Author's Note: I don't own The Good Place and never will. No copyright infringement. This was written for the soulmate/bond exchange on AO3. Hope you enjoy!
Although they earned a spot in the real Good Place, the group's memories had yet to be fully restored, something the architects were trying to work on but it was taking them a long time. "You may not get all your memories back, unfortunately," one of the Janets told Eleanor.
Eleanor glared at her even though it wasn't her fault. "We better or else you'll pay," she halfheartedly threatened.
"Okay!" Janet cheerfully replied before going off to help somebody else.
Eleanor could only shake her head before rejoining Chidi, Tahani, and Jason in the living room (the four of them were now sharing a house since they had become family in every way that mattered in the Bad Place). "I still can't get over how enthusiastic the Janets are," she muttered to them.
"You do realize you don't have to keep screwing with them, right?" Tahani questioned with a smirk on her face.
She snorted. "Have you met me? Do you really think that's going to deter me?"
"We should stop trying but it's not in my nature to." Chidi grinned at Eleanor when she leaned over and playfully swatted him.
"Where did my wife go?" a confused Jason asked out of the blue, looking around the room in hopes of finding itheir/i Janet.
"This is still happening?" Chidi smacked his palm against his forehead and nearly head desked but was stopped by Eleanor.
"I thought for sure they would have taken care of it," a puzzled Tahani told them.
"How do we even remember that when half of our memories are still gone?" Eh, Eleanor wasn't going to worry about it too much because they'd fix it some way or another soon (okay, it was vaguely terrifying but she wasn't about to admit that out loud).
"I'm not going to worry about it or else I'll have an existential crisis," Chidi finally answered after a pause in the conversation where they all pondered the question.
Eleanor could only chuckle. "You fucking dork," she fondly told him. God, she loved this man. Wait, where the fuck had that come from? She wasn't in love with him. Besides, they were dead. Not much they could really do about it even if the thought was true (it wasn't).
Someone knocked on the door. "Come in!" Jason called.
A smiling architect strolled in waving and with a smile on her face. "How are you four settling in? Any problems?"
The four of them exchanged glances. "We're fine." Eleanor wasn't exactly lying but it wasn't exactly the truth. All of them were still reeling from all the shit that had been rained down on them in the Bad Place before the Good Place architects rescued them.
"I'm Grace and I know you're lying but we'll let this slide for the time being. We know you've been through a lot." She smiled warmly at them.
"Do you know how many times Michael reset us?" Chidi had lost track after a while and eventually gave up on figuring it out (which still bothered him, something Eleanor had figured out almost immediately).
"Unfortunately no, but we're also working on it. Did Michael ever talk about soulmates?" Grace pressed.
They tried to wrack their memories for talk of soulmates but came up empty. "Do we each have one half of a soul?" They shot Jason a look after his question but all were used to it at this point and were more amused than anything.
"No. I mean, you were literally meant for each other. The four of you were meant to find each other because you belong together but Chidi and Eleanor stand out the most." Grace grinned and waited expectantly for the other shoe to drop.
Both Eleanor and Chidi began protesting. "I don't have a soulmate. That romantic shit is not me at all. Chidi is a hopeless romantic, though."
"She's right but we are not soulmates." Chidi desperately wanted Eleanor to be, however, but it just wasn't possible. It hurt him in multiple ways but they were dead anyway and it didn't really matter (it was hard convincing himself of that but he wasn't about to be irrational about this).
"You are but I understand why you're in denial. Anyway, we're throwing a dinner tonight that will honor all of you. See you at seven sharp." Grace winked at them and then walked out.
"Soulmates are real," Tahani sing-songed and held her arms up in surrender when Eleanor and Chidi glared at her.
"I think she's right, bro. Aren't they supposed to be knowledgeable about this?" chimed in Jason. He didn't know much but he remembered somebody saying something smart about their afterlives before.
"I can't believe I'm saying this but he's right. You two are in love and need to admit it." Tahani bit her lip and tried not to laugh at the dual looks of panic on their face. She truly enjoyed fucking with them but also wanted Chidi and Eleanor to be happy.
"I am not in love with him!" Eleanor shouted, shocking even herself at the volume.
Chidi rubbed his ear. "What she said but not as loud." He wasn't in love with her. She was the opposite of everything he had ever liked when he was still alive.
"Denial. Come on, Jason, let's go find something to do." Tahani grabbed Jason's shirt and led him away so Eleanor and Chidi could panic about their feelings for each other together.
Unfortunately for her, the two of them scattered and steadfastly continued to ignore they were in love even when confronted with evidence.
Three weeks passed and the four of them had recovered only a handful of memories. Tahani started backing off from trying to push them together because she realized she was only making things worse. "They'll get there when the time comes," Jason sagely told her.
"You're scaring me," was Tahani's only response.
"You're driving me up the wall. How could we ever be soulmates?" Eleanor yelled at Chidi as they walked into the kitchen.
"We're not! Let's stop talking about it!" he yelled back.
Tahani groaned. "Could you two at least just fuck already and spare us this boiling sexual tension? It's really quite annoying now."
"Can we go swimming now? I promised my wife we could," Jason told her.
"Sure. I need to get out of this place anyway." Tahani waved goodbye and then she and Jason bolted out of the house.
"Look! You drove away Jason and Tahani!" Eleanor didn't understand why she was acting this way but she really wanted it stop. She was still not in love with Chidi and the thought definitely didn't terrify her.
"Do we have any flashlights around here?" Chidi suddenly asked, rooting through the kitchen drawers.
Eleanor frowned at the non-sequitur. "What?" Why did that sound so familiar to her anyway, besides the obvious reasons?
"A flashlight!"
"I was dropped into a cave and you were my flashlight." Holy fuck. She had said that to Chidi right after everything got shot to hell. Why was she remembering this now? Maybe deja vu was real? "I love you," she whispered in awe.
Chidi's head went up so fast she worried he'd get whiplash. "What'd you say?"
"I'm in love with you, Chidi. I just remembered. Holy fuck." God, she was so grateful in this moment that they could swear now.
He laughed nervously. "Really?"
Her hands started shaking from nervousness but Eleanor nodded. "Really. I'm going to kiss you now."
"Okay." Chidi really didn't know what else to say and his brain short circuited when she leaned in and did kiss him.
All of their memories returned in a flash and caught them off guard. "Wow. You're a good kisser." Eleanor didn't know what to say.
They both jumped when one of the Janets popped in. "You remembered because you're soulmates. Kissing usually doesn't work." And then she teleported back out.
"We're soulmates," Eleanor murmured in awe as she started to beam at him.
Chidi beamed right back. "We're meant to be." God, he loved this woman more than he could ever say. Wait, he hadn't said it back yet. "I love you too, Eleanor, and I can't wait to spend the rest of our afterlives together."
"Well, that's sappy and romantic and gross but I love it anyway. Talk sappy to me," she teased.
He rolled his eyes. "Don't make me regret this," he teased.
"You will. That's what you love about me anyway."
"True," Chidi conceded.
It had taken them a while to get to this point but Michael hadn't been able to permanently break Eleanor and Chidi's bond. Soulmates always found a way.