Just a few weeks after the wedding of Savannah and Leilei and a few months after that of Kez and Rush, things had become a little quieter around North. But naturally such peace was not to last; his mother had decided that her son had had enough time to get over his 'heartache' from being dumped by Savannah and had, once again, applied on his behalf, for potential partners from the Matchmakers. He sat gloomily on his plush sofa, looking through the profiles, though barely absorbing any of the information on them.
Xavier invited himself around. He sat down on North's sofa with an audible poof (it was also an extended one, as people tended to sink awhile on that couch). He waved his handheld up in front of him, indicating that he had received some news.
"I have the first batch of potential partners here," he told North. There was a slightly excited smile on his face, a contrast to North's unhappy look.
"You really want to do this?" North asked, feeling that the suffering of first dates was not worth it.
Xavier nodded. "After seeing the girls all lovey dovey, not to mention Rush and Kez, I want a partner that I can go all ga ga over too!" North shook his head. As if it were that easy!
A silence fell over the apartment as they both read the profiles at hand. And then suddenly they stared wide eyed at their devices, looks of similar surprise upon their faces, before they turned their attention to each other. "You...er..." North quickly deduced what Xavier had also discovered. The younger man blushed and they sat there for a moment with their own thoughts.
"You know, I'm not unwilling," his voice became unusually shy. A wide and gentle smile appeared on North's face in response.
****
Rush announced his marriage to Kez shortly after his husband graduated. There were many broken hearts, many had hoped that Rush was still on the market and many others had prayed that Kez would appear amongst their prospective partner profiles. The young man had become quite the catch, a qualified I.T. Technician, a model and the son of a newly discovered artist, whose painting "In Between" depicting an actor with his script standing in the studios with various technical staff, waiting for his next scenes to be recorded, sold for a hefty sum on an online auction. It probably helped that the actor in the painting had once again been voted amongst the top ten most wanted men in the world.
****
Honor Harlow had an arranged marriage to a handsome, fresh young actor, a couple of years her junior. Their high profile wedding had boosted his career to the point where he was on par with men like Rush Haven and Dante Night amongst others. Two years after the wedding, the young man applied for a divorce.
****
Xavier and North did get together and wed. Friends and family were not really that surprised.
****
Dante Night remained single.
****
Aidan woke surrounded by those familiar white walls and upon that memorable white floor. As expected, the person who he never recalled during his lifetimes was sitting behind where he lay, this time on his white throne. Little Yang floated off of his wrist as a line of beads before spiralling it's segments which then merged together forming it's usual bulbous self. It then hovered over to it's master to give him its report.
"I died first this time," Aidan mused, his elderly, grey form still fresh in his mind, though his thoughts of Kez could only focus on his sparkling pale eyes that seemed ageless despite the wrinkles framing them. He wondered if Kez was okay and if he mourned him as much as he had mourned Kez in the past. He attempted to bury his painful thoughts with the reminder that he would see him again; their bodies would be different, their personalities not the same, but Aidan would still love him and he believed Kez would definitely love him back.
"Indeed," the being agreed, sometime later, as if there hadn't been a pause in communication. "Do not worry, Yang will monitor the situation. I do not know how long you will need to wait, but time differs here." As he spoke these words, the little sphere floated over to the white screen and script began to flow over it.
"How so," Aidan asked curiously.
"Time passes at the pace I choose, of course," he replied, but he did not elaborate.
Another silence fell over them for a while, though how long, Aidan could not say. "How comes I only received one mission this time? In my past lives, I needed to complete several."
"Your Warren was only in danger once this life from that which you needed to protect him from," the being mentioned.
Aidan thought back, his memories were always very clear in this dimension. "From Honor then? She attacked him that time," Aidan said, aloud.
"No, not from her," the being said. "Think harder. She was not the only one present then."
"Well it can't have been Xavier or North," Aidan muttered to himself, "they were around us often. Damn it's horrible to even imagine that! That only leaves the receptionists and Dante Night?" Aidan rose the volume of his voice on this last sentence. The odd man looked amused and simply hummed an unhelpful affirmative. "Is some guy reincarnating with us? And that's who I am protecting Kez... I mean Warren from?"
"You could phrase it that way," the being agreed. "It's a particularly selfish little thing that wants your Warren for its own purposes." A flurry of emotions flooded over Aidan's face, causing the Master to chuckle. "Oh it doesn't want your Warren the same way you do, it has other... plans in mind."
"What sort of plans?" Aidan asked, slowly, trying to restrain his strong feelings.
"Hmmm, simply ones that you have been assigned to protect him from," clearly he didn't wish to say more. Aidan recalled that this man often evaded his questions with vague or simply no answers. So he altered his question.
"Why do you want me to protect Warren?" He asked. "I mean I'm more than happy to do so, I love him. I never want to see him hurt, but why did you choose to involve yourself."
The Master gave a half smile as if he appreciated Aidan's quick train of thought and so he answered him as he relaxed into his throne; "It suits my purposes as well. By protecting your Warren, you also are protecting the worlds I help watch over."
"So the thing that's chasing Warren is also causing problems in the worlds?" The being simply smiled and said no more, leaving Aidan to draw his own conclusion.
As the long silence stretched onward, Aidan managed to fall asleep. He woke up for the second time in the white space on a formation that had risen from the white floor to form a sort of day bed. Somehow the white mattress did seem softer, despite being made up of the same stuff as the white floor, and the white sheet over him felt clean and crisp. He rose from the day bed, which proceeded to sink back into the floor and wandered over to Yang, who had advised him that Kez was still much alive at the present time.
"How about you learn something new?" The being suggested, having not appeared to have moved from it's throne while Aidan slept. "Or you can accompany me to a game of chess. I've not played it before, but I am most curious about it." A small white table appeared with a board and small figures. Aidan wasn't one hundred percent sure, but chess boards and pieces weren't meant to be all white... were they?
"I can't play either," Aidan replied.
"What a pity," the man sighed. He waved a hand, still lined in the strange linear pattern common throughout the white room, and a new screen appeared set a little apart. This one had a small seat form in front of it. "Feel free to peruse my files. If you require physical practice for whatever you choose, I will attempt to arrange something."
"Physical practice...?" Aidan rolled the words inside his mind before saying aloud, "you mean for something like a martial art?"
"Yes or a game of soccer," the man said dismissively, as he stared at his nearly formed chess set.
Aidan thought about it for a while and went to check out some of the skills he could learn. He wasn't a physical sort of person and he hadn't needed to be so far, so he sort of pushed the idea of a martial art or fighting skills to one side. He then learnt the rules of chess for the sake of it, before learning about Othello.
While failing miserably to win a round of chess against the being (he couldn't figure out which white pieces were his and which were the Master's)some time later, Yang made an announcement; it was time to move to the next world.
Author's note; fun fact - Dante Night was the male protagonist this time and Savannah was the female protagonist. Funnily enough, it was originally going to be Leilei, but Savannah popped into my head and insisted she would be a better choice. I was too lazy to write them a plot line though as Rush's presence pretty much disrupted any potential plot line from the start.
Author's notes; another fun fact - this world was created in my head while I was driving to work. The next world I developed completely while cooking dinner!