Chapter Text
Many things in life are complicated and make little to no sense. One of those things though, isn't love. Love made sense….well, kind of. In this world, soul mates dictated who someone would end up with for the rest of their lives. Marked by handprints and blots of solid color on their skin and hair.
After many years, soul marks had evolved. They usually showed where you and your soul mate would first touch, but it became too common for people to marry those they weren't to be with because of how common hand shakes and hug marks were.
At the age of 18, you would gain your romantic soul marks. Platonic soul marks could appear from as young as a year old. Not everyone had romantic soul marks.
But, if asked, what confused Alex was that he had not only soul marks on the backs of his hands/wrists, but also one long one around his shoulders, on his neck and cheek and a separate handprint on his shoulder. The big one around his shoulders and neck was an orange color, the ones on his hands being a strange gradient of blues, purples and pinks.
Two soul marks. Two different sets. Two different people.
He sighed, slipping his shirt back on and stretching his arms up. Readjusting his beanie, he walked out of the bathroom and into his office. The stream was still going, set to his brb screen and he could hear Sapnap shouting at George about killing him in the game.
Alex had left his stream for a moment, saying he had to use the bathroom. He did have to use the bathroom, but he had gotten distracted by his soul marks once again. It was a common occurrence recently. He was 20 now. It had been two years since the marks appeared and he still had zero clue who the two people could be.
Now, the Alex Quackity was not one for rushing into a relationship or to be really desperately searching for one, but with the knowledge that two people would mean so much to him that he would want to spend the rest of his life with them boggled his mind.
When going on Love or Host he knew deep in his gut that none of the girls Austin had on were his soulmate. He knew for sure Schlatt wasn't one of em. Hell, he loved the guy but not like that.
Slipping back on his headphones, he settled into his chair and unmuted, switching scenes back to his face cam and game.
"Heey boys! I'm back! I'm back."
Nick ruffled his own hair in the mirror and placed his hand over the soul mark on his cheek. His usually light brunette locks had two handprints almost dyed on. His soulmarks. There was something kind of sweet thinking that his first interaction with his soulmates involved one of them playing with his hair and the other holding his cheek.
It had been a few weeks since Nick had gotten his. He may be 19, but his soulmarks had been delayed, making him a late bloomer if you will. He had actually started to believe he wasn't going to have a soulmate. Instead, he got lucky and has two!
The one on his cheek was a deep navy blue. The ones in his hair were a mix of soft blues, pinks and purples. Nice colors. They went together well.
The dark navy blue one actually also went around his shoulder, almost like someone hugging him in a strange way.
Nick had a few guesses. He did have quite a lot of friends and he was a bit more of a flirty person, but he was overly aware that it wasn't George or Clay. Both of them had told him about their own soulmarks, and in Nick's opinion, he had zero clue how two people could be so fucking oblivious.
It had been a late night after recording another challenge video and sometime after Nick's 18th birthday, and George asked if he had gotten his soulmarks yet. He of course said no, which received a hum from both.
Nick had been silent for a bit, and chuckled to himself.
"What about you two? You guys got any romance marks?"
He could hear shuffling from Clay's mic, then near the blonde let out a quiet giggle of sorts.
"Had to check it was one but yeah, I've got mine."
"You had to check? Geez Clay, how many marks do you have?"
"I've got a few. I know they're platonic ones, but I've got just a fist mark on my side that is my romantic mark. So apparently the first interaction I'll have with mine is getting punched in the side."
"It's because you're freakishly tall." George said, laughing to himself.
"You're short. What's yours George? You mentioned it a while ago but I think your internet had cut out during that convo."
"Oh yeah. We were having that storm and it just fucked everything up." he audibly stretched. "Mines this…well I assume it's lime green. I've asked a friend but they enjoy messing with me so they keep changing their answer, but I assume it's green. It's just two hand prints on my upper arms. Nothing too special."
Nick nodded, clicking through some discord chats and clearing up his notifications as best as possible.
He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Quackity come back, shouting to the rest of the self proclaimed "Feral Boys" Gang.
"Eyo! Welcome back Quackmiester! You fall in or something?"
"What the fuck Sapnap? No. I got distracted by my phone."
"My mans definitely fell in." Karl said after closing his water bottle.
"No I didn't fall in!"
"He's so short. He definitely fell in."
"George you are the same height as me!"
Dream would be joining in, but he was busy wheezing.
Karl laughed hard at that, almost choking on the water in his mouth. The brunette coughed a bit, covering his mouth and wiping his chin.
"Alex ain't denying being short!"
"KARL STOP BEING SO MEAN TO ME!"
"Can't. You make it too easy."
"You're an asshole Karl."
"Alex you're gonna hurt my heart."
Quackity sputtered, astonished that Karl called him short and then claimed he was the victim in this scenario. Karl giggled, ruffling his own hair and sweeping it away from his eyes.
He couldn't help the other giggles and soft laughs that bubbled their way from his gut. Making fun of Alex in such a harmless way made his day, not in a mean way, he was just highly amused by the reactions he got out of Alex.
Karl muted his mic, letting his giggle fit be over with. He sighed, leaning back in his chair. Quickly unmuting to say he needed to refill his water bottle. He muted again and spun his chair around.
Running his hands over his cheeks, he sighed warmly. There was something about listening to Quackity speak that made his cheeks warm. He couldn't tell if it was just him, or if it was the soulmarks that were plastered on both sides of his face.
The navy hand prints made Karl's heart soar everytime he thought about them. And like, really thought about them. Sometimes Karl would get distracted for almost hours on end just looking at the colorful soul marks.
Originally he had believed he only had one soulmate, the navy hand prints being the most obvious set. Yet later that night when changing in his pajamas he saw another set, these one's being a warm orange almost red color. Anytime Karl looked at the one's on his legs, he honestly couldn't think of what in the world kind of first meeting with someone he'd have to have soul marks on his thighs.
Karl sighed, getting up and actually filling up his water bottle, because he did need to refill it.
The soft warm feeling of his soul marks reminded him of something Jimmy had told him about once while recording a video. Something about a strange reaction that sometimes when something you love about your soulmate happens your soul marks will warm up.
Now, you don't have to ask Karl if he's already connected the dots, because he has. At least some of them because, Karl isn't as oblivious as Alex. Karl knew that Alex laughing so genuine causing the marks on his cheeks to heat up, meant something pretty world changing. He was somewhat trying to come to terms with it in a sense.
Closing his door, Karl set his bottle down and slid into his chair again. He looked at the shared discord stream. Everyone had started playing Jackbox without him. They were in the middle of a game of QuipLash, and Karl didn't need to wear his headphones to hear the kettle man himself just losing it.
Karl put on his headphones, opening a new browser tab to at least join the audience.
He smiled to himself as he heard another one of those Quackity laughs, chuckling to himself. Maybe being in love with your best friend isn't so bad.