Evan
Three months ago, professor Maverick Monroe had taken me into his storage room and finally acted on the sultry looks he'd been shooting me since the first day I walked into his class months ago. While that day had been a dream come true for me, nothing permanent had come of it. Maverick had barely even looked at me since then. He'd carefully pulled his pants up, given me a tight smile and a few rushed words, and quickly ushered me out of his classroom. My eyes had burned with shame and I'd sworn to myself it would never happen again.
My promise was irrelevant as Maverick was apparently also dead-set on never having that moment repeated, even though I could feel something for him burning inside me. Did he not feel the same? Perhaps I was just convenient in the moment.
My thoughts were yanked back to the present as the ground rushed up on me. Someone had stuck out their foot to trip me as I'd passed through the aisle between the desks. My chin hit the ground and my jaw snapped shut. I tasted blood.
"Jason, stop it. You're not a child." I fought to suppress the shudder the sound of his voice still sent through my body. Maverick's large hand closed around my upper arm and pulled me to my feet. He frowned as he looked at his hand that had yet to unclench. My hoodie sleeve caved in comically around my thin arm. Much thinner than it had been three months ago.
I yanked myself out of his hold, sent a foul look at both him and Jason, who had tripped me, before making my way to a seat at the back of the class. I heard snickers from behind me, no doubt from the guys who thought they were so tough picking on me. Maverick's sharp eyes burned into my back and the tingling on my neck assured me he was still watching me.
I didn't know why my body responded to him. I'd never been attracted to anyone before he walked into the class for the first time five months ago. I was in my last year of studying at Pine Academy and he was a new teacher this year. In all my twenty two years, I'd never felt that way about anyone but him. Could this truly be the soulbound bond?
As I fell into the seat at one of the desks, I could feel that sense of wrongness still present in my body. I'd felt it every day for a long time and I didn't know what to do about it. I had no family or friends to talk to, nor could I go to the clinic. With the rest of the students hating me for who I was, I could barely show my face outside classes. Walking around unattended on the grounds or heading to the nearby human town that the other students frequented was just asking for trouble.
Professor Maverick began teaching his class. He was a water wielder and taught both our theory and our practical classes. Today was blessedly theory. I'd been struggling through practicals for weeks now and water was an especially difficult element for me. It took a lot of concentration and energy. Your thoughts had to be clear and your mind still. I could rarely achieve the level of serendipity needed.
A wave of nausea crashed over me and I groaned softly, pressing the back of my hand to my mouth for a moment. As it ebbed in my body, I gave in and rested my forehead on the desk in front of me. I was so bloody tired of feeling like this. I could barely keep anything down, not even water. I was so tired, I could fall asleep right then, not caring that the others would find even more reason to tease me.
A few minutes passed in silence. Suddenly, a hand landed on my back. Through the familiar tingles it brought, I knew who it belonged to.
"Are you alright?" Maverick sounded concerned.
I wanted to reassure him to make him leave and stop drawing attention, but knew that even a nod of my head would cause me to lose what little breakfast I'd had. I breathed deeply, but reached out blindly with my left hand. I needed...something. He needed to fix whatever was wrong with me. Maverick surprised me by taking my hand and discreetly hiding our joined palms as he knelt next to the desk. As soon as I breathed in his scent, the nausea started dissipating.
"What's going on, Evan? You look like hell. You're skin and bones. Barely even that." I wanted to pull my hand away from him at his words, but didn't want the sickness to return. Instead, I finally lifted my head and stared into his eyes. What I saw surprised me. Real concern shone in his deep blue gaze and I could see a little bit of fear in his tight features. I bit back my scathing response and instead shook my head.
Maverick sighed but squeezed my hand one last time before letting go. "Go to the clinic after class. Let them help you."
I followed his retreating back with my eyes. He didn't understand. He thought it was so easy. It probably was if you were like him. People like me, from my background, had no chance in a place like this. The nausea returned and I placed my head back on the desk. The rest of the students were busy with something, but I couldn't care less about passing this subject. I had bigger things to worry about at the moment.
*****
Maverick
As I finished the lecture, my eyes found the beautiful boy in the back. He still looked pale as hell, his mouth a tight slash across his face. He grimaced as he threw his backpack strap over his shoulder. I jerked in an effort to keep myself from running to him. Only a few more months, I reminded myself. You only need to fight it a few more months. One slip up had been enough. It could have cost us everything. And I was much weaker for it.
As Evan walked out of the door, my eyes tracked his every movement. My heart lurched. He was so thin and frail. He used to be strong and healthy. I remembered every second of our time together and my touch on his plump skin had thrilled me. Now, his skin looked sallow and his legs ready to cave under what little weight he had.
His almost white hair disappeared around the corner and my chest grew tight. I didn't like it when I couldn't see him. I shot daggers at Jason's back as he passed by my desk in the front. His abuse of my Evan got worse every day and I longed to intervene, but one wrong move from me could seperate us.
The rest of my day passed in a mix of theory and practical classes. My final class was a practical one and the first years flopped around in the pool lazily. I rubbed my temples. They never took anything seriously at first. Every group of first years I'd ever trained in any academy messed around through most of the first year. They didn't understand the impact of magic yet. At eighteen, the implications of what was expected of them were still one big joke. Most came from households that used magic daily and thought they knew everything.
As elves, our duty was to protect the forests and keep human deforestation in line. We drew our power from the forests and keeping the plant and wildlife thriving was of the utmost importance. As compensation for us caring for the forest, our powers grew stronger the bigger and healthier the forests near us were. The academy was surrounded by many kilometres of plants and animals. Our students had to care for it to teach them responsibility. Most of them treated it as a joke. Only later did they realise the importance of the forest. Only later did they join the conservation efforts to keep humans from tearing down our natural resources.
I explained an exercise to the first years and watched as many of them struggled to move even a drop of water. A few were clearly strong water wielders and looked bored by the exercise. I was going to have to split the group soon. I just wanted to be sure of my choices for the two groups.
As soon as class was over, the students practically ran out the door. I rolled my eyes. Only a handful greeted me on their way out and even though they hadn't enjoyed the rudimentary class, they still thanked me. It was so easy to see from which clans most of the students were. I'd figured out the 'bad' clans from the 'good' clans in my first month at the academy. Every area had them and dealing with the ones who thought the world belonged to them was always such a bore. Every academy across the world catered to different local clans. It was rare to send your child to a foreign academy, but it did happen. We had students from thriteen different clans. Nine of them fell in line and were brought up with respect for our culture. The other four thought training was beneath them. They preferred sitting back and benefitting from the other clans' hard work to keep the forests thriving.
The cafeteria was full for a late lunch. My eyes immediately scanned the room to try and spot a certain student's head, but he wasn't there. I told myself that my disappointment was stupid. It wasn't as if I would've sat with him if he had been there. I had to keep my distance.
I hoped he was at the clinic. He needed to let someone figure out what was wrong with him. He'd been sick for almost two months now. He was exhausted and excused himself from my classes often. In the beginning, I'd thought it was to avoid me. I'd followed him one day to confront him, but the retching noises in the bathroom had stopped me. I'd stormed in to help him, but he'd yelled at me and I had never tried again.
I'd been an idiot to claim him, I knew that. I'd fought it for almost two months before I lost control. We weren't meant to be without our soulbounds. Elves were meant to claim the other half of themselves as soon as they identified them and love them forever. But he was my student. I was his professor. I'd never heard of a situation like ours. Probably for good reason. It sounded like something the council would work hard to cover up. I wasn't sure what the protocol for such a situation was, but I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to wait a few months until he graduated.
I'd never been so wrong in my life.
"You still look terrible." My oldest and best friend, Jackson, plopped into the chair next to mine as he spoke. "Why didn't you get lunch?"
Jackson had been bothering me the whole year. He was the one who encouraged me to take the job at Pine Academy and everything had been going fine until I saw Evan for the first time. Jackson knew something was wrong, but I had no intention of telling him exactly what it was. I was embarrassed to admit to using Evan the way I had and then discarding him without talking things through with him. Truth be told, I wasn't sure I could be alone in the same room as him and not touch him. I needed him like I needed air. Admiring from afar would have to do for now, though.
"I'm not hungry," I finally replied. I was much too worried about Evan to worry about looking after myself. He'd seemed truly sick this morning.
"Well, you have to eat something. We have the advance classes this afternoon and I'm not taking over all the heavy lifting."
I sighed, but stood up and fell in line at the lunch que. As I waited, a familiar feeling of comfort washed over me and I snapped my head up to look for Evan. He'd just entered the cafeteria. He looked around for a second. A few clan tables sneered at him when he looked their way and I ground my teeth to keep from knocking them on their asses. Evan suddenly swallowed thickly and pressed his hand to his stomach before spinning around and marching out the way he'd come.
I immediately abandoned my spot in the que and chased after him. He made it to the lake at the edge of the academy grounds before I caught up to him. I was waiting for a spot where there weren't any people. Somewhere we could talk.
"Evan." At his name, he froze. As his body went still, I noticed his legs were shaking. He suddenly reached out a hand to a nearby tree to steady himself. He took a step closer before sinking down to his knees. I ran the last few meters to him and fell down next to him. "Evan, what's wrong? Are you still feeling ill?" I immediately berated myself for the question. Of course he's feeling ill!
Evan didn't even deem my question worthy of a response. I couldn't blame him. He sat back on his haunches and stared out at the lake for a long moment. I sat next to him, too afraid to reach out my hand or speak for fear of breaking the moment.
"Something's not right," Evan said as he pressed his hand to his stomach just as he'd done in the cafeteria. "It's just...wrong. Hurts."
My heart burned for him. His innocent confusion triggered all my protective instincs. I forcefully brought my thoughts back to focus on the moment. Suddenly, realisation hit me like a truck. I flinched back from him.
"Evan, are you a bearer?"
His body went rigid. He clenced his hands at his sides and when he looked at me again, his eyes were filled with fury. "Fuck you," he spat. I recoiled. "What? I was good enough to fuck before, but now you can't even touch me? I thought you were different. I thought we were... Nevermind. I should have known. You're just like the rest of them."
He pushed to his feet with a great effort and took off running back to the main academy buildings. I took off after him, but had to stop chasing and calling his name when it began to draw attention. What a disaster.
Male to male pairings were not unheard of in our society, though they were uncommon. Even more uncommon were male bearers, able to carry children to term. These elves were usually in same sex pairings, but there was no way to tell a bearer from others unless test were done, usually at birth. They were so rare that if the information was not offered freely, you usually wouldn't ask. I was beginning to think that I should have ignored protocol and asked.