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Everything was as it has always been. No one paid too much attention to him, the few comments about his overall nerdy appearance were always there and he couldn't bring himself to care about it too much.
He would turn 27 soon, and he still couldn't see any response to his writing.
Logan Arichmeda lived in a world where people would see their soulmates writing on their skin at the age of 24. They could communicate and find each other that way.
But for almost 3 years now, no one had responded to his writing, and eventually, he had given up on trying. Thoughts running through his mind, the most commmon one? 'Who would want me as a soulmate anyways?'
He didn't see himself as that special. His archive magic was neither strong nor useful for much besides quenching his desire for knowledge, but it did come with that handy little feature of psychokinesis - which he never really used, nor really ever told anyone about.
Not even his two perhaps only friends, Patton Foster and Roman Prince. Both were a little younger than him, barely 25 but also without any marks. Which wasn't really out of the ordinary, that just meant both had a younger soulmate.
Unlike Logan, neither Patton nor Roman had given up on waiting. Logan just invested his time differently. He spent it in the library, doing his school work, or just randomly taking little walks in the evening to sit somehwere and read. Therefore he quickly went to passing with flying colours.
He barely paid attention to his missing writing, always wearing long-sleeved button-up shirts with his favourite tie, and in his dorm no one could question him. Single-person dorms were great.
Nothing really changed for a while, until Virgil Knight finally turned 24. He was the typical 'Punk-emo' blend you'd find at any school college or universitsy, the stereotypical oversized hoodies and solitude-oriented attitude. He was perfectly fine by himself thankyouverymuch.
On the night of his birthday he took his favourite purple pen and scribbled onto his wrist. And, much to his surprise he had not only received one, but two excited and messily scribbled repsonses. Blue, bubbly letters, red, elegant cursive greeting him back but at the same time scolding him for staying up so late, as it was almost 1am as they woke to the tickling on their arms.
Patton and Roman were not only sharing a dorm but also a happy hug at that moment, they did turn out to be soulmates after all, just as they had hoped! Plus, another hopefully amazing person by their sides too!
Something however nagged at the backs of their minds, the three sharing that thought that this wasn't all there was to it but they were too tired to put much thought into that. They eventually did fall asleep, happy, feeling warm inside, with this sweet feeling of newfound love.
Logan on the other hand was mildly pertrubed... perhaps a little terrified as he spotted the three writings on his arm the next morning. All this time he thought he just didn't have a soulmate but now there were three people appearantly? And he even knew two of them, he knew Patton and Romans handwriting very well. Yet he didn't respong. He didn't want to intrude on their already very close bond, and as irrational as his thinking he was, he just didn't notice, though he once lectured Patton about cognitive distortions for almost a full hour. He decided to stay quiet, and focus further on his studies.
Fast-Forward: A month had passed by now, and Patton, Roman and Virgil had finally met up and slowly started out their relationship. The three were most definitely happy together!
Roman and Virgil always watched their movies together, Patton and Virgil watched cartoons and baked together, Roman and Patton were regularly glued together in their absolute love for affection, something Virgil was gradually warming up to.
Naturally they applied for a bigger dorm, moving in together soon after,sharing the big bed at night and cuddling until they fell asleep. They were definitely happy together! But..
"Something's missing! I don't know what it is but I certainly don't like it!"
Virgil was the first to speak up concerning that matter and to his surprise the other two instantly agreed.
Roman had dramatically explained it as if „something's missing in my heart!“, whereas Patton had explained it as „Something that is barely there but it still want it close, you know?“
The three quickly decided to try and figure out what, or perhaps who, was missing.
Writing on their hands, arms and cheeks, just to see whether they could elicit any response, but to no avail.
Naturally, Logan understood that the three knew that someone else was belonging to their alignment, yet he stubbornly believed that he just didn't fit in at all. He had silently watched their tries to coax him into replying (even though they didn't know it was him who they tried to reach).
During their frist try, he had been sitting on his bed, watching the purple scribbles of Virgil, the blue bubbly letters from Patton and Romans elegant red cursive conversing on his arm. They seemed very set on trying to get him to respond, and while it was fairly endearing he was worried what they would say when they actually found out it was him who was supposed to be their missing part. He didn't know, and he kept quiet.
Their second attempt luckily fell on one of these days where he was in ful lab attire, protective gloves covering his hands and the patterns. The only reminder of the trio was the occasional tickle on his hands. As he arrived back at the dorm he took the time to carefully note down and copy the symbols of the others into his little notebook. They looked nice..Maybe..Just maybe it wouldn't be so bad to respond? He wasn't sure, and he kept quiet.
Their third attempt fell on his free day. Dumb luck, he thought,as he was the little symbols on his cheek. A little purple stormcloud, a blue heart with comically illustrated glasses and a very intricate red emblem. OF course Roman had to be 'extra', as he had overheard Virgil once. He once again copied them into his notebook, looking at the little symbols made him feel somwhat warm inside, almost inviting but he felt so tired that he decided to just take a nap in the middle of the day. Needless to say he woke in the middle of the night, and since he didn't know what to do he decided to take a shower. He didn't notice the thunderstorm approaching.
Patton and Roman had left that noon for a short two-day-trip with one of their shared courses, leaving Virgil alone in their dorm, but only because they couldn't take him with them. It started out just fine, he had classes anyways, and the little symbols on his cheek had him feel happy and a little tingly inside. For dinner he just grabbed something from the schools cafeteria, and in the evening he laid down to take a nap, which certainly worked out quite well, until that dreaded thunderstorm approached and harshly jolted him awake. His heart was racing, he scrambled for his pen and his headphones. Roman and Pattons phones had died, they had texted him before, so he couldn't call them. Instead he wanted to try writing so he could hopefully elicit a response, but during his writing a thunderbolt caused him to jumo.
"Pat,Ro, there's a thunderstorm, when are you comin---------"
He didn't get to finish the sentence, pen dropped to his bed. Not that Patton and Roman didn't care, they were just very heavy sleepers and probably wouldn't wake up from a little tickles to their wrists.
Logan eventually stepped out of the shower, dressed in his favourite space-themed pajamas. The tickling of Virgils writing ripped him out of his thoughts. He rolled up his sleeves, reading the scribbled messy, lightly panicky words and realization hit him like a train.
Virgil was afraid of thinderstorms, and Logan would be damned if he left him alone during this now. He knew the others were probably asleep so he took his pen and started writing before his mind could protest. He finally responded after far too long.
"Virgil, is it correct that you are afraid of thunderstorms?"
Said little stormcloud almost forgot the cause of his panicky emotions as the neat, black writing slowly typed itself out on his arm. Tears he hadn't previously noticed blurred his vision as he wiped them away, and if he had known that 'all' it took for their missing counterpart to respond was his panic, he'd have ordered a thunderstorm via Amazon Prime a month ago.
"Yeah," he wrote back, hands a little shaky as he replied yet he wasn't alone anymore. He was curious, the thunderstorm still made him jolt every now and then but he was significantly calmer than before. And, too focused on the missing person.
"Is there anything I can do to assist you?"
Virgil thought for a moment. "Please don't go?"
"I will stay."
"Thanks.."
The conversation kept to a fairly superficial level, Logan counting down the breathing pattern, promtping the grounding techniques, talking to and with him. He kind of regretted not responding sooner but now what was done was done and he couldn't really change it.
He had to switch arms however, since his left arm started to fill up quickly.
"You're ambidextrous?"
"Yes."
"That's cool."
"It is?"
Apart from that, Logan knew that he couldn't pull back now. Patton knew his handwriting so it was certain that very soon he'd have to somehow explain why he didn't respond earlier but..
He noticed he had been pondering for a while as he felt a dragging sensation on his hand, looking down to see long, purple lines over his hand.
"Earth to missing younterpart, You're spacing out."
"My apologies. Did something interesting happen?"
"Storm's over. And you responded."
Logans brain finally processed the events of the past few hours, and a little part regretted answering, but the majority of him was just happy that he helped Virgil.
"Why didn't you write sooner?"
Virgil once again was the first to question as suddenly red, cursive writing scrawled its way over their arms.
"Vi, I'm so so sorry but we just fell asleep and didn't wake up any time sooner and our phones died and Patton is still asleep!"
"Princey, don't worry, I didn't mind too much. It did bring something good after all!"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Read, Princey."
"Oh...OH THIS IS GREAT it's finally all four of us! My name's Roman!"
"I think he knows very well who we are."
"I was just about to take my leave again."
"You're not going anywhere!"
"Now why do all the interesting things happen when I'm asleep?"
"Pat!"
"Finally! All four of us here!"
Logan had already ventured to the bathroom, washing his hands. He didn't mean to wash off the writing as his primary objective,but it did wash away a few words.
Hence, Patton was quick to object.
"Hey! Stop washing us off!"
The big bold letters had Logan stop in his tracks, and he shut the water to read over it.
"I did not mean to."
"We've been waiting for you so long now, why did you not want to talk to us sooner?"
"It isn't that I wouldn't want to talk to you. I merely do not want to disappoint you."
"Now that's just bullshit."
"Virgil!"
"Wording aside, he is right! You simply can't disappoint us"
"I don't think you really understood what I meant, Roman."
"Wait, Logan?"
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Two weeks passed quicker than any of the four had anitcipated, and much to Pattons pleasure he had been correct with his assumption that it was Logan who had been missing in their precious alignment. It took a few days to spot him at university simply due to their different schedules, but once they got hold of him and once he willingly accompanied the three, they finally got around to having that talk that had been overdue for so so long.
Patton called him out on those very convincing cognitive distortions, basically parroting the entire lecture Logan had given him back at him.
Roman had dramatically tried to convey the fact that Logan missing was "as if there was an empty, missing piece in my heart!"
Virgil was unable to contain his laughter at Romans overdramatic ecxlamations yet he sternly told Logan that this entire past month had been "Complete and utter bullshit, Lo, you don't pull that shit ever again!"
The three quickly came to the conclusion that they finally had their most amazing nerd by their side, and the little nice writings on his arms had said nerd in tears.
No more long sleeves, he wanted to see all the beauty of his amazing soulmates messages after all. Each four of them, one sentence rewritten every day, just so it would never fade.
"We love you just the way you are!" - Roman
"You're our favourite nerd after all!" - Virgil
"So please let us love you?" -Patton
"I love you too." - Logan