Chapter Text
Chapter 1: When the paths are separate
Barry
All Barry thought he was good at was running, it was a mindset he has had since he was little.
He ran from his responsibilities.
He ran from bullies.
He contemplated running away from his life and start anew.
But there were a few reasons why he stayed where he was, why he run away from the life he knew:
His soul mates.
It was one of the many reasons why Barry was constantly being chased down by a small group of boys, luckily leaving with only a few bruises and cuts.
Though soul mates were a common thing, the general population had either a soul mark that their soul mate shared with them, or they were able to communicate by writing on their skin. It was rare to not have either and even rare to have both, Barry was one of those people.
If he had both, that could either mean his partner had both and it was a normal relationship, but after someone in his class had asked about it and word got around that he had two, everything went sour.
Luckily in this age, it didn’t matter the age gap or gender of your soul mate, but in some areas of the world, having a triad was viewed as a “threesome” instead of a pure bond.
This is why Barry was currently running from his bullies.
“Get back here Allen!” One had shouted, Barry was able to finally say something to one of the boys before he immediately regretted it and started to run.
“Barry Allen, you whore!” Another had shouted, he didn’t know what the word really meant but these were older boys and most of the words they said weren’t too nice anyway.
Barry was shoved to the ground from the left; one of the boys had taken an ally way to cut him off. This only meant he was going home with a few new bruises and hopefully no broken bones.
His body went numb as the punches rained down from the larger boy that he had taunted; now regretting even opening his mouth.
“Hey!” A voice had called, Barry had curled up with his eyes screwed shut to prevent further damage.
The punches stopped.
“What do you want lady?” The boy had asked, suddenly someone had pulled Barry up from the ground.
“Leave the boy alone, he did nothing to harm you jerks.” She snapped, Barry had opened his eyes to see a taller girl stood in front of him.
“How do you know that?” The boy had taunted, she only laughed, flipped her brown hair over her shoulder then pointed to Barry behind her.
“He’s skinner than a stick, you’re fatter than a turkey on thanksgiving, something isn’t adding up…” Her voice trailed off, the bully’s face grew bright red then he raised his hand to slap her only she didn’t flinch. Instead she grabbed Barry’s hand then started to run.
“Come on, run!”
With the girl still holding his hand, she tugged him through the alley ways like it was second nature, and after a few turns they lost the bullies.
“So-“she took a deep breath of air in, slightly winded “-what did you do that caused those idiots to get mad at you?” The girl had slid against the wall only to sit on the disgusting ground.
“I have two soul mates.” Barry muttered, ready to sprint away if things got hairy.
“Two? That must be nice to get that much love.” She replied, standing up with a smile. “Lisa Snart, you are?”
“Barry Allen.” Lisa held out her hand, but when Barry didn’t shake her hand she only sighed.
“Not really trusting are you, Barry Allen?” She asked, looking down at the boy who was currently fiddling with his backpack straps.
“I guess not.” He spoke; it was more like a question then an answer.
“S’fine by me, my big brother isn’t that trusting either.” Lisa spoke with a slight laugh, as if recalling memories. “Do you know how to get home from here?”
Barry looked down the ally they were standing in to see if there were signs for a street, but there wasn’t any.
“No, I don’t know what street I’m on.” He replied, though she only nodded then grabbed his hand once more.
“Tell me where you live, I can take you there!” Lisa replied with a smile, pushing to earn the smaller boy’s trust. Barry nodded then they walked through the ally, the occasional conversation appearing.
Len
“Lenny I’m back!” Lisa had called; Leonard had come back from another heist when Lisa had gotten back. The man was half asleep in his char at the table where his blueprints were.
“Hey sis,” he had muttered, practically snoring as he dozed off.
“Guess what I was doing?” The teen had asked, she held a thin plastic bag that had energy drinks inside, knowing how exhausted her brother would be after the latest heist.
“What did you do?” He muttered back, not really caring, as he felt sleep was more important.
“Helped this kid, getting his ass handed to him for having 2 soul mates,” she replied, cracking open a Red Bull then placing it on the table in front of Len.
“Two soul mates, now I haven’t heard of that before, incredibly rare are they?” He asked his interest piqued.
“He was explaining how it was rare to have a mark and communicate to his soul mate, it was more common to be able to do that with one soul mate, but he was one of the rare kinds that had 2.” She rambled in awe; it was also because of the 2 Monsters she had chugged on the way here.
“Lucky kid,” Len replied, taking a swig of the much needed energy drink.
“Not really, should have seen the way those kids were laying it on him. Kid tried telling one off, standin’ up for himself, but it just gave him a black eye and maybe a broken bone.” She explained, quickly finishing off the drink then reaching for the next. Though Leonard had seen how energetic the brunette was then confiscated the remaining few in the bag.
“I don’t want my sister dying from a heart attack today.” He had said as he pulled the bag out of her reach.
“You’re no fun-“she pouted –“wait have you heard anything from your soul mate today?” She asked quickly, jumping the subject.
“No, all he said was something about science and how cool computers were, it was a lot more but that’s the easiest way to put it.” It was no secret that Leonard’s soul mate was a genius, though he didn’t know the age of said soul mate, it was something he didn’t want to tell him and he was fine with that. After all he expected him to be only a few years younger than him…
…not 17.
Oliver
“Oli it’s time to get up!” A young girl called, and then she jumped on to his bed in an effort to wake him up.
“Good morning to you too Speedy, what do you need?” Oliver asked, opening his eyes, only to see her smiling face.
“We don’t have school today!” She shouted, jumping on the bed.
“Why don’t we have school today?” Oliver asked, pulling the blanket off himself, he had watched Thea jump then landed on her butt before giggling.
“Mommy didn’t say, but she said we didn’t have school today, do you want to go play?” She asked, he only smiled then nodded.
“Let me get changed then we can play, how does that sound?” He asked, she giggled once more then ran out of his room, trying her best to close the door only to fall in the process. Though she did succeed and without tears.
Oliver stretched then rubbed the soul mark that was located on his wrist, such an inconvenient place to have a soul mark in his opinion.
It was a simple arrow head with a lightning bold resting in the middle, those who saw it loved how simple it was since the more complicated ones were the larger and harder to hide ones.
Just like every kid his age, he wanted to find his soul mate. Though not for sexual reasons like the teens in his school, but for the more pure reasons:
He just wanted to get to know the person he was destined to spend the rest of his life with.