Know Thyself, or Echoes (Chapter 1)
Media: Twilight Pairing: Aro/Bella Link to first chapter: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25936672/chapters/63041890
Summary: “Those who do not observe the movements of their own minds must of necessity be unhappy.” - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Still, Bella and Aro think too much.
Excerpt: Three millennia of quiet yearning. No one extant had ever known someone to go so long without finding their mate, and Aro had never thought to ask the rare ancients he had met when he was younger if they had heard of such a thing. He had had other priorities, and no idea then of just how long he would be waiting. Aro considered fate to be an old friend, at this point, even if he sometimes found himself to be in rebellion against it—like when his mind birthed half-thoughts and delirious waking dreams of the one he waited for. For those taunting hours, if fate had had a physical form, he would have set it aflame. Luckily rare were these episodes—and recent. He’d been succumbing to them not longer than these last two decades. An infinitesimally trivial timespan to beings of his age. Accordingly, he had yet to mention this little condition to any. Even his fellow kings did not know—and they perhaps would never need to.
