Bracelets for the soul

    Cyrus's cheeks turned a faint hue of red and a goofy grin spread across his face, the scientist ghosting his fingers over his partner's thigh. "Well it made me pretty damn impatient that's for sure. It was rough at first," he pouted dramatically, trailing his finger around in a couple languid circles before pecking Alti's cheek lightly. Alti's punishment partner from what he'd seen in the past was almost as sensitive as the child celebrity. There's no way in hell he didn't use that to his advantage, he snickered softly. Pulling back to get a better look at his partner, he asked curiously, "What about you? How were your surely riveting adventures with Mrs. Hedgehog?"

    Alti smiled warmly at his partner's touch, happy that the public display of affection invoked some response, as he knew it always would. He blinked away the mild disappointment after his soulmate pulled away, but soon enough his sneer replenished after the man asked him to reveal the details of his relatively more eventful --but still just as damning-- date. "OHHHH, where do I even begin?" he breathed with a hint of suspense lingering in his voice as he repeatedly patted his thighs for a mock drumroll. He of course knew the answer to his own question; he was just stalling for effect. "Ooh, I know!"

    "OK, so after the kiss, I went back to Mar- I mean, Maicy and she was giving me the go to, you know, go, but you know how I am, right? I always make sure I and whoever I'm with looks good before I hit the public, so one good look at her and the only thing going through my mind is this: she needed to change. Like, you saw what she had on, right?" he asked, gesturing to his soulmate, "It was hideous! So we portalled over to her room so she could find something else to wear before I got the BEST payback ever, but the stuff she changed into was just as shitty, so with that I set us out on our first mission: re-vamping her ENTIRE wardrobe." He happily outstretched his arms to his sides as if he were broadcasting his plan to the whole world before he brought a hand up to the bridge of his nose while the other laid flat on his lap. "I mean, I didn't actually want to fucking help her, but I guessed if I was expected to spend the entire day with her boring ass, I might as well make the day fun for myself by forcing her to do whatever I wanted," he sighed, " ifyoucouldevencallit'forcing'oHMYGOD CYRUS, IT WAS TEEEERRIBLE." Alti gravely exclaimed, grabbing onto his soulmate's shoulder as he expounded his main source of frustration with his 'date'. "Throughout the entire date, I kept pushing her and pushing her and she gave me nothing. At the mall, I took shots at her, took shots at her friend, took shots at fucking Aberdeen, and to all of it, nothing. Nothing! Well, I guess she tried to stand up to me a few times in the dressing room, but I shut 'er down in a matter of seconds every single time. Easy. I'll spare you the details of the outfits I made her buy, just know they were faaaaaaaaaabulous, yet she hated all of them. But then she bought them all, anyway. Stupid, right? Guess she was lying." he said with a shrug. "But I'm getting ahead of myself. Where was I?"

    "Ah, yes! 'Kay, so I'm not sure when this happened --I guess maybe when I was picking out dresses for her to purchase?-- but the 'lil weakling freakin' called Aberdeen over like, 30-45 into our 'date'! Like, what? I was just starting to have fun and she invites her buzzkill of a soulmate to come on in and ruin everything. But I wouldn't let that happen; like Hell I'd let her win. So, of course when we leave the store, they come barreling in, screaming my name Twister-style and telling me to stop, but.... I guess they must've been tipsy or something because they didn't sound half as mad as they led on and also they smelled like they had a few drinks... I'unno, I just wanted them gone...." Alti trailed off, the irritation that came with the first half of that memory hitting him with full force. "Anyway, I turn over to that bitch and she's looking at me like she just got my ass and I'm like 'NO. IT'S NOT OVER YET.' so I walk over to Aberdeen, gave 'em a big ol' bear hug, and start talking all sweet to them to piss 'er off. And much to my surprise, they totally went along with it! She was sooooooooo mad! It was awesome! She was all 'Let go of Aberdeen, motherfucker' and I just kept going. I start feelin' them up, they don't want to let go, pink steam's fillin' the entire mall, their date was just standing by, more people start gathering around, someone calls over security--" He sharply inhaled, the more mischievous part of his time at the mall being far too riveting to relay slowly. "It was just really crazy, you should've been there! She threatened to call you once, but one promise to burn her shitty grandma clothes had her on her knees crying." he snickered. "LAAAAAAAME~~ Anyway, Aberdeen starts begging me to let 'em go, so I tell them I'll only do it if they call me 'daddy' in front of the entire crowd, and WOW did they! Dude, I was expecting them to get all mad and be like '.... You're my daddy, Alti...'" he seethed angrily through his teeth with bared fists, "but instead they were all like "Y-you're my daddy.... Alti.... You're my daddy..." he repeated in the same, pathetic drawl that the headless fighter spoke in earlier that day. "So, I let 'em go, but then out of nowhere I get the fucking Bacon Princess digging her nails into my shoulder trying to pick a fight, talkin' 'bout how she wanted to 'beat me into next week'. Well, I wasn't about to get in a fight the first day away from my soulmate, so I told Aberdeen to tell her to fuck off, and she did. And then we all portalled back to their room because I needed to fix the damages she made to my suit. And besides, I was so done with the mall at that point...."

    "So, after I clean up, Aberdeen and Ice Queen split and Maicy and I went to get cake somewhere, and just so she wouldn't get any more bright ideas, I took her phone and, surprise-surprise, she let me." Alti scoffed at the mere thought of her. He waved a dismissive hand as he recapped the following conversation they had. "Anyway, she starts talking about how everyone hates her and blah blah blah other lame stuff, so I start going off on how booooooooooooooooring she is and she gets mad, which of course only made me want to hit her with the truth hammer even more, but then she kept trying to brush it off..... So I kept going and then, get this: she starts fucking writing all the reasons she was gonna ignore all the things I said on napkins and passing them to me to read all 'cuz she didn't wanna 'go insane'. So what do I do? I read 'em out loud and keep pushing~" His smile grew wider as he played the footage of the girl's growing anger in his mind, the man pointing at his face once he continued talking. "And finally after all of that pushing, she finally grew a pair and punched me! Right here! And then of course she stormed off into the bathroom while I laid on the floor, trying my best to hide my deformities." Alti sighed. "As much as I wanted to enjoy the pain, the lady from the cafe said we had to leave, and so we did. Maicy, still not off her power high yet, dragged me by the ear to the movie theater and we spent the rest of the night bickering until our 'date' ended."

    "Aaaaaaand that's my little act of charity for the year! Crazy, right?"

Amil went dead silent, simply nodding his head and watching the flames consume the tacky wedding outfit he'd worn during the date. He gripped the railing tightly as guilt and despair began festering in his stomach, Amil turning away from the flames and staring back out across the starry horizon. The cosmos were surprisingly visible tonight, whether there was a blackout in town somewhere or this was just pure luck didn't cross the man's mind.

He exhaled deeply, coughing slightly as he inhaled the fumes given off by the burning rubber and fanning the smoke out of his face. He was surprised Nace had spoken up again, Amil's attention turning back to his partner as he stuck his hand in the fire. Amil instinctively reached out to pull his hand away but stopped when Nace recoiled in pain. He giggled softly, a somber smile spreading across his face.

"Well, I could believe it." He spoke calmly. "I mean, it held some sort of sentiment at some point..." His smile faded as he looked towards the floor.

---

There it is.

The anger Amil had been anticipating since he stepped into the apartment came bursting forth, his screams causing Amil to back away from him slightly before leaning against the railing again. Its not like Amil could blame Nace for being so furious. Anybody would be, reasonably so. He combed his hair out of his face as he watched the shoe fly off into the streets below, his frown deepening with his partner's final statement.

"No... No you don't..." Amil whispered. "No one should be forced to do anything like that.... To kill someone they love... I understand why you can't do it, Nace, really I do! And..." His grip tightened on the balcony's railing as he glanced back to Nace. "...I'm sorry you got stuck with me... Like I said, if I knew at any point that I was going to... that WE would be soulmates, I.... I wouldn't have..." 

Amil swallowed hard, cutting his statement off. Who was he kidding? He would have made the exact same choice. Nothing would have changed it. It was either become an emotionless husk or.... Amil let his hair fall back into his face as he spoke up again.

"I get why you're mad at me, and I deserve it... I wish I could take it all back! I wish things were different, but they aren't! There's nothing I can do about it anymore! I made this decision back when I thought someone else was my..." He stopped after realizing he'd been screaming at Nace, his head bowing again. "Everything was different back then... I was just some stupid, lovestruck kid... And when that didn't work out, I.... It was either THAT or..." He felt as though he would dent the metal from how hard he'd been gripping the bar, the man locking eyes with Nace.

"I'm sorry, Nace!" He whimpered. "I wish I could fix this more than anything else in the world, but I can't!!"

    Alti froze in place as suddenly, the lighthearted air in the room that he assumed would continue with laughter or light praise after what was thought an innocent and mischievous tale took a bitter turn for the worst. Instead, what followed immediately after was an angry, tearful, and almost broken verbal onslaught directed at him, his soulmate's unexpected reaction doing quite a number on his already frayed nerves. Especially the part about not trusting him, the man immediately recalling that being the exact same sentiment he was trying to avoid while in the heat of the moment. He held his shaking hands up and shook his head as a mock means of defense after the other finished speaking, the slight tremor in Cyrus' voice soon beginning to mirror itself in his own as he stammered a reply.

    "W-what? But we d-didn't fight! I-I only latched onto Aberdeen... to make sure it wouldn't happen...." he responded, his eyes dejectedly lowering off to the side as he trailed on, "I thought it'd stop this from happening, too......"

    "What??? We spend what felt like weeks in therapy because you feel like me getting myself involved in fights hurts you directly for some reason, and the one time I end something I started, you'd rather just have me fight instead? I don't get it!" he questioned directly after, his delivery turning out much louder and sadly more defeated than he initially intended. "I wanted them to leave, and I got it to happen without my fists! This had to be the most non-violent way I've ever dealt with a problem like this for like.. as long as I can remember! I thought I was getting better..." He pulled at the ends of his hair as he forced himself to fight back the sting he too felt in the corners of his eyes. He never expected things to get this bad between the two; Seeing as most of the main obstacles were already laid out in front of them after yesterday's session, he assumed the rest of their relationship would be spent trying to work through said problems, like he thought he was doing. But as it turned out, he was only adding to their list of complications, and he didn't even mean to. He let go of his hair and rested his forearms on his lap as he hunched forward, his blurred gaze now trained on the ground.

    "What am I even supposed to do now...." he mumbled bitterly, more to himself than his frustrated partner.

    Cyrus inhaled sharply and wiped his cheek, staring down at Alti and what seemed to be his genuine confusion. Furrowing his brow, he swallowed and heavily sat back down on the bed next to him, bleary eyes also focusing on the ground. Was that seriously a genuine attempt at being nonconfrontational? The silence hung heavy in the room for the few moments the scientist sat in quiet rumination, only broken by the occasional hiccup or sniffle. Yesterday had been the same problem, where Alti pure and simply did not understand what would appear to be common sense to the average person. But Alti certainly wasn't the average person by any means, and despite the good things that came with that, a whole host of problems accompanied it as well.

    It was only after Cyrus had managed to form a coherent thought that he finally opened his mouth again, gaze not moving up from the ground but a grimace forming on his face. "H-How the hell would you feel if for some reason I just went and started groping and sensually feeling up that bodyguard? Or Alraada? Or fuck, if we switched places at the mall and it was me all over Aberdeen, huh? W-Worst comes to worst, I-I'd rather you not fucking cheat on me to get out of a confrontation. Hell, I'd rather you not grab at other people at all," he swallowed hard, dropping his head a little bit. "I-I don't understand why the fuck it's so difficult for everyone here to avoid a fight..." he mumbled bitterly. Throughout his adult life of poking, prodding, and provocation, he could count the number of times this invoked a violently physical response on his fingers. No matter how hard he tried he just didn't understand it.