Gabriel huffed out a laugh, going easily when they reversed positions. He looked up at the phoenix now, his hands sliding up the other’s arms. The feeling of his soulmate was enough to get the incubus excited for the rest of eternity together. He kept his curse, and he got to still plan on lifetimes with Petrichor. Nothing would tear them apart again, and definitely not death. He pulled the phoenix down to kiss him, and he fucked one more lifetime out of him.
He knew it would be exciting, but the nerves were a bit much for the incubus. After all, it wasn’t like he’d married anyone else in his life. Gabriel had Penelope and Kaan there, and that was enough to make him relax as much as he could. The island of Skopelos was everything he wanted it to be and more. The vows were heavy handed perhaps for someone like him, but there were few people he’d allow to see him in such a way. A soul knew its other half by sight alone, and that’s how it had been for Gabriel, anyway. Perhaps as a human, he hadn’t known what to look for. Soft blue eyes, kind features, that’d been enough for a soldier to trust in a stranger. It had felt like losing air when Petrichor had left, and he knew he could breathe once more when reunited. Even the past year had done little to quell the incubus’ love for the phoenix, despite the good and the bad, and the murderous intent against others, they were at this place, together. And Gabriel had zero plans to let anyone get between them, even this idea of starting the end of another world. And as he pulled Petrichor in by the lapels of his suit, he sealed that promise with an I do and a kiss.
Too many years Petrichor had spent alone, tasked with protecting the world all the while believing himself above it. It wasn’t enough to fall in love, because anyone could do that. He’d been chosen by Eos, by Artemis, and to him this meant sacrifice. Putting himself last and doing whatever was necessary to save even the undeserving. The phoenix had known love once, thousands of years prior when he was young and the world was still new to him. Gabriel was something else entirely, another mortal, though one who’d been found out by immortality thanks to the phoenix’s touch. It had taken losing himself entirely to find himself in the incubus he’d left behind so many centuries prior, while Gabriel’s vows were laid on thick, Petrichor’s were characteristically sappy. He owed the other man a great debt, because even when he was at his worst - hated by his sister, despised by the phoenixes for wishing to tear down the veil. Gabriel was still there, he was always there. Consistent, witty, charming. It would be them always, eternally, and for the first time in over a thousand years Petrichor found himself looking forward to the future. To the next day and the day after, because each morning he awoke it was to Gabriel next to him. Petrichor’s lips pressed against Gabriel’s, his hand curved around the back of the man’s neck and he promised him just that: forever.
