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Logan walked into his dorm room, annoyed as he closed the door behind him. He dropped his bag on his desk and let himself fall back onto his bed with a bit of a huff. That irritating person in his sociology class had been exceptionally on his nerves today, just constantly speaking out and interrupting absolutely everything as it was clear he loved to do. Normally he was a relatively small nuisance, as Logan could generally quiet him with a well placed comment here or there. It was obvious that he very much didn’t like to be proved wrong, and that was certainly one of Logan’s talents.
But today was just not going well for him. Class seemed to drag on, and even spending time with his two closest friends - Virgil and Patton, didn’t help him get his mind off of this day. Those two were easily two of his favorite people, but seeing as they were soulmates that had found each other… After a day like the one he’d had, seeing them so casually happy together just wasn’t what he needed.
So he was happy to finally be home.. Happy to be all the closer to seeing his own soulmates again. It was days like these that he was especially thankful to be able to communicate and spend time with his soulmates in his dreams. Being able to see them was really the only thing that made him look forward to going to bed at night.
Well, “see” them might have been… Not exactly accurate. No one could see their soulmate as they actually looked. In your dreams, you’d see your soulmates as something that truly represented them. Something that fully exemplified the kind of person they were, much moreso than their appearance could. But soulmates were always similar to one another. Maybe they were the same type of animal - animals were very common, or plants… Or even electronic devices, toys maybe. Logan swore he’d heard someone say that they and their soulmate were both pieces of furniture, and he’d read online about a pair of office supplies. He didn’t know what that said about them, but something, probably.
On top of that, the vast majority of people had one romantic soulmate. But not everyone did. Some had multiple soulmates, and some soulmates were purely platonic. Logan happened to be one of the lucky few who had two, and both of his happened to be romantic. Two entire people who he could call his own - a trio where no ones feeling were left unreciprocated, where they were all equally important and equally crucial to one another.
It was supposed to be very rare, but Patton and Virgil had told him that they also had a third, they just hadn’t found him yet. Generally you couldn’t tell your soulmate’s gender, which made them more difficult to find. So when they’d told him, Logan had asked what made them so confident in his pronouns, he’d just never heard anyone refer to a soulmate by anything but ‘they’ before meeting. His two friends had explained that their soul forms were all big cats, and while Virgil was a cheetah and Patton was an African wildcat, their missing soulmate was a lion with an undeniably large mane.
Logan didn’t have such an obvious sign for either of his soulmates, and while he logically knew he’d probably be able to tell if he took the time, it just wasn’t any kind of important to him. He had them both, and that was all that mattered to him.
As much as he immediately wanted to sleep, he rolled out of bed to do the responsible things: brush his teeth, change into pajamas, plug in his phone and laptop, put his glasses on his nightstand… But he was in his bed as quickly as he could be, closing his eyes and doing his best to drift off.
Sleep was so freeing. Yes, it brought them together… But there was even more than that for Logan. Not only did he get to see his soulmates and spend the night through with them..
He opened his eyes, immediately using his strong tail to propel himself through the water he suddenly found himself in. It was just so… Comfortable here. As he and his soulmates were all aquatic, they spent their nights all together in a body of water. They were completely free in the water, as though they had their own private bit of ocean. He was alone for only a moment, turning in the water as he felt one of them approach.
“Ah, there’s our smarty pants dolphin.” Spoke one of his soulmates, the banana eel, wriggling their way over to boop their eel snoot against his own dolphin snoot.
Logan knew it was the eel he heard in his mind, even though they weren’t literally speaking. It wasn’t as though the eel was opening and closing their mouth, but there was no doubt in Logan’s mind who it was communicating with him. Normally something like that would probably bother the very smart young man, but seeing as this soulmate thing didn’t exactly make any logical sense in and of itself, as well as the fact that this was a dream… He just let it go, letting himself be free and happy. As much as he could be.
Despite the fact that his current form couldn’t really convey it, he was internally smiling as his eel joined him. He glanced around a moment before turning back to them. “Where’s o-” He began, but he quickly felt something collide with him and wrap around his back.
“Flipper!” Came another voice, Logan only relaxing more, despite the fact that there were tentacles moving over him as his other soulmate moved across his body until they became visible once more.
“Hello.. I certainly missed you both today.” Logan said with a fond sigh in his tone, looking over the two of them.
“Let me guess, that kid you’ve been dealing with the past few years has been being annoying again?” The eel asked, wriggling a bit through the water somewhat lazily.
“You should let me at him! I’ll make sure he never bugs you again!” The blue-ringed octopus was certainly a bit overly spirited at times… Actually, most of the time, but Logan found it endearing.
“I know you would. …I just don’t know how I’ve been unlucky enough to have him in at least one class basically every semester.” Logan lamented a bit, rolling over to drift through the water upside down.
“Well you can’t have all the luck, you already got us.” The octopus added, using their tentacles to propel themself right at Logan again, colliding with the eel along the way so they both ended up resting on his chest.
The eel made a fondly exasperated sound but didn’t fight it, just curling up atop Logan. “That’s a pretty good point, you know.”
The dolphin just moved his tail slowly, causing the three of them to drift along lazily. He couldn’t help the feeling of calm happiness that seeped through him. “…I suppose you’re correct.”
“Damn right I am. I’ve been telling you for years.” The octopus responded, wrapping a bit around him again, securing the eel down into their little cuddle pile as well.
“Yes, yes. We’re quite aware.” The eel was playfully snarky, softly giving the octopus a little whap with the end of their tail.
Logan just continued to drift along, listening happily to their banter as they continued, more than happy just to be there with them.
“I’m just saying! If you listened to me more, you’d have a lot less problems!” The octopus added.
“Alright, then what’s the solution to the annoying classmate problem?” The eel asked, turning more to face the eight-legged one.
“Just let me at them! Like I said! I pulled this amazing prank on my brother once, I leapt out of one of the kitchen cupboards and scared the hell right out of him! It shut him up for like.. At least a couple days. …I mean, I did wake up a few days later with whipped cream on my face and my hand in warm water… But still.”
Both Logan and the eel let out a little snort of laughter. “That is certainly the mature course of action… Remind me, which of you is older again? I’m not sure which I should be more disappointed in.”
They couldn’t see it, but the two of them could just about feel the eye roll from their cephalopod soulmate. “…He is. But only by like.. 3 minutes.”
“Oh right right, twins. I forgot about that.” The eel responded, still a bit of laughter in their tone.
“I did as well… Well at least we know the blame should be placed equally.” Logan laughed, giving his tail another little flap and sending them drifting a little quicker through the water.
All too soon, just like every night, Logan found himself waking up alone in his bed. He reached for his glasses and turned off his alarm, getting out of bed with a soft sigh as he went off to get ready for yet another day.
Things continued on as they normally would, going about their days and looking forward to their nights when they would be reunited once more. It wasn’t for another couple of weeks when his sociology class entered a new unit that something truly interesting happened.
Their professor was explaining a recent study on the connections between family members and their soulforms, with some evidence pointing to similarities commonly occurring. The class went quiet for a moment, most of the students thinking over that piece of information, but the silence was exceptionally short lived as Logan’s least favorite classmate piped up.
“Psh.” He scoffed. “Yeah, I’d beg to differ on that one.”
“Oh? And why do you say that, Roman?” The professor asked, turning to him.
“Because my own is a lion, of course.” He casually ran a hand through his thick auburn hair, letting the strands fall around his shoulders. “And my twin brother is a freaking octopus.”
Silence filled the room once more, but Logan’s thoughts had never been louder. An octopus? An octopus with a twin brother? It.. It literally had to be.. Without any care to his surroundings, Logan quickly stood from his seat, drawing attention from the class but he didn’t even notice. “Roman. I need to speak with you. Immediately.” He said, walking toward the front of the class and leaving with no other explanation.
The door shut behind him, and all eyes fell on Roman. He only hesitated for a moment, but he lifted his bag with a shrug and followed Logan out after no more than a split second’s thought.
Once again the class fell quiet, no one knowing exactly what had just happened. Well.. Almost no one. Before the professor regained their wits to restart class once more, another student stood. A quiet boy dressed in nearly all black, with eyes so light green they appeared yellow. No one stopped him, he just slipped out of the room and into the hallway to find the two louder students standing there talking.
“I’m sure of it! Just text him.” Logan was saying.
“I’m doing it, I’m doing it. Lord, you are so pushy.” Roman responded, typing something out on his phone.
Logan had also pulled out his own phone. “Now… Do you by chance have two soulmates?”
Roman’s eyes snapped up. “How did you know that?”
“Just a hunch. Give me a moment.” Logan began typing as well, just as Roman went back to doing so.
The newcomer just crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall, watching them. “My, my. Aren’t you two a hell of a pair?”
Both Logan and Roman flicked their gaze to him, Roman opening his mouth to ask who he was, but Logan beat him to the punch.
“…It’s you, isn’t it?” Logan asked, looking over those yellow eyes and somehow familiar smirk.
“Got it in one, smarty pants.” He responded, smiling fondly.
Roman raised an eyebrow, not sure exactly what was happening. Thankfully he had more interesting things to think on as the sound of pounding feet was approaching them very quickly. They all turned to see two boys rushing toward them, the beaming Patton pulling along his anxious Virgil.
Roman’s eyes were glued to them.. Something about the cheerful boy tugging along an obviously more nervous one.. It was all he needed to see to immediately beam widely and step forward to catch them in a hug, laughing warmly as he found himself with the two of them in his arms.
Even Logan couldn’t help but smile, Roman may have been irritating, but finding one’s soulmates was still an exceptionally joyous occasion.
The moment was only sweetened as more rapid steps were approaching them, the two of them turning to see a boy sprinting toward them with everything he had. Unlike Patton and Virgil however, as he got nearer and nearer to his two soulmates - he didn’t attempt to slow down. So, in his haste, he crashed into the darkly dressed boy and ended up throwing the both of them directly into Logan’s chest.
The glasses-clad student had to take a bracing step backward, nearly colliding with Roman, but thankfully he managed to be enough of a stopping point that no one ended up toppling over.
It was such an unexpected, overly dramatic, somewhat dangerous move… And it only cemented the knowledge that this boy he found in his arms was exactly who Logan was looking for. The serious student was beaming from ear to ear, looking down at the two of them. He couldn’t stop himself from also letting out a laugh, watching as his two loves joined in, the three of them just unable to express this rush of feeling in any other way.
The six of them stayed there in the hallway longer than any of them meant to, not realizing for a longer period of time than any of them would have been willing to admit to, that they could have these conversations somewhere much more comfortable and private.
Both Roman and Logan mumbled to their soulmates about how “That was the guy I’ve been talking about all these years…” but it wasn’t that important as the two trios took off in different directions.
Logan found himself taking his soulmates, Janus and Remus - he learned, back to his dorm so they could talk.. But what ended up happening was an awkward tangling of limbs as the three of them tried to figure out how to all fit cuddled together on his relatively small bed. They spoke, finally able to trade specific details and share things they hadn’t before. It was perfect.
And if they happened to doze off as they laid there all together, it wouldn’t matter… Because now, no matter if they were awake or asleep, they’d all be together.