Chapter Text
>>>> (Narrator POV) <<<<
Rio clearly remembered the mixed feelings he had when he went to see his Miles who was crying in his crib, the boy was only two days old and was very silent compared to the babies he had already seen in the nursery at the hospital. She remembered that it was an especially hot day and Miles was in a light tank top and shorts, without socks, gloves and baby hats. When she saw her little baby with tears in her golden brown eyes she promptly took him in her arms, up close she could see what was bothering him.
- Jefferson! Bring the camera, Quick!!
The big man stumbled up with his brother Aaron in tow, both of them wide-eyed.
- What is it?
- Look! Shoot, quick!
Removing Miles's blouse, the colored scribbles were now fully visible. There were cloud-like blue streaks, indistinguishable red and yellow squiggles that Rio assumed were flowers. Aaron was more than willing to doodle his only nephew in response to earlier drawings (an idea stymied by Jefferson). Everyone was euphoric, Miles' soulmate was drawing on herself!
Jefferson proudly showed the polaroid photos to friends and family because, firstly, Miles' soulmate was already somewhere and secondly, he was still a child and not a teenager or adult (that really was a weight that fell off the shoulders of the young father). Rio's friends presumed from the images that Miles's pair would not be more than 4 years old.
There was just one problem: every time Miles' soulmate drew on himself, the newborn cried at the top of his lungs. Rio knew why. Turns out you could feel when your other half was scratching itself, you could feel the pressure and movement of either pen or brush on the skin, she and Jefferson wrote to each other a lot when apart, the itch on their skin was all too familiar and welcome. It turns out that a child still had no idea of his own strength and Miles was still new to this world and was not enjoying the new sensation.
>>>> (Time Skip) <<<<
Miles sighs, today his teacher was talking about soulmates, many of his classmates were impressed when they learned that since he was born he knew about the existence of his soulmate, what they didn't know was that he was totally ignored by it. Miles was already 6 years old and all the teachers praised his handwriting, he made sure to improve his writing skills so that his better half could understand the sentences he made himself, but this proved to be useless.
“My name is Miles Morales, what's yours?”
Silence.
“I live in Brooklyn, how about you?
Silence.
“I am 6 years old, how old are you?”
Nothing.
“¿Hablas español?”
He chuckled a little as he tried to write the same old sentences in different languages. But as always his response was silence. Rio sometimes watched his son watching the sunset with one of the pictures of his first mark in his hands. “Maybe he couldn't read?” so that's when Miles abandoned writing and devoted himself to drawing... then he had an answer.
It was during dinner. Before sitting down at the table Miles drew a simple sun on the back of his hand with the watercolor paint that his uncle had given him, Rio smiled a little noticing the small drawing. It was in the middle of the meal that he felt it... the slight itch, the warm fingertip on the back of his hand. He didn't even notice as he dropped the spoon, the noise drawing his parents' attention.
There, on the back of his hand, a sun, also made of ink, but red appeared... a red sun with a smiling face.
- RESPONDED! MY SOULMATE ANSWERED ME! MOM, LOOK!! HELLO DAD!! HE DRAWS VERY WELL!!
Rio felt her face hurt from smiling so much infected by her son's joy, the photos added to the album that night were beautiful.
>>>> (Time Skip) <<<<
It had been a bad day for Miles: he had woken up late because during the night the power had gone out because of the storm, because of that he left without eating and arrived at school soaking wet, only to discover the surprise literature test (his worst subject ). Due to the rush he had also forgotten his lunch and money, the return home was also another big shower of rain (at home he had to face a cold shower, the power had not returned).
Huddled in his bed Miles felt lonely, his parents were working, stormy days were a nightmare for both of them. Here he was, all alone. Pulling a pen from inside one of his sketchbooks he scratched a single word on his wrist.
"Loneliness"
Less than 2 minutes later he felt, on his wrist, the slight pressure and sliding, the tip of a pen.
- "Hard day?"
Miles felt his heart jump and speed up, his soul knew how to write! The handwriting was a bit jagged, "sharp handwriting" as her father would say.
- "Yea. Thunderstorm, no light, cold cereal for dinner, home alone”
Holding his breath Miles waited, joy filling his body.
- “The sky is also collapsing here, love.”
Miles would omit the fact that he hid his face in his hands and screamed like his cousins when talking to the boys they liked. Seeing that the space on his wrist would run out, Miles ran as fast as possible to the bathroom getting alcohol and cotton, he cleaned and dried the skin as quickly as he could, his half seemed to understand his idea and soon the other's sentences disappeared.
- “You are finally answering me”.
The answer was quick, her smile also quickly fell.
- “Don’t get used to it”
- “Oh, okay”.
5 minutes passed, Miles didn't know what to write, the usual questions weren't going to be answered, he felt it.
- “I'm sorry sunflower. Today was not a good day for me either. Something has happened—this is too much even for me.”
For some reason Miles felt a lump in his throat, for a moment he could feel the stress, tiredness, sadness of his other half, but Miles didn't know how to help, he was only 12 years old, he still didn't understand many things about life .
- “Please sunflower
I don’t—It’s just—I—”
- "How old are you?"
When Miles got nervous his reaction was to change the subject and now that seemed like the best plan. He was in the middle of cleaning his wrist when the number came up.
- “15”
3 years, only 3 years apart, but he felt that his soul mate had to deal with something too heavy for his age. Before his hands shook too much and he chickened out, Miles picked up his pen and wrote.
- “You know—you don't have to answer me every time. I am glad that all these years you have answered my drawings, it was because of you that I have perfected myself. Just— I'll wait for you, when you're ready, I'll be right here.”
Miles sighed, it seemed like centuries were going by... until he felt... warm lips over his writing... a lipstick mark outlining thick lips was engraved on his writing.
In the morning Rio entered Miles' room, it was natural to check on his son after a storm. In his hands were two photos, his mother's instinct told him it was something intimate, something just between Miles and his silent soulmate. So she left them where they were.
>>>> (Time Skip) <<<<
A few weeks have passed since that night so special for Miles, his parents noticed that there were more drawings scribbled on the boy's body, sunflowers and musical notes were the most common. Miles' behavior also changed when he got more frequent responses from his other half, he was more radiant, energetic, jumping out of bed early to run to school and show his drawings to his friends, so today was a strange morning for Rio and Jefferson .
He was late for breakfast, no sound was heard from Miles' room, until Rio's cell phone started ringing...
- Why was Miles calling me? Miles!!??
Both parents ran to their son's room... Miles was on the floor, panting... instead of drawings, there were bruises all over his body.
- mom... it hurts...
When the bruises appeared a third time Rio intervened. Without waking her boy she wrote on her wrist.
- “You're hurting him! You are hurting your soulmate!”
As usual there was no response, but the bruising subsided.