#.plusimage

Soul Mate Timer AU - They don't meet as kids but instead meet when they're older. Jerry the troubled wrong-side-of-the-tracks street rat and Lucas the kind hearted timid rich boy.

It's a rainy day near the bridge and he's sitting on the rocks by the small fast moving stream when he hears movement and looks up to see Lucas walking up to him and tilting his umbrella to shield them both from the rain. Lucas asking if he's okay, a bit intimidated by his eyes and Jerry just nods and scoots over to give Lucas room to sit. Lucas sits and asks if Jerry is lost and Jerry just shakes his head. The two fall silent, little!Lucas awkwardly worried he may be bothering this kid until Jerry looks over at him and quietly asks if he wants to see a magic trick. Lucas looks up at him and Jerry waves his hand in front of his face. When his hand slides up, his eye color inverts itself, the white returning and iris turning green, when his hand slides down, his eye color reverts back to normal. Lucas grins and excitedly asks how did he manage to do that and Jerry just gives a slight shrug and explains "It's all natural~"

The two begin chattering away at this point, up until Lucas has to go home. "You want me to walk you home?" Lucas asks and Jerry just shakes his head, turning to watch Lucas run off. Although the blond stops at the top of the hill to turn and call out "Can we meet here again tomorrow?!"

Jerry is caught off guard by that and struggles to think of what to say before he nods. "Ye-Yeah! That sounds great to me!"

In this version, Jerry would be more likely to have violent outbreaks, and may be even more so borderline evil at this point with only Lucas there to keep him from being an outright villain.

Lucas never becoming a wendigo in this timeline. Either Northshore doesn't happen, or events have been altered enough that they either aren't there or they're able to get to safety in time.

Possibly the academy spotting Jerry earlier on when someone witnesses one of those near-misses, enrollment there being offered to Lucas as well since he's in the know about supernatural things. So like before they're living nearby off-campus and they're well clear of Northshore when it happens, but other struggles arising as Jerry gets older and comes more into his demon side, and Jared still to detail with along with the school drama.

So cut to five years later and Jerry's been an Arcanine most of that, with vague but distant and dream-like memories of the city and a blond human that was friendly and important, enough that he stays near populated areas for reasons he doesn't understand. Trainers passing through the area hearing about a powerful, one-eyed Arcanine that's elusive and has been impossible to capture, people continuing to try and making Jerry incredibly distrustful of humans so that he does pretty much go on the offensive until he can flee almost whenever approached, barring when it's a child in which case he just more gently bumps them off and leaves. Until that fateful encounter with Lucas, on vacation from school and beginning to travel a bit in a poorly-disguised attempt to find out what happened to Jerry. Neither fully recognizing the other at first but there's that subconscious pull on bother sides - the eye and lack thereof at least reminding Lucas of him enough, and after intial hostility something kicking in in Jerry's head, that ever-present undercurrent of /I know him, I have to protect him/. So he, grudgingly at first, ends up tagging along after Lucas, who is inviting and offers him food to eat and tries to make friends, and does /not/ try to capture him. The pair of them falling into familiarity and friendship again easily after a bit despite the species gap.

Late one night, still up and working on learning how to read, a young Jeremiah Burton would be sucked into yet another tragedy as the one creature he feared would appear in his room. He tried to run, but injured legs got him no where, and when he called for help, no one could hear him courtesy of his uncle's abilities. The room was silent from the outside, but on the inside it was filled with terrified cries as Jerry asked for Jared to stop, that he didn't want to change and he didn't want to die. Ignoring his pleas, though, Jerry's struggle was fruitless and Jared would indeed sink his fangs into him. Forced to go through the process of changing into a monster, the hours would go by before finally Jared would vanish and the loud painfilled scream of Jerry would awake almost everyone in the house. Rushing to the room where Jerry was hiding under his bed, holding his wrist and refusing to let anyone see, he kicked and fougth to keep them away before finally a couple of grown men came in to drag the kicking and screaming child out and finally reveal the bites all over his wrist.

Immediately Jerry was moved from the room he'd been staying in and further into the Courtwater house, descending to the levels dedicated to vampiric research and work. As Jerry began changing, he was the subject of various attempts to reverse the process as well. For nearly a week of agony they fought and fought until it was too late and Jerry became a creature of the night. Locking him in one of the sealed rooms downstairs, it was then left up to Oliver and Regina to decide what should be done about the child now locked up in their house. One who Lucas was constantly asking about in worry day in and day out.