Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

They always say that you feel the first time you get your words.

Some romantic shit about locking eyes with your soulmate and boom! Like you go all tingly and shit and you know exactly what word your soulmate was thinking about you in that moment without even looking. Hell, apparently people knew exactly where they had appeared on their body.

Mitch Mueller found out that was bullshit at age 14.

One morning he went to school as wordless as ever and when he came back he took his shirt off to find a single word, resting right in the middle of where his heart was in his chest.

‘Lonely’

The word didn’t bother him too much. The great thing about words was they changed (mostly) when you got to know your soulmate more. Plus, at least he wasn’t the poor fuckers with some shit like ‘ugly’ scrawled across their faces. That was always pretty fucking funny to see.

And anyway he was Mitch fucking Mueller, as if he cared about soppy shit like what his ‘soulmate’ thought of him. Soulmates were full o’ shit. Even if he was pretty sure that the only new person he had met today was the cutie with the freckles who had approached him at lunch because he was sat alone… Fuck, it was definitely the fucking nerd, right?

So while Mitch didn’t give a fuck about soulmates at all he also figured that if he knew who the guy scrawling his thoughts on his chest was it would be really fucking easy to get him to change them, maybe to something fucking cool like ‘badass’ or ‘fucking cool’.

He started the next day at school, seeking out the cute little nerd to see if Jonas knew where his words were too. Jonas was smart, Mitch would put money (if he fucking had any) on Jonas already knowing and then Jonas would like run into his arms and they would like kiss and all that gushy junk… Then Jonas wouldn’t think Mitch was lonely, he would think he was a ‘Sex God’ or something.

It didn’t really work out that way.

When he found Jonas, the boy wasn’t alone and didn’t look like he was about to do mushy shit with Mitch. Neil fucking Berk-head (Mitch was still working on a decent go to nickname for the fucker) and his gang of rich bitches had Jonas surrounded playing a game of keep away with the shorter boy’s bag.

Mitch found it very easy to pluck the bag out of the air what with being a lot fucking taller than every other student, casually tossing it over to Jonas. Not really looking where he was throwing as he fixed a angrily spluttering Fuckham with his best ‘what you playing at Richie Rich?’ stare and wincing slightly when he heard the bag clatter to the ground behind him.

“Real fuckin’ sick of you and that ‘eau de rich bitch’ stink in my fucking hallways.” Mitch practically growled at the blonde asshole.

“What are you going to do about it trailer trash?” Neil scoffed.

“I don’t know Abercrombie and Bitch but you won’t want to hang around and find out,” Mitch told him, dangerous grin lighting up his face.

Neil and his gang backed off fucking quick, leaving with a muttered ‘psycho’ as Mitch applauded himself on Abercrombie and Bitch. He was using that one again!

Mitch turned around to where Jonas had been standing, the thought entering his head to like offer to carry his books or some shit but he quickly shook that one away. He definitely didn’t want some cutesie shit like ‘love bunny’ on his body.

It didn’t matter anyway because by the time Mitch had finished chasing off Bitchham Jonas had grabbed his stuff and booked it too.

Mitch shrugged it off, Joey probably cared about being late to class. Cuz he was a major nerd! Mitch would catch him later.

He skipped that period, first checking to see if his word had changed yet and stamping down any disappointment that it hadn’t. He guessed Jonas had left before he got to see Mitch telling Neil to go fuck himself. Although that meant Joey didn’t get any revenge! Which Mitch was more than willing to help the shorter boy fix.

So he used his free period to sneak into the biology room and grab one of the defrosting frogs that they were meant to be using for dissection later (probably the only lesson of the year Mitch would willingly go to) and strolled into Math like nothing had happened.

He sat down next to a very confused looking Jonas and waited for the perfect moment to show the cute little nerd what he had planned.

It went perfectly. Abercrombie and Bitch squealed and it was so worth missing the dissection to sit outside the Principal’s office because Mitch’s word will definitely be different when he gets home and checks.

He slammed through the house after the Principal had told him to ‘Just go home already Mueller’. Closing his door with more force than he really needed to because he liked the way it made the whole trailer shake a bit, felt fucking dangerous or some shit. Yanking off his shirt and scanning his chest.

‘Lonely’

He howled in frustration, punching his wall hard enough to crack his already scabbed knuckles. Why the fuck hadn’t Jonas changed his mind?

While Mitch was busy trashing his room in anger at his soulmate not deciding he was ‘Cool as fuck’ or something he didn’t even notice his Mom come in until she put her hands on his shoulders, trying to get him to calm down.

“Mitchy baby yah need to calm down. Gary is trying to sleep.” She whispered and Mitch growled but put his fists down, remembering all too clearly what his piece of shit Stepdad had done to his Mom last time Mitch had accidentally woke him up.

Henrietta led her son over to his bed as he calmed down. “What happened baby? Did somethin’ happen in school?” He shook he head and she looked over him for a second shocked to see him without a shirt on. As always his little body was covered in far too many bruises that he refused to talk about but she also spotted something new. A big bold word that needed no explanation. Hen’s baby boy had found his soulmate.

She let out an excited squeal, wincing at the volume and listening carefully just incase she had disturbed her husband. Henrietta didn’t hear anything and sighed in relief, pulling Mitch in for a hug.

“Mitchy y’ got your words!!” Mitch was always a squirmer when receiving any kind of affection but he always seemed to secretly enjoy hugs from his ol’ Ma. This time however he stayed perfectly still in her arms, making her worry and pull him to arm’s length, looking at the worlds her son was carrying right now.

Her heart felt like it dropped out of her chest. She understood.

“Aww hun, she’ll change her mind.” She reassured him, rubbing his back soothingly like she always did when her big strong boy needed his Mommy.

“I tried all day,” He told her, his eyes flicking to the place on her hip that he knew her own mark was. The poisonous ‘Waste of space’ that hadn’t changed since the day his Deadbeat Dad had fucked off outta their lives for good. “What if it don’t ever change, Mom?” He muttered, not even realising how scared he had been until that moment.

She hugged him tight and started softly laughing against his short bristly hair. He pushed her away, giving her his best angsty teenager glare. “Ma don’t fucking laugh. My soulmate is gunna think I’m some lonely loser for the rest of my fucking life.”

“Baby boy, it takes more than a day to get people to change their minds. You just gotta show her that Mueller charm and be patient, all right?”

Mitch nodded. Mueller charm he could fucking do. “And if not we can rob a fucking bank and get both our stupid fucking marks covered up.” He smiled at his Mom, as always promising her that one day they would have enough money for those fucking expensive soulmark cover up tattoos meant for people whose soulmates died or people like his Mom who ended up being stuck with some asshole’s fuking shit written on them.

“Yeah, baby, we’ll do that. But first you go sweep her off her feet.” They were both smiling their identical toothy grin at each other. “Now c’mon Mitchy let’s go get some celebration suppah. My little baby boy’s becoming a man so quick.”

Mitch tried real fucking hard after that to get Jonas to like him. He would give him cool shit he found on the street but Jonas was so fucking cool he always wanted Mitch to be able to have it. They sat next to each other in class and Joey would like explain shit to Mitch when he knew Mitch hadn’t been listening. Jonas was so smart!

But even though all that was happening his fucking mark still wouldn’t fucking change. He didn’t get why Jonas thought he was lonely when they were together almost all of the fucking time. After a whole week Mitch was ready to do anything to get Jonas to change his mind.

He even did research! Watching a stupid ass chick flick with his Mom which had told him that kissing the crap outta Jonas in the rain was the way to go. He didn’t like this plan though. What if Joey wasn’t into that shit? As much as he wanted his word to change, he didn’t want it to get worse and Jonas to start hating him. No fucking way. Not when Spots was so damn fucking cute all the fucking time. Mitch liked being his soulmate.

The night after that him and Joe had decided to go to the arcade but Mitch ended up being super fucking worked up. Gary had been more of a dickbag than fucking usual about Henrietta and Mitch spending time together (seriously, if that fucker touched his Mom one more time Mitch was going to lose it), the stupid arcade games were fucking cheating and his word STILL wasn’t any different.

He knew he’d made a mistake the moment he slammed his fist into the crappy arcade game that Jonas fucking loved. The boy had looked so sad but of course because he was Jonas he had sat there and told Mitch it didn’t matter. Jonas was too good for him, mitch realised.

Then Jonas had said ‘I like you,’ and Mitch had put two and two together. His soulmate didn’t like him. His soulmate thought he was lonely. That could only mean that Jonas, the sweet soft nerd he was crushing on hardcore wasn’t his soulmate.

Shit.

Mitch saw red.

He pushed Joey away, feeling like Jonas had been lying to him. Letting Mitch believe he was his soulmate when in fact people like Mitch didn’t deserve someone like Jonas. His brain invaded with thoughts about how Jonas hadn’t said anything about getting his words. Surely he was still waiting because somewhere out there was some great fucking person who was going to able to make Jonas so fucking happy and that just made Mitch fucking angrier.

Mitch shouted at the confused boy and ran the fuck away.

Fuck you Jonas Wagner.

After that Mitch covered his words at all times. Slamming down a plaster and leaving it there until the edge started fraying and the black words started peeking out from the peeling corners. Then he’d close his eyes, rip it off and stick another one down without having to look down.

He never had to see it again.

Well until he got sent to fucking juvie for stabbing his fuckstain stepdad.

They made him take it off so they could verify it or some shit. Only when he peeled it off it no longer said ‘lonely’ like it always had. For a moment he was so fucking happy but then he read it.

‘Bully’

Well, unknown fucking soulmate, you ain’t fucking wrong.

He didn’t want to go back to Sellwood.

Sellwood was where his fucking soulmate probably was. The bastard was better off with Mitch out of his life.

Sellwood was also where Jonas fucking Wagner was. The guy he hadn’t been able to get out of his head since he was 14. Jonas was definitely better off without Mitch in his life.

But with his Mom in prison for at least the next 3 years for his stupid mistake he didn’t have much choice but to move in with his Aunt.

Things had gone a bit different than he’d thought they would though. Mitch and Joey had ended up working on that project together, getting kickass superpowers and actually becoming friends.

Mitch had no idea what his soulmate thought about him or who it was, having gone back to covering it up the moment he had got his ass outta juvie but it didn’t matter what some nameless asshole who the fucking universe thought was perfect for him had to say about him. Not when Jonas kept calling him his friend.

And they were friends, for real this time. They would hang out at the cove together, eat lunch together and Mitch even got Jonas to skip class with him once! (Yeah skipping P.E. still counts, Joey.)

They had got the fuck out of school without any teachers noticing and taken Scratch’s car down to the cove to mess about with their powers instead. Diving into the water and splashing each other. Mitch had panicked when Jonas had pointed out he was still wearing his shirt in the water but Mitch had made some off-hand comment about it and Jonas had let it drop. Mitch was glad, thinking about everything that he hid under his shirt and never ever wanting his friend to find out.

Hell, Joey even wanted to talk about serious shit with Mitch. No one had ever wanted to have serious conversations with Mitch though so he’d freaked the fuck out when Joey had turned to him and asked “Mitch, do you have your words?”

“C’mon Joey,” He’d laughed nervously “Surely you don’t believe in all that finding ya soulmate shit.”

Jonas raised his eyebrow. “Mitch, we have supernatural powers and you’re telling me you don’t believe in words?”

“I know they exist Spots. It’s just a load of fucking bull crap that people think finding they are fucking soulmates because of a fucking weird link the crazy universe decided to give them. Even if I did have words I’d just fucking ignore them.” He hated lying to Jonas but he definitely wasn’t going to show him the bullshit that was branded into his skin.

“So you don’t have them then…?” Jonas looked pretty sad, like he was worried for Mitch, which was Mitch’s sign to lighten the mood.

He slung his arm around Jonas. “Even the universe ain’t cruel enough to stick some poor fucker with me, Joey.” Mitch laughed, flicking water in Jonas’ face to distract him and using his super long legs to make his escape.

Not long after that Mitch, Joey and his gang had ended up hiding from shady Government cars and revealing his powers to his friends while fucking Neil’s fucking stupid car up. Which was fun. Making Jonas light up the fucking place while he sat on Mitch’s knee.

The next morning a loud knocking echoed through Mitch’s trailer, bright and fucking early on a quiet Saturday that Mitch was determined to sleep through (with a lot of herbal help).

He had tried his hardest to ignore the annoying fucking pounding on the thin door of the trailer like his Aunt was doing. And it did work, the knocking stopped and instead his phone started buzzing instead.

He looked over it in complete irritation but that quickly changed to panic when he saw all the texts were off Jonas. Jonas who never sent more than one text at a time. Jonas who according to his many texts was outside Mitch’s door and asking to be let in.

Mitch jumped out of bed, nearly knocking Buddy off in the process. He grabbed the nearest shirt to cover his shit up but didn’t bother with jeans. His boxers were fine.

“Joey?” Mitch asked in confusion, flinging the door open to reveal his surprise visitor.

Jonas looked up at him, eyes burning fiercely and staring Mitch down with an intensity that the taller boy had never seen before.

“We need to talk.” Jonas told him, the same stubbornness in his voice that told Mitch he was in some deep shit.

“About what?” Mitch was running through any and every possible thing he had done recently to make his nerdy little friend so angry but nothing was springing to mind.

Jonas stayed silent, holding out his left arm that was as usual covered by his long sleeves but this time he grabbed the hem, pulling it back to reveal a word.

‘Glowbug’

‘Well shit,’ Mitch thought ‘Guess the fucking glowbug’s outta the bag.’

Chapter Text

When they said your words were likely to change a lot in your life Jonas had believed it.

He had not, however believed that it would be as rapid as it was.

From the moment Sue had dropped him and his twin sister off at their first day at Sellwood Middle School he’d felt his wrist throbbing. Not an uncomfortable kind of throb, like the time he’d fractured his wrist when he skated into a tree. It was more like letting Jonas know that there was something there waiting for him when he finally got brave enough to look under his long sleeve.

Being pretty much sure he knew exactly what had appeared on his arm that morning he resisted even sneaking a single look that whole day. A big part of him really not wanting to know what the unknown entity thought of his messy hair, constantly tired eyes, way too many freckles and pudgy sides. All things too many people liked to point out cruelly to the 13 year old.

So he ignored whatever was going on with his arm, trying very hard not to catalogue every new person he met in his brain in terms of likelihood of being his soulmate. And if he was noticing people around him a lot more then it was probably more to do with working out his new environment, right?

It seemed normal to notice a pretty girl with long hair tied up in a ponytail and wonder if maybe she was his soulmate when she smiled at him, even if she did call him Jonah.

Or when another girl introduced herself as Maddie and immediately sat down next to Sid like they were best friends. Sidney’s face didn’t agree with this new development. This girl kept smiling weirdly at Jonas and saying his name way too many times for it to sound natural. It’s ok to think things like ‘I really hope she isn’t my soulmate’. Because it’s normal to evaluate people like that when most of the media focuses on how to find your soulmates 24/7. It has nothing to do with some weird feeling he was having just above his palm.

As much effort as Jonas put into not thinking about his soulmate he really did think about it a lot. In fact the only time he wasn’t inwardly worrying about what was going on was at lunch.

Lunch involved one of what would become many run-ins with Neil Beckham (Who Jonas hoped quite profusely wasn’t his soulmate). That led to him sitting across from the same strange boy who had growled at him earlier in class.

The boy looked a bit rough but mainly Jonas thought he looked lonely. He didn’t speak to anyone during class, instead focused entirely on stabbing through bits of paper with a compass. It was the same at lunch, the two of them sitting in silence while the boy played with his calculator and Jonas ate his lunch.

The silence was nice, a comfortable kind of silence that Jonas didn’t get to experience often due to his house always being filled with numerous foster kids. Jonas liked the complete lack of pressure to create conversation where conversation wasn’t needed and he thought that if the other boy wanted to be alone, maybe sometimes they could be alone together.

So that was how the rest of his day went. He sat quietly next to Mitch in his lesson. Mitch had given up on stabbing things now and instead made an arsenal of tiny paper balls that he flicked at people. And Jonas didn’t think about his soulmate.

He rode the bus home with Sidney filling in the silence while Jonas definitely didn’t think about the word that would be written on his skin.

He helped Sue make dinner, helped the kids with their homework, helped Sid change the wheels on her board all the while not wondering if he’d know who the words belonged to when he looked.

Then finally he was alone in his room, doing his own homework and his fingers were itching. His whole day his arm had felt weighed down by the constant twisting going on in his wrist his head full of soulmate thoughts he didn’t want to think. At that moment he had had enough.

Rolling back his sleeve, eyes closed and heart slamming in his chest. He cracked one eye open. Gaze slowly drifting down and there it was.

Nothing.

Well, not nothing. A something. But the word was moving. Changing so fast and never stopping long enoughto catch anything but blurs. Staring at it was like trying to watch a single blade in an electric fan as it moved around and around at breakneck speeds.

Looking at it gave Jonas a headache.

He didn’t know what to do so he slid on an old wristband that covered the weird pulsating patch of skin and slid into bed.

Why couldn’t he just be normal?

He decided that he wouldn’t tell anyone about getting his ‘words’. At least until he had an actual solid word… If he ever got that.

In the meantime he started to focus on his unexpected friend. Mitch Mueller.

The boy who had seemed so alone on the first day they met had apparently decided to reach out to Jonas. While the boy seemed to not really know how to make friends, employing tactics like pranking people who made fun of Jonas and trying to give Jonas weird roadkill he found. Jonas was, inspite of himself quite charmed by the whole situation.

Mitch was sharp and funny. Jonas thought he was a loner with a lot to share and hanging out with him was fun so he kept doing it, even if his sister didn’t really approve.

They hung out in and out of school and the more it happened the more Jonas was glad that as much as Mitch pushed away everyone around him, obviously preferring his own company, Jonas was the exception to Mitch’s loneliness. Mitch let him in and it was all going great.

Until the night that they went to the arcade.

That whole day Mitch had been on edge. Snarling at anyone that came near the two of them and even though Mitch recently had started trying in class (as long as Joey was the one explaining) today he put his head down on the desk and refused to talk to anyone.

Mitch seemed so down and Jonas wanted to cheer him up. He took Mitch to the arcade. Jonas’ favourite place. He showed Mitch his favourite game to take out his anger on. Shooting pixel aliens was great for that kind of stuff.

Mitch didn’t have the same cathartic reaction. The game made him feel worse and he ended up kicking it so hard the thing fell over and smashed. Jonas felt bad, not so much for the game but for failing to help his friend.

He tried to tell Mitch this but Mitch was too wrapped up self hate for Jonas to get through. The more Jonas tried the angrier Mitch got until he started shouting at Jonas. That was the moment Jonas knew his lonely boy had decided to push him away too.

It hurt.

It hurt a whole heck of a lot.

That night Jonas cried.

He cried and looked once again at his malfunctioning soulwords for some kind of comfort and for once he got them.

The words had slowed down enough he could make some out.

‘Smart’

‘Happy’

‘Sunshine’

‘Beautiful’

That night he lost a friend but he also gained some semblance of a connection to his soulmate.

He fell asleep watching his words flicker on his wrist.

After that day Mitch was no longer interested in being Jonas’ friend. Jonas regretted losing that trust and even worse he still didn’t know what he did to make the boy put all his walls up and lock Jonas out.

It was sad but no matter what Jonas tried, Mitch was chasing him away. Literally chasing him in most cases. And there is only so much someone can push before the other side has to give up.

So Jonas gave up.

He accepted that the brief window of friendship was all he was ever going to get and while he would miss the easy companionship things change and he accepted that.

He accepted all the bullying from Mitch and Neil. At least Mitch it was just a lot of chasing, name calling and finding dead things in his locker, he was never physical. Mitch didn’t slam him into lockers or give him swirlies or hang him up flagpoles. Mitch was just Mitch but they were no longer friends. No matter what people said about the bullying being worse when aimed at Jonas it wasn’t just more persistent.

When he got a dead bug in his locker he kind of reminded him of the lonely boy he had met those years ago trying to hand the same thing to him.

He could cope. And he could always go home and fall asleep to his soulmate’s loving words. Secure in the knowledge that they would still think he was ‘cute’ or ‘smart’ and even with increasing frequency ‘sexy’. That one made Jonas blush.

And then one day Mitch was gone.

Everyone thought Jonas should feel free but deep down he couldn’t fight that feeling that something was missing. He started watching his ever changing mark more closely. Wishing that person would just tell him how they felt. Feeling like that would somehow fill the void that had developed the day at the arcade when Mitch started pushing him away.

Mitch was gone for two years.

When he came back Jonas thought it would be like before. The running, the taunting, the hiding but it wasn’t.

Suddenly they were friends again. They got superpowers together. They hung out after school and no one liked it. Dean hated Mitch. Sidney hated Mitch. All his friends hated Mitch. Jonas didn’t think he could ever hate the tall loner with the bad attitude and the big hands.

And the more they hung out, the more he started to realise why.

Once Mitch got back Jonas’ word started to settle. At first it worried him. He never woke up and went to sleep with the same word before but every time he checked now there is was.

He started to think maybe his soulmate was in trouble. At low points he worried that they had died and he was stuck holding their last thought of him on his wrist but then he really thought about the word.

‘Spots’

Only one person called him that.

There was only one explanation.

Mitchell Mueller was his soulmate.

It kind of made sense. Except why did Mitch push Jonas away for so long? Especially when his soulmate had always thought such nice things about him.

And he had never seen Mitch’s words. Did Mitch even have words? He would have to find that out before he started jumping to conclusion.

He started scanning Mitch’s body for any hint of writing but he didn’t get very far. He started to notice that Mitch was always covered. Even when they were swimming in the cove. Mitch hid his body and asking about it was always just joked away.

But if Joey couldn’t get a peep at Mitch’s words he just had to out right ask. Which also turned out to be much harder that it sounds.

"What do you think about words?" Jonas asked as the lounged about in an old bumper car together as Jonas let his lights dance around them.

"Hard too spell. Fuck's a good one," Mitch replied, busy carving his name into the car with a pocket knife.

Jonas nudged him, knowing the other boy was being intentionally obtuse but Mitch didn't seem to be talking so Jonas didn't push.

He wouldn't stop trying though. Only managing to wait a few days before he asked again.

“Mitch, do you have your words?” No room for misinterpretation this time. He had to know if 'Spots' meant what he thought it did.

“C’mon Joey, Surely you don’t believe in all that finding ya soulmate shit.” Mitch replied, trying once again to brush Jonas off.

“Mitch, we have supernatural powers and you’re telling me you don’t believe in words?” Jonas wasn't giving in easily this time. He was a man on a mission and his mission was to find out if Mitchell Mueller was his soulmate.

“I know they exist Spots. It’s just a load of fucking bull crap that people think they are fucking soulmates because of a fucking weird link the crazy universe decided to give them. Even if I did have words I’d just fucking ignore them.”

“So you don’t have them then…?” Joey's heart plunged.

“Even the universe ain’t cruel enough to stick some poor fucker with me, Joey.”

So Jonas let it drop completely. Trying to ignore the pang of disappointment as he realised Mitch didn't have words and Mitch Mueller wasn't his soulmate.

Mitch confirming that he wasn't Jonas' soulmate didn't make it easier to deny his massive crush on the boy.

Sure Mitch was weird and gross and crass and a boy but Jonas couldn't help himself. Mitch was also a lot sweeter than he made himself out to be and so protective of Jonas. Jonas had lost count of the times Mitch had jumped in to save him recently from everything from school bullies to his own adopted Father to creepy secret government agencies.

Mitch also was always there with a weirdly typed text to cheer Jonas up when he needed it, to make Jonas laugh about his crazy antics with his friends. Being around Mitch was easy and freeing. Plus Mitch was so tall and his hands were so big and he was strong and... Anyway back on track.

Mitch was great and present in Joey's life. Jonas' soulmate had known him for 5 whole years and as far as Jonas could tell had avoided him for that long.

What was the point in thinking about someone all the time and never making a move? They must know it's him! They thought about Jonas so often it was dizzing.

It just made him more and more angry at his silent soulmate as the thoughts rattled around and around in his head.

So he ended up thinking constanly about what Mitch had said about not listening to the universe. That was what he wanted to do more than anything.

He wanted to forget about his soulmate! Their kind words had been nice for a time and he would always be grateful but he didn't need them anymore.

What Jonas wanted was to follow what his heart was telling him and build something with Mitch that the universe couldn't tear down.

What he had needed was for Dean to not have burst into his room when it looked like Mitch was going to kiss him.

What he ended up getting was sitting on Mitch's lap in Scratch's car, being called 'glowbug' and broadcasting his pink lights to the entire car. Thankfully with no one but him knowing what pink meant for sure.

That next morning Jonas made some decisions.

Life was too short to follow some grand design he had no interest in anymore when he had this chance to find something much better right in front of him.

He was going to tell Mitch about his words. Then he would tell them they didn't matter. Then hopefully they could finish what Dean had interupted. Maybe? Or just like cuddle... Jonas didn't know! But he wanted to find out.

It wasn't until Jonas had knocked on Mitch's door that he realised with his new bravado he didn't even know what his words said at the moment. He hadn't looked since he's realised 'Spots' was there to stay for a while.

He took off his wristband and at that moment he realised 3 things:

1. His silent soulmate was not so silent
2. GLOWBUG?! Seriously!?
3. Mitch had opened the door and was staring right at him

"We need to talk." He'd said angrily, showing Mitch his wrist and pushing his way inside past the stunned, taller boy.

Chapter Text

“Joey?” Mitch and Jonas sat opposite each other in silence for what felt like hours (it was around 2 minutes, but who’s counting?). “Y’gunna say something bud?”

Jonas just stared at Mitch, eyebrow raised. Chewing over what he would like to say.

“How long?” Jonas finally asked, eyes not leaving Mitch’s.

“10 inches and thick as a fucking tree, baby!” Mitch grinned, laughing at his own lame joke.

Jonas did not find him funny. Fixing Mitch with an even more intense glare, grabbing the nearest empty beer can and throwing it in Mitch’s direction. Mitch easily used him powers to knock it away.

“How long have you known we were soulmates?” Jonas asked again, clearly not willing to drop the subject like he normally did when Mitch made an uncomfortable joke.

“Fuck Spots. That’s a fucking complicated question.” Mitch whined, scrubbing his hands through his hair trying to think.

“Ok. Was it before or after you lied to me about not having a mark?” Joey was angry, red lights flicking everywhere making the whole trailer look beyond ominous.

“I didn’t lie!” Mitch snapped defensively. He knew he had kind of lied but he had good fucking reasons for not wanting Jonas to know about his crappy words…

“A lie by omission is still a lie, Mitch.”

“I dunno what a lie by admission is but I didn’t fucking do it.” Mitch could feel his own anger rising. It wasn’t aimed at Jonas but the whole situation was fucking shit. Ever since he got his shitty mark he had imagined Jonas realising he was his soulmate and it has been gooey and romantic. This shit was more angry and he was scared the cute little nerd was never gonna speak to him again. “All I did was tell you that I think this soulmate shit is a load of stinkin’ crap! Because it is Spots! You ain’t gotta listen to that shit on your wrist!!!”

Within seconds the whole room snapped from red to blue. Mitch looked at Jonas and saw the anger fade completely. Instead Jonas looked like he had just been punched in the gut and his eyes filled with tears. Shit, Mitch thought, that was the wrong fucking thing to say. Fucking idiot.

“Oh… I um get it.” Jonas sniffed, rubbing his eyes and trying to stop the tears from actually falling. “If you don’t want a soulmate like me that’s fine. I get it. It’s ok… I’ll just. I gotta go anyway.”

Jonas stood up and made for the door. Mitch was frozen in shock.

Jonas thought Mitch didn’t want Joey as his soulmate?! No! Fuck no! Mitch would cut off his left ball and eat it to have someone like Jonas Wagner as his soulmate! It was Jonas that was meant to get better that him. Jonas was meant to have an amazing soulmate not a broken piece of shit, like him.

Mitch needed to tell Jonas that. Joey needed to know he was worth more than Mitch could offer but by the time Mitch had snapped out of it enough to explain Jonas was already gone.

For the rest of the day Mitch drank himself into a stupor. His thoughts flying between ‘Find Jonas. Make him understand.’ and “Let Jonas go. He’s better off without you.’

He wrote text after text to Joey, even using fucking spellcheck to make sure they were perfect but he never sent a single one. Too fucking scared of what the response would be.

But he also couldn’t stop thinking about Jonas, the broken look on his beautiful face when Mitch had fucked up. Mitch’s fingers pulled at the band aid on his chest. Daring himself to see what Joey thought of him now, needing to see how much worse the word was now Jonas had seen how much of a fuckup he really was. He never managed to peel it off though.

So he drank and drank and neither side won.

In the end all he achieved was passing out blind drunk on the sofa after crying like a bitch until he got a fucking headache.

That next day Mitch didn’t want to go to school.

He wasn’t going to go at all but his aunt came back that morning from whatever arsehole new boyfriend’s place she’d been. As much as he hated school, listening to his Aunt bitch at him about the importance of getting a fucking education was 100 times fucking worse.

He showed up around 2nd period, which was great because Jonas had History and Mitch had like English or some shit. So Mitch didn’t have to make a decision about what to fucking do.

3rd was Environmental Science. Skipped to go smoke a joint in Scratch’s car. No Joey.

4th period was a free period. He normally spent these in the library, watching Jonas be a cute little nerd with his head in a book. Today Mitch spent it drawing dicks in the 4th floor boys toilets with Javier and Cliff. Jonas apparently did not need to piss that period.

Then it was lunch. Mitch didn’t want to eat. He was going to just fuck off for the rest of the day but Javi had picked up on something being up. Enter Dad mode Javier. The clown fucker had grabbed Mitch and dragged him into the cafeteria. Sitting him down at a table and pushing some nasty looking slop on a tray his way. Mitch didn’t eat it but he stayed put. Pushing the green shit into the white looking goop and not paying attention to anything else around him.

He heard someone drop down next to him. He didn’t bother looking up until the rude fucker pulled the fork out of his hand and slammed it down on the table.

“What the fuck do you want…” He turned his head to find out which of his asshole friends decided to fuck with him and probably put the fuckhead in a headlock or something. “Oh, Attack of the Clones.This ain’t a good time.”

Sidney Wagner had decided to slam herself down next to Mitch and start fucking with his shit.

Mitch tried to ignore this. Going back to pushing mush around his tray but Sidney didn’t seem to get the message. She pulled the tray away from Mitch and glared at him in a way that reminded Mitch far too much of the way Jonas had looked yesterday.

“Oh that maybe ain’t a good idea lil’ bro’s lil’ sis.” Javi tried to cut in but both Mitch and Sidney quickly shut him up with hissed ‘Shhh’

“Whatever awful thing you did to my little brother you had better fix it, Mueller.” Sidney informed Mitch, prodding him in the chest. It made Mitch flinch with how close she was to his mark.

“What the fuck? Why d’ya think I did something to Spots?!” Mitch asked, guilt all over his fucking face that Sidney didn’t miss.

“Maybe because he snuck off yesterday with some lame excuse about needing to go to the library all day. Obviously went to see you with this big goofy looking smile on his face and came back a few hours later looking like the world ended and locked himself in his room to sob the rest of the night. Am I wrong?”

Mitch felt awful. He should have gone after Jonas instead of being a coward yesterday. He was going to fucking fix this.

“Where is he?” Mitch asked, looking over at their usual table to see the other two nerds looking over at the curiously but no sign of cute freckled and messy hair.

“I don’t know.”

“What d’ya mean you don’t fucking know? Is he hiding in the toilets? A classroom? Where the fuck is he?” Mitch panicked. Standing up so quick his chair fell over. How the fuck was he meant to fix this if Joey’s she-devil fucking sister wouldn’t tell him where he was?

“He’s not. He skipped school today! And now he won’t answer my texts.” She looked worried. Mitch felt like the whole room was shaking. Shit the whole room was shaking. His powers. He needed to calm down.

He didn’t have time to calm down.

“Shit. I’ll fucking find him.”

Mitch ran out of the room so fast he barely even heard her say “Hurry up. Once he gets something in his head it’s hard to get him to change his mind.”

Mitch agreed. Boy didn’t he fucking know that.

Mitch looked everywhere he could think off.

The cove was empty.

The only thing he found in Wackyland was a few rats the size of small dogs and a homeless guy sleeping in the bumper cars.

He was so fucking scared. Thoughts of Jonas getting in trouble. The fucking weirdos in black cars abducting him. Anything could habe happened.

It wasn’t easy, Mitch had to run around Sellwood on foot. By the time he had been running for nearly 2 hours he was contemplating stealing a car so he could get around faster.

He talked himself out of that though, potentially getting arrested wouldn’t help him find Jonas.

Instead he pulled out his phone.

(15:36) jooy wer r u?!

Mitch didn’t get an answer right away. Sitting in a random park and staring at his phone, hopelessly. Fucking worried out of his mind.

(15:49) Why do you care?

(15:51) i kerr allot

(15:55) Leave me alone Mitch.

(15:59) do u reele wnat me 2?

(16:15) pleez Jeoy just wanna tlk :(

(16:16) I’m at the arcade.

Mitch Mueller had never moved so fast in his entire fucking life.

Mitch burst into the arcade, panting and sweating.

“Jonas?” Mitch shouted causing the eyes of all of the scared nerds in the arcade to swivel towards him. He was pretty sure he had given wedgies to every one of them at some point.

He scanned the room quickly and panicking even further when he couldn’t see him straight away.

“Back here,” Joey’s voice called from the back and Mitch knew exactly where he was.

Right at the back of the arcade in the same corner Jonas was hunched over the exact same game as the one he had tried to show Mitch five years ago. When all this shit started.

“Huh… They fixed it then?” Mitch said, looking at the dent in the side where he had kicked it all those years ago.

“Yeah.” Jonas said, not turning around and fingers not stopping moving as he killed pixel alien after pixel alien.

“How much money d’ya reckon you’ve put in this over the years, Spots?” Mitch joked, trying not to think about how much it fucking hurt that Jonas wouldn’t even look at him.

“Look. Mitch if you are just here to make small talk. I can’t…” Jonas’ voice cracked at the end. Tears, definitely fucking tears. Mitch could not deal with crying Spots. It made his chest feel all tight and twisty.

“Shit. Joey. No don’t cry!” Mitch wanted to grab Joey and hug the shit outta him or something but he stopped himself, hand hanging in the air behind Jonas. The shorter boy still not looking up from his game. Mitch let out a frustrated little growl that made Jonas jump. He took a deep breath. “I didn’t know.” He told Jonas, honestly.

“You didn’t know what, Mitch?” Jonas asked, his voice nearly a whisper and definitely still sounding on the verge of crying.

“When ya asked yesterday. How long I’d known. I didn’t fucking know I promise.” Mitch was looking down at the floor, scuffing his raggedy shoes back and forth and he tried to think of what to say. “I ain’t good with emotional shit Joey. I dunno how to fucking fix this.” Mitch was not crying. 100% not crying. “When we first met and I got that stupid fucking word I thought it was you. I was like ‘Shit that freckled nerd is the one.’ and it had to be you ‘cuz the only other person I met that day was ya sister an it wouldn’t be her ‘cuz o’ y’know.” Mitch gestured to his chest to show boobs were definitely an issue for him.

“Don’t make rude gestures about my sister like that.” Jonas said with a weak laugh.

“Y’ain’t even looking nerd.” Mitch said softly, smiling and blushing as he heard Jonas laugh.

“Mitch,” Joey said, a lot closer than he was before. Mitch looked up and Jonas had left his post at the game, it was now flashing ‘Game over’. Instead the boy was standing right in front of him, looking up due to the height difference. His already red rimmed eyes even more puffy and red. Mitch did that to him, he thought. He hated himself for making Joey so fucking sad. “Come on,” Joey reached out to take Mitch’s hand cautiously, watching his face for any sign that he shouldn’t be touching.

Mitch wrapped his hand around Joey’s, the tingle of Jonas’s soft skin against his own bruised and scraped hands felt fucking brilliant. “Where we going Spots?”

“We um… Have a bit of an audience.” Mitch looked around and most of the nerds in the arcade were all gawping at the two of them. He growled, making them all go back to their games and Jonas laughed, dragging Mitch out of the arcade and sitting down on the curb. Not exactly the same place where his life had gone to shit last time. A more private corner, closer to the alley and hidden away from prying eyes.

“I know I’m not the most desirable person-” Jonas started

“Joey-!” Mitch tried to interrupt but Jonas shushed him.

“No, listen. Please.” He added sheepishly. “Look I’m not a super fit model or edgy like you, I don’t know anything about cars or drugs or stuff and can tell you about pretty much every episode of Star Trek. And like if you don’t want that, I understand but yesterday I was going to see you and tell you that I didn’t care who my soulmate is because I like you more than I could ever like anyone else. You’re… You. I like you.”

“I like you too Spots! Shit, I dunno what’s been coming up on your arm but if it ain’t at least 70% about your fucking sexy ass and wanting them thick as fuck thighs wrapped around my head then I’ve been poorly represented.” Mitch said, watching Jonas blush so fucking hard and the pink lights surround him.

“Yeah I got a lot of that…” Jonas laughed, looking at his covered up wrist fondly. “So you didn’t lie about it because you didn’t want to be my soulmate?”

“Fuck no! Y’know I would have fed my dick to hungry piranhas to be your soulmate.”

Jonas laughed, his lights floating around both of them now. The two of them were sat so close their knees knocked together, the pink ribbons of lights lighting up the alley and Jonas felt brave. He leaned into Mitch’s side, the other boy wrapping his arms around his shoulder to pull him closer.

They sat in silence, almost that same comfortable silence that they had had years before. Sure there were still questions and fears. Neither of them knew what was written on their own bodies, let alone the other person’s. But for right now there was no doubt in at least two things. They were both soulmate and they were both very happy about it.

And that was enough.