Hiraeth: Sabriel Oneshots

Stripes

Sup, hoomans? It me. Back in black. Dead on arrival.

Making puns, as usual.

I'm starting this after watching Trolls. My little sister forced us to watch it as a family, and I just need to write before I stare at the wall, shaking and muttering about glitter.

Too happy, too bright, and way too blindingly peppy and scarring for my taste.

AU where everyone's born with two stripes around their wrist. One for your soulmate's hair color (that changes as theirs does) and one for their eye color.

This one's gonna be LOOOONG. Also, Sam is selectively mute. Ok, read on. I'll stop keeping you from the fic.

Sam stared down at the stripes on his wrist. The two of them looped over each other in delicate, everlasting swirls.

He would constantly look at them when he was nervous, as if he could draw courage from his soulmate with just a simple glance at his wrist. That's what he was doing now - calming himself before he and Dean walked into the new school.

The two stripes were different shades of the same beautiful hue. Sam had spent hours studying them, and here he was again.

One of them, the thicker one that would be his soulmate's hair color, was a golden brown, almost like a hawk's feathers. It had a sheen to it, a slight shimmer that caught in the morning sunlight and set it aglow.

The second stripe, a tad thinner, was a lighter tone. This one was like liquid gold mixing with melted chocolate, flecked every so gently with the smallest slivers of peridot. It glittered with an almost mischevious appeal.

"Sammy, stop staring at your stripes." Dean's voice cut through his trance and he looked up with a start, meeting his brother's emerald eyes. "Nervous?"

Sam nodded. "New school. Shouldn't I be nervous?" he signed, tilting his head.

***

All morning long, Gabe had been bouncing around the office, waiting for the new kid to show. Cas had gotten fed up with him early on, scoffing and sitting in a chair, ocean eyes locked on the dark, blonde and brown stripe that paired with a dark, vibrant green one across his wrist.

Not that Gabe could talk. He'd spent more time memorizing the exact color and gentle lull of the stripes on his own skin that he had ever spent paying attention in his classes.

There was just something mystifying about the stripes. One was a rich, chocolate brown that was pretty simple, but the other one was so much more complicated. It was like a jungle, taking the shades of green from the plants, the smooth blues from the water in the river, and the fertile, bold browns from the bark and the ground, and merging them into a hypnotizing mess of color.

He couldn't wait to know those eyes someday.

"Gabriel," called the secretary, Mrs. Hudson. "Change of plans, sweetie. You won't need to show the new boy around. Lucifer has it covered."

Gabe stopped bouncing, whirling on her with a frown. "What? Why?"

The lady sighed. "We've been informed that the kid is mute, and Lucifer is the only one that signs in your grade."

Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong... WRONG. DOUBLE WRONG.

Gabe's been a master of sign since he was nine, when he had a best friend in a state over that couldn't hear. But, of course, he'd never told anyone, and he wasn't going to.

So instead, he simply nodded and exited the office, not bothering to say goodbye to his brother in the corner, or hello to his cousin that was taking over his job.