I See Emeralds

Chapter Thirty-One (Lukas' POV)

I quickly pull away and feel my cheeks redden. I may have gotten a carried away with my emotions...

"Thanks. I've been hoping to do that for a while," Mathias says with one of his signature laughs. Darn it! I'm trying to tell the tragic truth about this world and we ended up kissing. How did that happen? And why did I like it?

I can't be falling for him yet again, can I?

I brush the thought out of my mind for the time being. I can consider that possibility later. "Never mind that. My main point is that up until a few years ago everyone, not just my brother and I, could see all colors. That false soulmate rule isn't how things used to be," I tell him, trying to keep my cool. It's bad enough that I cried in front of someone and kissed him. I don't need to damage my reputation any further.

"So you're saying soulmates aren't real?" he asks quietly. He seems sad.

"Of course not. They've always been real. It merely used to be more difficult to tell when you found them because everyone could see more than their soulmate's eye color," I try to sound comforting. "But the fact that you can't see every color anymore is unfair. The new leaders used the soulmate flaw in their plan to their advantage by convincing everyone that it was normal."

"And those boxes we made are going to fix everything? Forever?" he asks and rubs his eyes. Oh, was he crying? I didn't mean to cause that.

"Hopefully. The way your brain is now, you have the ability to see every color, but only blue is activated. The others are deactivated. Our machines should activate the rest. Does that make sense?" I explain.

"I think so," he replies and smiles. "Now I know why you and Emil work so hard. And why Leon and I should do that too. This is more important than I thought."

"I doubt Emil's mentioned this to him. I only told you so early because you brought up the report," I say.

The bathroom door opens. I'm surprised that didn't happen already to be honest. It's Arthur, his face bright red. I don't think he knows, considering that he can only see purple. "Um, do you need privacy? Should I go to the bathroom in the other hall?" he asks, obviously uncomfortable. He seems ready to make a run for it.

"What's wrong?" Mathias asks. He and Arthur know each other distantly. It's more of a friend of a friend of a friend sort of thing.

"That Frog," he says quietly. "He...you know, I'd rather not say right now. But I'm fine. It's good, not bad." He smiles awkwardly. When he turns his back to us to enter a stall, I quickly use some of my mind entering magic. I just have to know.

"Hi Arty!" That's Francis.

"What do you want?" Arthur hisses. They're on their way to school. "Oh, and here's your wretched coat." He flings the jacket he was previously wearing at him.

"I forgot about this," Francis says and puts it on. "Still warm, haha."

"Don't be weird." Arthur rolls his eyes. "Anyways, what did you want?"

"I wanted to ask you something. You had a pretty nice time the other day, didn't you? That rainy day?" Francis begins.

"Besides the rain, yeah, I guess so." Arthur shrugs.

"I was hoping you'd like to go on another date. Preferably to the school dance," Francis says with a wink. Typical.

"I wouldn't call it a date, more like two friends hanging out for hours and also kissing once or twice- okay, that was a date," Arthur admits and sighs. "So yeah, sure. We can go to the dance together. It's not like I had plans anyways."

"Really? Thank you Arty!" Francis squeals and exclaims. He forces Arthur into a hug, which the green eyed boy quickly squirms out of.

"Okay, okay, not so loud. I don't want the whole neighborhood to know," he complains.

"Whatever." And then the two walk to school hand in hand.

I can't help but smile. I'm happy for them.