Chapter 2 - His Fated

“Is everything okay?” Aian questioned.

The two youths both swung around to sneer at him. He could smell the cheap cigarettes from where he stood and both were dressed in baggy, ripped clothing.

“Nah, grandma over here was going to give us some money to go play in the arcade. Right, grandma?”

The lady didn’t respond verbally but shook her head in denial.

Aian could see her hands trembling and while she looked to be fairly well off- most who shopped here were- it certainly didn’t excuse their behaviour.

Anger rose up within him at these two thugs threatening an elderly lady.

What kind of jerk did that?

He stepped forward, hands curling into fists.

“Leave her alone, she doesn’t owe you anything.”

The crowd moved out to give them more space as though people were worried that they could be drawn in to a fight.

It pissed Aian off further that not a single person even so much as looked their way, everyone keeping their eyes averted like if they couldn’t see what was happening, then it couldn’t be happening.

“Yeah? What are you going to do about it?”

“Not let you get away with anything, that’s for sure,” he retorted, refusing to back down.

Aian knew he wasn’t going to win, two against one in close quarters was not to his favour, but he would be damned if he was going to let this slide.

He only hoped that someone from the crowd would join in or that the incoming fight would draw enough attention to get the police involved.

He shifted his camera bag so that the strap sat on one shoulder and went across his chest with the bag itself at his back. Hopefully, that would keep it safe as he wasn’t willing to chance leaving it on the ground.

The two youths split up and moved to flank the photographer, clearly intending to make full use of their extra person.

Aian gritted his teeth and tried to keep his eyes on both. One moved first and swung a punch which he managed to dodge.

Aian stepped in close and nearly landed a punch but the other came at him suddenly and he barely managed to dodge that time. He danced back to watch them both approach warily.

After a few similar exchanges of not quite hits, he finally managed to land a punch on one of the teens and knocked him to the ground.

Unfortunately, as he turned to face the other one, Aian realized that he had taken too long and the second teen had gotten too close.

He didn’t have a chance to block before he was knocked backwards off his feet by a fist connecting with his jaw.

He didn’t land flat on his back like he thought he would but wished he did because instead, he felt a sharp pain lancing through his back from the impact of his camera bag interrupting his fall.

He looked up in time to see two suited men step forward and make very quick work of the two punks. The little old lady hurried over to Aian’s side.

“Are you all right?” she asked worriedly.

“I’ll be fine,” he tried to smile at her but as he shifted his weight, he heard the tell-tale click of broken glass.

“Oh shoot-!” he immediately pulled the bag off his shoulder and unzipped it to peer inside while muttering under his breath. “No no no…”

Aian pulled out his precious high performance camera and cried out at seeing the cracks in the lens and along the body of the camera itself.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” he could hear the panic in the old lady’s voice.

“No, no, it’s not your fault,” he couldn’t even muster a smile this time and with a sigh, he put the broken camera back in his bag. “I was taking it in to be serviced, looks like I don’t need to worry about that anymore,” he forced out a strained laugh.

He wasn’t even aware that someone had approached them until a large hand appeared in front of his face, palm up, to help him to his feet.

“Here,” a deep voice spoke softly and Aian felt himself shiver.

He reached out to take the hand at the same time he tilt his head up to look at the person nice enough to help him.

Emerald green met steel gray, and he froze.

A strange feeling erupted in his chest and suddenly, it felt hard to breathe.

He saw the gray eyes widen in shock and he caught a weird light out of the corner of his eye. He looked down to see the stranger’s wrist glowing with a pulsing light like a heartbeat.

He quickly glanced down to see his own wrist pulsing in rhythm with the other man.

And a red string coiling from their forearms in a beautiful swirl pooled at their wrists before stretching forward and connecting their wrists.

No way.

Twin Flame?

Now?

Him?

He stared up at this mystery man in front of him. The guy seemed like a well-to-do businessman, clearly older than himself with short, sandy blond hair sitting above a handsome face. Sharp bright gray eyes gleamed down at him and he wore a clearly expensive, well- tailored suit.

Aian didn’t have time to register anything else before the old lady brought him back to down to earth.

“Oh my! Well, I can’t say I liked being nearly mugged but if this is the outcome then it’s definitely not so bad. Congratulations to you both.”

It was not every day you saw someone find their twin flame in person.

Aian himself had only seen it firsthand once before, with his friends Brent and Sam in high school. The way their wrists lit up and a red string suddenly appearing coiling around your arms and connecting you to the other person had seemed like something magical at the time but it didn’t compare to the feeling of it happening to you.

It was a pale comparison.

The businessman seemed to have come back to his senses after his own shock and gently tugged on Aian’s hand.

He let himself be pulled to his feet and reluctantly let go of the warm hand to dust off his jeans.

“Thank you very much, young man, for standing up for me. It looks like they want to speak with me but I wish you both the best,” the lady moved back towards where the two teens were and Aian noticed that two police officers had shown up and handcuffed both the young men.

One was speaking with the two suited men who had stepped in after Aian had been knocked to the ground and the other approached the older lady in concern.

“Do you have any where to be after this?”

Aian jumped at the voice. It was deep and smooth and sent little shivers down his spine. He turned to peer at the man again.

So, this was his twin flame.

He briefly wondered if his reaction to his voice pointed towards him being a romantic partner. Realizing that he had been wordlessly staring, he gave himself a small shake and tried to smile.

“Ah, no,” he glanced down at the camera bag still on the ground and sighed in disappointment. “I’m free now. Umm, I’m Aian Creesha, by the way,” he stuck his hand out for a hand shake, feeling somewhat awkward.

The other man reached out and clasped his hand. It was large and felt warm against his own.

Comforting, somehow.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Aian.”

That voice was going to be the death of him.

“I’m Kalvin Fenellere.”

Oh shit.