Mikannie Week 2020

Day Five: Soulmates/Artist

Mikasa didn't have a soulmate timer.

Even from a young, sheltered perspective, she knew that there was something wrong with her. Her parents were soulmates. Everyone in the movies had soulmate timers. Everyone at school showed off their timers to one another and gossiped about when they'd meet their other half.

But Mikasa did not have that timer on her wrist.

Her mother had assured her that there was nothing wrong with her.

"You are so brilliant and kind, Mikasa," she said. "It shouldn't matter if you don't have a soulmate. We'll still love you."

Her father had suggested that there was a purpose for her lack of a timer.

"Maybe you weren't meant to have a soulmate," he said. "That's alright, I think - maybe you're something wonderful."

Her parents' words were comforting, but it didn't ease the sting of her peers' comments.

As the years went on, Mikasa learned to hide her lack of soulmate timer. She wore long sleeves, and changed the topic when anyone started talking about soulmates with her.

Her parents weren't even around anymore to give her soft affirmations. They died when she was nine.

Her adoptive family was nice enough. Carla and Grisha were caring and in love. And Eren - he was like her. She found out a few weeks after being adopted. Mikasa had whispered her secret to him in the dead of night. And Eren had told her he was in the same situation. This thing bonded them together. Neither Mikasa nor her new brother had a soulmate timer. They were two anomalies, two lone half-formed individuals. They could be freaks together against the world.

Eren's friend Armin had a timer, but he never viewed Eren or Mikasa as wrong or broken. He was intrigued by them. He borrowed books from the library and searched online for any mention of people without soulmates or timers.

Mikasa liked having a friend, but there was still the ever-present dread of his timer. Armin had five years on his wrist when she met him. He only had five years until he met his soulmate, his other half. And then he wouldn't feel the need to be with Mikasa or Eren. It was the thing that always happened, in the books and movies - when you meet your soulmate, they are your everything. You don't need anyone else, because you have a soulmate. Friends were just things you kept in the meantime.

Mikasa tried not to let her secret bother her. Even in a world that revolved around a thing she may not ever find, she could still live.

Perhaps.

--

"To break the rules, we must first learn them," the art teacher said. She was an eccentric older woman, who wore a different colourful dress to each lesson. Today she wore a green and grey shapeless dress, and large green plastic earrings.

Mikasa had taken up art classes after graduating high school. She wasn't any good, but that was beside the point. It was a distraction from life.

This week they were drawing nude portraits. A model was coming in for them. Apparently, according to the guy who sat a row across from Mikasa, the model was some girl who did mixed martial arts with him.

"A real bitch," he said to the punk next to him. Mikasa pretended not to hear that.

"You must study the human form first, before you transform it in your art. To know the complexities of life-"

The teacher was cut off when the storeroom door swung open. All eyes went to the girl who entered - she was short, blond, and sort of looked like Avril Lavigne. All she wore was an oversized dusty pink shirt. Her hair fell over her face, the way shy girls in junior high would style it when they wanted to be ignored. She looked totally unbothered.