[Roman]

*~*~*

I was a shadow.

Two kinds, the same.

I lived an empty heart,

My pain compared to art.

My quest to find love,

Was when push came to shove,

Went beyond the clouds;

Where my angel sang aloud.

*~*~*

"Paris is going to kill me if she ever finds this out." Aaron mutters, biting his nail as he overtakes some slow ass fucker that doesn't know how to drive above the speed of evolution. And from what I learnt in biology, evolution took a long time.

"Had Aaron told Roman where they are going, Roman would support you on that but no, Aaron's got to be super secretive about this Valentine's Day date. Roman was going to take initiative and set up a date, but Aaron is too proud of his own idea." I tie my hair back into a pony tail, know that Aaron likes it more in place of a bun. I personally like my hair down but long hair gets in your face too often and with this weather, the last thing I want to do is get parts of my human anatomy out of my face with winds that can slice a bitch coming at me like an angry mob. Not to mention, I'd look like a complete idiot.

"I gave you half the day to do what you want to do. Not my fault that I was born into being a CEO and I'm 50% Brazilian and 50% control freak." Aaron has developed a terrible habit of biting his necklace, the one I gave him. It's like a visceral thing too where he just takes the chain between his lips and gnaw on it like it tastes delicious. I think it's cute, but he doesn't realise he's doing it half the time and I'm sure it's wearing on his teeth. "Oh screw off you 14 year old caramel frap piece of shit!"

He also has bad road rage.

Aaron's phone starts ringing, and he glances at it. I pick it up to see that it's his assistant. I was about to pick it up for him but he takes his phone off my hands and ends the call, flips his phone to silent and smiles at me. I smile back, it's a peculiar feeling to engage my face muscles to defy gravity but I'm starting to get used to it. Like Skylar once said, endorphins, they make me happy. "No distractions on my Valentine's Day date. This is my first chance and I am not going to fuck it up."

I catch the screen of his phone lighting up, his assistant messaged him, saying Happy Valentine's Day. That's right today is Valentine's Day. The one holiday that I have never done much for. Owen and I went to the same restaurant for dinner for the couple times we celebrated. Nothing fancy. But this day is supposed to be some astronomical deal to some people. For me, I just get an excuse to pull my boyfriend out of work.

Owen and I have spoken quite a bit, I apologised very deeply, Skylar was there too, making sure I said everything I wanted to. I would've let Aaron be there, but it isn't very ethical to have your boyfriend there while you speak to your ex boyfriend. And after my last foolish mistake, I'm not going to make the same mistake and purposely put them in a compromising position. That just has hypocrisy written all over it.

To my understanding, Owen has been... not very nice to himself and it's evident in the way he moves his little body, that everything in the boy's head is going south. I tried to make him to speak to me more openly, but he shut me up, saying that he can manage. A milder way of saying he's not going to indulge me because of the relationship barriers, that he isn't my responsibility anymore. Skylar did console me after the fact that he will make sure everything goes alright with Owen, and it's not hard to gauge that they have been building a steady friendship.

"Blindfold yourself." Aaron says, not providing me with any sort of fabric, I stare at him strangely, he expects me to blindfold myself without giving me a proper blindfold, not even a tie. "What? I just realised this is going to be a hundred times better if I blindfold you." He lifts my scarf up to my nose from around my neck, "C'mon old man."

"I don't think that's how a blindfolded date works Aaron, but whatever you say." I shrug, tying the scarf around my eyes, redoing it every time Aaron takes a turn. He's quite the reckless driver, taking sharp turns with little notice. If I were a hospital patient, the G forces would snap my spinal cord in perfect quarters.

"Oh this is going to be amazing." He remarks, making me smile. Again, strange sensation.

The car comes to a stop briefly after my blindfold is secured, I keep my eyes closed since it insists on falling off. Don't want to ruin this ill planned surprise. I'm no Socrates but I know when something is meant to be meaningful, and this day is supposed to be one of 'those' days. "You better have a fucking amazing surprise, because my neck is going to freeze over." As if on cue, a gust of icy cold air drifts right into my nape.

"Oh, this is going to be so good." The cheeky tone in his voice not lost. His right hand tugs on my left one. For a well built man such as Aaron, he has deceivingly tiny hands. And his skin is softer than a baby's butt even with the body hair. Being with Aaron makes me realise that whatever 'type' I had established in the past doesn't really matter.

I've always been into the softer looking guys, the kind that makes you want to steal a little piece of their tiny smiles. Hence Owen and Skylar, they are both really attractive in my opinion, but only the thought itself makes me laugh. Had I really cared about appearances that much I wouldn't be dating Aaron, he is the high class demographic in a nutshell, I used to loath it because I attached stigmas to him. But now that I look at his personality, ever since the start he's been nothing but a kind person, and whatever I thought of him was bullshit.

I suppose my 'type' has changed then, because when you are in love with a person, it really doesn't matter anymore. It goes beyond the surface and there are millions more facets to a person than the exterior and I'm glad I had come to that conclusion.

"You may look now, my steed." After the Beauty and the Beast incident, Aaron has never let go of making me sound like I am some sort of foul animal that does to his bidding. Admittedly, he's not far off, but that's not the point. "I present to you... The local carnival because I didn't have time to get flights to Disney World in California." He couples the grand reveal with a very hasty explanation.

Part of me wants to fall over on my side and laugh my guts out, the other part of me has always wanted to go to a theme park of sorts. It's not an uncommon occurrence that I pass this place and each time it looks a sliver of a fraction more enticing than the last, but I couldn't bring myself to set foot in here because, really, it'd be creepy as fuck to walk into a place that's supposed to be filled with children.

"Damn, I thought you were going to take me to your yacht and have more sex on the deck." I nudge him, following him towards the ticket booth.

"So... according to our provisional period terms and conditions," He steals my glasses and puts it for himself then clears his throat. "What do you feel right now Mr. Roman Perry." He scrunches up one eyebrow while the other raises ever so slightly, he isn't able to rise an individual brow for some odd reason. Human anatomical reasons.

I try to get in touch with the things I now call... feelings. In order to get me to speak more openly about said feelings, whenever Aaron asks, I have to share how I feel and not just some bullshit response. This is to help me and I am grateful, it makes me feel like a child, but I am not going to let this relationship fall to shit again.

To my understanding, the slight jumpiness to my nerves and growing anticipation, I am feeling... "Excited?" As soon as the words leave my mouth, a form of something erupts in my chest, like a desire. My eyes go towards the trebuchet looking thing with a cylindrical body and disk bottom, it swings in a circle before coming down. I want to go on that ride, so bad. "Can we go on that thing?"

Aaron seems to be satisfied with my answer, he lays on me a warm smile, the kind that slaps me across the face as I realise how stupid I am to ever have pissed him off. "Good job Roman. I'm proud of you." Though, not from my parents, someone being proud of me makes me want to stand a million feet taller, I've always wanted to show my worth and that little 8 year old Roman Is coming back.

"I'm proud of me too." I smile back, it doesn't feel as weird now... only blissful. "Let's get on that thing."

~

"I never took you for the fearless type." I say and chuckle, leaning against the railing as we wait for the rollercoaster. It is such a strange sensation to have my childlike innocence back in my system when I am almost 30. Maybe this is how Skylar does it, he just channels his inner 5 year old.

Since Aaron is Aaron, he's got VIP passes for everything. He asked me if I wanted them so I said yes, confused as to why he even needed to ask that. Apparently, he feels guilty that all these people would be waiting for a long time to get on a ride while him and I can just bypass them and head on to the ride straight away.

It's not his fault that he practically owns half the stock of the park.

"I haven't been on one of these before. But I know they are safe," He shrugs, pulling his necklace chain up to his lips once again. "Plus, the adrenaline rush from working in the office isn't enough for me anymore." He rolls his eyes sarcastically, "This shit is the real deal." His thumb motions to the rollercoaster, perfect timing as screams from a passing carriage zips past where we stand.

"Kind of annoying when my hair gets in the way though. And my glasses don't help either." I sigh. I'm long sighted so taking them off won't do much harm but it bugs me since I have grown so used to having them on the bridge of my nose, that if they aren't there I'd feel like part of my soul's gone missing.

"But you look hot as fuck with them on." He drops the necklace from his lips and kisses me. "And unless you chop your hair off, I can't help you." He pats my chest just as a staff member comes over with a nice smile, I remember to smile back as well, knowing that this is part of my training to become a normal human. We get guided onto a carriage, the first one. Another couple joins us at the other couplet of the four seater.

My glasses sit in a basket above the designated storage area for bags and such. It hurts to part with my baby. That, or it just hurts to see without my glasses because I'm so attuned to them. Either way, I weep for myself. Good to know that emotions don't take away my sarcasm, I'd be gutted if I reduce to a humourless tray of potatoes.

"How are you feeling?" Aaron asks, smiling over his harness. He's decided to grow out his stubble into more of a beard just to try it out, but he has to keep grooming and trimming it here and there because that man grows hair on his body quicker than a chimpanzee. He doesn't really like my long beard much, which I gladly trimmed down to his desired length since it is long overdue anyway. I have to say, the bearded look doesn't really suit him. The five o'clock is alright, but if it's a slightly longer 7pm summer evening shadow, it'd be much sexier.

"Like I'm being squashed." The harness is clearly made for humans of normal height, which I am not. "But other than my inhuman height and shoulders wider than Pangea, I'm feeling pretty awesome." Flashing an equally cheesy and toothy smile, along with an extended thumb that resembles posters made in the 50s. Aaron has given me some pretty casual history lessons, I have to say, I'm more interested in history than I lead on. Probably why my name is the way it is.

The couple next to Aaron laughs at my expression, making me embarrassed. I slump backwards into the seat, making Aaron grab my hand. It feels kind of good that people laugh at my jokes. So maybe that's satisfaction? Two more to the list of things I've felt in a day. Pretty cool development if you ask me. I'd make a killer comedia-

The cart reaches it's peak and drops. Being at the front of the cart makes everything more vivid I'm sure, the G- forces contort my body in weird ways, causing strange jolts to linger in my limbs and chest cavity. The moment of suspension is the most odd, it feels like my groin is missing something and my whole body is detaching from itself. It makes me shiver when I can't feel my balls. After a minute of spontaneous head trauma and blood rushing to places it shouldn't congregate the coaster comes to a stop.

I step off, feeling slightly lightheaded as Aaron leans into me laughing like a maniac. "I feel like my dick just went into weightlessness and my brain is being compressed by blood clots..." I put on my glasses, feeling worse now that I have brought correcting vision into the equation.

"Actually," Aaron pulls out his oh so sexy know-it-all voice, "You did go into weightlessness because when the cart goes down hill, you move at the same speed because gravity is constant, which creates the feeling that you are floating. But really, you are just falling independent of the rollercoaster."

Well there you go, the more I spend with him, the more I feel like my brain is growing. I'd feel excited for this new found knowledge, but my head just needs a break right now.

"So, Mr. Solomon, where to next?" He pushes the gate as we exit the foyer of the launch pad of the human crusher, or more commonly known as the roller coaster.

"I'm thinking we go have some food, and then look at some random animals they have caged up. Because who needs freedom? Am I right or am I right? My office is my cage." He looks at the map then pulls me towards a fast food restaurant. "I'm craving grease, c'mon meat head."

I let him pull me, because if he didn't pull me.

I'd be standing behind him, marvelling at his impossible radiation of power.

He'd have anyone fooled that he is on a business trip right now, because even if he doesn't try, he has that professional stature and demeanour.

The only thing that makes him Aaron and not Mr. Solomon is that smile.

That beautiful blooming smile.

~

"Very ironic how you coax me into eating a stick of candy floss when I clearly only ever eat chocolate." It's almost evening, meaning it's my part of the date as soon as we leave. It's a fair compromise since I am trying to make an effort and he's always been the activist between the two of us. Hence the argument and the shit storm that followed. Not going to look back too much now, it's a learning experience.

"Oh, you will be very surprised with that I have up my sleeve Roman." Aaron tugs my hand making me stumble a little as I trail behind him, we move towards a small street store looking thing that seems to be trying too hard to imitate an actual street food stall. "Two of those please." Aaron smiles, giving my hand a squeeze as he points at the sign, the man behind the stall gladly starts working. I look at the menu and on the option Aaron pointed are the words 'Chocolate Moustache'.

By the time I even get a chance to decipher what it means, two fluffy brown clouds are presented in front of me. Shaped into two separate crescents that resembled, not very surprisingly, like a moustache. He rips out a tiny piece, shoving it in front of my face. I take it between my lips and, also unsurprisingly, it tastes like chocolate.

I have to work on my reaction towards the element of surprise, or the wow factor. Because clearly I look just as disinterested as I feel.

But the candy does taste good. I have to give him that.

"This ain't bad." I take another piece, popping it into my mouth. It's a combination of casting sugar and a very faint taste of milk chocolate that is masked under layers and layers of sweetness. I like milk chocolate, it's one of the only sweets I can stand without feeling like I just lost my abs from looking at it.

Aaron juts out his bottom lip, raising both hands to his shoulders, palms up to the sky and nods knowingly. "I'll take what I can get." We walk around for a bit, waiting for each other to say something significant enough to close part one of the date off without it being overly sappy. But I know for a fact that part two of this chronology is going to be the definition of thick, clumpy pure Canadian maple tree sap.

The sky looks odd today, it's got it's usual miserable tinge of soft blue with a wash of grey that covers the expanse of the distant clouds. I wonder if they are clouds or just one giant clump of evaporated water. It looks dreamy with the beams of light that break through the thick cover.

"The sky looks like it's going to shit itself again." I say, giving Aaron's hand a firm squeeze. I don't get the gesture of hand squeezing, but it provides a certain sense of safety to me.

Because if I'm not certain that I have that special something in my grasp,

I'd lose sight of it, just like how my hand grows complacent with the presence of Aaron's, slowly numbing the warmth that his hand brings me;

That his existence brings me.

Under the stormy clouds that look like they are about to expel a sea's worth of snow,

I find enough warmth in a single person to give me a heatstroke in the dead of winter.

"Hummm, I wonder if there are more clouds up there or just clear skies..."

The one thing my smart boyfriend doesn't know would be the future,