To Those Loved Without

It was the ending to every romance novel, every rom-com. There was a kiss, a declaration of love, and then the tentative, but hopeful offering up of the two love interests’ daemons. As though the external pieces of a person’s soul were the final hurdle, the final obstacle between them and true love.Tom was tired of it, tired of seeing it play out in the rom-coms that - between Nils and the Wedgewoods - he ended up watching a lot. He was tired of seeing an actor that he knew for a fact had an armadillo daemon stand next to a well trained dog and gasp when the on-screen love interest (who he was fairly sure had a rabbit daemon) carefully placed an equally well trained parrot on his shoulder. Those weren’t their daemons. But you couldn’t ask actors to touch another actor’s daemon. That was too far. But playacting at it with faked daemons? Totally fine.Tom was just… He was tired of it.