Mary Poots grows up with mostly bare arms. There are the occasional notes or idle drawings, once, when she's seven, all her nails turn black of their own accord and even the tips of her hair turn a little blue which no one can figure out because even a Soulmate wouldn't cause hair and nail changes. Mostly her arms are bare, when she's 12 the person - her Soulmate - scribbles a Happy Birthday and a little balloon on the inside of her left wrist and Mary forgets to breathe for a moment because... her birthday is in April... well, the birthday the nuns had assigned her was in April, but it was currently July.
Mary is so enraptured with the words that she forgets to write a thank you on her own skin and the words slowly fade over the next few hours and days. July 2nd. Her birthday is July second, so that must mean she's 13, not 12!
When Skye is 15 on a seemingly random day the word appears in large, bold, attention demanding print on her left arm; TATTOO? Her Soulmate wanted a tattoo? It was a common curtesy to ask before making any permanent alterations that would copy over the Soul bond. Before Skye could ask what, the ink started again, fine and delicate this time as it slowly formed a bird with a daisy chain crown on its head, and the words of 'behind left ear'. Somewhere it wouldn't readily be seen on either of them. Skye's consent was followed by smiley faces and thank you's and promises of one day getting to see it in person.
By the time she's 18, three more tattoos have their way onto Skye's skin. Each one on the same day. A Supergirl symbol (Supergirl, not Superman, even though they're the same symbol, Supergirl is way cooler) when she was 16. A series of dots and dashes that reads out 'don't die out there' in Morse code that makes Skye's stomach quest when she finally takes the time to translate it. Because it can't be a coincidence that the dots and dashes that appear when she's 17 are directly parallel to the marks on her own skins. She didn't know that things like that transferred over the bond as well! The last tattoo is a pair of names that appear when she's 18 (that's also when she realises they were on the same day each year) and a date from a few months earlier. Skye tries to think back to that date, to find significance in the writings on her arm from that day.
She couldn't remember the exact day, but it had been around the time that her Soulmate had asked Skye to tell them something happy and she had spun a fanciful tale of magic and love and happy endings before her Soulmate admitted that her parents had recently died and she'd just come from the funeral.
Skye had been in the position of not knowing the feeling of ever having parents, so not knowing the pain of losing them, and not knowing how to comfort someone so import to her who she didn't even know.
She could only guess that the names now on her forearm were her Soulmates parents.
When she's 22 the tattoos are covered by her Soulmates hand (not removed though) and the tips of her hair turn a dark black just like the odd occurrence from her childhood. The idle drawings and random notes all but stop for three months.
After three months, tingling on her skin, the feel of kisses and touches transferred through an unnaturally strong bond, lets her feel letters of a foreign hand tracing on her Soulmate.
Skye's blood runs cold and she wishes the bond wasn't so strong that she could feel it without having met them. A proposal. Her Soulmate was being proposed to. The answer wasn't on her skin, but the uncomfortable twist in her heart told her all she needed to know.
5 months later, not long after Skye's 23rd birthday, she can squint at her ring finger and concentrate and she swear she can nearly see the impression of a wedding band on her own hand.
If her Soulmate is allowed to get married (apparently they decided for both of them that their bond wouldn't be romantic) then Skye tries not to let herself feel too guilty about her relationship with Miles. The writing on her skin is almost nonexistent by that point anyway, to the point that she could almost pretend she didn't even have a Soulmate if it weren't for the tattoos that come and go with cover-up and the ever changing colour of her hair and nails. Her hair stays dark for a long time before lightening back to its natural colour, but her nails change nearly weekly with her Soulmates whim.
Three weeks after Skye's 24th birthday the tightness around her chest that started with the proposal reaches an epitome before releasing itself and she doesn't know what to think of that until the words start coming again.
First it's just one word. Ass. Divorce. Idiot. Sorry. So many words written and then immediately scrubbed out before eventually settling on a belated Happy Birthday with a little pink heart that stays for a week straight (the words fade, but the heart keeps re-inking).
In October of that year Skye lets herself get caught by S.H.I.E.L.D and this time it's her doing that the writing and drawings stop.
Simmons notes the tattoos on her skin as Soulmate Transference on her official S.H.I.E.L.D file, and May of all people to have a reaction when she finds out, commenting on the bird behind her ear. Mockingbird, is all she's says after seeing it and it makes her wonder for brief moment if it could be the older woman before dismissing it. There was no way her Soulmate was S.H.I.E.L.D.
She thinks in some weird way that Ward thinks she might be attracted to him when she offers to talk and have a drink with him.
After Italy, after Ian Quinn, after being shot, revived and healed with the miracle drug Skye takes a moment in the med pod to look at her arm and its not just her am. Nearly all her visible skin is covered in messages, questions, pleas, demands. All with the same theme; is she alright? Skye idly wonders if the bullet scars with transfer through the bond like she thinks the ones on her thighs did.
HYDRA happens.
Ward being HYDRA happens.
It's three weeks before she gets a chance to see words on her skin begging her to stay safe whoever and wherever she is, and it makes her curious about if her Soulmate might actually be S.H.I.E.L.D. Hopefully good S.H.I.E.L.D and not HYDRA.
Her hair goes dark again.
At 25 Skye spends most of her time training with May or on missions with the English merc, Hunter, or trying to decipher the weird code Coulson gave her, or sometimes even doing all three. When she does get a spare moment she draws half a picture on her left arm (they're both right handed) and waits for her Soulmate to fill in the other half with their own interpretation.
One time she idly draws half of the S.H.I.E.L.D logo just to see what her Soulmate will, and after three hours of waiting with no second half she gives up. When she wakes the next morning the eagle had been filled in along with a note that it needed to be gone by 8:00 am. Skye didn't know if that was a confirmation that her Soulmate was S.H.I.E.L.D, but she complied and spent from 7:30 scrubbing her arm until it was raw and the self-written ink was gone.
Skye is in the middle of a far less talented picture of a mockingbird flying through stars and the moon (really, she's only gotten as far as a stick figure bird and a weird looking moon) when Simmons returns from her undercover Op.
The brunette that brings her scientist home introduces herself as Bobbi Morse, but its not until two days later that they get a night to unwind as a group. Agent Morse's hair is blonde after the first day and Skye has had to listen to Hunter rant and rave about the blonde who is apparently his ex wife.
Skye doesn't notice she didn't finish or remove the picture on her arm.
Drinks and relaxing with the Agents is nice, until Morse decides it's. Little warm in the common area and takes her jacket off.
May is the one who points out the markings on the blondes arm with a 'nice ink, Morse' that is clearly sarcastic and said around a smirk. But, it draws Skye's eyes to the blondes arm and her heart almost stops at the sight.
May so knew the whole time!
The drawing is the same as the one on her own arm; a stick figure bird with a weird looking moon, fading away after three days of remaining unfinished.
Skye's breath catches, and her eyes dart from her arm to the blondes, matching each print to her own. She's about to demand answers, demand to know if this is some kind of sick joke when letters start forming on the back of her hand.
Bobbi is sitting on the other side of the room with a marker in hand, the same word on the back of her own hand, still glistening with wet ink.
"Hi." Bobbi's voice is barely a murmur across the room, but if sounds deafening to Skye. They slowly start to gravitate towards each other and Skye can't believe she's there. She's really there.
"Hi." Skye mimics, this is her. This is the person who dyed their hair in some sort of goth pass when she was 10, who had four tattoos, who had gotten married (to Hunter, Skye realised), whose parents had died. This was her Soulmate.
"Can I...?" The question is soft, hesitant, a gentle gesture of permission to touch her that Skye give a half nod of consent. Two days. They've been on the same base for two days and she hadn't noticed. Bobbi's fingers are gentle as they cradle her face, making her skin tingle and the world could be imploding around them for all Skye cares, but she's here, her Soulmate is here and that's all that matters.
Bobbi's kiss tastes like cheap beer and strawberries.
Forgive me readers. For I have sinned: It's been 4 months since my last post.
Also, it was going to be longer and encapsulate the change from Skye to Daisy but this felt like a good place to end it.