Chapter Text
Ryland Grace doesn’t have a soulmate. And that doesn’t bother him.
The words that should have appeared above his heart by puberty never showed.
He turned 15. Then 20. 25. 30.
He had tried not to dwell on it. His life on Earth had been plenty full even without a soulmate.
Grace was totally fine being unmarked. Absolutely okay.
It wasn’t like he ever going to see another human again anyway. So there was no point in lingering over the hollow ache that stirred in his chest every so often.
He had Rocky and Adrian. He got to teach again, pebbles instead of preteens. He was still alive.
So it was okay. Really.
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Grace is six months into his new life on Erid when he wakes to a warm, itchy sensation on his chest.
He throws off his quilt and yanks off his shirt. He’s still half asleep when he looks down at where the itch is, expecting a rash or irritation.
What he finds instead is the faint scrawl of a stranger’s handwriting above his heart.
“Holy shit.”
Ryland Grace is 42 and over 12 light years away from Earth. And he’s finally gotten his soul mark.