Chapter Text

You stared at the bowl of milk. Surely, it has to happen soon? You've been waiting for over half an hour already!
Why was it taking so long? Was your tiny soulmate replica drowning- was that even possible? Should you stick your hands into the bowl, just to be sure they're not dead?

…Wait. Is that it?

Could your soulmate- actual soulmate, not the tiny replica- be dead? Is that why nothing's happening? Oh, god- You pause, the feeling of dread dissipating before it really got a hold on you. Something's happening.

The bowl was starting to vibrate, ever so slightly. Surface of the milk rippling- rippling until it slowly started to swirl up and up and up. You couldn't keep your eyes away from the floating swirling glob of milk, barely making out the small fragment of your soul and the lovebloom twirling together inside it.

It was weird. But also kinda mesmerizing.
You watched as the glob of milk started to morph into a.. short and bulky humanoid shape. An 8 pointed star glistened and shined at the core of the shape, causing you to squint, until it seemed to fizzle and phase into the form. The slightly sparkling form slowly drifted it's way down as you cupped your hands together towards it.

The form became more detailed and less … like a shaped glob of milk the more it got closer to your hands. By the time it ever so gently landed into your palms, you could make out a... a 7 inch skeleton? In a worn down looking jacket, hood up, whatever those long shorts were called and pink slippers with some comfy looking socks.

You brought them closer to your face, staring down at them- uh.. Him? Him, smiling but eyebrows furrowed with confusion.

You couldn't help but think; your soulmate isn't actually dead, is he?

Your tiny soulmate replica was sprawled out comfortably in your hands, slightly on his side, using one elbow to prop himself up while his other arm was rested across his torso. One of his legs were dangling off your hand as he turned his head towards you. You could feel your cheeks burning up as you watched his eyes go from bored looking to .. a look of complete adoration.

Haha, ok. So.. Not dead. Great!
You looked at him in slight surprise when he sat up towards you, giving you a lazy wink.

Cute..

"Hey, Y/N!"

You jolted up, your hands jerking away from your face so violently, you couldn't feel the skeleton in your hands anymore. But it's ok! You were able to catch the small skeleton before he dropped any lower. Just barely.

"Oh, whoops! Haha, sorry, dear. Didn't mean to startle you."

You relaxed at the familiar voice as you brought your mini soulmate.. minimate.. hehe, up towards your head, figuring he would be able to relax there.

"Did your soulfound finish doing it's thing?" your purple rabbit monster friend asked you, standing behind her shop counter. She was so cute- with her chubby ears and straw hat. Adorable. You remember when you first met about a year ago. You came into her store, enticed by the smell of her cinnamon buns. They were even better than you expected! Even the tea was phenomenal! Earning your loyalty as a weekly regular for a quick and sweet breakfast before you went to work. It was through her and some of your other monster friends that you met at the store that taught you about magic and whatnot.

She was the one who helped you out with setting up the soulfound thing just an hour or so ago! When monsters came to the surface 5 years ago, they brought along with them the knowledge that soulmates were, in fact, real. Although, it wasn't as binding as some would have thought.

Sometimes soulmates just don't work out! Whether it's because you never get the chance to meet or because ... it just doesn't work. You can't help who you like or don't like sometimes and you still need to put effort and care into a relationship, soulmate or not. Because of this, some people didn't really care to know who their soulmate is through soulfound. It's not guaranteed that you'd love them with every fiber of your being, even though technically they were made for you.

It's complicated stuff. The heart is a fickle thing! So there are people who just let it be and lived their lives normally, whatever happens, happens- and the others, curious (most times lonely), and finding the idea of a soulmate romantic, had monsters they could trust help with setting up a soulfound. It's hard for a human to summon their souls by themselves since their magic has been gone for a millennia now.

Anyway, yes!! Monsters have been on the surface for 5 years now- 5 years! 5 years since monsters have been freed and 5 years was enough for some of the monsters to go on to live happy lives. Sure, there's bound to be some more hiccups along the way but.. things were good. Especially since the monster population in Ebott city seemed to be far greater than the humans'. Some monsters went to see the world after they got that right 3 years ago, but most stayed- feeling comfortable and content where they were for now. You shook away your weird inner monologue and slowly turned towards her, hands held up to the left side of your head where your minimate was to make sure he doesn't slide off.

"Yes! Thank you so much for your help!" You smiled brightly at her when you were able to face her fully and pointed at the top of your head, "Look!"

Your minimate was laying comfortably against your head, how he wasn't sliding off right now without your support was a mystery to you. You could feel his head turn towards your friend as you spoke, "He's cute!"

Your friend seemed to be looking at your minimate in awe, but if you could hear her thoughts, you'd see that she's a little shocked: 'Wh- SANS?!' Her eyes softened just a teeny bit as the skeleton lowered his eyes at her. 'That's one hell of a soulmate..'

You brought one of your hands to your chin and let the other hand rest on your hip, "So.. just because he's a skeleton, it doesn't mean my soulmate is dead, right?"

She laughed at that, leaning back into her chair. "Haha, no, dear. Your soulmate is very much alive."

And asleep. If the faint snoring sound above you said anything.

Giggling, you made your way over to her table as you took out your phone, flipping through the minimate care guide you had downloaded. "Hehe, I know. I'm just kidding. OH! I should probably try to feed him soon- it says here that it'll take a few days for a soulfound to speak but if I feed him, that might speed up the process?"

Your friend hummed in confirmation and you continue to scroll through the guide, feelings of excitement quickly building and building until;

"Aa! I'm so excited to bring him home!"

She chuckled at your mini outburst, smiling softly at you, "Have you stocked up on some monster food?"
Your eyes widened as you glanced at the time on your phone, "Oh no, I still need to do that! And it's 9pm- the stores will close soon! I gotta get going!" Quickly tucking your phone away, you made your way across the room towards the exit, waving.

"Bye, Cinnabun!"

"Oh, wait! Before you leave, I know who-" You couldn't hear her over your rush to get to the store.

"Thanks again for the help with all the magic voodoo soul stuff!"

The door clicked closed as you left the room. Back inside the small shop, your friend could only sigh.

"Your soulmate is... Ha. Oh well. They'll figure it out."

There are two ways to go about soulfounds. You can either take care of them by feeding them monster food which is packed with magic to have them around longer or after finding out who your soulmate is, you can just wait for the magic to run out if you do not wish to take care of them.

Although feeding a soulfound is unnecessary, it is highly recommended as it gives them energy and magic for them to be able to speak and do things on their own.

If you do not feed them, over time- usually a week, the magic they acquired through the lovebloom and your soul fragment will run out, turning them into a lifeless doll. After a certain time of having no magic, the soulfound will simply fade away, leaving behind just the fragment of your soul you had used.

Letting your soulfound sleep next to you will also give them a bit of magic from your soul, though the amount of magic varies from soul to soul. The average human soul, if letting the soulfound sleep next to you, will extend the soulfound's lifespan by another week.

Soulfounds can only hold a certain amount of magic at any given time. Excess magic will not get absorbed, making regular meals necessary if you want to take care of them for longer than 2 weeks.

It took you about 15 minutes to scurry to the monster grocery store, giving you less than an hour before they close. Should be enough time to grab some food for your minimate! You paused, reaching up to where you had your minimate rest- is he still there?? The thought of him possibly falling off your head while you were running didn't occur to you until now.

You breathed a sigh of relief when you felt him grabbing onto your hand before gently scooping him up and moving him down. The slight frazzled look on his face had you snickering. "Sorry... uhm."

You tilted your head at the skeleton... what should you call him?? Even if he could speak now, it's not like he could tell you his name. Soulfounds only carried your soulmates looks and personalities, if you remembered correctly...

The skeleton tilted his head back at you, mimicking you. After a beat, his eye.. sockets? Lidded at you and he was looking at you like you were.. well, a sight for sore eye sockets. This earned him a slight tug at the edge of your lips, was your soulmate going to be such a dork like this when you meet him for real? Him looking at you with such adoration made your heart clench and you felt yourself getting giddy.

As you walked into the store, minimate sitting in the palm of your hand, you hummed.

"Hmm.. what should I call you..?" It took a moment of him just staring at you before he shrugged and grinned at you... suggestively? As if he was telling you that you can call him whatever you'd like.

Pff. The heck.

You found yourself a basket to carry with you in your other hand. The grocery store had more people shopping around than you were expecting less than an hour before closing. Making your way towards the produce, you glanced down at him.

"Should I just call you skelebae?"

His eyes widened in surprise before his body started shaking, as if he was laughing...

Oh. He was laughing.

It took only a moment for him to calm down, leaning back against your palm with that endearing lidded look he seemed to like giving you, along with a small nod.

You were slightly taken aback, "Pft, yes??? You'd like me to call you skelebae?"

He shrugged, looking to the side for a brief second before looking at you again. "I was just kidding! Haha, geez." You shook your head at him then began to look at the different fruits the store had to offer. "Hmm.. see anything you might like, though?"

Your minimate turned around, taking in the sights of many fruits with little interest before turning back to you. He shifted into a criss cross position with his legs and propped his elbow onto his thigh and rested his chin in his hand, gazing up at you with thise lidded eyes again. And then..

He raised his brow bones at you (very suggestively), causing you to choke out a surprised laugh. Oh my god! What did you get yourself into??? You felt your cheeks starting to warm as you looked away from him, playfully rolling your eyes.

"Well, if you're not going to choose, I'll just grab what I like, okay?" You went over to the berries before realizing that your hands were full, skeleton in one hand and basket in the other.

You didn't think this through and your brain kind of just.. shut off, making you stand there dumbly for a couple of seconds before you felt your minimate nudging at your thumb for your attention. You looked down at him and saw that he was raising a brow bone at you while gesturing to the berries questionably, as if asking you which one was it that you wanted.

"Oh! Um, I was thinking about getting those strawberries-" he turned away from you before you could finish, his arm raising up towards the strawberry containers. One of the bigger containers with some of the reddest and plumpest strawberries you've ever seen started to glow slightly blue before it was in the air, floating over to your basket and plopping in. Huh.

You guess that's one problem solved. Did your minimate do that? If by judging the wider than usual grin and smug look he was giving you, yes. Yes, he did.

You let a giggle escape your lips as you rubbed his cheek with your finger, bringing up the basket in the process, "Who knew my soulmate was so helpful?"

A faint light blue started to tint on his cheeks as you continued to basically pet him. Oh no- is that a blush?? You found yourself grinning at him, that's just too cute! It should be illegal!! Before you knew it, your 7 inch tall skeleton had poofed- and left you with the same skeleton, of course but.. 4 inches shorter.

What!!!

Put this man in jail right now!!

You put down your basket and covered your face, holding the skeleton away from you slightly, not caring what you might look like to the other people around you.

You couldn't handle this. He was just too damn cute. And he knew exactly! what he was doing! You peered down at him from between your fingers, heart clenching at how cute he was. He was laying down on his front, legs bent back towards the ceiling, head propped up by both of his hands, and grinning at you teasingly. This is ridiculous. You can't imagine how it'd be like if THIS was how your minimate acted, how it'd be like when you meet your actual soulmate.

The rest of the shopping trip went by quickly, after you had regained yourself.

Your minimate helped you put things in your basket despite him being only 3 inches tall. Somehow, he had quite a bit of magic to spare! You were worried that he would be overdoing himself but a quick look through the soulfound guide reassured you that as long as your soulfound is around you, the magic they use wouldn't take a toll on their lifespan.

Good, because it really surprised you when you walked by the condiment aisle and before you knew it, you found yourself battling off multiple bottles of ketchup trying to pile up in your basket!! You and your minimate settled on just 3 bottles.
Basket full of ketchup, different fruits and vegetables, teaboxes, and water sausages, you made your way to the cashier before stopping in front of the flower displays. A row of baby's breath bouquets had caught your eye and although you were your own florist, you couldn't resist.

You grabbed one.