Chapter Text
Part 1: Aaron Dingle
Aaron staggered into work at half past nine, half an hour late. He looked like a mess, his overalls were half done up, his hair hadn't been cleaned in a couple of days, and he held a much needed Americano. He and Adam had gone out the night before, Aaron wasn't really on the pull, but they had gone to Bar West for a look around and some pool, but they ended up staying out much later than the pair had planned.
“Oi, good morning sleepy head, are you actually going to do any work today!” Cain called, sticking his head out from under a car hood as Aaron walked up the driveway.
“Do one,” Aaron responded grumpily, downing his drink.
“For that you get to finish this by yourself while I take a long lunch,” Cain said throwing down his wrench. Aaron rolled his eyes and walked over to the car to start on it. “I hope you had a good night,” he added sarcastically.
At the end of the drive Cain called back, “And don't forget to call Home Farm, some twat called and said he needed to make an appointment about his car.”
Aaron nodded, still too groggy to pay full attention. He walked over to the office and picked up a marker and scribbled “call twat” on his forearm so he would remember for later when he was more aware.
Aaron looked down at his arm for a moment, seeing it otherwise unmarked. He thought about his uncle Cain and Moira, and how sometimes they would write each other notes during the middle of the day—Cain would go from being grumpy to being less-grumpy. He also thought of Paddy and Rhona, and how sometimes when they were out getting a pint Paddy would write Rhona a sloppy, drunk love letter, and then Rhona would respond back after calling him soft or some other funny remark.
His arm on the other hand felt bare. He would write himself reminders like this one sometimes, because he knew anything would go unanswered. When he was younger he had heard about it, but was too afraid to try it out, he was worried his words would show up on a bloke he knew and then everyone would know his secret.
He told people he was copying his mother though, she was avoiding writing anything because she was hoping finding her soulmate would be a surprise. Aaron knew this was a lie, because his mother hated surprises and secrets, and most likely she was just afraid he was going to be just another dud she'd be stuck with.
To be honest Aaron was a little worried that whoever he was supposed to be with was also a dud, or worse—dead. He spent a lot of time worried that Jackson had been his soulmate, and he had just let him slip through his fingers. But then Aaron was still afraid of people finding out, and then once they had he didn't even think to test it out. Maybe their words would have showed up on each other, who knows, he certainly never will.
He rolled down his sleeves, pushing out the intrusive idea that maybe his words just didn't appear on anyone's body. Instead he went to work before Cain would return and get so angry that even Moira's lunch time not wouldn't cheer him up.
Robert Sugden
Robert rolled up his sleeves on his break, looking down at the written words on his arm.
He was a little annoyed actually. A little while ago when the notes just started appearing he thought it was cute, they were just little reminders to buy milk, or to call his mom. But then things like “Adam's a dick” and “call twat” started to appear. Admittedly it was pretty funny, but it wasn't exactly business appropriate. And it was really hard having to hide it from Chrissie. He couldn't exactly show her, she would know immediately that she wasn't his soulmate, she never has anything written on her arms. Robert himself hated writing on his arms, he liked looking clean and fresh as much as possible.
That evening Robert was in the kitchen, after spending the afternoon in a boring meeting with his future father-in-law, and he was getting ready to cook some dinner. He rolled his sleeves up again, seeing the words “call twat” still there and wondering to himself who this twat was, and why this girl needed to remember to write it down so much that they wrote it on their arm. Didn't the girl who was meant to be his soulmate also believe in soulmates? Perhaps she didn't considering he himself had never written anything.
When he was younger he was worried that his soulmate was someone in this village and he'd be stuck here forever. He wanted so much more than this place, it was still a wonder to him that he had somehow ended up back here. Only now, he worried that whoever it was wasn't as well off as Chrissie is. He had worked so hard during his time away, starting with nothing and working himself up in Lawrence's company, and in Chrissie's life. It was a strange feeling knowing that none of his relationship was really real. Chrissie may not believe in soulmates, but the proof on his arm made Rob believe in them. Not that that meant he would act on it... he had cheated before in the past, but that didn't mean he would now, whoever this person was, they weren't worth the hard work he had put in.
Chrissie walked in with Lachlan in toe. She placed her keys and her purse on the counter with a sigh. “The car is acting up again,” she said. Behind her Lachlan wondered off, the useless child was playing video games or whatever on his phone. He and Robert never really got on, at the moment they weren't at odds or anything, they just didn't particularly warm to each other.
Robert rolled his sleeve down slightly to cover up the writing, it began to itch as he did this, but he didn't have time to look to see what had changed before Chrissie might notice. He then bent down to the fridge, pulling things out for dinner. “I know, I called the garage this morning, they said they'd call back about it,” he responded.
“What will calling do about it?” Chrissie asked, “No, I took it in. One of them, the younger only slightly-grumpy one, said it would be fixed in an hour.”
“Oh, that's good. I'll go get us some take out from the Woolpack, I don't really feel like cooking any more. Then I can go pick it up while I'm down there.”
Chrissie smiled out of one side of her mouth, slyly, “You just want to go get a couple of drinks in don't you,” she teased. “Let me just change, I'll go with you.”
“No, that's alright,” Rob said. “I want to go talk to Victoria for a bit, I don't want to make you sit on your own.” He kissed Chrissie on the top of her head and took his apron off. “I'll be back in a bit, don't worry.” And before she could complain Robert was off.
He left the front door and rolled his arm up in curiosity. At first he thought there was nothing new, there were no new notes or reminders. But then he noticed that “call twat” had been crossed off. Hopefully it was a coincidence that he was waiting on a call that had now been taken care of by his fiancee's garage visit? Surely it was considering the amount of people that make phone calls throughout the day.
It took Rob a surprising amount of time to find a pen in his car. For someone who was in a lot of meetings you would think he'd have more pens at hand. He pulled over on a lay-by and searched around until he found on in the passenger's glove compartment.
He pulled off the cap and paused for a moment. For the past couple decades he'd thought about this moment when he would finally write something to his soulmate, ever since he was a young boy and Andy told him about finding some mysterious writing on his arm from a girl named Katie. He wanted that too, to be able to communicate no matter how far apart, and to just instantly know who your true soulmate was. Of course, now that he's found out he actually has a soulmate it's come at the worst timing. For a while now he's tried his hardest to push down the feeling to respond and find this person. But his curiosity was just getting the best of him.
“Phone call go well?” he wrote underneath the other's reminder “call twat”. And then he immediately threw the pen across the car, pulled his sleeve down and just drove. He had the sense of mind to want to just rub it right off, but he was too scared now that he had actually written something to do anything further. It was too late now, whoever was on the other end now knew he existed. That both excited Rob and terrified him, so all he could do was drive.