Chapter Text
Soulmates.
Ink had the basic knowledge of them. He’d listened to his friends’ excited chatter, their joy when they found whoever was at the end of that long, red string. He remembered how his mother used to stare at her hands, telling him how the string now sat on her finger tied in a simple knot. He remembered how his father-before he died-had always told him that it was a beautiful thing.
It wasn’t like Ink didn’t believe them. Well, sure, when they first brought it up in school-5th grade?-he was skeptical. But the realization on everyone’s faces was enough proof.
Just because he didn’t have one didn’t mean it wasn’t real.
He’d done his research, looked over every possibility, tried to see if he was the only one…
The conclusion he eventually came to was that he just...had no soulmate.
Even those who were asexual and/or aromanic had soulmates. Platonic soulmates, sure, but soulmates nonetheless.
They had that string.
Now, one of Ink’s friends, Dream, had informed him on the mechanics of this...string. Not because he had told him that he was stringless, but because the boy was a hopeless romantic and would jump at any chance to talk about it.
So, he was always more than willing to answer Ink’s questions.
According to Dream, the string was red, obviously, and it connected you to your soulmate. It had the consistency of melted glass, without the heat. It wound through the doorways and between tables and through grass. Dream said it came from your finger, it wasn’t tied. It simply came through the joint and fell. Only when it was cut did it tie.
And then it was a memorial.
~
“Ink!”
Ink glanced up from his painting. He was lucky he’d gotten into the art course at Ebbott on scholarship, otherwise he probably wouldn’t have been able to attend.
Damn, he hated school.
“Dream, whas’up?”
His friend came and sat next to him, stars replacing the spot which would normally contain his eyelights. Ink put down his artwork, making sure not to damage it in the process, and stared at him.
“I-Ink! I-”
“Dude, calm down. You’re way too excited. Breathe.” He smirked.
Dream’s face flushed, though Ink wasn’t sure if it was from embarrassment or the fact that he had come sprinting from the main building.
“I found it!”
“What?”
“My soulmate!”
Ink held back his laughter. “Since when has your soulmate been an ‘it’?”
“Er...I found him .”
“Him?” Ink wiggled his brows, earning a snort from the other.
“Yes, him, he’s nice.”
“Well I figured that was a given.”
“Innnnnnnk! Don’t say things like that!”
“I won’t say ‘things like that’ if you stop acting like a starstruck schoolgirl.”
Dream glared at him.
“Okay...okay...so who is it?” Ink’s good eye had changed into a star, proof that he was excited for his friend.
“Cross.”
“The-the freshman? Isn’t he like-”
“He’s TWO years younger than me, Ink. My parents were six years apart, it could be worse. So don’t-”
Ink nudged Dream with his elbow, a short movement to shut him up. “I was joking, you little-”
“LANGUAGE!”
Both heads snapped towards Blue, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Ink sighed, while Dream chuckled halfheartedly. The smaller, yet more confident skeleton sat in front of them, his condescending aura fading as he spoke.
“So, Dream.”
“Yeah?”
“I heard you-”
“Oh Stars! Don’t you dare-”
“Blue, Blue, chill. Dream just said it was that dumb freshman who showed up out of nowhere.”
“INK!”
“What? It’s true.”
“He’s not dumb.”
“He a bi-”
“Language.”
Ink glared at Blue. It was a playful glare, but a glare nonetheless. He could easily tease his friends about their soulmates, after all, it didn’t take much to get them flustered. Especially Blue, and he was especially hilarious, earning himself the infamous nickname Blueberry very quickly.
What bothered him was when they tried to poke fun at him. He didn’t talk about those things, considering...well...his situation. He remembered Blue trying to ask him once, something about his ‘romantic situation’, but Ink had managed to turn the question back on him.
“Anyways…” Dream seemed eager to change subjects. “It’s Killer’s birthday.”
Ink had to stop himself before asking who that was. Welp, everyone here had some sort of strange name, so it was hard to keep track of them. He could’ve sworn he’d met someone once who was named ‘Mistake’. Kinda stupid name for someone’s kid.
“Oh! Killer! Which...er…” Blue was obviously as clueless as Ink was.
“My brother’s soulmate?”
Ink blinked. THAT Killer. Now he was a bitch, though Ink would never say it. Always acted like he owned everything and everyone, the little runt always pretended to be tough and intimidating even though he was only three feet tall.
“Ink?”
“Oh, hm?” Well shit, there he was, zoning out again.
“You coming?”
“Where?”
“My house, for his birthday party.”
Ah, nope. Nope, he would be sitting inside his shitty dorm room tonight, eating his roommate’s leftover pizza, alone. Oh! And drawing. He had that one project he needed to finish anyways…
Dream sent him a pleading glance. Well fuck.
“Uh, sure. When?”
“In…” Dream glanced at his watch, which had miraculously showed up two days ago. “Thirty minutes.”
~
Ink usually enjoyed bright places. He hated both emptiness and the dark. But parties weren’t really his thing. All overly loud music accompanied by that one guy who was always screaming just put him on edge. Besides, people were constantly tripping over their strings. Or at least, that’s what he assumed they were doing. He wasn’t really sure, but it made more sense than just tripping on air.
Two steps away from the door, and he could already hear it. That goddamn awful chatter. Dream had disappeared as soon as Blue and Ink had left the car, and Blue had run off to see Chara-his soulmate-shortly after. So now, Ink was standing inside this cramped, dark house, alone. The door opened and he shuffled to the side. A group of people-maybe five or six total-walked through it.
To be perfectly honest, he was shocked that the stupid little child had this many friends. He had expected maybe ten to fifteen monsters, not thirty fucking monsters and Stars knew how many humans. He looked around for a minute, before deciding to sit right next to the door.
Hey, he could run the hell out of there if he needed to, and that was fine with him. He was graced with a few moments of peace before the door swung open, nearly hitting him in the face.
“Cross-dammit-DON'T TOUCH ME-I said, I don’t want to meet your soulmate.”
“Oh come on Ru-”
“DON’T FUCKING CALL ME THAT.”
“Okay, okay, Error. Look, look, I get it. I just don’t want to be alone y’know.”
“You dirty liar, you just said-CROSS, IF I HAVE TO TELL YOU ONE MORE TIME I WILL FUCKING-good, now, you just said you’re here with your soulmate, correct?”
“Yeah.”
Ink watched as the larger-six foot, he guessed-skeleton slid from in front of the shorter-whom he recognized as Cross-and backed towards the door.
“See, problem solved, you’re not alone, you got, uh…” The monster gestured to a spot behind Cross, where Dream stood, looking confused. “Him…”
“Gay twins.” Ink smirked from his corner, having not realized that he said that out loud. Both Cross and Dream turned to stare at him, eyebrows raised, one laughing, one offended. Error jumped, having apparently not noticed Ink.
“W-Where’d you come from?!”
“Hell.”
“Ink, shut your overly large mouth and get up.” Dream was walking towards him, clearly hiding some form of a chuckle.
“But I don’t wannaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…” He attempted his best ‘look at this grown ass man being a literal toddler’ voice.
Cross shuffled over to Error and whispered something along the lines of, ‘who’s that?’. Dream elbowed him, saying that Ink was the dumbass he called his best friend. Error just kinda...stared, as if Ink’s very existence was offending him.
Dream grabbed Cross waving as he turned and ran into a different room. Ohhhhh no. He did not just do that. Ink glanced up at Error, who was watching them leave. He then looked down at Ink, and grinned.
Oh hell no.
He was not going to sit here with this creep and his shit-eating grin.