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Jason stepped in between his team and the astral king bent on their destruction. Over the years they’d spent at war with the messengers, their enemy had learned his soft spot was for people. So instead of coming at him head on, they’d taken to going for his heart instead.
In a last ditch effort to stave them off, Jason shadow jumped between them. The blow came in a form he wasn’t expecting. The physical attack he had anticipated never came. In its place, a soul rending lance—he gleaned it had been meant to tear its victims’ soul from its body—which had an altogether different effect on Jason.
It was like he was being impaled the way the Builder had, only soul deep. He ceased seeing the physical world, suddenly torn into that space where the soul resides and thought is more of an abstraction. He sensed his familiars rally to his aid. And at the forefront was Shade.
Mana draining the astral king as fast as he could through the soul spear, Shade fought against time as his bodies exploded around them. Each body annihilated. Jason’s soul felt terror grip it as Shade’s last body refused to pull back. With no words or form to fight, Jason lashed out the only way he knew how.
His soul launched its own attack, bypassing Shade, forcefully shoving Shade’s essence back behind his own soul’s walls. His soul attack pierced through the lance itself, following the soul attached to it. Hunting the monster that dared touch one of his own.
Shrieking. Ice and fire. Pain and vindication. Then numbness… and darkness.
——
Jason blinked his eyes open slowly. A soul deep weariness ached in his chest. He groaned. His body felt too heavy to turn over.
“He’s awake.” Neil’s voice filtered in through his senses. “Welcome back, you idiot.”
Jason groaned again as he tried to speak. The heaviness lifted gradually as he willed his body out of paralysis. He pushed his words through his numb mouth.
“Is everyone okay?” He rasped out. Neil huffed.
“The team is fine, Jason.” Their healer shook his head. “You, on the other hand, are on spirit coins for the next two days.”
Again, he groaned, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, okay.”
——
Two days since the battle apparently, Jason gingerly shuffled his way into the cloud house. They’d been unable to transport him until he woke up. He rubbed his chest where the new scar etched across his skin covering his heart.
This was giving him some serious deja vous he could live without. Without… A spike of panic rose up—SHADE.
Instantly, he reached out for the bond to each of his familiars. Collin, Gordon, and… Shade.
“I am here.” Shade intoned as he gracefully detached from Jason, leaving him shadowless, Jason noted. One body.
“You were one body away from nothing, Shade.” He barely had enough energy to hold himself up, but the weight of how close he came to losing Shade was worse. His body drooped with it.
“I remember what you told me, when the Builder tried to seize my soul. I remember what happens to familiars if they’re destroyed in the soul itself, Shade.” Tears trickled down his cheek as he implored Shade to understand.
“When you have lived for as long as I have, death will one day be inevitable.” Shade’s cool demeanor did nothing to soothe the burning emptiness that idea held for him.
Sensing the turmoil in Jason, Shade reached out a shadowy hand to brush away his tears. The barely there touch snapped Jason’s reserves. He launched himself at Shade’s ethereal body.
It was like hugging a cloud, but he didn’t care. He buried his face into the feathery folds of Shade’s robes. Like the time he spoke with Asya, he felt Shade’s form become more substantial under his fingertips. He gripped Shade tight, afraid to let go.
“You remember that I said I was grateful… that you didn’t take that bond when I was unconscious?” Jason mumbled against Shade’s body. “You really don’t know just how grateful I am that you chose independence.”
Jason sensed confusion coming off his shadow familiar. He still wasn’t sure how ethical this was, but Shade, ever choosing to be his own person, made it at least an option in Jason’s mind. What Shade chose to do with it… would be up to him.
Jason straightened himself, sniffled as he put himself back together. Shade lowered his arms slowly, aura tinged with curiosity. Jason reached out for the hooded figure’s face, a wispy shadow at his fingertips.
Surprise rippled off of Shade as Jason leaned in to place a delicate kiss to the ethereal form’s face.
“I love you, Shade.” Jason spoke softly, but with confidence, against the shadow form. He spent a moment gazing into the shadows, feeling a spiral of emotions flowing through them. He smiled ruefully. “I just wanted you to know.”
Jason squared his shoulders and turned, heading for his room. He got about eight steps before he felt a light tug on his wrist. When he glanced down, he saw shadows coalescing into a firm hand.
“In 30,000 millennia… no one has ever… seen me that way.” Shade seemed at a loss. “I don’t experience the physical world the way you do.”
“I know, Shade.” He placed a hand over Shade’s own. “That’s okay. I don’t expect anything of you.”
He gave his friend a small smile before resuming his trek to bed, only to feel his arm held fast in place. “Shade?”
Jason was surprised to notice that he couldn’t read Shade’s emotions. The familiar drew near, his wrist still encircled in shadows. Jason fought the blush that wanted to rise up at the contact. He needed to give Shade the space to make his own choices.
Shade hovered before him. A small hint of nervous energy leaked out, causing Jason’s eyebrows to rise. Concern swept through him. “Shade, are you alright?”
Instead of answering with words, Shade raised his other hand and gently cupped Jason’s cheek. Jason released the blush, sucking in a small gasp, as butterflies seemed to fill his lower abdomen.
He blinked, mouth moving, but no words came out. He didn’t know what to say. It appeared that neither did Shade.
In the slowest of motions, Shade hovered closer to Jason until the hood of his cloak shrouded them both. Jason closed his eyes as the outline of a man’s form inside the hood drew close enough to touch.
Velvet soft lips gently brushed up against his, applying just the barest of pressure. Jason didn’t dare move. He didn’t breathe, he held every muscle still.
The tiniest bit more pressure against his lips had Jason melting, limbs and muscles all relaxing, letting go of every care and worry in the world.
When Shade retreated as slow and carefully as he’d approached, he whispered to Jason, “Thank you.”
Jason opened his eyes, a thousand watt smile spreading across his face. His heart beaming, aura sweeping out to fill the room. And the answering warmth from Shade was all he needed to know that they were going to be alright.