#timer au

“What will I understand?” Steve replied. Usually he tried to stay as still and silent as possible on nights like these, did his best to pretend like he didn’t exist, waiting for her to finally wave a hand and release him to his room. But this time he didn’t get it. 

“You’ll understand that this? This is a curse,” She spat out, holding up her right arm and showing him her timer. All zeroes. His mother’s soulmate had died when he was ten, but her timer had counted down. She had met him at some point in her life though. She knew him, but she hadn’t lived a life with him. Whoever he was, he had died alone.  

Steve had always wondered about that, always wanted to ask. If she knew who her soulmate was, why not be with them? If she had found that person, why not make every second count? 

“It’s a curse,” His mother had said, continuing when Steve didn’t say anything in response, finishing what was left in her glass, “Especially yours. I remember the first time I saw your timer. It was right after you were born. I was holding you against me, you were so little then, so sweet, and I looked down, and I saw it. Five days. What kind of God would only give my baby five days? Not a good one,”

Steve wasn’t exactly sure what kind of God was out there. If he was being fully honest, he wasn’t sure he believed in God at all. 

He believed….in the universe. He believed in something linking them all, something that knew them and wanted them to find the person that completed their lives. The Universe knew that Steve and his soulmate were strong enough to handle five days, four hours, and twenty two minutes. That unnamed unexplained universe knew that they would know what to do with that time. 

Steve had plans for his five days, four hours, and twenty two minutes. 

When he found that person, the first thing he was going to do was hold them for at least five of those minutes. Steve loved hugs, and his parents hated them, but his soulmate would love them too. He knew that for sure. 

So a five minute hug, and then he’d ask where they wanted to go. The two of them would travel to wherever his soulmate wanted. Steve had the money, he’d been saving every single birthday and Christmas check he had gotten since he was nine. By now, it was more than enough for two tickets to anywhere in the world. 

They would spend the whole plane ride talking and getting to know each other. They would laugh, probably a little too loudly, and annoy everyone else around them with how infatuated they were with each other. 

Maybe they’d go to Paris. Stroll through the city, eat pastries, stuff like that. Maybe they would end up in some remote part of the world where it felt like they were the only two people on the planet.

Maybe they’d just stay in Hawkins. Hole up in his house, listen to records, swim in the pool, or lie in bed all day. 

A hug, possibly a trip, and after that it was up to his soulmate. Steve wasn’t going to monopolize their five days with just his ideas. He had a bunch of suggestions if they didn’t know what they wanted, but those were the only two things he really cared about. 

He didn’t hug his soulmate when they finally laid eyes on each other. Steve didn’t even realize his timer had started counting down. 

He was too busy thinking about the broken bottle being held against his neck. 

By the time he and Eddie both realized that their timers had started, they were already in the thick of things. Steve had seen it while Nancy was wrapping her sweater around his waist to try and stem some of the blood coming gushing out of him from the bat bites. He had put both hands in his hair just to try and give himself some other pain to ground with, and his timer caught his eye. 

It was already on three days. 

He had only met one new person in the last two days. One new person who always hid his timer under a leather cuff around his wrist. 

Steve did go through with his plans, but it was a funhouse mirror version of them, twisted and wrong. 

They did hug, but it wasn’t something soft or intimate. Eddie had woken Steve up from a nightmare on their second to last day, and Steve had laid in his arms shaking for two of their final forty eight hours. 

They did go on a trip of sorts, if stopping the apocalypse in an alternate dimension counted as a trip. They went, but they didn’t stay together. 

God, if Steve had a chance to do it all over again, he never would have let Eddie out of his sight. 

There was no avoiding fate, no changing what The Universe had planned. Steve has always been aware of that. He’s known that as fact his entire life. But still. Maybe things would have gone the way they were supposed to if they had been together. 

Because it was supposed to be him that died. 

His entire life he had known it was going to be him. 

Steve has imagined it a thousand different ways. A random heart attack, or a freak accident, maybe even saving his soulmate’s life somehow. He had never even thought to consider it might be his soulmate saving him instead. 

It was perfect. Dustin and Eddie would be far away from the danger, and Robin and Nancy were going to be just fine. Steve had no idea when it was coming, but it was going to happen in this final fight. They would win and he would have to do something stupid to make sure they did. Something off plan that would end up killing him. 

Except, he didn’t do anything that wasn’t in the plan. 

It went off without a hitch. Well, there was a pretty scary moment where there had been vines around his neck choking him, but the rest had gone exactly as they wanted it too. He and Robin had torched the monster, and then Nancy shot him in the head. 

Vecna was dead, burning to ash on the floor in front of them. They did it. They actually fucking did it. 

The elation of that was unlike anything Steve had ever experienced. The bone deep relief of knowing everyone he loved was finally safe, that this was finally over. That he had somehow lived to get to see it all. 

He had lived. 

He…..he was still alive. 

Steve hadn’t even thought to look down at his timer. He had been so busy just reacting, being in the moment of the fight. The fight was over. They had won. Everyone was safe now. 

Steve was still alive. 

He looked at his timer. All zeroes. 

How long had it been all zeroes? 

Steve took an experimental breath, and then another. Still breathing. Still alive. He looked down at his wrist. Still all zeroes. It was like he was looking at a puzzle with only one piece left, holding that last piece in his hand, but unable to make it fit for some reason. There was just something that was so wrong. 

There were two options when it came to Timers. You died, and your timer vanished, or your timer hit zero, and your soulmate died. There were two options. 

Steve had just never considered the other one. 

And by the time he ran out of the Creel House, it was already too late. Steve knew that. He was running anyway. He wouldn’t believe it until he saw Eddie for himself. His mother’s voice filled his ears the entire time. 

“You’ll understand that this? This is a curse,” 

Steve had promised himself he would never think about his timer that way. Promised that he would never be like his mother. 

Just another day out with the club when the midday drag hit. Coffee. He needed it, if only to distract him from the ticking timer on his wrist.

"You okay?" Hikaru asked gently, knowing what was going on.

"Fuck no. I am fucking scared," he wanted to say. Instead, Kaoru just shrugged, keeping a neutral face to hide his darting eyes.

As they approached the coffee shop Haruhi recommended, he caught a glance of his timer.

30 seconds.

He choker and looked around frantically. So close. God, they were so close. He tried to think of where--

Coffee shop.

Kaoru hurried ahead, ignoring the shouts of his friends. He reached for the door when it swung open and knocked him on his butt.

The weight of the timer fell from his wrist, clattering on the ground as another fell beside it.

"Oh my god! Are you okay?!"

"Timer," was all Kaoru could stutter out as he stared at this person. This human, the one the universe chose for him, checked their wrist and gaped, looking at him in shock.

After far too long of a pause, he finally said, "Hi."

Oikawa was never the one to believe in baseless things such as Soulmates and Fate. It was just fairy tales parents tell their children to give them meaningless hope of finding the “One” and spend the rest of their lives in bliss. A cruel thing to do really, because there’s no scientific proof behind it; sometimes people would meet their soul mates earlier in life but nothing will happen until it was too late. The timer and symbols are fickle as hell; they wouldn’t let you know about your soul mate until “the right time” has occurred. That, for Oikawa, was loads of bullshit.

And because Oikawa is non believer, he decided to show protest by covering his wrist containing his timer and symbol with intricate tattoos, something his parents became enraged about. However, what done is done and tattoo removal is quite expensive so his parents eventually learned to accept it. Oikawa felt proud that he was not one of the many population that thinks Soulmates are real. He’s not foolish, unlike them.

So imagine his surprise when one day during work, the wrist containing his timer and symbol started to itch until it became a burning sensation that Oikawa cannot ignore further. He conceded and went to the clinic at the east wing to get himself checked. Immediately, he was tended to, with the nurse giving him knowing smiles, as if it was something to be happy about. Oikawa had an inkling, but decided to not entertain it. He figured that if he kept on denying, the universe would become exasperated with him and he’d get his way.

Apparently, the Universe is pettier and more stubborn than him.

Because when he looked at his wrist, the timer and symbol stood out from his tattoos, crimson red ink in contrast with black ones.

00:00:00:10

Oikawa went still. Ten seconds until he meet his alleged soulmate. This couldn’t be happening.

00:00:00:09

Why now? He’s perfectly content in living his life without a soul mate. He’s perfectly content dating people who has the same mindset as him; unbounded by the silly notion of One True Love through the use of their timers and symbols.

00:00:00:08

Why him? He’s non believer. This wouldn’t make him ecstatic like those cheesy bad soap operas he like to watch.

00:00:00:07

Oikawa thinks that the Universe is too cruel. He, who doesn’t want a soul mate, should not receive one. He scoffs at the idea of it! So Why is he meeting his now?!

00:00:00:06

He’s Twenty-six, for crying out loud! He already passed the coming of age. When the supposed ideal age has come to pass, chances should be low enough that he’d never meet them in his lifetime.

00:00:00:05

This is a joke right?

00:00:00:04

Oikawa looked at the nurse beside him, her eyes sparkling in delight and seemed the word congratulations is at the tip of her tongue. He tried his hardest not to glare daggers at her.

00:00:00:03

‘Calm down, Tooru. This is probably some kind of joke.’ He thought to himself, curling his other hand into a fist, biting down an angry scream.

00:00:00:02

May be if he left the room, he’d avoid the count down. However, if he does that, the nurse would probably chase him and drag his non believing ass back.

00:00:00:01

One second left. He could still try to escape this suffocating moment. Although he planned to make his last minute escape, the timer went to zero and glowed brighter than before.

00:00:00:00

It hurts. The sensation of being burned inside was incomparable to any pain he’d experienced before. Which to him, is an understatement; he used to be a volleyball player before he ruined his knee. He knows what pain is. They were old friends, after all.

Oikawa didn’t even realized he let out a whimper and a choked scream, making the nurses inside the clinic nervous. He clawed at his mark until scratch marks are left on the surface. He didn’t even realize the other person who came barging in the clinic, until he felt the numbness invading his body abruptly as he heard a familiar voice rang across the room.

“P-please help I-I think… I think I’m dying.”

The available medical personnel quickly rushed to that person’s side, fussing over him greatly. However he must have realized what happened when he accidentally locked eyes with Oikawa, wide as saucers.

Ah. He never thought he’d be able to see that ocean blue eyes that made his whole being weak once.

“T-Tobio…?”