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“I just don’t understand why you’re throwing away your only opportunity for happiness.” Your lips pursed as your mother’s voice sounded through the speakers of your phone. This wasn’t anything out of the unusual, but it still both hurt and pissed you off whenever you heard someone say those words, especially family.
“I don’t need some predetermined partner to be happy. And saying that I do is quite frankly insulting. I love the person that I’m with, mom. And he loves me in kind, that should be enough for you.” There were tears in the corners of your eyes, blurring the view of your home as the conversation continued. You’d already cried over this plenty of times, and each time your boyfriend had been there to comfort you and reassure you that you were the one he wanted. You thought you were done shedding tears over the rejection you faced from your family and peers, but if the wet trails down your cheeks were any indication, they weren’t.
“I’m just worried for you, when he eventually finds his soulmate and leaves you to be with them.” Despite the tears you could feel the anger burning inside you, building more with each word that came through the speakers.
“If you actually bothered to take the time to listen to me, and get to know him, then you know that he would never do that.” You couldn’t stop the little bit of venom that had crept into your voice.
“I don’t know if I appreciate that tone. Besides, a soulmate is part of something greater than you, I know you know that. I’m not saying he’ll do it intentionally, or out of a want to hurt you, but he will hurt you if you keep this ridiculous relationship up. We were meant to be with our soulmates and only our soulmates, anything else is never going to last. I’m just trying to protect you from the inevitable, and you’re not appreciating any of it.”
You felt your anger finally reach its boiling point, the blurriness in your vision from the tears now tinged a slight red. “No, what you’re trying to get me to do is what you want. You don’t actually care how I feel at all, or how Kaldur feels. You know what? He’s already met his soulmate, and he still chose me, so that shows how much you actually know. Also, you know what? If you can’t accept the choices I make, or the people I choose to love, then I don’t want to hear from you until you do.” You could hear your mother trying to sputter out a response, but you cut the call off before she could get anything out, turning the device off and throwing it next to you on the couch.
You let out a shaking breath and leaned back into the cushions of the couch, your gaze turned upwards to the ceiling as you tried to stem the flow of tears from your eyes. Despite the hurt from knowing your own family didn’t support you, there was a feeling of relief as you had finally stood up for yours and Kaldur’s relationship once and for all, and cut ties with the people who wouldn’t accept you for the choices you made.
Your eyes drifted to the name on your wrist, the letters written in neat cursive that together became the name of the person you were supposed to spend the rest of your life with according to your mother and society. Around the name was the very faint outline of tattoo ink, your first attempt to try and rid yourself of you supposed “destiny.” Unfortunately, once you had finally found someone willing to cover up a soulmark, they had neglected to tell you that trying to cover your soulmark up with a tattoo would cause the ink to fade until it was barely visible. In the middle of your faded tattoo was a perfectly barren rectangle surrounding the name -your second attempt to get rid of it. That had been one night spent locked in the bathroom of your apartment, first aid kit open on the counter as you very meticulously used a razor blade to shave away the top few layers of skin, until the name had been effectively stripped from your wrist. You thought that would have been the end of it, but the universe was often cruel. Before long, as the layers of skin grew back, so did the letters of the name to your soulmate. You’ve long given up on trying to get rid of it now, knowing that no matter what you attempted you would always be stuck with the reminder that there was someone out there everyone expected you to be with, your own feelings on the matter be damned.
By the time you decided to get up, the day was on its way to being over. The room had darkened considerably, and you found yourself cursing your choice to get dark green furniture as you stumbled your way towards the light switch along the opposite wall. You grimaced against the sudden light flooding your vision, and moved to look at the time on your phone, only to remember that you had discarded it after your earlier phone call.
You debated grabbing it for a few seconds, and decided that it could stay where it was for the time being. You had no desire to hear from your mother or anyone else in your circle for the rest of the evening at the earliest. You figured it was probably late enough to justify getting something to eat for dinner, and you didn’t quite feel up to cooking. Maybe Kaldur would be up for hitting up one of the places in town if he was back from his trip to Atlantis yet.
Outside the sky was a dark grey, overcast hiding the few remaining rays of the sun before it slipped below the horizon until tomorrow. You took a moment to breathe in the salt-laden air, rolling your neck and shoulders as if to physically shed your troubles from your body. You walked the gravel path from the backdoor of your small, two-bedroom house down to the dock placed at the bottom of the cliff that marked the border of your own, private section of the Atlantic Ocean. The waves crashing against the rocks of the cliff wall were soothing to your ears, and the old oak planks creaked under your footsteps and you started to make your way to the edge of the dock. Some of the planks would need to be replaced before the year was over, if not the whole thing, but for now you knew it was more than capable of handling your weight.
Before you had even reached the halfway point, you felt a smile spread across your lips as you watched Kaldur pull himself up onto the wood, the saltwater dripping off him in rivulets. You found your pace quickening, and before long you were running the last few feet until you could wrap your arms around him, burying your face in the junction of his shoulder. His arms wrapped around your back and he pulled you close.
“I missed you.” The words were mumbled into his skin, and you pulled him tighter to you within your grip.
“I have missed you as well.” His voice was quiet, soothing, it washed over you and eased the tension in your shoulders that you still carried from earlier. No other person was able to soothe your worries so easily. His grip tightened the tiniest fraction as he felt your shoulders ease, there was no one who could read you so easily as well. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Nothing she said was outside of the usual. It’s no big deal, I’m used to it.” He pulled away from you to look at you in the eyes.
“If it causes you to hurt, then it is a big deal. You should not have to ‘get used to’ the things your mother and friends have to say about you. You are worth more.” You smiled, and Kaldur brought a hand up to wipe away one of the tears that had welled up again at the mention of what happened earlier. Kaldur’s family, like yours, also didn’t quite understand why he would rather be with someone who wasn’t his soulmate. However, unlike your family, they still supported his choice even if they didn’t understand or agree with it. As long as their son was happy, they were happy too. You had met them once, on one of the few times you were able to travel to Atlantis. They had been kind, treating you as if you were one of their own kids. Embarrassingly, you had broken down in tears right there, unused to the acceptance after having to deal with the constant berating of your own family. Maybe you would ask Kaldur about going to visit them again sometime soon. Maybe for the holidays.
“I love you.” Kaldur placed a kiss to your forehead.
“And I, you.” His hands trailed down to your hands, his thumbs tracing circles over the backs of your hands. “I was going to wait until there was a better time, but I believe that this moment is as good as any.” His demeanor changed then, nervousness creeping into his features. You looked at him in curiosity, one of his hands leaving yours to fumble for something in his pocket.
What he pulled out wasn’t some small black box, but though the package looked different, there was no mistaking that it would mean anything other than the same thing the box did. Your breath caught in your throat, your eyes brimming with a different kind of tears while your whole chest bloomed in warmth.
Kaldur got down on one knee before you, both of his hands now having left yours to unveil the ring at the center of the package. It glimmered despite the lack of direct sunlight. “I had wanted to do this with an elaborate speech saying how much you mean to me, but I know now that I could never possibly conceive to put in all accurately into words that would do it justice. It does not matter that the name on my skin is not yours, you are the one who has captured my heart, and I would like nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you at my side. Will you marry me?”
“Yes.” The word came out in a breath of air, and you threw yourself back into his arms. The tears falling down your cheeks for the first time in months were for once not born of sadness, but full of the happiness you felt radiating off of you like the waves that crashed against the dock you were kneeling on. Kaldur gripped your left hand, slipping the ring onto your finger before pulling you into a kiss that conveyed every ounce of love and affection the two of you felt for one another. When the two of you ran out of breath, you separated long enough to pull him into a tender hug.
Eventually, you pulled away, looking down at your clothes. “You made my clothes soaking wet.”
He chuckled, “I believe it was you who ran to embrace me despite knowing I had just emerged from the water.”
“Touché.” There was a slight pause, and a shiver as the ocean breeze hit your wet skin. “How does eating out for dinner sound? After we both dry off and get changed?”
“As long as I am with you, it will be perfect.”