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When he was younger, he had noticed no signs of a soulmate. No marks on his skin whatsoever. He wasn’t really worried about it, soulmate or no soulmate it wasn’t a big deal for him. He could live fine without a soulmate.
But when he got older he started noticing notes on his hands.
The first time he noticed was when he was nearing the end of highschool. He was 12.
He was in math class when he noticed “math” written on his hand. Just a simple note that he definitely didn’t write there himself. He always remembered things. There was no need to write them down.
He didn’t write anything back.
It was a while before he noticed anything else noted on his hand. The next note was a few months away. It just said “drama forms.”
So his soulmate was in drama.
From then on a few drawings started showing up. Smiley faces, sometimes vines all around the fingertips, or crudely drawn snakes.
Sometimes he wondered what would happen if he drew back. He debated in his head for a few minutes about writing something.
He didn’t.
He never did.
In hindsight, it meant that his soulmate thought they didn’t have a soulmate themselves and that was rude to do to them. But Spencer was so focused on school and taking care of his mother that he forgot about their feelings.
One time, his soulmate covered his entire arm in quotes and drawings in all different colors. He was amazed at how quickly they seemed to appear and how they climbed from his arm to his wrist and the ends of his hand. Drawings of stars and the crescent moon, triangles, and fancy scrawled words that definitely wasn’t accurate to the rest of the handwriting that was everywhere else. It made him look unprofessional, so he wore long sleeves that day.
By the time he was 14, the writings had came to a halt. It was a little odd because his soulmate usually wrote on themselves every month, but Spencer thought nothing of it. He had things to study for, which were far more important than worrying about his soulmate that he might not even meet.
Spencer noticed a rough “study for biology” underlined and boxed on his left hand mid way through the school year and rubbed at it. So his soulmate was still okay.
The writing became more distant and apart until, eventually, it was half a year before something would be written.
When he joined the BAU, it seemed that was the first time in a while his soulmate decided to write on themselves. Derek immediately teased him about it. Afterall, it was a bunch of doodles of hearts. In plenty of different colors. How many pens did his damn soulmate need, anyway? The standard colors were red, blue, and black. What use was an orange or green pen?
Penelope asked him about his soulmate a lot after that. Always asking if he’s met them or talked to them lately. It was hard explaining to her that he never wrote on himself or contacted his soulmate because Penelope couldn’t believe that he didn’t want to.
“Why wouldn’t you want to talk to your soulmate? Do they even know you exist?!” She questioned.
“I haven’t ever written on myself, so most likely not,” Spencer said, pushing back his hair.
He looked up, noticing Aaron gesturing to the room. He jumped at the opportunity to stop talking to Penelope and quickly walked to the room.
“As you have noticed,” Aaron started as Spencer sat down, “I have been interviewing new agents and have made my decision. The new member of our team will be starting at the beginning of next week.”
Spencer thought nothing of it, he couldn’t be bothered by the new member of the team when he had the case in front of him. He looked back up as J.J. began explaining everything on his own.
---
The day the new agent came in, Spencer was troubled. The case they had been assigned was so unlikely it blew his mind. He nearly forgot to introduce himself to him. Spencer noticed the boy- Evan- watching him a bit longer than anyone else.
When they were at the station, he even threw in some facts about handwriting as they analysed the letter.
“His closed os show that he’s an introvert and the way he crosses his ts also shows that he is confident and enthusiastic. Sometimes, however, he crosses his ts at the very top which shows that he is ambitious, optimistic, or even has good self esteem. But then why does he kill such low risk victims?” Evan rambled, then looking off to the side and furrowing his eyebrows.
He made note to ask him about it on the plane ride home and approached him almost immediately.
“Yeah, I just got interested in it randomly and read a lot about handwriting. I find it really interesting.”
Spencer nodded.
---
After months of working with Evan, Spencer had come to find that talking to him was soothing. Sometimes he would just ask Spencer, who usually wasn’t even in the conversation, if a fact he had said was correct. He was sitting at his desk when he overhead Penelope and Evan talking to each other. He looked at Evan out of the corner of his eye and noticed how he leaned backwards on his desk.
“I mean, between you and me, I’d have to agree. She is definitely hot but I think he’s hotter.”
“Wait, you’re bi?!”
Spencer heard Evan laugh and his lips quirked up.
“Yeah. I mean I have no soulmate so why would I limit my dating pool? Plus, does it really matter if they’re a girl or a guy if their personality is to die for?”
“Hold on,” Penelope said, making Spencer look up at the two in time to see Penelope reach over Evan to grab a purple sharpie and took Evan’s hand. “You don’t mind, do you?”
Evan shook his head and Spencer didn’t even try to be subtle as he watched Penelope write on his hand.
“Wait, wait! Hold on, give me the marker!” Evan snickered. Evan finished writing on his hand and showed it to Penelope. Spencer looked to see a box around ‘Bi’ with some other thing scrawled around it. “It’s the element bismuth, get it?!” Evan laughed, making Penelope laugh along.
Spencer finally looked away and opened the folder that was on his desk, freezing when he saw his left hand.
There on his hand in menacing purple was a box with Bi written on it. It was the periodic table of bismuth. He rubbed at it with his thumb and looked up at Evan, gulping. He grabbed a black sharpie from his desk and took a deep breath as he added ‘208.98’ to the bottom of the box, completing it. It figured Evan had forgotten that part. He capped the marker and tapped it on his finger.
He stood up and walked next to Penelope.
“Heya, Spence!” Evan started with a smile. “What’re you up to?”
Spencer smiled back. “Well, you see- uh… I wanted to-” Huffing, Spencer brought up his left hand and showed Evan and Penelope the black marker, pointing to the 208.98 that he wrote in.
“Oh. Ohhhh,” Penelope said. “I’m gonna- I’m gonna let you two be.”
Spencer watched Penelope be as he looked at Evan, who was practically unresponsive.
“You mean-” “Yeah.” “But you never-” “I didn’t.” “We’re-” “We… are.”