Soul

by slashyrogue

Summary:

Adam and Nigel are soulmates.

But their lives take on very different paths that may keep them apart forever.

Can they find their way to each other?

Chapter 1

The day Nigel gets his soul mark he’s thirteen and hiding under his bed from his abusive fucker of a father. Bitter tears sting his eyes as he watches it happen while the pain of marking makes him cover his mouth to muffle his screams.

 

His horror of what appears only makes it worse.

 

A star inside a circle.

 

A pentagram.

 

The witch’s mark.

 

Everyone knows that’s the worst possible outcome, being tethered to a fucking witch and used for all sorts of demonic shit.

 

His mother always told him to never show his mark to anyone if it’s a witch mark.

 

“They’ll take you from me, Ni. They’ll suck you dry and you’ll never see me again.”

 

Nigel hates his father but loves his mother.

 

He decides then and there to never look for his soulmate.

 

Then, two weeks later in a drunken tirade, his father strangles his mother right in front of him.

 

And Nigel runs away from home.

 

It’s hard, living on the street, but he manages for two years before the pigs find him.

 

He tells them about his mom.

 

They tell him his dad committed suicide.

 

The relief that comes is almost too much and he hardly remembers getting shipped off to the orphanage.

 

He’s there for three years and it’s at times bad but he meets his best friend Darko who ends up slicing his belly twenty years later so badly he has to recover in a safe house above a cafe.

 

That’s where he first hears Gabi’s cello.

 

Two years later he’s got a bullet in his head and barely sane when Darko gets him to the states.

 

That’s when his soulmark starts to tickle.

 

Nigel’s ignored it for what feels like so long he’s in shock to feel anything at all and stares in wonder as stars start to appear up his arm over the coming days, practically a sleeve, as he wanders the streets of New York.

 

He gets a job at a bar slinging drinks four days in from one of Darko’s contacts and their fractured friendship restarts over texts that keep him going.

 

But he doesn’t tell Darko about his soulmark.

 

The memories of his mother’s pleas make him feel like a pussy when it brings tears to his eyes and he tries to ignore it.

 

Really tries.

 

Then, a week into working at the bar some bitch named Beth changes his life.

 

It’s a slow night, barely any people, and two women sit right in front of him on the shitty ass stools that need replacing.

 

One of them can’t seem to shut the fuck up.

 

“…and he says he thinks his soulmate is in the city. I told him that it could just be a fluke, you know? He’s been walking all over looking and won’t even answer my calls. I’m the one who lowered myself FOR HIM! No one else will be able to take his mood swings or pretend to listen to his hour long speeches about stupid stars! I really thought I had hit the jackpot to snag a witch of all things and now…”

 

Nigel most drops the bottle of vodka in his hands.

 

“A…a witch?”

 

The woman glares at him.

 

“It’s none of YOUR business, is it…,” she squints at his name tag, “…Nigel? Just mind your own…”

 

Nigel grabs her arm and she pulls back with eyes widening.

 

“Your star witch,” he whispers, “Why aren’t you afraid of him?”

 

She bursts out laughing. “Of Adam? He’s about as scary as a kitten!”

 

Adam.

 

Nigel’s arm burns to hear the name, so much he lets go, and the two women toss down a fifty leaving in a huff.

 

And Nigel, idiotic asshole he is,  takes off his apron and yells out, “I QUIT!” to go after them.

 

It’s a long shot he’ll even be able to catch up, but his “kitten” witch must be giving him all the luck because the two women aren’t in a car.

 

They’re walking.

 

Nigel gets on his bike, heart beating wildly, and follows behind them for blocks before they stop at an apartment building.

 

He knows Adam is inside.

 

Feels it.

 

But still goes home.

 

The mark on his arm is burning as he leaves, making him almost run off the road twice, and he pulls over to scream.

 

His mother’s voice echoes in his head as she begs him not to let them take him.

 

‘They’ll suck you dry.’

 

Nigel barely gets home, passing out, and wakes up to twelve missed calls.

 

Six are from his boss.

 

Five are from Darko.

 

Only one is from an unknown number.

 

But the unknown number leaves a message.

 

“H…hello,” Nigel hears, a warmth going through him, “My name is Adam Raki and if I did my spell right then you’re my soulmate. If I didn’t, please disregard.”

 

Nigel can hardly see through his tears as the warmth fills him accompanied by fear.

 

“Adam.”

 

His kitten witch found him.

 

But…is he ready to be found?

Chapter 2

Adam is born with a soulmate.

 

His mark is always there, a part of him, but until he turns six he always thinks it was because of his magic.

 

“It means there’s someone waiting to love you,” his father says, touching the pentacle on Adam’s wrist.

 

Adam only sees his father cry twice in his life: that night when he tells him what a soulmate is and last year when he tells him he is going to die.

 

There’s only so much that magic can do, laws to uphold and promises to keep, and one thing you can’t do is live forever or stop someone on their path, even if it’s heading to death.

 

His father’s soulmark is long faded by the time he dies, nearly gone from fading every year after his mother is gone.

 

Adam can’t imagine seeing his mark everyday and knowing he’ll never get to feel that perfect love again.

 

Adam touches his father’s mark the day he dies and watches it come back to him no longer faded but fully visible once more.

 

He is with his mother again, and that makes Adam happy even in his grief.

 

His soulmark worries him sometimes, especially late at night when he wonders if his soulmate is happy without him.

 

Or maybe would just be happier without him forever.

 

His magic fells dulled after his father died, barely there, and the little things Adam used to do like grab boxes from the cabinets

or grab his food deliveries before the driver even came upstairs, are just gone.

 

He misses his father so much.

 

Adam goes through his routines, staying focused, and is content to be as human as he can forever.

 

He meets a woman named Beth but he doesn’t tell her he is a witch for weeks and when he does frowns when her eyes lit up.

 

“What kind of magic can you do?”

 

Adam’s stomach tightens as he says, “Not a lot but I can…” and lifts the bowl between them making her eyes go even wider.

 

“That’s amazing! Oh wow do it again!”

 

The praise makes Adam smile even if he’s still unsure, and when her praise starts to turn to demands he knows he can’t do, things he hasn’t been able to since his father died, he starts to yell back. His magic responds by not working at all and her apologies after don’t help much but he is so lonely he still keeps seeing Beth just much less.

 

Then, just the day after his birthday Adam wakes up to a burning pain. He turns on the light, moaning, and watches in shock as stars began to form all over his arm.

 

Tears fill his eyes.

 

His soulmate is close.

 

He lifts his arm and cries happy tears, smiling as his soulmark is truly formed, and closes his fist before a bottle of water appears in his hand.

 

Adam laughs.

 

His magic is back.

 

He gets out of bed, shaking, and goes to his bottom drawer.

 

His mother’s spell book is there, as if always had been, and while he’d never been able to successfully do any spells inside he wants to try.

 

This spell was to find your soulmate.

 

Adam stays up nearly all night looking for the right ingredients and ends up without fresh lavender but knows where there might be some.

 

He hasn’t opened his father’s bedroom door in over a year now, the pain of losing him too much, but that’s where his mother’s jars were so he has to try.

 

Tears fill his eyes when he’s hit with the scent of his father’s cologne, shaking as he goes to the closet and touches his father’s clothes.

 

“Hi Dad,” he whisperers, “Do you want to help me find my soulmate?”

 

The lavender comes into his hand then, without Adam even asking his magic for help, and tears fell down his face  as he smiles. “Thank you.”

 

Adam finishes the spell just as the sun comes up, and falls asleep exhausted.

 

He wakes up late, missed messages from work filling his voicemail, but nothing else.   

 

The spell didn’t work.

 

Adam screams, his magic causing several things to fly off shelves in his upset, and he doesn’t even call work just wallows in self pity until there’s a knock at his door.

 

He runs, excited, but it’s only Beth.

 

“Adam, oh god you look….”

 

“I don’t want to see you right now, Beth. I…my soulmate is here in the city and I….I need to find them. I have spells I need to do and I can’t talk to you.”

 

He tries to close the door but she blocks it. “Adam, you don’t know that! They might not even be…it could be a mistake!”

 

Adam shuts the door on her, his magic calm again, and goes back to his mother’s spell book.

 

He does the spell every night for a solid week, frustration at nothing in response only making him that more determined as he walks the city hoping to feel something in his soul mark .

 

Anything.

 

Beth keeps coming, her interruptions making his magic angrier at just hearing her voice that the door won’t even open when it knows she’s there.

 

She calls him so often he blocks her number, and when she sees him outside his magic makes her walk the other way.

 

Adam’s job somehow lets him work remotely, his boss sympathetic, and he alternates between the computer and finding his soulmate until he feels like he’s going crazy.

 

Then, when he feels like he might just be ready to give up, he starts to get phone calls from a number he doesn’t recognize.

 

He doesn’t answer and there’s no message.

 

But they happen every single day at exactly the same time.

 

Adam feels an odd tingle when he presses call, scared, and hangs up before it even rings for two days before he lets it ring very late one night as he’s heading for bed.

 

There’s no voice, just automated, and he leaves a message feeling his arm heat up in response as tears fall down his face.

“H…hello,” he whispers, warmth going through him, “My name is Adam Raki and if I did my spell right then you’re my soulmate. If I didn’t, please disregard.”

 

Adam goes to sleep filled with worry.

 

Maybe the calls were just spam. Maybe he couldn’t do spells right just like he thought.

 

He wakes up to a text message from the number, heart beating wildly in his chest as he opens it.

 

It’s a simple sentence, only five words, but shatters his heart into a million pieces because he knows it’s a lie.

 

‘You have the wrong number.'

 

Adam’s soul mark aches, the pain spreading through his entire body, and he curls up as he starts to cry.

 

His father had been wrong.

 

His soulmate doesn’t want to love him.

 

And nobody ever will.

Chapter 3

Nigel knows he’s a coward.

 

The text is made after hours listening to Adam’s message, his arm burning at just the thought of him, and he instantly regrets sending the five words but doesn’t take them back.

 

He doesn’t sleep, watching his phone almost hoping for Adam to protest.

 

He doesn’t.

 

The next few days he feels oddly cold, even when the weather is warm. He goes to work in long sleeves and eventually sweaters, getting laughs from his coworkers that he ignores.

 

Then, after days of cold, he feels a burning in his arm again and rolls up his sleeve watching in confusion as more stars appear on his arm. They travel up, nearly past his wrist, and his eyes fill with tears as an emptiness seems to overtake him.

 

Nigel checks his phone, but sees nothing, fear filling his ever waking thought and finally when he can barely breathe he calls Adam’s number.

 

It doesn’t go through.

 

He calls again and again, screaming into the phone when it keeps denying him and realizes he’s been blocked.

 

Something is wrong.

 

Nigel leaves his place and gets on his bike, driving to Adam’s place and parking outside.

 

His mark burns and he looks at his other arm, biting his lip so hard he tastes blood as the same stars start to appear.

 

Nigel jumps off and heads for the door, staring at the names and when he sees Raki he knows.

 

Adam.

 

He presses the buzzer, getting no response, and keeps pressing till his finger is sore so he presses another getting buzzed in fast.

 

Nigel runs inside, tears filling his eyes and goes to Adam’s door ready to bang on it only for the door to just—-open.

 

He steps inside and stares at a mess around him - dishes piled up, clothes everywhere, and a terrible stench that makes him struggle to breathe as he heads for the bedroom.

 

There he sees a lump under a blanket and throws it off, barely about to see his kitten witch for the first time.

 

Adam’s pale, has days worth of stubble covering his face, and he smells like death.

 

Nigel rolls up his sleeve and moans when he sees Adam’s mark.

 

It’s fading.

 

“No, no, no,” he whimpers, pressing his cheek to Adam’s, letting out a sob as he gently touches his face, “No, Darling, I….FUCK! DRAIN ME! TAKE WHAT YOU NEED! I…”

 

Nigel lays his forehead against Adam’s, still touching his face, and whispers, “Take everything, Star. Take….fuck, I’m so sorry.”

 

Adam doesn’t respond, his lifeless body making Nigel scream, and he knows now why the new stars were forming.

 

He was taking them from Adam.

 

Nigel presses his lips to Adam’s then, knowing he doesn’t deserve even one final kiss, and starts to sob clutching him just as his arm starts to burn.

 

Adam opens his eyes, a long jagged breath making his body shake, and Nigel kisses him again deeper as he feels his soulmate ‘suck him dry’ just like his mother said he would.

 

Nigel holds on tightly until he’s pushed off, vision fading as Adam stares down at him in horror.

 

“What are….no you…you lied…you..,you don’t want me, why did you….”

 

He smiles just before he blacks out and barely gets to whisper, “Adam.”

 

Nigel wakes up to Adam wiping his forehead with a cool cloth, staring down at him with worry, and he grabs his hand. “Adam.”

 

“How do you know my name?”

 

He smiles, pulling up Adam’s arm to see their soulmark there again, and bursts into tears as he kisses it.

 

“I….oh….what…”

 

Nigel shakes his head. “I’m so fucking sorry, Star. I….god I was such a fucking coward and you nearly died! I…”

 

Adam touches his cheek.

 

“You were scared of me?”

 

He nods, still feeling weak but Adam’s touch feels like heaven the longer he gets to have it.

 

“I’m sorry,” Adam whispers, tears filling his eyes, “Was it because I’m a witch?”

 

Nigel grips his arm as he nods. “I’m sorry, Star, I….I’m a coward. I…my mother she…”

 

Adam sniffles. “I’d never hurt you,” he whispers, his voice shaking, “I didn’t even know your name and yet I was ready to die to make you happy. I…”

 

Nigel kisses his hand. “Nigel,” he whispers hoarsely, “My name is Nigel. I would’ve too, just now, I…” he smiles, “I’d fucking die for you, yeah? Anything, Star. Anything, I’d…you gave them to me, your stars, but the only Star I want is you, you…”

 

“Nigel.”

 

His name from Adam’s lips makes Nigel shudder and all at once Adam looks entirely different.

 

The stubble on his cheeks is gone, his faces perfectly framed by soft clean curls, and his cheeks are pink as he whispers, “Star. I…I like that.”

 

Nigel touches his cheek.

 

“Can I kiss you again, Star?”

 

Adam kisses him instead, the burn they goes through Nigel making his whole body a live wire, and he feels a connection form between them as Adam whispers with tears on his cheeks as he smiles.

 

“I can’t wait to fall in love with you.”

 

Nigel smiles, running his finger over Adam’s lips.

 

“I’m already halfway there, Star.  Kiss me again and l’ll marry you by midnight.”

 

Adam laughs and kisses him again.

 

He proposes three weeks later.

 

Though Nigel buys the ring the next morning, barely able to think when they’re apart for even a second.

 

The ring is covered in stars and Nigel gets it inscribed with, “I was waiting to love you.”

 

Adam bursts into tears when he reads it and whispers, “So was I.”

 

They’re married a year later in the forest at night and the stars are so bright Adam says “they’re happy for us,” and Nigel whispers, voice shaking as he holds Adam in his arms, “Not as happy as I am, Star. Not as happy as I am.”

 

THE END

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 13 of Originally on Twitter