#between learning the language himself and spending so long around argit

[kariachi]

Am having potential Erinaen language thoughts and how spending years with an Argit may have affected Kevin's speech patterns, and vis versa how spending so long with a Kevin may have affected Argit's

[kariachi]

Well damnit somebody had to write one of those “soulmark” stories for this fandom. Note that this has my own spin on things, so know that this is less a love story so much as it is a finding family story.

Not really complete because I couldn’t think of an ending.

Kevin is born with his first soulmark.

It’s not that strange, a lot of people have soulmates who are older than them by enough to have a signature when they’re born, but the fact that nobody can read it is. The writing is legible, though small, but the letters are strange. His grandparents spend their free time in the first three months of his life trying to figure out what language it is, where this first soulmate is from.

Then he and Eric’s powers come in.

Then they get sick.

Eric dies.

Nobody bothers anymore.

~~

Kevin isn’t bothered by not knowing, he’s young and innocent and all he cares about is that the letters are there, printed neatly under his collarbone. That someone out there has a part of his soul.

He can’t wait to meet them.

~~

The next mark appears when he’s two and he too young to even think of reading it. His cousins assure him that the letters hardly even count as such and refuse to read it for him.

~~

By the next year he’s figuring out reading himself and this soulmate’s writing has improved. Kevin is more than happy to walk around daycare telling everyone he has a soulmate named Peter.

~~

That same year another one appears across his right palm. It’s another one where he doesn’t know the letters, and like the first he can’t find them no matter what languages he looks up.

He starts trying to learn new languages anyway, just in case.

~~

At four years old, Kevin spends more time than the daycare workers would like perfecting his signature. Everybody can write their first name, but he does the entire thing, repeating it over and over so it can be neater and cleaner.

Sometimes he wonders if some of his relatives know his name and he’s going to make certain his soulmates do.

~~

That same year four more marks appear, two on his right arm and two joining Peter’s on his legs.

One changes constantly, refining and growing over the next week until he can understand it as ‘Gwendolyn’.

~~

Jennifer.

~~

Helen.

~~

Emanuel.

~~

He has Peter’s full name now.

‘Peter Rosario Wheels’.

It’s awesome.

~~

Kevin starts keeping a list, writing each name over and over until he can do it with his eyes closed. He’s five now, almost six, with no friends and a family that avoids him if they can.

The names mean he’s not alone.

~~

A bunch of looping circles on his other palm slowly turns into ‘Cooper’.

~~

Mark eight is on his legs again, underneath Helen’s. After a few weeks of practice it’s clearly ‘Alan’.

~~

When he’s six his final childhood mark appears. It’s more strange letters- though it’s hard to tell at first- set on his waist, in the back where he needs a mirror to see it.

That means he has nine soulmates, which is more than anyone else he knows.

Kevin feels blessed.

~~

Gwendolyn Marie Tennyson and Jennifer Rose Tennyson.

He wonders if maybe they’re sisters.

~~

Helen Rebecca Wheels.

~~

Emanuel Nathan Armstrong.

~~

He’s sitting in class one day during third grade, bored out of his mind- he’s missed three weeks of school already, how is he still this far ahead of his class?- when he notices Jenny’s name shifting again. It’s a welcome distraction, they’re all always welcome distractions, and he immediately gives her his full attention.

The gentle smile on his face turns to a confused frown as the letters change completely. Slowly, tentatively, and with a proud flourish at the end.

‘Benjamin Kirby Tennyson.’

Kevin tilts his head, blinking at the soulmark, then smiles again.

That’s a cute name.

~~

Cooper Alexander Daniels.

~~

Alan Joseph Albright.

~~

When he’s ten Kevin and his parents are in an accident. He walks away from the wreck covered in blood and bruises, wandering away in a shocked daze.

His parents don’t walk away at all.

He never sees his family again.

~~

Ben and Gwen come into his life when he’s eleven and has found himself living in New York City. She’s a bit of a dweeb, but Ben is amazing and he loves them both instantly.

Things don’t go well.

~~

It’s not until after that summer, when he’s sitting in a prison in a different dimension, that he starts figuring out about his more mysterious soulmarks. He’s been moping, a ‘depressive episode’ Kwarrel calls them, when the older prisoner sits down beside him with a fond smile.

“So, did you ever figure out what this says?” He gently pokes the spot where Kevin’s oldest soulmark is. Kevin shies away from the contact, his mood is foul and really he’d rather just wallow in his own pain and self-hatred.

“No.” Wordlessly, Kwarrel lifts part of his shirt. For a moment Kevin hesitates, out of the corner of his eyes he can tell one of Kwarrel’s soulmarks is shown and while he’s never hidden his it’s still not polite to try to look at someone else’s. But then, he is deliberately showing it…

‘Kevin Ethan Levin’.

It takes a minute for the words to sink in, for the pieces of the puzzle to click in his head, but once they do he grins, mood lifting, and collapses against Kwarrel’s side.

“You improved very quickly,” he says, patting Kevin on the head affectionately.

“I spent so much time practicing, you wouldn’t believe.” Kwarrel chuckles and Kevin grins wider.

If there’s anyone he wants tied to his soul, it’s his first real parent.

~~

Once he’s safe long enough to process what’s happened, Kevin breaks down. Screaming, yelling, pacing in the dirt. He absorbs a stone and tears at his soulmarks, Ben’s name, Gwen’s, Kwarrel’s-

He can’t even guess how long he spends crying.

~~

Joining the Rooters isn’t the best thing he’s done, the experiments hurt and he can’t stand the pitying looks Servantis gives the names on his arm, but it gives him a place to stay, food, a purpose, and some control. Their base is also where he meets Peter (“Pierce, please”), Helen, and Manny (“Call me ‘Em’ again and I will hit you”).

He doesn’t think he can feel enough to love them anymore, but he likes them well enough and they seem to like him too.

~~

Alan comes later and Kevin wants to scream when he realizes who he is. They’ve already been through so much and he just can’t take the idea of putting another of his soulmates through it.

Kevin hides his feelings behind another empty smile.

~~

Meeting Cooper is, nice actually. He’s found himself kept for materials for not the first or last time and Ben, Gwen, and a new little entourage find him. Kevin isn’t quite feeling, and he still remembers the last time he saw the Tennysons- when he tried to kill everybody and he’s such a fuck-up- but he smiles and chats and presents the palm with Cooper’s name when the boy comes close to help him break free and he can read his own name along his jaw.

He’s fun to tease and really smart and Kevin can tell they’re going to be good friends.

~~

Kevin has known Argit for a little over a year when they figure it out. The smaller teen’s left ear has been shredded by a young vulpimancer and Kevin is trying to piece it back together when he sees the lettering, normally hidden under the fur of his inner ear.

‘Ke  n  t  n L vi ‘

For a second his heart stops, but he shakes the feeling off and continues working. He knows what’s supposed to be spelled out there, can recognize his handwriting, but making sure his bestfriend keeps his ear is more important right now.

When he’s done he shows Argit the soulmark on his waist, explaining what he found while he watches him grin.

“Of course you’re my soulmate,” Argit says, tugging affectionately at his hair, “who else would be?”

~~

He’s sixteen and everything from between last May and November is blurry, but he’s standing in a crater with Ben and Gwen Tennyson and putting his hand in with theirs just feels right.

~~

They’ve just saved the day on Galvan Prime and Rook has pulled him aside to make sure he’s okay after the whole ‘shoved out a jet by his girlfriend’ thing. He has a loose grip on Kevin’s wrist, looking him over with a critical eye even as Kevin assures him that he only has some bruises, when his gaze stops at his hand.

“I am glad to see I am not alone here,” he says with a smile and Kevin has a moment of confusion while he undoes his armor, peeling it away and brushing up the fur to show Kevin’s name on his upper arm. Kevin laughs and pulls him into a brief hug.

“Well, I guess that explains you worrying about me.”