[Felix]

*~*~*

I was a shadow.

One that gave pain to take love,

One that held tight to be tightly held.

But I learnt to let go,

Is it let myself grow.

To grow past the overcasting clouds,

To grow out of my fear of shadows.

*~*~*

"So, what is this oh so wonderful Valentine's day date you planned for the two of us?" Ryland asks, climbing into the truck with the new backpack I got him for this very special day. It's really nothing special at all, nor is it all that expensive to be honest, but Ryland said he really wanted it and it's a Japanese brand so I figure I should just get it for him before he does. Take it or leave it, I am reducing to a pile of love sick trash and I can't stop.

"It's the almighty movie and dinner." I say vaguely, not wanting to give away more than necessary. The details can come when he sees it for himself. I, for one, am not a fan of surprises, but I know Ryland enjoys the element of romance when it happens so I guess I can try.

"Are you serious Felix? I thought we were doing something like skydiving or rock climbing." He throws his hands around, switching the radio to some random one talking about how cow's milk is good for lifting breasts. I thought the purpose of those is to produce milk for children, why would drinking milk make their own defy gravity? I don't know.

"When was the last time we had a movie and dinner date?" I raise an eyebrow, fastening my seatbelt and unlatching the handbrake. Ryland and I don't go on many traditional dates, we usually just walk out together and see what weird things are happening, generally there is always some sort of book fair (mainly for him), convention, sport event, anything. And if we don't find anything then we go sit around go for a walk. Which is the closest thing we have to a proper date.

"We never actually did that..." He scratches his arm, I shift gears and start making my way out of the parking lot. I have to say, Ryland couldn't have gotten more lucky with the parking spot when he bought the apartment, it's a single spot right next to the gate and the lifts are two rows away from us. Had we gotten any other spot that is on any other row, I'd have to duck and turn the car in meticulous ways to get myself in the spot. And I'm driving a truck, which proves to be a challenge.

"Precisely Chef. Which is why I'm doing the most ordinary thing to be unordinary." I take a left and stop at the red light. I snake my right hand over to his lap and grab his hand. If I didn't learn how to be a little less grumpy, I'd have never even thought of taking his hand. But Ryland is a little hopeless romantic, so I suppose the change is welcomed.

"Touché Platypus, Touché." For some reason, though I don't want to admit it, I probably know why, Ryland loves to give me strange Australian animal nicknames. It's plain strange and I don't know if I like it or not. But he's not going to stop so I might as well start learning to love it.

~

"You never told me you were smart Felix. I didn't know you had a scholarship for a double degree." Ryland walks towards the snack bar, while I divert him away from it. We aren't doing the usual movie and dinner. This is a dinner while watching movie kind of deal. "Hey, I wanted popcorn and a slushee."

"Do I look smart?" I raise an eyebrow, he doesn't answer, "Exactly Ryland. If I had told you, I have no doubts you'd tell me to dig out my resume or the certifications for it." His hand finds mine, I see people staring but they probably won't do anything about it. I hope not at least, I have once chance a year to attempt being extra romantic, and the last thing I need is for this date to turn out shit.

I lead him to the side entrance of the cinema, taking out a special membership card. Truth be told, Skylar loves movies so I figured I would join the membership for a discount every so often, he loves it. And shamefully, I do too. There's a lot more to kiddie movies than the animation. I'm a sucker for Pixar. "Wait, Felix, this is the VIP area."

"Calm down, I've been here more times than I've gone to classes in high school." He snorts, it's a very unflattering sound, but somehow he makes it sound cute like a little baby pig. I swear it sounds better in person than my description of it. I hand over the card and the lady smiles kindly at us. And I smile back. It's a weird thing for me to do, but I kind of like it. Being nice to people and all that.

"Here you are gentlemen, happy Valentines Day." She says and leaves us on a balcony. I've chosen one of those fancy dinner packages along with a movie. I didn't know this before, but apparently Ryland loves action films as much as romance. It's a big plus, because now I have more than 2 movies to choose from.

Inside the balcony is a comfortable looking semi circle booth facing the big cinema screen with a dinner table complete with a red table cloth and fancy cutlery. I shiver at how formal this looks, I'm not a particularly extravagant person per se, but if this means a nice date, then let it be. We are probably a good 15 meters above the actual seating, there are two other balconies like this to our left and right. The railing is a vintage wooden colour with a shiny glossed finish. But as nice as it looks, it definitely doesn't stop my idiot of a boyfriend from leaning over the edge.

"50 dollars says I'll land on G13 if I jump off."

"No Ryland, you'll land in hospital with a broken leg, and a very angry boyfriend. So get your ass over here and enjoy this." I sit down on the booth.

"God, you're just so damn romantic Felix." He flops down onto the booth next to me, and leans into my side bringing my arm down, draping it over his shoulders. He nuzzles his face into the side of my chest. He has a weird kink for it or something, we now sleep with only underwear on, and for the whole duration of the last month, Ryland gets cold at some point during night time and starts digging his face into the side of my chest, almost right up my armpit and lays his head on my pec.

"Why do you do that babe? The whole armpit thing." I ask, but don't move my arm away, Ryland keeps himself there, sighing contently with a silly smile on his face.

"It feels warm, and your chest is deceivingly comfortable Felix. Not my fault that you never let me sleep 2 inches away from you." He shrugs. I guess it is my problem then.

The dinner menu is nothing expensive or out of the ordinary, it's like a middle to high end steak house menu with a couple of choices for pasta, nothing amazing. But just being around Ryland makes the whole experience better. I conclude that romance is not as bad as it seems. There are worse things to set up and a simple candle lit dinner in a cinema is not one of them. Granted, it would be way easier for me if we had just gone out for a quick burger and then went home to watch a similarly thrilling action movie.

But that would be way too easy on little ole' Felix now, would it not?

"Hey Kangaroo." Ryland elbows me, we just finished the movie and walking back to the truck for part two of the easiest romantic date in history. His arm loops around mine and he tucks his hand in my pocket, "Thanks for setting up the date, I had fun." He smiles at me, making me smile as well.

"I mean, it wasn't a lot of effort to begin with." I shrug 'I don't know', causing a teasing wiggle to form on Ryland's perfect eyebrows.

"Then you won't mind if we did this every Friday night?" I pale, I don't mind spending time with him every Friday night, but going on dates like this every week is going to drill a vortex through my wallet, and as good paying of a job Roman's shop offers, I surely won't be able to keep up with the fees. "Just kidding."

I breathe out in relief, but I know that he really likes this kind of sappy stuff. It's a cute trait of his to be romantic, and I feel guilty for not being that person for him. But I'm trying my best. "If you really want to, we can do this more often. But I won't be able to pay for it every week." He frowns at me.

"Felix, let's be real here. We both know that I have more money than you." I nod, money isn't a sensitive subject, I have enough to pay for the split bills and have more than enough excess for occasions like this. "And we both know that I like sappy shit." I nod again, "And we both know that you are going to bring me to a park and we will watch the stars while talking about how much we love each other."

"It's not a cliché if it doesn't work babe." I wink at him and he blushes.

"You're lucky it's me you're dating, if this were anyone else, they would be grilling you alive for being so 'romantic'." He air quotes and rolls his eyes like an idiot. "Oh well, I can't expect too much from big bad Felix."

"For a Chef, you really aren't 'grilling me alive' very well. This is the threshold, and when I cross this threshold it will be my proposal or wedding." He snorts. It's very early to be speaking about proposals or weddings, but in all seriousness, if this goes as far as two or three years, I won't hesitate to propose.

Felix McKenzie has a stable relationship and thinking about marriage.

Owen's dog is going to be shitting gold tomorrow.

~

"Wait wait wait... Listen to this one." I clear my throat, strumming my thumb against Ryland's hand. "All these stars, and your eyes still shine brighter." Ryland bursts out laughing, doubling over into my side while I press a kiss to his forehead. We watched a video on Instagram where a girl was doing all these puns that aim towards her ex boyfriend. It was hilarious and we thought we'd have a go at it. So far, it's been more entertaining than the walk.

"I think you are taking away the romance in my system." He wipes his eyes. "Oh, I have a good one." He unlatches my hand and runs towards the fountain, the kind with jets of water that shoot into the air. "All this water, and you still can get me wet."

I laugh a bunch, a noise that even I am unfamiliar with. It's genuine, visceral laughter. The best kind Skylar does. And now, I do too. When we stop toppling over each other in hysterics, I pick up snow from the ground, and lay it on his shoulder, careful not to get it on his skin. The twins are very sensitive to the cold. "All this snow. And you still won't chill."

"You had a chance to say that I'm hot there and you didn't!" He playfully punches my shoulder while laughing. I do too, but he should know better. He is a very handsome man, Papa Cook has some mad genes in him. Their mother, though still physically pretty, has a heart that rivals a sprouting potato, toxic and ugly. "You are missing all your chances at being romantic Felix. Gosh, you are terrible at this." He smiles up at me.

I take a step closer to him, leaning down so we are at eye level. I grab the sides of his neck with his scarf in the way so I don't accidentally give him hypothermia with my icy hands. "You are the hottest person in the world." I peck him on the lips, "Enough to burn warmer than the depths of hell."

He gasps and pushes me off, laughing again. "So, now that we have spent a good 20 minutes walking this boring ass park. How about we head home and lounge? I'm so done with you." Ryland looks at all the other couples around, the cheesy roses and chocolate in hand, some have balloons, some have teddy bears.

"Before we head home, want to make them all jealous as fuck?" I whisper in Ryland's ear, he gives me an evil smirk. I nod, the two of us walking smack dab in the middle of the park, right next to the fountain again. Then I bring his scarf up to cover his eyes, making sure that he can't see and telling him to make this convincing.

In a flurry, I run to where the truck is parked and opened the booth. Grabbing what I had prepared earlier today. This is making me nervous and clammy as all hell. But public humiliation is generally the same as romantic according to many people and the chick flicks that Ryland has made me watch. They aren't half bad to be honest, but only the ones where someone dies.

I'm devil spawn, I know.

Returning to where I left Ryland before, he's still waiting patiently. Though this time he is facing the other direction with nothing covering his eyes. I know what he is trying to do, making this convincing. And I'm not going to be mad about it, partly because he's making it work, partly because I am too nervous to care.

Putting on the sweetest voice I have, I walk close to him and say, "Hey baby."

Ryland turns with the same cheeky smirk, probably thinking that this is still the stunt we are pulling. His smirk falls as soon as he sees me standing with a bouquet of roses in my arm, while the other has a teddy bear holding a balloon. He looks confused as fuck.

I smile, genuinely. He does too, looking around to see various couples staring. At least he isn't half wrong that the stunt is still happening. Just not my initial intention, if you exclude the part where I have all this planned out.

"Oh my god Felix," He slaps my shoulder and takes the flowers. "Holy fuck, that has to be at least 30 in there. Roses are expensive as fuck these days." He takes the teddy as well, making a full smile come on his face. "To Chef, Happy Waffle Day. Love, Kanga- Kangoala. The fuck...?"

He takes the coupon attached to the teddy's belly in form of a pouch, I am well aware that bears are not marsupials but for the sake of being a good boyfriend, let's just pretend it is. He reads out the coupon, "Full day breakfast cooking studio." He flips it over, "Learn to cook eggs benedict, perfect muffins and the fluffiest waffles in history."

Ryland takes a look at me. "Happy Waffle Day, Chef." I say, Ryalnd places the items carefully on a park bench, making sure that the snow doesn't soil the teddy. "Oof." He runs into me and squeezes me around the chest. I return the hug.

He uses the back of his hands to wipe his eyes, looking at me again with those striking blue irises. "You fucking set this up!" He accuses, still smiling though. "You are such a piece of shit, you know that Felix?" He punches my left arm. Then he comes up to me once again, wrapping his arms around my waist. "Thank you. I love you."

Hearing him sniffle makes me smile, at least he likes the effort. The setting up wasn't hard, getting myself to actually do it is the worst.

People clap a bunch, men whistling, women cheering. This should've been saved for a proposal plan. Oh well, too late now, tough shit McKenzie. "I love you too Ryland." Pressing a chaste kiss to his lips.

"So, when is this workshop." A single snowflake drops on Ryland's shoulder, followed by a growing shower of them.

I look up into the sky. And indeed, the stars are no longer visible from the shadow of the cloud cover.

An Overcast.

The weather forecast didn't say anything about that.

But I guess it is like love,

Unpredictable.

When love chooses to overshadow you, it does so without second thought.

Perhaps, some people are just that driven by love,

I am one of them.

"It's tomorrow Chef."

But I know, day after day, no matter how harsh the storm or sunny the afternoon is.

Clouds still exist somewhere out there.

And eventually they come back, stronger than ever.

And we all just need to learn how to;

Love the Overcast.