Work Text:
Everyone has a soulmate.
Everyone has that special someone that they would want to spend the rest of their lives with. All you had to do was find that one special someone, or two in some cases. But that was easier said than done, and that is why in this world everyone was born with a tattoo to make it a little easier.
The tattoo said the thing that was the first thing you would say when you found your soulmate. A tattoo that could be anywhere on your body that could say literally anything. Some people had words written across their forehead that would say 'damn, they're hot' or 'What are you looking at?'
For some people the tattoo was better hidden, sometimes it was on your upper leg or on your stomach. But everyone had one, just like everyone had a soulmate. Some people would go around searching for their soulmates, searching for a response that would fit their own tattoo.
A lot of people walked around with something simple like 'hi' tattooed on their body. A simple greeting. Grian envied those people, he would love to have a tattoo as simple as 'hi'. A short word that could be said to anyone, a word that really didn't mean anything about your soulmate.
Instead he had the word 'motherfucker' tattooed on his arm.
On his arm from his wrist to the middle of his arm in big letters was that word. It had been there for as long as he could remember but god did he wish it wasn't. Everyone who saw it would laugh, telling him that it probably meant that Grian would hate his soulmate, that they were doomed to fail.
And eventually Grian started believing them.
Because really why would the first word that he said to his soulmate be motherfucker? He had asked this question to himself about a million times and he still hadn't come up with an answer that he liked.
Every day he would go out and he would be forced to look at the tattoo, having no idea what it really meant. He would see other people, even friends, all with better tattoos on them. Jimmy and Scott had the same one, in the same place. On both of their wrists you could see a small 'hello'
It connected them even more than other soulmates they'd say.
Grian would roll his eyes whenever he heard them say it. Whenever they did say they would hold hands and stare into each other's eyes with that stupid loving look.
Then there were Joel and Lizzie, Joel with 'who is that girl?' tattooed on his ankle. And Lizzie with her 'Do you think he's staring at me?' on her back. Both of those were better than the word 'motherfucker' unfortunately Grian was the person with that tattoo.
At the moment Grian was in a cafe with Lizzie, Joel, Tango, Scott and Jimmy. His eyes had wandered over to one of their tattoos, reminding him of his own once again. Scott, Tango and Jimmy were ordering something for the group while the rest of them waited and chatted.
The group had decided to meet at this particular cafe, they would quickly order something before walking to the beach to hang out there. "Okay, we have to wait like twenty minutes before our food will be done" Tango informed the group as he joined them again, Scott and Jimmy close behind him.
"Twenty minutes?" Joel whined, complaining not too loud as to not let the workers hear him. "He ordered for ten people, what did you expect?" Scott asked, pulling out his phone before saying "Gem and Pearl are just around the corner"
About a minute later the two of them walked in, saying some stupid excuse for why they were late. Not that Grian was listening to that, no he was distracted by their tattoos. A 'Could you help me?' on Pearl's hand and a 'of course' on Gem's shoulder.
The two of them had met at school where Gem had been working and Pearl had innocently asked for help with some of her work thinking that Gem seemed to know what to do. After that it took the two an annoyingly long time to realize they were each other's soulmates.
But eventually they figured it out and they have been together ever since.
They joined the group and Jimmy assured them they'd ordered something for them. Soon after Impulse, Tango and Skizz also joined them. All of them with their own soulmate tattoo. A 'That guys are idiots' on Tango, a 'I should not have done that' on Skizz and a 'You okay up there?' on Impulse.
Their tattoos had been confusing at first until they actually met. When they met Skizz had climbed into a tree and gotten stuck, he mumbled the words under his breath looking at his soulmates without even realizing it. Impulse had walked by and screamed 'You okay up there?
Later Tango had walked by and had seen Skizz trying to get out of the tree with Impulse's encouragements and directions. He had mumbled 'those guys are idiots' before he started helping them. Eventually they got the man out and Skizz treated them to lunch.
The idiots soon realized what they had said and realized what was going on.
Grian even envied them, having 'they're an idiot' on him still sounded way better than 'motherfucker'.
The door to the cafe opened right when Grian was deep in thought. He was half listening to the conversation that was going around him. But he was completely brought back to reality when pain erupted from his foot. He jumped up and down while reaching for his toes, looking at what had caused it.
Someone had passed him, someone in a wheelchair. That person had driven over his poor foot "Motherfucker" Grian said without thinking about it. A "Sorry" came from the person in the wheelchair but he kept going forward. Around Grian his friends were laughing their asses off at his pain.
"Not funny" Grian said, still hopping around on one foot. "Oh but it is" Joel said, the only person that wasn't laughing was Grian's sister Pearl. Instead she was staring at him "What?" He asked defensively, finally standing on two feet again.
"What did you just say?" She asked, Grian looked at her as if she was crazy. "I told you that this isn't funny" He responded, but Pearl shook her head "Before that"
"I-" Grian thought back to what he had said, motherfucker. At first Grian thought that Pearl was scolding him before he realized what she actually meant. He stared down at the words on his arm "Motherfucker" he repeated, looking at the man in the wheelchair.
"Motherfucker" He repeated again, looking at Pearl. Pearl nodded "Motherfucker, motherfucker, motherfucker" he kept saying it, was the man in the wheelchair really his soulmate? Could it be? "Do you think that-" Grian asked Pearl but Pearl was already nodding "It has to be" she said.
Grian turned towards the man and walked over to him, the man in the wheelchair looked up "Motherfucker" Grian said, pointing at him. The man also had a visible tattoo, his located on the side of his neck. The man looked to the side at his friend revealing the tattoo to Grian 'sorry' it said.
The man looked back at Grian "What?" he asked, Grian repeated the word "Motherfucker" he said, showing the man his arm and therefore his tattoo.The man looked confused before realization came over him "Come sit down" he said, pointing at the last empty chair at the table.
Grian did and the two started talking, ignoring the people around them.
"Hey, what's Grian doing?" Jimmy asked when he noticed that the man had taken a seat at a random table and was now talking with some random people. Pearl placed a hand on his shoulder, she had a smile on her face as she said "He's meeting his motherfucking soulmate"