Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban became the movie following dessert. Dylan, however, chose not to sit next to his now-revealed Soulmate, opting instead to sit on the floor in front of him to watch "The Boy Who Lived" struggle in finding the titular prisoner.
Bryce understood this move, but felt like Dylan was being unfair. At the same time, he felt ready to resign back into his life of pub-crawling and an endless parade of people who interested him for a short while. He was so tired of the ever-present longing he felt; he wanted it gone so Bryce could feel like he moved on with his life. But whether his Glow or Dylan caused it, Bryce wasn't entirely sure. 'Dylan's a part of your life now,' his mind told him. 'Do you want to go back to what was it was before?'
There was no direct answer. Bryce wasn't entirely sure.
Dylan was softly smiling, finding contentment in the present circumstances. This was, combined with the breakfast at Bryce's flat some time ago, the most fun he'd had in an exceedingly long time. He was around people he genuinely wanted to be around, he was out of his flat, he was probably going to sleep well, and his life felt on track.
'And concerning Bryce?' the question prodded.
The smile began to dissolve, eyes dipping to the floor and away from the silver screen. Either Dylan couldn't answer it or simply didn't; he had reveled in the idea that his future of secluded independence was still within reach, but a part of him began fumbling. 'I don't know yet,' he thought back, beginning to curl slowly into himself.
As Hermione punched Draco in the face, his phone suddenly shifted in his pocket. Withdrawing it, Dylan found a message from his Soulmate behind him, simply reading:
are you okay?
Dylan was tempted to glance back to ask why he sent something as ridiculous as that when he could've just leaned forward and asked. Bryce followed up with:
If im wrong, tell me. just getting
this weird vibe from you
or maybe i've just gotten good in
reading the back of your head?
Dylan sighed again, and shut his eyes as the trio hid behind pumpkins, watching as Dumbledore, Cornelius Fudge, and the executioner proceeded towards Hagrid's with the intent of killing Buckbeak.
He replied back after the execution.
we need to talk, yeah
okay
This time, Dylan looked back, eyebrows raised in surprise. Bryce shrugged and smiled weakly, his hand falling on top of Dylan's head and scratching him like a dog. This oddly reassured Dylan, who turned back to the television with a certain comfort that, surely, couldn't feel forced by the Soulmate Glow. And it wasn't; Dylan genuinely felt the relief Bryce gave him.
But Bryce's hand twitched against the top of Dylan's head, his fingers burying themselves in his hair like the hug hours ago. Another wave of longing washed through him; the look on his face contorting into that of slight pain or sadness. Jaw tensing, Bryce wanted to hug him again.
Such a simple action felt so complex.
The Whomping Willow with the tunnel to the Shrieking Shack. Scabbers revealed as Pettigrew. Lupin's werewolf transformation. The Time Turner. Déjà vu with a deferred path. Harry defending himself and Sirius from the Dementor's Kiss. Lupin's resignation, the Firebolt.
The movie ended.
The flatmates took their time receding back into their respective rooms, save for Theo, who went to wash the remaining dishes in the sink simply out of habit. This left Bryce and Dylan alone in the living room.
"Are you okay?" Bryce hoarsely asked, placing his hand around his throat and wishing he hadn't started speaking at all.
Dylan sighed slowly and began, like every word felt harsh towards the other, "I'm not going to lie and say that...I kind of like where I am in life, all right?" Bryce nodded. "But I just don't know how to feel about you."
"You make it sound like a bad thing."
He shrugged. "It feels like it is." Dylan's eyes momentarily darted down to the carpet before returning to him. "Bryce, you're smart and nice and, and I feel like you want more than what I'm willing to give you."
"What do you think I want?" he asked curiously.
"Unconditional love, for starters," Dylan snidely replied.
Bryce's eyes dropped for a moment. "Yeah. That...kinda flew out the window after our first date."
Dylan grimaced slightly. "I'm just wondering..."
"What?"
Dylan wasn't sure. But he still fumbled with his words. "I...I-I'm just...wondering...if, if this..." He gestured to the space between them, which almost emphasised the distance. "...will be enough for you." Dylan was tempted to add, "If I'm enough for you," but held his tongue.
Bryce paused, unintentionally studying the space between them. "Dylan, you make it sound like we're dating."
And then it clicked. At least for Bryce, it clicked.
Maybe it had been the discovery of that single word that summed up what Bryce wanted out of life; that one alternate word that he could use as a substitute to describe his Soulmate in the barest of terms – companionship, or companion.
Dylan began fiddling with his fingers, eyes down again to mask his own discomfort. "I...I know we're not, but it just feels like you're aski – "
Bryce spat his words. "Do you want to go out with me?"
Dylan looked up. "What? D-didn't you h – "
"And I want an answer. Like, ASAP." Bryce ran his fingers through his hair slowly. "Dylan, I won't lie either and say I...like you, okay?"
"Yeah, I know, you're not good at hiding your feelings. Is this the Soulmate Feeling talking?" he asked, unimpressed.
Bryce shook his head, feeling a lump forming in his throat, and admitted quietly, "I don't know." His breath became laboured. "Dylan, I get why you're scared of this, okay? This is risky. But...honestly..." An urge was rising. 'Don't say it. Don't fucking say it.' He bit his tongue to stop himself, but it slipped out, "...I'm kind of am expecting you to say 'yes'." Clenching his teeth together, he mused unhappily, 'God...shit.'
Dylan's eyebrows furrowed together. "Really?" he asked, skeptical.
"W – I mean, there's a difference between Soulmates and Potentials, and we're Soulmates," he pointed out. Bryce threw his hands up briefly before continuing, "I don't know if this will, like, work out or anything, but I want to see if this is possible, okay?"
Inside, Dylan was seething with rage. Steam hissed from his ears had it been a children's cartoon. Outside, Dylan cocked his head curiously and asked, "And if I say 'no'?"
Bryce shrugged. "I can be persistent." He could, but he didn't want to.
That sent a shiver through Dylan, who suddenly felt nervous after such a pleasant night; anger returned. "Y...y-you honestly think that, just because we're Soulmates, we're going to end up together?"
"Yes," Bryce replied bluntly. "Doesn't that count for something?"
Dylan clenched his teeth. "Soulmate is a title, and doesn't mean anything," he replied viciously. "Aren't you the one who suggested that 'Soulmate' could mean best friends, too?"
Bryce slid off the couch and sat in front of him. "I don't know what you want me to tell you, okay? A Soulmate is a Soulmate, and doesn't that generally mean that we end up together?"
"On what grounds?" Dylan asked. "My parents – "
"Your parents were together!" Bryce shouted, looking quickly over his shoulder to see if Theo had heard from the kitchen. The lights were off, and Theo had retired already. "Dylan, I'm really trying here."
"Don't try. It's unappealing."
Bryce sighed loudly. "I like you, okay? I-I do, I...I kinda like you. A-a lot." A thought, like a buzzer on a correct answer, suddenly went off in his head. "But..." And with that, Bryce's eyes dropped to his feet. "...being Soulmates doesn't mean you're...going to like me back." He stood up, knees cracking. "You can take my bed, okay?"
Dylan stood up as well, a grimace on his face. "Thank you." He took in the dejected look on his Soulmate's face and headed out of the living room.
Bryce didn't bother saying anything to soothe over Dylan's "ruffled feathers". He watched his Soulmate depart to his room for the night. "If you need me, I'll be on the pull-out, okay?" Dylan grunted a response before slamming the door.
Bryce flopped backwards onto the couch, which groaned under his weight. He sighed and buried his face in his hands, wishing that the heartbrokenness Bryce was feeling would go away.
Dylan returned to hating him.
They didn't speak for the remainder of the evening.
That morning brought about the details that Theo was asking for – the details he wanted, which turned out not as painful as the two New Soulmates thought. The two maintained a respectful distance, Bryce's words still hanging heavily in both Dylan's and Bryce's minds.
Bryce didn't trust himself to be close enough to Dylan. On an impulse, he could hug and kiss him while Dylan was explaining something, which he was sure his Soulmate would not approve of. He didn't trust himself to speak, either.
Dylan had lost some of that carefully mended trust for Bryce. If there was one thing that unnerved him deeply, it was the uncertainty that he would never reach his professional dream; even worse would be the eventual desertion by his Soulmate, which Dylan was already coming to terms with. What fueled this was one of the traits Dylan hated so viciously in Bryce – that cocky assurance that they were going to end up together.
"So, when did this..." Theo gestured to them. "...happen?"
Bryce gave Dylan a nod, allowing him to explain. "Our business trip...well, our first, and only, night in, Bryce, Travis, and Chris went out drinking, got shitfaced, and came back to the hotel forgetting what rooms they were in. And...Bryce came into mine, which was supposed to be only mine." He glared momentarily at the man in question before continuing. "We got into a fight, and..." Dylan pulled away his collar, his Glow shooting up his neck, hitting his chin, and shadowing the ceiling. "...Soulmate Glow."
"That's some romcom shit right there," Jack openly joked.
Dylan nodded, clicking his teeth together out of irritation. "Yes, you and my mother seem to think that."
"But you two, hated each other up until a month ago. What happened?" she asked.
"Positive psychological association bullshit," Dylan threw in cynically.
"It isn't that," Bryce insisted, but even he wasn't entirely sure if he was right. "Our supervisor, Stevenson, found out about us, and forced us to, work together after work ended to make up for Dylan's falling behind schedule. And we got to know each other from them." He looked at Dylan and smiled wearily. Dylan purposefully avoided meeting his gaze.
Katie's jaw clenched for a moment. "I gotta ask. What's it like being a 'False Alarm'er?"
Jack immediately jabbed her in the side. "What is wrong with you, woman?"
"I was going to ask that, too," whispered Theo. He side-eyed Dylan from across the room; his smile wavered for a moment. "You're so...nice."
Dylan pressed his hand to his temple, glaring at Bryce who traced the outline of the countertop's tiles. Rolling his eyes, he stuffed down his breakfast despite his stomach protesting. 'Just not worth it.'
Bryce cleared his throat. "Moving on," he stammered quietly.
"Why the hell do you even like each other?" asked Jack inquisitively. "Considering your dating – "
Bryce shushed his flatmate hard. "He already knows about my dating life before him, he knows about Becca, about all that, so we don't need a recap of it, okay?" He pulled back and shrugged before continuing. "So, apparently, I have this, like, compulsive need to be liked – "
"Surprise, surprise," Katie commented in a semi-sarcastic tone. Bryce pursed his lips and glared. "Okay, fine. Sorry. It's just...we're glad you recognised it."
Bryce still glared; Katie backed off. "Anyway," he announced loudly, his tone now softening, "at first, I j...I wanted him to like me. And then, we bonded over, just...being let down in love and stuff."
"It was family matters," Dylan quickly explained, not wanting to retell the story. He just wasn't comfortable enough yet. "Apparently, it was bonding material for us."
Katie looked at Bryce. "So you like him?"
"Oh, he definitely does," Theo told her from the rim of his mug.
Bryce's jaw tensed. "Thank you, Theo," he replied through gritted teeth.
"You, meanwhile..." Katie pointed to Dylan and glared.
Dylan remained unfazed. "What, are you going to say something about me being defective?" His brown eyes moved to Bryce. "Someone already beat you to it."
"I said I was sorry," Dylan's Soulmate insisted.
Jack was horrified. "What is wrong with you?" He stood up. "What is wrong with all of you?" Dropping his dishes in the sink, the man walked off, mumbling about his insane flatmates.
Katie cleared her throat. "I wasn't going to say anything." She swallowed. "I got it all out already."
Bryce put his face in his hands. "God, fuck..."
She pointed to Dylan. "Look here, you might be cute and funny but if you hurt our Bryce, I will shatter your kneecaps."
Dylan swallowed whatever was in his mouth. "I can see why you're the 'mother' of the flat."
Bryce leaned over. "Dylan, she isn't kidding."
"Bryce, we have work," Dylan replied calmly. He stood but stared down Katie for a few seconds more. Nodding his head at Theo, he whispered, a soft smile on his face, "Thanks for the breakfast." Theo smirked, Bryce slipped on his coat, and followed after Dylan out of the flat and into the stairwell down towards the street.
"Are we gonna talk about what happened?" asked Bryce when they stepped outside.
"No," Dylan answered, watching the pedestrians cross the busy street before them.
"Why?" he asked, following behind Dylan. "It isn't like me liking you should be a secret." Bryce flushed slightly. Dylan kept walking, his pace quickening. Bryce sighed and his hands wrapped around the back of Dylan's collar to stop him. "Dylan, please."
"Don't talk to me."
Bryce's grip on Dylan tightened. "No, tell me why you're mad."
"It isn't like I want it broadcasted," he replied.
Bryce squinted his eyes before looking for a moment at his building. "But they're my flatmates. You said it's okay to tell them. And saying I actually like my Soulmate shouldn't be some...kind of issue, like you're making it out to be." The final statement felt tinged with resentment to him, but Bryce didn't care.
"Isn't this what you wanted? A 'no-strings-attached' relationship?"
"Isn't that what you didn't want?" Bryce queried, but Dylan didn't answer. Bryce swallowed, a pained look on his face; he let the man go. "I...I don't..."
Dylan harrumphed, and turned, crossing the street. "Just don't fuck up our friendship because you like me."
Bryce's hands rolled into fists, and he pulled on Dylan's messenger bag, stopping him again. Forcing Dylan to turn, Bryce spoke quietly, "I don't...get that right. You do."
Dylan's brows pulled up, perplexed. "What?"
"I said before, if you just want us to be coworkers who talk to each other sometimes, I'm all for it." He stepped beside his Soulmate, leaning down to stare gravely into Dylan's eyes. "But if you wanna fuck up whatever friendship we have because I like you, do it now. Don't string me along with this fake sense of 'friendship' because you're trying to tolerate me. And if you really don't want this, don't fucking kiss me."
Dylan grimaced. "Do you actually like me, or is it just the Soulmate Glow talking?"
Bryce's heart sank at the question but his mind raged with anger. But whether or not his feelings were, in fact, genuine, he wanted to treat them as serious business. He was tempted to say that he had no control over who he liked, but Dylan would've ignored it and advised intense repression.
He spent the rest of the morning mulling over whether his feelings for Dylan were genuine, or a fabrication from the Soulmate Glow. It was something that would perpetually stump him until the lunch break occurred. Still unsure, he tentatively asked Chris at lunch, "How do you feel about Dylan?"
The only other person at the Break Room table, Amber, glanced up, surprised, and asked, "Why do you want to know? It isn't your business."
"Took the words right out of my mouth, Amber," Chris responded, without looking at either of them.
Bryce shrugged, trying to come off as nonchalant. "I don't know. You've been...pining after him for – "
"Wait, pining? He's been pining?" asked Amber, eyebrows raised up her forehead. She pointed to the man in question and continued, "What pining? Chris has been sitting on his hands for five months doing – "
Chris whacked his co-worker in the arm, a grimace on his face, before looking back to Bryce. "Why do you ask?" he asked, tilting his head in curiosity.
Bryce shrugged, hesitant of the answer he was about to get. Scratching his head, he asked genuinely, "I mean, how did you know you...liked, him?"
Chris' eyebrows rose suddenly. "Well, this is something I never thought I'd hear you ask," he responded, slightly amazed. "Though...I am curious as to why you want to know. It just doesn't seem..." His eyes darted up, watching the ceiling lights intently as he tried to find the proper word; he restarted his statement. "It just feels weird."
Bryce shrugged. "Someone kinda told me that I can, kind of come off as insensitive or something – " Recalling the word more specifically used by Dylan to describe his character, though he was also misremembering the comment. " – and I wanted to know if I had..." The words felt wrong in Bryce's mouth, but he shook his head and started over. "I...kind of met someone a while back and...I don't really know if what I feel is...genuine or not."
"Was this the terrible date you went on, like, two months ago?" asked Amber.
Bryce nodded slowly, switching his gaze to the woman. "I-I mean, they're not a Soulmate or anything – " An uncomfortable, painful twist in Bryce's chest came from saying those words. " – but they pointed out that...there's a difference between what you know you feel and what you think you feel." He looked back to Chris and asked, "What did it feel like, for you, when you knew you liked him?"
Chris dropped his eyes slowly, hand spreading across his chest like an emptiness was being covered up. "At first...it was just admiration for him. I sincerely thought I didn't like him that way, but...then I, began noticing little things, little mannerisms he did." Chris began gesturing, a soft smile spreading across his face. "Dylan tilts his head slightly when he eats, but he doesn't realise it, either. When he smiles, it's more on the right side of his face. He cracks his wrists by just circling his hands." His hand flattened slowly, like the pain of not having a Soulmate Glow with him suddenly so prevalent in his head. "Realising that I'm in love with him didn't make things any easier. And his supposedly meeting his Soulmate means I'm out of luck."
"Don't say that," insisted Amber. "Something could happen." But the response was met with sad eyes and Chris shaking his head.
There was a momentary pause before Bryce pulled his eyes away, his sympathies fully on Chris. He glanced at Amber and asked, "What about you, when you met Ross?"
Amber's neck recessed into her shoulders. "Eh," she admitted. "We were friends for a million years before we found out. After our Soulmate Glows went off, the first few months got hard, as most relationships do, but we worked through it." Amber looked down at her lunch and smiled softly. "He's not necessarily 'Soulmate material', though, but he works as a good balance for me, and I love him for it. He's my best friend in the world, and that's what we were before w..." Amber trailed off, glancing down and noting her purple Glow softly emanating through her chest.
Bryce frowned slightly, neither response making him feel any better. He felt sorry for Chris, since it was obvious that Dylan did not think of him that way, and didn't like Amber's response simply because she spoke so warmly of the relationship between her and Ross. What Bryce could talk about, for him and Dylan, was a terrible first date, mutual understanding through bad experiences, and a hugging and kissing pact, which had been voided.
"Why are you asking us about relationships?" asked Amber suddenly. "Don't you know what it's like to like someone?"
"Or are you really that flighty?" whispered Chris dismissively.
Bryce glared. "I was in love with Becca," he snapped, but wanted to withdraw his words.
"Who's Becca?" asked Chris.
And it hit him. Bryce remembered that moment when he knew he liked her – Becca was belting Beyoncé in a restaurant when management asked her to leave. She swore like a sailor, and Bryce was swept into her amazing energy. She was perplexing. She was a whirlwind. She was different. 'She was Becca.'
But Amber and Chris asked for more details on the mysterious "Becca"; Bryce ignored them. "So...you think I should trying being friends with them first?" he asked curiously.
Amber nodded slowly. "I mean, sometimes compatibility can be figured out like that," she answered, smiling. "Ross and I didn't agree on a lot, and we still don't agree on a lot, but being friends for so long meant that a lot of it can be disregarded because we both care about each other."
Chris shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you, Bryce."
In that moment, however, the conversation paused when Dylan walked in with his bagged lunch, sat down, and began eating. Bryce immediately noticed it; the way Dylan tilted his head when he ate, which was just enough to keep it upright but still enough to notice that he's tilting his head. Bryce merely watched, almost amusedly, before speaking indirectly to Chris, "Yeah, he does tilt his head."
Dylan looked up, head righting itself immediately. "What?"
"You...tilt your head when you eat," he replied, a wide, toothy grin spreading across his lips.
'You're kind of charming when you smile like that,' Dylan's mind casually thought. Instead, he squinted his eyes, frowned, and asked, "Are you mocking me?"
Bryce began to panic, as if the situation was far worse than it was. "No, no! If anything, blame Chris. He was the one who told me."
Chris stared daggers at him. Dylan rolled his eyes and replied, "But you're the one who's being...weird about it. Stop it, or I'm going to eat at my desk."
Bryce put up his hands. "All right, all right, I'm sorry." Dylan slowly began eating again, eyes suspiciously darting to Bryce before his head slowly began its tilt back absentmindedly.
Chris hit Bryce in the arm. "Thanks for selling me out," he whispered, eyes darting between him and Dylan.
"Sorry," Bryce whispered back, "I didn't mean to." Chris seemed satisfied with the response and returned to eating his lunch. Bryce receded back into munching, his thoughts returning to what Chris and Amber had told him. 'Well, I did suggest Soulmates could mean best friends,' Bryce contemplated. 'But then I asked him out.' He pursed his lips and mumbled, "Dammit."
"What?" Dylan asked, his mouth spewing specks of food.
"Nothing," Bryce replied, smiling but resenting his actions from the previous night. Sighing loudly, he returned to eating, allowing his thoughts to bounce around and collide.
'What the hell can I do to fix things?'