Chapter Text
Aaron realizes early enough that he basically sees his world in hues of blue and grey.
He is three, maybe four, when he asks his mother the colour of the sky, endless and wide and pretty, fingers small and stubby and curious as he rains on her his rapid fire questions about his surroundings. Clouds, grass.
What colour is this? Red.
And this? Yellow.
What’s this? The sun.
What colour is it? I just told you, yellow.
Huh. And what colour is the sky? Blue.
The street? Grey.
The trees? Green.
He asks and asks and asks and when he gets home, he pulls out his books and tries to name the colours he learned.
The only thing he gets right is blue.
His mother takes a look at him, her eyes softening into something gentle, careful and she leaves to find his father while Aaron wonders why nothing matches with what his mother told him.
Only blue was right.
His father asks him about it, the colours and Aaron tries to name them again, determined to get everything right this time, so his father is proud of him. But once again, only blue is right and his chest constricts in frustration, tears burning in his eyes, he swallows them down with the true determination of a preschooler trying to be strong. Thankfully, his father doesn’t get mad, he just pulls him closer and whispers, “It’s okay, Aaron. This is no problem at all.”
There is a story behind the colours, Aaron learns that day, a great one, about a person just for him, someone he will meet one day and then he will see all the colours the world has in store for him. And he will have a friend, someone perfect for him, his mother whispers in the dead of night, someone who will understand him like no other.
He is a smart kid, everyone says, and a patient one. he can wait for this person.
He is still a child, though. He forgets, for a while, until they have to colour at the kindergarten and he lifts his hand.
“I can only see blue.”, he says and beside him, Noah chokes on his juice.
He learns all the shades of blue possible. When they go to the beach one summer, he falls in love with the sky and ocean, deep cerulean bleeding into the softest shades of teal, surrounded by steel and ash and stone. Storm and rain, his mother’s eyes, twinkling with mischief and good humour, her smile sunlight warm. His father, he has blue eyes, just like Noah, more grey, kind, even though he is strict, demanding good grades and utmost respect the boy is only too willing to give. Especially when his first tangle appears and his father reaches in between the two of them and explains what they are and why he is so set on rules and laws and power.
Magic is power and they have that in spades and Aaron's own magic flows with the currents, changes like the days and nights, from midnight to pale hues of sky, from the deepest ocean to the lightest blue of lakes on middays.
Some days his magic turns arctic, others it’s so deep he could drown in it and his first tries shine in a flash around him, tracing his soul’s borders with the utmost of kindness.
Sometimes, he wonders if his soulmate is just as kind.
He doesn’t think much of this person he hasn't met yet, too focused on his own life to care for someone too far away yet, someone who is barely a distant figure in the future.
He still wonders sometimes, though. Thinks of them, about them.
If they are this soft, careful, fluent in their mannerism, full of character and at the same time so very calming. If they flare like the storms on the beach, furious indigo at his fingertips, when mad.
He loves the sea, he adores the sky.
Sometimes he believes he could love his soulmate.
Sanjeet and Noah are his closest friends and their soulmates might be far easier to find. At least they can communicate with theirs. Sanjeet is constantly drawing on her arm, Noah is always humming to himself and their magic flares with their sheer will to learn beside him and sometimes his magic bleeds over and taints their power a royal blue, washing away into muted grey with time.
They destroy their first tangle in middle school and with it, his friendship with Noah.
Time passes slowly. He becomes friends with Riley and Eaton, they build a new team, better than before and Noah turns away from him with sadness in his eyes and a shake of his head.
Once upon a time they understood each other like no other and now all that’s left of that bond is their knowledge of each other's quirks and insults digging deeper than any blade ever could.
Aaron doesn’t want to meet his soulmate, if nothing stays forever, if nothing stays the same, if all that is waiting for him is the need to let go after all.
Nothing stays, so his soulmate won’t as well.
He dreams of the Crash Machine, he dreams of tomorrows, of his father's hand on his shoulder and a future set in stone. With or without his soulmate, he decides.
His parents are no soulmates, his father’s timer frozen as his mother rubs a fading name on her wrist.
They do love each other, that is never questioned. His mother hits his father with the newspaper when he startles her at breakfast, the man loves to pull her into dances some evenings, push and pull, catch and release. They are good without a fated bond, their lives their choice, but it’s on days like these when Aaron is left reeling with the absolute need to connect to someone.
Noah was his best friend. Sanjeet still is.
And yet, some nights he finds his mother in the living room, fingers clutched around her wrist and curled up on the sofa, crying for a future never meant to happen.
Arranged marriage, he learns when his parents feel that he is old enough to understand, an accident, his father fell in love with her regardless and when he asks about the times, his father sits him down and explains the difference between romantic and platonic, that Aaron is not forced to love someone, who might just be the friend he needed all his life.
They take their time explaining, answering his questions, listening to all he has to say and he doesn’t quite confide in them as he does in Sanjeet, but it’s a close second.
He adores his parents and all he wants is to make them proud, so he claws himself into place as top of the class and throws himself into his magical classes, dismantling tangles faster than they manage to hurt anyone.
Tangles hurt, he learns, and nothing more.
His father worries, his mother as well, but they let him fight, for otherwise there is nothing left to protect this town.
The older he gets, the more the colours seem to dull, except the skies above him, midnight and cerulean, fighting for his attention. Not yet sure which he likes more, Aaron recognizes the flare of periwinkle in a thunderstorm and he falls in love with that, only to lose his breath all over again once the skies clear the next day.
Age and time teach him of himself, his position in the world, the terms behind his wants and desires, the taste of the word “demisexual” a comfort he did not know he needed. He thinks of romantic and platonic and hopes for the first, but expects the second in the end.
The day he dreams of blue eyes, his world comes crashing back into place, a boy’s wide eyes, afraid and lost and so, so pretty, he is left speechless hours after he wakes up.
And yet, nothing changes, the world is still blue and grey and filled with responsibilities he should be too young to grasp and yet carries on his shoulders with the pride of a true knight.
There is a new boy in his class, everyone knows that, the very same boy who is right now living in his house and rumours bubble underneath the calm of their second week.
Aaron looks up, meets blue, midnight and periwinkle and indigo and cerulean and his world burst into a headache of so much more.
His parents forgot to add “enemy” to their list of possible soulmates.