m still around. Nothing’s too sweet for me, especially this breakfast treat,” Lars admits with a shrug a few moments later, watching and waiting until the other takes it up and slowly takes a nibbling bite out of it.

“Come on, Mattie, hurry up!”

“What’s so exciting about this outdoor movie thing anyway, Alfie?”

“Bro! They rarely have these outdoor summer cinema things where we live! Let’s go!”

The two brothers were squabbling again, one already fully-dressed and ready to go while the other was still in the middle of picking out a shirt to wear and a jacket to bring along. The two had been invited by their boyfriends to see a few movies at an outdoor theater some several blocks down. While they weren’t there to pick up Alfred and Matthew yet, the younger of the blondes was already impatiently tapping his foot.

“C’mon, man! You know what happens when Ivy comes and we’re not ready to go, he’s going to lose his shit!” Alfred whined, already waiting by the door.

“Well if you would help me pick out a nice shirt I can wear without embarrassing myself in front of Lars, then I’d already be done!” Matthew called out from the stairwell, voice drifting down loud enough for the other to hear. “I don’t know what to pick!”

“Just get something orange on and be done with it already!” came Alfred’s yelling from downstairs, and Matthew could only sigh. Why was it so hard to pick out clothes for a simple ‘gathering’ between the four of them? Wait—it was a ‘double date’ at this point, wasn’t it?!

“Alfie!” Matthew yelled in exasperation as he opened the door to his closet and began searching for something that had the criminally-offending color on it to wear. “Do you not have any sense of fashion?!”

“Look, just—hurry up, Ivan just texted me and they’re around the corner!” the younger brother bellowed from downstairs, already anxiously pacing while cursing under his breath. He didn’t want to be late for that ‘summer blockbuster outdoor theater’ thing that they were going to be crashing at in half an hour, and he dreaded to see the Russian’s temper when they were late!

“Where do you want to go?”

“I was asking you that, Mathijs, you know I’ve never been out of the Netherlands most of my life—“

“Then why don’t we go around Europe? I’m sure it would be fine! I mean—we could make a backpacking vacation out of it!”

Matthew had taken a train north out of France into the Netherlands, a surprise side-trip while he was visiting one of his two fathers in Paris. While Francis had allowed him to travel around, Matthew hadn’t exactly told him that he was going to cross the border and visit a friend—well, they were definitely more than friends now at this point. While the parent didn’t know that his son was maintaining communications with someone in another country, well…

“Have you never been out of Rotterdam your entire life, Lars?” the Canadian asked, tilting his head to one side out of sheer curiosity. “Are you not that much of a traveler?”

“Well…” the taller man replied, bringing up a hand to scratch behind his head in a sheepish gesture. “To be honest—I’m not that much of a traveler… I’ve only been around here my entire life.”

The Canadian’s expression then changed to one of shock, before he blinked a few times and then approached the other. It was such a bold move from the other, Lars had to back away a few steps at the sudden gesture.

“Wha—“

“Look, Laurence. It’s easy enough to explore and broaden your horizons. You’re just not—are you scared?” Matthew teased him, mischievous twinkle in his eye.

“N—no! Mathijs, what makes you say—“ he began to stammer, before this knowing grin crossed the younger man’s face. “I am most certainly not afraid!”

“Then I challenge you. Come along with me. Around Europe. Just us two. A backpacking vacation, by ourselves. Are you game?”

“Honestly, Lars, how can you stand this heat?!”

Matthew was grumbling all the while as he tried to stay in the shade the entire time that they were out on the beach. While he knew that Alfred and Ivan had gone to Hawaii—mostly because his younger brother wanted to catch the surfing waves at O’ahu—they were much farther south, in the Carribean.

And Matthew couldn’t stand the terrible humidity that hung in the air like a heat haze.

“Are you not liking the sun, Mathijs?” the Dutchman asked him, standing some distance away from the umbrella where they’d decided to pitch camp for the day at the beach. While Lars was perfectly fine with tanning himself and not getting a bad case of sunburn—wow, it was like déjà vu for Matthew.

He heard muttered Canadian French grumbling coming from the shade, but paid it no mind. Lowering the shades that were perched on his nose as he turned around, he saw that Matthew had finally stripped himself out of the shirt that he was wearing, bothered by the heat.

“About time you took that off,” he said with a hint of amusement in his voice, to which the Canadian pettily stuck his tongue out at the other in response before grabbing a smaller towel to wipe himself down of the sticky sweat that was clinging to him.

“Ha ha, very funny, Lars,” Matthew grumbled a few moments later, fanning himself to be rid of the hot, humid air around him.