It was very cold, and James briefly thought about how he missed Florida winters, but then Kalen was folding himself into his chest. Immediately, he put an arm around the shoulders of his shivering boyfriend, advising cringing away when Kalen's cold nose pressed into his neck. "Why are we here again?" James asked, though he already knew the real answer, while Kalen did not.

"Because it's good to get outside in winter," Kalen answered. "Seasonal depression is a thing, you know".

"Yes," James confirmed, eyebrows raising when Kalen's fingers pulled at the zipper of his coat, getting it down enough that he could slip his hands into the front and hold them against James's warm chest. He shivered under Kalen's icy fingertips and slid his own hands over them. "But neither of us have that".

Sighing, Kalen pulled back enough to be able to look around. They were standing by one of the park's picnic tables where everyone had decided to leave their things before stepping out onto the ice rink. There were a few other families there as well, but none of them were as big as the Bradford sons, accompanied with their partners.

"Tyler thought it would be a good idea," Kalen grumbled. Over Kalen's head, James met Tyler's eyes. His friend was in the middle of the ice, arms crossed as his surprisingly graceful husband moved around him and taunted him. Tyler's eyebrows raised at James's attention, and his lips parted to ask a very short question. Now? James shook his head and looked back to Kalen. "And everyone else was coming, so we couldn't be the one couple to sit it out".

Everyone was there, much to James's nervousness. His plan had been to get Tyler and Pierce to invite him and Kalen, and then have them back out at the last minute, but Michael has gotten word, and then the whole thing had spread rapidly.

There were the seven Bradford sons, three who shared the last name but had married into the family (Tyler, Ian, and Daisy), and the girlfriends of Brad and Garrett. Joe had arrived alone, as his most recent fling had ended a few nights before. He didn't seem upset to be the one single brother- even Brad had found someone over the years, someone who all of them, even Pierce, actually liked– but that was probably because the other two triplets weren't ever far from him, hovering incase he got lonely.

Only Tyler and Pierce knew the reason why the outing had been planned. James wasn't sure the rest of them would see it as a good surprise.

"Let's go skate," Kalen suggested, tangling his fingers with James's and then using his free hand to zip up James's jacket. "I bet it'll warm us up. We can stop somewhere and get hot chocolate on the way home".

After graduating from college, they had moved back to Illinois, finding an apartment in the City that was a reasonable distance from both of their jobs. It was nice. While they had lived together through college, and had actually gotten an apartment for their last two years, this was the first place they had that really felt like home.

"Yeah," James agreed. "Okay. We'll skate".

Kalen lead him to the rink by his hand, stumbling more than walking with the heavy blades on his feet. James laughed, and Kalen shot him a fond look.

***

Between the two of them, Kalen was much better at skating, having spent his entire life in a place where snowfall and ice was inevitable. James followed his lead, appreciative of the slow pace Kalen set for his sake.

He could feel Tyler's eyes on him the entire time, waiting, and it only made James feel more nervous.

He had to do it. Soon.

Now.

"Uh, Kalen?" He began, voice cracking as he shoved his free hand into the pocket of his coat. His fingers sought out the small square box there and he squeezed it tightly.

"Oh," Kalen breathed, slowing to a stop. James squeezed his eyes shut tightly, assuming they were stopping because he had been too damn obvious, but then Kalen spoke again. "It's snowing".

James peeled his eyes open, tilting his head back to stare up at the gray sky. Sure enough, snowflakes swirled through his vision. He looked back down at Kalen, a smile pulling at his lips as his boyfriend stared up at the sky with wonder, as if this was the first time he had ever witnessed snowfall.

He was just fucking beautiful.

James wondered why Kalen was dating him, but he shut down those thoughts quickly. It didn't matter why. What mattered was that he was going to spend the rest of his life proving to Kalen that he deserved him by making him the happiest person alive.

"Kalen".

"It's so pretty," Kalen said, not listening to him. He dropped James's hand and skated forward a bit. "I really couldn't imagine living anywhere else. I really want our kids to be able to experience winter".

James's heart squeezed. "Kalen". He said it a little louder, and this time his boyfriend was quickly to look at him. 

"Yeah?" He asked, golden eyes concerned. "Are you Alright?"

"Yeah," James confirmed softly, smiling at his worry. He felt completely calm as he drew the small box out of his pocket, fingers still wrapped around it tightly. Kalen's gaze dropped to it, and his eyebrows drew together.

"What-"

"Kalen," James cut in, and his boyfriend's eyes snapped up to his face. "I know this is really long awaited so I'll skip to the good part and spend the rest of our lives explaining to you why, so..." he opened the box and Kalen's eyes grey incredibly wide. "Kalen Bradford, will you-"

Kalen had begun to move forward at a pace too quick for him to manage on the ice, and then next thing James knew was that his boyfriend was on his hands and knees in front of him. He was also possibly crying.

Swearing, James also dropped down onto the ice, lifting Kalen's hands to see if they were bleeding. "Are you hurt?"

"No, you idiot," Kalen sobbed before throwing his arms around him and squeezing him tightly. "Nothing hurts right now".

"Then why are you crying?" James asked, wrapping his free arm around Kalen as the man cried into his neck. His other hand was stuck uncomfortably between them, open ring box still in his palm.

"Because I'm happy," Kalen explained, pulling back just enough to kiss him.

He was all wet, his cheeks, his mouth, his nose, but James couldn't care less as he kissed him back with just as much vigor. When they pulled away, James could feel moisture on his own face. Whether it had come from himself, of Kalen, he didn't know.

"Marry me".

"Yes," Kalen breathed, speaking against his skin, lips warm. "Yes".

Laughing, James brought his free hand up to his face to kiss him again, feeling very fond. When he pulled away, he put enough distance between them that he could free the ring from its place resting in the box and grab Kalen's hand.

"Hey, you guys alright?" One of the triples asked, but James didn't raise his head to see which one, focused on Kalen's ring finger as he slowly slid the golden band down it. When he raised his gaze to Kalen's face, he smiled at the sight of Kalen staring down at his hand, lip pulled between his teeth to fight a smile.

"Is it... is it good?" James asked, referring to the band. Kalen looked up at him and let his smile show.

"It's perfect," he answered. "Finally, everything's perfect".