Work Text:
Some things were always meant to happen.
No matter the time or place or circumstance, some things were always meant to happen. Again. And again. And again. Just as some souls were always meant to meet, some stories were always meant to repeat, from the first instance until the end of time.
This was one of them.
It started like this. A brother, reasonable and good, destined to be separated from his family and his home.
It started like this. A child, fragile, but bright, stifled by a mother’s love and desperate to get away.
It started like this. A mother, jealous and overprotective. A family who loves one another but does not know how to show it. Two souls constantly searching for one another in the sands of time.
It started like this.
Winter. A truck stop in the middle of Arizona. Neil was wearing a baseball cap, trying to cover his distinctive hair, as he quickly shoved chips and candy bars into his pockets. He was trying to get back to the truck he’d been hitching a ride on. Trying to avoid his mother.
Again.
Still.
She had eyes and ears everywhere. She didn’t like him being alone. This was the third time he had run away, and he was determined to make this the one to stick. He turned around to leave, just to run into the man standing in line behind him. He looked up and their eyes only caught for a second, but it was long enough that Neil knew he would be seeing those eyes in his dreams for the rest of his life.
It started like this.
Three weeks later. A truck stop outside of Topeka. Andrew was just stopping for gas and to stock up on gummy bears and twizzlers. He hadn’t washed his hair or shaved in days. He saw no reason to. He hadn’t been home or seen his family in weeks.
Months.
It was hard to keep track.
It was an achingly familiar motion when he stopped a rough hand from coming down on another man. The man opened his eyes to stare at Andrew, and Andrew knew he would never be able to look at another pair of eyes again without comparing them to that deep blue. It wasn’t until the would-be assailant had left, and the man with the beautiful eyes had handed them back, that Andrew even realized that he had dropped his twizzlers.
Spring started with the locking of eyes, the brushing of hands, the barest of smiles.
Summer started with the sharing of meals and the sharing of secrets.
Fall started with a promise.
“She’s going to find me Andrew. She’s going to find me and she’s going to drag me back there to her perfect house with her perfect garden and there won’t be a single thing I can do about it.” They were somewhere in New England. The leaves were just starting to turn and the breeze had started to take on a bitter edge.
“What’s your plan? I’m assuming you have one, if you’re bringing it up,” Andrew asked him lazily, brushing Neil’s curls back across his forehead absentmindedly as he pretended to read his book.
“Right. I propose you kidnap me.”
“... That’s your entire plan?” Andrew stopped pretending to read and turned his incredulous stare on Neil.
Neil, for his part, was pouting. “Yes, well I’d like to see you come up with something better.” Andrew didn’t respond immediately. He never did when it was important. He continued to run his fingers through Neil’s hair.
“Well, what if she can’t take you anymore?”
“What do you mean?” Neil sat up to look at him properly. This seemed like the sort of conversation that mandated propriety. Andrew’s eyes still looked a bit far away.
“What if you ensured that she could legally hold no more claim to you?”
“Andrew. Stop being cryptic and tell me what you’re trying to say.”
“We could get married.”
“What? Why would you marry me just to keep me away from my mother? What do you even get out of this?”
“Mmm tax benefits?”
“Tax benefits.”
“Sure.” Andrew shrugged one shoulder, unbothered.
“Right. Okay. I guess I’m eloping with the guy I met in a truck stop.” Neil didn’t sound upset by this in the least.
“I guess you are.” Andrew returned to his book. After all, some things were just meant to happen.