Soulmates AU pt 1
Summary: Inspired by Soulmates au and soulmates au pt 2 hc by @fandom-heaux . An AU in which everyone is born with a smudged birthmark. As you find your mate in life the smudge forms their name when you’ve made an impression on them. In this world Beca doesn’t realize she has any, let alone three.
Author’s Note: I’m gonna try this thing where I post once a week. I say try because…well. Tis I. Queen of zero follow through. I blame @chloes-yellow-cup for dragging me into this fandom and then making fics that have ruined me. RUINED ME. Let me clarify. RUINED ME.
Beca
“Shut up.”
“I’m serious.”
“You are not. Everyone has one. This dude I dated, Boochie, got dragged behind his ATV at Glamis and got a wicked road rash. Like peeled the whole fucking side of his body including his mark. The shit came back, darker. My hand to God.” Stacie put her hand over her heart and raised the other as if she were giving oath. As if this would somehow make her story all the more believable.
“First of all who the fuck is named ‘Boochie’?” At Stacie’s smirking shrug she moved on. “Secondly. Ew dude.” Stacie laughed at the face Beca made but waited for her to say something more. Waiting for her to say ‘Just Kidding!’ or something equally confirming that she was joking in some way.
Beca shrugged and took a sip of her beer. These were the conversations she hated. It wasn’t that she was ashamed exactly. It wasn’t anything that she could control so why should she be ashamed? Beca just hated dealing with having to explain it to people. Explain that she didn’t have that thing that made a person complete. Whole. Normal or whatever. The responses were all the same and they happened in stages. First there was disbelief.
“I mean. I don’t really have a reason to lie so…” Stacie gave her a leveling stare as if she were trying to see if Beca was being completely truthful. She was sure there were people out there that didn’t want a soulmate, didn’t want to find the one person in the whole world that would always be there, would never leave, and would always just…get them. But she didn’t happen to know any and she didn’t think Stacie did either. Whatever the taller woman was looking for in Beca’s face she didn’t find because she gave a soft ‘huh’.
Beca didn’t trust it. Stage two was curiosity. There was no way, NO WAY, that Stacie wouldn’t ask questions. After moving to Los Angeles Beca had found herself cut adrift in a sea of unknown variables. She didn’t know the area, or the people, or even any of her neighbors. She moved into a three story building that was perfect for her. It was dark and brooding and no one gave a shit about anyone else. They just kept to themselves for the most part. Except Stacie.
Stacie had made it a point to smile and say hi every time Beca passed her in the halls. There was something a little predatory about the way she did that made Beca a little nervous at first. Her stuttered greetings were rushed and she usually tried to slink away into the shadows whenever possible. Until Stacie had come over one Wednesday night with a six pack of beer and endless questions.
Six months later the questions hadn’t stopped. But then neither had the beer so it wasn’t horrible. Beca didn’t know why she even enjoyed it so much, she had never really needed gal pals before but she counted on these Wednesday nights now.
Somehow Stacie had made a place in Beca’s life and the smaller woman found herself not minding having a standing drinking date. Stacie tossed her long legs over the arm of the overstuffed chair in Beca’s living room and full on man-style belched. Beca’s face twitched in a smirk as she shifted her position on the floor to rest back against the couch. “Nice. I see now why you’re so popular.” It was an attempt to deflect, move away from stage two before it even began but it was futile and she knew it when Stacie only blew her a kiss and forged ahead.
“Yeah but like…don’t you want to be with someone?” Beca raised a shoulder in a half shrug as if it didn’t matter much. Even though it kinda sorta mattered a lot.
“Not really.” Lie. “I have goals. I’m here to get into the industry and claw my way to the top. A relationship doesn’t really factor into it. So I guess being a freak of nature doesn’t really matter.” It was coming. She could feel it. The inevitable stage three. Pity. There was always pity in the eyes of every single person she’d had to explain this to. And Beca liked Stacie, she didn’t really want to feel the weight of all that, she already felt broken enough.
An abrupt laugh made her jerk her head up to blink owlishly at the other woman. Well she hadn’t wanted pity but this seemed somehow worse. “You think you’re a freak of nature? Check this out.” Without a hint of warning or even a second’s consideration on whether the blinds were closed or not Stacie peeled her shirt off and pointed to a row of three smudges down her rib cage. “THIS is a freak of nature.”
It was enough of a shock that Beca almost forgot not to stare at Stacie’s bra clad chest. Almost. She blinked and dragged her gaze to Stacie’s side. Beca’s eyes went wide and she reached out a hand to touch them before she realized what she was doing and jerked it back. They hadn’t quite formed yet, but one had a definite outline of an A. “Dude…”
“I know right?!” She shrugged and pulled her shirt back on, content to reach for her beer as if she hadn’t just flashed someone she barely knew. “My mom thinks it’s some kind of divine blessing or something.” It was clear she disagreed but Beca couldn’t help but feel a little jealous because maybe deep down she thought it was kind of a blessing too. She would have given her right hand to have one of those marks even if she tried to convince herself that she was better off without one.
“So is that why you date so much?” It was putting it politely and they both knew it. Stacie gave her an affectionately amused look and shrugged.
“I just like sex.” Okay then. Beca flushed a little at the bluntness of the statement but nodded anyway. “Is you not having one why you don’t date at all?”
“Fair if somewhat stinging. I just…don’t see the point. Whoever I date is going to have one and that’s not going to be my name. It just leads to hurt feelings and wasted time.” Stacie reached down and pulled another pair of bottles out of the cardboard holder and held one out to Beca. The DJ cracked it open and gestured vaguely to the marks on her friend. “So who do you think A is?” This wasn’t the turn she had expected for the conversation but she couldn’t say she hated it. Once people found out she didn’t have a smudge of her very own they tended to not want to talk about it at all. As if that would somehow offend Beca. The avoidance of it had just made Beca feel all the more lonely. This was almost refreshing.
Stacie’s dark head tipped to the side as she considered it. “I think it’s this guy Aaron I met at The Greek last summer. I was there with this other guy Tony, but we got separated. I ran into Aaron, all tall, blonde, and green eyed, with a banging body.” She gave a mild smirk at the memory of said body and moved on. “He’s just boring as fuck. I mean he’s in the Army or whatever so that’s cool. But he kept talking about his guns and his little sister. And more guns. He talked a LOT about guns. It was annoying.”
It was Beca’s turn to smirk and she didn’t even try to hide it. “Yeah…he sounds like a real winner, Stace.” Who didn’t love a guy that could gush about guns all day long? “I dunno. You don’t seem that into him, not that I have any experience in this but aren’t you supposed to know when you meet your one? Or…three? Don’t you just instantly know and fall in love or whatever?” Beca kept her face blankly bored hoping that Stacie wouldn’t see how much she actually wanted to know the answer.
Stacie was slow to answer and she shrugged. “I dunno. After I met him the A showed up. We didn’t really get to do more than make out and exchange numbers. I didn’t realize until I got home that the A was even there. I’m not exactly anxious to find out. Once I know…it’s like I don’t get to be Stacie anymore. I have to be A’s girlfriend. Or wife. Until that’s over for whatever reason and the next smudge shows a name.”
It hadn’t even occurred to Beca that Stacie had three because she would go through a string of soulmates. She had just assumed they would all be together. It was a thought that should have seemed strange but for some reason felt oddly right. “Huh.” Stacie raised her brows in question but Beca shook her head. “It’s nothing it’s just I didn’t really think about what it could mean to have…three.”
“I just can’t imagine myself tied to one person forever let alone three at the same time. I read up on multiple marks but all I could come up with were extremely rare double marks. No triples. And out of the doubles only two or three out of the half dozen were concurrent relationships.”
Beca narrowed her eyes at Stacie. For someone that went to a lot of trouble to appear brainless she certainly was anything but. “You just…read up on it. Like no big deal let me research all the known cases of multiple marks…” Stacie blinked at her blankly and said nothing. Beca was starting to think that a little part of Stacie did want to find her one. Er. Ones.
The sound of Stacie’s phone jerked them both out of the quiet tension. “Food’s here. You got change for a twenty? I hate giving tips on the app.”
Beca reached over to her coffee table and picked up her wallet. “I got the tip. You covered dinner.” She got up and thumbed through the cash she had. She was sure she had a five in there somewhere. The knock at the door got her attention if only for a second. She didn’t even look up at the delivery guy as she continued to dig around. “Hey thanks…dude you wanna grab som…” Her words trailed off as she finally found what she was looking for and met the eyes of the person at the door.
“Hi…”
“Hi.”
“Hi…” Beca felt like she couldn’t speak. Couldn’t breathe and could only just manage to repeat the one thing that was being said. The red haired woman smiled widely and Beca blinked all at once dazzled and stunned by just how blue her eyes were. The woman’s lips curved into an amused smile and Beca had to remind herself to close her mouth.
“Did you order…?”
“Yep! That’s us.” Stacie bounded over to grab the bags of food. It was enough to bring Beca back to the here and now. “Thanks. Hey B, ya got that tip?” Beca mutely raised the bill without taking her eyes off the delivery woman.
“That’s so kind, thank you.” It should have sounded sarcastic and on anyone else it would have. But it sounded sincere and so sweet that Beca could only nod in response. She licked her lips as the woman pocketed the bill and turned away. Just for a second she had the urge to follow after her but she stayed rooted until the sound of the front door on the building opening and closing reached her ears. She shook herself as she shut the door and turned to find Stacie with a revoltingly smug look on her face.
“What?”
“Nothing.” Beca glared at her for a second before she tossed her wallet on the table and moved to sit on the floor again. She should have known it wasn’t going to be that easy. Stacie’s voice practically purred. “She was hot. Like really hot.”
“Really? I didn’t notice.” Beca opened a container of noodles and picked up her chopsticks. Stacie just laughed in a way that caused a shiver to chase down her spine. Stacie smiled and reached for the carton of orange chicken. The banter was nice. Stacie made her feel like she could just be herself. It was something she’d never had before. She kinda didn’t even mind the teasing.
“Yeah because you give a fifty dollar tip to every delivery person.”
She snorted and shook her head before stopping as that last bit sunk in. “Wait. What? I did what??”
