"Hey, Gretch, guess what?"

Glancing up from the history notes she was studying, Gretchen looked toward the door of the dorm room, where Claire was standing and grinning away in that adorable way she did sometimes. She had her arms hidden behind her back; Gretchen assumed Claire had bought her something-hopefully not from that horrible carnival. Yeah, Claire had promised not to hang out with those people again, but she'd certainly kept secrets from Gretchen before. She wondered if she was expected to actually try and guess what it was. She hoped not; she'd always been terrible at guessing games.

"Let me guess-you got a boyfriend," Gretchen joked, closing her history textbook and repositioning herself on the floor to face Claire.

Claire scrunched up her nose in amusement. "No, but close," she said. Taking her arms out from behind her back, she sat down across from Gretchen and held an arm out so she could see. Gretchen was kind of confused to see that Claire wasn't holding anything (although not particularly disappointed, since they had more than rnough stuff taking up space in their dorm anyway) until she noticed something on Claire's arm that hadn't been there before. On her forearm, where before there had only been a faint patch of grey, the name "Gretchen Berg" was now spelled out in small, tidy handwriting. It didn't really look much like Gretchen's handwriting at all, but she honestly could not have cared less.

"Oh, Claire, this is..." Gretchen gasped as she traced a finger along the tattoo ink. A little bit of it smudged-clearly the ink was still fresh-and Gretchen realized that the ink was just sitting on top of Claire's skin, not like a regular tattoo would be. "...Uh, I hope this didn't cost you too much," she said, trying to conceal her disappointment at what should have been obvious. Of course a girl with instant healing powers couldn't get a proper tattoo.

The disappointment showed on Claire's face as well, and her excited smile gave way into a grimace. "Damn it," she muttered. "I-I wanted to do this for you, Gretch, so the world could finally know that you're my soulmate, but... I guess my power is stopping me from ever having a soulmark, even a fake one."

"Claire, are you crazy?" Placing her hands on her girlfriend's shoulders, Gretchen pulled her into a hug. "Without your power, I wouldn't have you!"

"I guess so," Claire said, her voice muffled against the fabric of Gretchen's sweater.

For a moment they simply held each other, rocking back and forth slightly with the motion of their breaths. As much as she appreciated the effort of getting a fake soulmark tattoo, Gretchen really hoped Claire knew that soulmarks didn't matter to her. Heck, even if they hadn't been soulmates, Gretchen still would have wanted to be with her. The fact that it was their destiny for them to be together was basically just an added bonus. A really, really big added bonus. Gretchen was about to put a voice to this sentimentality when Claire spoke up, drawing out of Gretchen's embrace and wiping away the ink on her arm.

"You know, I bet that tattoo lady from the carnival could-"

"No," Gretchen interrupted before she could even finish the thought. "I don't want you spending any more time around those people!"

"Okay, it was just an idea," Claire said, tossing her hands up in surrender. "Geez," she added, "you sound like my dad."

"Why, what's old Mr. Bennet up to this time?"

Claire shrugged, her gaze trailing off toward the door. "I don't know if I should talk about it with you," she said. Then, in a whisper, "I want to reveal myself to the world. I think they're ready to know about me-about us."

"You're going to come out?" Gretchen asked.

"I mean, I guess you could call it-oh, wait, no!" Claire shook her head, chewing her lip as if thinking about how to rephrase herself. "By 'us', I mean other people with powers. That's who I want to show the world about."

"Oh." Gretchen slumped down a bit, admittedly kind of put down by the fact that Claire would sooner reveal that she had healing powers than that she wasn't straight. "And I guess your dad isn't too fond of that idea."

Claire nodded. "Honestly, it's like he doesn't understand me at all," she said. As soon as the words left her mouth she blushed, like she was realizing how much she sounded like a stereotypical teenager. "...Do you think I should do it?" she asked, locking eyes with Gretchen.

To be completely honest, Gretchen thought it was a terrible idea. Coming out as gay would be one thing, but at least it was only the person coming out putting themselves on the line. Claire wanted to expose hundreds, maybe even thousands of people-and to the whole world! It was not only insanely risky, but selfish. If the world at large decided they didn't like the existance of people like Claire, it could start an all-out war. However, Gretchen was sure Claire had already heard all these arguments from her dad. Right now, Claire was looking for support, and she was going to get it.

"Sure," Gretchen said, plastering a grin of encouragement across her face. "I mean, it's your life, right? Just do what you think is best. But think about it," she added solemnly.

Claire nodded, her face carrying all the grimness of a hardened soldier. It was awful to see such a serious expression on a college girl, let alone the one Gretchen loved. "I know; it's a risky decision," she said. "But it's something I need to do. You understand, don't you?"

Claire took Gretchen's hand and gazed up at her with wide, hopeful eyes. As their fingers wove together and they held each other's gaze, Gretchen realized that she did understand. Whatever Claire's decision process may have been, it was clear that revealing her ability to the world was something she'd thought long and hard about. Even if Gretchen didn't agree, so what? She loved Claire, and wanted her to be safe, but she couldn't control her. Besides, who could argue with those big green eyes?

"Of course you should do it," Gretchen said.

Claire smiled. "Thanks," she said. "It's nice to get some positive feedback."

In retrospect, that conversation should have prepared Gretchen for what happened just a few days later. She should have expected it when her soulmark scabbed over one evening while she was getting ready for bed. And, when she received a text from her mom telling her to turn on the TV just as her soulmark healed, she had a pretty good idea what was up. Still, when she turned on the news and saw Claire, looking into the camera as her wounds faded away, Gretchen may or may not have cursed under her breath.