A prompt a week - 28. Eric's Lesson - Prompt 392

“What the hell are you watching?”

Alistair turned to Eric standing in the doorway, a bag of groceries in his hands.

“A movie,” Alistair answered before popping another piece of popcorn in his mouth.

“It looks like a damn cartoon. Can’t you turn it off and help me bring in the groceries?”

Alistair sighed. “Yes dear, I can pause it and help you.”

Eric shook his head and returned to the kitchen where he set his bag of groceries on the counter. It wasn’t like he had a lot of groceries. It was just five bags, but finding Alistair watching cartoons at his age just upset him. Sometimes his boyfriend could be such a child.

Alistair didn’t say anything. He went out to the car, grabbed all the groceries, pushed the car door shut with his foot, and carried them up the flight of stairs to their apartment. He set them on the counter and then went right work sorting the items inside and putting them all away. Eric stood watching him and didn’t say anything until Alistair put the last item away and headed back toward the living room.

“You really are going to watch a cartoon?”

“You do know not all cartoons are for children, right?” Alistair asked as he resumed his seat on the couch.

“Cartoons are for kids.” Eric shook his head and wandered over to the side of the couch.

“Cartoons go from teaching kids their a, b, c’s to adult porn and everything in between. I watched The Hobbit earlier.”

“Well they just finished releasing that didn’t they?” Eric sat on the arm of the couch and looked down at Alistair.

“I meant the cartoon version. It was made by the same company that did all those Christmas specials you like, but it was made back in the seventies. Right now I have The Last Unicorn in. Trust me, it isn’t so much for children, but the story really is beautiful.”

Eric figured he would humor Alistair but was soon dragged into the story and forgot he was watching a cartoon.

As the movie ended Alistair turned to Eric, “So what did you think?”

“Ali, if I didn’t watch it I wouldn’t have believed you. Are there a lot of movies like this?”

“They are like any other movie you watch. Some are good, some are bad. They do a lot of science fiction and fantasy in this form, because, well, it was a lot cheaper than special effects in live action. Times change. I keep telling you not all the Disney cartoons are for kids, either. They write and include a lot for adults now.”

“What else you got?” Eric curled up along side Alistair.

“How about we order a pizza and I’ll pull out part of my collection. Once you get used to seeing what they can do in a normal cartoon, I’ll introduce to you some Anime.”

“Anime? What is that?”

“Japanese animation. Wait till you see how they do their story telling with cartoons. It will blow your mind.”

Eric shook his head and leaned to kiss Alistair. “Sorry for not understanding, love.”

Alistair smiled. “You are always teaching me something new. Nice to be able to introduce you to something for a change.”

Eric stood up and went for the phone. “What do you want on your pizza?”

“Surprise me!"

Prompt 392 asked you to use the line "What the hell are you watching?" to begin your story. So what did you think? Comments are always welcomed. One of my shorter prompts.