Pricingham One Shots!

Bated Breath

 A.N.
  This is a dumb soulmate au where everyone has a heart shaped tattoo on their neck which glows when they kiss their soulmate for the first time.
  Please request!!

  His entire body ached with a firey pain, his chest tight and constricted from holding his breath for far too long. Ever since he had heard and accepted those special three words from Arnold, he had been feeling like he was holding his breath, preparing for someone to discover them embracing under the cover of night. Waiting, ready to be crushed….Kevin lived as though he was in hiding when he was out in the open.

 And now that it was happening, he couldn’t even move. His mouth had gone dry, and his posture straightened in an inhuman fashion. Arnold was saying something, explaining, but the words couldn’t reach him, there was nothing but white noise as tears began to prick the corners of his eyes and fear took over, the mark on his neck throbbing sharply.

 Connor had been the one to address the rainbow elephant in the room, simply coming up to the duo and asking if the rumors about them acting romantic towards each other were true. Such a straightforward question had caught everyone off guard, and the other Elders who sat around them in the living quarters were watching with sparkling eyes and bated breath.

 An irritable itch spread furiously across Kevin’s skin, he wanted so desperately to claw it off and become an unidentifiable monster, to escape the hell that his life had spiraled into within the past ten seconds. His stomach plummeted when Connor’s icy blue eyes flicked from Arnold over to him, a pale eyebrow raised in disbelief.

 Not wanting to cry, but finding himself doing it anyways, Kevin covered his face with his trembling hands. He heard Arnold’s muffled voice through the static, and felt his sweaty, persistent touch on his forearms. Something in his brain snapped, and he knew that the only way to escape was to lie, commit another sin. Was there no end to this torture?

 He ripped away from Arnold’s grasp as though it was something wretched, his often knowledgeable eyes flashing with a violent fear, quite akin to a caged animal. His vision was so blurred with tears that he found it terribly difficult to see who was who; he was surrounded by still forms of white, shifting only when his knees wobbled and he collapsed, being caught by Arnold’s all-too-ready arms.

 Biting the insides of his cheek, Kevin found the embrace far too comforting, his face flushing red with pleasant memories of the past.

-

 “What do you think these things really are?” Arnold asked in his boisterous voice as he pushed his bed beside Kevin’s, struggling to keep it quiet so that the other Elders wouldn’t hear them in their rooms. Plopping down onto his bed, he rubbed the side of his neck, tracing the outline of barely raised skin that lay there. It was something that everyone had: a heart-shaped mark on their neck.

 Kevin turned to face him, his legs crossed in a put-together manner. Speaking in a studious tone, he couldn’t help but run his fingers across his own mark. “Well, I believe that they’re a symbol from God.”

 “Well, no duh!” Arnold giggled as he scooched closer, uncrossing Kevin’s legs so that he could sit in between them. “Everything is a symbol from God! At least that’s what it seems like. But, what do they mean? What do they do? Why’d he give us them?” A small grin spread across Kevin’s lips, and he adjusted his legs so that they were in a slightly more comfortable position. As much as he loved being like this with Arnold, his heart was beating painfully with fear. Attempting to push it aside, he folded his hands in his lap and spoke.