Evan turns in a circle slowly, taking in the light fog surrounding him. The ground didn't look solid; in fact, it looked like he should be free falling, but wherever he was, Evan was most certainly standing.
Compelled by some unseen force, he begins walking in a direction–which direction? He’s not really sure–and lets the feeling tug him along. After some amount of time, he can vaguely make out a figure in the distance, a soft haze surrounding them in the fog.
Another minute or two pass but he doesn't seem to be getting any closer. In a brief moment of irritation, he thinks to himself, I wish I were next to them already. In an instant, he’s standing next to the person. A quick blink and a shake of the head and he’s free of the strange feeling behind his eyes.
Beautiful, is Evan’s first thought, and then immediately after, warm. The person is a couple inches shorter than him but has bright streaks of lime green in their black hair and tattoos littering their bare arms. They’re pale but not extremely so, not like how he is, and their eyes– oh. Their eyes. They’re bright, a soft amber that surrounds Evan in warmth, and he’s falling despite the solidness beneath his feet. He’s melting beneath the firm, fiery gaze of this stranger, something in his soul trying to fit into a space too big for it.
“Hi,” Evan says softly, the words tumbling from his mouth breathlessly. “I’m Evan. He or they.”
The stranger cocks their head to the side slightly, regarding him with a strange mix of curiosity and wariness. “I’m Barty, he and him.”
Oh.
Oh.
And just like that, his soul slides into place, filled with the stranger– no, with Barty’s voice. It’s firm but kind, a soft lilt to their words that rings in Evan’s ears and embeds itself beneath his heart. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, his mind sings and he does nothing to stop it.
“Do you know where we are?” Evan’s eyes focus back onto Barty as he looks around, waving a hand at the nothingness surrounding them.
They shake their head. “I’m afraid I don’t. I was hoping you might have some idea.”
“The last thing I remember is…” Barty trails off, chewing mindlessly on his lip. “Well, nothing good. You?”
“I remember…I remember pain.” Evan answers truthfully. “A lot of pain, and sadness. And then, nothing.” Barty nods, looking at Evan once more. Yes, do that, his mind thinks before he can stop it. Not that he’d really want to anyway; Barty’s gaze is almost fond.
“You’ve got scars,” Barty says after a moment. Evan’s almost startled by the sudden observation. It was easy to forget they were there, after living with them for so long. “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone with a facial scar.”
“I was, ah, attacked quite a lot.” Evan smiles sadly but stretches out an arm nonetheless. “I lived in the worst part of town.” He shrugs, like it was no big deal. “I was meant to protect the young ones but I failed.”
“I don’t think you failed.” Barty reaches up and gently touches the scar running jaggedly sideways across Evan’s face. It’s still slightly tender, having happened only a few weeks prior, but under his touch, Evan can feel his face growing warm, the blush likely very evident on his pale cheeks. “You lived, didn’t you?”
“There was one other. He managed to survive even after he was taken.” Evan watches Barty’s hand as he withdraws, their gaze following his hand as it hangs back down by her side. “But I couldn’t save him either.”
“That couldn’t possibly be your fault. I–” He watches as Barty swallows and looks away into the distance. The fog has lifted slightly but not enough to see if there’s anything around them. “I wasn’t able to protect my people either.” Barty shrugs, a mirror of Evan’s movements moments earlier. He gives them a small, sad smile. “It’s my biggest regret.”
And Evan understands. He knows exactly how Barty feels, because he too feels the same. Just like that, his mind relaxes incrementally and classifies Barty as safe, because why else would he share the deepest, most broken part about himself with a stranger?
“We seem to be stuck in some sort of infinite,” Evan says instead to try and ignore the way his mind begins to see Barty in a different light. They try to push aside how they’ve noticed his silver rings look on his hands and how his eyes crinkle slightly at the edges when he smiles and how the muscles in his arms flex slightly at every miniscule movement.
“That we are.” Barty doesn’t even look around them this time, catching and keeping Evan’s gaze. Something in Evan screams to reach out, to see if the green streaks in his hair are as soft as they look. So he does. He gingerly touches the one just above his ear and finds it just as soft as he imagined.
"So then." Evan smiles softly, tucking a stray hair behind Barty's ear. "Would you like to explore the infinite with me?"
Barty takes his hand with a smile and they walk into the distance together. Where they’re going, neither of them are quite sure, nor do they know where they’ll end up. But they both know that wherever they are, they will be there with each other. The fabric of their souls was wound together far before they ever found their way back, and it will continue to sew itself back into one long after they have left this world and entered the next, wherever that may be.
Maybe it'll be a chapel in Vegas with an Elvis impersonator. Maybe it'll be a small shop gifted to them by an old couple. Wherever it led them, they would go willingly. Happily.
Evan.
Barty.
One soul, two bodies, inexplicably intertwined.
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