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“Hey, Roci, look!” Doffy grabbed Rocinante’s arm and pulled it towards him, pushing the sleeve up to reveal a hash mark inked on his skin. He hadn’t touched a pen since they finished their lessons over an hour ago, and Father used black ink not blue, which meant...
“It’s from my soulmate!” he exclaimed, pulling his arm free and grinning at the mark. One corner of the mark filled in with a lopsided X, and Rocinante let his sleeve fall back down as he stood and ran for Father’s desk. Once the quill was in his hands, he pushed his sleeve back up and drew a careful O in the opposite corner. The game went quickly, his soulmate sealing her victory with a star instead of an X, and Rocinante giggled.
“I like her already.” he said softly.
“Yeah, but you’re not gonna get to meet her.” Doffy huffed, crossing his arms and leaning against the back of the chair as he looked over Rocinante’s shoulder. “Our soulmates are back in Mariejois.”
“Well it’s part of the rules, isn’t it?” Rocinante asked, watching as his Os turned into little silly faces. “Soulmates always meet.”
“I guess.” Doffy pouted, then grinned as he snatched the pen from Rocinante’s hand and leaned across his body, scrawling across his bare skin under the tic tac toe board. “I. Am A. Big. Dumb-”
“Quit it!” Rocinante yelled, shoving his brother and grabbing for the pen. It took a minute of tussling and a tumble that dropped the chair on Doffy before he had it back, and Rocinante snatched the pot of ink before running to the bathroom. It was way smaller than the one back home, since they were on a ship and all, but it still locked from the inside. He sat down in the shower with the ink pot next to him, and pushed his sleeve up again. More writing had appeared beneath Doffy’s sharp scrawl and the trailing squiggle off of the last letter.
Are you okay?
I’m fine, he wrote back after her question mark, my big brother grabbed the pen.
My name’s Bellemere his soulmate wrote after that, her clumsy, blocky handwriting slightly larger than his own.
Rocinante had to twist his arm at a weird angle to write on it under the current line, and pressed his forearm to the shower wall. I’m Rocinante.
That’s a pretty name ♡
Rocinante smiled, and held his arm close to his chest for a minute before he thought of another question. Where do you live?
East Blue. You?
Rocinante’s heart did a little flip, and he got up to open the bathroom door. “Hey, Doffy?” he asked, hanging no the knob as he leaned out into the main room. “What Blue are we heading to?”
“North.” his brother answered, frowning as he looked up from his comics. “Why?”
“I wanna tell Bellemere.” Rocinante grinned, shutting the door again and getting back in the shower. His soulmate had written (left leg) in the little space remaining on his arm and he struggled to get his robes off without falling on his face. He wound up falling on his butt instead, which was only a little bit of an improvement, and once his robes had been kicked away he grabbed up the quill again.
We’re moving to North Blue.
Aww, there’s a whole Red Line between us ☹ Bellemere scrawled after his words. Rocinante drooped, but then a string of exclamation points appeared on his skin. I know! Let’s become Marines!
Marines?
Yeah. That way, we can both get assigned to the same place! Belmere wrote, her handwriting deteriorating into near illegible scrawl as she rushed through the letters. Rocinante gasped, a smile splitting his face as he set his pen to his leg.
Yes! Let’s do that. It’s a promise. Rocinante underlined the word promise with a heavy stroke of the quill, and winced when the tip scratched him.
Promise. Bellemere wrote back, then scribbled a shape he didn’t recognise. From the way she carefully printed the word MARINE under it in capital letters, though, he’d bet that it was the symbol of the marines. Father wasn’t going to be happy about Rocinante using up so much of his ink, but Rocinante didn’t care. He had a soulmate, and a plan to meet her. Who knew moving would be this much fun?