Hamilton Oneshots

Zero to Three (Laria)

Trigger Warning: Abuse

Zero

On everybody's wrist, there was a timer, years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds, it counted down to when they would meet their soulmate. Every time Maria glanced at her wrist she saw the same numbers 000.00.00.00.00.00.00, she hated it, she hated herself. Was she not special enough? Was she not worthy enough? These thoughts were the reason she married James, his wrist timer was gone because his soulmate had died. She felt sorry for him, she thought he felt sorry for her, she was wrong. So wrong. He began to blame her for his soulmate's death because the day he first met her was the day his soulmate was hit by a carriage. He beat her, he hurt her, he bruised her, but she took it because it distracted her from the pain of zero.

Everywhere she went people saw the zeros and congratulated her because she was only seventeen and already found her soulmate, usually soulmates met in their late twenties, like James met his soulmate at twenty-seven, he was ten years older than her. Maria didn't have the heart to tell them they were wrong, she didn't want to tell them she was broken, that she was a mistake.

As she washed up to go to bed that night Maria slipped on a puddle of water from washing her hair and she fell, hitting her head. Then, darkness. Maria even associated darkness to zero because it was what she felt each time she looked at her wrist, just a bottomless pit of darkness, of zero.

When she woke up there was a ticking in her ear and it was morning. Of course, James didn't pick her up or get a doctor. Maria got up slowly and stretched first and wincing as the knot from sleeping on the floor ached. Her eye was at least healing from when James punched her full force in her face for burning dinner.

She went to the bedroom and opened her side of the closet, found her usual red dress and got it out. She slipped it on and did the lace before she remembered the ticking noise and investigated it. She followed the ticking and then realized it was coming from her body, she tuned her ears and slowly she stared at her wrist. She was terrified to turn her wrist over, her hope was flaring so she knew if she turned her wrist and it was still zero she would become worse than she was.

However, Maria knew she had to do it so she turned her wrist over and felt tears his her eyes 000.00.00.03.54.23.09 three hours?! Three hours! She danced around the room with a giggle, "Three hours!"

"Maria!" She flinched and grabbed a bunch of bracelets, throwing them over her wrist to hide her now ticking timer and quickly styled her hair to hide the black eye. James burst into the room and she smiled slightly, "We're running out of food. Get your ass to the market right the fuck now!" He threw her from the bedroom and she barely caught herself on the door frame before collecting her wallet and hurrying from the house with her bracelets jangling against each other.

She picked her dress up with a grin, "Three." She whispered and walked into the market, beginning her shopping trip. She got the cheapest she could, while James was rich he made Maria do shopping but without any access to his funds, she made her own money in less than conventional ways.

When she was finished she took the food home and stocked the pantry before looking at her wrist and her eyes widened 000.00.00.00.10.12.52 never before had she been so happy to see that many zeros. Zeros used to be the reason she hated her arm, her life, her existence but now she wasn't broken anymore. Was it an act of God? She had no idea but either way, the numbers were ticking and turning into zeros which suddenly made her nervous, who was this man? What if this was just a cruel joke from the universe? What should she do? It was counting down, was it going faster? What should she say? What should she do?

000.00.00.00.01.00.00 never before had zeros made her heart stop and jump to her throat. She fixed her hair, paced, it was only seconds away. How would she explain James? Would they believe the fact that she was born broken? If they are her soulmate then they would understand, right? It made sense.

There was a knock on the door and Maria glanced at her wrist 000.00.00.00.00.40.57. It was her soulmate! Her feet wouldn't move though and she felt a shove to her side as James walked past her, "Stay out of the walkway, bitch." He hissed.

Maria stayed on the ground as James opened the door and spoke with a man about some business or something. Maria couldn't really hear them but she stole a glance at her wrist once more 000.00.00.00.00.12.23. He looked up and Maria took in his features, slowly getting up as she knew her wrist slowly turned back into only zeros.

"And who might you be?" He asked and left James who looked just a tad offended as the man socialized with his wife instead of him.

"She's-"

"-She can speak for herself," The man interrupted James and Maria smiled at him, nobody had stood up for her even in such a small way. The man rolled his wrist back, "As I thought. You are my soulmate, no?"

Maria nodded instantly and opened her mouth to introduce herself but James cut her off, "No she's not. She's such a disappointment honestly. Her wrist has always been nothing but zeros, it reflects her importance in our business now that I think about it." He said sharply.

Maria took a shaky breath, "My timer reset this morning." She finally admitted making Laf and James stare at her, "I-I fell down and hit my head and when I woke up my timer was at three hours and then-well it's zeros again because it counted down." She put some hair behind her ear nervously.

The man smiled at her and she let her nervousness out, "My name is complicated but I go by Laf. What about you?" He kept his smile and it reassured her.

"Maria," She told him and took the hand he offered her, "I-I married James but that was because he doesn't have a timer and I thought I was a mistake." She told him to try and explain herself, "I just..."

"I know," Laf told her and turned to James, "Maria will be divorcing you and we'll be leaving you now." Before either James or Maria could react, Laf threw her over his shoulder and she let off a small shriek of surprise as he left the house. As he literally carried her out of the house that had been her personal Hell for years she couldn't help but begin to laugh. She laughed and laughed, holding onto the back of his coat. Never in her life had she been this happy to see so many zeros on her wrist.