A/N: Soulmate AU

"I'm hungryyyyyy!"

"I have to pee!"

"Jack, can we stop for snacks?"

"We just stopped at that rest stop!" Davey called to the boys. "No we didn't that was like an hour ago!" Les shouted back to his brother. After another minute of various shouting, Specs suddenly cried out, "My shoe!"

It was the middle of summer break and the boys were on a random trip to Santa Fe. Why you may ask? Well, no one was really sure why. Jack woke them up that morning, told everyone to pack a bag, get into his van, and that they were taking a trip.

Jack and Davey, who were in the driver and passenger seat, heard a thud, followed by a loud, "OW!" A few boys went silent and Albert announced, "Jack, Elmer's got a bloody nose!" "Who hit him with Specs' shoe?" Jack asked. "I wasn't aimin' for Elmer!" Race defended. "Well help him clean it up anyway," Jack scolded.

Henry, who was the one that said he had to pee, was doing an uncomfortable sort of dance in his seat. Finch and Albert, who were sitting next to Henry, smirked and began poking the boy and tickling his sides.

He began shouting and telling Jack to do something. "Finch! Albert! Leave him alone! If he pees all over the van you two are cleaning it up!" Jack shouted, making the two boys stop abruptly. "Thank you," Henry sighed.

"We probably should make a stop, Jack. It's getting late and we should probably give them food before they result to cannibalism," Crutchie suggested, leaning forward to talk to Jack and taking nervous glances at the boys behind him.

Jack took a quick look behind him and saw the boys beginning some game that looked like it involved punching. "We're coming up on a town if you want to stop there," Davey said, looking at the GPS. He was designated as the living map after they almost got lost twice because of Crutchie's navigating.

Jack nodded and began following Davey's instructions.

Anyway, they pulled into the small looking town and they all slowly climbed out of the van out. "Alright, I'm gonna find go find some food. Davey, Crutchie, you're in charge," Jack said. "Can we go sightseeing?" Finch asked.

Jack sighed and said, "Sure, why not. Dave, Crutch, make sure they don't do anything stupid." Said boys nodded and they split up. Jack began walking up the sidewalk, trying to find somewhere that all of them could agree on.

He pulled out his phone to text Crutchie and ask him to ask the others what they wanted for dinner, but as soon as he turned it on, the screen went black. It had died.

Thunder rumbled from above, making him look up just as it started pouring rain. He groaned and kicked a wall, which resulted in his foot beginning to throb.

He realized he was in front of a coffee shop and went up to the clear doors, seeing a girl with curly brown hair around his age on a laptop on the couch. He tried the door and found it was locked.

Jack began 'knocking' on the door. The girl jumped and glanced over at him, but didn't get up. So he continued 'knocking' until she looked up with a very annoyed expression on her face, but when she saw him, the annoyance turned to shock.

Katherine was bored. Her shift was over and she was supposed to lock up, but she and her dad were in a fight and didn't feel like going back home to that mess, so she was staying at the coffee shop until she felt like leaving. Or until he found where she was and made her come back home.

She didn't hear the tall, dark-haired boy outside kick a wall then scream in anger about it and she didn't hear him jiggle the locked door.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

She jumped and glanced up at the door. That she did hear. The teen girl just barely got a glimpse of the boy, but she figured it was father and ignored him.

Then he continued banging and she looked up with a very annoyed expression on her face. When she saw the boy around her age out in the rain, now soaking wet, her expression transformed into shock and she scrambled up to unlock the door and let him in.

"Why're you wandering around in the rain?" she asked.

"Long story. Why're you sitting in a locked coffee shop by yourself?" he asked.

She sighed and muttered, "Long story."

"Name's Jack," he said. "Katherine," she replied. They shook hands and Katherine explained, "There's an old uniform in the back if you want to change out of your wet clothes." Jack looked to the back room then back at the girl in front of him. He smiled and said, "Thanks."

He left, changed, and came back out finding Katherine sitting at her laptop typing up something. "Strange question, but do you have a phone charger I could borrow? My phone died and I need to let my brothers know where I'm at," he asked.

Katherine dug through her backpack for a minute before saying, "I don't, sorry. But you can borrow my phone if you want." She handed it to him and he took it, smiling gratefully. "Thanks."

She nodded in response and he dialed Davey's number.

"Hey Davey. Um, long story short I got lost, my phone died, and this nice lady let me in a closed coffee shop and I'm gonna wait the storm out here. You all ok?" Jack asked.

"Yeah we're good. Crutchie's leg is cramping a bit so we're hiding out in some store while the storm passes. Les, Romeo, no!" Davey shouted. Jack frowned then heard a bell signaling a door opened. "Um, I gotta go, Les and Romeo just ran outside to jump in the puddles," Davey said and didn't wait for Jack to reply before hanging up.

"Your brothers ok?" Katherine asked as Jack handed her her phone back and sat across from her on the couch. "Yeah, they're fine. Jumpin' in some puddles I guess," he chuckled, making Katherine laugh. "Where're your parents?" she asked. Jack's smile flickered and he said, "So what're you working on? You seemed deeply involved in it while I was outside."

Katherine noticed the subject change, but decided not to push. If he didn't want to talk about it she wasn't going to make him. "It's a paper I have to write for this interview tomorrow. I'm a journalist. Well, I want to be one when I graduate later this year, but my father won't let me. Once I turn eighteen, I'm moving to this college in New York that offers this great journalism program and I'm going to get a job there," she explained with a smile.

Jack lit up at the mention of New York. "Really? New York? I live in Manhattan with my brothers. We're on a vacation to Santa Fe, New Mexico."

Katherine smiled and asked, "Why Santa Fe?"

Jack shrugged. "It's always been a dream of mine to go there," he explained.

Davey quickly hung up with Jack as some of the other boys ran out into the rain as well. He started to go to bring them back inside but Crutchie stopped him. "Might as well let them play, Dave, better than vandalizing the store, right?" he chuckled.

Davey paused then shrugged with a nod. The crippled boy had a point. "How's your leg?" Davey asked. "I'm fine, it's just a little cramp," Crutchie assured. The pained look on the younger boy's face told Davey otherwise. "Crutch-."

"I'm fine, Davey," Crutchie said firmly, making Davey drop it.

Outside, the boys had gotten into a splash war and began kicking the water up at each other. They stopped when Race got the water up his nose. Coming back inside, they began exploring the store.

It was nice little cafe with a bookstore added on. The boys put their money together and bought some food and spent the rest of the storm playing card games, exploring, playing hide and seek (which almost ended with them losing Romeo and Buttons) and doing their best not to cause mayhem.

The two teenagers continued talking and didn't even notice when the rain stopped and the sun shone.

"How many brothers do you have?" Katherine asked.

Jack began to reply until they heard more banging that made them both nearly fall out of their seats and turn towards the window.

Race and Romeo were actively banging on the window, mischievous grins on their faces.

"Um, that's two of them, Race and Romeo. I better get going. It was, um, nice to meet you Katherine. Thanks for, well, everything," he said, standing slowly. "Of course! You too. Um, here let's exchange numbers," she said, standing as well and pulling her phone out, "so we can keep in contact and so I can find you when I move to New York."

They did and Jack awkwardly waved goodbye to her before leaving.

"She your girlfriend?" Romeo teased as they began heading back to the van. "Ah, shut up," Jack smirked, giving Romeo a playful shove. He noticed the boy was soaking wet, which told him Davey was unsuccessful in getting the boys to come out of the rain. "She is, isn't she! Look at that, stranded in the rain for an hour or two and you got a girlfriend!"

"No, she's not my girlfriend. We're just friends, kid," Jack assured, smirking. "How Crutchie? Davey said his leg was cramping?" Jack asked Race as Romeo continued poking fun at Jack. "He's fine. I think the weather just messed with his leg a bit," Race said and Jack nodded.

They got back to the van and found Davey, Mush, and Specs in front of it with the hood open. "What's going on?" Jack asked, frowning in confusion. "Van won't start," Specs answered. Jack noticed Specs only had one shoe on and assumed it was because Race threw his other one.

"What? Why?" Jack asked, walking over to them. "Well if we knew, don'tcha think we woulda fixed it by now?" Mush asked, making Jack glare at him.

"Looks like we're gonna be stuck here for a while," Jack sighed after taking a quick look at the engine. He had no idea what was wrong with it, but wasn't about to let them know that.

"Better find a hotel," Jack told Davey, who nodded and began searching for cheap hotels on his phone.

This was not how he wanted this trip to go.

A/N: Well, they're in a sticky situation aren't they? Sorry for not updating, things got crazy. Part 2 of this should be up by next Tuesday with the next A Girl Called Fox chapter. This idea was given to my by a request of a Guest, and a thing I saw on Pinterest. I know it's not your average Soulmate AU story, but some of those AUs are kinda weird, so I did my own. Feedback would be amazing! So would requests. Comment anything you'd like to see in a future chapter! TTFN! Ta ta for now!