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Luka still remembered the day Juleka had pointed out the words to him. He was trying to play a chord on his small guitar when she had stopped him to point out the thing on his upper arm. He was around six years old when he took a good look at them. They were foreign and unfamiliar, written in another language that he did not recognize.
He had gone to his mother, questioning her about the strange words on his upper arm.
“Those are the first words your soulmate will say to you.” His mother told him. The song he always heard, no felt, changing it’s tune to become less energetic and more soft.
“But I don't understand them, what do they say?” He asked.
"Now where is the fun in me telling you that. Those words are written in English, which means that is the language your soulmate speaks. If you learn English then you can find out what it means and be able to talk to your soulmate when you do meet them." His mother explained. And the energeticness was back.
"How am I gonna learn English?" He questioned.
"I will teach you! You and Juleka!" His mother proudly announced.
"Okay!"
And that was how his lessons started. For the next 5 years his mother taught him and his sister English. And by the time he was 11 he was fluent in it.
He now knew what the words on his upper arm said, and he could not be more confused. “I’ll go wake them up.” Wake who up? Why couldn’t his words be simple like Juleka’s?
Speaking of Juleka’s words that brought on a new question, why were his words on his upper arm while Juleka’s were on her hand? And this time both him and Juleka went to ask their mother. Well, it was more like he asked and Juleka waited patiently behind him for the answer.
“Such curious children you two are, never change. The place where the words are, is the first place your soulmate will touch you.” Her song turning slightly amused.
Curiosity peaked, Juleka spoke up, “Where are your words mom? What are your words?”
Their bright and energetic mother seemed to shrink at the questions. Her song turning sad and muted.
“Well my children, some people are born without soulmates. And I am one of those people.”
“Oh.” Juleka mumbled at her answer. Her song turning slightly guilty before perking up again at her mother’s next words.
“There is nothing to be guilty of Juleka, it isn’t you fault I have no soulmate now is it?” Juleka shook her head, “ Exactly, but I don’t need a soulmate to be happy because I have you wonderful children. Now I think there are two wonderful children who need to do their homework. Hmm.”
“Going right now mom.” Luka grabbed Juleka and started dragging her to their room so he could help her with math. Juleka didn’t protest.
When he was fourteen and Juleka was twelve he got his first look into how exactly the bond worked. Not that at that moment he knew.
Juleka had come home from her first day at collège a nervous, lovesick mess. He didn’t even need to listen to her song to know that. She had gone on and on about this one girl who was in her math, science, and English class, her eyes practically hearts.
However when Luka asked if Juleka had talked to this mysterious girl, he got a stuttered out no.
And this exact story played out for two more weeks. Juleka would gush something about Rose, he had finally found out her name, but had never gotten the courage to talk to her. It always ended with a sad Juleka and his only way of cheering her up was to play the happy, energetic song of their mother.
It seemed that this would be her love life from now on, with Juleka too scared to do anything about her crush. But, thankfully, he was wrong about Juleka’s love life.
Because on one fateful day when he went to pick her up he witnessed something magical.
Juleka was walking down the steps towards him when what he could only describe as a ball of pink happiness and energy bounded up to her. She called out, “Hey your Juleka right?” and both Couffaines froze.
But that didn’t stop the ball of pink positivity. She went right up to Juleka and grabbed her hand to shake it, and he could see the blush that was currently gracing her cheeks. He walked closer to the pair just in time to hear Juleka stutter out a, “Y-yeah that’s me.”
If it was possible Rose’s smile got even wider at those words but before she could say anything was when it happened. Rose had to suddenly take a step back as bright purple and pink lights emerged from both their hands. Hovering in the air just long enough to create a heart shape before disappearing. All those around, including Luka and the two newfound soulmates, could only stare.
“Wow you’re my soulmate!” Rose finally exclaimed, breaking the silence.
“Oh I-I guess I am." Juleka mumbled. But Rose didn’t hear her, as she started pulling her away talking so fast that Juleka couldn’t understand her. Yet despite that being with her just felt right, so when she turned to lock eyes with her brother, she shook her head. That day Luka went home alone as Juleka got to know her soulmate.
And that was his first and only look at how a soulbond worked. While it was definitely memorable and something he would never forget, soulmates were not his priority.
As seen by his crush on Marinette, who was definitely not his soulmate. But despite knowing they could never be together, his heart always hoped. And when she did get together with her soulmate, he couldn’t be happier, because one of his best friends was happy. Even if the pairing was unexpected, he honestly had no idea that Marinette and Kagami would be soulmates but their songs work well together so he should’ve expected it.
However lately he had been feeling weird. The songs that he heard from every person became so much louder than usual, he could hear every mood change, every spark of surprise, happiness, sadness, fear from all those around him. It was starting to get overwhelming and he didn’t know why. This had never happened before.
It all reached a high when he got introduced to one Damian Wayne, who was staying at Chloe’s father’s hotel and Chloe had to show around Paris. Well sorta introduced. He was having a major headache that doubled when he got inside the hotel and Chloe only said a quick Damian meet Luka, Luka meet Damian, before taking off with Damian to show him something he couldn’t recall.
He went to their usual room in the hotel they would hang out in, closed all the blinds, and took a nap, hoping that his headache would go away with sleep.
He wasn’t wrong, but he wasn’t right. He woke up but his headache still hadn’t fully gone away, yet it was still much better than it had been before. He grabbed a water bottle from the secret fridge and slowly drank from it as he waited for his friends to return.
He didn’t have to wait long as soon the door to the room burst open and in walked his friends, including Damian. Suddenly his headache came back full force but he didn’t let it show. The last thing he needed was his friends worrying about him while they were trying to have fun with Damian.
Time quickly passed and it was hard for him to keep up with everything that was going on, but as the day got later, one by one his friends started falling asleep. Until it was only him and Damian awake. Neither wanted to start the conversation, so for a solid hour awkward silence flooded the room.
It seemed that Damian was starting to get tired of the silence as he moved to go past Luka to the others. However, what he said as he was about to pass Luka almost had him frozen, almost. "I'll go wake them up." In English, the exact words that were on his upper arm.
Luka's eyes widened in shock from three things. The first was that this guy was his soulmate. The second was that the major headache he had been having was probably the result of his soulmate being here and that must have interfered with his ability to hear people’s songs. The third was that Damian was about to evoke the wrath of his friends when they're woken up from their sleep. Not wanting to have another incident like that occur again he stepped into Damian’s path.
“No, let the little ones sleep.” Right as he said those words Damian moved to push past him, touching his upper arm in the process. However the second Damian did bump into him he seemed to come to his own conclusion as he suddenly jumped back right as blue and green burst from where they touched. Just like he remembered from all those years ago the colors hovered in the air for a minute, just long enough to create a heart before disappearing.
The others seemed to remain undisturbed in their sleep as Luka and Damian stared at each other with wide eyes. Finally Damian got the courage to speak up.
-
Damian really didn’t know what to think. The words “let the little ones sleep” had haunted him for his whole life. In the league having a soulmate meant having a weakness, and having any weaknesses would get him killed. So he had it drilled into his head from birth that the second he met his soulmate he was to kill them immediately.
Of course he really didn’t want to, the stories his mother told him in secret of how special soulmates were wanted him to meet his and not kill them. But not killing his soulmate would be seen as a betrayal to the league, which would lead to serious consequences.
So he kept quiet about his soulmate, even when he was permanently sent to live with his father. The only reason they knew was because he had been working out in the batcave with a tank top on and Dick had seen the words on his upper arm. And Dick being Dick proceeded to tell the whole family about what he had discovered. Which resulted in a lot of teasing about his soulmate and what their first words to him would be.
After a while the teasing died down and he honestly forgot that he had a soulmate. He had more important things to prioritize anyways. Like how he was in Paris to oversee if there was any damage left from when the magical terrorist Hawkmoth had been defeated a few months ago. His father had wanted to come to but he had things he needed to take care of in Gotham so he was there alone. Which wasn’t that bad in his opinion, it meant he could get more done, especially since his siblings weren’t here.
Unfortunately his father had contacted the mayor of Paris and asked him to make sure that he ‘didn’t get in any trouble’. And so the mayor had his daughter follow show him around Paris.
She also had her friends tag along with her on their tour of Paris but there was one friend in particular that he couldn’t get off his mind. Luka, Bourgeois had introduced him as, he didn’t look well and it seemed she knew that as she didn’t push for handshakes or proper greetings like she did with her other friends.
Luka had walked off to what was apparently their hangout room as Bourgeois and all of her other friends left the hotel and gave him a tour of Paris. It didn't take nearly as long as he thought it would since they skipped over big tourist attractions and took him to what they called "local treasures". But the weirdest part was that he could get his mind off if Luka, and that frustrated him to no end. He barely knew the guy so why was he so infatuated with him.
They returned to the hotel to find Luka looked a little better, but that didn't stop his friends and him from worrying. There seemed to be several conversations going at once and Damian couldn’t keep up with all of them, so he tried his best to keep up with a few. However, something he noticed was that despite Luka keeping a smile on his face and nodding along to whatever conversation he was a part of, all the others including him would constantly cast him worried glances that he seemed to not notice.
As the day turned to night, one by one, more of the group fell asleep. Soon it was only him and Luka left awake and neither stepped up to break the awkward silence. It irritated Damian to no end, even though he liked silence, he did not like this type of silence. But it seemed that neither him nor Luka was going to be talking anytime soon, an hour had already passed, so he decided that it would be best to wake up one of his friends. His best bet would probably be the optimistic one, Marinette.
Unfortunately in his thinking he had reverted back to English when he said, "I'll go wake them up." Instead of in French so Luka could understand. Out of the corner of his eye he was pretty sure he saw Luka's eyes widen in what appeared to be shock, but he wasn’t too sure.
However a second later Luka tried to block his path also saying in English, “No, let the little ones sleep.” The exact words on his upper arm.
His mind registered this discovery and he realized that must have been why Luka’s eyes had widened. However his body was already in the motion of walking and did not register that piece of information so he ended up bumping into Luka. Specifically his upper arm with Luka’s upper arm. The realization caused him to jump back in shock right as blue and green lights emerged from both their upper arms and formed a heart in between them.
They both stared at each other with wide eyes in complete silence before he finally got the courage to speak up. “I-” Curse his luck or thank it, Bourgeois interrupted him before he could get a sentence out.
“Ooooh are you guys soulmates?” She questioned, seeming much more awake than she should.
“What’s going on?” Marinette asked with a yawn, her eyes fighting to stay open.
“It seems that Mr. Frowny Face and blueberry boy are soulmates.” Alix spoke up from her spot on the couch.
“Wow, didn't see that coming.” Nino said sarcastically as he slid Alix twenty euros.
Almost everyone slid Alix and Bourgeois various amounts of money, the only ones that didn’t were the ones that didn’t take the bet. Aka those who knew better than to bet with Alix. As Kim slid his thirty euros he grumbled something along the lines of “Stupid time traveling bunny seeing the future” but Damian was more shocked at the fact they betted on him and Luka being soulmates. Despite only having one interaction before this. Luka, on the other hand, seemed much more calm and only shook his head at their antics.
“Would you prefer if we gave you boys some privacy?” Marinette, the only one besides Kagami that didn’t bet asked.
Damian and Luka exchanged a glance before Luka answered, “That would be nice.”
Marinette and Kagami dragged the others out of the room, with Marinette instructing Kim to pick up Rose and bring her to wherever they were going since she didn’t want to wake the girl up. Something about her being the baby of the group and how the baby is always allowed to sleep. No one objected to that so he assumed that was normal, or maybe no one objected because of Juleka giving everyone death glares.
Once everyone had left Damian turned to Luka, “So we’re soulmates.” He stated.
“We are.” Luka replied. Both stayed silent once again, Damian wasn’t good with talking about this kinda stuff and Luka was just as clueless about what to do.
“How long are you going to be in Paris?” Luka asked, his fingers silently twitching and he wished now more than ever that he could play his guitar to relieve some of the stress he felt. He did not think that talking to your soulmate was supposed to be this stressful.
“Another week,” He instantly answered, but at seeing the slight frown on his soulmate’s face he quickly added, “But I can always ask my father for more time. I am sure he would understand.”
“That would be nice but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
Damian was about to reply but he stopped himself for a second to think, he would never hear the end of it from his siblings if he asked for Luka to come back to Gotham with him. Plus Gotham was not the best place to bring one’s newfound soulmate. His mind decided he replied, “No I want to get to know you.”
Luka tried and failed to hide his smile at his soulmate’s words. That is until he came to a quick realization, “I don’t know your full name, we haven’t even had a proper introduction.”
Damian was surprised by that as well, he went back through their interactions and realized that Luka was right. Then he realized that he never got the full names of any of Bourgeois’s friends. He had been referring to them all by their first names...he couldn’t ever let his family find out about that.
Breaking him out of his thought process was Luka sticking his hand out to him as he properly introduced himself, “Luka Couffaine.”
Damian took his hand and shook it as he introduced himself, “Damian Wayne.”
“Wait Wayne as in Bruce Wayne? The billionaire?” Luka stared at him curiously.
“Yes.” Damian hesitantly answered.
“No wonder Chloe’s been acting so weird, a billionaire’s kid is staying at the hotel.”
“HEY I DON’T ACT WEIRD!” Someone, definitely Chloe, shouted from the other side of the door.
“Have they been listening this whole time?” Damian questioned Luka, he seemed more likely to know.
“Probably,” He answered as he walked over and opened the door. All of the friends that had previously left the room to give them privacy fell when the door opened, most of them having the decency to look a little guilty for eavesdropping. Luka fondly smiled at them before turning back to him and stating, “Welcome to your week, or longer, in Paris.”
Damian, strangely, found himself smiling back at him. “Can’t wait.”
Alix, the first to have gotten up, looked between the soulmates who were currently staring at each other with lovesick grins and fake gagged, “Great another lovey dovey couple.” Juleka and Rose both threw pillows at her, while the others laughed. Yeah, Damian didn’t think it would be so bad.