luclex + “We’re soulmates.” “Oh no, I want a refund”
Lucy thinks she’s having a rather pleasant dream when she starts to hear yelling in the background. It’s only as the sound gets closer that she actively starts to ignore her name being called. She just wants to enjoy her time, taking in the seabreeze, feeling the sand between her toes, and basking in the sunlight.
A figure trudges out of the water, kicking up water and sand as it makes a beeline towards Lucy.
Lucy squints her eyes in the sunlight until she sees Alex, drenched in her trench coat and suit, looking grumpy as ever.
“Alex?” She rolls her eyes. Of course, Alex is here to ruin her time.
Alex grasps Lucy’s shoulders and bellows, “WAKE UP!”
Lucy’s eyes snap open and she has to blink a few times as the image clears. She looks up in confusion because Alex’s face is hovering above her with a relieved smile. She realizes she’s waking up, curled into Alex’s abdomen because Alex’s arms are cradling her close.
“What’re you doing?” Lucy asks in massive confusion.
“You were poisoned,” Alex informs. There’s a twinge of frustration in her voice but she lets out another breath. “Luckily, we found you.”
Lucy takes a moment as the memory pours back into her brain. The investigation. The victim’s mother. The fortune teller. The tea. She immediately sits up and looks around for the fortune teller, who is now sitting in handcuffs at the table they were just talking at.
"What did you put in that tea?”
The fortune teller shrugs. “A little bit of this. A bit of that. You know the usual. Oh, it was also assam tea, great flavor.”
Lucy scrambles off the ground and picks up the tea cup she was drinking out of. She picks it up to sniff but pauses when she sees a red thread knotted on her pinky finger. She pulls back the cup to look at her hand in confusion and her eyes follow the red string until suddenly Alex pulls the cup out of her hand.
“You better not be going for seconds,” Alex chastises as she slams the cup on the table.
“I wasn’t,” Lucy huffs because she wants to argue but the thread isn’t a figment of her imagination. And she tries to pull it off, but it slips through her fingers like it doesn’t exist. “What the hell?” She lifts her hand to inspect the thread, trying to grasp it, but watching as her fingers pass right through it. She snaps to the fortune teller, putting her hand in her face. “What did you do to me?”
“Ah, that’s what that mix does,” the fortune teller muses as she stares at Lucy’s hand.
“What is it? What did she do?” Alex is around Lucy again, inspecting her carefully. She’s fussing and Lucy feels annoyed because now is not the time. Alex takes Lucy’s hand with one of her own to inspect when Lucy realizes that the red thread also appears on Alex’s pinky.
“Alex, you have it too!” Lucy points out as she pulls her hand away. Alex pulls her hand back and looks at her hand in confusion.
“What’re you talking about? I don’t see anything.”
“You don’t see the red string?” Lucy points out before she realizes that the thread tied on her pinky immediately connects to the string tied on Alex’s pinky.
“Oh!” the fortune teller is surprised by the turn of events. “Congratulations!” She says more to Lucy than to Alex. Both of them turn to look at her for answers, Lucy growing anxious and Alex growing annoyed. “It’s a tea that lets you see the path to your soulmate. It might’ve just been a strong batch, hence the passing out.”
“What?” Lucy exclaims. “What do you mean? Soulmate?”
Alex suddenly becomes surprisingly less annoyed and instead curious enough to ask, “What exactly is this path to your soulmate supposed to look like?”
“A red thread.” The fortune teller answers.
“Oh.” Alex simply makes a sound.
“Oh?!” Lucy turns to Alex furiously. “That’s all you can say? You don’t think this is the least bit crazy?”
“Well, I mean, 姻缘红线,” Alex says, earning a wildly shocked and confused look on Lucy’s face. “Chinese Mythology.” Lucy still has no idea what that means. “A red thread of fate is an unbreakable magical thread that bonds your one true love regardless of space, time, etc. You’ve never heard this story?”
Lucy looks exasperated at Alex. “Clearly no!” She looks at the fortune teller sharply. “How do you undo it?”
“You can’t really undo it,” the fortune teller says with a shrug.
“What do you mean you can’t undo it?” Lucy demands.
Alex takes a sharp inhale. “Soulmates. You can’t really undo that.” Lucy glares at Alex, who shrugs as well. “We’re soulmates apparently. Unbreakable magical thread. Can’t really do anything about that.”
Lucy groans loudly just about ready to tear her hair out. “Fucking...I want a refund,” she pleads to the ceiling futilely.
