aurora rising one shots, volume one.

Bruises

Word count: 1262 words!!!

Fluff

Starring:
Aurora 'Auri' Jie Lin O'Malley
Kallis Idraban Gilwraeth

Soulmate AU where when you draw/hurt yourself, any marks that come up on your skin are mirrored by your soulmate.

So imagine having a really artistic soulmate and watching as drawings come up across your arm.

Or having a soulmate who gets in a lot of fights. One day you wake up with scratches all across your body, and just panic because are they okay?

K I'll stop and get into the story.
It's just Kal and Auri btw. I couldn't really think of anything for anyone else, but I can do it if y'all want.

~~~
Auri's POV.

What the hells am I doing here? Am I on Octavia? I sit up, out of a hi tech med cot. I rub my eyes, and look down at my arms, checking that I was okay.

Spoiler alert: I was not.
They're covered in bruises and scrapes, and I'm bleeding from a shallow cut on my upper arm.

It looks like a demonic cat had attacked me, and then I was thrown down the stairs. Definitely not the first impression I was going for.

I pause and  look around, not really believing it. It's all whitewashed tiles, and there's a bunch of machines that I don't recognise against the wall.

Why isn't my dad here? Where's Patricia? Where's a nurse?

I don't think I'm on Octavia....
But if I'm not, where the hells am I?!

A thought occurs to me. I write a message on my arm saying
Where am I? In my neat-ish handwriting.

It's supposed to go to your soulmate, and show up on their skin. Of course, I was the loser who didn't have one.
But I mean, it helps, thinking that just maybe there's someone out there who will love you unconditionally.

It's bullshit though. Look what happened with my parents. They've fallen apart, and have moved to another freaking planet to get away from each other.

I sigh and get out of the cot and go to the small bathroom that's connected to my room/cell/med bay.

It hurts when I walk, as if I hadn't used my muscles in years.

I strip off my torn and frayed Hadfield regulation uniform and gasp. My ribs are sticking out of my skin, and it looks like I haven't eaten in centuries. My normally black bangs are a stark white, and my face is gaunt. On top of that, the bruises continue cover my stomach, and I have skinned knees and more bruises there too.

What the hell happened to me?!

I step into the shower and stay there a while, just vibing. I scrub myself down, and when I step out of the shower, I feel like a whole new person.

I pull on a baggy t-shirt with the words
Aurora Legion Cadet stitched on the front. I guess that's where I am, The Aurora Legion. I'm assuming it's some sort of military school, but as far as I'm aware, Space INC hadn't set up anything else other than The Octavia Project.

Weird.... it's almost like I'm in another time....

I pull on some pants and wrap my stomach up in a bandage. Even after the shower, everything hurts. But it's mainly my stomach, where the bruises are the worst.

I scrub my hair dry, and scratch a message with a pen into my arm again, the original washed away.

"What is your name?"

That's all I write, and I stand up and head out the door of med room 22 in search of food.

~~~

After about half an hour of wandering around this so called 'Aurora Legion'
I've found nothing but dirty looks from strangers, increasing hunger and a wish for death.

I'm lost, and my body is aching. I spot a seat and sag down on it, exhausted. They didn't tell me exhaustion was a side effect of cryo, and there can't be anything wrong with me, I'm pretty fit from Octavia training.

"What the hells is wrong with me!" I mutter, with my head down.

I look down at my arm, and there's still no reply. I knew it. No one would answer.

I let out a sharp cry as I see a deep cut forming on my arm, and starts heavily bleeding. It looks like an invisible person had cut my arm with a knife.

I hear yelling down the deserted corridor, and I get up to find the source, hoping that they could help me.

I cup my hand against the knife wound, and stagger to the hall.
There, I see three humans fighting an.......elf?

I think I'm starting to hallucinate. Too much fold time combined with not enough eating. I knew I should've followed Mom's advice.

"Help..." Is all I can say, before the ground rushes up to greet me and all I see was black.

~~~
Kal's POV

I'm sitting in med bay 22 with the pretty human. I can't stop thinking about the little what is your name engraved onto my skin with a blue marker.

It's strange, really. Nothing ever came up on my skin. It's always been perfect. Even the bruises I should get never come up because of Syldrathi's almost impenetrable skin.

I was always perfect. Even when the three Terran Tanks jumped me and took a knife to my arm, I only got a small scratch.

Now looking down at the small Terran laying peacefully on the bed, I can see the deep gash on her arm matches my own scratch.

She groans and her eyes flutter open.

I'm taken aback as I realise:
This is the girl Tyler Jones rescued. The girl out of time.

I wonder if she knows.
I wonder if she knows her family is dead.
I wonder if she knows her friends her dead.
I wonder if she knows if her dreams are shattered.
I wonder if she knows.

"What....what happened..." she says, her voice heavy with sleep. She speaks with a slight accent, I realise.

Beautiful.

"You blacked out due the the cut on your arm." I say, trying desperately to make my voice as gentle as I can.

She looks down to her bandaged arm, and gets up to leave.

I grab her arm, and she hisses in pain, and snatched her arm away.

"I don't know who you are, elf, but I need to find my father!" She almost shouts, while cradling her arm to her chest.

I do not want to be the one to tell her.
But I must.

"Uh-" I start

"Aurora Jie-Lin O'Malley, but call me Auri."

"Auri," I pause, unsure whether I should tell her, "Your family is dead. You were in cryo for a very long time."

She stops, her eyes wide. She sinks to her knees. "No. No. This- no. No. They can't- No. Theyre not- Theyre not... No."

She pauses, taking it all in. Tears start falling down her star-speckled face.

"How long was I out? How long has my family been...been..."

"Dead? You've been in cryo for 220 years." My voice gentle. I reach out to comfort her, and she hits my arm away.

"Oh shit...." She says, noticing my arm. Noticing the little words written in blue marker.
"No, not in the same day. No."

"What is it, Aurora?" I ask, fearing the answer, my heart beating fast.

In response she rips off a bit of the bandage on her arm, and shows me the little blue message on her arm.

"We're-" I begin

"-Soulmates." She finishes.