The girl stared down at her arm, eyes completely focused save the occasional flick toward the clock on the wall. The minutes slowly ticked down, arriving closer and closer to midnight, when she would turn 13 and the name of her soul mate would appear in permanent black cursive on her inner wrist. The name of the person with whom she would fall in love, share her life, and grow old.
Soon her father came in to say goodnight and try to convince his daughter to get some sleep.
"Their name will be there in the morning when you wake up, mia cara figlia. You should get some rest, poco maga."
The girl simply waved him away.
The clock ticked.
The girl still lay on her bed, intent on staying awake long enough to know her future, yet her eyes were tired and her conviction wavered.
The clock struck midnight.
The girl slept, having finally given into exhaustion.
An alarm went off, clearly meant to wake the girl.
The clock read 8:00 AM.
The date was May 20th.
The girl's eyes flew open, still foggy with sleep yet alert enough to make out the time.
She shot out of her bed, and quickly fumbled to pull up the sleeve around her left arm.
There, there were three words inked in loopy cursive.
Richard John Grayson.
The girl slid to the floor, not able to tear her eyes away from the name that dictated the rest of her entire life.
The girl's father glanced at his watch, anxiously waiting for his daughter to emerge from her bedroom and reveal the name of her soulmate.
It read 9:14 AM.
Seconds passed.
Seconds turned into minutes.
Minutes became an hour.
Finally, the father decided that something must be wrong.
He walked up the stairs into the girl's bedroom.
She sat silent, completely motionless, still processing what she had learned of her future.
"Tresoro? What's wrong?"
The girl snapped out of her trance, looked over to her father with tears pooling in her eyes.
"I'm going to be miserable for the rest of my life."
She lifted her left wrist and held it close enough to be seen.
The father read the name and sighed.
"I get to be connected to a little rich prick for my entire life. Papa, what am I going to do?"
Months passed. Soon the girl began to accept that her fate was not as awful as she had presumed. Still, she came to a greater appreciation for the white silk gloves her father had given her years ago, for they easily concealed the secret she tried so desperately to hide.
The clock still hung on the girl's wall, yet it was mysteriously frozen at 8:00AM.
The months began to grow colder and the days shorter as summer slowly became fall.
The girl's preferred time of year was just around the corner.
Halloween had always been a favorite holiday of hers. She loved the chill in the air and the masks hiding a true identity behind. The costumes and disguises covered up one's insecurities, and for once, there were no soul mates, no bonding forever. Just a thrill and an adventure.
But that time had not yet come. The tenth month was barely beginning, and so the girl sat by the window watching the leaves fall.
It was on the tenth day of this tenth month in the two-thousandth and tenth year that the girl's life was drastically changed.
In most cultures and beliefs, triple numbers had a certain power and significance. Some even thought they held magic and were connected to one's fate.
The girl was pondering this as she and her father drove to the location of change.
The car stopped.
The girl and the father both stepped out into the dark alleyway.
The father entered the abandoned photo booth first. When a bright flash shone out of the booth and her father was gone, the girl sat on the bench herself and waited for a wave of nausea and dizziness that went hand in hand with the instant transportation.
Her name was called out in a robotic voice.
As the sickness and spinning wore off, the large room she was in came into focus.
There were many people: her father, who gave her a supporting smile, two girls, one blonde and in green, the other a redhead with green skin, four boys, seemingly of various ages, one a redhead, one with darker skin and tattoos, one imposing and tall with dark hair, one shorter, in a colorful outfit and with black hair like herself, as well as a blonde woman standing behind the group.
Suddenly a bit shy, the girl hung back. Her father encouraged her forward with his eyes, confident she could be brave.
The girl with the red hair began to introduce herself, but the boy eagerly interrupted with his own name before indulging the girl in everyone else's.
She giggled slightly but hid it.
Soon enough, all of them decided to leave the adults and solve the problem at hand. The girl hesitated, but chose to take the plunge and join them. Within a few minutes, it felt like she had known them all for years and they were best friends that should never be let go of.
The girl sighed, settling into her bed after that eventful day. Her new friends had almost taken her mind completely off of her soul mate.
She turned over onto her side.
Her last thoughts before drifting to sleep were of the raven-haired boy in the bright colors.
The girl couldn't believe it.
Her father was gone, taken by a higher being to serve a purpose that was now next to impossible to escape.
Yet even as her days were grim and filled with tears, the boy stayed.
He was her silent guardian, her protector, understanding of her pain like no one else she'd ever seen.
Soon the girl's thoughts were almost always centered around the boy.
She remembered his first greeting for her.
She pondered his kindness directed at her.
She puzzled over his tendency to create his own words.
She thought only of him and her father.
Except for her moments alone, when she thought of her soul mate waiting for her in his dark mansion.
Without realizing it, and yet somehow she knew it all along, the girl had fallen in love with the boy.
So yeah! This is going to be a two-shot, maybe three-shot. It's probably pretty obvious who the girl and the boy are, but if it's still unclear to you, all will be revealed by the end! Also, this story might actually span a few years for the direction I'm going with it.
Tell me what you think of the style! I'm pretty proud of it, personally, and I really like it for this kind of fic, but still! I'm the author, so I'm biased. Give me your honest opinion!