Soulmates AU: In These Hands

Summary: A soulmates AU, set in the What Comes Next universe. Allie remembers how she and Owen first met.

Allie gets so used to telling the story of how she and Owen met that she thinks she could recite it in her sleep. It’s become part of the nightly routine in their household, their two daughters pleading for them to tell it again and again until they both finally laugh and give in.

“I suppose I should appreciate it,” she says to Owen one night as they curl up in bed and turn the lights out. “One day they’ll be telling me how lame and embarrassing it is.”

Owen laughs and presses his lips to her shoulder, tracing his fingers up and down her side.

“It’s a good story,” he murmurs into her skin.

Allie smiles, remembering. “It is.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Her flight to L.A. arrives right on time. It’s uncomfortably hot, almost sticky out, but she’s been promising Mel she’d visit for months now. Allie steps outside the airport and is about to text Mel that she’s here when she hears insistent honking and someone shouting her name.

Allie rolls her eyes but laughs as she spots Mel a few cars back in the pick-up lane.

“Thanks for honking twenty times. I never would have seen you otherwise,” Allie comments as she gets in the passenger side.

Mel whips into the next lane and shrugs. “I’m sorry I’m excited to see my best friend. I’ll act bored next time.”

Allie laughs. “Yeah, yeah.”

“So, we can go out to eat,” Mel says as she weaves in and out of traffic. “Or we can order truly awful Chinese food and drink wine and catch up.”

“I vote for the second option.”

“Good. We have an early morning.”

Allie glances at her suspiciously. “Why?”

Mel gives her a slightly guilty look. “I may have promised some friends we’d go hiking.”

Before Allie can protest, Mel hurriedly says, “Please? I know, I know, it’s technically exercise and you’re on vacation. But it gets too hot later in the day and the view is worth it, I promise. And I’ll get you the biggest cup of coffee afterwards,” Mel promises.

Allie sighs. “Okay. You said the magic word.”

“Please?”

“No,” Allie laughs. “Coffee.”

Allie is glad she’s an early riser, but she’s still half-asleep when they head out the door the next morning. She sips on the coffee Mel had dug out of her cupboard as they drive, and it slowly wakes her up. Mel introduces her when they pull into a parking lot and join her friends. She falls into step with one of them, Owen, as they make their way up the trail, the gravel crunching under their feet.

“Are you originally from New York?” he asks as they walk.

“Born and raised,” she confirms. “What about you?”

“I’m from Chicago, but I’ve been here for a few years now.”

“Mm. I think I’d miss winter,” Allie muses.

Owen stops abruptly and looks at her in horror. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”

“What? Wait. You don’t like winter?”

“It’s cold. And wet,” Owen says as they resume walking.

“So is the ocean,” Allie points out with a grin, and he laughs.

He has a nice laugh, one that makes his eyes crinkle. “True. But the ocean gets warm sometimes.”

“What about a white Christmas?” Allie asks.

Owen shrugs, stepping around a rock in their path. “They make fake snow if I really want a white Christmas.”

She gasps. “Fake snow?”

They continue playfully debating as they wind their way upwards, the sun gradually peeking over the horizon. Owen is easy to talk to, Allie finds as they chat about anything and everything. She likes how effortlessly their conversation flows. She likes that he asks her about herself and actually listens. When he tells her he likes to cook, she teasingly tells him that she’ll forgive him for not liking winter.

Mel drops back at one point, casually chatting with both of them until another of their friends calls out to Owen and he walks ahead.

“So?” Mel asks expectantly, tilting her head towards Owen.

“So, what?” Allie replies in confusion.

“Owen!” Mel says. “You two seem to be hitting it off. What do you think?”

“Mel,” Allie says sternly, “Please don’t tell me you planned this hike to set me up.”

Mel holds her hands up. “I didn’t, I swear. I mean, I maybe thought you two would get along well.”

Allie raises an eyebrow. “Uh-huh.”

“And you obviously do. So what’s the problem?”

“Well, I live across the country,” Allie points out.

Mel waves this off as a non-issue. “Planes.”

“I’m only here for a week.”

“Plenty of time to get to know each other,” Mel declares.

“Mel,” Allie begins.

“You haven’t met your soulmate. And neither has he,” Mel continues, glancing meaningfully at Allie’s hands. “So that’s not an issue either.”

Allie sighs. She can’t argue about that one. Sure enough, her right palm is distinctly empty, just bare skin. Mel grins at her cheekily and hurries ahead as Owen falls back to walk next to Allie.

“I know that look on her face. What’d I miss?” Owen asks.

Allie laughs. “Just Mel being Mel.”

They reach the top of the incline soon after. The valley is sprawled about below them, every bit as spectacular as Mel promised.

“Wow,” Allie murmurs.

“It’s pretty incredible, isn’t it?” Owen asks.

His voice is low, as if he’s trying to maintain the peaceful quiet.

“It is.”

“There’s another overlook a little farther on,” Owen says after a few minutes, pointing at a narrower, rockier trail.

He looks at her, a soft smile on his face. “Want to go?”

She does. Not just for the view, but because something in the back of her mind is telling her that as ridiculous as it seems, maybe Mel is on to something.

No one else wants to go with them. Or, Allie considers as Mel gives her another cheeky grin, possibly Mel told them not to. Allie follows Owen up the narrower path. There’s a particularly rocky part as they near the top, and Owen offers her his hand to help her.

She takes it without thinking anything of it. The heat and tingling that flashes in her palm when their hands come together is instantaneous. She sucks in a sharp breath, nearly losing her balance. Owen holds her hand tight, steadying her until they get to a flatter spot.

Allie forgets all about the view as Owen stares at her. He’s still holding her hand.

“Allie,” he murmurs. “Do you have your soulmark?”

“No,” she says automatically. “Unless…”

Swallowing hard, she slowly slips her fingers out of his and turns her hand up, the tips of her fingers still touching his.

“Oh,” she exhales.

There, in the center of her palm, lies an intricate design, overlapping swirls in shades of blue. Her skin is warm and still tingling pleasantly. She can see an identical mark on Owen’s palm, just inches from her own.

Allie looks up at him, and he meets her gaze. His lips quirk up in a smile, and she smiles back, then laughs and shakes her head.

“You want to know what Mel and I were talking about?” she asks. “She said we looked like we were hitting it off and that neither of us had met our soulmate.”

Owen laughs. “God, she’ll never let us live down that she introduced us.”

Owen’s fingers glide lightly over her soulmark, and it tingles even more. Instinctively, she steps closer to him, the ends of her hair brushing his shirt. His fingers still, and she gently takes his other hand, turning it over and tracing along the blue swirls in his palm.

“I’m okay with that,” Allie murmurs.

Owen squeezes her hand again, searching her eyes earnestly.

“I am too.”

~~~~~~~~~~

“I never thought my soulmate would be so addicted to going to the gym,” Allie muses now as they lay in bed.

“I never thought my soulmate would have an unfortunate love of winter,” Owen says through a yawn.

She elbows him lightly. “Very funny.”

“Or have an unhealthy coffee obsession.”

Allie grins. “Hey now. Don’t drag coffee into this.”

She rolls to her back, slipping her hand around his neck and playing with the ends of his hair as he props himself up over her.

“I love you, Al,” he murmurs, leaning down to kiss her. “I love this life with you.”

“I love you too. And this life.”

“Even when Kate wakes us up at five in the morning?” he asks.

Allie considers this. “Okay, I don’t love that. Or when Anna screams like a banshee for no reason.”

Owen chuckles quietly. “She has a good set of lungs.”

“Mmm,” Allie murmurs in agreement. “But the rest of it…”

She smiles softly in the dark as Owen kisses her again. “The rest of it is pretty great.”