5.

THE NUMBER FIVE.

a/n: second pov. AU where Five didn't time travel.

warning/s: language, violence 

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SoulmateAU! 

— where the name of your soulmate appears on your wrist the moment you were born. —

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"the number five"

   For the very first moment you'd learned what the clean written thing on your wrist meant, you've always wondered why exactly it was only written as a number.

5

   The number plagued you every moment of your life; it's constantly everywhere, boring holes into you as if mocking you. You never understood just why. Why everyone around you had clear names, both first and last. Why there was never at least one person who bears the same predicament as you did.

   You still see it in your mother's eyes, whenever you'd ask her about it. Pity, sympathy, sombreness. It caused your guts to churn, but you'd never say it outright. Was she disappointed? In you, perhaps? 

   But when your mother cried on your thirteenth birthday, you got your answers. You remember her tear stained cheeks, her sobs filling your ears and sympathetic eyes that continue to wash vividly inside your head.

   "I'm so sorry, sweetheart. Maybe your soulmate isn't what we'd always dreamt of them to be."

   She cried to you, sympathetic of her poor little girl's predicament and the dawning realization that her daughter may never find her destined one. Will never get to experience the love of a lifetime, the one your father continues to share with your mother. She had thought once your soulmate was a robot. Your father was very upset about it.

   But as the years flew by, the heavy weight in your heart dissipated, and the thought that you'll never find your own soulmate hurt less. Maybe it was your fate; to defy the traditional logic about clinging desperately to the name etched on your skin. Maybe fate wanted you to rebel against itself—to find love in your own way.

   And maybe, you'd do just the exact thing.

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   On your eighteenth birthday, you found yourself visiting The City with your parents. You lived somewhere far off, and had heard a lot of great things about the city. You didn't bother researching much into the place, you only wanted one thing. 

   Get a taste of their food.

   You take pride with the fact that you're quite the food critique, and although most disappoint you from the reviews, you're thankful you're eating. Your mother had been very excited, in contrast to your father who wanted to go to California and stay by the beach. You would've wanted it too, but your mother was oddly persistent on it. 

   You noticed it the moment you entered the car after your mother. You saw a folder she had hidden hastily, one with the printed logo of the company she works in. You didn't say anything, but you're willing to bet your mother wanted to check The City before accepting a business proposal.

   And that's where you found yourself hours later.

   You're situated at the entrance of the infamous Meritech Prosthetics, face pulled in a frown along with your father's who sat on the driver's seat. Your mother rubs his arm soothingly with an apologetic gaze.