You Reap What You Sow (Norminah AU)

Let Them Grow

"Oh my God, I feel so sorry for you." It was something Normani Kordei heard often, a constant reminder of the floral explosion on her skin. People would take one look at her and shake their heads, like she was so broken she could never be repaired. But they really didn't feel sorry for her, they felt sorry for her soulmate, they felt bad that Normani would have a soulmate with scars all over their body....and that much pain in their heart.

The first one appeared when she was only six, she woke up with a deep aching pain on her left rib, and she ran into her parents room begging for them to make it stop. They held her hand as a large red rose tattoo formed across her ribs.

"M-Mommy....what is that?"

"It's your soulmate's scar. One day when you find your partner, they will have a scar where your rose is."

Normani grew up being teased for her flowers, because she had more than the other kids who had only a few lilacs or roses on their arms and knees, while she had red and purple carnations and irises coating her legs and torso. The flowers would follow random bouts of pain that would leave Normani withering in the sandbox during recess, or screaming into her pillow during nap time. She remembers one girl crying at lunch because a bright orange peony sprouted on her left cheek, and all the students consoled her while Normani was dealing with that type of pain on a daily basis.

Her taunting nickname went from "flower pot" to "pot head" as she entered high school. Her only friend, Lauren, defended her when she wasn't being bullied herself, and their bond quickly transformed into something romantic. They both knew they weren't each other's soulmates, but they somehow made it work.

"Do you ever think that your soulmate will die before you meet them?" Lauren inquires one day as they were cuddling on her bed watching a movie neither one of them were really paying attention to.

"Why would you ask that?" Normani frowns quizzically.

A shaky sigh. A long pause. Avoided eye contact.

"Your flowers...." Lo trails off as she traces a small yellow carnation on Mani's collarbone.

"There's so many of them, whoever your soulmate is has a lot of scars...what if....what if you get a nightshade before you even meet them?"

"If they die then I won't have all these stupid flowers on me anymore."

That was the end of the conversation.

As Normani grew older, some of her  flowers began to fade and disappear, as well as her relationship with Lauren. Lauren found her soulmate right after they graduated high school, a brown-eyed English major that scars and anecdotes of pain matched Lauren's roses and dandelions. Normani broke up with Lauren shortly after because she felt guilty about from keeping her away from her soulmate, and it would be selfish to hold on to her. Normani soon made a new friend named Allyson in college, who had also yet to find her soulmate, and had a bright pink rose on her neck and purple lilacs randomly on her legs and couple on her hands. Normani thought she looked beautiful, her flowers weren't too big and noticeable like hers, and they complimented her well.

"Ally...what if I don't find them? What if I am just stuck with these flowers without ever finding out their story?" Normani inquires, shuddering at the fearful thought. She had heard tales of people who never found their soulmate, that forever wandered the earth without anyone to tend to their garden.