Soulghosts
In which Kit tells his friends about Ace.
Words: 778
For @sankareita
It’s weird to tell his roommates about Ace, but he knows he can’t just not mention her. Kai saw the soulmark when it turned black. He asked questions, despite knowing how Kit feels about questions. He hoped that the black mark would mean the end of things, but then there she was.
He hoped she would realize that he’s not worth her time, that he’s not the type of person anyone deserves to be stuck with, but of course, the marks know what they’re doing and they were paired for a reason, so she sticks around. They get along and he grows unreasonably attached to someone who’s already dead.
(Will they be united when he dies? Get to enjoy some sort of afterlife together? Even if it just means wandering earth together forever, he thinks he’d be okay with that.)
Regardless, he’s attached to her and he’s pretty sure he’s on the path to falling in love. Maybe not there yet, but this is the closest he’s ever come to feeling that way. So he’s gotta mention it to his roommates.
It’s his turn to cook dinner on the night he decides to tell them. Normally Ace would be here with him, making some snarky commentary about his shit cooking, but she’s off with Cham or Kavi or both of them, which means now’s as good a time as any to mention her to the other thieves.
Dinner is spaghetti, because it’s hard (not impossible as they all know, but still hard) to mess up spaghetti and he wants to get at least one thing right tonight, in case everything else is the mess that usually comes from Kit trying to do anything.
Despite the perfectly good kitchen table and chairs— bought from a thrift store, but paid for with stolen money— they eat dinner in the living room. They always eat dinner in the living room and sometimes Kit wonders why they even have the table, but he’s made no effort to be rid of it.
He pokes at his food for a little while, not hungry enough to take a bite, before he finally tells them, “I met my soulmate.”
Kai looks at him, brows furrowing in confusion. “Did you have more than one mark?”
He shakes his head, rolling up the sleeve of his shirt so that Viv can see the black mark too.
“Doesn’t that mean they’re dead?” Viv asks, looking at the darkened mark with a sadness that seems out of place on her usual cheery face.
He nods. “She is.”
“Then how—” Kai begins, but Kit already knows where the question is going and cuts him off.
“Apparently, soulghosts are a thing. Not an uncommon one either.” It’s something he’s still processing, so he’s not surprised to see the look of confusion his friends exchange.
“I’m not gonna lie, dude, that sounds kinda shitty,” Viv points out.
He nods in agreement. “Yeah, try living it. It gets shittier. I, uh, I like her. A lot, actually. Which, I didn’t think would be a thing even before the mark turned black.” He supposes the universe only gave him one soulmark because he only needed one. Ace is it. She’s perfect for him. There’s just the one, very, very, big problem. Her being dead. “But it’s definitely a thing.”
“Are you gonna be okay?” Kai asks, ever the concerned one. Kai is such a Mom Friend, even when he’s as much a criminal as the rest of them.
Kit offers a shrug, because he doesn’t know the answer and he tries to avoid lying to them. “As okay as ever, I guess.” Which, more often than not, isn’t very okay at all. “She’s uh, starting to be more visible to people who aren’t her soulmates.” She’d said something about the B team being able to see her the other day, although not without a lot of effort on her part.
“Soulmates?” Viv questions. He doesn’t blame her. It’s still weird to him to be matched up with someone capable of so much love when he’s always felt capable of so little.
Another nod, before continuing his previous point. “If she can get the hang of it, I’d like you guys to meet her.”
Kai smiles. “We’d love to.” Vivian nods, echoing the sentiment. He appreciates the level of support they offer, they’ve always offered.
“Do you wanna tell us about her?” Vivian prompts and normally he’d bring up the questions rule, but in this case, he’ll make an exception. Because yeah, yeah he does. He wants to tell the world about her, but the world wouldn’t care. His friends will.
“Her name’s Ace…”