To put things lightly, Lucy was annoyed. She was annoyed everyone talked about their Soulmate. She was annoyed she saw the words 'Soulmate,' and 'Soul Tracker' everywhere she went. She was annoyed some of them showed the Trackers off like they were their biggest life achievement. She was annoyed she couldn't.
You see, in Lucy's world, people are born with a Soulmate. This soulmate shares a very specific design naturally imprinted on the skin with them. These marks are called Soul Trackers and they're the best way to find a Soulmate. Children are taught all about this as they grow and they're taught that getting your Soul Tracker is one of the best feelings in the world.
As Lucy grew, she became more and more excited to get hers. In elementary, seeing kids with their Trackers was a rarity and made it all the more special. Lucy wanted to be one of those kids. In middle school, more kids were getting theirs and Lucy's excitement only grew more. In high school, almost everybody had one and Lucy was growing impatient but felt it would also make it so much more special when it happened. In college, everybody else had them and Lucy was losing hope. By the time she got her first job out of college, she had lost almost all hope and started noticing the looks of pity in people's eyes when she told them of her Tracker-less skin. By the time she finally started climbing the ranks in her job, she had lost all hope of getting her Tracker and annoyance started replacing joy at the thought of them.
At age 26, the Soul Tracker hype was just as alive as when she was a small child and she was nearly at her wits end. She knew a study that had been conducted when she was around 12 showed that there had been occurrences where people didn't gain their Tracker until they met their Soulmate and names had been told to each other. It had only happened around 10 times throughout all the years so she had convinced herself that she was one of the unfortunate handful born without a Soulmate no matter how many times she was told there was still a chance. She couldn't bring herself to believe in her Soulmate when her skin refused to confirm it; So she didn't.
This, however, changed faster than she could have ever imagined.
It happened late one night on her way home from work. She had a job at Fairy Tail Newspaper as a journalist. It had been a good day for her so she was in a good mood despite being exhausted from running around for an interview and writing all day. So when she hit a red light on her walk, instead of waiting impatiently as she usually did, she leaned against a pole and closed her eyes. With her eyes closed, she focused on listening to what was going on around her.
She listened to the roar of cars as they drove by and the barks of dogs in the park not too far from where she was. She listened in on the conversations of passing pedestrians. She even listened to the sound of feet hitting the pavement. She stood there listening for far longer than she meant to but she didn't care. She was enjoying listening to the things around her. After all, it was ne of her favorite secret pastimes.
Everything was normal and the Soulmate talk she heard from passing conversations didn't even bother her. She stayed like that for a while, even missing the first chance she had to cross the street and continue on her way, until she heard something that caused a gasp to escape her lips.
"Oh please, ice queen. You know I don't have a Tracker."
Her eyes shooting open, she glanced around frantically in search of the man who said those words. There were many people passing and she had no idea what he looked like so she knew that unless he talked again, it would be incredibly unlikely for her to find him. She kept looking anyway, desperate to find someone who might understand her.
"Honestly that's a relief. I'd feel sorry for the girl who ended up having you as a Soulmate."
Hearing this, she felt slightly comforted that the voice seemed from around the same area as the first sentence. It meant they weren't walking and she would have more time to find them so she focused her eyes on the area it came from. It was to her right where only four people were waiting for the light to turn so they could walk across the street. Noticing only four people standing to wait, she watched each one closely.
"You're the one who should be without a Soulmate. I feel so sorry for Juvia."
Following the voice, her eyes finally met the speaker. What I saw made her almost choke on air. The first thing she saw was his hair. It was an unruly mess of spikes but what made it attention grabbing was the color. Pink. She couldn't help but think that whoever he was, he had the best pink hair she'd ever seen. The second thing she noticed was the muscle. She could feel her heart flip in her chest as she watched his muscles flex with each small movement he made. Then there was the scarf. Despite it being the middle of summer, he had a white scarf that looked almost like it was made of scales wrapped tightly around his neck. The white was stained with dirt and it seemed to being tearing a bit like he hadn't washed it in months. Moving her eyes away from his scarf, she finally looked at his face. When she saw the smirk he had set firmly on his face, her breath caught. "Damn, he's fine," she whispered under her breath. Before she could study him any further, a voice distracted her. More specifically, the voice of the pink-haired man's companion.
"I think you're just jealous because you don't have a Soulmate or someone to love."
With this sentence, Lucy was reminded of why she looked for them in the first place. Before she could tell herself to stop, her body was pushing her forward. "You have no Soulmate?" she asked, pure curiosity and wonder overtaking her face.
Both males turned toward her, surprise at her sudden interruption obvious in their facial expressions. She felt their eyes rake her body up and down but she could tell it was out of curiosity instead of the lust she was used to. Then the pink-haired man gave her a grin and shook his head. "Nope! Twenty-seven with Tracker-less skin! Weird, huh?"
Shocking them for the second time in less than two minutes, she shook her head just as the Tracker-less man had down just moments before. "Nope. I don't have one either."
There was a small silence as the two males took in the new information. "Wait, so let me get this straight. Flamebrain over here isn't the only Tracker-less person?"
"Obviously not popsicle. The girl's not just gonna lie about it," Pinky snapped at his friend.
"I never said she would, Ash-breath! I'm just surprised!"
"No need to fight, gentlemen," she stated as she crossed her arms and leaned all her weight onto her left leg and hip. Both males turned toward her and watched her for a minute before nodding and facing her completely once again. "You said you're twenty-seven?" She locked her eyes onto the oynx ones of her fellow Tracker-less human.
"Yeah, turn twenty-eight this year though."
"I turn twenty-seven this year."
"Only a year apart? Sweet Mavis this is weird," Pinky's companion said.
Both Pinky and Lucy simply nodded their heads in response. "So what are your names?"
Pinky's companion was the first to speak. "I'm Gray."
"Name's Natsu," Pinky stated. The two names rolled around in Lucy's head for a moment before she gave them a smile and a nod.
"Pleased to meet you both. My name is Lucy."
Before anyone can do anything else, a white glow surrounds her and she feels lighter. A warm feeling spread throughout her whole body and made her feel like she was sitting next to a fire. Before she had the time to notice anything else, the light was gone and all her weight was back. Looking around, she noticed that the whole world had seemingly stopped, their gazes directed toward her, Natsu, and Gray and mouths hung open.
Looking up at the two males, her mouth joined those hanging open as she noticed something new on Natsu's skin. There, shining in the light, was a bright Tracker on his shoulder. A shimmering golden key was shown sticking in a lock of light pink in the shape of a heart. Bright red and orange flames wrapped around the key and heart lock. While the design was simple itself was simple, the details etched into each curve and line was far more intricate. There were even some realistic shadows evident in the mark.
Suddenly, the quiet street had burst with cheers and applause, causing Lucy's study of the mark to get cut short.
"They got their Trackers!"
"Oh, it's so cute!"
"They must be two of the rare Soulmates!"
"I can't believe we got to witness that firsthand!"
That's when Lucy noticed where Natsu was staring dumbfounded. Slowly lowering her eyes, she felt her heart stop when they landed on the back of her right hand. The flaming key and lock freshly residing there was a perfect match to the one occupying Natsu's shoulder. Her eyes followed as her hand slowly lifted until she saw the two matching designs side by side.
It was then that Natsu seemed to snap out of his daze, the first traces of a grin invading his features. "Well would ya look at that. I do have a Soulmate!" The grin that had started to form just moments before had finished forming and now stretched from ear to ear. Seeing this, Lucy snapped out of her daze as well.
The pure joy she felt flooding through her systems forced a grin similar to Natsu's to form on her face. "I can't believe I have a Soulmate! All that hating Soulmates and Soul Trackers was for nothing! My childhood dreams came true!" Without thinking, Lucy ran forward and wrapped her arms around the pink-haired man standing before her. She squeezed him with all her might, mind too foggy with elation to notice she was cutting off his air supply. "Thank you!"
"No-no p-problem," he wheezed out.
When Lucy finally loosened her grip on him and her arms fell back down to her side, he warmly welcomed the oxygen with loud gasps. Realizing what she had done, the female immediately felt bad. "Oh, I'm so sorry!"
Natsu, however, just laughed once he regained his breath. "That's alright Lucy. I know you're just happy."
"Happy is an understatement. Try elated, euphoric, exhilarated, delighted, ravished, or literally any other word stronger than happy!"
Gray, who had been standing quietly and watching, finally broke into the conversation. "I can't believe this pyromaniac has a Soulmate. Especially with such a beautiful woman."
"Oi, she's my Soulmate! Save calling people beautiful for yours!"
Instead of yelling back, Gray simply chuckled. "Barely know her and you're already protective." Then he turned to me. "Good luck dealing with him, Lucy. I'm sure you'll need it."
"I kinda like the protectiveness. It's cute."
As Gray rolled his eyes, Natsu seemed to perk up even more. "Ha! See, she likes it so it's fine!"
"I bet she's just saying that to keep you happy," Gray mumbled before looking straight at Lucy. "So Lucy, since you have finally met your Soulmate, why don't you join us so you can get to know him more."
With a large smile on her face, she nodded her head. "Sure!" Then looking down at the bag that contained everything she might need for work, added, "But we'd have to stop off at my house first so I drop off my work bag."
"That's no problem! How far is it?"
"Just another block," Lucy informed the two.
"Cool! C'mon!" Natsu exclaimed as he grabbed her wrist and started pushing through the crowd that had long since stopped paying attention to the two newfound Soulmates with Gray not too far behind. Watching from behind, Lucy couldn't help but have a great feeling about the future.

New update! I really wanted to do one of these Soulmate ones but I didn't have anything planned out so I just started typing, deleting, and retyping until this final product emerged. I hope you enjoyed it