Soulmates were a part of daily life. Everyone had one. They were either to be your perfect romantic match or your most significant platonic relationship. Sometimes, however, it could go wrong. Sometimes your perfect romantic match was only perfect up until a point.

For Iman Jafar, this was the case. She was young when she first met her husband and so was he. He was good to her. Kind, generous. And he had a cursive I on his wrist where she had a cursive J on hers. And she loved him.

But her husband was power-hungry. After they got married, he kept climbing the ranks at his job, through means that Iman wasn't sure were entirely moral. Legal, perhaps. Moral, not so much. The more power he got, the more he wanted. This ended up translating into their home life. He became cruel and abusive, but by the time Iman realised this, it was too late. She was trapped in her life. Her husband was too powerful to divorce him without being completely ruined or worse. Then, to make matters worse, she discovered she was pregnant.

She hated herself so much for it, but Iman found herself praying for a miscarriage so that she wouldn't have to bring a child into this world. Not one where they would have Jafar as a father. She couldn't do that to an innocent baby.

But she didn't miscarry. She carried her baby to full term. She prayed instead that perhaps Jafar wouldn't extend his abuse to the child. That it would only be her that had to take it and the child would grow up safe.

Throughout the pregnancy, however, Iman would look down at her little J on her wrist and she hated that because of this tiny, insignificant mark, she was bringing a child to an unsafe home. This horrible man had been her apparent perfect match. Significant relationship, she'd sometimes think with a scoff, if she allowed her fear to give into anger. He has a more significant relationship with his parrot. Sometimes this thought would make her smile a little, as his parrot, Iago, also happened to start with an I.

However, after so many months of staring at the J on her wrist, when she was handed her little baby boy, she knew what his name was to be. This child in her arms was to be called Jay. Her little Jay.

Jafar had approved of the name, which Iman was relieved about. When the midwives brought him back from the newborn tests, they informed her that he was a perfectly healthy baby and that they'd been able to detect what his soulmark was.

Jafar hadn't cared but when he'd left to go home while Iman and Jay had to spend the night, the new mother had asked the doctors about his soulmark.

"It seems that the mark on his shoulder is his soulmark. This likely is where his soulmate will touch him for the first time."

Iman smiled with joy at this. Everyone knew that a soulmark was meant to be linked to an important basis of someone's relationship. It was why it was hard to find two pairs of soulmates with exactly the same type of soulmarks. If Jay's mark was the first touch, that meant that someday, there was someone out there who was destined to hold him for the rest of his life.

-A Passing Touch-

23 years later

"Come on, Jay! Get up!" His roommate and best friend (though he was seriously considering revoking that title) called through the apartment.

Jay groaned, burrowing his face into his pillow. "No."

His door opened and Carlos appeared. "Come on, man. I thought you wanted to go to the shopping centre today."

"It's too early," Jay grumbled, not moving his head from the pillow. "Go away." He swatted his arm lazily in the general direction of his door.

"It's eleven o'clock and some of us have plans," Carlos replied.

Jay huffed. "I'm not a child. I can go buy my own shoes."

Carlos sighed. "You're not the only one who needs new shoes and I was going to buy us lunch."

Jay pulled his face out of the pillow and looked up at his friend with slightly narrow, sleep-filled eyes. "You're buying?"

Carlos nodded slowly, "Yes, Jay, I'm buying."

Jay stared at his friend for a few minutes before sagging down. "Give me five minutes."

There was a laugh as the door closed, followed by a promise of putting the coffee pot on.

Jay pulled himself out of his bed and sluggishly began to get dressed. As he pulled on his sleeveless leather jacket, he glanced at the bruise-like mark on his arm. He wasn't sure why it had suddenly drawn his attention. It was one of those things that a person rarely noticed about themselves. It was like noticing your own eye colour – you know it, but actually acknowledging it didn't happen often.

His mark was something he didn't like to think about, even though it was technically the reason he'd developed his style of sleeveless shirts and leather jackets whenever possible. His father had made him cover it up after his mum had died. Jafar had apparently thought it weak that his son bore a mark that resembled a bruise. He saw it as a sign that his soulmate would be more powerful than him.

Jay was taken away from him at the age of six and after that, as an act of defiance that would no longer get him hurt, he refused to wear sleeves, showing his mark to the world. Even when he was young though, people didn't dare ask him about it after he punched another kid in the face for teasing him and saying that it meant he would be beaten up by a girl.

Jay kept to his sleeveless shirts though. Even as he grew to not think about his soulmark very often, if ever, the lack of sleeves felt like a tiny act of victory against his abusive asshole of a father.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Jay brushed his hand over his mark and headed out, shoving a beanie on his head.

Once he reached the kitchen, there was a hand already outstretched with a mug of coffee.

"Thanks," he mumbled, taking a sip of the scalding coffee.

"You're welcome," Carlos replied. "How you're ever going to survive without me though, I don't know."

"Good thing we don't have to find out," Jay replied with a grin.

Carlos raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah, no offence, Jay, but if Jane and I get married, you're not coming to live with us."

"If," Jay replied. "May not even happen."

Carlos sighed and shook his head. "Just drink your coffee so that we can get going. Evie's given us very specific instructions about what kind of shoes she'd like us to buy."

Jay sighed, "We're not even in the wedding, why do we have to wear a specific kind of shoe?"

Carlos gave him a look, "I'm giving her away, so I'm in the wedding. Besides, you'll be in the wedding photos and you know how important it is to Evie that we all look our very best."

Jay's shoulders sagged a little and he nodded. "Yeah, you're right. I do know that. Besides, it's just shoes."

Carlos laughed and shoved his friend's shoulder a bit. "You're a big softie underneath, you know?"

Jay sent Carlos a glare that unfortunately only caused his friend to laugh louder. Jay grumbled a bit and began drinking his coffee again.

-A Passing Touch-

Lonnie was just enjoying a cup of tea when her door banged open.

"I'm here! Let the Lonnie-Aziz day of fun begin!"

"Just let yourself in, why don't you?" Lonnie shot back, stepping out of her kitchen to look at her best friend with a raised eyebrow.

"I did, thanks," Aziz replied, with a cheeky smile. "So, I'm thinking, we hit up the shopping centre. Get something to eat. Check out the weapons shop then just have a wander around."

"I'm always down to look around the weapons shop," Lonnie replied. "But first, let me finish my tea."

Aziz sighed dramatically and slipped off his shoes before walking past her, into her kitchen, and helping himself to an apple from her fruit bowl. He then immediately sat himself down and pulled out his phone.

Lonnie rolled her eyes a little at her friend but couldn't help but smile. She didn't mind too much when he did that. It was sometimes nice to just drink her tea in silence.

As she back down, her eyes were drawn to the mark on her right hand. It looked like a large bruise that spanned across the back of her right hand. She didn't think about it often but it was a little in her face to forget about entirely.

Her parents always told her that they'd been so pleased when they'd been told that it was her soulmark. They'd also had visible soulmarks (her father had a Yin on his right shoulder and her mother had a Yang on her left shoulder). It was a blessing, they told her, because she would always know what her soulmark was and not have to worry too much about how it may appear later in life.

Admittedly, a massive bruise-like mark on her hand wasn't exactly the best thing in the world, seeing as people would occasionally ask how she managed to hurt herself, but she didn't mind. There was something about the smiles on people's faces when she told them it was her soulmark that always made her smile too.

Growing up, especially as a young teenager, she and her friends would gossip about their marks – those with unknown marks would talk about what they thought their marks would be and those with known marks would swap theories about how they would meet their soulmates and what would happen when they did. Aziz's favourite theory was that Lonnie's soulmate would somehow offend her so she'd backhand him. He'd end up on the receiving end of one of her glares for that.

Lonnie shook herself out of her memories and quickly drained the last of her tea. "Alright, let's go." She checked her phone. "Ah, Annie would like me to remind you that if we visit the weapons shop today, you're not to buy anything there because she still doesn't want daggers or swords in the house."

Aziz laughed. "I know, I know. I haven't bought anything there since we got married."

"Because I'm the majority of your impulse control," Lonnie shot back.

"Okay, rude," Aziz replied. "I have impulse control."

"And she's called Lonnie."

Aziz stared her down for a second before giving up. "Let's just go."

Lonnie grinned in her victory and put her cup in the sink to be washed upon her return.

-A Passing Touch-

Jay and Carlos headed away from the food court, as Lonnie and Aziz headed towards it.

The shopping centre wasn't that crowded but the halls were just wide enough to allow four people to walk side-by-side or for two pairs to pass each other without much of anybody brushing up against anyone else.

Carlos was walking on the side next to the shops, briefly looking at the window display of each one while he and Jay exchanged light conversation about plans for the rest of the day. Jay was on his right as the two of them walked together towards the shoe shop that Evie had recommended to them.

Aziz walked next to the railing, where if you looked over, you'd see the ground floor with all of its shops and people milling about. Lonnie stood on his right, a box from the weapon shop tucked under her left arm (she bought a really cool knife). She was telling Aziz a story of something that had happened at work and in her excitement, her right hand was waving around, using large hand movements to emphasise her point.

Usually, Lonnie was very careful and was able to avoid hitting people. Unfortunately, it seemed that fate was not on her side today.

"Ow!" A voice next to her exclaimed.

Lonnie turned in horror to the person she hit, holding her right hand out as the words "I'm so sor-" came out at the same time that Jay, (whom she'd hit) was saying "Watch where you're-"

Both of them stopped. Stared for a moment. Lonnie's eyes fixed on her hand, Jay's on his shoulder. The marks, normally black in colour, were a flurry of every colour of the rainbow, seemingly swirling into one another and almost glowing.

The companion of each half of this newly-met pair was staring at the mark that belonged to the friend, before looking at the mark that belonged to the other person.

Jay eventually swallowed loudly and brought his eyes up, meeting the dark eyes of the girl in front of him.

Lonnie couldn't help but stare back, her hand still outstretched before her.

This moment was such a tense one, so unexpected, yet felt so right. Neither could tear their eyes from the other until-

"You know I was joking when I said you'd backhand your soulmate right?" Aziz's voice broke the spell that had seemingly had a hold on the two and both of them dropped their eyes and stepped away from each other almost simultaneously.

"Yeah, this fits you way better than someone brushing up against you," Carlos laughed, looking at his friend/older brother.

Lonnie glared at her friend while Jay just gave Carlos an exasperated look.

"I guess this means we'll be seeing a lot of each other," Lonnie commented, looking at Jay.

Jay shrugged, "I guess so if you're one of the people who believe in fate."

Lonnie laughed, "Not exactly. Let's not leave the next meeting up to fate this time." She pulled her phone out and unlocked it. She opened a new contact and handed it to Jay. "Put your name and number in there and I'll text you."

Jay hesitated for a second before nodding, "Yeah, okay, cool." He took the phone and spotted the box under her arm. "Oh, hey, cool, is that from the weapons shop?" He plugged his name and number into her phone and handed it back.

Lonnie nodded, "Heck yeah. I'll text you a picture of what knife I got when I get home. Not exactly legal to pull a weapon out in the open."

Jay laughed in response but nodded. "Awesome. I have a few swords at home myself."

"Nice. I'll be expecting pictures," Lonnie said with a grin. "It was nice meeting you…" she glanced down at her phone. "Jay."

Jay grinned, "Yeah, you too. I'll see you around."

"Lonnie," Lonnie quickly said. "My name's Lonnie."

"Lonnie," Jay repeated with a grin. "Cool."

Lonnie grinned back at him for a second before seemingly remembering Aziz by her side. "We should probably be going. I'll text you."

"Yeah, okay," Jay replied. "Bye." They lingered for a second more before they began walking their separate ways, each with a permanent smile on their faces.

"So…" Aziz began as the two of them walked far enough away to be out of earshot. "Jay seems cool."

Lonnie smiled, "Yeah, he does, doesn't he?"

"Do you think it's romantic?"

Lonnie gave a little shrug. "I don't know. Possibly. But I don't really mind, you know? I've never really minded."

Aziz laughed, "Lonnie, I know you. Sure, you don't mind, but you've often let it slip that you think your connection is romantic."

Lonnie gave him a little grin. "Only time will tell, I guess," she replied, her smile wide as she said it.

Meanwhile, Jay and Carlos were almost at the shoe shop before Carlos spoke up.

"So, Lonnie, huh?"

Jay raised an eyebrow. "What? She seemed cool."

"Yeah," Carlos replied with a grin, "And she's your soulmate. And you couldn't keep your eyes off of her."

Jay raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm sorry for being a bit in shock when I met my soulmate. Dude, it's a big deal."

"I know, man, I've met mine," Carlos replied. "I was just pointing it out."

"Aww, don't be jealous, Carlos. I'm not going to leave you behind. Even though she is destined to be my best friend."