AN: This uses characters from And the Angels Cried. It can be read independently, but I'd rather it weren't.

Valentine’s Day

How could he just walk away like that? Angelo thought furiously. How dare he? We were hardly finished.

“Kiran!” he yelled at his shrinking form. “Get back here! We are not done!”

Angelo growled when the other did not even pause to acknowledge that he had heard. Kiran’s long blond ponytail waved mockingly as he turned a corner and vanished from sight.

Angelo could not believe it. They had never once had a fight, not in the seven years they had been together, and now he feared they would never see each other again. Kiran’s last few words still echoed unpleasantly in his ears.

“Get lost. I can’t stand to look at you anymore.”

A wave of despair swept over him and he fought to stay standing. Kiran was a constant to him now; he had never imagined life without the blond. Nor did he feel he could live without Kiran; it was a difficult thing for his people to live without company of some kind. He had given so much to Kiran; it hurt to have all he had worked for go up in flames.

“Kiran!” he called out again, a little desperately, but he knew it would do no good. Kiran was probably in his own dimension now. Angelo knew the blond had only walked as far as he had to be dramatic.

He reached a shaking hand to his neck, where a silver pendant hung from a black cord. It was a simple ornament: a circle quartered by a cross, with a line from his favourite poem etched on the back of the circle, yet it had been a gift from Kiran a few years before, his favourite gift, so he had never once taken it off after he had received it. His fingers clenched around the pendant, and he turned on his heel, suddenly sure of what he should do now. Unless the world had suddenly decided to screw him over, he still had a friend to whom he could turn.

A dream is a dream

The dream once made

Shadows on the light of the soul...

“Well—and I hate to say this, Angelo, I really do—you have been together for seven years,” Aaron said. “Maybe he really doesn’t like you anymore.”

“You and Kallias have been together longer and you have never had problems!” Angelo retorted desperately.

Aaron sighed and shook his head. “Kiran’s never seemed like the type who could take being with someone for long to me.”

Aaron could feel his heart breaking as he watched Angelo’s form droop hopelessly. Though he was a year older than the other, they had been best friends practically since Angelo was born. They had an intimacy closer than that of lovers, such that he could easily feel Angelo’s emotions as though they were his own.

“Kiran has never been like this before, though,” Angelo whispered, his eyes trained on the ground. “Even when we first met, he was not this cold. And it feels as though I am responsible, like I did something to upset him this much.”

“Have you?” Aaron asked, though he knew perfectly well his friend had not. That was what else made this talk so hard; he knew exactly what was going on with the blond, and he felt immensely guilty for keeping Angelo in the dark.

“I cannot think of anything I might have done,” Angelo murmured in answered, sounding closer to tears. “And tomorrow is Valentine’s Day as well, and I had everything planned out…”

“Then maybe all you can do is wait for him to come to his senses,” Aaron suggested.

Angelo nodded once and, one moment, seemed to be under control, but the next had him sobbing in Aaron’s arms. “I have never spent Valentine’s alone before! There has always been someone else!”

“I know, Angelo; I know,” Aaron murmured, holding Angelo close. Kiran’s plan for tomorrow had better work, he thought, or that idiot will wish he’d never come up with it.

...A dance with the dance

Of the dance once performed

In the dark of the stars of the world...

Angelo frowned at the hand on his wrist that was currently tugging him along the street. The hand belonged to another human friend, one he was not quite as close to as he was to Aaron, but still close enough not to argue with what he was doing. After all, this was Will, who easily fit his name’s meaning of “determined, resolute protector.”

Of course, the blame had to be placed on Aaron for his current position of being dragged through the streets. Aaron had suggested, once he was sufficiently calm enough to listen, the he spend the night at Will’s, claiming that Kallias would be expecting them to have their apartment to themselves for the night. Though it had felt more like he was being thrown out, Angelo had listened and gone to the Welshman’s, where he had been welcomed warmly, almost as though he had been expected. He decided Aaron must have called to say he was coming, though that seemed…off. Everything had seemed off for the past couple days.

Like this walk. Will had suggested they take a walk shortly after breakfast, but it hardly felt like a walk. I felt more like Will was taking him somewhere, especially with the hand on his wrist.

He blinked, and suddenly they were on another street. Angelo noticed Will’s other arm lowering and relaxed a little. Even after attending the same school, he had a hard time picturing normal, plain, Welsh-accented Will as a magic-user, but he was actually quite powerful. His ability to bend Time and Space had saved both their lives multiple times in the past couple years.

Looking around, he was startled to see that Will had brought them to the campus of their old school. It had changed little in the few years he had been gone from it, though the one change was an obvious one. The campus was much quieter than he remembered, painfully so, and the lack of sound spoke of a loss of hope. The war had finally truly touched the school.

...“And so,” said the lord of shadows on high

“And so,” said the king of the light...

“SURPRISE!”

The shout came as they turned a corner and Angelo felt himself leave the ground when he jumped. He stared wide-eyed at the group of people gathered in front of him, Aaron and Kiran standing awkwardly together in the front, wondering what in the world was going on.

“It is not my birthday…” he said slowly, frowning now.

Aaron laughed, shaking his head. “No, it isn’t.”

Kiran moved shyly forward, passing Will as the Welshman moved to join the group. Angelo noticed for the first time that the blond’s hair was down rather than tied up as was usual.

“I do not wish to speak with you,” Angelo said coldly as Kiran stopped in front of him.

“I know, and I’m really sorry about that,” Kiran said. His eyes were fixed on the ground, making him look oddly vulnerable, and Angelo was suddenly struck with the memory of when Kiran had first asked him out. “Will you let me explain?”

“Of course,” Angelo answered, his voice a little warmer than before.

Kiran nodded once. “I wanted to do something special for you, for Valentine’s Day, this year. That’s what all this is.” He gestured to the gathering behind him. “I may have been a little cold toward you trying to keep it secret, and I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to think I hated you. I could never.”

“But Aaron…Aaron was unhappy with you too,” Angelo said, glancing at his friend.

“Aaron was in on it,” Kiran said softly. “Everyone was. I even got a few people to come back from overseas to be here.”

Angelo gaped at him for a moment, then at the crowd, then Kiran again. Then suddenly, he hugged Kiran around the neck, almost pushing the blond to the ground.

“I love you,” he hissed in Kiran’s ear, “and I was so afraid you hated me. Do not do that again!”

“Will you accept my present then?” Kiran whispered hopefully back. Angelo drew away and nodded, his face lighting up when Kiran pressed a small box into his hand. He curiously opened the box and gave a soft cry; lying inside the box was a delicate silver bracelet inscribed with the entirety of his favourite poem and dripping with charms shaped like his pendant.

Kiran opened his mouth to say something, but never got the chance. Angelo leapt into his arms and pressed a hard kiss to his mouth.

“I love you,” Angelo murmured once he had pulled away.

Kiran smiled. “Always.”

“The dream of the dance is gone to the mist,

And the Angels shall cry tonight.”