It's soulmate meet up time- or at least realization for one half.
I'm so bad at writing people I don't really watch, sorry to any Cleo enjoyers ;-;
Chapter Specific TW's: heavy abelism/abelist language
~~ ~ ~~
"Hey, what time does your last class end at?"
"Hmm?" Grian hummed, looking up from his lunch to the person sitting across from him.
Etho, as the group all called them- because what kind of white parents would give their kid the name Ethereal?-, had their arms crossed on the table as they leaned forward on them.
The tall, slender enby had long dyed white hair that was pushed mostly out of their face by a headband, the rest cascading around the sides of their face, resting on their shoulders. A few fluffs of hair fell over their dark brown eyes, contrasting against their pale skin. They wore a tight black shirt and a puffy winter coat over top of it, as well as black jeans and boots. They also wore a simple black mask over their mouth and nose, primarily to help them with their facial dysmorphia. It helped them think that people couldn't be staring at weird parts of their face if no one could see what those features looked like.
"When's your last class? Joel and I were going to go out for a hike later today before the cold really sets in this weekend and we were gonna see if we could round up the entire group." Etho spoke up to explain their plans.
"Oh, um.." Grian hummed as he thought about his schedule for the rest of the day, "I have class at 1, so I should be pretty free by 2? Uhh, make it 3 cause I'll probably change before we go out."
"That's perfect, actually. Our last class ends at 3." Etho chuckled softly, "I was thinking of hiking around the Pleasant Point trails across town. It's really pretty this time of year."
"That does sound really pretty." Grian hummed softly at the idea, "Sounds like a plan."
"Hell yeah. We'll see you out there." Grain could tell Etho was grinning by the tone of their voice, watching them as they stood up. They offered a fist towards Grian and he lightly rolled his eyes before bumping their fist with his own.
~~ ~ ~~
As 3 pm slowly rolled around, Grian found himself finishing getting ready in his room. He was wearing a simple, long sleeved shirt and jeans, a thin red jacket, and a black beanie on his head. He was currently sitting on the floor of his bedroom, tying his black boots. Tango was out of the dorm at the moment, having gone out for an event somewhere on campus. Grian didn't really care.
Grian's phone suddenly dinged from next to him and he grabbed it, glancing at the message.
Etho.
"We're heading to the park now. We can find somewhere to meet up when we get there."
"Sounds good." Grian sent back before adding a second text, "I'm just about to head out myself."
His phone dinged again a moment later as Grian was standing up.
"Bet."
Another ding.
"Party is just You, Me, Joel, & Cleo. That's all I could convince to come along. Everyone else is busy."
Grian nodded to himself as he headed to the door, grabbing his keys from the hook by the door. He closed and locked the door on his way out, hoping Tango had his own keys on him.
He left the dorm building a few moments later, jogging down the stairs and out to the parking lot. He made his way out to his little red car and unlocked it, climbing into the driver's seat. He buckled up before starting the car and backing out of his spot.
~~ {god I'm so bad at transitions} ~~
It was only a ten minute drive to the park and soon enough, Grian was climbing out of his car, glancing around the area to see if he could see any of his friends. It looked like a decent amount of other people had had the same idea as Etho and though the park wasn't packed, there was a good collection of people milling around the area.
His phone dinged from his pocket.
Etho, again.
"Cleo, Joel, and I are hanging out on benches by the start of the purple trails."
Grian sighed as he started to head towards a large board in the entrance to the park, gazing up at the map to figure out where he was supposed to head. Made no sense trying to walk around blindly in the park.
After grabbing a travel map for his convenience, Grian noted the purple trail on the map and started to head in that direction.
He looked around the area as he walked, trying to spot his friends somewhere. Eventually, he noticed them on a bench right at the start of the trail- just as Etho had said.
Etho and Joel were sitting right next to each other on a bench, Etho's arm resting around Joel's shoulder while their other hand held their phone, most likely scrolling through some social media. Joel was shorter than Etho by a fair bit, leaning his head against Etho's shoulder. He had short, brown hair that fell over his forehead, one stripe down the middle dyed bright green. He was wearing a simple white t-shirt, a brown jacket, blue jeans and tennis shoes.
Cleo sat beside them, though gave them some space, a sketchbook and pencil bag in her lap. She had naturally reddish-orange hair that flowed down past her shoulders. She was wearing Sally's dress from the Nightmare Before Christmas, gray colored leggings and black flats. She also had tattooed stitch lines running around her forearms and hands. Cherry blossoms bloomed on her upper right arm, just below the sleeve of her dress.
"You know, Halloween was last month." Grian spoke up as he approached the three, looking at Cleo specifically.
"It's still fall, it's still Halloween." Cleo retorted as she looked up at Grian.
Grian rolled his eyes, coming to stand right by the bench before speaking again, "Martyn didn't want to come along?"
"He has evening classes this semester." Cleo explained.
Grian nodded, glancing around the area a little. There was still a fair amount of red, orange, and yellow leaves on most trees and it was all around still very pretty. He almost wished he had grabbed his camera before heading out. It would've made for some nice photos.
"Well, with Grian here, we should get hiking before it gets dark." Etho spoke, pulling their arm out from around Joel's neck before standing up and stretching their arms out.
"We've got hours before the sun sets." Joel spoke as he stood up as well.
"And you know I want to hike for hours." Etho retorted, crossing their arms over their chest.
"I do know. And we'll hike for as long as you want tonight." Joel gave in, turning to start to walk down the boardwalk pathway. Cleo stood up and followed after the two, holding her art supplies to her chest. And Grian took up the rear, following after Cleo.
The path lead into the woods, weaving in between thicker patches of trees, but staying relatively flat throughout. It was a nice, smooth, wooden boardwalk, Grian idly thought to himself as they walked.
A couple minutes into the walk, they reached the first semi-clearing in the woods. It was a flat open platform on the edge of a small cliff, overlooking a small waterfall and the river that ran through it. Etho and Joel found a bench along the railing to rest on, Cleo opening up her sketchbook and finding a place along the railing to begin to draw the landscape, and Grian found his own spot along the railing, crossing his arms to lean on it, watching the waterfall.
Grian pulled his phone out to snap a few photos of the area, knowing they wouldn't be as good as they would have been on his camera, but his phone had decent quality.
He took a step back, humming as he tried to get a wider shot. Then another step back. Or at least he tried to. The back of his foot hit something else instead and Grian stumbled, losing his balance and falling backwards.
Grian grunted as he found himself on his back on the boardwalk, his phone skittering away from him. He lifted his head after a moment, blinking as he tried to find the offending object that had tripped him. And find it, he did.
In fact, Grian's right leg was still resting over the foot rests of the wheelchair. And therefore also laying on the feet resting in them.
"Oh my god, I am so sorry. I didn't see you backing up there. Are you okay?" A voice spoke and Grian looked up to gaze at who was sitting in said wheelchair.
The man in the chair looked worried, his hands resting on the arms of his chair as he tried to give himself better leverage to look down at Grian. Grian took a moment, taking in the man's appearance.
Soft looking, fluffy, brown hair, lightly tanned skin, shining green eyes, a light stubble of a beard covering his cheeks, jaw, and chin. And a jagged scar cutting across the top of his cheeks and over the bridge of his nose, as well as a scar slitting through his beard on the right side of his jaw. He wore a black hoodie, part of the logo on the front hidden behind a black strap wrapped around his middle, as well as black sweatpants and converse shoes. He also had a camera hanging from a strap around his neck, resting against his chest.
Grian blinked stupidly for a moment before realizing he ought to say *something*.
"I- I'm okay." Grian swallowed as he slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position, shifting his leg so it was off the other man's feet.
"I really didn't see you there." The man spoke, moving his hands to push on the wheels, rolling himself backwards a little to give Grian room.
"I wasn't looking around either." Grian spoke with a shrug of his shoulders, looking up at the other man before quickly turning his gaze away. He pushed himself up more, slowly standing up. Fuck, falling like that hurt.
"Well, since I've already got you falling for me," The man smirked, offering a hand towards Grian, "I'm Ryan, but a lot of my friends just call me Scar cause of, yknow.." He gestured to his face and Grian finally took in the details of his scars. The way the longest one cut across his cheek under his eye, jumping slightly before catching on his nose for a few centimeters before jumping again and recatching on his other cheek, just below his other eye. The curve of the one on his jaw, the way the stubble of his beard outlined it oh so clearly.
And the way Grian ever so clearly remembered the way buttercups and foxglove had bloomed across his own face in the same exact lines.
Grian paled at the realization. It could be just a coincidence, right? His soulmate didn't *have* to be this guy, right? They just happened to have scars where he happened to have flowers at one point in time, right?
"Are you sure you're okay? You're lookin' a little pale." Scar spoke up, snapping Grian out of his thoughts.
"I- I'm sure, I'm fine.." Grian managed to stammer, glancing behind himself to look for his friends. "I- I need to go catch up with my group."
Grian took a few steps backwards before turning away from Scar, grabbing his phone from the ground before quickly slipping past a few people as he made his way towards where Etho and Joel were sitting.
Etho was the first to notice Grian heading over and their eyes widened as they saw how he looked.
"Whoa, G, you good?" Etho spoke up, making Joel look up, both of them looking worried now.
"I- I think I might've just met my soulmate." Grian blurted out as he stood by their bench, glancing behind himself to try to spot where Scar was.
Well, at least that man seemed to have moved on from the event quickly and he was already back to snapping photos of the waterfall.
"Wait- WHAT?!? Really?" Etho practically shouted, looking at the crowd around them. "Where?"
"Shhhh!" Grian hissed, shoving his hand over Etho's mask in an attempt to shut them up.
"You're lucky I can't lick your hand because of my mask." Etho's muffled voice came from behind Grian's hand.
"So why are you over here?" Joel spoke up, "Why aren't you with them?"
Grian sighed, moving to lean against the railing again, his fingers picking at the wood as he mumbled something under his breath.
"What was that?" Joel asked.
"I don't want it to be him.." Grian admitted, hanging his head.
"What?" Etho questioned, his eyebrows furrowing. "You.. don't want.. your soulmate..?"
Grian bit his lip gently before shaking his head.
"Is it, like.. confirmed that it's them?" Joel asked.
"Well, uh, no.." Grian trailed.
He needed.. He needed to test this.. To confirm what he feared..
"Etho, give me your pocket knife." Grian blurted after a brief second of thought.
Etho blinked for a moment before reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out his silver pocket knife and holding it out to Grian.
Grian took it and opened the blade, staring at it and then at his free hand. He glanced across the platform to where Scar was still busy snapping photos before looking down at his own hands again. He gently pressed the knife to his palm, dragging it slowly until the knife caught and sliced open a cut, blood quickly pooling in his palm.
He looked back towards Scar. Just in time to see Scar flinch and drop his camera, letting it fall back down against his chest. He watched as Scar examined his own hand and then he saw the flash of a red poppy blooming in his palm.
"NOOOOOOO!" Grian screamed before he even realized it, falling to his knees on the boardwalk.
People were looking. People were definitely looking. But Grian didn't care. His soulmate was just confirmed to be a guy stuck in a wheelchair. Now, admittedly, a very pretty man in a wheelchair, but still. Grian didn't want to deal with that.
"What? Is everything okay? Did you cut yourself deep?" Etho was suddenly at his side, panic in their voice as they took his hand in their own, examining the cut.
"Oh my god.." Grian mumbled, dropping the pocket knife in order to clasp his good hand over his mouth.
"Here." Joel spoke, now next to Etho, wrapping bandages- that he just happened to have cause ~*plot*~- around Grian's hand.
"Was it not him?" Etho questioned after Grian's hand was all bandaged up, looking up at their friend.
"No, it's him.." Grian mumbled, "He's in a wheelchair.."
"Okay, so?" Etho questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"I can't deal with that!" Grian whined, covering his face with his hands.
"He's your soulmate, though. Why does that matter?" Joel questioned.
"Augh, I don't know!" Grian groaned out, "I just can't handle that."
Grian suddenly stood up, pushing past Joel and Etho and making his way back to the pathway they had come in on. He didn't want to have to deal with this anymore. He didn't want to ever be any closer to his soulmate than he was right now.
Unfortunately, due to him storming off, Grian didn't notice Etho on his phone, texting messages. Nor did he notice Cleo pulling her phone out of her pocket to check the messages she had been sent. He didn't see Cleo scanning the crowd, looking for Etho's vague description of Grian's soulmate- a man in a wheelchair with flower blooms in his right hand. Grian also didn't get to see Cleo walking up to Scar, striking up a conversation with him. And he definitely didn't see Cleo giving Scar a piece of paper with his number on it. Too bad, he probably could've stopped it if he had.