Archive of Our Own

Even before the power went out people were meant to one day find their soulmate. It came in the form of words, printed onto their skin, the first words that their soulmate would say directly to them alone. Some were born with it; others had it appear the day their soulmates were born; a few were blanks, never to find a soulmate. For the longest time Sebastian Monroe thought he was a blank, after all he was in his early twenties when his soulmark arrived. Charlotte Matheson however was born with her words printed along her arm in black ink, she was one of the lucky ones, after the power went out so many lost their soulmates before they meet them, their marks fading out as their soulmates did, but hers stayed, as dark as the day she was born. Or at least she thought she was lucky, till the day she heard those words.

She plays that moment over and over in her head, how he walked towards her, looking only at her, the way their eyes seemed to only see each other, it was like her soul knew before she did. Then he said those words, those words that had been printed on her skin since birth, just below her elbow, falling along the side of her arm, “Hello Charlotte, it’s nice to finally meet you.”

Her mother hadn’t reacted, she must have forgotten what Charlie’s soulmark said; her brother Danny just stared at her while she silently willed him not to say anything; Charlie felt herself falling into a state of shock, and was suddenly thankful her arm was hidden from view. She had found her soulmate and he was the Commanding General of the Monroe Militia, the man responsible for the death of her father, a trained killer, a monster; she vowed at that moment to never speak to him, vowed that he would never know, not until she had killed him and was looking down at his dying body.

When they were taken to their cell, Danny had just stared at her, “Are we going to talk about it?”

“No.”

He had continued anyway, “But those are your words right?”

“Danny just drop it okay, I’ll kill him before I talk to him.” Her eyes saying more than her words, she would never let him be her soulmate, she couldn’t.

She had always wondered how it would come to be that her soulmate would already know who she was, but now that she finally understood why she simple hated her mark even more.

She hid her soulmark from her mother after that, it was easy enough, she wore her jacket most of the time and when she wasn’t, she covered the words under the guise of hiding her Militia mark. Danny tried to talk to her about it a couple of times, each time giving up after she refused to say anything about it. When he died her hate for Monroe grew, even when he saved her at the tower she couldn’t bring herself to see him as anything more than the dictator he had been, as anything more than a murderer; so she kept silent, still intent on killing him.

It was her hate for him that pushed her to go after him, after six months of aimless wandering, she had a viable lead and she had found him, but instead of killing him and finally moving on, she was tied up in some stupid pool and of course he wants to talk.

“So where are they?” Monroe asks, “Miles and your mom? What happen? You have some kind of falling out?”

Charlie just stares at him, she wants to tell him to go to hell; that he can go fuck himself for all she cares, but she stays silent, staring at him with empty eyes.

“I get it,” He pauses, shifting his gaze away from her for a moment, “I’m not really the one you want to open up to right?”

When he looks back she has turned away from him, he continues any way, “Just answer me one question. You were there the night the bombs dropped, in the tower, right?”

She still doesn’t look at him, but silently nods her head, “Randal pushed the button didn’t he?”

She turns her head and looks at him, still not saying anything.

“I knew it, I walked him through the front door, might as well have pushed the button myself.”

She can’t take it anymore, she scoffs and finally replies, “Right, I’m sure you’re just torn up with guilt.”

He can’t help but pause for a second, those words, his soulmarks words, printed on his skin above his right shoulder blade, he feels a moment of hope that he has finally found his soulmate; he remembers when Miles first pointed his words out, it had been only weeks after his 21st birthday, in that moment he had realised he wasn’t a blank and he had felt happy for the first time since losing his family, well until Miles read them aloud, but even then the bitterness his words held couldn’t take away from the joy of not being a blank; but this isn’t the first time that they’ve spoken, this isn’t the first time they’ve meet and he pushes thoughts of his soulmate away.

“You don’t know me Charlotte.” He pauses again, “A lot of people counted on me to protect them, and what do they get for it, cooked in their own skin.”

She doesn’t react to lack of acknowledgement, instead she masks her confusion with sarcastic wit, “Well, did it ever occur to you, you sucked at your job.”

It occurs to him for a moment that only his soulmate who have to balls to speak to him like that, but he pushes the thought away, she’s not his soulmate but she is Miles’ niece and she certainly takes after him, “You know maybe Miles has a right to talk to me like that, maybe, but you, you don’t, so watch your mouth.”

“You don’t get to tell anybody anything. You’re nothing.” She states, her voice cold, “Just a drunk fighting for coin in a whore house. And if you won’t put yourself out of your misery; I’d be happy to do it for you.”

“Wow. Oh kid. You know. You might be trying to run away from your mum. But you are a hell of a lot like her.”

She stares him down, and she understands, he doesn’t know, he hasn’t put her words and his soulmark together, and with any luck he never would.

When Charlie wakes from her drugged sleep, the rain is pattering down around her, she is undercover but not indoors, her head is fussy and she struggles to remember where she is; her body feels heavy, sluggish. As she tries to sit up someone tosses a bottle her way, she looks over to find Monroe sitting beside a small camp fire, “Drink.”

Her first thought is to get away as she continues to try and pull herself into a sitting position, “Take it easy,” He says, “Take it easy. You got to flush the drugs out of your system. Drink.”

Then he goes back to stirring something on the fire with his pocket knife and her memories from before come back, the bar, those men, what they wanted to do to her, the fight and finally Monroe saving her; she looks up to find him watching her; she still doesn’t know if she can trust him but she picks up the bottle and takes a swig.

“How did you find me?” She asks.

“You’re not as hard to track as you think.”

“How long was I out?”

He’s not watching her, but instead looking at the fire, he answers her though, “A full day. Don’t worry. I was a complete gentleman the whole time.”

“Why are you doing this?”

Monroe turns to look at her, he thinks about lying to her, telling her it’s for her family, for Miles, but he unintentionally flicks his eyes down to look at her arm, she follows his gaze, the fabric covering her mark is gone, lost in the bar fight and clear as the day she was born, his words, printed on her arm in black ink, “Oh.”

“I already knew.” He says, “Seeing it was conformation.”

“When did you work it out?” Charlie questions.

“Right before I came back for you, after I found the bounty for your mother,” He laughs, “It took longer than I’d like to admit, but I guess that was the idea.”

She doesn’t look at him, just focuses on having another drink.

“So what was the plan, kill me then talk to me?”

She smirks, “Something like that.”

When he realised that it had actually been the first time she had spoken to him, all the happiness he placed on finding his soulmate left him, she would never care about him, not after everything he had done, not after all the pain he had caused her, and now here she was wishing he was dead rather than her soulmate, he probably should have seen this coming, considering his mark.

He looks over to her once more, meeting her eyes, “It doesn’t have to mean anything, we don’t have to let it mean anything, but I’m not leaving you by yourself. And as much as you don’t want me around I’m always going to look out for you from now on. I’m always going to be there for you. I’ll never let anyone hurt you again Charlotte, not even me.”

She remember the way he had killed those men in the bar, killing them for her and she didn’t doubt his words for a second, but that didn’t mean she was going to forgive him anytime soon.

“What if I tell you to go to hell?”

“What makes you think you’ve got a choice?”

They never spoke about it again, but Monroe kept his promise and she always knew he was looking out for her; over their trip to Willoughby and in the follow weeks they built a sort of friendship, she always knew she could count on him even when she couldn’t count on anyone else. He was always there to save her, to kill for her, or simple to just be there when no one else was.

When Monroe went to Mexico to find his son, it was the longest time they had spent apart in months and as much as she wanted to deny it she missed him, missed knowing someone had her back and was always looking out for her.

When he came back he brought his son Connor, his son who is even more cocky and flirty than his father; but she liked the banter and even after she turned him down in New Vegas, they still kept up their little game.

Bass can never help but feel jealous whenever he sees them together, or when he over hears them which he happens to be not meaning to be doing right now; Connor is once again propositioning Charlie and Bass can feel himself getting way too possessive.

But Charlie simple laughs and walks away, she doesn’t notice the set of eyes watching her, nor does she notice when those eyes continue to follow her around to the back of the safe house.

She hears them though, following her, when they are close enough she whirls around, only to find herself face to face with Bass.

He backs her up against the back wall of the house and uses his body to keep her from getting away, moving one of his hands to capture her wrist as she goes for her knife.

“I’m not going to hurt you Charlie; I’ve told you before, I will never hurt you.”

She relaxes and he pulls away from her slightly, letting go of her wrist he moves to her other hand, and pulls the strip of fabric hiding her soulmark aside, tracing his fingers along it as he does.

While doing so he leans down and whispers in her ear, “But I want you to remember something next time my son flirts with you. Those are my words on your arm.”

He grabs both her wrists and holds them against the building, he pushes himself flush against her, one leg pushing hers apart; she can feel every inch of his body, and she shudders with unwanted desire that feels so right; sensing this he places a little more pressure between her legs and she lets out a tiny gasp.

He pulls away to look at her face, her cheeks are slightly flushed, eyes are closed and she is biting her lip to keep from making another sound. When she finally opens her eyes and looks at him, he speaks again, “Those are my words and as much as you detest the idea, you are mine, remember that Charlotte.”

Later on that night, after heading to bed Charlie finds herself still frustrated after the day’s events and unable to find release; as she fumbles with herself to no avail, she gets an idea, she debates her sanity for a while, but in the end she gives in.

Raising from her bed, she heads to the back of the house where she know Monroe sleeps away from the rest of the group. She knows he is awake when she walks in, she wouldn’t have been able to sneak up on him if she had tried.

When he doesn’t say anything she speaks first, “If you want to play the ‘I’m yours’ game and not let anyone else touch me then I get to use you if I want,” she explains.

She hears movement and in the moonlight she can see his figure approaching her, he pulls her against him “Whatever you want,” he says before his mouth finds hers.

She doesn’t have time to think before he is pulling her shirt over her head, he barely even breaks their kiss and it is lying in a heap on the floor.

His fingers find her hardened nipple and he brushes over it, while his tongue explores her mouth; she kisses back with equal passion, her hands moving to touch his body.

He breaks their kiss and moves down her neck to her nipple, placing soft kisses as he goes, he gently bites before slowly sucking bringing out a gasp from Charlie.

Suddenly she finds herself against the bed and he pulls away from her in order to place her on the edge, he’s dominate, possessive and she finds that she likes it. He moves down her body in gentle kisses until he is between her legs pushing her back onto the bed as he goes, he kisses the fabric of her underwear, and moves it aside, slipping a finger into her now dripping fold.

“Is this what you wanted Charlotte?”

She can’t help but moan as he pushes another finger inside her, he pulls off her underwear and his tongue finds her clit, his fingers still inside her, pumping in and out slowly.

While this is not the first time someone has done this to her, this is the first time it has felt so right, but then it is just like everything with Bass, it all feels like it is meant to be. She feels the knowing pressure building inside her and she arches her back, he uses one arm to hold her down, skilled fingers coxing her to her realise.

Coming down from her high, Charlie finds herself pulling Bass to meet her lips, he moves them both further onto the bed, positioning himself above her, he kisses her once more and she can taste herself on his lips, she wants him, needs him inside her, it feels so right, and she needs him to know, she can’t help the words coming out.

“Wait.” Charlie whispers as he began to push himself inside her, he pulls away, his expression unreadable, he doesn’t stop to ask why, instead just moves himself away from her.

Charlie places her hands on his arms, stopping him from pulling to far away “No, I didn’t mean stop. I just wanted to say…” She looks down, avoiding his gaze and bites her lip before looking back up to meet his eyes, “I want you Bass. Only you.”

And once more his mouth finds hers.

Charlie woke just as dawn broke, the greyish light beginning to fill the room, she moves out from under Bass’ arm and crawls from the bed. After she pulls back on her shirt and underwear she turns to find him watching her in the dim light.

“This was a onetime thing,” She states.

“If that’s what you need to tell yourself,” He laughs as he sits himself up in bed, letting the sheet fall so she has a good view of his body, she remembers the way she touched him, the way he touched her and how great it had felt, how good it had felt to fall asleep in his arms afterwards, she shakes her head and brings herself out of her thoughts, it was what she needed to tell herself, to tell him, but it didn’t make it true.

She makes her way to her room to get her clothes, forgetting the cloth that covers her soulmark, before heading off to a river not far from the safe house, she cleans herself up and dresses before heading back to find everyone else beginning to wake, still not noticing that she had left her soulmark uncovered.

“You’re up early,” Rachel remarks as she pours them both a coffee.

Charlie smiles in response, and taking her coffee, she moves outside to enjoy the morning sun, as she did Connor approached her, “Morning,” He called.

“Morning.”

“Hey what’s that?” He asks, pointing at her left arm.

She looks down and realises her mistake, her Militia mark wasn’t covered, nor was her soulmark.

“Militia mark,” She answers.

“I didn’t know you were in the Militia.”

“I wasn’t,” She said turning away to leave the conversation.

But as she did, Connor caught her arm, “Wait, I didn’t know you had a soulmark,” he sounds a little disappointed as he says it, “Mine disappeared when I was 16, thought it might have been the same to you.”

“It doesn’t matter, it didn’t work out.” Charlie replies, trying to pull her arm away and escape the conversation.

“Wait, you’ve meet them? What did they say?” He wasn’t trying to make her uncomfortable, he didn’t understand what he was doing as he read it out loud, “Hello Charlotte, it’s nice to finally meet you.”

Rachel had moved outside to join them just as Connor had caught Charlie’s wrist, she had been making her way over to them to find out what was going on, when she heard his words.

She stopped dead, “What did you say?”

Connor turned, oblivious to the chaos he was causing, “Her soulmark,” He answered, letting go of Charlie’s arm and pointing down at the mark.

Bass could sense something was wrong as soon as he walked out the door, Rachel looked horrified, she was yelling at Charlie, “Tell me it doesn’t mean what I think it means.”

He hurries over, Charlie wasn’t saying anything, she looked in shock; Rachel was still going off at her.

“Rachel calm down. What the hell is going on here?” His comment is mostly directed towards Conner.

“I just read her soulmark, I didn’t think it would be a big deal.”

Understanding sweeps across Bass’ face, he places himself between Rachel and Charlie, “Look Rachel you just need to calm down so we can all talk about this.”

“You know?” She yells at him.

“Well of course he bloody knows, I had to talk to him eventually.” Charlie replies for him, trying to push him out of her way as she does, but he pushes her back behind him, still not convinced Rachel isn’t going to hurt her.

At her words Connor understands, “Wait, my father is your soulmate.”

Charlie glares at him in reply, “Well fuck,” He whispers under his breath.

“What the hell is going on?” Miles yells out as he approaches the group.

“Great,” Bass mutters under his breath, just loud enough for Charlie to hear.

Rachel looks horrified still, she can’t find bring herself to call Bass her daughter’s soulmate so all she does is point at both Bass and Charlie, Miles takes in the scene and jumps at Bass, “You fucking bastard.”

He swings and hits Bass in the jaw, “She’s my fucking niece.”

Bass pushes Charlie out of the way as Miles takes another swing at him, he takes the punch, not fighting back, “Listen buddy, just calm down for a second.”

The next hit sends them both to the ground, Bass still doesn’t fight back, “Look its different okay, you don’t understand.”

Miles rolls away from Bass, finally noticing that he isn’t fighting him back, “That’s what you say about all of them Bass but it’s always the same, they fall for you and you get bored and leave them heartbroken,” He pulls himself up and turns to stare at Bass, “But I’m not going to let you do that to Charlie.”

Charlie walks over to where the two of them have ended up on the ground, “It is different Miles,” He looks up to meet her gaze, “He’s my soulmate.”

She turns and walks away from the group, leaving Miles looking dumbstruck, but she can’t handle it anymore, she needs some time to think, she hears Connor calling after her but ignores him and heads into the woods, picking up her crossbow as she goes.

She spends most of the day hunting, to avoid the camp and everyone in it, she comes back just before dark and joins everyone for dinner, she doesn’t speak, just mumbles an answer when someone attempts to talk to her; after she heads into the safe house without a word. She walks to her door and stands looking into her room for a moment before changing her mind and walking down to Bass’ room, she knows he is on watch first tonight but that doesn’t stop her from pulling off her clothes, she looks around for something to sleep in and putting on a clean shirt of his, she crawls into his bed.

Later that night, after Bass has finished his watch, he heads to bed, whiskey bottle in hand; he closes his room door quietly so not to wake the others in the house but doesn’t bother to keep the noise down while he takes of his clothes, he’s not exactly pissed off but he’s not happy either, his face hurts from where Miles’ hit him and he hasn’t been able to talk to Charlie, she hadn’t even looked at him at dinner, he takes a swig from the bottle and enjoys the feeling as burns down his throat.

“Bass,” Charlie’s voice comes from behind him as a sleepy murmur.

He turns around and takes her in, she is sitting up in his bed, his shirt almost falling off her small frame, wiping sleep from her eyes; if he hadn’t been thinking about her so much he might have noticed her before now, he walks over to her, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” He softly says to her as she falls back into bed, trying to pull him down with her. He places the bottle on the ground and crawls in beside her, pulling her into him, “Go back to sleep,” He whispers.

He holds her in his arms and listens to her breathing even out, before falling asleep too.