#but obv nothing romantic/sexual would happen between them until they're both with Mann co or whatever

[just-mebs]

Thank you for asking @hanktalkin (og post)

So, I generally head canon that Engineer is about 10 or so years older than Scout is, which is fine because in canon that would make Engineer 37 when Scout is 27. However, thinking about them when they are a bit younger I think introduces some goofiness especially when adding a Soulmate AU to the mix.

I was thinking about the particular set up where when you turn 16, you are able to write on your arm and whatever you write shows up on your soulmate's arm. So you have Scout; a 16 year old sophomore/junior in high school, and Engineer; a 26 year old Engineering major most likely working on his first (of many) PhD.

Engineer, who hasn't gotten any response from his soulmate in a decade, being shocked when one day writing starts showing up on his arm. Or maybe, because he hasn't gotten a response in a decade, he just assumed he didn't have a soulmate so he'd been writing Engineering notes on his own arm one day to Scout's own surprise.

What I'm saying is that Scout finds out that his soulmate is really smart like really fast, so he of course uses this to his advantage. I'm just imagining Scout writing Engie notes during exams. Asking him how to solve radicals, or how to find x, or what the the quadratic formula is and??? Engineer in the middle of a high level physics lecture having to show his work on how to multiply "4 x 25" because Scout is clueless and doesn't know how and is failing his math class for the 3rd time.

Just imagining Engie's classmates, who he probably told years before that he did not have a soulmate, looking at his arm seeing basic level math and not believing him when he swears it's for his soulmate. Scout who is suddenly passing all his math tests having to scrub his arm clean every morning because Engineer decided to stay up all night working on an invention so he just has foreign equations scrawled over him (Engineer not being able to break the habit of using his skin for notes even though he now has a soulmate who can see them).

Also for a bit of angst: I can see a situation where Engineer maybe messes something up due to Scout writing something in a poor place at a poor time. Engineer deciding his life was better before Scout/having a soulmate is too much of a distraction so he cuts off his arm and attaches the gunslinger - sufficiently severing his connection to Scout. Him quickly regretting it once its done (not realizing that Scout had grown so much on him), but not being able to undo it just being sad over the fact that he will never meet his soulmate now (+ Scout now having a faint scar on his arm/seeing how Engineer stops responding/this boy got more abandonment issues now than he did before).

Then fast forward a decade when they both just happen to work for Mann Co. and one of them (or someone else entirely) piecing it together (cue more angst especially if they were getting close before they realized it and then Scout getting mad at him for abandoning him a decade before.

Anyway yeah that was the idea