Our Fate is Red

Summary: Everyone in the world is tied to their soulmate by the "Red String of Fate" tied around their little finger. Ian and Mickey had been connected in that way since birth, but before they could meet, Mickey was so scared of being gay that he dug deep into his skin and severed the string. The string doesn't connect them anymore, but fate still has a way of bringing people together. Soulmate!AU

Disclaimer: I don't own Shameless.

I never write chapter fics. This is so rare and special for me, but I really believe in this story. I have already completely planned out all 9 chapters of this fic, so I hope that I can update in a timely manner. I hope you will all keep reading until the end! Thank you!

Also, I have finals really soon and then it's time for me to head back to America so... I will do my best to update, but you never know.

Chapter 1 – Inevitable

Every single person in the world has a "Red String of Fate" tied around their little finger connecting them to their soulmate. The string is a vital part of every person's body: as necessary to live as a heart or lungs. It becomes visible during puberty, but only to the eyes of the people attached to it. The red, glowing string acts like a lifeline between destined people. If one person feels happy or sad, the other can sense their feelings emanating through the string. Even before they meet, their minds and bodies are one, connected forever.

Such a connection of fate creates a force commonly known as "the pull." It's a form of gravity that brings soulmates together, even if they don't look for each other. No matter what gets in their way, nothing can stop these two people from coming together. Hardship may be able to stretch or tangle the string between them, but it can never tear or break. It is inevitable.

Most people go about their daily lives anticipating and waiting for the moment that the length of their string becomes short and they are right next to the person they have been waiting for their entire lives. It's impossible for someone to find their fated person until the right time, but as long as they allow the pull to lead them step by step, they will always end up right where they need to be.

Unfortunately, not everyone is so excited about what fate has in store for them. When Mickey Milkovich realized that he was gay, his string was anything but a blessing. It felt more like a ball and chain sinking him down toward his doom. He had never been so scared before in his entire life.

It's impossible for someone to see a string that they aren't connected to, so some people in the world believe that fate connections between gay couples don't exist. Mickey's father was one of those people. In fact, he believed that homosexuals were "unnatural" and "disgusting." If Terry Milkovich ever found out about his son, he would probably kill him or worse. Mickey wasn't willing to take that chance.

When Mickey's string became visible, he could barely handle it. The pull was harsh to him. One minute, it yanked and jerked him into different directions and bombarded him with horrible feelings that weren't even his own. The next, it made him happy beyond reason and he felt himself craving the unknown person, needing to know them. It was so overwhelming that Mickey could barely feel anything else, but what hit him the most was that he could sense the person lived nearby… and he could tell that they were definitely a boy.

Mickey did everything he could to fight against his fate. He locked himself in his room, barely leaving the house in case he ran into his so-called "soulmate." He fell into a kind of depression, refusing to even shower or eat. He didn't study and even got held back an entire year in school. Finally, he realized that just sulking around in his room wasn't going to work. Even if he avoided leaving the house, the pull would always find a way to have an effect on him.

If he wanted to elude his fate completely, he needed to get rid of the string itself, once and for all.

Mickey grabbed a pair of sharp, pointy scissors and took a long, deep breath. He'd always heard that getting rid of a string was impossible, but it didn't matter to him. He was desperate and willing try anything.

Suddenly, he swung the scissors down and brutally jammed them into his finger. He dug them deep into the skin, searching for whatever it was inside that kept him and this mystery person together. The string held on tightly, not wanting to let go, so Mickey kept pressing down harder.

He bit his lip and fought the tears threatening to fall from his eyes. He could handle the physical pain, but something else inside of him was screaming and fighting. It felt like his soul was being torn in half. He'd never done something so painful or heart-wrenching before in his life.

As he tore through the skin, Mickey thought of his father, and a wave of fear surged through him. He had to get rid of the string. It was the only way he knew how to survive.

With that thought, something changed.

The string remained intact, glowing brightly, but almost as if it was moving of its own free will, it finally loosened. Mickey watched in fascination as it untied itself slowly and slipped off of his finger. He had no idea what he'd done to get it to finally unravel, but it didn't matter. He'd actually done it.

The string retracted into the distance, fading from view. Inch by inch, it shrank and found its way back to the other person it belonged to. Mickey let out a long sigh and put the scissors down with shaky hands. His string was gone. It was really gone. He hadn't expected it to be so easy.

What he had expected more than anything was to feel relief, but to his dismay, it wasn't like that at all. Just like Mickey had hoped, he could no longer feel the pull of his soulmate calling for him, but all it did was fill him with a great sense of loss. For the first time, Mickey was completely alone, not connected to anything. It wasn't natural. It felt wrong.

Mickey looked down at his free finger and tried not to think about the feeling of regret that was beginning to bubble up inside of him. It didn't matter anyway. The string had already completely disappeared, replaced with a line of dark, red blood.

At the exact same time, only a few streets away, Ian Gallagher was hit with a sudden blast of agony. He had grown used his string sending him waves of pain, so much that he even suspected his soulmate was a victim of constant domestic abuse, but this was like nothing he'd ever felt before. It was like the string itself was suffering.

A searing lightning bolt of pain shot up his entire arm, toward his chest. He gasped for breath, like one of his lungs had disappeared and the remaining one was struggling to keep him alive. He felt like he was going to have a panic attack. What the fuck was happening to him?

He could feel his string getting shorter and shorter until he finally saw it: the other end floated into the room but no one was attached to it. The dull, red string retreated all the way up to his pinky until there was only a small piece left hanging off, lonely and connected to nothing.

Ian immediately fell into a panic. There were all kinds of stories and mysteries about the Red String of Fate, but he'd never heard of something like this happening before. He tried with all his might to sense the other person that was always with him, but he felt nothing.

Loneliness crashed down on him and he could barely breathe.

Ian immediately rushed downstairs, desperate to find someone who could help him figure out what was wrong. He spotted his mom and dad passed out together on the floor of the living room, and even though he knew better than to talk to his parents while they were high, he still knelt down next to his mother and shook her awake.

"Mom," Ian sobbed, clutching his finger. "My string! It hurts, mom! It hurts!" The hysterical child wouldn't stop crying.

Monica blinked awake as if in slow motion and stared at him through hazy, glazed-over eyes. "Ian?" she asked sluggishly. "Honey, what're you saying?"

Ian sniffed back his tears and tried to pull himself together. "My string isn't connected to anyone anymore, mom," he whimpered. "What happened? What do I do?"

Monica was paying more attention to the ceiling than her own son, but after a moment, she responded with a laugh. "Your soulmate probably died or something," she giggled unsympathetically.

Ian looked down at the lifeless string around his little finger and his heart sunk. It made sense, so he figured that it must be true. All he could ever remember feeling through his string was pain and fear. Maybe whatever it was that his soulmate had been terrified of finally got to him.

Ian dragged himself back upstairs, leaving his parents to their own devices. He buried himself in the covers of his bed and cried all night, mourning the loss of someone he had never met.

Whoever they were, he had loved them with all his heart.

As Ian and Mickey grew up, it stayed the same. They graduated elementary school and then middle school, all the while feeling like a part of them was missing.

Mickey's string was completely gone with only a small, circular scar on his finger to remember it by. He ended up getting knuckle tattoos that read "FUCK U-UP" on each finger so that the F would cover up his scar. Mickey thought that it was the perfect way to say "fuck you" to destiny. He figured that if he covered up the mark left over from that day he would be able to forget, but it didn't work out that way.

Even though Mickey was no longer connected to his soulmate, it still hadn't solved his problem. He was still gay, and just like every other horny teenager, he had needs. He fucked girls and showed them off in front of others to keep his family from being suspicious, but in the end, he couldn't resist the temptation of other boys for very long. He hooked up with guys in secret, only if he was absolutely sure that they would never get caught, and resigned himself to a life of pretending.

Ian also found out that he was gay when he was very young. Even after he'd accepted that his soulmate was gone, he was determined to find love somehow. His string continued to hang from his finger, short and limp, but he barely paid attention to it anymore. It was like a numb, useless appendage to him now. He believed that he could create his own destiny and make his own happily ever after.

During middle school, he began hooking up with Roger Spikey. He even thought that he might have had feelings for the guy, but it wasn't long before he had to face reality. When Roger found out about Ian's feelings, he laughed at him. He told Ian that there was no way that they could ever be anything but fuck buddies, because they weren't fate connected. Ian was just a warm mouth to him, someone to satisfy his urges until his real soulmate came along. He urged Ian to wait for his own fated person, and the redhead agreed with a wide, fake smile.

Ian tried to act like he hadn't been affected by Roger's words, but it was impossible. The truth was he'd developed a complex about not having a soulmate. Everyone other than him was connected to someone special, but no matter who he fell in love with for the rest of his life, that person would belong to someone else. He had no idea what he was supposed to do without that glowing red string telling him exactly where to be. It was scary.

Ian didn't realize that he had no reason to worry. Fate always has a way of bringing people together. Ian and Mickey had always lived close to each other, but they hadn't truly come in contact until freshman year of high school. After that, everything happened exactly the way that it was supposed to.

After all, it was inevitable.