Bonus Chapter: Pinky Promise

Most of them were older in age yet all had years of experience to qualify them for the position.

Becoming a council member was not an easy task. Those chosen to join needed to be smart, level headed, judicial, but empathetic and emotionally intelligent. They were the ones able to grant immortality to those that benefited societies throughout the dimensions. And, they were the ones able to take that immortality away.

Sebastian and Dean McCain stood in front of that council today, each of them nearly two hundred years old, asking to be released from their immortality.

"Why have the two of you come to this decision?" A burly older man, the vampire on the council, asked.

The older couple had been discussing giving up their immortality since they got married. Neither of them expected to want to live forever, so it was just a matter of when. But, when their 5th and last child passed away, the discussions became more serious.

It was hard to live through so much change around them, see the current society and morals that didn't match up with their own. But, the worst part was seeing friends, family, and finally, their children go.

The beauty of life and the love they had for one another wasn't enough to combat all of those things at once. It all hit Dean the worst. He not only mourned for the ones they lost, but he blamed himself for making Sebastian experience such pain with him.

Despite the hardships, Dean and Sebastian worked through it, together. Now, as a couple. They wished to go.

"I understand completely." One council member, a mix of a feii and a leopard shifter, said. "My father was immortal as well. I was his 57th child; he got so many of us to try to fill the void. But, he could never open up because he knew that one day we would leave him. He released his immortality ten years ago."

"We hope to follow in his example." Dean told them, giving the council a small, tired smile. "It's time."

Less than five minutes later, the gavel was dropped. Sebastian and Dean were no longer immortal. They were told to find a comfortable place to rest because they would have about 3 hours before their bodies began to age.

The trip home was silent. They had decided together to end their lives that day, yet accepting it after all this time was weird. Sebastian had no idea how to act in that moment. How to walk, how to talk, how to sit, how to breathe. He was going to die before the end of the day and he wasn't ready.

As his panic began to mount, a familiar hand was placed over his. Sebastian turned to Dean, his eyes wide and scared. Dean was staring at him with a calm and gentle expression, and his ease soothed Sebastian's unease immediately.

It always did.

"I love you."

"I love you."

That exchange of three words each had become their mantra, a phrase to keep them going in the toughest of times. It warmed their hearts and strengthened their resolves.

Once at home, they began to prepare their last meal. They cooked it together since in recent decades they had begun to pass the duties between one another. Sebastian would cook one night, Dean the next. Tonight, they were preparing food together. It would be the last time they were able to.

Sebastian and Dean ate with one hand held between them. They had both mastered the specific talent of eating with both hands simply so they could always hold hands. At that moment, where Sebastian was never forced to let go, he greatly appreciated it.

The two of them didn't talk about much. They had been going over their wills and tying up all the loose ends of their affairs for the past three years, so neither of them felt as if there was anything left to do. They enjoyed the peace and the silence of their meal.

When Dean looked at their clock and announced that their three hours were almost up, the two washed their plates and got into bed. The modern Empress bed was ginormous, but the two laid side by side, hands clutched together.

Sebastian turned his head to the left and found himself staring Dean dead in the eye. Sebastian spent the last 167 years looking into those eyes, and Dean did not age a day, not physically. The only way for Sebastian to tell how old his mate had gotten was through his eyes, the windows to his soul.

For both of them, their age showed not in their faces, but in their eyes. All of the joy, sadness, beauty, and pain that he experienced in his life showed in his warm eyes. Sebastian lifted his right arm to lightly touch the skin under Dean's eye.

Dean bit his lip and his eyes shifted away from Sebastian's the way they always did when he was nervous. The familiar action comforted Sebastian in these final hours.

"Hey, do you remember that thing I told you when we had just started dating?" Dean asked, his voice a low mutter.

"Geez, I wonder if I'll remember something so specific." Sebastian chuckled quietly, smiling at his husband.

Dean rolled his eyes but finally elaborated.

"I just- I told you about the promising thing? About making sure we were mated in our next lives too?" Sebastian's cheeks stretched out into a smile and Dean stumbled on his words again. "Well, um, m-maybe we could do it again? Just in case."

"You really want to spend another century with my talkative ass?" Sebastian asked teasingly, running his hand over Dean's shaved head. Dean scoffed and used a hand to stroke Sebastian's chin.

"Please, of course, I want to be with your talkative ass again." He insisted, staring Sebastian in the eyes. "For all the years I've been alive, I never once regretted having spent it with you. I love you, Sebastian."

Sebastian's eyes began to water. He cleared his throat.

"You know, I don't think I ever told you this, but you are a light. Like, I've been okay by myself and I have been, but with you."

Sebastian stared at Dean, finding the right words in his eyes.

"With you, everything is so much brighter and clearer. Life has always been so much better with you in it, Dean. I love you too."

Sebastian took his hand off of Dean's face and used it to link pinkies with Dean.

"I promise to be with you in all my other lives. I promise to always be your mate." He said, his pinky warm with Dean's against his. Dean's eyes shone.

"I promise to love you in all my other lives. I promise to forever be your mate."

Sebastian pulled their hands up to his lips and kissed them gently.

"I love you."

Dean moved forward, giving Sebastian a soft and sweet kiss.

"I love you."

What felt like a wave passed through their bodies, drawing out a gasp from each of them. Almost immediately afterwards, they saw each other begin to age.

In rapid speed, the years they had spent alive began to catch up to them and express themselves on their faces, in their bodies.

Their hair grew long and gray. Wrinkles appeared and grew deeper on their skin, becoming more pronounced by the second. Right before Sebastian's eyes, he saw when deep brown freckles appeared on Dean's cheeks from all of his time out in the sun and felt his ageing skin against his hand.

In some of the last seconds, Dean started to lift up his arm but groaned at the strain it caused him. He was going, he knew that, but right before he went he wanted to hold Sebastian's cheek one more time. Sebastian lifted his upper body with incredible strain, groaning past his quickly ageing lips, but got closer to Dean. As his vision began to go, Sebastian saw Dean place a hand on his cheek and felt his forehead touch against Dean's.

The two passed before they hit the 100-year mark. Their spirits left but their bodies continued to age, completing the natural process. The bodies decayed and their flesh left, leaving the raw bone in its place. When the process was finally over and 167 years of growth had passed, the bones left behind were placed in a way that perfectly represented Sebastian and Dean.

Hands held tight and foreheads pressed together.

It was a beautiful scene to end two beautiful lives.

-----

Approximately Seventy-Five Years Later

Her long wavy brown hair fell down her back and over her shoulders, brushing over her elbows so often she barely noticed the tickling anymore. She was sitting on one of the hover seats in her neighbourhood park and staring intensely down at the object in her lap.

It was a small plastic and metal object that was shaped like a long flat rectangle. The front screen and, what she assumed to be, buttons were crushed but she could faintly make out the word 'power' on the right below the screen. It took her several minutes of analyzing it herself with her brows tightly furrowed before she finally gave up, pulling out her portable screen and waving it over the object to scan it.

She had been hoping to figure out what ancient thing it was herself but, honestly, she wasn't the most ecologically efficient lightbulb in the hardware store. No matter how hard she tried, she just wasn't a school type of female.

She finally noticed that the results had already come up and she furrowed her thick brows.

"A sony walkman . . . ?" She muttered, tilting her head in confusion. The brand Sony was familiar, they were still a corporation today although having been founded nearly 500 years earlier. However, the 'walkman' sounded totally foreign to her.

She tapped a small button in the corner, bringing up search results for what it was. It was a music-playing device, she read, and below that was the mentions of a popular old rap song written by a couple of comedians.

Her eyes were wide in wonder as she read all of the information about the old device. It was fascinating to her to see how her ancient ancestors approached tech. Technology had changed so much over the years, so seeing a device made solely for music had her chuckling at the absurdity.

She decided to play the song, and when the old bass and classic rap style flooded her ears, she began bopping along to the music. The music was extremely old, there was no denying that, but she kind of liked it. And, even with the old jokes, she was able to laugh.

She was still listening to the song quietly on her portable screen when she heard a loud whirring sound.

She looked up, eyes peaking through the wall of her hair, and gasped. Someone was riding a motorcycle on the parking lot that surrounded the park, their intense speed bringing the wheels to nearly grazing the concrete. She watched as they began to do donuts spinning in a circle until their wheels actually scraped against the ground with a loud buffering noise.

The young girl watched from her seat in the park, eyes comically wide at the sight. She had never heard of someone riding any vehicle hard enough to do that. She was transfixed, letting the old rap song continue to play in the background. She then noticed the edges of a black-haired bob coming from the bottom of the helmet.

The girl wondered whether the rider was male or female. Hairstyle did nothing to help indicate a person's gender, not only with the eighth of the population being nonbinary but also because all hairstyles were gender-neutral. She would have to ask the rider herself to find out. That was if they ever stopped doing donuts.

They finally turned out of the donut and drive up to the edge of the park. The sudden break they made right before riding over the grass caused the entire thing to jerk violently before coming to a stop. The wheels once again hovered safely over the ground.

The rider laughed loudly, taking off their helmet to expose a wide smile. Like the female seated in the park, the rider was of mixed race. But this wasn't uncommon. After so many years with the different races of the world free to travel, the entire human population was of mixed race. While the girl in the park had more obvious Latina and African heritage, the rider appeared to have more East Asian and African heritage.

After patting their bike with a pleased grin, the rider finally noticed the girl seated in the park. Nice hair, the rider thought, admiring the female's long wavy hair. The female blushed at the sudden attention. She hadn't expected the rider to notice her so soon and was taken aback. She got off of the hovering seat, playing with her silver sleeve as she shuffled closer to the stranger.

"Hello." She greeted, smiling shyly and ducking her head to hide more of her face behind her hair. She became acutely aware of being nearly a head taller than the rider in front of her. The realization made her that much more aware and she blushed again.

"Hey," The rider grinned in response. As they climbed off of the bike, the tall girl noticed the rider's toned legs, shaped beautifully by the tight latex pants they wore. The taller girl had to look away when her eyes wandered to the stranger's butt.

Not appropriate for a first meeting. She reminded herself, frowning at her own disrespect.

"Umm, my name's Wisdom." The female blurted, taking her wandering eyes back up to the stranger's face. "I'm a female."

"Fortune." The rider replied, putting out her hand for Wisdom to shake. "Female."

"Nice to meet you, Fortune." Wisdom grinned widely, happy to hear such a nice name for the cool female.

"Same here." Fortune let her hand linger for a second longer than necessary, getting a feel of the taller girl's soft palms, and finally pulled her hand back. She placed both of her own large hands around her waist, looking around the small park. "So, what were you doing out here by yourself?"

Wisdom's eyes lit up and she began running back to her seat without another word. Fortune watched her, amused when Wisdom nearly tripped on her own feet while running back. While Wisdom had a flush on her cheeks from the embarrassment and exercise, she was so excited to show Fortune her discovery that she barely cared.

"This!" Wisdom handed Fortune the walkman, watching as Fortune began to flip the small device in her hands repeatedly. Fortune had no idea what it was and Wisdom found herself smiling again, eager to be the person to introduce Fortune to the music device. "It's called a sony walkman. People used it to save and play music back in the early 21st century."

Although Fortune would tell anyone that she was not a history nerd, she found her eyes widening at the small rectangle of plastic and metal.

"Music?" She asked, lifting up the little device over her head so it caught the light. "With this?"

"I know right? Isn't it so silly to have a device that can only play music?" Wisdom asked, giggling at the mere thought again. Fortune nodded in agreement, her eyes drifting over to Wisdom.

"Yeah, it is." She was no longer looking at the Walkman but staring intently at the female in front of her. Wisdom caught her eye and the two stared silently at each other for a moment, before breaking the stare simultaneously. "So . . . you like to look for old stuff around the park?"

Wisdom laughed at the simple question, finding the way Fortune brought it up amusing. She started to shake her head before thinking it over again and then nodding.

"I wouldn't phrase it like that but I do sometimes find things under the dirt or in trees and . . . yeah, I guess I do." Wisdom scratched her head, surprised by the realization. "I guess it's a hobby."

"If that's a hobby, what is your job?" Fortune questioned, crossing her arms to get more comfortable. Wisdom shook her head.

"I don't have a job." Wisdom answered almost immediately. It was a forced habit. Her mother always warned her to not invite job offers, some took maybe as a yes and used that to get young girls like her in illegal business. At least, that is what her momma told her.

"Right. Then what do you want to do when you're older?" Fortune felt dumb for having asked the first question. It was obvious despite Wisdom's height that she wasn't at the age to have a credible job, yet she still asked. She was happy she thought of a different question so soon.

Wisdom hummed, pushing her hair behind her shoulders out of habit as she thought.

"I'm not really sure. I haven't thought about it." She admitted softly. Without warning, she crossed her legs and plopped down onto the grass. Fortune's mouth opened in surprise but she quickly followed Wisdom's lead and got on the ground. "I know that I want to do something interesting. I would want to have something new to deal with every day. It would also be cool if I could help people."

Wisdom looked up from where she had been staring at the grass, blushing when she found Fortune's dark eyes focused on her.

"I don't know any job that fits that description off the top of my head." Wisdom commented, laughing softly. Fortune was still staring at her the entire time so she ducked her head again. Once she was looking through her hair, she cleared her throat. "What about you. What do you want to do?"

Kiss you was Fortune's first thought, be she mentally disregarded the thought.

"I'm in school to become an astronaut." Fortune told her, grinning proudly. "I want to be on their exploratory team and travel to planets farther than any species have ever gone." Wisdom took note of how Fortune's voice lifted and her eyes got that dazed sheen.

"So you love . . . travelling?" Wisdom asked, wincing when the shorter girl sent her a slight glare.

"Exploring." She corrected, drawing her knees up to her chest. "Adventure. That's what I love."

"But, wouldn't that be scary, going up in space and being far away from home?" Wisdom asked, nearly shivering from the thought of being so far away from earth and its dimensions. Fortune shrugged at the thought, her mind distant.

"It's not like I'll have a lot to miss." Fortune muttered, her gaze turning dark. Wisdom was dying to get more information, but Fortune's eyes changed and she knew the moment was gone. Fortune's eyes trailed over Wisdom's figure quickly, so fast Wisdom almost missed it. Almost. "Hey, do you want to get a bite to eat? I got these coupons for Mc&W but I would never be able to finish all that food by myself."

Wisdom nodded widely, getting up as she responded.

"That's perfect. I was actually getting hungry." Wisdom explained, grabbing her stomach when it made a small growling noise. "Maybe a little too perfect."

She and Fortune laughed and began walking out of the park. When Wisdom started to cross the concrete path, she was stopped by Fortune grabbing her wrist. Wisdom sent Fortune a confused look but her silent question was quickly answered when Fortune started taking her to her bike.

"What? You want to take me on that?" She asked, eyes growing ridiculously wide. "But, I've never ridden one before and you drive like a maniac!"

Fortune rolled her eyes at the insult but-luckily- didn't take the comment to heart.

"That was just me having some fun." She shrugged, not realizing that her nonchalance made it even more nerve-wracking. "I won't do much of that with you on the back."

"Much?!"

Fortune laughed.