Elizaveta smiled brightly as she clicked on the 'video call' button that had just popped up, knowing already who would want to Skype with her right now. Within seconds the face of her good friend Lukas popped up, all the way up from Norway while she was stuck down in Hungary. But they didn't mind, they never did; talking like this was amazing already and they always had a lot of fun when they talked. It had been a few years already since they had met, purely by accident on a pen pal site somewhere on the internet. From then on they kept talking more and more, getting to know each other and learning bits and pieces about the puzzle that was their soul.
Many friends of them had already told them that they fit together like soul mates, but of course neither of them ever listened to that. Everybody knew that if you meet your soul mate, a light will light up from inside of you, and that had never happened to either of them. Elizaveta was the only one who had friends who did share a light in their chests, her best friend Gilbert and her ex Roderich. They had met through her and it didn't take them long before they came to her, quite shyly, and showed the lights. Of course she broke it off with Roderich then, knowing that he would be happier with Gilbert, but it still had hurt her. That was how she ended up on this internet site anyway, and it had led her to a new best friend.
"Lukas!" she chirped out, waving at her friend. "I've missed you so much the last few days, how was the weekend off with your brothers?"
Lukas smiled back at her and waved too, listening to her till she finished talking.
"It was really nice. We all went up in the mountains for hiking and some of them had others with them. I mean, we already found out the day before it that Berwald of everybody found his light! Do you remember Tino? He's been here once and talked to you, small, a little bit loud, very smiling. Well, they ended up coming up to us hand in hand, lights shining. And Emil found his light too, though that is mostly thanks to you. After all, you are the one who suggested your pen friend Natalia as a match for him. They've talked almost nonstop after you introduced them and he told us yesterday that his light shone for her, and that hers shone for him."
Elizaveta listened happily and then let out soft, happy sounds. She really was happy for his brothers that they had found their lights, after years of knowing Lukas she had get to know his brothers a little bit too and made a bit of a bond with them. So by now she knew that both Berwald and Emil weren't the best when it came to find somebody they could love, which was why it made her so happy that they were the first ones of the family to find their soul mate. Somewhere inside of her she was jealous though, because she wanted to have her light too and share it with somebody. But she would wait for it, as long as it would need to find the one for her.
"I'm so happy for them." She said after a few seconds, her smile a little softer and gentler than before. "Out of everybody I know I really do think that they deserved it most, seeing that they're not really secure when it comes to girls. I mean, remember that time I flirted with Emil because I was half drunk and it seemed funny to do? The poor guy didn't even dare to talk to me again and he walked off with his face redder than a stop sign."
Lukas laughed when she said that, though a small pang of jealousy went through him anyway, he didn't really like it when Eliza was off flirting with others. It was stupid to do because it wasn't like they were tied to each other, but he always was a little clingy to the few persons that he had in his life and feared for losing one of them.
"He ended up having to go to Matthias to ask for advice, actually." He chuckled out, resting his chin on his hand as he watched her on the screen. "Poor bloke had no idea why you were suddenly so different and Matt had to go explain what flirting is. When he got it though he was more confused than before for some reason he didn't want to tell, but I guess that was just that you showed some sort of interest in him. But he learned quickly, flirted quite a lot with Natalia actually till they ended up going on a date together. Which was a hell to organise. We had to get him to Belarus after all.."
"Hmm, he went up there? Well that's dedication! I mean it's so expensive, getting on a plane!" She said with a big pout, seeing that they had already tried to meet up a few times. But each time they had the money something came in between it, and they couldn't go anymore.
"We'll meet up once, Lizzie." Lukas said quickly, seeing the sadness coming up in her eyes already. "It just takes a little longer than expected, but that can make it a lot nicer when we meet. Cause we'd be all happy that it's finally time!"
The Hungarian smiled softly at that and nodded, stroking a little through her hair. It was just a small habit of hers when she was a little shy or nervous, just to do something when she had no idea what to say or do.
"I just wished it could be a bit sooner, you know?" She then confessed. "It's just that you're like, the best friend I ever had, and I can't even hug you in real life. And that just makes me so angry cause, well, why can everybody have people they care about the most in the whole wide world around them but we can't?"
Lukas listened to her and sighed sadly, but suddenly his eyes widened. A small light flamed up on her side, he couldn't see it all but just a small part, which was more than enough. Her light had started to shine, for him. But when he looked down at his own chest he couldn't see anything, no light at all. And on the other side of the screen Eliza noticed it too now, why he was suddenly so shocked.
"L-Lukas.." She whispered, tears starting to come up into her eyes. But they weren't tears from happiness, for she had caught on too. The light had started in her chest, showing her that she had found that soul mate she had been looking for so long. But on his side nothing had happened, so that was saying that they weren't meant to be at all. It happened of course, when you were quite unlucky. But she never expected this to happen to herself, to end up being that one percent that wasn't going to find their soul mate or fall for the wrong one. And just seconds after she ended the call, not wanting to see him for a bit. Instead she just got up, grabbed her coat and walked out of her apartment, needing to talk to Gilbert.
Lukas sat there in shock as she suddenly ended the call, unable to believe this. For so long they had been so close to each other, knowing everything that nobody else would ever find out, and this one moment seemed to have ruined everything they had worked on for so long.
Elizaveta got into her car and drove off, knowing already where she would go to. It took her half an hour to get there, but when she knocked on the door it was opened right away and she was pulled into a hug. It made her happy to see her friend again, especially now he was always glued to Roderich. Of course that wasn't his fault, but it did make her feel a little bit lonely.
"Lizzie.. What's wrong?" Gilbert asked softly, rubbing her back gently up and down. "Why are you crying? That's a light I'm seeing there, you shou- Oh fuck… Oh Liz…" he muttered, pulling her inside. It was obvious now what happened, Elizaveta wouldn't just start crying about nothing. It could only be that the one she started to shine for didn't shine back, there was no other explanation. So he took her inside and sat her down on the couch. Roderich was there too but wisely decided to go make them all something to drink, so that the two friends could have a bit of a talk.
He pulled her in, cuddling her close into his body, gently stroking through her brown locks. It made him so sad to see her like this, so broken and fragile; it just wasn't the Lizzie that he knew since they were little. The one that could beat him in a fight and then laugh before sneaking in her mother's kitchen to grab some cookies. And as she cuddled deeply into him, her shaky breath against his throat he finally noticed how much it had hurt her in the end. Not just this part, but that he had been so absent from her life for so long and clearly missed out on some important stuff on her side. The pain from her body seemed to slip into his own, filling up every vein and every single cell of his being. In this moment he felt more connected to her than they had been in months, and at the same time it hurt more than any second they had spent together in all those years.
"Oh Lizzie…" he whispered sadly, knowing that most of the things he would want to say wouldn't help anyway. "I am here, honey. I am here, and Roddy is here, and we're going to try and get you to smile again, ja? Cause you're looking your best when you smile and kick my ass for reasons I still don't know but don't care for much…"
Eliza nodded softly and rubbed her eyes with her sleeve, trying to stop herself from crying. He was right, she did look her best when she smiled. And smiling she would, if it made Gilbert happy she would do her best for him. When Roderich came back she accepted the cup of hot chocolate, blowing on it to get it a little colder before taking a tiny sip. She knew that they were keeping a close watch on her, seeing if she'd cry again, but she wasn't going to go back to that weak spot anymore now. It was time to try and start to move on, knowing that she'd be alone forever; but at least she'd be proud and hopefully happy.
In the early afternoon of the next day she had to say goodbye to her friends though, knowing that she couldn't stay with them forever. They had their own life together now, so she shouldn't disturb their big plans with her whining. No, it was time to go home now and sort things out. And who knows, perhaps this whole thing was going to work for her. Most of the ones that did not find or share a soul mate ended up being famous some way. Like once there was a woman who ended up being a famous TV star, and this one guy from the United States wrote a book. Yes, that was something she could do; write a book. Something that went totally against how she had been acting for so long, which could give her a brand new start. Perhaps it would be possible to save up to go on a nice trip around the world now, document everything on some website and find people who shared her interests again.
The whole way back she spent her time thinking about what to do now, so much that she didn't even notice somebody sitting on her porch till she was standing three steps in front of him. Instantly the light in her chest flared up again, making her swallow thickly.
"You're here.." She said softly, looking down at the ground as he stood up. Before she knew it though she was pulled into a close hug, which she only could join into out of habit. Feeling him for the first time made her smile even though she was so mad at him. Made her tear up from happiness at smelling that scent that was now all his. Something with trees and chocolate? But it didn't matter so much, because right now she was the happiest woman on this planet.
Lukas was smiling brightly when Elizaveta finally got home, already waiting there for two hours or so. The first thing that he did wasn't even saying hello to her, it was pulling her into a tight hug. After so long they finally got to meet, of course he would want to hold her more before even talking to her. He held her tightly and stroked through her hair, and after wondering how it would be to hold her so long, well, he couldn't help but perhaps shed a few tears.
"I-It's so good to see you, Lizzie.." he breathed out shakingly, holding her a little bit tighter. But instead of hearing something back she didn't answer at all, so he let go a little so he could look at her. She only came up till his chest after all, so perhaps he didn't hear her when she said something. But Liz wasn't looking at him at all, instead her eyes were fixated on his chest. And when he looked down at it he smiled softly, more tears forming in his eyes. Her hand slowly moved up and stroked over his shirt, right above where a light had appeared out of nowhere.
And he knew now, knew that they were going to be happy together. That coming to her was the right thing to do. Because it had just taken him till their first meeting to know that this was the woman he would want to spent the rest of his life with.