Prompt from this tumblr post:
"I had a dream where every person, at exactly midnight on new years following their 22nd birthday, they possessed the body of their soulmate and people ran around trying to figure out who they were so that they could find eachother, and they left notes for the body’s owner to find with their address. And there were some language gaps so people had to translate it and travel to different countries carrying the notes they were left, and it was great"
---
It was 31st December 2009, 11:57. Phil sat nervously running his fingers through his hair as he sat at home with his parents and brother for New Years. "This is it", he muttered to himself. He was only moments away from the thing that he'd been both dreading and praying for for years - finding out who his soulmate was to be. 11:58. He was terrified. He knew he'd only have an hour to leave as many clues as possible as to his identity once he woke up inside the mind of his "true love". He was kind of sceptical about this - part of him thought this could still all be some huge joke that the entire world was playing on him. 11:59. "Oh god", he thought to himself. This was it. He closed his eyes and waited.
12:00. "Happy New Year!” everyone shouted, but Phil couldn't hear them, as he succumbed to the bright lights and overwhelming sense of nausea and finally, he passed out.
-
Phil blinked rapidly as he came around, strangers stood around him not giving him a second glance as they drank and danced. He was at a party. Rubbing his eyes, he moved his glance from the people surrounding him and began to look at himself - or rather, the body he was inhabiting. "Oh", he gasped quitely. It was the body of a guy. This only half shocked Phil, he'd known he was bi (or pan or something) for a while now, but had never imagined he would end up with another guy. He shook himself, realising he had very limited amount of time to find out who this boy was. He stood up and was suddenly shocked by what he saw in the mirror opposite him. He was beautiful. Honestly, completely and truly beautiful. The words hot and sexy weren't the descriptives that immediately sprung to mind (although he was both of those things). No. Beautiful. The startling brown eyes, the gorgeously bridged nose, the almost chiselled features. But most astonishing was the hair - it was cut in almost the exact style of Phil's own hair. "Weird", he thought.
After he'd gotten over the initial shock, he looked around for a clock. 12:20. Only 40 minutes to go. Phil looked around, made his decision to approach the group of guys in the corner of the room and ask a few questions.
"Hi, this is going to sound weird, but I'm apparently the soulmate of this person or something and I was wondering if you could help because..." Phil rambled on a bit longer, as he always did when he was nervous. Then he anxiously awaited the reply.
"Uh, well, right now the guy I'm talking to is Dan. Dan Howell.", slurred the confused and slightly intoxicated man, "We're in Manchester."
"T...thank you", Phil stuttered already shakily walking away.
He couldn't believe his luck, Manchester. They were in Manchester. The boy couldn't be too far away from Phil's actual body right now. But Phil knew he'd need to find a pen or marker or something to leave Dan a note. He glanced at the clock. 12:30. He'd need to work quickly.
After 5 minutes of frantic searching Phil stumbled across a sharpie, not ideal because it would probably not wash out for a while, but it was all he could find. And so Phil wrote out his message on the arm of the boy, it took him 20 minutes because his hand was shaking violently but the words were at least legible. He made some final touches to the message, even leaving a small surprise for the boy when he woke.
12:55. Only 5 more minutes, Phil had done all he could, so he decided to go and talk to a small group of girls about Dan. After briefly explaining himself, the girls gladly complied. "He's kind of a nerd" one said, "he really loves Pokémon, Mario, Sonic, Crash Bandicoot, that kind of thing". Phil's heart fluttered, could this boy really be so perfect for him? A shorter girl piped up, "He also likes anime and stuff, I think I've heard him ranting about something called Totoro?” The third girl said "Yeah, uh he's a bit of a loner, but he's really sweet once to get to know him". This boy sounded incredible, how could it be that they'd never met? "How old is he?" Phil asked, knowing he only had 2 minutes to go. "18, I think" the shorter girl said. Phil thanked the girls and walked away.
"So that's why I've never met him, he's four years younger than me", Phil thought to himself as he sat back down in the original seat he woke up in. "I hope that won't be weird, I mean, he's only just an adult, and...” 12:59. This was it, he'd done all he could. He hoped Dan wouldn't be too freaked out. The same sense of nausea washed over Phil, his eyelids felt heavy and he gave into the overwhelming desire to sleep.
-
Dan's eyes fluttered open, gasping for air (but unsure why), he looked around him. He was in exactly the same spot in which he'd apparently fallen asleep. He glanced at the clock. 1:05. The last thing he remembered was some sort of bright light shining in his eyes before a blacked out about an hour ago. Confused and disorientated Dan looked around him and noticed that a few people were staring at him strangely. Ignoring them, he lent back in the chair, then caught sight of his arm which was etched on with black pen. He could just about make out the words:
"Hi Dan, this is kind of weird, but I had my 22nd birthday this year and so the whole soulmate body exchange thing went down tonight. From what I've found out, you seem amazing and I really hope you are willing to come and see me. I wrote a meeting time and place on your other arm - I hope to see you there. Love from, Phil Lester xx"
Dan was in shock. Phil Lester. THE Phil Lester? Could it really be that AmazingPhil was his soulmate? AmazingPhil. How is this even possible? The guy he'd practically fanboyed over for years was the person he was destined to spend the rest of his life with. Dan looked at his other arm, it read:
"Meet me at the Manchester Eye at midday on the 1st January".
Dan couldn't believe this, he couldn't believe it at all, he stood up shakily and was mildly shocked by what he saw in the mirror. He smiled to himself, "Oh my god, Phil".
In the mirror, Dan saw his own dumbfounded face staring back at him, but with one distinct difference. Something that made him sure that Phil really was his soulmate. Smiling at what he saw in the mirror, he knew 2010 would be a great year. He took one final glance in the mirror before he headed home.
On Dan's face, Phil had left his mark:
Cat whiskers.
-
