A Hundred Lives, a Hundred Stories
They meet all over time and space, but only one remembers all of their previous lives. The good days, the bad days, everything in between. Austin/Dallas, a reincarnation AU.
I don't own anything.
In several lives, he's the self-proclaimed 'ruler of the school'. He's a walking cliché of leather jackets, cigarettes between his lips, and an epitome of the term: bad boy. He slams people against the lockers for fun, spits on them because he just can, and comes home with bruises and black eyes on a daily basis. From too many fights -he's always looking for a good one. Always.
Sometimes he's clad in letterman jackets, the material snug against his skin. A football or basketball jock in those lives. He gets good grades and says absolutely nothing when cheerleaders flirt with him, their fingers twirling in their hair.
In the ever-changing world of reincarnation, there's always one constant with him. Someone who appears beside him, another reincarnate. That person hides in the shadows, is never noticed, but he's always there.
Always.
He has brown hair and brown eyes. He has thick, black glasses perched on his nose with a book in front of him most of the time. He's an outcast in their lives. Every single one of them.
But one that Austin takes an interest in.
He's the bullied one. The introvert. The geek. A million walking stereotypes in their lives. From the Goth, emo kid who writes poetry to the total nerd who can't socialize without making at least one Doctor Who reference in conversation.
Austin remembers them. All of their lives. They chase him throughout time and space, memories haunting and nipping at his heels. Every day, when he goes to sleep, he sees previous lives behind his eyelids.
There are bad days. Lives that invade his dreams and turn them into nightmares that make him scream. Make him toss and turn in bed and fists clench into the sheets. He would usually wake up with a tear-stained pillow and his brother telling him that his screaming was too loud.
One day, he woke up to the sensation of his brother shaking him, yelling at him to wake up, snap out of it, anything. Jeff told him that he screamed and starting shouting, yelling "No!" over and over again.
There are good days, good lives. Places where there's no such thing as Weeping Angels and New York, no signs of ice cream and Broadway productions. Nothing that can remind him of that life ever again.
Until, in modern-day Florida, Ally sees that Rent is being put on in their local theater. She tells Austin to go with her, "It'll be fun," she says, "You might like it,"
Sadly, he agrees to it. When the curtain goes down for intermission, Austin's eyes are rimmed red from the tears.
That's when he sees him, a boy dressed in a sweater vest and jeans, black vans on his feet. He rushes toward the boy and exclaims "Dallas! Thank God I found you," taking his hand, "Come on, we have to get to the…. Why're you staring at me like that?"
Dallas is staring at him with shock written on his face. "I- I don't know you. Who are you?"
"How can you not know me? I'm Austin. I'm the bad boy who once pushed you into a locker. The Doctor who wears a lab coat and bow-ties, you used to say 'You would look like a real doctor if you got rid of the bow tie and put a stethoscope 'round your neck.' and then I would laugh at you and say 'That's because I actually am a doctor in many, many things.'" There's this smile on his face as he remembers that life.
That life, the one that keeps on haunting his dreams. Makes him regret everything he's done.
Still, Dallas is staring at him. "I told you, I don't who you are. I don't know what you're talking about,"
"But you do! You know what I'm talking about, because we reincarnate. We find each other and fall in love over and over again. Please, just please remember that,"
"Will you listen to me?! I told you. I don't know who you are! Now let go of my hand," he says that part calmly, in a cold tone that almost sends a shiver down Austin's spine.
The blond lets go and stares at the floor, occupying himself for a few seconds as Dallas walks away from him.
Why won't he remember? If I remember all of our lives, shouldn't he as well?
That thought keeps him awake at night. He keeps on thinking of possibilities and previous lives and the words "time travel is possible?" Dallas said those words when he found out that Austin was a time-traveling alien. God, he loved and hated that life so much.
In bed, he curls into a ball, closes his eyes, and tries to figure out why Dallas can't –or won't- remember anything.
He comes up with several conclusions: the weight of remembering so much, so many lives has taken a toll on Dallas's brain, he has amnesia when they reincarnate, or Austin was confused and accidently talked to the wrong person.
But no, it couldn't be the last one. The blonde would know him anywhere. It's possibly the other two, but Dallas would be dead if the lives literally fried his brain. So maybe it's the 'amnesia when reincarnated' idea.
Yeah, probably,
And he grabs a piece of paper off of his desk and a pencil. He writes every single life he can remember. In the end, the paper has over 40 lines filled with bullet pointed memories. A few of his favorite ones are:
You said that I was –probably- the stupidest person on the planet, then you kissed me.
The first time I said 'I love you' was when we were at the drive-in. I whispered it in your ear and you threatened to cut my balls off if I ever said that in public again.
One time I thought of the Weeping Angels and I cried for a week.
You told me you loved me during World War 2, we were huddled around the radio listening to our favorite program. You kissed my cheek and said it. My mom told me to stop grinning so much.
I have got to stop pinning you against lockers in order to get into your pants.
Afterwards, he calls Ally and asks her if they could go to see Rent again tomorrow.
"Why? You cried the last time we saw it,"
He wants to say he met the love of his life there or something but that sounds so cliché in his head. "I found him,"
"And by him you mean the guy you've been ranting about for the past week since we've watched Rent,"
"Yeah," he lets the words sink in and adds in "I haven't been ranting about him!"
"You use Greaser lingo and Doctor Who references during those rants. They're kind of interesting when you're shouting about the TARDIS disappearing and accidently leaving him in the middle of 1770s Massachusetts. Are those-," she stops, holding the phone away from her as she speaks to someone. The voice is soft, the tone sounds irritated somewhat. She mumbles an apology before returning to the call.
"As I was trying to say, are those rants stories or something?"
"Yeah… somewhat," he says. "Well, not really, 'cause I actually li-,"
The conversation cuts off there, the line goes dead. He looks at his cellphone, finds it dead. Then he realizes what he was about to say: "I actually lived those lives. Everything's a hundred percent true,"
He couldn't say that to Ally. She might think he's insane or something like that. But he was going to say it. "Oh, yeah, Ally, by the way I reincarnate every few years. And I remember everything in my previous lives, but Dallas doesn't. So I ran up to him during intermission and tried to get him to remember, but it didn't work,"
Yeah, that sounds not-crazy.
The next day, he asks her about Dallas; he knows that she had a crush on him for over a month once. "He works at the library. Helps his mom out with shelving, check outs, stuff like that,"
"Where is the library?"
She gives him a look that says 'you have got to be kidding me' "Past the cellphone accessory cart, next to the lemonade place,"
"Oh, that little one? I passed by that, never realized it was a library,"
"Considering that the sign says 'Miami Public Library' makes me wonder how you never figured it out,"
"Go with me? He's probably still sort of wary ever since Rent,"
She nods and they stand up from their places in the practice room to go.
The library's actually way bigger on the inside than on the outside. There are rows and rows of shelves filled to the brim with books, a few computers on each side of the library with some in the middle, and little chairs and tables for the kids. It's actually a nice place to relax and he could see himself sometimes going here and just chilling.
He hears a little cart squeaking by him, going to the side to let it pass, he sees Dallas pushing it. The cart is weighed down with books, a huge stack of them that seems to be threatening to topple any second. "What're you doing here?" he asks Austin.
"Can't a person come to the library?" he counters, smirking in challenge.
Dallas stays quiet, ignoring his question. He puts a book on the shelf above him. He has to stand on the tip of his toes to get to the third-to-the-top shelf. A part of his button-down rides up, shows lean muscle underneath tan skin.
The blonde hopes he isn't drooling.
"I know we didn't start off on the right foot last week, and you probably freaked out that day. But I wanna ask you something," Austin starts, catching the other's attention. Dallas stops shelving the books and is looking at him. "Would you go to a coffee shop with me later? I mean, it isn't like a date or anything, I just… want to get to know you better and apologize for what happened last week,"
He thinks about it for a moment, putting the book he was going to shelf down. "I have to do a bit more around here, then I'll just go over to Sonic Boom and meet you there,"
The coffee shop they meet in is filled with writers typing away on Macs, the scent of coffee and fresh-baked goods in the air. Austin orders his drink, while Dallas just gets a chocolate chip cookie the size of his hand.
They grab seats in the corner, Austin scribbling his thoughts down on a piece of paper. And Dallas doing nothing but go people-watching. "What're you writing?" he asks, breaking the awkward silence between them.
"My thoughts,"
"Why?"
"I just want to,"
And Dallas tries to sneak a peek at the words, he glimpses reincarnation and TARDIS on the paper. "TARDIS? Like the one in Doctor Who?" the blonde nods as an answer. "Cool,"
"I'm sorry for what I said, during Rent I mean. Shouldn't have scared you like that. You probably thought I was fucking crazy, didn't you?"
"Yeah. I thought you were really crazy. I still don't believe that we reincarnate, and I don't remember anything though,"
"We do reincarnate, I even have proof that we do," taking another paper out and handing it to the other.
The brunette's reactions to the paper is nothing short of interesting. His eyebrows raise at certain points. Cheeks flush. Eyes go wide. He lets a laugh escape his lips as he reads the last one: I have got to stop pinning you against lockers to get into your pants.
Austin looks at him with concern, wondering if Dallas will finally believe him.
"You're joking, aren't you?" he questions.
The blond shakes his head no, and that's when Dallas starts asking rapid-fire questions. Who am I, then? Do I always reincarnate with you? What happened to me after the Weeping Angel touched me? Why are you always the cool person in our lives? The last one comes out as a slight whine.
For most of them, Austin doesn't have answers. And says that. "So, do you believe me?" he asks.
The other starts to nod. And Austin scoops him into a hug. Dallas protests, trying to get away from the blonde's rather strong grip.
"I… kind of believe you," he chokes out.
Austin's grin is too big for his face, Dallas thinks.
In case any of you are wondering why there were so many Doctor Who references. Refer to my upcoming fic "Madman with a Box" A Doctor Who AU that explains everything.