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"when you find your soulmate, you'll know. not just because you'll get your colorsight. and not just because of your name on their wrist. but you'll know. because that person is yours. your souls have been calling to each other since the day you were born. and when you meet, those two souls finally get their chance to become just one. to bond together in a nearly unbreakable hold on one another. so you'll know, because it's impossible not to notice when you find something you've been waiting for your entire life."
mack's teacher had always had a knack for explaining soulmates. even at eight years old, he felt like he understood soulmates as well as anyone else. he understood it better than anything else he'd learned in school. he knew what colorsight was; knew the textbook definition of a soul by heart; knew what the bold tattoo on his wrist, a stark contrast to his pale skin, meant. but he'd known the last thing since he could read. that name was and always would be the most important word in the world to him.
dalton.
usually the first coherent thought that found him in the mornings. even if he didn't wake up to that beautiful face on a regular basis, or to fingertips tracing the name on the inside of his wrist, it still would be. he didn't need reminders. reminders of the fact that he'd finally found his soulmate. that dalton was his soulmate.
this morning had been no different. wake up, revel in said first coherent thoughts, find the motivation to get out of bed and leave the usually still asleep boy in it, go on about his day. it was difficult for him now to imagine what it'd been like before dalton lived there, before the younger boy and all his belongings had insinuated themselves into every corner of the apartment. when it'd just been mack and trent. when he'd had no idea what was about to hit him.
1 year ago
"so what is it like?" mack leaned back in his chair, scowled at trent. trent, his best friend and roommate, who was currently texting his damn soulmate again. the soulmate mack had never been particularly fond of. "colorsight," he practically spat the word.
trent grinned, eyes still trained on his phone, "don't get salty at me, you'll find out soon enough." trent didn't even have to look at his best friend to know he was glaring again. he always got that look when he asked about colorsight, or soulmates, or anything near the topic. trent knew it wasn't just simple jealousy or bitterness, though. which was why he didn't give mack a hard time about it.
mack rolled his eyes, ran a hand through his too-long hair. "you sound like my mother. 'it won't be long now, just be patient.' i mean, he couldn't be that hard to find, how many guys have you actually met named dalton? it's a weird name, he's probably the only one here named that."
"well what makes you think he's here?" mack scowled at him again over the rim of his coffee mug, set it down a little too forcefully. "you know, for once, you could just go along with me. not be such a realist. or what some might call an ass."
trent only smiled to annoy mack further and returned his gaze to his phone, "fine. he could be here in this very city, in this very coffeehouse. he could be looking at you right now, admiring your glasses and falling in love. is that what you want me to say?"
mack threw a straw at him.
11 months ago
looking for your soulmate online or taking any kind of shortcut was against the law. it was wrong. it was what everyone said, that they were your soulmate for a reason, that fate would lead you to them. and to look for them any other way but in person was immoral. but that didn't stop the slew of illegal websites always popping up when he typed in how to find your soulmate just for kicks, websites advertising ways to find them with no one knowing, to match your tattoos and get a name and address, to help you set up a meeting place. it was stupid. he knew no one could actually know where dalton was. and if what they said was true and they could find someone, he hoped his soulmate wasn't stupid enough to actually enter his information and tattoo into one of those shitty websites.
"you're not honestly thinking of doing that, are you?" manny leaned over mack's shoulder to investigate the heart-filled window on his laptop screen. mack gave him a look of annoyance, but manny was oblivious. "no," he closed the window out and then his laptop, "just curious what kind of bullshit people are trying to sell these days." manny straightened from his position of leaning over the back of the couch, but mack still stood and crossed the room.
he didn't hate manny, he just didn't trust him. sure he and trent were soulmates. had been inseparable since third grade, when being soulmates just meant being best friends and wouldn't mean something more until much, much later. but being someone's soulmate didn't make you perfect, and it didn't mean the bond was set in stone, that it could never be broken. his parents were proof of that. but that didn't mean trent and manny were destined for complete and utter failure just because his parents apparently were. and mack knew that but chose to ignore it.
"how do you know he'll leave, huh? why are you so sure?" "why are you so sure he won't?" "because i know him."
manny had never given mack any reason to distrust him. he'd never been anything but nice to him. which is why he felt a twinge of guilt for being as cold as he was to him sometimes. that and the fact that he knew it hurt trent that his best friend wouldn't get along with his soulmate. but he just knew if worse came to worst, it'd be easier on trent if manny left and they weren't both hurt over it. if manny wasn't his friend, then he could be there for trent better if it didn't work out.
and it was cynical for mack to even think like that. but he didn't care much for the thought of trent being hurt and not being able to help for his own hurt getting in the way. just like when his mom left his dad and he was too busy with his own feelings to worry about anyone else's.
so it was better to shut manny out and pretend he was the bad guy. at least that was what he told himself. besides, he could see manny more clearly if he wasn't close to him. friendship blinded you. love blinded you.
so mack wasn't sure why he was so eager to find his own soulmate. anyone would expect him to shun the idea, to want nothing to do with soulmates. but it wasn't true. he wanted to find his soulmate more than anything, if only just to see if dalton was really that. his soulmate. sometimes mack thought it was kind of sham, really. his parents clearly weren't perfect for each other. so who was to say dalton would be perfect for him?
10 months ago
trent hadn't been that far off. dalton wasn't in the coffeehouse, had never seen the coffeehouse in fact, but he was in the city. hadn't been there long, just long enough to know his way around. somewhat. but knowing his way around didn't make dalton any less clumsy, and though he'd rounded the corner of the little building too many times to count, he still hadn't learned to watch where he was going and slammed into some poor idiot who'd been paying about the same amount of attention.
he'd been about to make some hypocritical cliche remark about watch where you're going but as he knelt there, surrounded in what looked like loose sheet music, watching the boy frantically grab at the pages while muttering apologies and excuses under his breath, he couldn't speak. clearly it hadn't hit the boy with the sheet music yet, but it'd certainly hit dalton.
the boy's hair was brown, dark brown, and his eyes were the same, and he had on some awful green t-shirt that dalton would never be caught dead in and equally questionable light blue baggy jeans. but as strange as the boy looked, dalton couldn't stop staring at him in awe.
color, he saw color. and he knew he'd know what they were, that wasn't the part that was throwing him, he learned in school that when he finally got his colorsight he'd know which colors were which. he'd recognize what brown and green and blue were, he always knew that, but what the schoolbooks had never told him was that they were the most beautiful thing he'd ever lay eyes on. that the sight of his soulmate in full color would completely override any thought process he'd had before and throw him into some happy kind of shock.
the boy's hands finally froze with realization in the middle of gathering up sheet music and he looked up to meet dalton's gaze. mackenzie. it was him, it was mackenzie. even if he hadn't already caught a glimpse of his own name on the boy's wrist and even if he weren't staring into brown eyes flecked with gold he'd know without a doubt it was him.
he had no idea how long they sat there watching each other before mackenzie muttered dalton's name like a question and dalton barely nodded and held out his arm. mackenzie's gaze shifted to dalton's wrist, and he reached out to touch his own name. he blinked, pulled back a little, and dalton wished he'd kept his hand there.
"um," mackenzie looked back up at dalton and then away again, back to his sheet music, straightened out one of the sheets. "everyone just calls me mack, so..." back at dalton, still blinking more than necessary. dalton still hadn't said a word, he cleared his throat and nodded, tried the name out, "mack, okay" and realized he didn't know what to do next. so he started helping mack gather the papers strewn on the sidewalk and apologized, to which mack only laughed and said it was fine, that he should've been watching where he was going. dalton didn't bother telling him the same, knew the boy would only tell him not to worry about it. so he just smiled and kept handing him disheveled stacks of paper.
he eventually found the courage to start asking mack about music, and it ended up being a fairly long conversation, to the point where even after everything was picked up they were still sitting on the sidewalk talking about themselves and instruments and bands until the topic of their love for music was nearly beaten to death and they'd instead taken to looking around at the city that was now in full color. after a bit the sky started turning angry shades of blue and purple and gray and neither of them could look away from it, save for the occasional glances at each other when the other wasn't looking. the awkwardness of the silence between them had fallen away a while ago, and for the time being mack was ignoring what that meant, along with the words comfortable and content and others like them, try as they might to worm their way into his thoughts.
surprisingly it was dalton that spoke up first, getting to his knees and then his feet, looking regretful as he said he needed to get home. mack followed suit, told him the same, asked if he could maybe get his number. dalton just laughed, fumbled for the phone in his pocket, added mack's number and recited his own. and then the older boy was gone, and dalton was left standing there wondering how he could already miss someone he'd just met.
7 months ago
and even now only a moment apart could make mackenzie miss dalton, even within a moment mack felt dalton's absence more strongly than he ever felt his presence. he missed him when he went home, missed him when he left the room, missed him when he was sleeping right beside him. no time they spent together would ever be enough, enough to fill whatever void dalton had created inside him. the younger boy could never stay long enough, never sleep close enough. even trent and manny, who practically occupied the same space, felt the need to point out that they spent an unnatural amount of time together. to which dalton only flipped them off and snuggled closer to mack on the tiny ramshackle couch, smiled up at him with perfect contentment in his eyes. those eyes. those eyes that even in a world of unending color were the most beautiful thing he'd seen, those eyes that could rival the stars for all their brightness. mack wanted to spend every day of his life studying those eyes, to watch them close every night and open every morning.
and he would, he had to keep reminding himself that he would. that this wasn't some dream, or some figment of his imagination keeping him company while he waited for his actual soulmate. this was the reality he'd waited years for, this was the reality that textbooks and teachers and his parents and trent had promised him he'd find and he'd really found it. but the textbooks and the stories and his imagination didn't do it justice.
a yawn and someone nuzzling into his chest pulled him back out of his thoughts, and he nudged the top of dalton's head with his chin. "hey." dalton looked up at him again, blinked sleepily, "hi." mack traced the bridge of his nose, and dalton's eyelids dropped a little. "what would you say if i suggested that maybe..." he searched for a subtle way to pose the question, "you stay here?" dalton blinked at him again, "what, like tonight? i am," and tucked his head back under the older boy's chin.
mack grinned, carded his fingers through dalton's hair, "no you loser," felt the smile against his chest, "for good." dalton's voice was slightly muffled, "you want me to move in?" before he looked back up at mack with a somewhat hopeful expression. mack just kissed the tip of his nose, was about to say of course before trent's voice broke up the moment from the kitchen, "if he moves in so does manny." and mack thought about it for a minute, thought about four people in one tiny apartment, about his best friend's soulmate who he'd recently tried to make amends with. he looked to the boy currently occupied with pulling at a loose thread on mack's t-shirt, decided it was worth it, called back "deal."
nobody had ever looked at him with as much love as dalton did in that moment. and he understood then why trent never doubted manny.
3 months ago
"mack!" dalton called out, jerking him out of his thoughts. "dalt? you okay?" dalton stood up from where he'd apparently been kneeling behind a cluster of trees, beamed like he'd just found the most amazing thing in the world. mack had seen dalton happy before, but this was a new kind of happy. a childlike, innocent, care-free happiness that mack wanted to see on him more often. dalton just said "c'mere" and knelt back down. mack started attempting to find his way to him, making himself focus on dalton and not what might be hiding in such horribly tall grass in the field behind his old house, now just his dad's. he was about to ask what dalton was doing when he stood up suddenly, stepped out from behind the trees, holding a handful of something mack couldn't quite make out.
"there's a rose bush back here, look at this," eyes full of awe. mack stopped short for a second, staring at the flowers in dalton's hands, before walking the rest of the way over. neither of them had seen roses up close before, at least not since they got their colorsight. the city had a lot, but it didn't have many roses.
he carefully picked one out of the little bunch filling dalton's cupped hands and turned it around between his fingers, studied it. so that's what roses really looked like. color and all. he looked back up into dalton's eyes, something he'd never get tired of. he couldn't decide which color he was more enamored with.
"alright, wait," dalton said abruptly, pulling mack out of his thoughts again, "wait here, don't follow me," and took the roses with him back behind the trees. mack wondered what he was up to, why he didn't want him to go with him. "just a sec!"
mack waited for several minutes, venturing a "need help?" every few, only to get an increasingly frustrated "no" in return every time.
finally dalton emerged from behind the tree, first looking out as if to make sure mack was still there, then all the way to walk back to where the older boy stood. dalton placed the circle of roses and leaves in his hands with a shy smile and muttered, "here, made that for you" and settled one onto his own head.
mack could only stare down at it and smile, didn't know what to say, didn't know what words were worthy of a flower crown. nobody had ever made him one before. he'd seen people with them, thought they were nice, but incredibly too intricate for him to ever attempt to make. he didn't have the patience or the skill. but dalton did, he was the kind who'd spend hours learning how to do something like that until it was perfect. had he always known how or did he learn so he could do this? seemed like something he'd do. mack's heart constricted a little at the thought of that.
so he didn't say anything, just smiled and pressed a kiss between those blue-green eyes he adored and put the crown on top of his head, eliciting a laugh from dalton. "you don't have to wear it, it's probably not all that comfortable, i mean i tried to find some without thorns but..." he trailed off, adjusting his own a little.
mack shook his head, "it's perfect, c'mon," took dalton's hand, tugged him back toward the house.
~
dalton's flower crown still lay on the arm of the couch where he'd dropped it earlier. mack rubbed one of the paperthin petals between his thumb and forefinger, studying it more closely. even after all these months the thought was still sinking in, the fact that there were things this amazing in the world he'd never seen the true color of. they were beautiful, he thought, but then looked over at a much more beautiful boy curled up against his side. dalton had fallen asleep with his fingers still intertwined with mack's, his head on the older boy's shoulder and breathing evened out to a steady, slow pace. mack watched him sleep for a minute, watched his eyelids flutter slightly and felt his fingers tighten subconsciously around mack's own. and any remaining doubt he'd had that dalton was meant for him disappeared in sleep.