Work Text:
Ruth hated her soulmate. She had no idea who they were but whoever was rude enough to say “Fuck you!” to someone at first sight was clearly not a person she wanted to know, let alone spend her life with.
She has had her soulmark her entire life and that did not make growing up any easier. Most kids had a simplistic “Hey there” or a romantic “Wow, you’re the prettiest person I’ve ever laid eyes on” but not her, no sir, she was stuck with a swear. One of the worst swears, young Ruth was told by the older kids. Of course, this made her akin to a zoo animal in school with her peers just staring at her and commenting about her, but never talking to her.
What made it worse is that it wasn’t just a “Dammit, I stubbed my toe,” the swear was clearly directed at her. Kids bullied her all throughout school and as she grew into adulthood, she had to learn to get used to the pitying stares of others whenever she wore a short-sleeve shirt, which became increasingly less often as she aged.
Her tattoo made her dream job all the harder to achieve. Yes, makeup artists usually covered the soulmarks of actors and actresses and even created new ones atop the makeup for the fictional love interest. That wasn’t the issue. The problem was that people saw her soulmark and instantly felt wary around her. If the person that is supposed to love her the most would say that to her on first meeting her, what does that say about who she is? She must be an awful person, right? Definitely not worth the trouble of finding out, that’s for sure.
Ruth was just leaving another failed audition after the casting director learned of her soulmark. Her head hung low as she weaved through the throng of people— and suddenly someone had collided with her!
“Fuck you!” First she was shocked, this was it! This was him! But that surprise quickly turned to anger.
“OH! SO YOU’RE THE MOTHERFUCKER WHO GAVE ME THE WORST FUCKING SOULMARK EVER! WELL GUESS WHAT? I WILL NEVER LET THIS GO. THERE IS NOTHING WORSE THAN HAVING THE WORDS “Fuck you!” PERMANENTLY MARKED ON YOUR SKIN!”
The man in front of her is just nodding along to each word like he’s already memorized what she was saying before she ever said it. He snapped out of it once she finished and rolled up his sleeve.
“Well imagine having that fucking essay written on you in caps-lock.” His arm was more soulmark than it was tanned skin as Ruth saw every word she just said etched onto this man’s arm.
“Oh my god. I’m sorry, I mean, my soulmark was pretty shitty but that… sorry! Oh, right, I’m Ruth. I’m so sorry, it’s just been a bad day and a lot of pent up anger, I guess.”
“Fuck. No, I get it. Everyone has bad days right? Want to grab a drink? I’m Sam, by the way.”
Normally, Sam would just continue to flip out and yell, it was who he was, there was no changing it now, but he found himself more calmed then he ever has after being screamed at. He won’t chalk it up to some soulmate magic shit like some others would, but damn. He’s over fifty years old. He gave up on the chance that he’d ever meet his soulmate, figured they died or something. He got married, and later divorced. It is more than fair to say that Sam is in complete shock, internally. This was truly something he never expected to happen.
The girl in front of him was not his usual type. He usually went for dimwitted models or actresses that had little between their ears and didn’t ask dumb questions like ‘What are we?’ or else women in power, for obvious reasons. This woman was different. She looked a little meek, but clearly had a feisty side as well. She had on a brown sweater, a little big for her petite frame, but she made it look cute. She had brown curly hair and the biggest blue eyes he has ever seen in his life. Seriously, he felt like he was staring up at the sky and drowning in the ocean at the same time.
And now he had to think of a bar to go to that he still had a decent reputation at.