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The grass tickled his bare neck and John Laurens turned to look at him with an expression in his face that might have been humour and fondness.
“Our love is written in the stars.” Alexander proclaimed dramatically, shooting Laurens a look, silently beckoning him to continue.
“In the stars?” Laurens questioned softly, his eyelashes fluttering, his face shining with the light of the stars.
“Yes.” Alexander has wanted to say more but Laurens’ face captured in the moonlight was providing to be more of a distraction than he thought it would be.
Alexander shifted closer to Laurens, taking note of how he shivered slightly before leaning back into him. Alexander looked at him long and hard, taking in all his features, his freckles, his brown eyes which glowed silver, illuminated by the moon.
Alexander’s eyes drifted to the writing scrawled on the inner part of Laurens’ wrist. It wasn’t the first thing that Alexander had said to him. Alexander wasn’t Laurens’ soulmate. That had stung.
Alexander had turned to Laurens on the day they had first met, smiling brightly, his hope shining in his eyes. He had grasped Laurens’ hand in a handshake and his world erupted in colours, blues, yellows and reds. His eyes had widened and he had asked Laurens if he saw it too. Laurens has shook his head and Alexander felt his hope dim.
The current Laurens turned to Alexander, his pink lips quirking in a smile. “You’re thinking too loudly.” He whispered, searching for Alexander’s hand and holding it tighter than he had to. Laurens always knew how Alexander was feeling in times like this, he would always glance at him, taking in his worn and tired expression, and pull him into his arms, letting everything around them fade, just for a moment.
“Is that so?” Alexander had answered quietly, lifting his eyes to the night sky above him, the only thing that Laurens and him could see in the same state.
“I love you, you know,” Laurens said, a little louder than their conversation had been. “It doesn’t matter if we’re not soulmates, I’ll love you the same.”
Alexander hummed and Laurens tightened his grip on his arm, his hand was numb but his body was warm and he didn’t know how to feel or what to say. But that didn’t matter, Laurens was still talking.
“My soulmate is a girl,” he said. “I don’t know if you remember, but I’m completely gay.” Alexander laughed and wiped a tear that was threatening to trickle out of his eye. He knew that. He was being irrational but he couldn’t help thinking the worst. What if Laurens found someone he liked more than Alexander? What if he found someone who could complete him in ways he couldn’t?
Alexander hated the soulmate system. A fractured, broken system which he wanted to get rid of, snap in half. Some people refused to date another person who wasn’t your soulmate. Some people refused to let people who weren’t soulmates marry. Some people never saw the burst of colours, some people’s soulmate’s were dead, and they were too tired, too broken to be with another.
“We’ll be alright, right?” Laurens asked, facing Alexander, his grip on his loosening and pulling him closer, so he was nearly in his lap.
“Right.” Alexander answered, and leaned in, capturing his lips in a slow kiss. The feeling that Laurens got from it, a warm bubbly one, was better than any burst of colours he could have gotten.