If you had asked Oreldo when he was younger, ‘What kind of person do you think your soulmate would be?’, he would have gotten it all wrong. He would have guessed that his future partner would be a woman, for one. Probably someone who was his type, pretty or sexy or some combination of the two. Definitely someone with a fierce personality.
Well… Marches was definitely someone with a fierce personality at least, especially when he was mad.
They had been best friends since childhood, playing and getting into trouble like all boys did around that age. They must have been around ten years old when their marks started appearing. Oreldo’s rose mark had appeared first. Just a single, intricate flower, the petals clearly defined with black outlines. He remembered how disappointed he was that his mark was so boring. Why couldn’t he get something cool, like a wolf or something!
Then Marches’ mark appeared not long after. The day that Marches’ had shown him, it was a clear afternoon, perfect for skipping chores. Oreldo had convinced the other boy that the day was too nice to sit around in the shop reading watch manuals. The blond haired boy dragged the other out of the store, grabbing his arm tightly.
Marches’ dad had seen the commotion, but simply waved the boys off with a smile before proceeding with his work.
Without much to actually do, they both decided to visit the local river. It was already autumn, so there weren’t any other kids there, since the water was too cold to swim in. But it was perfect for skipping stones. So they sat there on a riverbank, skipping stones lazily and chatting until the sun started to set.
Eventually, they got into a bit of a competition to see who could throw the stones the furthest, with the most skips.
Oreldo stood up and walked around, picking the smoothest rock he could find. When he finally found a good rock, he waved to Marches.
“Ready?”
Marches walked over to him, with a similarly smooth rock in hand. “I’ll definitely beat you this time!”
“Haha, yeah right.”
Both Marches and Oreldo rolled up their sleeves.
“3…2….1….go!”
The two boys threw the rocks. Oreldo used brute force, and the rock skipped 7 times before sinking into the river. Marches used a wrist flick while throwing the rock, and managed to get a smooth throw, the rock skipping 12 times in quick succession before finally sinking. The rock had also traveled quite a bit farther.
“Seriously!” Oreldo exclaimed.
Marches cheered, bouncing up and down. He pumped his right fist into the air in a victory pose that Oreldo couldn’t help but laugh at. But the victory was well earned. While watching Marches’ silly dance, Oreldo noticed the dark lines on his right arm.
“Marches, what’s that on your arm?”
“Huh?” The glasses-wearing boy glanced down at the inside of his right arm, near his wrist. Little, pretty flowers all bunched up together had appeared on his arm, climbing all the way up to the inside of his elbow. He couldn’t tell what it was the day before, just a random collection of black lines all over his arm in an unknown pattern.
Oreldo leaned in to take a closer look, reaching out for Marches hand. Marches acquiesced, holding his hand out, palm side up so that they could both study the design.
“Woah, it’s a lot of tiny flowers!” Oreldo said.
Marches frowned. “Isn’t this too girly?”
Oreldo hummed. “Well, sometimes the marks represent your partner? I have a rose too.”
“Well I don’t think roses are girly! When boys give girls flowers, it’s always roses!” Marches sighed. “Well, maybe girls will like whatever these are too.”
Oreldo grinned. “I’m sure they will. C’mon, I’m hungry! It’s time for dinner.”
The conversation was left at that, and the two boys returned to Marches’ house.
+++
Oreldo hadn’t thought much of the soulmarks after that. Truthfully, he didn’t care if he ever found his soulmate; he didn’t know his parents that well, but he had been told by other people in the neighborhood that they were soulmates. He didn’t have many memories of them, but what he did recall, times weren’t great. His parents had fought a lot, and eventually left him, one after the other.
He had done his best, stealing scraps from behind restaurants and bakeries to survive. One day, he was running away from an angry store owner who had caught him rummaging through the leftovers when he ran into Marches’ mom in the back alley behind their watch store. Shocked at his appearance, the woman had quickly ushered him inside their backroom and then shut the door without another word.
The man ran around the corner, and spotted the woman. “Mrs. Marches! Did you see a little rascal run this way? He’s been stealing bread from the store!”
The woman looked at the man with an innocent look, accentuated by bottle glasses that only served to make her eyes look more childlike.
“Why sir, I don’t have any clue! I might have seen someone run in that direction, but I was too busy to see who they really were.” She replied.
“Alright, thanks ma’am! Have a good day.” He said curtly, before running off in the same direction.
The woman sighed, and then opened the door. She flashed a kind smile at the boy. “You look like you’ve had a rough day, let’s get you cleaned up!”
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Mr. and Mrs. Marches had shown Oreldo what it felt like to have a kind and loving family. Although he never tried to impose on them for longer than necessary, they had always welcomed him for dinner.
When he got older, Oreldo had hoped that whoever he fell in love with, he could have created a family like that, with someone just as kind.
+++
When Oreldo got old enough to work, he decided to join the army. The war had been ongoing, and he wanted to earn his own keep. The easiest way to feed himself was entering the military service; Although he was independent and had been doing odd jobs here and there ever since he was thirteen, it wasn’t stable. He didn’t want to cause worry for the Marches family, so he decided to enter the army as soon as possible.
Being accepted into the Army Academy wasn’t easy, especially since he didn’t have any family who could confirm his moral character, but Mr. and Mrs. Marches had helped him even then. With their approval and assistance, he was able to enroll and enter basic training.
One year later, when the new recruits were introduced to the academy, Oreldo was shocked to see that Marches had also joined the army.
After the entrance ceremony had ended, Oreldo made eye contact with Marches, indicating for the other to follow him.
Marches nodded, following him into a relatively quiet hallway. It had been a year since he had seen the glasses-wearing dork, and he couldn’t help but feel conflicted.
Oreldo smiled ruefully. “Oi, idiot, what do you think you’re doing here? Weren’t you going to help run your family’s shop?”
Marches, who up till now had a pleasant expression on his face, began to frown. “My older brother is already taking over the whole store, they don’t need me there.”
“That doesn’t mean that you had to join the army! You could have gotten a job somewhere else!” Oreldo frowned. Why had he gone out of his way to put himself in danger?
Marches furrowed his brows, and looked like had some choice curses to yell at Oreldo, but he caught himself and sighed. Obviously, it’s because of you!
“Anything you can do, I can do better.”
“Wha- no way your scrawny ass can survive in basic training!”
“Just watch me then.” Marches scoffed and then walked away.
Oreldo almost wanted to laugh at how ridiculous his reasoning was. Marches joined the army just to one-up him? It was beyond stupid. He was definitely hiding something.
He didn’t know what it was exactly, but Oreldo decided to let that be a worry for a different day. He felt a warm, bubbly sensation gracing his chest, right where his mark was. It wasn’t strong enough to immediately draw attention to itself, but Oreldo briefly scratched at his chest unknowingly. A deep red began to fill in his rose.
End Notes:
I just had to make Marches say that famous line: “Anything you can do, I can do better” from this famous movie clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UB1YAsPD6U
I feel like this routine is so them lol