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Joshua scoffed as he settled into bed at the end of the day. He could feel Amelia's stress, and all he wanted to do was comfort her and make her happy. He couldn't, though. This Amelia loathed him, he angered her, yet he couldn't begin to explain to her how it wasn't him that she hated.

How would he even explain it to her? Amelia, I am not the Joshua you know. I come from a parallel universe—

That sounded ridiculous, he concluded.

Amelia, I come from a parallel universe and in that world, you and I are not Fated, but we are in love.

She would slap him, and he wouldn't blame her. It sounded ridiculous to him, and he was the one going through it every week, every month, every year—he didn't know the length of time, but it had been years. Potentially two by his count, but time like that didn't really mean much to him any longer. It was a construct to a Drifter. Once he decided where he was staying, if he got to live, then it wouldn't be a construct anymore.

It took him time to adjust each time: the people were the same but used different spellings for their names. That alone was never a problem, Joshua found, but it meant he'd trip up now and again. Amelia was Emilia in his home-world, her Fated One Owen was Owain...

In Joshua's home-world, the man Emilia was Fated to was her childhood best friend, but they didn't love each other. He worked in a bank and they both lived in an expensive house because his parents were surgeons or something. She worked in the coffee shop with Joshua in his world, well, Joshua was her boss. They'd have 'meetings' in the office that consisted of things they shouldn't be doing, and they promised each other they would find a way to be together.

The realisation dawned on him a little slower than he expected, but it still had the same ridiculous impact – he wasn't sure what was real anymore, why anything was happening and how it was all possible.

Joshua knew that That Joshua found it hard to adjust to the world he visited. It was easy when Joshua didn't know Amelia in this world – she'd only been a student for six months in this world, he'd found out. In Joshua's home-world, she had been working at the coffee shop since she was seventeen, he'd been her boss for one year, and they'd started their affair not long after he started.

Amelia was stressed, he could tell as he leaned his head back into the pillow. His heart rate was speeding uncomfortably, sweat moistened his forehead and bile swished in his stomach.

He pulled his phone out and brought up his emails. He'd sent the notes over to her like he'd promised when she walked out of the lecture, but she hadn't responded.

'Amelia, I just wanted to check in on you after you fell ill earlier. Thanks, Joshua.'

The moment he pressed send, he sighed. He knew he'd have to return to his home-world soon, and that would mean his whole life would be upheaved again. But he would get back to Emilia, the one who did love him, that was the one silver lining to it all.

His email pinged five minutes later. Amelia. 'Joshua, I could do with a meeting as soon as you're able. I have some questions I need to talk through with you. Amelia.'

He emailed her back asking if he wanted to meet her the next morning at a local coffee shop that wasn't the one where her fiancé worked – though he didn't add that fact into the email. It took her half an hour, but she emailed back with the confirmation.

He laid back in bed. The ceiling was bubbled, the patterns were random, bobbled on some parts, lines on other bits. He sometimes wondered if the decorator of this place was painting his own brain somehow.

He could feel Amelia's stress loosening since they'd messaged each other, but he could still feel the pull of hatred that linked them. He wondered if she could feel the love he held for her.

Despite Emilia and Amelia being the same people, they were different. Joshua couldn't help but love Amelia as well. He swore it was the tether; he could feel when she was happy, sad, angry, confused. What frustrated him was that he'd been feeling it for six months, on and off when he was in this world, but he hadn't seen it until two days previously.

He felt her even out as she fell asleep – finally. He wondered if she was warming to him – or rather That Joshua. He got a pen and paper and jotted down: Amelia Nichols is my Fated One, and because you failed her work, she loathes me. She thinks I'm you! I told you it deserved a pass, you idiot.

Joshua put the paper on the bedside table before lying down properly. He wanted sleep to take hold, but he could feel Amelia be restless, stress gripping her. His veins flowed with adrenaline.

He did the one thing he knew worked for Emilia when they spent nights together – he hummed her favourite Disney tune, A Whole New World.

He didn't know if it was a coincidence, but he could feel the relaxation take her within a few moments. He kept going for a few more bars, and he felt drowsy himself.

Was their tie getting stronger, he wondered, or was that just pure coincidence?

It was eating him alive because all he wanted was to comfort her, make sure she was loved, but the hatred was strong. She'd never accept him, and yet he wasn't the one who did anything.

He wished that she wanted to discuss it in the morning, but he didn't hold out much hope.

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He stared around the café he'd said they'd meet in the next morning as he waited. He'd got her a pot of tea which came in a chipped white teapot with a matching chipped cup and saucer. He got himself a caramel latte and he sat staring around at the white walls. The only way the shop had tried to inject life to the place were the random framed photos of a Southampton back in the eighties and nineties, but all it did was bring the place down.

He sighed with relief as Amelia walked in, a backpack slung over her shoulder. She was wearing dark jeans and a long grey t-shirt that was almost a dress. She wore a long caramel-coloured cardigan and took the Airpods out of her ears as she approached the table.

"Amelia," Joshua greeted. "I got you a pot of tea. I've seen you have it before, so I just thought it was the best thing."

She gave him a small grin. "Thanks. I... appreciate it."

The loathing of him in her aura wasn't as strong as it had been before, but he still felt it like lava spewing from a volcano. She poured herself a cup of tea, letting the milk mix in without using the spoon.

"Joshua, the reason I wanted to see you wasn't to do with uni work," she admitted.

"I thought as much," he replied.

She hesitated for a moment, and he stared at her lips. She chewed her lip, just like Emilia did in his world when she was thinking. He couldn't understand what she was thinking about, but he felt her confusion bubbling like a boiling kettle.

She appreciated the silence; he could tell because of the tiny smile as she looked into her steaming drink. He just sipped his coffee and gave her the time she clearly needed.

"I told my fiancé last night that we have matching Knot Art. It... it didn't go down well. I... I've been wondering what all this means. I can feel you; I can feel your emotions and I think from what I can see you have the same for me, right?" she asked.

He nodded. "I've been feeling your stress, that's why I emailed you last night."

She hummed in response and thought on it while she sipped her drink. "I asked Owen, my fiancé, because he has the same Knot I do, obviously. I... he said he doesn't feel you, or at least, he said he doesn't get any side effects. I... have you been getting anything? I mean, you haven't met him, but you saw him when you were in the coffee shop."

He pondered it. He had only ever felt the effects with Amelia, and when he was at home, Charlotte. But she's severed their tether by rejecting him. She blocked him out, and he was thankful for it. But he'd laid eyes on Owen a few times since he'd been a Drifter, and he'd felt nothing towards him. He'd felt Amelia in one way or another since he'd laid eyes on her, in comparison.

"No, not once. The first time I saw you, I knew there was something there, the tether. It's only been since I saw the Knot Art that it's been this strong. But I've seen Owen a few times and... no I have felt nothing."

Amelia nodded. "So, it's just the two of us then. It does seem like I have a choice."

"I... I wouldn't know what the rules are on this one. All the literature says there's only one Fated Person for everyone," Joshua admitted. It hurt him to do so, and the way Amelia's eyes found his showed him she felt his pain too.

"Why do you want this? You're like... thirty—"

He chuckled. "I'm twenty-six. I turn twenty-seven next week. We're eight years apart, Amelia." He didn't add that technically, though it was his birthday the next week, he wouldn't be ageing at all because he was a Drifter.

"Wow, really?"

He nodded.

"Fine, you're twenty-seven, that's an eight-year age gap, Joshua. You're my lecturer. It's just weird. Let alone the fact that I love Owen. I don't get it," she said.

He'd always found disgust a highly strung word – an extreme reaction. But he could feel the repugnance of the idea of their age gap and his position as it were like the stench of gone off meat.

It hurt him even more than he realised it could.

"But," she added quickly. "I can't deny that I feel connected to you, and... I don't like you, but I feel like I can't stay away from you either. I hate it, but I kind of feel like you're easy to talk to. Plus, I can feel every fucking emotion and I hate that."

Joshua chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. "It's rather distracting to feel your emotions, but I guess that's something everyone has to get used to."

She nodded, drank her tea, and poured herself another one from the pot. She reminded him of a cup of tea: steaming at the beginning with anger, let it sit for a few minutes and she soon would be drinkable, then leave it just a little longer and she would become tepid. Either way, she was still angry, still full of hate, but she was going to have to turn it around just enough to deal with him being in her life.

Plus, she was hot, Joshua determined. He quickly realised himself: he wasn't sixteen, she wasn't hot. She was beautiful, smart, a hard worker. Her mathematics, however, clearly needed work, if any of their meetings over actual work showed anything.

He looked down into his drink. He wanted to tell her the truth, but he couldn't. She'd run away just as he'd started to make progress. She deserved the truth so she knew part of the reason why they were Fated, but her knowing the truth would open so many more doors than even he hadn't the keys to.

"Where do you propose we go from here, then?" Joshua asked. "Clearly, you wanted to see me for a reason more than just telling me about your fiancé."

She sighed. "Owen thinks this is psychological. But I don't know how to tell him it's not. I don't know how to make him see that this isn't just going to go away. I don't know... I don't know what to do. Clearly, we're going to be in each other's lives for the next three years, but I want to know how to un-tether us, or block it out, I don't know. I... I don't know how to find the answers I need."

He furrowed his brow at her, sipped the last of his drink which was just more sweet than bitter because of the caramel. He winced as it went down his throat. If he was at his work in his home-world, he would've at least mixed the syrup a little more than these people did.

"What answers do you want, Amelia?" Joshua asked.

She scoffed. "Why the hell we're Fated, why I'm Fated to two people, what are the rules here? 'Cause I don't want to end up in prison or segregated for something I didn't fucking choose. Why you—"

He interrupted her with the question he wanted to know since the whole fiasco started: "Why do you hate me so much? You cannot deny it, either, because I can feel it."

The funny thing about caramel, Joshua knew, was that when it's made, one second too long and you risk burning the whole thing.

She sat back in the seat, her expression lightened a little and his heart beat a little harder than it probably should have. "I think you're arrogant—"

"Arrogant?" Joshua questioned.

She nodded. "You inflate your own ego, we all know you're doing your PhD, Joshua, you don't need to tell us fifty times. You pick on me in lectures because you hate me, for I don't know, knowing my Fated One. You failed my essay for no reason. I answered the damn question, I worked fucking hard on it, yet I failed. Do you want me to go on?"

He raised his eyebrows at her. That Joshua really rubbed her up the wrong way, he noted.

"I mean, I can assure you I don't love myself, Amelia, quite the opposite," he said. "If I pick you out for an answer, it's totally at random, I promise. As for the essay, you passed the second time. How about from now on, I try my best not to be what you perceive me as?"

Her brown eyes found his, and in a slight moment of vulnerability, he felt the hatred die down just a little bit.

"By the way, you act thirty. Normal twenty-seven-year-olds are looser and less up themselves than you," she added. "But if you try, I suppose I can try to hate you a little less."

"It's rather exhausting feeling your rage for me across the classroom, and well, throughout the day," he retorted.

"It's exhausting feeling your hurt feelings because I hate you so much," she countered.

He rolled his eyes. She was nineteen, yet the rage within her made her act sixteen. Yet he found it amusing at the same time. How was that even possible, he asked himself.

"Do we have a deal?" Joshua asked.

She gave him a tiny smile, but it was enough for him. The tiny corners of her mouth upturned ever so slightly, and he felt the hatred melt for a few seconds. It made him want to sing.

"Deal. You try to be less of an idiot, and I will try to put up with you," she offered. She held out a hand.

Joshua noted the bracelet that was over her Knot; a silver charm bracelet with a few charms hanging on it. The Knot made him burn inside, made his own Knot buzz.

He quickly recovered and shook her hand. The moment slowed everything around him as they touched – his skin came alive, the darkness around his mind dissolved. It was almost orgasmic, the fireworks felt real.

He could see she felt it too; her face looked flushed, and he felt how she was entranced by their contact.

"Deal," he whispered. His words went unnoticed; they were both lost in the moment.

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