Soulmates ✓

four

Sarawat took in the beauty of his mate. Despite being slightly taller than Sarawat, Tine somehow appeared smaller than him, making it harder to not want to dote on him. The younger boy also carried a subtle and tranquil beauty with his soft hair, gentle eyes, and pink wondrous lips; all of which Sarawat wanted to forever capture in his mind.

And his Beauty made Sarawat all the more confused as to how or why Tine didn't have anyone approaching him — be it to be his friend, or lover. From what he had observed, Tine was friendly to anyone and anything. It shouldn't be hard for him to make connections, especially with other humans — who loved to group up immediately and push away non-humans.

Yet the boy was always alone. Even after two months of knowing him, he only ever saw Tine speaking to Air, or Dim, and sometimes Man and Boss. But they were simply people who Sarawat introduced to Tine first, and it was only ever in his presence Tine spoke to them.

"Hey, Tine," Sarawat called out softly to his mate, who laid peacefully by his side, their legs entwined while Sarawat had his arm wrapped around the younger boy.

"Hmm?"came the soft mumble.

"How come you don't talk to anyone?" He asked, running his fingers through Tine's soft hair.

"What do you mean?" Tine breathed out gently. "I talk to you, Boss, Man—"

"—no, love. I meant outside of our mutual friends. I never see you talk to any other humans. And you never tell me about your childhood either."

Tine went silent, and Sarawat wonders if he's made him upset. He opened his mouth to apologize, but stopped when Tine began to speak once more.

"I don't know. It's always been that way," Tine said honestly. "Maybe it's my lack of presence but no one has ever tried approaching me first. And I'm not the best at starting conversations since I've been sheltered since I was a kid."

"By sheltered you mean..." Sarawat trailed off, planting a soft kiss on Tine's forehead to try and encourage him to keep talking.

"My parents don't really like non-humans, 'Wat. Being born and raised in a small town with only biased humans made them believe that magic was simply the essences of evil, and the beings that came from it were nothing more than pure monsters. But I always found it fascinating; magic and all.

"When I began to show my interest, they immediately put me in homeschooling and limited my contact with the outside world.

"But it's taboo to lie about history, let alone hide it, so they had no choice but to keep teaching me about magic and non-humans. I'm sure most of the townspeople knew about it because whenever I went out, parents and grandparents would always make sure their younger ones wouldn't approach me.

"So I've only ever had my parents in my life. Our relatives hardly ever interacted with us even though we lived in the same town. And my only living grandparent, my grandfather, found me to be an insult to the bloodline.

"Whenever there was a family gathering I had no choice but to remain home alone, or in my room — since none of them wanted me to have any form of influence on the younger ones."

~

Tine started to recall his isolated childhood. His parents were kind people whose beliefs were in the wrong, while they believed it to be right. They never truly forced their beliefs onto him. Instead, they would only gently ask him to listen to them. And if by chance they pushed him too far, to the point where he'd be on the verge of crying because of frustration, they would immediately apologize.

And they were always gifting him with anything they could; from buying him a laptop for his tenth birthday, to redecorating his entire room with new items for his sixteenth.

Tine knew his parents started to grow guilty with each passing year he spent alone, and he too felt bad they ended up with a son like him. But he simply didn't want to fall into the cycle of hate. He didn't see any good come out of it. And luckily his parents weren't as obsessed with making him change as most parents of human children ( who thought well of non-humans) were.

[ trigger warning:
mentions of suicide ahead]

He had read about humans accepting non-humans in several different news. One of the most heartbreaking one was about a boy whose own parent couldn't handle the fact that their son befriended a witch, and tried to have the whole family commit suicide when the boy refused to stop being friend with the witch.

In the end the boy lived, thanks to his friend saving him. But the incident left him an orphan (his siblings and parents all gone) with no one to turn to as he wasn't "normal" to other humans. And non-humans simply didn't want the burden of raising a child different from their own.

To this day, no one knows the true identity of the boy since he had been too young when it occurred to have his name mentioned. His location also remains a mystery. Many speculate he may have already passed, while others believe he may be hiding himself amongst the other humans still.

Sarawat tightened his hold on his mate, as though trying to fill away the loneliness of his childhood.

It was an unjust world they lived in. The humans against non-human tension often brought up such unnecessary conflicts. And he was ashamed how he had often judged humans, the same way they judged him.

He wonders what his life would be like if Tine had not been his mate. He truly couldn't imagine such a life, because the younger one made him into someone he didn't think existed.

[a.n : the first person who guesses the identity of the human boy, I'll gladly update another chapter or two and dedicate to them.

Edit. It's been guessed correctly.]