On the concept of Soulmate AUs
You know what I’m tired of? Soulmate AUs with the protagonist/antagonist ship as the main pairing that always has the villain who reacts the best to the situation, and the hero freaking out.
What I want to see is a hero who gets it, who understands that yeah, their soulmate may kind of be a murdering psychopath, but that’s cool, they can deal with that, they can live through it, but what’s not cool is them totally looking the other way and avoiding the hell out of them.
Give me the realisation that they’re soulmates in the middle of a fight, when they’re bloody and bruised and tired and they just slip, skin on skin contact, and then the whole world just shifts into place.
“This can’t be happening.”
“Have you every heard of opposites attract?”
“But- Okay, yeah, we’re doing this.”
Give me a brutal fight that ends with a “Since when do my attacks hurt this much?” and the villain slowly realising that they can’t kill themselves out of this situation, that they can’t escape this because they’re soul bonded to a kid with a hero complex who is constantly trying to thwart them and is now for some reason grinning at them like a lunatic because they supposedly belong together. And damn does suddenly being able to feel emotions and pain that wasn’t his sting, because he has enough shit to deal with on his own without the added pressure, thanks.
Give me snarky comments and miniature fights in the middle of the night when the hero catches the antagonist coming back from who knows where, bloody and in pain and maybe a little too bust up, to say they won the fight.
“You usually look happier to see me.”
“You killed someone this morning.”
“You mean besides the fact that you’re covered in blood and I felt every moment of it?”
Give me the villain slowly getting used to the idea that hey, they’re sort of going to have to put up with this little ray of sunshine for a while even though he kind of hates his guts and wants to kill him, but also give me the villain wondering what they ever did to deserve this. What could they possibly have done that was so great, so obscenely terrifyingly amazing that they could be soul bonded to a person like this, someone so innocent and righteous and downright beautiful that half of it seems like a mad dream?
“Not every bad guy has a tragic past.”
“But you do. I’ve seen it.”
“I’m going to punch you.”
“That would be counterproductive to what we’re doing here.”
“That hurt you as much as it hurt me.”
Give me tempers flaring and bristling arguments and the hero getting so tired, but still carrying on, not because they think that there’s some good in the antagonist or because they think they can change them, but because this is their soulmate, the person that the fates chose for him, his other half, someone that he had to protect and look after and love, because if not him, then who else was going to?
“I am going to hurt you. I’m going to rip out your intestines and strangle you with them.”
“You’ve been pretty good today. That’s three less death threats than yesterday.”
“Prepare to have your balls removed with a butcher’s knife and shoved down your throat, asshole.”
“I’m still counting this as progress.”
Give me the antagonist not realising the reality that this isn’t someone who wants something from him, who wants to change him, use him, abuse him, but rather someone who just wants to be with him, love him. Give me an antagonist who can’t understand the concept that somebody might actually care.
“I thought this was what you wanted! The sex, the cuddling, the stupid hand-holding. What more could you want from me?”
“I don’t want anything from you.”
“Yes you do. They always do! Just tell me what you want and you can have it. Just leave me alone, please. I can’t take this anymore.”
“I want you to trust me, to believe me when I say that I love you.”
“You’re only saying that because of the bond.”
“No, I’m not. I’ve seen everything that you have, felt what you feel, heard what you’ve heard. Maybe at first, a little, it was just because of the bond, but then I fell in love with you, the real you, the one behind all the fronts that you put up.”
“I didn’t expect you too, but you will, one day. I’m not giving up on you.”
Give me the hero facing shit from their friends and family, because they don’t understand why they’re trying so hard and putting up with so much shit, even though he’s his soulmate, but the hero just shrugging and smiling because they get it, and it doesn’t matter if everyone else doesn’t.
“He threatens to brutally mutilate you constantly.”
“I like to believe it’s how he expresses his affections.”
“He tried to kill you so many times.”
“There was only the once after we found out about the bond, though.”
“You’re making excuses now.”
“It’s just that there’s so much anger in him, all of the time. I don’t know how anyone could live like that. I want to help him.”
“You’re going to get yourself killed.”
“That’s not my biggest concern anymore. He is.”
Give me a hero who tries so, so hard, and a villain who, despite everything, slowly gives in. Give me quiet nights laid in bed or watching the stars, no words and only their hands touching, just the sensation of palm against palm enough. Give me heated arguments, rage, unsteady headiness at the realisation that they’re not going to leave each other, no matter what happens.
Give me a soulmate AU where the hero doesn’t react badly, isn’t scared or hateful that their soulmate is their arch nemesis, the big bad guy, the villain they can never seem to get rid of, because really they should have expected that all along. Because no one hates that much without there being a little something more behind it.
