Flash and Twilight Watch The Lion King
Author's Note
The prompt of the day is "Hobby." I was honestly planning on skipping this day because I couldn't think of anything that fit the prompt. Then, one day while I was watching some Brian Hull videos on YouTube, I remembered that I wanted to write about the two of them watching The Lion King together and realized that that particular vignette could totally work for today's prompt. I have a feeling that Ro is going to feel especially excited about this one. 
By the way, this story takes place about three weeks into Flash and Twilight's marriage, so chronologically speaking, yesterday's vignette hasn't happened yet. I hope by now you understand what I meant about the jumps back and forth through time this week.
Flash and Twilight Watch The Lion King
“Okay, I’ve got the popcorn and soda set up,” Twilight called to her husband from the living room of their one-bedroom apartment. “Am I forgetting anything?”
“A box of tissues?” Flash asked as he walked in with an armful of blankets from their bedroom.
Twilight replied with a pointed look while she held up the box in question before setting it down next to the bowl of popcorn. Flash chuckled knowingly as he spread the blankets on the sofa.
“A’right! Movie night!” Twilight’s dog Spike cheered as he jumped on top of the blankets before howling in celebration.
“Spike, don’t do that,” Twilight scolded. “We don’t want to bother the neighbors.”
“Sorry,” Spike apologized as he sat down and began wagging his tail. “I’m just so excited to spend time with you guys now that you’re back from your honeymoon. I mean, I loved hanging out with Sunset and everything, but I really missed you guys. So, what movie are we watching?”
“The Lion King,” Twilight answered as she turned on the TV and took the DVD out of the case to put into the player.
“The original or the remake?”
The dog was answered with two deadpan stares, one from his human and the other from her husband.
“Right. Dumb question.”
“The movie’s just about ready,” Twilight said to Flash as she turned off the living room lights. “Do we have everything we need?”
“Almost,” Flash replied before rushing into their bedroom and returning with a worn plush lion. Twilight raised her eyebrow at him quizzically as she sat down next to Spike.
“What? You didn’t think I was going to watch this movie without Simba, did you?” Flash asked.
“Honey, I know I shouldn’t be one to talk, all things considered, but isn’t it a little childish to be holding on to our plush toys this close to our twenties?” Twilight asked as Flash sat down on her other side and put his left arm around her.
“Maybe,” Flash agreed. “I mean, I know I don’t really play with him anymore, and I don’t need him for emotional support as much as I used to. If I’m honest, the poor guy’s probably going to be spending most of his time stuck in the closet at least until we’re ready to have kids, but,” he trailed off and shrugged before continuing, “I don’t know. I guess he doesn’t have to watch the movie with us; I just thought I’d do it for old time’s sake. Back in the day, I NEVER watched The Lion King without Simba.”
Twilight looked from Flash to the plush lion he was cradling in his right arm and back. She couldn’t help but imagine her strong, caring, and devoted man at five years old curled up with his mother on the couch of his childhood living room clutching a significantly less patchy version of his favorite toy as the two of them watched The Lion King together. The image was so heart-meltingly adorable that she simply smiled at Flash and snuggled into him before reaching for the remote and pressing play.
“This isn’t real; they’re just drawings. This isn’t real; they’re just drawings,” Flash thought to himself repeatedly as a herd of wildebeest stampeded across the television screen. No matter how many times he told himself that or how many times he had seen the movie previously, the wildebeest scene never failed to send his heart racing as feelings of dread and danger overwhelmed him.
Twilight leaned into him and began to rub circles into his back. She had felt him tensing up beside her when the scene first started, and she couldn’t blame him. The wildebeest scene was astonishingly intense for anyone at any age. When she first saw it, she had her face pressed against her older brother’s chest the whole time.
Apparently, the scene had a similar effect on dogs because Spike had moved from his perch on the left armrest to Twilight’s lap without her realizing. He had also buried his face underneath a mound of blankets and tucked his tail between his legs. Twilight finally noticed him when she felt something the size of a loaf of bread vibrating like a cellphone on her lap. She smiled sympathetically and moved her free hand to pet her dog causing him to yelp. When Spike realized that sudden icy touch on his back was just his human trying to comfort him, he sheepishly calmed down and allowed Twilight to continue petting him.
Flash tensed up again as a scrawny, black-maned lion appeared on the scene.
“Oh, no, not this part,” he and Twilight thought to themselves dismally.
“Long live the king,” the black-maned lion snarled sinisterly at his brother. Immediately afterwards, Flash reflexively covered his plush toy’s unseeing, plastic eyes with his hand as tears began to well up in his own. One minute later, Twilight was reaching for the tissues on the coffee table and giving some to her husband while taking two or three for herself.
“And with all this romantic atmosphere,” the cartoon meerkat sang in a tone that would have made Flash and Twilight’s high school math teacher look like a ray of sunshine in comparison. “Disaster's in the air!”
Twilight slid her right hand into Flash’s left as the romantic music began to play. Spike noticed this, and knowing exactly what’s about to go down, he rolled his eyes and leapt off Twilight’s lap onto the floor. Fortunately, he was still small enough to fit under the coffee table and decided to hide there and wait out the three minutes of sickeningly sweet romance.
“So many things to tell her/But how to make her see,” Flash’s plush toy’s namesake sang as he gazed longingly at the young lioness from across the oasis. “The truth about my past? Impossible!/She'd turn away from me”
“He's holding back, he's hiding/But what, I can't decide,” the lioness sang to herself as she stared intently at the young lion. Flash could have sworn he heard Twilight singing along under her breath as she leaned into him. “Why won't he be the king I know he is/The king I see inside?”
Okay, Flash was almost completely sure he heard Twilight singing along to those last few lines. Twilight putting her head on his shoulder and embracing him only further confirmed those suspicions. Flash looked away from the TV screen towards the top of his wife’s head smiling affectionately.
“Now would be a great opportunity to steal a kiss,” he thought to himself, and as the chorus neared it’s slow yet sweet end, he did.
“That was a good movie,” Twilight said, turning off the TV as the credits began to play. She got up, stretched, and turned on the living room lights while Flash took the empty popcorn bowl and empty soda glasses into the kitchen. Afterwards, Flash took a wastebasket into the living room and began to dispose of the used tissues scattered on the sofa and the floor. Meanwhile, Spike let out a yawn as he hopped off the left armrest and made his way to his doggy bed.
“Honey?” Twilight asked Flash as she helped him take the blankets back into their bedroom closet. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but The Lion King is your favorite movie, right?”
“That’s right,” Flash replied with a smile. After the two of them put the blankets away, they went into the bathroom to brush their teeth before going to bed for the night.
“I was thinking that one of these days, I ought to save up and get us tickets to see the Broadway show. You’d totally love it,” Twilight continued after rinsing toothpaste out of her mouth.
“I don’t know, my love. I just might get us tickets to see Beauty and the Beast on Broadway first,” Flash teased in return.
Twilight giggled as the two of them tucked in for the night, “Flash, you do know that Beauty and the Beast isn’t doing any tours or shows at the moment, right?”
“Two words, Broadway revival,” Flash countered, smirking as he put his head down on his pillow. Twilight answered him with a laugh and a pillow to the face.
