Soulmates: Tally Marks on Her Arm

Rating: General Audiences

Pairing: Eleven/Rose

Other Tags: Soulmates AU, Human AU, Modern AU, Meet-Cute, Fluff, Humor

Warnings: None

Summary: Ever since she was 13, Rose has had tally marks appear on her arm for no reason. Every time it happens, she wonders what is wrong with her soulmate. No matter what, without fail, new marks appear every day. They clearly are counting something, but she has no clue what.

Welcome to Day 3, Soulmates! Out of all the popular AU types, I think Soulmate is my favorite simply for how versatile the topic can be. You can literally make the soulmark be anything you want.

I tried to do something unique with my soulmate AU. I hope you enjoy!

Word Count: 1,079

Tally marks kept appearing on Rose's arm, but she could never remember when or why they were put there. She'd look away for a moment and suddenly they'd appear. Or she'd go to bed with her arms bare and wake to find the mysterious marks. Her friends kept teasing her about them. "Your soulmate must need help keeping track of something!" When she finally got to meet them, they were going to get a piece of her mind about drawing random lines on their arms.

The most frustrating thing about it is that she couldn't write back to them. She's tried, but the lack of a reply told her they didn't see it. Of course, she would have the skin writing soulmark while her soulmate had something else. It wasn't rare to have a different Mark from your soulmate, but it wasn't common either. She had no clue what their Mark was, there was no way of telling.

The first time it happened, she was thirteen. She assumed it was her soulmate's birthday, as the Mark activated when both (or all) people were thirteen. It wasn't a ton of marks, just five. The next day came ten more, the day after seven, and so on. When room ran out on both her arms, she watched as they were washed off and replaced with an Arabic number, presumably the number of marks. Then the next day it started again.

Rose started wearing long sleeved shirts except in the summer to avoid the stares. It didn't help though, as during the summer months the tally marks were accompanied by random city names. Berlin, Denver, Paris and others. They each had tally marks neatly organized under them. Rose wondered what they meant. She hoped it was places where here soulmate wanted to visit. She'd love to travel, but her parents were saving all they could to help send her to school.

Five years later, Rose and her parents were shopping for university supplies when suddenly they heard a loud crash. Turning quickly, they saw a young man Rose's age staring at them, a pile of supplies at his feet explaining the noise. He had brown hair that flopped over to one side, and was wearing, of all things, a dress shirt, suspenders, and a bow tie. Somehow, though, he pulled it off. Next to him stood a middle-aged woman and a teenage boy, both of them looked at him in surprise. However, the man only had eyes for Rose as he said, so softly she barely heard him:

"It's you." Recognizing his reaction from when Mickey and Martha had met, Rose looked at his arms. Sure enough, tally marks and city names decorated both of them. Remembering her promise to herself, Rose took a step forward. Something in her eyes must've scared the bloke, because he took a quick step back and his eyes widened.

"You! Do you have any idea how annoying it is to have tally marks and city names appear on your arms at random times? I've had to wear long-sleeved shirts for the past five years because of you!" For emphasis, she pulled the sleeve of her shirt up and showed it to him. His eyes widened even more. "What the hell do they even mean?!" She took a deep breath and stepped back to calm down, noticing that the teenager was silently laughing while the woman scolded him.

"Luke, hush. You and Sanjay were best friends long before either of you turned thirteen. Leave your brother alone."

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" The young man interrupted the woman, who was apparently his mother. "I assumed we had the same Mark. You must think I am an idiot or a weirdo. Blimey, this is NOT how I thought this would go." He started wringing his hands together and looking sheepishly at Rose and her parents. "I'm not weird, I promise. Well, not too weird. Ignore anything that my brother says on that front.

"Um, anyway. I am, uh was colorblind except for the color of your hair. I was keeping track of the number of blonde people I was seeing. It's kinda weird, but I felt like I was just counting down the number of people who you weren't. I've been all over, and this entire time we've been in the same city. It only took," he took a glance at his arm. "4,527 tries to find you." He said all this in a rush, and Rose couldn't help but start giggling.

"You're right, that is weird. But it's also kinda sweet." She realized they hadn't actually introduced themselves and held out her hand. "Hello, I'm Rose Tyler." He stepped forward and took it.

"I'm John. John Smith." The teenager snorted behind him, making John turn around to glare at him. His mother, however, was smiling.

"I'm Sarah Jane and the reason my son has been writing city names on his arm. You see, I'm a journalist, and we often travel during the summers out of the country during the summers for stories." She laughed and reached over to ruffle her older son's hair, a move he dodged with a laugh. Rose heard her parents move to stand next to her.

"I'm Pete, and this is Jackie. Why don't you kids go and get some lunch somewhere? Get to know each other. Rose, we'll get your supplies for you. Anything for decorating we can pick out another time." Sarah Jane quickly agreed, and the two of them ended up in the chip shop across the street.

That evening, the tally marks disappeared from Rose's arm, never to be seen again. By coincidence, or perhaps fate, John was also starting at Cambridge that fall. They spent their university days getting to know one another. Occasionally, John would leave messages for Rose on his arm. Unlike before, however, she smiled when she saw him, knowing that it was his way of making up for all those years.

Of course, with their personalities, the two of them very easily formed a friend group with others. Much to John's chagrin, Rose wasn't shy about sharing how they met. No matter how many times she told it, it never failed to bring laughter out of Amy and Jack. But he never reacted more than a slightly red face. It took him 4,527 tries, but he found who he was looking for, and he was never going to let her go.