I Can Stop Your Hurts (A Red White and Royal Blue Fan Fiction)

Chapter 3

Alex: Age 16 – Henry: Age 17

"Hey champ, how was school?"

"Pretty good." Alex slung his backpack onto the floor and plopped down on the couch. "I'm just exhausted."

His dad laughed as he flipped the page of his newspaper. "I bet. There's some chicken mole in the kitchen if you want."

"Yes I want!" he jumped over the back of the couch and ran into the kitchen to get himself a plate.

His dad laughed again. "I thought you might say that." Alex came back in with his food. "Oh, by the way, I got a call from your mom. She told me to tell you hi."

"How's she doing?"

"Good. Congress is keeping her busy. Not to mention getting everything ready for the campaign."

Alex nodded. He was really proud of his mom, but he did miss her when she was so busy.

Once he had finished eating, Alex went up to his room to work on some homework. He loved school, but it really was keeping him busy.

Alex opened up his anatomy textbook and began working on his essay about soul injuries. Scientists weren't quite sure medically how soul injuries worked, they were just something that had been happening since the dawn of time. Soul injuries exactly mirrored the injuries one person received. Unfortunately, this meant that a person could die from their soul mate. Luckily, it did not carry over to diseases or old age.

Alex sighed. He already knew all of this stuff. He didn't know why they had to keep hammering it into their heads every year. Rationally though, he knew that it was important to teach young people that they needed to take care of themselves. After all, one mistake didn't just affect them, there was someone else's life on the line. Luckily Alex really didn't have to worry about that.

He smiled to himself. It was almost crazy how careful his soulmate was. The only major injury Alex had ever received from them had been the broken wrist when he was little. Besides that, all he ever really had to worry about was the occasional bruise or scrape. It was pretty nice. It made Alex feel bad for all of the injuries he had gotten over the years.

After finishing the last bit of his homework, Alex decided that he wanted to just lay in bed reading for a little bit before bed. He changed into a pair of sweatpants and collapsed onto the bed, not even worrying about a shirt.

He was a few chapters into his book, when he first sensed that something was wrong. A sharp suddenly sliced through his inner thigh. Alex let out a hiss, unsure of what was going on. Had that been some kind of weird spasm? Before he had time to think about it, the pain came a second time. Then a third. It was on the fourth time that he finally looked down at his leg to see a small patch of blood forming on his pants. "Shit!"

Alex quickly pulled down his sweatpants so that he could see what was going on. A steady stream of blood was flowing from his thigh. He used his pants leg to wipe it away and finally got a look at the injury. Four horizontal lines had been cut into his thigh, with a fifth forming right before his eyes. After the fifth cut, it finally stopped.

For a moment, he just sat on his bed in silence, staring at his blood-stained hands. His soul mate... had cut themselves... on purpose? There was no other explanation. The lines were just too uniform and precise. But... why?

Alex pulled his knees up to his chest, wincing as he agitated the wound. He began to cry thinking about how his soul mate must be feeling right now. What could have happened? They almost never gave Alex any injuries, so what could have happened that brought them to this?

He found himself lying awake for the rest of the night, unable to fall asleep out of worry. The next night was about the same, only it became worse when the pain returned on the opposite thigh. It continued on like this for three months.

Alex was now constantly in pain. Walking had become the bane of his existence as it hurt every time his thighs brushed together. He was at his wits end. He didn't know what to do. He had hoped that it was a phase, and his soul mate would eventually get the help they needed. But that didn't happen.

He was beginning to question whether he should tell his parents. At first, he didn't want to worry them. But now... he was beginning to become worried himself. What would happen if his soul mate killed themselves, and his parents never knew anything about it at the same time, what could they even do about it? There was nothing anyone could do to stop soul injuries. He would just have to take it.

After a while, the self-harm slowly came less frequently. It started as simply skipping every few days. Then only happening once a week. Then a couple times a month. Now, it only seemed to happen every once and a while. Probably after something specific happened. Alex wasn't happy that his soul mate still felt like they had to punish themselves like this, but it did make him feel better that it wasn't happening as often. So something must have been going right. By the time that the cuts had mostly come to a halt, Alex's thighs were completely covered in scars, and looked as if they had been shredded. Every night Alex prayed to whatever higher being was or wasn't out there that his soul mate was ok.

(A/N - Thanks for reading. Hope you liked it!)