here’s a little thing from a fic I’m maybe thinking of working on, except probably not because it’s me and i don’t even know if it’s good or what and yeah if you’re interested here...
Levi’s bond didn’t shift into place or click into being like everyone had said it would. No… Instead, it exploded in a blinding fit of pain that yanked him out of sleep with a scream.
His body was on fire, electricity shooting along his nerves, leaving him stiff and twitching against the mattress. His mouth hung open, screaming, as tears that didn’t belong to him started to roll down his cheeks. It hurt. Everything hurt. His heart was being ripped right out of his chest.
That was the first time he felt his soul mate: he felt their pain.
And he couldn’t do anything to help them.
The concept of a soul mate, of a mental link letting someone else see into his head, had always terrified Levi. Whilst everyone around him started to feel the connection to their fated partner in their younger school years, he’d been happy to remain alone in his mind. At seventeen, sure, maybe people would think he was weird to still be without a connected bond, but he’d paid it no thought.
Eventually the pain faded, but the bond was still there. Every now and then, it could give off a spark, like a socket threatening to short-circuit. Somehow, perhaps just in his gut, he knew that his soul mate wasn’t even aware of the bond yet – whatever he was going through now was too overpowering. So instead, Levi sat on his bed, the blankets wrapped around him, constantly trying to brush against his soul mate’s mind but he only ever got silence in return.
His parents didn’t make him go to school the next morning. How could they? Every now and then, the tears of his bonded would stream down his cheeks without warning, his mind still receiving lightning strikes of pain and hurt. For three days he remained in his room, functioning, but not really aware of anything but the flicker of life on the other end of the ribbon tying him to someone.
Looking back, he’d refer to that as the first time the bond turned on. But he didn’t count that as the first time he connected with his soul mate. That, came on the forth day, in the middle of the night as Levi stared at the rain tapping against his window after the bond had been quiet for a few hours.
It was so slight, he wondered if he imagined it at first. A tickle of warmth running down his spine. Then again. A tentative brush, like a breath against his ear. It was confused, uncertain, a nervous feeling. And so Levi reached back, touching his fingers against the person on the other side and like that, they both sighed in relief.
They were both too new at this to exchange actual words, or even just clear feelings, but those little experimental touches seemed to be enough for now.
I’m sorry, the next touch back seemed to say: a shy touch to Levi’s cheek before it withdrew again.
And when Levi reached back, like a soothing stroke of the other’s back, he hoped his own message was clear: I’m here.
