Hades hoped he'd find his soulmate one day despite it all. It all being all the terrible examples of soulmate matchups he regrettably been exposed to over time. The most obvious being his brother and his soulmate.

Zeus had become aware of his soulmate quite early, at about nineteen, one of his worse ages. The other factor that really made the situation so irreparable was that he actually knew his soulmate. It was rare but it happened and no one had been more surprised than he to learn he was destined to be with his next door neighbor, a girl named Hera.

They could not have been more different in lifestyle. She tended towards monogamous relationships while he flirted with anything that moved, she drank buckets of tea, he drank buckets of beer. Sadly, they had been destined for each other and there was little they could do about it. However, a soulmate promised only a happy end, not necessarily a happy middle, or even beginning in Zeus' case.

The connection became clear to the two of them the same way it did for everyone else. One of them drew a specific symbol on themselves and then barely minutes later the design appeared on the other person's skin, in the same spot.

Zeus' had been a rose that Hera drew on the knuckle of her thumb. Unfortunately, he messed it up, as he did most things, by being himself. Nineteen was the year he dated more girls than he ever had before, loving and leaving in equal measure. Hera was appropriately disgusted and ended up taking out her rage on his girlfriends often, rather than him.

Hades had suggested she redirect her anger to where it belonged, one strange night when she had come raging to him instead. She hadn't taken it well and Zeus nearly beat him for it.

He hadn't interfered in their fights for the next four years, just keeping his head down through their on and off dating, flings, and break ups. So, in conclusion, he hadn't seen the best out of the soulmate idea. However, he was an incurably hopeless romantic, and when he went off to college and saw a few better examples, he became ever more excited to finally get one himself.

He graduated in four years with a bachelor's in business and geology each. He got a relatively cushy job right out of college due to his good grades and resume, working for a gem mining business. It was really his dream job, a perfect mix of his two interests.

Yet no matter how comfortable his life became, he was really becoming quite unhappy with the lack of any sort of design appearing on his skin. He drew several on himself on occasion, hoping he'd picked the right one, but the soulmate symbol could be literally anything and it wasn't likely.

Then one day, when he was walking home from work late at night, a sensation struck him. It began as a gentle pressure on his chest, a single point moving back and forth, tracing some sort of image over the left side of his body. He quickly pulled back his shirt to see what it was but the street was too dark and he couldn't make it out.

Hades rushed home, throwing his coat and bag on the couch before rushing into the bathroom. He pulled his white button-down over his head and stared into the mirror. His breath caught in his throat.

Drawn in looping pen strokes over his heart was, well, a heart. An anatomically correct heart, with all the ventricles and tubes drawn in painstaking detail. The most special part of it all was how, in the very middle of the design, his soulmate had drawn a tiny heart, the kind generally seen on Valentine's cards rather than in medical textbooks. The rest of the design was beautiful but he could tell that the tiny loops, meeting at a point then curving out to meet each other again, was the symbol he had been waiting for.

Hades traced the symbol with his finger, smiling into the mirror. After years of waiting and enduring the teasing of others, he finally had found them, the person he was destined to spend his life with.

The image in front of his eyes blurred, and he realized he was crying, laughing and smiling but crying none the less. He let the tears fall freely, their wet warmth the most welcome sensation he had ever felt. His hands came down to brace against the counter and he cried until no more tears came out and his shoulders shook with laughter.

In a suddenly child-like mood, he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and typed in his home number. The line rang for a couple moments then a voice picked up on the other end, his mother's questioning tone ringing clear and true to his ears.

"Hello, Hades? What's going on, you generally don't call and never this late?"

He caught his breath then it all spilled out in a rush.

"Hi Mom. I was just calling because…well…I got my soulmate."

His mother gasped.

"You did! I'm so happy for you! What was the symbol?"

"A heart."

He heard his mother sigh happily.

"That's adorable. Where did you find it?"

He laughed into the phone.

"That's the funny part, whoever my soulmate is, they drew it actually on my heart."

His mother laughed too.

"That's even cuter."

There was a comfortable silence.

"I'm so happy for you, son. I know how much you've wanted this. What are you going to do next?"

Hades stumbled a little on this question. He hadn't really given it much thought.

"I don't really know."

"You don't know? Come on, you have to contact them. They won't know it worked until you do."

"But what do I draw? What if they don't like it? I-I don't really know what I'm doing."

His voice got a bit higher in pitch as he panicked. His mother's laughter echoed down the line.

"Calm down honey, everything's going to be fine. I would recommend just drawing what they did, but in a different spot."

"That's going to be kind of difficult."

"Why? It's just a heart."

"Yes, but there's a bit more."

He could almost hear his mother's confusion.

"They did draw a heart, but that was just at the center of a much more complicated design that I don't think I'll be able to replicate. Because, you see, the rest of the design was also a heart, but an anatomical one, with all the tubes and everything."

"Wow, your soulmate is quite the artist. Then you don't have to replicate that, just draw something else and include the little heart in it."

"Ok…Thanks Mom."

"Anytime honey, I wish you the best of luck."

He nodded although she couldn't see and hung up. He was alone in the house so he spun around in a little twirl, just reveling in happiness. He considered calling his brother and boasting, but at this time of night his brother would probably be busy with other things. Things he didn't really feel like interrupting.

Hades walked back to the couch and pulled a fountain pen out of his bag. Then he carried a stool back to the bathroom and sat down. He took a quick photo of his soulmate's design with his phone then set it aside, lifting the pen.

For a moment he agonized about where to put the design on his body, wanting his soulmate to find it but not wanting them to have to cover it in front of others. Finally he decided on his upper left arm.

Then came actually deciding on the design. It had to be beautiful, something to show his devotion to his soulmate but not too large. He thought about the beautiful things in his life, and his job immediately came to mind, the shimmering images of cut gems and strains of diamond in rock coming to mind. It came to him immediately.

He set the pen to his skin and got to work. It was an hour later when he finished and as he looked down, he was quite satisfied.

He had drawn an intricate geode, cracked open so the shimmering bullion inside was clearly visible. The center was the only area left free and with a deep breath he reached down and drew a heart in that spot, completing the connection.

As his pen traced the last connecting line, he felt a shimmer of heat flutter through his body, connecting him to his soulmate.

Hades glanced at the clock, it was almost midnight. He didn't expect a response, when his soulmate may or may not be already asleep so there was only damage he could do to his health by staying up.

He got ready for bed leisurely, slipping into an old white T-shirt and black shorts before slipping in between the sheets. The minute his head hit the pillow he was asleep, a smile still stretching his face.

Zelena sat back in her chair and stretched as the last patient of the day left the room. The little boy had been running a fever of 100 degrees Fahrenheit and he was only five so his mother had come in with a bit of panic flashing over her face. Zelena had quickly calmed the woman down, diagnosing the boy with the seasonal flu and prescribing the proper antibiotics.

He had been miserable so she made sure to give him a sticker before he left and a short hair ruffle, promising him he would get better. Thankfully his face had brightened at that and he left the room a little less unhappy than when he had come in. Zelena considered that a job well done.

One of her fellow pediatricians came into the room.

"Good job today Dr. Mills. It's the height of flu season so we all generally get a little overworked but you haven't complained once."

Zelena smiled at the older woman.

"No problem. This is what I love to do, there's no reason for me to complain."

The woman smiled and waved as she left. Zelena sighed and stood, putting her tools away, washing her hands one last time, then picking up her purse. She almost forgot to shed her coat but at the last moment she remembered to hang it up on the hooks.

She pushed out of the center's doors, and made her way slowly to her car. Her way home was quiet except for the music coming softly out of the radio. She pulled up into the driveway then got her keys out, regretting slightly her decision to work so late, as her favorite television program was probably already over, but as she said, this was her dream.

She had loved kids ever since her teenage years, when her sister had invited her to take a couple education classes. Both of them had retained that love of children, her sister becoming a teacher as well as adopting a little boy named Henry. Zelena had gone over into children's health, suffering happily the pressure of medical school in order to become the pediatrician she was that day.

Her sister had found her soulmate about two years ago. The man, named Robin, had drawn an arrow onto his arm, in preparation to get it as a tattoo, and the image had appeared on her sister's arm.

Regina had squealed at the time and rushed across the entire college campus to burst into her sister's dorm room and show her. Her roommates had initially been a little pissed to wake up in the middle of the night but they loved Regina as much as Zelena did and quickly the room was filled with quiet shrieks of happiness.

Through a series of messages Regina wrote back and forth with her soulmate, using her skin as a medium, she did eventually meet him, and the two of them had been happily dating for the past years.

Zelena was quite happy for them but she did think Robin should have proposed by now. Maybe she was just trying to live vicariously through her sister, as her soulmate still hadn't shown up. She had tried drawing some shapes on herself, but got no reply and no feeling of contentment that everyone said came with getting the symbol right.

Stumbling into her living room, she set her bag down on the end table then flopped down onto the couch, picking up the anatomy textbook she had been reviewing the night before. She was always trying to refresh her skills so she could help her patients better. They were the future of the human face. And quite cute.

She flipped through a couple pages, absentmindedly wondering what to have for dinner. The page she eventually landed on was in the cardiology section, with a large heart drawn up in detail on the page.

She set the book down and made dinner. After watching TV reruns as she ate, she picked up the book again, twirling a pen in her fingers and trying to concentrate on the model.

It was no use, she wasn't able to focus. She lazily began to twist the pen in her hair then a thought struck her.

She sat up and pulled her tank top over her head. Setting the book on her lap so she could see the model, she carefully set the pen to her skin, etching the heart model over the skin that covered her own heart.

She stopped with nothing but the center of the heart left to do. That part of the image was covered up with a blurb, giving some information about the model. She frowned. How was she supposed to complete the drawing when the textbook covered it up?

Resigning herself to the impossibility of guessing what the covered section looked like, she contented with drawing a small heart shape in the blank space. Her pen connected the final line. She was already resting under a blanket so she missed the fluttery warmth that came with the movement.

Zelena sighed and snuggled more under the blanket. Her bed would definitely be the better option for sleeping and she hadn't showered but the next day was Saturday and she didn't have to work. And the couch really was quite soft. The book dropped to the floor and her hands folded softly over her own stomach, before her eyes closed.

The clock in the corner of the TV showed three in the morning when she got her reply, the geode design appearing on her arm. Sadly, its owner was too deeply in sleep to feel it. Oh well, she'd notice in the morning.

That she did. Zelena woke with a large yawn and a crick in her neck from sleeping on the couch. She sat up, trying to stretch it out. The crick was not so easily gotten rid of and its pain told her so. She mentally sighed and got up to take a shower, hoping the sensation would go away.

She took the shower still half asleep, her eyes periodically blinking into oblivion as she tried to massage the aches away under the hot water. Zelena finished up and wrapped a towel around herself, moving to the mirror in order to comb her hair out. Tying the towel under her arms, she leaned forward and reached for the comb. Then she froze.

She swept her hand over the wet haze coating the reflective surface. As it finally cleared she gasped. There on her arm was an intricate picture, drawn in pen. The shower hadn't even smudged it and she definitely hadn't put it on herself, so she knew immediately what it meant.

Turning this way and that she ascertained slowly what it was. The outer edges seemed to be a rock of some kind, broken open to show the jagged edges of jewels, and in the very center, a simple heart.

She pulled back her towel to see if that heart she had drawn last night was still there and it wasn't. The image had vanished but she knew the heart was drawn exactly the same.

Her hands trembled as she rewrapped the towel, gazing at the design on her arm. It had obviously been drawn with care and intimate knowledge of what a geode looked like. She didn't really know what to do now, but her smiled just kept getting wider with every time her fingers traced the lines, so delicately drawn by her soulmate. Her soulmate, she had a soulmate! Maybe that was why the whole room suddenly felt wonderfully new.

Only now that she was happy did she realize how kind of tired she had been becoming with her old life. She had all this that she did but no one to share it with, now she might be able to. Even if she was helpless to know what happened next. Best to consult an expert.

Zelena rushed through her morning routine so she could pick up the phone and dial her sister's number. An answer came almost immediately but it was Robin's deep voice that actually came from the headset.

"Zelena?"

"Hello Robin, could you give the phone to my sister?"

"Sure, she's right here."

Zelena heard some dishes clinking and muffled conversation between two voices then her sister's voice came suddenly.

"Hi sis. How are you?"

"I'm great actually and I have news."

"Really, what?"

Zelena paused.

"I got my soulmate."

She heard Regina squeal through the phone.

"Really? Tell me all about it."

Robin's voice sounded in the background, asking what had happened and Regina turned away from the phone to tell him. He yelled out some sort of congratulations moments after. Regina came back on.

"So how did it happen sis?"

Zelena smiled at her sister's enthusiasm and leaned back against the counter.

"Well I drew first then they drew back some time while I was asleep."

"What did you draw?"

"I was reading this anatomy textbook and thought it would help me memorize a picture of the heart if I drew it on my own heart. So I did but the center was covered up by some words. I just drew a little heart shape in the empty space and I think that was it."

"Your soulmate symbol is a heart? That's so adorable."

"Yeah."

"What did they draw back?"

"A geode, cracked open, with the same heart shape in the very center."

Regina awwwed.

"Wow, your soulmate is really romantic."

Zelena laughed.

"I can hope so."

"So what will you do now? You could write them, the way Robin and I did."

"I could but I don't think I will. I kind of want to do it the old fashioned way, and just draw little things back and forth. Writing them just seems too direct, I want to give them time to get to know me. No offense."

"None taken, everyone has their way. Good luck sis."

"Thanks Regina."

Zelena hung up the phone. She opened the fridge and found she had just enough milk for the day but not much for later. She automatically went to write the reminder on her arm then remembered. Her soulmate would see it. At the thought, a strange thrill went through her. It was wonderful to think that someone else would be able to share in the goings on of her life.

Still smiling, she put pen to her arm and wrote, "buy milk." She capped the utensil and set it in her pocket, making sure she'd have it on hand for later.

She had not made many plans that day but in her new mood, seeing that movie she'd been wondering about sounded perfect. Zelena quickly ordered a ticket online at her local theater then picked up her coat and swept outside.

Coincidentally she ran into a few friends at the theater. The group was composed of three women, one called Nicene who Zelena had been friends with since college, one named Glinda that she only recently had been able to get alone with, and another named Emma who was a mutual friend with Regina. The four women gushed over each other, chatting about their lives as they ordered popcorn.

Oddly enough, it was Glinda who noticed first a change in Zelena. She commented on it as they grabbed the greasy bags from the seller.

"You seem really happy, did something happen?"

Zelena smiled back at her.

"Actually yes."

Nicene raised an eyebrow. "Well, are you going to tell us or just hold it over our heads?"

Zelena clasped her hands together.

"I got my soulmate."

The three woman immediately erupted in cheers and several people around them looked around for the source of the commotion. Nicene grabbed Zelena's hands and swung her around in a circle.

"I'm so happy for you! This is awesome!"

Emma was equally happy and gave Zelena a hug after Nicene had calmed down. Although they didn't know each other very well, Glinda gave Zelena an encouraging smile and a congratulations.

Her smile only seemed to grow with the approval of her friends. They immediately demanded the details as they sat through the previews. She told them about the symbol and what her soulmate had drawn, prompting more muffled screaming.

Nicene tugged on her arm.

"You have to show us before it goes away."

Zelena obliged them, pulling her coat off and allowing Nicene to hold up her phone's flashlight app so they could all see. The women oohed and ahhed over the design, especially impressed with the attention to detail.

Zelena just couldn't stop smiling. It was as though she had the person right next to her, showing them off to her friends. She was even able to feel a touch of pride when the girls complimented how much work was put into the image.

The movie began and she pulled her coat back on, the woman all turning their cellphones off. The flick was an adorable animated one, made for children, that left them all with a sense of juvenile fulfillment which buoyed Zelena all the way back home.

She made herself some lunch and while she was eating suddenly felt a light pressing sensation on her right arm. She pulled back her sleeve and saw the words appear. "Meeting today at five." It was just a simple phrase, not really even meant for anyone, but it was so heartening to see, just the knowledge that her soulmate was willing to share their life with her.

There was a pause and she was about to turn back to her meal when the pressure began again and she watched as the shape of a miniature lily came into being on her wrist, right after the words.

She pulled her pen out of her pocket and quickly scrawled a bicycle next to what she had written earlier, making that her signature.

It took only a few moments before on the back of her hand appeared a little smiley face.

It was so impossibly adorable that she had to laugh, ignoring how strange it seemed to be laughing alone in her house.

She picked up her pen and gave the smiley face a pair of cat ears and a tongue. As her pen brushed over the lines her soulmate had written, that same warmth of the first design she got came over her.

There wasn't any reply for a bit and she finished her meal, settling down on the couch to read a romance novel she had been wanting to read but hadn't the energy to pick up for several days.

A few pages in she felt something on her chest, the same spot where she had drawn the heart earlier. She pulled her shirt to the side a little and saw her soulmate had drawn their heart symbol there.

The pressure didn't go away but the design remained the same. She frowned for a moment then realized what was happening and flushed a little. Her soulmate was tracing the design with a pen, over and over again.

Her heart sped up at how open they were with their love, even though the two of them hadn't met. She had to respond somehow to that much emotion, so she pulled her pen and drew an arrow through the heart.

It was so amazing to feel the little touches of warmth as they both drew on the same spot at the same time. It was almost as though she could feel their fingers, brushing hers.

They stopped tracing the heart shape so she continued, running her pen over the arrow multiple times.

After a short while she set it aside and snuggled into the couch, feeling happier than she had in years.

She picked up the novel again and after a few minutes felt one little poke on the back of her hand. There was only a single pen dot there. She wondered what it was for then realized the drawing wasn't important, it had been the sensation. A little pressure on the back of her hand, almost like…a kiss. Her face turned bright red.

She could have responded but the "kiss" felt kind of like a farewell and she didn't want to bother her soulmate when they had somewhere to be.

Her mind wandered reluctantly off her mysterious and unbelievably romantic soulmate, and back to the romance novel. Normally she read them just for fluff but it all felt a bit too relevant and what she had always considered a pastime suddenly felt like a guilty pleasure. No matter, she enjoyed the happy ending and set the book aside in a very pleasant mood.

She had absolutely nothing to do that day, no obligations, and a soulmate. It had been a very satisfying past five hours. Zelena allowed her mind to wander off her worries, something she generally didn't do, and began to slowly file through her wishes, her brain childishly asking, "What should I do today?"

Author's note: I would love to claim this as my own idea but it is based off a list of otp prompts I found. For anyone who cares, Nicene is indeed my OC from my other Zelena-centric fic, Oz Meet World. I hope you find this as incredibly cute as I found it. I'm trying to hit all the Zades clichés I can. Please R&R.