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"I don't know, maybe we shouldn't do this, not right now," Beatrice said, fidgeting with her hands nervously. Yasmine smiled at her encouragingly and put a hand on her arm.
"If you don't want to, we can leave again, you know that. Ava and Camila will understand. We'll meet them another time," Yasmine said, so softly that Lilith felt a surge of affection course through her and she stepped closer to Yasmine, taking the hand that was not on Beatrice's arm into hers, earning a brief smile from Yasmine before she turned back to Beatrice, who sighed now and shook her head.
"I know." Beatrice took a deep breath and straightened up, determination now in her face. "I want to do this, I do." Beatrice put her own hand on Yasmine's that was still on her arm and smiled tentatively at both Yasmine and Lilith. "As long as you're with me, I'm ready. I think."
Lilith now stepped closer to Beatrice and put her hand on Beatrice's other arm, smiling as well.
"We are here every step of the way. You know that," Lilith said, trying to sound as reassuring as she could. Beatrice's smile got even softer and she nodded, though her steps were still hesitant when she led the way towards the door of the bar where they were going to meet Ava and Camila. The bar where Ava worked, or at least that was what she had said.
Lilith could definitely understand Beatrice's hesitation. It was nerve-wracking meeting the person who was most likely your soulmate, even for Lilith, who already had one soulmate in Yasmine, so the stakes were a lot lower. But to find out that the best friend of Beatrice's soulmate was most likely Lilith's and Yasmine's soulmate had been a shock for all of them. Especially when they had learned that apparently, Beatrice's soulmate Ava had become close friends with Lilith's and Yasmine's soulmate Camila mainly because of their soulmate tattoos.
Because the things their tattoos showed were similar, since Beatrice, Yasmine and Lilith had largely the same interests. That was why Ava and Camila had thought their soulmates knew each other, even when they couldn't find them on any of the social media sites were people searched for their soulmates. Still, the knowledge that their soulmates were into the same things as per their tattoos had led to them becoming best friends. Or so Camila had said via email when they had written each other. They had neither talked on the phone nor video called yet. Lilith didn't even know what Camila looked like and neither did Beatrice know what Ava looked like.
As much as Lilith had wanted to do research, to learn everything possible about Camila and Ava, she knew well enough that there was nothing better than meeting your soulmate for the first time without holding any prejudice against them already. Without having studied them and even without having heard or seen them through the phone or the screen. That first time when Lilith had stumbled across Yasmine had felt like lightning had struck her in a good way. The best way.
Yasmine agreed with Lilith on that and both of them had managed to convince Beatrice to not look up Ava and to just meet her naturally. To let the soulmate connection do its work. If they even were soulmates. It was unlikely that they weren't, not with the very specific interest that had appeared on Beatrice's wrist a few weeks ago, but who knew? Maybe there was someone else into tentacle dildos as well, someone who also was into all the other things Ava was clearly into, all things that had appeared on Beatrice's wrist.
Lilith scoffed to herself as they were all walking closer to the bar where they were supposed to meet their soulmates. It was truly unlikely that there was another person into all of those niche fanfictions and into sex toys the way Ava clearly was. As much as it was unlikely that Camila was not Yasmine and her soulmate. Lilith squeezed Yasmine's hand and Beatrice's arm before letting go of both as they were about to walk into the bar. Beatrice walked in first, a little hesitantly, looking around. Lilith and Yasmine followed her, doing the same.
It was a bright sunny day, so their eyes needed a little moment to adjust to the darker light inside of the bar. But once Lilith did adjust and could see, she immediately zeroed in on a person by the bar counter, standing next to someone else Lilith barely even noticed. All she could see was this small woman, her curly black hair, the soft smile that now spread on her face. Instinctually, Lilith grabbed for Yasmine's hand, glad when Yasmine took it and squeezed it. They shared a brief intense look, before Lilith turned back to who she assumed was Camila.
Her soulmate. Lilith didn't even have to look at her wrist to know that right now, it was definitely showing Camila's name. As was Yasmine's from her demeanour. The feeling of being struck by lightning, of her entire world changing on its axis and then righting itself again was exactly as intense as it had been when Lilith had first seen Yasmine. Not able to stop herself, Lilith immediately rushed forward, Yasmine falling into step next to her. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Lilith thought about checking on Beatrice, but in this moment, she couldn't really concentrate on anything else other than Camila, her soulmate. Lilith knew she had to get to her as fast as possible.
Once Lilith and Yasmine were close to Camila and stopped walking, there was a little awkward pause, in which Lilith didn't really know what to do. But Camila just held up her wrist and made a move to pull the wristband down to uncover her tattoo, smiling at both Lilith and Yasmine brightly and encouragingly, obviously waiting for them to show their tattoos as well. It was not necessary, really, they already all knew what they would show, but it still made a surge of anticipation course through Lilith.
Both excited to do this but also reluctant to let go of Yasmine's hand, Lilith shared a meaningful look with Yasmine and then did let go, after receiving one more encouraging squeeze of her hand from Yasmine. Already reaching for her wristband, Lilith waited until Yasmine was ready as well and then turned back to Camila, who had not moved at all. All three of them looked at each other intensely, an unspoken agreement between them.
Pulling her wristband down at the same time as the other two, Lilith knew exactly what was coming, but still kept her eyes glued on Camila's wrist, needing to see for herself. When Camila finally had moved the wristband enough for the tattoo to be readable, Lilith couldn't help but gasp, even when she had expected this. Her name was right there, in her own clean handwriting. Underneath, there was Yasmine's name, written with a bit more flourish, but just as clean.
A small chuckle from Camila and her raising her eyebrows quite suggestively made Lilith look at her own wrist and then at Yasmine's. Frowning a little, Lilith saw that both her tattoo and Yasmine's had changed to display their respective names in that same handwriting that was on Camila's wrist and Camila's name underneath, in a handwriting that was less clean than theirs but felt to Lilith like the prettiest ever. Despite having known it would happen ever since she met Yasmine, Lilith's heart hammered in her chest, excitement rising up in her.
Meeting their other soulmate had always been something Yasmine and Lilith had expected, but seeing it play out in reality was completely different than knowing that if there were more soulmates than two, this was what would happen. A sort of reset, with all their names appearing on each of their wrists. Lilith so far had only experienced meeting Yasmine. Back then, she had known that their names would only be displayed on each other's wrists but not their other soulmate's.
Yasmine and Lilith had talked about how it would feel to meet their other soulmate, whether that third person would be overwhelmed by them already having found each other something they wouldn't know. Or maybe they would, since Yasmine and Lilith often had the same interests, so it might stand to reason that they were together. Still, them already having found each other was one of the reasons they had hesitated to look for their other soulmate. But now, looking at Camila, Lilith realised that this moment was truly what she had been waiting for her entire life. She couldn't stop staring at her wrist and at Camila and Yasmine, who now both laughed lightly and excitedly.
"Wow," Yasmine said, awe in her voice. Camila laughed more and nodded.
"Wow indeed."