Summary: An AU about soulmates, in which Seth and Audrey find each other.
Audrey wakes the morning of her 18th birthday with a warm, tingling sensation over her right hip. It’s not unpleasant, exactly, just different. When she fully wakes up, the sunlight filtering in through the blinds, she realizes what it must be.
She yanks the covers back, pushing her pajama pants down slightly, and immediately notices the black mark just under her skin. It’s small, inconspicuous, but definitely there. Audrey traces her finger over it, noting the slight curve, smiling a little, and mentally runs through what letter it could be forming.
She’s still thinking about it all through breakfast, and when she shows it to her mother later, and when her brother teasingly asks what letter it is. She’s curious to see if it will be fully formed within a few days, like she’s seen happen to some of her friends, or if it will be slow and drawn out.
The mark stays small the rest of the year and into the spring and summer, and Audrey realizes that whoever her soulmate is, he’s not here. That doesn’t disappoint her much, because as much as she loves her tiny hometown, she doesn’t want to stay here.
More of the mark appears when she gets to college, continuing to curve. She wonders if her soulmate is here. She feels like he could be. There are a few guys she likes and goes on dates with, but the mark stays solid black, and she knows she hasn’t met him yet. It’s disappointing at times, when she meets someone and thinks he could be hers, but she tries to stay patient.
Whoever her soulmate is, she reassures herself, he’s somewhere out there. They’ll meet when the time is right, when they’re both ready.
She wakes up the morning of her 21st birthday to numerous texts wishing her happy birthday, and her friends telling her they can’t wait to go out and treat her to the worst shots imaginable. Audrey laughs, climbing out of bed and heading into the shower.
She looks down, and is startled to see that the mark has changed drastically overnight. The first letter is complete, a distinct, curvy black S. The second letter has started to form next to it, a straight black line. Her skin is warm, almost hot, over the mark, and she touches it with wonder.
Audrey wonders if her soulmate is close, if she’ll meet him soon. She’s almost convinced she has that night, when they’re out at a bar and a guy she recognizes from campus, Sam, starts chatting with her. He’s sweet and funny, and as they get to know each other more over the next few weeks, Audrey wonders.
She’s a little hesitant to talk about their tattoos, worried they won’t match. The second letter on hers hasn’t changed since her birthday. She and Sam are out for a walk one night when she brings it up.
His smile is reassuring when he tells her the first letter of his tattoo is an A. Audrey’s heart leaps, until he pulls the sleeve on his shirt down, revealing the small, black letter on the back of his shoulder. She knows he notices the flash of disappointment on her face, before she even tells him hers isn’t in the same place.
When she wakes up the next morning, she still feels a little bit of a sting over Sam not being hers. She’s reassured, at least marginally, when she looks at the tattoo and realizes the line on the second letter is longer than it was yesterday. It isn’t Sam, but whoever her soulmate is, she’s heading towards him.
The second letter remains a straight black line up until she graduates, packs up her apartment, and gets off the plane in Los Angeles. She’s so excited to be there that she barely registers the insistent heat and pressure over her hip, until she gets into her new apartment and finds herself absentmindedly rubbing her thumb over the tattoo.
“Oh!” she says, when she looks at it and sees that the second letter is now a distinct L.
It looks different, somehow, not quite as black. Audrey wonders if the light is playing tricks on her eyes, but no, when she looks more closely, the tattoo has started changing color. She sees shades of blue, the letters gradually turning more vibrant as the day goes on.
He’s here, a little voice in the back of her head says.
Somewhere in this city, somewhere nearby, her soulmate is close. It thrills her and makes her nervous. She thinks about him more as she unpacks, wonders what he looks like, what he sounds like, how they’ll be together.
When she walks out of her apartment the next morning, she nearly runs right into someone coming out of the door across the hall.
“Oh! I’m sorry,” she says, right as whoever it is says the same thing.
She looks up into a pair of deep blue eyes, dark blonde wavy hair, and her hip starts throbbing.
“That wasn’t the best welcome to the building. I’m sorry. I’m Seth,” the man in front of her says.
Seth’s voice is friendly, and his eyes crinkle around the corners as he smiles. Her tattoo flashes hot under the denim of her jeans.
“I’m Audrey,” she replies, and a look of recognition, of sudden realization, crosses Seth’s face.
She swallows hard, wondering. His eyes search hers, and, seeming to know her next question before she even asks it, he says, “Seth Levine.”
The tattoo pulses even more when she hears his last name, tingling pleasantly, and her heart starts racing.
“Audrey Mariano,” she murmurs, and she knows from the look on his face, without even seeing his tattoo, what the letters are.
She starts asking where his is, but she doesn’t feel like exposing her hip in the middle of a dimly lit hallway in a building she just moved into.
“Despite the less than five-star appearance, this building has a really incredible view,” Seth says. “Can I show you?”
“I’d love that,” she agrees.
Audrey follows him up a rickety fire escape, and then to the edge of the roof. The view is stunning, and she’s looking forward to spending time out here, but right now, she’s more focused on Seth. Her tattoo continues to tingle.
“Where…” she starts to ask, then stops, clearing her throat, steadying her breath.
“My hip,” Seth answers, and the sounds of the street below them fade away.
“Mine too,” she answers softly.
She shifts her jeans down just enough to expose her tattoo, and hears Seth’s audible inhale. Audrey glances up, and he steps close enough for her to touch, then shifts his own jeans down a little, letting her see the letters across his right hip.
The A and M are the same vibrant blue as the S and L on her skin, in the same spot. She laughs, once, so many emotions rolling over her that she almost doesn’t know what to do with them.
Seth reaches for her, his fingers feather light over the letters on her hip, and she sighs at the warmth that washes over her. The world seems impossibly still and quiet, like it’s letting them have this moment together. Audrey traces over her initials, feeling Seth’s skin warm under her touch.
“I can’t believe you literally moved right across the hall from me,” Seth says softly.
“We must be pretty lucky,” Audrey murmurs.
She brings her arms around his neck, and he holds her close. He feels so achingly familiar, their bodies molding together easily. Audrey marvels at it all for a long moment while they hold on to each other, at how everyone finds who they’re meant to. And then Seth brushes his lips over her forehead, soft and sure, and she decides that what matters now, more than the how and the why of them finding each other, is the beautifully simple fact that they did.