My school days now revolved around how to get more time with Riven.  We met up during lunch, with me trying to surreptitiously provide snacks until he realized what I was doing and told me to knock it off with a cross look on his face that resembled a wet, angry kitten.  He also seemed somewhat embarrassed, so instead I took to sneaking snacks into his backpack before we parted ways, so he couldn’t return it.  I caught his response to discovering the hidden snacks a couple of times and he looked exasperated, but also kind of touched.  And he never called me out on it.

I’d have liked to give him better food than snacks, but when I asked her, Honey was fairly convinced that it wouldn’t be okay, especially if he’d turned down snacks directly, and she had a better read on humans than I did, so I went with just snacks, not-so-sneakily since we both knew what I was doing, and hoped that maybe we’d eventually be close enough that he’d let me bring him real food and wouldn’t complain.

I learned it was just Riven and his mom, and he didn’t seem to have a good relationship with his mom.  In fact, sometimes I got the impression he was scared of her, like when I asked if he could come over after school sometime and he squirmed uncomfortably and then mumbled some excuse about his mom not liking him out late after school.  I almost asked him if he could just ask her for permission, but something on his face made me hesitate.  I didn’t know what his expression meant, but if he was really worried about his mom’s reaction, I didn’t want to push him into a bad spot.

I learned Riven was really sweet.  He never spoke poorly about other people, even when I saw some of the other high school students making fun of him – which infuriated me, but they were humans and there wasn’t too much I could do about it other than try to be there for him – he didn’t speak ill of them.  Or anyone, I realized.  He seemed to be incredibly kind, wanting to help others, but at the same time, weirdly terrified of people.  I didn’t quite get why, but even with me he still seemed very hesitant and it was difficult to get him to look at me.

I did catch his gaze, once, though, and learned his eyes were a beautiful gray color.

I also learned he was my soulmate.

That was probably why I was so drawn to him initially, so determined to make friends with him without really knowing why, but it also threw me into a quandary because I didn’t know how to address the issue.  Did I tell him?  Introduce the supernatural world to him?  That was a lot to throw on a person, let alone a kid, but what else could I do?  I needed him to understand he had to stay with me forever, or, uh, no…oh shoot, that made it sound so creepy, I couldn’t tell him that.  There had to be a better way to explain soulmates.  I needed to ask Dad what to do.

I was pondering over that issue one day in a desk in the library, next to the windows, when I caught sight of him in the courtyard below.  I immediately felt myself light up and quickly gathered my things, rushing downstairs in the hope of catching him so we could talk, even if it was just for a couple of minutes.

I just got to the door when I realized someone else had caught him first.

“Riven,” the shifter said, “hey.”

“Hey Brian,” Riven responded without really looking up, but I could see from his body language – which I was trying to become an expert in – that he was more comfortable with this guy than most of the other students.

I felt my heart plummet a little.  I was pretty sure Riven and I were friends now – I mean, I considered him my friend but I wasn’t 100% sure how he felt about it – but I felt oddly worried that he had other friends who might know other sides of him.  What if he liked this Brian guy more than me?  What if I was just an annoying younger kid to him?

Wait.  Was I…being jealous?

Before I could start to mull over that particular question, something caught my attention.  Something that made me frown.

“Did you get the paper done for me?”  Brian asked.

Riven pulled out some paper stapled together.  “Here.  Sorry you’re going through a tough time at home.  I hope this helps some.”

“Yeah, great, it will.  Thanks Riven!”  Brian left without another word, whistling carelessly as he walked off, and Riven gave a bit of a sigh and shrugged before turning to head towards Building Two. 

I didn’t end up coming out to talk to him, instead frowning to myself at this new information.  This Brian guy…did Riven do his homework for him, thinking he was helping him out, while Brian was just taking advantage of him?  That’s what it seemed like to me, but maybe I was just being too suspicious.  Maybe Brian was just good at hiding his feelings about whatever was going on at his home and maybe he really did need help, and Riven, being the nice guy he is, naturally wanted to help.  Maybe it was all above board.

Or maybe not, I decided a week later, after having watched Brian and Riven some more.  Brian was definitely only taking advantage of Riven’s kindness, while Riven thought they were actually friends.  It made my blood boil to know someone would take advantage of someone as sweet as Riven but also terrified me as to how to fix this.  Should I tell Riven the truth?  Would he even believe me?  What if he didn’t?  Would I lose him as a friend?  I could – couldn’t risk that.  I couldn’t.

I was deep in thought that evening as I came into Dad’s study and shut the door behind me.

Dad looked up and gave me a warm smile.  “Hey, son, what’s up?”

“I found a soulmate of mine, but he’s human, and he’s two years older than me, and I think he’s really poor, and I don’t know how to introduce him to supernatural stuff, and now I found out that he has this guy he thinks is his friend but is actually taking advantage of how sweet he is and I don’t know what to do.”  I flopped into a chair in front of his desk.  “You’re the smartest person I know, so help?”

Dad was also the oldest person I knew, by several hundred years, so that probably helped some with him knowing how to handle all sorts of situations.

Dad blinked a little, then started smiling.  “You found a soulmate?  That’s wonderful!”

“It doesn’t bother you that he’s human?  What do I even tell him about supernaturals?!  That’s a lot to dump on anyone.”  Finding soulmates was a good thing, normally, because it meant a best friend for life, or possibly a lover.  Riven and I could easily be awesome friends, but without him knowing about supernaturals, that could never fully happen.  And…I had no clue how to go about telling someone that kind of stuff.

Dad’s smile softened a bit.  “It is a lot,” he agreed, “but he’s your soulmate – he wouldn’t be if he wasn’t someone who would actually be okay with you being a fairy.  Sure, it might be a shock to him at first – or will be, I’ve seen enough humans introduced to our world to know it can blow them away – but he’ll get over it.  Now that it’s in place and started growing, the soulmate bond will bring him back to you even if he runs away in fear at first.  I’m not saying he will,” Dad quickly added, seeing my dismayed face, “just…if that happens, it’s not the end of the world, okay?  You’ll be able to get through it together.”

A thought suddenly occurred to me.  “He is curious about stuff, maybe he would be curious about the entire supernatural world?”  I wondered, sometimes, why he tried to stifle his curiosity, but somehow I knew it was one of those questions which would make him close up.  There were things he wasn’t willing to tell me yet, and I didn’t want to scare him off.

“Well there you go,” Dad nodded in agreement, “maybe he’ll be curious enough he’ll get over it quickly.  Look, Ren, of course it’s a huge thing to tell someone, but soulmates…soulmates match your soul, okay?  It’ll be all right.  Whether he ends up accepting it because he’s curious or kind or openminded or something else, he will be okay with it eventually.  Give him time if he needs, but make sure he understands you’re there for him.  Do you think you can handle the protection spell or you want me to do it?”

That was a good point.  If I told him, I’d need to be able to protect him, and protection spells were kind of hard magic.  Given my magical abilities, my ability to do such a spell was questionable, at best.

“I’ll practice,” I told him determinedly.  “Once I know I can do it, then I’ll tell him.”  I wanted to do it myself.  I wasn’t sure why, I just wanted to.  If my magic wasn’t quite there yet, I’d make sure it got there, and that would be my cue to then tell him the truth about what I was.

Dad nodded in agreement, his eyes smiling at me.  “That’s a good idea.  Now, about the other bit – about the kid who is taking advantage of him – have you considered telling your friend?”

“I have,” I burst out, “but what if he doesn’t believe me?  What if he thinks I’m making it all up?  What if – what if he gets mad at me?”  I’d never had a friend as important to me as Riven before.  I didn’t want to risk it all.  It wasn’t like Brian was bullying him, exactly, just…taking advantage of him, which was awful, but not harmful, necessarily, so was it worth risking our friendship for?

“Son,” Dad said gently, “what I just told you about soulmates – it applies here, too.  Humans may not feel the soulmate bond like we do, but I think he’ll still be inclined to believe you just because of it.  Even if he doesn’t, you have some proof of this?”  When I nodded, he continued.  “Then tell him all that.  I know it’s not fun to tell someone that their friend isn’t really their friend at all, but he deserves to know.”

Riven had so few friends, though – just me and this Brian guy – it kind of sucked that I was going to take one of them away from him.  Even if that friend wasn’t a real friend and was just using Riven.

I sighed deeply.  “Couldn’t I just warn Brian off or something instead?  So Riven wouldn’t blame me for things going poorly?”

“If you did, what happens if this Brian guy then goes and tells your friend – Riven, is it? – that you told him to leave Riven alone?”

I paled a little at the thought.  “He’d – he’d think I was being possessive or something and being mean to Brian for no reason.  Even if I explained, he might not buy it.”

Dad nodded in agreement, but his face was sympathetic.  “You need to tell him, Ren.  There isn’t a good way to avoid that.”

I slumped down in the chair a bit.  An anonymous note in his locker wouldn’t work, either, would it?  He wouldn’t believe an anonymous note.  He might believe me, but…I’d have to do this the right way.  I’d have to explain it straight to his face.

“What if he thinks I’m just being jealous that he’s spending time with another friend?”  I voiced one of my biggest fears.

Dad considered this.  “Are you?”

“No, of course not – I mean, I did kind of listen in on some conversations to prove I was right, but I’m not sure if I initially just thought badly of Brian because I was jealous.”  I frowned a bit, annoyed with myself.  “He doesn’t really have any other friends, I shouldn’t be upset when he hangs out with someone else, but I was, and then this guy did actually turn out to be no good, so while I’m not wanting to tell him because of jealousy, I became aware of the issue due to jealousy, I guess?  But why am I being so selfish?  He should be able to have other friends.  He’s a great guy, people should appreciate him,” I mumbled more to myself than to Dad.

Dad opened his mouth, then shut it, but he seemed a little amused.

“What?”  I demanded.  “What is it?”

“Nothing,” which I 100% didn’t buy, “just – make sure your friend knows you’re telling him because you’re worried, and explain what you know.  If he brings up jealousy, then you can admit you were initially jealous but you didn’t stop there, you made the effort to actually find out if you were right or wrong.  He should understand that even if the initial motives were potentially questionable, the end result is unchanged.  Brian is still not a real friend of his.”

I ended up leaving Dad’s study feeling a little more confident on two things – I did need to tell Riven the truth about Brian and eventually I needed to tell him about supernaturals, too.

I just hoped Dad was right about Riven accepting both.