Prompt: Your Soulmate's Name Is Tattooed On Your Wrist (ubiquitous Tumblr prompt)

They say that most people got their tattoo by the time that they turned sixteen. A coming-of-age ceremony, if you will. A searing burn usually accompanied the new tattoo, along with a reddish hue that stayed on the skin for a day. It was always on the wrist- no case had ever been reported otherwise. A private name that was displayed in such a public area; the tattoo gave people more stress than it warranted.

A quintet of friends went to John Quincy Adams Middle School. A dreamer named Riley. A rebel named Maya. A cowboy named Lucas. A genius named Farkle. A wingman named Zay. With ninth grade looming over the horizon, many people in their grade had already started getting the first glimpses of their tattoo.

It was strange science. One day, a hot burn will wake you up. A faint name will be seared across your wrist, and try as you might, you cannot make out the name just yet. It will grow over the next few years, as your emotions will. It won't ever change or disappear. Soulmate tattoos don't make mistakes. Only people do.

Sometimes the name will come as a shock. Sometimes it will come as no surprise whatsoever. Sometimes it will come with pain. The "sometimes" abound, but something never changes: the tattoo never lies. The tattoo is always right, and there to stay. Some will try and defy science. They will pick boys that they "loved"; names that weren't on their wrists. These cases almost always end in failure. Sometimes they picked the wrong person with the right name, and unsurprisingly, these end up in failure as well.

For boys, the tattoo is always on the right wrist; for girls, it is on the left. When the couple holds hands, the tattoos will touch. As stated before, the tattoo is an infallible science, catered to humans when they wanted more insight into their lives.

One sunny Monday morning, Riley woke up with a hot burn that could only mean one thing. She quickly checked her wrist and shouted a high-pitched hurrah. For as surely as the sun rises in the morning and sets at night, her wrist had been blessed with a name. A surprisingly short name; one that had only five place markers.

Lucas, Riley thought with a sigh. Could it be? Was she going to get her "Corpanga" story? They hadn't had a lot of spark before, but maybe this would change everything. She wondered if Lucas had gotten his tattoo yet; did he already think of her? She looked at her tattoo again, a grey set of lines- one for each of the five letters. Riley smiled to herself and got out of bed, ready to start the day.

Ready to start the day. Lucas sure was. Lucas had already gone to baseball practice early in the morning. Being team captain was tough, but the high school team was already talking about recruiting him for the varsity team next year, and he didn't want to disappoint anyone. Least of all himself.

He stepped into the shower, and covered his body in a stream of hot water. Lathering up, Lucas stared at his wrist again. Being one year older than everyone else, he had already had his tattoo come in. His actually came in before he moved to New York. He still remembered the day; a sunny spring day with the birds outside. It had been a slight burn, and only had four place markers. It was about as faint as a soulmate tattoo could get; his parents just told him that it was because he hadn't met his soulmate yet. Lucas remembered feeling scared and anxious. Even though boys wouldn't admit it, they cared about this tattoo even more than the girls did. After all, he was expected to be the one to initiate the first date with a name that he had known for years.

Just as Lucas finished showering and throwing on clothes, his body tensed up and his wrist burned bright red. It was the hottest that he had ever remembered his tattoo getting, and Lucas sat down in a hurry. It wouldn't stop burning, so he splashed cold water on it. Gasping for breath, Lucas chugged some water down himself, and threw the rest of it over his wrist. His body covered in sweats, Lucas shuddered and put on a jacket for good measure.

What did it mean? The tattoos never hurt that much unless it was permanently sealed. Lucas felt a sense of dread overcome him. With such a sharp pain, there was no doubt in his mind that his tattoo was sealed. By now, there was no going back. The sharper the pain, the more chemistry the future couple would share. With such a pleasant rejuvenation experience, Lucas was unsure of who the "lucky" girl was. If anything, all he knew was that it wasn't Riley. He hoped it wasn't. At least not now, anyways- they didn't have a lot of romantic chemistry. It was more of a... How did his classmates describe it? A summer rain? The kind of rain that is hot and sticky, and that people wished would stop so that they could go roast marshmallows over a campfire? Lucas didn't know. But he could. After all, the tattoo had sealed. Pitch-black ink, written right on his wrist. All he had to do was look.

And so he did.

At the other edge of Greenwich village, Maya also woke up with a searing pain. She fumbled around for a bit before turning on her lamp, groaning the whole way there. Maya shoved her wrist into her sleeve and started getting ready for school. She forsook the pre-established ritual of looking at her wrist; she was scared. Who would it be? No one had expressed romantic interest in her before- it was always Riley who boys fawned over.

Would it be someone she knew? She hated? A certain guy that Riley was in an "unofficial" relationship with? Maya shook those thoughts out of her head as she threw on some clothes. It didn't matter anyways. Some people deserved a happy ending, and Riley was one of them. Maya was sure that the universe knew that.

She was halfway done with breakfast when she couldn't help but stare at her covered wrist. In an effort to prevent herself from looking at it, she had worn bangles and bracelets. It didn't work. All it did was draw attention to the big question in her head. Who was it?

Maya reasoned with herself. Tattoos usually come in as a slow, gradual burn. It was never just what people called a "flash-tattoo". Those happened very rarely, and only for people like Cory and Topanga- truly destined soulmates. People with so much built-up chemistry that their bodies had to reveal it sooner as opposed to later. Maya would be okay, right?

She gingerly took off the bangles and bracelets one by one, laying them on the table. Taking in a deep breath, she pulled up her sleeve. Her blue eyes widened in surprise as her body took in a giant inhale.

She was wrong. So wrong. Flash tattoos only happened for people like Cory and Topanga- and Maya. Her tattoo had come in early, and the pitch-black ink stuck out against her pale skin like a red warning sign. She wanted to ask for soulmate reassignment, if that was even a thing. The name on her wrist scared her more than she ever thought it could.

Five little letters. Five little letters that she had pushed away in the very beginning. Five little letters that belonged to her best friend, Riley. Five little letters that were supposed to have a happy ending- not one stuck with Maya, the broken girl who lived in a bad part of town.

Five little letters that spelled Lucas.