Bound- Red Threads of Fate Jaya AU

Enchanted to meet you

Note: Is it weird to name chapters after lines from love songs (and other songs?) Well, I'm doing it anyway. Maybe at the end I'll make a playlist with all of them. Also, this chapter is a long one. Don't expect the others to be this long, cause I can guarantee most of them won't be!

Nya hummed softly to herself as she carried the bright red rug onto the porch. It was Monday, time to start another week of the constant work that was laid out for the rest of her life. She knelt to roll the rug out, then placed her bamboo chair at the back of it, near the wall of the house. She fluffed the cushions that lay in the corner, and placed them in front of the chair. Lit the candles on the altar to her predecessors. Then she sat down and waited for visitors.

Mei Tao had always cleaned on the first Sunday of every month, and Nya had adopted the habit, just like so many others, as a remembrance of her departed mentor. Maybe it wasn't the most conventional thing to clean house on the day of rest, but it was easiest for the villagers to remember not to come on that day. The first Sunday had been a cleaning day for so long.

Knock, knock.

Nya jumped up, surprised. Usually no one came at this time of day, especially on a Monday. She wondered who it could be. Hopefully an agreeable client. If she'd learned anything in her two years as thread-mage, as well as the three assisting Mei Tao, it was to hope that every client would be an agreeable one.

She opened the door, and found a boy about her own age standing there, alongside his mother.

"Hello, darling." The woman said, smiling at her.

"Ma!" The boy said under his breath. "Not now!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, dear. Er, greetings, thread-mage-"

"Let me." The boy stepped inside ahead of his mother and gave a reverent nod to Nya. She was used to being treated like this; people usually thought of the thread mage less as a sixteen-year-old girl and more as a reincarnation of mages past.

"Um, good morning, I'm here to get my thread read- although of course you know that." He gave a small laugh. "Sorry. Oh, here." He held out a few coins. "I'm Jay Walker, by the way."

"Nice to meet you. But you don't have to pay me until afterward. You probably know, I'm Ms. Smith." Nya walked back over to her chair and sat down. You can sit there." She gestured to the pillows on the floor, and the boy and his mother sat down.

"Please hold out your hand." She continued, and Jay did as he was told. Nya laced her fingers in his, and squeezed her eyes shut, calling forth the threads. Jay couldn't help but stare as her eyes flicked open but stared straight ahead, unseeing. Nya focused to separate his thread from the rest, following it as it wove in and out and around. Please, don't let it be broken.

Then she gasped in horror, breaking her concentration and jolting her back into the real world. She could now see the red threads overlaid on what was in front of her, the way she'd seen them as a child. Carefully she tucked away the threads into the back of her mind, trying desperately to calm herself.

"What is it?" Jay could tell something was wrong, and he pulled his hand away. "Is it broken?"

Nya shook her head. "No, it's not. You definitely have a thread, but..."

But it's tied to me.

Of course, she couldn't say that. She couldn't be his soulmate, there was no way. She had sworn off romance, torn herself away from society. It was her duty as thread-mage. But there was no doubt about it. This boy's thread was tied to her, clear as day. But what was she supposed to do? Mei Tao had never told Nya of this happening before. And she'd refused to follow Nya's thread, or let her do it herself, until she was sure she was ready. And she'd never been sure, so she'd never done it.