GCR Drabbles

Soulmate AU #3

In which when your soulmate dies, your world goes black and white. 

Inspired by a sentence of this prompt: imagine you're at work, and then suddenly, your entire world goes black and white...

Arson let out a surprised grunt when a delighted squeal resonated in the room, and then something landed right on his chest, pushing the breath out of him. 

His eyes flew open to see his five-year-old daughter, Ghost, giggle and slide onto the rumpled sheets between him and his now stirring wife, Willow. 

"Mm, g'morning, darlin'," Arson groggily greeted his little girl. 

The sunlight was streaming into the room through the curtained window, and he squinted his dark eyes to adjust to the dim brightness as Ghost crawled under the sheets. 

Willow abruptly turned to face them, lazily blinking and tiredly smiling. 

"Good morning," she yawned, some strands of her pale blonde, almost white, hair falling on her cheek as she gathered Ghost into her arms, causing her to giggle again.

"Good morning, Papa! Momma!" she chirped. 

Arson chuckled fondly, shifting closer to drape an arm over them both and press a kiss on Willow's forehead. 

"Our lil' alarm," he mused. "Ready to start the day?"

Ghost nodded eagerly, burrowing herself deeper into her parents' arms happily while Willow yawned again. 

"Only if you two are in it," Willow declared teasingly. 

Arson smiled in amusement. 

"Always."

After a lot of ticking in bed, finally getting up and dressed and ready, and of course, breakfast, the three were finally strolling out of their house.

"Momma, Papa?" Ghost queried as she skipped to the car. 

Arson, ever the gentleman, opened Willow's door - the driver's seat - for her as he said, "Yes, darlin'?"

"Can we get ice cream after you pick me up from school?"

Before he closed the car door, he glanced at his wife with a questioning look. 

"What do you think? Should we get our little princess some ice cream after school?"

Willow giggled, setting her purse to the side. "Sure we can."

Arson grinned at Ghost as she clambered into the backseat with a happy smile. "Yay!"

He shut Willow's door carefully before rounding the car to open the passenger's seat and sit in it. 

Once he was situated, he glanced over his shoulder to grin at Ghost. 

"All set, darlin'?"

Ghost nodded readily. 

Arson then brought his gaze to Willow. "You, love?"

She pretended to think for a moment, lifting her chin up with a faint smile. 

"Hmm..."

Her eyes lit up. 

"Oh, one more thing."

She leaned over to press a quick kiss on Arson's lips, making him beam and chuckle. 

Willow then started the car, the soft roar of the engine reaching everyone's ears, and soon, she was maneuvering the car out of the driveway and out onto the streets. 

They always dropped Ghost off to school first; it was the closest to the house, so it was the quickest to get to, and with her out of the car, Arson could manage to steal a few kisses from his wife. 

Time quickly passed and they were soon at Ghost's school. 

Being the little girl she is, she crawled up into the front seats to kiss her parents goodbye. 

"Bye, Momma! Bye, Papa!" she chirped.

"Love you, sweetie," Willow cooed at her. "Behave and listen in school and you'll get that ice cream."

Ghost's face lit up excitedly and she nodded. "Uh huh. Love you!"

The two parents called I love you back to her as she exited the car.

They watched her skip towards the school, a happy sigh leaving Arson. 

"How'd I get so lucky?"

The car started moving again, and Arson felt her take his hand in hers to squeeze it. 

"By meeting me and letting me make you see colors, like you did for me, silly," she giggled. 

Soulmates were able to meet each other when their eyes met for the first time, allowing them to see color in the world.

It was a remarkable thing. 

Willow had pulled up in a more secluded spot in the parking lot of Arson's work building, and he took that to his advantage to lean over and kiss her more fiercely. 

She giggled against his lips a few moments later. 

"Go to work, silly. I have a meeting and we want to pick Ghost up on time for her ice cream, right?"

Arson pulled back, a satisfied gleam in his eyes. "Not my fault you are tempting. But fine, for you and our daughter."

"Goodbye, my darlin'," he hummed in farewell, pressing one last kiss on her lips. "Be safe and have a good day at work."

She laughed breezily and nodded. "I'll be thinking of you and our lil' girl, of course. Bye, I love you."

He winked, which elicited another laugh from her, then closed the door and turned around to enter the building. 

He watched the car drive off.

Arson was humming happily as he walked into the office, shooting a smile at his co-workers who he considered as friends. 

"Morning, Dev, Amen." 

He sauntered over where they were, at the coffee table. 

"Good morning, Arson," Devotee greeted. A wide smirk crawled onto his lips when Arson neared them. 

"Your morning was good so far, yes?" Amen chimed in somewhat knowingly, his smirk as big as Devotee's.

Arson casted his friends a suspicious look. 

"What?"

Amen chuckled. "You got a lil' something..." He trailed off, his hand coming up to gesture to his face. 

Arson blushed, and immediately brought his sleeve up to wipe the lipstick mark in the corner of his lips. 

"My morning has been fine," he muttered as his friends burst up into laughter. 

Arson rolled his eyes, turning slightly away from his friends to grab himself some coffee.

"Relax, Arson," Devotee chuckled. "It's safe to say the same thing's happened to me before."

Arson grabbed his mug of coffee, turning with a slight smirk. "Really? I can imagine that."

Devotee chuckled again. "C'mon, let's get to work."

Arson nodded, and then turned away from the coffee table to head to his desk.

Suddenly, his vision went black and white. 

The mug fell from his hand.

His world was colorless. 

angst angst angst

no happy ending

FIN