Soulmate marks were staples of everyday life. Hundreds of romance stories played with the tropes- soulmates across enemy lines, unrequited soulmates, forbidden soulmates, soulmates to others but they find love with other people- the idea was hashed and rehashed thousands of different little ways.
Everyone wanted a soulmate mark. It was a lifelong partner! Someone who understood you perfectly! It was symbolic of your partner’s interests, loves, traumas, everything. And, best of all, you could eventually sense and feel emotions connected to your soulmate, while also having your own mind and privacy.
Most critical of all, you had them from a young age. Ten or eleven, normally. The odd twelve.
Charles, personally, had never really cared about them. Yeah, great, soulmates, woohoo. It was great for Rupert, who was hilarious around his kind, shy soulmate Dave. Great for people who put a lot of stock into that stuff.
But Charles didn’t have a soulmate mark.
It wasn’t abnormal. Plenty of people didn’t have marks, and they got through life finding love and fulfillment. Quite a few were married or in love with soulmated people who had terrible soulmates or ones that died. It was normal!
What wasn’t normal was one appearing at the ripe age of twenty-seven.
The first day, Charles had stared at the mark with blurry eyes for what felt like hours. He had been drinking with the guys last night- an ill-placed, drunken tattoo? Hangover hallucination?
The second, he had asked the others about it. None had recognized it and all were baffled by the implications. Only Amelia had a suggestion- Charles was an extraordinarily late bloomer whose soulmate was probably also getting a pleasant surprise.
But that couldn’t be right.
Right?
Whatever the reason, Charles had a job to do. A life to live. He hadn’t needed that mysterious, elusive soulmate before, and he certainly wouldn’t now. He would just ignore the very obvious, tantalizing, mysterious, and infuriating mark on his wrist.
This was going to be so easy.
…
Somehow, it was easier than he’d thought, despite his raging ADHD. Charles’s focus for the next few weeks went toward focusing on the next mission: a ragged Toppat base with some interesting findings.
Mainly, that Toppats were fighting Toppats.
Galeforce had an interesting theory. Toppat activity had slowed quite a bit in recent years. No less deadly, but more cautious, more careful. There were numerous reports of certain Toppats going after others with no repercussions, and many bases that didn’t seem to communicate with each other.
Galeforce’s theory was that something had changed, and the Toppats had fractured. Most likely leadership. The Right Hand was apparently terrifying, far more so than a few years ago, and the leader mysterious.
So far, they hadn’t been able to get any kind of confirmation on any of these theories. But this mission might provide that.
And it was! The mission was going great. Charles had important information, namely stolen Toppat reports on the beginnings of a revolt that clearly succeeded. They proved that Terrance, former leader, had been overthrown by a strange and powerful elite known only as Esoteric.
The problem was. Ah. Getting out.
As well as a certain other wild card, but one step at a time! He’d burn that bridge when he came to it.
“Be careful, Charlie,” said Galeforce as Charles quickly and stealthily crept through the decrepit base’s hallways. “The bounty hunter’s here. Won’t mean he’ll go for the government, but be careful.”
“If we’re in the way, he will,” said Rupert with a huff. “They're all snakes just looking to get paid.”
“Yeah, but maybe we’re allies here?” said Charles with a laugh. “I mean, common enemy and all.”
“Don’t count on it,” Rupert muttered darkly.
Oh! He had forgotten to mention the bounty hunter.
He was a powerful one, operating mysteriously and at random. They knew little about him aside from a couple of places he’d popped up and a supposed hatred of Toppats. Though, seeing all of this, it was possible that his relationship to the Toppats was more complicated.
It was natural that he forgot. This guy was nothing but a blip on the government’s radar, anyway. They were only caring now because of his potential to accidentally or on purpose stab them with his huge ax.
Again! Not Charles’s problem. The bounty hunter wouldn’t be looking to do anything but kill his target and make no enemies, so he was good.
(Why did he feel so strange? Like everything was changing?)
“Hey!”
Oh, shoot.
Charles took off running without bothering to glance at the Toppat behind him. He heard fast footsteps and the sound of a gun beginning to co*ck.
“Got found,” he said. “Getting out!”
“Damn it, Charles!” snarled Rupert.
“On my way, pilot,” said Amelia much more reasonably.
“Thank you, Turtle,” Charles said. “Least someone cares about my well-being here!”
Charles dove around a corner as a shot fired. It cracked into the wall next to his head and spurred him on to the door in front of him. He flung it open without a care, desperate to just get away, and then stopped.
An ax flung inches past his face and cleanly slammed into something warm and squishy behind him.
“Found the bounty hunter,” said Charles.
“I’m getting there!” yelled Amelia.
The room was a chaotic cacophony. Toppats were running, screaming, fighting. Most were either trying to shoot or hit a whirlwind in the center of it all, a small person with a faded greenish aviator jacket too big for him and knives that shone and flashed like newborn stars. Charles felt a rush of wind as the ax flew past him again and landed in the bounty hunter’s hand, which he used to cleave through a Toppat’s chest.
Charles quickly backed up, making himself small. The last thing he needed was for an errant shot or ax of all things to cut him shorter a few feet, namely six. This seemed to work, as the bounty hunter hardly paused.
And slowly, the Toppats either fled or fell. Some ran right past Charles. The only one who didn’t was the last, who spotted Charles. The desperation in his eyes shone from the realization that Charles would finish him off if he didn’t first.
Which, hey, wasn’t true, but the poor guy was clearly not thinking straight. And neither was Charles, when there was a knife flying toward his chest and he was thinking about this of all-
Shhnk.
The Toppat collapsed forward. Standing behind him, holding a knife with an intense, concentrated expression, was the bounty hunter.
Silence. Charles could only hear both of their breaths as the hunter’s gaze fell downward, eyes closing in what he couldn’t only assume was satisfaction or contentment.
But- well.
Charles had manners. He wasn’t gonna let the guy get off without a proper thanks, right?
“So, uh,” Charles said intelligently. “Thanks for the save, buddy?”
The bounty hunter’s head shot up. Their eyes met. They were such a vibrant shade of gold.
And, he knew, they realized at the exact same time. Charles’s wrist flared, words marching through his mind, and his mouth couldn’t form sound.
Oh, sh*t, Charles thought. That’s my soulmate.
The hunter was gone as quickly as he appeared. For a heartbeat he stood, staring at Charles with a nigh unreadable expression, and then he was gone, vanishing out of a window with an elegant flip as the government swooped into the room.
Charles stared at where the hunter had vanished, heart pounding. He hardly registered the others sweeping the room, shouting at him, surveying the damage. He had been in no danger- the hunter had taken care of it automatically.
This was how he met his soulmate? No passing by chance, no fateful encounter? Just a quick glance by opposing sides, with no conversation or deeper discussion?
Well-
He was never one for cinema anyway.
“Charles!” He was roughly pulled around to face Calvin, who frantically looked him over. “You good? The bounty hunter didn’t go for you or anything?”
“Nah,” said Charles dazedly. “He wouldn’t.”
“I mean, what’s he gonna get outta shooting a government pilot? A different bounty that a doubt many are keen to make,” said Amelia, missing the point. She trotted up and patted Charles’s shoulder. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost though, dude. You alright?”
Charles shook his head, willing himself to snap out of it for at least as long as it would take to get back home. Then he could have a nice freak-out.
“Yeah! Yeah. Just, ah, exciting. You know. Not often us pilots get to see that kinda stuff!” he said hurriedly.
Rupert lowered his gun and looked over at Charles skeptically. “Since when? You’re trained in field duty.”
“Been… a while,” Charles said. He quickly brushed past Rupert and made for the door. “Better go check the chopper, haha! Never know what might happen to… those things.” Feeling Rupert’s piercing gaze on his back, he basically sprinted out and made for the helicopter.
At home, he could freak out.
…
Oh god. His soulmate was a bounty hunter.
…
Two months later, Charles’s deep-cover field mission was thankfully taking up much more of his thoughts than his mysterious bounty hunter soulmate, who only reappeared in intense dreams and in the occasional piercing, violent wound (that were always fixed within seconds).
He was a curious thing, that one. It was like a floodgate had opened since that mission. There was no connection before, but now, oh boy. Charles felt him constantly.
Charles hardly had a bruise since first seeing his soulmate. They were always taken within seconds, and Charles could constantly feel a gentle, soothing apology feeling afterward, as if his soulmate was personally sorry for his wounds. Even if Charles had made them.
Also, yeah. Annoyingly enough, this other guy had the gall to be way better at soulmate stuff than Charles was.
Charles had no idea how to take injuries. He didn’t even know how to send emotions, much less the whole dreams that his soulmate seemed to have control over. It was quickly becoming a nighttime frustration.
And he- he didn’t know why. Every time he thought of his soulmate he didn’t know what he wanted. To meet him? To never see him again, for both their benefit? To ask him why his soulmate seemed to avoid him, and yet sent him such gentle apologies and the sweetest dreams? To ask why he kept taking all of Charles’s injuries, no matter how minor? To just- try, just try, and see how this soulmate stuff panned out?
It would just be nice if he could actually meet the damn-
Something warm touched Charles’s hand.
He was sitting alone at a cafe, computer open and now unused, daydreaming without a care in the world. Outside was warm and rainy, and Charles had come to escape the pour. He certainly hadn’t ordered anything hot.
His head shot up. There was someone sitting across from him.
Army green, tattered aviator jacket. Eyebrows furrowed, staring intently at Charles, goldish-green eyes boring directly into his soul. A backpack was slung across the seat next to him, the slightly open top showing all manner of deadly objects and mysterious artifacts. And, of course, the hand that had handed Charles his hot chocolate, which retreated before Charles could make out the soulmate mark.
His soulmate.
Charles stared at him. He looked down at the hot chocolate, then back up at his soulmate.
“Hot chocolate?” he asked.
“You don’t do caffeine,” said his soulmate.
“C’mon, I do caffeine! Perfectly fine with it! Anyway, how would you know?” Charles sipped the hot chocolate. It was… very good. Just how he liked it.
“A feeling.” His soulmate studied him again, and perhaps had never stopped. “You haven’t been with the government for a while.”
“I’ve been on a mission! I’ve been tasked with poking around the Midnight Syndicate. They’ve been helping some Toppats that aren’t part of the main faction, and that’s really weird, plus we’ve been needing some intel on them for a while. And, I, uh, have some hunches myself. Galeforce ‘n’ me think something weird’s going on here-“
Wait. He cut himself off. Why exactly was he spilling his guts about his job when he didn’t even know his own soulmate’s name? And how exactly had he known Charles was away from the government?
“Wait. Waitwaitwait. Who's to say that I’m… away from the government?” Charles said cleverly.
His soulmate’s mouth twitched, and Charles felt a dim flash of amusem*nt. And… something else.
“Believe me, Charles,” said his soulmate, “you can trust me.”
He sounded so… assured. So confident. There was nothing in his eyes that showed he was trying to trick or manipulate Charles. Just… a calm confidence, as if he was saying something fundamentally true to the universe- like gravity or that crashing helicopters in fiery explosions was objectively awesome.
Huh.
Charles blinked. “Uh. Then, uh… what’s your name?”
His soulmate blinked back, the slightest confusion passing over his stoic face before it seemed to dawn on him. “Oh. Yeah. Sorry. I’m… Val.”
“That seemed confident,” Charles said.
Val paused thoughtfully, as if actually rolling Charles’s sarcastic words around in his head. “…Yeah. My name’s Val.”
“And that’s your real name?” Charles said. God. He was having this conversation with his soulmate. Who may be making up his own name. Charles almost giggled hysterically. When he had told Rupert that he wanted excitement in his life, was this what he meant? He sipped the hot chocolate that was tailored to perfection.
“It is now,” said Val. There wasn’t a hint of insincerity behind his eyes.
“Okay!” said Charles, because what the hell else was he going to say to that? “How’d you know I wasn’t with the government?”
“You’ve made a name for yourself, pilot,” said Val. “Not a good one. I’m… impressed.”
Charles preened. “Why, thank you! Always good to know that the, uh, criminals fear my name.”
“Chaos incarnate,” Val muttered, not unkindly. “I’ve heard of you, too. Clever, crafty, off-putting. Good things to be, whether they’re true or not.” He raised an eyebrow. “Makes me… proud to have a soulmate like that.”
“Uh.” Charles flushed a little. “Thanks! You seem, uh, utterly terrifying as well?”
“I’ve heard that,” Val said ominously. He leaned forward, eyes furrowing in sudden seriousness. “I’ve also heard the Midnight Syndicate is looking for you.”
“Uh, yeah. Makes sense,” said Charles. “I’ve been a nuisance.” He grinned.
Val didn’t. His eyes narrowed further. “Hunting you. They’ve hired somebody to come after you.”
Charles blinked and had a sudden feeling about where this was going. He glanced calmly toward the shop’s exit, which was behind Val, and the nearest window, which he had no hope of getting to before Val did anything.
“And this was going so well, too,” Charles said, and meant it. It had been nice! He was almost offended. But at least this deadly bounty hunter was proud to have someone like him as a soulmate, and was nice enough to talk to him first. “Don’t think you’d let me have a headstart?”
Val’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Then he sighed, sitting back. “It’s not what you think. I was hired to kill you, yes, but I’m not going to. That’s stupid. They’re the idiots, not checking their bounty hunter’s background.”
Val stood, slipping out from behind the booth. He slung his backpack on his back. “I’m here to throw them off our trail while having the cash to do so. But they’ll notice I’m not doing it soon. I’m usually… pretty quick.”
“Oh,” was all Charles could say. “I- thank you?”
Val blinked at him. “You look confused.”
“I’m just-“ Well, how did he put this. Good going, idiot. “-surprised, is all. People have, uh, sold out their soulmates for less. Heck, you’ve never even met me!”
Val stared at him. “You’re my soulmate,” he said, and the emphasis he put on the word seemed to hold more meaning than Charles could discern. “Why the hell would I throw that away?”
“I- don’t know,” Charles said. “I just- y’know what! Forget it.” He stood and grabbed the hot chocolate. “Lead the way, Val!”
Val nodded. He wordlessly led Charles out of the cafe and began walking.
“So… what’s the plan?” Charles asked.
God above. He was asking his soulmate what the plan was, because he was getting hunted down by a deadly shadow organization that he had purposely went antagonizing, and he was just- trusting Val. Val apparently wasn’t even his real name!
Rupert would kill me for this, he thought, but it kinda made him want to do it more.
“Get whatever you need from your place. Ditch your phone and other identifying information. If you really need to contact someone, we can figure something out. Then we’ll head to a city the Syndicate doesn’t have a stronghold in, but I have a safehouse in.”
“Neat plan,” Charles said. “Very prepared. You done this before?”
“Many times. With luck, the Midnight Syndicate’ll think I’m just having a difficult time for another couple days. And by then, we’ll be in the heart of their enemy’s territory.” Val’s eyes narrowed in calculation.
Riiiiiiight. Bounty hunter. Different alliances. Definitely not government sanctioned.
Oh, well. He signed up for this stuff going on the mission. And Galeforce couldn’t blame him for a little illegal activity, hm?
Was this even illegal, though. He was just going places with his soulmate! Yeah, maybe Val would be doing illegal stuff and talking to people who the government definitely wouldn’t approve of. But he was fine. Fiiiiiine.
“Enemy territory?” Charles asked.
“Toppats,” Val said.
“…ah.”
Val glanced over at him. Charles wondered if his uneasiness was carrying down the bond that he still didn’t quite understand.
“Well, I- y’know, I doubt the Toppats are really gonna like a government agent running around in their main territory- and I don’t wanna jeopardize whatever you’ve got goin’ on-“
“Your main mission is the Midnight Syndicate and the broken-off sect of Toppats, yes?”
Charles hesitated. “…yes,” he eventually conceded.
“Then the Toppats won’t have a problem. We have a… certain agreement.”
Charles blinked down at Val. “You work for the Toppats?”
“…Our goals align.”
Charles felt that there was something Val wasn’t telling him. For a first, he glanced away as he talked to Charles.
He’d pull it out of Val. Clearly they’d be spending a lot of time together.
“My rental’s this way,” Charles said, grabbing Val’s hand and pulling him down a side street.
…
“So, Val,” Charles said as he rummaged through the drawer for his spare shirts, “let’s talk about the fact that you’ve figured out all this soulmate bond stuff while I’m over here, uh, floundering in the sea. What gives?”
He tossed a shirt behind him. Val caught it. It was kind of funny seeing the small, stoic figure holding a pile of clothes as tall as he was.
“…oh.” Val grunted as another shirt was tossed onto the pile. “I guess I just… concentrated on practicing it.”
Charles flung another at him and turned, fixing him with an unimpressed stare. “You’re gonna sit here and tell me that you’re just so naturally good at this stuff while I’m trying my darndest and getting nothing?”
Val dumped the clothes in Charles’s bag. He paused before stuffing them down. “There’s… another reason. But I’m not comfortable talking about it right now. Is that alright?”
Charles glanced down at the band around his left wrist, and then at the slight scarring of the soulmate mark that represented Charles.
Another soulmate? he wondered. Did something happen to them?
“Yeah,” Charles said. “But I do wanna know how to do the dream sharing stuff and the emotion stuff and hey! New question. Why are you taking all of my, uh, bumps and bruises?”
Val stuffed the shirts harder down into the bag, not responding. Charles frowned and peered over. A faint sheen of red was present on Val’s cheeks.
“…Aw, Val! For being such a fearsome bounty hunter I didn’t expect that you’d be such a big softie.”
“I’m used to pain,” Val muttered. “I hardly notice something like a bruise anymore.”
Charles blinked. Filing that under ‘question later because that’s concerning’. Right under ‘how the hell did I get a soulmate mark at 27’.
“Well, that’s very sweet for someone you hardly know,” Charles said. On an impulse, he leaned over and wrapped an arm around Val’s chest, briefly pulling him into a hug against his chest.
For a moment, Val was terribly tense, and Charles suddenly wondered if he had overstepped. He didn’t know how these things worked! He was just doing what felt right! How was he supposed to know the intricacies of soulmate culture, being late and not paying attention-
Val abruptly relaxed, sighing heavily. He dropped his head back against Charles’s chest, giving his arm a brief, gentle squeeze before tugging away to continue packing.
Charles stayed rooted to the spot for a moment, staring at Val’s back.
That had felt… nice. Really nice. Not even in that warm, romantic, butterflies way some soulmates had; just… nice.
Charles wanted to do it again.
Okayokayokay at least take the guy out to dinner first, Charles scolded himself, forcing himself to turn back to the current task. Or get to know him past scary bounty hunter and secret softie. Like that huge freaking ax- ask about that and where the hell he was hiding it during our chat at the cafe!
It really had seemed to appear randomly. One moment Charles was walking in his door and the next Val was, now with a huge ax over his shoulder. It was leaning against the wall, silently menacing.
“Hammerspace,” said Val.
Charles paused. “What?”
Val motioned toward the ax as he zipped Charles’s bag. “You were staring at it. You’re pretty observant, so I assume that you wanted to know where it came from.”
“What’s a hammerspace?”
Val paused. He frowned, tapping a finger thoughtfully. “It’s hard to explain. A… really big void pocket.”
“Seems pretty simple to me?” Charles said, chuckling. “Void pocket?”
“I store stuff in there.”
“Like what?”
Val hummed. “Let’s see. I’ve forgotten about most of it, to be honest.” He reached into his pocket and withdrew a gun that was larger than his arm. Setting that to the side, he pulled out a full set of chips, and then an entire fox skull.
Charles stared at him. Val shrugged. “The fox skull was cool.”
“Pretty cool, I’ve gotta say, but- dang! Pocket dimension! Didn’t know my soulmate was so freakin’ powerful,” said Charles. “Got any more tricks up your sleeve?”
Val furrowed his brow. “…how about I explain them as they come up.”
“That’s a non-answer if I’ve ever seen one,” said Charles, shoving the drawer shut. He stood and grabbed his backpack.
“I-“ Val sighed. “It’s just easier to not explain it all in one go. I also…” He looked away, actually seeming a bit sheepish if Charles was reading those emotions correctly, though it didn’t show on his impassive face. “…don’t know what’s normal anymore.”
Okay! Filing that under ‘weird stuff to get to the bottom of later’!
Val glanced up. “I promise it’s not that bad.”
“‘What’s normal anymore’?” Charles asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Well- I assume you’re dealing more with normal people than me, a- a bounty hunter.”
Charles whistled. “Not for at least two months, y’know. Plus, I, ah…”
How was he supposed to say that he never felt like he quite belonged? That the thrill of adventure and the freefall of crashing felt more like home than the soldiers he had spent years around? That his apartment was cold and empty, and even the reassurances of his supposed best friends didn’t make him feel any more like a person?
That half the reason he did this mission was to finally mean something to the government?
“…Never really did ‘normal’, anyway!” Charles finished.
Val’s eyes bored into him. Charles shifted, but resolutely picked up his other bag and looked to Val.
“So, where are we headed?” he asked.
Val stood. He zipped up the last bag. He passed in front of it, and when Charles saw it again, it was… gone?
While Charles was staring, Val grabbed the other bag from his hand and made a small motion. When Charles blinked, it was gone.
“Hammerspace,” said Val. He hesitated, and then grabbed Charles’s hand. “Let’s go.”
Charles took a breath. Then, he squeezed Val’s hand. “Yeah! Let’s help me not get killed by the Midnight Syndicate, please.”
Val smiled slightly, and led Charles out of the apartment.
…
Charles couldn’t say he was particularly fond of other methods of public transportation. Helicopters were, of course, the best possible thing that had come out of some genius’s mind, but trains?
Look, trains were good! They were cool. They just- weren’t Charles’s strong suit. Also, there had been a whole thing with a train and a bunch of assassins like a couple of months ago, and he didn’t realllllllly feel like repeating that experience!
So maybe he was a little tense.
He could feel Val’s eyes following him as he paced. It wasn’t an unwelcome sensation, but it was an odd one- weeks of having nobody to trust and rely on and now there was one. He couldn’t wrap his head around it.
Especially because- well, he had to face it. He knew nothing about Val aside from how Val wasn’t even his real name and that he was a kickass bounty hunter assassin guy with some powers and a giant f-you ax.
And now he was on a train with this guy, in an empty car surrounded by empty cars, headed to the Toppat’s city with no way to contact anybody that he knew.
So why was the train the part making him the most anxious?
“Didn’t expect trains to be bad,” said Val.
Charles smiled uncomfortably. “Yeah, well. I don’t really like being in a thing I can’t control, y’know? And trains are kinda… the epitome of that.” He stopped walking. “Hey, how’d you know that?”
“I keep getting helicopter dreams,” Val said. “You say I’m better at the soulmate stuff, but you’re pretty good.”
“Well, I wanna be able to actually- y’know- talk and stuff? Or send you like actual dreams! You keep sending me a meadow! I wanna do that.” He glanced at Val. “What’s with the meadow?”
“If I tell you, will you come sit and stop pacing? I don’t want you to be exhausted by the time we arrive.”
Charles sighed, but dragged himself over and dumped himself in the seat across from Val. Val’s gaze softened.
Did Val actually care about him already? After just meeting him? After seeing who he was?
Maybe there was something to this soulmate thing.
“It’s a favorite place of mine,” Val said.
Charles waited. He raised an eyebrow.
“That’s it?”
“Yeah. Why?”
Charles sighed. “Alright. Let’s do something else. Clearly you can’t teach me the soulmate stuff here, but you can tell me about yourself. I feel like you know so much about me already, but I don’t! And that’s not fair. So,” Charles leaned forward, lacing his fingers together. “Tell me about yourself.”
Val paused. He blinked. His eyes flitted about the car thoughtfully. “I’ve… never been asked that before. Give me a minute.”
“‘Tell me about yourself’?” Charles said incredulously. “You’ve never been asked that?”
“Where I came from, it wasn’t something you really… asked,” said Val. He stared down for a moment before lifting his head. “I love waffles.”
“…Waffles?” Charles said. Not judgmentally. “Why?”
“Why not?” Val said with a shrug.
“Why them specifically?”
“Never got to have ‘em,” said Val. “They’re the best combination of fluffy and crunchy. Good with everything. Look, waffle cones. Even good on ice cream.” He motioned to Charles. “You go.”
“Wait, this is so I get to know you,” Charles said, raising an eyebrow.
“I don’t know everything about you,” Val said simply. He frowned as if Charles was missing something simple. “So tell me, too.”
…Well, it had been a long time since anybody had asked Charles that.
“Waffles?” he tried.
Val frowned.
“Alright, alright. I, uh… well, I’ve always really like old pinball machines. I’m super bad at all of the old games, but they’re just so fun. God, it’s been years.” Charles sat back.
“Ahuh,” Val said. His face was tinged with confusion.
“Have you… never been to an arcade?” Charles asked incredulously.
“I… never had the opportunity,” Val said.
“Oh, man! We’ve gotta go sometime!” Charles grabbed Val’s hand, waving a hand fanatically. “All that old, greasy pizza and flickering lights, the old rundown games and the weird patterned floors- dude, it’s so cool.”
“That does not sound appealing,” said Val.
“When you’re there, it totally is,” Charles said giddily. “Gah, they’re so cool! We should go on Christmas Eve!”
“Why then?” Val asked.
“Part of the magic,” Charles said with a grin.
Val glanced down at their entwined hands. He looked back up, and something seemed to soften. “Alright. We’ll go when this all blows over. But in the meantime… why don’t you tell me about them?”
Charles lit up. “Okay, so-“
…
A couple months had passed and Charles finally felt like he was getting into the groove of things.
Turns out, being in the Toppat’s backyard held more benefits than expected. In addition to making the Syndicate think twice about attacking them, it also meant that the two of them were never in short supply of legal and illegal substances.
Charles wasn’t proud of it, but hey, sometimes you just needed some things to contact a certain person or barter with. It was a cruel world out there!
But, really, Charles knew that he wouldn’t be nearly as far on the mission if he hadn’t had Val with him. Val’s instant loyalty and dedication to Charles and his cause had been overwhelming at first, but Charles had come to very much appreciate the backup. He had someone to watch his back, who had saved him many times already, and who could get and do things Charles could only dream of. Plus, it was just nice to have someone you could completely trust watching your back.
Or being curled up in your arms.
Hey, it wasn’t his fault that the most comforting feeling in the world was dozing off in Val’s arms on a dark night. They’d be on the couch and Charles would begin to drift off, and then Val would pull Charles against his chest and rub his back and neck with a gentleness he knew was reserved for no other. He looked forward to those odd nights or afternoons where they had the time and leisure to do such things.
(And Charles could repay in time, when Val woke up hoarsely choking out a name that never came and a cry that never went answered. He could hug Val and lull him back to sleep with his ramblings until the stoic bounty hunter was cast back into a no-longer fitful sleep.)
Val leaned across Charles’s chest. He was looking at his phone, a strange occurrence considering he seemed wary of technology.
Charles, on the other hand, was very close to dozing off. Val was warm. He was curled on the couch with a pillow underneath his head, a hoodie on, and Val’s mind absently entangling with his, covering him both inside and out with a warm, comforting fuzziness. Charles was in a comfortable haze.
He hardly noticed Val sigh and set his phone down, leaning his head against Charles’s shoulder. He did notice Val’s eyes on him. Studying him, watching him, examining with that furrowed brow.
He knew the look. Val watched him often. Charles had grown not to mind it, though it did make him curious- did he think Charles would vanish one day, never to be seen again? Why did he get that forlorn look in his eyes?
Did it have something to do with the ruined soulmate mark on his other wrist?
All questions tired Charles did not want to contemplate. He did want to know how much closer he could draw Val without crushing the small thing.
Val huffed a laugh as Charles drew him in, burying his face in Val’s shoulder. He muttered something that sounded like “what did I do to deserve you,” but Charles couldn’t be sure.
“Charlie,” Val said. “I do need to teach you something today.”
“Mmmngh what,” Charles muttered.
Val shifted. Charles blinked, suddenly feeling a flash of… embarrassment? He lifted his head and blinked at Val.
Val looked up at him. Emotions passed over his face, which looked like a spasm of his muscles instead of any smooth, normal transition of facial expressions. A strange look on him, definitely.
“…Forget it.”
Charles sat up, suddenly excited. Something that got Val embarrassed was incredibly rare, and he was going to take every opportunity to make fun of him.
“Nah, bud. What is it?”
Val frowned, leveling Charles with an unimpressed stare. He began to push himself up, which Charles knew would be the end of the conversation if he could help it- and that meant ‘avoid Charles and his questions until Charles forgot or gave up’.
Val clearly forgot who his soulmate was. Someone who was a head taller, much stronger, and persistent as all hell.
Charles grabbed Val and wrapped his arms around him, hugging him tightly to his chest. Val made a muffled, annoyed noise. He bapped Charles lightly, though by his immediate defeat Charles knew he had already given up.
“So,” Charles said.
“It’s stupid,” Val said, looking away.
“That’s what being a soulmate is! Telling me all the stupid stuff!” He thought. Considering that Val had been through a soulmate before (and lost them, as was Charles’s current theory about the scarred mark), he was clearly more adept at this stuff than Charles, but Charles was forging his own path.
Val pushed his head against Charles’s chest. “You’re not gonna let this one go.” It was more a statement than a question.
Charles simply waited. Val was broken, mind and spirit, and just needed a liiiitle pushing.
“Fine.” Val sighed heavily. “I…wanted to teach you how to waltz.”
Charles blinked. Certainly not what he was expecting, but hey! Val was full of surprises in that tiny, compressed, vividly intense body of his. Waltzing was not something Charles was surprised to know that he knew. Though teaching it was unexpected, and… adorable.
“See? That wasn’t so bad,” Charles said. “But, uh… why waltzing, then?”
Val’s embarrassment faded. Charles began to sense something far deeper. Something that he felt intimately late at night, a well of grief that always resulted in him rubbing the scar tissue on his other wrist.
Charles was about to do something very awkward.
But- well, it needed to be said! And that theory had been burning a hole in Charles’s brain for forever. Plus, Val needed to know that, whatever happened or had happened in his past, Charles would be there for him.
“So, I have a theory,” Charles began.
Val looked up at him, emotion tinged with confusion under the grief. And… worry. He opened his mouth but Charles raised a hand.
“I think you had a soulmate before me,” Charles said. “A guy just doesn’t get something like a soulmate randomly, wayyyyyy past the point for them to appear. And, you’ve kinda got a pretty bad scar over your wrist, so…”
He reached forward and took Val’s face. “I’m so sorry that they’re gone. I’m sure they were incredible and I’m sorry that you had to go through that.” He smiled as Val’s face flickered with indescribable emotions. “But I’m not sorry for having the chance to meet you.”
Val stared at him for a long time. Then, something in his hard, cold eyes broke.
He buried his head in Charles’s chest. For the first time Charles had seen him, Val’s already-wet eyes flooded with tears. Charles nearly flinched at how silent his sobs were. His shoulders shuddered and grip tightened on Charles. Charles curled around him, able to do little else but murmur reassurances and hug him tightly.
Of all the things Charles wanted to be right about, this was not one.
For a long time, they stayed like that. Then, finally, Val heaved a sigh and pulled back, sitting back on the couch on his haunches. He stared hard at the wall for a moment before forcing himself to meet Charles’s eyes.
“Me- me and Hero would, uh, waltz,” he said. “With the little free time we had. It was, uh… bad, where we were, but he made it… livable. Made it somewhere that I wanted to be.”
Val sighed again with a world-weariness behind his years. “And then he… died. In a bright, fiery explosion, just like he wanted to go out. Like… you want to go out.”
Ah. No wonder Val had always reacted badly to those sorts of conversations and jokes.
Val laughed bitterly. “And I couldn’t save him. He saved me, the bastard.”
He fell quiet.
“I’d love to learn how to waltz,” said Charles.
Val looked at Charles. His pensive, exhausted expression gave way to the smallest of smiles.
“…Yeah,” Val murmured. “You’re a natural.”
Charles gently extracted himself from Val’s embrace and stood, pulling Val with him. His hand rested comfortably in Val’s.
“The roof?” he asked. Val nodded.
And they vanished up to the roof, to dance under the stars, and under the watchful eyes of Val’s dead soulmate.
…
It was all blending together so purely that Charles wasn’t sure what was his terror and what was Val’s.
Maybe he should have been prouder of that. They’d come so far as soulmates. He could feel something of Val’s when he concentrated or the emotion was particularly strong. Strong was what he was feeling, right now.
He had also learned the whole “wound sharing” thing. Val knew it so much better. Better enough to know that some wounds could kill both soulmates, if one had a severely enough one that couldn’t be shared.
Like a… slit throat.
Charles dragged himself to a wall, clutching his throat. He could still breathe for the time being, but it wouldn’t be long now. He could feel blood sliding down his throat. It coated his airway, choked his last reserves, mingled with Val’s terrified, desperate horror.
He felt so calm. All that fear had to be Val’s.
All that blood, so vital. A wound like that would be very difficult to take without both dying.
Which- he didn’t want Val to die, okay? Sure, losing two soulmates was awful, but he didn’t want Val to go down with him. Not to assassins. Not to Charles’s assassins. That would be absurd! Val was so much better than these people.
The man who had slashed his throat was waging a desperate war against Val. The other two assassins- who had been sent to distract Val for this very reason, he assumed- laid dead on the floor.
He wondered if they had been told that Charles and Val were soulmates. There was little ability to, what with the two of them keeping it a secret. But still- would they have done this, knowing they would die because of a soulmate’s fury?
“I’M GONNA RIP YOUR TEETH OUT ONE BY ONE,” Val shouted, voice an incoherent howl.
The assassin didn’t try to talk, or beg to spare their life. Some knew of the Shadow, clearly enough to warn the Syndicate. What they hadn’t anticipated was the dedication, he was sure.
“I’M GONNA USE YOUR BONES AS TOOTHPICKS,” Val howled, “AND YOUR SINEWS AS GUITAR STRINGS.”
Always the charmer, that Val. A weak laugh bubbled out of Charles’s throat, sound and blood together. It was getting difficult to breathe. His fingers felt numb despite the warmth gushing over them.
Val’s head spiked with terror as Charles’s vision blurred. A wet crunch. A strangled gasp and scream. Then, there were hands on his face, his throat.
“No, no, no no no,” Val whispered. “No, I won’t let it happen.”
Charles’s vision was swimming. He couldn’t breathe past the blood in his mouth. A clanging of a bottle, Val’s hands against his own-
And then Charles’s throat closed, and everything became clear.
Charles gasped and choked. He twisted to the side and coughed up clotted blood in painful desperation. He was shaking by the time everything had gotten out of his airway, everything raw and awful, but he was alive. Laying on the ground shaking and shuddering, but alive.
He was finally able to lift himself onto weak elbows to see Val, throat slit like a smile, down something pale pink and sickly sweet to smell past the terrible copper. Val fell back, gasping, as his throat slid shut.
For a moment, everything was silent aside from their gasping. Reflexive tears streamed down Charles’s face as he fought to stem the racing of his heart.
“…You okay?” Charles whispered.
Val laughed. It was sudden, loud and raucous, and Charles stared dumbly at him.
“…Nothing,” Val said between giggles. He sighed, and clambered over, roughly wrapping himself around Charles in an embrace so tight that Charles found it difficult to suck in a breath. He didn’t mind it, though. He hugged Val tightly back, reassured by the pressure of Val’s arms around him, the warmth against the cold of blood drying in his clothes and on his neck.
Charles glanced around. Their apartment was an utter wreck. Blood coated every surface, gore scattered around in a display that would have made Charles throw up a few months ago, but just felt reassuring now. Wreckage of furniture lay scattered on every surface.
Charles sighed and pressed his face against Val’s jacket.
“We’re gonna have to move, aren’t we?” he muttered.
“Yeah,” Val said, muffled.
“The Syndicate found us again. God, how do they keep doing it?” Charles groaned. “I swear we just moved. And we’re being careful! It’s not like-“
“It’s something else,” Val said softly. “Someone we’re not seeing. Someone we’re not suspecting. A third party, working with the Syndicate… like you suspected.” Val lifted his head. “We need to move.”
“Yeah. Yeah.” Charles dropped his head back.
No rest for the assassinated.
…
Galeforce clapped over the loud drone of the helicopter. “Alright, kids, listen up. We’ve got to get serious today. You’ll be seeing some deadly faces and I don’t want you kids going in unprepared and getting an ax to the face.”
“Ax?” said Calvin incredulously.
Amelia groaned. “Oh, god. It just gets worse, doesn’t it?”
She and the other soldiers in her team- Rupert, prickly heart-of-gold, and the twins, mischievous Calvin and pensive Konrad- were headed on a special mission, one that was apparently dangerous and required utmost skill and caution. Amelia, for one, was ready for it.
While technically Evelyn was her middle name, Danger was a close contender. The thought of some actual stakes to this mission, not some wannabe thugs or jokes of gangsters, made her hands shake in anticipation. It had been too long since she had been on a mission that she actually enjoyed.
Besides… things had been too quiet since Charles went deep cover. She missed him. They all did. Everything felt a little grayer without the sunny pilot to warm the mood.
Sure, the mission wasn’t all fantastic. The pilot they had was nowhere near as good as Charles, nor as likable, but in all other respects Amelia was ready.
Her backpack was heavy with gear. Chemicals, wires, explosives, tripwires and pressure plates and buttons, oh my.
She wanted to use some tonight. Many tonight, if she could help it. Already there were idea floating around in the back of her mind about potential targets- tripwires so they could capture a target and interrogate them, smoke bombs to disorientate spectators and make a clean getaway, tiny chips that were secretly radios-
And there the longing was again. Charles had always been her partner in crime for those sorts of things. He always got her in a way that the others hadn’t regarding her work and her passion.
And he wasn’t here. He was no-contact deep cover somewhere halfway across the world, maybe, with only a message a couple months ago promising that he was safe and would keep in touch to show for it.
But she wasn’t going to dwell on depression, not now. She had a job to do! One that would be fun, if only she made it that way.
“-Lia? Ameeeeeelia?”
Calvin poked her hard in the shoulder and she jolted. She whipped her head over.
“Debrief? Earth to Turtle?” Calvin hissed. “Might wanna pay attention.”
“Probably daydreaming about explosions,” Konrad muttered. “I swear to God you’re as bad as Charles.”
“Shut up,” Amelia said, rolling her eyes. “I was just planning some new and inventive ways that my glorious inventions would save your sorry asses.”
Calvin snickered. “How? By blowing us all up? ‘Oh, general, let me get ‘em all out for you- oh, they’re all dead? Death by explosion? But, general! That’s what it’s supposed to do! Fired, you say-‘“
Amelia couldn’t hold in a snicker as the general’s sharp voice cut through their headphones. “I don’t know which twin this is, but I’m not above collective punishment. Will you all shut your traps and listen so you don’t get brutally murdered?”
“Just making sure our resident bomb expert doesn’t get a happy trigger finger,” Calvin sighed. “Please, general. Continue.”
The general sighed and stood from his seat in the helicopter, standing in front of them.
“It does get worse, Amelia,” Galeforce said. “I need not remind you all that this is a reconnaissance mission, and Miss Turtle’s bombs should go unused unless the situation is dire.” Amelia held up her hands at the glare Galeforce sent her way. “Now let me explain what you all are to find.
“You’re looking for the ever-present enigma: Esoteric. The only name we know the new leader of the Toppats by. He overthrew Terrance, causing a split in Toppat forces and an underground civil war that neither Terrance nor Esoteric seem eager to publicize, and he took over as a dedicated and secretive Toppat that even our best are having difficulty getting information on. We only know so much about Terrance and Esoteric’s fraught, even personal history by… Charlie’s investigations.”
He fell quiet for a moment, but soon rallied. “This is Esoteric’s event. Your mission is to find out who he is, what he stands for, and what he’s like. We need all the help we can get against someone whose style of leading right now is primarily focused on ridding himself of Terrance’s staunch supporters. But,” he said, raising a finger to their questions, “there is a small catch.
“There are others to investigate. For one, his right hand- Ellie Rose.” The group collectively groaned, and Galeforce laughed. “Yes. The Wall’s old nemesis, telekinetic, and deadly weapon in the Toppat’s arsenal. I’d level her even stronger than Esoteric.”
“Then why’s she sticking around him?” Amelia couldn’t help but ask. “I mean, girlboss right there. What’s she get out of following him?”
Galeforce sighed again. “It’s more of a… partnership than her following him, if you get my meaning.”
It took a moment for the words to sink in. When they did, it was Rupert who got to it first.
“They’re soulmates? Of all the-“ Rupert trailed off into a wordless snarl.
“She wasn’t even a Toppat before Esoteric took over,” said Galeforce. “To be frank, that isn’t an issue as much. Not knowing where she was or what she was doing was much more worrying than her being in a position where we can monitor her.” He trailed off. “But there’s another that we can’t fully monitor.”
Galeforce crossed his arms. “Esoteric won’t start fights at his own event, and Rose isn’t going to leave his side. The person who will is someone that will be the most deadly to you all tonight.
“His name is unknown. We’ve been calling him the Shadow for his work shadowing Esoteric and many Toppat operations, as well as his own endeavors. All we know is that he’s a bounty hunter. He’s worked for Esoteric since soon after his inauguration and works especially against Terrance, presumably to hunt down the remaining Toppats against Esoteric. We encountered him once on a mission, but thankfully he seems to have little interest in the government.”
Right. Amelia recalled pulling Charles back, the one who had so closely encountered the hunter. He hadn’t been hurt… but still. It had been too close.
“Again, we shouldn’t need to defend against him. Information is not something he deals in, and he seems to have had an apathy for actually protecting the Toppats in the past. He prefers to do his own thing. Keep an eye out, but don’t pick fights. Retreat if you have to when encountering him.”
“Aw, that’s no fun,” said Calvin. Galeforce shut him up with a withering glare.
“Anyway. We’ll be landing near there soon. I hope you all remembered your earpieces, invitations, and the mission.”
Amelia glanced down at her suit, a dark green jacket with a nearly black shirt underneath, accented with a matching green bow tie. Her pants were flared so that she could hide some of her materials strapped to her legs. She had chosen it as a nod to her Turtle code name- and, now, she realized, as a nod to Charles’s normal choice of formal attire.
Rupert was in black, the boring man. The twins had taken dark blue and had decided to look as similar as possible in case one of them got somewhere and the other didn’t. They succeeded. Only people who knew them well would be able to tell.
The helicopter landed with a bump. Amelia sighed, thinking fondly of Charles and his skills. As she and the others hopped out, Galeforce squeezed her shoulder, then tapped her earpiece.
“You all be careful,” he said. “Get in there and get information. And… see if we can find anything about Charlie’s position.”
She glanced at Calvin, raising an eyebrow. He shrugged.
“Something tells me that he might also be inclined to come here tonight,” Galeforce murmured.
…
Sweeping chandeliers loomed over a floor so polished that it reflected Amelia perfectly. A huge table to one side held all sorts of food in luxurious multitudes. Everything seemed to sparkle with a perfection that only the highest could attain at a gala of this size.
“Esoteric likes it extravagant, huh,” said Rupert scathingly. “I don’t think I’ve seen more wealth flaunted in one place at one time.”
“His name is Esoteric,” Amelia said.
She was weaving through the crowd, talking to random people in the hopes that one of them was important enough to have some information. She was not someone who got information- Calvin and Konrad were the smooth talkers- but she might as well try while the boys were focusing on the actual targets Galeforce had pointed out.
“Turtle,” said Calvin abruptly, and strangely seriously. Her head snapped up. “2 o’clock. Rose. Who’s with her?”
“Affirmative,” Amelia said. She lifted her eyes up across the heads of the crowd, who were parting to form a berth around Ellie Rose and the person she was with.
Ellie looked, frankly, stunning. She was in a long red dress with long gloves to match. For once, she was smiling easily, saying something that made the man her arm was linked with laugh.
And there he was. Esoteric. She was sure of it. A navy suit and a cape pinned onto his shoulders, a top hat with a couple cards placed into it. There was a necklace of a rose around his neck- sweet, she had to admit- and he had an easy grin that sang of smug satisfaction.
“He looks like a self-righteous asshole who would overthrow someone he didn’t like,” Rupert muttered.
“Hey, Terrance is worse for us,” said Konrad. “Least the dude’s wasting his time hunting them all down instead of doing raids.”
Amelia followed the pair around the ballroom. She frowned as she watched Esoteric do magical, mysterious things with flicks of his hands- clean up a wine spill, summon a strange scroll, conjure up a rose to tuck into his breast pocket.
“Problem,” said Amelia, “this guy doesn’t just have the most unfair soulmate advantage in the world. He’s also got some kind of freaky magic.”
“Just what we needed,” Rupert muttered.
“Wanna chat them up, Konrad?” Calvin asked.
“Hhhhahaha,” Konrad said. “You want to, idiot?”
“We haven’t seen the bounty hunter, have we?” Rupert asked.
Amelia caught a flash out of the corner of her eye. She turned, puzzled. It almost looked like-
She froze.
“Guys,” she said. “The general was right. Charles is here.”
Charles. He was standing tall, his signature headphones draped around his neck (much more banged up then they used to be). He was wearing a nice green waistcoat with the sleeves rolled up. He looked mildly out of place, rumpled and ruffled, but somehow it added to the charm of him yet again.
Amelia felt a surge of relief. Charles, thank god. He was okay. She began squeezing through the crowd. Deep cover or not, she was going to say hi to one of her best friends.
“Holy sh*t!” Calvin laughed. “No way, dude. Seriously?”
“…Yeah.” Even Rupert’s harsh voice had softened. “It’s him. I can see him from over here.”
But something was off. Something standing next to him, hovering in Charles’s shadow. A presence that wasn’t noticeable initially but was obvious once you recognized the growing unease in your chest.
He stepped out next to Charles. Small, compact, powerful. He wore a simple white button up with the sleeves rolled up, a motion that screamed of preparedness for a fight. Sitting on his hip was a massive, sharp, gleaming ax.
“…Guys,” Amelia said. She stopped in her tracks, staring. “Something’s wrong. The Shadow’s next to Charles.”
“Wait- what?” said Calvin. “I don’t think I he-“
“You did.”
“The hell?” said Konrad, bewildered.
Amelia’s eyes caught on a flash of movement behind the pair. A figure, dark and quick, bearing the symbol of a full moon whose clock face stroked midnight, was racing up behind Charles. Amelia felt her feet begin to move, but that wasn’t enough. She wouldn’t reach him in time. She’d see her friend one last time, only for him to end so cruelly in front of her-
The Shadow whipped around. At the same time, Charles twisted to one side. The crowd around them screamed and fell back as his ax flew out, slamming into the Midnight Syndicate assassin with a final crunch.
Amelia slammed to a stop. The Shadow lifted his ax and slammed down one more time, cleaving the assassin in two. He stepped back, standing in front of Charles protectively.
“The Shadow killed the assassin,” Amelia whispered, though it wasn’t necessary considering the commotion around her. “That was- terrifyingly quick.”
As if appearing out of thin air, Esoteric and Rose materialized next to the assassin. Rose nudged the unfortunate assassin with her foot, snorting. Then they- and Charles- spoke.
“Looks like he’s made enemies,” said Amelia. She slipped closer, peering to look at the assassin’s identification. “Midnight Syndicate.”
“Oh, god! That was too close- what was the Shadow protecting him?-“
“Getting a look?” Rupert asked, cutting the twins’ frantic words off. “Charles okay?”
“Looks fine.” At least Rupert was on her wavelength. “Let me listen in.”
“-knew this would be a problem,” Esoteric was saying with a heavy sigh. “They simply can’t put one night above their own ambitions, can they? Despicable. I apologize, Val. This should have been a calm night for you two.” He nodded at the Shadow.
“Hey, it’s fine,” said Charles. His characteristic easy voice hadn’t left despite the near-miss. Did he have some new scars? “Not the first time, won’t be the last. It’s, a, uh… common occurrence.”
“Not if I can help it,” muttered Val, the Shadow.
“We are not going to murder an entire organization unless it comes to it,” said Charles.
“It will,” said Val.
“Yeah, okay, Mr. Brooding over here. Can we just, uh, get the body out and we’ll worry about this whole thing later? I was having a nice night.”
“Agreed,” said Rose. She nudged Esoteric. “We haven’t had one chance to do something fun, Henry, and Val’s kinda taken care of it already. Believe me, nobody is going to die tonight. Nobody important, anyway.”
“It’s just-“ Esoteric, or Henry, hissed in frustration. “They think they can come to my party and assassinate one of my guests on grounds that have nothing to do with me! No offense, but if this had happened outside-“
“Feeling really welcomed here,” Charles said brightly.
“-then it would not, but nooooo.” Esoteric sighed. It felt wrong calling him Henry, even if that was apparently his real name. “Nothing against you… pilot. But I’ve heard about you. You are very much capable of handling this yourself, but now I have to make a statement and meetings and reparations and AUGH.”
Ellie threw back her head and barked a laugh. “C’mon, Hen. Let’s go drink ourselves asleep if we’ve gotta do that tomorrow.”
“Right,” Henry muttered. He straightened and nodded at Val and Charles. “I presume you two don’t need anything else tonight?”
Charles opened his mouth, but Val placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. Amelia’s eyes followed the movement warily as Val’s eyes narrowed. “We’ll be leaving.”
Henry sighed. “I guessed so. I’ll send some… things you two will want tomorrow, as an apology for this whole mess. Pilot- let me know.” Henry narrowed his eyes. “I hope your investigations haven’t strayed toward the Toppats?”
Charles smiled hugely, the motion almost eerie. “We’ll see!”
Ellie laughed again. “A spirit I don’t often see on government agents. I knew I liked you, pilot.”
“Thanks?” said Charles with a crooked grin.
“I can see why you’ve been busy, Val,” said Henry. He tilted his head at Charles with a secretive smile. “Pilot- do be a dear and come along on Val’s next assignment. You’ll probably find some information you’d like.”
“Yeah,” Val said before Charles could respond. His eyes flicked around the room suspiciously. Amelia tried her best to look like a normal partygoer, but she swore that his eyes lingered on her.
They narrowed, but turned away.
“Well, have a nice night,” said Henry. “With those… scares in the past, I hope it didn’t lessen your enjoyment too much.”
“It did,” Val said bluntly.
“Nahhhh, it was great! Great party! Lotsa people to bother, especially Sven. So I had fun.” Charles shrugged with a sly smirk at Val when the Shadow frowned at him.
“Good. Good,” said Henry.
“Ever wanna fight to the death, Val, I’m willing,” said Ellie with a grin and finger guns. Good lord, did the Right Hand of the Toppats just do finger guns?
Val rolled his eyes. “Write your will now, Rose.”
“Couldn’t kill me once, won’t do it twice,” said Ellie haughtily. “Don’t test your luck.”
“Enough, enough,” said Henry. “Petty rivalries are not either of your strong suits. El, let’s actually go drink ourselves to death. Goodbye!”
And with that, both seemed to actually vanish in a puff of smoke and rose petals. It left Val and Charles standing next to the body, which servants were already dragging away and cleaning as the party resumed as normal.
Criminals. What a bunch of weirdos.
The Shadow held up his hand. The two servants stopped, and Val quickly scanned over the body. He rummaged through their pockets and pulled out a small clock-moon symbol, several bottles of strange liquids, and other personal effects- a wallet, small journal, a ring of keys. He pocketed them all but passed the journal to Charles.
Charles slipped it into his pocket and put a hand on the Shadow’s shoulder as the servants took the body.
“Val,” said Charles so quietly that she almost couldn’t hear, and with a gentleness that made her tilt her head, “I’m fine.”
“It was too close,” Val said. He fixed Charles with a stare she couldn’t read. “I wanna ditch this… thing anyway. Let’s go.”
“We can’t get more- I dunno- stuff?” Charles asked. “It’s hardly been-“
“Nothing for you, anyway. The assassin’s dead and I got their stuff.”
“Can’t interrogate a dead guy,” Charles said with a sigh. “Couldn’t you have knocked him out?”
Val sent an exasperated look at Charles.
“Fine. Let’s go.”
Charles and Val slipped into the crowd. Amelia didn’t dare follow, not with the Shadow’s watchful eyes scanning everything around them with a possessive intensity. There was no way she could get close.
“…the HELL was that?!” Calvin shouted, startling her.
“Don’t yell at me about it!” she hissed. “I don’t know. Charles is apparently in hot water with the Midnight Syndicate, enough to get an assassin sent after him! I thought he was on the trail of some, like- information! Something about the Syndicate allying themselves with a sect of Toppats or something-“
“The real question,” Konrad panted, “is how Charles is such a huge asset to the Toppats and the Shadow that he’s being personally protected?!”
“Just follow them!” snarled Rupert. He sounded out of breath.
“No use,” Amelia said. “Not with the Shadow so on edge. I wouldn’t get four feet without that guy shooting me through.”
She stood staring after the pair. It was the right decision, she thought, seeing the Shadow’s (Val’s?) hawklike eyes scanning the crowd’s.
And, interestingly, Charles was doing the same. While he had his trademark easy smile plastered over his face, posture relaxed, his eyes were more alert than she’d ever seen them. Intense. Cautious.
Clearly, something has changed about Charles across his mission. Enough for him to be working with the Toppats, or at least the most unpredictable and deadly bounty hunter in the business, and enough for him to be in deep trouble.
There was a scar across Charles’s throat.
After the assassin, she had seen his eyes glaze over in momentary terror. His hand had caught his throat.
Had this… happened before?
“We need to catch him without the Shadow,” Amelia whispered. “Something’s wrong.”
“Thanks, Captain Obvious,” snarled Konrad. “I couldn’t tell.”
“Stop. You’re just as worried as me. Something’s changed. Something big. Charles is in a lot more danger than we thought. I think he’s almost gotten assassinated before. Something he’s doing- or discovered- means he’s in deep sh*t.”
“Amelia’s right,” said Rupert. “We need to catch him alone. Though… something tells me that’s gonna be pretty hard, right?”
Amelia thought for a moment. Then, her hand drifted down to her bag. “Not necessarily. Not if you follow my plan exactly.”
A hesitant pause. “What did you have in mind?” Calvin asked.
…
“I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU-“
“It’s fine, it’s fine!” Amelia said as Calvin continued screaming. “If you get past the smoke bombs in time, he’ll lose you, no problem. You can get away.”
“WHY AM I ALWAYS BAIT?” A short scream and the sound of a knife whipping past a headphone.
“Because you were soooooo eager to claim yourself as fastest,” said Konrad beside her. There was a smug grin on his face. “Not so eager now, huh?”
“I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE, KONRAD.”
“We live together, dumbass.”
“We need to move,” Rupert said. He hadn’t smiled once at the banter, instead staring anxiously into the distance. “Amelia, when’ll those bombs be ready?”
“Shhh, don’t rush an expert,” Amelia whispered. “One, two, three-“
…
Charles was frankly getting nervous that Val wasn’t back.
He had torn off after some suspicious noise and actions. Someone that had something that looked like a gun, something like a cloak of the Midnight Syndicate. It was enough to set Val off. He had told Charles to stay alert and had sprinted off, pressing one of his knives into Charles’s hands.
At least Val trusted him with self-defense now. It had been touch-and-go for a while there. Despite the fact that he was a trained fiend agent, Val had insisted on knife lessons, hand-to-hand lessons, and everything in between.
Not that he wasn’t grateful. It was just nice to be trusted by Val to take care of himself.
Besides- these dark, shady alleyways and empty streets felt just as natural as a crowd these days. Better than the Toppat ball, that was for certain. If he could protect himself anywhere, it was here.
Open air, decent lighting, nothing around to hide enemies, the mysterious always-present dark figures walking toward him.
Wait a second.
Charles whirled, a gun already in his hands. Shhnk, click, point, aim-
“Wait, Charles!”
Recognize Amelia’s voice.
Amelia’s… voice.
A face came into focus beyond the sights. A familiar face. Several familiar faces, actually. His team.
Amelia at the front, holding her bag of no doubt nasty tricks. Rupert standing back, staring at the gun Charles was holding up with an expression that had so many emotions it was unreadable. And the twins- Calvin panting and out of breath, Konrad watching him hopefully.
Charles lowered his gun.
“Hi, guys,” he said weakly.
“Charles!” Before he could do anything, Amelia was crossing the gap and crashing into him, locking him in a tight hug. He laughed a little and hugged her back. It felt nice to hug one of his best friends again, after everything.
“Damn, Charlie! You’ve gotten muscular,” she said, pulling back.
“Yeah, well that’s what a year of running for your life does to you,” he said.
The moment she let go, Rupert crushed him in another hug. Charles wheezed. “Angry, huh?” he choked out. “Trying to kill me already, I swear-“
“You have a lot of explaining to do,” Rupert hissed before pulling back.
“Charlie!” A hand ruffled his hair (Val was going to kill Calvin for that) while another clapped his shoulder. Calvin on one side, Konrad the other. “The hell, man? We’ve been looking for you for ages!”
“Looking for me?” Charles took a step back from all of them, watching their concerned faces. “You- you guys realize this is a deep-cover mission, right?”
“Yeah, but dude! You fell off the map! We haven’t been able to talk in ages!” Calvin said.
“Not to mention the stuff we’ve seen you do,” Rupert said, eyes narrowing.
Amelia elbowed him. “Let’s not lead with that? Yeah, Charlie’s done some shady stuff. And had some talking to do, but let’s not assault him right now. At least knock the anger off.”
Uhoh, Charles thought. “Look, I’m gonna have to do some shady stuff. I have, I’ll admit it. But I’ve figured out some pretty dang terrible stuff, and I’m- well, I’ve almost been assassinated for it.” He pointed to the line across his throat, succeeding in making the twins flinch in unison. “So hopefully that can explain most of it-“
“Yeah, we saw you almost get assassinated,” said Amelia. Her eyes narrowed- not in hostility, but intense curiosity. “And you got saved by the Shadow.”
Charles stared at them. “Uh,” he said, bafflement rising up in him, “who?”
“The Shadow?” Rupert said, as if that explained anything. “The guy with the Toppats? Esoteric’s personal attack dog? Master bounty hunter?”
Wait. Esoteric was Henry, and his ‘attack dog’-
Val?
“Wait. Is that what you guys call him? The Shadow?” Charles bit his lip to stop from laughing. Oh, Val was going to love that nickname. Henry even more so.
“Yes? Only thing a lotta people know him by,” said Amelia. “How do you know him?”
Charles paused. Well, that got complicated. How was he supposed to tell them that the Shadow was-
“And why was he here with you, just now?” Rupert said lowly. “Guarding you, after whatever you’ve done to get in the Toppats’ good graces?”
He was, wasn’t he. They had just been taking a nice stroll. But guard? Charles was basically a plus one. They had been at the party, then taken a stroll, and then the figure, and then he had-
Charles froze.
Wait. The suspicious movement. Calvin being out of breath. Val running away, and them appearing moments later.
“Did you guys- like, plan this?” Charles asked. “Getting V- the Shadow away?”
“How else were we gonna talk to you?” Amelia said. “Look, no hard feelings. But I feel like that guy would kill us to death, you know?”
They had lured Val away.
“Yeah, he would,” Charles said dumbly.
Because they didn’t know Val was his soulmate.
And, conversely, by the panic he was beginning to feel, Val didn’t know they were friends, either.
Before Charles could do anything else, an ax flew right by Calvin’s face. When he yelped and jumped back, a green blur shot out from the alleyway, skidding to a stop in front of Charles. The ax flew back to him and he grabbed it, raising it above his head.
“Waitwaitwait Val no they’re friendlies!” Charles shouted both in and outside of his mind. He lunged and grabbed Val’s shoulder. Something about it managed to make Val freeze, the ax dropping to his side.
Amelia hopped back, already reaching into her bag. Rupert was grasping for the gun on his side. Both froze as Charles darted in front of Val, holding out his hands.
Val’s eyes didn’t leave Charles. He raised an eyebrow at Charles, then inclined his head exasperated toward the group. Well? he seemed to say. What now?
“…I think we may have had a little misunderstanding here,” Charles said.
“Misunderstanding?” Rupert shouted, beginning to step forward.
“Do that and I’ll rip your throat out,” Val said softly. His words cut through the air like a knife, and the tension rose drastically.
“Val, not the time?” Charles said with an irritable sigh.
“Who are you?” Amelia asked, tilting her head. “The Shadow, clearly. But you’re working with a government agent.”
“The what?” Val said incredulously.
“It must be a strange circ*mstance,” Amelia continued as Charles resisted the urge to giggle hysterically. “I don’t think bounty hunters do that, do they? Work with government agents? Were you hired?”
“Wha-“
“Amelia, cool it,” Charles said. “Val, it’s- hahah- it’s what they call you. The Shadow.”
“What?” Val straightened, glaring at Amelia. “I’m not hired,” Val growled, offense lacing his voice.
Shoot, Charles had wanted to roll with that. He couldn’t admit they were soulmates. God, the blowout. “Actually, guys, it’s fine! Nothing to worry about! I just-“
“You,” Rupert growled, glaring at Val. “What do you want with Charles? Why are you following him everywhere?”
Val slipped in front of Charles, glaring at Rupert venomously. “Following? He’s my soulmate. My soulmate.”
He turned to Charles, oblivious of the utter silence that had fallen over Charles’s no doubt former team. “Who are they, anyway?”
“My… team. In the government. The ones I was the helicopter pilot for,” Charles squeaked.
Val blinked. He glanced over at them again, and something like recognition entered his gaze. “Oh.”
“You know,” Charles sighed, “Val, I was hoping-“
“SOULMATE?” all four of them shouted at the same time. Val and Charles winced.
“Yeah,” Val growled, gripping his ax tighter. “Quiet. If you don’t stop screaming you’re going to draw attention.”
“Guys, please,” Charles said. “Let’s just-“
“The Shadow?” Rupert sounded like a drowning cat. “The Shadow?”
“Oh my god.” Calvin seemed halfway between laughing and throwing up. “Only you, Charles. Only you.”
“Guys!” Amelia said. “Let’s just- sorry, Charles. Threw me for a loop. I-“
Val suddenly perked up. The group fell quiet as Charles did, watching Val prowl from their sidewalk to the center of the empty street. He stared down into the darkness for a minute.
Then, he whipped out a knife and flung it in the span of a second. It collided with something that made a shrill scream. He turned and flew back to Charles.
“We have to go.” Val pointed down the alley. “There’s a road there. You can get away- they’re after us. Try not to die.”
Val grabbed Charles before he could process anything else. Then, his team’s confused faces dissolved before his eyes as they teleported.
