At sixteen years old, each person would have their soulmate's first words curl themselves onto their wrist. The words would slowly appear without pain, and the black italic writing would tattoo itself silently. Some had words that were easily understandable, such as a simple "hello". Others had words that were strange and would make the bearer confused.
When Lucy Heartfilia had turned sixteen, she thought that something was wrong with her. No words adorned her wrist, so Lucy was completely petrified that she did not have a soulmate. Her friends told her that they would appear soon and that there must have been a mistake. With her head hung low, she cried herself to sleep that night, hoping that someday a greeting or at least one small word would appear on her wrist.
At twenty-two, however, there were still no words written there. Her heart ached, and every day she was slowly getting more annoyed with the fact that perhaps she had no soulmate. Everyone else had found one... why hadn't she?
It seemed like every one of her friends had their soulmate practically joined at the hip to them, leaving little to no time for friends or family. It was true that soulmates usually became quickly attached to each other... but it also opened up doorways for abusive relationships. Infatuation sometimes led to obsession, and Lucy was at least a little relieved that nothing like that would ever happen to her.
Besides, so what if she was soulmate less? Independence was something that Lucy valued. She could go out for drinks with friends and go home at five in the morning, and no one would be there to scold her. She could go out on dates with men she had just met and be able to have the satisfaction of turning them down for a "walk" or "coffee at their apartment". Lucy knew all the tricks, and she had used them herself a time or two.
If Lucy didn't have a soulmate, what was stopping her from dating whomever she pleased? Dinner and a movie was a good way to get to know someone, which was fantastic for Lucy. She loved getting to know different people even if she wasn't interested in them other than a friend. And every so often, she would even look at their wrist to see if they had a soulmate. If they did, it was just a smile and a goodbye for that date. But if they didn't? She was fine with having fun for a night. Honestly, what was the harm?
Sure, she wasn't exactly happy with who she dated, but what did she care? No one was going to love her for the rest of her life, and hold her like her father held her mother before she passed away. Her mother's first words to her father had disappeared off of the man's wrist, and almost a year later her father died out of remorse. She wanted a love like theirs... a relationship with a person that was so loving and caring that she couldn't spend her life without them. A person that made Lucy's insides burn when she wasn't around them and made her heart flutter when she was.
Of course, not having a soulmate led to somewhat uncomfortable questions from people, Lucy had to admit. Strangers asked questions like "did he die?" or "did she already have another soulmate?". It did get a little annoying, but sometimes Lucy did have a bit of fun with the questioners. "He ended up being a pig, and I'm not into bestiality." she would joke. The look of shock on the face of the asker would put her in a fantastic mood for days, so much so that she would forget about the pain in her heart.
As Lucy walked to her first English class of the year, she felt a glimmer of hope rising in her chest once more. There were new people in her class. What was keeping her from finding her soulmate there? The wind whipped through her hair gently, blowing it out of her face. Her eyes focused on the building before her. This was it. Time to make some new friends. And maybe find a soulmate.
Lucy pasted a confident smile on her face in hopes that no one would understand the longing in her heart. Rounding her shoulders and straightening her back, she made her way into the lecture room with a happy gait.
As she rounded the corner, she heard a few people whisper 'shh!' and a few giggles. Curious, Lucy walked a little faster to get to the entrance of the room.
She found herself completely drenched within the three seconds of walking in, and the students sitting in the room laughed. Lucy's fists curled up into balls, and as she looked down she realized that it was going to be harder to make friends when her bra was completely showing through her shirt. Embarrassed, she covered her chest with her arms and stood in front of the class, a snarl now in place of the confident smile.
"Who set this up?" Lucy yelled, staring at one corner of the room and sweeping her eyes over to the other. The majority of the students pointed up into the upper left-hand side of the room, where a pink-haired student in a hoodie and jeans was literally rolling on the floor laughing.
As she marched up to the pink-haired man laughing his guts out, she realized that his laughter didn't sound like normal laughter. It was uncontrolled, the kind that people that were somewhat crazy would have. The sounds of the shrieks echoed through the room long after people were finished laughing. She peeked at the other students, and no one was saying a word except to whisper in each other's ears about seeing Lucy's bra.
Lucy leaned over towards the man, watching him as he chortled heartily at her misfortune. How dare he do such a thing?
"What the hell is wrong with you?" she shouted, narrowing her eyes at the man who was still laughing. When the man noticed her, however, he stared up at her with a blank stare as she continued to berate him.
"Why did you think it was a good idea that you could just drench someone, especially a girl student, with water? What were you thinking? What if that was a professor that rounded the corner?" Lucy shook a finger in the man's face.
He stared at her until her mouth stopped moving and then moved his hands fluidly. After that, he placed his hands down at his desk once more.
"I don't understand anything that you're doing! Why are your shrieks so loud? And why haven't you responded to my yelling?"
"Excuse me," a voice said to Lucy's left, and in response, Lucy snapped her head to the left and glared at the woman.
"Yes?" Lucy snapped, biting off the edge of the last syllable.
"I don't want to interrupt you, but Natsu is deaf. He can't hear anything that you're saying right now, even though you're yelling," the blue haired girl quipped, and Lucy's mouth fell open in shock.
"Eeehhh?!" she yelled, and everyone giggled at her outburst. How was she supposed to know that the annoying man was deaf?
"I'm so sorry..." Lucy mumbled as she looked at her feet. Her face was now flushed with embarrassment, and she felt about as good as the cement underneath her feet. A ginger girl in her class turned to whisper a snide remark into a brunette's ear, while Lucy couldn't help but notice the other people in class staring at her as if she was an alien. A soaking wet, awkward alien.
"It's okay, it happens to us all! You didn't know!" The small woman remarked, and the pink haired man gave her a thumbs up. His arms were well toned, and Lucy guessed that was because he had to practically wave his arms all around just so he could motion. He was dressed in a hoodie and jeans with a white scarf wrapped around his neck. His shoes were dark burgundy, and he wore a gauge in his ear of a dragon. Lucy looked him up and down absentmindedly, and the man noticed. He motioned as if to say, "Like what you see?" and Lucy blushed for a while.
Huh. Maybe her soulmate-less self wouldn't last too much longer.
"Apologies for my lateness. I set my alarm clock for PM when I really meant AM. However, I wasn't exactly ready to get up at 4 AM," The professor remarked when he came into the room with a cup of coffee jostling in his hand, the papers against his chest askew. The class chuckled, pitying the man. He was about three feet tall, and his graying hair was covered with a bright orange and purple jester's hat. As for his clothes, he wore a jumpsuit of the same colors and pointed toed shoes of the same hue.
"Let me start off class with a little advice, children. You won't get through this class easily. You will not earn participation points, so anyone who's here who thinks they can just come to this syllabus class and then sleep in from 9:45 to 11:15 twice a week can get their asses out of my class right this second," The man sipped his coffee, peering up at the students to see if anyone would leave. His eyes were full of something that Lucy might call "experience", and that didn't have to do with his age by even a slight chance. Slowly, a tall blonde man stood up and sulked out of class, slouching. The professor looked a bit amused at his own ability to actually take someone out of his class. He took another swig of coffee and continued.
"This class will be largely based on your work in papers, literature checks, tests, and pop quizzes. Your first and last papers will be compared to see how much you've improved, and you, as well, will check your papers to see if you've even improved at all. Don't think you can just willy-nilly write your last paper at three in the morning and come to class after four hours of sleep after the caffeine has worn off from your system." The man ran a hand through his hair and drank a bit more coffee.
"I expect you to refine your writing through spell check and peer editing. It would do you some good to make friends in this class you would trust for proofreading and such. Drinking buddies will not work as much as helpful comrades. So I beg of you...do the work. I don't get paid to have students fail this class. And you certainly cannot afford to waste several hundred dollars to retake the class. Spend your class time wisely, and do your damn homework for God's sake. Now, let us talk about how to format an essay in the formatting I will expect for this class."
Lucy stared at the man quizzically. She hoped this class would be a breeze. She was an English major, and usually she could get through a class with high marks for both participation and quality of papers. Her former professors had written things like "you're a natural" and "beautiful!" at the top of her pages. However, what would this man write?
The blonde looked off to her left out of boredom and confusion. She then saw the petite woman from earlier motioning to the pink-haired man at a speed that Lucy couldn't follow. Still, she was curious. How did she do that? Was that motioning a language or a secret code between them?
"Sorry for earlier," Lucy spoke quietly to the blue haired woman. Thankfully, she smiled and told her not to worry about it because everyone makes mistakes.
"So... is that a language?" Lucy asked, feeling absolutely idiotic for even asking. The woman looked at the board and suddenly realized that the pinkie had been taking notes but also studying her motioning at the same time. She scooted her chair over to Lucy's and began to tell her about Sign Language.
"It has a different syntax than English," The woman told Lucy right after introducing herself as Levy McGarden, a foreign languages major.
"That's awesome! Oh, and by the way, what's his name?" Lucy pointed toward the man who was furiously taking notes.
"His name is Natsu Dragneel. He's a transfer student from a deaf school. I'm also his interpreter, but I'm in this class as well and I find it hard to jot down notes and interpret at the same time," Levy told Lucy honestly, looking down at her feet.
"Let me take notes for you! You can teach me Sign Language, and I will impress Natsu by coming into class and signing to him one day," Lucy said, excitedly jumping up and down in her seat.
"I think that's a great idea, Lucy! He would love to have a friend that he can sign with other than Gray. They definitely don't get along that well. But I have to ask, why do you want to communicate with Natsu so badly?" Levy asked, peering up into Lucy's brown eyes over her red glasses.
"Because I think he's my soulmate."