Chapter Text
Leo’s world revolved around his soulmark, way before he even got it. His parents always told him stories from the moment he was born about the magical day the name of his soulmate would appear, meaning that he was destined to fall in love with them, and only them. Because your soulmate was the only one out there who was your perfect half, the only one that could complete you and make you whole, the only one person you’re meant to fall in love with.
So you can imagine when Leo finally met Gina, the name that appeared on his forearm on 10th birthday just like his parents said it would, he was well...underwhelmed. He didn’t feel the instant attraction, that instant and magnetic pull his parents romanticized from the moment he could comprehend human speech.
He first met Gina as she offered to help him with his English assignment because he was very obviously struggling.
She didn’t bother introducing herself at first, she simply sat next to him, setting her backpack and binder next to him with a loud thud. “You need help.” She said bluntly.
Leo remembers looking up from his textbook to look across at her, he remembered that she had her black hair in a ponytail that day, and that was back when she still bothered with contacts so she didn’t have her now iconic, black frames resting on her nose. “Is it really that obvious?”
The girl across from him nodded, flipping open her textbook. “What question are you on? Ms. Foster assigned for us to read the story on pages 345-349 and answer the following questions. I assume it’s the questions you’re having problems with?” She asked, looking at him expectedly.
“I’m...I’m still on last week’s homework,” Leo admits, embarrassed.
The girl in front of him pauses for a moment, then, as if someone hit the reboot button, she flips back a few pages in her textbook and starts over. “Last week Ms. Foster assigned the pages 233-236. The assignment was to rewrite the sentences and fix the grammatical errors. What are you struggling with?”
So she helped him. They were finished with the previous week’s homework and halfway through the current week’s when it finally hit him. “You never told me your name.” The realization hit him so suddenly that he cut her off in the middle of an explanation on how the author used roses as symbolism.
Once more she paused, she had moved to sit next to him rather than across from him due to it being hard to read his answers upside down, she turned to face him. “I thought you knew my name already.”
Suddenly Leo was confused, and this time he couldn’t blame the problems in his textbook. “Why would I already-“
“Gina,” She cuts him off as she rolls up her blue and green flannel to reveal his name on her dark, tanned skin, staring back at him in the same place his very own soulmark was. “and your name is Leo.” She points to his soulmark that was left exposed. “I saw that a while ago. We have a few classes together. I thought you had your reasons to avoid me, but now I know you just didn’t know. Can we continue?”
It was now Leo’s turn to pause, he simply didn’t know what to say, he had apparently been sharing ‘a few’ classes with his soulmate and he had somehow failed to notice. To avoid having a mental break down where he repeatedly slams his head into the wall for being so stupid, he tells her yes.
By the time he finished, before he could ask, she wrote her phone number on her notebook and tore out the page. “You obviously need help with this subject and I need to, and I quote my roommate for this, ‘ go out and make friends’, so I see this situation as mutually beneficial. Agreed?”
Leo nodded. She took that as all the answer she needed, said goodbye, and left. Leaving Leo in wonder and shock, thinking “She’s my soulmate?”
He expected some sort of fairytale romance when he found Gina, like his parents’. Why couldn’t his story be like his parents? Where he was ordering a coffee but his world stops when he hears the name on his rib cage, when he sees the woman reaching for the coffee his heart lurches because he knows that’s his soulmate, his one and only.
But with Gina...there was none of that. The strongest emotion he felt was embarrassment, he was embarrassed that he was a week behind when she seemed to have it all together, embarrassed that she knew so much more than him and even more embarrassed that they shared classes and he still never noticed her or her name. There was no...emotional explosion that his parents explained time and time again when they finally met each other’s gaze, just knowing that this is who you’re meant to spend the rest of your life with. There was no metaphorical click as two halves of a soul finally clicked perfectly into place upon meeting. Leo was...well quite frankly…disappointed. Disappointed that the moment his entire life was leading up to was...not something that lived up to his expectations. After talking to his roommate about his worries, his roommate told him that sometimes the spark happens later, it’s rare but it happens.
So Leo decided to continue the scheduled study sessions with Gina twice a week, hoping that he would fall hopelessly in love with his study partner and soulmate. It sounds like it would be easy to fall in love with your soulmate, however, Leo never did.
The two may have not have fallen in love with each other, but they did fall into a seamless rhythm. It started with them only having study sessions every Tuesday and Thursday, Leo would come to the library during study hall and Gina would offer any assistance Leo needed. As Gina got Leo more and more caught up, (and dare she say, even ahead), and he had less and less work to bring on those days, the two began to just...talk. Of course, they talked before, but any ‘off-topic conversation’ brought up by Leo as an attempt to get to know Gina, were answered with only one-word replies, then it was back to business. But on the days where they had nothing to do, Leo got to see the stoic girl’s face light up as she rambled about her admiration of Shakespeare or the current book she was reading this week. Gina sat and listened, and even offered advice when Leo rambled about the new and creative ideas and stories he had conjured in his mind. Soon enough they started interacting out of school.
The two may not have clicked romantically, but they clicked in other ways. Where Leo was the storyteller, Gina was the reader that allowed herself to be consumed in his stories. Gina gave Leo the final push he needed to finally write down his stories, with the promise that she would edit them with no judgment (because his grammar was horrendous). Leo was the one who cried watching movies where a dog died, while Gina calmly passed him the tissue box.
The two complimented each other perfectly, but yet, the idea of dating Gina never crossed his mind. The closest he ever got was when they first started the study sessions, he only started them because he wanted to get to know his soulmate better, but now that he did...he had no other end goal. No goals of dating her, much less marrying her. In a way it felt...wrong. He should be feeling those things towards her, right? So why wasn’t he? It’s not like he wasn’t capable of those thoughts, because as much as he would hate to admit it, he has had those thoughts before for someone who wasn’t his soulmate. That’s the only reason he’s even thinking about it. The second his mind drifted in class today about his friend Kai, what it would be like to hold his hand and watch the sunset and then their eyes would meet and- no. He stopped himself. Because Leo has a soulmate, and thinking that about anyone but your soulmate is betraying them...right.
This is where Leo’s mind had wondered while he laid on the floor of Gina’s dorm while she laid on her bed ranting about the inaccuracies of some film adaption when compared to the book. Leo usually paid attention more, but today he was filled with both guilt and confusion about what he and Gina...were. They were soulmates, of course, but what does that really mean?
“Don’t get me started on the casting, the fact that-“ Gina suddenly stops mid-rant and sits up, “What’s on your mind? You’re not listening to me.”
Leo doesn’t even try to lie. He knows that it won’t work. They both learned the hard way that they can’t lie to each other, Gina’s theory is that it’s the soulbond but Leo thinks that it’s just because they know each other too well. “We...we aren’t dating? Right?”
Gina paused and scrunched her face up slightly, like she just smelt something unpleasant, something Leo had learned that she does when she’s shocked or confused. “...no. Do you want to-“
“No,” Leo states, cutting her off. “Do you-“
“No.” She answers, cutting him off even faster then he did.
The two soulmates look at each other for a long stretch of awkward silence that is finally broken by Leo. “But aren’t soulmates-“
“Not necessarily. I’ve figured that we were platonic soulmates a long time ago. I thought you would have as well,” Gina states simply. But from the look on her soulmate’s face she could tell that for him, it wasn’t that simple. “Platonic, as in non-romantic. A nonromantic soulmate.”
“I...I didn’t even realize that was a thing.” Leo breathed out in disbelief. “How did I not...how didn’t I know that? So...do platonic soulmates date other people, you know...since they aren’t romantic or whatever?”
Gina shrugs. “If they want to. I for one could care less if you wanted to date someone. I would like to approve of them, I wouldn’t want-“ Gina stopped because she saw that Leo was about to collapse from relief and joy. “Oh, so that’s why got you all quiet? You already have someone in mind.”
Leo’s face suddenly got red. “Well...uh...sorta…”
Gina smiled and patted the bed next to her, “Tell me about them.”
It was two weeks after that when Gina was finally able to convince Leo to ask Kai out (“You already know that he is both single and he doesn’t have a soulmate. What are you afraid of?”), and another three weeks after that for the two to meet. It went surprisingly well...as well as someone’s soulmate meeting their significant other could go.
They met at a coffee shop when Gina saw the couple she went over and said hello.
“You must be Kai, Leo’s boyfriend.” Gina held her hand out and Kai shook it.
“And you’re Gina, Leo’s soulmate.” Kai laughed slightly as he mimicked her introduction.
“Yes. You’re correct.” Gina nodded.
The two stood, awkwardly looking at each other for a moment, Leo clearing his throat to try and get rid of the awkwardness.
“Well...Don’t steal him from me.” Kai laughed awkwardly, trying again to attempt humor.
“I’m Leo’s platonic soulmate, you’re his very romantic boyfriend. There is no conflict of interest between us, you have nothing to worry about Kai. He only asked you out because I convinced him to. Now tell me what you want to order because I want coffee.” Gina explained matter of factly.
That was all the reassurance Kai needed.
From that moment on, the three of them became a trio. Kai and Leo, of course, had their individual, romantic dates, but the three of them continued to hang out consistently after college. The unofficial goal of the trio (excluding Gina) was to get Gina a significant other of her own. The trio constantly hit up bars in hopes of finding a soulless single for Gina, but little did Leo and Kai know that they wouldn’t even need to help Gina when the time came, though they still take credit.
The trio had gone to yet another bar, but Kai and Leo had gotten way too drunk to drive, good thing they had Gina as their designated driver. She drove the intoxicated boyfriends back to their apartment only slightly annoyed.
Even though her apartment was only 5 miles away from theirs, she somehow managed to flatten her tire on her way home. This caused her mild annoyance to skyrocket. She slammed her car door shut and glared at her flat tire as if staring at it for long enough could fix it. Miraculously, her staring contest with the deflated tire did nothing and she groaned in defeat, hitting the trunk of her car.
“Hittin’ it won’t do anything,” Said a mildly amused voice from behind her.
Gina turned around in the dark to face a woman, it was hard to see a lot of features in the dark, but Gina could see that she had lighter skin and her hair pulled up into a ponytail. The woman was shorter than Gina but more well built than her, but Gina wasn’t scared by the sudden appearance of the woman in the slightest, maybe it was because of her good-natured smile or approachable and inviting composure.
“Well, staring at it wasn’t helping either.” Gina groans.
“Do you have a spare?” The other woman asked.
“Yes, but I have no idea how to change a tire,” Gina admits.
“Good thing you popped it here then, cus’ I do. Now, where’s that spare of yours?” The woman smiles, and as soon as Gina showed the tire, she was off to work, and off to talking as well.
As she worked she told all sorts of stories, it started with why she knew how to change a tire in the first place, her “Pa” has taught her before she came to the city to peruse her education to become a vet, then one story lead to another until she finally stopped and said “I have said so much about myself that I haven’t given you a chance to speak. Now, where were you off to in the first place?”
“I just dropped my soulmate and his boyfriend off at their apartment, and I was on my way home,” Gina states simply.
“Your soulmate has a boyfriend?” The woman, Brooke as she introduced herself earlier, asks as she works, not even missing a beat. Most people would pause, take a moment and hesitate in confusion before asking, but not her.
“Yes. Leo and I are platonic soulmates. The only reason we were out tonight, is because they are trying to find me a significant other of my own. They take me out every Friday night, and every time their plan backfires,” Gina explains with a frustrated huff.
“And why is that?” Brooke inquires, amused.
“I would never meet the love of my life at a bar,” Gina said as if stating a fact she had memorized for a test.
This caused Brooke to laugh,” How do you know that?”
“Anyone who goes to bars on Friday nights won’t be romantically compatible with me,” Gina explains, arms crossed as the woman stands and wipes her hands on her jeans, laughing once more.
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“How will you meet them then?” Brooke asked, clearly amused as she too crossed her arms and leaned against Gina’s car.
“The library.”
Brook was clearly entertained by what Gina was saying, trying her best to stop herself from laughing long enough to ask her next question. “The library? Why the library?”
“Well, it doesn’t have to be the library. The library is just an example. I would meet them through random chance...that doesn’t involve alcohol, dark, crowded rooms, and the stench of body odor,” Gina clarifies.
“Well…” Brook gestures to the area around them, “I don't see any alcohol and it sure ain’t crowded, and a popped tire is as close as you can get to the textbook definition of random chance.”
Gina was suddenly taken aback, “You’re correct.” Gina paused for a long moment debating her next words. “What is your number?”
Brook’s eyes widened. “I...I didn’t expect that to work.”
Leo and Kai Knight had a shared wedding with Gina and Brook Heart 4 years later. It was a hard time finding someone who would officiate not one, but two non-soulmate pairings, but they found one, and one person was all they needed.
Leo continued to write, and Gina continued to edit. He had his break with a romantic story about two people with soulmates falling in love with someone who wasn’t their soulmate. The book was met with great success as a modern Romeo and Juliet, but minus the tragic ending. That led to Leo writing romantic novel after novel, each one more convention-breaking then the previous one. Every single book he wrote got on the New York Bestseller list. Every single one Gina edited, and every time she refused to take any credit and only a tiny portion of the money that Leo offered.
The Knight family was doing well, but then Kai joined the writing game, writing a collection of memoirs about his life as soulless, and even more money flowed in. Kai continued to write nonfiction analytical books that poked holes in purist ideology and how the soulmate system worked in general.
As the Knights traveled for interviews and book signings, they kept the Hearts close. Brook and Gina wanted to stay out of the public eye, the two were content with their decently sized house and their paychecks as a vet and an English professor respectively. Gina and Brook lived in a little town, their house was basically just a cabin in the woods, and Leo and Kai’s house was the one right next to it, even though they were hardly home.
Any time they could, the four would get together and eat dinner followed up with a game night. Of course, Gina continued to edit all of Leo and Kai’s works. They all remained in constant contact via a group chat, and even though Gina insisted that he didn’t need to, Leo paid for Gina and Brook to take a vacation to Hawaii.
Gina and Brook were content to live in their decently sized cabin (Leo wouldn’t let them live in anything small), and every so often Gina would get emailed a word file of a net story to edit (and let’s just say Leo’s grammar never improved, no matter how much Gina tried to help).
That’s how it was.