Soulmate AU Prompt: You stop aging at a certain age until you meet your soulmate and grow old together.
Percival Graves had stopped aging on his fortieth birthday, or thereabouts. Five years later he could still count the wrinkles in the creases of his eyes, and he'd not gained a single line more. Percival was happy enough with that. Being forty for eternity, or at least until he met his soulmate was an entirely acceptable age, and far better than being fifty, or even more mature.
Still, it was statistically likely that his soulmate would be younger, and as the years dragged on, Percival kept himself in good shape, feeling that it was important that he had something other than his youth to offer his soulmate.
It was a shame, really, when all his hard work went to waste and Grindelwald, the vile, cretinous piece of shite that he was, captured Percival in order to impersonate him.
Life, sometimes, just wasn't fair.
Grindelwald had been absent for a worryingly long amount of time. Percival wasn't one to complain, but being chained to a wall without food or water could really set a man on edge. He felt rather pathetic, wishing for Grindelwald to return, but Merlin be damned, he was thirsty. He released a dry, shallow breath and tilted his head back against the wall, closing his eyes against the room he'd was imprisoned in. His head hurt. His arms hurt. Even his tongue hurt.
Dehydration was a painful way in which to die.
When the discordant sound of someone blowing in the front door shook the building, Percival wondered if he'd started hallucinating. If not, Goldstein or whichever of his good for nothing deputies had found him, was displaying some rather shoddy spell work, as the roof was crumbling, plaster trickling onto his face.
"Up here," Percival called, or tried to. His words came out as a moan of pain, his voice hoarse and his throat dry.
The first face he saw was not Goldstein, nor any Auror he knew. The man was tall and slim, with fetching golden curls and a smattering of freckles across his cheeks. He was dressed in a peculiar petrol blue overcoat that flapped about his legs as he raced up the stairs.
It was his eyes, however, that drew Percival in. They looked weary. This was a man that had lived more years than his youthful appearance would ever suggest.
Percival had grown used to seeing that same expression in the mirror.
"Alohomora," the man hissed and promptly began digging through his pockets for various potions and vials. Percival bit back a moan of pain at regaining circulation in both his arms and shrugged his shoulders to release the tension in them. He grimaced and his eyelids drooped closed.
The man tutted and captured Percival's wrist in order to take his pulse. Percival's eyes snapped open at the extraordinary feeling of his touch.
Where their skin met, it began to glow golden. Percival couldn't tear his gaze away from the phenomenon happening before him.
They were soulmates.
"Huh," he said. Warmth began spreading through his body, his previous aches and pains forgotten. "I was beginning to think I'd be middle-aged forever."
"Shush," the other man said softly and a smile grew upon his face. There was a lightness to him that had been absent before. Percival watched as the man gently brushed away the matted hair that was dangling into Percival's face, half obscuring his vision when he leaned his head forward.
"Save your voice. You're safe now, with me."
Percival narrowed his eyes, but he couldn't help leaning into the soft touch. "You're definitely older than I am," he said, almost surprised by the conclusion he'd come to. Percival wasn't young; he'd spent decades with the same face.
"Only a few years," the man said. Percival wanted to scoff. As if he'd know! Still, it didn't matter, at least not to Percival, not now that they were here, together.
The other man was murmuring something else, but tiredness was beginning to drag Percival's eyes closed once more. He blindly reached out and captured the other man's hand with his own, squeezing tight. As he drifted off to his first restful sleep in weeks, he smiled.
Word Count: 693
Romance Awareness Day 3 - you stop aging at a certain age until you meet your soulmate and grow old together.
Insane House Challenge 395. Fetching
Buttons Words 3. Freckles
Lyric Ally 8. I know that there's a place for us
Em's Emporium 16. Write about a character who makes me smile. If that's not Newt, then I don't know who is.
Lo's Lowdown Character 1. Write about someone who doesn't show their emotions often.
365 Prompts 363. Thirsty
Auction - Afraid [693 words = 70 coins]
Tea Room 5. (Emotion) Exhausted
Gobstones - Purple Stone - Gratitude - (Accuracy) 14. Freckle, (Power) 17. Tension, (Technique) 16. Drift
