Archive of Our Own

Love, to Mikleo at least, was a bit like a flower.

Fleeting, elegant, changing and growing with the fluctuations of seasons, the edges curling like petals of glittering emotions that hummed with happy warmth.

Rooted deeply within his heart in inescapable vines, that flower had started as a small bud that buzzed in the giggly affection of children of laughter that bubbled over lips and hummed between chubby hands twined together- but, as age and time wore them down well, that tiny bud decided to creep open in inky-indigo petals of subtle realizations and lazy smiles that tugged at his heart.

From the start, Mikleo knew he loved Sorey to some degree- a friend, a constant attachment to his hip, his equal opposite- but it wasn’t long before he slowly put the pieces together, from the need to protect him, the longing to be near him, to the elegant lines of the mysterious marks that curled around Sorey’s eye in scintillating shades of lilac and crystalline blue- the same lines on Mikleo’s own face, the color of his own eyes- and Mikleo slowly came to realize that he’d crossed the blurry line of friend/lover.

He didn’t just waltz over either- no, it was messy and painful and slow, like a slow-acting poison that terrified Mikleo because Isn’t it wrong to fall in love with your best friend?

(Once he’d finally come to terms with his tumultuous heart, he’d carefully set it aside to bloom in the moonlight, and he’d come to covet the secret and gorgeous flower that sang in glorious blues and greens and glowing silvers run through with indigo-purple, yet he vowed to keep it to himself to spare the gentle heart of his friend.)

And so, Mikleo has kept his heart quiet-
But quiet doesn’t last in a land wrought in thunderingly loud danger and humanity.

—

Mikleo remembered- with violent clarity- the first time he and Sorey has visited the human world, and just how loud humankind was.

He’d been stunned when he first stepped foot into the bustling city of Ladylake and was assaulted by color and sound and bodies, and remembered how unreserved some of the humans were, like the girl with cherry hair who had kindly let them in, only to turn around and deviously demand payment- Rose, he now knew, and the debt was still stubbornly joked about.

He remembered the first time he met Alisha, and had been stunned by her unwavering belief in the Seraphim despite not being able to see them, as well as her loyalty to her country despite being the last in line for the throne. Most of all, he’d been amazed by her absolute and continued trust in Sorey both before and after becoming the next Shepard.

Humans were fascinating, to say the least, but what startled him the most were the iridescent and intricate marks present on nearly everyone he saw- peeking out from collars and sleeves, or hidden under hems of shirts or creeping from under rucked up pant legs; they were nearly identical to the one on his face, but he saw none the the same degree of complexity as his as it curled from under his ear and up and around his right eye like a flowering vine.

What do they mean? he’d questioned in mild panic, and his eyes had kept flicking over to Sorey, but thankfully his companion hadn’t seemed to have been bothered by it. (Mikleo knew they meant something as he’d asked long ago, only for his eight-year-old self to forget the majority of it, but he knew it was important- he just wasn’t sure how.)

If anything, Sorey was completely oblivious to the connections until it had been brought up by Alisha on the carriage ride after the Hellion fight in the Sanctuary, after Sorey had been claimed as the Shepherd.

“If you don’t mind my prying,” Alisha has started hesitantly, glancing over at where Sorey was seated next to her, “have you met yours yet?” She tapped at her cheek in emphasis, and Mikleo’s heart seized in his chest.

Sorey gave her a confused glance. “What d’you mean?” he asked sincerely.

She frowned. “Your soulmate,” she reiterated, but his eyebrows only narrowed. She hummed in confusion. “Your mark is rather prominent- have you not met them yet?”

“Eh? What do you mean ‘soulmate’?” he replied. “And what mark?” he added.

She tilted her head at him in gentle confusion. “Do you not know about soulmates?” she asked, faintly incredulous.

He shook his head, crossing his arms and screwing his lips to the side in thought. “Mm, nope,” he eventually responded. “Mikleo and I have read just about all of lore we had in the libraries back home, but I don’t remember anything about ‘soulmates’.”

(Mikleo’s nails dug into his knees at the word, and faint memories started to bubble back in the back of his mind. Lailah gave him a concerned glance.)

“You said you are human, right?” Alisha said, and continued after Sorey nodded. “But you lived alone with Seraphim for your whole life- do they not have soulmates?”

Mikleo’s heart clenched when Sorey’s eyes flickered over him, but it seemed the action was habitual as he chewed his lip in contemplation, fingers drumming on his arms. “I don’t think so, from what they told me,” he said, “but they never said anything about my birthmark either.”

Alisha smiled. “Perhaps I should just try explaining it to you,” she started, and he smiled brightly. (Mikleo’s heart lurched involuntarily at the sight of it, and he cursed at himself.)

Alisha drew herself up and cleared her throat. “When a person is born, they are born with a mark somewhere on their body- the more intricate and visible, the stronger the bond is,” she began.

“Bond?” Sorey interrupted, but Lailah hushed him.

Alisha continued. “Someone in the world also has a mark similar to yours; sometimes they match perfectly, or sometimes they complement each other-“

‘These marks are how human souls are bound together,’ a memory hummed in Mikleo’s ears in the voice of Gramps, and the pieces slotted together.

“But they act as a gateway to finding your destined person, platonic or not.”

(‘And it it how they are bound forever and for eternity, two souls as one.’)

Sorey’s eyebrows drew in again. “What do you mean?”

A small smile crept onto Alisha’s face. “While some people choose to stay good friends with their soulmates, most typically end romantically, as a soulmate is the perfect harmonic part to your soul.”

Sorey’s eyes widened, and his fingers stopped drumming. (Mikleo was chanting please don’t let him know please don’t let him know-) “That’s... incredible,” Sorey eventually breathed, and Mikleo slowly releases the breath he’d accidentally held.

“It’s rather romantic,” Alisha agreed, “which is why it tends to be a hot topic.”

Sorey nodded. “I can understand why, but wouldn’t it be a bit, I dunno, embarrassing being asked about it all the time?”

Alisha laughed, the sound bright in the cabin. “Ah, but there’s no fun in that! It’s always friendly, but if there’s a boundary not to be crossed I never try to press,” she answered sincerely.

“I understand,” Sorey answered brightly.

Alisha’s face sobered slightly, back into careful curiosity. “Does this mean that Seraphim don’t have soulmates?” she asked.

“It doesn’t sound like it,” Sorey answered truthfully, before tilting his head up toward the ceiling, eyes scanning the wood there as he thought. “After all, I’ve never seen them with any of those marks- actually, the only other person I’ve ever even seen with a mark like mine is M-“

He cut himself off with a yelp as Mikleo’s boot slammed into his shin, and Sorey hissed in pain as he leaned down to nurse it. “Ow , Mikleo, that hurt!”

Alisha looked startled, and Lailah was giving Mikleo an incredulous look, who had his arms crossed tightly over his chest, lips pulled in a taut line that clashed with the beet-red flush of his cheeks.

“What happened?” Alisha asked, bewildered, and Sorey winced as he leaned back up.

“Mikleo kicked me,” he complained, and Mikleo felt guilt cut through him at his response. I didn’t mean to kick him that hard…

( Mikleo, what’s wrong? Lailah mouthed to him, but he shook his head sharply.

It’s nothing.)

Alisha looked at Sorey worriedly, eyes flicking across the cabin to where the Seraphim were sitting, despite her not being able to see them. She coughed lightly. “So, your mark,” she started, trying to change the subject. “I’ve never seen one so detailed before, and certainly never one with so many colors!”

Sorey’s fingers absently traced the line down his cheek. “Really?”

She shook her head. “The fact that it’s so colorful while also being in such a prominent place means that your bond with your soulmate must be incredibly strong,” she said, before her face fell slightly and she added nearly silently “I’m almost jealous”.

Mikleo heard her, and looked at her curiously. Why so?

“Why?” Sorey asked, echoing the unasked question. “What does your mark look like?”

Surprisingly, Alisha flushed, hands curling into fists on her lap- wrist down. Mikleo tracked the motion, tilting his head.

Sorey realized her discomfort, and shook his hands frantically. “You don’t have to show me if you’re uncomfortable with it,” he apologized hastily.

“It’s okay, Sorey,” she placated, fingers loosening from their fists. “It’s just that, um, well, mine are a tad strange.”

( Mine are ? Plural?)

“I want to see!” Lailah chirped excitedly, and Sorey jumped at the sound of her voice.

Alisha gave him a look. “What is it?”

“Ah, Lailah just said she wanted to see it,” he answered.

Alisha nodded hesitantly before sliding the buckle of her gauntlets up and flipping both of her hands over to bare her wrists, and Mikleo’s jaw dropped slightly as he saw them: just on the soft skin of her inner wrists were two circles- one on each- made of a winged snake devouring its own tail and a laughing skull in the center; each mark was a dampened copper-red, and looked more like a warning sign than a symbol of love.

“ Woah,” Sorey breathed, before looking up at her excitedly. “You have two! That’s so cool!”

She nodded mutely, not looking him in the eye as she tugged the buckles back over them. “It’s odd enough that I have two, but the fact that they look so, so-“

“Scary?” Sorey filled in, at the same time Mikleo said “Foreboding?” They froze and looked at each other, before Sorey smiled goofily as Mikleo shook his head with a snort. Always so in synch...

Alisha’s eyebrow faintly twitched upward, but she continued nonetheless. “I’ve always felt somewhat insecure about them, and I’m... well, I’m actually worried about what kind of person they could be,” she confessed, eyes trained on her hands.

Sorey hummed, before reaching over to place a hand on her wrist. “I’m sure you’ll be happy with whoever it is,” he said warmly, and she smiled shyly back up at him.

Mikleo was half-torn between grumbling at Sorey’s affectionate hand on hers and scoffing at his naïveté, but Lailah responded before he could do either.

“You didn’t even know what a soulmate was five minutes ago!” she teased, and Sorey’s face twisted into one of mock offense.

“I was trying to make her feel better!” he whispered, and Mikleo snorted at how serious he sounded, earning a bewildered look from Sorey at the sound. Mikleo covered his mouth with his hand and turned to look out the window, the back of his neck burning in embarrassment.

“It’s fine, Sorey,” Alisha, patting his hand. “I’m sure the time will come and all will be well, but thank you.”

He retracted his hand but smiled brightly, a full-teeth, eyes-closed smile that made Mikleo’s stomach flip. “Of course! You’re my friend now, right?”

Alisha chuckled warmly, before holding out her hand to him, formal and royal. “Thank you for making my acquaintance, Sorey the Shepherd,” she said, words tall and routine, yet amusement danced in the lines of her lips and the corner of her eyes.

Sorey smiled wider before shaking her hand. “A deal’s a deal, Alisha Diphda,” he replied, before they both broke out into happy laughter.

Mikleo smiled absently as his eyes slipped over from the window, mouth still covered by his hand. Despite the smile, however, it couldn’t chase away the chill that tugged at his ribs.

He’s getting along well, as usual-
With humans and not Seraphim... as he should.

(It was jealousy but not, more of an ice-water realization: At this rate, he won’t need me.
A few weeks later and he would follow that train of thought, leaving the party in search of an Artifact to make him stronger, make him of use to Sorey.)

After getting out the carriage, Lailah stopped Mikleo and asked him what was wrong, curious as to why he’d been so off during the ride. Mikleo had only shaken his head and waved her off, telling her it was nothing- she hadn’t been convinced.

——

Despite the interrogation, Sorey never once questioned the mark on his face, nor how it matched Mikleo’s own perfectly, instead focused on his duty as a Shepherd to the point of near exhaustion and the extreme frustration of Mikleo.

Little by little, the circle opened up, Sorey’s warm presence magnetic- the grumpy earth Seraph Edna, after the promise to save her older brother from his Tainted form of the Dragon; Zaveid, the wind Seraph who refused to stop fighting the dragon until he defeated it, and even Rose, the assassin of the Scattered Bones sent to kill Alisha herself; they’d been in for a shock when they discovered they bore matching marks on their wrists, though Rose’s were of gold.

Sorey was a beacon of good and light, and had no qualms in sharing that smile of his with anyone and everyone, and it made Mikleo’s chest ache as he stood to the side, silent and invisible.

It had been almost two months since Sorey had been named as the new Shepherd, two months since Mikleo came to the human world with Sorey, two months since he realized he not only was long in love with the idiot but his soulmate, despite he himself being a Seraph.

Frustrated, frazzled, and stupidly enamored (he could watch the lines of Sorey’s smile all day, or the lines of his back when he fought, or the deep green of his eyes, or-), Mikleo eventually found himself pacing the halls of the inn wing they were staying in, fuming at himself as he thumbed at the mark on his face.

Rose and Sorey, with an excited Lailah (and begrudging Dezel) in tow, had gone out for a supply run about an hour ago, and Mikleo was left to his own devices, trapped in the room he was to share with Sorey for the rest of the week. (Edna decided to hide away for the day in her own room, mumbling something like “you’re all too loud” before slamming the door shut in their faces.)

With a resigned huff, Mikleo eventually turned sharply at the end of the hall in search of the room there, and hesitantly knocked on the door.

“Rose, is that you? Are you guys back already?” Alisha called, voice muffled through the wood.

Debate and unease squirmed in Mikleo’s stomach, hands squeezing into fists before answering. “Uh, no, it’s just me, Mikleo,” he answered hesitantly. “The others are still out.”

The door was suddenly opened, and the princess peered at him in confusion, dressed in casual wear with her hair down. “Mikleo? Is everything alright?” she asked worriedly, eyes looking for a spot to look at as he remained unseen. “Your voice sounds all staticky.”

Mikleo plucked at the sleeves of his nightshirt. “I... I just have some questions, if that’s okay,” he said quietly, uncharacteristically uncertain. She trusts Sorey, and I trust her... why am I so uneasy?

She nodded hesitantly. “Of course, come on in,” she said, waving at him to follow her.

She plopped down on the floor next to her bedroll before combing through the tangles in her hair. Silently, Mikleo sat down in front of her, crossing his legs stiffly.

“Where are you?” she asked, looking around.

“I’m sitting right in front of you,” he answered, the age-old frustration of invisibility biting at his tongue.

She hummed. “If it’s okay, may I hold your hand? You’re hard to hear today, and it might better help me keep track of where you are,” she suggested, holding out her hand.

He started to nod, before stopping at the realization that it was a futile response. Tentatively, he placed his hand in her own. “Can you hear me better?” he asked.

“Yes, I can,” she said warmly, before her face sobered. “But you still sound… off. Is something wrong?”

Mikleo chewed on his lower lip- a nervous habit he’d long picked up from Sorey- before slowly releasing a breath. “I just- I have a question, about human soulmates,” he eventually forced out.

Alisha’s eyebrows rose. “Soulmates?” she repeated. “But I thought Seraphim don’t have soulmates like we do.”

Mikelo huffed quietly. “That’s what I have a question about,” he said. “Do you think you could tell me a little more about them? Like you and Rose know now- what is it like? How did you know?

His words were a little overeager, like a young child asking excitedly about something, and she squeezed his hand with a small smile. “One question at a time,” she teased, and Mikleo stiffed. “It’s alright; there’s no harm in being curious, and after hearing you two go on for hours about ancient history and ruins, it doesn’t surprise me.”

He screwed up his nose in irritation as he remembered the countless debates he and Sorey had had, one getting so heated and dragged out that Edna had to smack both of them with her umbrella to shut them up, complaining that she was trying to sleep despite the jostling of the cart they’d been riding in.

She laughed, and he gave her an inquisitive look. “I can feel your stubborn affection, Mikleo- it’s practically radiating off of you,” she said, and his face went hot.

“Can we change the subject?” he mumbled, and she only laughed harder.

“So, soulmates- what would you like to know?” she asked, amusement still coloring her voice.

Here it is- the damning question. “Do you… know if a human and a Seraph can be bound in the same way as soulmates?” he asked, decidedly not looking at her.

She blinked- once, twice, and Mikleo felt his stomach twist. “What?”

Mikleo tried to backpedal, sputtering something else about ‘only if it was hypothetical, of course,’ when she cut him off. “Mikleo, do you have a human soulmate?”

Mikleo’s eyes slid shut when he heard the question, hissing out a low breath as the words settled in like a curse. He didn’t want to face it, wanted to bury it so it couldn’t hurt Sorey-

“Mikleo?”

His eyes snapped back open, and he belatedly realized he’d been squeezing her hand a little too tightly, and immediately loosened his grip. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-“

“ Mikleo , it’s alright,” she chastised lightly. She looked at him then (as best as she could), her eyes soft and empathetic- patient. “Does this mean you do?”

Mikleo lowered his head, and forced out a “yes” in a weak syllable, scared and ashamed.

“What’s wrong with that?” she asked, and he lifted his head back up in surprise to stare at her, meeting determined eyes. “If you were matched with them then it must be significant for some reason.”

Mikleo sighed, one hand reaching up to card through his hair as his heart pounded painfully. “It’s just that... I have no idea what it is to ‘have a soulmate’, and he’s just so oblivious that it doesn’t really register that we’re-“

“He?” Alisha parroted, and Mikleo cringed. Dammit.

“Um, yes.”

She hummed thoughtfully, before her face twisted into confusion. “Wait, hang on, are saying he has no idea you two are soulmates?” she reiterated. “So you’ve already found him!”

At this rate, she’ll know- this was a mistake-

“Yes, but he’s a dense idiot who can’t see what’s right in front of him,” Mikleo said bitterly, immediately regretting the words when Alisha burst out laughing.

“Well, if that doesn’t sound like someone we know,” she giggled, and Mikleo was beyond grateful she couldn’t see the terrified look on his face.

“Yeah, what a coincidence,” he mumbled, but she didn’t hear it.

As her laughter subsided, she spoke up once again. “I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t offend you,” she apologized, and Mikleo shook his head.

“It’s alright,” he replied.

Suddenly she snapped her fingers, nearly making Mikleo jump. “You asked me earlier what it’s like to find your soulmate, yes?” she asked, remembrance bright in her words.

Mikleo opened his mouth to reply, but found his face had gone warm once again in discomfort. It’s just too casual, too dangerous. He was eventually able to utter an ineloquent “Uh-huh”.

She smiled gently before starting. “Now, finding and falling in love with your soulmate are two very different things,” she began. “Obviously, you know what it feels like once you’ve found yours, but there’s still a bond that needs to be forged- a merging of souls at the very core as you awaken the bond within each other.”

Mikleo’s eyes widened at her explanation. “But we’ve already done that- at...least on my part,” he blurted, before tacking on the final part quietly.

She nodded. “It starts with simple things- wanting to be near them, to protect them, as they become an undeniable fixture in your life; you simply can’t live without the other,” she continued, smiling softly down at her wrist where her mark shone in the dim light. “That’s when you know you’ve truly fallen for them.” The look on her face was reverent and shy, like something pure and private that Mikleo wasn’t supposed to see.

But I’ve... “already loved him for so long,” he whispered, mostly to himself, the admission making his face flush hotter-
And the mark on his face shifted colors, warming under his skin. His eyes widened.

“Is something wrong? Your fingers just clenched,” she asked cautiously.

He sucked in a silent breath. “No, everything’s fine,” he answered. “My mark is just being odd.”

She tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

“It kind of got warmer,” he answered, and she creased her eyebrows.

“It changes?” she asked. “That’s strange.”

Mikleo picked at his pants. “Usually it’ll just shift colors and such, but it’s never changed temperature like that before.”

“Mikleo,” she started, and he looked back up at her perplexed expression. “Marks don’t usually change.”

His eyes widened. “...Oh.”

“Maybe it’s because you’re a Seraph?” she mused, but he has no answer for her.

“I came here to ask you the questions,” he reminded.

“Ah, I guess you’re right,” she replied, her softness peeking out just enough to make Mikleo nearly forget this was a well-trained knight who could easily take a man down with one blow.

His awkward silence filled the room, and his fingers itched from being held for so long.

“I have one more question for you, Mikleo,” she said suddenly.

He wanted to leave, escape from the archeology and excavation of feelings that left him jittery, but he stayed put. “What is it?”

“What do you look like?”

The question rang in the room like the bells of a clock tower.

“What?”

“I can’t see any of you,” Alisha clarified, “and it frustrates me just a bit that I travel with all of you but I haven’t the slightest idea what you all look like, so I just decided to ask you first.”

Mikleo was flummoxed, to say the least. “Me? But why?”

She gave him a somewhat sad smile. “You’re an important part of this group as well as an important person to Sorey,” she explained, letting the final part of her question go unvoiced.

His face started to burn again, much to his chagrin, before he cleared his throat awkwardly. “I think Sorey would be better at this than I would,” he admitted.

She sighed. “Just try a bit- it can’t hurt,” she urged gently.

His teeth found their way back into his lip, debating his response. “Well, I have light hair- it’s kind white, and according to Sorey it’s ‘soft like a cloud’ or something, and I’ve got... light eyes, I guess?” he started. “I’m taller than you by a little bit, but I’m still shorter than Sorey, but Edna’s the shortest out of all of us despite her curmudgeonly attitude.”

His proceeded to stumble through another set of poor explanations before she shook her head with an amused smile. “You can stop now; I think I have a faint picture,” she said, and relief untied the knots in his chest.

He could feel that he’d relaxed somewhat since the conversation started, but he felt exhausted having his heart so nearly on display.

“Speaking of Sorey,” Alisha began, “does he know?”

Mikleo tilted his head. “Know what?”

“That you have a-?“ Alisha was interrupted by the door suddenly swinging open with a giggling Rose and a slightly-pained Sorey stumbling in, and both Alisha and Mikleo stared at the pair incredulously.

“I told you not to do it!” Rose laughed, snorting when Sorey leaned against the door jam cradling his arm.

“I didn’t know it was going to break!” Sorey whined, and Rose’s laughter only grew more raucous.

“What’s going on?” Alisha asked abruptly, and Rose looked up at her with tears in her eyes.

“This idiot-“ she jabbed her thumb toward Sorey, who squawked in indignation- “decided to try and jump over a stack of boxes in the alley and ended up tripping because the bottom one broke.” As she finished retelling the story she broke into fresh laughter, and Sorey started pouting at her.

Mikleo’s eye twitched.
While he was still concerned for his friend, he simultaneously wanted to slap him for being idiotic.

As if reading his thoughts, Sorey looked up to see Mikleo, and Mikleo froze. No no no-

“Mikleo, what are you doing in Alisha’s room?” he asked. “And why are you holding her hand?” he added confusedly.

Mikleo yanked his hand from hers as if he’d been burnt, and Rose gave him a wicked grin in his direction. “Tryin’ to get down and dirty with my soulmate, eh?” she teased.

Mikleo’s face turned cherry, clashing awfully with the green-copper of his mark. “No, honestly, I just had a question-“

“Mikleo, are you blushing?” Sorey interrupted, and Mikleo shot him a glare.

“Oho?” Rose’s grin turned predatory, and Mikleo just lurched to his feet and tried to shove his way out the door, stumbling out into the hallway as without looking up.

“Where ya goin’, Loverboy?” Rose called. “I’ll have you know she’s taken!”

“Shut up, Rose,” Mikleo fired back dryly, before stalking his way back to his room and slamming the door shut.

Heart pounding and mark whirling in dots of color, Mikleo pressed a hand to his chest as he sank to the floor, back to the door. “That was far too close a call,” he murmured.

They can’t know- he can’t know, but... he ran through what Alisha had told him, mind settling on one thing: “When they become an undeniable fixture in your life; you simply can’t live without the other; that’s how you know you’ve truly fallen for them.”

Mikleo buried his face in his knees with a groan. Stupid Sorey, stupid pretty face, stupid stupid stupid.

(He didn’t come out at all for the rest of the night as he lamented his poor love life, but Sorey came to apologize to him later in the night, and Mikleo begrudgingly let him in and eventually bandaged his hurt wrist, both of them eventually falling asleep together in Sorey’s bedroll, as close as they were when they had been younger.
Mikleo’s flower-heart hoarded the moment greedily.)

——

The work and the trial of the Shepherd was a dangerous and lonely path, and it was not for the weak of heart, nor ones weak with the strains of lovesickness.

Simply put, purifying hellions and the earth around them was deadly, and a single wrong move could shatter those flower-petal hearts.

In one second, they were perfectly blended- heartbeat-to-heartbeat, fingers easily hooking behind the bowstring as every arrow reached their target as easy as breathing as they danced through the air- and the next they were falling, struck just as the final shot hit the remaining hellion, purifying it, but it had flailed its claws and smashed into them.

Falling from the heavens like a cruel excuse of an angel, the Shepherd slammed hard into the square of the town, the impact bone-shattering and brutal.

With the Armatus broken, Mikleo separated from Sorey to slump over onto to the stones, chest heaving as he braced himself on his forearms. His head was spinning from the impact, and the ground beneath him swam.

He heard Edna materialize next to him, and looked over with her name on his tongue to find her crouched next to Sorey, face uncharacteristically twisted in panic, and his mind snapped back into function as his eyes landed on Sorey’s pained face.

“Sorey!” he cried, pushing up from the ground with a faint wince to kneel next to Sorey, who was flat on his back and struggling to push up onto his elbows before dropping with a muffled hiss of pain.

Mikleo’s stomach dropped as his eyes skittered over him, catching on the wicked wounds that tore messily across Sorey’s stomach and left hip- three large claw marks like crimson crevasses that stood out like a sickening warning sign against the white of his Shepherd’s cloak. The hellion, he realized with a twist in his chest, it must have sliced us when we got the final shot in.

His internal alarms were interrupted as Sorey tried and failed to sit up again, clutching at his ribs with a gasp. Mikleo’s eyes went wide in horror as he put the pieces together, and he gently pressed Sorey’s shoulders down to keep him still.

“Mik’eo, what’re you doing?” Sorey slurred from pain, trying to force himself up. “I need to- I have t’ get up.”

“Your ribs are broken, idiot,” Mikleo admonished, but his attempt at annoyance fell flat to panic. “Probably from the fall...” His voice was whittled away to shaky notes, and he saw Edna peek curiously at him.

People were starting to gather around them, trying to find the source of the crash, and Mikleo’s panic started to pound against his ribcage as it ratched up. Oh no, oh nonono.

“Mikleo, let me up, we need to go- shit,” he hissed the final word when he twisted too sharply, and his hand flew up to press against the gaping wounds across his stomach.

“He said stop moving, dummy,” Edna chastised as Mikleo chased Sorey’s hand from the wounds to press his own against them, heart lurching as more blood spilled between his fingers. Sorey groaned and leaned his head back into the stone, fingers curling into fists and eyes clamping shut as his breaths went ragged.

“Is that the Shepherd?”

“What was that sound? What’s happening?”

“Is that blood?”

Ignore them, Mikleo thought caustically, razor-winged butterflies tearing at his throat. He can’t die, I can’t lose him- “Edna, do we have any supplies left?”

Edna shook her head. “We were already low, and the rest shattered on impact,” she replied, and Mikleo swore under his breath.

“Where are Rose and Lailah? Are they nearby?” he switched, stomach roiling as he felt Sorey’s body shake and twitch under his fingers.

Edna shook her head again, eyes solemn, her hands pressing down gently onto Sorey’s right shoulder and chest to keep him still- but Mikleo could see her arms shaking.

Mikleo’s attention dropped back to Sorey’s face as another gasp slipped from his lips, and pure hurt shredded at his heart as he saw how much Sorey was trying to restrain his pain. If it’s nothing, he’ll wail for hours, but when he’s really hurt, he won’t say anything ; that’s just the way he is.

Mikleo worried at his lip as an idea came to mind, but the thought of it made his insides churn. However, his thoughts were frazzled as the rising tide of onlookers shattered his concentration, his mind split between the humans parading forward to the heartbeat seeping between his fingers.

“Mikleo,” Edna hissed, “Do something!”

Mikleo grit his teeth before he leaned down towards Sorey, who hissed as Mikleo’s sticky fingers peeled away from his skin. “Sorey- Sorey, look at me,” Mikleo urged, breath hitching unevenly between his lips. One of Mikleo’s hands wound its way automatically into Sorey’s in an unconscious effort to quell his pain. Sorey blearily looked up to Mikleo, so pained but so trusting that it made Mikleo’s stomach squirm. “I’m sorry, but this is going to hurt,” he whispered, before carefully tugging up the hem of Sorey’s shirt and pressing his hand to it, using ice to seal shut the wounds. (He closed his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see Sorey’s face.)

Sorey screamed, the sound stripping Mikleo raw, his eyes stinging as shockwaves rippled through the rising crowd. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, just push through, push through, I know you can, I lov-

“Sorey!” another voice yelled, and Mikleo looked up to see Alisha- with a Fire Armatized Rose in tow- forcing her way through the murmuring crowd, but Mikleo’s head whipped back to Sorey when he felt a warm hand cup his cheek, and Mikleo’s breath stopped when a bare thumb pressed into the mark just under his eye and ignited it. (He could have sworn he heard a weak “Please don’t cry”.)

The crowd gasped and muttered and broke into fresh conversation as Alisha stopped just in front of them, eyes going wide before blurting an incredulous “Mikleo? Is that you?”

“What?” he breathed as Sorey’s hand dropped from his face, arm going limp.

(“Who is that?”

“Where the hell did he come from? What did he just do to the Shepherd?”

“That mark on his face- it couldn’t be….”)

“Mikleo, I can see you,” Alisha enunciated. “It was like you just suddenly appeared out of thin air.”

Mikleo was flummoxed. “But- Edna, can you see her? She’s on Sorey’s other side,” he tried, but she shook her head. He could hear the murmurs of the crowd, and looked up to see them gawking at him, their gazes burning into him so invasively that he wanted to hide out of fear; he felt exposed, raw.

Before Mikleo could say anything else, Sorey’s chest hitched sharply before going faintly still, and Edna hissed for Mikleo’s attention. “Meebo, eyes back over here- I don’t think he’s breathing!”

Mikleo’s heart stopped, as if the petals had clogged the valves and stained the flesh cobalt.

Then, the opalescent light that burned in his mark suddenly lit up his hands and raced up his arms, beating in time to his racing heart.

He’s not breathing.

His eyes aren’t open.

He’s in pain- it’s my fault, it’s my fault-

I can’t lose him, I can’t-

No.

No.

No-

NO!

“Mikleo, what’re you-?” Edna tried, but he wasn’t listening, the roar of panicked blood in his ears trying to outdo the sound of his internal monologue.

I need to fix him.

He’s mine, I’m his-

His pain is my own.

An idea, unbidden and alien crept through his ears to whisper and keen at his mind, and he focused on that one burning point-

“Edna, Alisha, get back!” someone- Lailah?- called as Mikleo leaned forward and cupped Sorey’s face between his glowing hands before pressing his forehead against the other’s, eyes slipping shut before focusing, searching, finding, snaring binding changing burning-

Give it to me.

Mikleo’s eyes snapped back open before a gasp slipped from his mouth, tiny and unexpected before collapsing onto the stones next to Sorey, unmoving and cold-

Just as Sorey lurched up with a huge gulp of air as if he’d been drowning, hands frantic as they examined his skin in a frantic flurry before one pressed into his chest and the other slammed into the ground to steady himself, a patch of ice curling out from where his fingers made contact with the stones.

His chest was heaving and his mind was whirling, and he looked down at his chest before tugging at his shirt in confusion to find that despite the blood stains on the fabric, the wounds from the hellion were gone.

Vaguely, he wondered when he’d been healed, but his reverie was broken when he heard a cry of “Mikleo!” from beside him, and turned to see Alisha and Rose carefully turning him, and Sorey felt his heart stop when he saw Mikleo’s fingers pressing into the unmarred fabric just over his stomach as crimson bled through it.

His skin was bone-white, his eyes unfocused as ragged breaths spilled from his lips, and Sorey felt the world fall out from under him as the pieces fit together-

He transferred the pain over to himself.

All of it was gone- from his cracked ribs and gashes to the sprained wrist from the other day- all of it was gone, and now it was Mikleo who was writhing in pain as he bled out.

No. “No, Mikleo no,” Sorey whispered in cold terror as he dragged himself over to him, but Mikleo was already unconscious by the time Sorey reached him.

He could hear the others’ voices curling and beating in his ears like moth wings as they demanded an explanation, and the crowd was becoming restless and ruthlessly curious, but the only thing he could focus on was the feeling of the body he carefully pulled into his arms, and the feeling of shallow breaths and a faint heartbeat and cold, cold skin.

Mikleo’s mark was stony gray and lifeless, and Sorey could see the tears from earlier drying on his cheeks.

He faintly heard someone suggest that they find the closest inn, but Sorey could hear nothing as he curled himself over Mikleo’s body, bowing his head so far it was nearly buried in the red-stained fabric of his shirt.

I can’t lose him-

Not because of this.

No.

——

Five Days Later

When consciousness finally crept back into Mikleo’s mind, he faintly registered the light in the room as he blearily cracked his eyes open, blinking and taking in a deep breath-
Before scrunching his nose at the unpleasant feeling and taste of a dry mouth.

Well, I suppose there are worse things to wake up to.

Carefully, he pulled himself up with a groan as his body protested, his back creaking and his muscles complaining in stiffness and faint pain, and he cringed at the feeling of how grungy his hair was. (How long have I been unconscious?)

As his mind kickstarted back into memory, his eyes went wide as his fingers flew to his side, only to find that it was bound in clean, white cloth stretched across his waist and tied over his shoulder.

Heart pounding as the memories flooded back, his fingers traveled up to his ribs, and found another set of bindings there, as well as other little bandages littering his body as well as the wrapping around his wrist which puzzled him, as he wasn’t the one who had tripped messing around in an alley and injured himself. Huh? What happened to me?

“‘s that? Hey, HEY! ‘lisha, Alisha, he’s finally awake!” A voice chirped, sounding as sleepy as he’d been, and he followed the sound to see Rose and Alisha on a dingy couch next to his bed where they must have been asleep.

Alisha blinked her eyes open and focused on Mikleo, and for the first time since her met her, she truly looked at him before her face split into a wide smile. “Oh thank goodness, you’re okay!”

Mikleo squinted at her, faint bits of the battle filtering back to him. “What... happened?” he started hesitantly. “And where’s Sorey? Is he okay?” he added as the distinct echo of his pain-laced scream surfaced in his mind.

“Slow down there, Mikleo; he’s fine, everything’s fine,” Rose placated, shifting up from where she’d been leaning against her soulmate. “I sent Sorey out on a supply run with Lailah ‘cause he hasn’t left your side since you were brought in.” Her response was tinged in a combination of relief and a knowing smirk.

‘ Hasn’t left my side?’ But... “How long have I been out?”

Alisha’s fingers tugged at each other in her lap. “About five days since we finished purifying this city,” she eventually answered, her reply measured and worried.

Panic burst in Mikleo’s chest. “Five?”

Alisha nodded.

Mikleo’s heart twisted as he looked back down at the bandages, guilt nipping at his tongue and devouring any thought he could have voiced.

“Do you remember anything from the fight?” Alisha coaxed, trying to pull him out his train of thought.

Mikleo’s head jerked back up at the sound of her voice, and he looked over at her, eyebrows narrowing as he thought back through the hazy slush of his memories. “I... well, I remember we were Armatized, and I think we’d gotten the final purification blow in, but the hellion struck us at the last second,” he paused, fingers tapping at his chin as he tried to remember. “I remember landing and it forcing us apart-” he sucked in a breath- “Sorey’s ribs had broken because of the fall.” His breath hitched as he remembered Sorey struggling to catch a breath and sit up, and how he forced himself to move despite the pain.

“Oh gods,” Rose breathed, horrified, and Alisha placed a hand on her thigh to quiet her interruption, allowing Mikleo to continue.

Mikleo chewed on his lip as the memory came back in a torrent, his voice straining to get the words out as he relieved the panic all over again. “We were out of supplies and people were starting to gather, so I- I tried to seal his wounds with my ice, and- and-” His screams shredded me from the inside out. (His hands fisted in his blankets.)

“Mikleo, it’s alright-” Alisha tried, but he couldn’t hear her as he finished his recitation, words heartbroken and nearly-hysterical.

“I remember wanting to stop his pain, and he-” he couldn’t force out the words he cupped my cheek and I felt like I was on fire- “You guys, you showed up, and the last thing I remember was my mark burning and it…. just kind of goes white from there,” he finished, voice winding down like a broken toy.

“You don’t remember what you did?” Rose asked, and Mikleo felt a twinge of fear at her words. He shook his head, not wanting to meet their eyes.

“Hey, if you keep tugging at your bandages then they’ll have to be redone,” Alisha scolded gently, and Mikleo froze, his fingers in fact thumbing at the fabric.

He lifted his head to peer at her incredulously, and she gave him a small smile. “You can actually see me?” he tried, hazily recalling her confused shout when she and Rose had met back up with them after the fall.

She nodded before Rose chimed in. “Yep! Actually, you’re apparently visible to all humans now for some reason that Lailah tried explaining, but we wanted to ask you about what happened, because, well…”

Mikleo gave Rose a side-long look, suspicious and a touch frightened at her words. “What do you mean?” he started cautiously, stomach a maelstrom of knots. What did I do?

Rose’s eyes flickered down to Alisha’s for a millisecond, earning a subtle nod from her before Rose turned back to Mikleo. “When we heard the crash, we came running through to find you guys, but when we showed up we saw Sorey do that thing-” she gestured vaguely at her cheek, making Mikleo flush- “and it was suddenly like you’d become more solid, and then Alisha- along with the rest of the people there- realized that you just kinda appeared.” She scrunched her nose, trying to phrase the next section out. “It was then that your mark just kinda went bright white, and Lailah warned us all to get back before you kinda leaned down and did somethin’, and next thing we knew you just keeled over as he shot up out of nowhere, but you’d somehow managed to transfer all of his injuries to yourself, and you just…”

“Started bleeding out,” Alisha finished soberly, and Mikleo’s side twinged as if in response.

Mikleo had gone stock still as he digested her words, eyes wide and hands slack in his lap. “I… I did that?”

Both of them nodded. “Sorey was rather upset when he realized what happened,” Alisha said.

“Yeah,” Rose pitched in. “Refused to let you go, and we practically had to pry him away from you before we could treat you.”

The flower petals crept up into his throat, and his eyes burned. “What?” His voice cracked on the syllable.

“You two really are stuck to each other’s side,” Rose said, voice half-serious as it was slightly amused. “I haven’t ever seen him that despondent before.”

Mikleo wasn’t sure which emotion was strangling him at the moment- guilt, fear, panic, or delight, and he felt a dam swallow his words like melting comets.

A knock sounded on the door, and it cracked open to reveal a hat pulled lower over messy white-green hair. “Lailah and Sorey are almost back,” Dezel announced, monotone words pausing as his head angled vaguely towards Mikleo. “Finally awake, huh? Well, I’m sure he’ll be elated,” he added, and Mikleo internally winced.

I hope Sorey isn’t angry at me…

Dezel paused before speaking up again. “On second thought, they’ve just arrived,” he said, and Rose grinned.

“Send them over here, will ya?” she asked. “I think they’ll be happy to know our Sleeping Beauty’s up.” Mikleo shot her an insulted look and Alisha concealed a smile.

Dezel grinned faintly before answering. “Yeah, I’ll go get them, but I ain’t stickin’ around for the reunion,” he said, before shutting the door behind him.

Mikleo looked over at Rose, crossing his arms over his chest with only mild difficulty due to the bandages. “‘Sleeping Beauty’, really?” he deadpanned.

She shrugged, spreading her arms. “What? I thought it was appropriate,” she said simply, giving him a joking smile. Alisha shook her head, reaching up to lace her fingers in one of Rose’s raised hands to bring it down, giving her a fond smile that Rose echoed.

Mikleo felt a pang of jealousy in his chest as he watched the two, desperately wishing he could have something like that, something with S-

The door opened abruptly, startling all three of them as Sorey- with Lailah in tow- stumbled into the room, bracing himself on his knees as he caught his breath before looking up to lock eyes with Mikleo, desperate and hoping.

Mikleo wanted to cry at how wrong Sorey looked, with his hair unkempt and purple-yellow bruises under his eyes a blaring sign of his lack of sleep, and his skin worryingly bloodless and sickly. All because of me; I’ve done this to him.

Mikleo opened his mouth, barely forming the first syllable of Sorey’s name before Sorey crashed into Mikleo, arms wrapping tightly around him- enough to make Mikleo squeak- and burying his face into Mikleo’s collarbone; desperate, terrified, like if he let go of Mikleo then he would vanish like smoke. (Solid and present, Mikleo was so damn grateful that he was able to hold Sorey like this, to feel him like this again.)

Instantly, one of Mikleo’s hands twined in the hair at the back of Sorey’s neck while the other pulled Sorey closer to him, fingers tracing the vertebrae of his spine just like he’d done when they were little, back when Sorey had horrible, horrible nightmares that left him flailing and screaming and crying.

“You’re awake, you’re okay, you’re okay,” Sorey mumbled into Mikleo’s skin, and the smile that twisted at Mikleo’s lips was one of broken glass.

“I’m right here,” Mikleo said, words near-silent and more a thought between the than anything else.

Thank the gods, he’s alive, he’s okay, and he’s right here- he’s here, Mikleo’s heart sang, the petals opening and humming in pulses of violet blessings and relief.

The moment was broken when Sorey suddenly squeezed Mikleo a little too tightly, making him wince as Sorey muttered something incomprehensible.

“W- ow, what? What was that?” Mikleo croaked, and Sorey’s head whipped up until his face was inches in front of Mikleo’s bewildered one.

“I said you’re an idiot!” Sorey reiterated, and Mikleo’s eyes went wide before they narrowed in dissatisfaction.

“Me? But you’re the one who took that dangerous shot!” Mikleo fired back, arms slipping from Sorey’s neck to cross over his chest.

“Hey, that was technically both of us,” Sorey argued back, and Mikleo rolled his eyes. “But I’m not the one who did the whole pain-swapping thing!”

(“Aaaaand they’re back to normal,” Rose snickered, and Lailah, now standing next to them on the couch, covered her mouth with a dainty hand.)

Mikleo huffed. “Well what was I supposed to do, let the Shepherd just die because of a misstep?” he quipped back, irritation twisting his face childishly.

Sorey’s face, however, flashed with something dark for a microsecond, fingers tightening in Mikleo’s shirt. “But if you’d died for my sake, I don’t- I don’t know what I’d-” Sorey’s sentence was cut off when Mikleo hissed and jerked Sorey’s hands- which he belatedly realized were on his hips- away to gawk at them, watching as ice smoked and curled in jagged patterns over Sorey’s palms, the shapes imprinting on Mikleo’s sides. Sorey winced.

“Sorey, what…?” Mikleo started, mouth agape as he watched the ice spark and hiss until it evaporated from his skin.

“Nothing- it’s, no-“

“Sorey.”

Sorey didn’t meet Mikleo’s eyes as he sucked in a breath. “I’m not really sure,” he answered hesitantly, guiltily,  hands going slack in Mikleo’s grip. “Ever since then, something like this keeps happening, but it’s not my own; it has the same signature as-”

“Me,” Mikleo finished, dropping Sorey’s hands, eyebrows drawn in confusion. “It’s the same signature as my artes.” He looked up at Sorey, meeting his eyes in confusion. “But how? I don’t understand.”

“It’s a part of what happened during the exchange,” Lailah interrupted, and Mikleo peered over Sorey’s shoulder to see her giving him a measured look, one that usually preceded hard news.

“What do you mean, ‘exchange’?” Mikleo asked.

“Something happened when Sorey touched your mark,” she started, pointing at her own face before continuing. “You suddenly became visible-”

“So Rose and Alisha said,” Mikleo agreed, and Lailah nodded.

“And you merged your being into his, and thus were able to successfully transfer his pain over to yourself,” she explained. “However, other things were transferred during it, such as your visibility to humans, and Sorey’s ice outbursts.”

Mikleo tilted his head. “But why?” he asked, still confused as he was curious.

“Because somehow, even with you being a Seraph, you two have a soulmate bond that’s very unique,” Lailah said, her words careful as if trying to speak to a small lamb.

At the word ‘soulmate’, Mikleo flinched, and he saw Sorey’s eyes flick over to him for a millisecond.

He felt as if a thousand pounds of bricks had settled on top of him, the information and the awakening and Sorey’s weirdness pressing into him in hundreds of sharp angles, and he just didn’t know which way was up; his lungs were burning, and when a warm hand subtly slipped into his own, he released the breath he hadn’t realized was trapped in a rush of calm.

Mikleo’s eyes flickered over to Sorey, who gave him a soft smile and squeezed his fingers gently, the lines around his eye shifting in undulating blues and purples and sparks of golds. It’s okay.

“From your reaction, I assume that this news isn’t new to you?” Lailah asked gently, and Mikleo hesitated for a second before shaking his head. (He saw Alisha give him a look of understanding at his reply.)

“I’ve never really understood what it was or how it came to be, so I never tried looking into it until recently,” he admitted, and the mark on his face felt like it was a glaring beacon; despite most of the people in the room having always been able to perceive him, it suddenly felt like he was naked in front of millions- exposed.

“That’s why you were asking me about soulmates the other day,” Alisha chimed in, and Mikleo’s cheeks pinked at her words. “Though, in hindsight, it should have been obvious that no other person could have been bound to you,” she added somewhat sheepishly, and Mikleo made a spluttering sound that broke the uncomfortable tension in the room.

“That’s- no, I mean-” he tried, but Sorey’s laugh ringing through the room amidst the other smatterings of laughter stopped Mikleo dead in his tracks, whipping his head around to watch as Sorey’s eyes shut in laughter and his mark turn bright, fluttery gold. (He was entranced by the sight, and his heart beat crookedly.)

“I’m just surprised that Sorey hadn’t said anything about it sooner,” Rose said, and Mikleo gave her a look of what are you doing?! as they all calmed down. “I mean c’mon, despite the marks movin’ and stuff, they’re identical! That must have meant something!”

Mikleo’s glare could have rivaled a gorgon’s as the room digested Rose’s provocation, and Mikleo’s death threat was interrupted by Sorey humming thoughtfully to himself before pulling up a knee and resting his chin on it.

“Sorey?” Mikleo said quietly.

Sorey tilted his head in contemplation. “I think I just never really questioned it, I guess,” he explained. “I mean, we’ve known each other since we were babies, and I never really thought anything odd of the marks at all, but when Alisha said that they were the marks of a soulmates, I think it just kinda made sense to me, after all,” he said, a mega-watt grin brightening his face as he looked back over to Mikleo, “we’ve always just kinda clicked, huh?” He punctuated his explanation by poking at Mikleo’s mark just under his eye, the spot under his fingertip turning bubblegum pink as Mikleo’s face went solid red.

He didn’t- did he really just say that out so easily? Mikleo rambled internally, Sorey’s bubbly smile and the others’ knowing reactions making his face burn red-hot.

“I can’t believe you just said all that,” Mikleo finally blurted in exasperation, and Sorey only laughed again.

“It just made sense as I was talking, okay! I mean after all, you are my best friend, ri-?”

His response was cut off when Mikleo jabbed him in the side, red-faced and silent as Sorey shrieked, and the others burst out into surprised laughter.

“What did I do?” Sorey complained, holding his side and shying away from further attacks from Mikleo. “I just said the truth!”

“Just stop talking,” Mikleo forced out, vehemently not looking at the pouting boy.

“Aw man, what did I miss that made Meebo try to impersonate a tomato?” a voice drawled out as Edna strolled through the door, raising an eyebrow in Mikleo’s direction.

“We were just explaining what happened with their soulmate bond,” Lailah replied a little too mischievously, earning her a frantic glare from Mikleo.

“Oh?” Edna replied eagerly.

“Yeah, and then he hit me all because I said we were-” Sorey started, but Mikleo lunged forward to cover his mouth with his hands before anything else damning could be said.

“Do not,” he warned, the announcement meant for everyone in the room attempting to keep from laughing.

Edna’s eyebrow raised higher before she clicked her tongue in finality. “I’ll find out one way or another, Sleeping Meebo,” she said dryly, and Mikleo made a choking sound of indignation.

“Okay,” Alisha said loudly, clapping her hands, “how about we let Mikleo get dressed so we can all eat together?” she suggested.

Rose hummed. “I’m sure he’d rather put on a shirt, after all,” she said slyly, and the realization that yes, I am, in fact, shirtless in front of a room full of people, hit Mikleo like a truck.

“There he goes again with the tomato impersonation,” Edna called lazily. “Poor, pale-skinned tomato Mikleo- Tomat-eo.”

Mikleo groaned at her horrible pun, and he saw Lailah crack a smile before starting to shoo everyone out of the room. “I’d like to talk to him alone before we eat and let him get dressed in peace,” she announced, earning disappointed mumbles as the others started to file out.

Sorey, on the other hand, stayed put, adamant in not leaving Mikleo’s side.

Lailah fixed him with a look. “That includes you, Sorey,” she chided gently, and Sorey’s lips went flat.

“But he just woke up, and I-” he protested, but she shook her head.

“You’ll have all the time you’d like with him after I speak with him for a few minutes, okay?” she coaxed, and Sorey looked between her and Mikleo before sighing, ceding to her and standing from the bed.

“I’ll see you outside, okay?” he said, more to Mikleo than Lailah, who smiled fondly as Mikleo nodded.

Hesitantly, Sorey finally left the room, closing the door with such guilt as if he was forcing needles under his nail beds to do so.

Upon hearing the door latch shut, Lailah sighed before turning to Mikleo, tucking her hands in her sleeves before speaking. “He’s not going to let you be alone for a single second the minute we meet back up with him,” she teased.

Mikleo rolled his eyes. “It’s not as if that’s a new development,” he replied, and she laughed faintly, the sound like tinkling bells that made him smile before his face sobered. “What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?” he asked hesitantly.

Her smile disappeared, and her eyes turned dark for a brief moment. “I’m sure that by now you understand that the bond between you is unusual, yes?” she started.

Mikleo lowered his head before faintly nodding, not trying to voice his inner turmoil.

Lailah sighed before settling herself carefully on the edge of his bed, making him look back up at her. “What you two have is something incredible, yet also volatile and delicate because you each make up so much of the other, like two rivers constantly flowing and rushing through each other,” she said. “You’re an open connection, and it was strong enough for you to completely transfer his injuries over to yourself- no one has ever heard of something like that from the digging I was able to do, and there’s certainly never been a human matched with a Seraph.”

“I know, but I’m not sure how or why, however,” he said quietly. “It scares me sometimes, but….not as much as the idea of losing him completely.”

Lailah gently placed her hand on Mikleo’s leg, steadying and calming. “Mikleo… Sorey doesn’t realize that you’re in love with him, does he?” she asked carefully, and Mikleo’s mind came to a screeching halt.

“What did you say?” he asked quietly, terrified that he’d been so vulnerable, but he saw nothing but patience in her eyes.

“Aside from Alisha explaining that soulmates are typically romantic, anyone who watches you two can spot it from a mile away,” she said. Mikleo turned his head away from her, ashamed. “Mikleo, it’s okay,” she placated, but Mikleo huffed.

“He’s the Shepherd, and he has a duty and a group of other people to take care of without wasting his time on me,” he said lowly. “I wouldn’t want to take that from him.”

She hummed quietly, tapping his leg so he would look up at her. “When you were unconscious for all of those days, you were the only person in his mind- not us, and certainly not himself,” she said. “You are the core of his life, the roots of his being, which may be a tiny part of the explanation for your odd bond.”

Mikleo opened his mouth, closed it, and then squeezed his eyes shut against the sting burning behind them. “I don’t want to be a burden to him again,” he whispered, the words raw. “He doesn’t have any idea about how I feel, and I don’t want him to because he’d hate me.”

Lailah’s face melted into one of surprised hurt at the venomous words spilling from Mikleo’s lips, and he curled into himself as his chest cracked open into an empty, echoing crevasse. “He could never hate you, no matter what you do,” she said earnestly. “He looks at you like you hung the stars in the sky, and I don’t think anything could change that.”

Mikleo shook his head. “But he isn’t- and never will be- in love with me, and I don’t want to hurt him,” he confessed, breath hiccuping.

“Mikleo-”

“I don’t want him to leave me,” Mikleo hiccuped, the lovely greens of his mark melting into dejected gray before silent sobs shook his frame.

“Oh, Mikleo,” Lailah said quietly as Mikleo’s heart fell to pieces in front of her, and she carefully leaned forward to hug him, letting him hide in her shoulder as he cried.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, neither of them speaking before his tears finally subsided, and Lailah helped him fetch his clothes so he could change in peace, promising to wait for him outside. He gave her a grateful smile before she shut the door behind her, and he was finally left alone with his thoughts.

Absently, he carefully slid out from his covers with a wince as his legs complained at being used, and started to numbly pull on his clothes in front of the mirror hidden in the corner of the room.

He could see how flushed he looked, his eyes red-rimmed and his mark a sickly pink, and he traced the edges of his bandages before tugging his shirt over his head.

I’m pathetic, aren’t I? he thought darkly as he fastened the buckles running down his ribs. Looking back into the mirror to track his eyes, lackluster and empty, he sighed and turned away.

As long as Sorey is okay-

That’s all that matters.

***

(That night, after a long, cacophonous celebratory dinner filled to the brim with chatter and banter and emotions run hot, Sorey had come back alone to Mikleo’s room, knocking on his door with a silent look of guilt, relief, hope, and apology all at once.

It was a wordless question, held in his eyes and the lines of his face in the dark of the night, and Mikleo needed nothing to understand what Sorey was saying.

Mikleo had immediately let Sorey into his bed, feeling guilty for how quickly Sorey buried himself into Mikleo out of desperation with his face between Mikleo’s shoulder blades and his arms wrapped tightly around his chest like they were children again, feeling guilty knowing it was his fault Sorey had been so upset, and feeling guilty because he reveled in the fact that he had Sorey to himself like this even just for a night.

(They didn’t separate until the next morning, too damn relieved to have their other half’s heartbeat under their fingers once again, safe and sound.))

——

There were perks to being invisible, Mikleo was belatedly realizing, and now that they were gone it was starting to make Mikleo’s life a bit more difficult in keeping up the massive wall he’d built between himself and his feelings.

Most apparent- particularly now to the other humans they encountered on their journey- was simply how attached Mikleo was to Sorey, both figuratively as well in more…. literal of terms.

***

The oddly colored hair, the clothes, his mark- your otherworldly beauty, Sorey had told him once: they all made Mikleo stand out worse than Sorey with his bright cloak, and Mikleo didn’t realize how much effort it took to maneuver through a crowd when people could see- as well as collide- with you.

The city they were in was a run-down army base by the edge of a huge forest that simply sang of danger, and the only reason they were there in the first place was because they’d received a distress call concerning ‘horrible goblins in the fields’ that just screamed ‘hellions’; Sorey had opted to try visiting and scope it out with Rose in strong agreement, but not everyone had been so gung-ho about charging headfirst into a rather shady town without any background on it.

So, instead of remaining hidden within Sorey as they typically did travelling, two of the Seraphim were now tailing Sorey and Rose like bodyguards: Dezel and Mikleo, the latter of which stubbornly requested that he be allowed to patrol despite the others’ uncertainty about his healing wounds.

In the end, they relented, but they hadn’t taken one of the biggest obstacles in mind: Mikleo wasn’t invisible anymore. And, as body after body and odd look after glare slammed into him, he was starting to feel the frustration of it.

“I think Meebo might be just a touch too small and visible for this job,” Edna called lazily from within Sorey, and Mikleo ground his teeth.

“I’m fine, Edna,” he ground out, hissing when someone stepped on the edge of his jacket tails. “We’re almost there anyway.”

“Are you sure, Mikleo?” Lailah tried gently, but her inquiry went unanswered when a large man roughly shoved past Mikelo without any indication of hesitation, leaving him wincing as he clutched as his shoulder.

I can’t fail again just because I can’t walk through people, he hissed internally, coppery frustration boiling in his stomach. We just need to get to the outskirts of the town and then I’ll be-

“Mikleo? What’s wrong?”

He froze at the sound of Sorey’s voice.

Sorey turned around to face Mikelo, concern etched into his features as he watched Mikleo, and somehow the crowd just weaved around him like oil and water.

Mikleo sighed. “It’s nothing, Sorey, I’m fine,” he said flatly, but Sorey frowned.

“Mikleo, come on,” he said, reaching out a hand. “Don’t wanna lose ya, yeah?”

Mikleo blinked at him, confused, and Sorey just reached out to snag Mikleo’s hand in his own and pulled them forward. “Come on, you dork,” he chided, and Mikleo rolled his eyes despite the faint smile on his face. (Mikleo tried to pretend that Sorey lacing their fingers didn’t set his heart racing and thundering like an untamable storm.) “How much longer until we’re there, Rose?” Sorey called ahead as he tugged Mikleo behind him, weaving effortlessly through the crowd.

Rose, after looking behind her and seeing the two of them, grinned knowingly at the sight of their joined hands. “Dezel says it’s just up ahead, so we should be through the worst of the crowd soon!” she called back.

Sorey grinned at her response as they made their way through the crowd, and all Mikleo could focus on was his heartbeat pounding through his feet as they ran on and on and on.

Eventually, they managed to pull through the crowd into a small alcove where houses were nestled together, and they all stumbled into the empty space gasping and thankful for the sudden absence of people no longer pressing into all sides.

As they all paused for breath, an excited gasp broke out as a small voice chirped “Mama, it’s the Shepherd! He actually came!”

Looking up, Mikleo saw a small girl bounce over to them, her pigtails swaying as she bounded over. Behind her, kneeling in the garden, was a woman he presumably assumed was her mother; she stood at the commotion, and quickly navigated next to her daughter’s side. “I’m sorry for the commotion,” she apologized, but her smile was still light. “Amelie’s been very excited to meet the Shepherd.”

Sorey smiled brightly at the both of them. “I’m Sorey!” he said, before gesturing to Rose. “And this is my Squire, Rose.”

Rose grinned. “It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

Though the woman nodded pleasantly, confusion was etched into her features, which was echoed in her daughter’s. “But- who’s that?” the little girl said, pointing up and directly at Mikleo.

Mikleo froze, and Sorey looked over at him before the cogs slowly clicked in his mind. Sorey opened his mouth to reply when she cocked her head. “Are you two soulmates?” she asked suddenly, and Mikleo flushed.

Sorey nodded, another smile pulling goofily at his lips. “Yep! But how’d ya know?”

Mikleo wanted to smack Sorey for the question- anyone can see our marks, you idiot-, but the reply they got instead was a “You’re holding hands!” said as simply as stating the sky was blue, and all Mikleo could focus on then were the fingers so easily intertwined with his, each point burning him.

Incoherent noises spilled from Mikleo’s mouth as he not-so-surreptitiously yanked his hand from Sorey’s, face burning until it clashed with his skin and the greens of his mark stood out sharply against it.

Sorey tried- and failed- to hold back his laughter (along with Rose, and even Dezel was smirking to himself), golden peals spilling from behind his hand that only made Mikleo’s face burn hotter.

“Mama look, he’s so red!” the little girl announced, and Mikleo gave up, reverting to his spirit form and fleeing until he was hiding within Sorey with Edna and Lailah, pressing his hands into his face and internally groaning.

“Called out by a little girl,” Edna cooed teasingly, and Mikleo’s groaning became external.

Sorey doubled over with laughter as the little girl peered at him before pouting. “Where did he go?” she asked in confusion. “Did I make him mad?”

“See, you made her sad, Mean-bo.”

“Shut it, Edna.”

“Ooh, touchy touchy.”

“Edna, Leave him be.”

Sorey shook his head. “No, it’s alright; you just flustered him a bit, that’s all!” he explained cheerily.

“But how did he do that?” she pressed, and that same bright smile crept back onto his face.

“His name’s Mikleo, and he’s a Seraph,” he said, and she gasped in awe. “He’s a very special one too, since he’s also been my best friend since were both reaaaaaally little.”

“Like me?”

Sorey laughed. “Yep! We went on many adventures when we were your age.”

Mikleo curled into himself, his embarrassment warming him from the inside out like an ember in his ribcage. How can he just do that?

“Get back out there, Meebo,” Edna chided, “don’t let him be sappy without you.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Meeeeeeeebo.”

“No.”

“Meebo.”

“I said no.”

“Time to go!”

“Ow- hey! What are you-?”

With that, Mikleo was unceremoniously ejected from Sorey’s body, and he stumbled out onto the grass, Sorey catching him under the arm and steadying him before he could eat dirt.

The little girl’s eyes widened. “He’s back! Your pretty Seraph friend is back!” she cheered, the gap in her front teeth slurring the edges of the word ‘Seraph’ as Mikleo’s mind slurred the word ‘pretty’.

Sorey elbowed Mikleo to say something, and he croaked out a weak “Hello” that made the little girl beam and Rose snort. (Rose ignored the glare he shot her way.)

“So,” Sorey said, switching gears, “we heard you have a monster problem here?”

The little girl’s mother nodded. “You heard correctly,” she said, before launching into a long description about a beast that had been devouring their crops recently, though she watched Sorey and Mikleo from the corner of her eye with faint, knowing thoughtfulness, never once questioning how Mikleo was visible to them.

(The entirety of the situation left Mikleo’s heart in knots and his stomach full of petal-winged butterflies, all-too acutely aware of how closely he and Sorey stood.)

----

It began to come unraveled when uncertainty crept into Sorey’s mind, feeling like there was something- some part of him- that was missing and it made him uneasy, and it wasn’t until he sat and thought about it that he realized it was because Mikleo was acting strange.

In confiding this fact to Lailah, she had only smiled cryptically before suggesting that he look more into the nature of soulmates, assuring him that it should quell some of his troubles.

Sorey, none the wiser, followed her advice and scrounged for books specifically on soulmates that weren’t trashy romance novels or speculation, and eventually was found settled down at a table in an inn they were all staying at with a bowl of stew close to his chest and a book open in front of him. He was scouring the lines as he ate, though from the fact that the bowl was still mostly full and that the arm he used to eat was holding up his head while the other was flipping through pages indicated that was thoroughly engrossed in the book.

Rose, followed by Edna, sat down at across from him at the table, though the former was more interested in shoveling down her food as quickly as possible than starting a conversation.

Edna tapped his shin, and he hummed absently. “What’cha readin’ there, bookworm?” she asked lazily, and the sound of her question finally made him tear his eyes away from the pages.

“What’s what?” he asked, still leaning his chin into the palm of his hand.

Edna gestured at the book. “Since it seems you’re more intent on eating the glue of that than your normal food, I figured it must be interesting,” she said.

Sorey hummed before flipping the pages shut to show her the title. “I had some questions about soulmates, so Lailah suggested I do some more research on it,” he replied, before opening it back up to resume reading.

Edna rolled her eyes. “It’s hard enough to talk to him when he’s conscious and reading, but tired and trying to read? Forget it,” she grumbled, just loud enough for Rose to catch it and snort through a bite of her roll.

“There’s nothing else on this world that catches his attention than books,” Rose agreed, returning to her stew.

Edna cracked a faint devilish smile. “I might be able to think of one thing,” she said near-silently, Sorey completely missing it in his reverie.

Sorey was finishing a section about the theorized beginning of soulmates when Lailah joined them, and Edna spoke back up again. “So, why soulmates?” she asked as Lailah sat down, earning an odd look from her as she situated herself.

Sorey let out a deep breath as he tapped at his cheek. “I’m not quite sure,” he answered truthfully, looking back up from the pages. “Ever since… well, the swapping thing, I feel like Mikleo has been acting oddly, but I figure it’s just something about the soulmate thing, so-” he gestured at the book, before faintly yawning.

Rose looked up then, shooting Lailah a quick look before she spoke. “Why not ask Mikleo directly?” she asked.

Sorey shook his head. “He seemed pretty frazzled about the whole thing, so I didn’t really wanna push it because that’d only make it worse,” he answered. “‘sides, there may not be anything wrong with him at all,” he added quietly.

Lailah tilted her head. “What do you mean, Sorey?”

Sorey paused before answering, his fingers tapping on the page. “I… dunno,” he started. “It’s just that… I think there might be something wrong with me and our bond, so I figured it was because it had something to do with me being a Shepherd, but that doesn’t quite sit well with me.” Now he was more talking aloud his thoughts, trying to piece them together to his tablemates.

“Has your research helped any?” Lailah led gently, but Sorey scrunched his nose.

“I’m not all the way through the book yet, but the only thing I’ve found so far is just the whole ‘harmonization of two perfect souls’ thing, which does make sense, but it doesn’t explain why I feel so odd…” he trailed off into thought, fingers tapping harder and harder, drumming over the header of the next section: Matters of the Heart.

Edna groaned and rolled her eyes, opening her mouth to say something scathing before Lailah hastily cut her off. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk to Mikleo about it?” she reiterated, but Sorey shook his head.

“Nah, it’s been a tiring day as it is and I don’t wanna bother him,” he answered, voice slipping into low exhaustion. “I can just ask him another day.”

Lailah and Rose gave him worried looks, while Edna looked about five seconds away from standing on the table and screaming. However, Sorey didn’t notice either of their reactions and returned to his book, steadily slipping from line to line.

They all stayed like that, sleepily talking amongst themselves as Sorey kept on reading (Rose snatched Sorey’s untouched stew at some point, downing it as her third helping) when he suddenly paused.

The section he’d been reading described how relationships typically worked with those bound as soulmates, going through the rare platonic relationships (typically described as ‘half-bound’ but just as strong) to even the unrequited or broken bonds that resulted in a broken heart and a black scar where their mark one appeared. What had caught his attention, however, was how romantic relationships with soulmates were stronger the more prominent the mark was, but the most deep-set of bonds tended to appear in those that were either friends from a young age or knew each other for an extended amount of time, as their souls had more of a chance to harmonize and merge than the “love-at-first-sight” cases:

“Commonly associated with relationships of this type are bounds that are stronger than blood and iron, so deep-set that it would be almost impossible to separate the pair without some repercussion or onslaught of two-way depression. Once forged, this bond is almost always romantic in nature, as it has been described as ‘sharing one soul and one mind’, and thus open the pathway for some of the healthiest marriages documented.”

Marriage? What? I don’t…. But- Sorey’s mind was a whirlwind as he kept reading, knowing that the bond he had with Mikleo was nothing but iron-clad, but something began to slowly unfurl in his chest as the words spiralled in front of him. He’s mine, and I’m his, but to what extent? I’d put my life on the line for him if I had to, but of course I would- isn’t he my best friend?

(Then why doesn’t that label seem to fit right?)

“Almost always romantic in nature-” I want to protect him, keep him safe-

“Impossible to separate-” He’s my better half, but why-?

“Sharing one soul and one mind.” Because I’m in-

Sorey’s eyes widened as he sucked in a surprised breath, blankly reading the lines over and over again despite them not settling in any further, his heart racing crookedly.

“What didja find, Sorey?” Rose asked at his outburst, though her face melted into concern when she saw the look on his face. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

I’m in-

“Sorey, are you okay? You just got extremely pale,” Lailah said, but Sorey couldn’t focus on her words as something dark and lovely and deep bloomed in his chest like blossoms of nightshade, deadly and gorgeous in twilight purples (the same color echoing in the blues and purples- his colors, of course- of his mark):

I think I’m in love with him.

As the thought solidified, he went from bone white to tomato red as blood rushed to his face in realization, and he proceeded to hit his head on the table and cover himself with his arms. How could I be that stupid? he scolded himself, nails digging into his arms. Why didn’t I realize it sooner? My best friend, of all people- oh gods, won’t he hate me for it?

“Uh… Sorey?” a voice broke in hesitantly, and Sorey froze. “Are you okay?”

As if he’d been electrocuted, Sorey snapped back to see Mikleo standing at the end of the table staring concernedly at him. Sorey opened his mouth, closed it, then- after focusing on the mark chasing the elegant lines of Mikleo’s face and humming around his eye-, he made a strangled noise, lurched to his feet, grabbed the book with enough fierceness to leave trails of jagged ice in his in his fingers’ wake before skirting out of the room with a babbled good night as he fled the table.

Mikleo turned around to watch him go, before turning back to knit his eyebrows at the rest of the group. They shook their heads, and Mikleo shrugged before sitting down to eat.

(Lailah had been following Sorey as he’d been reading, and knew exactly what section he was on before he broke down- though her heart ached at the pain and terror that had been on his face, she hoped that the revelation might help them through their barrier.)

---

Two weeks- it had been two weeks since that one night where Sorey began to act strange, to the point of either not speaking or only spitting out garbled fragments instead of his excited rambling, or even hiding away from people whenever he had the chance. He was jumpy like he was a live wire, hesitant and transparent, and it infuriated Mikleo because he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him in the slightest.

However, when Sorey literally froze and bolted from the room when Mikleo walked in alone one night, it didn’t take him long to realize that he was avoiding Mikleo; he didn’t try to talk to him anymore nor bothered him in the late of the night, instead choosing to sleep in his own bed and curled far into himself.

Something was wrong, and Mikleo would be damned if he couldn’t figure it out.

***

As Mikleo heard Sorey’s mumbling from around the corner, he waited, standing just on the other side as he waited for Sorey to turn it. Once he did, he nearly ran straight into Mikleo, and upon registering who it was flushed solid red and tried to walk backwards out of the room.

Mikleo, however, sighed deeply and snagged the back of Sorey’s shirt and pulled him back. “Okay, Sorey, talk to me,” he said. “What’s wrong?”

Sorey worried at the edges of his sleeves, his eyes looking anywhere but at Mikleo. “What do you mean?” he tried lightly, but Mikleo huffed.

“Don’t try to lie to me,” Mikleo chastised, but his heart twisted when he saw Sorey flinch. “You know I can read you like a book, and you’ve been acting odd for the past two weeks.”

Sorey gnawed at his lip, his frantic touch now pulling at his fingers. “I know, but I… just-”

“Just what, Sorey?” Mikleo pressed, crossing his arms. “You know you can always talk to me.”

Mikleo was surprised however when Sorey shook his head fervently. “Not with this,” he whispered, and Mikleo guessed that we wasn’t supposed to have heard it.

Mikleo’s face fell, and he reached out a hand to place it on Sorey’s shoulder, trying not to feel hurt when he flinched again. “We’ve known each other since forever,” Mikleo said, voice going soft in concern. “So what’s so bad you can’t tell me?” Sorey tried to back away, but Mikleo gripped his shoulders with both hands, peering up into his face. Sorey looked away, and something sour burst in Mikleo’s chest. “Sorey, what’s going on?”

Sorey opened his mouth before deciding against what he wanted to say, and Mikleo felt anxiety wrack his ribcage. “It’s nothing, I swear,” Sorey eventually decided on, and Mikleo clicked his tongue.

“No, it isn’t, not if it’s making you act like this,” Mikleo retorted, but Sorey didn’t respond. “Is this about me?” he started, going out on a limb. “Is this about us-” his breath faintly hitched, those petals surging up to suffocate him- “being soulmates? About what I did that day?”

Sorey lowered his head, his entire body echoing in dark, tired resignation- a confession that screamed louder than any words could have.

Mikleo’s mind spiralled into panic: Does he know? Did he find out that I’m in love with him? Oh gods, no wonder he’s been avoiding me- he must be disgusted. “Sorey, I-”

“I didn’t want you to get mad at me,” Sorey blurted, and Mikleo paused in confusion.

“Huh?”

“I- yeah,” Sorey said. “Like I said, it’s nothing.”

“Sorey.”

Sorey closed his eyes, fists clenching as if steeling himself. “It was just something I read,” he said, “and… something I realized. About myself, I mean,” he tacked on, and Mikleo was nothing but more confused.

“I’m not following- I thought…” Mikleo trailed off before forcing himself to restart. “I thought it was something I did.”

Sorey looks back over to Mikleo, sudden panic flashing in his eyes. “No- no, no, it’s nothing you did, Mikleo,” he spluttered.

“Then what?” Mikleo asked, words so quiet and cautious that he feared if he was any louder than they would strike a match and ignite them.

Sorey bit his lip harder, and Mikleo winced when he saw it draw blood, a faint red spark of pain dotting the lovely blues of Sorey’s mark as he looked down to the ground, mumbling something. Mikleo knit his eyebrows. “What?”

Sorey looked as if he had swallowed pins, such uncharacteristic apprehension on his face. “I- I said I love you,” he repeated, words falling like stones.

Mikleo’s heart hiccuped at the words, but that’s not what he meant, idiot. “Yeah, of course you do,” Mikleo said slowly, his reply sticking to the roof of his mouth like blue cotton candy, staining his tongue. “We’re best friends after all.”

Sorey’s chest hitched. “No- no, I-” he took a deep breath- “I’m in love with you,” he finished, shying away from the gravity of what he just said as if he was afraid they would burn him, or worse- Mikleo would.

Mikleo’s eyes went wide as his heart- and his mind, and his world- stopped as the words settled on his skin like butterflies. “What did you say?” he whispered, breath like smoke that curled over Sorey’s skin. (When did they get so close?)

Sorey’s confession seemed to be what loosened his tongue as he started to babble, hands tearing through his hair with streaks of fresh frost. “I know, it’s weird, I’m weird, and I didn’t want to make you upset or angry with me so I just kinda clammed up and- I didn’t even really know it until when I read that book because Lailah told me to research more about soulmates because I was worried I had done something wrong about us being soulmates and I’d made you upset-”

“Hey,” Mikleo cut off sharply, clapping his (shaking) hands to Sorey’s face, startling him into silence as he gaped at Mikleo, face flushed from his rambling. Is he really-? Am I dreaming?

“Mikleo?” Sorey croaked.

Mikleo swallowed deeply before letting out a deep breath. “Do you trust me?” he breathed, and Sorey’s eyes widened a fraction- Of course I do. “Then I just…. I-” Mikleo wasn’t paying attention to the words in his mouth as he carefully pulled himself up toward Sorey, eyes flicking from his eyes to his lips in silent hesitation before slowly (oh-so-painfully slowly) pressing his lips to his, pausing for a second just in case Sorey pulled away-

But he didn’t.

So Mikleo continued, eyes slipping shut as he pulled Sorey closer down to him, feeling Sorey hitch before humming as he reciprocated, and Mikleo melted.

The flower in his chest sang, and his lungs were stained blue, his lips, Sorey’s lips, his heart, his fingers where they twined around Sorey’s neck were blue blue blue, pounding in time to his double-beat heart as it bled into lovely aquamarine (blue and white and purple and green- the walls were awash as the light glowed in their matching marks), and suddenly Mikleo couldn’t tell where he started and where Sorey ended.

It was right, and it was perfect, and it fit, their hearts tied together in blood-red ties stronger than time or fate, and they both could feel it.

Hesitantly, Mikleo pulled away, settling back down on the balls of his feet, doing nothing but staring back at Sorey in a love-sick and incredulous haze- before reality crashed onto his head. He yanked his hands away as if burnt, face burning as he stuttered out a slew of incomplete apologies before Sorey grabbed his hands, making Mikleo whip his face back toward him. “You- just- Mikleo, you-?” he tried, starting three different sentences at the same time, his stumbling making him flush darker. Mikleo laughed lightly despite himself before fizzling back into embarrassment.

“I’m sorry for just doing… that, but-” Mikleo started, but Sorey squeezed his hands.

“Mikleo, you just kissed me,” Sorey enunciated, and Mikleo flushed, turning his face away. “And I liked it,” Sorey mumbled to himself, but Mikleo heard it anyway, his ears burning.

“Don’t just say things like that,” Mikleo complained petulantly, but his barb fell flat.

Sorey peered back down at Mikleo, searching and hesitant. “Does… this mean you’re also in love with me?” he asked, his question bearing down on Mikleo’s shoulders like Atlas and the sky, the words holding the waters of a hundred seas a second away from drowning him.

Eventually, after painful seconds of silence, Mikleo nodded mutely, refusing to look Sorey in the eye. However, Mikleo felt Sorey’s fingers tighten around his hands and he turned to see a huge, beaming smile- crinkled eyes, full-teeth, Mikleo’s forever favorite- on his face, bright tears gathered at the corner of his eyes that sucked the darkness from Mikleo’s lungs before he was pulled into a crushing hug that made him squeak.

One of Sorey’s hands tangled into Mikleo’s hair as he buried his face in Mikleo’s shoulder, the lines of his relieved smile curving into his collarbone. “Mikleo Mikleo Mikleo,” he chanted breathlessly, a laugh tingeing his words, “thank the gods; I thought you’d hate me.”

Mikleo melted into the hug, pulling him even closer. “You know I could never hate you,” Mikleo murmured into his hair, tasting the ice that had melted there. “And honestly… I was worried you would hate me.”

Sorey pulled his head back up, a puzzled look twisting his expression. “But that’s stupid,” he said bluntly, and Mikleo shot him a flat look.

“I know, I know, idiot,” Mikleo mumbled. “Lailah said the same thing to me.”

Sorey knit his eyebrows. “Lailah knows?” he asked, and Mikleo nodded. “But then- hang on-”

Oh gods no-

“How long have you’ve known?”

Mikleo suddenly became very interested in the wall behind them.

Sorey huffed, before his fingers jabbed lightly at Mikleo’s sides, making him flinch. “How long?”

“Have I known I’ve been stupidly in love with you?” Mikleo finished, a sarcastic smile on his face. “Much longer than I would like to admit.”

Sorey stared at him, blinking owlishly before a lovely blush spread over his face. “Really?”

Mikleo tried to give him a deadpan glare, but he was internally squirming under Sorey’s attention.

“How long?” Sorey asked again, but Mikleo pressed his lips into a thin line. “Heeeey, tell me!” he pressed, but Mikleo shook his head. “Mikleooooo!”

Mikleo shut his eyes and turned his head away. Sorey whined again, before Mikleo felt him lean forward and press another kiss to his lips- chaste, sweet, goofy, and just enough to make Mikleo’s eyes snap open before laughing into Sorey’s mouth, reciprocating without hesitation.

Why did I ever worry?

I should have known from the start that it would have worked out- what a fool we’ve both been.

---

Epilogue

If there was one thing the two learned in discovering their relationship was that in addition to kissing now being an option- one they wholeheartedly enjoyed-, it also did one odd thing: they were able to transfer or take energy from the other, even healing minor wounds as well as acting like a shot of adrenaline.

Of course, this tiny fact was their eventual downfall that revealed themselves to the others- not that it was much of a surprise to anyone.

***

Mikleo was staggering after delivering a final blow to a particularly unruly hellion that ended up draining him of his energy just to keep it staggered. Clutching his injured arm with an eye screwed shut in pain, he heard the others calling out to him through the ringing in his ears from the shockwave of the hellion’s final attack.

Breathe in, breathe out through the pain, you’re fine- “Mikleo!” a voice shouted, breaking through his dazed reverie.

Sorey slid down from atop the stony hill he’d been fighting on, stumbling over to slap both of his hands on Mikleo’s shoulders. “That was an amazing shot, Mikleo!” he cheered. Mikleo tried to give him a smile, but it ended up as a grimace instead as he swayed on his feet, making the smile on Sorey’s face fall. “Are you alright?”

Mikleo nodded, vision blurring. “‘m fine,” he insisted, voice slurring. “The hellion just took a lot out of me.”

“Let me help,” Sorey said insistently, but Mikleo shook his head.

“No, I’m fine, honestly-”

“Mikleo-”

“I said I’m fi-” Mikleo started, but he was cut off by Sorey leaning forward to press a short kiss to his lips, and Mikleo felt electricity zip between them as energy sparked in his chest like a humming sun; even the throbbing in his arm and bones faded.

Mikleo pulled back with a faint scowl on his face, but it held no venom. “You didn’t have to do that,” he scolded. “We have potions for a reason.”

Sorey just grinned sheepishly, rubbing at the back of his neck. “But I like doing that more,” he answered sincerely. Mikleo rolled his eyes with a stubbornly fond grin as he lightly swatted Sorey’s head.

The happy moment was interrupted when a loud call of “Doth my eyes deceive me?” rang out near them, and Mikleo wheeled around to find Rose- with Alisha chasing after her- stalking toward them with mischief in her eyes.

Mikleo shut his eyes. “Rose, please don’t-”

“So, you two finally gettin’ it on, huh?” she teased anyway, and Mikleo groaned loudly.

“Rose, be nice,” Alisha scolded, but Rose only grinned at her.

“Come on, how long have we all been waiting?” she argued, and Alisha sighed, shaking her head.

Mikleo had gone beet-red by this point, and Sorey was just confused. “It was just a minor heal,” Mikleo argued, but Rose wasn’t buying it.

“Through a kiss? Oh come on,” she quipped, before turning around at the sound at the others approaching them and hollering a loud “Yo, did you guys see that?”, gesturing between Mikleo and Sorey.

“You bet I did,” Edna called mischievously, and Mikleo felt any will he had left to live leave as the tiny, umbrella-wielding demon came trouncing over. “Congrats, Meebo!”

Lailah was wearing an elated look, and Dezel looked coolly uninterested as he usually did. Sorey turned to Sorey and whispered a not-so-quiet “How many people knew?”

Mikleo spluttered and gestured wildly. “I didn’t- I only told Lailah!” he squawked.

Edna rolled her eyes. “Everyone knew, stupid,” she said. “You didn’t have to tell anyone anything, and that goes for both of you.” Both of them flushed at her remark before Rose gasped loudly.

“Hang on, Lailah, didn’t we have a little bet goin’?” she asked, and realization lit up in Lailah’s eyes as she clapped her hands together.

Mikleo raised an eyebrow. “‘Bet’?” he parroted dryly, and Lailah nodded.

“Yep! Rose and I had a bet running on how long it would take for you to realize,” she explained cheerily.

Sorey knit his eyebrows. “Realize what?” he asked, and Mikleo wanted to slap a hand over his mouth.

“How stupidly in love you two are with each other,” Edna deadpanned.

Mikleo let out a strangled noise and instinctively buried his face- hands pressed over it and all- into the nearest solid surface, which just so happened to be Sorey’s shoulder. Sorey was currently covering the lower half of his face in a similar fashion, though the red still crept between his fingers.

“So, how long have y’all been goin’ at it?” Rose asked brightly, and Mikleo choked. Alisha elbowed her subtly.

“I- um, we-” Sorey stuttered out, but Rose clicked her tongue.

“That doesn’t sound like a number,” she chided.

Sorey sighed sheepishly, before mumbling a half-response of “Two”.

Lailah tilted her head. “Two?”

“Two what?” Edna chimed in, crossing her arms. “Weeks?”

Both of them shook their heads.

“Two months?” Rose said incredulously, and Sorey smiled crookedly.

“Yeah, I think that’s about right,” he said, poking at Mikleo’s ribs. “Right?”

“Will you stop that?” Mikleo complained, chasing Sorey’s hands from his waist, and Sorey just laughed.

(Lailah smiled serenely at them, truly relieved they’d worked through the wall they’d both encountered; all they needed to do was find the door hidden within it.)

“So, who won the bet?” Mikleo eventually asked, question half sarcastic as it was curious.

Rose groaned as she started to dig in her pockets. However, Lailah also sighed before fishing for loose gald, and Alisha laughed subtly as she watched them.

Upon their confused looks, Edna looks toward Sorey and Mikleo, lazily spinning her umbrella. “I didn’t partake, but our round winner was our very own mystery fighter-”

“It’s me,” Dezel interrupted smoothly, pocketing the cash without another word. Sorey’s eyes went wide as Mikleo started stammering incoherently.

Dezel didn’t say anything, and only gave them a faint smirk. “Congratulations,” he said levelly, response monotone, and the others burst into laughter.

(Mikleo wonders just how he got tangled up with such a group of people.)

***

(Years upon years upon years later, and that string of fate tied between them did not fade as Mikleo waited.

And waited.

And waited.

With time spiralling around him as liquid as a river, his hair echoed it as it now fell down his back like the spray of a waterfall, and his eyes are ages older- but the flower in his heart thrives and sings and grows just as much as it did when they were much younger.

Then, finally, he hears- no, feels him once again, like a hand slipping into his and a heart settling back into his own, and something indescribable blooms in his chest and his smile, and his mark sings in pure white.

He’s home-

He’s awake.

A messy chase through a city, a desperate hug, crystal tears of relief, and bubbly laughter that bleeds into a kiss long-deserved-

And Mikleo couldn’t want anything else in the world.

My heart, my sky, my world, his flower heart sings.  

I’m home.)