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Derek swore that the moment he saw Penelope, the world burst into colour; bright greens and blues he had never been exposed to before and were shocked to see how beautiful they were. Perhaps he thought that because that was what actually happened, he never believed all that much in soulmates despite being told his whole life that they were true, it was more so he didn’t want to believe to after what happened to his father and years upon years later his mother told him how he hadn’t seen colour since the day he died. Why would anyone want to deal with that kind of worry for the entirety of their life?
But then he met Penelope, beautiful kind Penelope who wore a smile on her face like it was armour and didn’t have a bad bone in her whole body. Lovely, sweet Penelope who wore all those bright colours so that when she met her soulmate they were met with all the colour they had lived their lives without seeing. From the moment they met he knew that she was the one for him, her kindness was effortless and she cared so fiercely; she truly was the best person he had ever met.
One of the most wonderful things about having a soulmate was that you knew they were made just for you, someone or something had brought them together because it knew they would be perfect together; it was oddly comforting to know that someone as good as Penelope was meant to be with him, Derek didn’t know what he brought to her life though.
Penelope had never met someone who she felt so remarkably safe around, someone who made her feel so loved and someone who she felt like she could be her kooky self around. With some people she worried that they would think she was weird, or too much to handle but Derek took it all with pleasure. She never thought in a million years that her soulmate would be someone like him, a big strong FBI agent who could have all the women in a five mile radius lining up at his door with a simple click of his fingers but yet she couldn’t deny how everything lit up with colour as soon as she spotted him across the room.
They had both dated before meeting one another, having a similar mindset of just because someone wasn’t your soulmate it didn’t mean you couldn’t have fun or couldn’t love them. If you hadn’t experienced what it was like to see colour then you didn’t know what you were missing out on, even if everyone around you was talking about how beautiful the colours were. If you hadn’t seen purple, no matter how many times you had it explained to you it was just another word or shade of grey.
Penelope had actually been dating someone when she met Derek, another hacker by the name of Caleb who had somewhat convinced her that the idea of soulmates was stupid and they should be living their lives according to how they wanted and not to some cosmic beings decisions. Since she didn’t know what she was missing out on she was easily convinced that this was the way to live, she loved Caleb so why did it matter if they weren’t soulmates? Yet, she still wore all her bright colours…just in case.
When she got the job at the FBI she didn’t really know what to expect, she knew she’d be their tech analyst and would help them track down potential suspects but she didn’t know how she fit into the team. She’d only really had contact with Aaron Hotchner and the rest were somewhat of a mystery, that was of course until she was collecting files around the bullpen and heard someone yell “baby girl” at her, of course turning round to face whoever had given her the nickname.
The second they interlocked eyes it was like a movie, he blinked once and when he opened his eyes was met with the bright lime green sweater she wore, a matching headband nesting in her platinum blonde hair. He finally knew that the room was blue, knew that Elle was in fact wearing a red jumper despite neither of them being able to decide if that was in fact what she had picked out to where and finally understand what Hotch meant when he hold him that even the dullest colours like the beige of their case files was beautiful.
Penelope had dropped her case files onto the floor in shock but quickly dropped onto her knees to pick them up, her hands shaking as she studied the colour of the files and the colour of her rings. A large ruby red stone placed on cheap silver metal, she’d never seen red before and begun to tear up as she realised she loved it, she then looked down at herself and laughed shakily as she rubbed the material of her sweater between her fingers.
“So this is green.” She mumbled to herself as a few tears escaped her eyes, rolling down her cheeks before she reached up to wipe them away and caught glimpse of her nails painted blue. The nail polish had been called Cloudy Days and while she didn’t know what that meant necessarily it sounded lovely hence why she bought it, Penelope wondered to herself if there was going to be a colour she didn’t love.
“What colour are my eyes?” Penelope asked Derek who was staring at her like she was the most magnificent thing he’d ever seen, he slowly reached forward and removed her glasses so he could have a better look but she could still see the flash of white when smiled. She’d been told a lot of different things through her life, some people said blue and others said green.
“Blue, they’re blue.” Derek had been told what blue looked like before but this was so much better than it had ever been described, Penelope smiled widely and he found himself looked at the pinkness of her lips and the matching colour of her cheeks, so it turned out he loved pink. Penelope looked down to her nails with tears once again in her eyes, she had eyes the colour of the sky and that was the most beautiful thing she could have ever pictured.
Derek made quick of telling Hotch what had just happened and asking if he and Penelope could have the day off, Hotch was the only one who had met his soulmate and therefore would be the only one who really understood. He allowed them the day off and the rest of the team watched as Morgan left with Penelope, all wondering how on earth the pair were going to work.
It was a few hours after they met that Penelope confessed to Derek about her boyfriend, she loved him but now she knew what the world could look like she didn’t know if she believed in all his ramblings about how they weren’t missing out on anything that special. Clearly she was, there was nothing that could compare to that feeling she got when everything finally changed from that muddy grey it had been her whole life. Derek wasn’t upset, it was understandable that she would have tried to get on with her life much like he had done with girlfriends in the past.
He told her that she didn’t have to do anything drastic right away, they knew hardly anything about each other yet and he didn’t expect her to just drop her old life because of him but he was surprised to learn that Penelope wanted to.
“It isn’t fair to him.” She had told Derek, she knew that all she’d be thinking about now was him and how beautiful the world was now it had colour and there would be no way she could keep that a secret from Caleb. Derek had watched from her kitchen table as she called up her boyfriend and explained to him what had happened, by the look of her wincing and the yelling he could overhear coming from the phone he clearly wasn’t happy with what she was telling him.
Caleb eventually hung up on Penelope after telling her how he had betrayed everything they stood for, she just put her phone on the table and immediately sung into Derek’s open arms. It was strange how at home she felt in his embrace, it already felt like she could spend a entirety there and not feel like a second was wasted.
It was her idea that they spend the rest of the day at her apartment and learn more about each other, if they were supposed to be soulmates then she’d like to know more about the man who had quite literally changed her life. Together they learnt about their sorrowful past, Penelope learnt about his father and Derek learnt about the tragedy of what happened to her parents, both had details of their lives they weren’t yet comfortable to share because despite being soulmates they were also strangers but there was a clear connection there.
After hours of talking and laughing, soft silences and teary eyes from both sides Penelope eventually fell asleep, Derek couldn’t blame her after the day they’d had. He was exhausted too and while his bed sounded nice he didn’t want to leave her without waking her up, he also didn’t want to wake her up hence why he stayed sat next to her. At some point her phone began to ring and without thinking he reached out and answered it, hoping that the ringing didn’t wake her up.
“Listen, I’m sorry okay? I shouldn’t have hung up on you like that, I just…come on, baby. It’s me and you always, you don’t need anyone else you need me. Think about all the stuff we’ve been through, what would you be without me?” A male voice filled up Derek’s eyes and he felt a sense of protectiveness over take him at the use of the nickname towards Penelope, the way he was talking like she belonged with him when that clearly wasn’t the case. Derek took a quick glance at Penelope who was still asleep before he spoke up.
“Is this Caleb?” He asked, knowing it was but not knowing really how else to start the conversation. Saying “Hey I’m your girlfriend’s soulmate, back off” didn’t seem like the best way to keep everything calm and civil, he wasn’t looking for a fight he just wanted this guy to know that Penelope didn’t want to be with him anymore, it didn’t mean she didn’t love him it just meant she wanted something different now.
“Who is this?” Caleb asked, obviously confused as to who would have Penelope’s phone. It quickly hit him and he let out a sound of understanding, a long “oh” which cocky undertones to it, Derek had only spoken to this man for less than a minute and he already detested him. “You must be Penelope’s so called soulmate.”
“You need to not call Penelope again, she’s made it clear she is sorry but can’t be with you anymore. If you love her at all then do that for her.” Derek tried not to get angry, he could only imagine how heart breaking it would be to have his girlfriend taken away because of some other man but it wasn’t any reason to keep trying to get her back.
“I do love her and that’s why I’m doing this, you think you can just walk in and steal my girl away? I won’t let you-”
“She isn’t your girl, call her that again and not having someone to manipulate will be the least of your worries. Hey, at least you can’t see colour, it’ll make your blood far less jarring.” Derek said coldly before hanging up, tossing her phone back onto the table just as Penelope stirred. He turned to look at her just as she cuddled closer to the cushion, her face squished adorably against it and her mouth slightly open, Derek reached over and gently removed her glasses and put them on the table in front of them so she didn’t accidentally break them in her sleep.
For the short amount of time Penelope had been in his life she had already improved it so much, he could tell she was such a good person and after chasing bad guys everyday knowing that people like her was comforting. He glanced around her apartment and took note of how brightly coloured everything was, not necessarily matching but for someone who was colour blind until a few hours ago it was perfect.
As the years went on Penelope started to wear more and more bright colours, when people asked her why it was because she had spent so much of her life in black and white and she wanted the people who had met their soulmate to look at her to feel reminded of their loved ones, especially for the newly enlightened people who would run up to her giddy on joy as they pointed out all her colours with glee. Derek was by her side of most of this, knowing exactly how all these people felt when they saw those colours because he felt like that every time he looked at Penelope.