#leoliver

Leo nodded, “Leo.” He didn’t want to talk over the instructor, but other people were. It seemed like a pretty relaxed class. “You been here before?” He faced the younger man, who’s long, light-coloured hair was pulled into a loose ponytail.

“Yeah, she’s my wife.” Oliver gestured at the instructor. “So I’m here a lot of the time. I do colour consultancy for Monochromer potters.”

Ah. Right. So Oliver was one of those people. Who had fallen in love and discovered colour and now was all righteous about helping those who weren’t fortunate enough to see the full rainbow. “Cool…” he glanced around, was he falling into the desperate stereotype of the Monochromers? Coming to evening classes in one last attempt to find love and colour?

“What do you do?” Oliver handed Leo a lump of clay, and threw his own onto his wheel.

Clumsily doing the same, Leo replied. “I’m a midwife.” he said, trying to copy the other man as he started to work the clay. “You?”

Oliver looked impressed for a moment, then answered. “Interior designer. I was a journalist when I was younger, but once I met Mel… well, it’s that age old story. Fall in love, find colour, be inspired… and I wanted to help people who couldn’t see it yet.”

“So you tell people they have bad taste even though they can’t see it?” Honestly? Leo regretted that as soon as he said it. He hadn’t meant to be judgemental and mean, but he was feeling… defensive. And sort of vulnerable. Apparently it was easy to tell when someone only saw in grey, and there was something about falling into the Monochromer stereotype that really sent chills down his spine. Because it meant more than just being colourblind. It meant loneliness.

Oliver laughed though, and shook his head. “Not at all. I get to know the people I work for, find out about them, and try to help them design something that fits their personality. So that if they do unexpectedly discover love some day, they’re pleased with the house they come home to.”

“Oh, right. So you like… hang out with people? But how do you know what colours they’ll like?” Leo had read extensively about the colour phenomenon when he was younger, and he knew that different people preferred different ones, but how could they know which before they’d even experienced them?

“Well, we mostly use neutral colours, and ones that we believe reflect the person. It’s difficult to explain, but colours have a sort of… feeling to them.” Oliver wiped a hand on his apron and reached into his pocket, handing Leo a business card. “I also teach Colour Classes to new Polychromers. You should come, when you need to.”

Leo turned the card over in his hand, getting a bit of clay on it… “Well… if I need to.” He stowed the card in his pocket. “Not looking likely at the moment.”

“You never know. Love could be just around the corner.” Oliver winked at Leo, then started up his wheel again.

As if I’m that lucky. Leo thought to himself, looking back at his clay. Nope. Still a misshapen lump. Nothing like a bowl. “How d’you…” He gestured at Oliver’s wheel, where his lump had somehow grown sides and was starting to look smooth.

“You need to use more water.” He wet his own hands. “And then you just… push it upwards, sort of.” Oliver demonstrated, and then looked up. “Now you try.”

Leo nodded, and dipped his fingers into the water. He wasn’t entirely sure this was for him, but there was no point giving up now. After trying, and failing, to copy what Oliver was doing, he sighed in defeat.

“Use less pressure, you just want to encourage it to become a bowl.” Oliver crossed to sit opposite Leo, and guided his hands. “Like this.”

His hands were incredibly soft. Leo kept his eyes on the ‘bowl’, as the other man gently showed him how to tease the clay into shape… Maybe it was because they were enacting some sort of romance movie cliche, or maybe it was the buzz that he had felt as soon as their hands had touched, but he had felt his cheeks go warm.

“See? That’s better.” The sides of the bowl were starting to take shape, and Oliver was smiling widely at Leo as he glanced up from his work. “Are you alright?”

Leo realised he had frozen, his eyes fixed on Oliver’s. “Oh… yeah… thanks.” He quickly looked away, but his heart was racing. There was something different about the way things looked. Oliver’s eyes… they were… well… different. Leo had no other way to describe it. They seemed to have more depth to them… they were a shade he’d never seen before.

As he avoided Oliver’s gaze, he started to notice other changes. Just a few. The bowl full of water was suddenly a a different hue…

Wait. Was this colour? No… Leo looked at his hands, then at Oliver, then at the instructor…

Oliver’s Wife.

So it couldn’t be colour. It couldn’t be. Not because of him anyway. Oliver already had his soulmate.

Besides… this was nothing like people had described. His sister had said her entire world had lit up… but this was just a few things. And Leo didn’t even know that they were all that different. Maybe there was something wrong with him.

Suddenly feeling very anxious, Leo wiped his hands on a towel and stood up. “I’m uh… not feeling well.” he said, making his excuses to the instructor, but Oliver caught him up on his way out of the door.

“You’ll come back next week, right?” he said, resting a hand on Leo’s shoulder. Leo just nodded, trying to ignore the fluttering in his insides, and then scarpered out of the door.

As he made it outside, he stopped for a second to let his heart return to it’s normal speed. This… had to be a weird coincidence, right? Arrhythmia or something. He should go home, and lie down. He fished his car keys out of his pocket, and checked the sky for rainclouds…

And found himself unable to tear his eyes away… The sky had never been so beautiful. Grey and white clouds were drifting in the distance, but most of it was… well… Leo didn’t have a word for it. It had to be a colour. It had to. He’d never seen anything quite like it in his entire life.

But why was everything else still the normal shades of grey?