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Varian lived in a world where one was connected to their soulmate the moment they got a taste in music.
And Varian had a weird soulmate.
Rapunzel always gushed about when she first heard Eugene and Cass’ music, and how it hard it had been to find them because of how common the songs were.
Eugene always grew red as a tomato when she talked about his goth phase, blasting My Chemical Romance. Cassandra always tossed a pillow in her girlfriend’s face when the brunette tried to talk about Cass’ old Taylor Swift era.
But thankfully Varian had a much easier time to specify who it was. For starters, it seemed like their life revolved around music. And when they listened, it was very specific artists. The most common were Linkin Park and B6rley Human.
Varian had started to get a taste of their personality. When they were sad they liked Kaden McKay and Olivia Rodrigo. When they got mad, and he meant mad, they always blared System of A Down, or even really loud Japanese anime intros and pop? Either they hated it enough they channeled their anger through the music or it got them less mad. Either way, he wasn’t judging.
They had tried to communicate once. It hadn’t done well. They played the beginning of Hello by Adele, and so Varian had responded with Suffering from EPIC, saying “Don’t you miss me?”
His soulmate didn’t exactly understand it, to say the least. Wasn’t Varian’s fault. He couldn’t figure out what to say.
He hadn’t exactly done anything else in a while with his soulmate. Just listened to what they did and got annoyed whenever they seemed to be pulling an all-nighter by playing Evanescence.
Varian was in college now. He didn’t listen to music as much as he used to, and so he let his soulmate be in charge of the tunes.
He wondered who it was.
***
Hugo did not care for the soulmate thing.
Sure he had fun playing music back and forth with his soulmate, but how exactly was he supposed to find him through music?
He had a selective taste, that’s for sure. Nothing but musicals, alternative and metal. A lot of Jeremy Jordan and Fall Out Boy.
At least Hugo couldn’t say there had been a mistake in the soulmate process.
He had tried to communicate with his soulmate once. Never again.
He had gotten a lot busier in his life. Got a job at the auto shop, actually started putting an effort in college. He honestly couldn’t care about finding some mystical guy that was obsessed with mythology musicals. Love could wait. He didn’t even know if he wanted to meet the guy ever.
Right now he was busy messing with the guy he sat next to in chemistry lectures.
***
Varian hated Hugo with a fiery passion.
This blond rat could not take a hint could he? Trying to best him at every turn, messing their assignments up on purpose, and then proceeding to try and flirt with him? He was the most infuriating man ever.
Today Varian was walking to the lecture hall, headphones on. It had been a pretty pleasant day so far. He had met with Rapunzel for coffee and then got an A on his art project, and his computer was fully charged for once. He was listening to More Than Anything-sue him, it was a really sweet song.
“Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me-”
Suddenly his head was filled with All Star. Not that it wasn’t a pleasant song, but he hadn’t expected it, and he tripped over, falling to the ground.
Except he didn’t. Someone caught him and pulled him to their chest.
“Aw, did you want my attention Hairstripe?”
Hugo grinned at him with a conceited smile, the taller’s headphones still in. Varian glared at him as he shoved himself off the blond.
This was not how he was expecting today to go. “For your information I was startled by something, and I tripped. I didn’t think you’d be there.”
Hugo laughed. “What was it? My unwavering beauty?”
“More like the stench of oil,” Varian retorted. “Do you ever shower?”
Hugo’s grin never faltered, not even a little. “Ow, I showered this morning thank you very much.”
Varian glared. “Doesn’t seem like it.” before pushing past Hugo and taking his seat in the lecture hall. Dr. Demanitus wasn’t there so it seemed like today would start off with a study hall.
Varian pulled his notebook out and started to sketch out designs for something new he was coming up with. He ignored when Hugo took his seat beside him.
Seriously, why didn’t this guy sit anywhere else? It wasn’t like the hall was filled to the brim with students, and there wasn’t exactly a seating chart.
All Star was still playing rather loudly, and you know what? He had been made to look like an idiot. Varian decided today he’d fight fire with fire.
He pulled out his phone, and changed his music from More Than Anything to To Ashes and Blood. It was a sudden shift in tone and tempo, so he hoped his soulmate would get thrown off.
Beside him Hugo flinched. Curious, Varian glanced at the blond, but it didn’t seem like anything was wrong.
***
“I’ve been dying to find out who you are-”
The tranquil violin suddenly changed to the beating of drums.
What the hell soulmate? Hugo had no idea what prompted the sudden change to children chanting a terrifying language compared from a dad and daughter singing to each other but Jesus was it sudden. Hugo even flinched from the immediate backlash.
He could tell Varian had glanced at him in confusion, despite the shorter trying to be subtle about it.
Thanks a lot, Hugo thought. Now I look like I’m crazy.
Well, retributions had to be made. Hugo pulled out his phone and changed from the catchy All Star to Deer Dance. That oughta shut the guy up. Maybe turn up the volume too.
***
Varian heard his soulmate go silent for a moment. All Star hadn’t ended, so he had no idea what they were doing. Maybe they liked To Ashes and Blood, and wanted to listen to it.
And then Varian was given instant regret for letting his guard down when the start of Deer Dance blasted through his mind, a whole lot louder than All Star.
Okay, now Varian was royally pissed off. He went to Youtube and changed it to “1 Hour of Silence Occasionally Broken by R2D2 Screaming,” and set his volume to 100.
***
WOOOOO AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Hugo was opening his computer and had been about to take a sip of his coffee when his Deer Dance was swallowed by the scream of his favorite Droid. He almost spilled his coffee onto the chromebook, to which caused Hugo to panic. Carefully, he set the cup aside, and pushed a little farther away.
“Are you okay?” Varian asked.
“I’m fine,” Hugo snapped. “My soulmate or whatever is being an asshole that’s what.”
Varian smirked evilly. “You have a soulmate? I thought nobody would love you but yourself.”
“Touche Freckles.” Hugo changed his music. Hopefully this would piss his soulmate off enough to stop.
***
Varian’s heart almost stopped when he heard what his soulmate changed the music too.
Oh come on.
“We’re no strangers to love~ you know the rules, and so do I!”
Varian took his headphones off and slammed his forehead against the wood of the table.
Now Hugo looked at him like he was crazy. “You good?”
“No.”
He decided to give up. He pulled out his phone and changed it to Frozen Heart.
***
Hugo smirked as he heard the silence sometimes interrupted by R2D2 stop, and one of his soulmate’s favorite songs started. He glanced at Varian who had finally pulled his head off of the wood and was changing his music, putting his headphones on.
Hugo’s smile melted when he saw Varian’s screen.
He yanked Varian’s headphones off of his head.
***
“Hey!” Varian glared at Hugo. Why had he just taken his headphones like that? “What are you-”
The song of his soulmate went silent as Hugo took off his headphones and put Varian’s on.
Frozen Heart started to play in his mind.
***
The sounds of his soulmate’s song went silent as Hugo put on Varian’s headphones.
“This icy force both foul and fair has a frozen heart worth mining,”
He could see as Varian’s anger melted into shock.
***
“So cut through the heart, cold and clear, strike for love and strike for fear,”
Varian stared at Hugo as Frozen Heart started exactly where Varian knew it would be since the headphones left his ears.
“Oh come on.”
Hugo put his head in his hands as he started to laugh uncontrollably. People were looking at him in confusion, and Varian had to smack him upside the head to try to get him to stop.
Once the blond managed to calm down, it was Varian's turn to bury his head in his hands. He couldn't believe it. He had been at odds with Hugo since his first year at the college. With their dorms only a hall away they had played pranks on each other, stolen each other's stuff, and had likely given their own respective roommates headaches.
And now he found out that Hugo was his soulmate.
“So…” Hugo started after a moment or so of silence. “Think we could go for some coffee sometime?”