"He walked into my heart like he always belonged there, took down my walls and lit my soul on fire". 

~T.M.

Hunter

"So, pick whichever one you prefer," Alex told Aurora, extending his arm towards the aisle with all the hair dye. I watched as her eyes went wide and she started examining every color before her.

"You realize it will take her an hour to pick out what she likes, right?" I said, pushing my hands in my back pockets and giving him a hopeless look.

"Oh, so it will take her half the time it takes you to pick the right oil paints," he teased me with a laugh. I faked being angry, but seeing him smiling so gloriously, I couldn't help myself. I laughed back and pulled him closer for a quick kiss.

"Can you blame me, though? Each color is so unique," I replied. Alex just shook his head and he rolled his eyes. We weren't about to have the same argument again.

"This! This is what I want!" we heard Auro exclaim and went to see the color she was looking at. It was a beautiful mix of purple and pink, the color that grazed the clouds right after the sunset. "But," she added and waved Alex to lower down to her, "I also want your green".

"My green?" he asked with a frown. She nodded and played with one of his dark green locks. He had redone it last night, resulting in a very dark green now.

"I want one pink and one green side," she said with a confidence she was too young to have. Alex turned his neck so he could see me.

"Dad agreed on a strand of whichever color you wanted. Not all the hair," I told her.

"Fine, one pink strand and one green strand," she shot back. I kept staring at her and finally, I shrugged.

"He won't mind another strand," I said and watched as Alex rose and put the color into the basket he was holding. Then, we walked to the other end of the aisle from where he picked the green color.

Soon enough we were home trying to decide where to put the color. Alex ad picked two strands that were on the inside of her hair, one next to her right temple and one next to her left. On the right side, she wanted the purplish color, while one the left side she wanted the green one. Both Auro and I stood by and watched as Alex mixed the colors, cut some aluminum foil and put on gloves.

"Babe, do me a favor and hold this here," he told me, almost making me jump. This was the first time he had called me babe.

After unfreezing I held a piece of the aluminum underneath half of the strand we had picked on the right side. I watched as he placed the color on the hair with a plastic brush, and then folded the foil.

Neither I nor Aurora, said anything for the next minutes, as we waited for Alex to do his thing. And I had to say, it was a sight to see. He was completely focused, even running the tip of his tongue over his lips, as he colored. Around twenty minutes later he huffed.

"It will take twenty minutes until it's done," he said and went to the bathroom to clean up the brush and cups he had used. A few moments later he returned.

"So, you do your own hair now?" I asked him reaching over the kitchen counter and grabbing a handful of skittles from the bowl we had filled up.

"Yeah, I buy the color, and redo them when my parents aren't at home," he replied.

"When they aren't home?" Aurora repeated. Shit.

"Um... yeah, they don't really want me to color my hair," Alex told her and I mentally groaned at him.

"And you don't listen to your parents?!" Aurora exclaimed.

"Way to go, Cliff," I called out to him, and he glanced at me.

"Sorry," he finally said and turned to Aurora. "My parents and I... my parents are... mean people. So I don't always follow what they say," he explained to her, with me watching close by.

"They are mean? Dad's not mean... can't he also be your dad?" Auro replied, looking at both of us skeptical. "This way you will also live here with Hunter," she added with a smile, proud of herself for coming to this conclusion. Alex and I shared a look and then I turned to her. But before I spoke she cut me off. "He can be our brother!" she yelled, ready to bite my head off.

"I'd love to be your brother, but that's not the way to go at it..." Alex started off, both of us clearly uncomfortable.

"Yes, if you two get married then you will also be my brother," Aurora said, jumping up on her chair. I felt my eyes go wide.

"We just started dating!" I exclaimed, trying to calm her.

"That's not true, you started dating in October. Now it's November," she replied, leaving me speechless and flabbergasted. "And you're also soulmates".

"One month is not... Aurora, it's too early to talk about marriage, right Hunter?" Alex said and he folded his arms underneath his chest.

"Yes, right. Way too early," I agreed with him.

"I want a big wedding..." she went on saying, turning the subject to herself. "Alex, did Hunter tell you Dad never got married?"

"Eh, no he didn't... Hunt?" Alex replied, looking at me with a frown.

"Yeah, our parents didn't believe in marriage. They didn't see why signing their names on a piece of paper was so important," I told him, reaching over to the bowl again.

"Damn, if my parents find that out they will use it so much," he said rolling his eyes, somewhat amused.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"They'll say that explains it. Your parents not getting married is the reason you're..." His voice faded as soon as he realized what he was saying and I was left looking at him angrily. Aurora stayed silent since she hadn't understood what had happened.

"For someone who disagrees so much with his parents, you sure know everything they would say," I replied.

"Hunt..." he started his voice cracking.

"Whatever," I cut him off with a wave of my hand.

Yes, I understood that living for seventeen years with them rubbed off on him. And that sometimes his mouth worked without his brain catching up. And I realized how hanging out with someone like Matt would have affected him. Still, saying that with Aurora sitting right next to us. Even implying that I was gay due to something turning me...

"Yo Auro, after we're done with your hair, how about we go to the park?" I told her and watched her eyes glimmer with excitement.

"Will Alex come too?" she asked, turning to my soulmate. I looked at him expectantly too. He seemed unsure, but finally, he huffed.

"Fine, I'll come too," he said, throwing his hands up. I looked at with a raised eyebrow.

"So for her, you will come?" I asked, shaking my head. He looked at me through half-lidded eyes but stayed silent.

It didn't take long before her hair was done and we were left drying it. I had to admit it looked super rad. And she loved it, judging from all the jumping and the squeaking she did when she saw it. Within the next hour and a half, we were at the park. Aurora was playing with some of her classmates, while Alex and I were sitting by a bench looking over her.

I wish I could say everything was alright, but he didn't really help the situation. He was looking over his shoulder ever goddamn thirty seconds and he had let plenty of space between us. Small victories. Technically this was our first public outing near our homes. That is something, right?

"I really didn't mean to say that in front of her..." he said and I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, but you said it. Alex, you need to understand something, Aurora, she doesn't know why things like homophobia exist. My father and I try to keep her as far away from it as possible. She knows some people don't like the fact that I am attracted to guys. But other than that... she's just seven. I'd rather she doesn't know some people are being killed right now for being like me. Like us," I told him and ended the matter there.

"Alex?" a voice called and we both froze.

"Fuck me," Alex said, probably by accident, through our soulmate bond. "Libby..." he replied through gritted teeth.

"What are you doing here?" she exclaimed and hugged him.

"I, um..." I saw Alex struggle with words and I exhaled.

"He's giving my sister ukulele lessons and we met up here because my sister wanted to come to the park," I answered for him. The girl, Libby, looked at me and gave me a fake smile.

"You're Hunter, right?" she asked. I just nodded, not caring that I was rude. Yeah, I knew her. She was Bethany's best friend. "Do you mind giving us a moment?" she went on.

"Actually, I do mind," I answered to her. And just like that, her smile was gone. I should become a magician, making things disappear just like that...

"Anyway, Alex," she said dragging his name in a way that made my stomach curl. "Do you have any plans later? Because I can think of a couple of things you and I could do..."

"Oh fuck no," I yelled mentally and didn't realize I actually said it to Alex.

"Babe, chill," he replied and sighed out loud. "I'm sorry, Libby, I already have plans..."

"Oh no!" she said and run her hands through his hair. "With who?" For a couple of moments, Alex thought it through.

"I'm sorry," he told me mentally and then he spoke to Libby. "You don't know her". My expression fell, but I should have known better. He wasn't ready to come out. I shouldn't have expected him to come out to her, of all people.

"Oh... well, okay. We'll catch up another time then," she told him and, giving him a kiss on the cheek, she left.

"I couldn't tell her..." he said and his head fell.

"Hey, you don't have to explain yourself. It did sting a bit, but I told you I can wait till you're ready," I answered, waving my hand. "We should get going, though. Not really in the mood to run into Matt," I added with an unamused laugh.

He agreed with me, and both of us told Aurora and headed back to my place. My father wasn't writing his story tonight, meaning I could show Alex around the only room he hadn't seen so far. My father's office and also my atelier.

It was the last room to the right, next to the living room. When I was younger, it was my father's writing place and my mother's atelier. A year ago we had renovated it into my atelier and we had also added a ballet bar on one side of the wall for Aurora.

In fact, it was divided into three spaces. Aurora's place took up the smallest part so far, considering she mostly practiced in her own room. The rest of the room had a desk and two bookshelves on my father's side –a couple of shelves filled with my comics and manga-. While on my side I had all my oil paints and a easel. Also on my side, I was a few of my own paintings, the rest being stored alongside my mother's in a storage unit.

Alex examined the space first, and then he went to check out my paintings. The first one he grabbed and pulled up was the painting of a woman, wearing nothing. He turned to me with a raised eyebrow.

"Who's this?" he asked, with something in his voice I couldn't completely recognize.

"She's a friend who often models for me. I met her last year during some summer art classes. She's an actual model and travels a lot. Every time she is in Los Angeles we meet up and I paint her," I explained, sitting down on my stool.

"Naked?" he asked, running his eyes over a couple of other paintings I had of her, also nude ones. I shrugged.

"I do some with clothes too, but she knows I'm not very good at painting naked women, considering I haven't seen many. And she's comfortable with being naked in front of me," I told him. He just nodded and went on to check out the rest of my work.

"Do you plan on being displayed at an art gallery?"

"At some point, I hope," I answered with a laugh. "Youngae," I said, showing the painting he was still holding, "is the daughter of a wealthy Korean man who owns some art galleries in New York. She says she can hook me up, but I kinda want to get recognized on my own".

"Yeah, I know the feeling..." he agreed. "Clifford... he gave me in his will a lot of money to kick start my music career".

"Wait a second... what?!"

"Yeah, he always believed in me and I'm probably going to use to money, but I don't want to depend on it". For a moment he stayed silent, and then he cleared his throat. "Well, since you're thinking of going to Los Angeles to study Arts and I'll move there to be closer to a record label. We could move in together..." I was left staring at him with my jaw hanging. "I mean, I know it's too early to talk about moving in together, because who knows what will happen in the next year. But I'd like living with you". I stood up, with a smile and came next to him.

"I'd also like living with you..." I answered, finally, and kissed him.