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Soulmate, a person ideally suited to another as a close friend or romantic partner. A person can have a single, but also multiple soulmates.
A soulmate can be identified through a clue on an individual’s body. Clues will appear once an individual has consumed either a meal or beverage prepared by their soulmate
It’s a morning like usual. Robin is late for work, which means he’s woken up to a dozen of calls from his boss. He’s honestly surprised he hasn’t been fired yet, but he knows Sam loves him too much to do that.
The coffee shop he works at opens in fifteen minutes from the time he wakes up. He quickly does the math in his head, he has to be there twenty minutes before opening, it will take him ten minutes to get out of bed, five minutes to put on clothes, maybe some breakfast..? And he still has to travel to work, conclusion: he’s very, very late.
Once he’s gathered the willpower to climb out of bed, it goes rather quick. He manages to put his clothes on quite quickly and decides that fine, breakfast will come later.
He’s out of the door quickly and decides to go by car. He usually walks there, but he figures going by car will gain him a little bit of time.
He barges into the store a few minutes after opening time, he’s lucky he doesn’t fall through the door.
“For fucks sake Robin.” He can immediately hear Sam call, “Can you please make this beautiful gentleman his drink?” Sam adds.
He’s immediately on the task, he puts on his apron and jumps behind the bar. He barely actually lands on his feet and from the corner of his eye he can see the man behind the bar holding back a grin.
“Are you alright?” he asks.
Robin turns around to fully face the man, Sam definitely didn’t lie when he called him beautiful. He catches himself staring and curses himself for doing so.
“I eh, yeah I’m fine, what can I make for you?”
“I ordered a cappuccino,” the man says with a smile.
“Coming right to you,” Robin says “I could use one too” he mutters under his breath.
He quickly finishes his drink and hands it to the customer.
“Enjoy your drink and have a nice day eh- “
“Antonio,” the man chips in.
“Have a nice day Antonio,” Robin says with a smile. The customer turns around with a smile and walks out of the store.
He goes straight home before paying any mind to his cappuccino, he doesn’t like it too hot anyway. He’d started his morning with a run and decided to finally visit the coffee shop he’d been eyeing for weeks. He only moved into his new apartment recently, so he was still exploring the city.
He opens his apartment door and is immediately greeted by his roommate, Jean Éric, or better known by his nickname Jev.
“Hi, how was your run?”
“It was fine, I eh- I visited that coffee shop a few blocks away I was telling you about.”
“And you didn’t get me something? Rude.” Jev laughs, “Where there at least any cute baristas?”
Antonio takes a sip of his cappuccino, it tastes amazing but he feels something else. Something is boiling up inside his stomach, something he has never felt before.
“What the fuck is happening?” Antonio drops his cup to the floor.
“You don’t have to be so dramatic about it, it was just a question.” Jev looks rather offended at Antonio’s response, “I just wanted to see if there was any boyfriend material there,” he adds with a scoff.
“No no no, that’s not it. I- I my arm...” Antonio gasps his arm burns and when he looks at it he sees something appear. It looks like random numbers, a phone number?
“Oh my god,” Jev gasps as he sees what’s happening “You found your soulmate!”
“My what? No, it can’t be right?” Antonio groans as he sits down. The pain on his arm eases away and he’s left with a tingling sensation.
* * * *
“Well that was smooth huh,” Mitch tells Robin as he turns around to face him.
“What do you mean?”
“Man you’re so oblivious.” Mitch groans, “You just nearly face-planted onto the floor because you saw some hot guy.”
“I don’t like him like that,” Robin immediately argues.
“Did I say that?”
Robin whines in frustration, he turns around and walks towards the back of the store. He opens the fridge there and takes something to eat out of it.
He’s about to call out for Sam when he sees him sitting behind a computer.
“Hi,” he hesitantly says.
Sam raises an eyebrow and tries to give Robin a stern look, “You were late again huh.”
“I’m terribly sorry I- “
“It’s okay.” Sam’s face softens, “I can’t be mad at you you’re too cute.
Robin smiles, “I hate you.”
“Ah, you’re so nice to me, always. You know I saw some security footage of you a few moments ago when you were making the cappuccino for that hot guy.”
Robin’s face immediately turns red. He tries to say something but can’t form any coherent words.
“Are you that desperate for a relationship?” Sam laughs.
“I’m never going to find someone, I’m going to be alone forever, nobody will ever love me,” Robin rambles losing his breath near the end of the sentence.
“That’s a little melodramatic don’t you think? Besides, you have me.”
Robin and Sam were soulmates, just not the romantic kind. A person could have several soulmates or just a single one. It varied for every individual.
Sam and Robin had known each other for many years before finding out they were soulmates. When Sam proposed the idea of a coffee shop, Robin immediately rushed to make Sam a cappuccino.
He’d wanted to show Sam his skills, but eventually revealed a secret about their friendship in the progress.
Sam initially wanted to spit the cappuccino out (he’s glad Robin has improved his skills when he came working for him). But felt something boiling up in his stomach, that moment he immediately realised what was happening.
He was a little confused at first. He loved Robin dearly, but would never think of Robin as anything more than a little brother. (He could honestly strangle him sometimes). But then it hit him, it finally made sense.
Platonic soulmates were just as important, if not even more important than romantic ones. He’d spend so much time with Robin, and truly formed an incredible bond with him. He wouldn’t want to trade it for anything.
“I know, and you’re the best. I just, I don’t know. Life is weird. Besides he wouldn’t like me like that anyway.” Robin answers Sam.
“Yes, life is weird. But what do you even mean, you’ve barely even talked to the guy. If you truly fancy him, give him your number.”
“I agree,” Alex pops up.
Robin turns around, “You were there all the time?”
“Yes, what about it? I agree with Sam, give him your number.”
Robin groans, “Go away, you’re lucky you have Mitch.”
* * * *
Jev rushes to Antonio.
“What the hell is happening, what’s this?” Antonio asks as he points to his arm.
“it’s coordinates,” Jev explains.
“Why the hell do I have fucking coordinates on my arms all of the sudden?”
“Have you never heard about soulmates you dumbass?” Jev is close to laughing. He’s surprised it hasn’t clicked yet.
“Wha-“
“You went to the coffee shop yeah?” Jev questions.
“Yeah.”
“So the barista made you a drink?”
“Yeah, who else would?” Antonio sighs frustrated by Jev trying to play captain obvious.
“Well, you find your soulmate once you drink or eat a beverage or meal prepared by your soulmate. You just drank something prepared by that barista.”
“Oh my god,” Antonio exclaims as realisation starts sinking in. “So some random barista is my soulmate?”
“Yeah,” Jev sighs, “The numbers on your arms are the coordinates of where you first met.”
“Man, how do I even go about this?”
“Maybe let it settle in? Then we can talk about how to go about this?”
“That sounds good, thanks.”
* * * *
Robin sighs as he returns behind the counter. He can’t get his mind off what happened in the morning. He’s out of it serving every single customer and it doesn’t take long till Mitch takes notice of it.
“What’s wrong with you mate?” Mitch asks when Robin’s done serving a customer he just accidentally called babe. “I have never seen you so out of it,” he adds.
“I don’t know man, I don’t know.” Robin sighs as he leans against the counter, “What the hell is wrong with me?”
“Take your break, you really need it right now,” Mitch says as he puts a hand on Robin’s back to comfort the other man.
Robin smiles and doesn’t say anything but takes his apron off and walks away. He throws it on the couch in the back of the store and plops down on the other one.
He’s as confused as someone can be, and can’t put a finger on why he’s acting like this. He’d had crushes before, and they’d make him act weird, but never this weird. And besides that, he barely even knew the guy.
The only time he had acted anything even remotely close to this is when he first met Sam. It had been different back then though, he’d never had a crush on his best friend, he was just acting rather clumsy around him.
When they finally found out they were soulmates, it had stopped, only his usual clumsiness was left. Was this random man he had just met his soulmate? It felt like a reach, but there was no other way he could make sense of his behaviour.
He’d made him a drink, which meant if it was true, he would know. This realisation immediately causes Robin's mind to make up all sorts of scenarios, mostly bad ones.
What if the man had fled the city once he found out Robin was his soulmate? The guy that nearly face-planted onto the floor when he first saw him.
“You okay?” Sam sits down next to Robin.
Robin sighs and puts his head in his hands. He doesn’t know what to do or what to say, why did everything have to be so complicated? His thoughts go to ultra-speed and all he wants to do is scream.
“You think he’s your soulmate huh?” Sam takes Robin into a hug, which makes him tense up at first, but the other man slowly relaxes. Robin turns to look at him as if Sam had just solved the biggest mystery known to humanity. “It wasn’t such a hard solve, I’m your soulmate too remember?”
“You know me too well.” Robin laughs slightly.
“That’s my job isn’t it?”
“What do I do now though? Robin doesn’t even want to think about facing Antonio, but he does know he can’t just let it slide. The only good thing about the situation was that, if they were soulmates, Antonio would know.
Sam sees the uncertainty in Robin’s eyes, “First of all if he’s your soulmate, which I’m pretty sure of by the way. You should’ve seen the smile you gave him, it was like a glow, I could only wish for that. He’s not going to flee the city, soulmates are drawn to each other, they can’t escape each other.”
Robin listens to Sam talk, he hates how well Sam can read him. Did he really smile at Antonio like that? Sam is probably right though, (he hates to admit it), soulmates are destined for each other. There’s a certain something that draws them to each other and no one or nothing can come in between that.
“You should sleep, rest very well. Then you come back tomorrow and we can wait for Antonio to come? We’re near closing time anyway.”
“Thank you, Sam, really,” Robin says as he gets up from the couch.
* * * *
Antonio takes a shaky breath as he steps out of the door the next morning. He’d talked to Jev for a little longer and came to the conclusion that this was the best thing to do. If his roommate was right, the barista wouldn’t know anything, which definitely made it a little harder. But waiting around or running away from it wasn’t that much of an option, and it wouldn’t be fair to his soulmate.
It’s a way too short but at the same time way too long walk to the coffee shop. He can feel the droplets of sweat on his forehead as he reaches the shop. A part of him is excited though, he can feel the anticipation boil deep down in his stomach.
He pushes the door open and immediately announces his presence by the bells that ring when he opens the door. He turns to look at the counter and sees his soulmate standing behind the bar. He’s serving another customer, which means he hasn’t seen Antonio yet.
Antonio looks him up and down and notices something on the barista’s arm. It looks similar to the coordinates written on his own arm. Did the other man know Antonio was his soulmate? He takes another look at it and notices the coordinates don’t match, did he have a soulmate already? Could a person have several soulmates? Jev did not prepare him for this moment.
When he sees the barista is done with the last customer, he takes a deep breath to gather all his courage and sets foot towards the counter. He’s nearly facing him when another man speaks up
“This is him right?” The man looks at the barista as he asks the question. It doesn’t take long for Antonio to notice that the two have matching coordinates on their arms. This meant they were soulmates, right?
“Yeah,” Antonio’s supposed soulmate says with a shaky breath.
“The only way to be a one hundred percent certain is to let him make you a drink.”
Antonio looks at the two men with a puzzled expression before realization sinks in.. they know.
“Shouldn’t we introduce ourselves to him first?”
“Right, my name is Sam. This is Robin we’re ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent certain that he’s your soulmate.” Robin could smack Sam across the face when he hears what Sam says. At the same time, he is kind of glad Sam put it so bluntly, he would never have been able to do that. “So, jump behind the bar, make Robin a drink and then we’ll know,” Sam adds.
“You’re awful at this,” Robin says to Sam.
“No, I’m not. Without my help we wouldn’t have gotten this far would we?” Robin knows Sam is right as he hears him say that, but definitely doesn’t want to admit it.
“But you two have matching coordinates right?” Antonio pops in, “So how can Robin and I be soulmates then?”
“A person can have as many or as few soulmates, it heavily depends on the person. Some will have more than five and some will be stuck with someone like Robin.” Sam pauses as he sees Robin glare at him. He continues with a grin on his face, “Soulmates can be platonic or romantic. Robin and I are platonic soulmates and we only found out by accident after being friends for years. There’s not a cap or anything on how many platonic or romantic soulmates you can have. Someone can have multiple romantic and or platonic soulmates.”
It finally starts to make sense to Antonio as he listens to Sam. He’s happy the other man is there, but there’s one thing he’s confused about, “So what kind of soulmates are Robin and I then?”
Sam turns to Robin to urge him to answer. “Romantic, definitely, I think.” Robin struggles to get all the words out. He’s pretty certain it is romantic, probably as certain as he is that Antonio is his soulmate. With Sam it took a little while for their friendship to progress, and slowly he felt more drawn to him. While with Antonio he immediately fell massively drawn to him.
“Okay,” Antonio sighs, “Let’s find out then shall we?”
“Yeah, just climb over the bar.” Sam points to the side of the bar.
Antonio manages to climb over the bar without much struggle, but he still has to try his best not to fall over. “Why is there not just like a door or something?” Antonio asks.
“Ask him.” Robin looks at Sam who only responds with a shrug.
Robin ends up teaching Antonio how to make a cappuccino as Sam watches on. He knows they’re soulmates, he can feel it, it’s undeniable. He’s happy for Robin and just slightly jealous. As he sees them work together he can see the tension in Robin’s shoulders fade, they have a bond, it’s clear to see. When Robin takes a sip of the drink Antonio made him, he can see the smile form on Robin’s face. He can see the mark form on Robin’s arm right below his.
“Wow,” Robin exhales.
“Yeah,” Antonio sighs.