Between the good and bad, that's where you'll find me, Reaching for Heaven

To everyone on my friends list, I hope you all have a lovely day surrounded by the people you love and care for deeply, on whatever level of love: friends, family, sweethearts, buddies....

I'm in a bit of a grumpy mood (thank you, hormones. :: Glares:: ), but in spite of this, I feel well-loved by all of you: the folks who first friended me back in the Diaryland era, many of whom I met through the "A.I." fandom; the folks I've met along the way since then and now through various fandoms, the folks who joined the party this past autumn and winter via various friending memes/forums.

Just gave my folks their Valentine's presents: my dad went hoopey over the jars of pistachio nuts I gave him to replace the contents of a bag of nuts which a small mouse stole from the living room: Dad took one look at the jars and said, "Ooh, perfect! The mouse can't get into these! The nuts are all locked up!" And my mom loved the book of L.M. Montgomery stories which I'd hunted down on Amazon some weeks back (and she also found the Head-Tiltingly Strange redactions in it as hysterical and odd as I did).

Went back to the antiques store near St. Mary's in Newton: my dad was hunting for some andirons, a fire screen and some fireplace tools for our fireplace, since we've been lighting it every night lately. Poked through another shop next to it which was almost wall to wall in antiques from the Far East, including but not limited to a glass case chock full of ivory netsuke, several five foot tall vases, and what at first I thought was a kimono, but which as soon as I'd said as much to my father, I realized was a haori jacket. Baka! :: laughs::

Hoo... I need a change of pace from the more... steamy fics I've written lately, and what better way to supply some contrast than a sweet little "A.I." fic featuring David and Teddy.

A red rose and a white rose tied together with a golden silk ribbon, for Henry and Monica Swinton;
A tiny pink rosebud and a thick thorny stem without any blossoms at all for Kenpachi Zaraki and Yachiru
A rose so dark a red that it is almost maroon, with heavy thorns hidden under its lush green leaves, and a brighter red rose with few thorns, tied together with a delicate silver chain, for the Merovingian and Neo
A twig of pink and a twig of white wild roses, with thick, brambly stems, bound together with a red velvet cord, for Phedre no Delaunay and Melisande Shahrizai.

A small blue rose and a white and yellow daisy tied together with a big blue ribbon for David and Teddy

"A Valentine for David"

by "Matrix Refugee"

Rating: G

DISCLAIMER: I do not own “A.I., Artificial Intelligence”, its characters, settings, concepts or other indicia, which are the property of the late, great Stanley Kubrick, of DreamWorks SKG, Steven Spielberg, Warner Brothers, Amblin Entertainment, et al, based on characters and concepts created by Brian Aldiss

Author's Note: Written for ladyneferankh and based on the prompt "hugs; the best moments are with you": This started off as a sketch, but it turned into a follow-up to "David's First Christmas", but I wouldn't really call it a sequel, since the stories aren't technically interconnected, though they do take place in the same alternate continuity in which David has returned to his family and is continuing to discover the world around him.

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( 'What's Valentine's Day?' David asked. )

Had the day off today, plus my check for January showed up in the mail, so I went out to deposit that pronto and take care of the phone/Internet bill.

And I ended up in the dollar store, doing some Valentine's Day shopping -- Note to self: Get a *real* Valentine's Day icon instead of that cynical anti-Valentine's Day icon that is no longer really necessary. I have to admit, it does get irritating when the holiday is reduced to cuddly couple's day, but I've decided not to let this get to me any more. Anyway... besides getting some stuff for my folks and a few others, I treated myself to some new bath stuff, and I have to confess to being particularly goofy for bath stuff (bath salts, bubble bath, bath gel, etc) as long as it's either scented in: rose, lavender, pomegranate or (inexplicably) cherry blossom. It's about the only girly thing I really concede to, and in this case, I picked up a bottle of cherry blossom bath gel and some moisturizing rose petals, since I'd been looking for these like mad lately.

And on returning home, I took down the morbidly dry mini-tree in my room, replacing it with some red and white lights for Valentine's Day.