In Sickness and in Health [Soulmate AU One-Shot]

beauty is in the eye of the beholder

The soulmate bit was inspired by a tumblr edit post that had Piper and Aerrow sharing each other's eye colors. https://www.tumblr.com/nosfelixculpa/714758518746529792/wake-up-babe-new-binding-lore-idea-what-if-when-u?source=share

Not gonna lie, this is mostly good ol' angst with some fluff at the start to make the angst hurt worse. It was supposed to only be around 1.5k words but then it got out of hand. Aerrow and Piper are one of my top OTPs. I don't know who is left in the fandom but I hope someone enjoys this.

    Growing up, Aerrow didn't think too hard about the subject of soulmates. He was just a kid. It wasn't anything special. One day he had two green eyes and the next he had one green and one carnelian that complemented the eye's of the new girl that had joined his and Finn's little orphan posse. 

    Turns out, the adults viewed finding your soulmate as the pinnacle of closeness or whatever. It was a pretty big deal and Piper and Aerrow were apparently extremely fortunate to have found each other so young. People's high opinion and awe over the matter had never truly affected how they saw each other. To them, they were just Aerrow and Piper.

    Later, they became the Storm Hawks, Sky Knight and Navigator, fighting to finish a war that was not their own but passed onto them. Perhaps people were right to say that the newest iteration of the Storm Hawks was far too young to be in battle. But fighting was all they had ever known growing up in a land marred by war. The Storm Hawks held their heads high against the naysayers, meeting and conquering every challenge with the blind tenacious faith of youth. 

    Through their countless battles, they gained experience, becoming a little bit older and a little bit wiser. But not wise enough. The scars from the years of bloodshed ran deep for everyone, but Aerrow had not been prudent enough to observe the warnings. He had grown complacent. Somehow, their continual victories had led to a belief they were invulnerable. Sure, peril hounded their every step, but its teeth always snapped shut on thin air. It was a dangerous dance he and his squadron seemed to relish.

    However, their youth did not guarantee that death would not one day find a way to ensnare them. Aerrow knew that now. He was reminded every time he looked at his soulmate. It had been a week since the failed assault on Cyclonia; and though Piper tried putting up a bold front, Aerrow could see the tiredness in her movements and the brief winces of pain across her face. Her strength was fading despite not using the Binding since their last battle.

    He had never considered losing her because they still had their whole lives stretching out before them like an endless horizon. Piper had just always been there, and their soulmate bond had been immovable. He had taken that for granted.

    There was the saying: 'It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.' Clearly the person who penned that had not ever had nor lost a soulmate.

    On Terra Saharr was the first time Aerrow had come across and actually spoken with someone who had lost his soulmate. One of the merchant's eyes was a vibrant forest green while the other was lifeless and dull with all trace of color clouded over. It was a pitiful sight to behold and the entire team had winced in sympathy. Yet Piper being Piper and ever curious had dared to tentatively question what it was like.

    The myriad of expressions that flickered across the man's face said more than if he had told them a hundred stories. He scrutinized Aerrow's and Piper's complementary eyes with a strained countenance. Finally, he settled on, "It is a wretched emptiness in the soul that I would not wish upon anyone, not even the Cyclonians. You would do well to relish every moment spent with each other."

    That merchant's haunted gaze and words lingered in the back of Aerrow's mind in the early morning hours even as a hundred other thoughts fought for precedence.