Chapter Text
Ethel woke up slowly, blinking groggily as awareness came back to him.
He moved to sit up, but stopped as he realized he couldn’t move his right leg or arm. He couldn’t move much of anything, actually.
His eyes widened as he did a quick roll call of his limbs and where they were at. His right arm was under Logan’s chest, his legs tangled with the others. His head was tucked under Logan’s chin, nose to his collarbone.
Logan had a pretty firm hold around Ethel. He must have been pretty clingy during sleep then.
Ethel removed himself from the embrace as gently as possible as to not wake Logan, tip toeing to the bathroom. He took care of his business and hopped in the shower. Logan was awake and stretching his arms with a yawn by the time he was out.
He looked over at Ethel with an odd expression, as if forgetting who he was. His eyes trailed down to his hand at the “snake yellow” string that connected the two. He visibly brightened.
“Good morning Ethel, I trust that you slept well.”
Ethel thought about it. He had slept well, great, in fact. He slept better than he had slept in a very long time.
“Yes, I did sleep well,” Ethel said, brushing a hand through his hair, which was still damp from his shower.
“Well, according to the alarm clock we have an hour to leave. I’ll go ahead and get ready for the day. I’ll be back shortly,” Logan said as he entered the bathroom, the lock clicking behind him.
Ethel sat in silence. The exhaustion was still there. The horrible guilt, as fucking always, was still there. And as much as he didn’t want to admit it, he was excited to meet them. Like, really excited.
He went to get ready to leave, hoping he could ignore the issues at hand. He slid on his shoes and gloves, reaching for his hat. He half wished he had some other clothes, but it wasn’t like they were dirty, he had only worn them to the coffeeshop and to the hotel.
He ignored the way his hands trembled and his breath quickened. He heard the shower head turn on, signaling Logan was in the shower. Ethel moved to sit on the edge of the bed, staring at his gloved hands without thinking about much.
The fatestrings tied to his fingers came up and over the top of the glove. It didn’t feel like anything was there, it was nearly completely unnoticeable. The strings were weird like that, you wouldn’t feel them and they wouldn’t bother you as long as you didn’t want them to.
He ran his fingers along them, his touch featherlight. He watched as the little piece of torn string on his left hand dangled over them and gulped audibly.
He gave the four strings a soft tug, more out of curiosity than anything.
He got a couple tugs in response from Red and Purple, and a shake from Blue. It had occurred to him that he had yet to ask Logan which string belonged to who. Guess he’d find out shortly.
The showerhead turned off, and Ethel looked up at the door.
“Need something Ethel? You tugged,” Logan called through the door. His voice was muffled by what was probably a towel.
“Huh? Oh, no, sorry,” Ethel said, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets.
“Alright, well, the others and I have a system, you see. One tug is you need something, two is a reassurance, and three is an emergency. Patton also occasionally shakes his but that’s just him,” Logan said with a fond chuckle.
“Sorry,” Ethel said and winced. Of course, look at him, already fucking up their rules.
“What? No it’s fine, you didn’t know,” The door to the bathroom swung open and Logan was standing there, hair dripping. He was fully clothed, which was a mild surprise. He hadn’t been in there too long, when the door started to open Ethel half expected for him to come out in his underwear or something.
He nodded, fixing his hat onto his head.
“Well, I’m ready to leave,” Ethel said, standing. Logan gave him a thumbs up as he began to throw his few belongings into his backpack. He occasionally reached up to the toothbrush in his mouth to multitask, but didn’t do it often. It just kinda sat there.
After a few tense moments of Ethel staring at Logan while he got ready, Logan straightened up and dusted his shirt off.
“Alright, I’m ready as well.”
The two left the hotel room without another word, and Logan signed out at the front desk. Ethel slid into the passenger seat as Logan threw his backpack in the backseat. He turned the keys, and they were off.
“How long until we get there?” Ethel asked.
Logan raised an eyebrow, “Thirty minutes. Are you excited? You keep fidgeting in your seat.”
“Excited is one word for it, sure,” Ethel said, tugging his hat a little more over his eyes.
“You’ll like them. Roman and Patton can be a bit much at times, but Virgil is… ah, what’s the word? Cold?”
“Chill-?”
“Yes! That’s it,” Logan snapped his fingers, “Virgil is ‘chill’.”
“I’m sure I’ll lo- like them, Logan,” Ethel caught himself before he made a mistake, “You are amazing, and a man like you probably has wonderful standards.”
“Technically I don’t need standards, as they are my soulmates, but I get what you mean. If standards were necessary, then yes, they meet them very well,” Logan said, heading up a ramp onto the interstate.
Ethel gave a thoughtful nod and clasped his hands, twiddling his fingers around. The anxiety and anticipation was building in his chest, and he could’ve sworn Logan could hear how loud his heart was beating.
They chatted idly, the time flying much faster than Ethel would have wanted.
They pulled into a neighborhood with houses running up and down both sides of the road, and now was really when Ethel felt like he was going to have a heart attack.
His stomach seemed to leap to his throat as Logan turned into a driveway.
“You ready?”
Ethel laughed aloud, “Absolutely not.”
Logan gave him a small smile, “We can stay in the car a little while if we must.”
Ethel shook his head and reached for the handle, swinging the door open. He let out a shuddering breath.
“Better to just get it over with.”
-
The other three soulmates had been collectively losing their minds since Virgil’s phone call with his sibling the day before.
“We are literally going to meet them tomorrow, I’m so excited!” Patton had quite literally bounced around the entire house, and if he had the ability to, he would probably be doing somersaults.
Roman spun around with him at times, laughing loudly. Virgil would snicker and film them, lovingly of course, hiding his phone in the overly large sleeve of his hoodie.
They thought they had been prepared, but none of them were ready for the front door opening at a little past one in the evening the next day.
“I have returned,” Logan called into the house. Patton nearly tripped with how fast he turned the corner from the kitchen, his shoulder slamming into the wall. Roman was next, his singing abruptly cut off as he turned to see Logan, smiling brightly.
Virgil crept from their room, peering around the corner of the hallway.
“Did you bring them?!” Patton practically shouted, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet.
At that exact moment, a head poked over Logan’s shoulder, looking in through the door. Logan moved out of the way, and the new arrival stepped in through the door. He had his head held high, and a smug-looking smirk on his face.
Virgil, for one, noticed the tense set of his shoulders and the way his hands were shoved into his pockets forcefully.
Everyone, however, noticed how said pockets had four strings that spread to all four of them.
“This is Ethel, he is our fifth soulmate.”
There was silence for exactly four seconds.
Then, chaos.
“Hello!” Patton nearly shrieked, his hands fluttering so fast you could nearly see through them. He looked like he wanted to run forward and wrap his hands around the other man, but barely managed to restrain himself.
Roman gave a fake swoon, “Gods am I smitten already, what is it with Lady Fate giving me such perfect boyfriends?”
Ethel smiled at the both of them, “Hello, I’m guessing you’re Patton? Logan did say you were adorable,” he winked, ignoring Logan’s indignant squawk behind him, he turned to Roman, “and you are Roman, then? I must say, I’m charmed.”
For good measure, he reached forward and grabbed Roman’s hand, kissing his knuckles just above the yellow string.
“Goddamnit, two overly-dramatic asses,” Virgil grumbled from the hallway entrance. He was now leaning against the wall, a smirk on his face giving away his amusement.
Ethel finally noticed him, eyes snapping up to meet his. Fuck, he really did have a thing for emos.
“That makes you Virgil. As stunning in person as Logan had described,” Ethel purred, stalking forward. Virgil curled into his hoodie, hiding how red his face was quickly getting.
The new arrival stopped a few feet from Virgil. Virgil’s eyes widened as he realized he was a good six inches taller than Ethel.
The emo turned to knock his head against the wall, “Oh God, why did you have to be short?”
Ethel’s face immediately turned defensive.
“You got an issue with that?” He hissed, crossing his arms. Behind him, Roman began to laugh himself to tears.
“Our tall emo has a thing for shorter men. Especially cute shorties,” he said between laughs.
“Shut it,” Virgil snapped. It was Ethel’s turn to flush red.
“Well! Ethel! I’m so happy to meet you! To be honest with you, I didn’t think we were going to find you so fast, I’m glad though!” Patton said, clapping his hands together. Logan put a hand on his shoulder and nodded in agreement.
“I ran into Ethel’s friend in a coffee shop, he saw my four strings and put two-and-two together pretty fast.”
Ethel turned to look back at Virgil when the emo snickered.
“I knew you all met at a coffee shop, Elliot was the barista. They called me to check in and recognized you half way through the call,” he explained, stuffing his hands into his pockets, “‘Said you were looking ‘thoroughly smitten’ with an unknown stranger. Knowing you, Mr. No Feelings, I knew you would only look that way with a soulmate.”
“Yeah! And Roman fell off the couch with how excited he was when he realized,” Patton said, poking Roman in the ribs.
Laughing softly, Ethel took his hat off and ran a hand through his hair.
“Glad I could have such an effect,” he said. He closed his eyes as he did so, which was convenient for the other three, as they all had locked eyes with a frayed little string attached to his left hand.
“Hey, Ethel, do you mind if I-” Logan was cut off by a loud ringtone. Roman groaned as he reached for his phone, checking the caller ID.
“Huh, its Remus,” He said, lifting an eyebrow in confusion. Ethel shivered at the name, a chill going down his spine.
Weird, it must be colder in here than he thought.
Roman clicked a few buttons.
“Surely it’s fine, I’ll call him back shortly,” Roman waved it off, putting his phone back into his pocket.
It rang seconds later.
Roman groaned, getting it back out, “What does he want?”
“Maybe you should answer it,” Virgil said. He began to fidget nervously with his hoodie sleeves, “It might be important-”
Roman laughed, “It’s Remus, when is it ever important?”
Ethel looked back and forth between the four of them as Roman hung up yet again.
This time the call back was instant.
Roman groaned, answering it this time.
“Remus this better be important, I’ll catch up with you la- what?” Roman went pale startlingly quick, “... Wait no, back track, what do you mean ‘cut’? That’s not even possible- When did this happen… That long? Why didn’t you tell me then!”
The other’s all looked around at each other, looks of fear on all of their faces.
Roman went quiet for a short while, before running towards the closet by the front door. He threw it open and slid into his jacket and sneakers.
He looked over at his four soulmates, worry all over his face.
“Alright, Remus, I’ll be there. Give me thirty minutes… Alright, bye.”
He hung up, already turning towards the door.
“Roman?” Patton asked in a small voice, “Is everything alright?”
Roman shook his head, and his voice was thick with tears, “He finally did it. That bastard. He finally pissed off the wrong damn people.”
And with that, the door closed behind him.
They all exchanged glances, and Ethel had never felt so small.
Awesome first meeting, really.
-
The man who was on the other side of the phone sniffed, wiping the tears from his eyes with a trembling hand.
He looked up at the ceiling and pursed his lips, a small smile on his face, at least his brother was coming.
The dull, throbbing ache in his left hand had yet to stop, even a month later.
He looked down at the four inch string that hung limply from his hand, the end frayed. The once brilliant yellow an ugly faded beige.
He sniffed, mourning the person he’d never know.