The Soulmate System

ARC III - 26. A Theme of Acceptance, Pt. 1

"Ready to go?" called Bryce from within the flat.

"I said I would be ready in five goddamn minutes. It's been three!" Dylan spat from the bedroom. He slipped on his pants legs and fell against Bryce's corkboard, which had been filled to the brim with new drawings of buildings and fictional maps.

Bryce ran his fingers quickly through his hair; he hastily fixed it moments later. "Dylan, if you wanna go, we gotta be out the door now." He looked passed the blue paint and the ugly windows into the darkness of the bedroom. "Are you ready yet?"

Dylan emerged from the darkness in a plaid button-down that remained untucked and with the sleeves rolled up, with black jeans and brown leather shoes. Flattening the creases in the shirt, Dylan looked to Bryce and asked, "This is okay, right?"

Bryce pursed his lips and stared hard at his Soulmate. After a rapid exhale of air through his nostrils, he replied, "You look very handsome and cute."

His Soulmate sneered loudly towards him. "I swear, it's the rolled-up sleeves. That's what's appealing to you." Bryce's eyebrows bounced on his forehead with a sly smile in response. Dylan brushed past him for the kitchen to fill his plastic water bottle for the journey ahead. "I mean, at least you don't have a thing for, like, red underwear." Before Bryce could ask what he meant, Dylan replied, "Red is an unflattering colour on me."

"Noted."

Dylan slung his bag over his shoulder. "Come on, we have a train to catch."

Bryce lingered by the counter, running his fingers along the side. "Do we really have to go?"

"I get you don't like your parents, but is that really a justifiable approach to your entire family?" Dylan asked queried, capping his plastic water bottle and slipping his wallet into his coat. "I don't even do that to my family. Just my dad."

"You don't know them like I do," he replied.

"That may be true, but you said you haven't been to the last five family bank holidays, and this is part of my thirtieth birthday present, okay?"

"That's a shit birthday present," Bryce pointed out. "Let me get you something else."

"No," Dylan answered, stomping his foot on the wood floor. "I've wanted to meet your family for a while, and you viciously avoid talking about it." He gestured towards the door. "Let's go."

Bryce squirmed, feet shuffling against the floors. He let forth a whine.

"What was that?"

Bryce fidgeted. "I don't wanna go."

"You're a thirty-one year old man who verbally agreed to have this be part of my birthday present. Let's go." Dylan moved towards the stationary Soulmate, who still wiggled as Dylan pulled him towards the front door.

With a click and several thumps, the Soulmates left the apartment block on the corner of Richmond Mews and Steiner Street for the nearest transit station, with Bryce complaining all the way.

~ ~ ~

From the eastern City railway terminus, the train brought the two Soulmates two hours outside the City's limits, into lush green scenery that made Dylan slightly nauseous. "It's too green," he whispered.

"You really won't like my town, then," Bryce replied back.

It started at the station – a quaint country station built of red brick, accented with decorative wooden trim around the platform's awning, and surrounded by lush greenery. Dylan had physically stopped to see the station, eyes growing wide in a mix of disbelief and distress. Bryce pushed him from the carriage.