[fanfic] My Name On Your Lips
“It hits you like lightning,” Kaito told him. He’d never looked this relaxed before. Since the Numbers War ended, and he’d actually come back to life, he’d been far more relaxed than Chris had ever seen him in all the years they’d known one another.
“You’d know, wouldn’t you?” Chris asked, a tiny smile playing at the corner of his lips. Kaito didn’t even look up at him.
“You’ll know when it happens. Lightning doesn’t even cover it.” He shook his head, then pushed himself to his feet, his cup of tea already finished. “I’ll see you this weekend?”
Chris nodded; they visited at least once every few days. Even with Kaito and Mizael making eyes – and probably more – at each other, he still found time for that.
Frankly, Chris wasn’t that surprised that Kaito and Mizael ended up as soulmates. The two of them had sparked so strongly off one another in the first place.
Finding one’s soulmate happened without warning. It was said all that one needed was to hear them say your name and you knew. No one had ever been able to explain it to him beyond that. They’d tried. Michael tried when he met Yuuma. Thomas tried when he met Ryouga. Kaito had thrown a fit when Mizael actually said his name for the first time.
But there hadn’t been anyone who said his name like that. It couldn’t be because of going by “V” for so long. He’d heard people address him as V and as Chris or Christopher and no matter who it was, it never sounded unusual or made him feel anything at all.
Chris picked up the book he’d set down when Kaito showed up and started to read again. He’d not gotten all that far into it when the doorbell rang. With a bit of a sigh – that was the problem with having befriended Tskumo Yuuma and therefore having plenty of other friends who came along into the bargain, doubly so when Yuuma was dating his younger brother. People came over to visit.
Truly expecting someone looking for Thomas or Michael, Chris headed to the door. Very few people who weren’t Kaito came to visit him. He’d never been bothered by that. At the least, it could be the mailman.
But on the other side of the door stood a young-looking man with silver-gray hair and gray eyes. Young-looking because no one even now knew exactly how old the Barians, or ex-Barians, really were.
“Hello?” Chris greeted a trifle uncertainly. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”
“I wanted to speak to you,” Durbe answered, with a polite tilt of his head. “I believe there might be something that we can do to restore your father to his proper form.”
The world seemed to fall out from under Chris at that. He quickly gathered himself and gestured for Durbe to enter.
“What do you mean something?” Chris wanted to know as they settled in the living room. He had more tea poured; it would be rude not to offer something to one’s guest, after all, and he had a strong capacity for caffeine.
Durbe picked up the cup and regarded it between his hands. “We can’t do as much as we once did, but there are some things.” In between one breath and the next, he assumed his Barian form. In a few seconds it faded away, but the point was clear. “As it was the power of the Barians that changed him, then changing him back should also be within our power. But exactly how I don’t know yet.” He raised his head and stared at Chris. “I think we can work towards figuring that out together, Christopher Arclight.”
In the moment that the name passed his lips, Chris understood everything that his brothers and Kaito said about knowing when one’s soulmate spoke their name. His throat dried and he swallowed, heart beating faster.
“Yes,” he managed to say, thoughts scattering to the winds as he struggled and failed to come to grips with having not merely met his soulmate but having a chance to restore his father. “I think that we could.” Did he dared? Could he bring himself to do it?
Durbe nodded. Chris tried to catch hold of a single thought and managed to scrape one question out of his chaotic thoughts. “What made you think of that today, Durbe?”
Would he feel it? Would it be the same for him? Thomas said it had been for Ryouga.
Durbe almost dropped his tea. His head jerked up to stare right at Chris, his pale skin turning the deepest of reds, before he set it back on the table between them.
“Mizael said – so did Alit – and Nasch – but ” Durbe swallowed and clenched his fingers together. “I never dreamed it would feel like that.”
“Neither did I.” He didn’t have to ask if Durbe felt it. “I do want to restore my father.” He’d wanted that for many long years. “But after that, could we -” Words failed him. He really wasn’t certain of what he wanted to ask in the first place. Being soulmates didn’t always mean romance. It meant someone who understood you and who you understood. It could often mean romance but he’d heard about people who were soulmates to one person and loved other people without hesitation.
Durbe’s hand twitched as if he wanted to reach out. But he didn’t. “After that, we will decide what we do. Helping your father is more important, Christopher.”
It wasn’t the same as the first time. But he could feel it all the same. No one mentioned that before.
Chris thought that he could get very used to this feeling.
The End
Notes: One day I may do a sequel. There’s so much fun I could do with this!
