#baduji

(Doodles on your skin show up on your soul mate’s skin AU)

Saburi stared at her forearm. She loved to see the little doodles that just appeared there out of the blue.

Sometimes she’d try and copy them onto paper, but they were never as good as the original. Saburi had always wondered where the doodles had come from. One day, she asked Baduji (her grandmother) what it meant and this is what Baduji said:

“When humans were first created, we discovered the ability to create art or notes on our skin using the ink of the Gods. The Gods, admired by our idea, altered our ink works so they would show up on the skin of our soul mates. That way, if you see someone who has the same markings in the same places, you know that you are destined to be with them. ”

Of course, Saburi didn’t believe that at first. How could she? It was incredibly silly. But then, she began to see the signs.

Baduji had pictures of when her and Daguhi (Saburi’s grandfather) had first met. The photos were of their forearms, where an ink drawing of a rose that was drawn by Daguhi resided on both.

After she saw that picture, Saburi began to study people who were in relationships, who claimed to be soulmates. She saw a man draw a cupcake on his wrist and saw the same cupcake appear on his boyfriend’s wrist. She saw a person write song lyrics on their leg and when their wife saw it, she began to sing the lyrics, even though they were at least 20 feet apart.

Saburi believed it. She needed no more signs. And now here she was, watching her soul mate’s drawings, wherever they were, appearing on her skin.

She giggled. Saburi saw a bird squawking at a trekler. The trekler’s wings were on fire and threatened to burn down the bird’s home.

Saburi looked around the plaza she was sitting in. Sure, tons of people were drawing on their skin in hopes of finding or entertaining their soul mate.

As far as she could see, no one was drawing the bird and the trekler.

Glancing back down at her arm, Saburi saw an address and a time. The Gidrue’s office down on 5th Street at 4:30. Saburi quickly looked at the watch on her other arm. It was 3:00 now.

An idea broke it’s way into Saburi’s head. She tightened her scarf, grabbed her coffee, and took into the air using her transparent purple wings that grew from her back. She had matured extremely early; most Lunii don’t get their wings until age 20. Saburi was merely 17.

As she flew down 4th Avenue, Saburi tried to avoid bumping unto other Lunii and keeping her destination in her mind. She reached the Gidrue’s office at 3:30. It would be another hour until her soul mate arrived.

Saburi lowered herself down to the ground and sat on a bench nearby, patiently waiting. She wondered if her soul mate knew about the ink-skin thing too. If they did, maybe they suspected that Saburi would come and meet them.

Saburi stared at her skin, watching the ink fade unevenly. They must be taking a shower. The note about the time and place did not disappear; it was written in permanent marker.

What business would her soul mate have at the Gidrue’s office? Lunii only went there if something was wrong with their living situation.

What was wrong with her soul mate’s? Saburi made a promise to herself that she would help fix the problem.

She stared at the Lunii passing by as the time passed. 4:30 rolled around and Saburi saw several people walk into the Gidrue’s office. She couldn’t tell who had the same drawings since all the passerby had their arms covered. Why shouldn’t they? It was fairly cold outside, almost reaching 23 Huis. That was cold for April.

After 6:00 rolled around, Saburi gave up waiting for her soul mate. She had to get home. The suns were going down and Baduji would have her wings if she was not home in time for dinner.

Saburi flew home, all the time thinking about her soul mate.

After dinner, during Silent Read, where everyone was quiet and read, Saburi grabbed a pen off of her desk. She had washed off any remnants of the pen marks from earlier, so she had a blank slate.

‘Is there any way I can help?’ She wrote.

There was no response for a while. Just when she was about to give up and start reading, a response appeared.

‘How did this get here?’ It read. Saburi smiled. They didn’t know.

‘Long story, explain later. Long story short: we’re soulmates.’

The answer took a while again.

‘Soul mates?’

Their writing was smooth and neat.

'Yup.’

Saburi began to get accustomed to the slow responses.

'What’d you want to help me with?’

'I know you went to the Gidrue’s office earlier. Is something wrong?’

Saburi saw tear streaks smudge the pen above that message.

Saburi had to say something. 'You don’t have to explain. I just want to help.’

'Do you know anyone who has extra rooms they would be willing to let me rent until I can get a place of my own?’

Saburi didn’t. She didn’t even have friends.

'No, other than myself.’

Saburi saw a message appear, but rather than a response to her comment, it read 'hang on. No more room. Move to left leg.’

Saburi slipped off her pants so she was just in her boxers. She needed needed to read the message.

'How do I know you’re not an axe murderer?’

Saburi laughed silently.

'Touche. I’m just saying, I’m open. Why would you trust one of my friends but not me?’

'True. Want to meet up to talk about it?’

'Sure. Just not today or this week. I’m booked. ’

'Me too. We can figure this out later. I have to go.’

It didn’t even occur to Saburi to ask their name. She just wrote 'Goodbye.’ and put on her pajamas to go to bed.

Weeks pass and inevitably, Saburi forgets to talk with her Pen Pal about meeting up. Every once in a while, she’d see a doodle somewhere and would respond with a doodle, but that was the only interaction she had with them.

One day, Saburi was feeling pretty crappy and she knew if she didn’t make a note of it, she’d forget to meet up at the cafe with her friend.

She wrote 'go to cafe on 7th Boulevard at 11:00’ and forgot about the note until 10:30. She quickly got dressed and flew out towards the cafe. She arrived at 10:45 and ordered her Buttercream Scotil latte and waited. At 11:30, Saburi got a text from her friend.

“Can’t make it? Come on, Alysba, we’ve been planning this for weeks. I haven’t seen you in two months!” She exclaimed. She responded with an okay to Alysba and put her phone down. Saburi pulled a pen from her pocket and began to doodle an abstract design on her right arm. She had almost filled it from wrist to elbow when she saw something appear on her left arm.

'FOUND YOU’ was written in big block letters. Saburi looked up and around. She knew who wrote it, but she didn’t know what they looked like.

She glanced down at her left arm again and saw 'table to the left with the pink umbrella’. She looked to the left and saw no such table. Looking down, she saw a correction: 'I meant your right, my left.’

Saburi took a deep breath and saw a pink umbrella. She clenched her eyes shut and opened them quickly. She locked eyes with a beautiful pair of butterscotch eyes.

She immediately stood up and ran over to them.

They had shoulder length pink hair which popped out against Saburi’s dark skin. Their skin was pale as if they didn’t get out much. They had dark bags under their bloodshot eyes. But they radiated kindness.

They hugged back and Saburi could feel them smiling. Pulling away, Saburi saw them glancing around. She pulled up a chair as she watched their baby blue wings flitter with nerves. She placed a hand on theirs.

“It’s alright. They can’t hurt you here.”

They turned and looked at Saburi with a gentle smile. When they spoke, they sounded as if they hadn’t gotten enough sleep. “Thank you.”

Saburi smiled. “No problem. I’m Saburi.”

“Trila.”

“Trila, what are your pronouns?” Saburi asked carefully.

“They and them. What about you?”

“She and her.”

They began to talk about moving Trila into Saburi’s house. After a while of getting sidetracked, Trila went silent.

“Trila?”

“Did you forget about me?” They asked, not meeting Saburi’s eyes.

“Of course not. I just… I became busier than expected. I swear I could never forget about you.”

“Promise?” Their eyes flickered up to meet Saburi’s.

“Promise.” Saburi smiled and it was returned.

“What do we do know?” Trila asked.

“We get your stuff, and then we have to figure out how to tell Baduji and Daguhi that I found my soul mate.”