Counter-Cultural Love

A Prompt-Based Oneshot- Electromagnetic Mates

Author's note: This oneshot is considered a complete AU, this serves no canon purpose and was written to A) Practice my writing and B) I wanted to try it out, this prompt has been sitting on my list of useable prompts for a few weeks now.

The prompt used is: "In the future, romantic attraction is literal: each person is fitted with an electromagnetic bracelet which, they claim, will pull you to your soulmate. It's the day they turn the magnets on and you're with your best friend." One of my friends gave this to me a while back. 

Hope you enjoy this little random story that I wrote/world built in less than two hours. :)

Additional Note: For those of you that are wondering what this is like, someone told me earlier that it kind of reminded them of "Matched" by Ally Condie

Electromagnetic Mates

Nadia walked to a large building in Green Hill with Gadget, a metal bracelet clinking on her wrist. Every citizen of Mobius sixteen years or older was heading to the location from all over Mobius. 

The government had given every child a metal bracelet for their tenth birthday, and once they turned sixteen, they were eligible to be summoned to this one location in Green Hill, where that bracelet would be activated, and they would be paired with a mate that could be from anywhere on Mobius. These bracelets, when activated, would instantly pull you to the Mobian that would be your mate. If you weren't pulled to your mate the day that your bracelet was activated, you would stay in another location until your mate became old enough to have their bracelet activated.

"I'm nervous, Gadg...." Nadia hadn't wagged her tail at all since she left her and Gadget's home in Mystic Jungle.

"Why?"

"So many things... I may not get a mate today, and might have to wait years to get one." She paused, as if she had gotten stuck with a upsetting thought. "What if I get a bad mate? Like, someone who doesn't love me or someone who is as bad as Infinite or my parents?"

"I'm sure your mate will be just fine, Nadia. I mean, if you would be in danger from getting paired with them, why would your bracelet pick them?" Gadget was just as nervous as Nadia, but was trying really hard not to show it. He might be paired with someone who didn't recognize that he was an Alpha wolf, and he wanted to make sure that his rank didn't change.

Once Nadia saw the building, she gulped and moved closer to Gadget.

"It's ok, it's ok...." Gadget rubbed her back as they walked in. They ran their metal bracelets through a sensor that required them to put their hand in between its two halves, signing them in and letting them proceed to the huge room that was full of teenage and young adult animals.

The mixing smells from hundreds of young animals was a bit overwhelming to Gadget, he placed one of his paws over his nose.

They waited for about twenty more minutes until a government official came and began to type at a computer and the green light at the top of the bracelets lit up. 

Gadget nodded at Nadia and she gulped.

It was time.

The official pressed a button and young animals everywhere began flying across the room, all except for Gadget, Nadia, and about twenty five other scattered animals.

Gadget became tense as he realized that he wasn't moving.

Was his bracelet broken? Was his mate not here? What was wrong with him or her?

He grew even more distressed when he realized Nadia hadn't moved either.

It was her greatest fear for the day to pass without her getting paired.

He looked over to her, trying to comfort her, when he saw his bracelet touching hers. He quickly wondered if they had been paired with each other, but instantly rejected the thought. Why would they, of all the creatures on Mobius, get paired together? He'd never heard of close friends getting paired. Gadget decided to take a chance, and he yanked his arm back, causing Nadia's arm to instantly follow.

She yelped in surprise, then touched her shoulder. "Gadget! Why'd you do that?"

"I'm testing something out." Gadget picked up his arm, causing Nadia's to raise as well.

They both began to wonder if they had been paired, and they tried to pull their wrists apart. Nothing happened, but they noticed that the green lights on their bracelets were touching and glowing. 

The realization hit them both at that moment.

"We got paired!" They wrapped their free arm around each other and nuzzled, their linked arms dangling between them.

More government officials came down, it had been seven minutes since the bracelets had been activated, enough time for all the pairs to meet.

The other twenty-five animals were led away, since they were the unlucky few that weren't going to get mates that day. There were some in every pairing.

One official came up to Gadget and Nadia, then examined their bracelets, to make sure that they weren't faking their pairing. 

"Alright." The official began slowly, an obviously tired brown hawk. He ran Gadget and Nadia's bracelets through a small scanner, adding the others data underneath 'mate', and making their pairing official. The hawk official then unlocked their bracelets, which released their arms, their pairing had been recorded in a database, they were mates now. "Just to make sure you know the rules, all new pairs are to go in there for an orientation." He pointed towards a large set of doors. 

Gadget nodded, and he led Nadia through the doors. They were both given many papers, some were gender-specific, and many different officials told all the new couples the rules of pairing. They weren't exactly rules as in 'you must do this' or 'you can't do that', but were requirements that promised to keep their lives as personal as possible. 

"Did you get all that?" Gadget asked his new wife. 

"Yeah, 'Report all pregnancies instantly', 'Only give birth in an institution, no home births', and then there's-" Nadia listed many more rules, many of which had to do with children, and a few were about what services and places were available to couples who were in this age range and/or had this many kids. By the time that Nadia had finished listing all the rules and explaining what she thought each one meant, they had arrived back home. 

Gadget curled up next to Nadia on the couch. "I can't believe that you're my mate..." He ran his fingers through her soft hair. 

Nadia chuckled. "I guess we got all worked up for nothing." 

"Yeah..." He kissed her forehead. "I guess we did."