Interlocking Souls

Soulmates

(A/N) A gift for AnonymousMink for the Yonvers Winter Time Gift Exchange 2019!

Tags: #Soulmates #Soulmates - Identifying Marks #Fluff #Misunderstandings #One-Shot #Yonverholiday2019 #Gift Fic

***

I can't be with you, not like that.

The words hung over them like a miasma, unseen and poisonous. It weakened their rhythm, tainted their joy and disturbed the smoothness in which they interacted. They double guessed each other. Hesitated to engage in conversation and keeping it to the bare minimum. They stopped sparring. They avoided being in the same room for longer than necessary. They couldn't so much as look each other in the eye.

None of it was being done maliciously or out of spite. It was a natural reaction to what had occurred between them.

A confession under a lavender nebula.

A rejection under the stars.

Yon-Rogg was heartbroken, regret gnawing away at him. Carol's rejection had stung him in the most intimate of ways. He had let his guard down, allowed his heart to take reign and ride him into the unknown, conjuring the courage to say the words that had plagued his soul for the twelve years that they had known each other. Emotions were dangerous to him, they were a distraction and clouded the mind. He had been proven right in his fears. He had opened up to her only for her to turn him down. And now... now it was affecting both of them. It had damaged their relationship which in turn was jeopardising missions, two of the most important things to him.

Carol was hurting over the choice she felt compelled to make. She hadn't wanted to make it. She had wanted to return his feelings, to admit that she felt the same way. But how could she? How could she when she knew that somewhere out there another waited for him? Someone who shared the same golden bow and arrow mark etched upon his skin. A mark so different from the one on her back.

His soulmate was out there... and it was not her.

She had always thought she was lucky having a soulmate mark, it was a rare phenomenon that no one could explain. It made her feel special and happy knowing that somewhere out there, the galaxy had made someone who was perfect for her in every way, someone who could fulfil the longing that had always been there in her heart.

Now it just seemed like a curse, keeping her away from the one person she truly wanted and loved.

***

"Carol, this isn't fair on either of you," Maria chided.

Carol sighs, resting her head back against the wall. She is sitting on the floor, legs stretched out before her, a carton of tulu yoghurt on her lap. She stabs her spoon into the frozen dessert, the conversation killing her appetite. Maria's face and upper body float above the communicator sitting at Carol's side, her image sparkling and blue.

"I know that," Carol stressed. "But what else can I do?"

"How about not hiding in the ventilation shafts for one thing."

Carol laughs sharply, giving Maria and offended look.

"I'm not hiding. I was... repairing something."

"With a spoon and bowl of whatever unhealthy thing it is that you're eating?"

It wasn't that unhealthy.

"This is my lunch break."

"Carol!"

"Okay, okay! I might be... avoiding him, but not hiding." Considering they were the only two people on the ship it was impossible for her to hide from him forever. The only reason she had pulled it of so well was because he was doing the same thing. "It's just... awkward now. I don't like it. It's never been this uncomfortable and that's saying something."