Luna

Personally, I've never cared too much about the whole soulmate business. Sure, I knew how it worked: one day I would meet my other half, my dull, dark gray eyes would fill with color, and we would live happily ever after. That's what I've been told all my life.

At least, it did happen to my parents and to everyone else around me.

My father is a florist with a hobby of singing as he tended to his plants, while my mother was a talented traveling musician, known for her ability to master every kind of instrument known to man. They were extremely lucky to find each other, when she heard him singing in a busy city street corner after a concert. She followed the music and found my father crooning to his roses. It was a match made in heaven, and I loved to hear them tell how they met over and over again.

Tina, my cousin, was also lucky to find her soulmate when we were just 10 years old. That day we were playing hide-and-seek at Alice's place. Berwald's father worked there as a gardener and I knew him from his visits to my father's flower shop, but I didn't know that he brought his son along with him. Tina happened to be it at the time, so imagine her surprise when she found not us, hiding in the bushes, but Berwald planting tulips.

Alice Kirkland, my best and childhood friend, found hers at Universal Studios. We were hanging around Hogsmeade, cosplaying as students of Hogwarts. I was dressed as Luna Lovegood while she walked around as a proud Slytherin. As we admired the displays, a blond, bespectacled guy ran into us in disheveled Gryffindor attire.

I'll never forget the moment when their eyes met for the first time, changing their eye colors forever. Alice's eyes morphed into a vivid emerald green, while his bled into a brilliant ocean blue. They couldn't stop staring at each other after that, lost in their own little world, as if only they existed.

I couldn't help but be jealous of them. After Alice, I still had yet to find my soulmate as well. Out of our little trio, I was now the odd one out.

Even Emil, my precious younger brother, had found his other half before me, on his first day of high school, in his English class. I was surprised to see his new violet eyes at lunch. He introduced her as well, a pretty Asian girl named Leona with warm brown eyes. My only regret was that I wasn't there to witness the event myself.

As happy as I was for them, days like this irritated me that they were distracted. Both Alfred and Berwald joined the soccer team, and my group members preferred to ditch our warm-up sessions in favor of watching their soulmates practice. I don't blame them though; if my soulmate played that sport too, then I'd definitely want to watch with them.

They obviously felt guilty about that, since they often tried to set me up on blind dates in order to help me find my soulmate. At this point though, I knew it was best to refuse their attempts.

The last blind date I've been on had been with an annoying, loud, self-centered German boy named Gilbert. He was also on the soccer team, and he hadn't found his soulmate yet. Needless to say, that outing didn't go well. I'd feel sorry for his soulmate, but I swear, the next time I hear the word 'awesome' . . .

The one before that hadn't been any better. Alice had introduced me to Vladimir, a guy she met at a Twilight convention. He turned out to be pretty creepy, being completely obsessed with vampires. Uh, no thanks. I was through with my vampire phase back in middle school.

That's alright though. I appreciate the fact that they tried so hard to make me happy. However, it's probably best that I go out to seek my other half myself . . . But I'm not really in a hurry though. I know we'll meet eventually.

Or maybe not.

Best case scenario, we won't meet until I'm in or done with college. There are a lot of things I want to accomplish in the future. After that, I'll have time to pursue happiness. Even though most students at my school have found their soulmates already . . .

But that's enough thinking about that subject. I'd better started on my music, even though my group members are missing at the moment . . .

I close my eyes and lose myself in the music.

•~•

Mathias

Growing up, I didn't think about my soulmate that much. I mean, I knew we were going to meet one day, but it wasn't that important to me. I didn't have what other kids would call a "normal" upbringing. My parents weren't soulmates, they were non-believers back in their high school days. After one year of their marriage and having me, my dad discovered his soulmate. He ended up leaving us to be with him instead, crushing my mother's rebellious spirit. I still see him at least twice a year, but after our move from Denmark, it's probably going to be phone calls and Skyping for a while.

Unfortunately, after their separation, my mom grew bitter about soulmates and raised me alone. I'm glad that I was there for her to take care of, or she might've gone over to the dark side. Together we've been through hard times, always at each other's back, living as happy as we could be.

Things got better after she got transferred to a new job in America, which unexpectedly helped her find her soulmate, who happened to be Berwald's dad. She had been nervous and uncertain about it at first, but I gave her encouragement. I wanted nothing more for her to be happy after all of these years.

And after seeing Berwald with his soulmate, I couldn't help but think that it'd be nice if I could find my other half soon.

Now, Berwald, his childhood was kinda like mine. His dad married his childhood friend, a soul-less girl. Apparently he had promised to marry her if he hadn't found his soulmate, my mom, by age 25. But, she died after giving birth to Berwald, leaving them alone. At least Berwald managed to find Tina.

So, we ended up moving in with Berwald and his dad, and I had to transfer to his school too. I was okay with it, but I was going to miss my old school. It was an all-boys school, but I knew some of them transferred to my new school after they found their soulmates. Maybe I'll have a better chance of finding my soulmate here too! Berwald can help, since I'm pretty sure he gets along with everyone at his school.

*~*

"Thanks! See you tomorrow!"

I smiled and waved the coach goodbye. I was definitely in the team. Even though I was just transferring to this school tomorrow, when Berwald mentioned that someone on his soccer team got seriously injured during practice, I knew I had to take a chance.

And I was right. The coach was more than happy to take me on as a substitute player after seeing what I could do on the field.

Since practice was almost over, I turned to Berwald and his soulmate, Tina. I was surprised to see how different they were from each other. I was expecting a grump like him, but Tina turned out to be a bubbly, cheerful blonde girl with shining lavender eyes. Berwald is a 5"11 giant with a terrifying face. And they seemed to fit together. How awesome is that?

"Oh!" Tina gasped suddenly, looking at her phone, "It's this late already?!" She turned to Berwald. "Ber-ber, did you see Luna leave yet?"

"No, I haven't," he replied before heading over to the locker rooms.

"Who?" I couldn't stop myself from asking. Curiosity will probably be the death of me one day, but in this case, I think I have the right to know.

Not all knowledge is bad.

"My cousin." Tina answered while rapidly texting, "She's giving me a ride home today, since she's practicing her music after school. Uh . . . I'm supposed to meet up with her, but I have to go turn in a late assignment. She's going to be so mad at me. . ." she muttered to herself guiltily before flashing a smile at me. "You'll meet her tomorrow."

Well, if Luna was as nice as her cousin, I would be more than happy to meet her. I told her so and she laughed at that. "Well, she doesn't really like to talk or meet new people, what with the people I've been introducing her to, but I'm sure she'll be surprised to know that you're Berwald's step-brother-to-be."

"I can't wait to meet her then," I grinned, half wondering what kind of people did Tina introduce her to. I noticed that Berwald was stuck between escorting his soulmate with driving us home right away, so I decided to do him a favor and said. "Hey guys, I'ma go and wait in the parking lot, okay?"

Berwald frowned at my decision. "Are you sure? The school's pretty big, you know. You could get lost—"

"It's fine!" I cut him off cheerfully. "I remember where it's at!" I mean, I think I do. If not, then I can ask someone for directions, right?

"Well, if you say so . . ." He didn't look like he believed me, but he still let me off. Pfft, he probably thinks that I'm gonna ask him for help. As if!

"Bye!"

I walk off with the school map, heading towards the nearest building. According to the map, this was the music building. I stop under the shade of the building to look at the piece of paper carefully. If the music building was here, then how far was the parking lot?

The last thing I expected was someone flying out of the building to crash into me.

•~•

The buzz of my phone called my attention. Pulling it out from my pocket, I saw a text message from Tina. Oh, shoot. It was this late already?! I quickly fired off a response before cramming my stuff into my bag.

Swinging my bag onto my shoulder, I hurried out of the room and straight down the stairs. I silently cursed to myself when my elbow hit the rail in my hurry. Why didn't we have an elevator in this building?

All the blame went to Mr. Vargas for playing favorites, giving the band priority by having the band rooms on the first floor, while orchestra had to suffer carrying instruments up the stairs. Our music teacher, Mr. Edelstein, tried his best, but we were stuck with this arrangement. I somewhat felt bad for those with larger string instruments, but at least they got the second floor.

Since I play both piano and violin, I was stuck on the third floor.

As I started on my next flight of stairs, I started to worry about Emil. Was he alright? By now he should be waiting outside the car, chatting or texting with Leona. I could see him impatiently tapping his foot, pouting with an annoyed look on his face.

Tina would be waiting with him as well, since Berwald couldn't give her a ride home today. I forgot why exactly, but I think it was something about his family. Oh well, at least she'll protect Emil from anyone who wants to pick on him or something.

I picked up my pace, now racing down the last of the stairs, my hair flowing behind me. With one hand on my bag and the other slipping on my sunglasses, I sprinted towards the exit.

The reason why I wore sunglasses was that the building had really dim lighting to preserve the detail and quality of the inside. As a result, whenever I went outside, I had to wear sunglasses or have the blinding sun hurt my eyes.

I practically flew out of the doors—only to slam into some idiot standing right outside. Evidently, I was running with enough force to knock someone over, so we both fell to the ground. My face smacked against some paper, and my sunglasses pushed painfully against my eyes.

"Ompfh!" I heard him grunt underneath my weight.

"Oww," I groaned, pulling away from him to sit up. Seriously, who is stupid enough to stand in front of an exit? I looked down to see that I'm currently sitting on a guy I've never seen before at school. He was wearing a uniform from

"What were you doing—"

My breath caught in my throat once I had a good look at his face. It wasn't his spiked blond hair, or his chiseled jawline, or the charming confused look on his face that made me freeze.

No, it was his eyes.

The moment I looked into his eyes, the whole world seemed to slow down in time. Pressure built up in my lungs, I couldn't breathe, and yet . . .

I felt safe, warm, complete, and whole.

Helplessly, I couldn't do anything but watch as his light stormy gray eyes faded into a shining sky blue.

This person . . . couldn't be my soulmate, could he?

Unfortunately, the universe had to answer my question by flooding my mind with memories from the past. I saw us walking together, talking to each other, ice-skating and even raising Emil together. We were once merpeople, dragons, vampires and vikings. I remembered everything.

This couldn't be happening to me. Not now. I could see my plans falling to pieces before me, ruined with his appearance.

What was I going to do now?

We stayed like that for a while, in shock I guess, staring into the other's eyes until he finally let out a breathless laugh. "Um," he began somewhat awkwardly, "You wouldn't happen to—?"

"Sorry!" I cut him off, scrambling to get off of him. I don't know why I interrupted him, but something within me feared the words that left his mouth. Well, not really feared. More like expected, anticipated, wanted—

That scared me.

I dusted myself off, not daring to look at him in the eyes again. God, that was an embarrassing position to be in. I'm glad that no one was around to witness that particular moment of my life. Otherwise, I'd be forced to acknowledge him. I didn't have time for that, or so I thought.

My mistake.

Grabbing my bag from the ground, I rush to my car, my heart pounding out a beat loudly in my ears.

No, no, no!

I didn't look back.

•~•

I couldn't do anything but watch the girl run away, winded from the collision and . . . that weird thing that just happened between us.

What was that? Who was she? Why was she running away? Most importantly being my first question: you wouldn't happen to know where the school parking lot, would you?

I kinda felt like chasing after her so she could answer my questions, but that probably wasn't the best idea I ever had. It might leave a bad impression on her. . . not that our first meeting was pretty memorable to begin with. I sat up and thought about that mysterious girl.

She was pretty strong to knock me over. For a second there, I thought she was some kind of Angel of death, with her long pale blonde hair, black ripped skull shirt, shredded jeans, tall black boots, along with chains and black leather wrapped around her arms and a black string with a silver crescent moon around her neck.

Not to mention that, well, she was beautiful, like a model.

I shook my head and laughed to myself. Okay, maybe I've been watching too much anime lately—but hey! You can't really blame me for thinking that. It was practically a cliche come true, with a girl falling out of the sky upon the main protagonist, which would be me. All that was missing was her claiming my soul and me in some kind of contract with a demon. For all I knew, that could be what happened just now.

But, I don't think angels of death apologize after landing on their victims, so there goes that theory. Also, she probably would have left by flying away on black wings or something, not running. Still, I checked my arms and face for any signs or markings, just in case.

Nope, nothing. Oh well.

I got up and brushed dirt and grass off my uniform. While I definitely won't miss wearing it, since at this school there's no dress code, I still have to return it to my old school. I wince at a few grass stains. Hopefully, I don't have to do laundry when I get home . . .

Picking up the map once more, I was about to walk away when something shiny caught my eye a few feet away. I made my way over to get a closer look and picked it up. It was a silver cross hair clip. Turning it over, I saw initials: L. B.

Did this belong to her?

Well, if she was a student here, then I can give it back to her tomorrow if we had any classes together. If not, then I can ask Berwald. Yeah, that sounds like a great idea! For now, I placed it in my pocket and headed to the main buildings. There must be somebody who knows where the parking lot is!

As I walked, I kept my eyes on the map, trying to figure out where I was at. I didn't look at my surroundings much, which was probably how I bumped into her.

"Ahhhhhh!" she yelped, dropping her bag and binder. Papers went flying everywhere. Her bag was open and her things spilled out, rolling all over the floor.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" I said, dropping to my knees to help her pick up her stuff. We worked in silence until we reached for a small box at the same time, and she flinched when her hand met mine, knocking it to the floor. The box hit the ground, releasing a plume of shining powder.

Among the glittery mess our eyes met. Or, at least I think they did, since she was wearing sunglasses too. Were they some kind of trend here?

She gasped and scooted back, shaking and pointing a trembling finger at me.

"W-what?" I asked, feeling somewhat self-conscious. First, it was that punk chick, and now this. Was I really that scary? However, the last thing I expected was said out loud.

"You're my soulmate."

Um . . . What?

I stared at her in confusion. "Excuse me?" I asked her blankly.

She shook her head and let out a laugh. "It's true! Look!" She pulled off her sunglasses, and I could see her wide . . . green eyes.

Then she picked up the box and opened it before handing it to me. Cradling it in my hands, I looked into a mirror to see that my eyes were blue, like the sky. Cool!

Wait, since both our eyes are colored now, that means . . .

This girl is my soulmate.

I looked back at her. Now that I had a good look at her, she was pretty cute. Not as beautiful as the girl before, but clearly attractive in her own way. Besides green eyes, she had short brown hair curled on the ends and a red headband.

Then I realized that she was waiting for my response while I was just staring at her. Feeling my face heat up, I smiled at her and held out my hand.

"I'm Matthias. It's nice to meet you. Can you tell me where is the parking lot?"