Summary: After Thomas passes away, the Sides are all sent spiraling into their next lives. New families, new dreams, new surroundings. But... Something has always felt missing, to them. Something important.
When four strangers meet at Tamzen University, they discover that some loves can transcend lifetimes.
Warnings: Character death, panic, crying, arguing
Word count: 246 (A very, very short prologue, but the chapters will be longer)
Writing Masterpost – Ko-Fi
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Thomas was dying.
It was all happening so suddenly. There was no time to process, no time to call the others, no time for anything except everyone doing everything they could to get him to survive. But it wasn’t working. Nothing was working.
When he hit the floor, lips turning blue in an empty apartment, no one to call for help, the Sides knew.
This was the end.
“Gentlemen,” Roman whispered, voice uncharacteristically soft and cracking, “It’s been an honor.”
“I love you all. So much,” Patton choked. “Best family I could have ever asked for.”
“I…” Virgil sniffled, tears falling freely as he wrapped his arms around himself and looked them all in the eye. “I’m so glad I joined you guys,” he sobbed. “Thank you for… For everything.”
The three tucked into each other for one final group hug.
Logan took a step back.
“No.”
“Logan…,” Patton whimpered.
“No! I’m not giving up!” he snapped “You may all be well and ready to accept— accept this, but I am not!”
Roman stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder, but he ripped away as soon as it made contact. Instead, Roman placed it on his own hip and glared.
“Logan, we don’t have much time left,” he stated. “Let’s not spend it fighting.”
“You may spend it however you want.”
Logan shot them a tearful, panicked glare before dropping on the ground next to Thomas.
Summary: After Thomas passes away, the Sides are all sent spiraling into their next lives. New families, new dreams, new surroundings. But… Something has always felt missing, to them. Something important.
When four strangers meet at Tamzen University, they discover that some loves can transcend lifetimes.
Warnings: Ableism (both external and internal), awful friends, probably sexist thinking, author probably not doing near enough research and only going off of what he’s learned from his friends who have IBS
Word Count: 2.274
(Author’s note: I’m interested if you folks can guess who’s who in these upcoming chapters! Some might be more obvious than others...)
Writing Masterpost – Ko-Fi
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Sarah had always known she was a princess.
For as long as she could remember, she had always felt drawn to tiaras and Disney movies and glittery ball gowns. Half of her birthday parties growing up had been princess themed, even when she was probably considered too old to have them. Her friends all knew to never try to convince her that she was just a normal girl; anyone who dared would end up having to watch her break down in tears and feel bad enough to try to fix it. She was lucky to have parents that encouraged her interests, always reminding her that she could be whatever she dreamed, whether it be royalty or not.
Not that she needed reminding, at the beginning— at the start of middle school, when all of those dreams should have began to fade away, the boys in school began to notice her. Sarah reveled in all the attention she could get. They loved to watch her draw her poorly-done anime characters, and read her cliché-ridden fanfiction. Some boys would even argue over who would get to see it first, if they weren’t fighting over who got to ask her if they could be this week’s boyfriend.
High school started out pretty much the same way. As her art and writing developed, so did her looks, and with everyone hitting puberty now, it was rare to find a girl safe from the boys’ gaze. There were quite a few unsolicited and creepy ones that she was lucky to get away from. On the other hand, she had the choice of any of the popular boys to date, and she loved every second of it.
But not every development in her body was for her entertainment. And halfway through her junior year, she got a diagnosis that cost her everything she had.
IBS.
Sarah made the mistake of trusting one wrong person with the secret, and suddenly, no one could get away from her fast enough. Students would scurry away from her locker in the morning, bellowing about how she was going to shit on them if she got too close. Lab partners would purposefully miss class to avoid being near her. Friends, both the ones she knew were fake and the ones she thought she could rely on, gradually stopped answering messages and calls.
By the end of the year, Sarah was left with her parents, her older brother, and a diagnosis that made her sick.
She was no princess.
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“Sarah?” a voice called through her door. “I’m going to the store. Do you want to come along?”
Sarah looked up from her laptop, her greasy, blonde hair falling into her vision as she looked over. “Uh… Sure, Mom,” she slowly replied. “I’ll be down in a minute.”
Footsteps pattered back down the hall, and she carefully sat up and set her laptop to the side. Her arms crossed over her torso as a cramp rippled through her abdomen; she swallowed thickly and pushed her way off of her bed, trying to force herself to ignore it.
She had wanted to put on make-up and a cute outfit, present herself as something worthy just in case anyone from school was there. It didn’t seem like it was going to happen. It never happened, anymore.
Instead, Sarah just slipped on a pair of flipflops and tied her hair into a ponytail. Really, there probably wouldn’t be anyone there that she knew. It was a Wednesday morning in the middle of July—what high schooler would ever want to get up before noon during the summer?
(Sarah, of course, was including herself. She hadn’t gotten up before noon. She simply had stayed up the whole night to write.)
After a moment’s hesitation, she decided to throw on her glasses before heading out the door. Can’t see the judgey stares if you can’t see, right? But she also wouldn’t be able to see the shades on the lipstick she wanted to pick up. So, glasses it was.
Sarah flashed her mother a smile when she reached the bottom of the stairs, and Rebecca returned it, fishing the keys out of her purse. “You ready?”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
As she was opening the door and walking out to the porch, her mom touched her shoulder; she stared at Sarah with a frown, and a knowing eyebrow raised.
“Did you go to bed last night?” she asked.
Huffing, Sarah pulled away and walked out. “Inspiration waits for no one.”
Rebecca scoffed and rolled her eyes, quickly following after her. “Y’know, one of these days, you’re going to pass out and fall down the stairs.”
“Good, can’t wait,” she retorted. “I hope I break my leg so that I can make Noah do everything for me.”
She caught a glare from over the top of the car. Throwing up her hands, she raised her eyebrows.
“What? I’m kidding!”
Rolling her eyes again, Rebecca dropped down into the driver’s seat, waiting until Sarah was safely inside before opening her mouth again. “So, what do you want to listen to today?” she asked. “Haven’t had a Disney day in a long time.”
Sarah’s gut twisted— only emotionally, thankfully –and she avoided her gaze to snap her seatbelt on. “Mom, I’m not a little kid anymore. I have taste now.”
“Taste? You, of all people, are insulting Disney music?”
She ignored both the comment and the hole opening up in her chest, electing to grab her phone and open Spotify instead. “Paramore’s better— and more age appropriate.”
Before Rebecca could say anything, guitar riffs blasted through the speakers. Sarah sat back and stared out the window.
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When they got to the store, the two split up to get the items on their respective lists: Rebecca to the grocery section, and Sarah to the cosmetics.
She had a mental list about a mile long with all of the new products she wanted to try out, all the lipsticks and nail polishes and foundations—and the eyeshadow! There was something that always made her adore eyeshadow above everything else, something that just felt… familiar about it. She couldn’t let herself go into the aisle unless she was planning on buying four new pallets, so she always ended up steering clear, but damn if she didn’t long to go in every time!
There was a bounce in her step as she headed towards the lipstick aisle. If she couldn’t add to her (far too large) eyeshadow collection today, at least she could get some new lipstick. And eye liner. And bronzer. And—
“Oh my god, is that Sarah?”
Her stomach leapt into her throat. Those harsh whispers were not friendly.
“I think it is!”
“Holy shit, dude, she looks terrible!”
It took all of her willpower not to let her shoulders fall. She couldn’t let them know she could hear them. If she did that, they would confront her, make fun of her and her disease in the middle of everyone.
“How many times do you think she’s shit her brains out today?”
“I don’t want to think about it.”
“She’s probably here to buy those adult diapers!”
Sarah ducked into the nearest aisle just as tears began to well up in her eyes.
Embarrassed rage began to fill her chest. It wasn’t fair! Of all the people that could have gotten stuck with this, feeling sick all the time and constantly running to the bathroom, why did it have to be her?! Princesses were supposed to be perfect! A little naïve to get kidnapped so often, sure, but never cursed like this!
Where was her prince? The man who was supposed to save her from this hell, who would rid her of her faults with a single kiss? The fairest knight of all to protect her from evil high school boys and their despicable comments? Her soulmate, her one true love?
Wasn’t he supposed to be here by now?!
Sarah wanted to throw a fit. She wanted to knock shampoo off the shelves, rip her own hair out, turn around and yell at the stupid boys that had started this emotional mess in the first place. But the idea of drawing attention to herself paralyzed her with fear more than anything, so she instead scrubbed the tears from her face so forcefully that she was sure that her cheeks were red.
I can’t keep doing this anymore!
He wasn’t coming. There was no prince coming to sweep her off her feet, no knight to save her from her enemies. Even if there was, he’d run for the hills the second he found out about her curse. There was going to be no wedding, no crowning, no epic fight where he vanquished her enemies!
She was stuck with herself, and only herself, forever.
Sarah had to be her own knight.
A knight, she thought to herself. That feels… right.
Why should she have to sit around and wait for someone to save her when she could do it herself in half the time? Why should she stay helpless and a victim when she could stand, and fight, and save others from their hells, too? Sarah could practically feel a sword in her hand, cool metal against her palm, weight pulling on her wrist, the resistance of flesh while she stabbed it into a winged lion—
Yes. This was what she was meant to be.
Sarah huffed out a laugh and grinned, reaching up and snatching the first box of hair dye she could grab. She needed all the world to know of her change, and the easiest way was to change the most obvious part about her.
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That night, Sarah stood in the bathroom alone and stared in the mirror. Long, blonde hair covered the floor around her, and drips of hair dye stained the tile floor. The thin, plastic gloves on her hands crinkled and held in the humidity of her sweaty palms. In the back of her mind, she thought about looking down to make sure the stray dye on them wouldn’t touch her shirt, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of her reflection.
Short, uneven, bright red hair sat on top of her head.
Taking a deep breath, she squared up her shoulders and lifted her chin.
“I am a knight,” she whispered, “And I live to serve.”
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Just over a year later, Sarah got the name of her college roommate.
If it had been last summer, she never would have said a thing to this stranger about her IBS. She would have kept it to herself, like the prim and proper princess she was trying to be, never allowing a flaw through her perfect disguise.
But this wasn’t a year ago. And Sarah wasn’t a perfect princess anymore.
…Still, she couldn’t ignore the nerves causing her guts to rumble. She’d had to run to the bathroom three times while typing, deleting, and retyping this Facebook message to the girl she’d be living with for a whole year. She wasn’t ashamed of IBS anymore, but watching people’s first reactions never got any easier.
To her surprise, when she returned from her fourth trip, she found that her roommate had beaten her to the punch.
Hey, this is Kealoha! I’m supposed to be your roommate this year. I’m excited to meet you!
Sarah sucked in a deep breath. It was now or never.
Hey, Kealoha! I’m Sarah. Great to meet you!
I know we’ve got a lot to learn about each other, but I just want to tell you this in case you want to switch roommates. I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome. It’s a chronic digestive disorder that makes me need to use the bathroom, like, a lot. It shouldn’t effect you or your college experience in any way, but I know people think it’s gross so I just wanted to get it out of the way now.
She sat back in her desk chair as soon as she hit send. Her heart thudded in her chest, and she wrapped her arms around herself. After a moment, when the three little dots popped up on the conversation, she had to remind herself to breathe.
Kealoha’s message popped in.
Oh, okay. I was actually messaging you now for a similar reason. I have a permanent leg injury that requires me to be on crutches any time I’m not sitting. I can get around fine, but I might need a little help every now and again with little things. If you’re okay with me, then I’m okay with you.
Sarah let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. A relieved laugh slipped out of her before she could stop it; she sunk down her chair until she was almost on the floor, hand over her eyes as she laughed.
Another message popped up, and then a second. Sarah quickly sat up to read it.
You let me know how I can help, by the way. Even if it’s small stuff, like grabbing some candy from the store when you’re not feeling well.
Also, I saw on your page that you like Zelda. I’m a huge nerd for those games. Which one is your favorite?
Sarah was typing in an instant, and it wasn’t long before the two fell into casual conversation. The rest of the evening was spent geeking out, sharing stories, and learning new things about each other. The next day, they picked up the conversation where they’d left off, and the next day, and the next day.
It almost felt like they’d known each other for their whole lives.
Converse just dropped me this CONS ONE to customize and skate with. #manixconverse #lemani #mani #converse #custom #shoes #consone @converse_cons @converse (presso Passeio Marítimo de Oeiras)
