Work Text:
Soulmate marks were said to be special, a great blessing. To receive assurance that there was someone out there destined for you, why, who wouldn't want such a thing?
That's what Lumine had always thought at least. To have the first words they said to you, permanently etched onto one's skin. She thought it was so romantic. Her parents bore beautiful marks, pretty words in lovely scripts. Even Aether had recently gotten one, though he was yet to meet them. She was hoping for one herself soon. Maybe it'd be a fancy cursive script or the stern lettering of times new roman. A few sweet words or a couple of pretty sentences.
She gets her wish soon enough, jerked awake one night by a burning on her wrist. After fumbling in the dark for a second, she finally finds the lamp switch and flips it on, eager to see what words now graced her skin. Bringing her wrist up to her tired eyes, she slowly begins to read aloud.
"Hey girlie, hold still."
Huh?
She rubs her eyes before looking at it again.
Girlie?
She must not be awake enough. Because she could not have something that dumb on her skin for forever. Who even said stuff like that?
Maybe this was a dream. Yeah, that was it. She'd wake up later and find that her hopes had led to this delusion. There was no mark, no "hey girlie, hold still."
And with that thought, she promptly falls back asleep.
Morning comes, the grating sound of her phone alarm going off bringing her out of her slumber. She stifles a yawn, she was still tired, weird dreams having plagued her sleep.
Wait, it had been a dream, right?
She quickly looks at her wrist to confirm.
Nope. It was very much real. Right there in front of her. Those four dreaded words. And in getting a clear look at it now, was that comic sans? Did she seriously have the word "girlie" etched onto her skin in comic sans of all fonts?
Yes indeed, oh how the Archons must hate her.
She wants to go back to sleep and not think about it. And probably would have had it not been for Aether barging into her room just as she lays back down.
"You're gonna make us late for school," he states, flinging open her curtains. All he gets is a grumble in response as she pulls her covers over her head.
"Don't make me drag your ass out of bed." It wouldn't be the first time he'd done it as while Lumine was many things, a morning person was not one of them.
Since it never ended pretty for either of them though, the threat is enough to get her to push her blankets back and sit up.
She glares at him, flipping him off, "I'm going to beat the shit out of you."
"Sure you will. Glad to see your happy smile this morning," he returns the gesture along with sticking his tongue out at her. "Anyways, do you know if we have a test tom-" He cuts off, having noticed the mark on her wrist. "What's that there?"
Oh shit.
Of course he'd notice.
"Nothing," she quickly tries to hide her hand behind her back, but he grabs it before she is able to do so.
"Ohoho, what's this? My sister now with her own soulmate mark?"
"Don't look at it!" But her cry is futile as his laughter fills her ears.
"Oh my archons. Girlie?" He is wheezing, almost doubled over. "That's great, that's just-" he can't even speak clearly, he is laughing so hard.
Pulling her wrist out of his grip, she stands and stomps on his foot.
"You're no help at all." She had a faint hope he might be a caring and understanding brother who felt sympathy for her plight. But noooo, she got this clown.
As he whines in pain, she pushes him out of her room.
But before she can slam the door in his face, he calls out, "Was that comic sans I saw too?"
She is going to kill him.
Several years had passed since then and she has yet to run into anyone who has called her girlie. Which is, probably a good thing to be honest as she had made up her mind to punch whoever did.
Her other friends did find out soon after she got it, and at least with them, she got some sympathy. Mona had cackled at her and poked fun for a while, though that quickly stopped when she found herself bearing a mark that read "the stars aren't real." Seems now Lumine wasn't the only one planning the death of a soul mate.
But having made it through highschool and first year of college without meeting "the one", she had stopped fussing about it so much. It was easy enough to cover with a few bracelets and as you know, what you can't see can't affect you. And not to mention school kept her mind more than busy enough, she didn't have the time to think about it even if she wanted to. Which she definitely didn't, she definitely wasn't.
She's standing outside in one of the campus's many common areas, listening to Mona prattle on about stars or something. Interesting though she doesn't understand it. Though a slight buzz by her ear distracts her attention for a moment and then-
"Hey, girlie, hold still."
She hears a voice from behind her say those all too familiar words and her eyes widen. In shock, anger, excitement? All three maybe?
Instead of following said instructions, she spins around to see who had said this, finally laying eyes on her soulmate, the one who had been causing her grief over those stupid words for all those years.
Tall and casually dressed. Messy ginger hair that looked like he had just rolled out of bed. Blue eyes focused on a wasp hovering by where she had just been standing seconds ago. As it was about to fly off, he quickly caught it, smacking it between his two hands.
She gawks at him, not sure what to make of anything that had just happened in the past few seconds, "What the actual fuck?"
Dead wasp dropping to the ground, now forgotten, his gaze meets hers. A look of surprise graces his face, it's one almost enough to rival her own. "It's you!?!"
A question or a statement, she can't quite tell, but they just stand there like idiots staring at each other in silence.
He then quickly pushes up his shirt sleeve, revealing words on his wrist.
She had thought her own mark had been bad ever since she got it. But upon seeing "What the actual fuck" printed on his arm, she has to admit, maybe hers isn't the worst? She almost feels bad for him.
Almost.
At least his isn't in comic sans.