Drabble 95: Heterochromia
A/N: Hey guys! I had to do one more soulmate AU, this time from Jemma's perspective. If this isn't your cup of tea, I have a fun one planned next, so hang in there. If you like this... me too. Maybe a separate story about soulmates is a possibility... Anyway, thanks for reading!
Jemma wondered each day who it could be.
She saw how happy her parents were, and imagined who hers was. There were so many people in the world, and she knew many people didn't actually meet theirs. But her parents had. The proof was in their eyes. Her mum's eyes were a light brown, her dad's a much deeper shade of the same color. Before they'd met, there had been a clear difference: each had had one eye of that light brown, one dark. Once they'd met, their individual eye colors had taken over, the heterochromia fading away.
That was how you knew you had found the right person. From the moment you were born, one of your eyes reflected yourself. The other reflected your soulmate. Your other half. You couldn't fully be yourself until you found them and interacted with them, so you couldn't look like yourself.
Jemma had found it hard to believe at first. But the pictures of her parents from when they were growing up were very convincing, and there were studies that supported the soulmate theory. Which left her to wonder who in the world hers could be.
Sometimes she felt like she would never find him. She didn't even know where to start looking. One of her eyes was a warm brown, a blend of her parent's two shades. The other was a clear, ringing blue.
Thinking it over logically, she knew the blue eye could very easily be her own. A simple Punnett Square told her it was a very real chance. But it was the shade of the brown eye that made her believe that one was hers. How could it not be, when it so clearly reflected her parents?
Which meant that the blue eye that stared back at her belonged to him. Whoever he was.
She couldn't imagine what he looked like, and she was mostly glad she wasn't the most visual thinker. She didn't want to build up one image in her head. It was hard enough sometimes thinking that there was someone out there who was meant for her. Trying to think of what he looked like made it too much like a fairy tale.
Still, she did find herself wondering who he could be, in between moments. When she saw her father wrap his arms around her mother from behind just to be affectionate. When her mum finished his train of thought on the nights he worked so hard he couldn't see straight, knowing exactly what he was trying to say to her. When they did little things for each other, things they knew the other would appreciate more than a grand gesture.
Those were the moments when she imagined who hers could be.
Because she wanted what her parents had, more than even she knew.
She found herself pushing further into her studies as the years passed, maybe as a distraction. She studied for hours every day, working well into the night on occasion. It was exhausting but invigorating, and in a few years she was able to earn two degrees.
By the time she was seventeen.
The few friends she had were more focused on finding their soulmate than their own careers. Jemma lost contact with them before earning her degrees.
Her parents suggested she take a break, just after earning them. Travel a bit, relax for the first time in years. Maybe she would find someone without having to search.
She took a two week trip through the country, taking time to read and visit appealing locations. After that she found herself feeling… off. She didn't know what to do with herself. So when the opportunity to go to the Academy came up, she took it without hesitation. She had to stop deluding herself that she would find him if she waited around.
And then she saw him, on the first night at the Academy, standing across from her.
She had barely seen him when a wave of dizziness almost knocked her off her feet. Clutching the railing, she remained upright, her eyes closed. It was so sudden she didn't know what to make of it. It passed as abruptly as it had come, and she opened her eyes and saw the boy doing the same, just across the room.
The boy with two perfectly blue eyes, looking at her in shock and amazement. Two blue eyes, which she knew intimately well. She'd seen through one of them for all her life.
Her lips formed a tentative smile as she approached him. "Hi." She said. "My name is Jemma."
"Leopold Fitz. But you can call me Fitz." He looked at her. "You seem really familiar."
She realized that he didn't know about the heterochromia and its connection to soulmates. Maybe he would wonder, once he saw how his appearance had changed, but he certainly didn't know now. She wondered if he even believed in it, but decided not to worry about it. She did. He didn't realize the connection that was beginning to exist between them. The connection that had existed since the moment they were born.
"Care to get dinner?" she asked.
"Absolutely." He said with a grin.
She took in his pasty skin, curled brown hair and wonderful blue eyes and smiled to herself. Maybe he didn't know they were soulmates, but she was going to do everything in her power to help him figure it out.