[Aaron]

*~*~*

I was a shadow.

One step forwards, two steps back,

Into an unknown abyss, with a storm above;

That my heart had not known was love.

I flew, I chased, I settled down;

On the clouds where a man pronounced me, his crown,

Money, fame; achievements, affairs.

Does not compare to my Fere. (Last word means companion)

*~*~*

After the day at the theme park, I feel much more lightweight than before. It's been literally at least two decades since I've stepped foot in one of those for the purpose of recreation and not business. It really takes me back to the time when I was I kid, wishing that my parents would bring me some day to a marry-go-round. Take pictures and laugh with my sister.

But instead I get a book shoved in my face and several hours of lonely reading.

My parents never really got back to me ever since I had blown up on my father that night at the office. It's been a good 2 months now, not that I am complaining because to be frank, I need a break from their bullshit as much as I need a break from work.

Over the half hour drive, my conversation with Roman is mainly focusing on my job. I've always had trust issues, especially with legislative work around the company. But the very thought provoking conversation sparked something in me to want to let myself go a tiny bit. I'm barely handling my work, and as comforting as it is to say that we are having massive profits, the work load also becomes increasingly overbearing.

"Why not hand over some of the financial stuff to your assistant, she has full certification and does a baller job at managing your stuff. So organisation is no problem." Roman says, looking at me every once in a while as we make our way back to the suburban side of the city. Or Roman likes to call it, the gay side of town where gay clubs are everywhere.

"That's true, she does do a good job..." This is very good advice, I've considered before but I know that my assistant prefers routine and being my assistant offers that, but she is much too capable to be just an assistant. "I suppose it's a better thing to lose my long term assistant than overload myself and fall apart."

"Disclaimer, I am going to be there when you have a mental breakdown up until you start throwing things at me. You office décor consists of too many sharp things." He retracts his arm from holding my hand and pretends to shiver. I laugh at him, the sharp décor is a way to keep things simple I suppose, I never paid much attention to the interior design of my office since it's usually the least of my concerns.

That is one of the things that I have come to love about Roman, the fact that, although he lacks intelligence on paper value, he is conceptually very strong. He knows how to manage his own store well, and from what I can tell he is opportunistic and proactive, which is a strong asset in being a boss. He doesn't show it, but he is very good at what he does.

The other things that I love is the serious conversations we can have. The man is an absolute idiot in talking about emotions but when it comes to serious business he goes very in depth. If I had brought with me a business proposal about an advertising campaign over to Roman's apartment and I start showing him the plans I have, we would definitely have a very fruitful discussion over dinner about the whole thing, giving me ideas that I wouldn't have thought of.

My man's lack of emotions proves to be a strong suit in itself, it allows him to be very strict about things that need to be that way and sometimes the decisiveness is what makes or breaks the deal. He serves as the guillotine to my jury trial, I suppose. A little grim but he does the decision making and I do the consideration of people's emotions.

Damn, would we make a power couple if we worked together in the same company.

I say that, but I know for a fact that neither of us have plans to interfere with the other's careers through our respective businesses. We've made that clear one night while we were having one of those deep conversations. It's not fair and definitely not ethical for me to coax my boyfriend into selling me his business, and Roman has enough integrity to not even think about using my wealth to boost himself in terms of advertising and campaigning.

We are both capable at the what we do and the scale we do things at. The separation is more than necessary for us to work independently of each other.

As we slowly drift through the busy streets of the gay strip, I can hear the thumping music from each individual bar, every single one seems to amplify the bass of the next, making the glass of the window shake visibly. Roman, however, doesn't stop. "I thought we were going to a bar."

He looks at me, offended. "You didn't think I would bring my boyfriend to a gay bar and call it a Valentine's day would you?" I give him a side eye, knowing full well that he would do that just to piss me off and then we will go somewhere that he actually planned for us to go. "Should I get you to blindfold yourself as well?"

"I don't know Roman, should I?" I know he hates rhetorical questions with a burning passion.

"Fuck off with that Belle." I take my eyes off of him and we arrive at the last place I had expected. The great and grand... rental shop. "Get off, we are here." He smirks.

I am so confused right now, I'm glad it is somewhere I am familiar with though, I like the sense of knowing where I am and how things go. Again, reflecting my true nature of a control freak. Sometimes I just can't help it.

He leads me around the actual shop which is still open with just a couple of people in tonight. I hope Roman didn't make them work, because I know the majority of them have a Valentine. I'd feel terrible if they were left behind in the store to stare at couples loving it up as they skate.

In front of me, is a scene of true fairy tales. Lights in pink and red are scattered across the front portion of the lake, making it glow a luminous soft and romantic colour. There are very few couples, perhaps 3 or 4 skating. They probably had better things to do.

This reminds me a lot of the night of the Christmas party. I never got a good chance to reminisce about that one special night. Skylar had somehow made it all appear magical, much like what appears to be in front of me now. Roman and I shared a very casual time that evening, nothing happened, we took it slow for once, but of course, it was kind of late since we already made out furiously the night before. The atmosphere still made it enchanted though, and I have Skylar's amazing voice to thank for that.

I wonder, since every single romantic walk of my relationship with Roman has involved Skylar's singing at one point, including the Beauty and the Beast ballroom incident, would he be here tonight as well?

It is so ironic, I had set out to be the perfect boyfriend for Skylar, but he turned the tables and match made Roman and I without actually match making. My point still stands true to this day though, the fact that Skylar needs his own man. A much more special one that I can ever be.

And when he finds that man, I am never, ever going to let that relationship fall apart.

Just like how he never let mine fall apart.

"Sit here for a moment." Roman guides me to a lone table under a small shed with a candle that he had just lit. The wind is bound to take it out but I digress. I sit there, overlooking the lake. I take a closer look at the sign, next to the entrance of said lake, I never took it in but the name of it is Lake Convergence.

I am not sure whether that is a self employed name for this very special place or if it actually the name of the lake.

But it sounded like too many coincidences are taking place. This very place, in a way did serve as a converging point for Roman and I, we had a first conversation, met a lot of new people, and hung out periodically. Admittedly not as much as Ryland's new bookstore but still, it's one of the few venues I frequent apart from home, office and bookstore.

Coincidence might not be the right word. Since it implies that it is an unlikely event that connects to another. Instead, this would be a serendipitous series of events that don't relate but seem to always come full circle. So serendipitous mightn't even be the right word either.

I break out of my trance as I look out at my man with his skates on, sliding gracefully on the ice. For a man of his weight and size, he sure is nimble under low friction with blades as feet. I'd fall face first and he already knows that.

He twists and turns, sometimes scraping the ice, sometimes stopping and running over his track again. I wonder what he is doing. Though, I couldn't care less as I see him take his hair tie off, Roman hates his hair tie but he also hates his long hair getting in the way. I suggested he keep it short and styled but he looked at me like I just stole his first born and fed it enough sugar to induce diabetes. Utterly offended. Saying something along the lines of 'my hair is my soul, chop it off and part of my pride goes with it.'

Pride. I chuckle to myself. Sounds about right for that lion's mane of a head of hair.

Not sure if I should walk closer to see or not, I just stand and look closer at what he is doing. He is scraping a lot more ice off than before now and he is visibly exhausted. One might think gliding on ice is effortless but no, it is far from it.

I tilt my head, smiling to myself as Roman focuses on his task. He really is a blessing in my life. Like I said, his lack of emotions actually brings a lot to the table, although he get frustrated easily and volatile, Roman is extremely observant when he is level headed and he is just such a humorous man. Adds a little fare to my boring paperwork filled life.

I guess it isn't coincidence or serendipity. It's a fluke. A very happy and fortunate fluke that I met Skylar, then attended the carnival, then met Roman. He cried at our very first encounter. But those tears are of vulnerability. As terrible as it sounds, I want them to come back. I want to know that he feels comfortable enough to let me have a glimpse of his heart. Those clear tears that fall periodically down his cheeks and into oblivion.

The ones that are riddled with pain, but instead, I want tears that are flooded with love and joy. Showing m that he feels the same overwhelming need to hug each other as I do.

Roman stops skating and lands with a spray of ice against his blades. There is a very prominent white line among the ice but I can't make out what it is just yet. He huffs and puffs like the big bad wolf he is, minus the part where he is hunting for innocent pigs building houses or innocent little girls walking through a forest. As he sees me approaching, he stands up, dusting himself off from the snow that's accumulated on his jacket and pants.

"Thank god you walked over, I can't move two inches in snow with these puppies on." I doubt he is able to walk when he's so out of breath either way. Poor thing. I go to hug him, he's such a sweet guy when he wants to be. "Want a hug? Oh... alright then, we are already doing it." He hugs back.

"That was a very good show you put on there." I smile against his shoulder, pressing a kiss to his bearded jaw.

"Wait till you actually see it." He pats my butt and lets me go. Walking over to a bench with our hands held together, I realise that all the previous couples are now gone. Maybe Roman had reserved this time slot, that would be so romantic of him. I've always wanted someone to book out a whole place for me like I do for various occasions but with different intentions.

From a case, Roman takes out a drone, the kind with a camera attached to the bottom. He starts it up expertly with little hassle, on the controller is an iPad with a display of what the drone is currently seeing. He flies it up into the sky, the wind pushing it around slightly but not too bad. He locks the drone in place with a tap of a button and hands me the display.

I continue to stare at his beautiful eyes that glow the same unchanging blue under the cloudy dusk sky. I drift my eyes from his to the screen, on it, is a display with the eagle eye view of Lake Convergence. And on Lake Convergence is a cursive/ calligraphy writing of the words:

Boyfriend?

It's a short word, but I know what he means by this. He's never officially asked me to be his partner in crime, other half, pea in the same pod. I chuckle at the screen, tears blurring my vision. This is such a tacky but sweet effort, from the rigid curve of the 'r' and the slight hick up on the flare of the question mark, it makes it look so imperfect.

But yet, it makes it so much more human and relatable.

The amount of planning that would've gone into doing this would be terrifying. Lake Convergence is big and I don't doubt that on the other side of the fence is a massive practice space for Roman. I smile wide, causing the tears to fall as I lean into a very breathless Roman, the puffs of air he breathes out are opaque with his heat. So much effort into such a short message.

It's so condensed and I can almost feel the love pouring directly from him.

"I was originally going to write the whole thing, but that would take too long and I'm no superman. I tried on the far side of the lake... but I could only get up to 'be' and then I am out of breath. So I opted for a compromise." He huffs again, his arm coming around my waist, pulling me into his side. "So what do you say?"

I look at him. His handsome features being the focal point and the blue and grey clouds serve as a backdrop, adorning this almost perfect moment.

I know there is no such thing as perfection. But if there is, this would be as close as a mortal can get.

"Yeah. Boyfriend." I reply, making him smile softly. The kind of smile that comes naturally to a person, not the wide blinding kind that Skylar seems to have on his face or the ever present smirk on Felix's cunning face. It is mild and timid, the kind that takes a person's innate nature to conjure.

Roman has no doubt grown out of touch with that 'nature', but now, it is back on his face after so many years of being blocked out.

Those clouds seem to perfect the almost perfect moment even further. Just like his smile, it seems like it is second nature for the Overcast to have the enhancing effect on this tender moment.

To my knowledge, tall clouds like the ones above are formed by the convergence of warm air and cold air, pushing the moisture in the air to clump together into a tall angry looking mass of snow-ready clouds.

So perhaps, it's not the convergence of people. It's the convergence of atmosphere and environment.

How the pale pink glow compliments the mild blue ice. How the warm colours converge with the cold colours.

How the perfect music, under the dim lights below the mistletoe that night at the party. How the atmosphere complimented the environment and how Roman complimented those kisses we shared.

It matters not to him or to I what my social status is, how much money I have, how separated we are in the economic hierarchy. But the only thing that matters is how we converge under these unlikely circumstances.

Not serendipity or coincidence. But a happy, fortunate fluke.

The clouds aren't intimidating. What is beyond it doesn't matter to me. Who is sent to the mortal realm isn't of my concerns.

What is in my mind;

Is how the stormy coloured sky,

Clash with his icy blue eyes.

How my mouth moves on it's own as we share a tender kiss,

How my tongue articulates as I say 'I love you'.

How coincidental it is for our time lines to converge at Lake Convergence;

To voice the words,

'Thank you' at the,

Exact.

Same.

Time.