Author's Note: Trying a slightly different way of telling the story for this one, not sure if I like it or not, but figured I'd give it a go! Any feedback would be really appreciated :)
Ruby didn't actually remember when it happened, she only had a vague memory of the girl, all white hair and pointy edges, faint blue clothing, pretty blue eyes, and a calm mother. The story she was told by her parents was that the five of them had been in Mistral on holiday and Ruby had run around a corner (backwards so she could shout an answer back at her mother's question) and knocked into a girl, knocking them both to the ground. Ruby's parents had apologised to the girl, scolding Ruby a little at the same time, and the girl's mother, who was remarkably calm about it, had said "Running around corners without looking is what children do". They'd only realised something had changed when they got back to the hotel and Ruby had complained of an itchy sensation on the back of her neck. When Summer looked, she'd gasped aloud, and Tai had run round to see too, before finally Raven and Yang came over, toothbrushes still in mouths and looking like mirror images of each other, albeit one was blonde and much smaller.
Yang had wondered what they were gasping about, not being able to see the back of Ruby's neck, and the three adults looked at one another, each of them finding different spots on their body to gently touch in memory.
"Ruby, did you feel your neck hurt or burn when you ran into that girl earlier?" Summer's voice was a little unsteady but neither Ruby nor Yang noticed.
"Sort of? It felt hot, but it didn't hurt. Why?" Ruby rubbed the back of her neck as she said it. Tai and Raven looked at Summer who looked at them before Raven shrugged her shoulders and tapped Yang on the head, leading her back into the bathroom.
"Well, you know how people meet their soulmates? That special person they can love and be friends with for the rest of their lives?" Summer was crouching in front of Ruby, their heads level. Ruby nodded. "We think you may have met yours earlier today."
Ruby's jaw dropped. She'd not heard about people meeting soulmates as children before! Well except for Yang's friends Nora and Ren, but she was only six! And she'd already met hers! They spent the next two days they were in Mistral searching for the girl with white hair but couldn't find her anywhere. Ruby was upset, but her parents comforted her, explaining that it was definitely possible to find her again in the future, soulmates were always meant to find one another again, even if they were miles apart.
Every year following that, they holidayed in Mistral, and Ruby spent most of it searching for the white-haired girl again, but never saw her there. Ruby had never liked where her mark was, even if it was mostly hidden by her hair, she liked looking at it on photos, fingers tracing the spiky edges of the snowflake, before tracing down one spike, following the blade of the sword that was underneath it to the point.
In contrast to Ruby's experience, Weiss' was a little more...difficult. Her mother had been amazed and quite happy to see that she'd found a soulmate, although her father had not been. He'd hidden it well for the first few years after it had happened, even though he'd insisted they never visit Mistral on holiday again, despite Weiss' protests. From the moment he got home he almost acted like it had never happened, although Weiss was made to wear clothes that covered her collarbones and throat no matter the occasion.
The next time her mark came up in conversation with her father was when Weiss was thirteen, and one of her father's friends brought his son over for dinner. Weiss had disliked him immediately, a lumbering brute of a boy with little manners and a crass laugh that grated Weiss' ears. He'd been a little too close to Weiss, despite her repeated protests and less than obvious movements away, and she'd told him, politely, to give her some space as she felt uncomfortable. He'd reacted furiously, telling her they could be soulmates and she wouldn't even let him get close enough to touch. She'd snapped back that she had a soulmate out there and was certain it wasn't him.
The boy had lifted a hand in an attempt to slap her, but Weiss grabbed his wrist, the skin to skin contact producing no burn or mark. He'd pulled away and slunk back to his father. Weiss' father was less than pleased with his offspring after the dinner was over, laying a cruel backhand across her face, sending her into a table. The edge split the skin above and below her eye, miraculously missing her eyeball, but Weiss could only hear his words reverberating in her ears; "You'll never meet your soulmate again, neither of them!"
The neither part had confused her for a little while until, once her tears had stopped and the burning from the scar had subsided to a dull ache, she looked at her mark in the mirror. A flowering rose, with petals scattering around it slightly, inside the overly large and circular pommel of a sword that pointed down towards her breast. She searched and discovered that it was unusual, but not unheard of, for a person to have two soulmates, and that the first touch from each would leave a dual mark, combining the symbols of the others in the trio. Weiss ran her fingers over the petals, a faded memory of an excitable girl with dark hair and silver eyes springing to mind.
Neither of them saw each other again until a fateful trip to a college campus, Ruby insisting it had to be Mistral, still clinging onto the hope that her soulmate was based in Mistral, and Weiss' older sister Winter helping her find an escape from their father. Neither of them saw the other as they arrived separately for the tour of the campus, Ruby accompanied by her mother Summer, but the two girls both noticed one of the tour guides standing on a slightly raised dais at the front of the group.
The girl was, in Ruby's whispered words, barely heard by Summer, "Adorably cute." An orange bob of hair that curled to her neck, along with a relentlessly cheerful nature that shined through as she gave the opening introduction to the tour, saluting in greeting to everyone. The pink bow was off centre in her hair, and the faded green pinafore dress she wore with a high black collar matched her black stockings and knee-high boots.
What Weiss noticed about the girl was similar, but what really caught her attention were the vibrant green eyes that shone with life and happiness, and Winter noticed her younger sister staring and smirked to herself. Deciding that she needed to at least hear what the tour guide was saying, that was the excuse she gave Summer anyway, Ruby pushed herself through to the front of the group.
As she did so, she tripped on her feet, and tumbled into the back of a girl with a long white ponytail, knocking them both to the ground. She almost cursed her clumsiness until a strange feeling of déjà vu overtook both her and the other girl as they hit the ground, and their minds flashed back to that fateful day over a decade previously, aided by a burn on their neck and collarbone, one that this time they understood after hearing stories about it for so long.
They were both so stunned by the realisation that they'd finally found each other again that they didn't move to stand up, and it was only when the tour guide asked if they were both okay and offered them each a hand that they moved, still looking at the other, taking a hand each. What surprised them even further was that upon grasping the outstretched hands the burn intensified, stretching from their original marks down to their chest, gripping their hearts in a vice, and then down through their arms to their hands, now grasping the tour guide's hands tightly.
The ginger girl's eyes were wide with wonder, and tears started to well up as she pulled Ruby and Weiss to their feet and stared at the palms of her hands, a mark still forming in each of them depicting a flowering rose at the centre of a spiky snowflake. Looking at the two girls who were now staring right back at her she spoke, her voice barely above a whisper, "Penny. My name's Penny."