Sinja AU Week day six: Beloved or Hated. Soulmate AU.
They say that when you meet your soulmate, it's supposed to be this huge thing with sparks and magic, but really, that isn't the case at all.
At least, not for Sinbad and Ja'far.
When Sinbad was around four, he had these pains begin; almost as if he were being tortured, and freckles subtly appeared over his nose and cheeks. Esra had taken him to the doctor, only to be told the best explanation was that Sinbad's soulmate had just been born, and the child had freckles. Pain was usually shared between soulmates, and any birthmarks or scars or freckles and the like would appear briefly on the other's match. Small cuts and bruises mirrored with each other, but things like gunshot wounds wouldn't.
And just like he said, the freckles faded within the day, and the pain subsided.
However, over the next few years, the pain came and went again and again, and the boy spent most of his life covered in cuts and bruises.
"I'm sorry, Sinbad. Something horrible must be happening to your soulmate… Poor girl…" Esra had told him after a particularly bad instance when he was six.
However, the worse was when he was ten.
His chest began to ache, and while that wasn't particularly bad in and of itself, what happened an hour later had him rushed to the hospital.
Sinbad's legs suddenly gave out underneath him, and the burning and tearing sensation made him scream. He looked down at his legs, and on the inside of them, he saw blood seeping through his jeans, as all feeling except for pain filled his senses.
His mother wasn't home from grocery shopping yet, and he needed to get help. Lucky for him, their next-door neighbor decided to check on him.
"Sinbad? Sinbad where are you?" She called, and Sinbad let out a pained, "Here.." before curling up and covering his mouth to keep from screaming.
When the neighbor saw him, she nearly screamed herself. "We have to get you to the hospital!" She cried, helping Sinbad up and to her car.
Sinbad spent the night in the hospital on strong pain killers, and people worried for him and his other half, knowing it was far worse than Sinbad's wound.
He remembered being brought to a family friend's after his mom died that year, and he didn't know what to think. There'd been this numbness, deep inside, despite his happiness at being with another familiar family.
He had a year there before something had happened. Rashid, the man who'd taken him in, was known throughout the world as a powerful business man, but Sinbad didn't know that it put a target on his back. Rashid had named his youngest child as his successor, but named Sinbad as the most capable man he'd ever met, even setting up his own branch of the business and had taken off quickly.
One night when he was fourteen, Sinbad had gone to bed as usual, on a business trip to the north, when he was attacked by a small child.
"Die!" He said, coming down from the ceiling to try and stab him.
Sinbad rolled out of the way, standing quickly.
"Woah, what're you doing here? Who are you?" He asked, only to be lunged at and tackled to the ground, and to have a gun pointed towards his head.
The elder boy laughed slightly, to the smaller one's confusion. Then, Sinbad grabbed the taser he kept under his pillow, and hit the boy in the arm with it, knocking him unconscious.
However, when the electric shock passed through the child's body, Sinbad felt as if he had been shocked as well. And as the light faded and he fell back, people bursting into his room, he thought to himself, 'I've found my soulmate… And it's a guy…'
Years passed since then, and Sinbad became good friends with the assassin, who he learned was named Ja'far, and when Rashid died, they'd both been taken in by a nice couple named Hinahoho and Rurumu.
Sinbad thought that his life would be a grand adventure once he met his soulmate, with roses and love and a wonderful life. What he didn't expect, however, was that his soulmate would be a tiny fireball with a penchant for knives, much less a guy. So he resigned himself to the fact that Ja'far would never learn of their status.
But damn, it was hard to do.
Ja'far was cute, in the same way that a scorpion was cute right before it attacks, and as he mellowed out under Rurumu's tutelage, he found himself falling hard for him. But, Ja'far was still ignorant in many ways; he was convinced he didn't have a soulmate, and even if he did, he felt he didn't deserve one.
And Sinbad kept that in mind for years. He wouldn't tell him. No way.
Until Ja'far figured it out, one day while they were working.
"Sinbad, you can't draw on your hand with the pen. It'll get on your clothes." Ja'far chastised, glancing over at the company head.
"C'mon, Ja'far, I'm bored!" Sinbad exclaimed, looking down at the little bird he'd drawn on the back of his hand.
"Sin, please, you are an—" Ja'far cut himself off, looking down at his own hand.
"I'm a what?" Sinbad asked, before looking over at Ja'far's hand as well.
Oh god.
The same bird that Sinbad had drawn on his own hand was now on Ja'far's. How could he be so stupid?! Of course it'd show up on Ja'far as well, that's what happened with soulmates!
"Sin… Did you…?" Ja'far whispered, and the other man shook his head.
The pale man took a nearby marker in hand and quickly began writing on his arm, and a second later, it showed up on Sinbad's.
"Are you my soulmate?" It wrote, and Sinbad nodded carefully, watching Ja'far's expression.
"How long have you known?" Ja'far asked, his voice shaking.
"Since I met you?"
Ja'far's face was turning red, and he glanced down at his legs, as if the horrors of what had been done to him would have transferred over to this person he cared for so much.
"I… I'm sorry. I don't… I'm not…"
"I know, Ja'far. So, I'm not going to ask you out. There are platonic soulmates, you know?" As much as it pained him to say those words, he'd never force Ja'far, or anyone for that matter, into a relationship.
"I know.. I just.. I'm not going to be able to forgive myself."
"What for?"
"For putting you through so much pain, Sin."
"Ja'far, you didn't put me through that; You were put through worse."
"That doesn't make it okay!"
"I don't care. Look, we have two choices, okay? One, we go on with our lives and nothing's changed and we're platonic, or two, we go on a date and try and make it work romantically. Before you answer, Ja'far, I want you to know you deserve to be happy, just remember that."
Sinbad's words were soft, and Ja'far seemed to calm down a bit at them. He'd never been one for romantics, nor for soulmates or any of that. But, maybe he'd be willing to try, and if he didn't like it, there was always the first option.
"You promise we can go back, Sin?"
"Absolutely."
"Then… I'm willing to try."
Sinbad's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, and he leaned over to Ja'far and hugged him.
In a way, Sinbad was glad Ja'far had found out, despite how it happened. And Ja'far? He was happy that Sinbad was happy.
Soulmates or not, they worked together on a different level than most, and that made them perfect for each other.