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When your born you get a stop watch that counts down the seconds until you meet your soul mate.
When Grillby was born his watch read 8,329 years 241 days, 19 hours, 30 minuets, 23 seconds. Luckily Grillby was born patient.
Even when he was young and had a long wait ahead of him he would slink away from the other children, his brothers and sisters, his mother and his mam and he would sit alone in the corner of some room or his closet counting down the seconds with the watch, the minutes, and sometimes if no one could find him, the hours.
When he fought in the war of humans and monsters, he glanced at the watch even as he clashed swords and magic with the greatest of human masters. Even as he cut fiery swathes in the human ranks he found himself glancing at the red illuminated characters.
Even as the peace treaty was signed, even as he had been awarded medals of honor he had glanced at the watch through both cerimoneys.
He had tried to start other relationships but the watch distracted him and would not allow him to hold down any kind or relation ship that wasn't strictly platonic.
After the war he opened a restaurant if only to keep him busy for part of the day, but he would find himself late at night worrying about his soul mate and those red glowing numbers would comfort him.
He watched as 8,000 years became 7,000.
7,000 years became 6000.
6,000 years became 5,000.
5,000 years became 4,000.
4,000 years became 3,000.
3,000 years became 2,000.
2,000 years became 1,000.
1,000 years became 900.
900 became 700.
700 became 500.
500 became 300.
300 became 100.
100 became 50.
50 became 10.
10 became 1.
1 year became 300 days.
300 days became 200.
200 became 100.
100 days became a month.
A month became a week.
A week became a day.
On that day he woke up with only 12 and a half hours at 7 AM. He opened the bar, and every surface was spotless because every time he put down the rag he would ring his hands nervously. He dropped five glasses and broke two of them, he mixed up one costumer's order 3 separate times in a row and after apologizing profusely she had noticed his watch and congratulated him, he was such a bundle of nerves the only thing he could offer her was a weak smile as he walked off to get her actual order.
He closed the bar early at 7 PM cleaning up the spills and messes of the day as if it were any other day. Only 30 minuets left until he met his soulmate.
It suddenly struck Grillby he didn't know what to do now, he lived in the restaurant's attic, err his restaurant was his house's basement, basically he lived in the flat above his bar.
His soulmate wasn't going to break in were they?
No that was an idiotic idea, there was no one dumb enough to break into the house and workplace of an 8,000 year old fire elemental.
Well, there were monsters and humans who were dumb enough to break in but he hoped his soulmate wasn't one of them, though at this point he had waited so long he didn't care.
So instead he let his feet carry him to the park in this small town, and for the first time in the hundred years since Grillby had moved his bar into this town it was empty. He didn't care if it added to the dramatic tone, it filled his soul with dread.
He sat down on one of the cold slightly damp metal benches making it a warm dry metal bench.
27 minutes.
He watched the ducks clash and bicker with the geese in the small pond a couple yards past the other side of the path.
23 minutes.
He watched the sun dip below the horizon setting the sky aflame in a flurry of beautiful reds and oranges followed by soft pinks and greys as the sky deepened in color as the sun left it's graces.
10 minutes.
Grillby was now the brightest light in the park compared to the weak street lamps which gave a half hearted flicker before resigning to giving of a dim glow.
8 minutes.
He listened to the breeze and a chirping that he couldn't distinguish from a late night bird or a bat.
6 minutes.
He rang his hands together nervously.
5 minuets.
Who actually came to a park after dark? Especially in a town that wasn't known for being the most reputable place, wouldn't it be just his luck that he had waited 8 millenniums and ended up with a member of one of the local gangs or just some shady crook.
1 minute.
He stared down at his watch as it counted down the seconds and glanced up after about 30 seconds, at the park gate where a short figure slowly shuffled into the park staring down at their watch, they shoved their hands in their pocket and Grillby could see they were a small skeleton monster.
The skeleton looked up and locked eyes with him before shrugging and looking down at his feet and walking down the path opposite Grillby.
The fire elemental stood and taking long strides followed the skeleton.
Soon he could see the skeleton's watch counting down in sync with his own. He matched his stride to the count down and lifted the skeleton of the ground pressing fiery lips against the skeleton's permanent smile. Grillby had never been happier, he had waited eight thousand years for this moment. When he pulled back the skeleton's grin was dopey but he still asked.
"what was that for?" Grillby grabbed the skeleton's wrist with the watch on it and shoved it in the skeletons face.
"...oh..."
They sat down on a park bench.
"I'm Grillby."
"sans" The skeleton fiddled with an errant thread on his jacket .
"even if we are soul mates, not that i have anything wrong with it, but wasn't that kiss a bit... uhh rushed? we just met after all." The skeleton mumbled in uncertainly, but Grillby had prepared this answer for years and his voice was filled with confidence.
"I waited 8,000 years for you and I'm not waiting a moment longer."