2059

He was nearly one hundred and one, his birthday only a month or so away. He didn't need to look in a mirror to know that he looked the same as he had for seventy-eight long years. People said that as you got older the years seemed to fly by, but for Alexander, every year seemed to take a century.

He was meant to be doing an interview with a popular tv show right after his birthday. He'd forgotten the name of the show mostly because he didn't watch it. It had taken them a couple of months to convince him to come on the show and at this point, he was just doing it so that they would stop bothering. They said it was meant to be about the new technology his company was producing, but he knew that they would barely talk about it. The majority of the interview would be about how he was the oldest person without a soulmate.

He didn't want to talk about it. He was sick of it being the thing that defined who he was. He was the CEO of one of the biggest companies in the world, one that produced the majority of the technology people used. He was extremely wealthy, he gave to charity, sponsored children and sports teams and invested money into shelters for the homeless. But all people could talk about was how he was so old and still hadn't found his soulmate.

The age that normal people found their soulmates hadn't changed much, most finding them between the ages of twenty-five and fifty. It was getting to the stage where people didn't know what it was like to stay young for decades and were no longer cherishing it. Even with that belief in mind, Alex wished that he had found his soulmate the instant he had turned twenty-two, he was very quickly growing sick of the world, he had been alive too long.

"Oh," a tired voice started, pulling him from his thoughts. "I didn't know you were here. How long have I been asleep?"

Philip looked up at him from the hospital bed with tired eyes, skin pale and body too skinny. His face was gaunt, cheekbones sticking out in an unhealthy way and skin a strange pale-yellow colour. "Not sure," Alexander answered. "You were asleep when I got here twenty minutes ago."

"I'm sorry," Philip muttered, rubbing at his eyes.

"Don't apologise, you need the rest."

Philip only let out a little groan in response, staring at him with half closed eyes. He had cancer, one of the extremely rare ones that doctors were still struggling to treat. He was undergoing chemotherapy, but Alex wasn't sure how well it was working. Every time he visited, the other man only looked worse and worse.

"Where's Thomas?" he asked.

"Sorting out some charity event to pay for all this crap," Philip replied, coughing lightly. Despite being a successful artist, Philip and Thomas were struggling to pay off the medical bills the cancer treatment had given them. Alexander had tried to help them, mostly by buying Philip's art; the stupid man wouldn't take his money any other way.

"How's that going?"

Philip sighed. "Not too bad," he said. "We're getting there slowly. This next event will hopefully pay off everything."

"And the cancer?"

"Getting smaller, slowly. Doesn't stop me from feeling like shit though."

Alexander reached over, clasping Philip's hand. "I'm sorry," he told him.

"You don't need to be," Philip said. "You didn't do this to me. It isn't anyone's fault."

"I know, but-"

"No 'but's," Philip interrupted. "Just be here for me, that's all I need."

Alexander gave him a sad smile, staring at the aged face of his friend. His hair was completely white, wrinkles stretching out over his cheekbones. Even without the cancer he would be frail, bones weakening and skin sagging. He was seventy-four, even if the cancer didn't take him, old age would soon, just like it had taken Sarah.

She'd died four years prior at the physical age of eighty-four. She'd died in her sleep, peaceful, happy, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. Alexander had been expecting it for some time, but nothing had prepared him for the death of someone who had been there his entire life, someone who was so old when he still looked so young.

His friends were starting to die while he still wasn't ageing. He had prayed over the last fifty years that he would not have to witness it without his soulmate. He always knew they would die long before he did, but he at least wanted to know that he was going to die at some point too.

He knew that once Philip and Thomas were gone, he would be more alone than ever. He did have friends from work, from around his neighbourhood, but they were nowhere near as close to him as Philip and Sarah were. He wasn't ready to let them go, and Philip knew that.

"I'm sorry," Philip grunted.

"I thought we weren't doing the apologising thing," Alexander said with a huff of laughter.

Philip shook his head. "I'm serious," he said.

"Sorry for what?" Alex frowned, shifting forward in the uncomfortable plastic chair.

The other man pressed a button on a handheld device, the back of his chair rising slowly with a loud whir. "For everything," he said when the bed stopped moving. "Sarah and I, we promised you we would find your soulmate, and we never did."

"It doesn't matter," Alexander argued. "I never expected you to actually find them. I didn't want that burden on either of you."

"It does matter. It's always mattered to you, and that's important," Philip replied. "Alex, I look at your face and see someone so sad, so depressed. You haven't aged a day and yet you look so much older than me and look at me.

"I'm not saying that finding your soulmate will fix everything that's going on with you, but it would stop you from feeling so alone. They're meant to be there for you, love you, all that crap. That's what you want, isn't it?"

"Of course."

"Some days I wish I was your soulmate."

"What?" Alexander exclaimed, his expression twisting into one of surprise and confusion. "What about Thomas."

"I love Thomas, more than anything," Philip started. "But you're so lonely. Some days I wish I could just get rid of that loneliness, because I do love you, and I want to see you happy. I just... I wish that I could have given you some of that happiness."

Alex tightened his grip on Philip's hand. "You did," he told him. "You really did."

"But not in the way you wanted."

Alexander smiled sadly. "No."

"You will find them, Alex, I know you will," Philip said. "There's never been anyone who hasn't had a soulmate, it's a not a thing that happens. You're just one of the rare people that takes a long time. You get to experience so much of life."

"But I have to watch you die."

"You would have eventually anyway."

Alex couldn't find anything to say in response that didn't come across as rude or whiny. Instead, he settled for silence, finding himself growing tired from the emotionally draining conversation. He didn't want to watch Philip die, not so soon. Despite everything, he did love him, just not the way he used to.

"I want you to promise me one thing," Philip said, pulling Alexander from his thoughts. "When you find them, I don't want you to believe they are going to fix everything for you. They will help, they're meant to, but you have to get better on your own. Promise me you won't push everything onto them."

"Of course not, that wouldn't be fair on them at all," Alex replied, a little offended. "I promise I'll never do that."

"Good, good," Philip said, his eyes beginning to fall shut. He got tired extremely quickly under both the treatment and the cancer. Alex assumed that old age didn't help much either. He was used to it. He would talk with his friend for maybe an hour before he went before he went back to sleep again. He didn't mind it much, at least he got to talk to him. "Hey, I'm not dead just yet. I've still got time to find you a soulmate. Maybe there's a hot doctor around here somewhere."

Alex let out a laugh at the old man. "Don't go getting my hopes up," he said. "I'll just be disappointed in the end."

"Don't say that," Philip replied. "I don't care what you have to say, I'm going to keep looking for them for you. I want you to keep looking too."

"Don't think I could ever stop looking if I'm being completely honest."

"Good," he said, rubbing at his eyes again. "I'm getting tired. I might get some more rest if that's okay with you."

"Of course," Alex said. "Get as much rest as you need."

Philip smiled at him and pushed the button to lower his bed. Once it was back in its original position, he closed his eyes, giving Alexander a small smile. His prone form on the bed looked weak, tiny, almost dead. "You'll find them eventually, Alex. You'll be happy then too. I know you will."