Work Text:
You regret not getting a car when you moved to the city. Friends had raved about the convenience of public transportation. That traffic is a jam packed nightmare. You can’t say you agree with the trade off. Getting stuck in traffic with heating, a podcast, and a barrier between you and everyone else doesn’t sound half bad.
But no, your committed to a packed subway and another half hour in the freezing cold. At least until you can muster the energy to do car shopping. Energy your not going to have by the time you get home because your wasting it trying not to freeze to death.
You check your phone for the time. The soulmark on your wrist stands out against your freezing skin, ungloved because of your rush for work this morning.
You haven’t had much luck finding your soulmate. Your soulmark seems to imply you start the conversation, but could apply to a lot of situations. No name, location, or common phrase to follow.
You think it’s for the best you can’t go looking for your soulmate. You’ve seen people do some crazy things trying to create the situation where they’ll find their soulmate.
You have a friend whose shown you her soulmark, printed across her upper back.
You've been studying for 16 hours without a break, please go get some food or something, I need to close up.
She’s betting on meeting them at her college. You can’t tell if she would have naturally been a workaholic or if pursuing her soulmark has shaped her into one.
You’ve decided that you’d rather not do anything crazy based on your soulmark and let it happen when it happens.
In your peripheral vision, your eye catches a bright, neon yellow monstrosity of a shirt.
God dammit it’s Darrel!
You try to speed walk to the corner, but your panic dash has made him catch sight of you. Now he’s waving over at you and waiting at the crosswalk to come over and talk.
You do not want to talk to him, but he’s already got you in his sights. You start brainstorming reasons you could give him that you had to get home soon. Unfortunately, you’ve done that song and dance enough to know it won’t work.
He’s tone-deaf to the point that you almost want to accuse him of doing it on purpose. You fear the reality he might genuinely not understand why you don’t want to go out with him.
He’s been waiting after every shift attempting to ask you out, and you couldn’t get him to back off. You had attempted to reason with him. You sat with him at lunch to explain your attitude towards soulmates and dating. That you hated the idea of breaking your soulmates heart if they saw you with someone else. You also didn’t want to be the ‘other woman’ to Darrel's soulmate if he met his.
After spilling your metaphorical guts out to him, he had grabbed your hand. And he completely misinterpreted what you had said like you were some sweet summer child. He assured you that it didn’t have to be anything serious if your worried about your soulmate, or his. That plenty of people messed around before they found their soulmate. That it wasn’t a big deal to him, so it shouldn’t be a big deal to you.
You stormed out of lunch that day, headed straight to your boss to try and report him for harassment. He hadn’t seen an issue with the situation. That was the final straw for you, and you had put in your two week notice. You made sure to leave extra early or extra late every day after. Anything to make sure you wouldn’t have to see him.
You don’t care what other people did before or after meeting their soulmates, because it was none of your business. It was none of Darrel’s business what you did before you met your soulmate either. And he had no right to tell you how to feel about your soulmate, or look down on you for wanting to wait.
You’ve never used your idea of soulmates to look down on others. And wanting to wait for your soulmate doesn’t mean your a prude. You plan on having tons of sex with your soulmate. If they want too. and if they don’t you’ll still love them and be their squish but that’s not the point!
The point is your feeling desperate and impulsive and want to scream at that asshole that your not interested in him.
You come up with a risky idea.
He’s made it clear he’s not backing off as long as your ‘on the market’. You've tried just about everything to communicate you aren’t interested. Quitting your job wouldn’t do you much good if Darrell discovered where you lived. He had already tried to walk you back to your home before. You had always reasoned it was in the opposite way to his place and not worth his time. He could start harassing you outside of work.
You spot someone in a side alleyway. They finished hefting a giant trash bag into the dumpster like it weighs nothing. You think about your idea for a second, wondering if this is a bad idea. Is it really worth it to kiss a stranger?
You know what, yes, you would rather kiss a stranger than have to spend another second around Darrell. It helps that the stranger is a very attractive looking monster. He has a tough guy vibe with his dark clothes and gold chains. You reason he will play along with your gambit for shits and giggles.
You swiftly walk up to him, grab him by the jacket and move so that you are leaning back against the brick, dragging him with you.
“There’s a guy harassing me that I’m trying to lose, mind playing along?” and before you can second guess yourself you lean in and kiss him. He makes a sharp gasp and you start to lean back. Okay, kissing strangers without explicit consent was a bad, impulsive idea. Now Darrel is going to run into you profusely apologizing to a stranger for ever trying to be spontaneous.
Your thought spiral stops with him cupping the back of your head and reciprocating the kiss. His other hand grips your hip, leaning his body into you. He pins you against the brick. The cold wall seeping into your clothes and contrasting with the heat he was giving off at your front. The sigh you release from the sensation is taken advantage of when you discover he has a tongue. A hot, dexterous tongue that twists in your mouth in a way that makes you see stars.
Your so lost in the moment you barely notice the sound of Darrell trying to get your attention. Is he trying to interrupt you now!?
The skeleton seems to agree as he growls into the kiss, and your mortified at the noise you make when he does. He releases you from the best kiss of your life and turns around to glare at your coworker.
“ya fuckin mind?”
Your coworkers attempts to interrupt fizzles out from the skeleton’s murderous glare. Fuck, if you hadn’t already been making out with the guy you would kiss him for making Darrell finally shut up.
Darrell, for once in his life, is able to read the room. He scrambles away without a single comment of ‘catching up later’ or ‘seeing you in the morning’.
The skeleton monster, who is still pinning you to the wall, turns back to you. His blazing red eye lights illuminating his grin. He leans in and you wonder if he’s going to continue kissing you.
“been waitin’ to do that for a long time, sweetheart.” He recited your soul mark.
Your mind goes blank, you have no idea what to do. You’ve thought of a million different ways you could have met your soulmate, and none of them added up to this.
“Yeah?” you say, still a little dazed.
“wasn’t exactly what i was expectin’. always thought i’d be beating up some stalker for ya.”
The reality of how your meeting with your soulmate has gone comes crashing down on you. You bury your face in your hands in shame.
“Oh my god I’m so sorry, that was so impulsive and stupid—” Your rambling is interrupted by his hands gently prying your hands away from your face.
“hey, i ain’t complainin’, don’t beat yourself up over it.”
He steps away from caging you to the wall. You feel silly for wanting to immediately curl back into him with the cold returning. he moves to your side, matching your stance of leaning against the wall. Well, he’s leaning in a cool, relaxed way. Your still mentally two steps back from this clusterfuck of a first meeting.
“so, who was the shrimp” he asks, giving you time to step back to the present. Your first instinct is to throw Darrell under the bus and rant about how much of a creep he’s being. But, you don’t want to come off as even more hysterical to your soulmate, so you try to reign in.
“He’s”—the guy that can’t take a fucking hint? The jackass that keeps harassing you? The bane of your existence—”a coworker.”
“hmm. could still beat him up if ya want?” he offers with a wicked grin.
Your taken off guard with the casual proposal. Nothing about why you would be running from a coworker. Whether Darrell was actually a bad guy. Or if you had tried hard enough to turn him down? Or why you even want to turn him down. Just unquestioning support in your opinion?
Your taking too long to say no.
“I shouldn’t have to see him anymore since I’m planning on quitting that job.”
“damn, you like the job?”
“Not particularly. Even if they do deal with him later, I’d rather not stay at a job where I can’t rely on my boss to have my safety in mind.”
“gotta love a woman who knows her worth. you sure he ain’t gonna harass ya outside of work?”
You shuffle yourself closer so his body is shielding you from the chill funneling into the alley.
“I didn’t think so before, but he just tried to. Kind of why I was desperate for him to know I wasn’t walking alone. I don’t usually do stuff like that, I promise”
“heh, you can do me whenever you want, sweetheart.”
You hope the cold is hiding your blush, but you assume not from his proud grin.
You share your name, arm extended for a handshake in the hopes of distracting him from your flustering. Oh who are you kidding, you had his tongue in your mouth a minute ago, you can’t convince him your normal.
“i’m sans. sans the skeleton.” He follows along with your facade of normality, engulfing your hand in his large, warm one.
“ya mind if i walk with ya back to yours? that guy might be waitin’ for ya.”
“I’d really appreciate that.” you reply, and you are. Your still a little paranoid Darrell is going to lose his social awareness and come back.
“If you want, I have snacks and a movie ready in celebration of quitting. It could also be the first thank you for going along with all of that?” fuck yeah, your so smooth! perfect segue to get to know your soulmate.
Or maybe not? is it to soon to invite him to your house? Sure, he just had his tongue down your throat, but he might not be comfortable going with you. Or he might find a night in boring.
“couldn’t think of a better way to end the night.” he replies as he tucks you against his side. You wrap your arm around his and start leading the way back to your apartment.
“maybe you can show me yer soulmark while we’re there.” he purrs.
You’re disappointed your soulmark isn’t in a sexier place. Your wonder if you can convince him to explore further as the night goes on. Maybe you can convince him to show off his soulmark. Especially if the femur is the bone you think it is.