Soulmate au - every object you own that your soulmate also has a copy of glows

Warnings: none

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Virgil got up earlier than normal that morning, the only reason for doing so being the fact that a new book was not available at the bookstore close to his apartment. Normally maybe a book would not be a good enough reason to wake up before 8am, Virgil did love sleeping in closer to 10am.

But today he wanted to be there as soon as the store opened. He'd been waiting for this book to be released, then he had to wait for it to show up in stores, and today was the day.

It was a book about constellations, and the myths surrounding them. It had information about what times of the years you could see them from which places on earth, loads of stuff like that. Sure there were already books like these, but Virgil already had many of those.

There were two simple reasons for that, one being that Virgil was fascinated by space, especially stars and galaxies and constellations. He always had been, ever since he was little and his parents had started bringing him out to watch the stars on the weekends.

Though his slight obsession with the night sky had only grown bigger at the age of ten when his grandpa had gifted him a book about stars for his birthday, and Virgil had immediately realized one strange thing about the book.

It had glowed.

Not too brightly, it didn't hurt his eyes to look at it, it didn't illuminate the space around it when placed somewhere dark, but it glowed nonetheless. His parents had always loved reminding him of how he had run up to them and said 'look at this book I got, it glows, like a star!'

That had been what prompted Virgil's parents to more closely explain soulmates.

Since then he had gotten more and more books about the topic (space, not soulmates), he'd gotten them on birthdays and christmases, he'd bought the books himself, and to his delight he'd realized several of his books glowed. Discovering that whoever was destined to be his soulmate shared his interest for space had definitely been encouraging him to buy more books about it. Even if he didn't actually need them.

Virgil groaned and fumbled after his phone once his twice snoozed alarm rang once again. Oh how glad he was that he did not have to wake up at 7am every day.

His need for buying this book was surely partly just for the pure satisfaction of seeing it glow. He had a shelf of books that it seemed both he and his soulmate owned. Virgil definitely hoped his soulmate too would own this book (though maybe not yet as he was buying it as soon as he possibly could, it might take a while for his soulmate to get a hold of it), and even if his soulmate wouldn't then Virgil would still have a great book to read.

He quickly got dressed, then turning the coffee pot on the first thing he did before forcing himself back to his room as he noticed he'd forgotten to put on socks. He, as quickly as he could without burning all of his throat, gulped down two cups of coffee, then hurried out of his apartment to catch the bus on time.

Of course the bus was late, it always was, and while riding it the sun kept shining in through the window and right in Virgil's eyes and on his phone, making it very hard to look at his screen. Though Virgil only had to ride four stops anyway and it was with huge relief he got off the bus.

Virgil squinted down at his phone, it was 7:46am and the bookshop opened by 8. It would only take him a few minutes to walk down the block and to kill some time he went into a nearby coffee shop and bought another cup of coffee, starting to feel that perhaps he should be cutting down on caffeine sometime soon.

He still ended up waiting for six minutes before the store opened, listening to music in his earbuds, a song he'd had on repeat for a few days now. Surprisingly enough there were several others waiting outside the store too.

He forced himself to smile a hopefully not too awkward smile at the employee who opened the door, trying to be a little polite at least. He was too much of a coward to tell strangers good morning, the words always got stuck in his throat and therefore he'd settled on trying to smile at some people.

He quickly made his way past and around shelves, already knowing exactly where he would find the book. It only took Virgil a moment to locate where on the shelves he found the newest addition.

He looked down at the price at the same time as he reached for it, thankfully seeing that it wasn't horribly expensive like new books sometimes were. His fingers touched something that was definitely not the back of a hardcover book though, and he quickly looked up to see that he was touching a strangers hand. He must've reached for the book the same time as someone else did.

"Sorry." He said and removed his hand quickly, flustering slightly under the gaze of the stranger.

"Oh, no need to apologize. Always nice to find others fascinated by the universe." The stranger said, flashing him the tiniest of smiles.

"Yeah." Virgil said, at least to himself sounding rather awkward. He really did not know what else to say though, and he grabbed the book that had been behind the one the stranger took.

He hurried away towards the checkout and tried not to think about how awkward he always was, especially around strangers. This stranger had even been quite handsome too, glasses, a black button up and a dark blue tie. Bright brown eyes behind those glasses too, Virgil had noticed the short part of a second where their eyes had met.

It's not like Virgil would ever meet someone, soulmate or not, if he kept being this nervous and embarrassing around other human beings.

He reached the checkout and said a quiet hello to the lady standing there, nervously glancing at the stranger who was now standing in the checkout next to him, paying for his book. Virgil quickly paid, thinking with relief that he'd soon be home where he could make a cup of hot chocolate (he really shouldn't have another cup of coffee) and snuggle up under a blanket to read his new book.

He'd barely gotten a good grip around the book after paying before he noticed the faint glow, and he stared at the book in mild surprise. His soulmate already owned it? It must've been available earlier in some other store then, Virgil thought.

A short moment later he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to see the handsome stranger (who for the record looked just as pretty up close). He made a low sound that hopefully sounded like it meant 'hey, did you want to say something', and not just a nervous hum.

"I believe there is a possibility we are soulmates." He said, and Virgil noticed how the book under the man's arm emitted the same glow as Virgil's did. He tried his utmost best not to stare for too long, then raising his gaze again, fixing it on those pretty eyes.

"It seems that way." Virgil responded with a surprisingly steady voice.

"I'm Virgil." He added, remembering that this person that he was speaking to had no idea who he was.

"Pleasure meeting you, Virgil. My name is Logan." He said, and Virgil internally said the name, once, twice, testing it out. It was a nice name, he decided. Virgil also decided on being brave for once.

"Would you let me take you out for a drink, maybe lunch too if you don't get tired of me until then?" He asked, smiling his first genuine smile of the day, a smile that widened when Logan returned it.

"That sounds lovely." Logan said, and the two of them started to make their way out of the bookshop, at first walking in silence as Virgil tried to finish internally freaking out over the fact that the man walking next to him might very well be his soulmate.

Then, Virgil can't even remember what Logan asked him at first, but they somehow ended up in a deep conversation about everything they could think of. Virgil realized with relief that it was both easy and interesting to talk to Logan, he felt less like his normally anxious and worried self the longer they talked.

Strangely enough Logan seemed to be enjoying Virgil's company too, because they did end up getting lunch together (Virgil definitely believe they did more talking than eating during that meal).

Virgil ended up walking Logan home too, and somewhere along the way their hands seemed to find each other. That did halt their conversation for a moment where Virgil smiled down at the ground they walked over while he tried to collect his thoughts, glancing at Logan to see him flustered too.

The two of them, way to soon, found themselves outside of Logan's door where Logan made sure they swapped numbers and promised him that they would meet soon again.

Virgil started to walk home with oodles of butterflies in his stomach, a smile on his face that seemed almost permanent, a book that he was definitely going to be too distracted to read, and the promise of a stargazing date (this weekend if the weather was fine) occupying every corner of his mind.

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Written: 27th May 2019
Published: 13th June 2019
Words: 1678

I finished summer school and I'm fine now lol

I'm finally writing on that one long fic that I hadn't touched since like january and it's now 10000+ words ;) and I'm not finished :D