A/N: Hello! This is the thing I wrote for my two year anniversary on this website. Yep. Two years since I joined. Anyway. You came for the story, not too read me talking to myself.
Edited completely by myself, so any and all mistakes are completely and wholly my own.
A countdown. Matching tattoos. Matching necklaces. They're all the same. A way of telling who your soulmate is. No matter which one - and you can get any one of the three - is how you know who your soulmate is, and who isn't.
There are, of course, the individuals that stick out and don't have a soulmate, but they are far and few between.
Now, an explanation;
The countdown is there from birth, a constant ticking down of years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds until you meet your soulmate. It appears on your wrist, in black numbering, and it disappears after you've met your soulmate.
The tattoos appear at any time in your teenage years. They tend to be small and unobtrusive, but some tattooed soulmates have been known to have large, extremely noticeable ones. The tattoos are impossible to remove.
Necklaces, next to those with no soulmate at all, are the rarest. The necklace, much like the tattoos, come sometime in your teens. They come seemingly out of nowhere, just one day hanging around your neck. On them, there is no clasp. They are too small to merely slip off, and the chain is impossible to break.
-x-
Dean Winchester scratched absently at his wrist. There was no countdown there, unlike his little brother, Sammy. Dean was fifteen, nearly sixteen, and that meant that he would soon be getting either a tattoo or a necklace to know who exactly his soulmate was. He hoped it wouldn't be a necklace. They seemed to girly to him.
Dean's parents, John and Mary, had matching necklaces - a simple silver chain with a small, black pentagram for the pendant.
At school, most of his friends who didn't have a countdown had already gotten their soulmate markings. Jo had gotten a tattoo, something that closely resembled Princess Leia in her slave bikini and a some sort of die looking thing. Charlie's tattoo matched Jo's, meaning they were soulmates. Chuck had a necklace; a red cord with a book pendant. The others, except for Ash who had nothing yet, had a countdown.
So at least Dean wasn't alone in having nothing. Still, he hoped it would manifest soon. The faster it came, the less chance he had of not actually having a soulmate.
-x-
One day, in the middle of the week, a new kid came to school. Dean had no classes with him, but apparently Jo shared nearly all of hers with him. She informed Dean that the new kid's name was Castiel, that he was from Pontiac, Illinois, and that he already had his soulmate mark. What it was, however, she didn't know. All she'd seen of it was a black cord, she didn't see the pendant.
Oh, and she'd invited him to eat lunch with them.
"Castiel, right?" Dean asked the newcomer as he sat down. He took in his ruffled black hair, blue eyes, slim figure, and deemed him a good looking person. With some higher power determining who you ended up with, there wasn't much room for homophobia. If fate decreed that you were to be with someone of the same gender, then so be it.
The black haired teenager nodded and moved to sit between Jo and Dean, but quickly stopped as they glared at him. When he seemed unsure of whether he was actually welcome there or not, Jo said, "Oh, you can sit here, Castiel. You just can't sit between me and Dean."
"No one ever does. And if someone does try, one or both of them will become very upset," a polite British accent came from he other side of the table. Bela, who seemed to like trading off between the popular group and Dean's group, had finally come back after nearly a month at the other table.
Charlie gave a nod of affirmation from where she sat beside Bela. "She's right, you know. Your best bet is to sit on the other side of one of them."
Castiel nodded and took a seat next to Jo. A quiet hush fell over the table, none of them sure of what to say in the light of the new kid. Finally, though, he broke the silence.
"Are you two soulmates?" he asked, squinting at Jo and Dean.
"What? No!" Dean yelped, looking at Jo with a half disgusted, half joking expression.
Jo gave Dean the look right back. "Me and Winchester here? Please."
Castiel nodded as if that answered that.
"Besides, I've already gotten my soulmate mark and I already know who has the matching one. And it's not Dean," Jo said as she pulled her shirt up to reveal the tattoo on her back.
Castiel nodded again.
"So, Castiel, what's your soulmate mark?" Dean asked conversationally. Chances were, they wouldn't be soulmates. They rarely met during high school, but some soulmates did meet then. Besides, Dean didn't have his mark yet and most of the time, people who were soulmates tended to get their marks around the same time.
Castiel's hand went to his neck self consciously , where he felt the black leather cord. "It is not of import," he said after a few seconds of waiting.
Jo raised her eyebrows at him. "Are you one of those people who thinks that showing your mark to anybody but your soulmate is taboo? Please tell me you're not."
Castiel shrugged. "I don't feel like I know any of you well enough to disclose that information at this time."
Jo opened her mouth to say more, but Charlie beat her to it. "Jo, let it go," she gave her girlfriend a pointed look. Jo let out an indignant huff and turned to the food in front of her.
The conversation after that became much more casual, the entire group becoming more comfortable with Castiel as lunch passed by.
-x-
By the end of the next week, Castiel was a fully fledged member of the group. Still, he was uncomfortable saying what his soulmate mark was. Jo kept trying to get a glimpse of the pendant, but he always had it tucked inside his shirt.
That Friday, Jo was throwing a party. The entire group, as well as a few others - namely Sam and a few of his friends - were invited.
Castiel was the last to arrive. The party was at the Roadhouse, the bar that Jo and her mother, Ellen, lived in. They were all planning on spending the night, although some of the parents had needed a little persuading as people of both genders were coming.
After a couple minutes of just talking, Jo broke out the board games. The Game of Life was up first, and due to having so many people, it was decided that they would play with partners. Jo and Charlie were together of course. Bela quickly claimed Victor. Ash got stuck with Chuck. Sam and one of his friends, Jess, partnered. Sam's other two friends, Madison and Adam, paired up. Which left Dean and Cas together.
The game took over an hour to get through, mostly due to arguments between pairings on what they should do. Sam and Jess ended up retiring first, living in a penthouse and being a lawyer. They were easily the richest on the board, at least until Charlie and Jo ended up hitting a bunch of the life card spots, making them over four hundred thousand dollars.
The other pairings were doing quite well, but not as well as the two leading pairs. Expect for Dean and Castiel, who were in dead last and kept rolling exceptionally low numbers. They lived in a mansion - the most expensive house there is to have - but had one of the lowest paying jobs - accountant.
By the time they reached the end and sold their home and everything, they barely scraped up fifty thousand dollars, making them the losing pair. The winning team was a tie between Charlie and Jo, and Sam and Jess.
After that came Clue, again played with pairs. And to prevent any arguing or anything, it was the same pairs.
Cas and Dean - Mr Green - ended up being the murderer.
After that, they moved to the much more cliche party games of spin-the-bottle (Dean ended up having to kiss Jo, which was something they mutually agreed to never speak of again) and Never Have I Ever.
Then, began the game of Truth or Dare.
The truths were increasingly intrusive, the dares increasingly more sexual before it came around to Castiel for the third time. As he had every other time, he requested truth.
Jo narrowed her eyes at him, thought for a second, then turned to Charlie. The two conversed in hushed tones for a few seconds before Jo looked back at Castiel. "Castiel, what's your soulmate mark look like?"
His eyes widened. "I'm not showing you. That would be a dare, not a truth."
Jo held up a finger. "Ah ah ah. I said tell us what it looks like, not show us."
Castiel thought on that. "It's a black leather cord with a white wing pendant."
Jo smiled victoriously. "Thank you."
Dean wondered why Jo cared what Castiel's mark was so much. She already knew who her soulmate was; it wasn't as if she and Castiel were soulmates.
The game died down after that, and soon it was agreed that they would go to sleep. It was nearly three in the morning, after all.
Dean, who appeared to have become the closest to Castiel out of the entire group, set up his sleeping bag next to his.
-x-
The next morning, when they all awoke, Dean didn't feel any different. It wasn't like there was some big change he could feel inside of himself. There was no way to tell that that day would be the day he received his mark.
It wasn't there when he woke up.
It came later, when he was back at home and changing out of his dirty clothes after working on his car - a beautiful '67 Chevy Impala. He didn't notice it at first, the light weight of a necklace settling around his neck.
The only reason he found out it was there at all was because of the delighted shriek his mother let out when she next saw him.
Dean gave her a confused look. "What, mom?" he asked.
Mary smiled at him. "Your mark. You finally got it."
His eyebrows rose and glanced down. He saw something white resting against his chest, but he couldn't make out the shape of it. Racing to the bathroom to look at it in the mirror, he discovered that it was a white wing hanging from a black leather cord. It seemed eerily similar to how Castiel had described his soulmate mark.
Dean wanted to text Castiel immediately, demand to see a picture of it, but the two hadn't exchanged numbers yet. And Castiel had already said that he would be to busy on both Saturday and Sunday to do anything after he got home from the party.
-x-
Sunday dragged by slowly, the anticipation of seeing Cas - as Dean had started calling him - making him giddy with excitement. Sam and John didn't really understand why he was so excited - they didn't know that Dean probably already knew his soulmate. They just thought that it was leftover from finally getting the mark. But it wasn't, and Dean didn't even try to explain himself.
-x-
Monday finally came, and Dean, after dropping Sam off at his school, was roaming through the halls well before school had started. He hoped to find Cas and talk to him, but he was nowhere to be found.
Happiness suppressed a slight bit, Dean resigned to wait for lunch.
When Cas failed to show up there as well, Dean became worried. He supposed the worry was a by premature - Cas was probably just mildly sick and couldn't come to school. Nothing had happened.
-x-
When, over the next few days, Cas continued to not show up, that's when Dean became downright concerned. He hadn't shown - or even told - any of his friends that he'd received his mark. He'd wanted to talk to Cas about it first.
When his worry began to really show, however, they demanded that he tell them what was wrong. Wordlessly, he pulled his necklace out from where it was tucked under his shirt. They all looked at it, but only Jo seemed to recall Cas's description of his mark. She pulled Dean into a hug and began to comfort him.
-x-
Cas didn't show up at school again.
Didn't call any of them.
Didn't write.
It seemed as though he'd died.
Dean knew he hadn't, though.
Soulmates could internally sense when the other died.
Most didn't live long after their soulmate died.
-x-
A year passed.
Nobody heard from Cas.
Dean continued to believe he would come back.
-x-
A little over two years after Dean had gotten his mark found him graduating high school.
He was surrounded by his friends, but Castiel remained missing.
-x-
College was rough for Dean. Girls - and guys - threw themselves at him. The old way of thinking, that you could only have sex with your soulmate, had been left behind. Now, people considered sex as a way to pass the time until you found your soulmate. But once you found them, there could be no one else.
Dean tried explaining this to the girls and guys that kept trying to get into his pants.
They didn't believe him. "Where's your soulmate, then?" they would ask, almost mockingly.
Dean didn't have an answer to that.
-x-
By the time he was twenty three, Dean was working as a mechanic for Bobby Singer, a close friend of John's.
Sam had met his soulmate two years ago - a short man by the name of Gabriel who liked candy and pranking people entirely too much.
Dean was happy for Sam, he really was, but he wondered where his own soulmate was.
Chuck had also met his soulmate, a bubbly young woman with the name of Becky. She was apparently a huge fan of his books.
Ash's mark hadn't shown yet, meaning that it was either coming extremely late, or he didn't have a soulmate.
Bela's soulmate was some English git who went by Crowley.
Victor hadn't met his soulmate yet, but he had a mark, so he knew he had one. And he knew that the meeting was coming soon - very soon; his counter had only half a week left.
Charlie and Jo had gotten married at the age of twenty. Dean had been Jo's best man. The entire day, he wondered where Cas was and where there relationship would be if be hadn't disappeared when he did.
-x-
When Dean was twenty five, Sam and Gabriel made plans to get married.
It was at the first rehearsal that Dean saw him.
A face he hadn't seen for nearly ten years.
Castiel was Gabriel's best man.
-x-
Upon seeing him, Dean immediately raced over to him even though it was the middle of the rehearsal. Everybody looked confused, but nobody as much as Castiel as Dean pulled him into a tight hug.
Castiel awkwardly patted Dean's back. "Um. Hello?" Castiel said after the hug dragged on for a few minutes.
Dean immediately released the blue eyed man. "Cas," he breathed, "You have no idea how much I've missed you."
Another look of confusion crossed Cas' face before recognition shown through. "Dean?" he asked unsteadily.
Dean nodded, happy that Cas recognized him even after the time spent apart.
The rest of the wedding party was still watching them, but after realizing the two needed a bit of privacy, they turned away and began talk among themselves.
Dean looked Cas up and down. There were so many things that needed to be said, but the one thing that came of Dean's mouth was, "What are you doing at Sam and Gabe's wedding?"
Cas raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? Gabriel is my brother. What more reasoning do you need?"
Dean laughed. So not only were they soulmates, but their brothers were as well.
Something occurred to him. "Then why weren't you at any of the family dinners then, Cas?"
The smaller man shrugged. "I had...work to attend to."
Dean didn't looked convinced. He opened his mouth to say something else, but Sam cleared his throat noisily. Dean glanced over at his brother before looking back at Cas. "You and I are going to talk more later," Dean promised before walking back to take his place. He glanced back too see Cas nodding.
-x-
It wasn't until after the wedding that they finally had a chance to talk. Both had been busy with preparing for the wedding.
They were both seated at the same table at the reception. But Dean was next to Sam, and Cas was next to Gabriel so they couldn't talk to each other easily.
Finally, after about an hour, they were able to speak.
"Cas, what happened to you?" Dean asked, deciding to skip the fruitless small talk.
"My father had just moved into Lawrence, and I and my sister, Anna, were to stay with him while Gabriel, Michael, and Lucifer stayed with my mother. But after my father was killed in a car accident, it was back to Pontiac for us."
Dean nodded, trying to digest the story. "Weren't your parents soulmates?" he finally asked.
Cas shook his head. "Neither of them had soulmates. They ended up splitting up."
Dean nodded again. A few minutes of silence passed. "Cas, can I see your necklace, please?" Dean asked quietly.
Cas shook his head. "In case you don't remember, I would rather not show it to anyone."
"Please, Cas. I just need to check something."
Castiel narrowed his eyes a Dean, seeming to assess him. Finally, after several minutes, he pulled the necklace out.
Dean took one look at it, recognized it as the same as his, and drew in a sharp breath.
Cas looked suspicious at Dean's reaction but didn't do anything.
Dean fished his own necklace out from where it lay against his chest and let it fall outside his shirt.
Seeing what it was made Cas' eyes widen in surprise. "De-" he started, "Dean. We're soulmates."
Dean nodded. "I've known since the day after Jo's party."
Cas looked dismayed at that. "You've known this entire time...and I've been gone. I'm the worst soulmate ever."
He appeared to want to go on, but Dean silenced him with a kiss. After he pulled back, he whispered, "No, you're not."
-x-
A year later, Cas and Dean got married.
Dean had a hard time deciding between Jo, his best friend since childhood, and Sam, his little brother, to be his best man (or in Jo's case, maid of honor). He eventually settled on Sam, while Cas just asked Gabriel.
Bela had brought Crowley along, and Ash, who hadn't ever received his mark, brought along a markless woman as a date.
The woman, a brunette by the name of Meg, seemed to instantly take a liking to Cas. Dean watched as she blatantly flirted with him (even though she'd come with Ash), and even though he knew Cas would never betray him, the sting of anger was deep.
-x-
Neither of them realized it at the time, but the day they'd chosen for their wedding was the eleven year anniversary of the day they'd met.
And even though Dean still thought the necklaces were a bit girly, he wouldn't get rid of his for anything.