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Rose Tyler wraps her arms around herself as if to protect her personal space, following her daemon’s lead through the crowd of drunk party guests and daemons. Saphire navigates with a huge confidence for someone who’s not nearly tall enough to see over all the heads, probably letting the sensitive sense of smell do most of the leading. Rose uses the tip of his fluffy, gray tail as a guiding star, pushing her way past all the bodies and struggling to keep up with his quick pace. He’s obviously very anxious to get out of there, away from Jimmy and those horrible, prying hands. She can almost feel him following them, the thought itself sending bolts of nausea throughout both of their bodies.
“Oof!” she cries as she smacks into another body, sending the two falling.
She lands on top of him: a rather pretty, skinny brunette wearing a tuxedo and bowtie. His ferret daemon is back on her legs quickly, turning around to face Saphire. Rose tears her eyes from this stranger to watch their daemons approach each other. The ferret stands up on her hind legs in front of Saphire, the playfulness and excitement she displays leaving Rose confused. Most smaller daemons are very cautious around Saphire, never approaching him by their own free will. The brown haired stranger is now aware of this strange interaction as well, the suprised look on his face probably mirroring Rose’s.
“Rosie!”
The voice is like a ice cold shower over Rose’s body. She pushes herself up to her feet, rushing out after Saphire without as much as an apology to the stranger.
Rolexo climbs up John’s arm, standing up on his shoulder.
“Go after her!” she prompts her human harshly.
“What? Why would I do that?”
Rather than responding, she nibbles her human’s earlobe impatiently.
“Ouch, Rox!” he groans.
“Go after her!”
“No!”
Rolexo makes a jump to the table in front of them, turning to face her human.
“What are you trying to accomplish?” John asks her.
“She needs help, John.”
“You can’t be sure of that! And even if she did, it’s not our business.”
“John!” she scolds, visibly upset.
“Why do you care so much?”
“Why don’t you?”
“Why should I?”
“She’s our - your - soulmate!”
It’s one of the unique abilities of a daemon: sensing if their human is meant to be with someone forever after just one meeting. Many claim that legend is a hoax, but there are those - including John - who fully believes there’s someone out there for everyone. The legend even states soulmates will be able to touch each other’s daemon without causing severe pain and distress for their partner.
“That’s impossible”, John whispers.
“Why?”
“Cause soulmates’ daemons are supposed to resemble each other, and that girl’s daemon is a wolf. That’s nothing like a ferret!”
“Are you telling me that you, John Smith, are prejudice against predator daemons?”
“No...”
“That’s exactly what you said!”
Giving up on the conversation, John crosses his arms.
“Then I’ll go myself”, his daemon announces, jumping down to the floor and taking off running.
“Rox!” John calls after her.
She ignores him, and at her speed it’s not long until John feels the tug of the stretched bond within him.
“ROX!” he shrieks, panic beginning to settle in.
He’s left with no other option than to follow her.
“No, stop it! You can’t, it’s illegal!”
“Not between soulmates, it isn’t.”
“You are not my soulmate”, Rose hisses.
“Ow, Rosie, that hurt.”
“He’s drunk”, Saphire tells her with a growl, as if that would excuse her ex’s horrible actions.
The blonde girl and her wolf daemon are backed up against a tall brick building, her ex and his bobcat daemon approaching them. Jimmy Stone reeks from alcohol, a huge grin on his face like he’s about to do something very satisfying.
“Oh, Rosie, I’m very sorry that you feel that way about us. Let me help you with that”, he says, his voice scarily sweet.
“Don’t come near us”, Rose says, trying to hide the way her voice shakes.
The bobcat daemon leaps at her, distracting the pair long enough for Jimmy to jump at Saphire and pin the wolf’s body to the ground. Rose cries out, her legs giving in and sending her sliding down the wall to the cold ground. The pain is coming from within her and shooting out into all of her being.
“Let him go!” she shouts.
Saphire is screaming as well, mostly Rose’s name. Jimmy is showing him down against the snow covered ground, the daemon twisting his body in desperate attempt to claw or bite at the horrible hands restraining him. Rose is starting to feel funny, light headed almost. Like her body is shutting down rather than dealing with the pain. She welcomes the fog into her brain, enjoying the way the pain fades alongside the rest of reality.
Then, the pain is gone. Jimmy curses, bringing her attention back to him. He’s on his back in the snow, body tense with pain. Rose’s eyes soon lands on the source of his pain: the ferret daemon clinging to the bobcat’s back, clawing and biting at the skin like a rabid animal. She’s too small for her actions to cause any long lasting damage, but the pain she causes is enough to make Jimmy release Saphire. The wolf leaps into his human’s arms, Rose holding him close and crying her relief into his fur. With his daemon here, the brown haired stranger can’t be far away.
Rose’s assumptions were correct: the stranger walks out from behind a corner, standing protectively in front of her.
“I think you better leave, right now”, he tells Jimmy coldly.
The ferret daemon abandons the bobcat, instead joining her human and climbing up his arm to sit on his shoulder. The bobcat hurries over to Jimmy once she’s released from the ferret’s claws, probably seeking comfort in her human’s presence.
“Now”, the stranger repeats, and Jimmy somehow decides it’s best to do as he’s told.
He pushes himself back up to his feet, hurrying away with the bobcat daemon right behind him.
Rose is still sitting with her back against the brick wall, still hugging Saphire close. She looks up, meeting the stranger’s eyes as he kneels down next to them.
“Thank you”, she tells him shyly.
He smiles.
“Don’t mention it. I’m John, and this is Rox. Rolexo.”
“Rose. And this is Saphire.”
They are quiet after their introduction, just sitting there.
“What would make a person do something that horrible?” John asks finally.
“You haven’t heard the myth about soulmates, have you?”
“A bit.”
“Apparently soulmates are supposed to be able to touch each other’s daemon without harming the human. After I broke up with him, Jimmy was determined to prove to me we were meant for each other. We aren’t, obviously. If you ask me, this entire soulmate thing is just made up to give broken hearted thirteen year olds some comfort.”
“Really?” John asks, suprised.
“C’mon, you can’t possibly believe there’s some kind of magical force determining the fate of everyone’s love life!”
At Rose’s words, Rolexo nudges John’s cheek with her nose significatively.
“Tell her”, she whispers into his ear.
John takes a deep breath. His daemon knows, as always, just what she’s talking about.
“I don’t think there’s some magical force. It’s just Dust.”
“Dust?” Rose questions.
“Dust, yes! You know, the stuff daemons are made of?”
Rose nods.
“Dust is what brings soulmates together, what makes two people compatible and made for no one but each other. Since daemons happens to be made of Dust, your daemon can also sense when you meet your soulmate. That’s the magic of Dust.”
“That’s rubbish!” Rose exclaims, laughing.
“Really?”
“Yes!”
John closes his eyes, leaning back against the wall.
》Is it really her?《 he asks Rolexo in their mind.
》Yes《, his daemon confirms.
》How can you be so sure?《
》I don’t know, it just feels right. They feel right.《
》If that’s the case, how comes her daemon doesn’t know it?《
》John, they don’t even believe the soulmate thing.《
》Then what do I do?《
》Make her believe.《
John’s general life experience is that his daemon is, almost always, right. Even if his ego doesn’t always want to admit it. Opening his eyes, he looks over at Rose. She’s still holding onto Saphire, but not as spasmodic. When she notices him looking at her she smiles weakly. That’s a beautiful smile, John notices. He just wishes he got to see her smile more.
Before he gets lost in his thoughts, Rolexo nudges his cheek again. He takes a deep breath.
“A soulmate is supposed to be someone who just feels right, someone who you find yourself trusting despite barely knowing them. Someone who would, say, help save you when you are in trouble.”
While he’s speaking, Saphire and Rolexo have made eye contact with each other. Saphire is standing up from Rose’s embrace and walking closer to John, Rolexo jumping down from her human’s shoulder and landing in front of the wolf daemon. Saphire bows his head down towards Rolexo, as if to say hello. The ferret meets him halfway, standing up on her hind legs and gently nudging his nose with her paw.
And then, Rose is feeling it. She doesn’t know exactly what she’s feeling, but it sure is something. Her heart racing and her blood boiling. Like she’s seeing the sun for the first time after having lived in complete darkness her entire life. John is feeling it too, she can see it in his eyes. Like the the gravity around her have swifted, like John’s existence itself is now the only thing keeping her anchored to the Earth’s surface.
“It’s you”, she whispers, covering her mouth to suppress the sob suddenly trying to get out.
“It’s you”, John repeats in awe, wrapping her in his arms and pulling her close.
He presses a kiss to her temple, the feeling of it having a warm fire burning inside of Rose. She looks over at their daemons. Saphire is now laying flat on his stomach, the two licking and grooming each other affectionately. It’s like they’ve known each other their entire lives, despite only meeting not even an hour ago.
When the adrenaline has faded, Rose is made aware of how cold she is. She’s sitting in the snow in nothing but a dress and tights, after all. She shivers.
“Let’s go inside again”, John says, briefly rubbing the skin of her arms before helping her stand up.
As they start walking, Rose glances behind them. Saphire is following them silently, Rolexo comfortably nested on the wolf’s back.
She smiles.
Two years later, John and Rose are walking hand in hand under the late evening sky. They swing their joined hands back and forth softly, the moonlight reflecting in the surface of the Thames. Their daemons are playing a game of their own, Rolexo teasingly sticking her paws out at Saphire from her spot on John’s shoulder, the wolf daemon replying with playful growls where she’s trotting behind them. The humans share a bright smile.
They soon come across a bench facing the river, offering a quite spectacular wiev to the person sitting there. John sits down on the bench first, grabbing Rose by the waist and pulling her down into his lap. She shrieks in suprise, laughing as he starts prepping kisses to the back of her neck. Rolexo joins Saphire, who’s already laid down on the ground by his human’s feet. The ferret curls into a ball next to him, Saphire in turn curling his body around her to she’s enveloped in the soft cushion of his fur. They both appear to be sleeping, eyes closed and laying completely still, but the humans knows very well they are fully awake and just cuddling. The joined mind makes it impossible for a daemon to be asleep while their human is awake, and vice versa.
Rose cuddles into John’s embrace. Watching their daemons enjoy each other’s company so fully, she sighs.
“Rose?” John asks her, concerned.
Once again, she sighs.
“I just… We owe them so much, you know? Especially to Rox. I mean, if it wasn’t for her we wouldn’t even have met. We most likely wouldn’t have been aware of each other’s existence”, she says.
John gives a nod.
“That’s true, love.”
“I can’t even imagine a life where I didn’t met you.”
“Then don’t. I’m here now, and I’ll always be. You’re stuck with me.”
Rose turns her head around to give him a kiss.
Suddenly their daemons rises from their cuddle positions, having heard every word of their humans’ conversation and probably wanting to offer them some comfort. They go over to the bench, Rolexo jumping up to sit next to John and placing her front paws on his knee. Rose smiles down at her.
“Thank you”, she tells the ferret.
It’s highly unusual for a daemon to speak to a human that aren’t their own, so Rose isn’t at all disappointed when she doesn’t get a verbal reply. Rolexo does, however, give her a reply by jumping up onto John’s leg and instead rest her front paws on Rose’s knee. The blonde’s breath hitches: John’s daemon willingly made bodily contact with her! Next, the ferret nudges Rose’s wrist with her nose. Rose looks over at John, almost panicking.
“She wants you to touch her”, John translates softly.
Rose shakes her head, horrified.
“I can’t do that! It’ll hurt you!”
“I don’t think so, love.”
He’s got a point: Rolexo feels the same pain as John, why would she suggest something if she knows it would cause both of them harm?
Rose looks at Rolexo. The daemon is peering up at her, her eyes big and innocent and kind. Taking a deep breath and holding it, she lifts her hand and places her fingers between Rolexo’s ears. A soft warmth enters her fingers from the daemon’s body, making its way through her hand, up her arm and all through her body. Rolexo nuzzles her head further into her hand, Rose shifting her hand so her entire palm now caresses the soft fur. The warmth inside her is accompanied by the feeling is love, trust, and adoration.
A happy whimper makes Rose turn her head, the sight now greeting her bringing tears of various overwhelming emotions burning in her eyes: Saphire is sitting by John’s leg, the fluffy tail thumping against the ground in enjoyment as John runs his hand up and down the wolf’s back in loving pets.
“I love you”, Rose whispers finally, the tears now falling freely.
“I love you”, John repeats, clearly too overwhelmed to say anything else.
Rose looks out over the river. She leans her head back against John’s chest, still with her hand on Rolexo’s head, her thumb rubbing over one of her furry ears. She closes her eyes, letting the love and trust from her daemon being consensually touched fill her to the point where she thinks her heart might burst.