#arkh ch5

[potential-fate]

Thomas pulled his wife in close in the shadows of the foyer of the Rivales house. They were finally alone. No guests or friends, no well-intentioned congratulations, or off-hand jokes about starting their family early. Even the rest of the family were still out celebrating, or at least they were squirrelled away in their respective wings of the house. Finally, Thomas had Pia all to himself. 

And he fully intended to take advantage of their solitude as soon as possible. But for the moment, he was content to half dance in the entry of their shared home. 

Pia pulled back slightly to smile up at him, and he couldn’t have been happier. This was exactly where he belonged, no matter how many people warned him against the small town. And people had. His friends or colleagues had tried to convince him to steal Pia away from the tiny town, and while he understood their concern; maybe he even agreed, he also knew that Pia would never have agreed to anything like that. 

[potential-fate]

“Hey, what’s up?” Ashe picked up his phone immediately when Roman’s name had flashed across the screen. He glanced around the room. Roman hadn’t been gone that long. But he didn’t see anything of Roman’s lying around that he’d forgotten. 

Instead, when he finished greeting Roman, he got a string of almost incoherent and panicked cursing.

“Woah, slow down Ro….” Ashe tried, “Okay, okay… Hey, where are you?” 

It would be easier to just meet the other man, than try to translate through whatever Roman was freaking out about. After repeating the question, Roman managed to tell him he was on his own front porch because he needed fresh air. It didn’t seem to have worked, though Ashe supposed it was possible that he could have been worse before calling.  

“Okay. Come over here? okay? I’ll meet you outside.”  

He hung up, searching quickly for his keys, before he slipped on his boots.

[potential-fate]

“Let them judge.” Pia raised her chin. She huffed quietly, “It’s my wedding. Off all the days no one can say anything.” 

Emelia only hummed quietly, but she let the subject drop. 

Pia wasn’t concerned. Someday soon people would accept Elle. It was only a matter of time. Small towns thrived on gossip, but even in a place like Arkhelios, it got old fast. If she was lucky, Roman would do something stupid next month, and everyone would forget about her father’s “new girlfriend”.

[potential-fate]

“Can you hurry up? You’ve checked your makeup like 6 times.” Ellie rolled her eyes, “Lillie!” 

“What!?” Liliana frowned. 

“Okay, I know you wanna look good for—”

[potential-fate]

“I’ve been fighting her off for almost as long, for some hopeless romantic bullshit.” Roman dropped his chin back to his knees, “Which is probably stupid anyways.” 

Ashe grimaced slightly at that and Roman sighed again. 

“She sorta shut up when I started dating Abe, right?” Roman added quietly, “It worked out for everyone. She wanted a way to get at the Helios fortune and legacy since before I was born, and I-... I loved him. So win-win right?” 

Roman shrugged his shoulders and gave the other a small smile, “Except that clearly worked out fucking wonderfully.” 

Ashe let out a short, dry laugh, and Roman went on, “Anyways, she’s been back on it since we broke up, and last night…” 

He trailed off, groaning and pulling his face roughly through his hands. 

“Gave her a good way in, hm.” Ashe finished Roman’s thought for him. 

“Exactly.” Roman sighed, “she gave me a choice, you know.” 

“What possible option is worse than being forced into marrying someone you don’t know?” 

Roman said nothing. He wasn’t sure ‘worse’ was the right term, but nonetheless, when his grandmother had offered him his options, he hadn’t even paused. “She threatened to disinherit me.” 

“....Oh.” 

“I–... I was under the impression they’d never do that… I don’t exactly have competition…” Roman pouted, “but they’re pissed off enough that they’re willing to overlook the fact that my uncle’s adopted at this point.” 

“… and you really don’t think you could manage without your family fortune?” Ashe asked, not unkindly, just curious.

[potential-fate]

“I uh… I thought you’d like it?” He said uncertainly. 

“No it’s nice, I’m not complaining.” Callum brushed their noses together to drive home his point. 

“Oh, okay.” Abe smiled back, “Okay, good. Good.” 

He didn’t need to think about Roman and his stupid new friends. He was having fun with his boyfriend. Here, in the same club, sure. Where he felt completely out of place, while Roman seemed completely at home across the room. But that didn’t matter. He was fine. This was what he wanted. He’d made his choices. None of that mattered. If it showed that he was distracted, Callum didn’t seem to notice. Instead, the blonde tangled his fingers in his hair and pulled him into another kiss. Abe willed himself to actually get lost in it like he wanted to. 

When they broke apart again, the group of strangers Abe was not at all interested in had disappeared again. 

[potential-fate]

Abe bit his lip and frowned. Had he been worrying over nothing this whole time? He supposed that Lucy had reassured him multiple times that Roman was doing fine. Any time he asked, she’d scoffed and told him that Roman was good. That Roman was fine. Maybe Abe hadn’t believed her. A small voice in the back of his mind said maybe he hadn't want to believe her.

But here he was, proof that he was fine. Happy. Some obnoxious redhead was hanging all over him while he chatted with a whole group of people that Abe had never even seen before. And they were all chatting animatedly like they were friends with Roman. Who were those people? Well, maybe he recognized one of the blondes vaguely. But the redhead was new. He was loud, and clearly drunk, but he was, much to Abe’s irritation, also cute. And Roman had an arm wrapped around him to hold him from falling on the floor in the corner that the group had overtaken. 

Abe looked away. Looked back at his boyfriend, who now wore a look of either concern or irritation at being ignored. He wondered what Callum had said after “Please?” that he’d missed in order to cause that look. The blonde raised an eyebrow. He wouldn't dare look back at what had distracted him now. If Callum caught on, that was certain to set him off.

“Okay. Sure.” Abe said, making a quick decision, “I’ll dance.” 

“Really?” The small frown disappeared and Callum smiled happily at him. Abe tried not to compare it to the smile across the room. He ignored the other smile completely, in fact. He didn’t care. Why should he?

“I didn’t think I was actually convincing you.” 

[potential-fate]

He shook his head slightly. Focus.

He looked back at Callum. It didn’t matter. Why would it matter?

“You just have to have fun. It’s not like you have to have graduated from Juliard to dance in a club” Abe made a noncommittal noise to his boyfriend. 

“Please?” Callum pleaded finally, at the same time as Abe’s eyes locked onto exactly what, or rather who, he’d been looking for.

Across the room, Roman was standing with a drink in his hand, and a grin on his face. Abe hadn’t seen him that happy since… Well to be fair, Abe hadn’t seen him much at all since they’d broken up, not accounting for his instagram account. But even there, his photos had lacked a certain flair. Looking at him now, Abe wondered if he’d been misreading the posts he'd seen. Roman certainly looked fine now. More than fine really.