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Chapter Text

>>>> (Narrator POV) <<<<
Rio clearly remembered the mixed feelings he had when he went to see his Miles who was crying in his crib, the boy was only two days old and was very silent compared to the babies he had already seen in the nursery at the hospital. She remembered that it was an especially hot day and Miles was in a light tank top and shorts, without socks, gloves and baby hats. When she saw her little baby with tears in her golden brown eyes she promptly took him in her arms, up close she could see what was bothering him.
- Jefferson! Bring the camera, Quick!!
The big man stumbled up with his brother Aaron in tow, both of them wide-eyed.
- What is it?
- Look! Shoot, quick!
Removing Miles's blouse, the colored scribbles were now fully visible. There were cloud-like blue streaks, indistinguishable red and yellow squiggles that Rio assumed were flowers. Aaron was more than willing to doodle his only nephew in response to earlier drawings (an idea stymied by Jefferson). Everyone was euphoric, Miles' soulmate was drawing on herself!
Jefferson proudly showed the polaroid photos to friends and family because, firstly, Miles' soulmate was already somewhere and secondly, he was still a child and not a teenager or adult (that really was a weight that fell off the shoulders of the young father). Rio's friends presumed from the images that Miles's pair would not be more than 4 years old.
There was just one problem: every time Miles' soulmate drew on himself, the newborn cried at the top of his lungs. Rio knew why. Turns out you could feel when your other half was scratching itself, you could feel the pressure and movement of either pen or brush on the skin, she and Jefferson wrote to each other a lot when apart, the itch on their skin was all too familiar and welcome. It turns out that a child still had no idea of his own strength and Miles was still new to this world and was not enjoying the new sensation.
>>>> (Time Skip) <<<<
Miles sighs, today his teacher was talking about soulmates, many of his classmates were impressed when they learned that since he was born he knew about the existence of his soulmate, what they didn't know was that he was totally ignored by it. Miles was already 6 years old and all the teachers praised his handwriting, he made sure to improve his writing skills so that his better half could understand the sentences he made himself, but this proved to be useless.
“My name is Miles Morales, what's yours?”
Silence.
“I live in Brooklyn, how about you?
Silence.
“I am 6 years old, how old are you?”
Nothing.
“¿Hablas español?”
He chuckled a little as he tried to write the same old sentences in different languages. But as always his response was silence. Rio sometimes watched his son watching the sunset with one of the pictures of his first mark in his hands. “Maybe he couldn't read?” so that's when Miles abandoned writing and devoted himself to drawing... then he had an answer.
It was during dinner. Before sitting down at the table Miles drew a simple sun on the back of his hand with the watercolor paint that his uncle had given him, Rio smiled a little noticing the small drawing. It was in the middle of the meal that he felt it... the slight itch, the warm fingertip on the back of his hand. He didn't even notice as he dropped the spoon, the noise drawing his parents' attention.
There, on the back of his hand, a sun, also made of ink, but red appeared... a red sun with a smiling face.
- RESPONDED! MY SOULMATE ANSWERED ME! MOM, LOOK!! HELLO DAD!! HE DRAWS VERY WELL!!
Rio felt her face hurt from smiling so much infected by her son's joy, the photos added to the album that night were beautiful.
>>>> (Time Skip) <<<<
It had been a bad day for Miles: he had woken up late because during the night the power had gone out because of the storm, because of that he left without eating and arrived at school soaking wet, only to discover the surprise literature test (his worst subject ). Due to the rush he had also forgotten his lunch and money, the return home was also another big shower of rain (at home he had to face a cold shower, the power had not returned).
Huddled in his bed Miles felt lonely, his parents were working, stormy days were a nightmare for both of them. Here he was, all alone. Pulling a pen from inside one of his sketchbooks he scratched a single word on his wrist.
"Loneliness"
Less than 2 minutes later he felt, on his wrist, the slight pressure and sliding, the tip of a pen.
- "Hard day?"
Miles felt his heart jump and speed up, his soul knew how to write! The handwriting was a bit jagged, "sharp handwriting" as her father would say.
- "Yea. Thunderstorm, no light, cold cereal for dinner, home alone”
Holding his breath Miles waited, joy filling his body.
- “The sky is also collapsing here, love.”
Miles would omit the fact that he hid his face in his hands and screamed like his cousins when talking to the boys they liked. Seeing that the space on his wrist would run out, Miles ran as fast as possible to the bathroom getting alcohol and cotton, he cleaned and dried the skin as quickly as he could, his half seemed to understand his idea and soon the other's sentences disappeared.
- “You are finally answering me”.
The answer was quick, her smile also quickly fell.
- “Don’t get used to it”
- “Oh, okay”.
5 minutes passed, Miles didn't know what to write, the usual questions weren't going to be answered, he felt it.
- “I'm sorry sunflower. Today was not a good day for me either. Something has happened—this is too much even for me.”
For some reason Miles felt a lump in his throat, for a moment he could feel the stress, tiredness, sadness of his other half, but Miles didn't know how to help, he was only 12 years old, he still didn't understand many things about life .
- “Please sunflower
I don’t—It’s just—I—”
- "How old are you?"
When Miles got nervous his reaction was to change the subject and now that seemed like the best plan. He was in the middle of cleaning his wrist when the number came up.
- “15”
3 years, only 3 years apart, but he felt that his soul mate had to deal with something too heavy for his age. Before his hands shook too much and he chickened out, Miles picked up his pen and wrote.
- “You know—you don't have to answer me every time. I am glad that all these years you have answered my drawings, it was because of you that I have perfected myself. Just— I'll wait for you, when you're ready, I'll be right here.”
Miles sighed, it seemed like centuries were going by... until he felt... warm lips over his writing... a lipstick mark outlining thick lips was engraved on his writing.
In the morning Rio entered Miles' room, it was natural to check on his son after a storm. In his hands were two photos, his mother's instinct told him it was something intimate, something just between Miles and his silent soulmate. So she left them where they were.
>>>> (Time Skip) <<<<
A few weeks have passed since that night so special for Miles, his parents noticed that there were more drawings scribbled on the boy's body, sunflowers and musical notes were the most common. Miles' behavior also changed when he got more frequent responses from his other half, he was more radiant, energetic, jumping out of bed early to run to school and show his drawings to his friends, so today was a strange morning for Rio and Jefferson .
He was late for breakfast, no sound was heard from Miles' room, until Rio's cell phone started ringing...
- Why was Miles calling me? Miles!!??
Both parents ran to their son's room... Miles was on the floor, panting... instead of drawings, there were bruises all over his body.
- mom... it hurts...
When the bruises appeared a third time Rio intervened. Without waking her boy she wrote on her wrist.
- “You're hurting him! You are hurting your soulmate!”
As usual there was no response, but the bruising subsided.

Chapter Text

>>>> (Time Skip) <<<<

4 years was enough for Miles' life to change. Spider bites, alternate universes, collider explosions, sinister chases with thousands of spider versions. The only constant in his life was his silent soul mate. He still interacted when he drew on himself, but the only thing he knew was that now half of him was 19, while Miles was 16.

He didn't try to think about it too much, Miles promised he would wait and he would, as long as it took, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't jealous of his new friends. Pavitr was already in a relationship with his soul mate, Gwen had discovered half of it when she joined Miguel's spider society, (which is why she was so jealous when Miles interacted with Margo). He would be lying if he denied that for a short time he expected Gwen to be half of him, it was a childish passion, today Miles admitted that.

At least Hobie was in the same boat as Miles. When the punk was asked about his soul mate the answer was just “None of your business”, short and blunt, something that didn't really bother Miles. He wasn't lying when he said that he thought Hobie was amazing ever since he took that mask off, and after deepening their friendship, Hobie was beyond amazing.

It was icy fingers on his ribs that woke Miles who automatically jumped up, sticking to the ceiling.

- Hobie!!

The punk practically rolled across the mattresses spread across the floor laughing genuinely, the eldest's joy made a roguish smile appear in Miles as he descended from the ceiling. Pavitr had his first fight with Gayatri, he had called Hobie who had called Gwen who ultimately dragged Miles to a sleepover in Spider Woman's Dimension (It wasn't a self pity party, Pav had made that very clear) . This all led to the current situation.

Miles falls onto the mattresses yawning looking for the other two friends.

- Gwen and Pav went to buy something greasy and covered in chocolate for breakfast.

- Hm.

The night had been long, full of cliché romantic movies that were constantly interrupted by sarcastic and funny comments from Hobie and Miles, all to get a smile from the tearful friend.

Through the windows Miles sighed watching Gwen's watercolor world gain warmer colors according to the rise of the sun, luckily he always carried his sketchbook.

- Inspired sunflower? Sometimes I find Gwen's world too colorful for me.

- Ha! Look who's Talking.

Miles pretended that nickname didn't mess with him, it was something that only his soulmate called him, but he didn't want to upset Hobie by forbidding him to call him that, he knew that nicknames were Hobie's way of showing his affection.

Come to think of it, it had been months since Miles had drawn himself, it was always Miles who "reached out" when it came to his other half (Gwen had commented that it was kind of sad that Miles survives on crumbs of affection from the other half, like always the girl was straightforward in her opinion).

- -iles! Miles!

- What?

Hobie was still lounging with his long legs crossed over the bed (a pretty cute sight, Hobie dressed in an oversized white blouse and equally oversized pants without his accessories and makeup), he was looking questioningly at Miles.

- What?

- I who ask, Peter Pan, you froze looking at your notebook, shoot what you are thinking.

- It's nothing... I mean... I was just remembering that it's been a while since I've spoken to my soulmate.

- Oh! Who knew our spider boy was so romantic.

Miles laughed sitting down at the table pulling out a pen and his markers then positioning his arm in a comfortable way to start drawing.

- Not so much. He or she is not one to talk, in fact I can count on my fingers the number of times I have been answered with words...

Hobie was silent watching the young man, like him, Miles avoided talking about his soul mate and him doing that now seemed to mean something big. Hobie hated it, being destined, attached to someone permanently, so he ignored his own half. He had already been with other people, one-night or week-long affairs that sometimes could have evolved into much more, but it never lasted precisely because of the damn “soul mates”. Miles was an incredible person, there was something about him that attracted him immensely, not only because Miles bent the rules, taking and shaping destiny in his hands as he wanted, there was something incredible shining in Miles' eyes that attracted him. It didn't go unnoticed for Hobie that they got closer, he didn't go hand in hand with every friend, affectionate nicknames leapt from Hobie's lips to Miles with extreme ease. He felt it was mutual.

But again there it was, the damn “soulmates” preventing something that would be wonderful to live. Miles clearly loved half of him, it pained Hobie to realize that, but he would listen to Miles, liking someone meant supporting them, wouldn't you?

- ... For a long time I tried to write to him, but I never got an answer.

- Maybe he didn't know how to read?

Miles smiled and started sketching on her skin, it would just be the image of the window, the simple vase of flowers and the colorful sky, Miles liked to draw landscapes, showing how he saw the world for his soulmate.

- My mom said that too, so I dropped writing and started drawing...

Hobie's heart began to race as she began to feel the familiar feel of the pen's tip against her skin…on her forearm.

- That's when I got the answer.

Hobie slowly looked down seeing the lines slowly being outlined.

- I worked hard and improved my drawings for him...

“(...) it was because of you that I improved myself(...)”

Hobie shuddered, Miles was so wrapped up in his drawing, in his outburst that he didn't notice Hobie's face slowly turning into shock.

- My mom has been taking pictures of my marks since I was a little boy, funny isn't it. He always complements my drawings, no matter how simple it is... we've only talked 3 times in my entire life.

“(...) you don't have to answer me all the time. I'm glad that all these years you've responded to my drawings (...)"

-The only thing I know about him or her is his age.

The young man was taken out of his stupor when he heard the bathroom door slamming shut, he sighed a little sadly, Hobie didn't like to talk about "soulmates" and Miles probably just annoyed him with his outburst. Excuses were already on the tip of his tongue when the older man left the bathroom...

- I think you put on too much lipstick, Hobie.

Miles joked and was slightly startled by the speed at which the other approached.

- Hobie?

Without waiting, Hobie took Miles' face between his hands and started randomly distributing kisses. Miles was used to being attacked like this by his mother, for Hobie it was new, he could only start laughing and trying to push Hobie away.

- Okay, enough, enough! Gwen told me that my history with my better half was depressing, but I expected a different reaction from you Hobbes hahahahaha!!

Hobie walked away smiling seeing the younger's face full of marks from his lips, Miles held his hands and laughed softly with his eyes closed, but time froze when he opened them...

Hobie's face was full of lipstick marks... moving his hands away a little he saw... on Hobie's forearm was the mirroring design he had made on himself...

-Hobie...

- I'm ready! I-I'm ready! Miles—please—please—I'm ready—

It was Miles's turn to hold Hobie's face, the other was looking calm, but his mouth was pouring out nonstop words.

- Shiiuu, breathe Hobie... I said I would wait for you, I'm here for you.

For a few minutes they just sat there sharing air until Miles stole a quick peck.

- I missed tagging here.

At the door, Gwen could only gape at the interaction, while Pav was crying with a huge smile as he held a box with a cake.

Hobie hated soul mates, having their destiny intertwined with someone else, but as always Miles was an exception. Anyway, he was against consistency, so this was going to work.