The Soulmate Mark

by equality-tea

Will fears that he's going to be slapped by the person he's meant to spend the rest of his life with. On the day his watch foretells that he will be matched, he goes to the bar to calm his nerves. There he meets two boys who just want the best for their little cousin, and a said little cousin who's just done with their shit at this point. Solangelo, soulmate!au, LANGUAGE. One-shot!

Will Solace was very freaked out. His soulmate watch foretold tonight would be the night when everything would change. He'd heard about it before; first you see them, then everything starts to slowly shift. But then, that one touch, and your chest blossoms in colour, enveloping the world in a whole new kind of beauty. Today he would experience colour. The black mark that everybody had would eventually burst into full colour when your soulmate touched you for the first time.

But the mark on his face, the solid black palm curving around his face was his only trouble. He was going to be slapped by the one.

To take his mind off life, he chose to go out to the bar. Maybe just a drink would be okay, he thought. I'm gonna make a fool of myself. He sat down at the table, drink in hand, drumming his fingers on his thigh. He took a slow, careful sip and surveyed the crowd, faintly aware of the clock ticking away in his pocket. A scuffle somewhere in the middle of the room caused him to do an optical double take. Two older boys were wrestling with a smaller figure, who was obviously against going or doing whatever it was they wanted him to do.

Will was just about to intervene when the voice said," Damn you, Jason, why are you even fucking joining forces with this idiot?!"

"Language, young one." 'Jason' chided.

"Fuck you. Fuck Percy too. I didn't want to even come here, but you two quite literally kidnapped me out of my room-"

"I wouldn't say we kidnapped you-" said another voice, probably Percy's. "You stuffed my head inside a shopping bag with even more shopping bags stuffed inside it than your mom's seven-layer dip. Then, you tied my hands and feet together. You also stuffed a moldy gym sock in my mouth…" The boy paused to retch a little. "Kidnapping? I think so!

The boy made an abrupt movement and turned around, jerking his knee upwards twice, and ran. He heard a few uncomfortable groans, and could guess what happened. The two boys, defeated, wandered over to his table and sat. They rolled their eyes and complained about that 'insufferable small emo death child.'

A voice yelled from not too far off," I'm not emo, you fuckers!"

Will burst into laughter at their stricken faces as the darker haired one whispered loudly to the one with glasses," I swear he has supersonic hearing. He denies it, Hazel denies it, even his Mythomagic dolls deny it! But I swear, he-"

Again he was cut off by the same voice as before, shouting," They're not dolls, they're figurines! And I don't fucking play that game anymore you lowlife snoops!"

Will laughed even harder. "Sorry-" He covered his face with his hands. "It's just- you, that kid- no offense, but if you wanna take someone for a night out, maybe you should try asking them?" The boys considered him, then shrugged.

"Yeah, it's true, but he never would have agreed. Our cousin's kind of antisocial, so-"

The voice, emanating from the shadows, said lowly," Who are you calling antisocial, Water Boy?" Both boys shrieked.

"God dammit, Nico, you just can't do that!"

"Do what?" The boy, Nico, said innocently, though he may as well been twirling a knife while he said it.

"Jason." Percy said. "Remind me why we didn't just bring Valdez with us."

Jason replied," Even Hazel would have been better."

"You do realize you're talking about my sister like that and I can hear you?" Nico's voice was dangerous.

"Sorry, dude." Percy held his hands up. "But you see, Piper, Calypso, Reyna and Annabeth wanted to go out for a while, a 'girls night,' Leo's working in the tool shed, and Hazel decided to spent the night with Frank." Percy's face flushed considerably as he realized how wrong that sounded while Nico was, inevitably, raising an eyebrow from the shadows.

"You have two seconds to rephrase what you just said or I swear to whoever the fuck I believe in these days, I'll-"

"Cool it, Death Boy!" Jason said quickly. "They just went out to a restaurant. It's actually just down the block." Then he covered his mouth. "I should not have told you that."

"That's it! I'm busting 'em." Though he still could not see Nico, Will guessed he was striding towards the door. Both Jason and Percy leapt up and wrestled Nico into a chair.

"Let them have some time to themselves. They're young, let them have some fun." said Jason consolingly.

"Anyway, it's all you ever do!" Percy added obnoxiously.

"Fuck you, Jackson. Fuck you too Grace."

"We love you too." Percy said. "Now say hello to our guest." With a jolt, Will realized they were referring to him.

"No."

"Do it."

"No!"

"DO IT!"

"NO!"

"NICO DI ANGELO, JUST SHAKE HIS HAND!"

"Fine!"

He held out his hand and Will held out his. The second their fingertips were about to brush against each other, a voice rang out. "Up next on the stage, Mr Nico di Angelo!"

"Jason, it worked!" Percy squealed. "What the actual fuck, you two! You signed me up for this bullshit?!" Nico sounded panicky. If he could see him, he guessed there would have been a look of complete murder on his face. "I am DEATH. I wear all black to resemble my soul. I am the Prince of Darkness. I am the Master of the Shadows. I am-"

Jason cut him off. "You're not death when you and Hazel have your two man dance parties at your apartment to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."

"How the fuck did you-"

"Also that time when you were screaming Natural by Imagine Dragons in the shower."

"What the-"

"Also when dance around the house while you sing that song about fire and love and shit like that when you do your chores, I dunno-"

"It's called Surefire, by John Legend, and you two are officially dead when we get home."

"Yeah, but for now, get your ass on the stage." Jason and Percy both shoved him.

Will couldn't see that well over the crowd. He decided to just listen. "Oh, wait till you hear him! He's amazhang!" Percy said giddily. Jason reached over and smacked him.

At first, all was silent. Then an angelic noise took wings and floated up around the room, encasing all of them.

"Can you just stay through the night?

Turn down the bed and the blinds

Before your turn around

Can you just stay through the night?

Let me breathe you in 'til gravity bends

And we fall through the hole in the light

Make this our kingdom

Somewhere where good love conquers and not divide."

Nico di Angelo had the voice of something beyond a human's ability. Will was jealous, but captivated. His awe must've shown on his face, because Percy squealed, "Told you he was good!"

"Cause I may not know a lot of things but

I feel it in my chest

Know I won't let the blue flame die

We can't lose hope just yet

'Cause it's once, just once in a lifetime

And we're scared to love but it's alright-

I may not know a lot of things but

I know that we're surefire, yeah

Know that we're surefire, yeah."

At this point, Will was out of his seat, drawn in like a deer in headlights. He weaved in the crowd of people, and found himself at the front.

"Can't keep this bed warm on the left side

When something is cold as a goodbye

Why don't you turn around?

Ignore all that shit from the outside

The world is a nightmare

Wake up and stay here

Let me be on your side

We'll make this our kingdom

Somewhere where good love conquers and not divide."

Around," Let me be on your side," Nico's voice wavered, but only for a second as he spotted Will. Will stared at him. His eyesight turned white, blinding, and he missed the brief glimpse that was Nico di Angelo. He had had mussed, feathery, dark ravens hair that was desperately in need of a haircut. It framed his face and fell into his eyes. He had unbelievably long, thick eyelashes that rested for the faintest second on his cheekbones when he blinked. His pale skin was like milk, creamy and fresh looking. His dark eyes seemed to bore into your soul. They were such a deep, deep, black, like does eyes, seemingly way too large for his face, and Will found that if you looked closely enough, you could find a carefully guarded twinkle. His lips were full and bow shaped, stained a darkish shade, as if he'd eaten a million raspberries and didn't clean the juice from his lips. He was skinny, but not too skinny. An oversized dark aviators jacket was draped over his shoulders, but he wasn't technically wearing it. He had his hands stuffed into the pockets of his dark skinny jeans and he tapped the toe of his black sneakers as he sang, if the angelic sounds he made could even be called singing. He saw that one of Nico's hands was encased in pure black. The soulmate mark.

He was beautiful.

And that was why when the blinding sensation overtook him, he was so frustrated. He didn't know how long it lasted, but it had slowly faded. Painfully slowly. And everything was twisting and morphing, and everything looked considerably different when he got his sight back. No, it wasn't colour, but he wished it was. You had to touch your soulmate for the colour to blossom out.

Even in his condition, and he didn't know what was happening, he drank in Nico's words.

"And oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my God

I'm so, I'm so, I'm so tired of fighting

Let go, give in, let go and give up, oh

I may not know a lot of things but

I feel it in my chest

Know I won't let the blue flame die

We can't lose hope just yet

'Cause it's once, just once in a lifetime

And we're scared to love but it's alright

I may not know a lot of things but

I know that we're surefire

Know that we're surefire

And oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my God

I'm so, I'm so, I'm so tired of fighting

Let go, give in, let go and give up, oh

I may not know a lot of things but

I feel it in my chest

If we just let the blue flame die

The devil wins this bet

Oh it's once, just once in a lifetime

And you're scared to love but it's alright

I may not know a lot of things but

I know that we're surefire

Know that we're surefire…"

Nico di Angelo had finished his song and the crowd was screaming for an encore, but he calmly walked off the stage and approached Jason and Percy. "What the fuck just happened?" he was blinking hard. Will was trying not to do the same. "Everything went white… it wasn't physical pain, more of- a, well, I can't explain it actually."

"That happened to me, too! That's really weird." Will added thoughtfully. Jason and Percy exchanged a look. Then Jason thrust his hands in Nico's pocket.

"What the fuck!" Nico protested, but Will had taken out a watch. The watch.

"Oh my God!" he whispered to Percy. "You think that-"

Percy looked at Will evilly. Will backed away. "I don't know you but I don't like that look you're giving me."

Jason shoved Nico towards Will from behind, who seemed to have lost it. "I have had FUCKING ENOUGH!" He screamed. "You two kidnapped me, dragged me away from home, tried to get me to do all kinds of random bullshit, humiliated me, forced me to sing-" He drew his fist back, as if he would punch Percy. Will reached out and grabbed it. By no will of his own, he had curled his hand around Nico's, right around the soulmate mark.

"But you have a beautiful voice." he said, and Nico di Angelo was speechless.

He only had a few seconds to drink in the view of Nico when his chest started glowing and his hand started radiating… colour. Nico looked down in alarm, and tried to pull away, but for some reason Will held his hand tighter. Jason and Percy had their phones whipped out, no doubt recording the whole thing. Then Will's chest started glowing. Nico's glow was a soft, binding, beautiful light that was so light it was practically white. And his own glow was a harsh, but somehow still also beautiful, charcoal black. The two colours mixed- colours? Will jolted, but this time it was Nico who held fast- as the tendrils of light and dark danced together, encasing the two boys in snakes of moon and sun, of yin and yang.

And then the whole world exploded in colour.

The first thing Will noticed was his lips- stained dark red, like a cherry, and extremely full. It was beautiful and somehow still natural looking.

The first thing Nico noticed was his eyes- a million different shades of blue, folded together into two pupils.

The black mark on Nico's hand had disappeared. He looked up at Will's own mark. Hesitantly, almost shyly, he asked, mumbling," May I…?"

"I guess… if you want." Then he mentally berated himself. Real smooth, Will. About as smooth sandpaper. Nico's hand was as cool as it was pale, a heavenly sensation against his own really warm skin. His hand cupped Will's cheek, as the other was thrown around his waist. His head was leaning into Will's shoulder. Will felt cool all of a sudden, like he was dipped in ice. The colour radiating off his cheek was practically blinding him.

When Nico withdrew his hand, he whispered," The mark is gone…" As if he couldn't believe he had caused that.

Will fumbled for his watch, which recorded the soulmate countdown. It had words written on the screen. "You have met your soulmate 6 minutes and 24 seconds ago. Congratulations." Nico snatched his watch from Jason's hand.

"They say the same thing. You… me… I- wow." Was all he said.

"Why?" Will was a little hurt. "Are you disappointed?"

Nico shook his head quickly. "Not at all, I just- never thought I'd get so lucky." he half mumbled.

"Me too. I know I don't know you very well, but I'd like to. Would you like to go out, just to dinner or something small?" As they talked, Percy and Jason exchanged a look, then nodded.

"Oh no!" Jason wailed dramatically as he tilted backwards in Nico's direction. "Gravity is increasing on me!"

"JASON!" Nico panicked, frantically yet unsuccessfully shoving him away.

Jason fell backward on top of Nico, knocking him out of our conversation. Literally. "Gravity says no." He flashed Nico an extremely annoying grin.

"Get off of me, you stupid- ROMAN SASQUATCH!" Nico swore angrily. Jason just sighed dramatically, Percy bursting into peals of laughter. Nico was still cussing like a sailor, and Will helped shove Jason off.

"You need our permission to date our small goth child." Percy told him.

"GUYS!"

"What, it's true!"

"I'll take care of him, don't worry. I'm a doctor. Or at least, a doctor-in-training."

And he grabbed Nico's hand, lacing their fingers together, and led him out of the bar. Percy screamed behind them," Don't get too wild, guys!"

"PERCY!"

fin.