Found

PROLOGUE: IRIS

The room was lit by moonlight seeping in through the window. Outside, the sound of waves cascading on the shore could be heard. Inside, the lights were off and all was quiet except for the sound of breathing. I was laying in a comfortable bed that was definitely not mine, under the covers, breathing in the smells of a strange yet somehow familiar room. A body moves next to my right, and I look over at the figure of a man, early twenties, staring down at me. His face is darkened by the light streaming in from behind him so I can't see his features. It doesn't matter; I can smell him, hear him, feel him. This person, whoever he is, was so familiar, like a second skin. I knew him. I would know him anywhere. Another movement, as a hand reaches up to stroke my hair. I turn because the man on my right was not the one touching me. A second man, younger, is laying on my other side. He watches me watching him. My breath catches. He is just like the other man. So beautiful. The two move together, pulling me into them, pushing me into the cushions as they lean over to kiss me...

Then I wake up...

CHAPTER ONE: SEBASTIAN

You know things are bad when your little brother tries to kill your best friend. That is exactly what happened last week. Alexander and I just got home from a botched blind date that Fabian set us up on, and Alex just lost it. His eyes had turned to slits, and he was just so... well pissed doesn't quite work. I guess he seemed tired. I know how he feels. When Alexander and I were old enough to observe an interest in romantic partners (I say "romantic partners" because we, as bisexuals, don't care if our mate is boy or girl), our parents told us that one of the oracles predicted that we would share a soul mate. We took it pretty well. I mean, I love my little brother, and we've never been apart, so the idea of finding someone that completes us is the thought that has kept us sane over the past two hundred years. Until now...

Luckily for Fabian I was there, or else he would have been turned to dust by a rogue electric wave. Needless to say, we won't be enlisting any of Fabian's match-making tips ever again. The date wasn't terrible. I should put that out there. I mean, the girl was really cute and friendly, but she just wasn't for us, or more specifically she wasn't for Alexander. The whole dinner, she tried to completely block him out, only talking to him when she was forced to, like when asking for the salt shaker. I think that really annoyed Alex. As the youngest, he's used to getting all the attention, or at least some attention, but this girl obviously didn't take to the idea of us sharing her. So that's what put Alex in such a murderous mood. Not only was the girl not the one, but she also made the unforgivable mistake of putting into question Alexander's attractiveness. Bad move. It took me twenty-three complements, ten "forget her's" and six verbal threats to finally calm down Angry Alex enough to remove Fabian from the premises.

After that, he broke down crying. Alexander NEVER cries, so that was the part that scared me the most. The idea of my little brother giving up all hope makes me severely depressed. I mean, we were promised a soul mate, someone to love unconditionally until the end of eternity. So where were they?

The next day, Fabian came back, all smiles as if my brother didn't just try to put a lightning bolt through his chest, with three one-way plane tickets to a city in the Northeast. At first I thought that he was crazy, but then I remembered that it was Fabian. Then, I worried about whether or not Alexander would break-down again, but he was still in the kitchen eating Cheerio's. Finally, I wondered what we might find up North. We hadn't been up into the land-locked states since the Civil War when the idea of slavery just didn't appeal to us. Hmmm... I wonder.

Oddly enough, it was Alexander who replied, "Why not? We could use a change in scenery." Although I have a feeling that he was talking less about the local mall and more about the locals themselves. So, that night, the three of us packed our suitcases and prepared to spend our summer exploring new places and, more importantly, new people. Fabian went ahead and found us a penthouse to borrow from an old aquientence, and he left our bags there so that we wouldn't have to check anything in on the plane. If we forgot anything, we would just send Fabian back to pick it up. I asked him why, if he can teleport straight there, didn't he just stay in the city instead of coming back to take a three-hour plane ride with us. Fabian just gave me one of his signature smiles and said, "If I stay in some city penthouse all by myself, I'd be bored out of my mind! But, if I come with you guys, I get to watch the planes take off! Have you ever just watched those things? Awesome." There it is again, that line of reasoning that I almost but don't quite understand given by the enigma himself.

So, now, here we are. Alexander and I are roaming the streets of some New England city looking for something -- or someone -- to do. So far, we've found nothing. Alex is still acting depressed. Normally, we can't get him to shut up. Normally, he comes on to any remotely cute two-legged creature he sees. Normally, he's combating my pessimism with his optimism. But today, he just can't seem to drag up enough energy to smile, let alone talk, flirt, or be annoying. I have to snap him out of this, and I know just the way to do it.

I notice that we're about to pass an empty alley. Turning around, I see that the streets aren't too crowded, and by luck no one else is walking anywhere close to us. Perfect. I half turn, cock my arm, and knock Alexander into the alley with enough force that, if he had been mortal, I would have broken a few bones, but because he was convientently not a mortal, all I managed to do was get his attention. Now, Alex isn't defenseless by anyone's standards. He's 5'8 and built like a rock. But when he's not expecting a fight, like say walking down the middle of a street in broad daylight with his older, stronger brother in tow, he can be quite the pushover.

Alex picks himself up with a scowl on his face, rubbing his shoulder where he hit the pavement. I give him one of my "come at me" grins, and now he's really pissed.

"What the hell?!"

"Welcome back, Sunshine."

"Why you --" He launches himself at me blindly, and I just side-step and trip him. Alex goes skidding out of the alleyway at full throttle. He may have been able to catch himself and bounce back fists up and out, except that neither one of us had noticed the small person walking by the alley entrance just as Alex came shooting out of it. The two collided with a bang and an "eep" from the person as Alex ended up laying on top them in the middle of the sidewalk with dozens of bystanders switching to the other side of the street just to avoid the commotion.

Now, most people would be worried that their little brother just made a human sandwich out of some kid and the sidewalk, I started laughing. Not to say that I wasn't worried about the poor kid who was probably scared out of their mind right now, I was, I really was, but it's just that it's Alex! He's always quick to temper, and he doesn't even notice his surroundings. Which just makes messing with him all the more fun.

I'm still snickering when Alex finally manages to pull himself off whoever it is he squashed. "I'M SO SORRY! I didn't even see you there! Are you al--" He broke off, and I knew that something happened because his field of energy -- highly electrical just a second ago -- changed so suddenly to perfect calm. I look at his face, and he is completely stunned -- entranced really. What the hell..?

Then, I look over to the person sitting on the sidewalk next to my brother and my heart stops. He was perfect. He was so small and young; still a teenager. He had fair skin and hair so light that it was almost silver, but his eyes were such a dark chocolate brown that they just swallowed up all your attention. His lips were light pink, and they looked so soft that I had to give my fingers a direct order not to run across them. He had small, silver hoops in his ears, a silver locket around his neck, and was wearing a pale blue dress shirt, scarf, and blue jeans. He was so pretty that he could easily have been confused for a girl, and we might have thought he was a girl too, except that his energy field was 100 percent male. Looking at him, I couldn't breathe. He was so precious and innocent-looking, I wanted to scoop him into my arms, take him home with me and hide him from the rest of the world. Looking at Alexander, I knew he felt the same way.

That's when I notice how scared our little friend looks. His big brown eyes were wide with fear, and something else that I couldn't quite make out; his body language was tense and he was trembling; he was holding a violin case in his right hand, clinging to it so tightly his knuckles had turned white. I could feel my body tense just looking at him. What's wrong? Why is he so..? Oh, yeah. Alex just tackled him to the ground. He probably thinks we mean to hurt him. Well, I can't have him thinking that! I reach over to help him up off the street, and that's when he snaps. Just like that, our pretty little friend was up and running quickly away from us. Before I can even begin to process this newest surprise, or try to stop him, he had turned a corner and I lost sight of him.

I look down at Alexander, and he's crying again. That settles it. That little boy was our one-and-only; our missing link; the one person who could complete us or break us completely; our soul mate. And he just ran away from us...