Soulmate au

When you're born you are given a watch that counts down the time until you meet your soulmate, you and your soulmate's watches will hit zero when you first make eye contact.

Legend:

normal - current times

Italics - past

Warning!

This is a sad soulmate AU. Be prepared ;P

"Hey Koushi," you slipped into the seat across from your best friend, loosening the scarf around your neck as you rubbed your gloved hands together, seeking to warm them in the chilly winter.

Snow padded down outside, some sliding down the school windows, leaving rivers of molten snow, water trickling down.

The room was empty, a clock ticked.

tick, tock, tick..

"Hey (f/n)" his voice sounded oddly too cheerful in the melancholy room, the atmosphere much too cool and impregnable for the happiness laced in his words. "I only have a week left," he flashed you a small closed eye grin, genuine and happy, soft and making your heart melt despite the cold weather. "-And then I'll meet them!"

You nodded, shifting your gaze away from him, you didn't know if you could properly mask the emotions that clouded the otherwise sharp, stark colour of your eyes. "Only a week Suga, and then you'll be courting."

"haha (f/n), you always sound so old fashioned!" he keeps smiling, and nudges you playfully, you look back to him, letting a genuine, ghost of a smile play your lips.

"I suppose I do," you look back to the snow, drifting through the sky and coming to the ground, there would never be that exact snowflake every again, everyone had its own individual pattern, print, its own unique build. Like people.

The snow find each other, gathered on the ground, fallen and silent. Unlike all people.

"But I think it sounds more genuine then," you put your hand in the pockets of your jacket, rounding your shoulders in the hopes of trapping your body warmth, "'dating' is such a lack lustre term."

Sugawara is silent for a time, then he slowly exhales deeply before replying softly as the touch of the flakes on ones skin. "I think you have an old soul, a beautiful, old soul (f/n).."

You don't reply.

And the snow continues to fall.

"Are you going to tell him?"

You stand in the hall, hands tucked in your gym pants, having changed for your own respected sport. "I want too," you sigh, your eyes watching Sugawara through the slightly open door. "But should I?"

Daichi stands to your left, not looking at you but somewhere through the snow, at something you can't see. You tear your eyes from your best friend to look at Daichi as he sighs, slumping slightly forward and closing his eyes as he prepares himself to speak.

"You should, he only has a few days left.." he looks to you, sincere but serious and you find yourself seemingly frozen in place. "When he meets her, it won't be fair to tell him anymore."

"Will it ever be fair to tell him?"

"It's not fair for you, he can have a choice, but the moment they meet.. You won't have one anymore and neither will he, and that will never be fair." He pushes off the wall, hands tucked away in his pockets he stand in front of you, closer than a normal friend, but further away than a romantic partner. But you can feel his warm breath flutter across your cheeks and away as he looks down slightly to meet your eyes. "Not for either of you, or her."

And then he leans forward, dropping his forehead on your shoulder, you can see the snow falling from grey skies over his shoulder, and you feel the sadness warming your stomach, but also the indebtedness you felt in regard to your close friend.

"Please, (y/n) I can't watch you suffer like this forever."

You don't respond, and Daichi moves away, giving you one last look.

But you are staring away, now to something he is incapable of seeing.

And the snow continues to fall.

"It's today."

That was your own voice, your own words, but you hardly recognise them.

"Yeah, this is it." Sugawara keeps his smile on his face, it has been there for the last two days, never leaving.

You privately wondered if the beautiful smile he dawned would ever be aimed at you ever again, in the way it had always been since you met.

Since your watch went off.

"(y/n), I want to tell you now, because this is my last real chance.."

You can hardly make yourself meet his silken brown eyes, soft with earnestness and promises he won't be making to you.

"(y/n), I have always valued you highly, my most closest and precious friend. I don't want to lose that with you." his smile takes a little downward turn, you are mildly surprised by the careful honestly of his actions. "I was drawn to you for a long time you know?"

Your eyes widen and your mouth only opens a little, and you have to look away and close your eyes for a few seconds, flattening your lips to a stern line. You could not react as the pain began to seep in with every word he spoke, each whisper, every syllable was adding more weight. It felt like nothing, like holding your hand out in the snow fall, but as they gathered, built up, numbed your fingers, they grew ever heavier. As did your heart.

"I don't know what it was, because you should only feel an inkling that way for your soulmate.." he looks past the roof, through the snow to the grey, silver skies. "Maybe we were soulmates in a past life.."

You feel a smile tug at your lips, but not from anything positive as one may have deceived as first glance. No you smiled in acknowledgment of the mockery, the laughing that spread through yourself, mocking what you were, how you felt, your naivety. How did you ever end up in this position.

"Maybe we died in our past lives? maybe you did.."

"what a depressing thought.."

"yeah.." you agreed, "depressing and sentimental."

You stared to the snow, watched them fall and gather and more fall. Movement, your eyes trail to it, and you are met with the comforting, sympathetic brown of Daichi's eyes.

"I have one minute left," Sugawara said, "I'm going to stand here." he puts a gloved hand out, and a flake lands on it, it begins to melt not a second later. "I loved you."

You nod, tears, warm and obvious are gathering in your eyes. You can't say a word, the ice has frozen your lips stiff in a frown, your bite the inside of your cheek. You cannot say a word as you know you would choke.

He catches one of your hands, gives it a squeeze, you squeeze his back, and then you let go as you kick off the wall.

"Stand with Daichi? I want to do this by myself."

You nod stiffly, he cannot see your face as you walk ahead, past the cover of the roof, through the cold, falling snow.

But Daichi can, and he is already opening his arms as you cry, the tears quickly turning cold against your cheeks in the snow.

And the this bigger body is bundling you up and pulling you into his coat.

The clutter of two watches as they hit the ground reaches your ears, and then the laughter.

Sugawara meets her, and she meets him.

As the snow falls.

-a week later-

You find yourself in the inescapable position, and you tell yourself you must be strong. You must be strong, he doesn't want to lose you and you don't want to lose him. Be strong, you'll be ok.

"Will you meet her? please?" Sugawara scratches the back of his neck nervously, "you're my best friend, I really can't take her on a date without knowing you guys have met and stuff."

Why was fate so cruel?

But you smile, and it's part genuine, and you're proud of yourself. "Yes, yes I will Koushi."

He laughs a little, gratefully. "Thanks (y/n)!"

"no need to thank me, moron." you chuckle back, not as heartily as you would have under different circumstances, but well enough.

"ok, so you and Daichi can meet her together, I'll meet you at our cafe after school. yeah?"

You nod, on the inside your heart in constricting and twisting unpleasantly. "Yeah you will, I'll walk with Daichi."

Sugawara nods enthusiastically, says a few more things and then he's gone.

The snow pats into the glass of the window, with no sound and no effect, they river down.

And wash away.

"Hey (y/n), Daichi, this is Brook."

You smile and shake the girls hand, she fidgets nervously. She's pretty, cute even, nice hair and bright eyes, thin and clothes neat and matching. She's wearing natural makeup, some light eyeshadow and mascara make her already glowing eyes pop.

Already you feel slightly inferior to her.

You flinch however as her eyes go to your ever present watch, the numbers black and obvious and speaking the loudest over all your attributes.

"Your watch..?"

Time seems to stop, the introductions and talking all halt. And Suga's, Daichi's and the girls are all on you.

"Oh, oh my god!- I'm- I'm so sorry!" The girl quickly covers, a hand shooting over her mouth, "I didn't mean to intrude, oh my god I feel awful-"

"It's alright." You speak slowly, choosing your words with care in front of Sugawara and Daichi. "I get it a lot, not a big deal. My watch is broken, has been for a long time."

At her hesitance and discomfort, you decide to continue, if only a little bit. "um, my watched stopped, and there was no one there, it was empty, and I met no one."

"How do you know it wasn't a make eye contact, then you lose them sort of thing?" the girl asks shyly, a hand still covering her mouth unsurely. "That happened to my cousin.." she says measly, and your heart lurches horribly.

"Oh no, like I said.. It was empty. See I was standing by myself-"

You stand in the empty gym, heart leaping and your stomach churning. You feel like you might be sick.

there are only seconds on your watch,

00yrs 000dys 00hrs 00min 10secs

"I was in a gym, it doesn't have windows cause they might get smashed from all the balls, I was facing the wall-

You can hear the door opening and the footsteps. and you want to turn but you can't because it him- its him - it's HIM!

There's a tap on your shoulder and you turn, you see your friend Daichi first, but then you see who is beside him.

And the seconds stop, the watch burns your arm and you yelp, jumping back on instinct.

You rip away from your soulmate, but the watch burns and it burns and it hurts so much-!

You hesitate for but a moment, "and when my watch hit zero it sorta burned me really bad, that lasted awhile.."

"(y/n)?"

You look up, and the pain is ebbing away, Daichi steps toward you and looks you over, "are you ok? what happened-"

and then he sees your watch, he whips around to Sugawara, eyes searching for his watch. "Hey Suga-!"

"Yes? Is she ok?"

Daichi goes quiet, then he turns back to you, and the burning is still there but dull now, a little throb through your wrist. But the look in his eyes says enough, he is desperate, and unbelieving. And you know what's happened.

It only takes a glance at Sugawara's watch to confirm it.

"And there was no one there.." you finish, Sugawara is blinking at you, you hadn't actually told him your lie before, as he had never asked out of respect, only acknowledging your misfortune on very rare occasions with a simple 'sorry' after talking of soulmates.

Daichi however steps close to you, leaning close to your ear, words only for you. "You ok?"

You take a deep breath, closing your eyes to regain yourself, then you nod slowly.

"Anyways, it was ages ago, and I have since gotten over it."

The girl apologises again, a few times, before you manage to sooth her worries and you all move on to a much nicer, safer topic of discussion.

And the snow is still falling.

-years later-

You stand on the bridge, chin rested in hand. The wind picks up your hair, the locks drifting and seemingly swimming in the breeze as you snuggle down into your scarf. The metal of the bar on which you leaned against seeped icy cold through your covers and layers of clothing, the ice cold sinking into your flesh and frosting your bones.

You shivered, your face slightly bitten fro the chilly wind, and your eyes stared ahead.

The snow was not falling.

Instead the scenery was powdery white, a thick layer, the river flowed under a layer of ice, the banks white of snow and the trees powdered, the sky was electric, icy blue as the clouds had moved.

It was beautiful.

You had moved from Japan, leaving the school, your friends, the past behind. It was thoughts and memories who would rather not plague you constantly.

You had moved, losing contact with nearly everyone there, in fact the only ones in your contacts was Daichi, Tobio, and right at the bottom of the list, the least used ever. Was Sugawara.

You never scrolled that far down the list, because even though it had been years since the pain was fresh, he had sill been your soulmate, and it still hurt knowing there was no one that you where going to meet.

You would never get to stand in a street, counting down the minutes until you met your other half, your missing part.

Never get to count down seconds, nervous and unprepared and hoping.

Big dreams of love and family and a 'forever' partner who would complete you were totally dashed, gone with the wind that had taken the snow and winter those many years back.

But you smiled none-the-less.