soulmate au but with a twist: it's not austin and Ally or Dez and trish that are soulmates. its Dez and ally.
dez and Ally are completely hopeless romantics who love the idea of soulmates, of having one person who's bound by fate or the stars or whatever you call it to love them no matter. so both of them build up this idea of a perfect meeting, a perfect connection. for years they've dreamed of this perfect moment where the stars align and they find their soulmate and live happily ever after.
and then the moment comes. and it isnt perfect. theres no sparks, no fireworks, not a single butterfly. but whatever, they shrug it off. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither are epic romances. so they go on dates and try and try and try so fucking hard because this is what they wanted for so long and it's supposed to be perfect so why cant they connect?
because they cant, they cant connect on that deeper magic spiritual level that you always hear about from other soulmate pairs. dez likes music but couldn't write a song with a gun to his head. ally likes movies but could care less about making them. they've got the surface level stuff, they both like romance movies and are clumsy and honestely make pretty good friends. but it's not the passionate, world-stopping romance they want.
and at the same time, ally is kind of maybe accidentally falling for austin. dez introduces them and it's not love at first sight either, but it still happens. they bond over music and it spirals from there bcus they're perfect opposites, two halves of the same whole. and Ally feels guilty for liking someone who isnt her soulmate, because while she loves dez she doesnt think she'll ever be in love with him. and she's a little pissed at fate or the stars or whatever you call it for not making austin her soulmate, but mostly she's pissed at herself because you arent supposed to fall for people that arent your soulmate; those relationships are always short-lived tragedies and the hurt that came from them was supposed to be healed from your soulmate, so why does it feel like trying to force this romance with dez is going to hurt everyone more in the long run?
and Dez is kind of maybe accidentally in the same situation with Trish. they start off with more of a hate-at-first-sight relationship and they cant go five seconds without arguing but then the arguing gets less antagonistic and more playful and Dez starts hanging out with her outside of 'I need to be nice to my soulmate's bestie' situations and she opens up to him in ways she usually doesnt with people and hes protective of her in the way he usually isnt with people that arent austin. and dez has the same feelings as Ally, the guilt for falling for his soulmate's best friend and the anxiety because these kind of relationships arent supposed work and it feels like a mistake and this is the one thing he doesnt want to make a mistake about. but if its mistake, why does his relationship with Trish feel more like the romance hes always wanted than the his relationship with ally?
and its messy and angsty after that bcus Trish and Austin share a mutual guilt abt trying to steal their respective best friends' soulmate and Dez and Ally share a mutual hatred of conflict but they figure it out eventually and decide that they dont care, that they're happier if they dont try to force what they have into something it isnt
bcus their souls might line up, but that doesnt mean their hearts have to do the same
