IF I LOVED YOU: rwrb

attached to my chest

a gift for accol on AO3!
this was meant to be posted on Jan 1 for the RWRB New Year's Gift Exchange!!! unfortunately, i've been so insanely busy this last month in my personal life. i just came back from an emergency out-of-town trip, but i made sure to keep writing when i had the time!
anyways! the prompt was a "red string of fate or soul marks" au, and i was surprised to realize i actually havent written many soulmate aus??? so i needed to change that.
happy new year!! lets go 2024!!!! (let's just ignore the fact it's an election year. god i wish ellen claremont were real)

—

The red string of fate isn't so much a string, but more of an illusion. Something that doesn't truly exist, but your eyes perceive it anyway; as if you're staring at a huge blue sky, or looking into a bright light for too long. Those strange shadows or colorful blobs that fill your vision.

With all that being said, you can still feel it. The string grows taut around your left ring finger, pulling you closer and closer until you're within reaching distance. Or maybe it's loose and relaxed, knowing that your soulmate is halfway across the world and there's nothing you can do to change it.

For as long as he can remember, Alex's has been like that: slack and never moving. It always pointed to the east, and the times it changed were never for long. He always assumed it'd break one day — just like his parents', just like June's. Sure, maybe he shouldn't be so annoyed by it — he's only eighteen, for God's sake — but it's been eighteen years of nothing, and he's getting kind of bored of it. Maybe if it broke, he could get a new soulmate, like how his mom has Leo and how June has Nora. Or maybe he just couldn't get one at all, because really? Soulmates are bullshit.

But even through all that, there is still somehow a sliver of hope somewhere tucked under layers of rib and muscle deep inside his heart.

Which is why, when he feels the string tighten for the first time in years, he jolts in surprise.

"Calm down, Alejandro," Nora elbows him in the side.

Alex rolls his eyes and glances down at his hand. Sure enough, the string is there, as always. It's hard to see clearly in the stadium's cool shadows, but the sun's soft beams make it glow pink. He feels a shiver run up his spine.

When Alex heard the Summer Olympics were being held in Rio, he was expecting it to be warmer — but then he remembered this is the South Hemisphere. It's not even that cold, he's just a born-and-raised Texan. And yet, here he is, shivering in 55° weather under the watchful gaze of...

He sighs. As much as he's loved following the campaign trail, it still feels a bit weird having the media's eyes on his family. But he's getting used to it, he thinks — he hopes. He revels in the attention, but now that he's at his first big event of his mom's not-yet-presidency, he realizes that he actually has no idea what he's doing.

There's another tug at his finger, and it somewhat annoys him. Out of everything that's happening today, soulmate drama was not on his list. He's lost all sense of direction and doesn't know where the string is headed, but he's certain it shouldn't be pulling.

He tries to ignore it. He looks straight ahead, stares at the blue sky above the algae-green pool, and waits for June to return with a tray of caipirinhas.

And then Nora gasps in his ear. She's staring at something across the aisle of seats. "Shit, I forgot the prince was coming here. What the fuck."

Alex begrudgingly turns his attention back to her. "Of England?"

"Damn! We're really famous now, eh? Dining it out with royalty," she shimmies her shoulders and wiggles her eyebrows. "June!" she exclaims and frantically waves her over. "C'mere, Alex needs liquid courage ASAP."