Chapter Text
Have you ever met someone and thought, “Yep, they're the one”? Do you believe in true love or soul mates? I wouldn’t think it to be real if I haven’t seen it firsthand. Kinda. You see, I have the world's shittiest superpower. I can see strings, colorful strings. Strings that bind each and every person to one another. My power has been in my family for generations. In the old country, my family was known as the village Matchmakers. We told others who to love, who to hate, who to stay away from. We saw strings of every color tied to a person's hand and knew what each one meant and who it was for. Some people had many of the same colors, some had none at all. A person's string could change colors to reflect their relationship.
I’ve only ever seen one to stay the same color between two people in my lifetime. A bright red, so bright that it almost looked pink. A boy and a girl forever bound by a single string.
I remember the first time I saw it. I was playing on the rusted swingset of our elementary school. The laughter of childhood delight filled the midday air. The sun bore down on my friend and me, she had hair of (h/c) that seemed to shine even brighter than mine. Her eyes sparkled with joy as I told her about the strings that I did not yet understand.
“What does blue mean?” She kicked the air as she climbed higher in the swing.
“Sadness,” I mimic her movements, “if you have a blue string then you and that person are going to make each other sad,”
“How sad?”
“Depends on the shade,” I thought for a moment, “Grandma said the darker the color the sadder they are.”
“Do I have any blue ones?” My friend wiggled her hand in my direction. She was still swinging all the while, making it hard to see anything.
“You have to hold still!” I wildly grabbed her hand. Our swings collided and swayed in random directions. We laughed, enjoying the odd motion. Once settled, I stared at (y/n)s hand trying desperately to see the faint outlines of the colorful strings. My eyes started to hurt, but I was able to see ghost-like strands to my delight. Grandma was going to be so proud that I was able to summon them without help!
(Y/n) didn’t have as many strings as Grandma, nor did she have as many colors. (Y/n) had fairly boring strings, I couldn’t help but wonder if I had boring strings like her. She shuttered when I plucked one. It was a strange red, I made a note to ask Grandma about it later. I lost sight of the strings when a bright white light exploded across my vision. A searing pain bloomed against my skull.
“Charles! Look at what you did! You hurt him!” (Y/n) was yelling at someone. I couldn’t see who. My head hurt too much.
“I yelled to duck,” another voice muttered.
“No, you didn’t!”
“Yes, I did!”
The two continued to yell in circles as my vision became less cloudy. (Y/n) still held onto my hand, it was warm and comforting. She looked so mad. The other voice belonged to a boy with wild black hair, he looked mad too. I looked down at (y/n)’s hand to see that strange red strand. Is that the color of anger? Grandma once told me that some people were born with strings. Did she know him? Was she already mad at him or was it destiny?
“Destiny. What a weird word.”
“What?” The boy asked me.
“What?” I asked, still a bit dazed.
“Are you ok? You look like you're about to cry.”
“No, I’m not,” I said as I touched the corner of my eyes.
(Y/n) moved to stand in front of me, “it’s okay Char, I’ll beat him up for you!”
“Me? What did I do?” The boy scowled at both of us.
They began to argue once more, they yelled for all of recess. It definitely didn’t help my growing headache but hey at least (Y/n) didn’t leave me. She defended me, she nearly got in a fight for me. The boy gave up and apologized when (Y/n) finally threatened to tell a teacher. I told him that it was okay, accidents happen. He gave me a shy smile before running off at the sound of a bell.
“I hope to never see that boy again! Boys are mean and gross and dumb!” (Y/n) stomped across the asphalt.
I paused, “but I’m a boy.”
Without skipping a beat she replied “no, you’re my friend. I’m not friends with boys that are mean and gross and dumb like him!”