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February Ficlet Challenge 2025
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Published:
2025-02-09
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406
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1/1
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8. Soulmates

Summary:

On his way home from another day at work, Seiichirou was vaguely aware of the countdown on his wrist ticking ever closer to zero. Counting down until the moment he would meet his soulmate. Given the nature of his life – constantly stuck working late and coming in on his days off – he barely had the energy to feed himself, let alone consider his soulmate and what he would do when the moment finally arose.

Notes:

February Ficlet Challenge Day 8! Prompts were "breakdown" and "soulmates au"

This series lives in my head rent-free and I love Aresh and Sei so much! I thought the soulmates thing could be fun to play with...enjoy!

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

On his way home from another day at work, Seiichirou was vaguely aware of the countdown on his wrist ticking ever closer to zero. Counting down until the moment he would meet his soulmate. Given the nature of his life – constantly stuck working late and coming in on his days off – he barely had the energy to feed himself, let alone consider his soulmate and what he would do when the moment finally arose.

He heard a scream and followed the sound down a dark alley. A young woman was stuck in the ground, and as he tried to pull her free, he got sucked in with her.

They landed in a large circular room, surrounded by dozens of people in strange garb. They were all cheering excitedly.

Seiichirou didn’t notice the countdown on his wrist finally hit zero.

…………………….

Aresh was there when the Holy Maiden was summoned. He witnessed her come through the portal, along with a stray. She was young. Scared. The tagalong seemed…angry, almost.

Ah well. It made no difference to him. The otherworlder wasn’t his problem to deal with.

He didn’t notice the timer on his wrist start ticking. Counting the seconds since he met his soulmate.

…………………….

564 days, 2 hours, 23 minutes, and 14 seconds later (according to the timer on Aresh’s wrist) Aresh and Seiichirou sat on the bed, Sei sitting between Aresh’s legs with his back against Aresh’s chest.

“It was only later that I realized the countdown must have ended when I came through the portal,” Seiichirou said, “but there were dozens of people in that room. I had no way of knowing who my soulmate was.”

Aresh looked at his own wrist. “Mine started after the portal closed. I knew it couldn’t have been anyone already in the room – I had met them all before, working in the palace. So it had to be you or the Holy Maiden.” He paused. Seiichirou wrapped his fingers around Aresh’s wrist, feeling the pulse point there. “But the more time I spent with her, the more I hoped she wasn’t the one.”

Seiichirou chuckled. “So you hoped it was me?”

Aresh wrapped his arms tighter around Sei’s waist and placed a kiss in the crook of his neck. “You were certainly better than the alternative.”

“Very romantic,” Seiichirou deadpanned. He reached up to kiss Aresh. As he pulled away, he said quietly and sincerely, “I’m glad it was you.”

Notes:

Since Sei and Aresh come from different worlds, I wanted their worlds to have different ways of finding/meeting soulmates. So in Sei's world, they have a countdown to when they will meet their soulmate. And in Aresh's world, the timer starts once they meet their soulmate. And also the circumstances of their first time seeing each other means there would be some confusion as to who their soulmate actually is lol I don't know I thought it was a fun idea to play with. I've never really done AUs before but that's the beauty of a challenge like this. Thank you for reading!