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For a very long time, Mari Takahashi was jealous.
Her friends had all found their platonic soulmates; the person or people you're meant to spend your life caring for. It was very similar to a romantic relationship, but with a few differences. Platonic soulmates often have empathic connections, able to feel each other's feelings; but romantic soulmates often had complete telepathic connections, able to communicate without speaking and know what the other was thinking. Of course, in some relationships this lead to some issues, but with a soulmate it rarely happened since the person was genetically and emotionally your best companion, according to the universe...
In any case, the connections often made the friendships and relationships infinitely stronger, and nearly impossible to break. You identified your romantic soulmate with a mark somewhere on your leg; your platonic mark was often on the shoulder or upper arm, but could occasionally be found on the wrist.
It was a lot easier to find your romantic soulmate, using the telepathic communication. The platonic soulmate was a bit more tricky. Your platonic soulmate was feeling sad? So are millions of other people on the planet right now; that really doesn't help you!
Sometimes, someone's romantic and platonic soulmate happen to be the same person or people. More often than not, they were separate, which sometimes lead to some interesting cross-overs of relationships.
In fact, there was an amazing spider-web of intertwining soulmates in the Smosh family. Ian was platonically bonded to Anthony, but romantically bonded to Lasercorn, who was platonically bonded to both Joven and Sohinki.
It may have seemed confusing to someone who didn't live this reality, but to them none of this was weird. Lasercorn was head-over-heels in love with Ian, but emotionally attached to Joven and Sohinki on an intimate level. All three of the platonic soulmates were very emotional men, which sometimes lead to a complete lack of secret-keeping and privacy; Joven and Sohinki knew Lasercorn was in love with Ian before Lasercorn realized it himself, and were both greatly annoyed in an affectionately teasing way when they felt the emotions Lasercorn experienced during his first night over at Ian's place... Sure, they were happy for him, but could he tone it down just a little?
Mari, herself, had found her romantic soulmate a long while back, a man by the name of Peter Kitch. He was beautiful and kind in every way, and she couldn't possibly ask for a better romantic relationship. She still always felt like something was missing.
Until the fateful day when her co-worker Shayne Topp met his romantic soulmate.
They had been searching for new members to recruit to the Smosh Games crew; their channel was growing, and they wanted more people on the team. In addition to that, Lasercorn and Ian were hoping to start a family soon. They had just gotten engaged the previous month (R.I.P. to Joven, Sohinki, and Anthony's empathic connections that day with how much elation flowed through the couple), and were thrilled about their new life together.
Ian and Anthony had decided to call in two men they thought were perfect candidates: Wesley Johnson, and Damien Haas. Two platonic soulmates who loved to game and loved to make horrible, horrible jokes. What more does the crew need?
Mari was upstairs in the editing room, blaring music on her headphones. She had missed Ian's text about the new guys being there, and probably would have kept working right through their orientation and tour had she not had a massive wave of emotion hit her from one of her platonic soulmates. She cried out, flinging her headphones off her head and jumping to her feet.
Her soulmates had both been incredibly excited recently, and she was happy for them, whatever was going on in their lives; but this level of happiness was unlike anything she'd ever felt.
What's wrong, baby? She felt Peter's thoughts drift to her, concern in his tone even though there was no voice attached to it.
One of my soulmates just had this... massively happy wave... it was nearly debilitating. She replied, steadying herself by placing her hands on the desk in front of her. I feel like I'm going to fall over.
Maybe they've found their romantic soulmate. My platonic soulmate had that feeling a little while back; turns out she'd met her now-girlfriend that day, and that massive happiness was when their marks had glowed together.
Well, good for them. She hadn't meant to sound bitter; she really wasn't all that bitter, just irritated. But I really need to finish this video.
Aren't the new guys coming today? Why don't you take a break for now?
Oh shit. She checked her phone. Ian's unread texts appeared on the screen. I gotta go.
Love you, Mari.
Love you, Peter.
She dashed out of the editing office towards the lobby, and as she exited the stairs she heard celebratory cheers emanating from a small crowd of people gathered near the desk.
"What's up, guys?" She asked as she approached, and the crowd parted to reveal Shayne, standing beside (and, Mari noted, holding hands with) a tall brunet man with a giant grin on his face.
"Mari! Guess what?!" Shayne yells excitedly, raising his pant leg to reveal the glowing In-N-Out burger box mark on his calf. "I found my other half!"
His soulmate grinned, rolling his eyes affectionately. "Figures the man on the other side of an In-N-Out burger box has a pizza box as his platonic mark."
"It's symbolic!" Shayne pouted. "It means something!"
"Yeah, didn't you know soulmarks have meaning, Damien?" The man on the other side of his soulmate teased. "Ours isn't just a random collection of triangles."
Triangles? Mari blinked in surprise. There's no way, that's the biggest coincidence that could ever be possible... or possibly an intervention of fate.
"It's called the Triforce. Don't know if you ever heard of it, you nerd." Damien stuck his tongue out at the other man.
"The Triforce?" Mari blurts. The men turn to look at her incredulously, and she blushed. Instead of saying anything else, however, she turned and slid the strap of her tank-top and bra down to reveal her own platonic mark.
"No way!" Wes clapped to himself. "That's awesome! We found our third person!"
Damien's eyes widened, and he stepped over to Mari. "May I?"
She nods, and he places his hand on the mark, which begins to glow. It tingled and vaguely burned, but it didn't hurt. Mari gasped in surprise; she had no idea what it was supposed to feel like, was this normal?
"It feels just like before." Damien mutters. Well, there goes that question. "Wes, come here..."
The taller man approaches with a soft smile, placing his own hand on top of Damien's. All three of their marks were burning and glowing now, and the feeling in Mari's chest grew stronger.
She had no idea what to say, but that was okay because whatever thoughts she could muster were being drowned out by the sound of their friends cheering.
"Mari finally found her platonic boys!" Olivia let out a loud whooping sound, throwing her fists in the air. "I'm so happy for you, girl!"
Mari's eyes started to fill up with tears, and she fell to her knees, overwhelmed with emotion. She didn't even know where all the emotion was coming from; it was just coming at her from every direction that her brain could feel, and it was powerful. She couldn't decipher everything she was feeling, either. Elation? Relief? Guilt? Disappointment? Excitement? Desperation? What the hell was going on?
"Hey, hey..." Damien knelt beside her. "It's alright, darling. We're here. It's a lot to experience at once."
"Ours was just like this..." Wes added, and she looked up to see to her surprise that both of them were crying too. "Except significantly less intense. Maybe because we weren't complete yet."
"What am I feeling? What is this?" Mari asked between her tears, her breath now coming in gasps.
"Love, my dear." Damien smiled softly. "It's all the things you feel when you love someone. You experience them all at once, all to make up for lost time..."
"Well that's stupid."
Wes and Damien both laughed. "I said exactly the same thing." Wes confessed.
"Really?"
"Really. It was hard not to feel offended." Damien answered.
Her face flushed, but Damien added hastily, "It's not rude, we're not offended. It's just a lot to take in, and nobody ever tells you about this part."
"It wasn't like this when I met Peter." Mari huffed.
"Your boyfriend?" Wes asked, and she nodded. "That's because your connection isn't empathic. You'd been hearing each other's thoughts for years, but our emotions haven't been this raw and exposed to each other yet. They'll get a lot more intense after this then they have been without meeting."
"I felt you meeting Shayne earlier..." She said softly. "I almost fell out of my chair; that was intense enough."
Damien's cheeks went pink. "Sorry. But yours when you met Peter was pretty intense too."
"Unfortunately, we still have one more to go; I haven't met my romantic soulmate yet, and now you guys will feel the full force of that one now that we've all met."
Mari groaned. "Wes, you're not allowed to find your soulmate. I'll probably drop a knife on my foot or something."
Wes' eyes went wide. "Don't do that! I don't want you to get hurt, I'm sorry, I'll try to keep it calm, I'll try to avoid--"
"I'm kidding, Wes. You deserve to feel exactly as happy as you are when you meet whoever they are." Mari patted his cheek. "It's so worth it."
He smiled at her. "I have no doubt. You've been happy a lot more since you met Peter, I could feel it."
"Yeah. It's been really sweet, honestly." Damien agreed.
Mari flushed again. "He makes me really happy. He's such a sweetheart. You guys will have to meet him."
"It's a good thing he's a sweetheart; I feel pretty protective over you." Damien nudged her playfully.
"You hardly know me!"
"Empathic, darling. We've known each other our whole lives, technically."
"I--that's true." She admitted.
Wes placed his hands on his knees, standing up. "Well..." He offered a hand to Mari to help her up, which she gladly accepted.
She turned to Damien, helping him up. "Well." She added.
"Well!" Damien grinned, and they all chuckled.
"Group hug?" Wes opened his arms, and Mari willingly dove into them. Damien's arms encircled her from behind, his hands landing on Wes' back.
"I love you guys." Mari felt herself saying with a burning sensation in her chest that had nothing to do with the glowing soulmark on her shoulder.
"We love you too, Mari."