Chapter Text
Scott walked back to the apartment he shared with Shelby, a route he knew well. They had been living there for almost twenty years now, so it was hard to forget the familiar paths and alleyways. Scott pushed through the crowds of strangers, all going about their own day.
He saw up ahead a particularly compact group of people, and decided he didn’t want to deal with that. He instead turned down an alleyway. He had been this way before, usually in a similar situation, but was slightly less sure about which way he was going.
The brick walls stretched high above Scott, covered in graffiti and long forgotten posters. It was ever so slightly claustrophobic, and he found himself calculating how he would fly out as a bat if he needed to. It was unnecessary, but it made him feel the slightest bit more in control.
Suddenly, with no warning, Abolish appeared. Scott jumped, but schooled his face into one of calm before speaking. Abolish didn’t seem to notice as he spoke.
“Abolish? Wait, I thought you had to be dead by now.” Scott said. Shelby had absolutely insisted that since they hadn’t heard from him in a couple decades he must have passed away. Apparently, that was how humans worked. Scott hadn’t been that upset, never close with the man, but was still happy Shelby was wrong.
“Not quite yet.” Abolish responded. “I’m going to do something.” Scott had just a moment to wonder what he was talking about when he felt something.
Abolish had touched his soulmate mark. An incredibly simple, albeit strange, action, but it triggered something deep and instinctual within Scott.
It was a flurry of conflicting feelings, affection, anger, sadness, happiness. His mind flashed back to every interaction he had had with Abolish, layering and mixing him in his brain. He suddenly was hyper-aware of every slight movement Abolish made, every surprisingly shaky breath he took.
The attack on his senses was cruel, and he couldn’t move or talk. He tried to speak, but no sound would come out of his useless mouth. He was forced to rack his own mind for an explanation for what was happening when it hit him.
The soulmate mark. Abolish had specifically touched the soulmate mark. That was what it was. Scott was told that bonding was a strange experience, but he never expected it to be this awful. Also, he had known Abolish for literal centuries. How had he only figured this out now? Actually, it was Abolish who figured it out.
“Seriously! You were right there for two hundred years and we just figured it out!” Scott said. He had no idea whether he should find it hilarious or infuriating.
“Yeah.” Abolish’s voice was shaky. Scott was full of a strange sense of concern that he knew he wouldn’t normally, even with his improvement since Oakhurst. “I’m surprised we never touched each other while we were in Oakhurst.”
“Touched each other?” Scott questioned. Did bonding only get triggered when the two people touched? Was that how they had known each other for so long without this happening?
“Physical contact triggers the, the… this.” Abolish said, seeming lost for words. It confirmed what Scott had thought, however which was… good? Scott didn’t really know. It did make sense though.
“You had me at arms distance with a sword the entire time. I guess you were just that good at fighting.” Scott said. He was truly a skilled fighter, and though he had definitely been attacked, it had never been by Scott specifically.
“I guess I was.” Abolish agreed. There was a long moment of silence, both of them just trying to process the situation.
“What do we do now?” Scott said. He was hoping Abolish would have more guidance, because he seemed to have been quite insightful thus far.
“I don’t know. I have no experience with soulmate stuff, I only knew it existed because of my father and he didn’t really tell me anything beyond what it was and how to activate it.” Abolish admitted. That was not ideal.
Thinking about it, Abolish had most likely been born with the mark, given how long Scott had been a vampire. That must have been strange. Scott wanted to see the mark, just to confirm everything. It had already been clearly proven, but Scott just wanted to know.
“Can I see your mark?” Scott asked. Abolish obliged, pulling at the edge of his collar until it was visible.
There it was, in broad daylight. A simple little mark, but beautiful all the same. It was something that Scott had been able to see at any time in the last few decades on his own skin, but now it was so much more meaningful.
Scott’s eyes wandered from the mark to Abolish’s collarbone, the faintly freckled skin drawing his eyes. Though it was tiny, the skin showing felt shockingly vulnerable, amplified by the fact that it had always been covered up by various uniforms or hoodies over the years.
Then he shifted to look at Abolish’s face, specifically his lips. They looked so soft, and Scott couldn’t resist moving forward slightly. He jerked back, trying to reign himself back under control. He couldn’t do that to Abolish, they had discovered this seconds ago, it was far too far.
“Are you alright?” Abolish asked. Scott didn’t know what to tell him. The simple sound of his voice was sparking something in Scott’s brain that he had never experienced before, everything in his body firing towards one specific purpose.
“I really want to kiss you and it’s fucking with my brain.” Scott blurted out. He watched as Abolish turned a pretty shade of pink, flushing from Scott’s abrupt words. It was adorable, and he couldn’t keep himself together any longer.
They kissed, but it felt like so much more than that. Abolish gripped his shirt, forcing him closer with strength Scott hadn’t realised he had, which was more attractive than Scott would have expected. Fireworks shot through him as they closed any remaining gap, the plains of their bodies moving together.
It never felt like this with Avid. That though stopped Scott in his tracks, the need being overwritten by that sudden bolt of panic, the idea that he was replacing Avid, forcing someone else into the hole that still undoubtedly resided in the deep, hidden parts of his mind and soul. He couldn’t do that, wouldn’t do that. No one could replace them, not even the frowning vampire hunter that was grabbing onto him like his life depended on it.
“Sorry… That was weird.” Scott said, as an attempt at an excuse. He could hear how unsure he sounded, but was unable to muster up any more poetic words. The way his mind has managed to flip so quickly was fully alien to him, in anything he had experienced in his life.
“Agreed.” Abolish said. There was another long pause, where the only thing he could hear was Abolish’s heart beat and his own racing thoughts.
“Imagine what’s going to happen when Shelby finds out about this.” Scott said with a much more convincing smile, hoping his joke would diffuse the situation.
“I don’t particularly want to.” Abolish said. Scott couldn’t tell if he was joking, but agreed either way. She could be devious if she wanted to, especially about soulmates. Hell, it had been chaos when she had discovered that Cleo and Pearl were ‘fated lovers’ or whatever she had spun it as.
“Alright.” Scott said lamely, realising he was probably meant to respond. Abolish didn’t seem to mind, content to look at Scott. The intensity of his gaze was sort of scary, but Scott was willing to take the opportunity to admire all the things that he had just now noticed about Abolish.
The thing that stood out to him the most was his hair, half white and half black. He had always thought it looked a bit silly, like those teenagers on band posters, and the fact that he claimed it was natural, even around regular humans, made him cringe. But no, it was just beautiful.
He was so doomed.