Chapter Text
Human History: A Brief Overview of Soulmates
The exact reason for the emergence of soulmates is, even today, unclear. The only clear thing on the matter is that they have been around for as long as humans have recorded their existence. Ancient glyphs of the traditional soulmate pattern have been found in a variety of excavated sites to date. The number only continues to grow evermore.
So far the reigning theory behind their evolution is simply that those who are soulmates were able to function much better on an instinctual level. The bond between these two humans would be stronger than that of other human couplings. Therefore any challenges or dangers they might have faced would have a higher chance of being overcome should they be together. Intern there would be a higher likelihood of offspring being sired by these individuals, thus passing along the theoretical soulmate gene successfully to future generations.
The actual soulmate mark is a very intricate and faintly understood system. The vast majority of marks follow the tradition that when two individuals have their skin meet each other for the first time, a visible mark will appear. Should they be soulmates, the area affected is only the area where skin on skin contact occurs. What typically follows is best described as a stained glass painting. Rarely are actual pictures depicted, but they are hosts to vibrant splashes of color which are bordered by one, typically monochrome, shade.
The marks appear within seconds of the initial contact and any skin contact issued between an about two second window will gain a vibrant mark. These marks stay with the individual for life and are matching, showing with undeniable proof that these two individuals are each other's missing half.
Therefore, such marks come in various shapes and sizes along with a variety of locations. However, the most common ones are around the forearm or hand. In recent generations, some have attempted to create more intricate soulmark drawings, but it is rare enough to find one's soulmate and in the end most are not well executed. More often than not the acquisition of a soulmark is by accident.
After the marks have settled, there is no changing, no due over, no recreation of the mark. They will stay as they are for the entirety of the individual's life. The only time that they change is when one half of the bond dies. The living half will see their mark drain of color until they are shades of black and white. It is common in previously bonded individuals where the grief of losing one half of their soul sends them to their death very soon after. However, the life that is said to have been lived when your soulmate is by your side is said to be greater than any risk of a theoretically earlier death.
Most individuals today strive to find their soulmate. The other half of their soul and to build a beautiful life. Cultures adopt festivals, many multiple times a year, where individuals from far away places come together so that one may find the other half of their soul. Soulmates are celebrated in the vast majority of cultures. And as the world grows closer together and becomes more interconnected, the chances of finding your soulmate continue to increase.
Within this section, I will delve deeper into the theoretical and proven aspects of soulmates and soul marks.
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The blood and sweat had barely dried on Soap’s uniform before he was off the plane, past medical, and at Simon's door. He wasted no time in banging on it loudly and rattling the handle to see if it was unlocked.
Simon has been given plenty of time. Between the operation that he had gone on which went south, to the time he spent in medical recovering, nearly a month had passed since he had come face to face with Ghost when both of them were conscious and the state where they were able to talk about the elephant in the room. The elephant being that they were very clearly soulmates, and Simon had decidedly run from Johnny in the opposite direction ever since that revelation.
Soap would admit that he was hurt at first. Who wouldn’t be when there chosen looks at them with such abject horror and fear before running in the other direction permanently. He half expected to wake up the next morning and see that Ghost had either transferred units or when as far as to leave the military.
He understood the reservations Ghost had about being fated to someone. The man quite literally thought himself a ghost and someone incapable of loving and unworthy of being loved. The fact that he had even allowed their relationship to get so close in the first place was a shock to any who had seen it first hand.
But clearly to none more so than The Ghost.
Soap woke up the night after the incident, as he had been taken to calling it, and was heartbroken to learn that Ghost had left in a solo op. Ghost had rarely taken solo operations anymore. Typically going with one of the 141 or all of them. It also hurt knowing that he asked for this assignment. But still, Ghost had to come back. No solo operation would span for forever and Soap prayed that Ghost was not so negatively affected that he would throw himself into the mission and take it as a suicidal one.
The following two weeks was filled with dread, horror, and hurt as more information about Ghost's mission became available to Soap. The mission had gone bad. It was rushed with intel that was incomplete. He was pinned down and had blacked out his comms. By the time Ghost was finally able to be extracted, it had been two weeks, a week and a half longer than the length of the mission originally. Johnny was fortunate enough to see them wheel Ghost off the helicopter on a medical stretcher before being taken straight into emergency surgery. He was barely conscious at the time, but he was awake enough to recognize Soap as he was with him for those precious few seconds. Ghost had tried to reach for him but was whisked away too quickly.
It had been that small action that had renewed Johnny’s hope that Ghost would come back to him.
But Soap could never just sit around and wait. He needed to do something otherwise he was going to lose his mind. So when Laswell had a mission for the remainder of the 141 to clean up the cell that caused so much pain and harm to Ghost, it was quick to accept. Anything to make those who hurt his soulmate pay.
What Soap didn’t take into account that this banging on his soulmates door was at about three in the morning and the other two members are the 141 had come back from the mission earlier and were fast asleep. That is until Soap woke them up with a ruckus so loud you would think the base was being raided.
Soap only stopped when Price’s hand was laid on his shoulder. The tiring look at the man gave Soap made him realize that whatever Price had to say to him was not good news.
“Please tell me the bastard didn’t transfer,” Johnny bit out.
Price took a deep and heavy breath. “No he didn’t. He’s on medical leave for the foreseeable future. Currently at home, tending to his injuries“
“And ye approved it?! After all I- we went through te get ‘im back, ye allowed him to keep running?“ Johnny was beyond frustrated with Simon at this point. The man was as intangible as his name suggested, and Johnny was not having it anymore. He was sick and tired of his soulmate running and them not even having a chance to talk.
Now he was also irate at Price. The man may have had the excuse at one point, not knowing Simon was Johnny's soulmate when he sent Simon on that dreaded solo op. But he became quickly aware of the reason that Ghost suddenly, after months of working together as a team, requested an immediate solo op. And now that Johnny was finally back on solid ground and Simon had woken up, Price allowed him to run again.
It seemed that Price was well aware of this too if the look on his face with anything to go by. Price understood Ghost better than the rest of the 141 could about why the man did what he did sometimes. That didn’t mean that he had the right to continue to allow Ghost to do what he had in the past. Especially when it hurts others.
And Johnny was sick and tired of not being able to speak to Simon and the address what had been eating him up alive for a month.
When faced with a choice of keeping Johnny on base and risking whatever Johnny’s rightly irate mood would conjure up for however long Ghost was on leave, or giving Johnny emergency leave to go see Simon, the choice seemed clear.
“Clean up and pack your bag, sergeant. I’ll give you Ghost’s address.”
Johnny was finally going to catch Simon and they were going to have a talk. No matter how painful and uncomfortable this talk was going to be because he couldn’t stand another second not knowing.
Johnny was coming for Simon. Whether or not he was ready.