A/N: Yeah, I haven't really done one of these before, but I thought it would be cool cause I saw this soulmate AU where you can't see the color of your soulmates eyes until you look them in the eyes... and yeah. Cause like, Aiden's eyes are compared to stars in a night sky often. So like... yeah.

Mortal AU, but like, Soulmate magic.

Arundhati Shah was never able to see the night sky. Not in pictures, not in drawings, not in real life. It was just gray. Mini had told her it looked dazzling, especially during winter, at midnight, right after all the streetlights were turned off. No stars, no dark sky.

Aru tried. Every night. Nothing.

It seemed very peculiar for a person to have an eye color that looked exactly like the night sky, stars and all. It kept Aru up at night often. Just staring at the gray sky.

"How much sleep did you get last night?" Mini asked Aru when she wobbled into school, half-asleep. Aru shrugged, grabbing her books from her backpack and stuffing them into her locker, only keeping the ones she needed in her bag. Mini sighed. "You have to get more sleep. If you don't get enough sleep, it could lead to insomnia, and you could-!"

"Die?" Aru completed. "Well, eventually, yeah." Mini said. "It's fine. I've run on two hours of sleep before. I had at least 4 today." Aru waved it away. Mini sighed. There was no use with Aru.

"Gotta new neighbor today," Aru said "Joining school today, pretty sure. Think he's a year older than us,". "Really?" Mini said, heaving her bag onto her shoulders as they walked to class. "Yeah, right in front of the museum," Aru said "Mom and Malini Auntie, his mom, hit it off, like, immediately,".

"You think he's nice?" Mini asked. "Don't know. But I bet he's cute. His mom was pretty as heck.".

The one minute bell rang, making Aru jump out of her shoes. "I despise those bells." Aru scowled. Mini snickered at her best friend's face.

"You, Aru Shah, despise everything if presented to you in the right way. Let's get to class already."

"Thank you very much, I could never despise Lord of the Rings," Aru puffed.

~~~~

Turned out Aru was right. At least, she thought she was. Poor kid was surrounded by Poppy and her minio-, sorry, friends.

Aru was not going to be involved in that, no matter how sorry she felt for her new neighbor. She and Poppy had used to be friends, until Aru had found out that Poppy had just been using Aru. Ever since, Poppy had made it a priority to pick on Aru and annoy her to the fullest.

Aru sat down next to Mini, both of them not having their lunches in front of them. They only got lunch from school if it was really an emergency (the food was definitely not trustworthy). Otherwise, they'd wait another 2 hours until the school day ended to eat lunch.

"How'd your test go?" Aru asked Mini. Mini shrugged. "Don't know. It was hard though," Mini said. "I bet you aced it," Aru reassured. If she knew one thing, it was that Mini was smart as heck.

15 minutes later, and the crowd had disappeared around the new kid (what was his name? Aru didn't remember).

Mini had gotten up to talk to Rudy (her soulmate) who was on the other side of the cafeteria. Aru decided to just grab a bag of chips from the vending machine.

"Come on. I paid a dollar for this, give me my bag of chips," Aru said to the vending machine. The vending machine pushed the bag of barbecue chips forward... and stopped.

You've gotta be kidding me.

Aru was about to punch the vending machine when a hand tapped on her shoulder. "Miniiiii, my dollar and BBQ chips! Gone!" Aru pouted, turning around. She almost immediately realized that the person was most definitely not Mini.

This person was... beautiful.

His outfit was like any high-schoolers, a green hoodie and black jeans, but he had a camera slung around his neck.

He had curly hair that fell partially over his eyes, with caramel skin. But the thing that Aru was most interested by was his eyes. From far away, they would appear a dark brown, but in reality they looked... Aru didn't know how to describe them.

She then realized he had a striking resemblance to Malini Auntie.

Her mouth started speaking before she could completely comprehend what was going on.

"I know where you live!"

Wow Shah. Awesome. Applaud to you.

"Excuse me?"

Well, now you've screwed up.

"Uh, Demons." Aru ran, her fight or flight instinct triggered.

Somehow, she found Mini, panting for breath. "I need to work out more," she muttered. She placed her hands on Mini's shoulder and started shaking her crazily.

"I just messed up *breath* my chances *breath* with a cute boy *big breath*!!!!!!!!!!"

Rudy stared at the two sister-like friends in confusion. 

Aru held her face in her hands and groaned. "What happened?" Mini asked. 

"I was just trying to get my bag of barbecue chips from the vending machine, and it wasn't coming out, and then I thought you tapped on my shoulder, but it was this guy, AND HE WAS PRETTY, LIKE I'M NOT KIDDING, and then I realized it was my new neighbor and I told him I knew where he lived and ran!"

Mini snorted, but had the decency to cover it as a sneeze. Nevertheless, Aru still glared at her. "Don't laugh! I'm having a cute boy crisis here!".

"Okay, I'm sorry. Do you know what his name is?" Mini asked.

Aru shook her head. "His last name's Acharya, and I only know that because of my mom. I forgot his first name.".

Rudy interrupted "Wait, Acharya? I have a cousin who recently moved here from NYC. Aiden Acharya.".

Aru's head snapped up. "Yeah! That's him!"

Right when Rudy opened his mouth, the bell rang. 

~~~~

Aiden had definitely not expected that when he went to talk to his neighbor. 

All he'd wanted to talk to her. Maybe introduce himself. Know her name.

Aiden tapped on her shoulder when she was at the vending machine. "Miniiii! My dollar and BBQ chips! Gone!" she pouted. Who was Mini?

Right when she turned around, she froze. Aiden was used to those reactions, but certainly not to what happened a few seconds later.

During those few seconds, Aiden took in her appearance. She had dark brown hair that was weaved into a loose braid that was draped over her shoulder. Her skin was similar to Aiden's, a soft caramel color. 

After the few seconds were over, the girl opened her mouth and straight up said "I know where you live!".

Aiden blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Uh, Demons." and then she ran away. Aiden reached out, but then realized that was probably useless, because she'd already gotten a couple meters away. Dam, she's fast.

Aiden turned around to go back to the gray table he was at originally before he got up, when he froze.

The tables... weren't gray anymore. They were a light chocolate brown. 

Aiden whipped around. The frame of the clock on the wall was a darker brown that the tables, but still, it wasn't gray. 

His eyes searched the crowd, looking for the girl. 

Aiden Acharya had just met his soulmate.

~~~~

It had been hours since Aru had come home, and her mother, Krithika P. Shah had told her to go to sleep, since she had finished her homework. 

That was 3 hours ago. Dr. K. P. Shah was already in bed and asleep by this time. 

Right when the clock ticked midnight and Aru could see the light from the streetlamps disappear, she opened the door of the Museum of Ancient Indian Art and Culture and looked at the sky.

This had become a habit for Aru ever since she'd found out about the soulmate thing, and how that was the reason she couldn't see the night sky. 

There was no light around anywhere, except from the light above. 

Aru could finally see it.

Stars twinkling in the sky against the dark canopy, stretching on for as far and Aru could see. It was just like everyone had described it. 

Beautiful.

A smile stretched onto her face.

Aru ran inside and grabbed her phone, clicking on Mini's contact, and then ran right back outside.

Ringggggg

Ringggggg

Ringggg-

"Aru, it's 12:00 in the morning. Go to slee-" Mini's tired voice was cut off.

"Mini," Aru felt like she was about to cry from sheer happiness "I can see the stars. They're beautiful."

"WHAT! Wait, FaceTime me," Mini demanded. Aru ran the back of her hand over her eyes to stop the tears from spilling over as she FaceTimed Mini.

"Look at them Mini. They're so pretty." At this point, tears were running down her cheeks. She wiped them away again, trying not block her sight. She was trying not to even blink. Aru wanted to savor it, basking in the starlight.

It was only until 6 am, when the sun had started to come up, when Aru had realized a very important detail. Something she hadn't noticed before.

She couldn't compare Aiden Acharya's eyes to anything, because she'd never seen anything like them before. Now that she looked back on it, she could compare them to the very thing she'd been staring that whole night.

Arundhati Shah had met her soulmate. And it just so happened to be her new neighbor.

A/N: Not exactly one of my drafts you guys have probably been waiting for, but it's over 1500 words, and it had Aruden, so it's good enough for this book. I also have writer's block on the other one-shots, so this was mainly to bring me back into writing. I might make a part two if you guys want it tho...

Bye!

~V