So this is a USUK Soulmate AU, as you might have guessed from the summary, because who doesn't love those. Basically, you live in black and white until you touch your soulmate for the first time. This will be eight chapters long, and posted every weekend, it'll probably vary the specific days.
I'm very proud of some of the stuff in here, so please enjoy! Don't forget to follow, favorite and review!
Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.
The world was absent of color. The dull greys and whites and blacks, anything that was truely original was nonexistent.
They said he'd see the colors one day. That's what they always said. That it would happened one day. No specific time or idea of when or how. It could be one day, one month, one year, just one day. Don't cry, Alfred, you'll see color one day!
They never asked why he cried, or why he was so crushed over the grey grass and white sky. It wasn't real. It wasn't fair.
But he had stopped crying over the grey world long ago. He gave up on it. He didn't believe in soulmates anymore. The more he thought of the mysterious future soulmate he had somewhere, the more he realized the truth. Fate was completely and utterly fake. How could anything decide who he should spend the rest of his life with, who fall in love with?
Alfred F. Jones had turned seventeen last July. He attended the International High School in New York City as a senior. His closest friend was Honda Kiku, a smaller, less popular, yet smart, Japanese boy. Life was good, and it was normal, but Alfred didn't believe in soulmates anymore.
"OhayĆgozaimasu, Alfred-san," Kiku greeted as the American student sat down next to him. "How was your summer?"
Alfred smiled at him, then shrugged. "It was fine. Officially seventeen though! My mom almost cried at my party."
"I know, I was there." The shorter reminded. Kiku had dark hair, grey eyes, and light grey skin. Alfred had no idea what color his friend's eyes, hair, and skin actually were. Even if someone were to tell him what color, he wouldn't know what that meant. It was all grey to him.
His own parents would tell him the names of the colors of his own features, but he always forgot the names. When all Alfred ever saw in the mirror was grey hair and lighter grey eyes, there wasn't much of a need to remember names of the things he couldn't see.
"Yeah. You heard about Feliciano yet?" Alfred dug through his bag for his notebook. They had this same teacher last year for Trigonometry, this year it would be Calculus.
"No, what about him?" He asked, obviously a little worried for his Italian friend.
"I heard that he met his soulmate. He went home to Europe over the break and met this German guy. I was going to ask, but I won't see him 'til ELA." Alfred explained.
"How lucky." Kiku sighed, somewhat dreamily. The other student still believed in soulmates, unlike Alfred, like the rest of the world. "What about you?"
"What about me?" Alfred frowned.
"Your soulmate?" Kiku clarified.
"You know how I feel about that junk." He shrugged. Kiku was actually one of the few who did know about Alfred's disbelief. His twin, Matthew, was the only other who knew. Alfred knew better than to tell his parents, they loved the whole soulmates thing. They were soulmates after all. If the wrong people found out, he'd be an outcast. Their whole society, the whole world, was built on fate's bullshit. He could pretend, but he couldn't believe. They couldn't make him.
He busied himself by writing his name in sharpie on the new notebook. The Japanese frowned softly and set a hand on Alfred's arm to get his attention. "Perhaps you should have more hope. You don't know that fate is wrong about your soulmate."
"I don't know that fate's right." He argued, his friend pulled away as the teacher entered and the bell rang.
"I won't force you to believe anything, but I do think you're being premature about your opinion." At that, Kiku dropped the subject, at least he knew when to drop it. Then, their first class of the year began.
Alfred had his reasons for not believing. The whole fate thing was bullshit. He was a scientific person, he currently was in the most advanced science class and wanted to be an astronomer or astronaut or some sort of space engineer. The American didn't like anything that didn't have any proof or facts. If you couldn't prove it, what made it real?
The monochrome world he was born into didn't have any proof as to why. Why couldn't he see color just like his parents could? Why would he be able to when he met his soulmate? What made his soulmate his? What did soulmates have to do with color at all? Why did everyone let fate just lead them blindly? It didn't make any sense, none of it did. Therefore, Alfred didn't believe in it. He couldn't make himself do it. Even as a child, before he had really realized the invalidity of it all, he never really believed. He pretended.
Most people found their soulmates after the age of eighteen. There were the rare few who found theirs in school. His brother had been one of those rare. Matthew attended the same school as Alfred, same grade, since they were twins. Matt was in several of Alfred's classes, but he usually was with a different group of friends.
He was the less popular, quieter, less noticeable of the two, yet they got along great. Alfred tried to include Mattie in everything, but didn't usually pressure anything. Same thing vise-versa, Matt didn't pressure Alfred about the whole soulmate thing. He didn't mind his non-belief, and didn't act like he was crazy for having that mindset or try to prove him wrong. They hung out a lot, most of their close friends knew each other. Alfred loved Matt, and wouldn't trade him for anyone else. But last year, when a new student transferred to their school, and that when things went downhill.
Since their school was international and in a good suburban area, near the big city, but not in middle of it, they had a high rate of new students. It was at least two per year, usually more. The new student was named Gilbert Beilschmicht. He was from Germany. He was Matthew's soulmate. After they had met, things had gotten weird between the twins. Matthew would question Alfred about his soulmate. He mentioned color so carelessly, he fought about his disbelief. The twins weren't close anymore.
"So!" The teacher began loudly, Alfred returned his attention. "We have a new student!" There were some snickers and he and Kiku exchanged looks. Introducing the new kid like they were in elementary school, unnecessary.
A new teenager walked in. He was shorter than Alfred, but taller than Kiku. He looked fairly grouchy, probably because of the early hour. He had the messiest grey hair and biggest darker grey eyebrows Alfred had ever seen, but it somehow seemed to fit him. He was paler, freckles dusted on his skin and bright silverish colored eyes. He was pretty cute actually."This is Arthur Kirkland, he's British, care to say anything, Arthur?"
"Er- Hello," Already laughs, the French kid in the back had burst out laughing. He earned a glare from both Arthur and the teacher before he continued. "I'm from London, and I look forward to studying here." He was obviously not the best public speaker. His words seemed fake too, Alfred bet he still wanted to be across the Atlantic Ocean, far from here. A Brit, too; there weren't many of those.
Francis and his trio still snickered as Arthur found his seat, right behind Alfred's. The American felt a little bad. He had been with this group of kids since fifth grade, plus the new couple every year, but he hadn't had to deal with being the new kid in a while. Deciding to be nice, Alfred turned around as the teacher started taking roll to talk to the British teenager.
"Hey, I'm Alfred." He smiled, Arthur glanced up, previously busy digging through his book sack.
"Oh, hello, Arthur." He returned and offered his hand, the American reached out to shake.
"Mr. Jones! How about you turn around and stop bothering Mr. Kirkland." They both jumped, Alfred quickly returned his attention to the front, shooting Arthur another smile. He seemed interesting, just something about him, an inner feeling. Maybe they'd end up being close friends.
