Star Trek

When you write something on your arm, it will show up on your soulmate's arm. We all know this trope right? Well that but make it Star Trek. In this world, humans who have soulmates are rare.

Teenage/college student Bones writes down some notes for something medical related since he didn't have any paper on hand and was in a hurry. He doesn't think anything of it.

Spock is on Vulcan and becomes intrigued by the writing that suddenly appeared on his arm. He asks Amanda about it, who explains the concept of soulmates to him. She encourages Spock to reply, which he does so later on.

Bones and Spock talk and weeks go by as they embrace their bond with each other. Although both hide the bond from their associates. Bones because he doesn't want to become a media circus as one of the let's go with less than one percent of the human population that has a soulmate. Spock keeps his bond hidden because he doesn't want to add to the divide between himself and the full blooded Vulcans.

But wait! There's more to this story than meets the eye. We can't forget our favorite captain of the Enterprise now can we?

James T. Kirk, currently going by JT, is stuck on planet Tarsus IV, struggling to keep himself and his kids alive when words start showing up on his arms. He can't reply, simply due to the fact that there's too much he needs to do in order to save his kids. They take priority over whatever weird thing is happening to him now. It's one of these kids that explains soulmates to him. How this is one of the signs that Jim has a soulmate, and not just one but two of them! Jim doesn't know what to think. His mental state isn't the best during this time and he ultimately thinks that Bones and Spock would be better off without knowing about him because it wasn't likely that he'd survive much longer on Tarsus.

A few weeks pass and Jim is sitting there watching the conversation between his soulmates, both insanely smart, and Jim craves to be able to converse with them. To put his own two cents into their conversation about alternative medication for people with allergies to the main ingredients in some medication thingy (I know nothing about this topic so can't help ya here). But then Jim gets an epiphany. This soulbond. If he just had something he could write with, he could communicate with his soulmates and have them send help to Tarsus!

With renewed hope, Jim sneaks out that night to head towards the houses on the edge of the village nearest to the cave. It's dangerous because there are soldiers around, searching for JT and his kids. But it's the only chance he's got, so he doesn't care. He succeeds in sneaking into the nearest house, and after a bit of searching is able to find a marker. He doesn't hesitate to write on his arm, thankfully bare at the moment. He pleads for his soulmates to send help to Tarsus IV, telling them briefly about the massacre. The replies are immediate, full of shock and worry. But Jim can't reply as he hears guards approaching. He writes one final message, a plea to save his kids from Kodos, and stuffs the marker into his pocket. He hides and waits until he thinks it's safe enough to sneak out, but he's unable to avoid detection by the guards. He manages to kill one of them but the other overpowers him and captures him. Jim's last thought before falling unconscious is relief that he was able to get the message to his soulmates.

Jim wakes up in a cell, chained to the wall. Kodos comes in and gloats to Jim, who doesn't react at all. He can feel a faint tingling in his arm, telling him his soulmates are writing. But he doesn't react to the feeling. He can't risk Kodos finding out about his only chance at getting his kids off this planet. Kodos leaves after a few more minutes of gloating, promising to return for a proper "chat" with Jim later.

Jim is tortured for three days but he won't give up the location of his kids. Kodos is getting impatient, but Jim endures. It's several hours after the latest session with Kodos that Jim hears noises out of the ordinary. Starfleet is here. The officers find him and get him out of the chains. Jim wants to fight, but he's too weak. His injuries combined with the starvation has finally won out.

He wakes up in the medbay of the ship several days later. Spock is by his side, having been the one to get his father to convince Starfleet to send people to Tarsus. Spock reassures Jim that he's safe now and his kids are safe. They are being treated in another room but Jim was the most in danger so he's in a private room. Jim insists on needing to see his kids and Spock understands. Spock carries him to the room where his kids are, and they find Bones in there watching over the kids and helping change some of the bandages. Bones doesn't notice them at first, being focused on his task, but when he does he immediately goes into mama hen mode on Jim and scolds Spock for moving him. Spock counters his arguments and it almost dissolves into a petty verbal spar. Jim laughs at the familiarity of it, since he has watched many of their arguments on his skin during the time in the cave. That's when the kids notice Jim and surround him, all relieved to see he's okay. Spock and Bones give Jim some privacy to reunite with the kids on his own, but they stay inside the room. Jim learns about what's happened since he was captured. He also learns that the kids refer to McCoy as "Dr. Bones" and that's what cements the nickname in Jim's mind forever.

This is as far as I've gotten on planning, and kind of reaches the end of this specific idea. A sequel could be done for their academy days, then another for Nero and all that comes after.

For those of you wondering, Spock is there because Vulcan sent at least one or two ships to assist after Spock went to Sarek for help when Jim stopped replying. I had a 7AM debate with my friend on if it would be logical for Bones to be there as well. Spock makes sense, because of his position as Sarek's son, but at the current timeline I have Bones as a college student, so I wasn't sure how to get him into space. My thoughts were he either causes a commotion until Sarek passes on approval for him to come (using Spock as a handy communicator) or he begs one of the officers (let's be real here. It's Pike) to allow him to come because his soulmate is on Tarsus. Those are the only ways I came up with to have Bones and Spock there, but it works for me.

You could also not have them there and instead have them waiting on earth or something. That's also a route I was considering. Knowing how Jim is, it's possible he'd be suffering from so much trauma that he'd fake being dead to his soulmates and hide from them until the academy era or Nero forces him to reveal himself. He'd keep an eye on the messages between Spock and Bones, but wouldn't reply to them.

Oh! And for those of you who love Joanna McCoy like I do, my plan was she was conceived before Bones found out about the soulmates. A drunken one night stand ended up with Jocelyn pregnant. He discusses this with Jim and Spock as soon as he learns about it and they convince Bones to keep Joanna. Jocelyn was against it at first but the trio convinced her not to abort. Bones will get full custody of her after she's born if Jocelyn wishes. I wish, because I don't like Jocelyn but it's really up to you guys how you want to handle that.

This idea is a fun one. I really love the soulmates trope as well. Especially ones that have a lot of plot alongside the soulmate AU. This is definitely one of my more thought out ones for a soulmate AU but that's more because I love Star Trek and have thought about this one a lot.