#and soooo long ago I had a dream about my supposed fictional soulmate and he looked just like James

[thebluesideofmyworld]

The Soulmate Mark - A Solangelo One-Shot

Summary: Will Solace was a hopeless romantic. And he got a soulmate mark that ruined what supposed to be a fun part of his life. Nico di Angelo could not care less about anything romantic. And he got a soulmate mark that sounded like a cheesy line in a typical romance movie.

(Word count: 3800 words || Read on AO3)

Author’s Note:  - Set in an Alternate Universe where the first things that you would hear from your soulmate were tattooed on your skin - Based on a Tumblr prompt - For @solangelover​ , as a little something to express how I appreciate your support on my writing. Thank you so much. I know that this was not written in the kind of style that you like, but I hope you can still enjoy it :)

Will Solace was a hopeless romantic. That was why this whole thing about soulmate was quite a big deal for him. He could not wait until he turned 14, the age when he supposed to have his soulmate mark. But until the day he got the tattoo, he kept himself content by asking people he knew the stories about their soulmate marks. Until the day came, he kept himself content by daydreaming about what would be the words printed out on his skin, dreaming about how this person that was destined to be him would say those words to him.

***

Nico di Angelo did not want anything to do with feelings, or emotions, or whatever. Feelings and emotions confused him. That was why he could not care less about this whole stupid idea of having someone destined to be with you together. His half-sister, Hazel, was the one who got those dreamy eyes whenever someone started talking about soulmate. But Nico? Nope. He didn’t give a damn about it. There were even times when he was half-hoping that when, no, if he got his soulmate mark, it would be something funny like ‘get the fuck off here’ or something like that. Hazel got upset at him when he told her that, but Nico thought it would be great.

***

Will could barely sleep at the night before he turned 14.  He toyed with the idea of staying up until midnight, but the fact that he had school the next day forced him to put the idea aside. Still, once he opened his eyes in the morning, that was the first thing that crossed his mind. So he quickly sat up on the bed, and instinctively checked his left arm.

His heart did a backflip when he saw some black patterns were imprinted on the inner side of his left arm. He rubbed the remaining sleep away from his eyes with his hands, and brought his arm closer to have a closer look.

His heart beating like crazy as he read the small letters, tattooed neatly on his skin.

He blinked, and read it again, half-hoping that maybe, he was still half-dreaming.

When the words didn’t change, his heart plummeted into his stomach. He jumped from his bed, and ran out of his room.

“Mom!” He shouted as he ran down the stairs.

“Will!” Naomi Solace looked up from the newspaper that she was reading and turned her head to Will, who was standing by the doorway to the kitchen, half-panting. “Happy birth-“

His mother stopped mid-sentence when she saw Will. Her brows furrowed down with concern as she asked. “Will? What happened, honey?”

“Mom,” Will said, still half-panting, and his heartbeat was still racing. “Mom, do you know anyone named Dumbledore?”

Her brows shot up in confusion. “What?” She asked, like she didn’t really catch what Will just said.

“Dumbledore. Do you know him? Or her?”

Naomi shook her head, still look confused. “No. Not as far as I can remember. Why, Will?”

Will let out a small groaned and looked at the black letters on his arms again.

Sadly, the words stubbornly stayed there without any change.

Man, I can’t believe Dumbledore died.

***

Hazel came into this house 3 years ago, introducing herself as his father’s daughter (long story but it didn’t really matter anyway now because Nico loved her so much). Since then, Nico knew that he there was nothing that he could do to stop Hazel from making his birthday a bigger deal than what Nico thought it was. So Nico was not entirely surprised when it was Hazel shaking his shoulders that woke him up that morning. Annoyed, yes. But not surprised.

“Niiicooo….”

Nico groaned and tried to cover his head.

“Nicooo! Wake up!” Hazel pulled the pillow away from him. “Come on, it’s your birthday!”

Nico would really love it if he could sleep for another fifteen minutes, but he knew that as long as Hazel was there (and oh yes, Hazel would still be there, his siter could really be stubborn and persistent), there was no way he could go back to sleep.

So he sighed, and sat up. He ran both hands over his face. Next to him, Hazel grinned.

“Happy birthday, big brother!” Hazel said and hugged him tightly. She kissed Nico’s cheek and rested her head on Nico’s shoulder. “I love you, Neeks! I’m so lucky to have you in this world.”

Nico chuckled. The irritation of being woken up vanished into the air.

“Thank you, Haze,” he said, smiling softly.

“Now, tell me… Have you got it?” Hazel asked him as she pulled back. Her eyes twinkled with excitement.

Nico blinked. His mind was still hazy from sleep so he had no idea what Hazel was asking about.

“Got what?”

Hazel raised her eyebrows and looked at Nico like she could not believe Nico didn’t remember anything.

“Nico! It’s your fourteenth birthday!”

Oh. Yeah. Fourteen. He’s fourteen now. And?

So he stared back at Hazel, still positively clueless. “Yeah?”

Hazel gasped. “Your soulmate mark! Have you got it?”

Oh. Yeah.

Nico shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, I haven’t checked yet.”

“Nico!”

“What?”

“Check it!”

“Where?”

Hazel flicked her tongue, looking impatient. “Your arm? Usually that’s where the mark showed up. Some people have it in other part but the inner side of your arm is the most common place.”

Nico huffed. He stretched his arm out to Hazel.  “Why don’t you check it for me?”

Hazel squealed. “Can I?’

“Yeah. Sure,” Nico said. He was about to say that he didn’t care anyway, but he saw how Hazel’s face lit up with excitement, he stopped himself from doing so.

Hazel carefully held Nico’s wrist and pulled it closer to her. She leaned her face a little as she studied Nico’s arm. Nico could see that yes, there were some dark pattern marking his skin now, but he looked away from it and fixed his eyes on Hazel’s face, watching her expression.

Hazel gasped. The she squealed in delight as she let go off Nico’s arm and covered her mouth with both hands.

“What?” Nico asked.

Hazel made another squealing noise before she took her hands off from covering her mouth.

“Oh, Nicoooo…” she said and pressed her hands on both of her cheeks.

“What? What is it?” Nico asked again, confused. To be honest he got a little bit concerned now.

“You better read it yourself, Nico,” Hazel said, grinning so wide, her eyes twinkling with some sort of amusement.

Nico brought his arm closer to see what the letters were saying.

He blinked, and read it again. Just in case he didn’t read it correctly the first time.

From where she was sitting. Hazel sighed with a dreamy expression.

“Oh, Nico, you’re soooo lucky. Whoever your soulmate is, they must be a romantic person.”

Nico frowned as he read the words again for the third time. The world was clearly playing a joke on him. That was the only explanation about the words neatly imprinted on his skin.

It’s you. You’re the one.  

***

The insisting knocking sound on his door made Will turned his head.

“Will? Will!” Through the closed door, Will could still recognize his sister’s voice. But she sounded strangely insisting this time.

“It’s not locked!” Will said as he swiveled on his chair.

In just a second, the door swung opened, and Kayla burst in to his room. She held a book in her hand as she half-ran to where Will was sitting.

“Will!” She said. “You have to read this!” She said, stretching out her hand that was holding a book to Will.

Will stared at Kayla. Then he looked at the book that Kayla was holding. There was a picture of a boy riding a broom. The title of the book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone printed on it. He looked back at Kayla. He remembered that Kayla has been fussing about wanting to read that book since it was released two weeks ago.

“Why? Is it like… really good?”

Kayla shook her head. “No. It’s not it. But you really really have to read it by yourself.”

Will chuckled.

“Will, please.” Kayla said. There was something in her expression that looked almost desperate.

“Okay, okay,” Will said and took the book.

“Page eight,” Kayla said. “The last line of the last paragraph. At the bottom of the book.”

Doing what Kayla told him, Will flipped the pages to go to page 8. His eyes went directly to the last paragraph.

Then he froze once he read the line.

This man’s name was Albus Dumbledore.

Will read that line once again. There it was. The name. The name of the person that he has been worrying about for the last two years..

Ever since he got his soulmate mark, Will has spent so much time worrying about someone named Dumbledore, without even a single clue of who this person was. He didn’t even know whether it would be a middle-aged man who worked as an accountant and spent his weekend playing golf, or it’s a nice elderly woman living alone with six cats. He had no idea but he kept on asking people that he just met, whether they knew someone named Dumbledore.

He spent so much time wondering whether this Dumbledore person died peacefully, surrounded by people that they love, or they died alone in a nasty way.

Two years. Two years of worrying over someone, only to find out that the person was this fictional character in a book.

Will didn’t know whether he wanted to cry or laugh about it.

***

“Nico! You have to read this!”

Nico looked up from his guitar to Hazel, who was standing by the door. His sister was holding a book over her chest, and she had that dreamy look again in her eyes.

“What?” he said.

Hazel quickly walked towards his bed, where Nico was sitting with his legs crossed. She sat at the end of the bed.

“This book,” Hazel said as she stretched the book that she was holding to Nico. “It’s.. it’s just amazing! You’re going to love it, Nico!”

Nico put his guitar on the floor, resting against the side of his bed. He took the book from Hazel and read the title. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

“What is it about?” he asked as he started flipping through the pages without really reading it. “Please don’t tell me it’s one of those cheesy romance novels, Haze.”

“Oh, it’s about this fantasy world where wizards were real, Nico. And the wizards go to this special school called Hogwarts, where they study about magic and how to fly on broomstick and making potions. And they were sorted into these houses based on their qualities. And this boy named Harry didn’t know that he was actually a wizard until he was literally flooded by letters, and this huge half-giant named Hagrid told him that he’s a wizard.” Words fell out from Hazel as she gestured with her hands excitedly. “Oh Nico please please read it! I need to talk with you about it! And  tell me about which house do you think you want to be! I want to be in Gryffindor but I also think thatmaybe I should be in Hufflepuff but I don’t know. Oh God I can’t wait until the next book!”

Nico chuckled. He put the book next to his pillow. Hazels’ excitement was something that was just so contagious, Nico could not help but had a small smile as he ruffled her hair.

“Okay, I’ll read it later.”

Hazel smiled widely at him. “You’re going to love it, Nico!”

She stood up from the bed. “Tell me when you finish the book, okay?”

“Okay,” Nico said. Hazel walked out of his bedroom, and carefully closed the door behind her.

Nico played a few other songs on his guitar before he finally got bored. He put his guitar away and looked up at the clock. It’s not that late yet, so he had quite some time before he went to sleep. Nico shrugged his shoulder and picked up the book. After arranging himself on his bed to a more comfortable position, he opened the book, and started reading.

***

Will was torn. He wanted to read the book so badly, but at the same time, he knew that he would probably end up getting hurt, since he knew that one of the most important character would end up dying anyway.

He ended up reading the book anyway.

And of course, he could not help but liking a lot of the characters fondly, including Albus Dumbledore.

Every time Dumbledore showed up in the book, or mentioned, his heart constricted a bit with a vague pain.

Every time he read the word Dumbledore in the book, he could not help but feeling this weird resentment to his soulmate, wherever they were.

Man, I can’t believe Dumbledore died, his soulmate would say one day in the future

Man, I can’t believe you ruined the whole series for me, Will wanted to tell his soulmate.

***

Hazel was right. Nico loved the book. He loved the imaginary world in the book, he loved the idea of wizarding school, he just loved it.

He knew he belonged in Slytherin. He just knew it. Didn’t mean that he approved how the Slytherin boys in the book were portrayed for being some sort of bullies. But the values held by Slytherin? Now those are values that suit him.

He loved the characters. He liked Hermione a lot, even though she might look like a nerd (what was wrong with being smart anyway? Hermione was so damn smart and Nico admired her for that). He loved Neville for bravely standing up. He had a minor crush on Oliver Wood (especially after the first movie was released because damn Wood was hot). And he admired Dumbledore for being a fatherly figure.

***

Will already had a bad feeling when he started reading the sixth book. And the bad feeling grew stronger, creeping as ice cold feeling in his vein as he read how Harry and Dumbledore were on the top of the Astronomy Towers.

Once he read how Snape cast the curse, Will put the book aside.

He knew it. He knew that it’s going to happen.

Still, it hurt.

And Will could not help but to blame his soulmate.

He knew that technically, no, it was not his soulmate’s fault that Dumbledore died.

But the mark that connected them was the reason why Will spent two years worrying about someone’s death without really knowing who that someone was. And it were the words that he would hear from his soulmate that made him could not fully enjoy the Harry Potter series.

So yeah. Will sort of hating his soulmate now.

***

Nico was already upset about Cedric Diggory’s death. He got more upset when Sirius Black died. When he was reading the sixth book, he started having bad feeling when Dumbledore got so terribly sick after drinking that damn potion. The bad feeling turned even worse into nauseating feeling when Dumbledore and Harry were on the Astronomy Power. He had a brief moment of hope when Malfoy became hesitant, but then Snape showed up.

Then Snape cast the spell.

Nico threw the book away, and screamed into his pillow.

Dumbledore died, and he hated it.

It’s been 8 years since he was just a 15 year-old boy who just found the wonderful world of Harry Potter.

Now one of the most important element of that world was just…gone.

And it hurt. It fucking hurt.

Nico screamed his frustration again into his pillow.

***

Will checked his phone to see the time. He knew he was early. Cecil would not be here in this café until at least another thirty minutes. But one of his classes just got cancelled, a very rare occasion to happen in med school.

Will pulled out his notebook and a folder from his bag. Since he started med school two years ago, he knew that it took even more hard work than premed. Spending some spare time doing assignments would always help if he didn’t want to get overwhelmed by his study.

He started doing his assignments for his pharmacology class, and not even ten minutes later, he already got absorbed in it.

He vaguely heard footsteps and the sound of people chattering coming closer to the table where he was sitting by the window. He lifted his head up. Three guys were walking towards the row of tables. One of them was tall with blond hair, another one was also roughly the same height as the blond one, but with jet black hair. The other one was the shortest, with dark hair and wearing a black aviator jacket. Will looked down back at his notes. From the noises and the movement close to him, he knew that those three guys were taking their seats on the table next to him. He was absently tapping the tip of his pen to his chin, reading his notes when he overheard one of the guys that just came in started talking.

“So, what do you guys think about that latest Harry Potter book?”

Will finished reading that book two days ago, but the bitter feeling of reading about Dumbledore’s death was still quite fresh in his mind. He slowly turned his head to the table next to him.

The guy with the black jacket groan, and he said it. He said the words that have been haunting Will’s life for 10 years.

“Man, I can’t believe Dumbledore died.”

***

Nico knew that he was probably over reacting. The death of a fictional character was not supposed to affect him like this. But whatever. He was still so upset that Dumbledore died. He followed Jason and Percy to the row of tables and took their seat on one of the tables. A blond guy was already sitting on the table by the window where they usually sit, so they took the table next to it.

“So, what do you guys think about that latest Harry Potter book?” Percy asked him from across the table.

Next to Nico, Jason chuckled and ruffled his hair.

Nico groaned.

“Man, I can’t believe Dumbledore died,” Nico said.

What happened next was… a bit frantic. Nico heard something fell down on the wooden floor. He thought he saw a notebook now lying on the floor, but before he fully realized about it, he was yanked up by the blond guy that was sitting on the table next to them until two seconds ago.

“It's you! You’re the one!”

For a few moments, it like the world stopped spinning. It’s like the world held its breath as Nico looked up to the blond guy who was still holding his collar.

It’s like he himself forgot how to breathe when he found that a pair of eyes that were staring at him with so much intensity were just so bright, so blue, and so so pretty.

Then it hit him.

Those were the words. Those were the words neatly imprinted in his skin. The words that made his sister sighed and told him how lucky he was that he was destined to have such a romantic soul-mark.

And this blond guy with freckles dusted over his pretty face like gold dust just said the words to him like he was so ready to tear Nico into shreds.

Something warm bubbling inside of Nico that quickly ran in his vein, exploding out into a laughter. Nico just could not help it, but he laughed and laughed and laughed.

The guy seemed to be taken aback, either by what he just did or by Nico’s reaction, Nico could not decide. Not that he care, though.

The blond guy let go of him, and took two steps backward. His tanned skin was blushing furiously now.

Nico slid his hands into the pocket of his jeans.

“You know,” he said as he checking up the guy. “I honestly didn’t expect that those words would be said to me that way.”

Had he only known that his soulmate was this beautiful guy with golden locks of hair and bright blue eyes, Nico might have been less skeptical about this whole soulmate concept.

In front of him, the blond guy - his soulmate - ran a hand over the back of his neck and looked away to the window. Nico wished he didn’t, because damn, those eyes were the bluest of eyes that Nico has ever seen.

“Well,” the blond guy paused and cleared his throat. He slowly turned his head back to Nico, much to Nico’s delight for he could let himself staring at those eyes again, at those perfectly sculptured cheekbones again. “I… I spent two years worrying about this Dumbledore guy before I found out he’s… a fictional character,” he said.

Nico made a cooing sound. “Oh, I apologize for that, pretty boy,” he said. “I am truly sorry. But I’m not the one making the rules, you know.”

The blond guy licked his lower lip. “Uh. Yeah. I guess… Well… Yeah… No. You… You’re not…,” he said, shifting nervously. And again, Nico finding himself thanking the fate to give him such an adorable person as his soulmate.

“So, would you forgive me if I take you out for dinner?” Nico said, winking at him. “Besides, I always thought that those words would be said in… a more romantic way.” Nico added, slightly smirking.

There was a small shy smile curled up on the lips of the blond guy.

“Uhm. Yeah. Sure. Dinner sounds lovely.”

Nico stretched out his hand. “Oh, and I am Nico, by the way. Nico di Angelo.”

The blond guy took his hand and it felt so warm in Nico’s hand as he shook Nico’s hand gently. “I’m Will. Will Solace,” he said, and pulled his hand back.

“Will,” Nico said, tasting the name on his tongue.

He liked it.

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, soulmate,” Nico said, leveling his eyes at Will’s.

The lovely smile on Will’s lips got wider as the corner of those lips tugged up higher. “Nice to meet you too, soulmate.”

“So,” Nico said. “Do you think if we go out to dinner, say…this weekend, you can try to say those words again in a more romantic way, like what I have always thought it would be said?”

Will laughed. And gosh, even his laughter sounded like liquified sunshine. He looked at Nico and those bright blue eyes were smiling too.

“Only if you promise that you would not tell me what would happen in the next Harry Potter book. I’ve had enough of spoilers from you already.”

***

Additional Note: - I once also wrote a Percy/Nico one-shot based on the same prompt. You can read it here if you want - Comments and feedbacks are always welcome. Tell me what you think about this, please :D

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