Chapter Text
Robb Stark had been anxious as the days counted down to his sixteenth birthday.
When you turn sixteen years old, you are given a step counter that counted down the number of steps it took for you to meet your soulmate. Robb had been waiting since he was five to get his counter after his mother had shown him her old one. He was beyond eager to see how many steps he’d have to go before he met that person. His person. His soulmate. The person that was supposed to be his one and only.
The week before his birthday, Robb would check the mailbox thrice a day in the hopes that it had come early. He vaguely remembered hearing stories about that and hoped it would be the case for him too. Like his parents had told him time and time again, the counter arrived nine o'clock on his birthday just as he finished up breakfast.
"I don't see why you're so excited about it," Theon remarked with a roll of his eyes as Robb held the box in his hands. His fingers were shaking ever-so-slightly as he pulled the tape off the ink black box. He was trying to hold himself back from ripping the box apart, taking his time to open it slowly. He was trying to treasure the memory even though it felt like torture going so slow.
Robb had brought the counter up to his room. He wanted to open it without an audience…well, except for his best mate but that was different. He shared everything with Theon so why wouldn’t he share this? After all, his soulmate would have to get along with Theon so Robb might as well include him as much as he can in the beginning to make that clear. Just because he was getting a soulmate, didn’t mean he was going to lose his best friend (no matter how much Jon teased Theon about that).
"Because," Robb huffed, "I get to know when I meet them."
"Not when," Theon sneered, "how many steps, a stupid method of you ask me. I think a timer would have made more sense."
"You're just bitter that you never got a counter," Robb shot back with a joking smirk.
Theon was already eighteen and he had never gotten a counter. The government could only issue them if you were registered with the SCI but the Greyjoys- actually almost all Iron Born -never bothered to do so. Damn separatists. Then again, it was only this generation that the Starks got themselves counters. The idea of knowing when you’d meet your soulmate was a rather new trend that started in the South and was working its way North (even if it was taking a few decades to actually get around to Winterfell).
Theon just rolled his eyes and plopped his chin onto Robb's shoulder so he could watch Robb open it. "Let's just get this over with." There was a slight edge in his drawl this time and Robb wondered if maybe he pressed a button of Theon's. He had been getting extra moody as of the late.
Breathing deeply, Robb lifted the lid off the box and peered inside. The black counter was nestled in a pillow of soft red velvet. The counter itself was a simplistic black wristband; it almost looked like a watch. Once turned on, it would display tiny white numbers that would begin to count down with every step you take until you are destined to meet your soulmate. When it reached zero and you met your soulmate, the counter would fade from obsidian to ivory.
Beaming with excitement, Robb pulled out the counter and held it in his left hand, grabbing for Theon with the right. Pressed against his shoulder, Robb felt Theon suck in a breath as Robb turned it on.
Robb blinked as the number came to the screen. Theon exhaled sharply, like a choke, but remained silent.
- - -
"Wha..." The words died in his mouth as he stared at the three little blinking dashes that should have been numbers. Both watched in confusion as the counter faded from depthless black to….grey, the dashes never ceasing to blink bright and white.
"What the fuck?" Theon supplied, eyebrows pinched together because even if he didn’t have a counter, he knew it wasn’t supposed to do that.
"I don't know." Robb tapped the screen but nothing happened. Still grey and still flashing.
"What does it mean?" Theon voiced the same thought spinning at hyper-speed in Robb's head.
"I…I don't know."
Robb crumpled in on himself, the fucking grey counter with flashing dashes falling helplessly in his lap. With his trembling hands, Robb scrubbed his face and dragged his hands through his hair until they encountered the curls that locked his fingers in place. Angrily, he tugged at it.
All he wanted was to know that someone was out there just for him, a soulmate that was his and his alone; someone he didn’t have to share with his siblings; someone that was his other half and someone who was just a couple of footsteps away, but apparently, that wasn't destined for him. Robb didn't get a soulmate. Robb wasn't going to find his other half. Robb was going to be forced to be incomplete. Broken.
It wasn't even the end of the world and he knew that deep down; many people didn't find their soulmates. Usually, those were people who weren’t registered with the SCI like Theon. It didn't mean their soulmate wasn't out there, it just meant that they wouldn’t know. They could walk right past their soulmate and never know. And they could be just fine without it. They could find love and happiness with someone who wasn’t their soulmate- if the number of girls and boys Theon has already filtered through was any indication. Still, Robb couldn't help but feel the crushing blow because unlike those who weren’t registered, Robb didn't have a soulmate. That’s what the flashing dashes meant, right? That’s the only thing that made sense.
Beside him, Theon shifted until he could fit an arm around Robb, haul up and pull him close. The other arm snaked across Robb's front and trailed up his arm, neck, cheek – wiping away a tear Robb didn't know he had shed – before dragging the tips of his fingers through Robb's hair and gentle scratching his scalp.
"It's not the end of the world," Theon offered readily. "Who gives a fuck? I don’t have a soulmate and I’m fine."
“You do,” Robb whispered angrily. “You just don’t know who. You don’t care.”
“Come on,” Theon sighed, his fingers moving to rub Robb’s temple, a move that never failed to remove tension from Robb.
"I care," Robb grumbled, turning to bury his face into Theon's neck.
The tiny silver lining to not having a soulmate was that now maybe he could put that stock in Theon. He never thought too much about it, his affections for Theon that went way above friendship. It wouldn't have been right to. He had always thought that there was someone out there for him and it would have been wrong to try and pursue the feelings he had for Theon. Besides, Theon had a soulmate, he just didn’t care. Someone was bound to get hurt in the end. But now? Nothing was holding him back. He didn't have a soulmate and Theon was absolutely against the whole idea of soulmates so maybe they could...
"Theon?" Robb pulled back enough to meet his friend's gaze. They were still terrible close and Robb wanted nothing more than to make sure they were never further than this again. It was the kind of crippling want Robb only really experience with Theon. Imagine if he actually had a soulmate. Maybe this was for the best…
"Stark," Theon murmured fondly, pulling at the mess of knots in Robb's gut.
Pushing himself forward, Robb pressed his lips softly against Theon's, his eyes closed and his hands groping at Theon's soft jacket, anchoring him in place.
Theon made a soft gasp of surprise, pulling himself back slightly before moving forward with newfound purpose. He wrapped the hand that had been in Robb's hair around his neck and Robb pulled him close, nearly urging Theon to his lap.
But just as suddenly as Robb initiated it, Theon ended it pulling away with a quick jerk and a blank expression.
Robb swallowed, half wondering that he read the situation wrong, half wanting to pull Theon back, and all the while feeling the cold slap of rejection.
"Sorry," Theon hissed, closing his eyes and covering them with the crook of his arm, leaning as far away as he could from Robb, despite being half on top of him. "Sorry."
Dumbstruck, Robb asked, "Why are you sorry?"
Theon peeked at Robb. "This can't happen, you know that." He almost looked pained to say it but firm all the same.
"Why?" Robb asked, his stomach clenching but this time uncomfortably, no thrill tingling up his spine or tickling his lips like it had when he kissed Theon.
Theon shook his head, his bangs covering his eyes. "You want that." Theon pointed to the odd grey counter that had tumbled to the ground in their rushed kiss.
Robb felt like he was choking and he was struggling to breathe as he said, "I want you too."
There was a breath of silence before Theon spoke. "You can't have both." It was strange how he could sound both angry and detached at the same time.
"But I don't have both," Robb argued quietly. "I don't have a soulmate."
"So what? I'm the consolation prize?" Theon snapped, hurt shining through his eyes.
Robb curled in. I wanted you even before I didn't know I was broken. I wanted you since I've known you. I wanted you to be my soulmate. I wanted so badly for you to be my only one. I want you to be mine and I want to be yours. However, what came out of his mouth was, "It wasn't like that."
Fuck, did he sound pathetic. Maybe it was for the best he was broken. His could-have-been soulmate would have been horribly disappointed.
Theon caught his tone and the anger in his eyes dissipated into a softer, rarer emotion. "I know," Theon sighed. "I know."
"So, now what?" Robb asked carefully, keeping his distance but wanted to touch oh-so-badly.
Theon looked pained once again as he stared at the abandoned counter. "We go downstairs and tell your parents." Hope dared a chance in Robb's chest but Theon instantly quashed it. "Then we drive down to the SCI center downtown and see what that means."
Deflated, Robb crossed his arms. "It means I don't have a soulmate."
"You don't know that.” Theon rolled his eyes as he stood up and collected the box and counter from the ground.
"How do you know that?" Robb asked dully.
Theon looked down at the counter in his hands before extending his other hand to Robb. "Because how can someone like you not have someone out there just for you?"
They went the next morning, Robb dragging Theon along despite his initial refusal. They both sat in the back in dead silence as his parents drove them.
The thing about soulmates is that sometimes they aren't who you think they are going to be. His mother, for example, had her counter reach zero when she was introduced to the whole Stark family. The counter can only tell you the number of steps, not who it was. So if your counter reached zero in a room of three other boys roughly within your age bracket and all of which weren’t register with the SCI, well, you just had to do your best guess at that point. Catelyn had thought it was Robb's Uncle Brandon. Turns out it was the man to the left, her current husband, and Robb’s father. The counter system isn't anywhere near perfect, but you just have to adapt and work with what you are given. If you are given anything.
However, his parents had never heard of dashes instead of numbers and counters turning grey. None of them had. Even after consulting the internet, they came up with almost nothing except for occurrences of double soulmates where there were multiple sets of numbers rather than one.
"I'm sure it's fine," his father had reassured at the house, on the drive over, in the parking lot, and now in front of their case worker's office door.
Ned went to raise his fist to knock but the door swung wide open and nearly knocked him on the head. The man standing on the other side observed the group crowded by the door before peering back into the office.
"Wench, you got a group." The man turned and flashed them all an easy smile. It was a surface smile, didn't touch the rest of his face and held no truth. "Good luck," he drawled with hints of sarcasm in his tone as he walked off. Robb noted the white counter on his wrist sourly.
"Ignore him," a beastly woman took his place. Beastly in the sense that she towered them all and was quite built. Her hair was cropped short and her eyes were cut sapphires. Again, Robb couldn’t help but eye the white counter secured on her wrist. "Brienne Tarth, you must be the Starks?"
Robb's father took over and Robb slyly reached for Theon's hand. They had held them in the car but Theon had ripped away once they had parked. Robb wasn't sure Theon would hold it, but he felt leagues calmer (or at least braver) when Theon gripped his hand back and squeezed tightly for a moment.
They were beckoned into the office seconds later. Theon slid his hand out of Robb's and silently gestured to the wall by the door. He had made it clear he wasn't going to go into the conference and he was only coming for emotional support; the same type of emotional support that hugged Robb throughout the night as they waited anxiously for the morning to come and the same emotional support that refused to kiss him on the lips but didn’t seem to mind kisses to Robb’s forehead, temples, and cheeks. Robb nodded his head and ducked into the office with his parents.
Brienne Tarth's office was small and quaint. The desk was bare save for a couple of tools and a computer. She sat behind it and gestured to the seats in front of the desk. His mother and Robb took the seats while his father stood behind.
"You called about a misfunctioning counter?" she started, cutting right to the chase. She typed at her computer, pulling up their records.
Robb slowly nodded his head and set the grey counter on the desk. Brienne took it with care and glanced down, turning it this way and that.
"Oh." She sounded pleasantly surprised, a tiny smile flying to her face.
"What does that mean?" Robb asked quickly, his heart racing a mile a minute.
Brienne set down the counter. "You've already met your soulmate."
Ned and Cat shared a look of concern. "He's only sixteen."
Brienne nodded her head in understanding. "It's incredibly rare, but not unheard of. The counters are issued at age sixteen to stop people from obsessing and to focus on their growth and development. You shouldn’t have to worry about soulmates until you are ready to have one. Statistically, well over 96% meet their soulmate after the age of sixteen, some even much later in life. However, some people are an exception to this rule, like your son. You can't have steps counting to when you meet your soulmate when you've already met them. The grey color is usually just the counter futzing up. We can fix the coloration if you would like.”
Silence drifted into the office and Robb stared at the counter in awe. "So I won't know who it is." It wasn't a question but a hard-to-swallow statement. That meant his soulmate could be some stranger on the street or the guy he’d been daydreaming about for years and was standing just on the other side of the door but it wouldn’t matter because Robb wouldn’t be able to find out.
"Not necessarily," Brienne smiled again. "We don't recommend it at your age, but there is a test we can do that'll tell you."
"A test," his mother asked in confusion. It probably would have saved her, Brandon, and Ned a lot of grief to have a test like that.
"Yes," Brienne reached into one of her drawers and pulled out a light blue pamphlet. "If you think you have found your soulmate and want to check, we have a test to see if it is the case. Of course, you will both need to be present for the test and you have to be prepared for the answer to be a no, but we can tell you whether or not you and your partner are soulmates within five minutes."
Robb's mind was running through a thousand thoughts and emotions. He already met his soulmate which could mean it was anyone he ran into in his life...but it could also mean it was the person standing right outside the door. The person that twisted Robb's insides, the person who Robb hating being away from so much that it almost hurt. The person that Robb had been willing to throw the whole soulmate thing away to be with…but maybe he didn't even have to.
"Do they have to be registered to be tested?" Robb asked anxiously, ignoring the strange look from his mother.
Brienne cocked her head to the side as if she was reading his mind and following his line of questioning. "The test was created for those who weren't registered."
Robb nodded his head, satisfied with the answer as he grabbed back his counter and looked at it with newfound pride. He wasn’t broken, he simply beat the system. Theon was bound to get a hoot from that.
"Thank you for your time," Ned said as he settled a heavy hand on Robb's shoulder, silently asking if there was anything else Robb needed to ask.
"Absolutely," Brienne nodded as she pushed the pamphlet across the desk to Robb. "The test can be taken at any time, but you should wait until you are 100% certain. There is no rush."
Robb nodded his head in agreement. He'd have to convince Theon to take it. Hell, he'd have to convince Theon to give them a chance before he could even think about the test. But there was hope and Robb was willing.
Following his parents out, Theon pushed off the wall to watched Robb. Robb kept his face trained to not show one way or another. This was a conversation he didn't want to have in the middle of the hallway in front of his parents and the SCI case worker. The only reassurance he gave Theon was holding his hand once they were in the car on their way home.
Theon didn’t waste a second. After the door to Robb’s room was shut and the two were finally alone, Theon stared him down silently begging for an answer of some sort but not outright asking.
Robb wasn’t cruel, especially since he had been waiting the whole car ride to share the news. “I already met my soulmate.”
The reaction was not what he had expected.
“Fuck,” Theon hissed, biting his lip and looking pissed off at the world. Robb watched wide-eyed as Theon sunk onto Robb’s bed glaring at nothing in particular, his hands gripping his knees hard. “Goddamnit.”
“Wha-”
“So you have one,” Theon glared up at Robb but his anger wasn’t directed at Robb. “A soulmate, you have one?”
“That’s what Brienne said,” Robb shrugged, sinking next to Theon and watching his friend twitch and worry.
“So you’ll never know who,” Theon spat out darkly.
“I didn’t say that,” Robb answered quickly, putting a hand on top of Theon’s. He counted it as a victory Theon didn’t rip his hand away immediately, although he didn’t let the touch remain long. “There is a test we can take to see.”
Theon looked ready to fire off another retort but choked and whipped around to actually meet Robb’s eyes. “We?”
Robb fought off his blush. “I mean, maybe.” Robb ducked his head and traced his sheets. He could feel Theon’s piercing stare but he wanted to take this conversation slow. Figure it out piece by piece and word everything carefully. “It would make sense, though, right?” Robb glanced back up to see Theon’s reaction.
“We’re best friends,” Theon stated. Robb wasn’t sure if it was in consideration or disregard.
“And we already kissed,” Robb grinned and watched Theon’s lips twitched up. He wasn’t even going to mention they had been sharing a bed since they’ve known each other and had probably outgrown it a few years ago. “We don’t even have to get tested,” Robb continued. “But we have that option.”
Theon paused a moment and cocked his head to the side. “We aren’t even together.”
“Yet,” Robb reaching for his hand again and Theon allowed it. “I mean, shouldn’t we try this? Wouldn’t it be dumb of us not to?”
“And we don’t have to get tested?” Theon asked, Robb finally realizing Theon hiccup.
Robb pulled Theon close. “I already know, so what’s the point? Fuck it. It costs two hundred and seventy-five dollars anyways. With that, you can find really cheap plane tickets or go on a road trip or something”
Theon smirked as he leaned closer to Robb. “Already planning vacations with me?”
Robb matched his grin as their lips touched. “Now and always.”
Theon groaned, recognizing the cheesy-ass saying from oh-so-long ago, back when they were just little kids playing at the park. “Fucking dweeb.”
“You love it.”
“I do.”