Chapter Text
The bell rings, and Otabek rushes to his bag to get his lunchbox, following the stream of eager seven year olds. It is recess time, and Otabek is excited, because today Mama let him pack his own snacks. He has a little bag of chocolate peanut brittle, a granola bar, and a container of grapes. Otabek grabs his bag and searches for his sister Alina. Otabek sits with his older sister and her friends, because he still hasn’t made many friends at school. He doesn’t spot his sister, but he does find her friend Medina, who greets him cheerfully. and follows her to the courtyard.
“Salem Otabek!” greets Alina, cheerful. She is sitting with her friends, who greet Otabek brightly as well. Otabek waves, and perches himself on the bench opposite to Medina. He opens his lunchbox and sits, quiet, as Alina and her friends chatter.
“Guess what?” Bibigul asks after a few minutes, her eyes shining. Otabek opens his container of grapes.
“What?” Alina and Medina sit up straight, eyes trained on the other girl.
“Nurislam found his soulmate!”
Alina and Medina gasp in synchrony. Otabek chews his grape, only half paying attention to Bibigul. “How? Tell us!”
Bibigul clears her throat, and grins. “So, I was watching TV in the living room, and then suddenly Nurislam ran in because he had found this book in his bedroom that he didn’t recognise. He opened it and he realised it was a soulmate book!”
The girls gasp and nudge Bibigul to tell them more. Finding your soulmate was always extremely exciting news. To Otabek, it isn’t that fascinating, but that really was because he didn’t fully understand the concept of soulmates.
Mama said that your soulmate was a person who was perfect for you - who would complement you perfectly. He still didn’t get it though. How could some person you’ve never met before be perfect for you? How were your lost objects transported to your soulmate? And who was this soulmate?
Otabek is broken out of his thoughts by Bibigul, who continues her story. “The book had his soulmate’s name and everything! Her name’s Emina, and she lives in Schuchinsk. She’s (Bibigul counts on her fingers at this part) seven months and fourteen days older than Nurislam, and - ”
Otabek wonders how Nurislam would ever meet his soulmate when she lived all the way in North Kazakhstan.
He reaches into his lunchbox and grabs his granola bar. Bibigul finishes her delighted tirade, and after sitting in relative silence for a moment, asks, “Bibigul, how would Nurislam find Emina if she lives so far away from Almaty?”
Bibigul looks at him, confused for a moment. She pauses, and then answers. “Well, it just happens, Otabek! Soulmates are just magical like that. You never know when you’ll meet them, but when you do, you’ll know.”
Otabek nods, satisfied. He holds the granola bar in his hand, and prepares to take off it’s wrapper, when Medina asks if Otabek has found anything from his soulmate yet. Otabek shakes his head. Medina shrugs and tells him that she only started finding her soulmate’s lost items last January, and most people don’t even realise when they’re getting soulmate items. Otabek nods once more, but he doesn’t finish his recess. He shoves the bar in his pocket and forgets about it, wondering if he’ll ever meet his soulmate.
~*~
The first time that Yuri finds something his soulmate has lost, it’s a granola bar. He is in Dedushka’s bedroom drawing a picture for mama, who is in France looking for work. Dedushka is in the kitchen, preparing dinner. Suddenly, there is a bright light and a granola bar in a green wrapper appears on top of his half-finished drawing. Yuri screams, and his dedushka hurries in. He finds Yuri crying, confused and a little scared, because the bar had appeared out of nowhere.
Dedushka calms him down, and explains that the granola bar is from his soulmate, and it appeared in Yuri’s room because his soulmate had lost it, and so it ended up with Yuri. Dedushka explains that everyone in the world has a soulmate - a person who will fit them perfectly. Yuri’s soulmate will be his best friend. To a four year old with no friends, a soulmate sounds amazing.
Yuri asks Dedushka who this soulmate is, but Dedushka shakes his head and tells him he doesn’t know. No-one knows who their soulmate is at first, but one day they will meet and Yuri will know when they do. Yuri nods seriously, and asks whether his soulmate will have the sheet of cat stickers he lost last week. Dedushka shrugs, and Yuri learns that not everything he loses will end up with his soulmate. Sometimes, they get put in a place that no-one knows, but when he meets his soulmate, and they connect, one day, all these lost things will come back.
“Dedushka,” Yuri says, after Dedushka has explained what happened and he has calmed down, “what does the wrapper say?”
Dedushka says he doesn’t know - the words on the wrapper are written in another language. He says it looks a bit like Cyrillic, but looks very different too. He tells Yuri to put the granola bar in a plastic bag, and then in a safe place. Dedushka helps Yuri clear a shelf on his wardrobe, and Dedushka helps him label the plastic bag with the date. Dedushka hands the bar to Yuri and raises him onto his shoulders. Yuri puts the bag with the granola bar on the highest shelf.
They eat dinner, and Yuri asks if Dedushka has a soulmate. Dedushka says yes, it is his Babushka. Yuri doesn’t know who Babushka is, because she had gotten sick and died a few years before he was born. Yuri doesn’t mention it again, because the sad look on Dedushka’s face makes him feel sad too. When they finish dinner Yuri drags him to the bedroom and shows him his drawing. Dedushka smiles at it, and tells him it looks very beautiful.
That night, when Yuri sleeps, he dreams of dancing with a foreign boy, with cats surrounding them.