Be my ROYGBIV

Blue

"Blue is the sky and the ocean. It's a wonder of different emotions, it's happy and light, but also sad and dreary. Blue is the color you see when your first girlfriend breaks up with you or your first boyfriend says he wants to see other people. It's the color you see when you don't win the art contest or you don't get invited to a party. But blue is also the color you see when you wake up to the love of your life every morning. It's the color you see when when you take your little child to the museum and have a calm and fun day. Or a day at the beach on your vacation. It's relaxing and peaceful and sometimes so loving. Blue is mysterious in its ways, it means something different to everyone."

"Fucking finally," Dan gasped tackling the other man in a hug. The man immediately reciprocates and nuzzles his neck. They stay there for a long time just enjoying each other.

"Hi," the man finally says not even letting go.

"Hi," Dan giggles back.

Louise coughs a bit and they finally let go to face her. She smiles widely at Dan, "You can go, I'll take over your shift." She winks before adding, "good to see you Phil."

It takes Dan a second but he catches on a bit. "You know each other?" He asks.

"We've been friends for years," Phil explains

"Never put two and two together that you were that mystery man after both of you sulked for months though," adds Louise. "Guess it's your faults for not telling me the full story though."

Dan turned to gaze at Phil's face somewhere during that conversation.

"Gosh, your so disgustingly in love already, the both of you," she joked, "go on love birds."

The grabbed hands and ran out of the cafe. The giddily walked hand in hand down the street.

"So my name is Phil, but you probably already know that, I don't know your name though." Phil said.

"I'm Dan," the reply was mumbled a bit and was quiet and shy. And at the sound Phil immediately stopped walking and turned to face him. He looked directly into his eyes which were full of concern and care.

"Hey, there is no reason to be shy, I promise I won't hurt or judge you." Phil kindly said with open and earnest eyes. Phil's finger brushes the cheek in the brunet boy and Dan raises his head. Dan felt his heart pulse, he's always been a bit scared to meet his soulmate because everyone who is meant to love him ends up disliking or mistreating him. Or in the case of his father, dead.

"Ok," Dan said quietly with a small flush and a shy smile one his face. Phil seemed different, Phil was sweet and caring and was friends with Louise. "What's your last name?" It was still quiet but he felt better.

"My full birth name is Phillip Micheal Lester," he said with an extremely (fake) posh accent.

"Daniel James Howell," he replied.

"Alright, now serious stuff," Phil said and Dan stiffened, "what is your favorite band?"

Dan barked out a laugh feeling himself completely relax, "Muse."

"No way! Me too!" Phil excitedly jump up and down as they continued walking, not even fully sure where they were going. "You really are my soulmate!" Dan giggles and Phil thinks it sounds like wedding bells.

From there they spent a solid hour talking about music and culture while wandering the park. It was quiet, peaceful, and all Dan could think was the word safe.

"Alright, so tell me your story," Phil proposed.

"My story?"

"Yeah, like, how did you get where you are. Who made you like this. What makes you you?" Phil elaborated and for some reason Dan had a feeling this was a philosophy he lived by.

"Well I was born in Berkshire and I had a mum and a dad, and my dad had cancer growing up, but my parents were really happy and hopeful and they were soulmates so every night when I was a kid my mum would have me pick a color and she would tell me what that color felt like, what it meant, what it was. It was like my nightly bedtime story." Dan stopped, after that the story gets sad.

"And? What next?" Phil asked in a whisper.

"Well, my Dad died when I was 13. And I became very shy and my friends drifted off so I only had a few. And I.. i got bullied at school. My mom didn't grieve well so she turned to alcohol. My mom started dating and she ended up marrying someone when I was 15. That was the time I got my first boy friend, who cheated on my with my only other friend, a girl. And then he proceeded to tell everyone I was a fag and that I forced him to have sex with me. My stepdad turned out to be abusive, he was a jerk. A-and.." Dan sighed and then looked at Phil who was looking at him with sadness but also pride.

"You're so brave," he said grabbing Dan's hand and holding it, "so, so, so brave. I hope you know that."

Phil gently ran his hands into Dans hair, holding his head securely and then looking into his eyes, no more words needed to convey what Phil was saying.

Dan was stunned, nobody but CATD would have replied like that. Dan Gabe a watery smile with his dimples on full display. He really did get lucky with this one, Phil seemed perfect.

Dan reached his arms out blindly and pulled Phil to him, the position want the most well thought out but Dan could hear Phil's heartbeat and in that moment he knew that everything would be okay.

"Go on, there has got to be more," Phil pulled back and was still holding his hand, stroking that back if it with his thumb.

"I finished high school and happily fled to university. There I met my best friend Conner, he helped me through a shit ton of stuff. I ended up hating school but got a lot of lifetime friends. My first year went by well enough but I went home for the summer and things went back to bad." Dan took a deep breath, in and out. "I.. tried to take my own life away and Conner ended up jumping on a plane from America to see me the second he found out I was in the hospital. He brought his soulmate who soon became one of my closest friends. And they took me back to America until school started. My last two years of uni went well and I ended up going to America every summer. I got my degree in phycology. But after I moved back home I found a job working at a homeless shelter but the pay wasn't enough to live off off so I lived with my parents for 2 years. Then they demanded I was too old to be living at home so they shipped me to London. I got a really well paying job at that coffee shop and ended up making lots of friends, I've been here for three months now."

Phil just pulled him into a hug, "thank you."

"For what?" Dan asked.

"For not actually taking your life, for sharing all of that with me, for being a good person with bad things around them," Phil was nearly crying now. "God, in so happy I found you. I'm going to make you so happy.  I'm going to make it my personal goal to make you as happy as a human can possibly can. Gosh, I- I love you. I know we just met but I know I do and I know I will only love you more and more. I don't care if we end up dating or we are best friends. I love you."

Dan laughed and for the second time that day and thought about how lucky they were. He leaned back and rested his forehead against Phil's gazing into his warm sweet eyes.

Blue means home...