Mark My Words || DNF Soulmate AU

Chapter 38

When Dream was younger, he promised himself he'd never fall in love.

It's not that he was intense and macho as a child, far from it. Instead, gentle urges from his parents and concerned advice from well-meaning adults told him that he shouldn't try looking for what everyone else seemed to have.

"We respect other people's relationships," his mother had lectured a little sadly, though not without a slight trace of sternness, "Especially something as important as the connection between soulmates."

"We don't like hurting other people, right?" his dad had added from the side, joining in the conversation with a little urgency, "Even if sometimes it might be better for us."

And with big eyes and curious but well-meaning intentions, little Dream nodded and told himself that, no, he'd never want to hurt anyone. That gained the satisfaction of the adults, and so Dream believed he was doing the right thing.

As he grew up, he continued to soak in lessons from youth.

Yeah, the thought of soulmates was nice, to have people destined to be with each other, to be perfectly fitted as lovers and spend forever together 'till death do them apart.

Dream wasn't sure how it actually worked out in real life, and he wasn't sure he wanted or needed to know.

Did they never have conflicts?

What if something caused one person to change completely?

What if some really crazy thing happened and someone fell in love with someone they thought was their soulmate, but then it turned out they weren't?

Dream let worst-case scenarios pass through his mind, shuddered, and decided that he wouldn't concern himself with a subject that had nothing to do with him in the first place. He'll just stay out of the whole soulmark business and let other people figure it out.

He looked at the grapes, gaslit himself into believing it was sour, and shrugged as he left.

And so Dream never fell in love, and it was easy.

What wasn't easy was watching everyone else fall.

In movies, in books, in games, and even the occasional real-life event, Dream watched and watched as fate brought people together and stitched them as a perfect, happy couple into the fabric of time. The proudly matching marks on couples holding hands on the street, a famous movie scene where it was revealed that the villain and hero were soulmates all along, a friend's unbridled joy at the possibility of having found their soulmate.

Themes of love and fate seemed to be entrenched in the world he lived in.

And then there was Dream, who hated showing parts of his face to people and wore a band-aid to avoid uncomfortable conversations.

And then there was Dream, who never had the comfort of knowing there was someone out there he could rely on one day.

And then there was Dream, who had nothing to do with anything.

The hurt of being left out got better eventually, and at some point, he even believed he got over it. He found video games to fill the hole in his heart, loved the anonymity being online provided him, and felt like he had a place in the world at last. It was his safe haven. Love couldn't reach him there now, could it?

Love did find him, but not in the romantic way he had always grown up expecting.

Love found him in the dedication and passion he had in perfecting a skill, found him in the hours he'd spend in friendly competitions with strangers on the internet, and found him in the form of Sapnap, his best friend and brother.