Lou and Ravi wandered around the summer carnival looking for their friends. The sun had begun to set half an hour ago and the two had not seen Emma or Xander since then. Ravi hadn't been too worried. He was used to Emma doing her own thing whenever they went somewhere in New York, but Lou didn't like the idea of being away from her besties for too long.
"After the Ferris wheel, the two of them probably went somewhere to smooch," Ravi said as he stepped over an abandoned corndog on the grass.
"Doubt it," Lou replied as she shuffled closer to Ravi as they walked side by side through the crowded carnival. "You know Xander hates heights. He's probably throwing up somewhere right now. And Emma's probably about to pass out from the sight of his vomit." Lou gasped. "And they're probably wondering why I'm not there to take care of them!"
Ravi wanted to refute her theory, but he could tell by the way that her eyes darted around the busy carnival that she wouldn't listen to him. He stepped over more trash and avoided crashing into a woman carrying a giant teddy bear. The movement almost caused him to lose track of Lou, so he sped up to her and took hold of her hand.
"Uh," she said, slowing her pace and looking down at their connected hands.
Ravi felt his face heat up. He explained quickly, "We already lost Emma and Xander. Why not make sure we stick together?"
"Oh, uh, sure."
She glanced at their hands one more time before resuming her pace. They walked past the hundredth funnel cake stand and rounded the corner of a goldfish game before Ravi spotted Emma and Xander walking out of a colorful tent near a balloon stand.
"There they are!" He exclaimed, making sure to point in the direction of the couple with his free hand and not the one holding Lou's hand.
"Besties!" Lou cheered. She started to move forward but stopped suddenly, causing Ravi to stumble. She narrowed her eyes at the sign beside the tent. "Evil."
Written in gold letters on a black background were the words Madam Terresa Teller of Fortunes.
Ravi rolled his eyes after he read the sign. "It's just a fortune teller, Lou."
"Do you not remember the story 'bout my cousins," Lou said, squeezing his hand.
Ravi sighed and said flatly, "Yes. You've told it many times."
Lou narrowed her eyes at Ravi but didn't say anything else. She turned her attention to the happy couple walking up to her as carnival goers went by.
"Hey, guys!" Emma said cheerfully.
"Don't 'hey, guys' me!" Lou said sternly as she shook her and Ravi's connected hands.
"Look, don't be mad," Emma said with apologetic eyes. "I just really needed to know if my dreams of owning my own design label would come true, Lou."
"Our mother owns a fashion empire and we're rich. Did you really need a fortune teller to predict that?" Ravi said sarcastically.
Emma gave her brother an annoyed look.
"He's got a point," Xander said with a shrug. He kissed his girlfriend's forehead. "But the confirmation was nice."
"Traitors," Lou grumbled and looked up at the evening sky. It was streaked with purples and pinks as the sunset.
Emma causally leaned into Xander as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She said to Lou, "I think you should give the fortune teller a try."
Lou's jaw dropped slightly as she stared at Emma. "Never!"
"Emma's right, Lou. It's fun. And if you're scared, Ravi can go with you," Xander suggested. He glanced at his friends' interlocked hands. "I mean, he's already holding your hand."
Lou and Ravi turned quickly to look at each and then look down at their connected hands. They each let go, but their fingers were still close enough to brush. Lou refocused her attention on Emma and Xander while Ravi eyed a carnival game on the other side of the fortune teller's tent.
"Don't you want to know if you'll win counselor of the year," Emma said.
"Well..." Lou stared at the colorful tent. Its multicolored stripes were covered in multicolored stars. She took a deep breath and then looked over at Ravi.
"Do you want to?" she asked.
Ravi was about to say no, because he had no interest in fake fortunes from some random person in a weird costume. But Lou was looking at him expectantly and he rarely said no to her.
"Fine," he sighed dramatically. "But you two wait here," he said to his sister and his fellow Grizzly counselor. "I don't want to spend the next hour walking around looking for you two when I'm supposed to be winning Jorge a goldfish."
"Aw, that's nice, Ravi," his sister said.
Xander explained to his girlfriend, "It's so Jorge doesn't put his socks under Ravi's pillow again."
"And I don't want athlete's face from his athlete's foot," Ravi said. "Let's go."
Lou stopped when they reached the front of the tent. She had always been a superstitious person and her friends knew that about her. So, when she glanced nervously over at Ravi, he held out his hand for her to hold. He knew she was nervous because he knew that whatever this random vender told her, she would believe it. Lou gave him a relieved smile when she glanced down at his outstretched hand. She interlocked their fingers and, together, they stepped into the tent.
The thick smell of incense made Lou cough a little. Ravi had to blink several times to adjust to the change in lighting. It was evening outside but the carnival was well lit by overpriced game stands, overindulgent food trucks, and questionable fair rides. But inside the tent, it was dimly lit by colorful lights and a few white candles.
"Greetings, young lovers," a woman with a raspy voice said. She was dressed in colorful layers and there were several different shades of purple in her hair.
Ravi leaned over and whispered to Lou, "Shesh, she's already off to a bad start. How can she know your future if she doesn't even know that we're just friends?"
"Silence, foolish boy!" The woman's bellow made it seem as if the tent shook. "The soulmate candle does not lie!"
Ravi squeaked in fear and squeezed Lou's hand tighter.
Lou looked at the woman with wide, curious eyes. She asked, "The what?"
The woman twirled her fingers in the flame of the purple candle on the table in front of her. The thin candle was an amethyst shade of purple with gold designs that wound around it. Its flame flickered brightly in the darkness of the tent. None of the other candles in the tent looked as odd as this one nor did they burn as bright.
"The soulmate candle only illuminates when in the presence of two people destined to be together," the fortune teller said dramatically.
"Sure, it does," Ravi said flatly. He looked over at Lou to see if she was over this experience as much as he was, but she looked mesmerized by the candle. "Lou?"
She slowly let go of his hand and walked closer to the table. She kept her eyes on the candle as she leaned closer to look at the strange candle.
Madam Terresa looked intensely into Lou's eyes and hunched over the candle. "I can see your destiny," she whispered in a creepy tone before looking pointedly at Ravi.
Lou gasped like the wind had been knocked out of her. She turned quickly and grabbed Ravi's arm as she ran out of the tent.
Only Ravi heard Madam Terresa yell, "Hey! You owe me eight dollars!"
Lou didn't stop running until she found Xander and Emma talking and laughing with each other not far from an overflowing trash can.
"That was fast," Xander said to his friends. "How'd it go?"
Lou let go of Ravi's arm but she was still breathing like she was running. She fidgeted with the ends of her hair as Emma looked at her with concerned eyes.
"Lou? What's going on?" Emma asked as she put her hand on her best friend's shoulder.
"I need ice cream," Lou mumbled in a tone that made it clear that her thoughts were somewhere else.
Without another word, she turned on her heels and headed in the direction of some food trucks.
Emma lightly slapped the back of her hand against her brother's arm and repeated her question, "What's going on with, Lou? What happened?"
Ravi raised both eyebrows. "I'm not sure." He looked in the direction that Lou disappeared to and then back to the fortune teller tent. Suddenly, he realized what was wrong. "Oh, wait. I know what's going on. The lady freaked her out with that soulmate candle nonsense."
Xander scratched the back of his head and asked, "The what?"
"Soulmate candle," Ravi repeated looking for any sign of recognition on his sister's or friend's faces. "That gaudy purple candle in the middle of the table? Didn't it light up supposedly on its own and she declare you two soulmates?"
Xander gave Ravi a blank look. He shook his head. "No idea what you're talking about, dude."
Emma folded her lips in thought for a moment. Her eyes lit up and she nodded, "I remember the candle! And yes, it was tacky. But it didn't light up or anything." Emma's eyes widened and she clutched Xander's shirt. "Oh no! Does it mean we're not soulmates?"
"It's not real, Emma," Ravi said. "And we need to find Lou. You two know how she gets."
"Right," Emma nodded in agreement. "Lou's like an innocent little superstitious puppy. She's gonna believe anything that the fortune teller said." Emma frowned. "And it's my fault that she thinks she's gonna be stuck being Ravi's soulmate."
"Stuck?" Ravi said, narrowing his eyes at his sister. "You just couldn't resist throwing some shade."
Emma smirked. "Nope."
"Come on guys," Xander said. "Let's find Lou."
It didn't take long for the group to find their friend. Lou was sitting in the picnic area beside the food trucks. She had an entire picnic table to herself as she sipped on a strawberry milkshake. All around her at the other tables were other groups of friends and some families with little children.
"Are you okay?" Emma asked as she sat down beside Lou.
"I guess," Lou said as she stirred her milkshake.
"Lou, I'm sorry we pushed you. It was all supposed to be fun," Xander said. He sat opposite of Lou and scooted over so that Ravi could have room on the bench beside him.
"Yeah, no need to worry, Lou. You and I aren't...destined for each other," Ravi said.
"That's not what bothers me," Lou sighed as she stopped stirring her milkshake and looked up at her friends.
"It's not?" all three shocked friends said at once.
"No. What bothers me is that the surprise is ruined," Lou explained. "Now when Ravi and I fall in love, we're gonna expect it. It would've been nice to experience it without knowing it would happen, is all."
"Oh," Emma said as she patted her bestie's shoulder. "I get it. That makes sense. I totally hate ruined surprises."
Ravi raised his eyebrows and looked over at Xander. Xander hunched his shoulders and raised his eyebrows in reply.
"But like Xandy always says, it's about the journey," Emma said with a smile. "So even if you already know you and Ravi end up together, you still don't know how it will happen. And you still have your first date. Your first dance. The first time he trips in public and spills his drink on your favorite shoes only to search online and find that they don't make them in your size anymore."
"That's so oddly specific," Lou said.
"But we all know it will happen. You like those cowboy boots that come in weird sizes. And Ravi's super clumsy," Emma replied.
"Always with the shade," Ravi said to his sister. "And what happened to talking Lou down from her superstition?"
Ravi reached across the table to place his hand over Lou's hand. He ignored the warm feeling in his chest from the touch. He looked her in the eye and said, "Madam Terresa was only interested in the eight dollars we forgot to pay her. The candle in her tent, Lou, is simply a candle. So don't worry about…"
Ravi couldn't finish his sentence. He was supposed to say that Lou shouldn't worry about falling in love with him. But as he gazed into her eyes, he felt the warm feeling in his chest spread. It made him forget whatever it was he was supposed to be saying to her. He glanced down at his hand that was still over hers and wished their fingers would interlock like they had done earlier as they searched the crowd for their friends.
Xander nudged Ravi with his elbow. "You were saying something, Ravi."
Ravi snapped out of his daze. He looked up at his friends. Emma grinned at him. Xander raised his eyebrow at him. Lou stared at him expectantly.
"Um...never mind," Ravi said. "So, Emma, what's the name of your design label going to be?"
End note: This oneshot was based off the prompt candles from the September OTP Prompt Challenge posted by . Thank you for sharing prompts, person from the internet.