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Barry Allen doesn't believe in soulmates.
He knows soulmates exist; science has proven facts in the subject with results classified in the most accurate way possible. He has even been witness of the especial encounter between soulmates before; the moment soulmates find each other for the first time and the world illuminates for them, how their bound resonates, their names appear in their skin, and the colors come into their life… how their connection is with no doubt real.
So, the most accurate statement would be that he is very aware that soulmates exist, that is not the problem; he just doesn't believe he has one.
It's not unheard of; people without soulmates are not rare. They born with the ability to see colors from the moment they open their eyes. They go on with their lives, free to choose who to be with, fall in love and they are happy. Not having a soulmate doesn't stop them from finding happiness... well, that depends on the person of course, but the point is that not having a soulmate is not a factor to find happiness.
Barry on the other hand... he doesn't know what to do with himself. He accepted a long time ago that he didn’t have a soulmate, because he has always been able to see colors... or so he thought.
No one told him colors were not supposed to be dull.
Life messing with him was not a strange occurrence, but this? Barry was afraid, because this was too much and he didn't know how to handle it.
His trip to Starling was not supposed to be any sort of personal revelation. He was there for another unusual case, looking to make sense of the impossible, searching for the hope he longed for in other to keep himself strong, to believe that someday he would make sense of his mother's murder and free his father. That was supposed to be it.
He was late, it was as if the time just refused to cooperate with him, but since it was hardly the first time, he knew what to do, what to say and mostly how to introduce himself as if he really has meant to be there.
Barry was expecting questions of course; he was ready to explain who he was and why he was there. He had the cover planned carefully before entering the building, and he was ready to be nonchalant and calm about it, but of course life – who loves to mess with him in one way or another – had other plans, so everything he was prepared to say fade away upon seeing them.
"Who are you?"
"And do your parents— Oh."
"Oh my God!"
There was a gasp and it expressed what Barry couldn't, because he froze there unable to even do that. The blonde woman was looking directly at him and she was shinning – literally shinning – in Barry's eyes, and she wasn’t the only one. The man at her side stood there shinning as well, his eyes piercing him with such intensity he felt himself tremble, and Barry didn't know what to do.
The people around them were watching with puzzled expressions, unable to tell what was happening and how could they? The scene before them was unexpected. Here he was, bolted to the floor by two pairs of eyes, one happy and surprised gaze, the other hard and calculating.
"I-I'm," he wanted to be smooth, to arrive and do his job even if he was late but his hands were shaking and he forgot what was going to say because the man in front of him and the woman whose names didn't know yet were shinning and wow... he’d never seen such brightness in someone before... and he couldn't take it.
He took a step backwards, his movement seemed to alert the man because he was walking towards him, almost running, and the blonde woman was quickly doing the same, Barry felt panic. He moved clumsily, resulting in his feet tangling, losing his balance and falling to the floor.
"Are you ok?" the woman asked, kneeling at his side, her petite hand almost touching his face, hesitating.
He doesn't know where to look. The world around him had never been black and white – not completely at least, hence the reason he never expected to this – but it seemed that way now, because they were shinning so much and with such bright colors he didn't even knew such tones could exist.
The man didn't hesitate. He quickly took the woman's free hand and nodded to her before looking at Barry, whose confusion was palpable but didn't stop them. He took his hand and she cupped his check.
The world exploded in color.
The dull lights he was used to where bright and shiny and the vivid colors he had been missing his whole life where there. As everything happened, it came to him, and suddenly he just knows the names Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak were now written into the skin of his wrists.
It was too much, so much it hurt.
He closed his eyes tightly, letting go of his tablet, barely noticing the sound it made when hitting the ground. His whole body was trembling but he couldn’t move away from them and he was not even sure if he wanted to.
"I...I don't... Oh God..."
He was afraid, so afraid he couldn't breathe and he wasn’t even sure what he was so afraid of. Overcome by the emotion and struggling to gasp some air into his lungs. Perhaps it was a blessing when the world faded to black.
Felicity Smoak doesn’t like mysteries; they bug her and therefore need to be solved.
When she was a little girl, she noticed something odd in the way she saw the world, something about the colors. She could see them, but they didn't fit the description the adults told her. Colors were supposed to be bright, warm and make you feel happiness; after all you get to see them after you find your soulmate, so colors are supposed to be special.
Perhaps it was silly of her, but she noticed that among all the pretty colors, in her vision red and green looked exactly like grey.
"I have a soulmate," she declared after that and her mother gave her a confused look, because Felicity could see colors, meaning she was not soul bond to anyone.
"Sweetie?"
"I can't see all the colors," she clarified, "And the ones I do see aren’t bright... or whatever they are supposed to look like," she made a face. "Colors are special, right? These don’t feel special... so, I'm missing my soulmate."
Donna blinked, speechless, "But... then you were not supposed to be able to see colors at all."
"Hmmm... I think my soulmate can see some colors, but not all of them, so that might be the issue."
Her mother sighed, "That... I don't know what to say, darling."
She hugged her mom, smiling, "It's ok, I'll figure it out someday."
And she did.
Felicity was in College when she found out of the uncommon situation she was most likely stuck in. It took a lot of research and time but she finally come up with a theory.
"I have two soulmates," Felicity declared in awe after speaking to an expert of the subject in University, "One older than me, one younger."
Her roommate, Myron, sighed while rolling his eyes, "So, Cooper is one of them?"
"I don't think so..." she said with some regret, because Cooper was her boyfriend and she loved him, but Cooper was not her soulmate and she wasn't Cooper's either, "Please don’t tell him, I don’t want to go over this again."
"He's going to find out on his own, you know?" Myron understood, after all he recently found his soulmate and wanted for Felicity to feel the same.
"Yeah... he probably will..."
And Cooper did, they broke up after that. Cooper continued to persuade the path of hackactivism and Felicity regretted not being there to help him out when they had the chance, but at the same time she knew it was the right decision.
After all, her soulmates where out there, waiting.
Oliver Queen doesn't settle for easy ways.
When he was seven years old, two literal burst of light marked his life forever. He was playing in the garden, his mother looking close by, when everything became bright and colorful for a moment, mere seconds, before a filter of dullness cover such world, leaving him with dry colors and two of them missing.
And that's how he knew his soulmate was just born.
It should have been the end of it, he just had to wait and someday found his soulmate, just like his father did before him. However, it was a fact that Oliver doesn't know how to do normal or easy.
That same year, a few months after his first burst of color in life a second burst of brightness came in, it lasted a full minute, before going back to the veil of dullness.
Not knowing what it meant, Oliver went to his father and explained the two events. Robert dismissed it as a fluke; life messing with him for a second, so he shouldn't give it any more thought and for some time Oliver did just that.
It felt wrong.
He was fifteen when his mother decided to stop lying to him about it, because she knew all along that something was not wrong, but missing.
She came with a jewelry box and took a few precious stones from it.
"This is an amethyst," she said pointing at the purple stone, "And this is amber."
"They are nice..." Oliver shrugged, "Why are you showing me this?"
Moira smiled, "Tell me Oliver... these two... can you tell me their color?"
Two little stones, grey and lifeless. "Grey?"
"Sapphire blue and Ruby red," She sighed. "And the brightness... remember when you saw it for the first time?"
"Twice," he said, "I saw it twice that year, father said it was a fluke."
"Your father is wrong, Oliver," The firmness in her mother's voice made him shiver. "You saw it twice because you are bonded not to one but two."
"Mom, that's not possible," he laughed but his mother didn't. "I can't have two persons bond to me, you're suppose to have one, a soulmate, not soulmates."
Moira smiled, "It's uncommon but not impossible."
Oliver's face fell, "Oh."
Out there was not one but two persons destined to bright light into his life and he knew nothing about them.
He had never settled for easy, of course his soul bond would be no different.
Tree things happen when people find their soulmate:
First, when you see them near you, they shine in your eyes so your focus into each other.
Second, when they touch for the first time, skin to skin contact, the world around you explodes in light and colors replace the world of grey scale.
Third, the name of your soulmate appears in the inside of one of your wrists in their writing, completing the bonding for life.
Felicity knew this first hand, well, not exactly first hand, but she had seen it happen. Myro and his soulmate gave her all the details as well.
So, when she met Oliver Queen, she knew they were in the right direction.
Oliver was shinning and for a moment Felicity saw the green around her, before it faded. Oliver was still shinning in her eyes and for the stunned look in Oliver's face she could tell he was seeing the same.
"What color?" she asked, exited to know the color that belong to her in Oliver's eyes.
"I-I..." of course, he had only see that color twice in his life but he knew the name, "Blue, sapphire blue."
"I saw this one," she pointed to the emerald in her bracelet, "Green," she turned her wrist, "But the other one is still missing."
She commissioned the bracelet when she figured out exactly what colors she were missing, so she always carried around the bracelet with the small emerald and ruby incrusted in them.
Oliver stepped closer, a small smile on his face. Felicity walked around the desk and offered him her hand, he hesitated a few seconds before taking it.
They saw the world alight for a moment. Oliver's name appeared on her left wrist and her name appeared in Oliver's right one, both feeling a phantom writing in their opposite still markless wrist.
"It's beautiful," she whispered looking into the landscape over the window, before the veil of dullness came back to their eyes, "Oh no..."
Oliver sighed, stepping closer to rest his forehead against hers, "We're missing someone."
Felicity smiled, "You figure it out too? That we have another soulmate?"
She turned the bracelet in her hand, her thump going over the ruby and Oliver nodding, closing his eyes.
"We will find him."
"Him? You think it's a him?"
"I got a feeling."
She was glad she wasn't the only one.
The room's light is dimmed by the partially closed curtains that occasionally move with the breeze coming thought the window. Moira Queen silently entered the room carrying a glass vase filled with flowers, she placed it over the far table, observing his son fast asleep on the chair next to the bed, where Felicity slumber next to a young man whose name she knew was Barry Allen, at least for what he saw in the inside of his son's left wrist and Felicity's right.
She observed the vase with blue and red flowers, protected by an arrangement of green foliage, and thought of her son and his soulmates, unsure of what to do now. She knew since Oliver was a child that he was destined for not one but to anchors in his life, as she had been. Robert was her soulmate but also... they never talk about it for it was so unusual to have two soulmates, but she loved them both and they were the fathers of her children, even if she had to hide such thing from them.
But in this day and age... maybe her son wouldn't have to hide; maybe the three of them could be what they were mean to and find happiness.
She never felt complete while kept apart from him, and she was sure Robert felt the same way. Moira was aware of Robert's infidelities, but somehow she understood it was his way to cope with the emptiness he felt after rejecting him. Always hiding the name in his left wrist, always avoiding the truth that without him the void would never be fill.
Moira's eyes rested on Barry's sleeping figure and she felt her heart ache. She didn’t want this boy to live without his intended ones, she didn’t want for Barry to get lost in the pain of being rejected by your soulmates like he did.
She never stopped thinking about him. He stayed close and went on with his life, found someone who loved him like she didn’t fight for and Robert denied... but he was supposed to have them and even thinking that woman gave him happiness, love and a child, it didn't last forever. She died and the temporary happiness she brought into his life vanished with her death. He was destroyed, rejected by his soulmates, devastated by the death of his wife, drowning in the pain of lost with only his son to give him some light, too young to understand with his father was so broken.
Lifting her arms, she turned her right wrist - always covered by a cuff, a bracelet, a watch or a scarf - and looked at her left, where Robert's name was greyed out after his passing. The other name was still in rich black, still alive and bright as the day he brought the color purple into her life. He was to blame for Robert’s death, the final nail in the coffin, for rejection was too much and one day he finally turn on the one who so fiercely denied him.
Yes, he is the reason Robert was gone but... It has their fault – hers and Robert's – that he was so broken. She wanted to hate him, but she couldn't, not even now. Even if she never said it out loud and Robert always denied it, Malcolm was their soulmate.
"Take care of them son," she whispered, "They need you... and you need them."
Barry's sleeping face was twisted in a complex gesture Felicity didn't know how to label, but she could feel it. Confusion and fear tangled into one, but there was also a hint of happiness, hope.
"Oliver," she whispered loudly, her right hand clasping Barry's left. "Oliver, wake up!"
"Hmm?" Oliver stirred in the chair, almost falling from it in the process, he immediately felt the turmoil and without asking took Barry's right hand on his left. It took a moment, but Felicity's calm and Oliver's steadiness chased the nightmare away and Barry's sleep settled again.
Felicity sighed, her free hand brushing the hair off Barry's face while Oliver was staring at the flowers in the far table, the blue and red colors standing out in his eyes above the others.
The excitement over finally being able to see colors was dimmed by the fact that one of his soulmates was unconscious and he couldn’t do anything about it. He had a thief to deal with, a mystery to solve and a city to protect... but he couldn't leave his soulmates’ side, not after Felicity and himself waited so long to find Barry, to be complete.
"He's going to be fine," Felicity said softly, feeling Oliver's turmoil over their bond, "It was just..."
"Too much, too fast?" Oliver completed with a humorless laugh, "I think we scared him."
She made a face, but Oliver knew she was thinking the same.
"Not exactly..." Barry's soft murmured caught their attention, his eyes were still close but he didn't retrieved his hands from theirs, "I was scared, but not of you... mostly overwhelmed."
Slowly, Barry opened his eyes, blinking the fog away from and taking into his surroundings, his hold on Oliver's and Felicity's hand tightened for a moment before letting go, pushing himself into a sitting position on the bed, looking around in wonder, his eyes landing on the flowers over the table.
"Green and blue," he whispered, "I never knew."
His features softened with a small smile. Shyly and hesitating he searched for Felicity's eyes, finding a shade of blue and then Oliver's, another shade of blue. Barry bit his bottom lip, unsure of what to say or what to feel.
"Are you ok?" Oliver's voice was calm, but Barry could feel the concern in it – masked, hidden, but very real.
"I don't know."
Felicity and Oliver shared a look and for a moment Barry felt sadness. They knew each other, the found themselves first while he was miles from them, not even phantom the idea of their existence.
"Hey! Don't do that," Felicity's voice and her hand on his cheek broke the spell, "Where did you go?"
Barry lowered his eyes, biting his lip, "I thought... that I didn't... I grew up believing I didn't have a soulmate... and now you're here and I feel it and..."
"It scares you?" he blinked when Oliver voiced exactly what he was feeling, he wonder if it was because of their newly formed bond or it he was just easy to read, "I understand."
Oliver was scared too, because the two most important persons in his life were right there and that thought alone almost made him panic.
"I want to know you," Barry whispered, "Can I?"
Oliver's features softened and hi nodded while Felicity quickly did the same, taking Barry's hand into hers again.
They were afraid of this unconventional soul bond, of the fact it was two persons their soul was intertwined with, that they were a three instead of a two... but most of all, they were afraid of losing each.
"I have something to confess," Barry stood there his back to Oliver as he worked something in the microscope, at his side Felicity observed him, frowning.
Oliver had an idea of what he was talking about, "Yes?"
"I lied to you... about who I am and why I'm here," Felicity had to physically grab the table to stop herself from touching Barry just to make the guilt bleeding over their bond go away, "I'm and assistant CSI and there's no similar case in Central City... my bosses don't even know I'm here."
Felicity gave Oliver a sharp look, silently asking him to do something, because Barry's guilt was making her twitchy. Oliver could feel it too, actually it was such guilt what stopped him from doing anything rash or stupid. In any other circumstances he probably would have confronted Barry very severely already.
"I now," he simply said. Diggle was very good at his job and gave found this information for him while Barry was still unconscious, "What I don't know is why you had to lie about who you are."
Barry shook his head, "I am a CSI, it's just... this case," he motioned to the lab, "This impossible case... I just wanted to make sense of it, maybe if I do... I could prove my father's innocence."
He told them about his mother's murder, what he saw, how nobody believed him and his pursue for the truth. Once he was done he shrunk into himself, avoiding eye contact with both of them. Felicity glanced over Oliver, she knew he was feeling the same turmoil over their bond – guilt, remorse and overwhelming fear... fear of being rejected – She gasped and quickly embraced Barry, trying to make things right.
"I'm sorry I lied to you," he mumbled, resting his face against Felicity's head, his eyes closed, searching in their bond for a rejection that never came.
Oliver sighed, approaching them and holding them both, "You had your reasons."
"Besides, we lie about who we are every day," Felicity added and Oliver couldn’t find in him to be angry about it. The Arrow was his secret, but just as Felicity, Barry was his soulmate and hiding that part of his life from him was not an option.
"What do you mean?" Barry was slowly relaxing in their embrace, Oliver felt bad about breaking the moment.
"There's something I want to show you," Oliver's words carried so much weigh they immediately made Barry turn to look at him in concern, "It's important."
Barry's life has never been normal, not really. Finding one he had two soulmates had definitely been a shock, being reveled that one of said soulmates was the Vigilante of Starling City while the other a close companion as just the cherry on top.
It was then that he decided 'normal' was overrated.
Barry stared at the Arrow's suit, his eyes going over it carefully.
"I always thought it was black," he blinked twice, Oliver raised an eyebrow, "I didn't know how green looked like."
Felicity faked a cough to cover up her giggle.
Oliver wanted to do things right for this mother, but of course everything went wrong. Moira, however, didn't look concerned about it.
"Is almost as she doesn't care," he whispered to Thea, who gave him a look, "What?"
"She doesn't," she assured him with a knowing smile. "Mom is too preoccupied with two of your guests to care about anyone else."
"Thea..."
She waved her hand, where the name Roy Harper could be seen under her colorful bracelets, "You knew this day was coming, she always suspected something different about your soulmate, I mean soulmates," she smirked at Oliver's confused expression, "I overheard our parent fighting about it once."
"What?"
Thea stepped closer to him, she could see Barry and Felicity – her brother's soulmates, boy she couldn’t stop grinning about it – dancing in the other room and it felt right, "Dad thought you couldn't have two soulmates, Mom disagree... they fought about it, Mom didn't want to plant the idea of rejecting one of your soulmates in your head, saying it didn’t work for them and she was not going to let you do the same."
Oliver stared at her, confused and Thea rolled her eyes, "Mom's right wrist? There's another name there, I have seen it."
It made sense and at the same time it didn't, "The name?"
"Just the outline," she clarified, "It's still black, while dad's grey."
So, the other person was still alive, "She has never mentioned it."
"And that's the problem, Ollie," Thea whispered urgently. "Dad had two names too, mom's name and another one... and they rejected that person, they rejected their soulmate."
She looked distressed by the mere idea of plainly rejecting your soulmate, she had read about the subject and how devastating it could be.
Oliver's eyes immediately went to Barry and Felicity, the thought being rejected by any of them hurt, it was involuntary and sudden, but strong enough to make both of them look in his direction in concern.
"You projected and they felt it, didn’t you?" Thea rubbed his arm, "Your bond is still too fresh."
Oliver calmed down, motioning for them to stay on the dance floor, mouthing that he was fine, "Will it always be like this?"
"Nah," she assured her. "It will always be there, but after some time it's less intense, unless the other – or in your case, others – is injured or something like that."
The sibling’s attention went to their mother, the silent question lingering in the air.
"Do you think..." Oliver didn't say it but Thea was thinking it.
"They say that rejecting your bond haunts you for the rest of your life," she mumbles. "A wound that never heals."
Moira looked up and her children's smile was strain but present. Oliver could see his mother rejecting her soulmate, but also could imagine how much it hurt her as well.
He would not make that mistake.
Felicity observed as Barry paced while talking to his boss, feeling the need to snatch the phone from his hand and tell the unknown man to leave her soulmate alone. It was silly, but she couldn't help it.
"Yes, sir, I understand sir, but..." Barry closed his eyes, looking slightly distressed, he muted the phone before whispering to her, "I think I'm going to lose my job."
She narrowed her eyes, they have not discussed about how they were going to deal with Barry living in Central City while Oliver and her where in Starling, it was a conversation that was going to happen, but not in the middle of a potential crisis and she didn’t appreciate Barry's boss accelerating it.
"Barry," she said firmly and her soulmate shrugged helplessly.
"I got a situation that really can't be helped, sir... it's personal... I know, but..." Barry closed his eyes again, sighing, "I understand... goodbye sir."
He ended the call and looked crestfallen, Felicity immediately hugged him.
"Did they really fire you?" she asked against his shoulder.
"Honestly, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner, I knew it was a risk," he rested his cheek on her head, "I really liked that job."
"I'm sorry," she pulled him closer and Barry relaxed in her arms.
The silence stretched for a moment, but Barry felt a little better, "I lost my job but I gain my Soulmates. I'd say this experience has not been too bad."
She chuckled at his attempt to joke in order to lighten up the mood. Felicity felt bad about Barry losing his job but at the same time couldn't help but wonder if this would make things easier for them.
If Barry didn't have many things tying him to Central City, then he could stay.
She waited for years to have Oliver and Barry into her life. She had the right to be selfish about it.
John Diggle knew Polygamous soul bonds were real, he just had never seen one with his own eyes.
He saw from the start how Oliver's relationship with Felicity was slowly progressing. Diggle noticed each other's names in their wrist, but he also was aware that neither could fully see the world in color, not like he could.
Relationships were difficult. He divorced his own soulmate, but the connection was still there and being honest, he knew that this breach between them was not going to be permanent. There was a reason Lyla was his soulmate, why they were meant to be.
Felicity spoke with him about it from time to time, how she was able to see the world for what it is for a few seconds when she met Oliver. In the same subject, Oliver was not that forthcoming but Diggle knew him very well, knowing his struggles with being the Arrow and Oliver Queen, Felicity's soulmate. He found almost funny that Oliver wanted to separate himself in two, as if the Arrow was not Felicity's soulmate as well.
It wasn't until today that he understood why their relationship was always present, always beating but incomplete. He had been there when Oliver and Felicity had their First Contact with Barry, he even made the people around them give them space because he knew what was happening, how they finally were whole.
Still, it was a little difficult to wrap his head around the thought that Oliver had not one but two soulmates and therefore a bond to both. He knew this and any doubts he had to believe it dispelled when he saw their connection resonate.
Felicity was guiding Oliver to find the man of the warehouse, Barry was besides her but it was both who nearly lose consciousness when Oliver was hurt during the chase. The way Barry gasped in pain and Felicity nearly cried told him everything, they were running to save Oliver a second later.
Barry knew the diagnosis, from experience and because he was feeling it as if was happening to him, how the blood in Oliver's body was like maple syrup, how he was dying. He saw the rat poison and started to make a mixture to thin the blood, Diggle wanted to argue but this guy was Oliver's soulmate as much as Felicity was, and both where in so much pain Diggle just wanted to make it all stop.
"Do it."
It was Felicity who said it and when both Barry and her let out a sigh, looking less pained, Diggle knew it whatever the young CSI did was working.
Even after his near dead experience and recent events, Oliver was no less stubborn.
"So, this is how is going to be," Barry tried to made his tone casual but Felicity knew better.
"Him running off and coming back blaming himself for things out of his control, like, I don't know, the weather?"
"Yes... that."
"Yep," she popped the 'p' at the end, making Barry smile, "Maybe this is the reason we're are not a two but a three, he's a handful and I bet you’re too and I know I can be pretty stubborn."
Barry chuckled, "You know what? I think you might be right."