Chapter Text
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!”
The scream jerks Shaun awake, and he lifts his head up to see Katy standing on his bed, bouncing in excitement and waving her arms around.
“Dude, were you falling asleep?” She squints at him before flopping down on the mattress next to him. “It’s literally just midnight.”
“Exam season just ended,” he groaned, batting her away. “I haven’t slept properly in days.”
“That’s no excuse,” she declares. “I’m officially 18!”
“Congrats,” he says, a little more awake now that he remembers why he was forcing himself to stay up on what could have been his first full night of sleep post-exams. He reaches under his bed to pull out a small package, but before he can give it to Katy, she’s sitting up cross-legged.
“Oh shit, do you see anything?” She inspects her arms, then twists and turns to try and see her back.
“Stop moving,” he says, smacking her on the shoulder and getting up. “Let me take a look.”
“Pleasepleaseplease.” She’s wriggling in excitement, pulling up the hem of her t-shirt to show more skin. Shaun tries to ignore the smoothness of her stomach and resists the urge to hold her still by the waist.
She’s your best friend, he scolds himself. And she’s probably going to have a soul mark, so stop thinking like that, you perv.
“I don’t see anything,” he says, inspecting her back with what he hopes is purely friendly, scientific interest.
“Damn.” She lies back down again. “Maybe it’s on my legs though?” She reaches to the waistband of her leggings, and Shaun makes a choking sound.
“Maybe you should give it some time,” he suggests, feeling his voice about to crack. “Marks can’t appear right at midnight, how would it even know what time zone you’re in? Or like what if you were born at a weird time, like 4 in the afternoon?” He lies down next to her on his front, hoping his loose sweatpants were enough to hide whatever absurdity the mere thought of her pantsless is doing to him.
“True,” she agrees. There’s a pause. She turns her head to him. “Where’s my present, bitch?”
He chuckles and hands her the gift. She tears into it with gusto, opening a small jewelry box to reveal a tiny red dragon on a silver chain.
“Dude,” she says. “This is awesome.”
Shaun grins. After seeing the necklace in a window display, he’s been doing odd jobs for various Chinatown shops for months for extra cash. “It suits you. You know, since you’re a real spitfire.”
“Hell yeah. Dragons are my spirit animal.” She runs her fingers over the charm before handing it to him. “Put it on for me,” she orders, turning around.
He laughs and drapes the chain over her neck, pushing her hair out of the way to fasten the clasp.
“I love it,” she announces, and Shaun feels like his heart is going to burst out of his chest. She looks down and gasps.
“What is it? Is the chain too long? It’s supposed to tuck under your shirt,” Shaun explains, aware that he’s about to start rambling.
“I think I got my mark!” She pulls the collar of her shirt lower and turns to face him. She points to a small spot right by the dragon, at the top of the swell of her breast.
Shaun glances over, not trusting himself to look at her chest without spontaneously combusting, but the two blocky Chinese characters turn his blood to ice.
Shang-Chi.
“It’s in Chinese,” she says, stating the obvious. “What does it say?”
“I can’t read those characters,” he lies, hearing a ringing in his ears. He had left that life behind. He was never going to go by that name again, so why was it imprinted on the skin of the girl he loved most?
“Oh,” she says. “I thought you knew everything Chinese.”
“There are, like, millions of Chinese characters,” he retorts.
“Hey, no worries,” she says flippantly. If she hears the tightness in his voice, she’s ignoring it. “I’ll ask my mom tomorrow.”
“Sure,” he says, still reeling. He would turn 18 in a couple months. Would he have her name too?
“Ooh, I hope it’s a rich international student,” she says, excitement in her tone. “Someone who just arrived in San Fran and drives a million-dollar sports car and has tons of Daddy’s money to spend.”
He rolls his eyes. “Do you really want a guy who can barely speak English to be your soulmate?”
“I could learn Chinese,” she says defensively, “for my soulmate.”
Shaun feels a pang in his heart at that. Katy, his American girl, who couldn’t read the menu at dim sum and resorted to a pre-memorized list of favourite dishes (or, more typically, made him order for the both of them), would learn Chinese for him.
She brushes her fingers over the name, and he looks away.
“Whatever,” he says.
“Let’s start now!” she exclaims. “You can teach me the basics so I’ll be ready for when I meet him. So he doesn’t think I’m a total ABC.”
“You are, though,” he says. “You couldn’t even tell the woman at the boba store that the washroom was out of toilet paper last week.”
“Shaun,” she whines, and he relents. He could never say no to her.
“Okay, let’s start with the really important stuff,” he says. “Wei sheng zhi.”
“Wei sheng zhi.” She repeats it a few times, only butchering the accent a little bit. “What does that mean?”
“Toilet paper,” he smirks, and it becomes a full grin when he sees the look on her face.
“You jerk, I told you I’m being serious!” She launches herself at him and starts pulling his ears.
“Okay, okay!” he yelps. “Get off me! Uncle!”
She laughs, and it makes him laugh too, until both of them have devolved into a giggling mess on the bed. Her hair is mussed and she’s a little breathless from laughing, and Shaun thinks she’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.
Whatever happens, he vows to himself, he wants to be by her side.