destined || zaniel ✓

07

saturday night, oh boy.

zach walked through the front door of jack's house and was immediately greeted with the blasting of loud music and the smell of alcohol and weed filling the air.

so that's how this night's gonna go.

"zach! over here!" daniel called from the entryway to the kitchen, where he stood with jack, jonah, and eben. the oldest of the four had his arm lazily resting around jonah's shoulder, a smile on his face. corbyn was nowhere in sight, but that was sort of expected from him. he was a little bit of a partier.

"hey guys!" zach greeted and smiled at his friends, nodding at eben before holding out his hand. "nice to formally meet the man who has my friend whipped."

jonah's cheeks flushed red while eben laughed, shaking zach's hand. "and nice to meet zach, who i've been told is quite the jokester."

"you've got that right." jack chuckled before a small crash was heard in the distance. and his head shot up quickly and he groaned. "oh god. my mom's going to kill me." he muttered and pushed past the guys, going to the direction of whatever had made that noise.

daniel let out a small laugh and watched him disappear, shaking his head as he heard zach joke around with eben and jonah. his eyes trailed over the younger boy and he couldn't help the smile that was tugging at his lips as he watched the brunette talk to them, his eyes lit up every time a laugh escaped him.

he shook himself out of it as he heard jonah dismiss the happy couple, the two of them heading off to the kitchen with smiles on their faces.

and that left zach and daniel.

the younger of the two stuck his hands in his pockets, looking around the party almost nervously. the silence was awkward between the two of them, and they both could feel it.

daniel hastily glanced out the back doorway of the house where it was open to the backyard. there was a lot less people out there and it was clearly a lot less chaotic.

"do you want to...?" he trailed off under the loud music, gesturing to the backyard with his head. zach followed his gaze and nodded, biting his bottom lip nervously.

daniel let a small smile come to his face and took zach's hand in his own, leading him out the back.

it was a lot quieter out there, only a few people hanging around the edges of the yard, most likely with beer or something. daniel let go of zach's hands as soon as they stepped outside, missing the rosier-than-normal hue that covered the younger's cheeks.

"what's wrong with us?" daniel asked as he sat down on one of the back steps. the brunette behind him furrowed his eyebrows and walked over, sitting on the steps next to him.

"what do you mean?"

"come on zach, look at us. we've known each other for months now and we can barely form two words around each other anymore. what happened?" daniel questioned and raised his hand, waving it and causing his sleeve to slip down.

and that's when zach's heart stopped. there, etched against the pale skin of daniel seavey's wrist, was a music note tattoo. his soulmate tattoo.

the one that matched zach's.

"zach? zach?!" daniel snapped his fingers in front of the brown eyed boy's face, furrowing his eyebrows when he seemed to snap out of a daze.

"i-uh-i have to go." zach mumbled quickly and shot up from the steps, heading to go right back inside.

daniel got up immediately and grabbed the younger boy's wrist, spinning him around so they were facing each other again. his heart started pounding in his ears when he met the brown eyes that had followed him for months. "zach, what's going on?"

zach simply bit his lip and looked down at his wrist, making daniel's eyes follow. his breathing halted in his chest when he spotted the tattoo etched on zach's wrist. it was exactly the same as his.

"y-you're my-?" daniel stopped himself and looked into the younger boy's eyes. it was as if they were talking without words, they both knew what was happening.

they found their soulmate.

"i-i didn't have a tattoo before you came." zach admitted quietly, playing with his fingers nervously until daniel's hands slipped over his own. he took a deep breath and continued. "i never thought about having a soulmate. it was always something that seemed out of reach because mine never showed up. but now here you are and i... i don't know what to do."

daniel felt a small smile fall on his face and he reached a hand up, gently cupping zach's cheek and making their eyes meet again. "we can take this as slow as you want. i don't really know what to do either. but we can figure it out, together." he whispered before gently pressing his lips to zach's temple.

in that one moment, zach felt as if he was alive for the first time. the simple contact of daniel's lips on his skin sent fireworks through his body, the kind you only read about in stories or saw in movies. but maybe this was what they were meant for.

"i'd like that." he whispered and slowly looked up, meeting the blue pools he could drown in and certainly wouldn't mind it. "i what to figure it out with you."

daniel's smile made his heart soar and he wrapped his arms around zach, pulling the two of them closer together. he put his arms around the taller boy's neck and let his head rest against his chest, letting out a small sigh of relief.

he was in his soulmate's arms, and nothing had ever felt more right.