Chapter Text
Kyle was never perfect. Not the happy-go-lucky prince with eyes full of wonder, but he found his space to be soft. He knew to stand with his hands behind his lower back, folded together, polite and proper. He waited for the world to finally tell him it was his turn. He started as something loving, held upright by a code only defined by himself and his family. He was curious and ready for whatever ended up thrown his way. Kyle was born into an imperfect world, and he reflected the best qualities of it.
Days were spent with busywork, tying strings around the jar openings and melting wax for seals. He listened well, helping his mother with her work, and being by his brother’s side through thick and thin. He wasn’t supposed to have some grand journey. Kyle was simply himself. Yet, when told by a stranger to take the scenic route, he listened. Despite the whispering of the trees, nervous and small, he listened.
The angel looked up from its tears, and Kyle’s heart twisted into a painful mass of empathy. He reached forward- desperate to help, and the floor under him changed.
When he fell through the worlds and landed somewhere new, he was almost something perfect in a world that didn’t exist. A world that was never- and would never- be a world. The Crossing was strange, of course it was. Everything met, began, and ended at the crossroads- and Kyle was impaled on the post in the center. He was absolutely gorgeous, lost in a space between the folds of reality’s loving bosom.
Eric was rolling in his own ashes the moment he touched the mud of the riverbeds. His hands dug clumsily into clay, making no more than a mess, but he was alive. He was new and free- finally. The world became his in an instant, as soon as he formed the first crude silhouette of imagination against the rocky bank. He ignored the blistering pain radiating through his shoulder blades and fully embraced the life he was given. He was going to make something of himself, now more than ever- and thrive. Nothing could hold him back now, nothing to dictate rules and order him to wait.
He met Kyle at the crossroads and pulled him off the stake himself. There was nothing quite like him in the rest of their world, frayed around the edges and full of a fire he’d never seen before. Still, Kyle’s eyes were dizzy and glazed, which Eric only found beautiful. There was nothing there that should have made him fall in love, and yet, when he took Kyle into his arms he never wanted to let go. There was something captivating about him. Eric held Kyle’s weak form, guiding his body into a messy waltz around the very post that Kyle had been stuck upon.
Kyle was fuzzy and falling, but Eric held him close and steady. Kyle could’ve asked for anything, and he would’ve worked to give it to him. Instead, Eric was selfish. He asked Kyle to trust him- though he knew this wasn’t deserved, not as the monster that he was. To his surprise, Kyle’s dizzy state made him kind, so kind, and he agreed. Eric felt like a peasant who had just been embraced by royalty, warmth spreading throughout his entire body.
It came as an instinct, sharp teeth digging into the soft flesh of Kyle’s wrist. In less than a breath, they were bonded. Forever together, their pages torn, stitched together again inseparably. He couldn’t stay long- lest this newfound addiction take him over. He left Kyle with family, and fled through the dense woods for now.
Eric was messy, broken, and made of so many mangled pieces- something so undeniably monstrous- but he was Kyle’s. As long as he would let him, as long as Kyle would trust him. As long as they could be together. Eric’s hands shook when he thought of Kyle- strong voiced and fragile boned, beautiful and breakable- but he could never hurt him. Kyle could kill him himself, and Eric wouldn’t think to do anything but thank him for even laying his hands on him.