what's in a name
yspir
Summary:
By the time Cyrus made it to school to show Andi and Buffy, an 'h' had appeared next to the T. Andi and Buffy squealed and wrapped him up in a big hug. After they stepped back, Buffy looked at the 'Th' on his wrist thoughtfully for a second. "Theodore" she said confidently. "I bet his name is Theodore."
A name on wrist soulmate au now that we know, for better or worse, what TJ actually stands for
The day Cyrus's name finally came in was a weird one.
For one, it was generally just a bit strange for him to see these letters that he'd heard so much about finally appearing on his own wrist. But that wasn't all.
Cyrus had woken up that morning and it took him a minute to catch the faint 'T' that appeared, and when he saw it he nearly screamed. He ran downstairs in a hurry, holding his arm straight out in front of him.
His parents had never seen him hustle that much on his own accord. "Cyrus, honey, is everything alright?"
Cyrus didn't wait to catch his breath. "T! I have a T!"
His mind was whirring with possibilities. Tyler? Thomas? Timothy? Oh God he thought. He wanted to know now. He wanted to know yesterday.
By the time Cyrus made it to school to show Andi and Buffy, an 'h' had appeared next to the T. Andi and Buffy squealed and wrapped him up in a big hug. After they stepped back, Buffy looked at the 'Th' on his wrist thoughtfully for a second. "Theodore" she said confidently. "I bet his name is Theodore."
She was incredibly smug after their first class when Cyrus showed her the 'e' that came in. "Theodore" Cyrus said dreamily, testing the name out. "Theodore."
So the 'l' was a bit of a wrench.
"Thel…" Andi said slowly. "Well. I can't actually think of a name that starts like that."
"Maybe he's foreign?" Buffy offered.
Cyrus gasped. "What if he has an accent?"
The 'o' that followed wasn't any more helpful, and neither was the 'n'.
Buffy patted his shoulder as he stared at his wrist in confusion. "We're probably not going to figure it out until the whole thing shows up."
They were at The Spoon that afternoon when the final letter appeared. Cyrus completely zoned out of the conversation as the 's' appeared and the faint letters began to darken.
"Guys," he interrupted, voice a bit shaky, "I think it's done."
"Let me see, let me see!"
Cyrus raised his arm to place it palm up on the table in front of them, letting them read his soulmates full first name for the first time. Thelonious
"Thelonious. Huh."
"Well, at least he shouldn't be hard to find."
"Yeah, you'll probably know right away!"
Cyrus was sort of disappointed that they clearly didn't go to Jefferson. He would know if there was a Thelonious at their school, it felt like the sort of name that was hard to miss.
He was giddy though. The idea of having a soulmate felt so much more real with a name attached to it. Thelonious. And Buffy and Andi were right, Cyrus wouldn't have to go through a weird period of uncertainty everyone he met someone with his wristname.
Cyrus felt a tiny bit bad for having such a generic name, comparatively. His soulmate, his Thelonious had a much higher chance of running into another Cyrus before they met.
When he got home he excitedly showed it off to his parents, who were initially pretty surprised at the name. They brought out a wrist guard for him and showed him how to put it on, for courtesy's sake. "We can't wait to meet him, honey." His mom said, giving Cyrus a squeeze and kissing his forehead before letting him run up to his room where he may or may not have spent the rest of the day testing out the name in his handwriting.
It worried him a little bit, when he thought of how things went for his parents. How they had spent enough time waiting, how they were tired of not knowing, and how all the love and determination in the world didn't end up being enough to overpower fate. He wondered if it ran in the family, not meeting them till late. He wondered if genetics had any effect on soulmates at all. He resigned himself to the fact that he was probably not going to meet his soulmate in Shadyside.
It took a while before he got any kind of answers.
Cyrus was watching the flickering glow on TJ's skin as they sat by the fire in Andi's backyard. "I'm not mysterious," he had said. "Ask me anything."
It still took a little convincing for him to share his name. It only made Cyrus more curious as TJ swore him to secrecy. Tyler? Thomas? James? Jackson? What could TJ's initials really be hiding?
"TJ stands for… Thelonious… Jagger."
Cyrus short circuited. "Thelonious Jagger? Are you kidding?"
TJ looked away, embarrassed, as Cyrus made a move for his wrist guard.
"Thelonious like this?" He asked, holding his arm out to TJ. TJ froze for a second before grabbing Cyrus's arm and reading his own name on it in awe.
"You're my Cyrus." He said breathily before turning his palm to interlace his fingers with Cyrus's outstretched hand. Cyrus's heart was racing a million miles a minute, and if TJ's sigh of relief was anything to go by he was in a similar state.
The sat in silence for a minute, laced hands resting between them as they smiled at each other and took in the moment. Cyrus could not believe his life. TJ Kippen. His Thelonious.
"Sorry you have to spend your whole life with such a stupid name on your arm."
Cyrus was somewhat offended that TJ called it a stupid name when Cyrus had spent so much time obsessed with it since it showed up. "Seriously? It's a great name! I love that name."
"You do?"
"Yes!"
"What was your first thought when you saw it on your arm?"
"That I couldn't wait to meet you." TJ's eyes went softer and he gave Cyrus's hands a squeeze. Cyrus grinned. "And that I would know right away when I did"
TJ looked a little sheepish. "I kind of thought… or hoped, I guess, that my soulmate would get TJ. Everyone's called me that since I was like 3 days old so figured there was a chance."
"If my wrist just said TJ, would you ever have told me what it stood for?"
"I told you just now didn't I? Even though I had no idea."
"Yeah," Cyrus said with a happy sigh. He took the opportunity to scoot over a bit and rest his head on TJ's shoulder.
"Wait!" TJ said abruptly. "Who else has seen your wrist?"
"Just my parents, Buffy, Andi, and Jonah."
TJs eyes got huge. "You're telling me that Buffy knows the T stands for Thelonious?"
"Well, not yet technically, but I suppose that's not going to last long."
TJ groaned. "Oh God, I'm never going to hear the end of it."
"Hey, look on the bright side!"
"Which is?"
"She doesn't know what the J stands for yet."
TJ groaned. "You're lucky you're cute, Underdog."
"And that I'm your soulmate?"
TJ smiled and tucked Cyrus under his shoulder. "Were both lucky about that."
