winter's weather ~fransykes~

2003

Snow was falling all around us, as we gracefully skated across the ice rink that had been set up in town. Hand in hand, we skidded clumsily along the ice. Well I say we, I mean I skidded clumsily, Oli was way more graceful in the matter.

People skidded past us quickly, paying no notice to the fact we were two teenage boys holding hands. I guess that was one good thing about going ice skating, we wouldn't get any hate for acting touchy because everyone just thought we were holding onto each other for balance.

I don't understand why so many people are still so against same sex couples. It's 2003 for fuck sake, not 1980! Some counties had even legalised same sex marriage, such as the Netherlands and Belgium, giving me hope that one day England would follow.

It was weird how I had never thought being gay was a bad thing, even as a kid in the 90s when everyone still thought it was. I guess  it was because I grew up loving Oli and back then I didn't even realise that other people thought that was wrong because it felt so right to me.

I looked over at Oli, seeing his beautiful smile made everything in my wold seem complete. He was like a ray of sunlight and I just couldn't imagine my life without him.

Since last year we had gotten even closer (if that was even possible) and now we were basically the same person. We talked over the phone every night this year, no matter how much that pissed our parents off for raising the phone bill, and sent each other cards in the post.

Every night I looked down at the ring around my finger and smiled, I haven't taken it off once since he gave me it.

"What are you smiling at." Oli nudged me with his shoulder, making me snap out of my daydream to look over at him. I realised we weren't skating anymore, we were just stood at the side of the ice rink.

"You." I smiled, squeezing his hand in mine. He laughed for a second before leaning into my side and leaning down so that his face was right up against mine.

"Je t'aime." He whispered into my ear, making the butterflies inside my chest flutter so violently I was afraid they were going to burst out of my stomach and fly out through my body.

I didn't know that much French but I definitely know enough of it to know that he was telling me "I love you". Recently, I've been trying to learnt more French so that one day Oli and I could talk in his language instead of mine. I always found it quite unfair that he had bothered to learn my language but I had never leant his.

"Je t'aime toi." I whispered back, turning my face to look at his that was now mere centimetres from mine. I gasped slightly at the sudden proximity, his beautiful doe eyes looking into mine.

"Why don't we go get some hot chocolate? I'm getting a bit cold out here." He asked. I agreed, feeling quite cold myself now that I think about it.

We made our way off the ice and gave in our ice skates back to the rental place. We then wondered down the streets, looking at all the bright Christmas lights that surrounded us.

After a while of mindless walking around, we found ourselves in a small cafe where we sat down next to the window. I looked out the window and into the sky above us. The stars shone brightly in the sky, smiling down at us as we slowly slipped our hot chocolates.

I looked down at my fingers which cradled my warm mug, finding myself staring at the ring around my finger like I always did.

"Have you told your parents that I gave you that ring yet?" He asked. I gave him a sheepish smile.

"No." I muttered. "I didn't know how they would take it. I mean, where would we ever get married? It's illegal here and in England." I ranted. I hated the stupid government for making our love illegal.

"I thought that maybe some day we could run away to Amsterdam together and get married there and not tell anyone until after. It would be our little secret."

"That would be so amazing. I honestly don't care where we get married as long as I get to spend the rest of my life with you." I said, cringing internally at how fucking cringey that sounded.

He grabbed my knee under the table and gave it a soft squeeze, instantly making me melt. I gripped his hand, pulling it off my knee and between the palms of both my hands. I loved the feeling of his hands, they were so rough and he had recently gotten some tattoos on them.

Speaking of tattoos, since last year he had gotten multiple of them on his neck and arms, adding to the ones he already had on his chest. Suddenly, a really crazy idea popped into my head.

"Why don't we get matching tattoos." I blurted out. "Like now."

"You want to get a tattoo? You really think you can handle the pain Franceschi?" He smirked, making me kick his shin under the table.

"Of course." I scoffed, making him laugh. "Don't you want to get a matching tattoo with me?"

"Of course I do, baby." He replied, making me giddy with excitement at the fact he actually wanted to go through with this.

———————

2 days later and we were sat in the tattoo parlour getting our tattoo designs transferred onto our skin. I was so excited, but terrified at the same time. I didn't really know how much this was going to hurt, but from what Oli had said it wouldn't be too bad.

Oli went first, sitting motionlessly through the entire thing like the needles being stabbed into his skin didn't even phase him. When it was my turn however, I was sweating with nerves. My heart was basically pounding out of my chest, and my face probably looked bright red.

I don't understand how Oli could just sit there and take the pain like it was nothing, as soon as the needle touched my skin I wanted to scream. 20 minutes straight of me complaining later, and the tattoo artist was finished and wiping some disinfectant across the area.

I looked down at my arm, instantly falling in love with the little, simple tattoo of mountains that was there. We both got our tattoos on the insides of our arms, in the exact same spot as each other.

It was meant to symbolise the mountains in the distance that we use to look at when we went to the lake as children, the way we would watch the sun rise over them mountains every year together like it was a tradition. In a way, I guess it was.