Soulmate Cravings

Tine

     On the surface, Tine Teepakorn Aekaranwong was one of those all-around dream guy types. Despite that, he also always seemed to have an invisible barrier around him that no one could quite pinpoint what it was or why it was there. He was the reliable best friend, the doting boyfriend, whenever he was in a relationship, the obedient filial son, the loyal, protective brother, and the bar setter in school. He was open, friendly, intelligent, and attractive, making him popular with everybody. People gravitated towards him, but few ever really got close enough to him to really know him. He had several failed relationships because most of the time, people only wanted him for his popularity or his accolades, but not necessarily for him. Most never even scraped the surface of Tine. And the one that did bother to get deep enough found Tine's heart was too wrapped up in dreams to be able to truly love him back, no matter how hard Tine tried or how doting Tine could be.

     There were really only three people outside of Tine's family that really knew him. One of them had been a father figure and childhood mentor of Tine's after his father passed away. When Tine graduated from university, his mentor had randomly left on some soul-seeking mission, and Tine hadn't seen or heard from him since. Oddly enough, the other two people who knew the interior mysteries of Tine were his best friend/ex-boyfriend, Luke, and Luke's husband, Joss.

     Tine and Luke were neighbors and best friends growing up and, both of them being extremely attractive and always attached to the hip, caused the people around them to ship them as a couple. At first, Luke and Tine had resisted the shipping and dated other people, but Luke kept turning back to Tine and Tine's attempts to date never went far because they were always so vapid, no one caring enough to attempt to break through Tine's invisible barriers. Eventually, Tine gave into the ship and Luke's feelings and they started dating. Luke was Tine's most significant relationship and his first real-life love, along with his first in many other landmarks for relationships and growth.

     Luke having grown up with Tine already knew a lot of Tine's quirks and obsessions and even though Tine made all the effort in the world to be present in his relationship with Luke, Luke eventually realized that Tine was still caught in his dream fantasies and that Luke would never be where Tine's heart rested. It was about this time that Joss entered Luke's life and while Luke was struggling to come to terms with the fact that Tine would always care for him, but never actually love him, it was Joss who held his hand as a friend to help him through it. Luke never lied to Tine about his friendship with Joss. It was Tine who recognized when Luke's feelings for Joss shifted from friendship to something more. Instead of being angry, or even hurt, Tine understood Luke and encouraged him to be with Joss, ending their romantic relationship amicably so they could retain their original friendship.

     Even though their relationship did not work out, Luke remained Tine's best friend. He stayed vigilantly by his side, and Tine was forever grateful. For many, being best friends with not only your ex, but your ex's new husband would seem weird or out of place. But for them, it was natural. Tine was strong, really strong, but he was slightly disconnected from reality, which made both Luke and his husband, Joss, protective of Tine.

     After Luke, Tine had ventured out and tried a romantic tryst here and there, but had noticed the same vapid strain was still there from before he had dated Luke. Most of the time, his trysts were only interested in one thing, and while Tine really liked sex and wasn't always one to say no, he also wasn't the biggest fan of it always ending the same way either and had slowly pulled further and further away from the dating life altogether.

     There was also a hidden side to Tine, one that he kept to himself, that only Luke, Joss, and his childhood mentor knew about. Tine had spent his entire life haunted by dreams of himself living short life spans throughout several millennia. With only one exception, each life he dreamed of ended in brutal massacres and destruction. He'd had them since he could remember and as a child, he would scream the horrors of his nightmares out into his mother's arms as she rocked and swore to her terror filled child that they were only dreams.