#{ivan verse}

Two years. It had been two years since Ivan had broken up with his ex-girlfriend and he had spent the majority of that time in denial. It took him months to come to terms with the fact that she was already dating someone else while he couldn’t stop stalking her social media. His friends tried everything to help him get over her, from offers of alcohol and setting him up on blind dates. For a while, the distractions were welcomed, but eventually, Ivan became a recluse. His heart felt as if it were clogged--blocked off and he couldn’t fathom falling in love again. Still, the brunet was well aware that he had needs and urges that required a bit of intimacy to relieve. Whenever he tried to watch porn or close his eyes and take care of it himself, all he saw was her. He felt dissociated from everything after sending five years being able to indulge in the warmth of her body--even for just a hug. Desperate thoughts plagued his mind and he spent several weeks considering hiring a prostitute that looked like his ex. He ended up chickening out on that idea.

By a stroke of fate--or irony, he found an ad for a phone sex operator with a picture of a girl that resembled his ex. Ivan was curious and figured if he became too embarrassed, he could simply hang up. No hard feelings and no one would know about it. For the past hour, the brunet had been staring at the number in his phone with his thumb hovering over it. Taking a deep breath, he finally pressed the call button and nervously counted the rings as he waited for someone to answer. It crossed his mind that he hadn’t the slightest clue how the conversation should start. Was he expected to immediately take control and began flirting or were there rules to discuss beforehand? He had already decided that he was going to use a fake name just in case. Distracted by all of these thoughts running through his head, he almost missed hearing the ‘Hello’ when someone answered. The words froze on Ivan’s tongue as he tried to process what he should do next. In his silence, another ‘Hello’ was given and it was then that the brunet realized it was a male’s voice on the other end.

“You are every beat my heart makes,” Ivan stated as obsidian met azure. Time continued to be evasive whenever Ivan moved from one realm to the next. He knew the toll it was taking on his lover, who was caged as a human. This was one of the many reasons why it was forbidden to maintain a serious relationship with beings so obsessed and controlled by the passage of time. Each moment spent apart was another notch closer to death for his mortal lover. The sickness wouldn’t allow Ivan to skip a trip home. If he did, he would no longer possess the ability to inhabit a human form and walk the earth. He’d have to watch Adrian live on from afar. That thought alone killed him and was the driving force to continue on. Even though Ivan knew he risked losing them, whether they grew tired of waiting or their heart found another, he had to make the sojourn home once a month. In mortal time, that sometimes stretched to days, weeks--a year.